Through the Ages - Part XV - Culture: Buildings

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Culture- Leaders
I plan on covering Leaders separately in a later article separate an unto themselves.  Their various abilities make analyzing them difficult.  However, they are not the topic for today.
Culture- Buildings
Buildings and Leaders represent the largest source of culture in Through The Ages for the majority of players.  The winning player will generate around 118 points from buildings and Leaders in a game.  Like much of the game, the majority of these points come from later age buildings.  Some Leaders will boost these points upwards, but the majority of points need to come from the core structures.

One advantage of buildings is a player may have more than one of a given type.  Depending on governments, this number can be as high as 4.  However, analysis of the games shows it is not until late Age II when the third building of a given type tends to come into play.  The fourth version of a building just doesn't come into play very often.
Culture Building Types
There exist three cultural buildings: Theaters, Temples, and Libraries.  Each building comes in three levels (Age I, II, or III).  Each building provides an additional benefit beyond culture.  Players tend to focus on two of the three types of culture buildings.  This usually comes from a lack of resources.

The following chart shows the average culture gained from the different building types.  The difference between the various buildings is relatively small, 6 points at its greatest.  Despite this, certain patterns emerge which are discussed in detail below every item.
Temples
Every Temple provides a single culture point per turn regardless of the Age of the temple.  Temples are easy to analyze from this perspective.  Temples are the cheapest building and are the first built.  Temples generate 27 culture over the course of the game for the winning player.  Players build either theaters or temples to resolve the happiness problem in most cases.

Players tend to build temples as happiness is needed to solve the discontent issue.  From the diagram, these tend to occur early, near round 3 and again round 9.  Players tend to upgrade temples roughly half the time rather than build more temples.
Libraries
Libraries provide science and culture in equal parts.  Each Age increases the building's return of each of these attributes by 1.  Libraries generate an average of 31 culture points per game.  The first library is built around turn 9.  The second library is built usually within two turns after the first building.

Unlike the other culture buildings, players tend to build three libraries during games.  Players also upgrade libraries rather quickly.  These additional buildings and upgraded buildings drive the culture gain of libraries.
Theaters
Theaters, like temples, provide happiness.  Only a single happiness is provided per theater, but the culture gain increases as the upgrade cost goes up.  On average, theaters provide 32 culture over the course of a game to the winning player.  Unlike the other building types, most winning players only build theaters of a single Age.  On average 2 Theaters will get built.  However, if the player chooses the Age I Drama theater, there is a tendency to build slightly more of the buildings.
The diagram above shows the culture depending on the Age of building chosen.  The early Drama buildings generate 40 culture.  Operas and Movies generate more culture per building per turn, but the lateness of their build doesn't make up the difference in culture of the earlier buildings.

Through The Ages-Part XIV-Culture: Wonders

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Wonders and Culture
Wonders represent a major source of culture income in Through The Ages.  So, there are several questions to ask about Wonders:

• Which Wonder generates the Highest Return?
• Which Wonders do winners build more often?

Highest Return

We start by reviewing the chart below which lists the total Culture generated in the analyzed games:
Notes:1-"Minimum" indicates the minimum culture when the Wonder was built.  2-Ravages of Time is factored into the above

From the diagram we can see the relative "worth" of each of the Wonders from a culture perspective.  A few general observations can be made:

• Wonders from later Ages generate more culture than earlier Ages,
• The Taj Mahal, an Age I wonder, generates the most culture.

Popularity Of Wonders

Next we review Wonder Popularity, how often each wonder is built.

The most interesting take away from these two diagrams is the wonders which generate the most culture are completed less often than those that which produce more culture.  Most players tend to focus on economy over pure culture gains early in the game.  This helps to explain the increase in culture in later Ages as the early focus on economy helps the player's resolve the costs associated with building military units, upgrading culture generating structures, and completing late stage wonders.

