Deicide4u

One very special game played with the new 27.1 RC. RomeVSKush_M.zip

Wanted to ask, are those changes removed for CM 27.2? I saw that the building armor is also back to the vanilla values. Agree that the changes were good.

It takes 50 food and 8 seconds to train one woman, not counting batch training. It takes 150 wood and 50 seconds (25 with 2 builders) to make a new house (not counting the factions with small houses, that are also easier to capture). In the meantime, you are most likely housed and can't train anything until you build a house. You can spam women easily. Your women will be safe inside the CC most of the time, anyway. The topic is mostly geared towards walls as a means of solid defense that will take forever to breach (similar to AoE).

It works in this game because of the CSs, but... ...what if it's not? Sometimes you train a bit too many women, and you need some kind of protection. Building palisades is your best bet in the early game, but because trees don't have proper collision, enemy can just sneak in through the forest. The solution is to surround open side of the forest with walls, which is more expensive. Walls don't build fast enough, so you need more builders to make it before the enemy rush. Making towers is a better option, but you need soldiers to man them or they're useless. Walling with houses will expose them to the enemy, who can just use capture->delete tactic to cost you both population and 150 wood per house. Both of them vital in the early game. BTW, why do houses need on average 40 seconds to be built? It's frustrating, especially considering there's batch training which makes you build houses almost continuously.

Do you wall in often? What is your solution to walling off wood lines? How many towers do you usually erect to support the boom? Any tips to wall in effectively in 0 A.D. are also welcome.

@Ludwik RTS games are tough. Not a lot of people can stand the stress of multitasking, managing the economy with 4 different resources, micro and macro needed to win games. Maybe 0 A.D. just isn't a kind of game for you, and that is OK. Thank you for trying it out!

I don't remember having this issue, but pathfinder still needs some work. Are the siege engines in formation? You could try to disable it by setting them on the "x" (no formation).

I've noticed that there are no changes to the AI in the mod files. Does that mean this is purely meant for multiplayer? Thanks.

Honestly, 0 A.D. is a better game. I'm obviously talking about the standard Skirmish and Random map games, since we still don't have any good official campaigns. The main thing for me is, it took a while to understand when exactly to switch to training soldiers. If you get comfortable enough, you will get the timing naturally. It usually coincides with the switch to farming, so once you have your initial farms, making additional women is only desired if more farms are needed to balance the economy. Once you accept that, it's much easier to enjoy the game. You just boom, make units and everything is good. Age of Empires, on the other hand, is a much more stressful game. You need to advance to the Castle age ASAP, or you risk falling behind in relics and economy. We often joke that you need to reach the City phase in 0 A.D. fast, but we at least can make new Civic Centers in the second phase. And, there is no unit conversion by priests. Battles are much more chaotic in 0 A.D. owning to a fact that there is much more fighting units. Boom games in AoE2 can often lead to some absurdity, like having 115 villagers and 5 military units. Anyway, I needed to rant a bit.

Solution? Be the host, or just play 1v1.

No, there is no extra benefit. There is no difference. All garrisoned soldiers give the same amount of arrows. Place archers either behind the fortification so they can pelt the enemy from afar, or inside the Civic Center/tower/Fortress. Preferably the later, as archers are very easy to kill.

Any garrisoned citizen soldier or champion adds to the arrow count of those buildings. Garrisoned women don't add any. Try to send them into houses, instead.

Petra AI: "I'll help you now Deicide4u, but in future, you should learn to manage your resources better." *Petra has gifted you 76 Metal.* Gee, thanks Petra

Testing in SP tonight and over the coming few days. I'll try to get some matches uploaded to the usual place Thank you for these changes. Did you modify the AI to make use of Carthage and Han changes?

My first try as the Han dynasty. HanVSPtol_H.zip

Yes, this is what is needed. Options. Cavalry can raid well, but it should 100% die to spears. At least, it shouldn't be cost-effective at killing it's supposed counter unit.

I believe the best way to balance cavalry is to eliminate the "blending in" or stacking of units on top of each other. In other words, make the unit collision work as it should. This would make it impossible to have a 30 spear cavalry death ball in just one tile. It will also nerf the range advantage that some champion spear cavalry currently has.

Of course they are. I just found it funny how the AI can recommend even a semblance of strategy for 0 A.D, and lay it out in phases.

