Pete's Rise of Nations Blog

Blog cleanup...

2006-04-06T23:08:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a sad day for me, at least when it came to cleaning up my blog here.

My recorded games vanished, and several good sites have gone bye-bye too, and so I have removed the links. I think my friend EMELT has some of the recorded games around still, so I will likely have my recorded games back soonish.

It looks like El_Capitan is dormant, as is Out4Blood. *sigh*

But I guess you lose track of people and places when you leave the community for a year and some months. I'm going to try and get back into the scene...

Me and Rise of Nations

2006-03-31T09:22:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a good long run, even though I haven't posted here in a while.

I never did get too far into the player versus player aspect of Rise of Nations, but in the relatively few games I played, I enjoyed myself and learned a lot about the game you can't learn from playing the computer AI.

I can single-handedly take on four toughest AI now, and win about 80% of the time on most maps. I've been pondering giving myself handicaps, but that's for the future.

I can be proud of my Dutch strategy that I wrote, I'll be touching it up in the near future too, I'll keep you all posted. Heh, those of you who still read this anyways. I'll also have to update all the links, make sure to remove the dead ones and maybe add a few more relevant ones.

That said, I'm looking forward to Rise of Legends. ^.^

For Empire Earth II, and Age of Empires 3, just didn't pass muster with me. I've been entertaining myself with Galactic Civilizations 2, and I had a brief fling with Star Wars: Empire at War. But it's not the same... I can't wait for Rise of Legends.

And so, in the very near future, look for my Rise of Legends blog.

I live...!

2005-12-02T11:22:00.000-05:00

More soon!

My first MoR article

2005-01-04T22:29:00.000-05:00

W00t! So, here I am, the greenest writer on MoR. ;)

My article, Preview of the Premiere League, details my predictions for the top league in MoR, who'll come out on top and who'll provide the entertainment.

I will try to keep my writing separate, with this blog being my personal experiences in RoN, and my writings on MoR more geared towards the League and all it's facets.

I hope you fine folks who read my blog continue to do so, as well as visiting the MoR site to check it out.

Patch 2 Beta seems to have caught on, I've not heard any of the noise that I did after the Patch 1 went in. Either everyone ditched their hacked, no-cd copies of RoN and T&P, or Patch 2 works. :P You be the judge. Either way, it works well enough that I see many more games that say "Patched" than those that declare "no patch". After the start of MoR, and if a few upcoming tournaments are successful, then I think we can declare Patch 2 a success, and perhaps BHG is paying attention to what we, the gaming community that plays RoN, are saying.

Long live Rise of Nations!

Full Patch 2 Beta details

2005-01-03T22:31:00.000-05:00

Ok, I've updated my Dutch strategy a little, no heavy changes to the Dutch in the Patch 2, except that their commerce is only 10% cheaper, and they only receive one free ship when a dock completes. This slows the Dutch down a bit, but with cheaper commerce, their free resources, and free ships, they are a good middle-late game nation and on water maps they can hold their own.

The Patch 2 Beta apparently fixes OoS problems, I've played a few 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 games over Gamespy, and no OoS's to report.

Full nerf/buff info below.

Balance Changes:

Americans

free resources for infantry units now +2 instead of +3
removed free science technology at game start
reduced free bombers at airbases from +2 to +1

British

no longer get a free fishing boat when they build a dock

Dutch

receive one free light ship with each new Dock built instead of two
commerce research now 10% cheaper instead of 25% cheaper

French

siege is now 15% cheaper instead of 25%
siege production speed lowered to 25% faster and move speed bonus lowered
reduced bonus woodcutter slot to +1 instead of +2
reduced Cavalier hitpoints

Greeks

Libraries and Universities are now 66% cheaper

Iroquois

reduced speed and LOS of their unique scout units
reduced hitpoint bonus for their Heavy Infantry to +5%
reduced the move speed bonus for their unique infantry

Lakota

doubled the free resources generated by their unique Horse Archer line

Maya

increased their timber discount on buildings to 25% from 20%
increased building hitpoint bonus to 25% from 20%

Nubians

unique archers now do less damage to other archer units
merchant, caravan, and market cost discount reduced to 10% from 50% cheaper

Persians

slightly reduced the cost of their unique Heavy Infantry

Romans

wealth bonus per city now +10 instead of +15

Despotism

now 15% cheaper units and military research instead of 25%

CEO Patriot

now gives +2 range bonus instead of +4 to friendly units

I am also giving my thoughts to a ladder system, something to run 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and even 4v4 games. I like what MoR is doing, of course, but I think this would be a good idea: create a ladder where your opponents *and* partners are randomly chosen. You could get a good partner(s) or a bad partner(s), and good or bad opponents.

Most clans are exclusive clubs, not necessarily elitism, but usually invite only. Getting into a clan is not always easy. The random system allows for good players to be grouped with bad players (not necessarily bad players, just ones who aren't as good, or perhaps they are new to PvP, or are out of practice), allowing the less experienced players to gain some experience by playing with good ones, and allowing the good players to teach the less experienced ones their ways. Heh, hope that's not too confusing.

Anyways, I am working it out, and seeing what resources are available. I'll keep ya in the loop.

MoR: The Countdown begins...

2005-01-03T21:03:00.000-05:00

The Masters League (MoR) is now less than a week away from starting.

The matches begin on the weekend of January 8th and 9th. Check out the standings and the schedule. The league site is here and the forums here

I volunteered to help out the staff at MoR, and I learned just a while ago that I am invited to write for them. :) w00t! So look for my stuff at their site, and as always, here.

Woohoo!

New Years Eve and RoN

2004-12-31T16:26:00.000-05:00

It's December 31st. New Years Eve. And so I wish you a happy new year. May your roads be sunny and straight.

Over the next day or two I am going to test out the Patch 2 Beta, and see if my Dutch strategy needs revising. Likely it will, since they've nerfed their early game power a little.

I am also going to write one for the Americans, post-Patch 2. They get a good nerfing, and I suspected they would get one eventually.

If the Patch 2 proves to mostly eliminate the OoS problems, and the nerfs in it are actually decent, then I think I shall undertake to create a tournament, or even a league ladder, in the new year. I'll likely need some help, so if there are any out there who'd like to help me give this a whirl, please email me.

Lastly, for those having problems connecting to Patch 2 Beta games, but no problems hosting one, please see my post below, as well as El_Capitan's post on Out4Blood's Rise of Nations Strategy blog. This HaloScan comments thread is also helpful.

Keep on RoN-ing in the Free World!

Patch 2 Beta part 2

2004-12-30T06:15:00.000-05:00

Hah, looks like I solved a problem for those playing with Patch 2 Beta.

If you are having trouble connecting to Patch 2 Beta games, but have no trouble hosting them, then your firewall is likely getting in the way. If you are using Windows XP, with Service Pack 2, you likely have the security center running, with the windows firewall. If you disable the security center, and instead run Zone Alarm, Mcafee, Norton, or another reputable Firewall program, you should find that you are able to connect to Patch 2 Beta games.

If it's not that, you might be behind a firewall router, or running some other software that could be interfering with the game. In past experiences, SETI@Home has interferred with multi-player games, notibly Star Wars Battlefront. Sometimes USB devices have been known to interfere, usually they are misconfigured, or just need to be unplugged and plugged back in. If you're running a USB mouse, try using a PS2 one and see if that solves your problem.

Basically, it comes down to... &$#@&%$ windows! :P

Blogging for Help

2004-12-29T20:05:00.000-05:00

Ok folks, Tsunami Help is a Blogger-based blog that is dedicated to directing people to the right people and places in order to ensure that donations are going to the right direction. There is also the latest news on the tradegy.

You can find the blog here.

Well duh...!

2004-12-29T18:48:00.000-05:00

Hehe, I did read El_Capitan's article on the Patch 2 Beta, but I didn't see the link to the download information page here. Doh!! At least El_Cap was nice enough to point it out to me. :P

Since it's still beta, I'll be following the instructions and creating a copy of my RoN directory so that I can still play with the Patch 1 peeps. :)

I think I'll give it a whirl tonight.

Patch 2 Beta

2004-12-28T11:24:00.000-05:00

Well, El_Capitan is reporting, on Out4Blood's RoN Strategy site, that the Patch 2 Beta is stable, though he hasn't played many games with it yet.

Aside from my obvious question (where the fuck do I find the beta patch?), I think this is a step in the right direction. It remains to be seen, though, whether the patch will be stable with mass exposure over the internet. Will we be seeing the removal of the protest splash screens found on many clan websites? Or will we see more? :P

El_Capitan also reports on the balance part of the patch as well, including confessing that the Dutch become decent contenders. w00t!

