Sid Meiers Civilization V - Gods & Kings Game Guide & Walkthrough

The Gods & Kings expansion pack to Civilization V enriches the gameplay with completely new elements which additionally complete the measures you can use to control your empire. In this guide I will focus on solving the mysteries brought with the expansion, including among others:

• The religion system - we have been given the option to choose a religion which drastically influences the gameplay style, giving new ways of influencing other civilizations.
• Espionage - the option to spy on enemies, unlocked after reaching Renaissance, dedicated to those who don't like getting their hands dirty.
• Scenarios - four pre-generated maps on which you will have to complete certain tasks. One is a sort of a variation of the main game mode.

The following colours have been used in the guide:

• Black - Resources and important elements that don't fit to the below categories
• Blue - Technologies
• Brown - Buildings and upgrades
• Green - Units
• Orange - Social policies

Dawid "Kthaara" Zgud ()

Translated to English by Jakub "cilgan" Lasota

Basics

The Faith system fills up the gap created by the basic game, in which there was no option like this.

Each part of this system requires Faith points. You can obtain them just like Culture - by building new building and (with time) making new geographical and technological discoveries and thanks to City-States.

The impact of the Faith system on the game is considerable. Each civilization can have its own Pantheon, but not each can start a religion. Usually, the number of religions that can be started is less than half of the players in the game. That's why you should do it as soon as possible. The one controlling a religion has influence on all its followers. If our religion has a bonus depending on the number of followers (e.g. Tithe - 1 gold per turn for every 4 followers), it's important for it to spread as much as possible. Thanks to religions, you can also summon Great Prophets and build some buildings thanks to Faith points.

Of course we should care about having our own religion and not believing in something not fitting us. That's why the first technology you should develop after setting a city is Pottery. Thanks to it you will be able to build a Shrine - the first building giving you 1 Faith per turn. With time you should learn more technologies, letting you build further religious buildings.

After building a Shrine and waiting a few turns, it's time for the next step...

Pantheon

The first step to starting your own Religion is collecting a dozen or so Faith points. You can get them by exploring ruins, from City-States and by building a Shrine. Once you have enough (usually 10-15, depending on the map) you will be able to start your own Pantheon - the main pillar of Faith. There are numerous possibilities - as much as 22 - though you must choose only one. Choose wisely! You cannot change your decision later on, just polish it.

Each option has a certain bonus to collecting a given resource or to a different aspect of the game. I won't try to point out the best one - you should decide what's best for you.

Overall no option gives us a large development boost, though there are a few more useful. The ones influencing production seem a good choice - though you should check out which are more useful for you. The option which increases the food growth is also useful, as the city will develop faster.

The only option for those who want to use Faith to boost science is the +2 Science in cities with a Trade Route. Overall, not very useful further on in the game. As pretty much every option really.

Apart from that, most Religions focus on gathering Faith - which is useful for buying units, but only those low level ones....

After creating a Pantheon, you will have to wait a bit. In order to start your own religion, your civilization must give birth to a...

Great Prophet

The Great Prophet can do a number of things:

• Convert people in other cities to your religion. He can do it four times before disappearing. However if he does it even once, he won't be able to do any of the three other things.
• He can build a Holy Site on the map which will take place of any other improvement, connect strategic resources (but not Luxury ones!) with your empire and give us a bonus from the upgraded field in form of 6 Faith points.
• He can Enhance your Religion if you already have one. The upgrade lets you choose two additional beliefs, therefore two bonuses to your religion.
• He can also (finally!) Found a Religion, assuming you don't already have one and there's still place for it in the world.

The best way of obtaining the first Great Prophet is investing in... Culture and the Liberty tree. In return for filling up the whole tree (spending six points) you will get one free Great Prophet. With your civilization developing at a proper rate, you should have the social policy tree filled up way before you can obtain him with Faith.

After obtaining the Great Prophet, send him to one of your cities (at best the capital) and choose "Found Religion"...

Religion

Founding a religion is most of all making a few choices - firstly the symbol and name. You can already see your basic Belief (bonus, right below the name), to which you can add two more - a Founder and Follower Beliefs.

