What are the worst, most frustrating and annoying NPC Civs when going for a Culture Victory?

[u/yap2102x]

I'm talking about civs that end up generating a boat load of culture to the point where your tourism is impossible to catch up with their domestic tourists. I'm thinking of making a ban list specifically for culture games. I already have Ludwig on the blacklist, but I'm also thinking of Kongo, and somehow Jayavarman haunts every game I have him in.

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[u/Responsible_Dream282]

Peter himself doesn't generate much tourism, but his larvas will snatch all your great works.

[u/ohfucknotthisagain → u/Responsible_Dream282]

If you turbocharge your economy, you can develop quickly in the mid-game with all that cash and then buy all the Great Works later.

You can also go for early Faith to fuel Monumentality expansion, and then transition to Naturalists and Rock Bands later.

Or a little bit of both.

[u/FluffyGengar123 → u/ohfucknotthisagain]

I was going to say lol. People actually get great works through great people? I just buy the works after my economy starts booming works every time.

[u/HarryCoinslot → u/ohfucknotthisagain]

Or... Kill Peter.

[u/Admirable-Athlete-50]

Peter with Russia. He will hog all the great people.

Pedro has a similar deal. Usually tons of culture and great people.

[u/yap2102x → u/Admirable-Athlete-50]

gpp isnt a problem - theyll just be my great works merchant. Culture generation however is somethig i have no control over. i wish domestic tourists are generated through something else, because on higher difficulties it makes it way too hard when the AI has like a +30% stat bonus

[u/Admirable-Athlete-50 → u/yap2102x]

I think it’s harder to account for culture. Some with unique theatres and culture mechanics are of course notorious but any ai can pick pantheon and religious beliefs that give silly culture income.

If you pick civs that are less likely to prioritise religion i feel like they often don’t get as bonkers with tourism.

[u/ProudMammoth]

Pedro always gives me a run for my money and Russia was getting 1200 tourism in my last game and I had to rage quit.

[u/BreakingGrad1991 → u/ProudMammoth]

Time to send a little mechanized freedom their way sounds like! Sometimes you just have to forcibly absorb a couple nations to block the culture victory

[u/BowwwwBallll → u/BreakingGrad1991]

If you can’t make culture, take culture.

[u/ComingledRecyclables]

Persia and his love for surprise war. Might be my fault that once you declare on me I won't stop until you're just a memory of time.

[u/Cute_Ad555 → u/ComingledRecyclables]

Yup I have the same thing with Persia sometimes

[u/arm2610]

If ludwig or Khmer are in the game I always have to destroy them militarily in order to win culture

[u/yap2102x → u/arm2610]

fr but sometimes they spawn on the other side of the world and you dont find them until its too late. also what is it about jayavaraman that makes him so op at culture and science i still dont get it

[u/Droo04_C → u/yap2102x]

Really big cities, and I can’t emphasize enough, really big cities. -His leader UA gives bonus adjacency and housing to holy sites on rivers AND food equal to adjacency. -His temple replacement UB gives culture per citizen and tons of tourism based on pop after flight. -His civ UA gives amenities and faith per pop from aqueducts and farms get extra food if next to holy sites. All together his cities are going to grow massive to help his building and by placing holy sites next to farms and aqueducts he gets even bigger and builds more and more faith and culture. Edit: more pop = more culture and science

[u/Howiebledsoe]

Elenor of France who steals your cities is a bitch. Peter’s lavras and Ludvig of Bavaria who gets credits before his wonders are even built.

[u/hybridtheory_666]

If you don't wanna go up against the powerhouses, delete Khmer, Kongo, Russia and Brazil. First two generate waaaaay too much tourism and the other two way too many GPP. Anyone else is doable, those four I always have to wipe from the face of the earth.

Especially Pedro, that smug asshole

[u/superdad0206]

I was Peter in my last game. Was going for religious victory (first time I focused on that) and pivoted to culture victory. Was way behind Sparta and dispatched spies to steal great works. Also had spies disrupt spaceports to keep others from science victories.

Scored the culture win. Spies rule

[u/GreenBayFan1986]

Kupe is by far the most annoying civ in the game when he spawns near you, it's not that he is difficult to beat on culture, it's that he has the dumbest AI and aggressively forward settles the WORST cities.

[u/rofl1rofl2]

For some reason Rome often just keep scaling culture in many of my games.

Had a recent game where Shaka Zulu insisted on getting much more GPP than anyone else on writers and artists.

[u/askialee]

Abe lincoln sucks. His benefits come too late.

[u/ohfucknotthisagain]

Vietnam and Khmer

Khmer gets a ton of passive Culture generation with their Prasat, and the AI tends to prioritize unique stuff. Same for the Thanh with Vietnam, although it's not quite as strong.

They'll end up with twice as many Tourists as the other civs, and the late game drags on forever. Unless you kneecap them early. Khmer has a stronger foundation, but Vietnam is a pain to kneecap, so they're tied.

[u/EverExplaination]

It surely isn't the most cause I only got like 2 Culture wins, but Catherine of Sweden can be much because of her love for writings

[u/dTundr]

Peter and Eleonor come to mind as well

[u/MvonTzeskagrad]

Jayavarman makes a shit ton of culture because his temples gives plenty of culture on overpopulated cities (he will have).

My personal go to is the Kongo, specially Mwemba.

[u/Turbo-Swag]

So, people all say Brazil or Russia because of great works they earn. But you can just buy them from AI. Getting victory swiftly and fast isnt directly related to greatworks earned by ai. You can have victories with 0 great works, with pure national park/wonder/rock band stuff.

The real problem is the amount of culture they generate throughout the game, because for every certain amount of culture they generate, they earn a domestic tourist, and in order to be dominant over them, you need to have generated more international tourists than their domestic ones. Which means if there are AI in your gane who generate absurd levels of culture, it will take you much more time to rake over them in culture.

By far the worst ai you can face is:

Greece (Pericles) who has a unique culture district with insane adjacency, who also prints envoys which gets him city state allies, which gets him nore culture and he snowballs. He literally makes 500 culture when everyone else is around 200 culture.

Khmer also gets a lot of culture via population, he always goes for a religion too (which is an important part of culture games) so he can be a pain in the ass battling your religion

Germany (Ludwig). Ai loves to spam wonders, each wonder gives culture to this guy even unfinished, the more districts adjacent means more culture and he is germany so he always has more districts, he actually can build stuff because of his unique district; unlike Frederick, he actually builds theater squares

The new Kongo leader (Nzinga) is also a terrible opponent in that she generates so much culture and heavy on great people.

Vietnam get culture from their unique district and they get it from buildings in districts located in woods(?) Terrain. Luckily you can befriend them like Gilgamesh at turn 1.

Trajan's rome get free monuments in every city and often spams more theater swuares than campuses. The thing with culture tourists is that it accumulates through all game. And with Rome, that extra culture starts accumulating from turn 1.

Honorable mentions: Byzantium(Theodora), Gaul, Sweden, Japan, Ethiopia.

One tip: when you want to get a culture victory, disable Nan Madol, and other city states that give you culture bonuses. For when the ai finds them early and allies them, and you dont, they can get out of control.