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This is an updated and expanded version of The Road to Expert for the a21 balance. Don't fall into any of these early game traps: Farms go adjacent to your CC or farmstead, as close as they will go. I've seen many new players who put them a distance back. Don't do that. Don't use women for mining. Don't use men for food gathering. Use women or men for woodcutting. Cavalry are for hunting chickens or other animals. Only cavalry are good at this. Hunting is a very fast way to get food unless the animals are very far from the dropsite. If you have berries, build a farmstead right next to them and have some women harvest the berries. It's twice as fast as farming. Don't let your workers carry resources too far. Put the storehouse right adjacent to the trees when they chop wood. If your workers (except for hunting cavalry) are walking twice the width of a storehouse to return resources, they are walking too far. Don't make a barracks until at least the end of age I. A lot of new players make a barracks way too early, or even more than one. Your CC can produce enough soldiers by itself. Don't make walls in age I either. Good players generally agree not to use walls, anyway, and plus in age I it's just a waste of resources that the enemy can simply walk around. Sentry towers are good only if you are right next to enemy territory and you want to prevent him from building a sentry tower that can attack your workers. Don't start mining anything until the end of age I. You don't need it. Don't use formations. Especially don't gather your army in age I and set it in formation outside your base to defend. That army is composed of workers, and should be harvesting resources at all times, unless you are using it to raid the enemy (an advanced technique). Corrals are an advanced technique because they require more micromanagement and there is a long delay before you get any net food from them (for a minute or two after you start building cavalry and corrals, they just cost you food and wood). Instead of corrals, use hunting, fields, or berries. Practice until you can have constant production of units from your CC (Civic Center) for the first 10+ minutes. That means: You need enough food income to produce women nonstop until population 50-70. You can produce soldiers after that. If you're planning on having a big economy, you can go up to 70 women, which does leave you more vulnerable to early attacks. You can use fewer women if you expect raids. Of course, if you're actually being raided, you need to make soldiers to defend (usually spearmen and cavalry). You need enough wood to make houses - and you need to make houses far enough ahead of time so that you don't get stopped by the population limit. Batch Production: like the previous step, learn to maintain constant production, but now with large batches (shift-click on the unit production icon several times to produce multiple at a time). Batch production by 5 is 38% faster than producing single units. Batch production by 10 is 57% faster. Batch production by 15 is 72% faster. It is absolutely worth it to make a batch of even 15 or 20, if you have the resources and population. You need more food to batch produce women this way. That means more on berries (like 10), more hunting, or earlier farms. You need to plan houses more in advance, too, so that you have enough population open when it's time to produce. A rule of thumb on houses is that (except for ptolemies) in the time it takes you to create 10 population worth of workers at your CC, one builder can build 10 population worth of houses. If you need a house faster than that, use several workers to build it. However, note that using more workers on the same house is less efficient, so build with just 1 worker if you don't need a house faster. However, note that it's inefficient to build more houses than you need. Don't be at 30 pop with 50 pop worth of houses; spend the wood on something else. Produce as large a batch as possible, but don't delay more than a few seconds to make a batch. It's better to just be producing 1 unit if you don't have enough houses or food for a batch. Don't queue up more than 1 batch of units from your CC at a time. Wait until the previous batch finishes, so your next batch can be as large as possible. Minimum batch size is configurable in the settings. Use a minimum batch size as small as you feel comfortable with - a minimum batch size of 1 is "optimal" because it lets you produce as large a batch as you have resources for, but it requires more clicks to produce a batch of a given size. borg-, who is the best player, uses a batch size of 2. Practice not harvesting resources you can't spend. If you're ever thinking "I have more food than I need - but I wish I had more wood" then you need to transfer some workers from food to wood, and figure out some way to spend the food. (Actually, you probably needed to transfer the workers two minutes ago, but late is better than never). If you have 1000 of any resource in age I-II, you have way too much. This can be counterintuitive to some new players, who think that because they have 5000 wood banked up that their economy is strong. A strong economy means you have a high income, not a high amount banked up. Resources you aren't spending aren't doing you any good. If you have extra wood, a good way to spend it is on economy upgrades. The highest priority upgrade is berry gathering, then woodcutting, then farming, then mining. You want economy upgrades as early as possible so you get the benefit for longer, except for the upgrades that are super expensive. Adjust your typical build