The Founder Belief is a bonus just for you - as you have founded the religion. The range of these bonuses is vast - you have to decide on something. Generally it's better to take something tangible - that is gold. If you're however planning on aggressively expanding your religion, you might want to choose an option which gives you Science for each converted citizen.

Follower Beliefs are bonuses given by followers of a given religion present on a given territory. One of the best is adding 1% production for each follower in the city.

Now you can also choose an additional Belief if you're playing as the Byzantines. You choose is from the available Pantheon Beliefs, which is very good as their bonuses are the largest.

From now on, the Faith points start to be useful - you can use them to buy certain buildings (Cathedral, Monastery, Mosque, Pagoda) is you choose a proper Belief, spend on special units (Missionary and Inquisitor) and also pre-industrial units after choosing a proper Belief.

Improving the religion

If you decide to use another Great Prophet, you can (or even should) improve your religion. That way you can add two additional Beliefs to it.

The second Follower Belief can be chosen from the ones left. The list becomes smaller as new religions are created, so it's best to improve yours as fast as possible.

Enhancer Beliefs let you improve the possibilities of spreading your Religion. You can choose between various ways of influencing the followers. The possible options are, for example, increasing the speed at which the City-States are converted or the power of missionaries.

Only after enhancing your religion can you use Faith to summon Inquisitors. It's a useful unit in case a different religion starts in your city. You can't always fully convert all infidels, though an Inquisitor can root out a religion - all infidels will become pagans or convert to the dominating religion.

This aspect of the game becomes unlocked after one of the players reaches Renaissance. From now on, each player will receive one Spy for each next era (Renaissance, Industrial, Modern, Atomic, Information), making a total of five. You can also receive an additional one for the National Intelligence Agency wonder.

Spies can infiltrate other cities and steal technologies found there, which is also their main "offensive" use. Apart from that, if they're inside an enemy city, they gather other useful information, for example regarding invasion plans. Looking inside the enemy city is also possible.

"Defensive" Spies are set in your own cities. Above all they slow down enemy Spies which is useful during war. Their second use is protecting your technology from being stolen.

Spies don't have a large influence on the gameplay if you have a technological advantage over your rivals. It's then better to have them guard your own cities or pull off coups in City-States, thanks to which you will earn their favour.

 

Basics

Scenarios are something like separate games in the game - most of the time they have their own map and civilizations, out of which each one has their own units. Scenarios also have their own technologies and Social Policies. All four are a good idea to expand your experience with Civilization V Gods & Kings. It's worth playing them in order to get more fun from the game.

The "Empires of the Smoky Skies" is by far the most interesting scenarios. The developers let their imagination go wild and created a world dominated by steam-powered machines.

In this chapter I will try to present the problems which can occur while playing these maps, as well as principles during each of them.

You should read the description of each scenario - it's available while choosing the difficulty and (optionally) map and civilization. The goals and special rules are in force are described there. Those rules are also available during the gameplay.

In this scenario you will face the problems of Rome. Its rulers see that their power is instable, while the local lesser lords and preparing to attack their outposts. Will you take control of the Romans or Barbarians?

Overall

You can begin as the ruler of one of the Rome parts - Eastern or Western, as Persians or one of the five Barbarian lords. The game automatically ends after 70 turns - points count, so while playing as Sassanid, Goths, Celts, Huns, Vandals and Franks you need to conquer. On the other side, the Romans must protect themselves from the enemy armies. Pretty much everybody is at war with everybody - only the two Roman empires are allies.

Beginning as the Barbarians, you will receive only a small part of the map and a considerable army. The Roman Empire on the other hand, occupies pretty much the whole map. You objective is to reduce the number of their cities as much as possible.

Each player has all the Ancient and Classical Eras technologies unlocked. All the structures connected with Science are locked - you don't gather any new points or invent new technologies. Religion is also deactivated - you can't create new ones and there aren't any present on the map. Settlers cannot be created, so you cannot establish new cities.

