The rewards and bonuses earned from completing Antiquity and Exploration Legacy Path objectives in Civilization 7 play a crucial role in shaping your civilization’s success, ultimately leading to victory in the Modern Age. This guide explores these objectives and the various strategies in the Antiquity Age.
It would be an amazing feat to reach Golden Age for each Legacy Path. However, on a standard speed and standard Age length, it would be best to focus on one or two choices.
Antiquity Culture Legacy Path is all about Building Wonders
Cultural Legacy Path in Antiquity Age is all about building Wonders – 7 in total to reach the Golden Age. Wonders are monumental structures that stand out thanks to their unique presence and significant bonuses. Wonders can only be constructed during certain ages, but they remain ageless, meaning their bonuses carry over from one age to the next. Most wonders have civics (15) as prerequisites, rather than techs (5), so a focus on culture output is necessary.
Each Wonder can only exist once in each game. If players begin construction on a Wonder but fail to complete it before another player, they are refunded 50% of their invested production.
Every player has access to all the Wonders, and each one can be unlocked from either the Tech or Civic tree. However, each Civ also has an associated World Wonder, which means they receive a 30% bonus towards that specific Wonder’s construction. Associated Wonders are also easier to unlock since their Civ has one additional place within the Tech or Civic trees to unlock them (Civ’s can unlock their associated World Wonder from either location.)
What Wonders to Build in the Antiquity Age?
I like the Wonders that contribute to fulfilling Legacy Paths objectives and earn attribute points. Here is the ultimate list to strive for, however due to the wonders being all over the research tree, it is not an easy feat, you basically have to unlock the full Civics tree.
- Nalanda 1 Codex, 1 Scientific Attribute point -unlocked by CIVIC Literacy
- Colossus 3 Resource capacity, 1 Economic Attribute point – unlocked by CIVIC Skilled Trades
- Ha’amonga ‘a Maui Culture from tiles, 1 Cultural Attribute point – unlocked by TECH Navigation
- Mausoleum of Theodoric 100% pillaging, 1 Militaristic Attribute point -unlocked by CIVIC Organized Military
- Hanging Gardens Extra Food, 1 Expansionist Attribute point
- Emile Bell Food Endeavor, 1 Diplomatic Attribute point – unlocked by CIVIC Code of Laws Mastery
- Civ-specific wonder that costs 30% cheaper.
- Bonus: Gate of Nations (Persian) +2 Support on all wars – unlocked by CIVIC Discipline
Culture Legacy Path Milestones
- Build 2 Wonders
- 1 Cultural Legacy Point
- Reward Legacy Option: Cultural Attribute Point
- Reward Legacy Option: Diplomatic Attribute Point
- Build 4 Wonders
- 1 Cultural Legacy Point
- Reward Legacy Option – Wonderous Heritage: +1 Culture / +1 Happiness for every Wonder
- Build 7 Wonders – Golden Age: Wonders of the Ancient World
- 1 Cultural Legacy Point
- Reward Legacy Option: Amphitheaters retain their yields, effects, and adjacency bonuses in the Exploration Age.
- Dark Age: +1 Charges and Movement for Missionaries, but -3 Happiness in all settlements after founding a Religion and -6 Happiness in all settlements not following your Religion.
Economic Legacy Path: Assigning Resources
Economic Legacy Path in the Antiquity Age is all about getting your hands on the Resources. That means that your cities have to have enough slots to hold 12 resources in total. The math is relatively easy, considering that each city by default gets 2 slots, a town gets 1 slot, your capital is an exception with 4 slots. So any combination should work, as long as you settle enough resources (including copies).
Camel resource is extremely valuable as it offers 2 extra slots, it is worth going to war for or settle aggressively and use leap frog tactic to expand to as fast as possible.
A trade route with a different civilization is an important source of resources. Build a merchant and send him to the targeted city to establish a trade route. Boost a number of trade routes with the same leader through Improve Trade Relations agreement. There is a distance limit, water trade routes are longer than land ones. So settle closer to other civs and extend trade routes through town specialization. Imported resources also provide bonuses through various policy cards.
Grow your towns to access every resource available before starting to focus it on any specialization.
Milestones
- 7 Resources
- 1 Economic Legacy Point
- Reward Legacy Option: Economic Attribute Point
- 14 Resources
- 1 Economic Legacy Point
- Reward Legacy Option – Master Caravaneer: +5 for every Trade Route in Antiquity
- 20 Resources – Golden Age: Silk Roads
- 1 Economic Legacy Point
- All of your Cities from the previous Age remain Cities.
- Dark Age: Naval Commanders gain a Charge to create settlements every two levels, but Settlers have +100% Production cost.
Military Legacy Path – Build or Conquer Settlements
Settling five cities and towns in the Antiquity Age is relatively easy, but reaching the Golden Age requirement of 12 settlements often requires warfare. The settlement cap, unhappiness penalty for exceeding it, and the fact that conquered settlements count as two make war an optimal strategy. A balanced approach is to settle 5-6 cities and conquer 3-4 to efficiently meet the requirement.
It is a tough achievement on Deity level where AI gets +8 combat strength. A well-promoted Army Commander and a technological parity or unique units play a huge role. Alternatively, earning influence and levying city-state’s units could also be a viable strategy with a leader like Machiavelli.
If you wanted to reach a milestone of say 9 settlements by the end of the Age, but settlement cap is reached, then you can prebuild and position settlers to found new towns and wait till 99% Age completion to avoid unhappiness issue. The strategy might be risky with your rivals settling aggressively early on.
Milestones
- 6 Settlements points
- 1 Militaristic Legacy Point
- Reward Legacy Option: Militaristic Attribute Point
- Reward Legacy Option: Expansionist Attribute Point
- 9 Settlements points
- 1 Militaristic Legacy Point
- Reward Legacy Option – Fealty: +2 Settlement Limit
- 12 Settlements points – Golden Age: Pax Imperatoria
- 1 Militaristic Legacy Point
- Gain an infantry unit in every settlement you’ve conquered in the previous Age.
- Dark Age: Lose all your existing armies and settlements aside from your Capital, but start out with three full armies consisting of cavalry and siege units.
Science Legacy Path – Research & Display Codices
A Codex is a type of Great Work, which are displayed when they are slotted into a building—open the slotting menu by selecting the Great Works icon. Both Libraries and Academies contain slots as does the Nalanda Wonder (gain 1 Codex, 2 Slots). Your Palace (your Capital’s city center) also contains one slot by default.
Most Codices are awarded by mastering Tech, but it is not enough to reach Golden Age requirement of 10 codices. Other sources come from Literacy civic, narrative events, science City-State Suzerain bonus, or for completing the Nalanda Wonder. Some Civs can also earn a Codex through Great People.
Codex Techs Mastery (8): Writing (1), Currency (1), Wheel (1), Military Training (1), Engineering (1), Navigation (1), Mathematics (2).
Milestones
- 3 Codices
- 1 Scientific Legacy Point
- Reward Legacy Option: Scientific Attribute Point
- 6 Codices
- 1 Scientific Legacy Point
- Reward Legacy Option – Collector of Knowledge: +1 Science for every Codex
- 10 Codices – Golden Age: Great Library
- 1 Scientific Legacy Point
- Academies retain their yields, effects, and adjacency bonuses in the Exploration Age.
- Dark Age: Gain a random technology boost every five turns, but -50% Science.