order so that you avoid having too much of the resource. If, last game, you had way more wood than you could spend, then this game, don't put as many workers on wood so early. And so on. This is the true mark of skill in building your economy. You know you're doing it right when you have just enough of every resource you need, exactly when you need it, and little excess, and are producing in large batches. Watch replays of good players! A lot of people don't know where replays are. From the starting screen, they are under Tools/Options. Switch to that player's perspective in the replay and follow what they do - what they build, when they build it, how many farms they make, when they get upgrades. Then try to copy them in your next game. If you're spectating a game with good players, you can switch to the perspective of the best player and watch them as they play, instead of going to the replay. A list of good players can be found in this thread: multiplayer rankings . The ones near the top of the list, especially if they are also at the left margin, are the best players. Practice using Shift to queue up actions. For instance, don't just tell your woodcutter to make a house - tell him to make a house, then shift-click back on the tree! That way he will go back to woodcutting when he's done building the house, and he won't be idle. I always do this whenever I build a structure. If you change your mind and want him to make a second house instead of going back to the trees, you should first select him, then click (without shift) on the house he's building to clear his work queue, then shift-click to build the new house. If you just shift clicked to build the second house, he would go back to the trees like you told him earlier after finishing his current house instead of building the second one. Work out exactly what you will do in the first minute, with low resources (the usual resource setting). This is a "build order." For every civ, you want to put the cavalry on chickens and the women on berries, and the men on wood. You also generally want the first batch of 6 women produced from the CC to chop wood (depending a little on your minimum batch size), and the next 5 women from the CC to harvest berries, after which you will be at 20 population. The order in which you make a storehouse, a farmstead, get the berry upgrade, and make your first house can vary. Britons and Gauls can build a farmstead at the berries, build a storehouse at the wood, and research the berry upgrade. They will have plenty of time to get 75 wood and make their first house, because they get a population bonus from making the farmstead and storehouse. Most civs have houses that cost 150 wood and grant 10 population. With these you can't get the farmstead, the storehouse, and the berry upgrade all at once, and still have enough wood for your first house. You have to pick between the storehouse and the berry upgrade. If wood is very close to your CC, you can get the farmstead and berry upgrade, and get the storehouse later. If wood is far away, you need a storehouse (and a farmstead), so you have to skip the berry upgrade to have enough wood for the house. With these civs you will need to use 3-4 workers to make the house once you have 150 wood, so that it will be done in time. With a civ that has a house that costs 150 wood, I batch 6 women and put them on wood, batch 2 women for berries, start to batch 2 more women for berries and at the same time start making the house with 4-5 woodcutters (I have woodcutters return wood prematurely to have 150 wood soon enough), make one last woman for berries, and now I'm at 20 pop and the house finishes just as the last woman is produced. Iberians and Mauryans occupy a middle ground since their houses cost 75 wood but they don't have the population bonuses of Britons/Gauls. You can figure something out if you want to play these. Mauryans have an elephant, which can do the job of a storehouse or farmstead and help build houses. Ptolemies need less wood, but at least two workers building houses (perhaps three or four). Work out more of your typical build order. After you're at 20 population, additional women should go on wood. "Five fields as fast as possible" is a good rule of thumb - make sure that you are already building your next house, and then if you have 100 wood, make a field and put 5 women on it, until you have 5 fields with 25 women on them. You can transfer women from wood to farming if your CC doesn't have a batch ready when it's time for the next field. If you have extra berry patches, build farmsteads by them instead of making farms. You can figure that one berry patch with 5 women on it equals two farms. You will need to make farms later when the berries run out. Be aware that berries leave you more vulnerable to cavalry raids, but they're still usually worth it. If there's plenty of hunting, you can build some extra cavalry to hunt instead of women (usually, start hunting sometime after population 20). Shift-click your cavalry beyond the animal, and then shift-click on the animal, so that when the animal runs it will come back to your base. Don't make too many cavalry; make sure you're getting enough wood in proportion to your food income. Hunting gets you a lot of food. To transfer women from wood to farming, select the women, then shift-click on the storehouse so they drop off the wood, then shift-click to build the farm. This ensures they do not waste their last load of wood when they stop chopping. You can also go up to six, seven, or eight fields, and indeed you should if you are booming your economy. Use hotkeys for at least your production buildings, perhaps also