which policies is better for these nations
- Thread starter ArguCa
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Played a sprawling domination game with Ottomans yesterday. Damn, I never realized how badass Janissary are.
The swords>Lswords>musket line is more suited for aggressive play, so to get the most out of the Ottoman's UU, I'd say rationalism over piety. Tradition or liberty is partly personal preference, partly dependent on map. If you get lucky with one of those maps with a lot of initial open space and resources, I'd say push for liberty; I find it better compliments domination.
I'd say Denmark is in a very similar situation. The no cost on pillaging makes Berserkers nearly as good as Janissary.
The swords>Lswords>musket line is more suited for aggressive play, so to get the most out of the Ottoman's UU, I'd say rationalism over piety. Tradition or liberty is partly personal preference, partly dependent on map. If you get lucky with one of those maps with a lot of initial open space and resources, I'd say push for liberty; I find it better compliments domination.
I'd say Denmark is in a very similar situation. The no cost on pillaging makes Berserkers nearly as good as Janissary.
chazzycat
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which policies to take can depends more on the map and your chosen VC than your civ.
Arabia, for instance, is pretty good in both a tall & wide setup. So you're probably going to want to take the policy that the map dictates. Do you have room for only a few cities? Tradition. Do you have a ton of land all to yourself? liberty.
that being said, certain civs do lean one way or another.
For Russia I'd lean towards liberty due to the UA, you want to grab as many horse/iron as possible
For Sweden I'd lean toward tradition because you want to sign a lot of DOFs, and expanding a lot hurts your chances of doing that
For Denmark and Ottomans who are more military in nature, I would seriously consider honor.
EDIT: if you're just going for culture, the choice is much easier. Tradition-->Piety-->Freedom for pretty much any civ. The last two don't matter quite as much, but Patronage is probably one of them.
Arabia, for instance, is pretty good in both a tall & wide setup. So you're probably going to want to take the policy that the map dictates. Do you have room for only a few cities? Tradition. Do you have a ton of land all to yourself? liberty.
that being said, certain civs do lean one way or another.
For Russia I'd lean towards liberty due to the UA, you want to grab as many horse/iron as possible
For Sweden I'd lean toward tradition because you want to sign a lot of DOFs, and expanding a lot hurts your chances of doing that
For Denmark and Ottomans who are more military in nature, I would seriously consider honor.
EDIT: if you're just going for culture, the choice is much easier. Tradition-->Piety-->Freedom for pretty much any civ. The last two don't matter quite as much, but Patronage is probably one of them.
Arachnofiend
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Well if you want to go cultural you should always go with Tradition, though you may want to take Liberty as one of your extra policies after the standard Tradition/Piety/Freedom. I would really only recommend a Culture game for Sweden though, though the other civs are certainly CAPABLE of doing culture they aren't really suited for it. Here's my suggestion:
Arabia-Go sprawling with Liberty. Trade route bonuses are sexy and with Desert Folklore+Holy Warriors you will be getting a lot of Camel Archers out of all those flood plains you will be working.
Denmark-No civ-specific advantage with any of the opening policies, just take one depending on the situation (how good is your capital/how close are the other civs).
Russia-Good with both but you're probably going to see more Liberty situations than Tradition. Definitely going to want Liberty if you're lacking strategic resources in the area of your capital.
Ottomans-See Denmark.
Sweden-They can play a Tradition+Patronage Culture game really well but Liberty is certainly not a BAD option.
Arabia-Go sprawling with Liberty. Trade route bonuses are sexy and with Desert Folklore+Holy Warriors you will be getting a lot of Camel Archers out of all those flood plains you will be working.
Denmark-No civ-specific advantage with any of the opening policies, just take one depending on the situation (how good is your capital/how close are the other civs).
Russia-Good with both but you're probably going to see more Liberty situations than Tradition. Definitely going to want Liberty if you're lacking strategic resources in the area of your capital.
Ottomans-See Denmark.
Sweden-They can play a Tradition+Patronage Culture game really well but Liberty is certainly not a BAD option.
Crafty Bison
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All of them are rationalism, unless you need the faith that bad, or if you decide to use sweden for a cultural vc (diplo is easier).
Most can be either Trad or Liberty. Sweden is defs Tradition and Russia is better with liberty. Arabia usually goes liberty for me, but tradition can work too. Ottomans and Denmark are both domination civs, and can go either way, think about honour/commerce LHS with them too.
Edit: Just read that you want a cultural vc. Don't use any of these civs (except maybe Sweden). Try Siam, Aztecs, India, maybe Persia, Korea, Egypt or Incas. Definitely Take Piety for cultural, and start with tradition, though probably add in liberty too.
Most can be either Trad or Liberty. Sweden is defs Tradition and Russia is better with liberty. Arabia usually goes liberty for me, but tradition can work too. Ottomans and Denmark are both domination civs, and can go either way, think about honour/commerce LHS with them too.
Edit: Just read that you want a cultural vc. Don't use any of these civs (except maybe Sweden). Try Siam, Aztecs, India, maybe Persia, Korea, Egypt or Incas. Definitely Take Piety for cultural, and start with tradition, though probably add in liberty too.
Arabia - Liberty/Rationalism (Gold bonus is good for a large empire with many trade routes and therefore rationalism comes into play due to the lack of cultural focus in large/sprawling empires)
Denmark- Liberty/Rationalism (War civ that needs liberty to help expand and rationalism to compete techonologically with other civs and stay ahead militarilty)
Russia- Liberty/Rationalism (Pretty much an expansive civ)
Ottomans
Sweden-Tradition/Patronage or Piety (A culture civ needs tall cities with high culture yields)
Denmark- Liberty/Rationalism (War civ that needs liberty to help expand and rationalism to compete techonologically with other civs and stay ahead militarilty)
Russia- Liberty/Rationalism (Pretty much an expansive civ)
Ottomans
Sweden-Tradition/Patronage or Piety (A culture civ needs tall cities with high culture yields)
chazzycat
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two posters have mentioned trade route bonuses as being a reason to go wide with Arabia.
I have to disagree. 1 whole gold per city? That's nothing. The real value of the Arabs is the bazaar. If you go wide, you tend to be fighting more wars and have less trading partners. Extra luxes are worthless without trading partners. So while Arabia CAN be good in a wide game, it's not ideal, IMO.
I have to disagree. 1 whole gold per city? That's nothing. The real value of the Arabs is the bazaar. If you go wide, you tend to be fighting more wars and have less trading partners. Extra luxes are worthless without trading partners. So while Arabia CAN be good in a wide game, it's not ideal, IMO.
None of these policies are civ specific; they are instead style of victory and tall/wide dependent.
Piety: Must have have a Cultural victory (in reasonable timeframe); not so useful in other forms of victory
Rationalism: Helps for all forms of victory, not just science.
Sweden's unique ability appears to flow better with tall empires. (Easier to get a lot of great people that way) But the Liberty tree finisher is actually the one with the free great person. Even quicker to get a free great person you can spare (great general) by dipping into the Honor tree. That does however slow down whatever social policies you really wanted.
Denmark: Highly Map type specific on weather tall or wide is better (Mostly Denmark wants coastal cities and doesn't care as much weather they have a lot of small coastal cities or a few huge coastal cities
Russia starts near Tundra which tends a bit towards wide but not much.
Ottomans: Just wants there to be a decent amount of water so they can enslave a few barb ships.
Arabia: Has a strong wide bias compared to normal (Liberty); however this is somewhat offset by needing to avoid going over the thresholds that kill trading partners.
from jungle tiles. I hope I can finish this game as victorious 
