Post by hoopdreams on Jun 20, 2006 20:17:17 GMT -5
Introduction
This article is a starting point for those that are tired of getting their butt kicked online...but I think many people can learn more if they are interested in improving their skills. If you're already comfortable with your skills and winning most of your games, you probably won't learn much. Obviously some basic familiarity with the game will help you understand what I mean when I refer to specific things.
Because the three cultures are so diverse, I will look at each individually. But first, let’s take a look at some of the general facts to keep in mind no matter who you are playing.
Remember – gameplay is in the process of steady evolution, and the best approach to playing AoM will change over time.
If you have ever played AoK, much of AoM will already be familiar to you, including some of the basic concepts outlined in this article. There are still four ages, of which the second are where the fighting begins in most games, units relate to each other in a complex counter system, and the Town Center is still a major part of the game. (Although in a different manner.) But to say AoM is a similar game to AoK is to underly the complexity of it. There is far more to AoM.
The most notable difference is the fact that AoM is a much faster game than in AoK. Even in the days of the famous Flush strategy, people rarely went to the Feudal (second) age in less than 9-10 minutes. In AoM on the other hand, you will often see people go to the Classical (second) age around 4-5 minutes. You have to be on your toes playing with full concentration right from the start of the game.
The introduction of gods with their own powers, technologies and mythological units had added a lot of depth to the game. God Powers give some more strategic elements to the game and you will need to learn when and how to use them. It may take a little bit of experimentation. The use of Mythological Units is a more complex issue as you will need to make considerations to what situation the game is in and thus how much resources you can afford to spend on getting favor. (The Norse here have the clear advantage of not having to spend resources on getting favor - but on the other hand they are dependent on keeping the fighting up if they want it.) Finally different gods have different technologies - you may wish to choose a specific god to improve your focal units.The Golden Rules of AoM
Regardless of what culture you play there are some general rules you should follow. (Most of these apply to many RTS games, not just AoM.)
Keep your Town Center working and never let it be idle until you have a strong economy of around 35-45 villagers/dwarves.
Keep your resources as low as possible by investing in units, buildings and upgrades. Resources in the bank are resources not being used. The only time you shouldn’t be following this rule is when you are aiming for an expensive upgrade or building – such as an age advance or town center. (Even if this is the case, don’t let your Town Center go idle, see the point above.)
Balance your resources for the task at hand. If you are going to build archers which cost wood and gold, you don’t need much food. If you find you have too much of one resource, take villagers away from gathering it, and use them to gather resources you are short on.
Scout your enemy to find out what units he is using. This will enable you to build their counters.
When you lose a battle because your enemy is using counters to your units, do not simply replace them with the same units. Change what units you are building to counter his own. Adapt to meet the task at hand.
Avoid fighting enemy soldiers if you can help it, and focus on attacking your opponent’s villagers and economy. Only face an enemy army if you are sure of a victory or if he is threatening your own economy.
Don't fight units that counter your own units if you can help it.
After every competitive game you play - especially after losses - you should analyze what you did well, what you did poorly, and what the deciding factor forthe game was. This will enable you to improve more rapidly instead of blaming the losses on luck or “lameness”. If you recognise mistakes, you will make them less often.
Always tend to get more units before you get more upgrades. Always get the line upgrades (Medium Infantry etc) before Armory upgrades - these boost both attack and HP, while the armory upgrades only improve one stat.
In AoK there were only human units to deal with. In AoM we have three greatly different types of units: heroes, mythological units and regular human soldiers.
While Mythological Units are the elite of your armies and crush normal troops with ease, they are expensive and heroes eat them for breakfast. Heroes, on the other hand, can’t stand up to regular units, (Egyptians) or aren’t cost effective at doing so. (Greeks, Norse) New players may attempt to build armies of too many mythological units and get badly stomped on. The best approach is to focus on regular units, and augment them with a few myth units and heroes. But as I've said before you ought to take good notice of what your enemy makes and act accordingly.
All regular unit types specialize against another unit type, and in turn are weaker against another unit type. Sometimes this is because the unit gets bonus damage against a particular unit type, or sometimes it’s related to their stats. (A slow but strong infantry unit will perform well against cavalry, but die to long ranged archers.)
