How do you deal with the doldrums of the middle eras?

planetfall

Emperor
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
1,425
Location
California
Once again I got bored with the doldrums of the middle ages. This is a series of turns, like about 44, where nothing interesting happens. The techs between mass production and rifling. Other civs are too far away and cities too strong without good bombard units. If beeline to rifling then fall behind in science and may gain one civ, but others get so much stronger it's like shooting self in foot. So how do you keep interest?

Here is a list of techs in current game for example
2​
mass production​
1​
stirrups​
1​
banking​
2​
scientific theory​
2​
industrialization​
2​
sanitation​
3​
gunpowder​
2​
metal casting​
5​
economics​
5​
replaceable parts​
6​
chemistry​
3​
siege tactics​
4​
ballistics​
4​
military science​
2​
rifling​
44​
turns​
 
I like building & expanding, not just conquest, so I haven't noticed any doldrums. I'm trying for era score, doing stuff with heroes (e.g. exploring with Sinbad), building wonders and high adjacency districts, build units to upgrade later, etc. Smashing barbs, settling wonders, jockeying for control of city states... that's the nice thing about Civ to me. There's so much variety of things to do. Why I have more hours than I care to admit into it lol
 
I'm a builder, deep in my heart. Figuring out which district should be next, as the cities get up to size 10, is an ongoing source of fun. I nearly always play on continents maps, so the other AI are often an ocean away. When I run out of ages where I can use Monumentality to get era points, I am usually worried about where I will get era points in the Renaissance and Industrial eras. I usually found a religion, so the mini-game to send a squad of Apostles around, looking for a fight, is going strong in those eras. During the doldrums, there are always buildings to construct, tiles to improve, and wonders to think about building.

My issue is that I'm playing wide, fiddling with a variety of districts, that I don't have an overwhelming position for *any* of the victory conditions before turn 300. My religion is spread, but hasn't converted a whole AI civ. Way too many techs before the science victory; I'm probably not pillaging enough AI campuses to move along faster. Tied with at least one, maybe two, AI's for diplo victory points. The culture/tourism victory is way too complex to calculate.
 
If you do an early rush then you get so much free science from the conquered ai that you will be ahead for the rest of the game, and they won't have time to get proper walls up against whatever siege tech you're at. Also if you're at fully promoted siege units you have 3 range, which is more than enough to raze those walls uncontested.
 
Use "dull" periods to flesh out the world, create deeper histories, or set up events for future excitement.
 
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