What do you do with your Golden Age?

[MyOlde]

Since we get only one Golden Age per game, I'd like to get the very most from mine. What do you do with yours? Build buildings? Build troops? Anything else?

[Arrian]

I usually try to time my golden age for the mid-Middle Ages. I usually play a religious civ, and often trigger my GA by building the Sistine Chapel (as Japan, it's Sistine/Sun Tzu, for instance). This will allow me to build large city improvements quickly (cathedrals, marketplaces, universities, banks) and also allow me to get a jump on the other medieval wonders (Copernicus, Smiths', Bach, Newton).

In short, I use the GA for building. Even if I'm playing a warmongering game. In fact, I find that a medieval golden age works like a charm for the early warmonger. Conquer your continent in ancient times, get your courthouses, key markets and/or cathedrals (these for large cities) up and running, switch to republic, trigger the GA.

I have used a GA for the opposite, when playing a peaceful builder game, but have come to prefer shooting first and building later.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

In general, my answer would be similar to Arrian's. It is usually a waste of the GA to trigger it early... simple math: the more and larger the cities you have, the greater benefit you will receive.

That said, think about your overall strategy for a given game.

I often play with Swords-level UUs, and the upgrade price from warriors is 40 gp (without Sun Tzu), which is a LOT. Assuming I have enough cities at that point (say 8-10), doubling my income is very useful, especially if I am in multi-front wars.

Ideally, I guess, you want to figure out as closely as possible the period of time where you will "win" the game... by which I mean the crucial turning point that provides for your final success. This can happen anywhere from early warmongering, through a medieval build-out, to final domination / culture / space race victory.

Time your GA for that.

[Jack_www]

I trigger my golden age with wonders, and do usually about arounf late middle ages, early industrail. I use them to build buildings and wonders if there are any to build at that time, if not I sometimes make a city start on a place so I can use it for a wonder when it comes.

[Tingkai]

The most important thing is to stay at peace during a GA. Build up a large army if you're a warmonger and then attack. Not much point in throwing your troops out piecemeal.

The timing for GA depends on the wonders that you think are important. Is the Great Pyramid and better than the Sistine Chapel? It's debatable.

[Theseus]

Tingkai, I don't necessarily agree. While troops should not be sent to the front piecemeal, it's certainly possible to quickly create task forces from multiple cities while in a GA. In one of my Japanese games, I was creating like 10-15 Samurai every few turns... more than enough to create a formidable stack.

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

Originally posted by Tingkai
The most important thing is to stay at peace during a GA. Build up a large army if you're a warmonger and then attack. Not much point in throwing your troops out piecemeal.

Why do you have to stay in peace during golden age?

Lately I'm playing the Japanese (emperor,standard, continents):
I'll trigger the golden age with my samurai if I'm sure that I can wage a succesful war (is military strong enough?).
If you wage a succesful war, the war normally won't weigh on war weariness (unless you've already been longtime before in war weariness, but that's very unlikely), and I don't recall if unhappiness is possible during GA, so I see no reason to not combine these things. Actually a GA will provide a decent boost to your war capabilities (more production).

My GA's are never focussed on building wonders (occasionally perhaps) as this is usually unopportunistic/very, very difficult/unworthwhile at emp/deity.

Instead I'll focus on money: I'd call a GA disappointing if I'm not rep, or better, democracy.

Generally I find that the timing of GA's is very game specific.

AJ

PS: why don't I get any emails anymore at home to warn me of new posts within a participated thread (must be this new server thing, anyone can help me out?)

[Spatzimaus]

I play the Chinese (unique unit: the Rider, a 4/3/3 Knight replacement).

I try to be the first to Chivalry, in a Republic. Once I hit that, I switch all my major cities (the ones with Barracks) to make Riders; they'll be a 4-6 turn build for a size 12 city.

Once I have 5 or so, I start attacking the nearest civ (assuming I'm not at war with anyone at the moment). That third movement point makes a huge difference, and the defenders will mostly be Spearmen. The moment a Rider wins a battle, instant Golden Age.

Suddenly, all those cities make Riders in 2-3 turns, food is a lot more plentiful (so my outlying cities grow quickly), and because I'm Militaristic I'll get Leaders fast, which I can use to make the Wonders I could have made during the Golden Age.

By the end of the Golden Age I've got 30 or more Riders (10 or more of which are Elite), I've had two or three Leaders, and I've wiped out two other civs, eventually tripling my size.

Seems like a good use of a Golden Age to me.

[lockstep]

Originally posted by Spatzimaus
The moment a Rider wins a battle, instant Golden Age.

Suddenly, all those cities make Riders in 2-3 turns, food is a lot more plentiful (so my outlying cities grow quickly)

I always thought that GA's only affect shield and commerce output.

[Txurce]

Theseus' point about timing your GA for the "turning point" in your game mirrors my strategy... which means that I trigger mine earlier than most people. I start all my games with an aggressive land rush, then switch to builder at some point thereafter. If my land rush is successful, the rest of the game is pretty much downhill. So early expansion is the crux of my strategy. This means I tend to play with the civs who have the soonest-available UUs, and therefore trigger very early GAs. What benefit does this give me? A boost in unit production, which is exactly what I want at this point. Is this a waste of a GA? Yes, in that it doesn't maximize its absolute value. No, if the goal of a GA is to help you succeed at the critical juncture for my strategy.

[Spatzimaus]

Originally posted by lockstep
I always thought that GA's only affect shield and commerce output.

Sorry, I should be more specific.

I normally run 4/5/1 for commerce distribution under a Republic. That 10% Luxuries is usually enough that in my core cities I won't need to tie up many citizens as Entertainers, but during a war it can get worse, and in outlying cities (the ones without large commerce to make Luxuries) I'll often need Entertainers. Plus, captured cities won't be happy.

But, during a Golden Age, cities are producing much more commerce, which means much more Luxuries, which means I don't need as many Entertainers, which means more worked tiles. More worked tiles means more food, shields, and commerce, on top of the shield/commerce bonus the GA already gives. So, they grow faster.

[Theseus]

Nice point Spatzimaus.

Txurce, I'm in agreement, I think. Unless you are playing strictly builder, the course of the game is mostly decided in the early to middle stages, and thus triggering a GA is important somewhere in that time period. And, it is easiest done via the UU, although I have done it once or twice by building one of the civ-specific GWs,

The earliest UUs are a little TOO early, however... I like the ones where I can at least take some meaningful advantage of the GA's benefits in at least 5-6 cities.

So the earliest I will typically go is WC, Immortal, or Legion (besides the fact that these 3 are the most advantageous units, with the longest periods of relative strength... IMHO).

I do like the medieval GA too, though, so all the Knight-equivalent UUs are pretty good too.

[Txurce]

Theseus, I always have six or so cities by the time I run into borders everywhere, and believe you need about that size to build a decent offensive force in the ancient era, so my GA doesn't come too early; it seems to expire shortly before 10AD. Even when using the JW, I wait a while to send them out, mainly because I need a lot of them to achieve my goals. (That said, I use the JW only for variety these days; otherwise, it's been MWs, WCs and Bowmen.) I try to predict how many bowmen I'll need and build no more, since they do become obsolete; WCs and MWs are a different story. I keep on not trying Rome or Persia, mainly because I don't want to wait to research iron. But given that it doesn't come later than horseback riding as often as not, I should give those civs' long-lasting units a whirl. It can be my final pre-1.21 experimentation!