jma22tb
Prince
So I've written a Nationalist Strategy, and now I'm introducing another one which is similar in a lot of ways, but very different in one critical way that changes the entire playstyle. This is the most peace-oriented playstyle available, but also features a specific military anti-conquest strategy which is important to keep your rivals in check. I hope you enjoy it!
Globalist Strategy
Introduction
The Globalist Strategy is one that endeavors to reduce military conflict and oppose violent aggressors around the world while mastering all intellectual, economic, and political matters. The goal is to build an advanced society that masters economic, cultural, scientific, and diplomatic power, sitting at the head of the table of a united world. One culture, one language, one religion, and one ruling political body – Yours.
Real World Inspirations
The Globalist Strategy is inspired by facets of many doctrines and theories into one cohesive whole. There are significantly negative current connotations with this word, especially among current Nationalist political movements, but for our purposes we're redefining that idea to be considerably more state sovereignty friendly.
One source is Realpolitik, which the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck used to unify Germany into a single state, promoting pragmatism and cunning in matters of state. The idea of war being a strictly defensive matter of state or to liberate the conquered is similar to that of Just War Theory. Another idea in that is a more pragmatic idea of Balkanization, keeping your enemies contained in a balance of power that you benefit most from. Cultural strength is inherently Nationalist, but ours is not the violent interpretation that it can lead to. The idea of scientifically driven society comes from Enlightenment, technocracy, and intellectual liberalism.
Oligarchy has been part of just about every great nation in history, and Venice was a “merchant republic” that had a political class which was also oriented around trade.
There are aspects of this type of strategy used in many of the great powers in history, but every well-intended nation which aspired to these ideas has resorted to imperialism, vassalage, or being dominated by more powerful rivals. The most recent examples are the British Empire with “enlightened imperialism” and the United States, the “defender of freedom,” who fall short of this type of strategic goal due to colonization and mid-late 20th and 21st century American military actions throughout the world.
Appropriate and Unappropriate Civilizations
This list shows which nations are not viable and why:
Assyria – Conquest is part of their unique ability
Songhai – They are given incentive to conquer with greater plunder The Huns – They are encouraged to take Authority and wage war often
Rome – They gain multiple advantages for victory in battle and conquest
Mongolia – They gain advantage from bullying city-states and have a unique great general
Sweden -Their unique ability specifically enhances war Denmark – Their unique ability specifically enhances war The Aztecs – Their unique ability specifically enhances war France – They benefit greatly from plunder and conquest Zulu – Their unique ability and buildings feed war
Japan – Most of their uniques benefit the military and Samurai are too amazing to just play defense with
Persia – They are given incentive to be very aggressive and have a unique courthouse
The trend being that in order to fully utilize these nations, they need to conquer other nations, specifically find and destroy barbarians through Authority, and have hostile city-state relations.
This has no synergy with this strategy because war is only a defensive and liberation tool for us. We do not ever seek to conquer another nation, only to liberate the conquered from their oppressor and to fight overly aggressive rivals to prevent them upsetting the balance of power.
While these nations would be very well equipped to protect themselves, they operate much better in an aggressive strategy.
Policies and Their Value
Tradition – If we gain bonuses from Great People, Growth, Golden Ages, have incentive to finish Policies faster we want Tradition.
Progress – If we need to reach a certain technology, have incentive to reach the next era faster, or have incentive to centralize every Great Works Wonder in our capital then Progress is what we want.
Authority – This is only appropriate for a Nationalist Strategy, since we do not want to bully city-states at all. The entire purpose of Authority is centered around aggression toward all others, so it's useless for us.
Piety – This is not appropriate for a Globalist because it is vital for us to be able to consistently compete for policies and technology throughout the game, which is at odds with the idea of having a sprawling series of cities. Piety and Religion in general is at its best when played Wide, which increases policy and tech costs.
