How good are the French? Good enough to not need a Barracks or Barracks units to win.

Watch two fun-filled games at RoNU.

El_Capitan French No Rax 1vs1 BloodBath.rcx

First, me and BloodBath have a little fun... well, maybe just me. It dawns on me... what would happen if I tried to win without ever building a Barracks?


El_Capitan 2vs2 French+French No Rax.rcx

Me and Bloodbath have it in for PCA_Frogman and _kOp_, but we don't follow through too well. All that Food and Timber was tempting to make LI, but one must not give in! Selling it for 20 Wealth was just not what I had in mind, either. Watch PCA_Frogman with his trickiness at the end!
posted by El_Capitan at 2:50 AM

The Russians are a funny lot. What had made them powerful at first was the fact that their Capital getting taken gave them +500 resources, and none to the enemy. However, Despotism counters it by letting the Capital taker get the +500 resource bonus. This means that the Russians are once again trying to find a way to buy time in the beginning.

After a few runs of Russian Strategy, I've come up with the Russian Passive-Aggressive Boom (RP-AB). The advantages of the Russians are:

1. Double Attrition
2. Good Border Push
3. Free CIV 1 Research
4. Bonus Damage to Siege and Supply Wagons with Cavalry Units
5. Cheaper Spies

The disadvantages:

1. Slow start
2. Slow economy
3. Slow defense against an aggressive Classical/Medieval Assault

Well, since those are the disadvantages we need to get past with the Russians, here's the simple approach. Instead of building Cities forward like other Nations, build sideways. Yes, that's right, sideways. 2nd City goes sideways, 3rd City goes sideways on the other side, and 4th City goes sideways.

I'll start with the Build Order: Research SCI 1 and then COM 1. Build the 2nd WoodCutter's Camp where you're going to build your 2nd City sideways. Build your 2nd City. Cap your economy at +100. Go to Classical. Immediately build your 2 Universities. Research COM 2. Research MIL 1. Build a few mines. Build your Senate at your original Capital and then research Despotism. Raze your Senate. Research MIL 2. Go to Medieval. Build Temples at both of your Cities. Research CIV 2. Build your 3rd City sideways. Research SCI 3 and then MIL 3. Go up to Gunpowder. Build your Senate at your original Capital again if it's safe while you're researching up to Gunpowder Age. Research Democracy. Raze your Senate again. At this point, keep booming passive-aggressively, or start building an army to attack. You should always reach Gunpowder Age before the 14 minute mark. *Update: Research SCI 2 either before SCI 3, or before going to Medieval. It all depends on if you're raiding with your units or not.

The Russians with their attrition have one good thing going for them... no one can rush them without a Supply Wagon or Despotism General. Until the enemy gets Despotism researched, there's no need to build a Stables or Barracks. This gives you time to boom up to Medieval Age. When you get attacked, see what the enemy has for units. If he has HI, build FA. If he has Catapults with his Despotism General along with FA and HC, just build LC and HC. Ambush your units, kill the Siege, and retreat. Repeat until you have enough military units to take out the Despotism General and let his units eat attrition dust.

Since your buildings are equally far away from your Capital, build your Military buildings there. Never build siege until you're in Gunpowder or Enlightenment Age. The purpose of the weird start and sideways building is to buy you time. Only an early assault will kill the Russians. Don't waste your early Timber on Temples, don't waste any Timber or Metal on Siege Shops or Siege.

Anyways, the RP-AB has proven pretty effective. Although they weren't the best of games, I've posted the last 4 RP-AB games at RonU.


posted by El_Capitan at 7:33 AM

Update: 2 games featuring me forcing decisions and not getting forced into one at RonU.

Nation Specific Strategies (NSS) enable players to win efficiently with the least amount of resistance. To counter those strategies, you have to force the opponent to make a decision he doesn't want to make. Most NSS's are forcing enemy's to make a decision they don't want to make, which means they're countering their first move before the game even starts. Nation Specific Strategies are basically guidelines with a build order. Disrupt that build order, and that NSS is less effective.

For instance, someone doing a Drunken Strategy (meaning sending 1 HI over in Ancient Age to harass your Citizens) wants you to make a Barracks and a Foot Archer to slow you down from doing a Fast Classical Raid. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won't. However, you have to think a few steps ahead because if your enemy can't do a Fast Classical Raid, he might just decide to try and outboom you because of your slower start. If they do plan on continuing with a Fast Classical Raid, you'll notice it won't be very fast.

