Guide to playing Odin
By TheShadowDawn · vanilla
TheShadowDawn’s classic Odin guide discusses the god’s tools in the context of early original-game balance updates.
Introduction
The recent 1.02 patch which fixed Odin’s hunting bonus and buffed the Norse Raider has resulted in a great increase in the popularity of the Odin civilization. He has a powerful early economic bonus and can compete with fast heroic strategies that are currently being experimented with, or in the case of Ra – has been in use for quite a while now. He combines power with the flexibility of fighting in Classical or jumping to Heroic.
The purpose of this guide is to give you an idea about which options at his disposal are practical, and which are not – as well as to give you some tips about best utilising those options. Want to know more? Read on.
The Archaic Age
First, let’s look briefly at the initial benefits of worshipping Odin.
Bonuses
- Hunters gather 10% faster
- Gains two Raven scouts on advancing to the Classical Age. Ravens regenerate if killed
- Human soldiers constantly regenerate hit points
- Hill Fort units have 20% more hit points
Each of these bonuses will be discussed in detail later in the article.
God Power: Great Hunt
Multiplies the number of animals in the target area. Compounds with Odin’s hunting bonus to give Odin a stronger Archaic economy. Odin’s hunting abilities are discussed in detail below.
Improvement: Lone Wanderer
Cost: 175 Wood, 5 Favor
Effect: Ulfsarks +10% move rate
Worth it? 
This is an expensive tech in terms of wood cost for a fairly slim benefit. Odin does not have access to Bragi’s two big benefits to Ulfsarks, so the appearance of Ulfsarks when playing Odin is not as common with the other Norse civs. Only get this one if you are using lots of Ulfsarks and are changing fronts quickly and frequently.
Setting goals
While the first few minutes involve the same goals no matter civ you play (even if you achieve them through different means) you do need to think about your plans beyond that. You have three simple options to start off with.
- Do I want to attack and build aggressively in the Classical Age?
- Do I want to build defensively in the Classical Age, and rush to Heroic to take advantage of my stronger Jarls and Huskarls?
- Do I want to try and find a medium between these two options…build and attack during Classical, but still try and achieve the Heroic age quickly?
Potentially, Odin’s biggest bonus is to his Hill Fort units – they have 20% more HP. To take advantage of this bonus, you need to first get to the Heroic Age. Many players will leave advancing until they need to expand their population limit with more Town Centers. With Odin however, advancing earlier will gain you the support of two very powerful units. Advancing early on also gives you another significant benefit not to be overlooked…the support of a more powerful third age god power, (Frost or Walking Woods) which can make things very hard for a second age enemy without his own god power to throw at you.
So how do you make the decision on when to go to Heroic? Simple. Gather information about the map as you scout and make predictions about the course the game will take.
- What map are you playing on?
- What hunting does it have? Maps like Savannah and Watering Hole frequently generate lots of hunting. You will easily be able to get the food to advance to Heroic quickly on these maps.
- How defensive is it? Maps like Alfheim and Mediterranean can easily reduce paths of attack – making early attacks harder. On a map that is easier to defend yourself on, it is easier to get by with few or even no military units and advance to Heroic quickly.
- Is your opponent going to attack in Classical, or will he also try and advance to Heroic quickly?
- If he is going to attack in Classical, will you be attacked while you are trying to advance? Can you advance fast enough to avoid being attacked before you build a Hill Fort? Do you have resources you can fall back to if your enemy forces you to abandon control of areas beyond your town?
- If he is going to advance to Heroic quickly, will you get more benefit out of attacking him in Classical while he has few or no units, or by going to Heroic yourself and getting Hill Fort units to combat his Heroic age units?
- What civilization is your enemy playing?
- Is he playing Ra? If he is, he is likely to be doing a fast heroic. You can disregard Classical defenses entirely if you can achieve the Heroic age in a similar timeframe to your enemy if this is the case. Look for indicators of a fast Heroic. (Such as the use of the Rain god power early on.) Be careful if these indicators do not appear however.
- Is he playing another Egyptian civ? Egyptian players often take advantage of their towers and tend to build up rather than attacking straight away.
- Is he playing Norse? Norse usually attack early on and are good at maintaining pressure. If he is Loki, then its possible he may not only try to attack early, but rush you with Hersir while you have no Longhouses yet. Don’t try going to Heroic quickly against another Norse civ.
- Is he playing Greek? Greek may take a little longer to make their initial attack, but they are good at attacking strongly in Classical…however you have better chances against Greek units with the assistance of the Huskarl and Jarl. Build an army, but remain largely defensive and try to advance as quickly as possible.
A badly formed decision about whether or not to go to Heroic can lose you a game as Odin. Consider the simple factors above, and decide on your plan of attack. Well before you hit the Classical button, you should have decided what you intend to do. The earlier you decide, the better, since it gives you a firmer idea of what you are doing with your economy. Of course, you can always change your plans as the game advances…just that it’s usually better not to. Changing plans can mean wasting resources on the wrong units or upgrades, or buildings placed badly.
Hunting
Hunting is one of the ‘free’ food sources that provide food in the archaic age and much or all of the classical age, and Odin’s villagers (and dwarves) gather it 10% faster than other civilizations. Even without this bonus, hunting is the preferable food source of the ‘free’ food available to you, since it gathers at the fastest rate…however hunting is usually found further afield than initial food sources. To start off with, you will be gathering from either berries or chickens – which are usually very close to the Town Center.
