Reddit - civ - Winning a

culture victory - an in
depth guide
So after many hours of grinding away at
civ 6, playing my favourite civilizations,
and neglecting the ones I deemed poor, I
took a friends advice and played a cultural
game as France. I fell in love immediately,
and found some great little things that
contribute to winning the perfect cultural
victory.

This is the product of my many hours of

labour playing cultural victories now,
across a number of civs. A guide to
winning a cultural victory. I'm sure I've
missed some cool tip or trick, so do point
them out if you see them missing, but this
is my strategy for a cultural game.

The early game

The early game as always should be played

a little defensively, and the popular first 20
turn production queue that is most
popular is Slinger-Slinger-Slinger-Builder-
Settler, or some variation of those. In
playing a cultural victory, it is important to
discover new civilizations to project your
tourism attractions to. To do this, my
favoured first 20 turn production queue is
usually Monument-Scout-Slinger-Slinger-
Settler. I choose this queue because the
early game monument gets me a little
advantage on the civics tree, which is
important for getting towards the Theatre
Square, and a number of wonders. Usually
one scout is good for the first bit of
exploration and then a slinger once you
find those first few pesky barbarian camps,
the second is for defense (if you are close
to someone like the Aztecs or Scythia, or
are having barbarian troubles). By then,
you should have found at least one other
civ and a good spot for a second, high
population city, as well as some goody huts
for the extras they provide. After this
production queue, or before the settler, try
and either get up Stonehenge or a holy
site, preferably Stonehenge for the later
game tourism. Then, try and rush towards
getting the Drama and Poetry civic and
build as many theatre squares as you can
in your cities. Then, grab the Theology
civic and try and build the Mahabodhi
Temple (2 free apostles, +4 faith), using
those two apostles to evangelize your
religion. Also, try and build the Terracotta
Army (+2 G General points PT, all units
gain a promotion, archaeologist can move
through other civs territories) as it will
help later on when you reach the Natural
History civic (reveals antiquity sites)

Your religion

What you choose for your religion is very

important, as it can greatly determine your
religious tourism output later in the game.
Of course this requires you to found a
religion early to make sure other
civilizations don't nab the beliefs from you.
For starters, your pantheon should reflect
your games starting location, but centre
around culture or production. For
example. if you have many Plantation
requiring resources, Oral Tradition could
be beneficial (+1 culture from
plantations), whilst having many horses,
cattle and sheep nearby would better suit
God of the Open Sky (+1 culture from
pastures). If none of these are available,
something such as Fertility Rites (10% city
growth bonus) or Monument of the Gods
(15% bonus production to ancient and
classical wonders) would be more
beneficial.

As for your actual religion, your follower

belief should almost definitely be
Reliquaries (x3 Tourism and Faith from
relics), and in only some bizarre
circumstance should it be otherwise. If
reliquaries is already taken, Choral Music
(shrines and temples provide culture) or
Jesuit Education (Able to buy campus and
theatre square building with faith) are the
next best options. Your worship belief once
again is almost set in stone at Cathedrals,
as later on the extra relic slot becomes
very handy. Otherwise Gurdwaras or
Pagodas are the next best options if
Cathedrals are taken. Your founder belief
is a bit more flexible, with your primary
options being Lay Ministry (Holy
Site/Theatre Squares provide +1
Faith/Culture respectively) or World
Church (+1 culture for every 5 followers
of the religion in other civs). However
these benefits are generally minor and can
be changed at will (Tithe is also good).
Finally your enhancer belief is also
flexible, but I find that choosing Holy
Order (Missionaries + Apostles 30%
cheaper) or Scripture (Religious pressure
25% stronger, 50% at printing) are the
best for playing a defensive religious
game.

As previously mentioned, it is important to

build the Mahabodhi Temple, but the other
most crucial wonder to build is Mont St
Michel (All apostles get Martyr, +2 faith,
+2 relic slots). Once you build Mont St
Michel, slowly purchase apostles and send
them other civilizations who are likely to
have many religious combat units (Such as
Spain or Arabia). Let the apostles die, and
take the free relic. If you convert their city,
thats some bonus religious tourism for
you. If you don't, it doesn't matter. This
technique allows for a player gaining a lot
of faith per turn to grind out 1 relic about
every 4-6 turns (this is why it is important
to take the Holy Order belief and the
Reliquaries Belief).

