Beginners help needed

[Reth]

Hi everybody,

first of all I want to thank for this great game with all the excellent graphics, details, historical background and the load of efforts that comes with that!

Awfully great work indeed!

Since I'm completely new to 0AD and really "unskilled" in terms of RTS but liking this genre most of all game genres I'm nearly at frustration after trying the single player game several times.

When starting it I leave the stetup as provided: AI=Hellens me=Persians. I've a strong defense character trying to achieve things from a save setup and background. But even when I tried to get lots of troops of different type as soon as possible I'm always hopefully outnumbered and even more I've got the impression that any kind of Persien troop seems to be in inferior position to the Hellens. Regardless whether it is infantry, archers, cavalry or lancer.

I assume it is to my kind of playing even if I try different of the tactics/strategies/tips that are already given by 0AD that I'm still underlaying!

So does anybody has some helpful advice or maybe even a step-by-step description how to act in order to win this match against the AI (experienced don't hesitate to lough here, but pleas help anyway)?

I'm totally frustrated since nothing helps! Even when holding several attacks I'm defeated at last since I cannot evolve enough between those in order to fight back! (I assume AI does not cheat in any way.)

So what are the appropriate steps to go in order to defend against the Hellens and to strike back (I know of appropriate howtos for example for any of the groups contesting Starcraft)?

Please help with some fruitful advice to get me a glitch on how the forces and approaches of 0AD!

Some descriptions of the particular Persien and Hellen troops would be helpful (I only found descriptions for particular troops of one nation - I think some Hellen ones - within the tutorial!

I really do not know which kind of archers, soldiers, cavalry, heroes, etc. are practicable against certain kind of Hellen troops, even reading the descriptions of each kind of troop I'm able to produce!

I also don't know how to put people/troops into defensive or other buildings in order to heal them nor do I know how to apply formations and to phase them in order to defend attacks (though I know how to select similar kind of troops at once and apply formations to them) - AI makes huge usage of this)!

Hopefully I could make my problem clear enough.

Any help/hint is appreciated!

Many thanks in advance and @Wildfire: Keep up this great and awful work!

Best Regards

[Mythos_Ruler]

I'd try to go heavy on defense and try to boom. If you can't win in the first 10-20 minutes by rushing the AI, then it would be best to go defensive, as the AI still has a bit of trouble taking down buildings. Then boom on your economy and start taking more and more territory with your Fortresses and Civic Centres.

What map are you playing on? Oasis? Strategies will be slightly different based on the map. Basically what I would do with Persians is get up a couple of barracks as soon as possible. Since barracks cost stone, you will have extra wood at the beginning for more spearmen and archers. Put females on berry bushes straight away. With that food income keep pumping out females from the Civic Centre in batches of 5. Try to train in batches of 5 or more whenever possible.

[feneur]

First of all, consider that the game is still in development, and that things may still change a bit before the game is done, so think about whether you think it's worth spending a lot of time learning the game as it is now rather than wait for it to be finished. If nothing else it should eventually be possible to set the difficulty of the AI, and maybe even choose a more defensive/aggressive/etc AI to fit your own play style. We would of course be delighted if you play the game already, I just want to mention it so you don't get frustrated later when you might have to adapt your strategies to new features

Second, for some info on how to do things, see the gameplay manual: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/0adManual (For example what hotkey to press to garrison units inside a building.)

And third, a good tip is to view the videos posted at the official 0 A.D. Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/play0ad There you'll see examples of useful strategies, and see how others play the game.

Also, there are some threads here in the forums with tips: http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15502 and http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15421 and http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15388 has some useful information as well. (Note that all resources can, and eventually probably will as they naturally has to be updated after the actual features are implemented, be a bit outdated as there are new features added. For the most part the information about the existing features should at least be relevant. )

[Reth]

Thanks for your hints and your replies.

@Mythos_Ruler:

I forgot to mention that I'm playing the map preselected when you're entering single player - I think it is OASIS. I tried to be defensive and booming producing only soldiers doing the building, harvesting and mining. I also set up nearly 15 defensive towers around my initial area. But all that did not help (had nearly 60 troops doing all jobs but no additional buildings besides my centre and some houses and the towers),

Which steps should I take in order to rush the enemy? Tried to build as much units as far as I can but has been outnumbered when AI attacked. I did approximately survive first 20 minutes having above said numbers of defensive towers (unstaffed with units) and having all soldiers doing things like building, harvesting and mining - as said at least 60 of them.

What I never did was explaining the territory and my surroundings.

How do I create spearmen with the Persians? I recognized that merely a lot of units seem to be the same ones regardless whether you`re Hellens or Persien (triesd other single player maps meanwhile). But I never got that heavy lancers with the Persians as the Hellens seem to have with the Phalanxes! And what kind of buildings are exactly the barracks and the fortresses? The centres where civilians are trained or heroes in case of barracks and city centres (like the one you have in the beginning) in case of fortresses? Is there some kind of evolving/evolution of the nation one chooses (as I recognized Hellens came across whith some kind of fire catapults later on where they did have only heavy cross bow catapults in the beginning)? How to achieve this progress?

@feneur:

Thanks for your hints. Will try to look at the vids but already read the manual regarding tactics - well missing the part how to occupy buildings with troops.

Does the manual also describe the different kinds of AI and the detailed descriptions of troops of every nation (if so I missed these parts)?

[oshron]

you may also want to consider playing as a different civ; iirc, the iberians are supposed to be the most defensive of all the civs currently in the game

[Mythos_Ruler]

you may also want to consider playing as a different civ; iirc, the iberians are supposed to be the most defensive of all the civs currently in the game

Not yet. The Iberians have the strongest Fortresses and Defense Towers at the moment, but Persians have the overall strongest buildings (+25% hitpoints). But I echo the suggestion to try a different faction. Even at this early stage, the factions play quite differently. Part of the fun is finding a faction that fits your play style best.