The Power of Gold

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Arrian
I don't see any mention of the free Great Artist from Music in there... are you assuming that the tech path doesn't allow for that?

Nah, that was just an oversight on my part. After Philosophy there's time to grab Music before heading on toward Nationalism. There's a good chance you get beat to it though.

A free Great Artist is very welcome, as it effectively allows you to "turn off" your Artist factory city one GP sooner. That's really helpful because those last GPs take a long time to appear. Turning off (or slowing down) a GP factory is also helpful as it allows you to increase Hammer production in that city permanently.

The Artist factory is the first to be turned off anyway because the output of Artist Specialists (Culture) is usually unecessary, and Great Artist points accumulate from a lot of National Wonders (plus the Mausoleum, of course).

Speaking of Culture, Music also enables the Sistine Chapel, which is good times with a Specialist economy (I would only build it if I had Marble though).

The main problem with the Music plan is that it delays some key military techs, so generally I don't go for it despite the advantages outlined above.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Common Sensei
I found the Apostolic Palace to help slightly with production since you won't be able to pop rush under Caste System.

While I don't disagree, Theology does not really like on this strategy's main tech path. Nor does fouding a Religion for that matter.

With BtS, Caste System gives +1 Hammer per Workshop. This somewhat offsets the loss of poprushing ability, at least in those cities that don't have access to Hills.

Should this approach prioritize getting the techs that provide free Great People? Music, Physics, Economics, etc.

See above for my thoughts on this with respect to Music.

In general any free GP is welcome with this strat. In my experience, however, the AI's Cottage economy will catch up to you near the end of the Renaissance era (the AIs that you haven't conquered, that is). So it's not at all clear that you'll get to Economics or Physics first. Might as well just concentrate on getting the military techs in that era instead and use your GAs to bonk some heads. You definitely want to beeline for Communism for the free Great Spy though.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Common Sensei
When you trigger a golden age with GP, they have to be distinct types.

I did not know that. I've been horribly confused an awful lot of times...

[rah]

Special Considerations:

1. GAs from Events

That I know of, there are two Events that give you a free GA. Clearly if you've got the Mausoluem you should try and set up the right conditions for them to trigger.

One is the "Runner" event. It triggers when an enemy civ declares war on you and it's the first war declaration of the game. This means that you seek to get the AI declare war on you. One way to do this is to keep your military on the weak side, and then use the free GA to repel the AI's assualt. Make sure to have build the Mausoluem before this happens!

Another is the "Colosseum" event. It asks you to build a certain number of Colosseums before a certain era. If you do, one of the options is to start a free GA. There's a catch, though, but I can't remember what it is at the moment.

I had another event generate a GA the other day.
It was the build 10 muskets events. The special payout if you have the Taj was a GA. A nice bonus. I had just gotten gunpowder so it wasn't like I wasn't going to build 10 muskets. I should probably go into the files and see what triggered it since completing this one is one of the easier ones.

[Supr49er]

Originally posted by Kloreep


Shouldn't it just have added on? I'm pretty sure you get the full turns no matter what, so if you "start" a GA while in one, it should just add another GA's length to the counter.

You are correct. GAs just extend in length.

[snoopy369]

Yep... it's always nice to see "GA Turns: 36" at some point in the game

[rjmatsleepers]

Re: The Power of Gold

Originally posted by Dominae
1. GAs from Events

That I know of, there are two Events that give you a free GA. Clearly if you've got the Mausoluem you should try and set up the right conditions for them to trigger.

One is the "Runner" event. It triggers when an enemy civ declares war on you and it's the first war declaration of the game. This means that you seek to get the AI declare war on you. One way to do this is to keep your military on the weak side, and then use the free GA to repel the AI's assualt. Make sure to have build the Mausoluem before this happens!

I got the "runner" event in my current game .

However, I don't understand how it can have been the first war delaration of the game. Mansa was a vassal of Sitting Bull. Does that happen without a war? Can the "runner" be triggered some other way?

RJM

[MoonWolf]

Re: Re: The Power of Gold

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers


I got the "runner" event in my current game .

However, I don't understand how it can have been the first war delaration of the game. Mansa was a vassal of Sitting Bull. Does that happen without a war? Can the "runner" be triggered some other way?

RJM

Civs can be vassalized without war. Sometimes they just offer themselves as vassals to a larger civ. But, I find it very strange that the game has ran untill Feudalism wihtout anyone declaring war. Maybe it is an other trigger as well?

[rjmatsleepers]

Re: Re: Re: The Power of Gold

Originally posted by MoonWolf

Civs can be vassalized without war. Sometimes they just offer themselves as vassals to a larger civ. But, I find it very strange that the game has ran untill Feudalism wihtout anyone declaring war. Maybe it is an other trigger as well?

The game was way beyond feudlism. The date was around 1830 and I already had rifling. I don't remember seeing any other declarations of war, but I find it difficult to believe the game had got that far without one.

RJM