This article describes the strategy I've developed to exploit the
principles described in the previous article. It's a strategy that
focuses on science, military, rock, and actions and devalues food,
happiness, and early culture. As explained earlier, balance is
essential, so the key elements of the strategy involve reducing the
impact of food and happiness so that you can build up extra science
and military early and be in the position of gaining mega-culture
in Age III.

Military -- the key to winning without early culture
We make war that we may live in peace.
-- Aristotle

Like the Civ computer game, you simply cannot ignore your military against
military-conscious opponents. It's quite easy to get sidetracked into
constantly improving your civil infrastructure, and if your opponents
do the same, you will see all sorts of kumbaya-style games where no one
cracks 10 on the strength track until Age III. In my 4p games, 10 is
always reached in Age I -- usually by the player who draws a Medieval
Army (IC) tactics card. If your group isn't doing that, then your group
play is exploitable. Go military, and you'll be amazed how easy the
game becomes against that group.


Now, in a group that does understand the importance of military,
it's important to plan out how you're going to build your military
strength. First, concentrate on getting a third military action.
While there are multiple ways to increase strength, military strength
is best increased via military techs and a good tactics card. Arenas,
strategic territories, wonders, and blue techs for strength simply don't
pay off as well -- they can't be sacrificed for colonies, or upgraded
very efficiently. Far more efficient to discover Riflemen, spend 3
rock per warrior to gain 2 strength / upgrade, and unveil a killer
tactics card. That third military action will help you get that tactics card,
and give you the ability to spend rock on military without damaging cardflow.


Tactics cards
One must change one's tactics every ten years
if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.
-- N. Bonaparte

The best Age II/III tactics cards tend to require Infantry and Cavalry.
Thus, the strongest Age I tactics card is Medieval Army (IC), with
Phalanx (IIC) a close second. Med. Army not only provides great bang
for the buck (you gain +1 for each unit in the army), but it provides
a natural upgrade path to the power tactics cards. The roadmap is to
build two warriors and two knights in Age I, for 10 military strength.
Then, you can easily upgrade to the power tactics cards of:
* Classic Army (IICC = 9),
* Napoleonic Army(ICA = 8),
* Defensive Army (IIA = 6),
* Mobile Artillery (CA = 5),
* Conquistadors (ICC = 5),
and later:
* Modern Army (IICA = 13),
* Shock Troops (ICCC = 11).

Unfortunately, there are only 3 Med. Army cards in the 48-card deck,
so you're not certain to get one, even with Caesar helping you draw
~18 total cards (2 for first turn, plus 3 for 6-7 for more turns,
minus 2-3 for playing tactics and building units). But Phalanx (IIC)
is an acceptable consolation prize, and also appears 3 times in the deck.
In the worst case scenario (or if you don't get knights) you'll probably
draw Legion or Fighting Band and go with that tactic + Swordsmen (and
allocate more workers to infantry). Unlike other tracks, military tracks
are slightly more efficient to switch, since you are often sacrificing
units for colonies. Just make sure to get either Swordsmen or Knights,
so that you can easily drop down Classic Army, Conquistadors, or one of
Mobile Artillery/Defensive Army with just one more technology.

Leveraging your military
The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies,
to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth
-- G. Khan

Once you get a significant military advantage from having 4 workers
in military (described later) + a good tactics card,
you can consider aggressing people. The general rule of thumb is to
aggress when one defense card can't meet the aggression. That way you
can attack without sacrificing and the defender will probably need to
sacrifice to meet the threat. In Age I, I rarely play the 2-cost military
aggressions-- the benefits and damages are small, and I'd rather draw
the cards. But starting in Age II, you will have many more military
actions from governments, blue techs, and leaders, so I will play any
aggression if it doesn't cost me more than 1 card and I have more than a
1-defense card advantage. It's still important to maintain cardflow --
nothing sucks more than having an aggression fail due to surprise extra
defense, but that will happen sometimes. In that case, you need to be
able to follow up with another aggression next turn while your target
has lost their defense. (Obviously, if you have multiple aggressions
in your hand, cardflow concerns don't apply.)

In Age III, it's all about the aggressions -- there are more
wars/aggressions than events! Now is the time for you reap the rewards of
your economic/military focus, assuming that you have plenty of military
actions for cardflow (and you should, if you've focused on actions,
science, and rock like I recommend). Play aggressions for rock (Raid,
Plunder) and science (Spy), and save up your gains for Air Forces so that
you can jump into a jet and declare war the turn it appears. If you
continually draw 3 military cards a turn, you will likely draw enough
aggressions to make your infrastructure worthwhile. Even if you don't
draw great military cards, you can still play events with impunity --
they can't or they risk getting hosed by a bad event. You can focus your
final actions on generating massive culture -- they have to split their
actions between culture and defense, under the threat of your aggression.
The heavy early culture players will not be able to keep up, and you will
"win from behind".


Alchemy -- the essential Age I tech
Science, in the immediate, produces knowledge,
and, indirectly, means of action.
-- A. Einstein

The most important asset in Age I for this strategy is science. Science
lets you use your workers more efficiently -- i.e. producing more rock
or food or military strength for the same footprint. Without science,
you'll need more workers, so much that you'll fall past the ideal people
footprint within the 2-happy box and into the 3-4 happy box. This quickly
leads to an less-manageable cycle of needing happiness and food, in
addition to rock, science, military, and actions. You want to avoid this
cycle, which I call the food death spiral, and that means developing tech.

I consider Alchemy to be the essential Age I technology. Not only does
it double science capacity without increasing footprint, it provides a
cheap upgrade path to Computers, which is the technology with the best
leader-combos in the endgame. Sid, Tesla, and Einstein are all great
with Computers; and Sid/Tesla are unattractive without them, so it's
most likely that the Computer players will be the ones to take Sid/Tesla.

In 2p, you're guaranteed an Alchemy, but I'd try to get one for 2 civil
actions if it came up early -- it's important to get the science flowing
as quickly as possible. In 3-4p, you're not guaranteed an Alchemy, but
one will usually fall to you for 2 CA. Should all your opponents read
this guide, and start taking it for 3 CA (and probably corrupting in
the process), you can probably compensate by waiting for Age II for the
Scientific Method, using your saved actions to grab science yellow cards,
and being careful with your science spending. You may also just want to
play an efficiency game and go for maximal rock and military production.


Age I Worker Allocation Roadmap
What shall I do unto this people?
-- Moses

Another aspect of managing your people footprint is identifying how you
should distribute your people. It is far more expensive to "change
careers" than it is to continue along the same track, and mistakes
in allocation will result in the food death spiral alluded to in the
previous section. So, make certain your first people go into the right
tracks that complement your strategy.

What is a good allocation for the econo-military strategy? You start the
game with 2 farms, 2 mines, 1 lab, and 1 infantry. I like sending the
6 workers that you can create without requiring more than 1 happiness to
go to mine (1), lab (1), opiate [temple, theater, arena, or discontent]
(1), infantry (1), and cavalry (2). Obviously this is just a roadmap,
it doesn't mean you are committed to this allocation. But if I can get
Alchemy, Knights, and Iron (the three most important Age I techs for
this strategy), you'll rarely find me doing anything else.

Why is this such a good initial allocation? By having only 5 workers in
mining and farming, you rarely have to worry about corruption, giving
you civil action flexibility -- you're not forced to spend actions on
consumption instead of taking a good card. (You also don't need to worry
about winning blue tokens.) Putting 2 workers in alchemy labs generates
4 science a turn, which is enough to play 1 Age I tech a turn, and sets
up you for the bargain upgrade to Computers and the super-powerful leader
combos associated with them in Age III. And finally, dedicating 4 people
to military will put you on the optimal path for military domination,
described above. It will tend to ensure that you will benefit from
political events and be able to conquer colonies to grow your civilization
without making you fall grossly behind in the military rankings. Finally,
at the risk of running into Rebellion, you don't even need to build an
opiate early -- you just leave that guy hanging around, discontent, and
so you invest that rock for something that pays more immediate dividends.
(And if the free Temple Age A event comes up, so much the better!)

Note that there is no room in this roadmap for libraries, and only
barely enough for one theater/arena (only if you don't get the free
Temple) Libraries and theaters reward you with culture, but expand
your footprint and make it harder for you to conduct an efficient,
lean military strategy. I think the culture they give is not enough
compensation.

Also, note that you'll need to focus a little on food from non-farming
sources, so that you can get the 6 guys out -- it's a little slower when
you enter the 2 happiness box and start producing just 1 food/turn --
but the 4th military guy will be worth it in Age II.

