Who is the best leader for a cultural victory.

[Stickyman]

Warlords.

I am finally getting bored of winning domination games on noble, thought I'd try other victories before moving up.

Which leader is best for a cultural victory. I usually play marathon.

Thank you,

[jbp26]

cultural is tough, i only ever won it once. i would imagine ghandi is the best leader for cultural, since he starts with mysticism (so you can get more religions, and thereofre more temples/cathedrals/holy cities) and is industrious.

[Yosho]

Go for a leader with strong economic traits. The key to winning cultrual is having a strong ecomony, getting the techs and the wonders first, and then switching it all over to 100% cultural at the end.

[MasterDave]

Originally posted by Yosho
Go for a leader with strong economic traits. The key to winning cultrual is having a strong ecomony, getting the techs and the wonders first, and then switching it all over to 100% cultural at the end.

My favorite leaders have either Spiritual (cheap temples), Industrious (cheaper wonders), or Philosophical (more engineers, artists, and prophets). Starting with Mysticism is a plus also, as founding multiple religions helps get that culture going. Also, holy shrines are excellent starts to legendary cities. I think of all the leaders, Ramses is probably one of the best for a culture victory, at least the way I pursue it...

Early aggression to secure an empire big enough for 9 cities, found three or four religions, build tons of missionaries to spread all religions to all towns, build tons of temples in all nine cities, build the cathedral-class buildings in each of the three legendary cities along with occasional wonders, all monasteries, monuments, theaters, libraries, and universities.

[OutsiderSubtype]

Elizabeth. And it's not even close.

Well, actually Ramses would be good too.

[MasterDave]

Originally posted by OutsiderSubtype
Elizabeth. And it's not even close.

Well, actually Ramses would be good too.

Elizabeth is a good all-around leader for any victory goal.

Ramses is more specialized to those who want to

1) do a cheezy War Chariot rush
2) Win by culture.

My favorite leader under Warlords is Hyuna Capac, and he is also well-suited for Culture. He has:

Industrious for wonder whoring
Financial for strong research and economy
Starts with Mysticism for religion whoring
Terraces, another two culture per turn that is available to be built very early on.

[rah]

And don't forget his UU for a possible early rush (if the difficulty level isn't too high) but more important, helping to defend against barb archers while you're getting your civ off the ground.

[Blaupanzer]

Louis XIV is good, depends on finding three good city sites with lots of food for specialists, and/or production for those all important wonders (e.g., Sistine Chapel).

[Yosho]

Originally posted by OutsiderSubtype
Elizabeth. And it's not even close.

Well, actually Ramses would be good too.

I've found Ghandi to be pretty good when going for culture; it's about the only time that ind pulls it's weight, but when playing for a cultural win stratagy I often find myself spending something like 20% or more of my hammers all game building wonders and national wonders, so the bonus is pretty significant there, especally when combined with fast workers for even better early-game wonder production. Spiritual helps as well.

[Thedrin]

Saladin on Vanilla, Gandhi on Warlords.

The two traits that I've found to be the best when it comes to going for a cultural victory are Spiritual and Philosophical.

Spiritual: Cheap temples. To build cathedrals in all of your cities your going to need plenty of these and having your military cities divert resources away from building military units is not a good thing. Also, getting the prerequisite number of temples faster allows the benefit of the cathedral to be felt earlier.

Philosophical: Multiple great artist farms under Caste System. I've found this to be a simpler and equally effective technique for getting a cultural victory that going for cathedrals. It requires less prerequisites than a cathedral strategy (just a couple of high food sites and Code of Laws) to get up and running effectively.

The disadvantage of this trait combination for a cultural victory is that you may not be taking as much advantage of Spirituals lack of anarchy as you might usually do. Representation, Caste System and Pacifism are pretty much held onto.

For such a cultural victory, there are only three wonders I'd persue before taking account of other affects.

Pyramids: Not neccesary but the extra beakers from Representation and the artist specialists is nice.
Parthenon: If persuing a Great Artists strategy.
Sistine Chapel: Even more effective when you have loads of artist specialists running.

Notes on other traits:

Industrious: It's okay but I'm unconvinced that persuing a wonder building strategy will get you legendary culture in all three cities (certainly works for one city). Since I prefer Phiosophical for this victory I ignore industrious
.
Creative: One of my favourite traits usually but here its a red herring. The +2 culture per turn contribute a tiny fraction of the total culture needed and theatres are already a cheap building. Colleseums have little effect.

[One_more_turn]

I say Gandhi is the one to use in Warlord. Religion is the key to cultural victory, with Wonders coming in second. I just finished a Gandhi cultural win at Emperor level today, and I must say it's almost a cake-walk.

Creative is imho an offensive trait, one that's good at grabbing territories early and giving new cities a quick boost. It works best with Domination victory in mind.