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The Ultimate Zelda Guide aKm_Freak_Ld

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The Ultimate Zelda Guide:

Index: Index............................................................................................................................ Introduction................................................................................................................. Build Up...................................................................................................................... Dock Building................................................................................................... Empowering...................................................................................................... Drop Sites.........................................................................................................

Upgrades.......................................................................................................... Let�s Rumble............................................................................................................... How To Enter A Base....................................................................................... Godpowers................................................................................................................... Special Strategies......................................................................................................... Hotkeys........................................................................................................................ The Console...................................................................................................... The GG........................................................................................................................ Tips and Tricks............................................................................................................ Appendix..................................................................................................................... Abbreviations.................................................................................................... Links................................................................................................................. Maps................................................................................................................. Disclaimer......................................................................................................... Contact..............................................................................................................

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Chapter 1: Introduction: Always wondered how to become a good Zelda player? Do you feel sick if people laugh at you with your �famous� 3:30 Hades advance time? Always get owned as soon as someone rushes you? This is the place

to find out how to get better! The first thing to do is� admit that you�re not the best player (yet). Experts just laugh at people who say in

the game lobby that they own and later � in game � it seems that you don�t know what a dock is. It�s

important if you see an expert hosting a Zelda game with a title similar to �Zelda, Experts�, to first think if

it�s a good idea to join. Try to classify yourself: noob � average player � semi-expert � expert. When you know you�re not an expert, just forget about that game. Think about it: its not fun for the host to just slaughter you, nor will you have fun being owned. The next time this player hosts a game like �Zelda, be

good� this is your chance! If experts see that only players they don�t know join, they won�t give it the best

they got. Here you should take your chance, you can do 2 things: Or you just join on their team and observe the expert his game play, or try the other team and try to make a good impression. There is a slight chance you beat him, but even if not, they will have seen that you have a nice game play (if you don�t have that

yet, keep reading). Now, if you would win, don�t start talking to these experts like: �Ha! Loser, I even own

you� and you call yourself an expert!�. The next thing that happens then is that they 1v1 you and you get owned. So just be nice, say �good game�, and maybe they invite you to their next game. These people can

learn you a lot, and later� you can have fun owning them in a 1v1 if you get better.


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Chapter 2: The Buildup: Now, how do we make a good impression? There are a few guidelines that you should always keep in mind. The first impression you give too people, is how fast you advance. Take a look at this table and see how good you already are.

Greek Egyptian Norse Atlantean Awesome < 3:06 < 2:30 < 3:20 < 3:10 Very good 3:10 2:40 3:27 3:20

Nice 3:20 3:05 3:30 3:25 Average 3:30 3:30 3:33 3:30

Bad > 3:30 > 3:30 > 3:33 > 3:30 Of course, we are talking about limits here. If you have a special strategy in mind, you can advance somewhat later, but remember, Zelda is almost completely about speed. These advance times are based on the standard Zelda maps: �Zelda! Greek Canyons�, and other similar 15-villager-zeldas. But how the hell am I supposed to get these freaking times, is what you're thinking now. If you follow these steps, getting advanced quickly will be really easy. Now, think logically! We stand there with 15 idle villagers, 0 food, <100 gold, <100 wood and 10 favor. What will you do?

Delete them? Wait 3 minutes for the ceasefire to expire and attack with them? Leave them there and get a drink and a snack? Have a chat with your friends? Use them?

Obviously� (you get that drink) you use them � and fast � time is running! Even before you see the in game screen, press your idle villager hotkey (TIP: set it to �space�) and you can start moving from the first

second you see the game screen. Now... we need a Town Center, so we need food. (*goes to the kitchen and gets a hamburger*) so you build docks. But how? I will give a standard buildup that works for every god here, so that you can always advance in 3:30 without a problem.

11 villagers to wood, whom 6 close to a tc; 4 villager build 6 docks; next these 4 villagers go to gold close to a tc; after that you finished the docks, 1 villagers from wood builds a temple and returns to wood; when you have 100 food, build a town center with the 4 gold gatherers and 6 wood gatherers; your tc should be ready before 2�30� and you can advance without any troubles by then.

If you have made it to an advance time better than average� your first impression is a success! Of course,

there is more about Zelda as advance times. The most important thing is � and will always be � economy. No economy = no army. Try to find out what you are going to do this game. If you are about to go and rush (this works best versus non-prepared experts), you should have a decent army (actually just up to 300 population) under 7 minutes. This won�t always work if you try to upgrade all economic upgrades. If that you have these upgrades, you got a good basic economy, but never forget to make more villagers. Also if you rush with any Norse god, get gatherers, no dwarfs, since you will need all the gold you can get. After some time, a stable economy should look like this:

50 fishing ships (with Purse Seine and Salt Amphora.) 40-60 regular villagers / 15-20 Atlantean villagers mining gold 15 hero Atlantean villagers cutting wood All the eco upgrades you can find Enough drop places for gold (~5 mining camps/ ~3 ox carts)

Of course this depends on the units you want to make. If you are going to spam elephants or hyspaspist you obviously need more as 50 ships. Remember that you should never keep >1000 gold unused before you reach the Mythic Age. If you are not controlling your army, you should be searching for upgrades. Even if you are low on gold, and you think you will sure need it, don�t let this stop you from getting an important


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upgrade. Every time you can, you should upgrade your armory (be careful with Thor, since you can end up with all upgrades in Classic). If you already have all these upgrades, its time to go heroic or Mythic. If you have 1000 gold and no wood, you should � obviously � switch some of the villagers� tasks. Another

important economical tip: always use the starting Atlantean villagers for wood as much as possible, and the other regular villagers you can make for gold, because you almost don�t have an increasing walk time when

gathering gold, unlike wood. Of course you need some Atlantean villagers gathering gold at start, but when the number of regular villagers will rise, more should be transferred to wood. An important tip to make sure that your villagers have almost no idle time is: use waypoints. I think most people know this feature already, but I�ve seen some people not doing it too, so I�ll include it here anyway.

So what are waypoints? You can give a villager certain tasks at 1 moment, so he will continue with the next task as soon as he has finished the first (without idle time or the need of your further attention). Suppose a wood citizen has to build a temple: you click on the villager, press t (=temple), hold shift and right click on a tree. Now you will see that right after the temple is build he will go to wood again. There is no possibility that you can do it faster, even if you�re watching it. With the shift key you can also give orders to build a

row of barracks without the villagers running away from the (unfinished) first the start the second etc�

Some people only use it when building docks, but I�d suggest using it as much as possible. Another important time to use it, is when you are building a tc: you select your builders, right click the unfinished tc, hold shift and right click the resources where they should go after finishing it. This way they don�t all run to only 1 gold mine or something similar. And why is this so important here? At the point that

the tc is finished, you usually have a lot of work. Giving the tc builders new tasks, including the free villager(s) you have received. Also drag your fishing ships to the docks for faster food so you can advance faster, and at last, advancing as soon as you have that 400 food. So we don�t have to worry about the

builders� tasks anymore and also the free villager(s) can already be guided, since you can already define waypoints from an unfinished tc (unlike from other unfinished buildings). So select the unfinished tc, and right click the gold mine where the new villagers should go. Now the only thing you have to worry about when you advance is your fishing ships. If you have a hotkey for advancing (like me) you can of course be even faster. And a last tip about villagers: although the icon is not available (without modpacks1), the �set passive

stance� action works on them. This means that they won�t run away and keep building even if they are

being attacked. Of course you also be aware of the dangers. When a unit does not run he will be killed easier, maybe even without you noticing it. But it has great advantages too. If an archer shoots at a villagers that�s building something and its nearly finished, you would prefer to finish the building first and then run

away. In this case, the passive stance is a very good solution.

