The Modern Age is the third and final age in Civilization 7. In its current form, the Modern Age is all about focusing on your win condition that you’ve been building towards for the entire game. Whether that be Culture, Military, Science, or Economic, there are multiple strategies and paths for you to take to victory.
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The Modern Age is also all about war, whether you’re a peaceful civilization or not. There’s a hyper-focus on military tech and units as you progress through the tech tree, including new access to Planes and Nuclear Warheads.
Victory Conditions
Just as the previous ages, there are four victory conditions in the Modern Age: Culture, Science, Economic, and Military.
Culture – Geographic Society
The Culture victory in the Modern Age is all about sending out Explorers to dig up ancient artifacts while also constructing Museums to house those artifacts.
If you’re rushing for a Culture victory, grab the Natural History civic to begin producing Explorers immediately. The AI, particularly on harder difficulties, is a big fan of sending out waves of Explorers, so you’ll need to grab those dig sites quickly.
Science – Space Race Projects
The Space Race is only possible once you research Rocketry at the end of the tech tree. Then you can construct a Launch Pad and ultimately send a Staffed Space Mission to trigger a science victory.
Military – Ideology
The Military victory is made possible by conquering settlements and earning Ideology points – these are earned by conquering settlements while you have an Ideology. You earn three points for defeating a city that has a civilization following an opposing Ideology.
Economic – Railroad Tycoon
The Economic victory is all about building Factories and Rail Stations and then filling your factories with goods in cities that are connected to your rail network.
Civic Modernization
There are a few crucial tech and civic developments in the Modern Age that you need to be aware of: choosing your Ideology and developing Factories and Rail Stations.
Ideology
Much like in previous Civilization games, you have the option to pick between three major Ideologies: Democracy, Fascism, and Communism. You can only choose one Ideology and once you’ve chosen it, you are unable to switch.
Democracy
Democracy favors a Culture victory, with Cultural boosts from Specialists and extra Culture from displayed Great Works.
Fascism
Fascism favors a Military victory, with extra production and gold for Specialists and boosts to your production based on your overall Militaristic Attribute points.
Communism
Communism favors a Scientific Victory with science boosts for Specialists and a more defensive military approach, with extra defense boosts for units inside your territory. Turtle up and head to space!
You’ll gain access to Ideology once you’ve completed the Political Theory civic.
Factories And Factory Resources
Factories are unlocked via the Mass Production tech and once built in a town or city you’ll gain access to a Factory Resource slot.
These are powerful Resource buffs that allow you to specialize cities even further.
Every Factory Resource
|
Resource |
Boost |
|---|---|
|
Kaolin |
+3% Culture |
|
Tea |
+3% Science |
|
Cotton |
+5% towards training Land units |
|
Citrus |
+5% towards training Naval units |
|
Cocoa |
+3% percent happiness |
|
Coffee |
+5% towards constructing Buildings and Wonders |
|
Fish |
+5% settlement growth rate |
As you can see, these resources are mostly earned via the Distant Land settlements in the previous age. This is to encourage you to explore, settle, and conquer new lands.
Once you’ve slotted in one Factory Resource, you can then fill any other available resource slots with more of the same Factory Resource.
Rail Stations
Rail Stations are accessed via the Industrialization technology.
These are powerful buildings that provide base gold on their tiles, but also allow for the immediate movement of units between Rail Stations. This removes much of the micromanagement from transporting soldiers across your empire.
To move units via Rail Station, move them onto the tile that the Rail Station is on and click Move Via Rail on their unit card. You can then choose another Rail Station within your empire to move your units to.
Exploration And Culture
Explorers are a Modern Age unit that allows you to Research and dig up ancient Artifacts. Displaying 15 Artifacts in Great Work slots across your empire will achieve a Culture victory.
Explorers are accessed via the Natural History civic research, which also unlocks Museums which you can build to open up more Great Work slots.
You’ll be able to grab some early Explorer digs throughout your lands, but to gain access to Research and bonus Artifact sites, you need to head straight for the Hegemony civic as this will allow you to conduct Artifact research and open up more dig sites.
Science And The Space Race
The Scientific victory is made possible right at the very end of the era which makes it one of the trickiest victories to achieve on hard difficulties, or in multiplayer games.
You won’t be able to research the Rocketry technology until you’ve completed all the previous research – at least, the main research, not its mastery levels.
Once you’ve unlocked Rocketry, you can build Launch Pads which will enable you to conduct both the Launch Satellite and Staffed Space Flight. This second one is a key part of a Scientific victory.
Military Domination
As we mentioned earlier, the Modern Age is all about warfare. In this Age, you’ll gain access to Weapons Of Mass Destruction, otherwise known as Nuclear Weapons.
However, these don’t come easy – to actually access the Manhattan Project Wonder (the wonder required for nuclear warhead construction), you’ll need to complete the entire Military Legacy Path (win condition) in the Modern Age.
Once you’ve done this, you can begin Nuclear Warhead construction in your cities. Nuclear weapons are deployed via bomber, which can be stationed in Aerodromes, an Aircraft Carrier, or on a Squadron Commander.
Alternatively, without even needing to launch the nukes, you can begin the Operation Ivy Project in one of your cities – thus ending the Modern Age, and granting you a military victory.
Grand Strategy
Turn-Based Strategy
4X
- Released
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February 11, 2025
- ESRB
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t
- Genres
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