with the help of Master Silver, Irishfast, Blues, Bonky, Empiremaster, Narguzir, Ssfsx17 and War
Take care this single post is already a 14 pages printout, small font and margins.
Players of Rise Of Nations, I salute you.
Some may know me as one of the most contributive actors on HG’s forum for Pharaoh/Cleopatra, a game that I recommend as it took me four full years to be tired with. Subsequently, I bought Rise Of Nations. One great advantage of this game is that it is so burdensome to reload that it is preferable to do the best things in the first place. I enjoy it, play at Tougher (Very Hard) and think I have missed lots of the opportunities offered by the game.
So I asked questions in the Strategy section. Players replied and made comments. I here submit the questions (Q: author, often me of course), answers (A: Author) and suggestions (C: author), even complex or confronting suggestions/comments (C: author 1, author 2, etc) as indeed some issues are worth more than one truth. Some comments are obvious, intended to help somebody else who may have missed them. Some are opinions which have not yet been confronted by other respondents.
First part of the thread is current QUESTIONS
Second part of the thread is AFFIRMATIONS.
Whenever you think it is worth adding your agreement or disagree, please do.
For now, rather little is said about modern ages, as I played more the ages before.
References are for Tougher.
So here we are.
CURRENT QUESTIONS (as of March 07, 2006)
58 of the former 61 questions got valid answers, some exhaustive and all quoted in Answers.
If you have a question for which I do not know myself the answer, I will put it too. If I have the answer, I will put it.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
More questioning details about answered issues:
1.I am not Turk, but bribe a Turk trebuchet which becomes mine. Gunpowder age comes, for him or me. Would it become a Turk canon or remain anyway a Turk trebuchet?
2.I contributed a lot to the knowledge of Pharaoh using the Mission Editor that gives you several hints on the way the game is working (e.g. it helped me at Pharaoh being the one to explain in 2003 how the caravans were really working, game from 1999). Would you say the same about RoN’s editor? (some answers already)
3.At Nomad, is there anything unique with this one of the first three citizens who remains always under the name “12th support” or alternatively 30 or F2? I typed F2, in case, but nothing happened.
4.I want to support the fire rate of a tower with infantry. Suppose I put a fusilier in one tower, in another a musketeer. Will the two towers fire then the same way (same question would apply for a javeliner and an archer at Classical)?
5.Does putting five archers inside a tower bring more benefits than one archer?
6.The decoys in your territory sometimes last long minutes, sometimes vanish quickly. How come? Could it be that they “live” longer when standing idle compared with moving? They sometimes even show kind of an attrition circle in your own territory. Moving them away from the general would shorten their lifespan? Master Silver says: “when near a tower, look out or scout, they take attrition and their time lessens”. Meaning even your own towers or your own scout? Anything else to affect the lifespan of your decoys?
7.It happens quite often that my spies, with 1000 craft, on standby, are detected, in my own territory, whenever the enemy has no scout nor spy (indeed, in one Ambush game the enemy never has scouts or spies but he sometimes sees them). What makes my spies visible? Master Silver says: “when near a tower, look out, I can’t remember what else does that”. No, indeed, they are lost in the countryside, far away from any building, friend or foe. I even seems that only one type of troops at a time see them, the javeliners being the ones who see them the most often: they leave the group entering my territory to attack them while the all others pass along ignoring.
8.The starting price for all goods may be about 115 for Buy and 65 for Sale: I could see with the Nubians who can trade since the beginning (if you assume that the +20/-20 bonus is taken into account, the game shows 95/85). But the price starts moving immediately, and very fast, so when no nation buys or sells anything. It seems to me that the price can fluctuate according to the stocks available in the warehouses, all nations put together (like in real life). Opinion?
9.Units can hide into buildings like a factory, plant, but they do not seem to heal inside them. Correct? Master Silver “believes they heal only if it was the type of place where they were built, for example troops only heal in a barracks”. But I do not even think so. If they do, they heal very, but very slowly.
10.Does an injured soldier lose part of his fighting capacity?
That is all for today. This thread has already become useful (at least to me), so please do not feel shy.
QUESTIONS SPECIFIC TO CAMPAIGN. You know the answer or ignore:
1. The “Greek mercenaries”, who seem to exist only in the Alexander campaign, are cheap but weak and die easily, when not using the card that makes them as powerful as a phalanx. Are they worth the deal?
2. Is there a special trick in the Napoleon campaign against the Spanish guerrillas in Catalonia? Destroying 11 out of the 19 camps did not seem to weaken their global attack capacity, did it? I nearly made it, but with much suffering.
3. In the Alexander Campaign, in one late scenario, you will be told that the enemy forts will either remain enemies or become allies. To my experience, it is only when you have attacked them and defeated them that one amongst others suddenly declares to be your ally (for no use BTW). It is the one that attacks you less than others, anyhow.
4. In the World campaign I played 4 times, for the first time I tried to invade Sweden (at Enlightenment age). I am given 29 units and 6 minutes to crush the enemy camp (two barracks for what I could see). I tried to avoid the enemy but could not. I managed to crush more than 60 enemies while losing 4 soldiers, but one thousand more came. Is this one winnable at Tougher?
5. In the World campaign, in a Tactics scenario invading Australia from Southern Asia, I got the performance card with 162 of each resource. How was it counted? BTW I played one Tactics on a territory with a defending army, at Tougher. I gave up. Winnable?
ANSWERED ISSUES (as of March 07, 2006)
Nothing irremediable here nor definitive.
GENERAL ISSUES
Having two libraries cannot help you looking for two different sciences at the same time. There is no benefit in having two libraries (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
Accordingly, when I have no need of them anymore, I get rid of the university staff, kick them out, select the 7 of them with a double-click then delete them (they jump into the air). I lose only Knowledge production that I do not need anymore (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver), I gain thus the population I need to expand my army. Take care of a small bug, if you delete the 7 too fast, you lose your mouse. You can regain control by, for example, typing Alt-S for a save (C: Tryhard).
Multi-players must have witnessed options that a single player never sees (Q: Tryhard). Master Silver and Irishfast say computer is always a bit dumb, while some players can be unpredictable; the computer does not know how to raid with best efficiency. He neither knows how to use his spies efficiently (A: Tryhard). Multi-player happen to seize the capital of the enemy within 3 minutes with 5 Heavy Infantry, as the enemy does not expect such an early attack (A: Ssfsx17). The flanking cavalry attack, one of the core battle strategies, was developed by multiplayers (A: Irishfast).
