Wonders without the required social policy tree.

[The_Kalkkuna]

Today, playing as Venice, Hiawatha seems to have been able to build the pyramids without having opened the liberty tree. This is the first time this has happened in my games. (Or I haven't been paying enough attention before.)

Spoiler :

 

[Browd]

This is a commonly misunderstood mechanic. Hiawatha had to open Liberty to take the Pyramids -- no AI cheating involved.

If you are looking at the AI's listed policy selections in the Global Politics screen, you will be misled. That screen only shows a policy tree being taken after the AI has taken a second policy in that tree (opener plus another policy -- shows as Liberty: 1, which actually means opener plus 1 policy). If the AI has just taken the opener, it does not appear. [Yes, that is poor design, but that's where we are.]

 

[The_Kalkkuna]

Ah, that clarifies it. Yes, that indeed is bad design especially now that you can estimate the competition for some wonders based on the global politics. (In this particular case it was actually a nice surprise that Hiawatha went for the pyramids since I was hoping to finish the hanging gardens and other tradition-players had just finished other wonders.)