Best Civ for Dramatic Age

[CORNELIUS RUBSAMEN]

Hi all, I am thinking about playing a game with the new dramatic ages mode on deity. What do you all think would be the best civ for this?

 

[8housesofelixir]

Just off the top of my head:

Ottomans - they capture city without losing population, important if you want to take city back and have a decent loyalty base.
Byzantium - ignore walls, useful in capture cities. Killing units to convert other civ will also generate tons of era score to keep you in Golden Age.
Gran Colombia - +1 movement, quickly move your units around to firefighting when things goes wrong
(Unsure) Civs with a strong faith generating ability - Use that faith to buy Great People and Naturalists?

Anyway, the standard shall be: 1. civs that have bonus towards city-capturing; 2. civs that have bonus towards era-score-farming (also includes quick research speed and quick unit experience earning, since these now give era score as well).

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Any Civ that can easily get to Golden Classical. This is the most vital. After classical everything will just be golden.

To get into golden classical, U,religion and sea are the best ways to grab era points.

Civs with ancient Unique+easy religion or sea acquirement may be the best. Russia(U+early religion), Carthage (double U+sea), Cree(double U), Maori(best navigation), China(early wonders+religion), Greece(double U)

Otherwise you have to stay within your capital city in ancient to avoid rebellion. Your cities rebel at 40% so you really cannot afford having any city other than your capital when entering a dark age.

 

[Snarf054]

IMO ( Iam frequently wrong) Greece (Gorgo > Pericles) or Poland for extra Wildcard slots. China for easier inspirations, eurekas, and wonders. Elanor of course to flip free cities. Really any civ that has a science or culture buff would be decent.

 

[8housesofelixir]

After classical everything will just be golden.

What would you recommend for era-score-farming in later eras? It's not like every player is able to keep every era golden, myself included.

The methods I currently aware of are spreading religion when attack others and spamming National Parks.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

What would you recommend for era-score-farming in later eras? It's not like every player is able to keep every era golden, myself included.

The methods I currently aware of are spreading religion when attack others and spamming National Parks.

You get +4 from capturing a capital, +4 from converting Holy city, +5 from eliminating Civ(this also gives you an extra +4 if the eliminated Civ submits a WC resolution against you), +2 from converting suzerain, and +3 from spreading religion under military protections, also +2 from killing enemy under every GG. These are quite a lot and can be done repeatedly.

 

[8housesofelixir]

You get +4 from capturing a capital, +4 from converting Holy city, +5 from eliminating Civ(this also gives you an extra +4 if the eliminated Civ submits a WC resolution against you), +2 from converting suzerain, and +3 from spreading religion under military protections, also +2 from killing enemy under every GG. These are quite a lot and can be done repeatedly.

Playing aggressively does have a lot of advantage in term of grabbing era scores in a rinse-and-repeat way.

I think for a peaceful city-building playstyle, Wonder spam and National Park spam will help lot. If killing Free City units count as GG kills - I don't know, Free City units are barbs so they probably don't count - it might also be an effective method for peaceful playstyle.

 

[Snarf054]

If you are going to try and steam roll everyone though, don't miss. It sucks losing 2 cities I'd hate to lose 5 or 6.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Playing aggressively does have a lot of advantage in term of grabbing era scores in a rinse-and-repeat way.

I think for a peaceful city-building playstyle, Wonder spam and National Park spam will help lot. If killing Free City units count as GG kills - I don't know, Free City units are barbs so they probably don't count - it might also be an effective method for peaceful playstyle.

Whatever "playstyle", you have 40 turns for every era. Keep in mind that the threshold is only 30-50 points, and getting that in 40 turns is of nearly no problem.

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Especially in Dramatic ages where finishing tech/civic also gives you a lot of points. Only finishing tech and civics gives you 20-50 per era.

 

[iammaxhailme]

I find that I get a lot of golden era points in dramatic ages from unit promotions, so somebody that can easily build encampments or their buildings in order to make units with +xp bonuses. So Zulu, Alexander, Genghis etc. Of course I also don't like warmongering... maybe that's why I don't like dramatic ages...

 

[Abaxial]

Bear in mind that you get penalised for having many cities. I would suggest Maya.

 

[RealHuhn]

I find that I get a lot of golden era points in dramatic ages from unit promotions, so somebody that can easily build encampments or their buildings in order to make units with +xp bonuses. So Zulu, Alexander, Genghis etc. Of course I also don't like warmongering... maybe that's why I don't like dramatic ages...