Houses can garrison 5 units but do not seem to provide anything more (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
I have checked that, if a civilization reaches a given age before you, it will become 10% cheaper for you to do so (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). It seemed not to change if more nations reached this age before me but Master Silver says that the cost keeps on decreasing.
If you have the Peacock (+10% population) and the Colossus (+50 population), that will help you developing large armies. But do not think it gives you an advantage on the enemy: resigning games, I could check that the enemy often has more soldiers than he is supposed to be allowed (C: Tryhard).
I was wondering what the use of the editor can teach you about aspects of the game. Empiremaster tested helicopters versus tanks to learn their way of working.
SOLO GAMES
You want to give yourself time to learn about the game without being confused by early attacks, you can play a Solo battle with one single enemy. He will start from the other side of the map and will not attack you for at least 15 minutes. But take care, eventually he will (C: Tryhard).
Starting at Nomad (both the game and customize option) is a nice way to play: you can set your first city where you will have access to better woods, for example (C: Blues). But take care, you would lose several nation benefits, like your scout, buildings (the French lumber mill), units (the Dutch merchants), granted Science (the Russian Civic 1 or the Dutch Commerce 1). Even when you build your library, they are not given back.
Difficulty levels. At Tough (A: Master Silver), the computer builds larger armies, better economy and attacks more. At Tougher, the computer gets an advantage (MS calls it a handicap): for the resources you collect, he also gets some. He also increases on everything. At Toughest, the computer gets a massive advantage, attacks with massive armies and a lot, plus its economy is always capped a +500 usually after the first ages.
The Assassin! Scenario gives you one target nation and one, the Assassin, for which you are the target. This predictable scenario (your Assassin will attack you, your target will not) has the advantage of alternating the nations you fight against and helps to learn their way of fighting (C: Tryhard).
RUINS
The gifts from the ruins are not pre-determined, not haphazard. You are given what you lack most.
You lack food (suppose you are 11/55/60), you get food.
You lack timber (suppose you are 55/11/60), you get timber.
You get metal only after you reach Science 2, when metal becomes a commodity. Rarely, it seems not to work.
So, a strategy used by all players is to starve themselves of what they would like to get. The scout comes close to a ruin: suppose you are 80/80/80, you build a market (80 timber), so shift to 80/0/80. You get 50 timber. Scout carries on. Next ruin, you are back to 80/120/80, you build the barracks (120 timber). you get 50 timber.
Most players want lots of food, so starve themselves of food without spending it: they queue the building of citizens in one city as to exhaust their food, then fetch the ruin where they get food; just after they cancel the building of citizens by clicking on the queuing citizens in the city (Q: Tryhard, A: War).
WOODCUTTERS AND MINERS
When you set a mine or a woodcutter, at completion you will receive a variable quantity of resources. It is 5 times the number of citizens who can work at this workplace: a mine for 7 citizens will gift you with 35 metal (C: Tryhard). You add a 50% bonus if you are German.
You can set a woodcutter anywhere on your territory. You will get the building completion bonus, collect the wood but miss the lumber mill bonuses if the woodcutter stands out of a city area (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). It may be worth the deal as you often start with appallingly scarce wood in your capital’s area (C: Tryhard).
I see a woodcutter coming back to the camp with a wood load. If I click on him before he unloads to affect him to another task, I lose the +10 wood every 30 seconds he gets but nothing else compared to any other worker at the working place. The load carrying is just fancy animation (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
If you set two cities very close to each other and set, say, the lumber mill in the space shared by the two cities, only one of the cities will get the lumber mill benefits (like +20% wood production). Same applies to every building, like the temple (extended combat range for one city only, Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
GOVERNMENT
You cannot shift governments at a given age (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). Once you have chosen Republic, Monarchy, or else, you have to deal with it until the next age where a change is proposed.
To Master Silver, Democratic regimes are worth little compared to the plunder, siege, armour and line of sight benefits of the autocratic regimes. If you manage to get the healing benefits from the Versailles wonder, indeed Monarchy is advantageous in battle (C: Tryhard).
On the other hand, the Republic has one tremendous advantage: the Commerce cap increased by 50, at a time (Classical age) when you start gathering enough but when sciences are expensive and when the enemy starts deploying larger armies with siege units. Following Master Silver’s advice, I used Despotism, but I often choose rather the Republic when I see that I will not get early an advantage over my foe, like if I have to cross the whole map to land on a fortified island (C: Tryhard).
If you destroy the enemy Senate, the enemy does not lose civilization potentials, like his government bonuses (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). He can relocate his capital (C: Master Silver).
If you choose to have a Despot, he will have a plunder bonus: units you kill bring you a reward, but only within the radius of this special general (C: Tryhard).
CAPS
If you are capped at +100 food for example, it means that you cannot collect more than 100 food every 30 seconds (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). This means that you can buy only one soldier every 30 seconds, a very long time at RoN, so you are already dead if you do not improve (C: Master Silver). Do not forget to check the efficiency of your production highlighting the corresponding boxes with the mouse (C: Irishfast). It can show you that the efficiency for food is 96% (thanks to a wonder, science, nation, etc.) but for timber 49%; in this case it is useless to add a woodcutter because you want more wood, your problem lies with your Commerce limit (C: Tryhard).
Besides searching for the Green Commerce Science that lifts up your caps and allow you to benefit from better efficiencies, many other factors help you to ameliorate your production: production buildings like the lumber mill, non-knowledge sciences, rare resources, wonders, nation bonuses, governments (Republic lifts all your caps by 50, for example). But nothing makes your production or caps decrease, except losing the corresponding rare resource or building (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
It is of the utmost importance to deal with your production efficiently (C: all). Suppose you have a 70 cap for food and have affected 7 farmers. You reach 100% efficiency, everything is gained, nothing is wasted. But, then you set a merchant on a bison (20 food) and a citrus (10 food). Your food cap, still at 70, becomes yellow: in fact, it means that you produce 100 food every 30 seconds (70+20+10) but, until you search for a new Commerce science, 30 food are never gathered, in other words 3 farmers work for nothing. You can affect these farmers to another task.
RARE RESOURCES, MERCHANTS, CARAVANS
The bonus for resources is:
1.Cumulative for the resources, like two bison give you twice +20 food, or +40 food.
