[NFP] Medieval Era Policy Elimination Thread

[GinandTonic]

Naval Infrastructure (24)
Navigation (-1) Weakest buff for the weakest GP.
Feudal Contract (20)
Serfdom (27) Defines card strategy for half the game.
Retainers (20)
Professional Army (25)
Retinues (21)
Trade Confederation (20)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Aesthetics (11)
Medina Quarter (11)
Craftsmen (20)
Town Charters (17)
Traveling Merchants (11)
Chivalry (20)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Civil Prestige (18)

 

[Drivingrevilo]

Naval Infrastructure (24)
Feudal Contract (20)
Serfdom (27)
Retainers (20)
Professional Army (25)
Retinues (21)
Trade Confederation (20)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Aesthetics (11)
Medina Quarter (8) (11-3)
Craftsmen (20)
Town Charters (17)
Traveling Merchants (11)
Chivalry (21)(20+1)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Civil Prestige (18)

Chivalry (21)(20+1) A quick shoutout to Chivalry. I will frequently go out of my way to get Divine Right, purely for this card. It holds the key to mid-game warfare (Knights, Coursers, Cuirassiers).

In particular, I find that when I’m falling behind a snowballing AI on Deity (as happened with Pericles in my most recent game), the best way to take them out is to rush Cuirassiers and surprise attack them. You’ll need Chivalry to make this work, so that you can prebuild the Knights to upgrade (or just hard build the Cuirassiers themselves).

Medina Quarter (8) (11-3) No different to Insulae. If you’ve got that many districts in one city already, it doesn’t need more housing; most likely, you need housing in your cities which *don’t* have three districts.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Naval Infrastructure (24)
Feudal Contract (20)
Serfdom (27)
Retainers (20)
Professional Army (25)
Retinues (21)
Trade Confederation (20)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Aesthetics (8)
Medina Quarter (8)
Craftsmen (20)
Town Charters (17)
Traveling Merchants (12)
Chivalry (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Civil Prestige (18)

Traveling Merchants (11+1=12) GMs are really strong, the earlier you get them the more impact they have - a card I like to slot ASAP.

Aesthetics (11-3=8) As others have said even in Culture game this isn't strong enough to warrant a precious Wildcard slot.

 

[Vizurok]

Naval Infrastructure (24)
Feudal Contract (20)
Serfdom (28) (27+1) Obligatory upvote for the best card in the game. Sometimes I feel that I should not be wasting builder charges on the Feudalism boost, but I just can't bear the wait.
Retainers (20)
Professional Army (25)
Retinues (21)
Trade Confederation (20)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Aesthetics (8)
Medina Quarter (8)
Craftsmen (20)
Town Charters (17)
Traveling Merchants (12)
Chivalry (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Civil Prestige (15) (18-3) At this point of the game, I rarely have more than 2 Governors with 2 promotions and I am moving around Magnus like crazy, so it usually comes down to a single-city +2H/+1A bonus. To add insult to injury, this city is almost always my capital with Pignala sitting there, so the bonus would go to the one place where it's not that much appreciated. Republican legacy is a much more reliable option for extra Housing and Amenity.

 

[MrRadar]

Naval Infrastructure (24)
Feudal Contract (20)
Serfdom 29 (28+1)
Retainers (20)
Professional Army (25)
Retinues (21)
Trade Confederation (20)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Aesthetics (8)
Medina Quarter 5 (8-3)
Craftsmen (20)
Town Charters (17)
Traveling Merchants (12)
Chivalry (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Civil Prestige (15)

Serfdom 29 (28+1) Thinking is hard on Fridays, so I'll upvote a no-brainer case

Medina Quarter 5 (8-3) - Well, frankly, this is even worse than Navigation, although I never slot Navigation either, but GAs at least can give you money, vision, early ocean crossings, loyalty in a far away colony or instant lighthouse and shipyard and so on, so theoretically a card speeding up GAs may be of some value. But Medina Quarter with 2 housing reward for three specialty districts prerequisite just takes the prize for a complete joke of a card. Should have gone first as there's nothing worse in the initial list.

 

[walkerjks]

Naval Infrastructure (24)
Feudal Contract (20)
Serfdom (29)
Retainers (20)
Professional Army (26) (25+1)
Retinues (18) (21-3)
Trade Confederation (20)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Aesthetics (8)
Medina Quarter (5)
Craftsmen (20)
Town Charters (17)
Traveling Merchants (12)
Chivalry (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Civil Prestige (15)

Serfdom is going to win, so let's use my first vote on a pair cards that go together, but one is clearly (to me) better than the other - I am (mostly) peaceful. I run a small army. Sometimes I don't even get the mercenaries inspiration, but sometimes I do. With a limited army, half price upgrades tend to be a priority over half resource cost upgrades. And ranged units don't use resources anyway.

 

[kaspergm]

Aesthetics (11-3=8) As others have said even in Culture game this isn't strong enough to warrant a precious Wildcard slot.

Still not where this card goes, though - second time this card is confused with the Frescoes card ...

