u/Eksoduss

I wanted to give myself a little challenge and basically play as a force of technology in the age of nature, and as it turns out, it is indeed quite challenging.

So far I tried the following:

• Try to expand as early as possible to get as much mines as possible
• Reinforce the mines with guardians and tools to increase the output and protect them
• Have some apprentices as "factories" to produce spears and bows
• Send my main Enchanter to gather wooden/clay golems, transform temples into Juggernauts and try to get him to the highest level as fast as possible in order to also transform ancient forests into Golems

My main problem early game have been factions with a lot of chaff units, as I dont seem to have a lot of units with AoE damage (except for units that have been enchanted with fire shield). Besides that, it also seems o take a lot of AP to get a competetive amount of golems, so I was wondering if I should rather focus on dancing weapons in the early game, until I have enough iron income and disposable apprentices that can use up all of their AP on constructing Golems.

While I had some succesful runs as an Enchanter, I am also still unsure if it is a better strategy to have a small, but well fortified area of control (i.e. a lot of guardians, mimics, enchanted gates etc) that is slowly expanded, or rather begin with a large, barely defended area that is slowly reinforced over a longer time. The ressource output seems to be relatively similar since the first strategy means that your territory will rarely be contested and you can stack a ton of tools, while the other strategy entails that you may lose some mines to independents, but also denies them for other factions.

If anyone more experienced could nudge me into the correct direction, I would be more than grateful. I expect the endgame with mass deforestation, giant factories, artifact production and maybe even a vessel of golden lore to be very fun, but it's hard for me to even reachh the endgame.