Most Useless Policy Card

[Siesta Guru]

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.

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.

Hmm, surprised to see so many disagree here. The numbers just seem really awful when you compare it to just about any card at a similar civic level.
Even if you do use commercial districts and international trade routes heavily, it's still generally a max of 2 yield points per city.
Basically every other econ card obtainable at the same time easily gives you 3+ yields per city
Considering it both gives you less yields and less focused yields, and requires a specific, generally unoptimal way of using trade routes, I really don't see the appeal. I can only ever justify it if there's really just nothing else for that slot, which is rare for yellow cards.

 

[Disgustipated]

I just don't know of another reliable way to get culture. You can build theater square, but that only gives culture to once city right? Otherwise you'd have to build theater squares in every city. And borders grow out sooo slow it drives me crazy. I really have no choice but to buy a ton of tiles.

 

[Victoria]

The numbers just seem really awful when you compare it to just about any card at a similar civic level.

You have to understand that it’s used for fast games where you grab ever bit of science and culture you can, the money is not important even the production is not after the first 50 turns, only the chop.
So they even take Raj which to me is often worse.

 

[bonafide11]

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

I never realized how useful it was until watching Civtrader6's Deity game with Mongolia. Now I definitely plan to use it a lot in my next warmonger game.

 

[Brutus2]

I always figured the scout policy card was mostly there for those people who like to play with barbarians turned off.

 

[UWHabs]

It's fine if you are low on amenities.

I generally find that by that point, just getting the stadiums up is enough to solve most amenity issues. You can also run New Deal and the Classical Republic legacy card for +3 amenities per city. Not even counting getting water parks online either. And I also find that by the end of the game, my larger cities have district slots to spare that I can still pop down an entertainment complex/Arena pair for another +2 amenities to the city. Or I rush Maracana to give a massive boost to my empire. I can't say I've ever run the card, but it comes late enough that I'd certainly have a ton of other cards are way more useless than it is.

 

[Bad Wolf]

omg New Deal is a godsend, it usually comes online right when I need it most and I switch to it immediately. Maybe the best policy card?

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

I always figured the scout policy card was mostly there for those people who like to play with barbarians turned off.

And Germany!

That is the only time I use the policy.

 

[whylom]

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.

I had the same reaction! Pillaging gives you almost every yield in the game, in exchange for a wee bit of tempo. It’s worthwhile without the card, and extremely satisfying with it.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Isn't public transportation the most useful card in game?

This card is definitely the most powerful one in game. Not being able to use this card make Kongo a negative Civ.

 

[Turrdy]

- 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

I use that from time to time, especially when doing a colonial war. even more money in late game when your victim is in industrial/modern era.

 

[Melliores]

Yep, the Raid policy has been showcased wonderfully by Civtrader6 in his Mongolian Domination victory.

In the early game you have 10-20 Science per turn and with the card one pillaged mine nets you 50 Science. With some luck you can get 1 to 2 Free techs per war in the early game, as well as some Culture and Gold.

Some policy cards are tailored for a specific victory and game style. Public transport fits the fast, science victory games. Although I can see it working for a cultural victory as well. In my last game I won a City State emergency and received 16 800 gold. This was enough to buy to Great musicians which gave my a lot of tourism instantly. With Public transport you could game about 1000 to 1500 gold per city instantly and double that with Big Ben. You can substitute Great musicians with Great artists if you do not have the right policy unlocked yet or the proper wonders build in that city.

With Reyna as a governer, you can make a tourism magnet city within 2-3 turns. I think it is almost better than the Relics strategy with reliquaries.

 

[Athmos]

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

Bastion is situational but can still be usefull.
I recently had to combo Bastion + Viktor to win an emergency that was declared against me taking A coastal capital. I would never have been able to defend it against caravels while my strongest units were swordsmen.

OT:
- I would have to agree that Public Transport is pretty damn useless for the aforementioned reasons.

I think the only game I used it was my first civ 6 game ever. I know some Deity/peace speedruner are using it to generate some extra gold.

- 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.

