Civilization 5 Tradition Social Policies
Strategy Guide for Gods and Kings & Brave New World
| Tradition | Liberty | Honor | Piety | Patronage | Aesthetics | Commerce | Exploration | Rationalism |
Tradition is available from the start, and is probably the most common Social Policy Opener. Adopting Tradition will give +3 Culture in the Capital and unlock building the Hanging Gardens Wonder.
Adopting all Policies in Tradition gives +15% Growth in ALL Cities, with a free Aqueduct appearing in the first 4. Like the Monument, this Aqueduct will be maintenance free and placed in the order you founded your Cities.
Additionally, adopting all five Policies in Tradition will allow you to Purchase Great Engineers with Faith starting in the Industrial Era.
Tradition is best suited to Empires that will stay around 4 Cities in size, for they do not get the Cuture cost reductions that a Civ with Liberty will receive, along with the fact that 2 of the bonuses only apply to 4 Cities. You'll see some other reasons you should plan on building a smaller empire as you read descriptions of individual Social Policies below.
Tradition is an excellent Social Policy opener for a Civ that will go for any form of win, but particularly Scientific. This is due to your ability to start focusing on Wonders in your Capital earlier, less problems with Happiness (thus more Golden ages) and that your Capital will grow to extreme size and have plenty of room to make use of Specialists like the Scientist, to further your goals. The ability to purchase Great Engineers with Faith also allows for some planning on your part to instantly build key Wonders. Civs like Venice, Ethiopia, and India are designed to be small, so finishing this tree early is a no-brainer for them.
Aristocracy: +15% Production when building Wonders and +1 Happiness for every 10 Citizens in a City.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: Addition of Happiness is not fractional, so you will only see this +1 Happiness appear for every 10 Citizens. As each population adds 1 Unhappiness, this will offset that by 10%. This is particularly potent in smaller empires, along with the other benefits of Tradition, particularly because really wide empires will not have enough happiness to see population rise beyond 20 until very late in the game and get to 10 much later. The Wonder construction bonus counts throughout the entire game, unlike that from the Pantheon Belief or Marble. 'Wonders' refers to both National and World Wonders, so it will help you get out key buildings like the Artists' guild faster as well.
Legalism: Provides a free Culture building in your first 4 Cities.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: The first 4 Cities founded will receive the next Cultural building available to them - usually a Monument, but if adopted later could be anything up to a Broadcast Tower. It will give a free version of the latest-available Cultural building for each City, depending on what it has previously constructed. If you've built all available to you, you'll seemingly get nothing, but the next Cultural building tech unlock will see that you get the bonus. If they've already built a Monument and have not yet researched Drama & Poetry, you will get a Free Amphitheater as soon as you finish the tech. The 'border expansion' reference in Tradition's in-game description refers to this - without the need to build this Monument, you'll speed the acquisition of new tiles. This helps locally, but also sets you up for much more culture later, for a Monument is required to build the next Cultural building, the Amphitheater. Some players choose to save adopting this Policy this until they have built the prerequisites for the Cultural building they want in their Cities. If you adopt the Policy with Monuments up in your Cities, the free Cultural building will be an Amphitheater when you're done researching Drama & Poetry. Free Opera Houses, Museums, and Broadcast Towers are also possible if you have built the prerequisite buildings before adopting the Policy. If you do as a player suggested below and wait until you've built Amphitheaters, you could have free Opera Houses built immediately upon unlocking them with Acoustics. If you have four or less Cities, this can make your Civ ready to build the Hermitage National Wonder (requires Architecture).
Oligarchy: Garrisoned Units cost no maintenance and Cities with a garrison gain +50% Ranged Combat Strength.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: Do not get confused on City Combat Strength with the Oligarchy policy. This will not raise the Combat Strength against attack, which is shown on the map. It raises the damage done by the City's ranged attack. Having a garrison will contribute 20% of that Unit's strength to the City's total, so that type of boost DOES improve the defense. This is for increasing the City's ability to do damage. Ensure maximum use of this policy by making sure one unit (ranged is best) is stationed in every City you own. This is wise to do anyway, given the threat of War, barbarians, and uprisings when the Empire is Unhappy. Combine this with walls, castle, etc. and you have a City that is very hard to take. Unless you are at War, this should be the last Policy you take in Tradition. Monarchy can provide more gold per turn than the unit maintenance costs in the Ancient/Classical eras and the ranged combat will only come in handy against Barbarians, who you should be proactive about removing from the game.
Landed Elite: +10% Growth and +2 Food in the Capital
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: Some will debate whether you should take this or Monarchy first when finishing Liberty. Overall, it is situational. If you can't grow due to Happiness getting low, then Monarchy will come in handy more. If your Empire is happy and you are not running out of gold, then take Landed Elite first to get your Capital growing. This is a very nice Policy and supports an entire Citizen by itself, helping you use specialists earlier, while the 10% growth bonus is added to the +15% for finishing Tradition, giving the Capital +25% growth, which is great with the free Aqueduct you'll get for finishing, along with any Religious Beliefs.
Monarchy: +1 Gold and -1 Unhappiness for every 2 Citizens in the Capital
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: While it's not exact, removing Unhappiness might as well be adding Happiness to the City, which will help you secure your first Golden Age. The +1 Gold per turn per 2 Citizens will also offset maintenance costs of the buildings in your Capital. With this Policy enacted, you'll want to push as much food as possible to your Capital through Trade Routes, while also ensuring you give it some production tiles. You can have a capital twice as big as your other Cities, twice as hard to take from you, and capable of building Wonders swiftly. If you are having growth problems and want to avoid Unhappiness, watch for each even-numbered Citizen's arrival, for that one will be free, with 2 free on every 10th thanks to Aristocracy. I have stopped growth on all Cities but the Capital in some situations to take advantage of this Policy along with Landed Elite to keep the Capital growing during hard times.
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6Also of note(but not tested): It should ALSO work if you do not have the tech available at the time you activate the policy, and come into effect later when you research a new culture building.
I did test your idea with the ingame editor - so anyone who wants to do as you do and get free Opera Houses should build Amphitheaters in those first four Cities (only those you Settled yourself, I think). You would then be free to pick the Policy, and when you get Acoustics finished, you'll get free Opera Houses instantly - so go ahead and grab the policy to enable you to get the juicy ones below it. The game will compensate you, I'm happy to say! This could make Hermitage very easy to build upon reasearching Architecture and help with Cultural Victory. So, I think we've helped each other here :)
