Best policy opening order?

[sonicandfffan]

I've been going the Piety route but there is something to be said for how small that leaves your capital's borders thanks to avoiding the tradition opener.

I'm starting to think Tradition - Liberty - Republic - Collective Rule might be a good starting order. Opening tradition allows you to build the hanging gardens and grants you a lot of culture for the early game which will speed up the other policies. Collective Rule gives you a second city which is fairly vital early on especially given that settlers are expensive early on.

Am I right in thinking this is a good starting order? From there you can aim to fill out either tradition/liberty/piety before moving on to your next goal.

I also like to open Patronage when it becomes available so I can build the forbidden palace later on, since those early world congress votes are pretty influential.

 

[Sonereal]

If Raging Barbs, Tradition->Honor->Pick and choose from there.

If not, Tradition-Liberty->Republic->More Tradition.

Piety is weird. The opener is both useful and not useful. The half off cost for shrines/temples is only useful if you're planning on expanding.

 

[Teaf]

If you are having border expansion trouble with Piety then you could always just unlock Tradition to get the initial culture boost then move to Piety. That being said, most times I will complete open and complete tradition first unless the situation calls for Liberty. I never open Piety as a lot of the bonuses don't kick in straight away.

 

[andrew00100]

depends on which civ you're playing
my current game playing as zulu, i go straight with honour
there's not much a warmonger needs

 

[DeutschDachs]

Depends on how much land i find available and my civ. Always get the tradition starter though. If there's lots of room for expansion ill go liberty but i usually stick tradition. For civs like byzantium, poland, or cultural civs ill consider going full piety first if i can time my religion for the same time as thereform ation belief. Always honor opener as aztecs

 

[Randall_Flagg]

Ya I tried the peity route a few times. No doubt it it gives you an awesome religion, one that if you go full peity cannot be beaten back. But like you said, border growth pays, and that means growth pays, which means science pays.

For me, nothing beats Tradition opener. That culture is so hard to pass up.

 

[VainoValkea]

I'm currently experimenting with Tradition opener -> Liberty -> Piety -> Rationalism. Has felt very weird (I'm used to Tradition -> Patronage -> Rationalism -> Diplomatic Victory) but not bad.

 

[sonicandfffan]

Or I could just play as poland and just get every policy.

But as any other Civ, I feel the order in the OP might be a good way to go. Two cities without having to dedicate any production to settlers, you can get a third through purchasing once you have gold.

 

[mbuna120]

Tradition opener if you pop a culture hut in the first 5-10 turns seems unparalleled to me at this point. When that happens (quite often if your first build is a scout and your starting warrior is already scouting) you don't need to waste hammers on a monument. Go from scout to shrine. If you have 1-2 turns in between as I usually do, start a worker. Pause the worker and start library when writing finishes. Queue a settler after library/worker both finish. Take some worker techs after writing. By the time your worker is born your settler comes fast because your city is already at 4-5 pop. And you'll have a lux improved by the time you settle. It all clicks well no matter which civ you use. It works too well in comparison to the other openers IMO....when I hit 220g my first buy is usually a trieme for more exploration. Ill buy an archer instead if I am bordered by an aggressive civ. I don't steal cs workers either so I favor this build order. I will, however, not hesitate to steal a worker from another civ early on even at the cost of a warrior or scout if i have multiple wheat to improve right away

Edit....three cities early and you're making 6gpt extra by not building monuments. So build libraries/units right away in new cities. Also this alleviates the need for early caravans which are a waste of valuable tempo in the early game as I see it.

 

[sonicandfffan]

Early caravans are important. But not for trading (the GPT from early trading is weak and there are too many barbs to make it worthwhile). Each caravan is worth 4 food for another city once you build a granary in the base city. You can really boost your population using this, in fact it's ridiculously OP since each caravan is basically a free hospital and caravans are relatively cheap to build.

 

[Arachnofiend]

Ya I tried the peity route a few times. No doubt it it gives you an awesome religion, one that if you go full peity cannot be beaten back. But like you said, border growth pays, and that means growth pays, which means science pays.

For me, nothing beats Tradition opener. That culture is so hard to pass up.

I actually went Ancestor Worship for my pantheon in a Maya game recently for the first time. It was pretty sweet, I was producing so much faith through my Pyramids already that losing out on a faith pantheon hardly mattered (I didn't really have a good one with my start anyways). The extra culture was a surprisingly huge boon and it was satisfying to find a use for a pantheon that I have never and have never heard be used.

 

[Tilarium]

I usually start with tradition to get the early culture boost and then base my picks from there on what my start location is and the play style I decide to go with for that game.