Social Policy Question...

Almost always I seem to end up building tall rather than wide.... typically three, four and maybe five of my own cities, plus a string of puppets, if the neighbouring civs are close by.

I've just started a game where I have a whole continent to myself and it looks like it could easily handle six, maybe seven or eight, good cities.

So the question.... How about social policies?.....as I see it, these additional cities would slow down the social policy accumulation process quite a bit. Is there a strategy that can optimize this? I know I would have to get NC and a few other national wonders early, as well as the "33% less + Golden Age" policy in Liberty, but other than these obvious ones, is there some other way to minimize the social policy cost requirements?

I typically try to get Tradition, Liberty and Honour in a back and forth manner, before I move on to, maybe, Piety or Rationalism, then maybe Patronage, or whatever makes sense later in the game... But the process is already rather slow and tedious....

With more cities it would seem to be even more of a grind. [Also, you would want to get these additional cities up and running as early as possible, but then you would have happiness management issues.]

[Aside: I've also noticed that if you capture and then raze a city, it adds to your social policy cost, but that cost doesn't seem to go back down once the city is gone.]

What civ are you? That might make a difference.

It sounds like a bug if the policy cost doesn't go down after you've razed the city. I haven't razed a city in a long time, so I couldn't tell you. I would go full Liberty if I had that much land and I'd plant an academy with the finisher (makes up a little for the low pop cities). Getting a religion is really the best answer for the "slow and tedious" grind of REX or ICS. If that's not possible I think the next best option is to prioritize Construction (Colosseum & Circus Maximus) and Physics (Notre Dame).

They tend to bury a lot of the really powerful policies deep in each tree, so I usually stick with one branch at a time until I can get the best policies in that track. Tradition, Liberty, Commerce, Rationalism, and Order are all good examples of trees that get better the deeper you get or have most powerful bonuses at the finish. I used to mix up Liberty and Tradition a little before G&K but I don't think it's a great idea anymore. If your goal is to get a lot of CS allies then I'd pick a starter branch and then go straight to Patronage.

budweiser said:

What civ are you? That might make a difference.

Click to expand...

Isabella...and this continent, unforunately, has no natural wonders...

NotSure said:

It sounds like a bug if the policy cost doesn't go down after you've razed the city. I haven't razed a city in a long time, so I couldn't tell you. I would go full Liberty if I had that much land and I'd plant an academy with the finisher (makes up a little for the low pop cities). Getting a religion is really the best answer for the "slow and tedious" grind of REX or ICS. If that's not possible I think the next best option is to prioritize Construction (Colosseum & Circus Maximus) and Physics (Notre Dame).

They tend to bury a lot of the really powerful policies deep in each tree, so I usually stick with one branch at a time until I can get the best policies in that track. Tradition, Liberty, Commerce, Rationalism, and Order are all good examples of trees that get better the deeper you get or have most powerful bonuses at the finish. I used to mix up Liberty and Tradition a little before G&K but I don't think it's a great idea anymore. If your goal is to get a lot of CS allies then I'd pick a starter branch and then go straight to Patronage.

Click to expand...

Thanks...I'm quite sure razing a city doesn't reduce the social policy cost...but I will check next opportunity....

My usually pattern...maybe still a holdover from vanilla, is Tradition to get the 3-culture...then Honour to get the barb bonuses, then Liberty to eventually get the worker and the settler and the free engineer... then, on the fourth policy opportunity, I go for the 15% wonder production bonus....then back and forth until I complete the first two trees. Then depending on the game, the Honour tree, if it looks like there will be lots of skirmishes....or some other tree if that seems to make sense.

I never used to finish Tradition, but it has become a lot more attractive now, so I make sure I finish that one..... But it's always trade-offs isn't?!? And with more cities I'm afraid it will just slow everything down......

I have read elsewhere that if you are going for a cultural win, you want maybe only three or four cities at most....though typically I seem to end up going for a Science win.....

Maybe it's best to decide at turn one what kind of a victory you want in that particular game...and, come hell or high water, focus on that....which will I suppose make social policy selections a bit more straightforward....

Anyway CiV is a complex game with lots of subtlety....and I suppose you never can become an "expert" player ....you just become adept at applying your own playing style...

At some point, I remember reading that the number used to affect your social policy cost was determined by the highest number of cities you have had.

If that is true, after you raze the city, the next city you either raze or settle won't increase your social policy cost. Of course, if you lose cities by conquest, you are out of luck -- unless you take advantage by settling another city somewhere.

Can anyone confirm if this is true?