Guide

Part 1 

Complete Guide to Ra

I wasn't satified with my contribution to the community or the site so I wrote this guide for the hell of it  I’m writing this guide late at night so excuse any typo’s, obvious mistakes or stupid comments because I’m finding it hard to put all my knowledge into words, I’ve never wrote a guide before, but anyway, try to enjoy 

Introduction
When I started out as a AoM/TT player I played Hades or Oranos at 1650+ level, it was only when I joined ‘StR’S Cavalry’ where I was introduced to the secrets and strengths behind Ra, I owe my appreciation to StR_Monte, StR_Mania and StR_Darklight for taking the time to invest in a noob. I still can’t believe I was accepted into StR as a 1700er, but I owe everything I have achieved to them.

General Economic things to remember
These go for all civs:
• Always spread your sheep out around your TC to avoid villager bumping
• Remember to build your mining camp on the largest side of the mine
• Always build farms with 1 vill per farm
• keep re-building lumber camps as you cut trees down
• Get your pharoah/priest to move on the opposite side to your vills gathering rescources
• Decrease ideal villager time as long as possible
• If you are hunting around your tc and you need to garrison food and return your villagers to work, simply ring the town bell really fast.

All these insignificant things add up and really help kick off your economy.

Ra’s Bonuses


• Pharaoh empowers at +25% rate 
• Priests can empower 
• Chariot Archers and Camels have 20% more hit points, and move 10% faster 
• Monuments cost 25% less and have +20% hit points.

When the game starts we have a pharaoh, vill, priest, ect. 
The pharaoh will be your most important unit and you are going to use this dude like there is no tomorrow. Accompanying him are many helpful benefits such as:

• 25% empower rate
• Increase gather rate
• Increase military production speed
• Decreases technology build time
• Decreased the construction time of buildings
• Allows you to shoot double arrows from your TC when empowered.

An empowered laborer (Pharoah empowerment) gathers rescources faster then any other villager in the game.

Collecting Rescources - 

Hunt Herd Farm Wood Gold
Egypt laborer === 0.76 === 0.65 === 0.63 === 0.98 === 0.82
Empowered laborer === 0.91 === 0.65 === 0.76 === 1.18 === 0.98

The extra pharaoh empower rate is a real positive vs eggy in particular so you can take the early economical advantage, then on top of that, you can have your priests empower as well to really give your eco a head-start. At the beginning of the game I tend to get my Pharaoh to do a lap around my TC just to get an idea of your side of the map, don’t worry about scouting large amounts of the map at this stage because you can get your sphinx to scout most of it before you actually need to fight or raid anyway. If you choose to go up with Ptah i wouldn’t recommend scouting to deep with the wadget but using him to find some un-scouted areas around your base is safe.

The pharaoh also gives you extra favour when empowering monuments, although you need to remember that empowering the first monument (Monument to the villagers) will produce more favour then any of the other monuments, when empowered.
Probably one of the most significant benefits of empowering is the defensive bonus it gives, while empowering a TC it will shoot double arrows which is very important when defending, this also works with priests.

The chariot and camel bonus is very important in an eggy war, it makes the Ra f/h very strong and camel raids can really own norse 

The monuments bonus isn’t very crucial, it helps a little bit early game to get a monument up asap but it doesn’t have a real effect or contribute to the game until you’ve build most of them.

Ra’s unique god power – Rain



Rain gives a huge economy boost which gives 300% boost to your farming, 200% to your allies farming and 200% to your enemies. I find rain start to be most effective as it sets your eco up fairly well for a good f/h and you don’t have to worry about villager management. This gp is also a very good GP blocker but I hate using a good gp like that unless it’s a last resort. (Don’t save it like Xanthor )
Hint: When laying down farms, get 1 villager to create 1 farm rather then all on a farm, this will save you some really important time.