As Odin moreso than any other civilization you have greater motivation to switch to hunting as soon as is convenient. As soon as you scout out likely hunting spots, and you have enough food to allow your Town Center to keep training vils as your food gatherers stop working for the critical seconds required to move to their new location…then start hunting.
In addition to having the faster hunting bonus, Odin’s god power – the Great Hunt – will multiply the number of animals in a small area. The change is based on the food contained in the animals. However, you usually get higher yields from passive animals like Gazelle, since the more animals there are, the increased chances there are of them being multiplied…and usually passive animals like Gazelle occur in much larger groups than aggressive animals like Hippos and Boars.
There are two simple ways to use Great Hunt. The first, and usually easier way is as follows:
1. Look for something like this
2. Bring your herd animals over
3. When you are ready to begin hunting, cast Great Hunt.
To increase the chances of getting more herd animals out of the GP, don’t cast Great Hunt until you are actually ready to begin hunting whatever group of animals you’ve chosen. Also be careful not to leave your herd animals unattended while you wait to cast the GP – they will be picked up by any enemy scout who comes past. Keep them within LOS of one of your Sentry Towers or villagers.
If the group of animals is spread out, keep in mind that Great Hunt has only a small area of effect, so check the green markers when casting to try and catch the most animals in the area of effect.
The second way to use Great Hunt is to cast it right at the start of the game. Is that a good idea, you ask? Depending on the map, yes. At the start of the game, if a patch of deer is generated within your starting line of sight, they will all be very close together, since they have not yet had time to wander. Cast great hunt on them straight away, and you will multiply more animals than if you had to wait, and they all spread out. Use this to begin hunting straight away (rather than starting on berries or chickens) to jumpstart your economy.
Because you have even more hunting than the map normally generates, it is very often a good idea to research Hunting Dogs – even if you normally wouldn’t as other civs. (Obviously certain maps like Mediterranean frequently generate very little hunting – make a quick evaluation about what map you are on and what the likelihood of this happening is before deciding whether or not to get Hunting Dogs.)
The Temple
Temples train myth units and Hersir. In order to advance to the Classical Age, you will need to construct a Temple. Temples cost 80 wood and 100 gold, so gear your economy carefully to achieve this as quickly as possible while still gathering the food necessary to advance. Try and place your Temple at between 3:30 and 4:30 into the game, as it will take just under 40 seconds to build. Aim to advance to the Classical Age between 5:00 and 6:00. (You may end up struggling if you are near the 6:00 end.)
Hersir
Hersir are the Norse hero unit. They are capable at taking down myth units, but their slow speed and necessity to attack in melee, combined with the fact that they aren’t too durable makes them rather dismal in their role as MU counters.
In any case, it doesn’t matter whether or not you’ll be facing MU’s, you will train Hersir during the age advance anyway. They will be able to gather any relics, build houses, and finally once you hit Classical, get your critical buildings up faster. As soon as you have hit the Classical button, and you have 80 food, queue a Hersir. If you plan on building Longhouses as soon as you hit Classical and attacking, queue more Hersir as food allows and use them to speed the construction of your Longhouses. If you are faced with an attack early on and your buildings are pumping units as fast as they can, it’s usually a good idea to make use of your Temple and train Hersir as well. An extra combatant can make a critical difference early in the game.
Hersir take bonus damage from Axemen and Throwing Axemen (and Hypaspists – but they won’t appear until the Heroic age) so be careful of your Hersir around these units. Finally, Hersir gather twice as much favor as regular units. If you want to build a myth unit and don’t quite have enough favor, send your Hersir to kill what animals are around. (That you don’t intend to hunt, of course.)
The Classical Age
On beginning the advance to the Classical Age, you must choose your minor god. Odin can choose from Freyja and Heimdall.
Heimdall is better if you plan on fighting in Classical, since his Einherjar is a good combat unit in the second age, and he improves Watch Towers, which can be quite useful early on. His undermine god power may help in attacking early when faced with a tower defending enemy villagers.
Freyja is a better choice if you are just passing through on the way to Heroic. Her Forest Fire god power will destabilize an enemy economy for critical moments giving you more leeway to advance without being attacked, and her Thundering Hooves technology will benefit your Jarls if the game draws out for a long period of time.
Minor Gods
Freyja is goddess of beauty and love. Choose Freyja if:
- You think your opponent is going with wood reliant units, or a group of trees are forming a natural barrier that will make attacking hard (Forest Fire)
- You plan to use a lot of Raiders and/or Jarls (Thundering Hooves)
- You want a healing unit (Valkyrie)
God power: Forest fire
Effect: Destroys a forest, denying the enemy of lumber and damaging any units or buildings nearby. (Deals greater amounts of damage to buildings than units.)
One of the less powerful god powers, though it can be useful in certain situations. Use Forest Fire to critically delay the production of ranged units, (Toxotes, Slingers, Throwing Axemen, Chariots…mostly just Toxotes, though) use it to open up a built up area which is making attacking or raiding an enemy economy difficult, or use it to destroy enemy buildings near a forest.
Myth unit: Valkyrie
Cost: 200 Food, 15 Favor, 4 population
Attack: 12 Hack (x3 vs Myth units)
HP: 375
Armor: 55% Hack/70% Pierce
Speed: 6.0 meters/second
Special: Heals friendly units at a rate of 5 HP/second when idle.
