[NFP] Renaissance Era Policy Card Elimination Thread.

[MrRadar]

Colonial Offices (8)
Drill Manuals (18)
Frescoes (3) (6-3)
Invention (22)
Liberalism (17)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (23)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (18)
Simultaneum (11)
Triangular Trade (26) (25+1)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (22)

Frescoes (3) (6-3) Getting a GA is not as important as getting their GW. And as long as AI keeps selling their GW for trifling sums, this card will be worth even less.

Triangular Trade (26) (25+1) A silent workhorse card, that is usually in if no great adjacencies are to be boosted with other cards, providing subsistence level funds and a bit of faith in a better tomorrow

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Colonial Offices (8)
Drill Manuals (18)
Invention (23)
Liberalism (17)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (23)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (18)
Simultaneum (11)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (22)

Frescoes [Eliminated) - more GA you have nowhere to put? No thanks!
Invention (22+1=23) - I think the GP cards are a bit under valued on these forums but with the buff this one clearly is very powerful.

What's wrong... people just constantly dropping policies from the list.

Moderator Action: Folks, please do put a bit more care and attention into your posts! Thanks, NZ

 

[Francel]

Colonial Offices (8)
Drill Manuals (15) (18-3) - If I needed coal or niter, I would rather try to obtain in other ways than this card - easiest might be suzeraining a city state with the resource; however, i don’t find myself without enough often. Not very militaristic except ranged units for the most part. No ironclad fleets for me.
Invention (23)
Liberalism (17)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (23)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (19) (18+1) - good for RV, winning religious combat spreads your religion and this makes it easier. Situational but can be useful.
Simultaneum (11)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (22)

 

[Archon_Wing]

Colonial Offices (8)
Drill Manuals (15)
Invention (23)
Liberalism (14) 17-3 Oh right, this card is pretty weak. It doesn't help that Classical Republic's legacy is flat out better and comes sooner But even if you don't have that, there's little space for it. This card MAY come into use if I go t4 and run out of cards to use, but that's not really a good sign, is it?

If you haven't found the recurring theme in my posts, it's the frequent complaint that Firaxis is VERY stringy with growth related things in this game. Even though expanding constantly is better.
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (23)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (19)
Simultaneum (12) 11+1 All the +adjacency/pop cards were gutted with the change given that 15 pop is a huge investment and the higher adjacency makes it out of reach for many maps and civs. Of the two that aren't useless, Rationalism is now very situational but I suppose you can argue you can't get science easily otherwise. As for this card....

It still does fine because you have more control over Holy Site adjacency if you took the proper pantheon though, as well as religious buildings already having decent yields. It's still a low priority but certainly better than crap such as Colonial Offices or Liberalism as it can be useful in cultural or religious victories.

As I don't go for Science Victories, I end up using this more than Rationalism. (though I don't really miss not having either)

Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (22)

 

[enKage]

Colonial Offices (8)
Drill Manuals (15)
Invention (23)
Liberalism (14)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (24)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (16)
Simultaneum (12)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (22)

Religious Orders -3
Useful only for religious vitory and even not necessairy for religious victory. Even if you have own religion and go for other victories, you'd better use inquisitor's charge on own cities.. If you really really need bonus strength, better go for...

Machiavellianism +1
fast training spies for +6 universal strength and lots of other benefits depending on situation. Must have green card in my every gameplay and a potential reason to build FC or Potala

 

[InsidiousMage]

Colonial Offices (5) (8-3) - Another card I've rarely used. Three loyalty is rarely enough to stop cities from flipping.
Drill Manuals (15)
Invention (24) (23+1) - The first decent Great Person card and a solid one at that. Engineers are good across multiple victory conditions as well.
Liberalism (14)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (24)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (16)
Simultaneum (12)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (22)

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Colonial Offices (5)
Drill Manuals (15)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (11)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (24)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (16)
Simultaneum (12)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (22)

Liberalism 11 (14-3): As @Archon_Wing said, Republican Legacy is a better, more versatile version of this card.

