Civ 7 GOTM02 - Completion of Age of Antiquity Spoiler Thread

[Eyswein]

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

A few questions to consider:
- What was your plan for achieving the most Legacy Points? 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?
- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
- 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? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
- What were key production/purchase focuses?
- Pantheon 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?
- Are Total Legacy Points the right measure of success for the Age of Antiquity?
- Did you enjoy this Age?

Reminder that for Civ7 GOTM02 we request you chose Ming for the Civilization entering the Age of Exploration and do not change the mementos!

 

[SiCK_Boy]

10 legacy points in 130 turns (3 scientific and cultural, 2 military and economic)

I wanted to try and expand through conquest to get a chance at Pax Imperatoria (probably need at least 3, maybe even 4 conquered settlements to make it). I was determined to go to war early, so as to "get it out of the way". I was confident science and culture would happen naturally, and economic is always a gamble and I always struggle with it (especially as I tend to go to war with my first neighbors, meaning it takes time to be able to establish good roads).

I actually wrote a bit of a journal, making notes and screenshots every 10 turns.

I settled my capital on the starting spot, with the intent of sticking to a 1-1 ratio between cities and towns (waiting for an even number of settlements before converting one to a city).

My research priorities were Writing then Money, and I went with Mysticism and Code of Law (followed by my civ's dogma tree) on the culture side.

I met Amina right away and rejected her salutations. She was doomed from the start.

By turn 20, I started denoucing Amina after I got an Archer from a goody hut. I took the Stone Circle pantheon, but didn't produce many altars in the end. I was friendly to Trung Trac, thinking we could help each other with our scientific inclinations. My initial exploration was north west, but seeing that Amina was settling toward my capital, I expended north east for my second settlement near cotton. I was tempted to launch a surprise war on Amina when she sent a settler alone next to my warrior and archer, but realized I would make the age progress too fast if I eliminated her.

By turn 30, she had settled Koloé and I started my war (hoping to capture Koloé, which was located pretty much where I initially wanted to go). That war took a little longer than I hoped for. I lost a warrior, but a train of Chu ko nu let me overwhelm her. Hostile independant powers to the north forced me to send troops to reinforce Liangzhou.

War was over by turn 40. I went in development mode, starting to ramp up my wonders production. I still intended to capture Aksoum once Amina had a second settlement and my city limit went up.

By turn 50, I had eliminated Wyesong, and my army returned toward Aksoum, ready to finish dealing with Amina. I was also on my way to become kind of Moche. War was launched within the next 10 turns, but to my surprise, Trung Trac started denoucing me. I really worried I would end up squeezed between two wars on both end of my empire, so I tried to repair the relationship with her (for now). I sent a settler east of Liangzhou and settled Jinyang close to Trung Trac's territory.

By turn 70, I had captured Aksoum and made peace again with Amina. She was probably crippled for the rest of the game by now. Wonders were starting to poor in: Great Stele, Hanging Gardens, Dur-Sharrukin. It would continue at a fast pace until the end of the age. Eventually, my army was posted to the east, but rather than lauch war against Trung Trac, I combined my forces with her and we eliminated Painted Rock to the south. She also seemed to have a lot of level 2 units, so I didn't have much military advantage in case of war.

Age reached 50 % by turn 80. I was comfortably ahead of everyone on points, with average science production and lagging a bit in culture output.

Himiko eventually went to war against Trung Trac. It was tempting to join, but again, I held back because of the city limit (that didn't deter Himiko and Auguste, who both went 1-2 cities above regularly during the whole age). August joined that war around turn 100 - but I kept to the sidelines and observed. I got a few extra units in position, and diplomacy was really starting to ramp up. Friendship with Himiko improved.

The crisis hit before turn 110. Barbarians at our door! I quickly dispatched a couple of camps, and used my diplomacy to send the farthest ones to attack Amina and Trung. Himiko made peace, getting an extra settlement out of her war, and my chance to capture Pataliputra during this double-war was gone. Still, that remained my next military objective.

I launched war around turn 120, and Himiko joined right away. The river around Pataliputra made it complex, but Trung was fighting a skirmish to the south with Himiko (she had sent a settler with an escort), and she also had barbarians next to her city. She eventually tried to retreat most of her units when it became clear the city was doomed - a bad strategy against ranged attackers. I caputured the city by turn 130, and displayed the codexes who had been stacking up in my warehouses. Koloé got pressured by barbarians when we hit 90 % and they spawned 3 archers, but my gold let me shore up my defenses one last time.

At turn 130, I was hoping to at least get to finish my trade route toward Auguste and maybe nail the economic legacy point (age was at 95 % I think), but I hit next turn and it was over. August took us to the limit when he reached 20 resources in his empire. I didn't even get the chance to convert Pataliputra to a city; I hope its revolting status won't be a problem during the age transition!

Looking at the other questions from the initial post:

What event, if any, changed your plans: not much. I was surprised at how quickly many AI befriended IP. Avoided naval units all age, something I don't often do, but it didn't feel needed. The barbarians didn't cause much trouble; I was stabilizing the situation when the age ended. I wonder how things would have gone if Trang had remained friendly; would probably have been opposed by Auguste instead.

Most of my gold went to improving my capital; I didn't give much thought to which settlement I would prioritize. I often pick the first city in the list, and max-build it. Maybe it would have been better if I'd built granaries in all my towns instead of making 3 bridges in Changan. My capital is now pretty full, so I hope I'll be able to switch it to either Aksoum or Pataliputra (I would prefer Aksoum, to let me expand westward across the sea, since Himiko is bound to go east), where there should be room for a few more wonders.

