Polynesia

So I was wondering on how I should play Polynesia.

I played a bit with them on the 6-19 release but I'm going to have to restart soon cause of some errors so I'll probably wait for the hotfix.

While playing I came upon a few questions and observations. I mainly learned that Moai are crazy good, and you need to settle your cities with them in mind.

1. So I learned Moai are super good, but how much should I prioritize them, early game wise? Construction is an awkward tech, but should I rush for it anyway?

2. What is the general game plan? I heard a strategy where you go wide with a culture victory, which seems really interesting. Is that the strategy I should go for, or are there other strategies? Anything I should know about this strategy?

3. This is kinda related to the last question, but I'm probably taking Progress as my first tree, but what should my second tree be? Wide usually means fealty, but culture victory usually means artistry so I'm unsure.

 

Polynesia is one of my favorite civs to play. He really encourages you to settle cities differently than normal.

I usually take progress first, I really want that 3 food per city to help grow while working Moai. Tradition doesn't really take advantage of Moai very well (you end up choosing between specialists or Moai, and not enough population to do both), and authority just doesn't fit your strategy super well, because your UU is pretty weak and it comes late.

I think wide cultural victory is a good idea, and you should take artistry. With artistry and golden ages (try to get wonders like Notre Dame or Chichen Itza) you should have ridiculous culture output. If you get mosques too you can get some really high culture numbers, at least during golden ages. After that imperialism or industry, depending on how much war you expect.

Construction should be researched early but it doesn't have to be your 3rd tech. Pottery is a pretty good grab early on, possibly fishing if your monopoly is boats. It really helps to have the bonus science from progress.

Just spam Moai and bring in culture. For religion, consider food (to help grow while working Moai) or science (you will have really high culture but your science sometimes lags). Mosques can be really good too to give a nice % bonus to your already strong culture.

 

Is the "no unhappiness from city disconnection" part of the UA useful at all? Maybe you'll want to settle one tile from the coast for your later cities for better Moai placement, when the food/science from the policy aren't that significant anymore?

What about build orders? Is it worth to train another Pathfinder or two to grab all the ruins?

 

It's useful.
First it just helps a bit with happiness while expanding. Workers can build Moai or other improvements instead of roads, you can do other things before lighthouses. This can be a big help if your luxuries are plantations, since you want to unlock Moai before researching calendar. Sometimes it's a big deal, othertimes it's just a small bonus.

Long term you do have the option of settling a city that you just never connect. Like if there is a new island, all other civs pretty much have to put the city on the coast, but Polynesia can put it inland. It's not usually a very good option, but you can do it. I've done it like once to get a natural wonder.

Super early game, your build order should be mostly the same. Once you have a couple cities you can send an extra scout, I do it primarily for city states, not ruins (a single CS quest is worth a lot more ruins are).Even if you find an island with no other civs and a bunch of ruins, you'll likely lose your unit to barbarians.

 

Agree that Polynesia is a fun civ. It's in my personal top 3 favorites.

For wide tourism victory be sure to emphasize the hotel/airport type buildings later on to convert all your Maori culture to tourism- this is what makes wide tourism possible.

Scouting out good Maori cities early game and settling them is crucial. 2 tile wide peninsula shapes are ideal.