History doesn't always go the way you would expect in Millennia. While most of the time you'll find yourself building a nation in a world inspired by real history, sometimes the Timeline can steer into exciting sci-fi or fantasy narratives. It can even lead to global threats that need to be dealt with if human civilization is to survive.
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PostsNo Age is necessarily guaranteed to occur during a single campaign, but with some planning and a healthy amount of Knowledge rushing, you can push history in the direction you want, creating your own epic chronology of the world.
How To Unlock Ages
There are a total of ten Ages in a game of Millennia, starting with the Age of Stone. Every Age has a unique tech tree, and you can't advance to the next Age until you've discovered enough technologies from your current one. You need to discover a minimum of three technologies per Age until the game passes the halfway point; starting in the Age of Enlightenment, the minimum is increased to four.
When you have enough technologies to advance, you can research the next Age if you meet the requirements. If nobody has reached the next Age yet, you can choose from any of the available options, but once you start researching you can't change your selection. Most Ages have three options to choose from, while some have four. The first player to complete their research moves the world into their selected Age, unlocking its unique mechanics.
If another player beats you to the next Age, any research you've put into advancement will not be lost, even if you were researching a different one. You still have to finish the advancement to get to the next Age's tech tree, though.
What Are The Different Age Types?
The majority of your campaign will take place in Standard Ages. These are informed by historical periods similar to the story of our world, with appropriate technologies and units. Wars, unrest, and other challenges will still give you plenty to worry about, though!
If the current Age is not a Standard Age, the next one must be. This means you can never have two consecutive Variant, Crisis, or Victory Ages, except at the very end of the Timeline.
Variant Ages represent a period of advancement that far surpasses what happened in real life. Mystical phenomena and wondrous technologies often appear in Variant Ages. They're often hard to unlock, but the rewards are well worth the effort!
Crisis Ages represent a period of strife, conflict, or even a threat to all of humanity. They're most often caused by neglecting the needs of the people or by being overly aggressive. Survival can be a challenge during a Crisis Age, but with some strategy and determination you can turn it to your advantage.
If you meet the requirements to unlock a Crisis Age, you must select it when it's time to advance. If you really don't want the Crisis to happen, research other technologies until somebody else advances the Timeline.
Victory Ages represent an opportunity for a player to win the game. During a Victory Age, a single win condition is unlocked for all players. If you can meet that condition before the Timeline advances again, you will win the campaign immediately. The tenth and final Age in the game is always a Victory Age.
Variant, Crisis, and Victory Ages feature technologies, buildings, and units that are slightly different from their associated Standard Age, which may force you to change up your strategy or give you new opportunities.
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PostsEvery Age In Millennia
Here's a handy list that details every Age, how to unlock it, and what you can expect when it arrives.
First Age
Age
Type
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Stone
Standard
- Explore the map.
- Establish your starting city.
- Fend off Barbarians.
Second Age
Age
Type
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Bronze
Standard
- Establish contact with your neighbors.
- Settle new territory near your Homeland.
- Develop early industries.
Third Age
Age
Type
How To Unlock
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Iron
Standard
N/A
- Unlock the remaining Domains.
- Manage Unrest in your Regions.
- Expand through settlement, diplomacy, or conquest.
Age Of Heroes
Variant
Discover 3 or more Landmarks with Scout Cavalry.
- Units are promoted to Heroes instead of Leaders.
- Heroes can visit Quests on the map to gain resources, usually Knowledge, Culture, or Wealth.
Age Of Blood
Crisis
Kill 6 or more non-Barbarian units.
- All nations are at war with one another and cannot make peace until the Age of Blood ends.
- Barbarian spawn rate increases significantly.
- Defend your borders or use the chaos to conquer and pillage without mercy.
Fourth Age
Age
Type
How To Unlock
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Kings
Standard
N/A
- Grow your population, meeting their new needs like Sanitation.
- Start a religion and spread it to your neighbors.
Age Of Monuments
Variant
Build three Civic Monuments
- Construct Monuments, unique Improvements that can be dedicated to a Domain for extra benefits.
- Build a Super Monument over the course of dozens of turns, earning a unique and powerful bonus once it's completed.
Age Of Plague
Crisis
Consistently fail to provide adequate Sanitation.
- All Regions in the world lose one-third of their population when the Age Of Plague begins.
- Outbreaks appear on Improvements, reducing the efficiency of their region.
- Outbreaks can be treated by sending a Plague Doctor to deal with them or by spending Improvement Points.
- An untreated Outbreak will mutate and cause rapid population loss.
Getting three Civic Monuments means having three Integrated Regions by the end of the Age of Iron; you'll need lots of Government Domain XP for this, and you may need to rush production on the third Monument by spending Wealth.
Fifth Age
Age
Type
How To Unlock
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Renaissance
Standard
N/A
- Use oceangoing vessels to sail beyond your shores.
- Send Explorers to perform expeditions at landmarks.
- Develop your nation's Culture.
Age Of Discovery
Variant
Have five Docks
- Explorers are replaced with more powerful Conquistadors.
- Special Landmarks like the Cities of Gold spawn, providing benefits to the first to complete an expedition there.
Age Of Intolerance
Crisis
Consistently fail to provide adequate Faith.
- Nations with different religions suffer worse diplomatic relations.
- Nations with the same religion get better diplomatic relations.
