Culture and Borders

In Civilization 3, Temples, Libraries, Cathedrals, Universities and every Wonder earn culture points each turn; a city's culture pushes out its borders, your empire's total sets how rivals regard you, and in the base game one city with 20,000 points or an empire with 80,000 (and no rival above half) wins a cultural victory.

10:25 In Civilization 3, culture points come from a city's Temples, Libraries, Cathedrals, Colosseums, Universities, Research Labs, its Palace and every Wonder and Small Wonder; each city's culture pushes out its borders, and your empire's running total decides how rival leaders regard you and can win the game outright, per the Civilization III Complete manual (pp. 145, 147, 175). In the base game a cultural victory takes one city with 20,000 culture points, or an empire with 80,000 and no rival above half that, per the official FAQ of 2002. Culture was new to the series: Prima's official guide (p. 60) calls it "a new concept that has been introduced in Civilization III". The buildings are on City Improvements and the Wonders on Wonders.

A city screen: a top bar reads Licapa, Founded 520 AD, Monarchy, 1140 AD, Culture 0 per turn, Total 20 of 100, with strategic resource icons; the center shows the city's tiles on a mountainous map; the bottom shows Improvements, Luxuries, Production 6 per turn, Food 5 per turn, Growth in 11 turns and a Stela. — The city screen of Licapa, founded 520 AD, in 1140 AD under Monarchy: its tiles, food and production, its culture of 0 per turn (20 of 100), luxuries, and a Stela in production. Firaxis Games and 2K

Quick facts

Culture buildings	Palace 1, Temple 2, Colosseum 2, Research Lab 2, Library 3, Cathedral 3, University 4 points a turn
Wonders	Every Great Wonder and Small Wonder, 1 to 5 points a turn
Age bonus	A building earns more the longer it stands
At war	Culture buildings earn half while on a war footing
Borders	Grow each time a city's culture passes a threshold; never into a rival's land
Cultural victory (base game)	20,000 points in one city, or 80,000 for the empire with no rival above half
Rival opinion	From "In awe" (3:1 your culture to theirs) to "Disdainful" (1:3)
Culture flips	Rules option "Allow for Cultural Conversions", on by default

Source: Civilization III Complete manual, pp. 30, 145, 147; Prima's official strategy guide, pp. 61-64; Civilization III FAQ: Culture & Nationality and Victory & Defeat (archived).

Where culture comes from

Seven city improvements earn culture every turn: the University 4 points, the Library and Cathedral 3, the Temple, Colosseum and Research Lab 2 and the Palace 1, per the Complete manual's chart (p. 147), which matches Prima's Table 5-2 (p. 61). Every Great Wonder and Small Wonder adds 1 to 5 more: the Great Library, Newton's University, JS Bach's Cathedral, Shakespeare's Theater and Cure for Cancer give 5, the top of the chart. The official FAQ also names Courthouses among culture buildings, but neither the manual's chart nor Prima's lists them.

Older buildings earn more. The manual says the longer a building or Wonder exists, the more it contributes, and the FAQ calls this an "age bonus": an Oracle built in ancient times can still be a large source of culture in the modern era, long after its own effect has gone obsolete. No source read gives the rate at which the bonus grows. Because of it, the Complete manual (p. 147) advises building culture early, once a city's defense is secure, and especially in cities near the edge of the empire.

War halves it. On a war footing, cultural improvements produce half their usual points, per the Complete manual (p. 145).

A city's points each turn are added to two running totals, the city's own and the empire's, which never shrink: losing a city lowers your culture per turn but not your total, per the FAQ. A conqueror gets no culture from buildings it captured, and a city you win back earns culture again but without its age bonuses. The City Display shows a city's culture per turn and its total, and the Cultural Advisor shows the empire's, per Prima (p. 60).

How borders expand

8:25 A city's border grows each time its culture total reaches a threshold, per Prima (p. 62), and neighboring borders merge into one national border. GameSpot's 2001 preview said a new city's border reaches one square out and grows to two at 10 culture points; no source read prints the later thresholds.

7:48 Borders cannot grow into another civilization's territory, and a square both could claim goes to the city with more culture, per the FAQ. Prima suggests using this to box a rival in: found cities close to a rival city and build up their culture, which keeps its territory small and may make it defect (see Culture Flipping).

