So I decided to run Poland first when the game comes out, and to immediately try the new VC.
I know I want aesthetics asap, because that seems a must for a TV, however I am not completely certain yet what the best policy opener will be.
Note that I will be playing on immortal or even Deity, so most of my timings are based on those difficulty levels.
The general idea is beelining for Drama and poetry, not only is it the cheapest classical
era tech (has the least prerequisites), it also enables amphitheatres.
Once you unlock the classical era, you immediately get a policy point to put into aesthetics, and the next culture pop you get will allow you to get Cultural Centers (Monuments, Amphitheaters, Opera Houses, Museums and Broadcast Towers are built 50% faster).
The question now however is what to first pick, tradition or liberty.
Tradition has obvious advantages, but I am afraid it will be clunky.
Without any ruin pops, will I be able to reach Drama & poetry before I get a 3rd culture pop? Will it be possible before I get a 2nd culture pop?
If the latter is true, it would be fantastic, because it allows me to just get the tradition opener, then go into aesthetics, and the moment I have 4 cities with 50% cheaper monuments I can pick legalism to transform them all into amphi's. Or maybe even better, I beeline with a NC fueled economy towards Accoustics and get instant opera houses in all my cities.
The problem arises however if I can never get D&P before the 3rd culture pop.
If I go tradition, I will be forced to take Aristocracy (because olicharchy is near useless unless you get very agressive AI's). Aristocracy tends to be a bit of a waste however, because most important wonders will be unattainable at higher difficulty levels.
Now the other possibilties would be piety or liberty.
Piety would allow to get a religion oriented to generate culture, and since my planned tech path would always include pottery it barely requires any investment to build a shrine and go for it.
The big plus also is that piety is much stronger than it used to be, especially the reformation beliefs.
The problem however is that on deity religions are very unreliable and often not worth the investment unless you have a religion oriented civ.
Liberty is the last possibility.
The main benefit of going liberty is that I can abandon the tree at any time and not feel bad about it.
Citizenship is powerfull now, especially since you can not milk AI's anymore for gold as easily earlygame. The same reasoning goes up for collective rule.
Also going wide is not a bad choice for a TV, since they reduced the culture penalty for the number of cities you have. More cities, more culture = more tourism output. And with culture centers it is much easier to hardbuild culture buildings in smaller cities.
So I wanted some thoughts and ideas on this from the community.
I know I want aesthetics asap, because that seems a must for a TV, however I am not completely certain yet what the best policy opener will be.
Note that I will be playing on immortal or even Deity, so most of my timings are based on those difficulty levels.
The general idea is beelining for Drama and poetry, not only is it the cheapest classical
era tech (has the least prerequisites), it also enables amphitheatres.
Once you unlock the classical era, you immediately get a policy point to put into aesthetics, and the next culture pop you get will allow you to get Cultural Centers (Monuments, Amphitheaters, Opera Houses, Museums and Broadcast Towers are built 50% faster).
The question now however is what to first pick, tradition or liberty.
Tradition has obvious advantages, but I am afraid it will be clunky.
Without any ruin pops, will I be able to reach Drama & poetry before I get a 3rd culture pop? Will it be possible before I get a 2nd culture pop?
If the latter is true, it would be fantastic, because it allows me to just get the tradition opener, then go into aesthetics, and the moment I have 4 cities with 50% cheaper monuments I can pick legalism to transform them all into amphi's. Or maybe even better, I beeline with a NC fueled economy towards Accoustics and get instant opera houses in all my cities.
The problem arises however if I can never get D&P before the 3rd culture pop.
If I go tradition, I will be forced to take Aristocracy (because olicharchy is near useless unless you get very agressive AI's). Aristocracy tends to be a bit of a waste however, because most important wonders will be unattainable at higher difficulty levels.
Now the other possibilties would be piety or liberty.
Piety would allow to get a religion oriented to generate culture, and since my planned tech path would always include pottery it barely requires any investment to build a shrine and go for it.
The big plus also is that piety is much stronger than it used to be, especially the reformation beliefs.
The problem however is that on deity religions are very unreliable and often not worth the investment unless you have a religion oriented civ.
Liberty is the last possibility.
The main benefit of going liberty is that I can abandon the tree at any time and not feel bad about it.
Citizenship is powerfull now, especially since you can not milk AI's anymore for gold as easily earlygame. The same reasoning goes up for collective rule.
Also going wide is not a bad choice for a TV, since they reduced the culture penalty for the number of cities you have. More cities, more culture = more tourism output. And with culture centers it is much easier to hardbuild culture buildings in smaller cities.
So I wanted some thoughts and ideas on this from the community.