Check it out folks...

And... gimme the freakin' patch already!

Also, AU's main site remains defaced by a web worm. I asked a few AU members in the RoN lobby and they aren't sure what's up, other than the site is down. Bleh... :(

Anarchy Unleashed: DEFACED!

2004-12-26T21:48:00.000-05:00

Just tried checking out Anarchy Unleashed's website, and found out it has been hacked and defaced!

Anyone know what's up?

Visiting in Edmonton

2004-12-23T13:23:00.000-05:00

This week finds me leaving on a jet plane, and landing in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I'm visiting family on a well-earned vacation. So, unfortunately for me, no Rise of Nations.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

More on MoR: Masters League

2004-12-18T11:15:00.000-05:00

Ahem, it looks like that preliminary league setup was in error. Talk about getting our hopes up. ;)

UnTouchables is situated in the 2nd Division in the MoR Ladder for the 2005 season. You can see the standings here. The schedule is not yet set, but the 2005 season is to start January 7th, 2005.

Patch #2 is currently in testing, and the list of nerfs/buffs can be found here.

Lets hope they can work out the OoS problems, or at least smooth some of them out.

The UnTouchables...

2004-12-12T18:50:00.000-05:00

So, my mates and I have managed to get into the Premier League of the FSF's Masters League RoN ladder.

We're being called the UnKnowables, though I am sure they are joking. :P

The UnTouchables came about back in the early 1990s, when four of us went to Carleton University in Ottawa to play some NetMech (gosh this dates us, eh?). We were only defeated once that night, and so we called ourselves the UnTouchables ever since. :P

We're a casual clan, and we play many different multi-player games, from first person shooters like Jedi Outcast, Star Wars Battlefront, Counter Strike and Battlefield Vietnam., to real time strategy games like Rise of Nations, StarCraft and WarCraft 3. A few of us play the MMORPGs, with Eve Online and World of WarCraft being the current choices. When Guild Wars comes out of Beta, there will likely be a few more of us playing.

Our current roster stands at 4, myself (playing as Tempest, Gasboy and n00b), Vapor, EMELT and NetWilk (occasionally playing as Vixen). A few honourary members are Bad Doggie (first person shooters mostly), Ephemeral (all but the MMORPGs), SexKitten (also known as neo.phyte) and JB (usually only Rise of Nations).

So, I guess I'll be setting up a website at some point in the future, one for the clan, and one called UT_Productions, where we'll have saved games as well as maps we've (namely me) created for the various games.

Hopefully we won't remain too unknowable. ;)

Master of Ron League

2004-12-07T19:45:00.000-05:00

Well, whether they know it or not, I've signed myself and a few friends up to play in FSF's Masters of Ron league.

We'll be playing under the name UnTouchables. Four of us started together in multiplayer games oh so long ago in "NetMech", a Battletech video game, sometime in the early 1990s. We were basically undefeated, and dubbed ourselves UnTouchables. How this will hold up to the other teams in the league remains to be seen. Heheh, pride goeth before the fall, as the saying goes.

The UnTouchables website will be up sometime soon, and we'll definitely be having a blog. Even if I gotta twist the other's arms to get them to post... ;)

As a last note, to BHG: I am in solidarity with those who have posted complaints to your website, as well as creating splash pages to their own clan websites about the seemingly half-assed patch released recently. Rise of Nations, and it's expansion, is an awesome game, that was supposed to have been patched properlly, you certainly took your time doing it too. With the popularity of the game, going gold even, I refuse to believe that there are *that* many cracked versions of the game out there. Some on the 'net have posted "proof" that it's the unpatched, cracked version being able to play with the latest patched version that causes the problem. A load of hooey if you ask me. Either you didn't find what was causing the original OOS problems, or you've been dragging your feet these past few patches in finding a way to prevent cracked versions of the game from playing with the legal, patched versions. You need to sit down, think things over, and keep us (the players of your fine product) informed as to what you plan to do about the situation. Else you're joining the hacks who play with the crack in shooting RoN in the head.

Perhaps this rant is posted a tad too late, but I needed to get that out. Reading some of the websites has gotten me mad...

Woohoo, still alive and it's winter!

2004-12-02T20:16:00.000-05:00

Well, all's been quiet here recently, I've not played as much RoN as I'd have liked, but as the holidays loom, my lust for the game increases. Or is that just because work is really, really dull right now? ;)

I have updated my Dutch strat, I've been making an effort to play them as often as I can, so that I can work out the bugs a bit.

My Dutch strat can be found here. If you know of any Dutch strats out there, or if you have a few suggestions yourself, please feel free to post or email me.

Smurfs Cancelled!

2004-11-08T19:47:00.000-05:00

Looks like the Smurf Tournament has been cancelled, as seen in this here. I was looking forward to this tournament, since I've been out of RoN for a while, and looking to get back in.

I think I'll try to get into the next AoI fast tournament.

I've update a few links, including TWC's site. I've added a link to AoI as well.

KRG_Redfish has stated his intention to take over the Smurf Tourney, we'll see what comes of it.

Ah well, back to lobby lurking...

Poll: What's next?

2004-11-07T09:53:00.000-05:00

So, it's poll time, fitting since there have been several elections this year.

I have a few questions for you.

What would you like to see next for Rise of Nations?

Has the patch fixed the major problems, or has something been missed/ignored?

Would you rather another expansion to RoN or T&P, or would you prefer a whole new game (ie. Rise of Nations 2)?

I'm not sure how big a navy factors in your game, but myself I'd like to see some sort of Admiral unit introduced into the game, as well as allowing the Patriot unit to act as an admiral, just as it acts as a general.

As I play vs. the computer a lot, I've found a few of it's intricacies that could be fixed. The computer will always take a land route when possible, it will rarely build a navy unless it is required, on maps like East meets West for example. It does take advantage of fishing spots, but it won't take advantage of using it's navy to attack other fishing spots, oil platforms, or buildings near the coastline (cities, docks, towers, etc.). On a map like Mediterranean, you can build a city near the water, at a corner of the map. Build a tower above it (towards the enemy computer), and place a 4 to 6 ship navy in the water next to the tower. You can stop all of the early age rushes, even with cavalry and siege, that the computer sends your way. Instead of building a navy to counter yours, the computer will use it's siege to try to sink your boats, and even regular army units will stop to shoot at ships.

The computer also has an annoying tendancy to end the world with Armageddon. This stems more from the fact that the nuke counter does not count down until the nuke has finished, that is, when the giant mushroom cloud has disapated. The computer will almost always build the missile shield, as soon as it is built, any computers with nukes left will fire them, usually ending the world with several nuke strikes overkill. Either hard code it or create a script for it, but make it so the computer will NOT nuke once the counter reaches, say, 1 or 2. Leave it to the human players to end it all.

The computer can also be fooled by yoyo tactics, one human player can attract the ire of all the computer opponents by simply attacking the closest computer. When the computer armies begin showing up, the human player can then ask another human player to attack somewhere else. This will usually draw away the computers, and the human players can slowly destroy the computers piecemeal. Basically, better AI is what I am asking for, at least tactics-wise. The computer already does a great job at resource collection and use.

I also think an expanded difficulty level would be good, something tougher than toughest. And increase the number of players allowed, I think 12 is a good number for RTS games. Rise of Nations isn't that harsh on computers, at least, not mine. ;) Four extra players shouldn't cause that much trouble.

And as for the New Game vs. Expansion arguement, it comes down to how much money they want for it, and how much time they are going to spend on it. If they are willing to put lots of effort into revamping the game, make it a stand-alone, new game and I'll be willing to pay regular game price for it. If they are just going to call it an expansion, or they aren't willing to put the necessary development time into it, then don't be charging me full game price for it. It already boils my blood that crappy games can ask for 70 bucks (Canadian, heh, $69.99, but we all know it's 70), don't spoil RoN with a Sims-like number of expansions for 70 bucks each. If Big Huge Games does that, I'm going to go play Empire Earth II. :P

So, that's my say on that, now fill out the comments board just below there. That's it, you know you waaaaannnnnnaaaaa...

Patch Time!

2004-11-06T09:58:00.000-05:00

Ok, the patch for Thrones & Patriots is a reality now, and I shall be updating my T&P at some point today.

Anyone out there already patched, and have you actually noticed any difference?

