What are some of your favorite mementos?

[magicq99]

@Krikkit1 and @Evolena thank you both for your comments. I did not think of using this memento in conjunction with the spending of legacy points to aquire several points during age transition, that is an interesting idea for an early boost of the next age.

Regarding the attribute point from leader quests, I had thought of that but since you will in general only get one of those points for a specific attribute, the yield of +50 seems rather weak when compared to the potential yields from other mementos.

While the absolute yields from those mementos seem low, you can get a boost at the start of an age with those mementos. So maybe I am underestimating the potential of those momentos. But so far I always prefered differents ones. Maybe I should try them out again and specifically focus on gaining attribute points, especially from spending legacy points during age transition ...

 

[Nic@Melbourne]

take a purist approach most the time and play with only the leaders momentos.
Occasionally I like the +1 war support. Keeping happiness under control wins the game.

 

[nara]

I think the attribute point one (Diplomacy, Expansionist, Military) are nice in antiquity.
And Warclub (+1 CS per city-state, from Tekumseh) is nice whenever you want to expand aggressively.
And Corona Civica (+1 settlement limit per age, +50% city conversion cost, from Augustus) is nice in exploration and modern.
And Brush&Scroll (+25% growth with 5 specialists, from Confucius) is nice in modern when you plan to rely on your ideology policies.
I haven't tried the +1 explorer (and settler and merchant) speed memento from Ibn Battuta, sounds good for culture victory in modern, and there's some ones from the Xerxes personas that sound good from this thread that I have to try out some day.

 

[Smegger213]

I normally go with the one that gives you +5 trade route range, and the one that gives you combat bonuses if you have 2 or more enemies adjacent to your unit.
No idea if those are a good choice lol. But I tend to stick with those 2 for the whole game.
I only have about half of the mementos unlocked at the moment.

 

[Nic@Melbourne]

New fav Anti~Machiavelli. So good.

 

[Yzman]

I think i use the 100 free influence when you surezein basically everytime. Way too good not too.

 

[pjotroos]

I have definitely slept on Warclub.

I was stuck with an annoying neighbor in a recent deity game, and I was playing Battuta, with Tonga into Majapahit, so no land combat bonuses. Slotted it in for exploration after desperately defending in antiquity, and by about turn 50 it single-handedly neutralised deity combat bonus. By the end of the era, I could just send infrantry out without a commander and take down knights solo. Insanely strong if you have the influence to back it.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I don't know which one's the best but I can't be the only one that forgets to switch between ages almost every single time.

 

[MutilationWave]

I don't know which one's the best but I can't be the only one that forgets to switch between ages almost every single time.

If you want, there's a mod called Better Memento Editor that does a couple things. First of all it does not edit mementos. I don't know why it's named this. What it actually does is allows you to set certain mementos as favorites. Relevant to your (our) issue of forgetting to change them out, it will prompt you to remind you to change mementos before you leave that part of age transition.

Optionally it will also unlock all mementos but I'm not a cheater so I leave that off.

 

[shaglio]

If you want, there's a mod called Better Memento Editor that does a couple things. First of all it does not edit mementos. I don't know why it's named this. What it actually does is allows you to set certain mementos as favorites. Relevant to your (our) issue of forgetting to change them out, it will prompt you to remind you to change mementos before you leave that part of age transition.

Optionally it will also unlock all mementos but I'm not a cheater so I leave that off.

It also has a search function. So if you want to filter for mementos that affect, say, gold or influence, you can easily find them.

 

[cairnsy44]

I don’t see any love for Bifocals here. +50 Influence every time you complete a mastery helps me out a ton in befriending IPs.

Totally agree. This is my first choice most games.

 

[pjotroos]

Totally agree. This is my first choice most games.

Out of curiosity, how does it compare to Shisa Necklace? I found I don't research that many masteries in the first 20 turns of any era, so Shisa looked more beneficial on paper.

 

[cairnsy44]

Out of curiosity, how does it compare to Shisa Necklace? I found I don't research that many masteries in the first 20 turns of any era, so Shisa looked more beneficial on paper.

I will be honest and that I have not tried the Shisa Necklace yet. Maybe I will give it a go. To be honest, I just learned today that you can swap out the mementos during the game. whoops.

 

[marius_kaparius]

Imago Mundi and Travels of Marco Polo.

 

[MutilationWave]

Shisa necklace beats bifocals hands down.

 

[pjotroos]

Shisa necklace beats bifocals hands down.

I never tried Bifocals, so I can't rule out they're actually better in antiquity, because it takes a while to find the right IPs, and the culture/science exchanges are well worth prioritising, so you may be getting some influence from Bifocals before you start getting returns from Shisa.
Still, my gut feeling is same as yours - I get more influence from Shisa while it's still a capped resource.

 

[Sagax]

I never tried Bifocals, so I can't rule out they're actually better in antiquity, because it takes a while to find the right IPs, and the culture/science exchanges are well worth prioritising, so you may be getting some influence from Bifocals before you start getting returns from Shisa.
Still, my gut feeling is same as yours - I get more influence from Shisa while it's still a capped resource.

It’s probably the matter of timing. You are researching masteries moreso during the second half of the age if not later, whereas befriending IPs is something you can do much sooner, if not straight up on the first turn of Exploration/Modern. The tempo provided by Shisa is much better.

 

[MutilationWave]

It's a matter of quantity as well. How many science masteries are there versus IPs on a standard map?

 

[Berrern]

It's a matter of quantity as well. How many science masteries are there versus IPs on a standard map?

Bifocals give 50 Influence from both Civic and Tech Masteries, and in total there's 13 of them in Antiquity. Plus some from the unique Civic tree, so let's say 15 on average.
15 x 50 = 750 influence.

With Shisa Necklace you get 100 Influence per City State, so if you manage to befriend 8 IPs, you're already getting more Influence (800) than you would from the Bifocals.
In that game we recently played as Tecumseh and Greece, we befriended over 20 IPs, meaning the Necklace got us over 2000 influence!

Also, as mentioned earlier in this thread, you're likely to befriend IPs sooner than you research Masteries, so I'd say the Shisa Necklace is a clear winner! There are exceptions though, such as if you're playing as Ada on a Small or Tiny map (I'm not sure how many IPs spawn on those).

 

[stealth_nsk]

Bifocals give 50 Influence from both Civic and Tech Masteries, and in total there's 13 of them in Antiquity. Plus some from the unique Civic tree, so let's say 15 on average.
15 x 50 = 750 influence.

With Shisa Necklace you get 100 Influence per City State, so if you manage to befriend 8 IPs, you're already getting more Influence (800) than you would from the Bifocals.
In that game we recently played as Tecumseh and Greece, we befriended over 20 IPs, meaning the Necklace got us over 2000 influence!

Also, as mentioned earlier in this thread, you're likely to befriend IPs sooner than you research Masteries, so I'd say the Shisa Necklace is a clear winner! There are exceptions though, such as if you're playing as Ada on a Small or Tiny map (I'm not sure how many IPs spawn on those).

2 points, though:

1. Shisa Necklace effect depends on the map size, Bifocals aren't. If you play Small maps, there aren't 20 independents to befriend, especially in Antiquity if you don't have access to distant lands IP.
2. Most influence from Shisa Necklace comes into play pretty late into the game. If you scout well, most of its effect come into play when there are no independents to befriend already, for peaceful play it usually means will go to overflow.