To make it easier, I'm categorizing the tips into 10 different sections:
1. Assuming you're doing a Kamikaze or Delayed Power Rush, pull one HI off the City you are attacking and have it attack any barracks or towers that may be being bult nearby to slow it's build production by the time you take the City down. 2. If you Sack the enemy Capital with a rush and you believe you can hold onto it, immediately go Classical Age and bring in LC and/or HC to support your HI from enemy FA. 1. Start building your Granaries, Lumbermills, and Smelters when you're capped at +150 and planning to cap at +200. Don't research any upgrades to help your economic production until you're capped at +200 and planning to go higher (unless you're fishing, then research your Food production upgrade). 2. Finding and setting up any Merchants for Papyrus, Silk, Dye, Bears, Silver, Diamonds, Sugar, and Relics Rare Resources will help speed and boost your booming ability. 1. Raid with the Despot Patriot, 2 HC, 2 HA, and 1 LC (optional). This will give you bonuses from killing Citizens. If LC comes after your HA, turn on Fast March and move away while your HC move in to (the LC won't even touch your HA!). 2. Finding and setting up any Merchants for Furs, Horses, and Silver Rare Resources will help speed and boost up your Fast Classical HC/HA Raiding. 3. You can block the enemy usage of Rare Resources nearly completly if you let a group of 2-5 HC roam the Rare Resources in his terretory from time-to-time. Towers don't dish out that much damage against HC, so you can kill the Merchant while still not losing a single HC. 4. The Ambush ability with your General can make a HA raid very successful. Have your Despot General Ambush 4 HA on NO ATTACK stance. Place them close to an enemy City with a lot of Citizens. and then set the HA on RAID stance, attacking individual Citizens (don't waste precious shots focus firing on one Citizen). They will kill many Citizens before they garrison inside the TC. 5. It is always good to raid while a major battle is being fought. Most players will focus only on the battle, and not realize they are being raided at the same time. Not only that, you are hurting your enemy's economy at a critical time. 6. A great place to raid in mid-game are caravan routes in-between different Player's Cities in Team Games. They are difficult to defend against. 1. When preparing for an assault, use a Scout or a Spy to find what your enemy is defending with so you can make a decision to attack elsewhere, or keep building up your army. 2. Your army will be better off with a General than without. 3. Never forget to bring a few Scouts with your army. An enemy with Spies can bring disaster to your assault if you're not ready to counter them. 4. Finding and setting up any Merchants for Salt, Horses, Copper, and Sulphur Rare Resources will help speed and boost your assaults. 1. When you are being rushed, be sure to garrison at least 2 Citizens to TC fire on troops with weak armor (LI and FA) and not on HI. The rest of your Citizens can attack LI and FA hand-to-hand, while you use your FA to take down the HI. 2. Miltia is a definite upgrade to have, especially against an early attack. Miltia are good against all units except HI and HC (it will take a couple to take down HC). 3. Using Spies to bribe, and turning Citizens into Militia, Minutemen, and/or Partisans will help defend Cities in critical situations. 4. Retreat your forces in a losing battle. Garrison them in your Cities, Towers, and/or Forts. Make multiple Barracks and Stables to produce troops quicker, and leave them garrisoned inside after being made. When you're ready to counter-attack the invading assault army, take your units out and charge. 5. When you're playing Defensive and Booming, don't bother building Siege units. Instead, focus on making only Military units. You should have a larger army than your enemy who will be using resources to make Siege Units. After fighting off an Assault, garrison your injured units and continue booming. 6. Place Towers and Forts behind Cities to stall the enemy from taking the City until reinforcements arrive. Be sure to make the Cities into Large Cities by having 5 buildings in the Economic Radius. Having a Temple and Lumbermill upgrades for Building Hit Points will further stall the enemy from taking down your City. 7. When the enemy is on the way to take your Capital and you know you can't stop the army yet, start razing your buildings and Senate. If you have siege, select the siege and make it "Bombard Ground" on the Senate. It will raze your own Senate quite fast (if you raze it normally, it takes about 15x - 17x longer). You can rebuild it in some other City, thus making it your Capital. Dont forget to move out your Citizens and Scholars to relocate and rebuild your economy elsewhere. 