Tell me about RoN...

[Smellincoffee]

I've played Civ3, love it. (Duh. ) I've played AOK, love it too. I'm told RoN is a mix of the best of those, and "The Celtic Peacekeepers" made me all the more curious. How similar is RoN to AOK and Civ3? Would it be hard for someone like me to adjsut?

 

[HAND]

Imagine AOK with nukes! Actually two sorts of nukes, A-bomb and H-bomb! Yes the H-bomb dwarfs the A-bomb!
I love Civ3 myself(got vanilla civ and ptw)...but if you want to play a game that won't last for weeks (6 months for my last Civ3 game) then RoN is for you.
I think the demo might still be available at gamespy, so have a go if you have dsl/cable...I've just been playing the demo myself until I upgrade and get the full game.
Btw RoN has no walls like in AOK which may or may not be a good thing. I'm gonna look around for a trench/barb wire mod to slow modern attacks etc.

You should take to this game like a duck to water! I can't think of any other way of describing RoN other than a AOK/Civ3 hybrid.

 

[Silverflame]

Rise of Nations improves upon Age of Kings in nearly every way possible. All the good parts of AoK, they keep. All the annoying stuff, they trash. No more replanting farms, depleting forests, building houses, all that stuff is gone. A million new features are there as well, ranging from the obvious (borders, cities, attrition) to the not-so-obvious (ramping costs, ranged cavalry attack while moving). This game is great.

And there is a trench feature, the general has an ability called "entrench" which works well in the Industrial Ages (duh...), but is countered by flamethrowers (which deal major damage to entrenched and garrisoned units, but suck otherwise).

 

[Smellincoffee]

Has its expansion been out long enough to merit a "gold" edition?

 

[Silverflame]

Dude, the expansion hasn't even been out for a week yet... I'll let you answer your own question.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Whoops. I'll give it another day or so, then.

Is it more like civ, though?

 

[Silverflame]

More like civ in what sense? It resembles RTS games like AOK more than civ, but the civ-based elements are still there (Cities, borders and influence), but not that many. The diplomacy is an improvement over Age of Kings, but still quite flawed.

There is a "Conquer the World" campaign that plays like Risk only you actually play the individual battles, that feels more like a mix between RTS and TBS. It's alright, although I prefer the story-driven campaigns of AoK more (which is in the expansion). But if you loved AoK and Civ, then definately get this.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Do you just plop down cities (town centers), build trade between them, build units and kill your adversary? That would be more like AOK than Civ3.

 

[Paalikles]

Do you just plop down cities (town centers), build trade between them, build units and kill your adversary? That would be more like AOK than Civ3.

Nah, to some extent yes, but given that you SHOULD care about terrain bonuses, and the fact that each item built increases cost per new unit built of the same, makes for some actual strategic planning.

Imagine attackers having to cross the river to get to your city, which is situated on the top of a hill. You have spotted them coming, so your trebuchets are pounding them, and you are preparing to flank them (wich gives a SEVERE blow to the army being flanked)

That being said - placing cities is quite important. There is a tradeoff between grabbing resources and having easily defendable cities at times. And there is a tradeoff between having a good port and being overrun at sea and then subject to bombardment by your opponents.

All in all, the little step away from traditional aggressive forward building towards more strategic settlements is a welcome addition in this game, at least in my book.

Hope that explains it

 

[HAND]

And there is a trench feature, the general has an ability called "entrench" which works well in the Industrial Ages (duh...), but is countered by flamethrowers (which deal major damage to entrenched and garrisoned units, but suck otherwise).

Yea I know about entrench, i meant having a passive barrier defence(bardwire/trench) that slows down tanks/infantry etc...having a similiar effect to crossing a river for example.
Needless to say it should be nothing like the AoK scenario of having walls miles thick. It should be expensive and time consuming to make.

There are other ways to win in RoN apart from enemy bashing, including wonder victories, allied victories etc...check out the bighugegames website for more details. Like i said earlier, its worth downloading the demo for a taste of the game.

 

[Fox Mccloud]

I've played Civ3, love it. (Duh. ) I've played AOK, love it too. I'm told RoN is a mix of the best of those, and "The Celtic Peacekeepers" made me all the more curious. How similar is RoN to AOK and Civ3? Would it be hard for someone like me to adjsut?

"The Celtic Peacekeepers" made me put it on the top of my list this year. Go to the Rise of Nations site, download the trial version, and try it out. Just the trial version was great.

Edit: I thought it was very similar to Age of Empires and Civilization.