Koreans Start

I'm quite sure that most of you might not be knowing this start. In this start, you research science 1 followed by science 2. Its similar as the chinese start. Even this start involves ruins manipulation.

First of all, let me tell you about the nation powers.

Koreans - Power of Tradition

- Start with Temple and research religion line of research for free.

- Start with 1 extra citizen, rececive 3 for next city and 5 for all future cities.

- Repair Buildings 50% faster, maybe repair under fire without penalty.

- Receive militia line of research for free.

- Towers 33% cheaper.

How is it done?

- Research science1 (120 wood and 50 wealth).

- Start razing temple the moment you start the game (Select temple and press del key).

- At this moment, you will be having 200 food, 80 wood and 50 wealth.

- Create villagers. I'll suggest to keep them on an infinite queue (Press q to start infinite queue).

- Note that science 2 requires 120 food and 120 wealth unlike that of Chinese 96 food and 96 wealth.

- Now, you need to pick a wealth ruin because you have no wealth income at start to reach 120 wealth.

- Keep food and wood levels higher then wealth. (approx 100). I'll suggest not to use wood unless you get a wealth ruin.

- Since your wealth level is the lowest, you will definitely get a wealth ruin.

- Where to get ruin? You'll definitely find a ruin near your borders or corners esp in Sahara map.

- At this point of time, you will get a wealth ruin as well as +30 wealth from the razed temple. 

- Research science 2 (120 Food and 120 wealth). 

- Now continue booming normally i.e civic1 followed by commerce1 and military1.

The advantage of this start is that you are a technology ahead of your opponent i.e science2.

I managed to get this amazing game from seifer008 which is a perfect example of Koreans start.

Recorded Game :-

Koreans Start (Click to DOWNLOAD)

Game Information:-

It is a 1v1 battle between seifer008(Koreans) and Raider(Spanish). An amazing game between two expert players. Raider is one of the best raiding players in RoN. Its really worth watching. See the way he performs a korean start as well as uses the nation powers really well.

Game 2: New !!! (Added on 20/9/11) Click to DOWNLOAD

|VoG|_Coulty (Mongols)  vs   |IND|_King_AMEYA_|VoG| (Koreans)

With Koreans I have seen seifer008 research till civic 3 and make 4 cities cramping his opponent. A very useful strategy in 1v1 battles. I tried the same. Didnt do it that well as seifer008 does but was enough to win me the game.

Game 3: New !!! (Added on 19/9/11) Click to DOWNLOAD

|IND|_Jatin_[LM] (Koreans)                            Clover (Iroquois)
|IND|_King_AMEYA_|VoG| (Greeks)     vs        NyanNyan (British)

Another example of Koreans start. Jatin did it quite well and was fast too.


Credits:- seifer008 for sharing his game with us.

Sea Raiding

       Recently I was playing few nomad games. Most of the games were won only because of effective sea raids. Sea raids play an important role not only in just sea maps but also in few land maps like African waterhole, Australian outback, Great lakes and Mediterranean.

       Sea raids are similiar to land raids. In sea raids, you aim to raid fishermen (Fishing ships). By raiding them, you dont only reduce your opponent's food gathering but also reduce his wealth/metal gathering.

      

Unit used for effective raiding?

- Light Ship (Bark).

Defending Sea raids?

- Light ships are weak against heavy ships (Trireme).

- Keeping a heavy ships near fishermen protects it from raids.

- But having only a heavy ship for defending isnt always sufficient.

- Because heavy ships are weak against fire ships (fire raft).

- In this case, the single fire ship destroys both the heavy ships.

- So the best way to defend is to have a combination of units. Like a HS, LS and a FS. You need to control them well to defend better. Like attack the strong unit against the weak unit.

Main things to remember in sea battles:-

- Light ship kills defenceless fishermen.

- Light ship vs Heavy Ship => Heavy ship wins

- Heavy ship vs Fire ship => Fire ship wins but it destroys itself also (Till age 5).

- Fire ship vs Light ship => Light ship wins.

Important Rare for sea battles :-

- Citrus

- Provides +10 Food and +10 Wood. Ships at sea heal automatically.

- So there is no need to garrision damaged ships. They heal automatically.

- Copper

- It provides +20 metal as well as dock and factory units receive +20% hit points.
- So chances of you winning the sea battle with equal navy is more because you are using copper.

Note that sea control provides you an edge in the game. You have more wealth gathering. So you can make more scholars and thus more knowledge eventually outbooming and winning.

Forbidden City (Wonder)

Forbidden city is one of the most frequently used wonder in advanced games. First of all, let me tell you what are its powers:-

- Wonder of the World: 2 wonder point(s).

- Counts as a bonus Major City in your nation. Can be built wherever a City can and its build location is not revealed to the enemy until it is completed.

