maybe you don't have to choose a policy at a certain turn. I think you can save it for later turns.
Yeah, seeing as they've generated 200+ culture and it said they're next policy only costs 5, it's likely they had policy saving enabled and were just stockpiling policies for whatever reason.
No, it's not that, it's advancted start.
ALL policies are adoptable, meaning that its' a later start, not to mention I think I see something that isn't a warrior in the corner. So my bad, it's simply a start. and let's see. if they got a 3 free policies that would put them at Classical, Medieval, Renaissance era. so they probably started in Renaissance Era.
There is no evidence that the "ideology" is unlocked, you can access the Espionage screen before Renaissance Era, you can access the Religion screen before you have a Pantheon.
Same here. The button only leads you to Ideology, which we've seen be present in many vids.
Not to mention the Free Policies is refering to the Free Policies, meaning they work the same way as a Great Scientist work for advance start for Babylon (you get one for free at the beginning of each game in Classical+ starts
Unrelated to the original question, but related to the screenshot:
Patronage is listed before Aesthetics in the order of policy trees, and it is already confirmed that Aesthetics opens at the start of the Classical era. Does that mean that Patronage now also opens at the start of the Classical era or is it just something they still need to tidy up? IIRC, there was an older screen shot that has Aesthetics and Exploration as the last two trees, after Rationalism, but obviously they have moved them.
That *is* odd, no wonder I keep forgetting which era the new trees open in!
I don't recall this earlier screenshot you mention, and I've been following BNW quite closely.
It seems strange that they'd forget to place the trees according to Era, so it follows that:
Ancient Era: Tradition, Liberty, Honor
Classical Era: Piety, Patronage, Aesthetics
Medieval Era: Commerce, Exploration
Renaissance Era: Rationalism
?
Unless Piety is available in the Ancient era and they're really moving everything up, but that seems doubtful to me.