7OTM10 (Oct 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:
- How did the new patch impact your game?
- 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?

 

[ABigCivFan]

Turn 75 end.

Wipped 2 civs on the home land (Harriat was allied with Egpty and DOWed on me which was convenient), but she had 8 cities, Charlied allied with me and took out 2 of her island cities. I noticed buildings are now a lot more expensive in hammers. The 15% purchase discount in Econ attribute is very useful to get all the warehouse buildings. Took the 2 Great Work per City State conversion religion to quickly get full Culture LPs. Took cultural boost govt and got all the Norman civics, focused on getting more settlement limits to expand. Started a late war with IBU on distant land to get more military LPs. A combo of highly promoted Army and Fleet commander was able to take a nice but highly fortified former capital city from him. As usual, there is not enough time to set up distant treasure cities so only got 1 econ LP. Also got full science LP by leveraging City State bonuses with various boosts. Had enough Diplo Influence to start endevors, steal techs and civics. Was able to beat the AIs to several key wonders. But I was rusty, did not explore well and could have done better with more careful planning. Ended with 22 establishments and around 9 cities.

Spoiler Turn 56 :

Spoiler Turn 75 and Legacies :

 

[Manpanzee]

49 turns Exploration
102 turns Antiquity
151 turns so far

Mementos: Scientific attribute + Cultural attribute
Age Progression: 0/3 Economic, 3/3 all other paths. Two civ wipes*

*By my count, the second civ wipe didn’t do anything to shorten the age, as I think I would have been eligible to finish at 45/46 turns without it. I ended up being gated by the Militaristic path.

Spoiler :

Some interesting and different stuff in this age:

--I rushed distant lands much less aggressively than I usually do. Starting the age at 10/10 settlement limit and warring two AIs on turn 1, I felt like I had better things to do than spend on more Settlers early.

--I took Plutocracy government for the first time ever. It’s possible that that has been indirectly buffed in the patch, but in this case diplomacy was the deciding factor – it enabled me to form an alliance with Tubman on turn 2. I was worried about her allying with Hatshesput, and wanted to take that off the table as fast as possible.

--I fully ignored the Norman civics tree, instead going for a religion game and beelining the full theology tree. Religious beliefs were +food on my own settlements, +relics for converting AI capitals, and +hammers to Missionaries per owned relic.

--I have absolutely nothing in the Expansionist attribute tree. I instead invested in the Militaristic tree, in order to pick up the extra settlement limit.

--Confucius and Himiko have apparently been getting their buts kicked by a Rizal/Battuta alliance, and are down to one settlement each. I warred Himiko on the last turn of the age, and should have two more civ wipes possible to shorten my Banker’s path.

 

[Bleidraner]

57 turns Exploration
100 turns Antiquity
156 turns so far

I thought I had played a pretty good Exploration but I see Manpanzee above beat me by... 8 turns! Amazing, although Manpanzee is great at everything but specially excels at Exploration. Anyway, this was:

The Plan:
Early wipe of Charlemagne, spam settlers to get to DLs and plant a couple of settlements in my continent in prime spots (NW and South West). Get to 5 cities, 1 in DLs. Play the religion game.

The Execution:
Charlemagne wiped t3. Built 4 settlers, bought one, then built a later one. Started exploring with my cogs, East from Rouen and Roma and West from the Southeast corner. Found land quickly, with settling spots relatively far on the West and relatively close on the East. Planted 5 settlements on DLs, 4 with treasure resources the other with multiple camels (this is a mistake, if I had been patient and planted with any kind of treasure I would have finished the economy path). I also planted 1 settlement in my own continent next to the NW Valley of Flowers. Settlers got to be too expensive at that point and law of diminishing returns kicked in.

I counted the turns at t30 and could see a t60-t61 win with 12 legacies. Befriended almost all the IPs. When choosing legacies, was sorely tempted to choose the one that gives you 100% on befriending at the cost of 2 settlement limit, and then counter with Fealty, but decided to go the classic way as I did not want to be living over the settlement limit all game. Probably a mistake, as I was swimming in happiness the whole age, chaining celebrations 100% of the time. I could have played 1 or 2 over cap, no problem, and still chain the celebrations.

