PPV's Age of Mythology Basic Guide and Information

(My talk a lot face) This was originally going to be all in one post with that "More than Just Gaming" Topic. I decided alongside the Metroid one, that this would be too much for one post. So I am separating them into 3 topics. It was directly cut and pasted here. So it may be a little off. It's another one of my super posts that take forever to create and I try to make look pretty but then I get lazy and...




Ensemble Studios likes to name their songs the most bizarre things.

In Age of Mythology, there are less civilizations than Age of Empires 1 and Age of Empires 2. 2 Is personally my least favorite of the 4, although it's the community favorite. <_< And my computer just flat out does not have the graphics power to handle AOE3, not even the demo. In AOM, (can't speak for 3, didn't do much research on it) there are 3 civilizations rather than say 10 or 12+.

In AOE1, each civilization had certain tech trees, say, Romans could build Legions (fully upgraded Swordsman branch), but Greeks would stop at short swordsman. But Greeks could build Ballista towers (fully upgraded towers), while Romans could not. Some races had elephants. Etc., stuff like that. In AOE2, this was further expanded. Same stuff really, but now you got to choose a unique unit to build from your castle that was exclusive to your race!

Along with other civilization bonuses, even "team" bonuses. Say if you were Spanish, you could build a conquistador (unique to the Spanish), they're a handcanoneer (shoots bullets basically) on horseback. The Spanish team bonus was that trade was 33% cheaper or faster or something. One of the best team bonuses if not THE best.


Back to Age of Mythology. Age of Mythology has 3 very different races (4 if you have the Titans). Each of these civilizations is broken down into 3 sub-gods. So say if you play as Greek, you can choose between Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades as your 3 main Gods (pick one of course). Now each of these 3 gods has a God Tree Branch. Some Gods are shared. Example, you choose Zeus. You can then choose between Hermes and Athena (Athena is better for Zeus btw), Poseidon and Apollo (up to you), and then finally Hephaestus or Hera (Hera is exclusive to Zeus). Poseidon's would be: Poseidon - Hermes or Ares (Go Hermes), Aphrodite or Apollo, and then finally on the last age, Hephaestus or Artemis.

What the gods do. Each main god usually has a main role. Zeus is infantry and heroes, Poseidon is Calvary and naval for example. Example of Zeus bonuses: Technology to make heroes better. Hoplites move 10% faster and do bonuses damage (a lot of it) to buildings. They also get the unique-to-Zeus unit the Myrmidon, which has attack bonus vs all human units (and you can make them do well against myth units, too. But they are expensive and cost 3 population rather than the typical 2.)

As for the sub-gods, they usually provide smaller bonuses. Let's start with one of the early gods and then get to the late gods.
Ares - Provides technology to improve infantry. The tech improves Hoplite attack, hypasist attack, and archer attack. He comes with a Cyclops for his myth unit. A cyclops is great for attacking buildings, their special attack (has cool down of course) is that they can pick up any human unit and toss it, instantly killing it, even if it is a 450 HP elephant (forgot how much HP they had. Could be more.) Which is great! They counter elephants for example. They're good against buildings, have high attack, get bonus damage vs human units (all myth units do, don't cry about it, they're not broken). Lost track of where I was with all these pcs going on. Ares provides a god power called pestilence. Pestilence is great early on! It stops your opponent from building military units in a given radius for about a minute. Perfect for rushes. Now, later, we got onto say Hephaestus one of the final 2 god choices. Say him vs Artemis. He provides you with a plenty vault, not very devastating... compared to the other final god powers; meteors, earthquakes, lightning storms, tornados. But! It's not bad! Infact, it can be the BEST god power. It provides a steady trickle of supplies. 15 of every supply (excluding favor) every 5 seconds.


That adds up! For sure! His god unit is a bronze Colossus. It's like Talos (but he's not in the game). He's 150 feet tall, has 50 crush attack (like 30 hack attack. Hack = swords, crush = siege.) So he's a great building killer and can kill many units. He has 1100 HP. Can be upgraded to Silver Colossus at 1300, and gold at 1500. Artemis gets the less impressive Chimera. Good at killing buildings, better vs human units in DPS (damage per second). Less effective vs buildings tho. Special attack lets it spray fire for minor damage vs a LOT of human units. 3 Chimeras + fire = good damage. It has like 800 HP fully upgrades. Artemis's gets the almighty Earthquake. Does minor damage to human units, MASSIVE damage to buildings, pretty much destroys all buildings in the area. Altho it has a damage cap. So if too many buildings or units are there, it stops doing damage, so not all buildings may be destroyed. But it's still great! One of the best. Especially if you're going to end the game shortly. If not, go Hephaestus for the long term benefits. She benefits archers. Hephaestus gives you a MASSIVE discount on armor upgrades (if you had not already gotten them, if you plan on going Hephaestus from the beginning, wait for this bonus). Now, for those of you (probably all) who are new to the game, but have played AOE, just use Greeks from the beginning. Greeks follow the traditional AOE set up. Storage pit for supplies, granary for food (granary collects ALL food now, including huntables), villagers do all the building, barracks for infantry, archery range for archers, stable for calvary, you name it. Start off with a horse scout.

