Exploration age science golden age

[Shurdus]

Do you have a method of hitting the exploration age science golden age consistently? I find hitting the bar of getting a 40 yield tile exceptionally difficult to get, let alone several times. What is your strategy?

 

[chazzycat]

You need specialists, so pump some extra food to your capital. And some good tiles to put them on, like observatory + university next to a few resources/wonders.

 

[technome]

You also want to reaesrch anything that increases the specialist limit and slot any policies that increase adjacency bonuses.

 

[Aurelesk]

Note that a Specialist only increases yields by 4 (2 Culture & Science). When assigned to non-Ageless contemporary buildings, there is an added 50% adjacency bonus:

• Culture and Happiness: +0.5 from adjacent Wonders, Natural Wonders and Mountains.
• Food and Gold: +0.5 from adjacent Wonders, Navigable Rivers and Coasts.
• Production and Science: +0.5 from adjacent Wonders and Resources.

In short, if there is an area with mountains: put cultural and happiness buildings there. If there is an area with access to water: put commercial and growth buildings there. If there is a tile between 2-3 resources: put industrial and scientific buildings there.
The wonders built in the previous era help quite a bit.

Adjacency is key.

You must unlock certain technologies to increase the number of Specialists that can be assigned to a tile. Here: Education and Urban Planning.

Note that this is not the only way to increase yields on tiles.

Certain technological masteries increase yields. Mastery of Architecture, Cartography, Education, Guilds, Heraldry and Metal Casting gives +1 in Culture, Food, Science, Gold, Happiness and Production to cultural, food, scientific, commercial, happiness and industrial buildings. Metallurgy also gives +2 Production to military buildings.

Buildings like the Bank, University and Pavilion give +1 Gold, Science and Happiness for Quarters (urban tiles with 2 contemporary buildings).

There are also some policy cards that increase adjacency bonuses. Charters, Colonial Surplus, Enlightenment, Indenture, Patronage, Uposatha allow you to give +1 in Gold, Production, Science, Food, Culture and Happiness for adjacency bonuses. They do not double your adjacency bonuses: Specialists do not improve them.


Let's take an example. You built an Observatory (+4 Science) / Dongeon (+3 Production & +2 Influence) together. That’s 9 yields.

This quarter is placed between two resources: it is +2 Science (→ 6) and Production (→ 5). That’s 13 yields (with Influence).

Each Specialist will give 2 Culture and Science, but also 50% of the adjacency bonuses, i.e. +1 Science and Production. By putting 4 Specialists, you will have +8 Culture, +12 Science and +4 Production. That is 24 additional yields, therefore 37 yields.

Simply find the 3 remaining yields by using policy cards, by researching technological mastery or by constructing buildings that give bonuses to the quarters. Or just add another Specialist if you can!

 

[wesplaysciv]

x

Excellent post, thank you

 

[LadyMeytneth]

Step 1 build Machu Pichu

Step 2 build the two culture buildings on a tile next to it (non warehouse)

Step 3 put 5 specialists in that tile

I did that in my last game and by the end of exploration era I had like 150 total yield in that tile

 

[Klajwert]

Simply find the 3 remaining yields by using policy cards, by researching technological mastery or by constructing buildings that give bonuses to the quarters. Or just add another Specialist if you can!

One more option: In the Science and Culture attributes trees you can find a skill that gives bonuses to specialists. It's +1 culture or +1 science for every specialist on that tile (+2 if you have no more than 3 cities).

Let's say you have both skills, 3 cities (not settlements!) and a tile where you have 2 specialists. This gives you flat +8 to total yields on that tile - 1/5 of the goal. And that's without investing policy cards slots, production or culture/science for researching masteries.

I find it so powerful that, apart from some combos like Groma + Gold and Sapphire Flowers, +1 to culture and science attribute points are my go to mementos in almost every new game.

 

[Aurelesk]

One more option: In the Science and Culture attributes trees you can find a skill that gives bonuses to specialists. It's +1 culture or +1 science for every specialist on that tile (+2 if you have no more than 3 cities).

Indeed, those cultural and scientific attributes help massively. Thank you: I forgot to mention it.

There is yet another method that increases the yields of a tile: Wonders! There are three kinds: Wonders which give a bonus to Quarters, those which give adjacency bonuses, and Notre Dame.


The Quarter Wonders:
We need to define what a Quarter is, because it's not intuitive.

Spoiler Boring explanation :

It is formed when two non-Wall buildings from the current Age occupies a tile. This includes Ageless building like the Granary, or unique buildings. A full-tile building that occupies a tile such as a Rail Station works as well.

During the Exploration Age, an Urban tile with an Altar and a Temple is not a Quarter (but is a District) as the Altar is neither from the Exploration Age, nor Ageless, nor an Unique building. It will be necessary to overbuild the Altar for the District to become a Quarter.

