Mound Builders prevent Age of Plagues & max out Improvement Points

[hrafnskald]

A lot of people are struggling (understandably) with Age of Plague. You can avoid it by triggering Heroes or Blood first, or another Variant Age, but there is another option that makes it easier to dodge: the Mound Builders National Spirit.

-If you choose Mound Builders, there is a second tier option to make the Burial Mound grant +3 Sanitation. Almost as much as Midden Heaps, and you still get the option to work the tile for Culture if you need to.

-There's also a fairly common Innovation unlock that makes every Burial Mound generate 1 Improvement Point, whether worked or not. The more Burial Mounds you build, the more IP you gain, the more Mounds you can afford to Build.

-You can build Burial Mounds in any unimproved Grassland. There's an Mound Builder tier option that makes expanding into Grasslands cheaper, meaning you'll capture any nearby Grassland tiles faster (especially with a little help from Towns).

-You can delete any Improvement and get a refund of 25% of the Improvement Points cost.

-Spam Burial Mounds on any Grassland tile you can, even if you're going to build something better there later. The extra improvement points mean you can afford to switch tiles around when needed. The extra Culture will prop up your economy through Local Reforms, or power more Innovations.

With a little terrain luck, your Grasslands will become effectively simultaneous Clay Pits, Cultural sites, and Midden Heaps for all your trash, keeping the Age of Plague at bay and powering your Local Reforms.

Not bad for 12 IP a tile.

Remember: Sometime you feel like a Plague, sometimes you don't. Raiders have Plagues, Mounds don't.

[parent child bowl]

The problem people are having with Age of Plague isn't that they themselves lock into it. It's that the AI does and that they think that it is the end of the world.

Avoiding to lock yourself into the Age of Plague doesn't need any strategy.

[hrafnskald]

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

The problem people are having with Age of Plague isn't that they themselves lock into it. It's that the AI does and that they think that it is the end of the world.

Avoiding to lock yourself into the Age of Plague doesn't need any strategy.

You might not need this. That's okay.

Other players have repeatedly expressed their frustration with this issue. So I've shared a solution.

[parent child bowl]

Originally posted by hrafnskald:

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

The problem people are having with Age of Plague isn't that they themselves lock into it. It's that the AI does and that they think that it is the end of the world.

Avoiding to lock yourself into the Age of Plague doesn't need any strategy.

You might not need this. That's okay.

Other players have repeatedly expressed their frustration with this issue. So I've shared a solution.

As I said, the frustration comes from the AI leading into the Age of Plague.

[Cythil]

Which makes me want to add a thing to that. If you feel that the AI always pushes you in to the age then make sure you focus more on research and push your own age. Otherwise I think this is a pretty good guide. Never really had a issue myself. Again I think that is becouse I tend to push for technological superiority. Remeber that you can also skip research and go back to it later.

[hrafnskald]

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

Originally posted by hrafnskald:

You might not need this. That's okay.

Other players have repeatedly expressed their frustration with this issue. So I've shared a solution.

As I said, the frustration comes from the AI leading into the Age of Plague.

Okay, let's assume for a moment that the AI forces the Age of Plague in every game. I know that's not always the case, but let's assume every game is in the Age of Plague.

What is the best way to survive?
The extra Sanitation from cheap Mounds can really help.
The extra Improvement Points income from Mounds can come in handy when you need to rush other Improvements.
The lower food cost for your population can keep more of them alive.

[parent child bowl]

Originally posted by hrafnskald:

Okay, let's assume for a moment that the AI forces the Age of Plague in every game. I know that's not always the case, but let's assume every game is in the Age of Plague.

What is the best way to survive?
The extra Sanitation from cheap Mounds can really help.
The extra Improvement Points income from Mounds can come in handy when you need to rush other Improvements.
The lower food cost for your population can keep more of them alive.

Yeah, but that isn't a solution. You are essentially telling people to go Mound Builders because they might end up in the Age of Plague. That's just bad advice.

