Multi Player Strategies

The Minoan Miracle in RoR Water Maps

by AoW_Augustus

Many people know that Minoa is a strong civ in RoR, and that it has something to do with the cheap boats. This assumption is correct, and this article will tell you how to give Minoa a strong ramp while still protecting the main civ from enemy bronze rushes. Even though dock ramping is said to slow your Bronze time a little, it creates a very strong Bronze/Iron ramp that makes up for any delay tenfold.
I wont get into the grimy details, but will give you the gist of how to do it, assuming you know when to build houses, etc. I put an approximate time on each step, even though map conditions can radically change these times for the better or worse.

Step by Step: Stone

  1. First six peons go on berries. (Shore fish? I say no. You will have boats later that can get those fish. And why build a granary later when the boats will be harvesting tons of food? To me, it seems like you are building a shore pit, a wood pit, and a granary, where the extra wood could better be used to make a dock. You will only need one granary in the early game if you are boat ramping… you may as well make it the one that gets your peon queue going and permits you to make a market.) The next 12 peons go on wood. Stop at 18-20, depending where you are on the map. Do not start collecting any other resource yet.
  2. Your first 120 wood goes into making a wood pit. If you find a gold pile by a forest, there is your spot. If not, just build it as close up against the woodpile as possible, the closer the better. Even if a forest is fairly close to your TC, you will still need this wood pit, so don't think you can go without it. The speed of wood gathering is noticeable when you do not have your peons walking, even a short distance.
  3. After the pit is finished, take 2 peons off woodcutting and start heading for the water. By the time you get there, you will have 100 wood, and can build a dock.
  4. By the time the dock is finished, you will have between 150-200 wood…queue up as many boats as you can.
  5. Move the two builders up a decent distance away from the last dock, towards the enemy (so you are not fishing your allies fish, if he is dock ramping-assuming he is) and make another one. Split the cued wood between the two existing docks so you have 2 boats coming out at the same time rather than one at a time from one queue
  6. Move the two builders up further and find another good docking spot. After the dock is built, cue up the wood between the three. You should be close to hitting the Tool button. As soon as you hit the Tool button, have your builders make a barracks, (i.e. do not use up all your wood creating fishing boats right after you hit the Tool button). You can use this forward barracks for Tool rushing if you have the opportunity.
  7. While you are Tooling, try to keep 300 wood banked, but make boats with the remaining wood, queuing from each dock. If you are good, you can stop making boats about midway through the Tooling upgrade, and you will have 300 wood at the moment you change.
  8. You should have around 32-37 peons at this time, and your Tool time will be around 10-11 minutes.
  9. When your berry pickers are done with their bushes, put them on wood too.

Tool Time:@10-11 minutes

  1. As soon as you are Tool, have your builders make the market. Peel two woodcutters off and have them make and archery range up by the woodcutters, then return to cutting wood.
  2. You will have about 500 food when you are done building the two buildings. Use any remaining wood to make a scout ship from the dock closest to the enemy. You can use this scout ship to terrorize enemy fishing while you are Bronzing or defend your boats from the same punishment.
  3. As soon as you get 800 food, push the Bronze button, take six peons and build a pit next to the gold you have discovered and start mining.
  4. Start doing upgrades. 100 food for archer armor, woodcutting upgrade, gold mining, stone mining (for cats later). There will be plenty of resources available for each.
  5. With all the remaining wood, build archery ranges near your woodcutters. You should have at least 3 near them to fend off any early cav or chariot rushes on your cutters.
  6. Start making some galleys with the extra wood.

Bronze: @15 minutes

  1. Now comes the big boom with fast and furious upgrading: Do the improved bowman upgrade, followed by the armor and artisanship upgrade. Do the wheel later on, when the peons are walking too far to get wood, or just build another storage pit close to the wood.
  2. After improved bowman is finished, upgrade to composite archer.
  3. Start pumping out improved bowmen.
  4. Do the fishing boat upgrade.
  5. Build your government center and get writing.
  6. Build a cat shop near your archery ranges.
  7. Do the composite archer upgrade.
  8. When you get enough wood, relocate peons to another wooded area in the center and build a TC.
  9. Do the galley upgrade, and keep making galleys.
  10. Start making peons and assign them to whatever you need. Its a good idea to gather lots of gold, because Minoa's might fizzles out in long Iron games without it.

Iron: Whenever is a Good Time

  1. Start switching to cats with light archer support. Comps lose their might in Iron against catapults, so you need to fight catapults with catapults, or start making ballistas and catapults as a combination.
  2. You may need to start farming, but with a catapult ramp, it should be just enough farming to keep a nice stream of peons coming for gold and wood and a few support archers.
  3. Do your craftsmanship, archer armor, accuracy, alchemy, Siegecraft, and ballistics upgrades. When you gather enough food and gold, go Heavy Catapult.
  4. Time to start gathering stone, if its a long battle.

Things to Consider

In Bronze, when you get about 15-20 comps, you are ready to roll. Just make sure you you queue some more before you leave, so you can defend your woodcutters.
Do not forget to check on your fishing boats fairly frequently. They are not doing any good if they are just sitting there. If you are in the middle of a bronze fight, set your military to attacking and go check your boats. Whenever you have a chance, CHECK THOSE BOATS. And don't forget to guard them with a nice contingent of galleys/triremes on the enemy side.
The joy of doing these boat ramps is that you can do upgrades one after the other and the resources are there to do it. There is little to no waiting for any of the upgrades. The civ goes from weak to very strong in less than two minutes after it reaches Bronze (***PRESTO!***).
Even if someone gets 3 or 4 cav/camels into your civ in Bronze, your armor upgraded improved bowmen/comps in number will finish them before they kill too many peons.

In Summary

Minoa's upgrades are perfect for improving the military units as well as the economy. The woodcutting upgrades improve not only the Minoan archer range, but increases wood gathering for more buildings, boats, and galleys. Cheap boats make for a great fishing economy, and when the fish run out Minoa has great farms.
There is a harmony between military and economic upgrading that makes Minoa a tough civ in Bronze and Iron, even if it has a slower Bronze time. That and Minoa's given attributes make it a well rounded, powerful civ in RoR.

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