Civilization 5 Freedom Ideology Guide
Strategies and Tips for Choosing Freedom Tenets
| Autocracy | Freedom | Order |
Freedom and Victory Conditions
The Freedom Ideology is best-suited for those playing a Civ seeking a Scientific, Cultural, or Diplomatic Victory in Civilization 5: Brave New World. This Guide will highlight the benefits of choosing to follow this Ideology and strategies you can use to help get the most of its Tenets. Look to the main Ideology page to learn some of the drawbacks of having a different Ideology than other in-game Civs, along with a summary of the perks your Civ will get when following it.
Freedom is a popular choice for Diplomatic Victory, for you can gain Influence with City-States simply by having a Trade Route with them, and that will give you more votes in the World Congress. It is a very easy-to-acquire boost that will help with those City-States that have had long-standing Alliances with other Civs. With a smaller Military and Tall Cities running many Specialists, you will have a lot of gold output to help you buy off the others. Diplomatic Victory also relies somewhat on Science to get to the Era required for the World Leader vote, and Freedom is great for that.
Generation of Tourism and its boost through Freedom is also simple - every City with a Broadcast Tower will generate +34% Tourism to all Civs. That building requires a Monument, Amphitheater, Opera House, and Museum - so you will have lots of slots to put Great Works and a reliable Tourism boost. You can skip these building requirements with the CN Tower for Cities that do not have these or are Puppets, as it gives a free Broadcast Tower in every City. Landmarks will give you +4 extra Culture, converted to Tourism with a Hotel/Airport so that should be encouraged around your Cities. Using Freedom for a Tourism victory begins in the early-game and you should pursue Cultural Wonders, while the other two Ideologies can do it later. You will be harder to overtake Culturally yourself with the boost to Culture output from Landmarks and Great Works. Since you need to generate Great Musicians to perform Concert Tours with other Cultural Civs, it is well that there is a boost to Great Person generation here along with the ability to fill just about every specialist slot in your Cities.
Tall Civs seeking Scientific Victory should often choose Freedom. Rationalism gives +2 Science per Specialist, and Freedom is the best Ideology for running Specialists in all your Cities. Being able to finish Spaceship Parts with Gold is a big plus, given it is easy to come up with the 2500 or so Gold necessary to do so. This is particulary helpful with the boosters, since you need three. If you have more Cities, look to Order for a Scientific win, as you may find more means of Science generation directly from a large Population that is spread over many Cities there. Freedom is more about maxing Science output from the lands you have and passing other Civs in tech by having more Specialists and total Population creating that Science. Generation of early-mid game Great Scientists will assist in this, for Academies are invaluable and produce a ton of Science per turn over the course of a game, particularly in a City that has the National College and possibly an Observatory. Sending Food to your Capital and Scientific Cities through interal trade routes is a must to reach very large population in your Cities.
Freedom Tenets List
Level 1 Tenets
Avant Garde
The rate at which Great People are born is increased by 25%. Very helpful in the late game, when you need 500+ for a Great Person birth and are limited in how many Specialist slots you have available. Greatly helpful in either Cultural or Scientific Victories.
Creative Expression
+1 Culture from each Great Work (but Tourism is Unchanged). This will help protect Freedom against other Ideologies' influence and aid you in selecting more policies. You can also move Great Works around any new Cities to help with border expansion. Overall, a decent Tenet but not one that is high priority here.
Civil Society
Specialists consume only half the normal amount of Food. Lets you run Specialists without impacting City Growth nearly as much, which will allow you to focus your Cities on Science etc. without major drawbacks. With more Policies here, along with Rationalism, you may want to run Specialists in almost every slot available in your Empire!
Covert Action
Chance of rigging election in City-States doubled. This is good when going for a Diplomatic Victory and looking to save some Gold, while you can also use it to simply steal Alliances without angering other Civilizations as much. Rigging elections with spies drops other Civs' influence while raising yours.
