“There is a kind of political game that you can spar and try to get your cities, and fortresses and temples and so forth placed so that they can hold control of the territory that you need”, Reynolds enlightens. “You have to hold territory in order to build buildings in it, which is always an issue in many real-time strategy games. I mean, people don't usually like the strategy where someone comes and builds a castle in the middle of your town”.
To summarize, you cannot construct buildings outside of your own established territory but by the same token others cannot place buildings within your territory. You must gradually continue to build your economy and size of your cities concurrently in order to increase your territorial control area.
PEAK-A-BOO, I SEE YOU MR. PHALANX
Before getting into a larger discussion on warfare, the latter of which will also be discussed more in Part 3, it is first compelling to relay the alleviation of one of the most routinely frustrating aspects of real-time strategy games: losing your units behind buildings or in the thicket of nature such as forests. As the game progresses and your armies grow larger, they become more easily fragmented due to war, sentry or simply poor pathfinding ability. Reynolds and his Big Huge amigos share this aggravation having experienced it for themselves no doubt countless times during their time exploring other real-time strategy environments. In Rise of Nations, when a unit goes in behind a tree or any other object, they become completely shaded in red to eliminate 'visual loss' even if it would have been for only a brief period. Likewise, they glow when actively selected.
In Part 1, we looked at the various types of units at your disposal throughout the ages in RoN. Now, we put our foot through the door of the warfare of RoN.
On speaking of red glowing units a few moments ago, you may also find this occurring in another circumstance. When you are at peace with a nation and move a military unit of yours into their territory, they take damage for just having crossed your mutual border. This ongoing effect is identified by your nation units' feet (or equivalent) glowing red. As such, it is strongly advised that even if you are looking to execute a blitzkrieg-style campaign on an opposing nation that you first take a few moments to declare war on them first – it is, after all, the gentlemanly thing to do. You must do so through diplomatic channels and, yes, your treasury will take a hit to do so, the impact of which depending on the present state of your finances. If and when war is declared on you by a known or previously unknown nation, a bell will toll alerting you to the situation. If you do not have your speakers or this feature turned on, or simply have no speakers to… speak of, an on-screen text message will relay the same misfortune. All this said, if you fail to heed this unit attrition damage warning through ignorance or forgetfulness you need not necessarily order them back home – or to idle – in order to rejuvenate.
Especially helpful while engaged in or catching one's breath after battle, Supply Wagons can be brought in to mend broken bones, repair mechanical malfunctions as well as carry supplies for further campaigning. They are most effective in this capacity if they are included in your military entourage from the outset, but are not required to be given that much advance notice before going into action. Because you can select a group of units to take a particular action, which they will then engage in accordingly, be certain to huddle these time and resource saving specialists close enough to be fully effective but not to close as to get caught in the crossfire. From minor skirmish to all out raids and counter measures, the fighting will be continuously animated to add to the realism. To be sure, what turn-based strategy fans first began to marvel at in Civilization: Call To Power is now being carried over to a similarly themed real-time counterpart. This time around, this feature has been even more painstakingly enriched and perfected.
Rise Up: Reynolds On RoN 
