Civ: Egypt
Victory type: Culture
Play-style: Tall, Aggressive
Summary:
The goal is to leverage Egypt's unique bonuses to grab as many Culture related wonders as possible (or just as many wonders as possible) and ride them to victory. This was a fun game to play on Immortal as I typically don't bother with most wonders (especially early game ones) as it can be difficult to get them when playing as other civs. Egypt makes chasing wonders much more possible. An over-view of Egypt's bonuses:
-20% bonus to wonders (40% when in a golden age)
-Artifacts gain 5 science/culture, Landmarks gain 5 gold/tourism
-War Chariot (chariot archer replacement) gives production to the capital on kill
-Burial Tomb (caravansary replacement) additionally gives +5 faith and golden age points when you win a battle
There is a nice package of synergy here. Egypt can use the killing of enemy units to boost their capital's production of wonders via instant hammer gain and golden age points. There is additional synergy around archaeological dig sites giving extra bonuses whether you choose to create a landmark or take the artifact.
Specifics:
For policies I would go Tradition, Piety, and Aesthetics into Freedom.
-Tradition has bonuses to golden ages and working specialist slots which will both be important to us.
-Piety can boost our religion and the bonuses to internal trade routes can be useful when sending production and food to our capital in order to speed wonder construction and population growth. It also allows us to buy Great Artists with faith which can be nice when you NEED a golden age to help boost wonder construction.
-Aesthetics for Culture victory should be somewhat self explanatory, especially for Egypt. It allows us to see hidden antiquity sites, allows for purchasing musicians with faith, gives all World Wonders +2 tourism, improved artist/musician/writer production, etc.
-Freedom seems to synergize the best with Tall play.
For your religion, the most important part is to grab "Goddess of Beauty" as your pantheon, which gives +3 faith, +1 Culture from world wonders and a production boost of 15% when construction Pre-Renaissance wonders. Your other beliefs are more up to personal preference. I took things that would make sense in a Tall empire that would aid in obtaining wonders. So bonuses to science, culture, and production are helpful, as well as bonuses to golden age point production.
Wonder Construction:
I pretty much went after every wonder, prioritizing those that would most help me achieve a Culture victory. Try to time your tech path with your policy acquisition such that you satisfy the required number of policies by the time the technology is researched- It is pointless to reach for a wonder's technology if you won't have the policies to build it. Early in the game I was more limited by the policy requirements whereas later in the game I was often above the required policies by 2 or 3. Whenever building a wonder I would switch my worked tiles to maximize production, and in between wonders would re-prioritize growth.
General Tips:
-Your capital is the most important city. Use your other cities to send food and production to your capital if you can spare the gold, at least early on in the game. Later on your trade routes will be needed to gain tourism bonuses and the tourism %modifier by trading with other civs, especially those with high culture.
-When you get near the Archaeology tech, reach for it. Those dig sites are really nice for Egypt. Make landmarks on sites within the workable city radius and then take artifacts from all the others.
-You benefit from being in wars. I happened to be on a continent with the Ottomans and Assyria so being in a war was never an issue for me. I got to play defensive and just kill off hordes of Assyrian units that tried to invade my desert protected cities. I never tried to take any cities and was satisfied with just killing his units. Depending on your situation you might have to go on offense in order to gain those hammers and golden age points when killing units.
-Work as many specialist slots as you can while still maintaining growth, especially later in the game. I prioritized Artist/Writer slots followed by Scientist/Engineer slots and then Diplomat/Merchant slots. I didn't work Musician slots until later in the game.
-Going tall should make generating golden ages easy with Egypt. You should be swimming in happiness by the mid-game. I only built 3 cities total which allowed me the 3 culture guilds and allowed for a production and food trade route to my capital in the early game.
-Early in the game, feel free to use Artists for golden ages and Writers for culture boosts, especially if doing so will help you unlock or build wonders faster. If you are at the point where golden ages are happening on their own and you are satisfying policy requirements for wonders then the great works from artists/writers will be better since you will want to fill up your culture wonder's slots for tourism bonuses.
-Don't ignore the world congress. A few of the wonders you can build can help increase your delegate count. Try to have a few CS allies via great diplomat generation to try to pass a few preferable proposals. By mid game I had the votes to become the host and was later able to get endowment for the arts, world religion, and world ideology passed in my favor.
And that's it. I won my game with a Culture vic somewhere around turn 300. My ideological pressure was so strong that it flipped all but 2 of the other civs in the game to Freedom. Those last two civs were easily overcome by a few Musicians. I think I had ~50% of all the constructed wonders in the world when it was all said and done.
