Civ 7 GOTM03 - Completion of Age of Exploration Spoiler Thread

[Knowtalent]

At the top of your post please post:
Number of Age of Exploration turns

- 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 achieving the fastest run? 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?
- Are turns the right measure of success for the Age of Exploration?
- Did you enjoy this Age?

Reminder that for Civ7 GOTM03 do not change the mementos! Goal in Modern Age is science victory!

 

[enKage]

Turn 69

All legacies completed.

I have chosen Shawnee, not for any science bonuses, but for their traditions, that may be useful in modern era. With so many cities on navigable ivers it is pretty nice choice.

In the east I settled only islands for a total of 3 colonial goods but claiming the whole natural wonder. I did not uncover that nice river before Hatshepsut settled.

In the west one settlement on island, and then settled basically entire coast of a continent.

I took diplo legacies, I used discounts on befriending combined with Shawnee tradition to get as much city states as possible, also because my religion was from converting city states (I usually take conversion of capitals, but with 2 leadrs killed in antique it was not a good choice). I devloped religion quickly for culture from foreign cities and went straight for reformation for policy cards. After religious tree I went haevily for Shawnee tree.

My science is not so great, but at least massive culture
For sure I will struggle with science initially in modern, but the plan is finding that single one science independents and farm free techs, then push for projects using +2 hammers on plains desert, tundra.

AI is very very dissapointing. All leaders finished with massive settlement cap of.... 9.

 

[Lord Yanaek]

Exploration 80 turns

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

  
  
  GL Golden Age for early science and then attribute points. Strangely the economic 2-pts option was for stronger walls rather than the usual gold per trade-route and i didn't feel like i needed stronger walls. I moved the capital to save 200 golds however meager that was in that age. The diplo attribute went into +50% to befriend independents as i already had a diplo point from the Antiquity and this is pretty strong, especially to be able to get the independent promoted as CS before the AIs can wipe them out.
• What was your plan for achieving the fastest run? 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?
  Much like in Antiquity, my plan was simply to focus on science to the exclusion of anything else and push into Future Techs in order to push the age forward. I didn't really deviate from the plan even as i found some nice treasure fleet islands.
  I achieved Enlightenment at T30 and Toshakana at T44 (despite never producing a single missionary, but i had the conversion with merchant belief). At T50 i got my first Future Tech but the cost increases really fast so i still had to play 30 more turns to finish the age, despite not having much to do during those turns except research FT 3 more times for a total of 4, and finally reach Future Civics.
• Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
  Cartography first for more science, then Astronomy and Feudalism to get under the settlement limit then Machinery. After those early techs in beelined Education for more science and Urban Planning for more specialists.
• How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
  I wanted to play as the Abassyds as i think they are the strongest science civ in the exploration and pairing them with the strongest antiquity science civ was, on paper, a great idea to get a ton of science and run through the age. I did indeed get a ton of science (i'm sure better players would get even more but i was around a thousand science when i got my first FT at turn 50) but science alone didn't allow me to "run through the age". Culture helped me as Toshakana is by far the easiest legacy path in the exploration age but ignoring Distant Lands, while it didn't stop me from reaching my objectives, stopped me from being able to get to the end of the age as quickly as i thought. Maybe on Deity with the AI scoring more points pushing into FT would be a viable option, but ignoring 2 legacy paths on immortal just leads to the age lasting longer than i expected.
• 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?
  I just added a few fishing/farming towns in an attempt to get more specialists.
• What were key production/purchase focuses?
  The Madrasa unique quarter and science buildings. Really my strategy was extremely straighforward.
• Religious bonuses chosen and why?
  Relics from converion of the capital. Conversion with merchants. I got Toshakana GA without ever producing a single missionary.
• What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
  Food.
• How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
  Some CS friendship and Endeavors.
• Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
  The cost of FT. In previous games i would only research FT/FC once and it would trigger the end of the age so i had no idea how fast the cost would increase.
• Are turns the right measure of success for the Age of Exploration?
  Same answer as the previous age : I'm not sure there's one "right" measure of success for a specific age (nor the entire game). I'm not a fan of speed runs as i find i don't really have time to actually play the age but it creates a different goal (or does it?) so maybe alterning between score and turns would be the way to go.
• Did you enjoy this Age?
  Yes even thought i really played roughly the first half of the age and waited for the age progress to reach 100% for the second half.

