Best time to kick off Golden Age? (Civ4)

[Ruff_Hi]

I'm playing a CFC based civ4 pbem game, I have the The MoM and I have just picked up the free Artist from Music. My land is pretty much full re cities (a couple of back fillers) and I have been chugging along nicely (#1 in score). I have just exhausted my gold supply but (tbh), most of my tech comes from my (representative) scientist specialists.

Q: Kick off a Golden Age straight off ... or delay? Are their any 'it depends' issues that I should consider?

[dtay]

Only personal thoughts on the matter, but timing a civic swap or pumping out a large army in a short period of time to kill someone are the two factors I usually think about. The extra GA commerce is usually of roughly equal value imo at any point in time but the hammers have a far higher variance in how valuable they are.

So if one of those two scenerios looks like it is going to occur in the near future (bureaucracy perhaps) might be worth delaying. Especially since bureaucracy itself makes the golden age boosts more valuable.

[von Adlercreutz]

GA also boosts GP generation and allows for switching to caste+paci (depending on your tech situ of course) so if you think you could use a couple of GPs soon, you should plan the GA accordingly. Cities which will starve during GA due to working a lot of specs or hammer tiles should have nearly full or full food bars.

For fast unit production you could use the free civic switching for drafting although that's anti-synergistic to GA; the tiles are better than normal so it hurts more to lose them.

[SevenSpirits]

Things you would like to do before the GA:

* Grow your cities. More pop means more benefit.

* Reach key civics like bureaucracy. You usually want to enter bureau asap, so that's a good time for a golden age.

* Build Moai statues. The golden age doubles their effectiveness.

* Prepare some cities to pump out gpp in caste.

* Do super-necessary whips, like granaries in fishing towns.

Other than that it's generally best to start the GA as soon as you can, because it lets you get ahead of the other players. Thats less true if you're not racing for anything like liberalism or knights or conquest of a neighbor. Often you compromise on one or more of the above items because you're at least partially ready for it and sooner is better. For example, you might start it right when you finish civil service despite being a few turns off moai.

[Ruff_Hi]

Thanks guys for the comments - seems that my game will benefit most from the GA in about 3-4 turns from now.

[LKendter]

I love seeing Civ4 still getting some mileage. I will admit I don't get here that much now since the adventures are part of what brought me here.