For those of you that participated in the MFO/BHG Random Offensive Nations Smackdown tournament, you still have a chance to win the T&P beta! Post your winning game at MFO (or e-mail your recorded game to the staff at MFO) or on another site (just let me know which site). I will give away my T&P beta to the person who submits the best game!

1. The recorded game must be from the Random Offensive Nations Tournament.

2. You had to win the game, unless it was a game against one of the Top 8 finishers of the Tournament.

3. The recorded game will be judged by me, and the deadline to submit the recorded games will be this Monday, the 8th of March by Noon, Pacific Standard Time.



So hurry up!

posted by El_Capitan at 6:42 PM

I'm drunk, but I think I just came up with a new strategy. It's not very well furnished yet, I just got thinking of it, but I shall try it in the tourney on Sunday (or Saturday, if my competition seems tough). Hehe, this is so funny, it's funny. <-- I was drunk when I came up with this.

Okay, for those of you that don't know my Drunken Strategy, here it is. It's a better variation than the one used in the Random Offensive Nations (RON) Tournament, because it requires more booming than quick attacking.

Research SCI 1 and MIL 1. Make a Barracks. Create 1 or 2 Heavy Infantry to head straight toward the enemy's Capital. Then make 1 or 2 Light Infantry to help scout for Ruins. That's it! Make sure your HI are on RAID stance, and take out Farming or Timber harvesting Citizens. You should easily slow down the enemy's economy, and the only way for them to kill the pesky HI is to make a Foot Archer. Ingenious idea for a drunk, eh?

Now, after your Tier 1 Library is complete, it should look like 1/1/1/1/, but you can get SCI 2 before going Classical if you prefer (1/1/1/2). You should easily take out 4 to 5 Citizens with your HI, and find 6-8 Ruins with your LI. You should have a very quick start.

After that, just boom like crazy, but make 2 to 3 Light Horse for raid defense. And if your opponent decides to raid you, you're so far up, that there's no way he can out boom you.

Don't make a clumsy mistake to take the advantage for an early assault in Classical Age or Medieval Age. This is how you'll lose. Instead, you need to boom like mad. Don't raid in Classical Age, either. Most likely your opponent will have 2 Foot Archers that took down your HI. Those FA will kill your HA, along with 1 Light Horse if he makes any.

So, basically the Drunken Strategy is how you play the first two minutes of the game, the rest of the time you're sobering up and booming. =)


posted by El_Capitan at 5:14 AM

A brief synopsis on areas you need to improve on to become a better player at RoN. I do not do any training regimin's for anyone, but these are what I tell most players to focus on depending on where they're starting in the game.

Noob: If you're just starting out, I'd suggest getting familiar with the Micro, Hot Keys, establishing Control Groups, and learning how to Maximize your Economy. You don't even have to play Multiplayer games to practice this, just play through the Skills Test options such as Whack the General (my favorite), Hotkey Handling, and Aging Madness - Age 8. No one can help you out in this aspect, you're mostly going to have to explore on your own. The most important thing I'd like to mention is establishing Control Groups. They make a very big difference, and it enables me to instruct you further on how to use those Control Groups to make a difference in actual multiplayer games. Open up every User Interface in the game screen, such as the Top Left UI that displays the market buy/sell rate and the amount of workers assigned to each resource. Familiarize yourself with everything out there, including pressing F12 to display particular items of interest about you and your opponent's Nation.

To Control Group, you have to click on a unit(s) or building(s) and hold {Ctrl} and {any number from 1 through 0}. After it's Control Grouped, just pressing that number will enable that object, and pressing it twice will bring the screen to that object. Here are my list of Control Groups, and it's best if you followed my order if you never bothered with making up your own.

