Mrdarklight
Warlord
I'm playing a Poland game, and thinking about how everyone considers them one of the very best civs, almost entirely because they get a free social policy in every new era. This reminded me of a recent game I played as Polynesia, where I remember I was just blowing through social policies by the end of the game. So I decided to look and see who came out ahead in the end.
I save all of my wins, on the turn that I win, so I have about 25 save game files that are just from the last turn of a win. I had one from Polynesia on turn 370, and one from Poland on turn 377. These seemed good for comparison purposes.
On turn 377, Poland had 29 social policies researched. On turn 370, Polynesia had 30.
Polynesia, on the right map, can create such massive culture with Maois that they overpower Poland's free social policies.
Now, direct civ-to-civ comparisons can be tricky, and I'll try to be fair here.
Poland's advantages are:
- They don't have to work Maoi tiles to create culture for SP's. They just get them for free. This is an advantage for sure. Their cities can be bigger and more productive as a result.
- Their SPs are not dependent on certain map tiles. You can only build Maois on the coast, and to get really good culture from them, you need certain tile patterns, to get +5 or +6 culture on some tiles. So Poland definitely outclasses Polynesia on most continent maps, and probably any Pangea.
Polynesia's advantages are:
- Polynesia doesn't just get the SP's, it gets the culture too, which can be turned into massive tourism. So winning a culture victory with Polynesia (on the right map) is way easier than winning a culture game as Poland, and in fact I'd say it's easier than winning any victory type as Poland. In the Poly game I mentioned above, I was generating 1057 tourism per turn at the end. But again, this depends on a map with a lot of coastal tiles.
- Polynesia has some interesting options available to it. If you conquer a city and puppet it, and then build Maois all over their coasts, that city will work the Maois and generate culture - basically for free. So they don't increase the culture costs for SPs, but they do generate culture - sometimes a lot of it. Puppeted cities also regularly build hotels and airports. A side benefit is that normally puppets' borders basically stop growing because they don't generate much culture, but a puppet working 10-15 CP worth of tiles will see its borders grow easily.
So I wouldn't put Polynesia above Poland, because Poland is more reliable, and less map dependent. But in the right circumstances, Polynesia dominates Poland at what Poland does best - SPs, and is a much better civ for a culture victory.
I save all of my wins, on the turn that I win, so I have about 25 save game files that are just from the last turn of a win. I had one from Polynesia on turn 370, and one from Poland on turn 377. These seemed good for comparison purposes.
On turn 377, Poland had 29 social policies researched. On turn 370, Polynesia had 30.
Polynesia, on the right map, can create such massive culture with Maois that they overpower Poland's free social policies.
Now, direct civ-to-civ comparisons can be tricky, and I'll try to be fair here.
Poland's advantages are:
- They don't have to work Maoi tiles to create culture for SP's. They just get them for free. This is an advantage for sure. Their cities can be bigger and more productive as a result.
- Their SPs are not dependent on certain map tiles. You can only build Maois on the coast, and to get really good culture from them, you need certain tile patterns, to get +5 or +6 culture on some tiles. So Poland definitely outclasses Polynesia on most continent maps, and probably any Pangea.
Polynesia's advantages are:
- Polynesia doesn't just get the SP's, it gets the culture too, which can be turned into massive tourism. So winning a culture victory with Polynesia (on the right map) is way easier than winning a culture game as Poland, and in fact I'd say it's easier than winning any victory type as Poland. In the Poly game I mentioned above, I was generating 1057 tourism per turn at the end. But again, this depends on a map with a lot of coastal tiles.
- Polynesia has some interesting options available to it. If you conquer a city and puppet it, and then build Maois all over their coasts, that city will work the Maois and generate culture - basically for free. So they don't increase the culture costs for SPs, but they do generate culture - sometimes a lot of it. Puppeted cities also regularly build hotels and airports. A side benefit is that normally puppets' borders basically stop growing because they don't generate much culture, but a puppet working 10-15 CP worth of tiles will see its borders grow easily.
So I wouldn't put Polynesia above Poland, because Poland is more reliable, and less map dependent. But in the right circumstances, Polynesia dominates Poland at what Poland does best - SPs, and is a much better civ for a culture victory.
