Seeking after higher-age units is "more useful for campers than tech-tree chasers" we are told in the intro to this excellent guide, and I agree, being by nature a camping kind of player. However this feels a bit like a challenge. Shouldn't higher-age units be advantageous irrespective of playing style? So inspired, I tried a little experiment. I took a relatively young city, two and a half months old, Iron Age, with attack bonuses around 200/100, and did a bit of tech-tree chasing to see if higher age units could get me to the hovers without crashing and burning.
When timed right, aging up can give a temporary advantage in battlegrounds and expeditions, fighting against lower age competition. The following season the advantage is wiped out, unless the player ages again. This can't continue indefinitely and can leave the city in an Age the player can't compete in and without the resources to climb out of the hole they've dug. However, what if higher age troops could come to the rescue? What if, when the music stops the player is left with hover tanks, or at least a clear path to get them?
I wanted to reach a stable Industrial Age city within six weeks, without faltering along the journey. That meant always doing 64 podiums in GE and being competitive in battlegrounds. I intended to report on how it went after 6 weeks, but instead I thought I'd let people know after a month, as I'm not sure I'll have time over the next two weeks to complete the experiment. To cut a long story short, it works.
I planned to age up every week on alternate Thursdays and Tuesdays until I hit Industrial, starting with a double to HMA. I hoped to hit the MG Teams after a month and the hovers not long after, allowing myself diamonds for scouting PE and higher maps, and “fair trade” to get missing goods (no begging the guild for favours). I had no idea whether, without a Chateau, the goods for Okahe and the Progressive and Postmodern sectors would be an issue or if I could fight the Industrial map with the bonuses I had. Not to mention goods for Agadir.
The aging up itself went without a hitch, other than delaying Industrial by a day because it otherwise coincided with the start of an event. Today, after 31 days, I've finished the PME map, and have a path to the hovers. I've cleared Expeditions every week and am showing reasonably well in battlegrounds, semi-autoing to over 40 attrition with Industrial opposition. The goods have not proven problematic, given plenty of space in the city. My main reservation is that my lack of defensive bonuses for the attacking army made things more difficult. I've now reached about 375/250, but to counter the loss of rogues on the way, I had to level my Traz higher than I'd originally planned. Another issue was that I didn't have the coins to infiltrate or at one point even to scout. My city still has many Gambrel Roof Houses left over from Colonial Era that I've kept for the coins.
While the defence bonus was a little low to embark on this, the principle is sound. Tech-tree chasers, take note!
If people win police stations.... why not ruins?