One of the biggest tactical plays in the game, and throughout history, has been distraction. It's like assaulting an enemy 2nd City while raiding at the Capital at the same time. The enemy has to respond to both situations, and the more critical one, first. Another instance that is very good to use is a two-pronged attack. Sometime between early Classical and Medieval Age, make 6 HI (if in Medieval Age, add a Catapult or two). Take those units with your General and flank along your enemy's borders, careful not to be seen. Use a small distracting force to attack your enemy's 2nd or 3rd City, and retreat. It's most likely that you'll be outnumbered, but that's alright. While you were hitting your enemy's 2nd or 3rd City, your small force of HI and Catapults should be hitting the enemy Capital, staying alive to get the Sack Bonus and retreat while razing their WoodCutter's Camps, Mines, Library, and Farms. This gives you sufficient resources to build a larger army and continue the original attack, gaining the enemy's 2nd or 3rd City.

Your opponent is forced to send his main army to take back his Capital, or he is bound to lose. However, that lets you take his 2nd or 3rd City barely without a fight.

There are many strategies to employ in this kind of endeavor, and it gets really good when you have to make a decision you don't want to make, but in turn do the same for your enemy. Every hit has a counter, and every counter has an escape.


posted by El_Capitan at 2:02 AM

If you haven't read it, it's a good time to do so. Over 2400 years, it still holds a great many lessons to keep in mind. It applies to RTS games very well.
posted by El_Capitan at 4:45 AM

I just saw "Fahrenheit 9/11" and it's a good movie. Of course, I'm an anti-war, anti-peace fundamentalist, so I don't really have an agenda to pitch. Just watch the movie and decide for yourself.

The Americans have the Power of Innovation. Hell, we convinced ourselves we were fighting terrorism in Iraq, talk about being innovative! We're the cause of terrorism in Iraq! The terrorists that attacked us aren't there!

War in Iraq... or War on Iraq? Is there a difference? If we're at War on Iraq, we're fighting them, and we just declared ourselves the victors... then why are we still fighting? If we're at War in Iraq, we can't declare ourselves the victor, we actually have to be victorious. So, to make things understandably simple, we're not at War on Iraq, but at War in Iraq.

The Iraqi's have the Power of Dying Slowly. Out-manned, out-gunned, out-everything, but look at what they've managed to do to. We're really losing out on our +3 resource bonus here. What is it, do they have uber micro or something? What's going on?

Anyways, forget the reasons for the War IN Iraq, forget the whole political, economical, or personal agenda. How the hell are we supposed to win the War if it was like an RTS game like RoN: T&P?

First, get a General. A real General, not a decoy-like one we have now (or at least get an upgrade for goodness sake). We need the extra armor bonus, and "Forced March" is a great ability. We sacked their Capital, that was good. Now it's time to raze their buildings and leave to heal and recouperate our forces. Let them pick up the mess. While they're building their defenses at their Capital again, they're leaving themselves defenseless on their edge-cities. It's a good time to occupy those cities now. We know we can't hold their Capital, this is a Conquest game, it's not on Standard settings. We know the "entrench" ability is pretty much useless. There should be no reason why we should entrench ourselves there.

By taking their outer cities, it forces them to spread their forces to recapture them. That's fine, we let them get their cities back one-by-one. We retreat, gather our forces, and "tech" up and boom. By "teching", we leave surveillance material on the ground and in important physical structures to monitor their movements and plans. This is where we get a Spy and use the "inform" ability. In five or six years, they'll feel like retaliating, and we'll know who and when things will take place.

We've got our army still, and our econ is capped while they're still trying to build their Granaries and Lumbermills. They'll see that they can't win, so they'll resign.

What is actually going on now is we're straggling our forces into the enemy occupied territory and getting decimated (like sending in Foot Archers to raid Militia). We're not booming, and we're not razing their buildings after we take what we want. Instead, we razed their buildings before taking their cities, wasting valuable time. What the hell happened to strategy you say? Well... it looks like our Military Leaders are just noobs.

Anyways, just remember, strategy is what Real-Time Strategy games are supposed to be about. You can have the Americans in T&P and still lose to the nerfed Maya without a good strategy. The reason we have Strategy is because it's important! Even in real life! The difference being you can't complain about the imbalance and have it "fixed" before you decide to play the game. =p


posted by El_Capitan at 7:29 PM

All Americans are urged to play as Americans and dominate the T&P Rated Rooms!

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." --The Declaration of Independence

"The arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties being with one mind resolved to die free rather than live slaves." --Thomas Jefferson

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." --Abraham Lincoln

"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest." --Thomas Jefferson

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." --George Bernard Shaw

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." --Edward Abbey

"The right to freedom being the gift of God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave." --Samuel Adams

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal." --Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal." --Thomas Jefferson

"I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." --Patrick Henry


Happy 4th of July, and to everyone, a good fireworks show!


posted by El_Capitan at 4:02 PM