When do we think the modern age is starting? 1800 was a popular guess before. Are thinking more like 1700 now? 1600 maybe? Any earlier than that and it would cut off the age of exploration from the in-game era called Exploration, which would be really incredibly confusing.
Having the Mughals start ~1700 would be weird indeed, they were only a few decades away from terminal decline at that point. I'm surprised they didn't go with the modern Republic of India to appeal to the modern market. Of course, to get the most overlap between real history and in game chronology, they could have gone with the British Raj. But, as much as I would enjoy such a troll move, it would have been absolutely devastating PR (and be awkward mechanically).
Agree, pushing Modern back into the 17th century cuts right into the 'Real' Exploration Era - especially since I suspect there will be some years of the Crisis Period between the two.
1700 - assuming Modern Age is meant to start with Industrialization, Rationalization ("Enlightenment") and Nation-States, is, as they admitted "playing fast and loose". Only Industrialization, to my mind, can make a case, with the Newcomen primitive steam pumps being in use by 1700 and Papin's steam-powered boat by 1704, but real industrial factory work and machinery is about 60 - 75 years in the future with all the social and political changes that came along with them.
Also, assuming 1700 or so, that means roughly 260 - 270 years to 1960 - 1970, the earliest they could legitimately get that rocket we saw off the ground. That means, assuming 200 turns, that the Years/Turn will be a decimal 1.3 or so Years/Turn, which is messy.
Here's a thought: Assume 1700 is the start of the Exploration to Modern Crisis Period - certainly C. Duffy catalogued the beginnings of national Patriotism to that period, at least amongst French and British common soldiers, which is sort of 'proto-nation-statism'. That Crisis Period could extend, notionally, up to 60 years, to the real beginning of the factory industrialism in the 1760s and that would give 200 Turns to 1970 and Blast Off, and 1 Year/Turn, which has been more or less standard for the late game in past Civs.
I'm reaching here, I admit, but I think having a reasonably easy-to-calculate Years/Turn ratio will also figure into the Ages' length and cut-off, and I also am pretty sure that the Crisis periods in between the Ages will have some Turns associated directly with them - but there's no telling how many, or whether they are fixed or variable at this point.
Finally, am I the only one who thinks 200 turns per Age might be excessive? Previous Civs have assumed 500 Turns for a 'complete' game, and IF, as stated above, there are also turns in between in the Crisis Periods, that pushes the total game to well over 600 turns.
After all, right now Civ VI assumes about 110 - 120 Turns to complete the Ancient and Classical Eras, which roughly corresponds to Civ VII's Antiquity. I'm all for having more time to play with the earlier period, but a 30 - 40% increase in Turns seems a bit excessive given that the game has 2 other complete Ages and 2 intermediate Crisis Periods to also include.
