My suggestion of era/age category for CIV

[Lord of War N02]

For civ game series use ancient, classical, medieval, renaissance, industrial, modern, atomic, information and future while some articles or game use era names based on technological or important event like war or discovery For example, iron age, bronze age, machine age and gunpowder age.

Here are my suggestion for eras in civ games (civ vii and future civ games). I will also write leaders and unit examples in each ages/eras

Stone Age/ Pre civilization Era
Year span: Before 3000 BC (I suggest it the era should be start with 6000 BC)
Unit example for this era: Warriors

Bronze Age/ Ancient Era
Year span: 3000 BC - 1000 BC
Unit example for this era: Slingers, scouts, Axeman, chariot
Leaders for this era: Khufu of Egypt, Gilgamesh of Sumer, Yu the Great of China (Xia), Rameses II of Egypt, Hammurabi of Babylon

Iron Age/ Classical Era
Year span: 1000 BC - 400/500 AD
Unit example for this era: Spearman, swordsman, archer, Light horseman, Catapult
Leaders for this era: Qin Shi Huang of China, Alexander of Macedon, Cyrus of Persia, Julius Caesar of Rome, Ashoka of India, Cleopatra of Egypt

Dark Age/ Early Medieval Era
Year span: 500 AD - 1000 AD
Unit example for this era: Cataphract, Composite Bowman, Medieval swordsman
Leaders for this era: Justinian I of Byzantium, Taizong of China, Charlemagne, Alfred of England, Harun al Rashid of Arabia, Ragnar Lothbork

Medieval Age/ Late Medival Era
Year span: 1000 AD - 1492/1500 AD
Unit example for this era: Crossbow, Knight, Longswordsman, Trebuchet, Halberdier, Explorer
Leaders for this era: Genghis Khan of Mongolia, Saladin of Arabia, Mehmed II of Ottomans/Turkey, Yongle of China, Richard the Lionheart of England, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany

Discovery Age/ Gunpowder Age/ Renaissance Era
Year span: 1492/1500 AD - 1680/1700 AD
Unit example for this era: Arquebusier, Pikeman, Cuirassier, Bombard
Leaders for this era: Elizabeth I of England, Philip II of Spain, Oda Nobunaga of Japan, Akbar of Mughals/India, Suleiman I of Ottoman, Louis XIV of France

Imperial Age/ Enlightenment Era
Year span: 1680/1700 - 1792/1800
Unit example for this era: Fusiler, Dragoon, Cannon, Lancer, Ranger
Leaders for this era: Qianlong of China, Catherine II of Russia, George Washington of America, Nader Shah of Persia, Frederick II of Prussia, Peter I of Russia

Industrial Age/Era
Year span: 1792/1800 - 1900
Unit example for this era: Rifleman, Mortar, Rifle cavalry, gatling gun
Leaders for this era: Napoleon I of France, Meiji of Japan, Lincoln of America, Bismarck of Germany, Victoria of England/UK, Franz Joseph of Austria

Machine Age/ Modern Era
Year span: 1900 - 1945
Unit example for this era: Infantry, Tankette, Biplane, Machine Gun, Plane, Modern scout (I have no clue what to name for recon unit in World Wars era)
Leaders for this era: Lenin of Russia, Teddy Roosevelt of America, Pilsudski of Poland, Sun Yat Sen of China

Atomic Age/Era
Year span: 1946 - 1992
Unit example for this era: Marine, Jet, Tank, Bazooka
Leaders for this era: John F Kennedy of America, Sukarno of Indonesia, Konrad Adenauer of Germany

Information Age/Era
Year span: 1992 - present day
Unit example for this era: Assault infantry, Modern tank, Modern Jet, Spec Ops

Future Age/Era
Year span: Future from present day
Unit example for this era: Mech, Mechanized Infantry,

 

[HorseshoeHermit]

What mechanics do you think should be tied to the era changing? In Civ V, you get spies, and the World Congress develops. Also city-state bonuses upgrade.
In Civ VI, roads upgrade, and there's a connection between two ways of the era being defined. Also they implemented global era.

What do you think these categories should do to gameplay?

 

[Evie]

I'm not a fan of several of your choices. For one thing, era names tied to specific technologies (Bronze, Iron, Gunpowder, Atomic) greatly limits flexibilities in terms of what parts of the tech tree can trigger an age change. For another, era names that are too deeply tied to Europe are an issue as well - all the more so if they're tied to the warped renaissance Italy perception of the previous 1000 years (so no renaissance and no dark ages). Note that dates are given to the nearest decade for simplicity's sake.