I didn't notice much impact from the leader bonus. That extra population is nice, letting you get resources online a bit quicker. But it didn't feel game breaking. And I only started dominating in science late in the age, when my buildings were online.

I had 6 settlements by the end (2 cities, 4 towns; was waiting for revolt to end to convert Pataliputra into my 3rd city).

I picked the republic governement (bonus to culture or wonders). I just love that +15 % on wonders, and culture was my weakness, so this let me shore it up a bit.

As to the final questions, I'm not sure what is the best measure of success in the age. The thing with the points is that you have to play broad while also trying to control the pace to maximize them. It's nice, but is that the optimal way to play the game, especially when you already know what you want to aim for in the modern age? Those points will only serve as tiebreaker anyway; why not focus on pure speed (and in that case, maybe eliminating other players is a better strategy - something I deliberately avoided here, for example)? Truth is, I don't know. Maybe there should not be any objective at all in Antiquity (but then, those points do tally put through all 3 ages anyway, so they do matter); or maybe objectives should be given based on unlocking civs for future ages?

Antiquity is always fun. This map was interesting; I didn't even explore the section to the south east past Jieshi. I'm curious to know what lands can be found there.

 

[MACKA0ili]

41 Legacy Points (7 cultural, 12 militaristic, 11 scientific, 21 economic), 111 turns

Edit: I misunderstood the legacy points being asked for. I actually had 12 (3 from every path)

- What was your plan for achieving the most Legacy Points? 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?

Went for culture/military focus where I planned to take out the closest civ to me before settling in to build wonders. Finding the natural wonder made me want to focus westward rather than eastward so I ended up forward settling Amina before she could settle it.

- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?

2 scouts, warrior, sawmill, settler, and then enough military to take out Amina.

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

Beelined masonry for monuments and mysticism for a pantheon, and then went for the masteries that let you steal techs and civics since I heard espionage is strong. Later on I focused on masteries for codices and civics that increase settlement limit

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

I always try to maximize specialists, so it didn't really affect how I played.

- How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?

Captured 2 settlements from Amina after forward settling her with my first town. Turned them into cities and then settled 6 other towns where I could get resources since I was too far away to rely on trade routes with other civs.

- What were key production/purchase focuses?

Early culture and production warehouses/buildings were my focuses

- Pantheon chosen and why?

Stone circles since fertility rites was taken and the extra production is nice

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

Oligarchy, mostly for food but the building bonus was good to use early and late game

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

Most of my influence was used on stealing tech and civics

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

Amina getting a second city up around the natural wonder was a bit annoying but I took it anyway. Also, the age started ending faster than I expected after she was gone so I had to rush out my last settlements to get the military legacy up all the way.

- Are Total Legacy Points the right measure of success for the Age of Antiquity?

It feels more like a score victory which were a type of scoring used for previous GOTMs. It might be interesting in future GOTMs to go for least number of turns in a specific victory type across all eras though.

- Did you enjoy this Age?

Yea, wonder spamming is always a good time

 

[GeoGeo]

9 points on Turn 132 - Completed Economic, then Science, plus 2 points from Military and 1 from Culture

The start seemed rather claustrophobic, so the initial plan was to settle in place, expand quickly, and find good candidates for a science-heavy capital going into Exploration with the Ming. I was hoping to push up against the usual growth limitations by piling up bonuses on top of Confucius. I missed out on Fertility Rites (went with God of the Sun as my pantheon), but invested heavily in Hanging Gardens.

As expected, science was not a problem. Culture was the bottleneck, which turned into a happiness bottleneck when I decided to go on a warpath against Amina. There was some very nice resource-heavy land in between us that I forward settled early, and I had an army of cho-ko-nus for dealing with IPs to the east. It was a clear overextension in retrospect, but she did give me her Natural Wonder settlement in the peace deal--couldn't resist. I didn't have much issue with the barb crisis, except for when an IP spawned out of nowhere and ate my commander in one turn.

I've taken to going wide with towns over the past several games, so it was tricky adapting to the Confucius + Han combo. Going into Exploration, I expect to keep my old capital since none of my other cities measure up in science and I want an early start. Next priorities are to get the naval game online fast, take Amina's one remaining city on the west coast, and build the Great Wall of Aksum around her old capital for fun. Hoping to keep the peace with Trung Trac now that she's expanded into the land east of me.

 

[patparker]

10 legacy points (3 culture, 3 military, 2 science, 2 economic) 129 turns


I wanted to get the economic golden age. Unfortunately , there was no one to trade with. I ended up 2 resources short
Initial build: scout, scout, warrior, saw pit, alter
Tech: went for masonry first then writing. Civic: Starting 2 then concentrated on Han specific
The leader and civ bonuses were not that useful . I did not build the wall at all
I settled 5 settlements, conquered 3, and annexed 1 city state (Wiryeseong). I ended up with 4 cities and 5 towns
I focused on production buildings so I could make wonders. 3 of my cities had wonders at the end.
I took the City Patron Goddess pantheon as it is clearly the best
I took classical republic for wonder rushing
I was only able to get one minor as my suzerain. Mostly I just boosted my culture with my influence and helped in The War.

