Age of Mythology; a Broad Overview for Newbies

This guide is intended for those who are new to this game. It is to be noted that I am not an expert player. Not MLG, not part of a FaZe sniping clan, etc. However I have been playing this game since it first came out... so I guess street cred. To summarize, Im just a veteran piece of no-life scum.
The guide will skim over the basics, a meta-analysis of each culture in general, as well as some of my opinions added as commentary. Hopefully this will give you a better sense of the game and how to not get your ♥♥♥♥ rekt by us veterans.
Im only helping out you noobs because Im a self-hating ♥♥♥♥♥♥ who deserves to get his butt kicked.

Disclaimer: THIS IS LONG AS ♥♥♥♥. Visit the TL;DR at the bottem of the page you illiterate scum.

What is AoM fam????

The game you just bought you idiot...

But in all seriousness, AoM is a strategy game centered around God's Heroes & Monsters from various cultures. (One of which was completely made up) Unlike many strategy games, AoM does not rely on repetitive build orders or a set way of going about things. (Although it can be helpful) It is unique in its variety of choices in regards to strategies one can employ, as well as its depth. The game is easy to learn how to play, but difficult to master.


You build up from a small town and raise armies in the name of your god to crush the infidels. The ultimate objective, like in most Age of Empires games, should be total Genocide.

The picture shown should give you an idea of the transition between noob and veteran. If you have not experienced any growth in body hair, or attained an urge to murder those who hold different views from you, you are not ready to suceed in AoM. So praise (insert god here), and go kill the filthy (insert culture here)!

The basics

A basic game of AoM starts with you starting with a town center and some villagers. Unlike most standard RTS games, you can only build town centers on predetermined locations, known as settlements. (The structures on the map that look like third-world villages.)




There are three resources, although technically there are five. Food, wood, and gold.
Food is gathered from animals, (the fastest way to get food for those of you looking for that quick fix) fish, (a "meh" way to get continual resource income, very efficiant tbh) and farms. (Slow but infinite)
Wood is gathered from trees... and only trees. (WHOA DUDE SO UNEXPECTED)
Gold is gathered from mining and trade caravans. Mines are a fast way to get gold, while trade caravans supply infinite money, but at the price of your sanity precious time. Resources can be gained and sold at the market, or sent and recieved between two players working together.

Control over resources is paramount in AoM, as your milittary should be only your secondary concern. Only a strong economy can win, without a good economy, you will run out of resources, and you will die.

The other two "resources" to take into account is population room and favor.
Population room affects how many units you can muster at one time. Villagers (except atlantean ones) cost only one population room, while most military units cost two or more pop. Population room is increased by town centers, and houses. Each culture can build ten houses, each supporting ten population. (Except for Atlanteans because they wanted to be a bunch of hipsters) Generally there are only three settlements available to any given player at the beggining of the game, which with ten houses and full upgrades amounts to about 160 pop cap limit. Be careful with this.

Favor is unique to AoM from other strategies. Most civs have a limit of 100 favor, with different ways to gain favor depending on what culture you play as. (Except Zeus, he gets 200 favor limit) Favor is used for multiple things, namely building forts, researching God tech upgrades, and recuiting special myth units or heroes.

In AoM there are three basic unit types which are unique to the game. Human units, hero units, and myth units. Myth units include mythical monsters which are highly effective against most human units. Hero units are like expensive human units with a large bonus against myth units, and who can carry relics. Human units include everyone and everything else.

Rule of thumb is that your armies should mostly be composed of human units, with only a few hero and myth units to spice things up and to bolster overall strength. Dont do what I did when I first started playing by creating whole armies of minotaurs. (Its tempting I know) This can only lead to disaster.




Bringing up the topic of relics again, relics are objects on the map that heroes can pick up and carry to your temple. (The building you use to age up for the first time and summon myht units with) Relics add different small bonus's to your empire, and sometimes can be quite useful.








Finally it is time to discuss god powers. God powers can only be used once (unless, again, your Atlantean) and you start with one god power granted by your patron diety. God powers have varying effects and can range from a short boost to your economy, to a meteor shower that destroys your enemy utterly.

