This is for all players who play Rise of Nations (and / or Thrones and Patriots). One of the most effective strategies is to rush early in the game. I will relate it to the pros and cons that I have experienced in the last 18 months playing the game.
What is a rush?
A run is made by immediately launching into an attack and hitting the opponent before he realizes what just happened. He could be building the fifth farm, preparing to get old and boom! enter your army of darkness and take their capital. Yeah … that’s what I’m talking about.
How to do it
Really pretty simple. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book.
Research Mil1 (some civilizations already come with this, so you’re in luck). An alternative is to go to Sci1, Mil1 (but I feel like you end up losing precious wood)
Start exploring and build 2-3 villies and put at least one in agriculture.
Build a barracks and start producing Heavy Infantry (HI). Use the explorer on auto and HI built on micro to search for more ruins. The fastest way to develop your resources.
Build at least 4 HIs and start heading towards the general direction of your opponents capital. Ignore other cities, you will reach them later. If you can’t find the capital, just look for other cities.
Keep the queue of units active in your barracks. I aim for 6HI + 2LI (light infantry to eliminate archers). For more speed, you can also do 5HI + 1LI.
The moment you find the capital, use all the soldiers to attack the capital. Watch out for the towers and archers.
Be on the lookout for the opponent’s barracks. If it’s been fast enough then you should be building it right now. Use a HI to tear down the construction (but this is not your priority, the capital is).
That should be enough, you will get the Capital Sack (+500 resources). If you think you can hold onto this city (that is, if you have taken minimal damage, continue to beat more LI (2-3) and some archers. Then get old. If you think you are going to lose the city, start ravaging resources (wood first, farms later, temple, market, university in that order)
Worktop
You can counter a rush. That’s how –
Go to Mil1 and build a barracks.
Build a tower behind your capital. With behind, I mean, keep the capital between the tower you build and the direction from which you most expect the attack.
In the barracks build 1-2 archers.
Focus on the boom and aging to the next age. Post that the first investigation should be the wear on the tower.
Pros
Done correctly, you can now use existing resources as a launching pad for the next opponent. I’ve seen players do double and triple runs even taking out 3 players at once.
The war occurs far from your capital, leaving you with a capital turmoil of resources. At least it paralyzes the opponent and makes him ultra-paranoid.
Cons
If you counteract well, you are left with a paralyzed and defenseless economy. It takes a good player to get out of this situation. If you are attacked by another player when your army is attacking someone else, then your capital bye bye and without an almost immediate lost city.
In the screenshot I have attached, I was playing a 1-1 Arena match against a Tough competition. I started with enough resources and a good civilization (Turks: faster assimilation). I couldn’t find the capital so I took the city that I could find (see the minimap). Then I got to see the border of the capital and moved in that direction. By then, the British had built a barracks (+1 free archers). Fortunately, he had 2 slingers to face the archers. Everything’s fine :). By the seventh minute he had taken 2 cities and the game was over.
