Civilization 5 Exploration Social Policies
Strategy Guide for Gods and Kings & Brave New World
| Tradition | Liberty | Honor | Piety | Patronage | Aesthetics | Commerce | Exploration | Rationalism |
Exploration first becomes available in the Medieval Era, just as ships capable of crossing the Ocean do. This tree is rather situational. First, you should have a large portion of your Cities be Coastal to truly take advantage, and you should have an interest in Naval Combat. Else, the gold bonuses you'll find here are not that great and everything about Commerce is better.
Adopting Exploration gives +1 Movement for all naval units and +1 sight for Naval Combat units, while also allowing you to construct The Louvre. Some players seeking Cultural Victory may adopt this just to get the Louvre, while others may seek the naval movement without fully exploring this tree. Finishing it gives you access to Hidden Antiquity sites, but those are not very great given you cannot excavate them in secret without other Civs noticing. You'll also be able to buy Great Admirals with Faith, which could be useful in certain situations if you've used your free one (or one earned through Naval war) to heal a far-off Fleet.
This is my least-used Social Policy tree as a heavy player. If I were more into Archipalego maps, I suppose I would be much more interested. Trouble is, there are often only a few Cities on the coast and I can find more Happiness elsewhere. The bonuses are good here in their own right, I just haven't found myself in the situation where going all Exploration was something that enthused me.
Maritime Infrastructure: +3 Production in all coastal Cities.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: This is a minor boost to production, amplified a bit by buildings by Factories. It would be very helpful if it came a bit earlier, but at the time +3 Production isn't much - still, it shores up a weakness in Coastal Cities.
Naval Tradition: +1 Happiness from each Harbor, Seaport, and Lighthouse.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: This is one of the better Policies here - +3 potential Happiness for every Coastal City you own, offsetting the cost to found the City. It can be good if there are even 2-3 Coastal Cities in your empire - it's like having a couple extra Luxuries at your disposal.
Merchant Navy: +1 Gold for each Harbor, Seaport, or Lighthouse. +4 Production and +4 Culture in the city with the East India Company.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: Happiness is better than +1 Gold each, but it does make up for their maintenance costs. The good thing here is that the East India Company doesn't necessarily have to be built in a Coastal City, so you can enjoy this benefit in your Capital if it is not on the shore.
Navigation School: A Great Admiral appears. +2 Movement for all Great Admirals, and they are earned 50% faster.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: Doesn't impress me much, but Great Admirals are indeed useful. The +2 movement can keep them out of harm's way, or help them speed to an emergency situation where you're about to lose a heavily promoted battleship or carrier.
Treasure Fleets: +4 Gold from all your sea Trade Routes.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: This amounts to about +32 extra gold. Not a great bonus, and that is even if every trade route you have is through Cargo Ship. Unfortunately, this tree just doesn't impress me much as a largely Continents player.
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I tried it out on a archipelago map and its working very well. Put in one point in aesthetics for the GPP boost....I doubt I could put in enough points for Piety to get the reformation bonus although it would be amazing if I could for the religious tourism. If you trying for a cultural win and unlocked exploration for the Lourve, its worth it to spam coastal cities and the tree just to get those artifacts.The only real problem is getting food to grow the cities, especially since you need one merchant specialist to round out the costs