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Besides the champion cavaliers, Fanatics are by far the most broken units in the game. Seriously, these units are insanely overpowered and hard to counter. Can anyone name a unit that can reliably stop Fanatics? I bet you can’t. They run fast, deal massive damage, and don’t even require metal to produce, which makes spamming them nonstop super easy. The only thing the developers could have done to stop the spamming of this unit was to add metal as a required resource. Unfortunately, they didn’t do that There are players abusing this by spamming Fanatics in P2, and it’s ruining the game for everyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if some ecobot or clever Celt player designed this unit to exploit the game by spamming them relentlessly for an unfair advantage. What do you guys think? Any ideas on how to properly nerf or counter these broken units? I believe adding metal as a required resource to build them would be an effective way to balance this unit. Moreover all cav champs should be nerfed for sure. We’ve already banned Champion Cavaliers from our games, and Fanatics definitely need to be banned as well. If the developers don’t nerf these units in the next alpha update and keep introducing unfair, broken units, we’ll have no choice but to keep banning them from our matches to maintain fair gameplay.

Spam.

Finally won 1v7 on againt very hard AI with open map. Earlier used ibr to play xd. Was hard but nothing is impossible with gauls, given you can spam fanatcis then switch to melee champ cavs. @SaidRdz, @Player of 0AD, thats how to you do it

A merc elephant would be great As a thought experiment I would assume a full metal cost, which going off the smaller African elephant would be 450 metal in total after converting food cost to metal. Given training is faster, and also knowing the limited acquisition that Rome has from Numidia, I would run with the elephant stables but cap it at 1 or maybe 2 buildings, that way production should be slower than other civs who could spam like four or five elephant stables so they can mass them fast. A cool side affect would be that now a Roman player could use captured elephant stables, which would be a fun niche feature.

This progress is noticeable in battles. A militia cannot defeat the champion unit of Rome. Same axeman and Legion. Spam trash units vs the best units.

Besides the Fanatics, Spartiates are by far the most broken units in the game. Seriously, these units are insanely overpowered and hard to counter. Can anyone name a unit that can reliably stop Spartiates? I bet you can’t. They hit hard, have massive armor, can promote to Olympic status and even have technologies that make them stronger and faster. The only thing the developers could have done to stop the spamming of this unit was to add a population cost of 2. Unfortunately, they didn’t do that. There are players abusing this by spamming Spartiates in P1, and it’s ruining the game for everyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if some ecobot or clever Sparta player designed this unit to exploit the game by spamming them relentlessly for an unfair advantage. What do you guys think? Any ideas on how to properly nerf or counter these broken units? I believe adding a population cost of 2 to build them would be an effective way to balance this unit. Moreover all Athenian Marines should be nerfed for sure. We’ve already banned Fanatics from our games, and Spartiates definitely need to be banned as well. If the developers don’t nerf these units in the next alpha update and keep introducing unfair, broken units, we’ll have no choice but to keep banning them from our matches to maintain fair gameplay.

Play macedonians (bonus training cost), do 4 siege tower, somes men inside (10 by tower, more for ungarnison garnison spam), you win the battle if enemy plays not the counter army have you thought of a way to counter this siege trick? civilians who don't have catapults?

Hi, I would like to discuss some potential changes to champion cavalry units and their role in the game. Currently, many players dominate by spamming large amounts of spear champion cavalry in late game. It is becoming the common theme and is getting a bit monotonic. This is fine, however, it causes a few issues: Factions without champion spear cavalry suffer in late game: Athenians, Spartans, Mauryas and Britons have little defense against large numbers of spear cavalry champions. More spam and less strategy: early attacks and other creative plays always loose to one player who decides to spam large quantities of champions Monoculture army Champions should be elite, rare and cherished, not spammed en masse. I am not saying they are too OP at all; each single champion unit is not significantly stronger than an infantry unit. The issue is the numbers. My suggestion is to make champions only producible from certain buildings, for example the Imperial Academy of the Han civ, or only allow them to be porduced from fortresses. With this constraint imposed, we can turbo up their stats to even higher values so that they can be used strategically as true distinct champions and not just spammed upgraded soldiers. The late game is still a game of strategic fights and not spam. It also doesn't make sense that the same stable is training units of different classes. Elites need better environments and need longer time, so they should get their own buildings. Same applies for infantry champions. Let me know what you think

