Civilization 6: The 5 Best Leaders for a Cultural Victory
There are several ways to win a game of Civilization 6, whether it be by absolutely dominating opponents in combat or by being the first civilization to explore the vast unknown of space. The game can also be one by generating more Tourism than any other Civilization and being crowned the Cultural Leader of the World. Players win by having more foreign tourism in their cities than the other leaders have domestic tourism. It's quite a tricky thing to pull off in most cases.
In this ongoing series, we're covering the best leaders for each win condition. In the previous installment, we covered the leaders best suited for the elusive Diplomatic Victory. The Cultural Victory is one of the more complicated win conditions as it can be a real struggle to gain tourism against other high-Culture Civilizations, but playing as these five leaders will certainly help.
Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of the most wild and entertaining leaders to play as in the game, and one of the most overpowered leaders if played by a skilled player. Eleanor is also the only leader that can lead two different Civilizations: England and France. For a Culture Victory, picking the France variant of Eleanor is probably the way to go. She will gain access to France's Civilization Ability: Grand Tour. This grants France a 20% to Production of Medieval, Renaissance, and Industrial Wonders, while also granting double Tourism from all Wonders. Wonders are a solid way to get a head start on Tourism, and being able to produce them faster than many Civilizations is always a plus.
Eleanor's unique Leader Ability is Court of Love. This ability is why Eleanor is one of the most fun Leaders to play as. For every Great Work in a City will cause nearby opposing cities within 9 tiles to lose 1 Loyalty per turn. If the opposing City that is being influenced by Eleanor falls due to Loyalty, then it is immediately converted to Eleanor's control rather than going to a Free City. This ability stacks for every single Great Work in the city, and pairs well with other perks, actions, and Governor abilities that lower opposing cities' Loyalty.
It also goes very well with the Cultists in the Secret Societies Game Mode. Eleanor's approach to Culture is to amass a ton of Great Works and ensure that nearby Civilizations cannot exist near her. She is simultaneously creating a pacifism Domination Victory while also skyrocketing up the Culture Victory leaderboard thanks to the sheer number of great works she has.
Greece is one of the Civilizations in Civilization 6 that has two leaders. However, both Gorgo and Pericles can really thrive in the Culture game, but approach the game very differently. The Greek ability is Plato's Republic, which grants an additional Wildcard Policy slot in every Government.
This ability is nice, and works well with some of the great Government Policies in the game, but is by no means a game-changer. Greek's unique infrastructure, the Acropolis, is far more interesting. The Acropolis replaces the Theater Square, is cheaper to make, and has a stronger adjacency bonus to the Theater Square. It also awards 1 Envoy every time an Acropolis is built, which is great for Pericles. The only trade off is that the Acropolis can only be built on hills, so players should plan their starting position carefully.
With Gorgo, her Leader Ability is Thermopylae. Whenever Gorgo defeats an enemy unit, she is awarded Culture equal to 50% of that unit's Combat Strength. Gorgo can excel at Culture, especially early on, by scouring the map in search of Barbarian Outposts to clear. She could also go to war with another Civilization, but Barbarians are largely a safer approach. Gorgo gets an early sprint in the Culture game if she is proactive with her military units, which lets her set up for a larger, more widespread Culture approach well-before any other Civilization is even close.
Pericles is a much friendlier approach, capitalizing on the use of City-States to fuel his cultural growth. Pericles' ability is Surrounded by Glory, and this ability grants Pericles +5% Culture per City-State that Pericles is the Suzerain of. This pairs exceptionally well with the Acropolis as it will give Pericles a distinct advantage to holding the Suzerainship of the City-States the entire game. If done correctly and Pericles has perhaps 5 City-States under his control, then that's a whopping +25% Culture. And if Pericles is generating a good amount of Culture without this bonus, then Pericles will be absolutely dominating the Culture generation.
Kristina is an absolute powerhouse in both the Cultural and Diplomatic Victory game. To start, Sweden's Civilization Ability makes it so that whenever Kristina recruits a Great Person, she gains 50 Diplomatic Favor. Additionally, she generates +1 Great Engineer Points from Factories and +1 Great Scientist Points from Universities. Whenever Sweden is in the game, three (usually Great Person-focused) World Congress Competitions are added to the game. Recruiting Great People is always great, but in terms of Cultural Victories, Sweden's real treasure is their Open-Air Museum improvement.
