Which Civs are the best Civs for achieving a Cultural Victory?
Want to try to lead your civilization to everlasting glory through a Cultural Victory but not sure which civ to pick? Cultural Victories are arguably among the least straightforward and most time-consuming Civilization 5 Victories to achieve. Therefore, it is important to choose a civ that is suited for a Cultural Victory. Choose one of the Top 10 Cultural Civilizations in Civilization 5, all of which require civ-specific unique strategies, and get started on influencing the world today!
10. Morocco
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Ahmad al-Mansur's Diplomacy Screen
Invest the wealth of your mighty trading empire into your civilization’s glorious culture as Ahmad al-Mansur, Sultan of the Saadi Dynasty! Morocco is a good civilization for building a strong wealthy foundation to use for construction and/or supporting specialists.
What Makes Morocco Cultural:
Ahmad al-Mansur’s unique leader trait allows Morocco to receive +3 Gold and +1 Culture for each international trade route with another civ or city-state. Trade route owners gain +2 Gold for sending their trade units to Morocco, making the AI’s trade units flock to Morocco’s cities, contributing to Morocco’s wealth.
Morocco’s unique tile improvement, the Kasbah, yields +1 Food, +1 Production, and +1 Gold. They can only be built on desert tiles.
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as Morocco, focus on building wealth, cultivating food, and increasing production through your trade routes and Kasbahs . Morocco’s wealth can be used to purchase cultural buildings as well as buildings that improve a city’s production and food outputs. This strong foundation will allow you to friend beneficial city-states, build wonders, and support a lot of specialists for Great People production in your cities, leading to an eventual Cultural Victory.
9. The Celts
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Boudicca's Diplomacy Screen
Spread your esteemed culture through your religion as Boudicca, Queen of The Celts! The Celts are good for achieving a Cultural Victory with the aid of their religious beliefs.
What Makes The Celts Cultural:
Boudicca’s unique leader trait allows The Celts to obtain +1 Faith per city with an adjacent unimproved forest tile. This bonus is increased to +2 Faith in cities with 3 or more adjacent unimproved forest tiles. The Celt’s unique unit also can contribute to the generation of early-game Faith points. This Faith bonus positions The Celts well to use their religious beliefs to improve their civ’s cultural and tourism outputs.
The Celt’s unique building, the Ceilidh Hall, which replaces the opera house, provides +3 Happiness in addition to the opera house’s +1 Culture and Great Work of Music Slot. The additional Happiness yields from all of the Ceilidh Halls in your empire can be partially converted into culture with the Fine Arts social policy.
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as The Celts, focus on building a large faith-based empire to take advantage of the religious beliefs that increase cultural and tourism outputs. Alternatively, one could use religious beliefs that maximize production or growth in cities to nab more wonders or support more specialists for Great People production.
8. Siam
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Ramkhamhaeng's Diplomacy Screen
Engage in skillful cultural diplomacy as Ramkhamhaeng, King of SIam! Siam is useful for an indirect and flexible approach to a Cultural Victory through their city-state bonuses.
What Makes Siam Cultural:
Ramkhamhaeng’s unique leader trait allows Siam to gain 50% increases in the amounts of Food, Culture, and Faith received from friendly city-states.
Siam’s unique building, the Wat, which replaces the university, yields +3 Culture in addition to a university’s effects on the city’s scientific output.
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as Siam, focus on maximizing cultural and Great People production through friending city states, diplomacy, social policies, and religious beliefs.
7. Poland
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Casimir III's Diplomacy Screen
Influence the cultures of other civilizations through smart policy planning as Casimir III, King of Poland! Use Casimir III’s unique trait as well as Poland’s unique building to build your way to a cultural victory with the aid of beneficial social policies.
What Makes Poland Cultural:
Receives a free social policy each time they advance to the next technological era.
Poland’s Ducal Stable, which replaces the regular stable, gives a city a little production and monetary boost by increasing the yield of each pasture worked by the city by +1 Production and +1 Gold. This production boost can help a city with many pastures nab a few more wonders for Cultural Victory.
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as Poland, use Ducal Stables and Poland’s free policies to maximize production capacity as much as possible for building wonders and cultural buildings. Depending on how one uses those free policies, Poland is a flexible civilization to use for a Cultural Victory.
6. Babylon
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Nebuchadnezzar II's Diplomacy Screen
Direct your Great Scientists to make their everlasting contributions to Babylon’s legendary cultural achievements as Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon! Babylon is a good civilization for achieving a Cultural Victory by focusing on science in the early game.
What Makes Babylon Cultural:
Receives a free Great Scientist upon the discovery of Writing.
Earns Great Scientists 50% faster.
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as Babylon, use Babylon’s above two unique leader traits to gain an early scientific lead over the AI. This scientific lead allows you to unlock and build cultural buildings and wonders earlier than the AI, an ability that may be more useful at the higher difficulty levels. Babylon’s early-game unique unit, the Bowman, can be used to wipe out any scientific or cultural rivals nearby.