Worth it? This is a two sided unit, so yes and no. In terms of bang-for-buck, the Valkyrie is a cost effective unit. It’s fast, heavily armored and fairly tough, and it has the added bonus of healing capabilities. (It doesn’t have a fantastic attack, but you can always get the Aurora Borealis upgrade if you have a few.) However, the Valkyrie costs a lot of food, which is in most games, the most scarce resource in the Classical age.
Treat the Valkyrie as an uber-raider. If you are facing archers and units you would prefer cavalry to defeat, then try and get valkyries. Just lump your valkyries in along with the cavalry in your control groups, too.
Improvement: Thundering Hooves
Cost: 300 Food, 15 Favor
Effect: Cavalry +10% speed, +20% HP, Valkyries +20% speed, +10% HP
Worth it? 
Definitely, if you plan on using cavalry – which you will. The benefit of this upgrade is substantial. Obviously, because of the hefty food pricetag, don’t hurt yourself by getting it until you already have the Medium Cavalry upgrade and are near the pop limit.
Improvement: Aurora Borealis
Cost: 200 Gold, 10 Favor
Effect: Valkyries +50% attack, +33% healing rate
Worth it? Not really. This improvement costs two thirds the favor of a new Valkyrie. One valkyrie + Aurora Borealis will not heal as fast as two Valkyries. If you have enough Valkyries that this is a worthwhile investment….then you have too many Valkyries. Spend your resources on things that will benefit you more in combat – you only need a two or three valkyries to get the necessary healing done between fights.
Heimdall is the watcher of Bifrost, the bridge to Asgard. Choose Heimdall if:
- You are playing against the Egyptians and want to attack aggressively early on (Undermine)
- You plan on upgrading your towers and building more towers (Safeguard)
- You want a Classical Age building killer, or just a tough combat unit (Einherjar)
God power: Undermine
Effect: Instantly destroys Walls and Towers, deals large amounts of damage to Town Centers and Fortresses. Can hit multiple Walls and Towers if they are close together.
Very helpful against Egyptians when you are attacking early on. Ordinarily a single tower with houses built around its base is an easy deterrent to attackers. Undermine instantly wipes that tower out. If you’re not facing Egyptians (or someone who has upgraded their towers), retain Undermine for the Heroic age. It can be useful in aiding an attack on an enemy Town Center, or winning over forward areas fortified with a TC or Fortress.
Myth unit: Einherjar
Cost: 175 Gold, 15 Favor, 4 population
Attack: 15 Hack/10 Crush (x3 vs Myth units)
HP: 275
Armor: 70% Hack/60% Pierce
Speed: 3.2 meters/second
Special: Increases the attack of nearby units by 50%.
Worth it? Yes. The Einherjar is a tough myth unit that isn’t population intensive. Its special attack looks modest but has huge benefits if you can get the Einherjar into the fight fast enough to use it early on. (If you have multiple Einherjars, try to use their special attacks in a staggered manner to get the most benefit out of it.) Finally, the Einherjar is a good building killer. The weakness of the Einherjar is its speed – if you are in a game where you are changing fronts quickly, he will weigh you down more than help you. (You may want to be careful about choosing to use him against Egyptians too, since ranged Priests and Pharaohs can take full advantage of his slow speed…faster MU’s you can simply have retreat at the sight of an enemy hero.)
Improvement: Safeguard
Cost: 200 Wood, 10 Favor
Effect: Walls/Towers double HP, Towers -25% cost
Worth it? If you plan on upgrading your towers, and think you can use watch towers to help strengthen your offense, then yes. Double HP on towers is a great deal, and the towers are cheaper to boot. Combine this with your infantry build to use towers to consolidate ground while in the Classical age.
Improvement: Arctic Wind
Cost: 200 Wood, 10 Favor
Effect: Longboats +10% speed/HP
Worth it? Only if you have many longboats already. 200 wood can buy two more longboats, which is usually better than having slightly tougher longboats. On very few maps will you have a sufficient naval focus to make this technology worth it.
Improvement: Elhrimnir Kettle
Cost: 250 Food, 10 Favor
Effect: Einherjar +6 hack damage, +10% HP
Worth it? It’s not too expensive, but doesn’t provide any sustantial benefit either. Only get this one in the off chance you have many Einherjar (I would say 6+) and plan on training more.
The Longhouse
The Longhouse trains the three basic norse units (in addition to the Hersir – which we already covered) and researches improvements to them. The standard Norse play approach is to build two Longhouses as soon as you hit the Classical, then place one or two more when you have the resources.
As Odin, you won’t be doing this if you are advancing quickly to Heroic. Just build an armory. Train hersir from the temple – they’ll help build your Hill Fort faster once you reach Heroic. You will need Longhouses later on, of course, but the Hill Fort and the heroic age are a higher priority.
Ulfsark
The Ulfsark is the Norse cavalry counter. While it is frequently viewed as a dismal unit in its ability to counter cavalry, it is in fact more effective against cavalry than the Egyptian Spearman. However, early in the game they are not worth focusing on unless you are indeed facing cavalry. The other Norse units at your disposal (Throwing Axemen and Raiders) both have a tactical advantage – the Ulfsark does not. The Throwing Axeman is ranged, and the Raider is very mobile. Thus you get greater benefits in combat from focusing on these units in favor of the Ulfsark.
