Through The Ages - Wonders - Age A - Pyramids

If you like this series of articles, please rate this in your favorite social media forum ("like" it, +1, or just share with friends).  This is the first in a series of articles examining specific cards in Through the Ages. I have separated these topics out into a distinct section of the forum, located here:  http://gamesstrategyandtactics.freeforums.org/individual-cards-f7.html

Pyramids

Pyramids seems like a simple "no brainer" at first glance.  It grants an additional Civil Action for 6 resources and 4 actions.  In short, it pays for itself in three turns.  Furthermore, it is available at the beginning of the game.   What nation couldn't use an additional Civil Action?   Amazingly, the Pyramids may not be all the Wonder they seem to be.

Hidden Cost

Pyramids have a hidden cost associated with them, one most people (including myself), often oversee.  The cost is related to this section of the rules:

"The cost to take a Wonder card is increased by 1 Civil Action for every Wonder you already have built."

Basically, if planning on taking a wonder after Pyramids, the building of Pyramids increases the cost of that Wonder by an additional 1 Civil Action.  This

Through The Ages-Part VII-Culture: The Game Winner

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Culture: Victory Condition
Culture is the scoring system Through The Ages uses to determine the victor.  The greatest military, the greatest Science, the greatest economy is worth nothing if at the end of the game Culture is not large enough.  Therefore, acquiring culture is the primary focus of the game.  Without it, everything else is for naught.
Ways to Acquire
There are many ways to acquire culture:

• Direct Card play,
• Leader effects,
• Construct Building,
• Create Wonders,
• Militarily steal it from your opponents,
• Playing Event cards,
• Territories,
• Treaties and Agreements,
• Final Scoring Cards.

Each has its own risk and rewards.  We will cover Culture generation in the next series of articles, from the different means of acquiring culture and their efficiency.  The wisdom of which route is best will differ depending on the choice of strategy and when cards become available.

Final Score of 'Average' Games

After reviewing a few dozen TtA games (chosen randomly, 4-player, Full Games onl

Through The Ages-Part VI-Actions:Governments and Summary

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Governments

Governments provide the last method of generating actions.  Using the same methodology as the above analysis develops the chart to the right.  Of these, the Republic government technology generates an additional 33 actions under ideal conditions.

Theocracy, which has the same number of actions as Depotism, is not shown as it would provide no benefit. in fact, Theocracy would have a -2 benefit from the time it is adopted.


Revolution
Monarchy is the only government which can provide a benefit through Revolution.  This is mainly due to the decreased cost to generate Science at the beginning of the game.  The benefit of Revolution will generate a single additional action at the end of the game.  The chart for revolution of Monarchy is shown below:

For Monarchy, and Theocracy, there is a 'ramp up' time needed to gather the science.  From the chart above, the earliest a Revolution can take place is on turn 4, the turn after taking the government card.  The Revolution costs all the Civil Actions for the government, so in this case it is the equivalent of costing 4 actions.  The result is the Revolution costs one action.

For the remaining Government technologies, we make the assumption the science is immediately available, regardless of whether Revolution or normal change.  In all of these cases the Revolution action costs greatly exceed their action return.
Maximum Generated Actions
The following chart tracks the absolute maximum number of actions in an ideal game.

The recipe for this is as follows:

• Turn 1 (Actions:2): Take Hammurabi, Pyramids
• Turn 2 (Actions:1): Play Hammurabi, Increase Population,  Build a Mine
• Turn 3: Build Philosophy
• Turn 4 (Actions:2): Take Code of Laws, Build Stage 1 of Pyramids
• Turn 5 (Actions:3): Play Code of Laws, Build Stage 2 and Stage 3 of Pyramids
• Turn 10 (Actions:5): Take Republic, Play Republic, Take Kremlin, Build 2 Stages of Kremlin
• Turn 11 (Actions:1): Build Stage 3 of Kremlin
• Turn 16 (Actions:2): Take Civil Service, Play Civil Service

Since the Build Mine and Increase Population actions are 'normal' actions, they do not count against the actions need to bring the items into play.

The maximum number of actions returned through this method is increased by 68.  Thus, the theoretical maximum actions a player may have is 148.
Reality Check and Conclusions
Many things affect achieving the maximum number of actions available:

• Cards not appearing at perfect times,
• Event cards removing resources/actions,
• Taking cards higher in the Card row,
• Other Players Military Actions.

With these factors in play, a player can reasonably expect to achieve between 30% and 60% of these additional actions.  This leaves a player between 100 and 120 actions.  I would like to say these estimates are based off some real data, but in this case it is based on an intelligent guess.  Roughly half of these actions will be available in Age I, about 10% in Age II, and the remainder will arrive in Age III. 