other units. Select your CC and press Ctrl-1, and now you can select the CC again just by pressing 1. Your barracks can go on group 2. This helps you to keep production going smoothly even if your attention is elsewhere. Learn to use attack-walk. This is the hotkey "ctrl", combined with a right click. Units on attack-walk will attack enemy units in their way. If you don't want your soldiers to attack buildings automatically (usually you don't), you can use ctrl-q-click to have them target only units. I actually have edited my local.cfg file (see https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GameDataPaths ) so that ctrl-click targets only units. During a large melee combat, repeatedly select your units and ctrl-click. This makes them choose new targets close to them, and stops them from walking to targets far away. Doing this increases your army's DPS. Learn the difference between attacking a structure or siege engine, and capturing it. Ctrl-click on the structure for your units to deal damage to the structure. Bear in mind that most units are pretty bad at damaging structures, the main exceptions being slingers and siege engines, and swordsmen to a lesser extent. Otherwise, a regular click will make your units try to capture the structure, which may be impossible if the structure is garrisoned, unless you've heavily damaged the structure first. Usually you want to kill the enemy army before attacking or capturing any structures. Otherwise you will take large amounts of damage while attacking the structure. Rushes! Cavalry rushes are hot in a21. It's best to use melee cavalry, because they kill women faster: Macedonians and Romans have melee cavalry in age I, and many civilizations have melee cavalry in age 2. Attacking your enemy is a good idea if you've been using cavalry for hunting, after the animals run out. It's best to use at least 10 cavalry for raiding. That way, they kill things fast enough, and damage will be spread over the group so that fewer cavalry die. Target women preferentially, or enemy soldiers in small groups. Run away from larger groups of spearmen. Put your cavalry on a hotkey so you can control them more easily. To attack, run the cavalry (without attack-walk!) past the enemy units, until the cavalry are mixed with the enemy a bit. Then ctrl-click to have them all suddenly attack, or alternatively press "h" which makes them halt their current run order, and attack the enemy. If you're attacking and more enemy soldiers (especially spearmen) show up, run away just before they get there. You only want to fight where you have a big advantage. Keep running away and attacking a few times, until you notice the average HP of your cavalry is getting low (if the average HP is below perhaps 60% or 70%, that means many cavalry are on the verge of death). Then you should retreat your cavalry and put them in your CC or in your temple. After they've healed, you can attack again. You don't want to let your cavalry die if you can avoid it; you want to maintain a high kill/death ratio. If the enemy is chasing you with too many of his worker soldiers, you can just keep running around. As long as they are chasing you, they're not working, so your attack is costing him resources. If the enemy defends with cavalry, you should kill them with a large number of your own cavalry. If he has too many, you have to run away and think about your own defense if he counterattacks. If you're raiding in age 2, build a temple to heal afterwards. If your first rush is effective, just keep making cavalry to make it even more effective. You can keep two groups of cavalry, one in the temple healing, the other out raiding the enemy, and switch them so he is under constant pressure. They should be under two control groups. Your production buildings need to be on hotkeys as well so you can keep your economy going while you are raiding. To defend against rushes, it's first important to use the bell icon on your civic center. Click it when a raid is coming, and all women will try to hide in houses or your CC. This will prevent the enemy cavalry from slaughtering them all. There's another bell icon on your CC to end the alert and send your women back to work. Also mix spearmen with your women. If rushes are really bad, you can try farming with spearmen, or just leaving some spearmen idle by the fields. Building a solid wall of houses around your fields can help a lot. Getting cavalry of your own is also good. Sadly, towers are not that effective at stopping cavalry rushes. They do help, but cavalry can just keep running by them unless you really have a lot of garrisoned towers. It only takes a few seconds to kill some of your women, then the cavalry can go back and heal. It's better to rely on spearmen, walls of houses, and your own cavalry. Hold down alt and drag over your woodcutters or miners to select only the soldiers, and not the women. After you've used some soldiers to chase after the raiders, you can click the "back to work" button with the soldiers selected (looks kind of like a brown wagon wheel or maybe a basket) and your workers will go back to chopping or mining. Skiritai rush Play Spartans, ideally with a 200+ population limit. Boom to 60 population with only women (hoping you don't get rushed), then make 10 spearmen and put them on mining metal. Go to age II while making 2 barracks ASAP. Once in age II, start producing batches of only skiritai from your 2 barracks, with your CC idle. As soon as you produce each batch of skiritai, send it over to the enemy. You can use them like cavalry raiders to kill farmers, and you can also fight the enemy army unless they have greatly superior