ICS and Patronage

[baronck]

In a Non-france set up for an ICS. I usually like getting Patronage after Liberty but I keep reading that I wont have enough culture for Rationalizm and Freedom/Order.

What's the Consensus on Patronage? I always thought Patronage was a no brainer in terms of SPs. But is it really needed for an ICS strat?

 

[alpaca]

In a REX/ICS game it's definitely not worth it. Unless you have a lot of cultural allies or are sacrificing growth to build culture, you won't get much more than 4 or 5 SPs, so you're lucky if you can get Meritocracy, Freedom and two Rationalism policies.

 

[ZwodahS]

usually my SP end at Freedom(from oracle). so most of the time you can't get anything more than 4 policies

 

[Paeanblack]

The benefits of Patronage don't scale with the number of cities like the Libery, Freedom, and Order trees. That's why it's not so great for ICS. Also, the big benefit of Patronage is saving money, but an extra 10-50 gold per turn is pretty inconsequential when your income and expenses are in the thousands.

 

[Gus_Smedstad]

The free Great People if you reach the end of the tree are pretty nice, but not worth the number of social policies you have to spend to get there if you're going ICS.