Age I and Ravages of Time

Ravages of Time (RoT) is an event which, if played, forces every player to make an Age A or Age I wonder to "ruins".  The Wonder loses all other effects, but it generates 2 Culture per turn.  Overall, Ravages appeared in about a quarter of games (24 of 100).  Secondly, the average turn the event arrived was around turn 16.  The general effect on culture from Ravages of Time was negligible.  Even the Pyramids, if chosen, generated an average of 5 culture when RoT arrived.

Other Interesting Facts

In 7% of games no Age III Wonders were built, while in 3% of games two Age III wonders were built.  For the games where no Age III wonder was built the focus of the players was on military domination.  Those concentrating on wonders were unable to complete them in time usually due to raids, or armed conflicts which destroyed the wonders.

Ineffective Cards (or Just Underutilized?)
Three cards were just not chosen much by players: Taj Mahal, Hollywood and Kremlin.  The question is if they are underutilized or just not good buys.

Good Card offset by
Negative Effects

Hollywood seems to have poor statistics.  It ranks towards the bottom culture return chart and so it appears to be justified in its unpopularity.  Although it has an impressive maximum gain, its average culture  just matches that of Universitas Carolinas.  Hollywood also seems harder to pull off as an effective card.  Unlike the other three wonders which generate off science or population gains, Hollywood requires expensive drama buildings.  However, in the three games where two Age III wonders were completed, Hollywood was the second Wonder.  This card appears to be largely ineffective.

The Kremlin has a decent return, but it suffers from a serious penalty, namely the loss of two Happiness. If properly planned for, the Kremlin will give its builder the number 5 position in culture gain.  Planning for this draw back seems to be an issue, however.

The Ultimate Culture
Producing Wonder

Lastly comes the Taj Mahal, which is in the number one in spot in culture gain, but remains just as unpopular.  The Taj Mahal is a dichotomy as it provides the best average return in culture once completed of all wonders.  Even the Taj Mahal's minimum seen culture gain exceeds the average culture gain of all other wonders.  Despite this, it is not chosen in the majority of the games, being the second most unpopular reason.  The reason for its unpopularity may support the argument of Economy Over Culture.

Hollywood has a poor return and its completion is either a desperation move, or one of the players with a good economy builds it as a "second Age III Wonder".    Kremlin has negative repercussions players need to plan for, so again its low standings is explainable.  But why Taj Mahal?  Despite its impressive return stats, it has an abysmal record.  Are its gains being undervalued by players, or does it just appear at a bad time when people are concerned about focusing on other aspects of their civilization?
Coming Up Next
There is one more article on culture upcoming: buildings.  After that will begin an analysis on the military aspects of the game.

Through The Ages - Part XIII - Culture:The Arts

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Yellow Cards

Easy topic this time: Yellow cards and Culutre.  There are 5 Yellow cards which add to a player's Culture score.  Four of them are "Works of Art", one for each Age.  The other is an "Endowment for the Arts", which only occurs in Age IV.

Endowment For the Arts

Endowment provides a variable amount of culture depending on the number of opponents with more culture than the player with the card.  In a 4-player game, it is 2 Culture per player.  Thus, the maximum gain is 6 culture.

Overall, it would take 2 actions to take and play this card, but the card will only make a difference if the game is very close.  In a typical game, Endowment for the Arts will not make a significant culture difference to any player.

Works of Art

The four Works of Art vary in strength depending on the Age of the card.  As the Age increases, the culture gained from the Works of Art decreases.  These are simple one time gains.  If a player were to gain all four of them and play them, the culture gain would look something like the following:

The following table compares the Works of Art to the expected culture/action generated for the turn and the overall culture generation.
Works of Art for Age A through Age II all exceed their expected Age's Culture per Action generation  (explained here: Typical Game).  At Age III, the Works of Art no longer meets the expected return per action.  Effectively this means spending actions on Works of Art before Age III should generate more than the average, making them "good buys".

