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Contents
Getting CulturedIntelligent Policy Making and Recommended Policy Paths
Social Policies are special powers
you unlock with Culture
points. Social Policies are available in
ten trees. Most Policies require prerequisite selections to access
higher-tier abilities. Some Social Policy trees are locked until
certain Eras begin, which means that a player interested in opening up
some of the most powerful special abilities must make Research a
priority.
Getting Cultured
Hmmm. . . enlightenment or despotism?
Each time you unlock a Social
Policy, the Culture Point cost to purchase the next Policy rises. To
keep step with this increase, your empire must continually find paths
to greater amounts of Culture.
Culture is accumulated through Buildings, Wonders, Relationships with Cultured City-States, and through acquiring some Policies which convert Happiness to Culture or apply multipliers to Cultural development.
The amount of Culture necessary to acquire a new Policy is also drastically affected by the number of Cities you control. Every City in your empire beyond your Capital increases Policy costs by 30%. A player who wants to create an optimum degree of Cultural development will consequently have direct control over a limited number of cities.
Puppet States do NOT count against this limit. When an enemy City is conquered, the player is given the choice of either taking direct control of the City, razing it to the ground or creating a Puppet State. Puppets generate research and Gold for the player, but cannot be directly ordered to construct specific Units, Buildings or Wonders. Of more importance to the Culturally savvy player is the fact that Puppets allow expansion of the empire without increasing the development cost for new Policies. They are a great source of Citizens in civilizations who can't afford the Culture cost of mass expansion.
It is thus advantageous for a player striving to open Cultural trees to be conquest-minded, as Puppets are only generated by takeover. The regent who chooses Policy-making as a pathway to victory must keep the pen in one hand and the sword in the other, as violence will likely be a priority of his reign.
Policy costs increase between each new Policy attained, so a player must experience significant enough growth to keep producing Culture-generating Buildings and Wonders. Again, Puppet States are helpful in this, as is the Golden Rule of placing a great premium on Happiness and creating Buildings, Wonders and Improvements which increase population.
Enlisting the friendship of Cultured City-States is a great benefit to increasing Culture. Allied Cultured City-States pour Culture points into your regime. The amount of Culture received each turn through this relationship is increased by the Era the player's empire currently resides in. For example, a Medieval Era civilization gains more Culture from Alliance with a Cultured City-State than an Ancient Era civilization does. Thus, Research is very important in increasing Culture through diplomacy.
There exists some temptation to accelerate narrow tech trees forward through Eras to achieve maximum benefit from advanced Cultural Eras, but this is not recommended. Many of the early Technologies delayed by such a process are instrumental in maintaining the Happiness and stability of the empire. A more balanced approach usually yields better long term Cultural results.
Culture is accumulated through Buildings, Wonders, Relationships with Cultured City-States, and through acquiring some Policies which convert Happiness to Culture or apply multipliers to Cultural development.
The amount of Culture necessary to acquire a new Policy is also drastically affected by the number of Cities you control. Every City in your empire beyond your Capital increases Policy costs by 30%. A player who wants to create an optimum degree of Cultural development will consequently have direct control over a limited number of cities.
Puppet States do NOT count against this limit. When an enemy City is conquered, the player is given the choice of either taking direct control of the City, razing it to the ground or creating a Puppet State. Puppets generate research and Gold for the player, but cannot be directly ordered to construct specific Units, Buildings or Wonders. Of more importance to the Culturally savvy player is the fact that Puppets allow expansion of the empire without increasing the development cost for new Policies. They are a great source of Citizens in civilizations who can't afford the Culture cost of mass expansion.
It is thus advantageous for a player striving to open Cultural trees to be conquest-minded, as Puppets are only generated by takeover. The regent who chooses Policy-making as a pathway to victory must keep the pen in one hand and the sword in the other, as violence will likely be a priority of his reign.
Policy costs increase between each new Policy attained, so a player must experience significant enough growth to keep producing Culture-generating Buildings and Wonders. Again, Puppet States are helpful in this, as is the Golden Rule of placing a great premium on Happiness and creating Buildings, Wonders and Improvements which increase population.
Enlisting the friendship of Cultured City-States is a great benefit to increasing Culture. Allied Cultured City-States pour Culture points into your regime. The amount of Culture received each turn through this relationship is increased by the Era the player's empire currently resides in. For example, a Medieval Era civilization gains more Culture from Alliance with a Cultured City-State than an Ancient Era civilization does. Thus, Research is very important in increasing Culture through diplomacy.
There exists some temptation to accelerate narrow tech trees forward through Eras to achieve maximum benefit from advanced Cultural Eras, but this is not recommended. Many of the early Technologies delayed by such a process are instrumental in maintaining the Happiness and stability of the empire. A more balanced approach usually yields better long term Cultural results.
Intelligent Policy
Making and Recommended Policy Paths
Policy should be planned
based
on your desired endgame. Adopting Policies piecemeal
minimizes their potential game-changing impact.
