The Best Economic Civ 6 Policy Cards in Civilization 6

Civilization 6 includes military, diplomatic, wildcard, and economic policy cards for players to select throughout games. Economic policies are perhaps the most important for all victory conditions. The best economic cards have effects that can be especially valuable for scientific and cultural victories. These are the best economic Civ 6 policy cards to select in Civilization 6.

Colonization (Early Empire)

Colonization is the best of the Civ 6 policy cards for the early game because of its 50% production bonus effect for Settlers. Settlers are crucial to expanding your empire during the early to mid-game period when there’s more open territory to establish cities in. Selecting the Colonization card will enable you roll out Settlers in half the usual production time. Then, you can establish cities faster during the early game.

Public Works (Civil Engineering)

Builders are the most important unit in Civilization 6 for increasing city yields. Selecting the Public Works policy card gives your Builders two extra charges. As Builders have three charges by default, two more almost double their number of build actions. More build actions enable you to enhance more tiles faster, making your cities generally more productive. Plus, Public Works also reduces production for Builders by 30%. Thus, Public Works is one of the best economic Civ 6 policy cards for all victory conditions because all players need to roll out Builder units.

Ecommerce (Globalization)

Ecommerce is the best economic Civ 6 policy card for boosting gold yields via trade. In the vanilla Civilization 6 game, the E-commerce effect gives your international trade routes +5 production and +10 gold yield boosts. For example, selecting this card will increase your civilization’s gold per turn by +70 for several international trade routes. Thus, +10 gold for international trade routes can amount to a huge gold boost. The +5 production boost for trade routes can also significantly increase production in individual cities, which can be invaluable for winning space races.

Note that Firaxis Games has slightly nerfed the Ecommerce policy card in Rise and Fall. In Rise and Fall, Ecommerce gives each of your trade routes (domestic and international) a +2 production and +5 gold yield boost. Although the Ecommerce effect is somewhat reduced from the vanilla game, I still recommend selecting the card in the DLCs.

Five-Year Plan (Class Struggle)

Five-Year Plan is a Civ 6 policy card that increases Campus and Industrial Zone district adjacency bonuses by 100%. So, that means selecting this card effectively doubles the adjacency bonuses of all Campus and Industrial Zone districts in your civilization. This makes the Five-Year Plan card one of the most valuable for securing scientific victories, as it increases both science and productivity yields.

Heritage Tourism (Cultural Heritage)

Heritage Tourism is among the best Civ 6 policy cards for securing cultural victories. This card provides a 100% tourism boost to great works and artifacts. That is an invaluable boost for players seeking cultural victories because it doubles the tourism generated by great works and artifacts. Great works and artifacts generate large amounts of tourism, and they’ll attract many more visitors with Heritage Tourism selected.

Rationalism (The Enlightenment)

Rationalism is a must-have card for securing scientific victories in the vanilla Civilization 6 game. That card has an effect that increases the science generated from Campus district buildings by 100%. It effectively doubles the science all your Campus districts generate, which amounts to a considerable scientific research boost. So, you can research technologies somewhat faster with the Rationalism card selected.

However, Firaxis has significantly nerfed the Rationalism policy card in Gathering Storm expansions. The Rationalism policy in Gathering Storm increases the number of science Campus buildings generated by 50% in cities with populations of 15 or higher or when their Campus districts have +4 adjacency bonuses. So, I would only recommend selecting that card in Gathering Storm when you have large enough cities or Campus districts with high enough adjacency bonuses to exploit it.

Satellite Broadcasts (Space Race)

The Satellite Broadcasts policy card increases the tourism that musical works generate by 200%. The 200% tourism boost for music in Broadcast Centers is a massive increase. If your civilization has many Broadcast Centers with musical compositions in them, then Satellite Broadcasts is one of the best cards you can select for securing a cultural victory.

Grand Opera (Opera and Ballet)

Grand Opera is the best Civ 6 policy card to select for increasing cultural output for unlocking civics in the vanilla Civilization 6 game. That card’s effect increases the culture Theater Square district buildings generate by 100%. So, selecting Grand Opera will significantly boost culture output, which is crucial for players seeking cultural victories.

However, Grand Opera is a policy card that has been nerfed in much the same way as Rationalism in Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm. Selecting this card will have little impact on your cultural output in Rise and Fall unless you have a good number of cities with populations higher than 15, with Theater Square district adjacency bonuses of +4. Consequently, the nerfed Grand Opera isn’t so good for boosting cultural output in Gather Storm.

Those economic Civ 6 policy cards have some of the best effects. I would have players select the Colonization, Public Works, and Ecommerce cards for all victory conditions. Rationalism and the Five-Year Plan are two of the best economic cards for securing science victories. Players seeking cultural victories should certainly select the Satellite Broadcasts, Grand Opera, and Heritage Tourism policy cards.