Aging up?
Before aging up or ideally before leaving Bronze Age consult this guide for getting advanced age troops.
https://forgeaddicts.blogspot.com/2023/10/higher-age-units-easy-guide.html
The above guide will help guide you in what to research or leave unresearched.
Iron Age
Stay in Iron Age until Arc is lv 80. If you want access to antique dealer then age up to EMA but know your buildings are larger requiring a bigger footprint and you will need production buildings of your age to complete quests. In iron age you can normally use blacksmiths for quests that require production buildings your age or age below.
If camping in Iron Age then make sure you leave research open to get 2 heavy troop from next age. Need a minimum of 2 techs. Leave a military and most importantly a cultural tech open. The advance unit guide that's widely available online does not specify what types of techs are needed. It's cultural. Build and level a Château Frontenac. The CF gives a bonus to quest rewards. Every age has what's called recurring quests (RQ). Each RQ will give out a diamond reward once. Each age has different RQ's. You see where this is going. The CF gives you more coin, supply, FP, medals and diamonds from quest rewards. So every age make sure you get the diamond reward for every quest before aging up. Then rinse and repeat.
EMA
If you advance to EMA then you are free to research all the techs you need to advance to late middle ages. All the techs that are not required to advance to the end leave unresearched. All of them.
If you are in LMA you can get a few colonial age troops. Consult the link above.
In my view it is best to camp in Iron Age until Arc is lv 80 then slowly level to Industrial Age. Spend two or four week in each age. Age up on a Thursday at start of new GbG season.
When a new GbG start do one fight, then age up. You will have the entire season fighting troops one age below you. Use your harvest of FP to prepare to go to next age.
Make sure you stock up on goods and trade for goods for the age you are going up to. Also look ahead on the tech tree page to see how much supplies you will need. Supplies are the often overlooked barrier to aging-up quickly.
The reason I strongly favor Industrial Age or Progressive Era for a long camp is because that is the ideal time to get advanced age troops and work the continent map.
You can get hoover tanks and even Oceanic Future troops while in Industrial age. Stay a long time, level up your GB’s, be a rock star in GE and GbG and work that map using the guide linked above.
You can also give yourself breathing room in regards to techs by planning on camping in Progressive Era instead. PE does not have any stealth units and fast fighting with hoover tank for example has an easier time in PE. Same for Turtles from OF. They can get wrecked against industrial era stealth units. Going to PE is easier and probably better for most people. But you can do industrial era.
It takes about 24 open techs to use this strategy. Most of those tech will be from Colonial and Industrial but you need to keep techs open from the start of your game. Easier if going to progressive era.
Once you hit the quest called “Persuasion” your journey of obtaining advanced age troop is over. While you camp you need to work through the AF and OF map using those advance age troops.
Aging up past PE
So you’re in Industrial Age or Progressive and bored as hell because everything is too easy. You have awesome event buildings in storage and you have no more expansion slots and want to age up.
FE, Space Age Jupiter Moon, Space Age Asteroid Belt, and Space age Mars in that order are the best ages for fighter to rack up fights and profit in GbG. People will have personal preferences but if you want to fight at high attrition and fight quickly these are the best ages.
With the new auto-replace dead and injured troop feature you can now do fast fights using a mix of units.
In any age that has two lane roads you only need one single 2x2 road in your city that is attached to your barracks. You shouldn't need goods, housing, production or any other buildings that require a 2 lane road. In fact you can have your barracks completely unattached (zero two lane roads) and your traz will still make the troops from that building. You will of course lose the attached troops (the troops you build).
The other advantage to having just one single two lane road is all the 2 lane road incidents will be on that one spot.
Game changes in Artic Future (special goods)
Age up to whatever age you enjoy but know the game changes at AF.
I would strongly recommend camping in FE for a long time to accumulate goods, supplies and to make sure you are well past VF on campaign map. You can use Hover Tank from FE to fight AF, OF and VF map.
AF and OF suck. Attrition achieved in FE will be lower in AF and OF. You cannot rush the age because it requires special goods that cannot be traded. That is why you build the SC on day one then power level it on that day to lv 28. That will give you 839 promethium and over the next 27 days you get 1215 more for total of 2054. Unlock AF on first day of GbG
Every age will require special goods moving forward so SC and harbors or moon colonies are here forever. Arctic and Oceanic Future use harbors, Space ages use colonies. You can see on the tech tree page how many special goods you will need from previous ages so here's a strategy.
