Rise of Nations Strategy and Tactics

According to War

Support Units

Generals

Generals are the single best unit in the game, their advantages are numerous and massive. Nearby units gain armour and this is upgradable at the castle.

In defensive situations, use the entrench ability of the general to effectively double the fighting capabilities of your infantry. You can only entrench in friendly territory.

Forced march enables your units to cover ground more quickly, this will allow you to deploy your attack fast, get out of trouble fast, launch surprise attacks and respond better.

One of my favourite tricks is to send a decoy army deep into enemy territory and either watch his army run back from the front line or even send his army into my entrenched position thinking that it is better to launch his own attack.

Ambush is a hard ability to gauge because you don't know how effective it is, but in theory this will give you a timing advantage.

Spies

Espionage in RoN is a great new dimension that can not be ignored, and although I use it a lot I feel I am only scratching the surface with it.

Infiltration is the main use of a spy, by planting informers in enemy buildings you get their line of site. This is especially useful on forward cities where enemy forces are gathering. For this reason you may want to consider massing your army elsewhere, away from your cities.

At the right time, bribing a key unit off of the enemy can turn a battle, especially if that unit is the enemies siege or a general. However, you can't bribe a supply wagon. Bribed villagers just gain them as informers.

A useful feature of the way craft works for a spy is that when you order an action, the craft will be spent so that the spy will regenerate her craft en-route. So when the informer is placed, the spy will be ready to strike again.

Many people don't use these powerful units, others do but just deploy the odd one or two to get infiltrators and the odd bribed unit. I have just started using these in larger numbers; a force of 5 or 6 working on an enemy army in the height of battle is so useful. Not only can they remove enemy siege (it usually dies quickly) but they can also turn fresh units arriving at the front. If you use this ability your spy becomes visible and is usually shot but if you do it in the height of battle they often are not as the enemy troops are too busy shooting at your troops. At the time of writing this, my best bribe count stands at 19 units, the person I did this on knows all about spies now.

Counter Espionage and detection

Because spy activities can be such a pain then you have to take counter espionage seriously. Use your own spies to remove informers, just select you spy and over the mouse pointer over your buildings. If there is an informer there the pointer will change to counter-espionage and you can remove the parasite. This is especially important around your military forward cities.

To help get rid of the problem altogether use the abilities of observation posts, scouts and helicopters to expose spies so your troops will shoot them as they approach.

Special Forces

Make good use of scouting. At the start of a game there are two things to achieve; a site for your second city, usually this means finding a mountain and forest, and collecting ruin resources. After that you want to ensure as much map coverage as possible, each rare resource is valuable. Look for good terrain to build cities, considering guidelines mentioned below. The scouting of your enemy is not important early on unless you are rushing because he will quickly spread out. Concentrate on your local area first, especially on a wet map as far orders will be wasted until the commerce and dock enables the scout to cross water.

Counter espionage is an important capability both in spotting enemy spies and also to remove informers.

Later on, these units have the sniper ability that enables them to take out a unit with a single shot.

The demolition ability can also be used to demolish buildings, this often will not destroy a building so a few troops on a suicide mission or some air strikes are handy to finish the job; you can use this to take out wonders. The demolition of universities is also a good use of this ability because knowledge is important later on.

Suppression is another side effect of having Special Forces in an area. Various defensive abilities are compromised by their presence, including anti-aircraft fire and SAMs which are jammed.

Supply Wagons and Attrition

Attrition is much over rated. Yes, it's helpful, yes it's very effective at preventing deep raids on your economy. But beyond that it's biggest use is psychological. People are scared of it, there is something very bad about that glowing red patch at the base of all your troop that causes you pain and makes you want to run away. Just like it is very reassuring to see a green glowing patch at the base of your troops next to a French supply wagon or anybody's with Versailles. Some people even dislike this feature in RoN. Well don't, it isn't that bad, attrition is a useful help but it isn't going to kill all your troops if in a battle, attrition takes time. What it does mean is that all your troops will be wounded after a battle and so you will have to garrison them before they are fit to fight on, you will also have lost a few more than otherwise too. Supply wagons prevent this damage which is why people like to target them. Even though killing the supply wagons won't seriously hurt the enemy, it is still a very good thing to do, as first you get a little plunder from it. But mostly because many people will run away to stop that nasty glowing red patch, giving you more free hits as they go in motion and limber up.

Rate of fire of siege equipment is improved by the presence of a supply wagon so they are also useful units to have in defensive situations too.

Be careful where you place your wagons, too far back and your front line troops will bleed and too far forward and they will fall (rapidly) to enemy city fire (they are a very good target for this).

