7OTM09 (Sep 2025) - Completion of Age of Antiquity Spoiler Thread

[Eyswein]

At the top of your post please post the following:
- Map Played (Turns or Score)
- Turns = Number of Turns (for Turn Game) or Score = Score (for Score Game)
- For score game, include screenshot of your End of Era Age Progress

A few questions to consider:
- What was your plan for moving toward the victory condition? What are the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution and to what new plan? Any interesting decision points?
- Did you settle in place or move?
- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
- How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
- What were key production/purchase focuses?
- Pantheon chosen and why?
- What government did you select? Which bonus did you choose most and why?
- Other good info we didn't think to ask?
- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- Did you enjoy this Age?

 

[Bleidraner]

Antiquity 88 turns

I will expand the write up later. EDIT: When I finished Exploration I realized we were playing at the Sovereign difficulty level, not Deity. I am editing the post to call out the mistakes I made.

The Plan:
I did not really have a clear plan, not like in other games. I saw the settings and thought: war. Calculated that I could finish by t90 with the abbreviated setting 8-9 legacies and a AI wipe EDIT: At Sovereign, t75 with two civ wipes. Tried to get to that turn with as many legacies as possible and a decent empire. Ideally with coastal settlements. Ideally with 7-8 settlements. Planned to play carefully and conservatively to avoid losing scouts to the hostile IPs at the beginning. EDIT: Mistake to play carefully. Planned to wipe the first 2-3 IPs I encountered. Identify the weakest AI and wipe it. Try to wipe a second if possible.

Execution:
Got a lot less goody huts than usual, due to the careful exploration. Also, I left half of the map unexplored, mostly due to subpar play on my part, I got a scout killed and forgot to buy another one or two. The rest went pretty well. Scout>Scout>Granary>Scout>Settlers>Gate of all Nations. AH>Pottery>Writing>Irrigation>Sailing>Writing Mastery>Bronze Working>Masonry>The Wheel. By t35 I had killed two IPs, one production to rush Gate of Nations and one gold (Meroe). EDIT: Civics: Discipline>Discipline Mastery>Mysticism>Code of Laws>Mysticism Mastery>First Mrryam Civic.
Charlemagne was very weak, only one city, very close to me and with good terrain for attack. Wiped him by t51, conquering Athenai. EDIT: At the time this seemed fast, its actually slow. Very happy I thought I was well set up to wipe 2 civs, I could not have been more wrong. EDIT: I was rightI had Jose's Cahokia pretty close to one of my towns and Augustus' Waset pretty far away. I decide to try to wipe Augustus, he only had 2 cities. EDIT: Bad mistake, Augustus was very far away, Jose was our neighbor. The reason is that I saw potential for a couple of trade routes with Jose Rizal. Also, Augustus had coastal cities that I wanted for Exploration. Unfortunately by the time I got to and conquered Waset (t72) he had built 2 more cities to the north. I am looking forward to see whether other players went for the possibility of wiping Jose.

I conquered these cities from Augustus (Waset plus the two coastal to the north) and also conquered a city estate that I kept (probably a mistake, too many settlements, but I really liked the location and it was also coastal). With these conquests I finished the military and economic paths, which took the counter to 100%. I had built Gate of Nations, Great Stele and Colossus in my capital, so one Culture legacy. I got a few codexes, enough for one legacy scientific. Befriended one military City State at the beginning of the game and got the +1 settlement limit gift.

Regrets:
I made many many mistakes, I was playing faster than usual, as I wanted to post first, I am always late and I did not want to be. Biggest mistake was the scientific path, I should have achieved at least 2 legacies in 88 turns, but automatically went to Maths instead of getting the masteries codexes first. By the time I realized my mistake I had already put 8 turns in Maths. I also did not develop the empire very well, forgot to specialize a couple of towns in a timely manner and wasted a few turns. Tried to build Unique Quarters but I was not paying enough attention and did not manage to get any. In general my two cities were not very well built up. I was extra careful with war and I did pretty well, but lost concentration at the end and lost a couple of units, I will carry 2 Army Commanders but not enough units to fill them. In general, my last 15 turns were a mess as I was distracted due to worry that I would not finish the Economic and Military paths on time and was in the middle of a difficult war, so I did not pay enough attention to keeping my house in order. I ended Antiquity with terrible culture and science, but I don't have good benchmarks, so not sure if it is a tragedy or just bad.
EDIT: I just realized that I did not finish building the UQ in my capital, I left the second building with 1 turn to go, I can't believe it, I should have spent a few gold and bought it. What a mistake.

