Continent Map Battles in Modern Age Are A Money Grab

[Plunder Queen]

Fighting the map is easy. Rolling through VF using FE troops. What’s hard is waiting 29 hours to scout the next province. Now answer me this. How come back in Iron Age it took me 30 minutes to scout a province... and I was walking! Now in AF, OF, VF it’s 24 hours plus... and I’m in some fancy futuristic craft that goes who knows how fast? Apparently not as fast as walking.

Probably because it knows it’s walking to it’s death and it’s whispering “Boost your attack GB’s while you have the chance. Save us.”

 

[Agent327]

Nothing in the game is a money grab. It is a free game that you can keep playing for free. Making the wrong decissions, so the only way out you see is to start using diamonds isn't a money grab. It's because you made the wrong decissions and are to impatient to take the time to correct them. It isn't because Inno desperately wants your money. Take responsibility for your actions and don't blame others.

 

[Pickleweasel]

If you want to produce era goods, you have to capture them on the Continent Map. What's sad about that is you can't even find those. Yet another frustrating part of this Era is the requirements for the goods buildings. I get the Convenience Food piece on the map, build it, and OOOPS, if you want to produce the higher level of goods, you also need to have an operational Coffee building in your city. There's some of these Modern Era goods buildings where I never found the piece for other required building. So how does that work?

You aren't required to find the boost on the map to build the related goods building. You can build all of the goods buildings from every era if you wish . . . it is just that you only get two boosts randomly on the map for that era to make those easier to manage. Plus, there is always the market to trade goods. Presumably they designed the game to give only 40% of goods boosts to each player to promote more use of the market feature.

 

[Emberguard]

I get the Convenience Food piece on the map, build it, and OOOPS, if you want to produce the higher level of goods, you also need to have an operational Coffee building in your city. There's some of these Modern Era goods buildings where I never found the piece for other required building. So how does that work?

Assuming this is correct:

Actually, the OP has:
Zeus:10,
COA:9,
ND:10,
OOD:10. Does have L9 Villa, Winners plaza and a few other event buildings giving a bit of boost.

[...]
GBs: You have 4. Most people tear down OOD long before modern, and most know not to build ND. So you really only have 2.
[...]

Your city would benefit greatly from stopping where you are and taking the time to build up a few Great Buildings. In my Post Modern city for the goods requirement of goods from lower ages I have Lighthouse of Alexandrea, Tower of Babel and Frauenkirche of Dresden. These from Modern Era onwards will always provide the unrefined goods needed to produce current age goods, and the output is doubled from Modern Era onwards. Those three GBs combined at Lvl 10 will provide 102 goods in Modern Era. You'll need to trade the goods as it's random which of the 5 goods it provides, but if you're constantly putting trades up and have a active friends list / guild then you should be able to get enough coming in to produce current age goods from techtree buildings

For fighting you would find it a lot easier if you also get a Castel Del Monte. Manually fighting would also help sway things in your favour

 

[BruteForceAttack]

You aren't required to find the boost on the map to build the related goods building. You can build all of the goods buildings from every era if you wish . . . it is just that you only get two boosts randomly on the map for that era to make those easier to manage. Plus, there is always the market to trade goods. Presumably they designed the game to give only 40% of goods boosts to each player to promote more use of the market feature.

What....yes but no....

One should never ever build goods buildings that they dont have boost...

Best way to make goods is probably not build any goods building...Do Reoccurring quests and make ton of goods.

 

[-Sebastian-]

I've already leveled those three GB. I have a Level now Governor's Mansion from the last event. I've purchased a couple of other buildings that gave me extra Attack/Defend, but haven't seen any other ways to gain attack/defend. That's the irony of this game. You can only go so far in a certain era before you run out of real estate. If you want to produce era goods, you have to capture them on the Continent Map. What's sad about that is you can't even find those. Yet another frustrating part of this Era is the requirements for the goods buildings. I get the Convenience Food piece on the map, build it, and OOOPS, if you want to produce the higher level of goods, you also need to have an operational Coffee building in your city. There's some of these Modern Era goods buildings where I never found the piece for other required building. So how does that work?

Here's a few questions:

• Have you placed all the diamond expansions yet?
• Have you placed all the victory (medal) expansions yet?
• Can you complete all 64 encounters of GE every week without a struggle?
• Do you have an Arc, and if so, what level is it?

