Guide to Thor
By hope_is_gloppy · vanilla
A classic Thor strategy guide organized around maps, openings and minor-god decisions.
Introduction
After reading several guides about Thor I realized that I couldn’t find one focusing on strategies and tactics, such as what to do in certain situations … they were all focused on the technologies and minor gods. Of course knowing what the different gods grant and what units counter what is a must to know if you want to make it to 1900+, but it is also very important that you make the right decisions when you see what your enemy has planned, and to know how you will counter his strategy.
In this article I will write abit about the different starting build orders a Thor player can use, its advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore I will write what I believe is the best tactics on different maps, dependent on the major god you are playing against.
As mentioned before there are already several articles on the internet dealing with the god powers and technology affects. For that reason I won’t mention much about it here. If you do want to read about it I recommend the following article concerning all Norse gods. As we all know Thor’s dwarves are cheaper, 60 gold instead of 70 gold. This provides the breeding ground for the “pure dwarves” strategy that was popular a while ago but seems to have faded a bit. This will be discussed later.
When On Maps …
Watering Hole and Savannah
These two maps are normally full of animals so you should invest in Hunting Dogs at once and also get Pig Sticker as soon as possible (shoot at some animals to get 1 favor). You might want to wall your base in on Watering Hole if you are facing a Norse or Greek player. Both maps are nice to raid on so be sure to do some good scouting so you know where all his mines and food sources are. The build order for the “Fast Hunting Dogs and Pig Sticker” start is explained under the “Defeating Loki as Thor” section.
Oasis and Alfheim
Unless I can see animals I normally do a start with dwarves on gold and pickaxe. On Alfheim don’t invest in Hunting Dogs before you are sure you have at least two groups of animals. The amount of food on Alfheim can sometimes be very poor. On Oasis you should consider walling one direction to prevent getting attacked from both sides.
Anatolia, Midgard and Mediterranean
As I see it there are only two ways of building you should consider on water maps. One is focused on getting two docks fast and thereby being able to pump “villagers” with three buildings. The second way is to only build one dock and gather the extra food from animals on land.
Building two docks requires that you put more than the 5 villagers you can build to start with on wood. Cast the “Dwarven Gold Mine” near your TC and start mining with the two dwarves. The 5 villagers you have queued will go to chop wood. After that I send one dwarf on gold and then 2-3 dwarves on wood again. This should be enough for you to pump fishing boats with two docks. By doing this in theory you do not need to have any dwarves/villagers on food. Despite this I would probably do it because advancing fast is always very preferable when you are going to fight on water. If you for instance can get an Egypt player to cast his plague of serpents defensively that is by far the best. Having snakes right in front of your docks is a pain since you will probably have to contain your longboats inside your docks until you have sufficient forces to kill the snakes, which means you will lose all your fishing boats to his water army (unless you garrison them into the docks as well).
You always want to avoid any “all dwarf” builds on water maps since dwarves gather wood slower compared to villagers. The difference is not that big in archaic but is more significant when you get the wood upgrades in later ages. According to IamSpook from Planet Age of Mythology, the gathered wood after 5 minutes is only 1% when comparing 10 villagers and 5 villagers + 5 dwarves.
Ghost Lake
On Ghost Lake I will mine gold with 4 dwarves (and pickaxe) unless I see 3+ boars close to me and want to try something some odd tactic that needs a load of food. Be sure to scout the sides and find your pack of deer. The middle is not really interesting so try not to waste scouting time on it. Ghost Lake is a low gold map, so be sure to scout the gold and see how you can protect it by walling off choke points (cliffs, forests, etc). Ghost Lake is also a nice map to raid on so be sure to have numerous raiding cavalry (2×8 or something like that).
Advance no later than 15 minutes to the Heroic Age (of course this depends on the game) so you can start defending your TCs and gold mines. It is on maps like this that I would recommend going Skadi unless you are facing heavy cavalry and need the fully upgraded ulfsarks. Skadi’s god power can be very helpful when claiming a settlement (or stealing one of his!). Be sure not to waste too much time killing his army. Rather, get map control by building longhouses, TCs and Hillforts.
In this next section, we will cover what to do specifically against Loki, probably the hardest god to defeat when playing as Thor.
Defeating Loki as Thor
In my opinion, Loki is by far the toughest opponent to face as Thor. Due to this I’ve dedicated this section to help counter his rush. Everything else not under the Loki section assumes you are playing against a non-Loki opponent.
