I play a weekly MP game with family members scattered across the country, and last night they decided they wanted to try starting the game in a different era. We settled on Renaissance, and it was really pretty fun. I had not ever played this way, so I had to adapt a new strategy on the fly - if you haven't tried this and are finding the game growing a little dull, I suggest you try it.
I searched the forums here for some concrete information about what changes in the game when you start in an advanced era, but only found threads on cIV and prior versions, so I'm hoping the brilliant minds here can help me. The following are the obvious differences I noted in a Renaissance start:
1. We all started with 2 settlers, 1 worker, and 3 military units (most started with 3 pikemen, but Germany started with 2 Landsknechts and 1 scout)
2. All cities founded (even after initial 2 settlers) started with 2 citizens.
3. All cities founded started with a granary and a monument.
4. All cities founded adjacent to coastal tiles started with a lighthouse.
- I did not think to check if these buildings cost the usual maintenance; we did not start with additional gold, so I'm unsure -
5. "Recent" wonders were available to build, but older wonders were not. My guess is all wonders from the previous era were available, while wonders from eras previous to that were not, but I did not confirm.
6. We all started with 300 culture, and could pick 4 policies on turn 0 (as long as capital was founded). Similar to the mechanics of a culture ruin, if you click on the culture stat at the top of the screen, you could pick these policies at turn 0, but were not prompted until the following turn (every little bit helps ).
A few other things I suspect based on how the game went, but don't have any actual evidence for:
a. It felt like hammer costs had been reduced to compensate for the fact that cities would be much smaller relative to where they would be at that time in a standard start.
b. The "food bucket" for population growth also felt like it might have been smaller at each increment.
c. I did not get the same feeling about tech costs, but it certainly still could have been (I didn't check beaker values, but the first tech started at 57 turns with 1 size 2 city, and was around 21 turns or so a couple turns later when I settled the next 2 size 2 cities (Start with 2 settlers, plus Liberty settler on turn 0).
If there's an existing table somewhere that lists all the differences for each starting era, I would love to peruse it, and thank you in advance for providing the link. Failing that, I'd love to get your concrete and/or anecdotal knowledge. Please remember to note the starting era; my lists above only apply to a Renaissance start.
I searched the forums here for some concrete information about what changes in the game when you start in an advanced era, but only found threads on cIV and prior versions, so I'm hoping the brilliant minds here can help me. The following are the obvious differences I noted in a Renaissance start:
1. We all started with 2 settlers, 1 worker, and 3 military units (most started with 3 pikemen, but Germany started with 2 Landsknechts and 1 scout)
2. All cities founded (even after initial 2 settlers) started with 2 citizens.
3. All cities founded started with a granary and a monument.
4. All cities founded adjacent to coastal tiles started with a lighthouse.
- I did not think to check if these buildings cost the usual maintenance; we did not start with additional gold, so I'm unsure -
5. "Recent" wonders were available to build, but older wonders were not. My guess is all wonders from the previous era were available, while wonders from eras previous to that were not, but I did not confirm.
6. We all started with 300 culture, and could pick 4 policies on turn 0 (as long as capital was founded). Similar to the mechanics of a culture ruin, if you click on the culture stat at the top of the screen, you could pick these policies at turn 0, but were not prompted until the following turn (every little bit helps ).
A few other things I suspect based on how the game went, but don't have any actual evidence for:
a. It felt like hammer costs had been reduced to compensate for the fact that cities would be much smaller relative to where they would be at that time in a standard start.
b. The "food bucket" for population growth also felt like it might have been smaller at each increment.
c. I did not get the same feeling about tech costs, but it certainly still could have been (I didn't check beaker values, but the first tech started at 57 turns with 1 size 2 city, and was around 21 turns or so a couple turns later when I settled the next 2 size 2 cities (Start with 2 settlers, plus Liberty settler on turn 0).
If there's an existing table somewhere that lists all the differences for each starting era, I would love to peruse it, and thank you in advance for providing the link. Failing that, I'd love to get your concrete and/or anecdotal knowledge. Please remember to note the starting era; my lists above only apply to a Renaissance start.