Spoiler End of the age :

 

[SiCK_Boy]

97 turns
Didn't write down how many legacy points, but I know I maxed science and culture, and probably got 1 or 2 points each on military and economic.

I went with Ming Empire. My legacy bonuses were: +2 settlement limits, 1 military point (+1 war support), culture and happiness +1 on wonders, 1 culture point (+1 culture per age on palace and city halls), great library golden age (keep adjacency bonus on academies), caravan master (+10 gold), 1 economic point (+2 gold per mastery), and 1 science point (+1 science per ressource assigned).

My plan was to quickly war with Amina and try to finally eliminate her (she started with 1 city), but although I was able to take her capital eventually, she had time to settle in the distant land and I didn't want risking the ocean in the dark going after her.

I also focused my attention mainly on the main continent. I added two more settlements in good spots as there was plenty of space after Antiquity.

My diplomacy points went toward city states, and I grabbed a couple right away.

Everything was peaceful, my cities were well developed, but then I realized the weakness of my strategy to ignore the distant lands: progress for the age was incredibly slow, and I didn't meet any other leaders until around turn 50 or more, when José showed up near my coast.

I delayed getting a religion because I wanted to maximize tradition policies for Ming's bonus. But that again didn't help me: by the time I founded sickounism, all that was left was the relics for converting opposing settlements producing treasure fleet. That's when I decided to start expanding myself across the sea; had a single city producing a single treasure for most of the age.

Amina was angry at me all age long, but never acted on it. I eventually decided to take a second shot at eliminating her toward the end, but only managed to grab a single city, and I didn't even think to offer peace before end of the age caught up to me, helped by a total of 3 future tech and 1 future dogma.

I'm now going to pick Russia: it's the only scientific civ available. I'll completely ignore culture (in a normal game, I would probably buy an early explorer to at least delay the AI).

 

[ABigCivFan]

I am at turn 49 in this age, seemed running into a bug with Medieval Bridge, it is giving tons of gold (54 gold each), the more bridge I built, the more gold each generated. Also attached my policies, it might have something to do with the gold adjacency bonus plus city state bonus that is bugged. See screenshot. It is kinda game breaking. Also attached save.

 

[vitorbaixinho]

76 turns. 10 legacy points​

Spoiler Legacies :

- What Legacy bonuses did you choose and why? What other startup things did you do at the beginning of the Age of Exploration?​

I chose Great Library Golden Age, Wondrous Heritage because I had a lot of wonders, Fealty for the exploration bonus, and Master Caravaner just because. The rest were attributes.

Spoiler Legacies :

- What was your plan for achieving the fastest run? What were the major steps you planned to take? What events, if any, changed the plan in execution, and what new plan did you adopt? Any interesting decision points?​

First, I denounced Amina to take Waset as soon as possible. She was difficult in the previous era, with many swordsmen, so I wanted to capture her capital as soon as possible.
The next target would be Lafayette.
I focused on placing specialists, adopting a religion that generated relics from converted cities in distant lands, and quickly colonizing distant lands.
Basically, I played for legacy points.

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

Technology: Cartography → Astronomy → Feudalism → Guilds → Education → Theology
Civics: Piety → Mawla → Round City → Al Jabr

- How did the leader bonus and civilization's unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?​

Discovering a natural wonder in distant lands allowed me to purchase units just in time, as both Amina and Lafayette had troops stationed near my unprotected cities.
Generating gold through specialists was also a great advantage.

- 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?​

I settled 4 more towns in distant lands.
I conquered 3 towns, converting two of them into cities, ending up with 4 cities in total.
I also recaptured Kutai Martadipura from Amina.

