Here, take the best advice, the one from a often-loser:
1. Grow up your economy VERY early. This means pumping up Villagers and boats like without interruption until a reasonable number is achieved (I would say 50% of the pop limit in Vils and 25% in fishing boats).
You gotta fish like mad in RoR. I've won many games without a farm and with all upgrades taken and still food in the bank.
Remember to balance food and wood. Wood is essential for fishing AND for bringing out those Scout ships! (besides buildings, chariots, upgrades, etc...).The secret of a great economy is in EXPLORING early and a lotMine gold early - especially if in Bronze you will be weak, and have no Chariots / Chariot Archers as goldless worthy military.
Mine some Stone early - to finish your wall in, you may need it and towers may come in handy later....
Wood, Wood, Wood: The food will come from the boats, elephants and berries (in this order).
EXCEPT! When you are in some types of maps.
When the map has a great water surface, you must start exploring it soon.
Best way is:
Always pit first in Mediterranean, Continental, Narrows and Coastal. Inland MAY provide a good place, but very often you won't find it soon enough.
Search the coast for a great spot of 3 or 4 SHORE Fish patches close together with SOME trees neaby (or a forest ...This will put you soon ahead for a while.
2. Use your military wisely.Easier said than done.
Because it starts with having chosen the PROPER Civ in advance... so that you can have the best counter units for them...
Also, even if you have them, if the opponent has options, your selection has to match the options correctly.
Yet, the payback is victory...
Fast Hand to Hand Units (Cavalry, Camels, Chariots, Scythe Chariots...) These are great for early visits to opponent's town, but not so great when he has static and abundant mobile defenses in place. Their best roles are: Villager killers, Catapult Killers, building destruction (if nothing else to do
Fast Missile Units (Chariot Archers, later Horse Archers) These are tremendously efficient at Villager-killing. They must be used early as raiders to enemy production (woodies, farmers and gold miners).
Barracks ("RAX") Units If Roman or Choson, they are worthwhile units to employ in Bronze - and in Iron, when you can upgrade them to Legions. Roman RAX have the edge, because they pack their great punch the whole game, since they are Short Swordsmen, while you have to wait for late Iron to get the Choson hit point bonus with Long Swordsmen and Legion. Do not employ these units against a walled opponent - rather take them by tranny to his back door (or better yet, take Villagers and build dozens of barracks in his backyard...)
Their best use is as town killers.
Heavy Hand to Hand Units (War and Armoured War Elephants, Academy units)These are great Town killers and they can be a good defense for chokepoints.
War Elephants are great against Catapults and (in good enough numbers and properly managed) can survive an Helepolis attack. As a rule of thumb, avoid using Elephants and Academy near a concentration of Priests.
Academy are not good against Catapults, unless they are Greek (still, you will lose an awfull number of them).
ALL units lose to Helepolis (and the lower sister, the Ballista), except for Catapults and floating Catapults.Armoured Elephants are the best siege weapon against walls, period. They are also the best melee unit - except when Priests are around...
Heavy Missile Units (Ballista, Helepolis, Elephant Archer)The Ballista/Helepolis is simply awesome!... Have them always in packs of 12 or more (ideally 20) and separated about 2-3 tiles from each other - hard to do, but highly rewarding.
If you use Helepolis and the opponent has Cats, you MUST attack the Cats first with fast units (like Heavy Cavalry) or with War Elephants.
ONLY after you erradicate the Catapults can you take the Helepolis safely to destination.
This said, no catapults around... Helepolis rule supreme. End of story.
Best Heavy-hitter Civs are no longer Catapult Civs, they are now Armored Elephant + Helepolis Civs. The Elephants take on the Cats and the Helepolis take on the rest. If you have a catapult-less enemy, then Helepolis make your day the whole year.
Tool unitsLast, but not the least!... If you can pull a successful Tool raid, they you have screwed your opponent a lot.
The ideat Tool attack party is composed of this UPGRADED combo:
1/2 Axemen - the real killers, they must go for enemy woodies (first), farmers (if any) and miners. But, after the woodies are taken care of their main targets are the ECONOMIC buildings. I'ts vital to stop the enemy from getting WOOD. No wood=no more pits for relocation, no more granaries, no more ships, no more fishing boats... no more military buildings. Especially in RoR, a Tool attack has the primary objective of starving the enemy of wood - wood first - then food afterwards.
The Bowmen go after the peons wherever they are around, they are great at killing peons, go for woodies first. Use a few Axemen (few, like in 2-3) as escorts for the Bowmen against enemy Slingers. Don't forget...
Your Slingers are the escort of the main Axemen group against enemy Bowmen. They also should be employed (along with a few Axemen) to tear down the Towers.
I left the greatest Tool unit in RoR to the end: The Scout Ship.
VERY EARLY in Tool you should have known the EXACT location of the enemy fishing fleet. If it is significant, you must poceed immediatelly to own the Seas by pulling out Scout Ships, and sending them to kill his fishing boats and any Sea presence he may have. Otherwise, you will lose your most valuable food income source!
Well, so much for the military.
3. Develop an AGGRESSIVE style.
Here are the best tactics that repeatedly kill me (in no particular order, except for the first one).
Forward buildingThis one relies on early exploration. Early on, in Stone (before he walls in the shallows) you must find him. The only guys you have available to do this are peons, so...Bringing the production facility of your most deadly weapon to the neighborhood of your enemy is half the victory.
You will be able to send units to batle right away and he will be so busy countering / fleeing from your (hint)initiative that he will have his economy unbalanced and your town will be better for a while, concentrating soundly on your own production...
Keeping the pressureNEVER ever rest on your attacks.
Keep him off-balance, so that he does not have the hands and the eyes required to run his economy.
Explore continuously for new concentrations of enemy villagers near rsources. Make these new TC, pits or granaries your priority targets. His villagers must perish!
Do not relinquish your control of the seas!
Since Tool, OWN the SEAS!...That will give you a monster advantage, economically. Fishing boats bring you the food almost without management, and your other production guys, the Villagers will be free to chop wood, to mine Gold and stone and to build!....
Well, I have to go now, this post is enormous, so I interrupt here.
Just remember: I have lost to all of the above!... Imagine what a lesson that has been...
Your Old Friend.