Using culture to take cities

[KeiserSose]

I have a high culture civ right now and my boarders go right up to a french city (Tolarn or something). Everythng west an south of the city is my boarders, north and east is french.

It said Tolarn was 55% french, so I sent a settler to find a new city as close to it as I could. I then sent a great artist there to complete a great work (culture bomb) thinking this might get the city to flip.

Sure enough after a few turns it said there is a chinese revolt in Tolarn. When I checked the city it said 49% french and had the little anachy symbol with indication of "1" turn next to it.

One turn later Tolarn is back French at like 51%.

Any ideas on how to get it to flip?

I'd be interested in general info about what it takes to flip a city culturally as well. What do the %'s actually mean, etc.

I do have a related question abotu sending a missionary there. DO missionaries spread MY culture to a city, or do they improve the existing culture of Tolarn in this case?

[UnOrthOdOx]

The % works for tiles with regularity. I'm not aware of the precise formula for cities, but troop numbers do play a role, and you can prevent a flip by piling in enough units. It's possible the city simply got more troops during the turn.

[KeiserSose]

INteresting. Thanks.

If I have open boarders with them can I send MY troops to hang out in the city? Would that improve my chances of getting it?

Also, wrt missionaries. I was goign to send a missionary there, When I scrolled over the "spread religion" box it said adds certain # or coin, culture, etc.... Does that mean it would help THAT city (and therefore teh French) or does it mean it would spread MY culture?

[The keeper]

Giving them religion will help THEM.

Running Free Religion (or paganism) gives you 1 culture for every religion present. Also, an additional religion allows you to build temples and monistarys which would add to the culture.


If you are trying to flip a city by culture, dont spread a religion to it.

[unamablebuiler]

i hope my thread bout cultral offensives helps

this is the link to it

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148945

[Willem]

Re: Using culture to take cities

Originally posted by KeiserSose
Sure enough after a few turns it said there is a chinese revolt in Tolarn. When I checked the city it said 49% french and had the little anachy symbol with indication of "1" turn next to it.

One turn later Tolarn is back French at like 51%.

Any ideas on how to get it to flip?

That's not unusual just before a flip. Just wait awhile longer and the city should be yours. Just keep building some cultural buildings in case.

I do have a related question abotu sending a missionary there. DO missionaries spread MY culture to a city, or do they improve the existing culture of Tolarn in this case?

They can help the culture of Tolarn since they can now build a Temple of that religion there, and the other religious buildings. And they don't help to spread your culture either. So it's not really a good idea to send in a Missionary if you're trying to flip a city, it might backfire on you.

[Willem]

Originally posted by The keeper
Running Free Religion (or paganism) gives you 1 culture for every religion present.

It's 2 culture I believe.

[axisworks]

Indeed, in addition to using great artists and such, spread as many religions to your border cities as you can and build temples for each of them as soon as you can. Spreading your religions to that city will only help it stay in their hands longer.

I've seen cities be as far down as 29% of the founder's population, and they still haven't flipped. I generally expect most cities to flip around 30%, however. This can be complicated with culture influence from a third party, though. I've seen cities with as little as 11% of the founder's population when one or two more nations are also culturally vying for it, either directly or indirectly.

[Aeson]

The % is simply the ratio of culture on the tile. Each civ can have it's own culture built up on the tile, but only civs which have a city or cities with the tile in the range of their cultural borders "count". To increase culture on a tile requires having a city or cities that include that tile in their cultural influence. That is, where their borders would be if there was no outside interference.

Even on a city tile, the amount of culture on the tile is what matters, not necessarily the amount of culture in the city on the tile. If you have the city building up culture, as well as 2 neighbor cities influencing culture there too, you can have much more culture on the city tile than is actually in the city.

(Not sure on the exact numbers, but it's something along these lines.)

The rate at which a city builds up culture on a tile is due to distance from the city, and the city's culture level. If a city exerts a cultural presence up to 5 tiles away, the influence of the city on tile culture would be something like 5,4,3,2,1, with the high end being near the city, and the low end further away.

Total culture in the city or cities acting on a tile factors in too I think. Not sure how.

A Great Work is a one time deal as far as directly influencing culture on tiles. It does influence the cultural level of the city as well, so can increase the rate at which a city is adding culture to the tiles. The amount of Culture the GW adds to a tile depends on how far the tile is from the city. It gives full value only on the city tile, and decreases pretty quickly as you move away. (IIRC it's something like 1/3^Distance.)

In general, GW are great for flipping a city quickly if it gets them to a low %, but if it doesn't happen quickly, the GW isn't going to "keep up", since it's in large part a one time effect.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by axisworks
Indeed, in addition to using great artists and such, spread as many religions to your border cities as you can and build temples for each of them as soon as you can.

Monasteries give you 2 a turn, temples only 1.

Originally posted by axisworks
I've seen cities be as far down as 29% of the founder's population, and they still haven't flipped.

I have seen one down to 0

[The keeper]

Originally posted by Willem


It's 2 culture I believe.

2 culture while running free speech due to the +100% culture modifier.

[Willem]

Originally posted by The keeper


2 culture while running free speech due to the +100% culture modifier.

Ah, so that's where it's coming from. I've been wondering why I've been seeing so much culture from just having a religion in a city.

[Paddy]

Is there a flip calculator like there was for Civ III?