This is the general relation of units in AoM…however this is just a simplification and there are many exceptions. In order to manage battles effectively, you must learn which units counter what. You may want to check out this counters chart for some more detail.
If you ever want to know what the strengths and weaknesses of a unit are in-game, you can either select the unit and click on its portrait (which brings up detailed information about it) or hit F1 to bring up the tech tree.
Managing your Economy
Compared to those in AoK, villagers in AoM work much more efficiently - you won’t need as many as you did in AoK. By the time you reach Heroic Age you shouldn't need to build any more, unless you have lost a lot of them due to fighting. I would aim to get 35-45 villagers for a strong economy (BUT NEVER STOP MAKING VILLS). It is also important to make your economy more powerful by researching the economic upgrades that are available to you, and the new ones you get each time you advance an age.
When considering MU's, you will need to make considerations to what god you are and thus how much resources you can afford to spend on getting favor. Mythological units are powerful, but they are not walking one-man armies - it is best to focus on regular units, and ignore favor for the first part of the game. As the game is now, I believe most of the good players are not sending villagers to the temple or building monuments until well into Classical age unless they attempt some particular strategy reliant on MU’s.
Remember that good economic management is not about who collects the most resources, but who balances and uses his resources in the most efficient way. Try to keep your resources as close to zero as possible by constantly spending them on units and upgrades and only get a large amount of resources in your stockpile storage when you are saving for something expensive. For example: If you are focusing your army on cavalry, you won't need so many villagers gathering wood. But when the opponent starts massing Spearmen to counter your cavalry, you will need to counter them by getting Archers or Throwing Axemen. These units require wood, so you need to move more villagers towards wood, but you won’t need as much food.
So which of all of the food resources should you use and when? Always hunt first. As a new player, you may want to go for the convenient chickens or berries, but hunting is the fastest source of food. After hunting are chickens, then berries. Try to save your cows/goats, because they have gain more food if you leave them alive longer. Farms are the least efficient source of food, and require lots of wood (or gold as Egypt) to set up, so try not to rely on farming for as long as possible. (Although farms become much more efficient in later ages when you can get the farm upgrades.) On maps that have it, fishing is always recommended as it will enable you to rapidly increase your economy - that is, you can train two economic units at once – fishing boats and villagers.
Fighting battles
There are many ways the outcome of a game can be decided, but the most common one is a large battle. Typically one player is forced to attack another player’s army, or face the destruction of his economy. (And thus lose the game.)
The most important thing when fighting an enemy army is to get ALL your units into the fight, and not have any stand around enjoying the show. Constantly look out for units to throw into the fight and target them on units that they counter and they can get to easily. It’s not much help to task a unit to the other side of the fight, or on an enemy totally surrounded by units. Target units on something they can fight quickly. Of course, ranged units like Toxotes can reach other units more easily than melée units, which is part of their value.
The second most important aspect is to get your units to attack units that they counter. As said above: learn exactly which units counter what. Some good micro in this area and you can win vs superior numbers. Never, if you can help it, attack enemy units that counter your own units.
Thanks to the new concepts in AoM we do also have a number of other ways turn these battles into our favor. God powers such as Plague of Serpents or Bronze can win a battle you would ordinarily lose. (Especially as it is rather hard to retreat easily in AoM, since your armies do so slowly and often lose a lot of their units.) You may wish to experiment a bit with the god powers to learn the best way to use them. Surprising opponents by the use of better line-of-sight to be able to take advantage of chokepoints is also possible and very effective.
The Greeks
The Greeks will be very familiar to an old Age player. Their buildings are relative in strength to AoK, your gathering camps are stuck in the place you built them, and you even get a scout cav just like AOK. Greeks favor gain is easily controlled by sending villagers to pray at the Temple. If you need more favor, send more vils, if you need less, take them away.
Greek units are the strongest in the game but are also more expensive - this makes it even more important to never let them die unnecessarily. Also keep in mind that while the basic Norse and Egyptian units are built from one structure, the Greeks need three different structures to train units. Think ahead if you’re going to need to change units quickly.
