Wat tatic will you use

[julius1]

Hey im just wondering what tactics or strategies people would use for the different civilizations in 0A.D.

[Silver]

Depending on the Civilizations and how everything works in 0 A.D. I will end up having to completely change strategy, or make some minor changes to strategies I already use in the Age of Empires series.

The main thing I will be looking for when I employ a strategy or tactic in a new RTS game will be -

How big is the economy in the game?

For the record I like to employ a rushing strategy first - In AoE games lasted 12-20 minutes because everyone would reach the bronze age and fight with chariots, Assyrian was too strong in random map. In AoM and AoE III, I also employed rushing strategies because of Home Center and bonuses in AoE III and all the bonuses in AoM. In AoK I was always changing and tweaking and testing new ideas.

The reason I like rushing is because the economy is such a big factor early on in the game. If I can rush myself into the bronze age with a good economy, I can build a military and destroy the opponents economy.

As for tactics within the military itself, I am going to have to wait and see what formations and bonuses are given before making a decision on how exactly I'll plan an attack.

My guess based on other games and the quick read on each civilization -

Romans will be a 'boomer' (Meaning they will have a slow start economically and then once a strong/average economy is in place they will be insanely hard to play against because of strength in the military.). Strong infantry and siege is almost a guarantee.

Carthaginians will be a 'boomer' as well, however they will have better cavalry, navy and a different economy (via trade routes).

Celts will be a rushing civilization (Attack early get the opponent down.) - They don't have the power or knowledge to have strong buildings, siege and a powerful navy. They will be relying heavily on numbers and power to deal with lack of organization and armor + siege. I believe everything will be cheaper and since it is cheaper, I think 'rushing' with them will be the best way to win.

Hellens will be a 'boomer' just like the Romans and Carthaginians. They look great defensively and with the phalanx formation of the hoplites coupled with what I hope will be a powerful economy, I believe they will be a strong boomer, competing with the Romans and Carthaginians on an almost level playing field.

Iberians - This one is easy because of the description - I think rushing + raiding is the best option here. It even says that in the description on this site. Attack early on, retreat and repeat. It's great way to frustrate the other player, it will deal a serious blow to their economy each time and cause the other player to panic and make mistakes. Based off the description, I see offensive units who are fast and will deal a ton of damage and disappear before they get exposed (There's a good chance the Iberian armor on any military unit will be much lower because of all the bonuses they get on the offensive side of the military.)

Persians - They look to be a jack of all trades in strategies. You can rush with massive numbers of infantry (even though they aren't very effective or powerful.) early on. You can 'boom' later on in the game and create an army of cavalry (strongest in the game.). And they have many different types of everything, allowing for choices in what to train and choices in countering enemy units. All that with a strong trade routes makes them a good balanced civilization with lots of options in terms of strategy.

Those are just some of my thoughts, the developers could have something different in mind.

Also - remember rushing and booming are just two general strategies that are used most often when I played AoEs + Expansions. You could obviously change it up in game, tweak things.

And this is all based on an RM game style (Random Map, start with few resources, build an empire.)

Edited June 12, 2008 by Silver

[Justinian]

I will do what I always do against the AI,

Slow, steady progress with a Boomer, If I had an Ally, I would use them as a feeder/guardian. It's all about taking as opposed to giving.

[julius1]

cool but when i play i like to get my economy and defences up while at the same time building up a large army with all the upgrades in place and then i just slowly defeat my enemy by taking over all resources that arent in their city walls then i start blockades by building walls and towers around their city to keep them from getting any trades in from their friends and then when i have a barrackes and other buildings surrounding the citythats when i start my siege at all angels of the enemy's walls.

Is that a good tactic(or game plan) and do you guys think i can use that tactic with the Romans??

[Silver]

Is that a good tactic(or game plan) and do you guys think i can use that tactic with the Romans??

- I don't know, like I said, it all depends on how this game and gameplay turns out.

- If you could give me an example from a game and the strategy you like, it would really help me try to give a guess at how well it works.

I'll give you my gameplan/tactic that I used in AoE I for Random Map (You start with 200 Food, 150 Wood, 0 Gold, 75 Stone. Approx. haven't played in quite a while.)

