Is Logistics underrated?

[Victoria]

We all love Mercantilism with Triangular trade providing +4 gold per trade route but playing as Germany last night with the extra military slot I gave Logistics a go. (the "other" Mercantilism card)

I never have considered it much as its only +1 movement if starting in friendly territory.

Only?... well if my foot soldiers only have 2 MP and this gives +1 MP it can make a large difference. Equally defending on your home turf with +1 MP for cav units does provide surprisingly good surprises and it also really helps when redeploying either locally fast or long distance.

More and more the purple cards get left unused in my deck and this little red card can be a surprising beauty.

I can now build faster more elaborate traps for the aggressor to fall into and while its not necessarily needed its certainly fun. I even felt a little dirty doing it last night despite being quite a valid card.

 

[Chibisuke]

I have also wanted to test out this card more. I think it could be very effective since many battles start from you sending troops over from your border into enemy lands. Once you have all your troops in their territory, the important battle is often decided already and you are just cleaning up remaining stragglers or taking over a city.

Next time I play I will go with this card and see how I like it. Also, I agree I am using the purple cards less and less. I think I only use the great scientist one now, and only at the beginning of the game.

One other card I want to try using more is the one that reduces the effect of your troops being damaged. I feel like that one might be under appreciated too.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

In my first domination victory, I took logistics, and it became almost central to my strategy. I would take my first city from an enemy and use the extra movement I gained (since it was now MY territory) to save a turn of positioning. The extra healing was one huge benefit, but it also allowed me to get my artillery in place very quickly. Finally, since I found myself in a war on two fronts, the extra movement allowed me to have fewer defenders on the flank I wasn't attacking as my infantry and artillery swept the other side.

 

[Victoria]

Yeah @Feyd Rautha , and yet I never see this card mentioned in the forums. It's like is a forgotten card or ... maybe everyone is keeping it their own little secret.

@Chibisuke I played Gorgo today and found I always had a red card down in the spare wildcard slot apart from the first few moves. I think its an underrated thing about Germany.

 

[Bobfregman]

Yup, it's good. It doesn't always fit with exactly what I'm trying to do but I use it often. Another thing worth mentioning is that it's bonus applies to builders as well and this allows you to do things like move into forest and chop in the same turn. Not exactly game changing but can potentially save you a few turns.

 

[Nigel_Tufnel2]

In Civ V the Greek Companion Cavalry was incredibly effective having 5 movement instead of 4. Much easier to rotate units, hit and retreat, etc.

 

[Japper007]

It also boosts your builders/civilian unit movements. I usually have most improvements down by the time I "research"(culture?) Mercantilism but it can be really good for getting builders to new or underdeveloped cities away from your core.
Since the only thing I ever really use otherwise is proffesional army or the unit maintenance reduction, it's a very good econ boost if I'm already making rivers of money each turn and don't need the gold boost.

It's military effect isn't that big or noticable in SP but in multiplayer it's really strong as well. It means that in every war after players get mercantilism the defender has a big homefield advantage.

It's one of the most underrated cards in the game.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

Logistics is a lot of fun to play with and can be very strong. Obviously it's good for defense, but it can frequently also be used offensively and the extra movement for builders is extremely nice. If you're on the offensive it can be a great way to keep your momentum rolling. You can attack sooner and units that stopped to heal in friendly territory will catch up that much faster. It also lets you chase down any fleeing units after you capture a city. In my mind it primarily competes with the card that reduces unit maintenance, and if I have a decent economy (depending on what I'm doing, of course) I'm willing to sacrifice some cash for the tactical advantages.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

Wait, it does affect civilians? I guess Alhambra just moved up a tier in my wonder usefulness ranking.

I almost always go for Democracy, so its lone military slot is usually reserved for the -2 maintenance cost, and wildcard slots usually for economic policies.

Do people use the purple cards? Except the Great Prophet one, I've almost never used them, since I need my infrastructure earlier.

 

[TomKQT]

That card is not my priority one, but if I have a "free" slot for it (don't need anything better there), I like to pick it. But it usually is during peace - it greatly helps your workers and also to move troops around to deal with barbarians etc. I don't use the card much in war because war in this middle and later stages of the game usually happen outside my territory.

I almost always go for Democracy, so its lone military slot is usually reserved for the -2 maintenance cost, and wildcard slots usually for economic policies.

Exactly. Plus Alhambra - and the second slot is for Logistics, unless I need to boost production of some military units of encampments etc.
But I almost never replace the maintenance reduction cards, so if I have only 1 slot, I don't use Logistics.

 

[Bro]

Do people use the purple cards? Except the Great Prophet one, I've almost never used them, since I need my infrastructure earlier.

Yeah sure, they can help you to get a certain GP early on. The AIs on deity builds their first districts at turn 20-30 and can have two at turn 30-40 so if you can get some fast culture and Oligarchy they can really help in the race.

 

[Martin_K]

logistics has been my default option for military since i discovered how convenient the extra +1 move really is. not just for military - also for builders.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

The unit maintenance cards are extremely good, but I'm not dependent on them. I realized I was in the habit of slotting them and forgetting about them unless I needed to build something military and that was boring. Imho logistics is the most interesting because it's not a passive bonus. It gets stronger as you get better at leveraging it. I want to try pairing it with the tile that improves pillaging. If you have a lot of enemy cities close together you could go on quite a rampage once the first city falls. I'm not sure how strong that play will be, but it will be a whole lot more fun than collecting gold from passive bonuses. It might be a good way to cripple an opponent and pick up some loot while incurring minimal war-mongering penalties.

 

[EpicWestern]

There might be a small window if there are extra military slots where logistics can be used, but I generally just feel +1 amenity is by the best followed by unit maintenance, and then all the build reduction times (except in times of war when build reduction is better).

 

[DrCron]

I used logistics in my last Deity domination victory. The map was awful, and the AI hadn't chopped pretty much any jungle nor had they build roads connecting relevant cities around that jungle, so it was taking me forever to win. Logistics helped a lot.

 

[DiffSarit]

My default card for Military slot is the cost reduction one and Logistics is the close second. When the road has reduce the movement cost to 0.75, Logistics usually move up to be my default card, since your 2 movement units (including workers) will move 4 instead!!! That's will help you speed up the tile development in your empire a lot. In war time, the card that reduce the penalty of damage units is usually better than Logistics.

I rarely used the purple cards.

 

[No-Man]

Love Logistics. Specially for it's flexibility: you can use it for times of war as much as times of peace. When the time to fight has come, the +1 movement is really helpful in positioning your army quickly and efficiently, and allows your melee units to move one tile and then attack an enemy on a mountain or a forest, or your ranged units to move to a mountain and then fire to wherever they want.

As for times of peace, being able to build mines or lumber mills or chopping woods/jungle in the same turn that you moved the builder from an adjacent tile is fantastic. It can make a difference, particularly when you need extra production ASAP, like when you are building a wonder, or completing city/space projects.

 

[kamex]

Worth mentioning Workers get the extra point too so are faster in hilly areas.

 

[Jarms48]

Do people use the purple cards? Except the Great Prophet one, I've almost never used them, since I need my infrastructure earlier.

I use the GP and GS ones from time-to-time, the GS one I'll generally only use early game specifically if I see the GS that provides a free library and +1 science from all libraries.

Worth mentioning Workers get the extra point too so are faster in hilly areas.

This is one of the things I like about Logistics as well. You can actually move onto a hill and build a mine on the same turn, same with forrests and mills.

 

[Esperr]

Yeah its a wierd civic. If I have an "extra" slot for whatever reason then I like to take logistics, but im still no sure if its good enough to warrant taking over a "real" slot.