Cultural victory (Civ5)

Back to game concepts

Back to Culture

Go to Tourism
A cultural victory is a path to win the game in Civilization V. In Vanilla and Gods & Kings expansion, it involves gaining culture points and spending them on Social Policies, and then constructing a special wonder, the Utopia Project. In Brave New World the path is quite different, and involves the new Tourism Tourism system.

Requirements

Vanilla and Gods and Kings

• Complete five complete branches of social policies.

• Build the Utopia Project on a city.

As each branch consists on the branch itself and 5 policies, the player will, at least, have to earn enough culture to be able to acquire 30 policies. The first policy needs 25 culture points to be unlocked (with one city and standard options), but the amount of culture points needed for the next one increases with each policy unlocked. The number of cities the civilization owns also increases the culture cost of new policies, however it only counts cities founded by the player and annexed ones, not puppet ones. The exact percentage that applies to each game is shown on a tooltip, as it depends on the map size. However, the chart in Mathematics of Civilization V (although not updated) can give some ideas on how different can be acquiring the last policy having 2 cities (8900 culture points, before bonuses) or having 15 cities (35605 culture points, before bonuses).

Brave New World

• Achieve Influential cultural status with all remaining civilizations.

This basically means that the accumulated Tourism Tourism stat of your empire is bigger than the accumulated Culture Culture stat of all empires still in the game. Depending on each game, and the civilizations participating (as well as the victory paths they've decided to follow), the exact numbers required may vary enormously. At any point in the game, you may click on the 'Cultural overview' button in the upper right corner, go to 'Cultural Victory' or 'Influence by player' to check the current situation.

Buildings and wonders that provide benefits to achieve a cultural victory

The player that aims for a cultural victory should consider constructing these:

• All the buildings that give culture points (see culture for a list). In Brave New World, all the buildings that provide Great work slots of any kind.
• Every World and National wonder gives at least +1 culture, but some of them give more. Many wonders have multiple Great Work slots, with the ensuing Theming bonus, which is vital for increasing your Tourism output, but the most important are The Louvre, Uffizzi and Broadway. Check the Great work article for a complete list.
• The Oracle wonder. It gives one free social policy.
• Sistine Chapel wonder. It gives +25% culture in all cities (+ 2 Great Work slots in Brave New World).
• Cristo Redentor wonder. It makes social policies cost 33% less culture points (10% in the expansions).
• Sydney Opera House wonder. It gives 1 free social policy and 50% more culture in the city where it's built.
• Also, the Hermitage national wonder gives +50% culture in the city where it's built.

Social Policies that provide benefits to achieve a cultural victory

Although there are many ways to play for a cultural victory, the Piety branch influences culture the most. Also, Freedom has two policies (Constitution and Free Speech) that add 100% culture in cities with a Wonder and decrease the cost of new policies by 25%, respectively.

In Brave New World you should adopt Aesthetics instead of Piety. The new Ideological system doesn't affect the road to a Cultural victory - there are ways of achieving it via each one of the three ideologies.

The road to a cultural victory before Brave New World

Winning a game the cultural way is not easy, and it involves playing carefully through the whole game. There aren't many options of building up culture massively, so missing some key points can make the player fail completely. Obviously there are many ways of playing and it depends on the set up options of the game, so these are some general guidelines. First of all, a cultural civilization is a civilization with few cities. The increase on required cultural points for every city founded or annexed, when the number of cities is small, is affordable; from 3 or 4 cities upwards, the amount of points required for the last policies becomes so high that even with a large amount of culture points per turn it's not going to be possible to finish before 500 turns (maximum turns in a game).

There is also another benefit of keeping number of cities low: each Wonder gives at least +1 culture, and culture-related wonders and social policies give bonuses to the net amount of culture points that is being generated by the city, so the more culture the player generates in that city, the better. As there is a Tradition policy that gives a 33% bonus on Wonders construction in the capital, it's very interesting to build the majority of the Wonders there.

Attempting a cultural victory also relies on the opponents not winning, As it takes a very long time to win by cultural means, it could be possible that other players will be already finishing their own path for victory, specially paths that take a long time to complete, like the Science path or the Diplomatic one.

Puppet cities don't count towards the increase on the culture points required, so one could think it could be better to conquer cities to have more culture per turn. However, puppet cities grow without control and construct every building possible. So, as winning by cultural ways takes a lot of turns, it's very easy that with time, maintenance costs from buildings, armies and roads can put the empire into bankruptcy, not to mention that cities should be focused on building wonders and culture-related buildings. It's a lot less complicated if it's played the peaceful way, focusing on building up city population, improvements and buildings, and at some point switching to maximize culture gain (without stopping researching).