2.Not cumulative for the special ability bonus, you do not get two times -33% cost to granary research
(Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver, Irishfast)
The Nubian tribe gets a 50% bonus on rare resources. The bonuses are always displayed when you point the mouse at the resource: the bison would show you +30 food instead of +20 (C: Tryhard).
You can set a merchant on a rare resource even when you do not yet have the technology the special ability it is supposed to enhance. When the time comes that you develop the corresponding technology, the effect of the resources will start immediately (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver, Irishfast).
Merchants (1) and caravans (2) are more than anecdotal units. They make your resource income (1) and your wealth (2) increase sharply. These shape your game into a winning situation. When you are lucky enough to know the map, you may even choose your ally for having the best resources in his territory (C: Tryhard).
Rerouting caravans may bring a better income (Q: Tryhard). No, caravans can simply not be rerouted (A: Master Silver), so forget it. Irishfast also says there is nothing you can do about the routes, launching your latest caravan from city 1 or city 5 does not seem to make any difference (A: Master Silver). Irishfast says that caravans going longer distances generate more wealth, but as they take more time it is all even.
It seems that, when you add one Green Commerce science, you add +10 income to every caravan trip. I realized that because my first Nubian caravan always gets 10 income only (I do not need any Commerce science to get a caravan), it becomes 20 when I reach Level 1 of Commerce (C: Tryhard, Master Silver not sure but would agree).
Nothing in the Buy/Sell options concerns caravans (A: Irishfast).
MARKETS
The price of goods at the market is influenced by the frequency you, but also other players, buy and sell (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). The starting price for all goods may be about 115 for Buy and 65 for Sale: I could see with the Nubians who can trade since the beginning (C: Tryhard), then the prices change according to the various purchases/sales.
Do not forget to watch the market prices. The buying price for an item can drop to 20 or less. You can then buy a lot of these, in order to stockpile them. You can even make large profits buying/selling like a stockbroker (C: Master Silver), especially if you are Nubian and benefit from a +20/-20 bonus on trade (C: Tryhard): I bought 1000 metal for 200 and resold them for 500 two minutes later.
Should I buy or sell, except naturally when the price is too attractive? It is tempting to sell metal at an early stage, when the price is still above 70 (C: Empiremaster, Bonky) but, take care, metal will be sorely needed in medieval and gunpowder ages for siege units, you would sell metal if you are dying for other resources you do not collect fast enough (C: Master Silver).
Buying/selling may help you to reach ages and upgrade faster (C: Empiremaster). It may be useful when you have reached a major upgrade need, like Gunpowder+Military4, knowing that your foe reaches it more or less at the same time. At this moment, you may need to upgrade at a go 9 military units, 3-4 for the dock, the library, 2 for the fort, the tower, amongst other things like buying newly available units, like bomb ketches (C: Tryhard).
ALLY, IN GENERAL
Best ally, single player (multiple player totally different issue, Q: Tryhard): Irishfast suggests to have a neighbouring ally. I agree, but would be more daring sometimes (C: Tryhard), like having as ally the chap with the best rare resources in his territory (e.g. the peacocks, bison), or an ally far away who would concentrate the fight on his side of the map; you tell him: let us attack the blue guy, he agrees and does while you carry on with your own business. It is a bit of a gamble but, if it works, it rewards handsomely. Master Silver seems bending towards the one who looks the strongest on paper, the one with elephants if available.
Suppose an alliance is offered to you freely. You accept. You are eventually (more than) disappointed and regret you have not chosen this blue Persian pal as an ally instead of this weak green Phoenician lad. What are the safest options? (Q: Tryhard)
For what I have observed, I can cheat anybody indefinitely. According to Master Silver too, there is no difference between an ally who offered an alliance and one you bribed into an alliance. The best way (A: Master Silver) would be to break the alliance with the disappointing Green and pay what is required to get the Blue on my side.
Master Silver considers utterly useless to send gifts to anybody except to your ally, while Irishfast emphasizes the need to give enough to your ally for him to survive, so boost him.
Take care an ally may betray you. And it happens of course at the worst moment you would expect. Take care not to expose the flanks of your civilization to your “best friend” (C: Tryhard).
I have noticed (C: Tryhard) to be very happy with the British as an ally, at Tougher level. Why? Because he gets extra troops when he builds barracks, so he builds a lot. And if I have to invade him at a late stage, when he has all these barracks producing each a soldier every three seconds, it is a nightmare to finish him. Sometimes, you nearly cannot as he exhausts your armies. Better have him on my side than against me.
BATTLE CONTEXT, KEY STRATEGIES
- MATCHING UNITS
The first important issue in battle, according to Irishfast, is to match the troops which are fighting, in other words use you best related troops. Heavy Infantry will decimate Cavalry, Cavalry can take out foot archers easily. Wagons and siege are vulnerable to cavalry. The Help display indicates already how you can match the units (A: Irishfast). The “March to Moscow” campaign scenario is enlightening on the issue, as you are given only troops, no city, no bonus, no card, and you are attacked alternatively by one army type or the other, so you can see who hits hard and who lets the enemy cavalry reach your wagon supply (C: Tryhard).
- EARLY ATTACKS, RUSHES
The second important issue in battle, according to Irishfast and Master Silver, is not to rely much on fixed emplacements (towers and forts) for your defence. They exist pretty much only to discourage Ranged Cavalry raids and to slow down, but not defeat, armies. If you know that you will be attacked very soon, first search for Military Science 1 and build barracks (A: Irishfast).
At early stages, at single player (but also at multiple player as stated in a thread) do not worry too much with early attacks on one of your cities if you have set a tower, with or without any level of attrition, and set an archer inside the city. The enemy is too weak to break into without siege units (C: Tryhard). But if you do not set an archer inside an undefended city, some rare Heavy Infantry can take it (C: Ssfsx17).
- FLANKING ATTACKS
Irishfast suggest to set a cavalry group aside, with a general, and to devote it to a flanking charge. All players agree on the use of the flanking cavalry, especially when the enemy infantry is already occupied by a bribed unit or a frontal assault, so that pikemen or archers have no time to devote to your cavalry.
The flanking cavalry attack, composed mostly of Light Cavalry, is a dominant and unavoidable strategic part of the game if you do not want to lose, whether at single or multiplayer (C: all).
