Strategies

[asmartgoat]

Revision 4 Has been released: http://0ad.me/sword/download.php?view.14

Ok, so i'm working on Revision 4 5 of my game guide (Currently 60~ pages of game guide goodness)(no active download sorry)

I need more strategies as part of the guide. here is what I have so far.

So post yours!

Legal stuff: By posting it here you agree (unless specified) to release it under the CC-BY-SA

Here is what I have already:

Edit: format is abit stuffed, should be fixed.

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6.0 Major Game strategies

In this section of the guide we will explain some common game stratergies.

6.1 Rushing

Theory: If in the first few minutes of a new game, you should immediately get your military setup. Ideally you want to kill your enemy and win the match in the opening minutes, before he gains defenses. The worst case scenario is that you harass him and slow his economy for a few minutes.

Action: At the beginning, set the troops you have to make a barracks, and the rest of the female-citizens (Depends on how many) to Wood, Metal and Food.

After, set the troops you begin with (Citizen Soldiers) to begin making a barracks. Once your barracks is complete, spam whatever you can, whenever you can.

Just make early 10-12 troops and hit the opponent. Hopefully, if your quick, you may be able to catch your opponent unaware. When you attack, aim for the buildings that matter- Civ Center, Fortress, Hero Trainer, Special Units Trainer, Barracks and demolish them.

If this fails, make sure you ruin his economy- killing his female-citizens and getting away. Then change to the Boomer or Turtling Strategies.

Set your troops to "Violent" mode in order to kill whenever, and whatever.

This method suits the Celts the best, as they have cheap infrastructure and troops, and can be made easily.

Plus:

• Easy to attempt.
• Makes matches quick.
• Works excellently on Small Maps

Minus:

• Hard to be successful, requires lots of skill and practise.
• Failure makes counter attacks easy.
• Rushes are impossible on large maps because opponents can create defenses faster than units can walk 5 kilometers.

Interesting:

• In chess, rushing can make you win in 4 turns… or make you lose to a player rapidly, there is no middle way for that set of moves.

6.2 Booming
Theory: If you focus on your economy, you will be able to quickly advance and be successful in a late-game assault.
Actions: At the beginning, focus on a better economy, and make enough female citizens to have a total of 15 female-citizens in the beginning.
Iberians should have - 4 to food, 3 to wood, 4 to metal, 3 to stone
Hellenes should have 4 to food, 5 to wood, 3 to metal and 2 to stone
Celts should have - 5 to food, 4 to wood, 4 to metal and 2 to stone
After, just spam citizen soldiers and make fortresses, hero buildings and special unit buildings...
Basically make as many troops as possible and keep on making more. Make sure you have a good defense though - Outposts/City Wall Towers with 2-5 people stationed in them would be a nice defense.
After you have 50+ troops, send some troops 10-20 to go and harass enemy economy- killing female citizens, destroying farms, etc. Once you start losing troops, just keep on spamming troops to fill their spots. Once you've got 100+ Troops, launch your big BOOM. And hit them hard.
Get the buildings that can produce troops first, then the outposts that are guarding their city. However, still keep on making troops, as you never know if he had launched a sudden counterattack on you from another position while you were still marching to his city.
Booming is almost suicidal if you are playing a game with more than 2 people though, as once your troops leave your city, you are prone to attacks from others.
Suited best for- Hellenes (Strong Military, but expensive and hard to get)
Plus:

• Once completed, not even the best defense can stop you. You are essentially handed victory.
• The longer the match goes for the more exponentially your chances of success become.
• With a tech advantage, units can survive outnumbered.

Minus:

• Easily countered by a rush.
• Countered by a faster boomer.

Interesting:

• A successful boom can pwn anyone, but a noob can rush you in the first minute of the came and your dead.

6.3 Turtling

Theory: This is basically a defense game, and when the circumstances are right, become a boomer.

Actions: At the beginning, start out with making your economy strong- wood, food, metal and stone would all be welcome.

Make a couple of houses, and keep spamming female citizens out of them. Also, make whatever units you can from your civ center and make them work as well. If you are hit by a rush, you can select all of them - (clicking on one of the type and clicking it 3 times will give you all that type of a troop) and work as a defensive core.

After your economy is pretty strongly entrenched, send your soldiers to build walls that will block off key points where the enemy could attack - secret shallow crossing bridges, etc and leave one route open. At that route... leave the bulk of your forces to play defense, while the others are still building up buildings. Keep your troops on the "Stand Ground" Stance and just let them stay there, waiting for the enemy. However, if there is another alternate route, leave that open, and send 20-30 men to guard it...