1 If you download my modpack, all those options will become visible above the unit stats panel, so you can click

the �set passive stance� icon there. If you don�t have this modpack, you have to use the hotkey. (options hotkeys)


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Special: Dock building: If you want to advance fast, everything starts with building docks. Greek players can build 5 docks with 4 villagers in less than 42 seconds. This is only for regular bases (blue, teal, purple) because the starting conditions in the other bases are too bad. Here is an example of the blue base:

(buildup: 5A.: The Greek FH Rush)

The first thing you do is (multiple-choice):

let some villagers make docks and next let the other cut wood? assign some villagers to wood and next let some villagers make docks?

You may think its because you need the docks so fast that you pick the first option. But in that case you forgot that you don�t have enough starting resources for building more as 1 dock at once (like you are

supposed to do), so pick the second option. Now try to find out yourself how to build them so quick. Here is a tip: remember that 2 villagers building 2 docks at the same time will finish sooner as 2 villagers building the 2 docks 1 by 1. Make sure that you don�t let your villagers walk to far to build the docks.

Special: Empowering: Now you�re thinking: �What is so special about empowering?� Well, you get resources faster if you assign

your pharaoh to a drop site, and you make units faster if you make it empower a barrack. But how exactly does it work for the economic benefit? You may think (at least that�s what I thought a few months ago) that

the villagers near the empowered drop site gather faster, which is not true. The only advantage when empowering economy is that if a villager with, lets say 15 gold walks to a mining camp, he will drop of more (e.g. 17 or 18). So keep in mind that building more as 1 drop site for gold at start is not always a good idea, because that way only a few villagers will receive the empowering boost. This also implies that empowering Atlantean villagers has no effect. Another tricky thing: when empowering a town center, this does not improve the villager production speed, or the advance time speed, so don�t waste the time of your pharaoh empowering a town center advancing. Of course it will still boost construction time and amount of resources villagers drop. And finally, how to empower monuments. Well, just picking a monument and empowering it is not enough. To empower efficiently, you need to know the favor generation rates of these monuments. There seems to be a difference between the rates in Age of Mythology and the ones in The Titans. In the Vanilla


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version the first monument gathers the fastest, and next the monument to the gods. The 3 others gather slower. In The Titans it seems that the monument to the gods gathers faster (1.08 favor/second), and next the monument to villagers (1.00 favor/second). So to have the biggest benefit, empower the monument with the highest rate. Early in-game this will probably be the monument to villagers, and later � for The Titans � the Monument to the Gods. If you remember all this, you can finally make your pharaoh work efficiently.

Special: Drop Sites: This is a short, though very important thing I still need to tell you. The placement of an oxcart near a gold mine is very important. Because an oxcart isn�t a circle, but an oval, you should always try to head the ox

cart 90° different from the walking line of your villagers. Also make sure that you don�t place it to close to

the gold mine, because that way it might start blocking villagers, or even result in starting them to bump against each other because of the lack of space. Also the gold mines themselves have an oval form. That�s why you should try to build a drop place along

the long side of a mine. Of course most goldmines in Zelda are just placed on top of each other, but make sure to use it if you see a single mine somewhere. This way your gold economy will improve a little, but every penny we can get is important! And its not too much work, so try to remember this. Look at the images if you don�t have a clue what I�m talking about. Good: (incase you have enough wood and you are bored down to the ground.)

Bad: (yes that are 80 villagers� I just ran out of gold mines.) Ox cart placement: (green = OK)


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Special: Upgrades: This section is both for the military and economic chapter, so I'll place it somewhere in between. I'll start with the economic upgrades, since you can't make too much army without economy. The first time you should upgrade your economy is when you just clicked the Age 2 button. I always get pickaxe, no matter what, and most of the time hand axe, unless I want to rush with a Norse Civilization. Once you are in the classic age, after you put down a few military buildings, you should � no matter what � upgrade purse seine (docks), because the base gather rate of fishing ships is really low. And again, we get the new economic upgrades. You might want to make 2 guilds when you are advancing, or 1 mining camp and 1 lumber camp. Don't spend resources on a new oxcart when you are rushing, although you should upgrade shaft mine as Norse too whenever you can. Once you get to the Heroic, nothing should hold you back from upgrading all economic upgrades you can find. Well... you can upgrade hunting dogs, husbandry and farm upgrades if you have to much wood and you are eager to get most points. By now you have these upgrades:

pick axe, shaft mine, quarry hand axe, bow saw, carpenters purse seine, salt amorpha. [some extra useless ones if you want]

Always remember that economic upgrades are the start of everything, and gold upgrades will almost always be more important as wood upgrades, because almost every single unit in this game costs gold (except myth units). You just have to be keen on those upgrades. Make of game of them, race for most points: "thou shalt not sleep without all thy upgrades". Well... don't upgrade unimportant things if you have just begun a though fight, but else... Make sure that you always check the upgrades from other people. Just click on an enemy unit and click F1 or click on its portrait. (This area is very dangerous to click on, since it�s the spot where the 'Quit' button

pops up when someone lost his connection. So prefer to use the F1 button.) Now a dialog screen with upgrades will appear. If you notice that he has more armory upgrades as you, you might get in trouble once he has more army as you, so try to stay in advantage with both numbers and upgrades. That�s not always

easy but with a good managed economy it shouldn�t be too much of a problem. You can also decide with

what units you can use to counter him. If he has iron mail but no shields, try to make as much archers as possible if the situation allows it. Also economic upgrades of the foe can be checked, so don't be afraid to send a Pegasus over to his base, and check how his economy is doing. If you notice that his economy is worse as yours, you can start a big fight with the 2 sides suffering much loses, and if he doesn't counter you to badly, he will soon run out of resources, declaring you as winner. Of course also an army needs upgrades too. Certain people just go fast-Heroic get all medium, heavy, copper and bronze upgrades and start unit production after that. The way to beat these people is to attack fast, because once they get their full pop, there won�t be anyone to stop them for a while. But if you really

want to be fast, you have to select the upgrades that fit you best. For example, versus a Norse rusher it�s

very important to have an army quick, so don�t spend resources on upgrading copper shields (unless they start with trolls or ballistas). You better use the gold you have for upgrading copper weapons. Some of the most important army upgrades (in my humble opinion) are levy and conscript. I always get these upgrades, together with my armory ups, and I don�t yet upgrade medium (heavy, champion) when I rush. Remember:

what noobs see are medium, heavy, champion and (maybe) shield upgrades (textures change), but experts prefer to look at the armory upgrades of a unit, its more hidden, but it�s the most important. Now why are armory upgrades better, lets have a look at what certain upgrades do: Medium, heavy and champion increase attack, hp and LOS. Weapons increase the attack, mail increases hack armor and shields increase pierce armor. As you see, you can freely choose what stats of your units you want to increase, so you don't have to spend resources on things you don't want to improve. Another thing is that armory upgrades are for all units, and that you have to get multiple upgrades for both infantry, cavalry and archers. Of course you need the medium upgrades etc. but I'd suggest getting the armory upgrades first. You could make 2-4 armories depending on how much resources you have. Some other upgrades you might be interested in are: Heroic Fleet, Ambassadors and Tax Collectors (market) and Beast Slayer (Greek Fortress). These upgrades are rather uncommon, but can be useful too.


