Civ 5 Polynesian Civilization
Civ Bonuses, AI Info, Strategies, Unique Units and Buildings
Updated for Gods and Kings and Brave New World DLCs
Civilization's Leader: Kamehameha
Civ Bonus: Wayfinding
All Units can Embark and cross Ocean Immediately and receive a +10% CS bonus within 2 Tiles of a Moai. Embarked Units get +1 Sight. The ability to cross Oceans applies to ships as well, so you can explore the entire world with an early Scout and Trireme. The only thing that can't enter deep ocean without Astronomy is the Cargo Ship, so you still have reason to research this tech if you need Internal/External Trade Routes that do not have coast connecting them... and who doesn't?
Unique Unit: Maori Warrior
Replaces Warrior
The Maori Warrior puts a -10% combat strength penalty on nearby opponents. This doesn't stack, but does help a little with the damage your Units will receive when you're attacking. It doesn't help with any ranged damage done, however. Thankfully, this does carry over when the Unit is upgraded, else it would be completely useless as Polynesia isn't really meant to Warmonger -- though they could do it better than Denmark!
Unique Tile Improvement: Moai
Requires Construction, Unique Improvement
Gives +1 Culture, plus 1 for each adjacent Moai. Better on Islands for more adjacency bonuses. It also gives +1 Gold after Flight is researched, making for some great tiles.
| Warmonger Hatred | Wonder Compete | Offense Build | Defense Build | City Defense | DoF | Friendly to Civs | Denounce Civs | War w/Civs | Deception Likelihood | CS Comp | CS War | |
| 7 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | |
| Other Info | Kamehameha is a loyal leader, but has a high denounce likelihood if you get on his bad side. He has strong tendencies for naval as well as expansion. If he manages to survive the onslaught of any warmongers in the game, it's possible for him to win through tourism generated by his Moai. He's very good at Cultural Victory without ever even trying. | |||||||||||
Civilization to play on Archipelago-based Maps
Strategies/Ideas for playing Polynesia:Polynesia is a Civ with great potential on Archipelago maps. While they do play fine on Continents, Archipelago gives them a few benefits over other Civs. First, they are able to claim the best land for themselves quite early using a standard scout-opening build order and finding nearby islands with unique Luxuries. Secondly, the layout of Archipelago islands tends to allow their Moai statues to rack up more adjacency bonuses. When islands are shaped like those above, you have coast on either side so can build Moai in many spots. This means each Moai can have at least 2, but sometimes as many as 4, adjacent Moai to raise the Culture on that tile. With a typical continents-based approach, you would only have a line of moai with each getting 2 adjacency bonuses, for a total +3 Culture. Archipelago also slows the rate of Science in the game a touch, so gives them more time to catch up on higher difficulties. Being able to explore the world early, you will get a slight reduction in tech costs for each Civ you meet that has a tech you don't know, and the earlier this kicks in, the faster you can catch up and later pass the AI.
There are few Civs that get such huge bonuses to Cultural Victory as Polynesia. It almost makes France's doubled Theming Bonuses and Chateau seem like a joke. The Moai can generate at least 3 Culture per turn, and every single one of those is able to be converted 1:1 to Tourism with Hotels and Airports. If you go Aesthetics, you can make this even better by increasing the benefit of Open Borders, Trade Routes, and Shared Religion to 40% each. If you play peacefully, it's fairly easy to get at least a Trade Route and Open Borders with every Civ in the game. When you add in a National Visitor Center in the City with the most Tourism Potential, invent the Internet fairly early, and utilize Great Musician culture bombs, it can be one of the easiest Cultural Victories you'll achieve.