People need to learn to deal with it. It's not like sanitation only matters for the Age of Plague. It's in general necessary to not hamper your growth in the early game. People shouldn't feel like they are forced to go Mound Builders.

[hrafnskald]

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

Yeah, but that isn't a solution. You are essentially telling people to go Mound Builders because they might end up in the Age of Plague. That's just bad advice.

People need to learn to deal with it. It's not like sanitation only matters for the Age of Plague. It's in general necessary to not hamper your growth in the early game. People shouldn't feel like they are forced to go Mound Builders.

Mound Builders doesn't hamper your growth.
It increases your Food, Sanitation, Culture, and Improvement Points income, while reducing how much Food your people eat, allowing you to grow faster.

More population, more Culture, more Tile Improvements, and yes, Sanitation to prevent plagues.

Are there other strategies and options?
Yes!
But saying "They just need to deal with it" is fundamentally unhelpful.
If you have something meaningful to share, please do so.

[Cythil]

Like I said before. Try to get a lead on Research. If the problem is that others are pushing ages, then you need to take control over that issue.

[archonsod]

Originally posted by hrafnskald:

The extra Improvement Points income from Mounds can come in handy when you need to rush other Improvements.

I'd think they'd be better spent on clearing plague outbreaks. Problem there of course being Mound Builders isn't the only national spirit to give you bonus improvement points, nor is it the best (and arguably, if you go for one of the exploration spirits you get bonuses to XP generation allowing you to use the slightly more efficient clear ability on plague doctors more frequently).

The lower food cost for your population can keep more of them alive.

Which will trigger more plague outbreaks, since the outbreaks go off population size rather than sanitation. In fact an argument could be made for deliberately restricting your population growth through the age to minimise the number of outbreaks you have to deal with.

[hrafnskald]

Originally posted by archonsod:

I'd think they'd be better spent on clearing plague outbreaks. Problem there of course being Mound Builders isn't the only national spirit to give you bonus improvement points, nor is it the best (and arguably, if you go for one of the exploration spirits you get bonuses to XP generation allowing you to use the slightly more efficient clear ability on plague doctors more frequently).

Which will trigger more plague outbreaks, since the outbreaks go off population size rather than sanitation. In fact an argument could be made for deliberately restricting your population growth through the age to minimise the number of outbreaks you have to deal with.

Now those are great points, and useful suggestions.
My thanks :)

[parent child bowl]

Originally posted by hrafnskald:

Mound Builders doesn't hamper your growth.

I never said that it did.

[taomastercu]

Unless people are kicking up the difficulty past Adept the AI should never be deciding what age it is.

And even then you should be able to beat the AI without too much effort. The AI typically brings in the next Age at specific turns with a very small amount of variation.

If you aren't a strong enough player to play on higher difficulties though I don't see why people are so resistant to playing on Adept.

[TwoTonTuna]

honestly? age of plagues is a good thing if you build clay pits on grasslands instead of farms.

sure, the pop penalty hurts but everyone is forced to lose pops so you're all on equal standing. with a lot of clay pits though, you'll have all the improvement points you need to regularly cleanse plague while the other empires that prioritized farms or logging camps choke on disease. this is especially painful for aggressive raider empires that have a ton of vassals to clean up after.

[RabidHobbit]

Originally posted by hrafnskald:

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

The problem people are having with Age of Plague isn't that they themselves lock into it. It's that the AI does and that they think that it is the end of the world.

Avoiding to lock yourself into the Age of Plague doesn't need any strategy.

You might not need this. That's okay.

Other players have repeatedly expressed their frustration with this issue. So I've shared a solution.

PCB is totally right. The issue isn't that the player cannot avoid the Age of Plague, it's that the AI can't seem to. It's still good info to have about what the capabilities of Mound Builders are, but it's not a solution to that problem.

[HeartGlow]

think the main issue is the AI doesnt try to avoid the crisis they dont build sanitation and i noticed this from cites i took over they dont tend to meet the needs of the cities,