Surprises:

Amina forward settled me very early. I hate her. I spent most of my early game influence to lower our relationship and declared formal war. I was able to take the city she forward settled me with and peace out on turn 53
Then I built up the army, got the Gate of All Nations, bought a Ballista and declared formal war again on turn 96
It took a while, but I took her last 2 cities and knocked her out. This was enough to trigger the crisis to start.
The rest of the game was just trying to manage my happiness as I was 3 cities over my cap at that point. I managed to hold on without any revolts.
The crisis was barbarians which helped level up my leader. He ended up with 6 promotions in the end.

But, no one would trade with me so I did not complete the economic path. Also, because I moved the military path so quickly, I was a few codices short of the science path as well. I settled a new town on the last turn to fully complete the military path and had enough wonders to complete the culture path. I built them all myself, Amina had nothing, the worthless cow.

This seems a decent way to score the Antiquity age. But, I defiantly would not have chosen the Ming next age unless I was forced to, There were better options available (the Inca looked especially good with all the mountains nearby). But, Ming it is...

Since I did not get the economic golden age, I will probably take the military golden age for the extra troops.

 

[Acken]

Playthrough:
T1: Decide to settle NW adjacent to the mountain. This will reduce the amount of water tiles in the capital and gets us closer to the sheep.
BO: Scout x2, Granary, Saw Mill, 3 settlers 2 bought 1 built
T21: We settle Huaiyang next to Zhangjiajie and Chengdu next to 3 cotton
T28: We settle Linzi next to 2 cotton next to Trung
T29: We get a Pantheon. We choose God of the sun since none other is particularly attractive
T38: We settle Handan in between Huaiyang and Changdu
T41: We switch Huaiyang to a city
T48: With Amina showing agressiveness we go to Wheel for chariots because we have many horses.
T49: Build Stele in Capital
T57: Build HG in Capital
T61: Declare on Amina
T68: Build Mundo Perido in Huaiyang
T72: Trung declares on us
T76: Gate of All Nations in Huaiyang (4/7)
T78: Aksum falls (with Matara a few turns ago) (9/12 military)
T85: Petra built in Linzi
T91: Pataliputra falls (11/12)
T94: Emile Bell built in Huaiyang that way we get the super good 50% city state diplo bonus (for future ages)
T97: Weiyang palace built in Capital (7/7)
T107: Not much happening for a while, just preparing for the transition. I have a merchant ready for completing the economic path. I have a settler ready for completing the military path. We also are at 11/12 codices trying to avoid finishing for now but we need to carefully plan for it. We have started to research Future tech. None of the AI are close to completing any of this so we should be able to control the pace well as long as we pay attention. Future tech is +10 age which translates to 5%.
T108: Finish Pyramid of the sun in Capital
T109: Finish Colosseum in Linzi
T112: All towns are switched to Growth. Nalanda is delayed for completion because of the codex in it.
T113: Finish Oracle in Aksum
T115: Finish Haamongaa Maui in Capital + Future tech 1
T119: Finish Angkor Wat in Linzi.
T120: We start on Future Civic
T126: We sadly loose Nalanda ((( as it gets built by Himiko. We get Future civic 1. As we are now at 98%, we need to trigger everything next two turns
T127: We get our last codex from a tech instead of Nalanda, bye bye Future tech 2 Trigger the merchant to finish Economic Path and capture a city from Trung for the military path.
Status at end (12 points):

 

[jshelr]

Settled in place. Build warrior, warrior. Research sailing. Headed west and soon found the new continent and a not-very-friendly Amina. Those camels looked pretty attractive

Oligarchy and Mysticism. No particular reason for oligarchy. You can probably build wonders at this difficulty level which may favor another government choice.

Met two friendly independents on turn 11 and hit some nice goody huts.

Purchased settler number one on turn 17 headed for the camels. Also found the hostile independent to the east. Pottery done, writing started. Amina arrived with a settler one turn late, although we didn’t get as far toward her capital as desired. Settled west of the small lake on the coast. Grabbed the iron asap. Going for the cotton and camels next. Befriended the independent Moche. Took stone circles.

Moche took our side on turn 29 (and we eventually became suzerain on turn 36.) The hostiles are still a problem out east.

City 3 straight east on the lake and on the river north of the hostiles. Turn 32. We are behind on revealing the map but looking to settle again in the east soon. This feature where you get two tiles when you settle is really helpful.

Met 3 new civs on turn 36. All three revealed their capital – first time I’ve seen that. Picked up a research agreement. Had to start spamming the cho-ko-nu units through turn 45. Got the camels, finally, on turn 47.

Turn 60 very annoying major blizzard set us back a bunch of turns.

Well, China puttered about for the remainder of the antiquity age, settling the allowed 5 settlements, all promoted to cities, building a few wonders and lots of buildings. The required economic activity was completed through 20+ trade routes and some science accomplishments as well. Heading into exploration, we picked the economic advisor and found we had 8 legacy points. So, we picked silk road and master caravaneer, boosted science with our codexes (10), and received one culteral attribute point.

Not sure if I'll continue but thanks for setting this up. It's helpful to see what others have done.

 

[lymond]

I think 10 legacy points on t145...I am posting a screen that I think shows it...wasn't sure if I need to advance the age or not. Haven't played that much

Spoiler End of Antiquity :

I just made Pax, but could not quite complete Science, and missed Cultural by 2 turns on some Wonder.


