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Policy cards make a return inCivilization 7, and they work similarly to those in Civilization 6. However, the new ages system means that there are some changes to how policy cards change between age transitions. Civ 7 also introduces Crisis Cards which are a new feature for the end-of-age crises that will plague your empire regardless of how successful your age has been.
These new changes bring about some new strategies and ways to think about policy cards, and we’ll cover some of these below to give you a better idea of how to make the most of your civic tree.
How Do Policy Cards Work?
You will start the game with two policy cards available, which you can slot into your empire when you complete your first civic research.
These early game choices are huge in Civilization 7. Will it be extra culture? Or extra science and production? You are basically choosing the future of your age within the first few turns.
See Related:Civ 7 Wiki
Policy cards can be unlocked via the technology or civic tree. Typically, they provide global buffs to your empire, whether that be extra production for infantry units, extra happiness, influence, and so on.
Really consider what sort of victory condition you want to try and achieve. Ideally, this will start when you pick your leader, civilization, and mementos before the game begins. Study the tech and civic tree to see which sort of policy cards can be unlocked to further your progress towards victory.
Crisis Cards
When you reach the end of an Age - whether that be Antiquity or Exploration - a crisis will be triggered at70 percentage completion.
You will be prompted to select a Crisis Card. This will start out with just one card, and as the age progresses and the crisis worsens, you will need to select extra cards.You must slot the crisis cards.There’s no avoiding the chaos about to head your way.
The crisis may be a plague infecting your cities,in which case you’re able to choose cards that actually can provide some benefit- like extra culture when a town is infected that has an Altar, for example.
The choice of crisis cards is extremely important. During the plague crisis during the Exploration Age, for example, you’ll need to quickly handle infected cities to prevent them from revolting.
Understandingwhen your empire is about to be thrown into chaosis very important. For example, you may be involved in a drawn-out war against a neighbor. If the plague crisis hits then your opponent’s cities will slowly kill any troops it has stationed there.
However, it may be that an aggressive city state power has spawned next to your capital and is throwing units at it.Knowing which crisis cards to take in these events can be the make or break of your empire.
Tradition And Policy Cards
There are two types of policy card available in Civilization 7:TraditionandPolicy Cards.
Tradition cards are earned via your civilization’s civic tree. Tradition cards are retained between ages, whereas regular policy cards are reset and changed for the new era.
Again, this is where some strategic thinking needs to come into play -is there a speciifc tradition card from your current civilization that will be useful in future ages?You can only choose to research one new civic at a time, therefore potentially restricting your access to your civ’s unique civics.
Generally, it’s a good idea to pick up the basic civic research before specializing in your civilization’s civic tree.
Culture Generation
Many of the policy cards are accessed via the civic tree, which is essentially a scientific technology tree but for culture generation.
Much of Civilization 7 is trying to find abalance between all the victory milestones- economic, cultural, scientific, and military, while attempting to hit a golden age in at least one of them.
There have been plenty of games where we’ve neglected culture entirely and come to regret it later, when we have no Tradition cards to slot at the beginning of the next age.
Even verybasic culture generation- like monuments in your cities - should be enough to secure some decent generation to unlock your civilization’s tradition cards.
Whenever you enter a celebration, you will be able to slot anadditional Policy or Tradition card.
