Civ 7 7OTM04 - Completion of Age of Exploration Spoiler Thread

[Eyswein]

At the top of your post please post:
Total Legacy Points for Age of Exploration, Number of Age of Exploration turns

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?
- 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?
- 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?

 

[SiCK_Boy]

91 turns - 10 legacy points (20 total)

I picked the following legacy bonuses: +2 settlement limits, interior perfection (+1 culture per 5 extra happiness), wonderful legacy (+1 culture & happiness per wonder), Golden Age silk roads, 1 economic attribute point and 2 scientific attribute points.

My plan was to go for an early war with Friedrich to try and get a passage to the west. This was one of the most disastrous wars I've ever gone through in Civ VII. I lost 10+ units before settling for a no win peace. My relationship with Trung Trac never got up, and reverted because she doesn't like Commanders with high levels (which my war produced). My alliance with Ibn Battuta held strong throughout the age, but it wasn't much use.

I was behind in science for the first 30-40 turns, but the various Abbassid bonuses finally kicked in and I ended up dominating in both science and culture, even collecting 2 future techs along the way.

As the age was coming to an end, everyone but Trung Trac declared war on me. I haven't built much of a military, but I hope I can leverage diplomacy to prevent Modern turning into a bloodbath.

Scientific research was focused on getting Naval Construction, then finishing most of the military tech, before going for the rest toward Future Tech. For Dogma, I did Piety, Theology, then the Abbassid dogma. I was in range for some future dogma toward the end, but tried grinding a few extra wonders instead.

I quickly got all the needed relics (was getting them for converting other capitals), but my religion game ended after that.

I enjoyed this age, but was glad for once to see it come to an end. I've never had an age like this where I lost so many military units. I'm curious to see how things will go in modern; I usually get there with a more robust army.

 

[patparker]

99 turns - 10 legacy points )3 culture, science, and economic, 1 expansion)

What Legacy bonuses did you chose and why? What other start up things did you do at the beginning of the Age of Exploration?
Change capital to get second city
Wonders of the Ancient World golden age + wonderous heritage to maximize culture
Master caravanner
The rest were attribute points

- 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?
Concentrating on relics. The more culture legacy point you get, the faster the Worlds fair can be built in the final age. I also will concentrate on income buildings and saving some money to carry into next age as explorers are now very expensive. It would be nice to get a economic golden age so that I can preserve my cities, but this is secondary.

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
Cartography for expansion - astronomy - cartography 2
Piety for religion - economics - inspiration -Abbasid

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Definitely looking to create my unique quarter

- 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?
No captures (or wars ) this age. Settled 4 overseas and annexed 1 city state. Had 10 cities at the end due to weird 'alim triggers than needed to be used in new cities, so many were converted that would not normally be

- What were key production/purchase focuses?
Focused on military early to keep AI honest, then culture and economic buildings

- Religious bonuses chosen and why?
Icons for easy relics
Stewardship for culture

- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
Theocracy for culture, settler, merchant, and 'alim production

- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
Got 3 suzerain then just kept the peace

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Not really

- Did you enjoy this Age?
Yes, but it was very easy due to the low difficulty.

Got the needed economic golden age (I ended up with a lot of cities and do not want to buy them back)
Advanced as Russia. Since it gives the most bonus culture. Despite not being in much tundra at all.

 

[Manpanzee]

Exploration: 63 turns, 12 legacies
Antiquity: 105 turns, 11 legacies
Running total: 168 turns, 23 legacies

I ended Antiquity with nine settlements, four of which were cities. I upgraded another two before taking the Golden Age legacy, giving me six cities to start off. Some decent yields, but 11 turns to Cartography is rough…

Spoiler :

Unmentioned in my Antiquity writeup: Machiavelli lost a war to Ibn Battuta, leaving him with only a single settlement. This was a decent city that had Mausoleum of Theodoric, and I decided between ages that I was going to take it. I wasn’t sure what impact another civ elimination would have on era progress in Exploration, but I decided to just roll with it. It took me a while to get over there, as all of my commanders ended Antiquity at the other end of my empire, but Machiavelli fell without much resistance on turn 15, before he could plant another settlement.

Spoiler :

I ended Exploration with 16 settlements, adding two via conquest and self-founding five. I only founded four new distant lands settlements myself, as the one I stole from Trung Trac gave enough to complete the military/expansionist path. I also added one new homelands settlement to pick up a pair of Furs that spawned.

