Obvious and Not so Obvious Civ and Policy Synergies

Hello Everyone,

I've logged 585 hrs on my steam for civ5 and many more offline/in earlier civ versions.

This is what I've found:

Obvious:

Grab Honor Opener with Aztecs

Double Culture with every kill! Put map on Raging Barbs!

Grab Tradition's Legalism with Ethiopia

+8/free faith a turn!

Not so Obvious:

Grab Treaty Organization with Germany UB Hanse: (Trade with max 8 city states and get a 40% bump in production in ALL cities (with a Hanse)

Get Neuschwanstein castle with India UB Mughal Forts:
Normally Each fort gives
+2 culture
+2 tourism

With this wonder each fort gives in addition to above:
+3 gold
+2 culture
+1 Happiness

With India's UA grab Monarchy

Half the Unhappiness in Cities - Meet Half the Unhappiness in Capital! 1/4 of Pop adds to unhappiness! Hooray!

I just wanted to know of any synergies you guys found from playing a certain civ or ideology over and over.

You are welcome to add religious beliefs etc.

Rome's New City Production: One thought I had was all the new city production boosts. As Rome if one founded only coastal cities got Liberty + 1 production, Exploration +3 to coastal, AND Order +2 production per city AND Party Leadership that would be a city with EIGHT starting production (9 with a mountain) with 25% boost towards a building in the capital. WOW! One could add God of Craftsmen and religious community!

Did anyone ever do that? I almost want to do that for fun.

In terms of Ideology: Do you find that if you are a certain Civ YOU HAVE to go for a certain Ideology.

Korea

If you are NOT going Freedom for the specialist love - you really hurt on maximizing your UA.

Not so obvious:

Landsknechts with Poland, even in Renaissance. They upgrade to Winged Hussars, so not only is it cheaper to buy a Landsknecht and upgrade it than to buy/build a Winged Hussar, but you'll also be getting free pillage and gold from city attack promotions as well.

Persia with Aesthetics policies for warfare. Great Artists are the key here, since they let you trigger Golden Ages, which Persia can use for war results. More Artist = more golden ages = more time with +1 movement on your units.

Inca with Wagon Trains. The -50% maintenance on roads from both the Inca UA and the policy stack additively for -100%.

Sweden with Warrior Code. Just keep donating your excess Great Generals to city-states for influence.

Rome with Monarchy and Landed Elite. The thing to remember about Rome's UA is that the production boost never applies to your capitol, so in order to maximize the boost your get from the UA, you'll need to maximize your capitol's production while also heading up the tech tree at a good enough pace to always have something to build, both of which usually entail maximizing your capitol's population.

GKShaman said:

Rome's New City Production: One thought I had was all the new city production boosts. As Rome if one founded only coastal cities got Liberty + 1 production, Exploration +3 to coastal, AND Order +2 production per city AND Party Leadership that would be a city with EIGHT starting production (9 with a mountain) with 25% boost towards a building in the capital. WOW! One could add God of Craftsmen and religious community!

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That's a total of 9 policies/tenets... then you actually have to found new cities that late in the game. Combining 9 policies to get 8 production sounds more like wasted culture than synergy to me.

Here's one for Byzantines. You're going to have to get lucky for this one.

Mosques, Cathedrals, Pagodas. And the Reformation belief that gives Tourism to religion buildings. You should have most of your opponents eating your jeans and pop music before you even get Archeaology.

I've found the Honor opener to be helpful as Byzantium. Take it first off, then send your Dromons around to burninate barbarians and power down the Piety line to Reformation, ensuring you can snag a Reformation belief (especially Sacred Sites) as soon as your religion is founded.

Eagle Pursuit said:

Here's one for Byzantines. You're going to have to get lucky for this one.

Mosques, Cathedrals, Pagodas. And the Reformation belief that gives Tourism to religion buildings. You should have most of your opponents eating your jeans and pop music before you even get Archeaology.

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Byzantium's UA means you can even take just Pagodas/Mosques, then also take Holy Warriors and use the huge early tourism and massive Faith generation to run over anybody who is getting away from you in culture.

Obvious one: Zulu with Honor right side first. Get to build Ikanda faster, and build spear men while you tech Civil Service and upgrade them cheaper.

how about saving up Legalism when playing as Siam to get free Wats

stormtrooper412 said:

how about saving up Legalism when playing as Siam to get free Wats

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This was the first one which came to mind for me. It was a "trick" I used more in the past but eventually grew bored of. With the latest patch delaying Legalism by 1 policy, it is much more viable strategy now. Essentially, delaying Legalism will net you 4 free Universities immediately upon discovering Education (assuming you have already completed Amphitheaters in your first 4 cities). This is a huge research boost right when you need it the most.

My recommendation would be to dip into Mercantilism for 1-2 policies if necessary to delay Legalism. It is nice to have Mercantilism in the later game anyway, especially if going Freedom towards a Science VC.

Mesix said:

With the latest patch delaying Legalism by 1 policy, it is much more viable strategy now. Essentially, delaying Legalism will net you 4 free Universities immediately upon discovering Education (assuming you have already completed Amphitheaters in your first 4 cities).

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Unfortunately it also means delaying two best SPs in game: monarchy and tradition finisher + building useless amphitheatres (unless CV) - not worth it imo.

Yeah Tradition finisher is simply too good. However, as Siam, maritime CS friends double up so some of the negatives of delaying can be offset

A well timed Oracle and natural social policy generation can help you to finish Tradition shortly after Education. You don't even need to wait for Education per se, you just need to have build the Amphitheaters in your first 4 cities before you take Legalism. This could be done after you discover Drama & Poetry on your way to Education. Not much of a sacrifice if you are getting 4 free Universities some turns later.

Free universities? How would you do that?

reddishrecue said:

Free universities? How would you do that?

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He means free Wats through Legalism when playing as Siam. (Need to adopt Legalism after Monuments/Amphis up in all cities)

Wats =amphis= unis?

reddishrecue said:

Wats =amphis= unis?

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Wats are the Siam UB which replace Universities. Unlike Universities, they also provide + culture, so they are considered a culture building for the purposes of Legalism. If you adopt Legalism after you have a Monument and Amphitheatre up, you will get a free Wat in that city once you tech Education. It's a popular early game strategy for Siam.

Thats what i was beginning to believe. Wats are considered cultural buildings by the tradition social policy.

Huge map as Songhai + honor opener.

GenuineRisk said:

Wats are the Siam UB which replace Universities. Unlike Universities, they also provide + culture, so they are considered a culture building for the purposes of Legalism. If you adopt Legalism after you have a Monument and Amphitheatre up, you will get a free Wat in that city once you tech Education. It's a popular early game strategy for Siam.

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Wow, never knew that.

Also Carthage + Meritocracy is quite good.

Petra used to carry an extra free amphi back in G&K, so I assume that strategy was more widely used back then

I did not think of this one, and have not tried it myself:
From Commerce: Mercenary Army, Mercantilism, and Big Ben.
From Freedom, Arsenal of Democracy (tier 2), for 20 influence for unit CS gift (instead of the normal 5).

Usually, to get the most from your gold, you have to save up 1000 at a time. This combination gives a better gold:influence ratio -- and requires only small amounts of gold!

The only downside I can think of is that, to get a bunch of influence very quickly, you would have to walk your Landsknechts to CS territory.