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Chapter 3 : Let�s Rumble Now that you have mastered the art of advance speed and economy, its time for some action! You can�t win a game with just economy (unless you use the drop-tick exploit, this is not advised). Now lets assume that you have an excellent advance time, what to do next? 5 seconds before you have advanced (I base al my actions on time for the first 5 minutes, so toggle time on F11) you should move the free villagers you have received to some open build space, so that you can put down 2-3 buildings at once when you�ve

just advanced. For Greek, Atlantean and Egyptian, let each villager build at 1 barrack. For Norse you can start with 2 soldiers. Remember what I said, construction speed doesn�t multiply by 2 if you add another

villager. Also get an armory up after you have 3-4 military buildings. Once you have all the buildings up and spamming army, you won�t have enough gold to go Heroic or buy armory upgrades, so that�s what you

want to do first if you want to go fast-Heroic or fast-Mythic. If your planning to rush seriously with Norse it might be a good idea not to upgrade your armory to much, and just try to outnumber them as soon as possible. Now you should have:

For Greek: 6 military academies + 6 archery ranges. For Norse: 6 temples and 7 barracks For Atlantean: 12 barracks (military and counter), depends on the enemy what units you make. For Egyptian: 4-6 barracks if you want to rush. 1-2 if not.

During all this military activity, never forget to pay attention to your economy. That�s the fault most noobs

make, once they are in a serious fight, they don�t look at their 20 idle villagers anymore. So keep paying

attention! Make sure that you enable all idle-unit-banners (options). Certain modpacks offer you banners for villagers, fishing ships, caravans, military units and heroes. On top of that they enable buttons to find flying units, naval units etc. you may also want to learn the hotkeys for all your idle units (read further below). But what kind of army do we need? The basic things you need to know is which units counter others. If you don�t know that yet, its time to go and study! Basically, horses counter archers, and those counter infantry, while infantry counters horses. There are special things for Age of Mythology called �tool tips�. These

small files (language.dll / xpacklanguage.dll) can change the help text from the game into more useful information, like unit bonus damage versus others. For example, did you know that katapeltes and prodomos counter siege units, or that hoplites have a +50% bonus versus turmas? Read until the end and you�ll discover where to find these tool tips. Of course you can't always counter the enemies units. For example: a classic Egyptian army has almost no chance versus an Atlantean player spamming cheiros, and a classic Greek army has no chance versus the classic Egyptian counter units. So you should decide if you want to rush in classic, or go fast-Heroic and make the new units that are now available. Of course you also have to mix your unit types. When the enemy scouts your base, and finds out that you, lets say, only have hoplites, he can just make a full army of anything that counters hoplites. That is the time you are in trouble, so try never to use only 1 unit type, unless the unit is so strong and your economy is so good you can afford some loses (Myrmidons, Fanatics, War Elephants). You should always make at least 2 unit types, and make sure they are complementary. For example, when you make hoplites versus an Egyptian, he would make axemen, so you should make sure that your second unit type can counter the axemen. In this case toxotes would do a good job, but when he starts with slingers and he has "slings of the sun" upgrade (+30% slinger attack versus infantry) he can counter both hoplites and toxotes with only slingers, so you should come up with another unit type. This is where the cavalry comes in. now you can go for hippikons and hypaspists. As long as he is in heroic, it won't be easy for the Egyptian player to beat you, but never forget cavalry is expensive, and he can get spearmen for 20 gold, so you should keep you unit types updates corresponding the actual situation. One of the best combo's are probably myrmidons and peltasts, or fanatics and turma's. (never use myrmidons versus other Greeks, because their bonus has no effect on them, and they are way to expensive for that, even with 18 attack. You can also use our game knowledge in you advantage. For example: most people don't know throwing axemen have hack attack, although they are ranged. The same for ballistas, they usually do crush damage (good for buildings) but they also have a small amount of pierce damage (arrows) so upgrade shields if you see ballistas and use ballistas (and trolls) if you noticed that your enemy has no shield upgrades. By now we should be ready for a fight. If you�re lucky (this depends on how much you like boring games)

your opponent has no army, either because he�s a noob, he is booming or he is trying to go fast

Heroic/Mythic. If he has an army you�re lucky too, because you might have a nice game. How nice it will


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be depends on your skills or how much you care about losing. But remember, every time you lose, try to figure out why! If you really think you had bad luck with something or you got doubled, ask for a rematch or just forget it, but if you really got owned in a 1v1 there must be a good reason for it. Was his economy better? Didn�t I play aggressive enough? Was he just playing super lame? Nobody will ever beat an expert

Isis roc�er, harassing your economy. If you are outnumbered, or if you see it�s a pointless fight, just pull back or return to your (forward) base.

Even if you see you can win a fight, for example if you have 100 toxotes and he has 50 peltasts, you still win with 30 toxotes left but he sure dealt you more damage as you did to him (he took out 70 toxotes this way). Battles as these can be simulated with SOM (Sim of Mythology � only available for AoM Vanilla). The conclusion is: never fight if you don�t have an advantage. If you are returning to your base and he

follows you, you can of course take advantage of that and take his army out. Because your units are fighting from the moment they are made, you have an advantage if you are closer to your own base. So there are 2 things you can do: keep fighting at your current base (and never win) or expand your base towards his city. This is especially for Norse but also other players should send some villagers after their army to build forward. Of course in Zelda you can�t claim and protect resources this way, like you can in

sup by taking the middle, but building forward is a big advantage in almost every case. Another thing you need to know is that archers that are placed on a cliff have an advantage over other archers that are placed lower. Of course you need to have an idea about which units your opponent will make before you know what to upgrade or what units you should produce. Basically, scouting is a very good idea, although that�s not very

common in Zelda. You can just expect what units someone will have. Greek will almost always train hoplites and toxotes in Classic, and in Heroic hyspatists and peltasts. Norse will come rushing with a hersir - raiding cavalry - throwing axemen combo. As Egyptian you can do lost of things, barrack units, migdol units, priests etc� Atlanteans will always have some murmillos in Classic. Don�t forget units to counter destroyers once they have reached Heroic (cheiroballistas have +350% attack versus destroyers and +300% versus huskarls). Groups are also things that can make your life a lot easier, if you know how to use them properly. You probably already know how to use the group banners, but I�d suggest you try to work with the hotkeys for

them. For example, I set al my villagers that should build my first tc in group 9 (select villager => ctrl+9). When I have most of my military buildings up, I also place them in groups. Place your home base in group 1 and your other bases in group 2;3;4;� When you make more buildings you can add them to a group by

selecting the building/unit and clicking shift+[number]. Now why is this so easy? Well, the next time you win or lose some ground (prefer the first option) you can just click the number that corresponds to your buildings group and you have selected them without looking at them. Now you can easily change the gather point without losing the focus on your army. If you are standing before a heavily walled enemy base, don�t waste your soldiers attacking that gate (you

should never waste them as long as your not in the Mythic age) but make some siege units and start taking down the gate. Of course you can try to take out any villager that is trying to repair a wall with some archers. If you are bored just build a box of walls around you catapults so that the foe can�t take them out if

he quickly sends some siege counters in. For more info about getting in an enemy base in the Classic age read further. Also remember not to be afraid of attacking and losing some soldiers, of course losing your whole army isn�t a good idea, but don�t forget that as soon as you have reached to population limit you should start

fighting to make sure that you can keep making more villager until you think you have a good, balanced economy. And if you desperately ran out of enemies, you sometimes do better by deleting some units instead of leaving them patrol somewhere. The last thing you have to do is �micro�. If you are looking at the battle, don�t just wait for the outcome,

but try to change it in your advantage. You can do this by �micro�. It basically means that you should take out certain dangerous units as soon as possible (e.g. take out an hero with archers and after that let your myth units fight) or just let units attack what they counter. If you have peltasts after your army, don�t let them shoot at the hoplites, because without their bonus versus archers they are useless. So try to aim them at enemy archers but make sure that e.g. enemy cavalry can�t hit them. Keep using your �meat shield�. This

is a row of infantry or cavalry that protects your archers from melee attacks. A very important unit that you


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should always micro very well is the Son of Osiris. He doesn�t have a big range so he tends to like running

in front of your chariots. Make sure you have a group of units giving him cover while he wields his lightning bolts at the enemy. Keep in mind that although you cannot win, i.e. because its 2v3 you can keep the enemy from winning for a very long time. Try to hold them off at your gate (bottleneck tactic). Because once they are through they can enjoy their numbers to the fullest. If you manage to do this long enough (keep in mind that you might need to switch to trading because you can run out of gold mines), you can probably get them bored so they�ll accept a save. Another thing: the out come of a fight is not related to the best players. There is always some luck involved, e.g. the allies� skills. So don't feel down if you lost a 3v1, because probably

you were the best player in the game, but 300 pop against 900 usually poses some problems.

