Everything that happens in a Civilization 7 age transition

There are only three ages in Civilization 7, compared to several smaller eras in past iterations. But each of them is quite a bit more distinct. When you transition between ages, you’ll pick a new civ. You’ll get new victory conditions. Even the map will change somewhat. It can really catch you off-guard if you’re not ready for it. So here’s a complete list of everything that happens in a Civ 7 age transition.

1. You pick a new civilization

Your leader and their bonuses will stick with you through the entire game, but you pick a new civ with their own ability, units, and buildings for every age. Some are unlocked by the leader you’re playing—Ben Franklin can always pick America in the Modern Age. Some are unlocked by the civ you picked previously—the Han can always become Ming. And some are unlocked by your accomplishments—having a certain number of improved Horse tiles in your empire lets you become the Mongols.

Unique Quarters and tile improvements will stick around and retain their bonuses forever. But unique units will downgrade into the generic version of the same unit type for the next age, unless you picked a new civ that also has a unique unit in that same unit category. And any other unique stuff like Great People will disappear, so use them before the age ends!

2. Military consolidation

At the age transition, your military will get reshuffled in the following order:

• Up to six units (typically melee infantry) will be yoinked away from wherever they happened to be standing and placed on your active Settlements to defend them.
• Any remaining units will be placed in the custody of any active army or navy Commanders you have. This, somewhat annoyingly, does not mean that units already assigned to a Commander won’t be messed with. So you may end up in the next age with Commanders who are suddenly leading an army of all artillery or something.
• Everyone else gets deleted, including Scouts, so make sure you have enough Commanders!

As a small consolation, at the beginning of the Exploration Age, everyone gets a free Cog to begin exploring the seas. Also, all of your surviving units will be upgraded to the lowest-tech unit available in the new age automatically.

3. All of your cities downgrade to towns except for the capital

There is an exception to this if you unlock the Economic Golden Age for the previous age. There is also an option each age to change the capital to a new location, which will still leave your old capital as a city. So this is a bit of a trade-off, but it means you’ll begin the age with two cities instead of one.

4. Buildings from the previous age have their adjacency bonuses removed

This means they will no longer benefit from, nor grant adjacency to, any other buildings. The main exception to this are buildings that have been designated ‘Ageless,’ like Warehouses, and any civ unique tile improvements.

This is why overbuilding becomes so important—it’s almost always better to build over a previous age building that is no longer getting or granting adjacency bonuses with one from the current age, which will restore those bonuses.

There are a few other exceptions to this. The Wonders of the Ancient World Golden Age from the Culture Legacy Path will allow Amphitheaters to keep their adjacency bonuses in the Exploration Age. The Great Library Golden Age from the Science Legacy Path will allow Academies to keep their adjacency bonuses in the Exploration Age. And the Enlightenment Golden Age, also from the Science Legacy Path, will allow Universities to keep their adjacency bonuses in the Modern Age.

5. Resources around the map are reshuffled

Some resources from the previous age will become new ones, and some new ones will appear where none were before. Unlike Civ 6, your existing improvements will stay where they are and may just change what resource they provide at the transition—including changing type, which can affect your Warehouse buildings. For example, Iron becomes irrelevant in the Modern Age, so those deposits might turn into a new, Modern Age resource like Coal. But I’ve even seen weirder ones like Camels becoming Oil (which I guess makes sense on a long enough timeline), and my Camp on that tile automatically became an Oil Rig.

To sum it up, a place that already has a resource deposit will never lose that deposit. The type of deposit might change. But deposit locations can only ever be added, not removed.

Other age transition effects

• Any City-States or other independents are removed. This includes the ones you were suzerain of. If you want to keep those cities, you’ll need to pay the Influence to integrate them into your empire before the age ends. New ones will start to spawn in unsettled areas after a turn or two in the current age.
• Alliances and diplomatic pacts are reset. You will get an opinion bonus or malus based on your relations with each leader in the previous age.
• You get totally new Tech and Civics trees. They’re both per age now, so you can only ever fall so behind. Getting ahead isn’t a matter of racing down the tree, but of reaching “Future Tech” and “Future Civics” in the previous age, which will give you bonuses to Science and Culture in the next Age once researched.
• Spend Legacy points. Depending on how many Legacy Points you earned in the previous age, you can buy Legacies for the next age. If you completed no objectives in a certain category, you can also choose to take a Dark Age for that Legacy Path instead, which tends to give some powerful bonuses but also a powerful drawback. For example, the Military Dark Age in the Exploration Age destroys all of your Settlements except your capital, but gives you three full cavalry armies for free. Excellent for some Mongol roleplay.
• Unlock new Legacy Paths. Every age has its own set of Legacy Path objectives for Culture, Science, Military, and Economics. Check out our Civ 7 Victory Guide to learn more about them.

It can be a little bit disorienting to ride out this transition the first few times, especially given the changes that you aren’t warned about. But once you know what to expect, you can plan for each new age almost like you’re starting a fresh campaign. Though if Isabella thinks I’m going to forget what she did, she’s in for a rude awakening.