5. Egypt
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Ramesses II's Diplomacy Screen
Construct the seven wonders of the ancient world and more while on the path to a Cultural Victory as Ramesses II, Pharaoh of Egypt! Egypt is best suited for a wonder-building strategy with the support of religious beliefs that increases a civilization’s cultural and tourism output.
What Makes Egypt Cultural:
Ramesses II’s unique leader trait gives Egypt a +20% Production Bonus toward the construction of world wonders. This can be combined with other production multipliers.
Egypt’s unique building, the Burial Tomb, which replaces the temple, provides +2 Faith and +2 Happiness at no maintenance cost. These Faith yields can be used to support a Cultural Victory through religious means.
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as Egypt, focus on wonder-building and founding a religion with beliefs that increase the cultural and/or tourism output of your civilization. This aspect makes Egypt a great choice for Cultural Victory at the lower difficulty levels and a poorer choice at the higher difficulty levels where the AI civs are likely to beat the human player at wonder-building, hence its mid-range rank on this list.
4. Korea
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Background Image from Sejong the Great's Diplomacy Screen
Guide your civilization to a Cultural Victory with the aid of Korea’s great scientific innovations as Sejong the Great, King of the Choson Dynasty! Use Korea’s ability to easily acquire a scientific lead to unlock crucial world wonders and buildings before the AI does.
What Makes Korea Cultural:
Sejong the Great’s unique leader trait provides +2 Science for all specialists and Great Person tile improvements in the Korean empire.
Sejong the Great’s second unique leader trait allows Korea to receive a tech boost each time a scientific wonder or building is built in the Korean capital. These two scientific unique leader traits can be used to indirectly pave the way for a Cultural Victory.
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as Korea, focus on gaining a nice scientific lead in the first half of the game, and start to employ specialists in your cities for Great People production as well as the additional science that Korea’s unique leader trait provides. Similar to Babylon, a scientific lead will allow you to access and build wonders and cultural buildings long before the AI does, eventually giving you a cultural lead later in the game.
3. Polynesia
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Background Image from Kamehameha I's Diplomacy Screen
Become famous the world over for Polynesia’s Maois as Kamehameha I, Leader of Polynesia! Make use of Polynesia’s unique tile improvement, the Moai, in combination with various buildings, technologies, social policies, and other cultural and tourism output multipliers to achieve a Cultural Victory!
What Makes Polynesia Cultural:
Polynesia’s unique tile improvement, the Moai, yields +1 Culture per turn. Moais get an additional +1 Gold per turn with the advent of Flight.
The cultural output of Moais can be increased through adjacency bonuses and other means. In the Modern Era, these cultural yields can be converted into tourism.
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as Polynesia, build Moais all over your civilization as soon as you unlock the requisite technology, Construction. Use airports, hotels, social policies, and other strategies to maximize the cultural and tourism outputs of the Maois.
2. France
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Napoleon I's Diplomacy Screen
Turn Paris into The City of Light with Napoleon I, Emperor of France! France has several bonuses that make them a good choice for a Cultural Victory achieved through wonder-building.
What Makes France Cultural:
Napoleon I’s unique leader trait causes the theming bonuses of museums and world wonders in the capital to be doubled.
France’s unique tile improvement, the Chateau, yields +2 Culture and +1 Gold. With the discovery of Flight, a Chateau provides +3 Culture and +3 Gold.
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as France, focus on making the capital a powerhouse cultural and wonder-building city. Once Chateaus have been unlocked by discovering Chivalry, use them to increase your cultural output. France’s advantages at obtaining a Cultural Victory are lessened at higher difficulty levels due to the difficulty of beating the AI at wonder-building early on in the game.
1. Brazil
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Pedro II's Diplomacy Screen
Dominate the world with your civilization’s cultural products as Pedro II, King of Brazil! Brazil’s unique leader traits, unique tile improvement, and unique unit all have interlocking characteristics that gives them a strong foundation for pursuing a Cultural Victory.
What Makes Brazil Cultural:
During their Golden Ages, Brazil’s national tourism output increases by 100% and they earn Great Artists, Great Writers, and Great Musicians 50% faster than normal.
Brazil’s modern era unique unit, the Pracinha, can earn points toward a Golden Age.
Brazil’s unique tile improvement, the Brazilwood Camp, earns +2 Gold and +2 Culture (once Acoustics has been discovered).
To Achieve a Cultural Victory as Brazil, focus on Great People production and use them for generating both Great Works and Golden Ages. Supplement this with cultural and tourism outputs from wonders and other sources.
Who knew that growing up playing Civilization and watching the likes of Rurouni Kenshin and Yugioh would lead me to learn Japanese and travel the world?
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