My Culture Game (Cont.)

I lost out on Chichen Itza, no surprise, since I got a late start on it. I don’t usually go for Wonders early on because I am busy building up my Empire, and there are plenty to come later when I am built up, and Chichen Itza is an early Wonder, relatively. Speaking of which, I usually try to get a Forge in each city to add to production, which helps for any Wonders. The production I lost on Chichen Itza turned into 144 Gold, so not a complete loss by any means. However, I did get the Sistine Chapel in my Capital. Since I have State Religion, I get 5 additional Culture from all State religion buildings, so all of my Judaism Monasteries, Temples, and Cathedrals will get this bonus. So what I need to do is to make sure I build Monasteries and Temples, but also Cathedrals. And since I cannot build Cathedrals in every city, I should make sure I build them in my three Culture cities to cash in. Getting the Sistine Chapel is a big deal for a Culture Victory, in other words. I noticed that the Hanging Gardens, another early Wonder, is still available, but I need to build an Aqueduct first before I can build it. Well, it is worth a try since I don’t have anything else pressing at the moment.

I did end up getting Notre Dame in one of my Culture cities, and I did get the Hanging Gardens. Globe Theater will be available as soon as I build two more Theaters, so I need to look do do that next. I am at 1622 AD right now, and my three Culture cities are at 8988, 3160, and 2246. There is still a lot of game to play, and this kind of thing builds. So I will just keep to the plan. Meanwhile, as soon as I got the technology I built a few caravels and sent them out to explore. Caravels are the first ships that can travel ocean squares, and I wanted to find the other players. You want to be able to trade with the other players, and you have to meet them first.

I lost out on Angkor Wat, so immediately started in on Globe Theater in that city. Then I got a Great Engineer, and used him to complete the Versailles Wonder. The Great Engineer appeared in my capital, but I moved him to the other city to use him there because that city had lower production and needed the help more. This paid off for me when my capital built the Spiral Minaret a few turns later. I then built a University in my capital to keep up with Science, and when that was built started on the Taj Majal. A bit later I got another Great Engineer in my capital, and sent it to another of my Cultural cities to hurry the Statue of Liberty.

I completed the Hermitage in my cultural city with the lowest culture output, which is a good way to boost your bottom city because it doubles our Culture output. Then I got another Great Engineer, and used it to complete the Statue of Liberty. That doesn’t give you a bunch of culture directly, but it gives you a fr4ee specialist in every city on the same continent, and since I only have two cities that are not on the same continent, I will benefit a lot. I can make Science specialists in my Science cities, Culture specialists in the Culture city, and probably Engineer specialists in all of my other cities. The reason is the Engineer specialists generate Great Engineer points, so I can get even more of these very useful people to build Wonders. You can also create specialists from your ordinary citizens, but that cuts into your food and production, so getting free ones is really good. A few turns later I got the Taj Mahal, and the Statue of Liberty, so I’m doing well on getting Wonders. To get access to more Wonders I need to do more Science, so getting Universities in every city is now a priority.

I got a Great Artist in my capital and sent it to my Cultural city with the least amount of Culture, and used him to create a Great Work, worth 6000 Culture at a pop. That is no longer the Culture city with the lowest culture. Then I researched up to Replaceable Parts, and started building Factories in each of my cities to increase my production. Then one of my Science cities produced a Great Scientist, which I used to create an Academy. Then the next turn I got a free Great Scientist by being the first to discover Physics, which was the prerequisite to researching Electricity, which opens up building Broadway. I sent this Great Scientist to another of my Science cities and again created an Academy, so now I had two Academies. Each Academy adds 50% to the Science output of the city, so that is a good investment.

I then traded Physics for Rifling, which let me spend half of my gold upgrading all of my military units to Infantry, so now my Defense is pretty solid. Then once I got Electricity, I started on Broadway, and then immediately started to research Radio, which opens up both the Eiffel Tower and Rock’n’Roll. Then I set one my Military cities to building the Pentagon. In my capital I had three Science specialists, so I turned one into an Artist specialist since this is one of my designated Culture cities. Once I got Radio I started on both the Eiffel Tower and Rock’n’Roll, and immediately started to research Mass Media, which lets me build Hollywood, and also the city improvement of Broadcast Towers. Meanwhile, I got a Great Merchant, which I sent to Timbuktu, the Mali city, for a trade mission to generate more cash to replenish my Treasury after upgrading all of my military units. Then with my Treasury healthy again, I implemented the social policy of Universal Suffrage so that I could use cash to hurry city projects.

I got another Great Engineer and sent him to the city building Rock’n’Roll, and used him to hurry the production. I then set the city to producing Hollywood. My Treasury was starting to look quite good, so in about 10 turns I was able to rush the Eiffel Tower, Hollywood, and Broadway. Then I set each of them to building Broadcast Towers to add more to the Culture production. The next step was to go through each of my cities and re-allocate my citizen specialists to be Artists. This should lead my other cities to produce more Great Artists. I did leave my Scientist specialists in my Science cities, however.

This should be enough to give you an idea of how to win a Culture Victory, though you may need a few tries to be successful. This is a new Victory type. and the focus on developing three cities makes it unlike any of the others.

Science and Military Victory

These are not terribly different from previous versions. The trick to getting a Science or Military Victory is to realize that Production is King. For a Science victory you will want to build Libraries, Universities, Observatories, and Labs in every city as quickly as possible, and that takes Production. And for a Science victory having a large empire helps because you can add the science output of every city into the mix. And when you get to the end game of building your Space Ship, having a number of cities with high production is what gets that ship built faster. And of course Production is also key to cranking out units when you are looking for a Military victory. So for a Leader I would go with one that has the Industrious trait for either. That is not hard to do. IT is a question of what you pair it with. Stalin is both Industrious and Aggressive, which I think makes for a good Military leader. On the Science side, there is not leader who combines Industrious with Philosophical, but you can combine Philosophical with Expansive and get Peter the Great. But the real point is to adapt your strategy. You can do well with a Financial leader, generate lots of cash, and buy the units and buildings you need. These are all valid. But as I said, the essence of these two victory types is pretty similar to previous games in the series. So if you have won a Science of Military victory in Civ II or Civ III, you are already most of the way there.