Rate the Social Policies Part II: Piety/Patronage/Aesthetics

Err. Theocracy doesn't lead to Reformation. In case nobody has mentioned it yet.

Piety (Ancient Era)

5 - Piety Opener: Halves time to build shrines and temples, unlocks building the Great Mosque of Djenne.
7 - Organized Religion: +1 Faith from Shrines and Temples.
5 - Mandate of Heaven: 20% discount on all purchases of religious units and buildings with Faith.
1 - Theocracy (requires Organized Religion): Temples increase a city's Gold output by 10%. Holy Sites provide +3 Gold.
1 - Religious Tolerance (requires Organized Religion, part leads to Reformation): Cities with a majority religion also get the Pantheon belief bonus of the second most popular religion.
8 - Reformation (requires Mandate of Heaven and Religious Tolerance): If you founded a religion, gain a bonus Reformation belief.
3 - Piety Finisher: Causes a Great Prophet to appear and Holy Sites provide +3 culture.

Did this tree just became worse than from G&K? It totally did... Reformation is like the only thing to possibly look forward to. But it's also chancy as hell. If you can't get that faith for science buildings one or purchase any GP after Industrial era, it is essentially crap. And really? That pantheon policy? Holycrud.

Patronage (Classical Era):

6 - Patronage Opener: Cause Influence with City-States to degrade 25% slower than normal. Unlocks the Forbidden Palace.
5 - Philanthropy (leads to Scholasticism): Gifts of Gold to a City-State generate 25% more Influence.
8 - Consulates: Resting point for Influence with all City-States is increased by 20.
9 - Scholasticism (requires Philanthropy, leads to Cultural Diplomacy, part leads to Merchant Confederacy): All City-States which are Allies provide a Science bonus equal to 25% of what they produce for themselves.
7 - Cultural Diplomacy (requires Scholasticism): Quantity of Resources gifted by City-States increased by 100%. Happiness from gifted Luxuries increased by 50%.
1 - Merchant Confederacy (requires Scholasticism and Consulates): +1 Gold for trade routes with City-States.
8 - Patronage Finisher: Allied City-States will occasionally gift you Great People

The finisher is okay. It's great in that if you complete this early, you may get Genghis's general or Venice's Great Merchant. But getting that trade route thing just for this finisher seems kind of pathetic, lol.

Aesthetics (Classical Era)

7 - Aesthetics Opener: Earn Great Writers, Artists and Musicians 25% faster. Unlocks the Uffizi.
6 - Cultural Centers (part leads to Flourishing of the Arts): Construct Monuments, Amphitheaters, Opera Houses, Museums and Broadcast Towers 50% faster.
2 - Fine Arts (leads to Artistic Genius, part leads to Flourishing of the Arts): 50% excess Happiness added each turn to the amount of Culture that may be spent on Social Policies.
8 - Artistic Genius (Requires Fine Arts): A Great Artist appears.
7 - Flourishing of the Arts (requires Cultural Centers and Fine Arts) : Culture increased by 33% in all cities which have built a World Wonder and the empire immediately enters a Golden Age.
4 - Ethics (Requires Flourishing of the Arts): Reduces the Culture cost of future Policies by 10%.
9 - Aesthetics Finisher: Doubles the theming bonus you receive from your Museums and Wonders. Can purchase Great Writers, Artists, or Musicians with Faith from the Industrial Era.[/QUOTE]

Er. It's pretty much the only essential tree you need for a culture victory. Fine arts is still ridiculouslly crappy, and 10% is still pretty much nothing. It would be somewhat nice to pick whether you get a Great Writer/Artist/Musician, but I guess that's asking too much.

THE RESULTS

Votes so far: 35 votes (wow)

5.47 - Piety (Ancient Era)

5.00 - Piety Opener: Halves time to build shrines and temples, unlocks building the Great Mosque of Djenne.
6.40 - Organized Religion: +1 Faith from Shrines and Temples.
5.71 - Mandate of Heaven: 20% discount on all purchases of religious units and buildings with Faith.
4.57 - Theocracy (requires Organized Religion, part leads to Reformation): Temples increase a city's Gold output by 10%. Holy Sites provide +3 Gold.
3.14 - Religious Tolerance (requires Organized Religion, part leads to Reformation): Cities with a majority religion also get the Pantheon belief bonus of the second most popular religion.
7.83 - Reformation (requires Mandate of Heaven and Religious Tolerance): If you founded a religion, gain a bonus Reformation belief.
5.63 - Piety Finisher: Causes a Great Prophet to appear and Holy Sites provide +3 culture.