- What were key production/purchase focuses?​

Settler → Scout (bought) → Scout (bought) → Stonecutter (for the altar, paired with granary) → Scout (bought) → Fishing Quay (bought) → Cog (bought)

- Religious bonuses chosen and why?​

I selected +4 science per foreign settlement following my religion, relics from distant lands settlements, and maybe the one that grants missionaries an extra charge.
I ended up with more relics than I actually needed.

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

I chose Plutocracy, but it wasn’t a good decision. I should have picked the one that grants more food, allowing me to get specialists faster.

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

I befriended city-states.

- Any surprises, frustrations, or exciting moments? How did you deal with them?​

Yes. Right after capturing Amina’s capital, Lafayette had his troops stationed right in the middle of my cities. Luckily, my commanders were already on their way.

Spoiler surprise mf :

I think I should have focused more on food and built towns earlier next to my capital.
I probably invested too much in missionaries, especially at the end, due to revolts.
The cities I founded in distant lands didn’t allow me to complete the economic path. I think I was just one level short of achieving it, even with three towns, each having two distant land resources.

- Are turns the right measure of success for the Age of Exploration?​

I still think legacy points should have been taken into account. It would make the game more enjoyable.
With turns alone, it’s just a race, and a lot of the fun aspects get skipped.
Besides, legacy points are crucial for the next era, as they provide significant advancements, while almost everything built in the previous era gets nerfed.

- Did you enjoy this Age?​

Always.

 

[patparker]

110 turns, 7 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?

Change capital to keep second city
Great Library Golden Age, Collector of Knowledge to maximize science
Diplomatic, Expansion, Culture, and Economic points


- What was your plan for achieving the fastest run? 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?
Create and enhance the Great Wall along border then go for specialist boosts, maximize religion for culture boost, try to enhance all adjacency boost to get maximum yields to maximize bonuses to science path next age


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

- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
I created a scout to explore the new world once they could go overseas and it allowed for cheaper navy (I bough it all and did nit produce any of it), but that was it

- 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?
Started with 3 cities and 3 towns.


- What were key production/purchase focuses?
Creating the best adjacency bonuses possible as quickly as possible

- Religious bonuses chosen and why?
Icons as there were several city states surviving and stewardship for maximum science and culture. Unfortunately, most of the city states were killed by the AI before I could secure them


- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
Theology for culture and settler bonus. I needed the culture to get the great wall out and I needed to settle overseas as the local continent was very crowded.
Founded 1 overseas city and 3 towns


- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
Tried for as many city states as possible, then used it to keep AI happy and to steal tech from the AI on thr distant lands

- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
The age ended too quickly due to the AI's actions

- Are turns the right measure of success for the Age of Exploration?
Maybe some combination of legacy points and civilizations unblocked in the next era?

- Did you enjoy this Age?
Less than the others, the AI actions were frustrating and I did not accomplish what I wanted to do as they ended the age too quickly.


I unlocked no country that helped towards a science victory, so I chose Mexico. Hopefully the culture boost and great persons will help.

 

[Bleidraner]

59 turns, 11 legacy points

In Exploration, for a speed run like this, the more time consuming objectives are the fleet points for economic legacy and the 5 tiles with over 40 production for science legacy, as you need 3 specialist on the tiles. The last +1 specialist is almost at the end of the tech tree, so you have to tech hard, and fleets take 8 turns, so unlocking them as soon as possible with as many fleet points as possible is essential.

The macro idea was to rush to distant lands on the West and East, as fast as possible. Plant enough cities for 10+ fleet points in each round, and at the same time tech hard to get to the +1 specialist to be able to do the science legacies. Meanwhile to get the military, send the armies to the new continent and conquer enough to get the military points, the relics are usually easy.

For legacies I took as many attributes as I could, I think I may have taken the Wonder double point one, as I had so many wonders, but I am not sure and unfortunately I forgot to take notes. As mentioned before I think attribute points scale better, anyway. I took the plus 2 settlement limit, I believe. Rest was attribute points.

On the first turn I chose Cartography, turned Wasat into a city and I rush bought 3 cogs on top of the one I had, started building settlers in Baak and Wasat. The cogs went immediately to explore the island chains on the east and west. The settlers followeed them as soon as they could, I also bought a few explorers to make sure my settlement locations were as optimal as possible.