Here's what I would have:

1. Ancient Era, 4000BC-1000BC
Separating the last dying gasp of the stone age from the Bronze Age does the game no good, and most of our historical knowledge of the period is for the 3000-1000 BC period anyway. There's no real point keeping them separate.The Stone Age, to all practical purpose, is your starting units; anything you discover after that is the Ancient Age.

2. Classical Era, 1000BC-300BC
On the other hand, 1500 years is a lot for any era beyond the first, especially an era that saw as much of history as this one did. A division between the first half (city-states, classical philosophy, early iron warfare, including Athens and Sparta, the Warring States and Spring and Autumn period, up to the rise and fall of Alexander), and a second half (below) would probably be interesting. In the Near East, the first real superpower appear during this period (but that's probably because they've got an early tech lead) with Achaemenid Persia.

3. Imperial Era, 300 BC to 350AD
Here, we have the second half of Classical Antiquity, where major superpowers become the norm from Gibraltar to Korea, with the Maurya in India, the Qin and Han in China, the Romans in the Mediterannean and the Seleucid picking up where the Achaemenid left off.

4. Early Medieval Era, 350 AD to 1000AD
Moving the start date earlier more firmly puts the Huns, Goths and assorted others who spelled the end of the Western Roman empire in this era. It's also less incongruous to Chinese history (where the Han collapsed a little earlier than Rome). No tthe Dark Ages; that name is Europe-only, and even then it's a gross misnomer invented by Italian philosophers who (mysteriously) thought that the rest of Europe should just go back to letting Italy tell them what to do.

5. Medieval Era (1000 to 1450 AD)
Again, an earlier start date - the end of the middle ages can be just about any year of the fifteenth century in the west, and outside Europe an earlier date works better in relation to the decline and fall of the Timurids and Yuan. 1450 also marks the end of two halmark of the European middle ages: the Hundred Years War in the west, and Constantinope in the East.

6. Early Modern Era (1450 to 1650AD)
1650 , far more than 1700, is a real transition point, with the end of the War of Religions and the beginning of the Westphalian system in the west, contrasted against the fall of Ming in China and the last dying gasp of the Sengoku Jidai in Japan. This also correspond to a crisis point for the Ottoman empire, and the beginning of the Koprulu Era.

7. Enlightenment (or Absolutism) Era (1650AD-1790AD)
Imperial has been moved to Imperial Rome, so we need another name here. Enlightenment and Absolutism are a little European heavy, but far less to than the hated Dark Age - Renaissance combo. One way or the other, the era covers both Enlightenment and Absolute government, which means Louis XIV far more firmly belong here (France has FAR more suitable Early Modern leaders to chose from, such as Henry IV). Essentially, the theme of this era is concentration of power around the central government - and resistance and revolution in response to that movement.

8. Industrial Era (1790-1920)
A little longer than I would like, but moving the end date to 1920 is essential for one reason: to keep the two world wars (and the wide technological gulf between) in separate eras.

9. Modern Era (1920-1960)
This is essentially the World War two and immediate aftermath, including the first foray into nuclear power. 1945 is not used as a breaking point unto itself because the Atomic Age is an overrated concept that has fallen far short of its promises.

10. Space Age (1960-2000)
There are two major historical eras that are touted as beginning around the middle of the 20th century, and of the two the one that has had (by far) the greatest impact on human society and culture is the Space one (with all the technologies tied into the Space Race and later space exploration, and the knowledge garnered from zero-g experiments and similar). Even in terms of the impact of nuclear weapons on global relations, the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction is as much a tributary of the space age and its intercontinental ballistic missiles as it is a result of the atomic age. The Atomic age, meanwhile, has failed far short of its promises. The 2000 transition point mark a watershed moment, with the establishment of the first ISS crew,

11. Information Age (2000...)
Where we are now, with the internet superceding the space race as the main driver of social and cultural evolution. While the internet predates 2000, it's only around the turn of the millenium that it entered widespread use.

 

[Lord of War N02]

What mechanics do you think should be tied to the era changing? In Civ V, you get spies, and the World Congress develops. Also city-state bonuses upgrade.
In Civ VI, roads upgrade, and there's a connection between two ways of the era being defined. Also they implemented global era.

What do you think these categories should do to gameplay?

