[GS] Ranking the Dedications

[Tyroq]

I've seen lots of ranking threads here, mainly focused on the civilizations themselves, but has anyone looked at the various Age Dedications and compared them? Obviously, they are situational and people may be motivated to take one over another depending on the game, but I was just struck by one that I had no idea could be so powerful, and so I wanted to start a discussion on this to get your thoughts.

In my case, yesterday I took the Golden Age Dedication "Heartbeat of Steam" for one simple reason: I was playing as Korea and also running Natural Philosophy. Holy crap on a stick! Overnight every single one of my cities gained +8 production from that Dedication (and my capital gained 9.6 because of Ruhr Valley) Now that's some serious OP right there. I used to think Reform the Coinage was best for peaceful games during that time period, but now I think it's 2nd rate compared to this. (agian, I know it's situational, but in my Inca game I had campus districts with as much as +6 adjacency because of mountains and geothermal vents)

What about earlier era dedications? Monumentality as been my favorite for Classical and Medieval era golden ages unless I'm going for a religion. If I'm not, well that's a perfect way to spend all that faith and save production for things other than builders, settlers, and traders.

I'm not going to create a detailed list just yet (mainly because I don't have time at the moment), but I would like your input. What, in your opinion, is the generally most OP golden age dedication for each time period? And as a counter, what would you say is the most OP dark age dedication for the same time periods? We can pretty much ignore normal ages as they suck anyway. Also, have you ever intentionally gone into a dark age in order to get a heroic age? I've only managed to do that once since there are so many opportunities to earn era score, I'm always above the normal age threshold long before the current age runs out.

 

[Pietato]

Free Inquiry is the other powerful one.

I usually go Monumentality, Situational, Free Inquiry, Heartbeat of Steam, Heartbeat of Steam. If I am using a heavy trader civ, I will might swap Reform the Coinage in. Also, Bodyguard of Lie is very fun.

 

[Naeshar]

My default line is Monumentality -> Reform the Coinage -> Heartbeat of Steam -> Wish you were here. If the situation allows, I swap to another, like Exodus, when spreading my religion. Actually, I like the normal version of this one more, as it accounts for passive spreading, new city grounding and can produce immense amount of points... Others are straightforward for war, situational for spying minigame or late exploration/expansion. There is little use for the late game dedications like airpower... But extra tourism is worth it.

I believe the dark age dedications are the same as normal age. (getting points only). It's the dark age policies that distinguish them.

 

[linaker]

Part of the fun of the game - and this site - is realising the potential of different aspects. I only got R&F recently and haven’t generated much faith up to now and so only just realised the power of monumentality. I’ve started building an occasional Holy Site now.

 

[Archon_Wing]

All things being equal, I usually take Monumentality when possible, and Reform the Coinage otherwise.

Monumentality is great; just for the extra movement and cheaper purchase cost; faith purchase is also good. Being able to faith buy Archeologists is great too.

I also like Reform the Coinage as you can send trade routes far and not worry about it being sacked by whatever. Sometimes your traders will go through a war zone, and you can continue to do so.

Exodus of the Evangelists can be good for Religion.

Heartbeat of Steam can help if you have decent campuses

To Arms! is sometimes useful if you need a CB.

Wish you were here is pretty useless unless you're going to win anyways. Wonders give pitiful tourism and parks are useless in the race of Rock Bands. Unless you're Canada, but the problem with that is that you're Canada. Even for cultural victories, I often just stick with Reform the Coinage to make sure I get all my trade route boosts safe.

Pen, Brush, and Voice can be good for a early classical age if you can't take advantage of monumentality. It's more of a better than nothing dedication.

The others are useless and I never take them unless it's a Heroic Age.

 

[Basajaun]

Its quite situational, because you wont be getting much use out of monumentality unless you have been lucky with relics and/or rush religion just to get a couple holy sites at the start of the game. The discount affecting gold is nice, but I wouldnt abuse it, especially not if you dont have much gold generating resources around, which is honestly a hit and miss. One game I have 30gpt in turn 50, another I am juggling negative and positive income until I get the ball rolling and set up a couple of commercial hubs/trade routes.
Most of the time I stick with it tho, because its the only one I can really get an advantage of so early. Next era might change, but given that youve had time to set up a bit of infrastucture, monumentality has gained a lot of value, and will take it as a first choice almost always.