And my short-short advice:

• Build an Arc, find a 1.9 list, take 4ths and 5ths to get more Arc blueprints, and get your Arc to level 80. Then you can spend your FP on the 1.9 list, and get a lot of FP in inventory, plus all the medals and blueprints you want. Learn how to get goods by doing recurring quests while spending FP, and learn how the CF can boost those goods.
• There's a limited amount of space, and an unlimited amount of stuff we could put there. Start prioritizing, and figure out what stuff in your city is "better" than other stuff, and gradually improve what you've got. I'd say the 2 most important things are attacking army boost (both attack and defense), and FP/day. Figure out which things give you the most effect in the least space, and try to get more of them. Try to reduce the number of roads you have.

Good luck!

 

[Ericness]

Honestly, you might be best off taking some time to learn a bit more about this game, then start over with a new city.

It may sound discouraging at first, but if you enjoy the game this is solid advice. I played my first city for 1.5-maybe 2 years before stalling out around Modern/Postmodern era from lack of resources and proper infrastructure. One day I decided to take what I learned, and start a new city which is now doing rather nicely. Some of my lessons:

1. Don't age up too quickly! It is important to spent time in each age at the very least to gather resources you'll need later on. You should have a solid stockpile of current age goods before moving on.

2. Invest in your own GBs and attack stats. Get your attack GBs levelled up. It will help you on the Continent Map sure, but more importantly it will make you competitive in GE/GbG. This is where you pick up the goodies (FP, goods, units, even diamonds) required to build your city up. I'm in PME now and have bought all available diamond expansions without paying a cent from my GE winnings. Don't neglect your goods buildings either for growing that surplus mentioned above.

3. Invest early in other player's GBs. Scan your hood for opportunities to grab needed a prints and to build your FP reserve (aka inventory FP packs). Guild threads can also help with this.

4. Find good guilds appropriate to your level. You want a guild that can help you grow but not require you overextend yourself on requirements you're not ready for. Plan to be in at least three guilds as your city grows: the newbie guild where you do basic aids, trades, and swaps to get your feet under you; the intermediate guild that starts getting you higher age buildings, GE/GbG engagement, and maybe 1.9 help; and then the advanced guild where you can get significantly more access to better players and buildings (with the expectation you can do more to help the guild in return).

I'm sure I left some stuff out, but off the top of my head this is what worked for me at least.

 

[Theodosius 2454 the Sly]

My friend, this is a game of patience (and luck of course). I am in LMA and I already have 165/130 attack and defense and that's not even bragworthy looking at players around me. I get that you are upset, I do too when I don't get the nice things I want haha.

A few things tho:

1. GB blueprints can be found by investing in your neighbours buildings. Also join a good guild and participate in 1.8/19 threads. Search on this forum and figure out what GBs are worth building. So it's not just pure luck, keen eye and smart investmenets and some socializing.

2. It is quite easy to fight 16 units with 25% a/d. In fact I just found 16 units with 83% attack bonus, in GE. And no I did not spend any diamonds in getting the BPs. Just a lot of time...some might say "wasted". But folks here might say "invested".

3. Continent map is the bare minimum. Take a look at GE or GbG, if you want to know what level of attack and defense bonuses are necessary.

4. For the guidelines, just google or search around in this forum. You are right, they dont appear magically, but if you ask nicely folks here will explain, as they did for me. And sometimes they write elaborate guides!

I would say stick in this era and work on building up your city. In fact you could make quite enough diamonds if you have a powerful city. Just pay for diamonds when you feel like you want to support the game. It's a game, so enjoy.

You must have had a LOT of luck to gain that much attack/defense just being in LMA. I've maxed my Zeus to Level 10, Castle Achen to 10, Governor's Villa to 9, Hippodrome, Yggdrasil Collosus 5, Classical Garden Pool, Statue of Honor 5 Winner's Plaza 1, Sentinel Outpost 1, Pirate Guard Post, and Sentinel Outpost 2, and I'm only at 105/87. The only other GB I see where I can earn another 30% is Castel del Monte, and I need 1 piece to finish that. Of course, I'd have to find real estate to build it on. Guess my error was not knowing the 'rules' of playing this game where you should park yourself in the lower Era's and build up these needed attack/defenses to move forward in the later Era's. But to that point, you have to either get lucky and find the pieces to build the GB, and also play these side games to get these other pieces that provide attack/defend.