By t45 I could see a t55-t56, but with 3/3/3/2 legacies (2 econ). I did not quite get there, I got 57, as there are still some mechanics of age advancement that I do not completely understand. I stood at 99% and I put three more legacies that should have advanced the age 10-15%, but no progress. Maybe the end turn needs to be played over a couple of turns? No idea. Next turn it went to 100% and the age finally ended. I could have finished 2 turns earlier at the cost of 1 university and one legacy point, but decided to wait what I thought was 1 turn to finish science path, but that turned out to be 2 turns.

No time for crisis. Only managed to do 4 cities

Regrets:
No regrets really, I thought I had played a really great age until I saw Manpanzee's 49 . Well yes I should have planted a fifth treasure city, but when I made the decision to plant the settler I could not see any locations and we were getting close to the point when it would not give me a return if I waited any more. I think I built too many buildings when I should have just built the ones needed for the scientific path and then focus on warehouse building spam (the +4 food is very powerful and the food, culture, science in warehouse buildings make it a really good investment). I would have liked to plan that last city in my own continent. I probably should have waged war beyond Jose Rizal to debilitate other AIs, attacking Ibn would have been great as his old capital was brimming with wonders. But I was pretty happy with the game.

EDIT: Thinking a little bit deeper, I do have one more regret. I focused too much in getting Lahaina and Baak from Jose, the two most difficult cities to conquer with 4 fortified districts in the case of Baak and very difficult access for Lahaina. But I should have realized that my real goal was not to get those 2 cities, but to complete the military path. Conquering any (just one) of the much much easier cities in DLs and converting it would have ended the age earlier. Or easier still, offer a peace deal to Jose much earlier and get one of his cities. I had been holding my relics in archive and treasure fleets without unloading, so I had 3 legacy points (one econ and 2 cultural) in my pocket for at least 8 turns, probably more. Getting those three legacies and finishing the military path would have ended the age in the late 40s. I only realized this after reading Manpanzee's post. Something similar happened to me in Antiquity. Its the abbreviated age, I keep forgetting about it and it throws my calculations.

*By my count, the second civ wipe didn’t do anything to shorten the age

Like Manpanzee, I have also noticed something similar in the training games and in the last GoTM, second wipe in Expl not advancing the age. My first one definetely advanced the age 5% points and in this game I did not get second wipe but something is going on with that, even pre-patch. Game mechanic or just a bug?

Thank you GoTM for a really fun map! On to Modern.

EDIT: Just read Manpanzee's post. Same with Plutocracy and for the same reason, Trubman. But also, I think with the changes to price of buildings, you need every gold you can get. Nothing in the Militaristic tree, I took Expansionist memento and wildcard to get to +1 pop. Did nothing with the Normand tree, beliefs were Interfaith (science), Relics on city state conversion and trade routes convert target. That last one was a mistake, it is not needed if you have the relics on city state conversion belief. The faster movement one I am not sure if it affects treasure convoys, but if it does it could have been good to take it. I also declared war to Confucius in the last turn. Just in case.

Spoiler Screeshots :

 

[GoblinMatron]

Turns Map

Turns: 53
Antiquity: 92
so far: 145

Mementos:
Antikythera Mechanism (scientific 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+1): Fealty, 2 expansionistic attributes
Cultural (0): -
Economic (2): 2 economic attributes
Scientific (2): 2 scientific attributes

Technology:
Cartography(9) - Astronomy(15) - Guilds(21) - Cartography2(24) - Feudalism(29) - Education(35) - Machinery(38) - Heraldry(41) - Shipbuilding(45) - Education2(47) - Guilds2(49) - Architecture(52)

Civic:
Piety - Inspiration(13) - Theology - Society(26) - Society2(31) - Economics(35) - Authority(39) - Diplomatic Service(43) - Social Class(50) - Social Class2(52)

Government:
Plutocracy for the gold

Plan:
I did some calculations and realized, that I really wanted 3 completed legacy paths for a good result. Because it is a gamble if treasure resources can be found early, I focussed on the other 3 paths. Religion and distant land settlements are normally no problem. But the last games showed me that I had to step up my game on 40+ yield tiles.
It was clear that I would defeat Charlemagne early and with the planned 3 completed legacy paths that would lead to a theoretical turn 45 finish. That is not realistic, but it showed me that I really wanted to complete the 40-yield tile objective as quickly as possible, beacuse that would be the limiting factor.

