7otM11 (Nov 2025) - Completion of Age of Exploration Spoiler Thread

[Eyswein]

At the top of your post please post the following:
- Turns in this Age = Number of Turns
- Total number of Turns so far (Antiquity + Exploration)

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 55 finish.

Main goal for this age is to capture some settlers, establish good cities in DL for future culture dig. Trung started this age hating me, it was convenient since she has a nice capital with good treasure res and even better, see her walking around with an army and Settlers! So I DOW her on turn 1. Will try capture as many settlers from her and wipe her.

To reach 3 Culture LPs, I used an exploit with Trung, i.e. convert her capital, capture capital, then convert the next capital, capture it, each time I got 2 relics. Perhaps they should fix this by only allowing 2 relics per AI.

Chose 20% gold govt since gold buys everything that I need to speed things up: temples, missionaries, fleet commanders, ships, partial buildings, warehouse buildings and etc.

3rd religion benefit i chose Stella Maris (+1 ship movement and embark movement)

Science: Astronomy, Cart, Machinery, -->Education->Ship Building

Culture: Religion, Hale O Keawe to boost culture, Theology, Tomb of Askia, El Escorial, Pirate unique cultures, did not get to complete a single UB or UQ, seem like a waste given them cost and benefit, there are just so many other more useful buildings in this age.

IPs: befriend a science one first to give science on warehouse buildings, then a military one to get commander XP boost in DL, then another Military one to get +1 settlement pt, an Expansion one to get + settlement

Played the whole age with only a single culture attribute pt, will get more with momento for the next age. Put 4 pts in Expansion which was very helpful.

Completed a quest to have 16 specialists which gave +2 culture to Guildhalls and Universities, which was very helpful for Science LPs.

Spoiler Turn 3 captured 2 settlers :

I captured 4 settlers from Trung, including one on a coast tile trying to run away. I just shot it with archers on land, and once I killed the settler on coast, it was captured with a little health.

Spoiler Turn 25 took Trung capital :

Established first DL settlement on turn 32.

Spoiler Turn 43 took Inca former capital :

Inca was allied with Trung so he DOWed me. I thought about whether I should leave him alone and send my army to DL, but then seeing his former capital with Hanging Garden, Emile, and Nalanda that can give 3 attribute points, I decided that it worth the effort to take it. So I took it on turn 43 with Naval support.

Spoiler Turn 46 start assault in DL :

My 2nd army commander and 2nd fleet commander worked together to start the DL assault. Amina and Norman were allied, I DOWed Amina to bring Norman into the party and he was a good target with Terracotta Army.

Spoiler Turn 48 Using Raiding Party ability :

Using the Raiding Party ability of my Buccaneer, it generated a treasure fleet with 3 treasure points.

Spoiler Turn 52 demonstration of the over powered naval splash damage :

Norman came with a large army of knights, took back Miletos for a bit. But things turned quickly when my 2 fleet commanders joined force and buried Norman knights in a hail of naval barrage.

Destroyed 5 Norman knights in a single turn with the OP naval splash damage.

Before battle:

After battle - 5 knights destroyed, and Took Athenai the next turn:

Spoiler Turn 55 End age :

Bought missionaries to convert newly captured DL settlements to my religion. seeing one 1 pt away from fully Military LP, I use a saved settler to settle a town in DL and this was enough to get to end age. Got 3 science LP a couple of turns earlier, it was not supper difficult give I have 4 productive cities and food rich towns to feed them.

 

[pmarc]

Turn 47 exploration (total: 137)

I picked the Corona Civica memento and the scientific attribute. For legacies, 2 culture points (to reach +10 on cities with wonders), 2 economic points (to reach 15% on purchasing), 2 expansionist points (extra pop and extra yields on towns), 1 science point (to reach bonus production on buildings). I did not pick fealty to get further down the expansionist tree.

