About the Golden Age

[MyOlde]

I know the Golden Age is supposed to be a wonderful thing where production goes through the roof. But what do you do with it? When it arrives do you leave everything operating the way you had it just before it arrived? One city building a library, another building a barracks. Or do you quickly change anything?

Sorry this sounds so dopey but since it comes only once a game I'd like to get the maximum benefit from it and I'm not sure how to do that.

[alva]

I usually go for the most expensive buildings,
even in my smaller city's ( cathedral, factory, etc...)
i think it's better than wasting it on units( allthough
you are probably at war! )

having these buildings sets you up for the rest of the
game in my humble experience.

just my opinion
have fun

[Bad Lieutenant]

I always seem to get these during ancient times, and I hardly notice the difference.

Anyone get this during industrial age or later? I can see it really cranking then...

[cassembler]

I find that the best use of a golden age is to set it up right...

First of all, look at where you are in the game and what your main strategy is... If you're the tech whore, make sure to build as many libraries, universities as you can before it starts... If you're a money grubber, build marketplaces, etc.

I find a peaceful golden age is usually more benificial than a war-ridden one, but since you usually can't trigger a golden age without war, it's kinda tough...

Keep in mind that a poorly triggered (or accidentally triggered) golden age is about as bad as it gets... Jag warriors triggering a golden age with two size two cities just doesn't help much... unless, of course, you plan on taking the world over before 1000 BC.

Playing the Greeks, however, you can be peaceful until you have 4-10 cities, some built up to size 6 or so, and then go piss some peeps off with your hoplites... Quite a good unit to plan a GA trigger...

[muppet]

GA really most valuable when:

a. not in despotism,
b. in middle ages,
c. both.

Later GA's are very nice. It helps to get the time consuming city improvements over with. I prefer one between early-mid middle ages.

A really late GA though is not nearly so valuable. There often isn't much for a city to do but crank out too many units.

[rpodos]

My warmonger ways have now overridden the special builder in me.

I used to want to wait until early industrial, and and I had maybe 6-8 cities at 5-8 pop before triggering a GA. Lots of production benefit, whether for buildings or knight-level UUs (e.g., Samurai, Rider, WE).

I'm fighting so early now with Immortals, and they RULE so much, that I like using the GA earlier... maybe 4-5 cities at 3-6 pop. I mostly use it to create a huge army, which maintains its utility through at least infantry.

I'll tweak the exact timing according to the situation.

Very early GAs, like from a JW, are worthless, as are very late GAs.

R