0
,,,
(o o)
---------------------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo----------------------------------------
READ THE SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION BIT TOWARDS THE END OF THIS GUIDE. IT
CONTAINS
A COMPLETE LIST OF THE GUIDES I'VE WRITTEN.
-----------------------------------
_______ ___________________
___ |__ ____/___ ____/
__ /| |_ / __ __ __/
_ ___ |/ /_/ / _ /___
/_/ |_|\____/ /_____/
_______ __________
__ __ \___ ____/
_ / / /__ /_
/ /_/ / _ __/
\____/ /_/
________________ ___________ ________________ __________________
___ ____/___ |/ /___ __ \____ _/___ __ \___ ____/__ ___/
__ __/ __ /|_/ / __ /_/ / __ / __ /_/ /__ __/ _____ \
_ /___ _ / / / _ ____/ __/ / _ _, _/ _ /___ ____/ /
/_____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ |_| /_____/ /____/
_____ _ ___ _ __ ___
|_ _|| |_ ___ | _ \(_) ___ ___ ___ / _| | _ \ ___ _ __ ___
| | | ' \ / -_) | /| |(_- -_) / _ \| _| | // _ \| ' \ / -_)
|_| |_||_|\___| |_|_\|_|/__/\___| \___/|_| |_|_\\___/|_|_|_|\___|
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
System: PC/Windows
Version: FINAL (08/11/00)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
///, ////
\ /, / >.
\ /, _/ /.
\_ /_/ /.
_____ _____ \__/_ <
/ __ \__________ / __ \___ _ _____ _________ _ ____ __ /<<< \_\_
/ / / / ___/ __ \ / / / / // \/ __ \/ ___/ Y \/__/ \/ / /,)^>>_._ \
/ /_/ / _/_/ /_/ // /_/ / _~ / /_/ / _/_/ \ / /> < (/ \\ /\\\
/__/ \ >____/_____// ____/__//__/\_____/_____/__//__/\_//__/\_\ // ````
======\/============\_/========[red_phoenix_1@hotmail.com]============((`=======
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Version - 0.1 Everything is new, of course.
0.2 Added the rest of the buildings and technologies.
0.3 Worked on some of the civilizations.
0.4 Finished up the FAQ.
0.5 Added the URL of my WWF SmackDown! FAQ.
0.6 Minor Changes.
0.7 Added the URL of my Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri HTML FAQ.
0.8 A minor change.
0.9 A minor change.
1.0 A minor change.
1.1 A few minor changes.
1.2 A few changes.
1.3 A few minor changes.
1.4 A few changes.
1.5 A minor change.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
If you have anything you would like to submit, please do so. Send it to
red_phoenix_1@hotmail.com. I would appreciate it if you would put "Age of
Empires The Rise of Rome" in the Subject Line. It helps me weed through my
mailbox without deleting something important. I don't consider SPAM and Porn
important, if you know what I mean, although some of you may think otherwise.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Table of Contents
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1. Introduction History
2. Changes from Age of Empires
3. The Buildings
- Academy
- Archery Range
- Ballista Tower
- Barracks
- Dock
- Farm
- Fortification
- Government Center
- Granary
- Guard Tower
- House
- Market
- Medium Wall
- Sentry Tower
- Siege Workshop
- Small Wall
- Stable
- Storage Pit
- Temple
- Town Center
- Watch Tower
- Wonder
4. The Units
A. Miscellaneous
- Villager
- Priest
B. Infantry
- Axeman
- Clubman
- Slinger *New Unit*
- Short Swordsman
- Broad Swordsman
- Long Swordsman
- Legion
- Hoplite
- Phalanx
- Centurion
C. Archery
- Bowman
- Improved Bowman
- Composite Bowman
- Chariot Archer
- Elephant Archer
- Horse Archer
- Heavy Horse Archer
D. Cavalry
- Scout
- Camel Rider *New Unit*
- Chariot
- Scythe Chariot *New Unit*
- Cavalry
- Heavy Cavalry
- Cataphract
- War Elephant
- Armored Elephant *New Unit*
E. Siege Weapons
- Stone Thrower
- Catapult
- Heavy Catapult
- Ballista
- Helepolis
F. Boats
- Fishing Boat
- Fishing Ship
- Trade Boat
- Merchant Ship
- Light Transport
- Heavy Transport
- Scout Ship
- War Galley
- Fire Galley *New Unit*
- Trireme
- Catapult Trireme
- Juggernaught
5. The Technologies
A. Storage Pit (Origin)
- Toolworking
- Metalworking
- Metallurgy
- Bronze Shield
- Iron Shield
- Tower Shield *New Technology*
- Leather Armor for Archers
- Scale Armor for Archers
- Chain Mail for Archers
- Leather Armor for Cavalry
- Scale Armor for Cavalry
- Chain Mail for Cavalry
- Leather Armor for Infantry
- Scale Armor for Infantry
- Chain Mail for Infantry
B. Market (Origin)
- Wheel
- Woodworking
- Artisanship
- Coinage
- Craftsmanship
- Domestication
- Stone Mining
- Gold Mining
- Siegecraft
- Plow
- Irrigation
C. Government (Origin)
- Alchemy
- Architecture
- Aristocracy
- Ballistics
- Engineering
- Nobility
- Writing
- Logistics *New Technology*
D. Temple (Origin)
- Polytheism
- Monotheism
- Mysticism
- Jihad
- Fanaticism
- Astrology
- Afterlife
- Martyrdom *New Technology*
- Medicine *New Technology*
6. The Civilizations
- Ancient Chosen a.k.a. Chosen
- Assyrian
- Babylonian
- Carthaginian *New Civilization*
- Egyptian
- Greek
- Hittite
- Macedonian *New Civilization*
- Minoan
- Palmyran *New Civilization*
- Persian
- Phoenician
- Roman *New Civilization*
- Shang
- Sumerian
- Yamato
7. Civilization Comparisons
8. Tools of the Trade (James Mecham)
9. Codes
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1. Introduction
Age of Empires: Rise of Rome is an expansion pack for the very popular PC
game,
Age of Empires. It was released to the public basically to provide us with a
slight enhancement to the game while they worked on Age of Empires II: Age of
Kings. Being an expansion pack, not much is expected of it in most conditions.
This one, in my opinion, did a decent job. We knew Microsoft and Ensemble
Studios must have been really busy at making a heck of a game in Age of Kings,
if they had to send out an add-on. Microsoft also knew that this would make
the corporation a little more deeper in the pocket with another Age of Empires
game, even though it was only an add-on and it cost less that a full game.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
2. Changes from Age of Empires
The changes to The Rise of Rome weren't grand, but they did change a little
bit. There weren't very many changes either, although they added a few more
technologies, units, and civilizations. Below is a small list I whipped up to
illustrate this.
_______________
.--------------------========= C H A N G E S =========-------------------------.
| ЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇ |
| |
| o Four new civilizations: Carthaginian, Macedonian, Palmyran, and Roman. |
| |
| o Five new units: Armored Elephant, Camel Rider, Fire Galley, Scythe |
| Chariot, and Slinger. |
| |
| o Four new technologies: Logistics, Martyrdom, Medicine, and Tower Shield. |
| |
| o Four new campaigns. |
| |
| o New ability to queue the production of units. |
| |
| o New Gigantic map size. |
| |
| o New map types: Continental, Mediterranean, Hill Country, and Narrows. |
| |
| o Double-clicking a unit selects all units of that type on the game screen.|
| |
| o New Random civilization option so if you don't know which civilization |
| you're playing until the game starts. |
| |
| o You can display the game settings (map type, map size, etc.) during the |
| game by clicking the MENU button on the menu bar, and then clicking |
| "Scenario Instructions." |
| |
| o When you hear a sound cue (such as an attack warning), you can press the |
| HOME key or click the middle mouse button to go to the trouble spot. |
| Pressing the key multiple times cycles through the location of the last |
| five sound cues. |
| |
| o Stone Throwers, Catapults and Heavy Catapults now receive a limited |
| predictive firing benefit from Ballistics, based on the target unit's |
| speed. All slow units in range are hit, some medium units are hit and |
| all fast units are missed. |
| |
| o Persian civilization no longer has the farming penalty. |
| |
| o Some random maps contain cliffs. |
| |
| o Allied Town Centers are visible when you start an allied game. |
| |
| o The population indicator and timer appear at the top of the screen when |
| you press F11. |
| |
| o The Hot Key to build a Swordsman is now Z. |
| |
| o The Hot Key to build a Scout is now T. |
| |
| o If you select the Full Tech Tree option before starting the game, you |
| can't build Fire Galleys. |
| |
| o In multiplayer games, there is now an in-game option to change the |
| population limit using the Game Settings. |
| |
| o Chat is automatically set to Allies Only in an allied multiplayer game. |
| |
|*This information was taken from the Age of Empires: Rise of Rome Game Manual*|
| |
'--------------------=================================-------------------------'
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
3. The Buildings
=========
=ACADEMY=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Academy lets you train elite infantry units, including the
Hoplite, Phalanx, and Centurion. Researching Architecture increases the
hit points and decreases the construction time of this building. The
academy was the Greek equivalent of a school. Students, usually only free
men and favored slaves, received an education at the academy. Subjects of
study included the typical fare of schools but also politics, athletics,
and military training. The most rigorous of the Greek academies were those
of Sparta, where boys were taken from their parents at an early age and
educated in a military environment. The academy prepared the individual
for service to the state as a citizen and as a soldier in the phalanx. In
one of the remarkable encounters of history, the future Alexander the Great
was educated at the Academy of Aristotle.
===============
=ARCHERY RANGE=
===============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Barracks.
Cost: 100 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Archery Range lets you train archers, including the Bowman,
Improved Bowman, Composite Bowman, Chariot Archer, Elephant Archer, Horse
Archer, and Heavy Horse Archer. You must build the Archery Range before
you can build the Siege Workshop. Researching Architecture increases the
hit points and decreases the construction time of this building. The bow
was developed as a hunting weapon long before the first towns appeared and
was easily adapted to warfare. Because the bow allowed fighting from a
distance and from behind cover, archers did not have to fight face- to-
face with their enemy. As the first civilizations grew in size and their
armies grew correspondingly, formal training of archers was instituted.
As part of this training, bowmen practiced shooting on archery ranges to
improve accuracy.
================
=BALLISTA TOWER=
================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, researched the
Watch Tower, upgraded to the Sentry Tower, upgraded to the Guard Tower,
researched Ballistics, and upgraded to the Ballista Tower.
Upgrade Cost: 1800 Food, 750 Stone
Cost: 150 Stone
Hit Points: 200
Attack: 20
Armor: -
Range: 7
Special: Fire Rate once every 3 seconds
Upgrade of: Guard Tower
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The Ballista Tower is the ultimate tower. It has more attack
strength than the Guard Tower. You must research Ballistics before you
upgrade to the Ballista Tower. Towers are defensive structures that fire
missiles at enemy villagers and military units within range. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this tower. Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases
accuracy. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The tower discovered on the wall at the ancient site of Jericho served
several purposes. It extended the visual range of lookouts that would be
watching for the approach of raiders and other visitors. An early warning
might have been the difference between a successful defense and the fall
of the town. The tower was a superior firing position for archery. Bowmen
shooting down had an advantage in range and penetration power of arrows
versus enemies shooting up. Enemies hiding at the bottom of the wall may
have remained visible to archers in the tower. The tower itself was an
independent bastion that could serve as a defensive position of last resort
if the wall was carried. The Ballista Tower was the ultimate defensive
fortification of the ancient era. It could withstand a lajor attack and
was equipped and designed to take a heavy toll on attackers.
==========
=BARRACKS=
==========
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center.
Cost: 125 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Barracks lets you train infantry, including the Clubman, Axeman,
Short Swordsman, Long Swordsman, and Legion. You must have built the
Barracks before you can build the Archery Range, Siege Workshop, Stable, or
Academy. Researching Architecture increases the hit points and decreases
the construction time of this building. When the first armies came into
being, places were needed eventually to make weapons, store weapons, drill
troops, and house troops. The Barracks in Age of Empires represents these
places.
======
=DOCK=
======
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center.
Cost: 100 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Dock lets you create boats, including the Fishing Boat, Fishing
Ship, Trade Boat, Merchant Ship, Light Transport, Heavy Transport, Scout
Ship, War Galley, Trireme, Catapult Trireme, and Juggernaught. The Dock is
also where fishing vessels deposit food and trade vessels deposit gold from
trading. Researching Architecture increases the hit points and decreases
the construction time of this building. The earliest boats were simply
tied up to rocks or trees on shore to take on or drop off cargo or were
physically pulled onto the beach. Later, wooden structures were built out
into the water to facilitate loading and unloading. Docks were also safer
for ships because ships could avoid being beached, which strained the hulls
and increased leaking. When the dock was extended beyond the shallows,
even larger ships could be tied up, farther improving efficiencies.
======
=FARM=
======
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 75 Wood
Hit Points: 50
Note: The Farm provides a reliable supply of food, which can be gathered by
a villager. Because Farms produce food at a fixed rate, assigning more
than one villager to work on a Farm does not increase its productivity.
Farms eventually go fallow, in which case you can build another one.
Researching Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the
construction time of this building. Domestication, the Plow, and
Irrigation increase Farm production. The humble farm was the foundation of
the great civilizations of antiquity and most human societies since. The
farm was the technological advance that provided the large and dependable
supplies of food necessary for civilization to arise. Farming began when
edible seeds and fruits were preserved from one growing season and
systematically planted in prepared ground the following season. The plant
that resulted were nurtured and protected until the edible produce was
suitable for harvest. Important farming advancements in ancient times
included irrigation of rich but arid land, the plow that opened the soil
for receiving seeds, and the continual selection of seeds from the most
succesful plants that gradually improved food plant yields.
===============
=FORTIFICATION=
===============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must heave built the Town Center, Granary, researched the
Small Wall, upgraded to the Medium Wall, and upgraded to the Fortification.
Upgrade Cost: 300 Food, 175 Stone
Cost: 5 Stone
Hit Points: 400
Upgrade of: Medium Wall
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The Fortification is the ultimate wall. It has more hit points than
the Medium Wall. Walls are defensive structures that can be built around
your empire or important areas. Villagers and military units cannot move
through standing walls, however, they can attack the walls. Stone
Throwers, Catapults, Heavy Catapults, Ballistas, and the Helepolis are
particularly effective for destroying walls. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this wall.
The great civilizations of ancient times built ever- larger fortifications
to protect their important cities and frontiers. Herodotus reported that
the walls of Babylon were sufficiently thick that a chariot could be driven
on them around the city. Archaelogy indicates that large walls were not
invulnerable- every great ancient city appears to have been stormed
eventually- but only a large and well- equipped army could surmount them.
===================
=GOVERNMENT CENTER=
===================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 175 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Government Center lets you build additional Town Centers, and
research technologies that improve your buildings and military units,
including Writing, Architecture, Engineering, Aristocracy, Alchemy,
Nobility, and Ballistics. Researching Architecture increses the hit points
and decreases the construction time of this building. The government
center was the administrative center of the town, village, city, kingdom,
or empire. It was often the palace of the strongman or king. It was here
that justice was dispersed, records kept, taxes collected and stored,
diplomacy conducted, and plans made. The development of the government
center spurred technology such as architecture through the commission of
public works and writing for the keeping of records. The expansion of
kingdoms led to a hierarchy of elites, often a nobility, that were needed
as middle managers when the expanse of lands exceeded the ruler's ability
to control directly. The provinces of the Persian Empire, for example,
were ruled like independent stores by satraps who owed tribute and
allegiance to the king in Susa.
=========
=GRANARY=
=========
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Granary lets you build walls and towers, including the Small
Wall, Medium Wall, Fortification, Watch Tower, Sentry Tower, Guard Tower,
and Ballista Tower. You must research the Granary before you can built the
Market. Foragers and farmers can deposit food from Farms and forage sites
at the Granary instead of the Town Center. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this
building. Following the advance of farming, humans faced the first time
the happy problem of how to safely store large quantities of food grains.
The Granary made it possible to preserve growing season surpluses for
consumption during winter months. The Granary was a central location where
grain could be warehoused, guarded, and distributed fairly as needed. The
need to protect food supplies was an early reason for building walls and
fortifications. Without protection, the surpluses in the Granary were
easily taken by raiders from nearby hunting and gathering groups.
=============
=GUARD TOWER=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and the Granary, and
researched Watch Tower, upgraded to Sentry Tower, and upgraded to Guard
Tower.
Upgrade cost: 300 Food, 100 Stone
Cost: 150 Stone
Hit Points: 200
Attack: 6
Armor: -
Range: 7
Special: Fire rate once / 1.5 seconds
Upgrade of: Sentry Tower
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The Guard Tower has more hit points, attack strength, and range than
the Sentry Tower. The Guard Tower can be upgraded to the Ballista Tower.
Towers are defensive structures that fire missiles at enemy villagers and
military units within range. Researching Architecture increases the
construction time of this tower. Alchemy increases attack strength.
Ballistics increases accuracy. Woodworking, Artisanship, and
Craftsmanship, increase range. The tower discovered on the wall at the
ancient site of Jericho served several purposes. It extended the visual
range of lookouts that would be watching for the approach of raiders and
other visitors. An early warning might have been the difference between a
successful defense and the fall of the town. The tower was a superior
firing position for archery. Bowmen shooting down had an advantage in
range and penetration power of arrows versus enemies shooting up. Enemies
hiding at the bottom of the wall may have remained visible to archers in the
tower. The tower itself was an independent bastion that could serve as the
defensive position of last resort if the wall was carried. The Guard Tower
was a superior fortification, well- designed for holding out against attack
and for bringing weapons to bear on an attacker.
=======
=HOUSE=
=======
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center.
Cost: 30 Wood
Hit points: 75
Note: A House supports up to four villagers, military units, or boats. You
must have enough houses before you can create new units. If a House is
destroyed, you do not lose the units it supported, but you must build new
houses before you can build new villagers, military units, or boats.
Researching Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the
construction time of this building. Shelter increased in importance when
humans expanded their range farther away from the equator in the wake of
the receding ice sheets and into climates of wide seasonal variation.
Growing hman populations quickly occupied the few natural shelters available
in these areas. The provision of man- made shelter made existence in
challenging and variable climates possible. Without houses, year- round
populations could not have increased beyond minimums.
========
=MARKET=
========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Granary.
Cost: 150 Wood
Hit points: 350
Note: The Market lets you build Farms, pay Tribute to other civilizations,
and research technologies that improve your military units and the
effectiveness of your villagers, including Woodworking, Artisanship,
Craftsmanship, Stone Mining, Siegecraft, Gold mining, Coinage,
Domestication, the Plow, Irrigation, and the Wheel. You must build the
Market before you can build the Government Center or Temple. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this building. The specialization made possible by the development of
agriculture created the need for a place where craftsmen could meet to
barter their wares for those of others and for food. The Market in each
town and village was the place where barter and exchange took place. The
development of the Market marked the change from the small hunting/ foraging
group that shared its harvest to the much more complex economy that rose
with the rise of towns and cities. Specialization resulted in efficiencies
of scale and greater overall production fairly among the food providers
and specialists. The profit motive spurred innovation to increase
production. The potter, for example, looked for ways to make more and
better pots for the same effort to increase the amount of food that he
could obtain by trading pots.
=============
=MEDIUM WALL=
=============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, researched
Small Wall, and upgraded to Medium Wall.
Upgrade Cost: 180 Food, 100 Stone
Cost: 5 Stone
Hit points: 300
Upgrade of: Small Wall
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The Medium Wall has more hit points than the Small Wall. The Medium
Wall can be upgraded to the Fortification. Walls are defensive structures
that can be built around your empire or important areas. Villagers and
military units cannot move through standing walls; however, they can attack
the walls. Stone Throwers, Catapults, Heavy Catapults, Ballistas, and the
Helepolis are particularly effective for destroying walls. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this wall. One of the earliest human setlements yet discovered is the
city of Jericho near the Jordan River in modern Isreal. This site from
7000 B.C. is remarkable for possessing a stone masonry wall, dry moat
around the wall, and a tower. At an astonishingly early date, Jericho
demonstrated that the ancients understood principles of fortification that
would carry forward essentially unchanged until the development of
gunpowder. The Medium Wall is a defensive structure built of stone or other
substantial construction to withstand a protracted attack.
==============
=SENTRY TOWER=
==============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, researched
Watch Tower, and upgraded to Sentry Tower.
Upgrade cost: 120 Food, 50 Stone
Cost: 150 Stone
Hit points: 150
Attack: 4
Armor: -
Range: 6
Special: Fire rate once / 1.5 seconds
Upgrade of: Watch Tower
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The SEntry Tower has more hit points, attack strength, and range than
the Watch Tower. The Sentry Tower can be upgraded to the Guard Tower.
Towers are defensive structures that fire missiles at enemy villagers and
military units within range. Researching Architecture increases the hit
points and decreases the construction time of this tower. Alchemy increases
attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy. Woodworking, Artisanship,
and Craftsmanship increase range. The tower discovered on the wall at the
ancient site of Jericho served several purposes. It extended the visual
range of lookouts that would be watching for the approach of raiders and
other visitors. An early warning might have been the difference between a
successful defense and the fall of the town. The tower was a superior
firing position for archery. Bowmen shooting down had an advantage in
range and penetration power of arrows versus enemies shooting up. Enemies
hiding at the bottom of the wall may have remained visible to archers in
the tower. The tower itself was an independent bastion that could serve as
the defensive position of last resort if the wall was carried. The Sentry
Tower was an improved fortification of strong materials and designed for
defense.
================
=SIEGE WORKSHOP=
================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Barracks, and Archery
Range.
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Siege Workshop lets you build siege weapons, including the Stone
Thrower, Catapult, Heavy Catapult, Ballista, and Helepolis. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this building. The earliest fortifications yet discovered date from
7000 B.C., but evidence of siege weapons doesn't appear until much later.
We can assume, however, that siege equipment was in use long before the
first evidence that has survived. Evidence of a scaling ladder does not
appear until about 2500 B.C. The earliest record of a simple battering
ram comes from 1900 B.C. Amore powerful ram plus the undermining of walls
appears by 880 B.C. The mobile siege tower first appears one hundred years
later. The catapult was invented by Greeks in 397 B.C. There were no
further significant advances in siege engines until the advent of gunpowder.
Siege weapons were researched and built in siege workshops.
============
=SMALL WALL=
============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and researched
Small Wall.
Research cost: 50 Food
Cost: 5 Stone
Hit points: 200
Research at: Granary
Note: The Small Wall is the wealest of the walls. Upgrades include the
Medium Wall and Fortification. Walls are defensive structures that can be
built around your empire or important areas. Villagers and military units
cannot move through standing walls; however, they can attack the walls.
Stone Throwers, Catapults, Heavy Catapults, Ballistas, and the Helepolis
are particularly effective for destroying walls. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this wall.
