I'm Cr@p @ RON!

[reds4ever]

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Can someone give me a few pointers? I can beat the game on 'easy', but as soon as I try 'normal' I get beat. I seem to doing alright until the first battles start, I win the first, maybe the second but then I just get bogged down.

My 'strat' if you can call it that, is to fill the farms and logging in my first city, get civic, build a second city, get green (marketting?), build two markets, get red (population?), then build barracks and troops, get yellow (science) and take it from there. I've tried variations on this but I'm still cr@p!

I think I'm getting something fundamentally wrong, I'm not asking for a walkthrough, just get me started along the right lines. Cheers!

[dojoboy]

Do you have a pattern for laying down cities? Expand directly toward the enemy. If you control the center of the map, you'll control the majority of the resources in the long run.

After expanding to the center, slowly branch outward on both sides. The exponential effect of having more resources than the enemy will, sooner or later, overpower him.

On Normal, the AI will attack sooner, and even quicker on Tough. You're choices are to "rush" him early and take him out, or play defensive until you've amassed a large invasion force. I prefer the later. Just make sure you can keep reinforcements (mixed units) at the frontline (target his supply wagons).

Make sure you're not teching up at the risk of being unable to build enough units for defense. IOW, if you're wood is maxed out, don't put another worker on lumber, etc. Don't improve production in a lumber mill if you've already hit production levels. Do that only when you've researched the next age-tech.

[rah]

Moved to the more appropriate place

[Eyecare]

Make sure you try the tutorials. They can be very helpful towards developing specific aspects of your game.

There are a number of help threads on various RoN sites. Here are a few for starters: (press "skip" at the upper right to get to the links faster)

o Microsoft RoN Strategy Guide

o RoNH 40 Strategy Tips for Beginners

o BHG Strategy Tips

o RoNU Strategy Guide

o RoNP Beginner's Forum (assorted threads)

o Infidel's Strategy Catalogue and Infidel's General Articles

o TuF Strategy Forum (read the Road to Victory series)

o AoI's RoN Guide for Dummies (this is pretty good for learners)

After you've gone through these and practiced a few ideas make sure you take some time to review some of the games you've played to see where you could have done things better. If you don't know how to do this take a look at this FAQ:

o RoNP FAQ on Reviewing Game Recordings

Finally, just keep playing. This is an easy game to get started on but it's difficult to master. You can learn something everytime you play.

gl