Game Theory: How Rome Dominates Mobile Strategy Games

MatthewPatrick13

New member
Jun 17, 2014
137
0
0
How Rome Dominates Mobile Strategy Games

Taking a few hints from ancient roman tactics, MatPat figures out how to actually stop sucking at strategy games and win for once.

Watch Video
 

Nickolai77

New member
Apr 3, 2009
2,843
0
0
When I clicked on this link I was hoping for an interesting discussion about why Rome features prominently in mobile strategy games, rather than an explanation about Roman military history and its supposed literal applications to modern strategy games- but oh well.

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of this guy's humour and felt it was a bit silly and immature- but maybe i'm the wrong demographic- I'm just a mid-20 something male with an interest in Roman history which is why I clicked the link in the first place. Otherwise it's a good video by other measures.


I do play a lot of strategy games but my knowledge of history has never really been of much use in winning at them- it's more about understanding the game mechanics and knowing how to manipulate the AI. When it comes to besieging castles in Stronghold an effective tactic I found was to spam loads of pikemen and have them chip down a stone wall- not something one would have done in real life! Although I have found that in games such as AOE2, building castles in enemy territory is a great way of securing it- which I suppose is reminiscent of how the Romans secured territory and how the Normans conquered England. It all depends on the game really- You couldn't use the "building castles" strategy in Medieval Total War because all the castle's you could capture were pre-built on the map.

Going back to the video I should point out that Roman forts always had four gates one on each wall, not one. This was even if to place a gate there would be impractical. IIRC, on Hadrian's Wall there's Roman forts were the gate opens out onto sheer vertical drops down a cliff!
 

Bad Jim

New member
Nov 1, 2010
1,763
0
0
MatthewPatrick13 said:
I tend to be a resource hoarder. I have a really hard time spending anything in any game. If I have 999 rupees in a Zelda game I'm still hesitant about spending 10 on arrows or a new set of bombs
This is why you suck at strategy games. Not spending your money/resources is the worst thing you can do with them, and it is inevitable that other players who spend their resources will crush you. It gets worse when you must spend to expand your economy, allowing opponents that quickly spend to develop their economy much faster than you.

Break this habit. Spend whatever money you have as soon as you get it. You can save up for something expensive if you want, but if you cannot say what you are saving up for, spend. Buy anything, it doesn't matter what, all options are better than not spending
 

Darth_Payn

New member
Aug 5, 2009
2,868
0
0
I wish I had books about Medieval Warfare to look up while playing AoE II. For me, building placement wasn't much of a problem so much as collecting resources fast enough, so I can build enough military units and research all the technologies I needed to actually PLAY the mission, let alone win it. THAT's when figuring out what to spend on becomes an issue.
 

RandV80

New member
Oct 1, 2009
1,507
0
0
Darth_Payn said:
I wish I had books about Medieval Warfare to look up while playing AoE II. For me, building placement wasn't much of a problem so much as collecting resources fast enough, so I can build enough military units and research all the technologies I needed to actually PLAY the mission, let alone win it. THAT's when figuring out what to spend on becomes an issue.
I never played it multiplayer so I don't know what's considered the best way to play but if we're talking about the campaigns then maybe that's why had a hard time. Scout the land, find places that can became key strategic choke points, and fortify. It's nice when you can throw up a walls in key locations and claim a large chunk of land for your peasants to safely exploit. Tends to work well against the AI too as they are likely to keep attacking the same point, so that's where you through up defenses.

Honestly I don't know how a Starcraft like strategy would work in AoE II, I've always been a tower whore.