Best policies? Which do you think are the best three.

[CaptainChiatrol]

Policies have a heavy cost but which ones do you think are the best and worth the cost. Which ones do you think are best and why. They come as a heavy cost. Some don't feel worth while and others don't. Which do you think are the best?

First place I give to
Pluto - Econ
Formalized Scales, Weights and Measures

Spoiler

I think for a republic with re-elections pluto-econ is always worth it. With the right mix and some power projection you can have helpful rulers rise to 6/6/6 until death and nbarely tradition and even without that mix it's worthwhile extremely. if you reelect someone twice on a 4 year cycle it's (4*12*3*3 four years 12 months to a year three MP categories and 3 sets of the bonus compared to a new guy every time) 432 MP total over 8 years.

Second Place I give to
Quant - Expan
The Colonial Settlement Act

Spoiler

a colonist and growth. if you have spare points and want to grow more colonies fast fast fast possibly to beat the AI to key places it can't be beat.

Third I give to
Relig - Influence
Cultural Unity

Spoiler

I believe MP are the kings of this game and anything I can burst save MP I will use. If those two idea groups are in my plans then I will avoid any culture conversions until I can stack it on the bonus from religion save up a bunch of diplo points and burst convert as many counties as possible to save monarch points. You should save at least 200 possible MP, assuming you spend at 999 diplo points and don't do a single other conversion in the next ten years after, for the cost of 120 diplo points.

 

[IIWW]

They are so situational and short-termed, that it isn't really possible to say that one is better than another. If You have 10 years of truce/coring/regency, then military (as in: giving mil bonus, not "costing mil points) policies would suck, but there can be nothing better during war. Polcies are actually one of the better balanced things in this game, none of them is UP, non is OP.

 

[Aethis]

Combined with Religous and Influence ideas (for cultural unity policy) then Muscowy can get like 65% reduced cultural conversion cost - which is great for getting rid of all those little unaccepted cultures over the place.

But like IIWW said they are very situational - different nations have different ideas suited to different policies and it depends what situation you are in also - are you war mongering, trading, colonising, diplo-vassalising and annexing.. etc.

 

[ChildeR]

You might want to edit in the effects for those who don't remember them off the top of their head?

Anyway, I agree that Colonial Settlement act is one of the best. Especially since it uses military points.

Other favorites include:

The Underhanded Diplomacy Act (Diplomatic + Offensive)
Military policy: -10% AE, +1 diprep

Best diprep policy IMO. Good for annexing vassals while expanding after the early game, when military points are plentiful. The quantity + diplomatic one gives +15% land FL, which may be even better early game, but I rarely take quantity, whereas offensive is always good.


The Nobility Embassy Act (Aristocratic + Exploration)
Diplo policy: +1 diplomat, +1 diprep

This is my go to policy for colonial games. Diplo points are more valuable but getting both a diplomat (for those travel times) and diplomatic reputation is great.


Multilingual Diplomats (Humanist + Diplomatic)
Diplo policy: -10% accepted culture threshold, +20% BROT

I like to use this to "unlock" accepted cultures for 120 diplo points. BROT is helpful too, since I would usually do it after a large war.

 

[aplsin]

Why 3? You can have up to 5.

this is my favorite

Modern Firearm Techniques
Innovative + Quality
+20% Infantry combat ability

 

[DrLulz]

I guess the "vassal integration act" (Adm. + Infl.) is pretty awesome, if you have vassals to integrate.
In 1.8 Coalitions are not as dangerous/annoying as they used to be, but if coalitions returned to their former 'glory', (and even in 1.8), I wonder if some the policies that give -Aggressive Expansion Impact ("AEI) might not be worth considering. Without policies (and national ideas) you can get - 40 % AEI AFAIK

100 prestige (- 10 % AEI)
Papal Controller (- 10 % AEI)
Influence 4. (State Propaganda) (- 20 % AEI)

With policies you can get - 60 % AEI:
Diplomatic + economic - 20 % AEI
Expansion + Espionage - 10 % AEI
Administrative + Aristocratic - 10 % AEI
Diplomatic + Offensive - 10 % AEI
Innovative + Influence - 10 % AEI
(note that all of these policies except Dilpomatic + Economic also give other bonuses)

It is probably not worth it, but with the right policies you can theoretically entirely avoid aggressive expansion. And I can imagine circumstances where having even some of these bonuses might be a great benefit to a warmonger.