I think I settled in place. Plan to settle first town just to the NW to grab resources, especially those camels, which I think may be the most important in the game. However, Amina stepped a settler right out of the fog right as I moved my settler toward the spot. I could have settled but it would not have been an ideal location so I figured I would let her just grab it and take it later. (ugh..that city proved to be a death trap to take) So I moved my settler and grabbed the Natural Wonder though I really don't think that was optimal at all...I was just thinking "shinies"!

Amina was a pain to take out and I had to back off a couple of times...she was spamming archers and must have some abilities that make her units tough cause she was doing a lot of damage. Eventually, I wore her out.

The Confused ability was great in new cities, and the science and research went well. However, I bogged myself down a lot with Amina early on.

I'll try the Exploration Age, although I have little experience with it of yet.

 

[MrRadar]

11 LPs, t107
The save of an earlier version played on v1.1.0

Spoiler :

- What was your plan for achieving the most Legacy Points? 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?
Paying more attention to the requirements in the first place Got Economic done earliest, with the help of merchants, then timed completion of the last wonder and codex to be on the same turn, which brought the game almost to an end, then had to panic settle on the same turn to get the 2nd out of the 3 military point, which then indeed ended the Antiquity on the same turn.

- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
I didn't take notes and it is amazing how quickly things of the past just become a blur. But iirc, first I got myself 3 scouts (1 purchased for the memento gold), then built some infantry. I see why they nerfed scouting memento, even with +2 sight it quickly became absurd, especially when coupled with the respective policy. I got a heap of goody huts, which helped a lot settler purchasing, and scouted out the entire landmass and got sight even on some Distant Lands

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
Went for commander and merchant giving ones first, then I forget already.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Double expansion on a new settlement is very nice.

- How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
5 settled, 2 captured. Capital in place, then forward settled Amina right in her face and with her settler in the environs:

Spoiler :

Awww, Amina, awww... tsk, tsk

At the end I had 3 cities and 4 towns, but the 4th one was settled on the last turn only.

- What were key production/purchase focuses?
First scouts, a warrior, then a settler irrc, then banged out a small army with Despotism celebration, then more settlers and production buildings.

- Pantheon chosen and why?
Goddess of the harvest, as there were respective resources nearby.

- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
Despotism, first celebration bonus was for troops building, then science boost every time afterwards.

- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
Neutral greeting with Amina, as there was no point talking with a future enemy. Positive greetings with farther civs. Only vassalized one cultural IP, and dispersed quite a few, to free up settling space and get yield injections. Endevours with others. Only did one tech stealing this time, got just yield boost.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I was kinda surprised how easy Amina was to take out. She did not have much of anything. Hostile IPs around her territorry caused me more distraction and annoyance.

Spoiler :

Enemy at the gates, and she plans to defend with Stele

Also, no competition with wonder building this time. Did not lose a single wonder that I'd started. I realized just now, this was a level of difficulty less than previous GOTM, probably that's why
Btw, ran into a ghost Carthage, probably due to version mismatch:

Spoiler :

It's just the city banner, nothing to disperse.

The Crisis was about barbarians, and when my last settler reached the planned settling spot, an IP spawned nearby, blocking the settling. I only had one warrior nearby, and he wasn't enough to take it out, by the time I've brought a second one, more hostile units spawned and my wonders and codexes brought forward the end of the age in one leap. I had to back down a tile and settle there. A royal screw up:

Spoiler :

- Are Total Legacy Points the right measure of success for the Age of Antiquity?
It would be interesting to compare how scoring does if its based on your idea of the final score, but done for every age separately. That is number of turns minus legacy points for that age alone would give the score for the age, then the final score would be the sum of all three, aiming for the lowest final sum. Trying to get all those LPs in a fewer number of turns does require more minmaxing imo.

- Did you enjoy this Age?
Yes, it was pretty relaxed building, with a few annoyances from IPs nevertheless
Final look at the empire:

Spoiler :

 

[kcd_swede]

I ended up with 12 codex, so a bit of an overshoot. I did try to stay within settlement limits. 9 legacy points from 8 settlements (3 cities) at end which was around t116.

 

[kcd_swede]

I should just like to say that with rivers and even a volcano in my cities, it got VERY tiresome fixing damage from disasters nearly every turn. It seems that the way to create a flood is to move a unit onto the river. Park a unit next to a volcano has a similar effect. Annoying. I lost maybe one or 2 units to war while being attacked by 3 opponents at once. I lost like a half dozen to catastrophes.

 

[Bleidraner]

12 Legacy Points, 126 turns


- What was your plan for achieving the most Legacy Points? 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?

Playing a hard science game was the plan with a secondary focus on culture. Forward settled Amina. Ended up with a more warry game than I wanted as I read the requirements late and had to go for the Wonders and Military points pretty late in the game. Got distracted eliminating some independent powers to the East when I should have been battling Amina, which eventually I did. Anyway, this can be done faster.

- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?

2 scouts, granary, settler, settler, saw mill, military.

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

Animal Husbandry, Pottery, Writing techs and Discipline civic for the free commander, after that sttlement limit civics.

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

It did not. At the beginning yes as I was going for science but then I realized we needed to get all the legacies and that went out of the window.

- How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?

2 settlements from Amina (capital and then capital again in the coast) and a settlement from Augustus, he settled a spot that I liked. I played most of the game with one city and then turned Amina's capital into my second city. I should have created that city and another one earlier for a total of three, but I kind of forgot.

- What were key production/purchase focuses?

Buildings, science mostly, one settler early on and merchants in the late game.

- Pantheon chosen and why?