numbers, because skiritai are stronger than normal soldiers. Unlike with cavalry raids, usually just let the skiritai keep raiding until they die; they are too slow to walk back and heal. If all goes well, his army and economy are dead by 10-11 minutes into the game. Briton slinger spam This is a very powerful and common strategy. Boom a bit with women in age I, then start making slingers and mining stone. Go to age II, continuing to boom. Here you can make some celtic cavalry to go raid the enemy or just keep booming. Switch to making spearmen later in age II so that you have enough stone to get to age III soon. When you're going III, make sure you mine enough stone for a fortress, from which you make Cunobelin. Then select Cunobelin and all your slingers and spearmen (alt-double click on a slinger to select all slingers, shift alt-double click on a spearmen to select all spearmen, and bind the whole army to a hotkey), and send them at the enemy. Make sure Cunobelin doesn't die, because his healing is very powerful. It's good to keep making celtic cavalry in age III to raid or to kill enemy archers. Elephants and archers Boom to age III with any civilization that has both archers and elephants. For citizen soldiers, make archers. Once in age III, make a fortress (or persian hall, or elephant stables) and 3-5 war elephants. Select all your archers (should be 100+ archers) and attack (make sure you have temples to heal after). The elephants go in front. The enemy will be forced to kill the elephants, which are very tough, while the archers shoot the enemy. When the elephants are dead and the enemy is coming for you, send your archers back to your temples and heal, and make more elephants for round 2. The enemy usually loses more soldiers than you do, each time you attack like this. Also can work well with cavalry instead of archers, or cavalry mixed in. If the enemy has cavalry you might put some spearmen among your archers to defend. Seleucids can use massed Dahae Horse Archers, which become very tough with the Seleucid cavalry hero and the Seleucid bonus cavalry health upgrade. Caution! You cannot kill rams with archers. It's best to keep around some swordsmen or have an ally who can kill rams for you. Elephants can kill rams, if you manage to maneuver them into the same place, which is not easy. Trade In a long game, mines will start to run out. It's important in this case to start making lots of traders, to defend your traders, and to kill the enemy traders. 50 traders per player is a good number in a 200 population game. For both raiding and defending against raids, you want melee cavalry, and don't forget the walk speed upgrades at the corral. Having many fortresses and towers along the trade route helps as well, in part because you can garrison the traders in the fortresses/towers (also in houses or CCs). Long trade routes give more income, but are harder to defend. You want to set up the longest trade route that you can defend. Champions There is a difference of opinion on the value of champions in a21. I personally feel they are usually not that useful unless the game goes on for a long time, such as because there is a narrow chokepoint or it's a naval map. I prefer to get upgrades for my citizen-soldiers before I start making champions (except for war elephants, of course!). Massed archers, slingers, or war elephants can fight effectively against a couple dozen enemy infantry champs at a time, which is why you attack before the enemy has amassed larger numbers. However, there are some experts who swear by champions. An exception: Athens has champion archers which are basically the reason to play Athens. Athens can produce these archers from relatively cheap buildings, which makes it easier to mass large numbers of them. Use citizen-soldier spearmen to defend the archers against cavalry, and to tank damage when fighting enemy infantry. The downside is that Athens have no rams or elephants, only catapults which deal damage very slowly, so ideally you would have allies to send rams or elephants for you. Melee cavalry champions are effective at raiding later on, and can capture buildings and even CCs if the enemy army is busy somewhere else. Coordination with your allies Before doing a big attack, look around and see if your ally has an army that can help you. Ask him. A combined push is much better. If you are getting attacked, or if you see a large enemy army on the move to one of your allies, or if you see enemy cavalry raiders, don't forget to tell your allies what's going on. A simple "purple attacks mid" when you see the purple player send an army through the center, can help your team a lot. If an ally is getting attacked and needs help, one option is to help defend him. Another option is to counterattack and kill the enemy's undefended base. Which you do should depend on how close your ally is to you, how fast your army is (a fast cavalry army can defend allies better), and whether you have an army that can kill buildings quickly (slingers/rams/elephants). When the enemy is attacking (or when your teammates are attacking) is also a good time to use your cavalry to raid his women and traders, because the enemy's attention is split and he may not react in time to your raiders. Another possibility if an ally is under attack, is to send them resources. However, for this to work, the attack needs to proceed slowly enough that they have time to spend the resources. If you need resources, or have extra resources, don't hesitate to ask/offer. In a 3v3 or 4v4, it's good to have at least one player on your team who commits to making tons of melee cavalry for raids and for assisting allies.

