Poll: Ancient Ruins Rewards Balance

[phantomaxl1207]

Ruins will refresh eventually if you keep getting them. Here I ran a test with a large map and 4 highly promoted Scouts.
The Faith Ruin will spawn starting at Turn 20 and if you have a Pantheon, it will be a boost towards a Great Prophet of 130 Faith.
I didn't see the Golden Age Ruin until turn 30 and it gives 250 Golden Age Points. The 1st Golden Age takes 400 Points.

Spoiler Ruins Test :

Spoiler The elusive Golden Age Ruin (250) :

 

[DeAnno]

You can't ever get the same ruin result as your last one or the one before that, whether or not you're the Shoshone. But as the Shoshone it's possible to travel a cycle of 3 results forever.

 

[JamesNinelives]

Said super human scout can be removed from the mountain with a couple of comp bows. Units can't heal on mountains.

I agree. 'immune until guided missiles' is a vast overstatement. Also you cannot, contrary to what is stated 'go around murdering archers' without consequences. The CS of the scout really doesn't put them in a good position to be an offensive military unit. You might well be able to zip in and finish a couple of units but there's always a risk of loosing your highly promoted scout which is generally better off doing other things (i.e. recon).

It's true that you can indeed to a silly amount of pillaging with a highly-upgraded scout, but that takes time and investment. It doesn't come from just 1 ruin. And if you're not careful it's actually pretty easy to get over-confident and put your scout in a position where it gets ganked by enemy military units or even barbarians. High level recon units have exceptional mobility but their military strength isn't that high. Which I think is a good balance.

I don't know if you can get the same three results 'forever' with Shoshone, but you can get them most of the time. That's exactly my strategy once I've got the unit upgrade and map reveal for xp - try to get as much faith and tech as I can, and the third ruin varies depending on context. It should be noted that it is not possible to get free techs beyond the classical era with ruins, even as Shoshone. Most of the time I've only been able to get Ancient Era techs before the 'free tech' option expires. Mid-late game the 'upgrade unit' option is really the strongest because you can get an explorer (or zeppelin) before you normally could. Whereas the other options are often not as significant relative to your overall output once you have expanded and developed your empire.