So-called "golden age"?

[1940LaSalle]

This is sort of a follow-up on the MGL / SGL thread, but on a bit of a tangent: as I recall from the vanilla version, it's possible to enter a golden age where acquisition of wealth jumps significantly, and there may be some side effects that I don't recall. Certainly the greatly increased wealth should trigger a corresponding leap in scientific advance since it allows a lot more spending on research.

What I don't recall/understand is how one gets to a golden age and what triggers one--or if there's an analog in C3C. Would someone care to elucidate, please? Thanks.

 

[eldar]

Every Civ may have exactly one Golden Age - often abbreviated "GA" - per game.

This lasts for 20 turns, and during those twenty turns:
- Every tile that produces at least 1 shield, produces +1 shield*
- Every tile that produces at least 1 commerce, produces +1 commerce*

* Both affected by Govt. penalties. E.g. in Despotism if a tile produces exactly 2 shields, +1 from GA is offset by -1 from Despotism penalty for 3+ tile production. This is why most players will try to avoid Despotic GAs.

Clearly this gives a significant boost to an empire's output; and the bigger the empire, the bigger the boost (particularly science and gold, not so much production as there may just be more overrun than before).

In all versions of Civ3 - Vanilla, PTW, and C3C - the way a GA is triggered is the same:
Either: Win a battle vs. another AI's unit (NOT a barbarian) with your Civ's Unique Unit
OR: Build a combination of Great Wonders whose traits cover your Civ's traits.
OR: Own (not necessarily through building, e.g. by capturing during a war) a combination of Great Wonders whose traits cover your Civ's traits, then complete a Great Wonder yourself.

The Wonder conditions can be somewhat confusing, so I'll give an example.

You are playing as France, who are Industrious and Commercial.

You build the Pyramids early on in the game. The traits of the Pyramids are Industrious and Religious (and Agricultural in C3C). So finishing the Pyramids alone is not enough to trigger a GA - you require a Commercial wonder as well.

Later in the game, you capture the Great Lighthouse from a rival. The Great Lighthouse covers the Commercial, Expansionst (an Seafaring in C3C) traits.

So now - you own two wonders whose traits cover your Civ's traits (Industrious from the Pyramids, Commercial from the Lighthouse). So you get a GA, right? WRONG. You didn't build the Lighthouse yourself. You have to build a wonder yourself to trigger a GA.

Now, later in the game, you build Sun Tzu's Art Of War. This is a Militaristic wonder. As you now own an Industrious and Commercial wonder, and you've just finished one yourself, your GA starts NOW. Note that the traits of the wonder you finish yourself, don't have to cover any of your own Civ's traits - as long as you own one or more wonders that do cover them.

 

[capnvonbaron]

... or, obviously, wait until you get musketeers, get the computer to attack one with a crappy unit, and viola! GA.

Its also possible to pop a GA with a single wonder, assuming that wonder is both of your civs traits. For example, pyramids are are industrious/religious. Egypt's traits are the same. If you build pyramids as egypt, you have a guaranteed instant GA.

I almost thought there was another way to spring one... but maybe I'm thinking of Civ4. Anyone know?

EDIT: n/m, I remembered. It is Civ4, and involved using two GLs to trigger it.

 

[1940LaSalle]

Hmmm...thus, as Bismarck, if I build Leonardo's workshop (scientific) and Sun Tzu's Art of War (militaristic), that should trigger a GA, should it not?

 

[The Professor]

Hmmm...thus, as Bismarck, if I build Leonardo's workshop (scientific) and Sun Tzu's Art of War (militaristic), that should trigger a GA, should it not?

That would do it. It's a good idea to check the traits of a wonder, though, since some of them don't match your gut instinct of what they should be. For instance, Copernicus' Observatory is Expansionist, which a lot of people don't realize.

 

[ThinkTank]

There are some micromanagement optimizations that maximize the shield benefit you get from your GA. I assume here you plan your GA to occur in republic. In republic you normally mine all grassland, but sometimes you just want to irrigate one or two, when the 3 food can enable you to also use another high shield but low food tile (a 1 food mined hill or a 0 food mined mountain). If you have the choice between irrigating a normal grass and a bonus grass, irrigate the bonus grass. Reason is that an irrigated regular grass will not get the bonus shield in the GA, but an irrigated bonus grass will.