The Egyptians
Egyptian units are very cheap but also much weaker than Norse and Greek ones. Their resource gathering is 10% slower than the Norse and Greeks, but you can also offset the resource gathering penalty by using the pharaoh to empower a resource drop point. (+20% resources.)
Egyptian buildings are a little different from the Norse and Greeks. Houses, drop points, armories and markets are all free, but take a long time to build - so think ahead and compensate for this. Their other buildings – including farms – cost gold. Overall you won’t be spending as much on buildings as Greek and Norse players until you start using those expensive farms. What this means is you can put less villagers on wood and more on food; less on wood because you only need it for building units, and more on food because most of units cost food, as well as compensating for your slower villagers. (Egyptian villagers are no cheaper than the other cultures, yet gather slower, so it's often an idea to build more villagers when playing Egypt than you would otherwise.)
The Norse
The Norse approach to gameplay in AoM is probably the most diverse, and also the hardest to master. First of all, they build structures with infantry and not with villagers. This makes for easier offensive building without sacrificing your economy, (A villager building is not gathering resources.) but be careful not to get yourself 'housed'. The Norse also have dwarves – which are essentially villagers who cost gold, but collect gold 20% faster. I recommend building a few dwarves in the game to mine gold.
Norse buildings are weak, but cheaper. Their weak buildings together with their ability to construct buildings with their infantry leads to a very swift playstyle. Rushes are very possible and even though you don’t have to rush to win I’d recommend an aggressive playstyle with lots of units as Norse cannot depend on their weak buildings to keep the enemy at bay.
Finally, the Norse gain by fighting. It’s pretty much free. If you ever need a few points more favor to get that tech or myth unit, try killing some animals.
Recorded Games
This is something you need to do if you want to get better. Watch recorded games - watch those of good players and think about why they do certain things, and copy them if necessary. Watch your own recorded games and look for where you make mistakes. This is one of the keys to getting better.
Good luck, and have fun! ;D
Courtesy of Zhaz from aom.heavengames.com/
This article is a starting point for those that are tired of getting their butt kicked online...but I think many people can learn more if they are interested in improving their skills. If you're already comfortable with your skills and winning most of your games, you probably won't learn much. Obviously some basic familiarity with the game will help you understand what I mean when I refer to specific things.
Because the three cultures are so diverse, I will look at each individually. But first, let’s take a look at some of the general facts to keep in mind no matter who you are playing.
Remember – gameplay is in the process of steady evolution, and the best approach to playing AoM will change over time.
If you have ever played AoK, much of AoM will already be familiar to you, including some of the basic concepts outlined in this article. There are still four ages, of which the second are where the fighting begins in most games, units relate to each other in a complex counter system, and the Town Center is still a major part of the game. (Although in a different manner.) But to say AoM is a similar game to AoK is to underly the complexity of it. There is far more to AoM.
The most notable difference is the fact that AoM is a much faster game than in AoK. Even in the days of the famous Flush strategy, people rarely went to the Feudal (second) age in less than 9-10 minutes. In AoM on the other hand, you will often see people go to the Classical (second) age around 4-5 minutes. You have to be on your toes playing with full concentration right from the start of the game.
The introduction of gods with their own powers, technologies and mythological units had added a lot of depth to the game. God Powers give some more strategic elements to the game and you will need to learn when and how to use them. It may take a little bit of experimentation. The use of Mythological Units is a more complex issue as you will need to make considerations to what situation the game is in and thus how much resources you can afford to spend on getting favor. (The Norse here have the clear advantage of not having to spend resources on getting favor - but on the other hand they are dependent on keeping the fighting up if they want it.) Finally different gods have different technologies - you may wish to choose a specific god to improve your focal units.The Golden Rules of AoM
Regardless of what culture you play there are some general rules you should follow. (Most of these apply to many RTS games, not just AoM.)
Keep your Town Center working and never let it be idle until you have a strong economy of around 35-45 villagers/dwarves.
Keep your resources as low as possible by investing in units, buildings and upgrades. Resources in the bank are resources not being used. The only time you shouldn’t be following this rule is when you are aiming for an expensive upgrade or building – such as an age advance or town center. (Even if this is the case, don’t let your Town Center go idle, see the point above.)