Hi guys, This is the scenario I made of Birgantim (modern A Coruña) that served as port to Lucus Augusti. It is quite accurate, fully playable with no detected errors, and balanced forces so it's fun to play with both armies. I hope you enjoy. Please comment and feel free to include it in future releases of the game or give any advice you believe would improve the gaming experience. Cheers! You can download this playable scenario from dropbox (includes the scenario files and some screenshots): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vc4938ecuce1j35/AADoRvYFiJdZF_W91zZeEtnQa?dl=0 BRIGANTIUM description: Strategic settlement located on the coast of Gallaecia, named that way by the Romans during their invasion of the northwestern Iberian Peninsula, that began in the second century BC and was not completed until the first century BC, after more than one hundred years of fierce strife against the Celtic tribes that inhabited this vast area of forested mountains rich in minerals, rivers, beaches, and fertile waters. Historically the Celtic settlers of Brigantium did not offer resistance to the Roman contingent, whereas in the interior the conquest was not completed until the times of the emperor Augustus. Later, Brigantium become Portus Magnus and the Tower of Hercules (oldest lighthouse of the world still in operation) was build in it. Situation: The bulk of the legion commanded by the legate Julio Cesar, has entered the interior of Gallaecia with intent to subdue the natives. It will not be easy for the Romans. Will the Artabros also rise against occupation on the coast? Factions: 1. Incarnate the Celtic tribe of the Artabros from their settlement in Nostian, being also able to control easily a port of the settlement of Elvina: -Let us expel the invader! Let us wash down the sacred oaks with their blood! Let us return their bones to the sea! Under the light of the moon we will celebrate with mead their defeat! Our mothers and women will rejoice, and our daughters will compose songs of this day! Oh, free people! This is our home! 2. Take the command of the Roman detachment emplaced by Julio Cesar to incorporate this enclave to the glorious Roman Republic: -It's time to get this port out of the darkness! The Carthaginians defied Roman hegemony and bought their stall, before testing our iron! And these wild barbarians will also succumb! Today his pillage is over! Tonight their women will serve us in our beds! Roma invicta!