In order to reach this allocation, I usually build a mine on turn 2
(the first turn you can build), and a lab on turn 3, to get the rock
and science flowing. If you're working on an early wonder, work on
finishing that next. I try to discover at most one civil technology
(hopefully Alchemy) before a military technology (hopefully Knights, but
Swordsmen will do if you drew an Infantry-only tactics card). Make sure
you spend all of your people and at least half of your rock on military
after the lab and wonder. You should then be in the military lead or
2nd as the Age I events come out.


Benchmarks

As I've played more games of TTA with this strategy, I've settled on
"benchmarks" to determine how I'm doing in a particular game. In general:

just before end of Age I, you should have:
* 9-10 strength (2 medieval armies, or a phalanx plus a knight)
* 6 workers popped (less if you won a colony)
* 4 science rating (2 if no alchemy or university)
* 3-6 rock / turn (and consider building a 4th miner if you lose
out on Iron)
* 0-1 culture rating
* 0-1 happiness

Just before end of Age II, you should have:
* 20-25 strength (more with Napoleon)
* 8-9 workers popped
* 6-8 science rating (3rd alchemist, not sci meth)
* 6-9 rock / turn
* 1-2 culture rating (more with Cook)
* 7-8 civil actions
* 4-5 military actions
* 1-3 happiness

At game end, generally you should have strength in the 30+ range,
more with Air Forces. Remember that there are many different paths
to victory from the late Age II point -- but the early setup is
usually similar to what I've described earlier.


Strategy Card analysis

Now for a card-by-card analysis of the civil and military cards --
dependent on their value for my strategy. I freely admit that cards
like Shakespeare and Hollywood may be good in other strategies, but for
this strategy, they are terrible.

My assessment of the cards follows in context of the strategy above (using the following scheme) :
**** get it if you can! (not for 3 CA early -- nothing is worth 3/4 early)
*** usually take for 1 CA, sometimes for 2
** sometimes take
* rarely take, only in certain specific situations
0 never take


Leaders
A leader is a dealer in hope.
-- N. Bonaparte

The most important card in your civilization is your leader card.
Your leader encapsulates much of your relative advantage, and if you do
not take advantage of your leader's strengths, you will lose. It's not
necessary to have a leader in play at all times - but I would make getting
a good one a high priority. The leader cards are much stronger than
the other cards of that era, so just because Homer's 10 culture is much
better than the 6 from Age A Work of Art, Cook's 4 culture/turn is better
than Opera's 3/turn, doesn't mean he's worth getting. Another leader
may come by who is even stronger for your position.

It's my opinion that the leaders are not well-balanced. Certain leaders
are clearly inferior to the others, and other leaders are simply not
appropriate for the strategy I describe above. Here are my opinions on
the relative rankings of the leaders:

AGE A)

CAESAR **** My favorite Age A leader. Caesar gives you a 50% boost
in military actions, the most underappreciated asset. In a 4p game,
Age I tends to take around 7-8 turns, so he's worth around 6-7 military
actions before he dies, and those actions translate directly into cards
(most of the time you should not play early aggressions, you need the
cards more). ~25% of the Age I deck are good tactics cards, so you'll
see 1-2 more good tactics cards than you would have seen without him.
Getting one of Medieval Army (IC), Phalanx (IIC), Legion (III), or in
a pinch, Fighting Band (II) is critical for your civilization when the
Age I events start coming out.

Caesar also increases your military hand size from 2(4) to 3(6). This is
great for providing flexibility in holding defense and tactics cards
until you see which military techs you are able to get. Meanwhile, he
also provides that +1 strength bonus to make it even easier to benefit
from events.

Finally, Caesar lets you see more events, and that helps you make better
decisions. Rebellion is in your hand? Don't play it, and don't bother
building an opiate until the Age II events enter play. Rats is in your
hand? Now you can pop events without worrying about losing all your food.
And, of course, all the events that help military leaders/hurt military
trailers should be played.


ARISTOTLE **** Another great leader--he's always taken in every game
he appears. He gives science when science is scarce -- your science
rating will not be higher than 2 until you get Alchemy or the Press, and
you're not guaranteed to get those early. Unlike Caesar, everyone seems
to appreciate his value, so I won't go into more detail. It's debatable
whether you should spend 2 civil actions to take either of these guys
(early civil actions are important!), but I will always take them for 1.
It's important that you not neglect your science production with Aristotle
-- the more production you have, the more techs you can play, and the
more you can use his ability. I prefer Caesar, but Aristotle is awesome.

MOSES *** A fun leader to play, but I think he's not quite as good as
the first two. Getting Moses means you can deviate from the roadmap I
described earlier -- the ability to pop out more people means you can
try some different strategies that include buildings such as libraries
and theaters. Personally, I'd probably still just shove the extra people
into Military, but at least you have options if there's an early Printing
Press and no Alchemy. Moses will generate around 6-7 food before dying,
making him well worth the civil action cost. He is the only leader who
significantly changes my approach to the early game -- it might be right
to take Printing and Theocracy with him. If you don't get the Gardens,
definitely take Theology or Bread & Circuses as happiness insurance
for all the people you're making -- with Moses, you will be needing
happiness early.

HOMER * - Not very good -- he generates culture at a time when culture
isn't very important. He does provide a 1 rock discount for military
building, but usually you don't want to your first rocks to go to
military -- you'd rather build mines, labs, or wonders. I might take
him if I had nothing better to do, but I don't think the 2 civil actions
you spend to take and play him are worth the 10 culture and ~2 rock.

HAMMURABI 0 - The flip side of Caesar, he loses 1 military action every
turn in exchange for a civil. Assuming you take him for 1 civil action,
you need to have him in play for at least 2 turns to see any benefit
from him. I love extra civil actions as much as anyone (Pyramids), but
this is a price too high to pay. Those lost military actions will make
it very hard for you to grow your military via builds and tactics, so any
gains you get from his extra civil action will be taken away by events
and aggressions. You can't win a TtA game through your early decisions,
but you sure can lose one by taking Hammurabi. He's well-known now as
a newbie trap amongst the players I play with.

ALEXANDER 0 - Terrible. He's usually worth 2-4 military strength, but
what good is military strength if you don't have the aggression cards,
or the actions to draw and play them? Much better to take Caesar's
guaranteed 1 strength and 6-7 cards, 2 of which are likely to be
tactics cards that can emulate the Alexander bonus. If some fool has
taken Hammurabi, Alexander might be *, as the Hammurabi player won't
have the military strength or cards necessary to defend against you --
but you're still not that likely to draw an aggression card (only 1 in
8 Age I Military cards are aggressions). I never take him even though
I'm espousing a military strategy -- I'd rather wait for an Age I leader.


COLUMBUS (early **) (late ***) - He's far better if he shows up
late, because then you know whether you have an Age I colony in hand,
and you could possibly draw a valuable Age II colony in one of your first
Age II turns, put it in into play on your next turn, and then ditch
him for one of the great Age II leaders. Obviously he's worthless if
you don't draw a colony, but my focus on gaining military actions and
drawing lots of cards makes him work well with my strategy.

FREDERICK BARBAROSSA ** - Not as good as he might appear to the military
player (Caesar is better), but he is helpful if you have been able to
stuff colonies in the event deck and you didn't get a good Age A leader.
He indirectly gives military actions by letting you spend civil actions
to build your military, so your ability to claim colonies is improved
because he lets you regenerate your army very easily. Still, I'd rather
have Caesar because I want the military action to see more cards.
I tend not to take him if I already have one of the big
three Age A leaders.

LEONARDO * - Not so good because early on you usually don't have a I
lab or library for the +1 sci / turn, and you don't generate enough
science early to get more than 1 rock/turn from his other ability.
And if he shows up late, then waiting for Newton is probably better.
** if you get early Alchemy and don't have a good Age A leader. ***
if you have Alchemy and the University, or some combo that gives you
enough science production to generate multiple rock/turn. (which I
managed to pull off once).

MICHAELANGELO * - I know this will sound like heresy to some of you,
but he's really not that good. To take advantage of his strengths,
you have to develop extra happiness to generate culture -- and that
happiness is not being used except for culture. Once he dies, you're
in terrible shape for Age III, where the game is decided and the vast
majority of points are scored. His one saving grace is St. Peter's, and
the fact that you can usually save 1 civil action from his wonder ability.
I think it may be theoretically possible to accumulate so much culture
from Michaelangelo with St. Peter's and Hanging Gardens that you can't
be caught from behind, but I have yet to be in a position to try it.
One star because I have taken him at end of Age I to help me grab an Age
II wonder and generate some culture in the process. I'd never consider
him if St. Peter's has passed by already or if I have a non-Hanging
Gardens early wonder.