Naval Infrastructure (24)
Feudal Contract (20)
Serfdom (29)
Retainers (20)
Professional Army (26)
Retinues (19) (18+1) - Am I the only one who's consistently denied of either Iron or Nitre at my starting location? I use this card about every other game. While not as universal as professional army, there are many others that are far worse.
Trade Confederation (17) (20-3) - Not sure if this is the weakest option in the list or not, but it's the only card I've never (as in never) used.
Merchant Confederation (22)
Aesthetics (8)
Medina Quarter (5)
Craftsmen (20)
Town Charters (17)
Traveling Merchants (12)
Chivalry (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Civil Prestige (15)

 

[Vargas1]

Naval Infrastructure (24)
Feudal Contract (20)
Serfdom (29)
Retainers (20)
Professional Army (27)
Retinues (19)
Trade Confederation (17)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Aesthetics (8)
Medina Quarter (5)
Craftsmen (20)
Town Charters (17)
Traveling Merchants (9)
Chivalry (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Civil Prestige (15)

Professional Army (27) - Should be a worthy second place to Serfdom. This saves so much money at the time you need it the most.

Traveling Merchants (9) - The only early GP cards worth using are to help get a religion (marginally) or to try for Hypatia. Great Merchants aren't bad, but there are better uses for a wildcard slot.

 

[Amrunril]

Aesthetics (8)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (20)
Feudal Contract (20)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (24)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (20)
Retinues (19)
Serfdom (29)
Town Charters (14)
Trade Confederation (17)
Traveling Merchants (9)

I alphabetized the list, as I thought that would make it easier to follow, but if people prefer the original order, I've left that below.

Naval Infrastructure (24)
Feudal Contract (20)
Serfdom (29)
Retainers (20)
Professional Army (27)
Retinues (19)
Trade Confederation (17)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Aesthetics (8)
Medina Quarter (6)
Craftsmen (20)
Town Charters (14)
Traveling Merchants (9)
Chivalry (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Civil Prestige (15)

Medina Quarter (5+1=6) Definitely a niche card, but within that niche it's an efficient use of a slot. Your first 3 districts might be the most valuable, but going from three to four or four to five is still a substantial boost, and housing bonuses are still relatively rare in the medieval era.
Town Charters (17-3=14) It's easy to get moderate adjacency bonuses on commercial hubs, but hard to get really high ones. And gold is a less valuable resource, on a one to one basis, than those that other districts give for adjacency. If gold adjacency bonuses were doubled, following the same pattern as gold city state bonuses, this might start to look appealing, but even so, it's for a district that's usually a backup for when you can't build a Harbor.

 

[lilnev!]

Aesthetics (8)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (20)
Feudal Contract (21) (20+1) I find the melee + ranged production boosts to be the most consistently valuable.
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (24)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (20)
Retinues (19)
Serfdom (29)
Town Charters (11) (14-3) I have never used this, and I never will. Not even close. If it quadrupled adjacencies instead of doubling them, I still doubt that I would ever use it.
Trade Confederation (17)
Traveling Merchants (9)

 

[Leucarum]

Aesthetics (8)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (20)
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (24)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (20)
Retinues (19)
Serfdom (30)
Town Charters (11)
Trade Confederation (17)
Traveling Merchants (6)

Seems like Serfdom (29+1) is destined to be the runaway winner... And rightfully so, as it dominates a lot of midgame strategy. Travelling merchants (9-3) is an easy downvote, I don't know that I have ever slotted a card for extra merchants...

Edit: corrected my maths

 

[bengalryan9]

Aesthetics (8)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (20)
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (25) (24+1) The boost this gives to your shipyards can make a huge difference.
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (20)
Retinues (19)
Serfdom (30)
Town Charters (8) (11-3) Honestly I'd slot Traveling Merchants before I'd slot Town Charters.
Trade Confederation (17)
Traveling Merchants (6)

 

[JhGf_123]

Aesthetics (8)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (20)
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (24)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (20)
Retinues (20) (19+1)
Serfdom (30)
Town Charters (11)
Trade Confederation (17)
Traveling Merchants (3) (6-3)

Retinues:

With a limited army, half price upgrades tend to be a priority over half resource cost upgrades.

There's no need to pit Retinues against Professional Army yet; they work best when used together. And in some cases, Retinues is actually more important. For example, if you're doing an early Swordsman rush or a Knight rush, iron could be more of a bottleneck than gold. You can easily get gold from the AI by selling luxuries or diplo favour; but the AI is frequently very reluctant to trade away their strategic resources. So if you don't have enough iron, you're screwed until you have Retinues.

Traveling Merchants:
The only card here I've never used. Even Aesthetics I've occasionally used in the late game, in order to speed my process towards tier 3 governments.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Aesthetics (8)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (20)
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (24)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (21)
Retinues (20)
Serfdom (30)
Town Charters (8)
Trade Confederation (17)
Traveling Merchants (3)

Tough downvote to call, there's not much to separate the bottom 4, but I already downvoted Aesthetics. I've never used it personally, but Medina Quarter could be used by those playing tall, Travelling Merchants maybe if there's a Great Merchant that you're trying to snipe (say a +1 trade route GM), which leaves....