Aging up

Aging up is extremely important in any Age of Empires game. There are four (technically five) ages in AoM. The Archaic, Classical, Heroic, and Mythic ages. With each age up, you are given the choice between two "minor gods" who grant different god powers, myth units, and special upgrades. IMPORTANT: DONT CHOOSE THE GOD WITH THE COOLEST LOOKING MYTH UNIT/POWER. It is important to analyze what each upgrade does/will do and whether the myth unit or god power will actually help you. Think strategically.

The Archaic age is where you start, as a small crappy village in the middle of nowhere. It may just be the most critical age in the entire game, as this is when your economy should begin to churn. Generally you should finish with this age by the six minuit mark. Seven should be the limit on how long it takes you to level up, anything above that and you'll get ♥♥♥♥♥♥. To do this, make sure you focus almost all your workers on food and keep pumping out villagers. (remember to periodically build houses, hitting your population limit can severly penalize you on time) To age up, you must build a temple, and then spend 400 food to age up.

The Classical is age is where things get intresting. This is the age in which one can begin training an army. (and should train one) By the time you age up, you should still be producing villagers like crazy. (IMPORTANT NOTE: NEVER STOP MAKING VILLAGERS UNTIL YOUVE MADE ENOUGH TO STABALIZE YOUR ECONOMY EFFICIENTLY) Remember to upgrade your economic technology before anything else, as this will boost your economy signifigantly. Find a worker who is currently on your most abundent/least necessary resource and start building military buildings. Try to balance your production of villagers and tech upgrades with your production of military units. Depending on your strategy, you may need to relocate workers to different resources to fit your needs while building all these things. Finally you should build an armory to advance to arguably the most important age in the game, the Heroic.

The Heroic age usually opens up a plethora of options with which to crush your enemies. You can now build advanced military buildings and units, most notably the fortress, which serves both as a large defensive structure that can withstand a small attack, and as a base for military units to train from. If you are playing on a water map, it also opens up new ship types to use against the enemy. By the heroic age you should get your economy into a full swing and upgrade as much as you can, both your economy and even your military units now. You can also build a market now. Markets can help you to trade resources, and serve as base for caravans. To start a succesful caravan, build your market a resonable distance from a town center and then make your caravans target the town center. They will then move back and forth between the two, producing gold.


By the Mythic Age, you should have a sizeable force and the cost of creating new units should seem negligible. If it isnt your probably in trouble. The mythic age gives options for more new units, techs, and myth units. If you havent crushed the enemy by this far into the game, do so as soon as possible.

The final age is the Titan age, which only grants you access to the summon Titan god power. Its a somewhat large investment and it is up to you to make the call. Titans are massive rape machines units that cost 20 population and can be made by any civ. Titans are unparralled in strength or endurance but are slow and cannot heal or cross water. To create a Titan you must place a gate somewhere on the map and then use workers to build the gate. This can impact your economy, but the rewards are great if you have one. If you find yourself up against a Titan it often means your screwed. Only hero's can signifigantly effect a Titans health, and even then you will need quite a few heroes to do any damage. Fighting Titan with Titan is an easy solution, but often the cost is losing both Titans in the fight.


General rules of thumb: Build up to your villagers until you have around 20 on food, 14-16 on wood (more if its a naval map) and 18-20 on gold. (More if your egyptian) Tweak this to your hearts desire as different strategies require different amounts of workers on certain resources. Dont stop making villagers.
Make sure to use god powers at the correct times, as it can make all the difference in the world.
Always be spending your resources. The less resources you have stockpiled the better. Resources sitting in the bank are not being utilized and are wasted energy. Only save up resources for important upgrades, or if you are at your population limit in the Mythic age after researching everything possible.
Just like with your villagers, never have idle military units. If you have a small force of soldiers, use them for anything you can, whether that may be raiding or defending a mine.