GENGHIS KHAN 0 - Even though I'm a big believer in military, I've never
taken him. I think tactics cards are a far more dependable way to build
your military, and diversity in arms is important for tactics. All the
big Age II/III tactics cards require multiple unit types to function,
and Genghis makes you focus just on cavalry, which makes it really hard
to compete in Age III. He does give culture as compensation, but that
compensation is not enough. It's possible that Khan might be useful if
he *and* Knights show up early, and I lack an A leader, but I've yet to
see this specific scenario.

JOAN OF ARC 0 - +1 strength per happy from temples, which are a dead-end
technology (No Age III tech). You want to send your people to mil cards,
not temples. 5 culture if attacked? Better not to be attacked in the first place!
5 culture/aggression is nothing by the time the game ends.
You may argue that Joan may inhibit an opponent from attacking you, but
speaking from lots of experience as the aggressor, I don't care if I hand
out 5 culture per attack -- figuring out whether my attack will succeed
is more important. I suppose Joan may be helpful if you're clearly the
weakest civ and may gain up to 15 culture a turn if you're attacked by all
three of your opponents, but 15 culture is small consolation for getting
pounded on by everyone. (Last night, I saw a newbie to the game play
Joan and get 25(!) culture from her...and of course, he finished last
because he had no infrastructure.) You simply cannot lose too many aggressions
during the game, or you will not be able to compete in Age III.


NEWTON **** - Dropping techs for no actions is incredible, and unlike
Leonardo, you can get 2-3 science/turn from him (you can now go for
Journalism) to make it even more likely you'll be able to use his ability
-- sometimes multiple times in a turn. This will set your infrastructure
up very well for Age III. Not so good if he comes out late in Age II
though -- he's probably worth getting, but he'll soon be superseded by
one of the Age III heavyweights.

NAPOLEON *** - The leader everyone else hates to see. Most opponents
don't mind if you get Newton or Cook, but once you take Napoleon and slap
down a good tactics card, everyone wants to see him die from Iconoclasm
so they can live without fear. He even gives an extra military action so
that you can play those fun red cards -- and starting in Age II, those
cards are pretty sweet. Gaining around 8 rock/food and 20 culture is
roughly par for the course from him -- but that comes from a specific
opponent, not from the bank, so it's a double gain with respect to
that opponent. And if you get Air Forces, watch out as he quadruples
the tactics bonus! Sadly, he is not useful without good tactics, so
I'm reluctant to take him without an easily usable Age II tactics card
in my hand. But if you've been focusing on gaining military actions,
building a strong economy, and diversifying your military like I've
recommended, he'll be useful to you more often than not.

ROBESPIERRE *** - Gives a military action, which is great, and makes
it much easier to get even more actions early. If I get Robespierre,
Republic is now nearly as good as Const. Mon. The other leaders are
probably better, but an early Age II Robespierre + Republic (+3 civil
actions / turn and effectively 10 science) beats a late Newton (+1-2
civil actions / turn + 1-2 science). If an early Age III government
appears, it may also be worth revolting violently to that, as well,
so he's not a pure one-shot like Columbus.

COOK *** - The one non-Age III culture leader I like, because his culture
gains are tied to colonies, which are important for the low footprint
style I espouse. So it's quite easy to drop him into play and have
him start generating 6+ culture/turn. Then he makes it even easier
to get even more colonies, resources from those colonies, and culture.
If you get Impact of Colonies in Age III, it's game over. Obviously not
worth taking if you only have 1 colony, but he's almost always taken by
somebody unless the game is colony-poor.

BACH * - His power requires you to get a theater and invest in them.
Theaters are great point generators, but if you've built up as I've
suggested in Age I, I'd rather take Newton to supercharge your economy for
Age III or Napoleon to start cashing in on the culture banks of the early
culture players. If those guys are gone, Cook is not appropriate, and
I'm set for actions, then I will take Bach, because unlike Shakespeare,
he doesn't require much infrastructure set up to exploit him (in fact,
he makes it easier to set up his power) However, he's clearly suboptimal
for my strategy which does not focus on building an Age I theater.

SHAKESPEARE 0 - There's no denying that Shakespeare can generate more
culture than any other Age II leader with the right setup, but anyone who
is set up to exploit Shakespeare (libraries and theaters, which requires
a huge people footprint) is also set up to be the punching bag for the
military players. Avoid unless for some reason your Moses game set you
up for him.


EINSTEIN **** - Einstein is great for almost any game I play to this
point, hence the fourth star even though the next two leaders are stronger
with Computers in play. Combines well with First Space Flight and Impact
of Tech/Science/Progress.

GAME DESIGNER/SID MEIER/ALEX RANDOLPH *** - Age III is the best time for
culture, and he provides loads of it to anyone with Computers. Each lab
generates 4 science and 3 culture -- better than an Age III library,
and much cheaper (2-4 rock from alchemists, and no extra people needed).
He is one of the reasons why you should take Alchemy, so that you have
a natural upgrade path to Computers. Better than Einstein if you have
Computers, but not worthwhile if you don't have a high-level lab, which
can happen if the first Computers is picked off and the second doesn't
show up until late.

GATES/TESLA *** - A nice consolation prize if you went the Computers path
but miss out on Game Designer, the ability to generate ridiculous amounts
of rock usually allows you to build 2 Age III wonders, usually Internet
for 18-20 culture. You can also spend that rock on extra military for
some more wars on culture. In 7 out of 8 games, one of these three will
appear in the first half of the age, so you have options. Also realize
his power adds to Impact of Industry, so if you have that event, lean
in Tesla's direction.

ELVIS/ROCK&ROLL * - Not terribly useful for my strategy, but he's very
easy to set up in case for some reason you get jobbed and can't take
one of the top three. Also, happiness may be an issue at this point.

GANDHI * - If you've been following my strategy, you don't want, or
need Gandhi. Now is the time to be playing aggressions and wars, or
threatening them! The only exception is if for some reason you never
drew an Age II tactics card, and Gandhi shows up early -- then he might
be viable. ** if you're in a 2p game and have a strong Napoleon in play
-- then you don't want an Age III leader and are just taking Gandhi to
keep him out of the hands of your opponent.

CHURCHILL 0 - Again, not a leader that suits my strategy, he's more for
your opponents. Too bad there's only one of him, and he doesn't give
culture so they're not going to be that pleased with him.


Note that in each of the late ages, my strategy allows me to pick from
a wide variety of leaders, so I'm not hosed depending on a particular
leader. Just make sure to get an Age II or Age III leader -- the Age
I leaders are not worth keeping around.


Wonders of the World
He who can no longer pause to wonder, is as good as dead.
--A. Einstein

There have been a lot of articles debating the merit of early wonders.
I think building an early wonder can time out really well -- usually
in Age A, there is a flood of extra rock from events, and you simply
do not have the actions to spend them all through non-wonder channels,
so you shouldn't see the "6 rock for the pyramids" as much of a cost.
That being said, I think a lot of the early wonders are not worthwhile,
especially the Age I ones, and I'm fine waiting for an early Age II wonder
as my first wonder. If I do build an early wonder, I often don't build a
second wonder until Age III. The extra cost of having too many wonders
can be a real drag -- I usually want to retain the ability to build two
Age III wonders without spending too many actions.

One aspect of wonders that hasn't been really discussed is that while
they do not increase footprint, they are not easily upgradable. Say a
wonder gives you science (library, university). It's far better to have
a worker giving you science, because that worker can be upgraded later,
for a substantial discount. Thus, I prefer to take wonders that give
assets that are not easily upgradable, such as civil actions, or the
Age III wonders which are just pure culture.

All of the Age I and II wonders are of course influenced by the time
component (an early wonder is better than a late wonder).

PYRAMIDS **** - By far the best of the early wonders. You can almost
always get it down by turn 5 if you build a mine on turn 2 (I prefer to
build a 2nd lab on turn 3), and that gives you 13-15 extra civil actions
that will more than repay your early investment. No culture, but I find
the 10-15 culture "handicap" not very meaningful -- a winning score
is usually in the 150-220 range, and you can usually pick up culture
indirectly from all those extra civil actions.

HANGING GARDENS *** - It gives happiness and culture, the two worst
early assets -- but the first happiness point is great (the second one
less so). Unlike the next two ancient wonders, that extra happiness
will be quite useful in Age II-III, which is why it gets an extra star.
(This is the wonder you least want to be affected by the Ravages of Time.)
Getting the gardens means you can change your allocation roadmap by
not sending a worker to an opiate, but to something more productive
(probably a 3rd farm). The culture is a substitute for the temple you
would have built. **** with Moses, who needs the happiness more as he
can pop out workers to a deeper footprint than I espoused earlier.

COLOSSUS * - I don't like it -- military strength is not an asset you
want from a wonder, because you need to upgrade it throughout the game.
The +1 colonization bonus probably helps for one colony in the entire
game, at best. Its saving grace is that it only costs 3 civil actions
(1 to take, 2 to build). I'll generally pass on it, though.

LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA 0 - Awful. It takes way too many civil actions to
build in return for marginal benefits, and you'll have to worry about
corruption while it's building since you usually can't build it all in
one turn. (Discovering Masonry to build the Library saves no actions
because it costs at least 2 CA to take the tech and discover it, and puts
you in a bad position for later ages -- I'd much rather get Architecture
or Engineering.) Unlike an alchemist or a printer, the library cannot be
upgraded later for a discount. I'd much rather go for an early lab
tech than take the library. I don't really need the hand limit expansion,
either -- my early play is focused on gaining actions, and that also
expands hand limit. * with Aristotle -- increasing the civil hand
limit lets you take more cards to activate his bonus, and it increases
science production so that he can spend those cards he takes, faster.
Also * with Hammurabi, but you've already lost by taking Hammurabi.


UNIVERSITY CAROLINAS ** - While I prefer to pass on science wonders
theoretically, it's often difficult for me to get science rating
past 4 in Age I because I'm not a big believer in the Printing Press.
The university then provides a 50% bonus without increasing footprint,
so it's worth considering if I didn't get an Age A wonder and there's
an Engineering Genius around. An EARLY university can be ridiculous.
I once was able to use both Engineering Geniuses to build the University
on turn 5 for 4 total rock (insetad of 9). Coupled with early Alchemy
as well, I had science out the wazoo, and essentially scienced my way
to victory (with help from Napoleon to fight off the bullies).

ST PETER'S * - Happiness and culture, early. But unlike the gardens,
you need to have a happiness infrastructure in place to take advantage
of it. Pass. One of the rare early wonders that does get better with
time, and works well with the Kremlin. **** with Michaelangelo as leader,
obviously, but I normally don't take him.


GREAT WALL 0 - I've never taken this wonder, and don't plan to any
time soon. 9 rock and 5 civil actions is too much for a 2/3 Alexander
+ temple. The Wall would be more interesting if it halved the tactics
card of any civ that aggresses you, but as it stands, the bonus from
units is really small compared to a good tactics card, and it can't be
doubled by Air Forces or Napoleon.

TAJ MAHAL 0 - I don't think I'd ever take it in 4p against good
opposition. 8 rock and 4 civil actions for an unupgradable Opera that
doesn't even keep people happy, when you should be working on improving
rock, science, and military? No thanks. Even if it comes up early in age
I, the 35-40 culture you get from completing it early is not going to be
worth the pain of getting pounded by the strong economic/military players
in Age II-III. Octavian said it best, you're just establishing a culture
bank that's open to a withdrawal by one of your militaristic opponents.


OCEAN LINER SERVICE *** - Very good coupled with a blue construction tech,
it means you don't have to worry about food for the rest of the game.
You can achieve a similar effect by building high-tech farms, but you
still save on civil actions (and rock/science to discover/build the farms)
using the Liners. It's even better if you haven't invested anything into
food techs already -- it's a huge patch on a big weakness of your civ.
* without a Construction blue tech -- it costs too many civil actions
to build otherweise.

TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD ** - It's ok, because it can provide a
nice boost to military and rock, and it improves the rock over time.
But I'm not going to go out of my way to build it unless I really need
the strength.

EIFFEL TOWER * - Essentially a 13-rock movie that doesn't allow for
multiple workers. I'd rather take and play the movie tech in Age III,
which can get discounts from Architecture/Engineering, and allows for
multiple workers to make up for the slower startup.

KREMLIN * - While happiness is not very important, you certainly don't
want to send yourself to the unhappy side of the track. It does give
good culture and actions, which are very valuable -- but I prefer to
get them through science/government and Age III wonders when my rock
production should be hitting its stride. ** if you managed to get
Organized Religion early, or if you have no happiness and are running
your economy with just discontent workers. (it doesn't subtract if you
have no happy faces to lose).


FIRST SPAC FLIGHT **** - The other essential wonder, this bad boy can
easily give out 30 culture if you've been focused on science like I
usually am.

FAST FOOD CHAINS *** - Almost always worth around 20-24 culture. ****
if you went heavy on food early and have lots of people out.

INTERNET ** - I usually have the labs, but not the libraries, so I rarely
can get more than 20 from this.

HOLLYWOOD * - Rarely worth taking given that my early allocation doesn't
include libraries and theaters, but it's possible with Tesla to switch
to movies late, build them, and then have enough rock left to build
Hollywood.


Technology cards
640K ought to be enough for anybody.
-- B. Gates


Most of the value of the Age II and III technologies are highly
dependent on whether you got the preceding technology and when they
appear on the track. If you have the previous tech, then it's rarely
right to upgrade one level of tech. If they come out early in the age,
they are more valuable than if they come out late in the age. As such,
I will confine most of my discussion to classes of technologies and the
corresponding Age I tech.

FARMS (Irrigation **) - I'll never take Irrigation for 2 CA, but I'll
frequently take it for 1. It's not one of my top priorities to put in
play, but if Rats hit, you need this as insurance. However, I prefer
not to play Irrigation, instead waiting for Breeding. This allows me
to set up the 2nd stable footprint point within the 3-4 happy box for
just 2 farmers, rather than 3, saving a population. I really don't like
going above two farmers -- I have better things to do with my people.
If I am unsuccessful with getting yellow tokens or the Liners, then I'll
make sure to get the Age III farm so that I can generate 7-8 food / turn
and pop out at least 1 guy / turn. Food may be less important than rock
in my strategy, but you cannot ignore it!

MINES (Iron ****) - One of the best Age I technologies, the only reason
I don't think it's the best is because the science cost is prohibitive,
and you usually can't spend all that extra rock on something meaningful
that early (most of the Age I wonders suck.) Iron is the card that most
frequently sticks in one's hand for a long time. While this violates
the principle that you should try to deploy the assets you take as
soon as possible, a game without Iron is annoying, so you may want to
give yourself the ability to build it at some point. If you fail to
gain Iron, you should think about getting blue tokens to compensate.
I think it would be very hard to win a game with just Bronze. If you
lose out on Iron, I'd take Coal for 3 CA (when you can afford to do so).
I rarely go to Oil. Probably it's because I either have Tesla or Coal,
or am busy setting up culture streams in Age III. There are plenty of
yellow cards giving 4 rock in Age III so I don't feel the need to get Oil.

LABS (Alchemy ****) - The best Age I technology, it doubles your science
output in most cases and thus allows you to discover technologies
twice as fast, and it puts you on the track for Computer cheesiness.
I'll always take it for 2 CA early, but I'll never go 3. I rarely take
Scientific Method with the plan to play it, I just take it as insurance
if Computers get picked off by my opponents. Similarly, I'll always pay
3 CA for Computers (****) if I have 2-3 labs entering Age III (which is
my normal setup.). Once you're generating 15 science a turn and either
9 extra rock from Tesla or 9 extra culture from Sid, the game becomes
a cakewalk. Also note that labs influence Impact of Architecture,
Science, Technology, and Progress directly, and almost all the other
Age III events indirectly. They are the power track of the game.

TEMPLES (Theology *) - Theology can be a good idea to cover your
initial happiness problems, as it allows you to use 1 guy to cover
2 happiness, rather than 1 via discontent. However, I would almost
never take it for more than 1 CA. In general Temples are a bad track
to invest in -- they are the only track without an Age III tech, and
it only influences Impact of Architecture / Happiness. I frequently
skip Theology for Organized Religion when I have a free temple,
because it's the most efficient opiate. (Team Sports is most
efficient for covering your happiness without a free temple,
but there's only one, so counting on it to show up in time is
not a good idea.)

ARENAS (Bread & Circuses **) - B&C offers an excellent
bang for the buck with happiness, but the later arenas just give large
amounts of happiness and pitiful amounts of strength. It's not a track
I'm terribly interested in. If I build a Bread & Circus, it's merely
to cover my butt after losing 2 tokens and needing lots of happiness,
so it's a good card to take and hope you don't have to build. Arenas do
directly influence Architecture, Happiness, Strength, and Competition,
but it feels to me that you're better off investing in military units
and temples/theaters rather than in arenas.

LIBRARIES (Printing Press 0) - Again, I'm an Alchemy/Computers guy.
I simply can't afford the extra footprint that an early Press requires.
I like the concept, and I'm sure they're great if your group is peaceful.
But given the choice between developing the press or developing military,
it's military all the time. Maybe * if Moses is your A leader - then an
early library is a viable option, especially if all the early labs are
taken before you can get them. I will try to take Journalism if I have
Newton and the people to spare, though, or Multimedia if I lose out on
the Computers rush. Late in the game, libraries are OK once you have your
economy up and running, but you simply cannot afford to start with one.