EDIT: In spite of the many mistakes, I don't think I left a lot of turns on the table, maybe 3 turns. EDIT: I left a ton of turns on the table. With a second civ wipe, t80 is possible but very very difficult. I think the opportunity left at the table is less to do with turns and more with the potential to have a better empire for a great slingshot into Exploration, with a couple of UQs, bigger cities and at least 2 legacies each in culture and science on top of the 3 and 3 in Economic and Military.

This was really fun and the map was amazing, thank you GoTM09 staff.

Spoiler Screenshots :

 

[Manpanzee]

64 turns Antiquity

Well, that was #KindaBonkers. Details below...

Early game was very interesting due to the two hammer boosts to play with. I ended up spending one on a Saw Pit (AH first tech), then saved the second one until I hit pop five and could rush a Settler. Also went with Oligarchy for government, as I knew I wasn't ending any of the trees, and figured I might as well try to squeeze in as much growth as I could.

Screenshot below shows my capital's early development. Careful planning and use of rural/urban conversions have allowed me to hit pop five and hook up both the Sheep and the Hides by turn 13. I actually grew to the food tile NE first, before converting off it at pop three to grab the Sheep.

Spoiler :

First new settlement was directly in Charlemagne's face, hooking up Gold, Salt, and (eventually) Silver. After the Settler, I made some military and went to clear the nearby hostile IP. This shot shows the turn I cleared it -- the combination of direct hammers plus another Militaristic attribute have allowed me to rush out two new Settlers this turn. I've also hit the bonus settlement limit in the attribute tree, allowing me to delay Irrigation while expanding as normal.

Spoiler :

The Settler duo headed south to grab the Grand Canyon and set up another warfront with Jose Rizal. There ended up being a nice site for a Grand Canyon settlement exactly ten tiles from the capital, avoiding any issues with trade network disconnection. Then turn 32 brought a shocking notification: "An unmet player has been defeated." This kicked an already promising game into "best possible RNG" territory.

Spoiler :

War commenced, and I ended up completing the double civ-wipe on turn 63, bringing the game to a close on turn 64. The freebie civ wipe from the other continent probably bought me six turns, as my own actions were still going to be good enough for a 70-turn Antiquity.

Spoiler :

In addition to the double civ wipe, I have completed one tick of Science legacy, one tick of Cultural (Great Stele and Oracle), and one of Economic.

I have not actually clicked through the end of the age, as I have a bunch of cash that I need to figure out how to spend. I could definitely use some Mauryan UBs and Monuments, of which I currently have zero. I also have exactly 14 resource slots in my empire, and paying for a city conversion would allow earn me another Economic point. Whether that's worth it may depend on whether that city conversion also lets me buy some additional useful stuff before my money runs out.

Exploration is going to be weird, as I'm entering it severely underdeveloped due to the brief Antiquity. The AI is underdeveloped too, and I actually have some concerns about whether they'll even have enough settlements to complete the victory condition in Modern.

...

I only had one city, and the age was short enough that I can give full info on build/tech orders:
Techs: Animal Husbandry, Pottery, Writing, Writing II, Masonry, Irrigation, Bronze Working, Wheel, Sailing, Wheel II
Civics: Discipline, Mysticism, Mysticism II, Public Life, Acharya, Discipline II
Builds: 3x Scout, Saw Pit, Warrior, Settler, 2x Slinger, Brickyard, Granary, 2x Settler, Altar, Library, 2x Slinger, Great Stele, Army Commander, Oracle, Archer
Gold: 3x warehouse buildings in towns, 2x Warrior, 4x Slinger, 4x Elephant, buncha upgrades

 

[Bleidraner]

Wow man that is completely bonkers. I was wondering what would happen if somebody had the guts to go for a double wipe and attack Jose, and here is the answer.
I am not sure but it is possible that an AI was wiped in the other continent in my game too.
As for the concern of AIs not having enough cities, which I think is justified, I think that another way to win military is to completely eliminate them, the old fashioned way. I think I read that somewhere. EDIT: This is not true, confirmed. Only way to win military is to finish the military path.

@Manpanzee t64 Antiquity is Hall of Fame stuff. Congratulations! I have never gone below 80 in any game, much less in a GoTM. Wow.

