Well, here’s my recipe for the 20k culture win in Regent. Please remember that Great Library is the key to this strategy. With this strategy, I get 20k around 1950.
ANCIENT AGE
1) Try to build the 20k city on the coast alongside of a river.
Some wonders need access to the sea to be built and the connection to fresh water saves you that turn-consuming building of Aqueduct (Construction). Remember that Hoover Dam (Electronics) needs a river in the city range…
2) Try to make that 20k city your capitol.
Advantages: You get the Palace’s culture (2 cpt) from the start. The building of wonders won’t be slowed by waste/corruption (red shields).
Drawbacks: you won’t be able to prebuild with Palace (that can be very dangerous if AI completes the wonder you were building and you have no other wonder to fall back to).
3) Build Temple (Ceremonial Burial) quickly to benefit the 1000 years old bonus early.
4) Build at least 2 (preferably 3) ancient times wonder in the city.
My favorites being Great Library (Literacy), Colossus (Bronze Working) and Hanging Gardens (Monarchy).
Great Library for its power (which essentially allows you to catch up those damn AI in the tech run) and a wondrous 6 cpt (12 cpt after a millennium!) which is the max culture per turn you can get for a wonder of Ancient Age.
Colossus allows more income in those times were it is so scarce. The needed tech is quite low and the shield cost is the cheapest of all wonders. And it won’t get obsolete until the discovery of Flight, 3 full ages of use! Base 3 cpt is also quite cheesy.
Hanging Garden (Base 4 cpt) benefits just in the peace of your civilization. But having that is interesting since you profit from it to the start of Industrial Age.
5) Try to build all common buildings buy pop-rushing (in the beginning) or money-rushing (later) between building two wonders, which means you spend 2 turn to build them.
Here’s the build order:
- Any building providing culture (Temple, Library, Colosseum, Cathedral, University, Research Center).
- Any building improving shield output (Courthouse, Factory, Police Station, Any Plant).
- Any building allowing population growth (Granary, Aqueduct, Hospital) with respect to the limiting factor involved.
- Any building improving the stability of your city (Marketplace)
6) Use luxury slider to have all worker in city working, not entertaining each other! Use military police and any luxury resource to handle unhappiness.
7) Your way up the tech tree in Ancient Age shall then follow the path (Some techs (*) are better bought than researched, if you can get them):
Ceremonial Burial* (Temple) – Bronze Working* (Colossus) – Alphabet* – Writing – Literacy (Great Library) – Mysticism* (Oracle) – Polytheism – Warrior Code* – Monarchy (Hanging Gardens).
The rest will be given by Great Library. Research any missing tech in order to get to next age quickly.
Do not sell the tech you own, even if the wonder is already built. The idea is to slow as much as possible the advance of the AI to have enough time to build most wonders of the…
MIDDLE AGE
1) Strive to build the most culture-producing wonders:
Sistine (6 cpt), JS Bach (6 cpt), Shakespeare (8 cpt) and Newton (6 cpt)
2) Get Feudalism as soon as possible and start building Sun Tsu as a prebuild to Sistine.
3) Get Engineering and Invention to have Leonardo as fallback. Other techs should come through Great Library.
4) As soon as Theology is discovered by someone, wait a few turns to see if it will be exchanged between AI (you then get it for free). Otherwise pay anything needed to the AI that have it. Switch Sun Tsu to Sistine. If you finish Sun Tsu and no one get Theology, prebuild with Leonardo and switch to Sistine when available.
5) After getting Invention, you can slow tech research. research Printing Press (seldom researched by AI, good bargain value) then the bottom path (Invention – Gunpowder – Chemistry) to maximize benefit from Great Library.
6) When you get Education from Great Library, buy out Astronomy if available and start prebuild JS Bach with Copernicus while researching Music Theory. Switch the JS Bach as soon as possible and start heading to Free Artistry.
7) Sell Music Theory just before completion of JS Bach to get Banking and possibly Navigation. Prebuild with anything handy (Magellan – Smith). Switch to Shakespeare when available.
8) Sell Free Artistry just before completion to head to Gravitation, again use Magellan or Smith as prebuild.
9) Get to next age as soon as possible (you can skip Military Tradition if you have no victorious army).
INDUSTRIAL AGE
1) Get Steam Power and Industrialization first.
2) Prebuild a factory and rush it when available, then rush a coal plant. Build Women Suffrage.
3) Get Electricity, search or buy Medicine from AI. If you have time, search Sanitation before Scientific Method.
4) Build Darwin while searching/buying Replaceable Parts, Nationalism, Espionage and Communism.
5) Use Darwin to discover Atomic Theory and Electronics. Build Hoover Dam.
6) Build Small Wonders only when no Great Wonder is available.
7) Get to next Age.
MODERN AGE
1) Depending on the position of the AI in the tech run: If you have time, get Computer, build SETI and Research Center.
2) Get Fission and prevent a diplomatic win by snatching UN for yourself. Build Manhattan if you wish it.
3) Get Miniaturization to build Off-Shore Platforms and get Genetics.
4) Build Cure for Cancer and Longevity.
I’m not sure about the use of this strategy on higher level though. Feel free to add any constructive remarks. Thanks for reading.