THEATERS (Drama *) - I'd only take and play Drama near end-Age I if I had
the extra science and rock to spare and the choice were between Religion
and Drama. Otherwise, it's always a pass for me. Later in Age II and
III, theaters become viable as you win yellow tokens, and if you're
not drawing aggressions. They're the best peaceful culture generators,
and you can really pump out a lot of culture in a short amount of time
with them. One of the other players in my group used 3 late movies to
"come from behind" that way -- but since movies cost a lot of rock,
he had to have his infrastructure in place first! Opera is also a nice
compromise between culture generation and ease of building.

INFANTRY (Swordsmen **) - I prefer to take Knights and Riflemen, but
Swordsmen are a must if you don't get Knights early. You want to stay
at the front of the military race, and Swordsmen provide a cheap and
upgradeable way to do it. Also important if you draw Infantry-only
tactics cards.

CAVALRY (Knights ***) - A great tech because it's necessary for the best
long-term tactics development, as described above. But if you don't
get either of those two tactics cards, they are a waste -- better to go
Swordsmen then and wait for Cavalrymen. I'll only go 2 actions for them
if I have a good Cavalry tactic in my hand or I need it to get back in
the military lead, and I'll never go 3 if I can help it.

ARTILLERY (Cannon ***) - I usually end up taking Cannon for 1 so as to
give myself tactical flexibility, but I also usually end up leaving it
in my hand unplayed, if I get a good non-artillery tactics card like
Classic Army or Shock Troops. That's ok, that's one less cannon for my
opponents to use in their tactics against me.

AIR FORCES **** - This card is awesome for this strategy. I can't
remember the last time I didn't want to take it for 3, because by Age III
I usually have gotten a good tactics card. And, there's always
N-1 or more
Air Forces in the deck, so it's quite likely you'll be able to take one.


MONARCHY * - In theory it's quite nice -- +1 CA, +1 MA for fewer
actions and science than it would take to play Code of Laws and Warfare.
However, when you factor in the fact that Monarchy is not a great end-game
government, it means that you'll be upgrading again later, spending even
MORE science, for a limited upgrade. I think it's far better to play
the blue techs in Age I and then get an Age II government, than it is
to play the governments from Age I and III and maybe a Age II blue.
True, Monarchy does give access to a 3rd urban (lab) early, but 4
science/turn in age I is enough, and you usually want to be spending
your rocks on military, not more science, after getting science to 4.
That being said, some players I respect think Monarchy is acceptable
in the right circumstances -- certainly an early revolution to Monarchy
for 3 science on an unattractive turn might be profitable.

THEOCRACY 0 - It does give the +1 MA, but its primary benefits are culture
and happiness, neither of which this strategy targets. Better to save
the science for Warfare or Strategy, which lasts for the entire game.
It's conceivably playable (*) with Moses as leader, though, as then
the Happiness will be much more useful. When taking this government,
you should plan an exit strategy by acquiring extra happiness beyond
what you immediately can use, or you won't be able to flexibly change
your government to a better one.

CONST. MONARCHY **** - The best government, problem is, everyone likes
it, so it always goes for at least 2 and you're not guaranteed to get it.

REPUBLIC *** - An acceptable consolation prize for losing out on Const.
Monarchy. Robespierre or Napoleon become more desirable with this
government; Newton less (since you're getting enough civil actions
anyway).

ALL AGE III GOVERNMENTS * - Only if for some bizarre reason you
were unable to take an Age II government due to some hoser taking both
Republic and Const. Monarchy, or if you have more science than you know
what to do with. Otherwise I feel they are too expensive for the benefits
they give. (The Age III governments are useful if you take Monarchy,
but if you follow my advice, you won't.)


MILITARY BLUE (Warfare ***) - I like Warfare (Caesar tech) because it
gives me the critical 3rd military action for all game. If I miss out
and also end up with Republic, then I try to take Strategy, or pray for
an early Military Theory. You really need at least 4 military actions
going into Age III with this strategy.

CIVIL BLUE (Code of Laws **) - Great effect (civil actions are always
incredibly valuable) but super-expensive -- usually you want to be
spending your first science bulbs on Alchemy, Knights, and Iron (and
possibly Warfare). Still, the fact that they add additional civil
actions on top of your government means they're worth picking up.
An early Justice System is of course the best bargain of the three (7
science is around 1 turn production when it appears; Code of Laws is
around 2 turns), but there's no guarantee it will show up early in Age
II, so I sometimes take and play Code if I missed the Pyramids and have
good early science. Of course, if you have Aristotle, you can afford
an early Code, so strive to get it (***) with Aristotle.

COLONIZATION (Cartography *) - Even though getting colonies is important
for my strategy, Cartography is a luxury at a time when you need to be
spending tech on more powerful assets such as better science production,
rock production, military. I'll usually pass on Cartography and shoot
for Navigation, which provides a nice +3 bonus to help you win colonies
for just 1 unit (optimal).

CONSTRUCTION (Masonry 0) - Since I'm not fond of most of the Age
I wonders and urban buildings, I never feel the need for Masonry.
I do think one of Architecture or Engineering is a must, because they
provide a great rock and action discount for those expensive but yummy
Age II-III urban buildings and wonders. Note that with Engineering,
upgrading an alchemist to a computer gains 3 science for only 2 rock!




Yellow Cards
You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.
-- M. Robespierre

Although the yellow cards are less powerful than many of the cards
in the row, you can't win Through the Ages without taking some of the
yellow cards. The yellow cards play an important role in increasing
production to meet with extra consumption. They are highly valuable for
the players with extra civil actions, who can consume more. In general,
you should compare the production of the yellow card to the production
of your civilization. If it's equivalent to half a turn of production,
I generally feel it's worth taking for 1 CA. Sometimes 2 if the production
is in a sore spot, like food.

BOUNTIFUL HARVEST *** - Quite useful for a low-food strategy, the
ability to generate food out of nothing can be a life-saver, especially
after Rats.

BREAKTHROUGH **** - The best yellow cards in the game. You will be
discovering techs, so they not only give significant amounts of science
(the scarcest asset early), but they do so at the cost of just 1 (extra)
civil action. Thus, it's often worth taking them for 2...and always
worth taking them for 1.

EFFICIENT UPGRADE *** - Very useful since you will definitely be upgrading
at some point in the current or following age. Always take for 1 if
you have a spare civil action.

ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS * - Could be useful since most of the time you're
playing from behind on the culture track, but usually it's more efficient
to get culture elsewhere.

ENGINEERING GENIUS A *** - The best Age A rock discount, it's a great
card if you have an early wonder to work on. 0 obviously if you didn't
get a good wonder.

ENGINEERING GENIUS I-III * - I rarely find myself taking these because
I'm not too interested in wonders after early Age I. Later on, you're
usually better off saving actions with Architecture/Engineering, not
rock from the Geniuses.

FRUGALITY *** - A good, action-efficient card that caters to food.

IDEAL BUILDING SITE *** - Always worth taking for 1, you'll usually end
up building at least one new urban building per age. The Age A Ideal
Building is particularly good, for it lets you build your second lab
before your third mine, essentially a trade of 1 rock for 1 science.

MINERAL DEPOSITS *** - Even though they aren't action-efficient, they
are usage-efficient -- you don't need to jump through any hoops to get
the extra rock, and you can usually find a reason to make and spend
extra rock. And the "virtual rock" can help with emergencies without
corrupting you.

PATRIOTISM (A-I **) (II-III ***) - Rock for military units, and they
also save a military action to boot (in return for a civil). Think of
it as reverse-Hammurabi + Homer in action. The civil cost is steeper
pre-age II, but negligible once you get your Age II government, hence
the difference in ratings.

REVOLUTIONARY IDEA A * I-III *** - Science is great -- the breakthroughs
are more action-efficient, though. But usually I'm reluctant to take the
Age A revolutionary idea as 1 science is really not that meaningful --
I can usually spend two actions to increase it permanently.

RICH LAND A ** I-II 0 - For the most part, I never build a mine or farm
after turn 2, so these cards are worthless to me unless part of the turn
1 draw.

WAVE OF NATIONALISM 0 - This is a card that you shouldn't need to use --
you should be among the military leaders, not the trailers.

WORK OF ART A-I 0, II-III * - These yellow cards are not worth the early
actions to take and spend. Later on, they're ok if you have nothing
else better to do.


Military Cards
"To the strongest!"
-- Alexander

A few comments on some of the most important military non-tactics cards :

BARBARIANS - a small reason to avoid early culture. You don't have to
worry about this event.

DEVELOPMENT OF MARKETS - When given a choice of 2 food and/or rock, tend
to take enough food to get you another guy, as rock will be plentiful
under this strategy. Exception: gets you a wonder 1 turn earlier.

DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGION/WARFARE - The primary reason to leave workers in
the pool early. Ideally it would be better to have no workers in the
pool, so that they're busy producing something for one extra turn, but
in practice the chance of getting 2-3 free rock and an action outweighs
that marginal gain.

EMIGRATION - The key reason to develop happiness in Age II. Usually you
have enough time to do it before it appears, though.

FERTILE TERRITORY -- Try to seed this in the first chance you get.
It provides food and yellow tokens, which are excellent for this strategy.

ICONOCLASM - It's nice to know whether this card is out there or not.
This is usually seeded by the opponents of Napoleon and Cook.

INHABITED TERRITORY -- Another important colony to seed (yellow tokens).

OPEN BORDERS AGREEMENT - Make sure to ask a civ with less than 3 military
actions. It's risky, but I find it's worth the risk to ask and to accept
if you don't have 3 military actions. Note this pact does NOT auto-cancel
upon attack.

RATS - This card is probably the most important event to plan for.
If you draw it, great. I actually like to put it in if I get it late
in Age I, it usually damages the other civs more if they're not prepared
for it and you are. If you don't, you need to make sure your civ isn't
dependent on popping a guy this turn before playing an event.

REBELLION - Critical to see if you can get away with discontent workers
in Age I, as it's the only Age I card that punishes discontent workers.
If I draw this card, I often have two discontent workers in early Age II.

SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION - Only accept (or propose) this pact if you're
close or better in science rating than your partner. Usually that will
be the case in this strategy, but I've seen plenty of players accept
without thinking through the consequences.

STRATEGIC TERRITORY - A good colony to seed as well, because the winner
draws military cards. This is usually the weakest colony to win unless
you have a dominant military, so bidding won't be as fierce for this
colony as others. But for the dominant military power, the more cards
they see, the more aggressions and tactics they pick up.

TERRORISM - Unfortunately, at the point it comes up (Age III), you don't
want to be dead last in culture.

TRADE ROUTES AGREEMENT - I prefer to be the player who can use rock for
food, since usually it's easier for me to generate rock than food. It's
also more flexible when you need to spend blue tokens to avoid corruption
-- it can help you reach the next breakpoint for spending population.
Turning food into rock is only helpful for avoiding corruption if you
have a worker in play. (If I am Moses, I'll go food for rock, though.)


Conclusion
"I know that many will call this useless work."
-- Leonardo

And there you have it, the outline of an economic-military strategy.
I don't claim this strategy to be the ultimate path to victory. Rather,
I think after enough people are familiar with this outline, the group
perceptions of certain cards (Alchemy, Printing Press, Knights, Caesar,
Michaelangelo) will change and the game will enter a more balanced state.
(Sort of like how a proper valuation of jesters in the Princes of Florence
leads to a better game.) I also confess that my group is biased towards
mines on turn 2...it's possible there is a more powerful
strategy based
on building a farm on turn 2. So far, I haven't felt the need to change.

Of course, strategy must be supplemented by tactics -- you will probably
have to deviate from my suggestions during the game, especially if your
opponents also value the cards in a similar fashion, or if you draw Moses.
But I think by following the general outline, you'll be able
to see for yourself why I feel that many current strategic discussions seem
misguided. Thanks for reading, and I hope you will be able to take some
of my ideas and apply them in your next game!

Eugene Hung
eyhung@gmail.com

More great strategy stuff! Keep it coming!


Why do you assume this?


While I don’t necessarily disagree with your wonder ratings (Pyramids and Hanging Gardens – merely to avoid making a temple - get the most play in our group), you are over-valuing the actions. Pyramids costs 1-2 CA to take, 3 to complete, and adds 1 per additional wonder (let’s count that as 2). So if completed on turn 5 in a 19-turn game (our average), it only gives back 7 extra actions. While that is nothing to sneeze at, I usually prefer the footprint-lowering Hanging Gardens + Code of Laws (or Monarchy) combo.


This has come around in favor in our group. It’s very powerful and is the only wonder that pays for itself in extra stone. Also, 5 strength is still 5 strength. With your build-2-Age-III-wonders strategy, I am surprised this is not on your list of to-dos. I’d much rather have this + game designer than Tesla.


While you obviously never want to either get behind or be a target in 4-player, this can be insanely good in the right circumstances, Octavian’s pronouncements notwithstanding. The right circumstances being early Age II and you have 2 Engineering Genius cards in hand. If you’ve got production and free stones, put it to good use, no? I’ve gotten over 40 points with it before for virtually no production cost. Also, remember the small footprint? “Free” culture for no science and no pop cost…


I might consider this a major haul for a military-minded civ. You can quickly replenish sacrificed troops. Extra sacrifices mean more culture/stone/whatever from successful wars/aggressions, although I could be wrong. I’ll admit to taking this usually because I have really messed up my food production.


I consider the Age I/II cavalry to be one of the most important techs in the game. All of the good Age II tactics need Cavalry, so you want to ensure you’re getting yours. I will always take Knights if I can, but may or may not play it depending on when Age II cav comes out. Age II cav is better in that it will also work with Age III tactics, which is where the big money is. Although if you get Classic or Napoleonic Army, you can keep Age I cav in play for a bit and benefit from Napoleon’s extra strength.


These cards are great because they usually have huge discounts. If your opponent is not picking them up, you can scoop them for 1 action and then build that Age II wonder just by paying a few civil actions. Obviously, you'd need the actions to make this work, but if you've got 'em, flaunt 'em.


I disagree mightily here with your assessment! These (including Military Build Up) are vital cards to take, for divergent reasons: 1) You want to avoid letting opponents get these cards as they can be a big boon to a weak opponent who uses them to build up quickly, and. 2) Having this card as the leader makes you even more fearsome as you can afford to sacrifice expensive units and then completely rebuild on your turn. Perhaps this is a 2-player dynamic, but this is often one of the most important cards to take, even if it doesn’t get played.

Nice articles Eugene. I agree with almost all of what you say, my biggest deviation is on your thoughts about Aristotle. While I liked him early on, I've lowered my opinion of him lately, mainly because he encourages bad habits. To get the most use out of him, you want to pull a lot of tech cards, but as you mention elsewhere it's inefficient to pull tech cards, but not use them for awhile, and even with Aristotle's bonus, you won't get all the cards down for awhile. I think if you do follow Aristotle, you want to emphasize the age I blue techs a bit, as their benefits go into effect immediately upon being played, letting you work on the next tech. When you play a non-blue tech card, you need to spend actions and resources to get use out of it, delaying the next tech card.

Lately, I've been wondering if, when following Moses, one should deliberately avoid an early wonder. I usually consider the cost of a wonder to be larger than obtaining similar benefits through other means, especially if you spread the cost of obtaining a tech card across two workers. The advantage of a wonder is that it does not use a worker, it has a small footprint, as you call it. Since Moses will be popping out workers fast and furious, you might as well take advantage of the cheaper cost of using workers. In addition, the actions spent building a wonder will delay creating and employing the workers, which can cause corruption awkwardness. I haven't deliberately tried this in the past, but I will next time I'm Moses.

Forget the culture, the 1 rock discount is Homer's main benefit! I usually create 3-4 of the level A infantry for 1 rock ea, then I upgrade them to the level I infantry for free. I put colonies into the military deck (if I get them) and will gleefully sac my infantry to grab a colony. Homer's weekness is a lack of military actions. Homer usually saves me 6-8 rock. The Hanging Gardens helps Homer. I would give Homer a ****. Homer is great because he lets you build your military cheaply. But you build your military slowly so he is more of a defensive advantage than a offensive advantage.

Agreed, although I think 4 stars is a bit excessive. If you had a leader that gave "+1 stone production each turn" he'd probably rate pretty highly. Homer's 2 culture per turn is just gravy.

Regarding Aristotle, you need to combine him with science production to make the most use of him. I think you also need to grab as many 3-cost cards as you can. You can take and play 1 per turn, which nets you 6-7 science. Try to get Alchemy or Printing Press down as quickly as possible.

I like to combine Moses with Hanging Gardens. The free happy faces enable you to maximize Moses' powers. You can make up for the production cost by building additional mines (since you have cheap guys and can afford a larger footprint).

Ben, I like your points, but I simply can't rate him as **** (MUST get for 1 and usually 2). As you pointed out, he's incredibly weak with the military actions -- he only has 2 a turn. If he spends them to activate his discount, he won't be drawing cards, and cardflow is really important. Roughly every 3 cards you draw will give you a useful tactics card (11) or a bonus card (6) (17/48), and even drawing events gives you great insight into how to play, plus a culture for
the ability to play an event. I don't think the 1 rock discount is worth it -- military, like happiness, is simply not important in the first few turns because you'll be going through the A events and most people won't have the ability to play aggressions. (Military becomes important faster than happiness, around the fifth turn.)

