Actually the AI will occasionally take two ancient era policy trees. I can distinctly remember an AI Sweden going tradition -> authority like a month ago.
Feel like i've played a million games but ive never ever seen that! if I do ever see them do it its open season for policy picking tho =)
Right now, I'm dramatically more successful in my wide wide Fealty games than the other two.
I play standard continents++, I shrunk the map script to be slightly smaller and I lowered the water line to compensate- so the result is an overall slightly smaller world than standard, but with roughly the same amount of available land. I typically end up with 9-14 cities self settled by the renaissance as i'm not going to ignore decent available land for worry over my science / culture penalties (again, not something the AI would ever do either, if they see decent land they will settle it sooner or later - that is normal playing). the AI in my games always have between 9-14 cities to that point as well unless something went really wrong for them. and yeah even at 9 cities, fealty currently looks by far the best option.
some of the most glaring outliers:
openers- monasteries VS increased % CS rewards VS increased GP generation (like a garden offers) - monasteries are tangible, progress synergied immediate benefits that reduce unhappiness through science and help you grow / get through techs quickly. CS rewards are a very random bonus mechanic that cannot be relied upon and does nothing for happiness regardless, GP generation is looking too far down the road and offers literally nothing immediately. In classic / medieval eras you want to show some immediate results because we're still early in the game that snowballing matters. these choices are not even close to each other.
scalers - tons of passive gold and food in each city VS tons of passive culture and science in each city (both of which directly impact happiness) VS ... extra CS influence on diplo units I have to produce? wow, lets be serious now.
finishers - raw stats in each city that directly impact happiness plus the ability to buy late game golden ages with faith VS more clutch late game golden ages and exclusive dig sites / ability to buy raw tourism with faith VS .... sporadic bursts of stats when a congress convenes that will do zero for my city happiness plus the ability to buy great diplomats in industrial (how many embassies are still available at that point? would I rather spend thousands of faith to gain some influence or buy diplo units with gold hmmmmm) plus a seemingly meaningless lowering of policy cost to unlock world wonders - isnt it a rare sight to unlock a wonder that late in the game you arent already meeting the policy reqs for? It literally never happens to me. again, fealty and aesthetics looking good and SC is very close to being entirely useless.
2 policies in- Serfdom is available to fealty, granting even more gold and culture as raw city stats that directly affects happiness, it is an immediately passive boost to culture by at least 30 points nationwide (9 cities) and usually more than that for me honestly considering all the extra food my cities have. that kind of culture injection will get you through the rest of the tree a lot quicker, and what do either of the other 2 trees have to offer to compete with that kind of culture 2 policies in? well.. nothing.
, oops sorry 1 science and 1 culture ^^