Here's some basic differences between the 3 races for example (4 if you count Atlanteans).


Greek - Traditional. Strongest units but most expensive. Strong buildings. Overall more balanced units. Units in high armor and attack. Comes with one hero per age, but the strongest heroes (unfortunately you cannot mass heroes like the other races). They are a balanced race. (Olive color is fitting for the olive loving Greeks).

Egyptian- Similar to greeks in that the villagers do all the building. Have the slowest builders and gatherers. But pharaohs can empower them to become the fastest. They do other stuff, too. They get priests for heroes, they have amazing range, but a pathetic 3 attack, but that becomes multiplied by a pretty good number against myth units, making them devastating vs myth units. Massed priests can kill a Titan pretty easily if used right (defend the Titan with human units you derp if you're the one attacking). They have weak and cheap units with poor armor and attack. But easy to mass, and build time is low. They are a defensive race.

Norse- Can ALSO mass heroes. They get Hersirs, which are basically a hero infantry unit. They can fight vs human and other units much better than the priests can, but they are cost effective, and cost 3 pop. If you're not fighting myth units and you're not Loki, don't use them. The Norse are the most radical of the 4 if you ask me. They have villagers called gatherers. They gather averagely on food and wood, but slower on gold. They cost 50 food. However, the Norse get dwarves. Dwarves cost 70 gold, but collect gold 10% faster than villagers, but slower by 10% on wood and food. Villagers do not build anything. Neither do dwarves. So how do you build structures? The infantry of course! Yes, the Norse use infantry to build all their structures. Walls, houses, the longhouse, you name it. The Greeks build the fastest, the Egyptians (not empowered) build the slowest, Atlanteans (in terms of pop 3rd fastest), so this puts Norse at second fastest I suppose. This is just a basic guide. So I won't go into TOOOO much detail. You can also instantly turn your villagers and dwarves into Ulfsarks (basic infantry unit of the Norse. Basic does not mean bad either). However, for FULL PRICE. So don't go "oh that's bullshit and broken". No, that's awful. Full price for units instantly? Sure you get instant defense, but your villagers stop gathering supplies and go fight to die. Pros and cons, yeah. They also have mobile ox carts to drop off any resource at rather than a stationary building. They have high attacking units for average cost with low armor. They are an offensive race.

Atlanteans: I don't exactly use them because my dad has dibs on them and they don't interest me all that much. They take the longest to build a villager. About 3 times as long. For 125 food, and 25 wood. However, the Atlanteans do collect nearly 3 times faster than Greek villagers. They have a a donkey that follows them around and supplies are gathered differently. Rather than being gathered at say, chunks of 10, they gather them at rates of 2, but instantly I mean. They don't have to drop them off anywhere. They just gather them due to the donkey being with them. No need for ox carts or storage pits, nope. Atlanteans = less micromanagement. They have units similar to the Greeks in terms of power and cost and armor. They have no dedicated hero units. They are said to have the least effective heroes, but I find that to be untrue towards the late game. If allowed to make it to the Mythic Age (final age), they are a reaaal pain to kill. How Atlanteans get heroes is simple. You have the favor and supplies for it, you can turn ANY human unit into a hero. You have ten Murmillo? (Think Hoplite), you can make them 10 Hero Murmillo! They receive slight bonuses in ALL of their stats, and become MUCH better at fighting myth units. Atlantean Hero Archers are a real threat to Titans.



Worse than the priests, because they can also kill human units relatively well. Monsters I tell you. The Atlanteans are a force to be reckoned with, but so are all the races. They are a balanced race, but slightly more powerful than the Greeks in buildings and units (if you come with Fanatics) (and their Calvary, too). Weaker in the hero department than the Greeks, and siege as well. Great race and very different from the Greeks and others however.

Each race gets 3 main Gods, and a handful of subgods, god powers, and units. Each race (Titans expansion exclusive, as well as Altanteans) get a Titan. Cost about as much as a wonder, takes about as long as a wonder to build. But you have to research it, too. A Titan (all of them are absolutely identical for balance sake I suppose), is this massive monster with 70 crush and hack damage. They wreck buildings. Have 95% hack armor, and like, 90% pierce armor or something. Easier to attack with archers in the back while distracting/blocking it with hand-to-hand soldiers. I don't recall their siege armor, like 80% or something. So siege is a good way to kill the Titan. I remember walking around with like 30 Helepoli (different from the ones you see in AOE. Those were just ballistas with a different name. <_<) and chasing after my dad's titan as he ran away with it. lol. These gigantic mobile towers that rolled their way around the world to kill the Titan. It was really funny, especially when they have 600 attack and are short ranged (which means they are all able to attack, even if not directly in front of it). Most powerful siege unit in the game (Greek exclusive).



And that's that, please, get the game. Don't make this fun little guide a waste. <-< Broke it up into odd paragraphs for the sake of trying to keep people's attention. I could've put more effort...

Here are some images from the game. Any questions, just ask.










Most of you probably did not read this and it was a waste of time. ]:
Did not check for typos, too much work, leave me alone!!!!!!