MHLoppy

Unique units are generally intended to be a stronger version of the unit they replace. They typically have superior stats and/or are cheaper or faster to produce. A few (such as American Marines) gain a unique ability.

The Korean-specific Royal Hwarang, which replace Crossbowmen, have +10 hit points and +2 attack strength. Despite these benefits, Royal Hwarang actually lose a fight to an equal number of Crossbowmen.

Fire Lances, a Chinese unique unit, are one of the strongest units in the game on paper. Compared to the Elite Javelineers which they replace, they boast +1 attack strength, +4 attack range, +3 line of sight, and a +33% damage boost against all units because they qualify as being gunpowder infantry. Despite their vastly superior damage, they usually only just outperform Elite Javelineers in non-melee combat when you discount their range and line of sight advantage.

Let’s explore why. Continue reading “Hidden Power: Attack Animations and Projectile Speed”

This question was originally posted on the RoN subreddit, and this article has been adapted from my reply.

There’s two things that this question could be tackling, either rushing, or general unit production. For the purpose of my answer I’m assuming the latter.

In that case, there’s 3 bottlenecks:

1. The speed at which each individual unit is produced.
2. The number of units being produced at the same time (i.e. 2x barracks will pump out infantry at 2x speed).
3. If you have the resources to continue building with no downtime.

Continue reading “So Like, How Do You Build an Army Fast?”

Armies are greater than the sum of their parts:

2 Dragoons go even against 2 Dragoons.

4 Dragoons will beat 2 Dragoons twice and then some.

An army that is twice as powerful as its opposition — whether due to size, unit upgrades, General/Patriot buffs or something else — can deal with a half-strength army more than twice. An army that is ten times as powerful (think Machine Guns vs Crossbows or something) can face the tenth-strength army a near-infinite amount of times in practical terms.

The application of an army’s power against an opposing force does not scale linearly with the army’s apparent power. Whenever you increase an army’s strength, you increase its fighting capability by more than what you added. Army strength increases non-linearly.

This simple concept is one of the most important aspects of successful combat in RoN, and is applicable to both symmetrical and asymmetrical fights. Continue reading “Army Strength Scales Non-Linearly: 1+1=3”

Apparently I’m an anomaly.

As of writing this article, I have played only three games of Rise of Nations against human opponents other than my friends. Crucially important in this distinction is that my friends are all less experienced players than me: the friend I have played against the most started playing the game just two months ago. I helped him learn basic economic optimisations (don’t rush a temple on your first city there friendo), serviceable army compositions (anti-tank rifles when facing completely infantry: never again), and other core game concepts.

Until two months ago, I had only played against a human opponent in Rise of Nations once or twice.

Continue reading “Online PvP in RoN: 3 Games In”