- Spread your religion to maintain a good relationship with your neighbors, or use their refusal to convert as a pretext for war.
Age Of Conquest
Victory
Have at least 50 percent more Power than the next-highest nation.
- The player that triggered the Age Of Conquest becomes The Conqueror.
- The Conqueror and all their allies declare war on all other nations and cannot make peace until the Age Of Conquest ends.
- Once one-third of the major nations in the world have been eliminated, a player can win the game if they have at least double the Power of the next-highest player.
Power is calculated using your total population and military might, but the exact formula is unknown at this time. You can see the Power of each nation on the Diplomacy screen.
Sixth Age
Age
Type
How To Unlock
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Enlightenment
Standard
N/A
- Build structures that will increase your Knowledge for future research.
- Construct Public School Improvements to educate your people.
- Start gaining Specialists to build advanced Improvements in the future.
Age Of Alchemy
Variant
Reach Level 5 of the Insight Social Fabric.
- Send Alchemists to seek Arcana, which spawns on resource tiles.
- Spend Arcana to build powerful Alchemical Improvements.
- Transmute Copper and Iron into Gold, then use Gold to create wondrous substances.
Age Of Heresy
Crisis
Fail to produce enough Culture to meet your population's upkeep costs.
- Cultists spawn in regions with unmet needs and high unrest.
- Cultists attempt to cause more unrest and create more Cultists.
- Units defeated by Cultists become Cultists themselves.
Research the Administration technology to get access to a Culture Power that will help you increase your Insight quickly.
Seventh Age
Age
Type
How To Unlock
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Revolutions
Standard
N/A
- Modernize your industries and provide them with electricity.
- Construct your first aircraft.
- Once during the Age Of Revolutions, rebels will spawn in every region in the world.
Age Of Aether
Variant
Have five Recon Balloon Engineers.
- A unique resource, Ather, spawns on mountain tiles.
- Aether is a great source of electricity.
- Unrest is completely disabled until the end of the Age Of Aether.
Age Of Ignorance
Crisis
Consistently fail to provide adequate Education.
- Researching new technologies slows to a crawl until at least one player leaves the Age Of Ignorance.
- Investing Domain XP can speed up certain technologies.
- Only two technologies are required to advance to the next Age.
Age Of Harmony
Victory
Convert at least 30 percent of the world's population to your religion.
- Religion-based diplomatic actions and Domain Powers can be researched.
- If more than two-thirds of the global population follows a single religion during the Age Of Harmony, that religion's founder wins the game.
Eighth Age
Age
Type
How To Unlock
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Rocketry
Standard
N/A
- Start or join a Faction based on your final Government type, and generate Ideology to prove your superiority.
- Seek and exploit advanced resources to develop computers and other modern technologies.
- Race to be the first nation to put a human on the moon.
Age Of Utopia
Variant
Get three Innovation Events during the Seventh Age.
- Construct underwater cities to harvest Brain Coral.
- Develop advanced research facilities at sea to convert Brain Coral into exceptional resources.
Age Of Dystopia
Crisis
Get three Chaos Events during the Seventh Age.
- Rioters will spawn as needs go unmet, shutting down the tile where they're located until they're dealt with.
- Dispersing Riots generates Unrest and Chaos, potentially creating more problems in the future.
Age Of Generals
Victory
Have at least 50 percent more Power than the next-highest nation.
- The player that triggers the Age Of Generals automatically switches to the Autocracy Government, which is unavailable by any other means.
- The Autocracy invites every nation to join their Faction, declaring war on those that refuse. They cannot make peace until the end of the Age Of Generals.
- Once every nation has joined a Faction, if a single Faction has three times the combined Power of the next-highest, its members win the game.
Ninth Age
Age
Type
How To Unlock
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Information
Standard
N/A
- Manufacture electronics to connect your people to the Internet, providing Information.
- Prepare for the final Age and the endgame.
Age Of Ecology
Variant
Reach Level 5 in all six Social Fabrics.
- Terraform your territory into fertile Grassland.
- Turn Towns into Ecocities, generating Culture for nearby Grassland.
Age Of Visitors
Crisis
Discover alien life during the Space Race.
- Extraterrestrial motherships attack all nations, permanently destroying resources.
- Motherships can only be attacked with air units, and provide alien technology if shot down.
Tenth Age
Age
Type
How To Unlock
Goals And Mechanics
Age Of Departure
Victory
N/A
- Always available, even if other Victory Ages aren't.
- Research and build the Colony Ship, an expensive long-term project.
- The first nation to complete the Colony Ship and construct the launch pad wins the game.
Age Of Transcendence
Victory
Reach Level 10 in at least two Social Fabrics.
- Multiple new diplomatic options are unlocked, fostering cooperation between nations.
- The first nation to max out all six Social Fabrics wins the game.
Age Of Archangels
Victory
Have five Smart Grids.
- The Archangel Network of orbital satellites can be used to devastate enemy cities.
- Charging your Archangel Satellite takes time, but it destroys 90 percent of the target region's population when fired.
- If more than half the world's living population is part of a single nation, that nation wins the game.
Age Of Singularity
Victory Crisis
Develop advanced AI.
- A Rogue AI spawns monstrous machines across the world.
- The Rogue AI hacks Improvements, attempting to take control of entire nations.
- The onslaught won't stop until a single nation builds ten AI Cores to contain the threat. The player that does so wins the game.
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