On turn 2 I turned all the rest of the towns to hub towns to generate tons of influence points. I may pay for this in Modern as the towns will grow slowly through Expl, but its always trade off, and I wanted to spam befriend the CSs to convert them to my religion and get double relics, I chose the Icons and Interfaith Dialogue beliefs, for tech and relics. That did not work as well as I expected, the AIs killed at least 2 of the ones I befriended, and did not kill the third, the science one, just because I sent a bunch of units to get in the way. I eventually managed to befriend 4-5, enough to get the relics I wanted and I also got a couple more relics from the trees. Anyway, relics are not in the critical path, you can get all 12 by t30.

On turn 2 I also started to move my two armies to position them to cross th eisland chain and the ocean to the East as soon as possible. East just because the armies happened to be positioned close to the east coast of my continent. The idea here is to get these experience armies to the new continent and conquer enough to get the military legacy points, and maybe a nice treasure town or two, not very efficient as they are very far, but every little helps. Maybe kill an AI to advance the age.

The rest was just execution, and not too difficult. Situationally, once I got to the new continent with my two armies, I really did kill one more AI, the egyptian lady, as I thought I may need to accelerate the age ending. I also razed 2 cities and got Jose to conquer another one I had softened up, I did not want the unhappiness and the towns were very bad. I kept Qusqu and Cahokia. Cahokia was a pretty decent town and I turned it into my third city.

I teched as hard as I could, but it was not great and I ended up being 1 short on the high production 5 tiles, so only got 2 out of the three science legacy points. Could have waited for growth but I think turns are at premium in Expl and Modern, and one more legacy point willl be worth only one or 2 turns in Modern, while here I would have to spend an extra 4-5 turns. Not worth it. The path is to beeline Shipbuilding to get the fleets going as soon as possible, and then go for the extra specialist via Education towards the end of the tree, rush buy the tech buildings that you can buy.

My culture was so so, I prioritized the Spain and religion civics and built El Escorial. I only managed to get like 5 civics of the main culture tree. But in Expl, culture is not really essential. My only regret is the settlement cap, I would have loved to get an extra 2 civics to get it higher, thinking of Modern.

I planted 4 towns in the island chains, 2 west 2 east and kept them on growth for most of the age. They were poor treasure fleet towns, only 7 per turn between the 4 of them, that had me worried, but fortunately I managed to conquer a nice treasure town in the new continent (Cahokia), only managed to get through a couple of fleets, but that was enough. With better treasure cities, this could be done faster, at least 4-5 turns faster.

I planted a new city of my own in the new continent, to work the Grand Canyon wonder and access some resources very close to the end, but my main reason was that I wanted to unlock America for Modern, a production monster. Ideally, I would have gone for Russia, and in fact I had reseved some sweet tundra spots to the south of the initial continent, but I kind of forgot to do it. I may pay for this in Modern as I think for Science, Russia>America.

Very nice map, although I did not manage to get ideal treasure fleet town locations with 3-4 resoures. Cahokia was OK, but very far. In the Eastern coast of the new continent there were some sweet spots, but I discovered them too late. Not a lot of friendly CSs and only one science. AIs very passive, you cannot really count on them to advance the age.

Ok, Modern will be all about teching as hard as possible and having as much production in one of my cities as I possibly can. I tend to play with only three cities as there are a couple of attributes that reward playing tall, but I am not so sure this time, maybe 6-8 cities if I have money to rush buy science buildings. I don't know.

EDIT: I forgot to say that I actually planted one more town in my initial continent. I created a settler early on and positioned it next to the Valley of Flowers wonder, waiting to have enough space in my settlement cap to plant it, but that never really happend so I planted it finally just a few turns before the end. I really wanted to plant that town!

Anyway, a little rest and onwards to Modern!

This was fun GoTM team, thank you. Here are some screenshots and my save.

Spoiler Screenshots :

/SPOILER]

And the save game.

