Patronage
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke
Introduction

The PoliciesGeneral Use
The Policies

Patronage


The Forbidden Palace is a powerful wonder for any player pursuing a strategy involving the World Congress, including a Diplomatic Victory. Forbidden Palace grants 2 additional delegates in the World Congress and provides +1


Philanthropy


The influence gained is rounded to a multiple of five, so generally slightly less than the full 25% will be gained.

Consulates
Resting point for
This policy gradually raises the influence resting point with all City-States by 20 points. If your current influence with a city state is below the new resting point, your influence will gradually rise over a number of turns to the new resting point. This policy has the benefit of putting the player in friend and ally range via any quest completion or friend range via worker return. Moreover, the policy allows you to ally with City-States easier since you have a lead with 20 influence. Note that the bonus stacks additively with Papal Primacy, which further increases influence resting points by 15, and Pledge to Protect, which further raises influence resting points by 5.

Scholasticism
All City-States which are Allies provide a
Requires: Philanthropy
A City-State produces research just as any civilization does, through its population and the buildings it has constructed. They start with a Palace for +3 beakers, and generally will have a Library built before Scholasticism is reached, so at minimum will generally provide 0.75 + 0.375 * population of beakers. At some later point they will generally build a University, changing the base gain to 1 + 0.5 * population (+6


Cultural Diplomacy
Quantity of Resources gifted by City-States increased by 100%.
Requires: Scholasticism
Doubles the amount of gifted strategic resources, and provides +2



Merchant Confederacy
+2
Requires: Consulates and Scholasticism
This policy is the weakest of the Patronage policies, so it is likely to be the last policy you adopt. Therefore, its benefits need to be considered in conjunction with the Patronage finisher.

Finisher
Allied City-States will occasionally gift you
Once the finisher is taken, assuming at least one ally is maintained, a random allied City-State will provide a random Great Person (including unique Great Persons, such as a Great Merchant of Venice or a Great Khan, and that their special powers still work) about once every 40 turns on standard speed (more precisely, 37 turns plus a random 0-6 turns). Each additional allied CS (up to a maximum of 10 additional allied CSs) will reduce the turns by 1. To make this more attractive, the initial Great Person will be received in about half the stated time (i.e., around 20 turns). As with most other "free" Great Persons, each Great Person will increase the Great Person Point cost of subsequent Great Persons that are on the same GPP counter.
General Use
The three early policies (Patronage opener, Philanthropy and Consulates) reduce the amount of gold required to form and maintain a CS friendship or alliance substantially, in most cases by more than one-third. Some will use the opener and Consulates as "filler" policies following completion of their first policy tree (such as Tradition or Liberty) while waiting to enter the Renaissance, when they can open Rationalism. These two policies combine to greatly increase the number of turns of remaining at least friends with a City State following completion of a city state quest -- in many cases at least double the number of turns.Patronage is especially useful for those pursuing a Diplomatic Victory, given that such a game would typically involve alliances with as many City-States as possible - Patronage makes these easier to obtain and maintain, and also unlocks building the Forbidden Palace, which provides 2 additional votes in the World Congress.
A few particular civs have especially strong synergy with the Patronage branch:
- Austria - to maximize the benefit from Diplomatic Marriage, a number of CS allies is required. Increased resting points, more effective gold gifts, as well as the decreased influence decay rate from the opener will help Austria get more allies. However, the remaining policies in Patronage are less useful, as Austria will be marrying CSs, rather than maintain long-term alliances.
- Greece - Greece's unique ability, Hellenic League, causes CS influence to degrade 50% slower, which effectively allows Greece to maintain nearly twice as many alliances as other civs. With shared religion, the Patronage opener and Hellenic League, Greece influence with most City-States will no longer decline.
- Persia - Persia's Golden Age length boost helps provide gold to get and maintain friendships and alliances, and any Great Artists from the Patronage finisher can be bulbed for another extended Golden Age.
- Siam - Siam's unique ability, Father Governs Children, provides an additional 50% benefit for cultural, religious and maritime City-State friends and alliances, which makes both this tree and City-State friendships generally more attractive.
- Sweden - Sweden's unique ability, Nobel Prize, provides 90 influence points for each Great Person gifted to a City-State. Sweden can obtain and maintain many City-State allies by using Patronage.
Note: Amended from vanilla Patronage article by vexing and the G&K Patronage article by LordLeoz.