Middle Game

During the middle of the game your aim is

to settle as many cities as possible, and
build as many wonders as possible. During
the middle of the game you also reach
espionage (or early on if playing France).
If not playing as France, aim for
Diplomatic Service (Grants a spy, gives
some Casus Belli, allows resident
embassies) and make a spy ASAP. Establish
resident embassies with as many other civs
as possible and try to be friendly with all
of them, using the good trade negotiations
from the embassy to try and give each
other open borders (provides a +25%
overall tourism boost). Wonders to go for
in the middle of the game include
Alhambra (+1 military policy slot, +2
amenities, +1 G general point PT), Mont
St Michel (as previously mentioned),
Forbidden City (+1 Wildcard policy slot),
Potala Palace (+1 Diplomatic policy slot,
+2 faith, +2 culture), Hermitage (+3 G
Artist point PT, 4 art slots), Bolshoi
Theatre (2 free random civics, +2 G
Writer/Musician points PT, 1 music 1
writing slot), and Big Ben (+1 economic
policy slot, +6 gold, +3 G merchant
points PT). Having the extra policy slots is
super useful for any civilization, so having
them not only means that we get to have a
much more expanded government, but the
other civs don't. Otherwise the extra G
People points and G work slots are also
very handy. It is during this time of the
game that you will see in the victory panel
if there is another civilization attempting a
cultural victory, or happening to be coming
close to one. If there is, they should be the
primary target of your espionage, and in a
worse case scenario, the target of a war. If
you must declare war, try and wait for a
Casus Belli that has the lowest warmonger
penalty, as it is important you maintain
good trade relations with the other
civilizations and attempt to barter for their
great works. It is also during this time that
archaeologists become available, and it is
important to spam as many of these as
possible to try and grab as many artifacts
as you can. The Terracotta army is great
for stealing artifacts from civs that haven't
progressed that far through the civics tree
yet. Also try and keep your economy afloat
and build many traders by creating many
Commercial Hubs, which will help in
earning great merchants.

Policies

Your government policies are important,

but not the deciding factor of the game.
There are not many cards that directly
affect your tourism, but there are few.
Heritage Tourism (+100% tourism from
artifacts and great works), Satellite
Broadcasts (+200% tourism from G
music), and Online Communities (+50%
tourism to any civ you have a trade route
to). These 3 should be in your government
by the end of the game at least. Your other
cards should be revolving around
espionage, including Machiavellianism
(50% production to spies, espionage 25%
quicker) and Cryptography (enemy spy -2
levels, your spies +1 level). Filling your
wildcard policy slot should be either
Frescoes, Literary Tradition, Symphonies
(+2 G Artist/Writer/Musician points PT
respectively) or Travelling Merchants (+2
G merchant points PT). It is important to
gain great merchant points because many
of the great merchants boost tourism or
have tourism effects. Also look out for the
great scientist Mary Leakey who provides
+200% tourism from artifacts as well. As
well as those, grab the cards that give
bonus production to wonders.

Late Game

If you haven't won by now it's probably

because the Kongo built up a huge
population and you can't reach the visiting
tourists cap fast enough before they grow
in population again. I get it. I've been
there. Late game is the prime time for
espionage, you have a spy cap of 5 (6 if
France) allowing you to heist all of the
great works other civilizations have. As for
the civics tree aim for Cultural Heritage
(reveals Shipwrecks, allows Opera House)
and Conservation (Allows Naturalists, able
to plant woods). Once you get these civics
you want to spam builders to remove
unnecessary tile improvements to make
way for national parks, and to build
seaside resorts. The first wonder you want
to shoot for is the Eiffel Tower (+2 appeal
to all tiles in your civ). This helps greatly
with making national parks, boosting their
tourism, and boosting the tourism of your
seaside resorts. Then, grab Christo
Redentor (x2 tourism from seaside resorts,
stops the penalty from enlightenment, +4
culture). Also worth taking are the Opera
House and Broadway, each providing G
cultural people points and slots. If there
are wonders that haven't been built yet
from long ago, it is worth founding new
cities to try and meet their requirements to
build them. Also, if you haven't already, try
and theme your museums. You can do this
by going into the great works screen and
dragging around the works themselves.

General Tips

Build the goddam Mont St Michel.

That thing wins games
Play religion slightly aggressively.
Your not aiming for a religious
victory, but we want its tourism
Wonder spam. Wonders are great
tourism outputs
Build the Mont St Michel. I cannot
stress enough how good that thing is
Steal Great works. Stops others from
winning, makes you win
Maintain a high population. Increases
the cap for other civs to win cultural
victories
Don't chop down woods tiles for
production. At conservation all old-
growth woods get +1 appeal, helps
for national parks
Build districts in the order Theatre
Square, Commercial Hub, Industrial
zone/encampment. (encampments
provide culture)
Take open borders with other civs,
and send trade routes, whilst
maintaining good diplomatic
relations
Keep promises to stop spying on civs
until it is fulfilled. This helps relations

EDIT: What about science?

So in the comments everyone spammed

"Hur, what about science you'll die
instantly lol". For science I build a campus
in about 1/2 to 1/3 of my cities, only if it
has really good adjacency bonuses. Then I
try and build science specific wonders such
as Oxford University and Great Library.
Most of my science comes from stealing
boosts with spies, which ultimately cuts
down about half of the tech tree after the
Renaissance era (60% playing as China)
(after medieval playing as France). In a
Russia game once I stayed just behind
everyone else in science to get the boost
from the trade routes which also provide
slight tourism bonuses.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading, it just reached 10 pm

while i'm writing this so i'm getting tired.
This guide has won me cultural games
with flying colours. If you want me to
make more guides like this just tell me in
the comments. Also don't forget to tell me
anything I forgot. Happy settling!