I previously posted about fight control in Rise of Nations, and briefly mentioned how the conventional wisdom regarding Age V combat (which I had also subscribed to until briefly before writing that article) was misguided. Age V combat is not “Age IV combat but with more guns” — it’s actually fundamentally different.
Giving Up: Challenger Balance Patch
The Community Balance/Bugfix Patch has failed every evaluation category.
Also this starts off quite salty, because I think that there’s no honest explanation of why I’ve done this that doesn’t involve some level of disdain and disappointment.
CBP Alpha 9 Patch Notes
This is a small bugfix patch, basically “Alpha 8c”. However, because these changes are not multiplayer-compatible with Alpha 8, they’re being released as Alpha 9.
Patch contents
- Balance changes: very low
- Bugfixes: low
- Enhancements: low
CBP Documentation: Fixed City Sprites
This is just to ensure that this information is fully documented somewhere publicly – unless you’re a modder or just deeply curious about RoN quirks I’m not expecting you to bother reading this. It’s boring, poorly formated, has no images, and I basically haven’t posted it anywhere.
Fight Control and the Backbone of an Army
Knowing how fights are started and controlled is an invaluable but often poorly understood part of RoN’s combat.
Stemming from the above you end up with a broad category of units that can be considered the “backbone” of an army because they must exist for an army to be able to negotiate control of fights.

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CBP Alpha 8 Patch Notes
This is a small-medium sized patch, focused mostly on non-balance changes.
Patch contents
- Balance changes: low
- Bugfixes: medium
- Enhancements: high
Fixing the Bark/Trireme Damage/OoS Bug
You know how sometimes it takes a while for the gears in your head to turn before you finally have a big realisation? Yeah well, that happened to me yesterday.
The Most Absolutely Absurd RoN Bug I’ve Ever Found
For most of this year, I’ve been working on getting the next version, Alpha 7, of the Community Balance/Bugfix Patch out. One bug in particular relating to Barks and Triremes was especially difficult to pin down, but last night I was finally able to figure out the bug’s trigger and get a 100% reproduction rate.

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CBP: Alpha 7 Addendum
There are a few late changes to Alpha 7, as well as a slightly adjusted roadmap for future patches.
CBP: What’s Been Left on the Table
Rise of Nations is not a perfectly balanced game, and CBP doesn’t make it one either.
RoN is a reasonably balanced game though, and (by most people’s counts) CBP is a net-improvement of that balance.
There are a lot of areas which I’d like to probe further for CBP but am unable to due to lack of playtesting and quality discussion. This isn’t intended to be a comprehensive list of literally every possible change, but it can be used as a somewhat comprehensive starting point. Here’s what’s been left on the table.
