0 A.D. Strategy Guide

[ChristonianCoder]

Hey there everyone! I originally came to this forum with the idea of translating the game into Russian (which I know well) and Greek (which I know okay); but coming here I discovered that 98% of the Russian and I'm still working on the Greek. I've requested Pirate English to be added too because I have a lot of free time.

I still took a look around and made a dozen or so translations and am working on finding reliable sources for translations of Plato quotes, etc. for Modern Greek; but for the most part I must fade out of that. I'm hoping also to do a bit of voice acting, but it looks like that will also probably fall through.

Therefore I've decided to resort to the last possible thing I can think of, which is cleaning up the wiki in terms of grammar (I know, it's wierd that people like me actually enjoy that; but yeah...) and working on some sort of documentation. Having been trying to grasp this game myself (I can win on easy all the time, but only with a fast rush at the AI. I sometimes can win further in - town/city phases - as well, but I am in no way a good player). Ah well, I suppose I shouldn't expect too much out of a few days, though I generally get used to strategy games quicker... props to the devs on that.

Anyway, I was looking at this thread when I realized there was no (easily accessible) guide to the game. I found that the wiki had a lot of information and that this explained the basics, but no where in any of that was strategy.

I understand that only experience in the game can truly make a player good, but a full guide (explanations of mechanics, instructions on UI usage, strategies for different player skill levels, lots of bad puns - but only punny ones, etc.) would be helpful to new players and maybe even provide means to rope in some. In a worst case scenario you could at least print them out and sell them on an e-store to generate some revenue from the playerbase here.

Therefore (and without further ado, I seem to be monologuing here and really need sleep) I would like to announce my intention of writing a strategy guide for this game if any of you oldtimers are interested in sharing strategies or pro tips. If you are, please message me; I'll be trying to figure out math for game mechanics from the code to explain it. As soon as I'm done with that the typing will begin and I will start asking those who claimed to be interested about n00b/interediate/pro strategies they have.

Feel free to leave any ideas below!

Cheers,

ChristonianCoder

Edited December 23, 2014 by ChristonianCoder

[ChristonianCoder]

Also, yes, I have seen http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/0adManual, that's where I got the link to the basic gameplay guide from. Still, that page seems to be a bit outdated and doesn't include nearly as much as I'd like to.

#SigningMyselfUpForTonsOfWork #PoundsignNotHashtag #HashtagIrony #ByWhichIMean #PoundsignIrony #NeedSleep

Edited December 23, 2014 by ChristonianCoder

[Lion.Kanzen]

The game have a manual in game, is "named learn to play" that is updated

[ChristonianCoder]

Yes, but it does not explain the game in depth in terms of how mechanics work, nor does it teach any strategy.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Yes, but it does not explain the game in depth in terms of how mechanics work, nor does it teach any strategy.

the game changes constantly and the guides are new in this stage you can see gameplays in YouTube , I recommend Prodigal Son Tips

Edited December 23, 2014 by Lion.Kanzen

[ChristonianCoder]

Oh my god, thank you for that video. I need to go try this stuff out, now. Farewell, I will return tomorrow.

But I'd still like to work on a written guide nonetheless, at least a living document would beat the really vague stuff we currently have.

[Peregriino]

I like of this idea. I know some terms of strategy like boom, turtle, rush, but I don't know nothing more about this, just speculations. Other thing is learn what this strategys mix better with some civics.

[leper]

http://play0ad.com/category/game-manual/

[ChristonianCoder]

As stated above, I understand that there are already documents explaining how to play the game. What we're missing is one which explains how the game itself works and strategies for players. This game has quite the learning curve.

[Alekusu]

ChristonianCoder,

I can help you with some detailed build orders, I remember when I was younger I bought a strategy book about Age Of Mythology and one of the chapter of the book was "classic Build Orders". If you are making this kind of guide, could be usefull for beginners to have the classic build orders for each civs.
When I say build order I mean detailed production/research order until you start phasing to phase 2.

[Sanguivorant]

I can give you some tips regarding the early game play, which is the most important part.

Try to make at least five ranged cavalry as quick as possible. The reason why is:

-You have chicken, which is a huntable animal, that spawns right away near your town center.

-Cavalry have a large bonus when hunting

-Cavalry can scout land the fastest.

-Cavalry can also defend you in case of an attack.

On most maps, there will be animals which you can hunt. If you can get at least 500 food from hunting alone, that could save you the wood you need for farming and allow you to either advance to the town phase quicker or build more cavalry to raid your opponent.

Tips when hunting:

-Most animals run opposite the direction they are being attacked. So when hunting an animal, hunt it so that the animal is between your civic center and your cavalry. This will force the animal to run towards your civic center, and that will decrease drop off time.