If you check here, you'll find a description of the changes applied in the patch. Notably:

Fixed bug that caused patriot bonuses to break when switching from military to economic government lines.
Fixed crash with Red Fort when units were garrisoned inside to heal.
Fixed multiplayer lobby bug that caused player stats to be displayed incorrectly.
Fixed a multiplayer out of sync issue.
Fixed bug that gave Russian players capital plunder bonus when their own capital was sacked, as well as the attacking player. Only the attacker gets it now.

The first one on my short list was one that I rarely noticed happening, and since my Patriot is regularily killed in battle, once he "repops" he's running the right bonuses.

The Red Fort bug was a particularly large thorn in my side, since I play a lot of co-op games with friends vs. computer AI. The Red Fort allows one side to defend, while the other side takes it to the computer. Since units were healing all the time in the Red Fort, it was usually only a matter of when the game would crash, not if.

I don't have to mention the horrible lobby for the online multiplayer part of the game, now do I? :P

Fixed a multiplayer out of sync issue???? There's more than ONE?!?! This is something that should have top priority when it comes to patching!

As for the Russians, looks like the "move your capital to the front for free sac bonus" strategy is blown all to hell. I never knew if it was a bug or coded on purpose. Heh.

Oooh, I signed up for the Google Adsense program, and they accepted me. Now I can make the big bucks from all three of you folks reading this page! :P

Off to kill some time with RoN.

Patch, Tourney, and (new) Site...

2004-10-30T11:35:00.000-04:00

Well, first off, Big Huge Games released the patch download information prematurely, and they're sorry "for the false alarm". Talk about getting my hopes up and then dashing them. What I am eagerly looking forward to are the fixes to the out of sync problems, and the Red Fort issue.

Next, there's a tournament posted over at Mr. Fixit Online, the Smurf Tourney, where you sign up using a name no one knows you by. Smurf on over here for all the info, and to sign up.

Lastly, while I was away, a clan site opened up, the Kings Royal Guard. Their site has a forum, tournament info, a clan world map, and links to strats and recorded games.

Slowly easing back into RoN, smurf ya later!

Bleh, is the patch real...?

2004-10-28T07:24:00.000-04:00

I tried downloading the patch last night, but it doesn't seem to work.

The autoupdate says there isn't a patch to download, and the instructions on how to manually patch aren't working. So what gives? Anyone know?

Ableh!

I'm baaaaaack....

2004-10-27T21:04:00.000-04:00

Well, I could have at least explained my absence, but frankly, I was Rise of Nations-out. That, and my home computer had bitten the dust. I was only playing occasionally, and really not at all.

But now I've returned, and I'm going to stay.

Apparently they've patched the original RoN to bring it up to par with T&P, which is too bad, since I'll miss the old Maya. ;)

I'll be downloading the T&P patch which fixes the Red Fort crash bug apparently, something which has plagued quite a few of the games I play with friends over the LAN.

Wonder if anyone missed me...? :P

Random Prizes: Expanded Hostilities

2004-07-28T20:01:00.000-04:00

MFO has posted the winners of the random prizes, 5 t-shirts donated by BHG, 3 gold stars for MFO donated by MFO, and two silver stars donated by PCA_Frogman and PCA_bydesign.

Go check and see if you're a winner!

Discussion is ongoing still for the T&P Ladder at RoN U, here. Staff signups are here.

And the All Aztec Tournament now has 32 players, good enough for 5 rounds of tourny. Now if everyone shows... *keeps fingers crossed*. And a prize has been announced, though I don't know if I want a free heart removal. :P

Tis only a small update tonight...

RoN Universe T&P Ladder

2004-07-27T18:51:00.000-04:00

A few of the fine folks over at RoN Universe are putting together a T&P Ladder, and are calling for input here.

Once things are settled on the ladder format, they are going to look for volunteers to organize and run things, after that, I believe games will commence. So click on over and get involved.

I've glanced down at the little counter at the bottom of my blog here, and found I'm over the 1000 hits mark. Yay me! :P Actually, links from the Strategy Catalogue, the Infidel's game links page, El_Capitan over at Out4Blood's RoN Strategy blog and being linked to the front page of RoN Universe added quite a few to my readers. Thanks everyone for the links, and for reading!

Keep on blogging.... er, Rising!

Tournament Rec'd Games

2004-07-26T17:16:00.000-04:00

_RCF_Morrigu has uploaded 32 games from this past Expanded Hostilities tournament. You can find them here, they all have "EH" before the description. Enjoy, and thanks muchly to _RCF_Morrigu for uploading.

In other news, KRG_Redfish's All Aztec Tournament has 24 people signed up. A number of players from Expanded Hostilities are there, including: FSF_Sicilian; El_Capitan; TWC_Pride; Raider; BC_Tascan; AU_wolf; KRG_Hasufel; KRG_Jups; P2TrioT; and li'l ole me. There are probably a few there who smurfed the EH tourney as well. :P

That's all for now!

Tournament Results!

2004-07-25T18:53:00.000-04:00

Well, today I wasn't able to log on to talk to people or see the results as they happened, but I do know the winner of the tournament.

Congratulations to DaRq_Vorfidus for winning Expanded Hostilities! He walks off with $250 dollars in prize money. Seeded 13th, the swath he cut through the players included Randy (seeded 17th), PCA_Frogman (seeded 1st), AU_bird (seeded 9th) and ROSA_SHIMAKO (seeded 11th).

Tascan, an unseeded player, won second prize, $150 dollars. A surprise in the tournament, on the way to the finals he defeated PCA_yuu_rerise (seeded 8th), One Tough Raider (seeded 12th) and FrustrationLife (seeded 6th). Not a bad giant killer. =)

It was cool to see many of the well known players in the RoN community playing, as well as quite a few up and comers to watch.

Now, if they'd get the rec games uploaded, we can download and dissect them. As mentioned before, RoN Universe, MFO and Anarchy Unlimited have recorded games from the tournament. At RoNU and MFO, look for the ones with July 24th as the date, and July 25th at Anarchy Unlimited.

El_Capitan has interviews with Semi- and Quarter-Finalists at Out4Blood's RoN Blog, perma-link is here. And now, in a late edit of my post, the Finalists are interviewed as well.

I hope more recorded games will go up, since I was told that was a requirement. :P It will be nice to watch how people played. Personally I could use a bit of help with my game, so download it and critique away.

As a parting note, a huge thank you to those running the Tourney, especially Zhou, for the work in keeping the games going. A big shout to BHG for their support (and prizes), and to MFO for organizing the whole shebang (and their prizes). Don't wait too long before hosting another, alright?

As always, keep on rising!

Premature death of Rise of Nations...?

2004-07-25T01:52:00.000-04:00

After talking with a few folks in the lobbies of Room 9 and Room 8, I got the distinct impression that not a few people believe that RoN is pretty much finished, that Big Huge Games is going to move on to something else. The lack of patches or updates stands as silent testimony to this possibility.

StarCraft is still one of the most popular games being played, often with more people concurrently online than the entire population of any of the top ten MMORPGs. And StarCraft is several years old, and many people probably cut their teeth on it in the RTS genre. But, Blizzard has shown much more support for their games (Diablo, WarCraft, StarCraft) than it seems BHG does to RoN.

While I personally don't believe that RoN is going anywhere soon, there are a few things that concern me. There were 176 people who signed up for Extended Hostilities, yet many did not show up for their matches. I had three byes, before playing my one game... Are people quitting the game? Or was the fact that signups started one month before the tournament took place?

And, there's a large, glaring bug in RoN:T&P that has not been addressed yet, as far as I can tell, that of the Red Fort causing Out of Sync errors.

I'm going to pay much more attention to the news coming out of BHG, to see if I can sniff out what the current direction RoN is taking, whether it's done and they are looking for a new game, or maybe if we'll see something in the next six months or so...

Keep on Rising!

All Aztec Tournament

2004-07-24T18:07:00.000-04:00

KRG_Redfish has posted details of an All Aztec Tournament. Basically, everyone takes Aztec in 1v1 games, in a morning/day/evening/night of killing and sacrifice.

Sounds like fun...

Count me in!

Tournament Rec Games

2004-07-24T17:16:00.000-04:00

Well, there are recorded games being posted up all over. First up, is RoN Universe Rec Games. Generally you are looking for the date of July 24th, 2004. Then there is MFO's Rec Games. Again, look for today's date. Nothing so far is uploaded to RoN Planet or RoN Heaven. Anarchy Unlimited has one game here. You'll need a free registration for AU though. It's worth it, AU_bird vs ROSA_Gigantea. Check out Out4Blood's blog for a few more links to rec game downloads.

