Most Useless Policy Card

[Siesta Guru]

Colonial offices: +15% growth for cities not on your original continent.
Increased growth is mostly pointless in civ 6 since you're usually capped by amenities/housing, not growth rate. Additionally it only works for cities on other continents and it comes online really late, where you won't care much about growth anymore.

Trade confederation: +1 science and culture per international trade route.
How many international trade routes do people have generally? For me it's usually 0, but may go up to about 3 or so in rare cases. That's a grand total of +3 science and +3 culture, yaaay. Even if all your routes are international, it just doesn't compare at all to yields gained from cards obtained at similar times.

Military Research: Military Academies and Seaports generate +1 science
Even on wide you're lucky if this gives you 10 science per turn. The campus adjacency card will easily grant you 5 times as much, and that card is hardly overpowered. It's only kind of rescued by the fact military cards tend to be really niche

And the current undeniable champion:
Total War. For doing the exact same thing as the policy raid which it replaces (why???). Raid is also awful to begin with

Shoutouts to: Survey, Second Strike Capability and Navigation

 

[Graethyenne]

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?

I can imagine the Cree Scouts getting to the +20 combat strength a little too easily if it still doubled everything. I can *imagine* it, I am not convinced it would a problem.

 

[criZp]

I can imagine the Cree Scouts getting to the +20 combat strength a little too easily if it still doubled everything. I can *imagine* it, I am not convinced it would a problem.

The problem is the +20 strength promotion in itself, which is too strong. No other promotion in the game give +20 strength, in all situations no less.

Colonial offices: +15% growth for cities not on your original continent.
Increased growth is mostly pointless in civ 6 since you're usually capped by amenities/housing, not growth rate. Additionally it only works for cities on other continents and it comes online really late, where you won't care much about growth anymore.

In RnF it also gives +3 loyalty. Plus, doesn't it unlock close to the neighbourhoods?

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I can imagine the Cree Scouts getting to the +20 combat strength a little too easily if it still doubled everything. I can *imagine* it, I am not convinced it would a problem.

Or - and I can't believe I'm proposing this - but: did they forget that Survey obsoletes at Exploration, and were worried that it would apply to all exploration class units, and would be overpowered for Spec Ops (and to a lesser degree Explorers or Rangers or whatever they call the post Scout unit) ???

Even if Survey didn't obsolete, I don't think they should have been worried about this, as these are late game units and you'd need to use a policy slot just for them. Plus it'd have been a neat option to be able to build up an elite late game special forces unit.

This probably didn't happen, but did they maybe even try allowing Survey to be available the whole game, then decided it was too OP for the later game Spec Ops unit so nerfed it, and then after nerfing it decided to go back to having it obsolete?

EDIT: It was pointed out on another thread that Survey only obsoletes on a leaf branch, so players can by pass that and retain Survey for the full game. I expect that's the reason for the nerf. I don't necessarily agree, but at least I can understand the decision now.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Scouts have a base strength of 10 though right? So even +20, while impressive, would not make them unstoppable. And even pre-R&F I've never gotten more than two promotions on a Scout, and usually only manage one.

 

[ZeroSuitSenpai]

I'm surprised at how many people have said the double pillage yields. I have that card on rarely, but when it's on, I find it invaluable.

 

[zxcvbob]

Navigation. I mean, who needs Great Admirals anyway?

Some of the great admirals give really good bonuses when you retire them. (doesn't one of them give you a battleship with one free promotion, even if you haven't researched Steel yet or don't have any coal? And another converts any ship into an armada?

 

[Disgustipated]

Just how many nukes do you think I have saved up exactly?

You can never have enough nukes. I sometimes build up to 10 even if I never intend on using them. Kind of like the U.S.

Anyone see a purpose for this card that I've missed?

Survey can be useful if you play with barbs off, but then generally only until you use agoge or conscription.

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 would use these, but when it first comes up I haven't built any seaports or military academies yet. I would like to use this in monarchy, but I usually don't have these buildings until I get Democracy, and the policy expires pretty quick (possibly with Suffrage).

Trade confederation: +1 science and culture per international trade route.
How many international trade routes do people have generally? For me it's usually 0, but may go up to about 3 or so in rare cases

I use a ton at this point in the game. Especially with Meritocracy gone. That culture per trade route is important to me. I love Trade Confederation. I prefer Market Economy, only problem is Capitalism is not on the way to where I want to go (dead end tech) which is either globalization or social media depending on my victory I'm aiming for.

 

[kaspergm]

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?

they bothered to nerf a policy that nobody uses? lol

Well, now I understand why people say it's impossible to get scouts to the level 3 promotion that gets +20 combat strength ...

Seriously, I use Survey quite a lot. Why wouldn't you use Survey if you're not particularly threatened by barbarians? It's an easy way to get some levels on your scouts if they pop some goody huts or discover some natural wonders (and attack barb scouts, although I guess that's irrelevant now). I didn't know they'd nerfed it, however. I'd also say it's really unnecessary, it wasn't by any means overpowered before, I just didn't find it useless either.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I use a ton at this point in the game. Especially with Meritocracy gone. That culture per trade route is important to me. I love Trade Confederation. I prefer Market Economy, only problem is Capitalism is not on the way to where I want to go (dead end tech) which is either globalization or social media depending on my victory I'm aiming for.

