Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World/Ideologies

The late 3 Social Policy branches have been heavily revamped in Brave New World, now expanded into ideologies. Ideologies are composed of tenets that function very similarly to Social Policies in that Culture is used to adopt either of them. However, there are a lot more tenets in an Ideology than there are in a Social Policy branch, and you get a bit more freedom with the order you adopt them in.

A civilization can and must adopt an Ideology once they have built three Factories or entered the Modern Era, whichever comes first. The first civilization to adopt a particular Ideology gets 2 free tenets, while the second civilization to adopt a previously taken Ideology will only get 1 free tenet. Later adopters get nothing at all. Like the Social Policies they were based off of from the core game, Ideologies are mutually exclusive and strongly affects diplomatic relations. Since AI civilizations will often prioritize Ideologies that still have free tenets, it's practically guaranteed for Ideologies to clash, radically changing the world stage.

Ideological pressure
Civilizations with differing Ideologies exert ideological pressure on each other, which affects your Public Opinion. Public Opinion depends on the Culture and Tourism output of both competing civilizations. Tourism is your way to "attack" other civilizations with your influence, reducing their Public Opinion. Culture generation negates Tourism from enemies, protecting your empire from enemy Ideologies.

Once Public Opinion drops from "Content" to "Dissidents" and below, it will start creating Unhappiness in your empire. Once you reach "Civil Resistance" and then "Revolutionary Wave", your cities will start spawning Rebels which attack your cities and infrastructure. After your Unhappiness exceeds 20, entire cities will revolt and join the empires of influential civs instead.

If raising Culture to defend against enemy Tourism or raising Happiness to counter dissent isn't enough, a last resort is to switch Ideologies to the one your citizens prefer. Doing so will likely raise your Public Opinion back up, but it comes with some serious drawbacks. Switching your Ideology causes you to lose the effects of any tenet you've adopted from your previous ideology. An empire switching Ideologies also undergoes a turn of anarchy, during which nothing will be produced.

Autocracy
Autocracy grants absolute power to the state and demands total loyalty from its citizens. With a loyal and disciplined population, autocratic civilizations are well-equipped for war, with the majority of its tenets promoting the creation and maintenance of a large and elite army. The obvious tactic with Autocracy is to unite the world through glorious conquest, but you can also use your military might to inspire other civilizations and intimidate lesser nations into strong allegiances. While technological superiority gives a vital edge in warfare, autocratic civilizations aren't that concerned with exploring the cosmos, so this Ideology is not recommended if you're pursuing a Scientific Victory.

Wonder: Prora
The Prora is a luxurious beach resort to reward the citizens of your regime for their hard work. Despite being restricted to coastal cities, the Prora is a really nice wonder due to its sizable Happiness boost. The Happiness from Social Policies includes the opener of earlier Social Policy branches, as well as Autocracy tenets. More Happiness is always useful for a warmonger, as your empire's Unhappiness can quickly rise from conquering cities. It also provides added defense from opposing Ideologies. The free Social Policy is also nice as well, letting you grab another tenet or make progress in a previous Social Policy tree.
 * Production: 1060
 * +2 Happiness, +1 Happiness for every 2 Social Policies
 * Free Social Policy
 * City must be founded on the coast

Elite Forces
With specialized training, your military units will remain ruthlessly effective even when wounded, dealing 25% more damage than equivalent wounded soldiers. This tenet makes up for the drop in damage of wounded units compared to full health units, but it doesn't reduce the damage your soldiers take, so you can't be too gutsy with your wounded units. Use them to take out stragglers from enemy formations, or to discourage the enemy from trying to finish your units off.

Mobilization
Sophisticated logistics lets you assemble a large army quicker, reducing the Gold cost of conscripting units by 33%. Its a nice tenet as late-game units can be really costly, as long as you can maintain a strong economy in your empire.

United Front
Even minor allies will come to your help in your conquests, with Militaristic City-States granting units twice as frequently when you are at war with a common foe. This tenet is pretty low priority as Mobilization and Total War are better for generating more military units.

Futurism
An artistic movement that emphasizes the exciting prospects of the future sweeps your empire, creating +250 Tourism every time a Great Writer, Artist, or Musician is born. The Tourism boost isn't very high, but every bit counts when you're pursuing a Cultural Victory or just trying to out-influence civilizations with opposing Ideologies.

