7OTM09 (Sep 2025) - Completion of Age of Exploration 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 Legacy bonuses did you chose and why? What other start up things did you do at the beginning of the Age of Exploration?
- 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?
- Was the designated Civ a good choice or would you think a different one could have performed better?
- 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 in this Age? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
- What were key production/purchase focuses?
- Religious bonuses chosen and why?
- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
- Any cool info we forgot to ask about?
- 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?

 

[Manpanzee]

51 turns Exploration
64 turns Antiquity
115 turns so far

First screenshot is turn 1, after setup. Yields aren’t amazing, but aren’t terrible either. I slotted attribute mementos for both science and culture, and managed to get to the crucial third tier slot in both. Ibn’s wildcard attributes a few turns later went into Expansionist, unlocking warehouse food and free town pop.

Spoiler :

I never got a chance at Ibn’s leader quest chain, which I’d really been counting on. Maybe because I didn’t complete the Antiquity version? However, Shwedagon came in clutch in the middle of the age, letting me unlock +2 culture on specialists for some crucial yields to push through the science legacy path.

I went with the culture government, and actually used the alt celebration (+hammers for civilian and support units) for the first one. The initial wave of Settlers mostly stayed in the homelands, picking up some juicy resources (prioritizing Gold, Furs, Wine, and Wild Game). First distant lands settlement was established on turn 26. My massive gold economy let it instantly come in at pop 8:

Spoiler :

The second half of the age was a bit of a blur. I got sloppy and forgot that I needed to convert Lafayette’s capital in order to get enough relics, only remembering less than ten turns before my projected end date. I did have a Missionary near enough that I was able to get the city converted on turn 50, triggering the age end on 51.

I finished the age with four Army Commanders, two Fleet Commanders, and plenty of troops, all ready to go on enemy lines. Three token wars were declared on the last turn of the age to tank relations. At least one of the wars should be free to restart turn 1 of Modern; we’ll see about the other two. Didn’t get any major culture carryover tools, and will be relying on Buganda pillage culture to get me to ideology.

Spoiler :

 

[RaidandTrade]

Antiquity: 96
Exploration: 83
So far: 179...

Mementos: War Support, +1 Scientific
Points: Scientific x2, Cultural, Economic, Militaristic,
Switched Capital to Athenai.

The Plan (before it all goes south)
Both Lahaina and Cahokia have navigable rivers - capture them for Treasure convoy generation.
Gold focus to buy vs build and set up for Modern.
Army Commander from previous age got one promotion for military legacy pick - take "leadership" for the 5% yields in Capital.

Where it went south:
Didn't read the bit that said "cities" on rivers... Coulda shoulda woulda converted my river towns to cities much earlier and probably shaved some turns. Still got my points though...

Turns 1 - 20
Stonecutter x2, Fishing Quay x2, Merchant, Saw Pit, Cog, Observatories x 2, Tomb of Askia, Bazzar, Catapault, Caravanserai,
Expansion: Lulami Settler (T4) next to Grand Canyon, Sparta to City (T8).
Declared war on Jose (T11). Jose allied with Augustus so got his DOW next turn. Catherine hasn't actually met Augustus so she's only at war with Jose.
Dispersed IP west of Sparta.
Jose settled Hilo west of Cahokia on a navigable river. (Thank you!).
Govt: Plutocracy - Doubling down on gold generation
Techs: Astronomy, Cartography, Guilds,
Civics: Ships of the Desert, Hi-Koi

Turns 21 - 40
Expansion: Converted Lulami to City (T24), Settled Kukiya on navigable river (T30)
Peace with Augustus (Zabid in Peace deal - T24)
Met Lafayette
Hilo captured (T27), Cahokia captured (T28) both on navigable rivers.
Peace with Jose (Kailua in Peace deal - T 29)
Catherine declared war on Jose (still allied with Augustus). Well, it'd be rude not to... (T39)
Techs: Feudalism, Education, Machinery, Herladry, Shipbuilding (started)
Civics: Kanta, Ships of the Desert Mastery, Piety

Sent a Cog through Bermuda Triangle just for giggles. Really should have waited for Ship Building.

Turns 41 - 60
Expansion: Waset (T55) - navigable river,
Reduction: Gave Zabid to Jose to reduce happy hit and give an easy Modern conquest (T55)
Turn 57, met Himiko.

Techs: Architecture, Castles, Metallurgy, Metal Casting, Urban Planning
Civics: Inspiration, Society Mastery (+1 Settle) (started)

Turns 61 - 83
T73: Crisis 1 after completed Culture (81) - Was not expecting to do that. Was actually hoping to hit science but couldn't get my adjacencies working and enough specialists out.
T81: Crisis 2 after completed Economic (82). Spent gold converting remaining towns bar one to cities and buying units and buildings for Modern.
T83: Catherine DOWs Jose (and Augustus). Happy to join and "maintain the hate" for Modern.