Cultures

There are were four cultures in AoM. (since they added the Chinese) Each one is unique in the way they generate favor, gather resources, and build stuff. Here is a general analysis of each one.

GREEKS: The greeks have the all around strongest, yet most expensive troops in the game, making them a faction that values quality over quantity. Their villagers are simple and dont have any signifigant strengths or weaknesses, making them a good well rounded faction overall.

They gain favor by praying at their temples. (You should have two villagers at the temple as my recommendation) Greeks also have the most powerful heroes in the game, being able to build four powerful hero's out of greek mythology.

They are a resiliant and generally all-purpose faction, making them a good culture for begginers. You can worship Zeus, Posiedon, and Hades.


EGYPTIANS: A diverse faction which presents many options to the player. Egyptians are heavily reliant on gold and have both Priests and a single Pharaoh as their heroes. The Pharaoh is the most important unit you have as he can empower buildings, speeding their construction, production, or the speed at which villagers near it gather resources. Egyptian workers are slightly slower at both gathering and building, but once empowered by the Pharaoh work much more productivly then almost any other cultures units.

Egyptians gather favor from the gods by building monuments to them, with each monument built being bigger, more efficiant, but also more expensive then the last. You can build up to five of these monuments.

Egyptian militaries start off with three basic yet well rounded units, which although somewhat fragile, are quite cost effective considering total popultion to resource cost, and are not too shammy versus their natural counters. By the heroic age Egyptians gain access to more expensive yet well balanced and powerful units, including the mighty war elephants.

Because of their adaptability, Egyptians are considered one of the best factions in the game. Egyptians can worship Ra, Set, or Isis. (The sexy Isis, not the goat-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Isis)


NORSE: Norse are an aggresive faction with shammy defensive skills and structures but excellent offensive capabilities. Their military units are cheap, with generally lower defensive stats making them more vulnerable, but higher offensive stats, meaning they can dish out damage better than most other units in the game.

The Norse make buildings with their infantry units, unlike with other cultures, making them a good faction to build forward bases with. Instead of making stagnant drop-sites for resources like other cultures, the Norse use mobile ox-carts, which gives them in effect a mobile economy, which is very helpful especially early game. They also have access to a special economic unit, the dwarf, which gets a significant bonus to mining, but is otherwise useless when used for other tasks.

The Norse gather favor in battle, making fighting neccessary for a Norse player. The Norse have an array of mostly infantry units, with only two cavalry units, the raiding cavalry and the mighty Jarl. (arguably the single strongest cavalry unit in the game.) The Norse have few anti-cavalry options, leaving them with only one true weakness. They also lack long range siege, instead having powerful rams to destroy buildings. However the Norse's roster of units is well rounded in general and they all excel at what they were intended to do. Although they may seem so, the Norse are not quite quantity over quality.

The Norse can worship Loki, Odin, or Thor.


ATLANTEANS: The Atlanteans are a completely made up ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ faction with no historical basis whatsoever faction that introduces some intresting gameplay options, as they are the most diverse in playstyle.

Atlantean economies are fueled by the Citizen, a special unit that takes up 3 population each, requires no drop site, and gathers/builds much faster than any other unit in the game. Despite this, they are expensive and their population room cost is a considerable negative, forcing you to place them on each resource or task more carefully. Atlantean economies often suffer under pressure during the early game.

All Atlantean human units can be turned into heroes, making them the best culture to deal with myth units or Titans. Despite this, turning units into heroes costs a somewhat hefty amount and also increases the population they take up. (In the case of citizens I would personally advise to not bother upgrading them to heroes, as the costs outweigh the benfits overall.) Atlanteans gain favor by placing settlements. (They gain favor simply from ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ excisting, the bastards.)

Atlantean militaries are incredibly diverse and varied, making it impossible to define them with quips such as "Quality over qunatity" or vice-versa. Their standard barracks units are quite standard and resiliant, weaker than Greek troops yet slightly stronger than Egyptian base units. On the other hand their "counter-barracks" units are highly specialized, incredibly vulnerable to units who can exploit their weaknesses, but extremely effective against their counters.