Victory type: Culture
Play-style: Tall, Aggressive
Summary:
The goal is to leverage Egypt's unique bonuses to grab as many Culture related wonders as possible (or just as many wonders as possible) and ride them to victory. This was a fun game to play on Immortal as I typically don't bother with most wonders (especially early game ones) as it can be difficult to get them when playing as other civs. Egypt makes chasing wonders much more possible. An over-view of Egypt's bonuses:
-20% bonus to wonders (40% when in a golden age)
-Artifacts gain 5 science/culture, Landmarks gain 5 gold/tourism
-War Chariot (chariot archer replacement) gives production to the capital on kill
-Burial Tomb (caravansary replacement) additionally gives +5 faith and golden age points when you win a battle
There is a nice package of synergy here. Egypt can use the killing of enemy units to boost their capital's production of wonders via instant hammer gain and golden age points. There is additional synergy around archaeological dig sites giving extra bonuses whether you choose to create a landmark or take the artifact.
Specifics:
For policies I would go Tradition, Piety, and Aesthetics into Freedom.
-Tradition has bonuses to golden ages and working specialist slots which will both be important to us.
-Piety can boost our religion and the bonuses to internal trade routes can be useful when sending production and food to our capital in order to speed wonder construction and population growth. It also allows us to buy Great Artists with faith which can be nice when you NEED a golden age to help boost wonder construction.
-Aesthetics for Culture victory should be somewhat self explanatory, especially for Egypt. It allows us to see hidden antiquity sites, allows for purchasing musicians with faith, gives all World Wonders +2 tourism, improved artist/musician/writer production, etc.
-Freedom seems to synergize the best with Tall play.
For your religion, the most important part is to grab "Goddess of Beauty" as your pantheon, which gives +3 faith, +1 Culture from world wonders and a production boost of 15% when construction Pre-Renaissance wonders. Your other beliefs are more up to personal preference. I took things that would make sense in a Tall empire that would aid in obtaining wonders. So bonuses to science, culture, and production are helpful, as well as bonuses to golden age point production.
Wonder Construction:
I pretty much went after every wonder, prioritizing those that would most help me achieve a Culture victory. Try to time your tech path with your policy acquisition such that you satisfy the required number of policies by the time the technology is researched- It is pointless to reach for a wonder's technology if you won't have the policies to build it. Early in the game I was more limited by the policy requirements whereas later in the game I was often above the required policies by 2 or 3. Whenever building a wonder I would switch my worked tiles to maximize production, and in between wonders would re-prioritize growth.
General Tips:
-Your capital is the most important city. Use your other cities to send food and production to your capital if you can spare the gold, at least early on in the game. Later on your trade routes will be needed to gain tourism bonuses and the tourism %modifier by trading with other civs, especially those with high culture.
-When you get near the Archaeology tech, reach for it. Those dig sites are really nice for Egypt. Make landmarks on sites within the workable city radius and then take artifacts from all the others.
-You benefit from being in wars. I happened to be on a continent with the Ottomans and Assyria so being in a war was never an issue for me. I got to play defensive and just kill off hordes of Assyrian units that tried to invade my desert protected cities. I never tried to take any cities and was satisfied with just killing his units. Depending on your situation you might have to go on offense in order to gain those hammers and golden age points when killing units.
-Work as many specialist slots as you can while still maintaining growth, especially later in the game. I prioritized Artist/Writer slots followed by Scientist/Engineer slots and then Diplomat/Merchant slots. I didn't work Musician slots until later in the game.
-Going tall should make generating golden ages easy with Egypt. You should be swimming in happiness by the mid-game. I only built 3 cities total which allowed me the 3 culture guilds and allowed for a production and food trade route to my capital in the early game.
-Early in the game, feel free to use Artists for golden ages and Writers for culture boosts, especially if doing so will help you unlock or build wonders faster. If you are at the point where golden ages are happening on their own and you are satisfying policy requirements for wonders then the great works from artists/writers will be better since you will want to fill up your culture wonder's slots for tourism bonuses.
-Don't ignore the world congress. A few of the wonders you can build can help increase your delegate count. Try to have a few CS allies via great diplomat generation to try to pass a few preferable proposals. By mid game I had the votes to become the host and was later able to get endowment for the arts, world religion, and world ideology passed in my favor.
And that's it. I won my game with a Culture vic somewhere around turn 300. My ideological pressure was so strong that it flipped all but 2 of the other civs in the game to Freedom. Those last two civs were easily overcome by a few Musicians. I think I had ~50% of all the constructed wonders in the world when it was all said and done.
