Although that has been my intent by investing in Piety & Aesthetics (the new culture tree), the accumulation is definitely slower (which probably also means that cultural victory will take longer in the end game). You can't just go for the piety tree early and use it to fund enough culture to invest in everything (at least not yet). No ideologies yet, but the expansion of the social options (and the increased complexity of the culture system) functionally means that you're forced to be more choosy in which social trees to invest in over time. as each trade route not only grants money to each side of the exchange, but also acts as a conduit for religious conversion as well as scientific advancement from more advanced civs to less advanced civs (via beakers rewarded to the less advanced party in the exchange as a bonus). it's subtle and a bit complicated compared to the relatively straight-forward (if very over-simplistic) culture system of the other Civ games.Īs for trade routes, I've definitely not gotten a handle on the strategy with those yet, but it does add an additional strategic dimension to play.
I'm still trying to understand how the new culture system works. Brazil has stolen 2 techs from me so far, but I'm using my own spy to rig city state elections to assist in getting more votes for the upcoming world congress. The first spies have been active and that's pretty much operated as it does in Gods & Kings for now. Finally contacted all of the other players and thus the first world congress is set to start in several more turns, so that'll be interesting.