-If hunting an elephant, attack it once so that it follows your cavalry. Then, flee to your civic center to finish it off. Try to scout and lure as many elephants as you can. Each elephant has 800 food, and three should keep you away from having to build farms for quite a while.

-You might want to build your farmstead close to where your hunt as died to decrease drop off time. But you can be the judge of that.

Tips when raiding:

-Make sure you keep your cavalry in a group. I believe around 7 should be more that enough to kill a female villager.

-Always aim for the weakest unit, in this case the female villager.

-Do not engage for too long. If your opponent starts to move all their military units to you, then flee and attack a different part of their economy.

The point of raiding is to keep your opponent on their toes, and prevent them from raiding you.

Tips when defending:

-Make sure you try to finish all the resources near your civic center before moving out to the edges of your territory.

-A building an outpost at the boundary, close to your wood line will give you enough time to move your units out of the way before they arrive.

-Divide your wood gatherers in two different camps. That way, if one of your wood lines are being attacked, then you are still getting wood elsewhere.

-Build your buildings on the boundaries, and try to create some kind of wall with them (Unless your Ptolemies, because that could hurt you). Use tree lines or cliffs to your advantage if you can.

If you take all of these together, you should be set for a good village phase. There are more specific build orders, but it depends on the civ.

[Peregriino]

ChristonianCoder,

I can help you with some detailed build orders, I remember when I was younger I bought a strategy book about Age Of Mythology and one of the chapter of the book was "classic Build Orders". If you are making this kind of guide, could be usefull for beginners to have the classic build orders for each civs.

When I say build order I mean detailed production/research order until you start phasing to phase 2.

I want this strategy guid of build orders if you can send me.

[Alekusu]

Peregrino, I wrote a post a few time ago called "detailed build order for gauls". I didn't get any answers (maybe the format was not good, and difficult to understand) but actually I got in the top 10 of the ladder using this build order so it's quite good imo (Actually i made some small modifications after playing lots of multiplayer games)

[ChristonianCoder]

Peregrino, I wrote a post a few time ago called "detailed build order for gauls". I didn't get any answers (maybe the format was not good, and difficult to understand) but actually I got in the top 10 of the ladder using this build order so it's quite good imo (Actually i made some small modifications after playing lots of multiplayer games)

Do you have a link to that post? I can edit it and add it in!

[Lion.Kanzen]

http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19426 here is

[ChristonianCoder]

Thanks, Lion.Kanzen.

[Alekusu]

I plan to make these kind of build orders for 3 civs (2 Build orders / civ). But I need more pratice online to improve these BO.
- Gauls
- Mauryans
- Romans

[Peregriino]

@Sanguivorant

That's important discern the differents types of cavalry. That's is good for ranged/swordmen cav, but spearmen cav. isn't a good investment.

@Alekusu

What's your nickname in the lobby? I will coment in your topic =)

[Alekusu]

in the lobby it is Alekusu

[ChristonianCoder]

On that build order, why do you use all women? Why not infantry so you can grow your army at the same time?

[Peregriino]

I use it because the womans just need food with this you can stock wood to upgrades, barracks and others things like soldiers. When the food of colect get over you chnage the womans in woods to farm.

[Sanguivorant]

Yeah. It is much easier to grow your economy in the early game if you just invest in female villagers. Soldiers and other types of units often take twice as many resources as women to train, why can slow the time it takes for you to get to the town phase.

It is important to get to the town phase, because it will allow you to make more civic centers or military colonies, which will allow you to gain map control. The more map control you have, the more resources you have and the more time you can save on not having to build trade carts.

[feneur]

It would be great if guides etc were posted in the wiki, that way more people can help out adding to it and improving it. Creating something and posting it in a thread is harder to keep up to date in a thread as the game changes (and the original poster might not have as much time to keep working on it as before).

[Lion.Kanzen]

It would be great if guides etc were posted in the wiki, that way more people can help out adding to it and improving it. Creating something and posting it in a thread is harder to keep up to date in a thread as the game changes (and the original poster might not have as much time to keep working on it as before).

is not bad idea may be link it in Learn to play, it's possibly add YouTube videos? @prodigal_son have good videos about give an economic boom. It's can be like guides from Heaven Games with videos.

[feneur]

is not bad idea may be link it in Learn to play, it's possibly add YouTube videos? @prodigal_son have good videos about give an economic boom. It's can be like guides from Heaven Games with videos.

It is already linked in the Learn to play

Hmm, I will have to look into adding videos, it's not easily possible right now at least. You can add links to videos of course, but from a quick look it doesn't seem possible to add a video directly to the page right now. There might be a plugin for the wiki software that allows that though, so I'll take a look at that.