I suppose Homer is really nice with a turn 2 FARM rather than a mine -- now you should be able to get lots of people out and into the military,
with the plan to cycle via colonies. I will certainly have to give him
a try if I have already lost the leader lotto by t2, or if I can see that Warfare will be available early in Age I. But I simply don't think a scenario where he's useful is that common, hence just *.

Well I just won a 3-player game with Homer so I might be alittle biased. I went second. I got Homer and the rock for urban buildings card. Then on turn 2, I got the Hanging Gardens, built the 3rd ore, new worker and played Homer. On turn 3, I built a farm and warrior for 3 ore. I'm alittle fuzzy from there. I remember building another warrior and a lab. I got the swordsman card, then Iron. I did iron instead of swordsmen. I upgraded my mines then researched Swordsmen. By the time I was finished I had 3 Swordsmen and a Tactics card for a '7' strength. The highest strength was '8'. I had spent 3 unused workers, 3 ore, 3 tech, 1 civil action and 7 military actions to get that army. My opponents spent alot more. And the VPs I got for Homer were more than the margin of victory.

Alchemy is practically guaranteed in 2p as long as you value it highly
enough to take it for 2 (I do: I always take Alchemy for 2 unless my opponent has made the mistake of leaving two incredible cards in the 1 CA area). If your opponent takes the first Alchemy, he can't take the second, and you can guarantee taking it before it falls off. If you let the first alchemy fall to the 3rd space and the second alchemy appears in the 3 CA area, then yes, your opponent might take the second for 3 and hose you -- but in order for the first alchemy to fall to the 3rd spot, it needed to be on the 7th or 8th spot (assuming you took one or two cards), both of which are in the 2 CA area.

So the only real way I lose out on Alchemy in Age I is if I got two
incredible cards, and the second one appears at the wrong time, and
my opponents decides to waste 2 more civil actions to hose me. From
my perspective, I don't think it's a bad idea to count on having Alchemy in 2p.




The rock cost of an early wonder is not as great as it looks. You
usually get enough extra early rock from events/geniuses, you can't hold onto
that rock because of corruption, and you can't consume that extra rock without
people, which requires a strong farm infrastructure (which will not be in place
in early Age I). The only way to get that extra rock in play without people is
via wonders and upgrades. In early Age I, you won't have the tech upgrades
down yet, so wonders are the best outlet for that extra rock.

Now, granted, the Pyramids net around 7-8 civil actions over the course
of the game. But they also grant something else -- the freedom to avoid having
to take and play a BLUE CIVIL card. I almost always have a BLUE CIVIL
or pyramids in play by end of game, because the extra actions are worth the
cost. So the pyramids essentially "give" 6-7 science and 2 more civil actions
that you calculated by obviating the need for a BLUE CIVIL. (In fact, you
acknowledge this by saying you prefer Gardens + Monarchy/Code (6-9 science). I prefer Pyramids + a cheap Theology Temple (2 science, 2 or 5 rock if free
temple) or B&C (3 science, 4 rock).

Maybe you can get lucky and have an Age II govt come up early, but why depend on luck
when you don't need to? I don't know about you, but if a card came up on turn 1 that
said "13 civil actions and 6 science by end of game for 6 rock and 4 civil
actions", I'd take it pretty quick, and I'd certainly take it over "2 happiness
immediately and 13 culture by end of game for 6 rock and 4 civil actions"
unless I had a population-centric leader, because there are more reasonable ways
to get happiness than civil actions. It's not a game breaker, but
it's a very nice card to have.



I'm not locked into building 2 Age III wonders. I just like having
the flexibility to do so because I may end up with an early Tesla
instead of an early Sid (who is my preference). And if the Age II
wonder is late, I'd rather save my rock for an Age III wonder (you
want culture over infrastructure in Age III). This actually
happened in our Monday game -- the guy who took Railroad didn't
have it complete when FSF showed up (and thus lost it). Then,
once he got Tesla, he was 1 CA short when he wanted to complete FFF and Internet on the final turn. He didn't get Oil earlier, so the
Railroad cost him quite a bit. And I don't like spending 12 rock on non-upgradable strength. Better to save that rock to upgrade my military to Age II/III levels and an air force.



Assuming you mean early Age I, that's obviously the best-case scenario for the Taj. But in the same setup where I get both Geniuses early, I'd rather get the University, the Pyramids, or the Gardens, all of which provide strong infrastructural benefits that, in my opinion, translate to more than 30 (relative) culture by end of game. Yes, the University may not be out at that point, but I'm willing to wait for it. The geniuses act as virtual rock so I don't have to worry about corruption.

I will concede it's POSSIBLE that the Taj might be the right play,
if all three of your opponents have taken the wonders I mentioned
above, but you have taken the geniuses -- but I don't think it's likely enough to worry about.



It's a great card, ***, but it's not a must-get unless the tactical
situation dictates it. Compare to Air Forces, or Computers, or Const. Monarchy -- these are the cards I'm actively looking for.
Ocean Liners can be **** if you didn't get any farm techs, obviously,
but I usually get one. Sometimes you have gotten a good farm tech in place, or you have loads of yellow tokens. If that's the case,
better to spend the 12 rock on food/military/science or [late in II] culture generators [Opera]. I'm not averse to culture late, once
my food/rock/sci/military/actions are setup.

Another small thing I dislike about the Liners is that you only get 1 guy / turn ... sometimes it's nice to get 2. And you make yourself vulnerable to Impact of Agriculture. I prefer to be in a position where I benefit from most Age III events, so the final scoring is also going to be a nice pickup.






I can agree with this. I was torn between **** for Knights or ***.
Thing is, I've won without Knights and I felt I had too many ****
techs already. And it feels silly to stretch to 2 CA for Knights without a Cav tactics in hand. If all you get are II(I) in Age I and IIA tactics in Age II, you've just blown 2 CA for little benefit.
And usually you can grab a Cavalryman in Age II -- the players
who took Knights in Age I aren't going to be as interested. That
being said, taking Knights does improve your strategic flexibility, so maybe they're always worth 2. I'd definitely take Alchemy or Iron
over them if I didn't hold a Cav-using tactics card, though.




You're right. Again, my analysis comes from mostly 1p/4p games. ** in 2p -- this is a band-aid, not a long-term solution. By focusing
my infrastructure dev on military units and tactics, I don't care
if they have 6 extra rock in one turn -- I'm usually going to be
much farther ahead. Still, it's worth taking for 1 CA in 2p.

In 4p, it's a 0 -- I'm frequently in a military supremacy situation with respect to at least one opponent, so I don't care if my opponents take this card. Someone's still getting their brains beaten out (usually culture leader). A 6 rock band-aid is no match for someone
who has spent the entire second half of Age I and first half of Age II
preparing their army(ies).

But for the same cost in rock and civil actions (including the actions to raise the workers, and assuming you pulled the gardens for only 1CA), you can build 2 temples for the same happiness, but more culture. Plus the workers get the discount towards being upgraded, don't increase the cost of future wonders, and can be built as needed rather than having to be built all at once. If you have the workers, which you should with Moses, I'd rather use them than build a wonder

Building temples is to be avoided and my workers need to be doing other things.

Hmmm, I hate Temples and I'm not too fond of B&C! Both building types are inefficient. If I can avoid putting workers on either type of building till Age II or III, I am happy. The garden is a manned, level I temple. How valuable is that? Well at the very minimum its an extra worker (or two) to be used elsewhere. And my total happiness requirements for the entire game are in the 5-6 range, so thats 30-40% of my total happiness requirements. It all comes down to strategies and what comes available. The Gardens also provide synergies with other leaders where the pyramids don't. I think both wonders are good. I prefer the Gardens if I get Homer or Moses. The pyramids are slightly better otherwise. Actually, the pyramids, Moses and a early lvl I temple or B&C is good too.

Ben, as I explained in my articles, when I say I get Pyramids and an opiate, I build the Pyramids early but I don't get the opiate until I need to (usually early Age II), so the footprint that the Gardens save doesn't come into play for a while. Early happiness doesn't buy you much unless you have a population-centric leader like Moses or Homer. That's another reason why Pyramids > Gardens for me, since I like a low footprint strategy. For someone who prefers a high footprint strategy (Moses, t2 farm, etc.) the Gardens may be better.

I like Clark's thoughts on Aristotle and Moses. I still think Aristotle is a must-get if I miss on Caesar -- even a sub-optimally played Aristotle is going to be worth around 6 science, which is huge and makes me less dependent on getting Alchemy. But I can see Clark's point that
it's not without a (subtle) cost in mat efficiency.

Great article!

This is the strategy that I started out trying in my initial games, and therefore I have never played a game where anyone could get away with crap like theatres and libraries, except at the end.


I do like farm upgrade cards (irrigation is good, imo, though so is waiting for selective breeding), just not building more farmers.