Balance your resources for the task at hand. If you are going to build archers which cost wood and gold, you don’t need much food. If you find you have too much of one resource, take villagers away from gathering it, and use them to gather resources you are short on.
Scout your enemy to find out what units he is using. This will enable you to build their counters.
When you lose a battle because your enemy is using counters to your units, do not simply replace them with the same units. Change what units you are building to counter his own. Adapt to meet the task at hand.
Avoid fighting enemy soldiers if you can help it, and focus on attacking your opponent’s villagers and economy. Only face an enemy army if you are sure of a victory or if he is threatening your own economy.
Don't fight units that counter your own units if you can help it.
Avoid fighting units that counter your own units
After every competitive game you play - especially after losses - you should analyze what you did well, what you did poorly, and what the deciding factor forthe game was. This will enable you to improve more rapidly instead of blaming the losses on luck or “lameness”. If you recognise mistakes, you will make them less often.
Always tend to get more units before you get more upgrades. Always get the line upgrades (Medium Infantry etc) before Armory upgrades - these boost both attack and HP, while the armory upgrades only improve one stat.
Unit relationships
In AoK there were only human units to deal with. In AoM we have three greatly different types of units: heroes, mythological units and regular human soldiers.
While Mythological Units are the elite of your armies and crush normal troops with ease, they are expensive and heroes eat them for breakfast. Heroes, on the other hand, can’t stand up to regular units, (Egyptians) or aren’t cost effective at doing so. (Greeks, Norse) New players may attempt to build armies of too many mythological units and get badly stomped on. The best approach is to focus on regular units, and augment them with a few myth units and heroes. But as I've said before you ought to take good notice of what your enemy makes and act accordingly.
All regular unit types specialize against another unit type, and in turn are weaker against another unit type. Sometimes this is because the unit gets bonus damage against a particular unit type, or sometimes it’s related to their stats. (A slow but strong infantry unit will perform well against cavalry, but die to long ranged archers.)
This is the general relation of units in AoM…however this is just a simplification and there are many exceptions. In order to manage battles effectively, you must learn which units counter what. You may want to check out this counters chart for some more detail.
If you ever want to know what the strengths and weaknesses of a unit are in-game, you can either select the unit and click on its portrait (which brings up detailed information about it) or hit F1 to bring up the tech tree.
Managing your Economy
Part of good economic management is efficient drop point placement
Compared to those in AoK, villagers in AoM work much more efficiently - you won’t need as many as you did in AoK. By the time you reach Heroic Age you shouldn't need to build any more, unless you have lost a lot of them due to fighting. I would aim to get 35-45 villagers for a strong economy (BUT NEVER STOP MAKING VILLS). It is also important to make your economy more powerful by researching the economic upgrades that are available to you, and the new ones you get each time you advance an age.
When considering MU's, you will need to make considerations to what god you are and thus how much resources you can afford to spend on getting favor. Mythological units are powerful, but they are not walking one-man armies - it is best to focus on regular units, and ignore favor for the first part of the game. As the game is now, I believe most of the good players are not sending villagers to the temple or building monuments until well into Classical age unless they attempt some particular strategy reliant on MU’s.
Remember that good economic management is not about who collects the most resources, but who balances and uses his resources in the most efficient way. Try to keep your resources as close to zero as possible by constantly spending them on units and upgrades and only get a large amount of resources in your stockpile storage when you are saving for something expensive. For example: If you are focusing your army on cavalry, you won't need so many villagers gathering wood. But when the opponent starts massing Spearmen to counter your cavalry, you will need to counter them by getting Archers or Throwing Axemen. These units require wood, so you need to move more villagers towards wood, but you won’t need as much food.
So which of all of the food resources should you use and when? Always hunt first. As a new player, you may want to go for the convenient chickens or berries, but hunting is the fastest source of food. After hunting are chickens, then berries. Try to save your cows/goats, because they have gain more food if you leave them alive longer. Farms are the least efficient source of food, and require lots of wood (or gold as Egypt) to set up, so try not to rely on farming for as long as possible. (Although farms become much more efficient in later ages when you can get the farm upgrades.) On maps that have it, fishing is always recommended as it will enable you to rapidly increase your economy - that is, you can train two economic units at once – fishing boats and villagers.
