Cultural victory

urania_137 · February 6, 2002, 19:05

Well, what exactly do you need for a cultural victory? How many culture points or what? I'm confused... (as if not giving any indication in "demographics" etc how close you are to domination victory isn't enough... Another one of those little niggles that Civ 3 really doesn't need.

Worthingtons · February 6, 2002, 19:51

I want to know this too, I've never won by Culture, and in a current game have a very good culture, and would like to know if I have a good chance...

Herr David · February 6, 2002, 19:52

Get one city with a culture value of 20k

AFAIK that's all.

Sublime · February 6, 2002, 19:54

OR, you can get 100k between all of your cities, and have 2x the culture of any AI civs.

-Sublime

Herr David · February 6, 2002, 20:03

Neither one is likely to happen, though... if you're far enough to have 100k culture AND twice as much as your next opponent, you're already big enough and so prosporous that domination shouldn't be far off.

KithrupFugitive · February 7, 2002, 11:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Herr David
Neither one is likely to happen, though... if you're far enough to have 100k culture AND twice as much as your next opponent, you're already big enough and so prosporous that domination shouldn't be far off.

The likelihood of a cultural victory is something that I think depends on difficulty level and map size. Certainly on the lower difficulties on a huge map I have obtained victory by culture without really firing a shot meaning a domination victory was nowhere near.

Reading the posts here it seems like domination, conquest and space race victories are far more common than cultural on Monarch and above.

ShuShu · February 7, 2002, 11:37

Cultural victory by single city is a time dependeant thing. At the lower levels I was able to build almost all the wonders in my capital. Even so, the cultural victory didn't come till the twentieth century.

At the higher levels, the AI researches at a faster rate and this has two side effects.

1) You can't build as many wonders in the same city.
2) Space ship construction begins before the American revolution because of tech trading.

This has the effect of quashing the single city cultural win at higher levels.

bongsaways · February 7, 2002, 16:37

1st, 2nd and 3rd levels I have done a culture victory quite easily. I started to turn the option off to win that way (didn't want the game to end so soon).

Having a diffacult time doing it on the harder levels of course. Seems impossible, although I have come sort of close to doing it a few times.

I plant my cities pretty close to each other, I know this helps. Some cities are just 2 squares from each other, most are 3. Playing warmonger/chieftan levels, you'll achieve a culture victory fairly quick doing this (I seemed to alwasy get it halfway through industrial age). Just build infrastructure like crazy. Quite often I'll set the research to 0% for 3 or 4 turns or so, get a bunch of money, jack up the research again, hurry up universities and such.

ShuShu · February 7, 2002, 16:58

That while city farms will be murder on corruption, I think they are probably an excellent way to get 100,000 total culture on any difficulty. Just haven't tried it since I am still having fun playing the game without testing old exploits.

Arrian · February 7, 2002, 17:36

If you win by the 100,000 total culture points, you clearly were extrememly powerful as well, and could have chosen any of the victory conditions. Because you must have double your nearest competitor's culture to win this way, you need a large empire with lots and lots of cultural buildings. A sprawling civ with lots of temples and libraries is gonna have a better shot at this than a small civ with a few totally built up cities. Playing a religious civ is almost a requirement for this, because of the half-price temples at the start of the game.

The 20,000pt in a single city option is something I think you need to decide upon very early, and I doubt it can be done without quite a bit of luck and one heck of a start position on the highest levels (emp/diety).

-Arrian

Worthingtons · February 8, 2002, 03:03

I havent got a cultural victory yet, but i imagine it's more possible than you seem to indicate. In my current game all but 1 cultures are in awe of mine and it's only medieval times, I didnt even get the Oracle.

Thrawn05 · February 8, 2002, 13:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Herr David
Neither one is likely to happen, though... if you're far enough to have 100k culture AND twice as much as your next opponent, you're already big enough and so prosporous that domination shouldn't be far off.

NOT likely to happen? Most of my games end by the year 1900 due to the fact that my culture is so great. I have to start learning NOT to build wonders.

The Eliminator · February 8, 2002, 14:33

Why don't you try and click off the Cultural Victory option at start game. Makes a lot more sense than "NOT building wonders..."

bsklepzig · February 8, 2002, 15:44

Just an example ...

I'm a Civ Newbie and my first victory was cultural. I think that map and civ choice make a HUGE difference in the type of victory to go for.

