Policies Opening and lines

apprently this might be one of my biggest flaw and reason why Im having problems to adapt to Immortal level.

took bad habbits in openng Trad and Liberty and finnishing both like 90% of the time for reasons that were good and affective at emperor level, but dont apply anymore.

what is your opening and developement lines? (for dif type of civ?
do you addapt it depending of hoe the game flows? or stick to plan?
and can you please explain why?

thanks

Best practice is to choose either Tradition or Liberty and complete it before anything else.

For Tradition, it's for free aqueducts from the closer ASAP (that don't even need the tech). You still want to take the center path first going this way even with having to go thru the least useful policy first.

For Liberty, it's for the free Great Person from the closer ASAP.

The other key one is Rationalism. Basically whatever you pick between finishing one of the above and waiting for Rean era is just filler policies and the moment you reach Rean you should interrupt it in favor of Rationalism. (Science is King)

Tradition every time unless I'm playing modded, or wanted to play differently rather than optimally.

joncnunn said:

For Liberty, it's for the free Great Person from the closer ASAP.

Click to expand...

Further, I think conventional wisdom is to pick and plant a GS, so sooner is quite important.

I have no doubt the maths supports the GS pick, but one of the perks of Liberty over Tradition is getting a GE instead and using it to bulb Oracle or some other early World Wonder that you have to pass on when going Tradition. If you are closing out Liberty for a GE, you might also be able to afford to open Honor (for barb radar) or Piety (for half-price shrines in expos), but don’t delay the Liberty settler or worker though. Last, but hardly least, by opening Liberty you should be able to hard build Pyramids. (Even with all that, I still find Tradition to be stronger than Liberty.)

Yeah, I like to open Honor, especially if I plan Liberty on land maps. I always play with raging barbs (I think it is fun). I think the bonus culture is often overlooked. Also helps knock out barb camps to acquire CS friends. Kinda have to balance it with the delay of free worker/settler. I usually just plan on the free settler being like 3rd or 4th city.

Tradition is my default pick on small maps; unless your capital is beyond salvaging, you likely won't be able to get enough cities running fast enough to make liberty better. I prefer Liberty on larger maps due to the better city production; it's also not a bad pick if you're going to rush someone with the extra earlier production, but this loses out quickly to Tradition in the midgame so you'd need to keep expanding to make Liberty worth it after.

I never really open with Honor unless I'm doing something gimmicky like the Sweden Nobel Prize or Aztec barb farming or REALLY need a Citadel, as the extra growth from Tradition/Liberty quickly outpace the small benefits you get from the tree. I never bother with Piety unless I need a Reformation belief or think I'll generate a silly amount of Prophets., and even in those cases I'd NEVER open with Piety, the opportunity cost is simply too great for not picking the other policies.