Players

You have eight civilizations to choose from:

• Western Rome - Barbarians Adopting - A party allied with Eastern Rome. Bonus: defeated barbarians are added to your army with half their original life. Special units: Legion - (higher Combat Strength), replaces Swordsman and Ballista - (higher Combat Strength), replaces Catapult.
• Eastern Rome - Theodosian Walls - A party allied with Western Rome. Bonus: if a unit is two spaces from a Fort, it gets +10% Combat Strength. Great Generals appear 50% more often and give 10% additional Combat Strength. Special units: Cataphract - (better combat and defence), replaces Horsemen and Dromon - (much better Combat Strength), replaces Trimere.
• Sassanid - Achaemenid Legacy - This civilization is very good with conquering cities and fighting enemy armies. They begin with three cities. Bonus: Golden Ages last 50% longer and units during it get +1 move and +10% Combat Strength. Special elements: Clibanarii - (much better at capturing cities, fast attack), replaces the normal Horseman and Satrap's Courthouse - (+2 gold, +2 happiness, +25% gold), replaces the Bank.
• Celts - Druidic Lore - They start with three cities. Bonus: +50% while fighting civilizations with more cities, embarked units have +1 move and use up only one move when getting onto the shore, instead of the whole turn, they treat woods on their territory as roads - they can also build trade routes thanks to them. Special elements: Pictish Warrior - (gets a bonus for fighting on enemy terrain, pillage doesn't consume movement points, +50% strength if he's fighting with other units which surround the enemy), replaces Spearman and Ceilidh Hall - (+3 happiness, +4 culture), replaces Opera which doesn't give additional happiness.
• Franks - Phoenician Heritage - They start with five cities. Bonus: Terrain cost doesn't apply to units moving along hills or riversides. Special elements: Feast Hall - (+2 happiness, +2 culture), replaces Circus, which requires Horses or Elephants and Axe Thrower - (a stronger unit, has Landing - can attack from the sea, DOESN'T require Iron), replaces Swordsman.
• Goths - Healthy pillaging - They begin with five cities. Bonus: A unit heals completely after pillaging an improvement which isn't a road. Special elements: Gadrauht - (stronger, can use roads on enemy territories, DOESN'T require Iron), replaces Swordsman and Hov - (+1 happiness, +2 gold), replaces Market, however it does not give the city a +25% gold bonus.
• Huns - Scourge of God - They begin with only one city, but things get easier after the first conquest. Bonus: all land units have +2 moves. After conquering the first city you will receive two Battering Rams, first five cities give two Horses, each pasture +2 production. Special units: Battering Rams - (largely effective against cities in a direct fight), replaces Spearman and Horse Archers (a fast unit with good defence, DOESN'T require Horses), replaces Chariot Archer.
• Vandals - Pirates of the Mediterranean - They begin with three cities and are great on the sea. Bonus: they adopt enemy ships after defeating them, with half their original health. Special units: Axemen - (greater Combat Strength, Charge - additional strength when fighting a damaged unit, DOESN'T require Iron), replaces Swordsman and Quinquereme (greater Combat Strength), replaces Triremes.

Social Policies

Each player has access to one of three Social Policy tree:

• Rome Tree is available for two civilizations - the Western and Eastern Rome. It's a degrading tree - each next Policy from it has a negative effect on the country. Therefore you will get penalties to gold income, keeping units, luck, unit strength and production.
• Sassanid Tree, available only for Persians, gives bonuses to Culture, income in gold, production and happiness. It can also cause a Golden Age.
• Barbarian Tree, available for the others, gives bonuses to the way the country functions. One branch gives a bonus to the army, boosting production during training, experience in battles and combat strength. The second has an influence on the cities, speeding up the construction of Courts, giving an overall bonus to production and causing the city to produce two points more of everything.

If you fill up the whole tree before the 70th turn, you will receive gold in the amount of one third of the Culture income.