Throwing Axeman
The Throwing Axeman is the Norse infantry counter, and debatably the best infantry counter in the game. The Greeks and Egyptians each have two different infantry counters to choose from – one is ranged (Toxotes/Chariot) the other does bonus damage. (Hypaspist/Axeman) While the Norse have only one choice he has both of these attributes.
The Throwing Axeman does hack damage, not pierce, like the ranged units of the Greeks and Egyptians. While this means your opponent only has to upgrade his hack armor, the benefits are not to be overlooked. Unlike the units of the Greeks and Egyptians, the Throwing Axeman is effective against siege weapons and buildings, and is more effective against cavalry. (Which have low hack armor.) Of course…cavalry still counter the Throwing Axeman effectively, but TA’s can still be somewhat effective against cavalry when properly backed by melee units.
Raiding Cavalry
The Raiding Cavalry is the basic norse cavalry unit and is good against archers. While it isn’t as tough as the Greek Hippikon, it only takes 2 pop slots, so you can have a lot more of them than with other cavalry units. Raiding Cavalry are also the fastest human unit in the Classical Age, and hence are obviously good at moving in, striking at enemy villagers, and running before the enemy can respond. Moreso than when this is done with the Greeks and Egyptians this can be very infuriating, and very effective at disrupting and damaging an enemy economy.
In Norse vs Norse games, Raiders are the counter to Throwing Axemen, since they do +75% damage against them. Do not make the mistake that some people do and think that more Throwing Axemen is a good counter to enemy Throwing Axemen.
Unlike the Ulfsark and Throwing Axeman, Raiding Cavalry cannot build structures, so be wary of focusing too heavily on Raiders – you may be left stranded if you need to replace your buildings in a hurry. Raiders are complemented by Throwing Axemen very well, since they can take on anything pretty much in Classical bar Hoplites, Spearmen and Ulfsarks…which the TA counters.
Raven Scouts
As soon as you advance to the Classical Age, two Raven scouts will appear at your Temple. Don’t just forget about them: use them. They can provide valuable information that is hard to gather with the units usually at your disposal.
- Scout straight into the area in front of the enemy town to see what military units he has coming out. This enables you to build counters to your enemy’s army before the fighting has even begun.
- Scout out areas of the map you did not manage to scout in the Archaic Age with your starting ulfsark. You may reveal a good place to move your gold miners to, some hunting to keep you going longer, or a relic that benefits your units. Inadequate knowledge of resources on the map will cause you to lose the game quickly if you need to move your villagers around because of enemy attacks.
- Re-scout ground around your enemy town to get information about where enemy villagers are gathering resources. Look for areas far from enemy military units and easy to access that would be easy to raid.
- When initial mines run low, scout gold mines outside the safety of the enemy town to find vulnerable villagers to raid, and aggressively starve your enemy of gold. Whenever an enemy abandons one mine, send a Raven to check other likely mines to see if he has taken up those.
- Use your Ravens as sentries on likely routes the enemy may take in attacking your town or economy to give you advance warning.
Ravens will respawn when killed, but take a long four minutes to return. Towers and Fortresses do bonus damage to Ravens, and Town Centers are accurate and powerful enough to kill them even without the bonus. Your Ravens have a large LOS, so with a little careful management, it’s easy to scout through an enemy town without going near defenses. Later in the game you can still monitor enemy activities around his forward base without leaving your Ravens prone to enemy archers by keeping them at a suitable distance.
Don’t leave Ravens idle where they are obvious to your opponent. He may move his villagers if he notices a Raven hanging around directly above them. Keep your Ravens at a range where they can monitor villager activity, but not be obvious. Subtlety often pays off and gives you necessary information to make raiding an enemy economy much easier.
Raiding
If you aren’t trying to reach Heroic as soon as possible, then the extra information provided by your Raven scouts puts you in an unparalleled situation to raid your enemy’s economy. As soon as your Longhouses go up, build Raiding Cavalry initially and try to continue pumping them until you have a sizeable force – perhaps 6 or more. Your Ravens should have by now found a good spot to raid. Look for villagers that are outside range of the Town Center – gold and wood gatherers. (Sometimes you may get lucky and find a hunting party distant from the TC – always try and force these to stop hunting. Forcing an enemy to farm earlier on can hurt his economy significantly.)
Early in Classical, the easiest resource to hit is often wood (since an enemy will usually defend his gold more aggressively) but hitting gold will hurt an enemy more – since without it he cannot build military units. Against Norse and Greek players, you can frequently find villies gathering both resources in the same place, which doubles the benefit you are getting from Raiding. Against Egyptians, use the Undermine power to take out a tower defending villagers.
Remember, the objective of raiding is not to kill villagers. Killing villagers is just a bonus. (And AoM villies are not the weaklings they were in AoK…even with a sizeable force of Raiders it can be challenging to kill any vils before they retreat to safety.) The purpose is to disrupt your enemy’s economy, force his villagers to stop working. He has to devote critical attention to his villagers instead of creating and managing an army, and he will end up with less resources…which in turn equates to less units and upgrades.
Try and continue to put pressure on the enemy economy throughout the game. (Again, your Ravens help you greatly in this regard – as other civilizations you are often forced to attempt raiding blindly without hard knowledge of villager locations.) Even if you are on the defensive and your opponent is in a stronger position, (be it militarily or economically…or both) forcing him back to his town try and stop your raiding and disruption of his economy can maneuver you back into a position of power.