On Watering Hole and Savannah
On Watering Hole and Savannah I would recommend this build order (it can also be used on Ghost Lake but be sure you can see your boars and find your deer quickly, you need good hunting):
- Cast the “Dwarven Gold Mine” GP right next to your TC and get the two dwarves mining from it immediately.
- Research Hunting Dogs while you move your initial oxcart to the animals.
- Queue 5 villagers and set the animals as rally point.
- Take 1 villager and shoot on the other animals … you’re intention is not to kill them, just to gain 1 favor in order to research Pig Sticker (you should have both technologies around the 80 seconds mark).
From here on I usually go dwarves on gold/food and villagers on wood. I prefer having 8 dwarves/villagers on food, 5 dwarves on gold and 4 villagers on wood when I advance. Against Loki and with this “Fast Hunting Dogs & Pig Sticker” build order I would probably only have 7 on food and 3 villagers on wood so I can advance fast and start building longhouses. With only 3 villagers on wood do not research pickaxe, because you will need the 110 wood for longhouses. I would send 2-3 more villagers on wood soon after I hit Classical since Throwing Axemen are necessary to have against Loki’s Hersirs.
If your opponent is strong and you advance late you might consider getting the tower upgrade. Though I think it is a waste unless you have two towers that can reach the battle scene (will most likely be between your base and his forward unless he tries raiding your gold). Remember that he will go Heimdall and will just undermine your tower. I wouldn’t recommend building your houses around your towers either, at least not the towers near his forward. You will most likely lose those houses and you will need your units to defend, not build and the wood it costs to rebuild them for Throwing Axemen. Longhouses shouldn’t be build around your towers as well. The most suitable place is right next to your town center or behind it. Too many players, experts as rookies lose because they lose a longhouse. Be sure to have two longhouses fast and build one more when you get the resources for it.
If you have the extra resources you can consider either building an armory and getting an upgrade or two or building a few raiding cavalry and start raiding his base. If he starts attacking your little raiding party with his villagers flee at once. The important thing is to keep him busy at his home base and his forward base. When you finally decide to try and take his forward base you should consider attacking his economy with your raiding party (why in the world did they remove the “raiding party” taunt in AoM ?!) since his attention will most likely be at his forward base. Also, although it is very tempting to build that one ulfsark instead of a villager remember your economy. Never stop booming. You might kill his forward base but if his economy is better there is still a good chance he will kill you in the Heroic Age.
Against Loki I normally choose Forseti if I am certain he will rush. Foresti’s healing spring is really nice and the trolls he grants are really nice ranged units and since you will probably be defensive their slow speed won’t be a problem.
Other land Maps
If you do not have any animals nearby I would recommend researching pickaxe and go 4 dwarves on gold to start with. On these kind of maps I don’t have a specific build order, it depends on alot of things. However, still build your buildings behind your base, and see if you can protect your gold from being raided. Don’t advance too late and remember to get those Throwing Axemen.
Water Maps
I tend to find Loki on water maps one of the hardest to defeat, especially on Anatolia. The problem is he often has the initiative. I often find myself having to guess what to do. The reason why you lose the initiative is that you don’t know how hard he will fight on water and on land. If he goes heavily on land and you went water, you might win water but you will probably not have enough wood for longhouses and Throwing Axemen to counter his Hersirs and other units. The only thing you can do to compensate for this is by doing some excellent scouting. Have a fishing boat patrol the sea so you know exactly how many docks he has. If he only builds one then you have to get ready for a land fight, but if he has three you can probably expect a water fight (allthough heads up – he will probably have a few hersirs running around attacking your docks). This is not always certain. Good players will always try to trick you. Also be sure to scout on land, wall vulnerable sides, etc.
Anatolia
On Anatolia I tend to play very defensive and try to figure out what he is doing. Remember that in the end, land is more important than water so don’t risk losing land because of the water. Fighting Loki as Thor on Anatolia always gets very confusing so make sure you know you’re hotkeys and keep concentrating. It is all about microing. As soon as you get the initiative, e.g by taking out his land army or by winning water, be sure to use it. On water make sure you’re attacking his fishing boats and kill his economy, don’t be attacking his docks. On land take out his forward base and build some cavalry to raid his gold.
Mediterranean
On Mediterranean, allthough water is really important to win do not forget to scout the land. If you suddenly find a forward base pumping from three longhouses you are most likely dead. Again, scout to see how many docks he has and try to figure out what he is planning to do.