According to Empiremaster, the best thing to do is keep your fusiliers right behind your muskets to prevent a cavalry charge. This way, they protect muskets (as maybe siege/supply) and you are free to flank with your own cavalry.
- BORDER PUSH
This is a global strategy, on some maps where you are close to an enemy, aiming at suffocating him of resources (C: Empiremaster, Master Silver). You set cities and forts as close as you can to his borders to strangle his territory.
TOWERS AND FORTS
You cannot hope getting a catapult effect garrisoning one catapult inside your fort – or acity (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). Irishfast suggests instead to move them away as they take more than one place in the fort and put there archers to increase the rate of fire of the fort.
Setting archers in your towers increases their fire rate, transforming them into devastating units at close range. Adding a general inside can extend their range. Do not garrison fusiliers as they are anti-cavalry units in the first place (C: Empiremaster). Well, it depends when and where they would be garrisoned (C: Master Silver).
Garrisoning units can have a strategic use, as you can unleash them in the back of an attacking army to act like guerrilla (C: Master Silver).
To most players, the towers are used mostly as a delaying tactics. They help you save time for your reinforcement army to reach and save or regain your city. You can set a tower behind your city to park the citizens in case the city is lost, it gives you some time for your reinforcements to come (C: all).
Keep a general in a city to increase its fire range (A: Empiremaster).
If you happen to have a heavily defended city, with 2-3 towers, all with an archer, you can put some archers in front of the city with the Despot (C: Empiremaster). These archers reach the first enemy lines and are nearly immune to close range attacks as the towers would kill the enemy coming too close. Injured soldiers would jump back into the closet tower or the city, to be replaced by fresh ones. Meanwhile, the Despot gets plunder benefits. This defensive strategy is not effective enough against a “superior” army attacking (C: Ssfsx17), but would stop any medium attack and ensure lots of casualties for your foe (C: Tryhard).
THE GENERALS
Special abilities of the generals make a real difference (Q: Tryhard).
Irishfast is affirmative on the potential of generals, as to using them, and several of them at a go, like a winning factor. Irishfast often affects one general to a small group devoted to a special mission, like a flanking attack.
Keep a general in a city to increase its fire range (A: Empiremaster).
- DECOYS
Decoys are good any time so they can take a few hits instead of real units (A: Master Silver).
Decoy units can be micromanaged like other soldiers (C: Tryhard, Irishfast). The enemy often attacks you with half an army of decoys, especially if an attack comes surprisingly fast after another.
Indeed, I have become an intensive decoy user (C: Tryhard); I even use a group of them, with a scout and two-three infantry behind them to spot and kill spies on a way I noticed they use to reach behind my lines.
It took me time to realize why my generals were sometimes not creating decoys. They simply mimic their surroundings. An isolated general will create no decoy or maybe himself. A general surrounded with canons and spies will give you decoys of canons and spies.
- ENTRENCH
Master Silver: Entrench I never really thought worked unless you planned the trenches out ahead of time so that is worthless to when being attacked. When entrenched, your units get only 66% of the normal damage they would receive.
Irishfast: Eentrench is a good option, the problem is that once the unit moves, it is no longer entrenched. I've found it useful for destroying the initial charge and in bottleneck terrain. Once you've taken out the front-line units, it should be time for your flanking attack from your cavalry anyway and by this time, all formations on both sides are reduced to shambles anyway. but what I like about it is that it allows a smaller force to defend against a larger force and still come out the winner. Entrench is what is known as a force multiplier.
Empiremaster: Entrenched crossbowmen are a pain to get rid off when they have their back to a city, especially if the opponent is planning to use siege and Heavy Infantry to take down the city. It can buy valuable time, and when one gets low on health, you pop him into the city.
Also, have you ever tried entrenching a few Bazookas. They will beat tanks at a 3:1 ratio, but only if the enemy doesn't use flamethrowers. Combine them with Machine Guns entrenched to murder infantry and buy more time until main army gets there.
BASICALLY: Entrenchment is a delaying tactic and should be used as such.
Master Silver would not entrench archers in front of the city as 2-3 Light Cavalry would take most of them out but Empiremaster insists: “the archers cannot be killed because the Light Cavalry dies under the city fire. Flanking is hard as they have their back to the city, and any archer badly hurt can garrison. Not to mention that Despotism will increase their armor”. Indeed, I used this strategy without even entrenching at Classical age, my casualty ratio is 1/70 (C: Tryhard).
Cavalry cannot entrench (C: Master Silver), and should be put in a separate control group (C: Irishfast).
- AMBUSH
Master Silver: Ambush is worthless unless you are making a sneak attack.
SPIES and SCOUTS
- GENERALITIES
The scout scouts the map but one of his main tasks is to detect enemy spies (C: all). If you have an army without a scout, you will see the shade of the spy, but there is nothing you can do against her until she successfully bribes one of your units.
The scout also helps you to prevent ambushes (C: Irishfast).
They spies may steal technology infiltrating the library, but this is possible in rare campaign missions ((Q: Tryhard, A: Irishfast). They can plant informers into buildings (A: Master Silver). Note that it is not necessary for your spy to stay besides the building once he planted an informer (C: Tryhard). Irishfast is especially enthusiastic about planting informers, not for knowing that a plant is making a tank, but to know how many tanks the enemy has. Irishfast emphasizes the use of a spy to bribe the siege units.
I was thinking a spy of or a scout could help detect decoys as I can see them myself, but my troops seem unable to make the difference (Q: Tryhard). Master Silver “does not think your troops can realize it without attacking the decoys or having a scout to show them”. So my question was half answered as my scout seems to help me only, not my troops (C: Tryhard). Irishfast agrees with my point and declares that, however I see myself the decoys, I have to micromanage my soldiers.
The spies who have bribed someone are visible until they have reached back some 500 craft (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
- STRATEGIC USE
A spy reveals cheaper to produce than the military units he brings to you and he can also offer you unique units that the enemy has at disposal but not you (like the precious elephants or Turkish long range artillery).
Bribing the enemy generals together with some other units is useful as the enemy will lose attack benefit, and the expensive units may be saved for you as the enemy will concentrate on the bribed combat units who cause damage (C: Tryhard).