 

[GeoGeo]

Turn 89, 11 Legacy Points

I chose Spain, largely for the attributes, and started with Fealty, the Great Library golden age, Master Caravaneer, and various point boosts (also swapped capitals). Started with 3000+ gold and started pumping out naval units for an early war with Amina--which ultimately got me Hoerikwaggo, securing every Natural Wonder in the Homelands for Isabella. Also managed to accidentally conquer a settlement I didn't want...twice. All the razing made war a little harder for the age. Took Evangelism and Holy Waters for my religion, which would pay off quite heavily by the end. Got the Culture legacy at turn 54.

The real main character was Tomb of Askia, which I built in my old antiquity age capital. Turns out putting all your camels in an Askia city leads to game-changing wealth.

I decided Hatshepsut was the best target for war in the Distant Lands due to her control of the Grand Canyon and how diplomacy was shaping up with Jose Rizal and Ibn Battuta (I ended up in an alliance with the latter). I started making Conquistadors in preparation for war and ultimately got every single one. Wiped the floor with Hapshetsut, taking her three settlements on the DL continent for the Military legacy, and wiping out her last dinky island settlement to remove her from the game. I should note that Hatshepsut was Shawnee in my game if DLC content matters

I got exactly one cultural and one scientific city state (one via Conquistador) so I could litter my territory with stone heads and monasteries. Man they’re strong—gonna be huge for Modern. As part of my monastery push I pumped out enough missionaries to convert 55% of the world to Catholicism. I had 28 relics by the end.

The age ended with me getting the Scientific legacy on the last turn. I was 2 short of the Economic legacy—I once again ran into the glitch where former IP territory blocks tile expansion, robbing me of sorely needed treasure points.

21 settlements going into Modern. The Culture golden age should be a huge boon between Holy Waters and all the island settlements I converted.

 

[wenamon]

Exploration

- What Legacy bonuses did you chose and why? What other start up things did you do at the beginning of the Age of Exploration?
For legacies, I go with fealty, points in expansion, diplomacy, economics, and science. I also go for wondrous heritage as I have a few different wonders. I take the great library golden age, make Uxmol my new capital to have 2 cities, and take master caravaner for a 20 gold boost. It was t his or one additional econ point and then leaving one legacy point floating. Early on in exploration I am thinking to get some cog’s and get exploring for prime city sites

- What was your plan for achieving the fastest run? 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 think my focus is to complete the legacies as quickly as I can starting with establishing my island cities since the economic path takes the longest.
- Early order for technology/civics? What did you later prioritize for technology/civics?
Here I am going for piety and then on to theology to make my missionaries more potent. As for tech, zooming to shipbuilding with tech.
- How did the leader bonus and civ unique ability impact your plan/play, if at all?
Isabellas cheaper ships certainly helped me with exploring. The civs ability was mostly neglected til later!
- 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?
I was able to get up to 19 settlements by the end. Key ones early on were on the Chocolate Islands to the West and to Thera in the East.
- What were key production/purchase focuses?
I was focused on buying up production buildings mostly
- Religious bonuses chosen and why?
Evangilism and Interfaith Dialogue. I find evangelism to lead to an inevitable relic count.
- What government did you select? Which bonus did you chose most and why?
I waited for Confucius choice and followed his.
- How did you focus your use of influence for diplomacy?
I tried to befriend as many city states as possible, only to lose the first 3-4 to viscous neighbours that sack their cities.
- Any surprises/frustration/elations you ran into, how did you deal with it?
I was drawn into war with Trung and took advantage to get a couple more eastern settlements.
- Are turns the right measure of success for the Age of Exploration?
Sure?
- Did you enjoy this Age?
Absolutely! See my write up below.

I ultimately settle on the Incans as I hope to fill in some of the mountainous spots to my north with towns. I will then build terrace farms, stonecutters and profit.
Turn 1: I put my two cities to building stonecutters. Research is for Peity and Cartrography. I start by purchasing cog’s in Yaxchilan and Gebtu. Ideally I will get a couple more before shifting to settlers. I do acknowledge that I am once city under my cap. My thought is to aim for a good mountain city elsewhere, ideally with treasure fleets. Otherwise, I have my northern towns to set up!

Turn 2: I go for feudal monarchy again for the food and it also aligns me with my buddy Confucius.