Ra’s unique technology – Skin of Rhino


This tech is incredibly cheap (50 food, 5 favour) and is a really effective tech. A standard villager has 8 attack, 25% hack, 34% piece but with the skin of rhino tech it turns your villagers into a decent military unit which is able to fend for itself against such early threats as raiding cavalry etc. Skin of Rhino gives your vills 9 attack, 47% hack and 54 % pierce. For all you illiterates out there, that’s 1+ attack, + 22% hack armor and + 20 pierce armor. One thing that has to be taken into consideration is the build time for this tech, it takes 40 seconds (un-empowered) so I tend to get it when I have just hit heroic or getting it from your second tc. A must get tech in the build up to a successful defense. 

Vs Atlantean
I am definately no atty killer  But the most efficient way to beat an atlantean is to defend your initial gold and villagers, analyze the gold from the beginning of the game and lay down your second monument in the first age. Advance with Bast, once you've hit classic you need to build 2-3 rax and spam slingers (Axemen and spearmen are good in small numbers, these things can really hurt your eco vs atty). Now once the rax are built it's time for you to sphinx spam. Sphinx spam allows you to claim a second goldmine, atty heroes are very easy to micro on and will most likely run from a pack of 3-4 eclipsed sphinx.

Watch the JJ rec I posted - At the very bottom of this gude.

Another strat that i've seen FOX_EliteX do pretty succcesfully is getting a 2nd tc in classical (which could possibly secure a goldmine) and then fighting with rax units. He also puts Skin of Rhino to good use allowing his vills to bash down the weak atlantean TC's.

Vs Egyptian 
Eggy wars are always fun for me. I recommend always F/H or 2tc semi f/h vs eggy, they are far to weak to play in classic. Scarab rush, if done well is probably the main eggy killer, but there are ways to own eggy without the help from scarabs. Eggy wars are a matter of pushing the enemy back and denying him of gold. Eggy are nothing without gold so the most important thing is to cut off his gold supply or constantly raid.
Don't be a lame booming eggy that relies on mercs to survive  Eggy are an aggressive civ also.

Vs Norse 
I find Norse one of the easiest civs to play against because eggy are fairly op vs them. Let's say your opponent is thor. The main threat with Thor is either their flaming weapons, or as a last resort, lamearok (Sometimes used together by ultra lame fdp's)
Vs norse an f/h is fairly easy to do, as soon as you hit heroic the best way is to mass myth units, spam wadgets like crazy. Then lay a mig down, and raid with heavy camels. You have locust as well to really hit on his eco. One thing you have to take into consideration is what rescource he can't live without. For example, if he is massing raiding cav, what's the point of hitting on his wood? You better off raiding his food hard or cutting off his gold. What i mean is, if you spot some wood vills ,you don't just walk straight past them  by all means, kill whatever you can. But your initial raids should be focused on the hunt and gold on the map.

Flaming weapons is a challenge for most people, all it takes is shifting sands, a good unit combo and hack armour tech imo. Your rax units and mass mu should own their units. I like to shift alot of their army into my base or onto a cliff to even out the military advantage f/w gives him.

Lamearok. Probably the most op tech in the game, but if he is completely out of the game he will use this as a last resort, if you've played well all game it's pretty easy to defeat. You need to know what's coming at you, you need to be able to sense a rag coming and then mass rax, upgrade, tower anything! rather then procrastinating and then getting owned.

Vs Greek

I use almost the same play-style vs norse on greek except I prefer sphinx instead of wadgets. Why? because wadgets are to slow and get raped by the greek ranged hero. Heavy raiding on a greeks eco is really effective, again with locust in hand. 

Some people struggle playing against f/m's, I myself had some trouble with it at one stage, unless you expect it you are probably screwed, that is why scouting is so important. When I was playing heaps of games vs chappolini I had alot of practise vs f/m's, the best ways to beat f/h are either a really fast scarab rush (8 min) or an f/m yourself with SoO and mummies to take down collosus. The main benefit of the f/m is the 'almost free' armoury techs, so probably a scarab rush is your best option.

