Culture victory score maximization

[ColdPhoenix]

When playing for a cultural victory I usually play as normal up until I get the late culture heavy wonders (rock and roll, broadway etc). I might put a little more on the culture slider than normal and ensure that I get cultural buildings and cathedrals spread between 3 cities but otherwise not much of a change.

Once I get those wonders though, can I get a higher score by jacking the culture slider up to 100% so that the game finishes earlier and I get a bigger time bonus. Or is it a better idea to keep researching so that more points are gained for extra techs and there is the possibility of grabbing some more land?

Possibly a compromise with 50% culture?

[samspock]

I find it takes a very long time and a lot of work to get a cultural victory for a much smaller score. I have been playing for domination lately and get the win earlier and thus a much better score. I think that time is more important overall than number of techs so go for the win asap.

[A_Turkish_Guy]

it is always good to milk the game.milking gives you great score you dont imagine.

[Ijuin]

A question: is there any way of getting your civilization's aggregate cultural value, as opposed to just the culture for each separate city?

[MasterDave]

Originally posted by samspock
I find it takes a very long time and a lot of work to get a cultural victory for a much smaller score. I have been playing for domination lately and get the win earlier and thus a much better score. I think that time is more important overall than number of techs so go for the win asap.

I agree that cultural wins score less than domination most of the time. However, I find that in terms of real time spent playing the game, it takes me far fewer hours to win a (peaceful) cultural victory rather than grind out a domination victory even though I can usually win by domination a century or three earlier on the game calendar.

Of course there is no guarantee that the AI will leave a culture civ in peace, but when they do you can finish your game in less time generally without repetitive wars. I will occasionally work toward a cultural victory as a change of pace, although I usually wind up warmongering

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by MasterDave


I agree that cultural wins score less than domination most of the time. However, I find that in terms of real time spent playing the game, it takes me far fewer hours to win a (peaceful) cultural victory rather than grind out a domination victory even though I can usually win by domination a century or three earlier on the game calendar.

Of course there is no guarantee that the AI will leave a culture civ in peace, but when they do you can finish your game in less time generally without repetitive wars. I will occasionally work toward a cultural victory as a change of pace, although I usually wind up warmongering

I have played a couple of culture victory games at the lower levels - noble and prince (I think). I'm not overly concerned about the score. However, I found it rather difficult to maintain interest at the end. I was simply grinding out culture in my three cities and building my defences in case of an attack.

Attempting to use my GAs and wonders to balance things so that my three cities passed the line together was a mildly interesting, but no more than that.

Perhaps I'm missing something and there is more to a culture victory than I can see.

RJM at Sleeper's

[PaganPaulwhisky]

I agree. Culture games are rather boring espcially in the end. The space race is similar in this regard. The majority of your turns are spent clicking enter and then twiddling your thumbs while you wait for culture/space parts. Usually by late game, I have a massive army and I actually want someone to declare war on me so that I can break up the monotany. The most entertaining part of these games is when some idiot sails over and unloads a bunch of troops on my land which I kill in one turn and then proceed to raze a bunch of his cities in retaliation.

It is kind of neat to see your borders slowly engulf everything in sight, but this stops happening in the late game. The space games also, can be very stategic and suspenseful if the race is close, however mine are usually not. Either I'm comfortably ahead or way behind.

[MasterDave]

I find all forms of the end game to be somewhat tedious, whether it be culture, space race, or domination. On a large map, the constant warfare becomes quite a grind after 1000 years or so with moving 20-40 units every turn. At least with a peaceful ending you can automate most of your turns and move the calendar faster.

End game pacing has been a problem for me in nearly every 4X game, where you often have to spend countless hours going through the motions in a game that you know that you have had won hundreds of turns ago just to see a victory screen, post a score, etc. Civ 4 does a better job than most in minimizing this boring extended endgame, and sometimes a very close space race, space vs. culture race, or space vs. domination race can be exciting. I recently lost a marathon game to a spaceship that got launched THREE turns before my last culture city went legendary. Three turns is NOTHING in a marathon game, but it was sure a tense finish, with my spies getting captured while trying to sabotage the SS engine. I did not win, but at least it wasnt boring

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by MasterDave
I find all forms of the end game to be somewhat tedious, whether it be culture, space race, or domination. On a large map, the constant warfare becomes quite a grind after 1000 years or so with moving 20-40 units every turn. At least with a peaceful ending you can automate most of your turns and move the calendar faster.

End game pacing has been a problem for me in nearly every 4X game, where you often have to spend countless hours going through the motions in a game that you know that you have had won hundreds of turns ago just to see a victory screen, post a score, etc. Civ 4 does a better job than most in minimizing this boring extended endgame, and sometimes a very close space race, space vs. culture race, or space vs. domination race can be exciting. I recently lost a marathon game to a spaceship that got launched THREE turns before my last culture city went legendary. Three turns is NOTHING in a marathon game, but it was sure a tense finish, with my spies getting captured while trying to sabotage the SS engine. I did not win, but at least it wasnt boring

I hadn't thought about it before, but I agree with you that most of the end games can be tedious. I've always found this with the final part of an elimination victory. Once you reach a point where there is little possibility that the AI can stop you, it becomes a grind. There is slightly more to do in a spaceship game, because of the need to learn the final techs and in my case at least, the games tend to be closer, so there is a possibilty of losing until quite late. Nonetheless, it can be a bit of a grind.

RJM at Sleeper's