Vanilla RoN 101

Got any questions about Vanilla Rise Of Nations gameplay/strategy I will either attempt to answer them, or attempt to find someone who can answer them. D

Be aware there are many avenues to victory and so much of strategic discussion is debatable. It's up to you to find the methods that better suit your style of play.

Unfortunately I know nothing about technical difficulties (ie hosting, why gamespy sucks so bad, etc) so cannot offer help in this regard.

So please, you newer players out there, do not be afraid to visit AU and ask us questions. We are not just here to destroy you all twisted ...

we'd like to fatten you up first.

8)

And how many noobs know the au site...

Just give this thing a chance and spam off elsewhere please I have me plans and will take my own rambunctious time about it .

And they are not noobs. They are FRESH MEAT! D

well humble if you're interested in this for real as i'm too busy to commit to it i can try to give you better coverage if you like?

TGE

Definately TGE. Coverage is gratefully accepted.

I'm gonna be here regularly.

AU have the respect of the bulk of the community for our gaming skills and strategic thinking.

This place is a veritable fountain of great advice.

So yes, let em know shops open!

my bigger picture for this was to have many members of the expert community take a newer player and train them and then have like a small contest where the newer players play against each other and the one that did the best will win a prize for him and his coach.

perhizzle one dizzle my nizzle

TGE

No sorry. The moment you get several 'experts' in one place it turns into a committee and nothing gets done. Won't be happening I'm driving and others can help answer/coach as they see fit.

I also refuse to be pinned to regular times as my life is very flexible and will remain so.

Where do I place the stable, rax and seige factory?
Sometimes I place my stable foward and raid. But if I'm early attacked then I'm screwed. I try to get the rax before the 3rd city but mostly get the rax after i build the third city and then I have the rax and seige factory foward and the stable abit behind which helps me to pump up units faster and get them to the enemy territory in a shorter distance. What do you guys think I should do about it ?

Another question is about the senate placement. Not always sure if to put it on the first, second or third city. I mostly put it on the first and get a castle on the cap as soon as possible. What do you suggest?

regards,
Tal-Y.

Hmmm, seems best to just build that senate in your military city that is the city where your rax/stable/ siege factory is placed.

It's imo indeed best to get up a rax before 3d city.
The stable should be put in front of the wood if its a little further away, basicly just build it forward as you sayd.

Also use your buildings to cover your farms/mines/woodcamps... In this way ha's won't be able to shoot at your villies instantly and it gives you time to run into the safety of your town.

Good start rambozo? ^^

Personally I try to get my first military buildings central to most (in middle of) my cities so I can respond in any given direction.

Others will always place their stable on border of second city while commencing fast raid.

I think your barracks is being built too slowly to respond to rushes/delayed rushes/ and even fast medieval attacks.

This is Vanilla Ron Q&A but as for senate - I try put it in the most defensible city. To choose which I look at geography (if attacked can I flank from here) are there rivers, mountains protecting some of it? Elevation? Rocks? All of these count and as the Senate effectively makes it's placement a Capital it's always best to have a look before building it. Many folks stick to their original Capital as it's furthest away but sneak attacks are common.

Put your first stable where it makes sense. This is usually in your second city. Whether you put it forward or backward is another question. I would not put it forward vs border pushing civs like Russia (might be eaten by a fast third city) or a sieging civ like Turks (your stable is just meat for the siege). So it's generally safest to put the first stable (and generally any military building) behind your front city.

Sometimes you can afford to build it in the middle of nowhere, if you are going to put up a third city very soon for example. Then place your stable just behind where you think you'll place your third city.

I am definitely not an advocate of putting a stable in the middle of nowhere away from the radius of a city until later in the game (like on the flank for raiding). It's just too easy for a too-far-forward stable to be caught by enemy borders, siege, troops, Senators, etc...I have won a lot of games by going Republic and bribing people's too-far-forward buildings.

I have seen many players getting the rax and stable behind the second city and the seige factory behind the third city.
I have doubts about it.
It's good for defence and the enemy will probably attack the city and not the stable, seige factory or rax which allows me to make units.

On the other hand, on offence I want to have a close rax and stable so the units will join my army sooner and faster.
Getting units behind the second city and moving them to the enemy territory takes quite a while and slows down the army enlargement production.

Is it better to get the rax, stable and seige factory behind the 3rd city or the rax and the stable behind the second city and factory behind the 3rd?

About the senate.
Some say that I should make the military city the capital, but that city is most of the times very close to the enemy, which means that if he overcomes my army and captures my capital even just for a short while, he'll probbly raze my woodcutter's camps, farms and mines and he will get +500 recources plunder.