Turn 3: I go ahead and convert Yaxchilan and Chichen Itza back to cities as well for about 650 gold total.

Turn 7 I meat Jose Real to my West. I buy another cog to go explore west and start a settler in Baak

Turn 9 I complete Astronomy and Piety and go for Economcis and Machinery.

Turn 12: I discover a village to the West that has a mountain range adjacent to chocolates. Meanwhile, on the main continent I am wiping out Hunza and befriending the economic state of Garama. I had started to befriend another on the east coast but they have been wiped out! I also found Sikhism with Evangelism and Interfaith Dialogue as my first choices.

Turn 13: A narrative event triggers for which i go for the gold. This pushes me over what I need to make Coba a city. My goal is to get Machu Pichu here, so I turn it towards a stonemill.

Turn 14: this brings an alliance offer form Confucius right as I see Amina’s settlers snaking around the Eastern islands. I also complete economics and go for Mercantilism, hoping to eek out Tomb of Askia.

Turn 15: we discover Thera, right where Amina is sending her settlers! I rush one in Gebtu but worry I am already too late.

Turn 16: I finish Heraldry and go for Feudalism. I also meet Ibn to my East and realise I cant give him friendly greeting as I spent the last of my influence trying to befriend the Vatican. None of my other friends have survived my more aggressive neighbours I also complete my first town in distant lands with Sausa to the west!

Turn 20: Confucius has gone to war with Trung. I didn’t expect to get to war this quickly, but don’t want to turn down my friend. It may actually give me an opportunity to capture Laliba, which is situated on one of my original preferred locations from antiquity! However, I also have basically neglected my army, half of which is prancing around the other side of the world looking for spices n stuff!
I also realise that I am at my population cap and will need to be selective on future settles. Ideally, I will find a 3-4 treasure resource town but so far its been a bunch of 2’s and the Thera site which has 1.

Turn 21: I finish Feudalism and start towards Shipbuilding.
Turn 22: the Chocolate Islands are really taking off now! I complete Antawaylla and look to speed to the east coast of the continent of Ur. I can already make out a city of Jose Real so will have to see if there is any prime settlements still available on the continent or look at taking theirs.

Turn 23: I meet hatsetshup and give her a friendly hello! I am starting to specialize my towns, but struggle to pick the right specialty! Usually I go for growing if the food > production. However, I also read that hub can generate ++ influence so I am not sure. I started on Theology after completing Mercantilism.


Turn 27: I complete my suzeship of Fashoda! I am not sure which ability to go for, but have not yet tried Corsair’s so figure it is worth a shot as Isabella! I turn my tech towards castles hoping to put up some dungeons.

Turn 30: I have achieved my war objectives and conquered my way to Lalibela on the East coast. Unfortunately, I am well over cap for cities at this point and need to halt any further settlements as I have already taken Thera putting me at 14 cities! I am going for colonialism, then its mastery and then hope to get El Escorial to up my limit.

Turn 34: I am realising that I have not really taken advantage of the Inca as of yet. I have not researched any of their techs and dont have any new mountain cities. Might be a while given my over count settlements at 14/11 righ tnow.

Turn 35: I take Lumajang, one of Trung’s towns north of Thera. I would liek to keep it but my unhappiness is just too much right now so I raze it. I realise she will give me Aksum, the city that built Terracotta Army, for peace! I decide to just call it a peace without the city as again, I don't want to risk rebellion!

Turn 42: I go for Kashamara on the Eastern seaboard of Ur. I figure it can be a launching point for future incursions on the continent as needed, while also giving me 2 treasure fleet resources. I don’t think I should war either Ibhn or Jose however, as they are allied.

Turn 46: I complete the El Escoral in Chichen Itza. Placement is pretty good as I am pretty sure it happifies coba, Baak, Nekheb, and Qusqu. If I ever do make Copan a city it will hit that as well!

Turn 52: the Chocolate Islands have become a good centre for the nation. Kashamarka is the first city off of our home continent, and thriving with all the gypsum and Kaolin it can use to grow rapidly.