 

[uwor]

As Aethis said, policies are really situational.

But for my playstyle. (warring and diplo-annexing)

Admin-Influence: -20% Diplo-Annex-Cost, this also reduce the time needed. Together with Influence you get -45%. So this will save you a hell of MP and time integrating vassals.
Offensive-Innovative: +1 leader siege +10% siege ability. Leader siege is one of the really hard stats to get. This will reduce the siege duration a lot.

These are for SP and really based on my own style. (OK, a lot of people seam to play the paint the world game.)

All other policies I pick, are situational and based on the idea groups I take.

 

[Pornek]

Religious/ Quantity - 10%morale, 5% morale recovery(mil)
Religious/ Quality - 2.5% discipline, 10% morale (mil)
Diplo/ Aristocratic - 0.5 legitimacy, 0.2 reptrad (mil)
Diplo/ Quantity - 1 diprep, 10% FL (mil)
Expansion/ Quantity - 1 colonist, 10 growth (mil)
Expansion/ Quality - 1 fire, 1 army trad (mil)

Some of these are running permanent at some point.

Others.
Religious/ Diplo 1% missionary, 20% unity (adm)
Religious/ Aristocratic 1% missionary, -1 unrest (adm)

I only take them when trucebreaking into different religious land and going 100+ OE.

 

[Thrake]

Admin/quantity: -10% maintenance, +10% manpower recovery
is great combined with
economic/quantity: +33% FL

Not my favourite ones specifically, it can't be chosen out of context.

 

[Denkt]

My favorit is quality-trade that give you 20% trade efficiency.

 

[Artyom87]

quantity+ expansion

or

Diplo +economic (-20% AE)

 

[FrosT37]

Second Place I give to
Quant - Expan
The Colonial Settlement Act

Spoiler

a colonist and growth. if you have spare points and want to grow more colonies fast fast fast possibly to beat the AI to key places it can't be beat.

In my current game, I've taken Quantity solely to get the extra colonist coming with this policy.

An extra colonist + colonial growth for 1 MIL point per month when I'm swarming in MIL points is pretty amazing.

 

[Mztr44]

I'm a fan of the +20% infantry combat ability policy, as well as anything with diplo reputation. High diplo rep can get you alliances you otherwise wouldn't be able to get, as well as letting you annex huge vassals in a somewhat reasonable amount of time.

 

[dstarsboy]

I hardly ever use policies.

I remember one time I desperately wanted to get a new relation slot due to having way too many vassals, so I decided "hey, what a great time to see if there are any policies I can enforce that let me do this".

There were a couple that grant the relation slot at the cost of a combination of 1 diplomatic power every month... kind of kills the whole point.

Now I only use policies when I am way ahead on a couple of technologies and they're approaching max cap.

 

[migalhone]

I like Innovative+Diplomacy: 10% cheaper advisors and +1 diplo reputation.

 

[BeardedHoplite]

I'm a big fan of the morale boosts you get with Quantity+Religious. Really helps fighting France

 

[Santoes]

My three favorite all require Innovative. It's probably my favorite combination to use with Hungary, but generally it's nice for anyone.

Modern Siege Weapons (Offensive, Innovative)
+10% Siege ability
+1 Leader siege

The siege ability stacks well with offensive, and the pips value is very rare. I think it's very suitable early if you plan to warmonger, and do it often. The innovation -tech cost kind of negate the MP cost turning that bonus into something more offensive.

Modern Firearm Techniques (quality, innovative)
+20 infantry combat ability

Mixes well with the more offensive troop choices. It definitely make a war cake walk.

The Combination Act (Innovative, Aristocratic)
+20% Production Bonus

I love me some production bonus. It's really not high priority, but can make a good economy even better.