Despotic Golden Age

[Gufnork]

Some of my favourite civs has one major drawback. Way too early Golden Age. It's totally wasted in despotism. Does someone have any advice on how to handle it?

[vmxa1]

That covers a lot of civs, want to give us a clue as to which one? Easy one is Greece, just don't let the Hoplite doing any fighting. Some of the other like Hammy, I don't make bowmen until I want to trigger. Egypt is not hard, but Rome is harder.
Any that use a sword type are harder IMO as you hate to not use them.

[Gufnork]

I never use swordsmen ever. Too slow. The thing is that I really don't want to avoid using their UU. Iroquis is one good example, with those kickarse MW that rules the ancient age. Egypt is another that has War Chariots you can summon en masse to wreak some havoc. The thing is that I'm not sure the early war advantage is worth the loss of the Golden Age. I want tips on how to make the Golden Age work for me, not how to avoid it.

[Panzer32]

well to make early GA work... here are improvements you should do:

-Grassland: mine
-Shield Grassland: just road
-Plains: irrigate
-Hills: mine
-Forests: chop as much as possible.
-Mountains: ignore unless nothing else to do

Just some general tips.

[Jon Shafer]

It really depends on your situation. While a Despotic GA certainly isn't something to look forward to, it can be a tool just like your UU. You have to take advantage of the circumstances at the right point. Sometimes that may mean waiting and keeping your guys out of the way to conserve your GA, other times it means sucking it up, launching a horde of units and using your Despotic GA to make that horde even bigger.

After all, if you conquer 4 civs using a very early GA/UU, how could a later GA have possibly helped you any more than that?

[CerberusIV]

If you have 6-8 reasonable cities up, ie mid ancient era, a despotic GA isn't a problem. I find it generates enough benefit to significantly help me and can mean getting an early GW I would otherwise have no real chance of.

The one civ I hate is the Aztecs as you really don't have a choice but to build and use JW's very early. There are times I almost suspect the AI of deliberately attacking one to trigger my GA.

[Gufnork]

Panzer: Irrigation does nothing to grasslands either. And it's very good in plains or grasslands without shields, but I tend to start in grasslands and there's usually enough shields to cover my population, meaning that the extra shield is wasted. I wouldn't mind getting the golden age early if it wasn't for the fact that I waste shields.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

I wouldn't irrigate the shielded grassland unless I knew I was going to be in Monarchy or Republic. Definitely irrigate Plains and mine unshielded grasslands though.

[Panzer32]

sorry; forgot about the irrigation thing. Edited my post to reflect that any improvements besides road is useless on a shielded grassland in a despotic GA.

[Cort Haus]

It's hard, very hard I find, to not mine shielded grass in the early game just so as to focus on irrigating plains and mining the unshielded grass, but that is theoretically the way to go to maximise the early GA.

If I see a plains-dominated starting terrain that now says "good early GA" to me.

[badman]

I try to avoid a despotic Golden Age at all costs.
The only occasion I don't avoid it, is when I am able to build the Pyramids with Egypt and have access to horses.
Then you have two great advantages (free granaries which I love and those awesome War Chariots) which can make up for the lost GA.

BTW: I usually prefer Swordsmen instead of Horsemen, even on huge maps.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Originally posted by badman
I try to avoid a despotic Golden Age at all costs.
The only occasion I don't avoid it, is when I am able to build the Pyramids

Exactly my dilemna in the Naval PBEM I recently dealt with.