Statecraft – We will want to choose this if we have specific incentive to build city-state alliances, have additional spies, or generally participate in trade as a priority. If we do not, then we will want to pick Aesthetics instead.
Aesthetics – This is what we will pick in absence of incentive to take Statecraft, because we will be competing for Wonders all game and getting more Tourism from trade with other major nations.
Industry – This is what we will pick in combination with Statecraft to combine a professional political class with a superior merchant class. This lets us trade with more city-states, building more World Congress dominance.
Imperialism – Like Authority, this policy gives incentive to go to war and while it does have synergy with city-state alliances, it defeats the purpose of the Globalist Strategy.
Rationalism – This is what we will pick in combination with Aesthetics, to give us scientific supremacy in combination with cultural supremacy.
Freedom – This is the only ideology that fits what we seek to accomplish as the only ideology that is not specifically themed around conquest, military power, enhancing XP of units, etc.
Two General Playstyles
There are two general Globalist playstyles – Intellectual and Political.
Intellectual is the Aesthetics – Rationalism combination, focusing on trade with other major nations and using Diplomacy in a supplementary way. The Wonders this approach wants will be more Great Works and Culture oriented, so that you can secure the top spot for Tourism. This group will never want more than 4 cities so that they keep tech and policy costs at a minimum. They'll use spies for protecting the capital and to sabotage rival alliances.
Political is the Statecraft – Industry combination, focusing on trade with city-states while using Spies to take over city-state alliances and hurting others. Political will want to do the same as Intellectual at the start of the game but in the mid and late game for cities it may be good to found a fifth or sixth city to gain better trade routes with city-states further away from your main cities.
The main challenge is keeping an eye on everyone else – you want to be the “policemen of the world” but without having to colonize, create vassals, or to be considered weak enough to be a target yourself. If an empire begins to conquer or has conquered, it's on you to stop them, break it apart, and liberate those taken over by them. If you can undo a warrior rival's conquests then their lack of a strong domestic policy will keep them from competing with you effectively.
If you do a good job of making friends, then chances are they'll open borders to you, letting you send troops to help fight against those tyrants. There is also a tremendous need to master military tactics, because without Authority, Crusader Spirit, Orders, or Imperialism, you're going to need that knowledge to compete with aggressive states that take those policies and religious beliefs.
Some good material to help learn what's necessary:
http://apolyton.net/content.php/435-Civilization-5-Military- Strategy-and-Tactics
World Congress
This is the most important part of the mid and late game – if you can master this area of the game, then you can do some incredible things that keep the world pliant and subject to your desires.
The most important World Congress resolutions for our purposes are as such:
Global Peace Accords – if you can make military maintenance this expensive and for conquest to be penalizing diplomatically, you effectively deter the biggest enemy you have. If someone has taken Authority or Imperialism and are at the mercy of this, they face significant consequences for victory. This is the best and most important resolution for us.
World Religion – We will not be taking Piety, but having this is a big deal. It becomes significantly easier to dominate the World Congress if you have this, and you get a big Tourism boost too.
World Ideology – It goes without saying that voting in Freedom as a World Ideology is important, since it's the only way to vote on Global Hegemony, which wins the game.
Sphere of Influence – This is a big one. The more permanent allies you can squeeze in, the more secure your hold on the World Congress becomes.
Passport System – The tourism gain from this is enough to almost guarantee a Culture Victory, especially for Intellectuals.
The most important World Congress resolutions to keep from becoming problems are:
Sanction – If anyone wants to sanction you, that is really bad and you want to avoid that at all costs, especially Intellectuals. Foreign trade is your lifeline.
Ban Luxury – Not being able to use our own luxuries would be terrible for our economy and trade capabilities.
World Science Initiative / Endowment for the Arts – You want both of these off, because we want both of these to be rolling in top form, not one or the other.
Open Door – If someone proposes this on one of our city-states vote it down hard. That eliminates anybody's chance for an Alliance with the city-state.
Casus Belli – The last thing we want is for war to be given additional incentive and for conquest to be excused. That puts us and everyone else in danger.