========
=STABLE=
========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Barracks.
Cost: 150 Wood
Hit points: 350
Note: The Stable lets you train cavalry units, including the Scout, Cavalry,
Heavy Cavalry, Cataphract, Chariot, and War Elephant. You must build the
Stable before you can build the Academy. Researchinf Architecture increases
hit points and decreases the construction time of this building. The
horses that survived the last Ice Age were relatively small animals unsuited
for riding or pulling. They were hunted out of existence in the Americas
and domesticated first for food on the steppes of Asia. Over many
generations of selective breeding, they grew large enough to be of use other
than as food. One issue that had to be resolved was how to harness them
without causing choking. Humans eventually learned to ride, first from the
rear, non- control position over the hips, and then from the forward
position that we are familiar with today. The first evidence of horses
being ridden appears in the second millenium B.C., although it is generally
accepted that they were ridden earlier in Asia. The Stable represents the
application of animals, primarily the horse, to warfare, first pulling
chariots and then carrying warriors. Detailed records survive from Assyria
and elsewhere related to the acquisition, training, equipping, and
employment of horses in battle.
=============
=STORAGE PIT=
=============
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center
Cost: 120 Wood
Hit points: 350
Note: The Storage Pit lets you research technologies that improve the armor
and attack strength of military units, including Toolworking, Metalworking,
Metallurgy, the Bronze Shield, the Iron Shield, Leather Armor for Infantry,
Scale Armor for Infantry, Chain Mail for Infantry, Leather Armor for
Cavalry, Scale Armor for Cavalry, Chain Mail for Cavalry, Leather Armor for
Archery, Scale Armor for Archery, and Chain Mail for Archery. Hunters,
fishermen, and miners can deposit meat, fish, stone, wood, and gold at the
Storage Pit instead at the Town Center. Researching Architecture increases
the hit points and dcreases the construction time of this building. The
storage pit was the functional equivalent of the granary, but for meat
instead of grain. Storing meat presented special problems because it
spoiled so quickly and easily. Meat was generally stored by drying or
salting. The Storage Pit also represents the tool- and weapon- making
skill of hunting societies, leading eventually to metalworking, making war,
and armor making. In this capacity it also serves as a storehouse and
collection point for the raw materials of tool and weapon making: wood,
stone, and gold (representing all metals).
========
=TEMPLE=
========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Temple lets you train Priests and research technologies that
increase their powers, including Polytheism, Mysticism, Astrology,
Monotheism, Afterlife, Jihad, and Fanaticism. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this
building. The temple was a religious center. It was often the earthly
home or point of communication with a particular god or goddess. Priests
or priestesses in the temple acted as the servants of the resident god or
goddess and managed contact to and from the people, plus instruction,
rituals, petitions, and answers to questions. The most common form of
petition was the prayer. Another was the provision of gifts that supported
the temple and its servants. A less common petition was the sacrifice of
animals or even humans. The general belief of the time was that the more
elaborate a temple, the taller it was, and the more grand, the more disposed
the god or goddess would be to provide good weather, rainfall, and crop
yields, while keeping away pests, disease, and human invaders.
=============
=TOWN CENTER=
=============
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must already have a Town Center, and you must have built
the Granary, Market, and Government Center.
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 600
Note: The Town Center lets you create villagers and advance to the next
Age. It is also where villagers can deposit food, wood, gold, and stone.
The Town Center supports four villagers, military units, or boats. Priests
cannot convert Town Centers. After you build a Government Center, you can
build additional Town Centers to expand your civilization's dominance and
build Town Centers closer to distant resources. You can also replace your
Town Center if it is destroyed in combat. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this
building. Allvillages and towns had an administrative center that was the
site of governmental power and leadership. In the earliest villages this
might have been the leader's home. Later it might have been the king's
palace. The center was often the place where important supplies, especially
food surpluses, were stored. Vessels for storing grain and oil were found
in the ruins of the Palace at Knossos of Crete. Some of the earliest
accounting records yet found were clay tablets left in long- forgotten
storerooms in ancient Sumeria and in Hittite cities. The destruction of the
town center usually meant the destruction of the town's governmental
infrastructure.
=============
=WATCH TOWER=
=============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and researched
Watch Tower.
Research Cost: 50 Food
Cost: 150 Stone
Hit points: 100
Attack: 3
Armor: -
Range: 5
Special: Fire rate once / 1.5 seconds
Research at: Granary
Note: The Watch Tower is the weakest of the towers. Upgrades include the
Sentry Tower, Guard Tower, and Ballista Tower. Towers are defensive
structures that fire missiles at enemy villagers and military units within
range. Researching Architecture increases hit points and decreases the
construction time of this tower. Alchemy increases attack strength.
Ballistics increases accuracy. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship
increase range. The Watch Tower was a simple tower, easily built, and
intended mainly to give early warning.
========
=WONDER=
========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Advance to the Iron Age
Cost: 1000 Wood, 1000 Stone, 1000 Gold
Hit points: 500
Note: Building a Wonder can be a victory condition that wins the game or it
can provide score points. You can build more than one Wonder. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this building. A Wonder is a massive structure, a crowning achievement
of technology, resources, and construction time for civilizations that build
one. Examples of historic ancient wonders are the Egyptian Pyramid, the
Great Wall of China, and the Athenian Acropolis. You must advance to the
Iron Age before you can build a Wonder. Priests cannot convert a Wonder.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
4. The Units
----------------------------------
A. Miscellaneous
----------------------------------
==========
=Villager=
==========
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center
Cost: 50 Food
Hit Points: 25
Attack: 3
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Create at: Town Center
Villagers can be assigned different tasks (these are mentioned much earlier in
this FAQ). Hunters and villagers used in combat have increased attack strength.
Researching Stone Mining increases stone mining efficiency. Siegecraft
increases stone mining efficiency and allows villagers to destroy walls and
buildings. Gold Mining increases gold mining efficiency. The Wheel increases
speed. Jihad increases combat strength.
Most people of ancient times lived their lives working to make a living
primarily as hunters, gatherers, and fishermen originally, and later as farmers
and herders. The agricultural revolution that began around 8000 B.C. freed
more and more people from the daily persuit of substenance as food production
became more dependable and efficient. New specialists included potters,
metalworkers, builders, scribes, leather workers, woodworkers, traders, and
professional soldiers. By the endo of the ancient period, food production
employed less than half the population within civilized cultures.
========
=Priest=
========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Granary, Market, and Temple.
Cost: 125 Gold
Hit Points: 25
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 10
Speed: Slow
Train at: Temple
A Priest heals friendly and allied units and converts enemy units. If your
diplomacy is set to Neutral or Enemy, your military units will attack Priests
from other civilizations.
Researching Astrology allows faster conversions. Mysticism increases hit
points. Polytheism increases speed. Fanaticism speeds Priest rejuvenation after
conversion. Monotheism allows conversion of enemy Priests and buildings.
Afterlife increases range.
----------------------------------
B. Infantry
----------------------------------
========
=Axeman=
========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and upgrade to the Battle Axe
Upgrade Cost: 100 Food
Cost: 50 Food
Hit Points: 50
Attack: 5
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Upgrade Of: Clubman
Train at: Barracks
The Axeman has more hit points and attack strength than the Clubman. The Axeman
cannot be upgraded. However, you can research the Short Swordsman, which is
stronger than the Axeman.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shoeld increase piercing armor.
The increasing population and wealth of the earliest civilizations made it
possible to support standing armies available at all times for defense and
attacking neighbors. The first professional armies were probably built in
Sumeria and Egypt. These early civilizations had much time to protect and were
sufficiently wealthy to provide protection. Sumerian artwork from around 2500
B.C. provides evidence of an early army, in this case lines of soldiers,
possibly in formation, equipped with identical armor, helmets, and weapons.
=========
=Clubman=
=========
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Barracks.
Cost: 50 food
Hit points: 40
Attack: 3
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Train at: Barracks
The Clubman is the weakest of the infantry units. The Clubman can be upgraded
to the Axeman.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases their attack
strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increases their armor.
The Bronze Shield and Iron Shield increases piercing armor.
The first soldiers were local people called up for military duty in times of
emergency. These temporary soldiers were commonly armed with a mace, usually
a club with a stone head. This was an inexpensive weapon and one that could be
used effectively with a minimum of training. Clubmen were at a disadvantage,
however, when facing the better- trained and armed professional soldiers that
eventually appeared to defend the early farming civilizations. The mace had
little practical use other than in combat against humans. It appeared long
before the first civilization, indicating that the roots of warfare go far back
into prehistoric times.
=========
=Slinger=
=========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Barracks.
Cost: 40 Food, 10 Stone
Hit Points: 25
Attack: 2
Armor: 0
Range: 4
Speed: Medium
Special: +2 attack against archers; +2 armor against missile weapons, Ballista,
Helepolis; increased attack against walls and towers
Train at: Barracks
The Slinger is an infantry unit used to defend against early archer and Watch
Tower attacks.
Bronze Shield, Iron Shield, and Tower Shield increase piercing armor. Alchemy
increases attack strength. Stone Mining and Siegecraft increase attack
strength and range.
Note: Slingers do not get armor upgrades from Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and
Chain Mail.
=================
=Short Swordsman=
=================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and research Short Sword.
Research Cost: 120 Food, 50 Gold
Cost: 35 Food, 15 Gold
Hit Points: 60
Attack: 7
Armor: 1
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Train at: Barracks
The Short Swordsman is not an upgrade of the Axeman. It is a seperate unit with
more hit points, attack strength, and armor than the Axeman. The Short
Swordsman can be upgraded to the Broad Swordsman.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor.
The short sword represents an evolutionary step in infantry weapons. The spear,
mace, and axe were relatively easy to manufacture and use, but somewhat
cumbersome in actual hand-to-hand combat. Following the discovery of bronze,
it became possible to manufacture short swords that were basically enlarged and
strengthened knives. These were much easier to wield in hand-to-hand combat
and improved the effectiveness of infantry who carried them. Short swords were
carried as a second weapon by spearmen or pikemen, such as the Greek hoplites.
The most famous short sword of antiquity was the gladius adopted by the Roman
legions from the Spanish allies of Carthage. The gladius was especially
effective in the dense legion fighing formations that presses tightly against
their opponents and restricted movement.
=================
=Broad Swordsman=
=================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, research the Short Sword, and
upgrade to Broad Sword.
Upgrade Cost: 140 Food, 50 Gold
Cost: 35 Food, 15 Gold
Hit Points: 70
Attack: 9
Armor: 1
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Upgrade of: Short Swordsman
Train at: Barracks
The Broad Swordsman has more hit points, attack strength, and armor than the
Short Swordsman. The Broad Swordsman can be upgraded to the Long Swordsman.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor.
The appearance of bronze short swords led to further advances in weaponry as
competing cultures sought an advantage in military technology over their
neighbors. Where the early short sword was primarily a piercing weapon, the
broad sword evolved as a slashing weapon. The width of the blade increased
strength sufficently to support a slashing attack that could cut into armor and
break short swords designed for stabbing.
================
=Long Swordsman=
================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, research the Short Sword,
upgrade to the Broad Sword, and upgrade to the Long Sword.
Upgrade Cost: 160 Food, 50 Gold
Cost: 35 Food, 15 Gold
Hit Points: 80
Attack: 11
Armor: 2
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Upgrade of: Broad Swordsman
Train at: Barracks
The Long Swordsman has more hit points, attack strength, and armor than the
Broad Swordsman. The Long Swordsman can be upgraded to the Legion.
Researching Toolworking, Metallworking, and Mettalurgy increases attack
strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The
Bronze Shield and Iron Shield increase piercing armor.
The long sword represents the culmination of infantry weapon development in
antiquity. It was designed for both piercing and slashing, combining the best
of both the short and broad swords. The long sword was make possible first by
advances in bronzeworking and improved by the discovery of iron. Some
historians
believe that the development of long swords by barbarian cultures was a key
factor in the catastrophe of 1200 B.C., when most of the civilized culltures of
the Mediterranean and Middle East were overrun. The long sword in various forms
remained an important military weapon until the advent of gunpowder.
========
=Legion=
========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, research the Short Sword,
upgrade to the Broad Sword, upgrade to the Long Sword, research
Fanaticism, and upgrade to Legion.
Upgrade Cost: 1400 Food, 600 Gold
Cost: 35 Food, 15 Gold
Hit Points: 160
Attack: 13
Armor: 2
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Upgrade to: Long Swordsman
Train at: Barracks
The Legion is the ultimate infantry unit. The Legion has many more hit points
and more attack strength than the Long Swordsman. You must research Fanaticism
before you can upgrade to Legion.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworing, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor.
The Roman legion was the ultimate military formation of antiquity. The legion
was a 4200-man unit at full strength, broken down into 120-man units called
maniples. Most of the maniples went into battle as separate blocks of men in
a square formation that looked something like a checkerboard from above. Ten
maniples fought as skirmishers in loose order to the front line of blocks.
They attacled the enemy infantry line with sling stones, arrows, and javelins
as the two armies closed and then fell back between gaps in the blocks. They
may have moved to the edges of the battle to protect the Roman line and harass
the enemy line. The heavy infantry blocks moved forward, throwning javelins
just before the clash. Gaps in the blocks may have been filled in by a second
row of blocks containing more experienced soldiers. The third and final row of
blocks was the smallest but contained the most experienced veterans who served
as the legion's reserve. The basic legion might have attached cavalry, archers,
engineers, and artillery, depending on the task before it. At its peak, the
Roman Empire had legions deployed all along its frontiers, defending against
barbarians, putting down revolts, expanding the empire, and maintaining order.
=========
=Hoplite=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, and Academy.
Cost: 60 Food, 40 Gold
Hit Points: 120
Attack: 17
Armor: 5
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Train at: Academy
The Hoplite is the weakest of the elite infantry units. Upgrades include the
Phalanx and Centurion.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor. Aristocracy increases speed.
Greek infantry soldiers of the Classical Age were called hoplites, from the name
of their large shields, called hoplons. For battle they wore a cuirass
(breastplate), helmet, and greaves. They were armed with a long spear or pike
and sword. Hoplite armies fought each other hand-to-hand in the dense phalanx
formation that faced the enemy with a bristling wall of spear points staggered
at chest level. Fighting at close range in such a formation required a
commitment to training and discipline that became a way of life. Hoplites were
the best infantry units in the world for many centuries until being supplanted
by the more flexible and functional Roman legionnaires.
=========
=Phalanx=
=========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, Academy, and upgrade
to Phalanx.
Upgrade cost: 300 Food, 100 Gold
Cost: 60 Food, 40 Gold
Hit points: 120
Attack: 20
Armor: 7
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Upgrade of: Hoplite
Train at: Academy
The Phalanx has more attack strength and armor than the Hoplite. The
Phalanx can be upgraded to the Centurion.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack
strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The
Bronze Shield and Iron Shield increase piercing armor. Aristocracy increases
speed.
The phalanx was a Greek heavy infantry formation used from about 800 B.C. to
the conquest of Greece by the Romans in the second century B.C. The Greek
infantry, called hoplites, formed a square that could quickly face in any of
four directions. Each man carried a pike or spear up to 12 feet in length. As
the formation advanced, it presented an imposing wall of spear points to its
front. Hoplites carried a large shield and wore a bronze helmet, cuirass
(breastplate), and graves. All free men in the Greek city-states trained in the
phalanx. The discipline and drill required to make the phalanx work permeated
the entire Greek culture. Greek infantry fighting from the phalanx was the
finest in the western world for several centuries. No other infantry faced it
in hand-to-hand combat and won until the new tactics of combined arms made it
obsolete. The last great success of the phalanx was in Alexanger the Great's
campaign against the Persians, although in that army, it fought as part of a
combined arms army.
===========
=Centurion=
===========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, Academy, upgrade to
Phalanx, research Aristocracy, and upgrade to Centurion.
Upgrade cost: 1800 Food, 700 Gold
Cost: 60 Food, 40 Gold
Hit points: 160
Attack: 30
Armor: 8
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Upgrade of: Phalanx
Train at: Academy
The Centurion is the ultimate elite infantry unit. It has more hit
points, attack strength, and armor than the Phalanx. You must research
Aristocracy before you can upgrade to the Centurion.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor. Aristocracy increases speed.
The smallest tactical unit in the Roman army trusted with independent maneuver
was the 120-man maniple. Each maniple was commanded by a centurion, a veteran
promoted from the ranks after demonstrating bravery, skill, discipline, and
leadership. The maniple was roughly equivalent to the modern infantry company,
and the centurion was a combination of modern infantry captain and top sergeant.
Centurions were the backbone of the legions that build and defended the Roman
Empire.
----------------------------------
C. Archery
----------------------------------
========
=Bowman=
========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Archery Range.
Cost: 40 Food, 20 Wood
Hit points: 35
Attack: 3
Armor: 0
Range: 5
Speed: Medium
Train at: Archery Range
The Bowman is the weakest of the archers. The Bowman cannot be upgraded.
However, you can research the Improved Bowman, which is stronger than
the Bowman. Other archers include the Chariot Archer, Elephant Archer,
and Horse Archer.
Archers fire arrows at enemy villagers, military units, boats, and buildings
within their range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking,
Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The bow was an important military weapon from the time of the first armies,
being
easily adopted from hunting animals to warfare. Archers required less
discipline
and leadership in battle because they were not expected to engage in hand-to-
hand combat, a terrifying experience. Bowmen fought from a distance on the
battlefield, from behind walls or other cover, and from ambush. They were
usually not decisive in battle on attack because they could not physically take
ground from the enemy like infantry could. They acted mainly as defensive
troops
that disrupted enemy formations prior to the decisive moment when the infantry
clashed. If barrages of arrows could cause casualties and lower lorale of the
enemy prior to the clash, friendly infantry had a better chance of breaking
the will of the enemy infantry had being victorious.
=================
=Improved Bowman=
=================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, and research
Improved Bow.
Research cost: 140 Food, 80 Wood
Cost: 40 Food, 20 Gold
Hit points: 40
Attack: 4
Armor: 0
Range: 6
Speed: Medium
Train at: Archery Range
The Improved Bowman is not an upgrade of the Bowman. It is a separate
unit with more hit points, attack strength, and range than the Bowman.
The Improved Bowman can be upgraded to the Composite Bowman.
Archers fire arrows at enemy villagers, military units, boats, and buildings
within their range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking,
Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The simple bow was improved by using better materials and by better training.
Employing better wood or strips of laminated wood increased the tensile strength
of the bow, increasing power and thus range. Arrows were improved also by such
changes as matal arrowheads. In modern times, hundreds of bronze arrowheads
were recovered from an archaelogical excavation of the battlefield at
Thermopylae. On this site, a Spartan force under Leonidas had perished under
a hail of Persian arrows after delaying the huge Persian army for many days.
==================
=Composite Bowman=
==================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, research
Improved Bow, and upgrade to Composite Bow.
Upgrade cost: 180 Food, 100 Wood
Cost: 40 Food, 20 Gold
Hit points: 45
Attack: 5
Armor: 0
Range: 7
Speed: Medium
Upgrade of: Improved Bowman
Train at: Archery Range
The Composite Bowman has more hit points, attack strength, and range
than the Improved Bowman. Other archery units include the Horse Archer
and Elephant Archer.
Archers fire arrows at enemy villagers, military units, boats, and buildings
within their range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking,
Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The composite bow was developed in Asia was also known as the oriental or
recurved bow. It reached the Mediterranean and Middle East by the beginning of
the second millennium B.C. It was made of layers of wood glued together rather
than a single piece. The composite material was then bent outward at each end
to increase tension. The result was a very powerful bow that doubled the
effective range of the short bow. Egyptian engravings depicting the Battle of
Kadesh show Rameses II and other Egyptian archers using composite bows.
================
=Chariot Archer=
================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, and research
Wheel.
Cost: 40 Food, 70 Wood
Hit points: 70
Attack: 4
Armor: 0
Range: 7
Speed: Fast
Special: High resistance to conversion; triple attack against Priests.
Train at: Archery Range
The Chariot Archer is a powerful archery unit that combines the speed
and mobility of the Chariot and the attack strength of the Improved
Bowman. Other mounted archery units include the Elephant Archer, Horse
Archer, and Heavy Horse Archer. You must research the Wheel before you
can train Chariot Archers.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Researching Alchemy increases
attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and
Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase
range.
Around 1700 B.C., two existing technologies of military consequence, the chariot
and the bow, were merged to create a fearsome new military weapon--the chariot
archer. Armored archers carried in fast chariots dominated the battlefields of
the civilized world for the next 500 years and remained useful for some time
after that. In the open ground of the settled plains and river valleys, the
chariot archer was devastating due to its speed, mass, and firepower. Chariot
archers were typified by the Egyptian nobility and pharaohs of the New Kingdom,
1552-1069 B.C., who prided themselves of their archery. The first recorded
battle of history. Megiddo in 1460 B.C., was fought with chariot carrying
archers.
The chariot archer was the dominating battlefield weapon from China to Greece
from about 1600 to 1200 B.C., according to the historical and archaelogical
record. The long reign of chariot armies was due to several factors, including
most importantly the placement of a composite bow archer in the basket with the
driver and using the chariot as a mobile firing platform. The fast-firing
chariot archer was devastating against slow, poorly armored infantry in the
open areas of the civilized cultures. The glorious vision of elite archers from
the nobility fighting from their expensive chariots and wheeling around the
battlefields at will prevaded all civilized cultures of the time.
=================
=Elephant Archer=
=================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Archery Range.
Cost: 180 Food, 60 Gold
Hit points: 600
Attack: 5
Armor: 0
Range: 7
Speed: Slow
Train at: Archery Range
The Elephant Archer combines the hit points of the War Elephant and the
attack strength and range of the Composite Bowman. Other mounted archery
units include the Chariot Archer, Horse Archer, and Heavy Horse Archer.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases
accuracy. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor.
Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
Attempting to use elephants in combat posed a number of problems, including the
central one of how the elephant would fight and cause casualties. One answer
was to place a box on the elephant's back from which archers could shoot. The
archers were protected by the box and could fire down into the melee below.
That worked only as long as the elephant remained standing and within range of
the enemy. In the years following the death of Alexander the Great, many
western kings adorned their armies of ancient India used elephants more
succuesfully for many centuries.
==============
=Horse Archer=
==============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Archery Range.
Cost: 50 Food, 70 Gold
Hit points: 60
Attack: 7
Armor: 0
Piercing Armor: 2
Range: 7
Speed: Fast
Special: +2 piercing armor against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Train at: Archery Range
The Horse Archer is a fast archery unit with strong attack strength and
range. The Horse Archer can be upgraded to the Heavy Horse Archer.