Ra and Water?
On maps like medit, Ra can be very strong. I'' give you a BO for a 4:20 grush. (might take some practise)

Medit BO -

1 villager - Build Dock
1 villager - build granary (preferably hunt first) With pharoah empowerment
Auto fishing ships, 1 house with your dock building vill.
After you have 6 vills on food (8 food vills including fish ships) Put 3 vills to wood, you probably wondering why only 3 vills on a map where wood is so important, but 3 wood vills is enough to have 6-7 fishing ships up.
2 villagers to gold
Rest on food, don't forget a second house.
Try garrison all your food quick enough for a 4:20 (or less) advance.
Now during the transition to classical, put all your food vills onto wood (10-11) with pharoh empowerment and put some food vills to gold (5-6)
Also have 1 villager building houses and 1 villager building a second dock.

This sets you up for a agressive grush. Watch some Hellfire recs 

Ra rain start f/h BO

I use this start in 95% of my games  Here is a bo to help you-

DO NOT get hunting dogs when using rain start.
1 villager - build monument (pharoah empowering)
1 villager - build granary (pharoh empowering)
do a lap around your tc with your pharoah
7 vills on food in total
2 villagers to wood
1 villager to build mining camp
Research pickaxe asap
1 villager to build houses + temlple + second monument 
another 4 villagers on gold (depending on the state of your food eco)
Research husbandary asap
Then the rest of your vills hunting (preferably cows or sheep around your tc so you quickly garrison, I split my food into 2 groups so I don't run fall short of food.
Once you've advance, put some villagers on gold and lay down 11 farms during the transition to classical.
Once you hit classical, rain.

I do this in most of my games so you can get some visual examples there.

Classical Age –

Some Possible classical strats? 

Classic fight -

It’s possible to classic fight, apparently Skipper does it a lot vs Norse but I always tend to f.h vs every civ except Atlantean. If you were to classic fight, always accompany your rax units with mass myth unit.

2tc Semi f/h –
Pretty effective vs eggy or norse on a closed map, the best way to use this strat is advance with Ptah at around 4:40-5 mins and either shift some vills +pharaoh to a forward tc or a nearby tc and build it, then research shaduf and start laying down about 15 farms.
A very easy strat to use, just get a lot of food early and during the transition to classical get half your food vills onto gold. If done correct you’ll end up with a monster economy.

3 tc boom –
Monte almost mastered this strat, I’ve tried it a few times and never really liked the strat but if it’s used effective (Shaduf + rain) ow……….

And more!

Ptah 



improvement- Scalloped Axe (100 food, 10 favor) 

This tech is researched at the armoury and offers a 10% boost to the attack of Axemen. Unless you are playing vs an aggressive loki or zeus this tech isn’t really worth it.

improvement - Leather Framed Shield (200 wood, 20 favor)

This tech is researched at the armoury and offers 10% pierce armor to spearmen, this tech is only worth it if you are planning on massing Horus spears late game.

improvement - Electum Balls (150 gold, 10 favor)

This tech gives a 10% boost to the attack of slingers, I’d make this a priority vs atlantean. 

improvement - Shaduf (200 wood, 10 favor)

Arguably the best tech Ptah offers, this decreases the cost of farms from 70 gold – 47 gold which is very useful on maps such as oasis or ghost lake. I love using shaduf to2tc semi f/h (watch some TOAO_ChronoJJ recs, he does it best.

Shifting Sands 


A pretty r0x0r gp which can be used a few different ways

some ways to use shifting sands 

• Shift some scarabs into their tc early (works great on maps like Mediterranean where they are pouring all their efforts and resources into the water)
• Making a little square made from walls in your base. I use it to shift their heroes (particularly priests) in their while my MU do some damage.
• Or, my favourite, shifting sands their units onto cliffs so they are forced to delete them. This works great during such gp as flaming weapons

Wadget (150 wood, 15 favor)

This is an awesome defensive unit, Though it is very slow so I wouldn't recommend using it against civs like atlantean, greek or eggy  The wadget will get raped by the ranged heroes where as norse have really slow heroes up until jarls and even then they can be easily micro'd on.