God of the sun as fertility rites was taken. Should have chosen something else, like stone circles.

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

Oligarchy, exclusively for the food .

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

Befriended one independent, Moche (culture). Rest was reactive. Did not maximize diplomacy.

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


No surprises. I liked the Natural Wonder and settled it, very powerful.

- Are Total Legacy Points the right measure of success for the Age of Antiquity?

Not sure, maybe total turns of three eras with a certain victory condition. Probably ends up being the same thing, as the extra legacies will make the other eras faster. But I think that can be a strategy decision by the player to finish faster and not the objective in itself.

- Did you enjoy this Age?

I did, I had just won my first Deity game and this was a relief, had never played Viceroy. I am going to continue this game, see what happens. In general, I am really enjoying Civ 7, except for the UI of course. Thank you for posting the game, this was fun.

Spoiler Some screeshots :

 

[Lord Yanaek]

12 Legacy Points | 137 Turns

• What was your plan for achieving the most Legacy Points? 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?
  I wasn't worried at all at Viceroy with a strong leader like Confucius so my plan was to develop my empire, get all 4 golden ages if possible, and establish a strong empire to start the exploration age. Science would take care of itself as i researched masteries (there's really nothing that can stop you from getting that Legacy other than time, but i didn't expect the AI to push many age progress early at that difficulty). I wasn't too worried about culture either as i expected the AI to be far less competitive with wonders than i'm used to at Immortal (or my first Deity game i played right before this one).
  So really only Military and Economic required some plan and that plan was simple : do some conquest There's no way i could get 12 points with my own settlements, i figured would have to take 2-3 AI settlements to reach that Legacy. Meeting 2 agressive AIs : Amina at T5 (who forward settled next to my capital on T21) and Trung Trac at T17 only further convinced me to train enough Chu-Ko-Nu (a lucky Archer from a goody hut at T19 also helped me early but unforunately i couldn't turn it into a T2 Chu-Ko-Nu) .
  Economic should hopefully come naturally as my empire grew, in case of emergency i could send a few traders out. The biggest bottleneck would be resource slots but thankfully there was no shortage of Camels on this map.
• What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
  Well, that's the sort of details i never write down. 3 scouts, that i know as it's my usual opener, then a Granary IIRC and then probably some settlers to claim some land and a few Chu-Ko-Nu.
  I also had the Hanging Gardens and Gate of all Nations as high priority wonders so i probably built them early as i unlocked them.
• Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
  For Technology, i usually open with Animal Husbandry → Pottery → Irrigation (Hanging Garden) → Writing/Masonry → the other one → Currency and that's probably what i did here. Currency have to come early enough for specialists otherwise the cities will grow too much and it will be hard to get a good amount.
  For Civics i think i went Discipline → Mysticism → Discipline 2 (Gate) → Mysticism 2 (+2 food) → Zhi (for settlement limit) → Tactics → Organized Military (more settlement limit) → rest of my civ tree
• How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
  Confucius is a very strong leader with faster growth (more specialists) and +2 science per specialists. He gets a ton of science without even trying which makes everything else far easier.
  As for the Han uniques, the free pop on new towns is comfortable to get a key resource faster (and get to 5 pop for settlers a few turns early) but i didn't even build the great wall. I always had other priorities and no good location to build a "proper" great wall. Their Tianxia traditino however is quite good and goes really well with Confucius, for even more science from specialists.
• How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
  I placed 4 settlements early, captured 2 AI towns and, at the last turn of the age, absorbed a CS and settled 2 more towns to reach the 12 points for the Military GA without suffering from over-cap during the game.
  My first town was actually settled in the mountains to the north of the capital, in order to get my hand on all that sweet sweet cotton.
  I turned 3 of my town into cities, for a total of 4 cities which was probably a mistake as 3 is a much better number than 4 for specialists, and i never actually bothered to go above 4.
• What were key production/purchase focuses?
  As mentionned above, Hanging Gardens and Gate of all Nations. Those 2 are my priorities when it comes to wonders in the antiquity. The bonus growth from HG, combined with a free Expansionist Attribute point (which i think is the most important tree) makes it a very appealing wonder, and the 4 points of free war support (+2 for me, -2 for a possible opponent) makes the Gate a no brainer.
• Pantheon chosen and why?
  God of the Sun because i didn't bother to try and rush Mysticism for Fertility Rites or the +2 Influence (which are always taken on Immortal/Deity even if i rush Mysticism) so at least i get something from the Altars when/if i finally decide to build them. Pantheon is mostly an afterthought for me in Civ7.
• What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
  Oligarchy for +20% food. What else. Oh, i also used the 30% production for buildings occasionally.
• How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
  Befriending some CS, supporting Himiko's Endeavours and offering her my own Endeavours (since she always supports). I managed to turn her into BFF despite her annoying agenda.
• Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
  When Trung Trac backward settled Risila almost at the exact spot i was planning to place a town on T56 after i followed her settler with my army for about half a dozen turns I immediately declared war on her (she was already hostile) and captured the new town before she could do anything stupid with it. It was a great support town for a good part of the age.
• Are Total Legacy Points the right measure of success for the Age of Antiquity?
  I'm not sure there's one "right" measure of success for a specific age (not the entire game) anymore but it sure aligns with my way of playing the game more than something like "fewest turns to finish the age". It's actually quite of a puzzle to get all the milestones to trigger at the exact same turn to score everything without finishing the age yourself too early. In this game it turned out perfectly. i could have finished a few turns earlier if i didn't wait to absorb Wiryesong and instead settled another town myself but it was nicely located in the middle of my lands so i had to wait for the 10 turns and pray no AI would get some age progress before (althought i had a settler ready as "plan b")
• Did you enjoy this Age?
  Yes, i always liked the Antiquity in Civilization more than the more modern ages and that didn't really change in Civ7. Even thought the later ages are more pleasant to play now than they used to be in previous titles, Antiquity is probably still the best one.