Spoiler Turn 82 :

Spoiler Age Rankings :

Spoiler Legacies :

 

[Bleidraner]

50 turns Exploration
88 turns Antiquity
138 turns so far

First, when I went to check what civ I needed to choose for Modern, I just discovered we are playing Sovereign and not Deity . And me having spent most of the game so pleased with myself with how good I had become at war. Anyway, I will have to go to my Antiquity post and edit it, as basically everything I said there is wrong and I made all the wrong choices during the game.

I also played Exploration as if it was Deity and fortunately in Exploration that is not the problem that it is in Antiquity. Seeing how good I had become at war I decided to wipe Augustus last settlement and then send all my units to distant lands (2 armies and 1 fleet). I sent a couple of settlers, a cog and 2 scouts first from the east coast and a couple of settlers and 1 scout and 1 merchant from the west coast as I was not sure what I would find. I tend to use one merchant in Exploration when exploring of dangerous territory.

I found a couple of spots to plant cities with treasure on the west, very close to Himiko, and on the east a longer journey to also plant my settlers close to Himiko from the other side and close to Pachacuti. As soon as I hit shipbuilding I attacked Himiko and Pachacuti. I wiped Pachacuti on t45 and Himiko on t47. Got 3 legacies in science, got 3 legacies on military, completed 2 legacies in culture and 1 in economic. I had calculated that I would have 2 economic legacies but I was one turn short, my treasure convoy reached my homelands but with no movement left.

The game was fairly standard in the rest, I beelined shipbuilding, with just a detour to catles to get the very powerful crossbow upgrade. I tried to befriend as many IPs as possible, with a target of t48, 1 military for the extra settlement cap, 2 science for the free tech and the +1 science on specialists and one cultural for the +1 culture on specialists. I should have done 2 culture instead of 2 science to get the extra relic and finish the culture path, I was 1 relic short of completing the path.

Anyway, with the three civ wipes, and the legacies it was enough to end the era on t50.

I have 4 army commanders and 3 fleet admirals, although some of them are pretty far away from my target in Modern. I declared war on the three civs left to reset the relationship (Jose Rizal, Lafayette and Catherine) and will decide which ones to attack in Modern.

Spoiler Screenshots :

 

[Calcifer]

Antiquity: 99 turns
Exploration: 55 turns
Total so far: 154 turns

Mementos: Corona civica (+2 settlement limit but +50% cost to convert cities) and Groma (+1 expansionist attribute)

Spoiler Legacy bonuses :

I wanted the extra settlement limit because I really don't like razing settlements and also I had still a couple of nice spots to settle in the HL (nevermind that I misunderstood Songhai's ability like @RaidandTrade and founded a useless town on a navigable river).
I didn't use Songhai abilities that much, except for a bunch of caravanserais on desert. I probably would have chosen a different civ if I could.

Some screenshot from my empire:

Spoiler My best city Athenai with a 95-yield tile :

Spoiler Last settlement I got from Rizal, Kansa, with a nice natural harbor :

Spoiler 2 settlements on the western island :

Spoiler And another 2 on the distant land continent to grab some resources :

Legacy points: 3x scientific and military, 1x economic and cultural. I eliminated Rizal (as promised), then sent 3 of my commanders west to explore. I found out that Pachacuti was the weakest enemy on DL so he was eliminated next.
For religion I went as always for world wonder beliefs, unfortunately I didn't consider the fact that we're playing sovereign difficulty so there were only 2 cities with wonders to convert. Ended up 1 turn short for the 2nd cultural legacy point (could have got it if I prioritized my culture tree better).
I went Feudal Monarchy for the food bonus, not sure it was the right choice, I need to start thinking more about my government choices.

Tech opening: cartography > astronomy > guilds > feudalism > education > machinery > heraldry > shipbuilding. Again, wanted to give priority to education since there were a lot of good spots for universities. I also feel shipbuilding is not that important to beeline now that it's not needed for treasure points.
Civics: piety > economics > ship of the desert + mastery > hi-koi > kanta, then I tried to beeline for Notre dame but failed miserably because I didn't have enough culture.

I still managed to build Tomb of Askia, Machu Pikchu and Shwedagon Zedi Daw so that still went quite well.

All things considered I'm satisfied with how the age went, I have 3 army commanders and 2 fleet commanders on Himiko's borders and the same amount ready for Catherine. Too bad I didn't think about lowering my relationship with Himiko, I might consider going after Lafayette since my commanders are quite fast.