Execution:
Religion, Culture & Influence:
Since I had the diplomatic attribute and the Greece synergies, I planned on befriending many city states. I saw 2 friendly scientific city states that I befriended turn 1, because I like having the bonuses they give early (especially the +1 science on warehouses).
I researched Piety early and had every Religion available. I chose the one that gives 2 relics for city states. I knew that there would be enough city states and I like that one missionary can give 6 relics.
Because of Catherines relic buffs I then researches the civis that unlock wonders that interact with relics (Hale o Keawe and House of Wisdom). I was happy that I could build them in Athenai, my only city on Tundra.
I finished the cultural legacy path early without even realizing it.

Distant lands:
I only had settlements on the continient's west coast and started exploring. I found one island without any interesting resources. When I found the other continent, it was full with city states and Rosé's cities. Only on turn 22 I founded my first settlement close to one of Rosé's setlements and a second one shortly after. I still did not see any good spots for distant land settlements, so I planned to take some of Rosé's settlements instead. I made some preparations and went to war against him on turn 44. I don't know why I waited so long. He was allied with Ibn Battuta and Confucius, which made the war much bigger than anticipated and cancelled the trade routes I had with them. At least Himiko liked me who was also at war with that trio. By turn 52 I had taken 2 of his cities and converted my 4(!) distant land settlements to my religion, which finished the militaristic legacy path. I never before had so few settlements in distant lands.

City management & 40+ yield tiles:
Everything I did here was with the goal to get 40+ yield tiles.
Because I wanted to get the full benefit from the scientific attribute that gives +2 science on specialists when you have 3 or fewer cities, I knew that I wanted a maximum of 3 cities. I also wanted a minimum of 3 cities to have more spots where buildings and wonders can be built and specialists created.
So I converted Rome and Thebai on turn 1, because they had good production, good spots for adjacenecy and I hoped that they would be spread out enough, so that every other town would deliver their food to one of them.
Thebai and Rome (now Rouen) had a gold/sliver available that I took with their first growth events, then I focussed on specialists.
I did not know if I needed Notre Dame to finish that path, so I researched in that direction. But it took very long, I did not even finish researching it.
On turn 52, two of my cities grew and I finished the scientific legacy path, which made the age end on turn 53.

I should have thought more about where to put my specialists. When the city grows early, and no good buildings have been built, more planning needs to go into where to put specialists in anticipation of the buildings that can be built. I put some specialists in Rouen on the optimal culture building spot. which was maybe optimal, but not a good spot overall, because it was only adjacent to one mountain. I should have thought and calcutated more, what the spots are, where a 40+ tile can be realistically achieved.
I also should have gone for Bourbadour instead of Notre Dame, because it can be researched much cheaper and should be enough to get the last 2 tiles or so.

Spoiler T53 :

Thanks for the game, this is really fun!

 

[Ballcrusher]

Exploration: 57 turns
Antiquity: 103 turns
Total so far: 160 turns

Legacy Paths:
3/3 Culture
1/3 Economic
3/3 Military
2/3 Science

I did 2 civ wipes. Charlemagne in the first few turns and Jose at turn 55. I lacked 2 40-yield tiles to complete the science LP. Maybe I should have researched Education before Shipbuilding, as I really wanted Golden Age Universities in Modern. I ended up with 4 cities - maybe I should have stayed on 3 cities for the specialist bonus with 3 or fewer cities. But on the other hand, my ships was really helpful in taking down Jose's many walls in the coastal cities. I had hoped also eliminating Himiko, but my ships and second army didn't have time to reach her 2 last settlements.