Invention 25 (24+1): Plug this card in and you can absolutely hoover up just about every GE in the game.

 

[hhhhhh]

Colonial Offices (2) (5-3) Too dependent on the map unless you play Dido.
Drill Manuals (15)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (11)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (25) (24+1) Knowing that the number of turns taken only depends on the turn you start a mission, one can use this very efficiently. For 1 turn.
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (16)
Simultaneum (12)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (22)

 

[Josephias]

Colonial Offices (-1) Eliminated
Drill Manuals (15)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (11)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (25)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (16)
Simultaneum (12)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (23)


Colonial Offices (2-3=-1) Eliminated. As commented above, quite map dependant and the effect is not big enough to make a difference in mantaining loyal your colonies. Was doubting a bit to eliminate it until I noticied it is not Colonial Taxes.

Wisselbanken (22+1=23) One of the reasons this is the time to switch from internal to international trade routes, as this card allows to mix the benefit of both. Even if it is limited to allies, you may always find one even if warmongering (and it helps with the alliance points in that case). In the rare case everyone hates you, the fact they opened the production bonus to suzerained city states hepls as well.

 

[canadamufc]

Drill Manuals (15)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (8) (11-3) Such a meh bonus. Why waste a crowded Economic Slot for a card with such minimal value and use? Just really can't justify this over anything else when other cards hold more value than this one.
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (25)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (16)
Simultaneum (12)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (24) (23+1) This can give you absolutely insane yields for trade routes. This + Democracy will give you loads of production and food (I believe I had +9 each last game), for every trade route you send. It's still mind boggling to me as to why this got buffed, as it was already insanely good.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Drill Manuals (15)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (8)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (22)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (16)
Simultaneum (12)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (25)

Machiavellianism (25-3=22) If I have spies on, which I need to assume for the purposes of this game, I still don't give them much priority.
Wisselbanken (24+1=25) I guess this got buffed to try and encourage international trade routes as the boosts from domestic ones are still very good.

 

[Mr. Salt]

Drill Manuals (16)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (8)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (22)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (13)
Simultaneum (12)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (21)
Wisselbanken (25)

Drill Manuals: One of the best ways to supply Power is with Coal Power Plants, and this ensures that sparse sources of Coal will be enough for you to use.

Religious Orders: For the first time in my memory, hard agree with EnKage. This card is aggressively not worth your time, not even in religious victories since it's outcompeted by far superior options.

 

[Equilin]

Drill Manuals (16)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (8)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (22)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (13)
Simultaneum (9) (12-3) Extra 10 faith for 2 holy sites that meet the requirements? not worth a slot imo. Can it multiply Choral Music? But still not worth it imo, unless you have lots of +4 HS which are super rare imo.
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (22) (21+1) Actually works when you need it to smooth up your conquest.
Wisselbanken (25)

 

[Futumch]

Drill Manuals (16)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (8)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (19) 22-3
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (13)
Simultaneum (9)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (22)
Wisselbanken (26) 25+1

Machiavellianism : I tend not to invest in spies until the industrial era.
Wisselbanken : I'm usually suzerain of 3+ City States by the time I can slot this card.

 

[kaspergm]

Drill Manuals (16)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (9) (8+1) - While I agree this is far from the best card on the list, I'm upvotng it to give it perhaps one more stay. I do use this card from time to time to give me an amenity boost which saves me building Entertainment Complexes.
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (19)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (13)
Simultaneum (6) (9-3) - After they nerfed these cards to require higher adjacency and higher population, they have become borderline useless, and faith is not that hard to get a high yield of anyway. Even if you want to boost your faith yield, something like Triangular Trade and (obviously) Scripture is likely to earn you more faith at any given time.
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (22)
Wisselbanken (26)

Just a question for clarification: I've seen several times in these threads arguments like in the post above (wrt. Machiavellianis): "I don't use spies before industrial era." But in this thread, don't we evaluate the cards in general, not only in the specific era they unlock, but for all the time they are available?

