Is cultural victory set too high?

[ghen]

By the end of the game when I'm not bothering to micromanage culture I don't even have one city past influential culture.. If I am trying to win the cultural victory though I start about mid-game tech wise and usually get two cities to legendary before time runs out.

Am I doing something wrong? Usually I can't figure out how I'm going to win (or if) before Astronomy, so planning on three big culture demons seems a waste before that.

[Dis]

I still haven't gotten one, but you have to plan for it much earlier. I failed at my attempt, because I didn't plan for it until my cities were around 10,000 culture and I thought they had a chance.

[Sarxis]

On epic - where you need 75,000 in each of the cities - I just don't see how. And I was way ahead of the AI in my most recent game.

[Datajack Franit]

you can't expect to win on cultural mode if you start pumping culture around mid-game

usually you should let a city grow under automatic citizen setting/encourage great people, and build every single cultural building, when you have a size 12 city with a world wonder and a national wonder you leave it alone and go for another city, but remember that you actually are investing money into culture and taking money out of pure research

[kimmygibler]

I am glad that cultural victory is much harder than in Civ3. It should be a rare victory type in my opinion. Way too easy in Civ3 to the point that you pretty much had to turn it off permanently. (same goes for diplomatic by the way)

[vee4473]

well, I just won a cultural victory in 1984 i think. It was on warlord i think, so that helped im sure.

I didn't decide to go for it until 1300 or so. I wouldn't have made it except for the nice cultural boost of multiple cathedrals of different religions.

That does add a bit of micro to it since you have to convert enough cities to a religion so you can build a temple in them (which is pre-req. for the cathedral...the first cathedral needs 3 cities with temples i think, then you have to have 5 or 6 cities with temples in order to get the second cathedral etc..)

And pumping the culture meter to near 100% and using specialists can have incredible effects to.

it was on normal speed.

[Dis]

I play all my games on epic. So getting 75,000 is very difficult just by building cathedrals. You need many, many great artists.

[vee4473]

oh, yes, I used a couple of them too.

It is definitely a strategy that can't be thought of too late.

[vee4473]

Oh, and unless I missed something, I miss the "turns to go" in addition to the culture per turn that civ3 had.

Unless it is turned off somehow.

Of course it is easy to calculate, but to know at a glance would be nice.

[ghen]

Culture is definitely not a 'Oh, I guess I just won' situation like in Civ3.. but I think they went a little too far with it. I play the game for fun, not to micromanage a victory condition from 4000BC.

[Boris Godunov]

I'm having a hell of a time getting to 50,000 on the normal setting of a large map on noble difficulty. My capital is almost there, but my next closest cities are way behind, and it's 1967.

[xxFlukexx]

Definetly not too high. It does require a great amount of planning and strategy compared to the oh well it's 1930 guess I'll start making the apollo program.

You have to start planning your cultural victory before the game even begins, leader selection, religions are important, tech path is crucial and keeping all your neighbors happy are all things you have to balance.

Haven't tried cultural on epic/quick though, should be still very doable.

[WolfEyes]

If you want a cultural victory, you do need to plan ahead a bit. (A creative leader is probably the better choice for a culture win).

1. Build all the culture buildings.

2. Try to concentrate as many wonders as possible in your 3 core cities.

3. Have a good economy, you'll need it.

4. Spread as many different religions as you can, to your 3 core cities.

5. Building the Effiel Tower is a help.

6. Switch to Free Speech (100% bonus to culture)

7. Raise your culture slider as high as you can (without losing money).

8. Prepare to defend yourself in case the AI civs try to stop you.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Definitely not. If you decide to go for it from the beginning, it's not really that hard. Even when I'm not trying to get a cultural victory, I generally get at least one city up over 50k culture. With multiple religions and free speech, I find it hard not to get there.

[Martinus]

I won cultural victory last night as Frederick of Germans on Prince. I shared the continent with Isabella, Ceasar, Montezuma and Asoka. However, only had one war with Ceasar in all that time - the rest of the time it was Isabella fighting Asoka and Ceasar battling with Montezuma. Of course when you go for cultural victory, you normally have to swallow your pride and pay them tribute when they demand it, but normally you should nonetheless be able to stay on top of the heap with tech and culture.

War is very bad for culture. Avoid is as much as you can.

One thing you should remember about cultural victory - you need to develop your 3 top cities in parallel as soon as possible. In the early game there is a temptation to build all or most of your wonders in your capitol - that way your two other culture cities do not generate culture in early game, and it is very hard to get them into Legendary near the end game. Also, you should forget about sending Artists to your border cities - all should be used to increase culture in your 3 designated cities (starting from the one with lowest culture). Having several religions to build cathedrals, Free Speech and Pacifism also helps a lot.