Oct 7, 2010 22:51 GMT  ·  By

Civilization V is the new turn based strategy game from Jon Shafer, Sid Meier and the team at Firaxis, allowing players to take control of a nation as a mythical leader and lead them to glory in search of victory via domination, science, social policies or democratic world vote.

The aspect of Civilization V which preoccupies me the most at the moment is which of the five social policy trees to focus on as I strive for my Utopia based victory as the French.

Civilization V ditched the social system of its predecessor, which allowed the player to discover policies as he went through the ages and reconfigure his empire on the spot, with the biggest price being a few turns of anarchy.

Now players need to make some choices right from the get go and tweak them as the game goes on.

There are eight branches, each with five possible upgrades and filling in five of them completely leads to Utopia.

The adoption of a policy itself grants a bonus but the big advantages come with completing an entire column of upgrades, meaning that knowing what you need before actually requiring it in the game is crucial.

It took a few runs through Civilization V before I actually got the hang of the culture choice trees and understood what my play style was most suited to.

I tend to begin by picking up Liberty, mainly for the reduction in the cost of Settlers, because more of them lead to more cities which in turns create more culture.

I then move on to Commerce, to reduce costs for roads (a major drain on the bank) and then to jack up the happiness of my population.

Rationalism is also a no brainer, considering that, by focusing on Culture, I need all the research assistance I can get.

The other two are harder to choose, with my usual strategy being to go for Patronage, to make dealings with city states a bit easier, and then focus on Freedom for the modern age.