A sneaky tactic with French supply wagons is to hide on in the corner behind the enemy's base. Then send the raiding cavalry and horse archers to pillage the villagers. As the cavalry suffers attrition or city fire it can periodically run off to this secret base to get healed before coming out again. Just be careful you don't lead enemy units back to your supply.

Terrain

There are a few factors to consider with terrain, as well as cliff height advantage. Rocks give a 33% defensive bonus to light infantry and gunpowder units. Troops crossing rivers take extra damage in combat.

Water

As well as the extra damage taking in combat like rivers, troops crossing water have to consider the implications of transporting. While this can be hazardous if there is an enemy naval presence and if the shore is defended, it can also be a safe way to launch an invasion. People very much have the AOC mind-set about water, they believe it's hard to cross especially since RoN does not permit forward building. This couldn't be further from the truth. In RoN it is very important to have some coastal defences as it is very easy for an entire army with siege to get straight to your capitol, bypassing your army on the front line. A nice trick that you can do as an invading force is to position a large squadron of cavalry between the enemy front line and your invading army so that when he sends his army back to defend against the invasion, you will have free attacks on the moving troops, especially siege, if they stop to fight the cavalry then this buys more time for your invading army to assimilate his capitol.

Trees and Mountains

Impassable terrain is very important in RoN but can be a double-edged sword. While it can be very useful as a defensive position you may leave your cities and troops vulnerable to siege attacks, especially later in the game with greater ranges and anti-personnel capabilities.

Building considerations

When expanding generally push forward towards your enemy, this will help with your map control. By controlling the map you increase the wealth that you generate, as well as restrict the wealth that your enemy generates. National boundaries have less effect close to enemy so it is important to claim as much forward land as soon as possible. Uncontested land to the rear of your territory can be back filled with a single city later as its uncontested borders will claim vast areas behind you.

There are times when you want to build away from your opponent. If you are expecting a rush, the extra distance by back building your second city will delay the attack by 30 seconds, which can be critical to your defence, and you can build your third city forward without penalty because the rusher will not have claimed the forward ground. However, if you are not rushed, you will have made a strategic error.

When building, always scout likely sites well; never place a city in empty land, as it will only be good for food. Make sure there are good forest and mountains nearby to exploit. A possible exception to this is you second city, which you need to place as soon as possible and your scout may not have covered that area (potluck). You may also not care for later city placement such as land-grab cities to back fill territory or boundary pushing.

When placing mines and lumber camps, always scan around the resources to find the best spot. You are looking to maximise the number of villager slots within the city radius. It is often worth pulling the building back away from the resource to place it within the city boundary despite this resulting in fewer slots so that you can benefit from processing building upgrades. For early development however you should go for slots, as you will not have the support buildings or upgrades to exploit collection within the city limits.

Be careful when placing military buildings, if you position them too far forward you can easily find them in enemy territory which will force you to advance your civic line when you may not want (or be able) to or lose the buildings. If you are on a more defensive footing them place military buildings behind your forward cities so you can safely mass a defensive force.

Upgrades

Skipping or Jumping

I won't go into what upgrades are good and when here but I just wanted to point out something very useful. Providing you have the prerequisite military line researched, you can skip upgrading your military until you need to use it. This saves you from buying all the incremental upgrades. One thing I like to do is build an army early on and keep getting the numbers of the basic units up while advancing at the library. Then when I want to attack, either in medieval or gunpowder age I can jump straight to the best unit in one upgrade. So, you can turn your catapults into cannons directly without having to get them to trebuchets first. This is true of all military unit lines. If you are attacked while you have weak troops then your first priority is to protect them by garrisoning them while you research the upgrades.

Defensive positions

Building placement

The first consideration for defence is where to place your forward cities. Avoid open terrain, as it will be hard to defend. Enemy forces will have the space to set up a defended siege position with the army in refuse formation. The enemy forces may also be entrenched if his boundaries are strong enough. Maps like Himalayas and Rainforest have many great defensive possibilities. By placing your cities behind passes you will force you enemy into the bottleneck and restrict his attack to one direction. He will not be able to use his cavalry effectively and will be more vulnerable to your flanking cavalry manoeuvres.

Placing cities behind rivers gives them good defensive capabilities, as any invading troops will suffer extra damage crossing the river. However, be aware that you will not be able to sally out to destroy any attacking siege with cavalry so you will have to rely on counter battery fire and spy operations to relieve any sieges.

Towers, Castes and Cities

While castles (forts etc) are a good way to extend your boundaries, it is often a mistake to use them as forward defences, they will be vulnerable to enemy siege. It is better defensively to place these buildings just behind your forward cities. They will lend fire support to any foot assault on your city and add military presence so that the city is not captured so easily.