Anavultus - Vibrance

The Machimoi - preview I really enjoyed working on these textures. I learned a lot during the research phase.

The Scythians version 1.1 Above: Scythian Commoners (left), Scythian Slaves (right) Above: Skilurus, King of Crimea Above: Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae Above: Ateas, King of Scythia Above: Scythian Shaman (Healer) MAP OF THEIR INFLUENCE Units Support Units Scythian Peasant Male and Female variations References Resource Wagon Dropsite for all Raw Resources Can "unpack" into these buildings Yurt (+10 to pop cap) Storehouse Can train Slaves once the Trade Depot is built Enaree Shaman Healer/Priest Class unit They wear shaggy clothing, drooping robes, tassels, and animal skins. They have eagle feather or deer antler head gear and carry a stretched leather drum. References Barracks Units Scythian Spearman Spear Infantry Saka Axeman Sword Infantry Scythian Archer (male and female actor variations) Archer Infantry Maiden Archer Female Archer Infantry Less armor, faster speed Only costs Glory resource References Stables Units Scythian Scout Scout Cavalry Sarmatian Lancer Spear Cavalry Massagetae Sagaris Cavalry Sword (Ax) Cavalry Dahae Cavalry Archer Archer Cavalry Royal Maiden Headhunter Female Archer Cavalry Less Armor, faster speed Only costs the Glory resource References Mercenary Camp Units Bosporan Hoplite Hoplite Thracian Peltast Javelin Infantry Tocharian Swordsman Fortress Units Alani Cataphract Champion Lancer Cavalry Extra Armor, slower speed Can upgrade to a strong anti-building attack (flames) References Royal Cavalry Archer Champion Archer Cavalry Extra Armor, slower speed References Battering Ram An uncovered Ram Lower armor, faster speed Heroes A civ bonus for Scythians is that their Heroes are allowed to upgrade to Mounted from Village Phase, while all other heroes in the game have to wait for City Phase. Tahm-Rayiš (Tomyris) Hero Cavalry Queen of the Massagetae, a powerful Eastern Scythian confederacy. Her army defeated Cyrus the Great and checked his expansionist ambitions. Her look is very Eastern or central Asian, in contrast to the more Western look of the other heroes. References Ateas (Ateas) Hero Cavalry United dozens of Western Scythian tribes to form a kind of "Scythian Empire" over his lifetime. Fought against and was killed by Philip II of Macedon. References Skilurus (Skilurus) Hero Chariot King of the Crimean Scythians, whose capital was the Greco-Scythian city of Scythian Neapolis. Warred against Mithridates of Pontus. He has a mix of Greek and Scythian equipment. References Scythian Structures Scythian structures, like the Huns and Xiongnu, can be built anywhere on the map, in neutral, allied, or enemy territory. This is their "nomad" bonus. They also have half the build time and cost. Consequently, they are the weakest buildings in the game, at 50% health of standard. Their buildings are very fragile. These bonuses and weaknesses also apply to their Fortress. Cult Statue: Ovoo This is the "Cult Statue" building for the Scythians (and Xiongnu). Not only does it give a trickle of Glory like all Cult Statues, but also a trickle of free Stone resource. As an additional bonus, Enaree Shaman healers gain greater healing powers when in range of this structure. Wonder: Royal Kurgan tumulus. A large earthen mount with eye candy around it (see how the mound is surrounded by standing stones; we can add additional culture by using the enigmatic Scythian "statues" found throughout the steppe instead of simple stones). Can have various "stages" of construction like the other Scythian and Xiongnu buildings do: Technologies "Fill of Blood" Prereq: Choosing Tomyris Tomyris +25% attack when mounted on her war horse, +50% attack vs. Enemy Heroes. Social Reforms Prereq: Choosing Ateas Scythian Peasants +50% health; Scythian Slaves +100% Loyalty. Greek Engineering Prereq: Choosing Skilurus Unlock the ability for Scythian citizen-soldiers to construct Catapults. Goldsmithing Prereq: City Phase Research at: Forge (the only economically-focused Forge tech in the game) Traders +40% trade profit per trip. Archery Tradition Prereq: Village Phase Research Building: Barracks Archers -50% experience needed to promote, +10% faster firing rate Parthian Tactics Prereq: Town Phase, Archery Tradition, Advanced Cavalry Research Building: Cavalry Stable Ranged Cavalry will automatically kite away from approaching targets if the enemy targets get within 15 meters. Falconry Prereq: Village Phase (also requires Basic Husbandry) Research Building: Civic Center All Structures and Cavalry +25% vision range. Scouts +25% meat gathering rate. Scouts gain a new Falcon prop actor that circles over them. Extensive Husbandry Prereq: Town Phase (also requires Basic Husbandry) Research Building: Cavalry Stable Domestic Animals -25% train time, +25% health. Slave Trade Prereq: Town Phase Research Building: Market Slaves -50% train time. Other civs have to first capture a Trading Post before being able to research this tech. Scythians can research it from their Market. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We need to find a Scythians expert to help parse all of the reference material. I don't think it has to be super granular, but I would like to separate everything into some categories: Western Scythians Cavalry Infantry Potential Hero References (Ateas and Skilurus) Eastern Scythians Cavalry Infantry Potential Hero References (Tomyris) Support Units Healers Peasants Males Females Traders Fishing Boat (necessary for gameplay) Trading Ship (necessary for gameplay) Structures Specific Buildings Materials Need to try to find era-specific reference materials: 6th-4th centuries BC.