Spoiler Screenshots at the end of the age :

Last turn of the age after absorbing Wiryesong and settling 2 more fishing town to the east. I'm seriouslt overcap but it will all be good in the next age.

 

[enKage]

Turn 118, all legacies completed

I settled in place. Early exploration showed that our start is very locked by independents, 2 of them frindly, the rest hostile, so pretty challanging for Viceroy, espacially with capital with limited land tiles.
Anyway, I wanted to get all legacies.
General plan was to have 4+ cities to better utilise growth and had better shot for exploration age. It turned out gold was very limited to me and ended up with 3 only, with total 9 settlements.

I used momento gold to buy granary to instantly add 1 pop to be able to build settlers. 1st settler went west to forward settle Amina and unfortunately anger cultural independents. Finding so many cottons eastnorth meant the second expansion had to go there, so I banked influence in order not to anger scientific independents and settled between mountains (pretty good forever farming town). 3rd expansion went directly east between 2 independents, of course militaristic must die.

Forward settling Amina ended up with declaration, and because I was already clearing barbs nearby and finishing Gate, the result was obvious. I easily took Aksumite capital and 2nd city, I left her 1 city because I did not want to kill her yet because of era progress. Her 2nd city was no freshwater, so razed. Around reaching 6 settlement cap I settled a border with Pataliputra and declared soon after. They expanded much more succesfully, so I took capital and nearest big settlement, while my ally Himiko took another one.

From this moment a plan was to complete legacies with military legacy 3rd achieved by taking Aksimte last city while eliminating Amina from the game as a bonus. I had most problems with completing codexes, but as soon as I got the missing one, I asked Amina to leave permamently.

I had pretty annoying happiness problems in cities because of too many buildings in 2 of them and I did not have a time to build happiness buildings.

Regarding wonders I got:
Capital: Gate, Hanging Gardens, Pyramid of the sun, Weiyang Palace, Ha'amonga'a Maui (limited land tiles = mork work boats)
Liangzhou - Petra, Oracle even thoug Oracle is extremely weak, but had no other options at the moment.
I did not even reach Angkor Wat, which sounds like must have for Confucius
I also conquered Great Stele from final Aksumite city, so maybe some wonder spamming there next age.

My main problem is only one commander, but at least highly developed

Great Wall is prety useless and bugged, so very limited use in one town with great volcano yields

I like legacies as measurement for succes, but still insist on counting turns as well, to stop artificial expanding the era to collect more rosources for next age.
At least AIs got very few legacies partially thanks to my chariots, so they will be less annoying next age

 

[Manpanzee]

Turn 118, all legacies completed (jinx)

Interesting cramped start. I settled in place and built: Scout 3x, (buy Saw Pit), Settler, (buy Settler), military 4x, (buy Brickyard). I rushed a Monument via IP hammers, bought an Altar at some point, and otherwise didn't get another building in my capital until I'd put out 3 more Settlers and a bunch more military.

I got a bit lucky and forward settled Amina probably just a turn or two before she would have planted a Settler in the vicinity. I had friendly-greeting'ed her and gotten some endeavors going prior, so was able to avoid going hostile with her any earlier than I wanted to.

Spending all my influence on Amina meant I failed to start befriending the nearby neutral IPs before my new settlements turned them hostile. I was then forced to go on an IP-clearing warpath. I recognized fairly early that I wasn't going to get a Cultural CS and was likely to be hurting for culture in general. Did what I could to compensate, but culture was a bottleneck for sure.

Eventually I decided to war Amina. While I was doing this, Trung Trac surprise war'ed me. I made peace with Amina as soon as I could after taking her capital, then went after Trung. Took Trung's capital shortly after the crisis fired, capping the military path. I'm not sure exactly how I'd played it if I'd seen the happiness crisis starting.

I finished the age with three cities and six towns. Got the following wonders, in order: Hanging Gardens, Ha'amonga, Colosseum, Weiyang Palace, Pyramid of the Sun, Nalanda, Oracle, and Colossus. I beelined Ha'amonga because of my culture issues and built it way earlier than I ever have before. Oracle was built just to secure a seventh wonder, since I wasn't sure I had the culture to get to Colossus in time. In the end, Colossus came down one turn before the age finished.

I got almost everything I wanted this age, with Emile Bell as the only wonder I was sad to not fit in. Also ended up a bit broke, not carrying nearly as much gold as I would have liked out of the age, but you can't always have it all. Should be set up great for the next one otherwise.

I'll also echo the multiple commenters above that I don't love being incentivized to drag out the end of the age. Personally I'm just choosing to be suboptimal and letting the age end at a natural time. Will see how much that matters in the end.

 

[shoshonte]

Turn 136, 7 legacy path points (3 cultural, 2 scientific, 1 military, 1 economic)

Only my second time playing through Antiquity and I did not take copious notes this time. Probably not worth writing it up as everyone has seemed to perform much better than me.