 

[Ballcrusher]

Exploration: 62 turns
Antiquity:74 turns
Total so far: 136 turns

Exploration age started with Augustus at only 2 settlements and Catherine at only 1 settlement (I think she finished Antiquity with 2 settlements, but she started with negative gold and 1 settlement vanished?).

I considered eliminating one or both of them, but I haven't played Sovereign level much, and I didn't know if the AI's would have enough settlements to conquer in Modern. So I left them alone and hoped they would settle more settlements to plunder and conquer in Modern instead. Luckily the AI's started focusing on settlers, so there are 19 combined settlements to conquer in Modern - maybe I should have eliminated one AI in the beginning of Exploration.

My scouting on the oceans were a bit slow in the beginning, so it took my a while to find and get my army and fleet to the 3 AI's in the Distant Lands. Lafayette only had 3 settlements (and 2 of them near ocean/river), so I chose him as my target to eliminate. However, unfortunately he somehow mananged to sneak a settler out to my Homeland and settle there. So i couldn't eliminate him until turn 59 I think. And then I made a mistake as I forgot enough missionaries to convert the conquered settlements to finish the military LP - that took a couple of extra turns.

The last extra turns were used for producing more units and getting them as close to the other AI's as possible. I also declared war on all AI's on the last turn to avoid war weariness penalty in Modern.

Legacy paths:
3/3 Culture
1/3 Economy (I messed up with the Kanta Civic producing treasure fleets in Homeland on rivers)
3/3 Military
2/3 Science (I lacked the last one, as I focused to much on getting production up)

Thanks for a fun game so far - although I think I prefer Deity level, as it feels a bit weird holding military back in a military game, because you are concerned that there won't be enough cities to conquer in Modern

Spoiler End of exploration :

Spoiler Legacy score :

 

[GoblinMatron]

Turns Map

Turns: 51
Antiquity: 86
so far: 137

Mementos:
Shakokidogu (cultural Attribute point)
The Rihla (+1 Culture, Gold, Happiness, Science per turn per age for each attribute tree in which you have points)

Legacies:
Militaristic (3): Fealty, expansionist attribute
Cultural (2+1): 2 cultural Attributes, 1 diplomatic attribute
Economic (2): 2 economic attributes
Scientific (2): 2 scientific attributes

Technology:
Cartography - Astronomy - Guilds - Guilds2 - Machinery - Feudalism - Education - Education2 - Machinery 2

Civic:
Piety - Theology - Ships of the Desert - ... - Social Class Mastery for Notre Dame - ... - Finish Songhai Civics for the Attribute

Government:
Plutocracy for the gold

Plan:
My plan to finish the age is to get 3 steps in the militaristic, cultural and scientific legacy paths and defeat 2 civs. That is a theoretical finish on turn 35, which will of course not happen, because I will not finish the legacy paths that fast.
I don't see any problems with the cultural and militaristic paths, the scientific one will slow me down. So I plan to reaseach Social Clas Mastery as quickly as possible to build Notre Dame to help me with the Scientific legacy path. This means building up good culture, which will also help me next age to get to an ideology quickly.


The game
I convert 2 towns to cities (the two capitals that I captured last age) and move my capital to my other city, because it has better production. So I start the age with 4 cities.
I research Piety and get the Religion that gives Relics when you convert Capitals. I convert Rosé's and Catherine's Capitals, then defeat them.

Meanwhile I send out Cogs to the west to find good spots to settle. I don't find any land in my first 2 attempts, because the land is very far away towards the middle of the map. One Cog dies, one returns unsuccessfully. So I explore the land with 3 settlers towrds the north. I find good land including 3 treasure resources and found 2 towns, my 3rd settler dies to a hostile IP.

I research Guilds early to have better Culture, build buildings and Caravanserais in my cities. The AI does not seem to like building wonders and I get all wonders that I unlock (Tomb of Askia, Hale o Keawe, House of Wisdom, Shwedagon Zedi Daw, Brihadeeswarar Temple, Notre Dame).
I research Social Class Mastery on turn 45 and it takes 5 turns to build Notre Dame. On turn 50 I finish the Scientific legacy path and the age needs one more turn to digest that and ends on turn 51.

My distant land settlements are close to Himiko's Capital and she eventually declares war on me. Her ally Lafayette joins. They have 14 settlements combined, so enough for the win next age, so I hope to get good relations with Pachacuti for trade routes and maybe some endeavors. Augustus is a true but weak ally throughout the age.
My high level army Commander (lv 11) with the troops that defeated Catherine are towards the south and they gladly go to war against Lafayette. Getting some more levels for my commanders and weakeniung him for the next age.
On Himiko's front, I have to buy some Archers and an Army Commander to defend against her troops. 2 other army commanders are on their way there after defeating some IPs (Lv 1, 2, 3).


