Guide

Complete Guide to Ra

By StR_Bishop

Introduction

When I started as an AoM/TT player I played Hades and Oranos at ~1650+ level. Joining StR'S Cavalry is where I was introduced to Ra. I owe my appreciation to StR_Monte, StR_Mania, and StR_Darklight.

General Economic Principles

• Spread sheep around your TC to avoid villager bumping
• Build mining camps on the largest side of the mine
• Build farms with 1 villager per farm
• Rebuild lumber camps as forests move
• Move Pharaoh/Priest on the opposite side of the resource from villagers
• Minimize idle villager time
• Hunting around TC: if you need to garrison + ungarrison, ring town bell quickly

Ra Bonuses

• Pharaoh empowers at +25%
• Priests can empower
• Chariot Archers and Camels have +20% HP, +10% speed
• Monuments cost -25% and have +20% HP

Pharaoh

The Pharaoh is your most important unit.

• +25% empower rate
• Increases gather rate
• Increases military production speed
• Decreases tech and building construction times
• Doubles TC arrows when empowering it (same with priests)

Resource	Egyptian villager	Empowered villager
Hunt	0.76	0.91
Herdables	0.65	0.65
Farm	0.63	0.76
Wood	0.98	1.18
Gold	0.82	0.98

Empowered Monument to the Villagers generates more favor than any other monument.

Rain (God Power)

Rain gives a huge eco boost: +300% farming for you, +200% for allies and enemies. Best used to set up a strong FH — you don't have to worry about farm micro during Rain.

Tip: Place 1 villager per farm instead of many on one — saves time.

Skin of Rhino (Tech)

Cost: 50 food, 5 favor. Increases villager combat stats:

• Attack: 8 → 9
• Hack armor: 25% → 47%
• Pierce armor: 34% → 54%

Research time is 40 seconds (unempowered). Good to get on the first or second TC when preparing for defense.

Matchup Overview

vs Atlantean

The most efficient way to beat Atlantean is to defend your initial gold and villagers.

• Analyze gold at game start, build 2nd Monument early
• Advance with Bast
• Build 2-3 Barracks and spam Slingers (a few Axemen/Spearmen are fine but can hurt eco)
• Sphinx spam to claim 2nd gold — 3-4 eclipsed Sphinx can force Atlantean heroes to run

Alternative: 2nd TC in Classical (maybe securing gold) + Barracks units + Skin of Rhino. Ra villagers become scary vs Atlantean buildings.

vs Egyptian

Eggy wars are fun. Always FH or 2TC semi-FH vs Egyptian — too weak in Classical. Scarab rush is the main killer, but you can win without it. Eggy are nothing without gold, so focus on cutting gold or constant raids. Don't boom passively and rely only on Mercs — Egyptian can and should be aggressive.

vs Norse

Norse is one of the easiest matchups — Egyptian are very strong vs them. Main threats are Flaming Weapons and Ragnarok.

• FH is fairly straightforward: mass Wadjets or other myth units, build Migdol, raid with Heavy Camels
• Use Locust Swarm + Camel raids on food/gold, not wood
• vs Flaming Weapons: Shifting Sands + good unit combo + hack armor. Shifting their army into your base or onto a cliff works well
• vs Ragnarok: Sense when it's coming, mass Barracks, towers, upgrades, and prepare defense instead of procrastinating

vs Greek

Similar plan to vs Norse, but prefer Sphinx over Wadjets — Wadjets are slow and die to ranged heroes.

• Heavy raiding + Locust Swarm on eco
• vs Fast Mythic: either fast Scarab rush (~8:00) or your own FM (SoO + Mummies vs Colossus)

Ra on Water

Mediterranean — 4:20 Grush Build

1. 1 villager builds dock
2. 1 villager builds granary on hunt (empowered by Pharaoh)
3. Auto-queue fishing ships, house with dock villager
4. 6 villagers to food (8 food villagers including ships)
5. 3 villagers to wood (enough for 6-7 fishing ships)
6. 2 villagers to gold
7. Rest to food, build second house
8. Garrison food for 4:20 advance

Transition: Move all food villagers to wood (10-11) with Pharaoh empower, some to gold (5-6). Build houses and 2nd dock. Sets up aggressive grush.

Rain Start FH Build

Used in ~95% of games.

1. Do not get Hunting Dogs.
2. 1 villager builds Monument (Pharaoh empowers)
3. 1 villager builds Granary (Pharaoh empowers)
4. Pharaoh does a lap around TC
5. 7 villagers on food
6. 2 villagers to wood
7. 1 villager builds mining camp, research Pickaxe ASAP
8. 1 villager builds houses + Temple + 2nd Monument
9. Another 4 villagers on gold (adjust based on food)
10. Research Husbandry ASAP
11. Rest of villagers on food (cows/sheep near TC)

Transition: Upon advance, send some villagers to gold and lay down ~11 farms. Cast Rain when you hit Classical.

Classical Age Options

Classic Fight

Possible but not ideal in TT — Skipper used it vs Norse on vanilla. If you classic fight, mass Barracks units with myth support.

2TC Semi-FH

Effective vs Egyptian or Norse on closed maps.

• Advance with Ptah ~4:40-5:00
• Shift villagers + Pharaoh to forward or nearby TC site
• Build 2nd TC, research Shaduf, lay down ~15 farms

3TC Boom

Monte nearly perfected this. Combined with Shaduf + Rain it can be extremely strong but risky.