The key factor to remember here is that cities don't get destroyed, once they get to zero hit-points it doesn't matter how much pounding they get, it will still be there and you will not suffer for it, you can still trade and still gather at it. Forts and towers on the other hand are lost if they are reduced.

Towers should be placed similarly so that they do not become the primary targets for siege.

Garrisons

Probably the biggest factor in defending a city is the use of garrisons. Rather than stream your army into the battle where they will be swamped, place them inside the city. They will add to the city attack and increase in size in safety until you reach a critical mass. Damaged units will heal too (usually at a very nice rate). Remember that you can garrison troops in the building that made them. This is particularly important for siege and supply wagons, get them repaired when not in use.

This is also where the placement of nearby towers and castles becomes important as you can amass a much bigger army safely.

Remember that you can garrison ships in docks too, for shelter and repair.

Defensive Battlefield

Entrench. This effectively doubles the capabilities of your infantry, keep on entrenching too, as you add to your army the new arrivals will not be entrenched but your general will recover his craft so keep doing it to maximise your defensive advantage.

Make plenty of siege, In a defensive position, siege is the only defence you have against enemy bombardment, use counter battery fire and don't forget to use supply wagons as they increase your guns rates of fire even though you don't need the anti-attrition abilities. French supply is so lovely for the healing capabilities to defensive troops so it make the palace of Versailles a wonder of choice.

If your city is in a good defensive position then line formation is fine for your troops, otherwise you should either use refuse or manage two armies with one in echelon.

Attacking positions

Siege

All attacks need a good amount of siege units to succeed. Often, time is against you so you will lose if you only have one or two pieces levelling a city. If you ever stop, a city can be repaired very quickly. Always bring ample siege so that the city can be levelled and then kept down with a single piece while the rest of the battery helps to suppress enemy troops and other nearby military buildings.

Buildings

Battles can last a while and without regular re-supply you are at a disadvantage. As an attacker it is important to keep sending new units to the front so building extra barracks, stables and siege workshops as far forward as you can will help keep your momentum going.

Battlefield Management

Formations

If you only ever use one formation, use the siege attack. By holding the Alt key down when right-clicking your army on a building, you order your siege to move into position and begin bombardment while the rest of your army adopts the refuse formation around it to protect the position.

Rise of Nations makes it easy to use formations. Select your units then as you go to move them with the right mouse button, hold the button down. Change the facing by dragging the mouse, change formation by left clicking and change the density of the formation by use of the scroll wheel. When you have the formation you want just release the right mouse button.

Generals and Spies

You absolutely must have a general or two along with any force. The armour benefits alone make them massive value for money. Then you can take advantage of the others general abilities. Use spies in battle too to bribe key units, especially siege, generals and fresh reinforcements arriving.

Unit positioning

Never place your cavalry in the main body of your army. If you do this it will be the first to die in battle and without accounting for itself. By default, the enemies pike are in the front row so when a battle commences your knight's superior speed just causes them to suicide attack the line. Always amass your knights well off to one side (I mean well off, not even close). You want your knights to go in after the main battle is joined where they will be able to attack archers and siege unopposed or at least smash into the flank of the, already engaged enemy.

For this reason, it's often a good idea to have a unit of pike in a separate formation to protect the flank or rear, one or two will do to engage the enemy mounted. Your own cavalry can help here too if you do not have sufficient numbers to launch an effective flank attack then they might as well patrol your flank.

So why bother? Well, because it's important. Unit formations have a front, a flank and a rear. Units that are attacked in the rear suffer an additional 50% damage. Units that are attacked in the flank suffer a 100% extra damage.

Manoeuvres

Probably the most dangerous thing a large army can do is move, particularly if you do it from an entrenched position. Before moving a large army you should prepare for it. Never move to a blind position. Early scouts are not much help here because they just get shot (I think they should have made scouts more hidden). The best scouts you have are your spies. Make sure you have the enemy forward armies' well spotted first. You can also prepare for a move by defining control groups to sub-divide your army and reduce the formation lag. Formation lag is when your army all starts milling around before the move to maintain formation, troops become de-entrenched and deployed artillery limber up. It may well be worth moving your siege separately (but still with the army) to avoid much of this lag.

You can advance your army progressively by issuing a forward order (F) which will make them advance in a controlled and steady manner.

Cavalry manoeuvres are where a lot of the fun can be had. For successful cavalry operations you must have them completely detached from your main army so that they have the freedom to move. By building a squadron away from main battle-force you give yourself massive strike capability. This flanking force can be used to smash flanks, plunder siege and supply or maybe even launch raids into nearby enemy cities.