8. When you're in Enlightenment and the enemy is raiding you, get the Minuteman upgrade. They are great for raid defense. 1. Always have a mix of military units. Suppose it's Gunpowder Age, it's better to have 10 LI and 5 HC than just 15 LI. Suppose it's Enlightenment Age, it's better to have 10 LI, 5 HC, and 5 HI than just 10 LI and 10 HC... that is if you can micro your units correctly and effectively. 2. When using a bunch of Spies for multiple bribing hold down shift and then right-click on each of the enemy units to give the bribe orders, and then right-click behind your army. The Spies will automatically bribe the chosen enemy units, and then retreat safely behind your army. 3. Try to keep your army from being idle. Raid with them to keep the enemy occupied. Pull your injured ones back to garrison and heal. When you're ready to mount an assault, bring your forces back together and attack. 4. The Despotism Delayed MIL saves you resources for a Fast Classical HC/HA Raid or Classical Delayed Power Rush (a Delayed Power Rush starts in Ancient Age, a Classical Delayed Power Rush starts in Classical Age). Basically, you go to Classical, build the Senate, research Despotism, and then Research your MIL 1 and/or MIL 2 and/or MIL 3. You'll save quite a lot of resources. You may need to research MIL 1 in case you get rushed, so don't be stubborn on saving a few resources by losing to a rush. =p 5. Having a Flamethrower attacking an enemy University is a good way to slow down their Knowledge production temporarily. 6. On fishing maps, beware of enemy Submarines when Industrial Age hits. They take down fishing boats very quickly. To counter them, have a few Light Ships and Submarines of your own. 7. Fighter Aircraft make for great Citizen and Caravan raiders. Using them in conjuntion with Bombers to take down Universities and Scholars can severely hurt your enemy. 1. For the Russians, build your Senate at your 3rd City (or your City closest to the enemy). If the enemy sacks your Capital, you get the +500 Capital Sack Bonus. If not, it's a great place to mount an offensive towards their 2nd City and Capital if they decide to walk all the way around to take any of your Cities that are located behind it. 2. Against Aztecs, think about retreating your injured units before they get 15 to 75 Plunder for killing them. 1. At the start know what ruins you want to have (Ruin Manipulation). For example, the Russian Border Swallow strategy, you want 1 Ruin for Timber, and the rest for Food. 2. Study particular maps and find where most of the Ruins are typically placed. For instance, there is always a Ruin at a corner, a few around your starting borders, and along most coastlines. 3. Select your Scout on your preferred route, usually around your borders to find Ruins and finding a nice spot to place your 2nd city. 4. Don't use the Auto-Explore function with Scouts, they will go places you've already scouted, thus reducing your efficiency. 5. Use the free General from the Senate to scout for Ruins until you plan to use it to Raid, Attack, or Defend. It has a nice Line-of-Sight, and it's better than leaving it idle. 6. If you're the Aztecs, British, and Iroquios, you can build an early Barracks to get a free Military unit to help scout for Ruins. 1. Get the Rare Resources that you need most, first. For example, don't get Copper (+20 Metal, and Dock and Factory units receive +20% more hit points) when you're still in Ancient Age when you can get Amber (+10 Wealth, +10 Timber, and Market sell/buy prices +10/-10. You can't even resource Metal in Ancient Age! 2. If you plan on getting SCI 2 in Ancient Age and there's Papyrus (+10 Knowledge, +10 Timber, and Cost of Science research reduced by 25%), be sure to put a Merchant there before you do the SCI 2 research (unless the Papyrus is very far). The same goes for Silk for COM 2, Dye for CIV 2, Bears for MIL 1, and Silver for Age Research. 3. Certain Rare Resources may change your strategy. For instance, if you quickly find Furs, Horses, and Silver, you may want to go for a Fast Classical HA/HC raid. 4. Get the taxation upgrades at your Temple, it increases your Rare Resource's income (especially if you are the Nubians!). They will also increase your income for Wealth from Fish. 5. In Gunpowder Age, a new Rare Resource may appear: 6. In Enlightenment Age, a new Rare Resource may appear: 7. In Industrial Age, 4 new Rare Resources might appear: 1. Get the World Government End Tech (for instantenaous victory). Get your army en route to to the enemy Capital. Hit the Capital with Bombers, Missiles, and/or Nukes, then capture it for the instant win. Remember, you don't have to be an expert to give expert advice. [This message has been edited by El_Capitan_ (edited 05-24-2004 @ 06:43 PM).]
-
-
-
-
-
-
So, let's see what we can come up with! I'll update and put good ones on this list. I'll add in my own tips later.