One thing you can say about Tonga + Pirates is that it changes the script from the typical exploration game. With the ocean scouting already done and no ability to build more settlers (I had 4 saved from last age), I started the game building stonecutters + bazaars, then focusing on religion. Culture was good early with Tonga's tradition, so I got Piety on turn 7, bought a Temple, then picked Brahmanism (+2 relics for converting a capital) and Interfaith Dialogue (+4 science). I bought / built a few missionaries to spread to my neighbors in the hope of boosting my poor science a bit. Cartography was done on turn 11, then settlers could move on (all going east, 2 on islands and 2 on mainland to grab clusters of 4/5 treasure resources west of Amina's lands there).

- The military plan was to settle 4 then conquer 1, but Lafayette (my hopeful target) allied with Amina early on and I didn't want a two-front war. So I changed my plan, didn't do any war, using instead the pirate ability to capture a stray settler. I also incorporated a city-state to make 6 distant lands settlements. I have settlements on all 4 continents to buy museums.

- I didn't think I could hit that many tech milestones, definitely shipbuilding + guilds, but I wasn't optimistic about going all the way to education and getting a science district up in time. Therefore I achieved the science legacy with 5 gold districts in 5 different cities (each with a Bazaar, Guildhall, 1 specialist, city-state bonus and colonialism policy card). For civics, I didn't research any of the pirate ones, instead focusing on getting theology after piety (for bonus movement), inspiration for wonder, colonialism for wonder and settlement limit, society for the last relic and settlement limit increase. I built the Hale o Keawe and Tomb of Askia wonders.

- My first city-state was scientific for science on warehouses, the 2nd was cultural but stone heads was already taken. I also got one more scientific, one economic (for the gold building bonus) and one expansionist.

- In the end I turned in enough treasure fleets to finish the age on turn 47 with 2 economic legacy points and 3 points on all other paths.

 

[Bleidraner]

Turn 57 exploration (total: 147)
Mementos: Cultural and Scientific Attribute points.

Well, a slow Exploration. This was a mixture of my weakness as a player in Exploration and my very poor antiquity in terms of culture and science. So, in spite of having most of the map uncovered, instead of focusing on treasure settlements I engaged on a three front war to try to fix my science and culture per turn. My neighbor Trung Trak, already weakened from Antiquity, was my first objective. On the East, I set out to conquer Baak, and ultimately wipe Pachacuti. Baak was essential for my Modern strategy, as they had Nalanda, but most specially, a Maya unique quarter. Baak would be my capital in Modern.

On the West, Lafayette had a couple of settlements on the coast, although he was really too far away. So I built a second fleet on the West sea, took a detour North to kill an IP, make the deep sea crossing shorter and get the promotions I needed, and went West to see if I could conquer Athenai. Meanwhile, the empty coast of the continent on the East was clearly the place to settle for treasure but I was too distracted by war to do it early enough. I did plant a settlement late in the age to ensure settlements in all 4 continents.

In the end, I saw that my result was not going to be great, so took the advantage of the luxuriously long 57 turns to prep well for a fast modern victory. I fixed my empires KPIs, getting my culture and science per turn closer to where I wanted them to be, wiped Trung Trak, wiped Pachacuti, conquered Athenai, captured a bunch of settlers but did not plant them, and started prepping Baak for future production.

I completed the Military, Science and Culture paths, but was only able to put 1 point in the economic path. But I have 21 settlements, good ones, my gold, science and culture per turn are healthy, my naval military power is overwhelming, I have uncovered most of the map and have settlements in all continents plus 5 unplanted settlers for extra flexibility depending on where artifacts spawn. On to Modern!

Spoiler Screenshot :

 

[GoblinMatron]

Turns: 41
so far: 146 (105 + 41)

Mementos: cultural + economic attributes

Legacy points:
militaristic: Fealty, exp attr
cultural: 2 culture attr
economic: Master caraveneer, 2 attr
science: 1 attr

I knew that I had a poor Antiquity age, so I set an ambitious goal of turn 40 exploration with 1 civ wipe and 3 legacy points in culture, science and military, 1 in economic.