An idea that could cross your mind too, but does not work: you can arrange your general to create decoys of spies, surrounding him with real spies. The interest would be that the enemy gets particularly nervous when he sees spies and can neglect other units like your Light Cavalry aiming at the wagon supply. Unfortunately, the computer reacts on spies as priority targets only on real combat units (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
Overall, Irishfast and Master Silver are not over-impressed by the spies as they are easily killed. Indeed, a scout among your troops and you spot them, maybe not the first one who bribes one unit, but so you notice, check all out and eradicate them. They are quite slow to bribe a siege unit and maybe detected meanwhile, they have to run behind charging cavalry in order to bribe them and are therefore not so effective (C: Tryhard). At multiple player, any player not totally dumb would be nearly immune to them (C: Irishfast and Master Silver). On the other hand, talking of single player game with a dumb computer is another story. The Syria CtW scenario shows that, where you are given no civilization but 12 spies only, you cross the whole map in 10 minutes and subdue 4 cities, end the game with 120 military units. You can set two spies besides a remote barrack and bribe alternatively every soldier the enemy produces. Often, the game forgets to set a scout inside an attacking army (C: Tryhard).
But, if you plat at Tougher, at a late stage of the game, the enemy builds new armies so fast that spies then become anecdotal. Eventually, it is nice to have a bunch of 5-7 spies who gift you with some units you do not pay for as allow you to save some your own men on top. Especially worth it against the Turk to get his long range artillery (C: Tryhard).
The computer plays his spies poorly but, rarely, he plays them extremely well. He sets a spy nearby a city far behind your frontline prior to attacking it. When you see the attack, you send urgent cavalry reinforcements and of course forget to add a scout. Time for you to realize, you reinforcement is half bribed, half killed. To avoid this, it would be wise to set a scout inside each of your cities, then forget them, what multiplayers must know (C: Tryhard).
If you intend to bribe enemy units, you need to kill his scout first. Often, the enemy will protect his scout at all costs: the scout will hide inside the enemy group, while the army deploys around him to protect him. To kill him fast, you can use a group of Ranged Cavalry (C: Tryhard).
GETTING RID OF ATTACKING SIEGE UNITS
Best and cheapest way to kill a catapult remains to send cavalry in the back of the attacking army, 2-3 should make it (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). You may lose some cavalry but it may be worth the deal (C: Tryhard, Irishfast).
Irishfast eventually may have the best trick: bribe the siege. “A waste of spies, but fun” (C: Irishfast). Empiremaster insists: if you bribe the siege unit, the enemy loses about 1/4 of city reducing power (assuming they have 3 or 4 siege), lost all resources put into it, AND loses attack seconds as ALL their units focus on firing the bribed siege. Not to mention that, if you get spy out, you can go do it again.
Irishfast has an answer without the spy (quote): the best way to kill an attacking siege unit is with cavalry. there are a few ways of doing this; the next best way is a little trickier, and doesn't work as well, but I'll get into that in just a moment.
a) cavalry option: a few LC will take out a siege pretty quickly; the main problem I have with this is that my cavalry cannot make it to the rear ranks without incurring fatal damage; i.e., they die too quickly (my problem too, C: Tryhard). My favourite tactic is to team a general up with those cavalry and use ambush to attack the siege unit from the flanks, thusly killing it more quickly. After the attack, looping around in a wide arc to garrison both draws the enemy off and preserves valuable units. This is why I use Heavy Cavalry (HC) to attack siege. of course, I prefer French and Iroquois, so this is easier for me when I have my way.
b) your opponent is smarter than the average bear and has included some scouts in his army. You can no longer ambush. Bastard. Try a flanking attack with LC (they're cheap), then launch a sortie from the fort or tower with HC and archers. the LC will draw off the HI, leaving the middle ranks exposed, and then you can plough into those with your HC while your archers take out the siege from afar.
c) weird option, works only on boards with water- most notably, Great Lakes, my favourite board. Use sea-borne assets. Heavy ships and bombard ships do nicely. Of course, this option is limited, though if you've planned ahead, you've sited your fixed emplacements to protect your shipyards and can use your navy to protect your shores (end quote).
A useful way of dealing with spies is not to bribe the siege, but units around (C: Tryhard). In the first place, you scatter couples of spies on the probable paths of attacks. If you spot a scout within the invading army, shift to a defence strategy unless you manage to kill the scout. If there is no scout, wait until the army is near your place, regrouping to deploy. Then bribe two units with many points and a good attack capacity (e.g. Heavy Infantry). When they change sides, the enemy gets confused, you can attack him with your main army, while his own siege units deploy to kill the inside enemies. Deploying, redeploying his siege units makes him lose a lot of time.
RAIDS
Irishfast says: raid them frequently, different targets in his territory at the same time.
“Raid with a few different types of units in a few different places. everyone knows that RC means garrison your citizens, but what does 2 HI, 3 RI and 2 HC mean? hit 'em, scare 'em, then move back over your lines before you're engaged”.
Most players agree with this point. I have to admit that, being permanently raided in Catalonia, I had not set my second city after 15 minutes, so was producing little resources and was eventually losing ground, my army getting slimmer instead of expanding in passive defence (C: Tryhard).
Eventually, the latest comment from Master Silver is that raiding is useless at single player, as it is to try to exhaust the resources of the enemy letting him raid you, as stated by the corresponding answer.
(Q: Tryhard): “You let the enemy raid you a predictable way, with rather large groups you annihilate with few losses. So, he loses troops. It would be me, I would have wasted lots of resources. Does the computer take this into account, or do I waste my time”.
(A: Master Silver): “You are wasting your time, the replacement rate of the enemy troops is too fast and troops will be replaced anyhow”.
Bluffing an attacking army (C: Tryhard): you can devote one or two light cavalry to pass along an enemy army then escape, but staying visible to the foes. Some soldiers will come at your pursuit, what reduces the role attacking your position. Getting afar from the wagon supply, they will also face attrition. It is a relief for your defending forces.
ATTRITION
Attrition looks more impressive than it is (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver, War), in other words units circled with red are not bloodied away and will not die for a while, they slowly take damage. Indeed, checking an enemy for some time does not show so much of a degradation, while your tower he is attacking does show.
Attrition is worth little when compared to all other factors in a battle (C: all).
But there are some factors to take into account. At modern ages, you have access to technologies that reduce the attrition by up to 75%, while your enemy may deploy one of various healing technologies available. Units move faster too so are easier to repatriate and garrison.