Gameplay methods

Winning this scenario depends mostly on the chosen civilization and the tactic:

• Playing as one of the Roman Empires, you most of all DON'T BUILD ANY CULTURE BUILDINGS. You have a Monument in each city and cannot destroy them. Additionally there are other culture buildings in larger cities as well. Each lost city also gives you culture points. Remember about this, as the social policies tree gives negative effects! Use the abilities of your units - Western Rome lets you adopt enemy units - you can temporarily increase your army using it. Try to keep enemies from large cities like Rome, Carthage, Trier, Mediolanum, Ravenna in Western and Constantinople, Salonica, Ephesus, Antiochia and Alexandria in Eastern Rome. Each lost city will cut your points - the larger the city, the larger the loss, of course.
• Playing as the Sassanids will require you to take care after your citizens - Golden Ages, apart from an overall boost to the economy, also improve the abilities of your army. Use your special units - Clibanarii are capable of attacking twice a turn! Keep an eye on the size of your army - Sassanids aren't barbarians and therefore have to pay for their units. Your cities give points as well, so you should defend them for your own good.
• Playing as the Barbarians - there are five types of them, each starts somewhere else (Goths from the today's Austria and Romania, Franks - Germany, Celts - England, Vandals - Morocco, Huns - far to the north-east, by the Black Sea) - you need to focus on flooding Rome with your armies. You don't pay for any of your units. Each nation has other Special units, use them to successively conquer cities - there's not much time and the score isn't certain.

Attention! This scenario is only available if after clicking on the DLC option in the Menu you have a visible "Mongolia under Genghis Khan"

Genghis Khan - this name put fear amongst many. His empire had thousands of kilometres. Will you be able to satisfy the appetite for conquer, or surrender to your neighbours and forever be excluded from the pages of history?

Overall

You don't have a choice regarding the civilization in this scenario. You will be the leader of the Mongols and will have to conquer at least four big civilizations around you in least than 100 turns. Higher difficulties raise the requirements.

There are lots of City-States to be conquered and additionally a couple civilizations with a few cities. Each plundered city gives you gold, culture and a free social policy, additional units and much more...

Players

You can play only as the Mongols.

Mongols - Mongolian Terror - Civilization oriented solely on conquering cities. They have great Mounted units for it. Bonus: +30% Combat Strength when attacking City-States units and the Cities themselves. Mounted units have +1 move. Special units: Keshik - (more moves and experience, can move after attacking), replaces the standard Knight and Chan - (moves faster and has more health), replaces the Great General.

Social Policies

You have access to the standard Policy trees. Four points are assigned to Honour from the very start.

Gameplay strategy

You begin the game with one city (Karakorum), two Workers, one Keshik, one Chan and four Horsemen. It's worth to upgrade those you can to Keshiks. The technology tree is unlocked fully, but the game ends after 100 turns so you should focus on developing technology, instead focusing on conquering your neighbours. There a few civilizations waiting to be defeated, including China, Sayam, Indie and Japan.

Use the Mongols strong sides: they have a +30% attack bonus against City-States. They also have a great mounted unit - Keshik - capable of attacking a city and afterwards retreating from the range of its attacks.

This scenario is challenging even on lower difficulty levels. Its main focus is conquering new cities, the amount of which will increase fast and so will the dissatisfaction of the citizens, which will reach rock bottom after a while. When the happiness level drops below zero (a red number will appear on the bar at the top of the screen), the level at which your civilization grows will drop to 25% of its normal value. Apart from that, the conquered cities will still resist you, so you will have to wait quite a long time before building a Courthouse.

Crusades are a result of a great struggle for control over the Holy City of three religions: Jerusalem. Will you manage to lead a successful offensive and take over the city? Or perhaps your might ends up defeated by an enemy empire, which currently reigns over the Holy City? Finally, will you survive those dark ages and will you have the strength to step on the path into the Renaissance?

Generally

Scenario is based primarily on historical Europe, but it permits... drawing of the map.