Special: how to enter a base (in the Classic age): The easiest way is to go Loki or Odin (Heimdal) and use undermine. Still there are lots of people that just click on the god power, click on a wall and are very happy 1 wall went down. The fact is that you can easily take down about 5 walls with that god power. Instead of clicking on the first wall, try to target the space a few inches away from the first wall, that way, undermine will search its way to the first wall and than take down the walls after the first one as well (just imagine villagers digging a mine under it straight trough the entrance). It might be a good idea to rotate your map so you have a clear view what way it will go (u can rotate the map by scrolling your mouse wheel when you toggled this setting in the options menu). If there are a lot of walls try to use a diagonal line trough the entrance, (this has more effect than when you just use it straight through. Note that it might be a good idea to go into the gate to make sure people don�t rebuild the wall quickly. Some other useful tips: If you see someone rebuilding a wall, kill that villager (obviously) or just build a house in the middle of the gate, this is very useful if someone just used cease-fire. Also if you did your undermine right and you could just walk in, start building in there base (if you don�t have 110 wood (=longhouse) just build some houses

or wall constructions, at first they may laugh at u, but they will soon run out of build space.) Also build a dock somewhere while a ceasefire is active. Of course there are situations where you don�t have undermine. Instead of just doing lame things and attack

at the back (with underworld, shifting sands, rocs or vortex), here are some tips for destroying walls: 1) Gates are weaker than normal walls, so attack them first. 2) Instead of destroying just 1 piece of wall, and keeping the rest of your army idle, attack the other wall sections too, even if you don�t have a big army so you can attack 1 wall piece, it might still be a good idea to attack the other walls too, some people don�t know that if you attack a piece of wall, right next to a

damaged wall, the hp of the last attacked wall will be reduced to the same level as the wall next to it once you attack it (sounds complicated but just try it). That way, you can for example attack the gate with 10 hoplites, and use 5 toxotes on each side to reduce the other pieces of wall to the hp that the gate has. All this will make it a lot easier to break trough the front defense, without having to do lame stuff and attack at the back. In Heroic, you should just make siege weapons. So I hope in the future I don�t have to laugh at

you guys anymore because you use undermine on 1 of the 10 walls.


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Chapter 4: God Powers And since we all play �Age of Mythology�, the most important aid for our economy and army will be god

powers. Lets have a good look at them, I�m sure there are some things about them you didn�t yet know. Bolt: do not use at start if there is a Loki, Isis or Ra in the game, instead, wait for a Nidhogg or

Son of Osiris to show up. If you are being rushed, it might be a good idea to take out their first myth as soon as possible. Make sure you don�t cast it on already wounded units (except titans). Cannot be used on citizens, ox carts and transport ships. Watch out for your roc or leviathan (and its passengers)! This won�t kill a titan completely.

Lure: not really useful, you can put in some kind of key point as temporary LOS generator. Sentinel: only use at start if you know someone wants to underworld/SS/roc/vortex you.

Otherwise you might have placed buildings at the sentinel spots already. Pestilence: really powerful god power. Make sure you scout good to find out the best

placement, so that as much buildings as possible are hit. If you know the foe has it, try to spread your building construction some more, certainly when rushing.

Restoration: this is most effective if army is idle, but an idle army won�t get hurt so quick, and

after all most units will be healed completely after this ended even if they are fighting. Also very useful if you are being rushed and your last wall is almost down. You can of course use it to keep any important building alive somewhat longer (e.g. underworld), or when your buildings just got hit by a meteor or anything similar.

Cease Fire: this will, most likely, be your only chance as Greek to beat Norse. Make sure to invoke the ceasefire before the rusher walks in, because he might spam buildings in your base to reduce your build space. Make sure you don�t cast it in a panic reaction, and think of the

consequences. You could really break down your ally�s rush too this way. Remember you

cannot build towers or forts in this time. Bronze: pretty long defense boost. It can be useful when you are fighting at a wall, and your

soldiers are taking a lot of damage from archers, or when the foe has invoked flaming weapons. Remember that also allied units can be bronzed (you don�t want to meet unfriendly-fully upgraded-Thoth-bronzed elephants).

Underworld: this certainly is a god power to watch out for! Commonly used to attack you from within your own base, as well as to escape to allies. Can be repaired!

Curse: turns some enemy units into pigs. Won�t have too much effect on an army, but taking out the building villagers of someone might be a good idea. Converts a maximum of 500 hp in total. This means you can invoke it on a colossus walking around alone, but it won�t harm him.

Earthquake: this will only destroy a set amount of hp from buildings. So watch out what you want, if you just want it to inflict damage to buildings, and later kill them, its fine (watch out for restoration), but if you want the buildings to go down, don�t use it in an area all covered

with buildings (watch out for masons- / architects upgrades / Hades� building boost). It is best

to use it when you are fighting close to these buildings, otherwise he will just rebuild them and nothing has happened.

Lightning Storm: might also be more effective on (normal) villagers or fishing ships as on army in Zelda.

Plenty: most people only choose Hephaistus for the cheap armory upgrade; plenty will not improve your economy very much. You get 3 food/wood/gold per second.

Prosperity: use this when your low on gold, but for better benefits, wait until you have lots of

villagers on gold and all the upgrades. Another good time you want to use this if you want to buy omniscience and you almost have enough gold.

Vision: most of the time used in combination with shifting sands. Rain: this will help you get the food needed for a fast Heroic with Ra. Used to block other God

powers. Since it also boosts enemy farms/fishing it might be a good idea to use Locust Swarm in combination with Rain.

Shifting Sands: this will barely transport any enemy units (250hp), so just use it on your own army(1000hp). It won�t work on ships, immovable- or bronzed units.

Eclipse: used to block god powers from being invoked, like e.g. an underworld. This also has a huge boost for titans, although they aren�t commonly used in Zelda. Maybe this will surprise you: it boosts favor generation by 30%.

Plague of Serpents: maybe only useful for some line of sight. Does not attack fishing ships or leviathan.