I used to be in VoE on The Zone - if you played age of empires or age of kings you would remember The Zone. Anyways VoE was an AoE I clan that specialized in Random Map. They were one of the better clans out their for AoE I.

The strategy of almost every VoE member including myself goes as follows -

We picked Assyrian, a civilization that doesn't do very well in late games, but is strong in early games.

Why pick Assyrian? The villagers move 30% faster then others, making it much more efficient to collect resources. The arrows from Archers shoot at a faster rate. Chariots can be researched to make Chariot Archers and both can be picked up in the 3rd Age (Bronze Age).

The Strategy in numbers:

Getting Started - To the Tool Age:

I can't remember it very well, but here's a shot at it - Build house, granary and first 7 villagers on berries. 5-6th villager builds a second house and then put on berries, once you are at 20 or so villagers with 12-15 on berries + hunting, advance to tool. (It will take 5-9 minutes to get to tool, it's preference here.) Building houses 2-3 villagers in advance of Population limit.

While advancing to the Tool Age, build a barracks.

Tool Age - Bronze Age:

The goal here is to buy as few villagers as possible, while advancing to the tool age, you should have saved up a good amount of food. It should be a minute or maybe 2 to get enough food to advance to Bronze Age. While all this is going on, take 2 villagers off of wood (or 1 and 1 from each resource.) and then build - Market + 2 Archery Ranges. Advance ASAP. Getting as low a time as possible is extremely important, the fastest I have ever achieved has been just under 13 minutes. (The best time I remember someone getting is VoE immortal getting 11 minutes.)

Still no military has been built at any point.

Bronze Age and Beyond:

Alright, now that you have just advanced, go to Market, advance wheel, and start pumping out villagers from the Town Center. As soon as the wheel is updated, build chariot archers. Just keep pumping out everything at a steady rate, send more and more villagers to wood (and 1/3 new villagers goes on food until wood is no longer an issue.) Build more Archery Ranges, closer to enemy bases and more in my original starting place. I pump more and more archers and more and more villagers.

Rush as soon as you have 6-10 Chariot archers, hit their villagers, avoid their army and just try to cause as much damage until you have an army of 25+ Chariot Archers. Confront the player and then raze every building and kill every villager.

This is really general and probably has some mistakes, since it's been so long since I was in VoE.

I had no defense, I had a strong economy because of villager bonus and because I only need two resources. I have a strong military and usually before everyone else because I advanced quickly.

Some of the small things I do during a match -

My villagers are usually in groups of 4-5 (6-7 if I'm killing elephants for food.) I keep them spread out, and during a game I can be VERY offensive with my villagers (So small groups means less will die if I ever get caught unaware), sometimes taking food almost directly beside my enemies base. I'll explain why later.

I will almost never build farms unless I can't find any food in immediate surroundings. I always hunt, pick berries. If there are any shore fish, they are the priority for me. Remember, farms are the slowest food source of food in AoE, so if you are farming too early, it can have huge consequences especially against an evenly matched opponent. Because farms are the slowest, I usually go far out of my base for animals and berries. The longer I can stay on a faster food source the better.

I'm not sure if this game will be like AoE in the Random Map type game, so this strategy could be useless.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Silver

[Justinian]

I think a good tactic for a rusher would be:

Strong Troops (expensive): 60%, ready for attack

Cheaper Troops 40%: in minority, gathering so that the Strong Troops can raid.

A Boomer might:

Strong Troops: 70-80%, gathering resources and defending points of interest

Cheaper Troops: 20-30%, Gathering Resources/Raiding sporadically

[Silver]

I think a good tactic for a rusher would be:

Strong Troops (expensive): 60%, ready for attack

Cheaper Troops 40%: in minority, gathering so that the Strong Troops can raid.

A Boomer might:

Strong Troops: 70-80%, gathering resources and defending points of interest

Cheaper Troops: 20-30%, Gathering Resources/Raiding sporadically

Actually a rusher will almost always have some cheap but effective troops to attack early on in the game. Quantity and how early you get them is the key here. Personally, I would never use strong troops in a raid, they are just too important if I were to go head to head with someone.

A boomer will most likely have what you said though, they will have cheaper troops early to raid or defend depending on the situation and then get their real army and defense later on in the game.

[MrBlack103]

In AoK I just simply build like 50 barracks and pump out medium infantry non-stop. Result: THE HORDE COMETH!