From the beginning there are three religions on the map: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam. The game, naturally, does not allow the creation of new ones. The Holy City of the first one is the Vatican City, the second one - Constantinople, from the beginning belonging to Byzantium (it is the only civilization which controls a Holy City from the beginning) - and for Islam - Mecca. At the beginning, Jerusalem, Constantinople and Mecca are each a free city-state. Provided that we control any of the Holy Cities, we will receive a bonus from the dogma of the founder's religion.

The game is all about the points, and it ends after 200 turns. For each turn of control or alliance with the Holy City or Jerusalem, we obtain 10 additional points. Sending a caravel to the West, discovering the Exploration (New World), being elected the Emperor of Germany or seizing control over cities of other religion is another way of gaining additional points.

Each civilization starts at the beginning of the era of the Middle Ages - technologies of Ancient and Classical era are long discovered. Furthermore, it also receives two units of Settlers, one unit of Workers and a specific quantity of military units. Playing as a Christianity nation, the location of Vatican City and Jerusalem is marked on our map - Mecca and Constantinople are hidden. In turn, playing as an Islamic nation, the location of Mecca and Jerusalem is shown to us.

Players

We can choose from a variety of civilizations, existing in the then Europe - some of which have been modified in the actual gameplay.

England - originally: +2 to movement speed of naval units.

Austria - originally: can spend 500 gold to take over allied city-state.

The Celts - change: +20% additional strength against units of a civilization with more cities (instead of additional faith from upgraded forests).

Sweden - change: embarked units gain additional movement point and their embarkation / disembarkation costs only one movement point, instead of a whole turn (instead of additional influence on Great People).

Spain - change: after discovering Exploration, they can send Conquistadors, who will gain additional victory points and gold (instead of gold from the discovery of Natural Wonders).

The Turks - originally: they can convert barbarian naval units to join their side, and gain additional gold for doing that.

The Netherlands - originally: they retain 50% of the happiness benefits from a Luxury Resource if they lose it.

Egyptians (Ayyubids) - new nation - Saladin's Justice - Bonus: in every conquered city, a free court is built. Additionally, they have free Pyramids in Cairo. Special: Mamluks - (no penalty for attacking cities), they replace Knights and Madrasa - (+33% Science from the city, +2 Faith, +2 Science from the jungle), it replaces University, which does not give Faith.

Arabian (Almoravids) - change: +2 gold from each Trade Route (instead of +1 gold from each Trade Route and double quantity from Oil resources).

Russia - change: +1 movement speed for land units, additionally movement along the river costs one movement point (instead of additional production and doubling of strategic resources)

Byzantium - change: you begin with an additional Spy and a Holy City (instead of additional Faith when establishing a religion).

France - original: each city gives +2 Culture each turn.

How to play

A good strategy for completing this scenario with a decent score, is to acquire and hold alliances with Holy Cities, and, if it's possible, complete their side quests - you gain Points of Influence for doing so, although those points drop down very fast.

When playing as Byzantium, you must prevent any enemies from getting into Constantinople - your top priority should be to maintain control over it, as it gives you points and religious bonuses.

Discovering the steam engine caused the history of Earth to take a turn to an alternative route. Tracked vehicles like the Landship and Airships in the sky, all powered by steam and coal are a normal view, while ships powered by a strange green substance known as Luboric can be seen in the sea. Will you survive in the times of Steampunk? And most importantly, will you win?

Overall

The scenario doesn't resemble any others - it's not based on real events, but a variation on steampunk. Everything is powered by steam engines here - tracked vehicles, airships and ships on the sea.

Gameplay parameters: the map is SMALL, speed NORMAL, one turn last one year - you begin in 1800. The map in this scenario can be fully randomized; you have a list with available terrain. There are no free military or religious cities on the map; in fact religion is switched off completely. Strategic resources have been also changed - in place of Aluminium there's Aetherium and Uranium has been replaced with Luboric.

Each player begins with three groups of Settlers, two Workers, two Scouts and two Land Ironclads. Each group of Settlers starts a city with four citizens and a set of buildings including a Monument, Library and a couple more starting ones.

You have five fictional civilizations to choose from - each one of them reached the technology of Steam Engine. Each one also has a different bonus to a given aspect of the game and has a specific building to build, which gives more bonuses - developing a given technology gives access to it. Everyone also have all the technologies including the Industrial Age. The tree has been modified and all technologies are now connected with the power of steam.