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Citadel: since there is no more pop benefit, it became pretty useless. Make sure you don�t cast

it on allied Atlantean town centers since they won�t get any favor from this. Ancestors: used in combination with eclipse early in the game might inflict some damage. Can

also be used on the sea. Locust Swarm: if you know the enemy is low on gold, use this to make him run out of it for a

short period of time, maybe enough to make a difference. Or use in combination with Rain Meteor: very unpredictable, but it can really hurt a tower/wall formation. Son of Osiris: powerful unit, do not invoke if someone has a bolt left. Always keep it behind

the front lines and micro very well. Tornado: rather weak versus most units/buildings, although very effective when used on an

underworld, with lots of units next to it. Spy: if you do a Norse versus Norse, it�s a good idea to know what the enemy is up to, this

way, you can know easy. Make sure you use it on an enemy fleeing trough an underworld. Great Hunt: left unused 95% of the time. You can multiply the set animals this way, also fun to

used on a cursed ally/enemy. Dwarven Mine: contained gold increases every age. Since you have enough gold in Zelda, use

it late in game, or just to block a small passage somewhere. Healing Spring: this might be the difference between win and lose in a Norse fight. Remember

that idle units heal much faster as non-idles. Undermine: extremely OP god power, you only need to know how to use it. Forest Fire: commonly used to enter a base fast while rushing. It doesn�t affect ships and

flying units. Flaming Weapons: awesome god power. With this attack boost, it won�t be easy to lose. Use

in combination with Fimbul Winter to prevent a ceasefire from being invoked. Walking Woods: do not invoke if there are heroes in the area. Also be careful when used near

cliffs. They might get stuck. Frost: don�t use this while you are fighting at the enemy gate, because the frosted units will

just block the way trough. Also don�t try to kill them, because it won�t work, they have 99%

defense. Used in combination with Forest Fire will certainly inflict some serious damage. Fimbul Winter: watch out for lag! This will summon wolves at 4 enemy Town Centers. Easy

to counter with hero villagers. But watch out for normal villagers! Nidhogg: do not invoke if someone has a bolt left. Keep away from hero archers and certainly

Son of Osiris. Good to harass enemy fishing ships. Since he does splash damage (range of effect) he can stop people from building an important building (Titan Gate) when he fires at it.

Ragnarok: this will convert all your villagers to heroes (including the Atlanteans). Only use as last resort, or as final push.

Shockwave: most effective on siege, does some hack damage� nothing big. Gaia Forest: most people use this the block the passage to their base, but remember these trees

have a higher gather rate as normal trees, and they might block other strategic points. Watch out for forest fire.

Deconstruction: keep this for palaces, towers, � (or Loki temples once he is in Mythic). Valor: you can use this to quickly make the 3 oracles heroes while rushing. It can convert

maximum 1 villager and 3 military units into heroes. So be careful if you use it in the 3-villager Zelda�s. Of course it won�t make more as 10 villagers into heroes (= no effect in 15-villager Zelda�s).

Carnivora: will cause most damage on water early in the game. Also useful versus elephants. Don�t waste this power by just putting it somewhere random on the map without protection.

Spider Eggs: these things will not eat elephants, unlike carnivoras, sucks overall. Placement cannot be seen by enemies unless they have omniscience.

Chaos: if your lucky it converts a myth unit, try it on an enemy sea. Remember it also attacks you.

Traitor: only use on siege or myth units. Hesperides Tree: this blocks god powers in a small area, place with that in mind! Implode: only use in an area with lots of army, preferably blocked so they can�t run away. Tartarian Gate: this can be placed on buildings. Use it mainly for taking out buildings. Vortex: transport your army anywhere you have LOS, units garrisoned won�t be included.


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Chapter 5: Special Strategies;

A. The Greek Fast-Heroic Rush: 10 citizens to wood (5 close to a tc); 1 citizen to gold (close to a tc); 5 docks with 4 citizens in <42 seconds; these 4 citizens go to gold to (close to a tc); 1 wood citizen builds a temple and goes back to wood; start building your tc with 10 citizens at < 1:30 (*); 6 citizens go to gold (2 mines); 4 citizens go to wood (4 trees); start advance at < 2:10 (*); the 3 free villagers build a mining camp and go praying; upgrade pickaxe and hand axe; move these villagers at 3:00 to a place where they can put down 3 buildings straight away; advance at <3:10 and make 2 villagers and a hero; make 6 military academies and 6 archery ranges with 5 villager make an armory with a citizen from gold; advance as soon as the hero is made: upgrade shaft mine; upgrade armory; auto queue villagers and set gather point to gold; change to counter units after you are advanced is you wish. (make hyspaspist versus Norse); go Mythic if you wish to have a cheap armory or if you need a lightning storm/earthquake; some people choose to go Apollo and underworld in the enemy base, but imho that is very lame,

unless you are being attacked by a somewhat similar strategy. B. The Egyptian Classic Rush

It is known that Egyptians aren�t very good in Classic, and in most game I�d suggest going FH or

FM but this strategy woks marvelous versus rushing Norse players. With the priest you make here, you can slow down their temple construction, and because of the fast advance time you can make army sooner as him. When he starts to retreat to his base, try to go Heroic.

2 citizens to wood; 8 citizens to gold (5 near tc); 4 citizens farm; 3 docks with 1 citizen; this citizen builds a temple next and goes to wood after; build Town Center with 6 gold citizens once you have 400 gold; make some priest (6-8) 2 free villagers build mining camp + lumber camp + monument ASAP; start advance at < 1:40; upgrade pickaxe auto queue villagers; build barracks with 5 villagers as soon as possible; build and upgrade armory with a farm citizen; go Heroic if there are to much walls (siege); Stop farming if you have about 40 fishing ships (this might take a while).

C. The Egyptian Fast-Heroic/Mythic Rush

5 villagers to wood; 5 villagers to gold (near a Town Center); 2 villagers farm; 5 docks with 3 villagers in <50 seconds; these 3 villagers to gold (near a Town Center); Town Center once you have 100 food + 400 gold with 6 gold villagers;


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1 other gold citizens builds a temple; the 6 tc villagers go back to gold; 2 free villagers build mining camp/lumber camp/monument and mine gold; start advance at < 2:00; auto queue villagers; build 6 barracks with 5 villagers; build armory with 2 farm villagers; those 2 citizens go to gold; advance to Heroic ASAP; start spamming units; get a few armory upgrades; please do not use rocs on the enemies� bases; try to reach Heroic or Mythic depending on what your purpose is; you can put down a migdol and siege camp in Heroic, or decide to go Mythic ASAP; upgrade economy whenever you can; you should always go Mythic with Ra and Set if you are fighting Zeus or Hades, because a tornado

kills an underworld easily. Otherwise, I would stay in Heroic with Ra somewhat longer, because he can�t choose Thoth (Valley of the Kings).

D. The Priest Rush The purpose of this is to mass priest as soon as possible, even if that means you do not build a tc, nor a dock. I do not prefer this strategy because there is no way out of this (except resigning) when it fails. And it does fail often because you can hardly take down a wall. If you would like to try it anyway I�d suggest this:

11 citizens to gold; 1 citizen builds 2 docks 3 citizens build 3 forward temples and gather wood; upgrade Hands of the Pharaoh; start spamming priests; once you have a fair amount of priests (200 pop) stop the production and build a tc; you will find yourself having lots of food and gold, so you can easily boom and go FM now; NOTE: I hope you noticed that priests are extraordinary weak in archaic and that you can only win this way by attacking the enemy unexpected. So as soon as he sees a few temples in front of his base he will start walling up. So don�t try this strategy twice in a row and remember that once the foe has a little army, you�re doomed.

E. The Set-Shifting-Sands-Strategy

When playing Set, some people choose to shift some of their villagers over to the enemy base, and live there as a parasite. However I don�t really like this kind of strategies, because they are pretty lame, and also rather ineffective, I�ll give you a good buildup for it. In this example I choose to

shift away 10 Atlantean villagers, including a bunch of priest, optionally some set animals and some mercenaries.