If we make the fair decision a player will have an average number of actions, this comes to 114 actions.  Based on the above charts, it is sensible the actions will be divided as follows:

• Age A (Turn 1): 4/turn (preset by rules/not changeable)
• Age I (Turns 2-4): 4/turn
• Age I/II (Turns 5-11):  5/turn
• Age II/III/IV (Turns 12-20):  7/turn

This increase in actions explains the acceleration factor seen in the game.  Each of Ages I through III has 55 cards.  Age II runs faster than Age I by a single turn, but Age III runs through the same number of cards in just over half the number of rounds as Age I.  During Age III players accumulate more actions and spend these actions on more cards on the card row.  The more cards players collect, the faster the Age ends.

How to Use This Information

Players who understand how much can be accomplished in a game lets them better prioritize their choices.  It lets a player realize the impact of their decisions in card selection and order of playing cards.  specifically, the following points can be made:

• Once a government is chosen, it is never efficient to switch governments a second time,
• Especially through revolution.
• Republic generates the most total civil actions of all cards,
• Kremlin and Hammurabi are roughly equivalent in Return on investment if the Kremlin comes up early and is immediately build 
• Hammurabi has a better guaranteed return, whereas Kremlin may arrive too late to be effective.
• Players have roughly 114 civil actions during a game, meaning players should plan how to spend these actions at the start of the game.

There are other cards which were not reviewed that may impact actions available.  Isaac Newton permits the learning of technologies without expending actions, and Robespierre allows revolutions using Military Actions instead of civil actions.

I want to continue the discussion on Actions, but will switch to Culture Generation.  What issues have you experienced with Actions and might want advice on, or what comments do you have about the information above?

Through The Ages-Part V-Actions: Civic Cards

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Civil Technologies
Three civil technology cards exist to increase actions: Code of Law, Justice System, and Civil Service.
Code of Law

		TIP	Action Cost	Recipe
	Expedient	3	5	Turn 1:Take RevIdea-A            Take IdlBusSite-A Turn 2:Play IBS-A Philosophy            Take RevIdea-I   Turn 3:Play RevIdea-A            Play RevIdea-I            Play Code of Law
	Efficient	5	2	Turn 3: Build Philosophy Turn 5:Take Code of Law            Play Code of Law
	Expected	4	4	Turn 3: Build Philosophy             Take RevIdea-I Turn 4:Play RevIdea-I           Take Code of Law           Play Code of Law
	Max Benefit = 14

Analysis
Code of Law provides one of the best ways to gain actions.  At half the Science cost of Monarchy, Code of Laws is relatively cheap on the Science.

In all cases it is required to build a philosophy.  For the Expedient this is built on Turn 2 using Ideal Business Site.  For the other processes, the Philosophy must be built on Turn 3 without using a card.


Justice System

		TIP	Action Cost	Recipe
	Expedient	9	4	Turn 9:Take Justice System            Play Justice System
	Efficient	10	2	Turn 10:Take Justice System            Play Justice System
	Expected	11	2	Turn 10:Take Justice System            Play Justice System
	Max Benefit = 9

Analysis

Justice System occurs about halfway through the game, at best.  It may provide a maximum benefit of 9 actions if played around turn 10, but most likely the benefit will be less.  Despite costing only one more Science than Code of Laws, it is inferior in generating Action points.







Civil Service

		TIP	Action Cost	Recipe
	Expedient	9	4	Turn 9:Take Civil Service            Play Civil Service
	Efficient	10	2	Turn 10:Take Civil Service             Play Civil Service
	Expected	11	2	Turn 10:Take Civil Service             Play Civil Service
	Max Benefit = 8

Analysis

Civil Service is the last Civic Special Technology card which provides actions.  Despite being a late game technology, Civil Service provides an almost immediate return on its investment.  This means no matter when the Civil Service comes out, it is guaranteed to generate its Action cost in return, at least as long as no other Civic cards are already in play.  Even so, if the game is guaranteed to last one more turn, Civil Service is will generate an action profit.



Switching Civic Cards

Analysis
If a player switches civic cards there is the risk of losing actions needlessly.  The chart to the left displays the results of a change to the civic actions.  From the chart, going form Justice System to Civil Service  or from Code of Laws to Justice System results in an overall loss when compared to just the Code of Laws.

The best gain is to switch from Code of Laws to Civil Service, granting a total yield of 17 actions.



Conclusions
Basically, if concerned with Actions, all three Civic cards provide a decent return.  Their largest drawback is the science cost.  The earlier Age Civics provide greater overall return than their later Age Civics.  However, switching from either Age I to the Age III Civil Service will provide a net increase in almost all regards.

In the case of switching from Age I to Age II will always result in a net loss of actions.  The best return begins with the Code of Law and switches to the Civil Service.  At most, civic technologies will provide an additional 17 actions to a player's game.

Through The Ages-Part IV-Generating More Actions

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Civil Actions drive the economy engine of a Through The Ages empire.  Generating more actions than others provides an advantage.  From this analysis, it is important to see how to generate more actions, and what can be expected from these actions.
Ways to Generate Actions
There exist a limited number of means to generate additional actions:

• Government Technologies: Everyone but 
• Leader: Hammurabi
• Wonders: The Pyramids and Kremlin
• Special Blue Technology Cards (Civil type cards)

Expected Payoff

Bringing these cards into play requires civil actions.  Every card requires at least 2 civil actions, and several require more than 2 civil actions.  Additionally, Yellow Cards may be played to "accelerate" bringing a card into play.  The following analysis represents the best "theoretical" possibility of bringing each card into play and a more "realistic" approach to bringing them into play.  For the sake of this discussion, only Civil Actions are important for review, any other benefits/penalties a card brings are ignored.

