I think I’m ready to throw in the towel on Through the Ages.
I’ve been playing for a year and a half, dozens of games, and I don’t think I’m getting any better and can never quite tell why I ever win or lose.
More than that though, I think the way military conflict works in that game is busted. I’m seeing too many games that go on for so long, only to be completely decided by who gets the most ridiculous army in the final age. Now, you can say that’s part of the game and if you ignore military, you deserve to lose.
But that’s where the “busted” part lies. You can play perfectly smart, developing your economy and culture generation while getting a respectable army to defend yourself against the guy who goes all out military, but if there’s even one player who neglects military, they become a culture farm and the military player takes the game.
The rules even acknowledge this in a half assed way. A player can resign at the start of their turn to drop out if they just become a hopeless culture battery. Except it’s totally optional, which once again goes back to the problem of the punching bag deciding the game. It doesn’t do any good if it’s not an forced rule. The game really needs another new edition that smooths out the way military works.