Landmarks

[S31SH0]

I rewatched the latest trailers and I’ve noticed a few snippets which I think I got a solid idea about now.

It is about the Landmarks (as the title says, duh).

In the gameplay snippets we saw in different screens that it is your victory goal to destroy the enemy landmarks. The number of Landmarks also go up over the time of the game.

In a different frame we saw buildings upgrading when the church was completed.

The church already was pretty big so I think that might be one of the Landmarks.

And with the upgrade of generic buildings (houses) nearby I think the aging up in age 4 might work like aging up for asian dynasties in age 3. Instead of wonders you errect landmarks

This would lead to following possibilities:
-Your towncenter might be somthing of a starting landmark.
-Aging up is not technological but ‘cultural’ advance in your city
-Your landmarks are probably limited
-Keeping your city identity intact is essential to winning
-you got one special building per age to age up
-when you age up you also increase the enemies difficulty to defeat you (a bit)
-you can indirectly see the enemies age via the number of landmarks (which is a good indicator for speed)

[xHerox55]

I was wondering about landmarks and how they work too. I also have some additional issues:

1. As the Mongols, how would their “landmarks” work, given that they constantly relocate their buildings?
2. If the attacker destroys one landmark, can the defender build it back so that it “resets” the landmark counter to victory. If not, does it count as a replenishing landmark for the goal (i.e. say if four landmarks are required to win, and the defender rebuilds the same landmark four times and the attacker knocks it down four times, does it count as four landmarks, or it still only counts as one?)

I actually like the emphasis of protecting key buildings, since defensive civs can build their defences around it to turtle and protect them while they age up and out-tech their aggresive counterparts, while aggressive civs would continuously apply pressure on defensive civs early on, thus dissuading them to attack their landmarks.

[Homajic]

If your assumptions are true the placement of the landmarks is very important.

[EgoTonic]

My guess is that you can only build each landmark once and if you lose them you have to keep on playing without their benefits.

[SoullessHeathen]

There was a German leak that got deleted that predicted everything shown during the Fan Preview 100% accurately. The same leak said that Landmarks ARE indeed how you age up.

[GepardenKalle]

You indeed age up by building landmarks. Devs alluded to this in passing in some of the interviews. Each age will have two different landmarks and you have to choose which one you want.

China is the only civ that can build both landmarks for each age; and if they do that they also change their dynasty to whichever dynasty was associated with the two landmarks they built. They can change dynasty again by building both landmarks from another age, but they cannot go back to a previous dynasty that has been overthrown.

We don’t know anything about Mongol landmarks, but we do know they will have different age-up mechanics than other civs. My guess is they do not have landmarks at all and instead age up either by raiding or, more likely, upon relocating once their Ovoo is depleted and a new stone pile is found.

[moeenakhan786]

Can you please tell something about this ovoo and stuff
I have no understanding of what this is

[EgoTonic]

The Ovoo is a unique building for the Mongols that they build on top of stone piles. Speculations are that the Ovoo boosts your other surrounding buildings in some way. When the stone from the stone pile geht’s used up the Ovoo gets destroyed and you have to rebuild it on a different stone pile. This is what forces you towards the nomadic play style with the new Mongols.

[moeenakhan786]

Thanks man for telling

[AlyoshaVonDiego]

I was wondering about the massive Mongolian statue in the image below, at the bottom left. At first, I thought this was a Mongolian landmark, but after thinking about it for a bit, I now believe it is the Mongolian wonder. I didn’t understand how they could pack up and move this structure, and I think the simple answer is that they cannot. The wonder is probably an exception to the rule.

That being said, when we look at the win conditions for the Chinese in the Chinese vs. Mongols matchup below, we see that destroying four enemy landmarks is one of the listed options. I know that we are looking at the Chinese perspective because of the fog of war on the mini map at the bottom right. So, we can infer that the Mongols have landmarks, and they should be able to move them, too. I know @GepardenKalle was saying that the Mongols have a different age up mechanic, but that begs the question, what is the point of the Mongolian landmarks if not to age up? I’m not sure aging up will be related to the Ovoo, either, since the civilization description tells us that it will allow the Mongols to create units faster and improve their research. Unless they meant improving Mongols’ research by advancing through the ages, which seems like a weird way to word it, it looks like the Ovoo serves different purposes.

