Egyptians
I used to despise priests. I never used priests, and they always converted me, and I got so mad. Then I realized, “Hey, I can make other people mad with these things!” Obviously, Egyptian priests are the best. They have the greatest range of all units and all the priest upgrades. Also, Egyptians have an excellent Bronze with souped up chariots and CA’s, all tower and wall upgrades. They only have stone throwers, but they have all the government center upgrades, as well as the ability to convert your enemies siege weapons. While they aren’t very diversified in Iron, they don’t need to be, because they’ll be converting units left and right.
I’m not going to go into getting to Bronze too much, because you can find that almost anywhere you look. Put 2 villagers on gold early in Tool. Try not to waste wood by building a pit near just gold, look for a gold sweet spot. I’d suggest a standard 24 real villager boom as a standard, but if you see a rush coming, go for 20-22 real villagers, otherwise try a 28 villager boom. I boomed to 30 a few times, but generally you will get hit, even if it’s not a rush, even a “resource equalization” attack might do a great deal of damage. I’d suggest one of your own, about halfway to Bronze. Send any Tool age defenders you have after your enemy. If there is more than one route to your enemies’ town, take the one he’s most likely to take, so you can head off any attack coming your way. You probably should wall off all but one entrance to your town, and after you send out your attack, wall closed behind them. Put a couple of towers by your open area. Depending on the resource levels, you might need to put a villager or two on stone early. In high resource games, It’s not really necessary. Sending about 8-10 villagers expanding outside your walls to spread out would be a good idea. Fish Boats, Fish Boats, Fish Boats. Very important, at least in heavy water maps, about six fish boats before Tooling would be good. The 8-10 villagers that you sent outside your walls should build another town center or two to boom from. Kick out a couple of fish boats during Tool, then churn out scout ships. Be prepared to have to defend your ally’s waters. Two docks, placed near each other, would be a good idea; three, perhaps in your ally’s fishing operation, would greatly add to the game.
This start is a general start, but it’s what this strategy could use. I won’t suggest buildings, but I’d say a minimum of 2 Stables and 1 Archery Range. A Market is a must, but I think everyone knows that. If you can afford more, get them, but remember to shift lots of villagers to wood in the Bronze upgrade. Churning war ships and Chariot and Chariot Archers take a LOT of wood.
Bronze Age
Defense: Chariot Archers and Stone Throwers can blast anything behind your walls, at least, anything in Bronze. Use your priests to help out, once you get them. Shift some villagers to gold after you’ve created your Chariot army. Remember to get the upgrades. Archer armor upgrades aren’t really necessary, since if your enemies have reached them, your army is probably defeated anyway. Towering behind the walls can be useful, but isn’t really necessary. I think Ballista towers are a waste of food, unless you KNOW your opponent is making hand-to-hand units or archers that would have to be in the range of the towers to fire.
Bronze Age Defense breakdown (if walled):
Cavalry: CA, ST, Priests
Chariots: CA, ST, Priests
Camels: CA, ST, Priests
Swordsmen: Towers, ST, Priests, CA (But who uses these anyway?)
Stone Throwers: Priests, Towers (if they don’t have engineering, go for them first, no matter what)
Improved Bowmen/Composite Bowmen: ST, Priests, Towers, CA (have priests heal while firing)
Chariot Archers: ST, Towers
Hoplites: Towers, ST, CA, Priests (Rarely alone in an attack force, go for these second. Don’t let them come a-knocking on the walls.)
Priests: Back off everything from the walls so they can come in range of towers.
Offense: Priests aren’t good offensive units in Bronze. They are more useful in Iron with the upgrades. Egyptian Bronze offense is put together in one word: Chariots. They are fast, have a medium attack power, and with the Egyptian hit point bonus and Nobility, have a good amount of hit points. The way your defense is set up, hand-to-hand units won’t help your defense too much, since they will be behind walls, so Chariots should only be used for defense while they are staging for an attack on your enemies. Chariot Archers are versatile because they can be used in either role. Their speed pretty well makes up for the fact that the wheel must be researched before they can be constructed. In a 1vs1, I almost always Chariot (Chariot includes Chariot Archer) rush. Also, use Stone Throwers if the enemy is completely walled in. Try to run past towers, as the point of this attack is to kill villagers. If the battle is going in your favor, send in some STs and some more chariots.