Not sure what magic you possess where you can win battles against armies from higher Era's that attack with 16 units with 25%. I've tried every combination of my units and lose most of the battles. Not sure where you're at on the Continental Map, but you'll be unpleasantly surprised once you hit the Middle East map. I negotiated and battles out of the Philippines/Japan area, and just landed in I guess would be India, and battle units and negotiation units are from the CONTEMPORARY ERA, TWO era's past where I'm at in Modern. I have no clue how many of my guild members are in that Era or beyond, but it'll be difficult to trade with them when I'm still producing goods from the Progressive Era.

 

[Graviton]

You must have had a LOT of luck to gain that much attack/defense just being in LMA. I've maxed my Zeus to Level 10, Castle Achen to 10 ...

Luck has nothing to do with attack/defense values, that's all about gathering blueprints and spending FPs, to level your GBs and to acquire special buildings with attack/defense boosts. Also, Great Buildings don't have maxes: Level 10 is not the highest level you can take them. Keep going.

Guess my error was not knowing the 'rules' of playing this game where you should park yourself in the lower Era's and build up these needed attack/defenses to move forward in the later Era's.

That's an "error" a lot of people make, in fact it's probably the most common one. Don't sweat it, it's not too late.

But to that point, you have to either get lucky and find the pieces to build the GB, and also play these side games to get these other pieces that provide attack/defend.

Again: not a lot of luck involved, there are ways to maximize your chances. For instance, motivate/polish your neighbors' and guildmates' buildings from the Era of the GB you want prints for. That won't increase your chance to get a print but it will guarantee that when you do, they'll be prints from that Era.

Not sure what magic you possess where you can win battles against armies from higher Era's that attack with 16 units with 25%. I've tried every combination of my units and lose most of the battles.

That's a direct result of your moving too fast through the Campaign Map. I wasn't that great at fighting either, which is why I had to slow down and build up my attack and defense. An overwhelming force overcomes strategic and tactical shortfalls. So my advice is to forget about your Campaign Map for awhile and concentrate on getting your stats built up.

Read over the forum, and ask whatever questions you have. There's lots of great advice here.

 

[DevaCat]

You must have had a LOT of luck to gain that much attack/defense just being in LMA. I've maxed my Zeus to Level 10, Castle Achen to 10, Governor's Villa to 9, Hippodrome, Yggdrasil Collosus 5, Classical Garden Pool, Statue of Honor 5 Winner's Plaza 1, Sentinel Outpost 1, Pirate Guard Post, and Sentinel Outpost 2, and I'm only at 105/87. The only other GB I see where I can earn another 30% is Castel del Monte, and I need 1 piece to finish that. Of course, I'd have to find real estate to build it on. Guess my error was not knowing the 'rules' of playing this game where you should park yourself in the lower Era's and build up these needed attack/defenses to move forward in the later Era's. But to that point, you have to either get lucky and find the pieces to build the GB, and also play these side games to get these other pieces that provide attack/defend.

Not sure what magic you possess where you can win battles against armies from higher Era's that attack with 16 units with 25%. I've tried every combination of my units and lose most of the battles. Not sure where you're at on the Continental Map, but you'll be unpleasantly surprised once you hit the Middle East map. I negotiated and battles out of the Philippines/Japan area, and just landed in I guess would be India, and battle units and negotiation units are from the CONTEMPORARY ERA, TWO era's past where I'm at in Modern. I have no clue how many of my guild members are in that Era or beyond, but it'll be difficult to trade with them when I'm still producing goods from the Progressive Era.

Well, well, not quite a week now, you still haven't calmed down, and I don't see a focused question anywhere in that post. Just more whines, complaints, and justifications for your poor gameplay. You've been given post after post of good advice and information from well meaning people, and you have acknowledged nothing and no one. So I will be blunt.

In your op you say you need more space and only know two ways to get it -- by buying it (you refuse to use diamonds) and by getting expansions from the cmap. This reveals your ignorance as to how to play this game (hint: there are other ways), but rather than researching it yourself or asking about how to get expansions, you double down on your losing strategy of pushing the cmap. Good luck with that.

It's not just pushing the map. You don't seem to understand the refined/unrefined goods thing, or that playing those "side games" is in fact a good way to get stuff to boost your military, or that level 10 is not a cap for the two military GBs you have, or that they are woefully weak for where you are, or that not having the CdM is a huge mistake.

You've already been told how to get prints for that gb and if you're serious about fighting, you will chase every CdM you see for more. And as for no room to place it, delete or sell some of the crap that's in your city. I don't have to see it to know its there. That's all I'm inclined to say, anything more will just be wasted time I think.

 

[Lady Gato]

I see what you mean @DevaCat, some people mistake a chess board for a checkers board. Totally different rules.

