Thoughts on social policies for small civilizations.

[frenzyfol]

I like the idea that small empires can hold their own against larger empires, but in reality we all know that they get steam rolled by the large empire production. I think the social polices could be tweaked to help them along.

Some of the social policies tout "This is great for small empires" but they don't really scale with how small the empire is. They seam equally beneficial to large empires as to small empires

For example;
+1 food in capital
33% bonus wonder production in capital

How about
(+1 food (ancient), + (2 food classical), + (4 food medival) ) / number of cities
50 % bonus to wonder production / -10% percent for each extra city.

Thoughts?

[MxM]

I like the idea, but it may be a bit too complected rule and not very "natural" rule.

How about happiness based bonuses? Like +1 food per 10 happiness. Or +2% wonder production per one happiness? Would it be more natural and more inline with the game idea of happiness being what makes small empires good?
And it does not need to be just in capital. It can be in ALL cities.

[ColdPhoenix]

I thought the 33% wonder bonus was in all cities not just the capital?

[Jaybe]

It IS in all cities, not just the capital.

[Hermann the Lombard]

I Would it be more natural and more inline with the game idea of happiness being what makes small empires good?

Yes, but we've seen ICS games where happiness is 20 and so forth. If you control happiness then the juggernaut returns. Dividing by number of cities may be the way to go...but how does that impact Gandhi on a culture run? Wheels within wheels.

[Sarxis]

I really am thinking about playing a small, maybe 3 to 5 city MAX civ turtle game to see what happens. Avoiding the temptation to 'early rush' my nearest neighbors will be difficult, but I want to put to test the decreased great person and policies costs, and see how well small civ policies help.

[Snotty]

perhaps the policy of expanding quicker would benefit small empires more in the long run.