CaptainPatch
Lifelong gamer
I'm sure that many/most Civ V players have already ascertained this strategy. For those that haven't, it's something to consider.
When you enter into the next era, you're told that there are significant advantages to be had in the way of City State alliance benefits, etc. What you are NOT told is that there are _also_ some significant downsides. For example, buying Religious structures, Missionaries, Inquisitors, etc. just became _quite_ more expensive, along the lines of another 300 Faith points per. It also seems like the amount of Influence points over City States starts to drop off from 250 = 25, then 15, then.... And I can't say definitively, but I'm pretty sure that once you advance from the Ancient era to the Classical era, Ancient Ruins stop paying off with free techs, weapon upgrades, Faith points, Culture points, or free people to be added to your nearest City. (Pretty much, all I get during the Classical era is maps or money.) I'm sure there are a number of other hidden costs that they failed to highlight.
So, era advancement occurs once one of two things occurs: A) You complete researching the last tech of the current era. B) You complete the research of any tech in the next era.
But what if you do NOT do either of those, in order to remain in the current era? The way to do this is simply to NOT complete the triggering tech. When the tech counter shows there's only one turn to completion, just switch to a different tech to research. You could potentially end up with a half-dozen or more techs, each with just 1 turn of research to complete. When you deem the time is right, switch to the one-pointer you want most, and then complete them one turn after another.
The primary downside of deliberately NOT advancing is that you are denying yourself the ability to construct certain structures, units, Wonders, etc.
This is a particularly viable strategy if you also happen to be the tech leader, AND you have several Cities available to do builds. Advance and knock out those one-pointers 1, 2 ,3, 4 and then start building Wonders in four Cities all at once. If you _are_ the tech leader (and you waited to advance when another civ finally moved into that next era), you're pretty much guaranteed to complete at least 3 of those 4 Wonders before most of the other civs could even _start_ building Wonders themselves.
When you enter into the next era, you're told that there are significant advantages to be had in the way of City State alliance benefits, etc. What you are NOT told is that there are _also_ some significant downsides. For example, buying Religious structures, Missionaries, Inquisitors, etc. just became _quite_ more expensive, along the lines of another 300 Faith points per. It also seems like the amount of Influence points over City States starts to drop off from 250 = 25, then 15, then.... And I can't say definitively, but I'm pretty sure that once you advance from the Ancient era to the Classical era, Ancient Ruins stop paying off with free techs, weapon upgrades, Faith points, Culture points, or free people to be added to your nearest City. (Pretty much, all I get during the Classical era is maps or money.) I'm sure there are a number of other hidden costs that they failed to highlight.
So, era advancement occurs once one of two things occurs: A) You complete researching the last tech of the current era. B) You complete the research of any tech in the next era.
But what if you do NOT do either of those, in order to remain in the current era? The way to do this is simply to NOT complete the triggering tech. When the tech counter shows there's only one turn to completion, just switch to a different tech to research. You could potentially end up with a half-dozen or more techs, each with just 1 turn of research to complete. When you deem the time is right, switch to the one-pointer you want most, and then complete them one turn after another.
The primary downside of deliberately NOT advancing is that you are denying yourself the ability to construct certain structures, units, Wonders, etc.
This is a particularly viable strategy if you also happen to be the tech leader, AND you have several Cities available to do builds. Advance and knock out those one-pointers 1, 2 ,3, 4 and then start building Wonders in four Cities all at once. If you _are_ the tech leader (and you waited to advance when another civ finally moved into that next era), you're pretty much guaranteed to complete at least 3 of those 4 Wonders before most of the other civs could even _start_ building Wonders themselves.