- Gives +50 Food and Timber instead of the usual +10/+10.

- Capital Timers do not effect you.

Requirements :-

- Age 3.

- 300 Food and 300 Timber (Ideally - When no other wonder is made in the game).

When should I make it?

- Whenever you have lost your capital and you cant take it back from your opponent.

- By making this wonder, capital timer will end and your opponent has to take all your cities(along with forbidden city) or forbidden city to eliminate you from the game.
- Note that if your opponent has your capital as well as forbidden city, capital timer will start. As the timer ends, you are defeated.

- That was one scenario. Other is when you have taken your opponents capital and you dont want him/her to build forbidden city. Instead you built it before he/she does.

- Note that you build forbidden city at a safe location. Else your opponent may take it and he'll get the no timer benefit.

- You can also make forbidden city to increase your food and wood production by +50. Not preferred to make it for this purpose unless you are playing a peace game or economic game.

- Its better to keep the wonder for your allies in a team game. You wont know who might need it. 

Well. I'm sure most of you must be having certain questions about the wonder. Even I had them before but I'm quite clear about them now.

Should I make forbidden city as my capital?

- No. Suppose you lose your capital (i.e Forbidden city). Capital timer starts and your opponent gets a no capital timer benefit.

Your opponent has made forbidden city. And you have researched World Government. How to defeat your opponent?

- To defeat him, you have to take both capital as well as forbidden city. Taking one of them wont defeat your opponent.

A bug in the game

- You have made forbidden city but your capital has been taken by your opponent (before World Government). Now at that moment, if your opponent researches "World Government". You are directly defeated. This ia a bug in the game.

This wonder is must when you cant take your capital back and you want to survive in the game.

Egyptians - Wonder Start (Age1)

Egyptians are one of the good raiding nations in the game. They are also great for booming. Especially when you make a wonder(Age1-2) to get a good start.

Egyptians : Power of the Nile

- +10% Food Commerce Limit

- Can build 7 farms instead of 5 per city, farms generate +2 wealth
- Start with a granary and receive Granary upgrades for free

- Wonders cost 25% less, can be built an age early, and you may build two per City

I had seen this start done by a player named |VoG|_Coulty in a 2v2 game. Unfortunately, I was turks in that game and he lost it. But I got a lot of resistance before winning over him. I was really shocked and kept wondering that even after getting a wonder how did he managed to be so fast. After watching the recorded game, I came across this innovative start.

This start involves getting a wonder in age 1 with ruin manipulations while matching the pace of other players in terms of technology.

How is it done?

- First of all, decide which wonder you want to make (Preferably Hanging Gardens or Colossus).

- Hanging Gardens requires 150 Food 150 Wealth while Colossus requires 150 Wood and 150 Wealth.

- If you are going to make Hanging Gardens then you have to manipulate all ruins to food. To do that, keep villagers queued in your city but see to it that you make only required number of villagers.

- If you are going to make Colossus then you have to make very few number of merchants in order to save wood and wealth.

- At start, research science1.

- Then commerce1. Now build 6-7 farms and put villagers on them. I'm sure your food income will touch +100. Fill the woodcutter which you have at start.

- Now research civic1 and build second city.

- Built a market and caravan as soon as possible to start getting wealth.
- Note that this start depends a lot on ruins that you get.

- Hanging Gardens:- Build 1 more market if you have a lot of wood in order to get more wealth. Dont make merchants in order to save wealth unless you have diamond rare in your territory. Build Hanging Gardens the moment you have 150Food and 150Wealth. Skip military1 if you are late and just age up.

- Colossus:- It is the same as above. But here you research military1 before aging.

- Note that you keep 1-3 villagers for building the wonder. Keep the remaining villagers for resource gathering.

- Note that if you have a small woodcutter i.e of 3 or 4. Then I'll suggest not to go for Hanging Gardens. Building Colossus would be easy.

This start isnt that easy to implement because it depends a lot on ruins and resource management. But if you are good at it then this is an easy for you.

Recorded Game:-

Egyptians - Wonder Start(Age1) {Click to Download}

Game Information:-

Raider (Maya) {|VoG|_Coulty was observing}   Hobgoblin (Lakota)

|IND|_King_AMEYA_|VoG| (Egyptians)     VS     FUN_Galahad_ex_AoI (Nubians)

Istanbul (Koreans)                                           Kanishka (Chinese)

In this game, I build Colossus and I manage to be faster then most of my opponents by hitting age 2(Classical Age) in 4:27 mins. I didnt get much ruins (Just 150) in the game. It was kinda comic to see raiders reactions when I started the wonder.

Credits: |VoG|_Coulty for coming up with an innovative start with Egyptians.