To select actors (which are just graphics, no impact on gameplay) press Alt. (This and a few other things that might be useful are mentioned in the Atlas Manual.) For logs (and also where to place maps when installing them (assuming that they aren't in a mod, and even if they were the information would be there)) see the game data paths wiki page.

Today, I tested the latest SVN19554, and when the game started, this warning message appeared： WARNING: Last man standing is only available in games with unlocked teams!

@wackyserious it should be good to go. Haven't had time to test it. Attach it to the "sheath_L" prop point. Feel free to edit the texture. pouch.7z

#1, people still "drop" when loadinga multiplayer match? I thought that was solved when we evolved out of the dark ages, i.e., the 56k modem era...

Poor sergui. Not even Hardest AI wants to let him win. Anyway, back to that kid. It's those child-like comments that made me think Selerie Sticks was a prepubescent male. I didn't even realize back then that she was making some social and political statements.

I only chose to lock team in the game options, and I didn't choose Last standing man why did this warning happen?

@wowgetoffyourcellphone Hello! I am a newcomer to this game but not to AOE2 and this is my first community post. AOE2 was a longtime love of mine, 0 A.D. Carries on with the spirit of that title in many ways. But your further modifications make this even more interesting and fresh. I want to say that this gameplay essay really works for me. I love the changes. i especially like the change to citizen soldiers, as I feel otherwise they disincentivize creating a variety of military units and make certain strategies less viable. i also love the idea of battalions, as micro was always a frustration for me. I have always felt that some collusion of the Total War and Age Of Empires series would be totally kickass. Looks like this is well on its way to becoming something of that sort. ive read some of the other forum posts/threads and already seen some amazing topics, great ideas, and flame wars (looking at you guys @DarcReaver @Lion.Kanzen.) Try to be patient with one another. Let's try some new takes on classic tropes and see what happens. One final (unrelated) note on Game Theory - it's easy to get caught up in a perspective that excludes other perspectives. If you come at this game looking at 1v1 strategies only, you can seriously cripple the scope of the title. While I like a good 1v1 deathmatch, the best times I recall involved 5-6 player games with friends that were drawn out and finally ended with a wonder victory or something. Everyone should remember that the point is to have fun while also overcoming a challenge. Cheers all Anubis

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Transifex managed to fix the bug where translators couldn't change strings offline. So, you can now all go back to translating as usual

