I want to play a Tripoli game

[Heresson]

I want to have a game with three cities only, and get legendary culture in each.

But there's a problem. Teh perfect ruler would be industrious (50% faster wonders' building) and philosophical (? more great men borning). But there's no such ruler

I am therefore torned apart between Incan ruler, and Elisabeth I. I've been playing Huayn for a couple of games now. It's good. But I do not get many great men.
I've tried playing Liz, but there's a problem: without the specific incan unit instead of a warrior, I suck at fighting barbs. I should research archery... But then I do not get other stuff.

Apart from that, the maps suck.

[snoopy369]

Research bronze working asap, play as Elizabeth, and don't stress about GPs ... you get a culture win with corporations and with religions, not GPs fundamentally.

[johnmcd]

Run for the culture win before corporations, Music is the magic tech!

[Hercules]

Hmmm taking note. Never thought of that.

[snoopy369]

I would say theology is more important that music...

[johnmcd]

Originally posted by snoopy369
I would say theology is more important that music...

You want both really, and possibly rifling too, for defence. I'm not convinced by waiting for the corporations, its fast once your there, but you do wait a long time to get there.

[Krill]

Conquest

[Theben]

Re: I want to play a Tripoli game

Originally posted by Heresson
But there's a problem. Teh perfect ruler would be industrious (50% faster wonders' building) and philosophical (? more great men borning). But there's no such ruler

And officially, there never will be.

[snoopy369]

Indeed, that was the answer to a pre-Civ4 release trivia question

[Diadem]

You're kind of restricted to small maps if you try this. Because the number of temples you need to build cathedral-type buildings depends on map type. On normal it's 4 I think, so you need to play small.

This will still give you only 1 such building per religion. So you want as many religions as possible I guess.

Other than that it's easy. Wonder whore in one city, run lots of artists in the other, and just culture-bomb the last, with the great artists that those artists produce.

[Unimatrix11]

I may be mistaken, but i think, that you always need 3 temples for a cathedral, no matter what map size. If you have 9 cities, all with a temple of a specific religion, you can build 3 cathedrals, if you are playing on a tiny map, or a huge one doesnt matter. So, for me 9 is the magic number for cultural wins. Usually 3 religions, making it 3 caths in each of my three to-be-legendary cities... 3x3...

Having just 3 cities and to go for a cultural win, will be pretty tough. First off, you will have problems accumulating the culture, because of the lack of caths as described above. But secondly, the AI will normally notice, what you are up to, and it will attack. So not only do you need to build every culture producing building you can possibly grab, but also you will have to have quite a defence up by the time you make your final run towards victory.

Music is indeed very important. Get it first, gain a free artist. Build the chapel. And the caths of course. Theo, well, for the palace and the hammers it brings i guess, or the diplomatic twists you can play on opponents (but with only 3 cities, you wont have a lot of votes, nor gain many hammers, so: yeah important, but not imperative, i´d say). But really important is liberalism - dont wait, until you can grab something nice for it or your hamlets turned into towns - you want it asap just for the +100% culture free speech gives you.

[sowings]

Originally posted by johnmcd
I'm not convinced by waiting for the corporations, its fast once your there, but you do wait a long time to get there.

The problem with attempting to use corporations for the culture win on three cities (imo) is that it will be difficult to accumulate enough of the resources to make the three culture powerhouse corporations take off. Not enough seafood, not enough rice, not enough copper, marble, gems, etc. Granted you could accumulate some via trade, but I find that those corporations are really powerful right as I near the cusp of a domination win.

[johnmcd]

Absolutely, a three city culture win is incredibly tough. I think philosophical is must, you are really going to need to churn out artists.

[Krill]

I find it hard enough to find good enough city sites tbh...

[Krill]

Fleshing out the strategy:

There are 6 slots for national wonders, 2 per city. There could be a variety of combinations for 2 NWs, say, GT and NE, GT and NP, IW and GT...and you need to tailor each city to the land. I'd want each city capable of working atleast 2 good food tiles (5 food plus) or 1 good food resources and a few flood plains. And a decent production city for the wonders required...this would be alot harder than OCC...