Wiping Machiavelli turned out to add around 5% era progress, meaning that I had a potential endpoint of 60 turns, with 11/12 legacy points and a future tech/civic. I didn’t expect to be able to complete the economic path by then, considering my very slow early-era science and unexceptional treasure fleet spawns. However, it was still possible that completing economic would be worthwhile, and I spent a good amount of time double-checking and calculating if I could get there without an excessive amount of stalling.

It turned out I could! This involved some fancy play, including using my second future tech wildcard (earned on turn 60) to unlock free commander promotions in the militaristic tree. I bought some extra Fleet Commanders, pre-packed them for the movement buff, and took the “move after unpacking” promotion. This gave me just enough movement to pop my last two treasure fleets on the same turn they spawned.

I end Exploration with nine cities, two of which are on distant lands. I have access to all golden ages, and will take my time deciding between scientific and economic – really not sure which I want. I will also be playing Buganda in Modern. That's something I’ve been eyeing since Antiquity, and is one of the reasons I was so eager to take Machiavelli’s Mausoleum city. Let’s get that pillage culture!

Spoiler :

 

[Ballcrusher]

Exploration score: 558 (67 turns / 12 LP)

Total score so far: 817 (196 turns / 24 LP)

I started the exploration age with 8 settlements (4 cities, 4 towns).

For the transition I chose the +2 settlement limit, Golden Academies, 2 Cultural Points, 2 Diplomatic Points, 1 Science Point, 2 Economic Points and the Legend that gives +Gold/-Food.

I had 1 ship and 1 AC explore east and 1 ship and 1 AC explore west, while the 4 cities produces settlers. By turn 22 I had settled 3 new towns in distant lands with a total of 6 treasure ressources (should have been 8 ressources, but unfortunately Trung settled a good spot just one turn before my settler was there).

But the rest of the settlements took some time to get up for several reasons. Maybe I should have send more ships out to explore, because it felt it took too long for me to find the treasure ressources. And I also made a mistake with one of the new settlements: I needed to clear an indenpendent to settle, and I thought my AC was full of units, but it turned out the AC had not been reinforced by the units (maybe because he entered ocean before the units had arrived). So it took a long time to get new units out there and clear the area.

I chose Plutocracy government for gold celebrations, and I easily got 2 relics per capital by using the conversion by merchants enhancer belief. I got a lot of science for the +4 science founder belief (but maybe I should have taken +4 culture). The treasure fleets took me the longest time to complete, but I got the last by turn 67, which ended the age as I also completed a Future Tech in the same turn.

I played 100% peaceful as my two angry neighbours didn't declare war and I had very few units. I ended with settling 7 new settlements for a total of 15 settlements (8 cities, 7 towns). But I probably should have made at least 1-2 more. Now I don't have settlements in two of the continents, which I realised too late for my settlers to arrive before the age ended. Hope that won't hurt to much in modern age, but I'm not sure as I have not tried the cultural victory condition yet. I also should have explored more, as I don't have full vision of the entire map before heading into modern age.

I didn't befriend a single city state, as I used my influence primarily on getting additional trade routes.

I'm looking forward to trying the cultural victory in modern, and to see how far I am behind the good players participating

 

[RaidandTrade]

Ancient Era: 140 turns, 10 Legacy Points (3 Science, 3 Culture, 2 Economic, 2 Military)
Exploration Era: 91 turns, 12 Legacy Points

- What Legacy bonuses did you chose and why? What other start up things did you do at the beginning of the Age of Exploration?

Fealty, Codex -> Science then points (Econ x2, Dip x2, Culture, Science, Military). Only 2 academies so the GA academy didn't feel worth it. Went for the diplomacy for the befriending and stealing/endeavours.

- 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 looking for a peaceful game although Friedrich and Ibn Battusa didn't let me do that in the Antiquity Age. Ended up with one of Friedrich's cities in a peace deal near the end of Antiquity that put me at 9/8 and constantly fighting rebellion. It got me the military point I wanted for Fealty but cost me Economic as my resources kept getting burned.

Started the Exploration with Reconciliation to try and get Friedrich on side. I was going to go hard at religion to see if I could carry the culture belief into the Modern age. I got Friedrich to thumbs down but Ibn Battusa (his ally) DOWed me and Friedrich joined war at turn 15. So much for peace. I lost Capua (Friedrich's from Antiquity) but got it back in a peace deal a few turns later.

Went about trying to repair relationships. Lots of influence spent building trade routes and more reconciliations. I still wanted to go peaceful and into religion but... Ibn Battusa hit me with a war again. He was still allied with Friedrich... who was allied with Isabella... who was allied with Benjamin. I had Trung Trac as an ally through Antiquity and Exploration. Machiavelli kept asking but I declined him. Pachacuti was thumbs up pretty much since we met.