City-State Sanctions – This is a worst case scenario, especially for Diplomatic Globalists. They need flowing trade routes with city- states.
Decolonization – This is also horrible. You might be the strongest diplomatic power at the time, but if this goes through you'll lose it all until you rebuild it.
Scholars in Residence – This is horrible because it only benefits nations that are not attempting to keep up with science. We want scientific strength, so subsidizing other nation's research is not what we want.
Spaceflight Regulations and Travel Ban – These both limit our means to achieve victory, so that's not good, especially for Intellectuals.
Policies by Civilization
Morocco – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
Greece – Tradition, Statecraft, Industry
Germany – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
The Celts – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Poland – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Russia – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Carthage – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
England – Tradition, Statecraft, Industry
Venice – Tradition, Statecraft, Industry
Indonesia – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
India – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Ethiopia – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Arabia – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism*
Iroquois – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Spain – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Polynesia – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Portugal – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
Austria – Tradition, Statecraft, Industry
Babylon – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Japan – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
The Maya – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
The Inca – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Brazil – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Shoshone – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Egypt – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Siam – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
Korea – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Ottoman – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
Byzantium – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
America – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Netherlands – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
China – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
*While it would be great to have Industry, Arabia has a desert start bias so you can get Petra and potentially Colossus so it's not as important to get it.
Wonders by Archetype
Intellectual – We want the best possible Tourism with this sequence and for those Wonders to be in your capital so you get the theming bonuses. If you do that, have foreign trade, and use Great Musicians, surviving long enough will definitely win the game.
Stonehenge
Pyramids
Temple of Artemis
Great Library
Parthenon / Hanging Gardens
Oracle
Cathedral of St. Basil
Notre Dame
Globe Theatre
Sistine Chapel
Uffizi
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Louvre
Eiffel Tower
Porcelain Tower
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building
Broadway
Bletchley Park
Sydney Opera House
Hubble Telescope
CERN
Political – Our goal here is to have the best possible diplomats in combination with as many Great Works Wonders as we can get away with. Try to get Petra and Colossus too, but if you don't have desert or a strong enough military at the time, don't worry too much about that.
Stonehenge
Pyramids
Temple of Artemis
Roman Forum
Hanging Gardens / Parthenon
Oracle
Cathedral of St. Basil
Notre Dame
Globe Theatre
Forbidden Palace
Summer Palace
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Louvre
Eiffel Tower
Big Ben
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building
Broadway
Bletchley Park
Sydney Opera House
Hubble Telescope
CERN
Religion
The purpose of Religion for a Globalist is to add additional economic output for Intellectuals and to provide additional cultural output for Politicos. While you could get more science from religion for Politicos, we already have additional science from alliances so it's kind of a moot point. Our Reformations both have to do with strengthening diplomacy a bit because Global Commandments is amazing and Intellectuals need a boost in the mid game to push through proposals.
Pantheon
You want to pick a culture pantheon based on your surroundings.
This is the only way you'll be able to compete for Wonders throughout the Ancient and Classical Era against Tradition rivals.
By building Stonehenge only India or maybe Tradition Ethiopia can beat us to our Pantheon.
At least two wheat – God of the Sun
At least two tundra resources – God of the Stars and Sky Lots of forest / jungle – Goddess of Renewal
At least four mountains – Goddess of Nature
At least two camp resources – Goddess of the Hunt
At least two plantations – Goddess of Springtime
None of the above – God of All Creation
Intellectual
Holy Law
Cathedral
Thrift
Clericalism
One World, One Religion
I go with this combination so that our economy is booming, our allies are easier to keep on our side through religion, and to get some more votes. We aren't taking Industry so that extra GPT is very helpful, and something I've learned about gold is that you need a lot of it to be efficient in upgrading units, investing into Wonders, etc.
