Most Useless Policy Card

[Bad Wolf]

What's your vote for the most useless policy card in this game? Something you could never see yourself using under any circumstances?

For me hands-down it's Public Transportation. A one-time payout of 50 gold for placing a Neighbourhood district on top of a farm.

Seriously?

First of all, 50 gold by the time you get Neighbourhoods is basically nothing, by that time in the game you're producing considerably more than that per turn. Maybe 500 gold each time you place a Neighbourhood would be worth it, but 50? Get real.

Second, how many Neighbourhoods are you actually going to place throughout the course of the entire game? I never end up putting more than five or six down, so that's a grand total of 300 gold. You can't even buy a builder for that!

Third, the best spot for your Neighbourhood is not necessarily going to have a farm there. Maybe there's a mine or a lumber mill - why don't you get the bonus for those? Why only farms? Would make the policy marginally better if it worked for all improvements and not just farms.

Fourth, this bonus ONLY applies when you have the Public Transportation policy card in use, obviously. If it was a passive bonus you got from some other source it might be half-decent (though still fairly insignificant), but as a policy it's worse than useless, because...

Finally, you need to waste an Economic policy slot on it, and by the late game a lot of the Economic policies are extremely good, so you don't want to give any of them up to waste on this utter garbage policy.

 

[rattatatouille]

Navigation. I mean, who needs Great Admirals anyway?

 

[criZp]

public transport give 50 gold per appeal. it's still terrible because it encourages unnecessary farm spam to get the maximum benefit.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Oh right, I forgot about the "per appeal" part. Still garbage.

 

[Hammurabbit]

Given how harmless the AI is in battles , I've never used "Bastions, +6 City defense strength, +5 City ranged attack strength".

Also "National Identity - Military Units take 50% less Combat Strength Penalty for being injured" seems a bit useless. Or maybe I'm wrong and just not thinking hard enough on my war tactics. Did anyone use it?

 

[Bad Wolf]

50% less strength penalty is pretty marginal... 100% less penalty would be worth it.

Any combat bonus, whether offensive or defensive, is still more useful than Public Transportation, in that a) they take up military and not economic policy slots, and b) you do actually get some tangible benefit, even if it's not all that useful. A couple of hundred gold isn't even worth noting by the end game, I'll drop a couple of hundred gold on something by the late game without even thinking about it.

As for Navigation... well, I'd rather have a Great Admiral than 200-300 gold.

 

[fotonut]

Given how harmless the AI is in battles , I've never used "Bastions, +6 City defense strength, +5 City ranged attack strength".

I had never used this until this weekend, but came in handy against a massive assault. If it wasn’t for this plus governer Victor’s military skills I may have lost my capital... Cavalry against my crossbowmen.

 

[halfhalfharp]

Also "National Identity - Military Units take 50% less Combat Strength Penalty for being injured" seems a bit useless. Or maybe I'm wrong and just not thinking hard enough on my war tactics. Did anyone use it?

Yeah it has a fairly useful effect in combat, although it may not be a major one.

Here is what I know:
A damaged unit is less effective when attacking than a fully healed unit. The more damaged the unit, the less its attack – melee or ranged will damage an opponent.

The actual formula is more complex than this, but as a general rule a unit’s damage output is reduced by half the percentage of HPs that it has lost. In other words, a unit that has lost 5 HPs (50%) has the amount of damage it does reduced by 25%, and the damage a unit that has lost 9 HPs (90%) is reduced by 45%.

As we can see, the injured penalty is calculated in percentage of the HP lost. Therefore, this policy is prolonging the units' combat capability in war. Not that vital, but not totally useless.

 

[Onii-chan]

Given how harmless the AI is in battles , I've never used "Bastions, +6 City defense strength, +5 City ranged attack strength".

That one is definitely useful if you get caught having been skimping on units when you get attacked. Especially if you've just gotten Monarchy and you have 3 military cards to work with then slotting Bastions in on defence is pretty logical

OT:
- I would have to agree that Public Transport is pretty damn useless for the aforementioned reasons.
- The cards that buff pillaging are also pretty dumb to me, I mean if you go on the attack you probably want to actually take the city for yourself, not just burn everything around it.
- The new Civil Prestige card is pretty bad too: "Established Governors with at least 3 Promotions provide +1 Amenity and +1 Housing.", I mean seriously you need a governor with *3* promotions just to get 1 amenity and 1 housing in 1 city? There are so many other housing and amenity cards that are much easier to satisfy the conditions for
- Native Conquest: "Combat victories over units from earlier eras provide Gold equal to 50% of the combat strength of the defeated unit." I mean... seriously? Way too situational and even then it's a pathetic amount of gold we're talking about here
- National Identity: "Units take 50% less Combat Strength Penalty for being injured." First of all you'd have to be injured to benefit from this (which you don't want to be), but also the combat strength reduction from being injured is so small in the grand scheme of things that cutting that in half changes basically nothing
- Second Strike Capability: "Nuclear Device maintenance reduced by 50% Gold per turn." Just how many nukes do you think I have saved up exactly? Not like the maintenance cost for those should ever be an issue anyway at this stage of the game

 

[Bad Wolf]

The pillaging card - well, kind of useful if you're at war but don't want to take cities due to warmonger penalty.

Civil Prestige - agreed, I was extremely unimpressed by it, definitely needs a buff. (Maybe provides amenities and housing based on how many promotions the governor has, i.e.: +2 housing and +2 amenities for a level 2 governor.)

Native Conquest - agreed it's totally useless, but at least it only take up a military slot.

National Identity - agreed, very situational, the bonus isn't great, and if you're doing warfare right you won't be fighting with injured units.

