If you’ve tried to get the Civ 5 achievement that requires you to start 5 Golden Ages as Darius (Persian), you may have found that it bugged out. You start dozens of Golden Ages, but don’t get the credit. This is particularly annoying if you played Persia specifically to get it.

Looking around, quite a few people have encountered the bug (Civilization V seems to have suffered quite a few in the achievement system). Since it should be one of the easiest nation-based achievement to get, and only 2.2% of people have it, well… it seems it’s hit quite a few people.

There’s a common belief  that manually triggering golden ages causes the bug. Incidentally, that’s the one that seems to make the most sense.

In any case, what worked for me was as follows:

• Start a game as Darius. If you’ve been “robbed” by the bug before, you may as well play on the easiest difficulty (Settler).
• When you receive a “Great Person” (Great Artist, Great General, Great Scientist, Great Engineer), DO NOT use them to trigger a golden age.
• DO NOT take policies that directly affect golden ages. Don’t take Rationalism (it instantly triggers a 5-turn golden age). Don’t take Piety (policy to reduce happiness needed to start a golden age, trigger for 5-turn golden age).
• DO NOT build the Taj Mahal (instant golden age) or other World Wonders you believe might interfere.

It’s possible that only 1 of these is the culprit, but unless you enjoy trial-and-error (or enjoy playing as Darius/Persia numerous times), don’t take anything that triggers a golden age. To be on the safe side, I also avoided wonders/policies that reduce the happiness needed to trigger a golden age as well.

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Basically, make sure golden ages happen on their own, as organically as possible. If you place an emphasis keeping your empire really happy and avoid the potential bug triggers, it’s pretty easy to obtain.