Alchemy is definitely the most important card in Age I, followed by Knights and Iron.


For A leaders, I like getting either Aristotle, Moses, or Caesar, all are good, and then no age I leader (or, get Columbus). Then in Age 2 go to Napoleon, Robespierre, or Newton.


I also have found that getting an Age 2 government and no others is the way to go (unless I have Robespierre, then you can upgrade to a 3).

I may have to try Robespierre. He is the only leader I have never used (in nearly 50 games). But I have often felt hamstrung by my government tech, but was unwilling to change due to either the loss in science or civil actions.

I just can't let go of Cook/Shakespeare/Newton/Napoleon... and in a 2-player game, I have always chosen what's left of those over Robes.

Last 3-player game, at a critical point, I had one colony on my tableau and one colony in-hand, and both Columbus and Cook were on the card row. I took both of them in the same turn and played Columbus. On the next turn, I played my colony, and then played Cook. Subsequently, between Cook's colonization bonus, Navigation, and a well-timed Annex aggression, I ended up with 6 of the 8 colonies (another player had seeded the deck because he had built Colossus) and won going away, despite revolting to Monarchy in early Age I and never managing another government upgrade.

"Through the Ages is a civilization building game.

The goal is to develop your civilization, not AND to destroy other ones.

Military strength is just one the important aspect of your nation, as well as population, production or science.

It is up to you which aspect you will concentrate on, more or less, but you should not underestimate any of them while building your civilization.if you focus on one other than military you'll get your butt kicked

Victory is achieved by the player whose nation produces the most culturecrushes the other with a holy war during the game.

However, there are many ways to produce culturemilitary: through religion, literature or drama, by building wonders, by utilizing cultural persons etc. Considerable amount of culture can be gained even via wars or aggression.But napoleon with a good tactics card and air forces is best"

FIXD!

You'll be happy to know that I was FINALLY able to pull off the Napoleon/Air Forces/Holy War combo in our series of games tonight. But it was very near thing, despite dominating in military almost the entire game. This is probably the 4th or 5th game where I had tried to make this work. In this game, Air Forces just happened to show up on my turn so my opponent couldn't get it and I dropped Holy War for 3 MA, took Air Forces for 3 CA, played the tech and built one, bringing my total from 23 to 44 (vs 22). I went all in on Holy War for 64 vs 39 and wiped K down to 2 guys. However, she was still well ahead in culture due to half a dozen turns with Shakespeare, and it was penultimate-turn Culture War that finally shifted the balance in my favor.

Despite the success in that game, I will continue to argue against this as a default strategy. The variability of success is just too high to suit my taste. If Air Forces had not shown up on that turn, it would have been too late to play a war. If it had shown up on my opponent's turn, it would have been game over (the second was the last card). Once I had Napoleon in play, she was able to use Nationalism and a tactics card to ramp up military to where she'd win a war without me having Air Forces, by virtue of being able to sacrifice more.

I argue the success ratio for this is around 30% (60% to get Holy War as David established & 50% chance to pick up Air Forces before your opponent). Also, we did the math, and in this particular case, Cook would have been the better choice, since he came out early and 2 colonies were already in play.

The temples vs Gardens debate was assumiing you had Moses, where you often have excess workers early in the game. Otherwise, I would agree with you. However, your rock needs to be doing other things as well, and if you use 6 rock to build the Gardens when you only need one happiness, that's inefficient. You start losing out to someone who uses 3 rock for a temple, and three rock for a lab.

If it's just one unhappiness, why not just leave a discontent worker?

Then when you need 2 happy, build the gardens.

The Gardens can get built in the early stages when you just don't have that much to spend on and events that make the mines produce. You either to need to spend it quickly or get into corruption. One of my first two moves is either mine or lab, then maybe wonder.

If I get Gardens, then I can usually avoid making a temple altogether by getting happy faces from other sources, and maybe wait until an Age I/II Organized Religion comes out, if even then.

Well, I dont know that the Napoleon/AirForce/Holy War needs to be the default strategy. Its certianly one path to victory though (in 2 player at least).

I think the default strategy is: Build enough military to at least be about even with your opponent, and hopefully at least a bit ahead. Then you have the option later of either developing culture, or military.


The player who is ahead on military has the option of going for culture win or military win. The player who is behind must go for culture win while preventing military wins.

The military wins arent just Holy War. A massive war of culture can work too, as can an age 2 war of territory stealing a few worker tokens (followed by building culture with a strong economy while your opponent is crippled).


A player who is slightly ahead in military probably doesnt spend more than about 1 extra person on it, or acquire an extra military tech (or, just has a better tactics card). The other player might have one more culture producing building, but the military player plays events to equal that culture source, and then gians an advantage as events are drawn.

Often you can get into a position where you damaged your opponents infrastructure through military events and agressions, and therefore you have a military lead and an infrastructure lead. From there you can just win culturally, while they have to catch up in both areas.


Sean beat me this way last week. He gained a military lead in age 2, burned my two Age 2 libraries (crippling my science and culture production), and then went for culture production himself. I couldnt really catch up culturally so I went heavy into military, trying for a Holy war win. But Sean got Ghandi and I couldnt pull it off in time.

Well said, Alex. The Econo-Military strategy does not commit one to Holy War/Napoleon/Air Forces -- if it did, I would have given **** to Napoleon. (In fact, I have personally never gotten that exact combo.) It's designed to give you a flexible endgame, where you can win by gaining lots of culture through one of many paths (theaters, Cook, Sid, Gates, Einstein + FSF being five of them) because you have the infrastructure to take advantage of them. I merely highlighted the military path because if your opponents does not match your military buildup, you have a easy path to victory via military supremacy. I also did say a good leader (Cook) early is better than a great leader (Nap + supremacy) late. If a good leader for your position shows up early in an Age, take him -- better to gain moderate benefits early than large benefits late.

Also, it's quite possible you are not playing the strategy optimally. You said your opponent set up for Shakespeare and enjoyed 6 turns from him. Even assuming that it was just 1 Drama and Press, that's 7 science, 9 rock, 2 people, and 6 actions that your opponent spent on theaters/libraries that should be unmatched on your side. I could have used similar assets to achieve military supremacy by discovering Knights + Riflemen or Cav + Swords, and using the rock, people, and mil actions to build a 2nd Medieval Army/Phalanx or Conquistadors/Classic Army for supremacy in early Age II, and then leverage that supremacy into cultural dominance.

Instead, I find that the player with the infrastructure lead has all the options. If you build a small infrastructure lead in the beginning, that will snowball into a large lead later in the game which will result in landslide victories via either culture or military. Small things like extra food can change the game. That extra food results in an extra guy who goes on an extra mine, who upgrades my mines faster, who can get my food upgrades faster, who can build more people, who can work more labs/libraries, who produce more science, who get more techs, which can all be put in place faster, and so on and so on. In our games it is very rare that the Age I leader in military is the Age III leader in military.

We're writing polemics here, but it's all a matter of degrees. How far ahead is the other guy and what are the dynamics. It's not always a question of military vs culture, but rather military vs a host of other options.


My advice is in future games is to not be so afraid of seeding events. And to establish yourself so that you can react to colonies (food engine for replacing sacrifices, colony techs, high stone output, etc.) Of the Age I events, only 7 out of 21 directly benefit a stronger player, whereas 8 (likely) benefit the infrastructure player and 6 are colonies, benefiting the player who is prepared for them.

Even if you are slightly down in military, colonies can change the dynamic of the game. If the leader outbids you to take it, but is unprepared to replace his losses, now YOU are both the military leader AND the infrastructure leader!

I don't think anyone's arguing against infrastructure. In fact, Eugene consistently rates the science leaders the highest, and alchemy as the best Age I tech.

My experience is that a slight military lead (in 2-player) gives you more real benefit per turn (not including culture) than the tiny corresponding increase in infrastructure (again assuming you're going for real benefits, and not culture). Both are vastly better than getting some extra culture.

My experience with infrastructure is that you want somewhat balanced amounts of everything - science, rock, food, actions... If you're limited in one aspect, increasing the other ones has diminishing effects (though this applies least to food). Additionally, food inherently gives diminishing returns due to increasing food and happiness costs. Finally, the game rules limit science, but science is the aspect that's most useful on its own, and is very powerful and flexible.

The result of all this is that you want to max out your science and make sure to increase your other infrastructure to keep up, but past that it's often more effective to add to your military.

It only requires spending one additional worker on military more than your opponent to gain the military lead.

So your opponent has a lead of one piece of infrastructure, such as a mine, a farm, or a temple.

All it takes is one single event or one agression that screws the weak player to equalize this infrastructure lead. Now, the militarily stronger player has a military advantage without being in the hole on infrastructure.