You also receive three Spies at the start - it's worth to keep two in your own country to counter enemy Spies and send one to your enemies for information.

Players

You can choose from five fictional technocratic civilizations. Generally each one represents a different gameplay approach.

• Eruch - Tireless Guard - Most conquest-oriented party - Airships and Flying Fortresses are common later on in the game. Bonus: Airships get +2 moves. Special building: Aerodrome - (+15 EXP for each flying unit produced in the city, +10% production when building air units), replaces Airship Hangar which doesn't give production bonus.
• Dalmace - New World Order - A party favouring culture. You can't win culturally, but you can increase your advantages. Bonus: 10% less culturecosts for Social Politics, Special building: Grandstand - (+4 happiness, +2 culture), replaces Stadium which doesn't boost culture.
• Orlin - Optimized Extractors - An industrial civilization which literally floods enemies with their units. Bonus: each strategic resource gives +1 production, additionally Luboric resources are doubled. Special building: Luboric Factory - (+2 Luboric, +2 production, each mined Luboric deposit gives +1 production), replaces Luboric Refinery, which gives only 2 Luboric units.
• Pulias - Border Markets - A civilization of merchants - later on in the game they commonly just buy units and buildings. Bonus: Each strategic resource gives +1 gold, additionally Aetherium resources are doubled. Special building: Aetherium Factory - (+2 Aetherium, +3 gold, each mined Aetherium deposit gives +1 gold), replaces Aetherium Plant which gives only 2 Aetherium units.
• Vedria - Inventor's Guild - A typical technocracy, focusing mainly on developing technologies, which results in a special building. Bonus: buildings in the capital produce 25% more. Special building: Toric Dynamo - (+3 gold, +50% science from the city) replaces Tesla Coil, which gives only 33% science.

Technology

The tech tree is completed all the way to the Industrial Age. The most important invention is the Steam Engine - because of it, from the start we will be able to build Railroads, Land Ironclads and ... Landships.

It's where the new steam technology tree begins - anyone who's ever played a game set in this scenery should have an idea of what technologies can be found on it. The new technologies are divided into three eras - steam, airship and future.

At start we can build three industrial age wonders: Louvre, Big Ben and The Brandenburg Gate. As you discover new technologies, you will gain access to new ones (most of the real) like The Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, as well as the Analog Machine or Perpetual Mobile.

There are as many orders of discovering the technologies as there are gameplay strategies. I described the technologies order for each party:

• Playing as Eruch, you should focus on getting Airships before anyone else does - later on you can just destroy them. The first thing to develop should be the Propulsion giving access to the first flying unit - Flyer. Afterwards in any order you like (if available): Economic Imperialism, Explosives, Expeditions and Landships. Afterwards enter the Airship Age by inventing the Airship which will give you a military advantage, thanks to the modern army and civilization bonuses. It's good to push forward and invent the Sky Fortress - for them you will need the Hellish Ignition, Uranography and Land Leviathan. Of course don't forget about production - here the Analog Computation and the building it provides - Difference Engine - will come in handy. Additionally on your way you should build a Patent office. With that, you have all the important things invented: Land-Leviathan, Sky Fortress, Flyers which operates from it, as well as Battleships and Submarines.
• Playing as Orlin or Pulias your big advantage will be developing production. The first technology should be Analog Computation and the Difference Engine. Afterwards reaching the Patent office - develop Propulsion and Explosives followed by Landship. Further gameplay depends on how you want to dominate your enemies - technologically or militarily. For military look above, for technology below.
• Playing as Vedria, which focuses on technology, you have a wide spectrum of choices to play with. The basic thing is developing Analog Computation, placing a Difference Engine in all cities and an Analytical Engine in the capital. It will give you a big boost to science and production. Of course don't forget about the other aspects - building Libraries and Universities should also interest you. The next step should be developing your special building, the Toric Dynamo, for which you need: Economic Imperialism, Propulsion, Explosives, Vertical Integration, Expeditions (gives a nice building: the Trade Academy giving science and culture), Submarines, Noblesse Oblige and Airships. That will give you the chance to develop Galvanometrics and afterwards Toric Dynamo (or Tesla Coil if you're playing as someone else). With these buildings, you will be light years away from others with technology.
• Dalmace doesn't have a specific way of discovering technologies. You can use any of the above ones - additionally you can focus on culture in cities and place proper buildings, but that won't give you a large advantage either way.

