Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Civ 5 Cultural Victory

My Civ 5 playing has mostly revolved around the Cultural Victory. It's a rather fragile way of playing, since there are a couple of computer-controlled civ playstyles that can ruin it. If you start between Japan, Greece, and Persia, it's going to be really, really hard, because even if you kick all their buts, if you devote much production to military units, the cultural victory slips away. You have to build certain improvements, and specific wonders(Oracle, Sistine Chapel, Cristo Redendor, Sydney Opera House) by a certain time or you are screwed. In particular, Sistine Chapel and Cristo Redendor are game-breakers. If another civ builds one, you need to drop the cultural victory right then and there. I got to where I could win a Cultural Victory nearly any time with any civ at Warlord, so I moved up to Prince. I got to where I could win a Cultural Victory with any civ some of the time, and culture-favored civs(Egypt, France, Siam, India) most of the time, so I moved up to King. Now I am having some big problems. I came within 2 turns of success with France. Then I had an ideal scenario playing as Egypt where I had a large island all to myself. However Persia was so ridiculously far ahead in tech and had about 20 cities, then produced Cristo Redendor about 5 turns before me (game over). I have no doubt that a cultural victory is possible even on Emperor level, since higher difficulty means making things easier for other civs, not penalizing yours. So as long as you stay out of war and somebody like the above example with Persia does not happen, you should be able to do it. I just have not done it yet. Today I try again as France. But one thing I am not sure about is whether I will ever be able to get a Cultural victory with a culture-unfriendly civ at King or higher. I almost did with China, hell I guess that is possible too for the same reasons, just gotta keep trying.

4 comments:

  1. Welp, that France thing was a failure. Caesar attacked me around 1000 B.C. and although I successfully kept him from taking any cities despite a much smaller army, the war just kept going on, and on, and ON...........until around 1900 I hit the "Quit to Windows" button. The other option would have been to give him my 5th city as part of a Peace Treaty, however this goes against everything I believe in, even if it's just a game. And my experience is that this type of cave-in only delays a later attack.

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  2. How many cities do you create? You shouldn't have more than 3 (non-puppet) cities, as every (non-puppet) city increases the required culture by 30%.

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  3. I just won it with 4. I have won it with 3 before but I enjoy more cities when possible. I usually shoot for 5 but I adjust depending on the terrain and how fast I can get the cities going. It's nice to have a couple extra cities for some more military but I only build them if there are optimal spots for them and it is still very early in the game to pay back that culture penalty you mentioned. When I first started playing for culture victory, I didn't know that the required culture kept going up for every city so I would try to make 10 or 20 lol. Needless to say it was a disaster. The 4 city win I just had was by the skin of my teeth, I had the green Arab guys(Al-Harad whatever) building spaceship parts for a long time but I eeked it out. I actually was at war with him the last few turns because I accidentally culture bombed a square of his while I was culture bombing England. A pretty exciting ending. I know you are right that 3 cities is optimal. I just hate being so weak.

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  4. bah I played a few more games at King level and finally had a good one going with Russia. I had the Utopia project going to be complete in 2042 but Ramhakhang finished the spaceship in 2034. I think I'm retiring for awhile and I will look forward to the xpac.

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I'm getting old but I don't want to grow up. I love coffee but it screws me up. I am a morning person. I value silliness and honesty.