Political
Way of the Pilgrim
Pagoda
Inspiration
Scripture
Global Commandments
This combination makes our culture incredible in the absence of Aesthetics, for our spies, which we gain more of due to Statecraft, to be helping spread our religion, and as incentive for us to get to Printing Press first. Keeping Global Commandments throughout the game is incredibly powerful.
Additional Tips
In my opinion, the best way that Vox Populi and CBO can be played is Communitas map, Terra and High Sea Level, or the stock Terra map. To me historical authenticity and being able to meet all of the major civilizations within the ancient and classical era is vital for an authentic Civ experience.
I go with a similar approach to Nationalist strategy for the number of cities and how they're used – the capital, a port city that focuses on military industry, and two other cities. Capital and the last two focus on guilds and great people, Capital makes Wonders and keeps up with most National Wonders, and military city gets Heroic Epic and Ironworks. If I do more cities, I'll just make them similar to the military cities as great people hubs that don't have guilds, but only 6 cities at most.
Exploration is vitally important for us, but make sure you wait until Fishing before you get your first Scout so they can embark immediately. It's a pain in the butt to have a Scout that can't embark, has all those promotions and gets cut off by a lack of open borders. We want to know where all the city-states are ASAP so that we can get a head start on them.
Chances are your strategic resources can be pitiful, like not having any Iron or Horses, but that's why Global Peace Accords is so important – if you force that through you're going to make it very expensive to field a dominant army for even Authority and Imperialism rivals. And if you're effective at containing your rivals, their economy won't be large enough to field an army that can easily conquer anyone.
Sending units to your city state allies once your military is strong enough to assert itself is important. Make sure they have some melee, ranged units for both navy and army. This makes it harder for anyone to bully them and they'll protect your trade routes for you during war! Well, at least more effectively than if they didn't have forces. Pledge protection too so that you get the boost in influence per diplomat mission.
Commit to the Ronald Reagan maxim of “speak softly, carry a big stick...” regarding your military. You should strive to have the strongest military force regardless of our approach's disdain to conquest so that nobody messes with you. Make sure it's a combined arms force too – a bunch of the same units is never a good idea.
Globalist Strategy
Introduction
The Globalist Strategy is one that endeavors to reduce military conflict and oppose violent aggressors around the world while mastering all intellectual, economic, and political matters. The goal is to build an advanced society that masters economic, cultural, scientific, and diplomatic power, sitting at the head of the table of a united world. One culture, one language, one religion, and one ruling political body – Yours.
Real World Inspirations
The Globalist Strategy is inspired by facets of many doctrines and theories into one cohesive whole. There are significantly negative current connotations with this word, especially among current Nationalist political movements, but for our purposes we're redefining that idea to be considerably more state sovereignty friendly.
One source is Realpolitik, which the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck used to unify Germany into a single state, promoting pragmatism and cunning in matters of state. The idea of war being a strictly defensive matter of state or to liberate the conquered is similar to that of Just War Theory. Another idea in that is a more pragmatic idea of Balkanization, keeping your enemies contained in a balance of power that you benefit most from. Cultural strength is inherently Nationalist, but ours is not the violent interpretation that it can lead to. The idea of scientifically driven society comes from Enlightenment, technocracy, and intellectual liberalism.
Oligarchy has been part of just about every great nation in history, and Venice was a “merchant republic” that had a political class which was also oriented around trade.
There are aspects of this type of strategy used in many of the great powers in history, but every well-intended nation which aspired to these ideas has resorted to imperialism, vassalage, or being dominated by more powerful rivals. The most recent examples are the British Empire with “enlightened imperialism” and the United States, the “defender of freedom,” who fall short of this type of strategic goal due to colonization and mid-late 20th and 21st century American military actions throughout the world.