 

[1940LaSalle]

There are some micromanagement optimizations that maximize the shield benefit you get from your GA. I assume here you plan your GA to occur in republic. In republic you normally mine all grassland, but sometimes you just want to irrigate one or two, when the 3 food can enable you to also use another high shield but low food tile (a 1 food mined hill or a 0 food mined mountain). If you have the choice between irrigating a normal grass and a bonus grass, irrigate the bonus grass. Reason is that an irrigated regular grass will not get the bonus shield in the GA, but an irrigated bonus grass will.

True: I've had a republic for quite some time and don't have plans/ability to move to any other form of government at the moment. That said, I'm a bit puzzled as to why grassland is mined typically unless it has the marker that says it's a bonus space, a golden age notwithstanding. I was under the impression that irrigating grassland around a city was a reasonable approach to ensuring an adequate food supply. Could you humor a quasi-newbie and elucidate your strategy a bit further, please? Thanks.

 

[eldar]

In Despotism, the general mantra preached to newbies is "mine green (i.e. Grassland), irrigate brown (i.e. Plains)".

This is because the Despotism penalty will remove the extra food that you get from irrigating the grassland - so an irrigated grassland will net 2 food in Despotism, just the same as if you'd left it alone. In other words, a waste of 4 worker turns. Whereas irrigating brown - Plains - will get them from 1 food to 2 food, which is what you want. In the early game, food is everything. You want as much as you can get. Grow grow grow....

If your "green" tile has a food bonus on it, then you should irrigate it. Basically only irrigate under Despotism when doing so will gain extra food right away.

Out of Despotism, yes, you can start to get more selective, irrigate grassland (prioritizing bonus grassland) to allow higher-shield tiles such as hills and mountains to be used. Or just to let your cities grow to size 7+ faster.

 

[Aabraxan]

Because ThinkTank's post seemed to revolve around maximizing shield output in the GA, I would also add: Looking just at the shields, your GA adds one shield to any tile already producing at least one shield. A mined grassland (non-GA) produces one shield. Add the GA bonus, and it produces 2 shields. An irrigated bonus grassland also produces one shield. Add the GA bonus, and it produces 2 shields. However, an irrigated grassland produces 0 shields. Add the GA bonus, and it still produces 0 shields. So ThinkTank's advice helps you get the maximum shield benefit out of the GA.

 

[anaxagoras]

So ThinkTank's advice helps you get the maximum shield benefit out of the GA.

This is all true, but I want to emphasize that it only applies once you are out of Depotism, and in the very early game you still generally want to be mining your BG tiles. You can convert those mines to irrigation later in the game. Mined BG are the quickest way to decent early production that does not come at the expense of growth. The benefits of that early production far outweigh any attempt to plan for an optimal GA.

In the early game, developing food bonus tiles is still the first priority for worker turns. However, mining BG is a close second and a major key to success. Newbies should still road and mine BG tiles in the early game in preference to virtually every other worker action on non-food-rich tiles. If you have the worker-turns available to irrigate over those mines later in the game, great. If not, well, bummer, but still OK.

 

[TheOverseer714]

And during a GA, a mined BG gets 3 shields, which can go a long way towards a critical wonder build (not that anyone builds wonders) I think mining BGs is still the best policy and mining green overall is best(excepting food bonuses).

 

[ThinkTank]

So ThinkTank's advice helps you get the maximum shield benefit out of the GA.

Yes, that was my point.

This is all true, but I want to emphasize that it only applies once you are out of Depotism, and in the very early game you still generally want to be mining your BG tiles. You can convert those mines to irrigation later in the game. Mined BG are the quickest way to decent early production that does not come at the expense of growth. The benefits of that early production far outweigh any attempt to plan for an optimal GA.

Yes, also very true.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

and, of course, figure out whether getting an extra shield will actually help you. For instance, if you are building a market and are pulling in 20 shields, switching it around to make 22 won't help you a bit.

 

[ahman]

Also, to use GA in the best way, you shouldn't let your cities keep growing while your in it, but rather use the tiles you have. Surplus food is only good for getting a city to work one more tile in the future, and when you're in GA, the future (when GA is over) will have less productive tiles.

Of course, if you need only 2 or 4 food to grow, do that, but letting a city grow 2 points per turn with 20 left to growth, and GA ending in 8 turns may not be good.

Summary: When balancing food vs. production, food is much less important in GA than in normal state.

 

[Sparthage]

Holy 2-Year-Bump!

 

[Evil_Abe]

Holy 2-Year-Bump!

You forgot to say Batman!