Early Strategy on Civics

[peugot]

I have struggled consistantly on what I should do early on in the game. Most of the social policies seem so worthless early on, with the exception of 1/2 price settlers, 1 food, and 33% wonder production. Those are nice, but none of them really benefit me long term. I am up to hear the relative merits of the early strategies here.

The one that DOES work very well, is saving on Social Policy until patronage. That is really nice, but that game got boring for me. Anyway, TIA for any help!!

Sorry for calling them civics!! CIVIV brain fart.

 

[Frank327]

The honor tree seems to be pretty powerful through the entire game for the most part. The starting SP is only useful until medieval times, but powerful. Flanking and professional military are powerful the entire game.

The biggest problem with the liberty tree seems to be that it helps with REXing, but REXing usually means SP gaining stagnates completely, unless you're playing france. Maybe if you'd play with rome, and build a monument early in every city including rome, you'd be able to use the liberty tree to full effect.

 

[swordspider]

Honor tree is critical for success with the Germans, especially early on. Getting the 25% vs. Barbs helps build your army through the unit capture and then adding Flanking increases your attack with 2 units and lets you get even better results without loss of life. I always get those two first (and usually get enough to do so in huts). It gives the Germans a huge head start. (Sure your 'score' doesn't show it, but militarily, you are by far the most powerful).

 

[malitano]

I've been getting honor first and try to get military tradition before I start on piety.

 

[Ahriman]

Honor tree is good; an early game great general for your first war improves efficiency a *lot*, and professional army can save you insane amounts of gold over the course of the game.

Tradition also has some nice things. On higher difficulties, if you want a decent shot at wonders you need Aristocracy, and Oligarchy is very, very nice.

I don't like Liberty much myself, though it has a few ok policies.

It depends a lot on your playstyle though.

 

[peugot]

I've been getting honor first and try to get military tradition before I start on piety.

Piety is great, but its limiting as I cant use rationalism during the late game. And I really like those science improvements! FYI...Im not trolling here, just want to hear the opposite argument as it might persuade me to move over to start using piety.

 

[Ahriman]

Piety is useful for cultural strats, particularly India or Persia.
Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Theocracy is good, if you are not planning on being a significant warmonger.

 

[Ahriman]

True - though not being a significant warmonger isn't really a very optimal strat. Puppets are just so strong. I tend to only ever found a couple of extra cities myself.

I think one thing I need to get used to more is that in any game where I'm not going for a cultural victory, there's no reason why I have to fill out entire trees. Its perfectly possible to take 1-2 policies from several trees without having to get any of the others.
And sometimes the unlock bonuses or the first policy or two (Patronage, Oligarchy, etc) are among the best bonuses there.

 

[gdoggcasey]

I tend to get a mix of Liberty and Honor early on. Everygame I played I found it important to get rid of my nearest neighbour, so Honor helps with that, and I usually puppet their cities, so Liberty helps with that. I'm thinking its just a play style thing. Obviously if you like to only build a few cities then you want to start with Tradition.

Oh yeah, and Germans HAVE to take honor. I had like 7 warriors and 3 archers around turn 80 lol...insane!

 

[Senethro]

Doesn't Theocracy decrease the unhappiness in puppets because they don't count as occupied? I find myself often taking the Piety tree for it.

 

[Nunya]

Yes, as far as I can tell puppet states count as non-occupied. I took it in my current game and checked unhappines before and after. So piety is great if you want to be a puppet making warmonger.

The bad thing about puppet states though is that they build stuff they'll never need such as unit XP buildings, which can waste a lot of gold.

Out of the first 3, I'd say it depends on your strategy. If you plan to have a small number of cities (for example if you're aiming for Gandhi's Bollywood achievement) and/or build lots of wonders go for Tradition. Aristocracy has good synergy with Egypt and Monarchy allows America to buy tiles at 25% of the normal cost. The bonuses for the capital city also work nicely for Rome (high population in capital = more production in capital = more buildings in capital = taking advantage of Augustus' special).

Liberty is best for big empires (founded, puppeted, or occupied). It works well for America (cheap settlers take advantage of superior scouting), France (early in the game +2 culture from an extra city will more than compensate the higher cost of social policies), and Rome (more cities that take advantage of Glory of Rome).

And Honor is obviously good for fighting. It has good synergy with Germany (easier to make that barbarian horde), China (double XP = double great generals for a civ that already gets more and better great generals), Songhai (easier to get the extra gold from pillaging encampments). And if I'm playing Greece I like to take it because then the game calls me Alexander the Great.

 

[Paeanblack]

Yup, puppets are not occupied.

I've had good success using captured workers to replace mines and lumbermills with trading posts in puppet cities. I chop the flat forests to speed up the first two buildings (monument & temple, usually) and to remove excess production. Hill forests get left in place. Non-river farms get swapped out for trading posts. Less production means fewer useless buildings, since they seem to go for +culture first and +happy if you need it.

Once you hit the Renaissance and can get to the trading post science bonus, your science will skyrocket. Gandhi is awesome for this strategy, since the Indians are such happy people in this game.

 

[Ex Mudder]

As Russia with Stonehenge, I worked my way through Piety and then used their 2 free SPs to grab Patronage and Aesthetics quickly.

 

[Zechnophobe]

My current strategy involves going straight for rationalism/Freedom. Save up your policies while you get a great scientist. Do a long research on Philosophy, and then use Great Scientist to pop Civil Service. You get the food boost (to help your specialists) and find yourself suddenly in the medieval era.

Another good option is just saving 4 SP's for communism as soon as you hit the industrial era. 5 production for each city, and +25% building buildings is an amazingly solid boost. Takes a while before it kicks in though.

 

[Numi]

Iunno in my mind i can never justify giving up Rationalism to get Piety.

 

[lilnev]

If I hit a culture hut, I'll take Tradition. Extra growth that early is strong. Otherwise, I'll likely pick up Honor and Discipline. Then wait for Rationalism.

 

[skallben]

It is easy to forget the long-term effects of a good start. Food from tradition grows your city faster = more production, more science, more gold. If you think about it that way it's worth it, especially if you wanna build wonders since you can just get the +33%.

If I don't plan to build many wonders, then I take liberty to at least get the cheap settlers. Again, things add up and having the ability to REX and save hammers in capitol is in my eyes excellent.

 

[nodule]

I feel like the +1 happy per city in liberty is undervalued. It's essentially as good as the -50% unhappiness from # cities policy way later on. Not sure that it is worth churning through the rest of the tree to get it, though.

 

[Knut_Are_M]

Theocracy is good, if you are not planning on being a significant warmonger.

theocracy works on puppet states. so you can be warmongering with piety.

autocracy has a nice 50% reduction to unhappiness from occupied cities, but it comes way too late. the game is usually over at that time.