Your favorite SECOND social policy?

Tradition, then what?

I've tried a variety of options but haven't found a favorite yet for second policy.

Honestly, Patronage. I usually only take the opener, then one more. I take it mainly because it has the best wonder, and the best bonuses in the opener. Forbidden Palace just so much better than Uffizi, Big Ben, and Louvre. Statue of Zeus is likely gone by now. Pyramids has a chance of not going, but Liberty opener is like 5 culture on most strategies, which is worthless in late medieval. Keeping CS longer will help you for much longer than 5 culture will.

It depends on starting location and victory type. Recently I've started going Lib to settler and then fill out Trad.

I do however find myself going Commerce fairly often when I fill out only Lib or Trad (SV usually).

jlim201 said:

Honestly, Patronage. I usually only take the opener, then one more. I take it mainly because it has the best wonder, and the best bonuses in the opener. Forbidden Palace just so much better than Uffizi, Big Ben, and Louvre. Statue of Zeus is likely gone by now. Pyramids has a chance of not going, but Liberty opener is like 5 culture on most strategies, which is worthless in late medieval. Keeping CS longer will help you for much longer than 5 culture will.

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I'm liking Patronage a lot for a 2nd, or sometimes 3rd policy.

Normally i only get 2-3 policies in the second tree before I hit rationalism and then the ideologies (the exception being poland), and so normally I open patronage because it has the most useful bonuses, because CS allies are great. Sometime if i get three before rationalism, i will open aesthetics to improve my culture output tohelp me get through the later trees faster. If on a water map, exploration is also good for more movement, sight and getting the +3 production per city.

I may be a little different but I fill out patronage. I play with a ton of CS though so it's worth the investment. The free GP gifted by CS as the finisher is great - often giving more great people than the maya long count.

I may take piety if I want to go heavy on religion, aesthetics if I plan a cultural victory, but for the rest I generally take either commerce or exploration depending on the map.
I just can't pass on that +3 production on coastal cities when there's nothing but islands in the whole map.

If playing Poland it's Liberty. If I think I can snag the FP it's Patronage, if going for a CV its Aesthetics, for all other options it's commerce.

Primacide said:

I may be a little different but I fill out patronage. I play with a ton of CS though so it's worth the investment. The free GP gifted by CS as the finisher is great - often giving more great people than the maya long count.

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You sometimes get more than 7 GP from the Patronage finisher?

And have you ever gotten a GS or GE from the patronage finisher? I don't think any CSs are coded to provide those.

Browd said:

And have you ever gotten a GS or GE from the patronage finisher? I don't think any CSs are coded to provide those.

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I've gotten a GE once

By any chance, do you recall what type of CS gave that to you? Although I rarely finish the Patronage tree, when I do all I ever seem to get are GMs (including GMoVs), GGs (including Kahns!) and GAdms.

I've finished the patronage tree only 3 times and I've been gifted 2 GM's and a GMoV.

A lot of the times I'll fill out tradition and go commerce second. If on a water map or playing with a Civ that has a powerful Naval UU or as the Ottomans I'll go Exploration

Typically Patronage. Situationally: exploration on water maps and commerce or honor if someone has gobbled up a lot of CS early.

Sherlock said:

Tradition, then what?

I've tried a variety of options but haven't found a favorite yet for second policy.

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I've found that the answer actually depends upon which victory condition you are after.

If you are seeking a cultural victory, you are going to eventually want to finish Aesthetics, so you may as well start it then while waiting for Rationalism.

If you are seeking diplomatic victory, you generally want at least Consulates within Patronage (many players going diplomatic would in fact eventually want to finish this tree), so again you may as well start that while waiting. (Getting the opener would speed up victory by allowing Forbidden Palace giving 2 extra votes)

But this may be more from the standpoint of Science victory, you'd likely have the fastest victory time for this if you enabled cultural policy saving and just saved up the points until you open Rean era. But if forced to choose, then it's probably going to come down to how many Merchicle city states there are on your map (the map of them, the more that Consulates looks better to start at 25 points of influence [including pledge to protect] to stay friends with them for a long time by doing city state quests. Or if most or all your self founded cities are coastal, you may want the top right policy within Exploration to give happiness bonuses from sea buildings. (If production is more of a concern for coastal cities, then there is top left instead.)
Another possibility is instead of going 2 deep in a single tree while waiting for Rationalism is to open 2 separate trees just for the World Wonders. Unlocking both Patronage & Commerce to allow construction of Forbidden Palace & Big Ben is very popular.

For completeness sake, if going Domination it depends upon what you want the most, if you want your military to be stronger early, that's what Honor is for as a second tree. But a lot of domination players have full competence if the abilities of their units without help from policies and are actually seeking economic bonuses from them for post conquest. In which case it comes down either quickest way to get extra happiness or a quick way for extra gold.

I'd say that it really depends on your Victory Condition and which Civilization you're using so that you can play to your strengths, but you also don't need to assume that you're even going to use Tradition or Liberty. I usually do one or the other, but not always. For example, if I'm using a religion heavy Civilization, I may go straight to Piety. However, one thing I should mention is that I've started always unlocking Honor first before I do anything else. It's just so powerful early on, helps you against early Barbarian invasions, and helps you rack up culture and XP. However, I'll quickly move off of Honor to other policies after the initial one.

Commerce could be my second favorite social policy because it becomes and should be available to me during the medieval age by the time I'm done with tradition. Tradition, however, makes me choose a different social policy instead such as rationalism depending on the victory condition type. If cultural aesthetics, if science rationalism or if diplomatic commerce for example.

I go liberty first and start building a wide infrastructure. By the time I start on my second policy I have an idea as to whether I can manage coastal-supremacy of my continent, or if I am more landlocked for the majority of my cities.

Exploration for Coastal (3-4 policies) or Piety for landlocked (all the way).

Piety as a second social policy could be a possibility to me when I'm not aiming for a cultural victory and when I'm not with enough technology for the commerce social policy tree.