Begin your Golden age when you want

[marceagleye]

Never forget that you can use your UU to induce a golden age. Even if you have an ancient UU and you are in modern times and haven't had your golden age yet, you can use artillery bombardment to reduce an enemy unit to one hit point and attack with your ancient UU to begin a golden age. In my most recent game, I triggered golden age by slewing an enemy pikeman with samurai... But remember when you use this strategy that it's best to not have any MPP's or alliances going so that you can capture your city then can get peace quickly without breaking any deals... You don't want any war weariness or even one turn of anarchy during your golden age. There's too much lost.

 

[Frisian Warrior]

Originally posted by marceagleye
if you have an ancient UU and you are in modern times and haven't had your golden age yet

Is that practically possible?
The Babylonians (science, reli) would be my absolute favourite civ if they didn't have those horrible bowmen, who trigger a golden age outside a barbarian camp before you have two cities!

 

[bewareofgnomes]

uhhh, you cant trigger a GA with a barb victory

 

[Frisian Warrior]

Right, er, but if you catch the Babylonian drift, I 'm sure you 'll agree how barbarious those Parisians are

 

[thedirk]

I agree with FW. I usually get my GA before I would like to. The Babylonians are particularly problematic for this as their UU is available virtually right away.

 

[bewareofgnomes]

if u where the aztecs, do you think you could get you GA vs mech infantry?

 

[Steffo]

I'm currently playing a game as the Ottomans. I'm in democrazy and at peace with everyone, I just got the Siphai.

I have not had any golden age yet, but now would be a great time to use the UU to get into one...just one problem, I need to break the peace with someone to get the GA, but it's probably worth it if I can make peace quickly to reduce war weariness...

 

[ivory]

Steffo, you can increase your chances of having them declare war on you so your democratic people and the other civs will still love you. Make sure your opponent is very annoyed with you, by trespassing continuously and demanding ridiculous tributes, and then leave a town near his border undefended. Usually the temptation is too great for them...

 

[Nad]

babs are one of the best civs to avoid an early GA with! Errr...bowmen? Just don't build them!! If you want defensive troops, build spears, if you want offensive troops, build swords or horses...the only reason to build bowmen is if you don't have any strategic resources, at which point they become a very useful UU...

 

[Steffo]

"Make sure your opponent is very annoyed with you, by trespassing continuously and demanding ridiculous tributes, and then leave a town near his border undefended. Usually the temptation is too great for them... "

Thanks for the advice Ivory! Actually one of the other Civs (The English...) is furious with me and have attacked me before. So I will do as you say...
Golden Age, here I come!

 

[ivory]

Let us know how things turned Stef!

Timing the GA with wonders can also be surpring. I recently played as India for the first time, they 're commercial and religious. I built the Colossus, which is expansionistic and religious, but entered my GA there and then.

After a bit of research, I found this explanation in Sirian's Great Library:

There are a couple of wonders with unlisted attributes. For example, the Colossus claims to be Expansionistic and Religious, but it is also Commercial. Your civ needs a wonder with each of its own traits to kick off a wonder-induced golden age. For example, the Egyptians are Religious and Industrious. They need a religious wonder, and an industrious one. If they build the Colossus, that covers religious. Then if they build the Great Wall, which is Industrious, they enter a golden age. The Colossus is Commercial, as well as its other listed attributes. Universal Suffrage claims to be Militaristic, but it has a hidden attribute also of Expansionist. (Thus, for the Zulus, it would automatically kick off their golden age, as they are both of its traits. And the Colossus kicks off an automatic GA for three different civs: Iroquois, India, England). Knowing the hidden traits of these two wonders (you can see them in the editor, by the way) can be important for managing your wonder building and golden age plans.

 

[Dr. Dr. Doktor]

Originally posted by ivory
Timing the GA with wonders can also be surpring. I recently played as India for the first time, they 're commercial and religious. I built the Colossus, which is expansionistic and religious, but entered my GA there and then.

Yes, I was annoyed that Leonardos workshop triggered a golden age for the Ottomans, and I was still in despotism.

The Ottomans are scientific and industrious, but in the manual it says that Leos is a militaristic wonder - so I felt safe building it.

Btw I think the Collosus is expansioist and commercial, not religious. The English always trigger their golden age when they build itI have found out.i

 

[ivory]

From what I understand now, the Colossus is exp, com ánd reli.
But shouldn't you be out of despotism by the time you build Leo?

 

[Inter4]

That's why I use the ottos.....thei UU triggers my GA in the perfect era

 

[Speaker]

I don't know why everyone always bashes an early Golden Age. Sure, you can't use it to build infrastructure, but if you have 4 or 5 cities cranking out a jaguar every two turns, you can easily cripple your neighbor, giving yourself twice as much room to expand into. What's wrong with that?

 

[billindenver]

Originally posted by Frisian Warrior

Is that practically possible?
The Babylonians (science, reli) would be my absolute favourite civ if they didn't have those horrible bowmen, who trigger a golden age outside a barbarian camp before you have two cities!

I don't know about attacking infantry or mech infantry with 1 hp, but I did exactly this in my current game. I'm Egypt and had no horses in after my initial expansion. The 3 other civs on my continent had horses, but not enough to trade. I also had no iron or iron to trade for, so I was stuck with spearmen and archers (then longbows) until nearly the industrial ages, when I finally met 3 civs that could trade me horses and iron. I built one chariot at that point, and when war came I used that chariot to knock the last hp off a musketman and trigger my GA.

It's definitely possible. Heck, in this game, I actually had a veteran longbowman beat a 3 hp infantry!

 

[ivory]

Longbowmen are twice as strong as bowmen, and I think Frisian's question was more about how not to start a Golden Age at a time when your uu is more or less the only military unit you have...