[Silver]

In AoK I just simply build like 50 barracks and pump out medium infantry non-stop. Result: THE HORDE COMETH!

That's in a death match right?

[julius1]

lol ummm im sorry but when yaw say aok im guessing age of kings right??

well i havent really played any games lately except for Bfm but ive played all of the age of empires starting back with the first one and i dont really change my strategy in different games.lol it kinda just stays the same but with me using different units

[Silver]

lol ummm im sorry but when yaw say aok im guessing age of kings right??

well i havent really played any games lately except for Bfm but ive played all of the age of empires starting back with the first one and i dont really change my strategy in different games.lol it kinda just stays the same but with me using different units

Yes, I'm referring to AoE II or Age of Kings when I say AoK.

And the posted strategy I gave was for the original Age of Empires. It's a classic Random Map strategy, some consider it rush because it's faster and much more powerful, it's why almost everyone played Assyrian in Random Map.

[julius1]

o ok i thought thats what you were talking about.But i cant say that i enjoyed play AOE(not AOK)because they didnt have formations and it was more of just building an army and raiding a city as fast as you can

[Silver]

o ok i thought thats what you were talking about.But i cant say that i enjoyed play AOE(not AOK)because they didnt have formations and it was more of just building an army and raiding a city as fast as you can

It was, I could post an AoM or AoE III strategy, but I would have to go play it because it's been such a long time.

And AoE doesn't take as much strategy because of lack of formation if you played it casually or were never really that good at it, but when you're playing at a top level in Random Map against other top players, I felt that the lack of formation increased the skill and time needed to win a battle. You had to move troops and try to get the hills, you had to divide troops, try to kill off villagers, protect your own, micro manage them to get them all together. I really like the addition of formations because it really took a big part out of the game (for me personally).

[julius1]

True lol and i cant say that i was the best at AOE but i was kinda good at fortifications which won me a lot of matches online.o and i cant remember gameplay in AOE III cause i lost it lol

[Mythos_Ruler]

Silver. Nice avatar. It's from the AOE1 manual/box art.

[Silver]

Silver. Nice avatar. It's from the AOE1 manual/box art.

Thanks, a quick paint job because I have no photoshop or anything else on my laptop.

But I'm sure you and almost everyone else noticed the poor job I did.

[Justinian]

AoE3 strategies probably wouldn't work spectacularly well in 0AD because you are more concerned with range et. al. when you are planning attacks. It's a game which lives on Guns, and there where no 'guns' in the 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, or 1st centuries BC.

[Silver]

I'd think you'd be suprised at how similar the units of siege and infantry in the AoEs can be Scipii.

Infantry with guns have to be the most overrated unit in AoE III + Expansions.

The only gun wielding unit that I would make would be Strelets for the Russians. Because they move fast and have good offensive damage against musketeers and are decent at razing buildings.

In a game I rely on Cavalry, Siege and Light Infantry (usually after I capture an outpost to build Native Americans.)

The real problem is some overpowered siege weapons. Even then in the earlier games there were some strong/over powered siege units for some civilizations. And the siege units that are overpowered come very late on in the game. Portugese are amazing at it.

[Apomonomenos]

My first stradegy will be:

Economic Boom

No doubt about it.

Edited June 23, 2008 by Alexthegod5

[julius1]

when u say economic boom do you meen that your just going to focuse on resources instead of getting defenses and developing your army?

[Apomonomenos]

No, getting a lot of Villagers to get me a lot of resources so i can have a military boom shortly after (My best tactic).

That's all I'm going to give out, I don't want anyone trying to copy/foil it

[julius1]

[Apomonomenos]

No talk, all smiley, I like that

[Belisarivs]

I did same thing until I realised how can rushes be effective.

Yes, it leads to too quick victory and you can't max your army (what I and many other people enjoy), but it is funny and effective indeed.

Edited June 26, 2008 by Belisarivs

[Silver]

I did same thing until I realised how can rushes be effective.

Yes, it leads to too quick victory and you can't max your army (what I and many other people enjoy), but it is funny and effective indeed.

This quote pretty much sums it up, I have almost always rushed, it's just extremely effective and causes the opponent to resign or slowly die, if the rush fails, you will have at the very least hurt their economy.