Enjoy...!

Battle Reports: Round 4

2004-07-24T16:47:00.000-04:00

Well, to say the least, I got my ass kicked.

TinTin1225 mounted a nice cavalry charge in the late game, captured my second city, and then moved on to the capital. He probably would have won a Territory Victory as well.

Back to the minors to practise... :P

TinTin1225 goes on to fight HeaveNs_ReQuieM. El_Capitan was also fighting onward, in bracket 3, facing off against RomanGladius, aka AU_sims. TWC_ShaDowZ is facing off against AU_wolf, which should be a fantastic game, in Bracket two, with FrustrationLife getting a bye. Bracket 1 has PCA_Frogman into the fifth round, as well as _Lex_JoRt_.

So that's the round up for now. I'll post some saved recs at RoNU, since MFO doesn't seem to be working.

Battle Reports: EMELT's done...

2004-07-24T16:12:00.000-04:00

... stick a fork in him.

He played a good game against Raider, but Raider won by Territory Victory.

In round four I'll be playing either dokkai or Tintin.

Battle Reports: Round 3

2004-07-24T15:49:00.000-04:00

Well, D-Dainius and deceptor were both no shows, and so I get another bye into the fourth round.

EMELT is currently in a life and death struggle against One Tough Raider. I've my fingers crossed for EMELT, he's getting the beats currently.

More as the tournament goes on.

Battle Reports: Round 1 and 2

2004-07-24T14:42:00.000-04:00

Well, called me bored. :(

My first round opponent did not show, Piano Man. So that earned me a bye. I felt a little relieved. But my second round opponent was also absent, Gigi_, ranked #4. So, here I am in the third round, untested!

EMELT defeated his opponent, Clarkitus, in a fairly nice game. EMELT was the Maya, and Clarkitus played the Americans. To his credit, Clarkitus did a fast build, with an instant TCA. But, in the end, EMELT was victorious.

Woo, waiting for round 3.

Nations I'll prolly play...

2004-07-24T10:41:00.000-04:00

So, in today's tourney, I've a list of nations that I'll play.

Americans
Russians
British
Spanish
German
French
Dutch
Maya
Aztecs
Romans
Turks
Egyptians

I took out the Nubians and Persians, I've not had a lot of practise with them, but I have played the Aztecs and Romans quite a bit recently. Both the Aztecs and Romans are good for both defensive and offensive strats early on. I took out the Lakota, they are nice in that you don't need to have farms, so that's about 8 to 12 less citizens I have just farming. Though they can be difficult if there isn't any fishing. I've replaced them with the Turks. So, let's see how I do, neh?

Game Day!

2004-07-24T10:07:00.000-04:00

Well, the tournament day is finally here. They have the brackets up: Bracket 1, Bracket 2, Bracket 3 and Bracket 4. You may have to login to MFO to see the brackets though.

It looks like a decent turnout, when the signups closed, there were 176 players signed up.

I'm in bracket 4, my first game is against Piano Man. Things do not look well for the winner of the game, as the next one in line, with a bye, is Gigi_, who is seeded 4th. Oh goody! :P

My friend EMELT receive a bye as well, getting into the second round to face Clarkitus. G'luck EMELT! =)

The cream of the crop are here as well, the 30 seeded players read like a who's who of RoN, with PCA_Frogman, TWC_ShaDowZ, El_Capitan, Gigi_, AU_niDe, AU_wolf, AU_DreaDKniGhT and TWC_PridE all there. Good luck to everyone in the tourney.

Looks like a fun day, and a long one for some.

In a quandry...

2004-07-20T21:17:00.000-04:00

Well, only about 7 days left until the tournament. Woo!

But, I am sorta stuck... I want to add in the Aztecs and the Romans to my list of planned races (assuming I make it past round 1), but I don't want to make the list too long. So, which two should I drop in order to add the two new ones?

Someone help! :P

My picks for the Tourney

2004-07-08T10:31:00.000-04:00

As mentioned in a previous post, MFO is hosting a RoN tournament, where we get to pick our nations. So, I've got my short list of nations that I would play, assuming I make it farther than the first round. :P

In no particular order:

Americans
Russians
British
Spanish
German
French
Dutch
Maya
Nubians
Persians
Lakota
Egyptians

Still a rough list though, some nations may stay, some may go.

About half of those could be considered economic nations I guess. The Maya are still viable, even with the nerf. I've not yet played the Nubians or the Persians. I originally gave the Lakota a rough ride, but after playing them a few more times recently, they do have potential. The Americans, Dutch, Russians and British are permanently on my list as I have played them many times, and I am comfortable in how they perform.

Anyone else planning on playing in the tournament, and if so, what are your choices for nations?

RoN Tournament @ MFO

2004-07-02T23:37:00.000-04:00

As listed on Out4Blood's RoN Strategy blog, MFO is hosting a RoN tournament and you can sign up here. There's no fee to join, and there's prizes for the top 16 players, plus random t-shirt and gold star prizes handed out.

I've signed up, so someone will be looking forward to handing me my ass. :P

Happy Canada Day!

2004-07-01T02:38:00.000-04:00

Well, it's July 1st, 2004. Canada has been a country for 137 years now.

Let's kick back and toast to another 137 years of Canada!

The Dutch: Ye gods!

2004-07-01T01:56:00.000-04:00

Well, I played a game tonight, where I experimented with an idea.

Maybe others have tried it before, or thought about it, I'm sure it's not a new idea.

I played the Dutch in a co-op game, four humans versus four tougher computers. We've got a new player to the game, so we toned down the AI. East Meets West was the map, a nice defendable map...

About half way through the game, my goal was to get 10000 of each resource. At 10000 resources above starting resources, the interest the Dutch get is +500. Add in five or so cities, some rare resources, and it should be easy to reach +600 economy cap. It works... I was able to kill off my citizens, gaining back about 30+ pop. cap to boost the size of my army.

Now I'm going to try to see how quickly I can reach this point, making use of the market, rares and ruins bonuses. I don't think this can be of huge use early in the game, if you can survive to GP age or Enlightenment, then you've got a chance at pulling this off.

Off Topic: Gmail

2004-06-19T10:42:00.000-04:00

Woo, writing this blog has earned me an invitation to Gmail, Google's new email service.

Now I'll never lose my forums registrations again!

How to play the Dutch

2004-06-19T01:32:00.000-04:00

Updated: December 2nd, 2004
Updated: January 3rd, 2005

I haven't seen any strategy articles yet on how to play the Dutch, so I've gone ahead and written one myself. Please feel free to poke holes in my ideas.

I'll first cover their nation bonuses.

Armed Merchants, Caravans and Supply Wagons

The Dutch merchants, caravans and supply wagons have a small attack value, and are slightly tougher than regular merchants, caravans and supply wagons. This makes it a little bit harder to attack the normally vulnerable units, though it can be a bit of a pain, as the units will attack enemy units that wander nearby. This may attract unwanted attention to your merchants and caravans, but it is nice that the supply can add a little extra weight to your army.

Start with COM 1 researched

This allows the Dutch to immediately begin construction of a dock, which is important on water maps. You can build your second city and not have to worry about economy caps for a short while.

Start with a market and two free merchants

The early market gives the Dutch a head start to gathering wealth. The two merchants can be used to scout the map, and quickly choose the best rares to plunk down next to. Since the merchants are armed, an enemy merchant will be killed if it tries to set up shop next to a Dutch merchant.

+5 resources per 100 resources saved

As I mentioned in a previous article here, the Dutch actually gain +1 resource per 20 resources saved. So you don't need to save up an exact 100 to start getting the bonus. And this bonus can go up to +50 over your regular economy cap.

Commerce research is 10% cheaper

This bonus adds more weight to the Dutch economy.

Ship upgrades are 10% cheaper

The Dutch are historically a naval power, and it is reflected in this bonus. On maps with water, the Dutch navy can be a hurricane force to be reckoned with.

Receive one free light ships with each dock built

The Dutch have three unique light ships, which are tougher than regular light ships. Getting two per dock built is a nice start to a kick-ass navy.

Unique Units

As mentioned, the Dutch have three light ships, which are stronger, faster, and tougher than regular light ships. These units are available in Medieval, Gun Powder and Enlightenment ages. The Dutch also get armed merchants, caravans and supply wagons.