At ancient ages, this is another story. And there, attrition must be treated statistically, in the broader context of the attack. In a combat period, the enemy army loses say 15% of its global Hit Points through attrition. What does it mean? 15% of your men who should have died did not. Or 15% more of his men did. That is not questionable, that is statistics. Truth is that you save some more units who survive than in the same combat in a neutral situation, while he is losing more than he should in the same place. But wait: it still works with your sole Infantry against 25 cavalry, though you will never see the positive result: strategy best fit when pertinent (C: Tryhard).
I eradicated whole armies through attrition. At its top, if you play the Russians (attrition increased by 100%) and have the attrition increased by 50% from the Coliseum wonder (erroneously called the Colosseum in RoN), it is recommendable to base your basic defensive tactics on the need to destroy the enemy supplies (and the enemy leaders who may have healing status). You will then see the enemy army melt down, they will not even be able to retreat alive (C: Tryhard).
BATTLE CONTEXT, FEATURES
Terrain gives bonuses though, according to Irishfast, they are not of critical importance to the battle (but a bonus is a bonus, isn’t it?). Infantry gets a bonus when standing in rocks, units get bonus for elevation, units crossing a river are slower and easier to kill.
You can see from one to three + signs besides the characteristics of some soldiers. It means that they are healing, the closer to the healing units, the more + and the faster they heal (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). I see sometimes a soldier with + signs who does not heal, but I attribute this to an omission by the computer (C: Tryhard).
You can lure an enemy army inside your territory in order for them to get attrition, but an enemy army lured this way would likely fall back soon to its territory (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
You would like an army to retreat? Master Silver says that one fine option is to raid a place of critical importance to the enemy, like a wonder or the capital. Take care, this may barely work in a single player game. If the computer has decided a definitive objective for an attacking army, little you do can make him change his mind (C: Tryhard).
Why would an enemy retreat in a spontaneous “well, lads, indeed let’s have a shift back home, won’t we”? Their supply wagon or siege units all died, their troops are low on health, or they wish to not have a few precious reserves annihilated (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
You need to retreat: “It all depends on what you want to save and how much you want to save. Send a Light infantry or a cavalry or two to slow their army up, use the forced march on your general and run away like scared people. Very simple. The other thing you could do is create decoys, leave them in the place of your army to distract the foe, and then run away (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver). Following this advice, I used the decoy tactics quite successfully to retreat or regroup (C: Tryhard).
Archers do a wonderful job, but need top be protected (Q: Tryhard). Cavalry can do the job, while heavy infantry keeps the enemy busy (A: Master Silver and Irishfast both on this one).
Some units suffer damage in combat when they are not engaged, i.e. one of your phalanx seems never targeted in one close fight with one attacking unit, but suffers some loss (Q: Tryhard). Damage could be a miss fire by one of your own units, I have that happen to me before (A: Master Silver, full quote). Irishfast also mentions the “splash” damage, in fashion words collateral damage: you can lose a lot of your troops under the fire of your own canons, take care (C: Tryhard).
I am annoyed by the frequency of the fire ships attacks and their destructive abilities. However, when I have to face bomb ketches which range is higher than my forts or towers, I am happy to use fire ships too. I set a dock close to every littoral fort for this sole purpose (C: Tryhard).
BEST TRIBE
Best tribe is a matter of strategy and circumstances, as said in all threads, like the game age you play, the map and the objectives. It is also a matter of whom faces whom. However, I have here some shared comments.
If you play at a given age, you can rely on a nation which has a superior unit, like the excellent Iroquois infantry. But if you play an evolving world like in Solo game, your unique fighters can become classic fusiliers or musketeers and your bonus vanishes. Being offered one troop per building (e.g. British, Mongol) is of little comfort, you should not need that. Or one university chap per library, what would save you 200 wealth in a whole game (C: Empiremaster).
- IROQUOIS: Unquestioned as one of the top nations, if not the top one (C: all). Irishfast and Master Silver enjoy all the special abilities of the Iroquois nation. I checked the value of their healing capacity on standby, their resistance (infantry has 10% more Hit Points). The Mohawks are an excellent Heavy Infantry, maybe the best of the game before Enlightenment age (after I do not know, C: Tryhard), what makes them good in defence (C: Empiremaster). They are also described as invisible when standing in friendly territory, but I could not assess that, the enemy spies were not impressed (C: Tryhard).
- FRENCH: Unquestioned as one of the top nations (C: all). Irishfast is happy to have the French as to use their superior Heavy Cavalry (C: Irishfast, Empiremaster agrees). And the wagon supplies of the French heal (even at double rate with Versailles), so you can develop an autocratic regime and get both the military and the healing benefits (C: Tryhard).
- RUSSIANS: The Russians start with one Civic, extra borders, attrition bonus, attrition upgrades for free, excellent Light Cavalry then excellent infantry and tanks; that is a lot, you start with bonuses and remain with bonuses (C: Tryhard). Master Silver puts them on top of his list: “as long as your not facing a very aggressive nation you can do a three city and 150 economy in ancient age and out boom your foe through a defensive border push”.
- BANTU: the Bantu have access to an extra city and a double population. What means you can build both an enormous civilization and army meanwhile you have lots of citizens working. Early Bantu troops are not good fighters, their unique units being indeed poor. But if you survive the early stage of a single player game, your army becomes so big that you cannot lose (C: Tryhard). On the other hand, the extraordinary expansion capability is a blessing (C: Master Silver) but may reveal a curse as you tend to expand too fast and become vulnerable (C: Empiremaster).
- TURKS: the Turks have fast moving and long range siege units. That makes the eradication of their siege units more urgent and difficult. Difficult enemies. Their Mamelouk infantry is also excellent (C: Tryhard). Economically mediocre, but other advantage of their long range artillery is that they can sometimes hit from where they do not suffer attrition (C: Empiremaster).
- DUTCH: Maybe the most contested nation. Some are fans, many dislike them. Empiremaster is a fan. Quote:
Fastest fishing: Have 1st citizen you make build a dock, then put all future citizens on wood. With a 5+ woodpile, you can cap at +100 with 5 farms, 4 boats and 1 city VERY FAST. Not to mention you have +50 wealth (+40 fish, +10 market) and +60 to +80 wood.
Free ship: Use to find 5 good fishing spots, then go raid opponent fishing. You get fast sea exploration and might force opponent to go 1/0/1/1.
2 free merchants: if you have 2 rare resources near base, set up merchants on both. If only 1, send other merchant to opponents direction and flop down on a nice rare like citrus or cotton.
