There are plenty of guides out there and most are good. Some are hard to follow and there are a few that are flat-out wrong. I'm putting this out because despite all the guides available (including one already on this blog) people still ask how to do it and there is a need for a hand-holding version. That's not a pejorative it's just the reality that there is a need for a simple and accurate guide.
Getting troops of a higher age involves pushing the campaign map in a very specific way. Negotiate some sectors, fight others and completely ignore some.
The other aspect is the tech tree. Deciding to go for higher age troops means you will leave certain techs unresearched because you will need them later.
Lastly, the third leg of this adventure is working the story quests and side-quests correctly so you do not get blocked.
If you mess up any of these three legs it may be somewhat correctable by forgoing some advanced age troops or by moving to the next age.
You will be getting a lot of side-quests that ask you to research technologies. Abort those quests.
Higher age troops at any age is an advantage simply because they're stronger. The sweet spot is getting hoover tank and OF units in Industrial Age and Progressive Era. There is some debate about which age is better for long-term or forever camping.
My take is I like fighting with Indy troops (2 howitzer+rogue) better than PE troops (8 artillery). This guide will be geared towards people aiming to stay in Indy for a very simple reason. If you get the troops in Indy you are free to age up to PE whenever you want. If you get tech blocked in Indy then you have to age up to PE to continue and I believe in player choice. That all said I believe PE gives more of an advantage in a long-term camp. There is more space, no flying units (helicopters in CE) and no stealth units (Jags in Indy) so OF troops are better, and the battlefield is larger giving your superior range more of an advantage.
So why do people go for advanced age troops?
You can plant them in your city defense to surprise potential plunderers. You can use them to get further on the continent map to get more expansion slots. Lastly, and more importantly you can use them on tough fights like GElv5 or when you are at you attrition max for same age troops in GbG.
The disadvantage of going for advanced age troops?
You will have to lave a lot of techs unresearched. A lot of those techs will be expansion slots. If troops die they are lost forever. In-game mods can and SOMETIMES do give them back to you but do to people exploiting this that will be rare and never twice on the same account. After every fight a player has the option to used diamonds to heal or repair a damage or lost troop. If you click fast to the next fight and don't heal then all the work described in this post could be lost forever. That is why I don't use them until I've hit my max using same age troops.
Ok so let's get started.
Bronze Age:
- Growing
- Craftwork
Available Advance age troops:
- 2- Legionnaire
How to get them? Don't worry about it. Bronze is the tutorial age. Just skip the above techs and get to Iron age so you can start adding to other people's GB's and getting BP's. Working to get advanced age troops of the next age is silly when you're just going to age up anyways.
Iron Age:
Techs to leave unresearched
- Sewerage
- Agriculture
- Plowing can be left unresearched but you need it to unlock cultural settlements and you should do that and start doing the Vikings settlements
Available advance age troops:
- 2-Armored Infantry the heavy units of EMA
On the continent map the EMA bonus quest provinces open up after the Iron Age story quest "Makatba" and you conquer the first EMA bonus sector "Dunkenwald".
Continue down to Galgenshlucht, Todespass, Steilsturz and finally Tarmelmann where you will be rewarded with the 2 Armored Infantry.
Make sure to leave a military and cultural tech unresearched until you get these troops
EMA:
Techs to leave unresearched
- Multistorey Houses
- Casting
- Apiary
- Quarries
- Crop Rotations
- Fertilization
- Monarchy
Available advanced age troops
- none
But wait that's all the goods techs! How am I supposed to get goods? Event buildings and GbG my friend. You shouldn't be in EMA until you have a few fully leveled event buildings. That means staying in Iron Age for at least 2-3 months and getting a good foundation before aging up to EMA to get the antique dealer.
HMA:
Techs to leave unresearched
- Town Houses
Available advanced age troops
- None
LMA:
Techs to leave unresearched
- Metal Working
- Aristocracy
- Optics
- Pest Control
Available advanced age troops
- 2-field guns
- 5-grenadiers
- 2-musketeers
If you have followed this guide you will have 14 unresearched techs up to this point.
Near the end of the LMA story quests you will get either "Fight for Freedom" or "Buy Her Freedom". You have to scout the LMA province "Ravens Creek" to get the two Musketeers.
A side note the last quest of this bonus quest line rewards 40 diamonds. 50 if you aborted the "Dungeon or Death Sentence" side-quest.
Colonial Age:
Techs to leave unresearched
- Porcelain
- Industrial Goods
Available advanced age troops
- 3 breech loader
- 1 howitzer
- 2 jaeger infantry
- 1 lancer
- 6 rifleman but we're only going for three of them
- 2 military
- 1 residential
- 1 production
- negotiate the two bottom provinces
- fight the three top provinces
- negotiate any sector in the top provinces that have natives as defenders.
Why are we only going for three instead of six riflemen? People may disagree with this point but do this enough and you will see the logic in what I'm about to say.
Getting all the advanced aged troops is like getting a trophy. Most of them will sit in your inventory and never be used. Rifleman is that type of troop. It's very weak. It doesn't retaliate with melee hits. It is a poor choice to use even against grenadiers from the age below. It is a bad choice when pairing with rogues because it won't retaliate after being converted. We can talk about this again when the user has an option to pick which troops they will get from a selection of options.
While in Colonial Age you can also gets some braves. (Remember the native defenders we didn't fight on the map?) They are more trophies we will never use.
Lastly while in Colonial we can get some Progressive Era units. Now these are useful.
You should have 12 unresearched techs at this time.
Progressive Era:
I'm going to explain how to get the Rapid Fire Cannon (RFC) while still in Colonial Age because this unit plus rogues is what you will be using on the continent map.
You will need one military tech and then have to progress to Industrial Age to get more troops.