Strategy

So, the Dutch are an obvious economic power, and have a potentially great navy. Booming with the Dutch is one obvious strategy, and you also have the potential of an early game rush. You'll be gaining wealth from the start, and thusly you can afford more archers than most other nations in the beginning, and with the higher initial economy cap you can easily boom for a short time until you've saved up enough to get all the HI or LI that you need.

Since the Dutch have two merchants to start, they can scout with both, or you can send one merchant to a rare near your starting city, and the other one to scout out the enemy, or other useful rares.

On water maps, building a docks will gain you two light ships, which you can send off to scout the waterways, usually long before the enemy does.

And, to top it all off, once you can use the market, you can manipulate it in such a way as to gain you tons of bonus resources. Buy resources you are low on, and you'll be gaining bonus resources. Sell resources you have a large stock pile of, and you'll gain bonus wealth. In the early game, it should be easy to get to 1000 resources of any one thing, which would give you a +50 bonus economy cap.

If you can get 10000 saved resources, you can kill off your farmers/woodcutters/miners/oil-workers. Your cities plus your saved resources should carry you. Sell off the excess, buy up what you don't have, eventually you'll have tons of each resource. The one thing you need to keep an eye on is that you don't over-spend your resources. Keep your supplies above 10000 and you're rocking.

Now, I can hear you saying, 10000 resources?!?! Are you fucked?! I understand that this is a huge number, but remember that 10000 resources to the Dutch is +500 of that resource per 30 seconds. For every 1000 resources you have in the early game, you can run your economy with 5 less citizens per resource. That 5 extra pop cap could be used for your military, scholars or merchants. A single merchant can pull in more resources than a single citizen. Scholars collect knowledge, which isn't banked like the other resources, and well, military units are what you need to win.

This market bonus can also help cancel out an advantage that Tougher and Toughest AI players get, the same amount of resources in less time. According to a friend, Toughers get their resources in 24 seconds, not 30 like human players, and Toughests get their resources in 20 seconds. So with a stockpile of 1000 resouces in the game can effectively keep you even in resource collection against even Toughest AI.

Gaining extra resources requires you to micro the market. Collecting the right rare resources or building that certain wonder, will help with market micro. Typically you can guess what your opponents are understocked/overstocked in when you see large jumps or drops in market prices. If you have a large stock pile of specific resources, you can make the market prices drop rapidly by holding shift and clicking the sell button. This will sell your resource in lots of 500, and will rob your opponent of gold he would have got if the prices had remained stable. Likewise, if you see prices in the buy column rising rapidly, you know your opponent is buying, and if you buy that resource as well, you cause the price to climb higher. The only difficulty is that because you have to pay attention to the fluctuating prices, you have yet another thing vying for your attention as you play.

In co-op games, you can help your allies out by trading them needed resources, and selling off what they give you. If you have a large stockpile, you can affect market prices to their advantage, avoiding the early game corruption penalty in trading.

The starting build order (BO) that I tried first is this: SCI 1, CIV 1, SCI 2, CLASSICAL, MIL 1, MIL 2. The two SCI and CLASSICAL reduce the costs of MIL 1 and 2, the CIV 1 allows me to get a second city and hit the +100 economy cap.

I now prefer my second choice, SCI 1, CIV 1, then either MIL 1 or CLASSICAL. It depends on whether or not I'll require a military early on to defeat a rush. (Remember to scout with at least one of your merchants) Against a boomer, I'll age first, then MIL 1, since I'll soon need the higher pop cap.

Ok, I've added the changes found in Patch 2 Beta, the Dutch have been nerfed a little but not too much. I've been having a streak of losing games recently, but once the Dutch get going, they are a good middle-to-end nation. Their start is slower now, since commerce is more expensive compared to before Patch 2, and on water maps, they don't get as fast an exploration due to only having one free ship. A suggestion I have for BHG is to change it slightly, make it similar to other free units: 1 free boat in first age, 2 free boats in the second age, and make that the max. It'll slow the Dutch down at first, without taking away from their potential oomp in middle-late stages. Some think that Dutch are overpowered on water maps, but I believe this is untrue. ;)

Anyone have any suggestions, or other strats for the Dutch? Please fill in a few comments below, or email me.

How to Lose at Rise of Nations

2004-06-18T20:01:00.000-04:00

No, it's not about how to play a crappy game of RoN.

This post is about how to lose tenaciously and graciously.

Big Huge Games has an article entitled Die Slowly, which is a very good read.

What I hope to do is build a little on that article.

Something most people realize after a short time of playing, is that once you lose critical mass, you will have an incredibly hard time recovering. Critical mass is basically a large army backed by a rocking economy. If the enemy can crush one or the other, you will definitely be on the ropes. It is very bad to lose your army while defending your territory, since the enemy is right there at the gates. If you have your army smashed in enemy territory, you have a some time to recover your army before the enemy arrives to knock on the doors.

You find yourself in a bind, the enemy has sacked two of your cities and is rushing headlong towards your capital. Your army is gone, and your economy is in shambles. You know that it is just a matter of time before you go down harder than a 90 year old falling down the stairs. Now what?

First thing is, don't give up. Once your shoulders sag in defeat, you are done for. You will find that there may be many situations that seem hopeless, but it is possible to pull yourself out of the fire. As mentioned in the the BHG article, your allies are depending on you to die as slowly as possible. If you are playing alone, taking a long time to die can be a matter of pride.

The second thing to remember is, be courteous and polite. Calling someone a cheater is just rude, especially since every game be viewed in the replay. People won't want to play you if you keep calling cheat every time you start to lose.

After a deep breath, you should take stock of the situation. You'll likely have the city cap to build at least one city, maybe two... immediately start looking for a spot to set down a city. In your ally's base, or in an otherwise out of the way location you can reach. If you have a city that is under attack, but is not your capital or last city, you should move some of your citizens from this endangered city to your new city to jump start your economy. Your ramping costs for buildings and citizens should be lower, since you've lost some already. Build a market, a temple (you may need the push), a library, and a university. Build farms, a mine and wood cutting camps. Basically, get your people back to work as quickly as possible. Remember to build the granary, lumber mill and smelter to increase your output.

Meanwhile, back at your endangered cities, you should continue the resistance with what remaining troops you have. Ideally you would want to save up your troops in a secluded spot, then come charging out with a decent sized army, but you might not have the time to do that, I normally continue reinforcing the troops right at the front. Rotate troops and citizens in and out of forts, towers and cities. Basically you need to last as long as possible. You should try to prevent your capital from falling until you have had a chance to raze your senate building, and construct it at your new city.

And as much as you would like to build troops to counter what the army facing you has, you will be building according to what your economy is able to pull in. If what you need is cheap at the market, buy and sell to get it. If you have a stockpile of one or more resources, sell it off. Face it, any resources left in your bank when you die are wasted resources.

Another suggestion, if you have the resources, is to build a secondary line of defenses, away from the fighting, but between your new cities and the battle. Build troop production buildings at this secondary line as well. If you are able, start constructing a new army at this location, while keeping up troop production in the falling/fallen cities. A fresh army, even if half the size of a damaged one, can inflict lethal damage, especially if you can flank it.

Basically, one of you will win the grinding match. If you win it, go for your fallen cities quickly, before enemy reinforcements arrive. If you lose it, continue to expand away from the area, keeping your economy going.

Another thing that gets lost in the battle is... teching and aging. If you're able to age, do so. If you can afford to upgrade your troops, do so. These two things can turn the tide of battle.

Anyways, it's probably not new to experienced players, but I hope it can help the newbie players a little...

'Ats all for now folks, more later on.

Battle Tactics, Part Two...

2004-06-16T17:43:00.000-04:00

Next up in micromanaging your troops in battle is the use of formations.

Have you ever noticed your troops splitting into multiple groups to move around obstacles? Or that your army is strung out in a long line, and the flanks are getting picked off?

Chances are adjusting your formation would have helped in that situation. The mouse scroll button is the default button for changing your formation. You can adjust the length of your lines, making them shorter or longer at will.

If you are attacking a wide area, and you aren't currently facing any opposition, use the mouse scroll button to make your lines longer, bringing the lines closer together, allowing all the units opportunity to fire.

Shortening the lines will allow your army to move smoothly through the tight areas found on some maps, Mediterranean for example, which has many mountainous and forested areas. Large armies will have a difficult time moving through such terrain. Shortening the lines has a slight disadvantage though. While it concentrates your firepower onto a smaller area, conversely any army attacking it will be targetting a smaller area. I find that the turnover rate for cavalry is rather high. :P

There are other formation types than just the line formation. Subtle variations of the line formation is echelon left and echelon right. I've not used these before, but I would guess that there are situations for both. Envelope formation surrounds the attack point with your army, while the Refused formation forms an arrowhead, with your siege safely protected by the army aiming outwards.