I wanted to get some treasure fleets up as well - again hoping for peace. Found the Great Barrier Reef and settled it which had 2 treasure resources. Nice. Also got a toehold in the southern point of the new land mass but it was too far away for my last treasure fleet to make it back in time. Those two weren't enough in the end and I ended 8 treasure short of my 30.

When everyone declared war on me I took the navy out and had a combination of captures and peace deals. I got the legacy point but it shows me as 11/12 as I think one of my distant cities got half converted at the end.

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?

Beelined for Shipbuilding then down into Education and then whatever made sense after that.
Civics was the uniques for the quarter. With the unique quarters researched I then went back for religion and trade then back into unique. As religion wasn't as effective, I ended up getting most of the relics from the tree and prioritised those.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?

I took the Evangelism belief to convert with Merchants so was looking to use that a lot. And merchants generally. Was doing well enough with merchants on homelands but lost them all in the war... I got a few of the great people but found them to be too random. Hammers would have been better spent on missionaries or merchants.

- 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?

Settled 2, captured 3. I think I ended with more cities than towns.

- What were key production/purchase focuses?

Towns were hub towns for influence.

- Religious bonuses chosen and why?

Evangelism (relic for converting distant lands civ) - didn't really play into it due to the wars.
Holy Ecumene (culture for foreign followers) - started okay with those close by but faded to very little due to war and diverting production.

- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?

Culture...

- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?

Mainly for befriending, some reconciliations. I was going to do some steals but ended up ahead so no point. At the end, piled in the war support.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?

War. I didn't want it in the Exploration Age on my continent. I was hoping to find some islands from distant powers to swipe but they were all on the other side.

- Did you enjoy this Age?

Yes, although I was hoping to get the economic legacy points. Due to all the warring, I'm starting Modern with a bad rap with most Civs.

 

[GoblinMatron]

62 Turns - 11 Legacy Points
Total: 182 Turns - 23 Legacy Points

Legacies:
Military: Fealty (+2 settlement limit), +1 expansionist attribute
Culture: +2 culture attribute, +1 diplomatic attribute
Economic: Master caravaneer (+5 gold for every trade route in antiquity (+40)), +1 economic attribute
Science: Collector of Knowledge (+1 Science for every Codex (11)), +2 scientific attribute

My Plan:
Build up a nice empire, slightly shift focus so that I would get legacy points. I wanted to make Roma into a productive city, so that I would have a strong presence on the west coast.
In the middle of the age I decided that I should make war against Friedrich and Trung Trac to end the age faster. But I started the wars too late and Trunc Trac survived with two settlements. I should have seen that sooner and not fought her, so that I can capture her settlements in the next age.

Settlements:
18(+1 that is being razed) total. 10 cities, 8(+1) towns. 8 from Antiquity, 4(+1) captured, 6 self-founded.

Techs:
Astronomy > Cartography > Guilds > Machinery > Feudalism > Heraldry > Shipbuilding
I wanted to get Astronomy first to get the Science boost. After that, I focused on getting Shipbuilding to start making treasure fleets.

Civics:
Economics > Mercantilism > Round City > Mawla > Mawla Matery > Al Jabr
I wanted to research Mercantilism as soon as possible to build Tomb of Askia in Waset. It already has Colossus and Monks Mound, so it will have a lot of gold and production. This is also the reason I kept it as my capital, so that it has more resource slots.

Religion:
Relic for settlements in distant lands, +4 culture
I bought temples in two of my distant land settlements and bought missionaries there to convert distant land settlements.

Influence:
I befriended a scientific city state early for the additional science on science buildings. Then mostly improved trade relations.

Government:
Theocracy for the Culture

Notes:
- I was very annoyed when my Cog spawned in Neapolis, beacuse there is no connection to the western ocean. So I had to go the long way to the eastern ocean
- I am not used to playing on such a big map. The distance between the continents is so huge, so the time for Settlers, Scouts and Missionaries to get to the other continents seemed really long.
- I don't know why the game thinks that I have 24 legacy ponts. I got 12 last age and 11 this age...