The list of Wonders is as follows:

• Borobudur: +2 Food and +2 Happiness on Quarters (empire-wide)
• Colosseum: +2 Happiness on Quarters in this Settlement.
• Eiffel Tower: +2 Culture and Happiness on Quarters in this City.
• Pyramid of the Sun: +2 Culture on Quarters in this Settlement.

Borobudur is really very amazing. Not only do its effects affect our entire empire, they are also very powerful. All Town that have grouped Ageless buildings like the Granary and the Saw Pit together will receive 2 in Food and Happiness. It is possible to have 3 to 4 Quarters per Town, therefore 6 to 8 free Happiness. Per Town!

The Celebrations will follow one after the other. When compared to the Eiffel Tower which arrives in the next Age and whose effects only affect one city, I wonder if the Borobudur is too powerful too soon, or if the Eiffel Tower is too weak too late, or both.


The Adjacency Wonders:
As these Wonders provide adjacency bonuses, Specialist yields are affected. The list of Wonders is as follows:

• Bridhadeeswarar Temple: +1 Happiness adjacency on Navigable River (empire-wide)
• Machu Pikchu: +4 Culture and +4 Gold on all Buildings adjacent to this Wonder.

The list is short. Please note: these are bonuses per building. Bonuses will be doubled if there are two buildings in the district. With the Bridhadeeswarar Temple, a Quarter adjacent to 4 Navigable River tiles with a Bazaar and a Bank will give +2 Culture, +2 Science, +4 Gold and +4 Happiness per Specialist.

Adjacency bonuses apply even to "outdated" buildings (but not to Bridges for some reason...). In the Modern Age, the former Quarter containing the Bazaar and the Bank will no longer give +4 Gold per Specialist, but will still give +4 Happiness per Specialist.

The same applies with Machu Pikchu. A District adjacent to Machu Pikchu containing two buildings, either Ageless, contemporary or outdated, will receive +8 Culture and +8 Gold. Each Specialist will give at least +6 Culture, +2 Science and +4 Gold, or 12 total yields. Machu Pikchu is really powerful to beat the Enlightenment legacy path. As long as there are 2 buildings in the district adjacent to this wonder, only 2 Specialists are needed to work there to reach at least 40 yields.


Notre Dame:
This wonder gives +3 Culture per Specialist during a Celebration.

This is not a reliable method, as it is only temporary. It is possible to go backwards on the Legacy Path. If the Celebration ends during the end round (because the game takes the start of the next round as a reference), then we may find ourselves no longer having the 5 tiles with 40 yields.

 

[Fluffball]

In previous playthroughs I concentrated on planning good advance sites to focus on in preparation for the exploration age so I could focus specialists.

After a bit more experience I now focus on happiness to get celebrations which give extra social policy slots and then use cards which buff yields on certain building types.

Once I got the mod which shows what yields you actually get from a social policy card it is actually a no brainer...when you see you get 150 extra science you automatically pick that card and then by extension you buff tiles and get 40+ yields on tiles without even thinking about it.

In my current game, i still planned my tiles (as it is good to do so anyway) got the legacy and then when I checked at the end of the era I had over 40 tiles with 40+ yields and I stopped thinking about it after the first few.

 

[SiCK_Boy]

Do you have a method of hitting the exploration age science golden age consistently? I find hitting the bar of getting a 40 yield tile exceptionally difficult to get, let alone several times. What is your strategy?

Once all my production-generatic tiles for a city have been put to work, that’s when I start dropping specialists. Simply look what your largest yield districts are and add specialists as needed to bring them over 40. With a quarter filled with exploration age buildings, you can often have a base yield of 20-30 by the middle / late exploration age. At that point, two specialists will bring you above 40.

 

[enKage]

1) macchu Picchu
2) independents - bonus yield
3) policy cards

Usually i wait til the end in order not to speed up progress and keep maybe 2 specialists on a district. Then i take 2 cities with good adjecencies and turn rural into specialists when I have a limit of 3 specialists

 

[MutilationWave]

In previous playthroughs I concentrated on planning good advance sites to focus on in preparation for the exploration age so I could focus specialists.

After a bit more experience I now focus on happiness to get celebrations which give extra social policy slots and then use cards which buff yields on certain building types.

Once I got the mod which shows what yields you actually get from a social policy card it is actually a no brainer...when you see you get 150 extra science you automatically pick that card and then by extension you buff tiles and get 40+ yields on tiles without even thinking about it.

In my current game, i still planned my tiles (as it is good to do so anyway) got the legacy and then when I checked at the end of the era I had over 40 tiles with 40+ yields and I stopped thinking about it after the first few.

The way I play, I get celebration every 10 turns, so extra policy slot every 10 turns. I'm terrible with planning adjacencies so I struggle with the 40 yield per tile legacy sometimes.

What I realized in my most recent game is that all I needed to do was go into my policies, and remove all the "best" policies I had picked and change to the ones that improve tile yield directly. Instantly completed the legacy at the end of the age this way.