Other mounted archery units include the Chariot Archer and Elephant
Archer.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Researching Alchemy increases attack
strength. Ballistics increases accuracy. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain
Mail increase armor. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The chariot archer was replaced eventually on many ancient battlefields by
horse archers. This transition took place during the dark age following 1200
B.C. Mounted warriors fighting with composite bows made up many of the
barbarian armies on the Asia steppes. This type of unit was embraced by the
Assyrians first and eventually by their rivals. Two horse archers had twice
the firepower of one chariot archer, were much more flexible in where they could
go on the battlefield, were only half eliminated by the loss of one horse, and
avoided the expense of the chariot itself. Horse archers rarely dominated
fighting as the chariot archers had, however, because advances in armor and
tactics relegated horse archers to a supportive role. The hordes of horse
archers employed by the Persians against Alexander, for example, were no match
for his Companion cavalry, heavy Greek infantry, and skirmish troops. The
Great Wall of Chine was built to restrict the movements of barbarian horse
archers from the north.
====================
=Heavy Horse Archer=
====================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, research Chain
Mail for Archers, and upgrade to Heavy Horse.
Archer.
Upgrade cost: 1750 Food, 800 Gold
Cost: 50 Food, 70 Gold
Hit points: 90
Attack: 8
Armor: 0
Piercing Armor: 2
Range: 7
Speed: Fast
Special: +2 piercing armor against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Upgrade of: Horse Archer
Train at: Archery Range
The Heavy Horse Archer has more hit points and attack strength than the
Horse Archer. You must research Chain Mail for Archers before you can
train the Heavy Horse Archer.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Researching Alchemy increases
attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and
Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship
increase range.
In a few armies of the late ancient period the Horse Archer was equipped with
helmet and limited body armor. This made the archer less vulnerable to arrows
himself. The Heavy Horse Archer could get closer to the enemy and do more
damage with bow fire with less risk to himself. Heavy Horse Archers were not a
common unit, however. They were difficult to train, except for those cultures
who were hoesr archers by common practice. Body armor for archers was a luxury
that most armies could not afford.
----------------------------------
D. Cavalry
----------------------------------
=======
=Scout=
=======
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 100 Food
Hit points: 60
Attack: 3
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Train at: Stable
The Scout is the weakest cavalry unit. The Scout cannot be upgraded.
However, you can train Cavalry, which is stronger than the Scout. Other
cavalry units include Heavy Cavalry, Cataphract, Chariot, and War
Elephant.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and
Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain
Mail increase armor.
An important innovation in military tactics was the provision of skirmish, or
light, troops that scouted ahead of the main body when an army was on the move.
While it was important to form solid, disciplined ranks of spearman or other
infantry for the shock of hand-to-hand combat, these dense formations were
vulnerable to surprise. It was the functional of scouts to keep the army
commander informed of the tactical situation and locate enemies so the main body
was brought into combat at the right place and time. At the Battle of Kadesh in
1275 B.C., Ramses II of Egypt did not investigate reports that the Hittite army
was far to the north. Instead he advanced one of his four divisions across the
Orontes River and was attacked while his second was still crossing. Ramses
managed to win the battle, but the lack of proper scouting put his army in
jeopardy.
=============
=Camel Rider=
=============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 70 Food, 60 Gold
Hit Points: 126
Attack: 6
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Attack bonus against all cavalry, horse archers, and chariots.
Train at: Stable
The Camel Rider is used by desert civilizations to defend against cavalry
attacks. Camel Riders do not receive a cavalry bonus against infantry.
Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy
increase attack strength. Leather armor, Scale armor, and Chain Mail increase
armor.
=========
=Chariot=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, and research Wheel.
Cost: 40 Food, 60 Wood
Hit points: 100
Attack: 7
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: High resistance to conversion; double attack against Priest.
Train at: Stable
The Chariot is a fast, two-wheel cavalry unit pulled by horses. You
must research the Wheel before you can build the Chariot.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and
Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail
increase armor.
Chariots originated in Sumeria before 2500 B.C. as four-wheeled carts pulled by
onogers. These chariots were slow and cumbersome compared to later chariots,
but provided a protected platform for spearman and archers. How they were used
in combat remains unclear, although all charging animals were intimidating on
the battlefield. At this time, the horse was not widely domesticated in the
civilized parts of the world. In the first half of the second millennium B.C.,
the chariot basket was reduced in size and mounted on only two wheels. Horses
were substituted eventually to provide greater speed. The fast two-wheeled
chariot was especially intimidating in battle because of its speed and the shock
value of charging horses. At this time horses were rarely being ridden.
Charioteers became the elite of the civilized armies for the next 600 or so
years. Chariots were often manned by the nobility because of their elite
status,
the glory to be won, and the high cost of building and maintaining chariots and
their horse teams.
================
=Scythe Chariot=
================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, research the Wheel and
Nobility.
Cost: 1200 Wood, 800 Gold
Hit Points: 120
Attack: 9
Armor: 2
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: High resistance to conversion; double attack against Priests. Scythed
wheels damage adjacent enemy units.
Train at: Stable
The Scythe Chariot is an upgrade of the Chariot. It has more hit points, more
attack strength, and more armor.
Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather
Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor.
=========
=Cavalry=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 70 Food, 80 Gold
Hit points: 150
Attack: 8
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Cavalry charge bonus (+5 attack against infantry)
Train at: Stable
Cavalry is not an upgrade of the Scout. It is a separate unit with more
hit points and attack strength (including +5 attack against infantry,
except for slinger) than the Scout. Cavalry can be upgraded to Heavy
Cavalry. Other cavalry units include the Chariot and War Elephant.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking,
and Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor,
and Chain Mail increase armor.
Horses were domesticated around 4000 B.C. for use as work animals. They first
appeared in the Middle East around 2000 B.C. but were kept only as expensive
pets. Gradually they were found useful in the civilized world as draft animals,
but were rarely ridden. The concept of cavalry was introduced to the Assyrians
from the plains of Russia during the dark age that followed the catastrophe of
1200 B.C. The Assyrians added cavalry to their armies in order to fight the
barbarians on the plains to their north. Israelite kind Solomon was renowned
for his large cavalry force. It eventually became clear that cavalry was more
efficient that cnariots. Two men, each on his horse, were more useful that two
men in a chariot that could be disabled with increasing ease. Cavalry was
cheaper tomaintain that chariotry and could enter more difficult terrain, but
was no less fast and intimidating to infantry.
===============
=Heavy Cavalry=
===============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, train Cavalry, and
upgrade to Heavy Cavalry.
Upgrade cost: 350 Food, 125 Gold
Cost: 70 Food, 80 Gold
Hit points: 150
Attack: 10
Armor: 1
Piercing Armor: 1
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Cavalry charge bonus (+5 attack against infantry); +1 piercing armor
against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Upgrade of: Cavalry
Train at: Stable
Heavy Cavalry has more attack strength and armor (including +1 armor against
missile weapons) than Cavalry. Heavy Cavalry can be upgraded to the Cataphract.
Other cavalry units include the Chariot and War Elephant.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and
Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail
increase armor.
Heavy cavalry was distinguished from other cavalry by equipment and battlefield
role. It was considered heavy because the warriors and horses usually wore some
metal armor, including breastplates, helmets, and greaves. The horses were also
oversized to more easily carry an armored man and to intimidate foes. While
most cavalry acted as skirmishers and scouts on the battlefield, heavy cavalry
was a shock weapon, held back for the proper moment to charge into enemy
formations and ride them down. Heavy cavalry was rare in antiquity because the
saddle and stirrup had not yet been invented. It took an excellent rider to
ride into a shock batle and use a lance effectively. The most famous heavy
cavalry of the time was the Companion cavalry of Alexander the Great. These
men were horsemen from birth on the plains of Thessaly and Macedon. Part of
their devastating success in battle against the Persians may have been due to
the novelty of their wedge-shaped charges, unprecedented at that time.
============
=Cataphract=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, research Cavalry,
upgrade to Heavy Cavalry, research Metallurgy, and upgrade to
Cataphract.
Upgrade cost: 2000 Food, 850 Gold
Cost: 70 Food, 80 Gold
Hit points: 180
Attack: 12
Armor: 3
Piercing Armor: 1
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Cavalry charge bonus (+5 attack against infantry); +1 piercing armor
against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Upgrade of: Heavy Cavalry
Train at: Stable
The Cataphract is the ultimate cavalry unit. The Cataphract has more hit points,
attack strength and armor than Heavy Cavalry. You must research Metallurgy
before you can upgrade to the Cataphract. Other cavalry units include the
Chariot and War Elephant.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and
Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail
increase armor.
The cataphract was an improvement on ancient heavy cavalry represented by
Alexander the Great's Companions. The Companions wore only helmets, greaves,
and cuirass (breastplate). Cataphracts wore chain mail that covered more of the
body and often armored their horses partially also. This gave greater
protection
against arrows and hand-to-hand weapons. Cataphracts were very expensive to
equip, however, and appeared in the armies of only the most warlike and wealthy
cultures.
==============
=War Elephant=
==============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 170 Food, 40 Gold
Hit points: 600
Attack: 15
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Special: Trample damage to all adjacent enemy units; attack strength cannot be
upgraded.
Train at: Stable
The War Elephant is a cavalry unit with many hit points and special
attack. The War Elephant causes trample damage to all adjacent enemy
units. The War Elephant's attack strength cannot be upgraded because
it already causes so much damage to other units. For example, if ten
men attack a War Elephant, all ten men receive 15 points of damage, so
that the War Elephant causes 150 points of damage per round.
Researching Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increases armor.
Elephants were tamed in antiquity but never domesticated. They were most useful
as beasts of burden, but were employed in battle by several cultures, including
the Phoenicians, Persians, and Indians. Elephanmts were much more intimidating
than horses and much tougher as well. In addition, horses avoided elephants,
making elephants, in theory, a great weapon against enemy cavalry. In practice,
unfortunately, elephants rarely proved useful. They were difficult to acquire,
train, and maintain. Hannibal attempted to take elephants across the Alps to
attack Rome, but only one survived. No account of Alexander the Great's battles
makes any mention of Persian elephants being effective. Elephants were
difficult
to control in battle and were likely to charge in any direction but the one
desired, especially after being wounded. They were apparently more dangerous to
friend than foe, being already nearer to friends and most likely to charge away
from perceived danger through the friendly army arrayed around them.
==================
=Armored Elephant=
==================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable and research Iron Shield.
Upgrade Cost: 1000 Food, 1200 Gold
Cost: 600
Attack: 18
Armor: 2
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Special: Trample damage against all adjacent enemy units; attack strength
cannot be upgraded. Increased attacking vs. walls and towers; +1 armor against
missile weapons, Ballista, and Helepolis
Upgrade Of: War Elephant
Train at: Stable
The Armored Elephant is an upgrade of the War Elephant. The Armored Elephant
has Siegecraft, more attack strength, armor and piercing armor.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor.
----------------------------------
E. Siege Weapons
----------------------------------
===============
=Stone Thrower=
===============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, and Siege
Workshop.
Cost: 180 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 75
Attack: 50
Armor: 0
Range: 10
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/5 seconds; small damage area; minimum range 2.
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Stone Thrower is the weakest of the siege weapons. Upgrades
include the Catapult and Heavy Catapult. Other siege weapons include
the Ballista and Helepolis.
Siege weapons are used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The stone thrower was an artillery weapon based on the principle of the lever.
The stone thrower fired a heavy missile, usually a large stone or stone wrapped
in burning oily rage. The missile was placed in a large basket at the end of
the throwing arm. Tension was built up on the other end of the arm while the
throwing basket was held taut against the fulcrum. When released, the throwing
arm swung up and forward until checked, throwing the missile. Stone throwers
were used primarily against fixed positions, especially cities and
fortifications.
Stones were used to knock down walls to open way of an infantry assault.
Fireballs set wood rubble on fire, buring out the defenders. Small stone
throwers were also used on the battlefield to disrupt massed enemy
fortifications,
although the enemy rarely easy targets within range. The stone thrower was
invented around 400 B.C. by Greeks seeking to capture an island fortress off the
coast of Sicily.
==========
=Catapult=
==========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, Siege Workshop,
and upgrade to Catapult.
Upgrade cost: 300 Food, 250 Wood
Cost: 180 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 75
Attack: 60
Armor: 0
Range: 12
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/5 seconds; medium damage area; minimum range 2.
Upgrade of: Stone Thrower
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Catapult has more attack strength and range and damages a larger
area than the Stone Thrower. The Catapult can be upgraded to the Heavy
Catapult. Other siege weapons include the Ballista and Helepolis.
Siege weapons are used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The stone thrower continued to evolve over time following its invention around
400 B.C. Improvements increased the size or range of the missile and the
mobility of the catapult.
================
=Heavy Catapult=
================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, Siege Workshop,
upgrade to Catapult, research Siegecraft, and upgrade to Heavy
Catapult.
Upgrade cost: 1800 Food, 900 Wood
Cost: 180 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 150
Attack: 60
Armor:0
Range: 13
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/5 seconds; large damage area; minimum range 2.
Upgrade of: Catapult
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Heavy Catapult has many more hit points and more range than the Catapult.
You must research Siegecraft before you can upgrade to the Heavy Catapult.
Other siege weapons include the Ballista and Helepolis.
Siege weapons are used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The heavy catapult was a powerful siege weapon, representing the greatest
advance
in siege weaponry during ancient times. It was employed against fortifications
and on the battlefield. It broke down fortification walls, allowing attackers
to break in. On the battlefield, smaller missiles could be fired in a shower
against dense formations of soldiers to cause casualties and disrupt morale at
long range. Enemy armies that could be softened and shaken before the hand-to-
hand clash of infantry were at a decided desadvantage.
==========
=Ballista=
==========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, and Siege
Workshop.
Cost: 100 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 55
Attack: 40
Armor:0
Range: 9
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/3 seconds; minimum range 3.
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Ballista can be upgraded to the Helepolis. Other siege weapons include the
Catapult and Heavy Catapult.
Ballistas are used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The ballista was an early artillery weapon that fired missiles, primarily large
bolts or spears. It was used in attacks on cities or fortified positions
because it could cause structural damage and casualties from a great distance.
When it could be deployed on a battlefield, it was especially useful against
dense formations of troops. In this situation, one shot could cause multiple
casualties. The ballista was invented in the second half of the first
millennium
B.C., probably by Greek engineers. It functioned like a large crossbow.
Tension
was built up in the engine by twisting leather, and then released, propelling
the missile down a guided trough and into flight.
===========
=Helepolis=
===========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, Siege Workshop,
research Craftsmanship, upgrade to Helepolis.
Upgrade cost: 1500 Food, 1000 Wood
Cost: 100 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 55
Attack: 40
Armor:0
Range: 10
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/1.5 seconds; minimum range 3.
Upgrade of: Ballista
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Helepolis has more range and a faster fire rate than the Ballista. You
must research Craftsmanship before you can upgrade to the Helepolis. Other
siege weapons include the Catapult and Heavy Catapult.
The Helepolis is used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The helepolis (Greek for "city killer") was one of the most advanced weapons of
antiquity and a remarkable demonstration of ancient engineering ingenuity. It
was in fact an automatic siege weapon that fired ballista bolts. The top
loading lagazine of the helepolis was a horizontal funnel in which were laid
bundles of bolts. These were fed by gravity into the chanber of the weapon. A
clever gearing mechanism automatically recocked the helepolis and fired. Human
operators needed only to keep it loaded and aimed, plus providing power by
cranking. The original of the machine was abandoned outside the city of Rhodes
when a besieging army withdrew. It has been reconstructed on paper from
contemporary sketches and descriptions of that only known example.
----------------------------------
F. Boats
----------------------------------
==============
=Fishing Boat=
==============
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Dock.
Cost: 50 Wood
Hit points: 45
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Build at: Dock
The Fishing Boat provides food by gathering fish and depositing them at
the Dock. The cargo capacity of a Fishing Boat is greater than the
carrying capacity of a villager. The Fishing Boat can be upgraded to
the Fishing Ship.
The Fishing Boat represents a small, vessel for use by one or a few fishermen.
The first boats were probably dugout canous, made from a single large log.
These
were excavated by fire and adze. Despite the passage of time and great
technological advances in all areas, there are more log- hull boats in use today
of any other single type.
==============
=Fishing Ship=
==============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to Fishing Ship.
Upgrade cost: 50 Food, 100 Wood
Cost: 50 Wood
Hit points: 75
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Upgrade of: Fishing Boat
Build at: Dock
The Fishing Ship has more hit points and is faster than the Fishing Boat.
The never-ending quest for food eventually enticed humans out onto lakes,
rivers,
and oceans in search of fish. Fish of greater size and variety were often found
in deeper offshore waters. Fishing ships, larger than small canoes, were
developed to control larger nets. Fishing ships were able to hold greater
quantities of processed fish before return to land was required.
============
=Trade Boat=
============
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Dock.
Cost: 100 Wood
Hit points: 200
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Build at: Dock
The Trade Boat lets you trade with other civilizations to increase your
stockpile of gold. The Trade Boat can be upgraded to the Merchant Ship.
Small boats were used by Stone-Age peoples for trading across rivers, lakes, and
oceans. We know, for example, that tool stone found on Aegean Islands was
brought to the mainland and other islands by traders long before large seagoing
boats existed. Primitive trading boats were usually dugout canoes, papyrus
bundles, or hide boats with a limited cargo capacity. They probably carried
only limited quantities of valuable trade goods, such as carvings, ivory, furs,
tool stone, decorative minerals, and amber. Large bulk cargos could not be
carried profitably in small trading boats.
===============
=Merchant Ship=
===============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to Merchant Ship.
Upgrade cost: 200 Food, 75 Wood
Cost: 100 Wood
Hit points: 250
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Upgrade of: Trade Boat
Build at: Dock
The Merchant Ship lets you trade with other civilizations to increase your
stockpile of gold. It is faster and has more hit points than the Trade Boat.
As civilization spread around the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean, and China
Sea,
larger trading ships came into use to carry bulk cargos such as olive oil from
Greece, cedar wood from Lebanon, grain from Egypt, and rice from China. Typical
ancient Merchant Ships had keels and were built of planks, but did not have
interior framing. They carried a single mast for a mainsail and were steered
with a large paddle. Their broad beam allowed for cargos far beyond those of
dugout canoes. Recent underwater discoveries of ancient merchant ships indicate
they had good sailing qualities and required only a small crew.
=================
=Light Transport=
=================
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Dock.
Cost: 150 Wood
Hit points: 150
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Build at: Dock
The Light Transport lets you transport up to five villagers, military
units, or Artifacts across water. The Light Transport can be upgraded
to the Heavy Transport.
The earliest use of boats in war was probably to carry men across rivers, lakes,
or seas to raid and plunder. The most suitable boat for this purpose was built
as a compromise between speed and capacity. Raiders did not want to spend long
periods in boats making a crossing and needed to surprise their enemies. The
boat also had to carry a reasonable number of raiders and have room for anyone
to be brought back. The fastest boats of ancient times were galleys powered
by sails when possible but mainly by oars. The Greek penteconter with 50 oars
was a common transport from troops. In most cases, the crew of oarsmen became
raiders when they reached their destination.
=================
=Heavy Transport=
=================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to Heavy Transport.
Upgrade cost: 150 Food, 125 Wood
Cost: 150 Wood
Hit points: 200
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Upgrade of: Light Transport
Build at: Dock
The Heavy Transport lets you transport up to ten villagers, military units, or
Artifacts across water. The Heavy Transport has more hit points, is faster, and
carries more units than the Light Transport.
Ships build carrying military units replaced smaller galleys when armies grew
larger and targets became more valuable and better defended. It became
necessary
to move ever-larger armies for invasion, and to bring siege engines and supplies
along for extended sieges of coastal cities. The Heavy Transport represents a
large sailing ship, something like a Merchant Ship, build mainly for capacity at
the expense of speed.
============
=Scout Ship=
============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Dock.
Cost: 135 Wood
Hit points: 120
Attack: 5
Armor: 0
Range: 5
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Build at: Dock
The Scout Ship is the weakest of the war vessels. Upgrades include the War
Galley and Trireme. Other war ships include the Catapult Trireme and
Juggernaught.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The first true warships built to attack and sink other ships were galleys with
a heavy ram mounted at the front. The warship attempted to ram an enemy ship
and stave in its hull, causing it to take on water if not sink. Early warships
were almost oar-powered torpedos, consisting of a light, floating hull manned by
oarsmen. A sail, if present, was used only in transit, not in battle.
============
=War Galley=
============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to War Galley.
Upgrade cost: 150 Food, 75 Wood
Cost: 135 Wood
Hit points: 160
Attack: 8
Armor: 0
Range: 6
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Upgrade of: Scout Ship
Build at: Dock
The War Galley has more hit points, attack strength, and range than a Scout
Ship. The War Galley can be upgraded to the Trireme.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The appearance of the ram triggered an arms race in ship design. Hulls were
strengthened to support ever-heavier rams on the bow. As hulls grew larger,
more oarsmen were required to provide power. A deck was added and a second
group of oarsmen was placed there. This increased power without increasing
length, but the deck made the ship somewhat instable. A ship with two levels
of rowers was called a bireme.
=============
=Fire Galley=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to War Galley.
Cost: 115 Wood, 40 Gold
Hit Points: 200
Attack: 24
Armor: 0
Range: 1
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units. +5 damage
from Ballista, Helepolis, +10 from other seige weapons
The Fire Galley is a short range vessel used to defend other ships. Fire
Galleys are superior to Triremes in one-on-one combat. Fire Galleys take
additional damage from Ballistics, Helepolises, Stone Throwers, Catapults,
Heavy Catapults and Juggernauts, whose heavy artillery can shatter the Fire
Galley's burning fire pots and set fire to the ship.
Research Alchemy increase attack strength.
Note: You can't build Fire Galleys if you select the Full Tech Tree option
before starting a game.
=========
=Trireme=
=========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, upgrade to War Galley, and upgrade
to Trireme.
Upgrade cost: 250 Food, 100 Wood
Cost: 135 Wood
Hit points: 200
Attack: 12
Armor: 0
Range: 7
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units; fire rate
once/2 seconds.
Upgrade of: War Galley
Build at: Dock
The Trireme has more hit points, attack strength, and range than a War Galley.
The Trireme cannot be upgraded. However, you can research the Catapult Trireme,
which is stronger than the Trireme.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
Ancient ship designers tried numerous tricks to get more power for warships,
including putting more men on single oars. The most successful was a trireme,
three tiers of single rowers per side. This ship provided resonable
maneuverability and speed. It appeared around 600 B.C. and made up the bulk of
Mediterranean navies for several hundred years after 500 B.C.
==================
=Catapult Trireme=
==================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, upgrade to War Galley, upgrade to
Trireme, and research Catapult Trireme.
Research cost: 300 Food, 100 Wood
Cost: 135 Wood, 75 Gold
Hit points: 120
Attack: 35
Armor: 0
Range: 9
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units; fire rate
once/5 seconds; small damage area.