Appropriate and Unappropriate Civilizations
This list shows which nations are not viable and why:
Assyria – Conquest is part of their unique ability
Songhai – They are given incentive to conquer with greater plunder The Huns – They are encouraged to take Authority and wage war often
Rome – They gain multiple advantages for victory in battle and conquest
Mongolia – They gain advantage from bullying city-states and have a unique great general
Sweden -Their unique ability specifically enhances war Denmark – Their unique ability specifically enhances war The Aztecs – Their unique ability specifically enhances war France – They benefit greatly from plunder and conquest Zulu – Their unique ability and buildings feed war
Japan – Most of their uniques benefit the military and Samurai are too amazing to just play defense with
Persia – They are given incentive to be very aggressive and have a unique courthouse
The trend being that in order to fully utilize these nations, they need to conquer other nations, specifically find and destroy barbarians through Authority, and have hostile city-state relations.
This has no synergy with this strategy because war is only a defensive and liberation tool for us. We do not ever seek to conquer another nation, only to liberate the conquered from their oppressor and to fight overly aggressive rivals to prevent them upsetting the balance of power.
While these nations would be very well equipped to protect themselves, they operate much better in an aggressive strategy.
Policies and Their Value
Tradition – If we gain bonuses from Great People, Growth, Golden Ages, have incentive to finish Policies faster we want Tradition.
Progress – If we need to reach a certain technology, have incentive to reach the next era faster, or have incentive to centralize every Great Works Wonder in our capital then Progress is what we want.
Authority – This is only appropriate for a Nationalist Strategy, since we do not want to bully city-states at all. The entire purpose of Authority is centered around aggression toward all others, so it's useless for us.
Piety – This is not appropriate for a Globalist because it is vital for us to be able to consistently compete for policies and technology throughout the game, which is at odds with the idea of having a sprawling series of cities. Piety and Religion in general is at its best when played Wide, which increases policy and tech costs.
Statecraft – We will want to choose this if we have specific incentive to build city-state alliances, have additional spies, or generally participate in trade as a priority. If we do not, then we will want to pick Aesthetics instead.
Aesthetics – This is what we will pick in absence of incentive to take Statecraft, because we will be competing for Wonders all game and getting more Tourism from trade with other major nations.
Industry – This is what we will pick in combination with Statecraft to combine a professional political class with a superior merchant class. This lets us trade with more city-states, building more World Congress dominance.
Imperialism – Like Authority, this policy gives incentive to go to war and while it does have synergy with city-state alliances, it defeats the purpose of the Globalist Strategy.
Rationalism – This is what we will pick in combination with Aesthetics, to give us scientific supremacy in combination with cultural supremacy.
Freedom – This is the only ideology that fits what we seek to accomplish as the only ideology that is not specifically themed around conquest, military power, enhancing XP of units, etc.
Two General Playstyles
There are two general Globalist playstyles – Intellectual and Political.
Intellectual is the Aesthetics – Rationalism combination, focusing on trade with other major nations and using Diplomacy in a supplementary way. The Wonders this approach wants will be more Great Works and Culture oriented, so that you can secure the top spot for Tourism. This group will never want more than 4 cities so that they keep tech and policy costs at a minimum. They'll use spies for protecting the capital and to sabotage rival alliances.
Political is the Statecraft – Industry combination, focusing on trade with city-states while using Spies to take over city-state alliances and hurting others. Political will want to do the same as Intellectual at the start of the game but in the mid and late game for cities it may be good to found a fifth or sixth city to gain better trade routes with city-states further away from your main cities.
The main challenge is keeping an eye on everyone else – you want to be the “policemen of the world” but without having to colonize, create vassals, or to be considered weak enough to be a target yourself. If an empire begins to conquer or has conquered, it's on you to stop them, break it apart, and liberate those taken over by them. If you can undo a warrior rival's conquests then their lack of a strong domestic policy will keep them from competing with you effectively.
If you do a good job of making friends, then chances are they'll open borders to you, letting you send troops to help fight against those tyrants. There is also a tremendous need to master military tactics, because without Authority, Crusader Spirit, Orders, or Imperialism, you're going to need that knowledge to compete with aggressive states that take those policies and religious beliefs.
