Of the many gameplay evolutions in Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Ages represent the biggest new feature. Civilization VII features three distinct Ages to play through—the Antiquity Age, the Exploration Age, and the Modern Age—each with their own unique set of civilizations you can play as, along with gameplay mechanics specific to that Age.
Ages are inspired by a transformational idea for Civ: that 'history is built in layers.' This idea is a way of understanding how civilizations have grown, changed, and evolved over time. Each Age is its own rich, nuanced journey, creating a deep, historically immersive strategy experience.
You have the freedom to take on multi-Age campaigns, as you strive to accomplish significant scientific, cultural, militaristic, and economic milestones within each Age to unlock impactful advantages in the next! Matches can start from whichever Age you choose, allowing for shorter play sessions if you want to skip the earlier Ages.
Ages and their civilizations
There are three Ages for you to play. The Antiquity Age, when agricultural societies began to cluster into urban centers, forming the foundations of the first civilizations. The Exploration Age, when the desire for precious commodities from distant lands spurred empires to stretch across the great oceans. And the Modern Age, a period of incredible technological growth and global conflict, where mankind goes from development of the steam engine to the splitting of the atom.
Instead of playing as one single civilization across every Age, you'll evolve your empire by selecting a new civilization to play in for each new Age—one that is suited to take on the historical challenges of that time.
Each Age has a multitude of aspects unique to that Age, including which civilizations you can play as; the list below is a high-level look at what to expect. Given that each civilization is specifically balanced for the Age where it's available, its Bonuses, Units, and Buildings are always relevant and powerful.
Changes with each Age:
- Civilizations: Civilizations are Age-exclusive, and come equipped with Unique Abilities, Units, Civics, and Buildings and/or Improvements.
- Resources: Each Age contains a set of obtainable Resources on the map that were available during that time period. Some Resources span multiple Ages, while others are exclusive to an individual Age.
- Civics and Technologies: Ages determine which Civics and Technologies can be researched.
- Buildings and Units: Available types of Units, Buildings, and Wonders are determined by the Age.
- Independent Powers: Independent Powers are minor factions on the map that can be interacted with.
- Game Systems: Certain game systems are only available during each Age, ensuring every Age feels unique and exciting to engage with.
- Playable Map Area: Ages determine the overall size and scope of the playable map, expanding as the player transitions into new Ages.
Age Progress determines how far along you are in that Age. Every turn contributes a small amount of Age Progress, while completing things like milestones along a Legacy Path will contribute larger amounts to the Age Progress meter. Generally speaking, you can expect an Age to last around 150 to 200 turns on standard speed, or roughly three to four hours of play.
Regarding the aforementioned Legacy Paths, these are a series of objectives for you to complete during an Age, categorized as Science, Military, Culture, and Economy objectives. Every Legacy Path contains several milestones, providing you with greater rewards as you progress further down a given path. Each new reward unlocks one or more bonuses that you can take advantage of during the transition into the next Age.
Completing a Legacy Path in its entirety unlocks a Golden Age Legacy that you'll have access to in the next Age; failing to complete even one milestone of a Legacy Path gives you an associated Dark Age Legacy. Every path and its objectives are themed to the Age, further bringing out the essence of that time period.
As you near the end of an Age, you'll be confronted with a Crisis. As the name suggests, Crises are something all civilizations in the game must face and navigate, and are themed to the Age. Every Crisis comes in stages and intensifies over time, making it more challenging to maintain your empire if you don't adapt. In addition to gameplay moments, you'll have to select which Crisis Policies you want to take on. In contrast to the beneficial social policies you slot in when completing Civics, Crisis Policies are negative ones that are slotted into their own separate set.
There's several reasons why we created the Crisis system. First, they add a jolt of variety and excitement to the end of the Age, making the late game of an Age feel climatic and epic. They provide an interesting challenge for the player to navigate - there's no "right" way to adapt, adding a ton more replay value. And finally, they reflect the narrative reality of many civilizations - creation, growth, crisis, and rebirth - that leads to a reshaping of the world… and the ushering of a new Age!
Age Transitions
A full campaign in Civilization VII is one that goes through all three Ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern. Once the Age is completed, all players (and any AI opponents) experience an Age Transition simultaneously. During an Age Transition, three things happen: you select a new civilization from the new Age to represent your empire, you choose which Legacies you want to retain in the new Age, and the game world evolves in ways both big and small.
