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Being well-versed in AOE and AOK, I have had to unlearn some bad habits to improve my RON game. One specific bad habit was to queue up a bunch of units using shift + or by mashing the hotkey a few times until the resources ran out.
In AOK this works because you pay for units only when they begin to train, but in RON you pay for them as they queue up, making it difficult to sustain production without significant micro-management.
However, I found that the infinite queue button solves this dilemma quite nicely. (This is only for those that are NOT using it. If you use it obviosuly you know this already.) So instead of hitting HCCCCCC imediately at the start of the game (or now VVVVVVV), you can just hit VQ (or whatever you have remapped to).
This becomes an essential tool for playing on the faster speeds and is also useful for larger macro management.
For example: I build an early barracks and queue up one "iteration" of my army: slinger, hoplite, slinger and then hit Q. This will slowly give me an army with a 2:1 ratio of slingers and hoplites, and will contine to grow as long as I have resources and population available. I set my rally point on a likely enemy avenue of approach and things tend to take care of themselves.
In later ages, I can manage both my army and econ by watching the top left info boxes, setting rally points on my hot-keyed generals, and buying/selling resources with clicks on the market boxes in the top left - with little degradation of logistics, even at hyper-speed. (Maneuvering is a little different!)
If you're not using the infinite queue, I'd highly encourage it. It takes a moment of practice for the AOK player, but it's a definite improvement.
In AOK this works because you pay for units only when they begin to train, but in RON you pay for them as they queue up, making it difficult to sustain production without significant micro-management.
However, I found that the infinite queue button solves this dilemma quite nicely. (This is only for those that are NOT using it. If you use it obviosuly you know this already.) So instead of hitting HCCCCCC imediately at the start of the game (or now VVVVVVV), you can just hit VQ (or whatever you have remapped to).
This becomes an essential tool for playing on the faster speeds and is also useful for larger macro management.
For example: I build an early barracks and queue up one "iteration" of my army: slinger, hoplite, slinger and then hit Q. This will slowly give me an army with a 2:1 ratio of slingers and hoplites, and will contine to grow as long as I have resources and population available. I set my rally point on a likely enemy avenue of approach and things tend to take care of themselves.
In later ages, I can manage both my army and econ by watching the top left info boxes, setting rally points on my hot-keyed generals, and buying/selling resources with clicks on the market boxes in the top left - with little degradation of logistics, even at hyper-speed. (Maneuvering is a little different!)
If you're not using the infinite queue, I'd highly encourage it. It takes a moment of practice for the AOK player, but it's a definite improvement.
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