If I make the first city the capital then it's harder for me to defend, but it's also harder for the enemy to keep pumping units to enlarge his army. With a castle which slows him down, I should get my army to my cap with march rather quickly.
The weakness is on early sneak attacks which I probbly won't have enough time to prevent the enemy from capturing my capital.

More advice and suggestions would be appreciated.

regards,
Tal-Y.

The placement of your rax etc is always going to be debatable.

If you want garrison capability for raiding parties returning with injuries then as far forward as you can without losing it to bribes/borders is what's required. If you want it defensive then behind a city is definately the best bet.

With your Fort ask yourself - Do I want to border-push with this or reinforce some territory? Then make it. If you fear for your capitals safety a fort definately helps peace of mind.

I dunno, but if I have siege and I see forward military buildings, I always attack them first. You get a very immediate payoff (i.e. a rax gives you +80 food or whatnot, plus ur opponent has to rebuild one, which costs 120w at least). OTOH, reducing a city doesn't have an immediate payoff unless you have enough troops to take it. With turks it's even better--you can siege even things BEHIND the city.

You want your capital in whatever spot is easiest to defend. Usually that's the first city (since it's farthest away), but often on maps like Old World or Amazon chokepoints can make the 2nd city pretty much impossible to attack (i.e. there is no way to siege the city effectively). In that case you should definitely place your capital in the 2nd city.

If I build military buildings forward its as I plan to have a city there but I do see a lot of stables on borders for raiding in recs.

I like destroying mil buildings too and love it when I can park my whole army in the middle of the enemies while seiging their city ;)

[quoteae813c4264]I like destroying mil buildings too and love it when I can park my whole army in the middle of the enemies while seiging their city [/quoteae813c4264]
This can be nasty for ya tho in some cases. If he has his army garrisoned in his city, then he can garrison troops as he builds them in his mil buildings. Once you reduce the city (or come close to killing a mil building, his army can spring from the city & the mil buildings. You have no way to estimate his force size and thus no way to know if you'll win /.....

spies.

You cant micro ungarrisoning when surrounded by troops.

and whats the purpose of this post > kod_ww3

To create a learning and advice resourse for players who want to improve their standard game.

1st KOD here. Welcome!

1st y do they call it vanilla RON?

2nd is scouting the corners of the map a good i dea? or should i scout the middle of the map first?

second dose Roman fort trick work in reg ron? eg. place outline of 3 towers in acient then delete them in classical to make a fort.

uno mas....is it better to attack with a small army in classical-medevil or with a big army in gunpowder-enlight?

Vanilla, I believe is used for a nickname as Vanilla ice cream is the original flavour. As Rise Of Nations is the original flavour of our favourite game...

Most maps have ruins in the corners and or/rares and so are good to scout. However, you'll also want to know what your enemy is up to.

What I do is send scout to the corner closest to me then across my front border for potential 2nd city sity then headed for enemy. I use villagers or military units according to the civilisation I have to scout in other places.

Watch recs of experts in particular sims and wolf for good scouting patterns/habits. (except when sims thinks he's unrushable P )

Fort trick can be used in both games. I still think as romans have so much gold that getting com 2 (you'll be wanting it anyway) buying 100 iron and making a mine for the last little bit is more practical. Especially in Vanilla where their gold collection per city is still 15.

A castle this early should be used to push up onto the enemies borders where hopefully you can seige/attack with tower support.

Small or larger attack?

This is a good question. Some civs are better for faster attacks than others. Most experts have discarded the notion of build to certain com cap then attack etc. You will find as you play better and better players the attacks come earlier and more often. Classical raiding is the first agression in 90% of cases so raid/defense/capability is a good early option. However, some pick an agressive civilisation and then boom a little to confuse their opponent. Again, scout your enemy.

Knowledge of your civilisation and it's capabilities will also help you determine when to attack. Scouting helps you determine where. There is no hard and fast rule. Rares, salt, horses, cotton, copper, make a difference to your attack readiness as well.

This is something you really need to feel out. Find civs you like and experiment with attacks at various stages.

Personaly I will normally raid with one or 2 cav just to get the feel for enemy strengths while I am building an attack force AND working towards 150 com cap. If enemy is stronger I'll go Medieval add seige and attack, if I find a weak spot I'm in there with heavy infantry trying to steal the city.

Maps also change the time of attack. East meets West is a perfect example of a bad map to attack early on. I've done it, I've done it with another good player at my side, we caused absolute havoc but were repelled. (

Sahara is a perfect example of a map to fight early on. easy access to enemy, easy escape without rivers and mountains etc everywhere.

So, sorry I can't answer this straight or easily for you.

When to attack depends on

The Map
The enemies Civilisation
Your Civilisation
The rares you have
The rares they have
What scout has revealed about your enemies build up
and of course, intuition )

Pretty sure in Vanilla Rome doesn't have cheaper forts, just cheaper towers.