Second Strike - I'll admit, I like to build up a big nuke arsenal if the game goes that long (I'm usually winning by that time anyway, so why not?), especially if I'm dealing with an AI Gandhi. So this is sort of useful.

 

[criZp]

Also "National Identity - Military Units take 50% less Combat Strength Penalty for being injured" seems a bit useless. Or maybe I'm wrong and just not thinking hard enough on my war tactics. Did anyone use it?

A severe injured unit has as much as -10 strength penalty from being injured, in which case the policy will give the unit a significant boost.

extra pillaging can be nice if you just want to mess up an opponent without getting the diplo penalty from taking cities

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Survey. Double experience points for Scouts was already weak, but as of R&F it's been nerfed to only count for exploration XPs, not combat. So even for the Cree it's not compelling compared to +5 versus Barbarians. Anyone see a purpose for this card that I've missed?

 

[Hactar]

Public Transportation used to be quite useful for the end game in a fast science victory. Preferably with Eiffel Tower, just before completing Big Ben you slot in that card for one turn, place a bunch of neighbourhoods, giving many thousands of gold (over your empire) which is then doubled by Big Ben. Then buy all the scientists and finish all the space projects.

This is no longer viable since they removed the great scientist production overflow, so I would agree that policy is less useful now. But you could slot it in briefly if you need a quick gold pop.

- The cards that buff pillaging are also pretty dumb to me, I mean if you go on the attack you probably want to actually take the city for yourself, not just burn everything around it.

You want to burn everything around it *then* take the city. Burn improvements, that is, not districts. Particularly in the early game, +25 science or culture doubled to 50 can be 3 or 4 turns worth in just one pillage. A typical Sumerian city with Ziggurat spam could be several hundred science, maybe a whole free tech. Don’t underestimate pillaging.

 

[Victoria]

Military research and third alternative are both beyond use. Anyone ever used native conquest?

Public Transportation

Well some very good players use it and I have because it can make you an awful lot of money due to the fact you get the money when you lay the neighbourhood rather than complete it.

Navigation. I mean, who needs Great Admirals anyway?

I hate to say this but I sometimes use this card since R&F, especially on deity. Getting that +1 era score for each great person helps. As well as for rationalism
Tere is normally not the rush for admirals that there is for other types and +2 really gives an edge when you already have 2 harbors and lighthouses.

 

[Brutus2]

- The cards that buff pillaging are also pretty dumb to me, I mean if you go on the attack you probably want to actually take the city for yourself, not just burn everything around it.

This a a great card for Rome since legions can repair an unlimited number of pillaged improvements without using a charge just like builders. There is no reason not to pillage as Rome because after you take the city your Legions can easily repair everything (except districts).

Also, unique improvements will be gone after you capture a city so why wouldn’t you pillage them?

 

[Onii-chan]

A severe injured unit has as much as -10 strength penalty from being injured, in which case the policy will give the unit a significant boost.

If my unit has 10 hp left then I'm going to retreat with it anyway, not try to fight any longer. So even then it's not very useful

This a a great card for Rome since legions can repair an unlimited number of pillaged improvements without using a charge just like builders. There is no reason not to pillage as Rome because after you take the city your Legions can easily repair everything (except districts).

Also, unique improvements will be gone after you capture a city so why wouldn’t you pillage them?

I actually never thought about the UI disappearing part of it, yeah that should be worth it at least

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

You want to burn everything around it *then* take the city.

I hate it when I capture a city and then notice one of my units was sitting on a mine or quarry that didn't get pillaged. I mentally sack that unit's commander for being too soft.

Military research and third alternative are both beyond use. Anyone ever used native conquest?

Military Research: First you have to actually build a Military Academy or a Seaport, then you have to REALLY need that extra +1 Science.

Third Alternative: First you have to research Totalitarianism. I suppose you could decide partway into the Industrial Era, "Oh heck with it, I've mucked up a religious victory. Guess I'll conquer the world instead." Then maybe you build Research Labs, Military Academies, and Power Plants as well because you've been neglecting your science, military, and infrastructure, all of which are helpful when trying to conquer the world. And then finally you figure, "no one's trading with me anymore, I guess I can use Third Alternative to get some gold". I haven't been down this path, personally.

Native Conquest: This I've used, but I'm not proud of it. It's like being the class bully: beating them up AND THEN taking their lunch money, too. Actually, it's probably a lot worse than taking their lunch money, but I'm going to keep this family friendly.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Military research and third alternative are both beyond use.

I've used both of those! Military research is a great way to spend a military slot if you've got a lot of Seaports of Military Academies and you're behind in science. I think I've used Third Alternative as well, it's a nice way to get some extra Gold for buildings that you already have, and stacks with Military Research.

Survey. Double experience points for Scouts was already weak, but as of R&F it's been nerfed to only count for exploration XPs, not combat. So even for the Cree it's not compelling compared to +5 versus Barbarians. Anyone see a purpose for this card that I've missed?

Oh yeah I noticed that, I couldn't remember if that's how it always was or if they changed it for R&F. I can't imagine why they changed this, it's not like Scout promotions are that valuable to begin with and they were already hard to get, (how often will you be fighting with a Scout anyway?) but now there's almost no point in taking Survey since the only time Scouts get experience is for discovering Natural Wonders (right?). Way too situational, and +5 against barbs is huge in the early game.

 

[criZp]

Survey. Double experience points for Scouts was already weak, but as of R&F it's been nerfed to only count for exploration XPs, not combat. So even for the Cree it's not compelling compared to +5 versus Barbarians. Anyone see a purpose for this card that I've missed?

they bothered to nerf a policy that nobody uses? lol

 

[Bad Wolf]

Which means at least someone must have thought that Survey was either overpowered or too prone to exploitation. Can anyone posit any conceivable reason why anyone would think that?