Civilization 5: A Brave New World Culture Guide

Guide to all the changes and improves to culture in Civilization 5: A Brave New World.

The Brave New World expansion for Civilization 5 has arrived and it’s really shaking up the cultural side of things in the games quite significantly. Here’s the basic shortlist of the changes to current culture sources:

Culture buildings now generate only 1 culture/turn, and have Great Work slots instead of Specialist slots.

Great Artists have been expanded to Great Artists, Great Writers, and Great Musicians. They can create great works and can trigger Golden Ages, Culture Boosts, and Tourism Boosts respectively.

Writer/Artist/Musician guilds give culture points, and Great Person points towards the respective kind of Great Person.

Great Works generate +2 culture/turn and +2 tourism/turn for the city they’re placed in.

If you’re not actively pursuing a cultural victory, these changes will not affect you too much. You’ll still build some monuments but you need not bother with many since they aren’t worth it for the cost/benefit ratio.

The Musicians Guild is all but useless to you and you will almost never sacrifice a great person for a Great Work. If you really need culture, get the Artist or Writers Guild and build monuments.

If you are looking to beat your opponents by being more cultured than them, you need to keep only one thing in mind; Tourism for the win. Seriously, almost everything that gives tourism gives the other.

For this, you’ll want Great Works, Artifacts, and Musicians.

Research Archeology as soon as you can. This is your ticket to getting Artifacts. Artifacts are powerful because they can provide all the bonuses of Great Work without you needing to lose Great People.

Your archeologists are also capable of stealing artifacts from rival territories. As long as you have open borders, you can send in little Indiana Jones to steal all their Holy Grails without actually having them declare war on you (you’ll get a little warning, so try and time it so you get all their Artifacts in one turn).

After that, getting Refrigeration, Hotels, and Airports in the modern era help out a lot. These things boost tourism to a ridiculous degree and combine with all the artifacts you’ve hoarded so far.

Lastly, take a look at your religion, as sharing religions boost tourism by 25%.

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