Apolyton blog on Ancient and Classical Cultural Policies in Civ5

[stealth_nsk]

2) Power up a large empire. Use the +1 culture/production/trade route bonuses to magnify the effect of an already large empire.

These bonuses are mostly important for early expansion. With culture you get more tiles and with production your cities start building something useful right out the hat.

 

[ShaqFu]

Fun fact:

Honor, Liberty, and Tradition are not exclusive to any other policy, making their bonuses permanent to your civ. That +1 food/turn in the capital could go a very long way...

 

[Polobo]

Obviously, there are many strategies but I think a good standard opening for all civs would be to purchase Tradition-Liberty-Honor in that order.

Agree that it is well-balanced but some of the 2nd level policies in those trees are pretty good for specific strategies.

Warrior Code + Discipline makes taking on a city-state early much easier since you'll be getting something around +40% for your warriors. Then, Military Caste will help with the extra unhappy from annexing them. Then those units can be cheaply upgraded with Professional Army. Later on, especially assuming non-linear XP scaling, Military Tradition gets you better units quicker during the mid-game.

Question: Any info how XP and unit upgrades interact? I am hoping it is not as severe as in Civ4. It may be realistic but it does reduce the fun in doing an early military conquest.

By the time you get to choose your third policy you are likely going to have the piety branch as an option as well.

 

[Szpilman]

Any word on the remaining trees (i.e. the ones we don't yet know about)?

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Fun fact:

Honor, Liberty, and Tradition are not exclusive to any other policy, making their bonuses permanent to your civ. That +1 food/turn in the capital could go a very long way...

Liberty is exclusive to Autocracy.

 

[ShaqFu]

Liberty is exclusive to Autocracy.

According to Arioch's site, the two mutually exclusive pairs are Rationalism/Piety and Freedom/Autocracy.

 

[Lyoncet]

According to Arioch's site, the two mutually exclusive pairs are Rationalism/Piety and Freedom/Autocracy.

I can't find the screenshot for the life of me, but someone posted one a few hours ago in which Autocracy's mouse-over text said it was mutually exclusive with both Freedom and Liberty.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I've heard that before too.

 

[bjbrains]

I can't find the screenshot for the life of me, but someone posted one a few hours ago in which Autocracy's mouse-over text said it was mutually exclusive with both Freedom and Liberty.

This. They both are, and this can clearly be seen in screenshots. The text of said screenshots 'X cannot be active at the same time as Y" also leads me to believe that you can switch, with the penalty of losing your other policies (and as has been speculated, anarchy).

 

[bite]

I can't find the screenshot for the life of me, but someone posted one a few hours ago in which Autocracy's mouse-over text said it was mutually exclusive with both Freedom and Liberty.

that is correct

Autocracy can not be active at the same time as Liberty and Freedom