For era changing, in my view its can be like World Congress development start with enlightenment era when one civ encounter all civs but it can evolved to UN like in atomic era. Government types upgrade can be tied to era its like Despotic system in ancient era, monarchy in medieval era and Democracy in Industrial era. Caravan and Cargo ship can be upgraded when reaching like Renaissance or Industrial era to see that caravans and cargo ships are upgraded based on transition of eras.

New types of Great People can be occurred in changing era such as something Like Internet celeb can be happened in Information age to see some kind of new famous people type like in real life.

Upgrading espionage system is also good idea as you said like CIV 5 has it but in my view when the era is changed, spy can gather information faster like in modern time when spy can get an information faster than during medieval time for example and more option for spies should be available in later eras based on technologies of certain eras.

Other mechanics that are tied to changing like Evolution of Barbarians but with other kind of barbarians will occur such as Pirate will be appear in Renaissance era to Enlightenment era. Freedom fighters can be occurred as other type of barbarian in Atomic era.

I think these categories can represent the gameplay for the process of technology and civic/social policies of what each civs do in the game like how the unit are upgraded from warrior in pre historic era to modern infantry In information era. When you reach enlightenment era, you can no longer train melee infantry unit and no more cavalry when you reach modern era its like being tied to certain eras. And, also civic can represent the government types and civic/social policies similar to civ 4 civic system in certain issues like economic type, social type and others.

 

[Evie]

Pirates date back to the Ancient era essentially...(and still exist today, ask the Somali), so making them eraa speccific sounds wrong.

 

[Lord of War N02]

Pirates date back to the Ancient era essentially...(and still exist today, ask the Somali), so making them eraa speccific sounds wrong.

you are right about Somali case but who were ancient pirates? I thought piracy came up since about 1500 or 1600 when piracy was well known.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

you are right about Somali case but who were ancient pirates? I thought piracy came up since about 1500 or 1600 when piracy was well known.

The Mediterranean sea for the longest have always had piracy. The first ones are only known as the "Sea People" and who they were are a mystery. Some Phoenicians even became pirates.

Though the modern concept of "piracy" is centered around the most famous Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean or a bit earlier in the Mediterranean with ones along the Barbary Coast, so I can understand the reasoning for putting them in that period.
Instead of calling them pirate the name "Buccaneer" could be used as that denotes a certain kind of pirate during that time period.

 

[Phrozen]

I like tying eras to materials as it is less euro-centric. Sure there are going to be some outliers like the civilizations in the Americas but I think it is more representative that way.

So:

Stone
Bronze
Iron
Steel (Middle Ages roughly)
Gunpowder
Industrial (Could name this coal)
Modern (Could name this Oil)
Information (Could name this digital or electrical)

 

[Evie]

There was a discussion in the main Civ VI forum about how problematic the concept of "Steel" as a tech is (because different things that could be called 'steel' appeared at different levels at different points in history - the Steel Era could be said to start anywhere between 1800BC and 1800AD, and the Medieval era is not a particularly appropriate match. The same goes for gunpowder; what do we consider gunpowder era? Chinese fireworks, the first canons, personal handguns? (There is, moreover, a really good case that the real era-defining technology is the movable type printer, not gunpowder...and that one has the *exact same problem with China*). Stone, Bronze and Iron are (reasonably) defined steps of prehistory and protohistory (although they are far from universal), but Steel and Gunpowder are largely artificial continuation of the system, with no good definition for them.

And ultimately, the three-age concept is specifically a concept of prehistory and protohistory, and specifically a concept of western prehistory and proto-history at that: only the Near East-Mediteranean world has the kind of clear cut Bronze-to-Iron transition (and even then, the Egyptians arguably don't) that those ages supposedly represent. Elsewhere, bronze remains predominant well into recorded history (including China), or Iron appears at the same time as Bronze (as with most of Africa) or stone tools remain predominant for a long time (as with much of the Americas). And in a lot of cases, those civilizations did know about bronze or iron or how to make it - it just wasn't a prefered option for a variety of reasons.

Once we have historical records - as in documents specifically made to record history - then there are just better ways to chart the evolution of society than what they used to make their tools. Stone-Bronze-Iron is a useful shortcut in the study of prehistory and protohistory. Nothing more.

 

[Ryansinbela]

Can I use it in my Civ idea

 

[Lazy sweeper]

I wish paper era before stone age

 

[Ryansinbela]

But Stone came before paper

 

[AsH2]

But Stone beat Scissor.

 

[Lord of War N02]

Can I use it in my Civ idea

Sure, you can use it in your idea

I wish paper era before stone age

Actually, Stone came before paper as paper was invented in China during Han dynasty.