Spoiler Screenshot turn 62 :

Spoiler Legacy Points :

 

[MACKA0ili]

80 turns 10 legacies
Total so far is 210 turns 21 legacies

Started with fealty for the settlement limit increase, both tier 2 legacy bonuses for Science and Culture, a cultural and 2 economic attribute points since the wars destroyed all my trade routes.
Plan was to get treasure fleets out as fast as possible while building up my empire at home before conquering two more cities to get the military legacy. The science legacy was easy enough to get with the Abbasids and getting an early religion let me grab Brahminism after which I sent two missionaries each to every single capital to sit there until the end of the age. I didn't end up finding the Great Barrier Reef until about 20 turns in, but I settled the entire island for its treasure resources and went ahead and researched shipbuilding to get fleets. Things pretty much went as planned back in the homeland as I pumped out great people. But, after barely getting the first legacy point at around turn 60 or so, I just decided to just forgo the rest of the Economic legacy path and just focus on finishing military and researching future tech. The last 10 turns ended up being a world war as everyone with alliances ended up declaring against each other and I managed to snag 4 distant lands cities for my trouble.
Not sure what to pick for the last age, but I might go with Siam since I finally managed to get the unlock to work.
Also, I had a fleet commander and wonder with one turn left. Technically the game rolls over the next turn when the age transitions so if I have an extra commander and wonder then I'll add another turn to my total.

 

[Bleidraner]

(I wrote this a few days ago but forgot to post it)

Exploration: 60 turns, 12 legacies
Antiquity: 106 turns, 11 legacies
Running total: 166 turns, 23 legacies

Strategic considerations:
By now I have developed a clear strategy for Exploration, that is set up in Antiquity. I prioritize treasure fleets above anything else. To achieve that, I explore massively from t1 and send my armies as soon as humanly possible to the new continents to conquer cities. To bring down the turn count, I also try to kill one AIs. Theoretically this allows to end the Age around t60. I played this Age completely before the patch.


What happened in the game:

As I always do, turn one I bought 2-3 Cogs and send them exploring East and West. They were folllowed as quickly as Cartography allows by 2-3 scouts, and whatever armies I had, this time I only had one from Antiquity, and settlers. I planted a few cities in the island chains, planted one in the new continent to the East and with the army I attacked Isabella as soon as I saw her. The idea is not only to have a foothold there, useful for Modern, but also to contribute to treasure fleets, achieve the military legacies and kill the one AI we need killed.

The island chains were pretty far away this time and did not have a lot of great spots to settle. I settled the spot next to Great Barrier Reef and 2 others I think (apologies I did not take notes and I finished the game a couple of days ago, just before the patch). The GBR town, probably should have been 2 on that island, but the spot was so tempting that I did not realize I would not be able to expand the urban districs to that town to turn it into a city in the future. Even just the extra treasure point would have saved 1 turn. I did not find early enough other great spots and also wanted to protect my settlement cap for the conquest.

On the elongated continent to the west (I guess to the East on the map, but I reached it from the West), I attacked Isabella as soon as I met her and tried to kill her as quickly as possible. Her cities were OK and had a few treasure resources that contributed to the fleets although they were very far away and could only unload once.

Abbasid makes tech easy and fast. I tried to get to high levels of culture and tech fast but it never felt as fast as I wanted and finished the Age with less than 650 science and 400 culture, too little I think for Modern. I tend to play with 4 cities and I think you really need to play with 6 to get to the right amounts of science and culture. But so far I have not been able to find the money to do it at the end of of Antiquity.

At the end, I managed to get 2 armies of 4 and 9 units, plus one fleet with 4 units. I think all of them will make it ot the next age. I may have been 1-2 units above the limit but I don't want to spend the money on a third Army Commander.

I think I may have been able to save 1 turn if I had thought of Manpanzee's amazing trick (what an incredible player) or if I had taken the religion belief that allows you one extra move for naval or embarked units or if I had planted one more city in the island chain.

I used religion very little, not because I did not want to but because I had no time. I chose Icons (2 relics for first time conversion of city state) then Interfaith Dialogue and Sanctum to save some money in temples, not great choices these last 2 I think as I almost did not produce missionaries.

Anyway very happy with the Exploration result, although there is a lot of trouble in Paradise for the next Age. Here is a list of regrets:
1. My science and culture are about 200 per turn less than what I wanted.
2. I only have 4 cities.
3. My production is poor, and this is a killer for Modern.
4. I have never played a military victory or a culture victory and only 1 economic game. This is a killer for my chances, as I have never juggled the multiple objectives in modern and do not have a feel for how long each takes except science. And I want the 12 legacies in Modern as I will learn a lot. Will wait to play after the patch drops.
5. I am not even sure of whether I should choose Buganda or Mexico.

Spoiler Screenshots :