What's the goal, purpose of antiquity age?

[MightySpice]

I played through this first phase a few times. What is my goal? I am not sure. It seems i start all over in the second part: exploration age.
What are your goals? What do you aim for?

 

[stealth_nsk]

You need to have strong start in the next age. So, well placed settlements are your top priority. Legacy paths rewards are really strong as well, for example economic golden age lets you keep all your cities instead of making all but capital into towns. Some other things are kept too - you need to research your civilization traditions, build wonders, have at least the cap number of units, gold and influence, etc.

 

[queenpea]

Have you checked out the victory paths? There is an option to toggle on recommendations for each victory path within the interface. That might help push you towards concrete goals.

I love building wonders so that’s usually my path. Also collecting codices is easy, too.

 

[Cymsdale]

People seem to really underestimate just how much carries over into the next age. It's a bit of a soft reset but you carry over lots of stuff, it's definitely not "starting over". Wonders. Number of settlements. The population of those settlements. Unique improvements. And whatever legacy bonuses you have can have a large impact.

 

[UWHabs]

People seem to really underestimate just how much carries over into the next age. It's a bit of a soft reset but you carry over lots of stuff, it's definitely not "starting over". Wonders. Number of settlements. The population of those settlements. Unique improvements. And whatever legacy bonuses you have can have a large impact.

Yeah, if you're in first coming out of the last age, you're still going to be first when you start the next age. Yeah, it's a shock to go from 150 science per turn at the end of the age and start the next age with 75, but you have to realize that the other civ who had 80 per turn at the end of the age is starting the next one at 40.

So no, you don't want to like build up a massive army at the end and be ready to roll in the next era. But really, once you get to the 2nd tier level of the crisis, you basically have to stop building out, and focus on consolidating. Do you need to get one more settlement out? Can you eke out the last wonder? Do you need another copy of your unique quarter to set you up?

 

[NickTheGreek!]

Purpose? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women" of course

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

My goals in Antiquity are as follows:

1) Explore and understand the map
2) Establish diplomatic relations - who should I try to get on side, who are likely to be my enemies
3) Secure good land. No reset can take this away from you! Coastal access is great for the next Age, finding good locations for mining and farm towns is always useful, figuring out where the cities should be, etc.
4) Lay the groundwork for good cities later, i.e. considering both the best wonders for right now, but also which wonders I should be prioritising later, and making sure I have a spot for them
5) Levelling up Commanders
6) Building unique infrastructure, researching unique civics, and generally making the most of each civ
7) Figuring out a path through the rest of the game. I.e., based on my situation, which civ would make sense in the next Age and what legacy paths should I focus on

 

[Inotrobot]

I played through this first phase a few times. What is my goal? I am not sure. It seems i start all over in the second part: exploration age.
What are your goals? What do you aim for?

I'm an absolute newbie, but based on my 2 months playing Civ 6(Lol), I think what they wanted to do was promote the lesser used mechanics from past civs, 1 of them being seafaring, & transcontinental colonization.

I used to think I was one of the few who rarely left the original Continent, but I've heard pretty big Civ Content Creators say the same

 

[vorlon_mi]

My goals in Antiquity are as follows:

1) Explore and understand the map
2) Establish diplomatic relations - who should I try to get on side, who are likely to be my enemies
3) Secure good land. No reset can take this away from you! Coastal access is great for the next Age, finding good locations for mining and farm towns is always useful, figuring out where the cities should be, etc.
4) Lay the groundwork for good cities later, i.e. considering both the best wonders for right now, but also which wonders I should be prioritising later, and making sure I have a spot for them
5) Levelling up Commanders
6) Building unique infrastructure, researching unique civics, and generally making the most of each civ
7) Figuring out a path through the rest of the game. I.e., based on my situation, which civ would make sense in the next Age and what legacy paths should I focus on

This list is great!

I would especially underscore 1), 2) and 5). Understanding the map, especailly where the coasts are, is key in Antiquity because you will probably need access to oceans on both coasts. I've found that sometimes the "northern ice passage" or the "southern ice passage", between the land and the ice at the top and bottom do NOT go all the way through.
The agendas of the *leaders*, not the civs, will have a strong influence on whether they love you or hate you. I love exploring the map (see above), so that means Ibn Battuta will become my best buddy. Having lots of celebrations impresses Charlemagne, while just settling in the desert will anger Amina. You can figure a lot of this out in Antiquity.
Using your first (and second) army commander to go with your warriors to gain experience is important. A few independent people are friendly, while some are hostile. Go out and gain experience attacking the units of the hostile IP's. Your commanders always come through to the next age, with their promotions.

 

[BarbarianHunter]

You need to have strong start in the next age. So, well placed settlements are your top priority. Legacy paths rewards are really strong as well, for example economic golden age lets you keep all your cities instead of making all but capital into towns. Some other things are kept too - you need to research your civilization traditions, build wonders, have at least the cap number of units, gold and influence, etc.

