Rise of Nations/Walkthrough

Tips for rise of nations

1. Be at your commerce limit for all resources at any point intime of the game. Well rounded Economy is the backbone for victory. Your primary objective should be to have well rounded economy followed by well rounded military. Be sure to be well rounded in all aspects of the game instead of focusing one alone at any point in time of the game.

2. Research priority should be first economy then followed by military. So, sci->Civ>com>mil> corresponding age > ............ can be a good research sequence in most of the cases. Sometimes you can research extra military incase of emergency or rushing or you have mongols/aztecs in ancient age+1/starting age+1, but dont do always. In case of mongols and aztecs research up to mil3 ( skipping all other research ) and build barracks(aztecs),mongols(stables). However post info age research at library depends on scenarios you are facing.

3. If you have extra resources build wonders that can overcome nations weakness or resources which are in short supply.( Eg for bantu build hanging gardens instead of colossus.Similarly if you are running out of food build pyramids. If you are an american go for colossus/pyramids instead of hanging gardens). If you are a dutch go for military related wonders. If india go for wonders that give other resource benefits not wealth. If you are running out of mines build wonder that give metal benefits. Don't underestimate the power of wonders. Wonders are key for economy which in turn key for victory. Choosing right wonders pay you most.

4. Research governments that can overcome nations weakness.For russia, research socialism instead of capitalism. Russians have good oil gather rate by default. For dutch go for socialism ,monarchy and depotism in most cases.

5. Every city should have market( if you are not at wealth limit or good wealth nations),university( note: no limit for knowledge until you reach the limit +999 for any nation at any point in time it requires a lot in later stages ), some towers, Sam installations when airplanes are available, barracks/stables with few solders for defense. If city at the border of the opponent build temple/fort also. Order depends on scenarios you are facing.

6. When opponent is attacking your city take out in order - generals, then supply wagons( if your are in friendly territory), siege weapons, spys, then other units. Dont blindly attack on whole army. Army without generals can be dismantled quickly even they are in higher number especially in your territory with/without attrition damage. Make sure all units are aligned before attacking.

7. Except when you are going for expansion of your territory for economy always attack your opponents capital city as priority. Dont perform a small attack except when it is used as a strategy. When you attacking a city you must have atleast plundered the city even in case you cannot hold it and attack should be brutal/well planned/full fledged. You ultimate aim should be to hold the city after attacking. Otherwise it is a waste of huge resources. Army should be well rounded with all units including generals/spys/siege units/infantry.. etc with a very big number. However the number of individual units depends on scenarios. Use spys to bribe enemy units in battlefield and convert important enemy units and use generals to create decoys every now and then, when crafts are available.Remember Spys can be attacked or seen by very few units. Remember to take out the opposition general units first.

8. Have a small army/create a small army with a general to take out enemy citizens/small resource buildings alone like mining camps,oil wells etc which are well outside enemy city/enemy defense.Similary take out fishing ships as well. Consider it as a patriotic army. They need not come back. Take as many economy buildings/citizens as you can as they are alive without losing them. Do not attack military units with this. Army with units with good aglity is good for this purpose. May be stable units untils bombers available. Dont include slow moving units in this army. Also this is a hit and run attack. As soon as your objective is satisfied vacate the place immediately. If you have some time, take some citizens. Dont go in fight with other military units. If you sight considerable military units vacate the place immediately. You can also use bombers when it is available. Do this every now and then. This will hamper economy growth of oppositions. Also consider nations weak resource to gather if possible but not always.But beware of doing this before russians.

9. Consider infinite queues for some unit creations and other short cut keys that can be used for handy. Consider infinite queues for scholars/villagers/infantries which may save your time. When you are at commerce limit dont create units that will generate that resource. ( Eg Dont create caravans when you are at commerce limit.)

10.Powerful wonders in my opinion are colosus,statue of liberty city and supercollider(If you havent done post info age research this will be powerful). However, if you are having nuclear weapons/stealth bombers then space wonder may be very beneficial than supercollider. Be sure about all wonder benefits and well verse in the scenarios when you can build. If your opponent is a russian then statue of liberty city/kremblin is a much needed wonder for victory. Because it will counter act attrition damage caused by russian nation and make you easy to attack. If your are an american terra cotta army will be beneficial. If your opponent is an american/greeks then you may opt to have hanging gardens to cope faster development for knowledge.This is not the thumb rule. It may change according to scenarios/nations you are facing. Choosing wrong wonder may cost you dearly and even to loose in many cases. Sometimes you may have choose between the two.