On theses changes I only know about the changes to structures (The rest I haven't tested enough or have enough elements to form an strong opinion): Cheap Walls, Palisades especially spammed*, are very annoying for the game-play in current context. They just make pathfinder bug (I know it's not a bug, but a feature of the gates, but it feels like a pathfinder bug); when they are a lot of them, even breached, they kinda take too much visual space; most players don't like stalled games... Basically more walls = more frustrations. I'll rather have them actually strong, and hope for a feature to make them easier to snap with other buildings or even terrain. *In your PR you say that since they are weaker, they will be spammed less, but that's unlikely to be the case, cheaper but weaker incentivize spam, not the opposite. Fort Accuracy; defenses are already super strong this alpha, especially forts, increasing their ability to kill single units like hero doesn't make sens to me. Capture Regeneration Rate of Structures; again, defenses are already very strong currently. But if you really think some famous structures players strategically surround with defensive wheat fields needs be harder to capture, then I would rather increase capture points rather then capture regeneration. This would make capturing and defending easier to learn, because evaluating the effects of regeneration is kinda tricky. A lot of players complain that enemies always capture their structure so easily but themself can't, because they have not yet the experience of the trickiness (exponential effects) of capture regeneration.

I'm proud to present to you a new mod for 0 A.D. called Imperia Vetera. As the mod is based on an alpha that introduced the final original civilization, Romans, it makes sense to name the mod in honor of their ancient language. Imperia Vetera is "Old Empires" in Latin, and the name itself reflects the vision and the source for the mod. Be aware that this is a so-called "retro" mod. It doesn't and it will not, represent the full features of the original game. Changes when compared to Alpha 9 vanilla. Siege Weapons overhaul: Siege weapons are much better at destroying buildings, but much worse at killing organic units. At the same time, all economic and civic buildings are more vulnerable to hack damage. Building costs overhaul: Overall, higher tier buildings (Fortresses, Army Camps, Gymnasiums, etc.) are now much more expensive to build. This is in part to compensate for the lack of phases. Houses and other civic structures are cheaper, except for Carthaginian apartments (Bets). Champion units: They now cost more population space. Champion infantry costs 2 population, champion cavalry costs 3. So, there is no more champion unit spam. Heroes: All Heroes are now just very powerful units, identical to Greek heroes from Age of Mythology. I'm still working on implementing a training limit. They also cost more population space. Celts and Hellenes can now train only 3 Heroes, the same as other civilizations. Hellenic heroes are Leonidas, Alexander and Themistocles. Celtic heroes are Boudicca, Brennus and Vercingetorix. Mercenaries: They all now train at an Advanced rank. Ranged units: Removed minimum range. Archers were heavily nerfed. Technical changes: All features that weren't implemented, or were implemented partially, were either removed or tweaked. Charge attacks are removed because they didn't work and they were cluttering the UI. Priests are removed, but the Temples now heal faster and can garrison up to 30 troops. GUI buttons that did not work are removed. Civilization pages that showed technologies and bonuses are also removed, as almost nothing was implemented at the time. Population cap is now at 150. In Age of Empires 2 campaigns, you had only 75 population space. I think 150 should be more than enough, considering the lag at higher unit counts. The AI (legacy qBot as base) is now harder, and attacks with more units. Hellenic AI can now train Siege Towers. Towers and Fortresses: Towers are now weaker, but you can build more of them. You can now only construct 5 Fortresses, so turtling is not really an option. Changes not considered: Technologies and phases are not in the game. This is a feature, not a bug. The full mod, changelog and install instructions are inside the ZIP file below. EDIT September 4th, 2025: - AI bugfixes, mostly Carthage. - Reduced the range of melee Cavalry. - Nerfed Persian Chariot Archers and reduced their cost. Previously, they were comparable to Brythonic Champion Chariots. EDIT September 23rd, 2025: - Added back Jubot AI, modified to be compatible with the mod. It should be a bit more unpredictable than Qbot. - Population costs changed. Now it's 1 population for infantry CS, cavalry CS and Champion Infantry, 2 population for Champion cavalry and Siege weapons (Siege Tower is 3). - Some cost changes for Carthaginian mercenaries. They now cost a mixture of food, wood (for cavalry spearmen) and metal. - Population cap is now 200. - Qbot AI will now properly defend its Fortresses and Barracks. Screenshots: 0ad_mod_imperia_vetera.zip