5 citizens to wood; 5 citizens to gold (near a Town Center); 2 villagers farm; 5 docks with 3 citizens in <50 seconds; these 3 citizens to gold (near a Town Center); Town Center once you have 100 food + 400 gold with 6 gold citizens; 1 other gold citizens builds a temple; auto queue priests; the 6 tc citizens go back to gold; 2 free villagers build mining camp/lumber camp/monuments(3-4); start advance with Path at < 2:00; build an armory with the 2 farm citizen; return to farms; upgrade feral;


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start advance with Sekhmet at <4:00; cease priest production; make some mercenaries (make sure you still have 800 gold left); upgrade hands of the pharaoh; pharaoh summons some apes (repeat hotkey works here!); invoke vision; gather 10 gold citizens, 2 villagers, priests, animals, pharaoh, free myths; shift these units over to the other base; build 2 tcs and invoke citadel on 1 of them; gather gold with the 10 citizens; start spamming villagers from the 3 town centers; get towers, barracks, migdols and docks up.

F. The Norse Rush

10 citizens to wood (5 close to a tc); 2 citizens to gold (close to a tc); 5 docks with 3 citizens in <50 seconds; these 3 citizens go to gold (close to a tc); 1 gold citizen goes building a few temples outside (start with 4, later add 2 more if you are Loki); stop 2 docks from producing ships at 1:35; 3 gold citizen and 5 wood villagers build a tc at 1:45; 5 citizens go to gold (2 mines); 3 citizens go to wood (3 trees); start advance at < 2:30; free villagers gather gold; upgrade pickaxe (Odin/Thor: hand axe, shaft mine, bow saw) Thor: ulfsark builds 2 armories; Loki/Odin: ulfsark helps building temples; The temple citizen goes to gold; The created hersirs build 6-7 barracks.


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G. The Atlantean Rush I think Atlantean are 1 of the worst gods to play with in 15-villager-zeldas. You don�t have to

chance of winning versus a good Norse, and a greek rusher will certainly give you a hard time. Against most noobs an Atlantean rush might work but against good players I�d suggest you try to

go Heroic, or even Mythic ASAP. Make sure you have some backup walls. Once in Mythic, I�d

suggest a combination of arcus, contarius and fanatics with siege (fire siphons or destroyers). Make sure you have a good economy as Atlantean because also in Mythic your going to have a hard time since you don�t have any long-ranged-land-siege. Anyway, here we go for a good try:

10 citizens to wood (5 close to a tc); 1 citizen to gold (close to a tc); 5 docks with 4 citizens in <45 seconds; these 4 citizens go to gold to (close to a tc); 1 wood citizen builds a temple and goes back to wood; start building your tc with 10 citizens at < 1:25 (*); 5 citizens go to gold (2 mines); 5 citizens go to wood (4 trees); start advance at < 2:10 (*); the free citizen goes to gold; build guild and upgrade pickaxe and hand axe; turn of auto queue for the fishing ships if you have 50 of them; move 2 hero citizens and a normal 1 at 3:00 to a place where they can put down 3 buildings

straight away; advance at <3:10 make 6 barracks and 6 counter barracks; make an armory with a citizen from gold; advance ASAP; upgrade armory; auto queue villagers and set gather point to gold; make murmillos and cheiroballistas, and in Heroic change to arcus, contarius, destroyers and

cheiros.

H. The Atlantean Fast-Mythic 11 villagers to wood (6 near a Town Center) 6 docks with 4 villagers in <55 seconds; these 4 villagers to gold (near a Town Center) get 1 villager of wood to gold (near a Town Center) 1 wood villager builds a temple and goes back to wood build a Town Center once you have 100 food 5 villagers to gold 5 villagers to wood start advance at < 2:15 (*) free villager to gold build an armory with a gold citizen; advance to Heroic <5:00; build a market with a wood villager; advance to Mythic <6:30; fully upgrade your economy every time you advance.

(*) = Make all your fishing ships drop food at a dock this moment. This way you have a lot of food at 1 moment when you need it, but be aware of the consequences. When the food you received there is used up, you won�t get any food for a long time. This mean it isn�t good if you want to rush with Norse, since you

won�t be able to make hersirs soon enough.


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Chapter 6: Hotkeys The last step for improving your speed is the use of hotkeys. Think about it, you could try to level up your mouse sensitivity to the maximum and just keep running the mouse pointer over the screen every time again, or get yourself a good pair of hotkeys and practice on doing lots of things with them. Now, age of mythology uses some basic hotkeys that can be edited in the options menu, but the standard layout of those keys is horrible, and there are much more possibilities! Ever heard of a hotkey for the auto queue (repeat) button, or one to reset default lightning, rotate buildings etc? I can tell you, they do exist, and once you get used to them, you won�t be able to play without them anymore. If you have read several guides about

hotkeys already, you certainly know that a perfect hotkey set is different for everyone. So here I won�t tell

you: this key must do that but I can give you some useful tips, and of course, explain how to get those freaky ones! First, you should find an icon called �my computer'. For most people it�s on the desktop and for some

windows XP users it can be found in the start menu. In this map you will find the things that are installed in your computer (e.g. hard drive, floppy, USB stick, CD/DVD drive etc...) and what you need is the disk where you installed age of mythology on. For 80% of the people this will be the "C:" disk. So double click it and you'll find lots of maps like "WINDOWS" and "Program Files". You need the map �program files�.

Again you open it and now you should find �Microsoft Games� somewhere, open it and go to the �Age of

Mythology� map. If you are at the right place, you should see lots of maps with numbers as name, also maps like �AI�, �data�, �models� and �textures�. For our hotkeys we open the map �startup�. The files in

this map will be loaded every time Age of Mythology starts. This means the changes you make in a file there will not take effect as long as you don't (re)start Age of Mythology. Now, click right with your mouse somewhere (not on a file/map), and you should be able to select "new" => "text document". Just pick the item with the notepad icon before it, if you are not sure you have the right 1. (If things like "open" or something come up, you clicked right on a file/map.) Now a new file will appear and you can choose the name. Now make sure to name it "user.con". If you did it right windows will change the icon to something else than the notepad icon. Else windows has hidden the extra ".txt" extension. To get rid of that, open the file with notepad, and click �file� => �save as..." A dialog

box should appear, there you see 2 boxes. One to choose a name, and another one to select the file type. Here you choose "all files" instead of "text document". Again make sure the name is "user.con" and not "user.con.txt" and save. Now you should have a file called user.con (without a notepad icon) in �C:\program files\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\startup�. Because you only changed the extension and not the data, you can still

open it with notepad. So if windows says it can't open the file, select "pick program from list" and click notepad. Now you have an empty hotkey configuration file open. Here you can start adding code lines. In this file, we will always start with the function map(��). This function binds certain keys to special

events in game, just what we need! There are certain things you need to know before we can start. To use this function, you will have to give 3 arguments. One of them is the key you would like to use for a certain event. This can be:

A regular key: "a", "b", "c" etc. A combination: "shift-a", "control-b", "alt-c", "control-shift-d", "control-alt-shift-e" etc. Some special keys:

Key: Description:

Mouse1 Left mouse button Mouse2 Right mouse button Mouse3 The mouse wheel button (not scroll, but push) Mousex The horizontal mouse movement Mousey The vertical mouse movement Mousez The rotation of the mouse wheel Capslock <Obvious> Numpadperiod The dot (.) on the numeric part of the keyboard Numpad1 The one (1) on the numpad Numpadminus The minus (-) on the numpad F1 The F1 key F12 The F12 key


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The next thing we need is the place where this key should be used. This can be: Root Every screen of the game (also main menu). World This can be used to change the game interface, for

example the lightning settings. Game Everything that has a link with the units in the

current game: repair, patrol, � [Building]Accel The keys that can be used when selecting a specific

building: market, longhouse, � Here is a list of all building accelerators:

