Civilization Wiki
Register
Don't have an account?
Sign In
Civilization Wiki
Civilization Wiki
13,021
pages
in: Game concepts (Civ5)

Great Work (Civ5)

Edit
watch 02:23
Wiki Targeted (Games)
Do you like this video?
Play Sound

Artists' Guild (Civ5).png

BackArrowGreen.png Back to game concepts

BackArrowGreen.png Back to Tourism

Blue arrow right.png Go to Archaeology article

Great Works are a new feature introduced in the Brave New World expansion pack as part of the new Culture Culture mechanics of the expansion. They represent exceptional achievements of the culture of your civilization, capable of spreading its fame all over the globe. Unlike normal culture, which consists of base-level events such as regular theater presentations, novel writing, or the occasional inauguration of a new Monument, the appearance of a Great Work is a very important event, contributing to the "external" pressure your civilization exerts to the other civilizations, represented by the Tourism Tourism stat.

Great Works are the exceptional creations of Great People. They can also be acquired via conquest, however, or after your civilization develops their interest in ancient Artifacts and starts digging them up from the ruins of the past.

When a piece of Great Work is completed, an actual image of the Great Work of Art, an excerpt of the actual Great Work of Music or an actual quote from the Great Work of Writing is displayed or played on the screen.

Types of Great Works[]

There are four main types of Great Works:

Artifact[]

These are remains from the past, interesting objects such as ancient pottery, metal objects, and golden trinkets. They are created by excavating an Archaeological Dig, and are largely identical to Great Works of Art (thus they go in their slots).

A special type of Artifacts have been added with the Fall 2013 patch, which are essentially landmark writings from antiquity. They can only be found from Hidden Antiquity Sites, and are equivalent to a Great Work of Writing, thus going into the respective slots (instead of into Great Work of Art slots where other Artifacts usually go).

For more info on obtaining Artifacts, check the Archaeology article.

Great Work Properties[]

Each Great Work belongs to a certain era and a certain civilization. For Great Works, this depends on which civilization produced the Great Person that made the work, and when exactly it was created. Here the game tracks which era the civilization was in when the "Create a Great Work" ability was activated, rather than when the Great Person itself was generated. For Artifacts, it tracks which civilization (or city-state) was involved in the event that generated the historical site, and in what era the event happened.

These properties are important for the Theming Bonuses of Museums and wonders.

Using Great Works[]

Great Works are used by placing them in appropriate buildings, where they can be accessed by the public. In fact, you can't even create a Great Work if there isn't an appropriate slot somewhere in your empire! Whenever you produce a Great Work, it is automatically placed in the appropriate slot available in the nearest city. You can later change the slot each Work takes from the Your Culture screen (see below). Indeed, it is highly recommendable that you get acquainted with that process, since you'll need to shuffle around your Great Works in order to activate Theming Bonuses in the appropriate buildings.

Slots are found in two main types of buildings:

Theming Bonus[]

All buildings that contain more than one slot for Great Work are able to generate a special Theming Bonus. To receive this bonus, you need to fill all the slots with Great Works of the appropriate properties, according to the special conditions of the relevant building. Mouse over the Bonus number next to the slots in the Tourism Overview screen to find out the exact requirements for the Theme for the building. Sometimes they could be "Different Eras and Different Civilizations", or otherwise "The Same Era and the Same Civilization", etc. Bonuses can be partial, or complete, depending on whether you've completed all or only some of the requirements.

Theming Bonus provides extra Culture Culture and Tourism Tourism for the city and your empire.

Moving and Trading Great Works[]

Great Works can be looted from enemy cities, and they can be moved from building to building and city to city within your empire. This is done by opening the Tourism Overview screen, clicking on the "Your Culture" tab, selecting a Great Work in its slot, then clicking on an empty slot. The Work will then move to the new slot.

You can also Swap Works with other civilizations you're not at war with. This is also easy - just open the Swap Great Works tab in the Tourism Overview screen, choose one of your Works in the swapping slot above, then the Work you want to swap for from the list below. Note that you can only swap Works of the same type (e.g. a Great Work of Writing for Great Work of Writing). You don't even need to negotiate with the other civilization; the process is automatic. 

Note that civilizations can choose which Great Works they want to swap, so you won't see all Great Works they have available - just the ones they chose to offer. Similarly, you can leave a Great Work in the swapping slot, and the other civilizations will be able to exchange it for another of their own. So, if you have some Great Works you have no use for, and you need some Works from a specific era or civilization to complete a Theming Bonus, but no one is willing to swap the Works you need right now, leave some of yours in the slot and wait - you may get lucky eventually!

List of Great People and Their Respective Works[]

This list is incomplete. Please help expanding this list by adding more!
Links to Wikipedia or other appropriate sources are provided after the item.

Great Writers[]

Great Artists[]

Great Musicians[]

Great Works from Hidden Antiquity Sites[]

Categories
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.

Fan Feed

More Civilization Wiki
Explore Wikis