Social Policy Combinations

After making totally unrelated posts about this on another discussion, I decided that I would make a discussion for this reason

Simply said, I am looking for Social Policy mixtures that go well together, and if this flourishes, I might even make the full list and submit it on steam or something (IDK not expecting much from this thread) It must get boring going Tradition to Rationalism and than not caring about an ideology all the time, especially for new players. I am looking for these to spice up the game and give it a new take.

These mixtures include however many trees, ideologies (Well, if you want civil disorder, that is) and civilization combinations you can find and discuss.

Cliche ones such as Liberty-Tradition-Rationalism, or Tradition-Rationalism-Freedom are welcome, but it will not contribute much to the discussion.

If said combination is most easily achieved and/or suited with a certain civilization (IE Poland, Ethiopia, Aztec) than it is asked that you include the civilization in your post.

If you wish to create a name to generalize your combination (As Shown below), I encourage you to do so.

Below is the posted and my own combinations that either are proven to work, or seem rational

NOTE: You are not limited to any number of policies/tree's however 3-4 trees INCLUDING your ideology is ideal, however if you recommend to use the combination Poland, or other policy rich Civilization, I will encourage you to mention it.

If there is a certain strategy to go with the Combination, then by all means, share it with us.

If a policy is not required, but recommended for your combination(s), than put it in (parenthesis) as to mark it as to just that.

It is also worth mentioning if its BNW, G+K, or Vanilla, but I'm pretty sure most people with a brain would figure it out pretty much.

Now that the key is done, here is the list.
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The Current List is



~Note also that I am not an expert so I make plentiful mistakes. If you see any problems with these, then by all means point it out to me.

I use to do something that was very efficient at Emperor Level in the right conditions, but that I never tired at Immortal level because I try to concentrate on basics.

Go tratidition, honor, then finnish tradition, left side of piety before rationalism.

It might seem to be a set back to open honor just for the culture from barbarians and the fighting bonus agaist them, but on the right map and the right strategy, its incredibly trong. By keeping 2 or 3 barbarian encampments alive util 8-10 culture becomes irrelevant, you will actualy rack up tons of culture and pump up several units to 2 promotions.

If you do it wirh the Celts, Pictish Warriors become a very productive investment!

Plus later in the game, honor being already open, if you need a GreatG to grab some key tiles or support you in a war, its there for you! Same for the other policies, some of them are very usefull if the game didnt turn exactly like you wanted...

If after fastest time for science in any version as any civ and that's always

1. Either full Tradition or Liberty as the first tree. (Side note that Tradition will always work for any start as any civ and on any difficulty level, Liberty only really working if there is both the open space for cities [no AI really close] + diversification of luxury types in your area.)

2. Rationalism as full second tree. (Ideally policy saving advanced option is on; otherwise forced fillers)

3. If this is Vanilla OR G&K : Anything after that is just filler. But with BNW, that's getting the level 3 science tenet within your choice of Freedom / Order.

Fastest time for Diplomatic is extremely similar to above, just pick Consulates as the filler after finishing your choice of Tradition / Liberty while waiting to be allowed into Rationalism in BNW and whatever the previous name of that policy was doing the same thing for Vanilla / G&K.

I like going full tradition, a few points into liberty, atleast for the 1 production per city and free worker and settler and fill it in when i can no hurry though, pop one point in rationalism as soon as I can, another point in rationalism when there's enough specialists to warrant the 2 science per specialist, then enough exploration to hit me up some awesome 3 production per coastal city, trying to settle as many coastal cities as possible. Order to get to those tier 2 policies that give more production per city bonuses and now you got 5-9 base production per city depending on whether its on a hill or on the coast.

I really am addicted to wide empire warmongering. This is amaaaaaazing if you get a decent religion then go for jesuit whatever it is that allows you to buy science stuff with faith.

Tradition Tradition Tradition.

Thats all I see. It might be the best policy, and it is certainly the best starting policy in the ancient era (I mean, its kinda hard to fight 3 culture per turn when your next policy cost 10), but I am looking for Unique stratagems. I've also come up with another combination, however I am lacking to know if it works

Piety, Aesthetics, Rationalism, Patronage, Freedom

Obviously a hardcore culture game. I am currently in the middle of a game with it. Its a bit lacking currently but I am the world leader in culture and have almost filled out rationalism. I'm also poland, because getting 5 policies is almost impossible without Casmirs UA

I haven't yet experimented with mixing tree's without finishing them. I find it very hard to peel my eyes away from those hard finishers.

Usually I play with Raging Barbs, the 2 'Barbie+' mods, Ryika's Caravansary TR mod; and cherry-pick on the first 2-3 of a tree, Tradition, Honor, Liberty, etc., depending on circumstance . Most of the tie, Honor is filled first, on huge maps, with Barbie farming ... and only a few CSs and AIs; on Prince .With a good set-up, I can go Wide, and win before Rationalism or Idiotology .

I know there's a mod or 2 that diddle/disable Idiology, but I hesitate to use it; but I just love factories for snowballing my war machine !

The real challenge is not razing any cities and keeping around +20 Happyness across 40+ cities !!