Town Charters 8 (11-3): Getting a +2 Commercial Hub is easy. Getting anything higher than not so much. Mansa Musa will probably have this plugged in permanently, everyone else nope.

Retainers 21 (20+1): Going to give this one an early upvote. If you're playing a peaceful and/or wide game this is a great card to plug into a Military slot, and gives your units a purpose other than waiting around for the next upgrade so you can pop a Eureka with them.

 

[OzzyKP]

Aesthetics (8)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (20)
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (26)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (21)
Retinues (20)
Serfdom (30)
Town Charters (5)
Trade Confederation (17)
Traveling Merchants (0) - Done

Naval Infrastructure 25 (24+1): I love harbors, it is fairly easy to 3 or 4 adjacency, so this is +3-4 gold per harbor, and then with shipyards +3-4 production per harbor, which is quite nice. This policy makes quite a few one or two tile islands worth settling on.

Traveling Merchants 0 (3-3): Finished this off. I never use this, GPP cards (at least before they scaled) are pretty terrible.

It looks like JhGf_123 missed the votes of bengalryan9, so I adjusted Town Charters & Naval Infrastructure.

 

[DogeEnricoDandolo]

Aesthetics (8)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (21) I love planning high adjacency Industrial Zones. And now this card is military, I can use the precious Economic slot for something else!
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (26)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (21)
Retinues (20)
Serfdom (30)
Town Charters (2) It is time for this to go. The only adjacency bonus CHs most likely get is being next to River, and that is it.
Trade Confederation (17)

 

[kryat]

Aesthetics (8)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (21)
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (26)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (18) (21-3) I mean, it’s one amenity per city. There’s better ways to get that. Plus, hogs a red card slot for something better, like craftsmen or in a few turns, logistics.
Retinues (20)
Serfdom (30)
Town Charters (3) (2+1) I wouldn’t be sad if this immediately gets eliminated because they are hard to be worth anything on land, but it’s worth mentioning that harbor triangles can lead to +5 CHs. Doubling a +5 is quite valuable.
Trade Confederation (17)

@hhhhhh, there’s a typo on the leaderboard attributing Great admiral points to traveling merchants

 

[hhhhhh]

Aesthetics (9) (8+1) It's not that useless. When you play Greece or Japan which has some advantage on theatre squares, it can be worth it. (+40 culture from a single policy, something like that.) I'm not saying it's a strong policy but at least I hope someone upvote it with me before it got eliminated.
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (21)
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (22)
Naval Infrastructure (23) (26-3) Don't get me wrong, it's a very powerful policy when combined with Free Inquiry golden age. But many people seems to upvote only for the gold it brings, well in that case it's not that interesting so I'm using my downvote to correct it.
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (18)
Retinues (20)
Serfdom (30)
Town Charters (3)
Trade Confederation (17)

 

[Josephias]

Aesthetics (9)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (21)
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (23)
Naval Infrastructure (23)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (18)
Retinues (20)
Serfdom (30)
Town Charters (0). ELIMINATED
Trade Confederation (17)

Merchant Confederation (22+1=23), besides the obvious Serfdom, and the occasional Gothic Architecture and Professional Army/Reutines, i think this one is a card I consider before of after in my games, if I need to push my gold output. It also improves quite a bit when the game progresses and more envoys are available, so let's upvote it now we have still worse options.

On the other hand

Town Charters (3-3=0): Eliminated. It has been a difficult decision whether to eliminate Town Charters or push down Medina Quarter, but I'm going with Town Charters as I think the reasons exposed to keep this card vs the reasons exposed to downvote it are more solid than for Medina Quarter. Town Charters is there to provide gold, but as states, doubling adjacency of CH is not that much. Triangles may help, but if you are building docks you may get equal or better benefits from Naval Infraestructure without needing the CH. Also, see Merchant Confederation above. And gold-saver cards as Professional Army may provide a higher net benefit. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of Housing Cards, and Medina Quarter may even be outshined by Civil Prestige, given you not commit your governors to a specific city or spread to much. But I'm not that sold in the argument three districts is a big prerequisite... as probably is in cities where you have already built three districts were you need that extra push to overcome the housing limit. Something that always happens? No, but I still see it more useful than Town Charters.

 

[canadamufc]

Aesthetics (9)
Chivalry (21)
Civil Prestige (15)
Craftsmen (21)
Feudal Contract (21)
Gothic Architecture (20)
Medina Quarter (6)
Merchant Confederation (23)
Naval Infrastructure (23)
Professional Army (27)
Retainers (18)
Retinues (21) (20+1) You ever have a game where Strategic Resources are very sparse? I don't know if you have, but it's happened multiple times for me. In some games, this is a lifesaver if you're relying on Strategic Resources for a timing push. I mean, okay it might not be as good as Professional Army, but often it's much better to slot both in at the same time to save lots of resources and gold.
Serfdom (30)
Trade Confederation (14) (17-3) On paper, it looks ok. However, how many trade routes would an average player actually have? In my games I average 12~ trade routes (In the late game as well, so the value of this card goes down!) and that may be pushing it. Especially since it's competing for an Economic Slot, it doesn't do too well.