Part 2

Bast



improvement Sacred Cats (110 gold, 10 favor)

Apparently this “protects your villagers from vermine” according to the instruction book but this tech actually improves the productivity or your farmers. Anyway I was reading a thread over at aom.heaven and turns out they done some important testing on sacred cats – check ithttp://aom.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/...&f=1,10307,,all

improvementAdze of Wepwawet (100 gold, 10 favor)

Suppose to increase your villager gather rate for wood by 10% but I’ve heard some rumours it is glitchy and doesn’t take full effect until you have all 3 wood upgrades (don’t quote me on that).

improvement -Criosphinx (250 wood, 15 favor)


improvement â€“ Heiracosphinx (400 wood, 20 favor)

This tech can only be researched after criosphinx and improves sphinx speed by 20%, hack attack by 20% and crush attack by 50%. I don’t really use this tech often, I find the criosphinx tech to be adequate.

Eclipse

Eclipse is a good god power with only 2 different (obivous) ways of using it.
ways to use eclipse
• Using eclipse is pretty obvious, it gives all mu a huge boost which lasts for 1 min and 5 seconds.
• Another good use for eclipse is blocking gp’s

Also, if you’re up to the challenge of a classic fight with rax units (not recommended in tt) you have the chance to use 3 main units. Slingers, axemen and spearmen. These units are incredibly cheap but I only use them with backup support from my mig units and myth units.

If you haven’t already defended your vills/gold up in Archaic, this is the time to start. You need to make your base un-raidable so you can safely advance to heroic, if your initial goldmine is unprotected you need to make sure you have houses, walls, anything around it! So you aren’t prone to priest rushes or raids.

Right now you should analyze the gold and find a safe place to lay down your migdol. Sometimes the gold is to far away, or the enemy is camping on the gold therefore you’ll need to build your mig at home. If you don’t plan this in classic age you will be stuck in deep water once you hit heroic.

/end classical age

Part 3

Heroic Time 

Some possible heroic strats? 

Heavy Camel Raids 

Really effective vs norse in particular, camels are so fast you have the freedom to raid your opponent and still have time to get back to your base to defend, I like to keep some myth unit home to defend well I raid, if complimented with locust swarm this is one more headache for your enemy. I like to raid in groupd of about 6-10, always try to keep 2 camel squads constantly moving, always go back to possible goldmines where he could be mining. When raiding, try to bring some camels infront of the villagers to block them off, continue doing this until the vills are weak enough to let your camels slaughter them.

Scarab Rush 

A common strat with Ra, simply rush with 3 scarabs and a handful of units, make sure to eclipse before they get LOS of you, this way they can’t use any defensive GP. Really effective vs all eggy. When you are playing vs Isis make sure you have 5-6 preists (with range upgrade) to help you against a+e, I like to bring the pharoah up to fight during scarab rush also.

Roc Raiding 

The more rocs, the more effective but 2 rocs is adequate in order to really harass your enemies economy, 1 strike from each petsochos will instantly kill a villager, that’s why it is advised to raid with two. If you are quick you can win the game just by using this .

And more!

Hathor 


improvement - Sun dried mud brick (300 wood, 25 favor)

I love this tech! This reduces the cost of your buildings by 15% and boosts the hitpoints of your buildings by 15%. It’s good to get this tech as soon as possible if you advance with Hathor.

Improvement - Medjay (250 food, 25 favor)

You lame? Then you might be interested in a 30 seconds lifespan for your mercenaries! Pretty effective on maps where your tc’s are far away and you want your mercs to play an offensive role.

improvement - Crocodopolis (400 wood, 30 favor)

Gives your crocs +4 range (allowing them to out-range a fortress). I think this tech is to expensive therefore, give this a miss ;P.

Myth Unit - Petsuchos (200 gold, 15 favor)

Really slow units, but they are really strong against all units and myth units. Really effective to roc raid your opponents economy with them.

Myth Unit - Roc (150 gold, 15 favor)

Probably the best transport unit in the game, these things are capable of heaps of things such as the protection of important units such as SoO, roc raiding, catapult raiding, 
placing ranged units on cliffs to snipe down un-ranged units, same can work with catapults on tc’s. I love rocs !