Capitalism
+1 Local Happiness from every Mint, Bank, and Stock Exchange. Particularly helpful to your Global Happiness when you have a lot of Puppets, for they always build these buildings. Ultimately, just another means of making the Population happy. Weigh against Universal Healthcare.
Economic Union
+3 Gold from all your Trade Routes with other Civilizations following the Freedom Ideology. This is my least-picked Tenet in Level 1. Hardly any Civs choose Freedom in my games. When they do, it can be helpful but not particularly impressive.
Universal Healthcare
+1 Local Happiness from every National Wonder. Use your best guess to decide if this or Capitalism comes first.
Level 2 Tenets
Volunteer Army
6 Units are maintenance-free. Receive 6 Foreign Legion Infantry units immediately. These units can be upgraded and do keep their bonus when fighting in foreign territory, so they are great at helping you capture Cities and may Fortify to draw enemy firepower and be very hard to kill.
Urbanization
+1 Local Happiness from every Water Mill, Hospital, and Medical Lab. Another means of facilitating growth throughout your Empire.
Their Finest Hour
Combat Strength of Cities increased by 33%. This can be a huge defensive perk when you've got an opponent nearby. Cities can go to 140+ Combat Strength easily with this Tenet, though it is not a prime pick like the next one...
Universal Suffrage
Specialists in Cities produce half the normal amount of Unhappiness. Golden Ages are 50% longer. With this Tenet, by using a Specialist, you are generating less Unhappiness than when you are using them as a regular Citizen. Golden Ages lasting longer is just wonderful, and is helpful whatever victory you're pursuing. With Chichen Itza, it is +100% or 20/16 Turns (regular Golden Age/Great Artist Golden Age).
New Deal
Landmarks and Great Person tile improvements produce +4 of the appropriate yield. Very helpful if you have plenty of these, but nearly useless with only one or two total between the two. If you've got many Academies and are going for a Science Victory, this is an excellent Tenet to pick after you've chosen those that give a boost to Specialists (to let you run Scientists in your Cities).
Arsenal of Democracy
+15% Production when building Military Units. +15 Influence from Military Unit gifts to City-States. It's a decent Tenet that will make Military Unit gifts to City-States actually useful for gaining Alliances. Much better to do this than build Wealth in your Cities for the purpose of buying Alliances. With Freedom, you are also likely to be Tall and have well-developed Cities with Build Queues that are free to do this without hurting your own progress.
Level 3 Tenets
Media Culture
+34% Tourism generated by Cities with a Broadcast Tower. Of all the Tourism boosts offered by Ideologies, this is the simplest to create. Works very well with the CN Tower, which will put Broadcast Towers even in Puppet Cities and let you benefit from any Landmarks/Great Works they may have.
Treaty Organization
Gain 4 Influence per turn with City-States you have a trade route with. Helps to cement existing Alliances or to gradually steal them from other Civilizations. Prioritize this one when going for a Diplomatic Victory and change your Trade Routes' destinations accordingly. This will save you gold and allow you to buy up other Alliances.
Space Procurements
May buy Spaceship Parts with Gold. These cost upwards of 2500 Gold, but that is attainable in 6-8 Turns with an economically strong Civ. It will free your Build Queues to do other things, such as build Military to protect. I find it particularly helpful with Boosters because of the necessary 3, while the other parts are spaced out Tech-wise and require only 1 each to be constructed.
Share your Tips for Playing Freedom
This should help players better understand the overall goals and use of Tenets in the Freedom Ideology. Share your own gameplay tips using the Comments form below to enlighten us of strategies that work with specific Civs and other things you may find helpful to your fellow players.
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2Freedom is overall best for Science, although the Science from Factories in Order help with Wide, it's just a bit behind Freedom when you are able to run all specialists in all Cities. So, I guess I'd say Freedom for Tall Science, Order for Wide. I'm saying that as regardless of victory, you need Science :)
Upgrade Unit cost only 35 golds and especially Brazil should upgrade to Pracinha.