#1 = Scout
#2 = Raiding Units
#3 = Assault Units (Secondary Raiding Units if no Assault Groups available)
#4 = Fortress (Third Raiding Units if no Fortress Available)
#5 = Main Barracks, Stables, Siege Factories (if it's a water map, make this Control Group active for all your Docks)
#6 = Secondary Barracks, Stables, Siege Factories (if it's a water map, this Control Group becomes your Main)
#7 = 1st Airbase (mainly for Fighters)
#8 = 2nd Airbase (mainly for Bombers and Helicopters)
#9 = 1st Missile Silo (until the Modern Age, this will be used for any scouting/building Citizens)
#0 = 2nd Missile Silo (until the Modern Age, this will be used for any scouting/building Citizens)

Rooks: Now that you've gotten used to the fundamentals of economic management, it's time to learn a few things to improve your speed. Manipulating Ruins, Basic Strategies, Raiding Micro, Raiding Defense, and Sieging a City. Focus on looking at the Mini-Map frequently, and practice moving your units just from the Mini-Map. This is a good time to learn how to start learning how to do the different types of Rushes, and how to defend against them.

Inters: Then you'll learn the build orders for Nation Specific Strategies, and know their strengths and weaknesses. Learn the different map types, and certain build orders for maps with fishing that will enable you to boom much faster earlier on.

Good: At this point, you need to focus on the little things. Precise scouting patterns, Citizen Scouting, understanding Building Completion Bonuses, Tactical Maneuvers, the list goes on. Review your recorded games and those of other players. Understand the mistakes, the strong points, the differences in Nation Balance.

Expert: At this point, you should be teaching me how to play and get better at the game!
posted by El_Capitan at 8:39 PM

Things really are slow! However, I did manage to get a great recorded game. Remember folks, besides the KBS clinic for noobs, you can also e-mail me your recorded games at yo_el_capitan@yahoo.com and I will find time to watch it and give you feedback on areas of improvement.

The game that I'm featuring stars Vince (Offensive-French) vs. Nut (British). Vince is not a smurf, well, not a good one at any rate. He is a genuine up and coming player of RoN. Nut is also a very good player, and I wish I had more recorded games of him.

This game starts with Vince doing a Classical French Raid, and Nut counters the raid pretty well, and manages a sneak attack on Vince's Capital with a Delayed Power Rush! It looks as if it should be over for Vince, since Nut does a splendid job at razing Vince's Library, WoodCutter's Camp, and 4 Farms. However, I think Vince saved himself by market trading for Timber and Wealth early before his Capital gets captured to make the necessary Barracks and Foot Archers and he brings back his left-over remnants of his cavalry raiding force.

Vince does a very bad job of raiding, but still does a good job of keeping Nut busy. He also does a very dumb move to do a Delayed Counter Power Rush which fails miserably. He also has idle Citizens and Military. However, he does a splendid job of out-maneuvering his opponent and scouting. He takes Nut's Capital briefly, and returns the favor with razing most of his buildings. While Nut manages to take it back, Vince's economy is so good at that point, he does a two-pronged attack. A small force distracting Nut's attention to focus on his 3rd City while Vince's main force takes the Capital again to ensure the victory.

Nut does a very good job of raid defense and being sneaky with the Delayed Power Rush. However, he should not have attacked and killed the merchant on the Cotton Rare Resource. An expert player would have seen that in the mini-map and prepared adequately to stop the oncoming rush. He doesn't boom after the Capital Sack bonus, nor does he press for an offensive. By not doing either of those things, he loses the initiative, and I think that's what cost him the game. Plus, he was using the British, a Mid Tier Nation vs. the French, a Top Tier Nation. I believe Nut still had the game won had he chosen to start booming and counter raiding after taking Vince's Capital.


After watching this game, I've decided that if I place in the Top 8 in the MFO/BHG Random Offensive Nations tournament, I will give the beta for the expansion pack, Thrones and Patriots, to the player with the best recorded game I see. There's a catch:

1. You can't place in the Top 8 because you'll get the T&P beta anyway.

2. You have to win that game unless you lost to a person who went on to place in the Top 8.

3. Since all the winning recs have to be posted on MFO, I will be reviewing the posted games after the first day of the tournament.

Of course, it all depends on if I make it that far to give something away like that, so wish me luck! =p


posted by El_Capitan at 8:03 PM