There you have it folks, nothing big, but sometimes it can be just enough to pull your ass outta the fire.

Undocumented feature: The CEO

2004-06-15T14:39:00.000-04:00

A good friend of mine, EMELT, seen handing me my ass in a recorded game just recently, has found what looks to be an undocumented bonus given by the CEO.

In watching a replay, he noticed a sharp climb in one of the players' knowledge rate. After some preliminary experimentation, EMELT says that when the CEO has a city within it's command radius, and that city has a university, the scholars within that university gain a +50% bonus of knowledge. Only the scholars, not the university itself, gain the bonus, and it only works in that one city. If the CEO has more than one city in it's radius, the bonus only counts at one university.

He's going to experiment more with it, and hopefully I'll have a link to a recorded game proving it. Someone want to give it a shot themselves and see? Has this been documented before anywhere? I don't see it on BHG's site, and a cursory search in Google didn't bring up anything. Someone let me know...

Tough, Tougher, Toughest: Tackling AI

2004-06-15T13:07:00.000-04:00

As I've mentioned before, I have played more games against the computer AI than I have versus human opponents. I've got a few tips here on how to play against the toughest computer AIs.

The toughest computer AI is a nasty one, something that can be said for the easier settings as well. It has the advantage of knowing exactly when it has enough to build and research what it needs. It has the advantage of being able to both attack you and manage it's economy at the same time, where as a human opponent will be distracted. It collects its resources faster than you do.

It will fight on until the end, continuing to expand, collect resources and build units. It won't give up until you beat it. If you make any glaring mistakes, it will capitalize on them and make you pay dearly. Chances are, unless you are on top of your game, the computer will be attacking you before you are fully prepared. Hopefully these tips can help you...

First off, I think you need to tweak the game settings to give you a slight advantage:

Choose a friendly map. This is the most important thing, I believe. You will want a map that has a decent amount of resources. Choosing a map that offers a defendable position is a suggestion as well.

You'll probably want to slow down the research speed, as well as make it more expensive. Remember that the computer will be getting resources faster than you.

I usually set the victory settings to conquest, removing wonder victory and capital elimination.

Choosing your best race is also a good idea.

Basically, these settings will handicap the computer a little. Now, as you improve against the toughest AI, you can slowly return the settings back to normal, which will make the AI harder as you do so.

Fighting the computer:

You can go about fighting the computer the same way you'd fight a human opponent, but you have to remember it's gaining resources faster than you and it will always be bang on when researching and building units. When it has the resources, and it can research Mil 1, it will. If it needs an archer, it will build one. From observation, the toughest AI is collecting it's resources every 20 seconds, compared to our 30 seconds. So it's gaining resources at 1.5 times we are. Can you rush a computer that's collecting resources that fast? I've tried a few times, and while I am able to take the capital, I have not been able to hold it.

I prefer a "wait for the rush" approach to taking on the computer.

The first rush the computer makes will likely not have siege in it, and it will take place in the classical age, though occasionally the computer will attack in the ancient age if you've chosen a very small map. Defeating this first rush is fairly easy.

Start by researching SCI 1, then COM 1. Max out your capital's economy by building two more farms, and as many wood choppers as you can. If you have chosen a water map, build a dock, create two or three fishing boats, and then build a market. If not, just build a market.

Now, you've remembered to scout the enemy, correct? If you don't see a barracks there yet, you should be safe to research CIV 1 then MIL 1. If you do see a barracks in the AI's camp, then you should research MIL 1 first, and then CIV1.

Once you've researched CIV 1, find a defendable spot to place your second city, also keeping in mind border push. Claim those mountains and forests, and avoid placing cities in wide open plains if you can help it.

Once MIL 1 has completed, begin constructing a tower, place it near your city, and your first three farms. Build two archers if you can, placing one in your city and one in your tower.

Typically, once you've gotten to this point, the computer will be attacking shortly. When the attack comes, any citizens that are in danger should be garrisoned in either the city or your tower, which ever is closest. Target the city and tower on heavy infantry first, then slingers and archers. If there is cavalry in the rush, target them after targeting the heavy infantry. The first attack should be fairly easy to beat. If you are having a hard time with it, build more troops, garrisoning archers, and using heavy infantry to draw off the enemy. Pop citizens in and out of the city, both to repair and to draw the enemy away from attacking the city.

Now the arms race begins in earnest. You are going to have to age quickly, and advance your research, in order to keep pace with the computer. The second attack will be with siege, so be prepared to smash his siege and supply wagons as the attack commences, and you should be alright.

At this point, what you do is up to you, there are many different strategies to be used. Myself, I prefer to go on the offensive once I have three cities built, and my economy is rocking. I tend to build a minimum of three forts in defensive positions, and build two armies, a small one for point defense, and a larger one to attack with.

This pattern works for me, but your mileage may vary.

Poll Time: Thrones & Patriots

2004-06-14T15:05:00.000-04:00

I'm starting to get a little traffic now, so I think I can ask a question and reasonably expect answers.

What do you guys think of the Rise of Nations expansion, Thrones & Patriots?

Is it worth the money? Or should it have been a patch?

Recorded Games: Tempest vs EMELT

2004-06-13T20:54:00.000-04:00

Well, in a game with me playing the Chinese (as Tempest) and my friend playing the Spanish, I get my butt handed to me.

I tried a citizen rush. It was funny... but ultimately it failed, and I lost. The rush was make or break, I should have looked harder for a barracks, maybe I could have destroyed it, maybe not. I did not recover from the that rush, and in the end, EMELT came out ahead. I manage to stop a first siege assault, but the second wave basically runs over me, and I eventually quit, feeling the game was well in his hands.

Ah well, time to go over the replay, and see where I could improve.

Thrones & Patriots: The Americans

2004-06-09T21:53:00.004-04:00

The Americans, in my opinion still, are the first nerf target of the new nations in T & P.

They start off with a free science tech, which makes researching the first few techs easier.

Their infantry produces +3 wealth, food, wood and metal each (providing they are not garrisoned), so once you've gotten a decent sized army created, it really starts to pay for itself. If you're the type to do an early rush, you are also helping your economy, so it is possible to rush and boom with the Americans.

I'm not quite sure what their rationale is for that either. Their troops are scrounging? Or are they being hunters, farmers and miners in their spare time?

Their first wonder is built instantly, if it's not the Space Program or Super Collider, and if no other nation is building it. If they age quickly, they can get the Terra Cotta Army built instantly, and then get free resources as they get their free infantry.

The Americans get one free scholar for each university they build.

Lastly, their government types are free, just click when you've got the needed age.

So, to cap it off, they get free resources, free scholars (so some free knowledge), a free science tech, and free governments. Land of the free, anyone?

I've yet to play them in a pvp game, but I've done exceedingly well in games vs. multiple computers.

Let the nerfing begin!

Thrones & Patriots: The Iroquois

2004-06-04T19:36:00.000-04:00

I've given the Iroquois a couple of shots now, and overall, I dislike them.

It's handy to have +2 food per wood chopper, as I mentioned in an earlier post, you can get your first city to +100/+100 food/wood if you try. But I seem to have problems collecting enough resources.

The healing ability is rather nice, especially when you are playing a defensive game near the beginning. When combined with one of the green side governments, this ability allows you to fight a very long defensive game without losing scads of troops doing so.

The scout's ability to move through forests, as well as having a larger line-of-sight, makes the Iroquois scout very useful. You can move to your enemy's cities, and hide out of sight in one of the larger forest areas.

I'll have to play the Iroquois a number of more times before I make a final decision on them. I don't believe I'll play them much, maybe if I know in advance I'll be playing on a largely forest map.

Thrones & Patriots: Governments

2004-06-04T19:10:00.000-04:00

Governments, and the Senate, are new features found in Thrones & Patriots.

The Senate allows you to switch your capital to another city, by building the Senate at the city you wish your capital to be. You need to be in control of your current capital in order to switch capitals.

Being able to switch capitals is a godsend, you can move your capital to a safer location, at the back of your lands, or perhaps hidden inside your ally's territory.

The different governments are also quite useful. There are two "sides" to the governments, the red side (Despotism, Monarchy and Socialism) and the green side (Republic, Democracy and Capitalism). The red side provides a lot of military bonuses, where as the green side provides economic bonuses. Each of the lines gives a new unit, a hero general which provides additional bonuses to the general's normal powers.