I had 3 settlers from the last age and sent them to the east as soon as I researched Cartography (turn 10). I established 2 settlements on the island in the south east with 3 treasure resources each which ensured the 1 economic legacy point that I was aiming at.
The last settler I sent to the main distant lands continent, but it died to a hostile IP.
Luckily, I was able to capture one of Pachacuti's settlers in the west and settle on the nice island in the north west.

For Civics, I started with piety to get a religion (+2 relics for capitals)
I then researched the ones that unlock the early wonders I wanted (Hale o Keawe, House of Wisdom, Tomb of Askia)
Finally the ones that give social policies that give additional adjacencies for science and gold to finish the scientific legacy path.
I left the Pirate tree untouched.

For military, my plan was to finish Himiko, then go to distant lands and capture some settlements there.
It took 14 turns to defeat Himiko, which was much longer than I had hoped. The closest distant land settlements were La Fayette's, but I was scared by the vast deep ocean to the west. so I decide to go to the east towards Amina. That took a long time. Luckily, she suzerained a city state that was a litte bit closer to the coast that I was coming from and built an undefended settlement towards the north-west of her main empire that I could capture.

I suzerained 4 city states: 1 cultural and scientific early for the yields on warehouses. 1 more cultutal for the yield on specialists for the scientific legacy path and 1 economic that I eventually incorporated, because it was in distant lands and positioned nicely.

The long distance to the distant land civs also meant that my missionaries had a hard time getting the relics I needed. I did not send them out early enough. The relics were actually the limiting factor this game and were the reason I took one more turn than planned.

I finished the scientific legacy path with 3 science quarters with 2 specialists each and 2 gold quarters with 1 and 2 speacialists.

I have a settlement in each continent, but much unexplored space that I need to discover next age.

Playing Edward Teach and the Pirates feels more like a Handicap than a useful civ/leader. Which is fine as a challenge but makes the gameplay itself less enjoyable for me.

Spoiler End of age map :

 

[Head_North]

Turns: 100.
Mementos: "Kwalwali" and "Royal Mace"
Legacy Points: Science: 0; Culture: 0; Military: 0; Economic: 0.

OVERVIEW
This was a horrendous era for the Pirate Republic. I´m not used to play on this difficulty so if you have any tips please feel more than free to share them! I fell way behind in science as well as culture, all because of a early war with Himenko.

EARLY GAME (T1-T30)
Mostly familirising myself with this new civ. Started befriending the two IP:s to the south. Was trying to get to techs that would allow me to settle distant lands, but they took forever to research. Mayby I hade to few cities and only towns? And how do you settle distant lands early. I mean settlers and in this case buccaneers cant cross ocean without reseraching ship building. An expansive technology.

MID GAME (T30-T75) - WAR WITH HIMENKO
This was devastating. She declared on me. I hade two army commanders filled with courses and heavy archers adn swordsmen. She had the Hawaiin special unit (Leiomano) which I just couldnt make a dint on with my units. Quite early she developed knights which I made even less damage to. I tried to research knights as well, but hade maby 30-35 turns to research it. She quickly conqoured Toloa in the north and got close to conquering Mu'a in the south. But for the next 30-40 turns or so the only thing I did was buying and producing archers in my cities (thus falling behind i science since I couldnt manage to build sceince buildings, and the prospect of settling distant land in resonable time vanished). In the end she made peace, I got Toloa back as well as receiving Angkor Borei to the west from her. But it was not worth it. This war, horrednous as it was is known simply as the "Great Western War" to the Pirate civilization.

Spoiler War with Himenko :

LATE ERA (T75-100)
Out of the war I tried to recover as quickly as possible. But only a few turns after the peace deal the popup of begiining crisis started and I hade to choose my first crisis policy. Desperately tried to snag a legacy point (religous) by converting friendly citie states to my religion and thus receiving relics. But alas, I was to late. Scintifically and culturally I think I caught up a bit with the AI. Settled one citie in distant lands but never had the time to spawn treasure fleet.

END OF ERA

Spoiler End of Era Production :

Spoiler Legacy Competition :

Spoiler Cumulative Legacy Points :