Cheaper Commerce: Makes a 0/1/2/1 start conceivable on New World or Colonial Powers or Indies. You get great 2nd city placement and can often harass opponent when he tries to get his 3rd overseas city down.
AND THE BIG BONUS: +5 income for every 100 resources banked.
1st off: Lets you match tougher AI in resources.
2nd: Allows you to stockpile wealth in Ancient, spam scholars Classical, and not force you so sell metal.
3rd: Allows you to SPAM slingers in medieval while you raid with Heavy Cavalry until then, then go Gunpowder age, upgrade and empower yourself with Light Infantry and Heavy Cavalry + siege.
4th: Does not force you to use resources right away. You have an advantage in early game where the production rate is a barrier.
5th: In a long game, lets you get +10000 all resources (except knowledge), kill all vilies, spam 200 unit army an put them down!
6th: Lets you boom faster than all civilizations (even Nubians) if you raid”.
Unfortunately, the Dutch do not have offensive capabilities (C: Master Silver). It seems to me that, like nations which can provide you with lots of benefits but sophisticated ones, it works if you are not under permanent harassment from your foe (C: Tryhard) and that is the point for Master Silver. Empiremaster admits that he considers them on his top list only on a water map.
- NUBIANS: considered an excellent nation, but not the most preferred. if you are keen on dealing with market trends, the Nubians get +20/-20 bonuses on market prices and can trade and have caravans (1 bonus caravan) from the very beginning of the game. You can make a hell of business with them.
- ROMANS: Empiremaster likes their early wealth and military capacity. He puts them in his top three.
- CHINESE: Empiremaster puts them in his top nations: fast start, good medieval attack, unrushable.
- SPANISH: the Unique Spanish Gunpowder/Enlightenment infantry (the Tercios) kill cavalry like snapping fingers, nearly in single shots. They are even described as such in the Help display. But once you know that, you can counter it using infantry and they lose their advantage (C: Tryhard). Empiremaster is not impressed by the Spanish either.
- BRITISH: the long range archers of the British are a nightmare to fight. My heavier losses have always been when I fight the British and often, they can eradicate my flanking attack (C: Tryhard). Their biggest drawback is not to have any bonus at the start of the game. Players do not appreciate them overall.
- MONGOLS: they rely much on raids as a tactic and do not suffer attrition while raiding, but this can be avoided rather easily and early (C: Master Silver)
- MAYA: : if I have to face them, I know I have won (C: Tryhard). Empiremaster says the same. Bottom of the list.
- AZTECS: very slow and painful start (C: Empiremaster). For this reason, bottom of the list (C: Tryhard)
- GERMANS: I think that Empiremaster’s comment “can do pretty much anything well, nothing great” is a good description of the Germans. The 50% bonus at building completion is helpful for a start. But their Heavy Infantry is too slow; strong or not, time for them to be active in battle, they are decimated by archers. The fact that they get early the lumber mill and the granary is really good. Master Silver puts them in the top of his list.
- PERSIANS / INDIANS: a combination of Heavy Infantry, elephants and Monarchy acts like a walking tank, check out the Persian or the Indians (C: Master Silver). Elephants are described as weak against scattered troops, because they are slow to move from a unit to another and take projectile damage meanwhile. Elephants are powerful but have to be treated wisely, or you will waste these expensive units (C: Tryhard, Empiremaster). India is good in post medieval, Persia is good Medieval to Gunpowder ages (C: Master Silver). India has almost no defence against a good planned rush from Ancient to Medieval (C: Master Silver). A tremendous advantage of the Indians is that the cost of the building does not increase, you can have early lots of towers.
- KOREANS: I tried to play the Korean at Medieval age where they have a superior artillery, though described as slow moving. Indeed, they revealed so slow that their superior abilities were cancelled by their slow moves. The Koreans never impressed me, whether with or against me. There is nonetheless something fantastic with the Korean, the ability of their citizens to repair buildings under fire without standing damage from the catapults (C: Tryhard).
- LAKOTA: this native American tribe, on top of other interesting bonuses, does not need farmers. Citizens and cavalry produce the food by their very existence. It saves a lot of resources and gives a margin to increase the size of your army. But, to Master Silver and some others, the food gathering is too slow, what generates a handicap at an early stage of the game and delays you compared to the other nations. They even have to rely on fetching ruins with cavalry (C: War).
- AMERICANS: you have to know they have been reformatted for Throne and Patriots, and downgraded so much that players do not appreciate them much anymore (C: Empiremaster) . Their power to get one wonder constructed at once is advantageous: you need only one worker for some seconds and the enemy has no time to react.
CAMPAIGN KNOWLEDGE, GENERALITIES
Finishing a campaign or game much faster than the time allows you does never give you any advantage of any kind (Q: Tryhard, A: Master Silver).
Did you check that you have a “overrun” option in a Campaign? When you attack a territory (which is not a capital) with two more armies than the enemy has, you win it without fighting and even you do it in the same round. Base your strategy for the round and the next on this. Do not forget that the enemy may have a neighbouring allied army, what could spoil your calculation, check the Diplomatic table, bottom left (C: Tryhard).
The other nations are more stupid in diplomacy than you would expect (indeed much more). You can make wonderful deals fooling one after the other, combining exchanges with overrun options (C: Tryhard).
You keep two armies on a continent you possess wholly (say South America or Africa). Exchange one province bordering your two armies with any nation you do not fear. Then attack this province. You get the province back and get the tribute bonus for the whole continent. You can do this indefinitely. I exchanged a province both in South America and Africa every round during five successive rounds and got this way 120 tribute bonus every round. I even did it twice in one round in South America (C: Tryhard).
Wonders you possess will activate only when you have discovered the level 4 of blue Civic Science. Check how critical the wonders you possess may be for your game, like the French having Versailles since the beginning in the Napoleon CtW campaign. In the World CtW campaign, check out the Southern Asia and Pampas provinces that give you the Wonder card and play the Overrun option as said before, you can this way regain the “Wonder building” bonus card. I also got the “Commander transport”, “Partisans” and “Sabotage” cards several times this way. Even nations at war with you will deal with you (C: Tryhard).
It is appropriate to save a campaign battle under a specific name seconds before it ends. You could have surprises on the World map, like being attacked immediately. You can then decide to defend instead of bribing the opponent and be routed. The game does not allow you to save before deciding and this is a drawback. In real times you would always have some hours to decide (C: Tryhard).