TempleGreekAccel TempleEgyptianAccel TempleNorseAccel TempleAtlanteanAccel SettlementAccel DockAccel MarketAccel GreekAcademyAccel GreekArcheryRangeAccel GreekStableAccel GreekFortressAccel EgyptBarracksAccel EgyptMigdolAccel EgyptSiegeCampAccel NorseLongHouseAccel NorseFortAccel AtlanteanBarracksAccel AtlanteanCounterAccel AtlanteanPalaceAccel

Now we can start with the actual codes. Comments on the code (that the game won�t read) can be included

by adding a // before any text line. Use /* and */ for comments on multiple lines. For example: //1 line of comments /* a few lines of comments */

//Find buildings: map ("numpadperiod", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"settlementsThatTrainVillagers\")") map ("numpad0", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"Tower\")") map ("numpad1", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"EarlyFoodDropsite\") uiFindIdleType(\"Guild\")")") map ("numpad2", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"EarlyWoodDropsite\") uiFindIdleType(\"Guild\")")") map ("numpad3", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"EarlyGoldDropsite\") uiFindIdleType(\"Guild\")")") map ("numpad4", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"AbstractBarracks\")") map ("numpad5", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"AbstractArcheryRange\") uiFindIdleType(\"Siege Camp\")") map ("numpad6", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"AbstractStable\") uiFindIdleType(\"Counter Building\")") map ("numpad7", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"Temple\")") map ("numpad8", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"AbstractArmory\")") map ("numpad9", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"Market\")") map ("x", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"AbstractFortress\")") //Hotkey for auto queue (repeat) map ("x","game","uiToggleBuildingQueue") //Hotkeys for advancing: make sure you have selected your Town Center and have enough resources. map ("x", "game","uiAgeUpDialog(\"Age 2 Fake\")") //try to use in combination with �find tc� map ("x", "game","uiAgeUpDialog(\"Age 3 Fake\")") map ("x", "game","uiAgeUpDialog(\"Age 4 Fake\")")


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//Useful modes: map ("x", "game", "editMode(\"flare\")") map ("x", "game", "editMode(\"empower\")") map ("x", "game", "editMode(\"repair\")") //useful for repairing an underworld without entering. //I use this hotkey for making a fishing ship, also including the repeat (auto queue) action. map ("x", "DockAccel", "tis(\"UtilityShip\") uiToggleBuildingQueue") //With these hotkeys you can leave the game almost whenever you like to. Don�t forget to say �out�. map ("x","game", "sendChatToEveryone(\"OuT\") leaveGame") //return to main- or multiplayer screen. map ("x","game", "sendChatToEveryone(\"OuT\") exit") //fully exits the game. //These keys still work if a multiplayer game freezes, so no more ctrl+alt+del or alt+F4 stuff. //These functions define how to rotate building constructions. map ("shift-mousez", "building", "uiWheelRotatePlacedUnit") map ("shift-mousez", "specialpower", "uiWheelRotatePlacedUnit") //god powers //Hotkeys for auto chats. map ("x", "game", "sendChatToAllies(\"<text here>\")") map ("x", "game", "sendChatToEnemies(\"<text here>\")") map ("x", "game", "sendChatToEveryone(\"<text here>\")") map ("x", "game", "sendChatToPlayer(\"<player here>\",\"<text here>\")") map ("x", "game", "sendChatToTeam(\"<team here>\",\"<text here>\")") //you can also add colors and icons to your text: //for a detailed description read further. //Miscellaneous map ("space", "game", "uiFindIdleType(\"LogicalTypeIdleCivilian\")") //easier idle villagers hotkey map ("backspace", "world", "uiStopSelectedUnits") map ("x", "SettlementAccel", "unitTownBell()") map ("x", "SettlementAccel", "unitReturnToWork()") map ("x", "SettlementAccel", "uiEjectGarrisonedUnits()") map ("x", "game", "uiUnBuildSelectedUnit") //Kronos timeshift map ("x", "game", "uiLookAtSelection") map ("x", "game", "uiTransformSelectedUnit(\"Gate\") uiTransformSelectedUnit(\"ulfsark\")") //wall->gate map ("x", "world", "uiTransformSelectedUnit(\"Villager Atlantean Hero\") ") //heroize (max 2units/hotkey) map ("x", "world", "applyLightingset(\"Default\") ") //changes back to default lightning (ghostlake or a GP) map ("x", "game", "uiMultiplayerSave") //shows the multiplayer save dialog map ("x", "world", "handlePostGame()") //shows postgame map ("x", "game", "exit") map ("x", "game", "uiFindType(\"FlyingUnit\")") map ("x", "game", "uiFindType(\"Hesperides Tree\")") map ("x", "game", "uiSummonWorkersToSelectedUnit") map ("x", "game", "tis(\"Ape of Set\")") //create the set animals from a pharaoh map ("x", "game", "tis(\"Crocodile of Set\")") //you can add any animal you�d like here map ("x", "game", "tis(\"Rhinoceros of Set\")") //"tis" = train in selected map ("x", "game", "configToggle(\"EasyDragMilitary\")") //yep, even hotkeys for configuration settings. map ("x", "game", "configToggle(\"FootPrints\")") map ("x", "game", "configToggle(\"flashHitpointBarsOnDamage\")") Another thing that is so useful about adding hotkeys this way, is that you can assign multiple myth units to 1 hotkey. For example, you can add every Classic myth unit to a key, and the Heroic and Mythic to another. So you will only have to remember 4 keys for all myth units. Of course you should watch out when a certain minor god grants more as 1 myth (e.g. Hell). Here is an example of how you could do this.


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map ("[key1]", "TempleGreekAccel", "tis(\"Pegasus\")") map ("[key2]", "TempleGreekAccel", "tis(\"Centaur\") tis(\"Cyclops\") tis(\"Minotaur\")") map ("[key3]", "TempleGreekAccel", "tis(\"Hydra\") tis(\"Manticore\") tis(\"Nemean Lion\")") map ("[key4]", "TempleGreekAccel", "tis(\"Colossus\") tis(\"Medusa\") tis(\"Chimera\")") This can be done for every civilization on the game. Of course, you can train more as 1 unit with the same key. To make the same unit multiple times, follow this example: map ("shift-[key1]", "TempleGreekAccel", "tis(\"Pegasus\",5)") You can also edit group controls with commands, although I think these hotkeys are fine by default. map ("control-0", "game", "uiRemoveFromAnyNumberGroup") map ("1", "game", "uiSelectNumberGroup(1)") map ("shift-2", "game", "uiAddSelectNumberGroup(2)") map ("control-3", "game", "uiCreateNumberGroup(3)") map ("alt-4", "game", "uiSelectNumberGroup(4) uiLookAtNumberGroup(4)") //obviously you can add any group number (1-9) you want here. After you added the code lines you like, save the user.con and (re)start Age of Mythology. NOTE: some of the keys might not work, because they conflict with the in-game hotkeys. So if you set "v" as your hotkey for flare and you selected your TC, something else may happen (e.g. villager training). To solve this just set the in-game hotkeys (main menu => options => hotkeys) to unmapped (they become unmapped if they are used for 2 different actions, so if you set v = villager, and next you say v = priest, the villager-hotkey will be unmapped) or to something you don't use here. Also hotkeys located in the gamex.con file (located in the same directory as the user.con file) could conflict, so if necessary, comment some lines out that you never use (e.g. functions that the developers used).