I ended up with only 16/17 settlements, so I probably should have settled a few more food towns around my homeland cities, but I was worried that my end game conquest would require a lot more conquered than cities than was I ended up doing.

I really enjoy the abbrevated age, because it means that you cannot complete all legacies as I used to in standard age. I also really enjoy the new patch, as you no longer just can build every building but have to choose more strategically. Thanks for a fun game. GOTM is definately my favorite way to play CIV7.

Spoiler End of exploration and legacy paths :

 

[pmarc]

Turn 48 exploration (106 + 48 = 154 total)
Finished 3 paths plus the first milestone of treasure fleets, one civ elimination.

I picked the expansionist and economic mementos to get to tier 3 in both trees with the legacy points, then picked fealty and 2 points each of expansionist, economic, science and culture. I thought about the +15% science/-10% culture from Catherine, but decided that getting further in the science attribute tree was more important, especially the specialist node in this age and the quarters node in the next age. Converted Waset to a city and made the other west coast city my capital, for only 3 cities all age, all on that side of the homelands.

I knew that 3 paths (all but economic) would be feasible for an age 55 (56) finish, so I should rush shipbuilding for either some treasure fleet points or eliminating a weak civ overseas (Tubman and Charlemagne were both at 6 settlements, making them harder targets, plus no points for conquest in the homelands).

With a celebration on turn 2, I tried taking Theocracy to rush 6 settlers out by turn 10, though it might not have been the best map for that. Eventually settled 5 in the distant lands, mostly on the northern and western coast of Confucius and Rizal's continent, and 1 in the homelands to grab more future factory resources.

Rizal had 5 settlements, his 3 main Maya settlements in a cluster on the eastern coast (though not a single UQ! that AI...) and 2 further west by Himiko's lands. Himiko only had only 2. Confucius started with 3 settlements but got a few more. Because Himiko was a bit far, I thought of taking Rizal's nearby settlements for the treasure resources there and was planning to finish on turn 50 (51) with 1 point in the economic path. From turn 30 onwards both Himiko and I were at war with a triple alliance of Rizal / Confucius / Battuta, and luckily Himiko took both of Rizal's western settlements (later lost one to Battuta) to eliminate him on turn 46, saving me 3 turns on the finish date as I rushed a university in Waset to finish the science legacy path on turn 47.

I think the science legacy path is in some way made easier in 1.2.5 with the building yields buffs. My default go-to setup for 40 yields is dungeon + observatory and bazaar + guildhall, with the city-states bonuses to science and gold building yields, the policy cards for +adjacency on production and gold, then the bonus science and/or culture specialist yields from attribute points. With reasonable adjacencies it's often possible to get to 40 with 1 specialist, especially for the gold district on the coast. Universities are of course good for a science golden age, but I was only able to get 1 in this abbreviated game (could have rush built another one but decided to save the 2000 gold for warehouse buildings).

The tech path was Cartography, Astronomy and then on to Shipbuilding, Shipbuilding II, Castles and Education.
The culture path was Piety, the bottom path to Colonialism 2 for Tomb of Askia / El Escorial (both built in Waset) and settlement limits, then Theology and a few more civics in the main tree although I didn't reach another settlement limit increase.

 

[ABigCivFan]

I took my replayed Antiquity save, and replayed the Exp age; finished at turn 55 for a total of 85+55=140 turns which was a great improvement over my first try. Since Antiquity was a early finish with 0 science LP, I was severely limited by science with only 2 attribute points the whole age. I studied Manpanzee's save and learned a lot about a fast Exp age finish. What I did differently is to send my Army commander to the DL and started a campaign asap. I research Astronomy first to compensate for low science. Then on to Education, never got shipbuilding. I took the 3rd religion bonus that converts conquered settlements to my religion to finish the military LPs. Got Jose down to his last city, and on the last turn, took IBu's capital. Ended with a lvl 14 Army commander that can easily wipe the DL continent in the modern age. But I probably will not replay the modern age. I could have done better if I explored more and get Jose's last city with the fleet commander and that would end the age a few turns earlier.

Spoiler Turn 55 finish :