Liberty and Order + anything inbetween also works well.

Honor + Commerce is just awesome for waring. Add Big Ben and Autocracy and you'll never have to train units just buy them

piety+LIBERTY+rationalism can get a good start.. tradition+patronage+rationalism also does a good play.

has anyone ever finished the exploration tree other than to get achievements and the like?

1 gold per harbor, seaport, and lighthouse and 4 production 4 gold for east india company city and then top that off with 4 gold per trade route seems so meh when commerce is so much better. In fact, I lied. It isn't that much better. Almost all the gold increasing policies suck. I find a bunch of use in 2 happiness per resource and 3 production per coastal city though.

Landshneks aren't a terrible idea but I often go production over gold, all my gold goes to city states, and i start filling in trading posts only in jungle tiles cus they are pretty sweet when they have universities. A 2 food 2 science 2 gold tile is godly but other than that trading posts only get filled last and in marginal land. I'd rather farm up grassland and plains.

I want to try an economic civ and work on gpt then rush mercenary army and see if i can conquer anything that way. maybe rushing knights and trebs to spearhead a lanshneks invasion. Knights and trebs are so far away from tech like guilds though ;/ edit- Not far but you end up either delaying knights and trebs or delaying education.

krickets said:

has anyone ever finished the exploration tree other than to get achievements and the like?

1 gold per harbor, seaport, and lighthouse and 4 production 4 gold for east india company city and then top that off with 4 gold per trade route seems so meh when commerce is so much better. In fact, I lied. It isn't that much better. Almost all the gold increasing policies suck. I find a bunch of use in 2 happiness per resource and 3 production per coastal city though.

Landshneks aren't a terrible idea but I often go production over gold, all my gold goes to city states, and i start filling in trading posts only in jungle tiles cus they are pretty sweet when they have universities. A 2 food 2 science 2 gold tile is godly but other than that trading posts only get filled last and in marginal land. I'd rather farm up grassland and plains.

I want to try an economic civ and work on gpt then rush mercenary army and see if i can conquer anything that way. maybe rushing knights and trebs to spearhead a lanshneks invasion. Knights and trebs are so far away from tech like guilds though ;/ edit- Not far but you end up either delaying knights and trebs or delaying education.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Exploration isn't bad if your going for cultural victory on Archipelago or very watery map or just want to improve Navy/Economy/Culture in general and/or want to build the Louvre. Commerce is very meh to me, 1/2 cost on roads is meh, Mercenary Army is nice, but it only works for a certain time period and other policy trees are better at the time. The +2 happiness per luxury resource is really the only "good" policy in commerce. I only go Commerce when I go for Diplomatic Victory or when I'm playing Venice to stack Merchant of Venice to get x4 gold and to faith-buy them. Commerce could really use a buff on some policies, it's the weakest policy tree if you don't include Piety when you don't have your own religion.

But man a whole tree to see those hidden arch sites? I haven't seen em yet personally though I read they give you some good bonuses; I end up filling other trees and going for a 'cultural' victory which is actually just a military victory in disguise- take other civs capitals and steal great works.

My usual approach is: Tradition-open Patronage-left side Honor (mixing these two based on situation, sometimes I go Honor first, then Patronage, sometimes the other way around), then, based on map, I either go filling in Patronage or go Exploration. When Renaissance rolls in, I open Rationalism and take the three important policies, then finish what I had started before-Patronage or Exploration, and then it's time to go ideology. Pop important things there, finish Rationalism, and if the game isn't won by then, go finish the ideology.

About Exploration. It is interesting tree. On landlocked map, you get virtually nothing from it. But it is nice to have if your capital and few other cities are coastal and you know you'll be fighting a naval warfare. It even makes GAs fast enough to not slow your fleet down much. And the hidden sites are a good bonus...about 20% of them will essentially contain GW instead of typical artifact, so you get either huge one time cultural boost, or Great Writing.

Left Liberty + Piety Reformation is fun to play. Although it works only if you can get a fast religion to grab happy beliefs.

Honor used to be fun to play with to me but it was so difficult to dominate. I used to try and fail honor on emperor but failed on immortal and deity. Honor on immortal and deity really is a challenge. Piety seems even more difficult though.. liberty also seems challenging, it seems that tradition is easy to win and requires less effort than the other social policy starts.

I'm fairly organized and specific about my combos, which vary per civ. I choose 3 policies to pursue each game: Tradition or Liberty (though I always at least open Tradition for the culture buff and, if I plan on wonder building, the wonder buff), then choose a policy that compliments my chosen victory type: Honor, Rationalism, Patronage or Aesthetics. Then I choose an appropriate supplemental policy that also corresponds with the civ I'm playing: Commerce, Piety or Exploration. So for example, with Morocco I'd go Tradition, Aesthetics and Commerce. Some civs can have many different combos for me, with only one or two policies being a "must." Like England needing Exploration, but everything else is up to how I choose to play England. I just like to assign "classes" to civs, and some can have more than one...but in my Moroccan example, I really only play them as a tall, wealthy culture center. Also note that I never play on the high difficulties (I usually chill around Prince), so I can easily get away with any of this.