 

[RaidandTrade]

T96... Humbled by you guys...

Focus was to get the scouts out, get infrastructure started for production and figure out whether to go peace or war. I wanted to pick up Gate of All Nations and Oracle. Ideally, I'll get two points in the Military legacy path for Fealty.

1 - 20: Scout x 2 then infrastructure - Granary, Brickard, Altar (started). Classical Republic. Took Military points to get to unit production boost. Met Greece and supported a Research Agreement. Also met Missipians, Egypt then Rome. Discovered Bermuda Triangle off the coast and Grand Canyon. Took Stone Circles and Goddess of Festivals.
Techs: Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Masonry (started).
Civics: Mysticism, Discipline (started).

Diplo-wise, focused on Catherine. Agenda of few works should be easy to keep happy, especially with abbreviated ages.

21 - 40: Supported reserach and culture with Catherine. Monument, Saw Pit, Slingers x 6, Daramshala (started). Slinger heading out with Commander to get XP on Jieshi units. Greece forward settled (South east of Jieshi). Incited raid
Techs: Masonry (finished), Irrigation, Wheel (started)
Civics: Discipline (finished), Discipline Mastery, Acharya, Ayurveda (started)

Barbs headed for my capital so slinger back to defend. Aim to wipe out Jieshi then take Sparta and Athens.

41 - 60: Denounced Greece x2. Picked up a Spearman from ruins - nicely timed to help defend capital from barbs. GoAN (Celebtation boost and production boost from Jieshi wipe), Vihara, Great Stelle (started).
Greece's Sparta under attack by Meroe. Bought an Elephant and sent south to Sparta to link up with Commander and slingers.
War declared. Greece was sending units north to my capital but within range of my army.
Spent 170 influence on Yilan to scout to the south and pick up a Diplo attribute point.
Notification that an "unmet leader has been defeated". Could make the rest of the game interesting.
Dispersing Jieshi slowed my denouncement as I got +10 with Greece (hence the x2).
Catherine supported my Trade Map endeavour and alliance. She hadn't met Greece yet.
Techs: Wheel (finished), Writing, Bronze Working (started)
Civics: Ayurveda (finished), Vyuham, Mysticism Mastery, Public Life (started)

61 - 80: Great Stelle (finished), Elephant, Library, Oracle, Nagarika, Ballistae.
Jose declared war on me as ally of Greece but as he's Catherine's neighbour, he's more likely entangled with her. Bought another elephant to accompany the trained elephant south to Sparta.
Greece's Sparta under attack again by Meroe and holding with two remaining Hoplites. Was hoping to quickly finish Sparta and march east to Athenai.
Sparta fell to me (T69) but Meroe still attacking. Gold is low so only upgraded 2 slingers to archers. Two slingers stayed in Sparta to fend of Meroe while the rest of the army looped south of Athenai.
Athenai invested in archers (4) and walls. Held back to wait for the rest of the army, drew out the archers and picked them off.
Put my Oracle Wildcard attribute into Military (Gold).
Spent influence on war support against Greece.
Techs: Bronze Working (finished), Military Training (started)
Civics: Public Life (finished), Mantriparishad (started)

81 - 96: Elephant, Elephant, Ballistae, Dur-Sharrukin (failed), Army Commander,
Pushed some war support against Jose. Next turn, peace with Jose and receive Creek.
Crisis starts (70% at T82). IP sprung up between Pataliputra and Sparta that needed attention.
Settled Tosali on peninsula west of the Bermuda Triangle to create a short cut for ships in Exploration. [Forgot that next Civ was Songhai...].
Crisis II (80% at T88).
Purchased settler to put down a town on the coast and secure another military path point but...
Athenai is mine! Crisis III (99% at T93). New IP sprang up and blocked my settle.
Techs: Military Training (finished), Sailing, Writing Mastery, Military Training Mastery (incomplete)
Civics: Mantriparishad (finished), Code of Laws, Citizenship (incomplete)

Spoiler End of Age :

Spoiler Start of Exploration :

 

[Ballcrusher]

74 turns antiquity

I'm normally not a very strong military player, but this game went really fast because both Rizal and Charlamagne never settled a second settlement. So by turn 61 I had eliminated them both by conquering only two cities.

However it took 13 turns more to finish the age, as it took some time to march my army to the east and conquer the two settlements from Augustus to finish the Military LP. I also tried finishing the age with another LP in Culture and Science, but I didn't get the timing right, and the age finished before my 4th wonder and 6th codex.

