Civilization 5 Patronage Social Policies
Strategy Guide for Gods and Kings & Brave New World
| Tradition | Liberty | Honor | Piety | Patronage | Aesthetics | Commerce | Exploration | Rationalism |
Patronage becomes available in the Classical era, which is fine since by then you'll have met more City-States. Adopting Patronage will give you 25% slower degradation of City-State relations, taking a -1 per turn to -0.75, which essentially gives you 25% more time as their ally. It also unlocks building The Forbidden Palace, which increases the number of delegates you have in the World Congress.
Finishing Patronage will cause City-States to occassionally gift you Great People. Special Unique Great People like the Mongolian Khan and Merchant of Venice are available to any Civ through this route, and their benefits will work exactly the same as they do for the parent Civ. However, it's unlikely you will get what you want because of the randomness of this system. For Sweden, this is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of their UA, which lets them get influence for gifting Great People to City-States, allowing you to snowball your Influence and win a Diplomatic Victory easily.
Once you Finish Patronage, you are on a timer. The gifted Great People will come every 30-40 Turns, but usually closer to 30 with multiple Alliances. They raise the cost of your own future Great People. The gifted Great People do not seem to be tied to the type of City-State. Cultured City-States will give you Great Generals, and Militaristic may throw you a Great Artist. It's impossible to tell if there's a small likelihood they give you one tied to their type. Ultimately, you will get a random GP from one of your City-State Allies. With many in the game, knowing if a Militaristic CS will give you a GG more often is rather pointless, because you may get GP from any of the City-States. You can't plan on anything with this. Having dozens of City-States in the game does not increase the rate you'll get them - having 1-2 Alliances will still give you GP every 30-35 turns.
If you lose all Alliances somehow, you will get Great People at the right time so long as you restore at least one Alliance. You do not lose any time. In my testing, I lost all Alliances for two turns to attempt to reset some invisible counter and still got a Great Person at the time I'd expect once they were restored.
Patronage is obviously suited to players seeking to win a Diplomatic Victory, given City-State votes are needed to win the election of World Leader. Nearly every player will use City-States, but this tree is for those who will nearly abuse them. Your goal with this is to get some of your Science from the City-States, along with Luxuries, so that you can focus on money to afford the Gold cost to buy off even more of them. Quests help, sure, but only Money is going to take away an Alliance from another Civ that has 150+ Influence with a City-state. Forget Diplomatic Victory if Venice and Austria are both in the game with you, for they will likely ruin everyone's chance of this type of Win. One is fine, and you can work past that, both would be bad.
Philanthropy: Gold gifts to City-States produce 25% more Influence
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: Gold Gifts don't produce much Influence after BNW, so those who want plenty of Allies will be grateful for this policy. Be sure you have plenty of Trading Posts around Puppet Cities and Gold buildings in your Cities though, because although 25% helps, you will still spend thousands Allying City-States. Trade Routes are very important to income generation, and understanding the system will help you earn more from them. See the Guide to Trade Routes.
Consulates: Resting point for Influence with all City-States is increased by 20.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: Take this Policy, plus a Pledge to Protect, and you're only 5 points away from Friends with the City-State, and should you lose them for a while, they'll be easier to get back. A great policy that will start raising your relations with all known City-States gradually. I pick those with the most Favor first, then move on to these when they've hit the +25 (or 20 without protection). There is also a Religious Founder Belief documented here at the Guide that will increase the resting point of City-States following your Religion, if you've founded one.
Scholasticism: All City-State Allies provide a Science bonus equal to 25% of what they produce for themselves.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: City-States don't generate a lot of Science, but this definitely helps. The boost depends on the size of the City-State, which varies wildly. Go for those with bigger population first if you're looking to take maximum advantage of this Policy.
Cultural Diplomacy: Quantity of Resources gifted by City-States increased by 100%. Happiness from gifted Luxuries increased by 50%.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: With this Policy, Luxuries from City-States are boosted to +6 Happiness, which is very helpful given you will have many Allies with these Policies. You do not get double of Luxury Resources, but rather double Strategic Resources (Iron, Horses, Aluminum, Uranium, etc.). This is a great Policy to help keep your Citizenry happy and give you better access to resources you may not have, which makes a positive impact on your Military or let you trade off more of your own.
Merchant Confederacy: +2 Gold for trade routes with City-States
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: Trade Routes with other Civs are much more lucrative, and although you are also aiding your competitors, you need the best trade routes you can get to keep up with a difficult AI. Still, this helps when City-States request Trade Routes for quests. When using Freedom's level 3 Tenet, Treaty Organization to boost Influence with CS whom you have a Trade Route with, you'll get this added benefit.
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