Timing

Timing is key. Knowing when to rush in, when to build up and when to hold back can be the biggest factor in winning a decisive battle. With so many major bonuses for troops in various circumstances, just having weight of numbers may not be enough. One of the biggest mistakes people make is rushing in to take a city too early. Let your siege do it's work first, take the city down to zero and level any near by fortifications first, look for garrisoned barracks nearby and level them too, you need to know what force you are up against. Similarly, another mistake is to delay too long. You need to have a feel for the disposition of forces. If you have a good army but a weak economy then time is against you, you need to act as soon as is practicable because the longer it goes the worse it will get. Building more units becomes ever more a burden to you where your enemy's better economy and cheaper units will allow him to play catch-up.

Make sure you have all your forces in place before attacking. Is the target sufficiently suppressed (siege)? Have you infiltrated the area (spies)? Are your spies in position and charged with craft ready to bribe? Do you have Special Forces in the area? Is your cavalry ready? If yes then off you go, if no then is there a quick fix?

If you win a major battle and crush the enemy army while retaining yours it may well pay to roll over him and attempt a swift victory. This is particularly important in a team game, use fresh troops from the back to consolidate the new gains with strength.

Micro-management

The old concepts of micro-management no longer apply. Focus firing has a much less effect in RoN. Focus firing is where you have a selected group of units (usually archers) and target specific units to kill them. In RoN, the more you have targeting each unit, the less effective they each are so you waste efficiency. Use your micro-management attentions to control your cavalry and spies and to move fresh troops into positions. Prevent over-enthusiastic troops from breaking ranks. Position your troops to better terrain, move out of rivers and put your light infantry and gunpowder units onto rocks.

Counters

No surprises here, we all know about units that counter other units. If you are not sure just hover the mouse pointer over a unit with high detail help on to find out what it is good and bad at. The only thing you have to be aware of is that the counter model changes from time to time when you upgrade the troops, so what used to counter and enemy unit may not if you upgrade it.

A few key counters to be aware of apart from the obvious. Light cavalry murder a horse archer rush. Helicopters take out tanks (a common rookie mistake is to send a massive division of tanks in to a battle.

In naval battles, use the full range of ships available. Most people still just build galleys and this does not work, a few fire ships will see them off cheaply.

Teamwork

Building

You can build in an ally's territory so send some villagers to build a barracks. This will dramatically increase your response time and allow you to build a co-operating force.

Guarding

Typically, you might send some troops to your allies' aid to repel an attack, fine, but afterwards you have a small force there, which will usually be forgotten about.

The easiest way to co-ordinate a supporting force with your ally is to use the guard function (R). By guarding key units in the enemies force (siege, supply, generals) your troops will automatically stay relevant. They will enter into battle with his forces and you never need to do a thing.

Trade routes

Because trade is automatic in RoN you can't do a lot about it so you have to bear this in mind when you build your cities. Usually this isn't a problem but it can be, especially when you are trading with teammates. If the enemy gets a forward position between your lands then you need to make this a high priority, as it will destroy your wealth economy. Similarly, dividing your opponents is a worthy goal. This is particularly important for pocket players and makes booming risky because you invite an attack to split the trade and you miss the opportunity to disrupt the enemy's trade routes.

Response

The maps is RoN are pretty big so bear this in mind when asking for help or preparing to help. Don't wait until things look dodgy before asking for assistance, unless you are confident, flare early. If a teammate is aware then they can judge for themselves as well as rely on you for information. Also remember that it is very easy to miss messages in the game so repeat requests until you get a response. Always reply to a request for help, even if its only "I can't".

When sending help in an emergency you should look to your fast units first. Planes are the best, if you are of an age then you can have ten or twenty aircraft lending support in seconds. Usually you will not be able to do this so cavalry are you next best option. A nice tip to select every unit of a given type is to select one and then press the Home key, now send them all in (to the flank and rear).

If you are sending a regular army, then send a general too and utilise his forced march ability. It's usually a good idea at this time to send a few villagers along to build barracks and other military buildings to support your ally so you are able to easily respond an emergency situation in the future.

Planning

A bit obvious this, but if you are going to double an attack then communicate before going in. Make sure your ally is as ready as he wants, don't just say "attack now!" rather ask "are you ready to attack now?"

Depending on the units you each have it may be better if one attacks while the other supports the attack (protects flank and rear).

Finally, when attacking a city together it's maybe useful to agree who will take it, usually it doesn't matter but sometimes on player will need the city and other times it will be beneficial for the other player to have an established base of operations. Some civilisation's bonuses will help too with tougher cites and quicker assimilation.