I finished the age with 8 settlements - 3 cities, but I'm not sure it was worth the gold to upgrade the cities. They are still very underdeveloped going into Exploration, and I have almost no gold in the bank. I also start Exploration with only one Army Commander, as I mistimed building the second and it didn't finish.

Augustus and Catherine only have 2 settlements each, so I'm hoping the AI's will settle a lot more in Exploration. Otherwise Modern military victory condition could take a long time.

Legacy Paths:
1/3 Culture (Gate of All Nations, Hanging Gardens, Petra - I lacked 5 turns to finish Terracotta Army to get the 2nd LP).
3/3 Military (4 settled, 4 conquered)
1/3 Science (lacked 3 turns to get my 6th Codex and getting the 2nd LP)
2/3 Economic (lacked 4 ressources and didn't have room for them in my cities anyway).

Playthrough:
T1: Settle in place
T20: Settle Ujjayini SW by Grand Canyon
T27: Settle Suvarnagiri S of Grand Canyon
T34: Settle Sopara W by Bermuda Triangle
T40: Rizal declares surprise war
T49: Conquer Cohokia and eliminate Rizal
T58: Declare surprise war against Charlemagne
T61: Conquer Athenai and eliminate Charlamagne
T69: Declare surprise war against Augustus
T70: Conquer Waset
T73: Conquer Khemenu - finishing Military LP, age at 99%

Build order (turn number in brackets):
Scout (1), Scout (6), Granary (11), Brickyard (11), Settler (14), Warrior (17), Slinger (19), Settler (21), Slinger (22), Settler (29), Altar (31), Monument (33), Slinger (35), Gate of All Nations (45)....

Tech (turn number in brackets):
Pottery (9), Animal Husbandry (14), Masonry (22), Irrigation (27), Wheel (42), Writing....

Civic (turn number in brackets):
Chiefdom (11), Discipline (19), Mysticism (25), Mysticism2 (28), Discipline2 (34), Code of Laws (43)....

Government: Despotism (science)

Pantheon: Stone Cirle + God of the Sun (turn 25)

Spoiler End of antiquity :

 

[Calcifer]

99 turns antiquity

Ended up with 1 point in cultural and science, 3 in economic and military.

The plan was to wipe at least 1 civ and enter Exploration with a good army. I gave priority to the lower branch of culture tree because I wanted to try to build both Terracotta Army and Mausoleum of Theodoric. I got terracotta in my 2nd city but unfortunately Mausoleum went to Egypt. The 2nd wonder for the legacy path was Gate of All Nations. After unlocking mausoleum I went to Mauryan civic tree and completed it to get the attribute point.

First techs were pottery > writing > animal husbandry > masonry > irrigation > the wheel. Decided to go writing second as there's a 3 adjacency spot for library in the capital and no adjacencies for monuments.

Opening builds were 3x scout > brickyard > 2x settler > 2x slinger. Early gold was mostly saved for city conversion of Taksasila which had a grassland spot for Terracotta.

Spoiler Empire :

The first turns were quite rough with Hostile IP, they definitely pose a harder challenge than sovereign AI. Managed to clear the 2 IPs near the grand canyon and befriend the 2 military ones in the north-eastr tundra. One for the settlement limit, the other for ranged strength. After that my influence was mostly spent on supporting cultural and scientific endeavors from Augustus and Catherine.
After founding Taksasila and Suvarnagiri I went after Charlemagne and took both his settlements eliminating him. In the meantime Rizal declared on me so after conquering Athens I moved my troops to Cahokia. Unfortunately Rizal had a bunch of burning arrows which slowed me down quite a bit but in the end I managed to get 2 of his settlements. He has another one somewhere that I'm gonna take in exploration (after I slaughter those defenseless settlers that is).

My empire is quite well developed with 3 cities with the UQ. I'm always slow in antiquity so I wasted the 10 era progress from economic and military path because I got them in the last turns. I don't think I could have gone sub 80 but I think 85 turns could have been achievable if I brought more units to Cahokia and didn't lose so much time there.