I played huge map, pangeia, Iroquois (religious/expansionist). I only missed one wonder and loaded up on culture buildings as early and often as possible. I had a subpar military and only fought one war (I was dragged in by an MPP). I regularly assimilated cities by culture, mostly when the Zulus or Americans would plant a city in a culture gap within my empire. I had a lot of cities (I forget how many), but they weren't jammed together. As for Domination, I was a long way away. No civs of the starting eight had been eliminated and I maybe had 20-25% of the land mass.

I hit victory with over 100,000 culture points before the Industrial Age finished.

I'm sure a lot of this was due to the Chieftain level i played at, but I think peacenik builder on a huge pangeia with Religious and/or Expansionist could be a viable strategy for a couple of levels anyway. Friendly goody huts gave me a nice tech lead I never relinquished and I limited tech-trading.

I tend toward a builder strategy, so it was a fun game for me.

Ben

Worthingtons · February 9, 2002, 19:01

'I'm sure a lot of this was due to the Chieftain level i played at'
Perhaps

Thrawn05 · February 9, 2002, 22:55

Quote:

Originally posted by The Eliminator
Why don't you try and click off the Cultural Victory option at start game. Makes a lot more sense than "NOT building wonders..."

But I want a challenge. I'm currently playing a game where I DON'T build any wonder, and see if I can still finish the game (besides world domination).

Ironikinit · February 10, 2002, 08:41

Cultural and domination are the victory types I haven't got. I find the cultural advisor to be next to useless. "Oh, I should build improvements? Thanks, hon, you're a real help."

I'd like to get a cultural victory, and actually I was going for one my last game, but the opportunity for a diplomatic victory arose and I took it. Which leads me to praise the option of having a diplomatic victory, because it ends the game, but it's not a guaranteed win. In other words, it's the quicker win but there's a bit of risk.

Worthingtons · February 10, 2002, 09:00

Can you tell me the Risk of the diplomacy option Ironikinit?

Can the AI get the UN and take the vote and then you lose the game?? if so, how likely is this
I turn Diplomatic off

Aeson · February 10, 2002, 12:49

Letting the AI build the UN usually leads to a diplomatic loss. With the diplomatic victory turned off, the UN can't be built I think.

Ironikinit · February 10, 2002, 12:55

It's possible to build the UN and lose the election, too. I haven't seen the AI build it yet.

Patience · February 10, 2002, 13:01

Rothy: when the AI builds the UN, it will frequently hold elections.
My experience is that you will lose one of the (many) coming elections if you do not spend insane amounts of cash, tech and whatever else you might have in order to secure votes from the other civs.

Thrawn05 · February 11, 2002, 14:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Patience
Rothy: when the AI builds the UN, it will frequently hold elections.
My experience is that you will lose one of the (many) coming elections if you do not spend insane amounts of cash, tech and whatever else you might have in order to secure votes from the other civs.

That's IF you're powerful enough to be an option for the other civs to vote on.

bsklepzig · February 11, 2002, 15:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Rothy
'I'm sure a lot of this was due to the Chieftain level i played at'
Perhaps

Rothy,

There's no need to be mocking or rude. Everyone started as a newbie at some point, whether it was a game in the Civ series or some other TBS game.

As a newbie, I've been posting under the assumption that:
1) other newbies might learn from my limited experience and
2) more experienced players might be able to extrapolate from the information and apply a nugget to their own strategies (i.e. newbie had success with strategy A, but he gets X bonuses on easy level. adjust strategy to compensate = possibly interesting twist).

A few posters in the thread had questioned the viability of a cultural win at all. I posted simply to share what had worked for me.

You edited out the part of my post where I ACKNOWLEDGED that this strategy probably had little merit above Regent ("peacenik builder on a huge pangeia with Religious and/or Expansionist could be a viable strategy for a couple of levels anyway").

So what's your point? The Civ 3 Strategy Forum is actually the Civ 3 Diety Strategy Forum?

Have some class and remember a time when you hadn't mastered every aspect of TBS games at any level you chose to play at.

Ben

Thrawn05 · February 11, 2002, 21:45

Quote:

Originally posted by bsklepzig
There's no need to be mocking or rude. Everyone started as a newbie at some point

Can you say Civ for the SNES?