Despotism makes military research and barracks units cheaper, and provides the Despot unit. The Despot gives supply, LoS and plunder bonuses.

Monarchy includes the bonuses of your previous government (either Despotism or Republic), and makes stable units faster and cheaper to build. The King unit provides siege, supply and cavalry combat bonuses.

Socialsim includes the bonuses of the two previous governments (Despotism or Republic, and Monarchy or Democracy) plus makes factory, dock and airfield units cheaper and faster to build. The Comrade unit gives supply, combat and assimilation bonuses.

Republic increases your economy cap, and the Senator unit gives healing, as well as bribery and building defense bonuses.

Democracy provides the previous government's bonuses, as well as making non-library researches cheaper. The President unit provides production, building and healing bonuses.

Capitalism provides the two previous government's bonuses, and gives +100 oil as well as a 500 oil bonus. The CEO provides healing, defense and range bonuses.

Now, once you have chosen a specific government type, you cannot change that choice, but when the next opportunity opens to choose another gov't type, you can choose from either side of the line. So you can choose the first red gov't, and the second green, and the third red. Or any combination possible. Each nation type out there can benefit from at least one of the government types, or the hero general units.

Personally, I choose the government types to cover weaknesses in my game play, if I am suffering economically, I choose the green side of the line usually. If I need a military boost, I choose the red. I have had to use the ability to change capitals at least a half-dozen times, so I've found it quite useful.

Thrones & Patriots: Wonders

2004-06-04T18:28:00.000-04:00

The new wonders in the expansion for RoN are quite powerful, especially the Hanging Gardens. The knowledge bonus granted by the Gardens is worth fighting for, since it's available in the same age as the Pyramids and the Colossus, and that's when you get your universities. As well as a bonus to knowledge, the Gardens decrease the Lumber Mill, Smelter and Granary research by a whopping 66%. The Germans might well consider building this wonder, which enhances one of their bonuses.

The Red Fort is a massive fort, with incredible border push, and an astounding healing rate. The Fort resists air raid damage, has many hitpoints, has a larger garrison value than regular forts, increases all forts hp by 33% and all fort upgrades are free. Fantastic!

The last wonder, the Forbidden City, is a wonder that counts as a city. You place it wherever you could place a regular city, and it doesn't count against your city limit. It can produce citizens, and do anything else a regular city can. I haven't tried yet, but I wonder if you can move your capital to the Forbidden City, by building the Senate at it's location.

Overall, these new wonders aren't unbalancing and are fairly decent in what they grant in the way of bonuses. They add something new to the game, especially the Forbidden City, and work to lessen the competition for building wonders (since there are more wonders to build).

Battle Tactics, Part One(a)

2004-06-04T18:22:00.000-04:00

I've decided, in retrospect, to talk about the other stances, since I've been convinced of their usefulness.

Hold ground forces your troops to stand their ground, and not return fire even if fired upon. Defensive stance is similar to Aggressive, except that your troops will only stray a short distance from their original locations. Good for defending an area, without worrying too much about troops getting lost, or straying far enough away to get picked off one at a time. Raze stance is like aggressive, except that your troops will target buildings as a preference over other targets. Raiding is, again, like Aggressive, except that economic targets take precedence. Citizens, caravans, merchants and resource gathering buildings are usual choices.

Battle Tactics, Part One...

2004-06-03T21:45:00.000-04:00

A few notes on micromanaging your troops in the heat of battle.

First off, it's extremely useful to assign control groups to your armies, allowing you to manipulate them at the quick touch of a button. I tend to use the numbers 1 to 5 for cities, production groups, and libraries. I use 6 to 0 for actual fighting groups. For the most part, I'll assign 0 to my largest combined army, 9 to an auxilary, and 8 to any navy I might have. If I am using just one large army, then I might assign 0 to it, 9 to the artillery in that army, and 8 to commandos.

However you end up assigning the control groups, having the main units of your army in control groups allows you to coordinate your attacks on the enemy. Consider an attack on a city. You'll need your infantry nearest the city, in order to capture it. You'll need your artillery to remain out of the line of fire, but able to pound the city down. Your scouts are needed to reveal spies, snipe critical units, and destroy buildings like towers and anti-aircraft placements. By assigning a control group to the entire attacking army, you can send the army forward as a group, each unit protecting the other. After you've moved your army to attack, you can select your artillery group, and assign it to siege the city. Since the group is already moving as part of the army, it'll stop at a safe distance, and begin setting up for seige. While the attack gets into high gear, you can select your group of scouts and have them move forward to snipe and sabotage (or more if you're in the highest ages). Consider assigning another control group to light cavalry, and you have a group you can quickly move to attack problem areas or units of high value (supply wagons, generals, revealed spies).

The best thing of all about assigning a control group to your main army, is that you can keep your army together in a coherent formation. As a battle carries on, your army will get spread out, losing its effectiveness. You will want to continously bring your army back into formation as you move forward (or retreat) in battle. An army in formation covers it's ass. You know of the saying, "Divide and conquer."? It is especially true in Rise of Nations.

There are two other ways to manage your army's effectiveness. The first is stances. There are several stances, but I will concentrate on two. All have their uses, but these two are used most by me. Aggressive stance will enable your army to attack anything that wanders nearby that is not friendly. All units will attack targets of opportunity, each unit seems to go first for units that are weak to it, and if you're not paying attention, your army will become dispersed chasing enemy units all over the place. The second stance I favour is stand ground. This is espcially useful in gunpowder age, where you'll have plenty of units with ranged fire. Units told to stand ground will stand and fight anything that gets close, but they will not leave formation. Melee units will remain in formation, taking fire, but will attack if a unit gets within their melee range. I switch to aggressive when on the attack, and use attack-move to keep my army moving forward. When I've just captured a city, I switch to stand ground to stabalize the area, and keep my troops massed to prevent the city from being retaken too easily.

In Part Two, I will continue with army formations.

How to find mountains in the fog...

2004-05-31T23:36:00.000-04:00

I've found that if you use the signal feature (INSERT), and click on the black areas of the map, mountains show up. They cause the ripples from the signal to be slightly distorted in one way or another. By quickly flashing around your starting city, you can find any mountains nearby, and place your second (or third) city near the mountain.

As my friend Mark has just pointed out to me, if you are in a co-operative game against the computer, or a group battle against another, a less annoying way to find the mountains is to build a building. But before you place it down somewhere, move it around on the screen. It will show the contour of the mountain as you move it over and around the mountain.

Thrones & Patriots: The Dutch

2004-05-29T14:27:00.000-04:00

I've tried out the Dutch a few more times, and I've found out something interesting. It is said that the Dutch get +5 resources for every 100 resources saved. For every 200 food saved, you are gaining +10 food. What I have noticed is that while it is true that it's +5 for every 100, it's actually +1 for every 20. So you don't need to save up exactly 100 to get the +5. It's nice that this ability goes +50 over your economy cap.

The Dutch do very well on maps with large amounts of water, having a navy backing up your army is a very nice one-two combo.

The armed caravans can sometimes be more trouble than they are worth, occasionally the caravan stops to shoot at raiders or an army, and this attracts their attention, and the caravan usually dies.

The two free merchants at the start is nice as well, you can usually set on down on a rare resource right away, and explore with the other one until you find a rare resource that is useful.

The Dutch will likely be my favourite nation from T&P, I do like the Americans, but I believe they'll get nerfed.

On counter-scouting...

2004-05-28T23:04:00.000-04:00

Let's say you've decided not to rush, instead you're going to boom.

You know that you need to scout, and so you send yours off to see what you can see. But, you know that the enemy is likely doing the same thing, so what can you do about it?

For starters you need to realize that unless you have a large enough army waiting for the scout when it arrives, that scout is going to see some of your operations before it dies. So what you need to do is make it as difficult as possible, hopefully forcing the enemy to do more micromanagement of his scout than you have to do with your citizens/army/buildings.

Now, when you start a game with default settings, you should see that you have a library and three farms. These buildings, unfortunately, are clustered around your capital city. It's annoying when nuclear blasts take out more than just your cities. Any buildings you construct should, in my opinion, be built as far out as usefully possible from the city.