10. Explore the map using scout/spy units. This will give plenty of information.

11. Attack as soon as when you have army with good numbers(pop limit) and dont go offensive if you dont have sufficient army. Especially dont chase enemy units when their attack counter attacked especially when they are strong. Wait until you get sufficient army before attacking.

12. Garrion wounded units when not attacking/defending/when not involved in fighting to heal. Use units wisely. Dont lose units unnecessarily in fighting. Dont engage in war you cannot win.

13. Build cities in defensive place/other end of war zone when you are losing cities in other end. Dont engage full fledged war to get lost city back if you sensed you cannot win/reclaim. Instead focus on weakening enemy,economy growth and making the other cities more defensive.Also sure your capital city is in higly defensive place.

14. If your enemy is much stronger than you then, dont perform a full fledged attack. Play defensively. Perform hit and run attack to weaken enemy economy and plunder as much as you can. Make sure all your cities have good solid defense.Dont encounter with enemy military units directly as much as possible in opponents territory. Do this until you are sufficiently strong enough than your opposition. You can verify the points table in the right bottom of the screen for this purpose. Also well verse in counter units for every enemy units.

15.Spend time equally for all parts of game economy,military,research, exploration.Dont stick on one of them even situation warrants. It will costs you dearly. Keep units busy all the times as much as possible. Watch playback of recorded games played by excellent players.

16. Use market effectively.When you reach industrial buy some oil( sometimes all ) in market.Oil is the most important resource in later part of the game.Also when you got stuck some in economic research use market. It is just return on investment.

Tips for some nations

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====================================================== Assumption is you are playing against an expert and he knows what to do when and against whom and standard playing conditions.

Russia:- Dont attack opponent until industrial age. Russia cannot outboom any nation by default unless your opponent is a crap. Dont spend much on barracks/miltary on early ages including unit upgrades. However you need cavalry a lot to defend and raid. When I play as russians I will not build siege/siege factory until industral age. I will build castles mainly for spies, 2-5 stables, 1 barracks and few towers for defense. I will build only cavalry and spies mostly.I will not build any other units until there is a need.Enemy comes to attack I will flank using cavalry ambush. Create more cavalry units. However you can consider raiding with despot and cavalry. Cavalry are cheap as well contains attack bonus for russia. Russian cavalry are one of the superior cavalry in the game.Recommended governments would be despotism-monarchy-socialism. It is difficult for russians to fill their commerce cap in many cases unless blessed with rares. Consider building hanging gardens.Because good players boom faster with other nations than you and you have to cop with it. Especially good players dont attack russia early. They know they can outboom russia by age ahead or technology and then attack. Best wonders are Hanging gardens, Statue of liberty city.I usually dont upgrade barrack units mostly until if I had too many resources and not even consider building siege/siege factory until industrial age. Statue of liberty city gives me two advantage. First tonnes of unit upgrade costs and It will keep the attrition bonus with you. However statue of liberty city is a powerful wonder for many nations. There is always a big competition for this wonder. Nukes/missiles can be easily built by russia followed by america because of their nation unique powers. Russians has to make use of the nukes/missiles.

Americans:- Create more barrack units/barracks in military than cavalry units. However dont neglect cavalry. Use all type of nefty tricks possible with their instant wonder power if possible. Suppose if you going to loose a battle by stronger opponent consider building red fort instantly. You can also consider build red fort next to enemy city/capital and capture it if your opponent is too resisting. It is very difficult to stop it from your opponent. Red fort has very good attack strength and range with excellent armor.Consider building terra cotta army in most of the cases. One of the best wonders for americans followed chinese. Military victory is very crucial and deciding factor of the game for americans. You are not afford to lose battles especially on full scale attack. Unlike other nations when americans lose a battle it will left them in a very crappy state. You can see the points table comes rapidly for americans than any other nation when losing a battle. Be fully prepared before engaging in full war to maximum extent especially before enlightment. Best time for americans to go offensive will be from enlightment age onwards.However they can risk for ancient rush. Americans will not affect much by doing ancient rush.Americans can boom like hell from enlightment to end ages than any other nation. Going offensive from classical to gunpowder is not good until you are superior to your apponent. Even if you and your apponent are equal dont engage in full war. War will affect you most than your apponent. However you can consider raiding with cavalry with despot. After enlightment americans and after industrial age russians are more superpowers if you your apponent failed to curb or hamper you before that you can easily take away the game unless you do some silly mistakes. Many of them believe americans are overpowered. But in reality they are not powerful until enlightment age. Especially their military. At equal army strength(in terms of upgrade and quantity) many nations can beat america until enlightment. But you can balance it by instant wonder and cheaper mil unit upgrades mainly intended for balance ( may be overbalance). Recommended governments would be Despotism-democracy-capitalism.