The Heroic Age
In the Heroic Age, Odin can choose from Njord and Skadi.
Skadi is the better choice if you are looking to the immediate future and it looks like things could turn for the worse quickly. Use her Frost god power to freeze your enemy’s army in place when you are under attack, or use it nullify an enemy army and take out his Town Center or military buildings. Both can severely cripple him, and Frost can easily make a turning point for the game. Skadi also grants you access to the Huntress’ Axe improvement, which significantly boosts your Throwing Axemen – excellent support units for your Jarls and Huskarls.
Njord is the better choice if the game looks like it will be drawn out. His Ring Giver technology is expensive but gives your Jarls a huge boost, making them even more powerful. His Mountain Giant myth unit is good at helping take areas fortified with buildings. Walking Woods god power can help you consolidate ground and give you time to build up. Njord is also the one to choose on a water map, since his Kraken myth unit is the elite of naval myth units.
Minor Gods
Njord is god of sailors and the sea. Choose Njord if:
- You want a building killer (Mountain Giant)
- The game looks like it will go for the long haul and you plan to use Jarls (Ring Giver)
- You could use the support of some ‘free’ units in taking or consolidating an area (Walking Woods)
God power: Walking Woods
Effect: Turns up to six trees in the target area into walking trees. The player has no control over the trees, but shares their LOS.
Walking Woods are very tough, (350 HP) but not that great at fighting. (8 hack damage.) You’ll get the greatest benefit out of this god power if the Walking Woods attack buildings, since they have a huge crush damage attack. Cast Walking Woods around a contested area of ground to get a bit extra support. If the trees wander off after enemies, then don’t simply leave them alone – since they’ll just get killed without your army around, whereas even if you don’t feel like attacking, the additional assistance of those walking trees could make the difference. Be sure to kill any heroes around your Walking Trees as they are counted as myth units.
Myth unit: Mountain Giant
Cost: 300 Food, 30 Favor, 5 Population
Attack: 20 Hack/25 Crush (x2 vs Myth units)
HP: 1200
Armor: 45% Hack/30% Pierce
Speed: 3.2 meters/second
Special: Windup smash that does 120 crush damage to buildings.
Worth it? The Mountain Giant is the best building killer in the game. If you are facing a heavily entrenched enemy, a giant or two can make things a lot easier. If you’re not interested in its building killing abilities, however, the Mountain Giant is too slow and expensive to really justify its combat abilities.
Myth unit: Kraken
Cost: 300 Food, 25 Favor, 5 population
Attack: 30 Hack/20 Crush
HP: 900
Armor: 50% Hack/70% Pierce
Speed: 6.0 meters/second
Special: Instantly destroys any enemy ship.
Worth it? The Kraken is the best naval myth unit in the game in terms of its combat abilities against other ships. A Kraken or two can increase your naval power considerably on water maps, however control of the water is far less important in AoM than it was in AoK, and there is not even an islands map…so the Kraken won’t be appearing very often.
Improvement: Ring Giver
Cost: 400 Gold, 30 Favor
Effect: Jarls +25% HP
Worth it? Yep. Already tough Jarls get tougher. This is an expensive upgrade, so make sure you have at least the Medium Cavalry upgrade and are near the pop limit. (Whether you want to get Heavy Cavalry before Ring Giver depends on whether you can afford the food cost. They provide similar benefits, so get whichever one you can afford more easily.) If you chose Freyja, research the Thundering Hooves upgrade before Ring Giver. (It’s cheaper, boosts the speed of the slow Jarl while giving almost the same HP bonus, and also effects Raiding Cavalry.)
Improvement: Long Serpent
Cost: 200 Gold, 25 Favor
Effect: Longboats +20% attack, -20% crush vulnerability
Worth it? Not really. Once you reach the Heroic Age, your navy is no longer limited to arrow ships. Rather than improving Longboats, expand your navy to have Dragon Boats and Drakkars. If you want to upgrade your Longboats, be sure to get the Cladding upgrade before you get this.
Improvement: Wrath of the Deep
Cost: 200 Gold, 15 Favor
Effect: Krakens +200 HP
Worth it? Not really. Krakens are already very tough units, devote your favor to getting another Kraken. On very few maps would have the sufficient naval focus to make this worth it, even if you did have Krakens.
Skadi is the goddess of winter. Choose Skadi if:
- You are using Throwing Axemen, or plan to (Huntress’ Axe)
- You want to try and break a stalemate by nullifying an enemy army and taking out critical enemy buildings (Frost)
- You have food and need more food (Winter Harvest)
God power: Frost
Effect: Immobolizes all enemies in the target area for one minute, but gives them 99% armor to all attack types.
This is a great GP that can be used both offensively and defensively. Offensively, it can be used to freeze an enemy army in place, and then destroy the undefended enemy production buildings. When your opponent’s army thaws out, he’ll have lost the ability to replace his units. Alternately you can do a similar thing and strike at an enemy Town Center. This not only stops his farmers from working and means he’ll have to fork out the cost of a new Town Center, but he’s 15 population down as well. Defensively, you can simply use Frost as a localized Ceasefire that will give you time to get home to meet a new threat, or withdraw and regroup. Perhaps you are about to take out a large number of enemy miners, but an army has appeared in your town. You could hurry home and try to repel them…or you could just cast Frost, slaughter the villagers, and come home in time to repel the thawed out army.