Build at: Dock
The Catapult Trireme is not an upgrade of the Trireme. It is a separate vessel
with fewer hit points and a slower fire rate than a Trireme but it has much
more attack strength, range, and is armed with a Catapult, which can fire at a
location instead of at a particular unit. The Catapult Trireme can be upgraded
to the Juggernaught.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The ultimate warships of antiquity were advances on the trireme that occurred
after the death of Alexander the Great. These ships were first broadened so
that multiple rowers could apply power to each oar. Based on limited
descriptions and detailed figures from crew and rowers, it is believed that the
largest ships of this perios may have had catamaran hulls. The broadening of
ships and decks added weight and further reduced speed and maneuverability, but
increased stability. Decks supported catapult artillery and large marine
contigents. Ships engaged each other primarily with missile fire and boarding.
==============
=Juggernaught=
==============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, upgrade to War Galley, upgrade to
Trireme, research Catapult Trireme, research Engineering,
and upgrade to Juggernaught.
Upgrade cost: 2000 Food, 900 Wood
Cost: 135 Wood, 75 Gold
Hit points: 200
Attack: 35
Armor: 0
Range: 10
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units; fire rate
once/5 seconds; medium damage area.
Upgrade of: Catapult Trireme
Build at: Dock
The Juggernaught has more hit points and range and causes damage to a larger
area than the Catapult Trireme. Like the Catapult Trireme, the Juggernaught is
armed with a Catapult, which can fire at a location instead of at a particular
unit. You must research Engineering before you can upgrade to the Juggernaught.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The most remarkable advances in war ships appeared on the Mediterranean before
the conquest of the entire region by Rome. These ships could reach enormous
size, carrying crews of several thousand rowers and marines. They fought by
firing catapults at each other until close enough to grapple and board. The
largest were too slow to effectively ram each other. Because of their size and
slowness, they could not operate far from shore and needed substantial support
from supply ships carrying food and water for the crew. The largest were show
ships, built in an arms race that emphasized size and expense instead of
practicality.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
5. Technologies
----------------------------------
A. Storage Pit
----------------------------------
=============
=TOOLWORKING=
=============
Age: Tool Age
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 100 Food
Benefit: This provides a +2 attack for your hand- to- hand units.
Note: The first metals put to use were those found in a relatively pure
state on the earth's surface, including gold, silver, and copper. Gold
could be worked in its natural state. Experimentation with it eventually
suggested electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) and copper could
also be hammered into useful shapes. Learning how to extract copper from
ore and shape it into tools was an important milestone in the rise of
civilization because it opened the door first to making bronze and then
to making iron. Cast copper tools were an important advance over stone
tools, but were too soft to have a long, useful life. The discovery of
bronze, made by alloying a small amount of tin with copper, ushered in a
2000- year Bronze Age. Cast bronze tools dramatically increased the
efficiency of workers. Bronze weapons were superior to those made of
stone and copper. Armies equipped with bronze swords, spears, and
arrowheads had a critical advantage over more poorly equipped armies.
==============
=METALWORKING=
==============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Toolworking.
Cost: 200 Food, 120 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +2 attack for your hand- to- hand units.
Note: The discovery and use of iron to make tools and weapons was one of
the most important advances in civilization. Some historians consider the
use of iron to be one of the distinguishing characteristics separating
civilization from barbarism because the new tools were less brittle, could
hold better edges, and held edges for a longer time without resharpening.
Most importantly, iron ore was much easier to locate than copper and tin,
making iron tools cheaper and more readily available. By 1000 B.C., iron
tools were being made that were as good as the best ones of bronze; by 500
B.C., iron had largely supplanted bronze from Europe and Asia. The expanse
and scarcity of bronze had restricted its use to the elite and wealthy.
Iron tools and weapons were available to nearly everyone.
============
=METALLURGY=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Toolworking and Metalworking.
Cost: 300 Food, 180 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +3 attack for your hand- to- hand units.
Note: You must research Metallurgy before you can upgrade to the
Cataphract. The use of iron spread throughout the Mediterranean, Middle
East, and Asia during the first millenium B.C., and some areas became
especially adept at the new science. Certain campgrounds added to the
molten metal increased the strength of the resulting tools. New forging
techniques also resulted in better tools. The best iron tool workers made
superior weapons that were an important advantage in battle.
===============
=BRONZE SHIELD=
===============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 150 Food, 180 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +1 armor against the Ballista, Helepolis, and
missile weapons.
Note: The shield was probably the first piece of military equipment
developed to protect a warrior. The earliest were made of wood or wood
and hide, and were in various shapes. They were carried in the hand or on
the forearm and used to ward off blows or missiles in battle. Shield
designs and materials evolved to keep up with advances in weapons. Wood
and hide shields were easy to smash with bronze weapons, so bronze shields
were developed. Bronze shields also provided better defense against
missiles. Arrows, especially with metal points, were prone to lodge in
wooden shields. This increased the weight of the shield and made it more
unwieldy. Roman legions threw spears at barbarian formations mainly so
they would pierce and weigh down the enemy's shield just before closing.
Arrows and other missiles deflected off bronze shields without penetration.
=============
=IRON SHIELD=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched the Bronze Shield.
Cost: 200 Food, 320 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +1 armor against the Ballista, Heleoplis, and
missile weapons.
Note: The iron shield replaced the bronze shield when swords and other
weapons of iron became common. Iron shields were not only expensive to
make, but also more effective in stopping all hand- to- hand and missile
weapons. The basic iron shield remained in use until firearms made
personal shields on the battlefield obsolete.
==============
=TOWER SHIELD=
==============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Storage Pit, researched
Bronze Shield, and researched Iron Shield.
Cost: 250 Food, 400 Gold
Benefit: +1 infantry armor against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Note: The Romans adopted a tall rectangular shield that gave them advantages in
battle when used properly. The size of the shield protected more of the body.
The Romans fought in tight rectangular formations of approximately 100 men
called maniples. The shields of the men in the maniple presented a continuous
front, or shield wall, which protected them greatly from missile fire. They
developed a formation variant called Testudo (turtle). In this formation, the
shields covered all four sides and the heads of the men, allowing them to
advance under missile fire. This was useful when advancing toward a gap in an
enemy wall.
===========================
=LEATHER ARMOR FOR ARCHERS=
===========================
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 100 Food
Benefit: This provides a +2 armor for your Archery Range units.
Note: Soldiers have sought ways to protect themselves in combat since the
beginnings of warfare. Long before the use of metals, leather was
employed to make helmets and body armor that could stop, or at least
soften, blows from blunt and edged weapons. Leather was easy to work
with, it was light and not overly restrictive of movement, it could be
fitted to the wearer, and it was usually plentiful and inexpensive.
Leather remained an important material for body armor throughout the
Bronze Age due to the high cost of metal armor. It wasn't until far into
the Iron Age that metal armor was available for common soldiers.
=========================
=SCALE ARMOR FOR ARCHERS=
=========================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather Armor for Archers.
Cost: 125 Food, 50 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +2 armor for your Archery Range units.
Note: The use of metals to make weapons was matched by using metals to
make better armor. Among the first improvements in widespread use were
breastplates and greaves of bronze. The breastplate protected the torso
while greaves protected the legs below the knee. Both of these items
protected only the front of the soldier, saving the weight and cost that
all- around protection would entail. Breastplates and greaves were worn
by hoplites of the phalanx, for example, during the glory years of
Greece. When used together with a large shield and bronze helmet, they
left little of the soldier's body exposed to attack. Bronze armor was an
example of scale armor, or plate armor, in which metal plates provided
protection.
========================
=CHAIN MAIL FOR ARCHERS=
========================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather Armor and Scale Armor for Archers.
Cost: 150 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Archery Range units.
Note: Chain mail was a type of body armor made of iron circlets woven
together into a cloak. The interlocking chains of iron protected the body
somewhat from weapons that slashed or pounded. Chain mail was also
flexible and allowed more freedom of body movement than armor made of
metal plates. The disadvantages of chain mail were that it required a lot
of care, was heavy, and was expensive to make. Chain mail was worn only
by wealthy or powerful individuals who could purchase or demand its
manufacture.
===========================
=LEATHER ARMOR FOR CAVALRY=
===========================
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 125 Food
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Stable units.
Note: The same as above.
=========================
=SCALE ARMOR FOR CAVALRY=
=========================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather Armor for Cavalry.
Cost: 150 Food, 50 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +2 armor for your Stable units.
Note: The same as above.
========================
=CHAIN MAIL FOR CAVALRY=
========================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather and Scale Armor for Cavalry.
Cost: 175 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Stable units.
Note: The same as above.
============================
=LEATHER ARMOR FOR INFANTRY=
============================
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 75 Food
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Barracks and Academy units.
Note: The same as above.
==========================
=SCALE ARMOR FOR INFANTRY=
==========================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather Armor for Infantry.
Cost: 100 Food, 50 Gold
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Barracks and Academy units.
Note: The same as above.
=========================
=CHAIN MAIL FOR INFANTRY=
=========================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather and Scale Armor for Infantry.
Cost: 125 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Barracks and Academy units.
Note: The same as above.
----------------------------------
B. Market
----------------------------------
=======
=WHEEL=
=======
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 175 Food, 75 Wood
Benefits: Villager speed is increased by 30%.
Note: You must research the Wheel before you can build a Chariot or
Chariot Archer. The use of the wheel for transport was discovered in
Sumeria sometime after 3400 B.C. and derived from the potter's wheel that
appeared first. The Sumerians learned that in a small cart, a donkey
could pull a load equal to three times what it could carry on its back.
The wheel revolutionized transport and had an important impact on the
battlefield as well. By the Bronze Age, chariot archers were dominating
warfare on the open plains. The wheel was apparently used only for
children's toys in ancient America, probably because of the rough
geography and the lack of an animal like the ox or horse.
=============
=WOODWORKING=
=============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 120 Food, 75 Wood
Benefits: You receive a +2 woodcutting ability and a +1 range for missile
weapons.
Note: The small stone blades that characterized the New Stone Age
(neolithic period) made possible finer techniques in many areas, including
woodworking. The larger and more unweildy stone tools of the past were
capable of crude cutting and carving only. Better woodworking improved
other tools and weapons, making possible the bow and arrow and spear
thrower.
=============
=ARTISANSHIP=
=============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Woodworking.
Cost: 170 Food, 120 Gold
Benefits: You receive a +2 woodcutting ability and a +1 range for missile
weapons.
Note: The discovery and use of first copper and then the much more useful
bronze tools and weapons was a dramatic leap in technology. Bronze,
especially, posessed a hardness, strength, and ability to hold an edge
that far surpassed the best stone tools, making it much more useful when
working with stone, wood, hides, meat, and other materials. Cultures that
used bronze had a decided economic and military advantage over those that
did not.
=========
=COINAGE=
=========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Gold Mining.
Cost: 200 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: This provides you with free tribute and increases your Gold
Mining productivity by 25%.
Note: The first true coins were minted in ancient Lydia, now part of
modern Turkey. These first coins were made from electrum, a naturally
ocurring malleable alloy of gold and silver. Coins, and money in general,
proved an important facilitator of trade and economic progress. Money
acted as a storehouse of value, a medium of exchange, and a standard of
value, as it continues to do today. Following the conquest of the Persian
Empire, the concept of coinage or as adopted by the Greeks and spread by
them throughout the Hellenistic world.
===============
=CRAFTSMANSHIP=
===============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Woodworking and Artisanship.
Cost: 240 Food, 200 Wood
Benefits: You receive a +2 woodcutting ability and +1 range for missile
weapons.
Note: You must research Craftsmanship before you can upgrade to the
Helepolis. The discovery of inexpensive ways to make iron was as great a
technological leap over bronze making as bronze was over stone. Iron
surpassed bronze in every critical characteristic- hardness, strength, and
the ability to hold an edge before needing to be resharpened- Plus one.
Iron was much easier to acquire than were copper and tin, making it
available to all cultures and for all uses. Historians consider the
ability to make and use iron ore one of the distinctions between barbaric
and civilized culture.
===============
=DOMESTICATION=
===============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Granary, and
researched Market.
Cost: 200 Food, 50 Wood
Benefits: You receive a 75% increase of food production to your farms.
Note: The revolution in agriculture involved both the development of
animals. The ability to control and manage herds of milk- and meat-
producing animals also served to free humans from the drudging and
desperation of continual hunting and gathering. Herding did not lead
necessarily to a sedentary village life, however. The need to find pasture
often meant that herding societies remained nomadic, at least for part of
the year. Domesticated sheep and goats first appear in the archaelogical
record around 7500 B.C. in the Zagros Mountains to the east of the Tigro
and Euphrates River valleys. Cattle were domesticated around 600 B.C. in
both the Sahara and Egypt, perhaps near simultaneously. Domestication of
cattle alone may have been for responsible for a doubling of world human
population in a few generations.
==============
=STONE MINING=
==============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 100 Food, 50 Stone
Benefits: Your stone mining is increased by +3.
Note: Wood for building was scarce in most places where civilizations
first arose. Vast forests just did not exist in these predominately arid
regions. The principle building material for common uses was mud bricks,
sun- dried at first and then fire- baked. In some areas important
structures such as temples, palaces, tombs, and fortifications were built
of stone when it was available. Much information about ancient Egypt was
preserved because of the permanence of stone. Equilalent structures in
Mesopotamia collapsed into mounds of earth after many centuries of neglect
and weathering. Acquiring non- wood building materials through brick
making or quarrying was the object of Stone Mining.
=============
=GOLD MINING=
=============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 120 Food, 100 Wood
Benefits: The gold mining production is increased by +3.
Note: Gold washed down the hills and mountains was probably the 1st metal
with which humans experimented. It was sufficiently soft and pure to be
fashioned easily into objects of beauty for adornment and trade. The
value of gold remained high as populations increased because of demand for
it continued to exceed supply. Because of this value, the trail of gold
was followed back to the source of the alluvial nuggets. Gold mining was
developed to obtain ore from which the pure metal could be extracted.
Many of the most beautiful objects that survive from antiquity are made of
gold, including hundreds of items from the Egyptian Pharaoh, Tutankhamen's
tomb.
============
=SIEGECRAFT=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Stone Mining.
Cost: 190 Food, 100 Stone
Benefits: Villagers can destroy walls and towers, and your stone mining
ablity is increased by +3.
Note: You must research Siegecraft before you can upgrade to the Heavy
Catapult. Despite the written records and depictions of cities and
fortifications being stormed with the aid of siege equipment, starvation
was the only certain and effective way to take strongholds before the
gunpowder age. The defender of a strong position, with adequate troops,
food, and water, had all the advantages. Physical assault of strongholds
was a difficult proposition accompanied regularly only by those armies
posessing siegecraft- the necessary equipment, resolve, leadership, elan,
discipline, and skill. Examples from ancient history were the army of
Alexander the Great that conducted 20 sieges over a ten- year period, most
after the fall of the Persian Empire; the Hittites, the Assyrians, and the
Romans.
======
=PLOW=
======
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Domestication.
Cost: 250 Food, 75 Wood
Benefits: You receive a 75% food production increase to your farms.
Note: The first agriculturists planted seeds by hand using digging sticks
to open the ground. The invention of the plow made it possible to more
easily prepare farmland for planting. The plow ripped open long rows for
seeding, burying unwanted plants and cutting unwanted roots in the
process. When pulled behind domesticated animals, such as oxen, food
production per farmer and per acre again increased. The plow has
continued to evolve since ancient times. For example, U.S. President
Thomas Jefferson invented an improved version.
============
=IRRIGATION=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Domestication and the Plow.
Cost: 300 Food, 100 Wood
Benefits: You receive a 75% food production increase to your farms.
Note: One of the key steps in the agricultural revolution was
understanding and managing irrigation. Observation of the natural world
revealed eventually the relationship between planted seeds, good soils,
sunlight, water, and resultant crops. Large- scale irrigation in both
Mesopotamia and Egypt turned the rich but arid soils near the rivers into
rich farmlands and made possible the rise of the great civilizations on
earth. Building the dams and channels to irrigate these lands required
sophistication of government, construction, and engineering not seen
previously in any society.
----------------------------------
C. Government
----------------------------------
=========
=ALCHEMY=
=========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 250 Food, 200 Gold
Benefits: You receive a +1 attack ability for your siege and missile
weapons.
Note: The beginnings of chemistry can be traced back to ancient attempts
to make gold and silver out of base metals, to find a universal cure for
disease, and to discover secrets of prolonging life. The experiments and
secrecy of the alchemists gave them an aura of mystery and magic.
Alchemists were both feared and sought out for help. In an ancient world
of little scientific understanding, mystery, and magic had power.
==============
=ARCHITECTURE=
==============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 150 Food, 175 Wood
Benefits: Building construction is increased by +33% and the hit points of
your buildings and walls are increased by +20%.
Note: The art and science of designing and constructing buildings arose
from the practical need to provide first shelter, then storage for food
reserves, and then defenses for both. One of the specializations that
appeared in the first towns was the builder whose skills and techniques
continue to evolve today. Builders and architects worked with the
materials available to construct buildings and fortifications. Over time
new techniques of architecture improved the efficiency, strength, and
utility of construction.
=============
=ARISTOCRACY=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 175 Food, 150 Gold
Benefits: The speed of your Academy units is increased by +25%.
Note: The Aristocracy was a privileged class, usually hereditary, that
arose within many cultures. Aristocrats generally derived their power
from control of farmland and the attendant infrastructure of people,
towns, and manufacturing- supported food production. They kept power at
the pleasure of the ruler, as long as they acceded to his wishes.
Aristocrats may also have had military responsibility, especially when on
the frontier of the kingdom or empire. In many cultures the aristocrats
provided the senior officer corps or elite troops of the army. Commanders
of the armies and navies of Athens, for example, were elected from among
the aristocracy of landowners.
============
=BALLISTICS=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 200 Food, 50 Gold
Benefits: It increases the accuracy of missile and siege weapons.
Note: You must research Ballistics before you can upgrade to the Ballista
Tower. The use of missile weapons for war presented challenges that
hunting with the bow did not. Hunters stalked game and shot ideally at a
stationary target. War targets were often armored, partially shielded, or
moving. Effective use of the bow and other missile weapons required
tactics and training. Bowmen of low skill were taught to fire in barrages
at an area rather than at specific targets. Better- trained archers
learned to shoot for specific parts of the target, including the horses of
chariots or cavalry. Ballistics, the study of projectile flight, was
derived from the name of an ancient missile weapon, the Ballista.
=============
=ENGINEERING=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 200 Food, 100 Wood
Benefits: The range for your siege weapons is increased by +2.
Note: You must research Engineering before you can upgrade to the
Juggernaught. Ancient engineers were able to build remarkable structures
even though the raw materials and tools with which they could work were
often limited. The Egyptian pyramids, for example, were built of multiton
stone blocks using only the fulcrum and lever, wedge, ramp, sledge, and
rollers. The pyramid builders of 2600 B.C. used tools made only of wood
and copper. Advances in engineering were slow and based primarily on
practical experience until advances in mathematics, especially from the
Greeks, led to the new experimentation and techniques.
==========
=NOBILITY=
==========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 175 Food, 120 Gold
Benefits: There is a hit point bonus of +15% for Cavalry units, Chariot,
Chariot Archer, Horse Archer, and Heavy Horse Archer.
Note: Within ancient tribal groups an early hierarchical structure
centered around the strongman, who probably took power in a physical
contest, led the group, and enjoyed special privileges. As populations
increased, the hierarchy expanded. Layers of nobility, a class of society
privileged due to fighting prowess or wealth, grew between the stronghold,
or king, and common people and slaves. The nobility served as
administrators and sub- commanders of the army. Examples of nobility were
the Persian satraps, who ruled provinces of the Persian Empire, and
Alexander the Great's Companion's, who commanded parts of his army and
formed the core of his heavy cavalry squadrons.
=========
=WRITING=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 200 Food, 75 Gold
Benefits: You share exploration with allies.
Note: The advance of writing is benchmark technology often used to separate
those cultures that were civilized from those that were barbaric. The key
importance of writing is that it allowed information to be stored and
passed on easily, thereby accelerating the accumulation and spread of
knowledge. Writing is believed to have been invented between 4000 and
3000 B.C. in Sumeria. The first writing was in simple pictures called
pictograms that gradually evolved into symbols representing the picture.
Egyptian hieroglyphics first appeared between 3300 and 3100 B.C., and are
thought to have been inspired by cuneiform, the Sumerian symbolic writing.
Writing appeared in China after 1600 B.C.
===========
=Logistics=
===========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 180 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: Barracks units only count as half a unit toward your population, so
you can essentially exceed the population limit by Training Barracks units.
For example, if your population limit is 50 and you build 20 normal units, you
can train 60 Barracks units eithout exceeding the population limits.
Note: The science of supplying armies on the march was called logistics. The
Assyrians were the first great army to employ logistics consistently, and this
allowed them to operate regularly at great distances from their home bases.
Armies on campaign needed food, forage for animals, equipment, armor, and
weapons. In most cases, food was acquired from the countryside through which
the army was moving. But if an army paused to beseige a town, it exhausted
local supplies quickly. Food and forage had to be brought in or the army was
forced to retire. The tools of logistics were supply wagons, pack animals,
depots, and troops to keep the roads open. The great conquerors of antiquity
mastered logistics.
----------------------------------
D. Temple
----------------------------------
============
=POLYTHEISM=
============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 120 Gold
Benefits: Your priests move +40% faster.
Note: The first religions embraced a multitude of gods, each associated
with one aspect of life. There might have been a sun god, a moon god, a
god of the forest, a god of the river, and so on. The multitude of gods
was useful in understanding how the world worked and in directing petition
and prayer for specific help and relief. The existence of multipple gods
increased the power of priests because each god had special needs and
abilities that needed interpretation. The ancient Egyptians, for example,
worshipped around 2000 gods. Many of these were any local deities, but
others were held sacred throughout the country.
============
=MONOTHEISM=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 350 Gold
Benefits: Your priests can convert enemy priests and buildings (except for
Town Centers and Wonders.)
Note: The belief that there is only one God has evolved from the Persian
religion of Zoroastrianism down through Judaism to many of the more
popular religions of today. Whether monotheism is an advancement or not
is a subjective question. The widespread popularity over time and the
fervor of adherents indicates that monotheistic religions have more
successfully met the requirements of a religion than other beliefs that
have fallen aside.
===========
=MYSTICISM=
===========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 120 Gold
Benefit: Your Priests' hit points are doubled.
Note: Mysticism was a spiritual discipline that sought to achieve contact
with gods or other perceived realities through contemplation, trances, or
meditation. It was induced or enhanced by drugs in some cases, and it was
part of many ancient beliefs. For religions seeking to explain the great
unknown, the apparent ability to communicate through media unknown to the
average person was a powerful selling point. Because peopledream every
night, it was a logical step to believe that a few members of the group
could somehow make sense of dreams or see through the confusion to
communicate with another dimension.