From there on, its a matter of what the circumstances are. Trade dedication if I need gold and still didnt have time to explore enough, so vulnerable traders are immune and dont need to repurchase/produce them, nor micromanage them every few turns
To Arms! I rarely take. Its very powerful tool to defend allies, but I find a bit tedious the "always waging war with a civ" management througout the whole game. I can do it, but Id rather not spend 20 minutes per turn moving my military around all the time because diplomacy is an illusion in this game and allies bully CS you are suzerain of even when you have swept 3 Ai cities around it and returned one in a "do it again, and I delete you from history" kind of practical warning.

Colonizing dedication, pretty much worthless. By the time you can have it, the only spots left are snow, or really minuscule, spread spots. Not viable.
By that time any other will have better value. Exodus is nice for RV but you will annoy a lot of AIs, so be ready for war

So, for my preferred victory type (pseudo-peaceful scientific or cultural) I will pick Monumentality as far as I can, then go Reform the coinage/Heartbeat of steam depending on circumstances, and Bodiguard of lies if I plan on finishing my SV or Wish you were here if I see that I can reach cultural victory in a shorter time, as in, I have loads of faith unused and can "execute" with Rock Bands, or have picked several Great Works/Relics and the CV chart estimates a sub50 turn cultural victory for me. Most of the time the cultural route is far quicker, so depending if it has been a rather unpleasant game, like when allies have been annoying you all the time, or you managed to win but with a very ugly/chaotic/unoptimal empire, I will finish it off the culture way. If Ive been enjoying it so far, I will muster the patience to wait for my space probe to do its thing, while I keep the other AIs playing catchup while they rebuild all the stuff I sabotaged with my spies. Seriously, breaching a dam and effectively ruining 2 whole cities is a sight to behold. All those destroyed improvements and tightly packed districts...

 

[greenOak]

I usually go for monumentality and sometimes free inquiry depending on the situation. If you have any sort of reasonable faith generation, buying settlers through monumentality is extremely useful. Even without faith generation, the 30% discount on builder/settler purchases is pretty strong bonus. I like using free inquiry with trade-oriented civs who want to get commercial hubs or harbors (typically only the RNDY and Cothon) online as quickly as possible. Free inquiry is great since you can get away with building campuses as your second district.

The later game dedications I am less sure about. I frequently take reform the coinage and heartbeat of steam just because they seem to be decent in almost all circumstances. Wish you were here seems like an obvious late game choice for cultural victories. I've also got good mileage out of Hic sunt dracones in a few games.

 

[acluewithout]

Has anyone had any luck with Pacta Sunt Dracones?

It looks great. But by the time I unlock it and start trying to settle cities on foreign continents, there’s never anywhere really left to settle. (I’m playing either Continents or Fractal, standard or large size, Immortal.)

I feel like the only way to use it effectively is to capture and raze foreign cities, and then settle using PSD. But that seems backwards.

I think part of the problem is map generation. If you play continents or fractal, you get two or more big continents but few if any little islands to settle mid game. Very frustrating.

 

[Zenstrive]

Monumentality until I got no space left to fill
Reform the Coinage until I win

 

[Pietato]

The others are useless and I never take them unless it's a Heroic Age.

Free Inquiry is amazing.

 

[Nefelia]

Colonizing dedication, pretty much worthless. By the time you can have it, the only spots left are snow, or really minuscule, spread spots. Not viable.

Depends entirely on the map. I tend to play on the Giant Earth Map, so there is room to expand peacefully even into the information age... though the best (or even decent) spots are usually depleted by then. Regardless, the distances there are vast enough that every little bit helps.
I chose Pacta Sunt Dracones for my entry into the Renaissance, and it is helping tremendously with moving my 10+ settlers from South America to Southeast Asia. It also helps to get my troops up to North America faster so I can finally wipe Montezuma from the face of the Earth. The fact that my new cities start at size 4 is just icing on the cake.

 

[Pietato]

Yeah, Hic Sunt Dracones can be nice, especially in the Renaissance when the choice kinda sucks.

 

[Socrates99]

Has anyone had any luck with Pacta Sunt Dracones?

It looks great. But by the time I unlock it and start trying to settle cities on foreign continents, there’s never anywhere really left to settle. (I’m playing either Continents or Fractal, standard or large size, Immortal.)

I feel like the only way to use it effectively is to capture and raze foreign cities, and then settle using PSD. But that seems backwards.