Myth unit: Frost Giant
Cost: 200 Gold, 30 Favor, 5 Population
Attack: 18 Hack/12 Crush (x3 vs Myth units)
HP: 600
Armor: 55% Hack/70% Pierce
Speed: 3.8 meters/second
Special: Freezes an enemy unit in place for 20 seconds.
Worth it? The Frost Giant doesn’t look as tough as Njord’s Mountain Giant, but he is more heavily armored, moves faster, costs less resources and has a very powerful special attack. He also has a crush damage attack (while modest compared to the Mountain Giant’s) making him effective against buildings. Unless you are in a fast paced game where you need to move your army around a lot to meet new threats, building a giant or two will probably pay off. Use them to stop enemy MU’s and siege weapons in particular.
Improvement: Huntress’ Axe
Cost: 300 Gold, 20 Favor
Effect: Throwing Axemen +20% attack
Worth it? An additional 20% attack is too good a deal to pass up if you are using Throwing Axemen. This has the same gold cost as the Heavy Infantry upgrade…so if you have the food to spare, get Heavy Infantry before Huntress’ Axe. (It boosts HP in addition to attack.) Definitely make sure you have the Medium Infantry upgrade before this.
Improvement: Winter Harvest
Cost: 200 Food, 20 Favor
Effect: +20% farming gather rate
Worth it? Yes…and no. While this upgrade provides a significant boost (the same as Plow and Irrigation combined) it costs food…and usually when you want to upgrade your farming, you’re in a situation where you have little food. If you do have the food to spare and need more food, then go ahead and get it. Always be sure to have to Husbandry upgrade before getting other farming upgrades.
Improvement: Rime
Cost: 200 Food, 20 Favor
Effect: Frost giants +33% HP, +20% hack damage, special attack charges 25% faster
Worth it? Rime isn’t that expensive and gives significant benefits…but unless you have several Frost Giants and intend to continue training them, I’d pass it up.
The Hill Fort
The Norse Hill Fort is weaker than the Egyptian Migdol and has less attack than the Greek Fortress…but the undeniable fact remains that it is the cheapest and most easily erected of the fortresses available to each culture. The Hill Fort trains elite Norse units – the Huskarl, Jarl and Portable Ram in Heroic, and the Ballista in Mythic. For Odin, these units are 20% tougher, increasing their value even further.
When attempting a fast heroic strategy with Odin, this is the first thing you need to build once you hit Heroic, and you’ll probably need a second one as well – to pump out soldiers faster. (Jarls and Huskarls both have a fairly short training time of 9 seconds, but unlike Longhouse units, it’s a little harder to produce units as fast as you like at the Hill Fort.) While Hill Forts are tough and deal out damage, they are really just glorified Watch Towers, so don’t count on them to stop any significant enemy force. Treat them like Longhouses, and put them where they won’t be destroyed when you need more units in the middle of a critical battle.
Huskarl
While both Raiding Cavalry and Jarls are capable archer counters, nothing counters archers as well as the Huskarl. It has significant pierce armor and a large bonus against Archers, not to mention the fact that it is not vulnerable to cavalry counters. Huskarls are also effective against many cavalry units themselves. In addition, they can build structures…something that the other Norse archer counters (Jarls and Raiders) cannot.
Jarl
Jarls are the elite of the Norse military. They cost only 10 more food than the Greek Hippikon, yet they are significantly more powerful. Jarls are capable and very often cost effective units against anything that does not specialize against cavalry. (1v1 they can even beat Camelry!) They also have a very large bonus against myth units, which makes up for the dismal performance of the Hersir in the later stages of the game. Jarls are naturally vulnerable to cavalry counters – their slow speed only makes this more so. Back them with Throwing Axemen (or Huskarls/Ulfsarks can work against Prodromos/Camelry/Spearmen) to protect them from counter units.
Portable Ram
The Portable Ram is the cheapest siege weapon in AoM…and in terms of building killing abilities, it is also the most cost effective. Odin’s bonus means they have a big 50 HP extra, which can make a big difference when it comes to taking down important enemy buildings in the middle of a fight.
A popular and very often effective strategy is to simply build a few rams, and send them in unsupported at an enemy settlement distant from his home town. Oftentimes, the player will not notice until it’s too late. (Although Egyptian players can sometimes stop this with their mercenaries.) He loses the expense of a valuable Town Center and the population it supports because he’s too busy focusing on your army.
Human soldier regeneration
One of Odin’s bonuses is that his human soldiers constantly regenerate hit points. Ulfsarks, Throwing Axemen, Raiding Cavalry, Jarls and Huskarls all regenerate HP at a rate of 0.8 HP a second when idle. (No other units are affected, and the healing rate is almost nonexistent when fighting, building or moving.) While this bonus is usually overlooked, it is often helpful, since it can often be the equivalent of getting 10-20% more raw combat value out of your units. A unit that recovers HP survives for longer in a fight and thus deals more damage than one that doesn’t…which essentially saves you part of the cost of retraining new units.
Basically…if you units are injured, forgo fighting if possible and just leave them idle to heal before your next encounter. The benefit is small, true…but it’s still a benefit not to be thrown away.
Picking unit combos
In the Classical age, picking your units is fairly simple, since you build whatever counters what your opponent is using. If you did a fast Heroic, you’ll be able to get by initially with just Jarls. (And perhaps a few Huskarls.) But as you really get into the Heroic age and your opponent is expanding his own options, things get a bit more complicated. You have five units produced at two different structures.