Industrial Espionage
This tenet enhances the effectiveness of your spies in foreign cities, making them steal technologies at twice the normal rate. It is a consistently useful tenet, as a heavy focus on military technologies will often cause you to neglect the upper half of the tech tree, causing you to miss out on some cultural or diplomatically focused technologies, so the increased tech stealing rate will greatly help you catch up.

Fortified Borders
Advanced defensive structures not only serve to deter invaders, but also to create a feeling of protection among your citizens, resulting in +1 local Happiness for every Castle, Arsenal or Military Base. While having Happiness buildings that don't cost maintenance is pretty handy, defensive buildings aren't a high priority when developing your cities. This is especially true for aggressive playstyles since you can defend cities just fine with a strong army. It is more useful if you have a lot of puppets, as they like to build defensive buildings, raising your Happiness involuntarily.

Universal Healthcare
Giving all of your citizens equal access to health services is undoubtedly a good thing, but only if your empire has the infrastructure to support it. Thus, it gives +1 local Happiness from every National Wonder. The usefulness of this tenet depends on how you manage your aggressive expansion. If your empire centers around a few core cities and a lot of puppets, it is more feasible to build numerous National Wonders. Conversely, if you often annex conquered cities, the cost of National Wonders will rise significantly, making this tenet less attractive.

Militarism
A mindset that encourages the formation of military forces will make your people more satisfied with a well-trained army, granting +2 Happiness for every Barracks, Armory and Military Academy. Compared to Fortified Borders, you'll be able to enjoy the benefits of this tenet much sooner after adopting it, since you should be producing experience-granting buildings in your high Production cities in the first place. It makes your military training buildings is as strong as dedicated Happiness buildings with less maintenance, not to mention starting your units off with promotions, making this an especially attractive tenet.

Lightning Warfare
Your strategists develop the art of the blitzkrieg, granting +3 Movement for Great Generals while your armored units gain +15% attack, +1 Movement and can ignore the enemy's zone of control. This is a very powerful tenet that turns your tanks into mobile massacring machines, letting you freely move around enemies and disrupt defensive formations with their sheer mobility. The increased movement of your Great Generals also lets them keep up with your speedy armored units, providing support to your vehicular fleet wherever they go.

Police State
Dissent is harmful to your totalitarian regime, so heavy monitoring of your citizens is needed to keep your leadership safe and strong. A Police State gets +3 Happiness from every Courthouse and build Courthouses in half the normal time. If you're often annexing captured cities, you'll benefit a lot from the cheaper and stronger Courthouse, but the high maintenance fees of these buildings can add up drastically.

Nationalism
Your citizens become more patriotic to the state, readily sacrificing personal needs for the sake of the empire, which reduces the Gold cost of unit maintenance by 33%. A militaristic playstyle necessitates fielding a large army, which will put a strain on your treasury as your army grows and time progresses. Thus, lowering maintenance costs will free up some Gold for other uses, such as buying more units or allying with City-States.

Third Alternative
Your empire rejects both capitalism and communism, instead combining parts of them together to form your political direction. It increases your Strategic Resources by 100% and grants +5 Food and +5 Science in the Capital. The bonus yields in your Capital is pretty insignificant by the time you can adopt this tenet, so its main selling point is the doubled strategic resources. You could always conquer enemy territory if you're in need of more resources, but if a certain strategic resource is particularly scarce, it ensures you'll have enough for your units.

Total War
Your civilians are fully committed toward warfare, causing a 25% increase in the Production of military units and +15 experience for newly trained units. This tenet is a very popular pick as it is versatile and generally useful no matter the situation. If you have all 3 military training buildings in your cities, you'll be able to produce a constant stream of units that all start off with three promotions, putting them close to powerful late promotions like Blitz and March.

Cult of Personality
Tales of your glorious leadership spread among allies when warring, providing a powerful +50% Tourism with civilizations fighting a common foe. This is the Cultural Victory tenet of Autocracy, and while it provides a higher Tourism boost than the other two Ideologies, it is much harder to take advantage of. You'll need to engage in some diplomacy to convince other civilizations to fight on your side so that you'll get the Tourism boost. The best "common foe" in this situation is the current cultural leader, as you can cripple their Tourism output by taking their cities and Great Works, while increasing your own cultural influence.