 

[MrRadar]

Drill Manuals (13) (16-3)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (9)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (19)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (13)
Simultaneum (6)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (22)
Wisselbanken (27) (26+1)

Drill Manuals (13) (16-3) - This is a rather strange card that can be marginally useful in borderline cases, but usually there are better military cards to slot in. It still requires you to have a few sources of the resource and won't help in case you don't have any. I prefer to solve my lack of resources quickly by buying them from the AI, usually there is a willing supplier or two on the world market.

Wisselbanken (27) (26+1) - A nice card, nudging you to switch to international routes and find some allies or vassals. The inclusion of City States where you're the Suzerain was a very welcome touch and boost for this card.

 

[JhGf_123]

Drill Manuals (13)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (9)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (19)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (14)(13+1)
Simultaneum (3)(6-3)
Triangular Trade (26)
Wars of Religion (22)
Wisselbanken (27)

Simultaneum: I'm a fan of faith-based strategies, but this card is not good. Scripture provides more faith, more reliably, and much earlier in the game.

Religious Orders: surprised this one is struggling. Religious combat is the most cost-effective way of destroying other people's religions. And you'll really miss it when Saladin comes at you with Theocracy-powered-debater-apostles to destroy your capital's religion, even though you asked him not to.

 

[Drivingrevilo]

Drill Manuals (13)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (6)(9-3)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (19)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (14)
Simultaneum (3)
Triangular Trade (27)(26+1)
Wars of Religion (22)
Wisselbanken (27)

Liberalism (6)(9-3) An obvious downvote. Just underwhelming, really—a poor use of an economic slot.

Triangular Trade (27)(26+1) Simple but effective. I usually plug this in as soon as I unlock it, and keep it there until it goes obsolete.

 

[Vargas1]

Drill Manuals (13)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (7) (6+1)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (19)
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (14)
Simultaneum (0) (3-3) ELIMINATED
Triangular Trade (27)
Wars of Religion (22)
Wisselbanken (27)

Liberalism (7) - I'll put in a plug for this one before it goes - it's not the best card in the world, but if you're expanding a lot and don't want to build a bunch of ECs (and your regional buildings like the zoo haven't come around yet), this can be helpful to stabilize your amenity situation.

Simultaneum (0) - The change to these cards hit all of them hard - the only one I maybe still use a bit is rationalism if going for a tall-ish science victory. I don't think I've slotted Simultaneum in once since the change.

 

[Francel]

Drill Manuals (13)
Invention (25)
Liberalism (7)
Logistics (26)
Machiavellianism (20) (19+1) - Spies are universally useful. Nothing not to love about spies. It's extremely helpful to get as many level 3 spies as quickly as possible. Whether it's for war (+6 combat strength) or sabotaging space ports, or even just stealing eurekas or gold, spies pay for themselves. Extra production and faster ops and you can reap the benefits.
Rationalism (20)
Religious Orders (14)
Triangular Trade (24) (27-3) - I feel good about downvoting this. It's another head scratching result in an elimination game, seeing triangular trade at 27 and simultaneum eliminated. Simultaneum can give an extra 11 faith per turn to a single city, and triangular trade an extra 1 faith per trade route. Usually cities have only 1 trade route; obviously, more is possible but it's clear that simultaneum can get much more faith. Not that I love simultaneum, I just don't think triangular trade is very good. It's slightly better caravansaries, but still lackluster. If I care about faith I'd rather have a lot of policies other than triangular, such as scripture. If gold, a lot of other policies such as the commercial hub one. I may be an outlier but I just don't think it's too hard to have +4 adj holy sites or even commercial hubs.
Wars of Religion (22)
Wisselbanken (27)