Lily's formula in another thread shows that the required era score in dramatic ages is highly dependant on the number of cities you have. A warmonger typically has a lot more cities and absolutely needs those extra points from promotions etc.
A peaceful empire is smaller (8-15 cities) and if your science and culture rate is high enough it's very manageable to chain golden ages. In my experience, it's definitely easier compared to the base game. Like Lily said, the classical golden age is the critical one. After that I haven't seen any dark ages so far. A few close calls though.

@OP: Civs with additional wild card slots are definitely a good choice.

 

[Breadsmith]

Building Terracotta Army is worth a a potentially massive amount of Era Score in dramatic ages.

 

[lotrmith]

I agree with the sentiment about extra Wildcard slots. Not many civs will actively struggle to get a Classical Golden Age, particularly if you forgo your typical strategy and specifically focus on era score. The payout for having multiple wildcard slots in a dramatic golden age more than makes up for any opportunity cost of, say, building 2-3 scouts for exploration, researching sailing and building a boat, and building extra warriors to stay home and hunt down barb camps.

 

[IsabelBraganca]

You get era score from promotions, so it's useful to fight wars. It's easier to get promotions if you have encampment with all buildings, it's give you up to 75%. If you form corps or armies the bonuses get merged. For example, you have a artillery corp built in a city with barracks+armory+military academy and one artillery built in a city with stable. If you join them in an army, you'll get the 75% (25% stable+25%armory+25%military academy). If an AI had levied troops of a city state, you'll get era score if you can remove their suzerainty. The Voidsingers Secret Society you'll get cultists. You can use them to flip cities to you. You can lower loyalty from free cities as long as you protected your cultists with a military. I usually put a strong one that can take a lot of hits.

 

[japanesesamurai]

Isnt Dido immune to loyalty pressure on the capital continent? And so therefor can’t lose cities? I haven’t played this mode yet

 

[Breadsmith]

She's immune to pressure, but that doesn't mean that she's immune to the flip from a dark age. I haven't tried it myself, but it sounds like it will flip 100 loyalty cities if their the lowest.

 

[kryat]

I’m surprised Georgia hasn’t come up yet. She gets a free wildcard in golden and can use dark age policies all the time. Leveraged right, those can be quite powerful.

Wonder spamming is a builder’s best friend for era score farming, so China, Gaul, France, Egypt.

Mali or Brazil aren’t bad either from patronizing great people. Scotland, Russia, and England are ok too, just from natural recruiting of Great People.

Maybe Eleanor? Loyalty flipping also gives era score. It might be a bit more high stakes though.

The conquest route is definitely viable, but it’s a bit like be a high roller in gambling. If you get a dark age with 40 cities... that’s going to be a brutal reconquest. Only having 10 local cities is a bit more manageable. Annoying, but not burdensome.

 

[Dantesedge]

I’ll second @kryat on Georgia in Dramatic Ages. Being able to mix Dark Age cards at all times can help negate some of Tamar’s weaknesses and make her more viable and versatile in many aspects. In my last game, I went all out war to take my continent right at the start, and being able to run Praetorian Guard and Elite Forces at the same time helped to maintain momentum in combat added with constant promotions to gain era score.

During downtime, switched to the always available +75% science with Monasticism and, once I had my continent, permanent Isolationist for Wonder production (era score!)... yeah having access to the dark policies all the time is great. Used wisely, they can help create a ton of era score - I had non-stop Golden Ages until the Modern Era.

Unfortunately, the Modern Era Dark Age I got pointed out a very big negative to Dramatic Ages Georgia. When you lose your cities to hitting a Dark Age and you’ve researched Steel, taking back your cities by force will destroy your Tsikhes and you can’t rebuild them. That’s a nasty loss to your faith and tourism. You’ll need to use loyalty flips only... which is tough in a Dark Age.

So yeah, I think Tamar is great in this game mode - just be prepared for a frustrating post-Steel game if you can’t maintain Goldens.

 

[Muskie]

I'm no expert, but some of the bonuses you choose can help increase your score. +1 for Eureaka or Inspiration but the one I've had great luck (err skill) with is +1 for trade route completion. You have to give up on trading with cities far away so basically your own cities and nearby city states. If that is not an option and I have yet to play the scenario, I'd look for people who are good at science or culture. I seem to do better at science early but late game you can crank out a lot of culture. Key wonders may become even more desirable. You could also tailor your religion to help.

I often use faith to buy great people.

I was looking at my scores and my fastest victory was with the Cree, I think on level 5, but I always thought they sounded good but they don't get mentioned as the best or overpowered Civs not that I'm everywhere online. I plan to play as Byzantium next and not turn on this mod, but one day I may turn on all the game modes at once just to see what it is like. I don't like Apocalypse much, I get tired of spending all my time repairing districts.