At the beginning of the game Actions are very limited.  If both Works of Art for Age A and Age I are picked up, they will account for all of the expected culture gain by the end of Age I.  Furthermore, there is usually one or two turns somewhere during Age I when the player lacks resources to spend and playing a Work of Art may fit nicely into this pattern.
Risks
Several risks associate them with the playing of Works of Art.  One event negatively affects the player who is leading in culture: Barbarians.  If pursuing a Work of Art in the early game, this may seem to put the player at risk to losing a population.  There are several ways to counter the risk of Barbarians:

1. Start a Military Strategy - Several events improve the position of the player with the largest military.  Playing Works of Art puts the player in position to force an early military escalation and meets the expected culture generation.  Military Actions, which are used to build military units, are not needed to play Works of Art which use civil actions.  This makes playing Works of Art very complimentary to the Military Domination strategy.
2. Play Works of Art Later in the turn - There is no need to play the Work of Art immediately when drawn.  The Age A card can be kept until round 5 or 6, when the Civil deck begins to run low and the possibility of Age II starting early occurs.  By this time either Barbarians has come out, or another player will not play it because they lead in culture.
3. Concentrate on building Farms.  The 'loss' of a population is not as devastating as it seems.  Building a farm allows the player to make up the loss relatively quickly.  Furthermore, choosing farms (or mines) allows a quick recovery costing only 2 ore and an additional action.

Opinion

Early Works of Art are an easy way to gain an quick jump in Culture.  They permit the player to concentrate on infrastructure projects without having to worry about falling too far behind in Culture generation.  Age A and Age I Works are most valuable in this regard, but this rule of thumb remains valid  into Age II.

Even if the Work of Art is not played it denies it to the other players.  Although the card may take up a position in your hand, it only took one Action to bring the card from the card row.  This essentially denies a player 4 to 6 culture for the cost of 1 Action.  If you are so busy with the remaining actions the card never gets played, it may still be worth the action to prevent another player, especially late in the game.

An important point is the Works of Art are only valid if they are low in the card row, near they 1 Action cost range.  Age A and Age I Works remain profitable into the 2 Action cost location, but usually there are better things to do with these actions at this point in time.  A very Late Age I Work of Art may be worth 2 actions, particularly if the player has more Actions from Code of Laws or some other action generating mechanism.

Lastly, if you find Endowment for the Arts is profitable, you are probably fighting for 3rd or 4th position, unless it is a remarkably close game.  

Through The Ages-Part XI-Culture:Future Event Card Culture

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Playing Event Cards
Every event card played to the Future Events deck gives the player adding the card points equal to the Age of the card played.  There is a delay between the time cards are taken in hand and the time they are played.  Age I event cards cannot be played before turn 3.  For the other Ages, there is a one turn delay between when the Age begins and when the events for that Age may be added to the Future Events pile.

If an event were played ever turn by a player the maximum culture generated is 34 points.  Many things conspire to make this maximum gain unattainable.  A player may not draw an event card to play, the choice of event cards available may have negative resolution events for the player, or the player may choose to use their political action for some other reason (Aggression, War, etc.).
Individual Games
From analyzing the games we see players' attain about 9 to 13 culture points through playing cards.  Those who finish first tend to average 11 culture, while those that finish last score around 9 culture.  This difference is relatively insignificant.

Chart of Player Finishing Order and Culture Gained From Playing Event Cards

Interestingly, the games where players scored higher cultures, everyone scored higher cultures, while those games with fewer event cards showed everyone scored fewer culture.  In short, everyone scores roughly the same amount of culture points through the playing of Event Cards.
Conclusions
Adding Events to the Future Event's deck does not seem to be a major focus of players.  Positive events are more likely to appear in Future Events than negative events, a not too surprising conclusion.  This simply reinforces that the culture differences among  players are in the Wonders and Buildings/Leaders/Other cards.