Outlines for each Victory Condition's Policy paths are presented here,
but general strategies applicable to all play styles are listed
below:
- During the Ancient Era, only the Tradition, Liberty and Honor paths are available to you. The Tier 1 abilities of each each are useful for most Civilizations regardless of strategy. Tradition grants your Capital free Food every turn, which means more Citizens. Liberty makes Settlers cheaper, and can save you several turns of early-game Production. Honor gives you a distinct military advantage over the stupid Barbarians which plague early game civilizations.
- You'll probably end up having to select one of these simply because you likely won't be a Classical Era civilization by the time your first Policy opens up. All three are good, but Honor may be the best buy. Barbarians are a big pain in the early game, a threat to both Improvements and explorers. Having the upper hand on them is useful for the first 100 turns or so. Their camps are a decent source of extra Gold. Fighting them a good way to get early game experience for Units you're trying to promote. Most importantly, many City-States will request that you eliminate Barbarian camps early in the game in exchange for Influence. Honor ensures that you can accomplish these requests expediently, usually with a single Warrior Unit. This means more free stuff, more Luxury Resources, and more Allies in war.
- You may never choose to expand the Honor tree beyond this first Policy, but it can't be beat for most of the early game.
- The moment Piety opens up, grab it. The advantages of the Piety tree are fantastic. The very first selection raises Happiness empire-wide, and by the time you reach the growth explosion of the classical Era you will need every smiley face you can get. Apply the Opiate of the People liberally on your populace, excavating the tree toward the wonderful Tier 4 meta-Policy of Free Religion, which grants 2 Free Policies when taken.
- The only reason to balk at Piety is if you eventually want to adopt Rationalism, since many of Piety's Happiness advantages are lost if you do so. But Rationalism isn't available until some time after Piety, and as long as you have planned ahead, built up some extra Happiness and built Universities, selecting Humanism as your first Policy after opening the Rationalism tree should compensate.
- Freedom is a good mid-game option. If you have any interest in acquiring Policies into the Modern Era you're likely going to need the price breaks and bonuses in Culture which Constitution and Free Speech offer. If you choose Freedom you can't get any benefits from Autocracy, but for most strategies Freedom is the better long-term choice between the two.
- Commerce is a pretty good deal when
it opens up if you've got a lot of coastal Cities. The Tier 1 ability
is pretty good, and while Naval Tradition isn't all that great, it
opens up Merchant Navy, which grants a nice benefit if you've planned
ahead for it. The Influence-prolonging Policies available are useful in
some games.
- Order and it's tiered progeny
Socialism, Planned Economy and Communism are useful for most Societies.
GO TO: VICTORY CONDITIONS
GO TO: BASIC MILITARY STRATEGY
During the Ancient Era, only the Tradition, Liberty and Honor paths are available to you. The Tier 1 abilities of each each are useful for most Civilizations regardless of strategy. Tradition grants your Capital free Food every turn, which means more Citizens. Liberty makes Settlers cheaper, and can save you several turns of early-game Production. Honor gives you a distinct military advantage over the stupid Barbarians which plague early game civilizations.
You'll probably end up having to select one of these simply because you likely won't be a Classical Era civilization by the time your first Policy opens up. All three are good, but Honor may be the best buy. Barbarians are a big pain in the early game, a threat to both Improvements and explorers. Having the upper hand on them is useful for the first 100 turns or so. Their camps are a decent source of extra Gold. Fighting them a good way to get early game experience for Units you're trying to promote. Most importantly, many City-States will request that you eliminate Barbarian camps early in the game in exchange for Influence. Honor ensures that you can accomplish these requests expediently, usually with a single Warrior Unit. This means more free stuff, more Luxury Resources, and more Allies in war.
Honor is by far the weakest path. Go for tradition if you want to go for a tall strategy, go for liberty(but tradition is not bad either) for a wide strategy.
The moment Piety opens up, grab it. The advantages of the Piety tree are fantastic. The very first selection raises Happiness empire-wide, and by the time you reach the growth explosion of the classical Era you will need every smiley face you can get. Apply the Opiate of the People liberally on your populace, excavating the tree toward the wonderful Tier 4 meta-Policy of Free Religion, which grants 2 Free Policies when taken.
The only reason to balk at Piety is if you eventually want to adopt Rationalism, since many of Piety's Happiness advantages are lost if you do so. But Rationalism isn't available until some time after Piety, and as long as you have planned ahead, built up some extra Happiness and built Universities, selecting Humanism as your first Policy after opening the Rationalism tree should compensate.
Uh... Piety is great for a cultural win, for military and scientific wins rationalism is much better. Happiness under the current patch is no problem. It's very easy to keep a positive happiness throughout the game.
Commerce is a pretty good deal when it opens up if you've got a lot of coastal Cities. The Tier 1 ability is pretty good, and while Naval Tradition isn't all that great, it opens up Merchant Navy, which grants a nice benefit if you've planned ahead for it. The Influence-prolonging Policies available are useful in some games.
Commerce is not bad, but it is definitely among the weaker of the paths. Much better to go for some other path instead. Patronage is GREAT, especially if you want to go for a diplomatic win, and this path isn't even mentioned in this section?