Some good material to help learn what's necessary:
http://apolyton.net/content.php/435-Civilization-5-Military- Strategy-and-Tactics
World Congress
This is the most important part of the mid and late game – if you can master this area of the game, then you can do some incredible things that keep the world pliant and subject to your desires.
The most important World Congress resolutions for our purposes are as such:
Global Peace Accords – if you can make military maintenance this expensive and for conquest to be penalizing diplomatically, you effectively deter the biggest enemy you have. If someone has taken Authority or Imperialism and are at the mercy of this, they face significant consequences for victory. This is the best and most important resolution for us.
World Religion – We will not be taking Piety, but having this is a big deal. It becomes significantly easier to dominate the World Congress if you have this, and you get a big Tourism boost too.
World Ideology – It goes without saying that voting in Freedom as a World Ideology is important, since it's the only way to vote on Global Hegemony, which wins the game.
Sphere of Influence – This is a big one. The more permanent allies you can squeeze in, the more secure your hold on the World Congress becomes.
Passport System – The tourism gain from this is enough to almost guarantee a Culture Victory, especially for Intellectuals.
The most important World Congress resolutions to keep from becoming problems are:
Sanction – If anyone wants to sanction you, that is really bad and you want to avoid that at all costs, especially Intellectuals. Foreign trade is your lifeline.
Ban Luxury – Not being able to use our own luxuries would be terrible for our economy and trade capabilities.
World Science Initiative / Endowment for the Arts – You want both of these off, because we want both of these to be rolling in top form, not one or the other.
Open Door – If someone proposes this on one of our city-states vote it down hard. That eliminates anybody's chance for an Alliance with the city-state.
Casus Belli – The last thing we want is for war to be given additional incentive and for conquest to be excused. That puts us and everyone else in danger.
City-State Sanctions – This is a worst case scenario, especially for Diplomatic Globalists. They need flowing trade routes with city- states.
Decolonization – This is also horrible. You might be the strongest diplomatic power at the time, but if this goes through you'll lose it all until you rebuild it.
Scholars in Residence – This is horrible because it only benefits nations that are not attempting to keep up with science. We want scientific strength, so subsidizing other nation's research is not what we want.
Spaceflight Regulations and Travel Ban – These both limit our means to achieve victory, so that's not good, especially for Intellectuals.
Policies by Civilization
Morocco – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
Greece – Tradition, Statecraft, Industry
Germany – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
The Celts – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Poland – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Russia – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Carthage – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
England – Tradition, Statecraft, Industry
Venice – Tradition, Statecraft, Industry
Indonesia – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
India – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Ethiopia – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Arabia – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism*
Iroquois – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Spain – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Polynesia – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Portugal – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
Austria – Tradition, Statecraft, Industry
Babylon – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Japan – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
The Maya – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
The Inca – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Brazil – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Shoshone – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Egypt – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Siam – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
Korea – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Ottoman – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
Byzantium – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
America – Progress, Aesthetics, Rationalism
Netherlands – Progress, Statecraft, Industry
China – Tradition, Aesthetics, Rationalism
*While it would be great to have Industry, Arabia has a desert start bias so you can get Petra and potentially Colossus so it's not as important to get it.
Wonders by Archetype
Intellectual – We want the best possible Tourism with this sequence and for those Wonders to be in your capital so you get the theming bonuses. If you do that, have foreign trade, and use Great Musicians, surviving long enough will definitely win the game.
Stonehenge
Pyramids
Temple of Artemis
Great Library
Parthenon / Hanging Gardens
Oracle
Cathedral of St. Basil
Notre Dame
Globe Theatre
Sistine Chapel
Uffizi
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Louvre
Eiffel Tower
Porcelain Tower
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building
Broadway
Bletchley Park
Sydney Opera House
Hubble Telescope
CERN
Political – Our goal here is to have the best possible diplomats in combination with as many Great Works Wonders as we can get away with. Try to get Petra and Colossus too, but if you don't have desert or a strong enough military at the time, don't worry too much about that.