=======
=JIHAD=
=======
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 120 Gold
Benefits: It increases the attack, speed, and hit points of villagers, but
decreases their gathering efficiency.
Note: The word jihad can mean a crusade or struggle, and comes from the
holy war of Islam directed against all that defied the word of God as
written in the Koran. The equivalent of jihad can occur in any society
brought to a peak of emotion by religious fervor or other means. The
value of the jihad to society is that the people caught up in the emotion
of the enterprise place their best interests, even their lives, second to
the purpose of the crusade. The jihad was especially effective at a most
desperate time when survival of the group hung in the balance.
============
=FANATICISM=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 150 Gold
Benefits: Your Priests rejuvenate 50% faster after converting a unit.
Note: You must research Fanaticism before you can upgrade to Legion.
Religion evolved to provide a spiritual foundation and understanding to
life once humans became sufficiently intelligent to ponder the great
terrifying questions of our existence. A disturbing byproduct of the
spread of religion was fanaticism- the intense, unquestioning devotion to
the ideas and leadership of other humans. Fanatics were capable of ant
act, even at great risk to their lives, and were especially dangerous
enemies in war.
===========
=ASTROLOGY=
===========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 150 Gold
Benefits: Your Priests convert enemy units 30% faster.
Note: Ancient observers of the stars and the heavens noted the correlation
between the sun, the seasons, and the success of crops. The study of
celestial events was an early step in the attempt to understand and
control the uncertainties of life and became an important part of many
early religions. The sun god, Ra, for example, was the most powerful of
the Egyptian gods. Priests who could determine the start and end of the
growing seasons, foretell the phases of the moon, and predict terrifying
eclipses greatly enhanced their power in society. The power of astrologers
increased when their subjects believed that the influence of the stars and
planets on human affairs could be divined from celestial positions and
aspects.
===========
=AFTERLIFE=
===========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 275 Gold
Benefit: The range of your Priests is increased by +3.
Note: An important question that ancient religions attempted to address
was what happens when people die. Many religions held that there was an
afterlife, a place or existence that continued once a person's time on
earth ended. The promise of an attractive afterlife was a powerful
inducement for behavior that conformed to the goals of a particular
religion. Fervent believers in an afterlife might give up their lives to
serve their gods. Well- considered religions that offered a good return
for acceptance, including an attractive afterlife, grew more in power and
influence than those that did not. Christianity, for example, promised
everlasting life to everyone of faith, not just to the rich buried in great
tombs with servants and goods.
===========
=MARTYRDOM=
===========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market and Temple.
Cost: 600 Gold
Benefit: Lets you instantly convert an enemy unit by sacrificing one of your
Priests. You cannot use Martyrdom to convert an enemy Priest.
Note: To convert a unit using Martyrdom-
1. Click on a Priest. Right-click on the enemy unit you want.
2. After the Priest starts converting, press the DELETE key.
==========
=MEDICINE=
==========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market and Temple.
Cost: 150 Gold
Benefit: Increases Priest healing rate.
Note: Through trial and error, humans learned that certain herbs and plant
products possessed midicinal qualities. The invention of writing made it
possible to record this knowledge and pass it on to following generations by a
method other than oral transmission. The science of medicine progressed
gradually, improving the quality and length of life.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
6. The Civilizations
----------------------------------
Ancient Chosen
----------------------------------
(2333 to 108 B.C.)
The Korean Peninsula was invaded by successive waves of Neolithic peoples,
but the culture of the area changed little until the use of bronze
implements began around the fifteenth century B.C. The Bronze Age brought
significant change to Korea. Recovered bronze spear points and arrowheads
indicate conquest and warfare were widespread. Towns protected by earthen
walls appeared. Funerary dolmens (rock shelters covered by enormous
capstones) indicate the rise of a stratified political and social
structure.
The Bronze Age in Korea lasted until the fourth century B.C. During the
Bronze Age, the first large political groupings of walled town states
arose. The most advanced of these was Ancient Chosen.
==========
=Location=
==========
The state of Ancient Chosen was located in the valleys of the Liao and
Taedong Rivers, in the southwestern part of what is now North Korea. It
occupied the Taedong River basin originally and spread its influence
gradually over a large region of the peninsula.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The Ancient CVhosen capital was Wanggom- song, now modern P'yongyang (the
capital of North Korea).
===================
=The Rise To Power=
===================
The power of Ancient Chosen grew from around 2333 B.C. to the end of the
fourth century B.C. The Ancient Chosen expanded possibly due to better
agriculture and population growth, better use of newly available iron
weapons, better leaders, or all of the above. When the Chinese kingdom of
Yen encountered the Ancient Chosen culture, they referred to them as being
arrogant and cruel, which suggests that the Ancient Chosen were formidable
warriors.
Despite the apparent strength of Ancient Chosen at the end of the fourth
century, they went into decline, nevertheless, following the arrival of
the Yen kingdom across the Liao River. The Chinese overlord in control of
the Liaotung Peninsula changed several times during the next century and
the political upheaval fostered an immigration of Chinese political,
military, and economic power into Ancient Chosen. One refugee, named
Wiman, built a power base among the other refugees and eventually drove
the Ancient Chosen king from his throne around 190 B.C.
The new kingdom, called Wiman Chosen, was a hybrid of Korean and Chinese
influences. Due to its superior military and economic strength, it
subjugated smaller Korean states to its north, east, and south. This
placed the Wiman Chosen between the now dominant Han Chinese and the
remaining Korean states in the south, allowing it to control trade between
the two regions. For three generations, the Wiman Chosen dominated north
central Korea.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The principal economic activity of Bronze and early Iron Age Korea was
agriculture. Rice was the main food crop of southern Korea. Raising
livestock (oxen, horses, pigs, and dogs) was more important in the north.
The basic farming unit was the village, made up of headmen, free peasants,
and a few slaves. Peasants and slaves worked mainly on communal farms.
There were some peasant- owned lands as well. The fre peasants were
heavily taxed and provided labor to the state. They were not permitted to
bear arms or serve in the armies.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The leaders of the early walled towns in Korea performed both political
and religious functions. The dignity and authority of these leaders was
enhanced by their acknowledged descent from a sun god. Political and
religious power split gradually into two separate functions as the
confederation grew in size. Rituals were thereafter directed by
specialists.
The primitive religion of prrehistoric Korea was based on animism and
shomanism. Primative priets were magicians who attempted to move the gods
by evocation. By the time of Ancient Chosen, priests prayed to the gods
humbly and earnestly for favor.
The ancient Koreans believed in the immortality of the soul and buried
their elite with elaborate ritual. They also practiced divination. The
two most important festivals of the year were tied to the growing season.
In the spring, they prayed for abundance, and in the fall, they celebrated
thanksgiving.
============
=Government=
============
Village communities were governed by a ruling elite that kept order,
allocated land and resources, collected taxes, and provided security. The
individual communities were held together in confederation by military and
economic means. Ancient Chosen took the name wang (king) for its leader
about the time that the nearby Chinese kingdom of Yen employed the same
title.
==========
=Military=
==========
Little is known about the armies of Ancient Chosen except that they were
standing armies and not levies of peasants. Evidence of horses and
chariots is not widespread, suggesting that only the richest warriors
could afford these enhancements. Bronze spear points and arrowheads from
the early days of the Ancient Chosen suggest an army of spearmen and
archers. Later finds include bronze daggers and spears of distinctive
styles, iron daggers, and iron spear points. The daggers suggest that
these short weapons were used by infantry for close combat in addition to
spears.
The prowess of Ancient Chosen armies can be inferred from their expansion
and dominance of the region and the comments about Ancient Chosen recorded
by their Chinese neighbors.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Unified China under Han Dynasty was not pleased by Wiman Chosen's growth
and control of eastward trade, and was concerned about a possible alliance
between Wiman Chosen and the Hsiung-nu (barbarians then expanding out of
Mongolia into Manchuria). The aggressive Emperor Wu of Han launched an
attack against the Wiman Chosen when diplomacy failed to bring them to
heel. The Wiman Chosen were a tough adversary but were weakened by
defections and collaborations among the nobility. The Wiman Chosen
capital fell in 108 B.C., and the kingdom came to an end.
========
=Legacy=
========
The legacy of the Ancient Chosen was a Korean culture that remained
separate from that of China, despite the proximity and influence of that
enormous neighbor.
----------------------------------
Assyrian
----------------------------------
(1800 to 600 B.C.)
The only thing that I can say to introduce the Assyrians is the fact that
they were very powerful and fierce. They have legendary barbarity, as well.
==========
=Location=
==========
Assyria was located in northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) along the Tigris
River. It was settled after Sumer to the south but was dominated by the
Sumerians both culturally and politically during its early history.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The capital of Assyria was Ashur for most of its existence, but moved to
other sites when kings built new palaces. Other important cities and
capitals in the Assyrian homeland were Nineveh, Arbela, Khorsabad, and
Nimrud.
===============
=Rise to Power=
===============
Around 2000 B.C., Assyria was invaded by Semitic barbarians called the
Armorites. By 1800 B.C. an Armorite king of the Assyrians had established
control over most of northern Mesopotamia. Their power was short- lived
in this period, however, due first to the rise of Babylonia under Hammurabi
and then the rise of the Mitanni in modern Syria.
The period 1363 to 1000 B.C. was the Middle Assyrian Empire. Several
strong kings reasserted Assyrian independence and then began encroaching
on neighboring empires. The Assyrians avoided destruction during the
catastrophe of 1200 B.C., perhaps they were already embracing the new
military tactics and weapons that the older kingdoms were not. In the
political vacuum of the ancient dark age, the Arryrians prospered. By
1076 B.C. Tiglathpileser I had reached the Mediterranean to the west.
The New Assyrian Empire, 1000 to 600 B.C. was the peak of their conquests.
Their empire stretched from the head of the Persian Gulf, around the
Fertile Crescent through Damascus, Phoenicia, Palestine, and into Egypt as
far south as Thebes. Their northwestern border was the Taurus Mountains
of modern Turkey. Other than the vestiges of what had once been the Minoan
(Crete), Mycenean (Greece), and Hittite (Turkey) cultures, all areas of
pre- catastrophe civilization in the West were ruled by Assyria.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The Assyrian economy was based on agriculture and herding, but the Assyrians
also benefited by being situated astride some important trade routes.
They are not remembered as traders in their own right, perhaps only tax
collectors on traders went through. During the New Empire period, they
profited from the taxes and tribute they collected from their various
provinces and vassal states, including even Egypt for a few years.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Assyrian religion was heavily influenced by that of its Mesopotamian
predecessors, mainly Sumeria. The chief god of the Assyrians was Ashur,
from whom both their culture and capital take their names. Their temples
were large zaggurats built of mud bricks, like their neighbors to the south.
The principal activity of the rich was hunting from chariots, appropriate
for such a war- like culture. Despite their fearsome reputation, the
Assyrians embraced civilization. They wrote using cuneiform and decorated
their cities leberally with reliefs, painted stonework, and sculpture.
============
=Government=
============
The king was the head administrator of government, supported by local
provincial governors. The palace was the site of government. Advisors
consulted the omens before important decisions were made.
Provinces and vassal cities were required to pay taxes and tribute in the
form of food, goods, gold, labor, military supplies, and soldiers for the
army. An extensive network of roads and grain depots were built during
the New Empire to speed communication and armies moving to trouble spots.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
The Assyrians built on a large and lavish scale, using mostly mud bricks,
but also stone that was more readily available than it was further south.
Several New Empire kings built extensive palaces and decorated them with
the booty of war and the tribute of vassal states. Palaces were also
decorated with painted stone reliefs, extensive gardens, and man0 made
streams. A common decorative fixture was the LAMASSU- a winged hybrid
creature, part bull and part man.
==========
=Military=
==========
The first Assyrian armies were peasant spearmen. Following a series of
military reforms around 800 B.C., however, they employed a standing army
of conscripts and professionals. This army was better armed, armored,
and supplied than most of its enemies, giving it important advantages.
The New Empire armies benefited from cheap iron used for improved swords
and armor.
The Assyrians were among the first to adopt the concept of the integrated
army made up of an infantry core for shock, supported by light missile
troops and a mobile wing of chariots, camelry, and cavalry. The army was
capable of fighting on the plains where chariots and then cavalry were
critical, as well as in rough terrain where horses and chariots had little
use. They campaigned regularly to the north and east against barbarians
that posed a threat. The elite of the army for many years were the
charioteers, followed by the cavalry when chariots bacame obsolete.
The Assyrians were accomplished at the art of capturing walled cities.
Their historical records recount numerous city assaults and the brutality
that followed. Inhabitants were either killed or sent to another corner
of the empire as slaves.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
The brutal policies of subjugation and exorbitant demands for tribute and
taxes made the Assyrians unpopular masters. Despite the ferocity of their
reprisals, vassal states contnually revolted given an opportunity. Weaker
kings were unable to hold the empire together in the face of internal and
external pressure. In 612 B.C., the capital at Nineveh fell to a
coalition of Babylonians and Medes. The Babylonians were in revolt
(Babylon had been sacked in 648 B.C.) and the Medes (from modern western
Iran) were seeking retribution for past Assyrian invasions of their lands.
The last Assyrian army was defeated soon thereafter by the same coalition
and the Assyrians as a separate culture disappeared from the world's stage.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Assyrians are remembered from their boastful inscriptions and biblical
references as ferocious warriors. Whether they were significantly more
brutal than was normal for the time is unclear.
For several centuries, however, they were the greatest military power in
the civilized world. Their armies were innovative, and they appear to
have been among the first to use large bodies of cavalry effectively.
They certainly influenced the Persian armies that followed them.
They are not remembered for any significant advances in technology,
philosophy, the arts, or science. Their cities have been piles of rubble
for thousands of years now and have not given up fabulous treasures that
can compare with those of Egypt and Greece.
----------------------------------
Babylonian
----------------------------------
(1900 to 539 B.C.)
The Mesopotamian city- state of Babylon twice expanded to become an
important world empire before being absorbed by Persia. Its two great
expansions were sufficiently remarkable to earn it a place in history
beside the two other great Mesopotamian cultures, the Sumerians and
Assyrians. Between its Old and New Empire periods, Babylonia devolved
back into a small but rich city- state that was captured occasionally by
its neighbors.
The predominate inhabitants of Babylon changed several times over its
existence, although the culture remained relatively constant and distinct.
The Amorites, the Kassites, and the Chaldeans were all Babylonians at
least once.
==========
=Location=
==========
The Babylonians took their name from their capital and only major city,
Babylon, located on the Euphrates River west of Sumeria and south of
Assyria. It was well- placed on the river for agriculture and for trade,
but had no natural defenses. A strong leader and strong army were needed
to defend it. Determined attackers were able to sack the city on numerous
occasions during its history when such a leader or army was not available.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
Babylonia was founded as a kingdom around 1900 B.C. by Semitic Amorite
barbarians who overran much of Canaan, Akkad, and Sumer one hundred years
earlier. In 1792 B.C. the small kingdom was inherited by Hammurabi who
ruled until 1750. During those 42 years, Hammurabi extended the kingdom
to ecompass all of Sumer to the east and Akkad to the north. He also
defeated the barbarian Gutians in the Zagros Mountains to the northeast
who had previously sacked Akkad. He also pushed back the Elamites (east
of Sumer) and the Assyrians (north of Akkad). This was the first great
Babylonian empire.
Following Hammurabi's death, the empire fell into gradual decline. In
1595 B.C. Hittites drove down the Euphrates and sacked Babylon, plundering
the city and deposing the Amorite kings. This ended the first empire.
Within 20 yearsm new invaders called the Kassites had settled around
Babylon, establishing a new dynasty. The Kassites were neither Semetic
nor Indo- European, and probably came from east of the Zagros Mountains.
The Kassites ruled Babylon for several centuries before being coquered by
the Assyrians in 1158 B.C. Descendants of the Amorites had restored
control by 1027 B.C.
During the Eighth and Seventh Centuries, the Chaldeans, new Semitic
immigrants to the area, and the Assyrians fought for control of Babylon.
The Assyrians claimed sovereignty for a while but sacked the city once as
punishment for rebellion.
A Chaldean sheik seized the Babylonian throne and then destroyed the
Assyrians with the help of the Medes. The Chaldean Dynasty and the New
Empire lasted from 626 to 539 B.C. The revived Babylonians overran most
of the Assyrian Empire from the Persian Gulf to the boarders of Egypt.
In 597 B.C. Nebuchadrezzar II captured Jerusalem and forced its king and
nobles into exile. When the puppet ruler of Jerusalem rebelled, the city
was taken again in 586 B.C. after an eighteen- month siege. This time
much of the population was deported to Babylon and their descendants
remained there until released by the Persians. This period of Hebrew
history was called the Babylonian Captivity.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The basic economy of Babylonia was typical for Mesopotamia at the time.
Irrigation and dikes controlled the waters of the Euphrates River,
providing bountiful harvests of grain, vegetables, and fruit in normal
years. These foods were supplemented by herds of sheep and some cattle.
The Babylonians traded food surpluses for raw materials like copper, gold,
and wood, which they used to manufacture weapons, household objects,
jewelry, and other items that could be traded.
The fabulous wealth of the New Empire (626 to 539 B.C.) derived from
controlling the east- west and north- south trade, primarliy thanks to
control of Phoenicia, Syria, and the other Levant ports. This area had
been the nexus of civilized trade for over a thousand years, and, for that
reason, the prize for every empire and pseudo- empire of the age. Not
long after the end of the Babylonian New Empire, the shift of much trade
to the central and western Mediterranean reduced the importance of this
area.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Babylonians worshipped many gods, but chief was of these was Murduk,
god of the city of Babylon. Marduk was represented by a dragon in the
artwork that decorated the city. Festivals were held throughout the year
in honor of specific gods to assure their favor. The New Year festival
for Marduk assured the fertility in their fields.
For a brief time the New Empire was among the richest in the world. The
city reflected that wealth in its extensive and highly decorated monuments.
The interior of the Temple of Marduk was reportedly converted with gold.
At the center of a great and rich trading empire, the people of Babylon
had access to exotic goods and manufactured items throughout the world.
============
=Government=
============
The New Empire government of Babylon adopted many of the Assyrian imperial
practices, which probably contributed to its own short life. The king had
overall administrative power, in addition to his central role in important
religious rituals. Governors ruled important provinces on behalf of the
king, but most of these were Babylonians appointed from outside the local
area. Local puppets were often left in place to rule local kingdoms, but
this occasionally led to revolt, as in the case of Jerusalem.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
The city of Babylon was destroyed and rebuilt several times, usually on
top of the old ruins. Buildings and walls were constructed of mud bricks,
first sun- baked, and then baked with fire.
The Babylon of the New Empire period was one of the wealthiest cities in
the world. The Chaldean kings rebuilt the city and established its
reputation for splendor for all time. The Euphrates River passed through
the middle of the city and was directed around its four sides through a
moat. Inside the moat were double walls. The Greek historian Herodotus
claimed that the outer wall was so wide that a chariot with four horses
could drive along it. There were several city gates, each named after an
important god. The Ishtur gate opened on the sacred Processional Way that
led to the ziggurat and Temple of Marduk. The gate, sacred way, and
temples were decorated with bright blue glazed tiles depicting real and
fantasy animals in relief.
The two sides of the city were connected by a bridge. The east side
contained the palace and temples, including many ziggaurats. The greatest
of these, built by Nebuchanezzar II, had seven levels with a small temple
to Marduk at the top. This zaggurat was probably the Tower of Babel
mentioned in the Bible. Nebuchanezzar also built the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon, a multistoried ziggurat decorated with trees and plants to
resemble a mountain. According to legend, the gardens were built to
remind one of his wives of her mountain homeland. The Hangine Gardens
were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
==========
=Military=
==========
Little is known of the Babylonian military from either the Old or New
Empires, although Hammurabi's army of the Old Empire may have made
important use of chariots when these were first coming into use.
The New Empire armies probably copied much from the Assyrians. This would
suggest that Babylonians made extensive use of cavaly, especially mounted
bowmen. Foot troops probably used iron weapons and wore iron helmets and
some chain mail armor. The Babylonians and their less advanced allies,
the Medes, took three leavily fortified Assyrian cities in short
succession, suggesting they had mastered the Assyrian techniques for
storming cities.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Following seven turbulent years that saw three new kings in succession and
two rebellions, in 556 B.C. the last of the Chaldean Dynasty, Nabonidus,
took the throne of Babylon. He worshipped the moon god, Sin, but
neglected local affairs and important religious rituals associated with
other gods. For several years he did not perform the important New Year
festival in the name of Marduk, the deity of Babylon, that renewed the
fertility of the land. He also introduced reforms that gave effective
control of temple finances to himself.
The unrest and dissatisfaction these events fostered came at a time when a
new power to the east, Persia, had been gradually expanding and spreading
its influence. Under Cyrus I, the Persians had first overthrown their
masters. the Medes, and then expanded to the northwest into Anatolia.
During these conquests, Cyrus demonstrated a high degree of tolerance and
clemency that encouraged others not to resist.
When Cyrus turned against the Babylonians, he was welcomed by a large
segment of the population, including the influential priests. Cyrus first
defeated Nabonidus in battle at Opis. Nabonidus fled to Babylon but the
city surrendered without a fight on October 12, 539 B.C., and the last
Babylonian king went into captivity. The Jews and other peoples held in
Babylonian captivity were freed. The entire New Empire of Babylon became
part of the Persian Empire and Babylonia ceased to exist as a separate
entity and culture.
========
=Legacy=
========
The first Babylonian empire is best known for the Law Code of King
Hammurabi, circa 1750 B.C., purportedly handed down by the god Shamah.
The laws themselves are preserved on a 90- inch stone stele that was
uncovered in Susa in modern times. It has been carted off by the Elamites
following their sack of Babylon in 1158 B.C.
The New Empire of Babylon was noted especially for its wealth and grandeur.
This was reported in Old Testament accounts from the period of the Hebrew
Babylonian Captivity and by the Greek historian Herodotus who visited the
city. The most impressive features of the city were its walls, the Ishtar
Gate, the ziggurat and temple to Marduk, the Processional Way, and Hanging
Gardens.
----------------------------------
Carthaginian
----------------------------------
(800 to 146 B.C.)
During the beginning of the last millennium B.C., the Phoenicians began
establishing colonies around the Mediterranean to compete with the Greeks for
trade. The most important Phoenician colony was Carthage. It was founded
aroung 800 B.C. near modern Tunis in North Africa. Although the home cities in
Phoenicia were repeatedly conquered and subjugated, the colony of Carthage
prospered and expanded to become one of the greatest powers of the Western
Mediterranean.
True to their Phoenician heritage, the Carthaginians became great seafarers,
traders, and colonizers. There is some evidence that they circumnavigated
Africa and very questionable evidence that they reached the Americas. They
capitalized on the trade of Iberian silver and Brtish tin. Carthaginian
settlements spread along the North African coast, into western Sicily, Sardinia,
Corsica, Minorca, and much of Spain. In the third century, they bagan a titanic
clash with the rising power of Rome.
The Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage were fought to decide which power would
dominate the Western Mediterranean. The first war (264-241 B.C.) was fought
over Sicily. The Romans were not a naval power but built fleets from scratch
based on the plans of a captured ship. Their first two fleets defeated
Carthaginian fleets but were in turn lost to storms. Their third fleet
completed the defeat of the Carthaginians at sea. The Carthaginians were
forced out of Sicily, and lost Corsica and Sardinia as well.
The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) was a temproary improvement of Carthaginian
fortunes and a near victory. The war was triggered by the great general
Hannibal who marched out of modern Spain, across modern France, and into modern
Italy across the Alps with a large army, including war elephants. In a
brilliant campaign of 16 years, Hannibal defeated the Romans at every turn,
although he lacked the critical strength to take Rome itself and end the war.
Unable to defeat Hannibal's army in Italy, the Roman attacked the Carthaginians
first in Spain and then in North Africa. Hannibal was called out of the Italy
to defend the homeland. At the decisive battle at Zama, the Romans destroyed
the Carthaginian army.
Carthage was forced to give up its overseas possessions, pay a large indemnity,
reduce its fleet, and become subservient to Rome. By 150 B.C., the city had
recovered and was seen again as a threat. When the Carthaginians attacked
Numidia, a Roman ally, the Romans responded by attacking Carthage once more.
This time the city was destroyed utterly and its power broken forever. A
symbolic furrow was plowed through the city and sown with salt to show that the
city would not be allowed to revive.
----------------------------------
Egyptian
----------------------------------
(5000 to 30 B.C)
The Egyptian culture was one of the oldest and most long- lived of
antiquity. It benefited from an abundance of good farmland, nearby
mineral resources, and a good strategic position. Despite occasional
invasion and internal strife, it endured as a distinctive culture for
nearly 5000 years.
==========
=Location=
==========
Ancient Egypt occupied almost the same area as modern Egypt does today.
Its civilization stayed very close to the Nile River. Because it was
almost entirely surrounded by desert, enemies could approach only from the
west and southeast along the Mediterranean coast, from the south down the
river valley, or directly over the sea.
=========
=Capital=
=========
During its long history, the capital of Egypt was located at various times
in Heirakonpolis, Memphis, Herakleopolis, Thebes, It- towy, Akhetaten,
Tanis, Sais, and Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. Greek overlords, the
Ptolemaic dynasty, ruled from here until 30 B.C.
===============
=Rise of Power=
===============
Agriculture was brought to the Nile Valley prior to 5000 B.C. by immigrants
from the highlands of Palestine. By 3000 B.C., acriculture had spread
southward up the Nile. Flooding was under control and irrigation put much
more land under cultivation. The adundance of food led to large
populations and increased wealth for the area.
The early history of Egypt was a period of consolidation. Two separate
kingdoms rose and vied for power along the river. Around 3100 B.C., King
Menes of Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt and established the First
Dynasty.
Between 3100 B.C. and 1300 B.C., the Egyptians struggled with Nubians and
Kushites up the Nile to the south. Forts and garrisons held the frontier
but during periods of weakness these were destroyed. Around 1300 B.C. the
Nubians suffered an important defeat and were neutralized as a thread for
about 500 years.
Egypt's Dynasty XIII, 1783 to 1640 B.C., was very weak. During this period
the frontier forts to the south were lost and Semitic immigrants from the
east moved into the delta. These immigrants, called the Hyskos, took
control of the entire delta region in 1674 B.C. The Hyskos eventually
adopted Egyptian culture and language, and introduced the horse and chariot.
The New Kingdom was founded by Dynasty XVIII in 1552 B.C., following a
successful war to drive out the Hyskos. This dynasty was the great age of
the warrior pharaohs and Egyptian empire. The prevent further incursions
from the east, the Egyptians attempted to establish control over the
kingdoms in the Levant and Palestine. During this period they vied for
control with the Hittites and Mitanni, as well as the local kings. The
Egyptians were the dominant power in the Near East until around 1200 B.C.
when the entire area was overrun by barbarians.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Egypt was an agricultural society dependent on the water and soil brought
down each year by the Nile from the highlands of Ethiopia. Extensive
irrigation made it possible to farm fields not adjacent to the river but
still close enough to be inundated each year and receive new sediments.
The principalcrops were wheat and barley that were used to make bread and
beer, the staples of their diet. They also grew fruits and vegetables and
raised cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, geese, ducks, and pigeons. The
abundance of food meant a large population and allowed the export of food.
The Nile passes through several hilly regions and some of these were rich
in minerals. The nearby Sinai Peninsula also held mineral riches. Unlike
some other ancient cultures, the Egyptians had relatively easy access to
copper and gold, further increasing their wealth. The hills were sources
of granite, limestone, and sandstone that they used for construction.
The Egyptians were one of the first cultures to build boats and they
eventually took these out into the Mediterranean. Egypt became an
important Mediterranean part of call as trade increased because it was it
was a rich market for both buying and selling. Principal Egyptian exports
were grain, food, linen, perfume, and manufactured goods. Important
imports were timber, slaves, silver, horses, pottery, and wine.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Egyptian religion had over 2000 gods, though only a few of these were
predominant. The important gods had a home town where their principal
temple was located. One of the most important was Ra, the sun god,
understandably critical to an agricultural society.
They believed in a life after death. They referred to this as the "next
world," and thought it was somewhere to the west. They developed elaborate
burials and embalming to preserve the body for this second life. Goods
and servants were buried with royalty and nobles to serve them.
============
=Government=
============
The ancient Egyptians believed their kings were descended from the sun god,
Ra. They believed they could communicate with the gods through the king.
The king had absolute power but was required to perform several important
duties. He was responsible for the harvest and irrigation of crops. He
directed the government, trade, and foreign policy. He enforced the laws
and led the army. During the New Kingdom, the pharoahs usually commanded
their armies in the field.
Reporting directly to the pharaoh were two viziers, one for Lower Egypt
based in Memphis, and one for Upper Egypt based in Thebes. Below the
viziers were rural districts controlled by governors and towns controlled
by mayors. These officials carried out the pharaoh's orders and collected
taxes. Scribes kept the records.
The Egyptians had no coinage until they were conquered by Alexander the
Great. All workers paid taxes by turning over a percentage of their
production, whether it was fish, grain, trade goods, pottery, or other
goods. In addition, each household had to provide a laborer for several
weeks each year for mining or public works. The pyramids were probably
built by laborers putting in their annual service.
==========
=Military=
==========
The Egyptians were among the first cultures to possess the necessary
population and wealth to build standing armies of professional soldiers.
Prior to the Hyksos introduced the horse and chariot, which were quickly
adopted by the Egyptians in turn. The dominance of the Near East by New
Kingdom Egypt, from 1600 to 1200 B.C., was primarily due to the large and
powerful chariot armies sent into battle there. These chariots carried a
driver and composite bow archer and were the elite of the army.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Egypt survived the catastrophe by 1200 B.C. by fighting off several major
attempted invasions. They went into decline, nevertheless, following the
death of Rameses III who was the last of the great warrior pharaohs. Their
decline was partly due to trade coming to a virtual halt for several
generations. A series of weak kings and civil wars over succession to the
throne also eroded their strength.
In 728 B.C., Egypt was conquered by Nubia and held for 60 years. In 665
B.C., the Assyrians completed a conquest of Egypt by sacking Thebes. A
new native Egyptian dynasty arouse in 664 B.C., eventually throwing out
the Nubians and asserting their independence from Assyria by stopping
payment of tribute. In 525 B.C., Egypt was conquered again from the east,
this time by Combryses II of Persia. When the Persians faltered in their
war with the Greeks, the Egyptians reclaimed their independence briefly
before succombing once more to Persian invasion by 332 B.C. Within a year,
however, the Persians themselves were gone, destroyed by Alexander the
Great who was accepted by the Egyptians as their pharaoh.
Greeks ruled Egypt as overlords from the time of Alexander the Great until
30 B.C. when Cleopatra VII, th elast of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and Mark
Antony were defeated by Octavian. Egypt thereafter became part of the
Roman Empire.
========
=Legacy=
========
The ancient Egyptians are remembered for the quality and quanity of
cultural objects that have survived to the present, including the Pyramids,
the Sphinx, the treasures of Tutankhamen's tomb, the other monuments and
temples of the Nile Valley, hieroglyphics, mummies, and papyrus. They are
also rememberdd in the West because of their prominent role in the history
of ancient Israel as recounted in the Old Testament.
----------------------------------
Greek
----------------------------------
(2100 to 146 B.C.)
The ancient culture with the broadest and most long- lasting impact on the
future of Western civilization was that of Greece. The Greeks dominated
the known world militarily for only a brief period, but their cultural
influence spread farther and lasted much longer. Rediscovered in the West
in large part after the Medieval Dark Age, it was an important foundation
for the growth of modern western civilization.
The Greeks never formed a unified kingdom, but existed as city- states,
sometimes working together and sometimes at war with each other. At the
zenith of Greek military power under Alexander the Great, they were a
collection of city- states in cooperation.
==========
=Location=
==========
Greek culture was centered on the mainland of modern Greece spread to the
islands of the Aegean, into the lower Balkans, across the Aegean to the
western coast of Anatolia, to Sicily, to parts of North Africa, and to
southern France (Marseilles was founded as a Greek colony). The campaigns
of Alexander greatly expanded the culture, establishing it in central
Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia to the borders
of India. In the early second century B.C., it was possible to travel from
the south of modern France to India using only Greek to communicate.
=========
=Capital=
=========
As a collection of city- states, there are usually no capital of the Greek
culture. During the Bronze Age, Mycenea was one of the strongest and
richest citadels. During the Archaic and Classical periods, Athens (the
cultural center) and Sparta (the strongest military power) vied for
prominence. During the brief Greek apogee under Philip and Alexander, the
de facto capital was the Macedonian city of Pydna. Following the death of
Alexander, is empire was eventually divided into three parts. The
Antigonid Dynasty ruled Greece and Macedonia from Pydna. The Selucids
ruled Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria, the Levant, and Persia from a newly
built built city, Selucia, on the Tigris River. The Ptolemies ruled Egypt
from another newly built city, Alexandria.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
The history of ancient Greek culture is divided into several periods: the
Bronze Age (2100 to 1200 B.C.), the Dark Age (1200 to 800 B.C.), the
Archaic Period (800 to 500 B.C.), the Classical Age (500 to 336 B.C.), and
the Hellenistic Period (336 to 30 B.C.).
The Bronze Age saw the rise of the first cities on the mainland. These
were predominately fortified palaces on hilltops. This culture was named
after its greatest citadel, Mycenea. Excavation of Mycenea by Heinrich
Schlieman in the 1870s revealed fabulous burial tomb treasures. The
Mycenean culture disappeared around 1200 B.C. following attacks by
barbarians. The city of troy was also sacked around this time.
The catastrophe of 1200 B.C. (described earlier) devastated the economy of
Greece and ushered in a Dark Age that lasted about 400 years. Gradually
civilization reappeared at old sites, such as Athens, and at new sites such
as Sparta and Corinth.
By 800 B.C., the city- states of the mainland were economic and military
powers. During the next 300 years, the Archaic Period, the Greeks expanded
by establishing colonies across the Aegean in Anatoloa (Ionia) and along
the central and western Mediterranean coasts. They vied with the
Phoenicians for colony sites and trade. The Archaic Period came to an end
when the rising eastern power of Persia came into conflict with the Greeks
over the Anatolian coast.
The period of 500 to 336 B.C. was the Classical Age of Greece, dominated
first by wars with Persia and then the Peloponnesian civil war between
Athens and Sparta. Although this period is defined by military events, it
was also a time of many important cultural advances.
The Hellenistic Period takes its name from the Greek word Hellene (meaning
Greek). This period began with the installation of Alexander as king of
Macedon following the assassination of his father. In 13 years of military
campaigns, Alexander conquered most of the known world and spread the Greek
culture behind his armies. After Alexander's premature death in 323 B.C.,
his empire was eventually divided into three parts. Although these parts
fought each other and gradually shrank due to rebellion and attack, the
culture of the civilized world remained primarily Greek.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Grains and bread were staples of the Greek diet but they could be grown
only in a few fertile areas. Most of Greece was hilly and not suitable for
large farms on the scale of Egypt or Mesopotamia. Farmers grew fruits and
vegeatables where they could clear fields. On the hillsides they grew
olives for food and oil. Further up the hills they grew grapes for wine.
Horses were raised mainly in Thessaly and Macedonia where there were open
grasslands. Elsewhere they were kept only by the rich. Cattle were kept
mainly for milk, pigs and poultry for meat, and sheep for leather and meat.
Seafood supplemented diets in coastal areas.
The Greeks were renowned for pottery that was both functional and beautiful.
Decorations on pottery revealed much about the ancient Greek culture to
historians. By carefully studying the changing styles of pottery, his-
torians were able to date it and then use chards to help date excavations
and other objects found with it.
The Greeks took advantage of their georgraphic position between the Aegean
and Mediterranean Seas to engage in trade. City-states traded among them-
selves and overseas. Thessaly and Macedonia exported horses, for example,
while Athens exported honey and silver. Important Greek exports were oil,
wine, pottery, sculpture, metalwork, cloth, and books. Their most
important import was grain from the Black Sea region, Egypt, Italy, Sicily,
and Cyprus. Other important imports were timber, wool, linen, copper,
dyes, silk, spices and ivory.
Coins were first used in Lydia, a small kingdom in northwestern Anatolia,
at the end of the seventh century B.C. The concept quickly spread to the
Ionian Greek colonies and then throughout the Greek culture. The most
popular coins were made of silver. City-states celebrated their
independence by minting their own coins showing a representative symbol
(the owl for Athens and the Pegasus for Corinth, for example).
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Greeks believed in many gods who were responsible for the living and
the dead. Their gods were very human-like - they got married, had
children, felt love and jealousy, and sought revenge. Legends of the gods
taught what pleased and what angered them. The principal gods were the
twelve Olympians thought to live on Mount Olympus. They were lead by Zeus,
ruler of the heavens. Temples were built to provide earthly homes for
individual gods. The Parthenon in Anthens, for example, was dedicated to
the goddess Athene. Inside was a statue of Athene made of gold and ivory
that stood over forty feet high. Offerings of jewelry, pottery, and
sculpture were given to the temple. Animals and birds were given to the
priests for sacrifice. Festivals were held to please individual gods and
persuade them to be munificient.
Before an important project was started, an oracle orsoothsayer was con-
sulted to learn the will of the gods. The most famous of these was the
Oracle of Delphi, where a prientess called the Pythia would voice the will
of Apollo. Priests would interpret the Pythia's often vague replies. In
one famous example, Croesus, the king of Lydia, asked whether he should
invade Persia or not. He was told such an invasion would destroy a great
kingdom. He assumed the Persians were the kingdom in questions, but in
fact Lydia was conquered by Persia.
Women in Greece lead generally sheltered lives and had little active role
in society. They took their social status from their husbands. The
emphasis was on having sons and raising them to be citizens and soldiers.
Boys were given an extensive education in reading, writing, arithmetic,
music, poetry, dancing, and athletics. Both mental and physical develop-
ment was stressed.
Music, poetry, and theater were an important part of the Greek culture.
All Greek cities and colonies built a theater or amphitheater.
Society consisted of two main groups - free people and slaves. Slaves
were owned by free people and were employed as servants and laborers.
Slaves were purchased in international slave markets or were prisoners of
war. Free men in Athens were either citizens, born to Athenian parents,
or metics, born outside of Athens. Both groups were required to serve in
the army, but only citizens could become government officials or jurors.
============
=Government=
============
An independent city-state was called a polis. Each consisted of the city
and surrounding countryside. The largest of these was Athens, with about
one thousand square miles of territory.
During the Archasic Period, most city-states were governed by a group of
rich landowners. These were the aristoi, meaning best people, or the
aristocrats. Resentment of aristocratic rule lead to riots when traders
and craftsmen began to prosper but had no say in government. Beginning
around 650 B.C., individuals called tyrants were allowed to rule to keep
the peace. Government was improved under an enlightened tyrant but the
system was susceptible to corruption. In 508 B.C. Athens introduced a new
system called democracy, in which all citizens took part in their
government. Women, foreigners, and slaves had no say.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
Greek homes were simple structures of mud and brick but their public
buildings, expecially temples, were beautiful structures of stone. A
distinctive feature of Greek architecture was the use of columns supporting
horizontal lintels.
==========
=Military=
==========
During the Bronze Age, the armies of the individual palaces were mainly
chariots manned by the richest citizens. These armies were destroyed by
barbarians around 1200 B.C., sending Greece into its Dark Age.
During the archaic Age, the aristocrats at First dominated the army as
cavalry because they alone could afford horses. Foot soldiers came from
the poorer classes that could not afford horses or better weapons and armor.
Eventually trade and wealth increased, while the cost fell for new weapons
made of iron. The cavalry was replaced in importance by a new army of
well-equipped foot soldiers called hoplites.
Each city had a different system for raising its army. In Athens, all free
men aged 20 to 50 could be called upon in time of war. Each of the ten
Athenian tribes had to provide enough troops for one regiment and one
commander, called a strategoi.
Hoplites carried on their left arm a large round shield that extended from
neck to thigh. The shield was decorated with a symbol from their family,
tribe or city. They wore bronze helmets with a horsehair crest on top to
make the soldier look taller and more powerful. For body protection they
wore a cuirass of bronze, or leather and bronze, from shoulder to chest,
plus bronze greaves on the front of the lower legs. Their weapons were a
long spear and a short iron sword.
Hoplites fought in the phalanx, a square of men usually eight ranks deep.
It was important that the phalanx move and fight together. Flutes and
other musical instruments helped from keep in step. The terrifying hand-
to-hand clash of opposing phalanxes called for extreme courage and dis-
cipline.
The Greeks distained the use of cavalry and skirmish troops using bows,
slings, or javelins/ As long as they fought amoung themselves or were
lucky, this was not a problem. Extensive contact with other military
systems during the Persian Wars eventually convinced them that the phalanx
needed to be supported. The ultimate Greek army employed heavy and light
cavalry, light infantry, and skirmishers in support of its heavy hoplite
infantry.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Following the death of Alexander the Great, the city-state of mainland
Greece attempted to rebel against Macedonian rule but were defeated in the
Lamian War of 323-322 B.C. During the next 40 years, the War of the
Diadochi contested the division of Alexander's empire. It was eventually
divided into three kingdoms (Greece, Egypt, and Persia). These three
kingdoms made up the Hellenistic world.
The Antigonid Dynasty ruled Greece and Macadon but lost control of their
colonies in southern Italy to the Romans in 275 B.C. The Greeks supported
Carthaginians against Rome during the Punic Wars and paid for that once the
Carthaginians were destroyed. Three Macedonian Wars against Rome resulted
in the end of the Antigonid Dynasty in 168 B.C. Following an unsuccessful
Macedonian revolt, the city-states of Greece became provinces of the Roman
Empire in 146 B.C.
The Selucid Dynasty attempted to rule what had been the enormous Persian
Empire. This proved impossible and parts began rebelling very quickly.
By 180 B.C. the Roman general Pompey seized the Selucid kingdom and
incorporated it into the Roman Empire.
The Ptolemaic Dynasty consisted only of Egypt. Because of its relative
seclusion and wealth, it lasted the longest of the three Hellenistic
kingdoms. Queen Cleopatra VII and her husband Marc Antony of Rome were
defeated in battle by Octavian at Actium in 32 B.C. The last Ptolemy
committed suicide and Egypt became part of the Roman Empire in 30 B.C.
========
=Legacy=
========
Greek language and culture spread behind Alexander the Great's armies. The
Romans in turn adoped much of the Greek culture, preserving it and
spreading it to new parts of the world. After the fall of Rome, Greek
culture was preserved and expanded upon within the Byzatine Empire and in
the Arab world, and passed on to the West following the Renaissance.
The legacy of ancient Greece has had an impact on many diciplines,
including medicine (the scientific approach to medicine; the Hippocractic
Oath taken by doctors), mathematics (Euclidean geometry; the Pythagorean
theorem), literature (the Iliad and the Odyssey), theater, poetry,
sculpture, language (the Bible's new Testament was written in Greek;
thousands of words passed on to modern languages), architecture (the White
House; the British Museum), history (herodutus is regarded as the father
of history), politics (democracy), philosophy (all philosophical studies
since Plato have been referred to by one writer as mere footnotes to his
work), science (the scientific method; laws of nature; the classification
of plants and animals; the heliocentric theory), athletics (the Olympic
Games), and trade (Greeks established trade routes to India and the Silk
Road to Asia).
----------------------------------
Hittite
----------------------------------
(2000 to 1200 B.C.)
The extent of the Hittite civilization and empire was rediscovered only
within the last hundred years. The Hittites had been mentioned several
times in the Olds Testament, but were considered only bit players.
Excavations of sites in Turkey and Syria, plus the dicipherment of
inscriptions and recovered clay tables, revealed that the Hittites were a
world power at one time, rivals of the Egyptians and conquerors of Babylon.
==========
=Location=
==========
The Hittite empire was centered in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). At its
maximum, it extended from the Aegean coast of Anatolia, east to the
Euphrates River, southeastward into Syria as far as Damascus, and south
along the eastern Mediterranean coast of the Levant. Hittite King Mursuli
sacked Babylon around 1600 B.C. but did not attempt to hold the region.
Historians do not know where the Hittites originated or how they got to
Asia Minor. Studies of their language indicate that they were probably
of European origin and migrated south through the Balkans or past the
eastern end of the Black Seam sometime around 2000 B.C.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The greatest Hittite capital was at Hattusas, outside the modern Turkish
town of Bogazkoy in north central Turkey, inland from the Black Sea. This
city has previously been the capital of the Hatti, a local kingdom that was
conquered by the Hittites around 1900 B.C. The name Hittite derives from
the name of the Hatti. The capital was moved to Hattusas around 1500 B.C.
and the city was noted for its massive walls and placement in rugged
terrain.
===============
=Rise to Power=
===============
Around 2000 B.C. when the Hittites entered Asis Minor, the region was
populated by small yet sophisticated, kingdoms each no larger than a
thousand people. The Hittites began expanding their kingdom around 1900
B.C., using both force and diplomacy to bring rival city-states and
kingdoms in Asia Minor under control. The Hittite kingdom went through
several periods of expansion and contraction until around 1400 B.C.
Beginning then, several strong kings in succession expanded the Hittite
empire across all of Asia Minor, into Syria, and beyond the Euphrates
River. The push into Syria brought the Hittites into conflict with the
Egyptians who also sought to dominate this area.