 

[Emberguard]

Guess my error was not knowing the 'rules' of playing this game where you should park yourself in the lower Era's and build up these needed attack/defenses to move forward in the later Era's.

You don’t have to park yourself in a lower era (or any era), but it will effect how much resources you have before increasing game difficulty. The faster you go the harder the game is unless you can get a strategy going that’s able to provide resources faster then your progress. Choose what kind of game you want and approach FoE accordingly

 

[Theodosius 2454 the Sly]

Actually, the OP has: Zeus:10, COA:9, ND:10, OOD:10. Does have L9 Villa, Winners plaza and a few other event buildings giving a bit of boost.

But, and there is just no nice way to say this Theodosius: Your city is kind of a train wreck. You've made just about every classic newbie mistake there is, and you carried on making them all the way up to modern.
Tech rush: Yeah. You should still be in HMA or maybe CA. Modern is way beyond where you should be.
GBs: You have 4. Most people tear down OOD long before modern, and most know not to build ND. So you really only have 2.
Roads: Waaaay too many 2 lane roads, and parallel to 1 lane roads! Huge waste of space.
FP production: You don't have much. By modern, your daily FP production should be in the 100's. Are you even over 50?
Goods buildings: Too many. As BFA asked, do you do RQ's?
Happy buildings/decos: Major waste of space. Do you really need so many? 13 water towers? Really?
I could go on....

Honestly, you might be best off taking some time to learn a bit more about this game, then start over with a new city. Lots of good info here on the forum, and lots more on other sites we can't mention, but which aren't hard to find.
Maybe read up on Glarging. Lots of recent posts about that. It's a really good way to get a city up and running without spending any diamonds. In fact, you'll earn a bunch of free ones in the process.

Or find a mentor that will help you try to fix your city. But, honestly, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

On a positive note: I think you have successfully learned the wrong way to play this game (which is what led you here, claiming its all a money grab).
Now you just need to learn the right way. It's actually fairly easy to play this game without ever spending a penny, if you have a bit of patience and take the time to learn. For everyone else, there's Mastercard.

Sorry, don't know all the acronyms yet.
Too many 2-lane roads? They're required for 70% of the buildings I have. I use the 1-lane roads for the buildings I need for coin and goods production. Every Modern Era military unit requires 2-lane roads. I could probably rearrange everything again, but I try to keep all the buildings requiring 2-lane roads as close to one another as possible.
Notre Dame was one of the first GB's I acquired all the pieces to. Everything I've read is once you have a GB built, you shouldn't rid of it. Guess I have to see which building is OOB.
FP Production: Not sure how much I'm producing, but it's not a problem because it only took a couple of weeks to max out each of my GB's, and I'm close to maxing out all the needed FP's for the first line of the next era.
Goods buildings: Not sure how many are 'too much'. You need goods to build buildings. In the earlier stages I always ran out of goods.
Happy buildings/decos: I have too many now. Prior to building some of these new building won in the Quest, my happiness was always below 120% and I had to spend tavern coins to boost it. I'm over 20Know so I could get rid a lot of the fluff. The only reason I have so many is I had all these small holes in my city where I couldn't get a road to it so I just bought a bunch of these happy buildings to fill those holes to increase my happiness.

Now I'm finding that all the Modern Era production buildings need an accompanying building from a previous era (Convenience Food forces you to build a Coffee building to even produce without buying diamonds) just to produce anything of value. There's plenty of smaller produce building I wanted to build, but never came across the piece on the Continent Map to build it with maximum production.

I've played plenty of these kinds of games in the past (still playing clash of clans for over 5 years now) and I've never come across one where if you didn't spend days researching how the game 'should' be played, you'd get screwed over if you moved through the game at a certain pace. I shouldn't have to 'start from scratch' in a game I've been playing for over a year because I hit a wall due to how the game is designed. That's where the money grab comes into place. So I'm playing the game the wrong way because I was able to negotiate pieces in the Map and also win battles to get me where I'm at? Where else do you go to get the materials needed to maximize goods production if you don't get them off the Map? I never came across half the pieces on the Map for the goods buildings I have available to build.

I also think it's a crock that you have to battle against military that's one or two era's ahead of you.
Needless to say, if I can't go much further without jumping to the next era and it would be better to just start all over, I'll just find another game to play. I do this game for nothing more than a mundane respite to take my mind off of work and this COVID crap. I didn't start playing it to have to research and rack my brain to make sure I follow specific steps to move through it. If I followed your ideology, it would take 10 years to finish this thing. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

[Plunder Queen]

Just going to say this:

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

 

[Emberguard]

I shouldn't have to 'start from scratch' in a game I've been playing for over a year because I hit a wall due to how the game is designed.