Also, one more thing about this image. Does anyone know what the 4/4 in the bottom left means? At first, I thought this might indicate the number of captured relics, but no other civilization has the same indicator. The Delhi Sultanate has something similar that helps them keep track of their scholars, so I thought maybe this related to the number of allowed Imperial Officials for the Chinese? Except, I’m not sure why they chose that sort of symbol. (Edit: I had thought this symbol could be the total number of allowed landmarks for the Chinese, but that theory is likely disproved by another screenshot, in the Ming Dynasty, which shows a 0/4 indicator instead. It should not be possible to be in the Ming Dynasty without any constructed landmarks.)

When going through the video, I also noticed the win conditions for the Mongols. We have shots that show the requirement to destroy three or four landmarks in feudal,

So, not only does the Chinese ability to construct extra landmarks enable them to get dynasty-specific bonuses, but it also potentially makes it more difficult for their opponents to win the game. It looks like the Chinese player went for the Song Dynasty (at least), since we see what looks like the special “village” building here, with a glow on the villagers likely indicating a buff to their work rate,

and the repeating crossbow special unit here

Anyways, those are just my thoughts. I’m curious about your perspectives.

[xHerox55]

I believe for the case of the Mongols, the packed version of the landmark building also counts as a landmark, thus if the unit is killed it will count towards the landmark requirement. But yeah I think what counts as a landmark isn’t very clear at this point.

[MarZhill7801]

Great Post here, hopefully I can shed some light on some of the items you have brought up based on my own thoughts.

You are right about the 4/4 for the Chinese screenshot, this is for the Imperial officials which are a unique gold generating unit (Glorified tax collectors if you ask me). I think the icon makes sense, its iconic

As for the mongols win conditions, in the game play preview the mongols were against the Chinese and they can build all their landmarks at any age - if they build 2 in age 1, 2, 3 or 4 they take on a dynasty - it could be that the 1 time between the first and 2nd screenshot the Chinese had built a new landmark.

1.Dark Age - 2 landmarks built = Tang Dynasty - Exploration (Speed + Vision for Scouts
2.Feudal Age - 2 landmarks built = Song Dynasty - Population Boom (Village Building + Repeater Crossbow unit)
3.Castle Age - 2 landmarks built = Yuan Dynasty - Food Boom (Granary Building + Fire Lancer Unit)
4.Imperial Age - 2 landmarks built = Ming Dynasty - Military Advantage (Pagoda Building + Grenadier Unit)

(going chronologically as they are mentioned in the below extract would mean which age these dynasties apply to.)

[AlyoshaVonDiego]

@MarZhill7801

I think the icon makes sense, its iconic

Definitely! At the magnification I was looking at it, it looked like a Christian cross on a hill, so I was really confused haha

Thanks for your insights!

[Ziad5241]

@MarZhill7801

Glorified tax collectors if you ask me

“I don’t care who the imperial office sends, I am not paying taxes.”

[YolkyPage166]

Damn, if that’s true, then my idea for a Spanish faction wouldn’t really work…

[Nytramos]

I am still not sure if we have 6 or 8 Landmarks in the game ?

The chinese have 4 dynasties. Each dynasty needs 2 landmarks of the same age
to be triggered. This considered would mean we have 8 landmarks or its just for the chinese only ?

The next thing is how do you advance to the next age, simply by completing the required landmarks or you still have to research the age after the completion of the landmarks ?

What do you guys think about that?

[EgoTonic]

Not sure about the amount of landmarks either but as it looks you simply advance to the next age by building the landmark without needing to research it afterwards. In the first gameplay trailer we could see the English aging up after finishing their landmark.

[Skadidesu]

It was already confirmed in April that you Age up by building one of two possible Landmarks.
The First Town Centre also counts as landmark so every civilisation has 6 additional ones.
With the exception of the Chinese and the Abbasides.

I’m not entirely sure how the Chinese work. Do you build one Landmark and can than choose to Age up or build a second one? Do you Age up with one Landmark but than you can still build the other Landmark from the previous Age?
How can there be 4 Dynasties when you only Age up 3 times?
Are there 2 additional Landmarks that you can build when you are already in Imperial Age?

And fo the Abbasides, they have one Building that gets expanded.
They have 4 possible expansion. They can build 3 to age up in any order and than the last one when they’re already in Imperial Age.

[Nytramos]

This is already confirmed the abbasids have an “imaginary” 5 age with the last builded wing.
You can read this in the civ-preview information on the website.

To get back to the Chinese … could it be that they are already starting in the Tang Dynasty and that they also only have 6 landmarks?

[Skadidesu]

@Nytramos

To get back to the Chinese … could it be that they are already starting in the Tang Dynasty and that they also only have 6 landmarks?

It sounds like you have to opt into each of them and you can only have one at a time.
So when you trigger a new dynasty you lose the old bonuses.