How to get the Golden Age?

[UWHabs]

The classical golden age is hard, because there's not a lot of turns early. Depending on the map, the best ways could be:
-Build your UU/UD/UI (+4 each, so the Cree have basically a free 8 points early)
-Find a natural wonder (+3), and settle a city near it (+3)
-Build a "high quality" district (+3 if you can find a site for the early campus or holy site)
-Clear a barb camp near you (+3)
-Each goody hut gives +1, so the early scout can easily net a few points.

My first R+F game I was really near a natural wonder, so finding it, settling near it, and built my UU and UI, as well as Captured the French Capital right before the era ended, so that made for a very early golden age. My second game as Korea I didn't get the golden age, as I had to fight off a neighbour rush so I didn't even get my unique campus up before the era changed.

 

[Falabello]

I agree it's a cheesy way. Personally I hope they patch that out sometime soon. But the OP asked for ways to get the golden age, and that seems to be a pretty easy way to do so. I make no moral judgments on whether or not someone uses it.

Ok! I forgot to say that, but I will not use this. Even this "cheesy" one And no top class player here

What I have learned here is that the Golden Age is a choice! In some games you won't have several tips from all of you. And then, I will not be restarted over and over again.

Well, I like troops and war, so my choices for Golden Age is very low:
- Wonder, no!
- Barb camps, sometimes but just one or two
- improving the lux and selling: as I said, I won't restarted just to get it. In this case, I guess all players have this strong opening, all but me
- and all other tips depends of Civ - Unique Unit or Improvement, Great Persons, Religion... (if not GotM, I always go random)
- there's an extensive list, but not doable for every game...

So, my options is take Capitals and kill Civs, but at Deity, probably just one if I can !

Thanks for all help !

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Honestly I am still working on the first 50 turns over and over and I still do not get this Classical Golden Age a high percentage of the time. I am currently running at about 30% of getting the Classical Golden Age. I believe stronger players get it just about every time but I still suck at this game even though I have played Civ for almost 20 years now. It is depressing actually.

 

[rover6695]

Some doable items for early points, some of which involve luck but will reward moderate exploration: (EDIT: Some of these duplicate Xmonger's list)
-- Goody huts
-- First to Natural Wonder
-- Meeting Civs
-- Defeating nearby Barb camp
-- Defeating further away Barb camp, less points.
-- Building your unique unit -- Aztecs get 4 points when the game starts from this.
-- Building your unique improvement.
-- First city in arctic terrain
-- First city in desert terrain
-- Completing the Final upgrade to your Religion.
-- Capturing a capital
-- Capturing the last city of another Civ
-- Getting a great person, more points for ones that aren't "old."
-- Building any wonder, more points for ones that aren't "old."

There's a more complete list in the next R&F section on the Civlopedia, but these are some I find that I get often just from my normal game play and without going out to look for extra event points.

R and F section?

 

[Browd]

There is no separate R&F section.

 

[Victoria]

They have not really changed a lot.

Barb camp +3 (+2 if far away)
Finding a wonder +3
Settling near a wonder +3
First ship in the sea +3
Suzerain +2
Levy troops +2
Make a swordsman +2
Make a horseman +2
First Pantheon +2
First Religion +2

Each civ met +1
Each goody hut found +1

There is a big list, not going through them all but there is some I use a lot same in R&F as GS apart from in GS settling on disastrous ground and a few later ones.

 

[Casualty of war]

Sometimes I will "farm" Barb Camps by intentionally leaving terrain unobserved. Clear one, then a new one pops, lather, rinse, repeat. Also good for getting some XP for your military.

Suzerainity often reveals a big section of map, leading to Huts and Natural Wonders being revealed and other Civs met. Big Era Score. I have circumnavigated the world this way, without building a single ship. Not in the Ancient Era, but still.

 

[pkaem]

Best bets early are:

Barb camps, +4 district, suzeriain cs, settle other continent, explore and settle natural wonder, a boat, swordsman, horseman but classic ga is hard and random.

 

[Victoria]

Best bets early are:
Barb camps, +4 district, suzeriain cs, settle other continent, explore and settle natural wonder, a boat, swordsman, horseman but classic ga is hard and random.

One cheeky one is if you are suze and that CS is attacked, wait for the CS to have 1 warrior left and then levy it for 40 gold , +2 era points.

 

[ezysquire]

Barb camp hunting and district building seem the most reliable ways to get era score, but a little luck with natural wonders and goody huts can make the difference in making golden or not.

It's also good not to overspend on era score so that as each new era begins you have the most potential to fill the bucket again.

If you can, hold off building your first boat in case you need an emergency +3 to make golden.

 

[Victoria]

your first boat in case you need an emergency +3 to make golden.

+2 for first ship... the +1 if first in the world which you can miss if you hold off.
Settling on disaster ground and poor ground help stack up too. one of the other subtle ones is +1 for each civ met.
Also +5 for meeting all civs first... +4 for not first and world traversal are good ones for helping further era's.
I hate the +4 for killing each civ. +1 for each city gained and -1 for each city lost may be a bit much I guess but I would like to see some negatives.

 

[Gamer Grampz]

I play on Deity and now generally hit my golden age consistently with minimal effort. I usually open up double scout in order to increase the likely hood of discovering wonders first and obviously grabbing goody huts and meeting whatever civs are around.

Barbarian huts are goldmines and this is especially true since the June patch where the early game activity has been increased. This is one of the main reasons I also open double scout-- I tend to keep my scouting with the warrior to a minimum so he's in the general vicinity to smash barb camps before the city-states or another civ jump on them. It's +3 era score if within 6 tiles of any of your cities +2 otherwise.

Another trick I use which is extremely powerful considering how good diplomatic favour is in the early game anyway... open up foreign trade into early empire into mysticism. I can almost always successfully get the first meet on at least one or two city-states and manage to achieve their first quest early. This makes the extra envoy from mysticism all I need to get +2 era score for the first suzerain... not to mention the added bonus of essentially giving anywhere from +10 to +13 GPT.

Anyway, best of luck!

and -1 for each city lost may be a bit much I guess but I would like to see some negatives.

I'd honestly never thought about this before. That is such an interesting way to think of things. I know you were referencing domination... but if there were more negative era score situations spread out across the entire array of win conditions that would be so much more interesting. Nice idea!

 

[pkaem]

You can also appoint armani and put her on the one of the first met cs. But you do need extra culture to get her in time.