Gunboat Diplomacy
Displays of your military might are quite effective at "persuading" weaker nations to support you, gaining '''+6 Influence per turn with City-States you can demand tribute from. Your military forces are also 50% more effective at intimidating City-States'''. This is Autocracy's Diplomatic Victory tenet, and it is actually surprisingly effective to win votes by force. Many of Autocracy's tenets ease the production of military units, so you have more spare units that you can leave beside City-States for gradual Influence. Other than the specific effect of Gunboat Diplomacy, you can also gain votes by gifting extra units to City-States to raise Influence, or liberate extinct civilizations and City-States with your powerful military to guarantee their allegiance.

Clausewitz's Legacy
A tactician creates a groundbreaking work on military theory, granting a +25% attack bonus to all units for 50 turns after adopting this tenet. This tenet is most suited for a Domination Victory, giving you a huge albeit temporary power-up to your entire military. This attack bonus should be enough to overcome any resistance from remaining enemy civilizations, so its adoption would be the impetus for you to conquer the last capitals you need to win the game.

Freedom
Freedom casts the spotlight on the individual. It encourages citizens to specialize in technological and artistic pursuits, and celebrates peace and pop culture. Thus, Freedom is the preferred Ideology for any tall empires, which can support a lot of specialists with high population cities. Freedom excels in winning by peaceful means, harnessing the power of mass media to spread culture, befriending City-States through various means or sending astronauts into the final frontier with a strong space program. While it is not very geared toward a Domination Victory, some Freedom tenets still grant perks to warfare, making it fairly versatile regardless.

Wonder: Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is an iconic monument that embodies the ideals of Freedom. It fits in with Freedom's minor focus on specialists and Great People, as it encourages you to set more specialists to gain the Production bonus. Overall, it's not a bad wonder, but not an appealing one either. The free Social Policy or tenet is always a big help though.
 * Production: 1060
 * +1 Production per specialist, +1 Culture
 * Free Social Policy

Avant Garde
Your empires' free-thinkers spread radical and innovative ideas, resulting in a 25% increase of Great People generation. Great People are key to any victory, and tall empires are especially adept at creating them due to having a large specialist population. The effects of Avant Garde stacks with similar bonuses such as from Gardens, which can result in a lot of Great People crucial to your victory. Whether its rushing a late wonder, cutting down on research time or creating Great Works, this tenet will benefit you as you pursue your victory.

Creative Expression
Being able to create art without fear of censorship, your empire's artisans are able to create Great Works that resonate with your citizens. This makes Great Works give +1 Culture, but no extra Tourism. Since you don't get any Tourism out of it, this tenet is purely for defending yourself from influential cultural civilizations.

Civil Society
Your civilized citizens voluntarily attempt to improve their surroundings and promote the development of your empire, making specialists consume half the normal amount of Food. This is another excellent tenet for cities that support lots of specialists, as it will make your cities grow even bigger, consequently giving you more citizens to set as specialists.

Covert Action
Your spies become more adept at influencing global politics without negatively affecting your diplomatic standing, having double the chance of rigging City-State elections. This tenet helps you steal and maintain City-State alliances without having to spend Gold. A spy in a city-state is a spy that could have been a diplomat in another civilization, so you still need to gather votes through other means.

Capitalism
Your empire enacts an economic policy driven by private competition, gaining +1 local Happiness from every Mint, Bank and Stock Exchange. Gold buildings aren't a very high priority for city production, so the advantage of this tenet is pretty marginal. It could be pretty useful if you have several puppet cities, as they will most certainly prioritize these buildings.

Economic Union
Your civilization forms an economic union with all other Freedom empires, letting you get +3 Gold from trade routes with civilizations following the same Ideology. Since the AI tends to choose Ideologies based on the number of free tenets left, they are likely to pick a different Ideology than you, so the effects of this tenet is usually limited, if not outright worthless.