Unfortunately, the lands of Thera grow crowded! There is little to link the settlement of Ayak’uchu to the mainlands peoples of Lalbela as more colonists have arrived, now from the lands of Amina of the Songhai. Some call for war for her transgressions, but others remind us that she too is an ally of great Confucius.

On a more serious note, all glory to Coba, the holy see that nears completion of the magnificent Machu Pichu. Some claim its completion will hail a new era for our great nation and it will stand taller than any other of our nations wonders. Others claim that its true might will only be shown if the bare grasslands around it too come alive with city life. So be it!

Turn 56: Machu Pichu is complete. Glory to the yields!

Turn 66: things have been going well! Yields are off the chart with Machu Picchu. Well, probably more likely the overall yields are due to the effects of policies. I did miss out on The House of Wisdom, but was able to build Borobudur in Yaxchilan and am working towards the Barihadeeswari Temple now. My biggest goal at this point is working towards the last bit of economic and military victory points before the age pushes over.

I also discover the Grand Canyon. I wonder what the heck the AI is doing not settling it!

Turn 73: after some back and forth I finally manage to convert all 6 of my distant land settlements to Sikhism. I now have all victory conditions complete. I will hold off my victory however, as I have yet to complete my own civics and some wonders! However, I have 96% progress so it may not happen!

Turn 79: Ok we have finally finished up the last of the Incan traditions. I won't be able to go for the White Tower, but that’s ok! I have a couple of fleet commanders and am ready to go forward to the modern era.

 

[kcd_swede]

Age of Exploration ended Turn 110.
Number of legacy points = 4

lol, I am pathetic compared to you guys. But I did "win" by being first civ to complete a legacy.
I completed the exploration path with treasure fleets at about 98% of the age done. I got one more in the military side - I did not declare any wars (not counting joining an alliance already at war) but fought in several. Hence, 14/10 settlements and happy cap is probably going to be my doom.
I really should play on some easier difficulty levels to learn how to do more than just survive.

 

[pmarc]

Turn 51 age complete, with 12 legacy points and 2 future techs.

Took the bonuses in below at the start of the age. With the patch 1.2 increases to city conversion costs, the economic golden age becomes the default choice even more than before. I had 4 cities at the end of the age and added 2 more early in exploration, for 6 cities and 4 towns in the homelands for most of the age. +2 expansionist points allowed me to reach the "towns start with 1 more population" bonus, which is really useful to grab the treasure resources faster.

Spoiler :

Treasure fleets are always the bottleneck to complete all exploration paths, so the standard tech path is cartography (building settlers first in cities), astronomy, then shipbuilding (which I got on turn 24, with 5/6 distant land cities ready to send treasure fleets then, the last one a few turns after). Then the priority is education, and beeline urban planning for the extra specialists and Machu Picchu. Specialists always on the Abbasid UQ first.

Spoiler Distant land settlements :

The civic decisions are a bit more interesting because of choosing the civ or main tree, or even religion. I started with Round City for production bonus in cities and Mosque, then Piety for Temples (getting Mosques and Temples early helps deal with the unhappiness from exceeding the settlement limit by 4 early in the age), then the rest of the Abbasid civics (unlocking House of Wisdom), then the line of Economics -> Mercantilism (tomb of Askia) -> Colonialism (El Escorial, +settlement limit).

Picked a good hub town early for +10 influence. I was able to befriend 9 city states in that age (though the first scientific one was quite late, on the other continent) and make 2 alliances at some point (Lafayette and Ibn Battuta) with the +10% science per alliance attribute. I picked the +2 relics from city states belief.

Towards the end of the age I converted 3 more towns to cities on the mainland and built/bought the UQ buildings with the large gold influx from the Abbasid unique ability and the treasure fleet income. I also founded a late tundra town on the SW corner of the homelands to unlock Russia in modern.

I stationed missionaries to complete the religious and military legacies on the same turn as I had enough treasure fleets to turn in, and on the same turn I completed the 2nd future tech, so the age progressed from under 70% to 100% at once, avoiding the crisis. Each final milestone of a path is 10% age progress in exploration.

Spoiler Final turn screenshots :