Mongols:- Obviously many know about mongols. Raiding early is the key for mongols. After reaching classical age with standard procedure, research upto  3 mil tech and build stables as much you can afford simultaneouly. By the time you research 3 mil completed stables has to be completed( after 2 mil researched) so that you can get the maximum horse riders. Build heavy cavalry simultaneously in all stables. Dont queue in 1 stable alone. Time is important. Early the better. If you done this correctly you will currently have 3-5 heavy cavalry, 9 horse archers ( 3 from each stable and 1 despot ) Save as much timber as possible in ancient age to build stables. Temple/barracks can be skipped in ancient age. Only one market. Raid the enemy heavily. Raiding is only of the easient thing to do. Ambush to enemy mines mostly /resource centers. Even just cross the enemy town they will do the rest. While raiding never stand still. Every cavalry must be on the move and in raid stance. Dont target individual villagers horse raiders will automatically take care of that whatever they encounter. Expert players use light horses and archers to counter the raid. Counter them with heavy cavalry. Take away horse archers from light cavalry especially. Rest of the units you need not worry about. But dont stand still or engage war with them. Towers and even castles are not effective against fast moving targets. However they do some damage but not enough to kill them. So dont worry about towers. They are just useless junk against raiding. Primary targets of raiding are merchants,caravans followed by mines,wood cutter camps. 1 caravan worth 5 villagers kill proportionally. Because wealth is the most important in classical age than any resource. wealth is needed deadly in classical age. If you kill all caravans and merchants or almost all you can definitely age up ahead of apponent. You are afford to loose few units in raiding if it is a successfull raid. Raid Raid Raid. You have to do many raids to weaken the apponent.If you cannot hamper your apponent until enlightment age successfully you will lose the game likely. After enlightment mongols are not powerful. Game will slowly go out of hands. Mongols can raid any nation but be watchful against iroquois. Mongols can raid iroqouis but need some training. Recommended governments are Despotism,Monarchy,Capitalism.

Germans:- Has most powerful military though out the game. Good powerful boom for earlier ages. Germans can follow any strategy. They can attack or they can boom. Germans can fill their commerce cap with ease than any other nation. So, even when attack/rush you have to ensure to be at the commerce cap especially at earlier ages and they has to quick to do this. Germans cannot boom like americans or russians after industrial age but they can backed up a strong economy base for the entrie game and keep up with them. Popular german strategy would be boom in early ages attack in middle ages and finish the game before end ages. Germans are excellent for people who can micro army units. Germans can adapt to any form of governments. But, I feel all economic forms of government are beneficial to germans they can outboom any nation especially in early ages. Germans can choose any wonder depending on circumstances.

Bantu:- Bantu can excel in drawn out games/death match games. Common mistake many will make is colossus one of the best wonder for bantu. Some even tell bantu+colusses = end of game. And there is no need to worry about colosus. Just a nuclear bomb will end coluses or few bomber hits coluses is gone. Coluses has very few hit points to crack down. Surely not against expert/best players. You cannot win a superior army even if you are more in number.Bacically they are not good boomers in middle ages. In middle ages bantu got stuck a bit in boom especially when they cannot able to make full of their cities. So, bantu is not good for smaller maps. I prefer pyramids/hanging gardens to colusses especially for bantu. Terra kotta army and statue of liberty city is also very much useful for Bantu. Population count is not at all a factor for experts/best players. If they outboom in terms of ages you are gone. They can turn apart your military even if it is 150. 250 population is more than sufficient to win a game.Your first prority should be able to cop with your apponent boom. Many of them confused whether to build third city after researching 1 civ. It depends on scenario. If your apponent is aggressive nations then no and can be after classical or mil1. Dont try your luck. If you opponent is a boomer ( dutch,inca ... etc) then immediate. Dont use bantu for crazy border pushing against romans/russians. They are poor in border pushing and you will lose. Bantu are good for people who can manage their economy. Best governments would be despotism-democracy-capitalism. Bantu can postpone military research as much as possible. Often military is the last to be researched in age tree. Best wonders are pyramids,hanging gardens,terracotta army, statue of liberty city.

These tips are prepared on my own with my own experience with assumption you are playing against toughest AI/very good player. Any suggestions/value additions to these are welcome. Prepared by mskgames1.