The BNW tourism victory has long been considered a sub-optimal route to victory, but with paired early game bonuses to tourism, as well as the means to spread it, the Olmec make an early culture victory entirely plausible.

The UA increases the strength of trade routes to the tourism game, while the UU allows the traditionally weak spots of a culture civ (internal development and defense) to be shored up. The UB provides various bonuses, all very helpful towards the end of winning via culture.

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The exact date of founding for the Olmecs is debated, but most estimates place it between 1400 and 1200 BCE. Most dates points more towards 1400 BCE, during the founding of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan. The development of the culture was spurred on by the rich soil of the Coatzacoalcos River Basin, which many historians note bears strong resemblence to the manner in which the Mesopotamians, and other early cultures, developed into the strong societies they were.

The dense population caused by the rich farmland lead to a social stratification in which the Olmec elite class created symbolic luxuries to emphasize their power. These items were commonly made from jade, obsidian, and magnetite. Strangely, all the materials were traced back to lands outside the Olmec domain. This suggested they traded for the materials, and this is backed up by evidence of organization of trade.

Aside from being credited for one of the earliest forms of mass trade, the Olmec were also the first to practice bloodletting, though there is no written record of the act. Instead, many altars and objects associated with bloodletting were found in Olmec sites. Additionally, they are also attributed with the earliest instance of the number "zero," and gave significant contributions towards the invention of the Long Count. Though the Long Count was invented after their fall, three of the earliest six Long Count calendars were found within Olmec land. The famous Mesoamerican ballgame also originated with them, with the Olmec stone heads of renown being of emperors dressed in ballgame player outfits. Finally, and most impressively, they had the earliest system of writing in the western hemisphere.

Ultimately, the culture was doomed relatively early on. The city of San Lorenzo was mostly abandoned by 900 BCE, following a suspected rebellion in 950 BCE, in which many relics were destroyed. Most of the population moved to La Venta, which also became abandoned in 400 BCE, marking the end of their reign. The likely cause was volcanic activity making the lands unsuited to farming due to the silt in the waters, forcing large amounts of people to move to support themselves. The displacement ultimately made their culture fade, though the impact of their designs and discoveries shaped the entire future of the Central American world.

This was on standard speed, with next to no great works. Religious Sites really helped.

The Olmec UA has two parts:

• Land trade routes generate 25% more tourism.
  
• Land trade routes are 20% longer and gain an additional 5% for every river tile in city range.

The first part of the UA is the more powerful half. Consider the following:

• +25% for trade route
  
• +25% for UA
  
• +25% for shared religion
  
• +25% for open borders

Even without Aesthetics, you've already got 25% more tourism than anyone (other than Brazil during a Golden Age). In the screenshot above, I was on neutral terms with both Polynesia and Carthage, and on bad terms with China. Even so, the size of my empire and the spread of my religion made it so they had no choice but to accept my tourism.

Another bonus of the UA is that even if you can't get Open Borders from a civ, you get the bonus from the UA, which puts you on level footing with someone who has everything you have and open borders.

The second part is a little more muted but still has repurcussions. While trade route length has little direct effect on the cash influx of a trade route, the value of your land trade routes cannot be understated. For comparison, land trade routes have a base length of 10 tiles and get an extra 10 from Combustion late in the game. The Caravanasary increases this by 50% to a total of 30 tiles.

The sea trade route already start better at 20. They get TWO improvements of 10 tiles at Compass and Refrigeration, with the first of two being significantly earlier than Combustion. Even more so, the Harbor is unlocked at Compass, which adds 50% to sea trade routes. This totals to 60 tiles, double that of a land trade route.

Now, applying the base Olmec ability, the land trade route becomes 36 tiles. This is nothing remarkable, but it increases. Still, it is a long ways off of the sea trade route.

A visual representation of the trade routes. The blue line is the ocean trade route, and the red is the Olmec land trade route.

60=30(1.0+0.2+0.05n), where n equals the number of river tiles needed to equal a sea trade route.

Doing the math, the number of river tiles in range of one city required is 16. Not only is this unlikely to occure in terms of map generation, but because the Olmec are a wide civ, the number of tiles in one city's range is likely to be lower than average due to the spreading they have to do. However, once the number of river tiles goes passed 16, it becomes better than the sea trade route in length, but it also must be noted there is a cap at 20 river tiles since it makes a +100% bonus. This means that the longest a land trade route can be is 66 tiles. This is still better than an ocean trade route, but only by a little. This works out to a -180 tile difference over the span of 0 to 20 river tiles, because the sea trade route technically has 60 tiles no matter how many river tiles.

