Why am I getting my Golden Age? and should I keep it?

[Scalefang]

Playing the Ottomans on Monarch.
My capitol has Hanging Gardens and Collossus.
I used a Great Leader to rush Sun Tzu and then I get a GA....

The only thing that I can see is that I took the Romans' Great Library and when I complete Sun Tzu the game looks at which Wonders I have, "sees" that I have Gardens(industrious) and Great Library(scientific) and then it gives me the GA....

If that is it is there anyway to avoid it other than abandoning Rome? Or should I just take it.

Other information if it helps:
I absorbed the Koreans already and the Romans are almost gone. I own most of my current continent, and the Carthaginians and Mongols, who share it with me, have neither Iron or Horses. Without the GA I have 5 turns to research Chivalry, 3 with. Have Monotheism, Feudalism and Engineering.

One of the other Civs on my continent found the Babylonians on the other one. Babylon is huge and will easily crush both Russians and Iroquois.

Before the GA,when I didn't know what was on the other continent, so I was going to research Chivalry and run over the Mongols and Carthaginians. Then worry about the other continent. However, with the knowledge and contacts, I can go up to Military Tradition for Silphi, trading with Babylon to get the other half of the tech tree.

Advice and help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[Turner]

The only thing that I can see is that I took the Romans' Great Library and when I complete Sun Tzu the game looks at which Wonders I have, "sees" that I have Gardens(industrious) and Great Library(scientific) and then it gives me the GA....

That's exactly what happens. After each wonder is completed (note: not taken, just completed) the program checks to see if you have the wonders to initiate a golden age.

Not exactly the best place to get a GA for the Ottomans, but you can use it to slingshot yourself to Military Tradition, all the while pumping out knights to upgrade to Sipahi. So while not the best place, not the worst, either. Assuming you've got the production/commercial base for it, you could easily get enough Sipahi to take on the Babs.

And if you get a big enough force, I wouldn't trade for the top part of the tree, but make the babs give it to you.

 

[tao]

If that is it is there anyway to avoid it other than abandoning Rome? Or should I just take it.

Abandoning Rome will not stop your Golden Age. Nothing will stop a Golden Age once started. The alternative would have been to raze Rome the moment you conquered it.

 

[Turner]

You're right, tao, but I was under the impression he meant to reload and retake Rome, and raze it instead of keep it.

And if you keep it and your GA, you should get a couple of free techs out of it. Might want to switch to Invention, and hope that others have Chivalry. Of course, if you go the invention route, and pick up Leo's, and forego chivalry and instead build buku horsemen, that would get you that way quicker.

 

[Scalefang]

You're right, tao, but I was under the impression he meant to reload and retake Rome, and raze it instead of keep it.

And if you keep it and your GA, you should get a couple of free techs out of it. Might want to switch to Invention, and hope that others have Chivalry. Of course, if you go the invention route, and pick up Leo's, and forego chivalry and instead build buku horsemen, that would get you that way quicker.

Yea, that is what I meant when I said that. (about reloading and then razing Rome)

I hear what you are saying about keeping the Library and going to Leo's and then up, and I'd agree wholeheartedly except that it seems as if the rest of the world besides me and the Babs are technologically backwards. Carthage STILL has no middle age techs, Mongols only have Feudalism because I traded it to them so they would declare war on Rome, Iroquois need Monotheism, Russia needed Monotheism till I traded it to them for communications, maps and gold, and the Babs needed Engineering till I traded it to them for communications, maps and gold. However, the Babs have Theology and are now building the Sistine Chapel. And in my experience the Babs tend to forgo Chivalry for the rest of the Theology-> Education branch.

Then there is also the fact that Magnetism (which gives me Galleons) is part of that other side of the tech tree...and the fact that my Military Advisor tells me I am strong vs. everybody except the Babs...to them I am weak....

Grrr...stupid Babylonians...

Despite that, thanks to your advice I am thinking about keeping the GA...it will allow me to nab a stronger tech lead and produce enough army and infrastructure to take the rest of my continent and set me pretty for taking out the Babylonians...