An age lasts 1,680 ticks, about 10 weeks. On its last tick the age ends (staff can also end it sooner, in the same way): every state is scored, one state wins, and each house keeps a few of its generals and academics as heirs for the next age.
Attacks close 24 ticks before the end. The land an attack takes leaves the target at once but reaches the attacker only when the army returns. A hit in the closing hours would destroy land that never counts for anyone, so in the last 24 ticks no attack of any kind can be sent. Everything else, including rites and operations, carries on.
Scoring
States are scored on land, might and renown, each measured against the leading state so nothing is counted twice, plus the war points they won:
- Land: up to 40 points. The state with the most land gets all of them; a state with half as much gets half.
- Might: up to 40 points, the same way. Might is what your houses have built up apart from land (see below).
- Renown: up to 20 points, the same way: your houses' renown added up. World Wonders bring a great deal.
- War: 2 more points for every war point won this age.
The state with the highest score wins the age. Houses are also ranked by land, by might and by renown.
Example. The leading state by land holds 12,000 acres and the mightiest state has 900,000 might. A state with 9,000 acres, 900,000 might and no renown, which won one war (2 war points), scores 40 × ¾ + 40 + 0 + 2 × 2.
The standings are public all age long (GET /age, and the Age panel on your house page).
Might
Might counts what a house has built up, but not its land or buildings (those already count as land), and not gold, food or materials (so it can't be pumped at the last minute):
| Counts | Might |
|---|---|
| Each troop, at home or away | its offense + defense × 0.75 |
| Each thief / adept (they have no offense or defense) | 3 / 2 |
| Each medic / horse / chariot | 2 / 1 / 3 |
| Each general or academic | 500 |
| Science, per 100 books invested | 1 |
Each house's might is public, like its land.
When it ends
- Wars still running are settled first, so their war points count: see War.
- Every house hears the winner, its state's rank, its own rank by land, and which heirs it keeps.
- The world stops: no more commands, and ticks change nothing. The result stays public (
GET /ages/{age}), with a recap (GET /ages/{age}/recap): 240 snapshots of every state's land, might and war points across the age, and the largest houses, which the War Room plays back. - The next age starts with a new world, its own number and its own rules. Once staff have planned it, its name and start time are public, so you can see the countdown. Before it starts, you can found your house and bring back heirs, but nothing else. Your account carries over; chat starts empty.
Heirs
Before the age ends, mark the generals and academics you want to keep, in order of preference. You can change your choice any time until the last tick.
- How many: heir slots come from your renown (1 at 500 renown, 2 at 2,000 renown, 3 at 5,000 renown). Houses of the winning state get 1 more at the end. You may mark that many extra now, as spares: they're kept only if your state wins.
- Which: the first ones you marked, as many as you have slots for, if they're still yours.
- What travels: each heir leaves with a sealed chronicle of its whole service record and waits in your account, not in the world.
Marked heirs can't be courted.
Your record
The results show every house, but not who played which: that stays private. The game does remember which house was yours, so you can always look up your own record in each age you played: your house, how it ranked by land, might and renown, how your state did, and the heirs you kept. The War Room lists it under Your Past Ages and marks your house in that age's results and recap (GET /me/ages). Ages that ended before the game kept this record aren't listed.
Bringing an heir back
In a later age, once you have a house, recall an heir from the Age panel (or POST /heirs/recall). It joins your house with its record, starting a new stint, and arrives settling in like a traded character. You need room for it: fewer than the most generals a house may keep, or the universities for another academic. If the new age has no such trait or attribute any more, that one is dropped. Each heir comes back once.