Happiness starts to matter for culture as soon as the social policy Mandate of Heaven from the Piety branch is acquired. It makes 50% of total happiness to be added as culture points per turn. Luxury resources, building wonders that reduce unhappiness, and acquiring some happiness-related social policies are the best way to take advantages of this. Be aware that buildings that produce happiness also have high maintenance costs per turn.

Great people become more and more important as the game progresses, but specially three are directly useful for achieving a cultural victory. Great Engineers give the ability to be able to hurry up wonders, and that ability can be used to hurry up wonders that are considered of vital importance for a cultural winning (see above). Great Scientists can help research technologies or build Academies to speed up research, in order to get advanced technology that allows the construction of wonders like Cristo Redentor or Sydney Opera House. Great Artists can be used to build Landmarks so citizens work on culture.

Considerations on single player and multiplayer games

Not founding cities and not having military units wandering around other civilizations' borders, plus avoiding all agreements with other civilizations, can be very useful to avoid conflicts during the whole game when attempting a cultural victory. However, this only applies to single player games as human players may act differently.

In fact, it could be very obvious to other human players that the player is attempting a cultural victory. There are 5 wonders that are very important (almost necessary) to achieve a cultural victory, so it's very significant that the same civilization builds all of them.

Also, in the victory progress window, any player can see how many social policy branches have been completed by any of the other civilizations; one way to work around this is to avoid one policy in some branches so it seems that there are only one or two branches completed, and then complete every branch needed at a later stage to reach victory.

However there are very many chances for the player's opponents to avoid a cultural defeat. Cultural players tend to have weak armies and few cities. Also, the Utopia Project takes a long time to complete and can't be "hurried up" with a Great Engineer's special ability.

Cultural victory in Brave New World

The way of achieving Cultural victory in the new expansion is significantly different, and probably the biggest change in the game. No longer you try to keep your empire as small as possible, while rushing like mad to research and build all cultural buildings possible. There are now many more elements involved in achieving victory.

Basic differences

The most important thing you need to know about the new strategy, is that Tourism Tourism, not Culture Culture, is the key to achieving a Cultural victory. In fact, it is perfectly possible (although not common) to achieve victory without having the biggest Culture Culture output per turn. Spreading your Tourism to other civilizations is now your primary concern, involving a whole range of actions needed, and NOT piling up a single stat!

The key to the victory lies in acquiring Great Works and maximizing their effect. As before, several key World Wonders will be absolutely needed for that, but apart from the fact that you don't need to rush like mad to build Cultural buildings - unless you've run out of slots to put your Great Works in.

Research/building order

As with all paths to victory, there are several key technologies that you need to acquire ASAP - in the beginning and the middle game these are technologies which provide Wonders with many Great Work slots, such as the Great Library, the Uffizi, and the Louvre (note that the last two of these require unlocking the Aesthetics and Exploration Social policies).

Towards the end game, you'll need Refrigeration and Radio for the Hotel and Airport buildings, which are essential for your Tourism. Also, when entering the Information Era, rush straight to The Internet tech, which gives you considerable boost.

Fortunately, its prerequisites allow you to skip most of the science-expensive techs of the earlier era. Also, Telecommunications allows you to build the National Wonder National Visitor's Center, which also gives your Tourism a nice kick (Remember to build it in a city with already large Tourism Tourism output, to maximize the benefit!).

Build Hotels and Airports first in your touristic centers - this way you'll maximize Tourism output as early as possible. Since every single turn counts, boosting your Tourism early is crucial!

Finally, Archaeology is now extremely important for the Cultural victory. The new mechanics allow you to extract Artifacts from the terrain once you research that tech, and each Artifact has the same effect and use as a Great Work of Art! So, start training Archaeologists (you can do that only in cities with an University!!!), and rush to get these Archaeological sites before the others!

Policies and Wonders

You will absolutely need the Aesthetics Policy tree, because this policy tree will increase the generation of Great Artists, Writers and Musicians upon adoption, besides allowing you to build the Uffizi. Its finisher is also nice - double Theming Bonuses in museums and World Wonders, as well as the ability to purchase Great Artists, Writers and Musicians with Faith Faith. And of course, you may also consider adopting the Exploration Policy tree, which not only allows you to construct the Louvre, but also offers a nice finisher bonus - you can excavate the Hidden Antiquity Sites for more Artifacts.

Additionally, try to build as many of the following World Wonders as you can:

• Great Library
• Parthenon
• Sistine Chapel
• Globe Theatre
• Uffizi
• Louvre
• Broadway
• Sydney Opera House

Finally, you will also need to build these National Wonders:

• National Epic
• Heroic Epic
• Oxford University
• Hermitage

The Palace already includes a slot for Great Work of Art, so try to get your first Great Artist to fill in this slot.