Then don’t. Personally I don’t think you’d actually need to start over as long as you’re prepared to adapt your city with whatever’s available in your current position. There’s more then one strategy that can work as long as you’re willing to re-evaluate your city every so often to change it

I could probably rearrange everything again, but I try to keep all the buildings requiring 2-lane roads as close to one another as possible.

If you’re willing to post a screenshot I’ll attempt to draw up a rearrangement for you so you have something to give an idea of what you could do.

I also think it's a crock that you have to battle against military that's one or two era's ahead of you.

At no point (in single player) are you given an army above your age to face unless you’ve specifically advanced further then your age.

Everything I've read is once you have a GB built, you shouldn't rid of it.

This ties into the thinking that comes with being too attached to the resources in the game. Anything in your city is deletable and should be gotten rid of -IF- keeping it is actually hurting your city efficiency due to what else you could have placed down in that same spot.

The reason people don’t like getting rid of Great Buildings (or events) is it takes time to build up the resources for it. Most GBs once built are better off being worked on then demolished, but that doesn’t mean you should never get rid of one if it’s hurting your city growth or you no longer need it.

Should you get rid of Notre Dame? Upto you. What I place value on isn’t necessarily what you place value on

FP Production: Not sure how much I'm producing, but it's not a problem because it only took a couple of weeks to max out each of my GB's, and I'm close to maxing out all the needed FP's for the first line of the next era.

Then this is perfect. You can simply find other players GBs you want the blueprints for in your neighbourhood and use your Forge Points to gather the Blue Prints necessary to build whatever Great Buildings to wish to acquire.

You have a goods problem? Look for lighthouse of alexandrea. Start with that. You need military boost? Go for Zeus, Cathedral of Aachen and Castel Del Monte. Whichever Great Building you get rewards from is the same blueprints you’ll get back

 

[BruteForceAttack]

Sorry, don't know all the acronyms yet.
Too many 2-lane roads? They're required for 70% of the buildings I have. I use the 1-lane roads for the buildings I need for coin and goods production. Every Modern Era military unit requires 2-lane roads. I could probably rearrange everything again, but I try to keep all the buildings requiring 2-lane roads as close to one another as possible.
Notre Dame was one of the first GB's I acquired all the pieces to. Everything I've read is once you have a GB built, you shouldn't rid of it. Guess I have to see which building is OOB.
FP Production: Not sure how much I'm producing, but it's not a problem because it only took a couple of weeks to max out each of my GB's, and I'm close to maxing out all the needed FP's for the first line of the next era.
Goods buildings: Not sure how many are 'too much'. You need goods to build buildings. In the earlier stages I always ran out of goods.
Happy buildings/decos: I have too many now. Prior to building some of these new building won in the Quest, my happiness was always below 120% and I had to spend tavern coins to boost it. I'm over 20Know so I could get rid a lot of the fluff. The only reason I have so many is I had all these small holes in my city where I couldn't get a road to it so I just bought a bunch of these happy buildings to fill those holes to increase my happiness.

Now I'm finding that all the Modern Era production buildings need an accompanying building from a previous era (Convenience Food forces you to build a Coffee building to even produce without buying diamonds) just to produce anything of value. There's plenty of smaller produce building I wanted to build, but never came across the piece on the Continent Map to build it with maximum production.

I've played plenty of these kinds of games in the past (still playing clash of clans for over 5 years now) and I've never come across one where if you didn't spend days researching how the game 'should' be played, you'd get screwed over if you moved through the game at a certain pace. I shouldn't have to 'start from scratch' in a game I've been playing for over a year because I hit a wall due to how the game is designed. That's where the money grab comes into place. So I'm playing the game the wrong way because I was able to negotiate pieces in the Map and also win battles to get me where I'm at? Where else do you go to get the materials needed to maximize goods production if you don't get them off the Map? I never came across half the pieces on the Map for the goods buildings I have available to build.

I also think it's a crock that you have to battle against military that's one or two era's ahead of you.
Needless to say, if I can't go much further without jumping to the next era and it would be better to just start all over, I'll just find another game to play. I do this game for nothing more than a mundane respite to take my mind off of work and this COVID crap. I didn't start playing it to have to research and rack my brain to make sure I follow specific steps to move through it. If I followed your ideology, it would take 10 years to finish this thing. Thanks, but no thanks.

