[BTS] WHEN to cultural victory?

[lymond]

Bureau is really helpful early though to help the cap get up those culture buildings. Free Speech is obviously very powerful once the in full culture mode. I usually Lib>Nationalism and then Printing Press is my final tech before shutting off research.

If you are in a situation where cottages are not used and running artists and producing many GAs, the printing press is not needed.

 

[Tobiyogi]

Ideally all cities reach L on or close to the same turn.

Because the risk of getting DoWed is higher when you have already 2 L cities while waiting for the third one? I usually have a big gap between 2. <> 3. city becoming legendary and always get dowed before the third city reaches L status....

 

[lymond]

Ha..well, getting Dow'd is a matter of diplomacy. If I'm playing a game in which I have concerns about neighbors, well it is generally best to take care of them early on.

Reaching L near simultaneously in all 3 L cities is more about balance, especially with GA bombs, and understanding where you are in terms of culture. Don't bomb as you produce each GA. Instead, save those GAs until you go full culture mode, as it will become clear later how you need to balance things out.

Technically, you can win culture without any units at all.

 

[Tobiyogi]

I have won a couple culture games where I was heavily concerned about at least one neighbour

Going culture is a bit different in terms of handling diplo imo. You automatically piss someone off with "close border tensions". Also, the decisive phase is the time when more and more guys go Free Religion. I once paid Sitting Bull over 1000 gold to switch back into my religion. You won't have any single tech that others still need. Not so easy to handle that. Any suggestions?

 

[lymond]

Well, culture pressure is a thing whether you go culture or not. I've been Friendly with guys as I'm slowly eating away at their empire and flipping their cities. The thing is from early on developing the diplo bonuses with everyone and doing what is necessary to stay safe. Sometimes that mean you can run a religion, sometimes not. At worst, before you reach a stage where you start falling behind in tech, then bribe potential threats into war with others. Otherwise, if you a real bad guy near you, you are going to have to handle him sooner. Ideal culture games basically mean no wars except maybe very early on to nab some cities or remove a threat. Ofc, on Deity things change are not so certain, but it can be done. Culture is often the easiest way to win on Deity.

 

[Tobiyogi]

I don't remember how deep the minus for cultural pressure can grow, but -5 is certainly possible, what means, that in a game where I go full culture, it is usually more of a drain on relations than in a normal game (where I rather get -2). However, the main problem seems to be a neighbor who doesn't care too much about good relations anyway, so IIRC the people who dow'ed me were Alex, Sury, Monty.... But I sucked it up and always went for Rifling, maybe it is enough to defend with muskets or longbows, but my victory times are usually not the most early ones and AIs are quite advanced before I win

For a lack of conquest/dom victories on Deity, I cannot compare if culture is the easiest type, but I would precise that it is quite convenient and something for the lazy kind of player (that I am). Because it drives me mad when I have to administrate 12+ cities, I do love micro but only for a couple of cities. In culture, you can win with 6-7 cities, even 4 was possible once. And you are relatively independent of what happens on the map, who vassals who, who gets rifling, etc., you just do your thing and it will be enough.

 

[rah]

I figure as long as I'm going to get nationalism I might as well keep it up for MS and Gunpowder. Then I switch to all culture figuring if I got there fast, I'm going to be able to defend myself to the end of the game.