I won an Immortal game with them a day before writing this, and really enjoyed the feel of exploring the world so early and racking up huge Tourism by the time I had Refrigeration. I missed out on a few key wonders by just a few turns, but that I won without them says a lot. If playing Tall, you still want some Wonders to help you have places to put great works and give you Theming Bonuses, but you are at least guaranteed to be able to have Hermitage, Oxford University, and the ability to invent the Internet. I missed Sistine Chapel and The Louvre by 1-2 Turns each, and this disappointed me, but it only delayed the inevitable. I had such a strong cultural output that I had the most policies adopted and forced several Civs over to Freedom by the end of the game.
Border Expansion, but also grants huge Tourism bonuses later in the game.
Something unique about the Moai is that they can be built on top of Tiles where you are normally forced to put a specific improvement - say, luxuries, or food tiles like Cattle. You are not required to make Plantations or Pastures, but can rather put Moai there. I assume the developers did this so that you are able to get chains of Moai without having some silly critter cause you to have to miss out on big Cultural bonuses. While the early game may dictate that you need Luxuries to help your Cities grow, you are able to replace their improvements once you have Hotels and Airports to speed up your Cultural Victory.
In case you skimmed the top, note that you DO need Astronomy to let your Cargo Ships traverse Ocean Tiles. I had a moment of confusion using them, when I was unable to connect a relatively close City of my own for a Food Trade Route and some Religious Pressure. Also note that you will benefit the more Moai you have. While I did fine playing Tall with 4 Cities, I could have won earlier had I got out a couple more. I probably would have kept with Tradition just to give my Capital the growth bonuses to aid in Production of Wonders later in the game.
Another tip: Freedom. It's wonderful to force other Civs over to your Ideology, and Polynesia's Tourism-from-tiles works great with Freedom's +33% Tourism from Cities with a Broadcast Tower. I got the CN Tower to speed up the process (it's on the way to the internet). I recommend right after researching the Internet, you beeline for Computers so that you can use a Great Engineer to rush-build the Great Firewall, just to prevent another Civ from getting it and negating your own bonus. This will speed up victory considerably, since the AI tends to go down the bottom side of the Tech Tree while you're on top. If that happens, just buy some Great Musicians and pass them that way, else wait it out. You can learn more on Cultural Victory in my Cultural Victory and Tourism Guide.
When you get close, rush for Archaeology and grab as many Artifacts as you can with Archaeologists to produce more hard Tourism earlier in the game. Adopting Exploration for The Louvre is not essential, but helps. Plus, you can get Happiness from all Coastal Buildings, which is great given it's almost as strong as an Ideological Tenet and may let you replace some of your Plantations etc. with Moai without sacrificing Happiness. Also, timing the passage of International Games (winning first) and having plenty of Wonders with Cultural Heritage Sites enacted will help a lot. Moai give +1 Gold from Flight, and you should be extending Trade Routes to other Civs' must lucrative Cities by then to further your income. Getting these two passed should be not too difficult, and doing so will greatly speed your Cultural Victory.
| Sid Meier's Civ 5 is a deep strategy game. I created these individual Civilization Guides to highlight the strengths of their specials and unique units. If you have an opener or tip for playing this Civ that you would like to share with other readers, please use the comments form below. Some Guides are in need of update and will be improved to a new standard of quality or altered to reflect gameplay changes in G&K and Brave New World. | ||||||
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| Korea | Maya | Mongolia | Morocco | Ottoman | Persia | Poland |
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12I think I said in the guide that you can build them when you're around hotels/airports and see great effect - so you can afford to lose those bonuses if you'll be winning soon from having the extra Moai.
I think with all that Cultural Output you'd be better off with finishing Aesthetics/Freedom or Order and getting the boosts there first. Having +80% from Open Borders/Trade Route would be more important, then you can boost the initial amount of Tourism with Broadcast Towers.. I didn't try with Order, but can certainly see it being useful too.. just turn them all to Order in the end. They seem to pick that most, anyway.
Edit: Just to confirm, that the Moai outside workable radius won't raise Tourism/Culture, just help with the adjacency bonus. Not sure if I was clear enough on that :)