Universal Healthcare
Giving all of your citizens equal access to health services is undoubtedly a good thing, but only if your empire has the infrastructure to support it. Thus, it gives +1 local Happiness from every National Wonder. While this tenet is available from all three Ideologies, it is Freedom that gets the most mileage out of it. This is because Freedom benefits civilizations with a small number of well-developed cities, which have an easier time building numerous National Wonders. If you have already constructed several National Wonders, this is a decent choice.

Volunteer Army
Your empire allows volunteers to join the army rather than conscript citizens, so 6 military units are maintenance free, and 6 Foreign Legion units appear near the Capital. This is oddly a purely aggressive tenet that contradicts Freedom's mostly peaceful focus. The Foreign Legion is slightly weaker than a Great War Infantry and has a 20% combat bonus in foreign territory, which encourages you to invade the territories of other civilizations. They can be upgraded into Infantry and keep their foreign lands bonus on upgrade, making them worthwhile to keep around. The lower maintenance cost frees up more Gold from managing a defensive military.

Urbanization
As your cities grow from people moving into them from rural areas, you gain +1 local Happiness for every Water Mill, Hospital and Medical Lab. This is another lackluster Happiness tenet, since Hospitals and Medical Labs are rarely built due to how late into the game they are. Water Mills are more commonly built, but only in cities along rivers, so you might not be getting a lot of Happiness out of this tenet at all.

Their Finest Hour
Your citizens are roused to defend the ideals of liberty and freedom, valiently fighting on despite overwhelming odds, which makes the Combat Strength of your cities increase by 33%. As a Freedom civilization, you will be more focused on peaceful pursuits and have a smaller military, which makes you a target for expansionist states. This tenet will help you keep your cities against invaders.

Universal Suffrage
Every citizen in your empire gets the right to vote regardless of sex, race or class. The result is that specialists only causes half the amount of Unhappiness and Golden Ages last 50% longer. This is the best tenet in the Freedom Ideology for raising your Happiness, as it doesn't force you to go out of your way to build certain buildings. It does a great job of negating the Unhappiness from city growth. The longer Golden Age is just icing on the cake.

New Deal
Your empire undergoes economic reform, with the result being that Landmarks and Great Person Improvements produce +4 of the appropriate yield. How useful this tenet is depends on how many tiles you have that benefit from it, since Great People are usually used for their other abilities instead of creating improvements, while Landmarks depends on how many ruins revealed in your territory. The most likely improvements you will have up to this point are Academies and Holy Sites, and 14 Science from Academies is quite powerful if you've established a bunch of them previously.

Arsenal of Democracy
Your empire's private industry partially devotes their resources to assisting the fight against oppression in smaller nations, giving +15 Production when building military units and +15 Influence from gifting units to City-States. This gives you a way to convert Production into Influence, by spamming cheap military units and gifting them to City-States for a guaranteed 15 Influence gain. This gives you another helpful method to befriend City-States and gain votes.

Media Culture
Pop culture and advertising spreads through your empire and out, causing a +34% increase in Tourism in cities with a Broadcast Tower. This is the tenet for Cultural Victories for Freedom adopters, and it is considered the easiest tenet for Cultural Victories, since unlike Autocracy and Order, its effects do not depend on the state of your opponents; you can get the Tourism boost simply by building Broadcast Towers. Freedom's other tenets that promote specialists and Great People also help with a Cultural Victory by letting you create more Great Works or perform Concert Tours.

Treaty Organization
Your empire enacts a military and security pact with friendly nations, gaining +4 Influence per turn with City-States you have a trade route with. This is Freedom's Diplomatic Victory tenet and it is very easy to utilize as you just need to direct a trade route to a City-State to reap its benefits. Freedom civilizations pursue a Diplomatic Victory using City-States, as you have three tenets on each tier that help you befriend and ally City-States, using their votes to control the World Congress and make themselves the world leader.

Space Procurements
The government gains the ability to procure spaceship components from private companies rather than produce it, which lets you buy Spaceship parts with Gold. This is Freedom's tenet for Scientific Victories. This tenet lets you save a few turns producing Spaceship parts, which can give you an edge in the space race if you have a lot of Gold amassed. Even if your economy is not strong enough to afford Spaceship parts, Freedom's bonuses to specialists and population growth does wonders to your Science output, letting you tear through the tech tree, making it a strong choice for Scientific Victories overall.