Social Policies

You have five trees to choose from. Each is available to anyone from the very beginning. You can connect points from given trees. Each represents a given aspect of a country - production, army, commerce etc. At the beginning, right after building the first city it is worth to allocate policies - you have Culture for three points.

• Labour tree - Shoulder to shoulder: +10% production when building a wonder, population of new cities is 1 larger, Aristocracy: +15% production when building a wonder, +1 to happiness for every 10 citizens, Securalism: +2 do science for each specialist, Democracy: the population of specialists generates half unhappiness, Educated elite: allied City-State will occasionally grant you with Great people.
• Culture tree - Mandate of Heaven: half of happiness is added to culture, Reformation: Culture grows 33% in cities with a wonder, additionally start a Golden Age, Legalism: provides a free culture building in your first 4 cities, Representation: Each next city increases the cost of new policies by 33% less, additionally starts a Golden Age. After accepting Reformation and Representation you can add Religious Tolerance, which will lower the cost of further policies by 10%.
• Industry tree - Socialism: building maintenance cost reduced by 15%, Communism: +2 production in each city, +1 production for each mine and quarry, Republic: +1 production in each city, +5% production when constructing buildings, Planned Economy: Factories increase the science in cities by 25%, +50% production when constructing Factories, Fascism: The amount of Strategic resources doubles, Great Generals have +2 moves.
• Commerce tree - Trade union: Cost of road and railroad maintenance reduced by 33% Harbours and Seaports give additionally +1 gold, Free Speech: free maintenance for 8 units, Meritocracy: +1 happiness in each city with a trade route to the capital, lower unhappiness in unoccupied cities, Mercantilism: prices of units and buildings lowered by 25%, +1 science for each bank, market, mint and stock market, Protectionism: +2 happiness for each exclusive good.
• Military tree - Discipline: +15% combat strength for military units with another military unit in an adjacent space. Military Tradition: units gain 50% more experience, Nationalism: +15% attack when fighting on an allied space, Discipline and Military Tradition lead to Professional Army: upgrading units costs 33% less and +1 happiness for each defensive building, Military Tradition and Nationalism lead to Militarism: cost of buying units reduced by 33%.

Overall the policies are grouped so that each civilization can focus on one of them. The Vedria however doesn't have its own tree, while bonuses to production are always welcomed.

Victory

Basically you can win in two ways - by wiping out all the opponents or diplomatically, by becoming the leader of the League of Empires. The latter one is easy - you just have to hold three titles (form the below ones) for five turns:

• Defender of Progress - the leader is whoever has the most modern army. Only the best models count - whenever someone manages to build a better, older ones stop counting. Easy to achieve with well developed technology.
• Grand Philanthropist - the leader is whoever has the most world and national wonders. That's why you should start building wonder form the very beginning, and in case someone beats you, you can always conquer his city...
• Captain of Industry - the leader is whoever has the most industrialized city. The task is childishly easy - if the city is placed around hills, has a Factory and other improvements, it should gather over 100 production points without any problems.
• Lord of Refinement - the leader is whoever has the most social policies. Generally it's worth to try it only when playing as Dalmace because of their bonus - otherwise you won't succeed in other fields.
• Master of Wealth - the leader is whoever earned the most gold from the start of the game. The amount shown here is the sum of all INCOMES from the very start of the scenario.

Whenever you get three titles (it's rather easy), your neighbours will start being problematic almost instantly. They will stop trusting you and start condemning and will try to take your place in at least one title. You have to survive five turns of their attempts to win the scenario.