You will always have access to AF and OF harbors so you can always get more of the special goods from this age. In space ages you lose the colony once you age up but can make synthesizers in your main city to make those goods. The space carrier (SC) also makes special goods but to be honest after I had enough OF and AF special goods I deleted mine.
If you are past the OF map you only have to stay in AF for 2 GbG seasons.
When GbG start do one fight then age up. Unlock harbor, send it out then you can fight GbG using 1 hoover tank and 7 rogue.
When next GbG start you will fight AF troops 3 Hoover tank and 5 rogue. Same for GE.
If platform 60, 62, 63, 64 (4 heavy, 4 artillery) are give you problem use 8 combat drones from TE to hit 4 heavy then auto vs artillery. If you have plasma the AF artillery units you can use 6 plasma 2 rogues instead. If the army you are fight is using plasma artillery, put your hoover tank away and use flying units. I find the TE flying units better than the AF flying units.
Important note: DO NOT UNLOCK THE LAST CREW MEMBER TECH “FROST IMMUNITY”. It makes harbor runs more expensive. Just wait until you have enough promethium for OF. Need at least 610 promethium before aging up to OF to unlock Eel Units
Aging up to OF strategy:
This is different from every age before. Age up BEFORE GbG starts.
If you have 2280 Promethium you can unlock OF Terminal which unlocks OF special good Orichalicum.
OF is best to fight OF troop with OF troop so age up before GbG start.
1 sub cruiser, 1 turturret and 6 rogue or
8 eels
Or continue to use Hoover Tank against AF troop and age up after GbG start but OF against OF is better
The new auto-replace feature makes fighting with 1 sub cruiser+1 turturret+6 rogues just as easy as using 8 eels.
Eels move first and hit all units hard. They also hide in bushes and can hit opponent flying units. The enemy wounded units don’t hit you as hard and I find this a winning combination.
Power level SC to 58 once OF special good is unlocked. Lv 58 is most efficient level. Won’t get another diplomatic reward until lv 91
If you double dip every day you get 3560 special goods in 30 days going from level 28-58. If you power level to 58 on first day you get 3764 in 30 days.
Like the last age do no unlock “new recruits” tech. It unlocks new crew members and makes harbor less efficient. The techs after are not critical so wait until you have extra 1410 promethium and 1260 orichalicum to unlock rockets in VF before aging up to VF
Aging up to VF
The grind of AF and OF is over, congratulations.
Age up before GbG starts, unlock rockets right away.
6 rockets 2 rogues is go to troops. If the opponent has ninjas switch to Ronin bots. If your attack is high then just use Ronin bots as you can fast fight without worry about match-up.
GE first 3 levels is against OF troop so use 8 eels from OF then rockets on GE4
Should only need 2 weeks in VF if space age mars map is completed
Aging up to space age mars (SAM)….and beyond to all other space ages
Both SAM continent maps should already be completed. On map there is exploration sites where you can gain Mars Ore (SAM special good)
If you don’t have these unlock then you cannot unlock main fight unit Sentinel
If fighting SAM map before reaching SAM
- Use hoovers against sentinels and sniperbots
- Use drone swarm or recon raiders or eels (fast units) against tesla
- Use artillery (plasmas or rockets) against space marines or steelwarden
- If map is conquered then age up after GbG start. You can use sentinels against VF units and win easy
Takes 3-4 days to get enough mars ore to unlock sentinels
Put exploration sites to work, get tickets in colony
Need lots of tickets at start. Fill colony with drop pod for tickets. After 3 days, collecting every 4 hours you have plenty of ticket
All other space ages have the same strategy. Scout the continent map first. Accumulate all the special goods you need for future ages before leaving the current age. If you screw up and still need special goods from a previous space age you can build synthesizers in your city which your hood can plunder. You can also get them from SC and AI but best to stay in the lower age until you have enough special goods.
SAM to Titan aging up strategy changes once the new age Space Hub is released in Winter 2024 or Spring of 2025.