Midgard
Midgard is more or less the same, however water seems to play a less important role. This map is very suitable for raiding so be sure to run around with at least one group of cavalry. You could consider faking a water fight as in build 2-3 docks but go heavily land. If he doesn’t build his docks aggresively you can normally win a 2v3 docks if the fight is next to your docks – the extra time it takes for his boats to reach the battle will compensate for you being outnumbered in docks.
General Thor Guidance
Whats wrong with all-dwarves?
There are three main reasons why I don’t use the “dwarves only” strategy that seemed to be popular a while ago.
- Dwarves take longer time to produce, normally meaning you have two less when you advance compared to an all villager approach.
- Gold is normally the resource you lag in the end of games, using a fairly big amount of gold on your villagers can be critical in some games.
- All-dwarves on wood isn’t efficient.
The good thing about the all dwarves strategy is of course the spare food you have – it can be used for quick advancing. I prefer a mix though, so I normally I have 4 villagers on wood, 5 dwarves on gold and a mix of dwarves and villagers for a total of approx. 8 on food when I advance.
Armory Upgrades
On Mediterranean and Anatolia (in case you are fighting water) I will always build an armory immediately after building my second dock. I will then start off by getting the attack upgrade and when I have enough wood I will research the pierce armor. If the fight on water takes more time than I expected I will usually get the second pierce armor upgrade while still in the Classical Age. On Midgard it all depends on how much fight there is on water – I normally build an armory fast on this map too, but will drop getting the pierce armor upgrade, for example. In general you should get an armory fast no matter what Map and have 2-3 armory upgrades before you advance to the Heroic Age (1 attack and 2 hack armor upgrades is the ones I usually get on land).
Beating a Boomer
Booming means that you focus on your economy and expand quickly, rather than using your hard earned resources on units. Often such players are vulnerable to raiding but killing them completely is pretty hard, especially if you have chosen a booming civilization yourself.
Usually, the only appropriate thing to do as I see it is to boom yourself. When I for instance face an Isis opponent I usually get to the Heroic Age around 10 – 12 minutes depending on how my raiding is going. If you don’t disturb a boomer’s economy by executing good raiding he will be very tough to kill in the Heroic Age, especially Egyptian players who boom and use the Eclipse/Ancestors combo. This combo is excellent for keeping you away while he, for instance, takes control of an important area. I usually choose to flee when I face that combo, unless I have an army of hersirs which I normally haven’t. If he doesn’t use eclipse you could freeze the Ancestors which is a good reason to pick Skadi.
Bragi or Skadi?
Advancing to heroic through Bragi or Skadi can often be a hard decision. If you are using numerous Throwing Axemen I would definitely go Skadi due to the Huntress’ Axe upgrade but there are many variables that you need to take into consideration …
- Are you going to boom? If so, Skadi has the nice “Winter Harvest” tech which allows you to farm 20% faster.
- Often Flaming Weapons is used poorly and is often countered with Ceasefire or Frost. It can however turn the tide of a battle if used properly. The bonus you gain from the god power when cast is really useful.
- Skadi’s frost can be used for many things. One good use is to give yourself a break to rebuild your army or to claim an important settlement or area of the map. Frost can be used against Ancestors, units with Flaming Weapons, and Bronzed units. In general, I think Frost is a god power that is underrated – people tend to only use it when they are in trouble, instead of strategically to gain control of a certain area, a certain settlement, etc.
- Bragi has the incredibly nice Ulfsark upgrades though, “Swine Array” and “Call of Valhalla”. If your opponent spams cavalry I would not hesitate going Heroic via Bragi – Ulfsarks with these two upgrades will kill any Cavalry fast.
- “Thurisaz Rune” which makes myth units faster is great for Valkyries – combine it with Freyjas “Thundering Hooves” and you’ve got yourself a really good raiding unit.
Tyr or Baldr?
I don’t think there is much to choose between here. Choosing Baldr should only be for his Fire Giants, or if you’re in dire threat of losing. Ragnarok is suicidal … sure it can turn battles, but those heroes will get slain easily by Throwing Axemen.
Tyr has an upgrade that helps Ulfsarks, as well as the “Bravery” upgrade for Huskarls which makes them fairly good ramming units, taking their high pierce armor into consideration. Add this with Fimbulwinter that will cripple your opponents economy if used strategically, and I really don’t think you should consider taking Baldr. Tyr is the way to go.
Source: hope_is_gloppy · HeavenGames