Tag: rushing

In continuation to the earlier post on Rise of Nations, I realized that rushing strategy changes once you are on a sea map. The complications are there because you need to go Sci1, Mil1 and Com1 (to build a port). That means time management has to be absolutely spot on. The ante of the gamble rises because by the time you have a sizeable army and navy to support the crossing, the opponent has gained significant advantage by booming.

So one of the main decisions you have to take is – do you sacrifice economy or the element of surprise? Sea maps are generally long drawn out battles, and the quick rush at the start can really turn the tables. This is even more applicable against the AI. The moment you are across, the first thing should be to capture a city. That becomes your military base. All military upgrades you do on your home base, all unit production on your military base.

How do to Delayed Rush

Here is how I go about the delayed rush –

1. Build two villagers and set them on timber
2. Research Sci1, then Civ1 (I try to strike a balance between speed and economy)
3. Build a farm, keep churning more villies
4. Build the second town and go for Com1 the moment it is feasible (54 food, 54 wood)
5. Focus on wood, build one more timber mill
6. Build a dock and some fishing ships, one to explore, the other (1-2 to fish)
7. By this time you are ready for Mil1, research and build a barracks. Note: Do not stop churning out villies, putting them on wood and farms
8. Aim for Classical age and while you are aging start building units at the barracks. I generally squeeze 3HI + 1 archer before I age.
9. The moment you age go for the senate. Research Despotism, this gives you 25% cheaper barrack units.
10. Now start churning barrack units. Atleast 3HI + 2LI. So you should be having 6HI + 2LI + 1 archer.
11. By this time, your fishing ship would have found your opponents shores, take your army (with the patriot), and head towards the shore. This should be around the seventh minute or so of the game, by which not many players have put together a navy. How to tackle with the navy we will deal later.
12. Board the shores, and head for the nearest city. Attack mercilessly, and take it down.
13. Search for enemy barracks and take it out as well. Wait for the city to assimilate.
14. Once the city is yours, then convert this into a military base. Barracks, Stables, Siege … the works.
15. A temple and a fort would also be advised. This gives you more space territory. More territory + attrition is a good defensive tactic.

Now use your home base as an economic powerhouse, and the military base as the hammer and nail to drive into your opponents heart.

If you see the screenshot I have attached, I was playing against Americans, had managed to put two cities and launch an attack on the enemy shores. Found the second city, and took it. Then used it to take the capital and then the third city.

Variants

I have seen some folks wait for even some more time to research Mil2, and get some siege engines in place. That is also effective, but then to launch an attack you will also need some naval support to engage with the opponent’s navies.

This is for all gamers who play Rise of Nations (and/or Thrones and Patriots). One of the most effective strategies is rushing early on in the game. I shall put it down with pros and cons that I have experienced in the last 18 months of playing the game.

What is a rush?

A rush is done by immediately launching into an attack and striking the opponent before he realizes what just happened. He might be building the 5th farm, getting ready to age, and boom! in comes your army from the darkness and takes his capital. Yeah … that’s what I am talking about.

How is it done?

Pretty simple really. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book.

1. Research Mil1 (some civs already come with this, you are lucky then). An alternate is to go Sci1, Mil1 (but I feel you end up loosing precious timber)
2. Start scouting and build 2-3 villies and put atleast one on farming
3. Build a barrack and start churning out Heavy Infantry (HI). Use the scout on auto, and HI created on micro to search for more ruins. Fastest way to build your resources.
4. Build atleast 4 HI and start heading towards the general direction of your opponents capital. Ignore other cities, you will get to those later. If you are not able to find the capital, then only go for other cities.
5. Keep the unit queue in your barracks active. I aim for 6HI + 2LI (light infantry to take out archers). For speed you can do 5HI + 1LI as well.
6. The minute you find the capital, use all soldiers to attack the capital. Beware of towers and archers.
7. Keep an eye out for the opponent’s barracks. If you have been fast enough, then he should be constructing it right now. Use one HI to tear the construction down (but this is not your priority, the capital is)
8. That should do, you will get the capital sack (+500 resources). If you think that you can hold onto this city (i.e if you have suffered minimal damages, then continue churning more LI (2-3) and some bowmen. Then age. If you think you are going to loose the city, then start razing resources (timber first, farms next, temple, market, university in that order)

Counter

You can counter a rush. Here’s how –

1. Go Mil1 and build a barracks
2. Build a tower behind your capital. With behind I mean, keep the capital between the tower you build and the direction from which you most expect the attack from.
3. In the barracks build 1-2 archers
4. Focus on booming and aging to the next age. Post which the first research should be attrition in the tower

Pros

1. If done properly, you can now use the existing resources as a launchpad for the next opponent. I have seen players do double and triple rushes even taking out 3 players in a go
2. War happens far away from your capital leaving you with a busy resource churning capital
3. In the least it cripples the opponent and makes him ultra-paranoid

Cons

1. If countered well, you are left with a crippled economy and defenseless. It takes a good player to come out of this situation
2. If you are attacked by another player when your army is attacking someone else, then its bye-bye capital and without a city almost immediate loss

In the screenshot I have attached, I was playing a 1-1 Arena match against a Tough comp (piece of cake). I started out with enough resources and a good civ (Turks – faster assimilation). I was not able to find the capital, so I took the city I could find (see the minimap). Then I got to see the border of the capital and moved towards that direction. By this time the Brit had made a barrack (+1 free archers). Fortunately I had 2 slingers to take on the archers. All is well :). By the seventh minute I had taken 2 cities and game over.

Seasoned players, feel free to chip in.

Vipul says (and I agree) –

If you see that the map is a sea map and you have already started plans for the rush, then you need to change strategies a little bit. You need to go for a delayed rush, and switch from pure rushing to delayed rush and booming.