Minor Gods

Ptah (Classical)

• Scalloped Axe: +10% Axeman attack — situational (vs aggressive Loki/Zeus)
• Leather Framed Shield: +10% Spearman pierce armor — only if massing Horus Spearmen late-game
• Electrum Bullets: +10% Slinger attack — priority vs Atlantean
• Shaduf: Farms cost 47 gold instead of 70 — amazing on low-hunt maps (Oasis, Ghost Lake)

Shifting Sands (God Power)

Extremely flexible:

• Shift Scarabs into enemy TC early (especially on water maps)
• Build a small wall "cage" in your base, shift heroes (especially priests) inside
• Shift units onto cliffs so they must be deleted (great during Flaming Weapons)

Wadjet

Great defensive myth unit but slow. Avoid vs Atlantean/Greek/Egyptian (die to ranged heroes). Very good vs Norse (slow heroes).

Bast (Classical)

• Sacred Cats: Improves farmer productivity
• Adze of Wepwawet: +10% wood gather rate — rumored to be glitchy without full wood upgrades
• Criosphinx / Hieracosphinx: Sphinx upgrades; Hieracosphinx offers +20% speed, +20% hack, +50% crush

Eclipse (God Power)

Boosts all myth units for 65 seconds. Can also block enemy god powers.

In Classical, if you haven't defended your gold and villagers in Archaic, now is the time: houses, walls, etc. Make your base unraidable before going Heroic.

Heroic Age

Heroic Strategies

Heavy Camel Raids

Very effective vs Norse. Camels are fast, letting you raid and still return to defend. Keep myth units at home while raiding. Combine with Locust Swarm for maximum eco damage. Use 2 groups of 6-10 camels, rotate them, and block villager paths.

Scarab Rush

Classic Ra strategy: 3 Scarabs + support units. Eclipse before they get LOS so they can't use defensive GP. Very effective vs all Egyptian. vs Isis, bring 5-6 priests with range upgrade plus Pharaoh.

Roc Raiding

Two Rocs loaded with Petsuchos can annihilate eco. One shot from each Petsochos kills a villager. Very strong but very lame.

Hathor (Heroic)

• Sun Dried Mud Brick: -15% building cost, +15% HP — research early if going Hathor
• Medjay: +30 seconds Mercenary lifespan — good on large maps
• Crocodopolis: +4 range to Crocodiles — generally too expensive
• Petsuchos: Slow but very strong ranged myth unit — excellent with Rocs
• Roc: Best transport unit; great for protecting SoO, raiding, or cliff placements

Locust Swarm (God Power)

Destroys villagers. Best used early on important eco, ideally to block escape paths (cast between villagers and safety).

Sekhmet (Heroic)

• Bone Bow: +4 range for Chariot Archers — lets them outrange TCs
• Slings of the Sun: +30% Slinger damage vs infantry
• Ram of the West Wind: +20% Siege Tower crush damage
• Scarab: Excellent siege myth; very intimidating in large numbers
• Citadel: Upgrades TC defensively and +10 pop cap

Hathor vs Sekhmet:

• vs Egyptian/Atlantean: Sekhmet is strong — Scarabs shred Atlantean buildings, Eclipsed Scarabs split attention off your army
• vs Norse: Camel raids + Locust Swarm are very strong; Hathor also good for Roc raiding

After hitting Heroic, Migdol placement is top priority to claim gold (avoid forests vs Thor/Odin).

Mythic Age

Strategies

Cata Raids

Load Catapults into Rocs and drop near enemy TC (prefer cliffs). Snipe TCs while only ranged units can respond. Catapults have high pierce armor.

Horus Spearmen

Among the strongest units in the game; cheap (2 pop) and very hard to counter when fully upgraded.

Osiris (Mythic)

• Desert Wind: +20% camel speed and attack — expensive but powerful
• Funeral Barge: Doubles War Barge damage vs archer ships — niche use
• New Kingdom: Grants second Pharaoh — one on trade, one in battle
• Atef Crown: Doubles minion lifespan, +40% damage, +20% HP — good for Mummy spam
• Mummy: One-shot myth killer (e.g., Colossus, Heka Giants) + spawns minions

Son of Osiris (God Power)

Extremely powerful — keep a Siege Tower or Roc nearby to protect vs archers. Cannot be healed and dies to Bolt in one shot (resurrects as normal Pharaoh). Ensure your Pharaoh is fully healed before casting.

Horus (Mythic)

• Axe of Vengeance: Axemen do double damage to buildings — usually not worth it
• Greatest of Fifty: +15% hack armor and +100% vs cavalry for melee units
• Spears of the Horizon: Spearmen +30% HP, +10% attack — the "invincible" Horus Spearmen
• Avenger: Expensive but very powerful melee myth unit
• Tornado: Best used where enemy army is near key buildings (Migdols/TCs)

Relics & Other Tips

• Relic placement is semi-patterned on some maps — e.g., Watering Hole: one on each side
• In late-game stalemates, stop only massing units — try sneaky plays: cata snipes on TCs, wall off trade, small raids, etc.
• Perfect Locust placement: cast between villagers and safety (e.g., between vills and TC) to force them into your raiders

Ra is a very strong civ — if you stick with him and push his potential, he will reward you with both skill and rating.

— StR_Bishop (with some community corrections)