Ever wondered how newbies new to to this game ever suffer at the start? Or will veteran competitive sweaties like gladiators bath in praise, smiling a satisfied 1v7VH Petra using only woman on an open map. Where stories go, then I'd like to listen whats its like. If you have proof to back up your claim then go ahead. I've shared mine, I don't like repeating and my memory is not that good. Easy - I'd had to tone down to supermarket(superbox? Ah yes sandbox) just to understand the gist of things, I restarted the skirmish map oasis again and again to be efficient and I tend to give up easily, I wished there was a button to restart, and then I kind of brute force my way with just basic infantry of spearman and slingers as the default civ Athenian. I didn't know capture mechanic so I was kind of pissed off, having to destroy buildings and finding that one single unit. Medium and hard are just me learning the game and getting used to it slowly. Very Hard - Was still playing scenarios, this time Briton in a night map. Had 10 champion/mercenary(?) with me, so I thought I could gather but nah they just stand there as defenders. So I continued to mass produce minding my own business a healthy civilisation until an army arrive and I lost my whole army, so I had to restart this time getting ready and producing faster. Yes they are all basic infantry but I had dogs to help. And so... I still didn't know of capture, so I had to play mouse and cat. Modded; Expert Petra(VH) - As Han, I was wondering why the AI was passive while I was building, then my army came in contact, and that 1 horse archer would run away if chased by my spearman, okay. So I'm playing with micro intense bot on steroid. I've pulled back my spearman and let my rangers do the shooting. It solves the problem, it took a while having to chase and my army spreads thin at their base. Okay I don't like this AI, so in their last workers they run and I had to chase them... 2 VH Petra - With good experience as Han, I lost the first against raid of overwhelming number, 2nd try with cheese like strategy, the building would take damage but not my army, and just like that I boom and won at 40min mark in a mountanous map(I choose any land map). It felt good ngl. I'll go continue to play vs 2 for a while. People, if you want to make your life easy, capture their CC and the AI will automatically destroy their building when the capture points decrease before 50%. You only need to chase workers now, select your whole army and control(attack anything in sight) + right click drag a curve reaching the edges of the map, your army will now walk in that directions like a death machine. Thank you to the programmer who did right click drag.

As some have correctly stated, flight archery (shooting upwards) was not that common, the arrow loses too much energy from air friction. For the same reason, archers wouldn’t shoot at maximum range, but at around one third of it, which means shooting straight at the enemy from a close distance (also to greately increase accuracy). Thus, the reason for missiles historically not dominating is not friendly ”fire”, although that puts constraints and I agree it should be included. The main reason is that one runs out of missiles incredibly fast. An archer can shoot around 10 arrows per minute, and can carry up to around 70 arrows (a horse archer around half that). They are done fast but in over 7 minutes because the pace cannot be kept. They need to be resupplied, like the 10000 Parthian horse archers were at Carrhae by camels, which allowed them to shoot around 2 million arrows on the Romans. Imagine the volume all that would have taken.  It’s all about logistics. This is one of the main advantages firearms had when they appeared: lead balls are small and easy to transport (let alone easier to produce). Shooting was slower but more efficient, and required less training. Friendly fire was not a big concern.   Someone proposed somewhere for ranged units having limited ammo and going back to replenish. He was closer in pinpointing the issue with ranged units, although that is not how things were done in antiquity. A baggage train would follow the army, which could be resupplied from local resources (trading, plundering, living off the land) or, in case of long term campaigns, supply lines from one’s territory. Supply depots would store supplies. Earth 2150 implemented resupplying amazingly, a building would produce automated flying units to distribute munitions to whoever needed them. No micro. One just has to keep supply lines open. For 0 A.D., a clumsy Baggage Train unit could accompany the army to resupply what’s needed (arrows for now). I think Rise of Nations had one for attrition reduction bonus when outside one’s territory. I have ideas on how to make this even more realistic, using what the game already has, but don’t want to turn this into a “supplies” discussion, unless asked.

I thought about rebellion considering the Carthaginian Mercenary Wars, but wanted to keep it simple for now, maybe the basic ideas has to first be tested. And that should happen if you run out of metal while the contract is on. Bribery would be interesting, but troops under Hannibal should cost a fortune for example. I forgot to say that the cooldown countdown should start after the battalion returns to their closest camp (called Embassy in the game now I remember, but sounds too formal for me, Iberian Camp would be nicer for the context), otherwise they might be instantly available after the contract is finished, which is not the idea. They need to replenish, rest, spend their hard earned money...

Sounds inteersting - we might also consider that - if you stop paying your mercs - they may turn hostile against you, join your adversary or at least revert to gaia "raiders"? The bribery mechanics could also be used to convert mercs to the other side. Not sure if this turns out to be too complex micro-managing for gameplay.

second try vs AIx4.. Good luck trying to recognize the building fast!  And yeah, interesting Wonder ...