God Power - Locust Swarm

THIS TECH RAPES VILLS. Like I said about camel raiding, if this is used early and perfectly this is a match winner 

part 4 

Sekhmet

Sekhmet is a vital choice especially vs Isis so you can get the pop advantage to help you contend with her opness.

improvement Bone Bow (250 wood, 20 favor)

This tech improves chariot archers range by 4 letting it out-range a tc! really awesome tech for succesful raids. Reasearched at migdol or armoury.

improvement Slings of the Sun (250 gold, 20 favor)

hmmm...not sure i've ever used this tech 11 but it gives your slingers a 30% bonus attack vs infantry units and taxmen.

improvement Ram of the west wind (400 gold, 20 favor)

Gives your siege towers 20% crush damage, this tech is a bit expensive.. I'm not sure if it's worth it, imo catas > rams.

Myth Unit Scarab (300 food, 18 favor)

my 2nd favourite unit next to sphinx, these things are so intimidating in large numbers, i  scarabs.

God Power Cidatel

Really good gp, upgrades your (or allies) tc into a defensive machine! Also with the +10 pop cap you got no problem against Isis 

You have 2 really powerful god choices to choose from now, Sekhmet and Hathor. If I were you I’d advance with sekhmet vs eggy and atlantean. Why? I believe that scarabs will tear down the atlantean weak buildings and hero turma are very easy to micro on. Vs eggy eclipsed scarabs can really take the emphasis off your army allowing you to micro his heroes. Vs Norse, just like my hero Hellfire does, camel raids + locust swarm are really op vs norse. Hathor is also very good for Ra roc raiding (lame but op). 

Hopefully by now your eco should be superior, if you defended your villagers well in archaic.

Once you hit heroic, building a migdol becomes first priority in order to claim some gold. (If you are playing vs Odin or Thor, make sure you don’t lay your mig down near forest ) 


Eggy are the strongest civ in heroic in my opinion. Building a mig allows you to start massing Ra chariots and camels which are very good for raids and can be micro’d easy. I don’t like using elephants as Ra unless it’s on a high fishing map, I find them to slow and expensive. This is a vital time to begin playing very aggressively as you have access to seven new strong units. You might wish to make a market as soon as you advance if you have any access food.

Part 5

Mythic Age 

Some possible Mythic strats? 

Cata Lame

I like to call it cata lame, also known as cata raid or roc drop catas. Simply load up some catapults in a roc and unload them near your opponents tc (near a cliff if possible)This will allow you to snipe down his tc and the only thing that can attempt to shoot you down is ranged units and captaputs have high pierce armour 

Horus spears 

Probably one of the strongest units in the game, these cheap units are also pop effective only taking up 2 pop space. FU Horus spears are really hard to counter.

Basically the Mythic age isn't a great benefit from heroic age for eggy other then ranged seige.

Osiris

If you opponent is lacking archers always go Osiris so your SoO can give you a huge military advantage.

improvement - desert wind (400 gold, 40 favor)

Damn!! so expensive but so freaken op which increases camel speed and attack by 20%! Really worth while tech.

improvement - Funeral Barge (500 food, 30 favor)

This tech is fairly uselesss, only time I get it is if i'm shooting down TC's with royal war barges, this is the only bonus naval upgrade you'll get as Ra, it's a shame you get it so late. Anyway this gp gives your war barge a x2 multiplier vs archer ships. *cough * useless *cough*

improvement - New kingdom (200 gold, 25 favor)

This tech gives you a second Pharoah which is cheap for a late age tech, I use it alot. 1 pharoah on my trade and 1 helping me fend off some threatening myth units.

improvement - Atef Crown (300 gold, 30 favor)

Not a bad tech at all, this doubles the lifespan of their minions, increases their attack by 40% and their hitpoints by 20%. good for mummy spam xD

Myth Unit - Mummy (200 gold - 35 favor)

This myth unit is one of the best in the game, if you micro it properly you can kill really strong myth units such as collosus or heka giants in one shot and it spawns a minion which will fight for you !  

God Power - Son of Osiris 

I like having a siege tower or a roc near this dude to protect him vs archers, he is a really strong unit that can change the tide of the game.
Son of Osiris is feared by all but the main downside to him is he can't be healed with any method, and he can die to bolt in 1 shot (and will be resureccted as a normal pharoah). So it is important that you have your pharoah fully healed before casting the GP on him.

