Summary
Cultural victories inCivilization 7involve doing a lot of different things. Yes, in theancient age, you’ll be building a lot of wonders, just like in past Civilization games. However, in later ages, you’ll be doing completely different things, like performing excavations for artifacts to put in your museum. Out of all the victory options out there, the cultural victory changes the most between ages, so you’ll have to play on your toes and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Therefore, a cultural leader has to do a lot of different things. Just producing a bunch of culture isn’t going to cut it! There are some interesting leaders that can help propel you to a cultural victory. Some that are obviously designed for this purpose, and others that may surprise you.
8Pachacuti
Pachacuti is not technically a cultural leader. However, he allows for the maintenance of numerous specialists, which can add extra culture to your output depending on your buildings. That said, this requires quite a bit of setup, but it can snowball quickly.
His unique ability requires founding near mountains, though, which can handicap him if you decide to found elsewhere. You also cannot utilize mountains for buildings, so you’re shooting yourself in the foot a bit by building around lots of them. It’s a complicated system to balance.
Building wonders is necessary to achieve a cultural victory in the ancient age. However, it can also be useful for boosting culture in the latter ages.
7Lafayette
Lafayette has the ability to createlotsof extra culture. The most straightforward way he does this is by simply increasing the amount of culture each settlement makes. This is increased further in Distant Lands, so plan to expand a lot in theexploration age. However, he also has several other unique abilities that can be helpful, too.
For instance, he gets an additional social policy slot when you do a special endeavor called Reform. Use this to apply more culture-producing cards to your civilization. Make sure you learn social policies that fit in this slot, though. Otherwise, this ability won’t help you all that too much.
6José Rizal
José Rizal is one of the more straightforward cultural leaders. He gains additional culture and gold whenever he gets rewards for a narrative event, and the exact gains increase as the ages go by. He also has additional narrative events, which are already quite plentiful in the game, so the extra cultural can add up pretty fast.
The best part about this leader is that you don’t have to do anything to take advantage of his culture increase, unlike other leaders on this list. The narrative events come on their own. You just have to select which option you think is best when they pop up.
5Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta offers versatility with his WildcardAttribute Points, allowing yous to adapt your strategies to various situations. If you’re going after a cultural victory, you could absolutely splurge all your points into the cultural tree. If you change your mind later in the game, you can shift strategies and start putting them elsewhere.
There are other things beyond culture that are important for a cultural victory, though. For instance, science research can also be important as you try to unlock better buildings. Therefore, it’s important to spend your points other places as necessary, too.
War might be necessary in the modern age to collect the artifacts you need for a cultural victory. Prepare accordingly.
4Friedrich (Baroque)
Friedrich, in his Baroque persona, is a clear choice for a cultural victory, especially when it comes to themodern age. You gain great work each time you conquer a settlement for the first time, and you also get an infantry unit when constructing a culture building. He’s great for a more aggressive playstyle.
In the modern age, you’ll be seeking out ancient artifacts alongside other civilizations. Often, getting enough for victory means stealing what other civilizations have collected. Friedrich’s military prowess makes this much easier.
3Himiko (High Shaman)
Himiko is very culture-oriented in her high shaman persona. She gets increased culture as a base bonus without you needing to do anything. However, she does receive slightly less science, so it’s important to keep your science production in pace with everyone else. Otherwise, you risk falling behind in military research and getting steamrolled in a war.
She also gets even more culture during a celebration, so you should aim to optimize your cities for happiness as much as possible. Building happiness buildings is particularly useful, since Himiko also receives bonus happiness from these buildings.
2Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut is one of thebest leadersin the game, but she thrives best with a heavy cultural focus. She gets extra culture for each imported resource, so you’ll want to spend plenty of attention on trade as well as culture production. Consider following the economic path for each age to help increase the resources you’re bringing in, on top of the cultural path.
She also gets increased production towards the construction of wonders and buildings in cities next to navigable rivers. You’ll want to found settlements on these rivers as much as possible to take advantage of this increased production, especially in the antiquity age.
Rapid progression through the civics tree allows you to unlock cultural perks and access additional wonders, which can help you achieve a cultural victory.
1Augustus
Augustus gets extra production in the capital for every town in his empire. He can also purchase culture buildings in townsandgets extra gold towards purchasing buildings in town. Therefore, if you’re aiming for a culture victory, your strategy should be to settle plenty of towns and purchase all the culture buildings you can.
Augustus does require a bit of a specific strategy for you to make the most out of his abilities. However, with the right strategy, he can quickly steamroll toward a cultural victory in every age. He absolutely does best for players who want to play wide and make use of the town system.
