Welcome!
This is going to be a play-by-post version of a game of Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots!
The players have already been selected from a group of random rapscallions that likely have no idea what this game even is, since I never told them!
Won't they be surprised by just how complicated this game is.
Team 1 (Cyan): Flabort / Coolrune / heydude6
Team 2 (Red): Dorsidorf / Lukeinator / Generally Me
Team 3 (Blue): Highmax / Roary Star / Alev
Team 4 (Purple): Elephant Parade / Poketwo / Remuthra
I won't be enabling nation powers, but I will be enabling some unique units so there's at least
some difference between them.
Each team shares control of a single nation. How they divide control is up to them. If they want to make one person a military advisor, one an economic advisor, and one a science advisor, they can do that. If they want to have three equally powerful dictators that give contradicting orders, go ahead.
Now then!
To explain how to actually play the game!
First off, while the game allows you to advance through the ages, this game will be locked to the Classical Age, which is pre-medieval.
Rise of Nations has (in the Classical Age, at least) 5 basic resources that you need to worry about, not including your population limit.
Food: Food is one of the most important resources, as it's used for making almost any unit, including new citizens to gather stuff.
It is also very easy to acquire, as you gain food from farms, which can be built around your cities with no real restrictions (other than a limit of 5 farms per city). You can also obtain food from fish and whales offshore.
Food is used to train Light Infantry, Light Cavalry, Heavy Infantry, and Light Ships.
Wood: Wood is another important resource, as you need it to construct buildings, and many units.
Wood is obtained from Woodcutter's, placed along forests. Forests are generally rather plentiful, and shouldn't be something that you need to focus on fighting over.
Wood is used to train Light Infantry, Light Cavalry, Foot Archers, Mounted Archers, Catapults, and all types of Ships.
Metal: Metal is not as important as food or wood, although it would be very difficult to win the game without the units that require metal.
Metal is acquired from mines placed at mountains. Mountains are not as plentiful as forests, and you may need to contest for control of them. You can also gain a small amount of metal from whales offshore, but don't rely on it.
Metal is used to train Heavy Infantry, Heavy Cavalry, Catapults, Generals, and Heavy Ships.
Wealth: Wealth is, again, not the most important resource in the game, but it's needed for some more of the supportive units.
Wealth is acquired in a number of ways. One is by forming trade routes between cities and having caravans run along them. Another is by researching taxation upgrades, and gaining wealth based on how much landmass you control. Larger nations are wealthier! Or, you can always just go gather fish offshore, as they also give wealth.
Wealth is used to create Heavy Cavalry, Foot Archers, Mounted Archers, Generals, and Fire Ships.
Knowledge: Knowledge is the strangest of the resources, in that it is only used for researching technologies at the Library.
Knowledge is gained by building Universities and staffing them with Scholars (Which cost Wealth to train).
This is the stuff that runs your Nations at its core.
City: The actual heart of a city, the "City" building sets a zone around it that allows you to place other civilian buildings. Also produces a paltry amount of food and wood on its own, and can somewhat defend itself. These are used to expand your nation. One city will be your "Capital", and you will lose the game if it is lost.
Library: This researches the primary tech lines of Military, Civic, Commerce, and Science. Limit of 1 per city, but really, you only need one, and you start with one anyway.
Farm: Build these and staff them with Citizens to produce food. You can build 5 in each city.
Granary: Build these to increase the production of all farms in a city. Limit one per city. Requires Science 2 before you can build it.
Also researches some minor improvements.
Woodcutter's: Build these near forests and staff them with Civilians to gather wood. These technically don't need to be in a city's range, but then they can't benefit from a Lumber mill.
Lumber mill: Build these to increase the production of all Woodcutter's in a city. Limit one per city. Requires Science 2 before you can build it.
Also researches some minor improvements.
Mine: Build these near mountains and staff them with Civilians to gather metal. These technically don't need to be in a city's range, but then they can't benefit from a Smelter.
Smelter: Build these to increase the production of all Mines in a city. Limit one per city. Requires Science 3 before you can build it.
Also researches some minor improvements.
Temple: Gives the city it's in more health, and increases the range of your nation's boundaries. Researches taxation improvements. Limit 1 per city. Requires Science 1 before you can build it.
Market: Provides a small income of wealth, and produces caravans to make more along trade routes, and trains merchants to obtain Rare Resources. Limit 1 per city. Requires Commerce 1 before you can build it. Also lets you trade one resource for another, poorly, when you get Commerce 2.
University: Trains Scholars to produce Knowledge. Limit 1 per city.
Senate: Build this in a city to declare it as your new Capital. Also researches a Government tech, and produces your Patriot. Limit 1 per Nation.
(Note: Military buildings do not have a need to be in range of a city. They can be pretty much anywhere in your nation.)
Barracks: Trains Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, and Foot Archers. Also trains Scouts, but they really have practically no purpose in the Classical Age. Requires Military 1 to build.
Stables: Trains Light Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, and Mounted Archers. Requires Military 1 to build. Only Light Cavalry can be built in the Classical Age until you research Military 7.
Siege Factory: Trains Catapults. Requires Military 2 to build.
