Why did my culture bomb fail?

[e_a_olson]

I captured Hamburg and Dortmund, sued for peace, and then (attempted) to use a Great Artist in Hamburg to culture bomb, and capture horses. My tactic failed, as I wound up only netting one ocean tile. Why did my culture bomb fail?

Note: the two saves are for a before and after idea of what happened.

Noble/Tiny/Pangaea/Quick/Ancient

 

[Norton II]

Culture bombs don't work that well against cities that already have a lot of culture in them. You'd probably have to capture Cologne to get the horses. Don't worry, though--Izzy has horses, and she'll trade them for your ivory and some gpt.

 

[Sjaramei]

Yeah, you are competing against loads of culture built up in an old city. It will slow down revolutions anyway so it's not wasted

 

[Cam_H]

^ As per above ...

... although Culture Mechanics Disassembled 'compiled' by DerangedDuck (it would seem that the elements of this article were addressed elsewhere, but regardless some good work) might explain the predicament further.

The posted game however did extend to me an opportunity to test out the Culture Bomb exploit, that clearly does have an impact (unfortunately not enough to flip the Horses tile in this instance);

The Culture Bomb released as per Hamburg's current settings;

... and ramping up to 100% and running maximum Specialist Artists on release of the Culture Bomb;

Is this an 'exploit'? I'm inclined to think so, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[12thScout]

While I hav't read the article, the 'phenomanon (sp)' you mentioned makes perfect sense. The release of a malian (i think) artist flooded the city with malian culture and overwhelmed the now defunct german one. Now the city is less German then before.

As stated by Norton II and the civ IV manual, culture bombs do not work well on "well established cultures".

Think of it like attack and defence. Its almost always harder to attack then to defend and that principle is manifesting itself in the way culture bombs work.

 

[Cam_H]

The point being is that release of the Culture Bomb when the city is temporarily at maximum cultural output is more effective than just releasing the Cuture Bomb under 'normal' settings.

If you release the Culture Bomb at 20% + 1x Specialist Artist, then (sub optimally) increase the slider to 100% and maximise Specialist Artists, the Horse Pasture tile remains at 83%.

(I take no credit for this tactic b.t.w. - I just read about it!)

 

[Lord Chambers]

If you release the Culture Bomb at 20% + 1x Specialist Artist the tile culture is 83% German, while if you increase the slider to 100% and maximise Specialist Artists, the Horse Pasture tile is reduced to 78% German.

Fixed.
---

 

[KMadCandy]

If you release the Culture Bomb at 20% + 1x Specialist Artist the tile culture is 83% German, while if you increase the slider to 100% and maximise Specialist Artists, the Horse Pasture tile is reduced to 78% German.

the sub-optimal case is to Culture Bomb at 20% + 1x Specialist Artist and only after the bomb increase the slider to 100% and maximise Specialist Artists. do not do it that way if you want max pressure on the tile.

Fixed.

i think that's the actual fix to minimize confusion, because there are three situation described in Cam_h's two posts. one is described in both posts, one in only the first post, and one in only the second. i know that his posts didn't confuse me and seeing your fix did, so i had to backtrack to figure out what you were fixing. i am however a permanoob and this may apply only to me.

 

[paperfiend]

Wait, I'm still confused. I get the three different situations as described by KMadCandy, but I'm not sure what's meant by "Fixed". Is that referring to the text in a previous post that was incorrect, or a situation in the game that doesn't happen anymore because there was a "fix" included in a patch...??

 

[KMadCandy]

Wait, I'm still confused. I get the three different situations as described by KMadCandy, but I'm not sure what's meant by "Fixed". Is that referring to the text in a previous post that was incorrect, or a situation in the game that doesn't happen anymore because there was a "fix" included in a patch...??

*giggle*. Fixed is referring to the text in a previous post. Lord Chambers changed Cam_h's words, "Fixed" is forum lingo for when you do that, sometimes being silly, sometimes not. i do not know whether the reason for the fixing was that he thought it was incorrect, not clearly stated, or something else.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I captured Hamburg and Dortmund, sued for peace, and then (attempted) to use a Great Artist in Hamburg to culture bomb, and capture horses. My tactic failed, as I wound up only netting one ocean tile. Why did my culture bomb fail?

Note: the two saves are for a before and after idea of what happened.

Noble/Tiny/Pangaea/Quick/Ancient

Culture is built up on a tile independent of which city applied the culture (and built up and built up). It also won't go away. It will compete with your culture as long as the tile is within the cultural borders of another german city, but ALL german culture applied to the tile will count in the equation, even if it was originally from Hamburg or Dortmund.

Taking or razing Cologne will give you that horse tile automatically (no more cultural pressure from the Germans). Otherwise you will have to out culture Cologne AND the total pre-Malian culture from Hamburg in order to claim that tile.

Both Hamburg and Cologne have been laying down culture on that horse tile for many turns. Taking out Hamburg doesn't remove the German culture applied from either city. Only removing the last German city nearby will pull German culture out of the competition for that tile.