I use the Trade Confederation policy a lot, too. I usually only use domestic trade routes if I want to lay down some roads internally and can't do so by sending international routes across my territory. Then later on, I'll direct trade routes from my spaceport city to wherever it can get the most production.

For most of the game, the extra culture and science from trading internationally is what I'm after. Plus gold is more flexible than production. Granted, food is more valuable now that the loyalty system encourages an early build up of border cities, but clipping through the civics and research trees is still pretty useful.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Trade Confederation is excellent if you're a commerce-based Civ with lots of trade routes, relying on gold purchases. That extra culture and science is just stacked on top of the money you're making.

 

[UWHabs]

I think they got rid of the extra on Survey because they did make the recon line more valuable. 2 civs have a UU in it - I could imagine some weird survey/highlander spam as Scotland too. I still use it sometimes if I know that I have no barbs next to me, and my scout is about to pop a hut. Definitely nice to get that promotion to heal up and move quicker, but usually after I use it, I run into a barb and would have been much better to just stick with the +5 vs barbs.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Seriously, I use Survey quite a lot. Why wouldn't you use Survey if you're not particularly threatened by barbarians? It's an easy way to get some levels on your scouts if they pop some goody huts or discover some natural wonders (and attack barb scouts, although I guess that's irrelevant now). I didn't know they'd nerfed it, however. I'd also say it's really unnecessary, it wasn't by any means overpowered before, I just didn't find it useless either.

By the time I'm finished dealing with barbarians, I'm usually on to other policies. I tend to use only my starting Warrior to fight off the barbarians and farm their camps, though. To be honest, I haven't tried seeing whether I could do this without the bonus. I just kind of assumed he'd be overwhelmed on many maps without the +5. Maybe it's time I tell him to toughen up and deal with home defence on his own while I try sending out an experience buffed scout. Still dubious that the scout could get enough experience to make that worthwhile, though. I'd need to do the math on how many discoveries a scout would need to get to that level 3 bonus.

 

[Bad Wolf]

usually after I use it, I run into a barb and would have been much better to just stick with the +5 vs barbs

That's just it, the more promotions your scout has, the more barbs they inevitably seem to attract...

 

[Amrunril]

Seriously, I use Survey quite a lot. Why wouldn't you use Survey if you're not particularly threatened by barbarians? It's an easy way to get some levels on your scouts if they pop some goody huts or discover some natural wonders (and attack barb scouts, although I guess that's irrelevant now). I didn't know they'd nerfed it, however. I'd also say it's really unnecessary, it wasn't by any means overpowered before, I just didn't find it useless either.

Survey's definitely the weaker of the two initial military policies and definitely didn't need to be nerfed, but by nature of the fact that it's one of only two, it's hard for it to be useless. If you're fortunate enough to have a 5-10 turn lull in barbarian action, you might as well slot in survey. That way your military policy slot is at least giving some chance of free experience, whereas discipline would give you absolutely nothing.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Military Research is pretty trash. Third Alternative is pretty bad as well. Both require expensive late game buildings that aren't that great to begin with. At least you could use 3rd alternative for when you're done researching....

And there's also +1 amenity per stadium or something but at least I could see that having a use even though it's probably a waste of a slot.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

That's just it, the more promotions your scout has, the more barbs they inevitably seem to attract...

I hadn't thought about this before, but that's really the issue, isn't it? The promotions don't help the scout enough to make the benefits of extra experience that great. The extra movement is helpful, both for faster exploring and the ability to run away, but the unit can still wander into a hopeless situation. Perhaps a combat bonus should be added that gives a bonus, even +5, in the terrain where they ignore movement penalties? Instead of the Guerilla promotion allowing you to attack and then move (which doesn't get you far enough away to avoid retaliation), it could provide an "evade" option so that your unit can retreat instead of taking full damage.

Anyway, I'd be all for game play options that encourage you to send out scouts and build them up to the Level 3 Ambush promotion level, when you can then bring them home where they can fight alongside the rest of your army without fear of being one shot and eventually be promoted up to Spec Ops.

As it is, the promotions for Scouts are primarily beneficial saved up as an insta heal to escape a bad situation. Someone pointed out that (other than the +4 era score) this is the most useful thing about the Cree's unique Scout: they can start exploring with a saved promotion, and use it after their first hit. Of course, that also means they don't get any exploration experience while they're still holding it, so that's mostly useful if you know you're throwing them against early Barbs.

 

[criZp]

And there's also +1 amenity per stadium or something but at least I could see that having a use even though it's probably a waste of a slot.

It's sports media: +100% theater adjacency and +1 amenity from stadium. The extra amenity probably spreads to all nearby cities, althought I'm not sure.

 

[Archon_Wing]

It's sports media: +100% theater adjacency and +1 amenity from stadium. The extra amenity probably spreads to all nearby cities, althought I'm not sure.

Yah, it's so bad I forgot what it is. It used to obsolete the 100% theater district buildings card which always pissed me off since theater adjancency bonuses are very puny and stadiums are so expensive. And of course all of this comes so late that I rarely build stadiums to begin with.

 

[criZp]

It's fine if you are low on amenities.