Fort: Has a decent attack, and pushes your borders slightly farther out. Trains Generals. Requires Military 3 to build.
Lookout: Has no attack, but can see invisible units. Almost useless in the Classical Age.
Tower: Has a defensive attack. Also researches Attrition techs, which causes slow damage to enemies in your territory. Requires Military 1 to build.
Dock: Trains Light Ships, Heavy Ships, Fire Ships, and Fishing Boats. Requires Commerce 1 to build.
Light Infantry: Probably the most common unit you'll use. Has good speed, poor armor, and a short ranged attack.
Good against other Infantry, particularly Archers.
Requires Food and Wood. Trained at Barracks.
Heavy Infantry: Slow moving, but has a high damage and armor.
Good against Cavalry.
Requires Food and Metal. Trained at Barracks.
Foot Archers: Long ranged attack. Poor armor.
Good against Heavy Infantry and Generals.
Requires Wood and Wealth. Trained at Barracks.
Scout: Recon Unit. No attack, can see invisible.
Good against nothing in the Classical Age. Practically useless.
Requires Metal and Wealth. Trained at Barracks.
Light Cavalry: Fast, and quick to train. Only cavalry you can get before Military 7.
Good against Support Units and Catapults.
Requires Food and Wood. Trained at Stables.
Heavy Cavalry: Fast, and has high armor. Powerful. Requires Military 7.
Good against Light Units, Archers, and Support Units.
Requires Metal and Wealth. Trained at Stables.
Mounted Archers: Fast, with a ranged attack. Can fire while moving. Requires Military 7.
Good against Heavy Units, Catapults, and Citizens.
Requires Wood and Wealth. Trained at Stables.
Catapult: Siege weapon. Long range and high attack.
Good against buildings.
Requires Wood and Metal. Trained at Siege Factory.
General: Has no attack. Increases armor of nearby units. Has a variety of abilities that cost "Craft" that the General produces.
Can use "March" to increase nearby unit speed. Can use "Ambush" to turn nearby units invisible. Can use "Entrench" to increase armor of nearby stationary units in your territory. Can use "Decoy" to create a bunch of fake units to confound the enemy.
Requires Metal and Wealth. Trained at Fort.
Light Ship: Navel Unit. Fast and poorly armored.
Good against Fishing Ships and Fire Ships.
Requires Food and Wood. Trained at Dock.
Heavy Ship: Navel Unit. Slow and powerful.
Good against Light Ships.
Requires Wood and Metal. Trained at Dock.
Fire Ship: Navel suicide vessel. Blows up against an enemy.
Good against Heavy Ships.
Requires Wood and Wealth. Trained at Dock.
There are 4 major researches, from the Library.
Military: Increases your population limit, and unlocks new buildings and units.
Civic: Allows you to build more cities, and increases your nations border range. Unlocks taxation and attrition techs.
Commerce: Increases your Resource rate caps, allowing you to gather more resources at faster rates. Increases trade route number.
Science: Makes other techs cheaper. Unlocks a ton of refinement buildings and secondary techs.
There are other techs, researched at other buildings, but I'll cover those as they come up.
All wonders have a limit of there only being one per game. Once someone builds the Pyramids, nobody else can build them.
Pyramids:
Commerce Limit on Food and Wealth increased by 50
City limit increased by 1
Food gather rate increased by 20%
Colossus:
Commerce Limit on Timber and Wealth increased by 50
Population Limit increased by 50
Wealth gather rate increased by 30%
Hanging Gardens:
Increases your Knowledge production rate by 50
Granary, Lumber Mill and Smelter production upgrades are discounted 66%
Are there any errors?
HOW TO WINThere are THREE ways that you can win!
ONE! To be the last Nation standing. You can eliminate a player from the game by taking their Capital, and holding it from them for a short time. Or just taking all of their cities.
TWO! By territory. If a single Nation controls 60% of the landmass of the map, then a victory countdown will begin. If their borders never cease to control over 60% of the map by the time the timer is up, they win!
THREE! By wonders. If a single nation controls two wonders at once, and no other nation controls a wonder, then a victory timer will begin.
Now then, let's see which of these teams can RULE THE WORLD!
...Or, at least rule Australia.
Anyway, I haven't actually loaded up the map yet, but I'm getting it ready so people can post in the thread to get ready.
The line of sight option is "All Revealed", so nothing is secret. So no PMing moves to me! Even if you use a General's Ambush power, since it still prevents enemies from targeting you.
Unique Units for the 4 Nations:
Team 1 (Cyan) is playing as the Inca. Gets Mace Men. (Replaces Light Infantry. Uses Melee attacks. Stronger vs. Cavalry.)
Team 2 (Red) is playing as the Koreans. Gets Elite Hwarang (Replaces Foot Archers. Stronger and Tougher.) and Flaming Arrows. (Replaces Catapults. Stronger vs. Buildings.)
Team 3 (Blue) is playing as the Germans. Gets Barbarians. (Replaces Heavy Infantry. Faster to train.)
Team 4 (Purple) is playing as the Indians. Gets War Elephants. (Trained at Stables. Requires Food and Wealth.)