The screen shot above shows the first part of the PE map and it's only these four provinces that matter. What you do on these first four provinces will determine what advanced age troops you get from this map.
Take the first province of the PE map named "Havre". It doesn't matter if you fight or negotiate. To get the RFC you have to fight Uxrow and Omoien provinces.
You will need to fight these sectors and research a military tech. By fighting Uxrow and Omoien you will later get two tanks after you age up to Industrial AGE.
This is as far as you can go while your city in in Colonial Age.
If you are still in Colonial Age stop advancing on the continent map until you get to Industrial Age.
Once Uxrow and Omoien are conquered then you can fight or negotiate the rest of PE map but make sure to take Kriegreich first. Then just follow the quests until the next age.
Techs to leave unresearched
- none
Available advanced age troops
- 1 Rapid Fire Cannon while in Colonial Age
- 2 Tanks
- 1 armored car
- 3 conscripts
You should still have these seven techs of the Industrial Age unresearched along with the twelve from previous ages for 19 total unresearched techs.
Modern Era:
Techs to leave unresearched
- none
Available advanced age troops
- 2 battle tank
- 7 bazooka teams
- 2 mechanized infantry
- 2 paratrooper
Techs needed:
1 tech of any kind. Now you can unlock one of the early age expansion slots
***If you are short on unresearched techs you can negotiate all of Natsuishu and this will prevent the tech research but also cost you 3 bazooka teams
Player starts in the top green province Inashu and moves counter-clockwise.
Fight all the green and red provinces completely to get the most troops. The grey provinces can be fought or negotiated.
Side quest "Rin Gozen's Warriors" will give 4 bazooka teams (light units).
After completing Kibakuguchi the player will get 3 more bazooka teams.
Scouting the red provinces gives paratroopers
Toimuro and Hiromaguchi (red provinces) are fight completely and you will get 2 battle tanks (heavy) and 2 mechanized infantry (fast).
You should have 18 unresearched techs at this time
Postmodern Era:
Techs to leave unresearched
- none
Available advanced age troops
- 7 commando
- 5 MG Teams
- 1 Champion
- 2 rocket artillery
Techs needed
- 3 techs not specific
The side quest "guerilla warfare" will be triggered if you've already scouted the PME map and have completed some side-quests.
Complete the following side-quests
- guerilla warfare
- supply chain
- predator
This age has a tech blocker that will prevent you from getting troops of a higher age than PME so follow these next steps carefully.
Do not complete the PME story questline. When you see the quest, "Your Choice: Truth or Dare" just stop. At the end of this guide we will circle back to the PME questline for some additional troops.
Do not complete or abort that quest. This is your forever quest and cannot be completed until you age your city up to PME or you are done getting OF troops and want to return the questline back to PME. Most importantly, DO NOT PAY THE COINS ON THIS QUEST. This will become important later when we get all the OF troops.
Continue the continent map until you can get to the next age. By getting to the next age (Contemporary Era) and aborting a side quest that isn't truth or dare we can skip the tech blocker. Just keep that uncompleted. Seriously.
Now to get past this tech blocker we are going to get to CE, complete all the provinces except two which we won't even scout then get to TE.
In TE we will conquer two provinces and scout a third then abort a quest that is not truth or dare.
Until we get to that third province in TE just leave all your quests alone.
You should have 15 unresearched techs at this time
Contemporary Era:
Scout the CE map.
Do not scout "salfah" and "suqqah" provinces. They are the two western provinces that are not scouted here. Take the rest of the provinces so you can get to the TE map. Negotiate the first four provinces to increase the diamond reward in the CE questline.
Tomorrow Era:
Completely take Villariba and Torrinhos then scout "Rio Roxo". Now we can abort a side-quest that isn't truth or dare. Seriously do not touch that quest. Don't make eye contact with it. It may see it as a sign of aggression and auto-complete. (kidding, maybe but don't mess with it)
Once the story quests are in TE you can then completely take Rio Roxo and get all the troops in TE. If you take this province first then you will miss out on all those troops.
So in summary here is what will happen.
You abort a side-quest while Rio Roxo is scouted but not conquered.
You will get one CE quest
Now your quests are caught up and in TE.
Techs to leave unresearched
- none
Available advanced age troops
- 2 combat drones
- 2 anti-material snipers
- 2 stealth tanks
- 1 champion of CE
Techs needed
- 1 tech not specific so grab another expansion slot from early ages
You should have 14 unresearched techs at this time
Future Era:
Available advanced age troops
- 4 hover tank
- 2 rail guns
- 6 exoskeleton soldiers
- 2 satellite spotters
- 2 drone swarms
Techs needed
- 3 non-specific techs
You should have 11 unresearched techs at this time
Arctic Future
How are you doing on unresearched techs? If running low you can negotiate the AF map and save one tech. It is a very specific path and very specific about what can be fought and what can be negotiated.
If you are not short on techs then just fight all sectors. None are skippable.
If you need to save one tech then you have to negotiate the first 5 native owned provinces (Nutarniq, Iluliaq, Tuklavik, Ananevut and Qaniit)
You must fight a minimum of one sector in Nilak and Nunataq.
The rest you are free to negotiate or fight and you will save one tech.
Available advanced age troops
- 14 recon raider
- 10 battle fortress
- 11 surrogate soldier
Techs needed
- 4 non-specific techs
Available advanced age troops
- 6 CRAB Mech
- 6 Hydroelectric Eel
- 2 Mantra
- 8 Sub Cruiser
- 4 Turturret (turtles yeah!)
Techs needed
- 5 non-specific techs
- Onwards
- Expanding
- Unclaimed
- Seeking
- Second Chance
- and the last tech blocker Persuasion