Maximizing your Tourism output

Tourism is a very interesting stat, we can even say - unique. It stays quite low all the way through the opening and middle game, and only starts really growing in the late game. Apart from being quite realistic (after all, there were no throngs of people rushing to see the Notre Dame in the Middle Age), this is also done so that you don't incidentally achieve a victory prematurely. Since the condition for victory is to accumulate more Tourism than Culture, the game is so paced as for the normal Culture Culture output of any civilization is much bigger than the normal Tourism Tourism output, all the way until the late game. So, don't freak out if you're still at the "Exotic" level with all civilizations in the beginning of the Industrial Era - that's how it's supposed to be. The big boosts will come later.

To achieve maximum Tourism Tourism output, you need to consider three facts:

1. The sole source of raw Tourism Tourism (with small exceptions) are Great Works, and they are created by the three types of cultural Great People (Writer, Artist and Musician) and via archaeological digging. Note that you can only create Great Works if you have buildings with the appropriate empty slots for them! (for more info check the Great work article).
2. The only source of the above-mentioned three Great People types are three National wonders - the three types of Guilds. Each can hold 2 Specialists, which add points towards producing the relevant Great Person, in the usual way. However, being National Wonders, you can build only 1 of each! As such, your ability to generate these people is limited, and you have to consider additional ways to boost their generation.
3. Buildings with more than one Great Work slots have the possibility of activating Theming Bonuses, which provide additional Tourism Tourism. These buildings include many World and National Wonders, as well as the Industrial Era cultural building - the Museum. Given the fact that your sources of Great Works are very limited, Theming Bonuses become vital for maximizing Tourism.

So, research the necessary technologies and build the Guilds right away. The specific techs are: Drama and Poetry (for Writers' Guild), Guilds (for Artists' guild (Civ5)), and Acoustics (for Musicians' Guild). Naturally, you have to put Specialists in them to boost production speed (although the Guilds also contribute points on their own). Next, look for all possible ways to boost Great People production in the cities with the guilds.

It's usually a good idea to put them all in a single city with a large population, but other options are also viable, as long as you manage to boost production speed. Keep in mind that a Garden gives you +25% Great People points, but the city has to be near river or lake to be able to build it! So does the National Epic. Ideological tenets can also give a boost, as well as the World Congress resolution Arts Funding.

Then, as soon as you get buildings with multiple Great Work slots, look for ways to activate their theming bonus right away. You will need all sorts of Great Work and Artifact combinations, so you'll need to Swap Great Works with other civilizations. Fortunately, this doesn't depend on diplomacy and trading, and is pretty easy (cudos to the developers for this). Always prefer to put your Great Works first in buildings with Theming Bonus, instead of in single-slot buildings like the Amphitheater or the Opera house.

Diplomacy and other strategies

Next think you need to consider when pursuing the new Cultural victory is the way you behave towards the other nations. It is actually pretty logical that a war-mongering conqueror won't have much success at influencing others culturally, so, leave world-domination ambitions for when you pursue other types of victory and try to maintain good relations with everyone. Also, turn your spies into diplomats! These effects benefit cultural influence:

• An Open borders treaty nets you a 25% bonus to Tourism Tourism with the nation, as long as it's active. You'll be able to sign these with most, if not all, nations, if you maintain good relations with them.
• A Trade route with a nation also nets you a 25% bonus to Tourism Tourism. Of course, you may trade with hostile nations as well, even with such you're at war with, but don't expect these trade routes to survive long. Use the way you set up Trade Routes as an offensive weapon. See which nations you need to influence more, and try to set up a route with them. One route per nation is enough to activate the 25% bonus to Tourism Tourism!
• Keep Diplomats in the capitals of the nations which resist your influence. Another +25% Tourism Tourism. And also, you'll be able to trade with these nations for votes in the World congress to pass key resolutions to help your cultural influence!
• Finally, religious influence could also help you. When a nation shares your religion (more than 50% of its cities have it as a majority religion), you get another 25% bonus to Tourism Tourism.

Finally, you have to consider Ideology. Differing Ideologies impose a -33% penalty on cultural influence with a nation (you know, the 'Iron curtain effect'), but you can hardly evade that short of switching your own ideology to the most common one among other nations. Usually, however, as a nation pursuing a Cultural victory, your Tourism will probably be enough to impose your own Ideology to other nations and cause them problems. In the process you may succeed into forcing them to switch Ideologies, in which case the penalty will be gone.