Well, then you don't understand pillage. Horsemen can pillage a country to the ground very fast, and to me this policy is definitely a great way to catch up in culture and science after an early heavy military investment.
Just don't pillage districts (they takes ages to repair), but improvement don't need builder charges to repair, so that's basically free bonus, you'll even capture some builders along the way. During the war anyway these cities won't be producing much, with the occupation penalty. By the time you're warring with horsemen, +25 science or culture is still a lot, +50 gold is always nice and full heal are still better than half heal.

This card is great.

- 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

I must say I never used that one.

- 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

Used it situationaly when cleaning up barb infested island with passing battleships. Can actually get you quite a bit of gold.

- 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

Never tried it. It seems there are enough way to protect/ heal your units that you'd have to be pretty desperate for this to make a difference. Sure, if your units are at -10, it gives them +5, but it's rare that ina time of war you'll have the planing capability to use that card at just the right moment. Too many more useful choices. For unit that are partly damaged, that will be a +2 or +3, so comparable to a support/flanking bonus. I'm not convinced.

- 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

I didn't even know this card existed. Is it a new one ?

 

[unpossible251]

There's two categories of policy cards, as I see it: "active juggle" cards where you try and squeeze the value out of them for a couple of turns (so, a rush of Public transport farms to neighbourhoods, squeezing out your delayed workers for 5x with Serfdom, or a spending spree with land surveyors); and "passive hold" cards where the value only accumulates over a number of turns (cavanasaries or triangular trade through well defended trade routes, conscription & grand army).

So yeah, I disagree that Public Transportation is useless, I look forward to the gold hit with urbanisation and starting five breathtaking neighborhoods that dont need to be finished right away.

As for what I never use, sadly, I say... gothic architecture? Medieval & renaissance wonders are amazing, but Venetian Arsenal is the only one I ever have a chance at gettingon deity, because the AI can't handle the fiddly placement requirements. The rest are just too hard to start, and too rare to finish.

 

[Shorlin]

Hmm, surprised to see so many disagree here. The numbers just seem really awful when you compare it to just about any card at a similar civic level.
Even if you do use commercial districts and international trade routes heavily, it's still generally a max of 2 yield points per city.
Basically every other econ card obtainable at the same time easily gives you 3+ yields per city
Considering it both gives you less yields and less focused yields, and requires a specific, generally unoptimal way of using trade routes, I really don't see the appeal. I can only ever justify it if there's really just nothing else for that slot, which is rare for yellow cards.

Are you playing R&F? International trade routes (alliances) with the new diplo cards are as optimal as it gets.
'Other econ cards give 3+ yields per city', you mean 3+ gold? There is a reason why commercial city states give 4 gold per tier while science/culture ones give 2 per tier.

 

[Zuizgond]

It would be interesting to know which cards AI is using. Is there any way to see this?

I suspect it is not optimized at all considering AI behaviour in other fields like combat, diplomacy, city settling, wonder building, etc.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

- 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

I must say I never used that one.

This policy seems to be intended for very tall play. It's basically one free population for a small number of cities at the cost of only one policy card slot. I expect if you were aiming for record city sizes, you'd want to use this card.

 

[Duuk]

I'm stunned at the number of people saying Bastions. With the changes to how land units and walls damage ships, I find the AI is accidentally much better at sacking coastal cities because it's harder for land units and cities to kill navies early game, so when I'm fighting an earlier war against a civ with a navy it can be useful.

 

[Bad Wolf]

Medieval & renaissance wonders are amazing, but Venetian Arsenal is the only one I ever have a chance at gettingon deity, because the AI can't handle the fiddly placement requirements. The rest are just too hard to start, and too rare to finish.

I hear this so often and I always think, "Man deity must be so miserable to play". I love building wonders, doubly so in Civ VI because they make my cities look cooler. I couldn't stand playing a game where I basically have to forgo wonder building.

 

[Disgustipated]

It would be interesting to know which cards AI is using. Is there any way to see this?

With high enough diplomatic visibility you can see which policies they switch to, though I don't know of a way to see them all at once. Other than keeping track of it manually (which would be a lot of work), you can only see when they switch policies.