Rise of Nations, I'm starved for gold

Carl wrote:
> Are you creating enough citizens to ensure that all your farming,
> woodcutting, mining, scholar jobs are filled?

Pretty much, yes.

I played another game a few minutes ago, and realized that there's a
Wonder to produce Wealth too. 300 gold per 30 seconds. I've already got
a very long list of favourite wonders that I always try to build, but
that one might get on my list too...

--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org

Peter Knutsen wrote:
> Carl wrote:
>> Are you creating enough citizens to ensure that all your farming,
>> woodcutting, mining, scholar jobs are filled?
>
> Pretty much, yes.
>
> I played another game a few minutes ago, and realized that there's a
> Wonder to produce Wealth too. 300 gold per 30 seconds. I've already got
> a very long list of favourite wonders that I always try to build, but
> that one might get on my list too...
>

I can tell you right now as a RON vet that there are ECONOMIC
civilizations. You could be choosing a civ that is not designed for
booming if that is your strategy. You need to examine the civs closely,
and tailor your strategy around them. If I remember correctly, the
Egyptians are a very good economic civilization. I have not played it
in a long time though.

javajeff wrote:
> I can tell you right now as a RON vet that there are ECONOMIC
> civilizations. You could be choosing a civ that is not designed for
> booming if that is your strategy. You need to examine the civs closely,
> and tailor your strategy around them. If I remember correctly, the
> Egyptians are a very good economic civilization. I have not played it
> in a long time though.

Previously I played the Greeks a lot, and the Romans, and recently I've
played the Germans and now the British. All of them have attractive
special bonuses, although none are directly related to gold, except
perhaps the Romans (and those 10 gold per 30 seconds, or is it 15, don't
amount to much).

--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org

Peter Knutsen wrote:
> javajeff wrote:
>> I can tell you right now as a RON vet that there are ECONOMIC
>> civilizations. You could be choosing a civ that is not designed for
>> booming if that is your strategy. You need to examine the civs
>> closely, and tailor your strategy around them. If I remember
>> correctly, the Egyptians are a very good economic civilization. I
>> have not played it in a long time though.
>
> Previously I played the Greeks a lot, and the Romans, and recently I've
> played the Germans and now the British. All of them have attractive
> special bonuses, although none are directly related to gold, except
> perhaps the Romans (and those 10 gold per 30 seconds, or is it 15, don't
> amount to much).
>

Ignore the bonuses for one game, and try the Egyptians and see if your
economy is better. It could give you a better understanding on how to
use different civs. There is an option to choose random economy civ as
well. If I remember correctly, the Egyptians give you 7 farms per city
and a great economy.

Another tip is that it is important to have three great economy cities
that you keep in the back, and border push with other cities. Also, the
tab key is the most important tool...you just tab through all available
research. A great military trick is that you can have all your military
buildings spam units to your general by selecting buildings and then
right click on the general. This way you will always have
reinforcements automatically. The last tip I will give you is to EXPAND
the top economy interface so you have market buy sell options always
available. I always use it early in the game to get things I really
need faster. I do not know how much you played, so I am sorry if you
know all of that already. If you love the keyboard shortcuts, RON can
be a really fast game and your economy will be better as a result. You
cannot even compete if you try to play RON like other RTS games.

javajeff wrote:
> Peter Knutsen wrote:
>> Previously I played the Greeks a lot, and the Romans, and recently
>> I've played the Germans and now the British. All of them have
>> attractive special bonuses, although none are directly related to
>> gold, except perhaps the Romans (and those 10 gold per 30 seconds, or
>> is it 15, don't amount to much).
>
> Ignore the bonuses for one game, and try the Egyptians and see if your
> economy is better. It could give you a better understanding on how to
> use different civs. There is an option to choose random economy civ as
> well. If I remember correctly, the Egyptians give you 7 farms per city
> and a great economy.

I did play the Egyptians while playing the original demo, and I remember
liking their 7-farms-per-city thing, and also their ability to build
wonders earlier and to have 2 per city, but later on as I played the
original demo and then the expansion demo, I began wondering about the
utility of having more farms. Usually when I play I build 5 farms on my
starting city, and 5 farms on my second city, and that gives me plenty
of food, so what's the advantage of being able to have 7, apart from the
very early boost?

Once I progressed to playing the expansion dem, the Egyptians (and
British) were no longer available to choose, to I played mostly the Greeks.


After writing my previous post, it did occur to me to try a few games
playing as a random economic civ, just to see which civs the game
actually classifies as economic, and in order to try out different civs
with different bonuses, in a fairly rapid fashion.

> Another tip is that it is important to have three great economy cities

Usually I just have two. Or rather, I have 5 farms on my first and
second city, and I have loggers on my first city, and unless the first
city have a lot of forest around it (enough for at least 9 loggers),
I'll also have more loggers on another city, although not necessarily
the second city I found, since that one may not be situated near a large
forest. I also tend to have two mines, each with 5 or 6 miners, or
sometimes one large mine with 10 miners.

And whenever a city has loggers or fams or a mine, I'll build the
building that improves production (Granary, Lumber Mill, or the Smelter).

But I could try going with 3 economic cities. The problem is, I'm not
sure exactly what you mean. Every time I found a city I give it a
Market, a Temple and a University, and once I can I also give every city
an Oil Refinery, but apart from that I don't use my cities for much,
except the first city (and sometimes the second city get a backup
Library, although I'm unsure whether that is useful or wasteful), and of
course every city is a potential Wonder site.

What do you mean when you say "great economy city"? Just what I've
outlined above, or is there something more?

> that you keep in the back, and border push with other cities. Also, the
> tab key is the most important tool...you just tab through all available

I do that already.

> research. A great military trick is that you can have all your military
> buildings spam units to your general by selecting buildings and then

Do that already, too. Love it!

> right click on the general. This way you will always have
> reinforcements automatically. The last tip I will give you is to EXPAND
> the top economy interface so you have market buy sell options always

Also expanding the top economy interface already, although the thing I
have not done is to really buy and sell stuff via the Market. Part of
the problem is I've never done that in pretious RTS games (never needed
to, so it never became an intrinsic part of my the approach to RTS games
that I've learned), and another part is that I know I'm getting shafted
regardless of whether I buy or sell - my instinct tells me to produce in
a self-sufficient manner and not rely on the Market.

> available. I always use it early in the game to get things I really
> need faster. I do not know how much you played, so I am sorry if you
> know all of that already. If you love the keyboard shortcuts, RON can
> be a really fast game and your economy will be better as a result. You
> cannot even compete if you try to play RON like other RTS games.

I haven't looked much into the keyboard shortcuts, apart from the Tab
key, and the assign group keys, i.e. Ctrl 1 through 10 and F1 through
F8. In most RTS games, I'll learn the shortcut for Build Farm (usually
it's B then F), but in RoN I can just double-click on the same place, so
I haven't bothered.

--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org

It has been a while since I last played. If I remember correctly, the
Egyptian farms provide gold. Also, there is a correct order in which
you research from the Library. I think I always did green first.

Back to hints with build order, I usually build Universities only when I
need them. It is not good to build everything you will need in every
city. Also, try to build a temple at your second city and a market at
your first city until you can afford both for each city.

It is a great game. Enjoy!

My favourite part in the game is the "TREACHERY" card that can be played.
Makes me laugh every time! I'm reinstalling them at the minute, seem to
have a few sound woes, as they're now on Vista 64, have to do a bit of
investigating.