These tile improvements can be built once per city, and give +2 Culture and +2 Tourism for each type of terrain (Snow, Tundra, Desert, Plains, and Grasslands) in the Swedish control. This bonus is massive and really incentivizes spreading out cities to maximize the number of unique terrains in the empire for massive bonuses. The Open-Air Museum also provides +2 Loyalty per turn to help make up for having to settle away from the Capital.
Kristina's Leader Ability is Minerva of the North, which automatically Themes any building with at least three Great Work slots (or Wonders with at least 2 Great Work slots) once those slots are filled. Themeing is usually a tedious and frustrating process that involves trading or managing Great Works to gain a considerable bonuses to Tourism. Kristina gets to skip over all that and just reap the rewards.
Additionally, Kristina also has the unique Queen's Bibliotheque building for the Government Plaza that grants +2 Great Writer Points per turn, +2 Great Artist Points per turn, +2 Great Musician Points per turn, 2 Great Works of Writing Slots, 2 Great Works of Art slots, 2 Great Works of Music slots, and a Governor Title. Talk about a MASSIVE bonus for a simple improvement. This only further helps Kristina snowball into a Cultural or Diplomatic Victory with how quickly she'll be racking up Great People.
Pedro II of Brazil is one of the few Civilizations that can really thrive in the Rainforest tiles of Civilization 6. However, it is the pairing of Brazil's Civ Ability and Pedro II's Leader Ability that really makes Pedro II dominate in the Culture game. To start, Brazil's Civilization Ability is Amazon, which provides massive bonuses to Rainforests that keep these tiles relevant the entire game. Amazon makes Rainforest tiles provide +1 Adjacency Bonus to Campus, Commercial Hub, Holy Site, and Theater Square districts. Additionally, the tiles provide +1 Appeal to adjacent tiles rather than the usual -1 Appeal.
This perk can give huge boons to any district built that is surrounded by Rainforest tiles - and Pedro II is always going to spawn near Rainforests thanks to his spawn bias. The +1 Appeal also comes into play in the late-game when building National Parks becomes a priority, as Brazil's Rainforest tiles will be very appealing.
Pedro II's Leader Perk is no less impressive, though a little less flashy overall. Pedro II has Patron of the Arts. When Pedro II recruits a Great Person, he gets 20% of the point cost refunded back to him, allowing him to get a head start on the next Great Person of that type. This is not limited by Great Person type, so Pedro II can very easily amass a large number of Great People, and should likely never pass up on a Great Person.
Wilhelmina also made an appearance on our Best Science Victory Leaders breakdown, but that is due to how versatile Wilhelmina's kit really is. Starting with the Dutch Civilization Ability: Grote Rivieren. Grote Rivieren grants +2 Adjacency Bonus to Campus, Theater Square, and Industrial Zone districts that are settled adjacent to a River. Additionally, building Harbors triggers a Culture Bomb, and the Dutch get +50% bonus Production toward Dams and Flood Barriers. The +2 Adjacency Bonus is a massive boon and should not be slept on. Wherever possible, Theater Squares should be adjacent to Rivers to maximize Culture generation.
Wilhelmina's Leader Ability is Radio Oranje. Radio Oranje improves Wilhelmina's Trade Routes, both domestic and international. Domestic Trade Routes generate +1 Loyalty in the starting City, and International Trade Routes to and from a Dutch city generate +1 Culture for the Netherlands. Wilhelmina should ensure that she has as many Trade Routes running as possible, and join Alliances to try to encourage other Civilizations to trade with her as well. Using these tactics, she should be able to rake in a ton of Culture from Trade Routes alone, not to mention the bonuses from the River Adjacency Bonuses.
These leaders will serve the player very well when trying to tackle the challenging Cultural Victory. It can be one of the most difficult Victory Conditions to achieve depending on which Leaders are in the game, but if playing as one of these five (six counting the two Greek Leaders), then players should definitely be in decent shape.
Civilization 6 is available for Linux, Mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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