The most efficient combo is one that trains units from both the Hill Fort and the Longhouse, and costs both wood and food. (In addition to gold…all units cost gold.) This way, you can keep your economy balanced, and you can train units at the maximum rate.
For example, Jarls supported by Throwing Axemen is a good combo. Jarls cost food and are trained from the Hill Fort, and Throwing Axemen cost wood and are trained from the Longhouse. The two units complement each other well – Jarls can defeat many units. The units it can’t fight effectively are cavalry counters….which the Throwing Axemen fare very well against. Expanding your army into three units requires more management, but usually pays off well. Just remember to try and utilize units from both the Hill Fort and Longhouse, and spend both wood and food.
The Mythic Age
In the Mythic Age, Odin can choose from Baldr and Tyr.
Baldr is the better choice if you just can’t break through your enemy’s defenses, or if it looks like things are going to take a turn for the worse for you. Make good use of his god power, Ragnarok, to mess things up a little. Baldr also offers you the powerful Fire Giant MU, which can supplement the lack of an effective long ranged unit in the Norse arsenal.
Tyr is the better choice if the game looks more oriented to the long haul. He has two very powerful upgrades to Ulfsarks and Huskarls, and his god power if timed well will do a lot of damage to your opponent’s economy.
Minor Gods
Baldr is the god of beauty and innocence. Choose Baldr if:
- You want the support of a tough, long ranged combatant (Fire Giant)
- You think a strong push could break a stalemate or you are losing control of the map and defeat looks likely (Ragnarok)
God power: Ragnarok
Effect: Turns all gatherers and dwarves into Heroes of the Ragnarok.
Ragnarok is perhaps an infamous god power for its nature of often turning the course of a game around entirely. (Much to dismay of the player on the receiving end.) It usually functions as an all-or-nothing god power. While it can win you the game, it can lose it for you too, so plan carefully.
Ragnarok is ideal for a game where you are behind in control of the map or just can’t get the upper hand in a long stalemate. Plan ahead, train gatherers from all your Town Centers, invest in armory upgrades. In order to give your enemy less time to respond, have your villagers head towards the battlefield before you actually cast Ragnarok – your enemy will have a lot less time to react to the flood of units assaulting him. Use some of the heroes to reinforce your core army to take on the enemy army. Use the rest to attack your enemy from whatever multiple fronts are convenient. It’s very demoralizing to realize that even if you can maintain control of the forward area currently under attack by the main enemy army, that there are units pillaging your production buildings, town centers, trade routes and farming elsewhere in parts of map you control.
Use Ragnarok where you are confident a strong push may be able to give you all that’s necessary for victory. If you think your enemy can ride out that push though, don’t risk your entire game on it. Without an economy generating resources, you’ll gradually lose the ability to replace your troops, ultimately resulting in a loss for you.
Myth unit: Fire Giant
Cost: 300 Gold, 35 Favor, 5 population
Attack: 25 Hack/20 Crush
Range: 14 meters
HP: 600
Armor: 60% Hack/80% Pierce
Speed: 3.2 meters/second
Special: Releases three fireballs that do 10 hack to every unit they hit (Usually ends up doing less damage than the normal attack, actually)
Worth it? The Norse are a culture who do not have any strong long ranged units, and the Fire Giant is the closest they get to that. While it still does hack damage, the advantage of range combined with the fact that it is very tough to bring down can give the Fire Giant a practical strategic value that justifies its cost. As a bonus, Fire Giants do crush damage – so they are an effective ranged building killer. (The Ballista works against buildings too, but not as well as the Fire Giant.)
Improvement: Sons of Sleipnir
Cost: 400 Food, 30 Favor
Effect: Raiding Cavalry have their damage multiplier against Archers and Throwing Axemen increased by 2 (For a total of x3.25 vs Archers and x3.75 vs Throwing Axemen)
Worth it? While this upgrade makes Raiders more effective against Archers than Huskarls, it is expensive, and core Huskarls do the job just as well. In addition, by using Raiders as an Archer counter in Mythic, you’re passing up the ability to take advantage of your Hill Fort bonus which gives you 20% tougher Huskarls. Against a Norse player using Throwing Axemen however…this will allow Raiders to slaughter TA’s, and the upgrade is probably worth it.
Improvement: Dwarven Auger
Cost: 300 Gold, 35 Favor
Effect: Portable Rams +20% move rate/attack, -50% training time
Worth it? Nope. In most games you will only need a critical handful of siege weapons. (In some games, none!) Upgrading them isn’t worth it – they already do their job well enough. Invest your resources elsewhere.
Improvement: Arctic Gale
Cost: 250 Wood, 20 Favor
Effect: Dragon Boats +20% speed, -30% hack vulnerability
Worth it? Having sufficient Archer ships to protect your Dragon Boats would be a much better idea than getting this upgrade. All it does is make the Dragon Boat slightly more resistant to being taken to pieces by enemy Ramming Ships….but Ramming Ships still counter it easily and effectively. If you want to improve your Dragon Boats, get the Naval Oxybeles upgrade.