Territory matters for four reasons, per the Complete manual (p. 147):

Every square inside your borders is visible to you at all times.
Luxuries and strategic resources inside your borders count without a colony, once a road connects them (Resources and Trade).
You can demand that trespassing foreign units leave.
Foreign units get no movement bonus from your roads and railroads, unless you sign a Right of Passage. Prima adds the tip of laying roads along a shared border, which rivals then cannot use.

Borders also decide a Domination victory, which needs two-thirds of the world's territory, per the 2001 manual (p. 163); see Victory Conditions.

How rivals see your culture

Rival leaders judge you partly by your culture. Prima's Table 5-4 (p. 64) gives the ratio of your culture to theirs behind each opinion:

Your culture to theirs	Their opinion of you
3:1	In awe
2:1	Admirer
1:1	Impressed
3:4	Unimpressed
1:2	Dismissive
1:3	Disdainful

Source: Prima's official strategy guide, p. 64 (Table 5-4).

A civilization in awe of you is more inclined to accept a deal, the FAQ says, and Prima adds that treaties and trade agreements are easier to keep when you outrank a rival culturally. Culture also works against propaganda: the civilization with more culture has the better chance both of subverting a city and of resisting it. Talks themselves are on Diplomacy.

Culture and conquered cities

7:29 Every citizen has a nationality, and culture decides how long conquered people resist. Citizens of a captured city keep their old nationality, may resist and produce nothing for a while, and only slowly assimilate, faster when the conqueror's culture is more impressive, its government freer and its luxuries plentiful, per the Complete manual (pp. 148-149). In extreme cases, the FAQ says, a city with a strong culture throws off its conquerors and returns to its first owner, and Prima says your captured cities have a good chance of liberating themselves when your culture is well ahead. A city that changes sides without being conquered is a culture flip, covered on Culture Flipping.

Cultural victory

A civilization whose culture total is high enough wins outright. In the base game the threshold is 20,000 culture points in a single city, or 80,000 for the whole empire as long as no rival has more than half your total, per the FAQ: Victory & Defeat and Prima (p. 184). The Complete manual (p. 175) gives no number and points to the Civilopedia, and no source read gives the thresholds as Conquests sets them. The other ways to win are on Victory Conditions.

Why Civ 3 added culture

1:27 Culture was Jeff Briggs's addition. The lead designer introduced it so the game could model more than military domination, per PC Gamer's history of the series (2020), and Soren Johnson, the co-designer, later named resources and culture as the great new elements Civ 3 brought, in his afterword in the Civilization 4 manual (p. 175). GameSpot's 2001 review described borders that grow from each city's culture and can swallow neighboring cities. How Civilization 4 reworked culture is on its own viki.

Frequently asked questions

How do you get culture in Civ 3? In Civilization 3, culture comes from the Palace, Temples, Colosseums, Libraries, Cathedrals, Universities and Research Labs (1 to 4 points a turn each) and from every Great Wonder and Small Wonder (1 to 5), per the Complete manual. Buildings earn more the longer they stand.

How do borders expand in Civ 3? A Civilization 3 city's border grows each time its culture total passes a threshold, per Prima's official guide; GameSpot's 2001 preview put the first step at 10 culture points. Borders never grow into another civilization's territory.

How much culture do you need for a cultural victory in Civ 3? In the base game of Civilization 3, a cultural victory needs 20,000 culture points in one city, or 80,000 for the empire with no rival above half your total, per the official FAQ and Prima's guide. No source read gives Conquests' thresholds.

Does war affect culture in Civ 3? Yes: on a war footing, Civilization 3's cultural improvements produce half their normal culture points, per the Complete manual.

What happens to culture when a city is captured in Civ 3? In Civilization 3 your total culture never falls when you lose a city, but your culture per turn does; the conqueror gets no culture from the city's existing buildings, and a recaptured city loses its age bonuses, per the official FAQ.

What does "in awe" mean in Civ 3? In Civilization 3 a rival is "in awe" of you when your culture total is three times its own, the highest of six opinions in Prima's guide; such a rival is more inclined to accept your deals.