So, the first couple of buildings I go for are farms, which I build away from the enemy, and as close to the economic border of the city as possible. Doing this does a few helpful things, it keeps at least two citizens away from the main cluster of starting buildings, and so might escape the notice of raiders. It also gives you a bit more sight towards the rear area, where a pesky scout, or worse, an army, may make an appearance. The more time you have from the moment you spot the scout/army, the more time you will have to react to it. You can use any building to do this, markets and temples are always tempting targets, so placing them away from the action is a good idea.

The next thing to consider is placing any unit, that you are not planning on using immediately, into garrison. This allows towers, forts and cities to attack enemies that pass by, including those annoying scouts. This is espcially true of barracks units, if that scout can't count your troops, then the enemy cannot tell how well an attack will succeed. This can cause the enemy to think twice about an all out attack on your capital, the longer you can keep the enemy guessing, the more time you have to age and boom. And, the scout risks a quick death if it strays too close to that tower or city that has a few archers in it.

Placing your second city is an important decision. Many people like to build towards the enemy, since this can make things easier to do, the borders push harder, troops can be built closer, and that city can provide a buffer if things go wrong. Myself, I prefer to build off-center towards the enemy, about 45° either side of the center line. If the enemy scout barrels right up the middle, then he'll likely miss my second city, giving me more time to accomplish what I set out to do. If the enemy scout goes up one side or the other, then there is a 50% chance he'll miss my second city. Either way this buys time.

Building at least one tower early on opens up the option for attrition, which can deter non-scout units that are scouting (like a chinese citizen rush), and allows you to use a few citizens to kill any scout which wanders too close.

And lastly, you could give the enemy a little of what they want, which might make them lazy... by making the barracks easy to find, the stables you've built out of the way might remain hidden. That tower built prominently in the middle of nowhere might make the enemy wonder what else might be nearby. A few light infantry heading in the general direction of the enemy might make them use their scout(s) to find out what you're up to, and allow your light horse raiding-party time to pull off surprise raids.

As mentioned above, that scout will eventually see what it needs to see. All you can really do, I feel, is waste enough of the enemy's time micromanaging the scout to stay alive, without wasting too much of your own time. Occasionally you'll get lucky, and you'll be able to gang-beat their scout to death with a group of citizens... but don't hold your breath on that.

On scouting...

2004-05-26T21:46:00.000-04:00

Scouting is an important strategy in Rise of Nations. By scouting you can discern what the enemy is doing, find rare resources, and grab ruin bonuses. And as the scout ages, more powerful abilities come to the fore, making the scout an extremely functional and multi-role unit.

Scouting does not necessarily have to be performed by scout units, any unit in the game can be set to auto-explore. But, scouts do not take attrition damage, and they are one of the fastest units in the game. Therefore, I suggest that you use regular units for auto-explore, early on in the game to scout out best position for a second or third city and to find rare resources, and to microscout with your first (and any later) scout towards the enemy. By microscouting, I mean micromanaging your scout along, using shift-clicking on the mini-map.

If you expect (or are paranoid about) an early rush, then microscouting directly to the enemy is probably best, with perhaps a bit of zigzaging to grab a few ruins.

If you wish to grab a lot of ruins, zigzag your scout across the map, starting off on a 45° angle east/west (or north/south depending on starting orientation) towards the enemy.

Either way, you should end up with your scout in enemy territory. Keep your scout moving, in order to keep him alive and to keep the enemy from getting a good idea of where your scout currently is. First, attempt to navigate around the enemy base, look for towers, barracks and second (and third, etc.) city. Stay away from towers since they will shoot your scout (if they are able to) if your scout gets within range. Barracks will indicate that enemy troops are on the way, or at least being built.

Now, if you are planning a rush, then your scout has a more important role, determining a good invasion path to the capital. Hitting from an area least expected is a good idea, so look for clear routes from behind or the flanks with your scout. Or, if you raid instead, find where his farms and wood camps are, and lead your army to his vulnerable citizens.

Scouting is important thoughout the game, finding other enemy cities, watcing troop movements, and counter-scouting his scouts.

As the ages progress, the scout become more and more useful and powerful.

The first upgrade, to explorer, allows the scout to be able to cloak, when the unit is not moving. The Explorer can see invisible units, and is able to use counter-intelligence to remove informers and kill enemy spies.

The next upgrade, to commando, gives the sniper and sabotage abilities, allowing you to instantly kill a unit, or to destroy (or severly damage) a building. Eight commandos using the sabotage ability can reduce, or nearly so, a city. Bringing these along with your main attacking army can lead to a quick city capture.

When the scouts become special forces, they gain jam radar and paradrop abilities, giving this unit very powerful abilities indeed. Drop behind enemy lines, and you can snipe key units or citizens, destroy key production buildings, jam radar to allow bomber runs, or reduce a city in advance of an attack.

An ability that shouldn't be discounted is the ability to expose spies, allowing you to kill spies before they get your units.

Scouts are useful support units, and a player should know of their advantages, and should have a number of scouts during the game, both in support of an army, and individually, leading the way.

My next topic will be on counter-scouting, how to prevent the enemy from making the most of his scouts.

Thrones & Patriots: My first thoughts...

2004-05-24T21:42:00.000-04:00

I've had the game about 2 weeks now, since the prices dropped on the expansion at Future Shop.

I haven't played a lot of pvp, either online or LANing with friends, so I do not know how the expansion races actually hold up in pvp combat.

I have played quite a number of single player vs. computer AI, and multiplayer vs. computer AI, so I shall comment on that.

I've found that that Lakota are probably better as a player controlled nation, than an AI controlled nation. I don't think the computer AI picks particularly good places to expand to, where as players do. At first I was a little leary about food issues, since they do not get farms, nor do they get granaries. But, each cavalry, scout and citizen pull in food (as long as they are not garrisoned). I would have to play them a few more times, but I believe the food they get is not enough. You'll have to rely more on rare resources and fishing than you might like. This is probably a decent price to pay, though, for the ability to build on neutral ground, being able to place a city right near the enemy capital is a nasty surprise!

The Iroquois have a nice bonus of being able to heal while in friendly territory, and they get +2 food per wood chopper. With a nice rare resource, or perhaps some fishing, and a decent amount of wood choppers, you can almost have one city maxed (I've been able to get +98 food and +100 wood). I've only tried them once though.

The Americans are probably over-powered and likely to get nerfed. See what Out4Blood has to say, here. I agree with what he has to say, if the Americans had a slightly slower start, they'd be alright. As it stands, playing against computer opponents, I've yet to lose (two at toughest, working up the courage to try three by myself) when I play the Americans. They start with a free Science upgrade, get 1 free scholar for each university built, their first wonder is built instantly if no other nation is currently constructing it, AND each non-scout infantry unit which is not garrisoned adds +3 food, wood, metal and wealth to the economy. I'm still trying to figure out the rationale behind that last bit. Maybe more than a slower start is needed here... The TCA, built instantly, will give free infantry, which will give free resources... Think about that for a while.

The Dutch aren't too shabby either, with merchants, caravans and supply wagons ARMED, a free commerce research, two free light ships per dock built, and for every 100 wood, wealth, oil, metal and food saved they get an extra +5 of those resources. Those extra resources can go +50 ABOVE your commerce cap. Once these guys get going, they are hard to stop. I had an interesting situation where two computer armies, larger than mine, were held off by my dinky-sized army, a small navy and... two merchants and a caravan. By charging and retreating these three groups, I was able to chase off the computers. Probably wouldn't work as well against a human opponent, and it can get pricey since I lost the two merchants.

I have not yet played the Indians or the Persians, so I will comment on them later. I do like the Dutch, and the Americans so far. I think the Lakota have potential shock value against human players, so I will look forward to pvp with them.

The general additions to the game are decent ones, and overall I think the expansion is worth getting.

The Senate adds the option of several different government options, as well as adding a hero general to the game. You basically have two "branches" to chose from, one that gives military powers and bonuses, and the other gives economic bonuses and powers.

I like the larger Armageddeon Count numbers, I have played in games where people "accidentally" lost track of the number in all the action taking place on their screens. I say "accidentally" because I haven't decided if they did it on purpose, or if they're just stupid. :P

More on it as I play it.

My Rise of Nations blog...

2004-05-24T15:18:00.000-04:00

So, I've been playing Rise of Nations for a year and a half now, and I thought I would start a blog to talk about my ideas and thoughts on the game, as well as strategies and tactics.

The few main links I use for RoN are:

Out4Blood's RoN Strategy blog
Mr. Fixit Online RoN Page
RoN Universe

This blog is a humble beginning, I'll have my own strategies, tactics and tips here as I work on them, hopefully you'll see this page linked elsewhere in the future.