TIP = "Turn in Play", when the card enters into play and begins generating its bonus.

Expedient: Means the fastest the unit may enter play (theoretically), through play of Yellow cards if necessary.

Efficient: Fewest Actions to bring unit in play

Expected: A realistic expectation of when the card may enter play, based on when the card will most likely appear in turn order.

Hammurabi

		TIP	Action Cost	Recipe
	Expedient	2	2	Turn 1: Take Hammurabi Turn 2: Play Hammurabi
	Efficient	2	2	Turn 1: Take Hammurabi Turn 2: Play Hammurabi
	Expected	2	2	Turn 1: Take Hammurabi Turn 2: Play Hammurabi
	Max Benefit = 5

Analysis

Hammurabi, at least in my edition, gains 1 civil action, but loses 1 Military Action.  Being an Age A leader, Hammurabi is available to be taken on Turn 1, so is available for play on Turn 2.  Being a Leader, Hammurabi dies when Age I ends, which is on Turn 8 from our earlier discussion on game flow.  Thus, Hammurabi only benefits the player for 7 turns at best.

Hammurabi is the fastest way to increase Civil actions available to players.  However, his benefit is not long lasting.  On the other hand, the break even point for Hammurabi is the turn after he is played.

Pyramids

		TIP	Action Cost	Recipe
	Expedient	3	5	Turn 1: Take Pyramids            Take EG-A Turn 2: Play EG-A Turn 3: Build Wonder x2
	Efficient	4	4	Turn 1: Take Pyramid Turn 2: No Action Turn 3: Build Wonder Turn 4: Build Wonder x2
	Expected	4	4	As Efficient above, OR Turn 1: Take Pyramid Turn 2: Build Mine Turn 3: Build Wonder Turn 4: Build Wonder x2
	Max Benefit = 13

Analysis

The Pyramids are the first Wonder available.  Being a Wonder, there is no way to stop the Pyramids beyond the "Ravages of Time" event card.  If another Age A or Age I wonder is built, than the "Ravages of Time" event gives the player controlling Pyramids the option to either remove one Action or Ravage the other wonder.

An interesting not of the Pyramids action return graph is it does not matter which way the player opts to build the Pyramids, both break even on Turn 5.  From this chart, it doesn't seem rushing the Pyramids using Engineering Genius is necessarily good if actions are needed elsewhere, such as taking cards from card rows, increase mines to 3 workers, etc.

Note the action used to Build a Mine does not count against the Pyramids construction cost.  This is because the Build Mine action does not change the turn used to build the Pyramids and it provides an additional Ore benefit for the remainder of the game.
Kremlin

		TIP	Action Cost	Recipe
	Expedient	10	5	Turn 9: Take Kremlin (3 Actions) Turn 10:Build Wonderx3
	Efficient	10	4	Turn 10: Take Kremlin             Build Wonder x3
	Expected	13	4	Turn 12: Take Kremlin             Build Wonder Turn 13:Build Wonderx2
	Max Benefit = 7

Analysis

The Kremlin is an Age II Wonder, and its arrival late in the game is seen in its action gain chart.  At best, the Kremlin appears on Turn 9 and can be built on Turn 10.  If it is taken from the card row immediately, it takes 5 turns to pay off the action cost debt.

If the other players take cards from the card row to drop the Kremlin into the 1-Action cost card row range by turn 10, it is possible to select the Kremlin and pay for it all on Turn 10. In this best case scenario, the pay off is 7 additional actions.

Realistically, however, Kremlin appears somewhere in the middle of the turn, around Turn 11 or 12, and is built on Turn 12 or 13.  If the player did not build any other Wonders, Kremlin might be expected to gain 4 Actions in any given game.  Normally, most players have already built a Stage A and a Stage I wonder by this time, driving the cost to take Kremlin up by 1 or 2 actions.  Thus, the realistic gain in Actions from Kremlin is a meager 2 civil actions.

From a Civil Action Standpoint, the Kremlin is the worst of all the Civil Action Generators with the exception of late arriving Age III governments.
Conclusions
Only partway through the analysis, but already we can see some important variances between the Theoretical Maximum and the "expected" average draw.

Hammurabi provides the fastest return on investment, but maxes out with only 5 actions.  The Pyramids provide an additional 13 actions, and is the only item with this level of return available from Turn 1.  The other interesting fact is the payoff for Pyramids is the same whether Engineering Genius is used or not.

The Kremlin, if it appears immediately and is built, has the ability to eventually provide a payoff similar to Hammurabi.

We will discuss them in greater detail in a future article after discussing the other means of generating actions: Civic and Government technologies.