Regrets/Lessons:
- exploring: I should have bought more Cogs to explore and I should have explored towards the north, where a scout from last age already saw some land.
- High yield tiles: I should have only had 3 cities to better benefit from then attribute points that give specialists additional science/culture. I should learn to resist juicy rural tiles and invest into specialists earlier.

Spoiler T 35 distant lands :

Spoiler T 51 (end) :

 

[GoblinMatron]

Score Map

Score: 1281
so far: 1791

Toshakhana: 25/12
Treasure Fleet: 80/30
Non Sufficit Orbis: 44/12
Enlightenment: 22/5

Turns: 67

Mementos:
False Beard (+2 culture on Wonders)
The Analects (+1 Science per Specialist)

Legacies:
Militaristic (3+1): Fealty, 2 expansionist attribute
Cultural (3): 2 cultural Attributes, 1 diplomatic attribute
Economic (3): Master Caraveneer, 1 economic attributes
Scientific (3): Collector of Knowledge, 1 scientific attributes

plan:
Get treasure fleets as soon as possible by reserahcing the Songhai civic first and settling in distant lands early.
Settle many distant land settlements for that path, converting them to my religion late to lengthen the age.
Get Relics, but do not build temples to finish that path late.
Build many wonders and have multiple good cities to get as many 40+ tiles as possible.

game:
I am starting the age with 5 cities (3 next to navigable river).
It mostly played out as planned except for two things:
- I forgot that some wonders that I wanted had relic slots, so I accidently finished the culture path much earlier than expected. I should have built much fewer temples (only 1 or 2 instead of 5).
- I aimed for high culture and science out of habit, so I had to research the first future civic on turn 56, which shortens the age. I should not have pushed my culture that high.

My number of settlements is far above the cap, not sure if this will bite me next age.

This age took a long time to play. It was still fun, but also quite exhgausting.

Spoiler Legacy points :

Spoiler Map and yields :

 

[bikk4ruslan]

HI all. I was tried to achieve quick victory by Dark military age at ExplorationEra. Thank for this great opportunity

Moderator Action: Moved to Spoiler thread. In future, once you open a save file, please post in spoiler threads so the game is not spoiled for other players. Thank you. leif

 

[MACKA0ili]

Turns map
66 turns Exploration
98 turns Antiquity
164 turns so far

After seeing how quickly everyone else finished their antiquity age, I knew I had to make sure to end this one a lot faster. I resolves to eliminate 3 civs and focus on getting enough culture and science to make the modern age end asap as well. I went for Plutocracy as my government to up my gold income to work with the lotus blossom memento I changed into and set to taking out Catherine's cities to my south. My increased gold income let me convert a lot more towns into cities which I made sure to build science and gold buildings in. I tested out some of the newer religious beliefs too with with the relics from owned cities and production bonuses that worked well with my increased gold income. Fleets and ships came out next which were sent to take out Himiko and Pachacuti and get ready to take on Lafayette in the modern age. I thought 66 turns wasnt bad, but it looks like I could've gone faster after seeing everyone else's times.
Unfortunately, I couldnt play again until the latest patch had come out so I don't think this save will be valid. Still, I wanna submit it anyway and finish up the modern age.

 

[Bleidraner]

Turns map
66 turns Exploration
98 turns Antiquity
164 turns so far

After seeing how quickly everyone else finished their antiquity age, I knew I had to make sure to end this one a lot faster. I resolves to eliminate 3 civs and focus on getting enough culture and science to make the modern age end asap as well. I went for Plutocracy as my government to up my gold income to work with the lotus blossom memento I changed into and set to taking out Catherine's cities to my south. My increased gold income let me convert a lot more towns into cities which I made sure to build science and gold buildings in. I tested out some of the newer religious beliefs too with with the relics from owned cities and production bonuses that worked well with my increased gold income. Fleets and ships came out next which were sent to take out Himiko and Pachacuti and get ready to take on Lafayette in the modern age. I thought 66 turns wasnt bad, but it looks like I could've gone faster after seeing everyone else's times.
Unfortunately, I couldnt play again until the latest patch had come out so I don't think this save will be valid. Still, I wanna submit it anyway and finish up the modern age.

@MACKA0ili To avoid this frustration, there is an option in Steam when you launch the game, you can choose to play the Legacy build, the previous major release, i.e. what we were playing until today. You can find it in Steam, Library tab, right click Civilization VII on the list of games you own on the left side of the tab, in the menu that appears choose Properties, in the pop up box that appears, choose Betas, there is a drop down list on the top right that shows "none", if you drop down the menu, you will see at the bottom an option called Legacy. Choose that and the game will launch the previous major release, i.e. 1.2.4.