Part 6

Relics

A little birdy (Naturephoenix) once told me that relics are not exactly random and he showed me where the relics will spawn on specific maps. For example on watering hole there will be (if any) 1 relic on each side of the map

Red = Relic
Black = TC


Horus

Some people go Horus just for his tornado GP, but they are forgetting the main benefit of Horus which lies in his spearmen, these spearment are almost unstopable.

improvement - Axe of Vengence (300 wood, 25 favor)

Your axemen, with this tech now do double damage to buildings. This tech is generally not worth it as you will have some really good seige at this stage.

improvement - Greatest of fifty (300 food, 40 favor)

This tech will help you own melee units giving them an extra 15% hack armor and a 100% damage bonus vs cavalry.

improvement - Spears of the Horizon (200 gold, 25 favor)

Just when you thought your spearmen couldn't get anymore powerful try giving them another 30% hitpoints and 10% more attack! these are the invincible spearmen I was alluding too.

Myth Unit - Avenger (250 food, 30 favor)

A really expensive but really powerful melee unit, these things tear up archers like there is no tomorrow.

God Power - Tornado
A really good god power, the most efficient place to use this gp is when their military is near alot of important buildings such as migdols or town centers.

If the game is still a stale-mate in mythic age, you need to take some new measures, obviously massing units or constantly teching isn't doing the trick so you will have to try sneaky stuff to test your opponents awareness and speed. While he is microing his units why not try to shoot down his tc's with some catas? why not try to wall of his trade, why not try to raid with a handful of units. I see alot of players try to win a stalemate by massing units which clearly won't work unless you have the superior eco.

I recommend all you Ra players to stick with him, he is a very strong civ that, when used to his full potential can get you some very good skill and a sexy rating 

Well, despite the headaches I had some fun writing this guide and learnt some things myself doing some tests. 

Acknowledgements - I got some info about the techs from 'UKAK_Sando's' guide.

That's it! Enjoy!


Strategy Recorded games

Examples of scarab rush then gold starve- http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?showtopi...04(StR_Bishop)
http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?showtopi...14(StR_Bishop)
Examples of camel raids - 
http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?showtopi...43(StR_Bishop)
http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?showtopi...52(StR_Bishop)
Examples of 2tc semi f/h - 
http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?showtopi...73 (TOAO_ChronoJJ) 
http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?showtopi...87(TOAO_ChronoJJ)
Examples of Ra sphinx spam -
http://rts-sanctuary.com/index.php?showtopi...28(TOAO_ChronoJJ)
Fast Mythic 
Search Isil games ! 
Example of 4:07 grush on medit (vanilla game-same BO for tt)
http://www.skwizz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=681&hl=(Hellfire)

Question

Just my 2cents.
Answer

Sorry about the MU cost, I thought they looked wrong but I got them from an outdated book I have  Let me fix now.

Also Ra vs Odin, I have to agree with you that an f/h on vanilla isn't the best thing to do due to frost, but lay down 1 or 2 rax near your mig so after frost has been used you can keep a steady mil reproduction, it's easy to garrison vills into migdols, garrison them to the other side and repair. That being said, f/h vs Odin is really easily done on tt, even with an 8:30 advance, I like to have 3 wadgets up while the mig is being built and if they bring their army to attack the mig you have shifting sands, so really I find it not a problem. (Use shifting sands during frost if you need it, try shifting their army to the other side of the map, or into a trap or cliff to buy yourself some time.)

Questoin

thx m8 ill try out Ra now 
how bout a few high hunt basic bo's in arch?

oh and possibly a small guide on perfect placement of locusts xD

Answer

High hunt BO -

6 vills food + HD + preist empowerment
2 vills wood
4-5 vills gold + pick axe
monument + temple
Second monument anytime after the first.
Adjust your food eco accordingly until you have enough food for classic

Perfect placement of locust 
Obviously, the best place to use locust is to block them from safety. For example f their tc is on the left side of his vills then you cast it on the left forcing him to run into your raiding units. If you cast it directly on the vills it will give him a chance to escape.



~StR_Bishop