Fighting battles
Learn to manage your units more effectively in battle, and you'll be far more likely to win them
There are many ways the outcome of a game can be decided, but the most common one is a large battle. Typically one player is forced to attack another player’s army, or face the destruction of his economy. (And thus lose the game.)
The most important thing when fighting an enemy army is to get ALL your units into the fight, and not have any stand around enjoying the show. Constantly look out for units to throw into the fight and target them on units that they counter and they can get to easily. It’s not much help to task a unit to the other side of the fight, or on an enemy totally surrounded by units. Target units on something they can fight quickly. Of course, ranged units like Toxotes can reach other units more easily than melée units, which is part of their value.
The second most important aspect is to get your units to attack units that they counter. As said above: learn exactly which units counter what. Some good micro in this area and you can win vs superior numbers. Never, if you can help it, attack enemy units that counter your own units.
Thanks to the new concepts in AoM we do also have a number of other ways turn these battles into our favor. God powers such as Plague of Serpents or Bronze can win a battle you would ordinarily lose. (Especially as it is rather hard to retreat easily in AoM, since your armies do so slowly and often lose a lot of their units.) You may wish to experiment a bit with the god powers to learn the best way to use them. Surprising opponents by the use of better line-of-sight to be able to take advantage of chokepoints is also possible and very effective.
The Greeks
The Greeks will be very familiar to an old Age player. Their buildings are relative in strength to AoK, your gathering camps are stuck in the place you built them, and you even get a scout cav just like AOK. Greeks favor gain is easily controlled by sending villagers to pray at the Temple. If you need more favor, send more vils, if you need less, take them away.
Greek units are the strongest in the game but are also more expensive - this makes it even more important to never let them die unnecessarily. Also keep in mind that while the basic Norse and Egyptian units are built from one structure, the Greeks need three different structures to train units. Think ahead if you’re going to need to change units quickly.
The Egyptians
Empowering resource gathering operations overcomes the slower speed of the Egyptian economy
Egyptian units are very cheap but also much weaker than Norse and Greek ones. Their resource gathering is 10% slower than the Norse and Greeks, but you can also offset the resource gathering penalty by using the pharaoh to empower a resource drop point. (+20% resources.)
Egyptian buildings are a little different from the Norse and Greeks. Houses, drop points, armories and markets are all free, but take a long time to build - so think ahead and compensate for this. Their other buildings – including farms – cost gold. Overall you won’t be spending as much on buildings as Greek and Norse players until you start using those expensive farms. What this means is you can put less villagers on wood and more on food; less on wood because you only need it for building units, and more on food because most of units cost food, as well as compensating for your slower villagers. (Egyptian villagers are no cheaper than the other cultures, yet gather slower, so it's often an idea to build more villagers when playing Egypt than you would otherwise.)
The Norse
Because their military units build structures, it's easy for the Norse to quickly establish forward bases and play aggressively
The Norse approach to gameplay in AoM is probably the most diverse, and also the hardest to master. First of all, they build structures with infantry and not with villagers. This makes for easier offensive building without sacrificing your economy, (A villager building is not gathering resources.) but be careful not to get yourself 'housed'. The Norse also have dwarves – which are essentially villagers who cost gold, but collect gold 20% faster. I recommend building a few dwarves in the game to mine gold.
Norse buildings are weak, but cheaper. Their weak buildings together with their ability to construct buildings with their infantry leads to a very swift playstyle. Rushes are very possible and even though you don’t have to rush to win I’d recommend an aggressive playstyle with lots of units as Norse cannot depend on their weak buildings to keep the enemy at bay.
Finally, the Norse gain by fighting. It’s pretty much free. If you ever need a few points more favor to get that tech or myth unit, try killing some animals.
Recorded Games
This is something you need to do if you want to get better. Watch recorded games - watch those of good players and think about why they do certain things, and copy them if necessary. Watch your own recorded games and look for where you make mistakes. This is one of the keys to getting better.
Good luck, and have fun! ;D
Courtesy of Zhaz from aom.heavengames.com/