Bronze Offense Breakdown
Chariots: Average unit, but well balanced. Can keep defensive units busy for Chariot Archers to find the vills, kill vills themselves, and can take out buildings. Upgrade it fully at the Storage Pit. If the attack is successful, go ahead and build more. Also, send some priests to convert the buildings if you Iron during the attack. Important point NEVER ATTACK WITH JUST CHARIOTS! Their sight isn’t enough on it’s own, send some CA, or, if you’re pressed for food, send a scout.
Chariot Archers: Best used to kill vills. Can also be used for defense inside the walls. If they are being used for defense, don’t worry about the archer armor, your wall shouldn’t be breached, so that armor won’t matter any.
Stone Throwers: Use on walls and towers, use as reinforcements for Chariot attacks.
Improved Bowmen/Compies: Not of real use in this strategy. Don’t make them.
Swordsmen: Of less use then the Compies.
Hoplites: Don’t bother. Only use if your opponent has camels or cavalry on defense. Very good to spearhead a priest attack. Could be upgraded to Centurions.
Camels: Use against cavalry. Not really necessary to build them, as your other units overlap in covering cavalry.
Iron Age
Defense: Basically same as the Bronze Age. If you have the stone and have towered your city, I suggest upgrading to Ballista towers. But only do this if you have 3,000 plus food, or if you have 2,000 plus and it’s coming in really fast. Either way, make sure you have a LOT of stone to take advantage of this. Upgrade your walls to Fortifications, as well. GET SCYTHE CHARIOTS!!! While Scythe flooding is effective and well known, I don’t really approve of it, at least, it’s not that fun. Go for the priests escorted by large numbers of Scythe Chariots, along with Chariot Archers. If your opponent has Catapults with Ballistics, try any type of elephant backed by priests. Remember, losing one priests per catapult puts you out ahead in resources, and two makes you about even.
Iron Age Defensive Breakdown:
Hoplites/Phalanxes/Centurions: Priests, Towers, ST, CA (Avoid attacking with Scythes)
Priests: Scythes, CA, Priests
Heavy Cavs/Cataphracts: Scythes, CA, Priests
War Elephants/Armored Elephants: Convert, Convert, Convert
Scythe Chariots: Stone Throwers and towers
Long Swordsmen/Legions: Convert, Stone Throwers, towers
Catapults/Heavy Catapults: Convert. Your priests have a longer range than they do after you research Afterlife.
Ballistas/Helepoli: Convert, Stone Throwers, Towers if they don’t have engineering.
Horse Archers/Heavy Horse Archers: Convert, Towers, Stone Throwers are tough to hit with, but can make them dodge and give them a tough time firing. If the lag is bad, they can be hit.
Elephant Archers: Convert, Stone Throwers
Offense: Priests, Priests, Priests. That’s the main point of the Egyptians offense, at least, in this strategy. In 1vs1, take War Elephants or Armored Elephants in front of your priests to draw Cat fire while you convert them. Scythe Chariots work also. Heal the covering units every chance you get. Elephant Archers can be used to fight off Ballistas/Helepolis. In team games, concentrate a little more on Priests. My ally attacked a very good opponent repeatedly, but was beat back every time. I sent about twenty priests for support and I had 14 priests survive and he only lost about half his force. My opponent resigned after that.
Iron Age Offense Breakdown
Priests: The heart of this strategy. Convert everything in sight. DO NOT WASTE TIME CONVERTING BUILDINGS IF THE ENEMIES FORCES ARE RUNNING FROM YOU! Doing this can give them the extra time to rebuild and rearm.
War Elephants: Used to cover priests in 1vs1. Don’t use them otherwise.
Elephant Archers: Same as War Elephants.
Scythe Chariots: Very versatile. Can be used to cover priests, as well as attack on their own, under cover or Chariot Archers.
Final Notes:
This strat works best on Inland; Coastal also works well. Large and Small Islands are all right. Highland and Hill Country is a terrible place for this. Mediterranean, Coastal, and Narrows work the best. Basically anything with water. You must have a water connection to your ally. Boat fishing is terribly important, as well as trading with your opponent. Please e-mail with questions or comments.