Grow Tall: You prefer to concentrate on just a few cities and maximize their output Expand Wide: You want to build many cities and have the ability to mass produce units
These are best represented by the two starting social policy trees — Tradition and Liberty.
Differences at a Glance
Tradition and Liberty are the recommended picks for your starting social policy trees. They’ll define your trajectory for the rest of your game. Plus, they’ll give you huge bonuses in their respective playstyles:
Growth for Tradition Expansion for Liberty
Here’s a table for a side-by-side comparison of their bonuses:
Which One Should You Choose?
Starting geography: Allows buying Great Engineers with faith
If you’re hemmed in by mountains and oceans, pick Tradition. If there’re plenty of open areas scattered with lots of resources, go for Liberty.
Civ abilities:
Liberty enables militaristic civs (like Greece and The Huns) to overpower other civs in the early game. By having multiple cities, they can produce units en masse. Tradition complements the abilities of science- and Wonder-focused civs like Egypt and Korea.
Map size:
In small maps, Tradition is the most sensible option since you won’t be expanding that much anyways. Larger maps let you get the most out of Liberty’s bonuses.
Which Victory Types Are Best?
Generally, this depends on which resource you’ll need.
Tradition for Science & Culture
First, you must understand how tech and social policies work: With Tradition, you have more pops concentrated in just a few cities. It also gives you free monuments for your first four cities and +3 culture in your capital. You’ll be producing more science and culture while keeping your costs down. So if you’re aiming for a Science Victory or a Cultural Victory, Tradition is your best bet.
Liberty for Production & Faith
Faith is primarily generated by shrines and temples. Both can be built only once in each city. Liberty encourages having multiple cities, which means you can have more faith-generating buildings. That’s also why it’s better at unit production. A city can only create units one at a time. With Liberty, you’ll have several cities producing units in parallel. These make Liberty great for an early Domination Victory.