We will revisit event cards in the future to discuss strategy around Event cards.  I am beginning to believe there are alternatives which players need to consider

Through the Ages-Part X-Culture:Where Culture Comes From

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Brief Review
Previous articles discussed culture generation.  The following was concluded:

• Winning the game involves having the highest Culture at end of Age IV,
• The average score for a game is 211 points

Sources of Culture

After analyzing games we derive the following breakdown of where culture originates from:

From the above chart we make several notes on the sources of culture
Pacts

Pacts and Treaties account for less than 1% of the income for the winning player.  This isn't unexpected as Pacts generate little culture an appear late in the game.
Territory
Historical Territory cards overall add less than 2% to the winning score.
Aggression and Wars
Although culture generated by Military Actions measures between 0% and 30% of the winning player's culture, on average it makes up less than 8%.  As we will see in future articles, the majority of this culture comes from Wars.  This is not to say Wars or Aggressions are not important, but the culture gained from them is very little in a typical game.
Playing Event Cards
The adding of event cards to the Future Events deck generates culture for the players.  The playing of these Event cards makes up the third largest contribution of Age IV culture at 9%.
Wonders
Culture generated from Wonders creates the second largest contribution of culture to the winning player's Age IV total at just over 26%.  Wonders therefore make a major component to eventually victory.
Impact Cards
Impact Cards (Final Scoring) have been discussed in greater detail here: Final Culture Scoring.  Despite constituting over 30% of the final score, it is already known that Final Scoring impacts the eventual game winner in less than 5% of the games.
Other (Buildings, Leaders, etc.)
The largest portion of culture comes from Buildings, Leaders and Other sources not mentioned above.  This accounts for over half of the winning player's Culture income.
Findings
Overall, players need to concentrate on culture generation to win games.  The primary source of income for culture currently consists of Civil Buildings/Leaders, Culture Generating Wonders, and the Playing of Event Cards.  This is not to say other aspects are to be ignored, but expect the majority of culture to come from these three sources.

Through The Ages - Part IX- Culture: A Typical Game

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"Average" Scores
Having eliminated Final Scoring as the potential for a deciding factor in the majority of games, we now look at how the game generates culture.  Averaging the results of the sample games we derive the following picture:

Note that these are averages of each player's score at the end of every Age.  The highest final score encountered was 331 culture, and the lowest winning culture was 88.  The lowest scoring players varied from 26 to 175 culture.  The important point from the chart above is the comparative growth of the players' culture.
Milestones
From the average game above and reviewing the games played, the following milestones may be used

Through The Ages-Part VIII-Culture:Giving Final Scoring Its Due

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Brief Review
Before moving on to Culture Generation, it is necessary to give Final Scoring, or "Impact" cards (from their wording: Impact of...), a more in-depth look.

In the previous article it was mentioned Impact cards cause a change in player position order roughly 60% of the time.  In other words, in 3 out of 5 games played a player will overtake another player in culture through Impact cards.  However, in less than 5% of games (or 1 in 20) does this affect the player enough to eventually be the final winner.  (full article here: )
Culture Bonuses
The following chart provides a breakdown of the highest scores in twenty games. Included is the "average" of all the games:

In all the cases, the majority of the points are formed before the end of Age IV.  In fact, this is the case for all the pl

Through The Ages-Part VII-Culture: The Game Winner

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Culture: Victory Condition
Culture is the scoring system Through The Ages uses to determine the victor.  The greatest military, the greatest Science, the greatest economy is worth nothing if at the end of the game Culture is not large enough.  Therefore, acquiring culture is the primary focus of the game.  Without it, everything else is for naught.
Ways to Acquire
There are many ways to acquire culture:

• Direct Card play,
• Leader effects,
• Construct Building,
• Create Wonders,
• Militarily steal it from your opponents,
• Playing Event cards,
• Territories,
• Treaties and Agreements,
• Final Scoring Cards.

Each has its own risk and rewards.  We will cover Culture generation in the next series of articles, from the different means of acquiring culture and their efficiency.  The wisdom of which route is best will differ depending on the choice of strategy and when cards become available.

Final Score of 'Average' Games

After reviewing a few dozen TtA games (chosen randomly, 4-player, Full Games onl