You have lot of things wrong....

1. Cut your losses...Delete GbS that are outdated or you built when you didnt know better (E.G Notre Dame)

2. You don't need to build goods buildings at all, the last goods building i built was probably 5-6 ages ago. Look up Recurring quests.

3. Yes you need some military buildings, but along with that use your Alcatraz and Rouges. So that you dont need a ton of them.

4. Happiness, Use Gbs like Alcatraz and Hagia, instead of building decos or cultural buildings.

5. Why do you need to advance in the map? It is really not good to keep negotiating the map.

Last but not least I'm guessing you don't have a high level Arc. If my guess is correct, first try and work on your arc

 

[Vger]

Then don’t. Personally I don’t think you’d actually need to start over as long as you’re prepared to adapt your city with whatever’s available in your current position. There’s more then one strategy that can work as long as you’re willing to re-evaluate your city every so often to change it

Emberguard is right. I may have gone a bit over the top when I suggested starting over.

If you’re willing to post a screenshot I’ll attempt to draw up a rearrangement for you so you have something to give an idea of what you could do.

That would be a good idea. I can see your city because I happen to play in Angkor as well, but most people here can't.
It looks like you are in a decent guild. Another option would be to post in guild chat and ask your mates to look at your city and suggest ways to improve it.
You will likely get good feedback with either approach. But you need to be prepared to listen to constructive criticism. So far you haven't shown much willingness to do that.

Last but not least I'm guessing you don't have a high level Arc. If my guess is correct, first try and work on your arc

He has: Zeus:10, COA:9, ND:10, OOD:10.
No Arc. But I don't think building one should be high on his priority list yet. Too many other things to fix first.

 

[Lady Gato]

SNIP
FP Production: Not sure how much I'm producing, but it's not a problem because it only took a couple of weeks to max out each of my GB's, and I'm close to maxing out all the needed FP's for the first line of the next era.
SNIP

There's a lot of advice that's been given, but I think one thing you guys have over looked is this statement that the OP makes -- he states he has "maxed" out each of his GBs.

You need to look up Great Buildings in the official wiki. You can level your GBs to more than 10 levels. Each level beyond 10 requires a full set of blueprints. For example, the Arc (a great building that everyone seems to want) has great benefits and is oftened leveled up to 80 or beyond so that would require 81 full sets of arc blueprints. In this link you should be able to look up the buildings that you have and decide which GBs you want to keep and which ones you want to look for more bps so you can level up beyond 10.

 

[Vger]

There's a lot of advice that's been given, but I think one thing you guys have over looked is this statement that the OP makes -- he states he has "maxed" out each of his GBs.

Mentioned twice, not overlooked. But more as asides than direct statements. So probably a SWOOOSSSHHH for the OP. And yeah, he used that phrase again, so worth pointing out. Again.

Also, Great Buildings don't have maxes: Level 10 is not the highest level you can take them. Keep going.

You don't seem to understand the refined/unrefined goods thing, or that playing those "side games" is in fact a good way to get stuff to boost your military, or that level 10 is not a cap for the two military GBs you have

 

[DevaCat]

There's a lot of advice that's been given, but I think one thing you guys have over looked is this statement that the OP makes -- he states he has "maxed" out each of his GBs.

You need to look up Great Buildings in the official wiki. You can level your GBs to more than 10 levels. Each level beyond 10 requires a full set of blueprints. For example, the Arc (a great building that everyone seems to want) has great benefits and is oftened leveled up to 80 or beyond so that would require 81 full sets of arc blueprints. In this link you should be able to look up the buildings that you have and decide which GBs you want to keep and which ones you want to look for more bps so you can level up beyond 10.

Good advice, but @Graviton pointed out in his post #29 that GB levels don't stop at 10, which the op clearly did not read as evidenced by his post #33. We didn't overlook it. Kind of dumbfounded that anyone could play that long and not understand that GB levels continue. But the op is not listening, nor is he interested in listening. He says:

"Needless to say, if I can't go much further without jumping to the next era and it would be better to just start over, I'll just find another game to play."

I am sorry if I come across harsh or unsympathetic, but I have engaged with players like this in-game, and they are unreachable. They will counter every well-intentioned suggestion for improving their game with some counter for why it will not work. They will give the appearance of looking for help when in fact they intend to continue to do whatever they are doing regardless of the help they are offered. It's why I said in effect that trying to help this person any further is a waste of time.