This game is different than standard Age of Empires games. You need to adapt to the Citizen Soldier system. First thing to know: boom is King. Forget about champions. Forget about cavalry if you don't intend to rush or there's no hunt around. All you need are your Melee and ranged Citizen Soldiers. Spam them alongside your females and get them to work. Focus on food and wood before you reach 100 population. Then, advance to the Town phase and shift some of your male workers to stone and metal. You will need them to build your second Civic Center, your Temple and research all economy upgrades. By this time, you should have a minimum of two Barracks, but build one more still. Build a Forge for upgrades. The key here is to focus on three units. 1) Your melee tanks. This can be basic spearmen. 2) Ranged support. These are your killers at range. 3) Your utility unit of choice. This can be your melee cavalry on Defensive stance. You will use it only to rush into the enemy's ranged units, flank them or harass their workers. Anything else will just steal your focus and APM. Focus on macro and getting those upgrades, expand into the unoccupied areas before your enemy, and you will win. Getting siege is situational. Getting your Hero is a bonus. Getting healers is a waste. If you need to heal your troops, garrison them inside the Temple.

It's not that difficult. I found a practical way to win easily. Regardless of your skill. You need to create an economic boom. Invest in villagers (in the new development versions, they're now both male and female)Invest in archers or skimishers, spam this unit, then invest in ranged cavalry, either cavalry skimishers or horse archers. Finally, good champion cavalry. Rams but this is even optional. Another requirement is to play small maps. I mean medium to small. Here is an example.

We often focus on the negative aspects of Alpha 27, but rarely highlight the positive improvements. I want to share some of the good movements in A27 that should not be overlooked—because if we don’t recognize them, we might lose them in future versions. Positive Features in A27 Easier Building Captures Capturing buildings is much smoother now. In earlier alphas, it was frustrating—sometimes even a full army couldn’t capture a garrisoned barracks. A27’s easier capturing is also an anti-ecobot improvement, since players now use Phase 2 rushes to capture the CC instead of just booming, which makes the game more dynamic. That said, it could be improved: if the enemy captures the CC, all your buildings are lost—even garrisoned ones. Losing houses also means losing many women, who then exit into the open and get killed easily. Player Placement Selection Being able to choose the starting positions is a nice option. However, removing “shuffle” was unnecessary—it should return as an optional host setting. Capturing with Clicks The current system (pressing C and then clicking) is annoying. If this is considered a positive change, it should at least be configurable in the settings, so players can capture with a single click like in earlier alphas. Improved Melee Balance Melee units are far better balanced now. In A26, they would die far too quickly. Roman House Women Spam Allowing Romans to train women from houses is a great feature. It gives them strong rush potential and makes Rome one of the best civs for early aggression. Weaker Buildings Buildings are not overly strong anymore. In A24–A25, heavily garrisoned forts could wipe out entire armies by themselves, which was frustrating. Save Game Feature Having the option to save games is a very useful addition. Suggestions for Improvement Spec Sync Errors Spectator sync errors often cause heavy lag, sometimes freezing the game entirely. Even saving and reloading doesn’t always fix it. Transfer Control to Spectators Add an option for the host to give control of a player’s civ to a spectator. This would help when someone disconnects or lags too much. Games like Battle for Wesnoth already have this feature. Han Buildings Variety Han buildings all look too similar. They need more distinct colors or styles to be easily recognizable. Champion Recruitment Champions should not be trained from barracks or stables. They deserve their own special building. Dedicated Hero Buildings All civs should have a specific building for heroes. Right now, it’s unfair that Gauls can recruit heroes from a cheap structure while Iberians need to construct a much more expensive fort. Spartan Champions in Phase 1 Early Spartan champions are almost never used—they aren’t effective. Sparta would be better off with a different kind of unique bonus. Remove Hero Flee Ability The “flee” mechanic for heroes encourages dancing and abuse. It would be better to remove it. Final Note I’ve already described several bugs in my last post, so I won’t repeat them here. But overall, I hope we don’t lose the good movements of A27 while improving the game further. also currently the bigger problem of a27 broken fanas and broken melee champ cavs.