 

[GoblinMatron]

Turns Map
Turns: 86

LPs:
cultural: 2 (Gate of all Nations, Hanging Gardens, Petra, Colosseum)
militaristic: 3 (4 founded, 4 conquered settlements)
scientific: 2 (exactly 6 Codices)
economic: 2 (I did have enough resources for the 3rd, but not enough slots)

Technology:
Animal Husbandry - Pottery - Masonry - Masonry 2 - Writing - Writing 2

Civic:
Discipline - Mysticism - Acharya

Production:
Scout - Scout - Warrior - Saw Pit - Nagarika - Slinger - Nagarika - Brickyard - Slinger - Slinger - Altar - Nagarika

Government:
Oligarchy for the food

Pantheons:
God of the Sun, Stone Circles


I discover the Grand Canyon early with my scouts and want to have 2 settlements next to it, because its effect is very strong. So I first clear the militaristic IP very close to my Capital, then the economic next to the Grand Canyon.

At that point (~turn 40), my Scouts are next to Jose Rizals Capital (his only settlement) and I can see, that he has no walls and only 3 units. So I think that I can maybe defeat him quickly with the 5 units I have. Sadly, that was not the case and I loose 2 units and have to retreat.

Now Charlemagne declares war against me, which I like, because I had planned to eliminated him anyway. It takes a few turns to produce enough units and then I go and defeat him on turn 69.

In the meantime, Jose has founded an additional settlement and captured the cultural city state that I befriended, so he has 3 settlements. I take two of them to finish the militaristic legacy path, which ends the age on turn 86.

I am happy with my two cities and Jose Rizals settlements have good access to the ocean to explore in the next age.

I am not happy with the number of turns. The attack on Jose was a fiasco and also the war against Charlemagne should have taken fewer turns. I don't know exactly what I should have deleayed for more units. The unique quarter? The wonders?
At least Jose is very weak with only one bad settlement, so he will be an easy wipe next age.

I also have to do some final purchases this age. And of course think about what mementos to pick.

 

[MACKA0ili]

Turns map
98 turns

Been busy with work so this is my first time playing in a couple months. Took out Charlemagne after he forward settled me and then moved my army to take out Jose to finish the age. Got two military and two economic legacy points for my trouble, but ended with a dark scientific and cultural age. All of my wildcard attributes went to militaristic to get to the free promotion upgrade. Ended the age in Jose's former lands with two commanders and a bunch of ranged, siege, and infantry units ready to march onto Catherine's lands. Forgot to get my save before the age transition though so I don't know if I can count this run, but I still want to participate. Still, it was nice coming back to this game after awhile. Excited to get into the exploration age which has always been my favorite.

 

[GoblinMatron]

Score Map

Score: 510
Wonders oif the Ancient World: 8/7
Pax Imperatoria: 17/12
Great Library: 11/10
Silk Roads: 29/20

Turns: 115

Plan:
I planned to get as many points in as many legacy paths as possible.
I wanted to get wonders early, so that no one else could build them first. The rest, I wanted to get as late as possible to lengthen the age as much as possible.
In particular, I wanted to capture some settlements late and raze them while the age ends, so that they would count towards the score but disappear in the next age.

The game:
I build 3 settlers early so set up well for the game.
Since I planned to build many wonders, I wanted to build the Great Stele, so I researched and built it.
I focussed on building wonders whenever possible. I lost 3 shortly before they were finished, because someone else built them.
Rosé and Charlemagne did not like me and declared war. I did not engage heavily with that, but let them gift me settlements for a peace deal whenever possible.

I researched the techs without codices first to not get that legacy path early. I planned to not allocate some codices when I got more, but then I learned that that is not possible. So I planned to research the masteries that give codices until there is one turn left, but I forgot to switch techs and got many codices earlier than I wanted.
Then Augustus got to 2 points in the militaristic path, I had 3 in the culture path and a civ on the other side of the map was defeated, which led to the 10 turn timer starting much earlier than I wanted.
So I went to war against Rosé again capturing the IP he was suzerain of and his 2 settlements. I also built 2 more settlements myself, (one was sadly captured by the new hostile IPs. I underestimated them. The crisis is much more of aproblem when you try to lengthen the age...).
I only then realized that I should have had much more trade routes to get camels and other resources. Luckily, one settleemnts with camels was in range to go there in the 10 turns that were left, I could have had much more.


I had a lot of fun with this game.
I played with a different attitude, more relaxed and less tryhard. It was fun to build up a big empire.
I am sure that I could have played much better, but I liked the change of pace and leaned into that.
It took me around 3 hours to play this age.

Spoiler Legacy points :

Spoiler Map and yields T115 :