The thing that all civs wish they started with.

The largest weakness that a wide empire like the Olmec has is both defending itself due to its large size and improving those same lands. The Nutall offers a solution to both. As a Warrior replacement, you get them right off the bat. It has the following abilities:

• The ability to construct farms.
  
• The ability to cut down forests/jungles.
  
• The ability to clear marshes.
  
• A unique promotion that gives it +15% combat in your own territory.

The first three are all related to the topic of improving your land. Early on, the quick production boosts from chopping can get key buildings, as any Deity player will inform you. Additionally, by needing less workers, you can get more done. Or, if you make the same amount of workers, you can dedicate them to tasks the Nutall can't perform.

The fouth item is obvious. Being just slightly less than the Shoshone's 20% bonus, it provides a nice cushion to your soldier's strength. Additionally, it carries over to its upgrades, making Holy Warriors a potentially attractive religion pick.

It does come with caveats, however. The cost of all this increased use is a slightly increased production cost. This combined with the limited ability to construct improvements means you might prefer workers for actual improvements. Further, the bonus is only in your territory, making it better for defending than for attacking.

As the creators of the sport, it's no wonder that the Olmec have the ballcourt as their UB. This building replaces the colliseum, gaining several benefits in addition to its standard bonuses:

• +1 culture
  
• +1 faith
  
• +1 tourism

This is one of the earliest forms of tourism generation in the base game. The tech for colliseums (Construction) is on the same column as Drama and Poetry, which provides Great Writers. In contrast though, the Ballcourt provides a passive tourism benefit, even if it is half the value of a great work. It also yields half the passive culture but also provides faith. As a colliseum, it also provides happiness.

The true benefit of this is mutli-fold. Firstly, as a building that produces so much, it allows one to skip Drama and Poetry for a little while to focus on other things. This is because it provides a small amount of the tourism and culture that the tech would otherwise unlock in the form of Ampitheaters and the Writer's Guild. In addition, it also allows access to the lumber mill improvement and the composite longbow. The former is a fantastic boost to production while not sacrificing food in tundra environments, or a way to boost production without losing all food. The latter, as any high level player will tell you, is indispensible to have in terms of defense. The crucial jump in strength of archer to composite longbowmen is important.

Ultimately, the UB is a hold-over that allows the civ to skip a specific tech to focus on other necessary things. They still need to get Drama and Poetry to be able to generate Writers and they also need its partner, Philosophy, for both the National College, which is better early, and temples to increase faith even more.

The early game is imperative to the Olmec. Liberty is a must, as spamming Ballcourts is important to the primary victory of the Olmec; culture. The bonuses from trade routes can mean that the tourism created early on can be enough to threaten and even dominate your neighbors. On a pangaea map, you might even overtake them before the Renaissance with a lucky enough start. Still, luck can only be relied on so much; taking Piety down to the Reformation belief is also recommended to get Sacred Sites, taking as many religious buildings (preferably a Mosque/Pagoda combo for max faith and happiness for you wide empire) as you can. These, combined with your ballcourts, means that you can very easily overpower weak cultural players.

In the mid-game, your second chance for a cultural victory arrives. Unlike most early game burners, the Olmec don't necessarily lose power. Instead, everyone else begins to power up to the Olmec's level. Culture generation goes up and faith becomes a problem as opposing religions try to contain your spread. In exchange for these difficulties, you have Open Borders and two more guilds to boost your tourism. Depending on how quickly you tech, you could even pick up the World Religion proposal to deal the finishing blow to the last holdouts against your culture.

If the late game rolls around, it becomes time to roll around to option two: diplomatic victory. The dominance of your religion should alllow you to pass the World Religion proposal. From there, taking Order could be useful for both the tourism it provides, as well as to propose a world ideology. It should be noted that Order gives a bonus to having lots of cities as well, which is necessary for a culture victory with the Olmec. Further, the tourism benefits are some of the best ideologically. A bonus to other Order civs and civs that are less happy than you. Since ballcourts provide happiness, the latter is likely true, and the early strength of your tourism means that even if an enemy is outpacing you now, they'll likely still suffer penalties from picking a different ideology than you. Though the culture victory is still possible at this point, you're more likely to use it to power a diplo victory through proposals and the strong basis built early on.

Once again, a thanks to the usual folks:

• Zigzagzigal for making excellent guides from which to draw inspiration.
  
• Ryanjames for making the mod and supporting my work with them!
  
• And you for reading.

Until next time!