I think part of the problem is map generation. If you play continents or fractal, you get two or more big continents but few if any little islands to settle mid game. Very frustrating.

only once since GS. I was Dido on a huge island plates map. The AI was slow to spread and my cities were popping up like the plague over half the game.

I used to get more use out of it pre GS because uninhabited islands that could support 2 or three cities used to be more common. Now that happens much more infrequently and the AI is actually better at spreading over water. Suleman beat me to one in my current game, the stinker.

 

[Nigel_Tufnel2]

In games I want to expand overseas (like Gedmon's giant maps), I've already got Frigates and 3-move units, so I never need Dracones by then (I usually go hard naval). I just buy/chop Settlers from the typical 2 Settlers who are likely already Settled in different areas, or about to arrive.

I also agree about Free Inquiry. Often you can chain 2 Golden Ages in a row with civs like Carthage or Mali. I enjoy the flow of games a lot more when I build Campuses late. District costs stay lower and I can build everything by hand more easily. Plus swim in gold for buying tiles or buildings with all those Harbors/Commercial Hubs, and I typically lead the game in science with no Campuses on Immortal by the time the second GAge ends.

 

[Ferocitus]

Has anyone had any luck with Pacta Sunt Dracones?

I only play on the largest maps that are stable in Ynamp, so this won't apply to everyone.

Sometimes, several turns before the next era begins, you can gauge when you will have trouble in the next era. In those cases it might pay to delay building a new city, or using up era points with advances, units etc, or by exploring too much.

In particular, it might pay to hold off revealing a natural wonder until after the next era begins. (You can see hints that there is a natural wonder nearby from the yields.) In that case, Hic Sunt Dracones might be worthwhile because you get some very quick era points.

There are also times that it is worthwhile delaying era points to make sure you get a Dark Age, knowing that you will get an easy Heroic Age after that.
Depends on how you like to play, I guess.

 

[Tyroq]

...
In particular, it might pay to hold off revealing a natural wonder until after the next era begins. (You can see hints that there is a natural wonder nearby from the yields.) In that case, Hic Sunt Dracones might be worthwhile because you get some very quick era points...

I did that one when I was suzerain of Kandy in order to get the guaranteed relic. But most of the time I'm not observant enough to notice a natural wonder before I discover it.

 

[Icicle]

Depends entirely on the map. I tend to play on the Giant Earth Map, so there is room to expand peacefully even into the information age... though the best (or even decent) spots are usually depleted by then. Regardless, the distances there are vast enough that every little bit helps.
I chose Pacta Sunt Dracones for my entry into the Renaissance, and it is helping tremendously with moving my 10+ settlers from South America to Southeast Asia. It also helps to get my troops up to North America faster so I can finally wipe Montezuma from the face of the Earth. The fact that my new cities start at size 4 is just icing on the cake.

The one time I actually got use out of that was the reverse situation. I was playing as Australia on the big earth map and found South America wide open. My eyes got big and I spammed settlers, building 4 pop cities instantly turned that continent into all mine very quickly. Game was a runaway from that point.

Otherwise, no. It would be nice to have a "Terra" type map that consistently works.

 

[Chocolate Pi]

Hic Sunt Dracones is situationally super powerful, but that situation is very rare and high-risk in multiple ways. It's more a matter of colonial stuff being weak across the board.

That said, Hic Sunt Dracones + Monumentality is the single most synergistic Heroic Age combo. The ability to daisy-chain discounted settlers out of immediately settled cities lets you mass claim an entire foreign continent for a very cheap price.


Wish You Were Here is underpowered, also a bit of a matter of amplifying something that is already very weak in general. CV sometimes has nothing better to pick in Atomic/Info, but often would rather have super spies and in Modern they should just take.Reform the Coinage.

Sky and Stars is a joke because any SV or otherwise tech-focused playstyle will have gotten most of those techs eons ago, or be recruiting Great Scientists. Extra air unit XP is simply not comparable with roided super spies doing 3 times as many operations.

 

[Isengardtom]

Hic Sunt dark age/normal age is powerful if you haven’t explored much yet. If lucky you can get a ton of era points really fast.

Obvious strong ones are Monumentality, Coinage
Situationally exodus, especially in a classical golden age if you want to get a religion.

The later ones are generally weaker than the earlier ones in my view

 

[Ravenwild]

Sir Hunt Dracones is great for Religious Victory on non-Pangea maps. Embarkment speed is the most important tech path for that victory type so +2 speed is very helpful. Exodus of the Evangelicals would be better but it's gone at that point of the game.