6.00 - Patronage (Classical Era):

7.26 - Patronage Opener: Cause Influence with City-States to degrade 25% slower than normal. Unlocks the Forbidden Palace.
6.40 - Philanthropy (leads to Scholasticism): Gifts of Gold to a City-State generate 25% more Influence.
7.46 - Consulates: Resting point for Influence with all City-States is increased by 20.
6.34 - Scholasticism (requires Philanthropy, leads to Cultural Diplomacy, part leads to Merchant Confederacy): All City-States which are Allies provide a Science bonus equal to 25% of what they produce for themselves.
6.74 - Cultural Diplomacy (requires Scholasticism): Quantity of Resources gifted by City-States increased by 100%. Happiness from gifted Luxuries increased by 50%.
1.80 - Merchant Confederacy (requires Scholasticism and Consulates): +1 Gold for trade routes with City-States.
6.00 - Patronage Finisher: Allied City-States will occasionally gift you Great People


5.91 - Aesthetics (Classical Era)

6.37 - Aesthetics Opener: Earn Great Writers, Artists and Musicians 25% faster. Unlocks the Uffizi.
5.57 - Cultural Centers (part leads to Flourishing of the Arts): Construct Monuments, Amphitheaters, Opera Houses, Museums and Broadcast Towers 50% faster.
4.11 - Fine Arts (leads to Artistic Genius, part leads to Flourishing of the Arts): 50% excess Happiness added each turn to the amount of Culture that may be spent on Social Policies.
5.26 - Artistic Genius (Requires Fine Arts): A Great Artist appears.
7.57 - Flourishing of the Arts (requires Cultural Centers and Fine Arts) : Culture increased by 33% in all cities which have built a World Wonder and the empire immediately enters a Golden Age.
4.60 - Ethics (Requires Flourishing of the Arts): Reduces the Culture cost of future Policies by 10%.
7.91 - Aesthetics Finisher: Doubles the theming bonus you receive from your Museums and Wonders. Can purchase Great Writers, Artists, or Musicians with Faith from the Industrial Era.

Piety (Ancient Era)

4 - Piety Opener: Halves time to build shrines and temples, unlocks building the Great Mosque of Djenne. (OK, but neither of these buildings are expensive to start with)
7 - Organized Religion: +1 Faith from Shrines and Temples. (Decent boost on any map)
3 - Mandate of Heaven: 20% discount on all purchases of religious units and buildings with Faith. (Kind of dependent on if my religion has buildings, and I'd rather spend my faith on great people anyway)
7 - Theocracy (requires Organized Religion, part leads to Reformation): Temples increase a city's Gold output by 10%. Holy Sites provide +3 Gold. (This one's well worth having, but not at the cost of the rest of the tree in most cases)
2 - Religious Tolerance (requires Organized Religion, part leads to Reformation): Cities with a majority religion also get the Pantheon belief bonus of the second most popular religion. (Fairly useless)
5 - Reformation (requires Mandate of Heaven and Religious Tolerance): If you founded a religion, gain a bonus Reformation belief. (Isn't bad assuming you founded a religion, and why would you be this far into the tree if you didn't?)
3 - Piety Finisher: Causes a Great Prophet to appear and Holy Sites provide +3 culture. (Rather lacklustre - I generally find great prophets one of the least useful GPs, and holy sites aren't great either)

Patronage (Classical Era):

