New Policy System Overview

There are still 10 entries on your nation's Social Policies page, but you're immediately going to notice some changes. Order, Freedom, and Autocracy are missing, and Aesthetics and Exploration have taken two of their slots. In addition, a link "To Ideology" is in the bottom left. This takes you to a page where you configure your nation's Ideology once you get into the later game and select one.

The normal Branches work just as they did before. Your nation generates Culture and reaches milestones with it that grant Policies for your people. Unlock a new Branch with your Policy or invest in a specific bonus within a Branch that's already unlocked.

Unlike the early days of Civilization V, none of the Branches conflict with each other. Rationalism and Piety have learned to get along just fine over the last couple of years. So, it's not until you pick an Ideology that you have to worry about making a choice that conflicts with the rest of your options.

The game flows as it always has until you either reach the Modern Era or build a third Factory in the Industrial Era. That's when Ideologies begin to appear. You're given a message on the right side of the screen. Click on it to open a menu that lets you choose one of the three Ideologies: Freedom, Order, or Autocracy. This pop-up lets you know how frequently these Ideologies have been taken by nations that made it to this point in the game ahead of you (if any).

Ideologies are like late-game religions in many ways. They spread and have their own influence on the world, and that can be a good or bad thing for your nation. If your Ideology is unpopular compared with another, it's going to increase Unhappiness in your empire. When the pressure gets to be too much, you might even be tempted to switch to another Ideology.

To find out more about these issues, open your Ideological Tenets page, inside of the Social Policies page. At the bottom of the screen is a listing for Public Opinion. You can see whether your people are content with your choice or whether they're getting upset because you are "behind the times." The nearby button says, "Change Ideology," and that's what you need to use if Unhappiness is tearing your nation apart.

Progressing Within Your Ideology

Selecting your Ideology is only the beginning of this new social journey. Like the other Branches, there are many bonuses within each Ideology that your nation can benefit from. In fact, there are 14 slots of bonuses in the Tenets page. If you gain enough Policies, it's possible to unlock all 14 of these and get the vast majority of available Tenets within that Ideology.

Look at the Ideological Tenets page before you try anything special. If you want to check this out immediately, set up a new game in the Information Age and found a city. You can look at the Ideologies on turn two!

In any event, your new Ideology has three levels of Tenets. You purchase them with Policies, as you normally would, but you can only get Level 1 Tenets at first.

The page shows you how many Tenets are required to purchase items from the higher levels. You need at least two Level 1s to purchase your first Level 2 Tenet, and then two Level 2s to buy a Level 3. This is all very simple when you look at the page because all of the Tenets are connected by lines.

It's usually best to unlock bonuses in the higher levels as quickly as you can. Each Ideology has game-altering abilities, and higher-level bonuses are often even better than the ones you've already seen.

Beyond that, there is another issue that promotes higher-level Tenets. When you select your first bonus within a level, it's often going to be perfect for your civilization. You're presented with a list of every possible bonus on that level, and of course you'll take the best one! The more Tenets you take on that level, the less positive impact each one has because you've already grabbed the one(s) you needed the most.

Getting bonuses from the higher levels lets you select from a new list. At a minimum, you should build six Policies into your Ideology. That's enough to put three Level 1 Tenets, 2 Level 2s, and a single Level 3. That's no more expensive than completing a normal Policy Branch (one to unlock the Branch and five more Policies within the Branch). If you want even more bonuses in any of the levels, you can always devote more Policies later toward expanding your control.

One Ideology to Rule Them All

Once Radio is discovered, the World Congress can pass a World Ideology Resolution. If this succeeds, every nation that is part of that Ideology receives +2 Delegates! That makes it much easier for those nations to control the direction of the World Congress, and it's also quite important for anyone who wants to win Diplomatically (or stymie someone else's efforts to do so).