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The Kingdom of Kush: Unit: Meroitic Pikeman 0 A.D.-Dedicated Art by Sundiata The third in this series of ancient Kushite warriors, depicts a Meroitic Pikeman. Probably due to both New Kingdom Egyptian influence as well as later Hellenic influences, the rulers of Kush were able to field pikemen, fighting in phalanx. The unit I depicted is referenced in part by the Egyptian Nakhtu-aa "strong arm boys". Parallels of the general shape of the shield can be found on the graffito of Musawwarat. In this context, the leopard skin covering the wooden shield can be seen as a sign of devotion to Amun. His cotton armor showcases a variation of the type I already depicted in the two previous units. The tightly fitting blue skullcap (bronze cap, covered by padded cotton) is amply attested in Kushite reliefs, and seems to have been a prized object. The pike he wields is copied from a relief depicting Queen Amanishakheto executing prisoners, and the thick bronze or golden necklace is also attested in a variety of Kushite reliefs, indicating some level of nobility. Meroitic Pikeman, by Malcolm Kwadwo Kwarte Quartey (Sundiata) [Licensed CC BY-SA 3.0] @Tiber7 You're absolutely right, in future I will be making more use of spoilers if I share a large quantity of images again.

Next AoE, New AoE, Age of Empires 4... It's debatable in the RTS Community, but 0 A.D. seems to be taking the crown amongst Youtubers.

Basically, the Age of Mythology in-game manual is almost perfect.

The alpha symbol orientation is noted. Current WIP on Greek psiloi infanty and Thracian peltasts unit textures.

I'm not 100% sure but I think Thorfinn is right in the sense that the bottom of the shield should point downwards when the unit is bracing, and point backwards when the unit is walking. So on the picture above the shields with the amphora and the helmet are ok, the ones with the soldiers running and the alpha symbols should be turned by 90°.

Installing mods, creating mods, contributing assets, etc... All in the website Manual. But "Nobody reads the manual." - Let's just accept that as a truism, okay? People prefer to learn by Video Tutorials - like somebody doing all the talking and all they do is imitating. I still read, but Video Tutorials are a thing now.

Hit #125 in mod popularity yesterday after releasing just 1 image.

The Gameplay point of view depends on how the player enjoys the game, if you just want to win at all cost, in a competitive/stressfull game then it's Ok, but I've no fun in building a city but to sustain an army population in a sort of crazy competitiveness, I rather create the army to defend a beautiful city/civ. with wise movements and strategic thinking. AOE III made the same mistake and I think world war one was almost about the same.

Any other ideas for to use the Upgrade feature? I was thinking of giving every champion infantry unit a Banner Carrier upgrade option that boosts the performance of units around them (does not stack, so sprinkle them around). They'd have no attack, but very good armor or health. Definitely an Immortals Spear <-> Bow option. Any others? I thought about a Hastatus Sword <-> Pilum toggle, but I think the Pilum should be use differently in the game (throw pilum more like a "first attack" option if the enemy is right distance, then charge with the sword). But I might include in Alpha 21 for fun anyway. Some of these will be made obsolete later with proper secondary attacks implement, but that's okay. And in case I don't like the way secondary atack implement then I can always use the upgrade feature. This is one of the best feature impemented in a long time.

Made Mauryan Maiden Archer can transform between Fire archer or Sword and back again. So, 3 modes for the Maiden Guard. It's pretty cool. Would work even better if we had battalion feature.

Started a new map, I call Blue Nile. It is another nomad-style map, 4 player. It represent the Blue Nile valley in today Sudan and Ethiopia. Players start the match as colonists in dire straights. No resources, only some supplies nearby. Must travel out of the mud flats and find a suitable place to settle nearer fresh water (the Blue Nile River) and more plentiful resources (wood, animals, farmlands, foraging). I have 4 maps I have start that I will not be able to finish before the next alpha (and the first release of DE). Adriatic Coves (4), Blue Nile (4), Corinthian Isthmus (8), and Scythian Steppes (6). It's a lot easier to make 2 player map, lol. Corinthian Isthmus (8) will be the biggest challenge. I hope to complete all by Alpha 23, but maybe not. Goal is to have a lot more skirm map selection for 4,5,6+ players. I also want to overhaul Bactria (2), since it look kind of unfinished.

Female Clothing Unit Types: Scythian Female Citizens, Maiden Head Hunters Shaman Clothing and Props Unit Types: Healer Animation Refs: Basic Tunics and Jackets Unit Types: Basic and Advanced Soldiers, Scythian Male Citizens, Trader Trader and Cart: (trading goods in lieu of family members)