Special: The Console The console is a special feature in Age of Mythology where you can test out commands, and learn more about how this game works. To enable it you should add the following lines to the user.cfg file in the startup directory of Age of Mythology (if you don�t know how to do this, just skip this part). In this file you

can edit the command line options of Age of Mythology. E.g. to disable intro cinematics. Content of user.cfg: //user.cfg +noIntroCinematics // disables intro cinematics +Enableconsole // enables the use of the console +Showconsole // enables to console to be opened +developer // act like you are the developer of this game //you can add much more here, but these are most useful. For a complete options list type: // �ConfigDump� in the console (no quotes). Now you need a hotkey to open it in-game: map ("control-alt-F5", "root", "console") //open key map ("control-alt-F5", "console", "console") //quit with open key map ("esc", "console", "console") //quit with escape. There you have your own console box, whenever you want in-game (do me a favor and don�t use it to

cheat). For a list of all possible option press: �HelpText(":")�. With all the options you see here you can

start creating your own hotkeys.


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Chapter 7: The GG (End) With all this info you should have mastered more than just the basics of Age of Mythology game play. I left out certain comments that could be useful for supremacy, but which weren�t useful at all for Zelda games.

There are still a few things that you might do to improve your game experience. One of them could be: use a modpack. And I made life easier for you, I have spent some time searching on the web for the best packs I could find. These packs don�t convert units to others (like give the game a star wars-layout, you can find such at Age of Mythology Heavengames) but will add some more functionality to your game. You may want to have a look here and download the modpack that my site offers you (http://svicor.hollosite.com/en/downloads.php). For a detailed description you should take a look at the readme, but here are some features:

Removed intro cinematic; Added more buttons to the main menu; Added a bookmark feature for recorded games; Contains an example of a user.con file; Adds more buttons to the in-game interface; Has a startup script (make a villagers and turn the auto queue on) for supremacy players; Modified unit textures when upgraded (like already for medium-heavy-champion); �Tool tips�; Including the �New X Editor 3� from Reyk; Much more�

And always remember, practice makes perfect. This is very useful to learn the units and upgrades costs by heart (still wondering why I�m a Freak?) Furthermore, I wish you good luck and a nice game-time. Freak ~ Zelda Expert

_________________


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Chapter 8: Tips and Tricks: A. Colors in chat: r,g,b are variables that have a value from 0,000 � 1,000 or from 0 � 255 <color="r,g,b">TEXT</color> //r = red, g = green, b = blue <color="0,0,1">TEXT</color> //blue text <color="1,0,0">TEXT</color> //red text <color="0,1,0">TEXT</color> //green text <color=�1,1,0�>TEXT</color> //teal text <color="1,0,1">TEXT</color> //purple text <color=�0,1,1�>TEXT</color> //yellow text B. Underline Text: <u>TEXT</u> <b> or <i> will not work, like in normal html code. C. Chat Controls: 1. to chat to someone while you are in-game, who is not in your game: General: /[name] [text] Example: /I_Am_A_Player Hi! This will whisper the message "Hi!" to I_Am_A_Player. 2. to chat to everyone, while you are still in ally chat: General: *[text] Example: *We will own you! You will notice that the * disappears in your message, and that all players receive it. D. Icons in Chat: The 32 defines the size of the image. You can also select 64 / 128 / 256 but it might result in a bad layout for some images. The value after �icons\� is the actual image. You can find them all by searching for them

in the appropriate directory2. The *.bar files can be opened with AoMEd. Here are some examples: <icon="(32)(icons\icon resource population)"> <icon="(32)(icons\icon resource wood)"> <icon="(32)(icons\icon resource food)"> <icon="(32)(icons\icon resource gold)"> <icon="(32)(icons\icon resource favor)"> <icon="(32)(icons\icon resource population)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major loki icon 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major thor icon 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major odin icon 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major zeus icon 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major hades icon 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major poseidon icon 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major ra icon 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major isis icon 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major set icon 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major ouranos icons 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major kronos icons 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god major gaia icons 64)"> <icon="(32)(icons\icon x titan gate placement)"> <icon="(32)(icons\god power son of osiris icon)"> <icon="(32)(icons\special n nidhogg icon)"> <icon="(32)(icons\special n fire giant icon)"> <icon="(32)(icons\special g colossus icon)">

2 C:\program files\Microsoft games\age of mythology\textures\textures(2).bar\icons.


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Appendix: Abbreviations:

Abbr. Abbreviation

c See y Why q Queue u You bs Bullshit ic I see cya See ya cu See you thx Thanks ty Thank you w/ With w/o Without w/e & 22 Whatever u/w & UW Underworld np No problem hp Hit points ttyl Talk to you later brb Be right back afk Away from keyboard g4u Good for you gfu Good for you sry Sorry soz Sorry gl Good luck hf Have fun idk I don�t know idc I don�t care wb Welcome back awol Away without leave jk Just kidding tc Town center ta Throwing axemen rc Raiding cavalry bbl Be back later idts I don�t think so los Line of sight = units� view limit bu - bo Build up � build order Atty Atlantean Eggy Egyptian p [#] Player number [#] http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=1,12771,,all http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=1,17003,,all Links: http://aom.heavengames.com http://agesanctuary.com/index.php http://www.eso.com/ http://svicor.hollosite.com/ (my site with some useful tools) http://www.geocities.com/ek4nt4/ (modpacks, also check the link there) http://www.nocheineaoe.de/aom.htm (Reyks site, with lots of tools) http://pete.magneticpole.com/games/aom/ (modpacks)

http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=1,12771,,all

http://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=1,17003,,all

http://aom.heavengames.com

http://agesanctuary.com/index.php

http://www.eso.com/

http://svicor.hollosite.com/

http://www.geocities.com/ek4nt4/

http://www.nocheineaoe.de/aom.htm

http://pete.magneticpole.com/games/aom/


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Maps: Good: Bad:

Zelda! Greek Canyons Zelda! Greek Canyons � not for noobs! Zelda! GCs EX-3vills Zelda ! Ice Cold 3 vill

Zelda! Greek Canyon Zelda! Greek Canions Zelda! Greek Canionsss Zelda! Greek Canyons2 Zelda! Greek Canyons 2 Zelda! Greek Canyons by me Zelda! Greek Canyons! Zelda! Greek Canyons!+space Zelda! Greek Cayons (kingzy) Zelda! Greek Canyons edited by kingzy Zelda!Greek Canyons Zelda!!! Greek Canyons!!! Zelda!!Greek Canyons! Zelda greek cannon Zelda Greek Canyons Zelda Greek Canyons The Duel made by omg_ur_a_noob

Villager positions and colors changed; More start resources (p1); Everything is messed up here; Same as GC, purples fish is messed; GC with a forest around the map edges and other colors; More food (p1); Players get armory (Thor bug!); Less resources but more favor (p1); Players get armory (Thor bug!); Same as next; Other colors, monuments in the center, players get a dock, some gold outside bases, intro cinematic; More starting resources (p1); 18 villagers (p1); same as GC; 30 vills+more starting resources (p1); Less starting resources (p1); Changed start positions for villagers; more starting resources (p1);

All these maps were checked on: Villager amount Triggers Player data Other added objects

Disclaimer: This guide was written by aKm_Freak_Ld (a.k.a. Mythic_freak � DoR_Freak � FD_Freak). Please do not claim ownership of this document, or do not make any copies of this guide without my permission and confirmation. I do not claim any responsibility for any possible damage to your computer or its software caused by wrong game modification or any other possible cause. Contact: [email protected] - no fan mail please. ;-) X-Fire: mythicfreak

mailto:[email protected]

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