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Ĭities have a loyalty rating, which is affected by Golden or Dark Ages. Firaxis wants players to have risk-and-reward play for challenging themselves through a Dark Age. Regardless of which Age, players select a Dedication to try to follow for that Age, which earns additional points towards the Era Score by following through on the Dedication. Furthermore, if the player can bring their Dark Age to a Golden Age by the era shift, they enter a Heroic Age which grants several boosts to one's civilization well beyond a Golden Age. If the player is able to bring their civilization out of a Dark Age by the time of the next global era shift, they can gain rewards such as new government-related edicts. On the other hand, populations in Dark Ages will be less loyal. In a Golden Age, populations of cities are more loyal to their leader, improving their production. The Era Score is used to determine if the civilization moves into a Golden Age (by exceeding a threshold) or a Dark Age (by failing to meet a different threshold), or otherwise proceeds into the next Era without these effects. All civilizations are evaluated for their Era Score at this point based on various advancement goals, including achieving certain Historic Moments such as circumnavigating the globe for the first time. The expansion introduces global eras, triggered when any of the competing civilizations reaches the required milestones. The player will be challenged in how they deal with these turns in their civilization.
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The focus of the Rise and Fall expansion is to add mechanics that emulate the potential for civilization's rise then collapse due to a number of factors.
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