Tyr is the god of valor and bravery. Choose Tyr if:
- You want a low management way of quickly damaging your enemy (Fimbulwinter)
- You are focusing on Ulfsarks (Berserkergang)
- You are focusing on Huskarls (Bravery)
God power: Fimbulwinter
Effect: Summons four packs of Fimbulwinter wolves around the map. The player has no control over the wolves, but shares their LOS. Lasts 20 seconds and prevents other god powers from being invoked while it is in effect.
Fimbulwinter requires very little planning and absolutely no management to effectively deal a blow to your enemy. All you have to do is choose a time…and click on the map. The best time to cast it is while you are attacking, since this will make it harder for your enemy to ring town bells at all his TC’s AND manage a fight at the same time…so either way you’ll do more damage. Also don’t disregard the benefit of being granted LOS to large areas of the enemy base. Pay attention and see if you can pick up anything important.
Myth unit: Fenris Wolf
Cost: 150 Gold, 15 Favor, 3 population
Attack: 15 Hack (x2 Myth units)
HP: 420
Armor: 40% Hack/50% Pierce
Speed: 4.0 meters/second
Special: Boosts the attack and speed of any other wolf within range by 20% (Maximum effect is five wolves)
Worth it? While a pack of Fenris Wolves are incredibly powerful, it is actually very hard to get such a pack. (Unless you are playing Lightning or Deathmatch…but this guide is aimed at Supremacy, obviously.) If you find your favor count is heading towards the limit and you have the gold to spare, then go ahead and invest in Fenris Wolves. However, if you are intending on spending favor as it comes in…then don’t bother. You will only end up one or two wolves in each fight and they’ll go down before they get the assistance of yet more wolves being trained.
Myth unit: Jormund Elver
Cost: 200 Food, 15 Favor, 3 population
Attack: 40 pierce
Range: 20 meters
HP: 800
Armor: 20% Hack/30% Pierce
Speed: 6.0 meters/second
Worth it? Jormund Elvers are deceptively powerful naval units. While they aren’t too tough compared to other naval MU’s, they have a very long range, a high pierce attack and cost very little, both in terms of resources and population. Definitely take advantage of these units when you are given suitable naval situations.
Improvement: Berserkergang
Cost: 300 Gold, 45 Favor
Effect: Ulfsarks +10% attack, +20% HP
Worth it? Definitely. This upgrade provides the same significant boost to your Ulfsarks as Champion Infantry. (And is a lot cheaper, providing you have the favor to spare.) If you are using Ulfsarks, this is a great upgrade to have.
Improvement: Bravery
Cost: 400 Food 30 Favor
Effect: Huskarls +20% attack, Damage x2 vs buildings
Worth it? If you are focusing on Huskarls, yes. If you are building Huskarls but not focusing on them, (as you might do if an enemy army is not actually focused on Archers, but you can still find them useful) then no. An extra 20% attack makes a big difference, and a damage bonus against buildings coupled with the high pierce armor of the Huskarl makes it something of a mini-siege weapon.
The Ballista
The Ballista is the only regular Norse unit to become available in the Mythic age. It is trained at the Hill Fort. Ballistas are meant to be siege weapons in theory, but in practice are not. They have only a small crush damage attack, and are far inferior to Portable Rams at taking down buildings. You’d only use Ballistas to take out buildings if you were hard pressed for the necessity to take down buildings at range, not in melee.
However, while it is not much of a siege weapon, the Ballista in some games has a role as a combat unit. It has an exceptionally long range (and enormous LOS – 40 meters – which is sometimes very useful indeed for keeping an eye on enemy activities) and does pierce damage…something that most players will not upgrade when facing Norse. After all…regular norse units only do hack damage. In addition, the normally very weak Ballista is even tougher with Odin’s Hill Fort bonus. Take advantage of the Ballista’s long range to keep it easily protected at the back of the fray by surrounding it with buildings and units. Ballistas can be very effective when fighting over chokepoints. (Something the Norse are usually disadvantaged at doing, since they lack long ranged units.)
Odin in action
Check out these records of Odin in action, and use them to formulate your own approaches to utilizing this powerful civilization in the best manner possible.
Chimp_CN (Odin) vs Virus_ (Ra) (50kb)
Chimp_CN demonstrates how powerful Odin’s unique brand of the fast heroic strategy is and how Odin’s strong Jarls can be used to great effect. This particular strategy is greatly effective against Ra fast heroics – as shown in this game.
TheShadowDawn (Odin) vs qq9 (Zeus) (81kb)
A more general buildup that doesn’t involve rushing to heroic, but still takes advantage of Odin’s unique attributes.
TheShadowDawn (Odin) vs Takeadive (Poseidon) (80kb)
Shows how Odin takes advantage of fishing on Midgard (even if I do lose the water) and how Odin’s army shapes up for drawn out Heroic age combat.
TheShadowDawn (Odin) vs Rolvaag (Odin) (112kb)
A Norse vs Norse game. Admittedly a very bad early game by me, and the Oasis map doesn’t do Odin’s hunting oriented economy much good. Demonstrates some important defensive play techniques though, and how you can go from the defensive to winning the game.
Conclusion
Well, this article really only touched on the bare basics of Odin, and even despite that I couldn’t stop rambling here and there! But despite that, I hope you’ve learnt something from it, or have an interest in a civilization you were ambivalent about before. So, as they say, good luck and have fun! 🙂
-TheShadowDawn
Still got questions? Head over to the strategy forum and we’ll see if we can help you out.
Source: TheShadowDawn · HeavenGames