Golden Age strategies?

I like getting my GA when I already have a lot of conquered cities who don't make jack because of corruption. During the GA I can build lots of improvements that would otherwise take forever (esp. if I can't afford to rush things).
 
Moonsinger - I've never, ever known the AI to grant a loan of gold/ Under what circumstances will they do this?

I use my GA to do whatever helps me most at the time. If I'm at war, I use it to pump out military units. If I'm industrializing, I use it to pump out factories and power plants. If I'm the Persians or the Celts, I've used it to wipe out one of my neighbours with Immortals or Gallic Swordsmen. If I'm sneaky, I've saved my GA until the modern ages to get a tech lead in a spaceship race. If I'm stupid, I've thrown it away in despotism and used it to build a few temples and military units faster than normal.

Mostly my GA comes in a building phase in the Middle Ages and translates into a big tech and money influx.
 
Originally posted by dreamvirus
Moonsinger - I've never, ever known the AI to grant a loan of gold/ Under what circumstances will they do this?

Getting a loan of gold from the AIs is extremely easy! There is really only a few rules to make it happen:

1. Must have good reputation.
2. Must make enough gpt to pay it back.

For more info, this thread have some good links to other older threads about this topic:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85848
 
Many games you can plan when to trigger your GA.

I will oftentimes play Ottomans because I like its UU, Siphai, which comes along in place of cavalry -- later in the game.

This past game, I fought a couple of early wars to get some cities. Then when Siphai came along I built them, but did not use them (since a Siphai victory would trigger my GA), until I researched Industrialization -- for factories.

By coordinating my Siphai war with the discovery of factories, I triggered the GA so that most all my cities were putting in factories during the GA. As I had built up Siphai in the intervening techs between cavalry and factories, and since Siphai are such incredibly vicious attackers, I waged war during about half my GA, all the while getting factories in place in most of my cities at "half price."

At least with Ottomans, this strategy worked out really nicely for me. And set me up to go grab Theory of Evolution to slingshot to Electronics and Hoovers "just like that." While taking out the Mongols with my Siphais.
 
What is the GA essentially doing ?
 
When you have a golden age, each tile that produces a shield and/or a commerce arrow, recieves an extra one for the duration of the GA. Default is 20 turns. Doesn't sound like much, but it adds up. Quit a bit it adds up. If you have a pop 12 city, then that's 12 sheilds and 12 gold extra from that city per turn. At fifteen to twenty cities, it's quite an increase.
 
Originally posted by Moonsinger
I usually take out a big loan from the AIs to rush markets in most of my core cities before I trigger the Golden Age. Then I use my Golden Age to build military units. Of course, a little chunk of the extra gold bonus collecting from the markets during the Golden Age will be used to pay back the loan plus its interest. A lot of time, the AIs may decide to declare war and refuse to accept my payments in the process. In this case, I don't have to pay back the remaining balance of the loan.
Something new again here. Rushing MarketPlace over loan before GoldenAge (why I havent thought about that :rolleyes: )
 
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