For several generations the Hittites and Egyptians remained diplomatic and
military rivals. The great battle of Kadesh was fought between these
superpowers around 1300 BC and was commemorated in Egypt by a great
pictoral relief, an epic poem, and an official written record. After
several decades of uneasy stalemate, the two powers signed a peace treaty
and mutual defense pact, perhaps in response to growing Assyrian power to
the east. A copy of the treaty was inscribed on the walls of an Egyptian
temple at Karnak where it can be read today. Duplicate copies of this
treaty on clay and silver tablets were also found by archaeologists in both
countries.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The Hittite imperial boundaries encompassed a diverse geography, including
expansive grassy plains, mountains, sea coast, river valleys, and desert.
Their economy was based mainly on grain and sheep raising, but they also
possessed large deposits of silver, copper and lead ore. They were adept
metalworkers and among the earliest makers of iron, although during their
time iron was more valuable than gold and not available in any quantity.
They were an important provider of copper and bronze to Mesopotamia. When
they attempted to control the trade to and from that area by extending
their influence into Syria, the Levant, and upper Euphrates River region,
they came into conflict with the Egyptians.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Great Temple at Hattusas, below the hill on which the palace stood, was
the religious center of the empire. The Hittite king was also the high
priest of the kingdom and split his time between government, religious
duties, and conquest. The king's dual role was useful in unifying the
culture of the kingdom among its diverse peoples. Each year the king/high
priest traveled extensively to preside at festivals. These personal
appearances brought in rich donations and helped stablize the realm.
Hittite religion was polytheistic. It was tolerant of other beliefs and
flexible about incorporating new gods already worshipped by newly conquered
peoples. Their supreme deity, Teshub, the Storm God, was borrowed.
Hittite culture discovered so far pales in comparison to that of their
contemporaries in Babylon and Egypt. We have only a few bronze and stone
statuettes, seal impressions, and rock carvings to judge their artistic
ability. One enduring symbol from their artwork is the double-headed eagle
that was adopted as a national symbol by both Austria and Russia.
They used cuneiform for writing as well as their own heiroglyphics. They
patterned their laws on those of Babylon, though they tempered their
severity.
============
=Government=
============
Some researchers believe that the early Hittite government was the first
constututional monarchy. The pankus, probably an assembly of noblemen,
monitored the king's activites in relation to their laws and probably had
the power to remove and install kings as needed. Because they had no law
of succession until circa 1500 BC, the death of a king prior to then often
triggered a struggle for power. The authority of the pankus waned as the
empire began to grow and after a law of succession was adopted.
During the empire years, the Hittite ruler was called the Great King. Each
year the rulers of vassal states brought gifts to Hattusas and pledged
their loyalty. In return for military protection and favorable trading
status, vassal states contributed money and troops to the empire.
===========
=Diplomacy=
===========
Extensive records and correspondence preserved on clay tablets have
revealed much detail about Hittite diplomacy and politics. Decipherment of
specific tablets connected the Hittites was two of the most famous events
in antquity - the sacking of the legendary city of Troy from the Iliad and
the death of the Egyptian boy Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Diplomatic letters to a
city on the east coast of Asia Minor helped establish the site of the city
of Troy.
In 1353 BC the greatest Hittite king Suppiluliuma I, was besieging the city
of Carchemish that controlled an important ford and trade route over the
Euphrates River. During the siege he received a letter from Ankhesenamun,
the newly widowed wife of Tutankhamen. The queen of Egypt asked that
Suppiluliuma send one of his sons to be her new husband and king of Egypt.
The stage was set for a very important alliance by marriage. Suppiluliuma
took too long to investigate and negotiate, however. An Egyptian
courtier-priest seized the widow and the throne, and peace between the two
great powers was not arranged until 70 years later.
==========
=Military=
==========
Hittite foot troops made extensive use of the powerful recurved bow and
bronze tipped arrows. Surviving artwork depicts Hittite soldiers as stocky
and bearded, wearing distinctive shoes with curled-up toes. For close
combat they used bronze daggers, lances, spears, sickle-shaped swords, and
battle-axes shaped like human hands. Soldiers carried bronze rectangular
shields and wore bronze conical helmets with ear flaps and a long extension
down the back that protected the neck. They were apparently very competent
at conducting sieges and assaulting cities that resisted.
They were possibly the first to adopt the horse for pulling light
two-wheeled chariots and made these vehicles a mainstay of their field
armies. Egyptian engravings of the Battle of Kadesh show three men in the
Hittite chariots using spears, but other evidence suggests that they
carried only a driver and archer. Perhaps the chariot archer replaced the
chariot javelin thrower. Hittite chariot armies were feared by most of
their contemporaries.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Following the establishment of peace with Egypt around 1280 BC, there
ensued 80 years of relative peace and prosperity for much of the civilized
world. During the great catastrophe circa 1200 BC, however, the Hittite
empire was suddenly destroyed. The fortifications at Hattusas were thrown
down and the city burned. Stone sculptures were smashed apart. It is not
known by whom, but it is possible that the Hittite armies fell off in
ability during decades of relative peace while the growing riches of the
empire made it an ever more attractive target, probably to barbarians from
the west and north. The Kaskans, barbarians from the Russian Steppes,
penetrated the empire around 1300 BC and plundered Hattusas. They may have
returned to finish the job for good.
========
=Legacy=
========
The legacy of the Hitties is limited because they were lost as a culture
until rediscovered only recently. They are remembered in the Bible as
relatively small but sturdy warriors, but for little else. A small
remembrance of the Hittites is their pointed shoes with turned-up toes seen
in many carvings and reliefs that survive. This style of shoe is still seen
occasionally in Turkey as ceremonial dress.
----------------------------------
Macedonian
----------------------------------
(323- 146 B.C.)
The Macedonians were a Greek people that populated the south central Balkan
Peninsula. In 338 B.C., King Philip II or Macedonia conquered the Greek city-
states. Philip's son, Alexander the Great, conquered nearly every civilization
from Egypt to India, building a huge empire in which culture and art flourished.
After Alexander's death in 323 B.C., his empire went through many years of
turmoil as his senior generals and family members vied for control. By 301
B.C.,
Alexander's mother, wife, son, and half brother had all been murdered.
Following the battle of Ipsus that year in Asia Minor, the empire was divided
into four kingdoms--Macedonia, Thrace, Egypt, and Persia. Although Egypt and
Persia initially claimed Syria, Persia annexed it by 281 B.C. In 277 B.C.,
Antigonos Gonatas (one of Alexander's generals) became king of the Greek Kingdom
of Macedonia and established the ruling Antigonid dynasty, which reigned until
its conquest by the Romans. Together with Syria and Egypt, Macedonia became
one of the three great kingdoms of the Hellenistic world. Macedonia's attempt
to expand its territories met opposition from Pyrrhus and the confederation of
the city-states of central and southern Greece. (Athens bribed its was out of
the confederation and became a neutral state, but never regained its past
prominence.)
During the 3rd century B.C., Pyrrus came to the aid of the Greek colonies in
southern Italy and Sicily that were fighting the Romans in Italy. The early
victories by Pyrrhus were so costly and had so little affect that the Greeks
were forced to withfraw by 275 B.C. During the Second Punic War the Greeks
actively aided Hannibal against the Romans. In this same period, the Greeks
fought the Romans, who had invaded Illyria to put an end to piracy in the
Adriatic.
By 202 B.C., the kingdom of Macedonia was struggling to maintain control of the
city-states of the Greek Peninsula, which were joining together in rebellion.
A small Roman army came to their aid and, by 196 B.C., defeated the Macedonian
army. Macedonia's power revived and the Romans invaded again in 172 B.C.,
defeated the kingdom of Macedonia at the battle of Pydna in 168 B.C., and
removed the Antigonids from power. The Romans attempted to leave the other
Greek city-states on their own, but the kingdom of Macedonia took up army again.
The Romans invaded in 149 B.C. and made the kingdom of Macedonia a Roman
province. Roman patience with the other Greek city-states were exhausted by
unrest in Corinth in 147 B.C., so they beseiged and sacked that city in 146 B.C.
As a lesson to the other city-states, the citizens of Corinth were sold into
slavery, the buildings were torn down, and anything of value was shipped home
to Rome.
----------------------------------
Minoan
----------------------------------
(2200 to 1200 B.C.)
Primitive agricultural communities sprang up around the Aegean Sea by 6000
B.C., but this area lagged behind Egypt and Mesopotamia in advancing toward
civilization. For reasons not yet understood, the island- based Minoan
culture made a sudden leap forward around 2000 B.C. and became the first
civilization of Europe. The sudden take- off may have been stimulated by
trading contact with Mesopotamia through Levant ports of through contact
with Egypt. One theory suggests that refugees from Egypt during a time of
turmoil may have emigrated to Crete and brought technology and ideas with
them.
==========
=Location=
==========
The Minoan culture was centered on the island of Crete, but extended to
other nearby islands, including Thera and Rhodes. They may have colonized
the Anatolian coast at Miletus and elsewhere. By the extension of trade,
they influenced the developing Greek culture on the mainland and other
Aegean islands.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The palace at Knossos on Crete was the capital of the Minoan civilization.
It remained a hidden ruin until rediscovered and revealed in the twentieth
century.
===============
=Rise of Power=
===============
The Minoans were an economic power, not a military one. They preserved
their economic advantages by apparently controlling ship traffic in the
Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. For approximately 800 years, they dominated
trade in these regions. They were so secure on their islands, protected by
their ships, that they never fortified their cities.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Crete was rich in natural resources, including farmland, water, supplies,
timber, copper, building stone, and access to the sea. The Minoans were
prosperous thanks to agriculture and fishing, but grew rich primarily on
trade.
The Minoans grew grain, fruit, herbs, and olives. Grain, wine, olive oil,
timber, ceramics, and manufactured goods were theri principal exorts. They
imported tin, silver, gold, linen, luxury items, and raw materials for
manufacturing.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The high standard of living, the relative abundance of food and other good
things, and the security of their island homes gave the Minoans an outlook
on life substantially different from other contemporary cultures. Perhaps
because life was good, worship and communication with gods was not
stressed. They built no great temples. Their religion was dominated by
female goddesses who protected the household, the crops, and the animals.
The Minoans made regular offerings of food, statues, and other objects.
The Minoans may have practiced human sacrifice at one time. There is a
famous tale of a minotaur, half man, half bull, who lived in a labyrinth
beneath the palace. Young people were sacrificed to the minotaur each
year. The high priest or king may have worn a bull mask for the sacrifice,
creating the illusion of half man, half animal.
They believed in an afterlife and buried the dead with food and possessions
that would be of use. Two sacred symbols were bull horns and the double-
sided axe.
The Minoans developed a hieroglyphic writing system around 2000 B.C.,
perhaps following trading contract with the Egyptians. By 1900 B.C., they
had developed a new script now called Linear A. Athird script called
Linear B came into use as Knossus around 1450 B.C. To date, onlu Linear B
has been deciphered, but most of the surviving examples are accounting
records that reveal little about their history and culture.
Surviving artwork shows the people of Crete engaging in the sport of bull-
jumping. The significance of this activity is not known. Young men and
women are depicted approaching a charging bull, grabing it by the horns,
and somersaulting over the animal's back to land behind it.
The everyday life of the Minoans was pleasant and relatively free of war
and unrest, as witnessed by the richness and exuberance of their frescos,
wall paintings, and decorative objects.
============
=Government=
============
The great palace at Knossus was also a giant warehouse. The distribution
of food and other goods may have been organized from here.
The only king whose name survives was Minos. It may be that the word,
Minos, referred to the office, not the man, like the Egyptian term, pharaoh.
==========
=Military=
==========
The Minoans had little apparent need for an army, relying instead on their
navy to keep any enemies from approaching. Minoan ships were galleys,
manned by rowers on both sides. Narrow galleys were fast and maneuverable,
allowing them to overtake slower sailing ships of the day. They did not
employ rams at this early date, according to the evidence of surviving
artwork.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
The idyllic life of the Minoans was disrupted by natural disasters. The
archaelogical remains indicate that the palace of Knossus was destroyed by
an earthquake in 1700 B.C. and rebuilt. The nearby island of Thera was
partially sunk by a volcanic eruption and the resulting tidal wave probably
struck Crete, causing extensive damage. The Minoan culture suffered from
recurrent earthquakes and the Thera explosion, but the extent of the damage
and its effect on their civilization is debated.
There are two main scenarios for the end of the Minoan culture. According
to the oldest theory, mainland Greeks invaded around 1450 B.C., essentially
destroying the culture, although it lingered for 700 years more until
mainland Greece itself was overrun. In the second scenario, based on more
recent research, the Minoans suffered through disaster and a resulting
loosening of their control of sea trade and movement, but did not succomb
to the mainland Greeks. The Minoans were instead destroyed along with the
Myceneans on the mainland by barbarians as part of the catastrophe of 1200
B.C. Evidence suggests that by 1180 B.C., the Cretans had moved from
coastal towns and palaces to defensive city sites high in the hills.
Attacks and the threat of further attacks were the probable cause of this
shift.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Minoans are remembered today for their fabulous palace and frescoes at
Knossos, now partially restored. It may have been the largest and most
beautiful palace of the late Bronze Age. They are also remembered for
their mysterious writings, some of which continue to defy linguists.
----------------------------------
Palmyran
----------------------------------
(64- 273 A.D.)
Following the collapse of the Seleucid empire in 64 B.C., a no-man's land
existed in the Middle East between the Roman empire to the west and the Parthian
empire to the east. The people of Tadmor, a desert city located at an oasis on
the east-west trade route, established a desert police force that protected the
trade between Damascus and the Euphrates River. They grew rich on this trade
and their city became known to the Romans as Palmyra. Around 17 A.D. Palmyra
became part of Roman Syria while retaining much independence and its desert
army. In 129, Palmyra was granted the status of a free city and later was made
a Roman colony.
After the Persians defeated and captured the Roman emperor Valerian in 260, a
Palmtran nobleman was made Dux Orientis and given Roman support. The Palmyran
army defeated the Persians and reconquered Mesopotamia. Following the
suspicious murder of the Dux Orientis in 267, his wife Zenobia took the throne
and claimed the title of Augustus for her infant son. The Romans were
suspicious of these charges but an army they sent east was defeated by Zenobia,
who was a competent war leader. The Palmyrans then occupied Egypt and pushed
the Goths back out of Asia Minor. By this time the Palmyran empire stretched
from Asia Minor to Mesopotamia to Egypt. Its army consisted mainly of archers,
horse archers, and heavy cavalry.
The Romans could not ignore the revolt of the Palmyrans and the loss of the
grain supplies from Egypt. One army was dispatched to Egypt to reestablish
control there. The Emperor Aurelius led a second army into Syria and defeated
the Palmyrans twice at Antioch and Emesa. Roman light cavalry bested the
Palmyran cataphracts. Palmyra was beseiged and surrendered. Queen Zenobia was
caught trying to flee but was allowed to retire into exile after being paraded
through the streets of Rome. Palmyra revolted once more after the emperor
departed, massacring the Roman garrison. The legions returned quickly and
sacked the city. It continued to exist for many more centuries but never
returned to prominence.
----------------------------------
Persian
----------------------------------
(700 to 332 B.C.)
The Persians were originally one of the several Aryan tribes that migrated
into modern Iran from the plains of southern Russia around 1400 B.C. They
settled the southwest corner of the Iranian plateau, on the north shore of
the Persian Gulf, on lands vacated by the Elamites who had been conquered
and enslaved by the Assyrians. The Persians were separated from the great
civilizations of Mesopotamia by the Zagros Mountains.
At its peak, the Persian Empire stretched from the Indus River across the
Near East to the eastern Mediterranean coast, south into Egypt along the
Nile to Sudan, across Anatolia, and into Thrace and Macedonia.
=========
=Capital=
=========
During the history of the Persian Empire, five cities served as the royal
capital. The first was Pasargadae, built by Cyrus to commemorate his
victory over the Medes. It was remote and impractical as an administrative
capital. Babylon was rebuilt by Cyrus as a royal capital for his use when
affairs brought him to Mesoptamia. Darius moved the empire'sadministration
to Susa, the old Elamite capital, perhaps for efficiency. It was well-
located at the hub of a road and water transport network.
The extreme summer heat of Susa drove the Persian court first to the higher
altitudes of Ecbatana, the old Median capital in the Zagros Mountains. In
520 B.C., Darius began building the greatest of the Persian capitals at
Persepolis. Construction of Persepolis was interrupted for long periods
and was not completed nearly 200 years later when the city was sacked and
burned to the ground by Alexander.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
The Persians settled on relatively poor and remote lands where they were
little troubled by first the Elamites to their west, then the Assyrians who
destroyed the Elamites around 640 B.C., and then the Medes (to their
northZ) nd resurgent Babylonians who conquered Assyria in 609 B.C.
Throughout this period, the various petty Persian kings were vassals of the
richer and more advanced Medes. Cyrus II became king of the small Persian
kingdom of Anshan in 559 B.C. Within ten years he had subjugated the
eastern part of Persia and established a reputation among even his rivals
as a natural leader to whom men gravitated. When the Median king attempted
to reassert control over Persia around 550 B.C., the Median army revolted
on the battlefield, handing over their king to Cyrus and surrendering their
own capital at Ecbatana. The Median Empire, stretching across northern
Mesopotamia into Anatolia, underwent a nearby bloodless change of
management. Cyrus II was now Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian
Empire.
Cyrus then conquered in quick succession the Lydians of Asia Minor (led the
King Croesus of legendary wealth who had invented coins), Greek colonies on
the Aegean coast, the Parthians, and the Hyrcanians to the north. In 541
B.C., he marched into the steppes of Central Asia, establishing a fortified
border along the Jaxartes River. In 540 B.C., his 19th year as king, Cyrus
turned on his onetime ally, Babylon. After one battle, the army and people
of Babylon surrendered their king, city, and empire that stetched from
southern Mesopotamia to Phoenicia. Before Cyrus could expand into Egypt or
toward Greece, however, he was killed fighting nomadic tribesmen who were
threatening his eastern provinces.
The first successors to Cyrus conquered Egypt, gathered new provinces in
North Africa, and extended the empire into India to the Indus River. They
turned next against the Greeks who were commercial rivals of Persian
Phoenicia. In 513 B.C., a huge floating bridge was built across the
Bosphorus Strait, linking Asia and Europe. The Persian army took Thrace
and Macedonia to cut off grain to the Greeks, but could not subjugate the
elusive Scythians. This was the peak of the Persian Empire. The stage was
set for the mighty struggle with the city- states of Greece that lasted 50
years.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The early Persian economy was based on herding because the land was so poor
for agriculture. The Persians attributed their toughness to the meager
lifestyle to which they has been acclimated for generations.
The sudden acquisition of the Median Empire, Lydia, Babylon, Egypt, and
gold- rich areas in India made Persia an economic powerhouse. It controlled
the rich agricultural areas of Mesopotamia, the grasslands of Anatolia, the
trade routes in every direction, and rich deposits of metals and other
resources. Great King Darius instituted many economic innovations and
reforms: systematized taxation; standardized weights, measures, and monetary
units (the first successful widespreaduse of coins); improvedtransportation
routes, including the 1600- mile Royal Road from Susa to Sardis and an early
Suez Canal; royal trading ships; promotion of agriculture; a banking system;
and promotion of international trade.
======================
=Religion And Culture=
======================
The Persian kings and nobility were Zaroastrians, a religion named after its
founder, Zarathustra, called Zoroaster in Greek. Zarathrustra conceived his
religion around 600 B.C., and it had great influence later on Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
Zoroastrianism was monotheistic, centering on one supreme god who created
everything material and spiritual. The powers of good and evil worked on
humans who had to choose constantly between the two. An eternal afterlife
of pleasure or torment were the possible results of god's judgement after
death. These concepts of monotheism, good versus evil, free will, and
posthumous reward or punishment were a departure from the polytheistic
religions prominent in the area previously. These concepts greatly influenced
religions that followed.
============
=Government=
============
The head of the Persian government was the king whose word was low. His
authority was extended by a bureaucracy led by Persian nobles, scribes who
kept the records, a treasury that collected taxes and funded building projects
and armies, and a system of roads, couriers, and signal stations that
facilitated mail and trade. In the early years when the army was predomin-
ately Persian, it capably preserved the internal and external peace.
Much of the empire was divided into provinces called satrapies, ruled by a
satrap. All of Egypt was usually a single satrapy, for example. The satraps
were normally Persians or Medes to help ensure their loyalty. They ruled
and lived like minor kings in their own palaces. Some satraps became strong
enough to threaten the king. Strong kings kept their satraps in check by
holding close the reins of the armies and the treasury.
==========
=Military=
==========
All Persian men to the age of 50 years were obligated to serve in the armies
of the Persian Empire. Greek historians report that boys were trained in
riding, archery, hand- to- hand combat, and mounted combat. At the age of 20
they were eligible for military service.
The army consisted mainly of four types of units: spearmen for infantry shock
combat, foot archers to act as skirmishers, light cavalry mainly with bows,
and heavy cavalry that wore some armor and carried spears. In the early
years of the empire, the predominantly Persian army was highly motivated and
responsive on the battlefield, making it a dangerous foe.
The elite of the Persian army were the Ten Thousand Immortals, so called
because the unit was always kept at a full strength of 10,000 men. The loss
of any man to death or incapacitation was immediately made good by promotion
from another unit. One thousand of the Immortals were the king's personal
bodyguards.
In its later years, the ratio of Persians to provincial levies declined.
The hardened army of desciplined and well- trained Persians was replaced by
a mixture of formations, weapons, and methods. These troops lacked the
discipline of the Persians and proved difficult to maneuver and employ on
the battlefield.
==================
=Decline And Fall=
==================
The Persian Empire peaked aroung 500 B.C., although the seeds of its decline
were planted earlier. A recurring problem was court intrigue and its ill-
defined rules for succession. The death of a king often triggered a scramble
for the throne that exhausted the treasury, eroded morale, and loosened the
governmental hold on the provinces. Wasteful spending led to inflation and
unpopular tax increases. Disputes in the provinces, usually over taxes, were
often settled brutally, further increasing dissatisfaction. Five of the six
kings that followed Xerxes' death in 464 B.C. were weak leaders that held the
empire together only by increasing harsh measures.
The Greeks and Persians had been on a collision course for many years when
conflict began between the two cultures in 499 B.C. Despite what appeared to
be overwhelming strength and economic resources, the Persians failed to
defeat the Greeks in 50 years of war on land and sea. The Greeks, though
victorious, were not capable immediately of carrying the war into Persia.
Following the Greco- Persian Wars, the weak Persian kings concentrated on
maintaining their ever more tenuous hold on the empire. Recurring revolts
in outlying provinces, especially Parthia, Lydia, and Egypt, weakened the
economy and military. Before the empire could dissolve from within, it was
dispatched by Alexander the Great in an amazingly short period of time.