Stonehenge
Pyramids
Temple of Artemis
Roman Forum
Hanging Gardens / Parthenon
Oracle
Cathedral of St. Basil
Notre Dame
Globe Theatre
Forbidden Palace
Summer Palace
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Louvre
Eiffel Tower
Big Ben
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building
Broadway
Bletchley Park
Sydney Opera House
Hubble Telescope
CERN
Religion
The purpose of Religion for a Globalist is to add additional economic output for Intellectuals and to provide additional cultural output for Politicos. While you could get more science from religion for Politicos, we already have additional science from alliances so it's kind of a moot point. Our Reformations both have to do with strengthening diplomacy a bit because Global Commandments is amazing and Intellectuals need a boost in the mid game to push through proposals.
Pantheon
You want to pick a culture pantheon based on your surroundings.
This is the only way you'll be able to compete for Wonders throughout the Ancient and Classical Era against Tradition rivals.
By building Stonehenge only India or maybe Tradition Ethiopia can beat us to our Pantheon.
At least two wheat – God of the Sun
At least two tundra resources – God of the Stars and Sky Lots of forest / jungle – Goddess of Renewal
At least four mountains – Goddess of Nature
At least two camp resources – Goddess of the Hunt
At least two plantations – Goddess of Springtime
None of the above – God of All Creation
Intellectual
Holy Law
Cathedral
Thrift
Clericalism
One World, One Religion
I go with this combination so that our economy is booming, our allies are easier to keep on our side through religion, and to get some more votes. We aren't taking Industry so that extra GPT is very helpful, and something I've learned about gold is that you need a lot of it to be efficient in upgrading units, investing into Wonders, etc.
Political
Way of the Pilgrim
Pagoda
Inspiration
Scripture
Global Commandments
This combination makes our culture incredible in the absence of Aesthetics, for our spies, which we gain more of due to Statecraft, to be helping spread our religion, and as incentive for us to get to Printing Press first. Keeping Global Commandments throughout the game is incredibly powerful.
Additional Tips
In my opinion, the best way that Vox Populi and CBO can be played is Communitas map, Terra and High Sea Level, or the stock Terra map. To me historical authenticity and being able to meet all of the major civilizations within the ancient and classical era is vital for an authentic Civ experience.
I go with a similar approach to Nationalist strategy for the number of cities and how they're used – the capital, a port city that focuses on military industry, and two other cities. Capital and the last two focus on guilds and great people, Capital makes Wonders and keeps up with most National Wonders, and military city gets Heroic Epic and Ironworks. If I do more cities, I'll just make them similar to the military cities as great people hubs that don't have guilds, but only 6 cities at most.
Exploration is vitally important for us, but make sure you wait until Fishing before you get your first Scout so they can embark immediately. It's a pain in the butt to have a Scout that can't embark, has all those promotions and gets cut off by a lack of open borders. We want to know where all the city-states are ASAP so that we can get a head start on them.
Chances are your strategic resources can be pitiful, like not having any Iron or Horses, but that's why Global Peace Accords is so important – if you force that through you're going to make it very expensive to field a dominant army for even Authority and Imperialism rivals. And if you're effective at containing your rivals, their economy won't be large enough to field an army that can easily conquer anyone.
Sending units to your city state allies once your military is strong enough to assert itself is important. Make sure they have some melee, ranged units for both navy and army. This makes it harder for anyone to bully them and they'll protect your trade routes for you during war! Well, at least more effectively than if they didn't have forces. Pledge protection too so that you get the boost in influence per diplomat mission.
Commit to the Ronald Reagan maxim of “speak softly, carry a big stick...” regarding your military. You should strive to have the strongest military force regardless of our approach's disdain to conquest so that nobody messes with you. Make sure it's a combined arms force too – a bunch of the same units is never a good idea.
