Note: I am aware of the way this game differentiates a "continent" from a "landmass," and this distinction is not the source of the inconsistency I'm encountering.
I imagine most of you that play on predominantly single landmass games don't really think much of this economic policy card, and for the same reason I have in the past: when you unlock it, you take a quick look at the continents lens, and find that once again the vast majority of your developed cities (including obviously the capital) are on the same landmass as the capital. There are only a few cities that happen to be planted in a different colored tile under this lens and they all happen to be newer cities that aren't that developed and aren't generating that much gold. Further, if you're like me, you also note that a good number of your cities are just on the wrong side of this line and you wished you had the foresight to check this lens before hastily plopping down that city. You realize that this colonial taxes card would be incredible if you had that perfect start where your capital is in one corner of the map, which happens to be considered one continent and the entire rest of the map is therefore considered another "continent." (i.e. the very tip of Portugal, maybe Lisbon, is considered "Europe" and the entire rest of Eurasia is considered "Asia.) Aside from getting the most out of the Colonial Taxes card, this would also be the optimum map for Spain to play.
But one game I had an extra card slot and nothing that pressing to put into it, so I checked the lens to find that 4 out of my 20 cities were on a different continent, and figured I'd try it out. Now the effect of the card is defined as "+25% gold in cities not on your original capital's continent" but there seems to be an error here. When I activated the card, and made no other changes that would affect my GPT, my economy skyrocketed. It went up about 150 GPT. This makes no sense as the four cities that were on a different continent were only making a few random GPT from tiles, a minor amount from triangular trade, and one of the cities had completed a commercial hub.
That was three games ago. Ever since, I've been activating this card in each game, it usually is more profitable than the card that doubles commercial hub adjacency so I've been using that instead (or in conjunction with) and each time it has a massive impact on my economy even though each time there's very little gold being generating from cities that are technically on a different continent. This last game there were NO CITIES that qualified as being on another continent and my GPT still went up 125 GPT. How exactly does this card work? Because it doesn't work the way it says it should.
I imagine most of you that play on predominantly single landmass games don't really think much of this economic policy card, and for the same reason I have in the past: when you unlock it, you take a quick look at the continents lens, and find that once again the vast majority of your developed cities (including obviously the capital) are on the same landmass as the capital. There are only a few cities that happen to be planted in a different colored tile under this lens and they all happen to be newer cities that aren't that developed and aren't generating that much gold. Further, if you're like me, you also note that a good number of your cities are just on the wrong side of this line and you wished you had the foresight to check this lens before hastily plopping down that city. You realize that this colonial taxes card would be incredible if you had that perfect start where your capital is in one corner of the map, which happens to be considered one continent and the entire rest of the map is therefore considered another "continent." (i.e. the very tip of Portugal, maybe Lisbon, is considered "Europe" and the entire rest of Eurasia is considered "Asia.) Aside from getting the most out of the Colonial Taxes card, this would also be the optimum map for Spain to play.
But one game I had an extra card slot and nothing that pressing to put into it, so I checked the lens to find that 4 out of my 20 cities were on a different continent, and figured I'd try it out. Now the effect of the card is defined as "+25% gold in cities not on your original capital's continent" but there seems to be an error here. When I activated the card, and made no other changes that would affect my GPT, my economy skyrocketed. It went up about 150 GPT. This makes no sense as the four cities that were on a different continent were only making a few random GPT from tiles, a minor amount from triangular trade, and one of the cities had completed a commercial hub.
That was three games ago. Ever since, I've been activating this card in each game, it usually is more profitable than the card that doubles commercial hub adjacency so I've been using that instead (or in conjunction with) and each time it has a massive impact on my economy even though each time there's very little gold being generating from cities that are technically on a different continent. This last game there were NO CITIES that qualified as being on another continent and my GPT still went up 125 GPT. How exactly does this card work? Because it doesn't work the way it says it should.