After a while in a campaign, you have gained so many bonuses that you win easily what seemed at first impossible targets. You can even end up thinking erroneously that campaigns are made too easy. It is worth playing only some games of the campaign, changing the tribe, changing the targets (C: Tryhard).
If you start a campaign with an ally, take care he may be your weak point. I started a piece of cake invasion of France, against the French and the British. Instead, I struggled to protect my Spanish ally who was losing city after city. Also, I noticed that my ally tends to gather his armies in irrelevant places, but sometimes I manage to make his armies move where I want them, by moving mine: he understands I am to attack something and he wants to join (C: Tryhard).
Upgrading your territory strength to 2 is useful, to get the tower. To upgrade it to 3 is costly (30 wealth) and not so much useful, especially when you have an army in this territory.
CAMPAIGN KNOWLEDGE, SPECIFICS
ALEXANDER
In the Alexander Campaign scenario, if ever you attack Southern Arabia (what would now be Yemen and Oman), gain any way as allies the Yellow tribe if they survive the start and before they engage into another alliance. They have elephants, fast moving units as troop replacement rate and can reveal unbeatable (C: Tryhard). Master Silver supports this type of alliance with elephant dealers.
In the Alexander Campaign, when you eventually reach India, most of your troops will desert you. Garrisoning them seemed to work but they eventually did not obey any order and I restarted the game by fear of a bug (like you cannot use them but they remain accounted for). This implies that you should use the General bonus cards before this last mission (C: Tryhard).
NAPOLEON
In the Napoleon Campaign, invading Malta is not so difficult, to do it in 15 minutes is. Do not land early, the defender would send so many troops that you cannot cope. Move along the north of the island, eradicate the north-west towers, forts, stables on your way. All your troops to stay away offshore. The tricky point is to use your bomb ketches without losing them, destroyed by the defending canons. Quite easy: move a sloop, a fast boat, near the shore. When the canons have started targeting it, target the canons with your ketches while you play the sloop up and down along the coast. The towers cannot touch you anyway and the canons will miss the sloop most of the time. When you have cleared the north west, everybody to move to the other side at a go. Then attack the surroundings of the city. It is worth knowing that you do not have to hold the city, you just have to take it to win. Do not lose your bomb ketches or you will not make it (C: Tryhard).
WORLD
The SUPPLY TRAIN 5 minutes mission rewards you with a card for performance. For every wagon supply you destroy, you will be granted 10 of every resource. You destroy 10 wagons, you will get a card offering you 100 food, timber, metal, wealth and knowledge. You have to have one soldier remaining: you simply send at the beginning of the game each of your scouts to a different corner of the map. If they are spotted, they move so fast so that you make them run away and be reasonably confident that one at least will remain. Do the same with the general once all your soldiers have been killed, he has many Hit Points and is hard to kill (C: Tryhard).
Two scenarios called AMBUSH or SURPRISE ATTACK tell you to hold your capital during 15 minutes. At Medieval age or later, you need spies because the late attacks are massive and the siege units have a range and strength high enough to annihilate towers fast. I would recommend to build a second city soon, as close as you can from your main city, because you need the wealth income from the caravan. Build the second city very close to a mountain, so that if the enemy attacks, he targets the city but not the miners that you desperately need active. For spies, you need a fort. Build the fort between the two cities, along the road, so that it covers the caravan. Do not bother to bribe the first men to come, wait until you have 4-5 spies, then bribe the whole group attacking (C: Tryhard).
At Classical age, you are not allowed spies, but this is easy meat. Siege units and Heavy infantry are of little or no use. Multiple towers touching your cities, covering each other with archers inside, as archers inside the city, ensure you eradicate anybody closely, especially Heavy Infantry, Light and Heavy Cavalry. This is devastating fire. A bunch of javeliners stays inside the towers where they heal, they pop out all together to target a previously undetected catapult not far away, with some extra archers who distract the attention of enemy archers, javeliners or Ranged Cavalry. The javeliners are not so fast destroying the catapult, but when they are already 6-7 they do the job without losing enough to die, because the towers take care of the other foes. A javeliner badly hurt jumps back into the closest tower. Meanwhile you have the Despot, standing by idle he ensures some plunder, makes decoys and increases armour. On top of that, you have a bunch a Light Cavalry at your territory borders moving up and down, tracking isolated catapults and wagon supplies or flanking the attacks. This is one of the strategies defended by Empiremaster and works excellently (C: Tryhard).
COLD WAR
In the CtW Cold War campaign, on a spying mission you will be told to infiltrate enemy cities. You have to plant an informer into each of the 3 cities. One is guarded since the beginning of the game and difficult to approach. You may have to snipe the watchman very early, or you will never make it after (C: Tryhard).
BONUS CARDS
The red cards, the ones you should play on territories, are really worth their money, when targeting a difficult province. Example: the card “reduce the enemy territory strength by two points” transforms an inaccessible capital into a casual military operation (Q: Tryhard, Irishfast and Master Silver agree). An idea? Try to invade England in the Napoleon CtW campaign when it has a strength of 8, and compare when it has become 6 (it automatically does if you pay the tribute asked for (C: Tryhard).
Is there a way to use your cards accurately (Q: Tryhard)? Think tactical, says Master Silver. A key factor is your honesty towards the game (C: Tryhard). You give yourself lots of cards for a difficult target and realize in a short while it will be a walkover. Would you reload and keep your cards? Or, on the opposite, come back and grant yourself everything you have for a surprisingly harsh mission?
A very interesting card is the Eureka card, that gives you one of every technologies. You have minor “Commerce Eureka” card or others that give you one technology only (Q: Tryhard, A: Tryhard and Master Silver). These cards top up other bonuses, like if you choose a nation power that gives you one technology, the “Eureka” card will add one more.
When you want to attack a capital, check out the cards the enemy has and buy them. Do not bother about their price, or giving out territories or colonies. You will get them back with the victory. If you do not buy his cards, in the first place he will use them against you, and they are lost for you (C: Tryhard).
I realized that the players are not reluctant on selling their own cards for cheap prices. Indeed, nations are greedy. Even when they have 1200 tribute they do not know how to spend, they are happy to sell anything (C: Tryhard).
[This message has been edited by Tryhard (edited 03-10-2006 @ 11:18 AM).]