Starting Age

Hey all, I'm still new to the game but I have a question about Starting Age.

When setting up a game I realised, what's the point of starting at a different age other than Discovery Age?

If you start at the Industrial age for example you deprive yourself from all the other politicians and bonuses when aging up. This is the case for Asian and Native Civs cuz if you age up once, you can't build the rest of the buildings.

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The only thing I can think of is unlocking the age restrictions from your shipments and having access to them from the get go.

OR

it's just player preference =/