8 - Patronage Opener: Cause Influence with City-States to degrade 25% slower than normal. Unlocks the Forbidden Palace. (Adds up to a huge amount of gold saved over the course of the game)
8 - Philanthropy (leads to Scholasticism): Gifts of Gold to a City-State generate 25% more Influence. (Ditto above).
2 - Consulates: Resting point for Influence with all City-States is increased by 20. (If I'm going for the city state allies the challenge is having more influence than the AI. I'll pretty much always be way above 20 anyway)
7 - Scholasticism (requires Philanthropy, leads to Cultural Diplomacy, part leads to Merchant Confederacy): All City-States which are Allies provide a Science bonus equal to 25% of what they produce for themselves. (Can add up to a very nice boost and speed up getting to Diplo victory)
7 - Cultural Diplomacy (requires Scholasticism): Quantity of Resources gifted by City-States increased by 100%. Happiness from gifted Luxuries increased by 50%. (More happiness is always welcome)
1 - Merchant Confederacy (requires Scholasticism and Consulates): +1 Gold for trade routes with City-States. (City states are stone last on a list of preferred trade routes - I'd only consider it if there's an influence bonus on offer. Add to that the bonus is tiny)
3 - Patronage Finisher: Allied City-States will occasionally gift you Great People. (I never seem to have much luck with this one - maybe I leave it too late. For "occasionally" read "very rarely")


Aesthetics (Classical Era)

6 - Aesthetics Opener: Earn Great Writers, Artists and Musicians 25% faster. Unlocks the Uffizi. (More artists are always nice. I'm not too bothered about the Uffizi given how many other wonders area available at this stage)
8 - Cultural Centers (part leads to Flourishing of the Arts): Construct Monuments, Amphitheaters, Opera Houses, Museums and Broadcast Towers 50% faster. (Museums and broadcast towers are otherwise rather slow to build outside core cities)
4 - Fine Arts (leads to Artistic Genius, part leads to Flourishing of the Arts): 50% excess Happiness added each turn to the amount of Culture that may be spent on Social Policies. (Generally this doesn't add up to much except at the very end of the game, and then it's a bit late to make a difference.
4 - Artistic Genius (Requires Fine Arts): A Great Artist appears. (well, it's a free golden age, but still a bit weak).
8 - Flourishing of the Arts (requires Cultural Centers and Fine Arts) : Culture increased by 33% in all cities which have built a World Wonder and the empire immediately enters a Golden Age. (Free golden age, and a permanent culture boost to my best cities? - that's more like it).
1 - Ethics (Requires Flourishing of the Arts): Reduces the Culture cost of future Policies by 10%. (Does this ever pay for itself in most games? Needed for the finisher, or I'd never take it)
10 - Aesthetics Finisher: Doubles the theming bonus you receive from your Museums and Wonders. Can purchase Great Writers, Artists, or Musicians with Faith from the Industrial Era. (Probably the strongest finisher. The theming bonus is huge, and it's always useful to be able to purchase these great people, even if you're just burning the artists on golden ages).

It seems people generally really don't like Merchant Confederacy. While I understand why, I just want to point that it definitely isn't a bad thing if you're going for a Diplomacy victory and you went Freedom, as you'll likely get Treaty Organisation to help you along, and Trade Confederacy makes those Trade Routes you'll make as a result of that Tenet slightly more worth it.

Tiggurix said:

It seems people generally really don't like Merchant Confederacy. While I understand why, I just want to point that it definitely isn't a bad thing if you're going for a Diplomacy victory and you went Freedom, as you'll likely get Treaty Organisation to help you along, and Trade Confederacy makes those Trade Routes you'll make as a result of that Tenet slightly more worth it.

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10 gold at this point is nothing. 10 gold even at the point you finish Patronage is nothing. This is why it's such a bad policy.

Tiggurix said:

It seems people generally really don't like Merchant Confederacy. While I understand why, I just want to point that it definitely isn't a bad thing if you're going for a Diplomacy victory and you went Freedom, as you'll likely get Treaty Organisation to help you along, and Trade Confederacy makes those Trade Routes you'll make as a result of that Tenet slightly more worth it.

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There's nothing wrong with +gold from trade routes as a SP. The problem is, as it stands, it's a woefully inadequate +gold bonus. From memory, you get twice as much from commerce's equivalent policy, and four times as much from exploration's. On top of that, those two apply to all international trade routes, so they're much more difficult to embargo away.