Civilization 6: 9 Best Civilizations For A Culture Victory (2024)

As one of the victory types existing in Civilization 6, Culture Victory can be quite tricky for some players to achieve due to its relatively strict conditions to make it happen, which includes having friendly relationships with every civilization in the game, including the warmongering AI. It is also necessary to have a large amount of culture and tourism as a prerequisite to acquiring the elusive victory type.

However, once a player sets a course and successfully makes a foundation for a Culture Victory, they can be quite unstoppable since it can happen spontaneously and catch other civilizations off guard, including in multiplayer games against human players.

Updated on April 11, 2024, by Evan Arnoldi: With the diverse set of civilizations available for the players to pick from in a game of Civilization 6, especially after getting the Gathering Storm and Rise and Fall expansion sets, there are bound to be more civilizations that are capable of winning a specific victory type, which in this case, the Culture Victory. These civilizations are able to gain an advantage by either using their civilization's unique ability, unique leader ability, or even unique infrastructures to gain a mass amount of Tourism to help with the Culture Victory. Players who want to win in this particular type of victory will need to pay attention to these sets of civilizations, as they are more capable of winning than other civilizations in the game.

9 Kongo

Gain Great Artists And Musicians Rapidly

• Gain +4 Gold, +1 Faith, +2 Food and Production for each Relics, Artifacts, and Sculptures in a city.
• Great Artists, Musicians, and Merchants gain 50% more points from all sources.
• Cities on the same continent as Capital gain 10% more yields, while on another continent gain 15% less yields (as Nzinga Mbande)

Amassing a large number of Great Artists and Great Musicians is important for any civilization that aspires to get a Culture Victory over its competitors, as those Great People are able to generate Great Work of Arts and Musics, which generates both Tourism and Culture. Thanks to its unique civilization ability, Kongo will be able to gain these Great People at a faster rate than their competitors, putting them at an advantage in gaining a Culture Victory.

Moreover, they are able to quickly build up their cities by having Relics, Artifacts, and Sculptures, as those Great Works will boost the cities by granting Gold, Faith, Food, and Production each. When coupled with Nzinga Mbande's unique ability to boost yields for every city in the same continent as the civilization's capital, Kongo will become a cultural powerhouse capable of single-handedly winning the game on their own, should their competitor fail to notice Kongo's attempt to build up their Culture base.

8 Ethiopia

Use Faith Generation To Gain Cultural Advantage

• Cities founded on Hills gain Science and Culture equal to 15% of their Faith output
• Each improved resource tile in a city grant +1 Faith
• International Trade Routes grant +0.5 Faith for each resource in the origin city
• Able to build the unique infrastructure Rock-Hewn Church, which grants Tourism from its Faith output after researching Flight.

Faith can be seen as one of the crucial resources needed for a civilization to obtain a Culture Victory due to its ability to gain several important Culture Victory landmarks, such as gaining early Religion Tourism and amassing a large amount of Faith for purchasing Rock Bands down the line. These Rock Bands will be crucial enough to gain Tourism in other civilizations that might resist the passive Tourism gain of Ethiopia.

Moreover, its unique infrastructure, the Rock-Hewn Church, has the potential to gain a large amount of Tourism as Ethiopia reaches the latter stages of the game by researching the strong and powerful technology, Flight. With these advantages, Ethiopia can be seen as a potential threat in a game if the game goes peacefully, as they are able to convert peacetime into a huge advantage via their innate bonuses to gain a Culture Victory over their competitors.

7 Maori

An Unstoppable Culture Juggernaut With Passive Tourism Gain

• Start with Sailing and Shipbuilding unlocked, but also start in the middle of the ocean
• Unimproved woods and rainforest production is increased by 1
• Building a fishing boat triggers a culture bomb
• Cannot harvest resources
• Able to build Marae, a unique building in Theater Square replacing Amphitheater which grants culture and faith for all the city's passable tiles, and grants tourism for all tiles with a feature upon researching Flight

For both veteran and new players of Civilization 6, playing as Maori can be quite tricky since its mechanics are relatively unique compared to other civilizations. For instance, Maori start in the middle of the ocean, making luck a necessary element as they will need to spend a few turns without a city and try to find an island.

Other than those limitations, players will discover that playing as Maori is hugely beneficial for a Culture Victory focus. By settling on lands with many feature tiles, they will be able to build a Marae in Theater Square to quickly gain Culture and Tourism.

6 Khmer

Flexible Civilization Capable Of Having Religious Tourism

• Cities with Aqueduct receive bonus amenity and faith for every population
• Able to build Prasat on a Holy Site, which grants 0.5 culture for every population and provides 10 tourism if the city has 10 or more population, and 20 tourism for more than 20 population

Khmer is one of the civilizations in the game that can take on multiple victory types without any problems, including Religion Victory, provided that the player builds a solid foundation by settling their cities on the river to take advantage of their bonus with Aqueducts and Prasat. Moreover, settling on the river would provide Khmer with a fast-growing city.