I find this 2 legacy point cost option to be underwhelming in the extreme. Perhaps that's because I usually only have 3 cities (1 of which is my capital, the other 2 large enough to be upgradable for 300 gold @ the beginning of the next age). I'll take the attribute points every time.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I find this 2 legacy point cost option to be underwhelming in the extreme. Perhaps that's because I usually only have 3 cities (1 of which is my capital, the other 2 large enough to be upgradable for 300 gold @ the beginning of the next age). I'll take the attribute points every time.

3 cities from antiquity to exploration is a norm. But being able to build normal things like from the start and saving your money for other stuff is really rewarding. Economical leader attributes like +x gold are nice, but age jumpstart to me is more important.

 

[vorlon_mi]

3 cities from antiquity to exploration is a norm. But being able to build normal things like from the start and saving your money for other stuff is really rewarding. Economical leader attributes like +x gold are nice, but age jumpstart to me is more important.

Agree. Just to be clear, I like exit Antiquity with only 3 cities, but I do have more towns. I don't see any big reason not to expand up to your settlement limit with towns in Antiquity. Not all of them should be promoted to cities. Saving my money/gold to buy important improvements in towns beats promoting marginal towns to cities.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Maybe I've just gotten lucky with money, but the cost to upgrade the cities I want at the age jump seems almost trivial. I guess I should try taking the GA instead to see how it works out.

 

[Uberfrog]

Compared to later ages, where the legacy points require quite specialised play, all the antiquity legacy paths are unlocked through normal and fairly classic civ gameplay.

Build wonders, conquer cities, research techs, trade for resources. It allows you to play quite broadly as you build a foundation for later ages and figure out the rest of your strategy.

 

[CGPanama]

On my 4th game/modern age, and finally let go of the idea of the "victory conditions" for the first two ages. I was spending too much time focusing on the pathways, and not building a civilization the way I normally do (role playing instead of meta). Taking the legacy cards as they fall has made the transitions more challenging and engaging. Unfortunately, I am starting to find the modern age victories to be too guided and easily/quickly accomplished. Hoping for some improvements there.

 

[Dotsworthy]

I really don't see the antiquity age is different from the early turns of any civ game, building up your infrastructure with less of an eye on your win condition. I don't think that's a bad thing.

I do like the change to another age is more impactful, including updating your units. Makes it feel like the AI has a better chance to keep up.

 

[Taefin]

I’d say it’s 80% “play as usual” and 20% “game the age transition”. Things I do differently near the end:

-stop creating trade routes (unless trying to get the gold bonus legacy)
-don’t put buildings in the good adjacency locations, so I can keep obsolete buildings through the start of the next age (or the entire game)
-train an extra commander if I have time
-build/buy walls if I haven’t, since it will be a while before medieval walls
-focus research on getting relics (I think relics were a good addition to make end-of-age research not pointless)
-get all civ-specific civics that I want
-build any unique improvements I have access to anywhere I can.

There is never more than 1 turn of production that I don’t find useful at the end, since obsolete buildings are so important going into the next age. I haven’t figured out how to build everything in a standard length age.

 

[AriochIV]

The purpose of the Antiquity Age is to prepare yourself for Exploration Age, which you do by settling or conquering up to your settlement cap. Bonus points for having a few Commanders and enough military units to fill them, or building a few Wonders which offer useful adjacency bonuses in later Ages.

That's pretty much it; the rest really doesn't matter. It doesn't hurt to hit a few legacy milestones (which you'll do automatically unless you're deliberately trying not to), but for all the important placed on the legacy paths, the legacies you can buy with them are really a nothingburger.

 

[Ornen]

Maybe I've just gotten lucky with money, but the cost to upgrade the cities I want at the age jump seems almost trivial. I guess I should try taking the GA instead to see how it works out.

in my experience, golden age academies are almost too good to pass up. vs cities which end up costing 600-800 gold anyway, not that big a deal

I also like the +2 settlement limit from military 2. that's not even a GA bonus but I'd rather take it over the units, especially since Exploration is about settling areas you haven't even seen yet

 

[Steinernein]

Yeah, if you're in first coming out of the last age, you're still going to be first when you start the next age. Yeah, it's a shock to go from 150 science per turn at the end of the age and start the next age with 75, but you have to realize that the other civ who had 80 per turn at the end of the age is starting the next one at 40.

So no, you don't want to like build up a massive army at the end and be ready to roll in the next era. But really, once you get to the 2nd tier level of the crisis, you basically have to stop building out, and focus on consolidating. Do you need to get one more settlement out? Can you eke out the last wonder? Do you need another copy of your unique quarter to set you up?

What? City walls are half-effectiveness going into the next age, so yeah load up on six commanders, four-six units each, bank 3k gold, 500 influence, start new age pick a military civ and go to war. If you plan on attacking a neighbor start denouncing and start hate-mongering so that when the next age rolls around you're hostile.