I will say that it was also my plan to take out Amina, and I did take one city before being distracted by clearing the hostile IPs near me, after which Amina was able to build up her military and take the city back. Ended up with 2 cities and 4 towns and with the most legacy points although Augustus was able to complete the military legacy path so I imagine he will be challenging for me in the future eras.

Will need to read through the writeups here to see how to improve, feels challenging for me to balance everything properly.

Cheers,

 

[shoshonte]

(it was a slight improvement over my first attempt on a harder difficulty since the first time I got 7 with no golden ages in any categories (cultural = 2, economic = 2, military = 2, science = 1) so was at least happy to get a golden age in one of the legacy paths.

 

[pkf]

T124, all legacies completed

Game "plan": Prioritize growth/food much higher than usual. Try to stack growth rate ofc, but also get more food buildings than usual and even try Oligarchy. Also try not to built as many wonders to preserve tiles.
Wonders: After HG I got Petra, Weiyang, Angkor, Nalanda, Colosseum, Gate of All Nations, Pyramid of the Sun.

T1: Decided to move NW to get the sheep asap.
T3: Got sheep and started AH.
T4: Narrative Event +100g -50% cult 3 turns. Hut: +15 Prod.
T8: 75g Hut. Didn't choose culture here.
T10: Bought Saw Pit and Settler. Start building another Settler.
T17: Session 2. Loaded 3 times forgot to turn off mods twice. Bummerturn: Missed Fertility Rites (picked God King), realized I had wasted 5 turns with first Settler (bad scouting).
Built Brickyard after getting the Gold Mine, then Altar and Library. Misplaced Ageless building for HG. Went for Oligarchy first time in a long while to try and stack some food.
T18/19: Settled two towns (one next to 3 cottons; the other to the E, should have been 2 more tiles E perhaps).
T20: Bought unique Archer in desert town to defend from CS. Tried to block Amina from settling but she eventually took spot NW of capital. My 3rd Settler will settle close to Pataliputra instead.
T25: A scout dies to flood while running from CS warrior in the far north.
T31: Cleared the cultural CS to the NW (Waited a few turns for Army Commander to arrive). 1st town at 7 switches to Food town immediately.
T33: 4/5 settlement limit. After settler finishes, I will start HG.

T38: Settler gets blocked by CS, killed 2 more CS (science and military).
T44: HG done.
T63: Finish Petra in 2nd city. kill another CS. Thwarted by Trung Trac to kill another by one turn (had research agreement with her still so I didn't wanna declare). Beelined Engineering for Blacksmith, Entertainment for settlement limit.
T64: Trung Trac starts settling SE of Luoyang. My 2nd city has amazing production even though I missed some desert hills to the SE. The volcano tiles make up for it, though.

T70ish: Declared on Amina. Immediately took the town NE of my capital and kept it. Trung Trac declared on me as well. The Han archers helped immensely holding both fronts including their CS allies.
T77: Going for Mathematics and the last point of settlement limit. I delayed the final Han civics because I had too much science anyways.

T94 Finally starting Weiyang palace and Pyramid of the sun (was a maybe but fits well in 2nd city).
T101 Had a bit of scare there because of someone else competing for Weiyang. I kept stalling taking Amina's capital. Settled another town to the north so I was always at the cap.
Pengcheng had become my 3rd city. Unfortunately, I didn't scout the natural wonder by 1 tile and Amina settled there right after I did. She also took some of the insane river tiles.
After Mathematics I got Academies quickly (maybe, considering the GOTM goals, a bit too quickly). Other than that I was running out of things to build and to use Influence on.
I started building Great Walls to ramp up my culture - not sure that was the greatest idea. Apparently, you lose one pop when you do so. Seems to be just a nominal effect though, yields remained unchanged (which is a great plus for unique improvements), as does - confusingly - the growth rate, i.e. the required food for next citizen.

T120 Age 92%. Stalling age progress. I don't want Emile Bell or Monks Mound necessarily and I'm not growing in cities anymore (towns are). Colossus was built by Augustus, so I finished Nalanda and only kept Angkor Wat 1 turn away.
Future Tech is gonna end the age in 4-5 turns. Trying to cap both enemy capitals at the latest possible moment.
T122: I got a scientific attribute point and invested it right away Future tech ends the game one turn sooner now.
T124: Future tech finishes. I miss taking Trung Tracs capital by one turn (since she got out another elephant on her last fortified district, maybe two...).
I finally took Amina's capital and peaced to get the town next to the natural wonder as well. I started razing the CS E of me (Painted Rock). I placed another town (Handan) to fill a gap between my towns and get more camels. I started two more trade routes (for the legacy).
Angkor Wat finished. Cities built their maximum of Great Walls. Not sure if the +2 culture will make a difference next age. I managed to hardbuild another Army Commander for a total of 3 and a total of 18 units (so all transition). Sadly, most of them won't be UUs anymore since I realized too late Ming's UU are infantry..

Overall I enjoyed the run, especially the Khmer. I tried to build fewer wonders this time. I think it was not a horrible choice, considering the capital spawn didn't have that many (easily) buildable tiles anyways. Perhaps I should have also built Emile Bell. Still much happier with my building placement/selection than in GOTM01.
My scouting was quite bad, but the most serious (compounding) error was my settler walkabout early on. It did take away from the advantage of buying Settler T10, particularly since the trade-off was culture and I missed Fertility Rites for doing that.

Edit: Forgot to upload save.