After, just keep on spamming troops to help build up your defenses, and make your defenses STRONG- multiple outposts and city towers/walls.

When the time is right- when he sends his main forces to engage yours, send your 20-30 men in the secret route and hit his city.

Aim for his Troops building Buildings first, then his farms/houses then finally anything else-temples/markets, etc.

Also, keep on making reinforcements in your Fortresses/Barracks/Civ Center and reinforce your main force as it loses ground to your opponents force.

Plus:

• Once completed, not even the best offense can break you.
• Works well on large maps
• Works very well on maps with choke points.

Minus:

• Easily countered by a rush.
• Boomers can kill you easily at the start of the game

Interesting:

• You can be guaranteed survival if you set up (back up) bases elsewhere to stop you from easily getting completely killed. But don't be tempted to send troops from your backup base to the base your losing. Because that can alert the enemy to your other bases location, if you do feel compelled to do so, make your troops travel around it, as to not let the enemy know your origination point.

6.4 Ambush
Theory: This is just a trick that usually only works on AI opponents, but a similar tactic can be used against human players. You trick the AI into following some units you use to ambush them with. Then send in your 'real' army straight after.
Actions: Make enough female citizens until you have 10, then set then to Food: 3, Wood 3, Stone 1 and Metal 3
This way- the resources needed to make soldiers will be at large- with the exception of "Karsken - Iberian Slinger"
However, just keep popping up houses and outposts. And keep on making soldiers, until you have 50-60 - more would be better, but for an ambush, it has to be earlier in the game, before he masses up huge amounts of troops.
Send a party of 10 into enemy territory, and do just enough to get the AI chasing you.
At the time this is happening, march the other 40-50 troops just outside of your city.
When the AI is chasing the 10, get them back to the city ASAP, but the AI will follow you, so it walks straight into the path of your 40-50 soldiers on "Aggressive" Stance.
You kill all his troops- and just raid his city with your survivors, however, keep on making troops, you never know when or if he has a massive army into the Fog of War.
This works with Multiplayer as well-
Maybe in the early stages, your opponent is attempting a rush, and what you can do is rush him as well... Wait for his troops to exit his city, then just hit his city before it has a chance to get built up.
Or if your opponent is booming another player, you can just boom him while he's booming another player.
So- Rushs, Booming and Turtling are almost guaranteed suicide in Multiplayer if you are facing opponents with experience - and can see through the fog of war.

Best for Hellenes or Celts - the Hellenes have the strongest troops - imagine an army of spartiates... and the Celts can mass their armies very easily. Plus:

• Once completed, not even the best offense can break you.
• Works well on large maps
• Works very well on maps with choke points.

Minus:

• Easily countered by a rush.
• Boomers can kill you easily at the start of the game

Interesting:

• You can be guaranteed survival if you set up (back up) bases elsewhere to stop you from easily getting completely killed. But don't be tempted to send troops from your backup base to the base your losing.

7.0 Tactics

7.1 Healing

Station your troops in Buildings to heal faster – this is especially good for keeping your elite and advanced units alive if they have suffered damage.

Healers have no functions yet, but once they do they will be able to heal your troops. You can train them at your temple.

7.2 Outposts

Reclaim the country side by building small wall circles around resources and drop-sites. While placing outposts within the walls. Doing this exclusively for one resource can prove to cripple their economy just as badly as doing it for every resource.

Edited October 4, 2011 by asmartgoat

[theShadow]

this looks really cool, however I feel you should maybe take a good look at the topic title, on the off chance that something is a bit off with it.

[asmartgoat]

Yeah, STRATEGIES!!!!

[hhyloc]

Neat! Thanks for the useful strategy guide, keep up the good work.

[asmartgoat]

Neat! Thanks for the useful strategy guide, keep up the good work.

Lol, thats only *part* of the guide.

I'll be uploading the 60~ page guide soon, so stay tuned.

[ac892006]

Would it be possible for JuBot to adopt these strategies ?

[AuroN2]

Rush would actualy suit Iberians the best, as they have faster units. (and possibly cheap units aswell)

[Linux_Eki]

I love playing iberians and I try to rush always My strategy is to forget about women and let the soldiers do all work.

[feneur]

Houses no longer train female citizens so you might want to update that part (Also, as has been mentioned, use the Citizen Soldier units to gather resources as well once they aren't needed building/fighting )

[asmartgoat]

It's fixed, in the guide. I'll release it with the new&improved 0AD within 3 hours.

Edit: Here it is: http://0ad.me/sword/download.php?view.14

You'll need to sign up to download, but relax; you'll also get access to maps.

Edited October 4, 2011 by asmartgoat