NGL, I played my first 1v7 againt very hard ai in this alpha with gauls and it felt very easy with fanatics spam. It usually takes atlest 3 tries before i win any 1v7 very hard ai but with fanatcis it happend without any effort lol. We should balance them out a little.

This error spam occured in the middle of a TG. There was a lot of action and a lot of pathfinding happening at the time. Cavalry going through forests etc. ERROR: Error in timer on entity 17694, IID7, function RepeatRangeCheck: TypeError: this.template[type] is undefined Attack.prototype.GetRange@simulation/components/Attack.js:450:12 UnitAI.prototype.GetRange@simulation/components/UnitAI.js:6272:19 UnitAI.prototype.MoveToTargetRange@simulation/components/UnitAI.js:4741:19 UnitAI.prototype.MoveToTargetAttackRange@simulation/components/UnitAI.js:4773:15 enter@simulation/components/UnitAI.js:2321:16 FSM.prototype.SwitchToNextState@globalscripts/FSM.js:366:14 FSM.prototype.ProcessMessage@globalscripts/FSM.js:274:8 UnitAI.prototype.ProcessMessage@simulation/components/UnitAI.js:4385:15 Attack.prototype.StopAttacking@simulation/components/Attack.js:566:14 Attack.prototype.RepeatRangeCheck@simulation/components/Attack.js:468:8 Timer.prototype.OnUpdate@simulation/components/Timer.js:140:44 The game was able to resume with no other visible problems. interestinglog.html

athens champ archer spam is viable no? maurya champ archer spam is good too. Some persians play immortal (cheap archer champ) Kush are ok tiers. Merc cav available. Champ cav in stable, feature of pyramide, bonus heroe ok, large choice of infantery melee, siege tower available, tanky building with tech. Maybe one die we see a proplayer use elefant? but other civ do it better i think but stone dependant for go in a lot of way.

According to @Nescio, the genius that brought us a24 and all the most hated features of a25, that makes it a useful building. What was done to the wonder made zero sense and it should change back or be made otherwise useful. Personally, I think wonder should be made cheaper so there is actually a decision point at the start of p3 where a player decides to (1) push fast with CS, (2) spam champs, (3) get wtf, or (4) get extra pop with a wonder. All four should be valid choices but right now only the first two are viable

Wonder give passively ressource income, and in the past gave a little amount of maximal pop. Today you have to build it with a lot of builder and they waste ressource for 2Min tech, instead spam champ. It useless in basic game, only useful on long game for average player. It only good for win by wonder in funny game. And have a big temple -- Many old technologies have already been removed, and the game is evolving. Maybe we can come up with something better.

