8 golden rules how to be a good at Age of Mythology Extended Edition or other classic RTS games

Age of Mythology is an old, but great real time strategy (RTS) game which has got an updated version: Extended Edition, available on Steam. As classic RTS games have become rare nowadays, they might be pretty hard to learn for new players. In Age of Mythology, if you want to win online or offline against the not-so-bad AI, you have to not only know the basics of the game well, have a strategy in your mind but you also have to react very fast to changes in the match and always keep in your mind many different things like "Are there any villagers doing nothing right now?"

Do not be afraid, there are some basic rules to follow when you play Age of Mythology to make your victory more likely. This post is assuming that you already know the games core mechanics. Note, that many of these rules are applying also for other RTS games like Age of Empires.

Golden rule #8 - Always keep all your units at work!

This one is obvious, but nontheless very important. Activate the "Show idle villagers" banner in the options menu and always keep your eye at the place where the banner is (upper left corner). Once you see the banner, immediately click on it and assign any idle villagers to any meaningful work; if there isn't any, just send him to a resource you currently have the least amount of. Working villagers are the backbone of your economy.

Golden rule #7 - If possible, produce your villagers non-stop!

The most important factor of your growth is the rate at which you produce villagers. Never stop that chain of villager production and always try to get the maximum amount of possible villagers for your town as fast as possible. Only stop the production if you only have one town center and need some other unit or improvement from the town center. Make sure you always have enough resources (especially food) for producing your villagers. Once you stop that while your enemy does not, you already start to slowly losing the game.

Golden rule #6 - Hunt as long as possible!

Sure, having a lot of fields is comfortable and means that you have to do less micromanagement. But it also means that you get food at a much slower rate, especially in the early game stage where you need a lot of food for your unit production (see the previous rule). Use any hunting possibility, even far away from your town center and also prefer berries over farming fields. Only build farming fields, if the hunting is too risky (e.g. too close to your enemies town or military units).

Golden rule #5 - If you can fish do fishing!

If there is water with fishes, build at least one port as soon as possible and start producing fishing ships. Fishing provides you a second income of food which is a huge advantage over your enemy, especially in the early stage of the game. Sure, you have to send your common villagers to collect more wood, but in the end, you now have two production chains of economy boost - your villagers and your fishing boats, which boosts your economy growth enormously.

Golden rule #4 - Scouting is important!

In order to be able to send out your units to resources, either to collect or protect them, you have to know where they are. In this game, there is a reason why every culture is starting the game with a scout. Use them to know your towns surroundings first and later try to come closer to your enemy, but without risking the life of your precious scouts. Identify early, where the key map elements are (see rule #2 for more).

Golden rule #3 - Always invest your resources!

If you have a lot of resources to your disposal and are not close to winning the game, you are doing it wrong. Any resources you have, should be invested immediately into literally anything from building something, training more units or researching some technology, even if you do not need it at the moment. The only exception from this should be only if you need to adavance to the next age faster or you are saving for a key milestone like the Titan gate or the wonder. If you still have too much of one or two specific resources, consider rebalancing your resource gatherers to resources you lack or assigning them some other tasks like building something.

Golden rule #2 - Control the map instead of attacking your enemy!

Many players tend to immediately attack their enemys town directly. That might be a good idea if the attack is done very early and you are sure, that your enemy cannot defend himself with units or towers. But usually, you will lose your units faster than the defender due to the fact that there is at least the town center which is doing additional damage to your units; this is a big deal in the early stage of the game. Instead, identify the key elements of the map as soon as possible by using your scouts (we learned that in rule #4). These key elements are animal herds, gold mines, town centers, the center of the map itself and of course where your enemies units, especially villagers are. Wood is usually not a key element as it is available in huge amounts across almost every map. At first, send out at least one unit to as many as possible key map elements and let the defend it. You will get a nice feeling of controlling the map and also will understand better where your enemy is and what he is doing. Gather your army at the center of the map instead of your town. Your enemy will have to get past the map center in most of the cases to get to your town. Once you spot enemy villagers at one of the key map elements, send some units to them. Your enemy will most likely send the villagers back to their home town. Even if you do not kill them, you are preventing them from collecting resources or building town centers. If you manage to control all gold mines in this way, you put your enemy under psychological pressure, as gold is needed for many things in the game while being scarce (except in the late stage of the game where you can use caravans). Many players tend to give up once they realize that they are no longer in control of the maps resources.

Golden rule #1 - Keep your strategy in mind!

Age of Mythology offers you a huge variety of strategies to use. Know which culture you are playing, which main god you are playing and combine their sub-gods powers and improvements to support your main strategy. Economically, your strategy might be for example to get all town centers as soon as possible; a strategy which is very good supported by Gaia and Uranos. If you play the greeks, you might focus your economy more on wood, as they need tons of them. Playing egyptians, you shouldn't have as many wood gatherers as with the greeks. From a military standpoint, you should select two unit types and focus on them. Playing as Hades, your first choise should be using archers. Combine them with infantry or cavalry, depending on your enemy to counter your enemys archer-counter-units. Pick your sub-gods to support your strategy if you focus on archers - Hades has Ares, Apollon and Artemis which are all supporting your archers with additional bonuses. There are countless possibilities, but never just pick your culture and try to play without any particular strategy in mind - you will more likely lose against somebody who if following a plan.