Atlanteans being the most complex and diverse faction are often used by more highly skilled players, and it is advised that new players skip them until they have more expierience. Atlanteans can worship Kronos, Gaia, or Oronus.


CHINESE: The newest bestest faction evaaar The Chinese are, at this current state, highly unbalanced. (This will be edited with future balance updates.) However I feel it is necessary to talk about them from a theoretical standpoint.

In Theory, the Chinese are a faction that focus's on booming economies with cheap yet weak units that can be mass-produced. Their focus in military is Quantity over quality, making them polar opposites of the Greeks, yet their economic philosophy leans towards a fast paced industry of power.

The Chinese can train up to eight heroes known as "Immortals" who can switch between bow and sword depending on which is more effective. They gather favor by building special gardens which generate favor. They can build ten of these. In addition, gardens can be tasked to generating other resources as well in the form of a trickle, however if one garden's production is changed, then all the garden's productions are switched.

As of now, the Chinese still need some work. They can worship Nu Wa, Shennong, or Fu Xi.

TL;DR / Conclusion

To conclude, a few more tips for new players.
-Play aggressivly. Dont be afraid of losing your units, its a game after all, and you ain't going to win by sitting on your ass and waiting to be steam-rolled.
-Watch recording of your own games or more advanced games by expert players. This is a great way to learn from both your mistakes and others.
-Learn to micromanage (or "micro" for short) your units in battle. This can turn a battle where you are outnumbered into a slaughter for the enemy.
-Scout out the enemy. Information is valuable and critical, as learning of what troops your enemies are preparing can better prepare you so you can set up counter units against them.
-Read more guides. Although this one is a broad overview, (written by a "casual" player no less) more detailed guides can give you more tips and information to help you on your journey to excellence.
-Don't be that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. The one who goes on servers to just be a whiny little ♥♥♥♥. Just... dont.
-Make friends. Both in game and irl... Okay Im mostly talking irl, go outside fatty.
-????
-Hydras? (Finally useful as hell with the physician)
-I got nothing, go for a hike, meet a cute girl/guy, enjoy life, get a job your happy with, idk, your probably wasting time reading this obligatory filler sentance which Ive made just because I feel this isnt long enough even though it already is and now this sentance has turned into a rant why the hell did I stay up until 3:00 a.m. to finish this ♥♥♥♥.


TL;DR : Your a lazy ♥♥♥♥♥♥ for not reading that wall of text, go back to middle school you illiterate scum.


Ded.

[VainSick]

Thanks, this helps a lot

[sir stanley]

v. useful. my god the work. still have discs. have been watching steam for a while but game doesn't go on sale. doesn't seem right to pay say much for an old game. after all look at the price of aoe 2 de

[That Elephant Seal]

I apologize to all the comments that have come in over the years, I've been very inactive in AOM for a long time due to life. I don't exactly have plans to update or put more depth into this guide since I don't really have the time, but in regards to the Chinese I would advise that people check out the in-depth guides to them as they are a little better balanced than they used to be, and people have created strategies for them.

[Infectedwaffle]

Very good guide. As a AoM vet tho I would have been happier if you also covered the separate major gods in a little bit more detail, specifically due to the fact that some drastically change the way you can play, such as Ra's priests all having (worse) empower, allowing Ra to create a giant economy, or Odin who can end you in the first 5 minutes because his unique tech and free scouts can get his military up and running ridiculously fast.

[Bombana]

The ending advice (not the middle school lol) was great thx for the guide and gl in life bud <3

[halosane]

Good guide and sorry to be that guy but TECHNICALLY a titan is a myth creature and I can't remember which minor god gives the buff I think Prometheus or smth, BUT one of the buyable buffs is regen for myth units so technically, you could, heal a titan.

[orcrest]

nice guide used to be a "god" at this in my 20's ,now just a 50yr old mortall

[Sgt. Barnes]

Thanks for this guide. The other stuff on the internet can seem out of date.

[max]

oK Boomer

[BerciMan]

Thank you.