Athenians Anyway theses wall suck because we lost the property of wall in gaia territory except let a hole for cross, you can't control the door. Nothing to add, you right, but why this kind of building cost METAL? they should cost stone and wood. Britons No opinion, but i vote for a upgrade tech for dogs. With expensive cost in P3 600 food 600 metal. They pop level max then. Carthaginians If we implement this technology, it will become indispensable. And I don't think that's good. For example, if we use stone, it slows down the various game options available for Carthage (slinger mercenaries or stable/barack spam). Perhaps we could come up with a different idea? For example, after 12 civilian constructions, the technology becomes free (same mechanism as the technology where you need three traders to harvest from allies). Gauls Bonuses Suggestion: Nerf eco bonuses (similar to Ptolemies, who pay with slower build times). Lets go Kushites Option 1 is legit Good idea to give a little advantage for compensate the building cost.. need a maurya as ally I don't understand his bonus for reduce the cost of same units( what unit it is??), i think the healer reduction is interesting (even if we don't use a lot, it should work on briton heroe healer!) They have 2 heroes ok so its fine Ptolemies +1 ; / think its a big up of ptol but thye need something to pump them. Let's try it. But could be (win time for will to fight or build wonder in some mod of game), but their P3 is very stone dependant (and it slingers civ..) so they need something for deal with other civ Romans Agree it not balance, it should't convert alive unit, just change the next unit. Onagre is not already 3? Spartans Agree, and delete the malus on training time skirmish? General Balance Capture System Currently: Large houses = 550, small houses = 500 (small houses are OP). Suggestion: Large = 550, Small = 350. it already the case, they have 4 capture instead 2,5 no? Theses units don't have capture attack.. it why. And it the reason i don't like siege building, easy to loose it, it was funnier when siege was train in fortress. Disagree, we should have some common rules, infantery champ = 5 capture attack. Marines have also 5 and they are cheap. - I prefer we delete this tech Little clarity, no fun, we don't know exactly what it brings, some civs have it some don't have it, so we might as well encourage having more buildings. Rome have alreayd a little bonus So no opinion This building hasn't found much use. We have no idea how much extra space we'll end up with. It could be either OP in some cases or completely unnecessary. This is a big topic. Previously, melee units were just cannon fodder to receive hits. But we realized they should be good in infantry combat too. Without more talk we can't change something. Disagree, i think it normal they are expensive. Have quality should be expensiver than have quantity. If archers become better, all META can change, take care Melee unit received a lot of buff, maybe we can have a tech for increase the speed of upgrade unit archer? Why not Disagree, i prefer people train healer or micro the low life unit. Disagree, annoying turtle Why not This tech afford a really uninteresting mechanic. let's delete it. Until we find a better way to balance this building The only funny thing is garnison 50 unit. Barter Suggestion: +1 Please don't add tech in market ahah Siege Techs Siege already op. don't up them

It's getting out of control. Is it possible to do something about it?

I see your point, and I agree that this alpha brought more variety and dynamics in team games compared to older versions. I also like that captures add another layer of tactics. Also I think a lot of strategy of today were usable in past too. It more about how people play and communicate. I remember 2 big army in phase 2 could take a CC even with 20 citizen troop inside even in previous alpha. My concern is mostly about late game (Phase 3) when some strong buildings like CCs or fortresses can still fall relatively quickly to capture. In those cases, I feel destruction (with siege or units) should remain the primary way, otherwise capture sometimes feels too cheap compared to the investment in defending and upgrading. Tower seems annoying to use (put men inside etc) for a low result and easy capture. 3 or 5 men can't give enough capture resistance. But you can tell me we can obstruct access to the tower, it true and I do. I will try do more tower for have an opinion Maybe the solution is not to make captures impossible, but to adjust ratios depending on the building type and upgrade level. Civilian buildings and light towers could remain easy to capture, but core military buildings (CC, fortresses, barracks with garrison) should require much bigger numbers unless the attacker has already crippled them. If you play a civ with hero elefant you can't have a CC with hero garnison. That way, we could keep the current dynamics you enjoy (more tactical choices, not always relying on siege), while still ensuring that capturing a well-defended CC in late game doesn’t become too much of a shortcut. What do you think of this middle ground? Just run on cc and then capture all building is annoying. It should be exceptional situation. if you invade an enemy without army to defend or refusing the fight, you still can capture and destroy some building in my point of view, they enemy will be hurt and he don't recovery easy. He still has to micro for garnison some men in the important building, just less. It open also the strategy of counter attack in some way. also i said " here’s always the option of heavily damaging a building to force the garrison out before attempting to capture it. " with some military tech, the cc it easy to destroy if your opponent have no army. I will add in the most of situation, except if you retard spam them, palisade give a fake feeling of security (and that's normal for the low cost of ressource invest), they are easy to destroy if you right clic with an entire army on it. I like a lot turtle and protect my building with other building for win some time.