With these huge cities, they will also be able to acquire easy tourism points as a city with Prasat will provide 10 tourism if the city has 10 or more population and 20 tourism for a city with more than 20 population. Since the huge cities guarantee a productive city as well, Khmer players can take advantage of acquiring a quick Culture Victory.

5 Indonesian

Massive Kampungs In Coastal Cities For Numerous Tourism

• Coastal and Lake tiles provide a 0.5 adjacency bonus
• Settling a city adjacent to a coast or lake grants 1 faith per turn
• Able to build tile improvement Kampung, which provides tourism based on food gain after researching Flight

Although Indonesia's preference to play on archipelago or continental maps might make it difficult for random, chaotic multiplayer game sessions, any veteran players who are well-versed in covering their weaknesses and taking advantage of a civilization's strength can take on Indonesia's massive Kampung spam strategy to gain a surprise Culture Victory.

A player can simply amass numerous Kampung before researching the Flight technology to catch other civilizations off-guard, especially in multiplayer games. Once they realize what is happening, it will already be too late as Indonesia's player will already be amassing a large amount of tourism.

4 Russian

Easily Gain Great People With Lavra For Great Works

• Founded cities start with five additional tiles
• Tundra tiles provide additional faith and production
• Able to build Lavra instead of Holy Site, which grants extra points in acquiring cultural Great People if there is a building in the district

Russia is well-known to be one of the most powerful civilizations in the game as they can take on multiple victory types easily, including Science Victory, while other players will need to scout and analyze what kind of victory they are going for to prevent them from winning. Coupled with Lavra's unique ability to gain extra points to acquire cultural Great People (Great Writers, Great Artists, Great Musicians), Russia can easily gain a Culture Victory.

Moreover, the extra ability that they have at converting tundra tiles into beneficial ones makes Russia one of the most productive civilizations in the game, making them more potent in gaining Culture Victory.

3 Canadian

Build Up Culture Passively Without Worries Of Getting Attacked

• Cannot declare surprise wars or attack city-states
• Other civilizations cannot declare surprise war against Canada
• For every 100 tourism earned, gain Diplomatic Favor
• Able to build Ice Hockey Rink improvement to gain culture for each adjacent Tundra and Snow tiles

Players who are aiming for a Culture Victory will commonly prefer peace rather than going all-out in war, as the production and extra gold effort will be needlessly diverted into units and military buildings. Canada becomes a perfect civilization to relax and gain Culture Victory as their unique characteristic prevent them from getting into a Surprise War with other opportunistic, warmongering civilizations.

Moreover, their tourism acquisition also enables them to gain passive Diplomatic Favors to gain favorable trade and pass favorable World Congress resolutions. Their unique Ice Hockey Rink is the icing as it allows them to gain a massive amount of culture from the unfavorable Tundra And Snow tiles.

2 French

Rush Wonders To Outmatch Other Civilizations Culture Gain

• Able to build Medieval, Renaissance, and Industrial Era Wonders with +20% production
• Double tourism from all Wonders
• Able to build Château improvement, which gains culture for each adjacent wonder and provides tourism equal to its output culture after researching Flight

France can appear to be quite unassuming at first glance, as there are other civilizations with a higher priority to pay attention to due to their strengths, such as Russia and Korea in gaining Science Victory, or Schytia and the Mongols in their pursuit of a Domination Victory.

However, when they managed to acquire several wonders, France was a force to be reckoned with as they were guaranteed to try to win a Culture Victory. Moreover, French players can gain a mass amount of both culture and tourism once they get 1–2 wonders going with their unique Château improvements.

1 Greek

Rush Acropolis Out Early To Gain Solid Culture Victory Foundation

• Able to build Acropolis, a replacement for Theater Square with lower production cost and adjacent bonuses from districts
• Gains an additional Wildcard policy slot for all governments

As one of the owners of the strongest unique districts, which is the Acropolis, Greece becomes one of the viable civilizations for a Culture Victory as they will be able to acquire a large amount of culture relatively early by rushing Acropolises in their cities. Moreover, both Greek leaders, Gorgo and Pericles, can help acquire a Culture Victory with their unique abilities.

Gorgo's unique ability to acquire culture from killing a unit makes her able to go for a casual warmongering and barbarian sweeping early in the game while building up her culture gain. Pericles, on the other hand, could gain a huge amount of culture based on the city-state he has suzerainty over.

Sid Meier's Civilization 6

Platform(s)

PS4 , Xbox One , Switch , PC , Android , iOS

Released

October 21, 2016

Developer(s)

Firaxis Games

Genre(s)

Strategy