You almost always get 9 policies (including the Oracle) before Rationalism opens (6 Tradition + 3 Commerce is my usual.) Poland adds two freebies before Rationalism opens, a total of 11 policies, just right to finish Tradition and stop one short of Liberty. That's a big swing, equivalent to half of Babylon's civ ability. This move is the clincher: Don't finish Liberty, but save the finisher for endgame, an extra Great Scientist after all the normal production is complete. Front-loading production into Collective Rule does matter, and Republic is quietly strong as always. Liberty might be as good as anything else. Poland's freebies don't really shine anywhere else they can only get a slightly deeper dip into Patronage or Commerce or Piety while waiting for Rationalism to open, but there's no huge swings to be had there. But the more I thought about it, this started to seem like a good idea. Poland should be using their power to complete Tradition super early (~turn 60 after 5 normal policies plus one freebie) a three-deep diversion to Collective Rule pushes that back to around turn 100 (the 7th normal policy plus the second freebie.) Just that delay in the Tradition finisher accounts for missing out on more food than Collective Rule will ever produce hammers. I was skeptical of this approach at first. Poland cuts that knot and just answers "why not both?" The plan is to start with Liberty to Republic and Collective Rule, then all of Tradition. I'm also going to try a suggestion given by chumchu in the Realms Beyond thread: Use Poland and their free policies to complete both Tradition and Liberty. Now I'll attempt a game that should be able to dial in just-right on city count. My fast Shoshone and Babylon games were near that my slow Rome games way off. I recently worked out just how many cities you should have for a science game, a number that seemed to converge around 10.
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