When there is champion spear cav, the naked fanatics are an effective counter. But now the champion spear cav is banned, the power of the naked fanatics begin to show in TGs. Their problem is speed, damage and decent durability combined together. Although less unbeatable than champion cavs, they have no particular weaknesses and are cheap to make. There are no parallel units for any other civs in phase 2, which makes them OP. In the past, they were truly fragile and costed metal, so they weren't great as late game units / meatshields. But now, it's too easy to spam them and Gauls just got a hypercharged spearman unit that nobody has. This breaks the inter-civ balance. Suggestion: 1. Fanatics cost metal. 2. Fanatics get no shield, or at least are not affected by shield upgrades.

Changes so far, when compared to Alpha 9 vanilla. Siege Weapons overhaul: Siege weapons are much better at destroying buildings, but much worse at killing organic units. At the same time, all economic and civic buildings are more vulnerable to hack damage. Building costs overhaul: Overall, higher tier buildings (Fortresses, Army Camps, Gymnasiums, etc.) are now much more expensive to build. This is in part to compensate for the lack of phases. In the future, there may be some form of requirements for certain buildings, similar to StarCraft. Champion units: They are now much stronger than Citizen Soldiers, but also cost more population space. Champion infantry costs 2 population, champion cavalry costs 3. So, there is no more champion unit spam. Heroes: All Heroes are now just very powerful units, identical to Greek heroes from Age of Mythology. I'm still working on implementing a training limit. They also cost more population space. Celts and Hellenes can now train only 3 Heroes, the same as other civilizations. Hellenic heroes are Leonidas, Alexander and Themistocles. Celtic heroes are Boudicca, Brennus and Vercingetorix. Technical changes: All features that weren't implemented, or were implemented partially, were either removed or tweaked. Charge attacks are removed because they didn't work and they were cluttering the UI. Priests are removed for now, but the Temples now heal faster and can garrison up to 30 troops. GUI buttons that did not work are removed. Civilization pages that showed technologies and bonuses are also removed, as almost nothing was implemented at the time. Population cap is now at 200. In Age of Empires 2 campaigns, you had only 75 population space. I think 200 should be more than enough. I considered reducing it to 150, but it could have made some scenarios hard. The AI (legacy qBot as base) is now harder, and attacks with more units. Roman AI can train Marian Legionaries from the Army Camps, while Hellenic AI can now train Siege Towers. Towers and Fortresses: Towers are now weaker, but you can build more of them. You can now only construct 5 Fortresses, so turtling is not really an option. Changes not considered: There are some features that won't be included. For example, does it make sense for our civilizations to research "Iron Plow"? No, so technologies that can be researched won't be included. For the short term, I will explore other options for bonuses, that don't require compiling the game from source. I would like to implement auras on the more basic level. More changes and testing is on the way. I will provide more when the testing of the current changes is complete in Single player.

This mod reports gameplay that should not be possible in 0 A.D. without mods. Currently, in 4v4 matches, new or aspiring players are never informed about which mods are being used or how they affect gameplay. Instead, it’s implicitly assumed that everyone already knows the players and their supporting mods. With these quick in-game messages, players at least receive basic information and can further discuss the implications - whether in the match itself or on the forums. Install by putting the zip in the right folder: On Windows (Vista or newer): C:\Users\{name_of_user}\Documents\My Games\0ad\mods\ On OSX: ~/Library/Application Support/0ad/mods/ On Linux: ~/.local/share/0ad/mods/ (may be found in GUI via Home/.local/share/0ad/mods/) Quick start triggers the chat message: "Units receives automated commands by %(player)s at turn %(turn)s (v01)" Clicking tools like the razor rapid fire triggers the chat message: "Automated clicker makro detected by %(player)s(v01)" If a player does not send a command in 30 seconds triggers the chat message: "%(player)s has not send a command in 30s (v01)" Market Exploit "%(player)s has bought %(buy)s shortly after selling it for %(sell)s (v01)" Elexis set up the mod template for me to fill. Lag is atm. not accounted for, so during heavy lag it could trigger false positives. I tested it in a few games and didn't had false positives. Report if it behaves weird and some thresholds should be changed. Some features that should be added: turning off in game or handle 2 players with the mod to limit spam Current version: 02 oddity_detector.zip oddity_detectorv00.zip oddity_detectorV01.zip oddity_detector V02.zip

then how you go attack his base for stop the fanatic spam? you send 30 spearmen CS acrros the map??