Need a strategy? Just ask ChatGPT and it'll do a (half) decent job. I asked it to generate an effective strategy guide for Romans and this is what I got (minus a bunch of emojis): Here's an **effective strategy guide** for playing the **Romans** in *0 A.D.* (vanilla), focused on beginner to intermediate players but with advanced tactics sprinkled in. The Romans are a **late-game powerhouse**, so this guide will help you survive the early game, snowball in the mid-game, and dominate in the late game with elite troops and siege. --- # **Roman Republic Strategy Guide – 0 A.D.** ## Phase 1: Early Game (Village Phase) ### Objectives: * Build a strong economy * Advance quickly to Town Phase * Start teching for infantry and military upgrades ### Build Order (Start with 3 women on houses): 1. **Train more women** (fastest gatherers for food) 2. Send: * 3 women to berries * 3 men to wood * 2 men to build a house → then wood 3. Build a **Farmstead** near berries for gathering bonus 4. Build a **Field** early (once berries are low) 5. Build a **Barracks** and **Blacksmith** when wood allows **Tips:** * Use your **Scout** to explore the map and find huntables/mines * Romans can tech efficiently — prioritize economic techs in the Farmstead and Blacksmith * Transition to **farms + mining** early --- ## Phase 2: Mid Game (Town Phase) ### Objectives: * Expand economy with more women and resource diversity * Tech up to stronger units (Principes, Triarii) * Begin training military and expanding territory ### What to Do: * Build a **Market** (for trade + resource balancing) * Train **Velites** for early defense or harassment * Start mining **metal** and **stone** for upgrades and siege later * Research: * **Military upgrades** in Barracks and Blacksmith * **Economic techs** (farming, mining, building speed) ### Army Composition: Start forming a small army: * 10 Velites (javelin throwers) * 10 Hastati or Principes (anti-infantry) * 5 Triarii (anti-cavalry) **Tip:** The Romans don’t dominate in cavalry — **protect your flanks** with Triarii and use **infantry and siege** as your main tools. --- ## Phase 3: Late Game (City Phase) ### Objectives: * Dominate with elite infantry (Legionaries), siege, and fortifications * Crush enemies with Roman discipline and siege power ### Infrastructure: * Build **Fortresses** for unit production and map control * Build a **Siege Workshop** to produce: * **Ballistae** (anti-tower) * **Battering Rams** or **Scorpions** * Use **Temples** to heal your units and heroes * Train **Heroes** like **Scipio Africanus** for strong military buffs ### Final Army Composition: * 20 Legionaries (heavily armored swordsmen) * 10 Triarii * 10 Velites or archers (depending on opponent) * 3 Ballistae * 2 Rams or Scorpions * 1 Hero **Tip:** Don’t forget **armor upgrades** from the Blacksmith – your Roman troops shine with high defense and morale. --- ## Tactics & Combat Tips * **Roman armies are slow but tough**: March them as a solid formation, backed by siege. * **Use Legionaries to soak damage**, while siege units break buildings. * **Push with Fortresses** in forward positions to secure map control. * **Zone control**: Romans are great at holding chokepoints and fortifying map areas. * **Attack timing**: Don’t rush. Once your Legionaries and siege are ready, hit hard. --- ## Pro Tips & Advanced Strategy 1. **Territory Push**: Use Civic Centers + Fortresses to “creep” across the map. Control mines and choke points. 2. **Countering Cav-heavy civs**: Triarii are cost-effective and deadly to cavalry. 3. **Booming Option**: Romans can also go economic heavy and delay military with strong late-game payoffs. 4. **Tech Advantage**: Use Blacksmith and Market wisely — Rome benefits from being tech-rich. --- ## Common Mistakes to Avoid * **Neglecting economy early** – Romans need a solid eco base to get to their power spike. * **Overusing cavalry** – Roman cavalry is okay but not elite. Infantry and siege are your strength. * **Ignoring siege units** – Don’t try to brute force walls with infantry; use ballistae and rams. --- ## Optional: Mod Tips (Delenda Est) If you're using the *Delenda Est* mod, Romans become even more historically detailed with **Marian Reforms**, **Cohorts**, and new tech trees. You'll get even deeper control of the army evolution from Republican manipular lines to professional Legions. --- Pretty neat, huh?

Do we have a topic with all of the current "unbalanced things" that are agreed by most MP players to truly be unbalanced? As long as only those balancing issues are fixed for y'all, I don't mind. But, I wouldn't want for any "balancing fixes" to change the gameplay drastically, yet again. Aside from fixing the obvious illogical issue of having 45 women and only 5 men at 50 pop mark (which Gendered Citizens PR should fix), no radical gameplay changes should be introduced.

Liu Bei (Shu Civ unique unit) Seems like a 1:1 copy of a 0 A.D. hero concept. It even has an aura.

The most common and the most infuriating bug with formations, that I've experienced, is unit freeze. To reproduce: 1) Make sure "No override" is selected for formation control 2) Order your units into a line formation, 3) March towards the enemy base, 4) Add some more units to the group from your base, 5) Attack move the enemy base. Half the time, most of your units will just sit there frozen, while a few march in to be slaughtered by the enemy.

Ritualistic Exercise sounds great

Yeah, but it's only your choice to use them or not. Not so in a MP game with cheaters. My reasoning was that, with more SP content, players will have more choice and not be affected by the cheating MP scene as much.

This is why we need more single player content.