When it comes to selecting a new civilization in the new Age, you won't be able to choose just any new civ at random. There are three factors that determine your options. First, if there is a historical or geographical connection between the past civ and the future one, you'll have a choice that's more rooted in history. Some examples we've shared so far include Antiquity Egypt to Exploration Abbasid, as well as Maurya India to Chola India.
Second, certain leaders will automatically unlock certain civs due to their particularly strong identities. Choosing Himiko, for example, means that you will always be able to play as Meiji Japan in the Modern Age.
Finally, gameplay actions that you take can unlock non-historical paths. This is something that we know the Civ community has discussed at length - we definitely enjoyed your reactions (and memes) to the idea of Egypt "turning into" Mongolia! With that said, we wanted to include this option for many reasons.
First, we think it's fun and that it reflects Civ's "What if?" spirit of experimentation. Second, we wanted to provide players the possibility of making dramatic strategy changes, especially if they aren't as focused on playing historically. If you do find yourself surrounded by horses, wouldn't it be interesting if rather than going across the great oceans during the Exploration Age - you used Mongolia's powerful cavalry to sweep the home continent?
Finally, we think it reflects some of the core ideas behind "history is built in layers." The notion that our history is just one of many possible paths, that civilizations are ultimately shaped and determined by their people.
After selecting your new civilization, you'll then pick and choose which Legacies you want to carry forward in the new Age. Legacies can only be selected if you have earned enough Legacy Points to acquire them, the latter which are obtained primarily through completing those milestones in Legacy Paths. For example, completing a milestone in the Science path gives you a Science point, which can be used to grab a Science Legacy in the next Age.
Legacies come in a variety of different costs and bonuses. Some Legacies are easily acquired - Leader Attributes only cost one point and can be grabbed in bulk. Others are more expensive and may require prerequisite accomplishments, like the Golden Age Legacies mentioned earlier. One Legacy that I like in particular is Change Capital - it's free, and is strategically useful for moving your inland capital to one of your settlements along a coast, as you prepare to take on the challenges and strategic opportunities of a new Age.
Once you select your new civ and legacies and the new Age begins, your game world undergoes a series of changes across the board. All civilizations begin anew with an updated Civics and Technology Tree. New resources fill the map, and the world expands. From Antiquity to Exploration, you'll be able to research shipbuilding to cross great oceans and reach Distant Lands… which, it turns out, are already occupied with other undiscovered civilizations who may not welcome your presence! You'll be able to "overbuild" - construct new buildings on top of your old ones, which have reduced yields as they're less powerful in the new Age. New Legacy Paths present you with updated objectives and new game systems can come online; Religion, which plays a minor role in the Antiquity Age, becomes an essential driver of action during the Exploration Age.
With a new civilization in hand and so much of the world changing, it naturally raises a question - how do we make sure you maintain a cohesive sense of identity for your empire? This is something that we've spent the most time tweaking and fine-tuning, and I'm sure we'll continue to make adjustments once players get their hands on the game. There are several things that help retain your sense of identity:
- Leaders remain the same across Ages. Leaders persist across all Ages, ensuring you always have a sense of who is part of your empire, and who are your rivals. Relationships that you develop persist, and Leaders continue to grow by leveling up their attributes. It also helps lend a sense of personal storytelling to each campaign, as you decide which of the other leaders deserve to be your cherished allies or bitter enemies across the Ages.
- Traditions are always available. Investing in a civ's exclusive Civics tree unlocks Traditions: social policies that can be used in any Age. In the Modern Age, it's entirely up to you whether you want to slot all your social policies with Traditions - and some leaders have bonuses for doing so!
- Ageless buildings. Some buildings are so essential that they cannot be replaced. Any Wonders you've built will always remain on the map, as well as any unique Quarters you've constructed.
- Commanders persist. Commanders are particularly powerful and impactful units, gaining levels as they survey the battlefield. Your investments in these units will pay off in the long run, as all Commander attributes and experience continue across Ages.
Age Transitions represent moments of possibility in a game of Civilization VII. If you find yourself falling too far behind, an Age Transition will offer you a way to get back into the game. You can double down on a preferred playstyle or pivot to a completely different civ if you find yourself outmatched in certain parts of the game. Snowballing into an unstoppable juggernaut is no longer as obvious an outcome, but we want to make sure that you're still rewarded for playing well through an abundance of Legacy Points, Golden Age options, and more.
To see the gameplay of each Age in action, check out these developers livestreams covering the Antiquity Age and the Exploration Age (with a livestream of the Modern Age coming soon)!
