The Napoleon Culture Rush

After determining that most leaders can rush to the first Social Policy by Turn 19 (on Epic speed) and the second by Turn 27, Napoleon is going to show how France dominates the Policy rush by using the Ancien Régime bonus of +2 Culture per turn from Cities.



In the previous example, Sejong and Korea used the Monument to Tradition combo to accelerate Culture production in Seoul from +1 Culture a turn up to +6 by turn 19. Seoul started with the default +1 Culture per turn, built the Monument on turn 11 adding +2 Culture, and then selected Tradition as the first Social Policy on Turn 19 adding +3 Culture in the capital. This lead to the second Policy on Turn 27. Napoleon is going to blow that out of the water.



With the +2 Culture from Napoleon's Ancien Régime, Paris is already generating +3 Culture per turn at Turn 0. By using the Citizen Management options, Paris has locked a citizen on the un-improved Stone which means Paris is already generating +6 Production when combined with the production from the Palace as well as the hill starting tile. At this pace the Monument will be complete in 10 turns.

Since the first Policy costs 35 Culture and the second 50 Culture, the calculation is that France will reach the first Policy (which will be Tradition) no later than Turn 11 and the second Policy by Turn 17, a full 10 turns before Korea was able to at the same speed.

The Warrior has been sent out to explore and may find a ruin that will speed things up more. Even without a ruin, France will greatly outperform most Civilizations ability to rush Social Policies.

Time to test the calculations:

Turn 4, Warrior finds ancient weapons in a ruin and is upgraded to Spearman.
Turn 6, Spearman finds a map of the surrounding area in a ruin, highlighting 2 more ruins nearby.
Turn 9, As if to prove a point, the Spearman find +30 Culture in a ruin bringing what would have normally been 27 Culture up to 57 Culture out of the 35 needed for the first Policy.



STRATEGY TIP!: Even though France has accumulated 57 of 35 Culture needed for the first Policy (as shown at the top of the screen), the player has not been sent a notification on the right side of the screen promoting to select a new Policy. That notification will not happen until Turn 10, but here's a tip: Clicking the Culture total at the top of the Screen will bring up the Policy Purchase UI and allow for a Policy to be selected immediately (on Turn 9) instead of waiting until next turn.




Since France intends to select Tradition, this means the difference of +3 Culture lost if the player waits for the prompt on Turn 10 instead of manually selecting the Policy on Turn 9.



Now, by the end of Turn 9, France has purchased the first Social Policy (Tradition), is generating +6 Culture per turn, and will complete the Monument in 1 turn.

Here is the updated turn by turn Culture calculation to predict the second Social Policy

• Turn 01: +3 = 3
• Turn 02: +3 = 6
• Turn 03: +3 = 9
• Turn 04: +3 = 12
• Turn 05: +3 = 15
• Turn 06: +3 = 18
• Turn 07: +3 = 21
• Turn 08: +3 = 24
• Turn 09: +3 = 27, +30 from ruin = 57, -35 to buy Tradition = 22, Culture at +6
• Turn 10: +8 = 30, Monument completed at start of turn, Culture at +8
• Turn 11: +8 = 38
• Turn 12: +8 = 46
• Turn 13: +8 = 54, second Policy available for 50 Culture

This shows that, at worst, France was going to have the second Social Policy on Turn 17. Thanks to the +30 Culture from the ruin, they will now have it on Turn 13. This is 14 turns faster than Sejong was able to achieve it.

If the Spearman gets lucky and finds Culture in the other ruin before Turn 13, it'll be an even bigger blowout. Time to test France's good fortune.

Turn 10, Monument is complete, Culture production at +8 per turn.
Turn 11, +1 Population in Paris, next Citizen in 12 turns, Worker in 17 turns.
Turn 13, Spearman find +85 Gold in a ruin, new Policy available!



As suspected, Napoleon and the Ancien Régime bonus of +2 Culture are able to reach the second Social Policy at least 10 turns faster than most Civs (on Epic speed). In this example were able to do it by Turn 13, a full 14 turns faster than Sejong was able to!

This doesn't negate the Monument to Tradition combo but instead shows the power of it when combined with a Civ capable of adding to it.

It will be interesting to see how Sejong and Napoleon compare in the long run. Will Sejong's technology bonus be able to overcome Napoleon's culture bonus when it comes to the rush for future Policies? Look for this analysis in upcoming posts.

Until next time,

TheHiredGun
civ5strategy.blogspot.com
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Note: The above example is based off a Normal Difficulty Game at Epic Speed in the God's and Kings expansion on a Huge Map. Even though the examples use Epic Speed build times, the logic should still apply at other speeds. For more context, see the previous article: The Second Policy Strategy