 

[Justus II]

10 Legacy Points, Turn 130

- What was your plan for achieving the most Legacy Points? 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?
Based on my first few games, I have generally been able to max the legacies for the first two ages, except Wonders in Antiquity (I usually aim for 2-4 to get 1-2 points). I plan to focus on early expansion, get 4-5 solid city sites and some supporting towns that will eventually be my factory cities in the Modern age, and then expand for resource-rich towns in Exploration, picking10 up the science and culture paths along the way. I also will focus on some city-states that may be incorporated later, maybe one early war but generally peaceful. The last age military is difficult as AI doesn’t seem to prioritize getting an ideology, my focus in the last age will be to max science and production to get the factories up and running, and get as many culture and science legacy points as I can while waiting for the econ points to build up.

- What were your initial 5-10 builds in the capital and/or other early cities?
Capital was 2 scouts (standard) then Monument, Library. Second city Linzi wasn’t upgraded until turn 65, started with an Altar, eventually got Blacksmith and Library.

- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
Tech was Animal Husb>Masonry, then up to Writing. Ended up prioritizing military techs due to the wars, then picking up some masteries for codices. Culture was Mysticism for pantheon, then Discipline for the Commander, then started on the Han civics. Got all the Han civics, and came back to pick up civics for Settlement Limit.

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Planned to use the science focus to get thru tech tree quickly, get Weiyang for Influence for City-states (spoiler, I got beat). The extra pop was nice for grabbing early resources. Not sure about the Great Wall, I have not been big on unique improvements so far, ended up only building a couple stand-alone tiles of wall for some culture. Terrain didn't really support a long wall, lots of rivers and mountains.

- How many cities/towns did you settle and/or capture? Where did you settle your first few towns? What was your mix of towns vs cities?
I founded 5 (Capital, Linzi to the NW, two more north of Linzi on either side of the Natural Wonder, and one NE near the cotton during the war w/Trang), I incorporated Wiryeseong. I captured Adus and Aksum from Amina, and got two small coastal towns in the two peace deals from her as well, for a total of 10.

Only 2 cities - Capital and Linzi, had to use most of my gold to buy or upgrade units due to the wars and could never save up enough to upgrade a 3rd city.

- What were key production/purchase focuses?
Bought Altars in several settlements, most money went to units to defend against the wars. Was beaten to Weiyang palace, did pick up Colosseum in the last few turns to get the first Culture tier. I did build 3 Shi Dafu, got a couple codices and a free promotion for my first commander.

- Pantheon chosen and why?
Ended up with God of the Sun, City Patron was taken and Sun is a good all-around value on Altars.

- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
Despotism, used only Science boosts, at least in Antiquity I rarely have multiple cities building units at the same time.

- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
Met Amina on turn 4! Friendly greeting, revealed both capitals. Turn 21 Trung Trac, Maurya. Saved up to Befriend Moche (Culture), it will eventually connect my first two city sites.
I got a quest to do 4 endeavors, got three but by Turn 66 everyone was denouncing me, luckily attempting a Reconcile (that was blocked!) still counted as the 4th.

Turn 71 Augustus declared (Surprise war so I got a bonus, but he was denouncing me so I wasn’t really surprised). I had both armies in the north, was preparing to fight Carthage (IP) which he was befriending, so not unexpected. I was able to complete Gate of Nations during the war, which helped. Lots of my later influence was used for supporting myself in wars. Turn 78 Trung Trac DOW’d, luckily she was further away so I had some time to react.

Around turn 90 got a ‘white peace’ with Augustus, so I could shift SE and focus on Trang, Rome didn’t have any cities worth taking, while Trang’s capital was coastal and had some good resources. Turn 97 Amina DOW’d again, with units moving toward multiple cities. I got a white peace with Trang and shifted back south. Paliputra was surronded by rivers, which had bogged me down, and Amina’s capital was in a great position and had Petra and several resources, so I wanted to get that to end the era.

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Turn 38 Amina denounced me, Linzi was a bit of a forward settle but we started close to one another anyway. My Army was further north fighting a hostile IP, but I had a Cho-Ko-Nu and could buy another unit to hold them off until they returned. Ended up in near-constant warfare, all 4 AI were denouncing me (Rome I understood, not sure why Himiko and Trang were angry with me). Was eventually able to reconcile with Himiko. Then the crisis was the barbarian uprising, luckily I had just captured Aksum so I was able to shift my armies out but still had to buy some garrison units to hold off the initial wave.

Also had some frustrations with Wonders, Augustus beat me to the two Wonders I had planned on early (Terracotta and Weiyang), but I did get Gate of Nations, and then Colosseum at the end.

- Are Total Legacy Points the right measure of success for the Age of Antiquity?
It is definitely how Civ 7 is set up to measure progress, it ensures you have an incentive to work along all 4 tracks at least to some extent.

- Did you enjoy this Age?
It was frustrating early, definitely took me out of my original plan, but the combat was challenging, and the crisis policies ended up putting me into negative income for a few turns, but I was eventually able to max out three legacy tiers, which was satisfying from a difficult start.

 

[Sullla]

I thought it would be fun to try a comparative game of Civ7 and gave this one a try. Some of you might know me as the person who runs the AI Survivor games for Civ4; I also took part in a bunch of succession games and GOTMs for Civ3 and Civ4 back in the day. I'm tying up a full game report for my website with the first two parts focusing on the Ancient age done thus far (see link below); for the quick and dirty summary, I had 10 legacy points for the Ancient era:

Civ7 GOTM2