Alexander invaded in 334 B.C., captured Lydia by 333, took Egypt in 332, and
became king of Persia in 331.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Persians are best remembered in the West as the antagonist in the dramatic
Greco- Persian Wars, from which so much history has been preserved. The most
famous events from this period are the bridging of the Hellespont, land battles
at Marathon, Thermopylae, and Platea, the great sea battle at Salamis, and
the sacking of Athens. Most of this history is biased, however, because we
have mainly the Greek accounts to study.
The Persians are also remembered in several Biblical accounts for the toler-
ance of their later courts. Cyrus the Great is remembered especially for
freeing the Hebrews held prisoner in Babylon when he took that city and
allowing them to return to Israel.
The greatest legacy of the Persians was the aggression and mixture of Asia
and African cultures. Most of the advances of civilization to that point
had come from these areas. This cultural gift was preserved by the Persians
and passed on first to the Greeks and then to Europe and the West.
----------------------------------
Phoenician
----------------------------------
(1200 to 146 B.C.)
There was never a country or empire called "Phoenicia." The historical
name of this culture was coined by the Greeks and was not their name. The
name Phoenicia derives from the Greek word Phoenix, meaning in this case a
dark red or purple- brown color. The phoenicians were renowned for their
cloth dyes, especially an expensive purple one popular with royalty.
Because Greek language and writings were preserved in abundance, versus
Phoenician texts which are very scant, the name stuck.
==========
=Location=
==========
The Phoenicians appeared on the historical scene around 1200 B.C., a time
when most of the civilized world was being overrun by barbarians. In the
political and military void of a 400- year ancient dark age, this small
group of traders were able to prosper and gradually expand their influence.
Instead of acquiring a physical empire of contiguous lands, they gradually
built, instead, a large trading and colonial network from their home base
of a few independent cities along the coast of what is now Lebanon.
They were the remnants of the Canaanites, a Semitic people who occupied
city- states in this region prior to 1200 B.C. The most important of their
early cities were Tyre, Sidon, Berytus (modern Beirut), and Byblos. These
coastal cities were hemmed in on the land side by the Lebanon Mountains.
The only onvious opportunity for expansion and economic gain was by sea.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
Prior to the catastrophe of 1200 B.C., Canaanite traders had been
restricted to perhaps the Levantine coast, Egypt, and the southern coast of
Anatolia. The Minoans on Crete blocked entrance into the Aegean,
controlled all trade further west. The Canaanite coastal towns were
usually controlled by Egypt, and one of their principal businesses was
providing wood (the cedars of Lebanon) to the Nile region.
The Minoan civilization was destroyed in 1200 B.C., removing most of the
constraints on Mediterranean and Aegean Sea trading bu others. The
Phoenicians were the most aggressive of those attempting to fill the void.
Their cities were well- positioned for this enterprise by being located
literally in the center of the known world. The Aegean, Mesopotamia, and
Egypt were all roughly equidistant to the west, south, and east. For any
of the three regions to trade with another, the easiest trade route was
through the Phoenician cities.
By the ninth century B.C., the ancient dark ages was nearing an end. The
Phoenicians were growing rich as traders and this attracted enemies,
principally the Assyrians. In the face of repeated assaults or heavy
tribute payments at the least, the Tyrians adopted the strategy of
establishing colonies to the west. Colonies were removed from the grasp
of the Assyrians and also helped with the exploitation of metals and trade
in the western Mediterranean.
The most important Phoenician colony was at Carthage, established around
700 B.C. Other important colonies were in Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and
Spain. Over the next 500 years, Carthage grew rapidly in size and power.
Most of its wealth came from the ore mines of Spain. Carthage fought for
control of the western Mediterranean with the Greeks first and then the
Romans.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The early Phoenician economy was built on timber sales, wood working, and
cloth dyeing. Dyes ranging in color from a pink to a dark purple were
made from the rotting gland of a sea snail. Gradually the Phoenician city-
states became centers of maritime trade and manufacturing. Having limited
natural resources, they imported raw materials and fashioned them into more
valuable objects that could be shipped profitably, such as jewelry,
metalwork, furniture, and housewares. They borrowed techniques and styles
from all corners of the world that they touched as traders.
While exploring the western Mediterranean, they either discovered large
metal deposits in Spain or took them from Greeks who may have been there
first. By fortifying sites on Sicily and North Africa, they effectively
denied other traders access to the riches of Spain, the west Africa coast
(gold, exotic woods, and slaves), and Britain (tin, which was used to make
bronze.)
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
Phoenician religion was polytheistic and their other gods required
continual sacrifices to forestall disaster, especially Boal, the god of
storms. No significant Phoenician temple has yet been discovered, but most
of their ancient cities lie buried under modern cities. The Bible recounts
human sacriices by the Phoenicians but this practice was eventually
stopped. It carried on in Carthage, however. A cemetary outside of
Carthage was found to obtain thousands of urns of infants sacrificed to the
gods. (BURN BABY BURN!!) Noble families of Carthage got into the habit
of substituting animals and slaves for their children, but following a
military disaster in 320 B.C., 500 infants from the best families were
sacrificed. (HA HA!!)
Early Phoenician culture was influenced to a large degree by their Semitic
origins and Semitic neighbors. Their later culture was heavily influenced
by the Greeks. There are few objects known today that are clearly
Phoenician.
One of their lasting copntributions to civilization was a proto- alphabet
where each letter represented a consonant. This cut down significantly the
number of symbols required to make written words. When written, the vowels
were implied. Later advances by the Greeks added symbols for vowel sounds,
creating the first true alphabet.
==========
=Military=
==========
When the Phoenicians began competing with the Greeks for trade and
colonies, the contest led to construction of the first ships built
expressly for war. These were rowed galleys armed with a ram at the front
and marines for boarding. Sea warfare grew in importance during the fifth
century when Persia fought the Greek city- states for control of the
Aegean, western Anatolia, and eastern Mediterranean. By this time the
Phoenician cities were under control of Persia. Phoenician ships made up
the bulk of the Persian fleet that was defeated at Salamis in 480 B.C.
Phoenician galleys of the time were larger and less maneuverable than their
Greek counterparts, and this was a fatal shortcoming in restricted waters.
The Carthaginian navy dominated the early Punic Wars with Rome, but the
Romans captured a Carthaginian ship that went aground and built duplicates.
The Romans eventually cleared the Mediterranean of Carthaginian ships and
carried the wars to a successful conclusion in North Africa.
The Carthiginians had the only significant land army that can be considered
Phoenician in derivation. Their greatest general was Hannibal, who invaded
Italy from Spain, passing the Alps in winter with his army and elephants.
Most of his troops were Celts enlisted from Spain and Gaul. One strength
of his army was cavalry from North Africa that was usually able to drive
off the Roman cavalry, surround the Roman infantry, and help annihilate it.
The Romans defeated Hannibal eventually, not by fighting him, but by
attacking where he wasn't- Spain first, and then North Africa.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
The Phoenician home cities were periodically under the thumb of one eastern
conqueror after another from roughly 900 to 332 B.C. They were never
strong enough to hold off the powerful armies from Assyria, then Babylon,
and then Persia, although they were often rich enough to buy them off. In
332 B.C., Alexander the Great took them one by one, ending their on- again,
off- again independence. They became Greek cities and lost their identity
as Phoenician for good.
The Carthaginians lasted another 200 years. Having held off Greek
expansion past Sicily successfully for many centuries, they met their match
in the more populous and better organized Romans. At the end of the Punic
Wars in 146 B.C., the people of Carthage were carried off to slavery and
the city was destroyed.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Phoenician tradition as traders carried on in Lebanon down through the
years to modern times, regardless of who was in political control.
Phoenicians are also recalled as great mariners. They are believed to have
been the first civilized culture to reach Britain and the Azores. There
is evidence that Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa on commission by the
Egyptians around 600 B.C. There is some questionable evidence that they
reached the New World.
Their most important contribution was their revised alphabet, which they
spread around the known world. When further refined and spread by the
Greeks and Romans, it became the alphabet used today by most western
cultures.
----------------------------------
Roman
----------------------------------
(750- 476 A.D.)
The Romans began as a small tribe living in modern Italy but expanded to create
the largest and longest lasting empire of antiquity. They were a hardy and
industrious people who survived in a violent world mainly by creating a powerful
army. The Roman Army went through many charges over the thousand years of its
existence and failed eventually to defend the empire, but in general it was
consistently superior to opponents from all corners of the world. The empire
expanded on the strength of the ruthless and aggressive Roman legions, and
consolidated through benign administration and public works on an unprecedented
scale.
The people who became the Romans migrated from northern Europe and settled on
the plains south of the Tiber River. They established towns on the seven hills
near the river. These towns eventually merged to form their capital city of
Rome. As first a republic and then an empire, Rome began expanding after 400
B.C. and eventually controlled the entire Mediterranean coastline, Europe west
of the Rhine and south of the Danube, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and
modern England.
The Roman Empire in the West ceased to exist in 476 A.D., although it was gone
for practical purposes many decades earlier. The proximate cause of the
collapse was invasion across the Rhine and Danube Rivers by Germanic settlers.
Many underlying causes for the collapse have been suggested. The adoption of
Christianity and preoccupation with the afterlife instead of practical matters
on Earth was one. The increasing inability to administer the large empire was
another. Taxes were required after the second century to support the large army
and this caused unrest and revolt in the provinces. The slave economy went
into decline because slaves became sparse when conquests ceased after the second
century. The empire failed to industrialize because of its independence of
slavery. Plague took a heavy toll on the population and trade declined
thereafter. The army declined in quality because mercenaries had to replace
citizens that avoided service as soldiers and officers. Repeated turmoil and
civil war over succession to the throne sapped the strength of the legions and
brought barbarian contingents into the army.
The legacy of the Romans were broad and far-reaching. It includes the
transmission of much ancient culture to the modern age, especially Greek art and
literature. The Romans began urbanization of Europe. In addition to Rome, they
founded Paris, London, Lyons, Bordeaux, Cologne, Toledo, and Milan. Modern
railway gauges trace back to wagon ruts in Roman mines. The Romans excelled at
engineering and construction, and first used the arch, the dome, and concrete.
A few of their famous roads, bridges, and aqueducts are still in use. The Latin
language influenced the later development of the French, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese, and Romanian languages. Roman law was codified and updated by the
Byzantines and is the basis of law for most European countries today.
----------------------------------
Shang
----------------------------------
(1800 to 1000 B.C.)
China has been a mystery to much of the world since word of its existence
first spread west in ancient times. It was isolated first by geography, and
then by a conscious policy on the part of its rulers. It was thought to be
one of the oldest civilizations but modern archaeology and research has
revealed that the civilizations on Crete, in Egypt, and in Mesopotamia predate
it significantly.
China encompassed a number of fertile river valleys, especially the Huang Ho
(Yellow) and Yangtze, that were ideal sites for agriculture. New technologies
spread gradually from the west and the first Chinese farming communities
appeared along these rivers around 5000 B.C. Although all ancient civiliz-
ations eventually shared a common threshold of agricultural and technological
knowledge, the relative isolation of China allowed it to form a unique
culture. The Chinese distinguished their civilization by being first to
achieve many important advancements.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The first recognized dynasty of Chinese kings is that of the Shang, who were
located in the north along the Huang Ho River. Their principal city was
An-yang, southwest of modern Beijing. The Chou dynasty overthrew a decadent
Shang king and ruled for 400 years from the city of Hao in the northwest
province of Shensi. When barbarians from the north sacked Hao, the Chou
capital was moved east to Loyang. Although the Chou dynasty soon lost
control of most of China, it continued to rule a state of varying size from
its central position until 221 B.C. In 221 B.C., China was unified by the
Ch'in, from whom the country gets its modern name. A new capital was built
at Hsien-Yang, also southwest of modern Beijing.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
The Shang dynasty ruled over a conglomeration of northwestern Chinese feudal
territories from 1766 to 1027 B.C. The remainder of the counrty was made up
of territories that the Shang could not reach or influence. In 1027 B.C.,
a particularly decadent Shang ruler lost control of the kingdom and succombed
to either revolt or the deliberate attack from the more western province of
Chou. A Chou dynasty established itself and then expanded its control to
the middle and southern areas of China over the next 400 years. With the
help of a deposed queen, barbarians from the north invaded Chou in 722 B.C.
and sacked the capital.
The Chou dynasty relocated further to the east but never regained its domi-
nance. The weakening of the Chou led to the Spring and Autumn period (722
to 481 B.C.) that takes its name from the title of a history of the era.
New feudal kingdoms emerged and fought each other for territory, strategic
materials, and population centers. Warfare between the feudal territories
and barbarians to the north was incessant. By 500 B.C., and 200 feudal
territories of China had consolidated into 20 independent states.
A peace was arranged around 540 B.C. at a conference instigated by smaller
states that had suffered continual invasion and despoiling. Peace lasted
40 years and then hostilities resumed, setting off the age known as the
Warring States (481 to 221 B.C.). Seven major states emerged in this period,
buteach was subjugated by the Ch'in, one after the other, beginning in 230
B.C. In 221 B.C., Prince Cheng, the Tiger of Ch'in, proclaimed himself
Shih Huang-ti-- the emperor of China.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Early Chinese farmers grew millet and vegetables, andkept dogs and pigs. By
4000 B.C., rice was being grown and became the most important food crop of
Asia. By 2500 B.C., cattle, chickens, sheep, and goats were raised, and
water buffalo were being used to pull plows and wagons.
Despite the ravages of war, the ancient Chinese economy continued to grow and
improve. An elaborate road network improved communications and trade.
Massive irrigation projects dammed entire rivers, breaking them into small
streams that carried water over extensive plains for rice cultivation. Most
impressive were canals connecting rivers or taking water into previously
arid regions. The first of these was built in 486 B.C. to supply troops.
The eventual dominance of the Ch'in was due in part to the rapid population
growth that resulted from canal and irrigation projects that dramatically
increased food production.
Bronze did not reach China until around 1500 B.C., and iron followed in the
sixth century B.C. Another advantage of the Ch'in was their iron deposits
and iron seventeen centuries before that technology was achieved in Europe,
and iron- making was a key factor in the shaping of their society.
China was unique to the ancient world for its general lack of slavery and
a large peasant class of land owners. The reasons for this are not fully
understood. These two conditions probably contributed to the enormous food
production and population that China supported.
======================
=Religion And Culture=
======================
The religion of ancient China was dominated bt ancestor worship. Kings
traced their ancestry back directly to Shang- Ti, the ancestor and founder
of the people, and the ruler of the natural world. Shang- Ti and deceased
forebears were petitioned by sacrifices for guidance in all aspects of life.
Political power was linked to the spiritual. The ruler was the Son of Heaven
and ensured the welfare of the people. These ancient beliefs were modified
eventually into a state religion by two competing philosophies that devel-
oped around the sixth century B.C. in response to growing dissatisfaction
with feudalism.
The oldest of these philosophies was Taoism, based on a collection of profound
sayings. Conformity to the Tao was achieved by unassertive action and
simplicity. Taoism urged a return to a naturally sharing society that was
cooperative, not acquisitive. A typical Taoism saying read, "He who feels
punctured, must have been a bubble."
The second and most influential philosophy was Confucianism, a more practical
and socially aware doctrine. This was a philosophy of honesty and cooperation
in relationships based on loyalty to principles. Virtue was acquired by
self- cultivation and self- denial. The Confucian ideal was a perfection
of the human personality through sacrifice in deference to tradition values
passed down from one's ancestors. Heaven was the reward of the dutiful
descendant.
============
=Government=
============
The various dynasties of China ruled over a hierarchy of feudal states linked
by kinship and vassalage. Feudal society was supported by peasant farmers
who produced unpaid labor.
Following the formation of the first empire in 221 B.C., the long failing
feudal society was replaced by a new structure. The aristocracy were only
relatives of the emperor. Four classes of society were ranked below them.
The shih were lesser nobility, landowners, and scholars. The nung were the
peasant farmers, who paid taxes, lobored on public works, and served in the
armies. The kung were the artisans, and the shang were the merchants.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
Ancient Chinese architecture was concerned primarily with building walls.
Walls defended villages and towns, but also divided towns into sections.
Controlling access to sections of cities enhanced the power of authorities.
The earliest walls were built of earth tamped down between wooden slats that
held it in place. The use of earth in this manner led to two major chara-
cteristics of Chinese architecture-- walls did not usually bear loads and
roofs supported generous overhangs to keep water off the walls. Walls were
improved first with sun- dried bricks on their facings and then with fire-
baked bricks by the end of the Warring States period.
The Great Wall of China was constructed following the unification of 221 B.C.
for two purposes. It was intended first to keep out or discourage attacks
by mounted barbarians from the north. It also was an outlet for the labor
of thousands of men who had previously served in the massive armies now made
unnecessary by the unification.
==========
=Military=
==========
The ancient Chinese fielded armies that at times dwarfed those seen previo-
usly in the Near and Middle East. Casualties from a battle often numbered
100,000 or more according to records well regarded today for accuracy.
Professional armies were supplemented by large militia levies called up for
temporary service.
The most militaristic states were those to the north and northwest who were
forced to become proficient in war because of repeated attacks by mounted
barbarians. Provinces in this region learned to fight large field armies
from neighboring states as well as the barbarian hordes. The three dominant
dynasties of ancient China originated in the northern provinces.
Chariot archers dominated the battlefields of the Bronze Age Shang era, but
they were supplanted by mounted archers and large infantry armies armed with
crossbow, not seen elsewhere for many centuries. Crossbows were manufactured
in large quantities for the arming of the militia, as well as regular troops.
This fact influenced the widespread building of walls fro protection. For
reasons not known, armor was made predominantly of wood and bamboo.
==================
=Decline And Fall=
==================
The empire established in 221 A.D. was further modified by the former Han
dynasty up to 9 A.D. In that year, ausurpergrabbed the throne and ruled
for 16 years. Attempts to reform land ownership failed, however, and the
usurper was eventually beheaded. This period makes a convenient break point
in Chinese history, even though the empire continued to exist into the
twentieth century A.D.
========
=Legacy=
========
The principle legacy of ancient China was its philosophy, including the
concepts of face, ancestor worship, virtue, and balance with nature (Yin-
Yang), which continue to shape its culture today. The most recognizable
physical legacy is the Great Wall, the only man- made object on Earth
visible from space.
----------------------------------
Sumerian
----------------------------------
(5000 to 2230 B.C.)
The Sumerians were one of the earliest civilizations. Their growth and
expansion was dependent on rich river valley farmlands. They were not as
fortunate as others in terms of mineral resources or strategic position,
however, and did not enjoy the existence of the Egyptians. They are
considered one of the most important early cultures, nevertheless, because
of the many advances attributed to them. Because their location was weak
in terms of defense and poor in terms of resources, they were forced to
innovate. In many ways they were more important to history because of
their innovations than the much richer Egyptians.
==========
=Location=
==========
Sumer was located in southern Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers come together before flowing into the Persian Gulf. By 5000 B.C.
primitive farmers had come down to the valley from the Zafros Mountains to
the east. The land was rich but baked hard in the summer sun after the
late spring river floods. The early settlers learned how to control some
of the flooding with dikes and how to irrigate their summer fields. Early
settlements at Ur, Uruk, and Eridu grew into independent cities first and
then city- states.
=========
=Capital=
=========
As a conglomeration of city- states, there was no clear capital for the
Sumerians because the center of power shifted from time to time. The
cities of Ur, Lagash, Erech, Eridu, and Uruk were the most important.
===============
=Rise to Power=
===============
From 5000 to 3000 B.C.. agricultural communities of Sumer gradually
coalesced into city- states along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers. The peak of this city- state culture lasted from 2900 to 2400
B.C. They warred with one another from time to time and competed for land
and trade, but never conglomerated or built an empire that expanded from
their traditional homeland.
The city- states of the river valley were relatively rich from food
production, manufacturing, and their position along important trade routes.
This made them tempting targets when more powerful and warlike neighbors
came into existence to the north and east.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The Sumerians grew wheat, barley, peas, onions, turnips, and dates. They
raised cattle and sheep, fished, and hunted wildfowl along the river. Food
was generally abundant and populations grew accordingly.
There was no copper in the river valleys, but copper was found in the
mountains to the east and north. The Sumerians learned how to obtain
copper from ore by 4000 B.C. and to make bronze by 3500 B.C.
They traded food, cloth, and manufactured items for raw materials, such as
timber, copper, and stone, which they fashioned into items of everydat use,
weapons, and more valuable trade goods. Their merchants traveled up the
Tigris and Euphrates to trade with the people of Anatolia and the
Mediterranean coast. They also traded in the Persian Gulf for items from
India and further east.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Sumerians worshipped hundreds of gods, with each city having its own
patron deity. The principal gods, such as Entil, the god of air, were too
busy to bother with the plight of individuals. For that reason, each
Sumerian worshipped a particular minor god or goddess who was expected to
interact with the major gods.
The Sumerians did not believe in an afterlife and were realistic about the
limits of human goodness. They accepted that although the gods were above
question, they were not always kind.
The soul and center of each city- state was its temple to the patron god.
The Sumerians believed that the god owned the city- state. Part of the
land was farmed directly for the god, often by slaves. The remaining land
was farmed by the temple staff or by farmers who paid rent to the temple.
Rents and offerings paid for temple operation and supported the poor.
Slaves were an important part of the community and were one objective of
any military campaign. Even locals could become slaves to satisfy debts.
Slaves were allowed to work extra hours for themselves and use any savings
to buy their freedom.
============
=Government=
============
Each city in Sumer was ruled at first by a council of elders, although a
war leader, called a lugal, was selected to lead the army during conflict.
Eventually the lugals assumed power as kings and established dynasties.
Evidence suggests that the Sumerians may have taken the first steps toward
democracy by electing a representative assembly. They consisted of two
houses- a senate of important citizens and a lower house made up of those
available for military duty.
Preserved clay tablets reveal that the Sumerians maintained courts of
justice where people could expect a fair trial. One table recorded the
oldest murder trial in history.
Most of the food production and distribution was controlled through the
temple. A noble class arose based on land ownership, control of land, and
manufacturing. Most trade and manufacturing was outside the temple's
control.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
The Sumerians were handicapped by having no easy access to stone or wood
for building. Sun- dried mud bricks were their main building material and
this required some ingenuity. They were the first to employ the arch,
vault, and dome. Their cities were completely enclosed by brick walls.
Their most important buildings were temples, built as large mounds called
ziggurats. Through cycles of attack, destruction, and restoration, the
temples were rebuilt again and again at the same site, gradually getting
larger with each reincarnation. Mud bricks eroded and crumbled much more
quicker than stone, however, and little Sumerian architecture survives.
==========
=Military=
==========
The key influence on the Sumerian military was their poor strategic
position. Natural obstacles for defense existed only on their borders to
the west (desert) and south (Persian Gulf). When more populous and
powerful enemies appeared to their north and east, the Sumerians were
susceptible to attack.
Surviving artwork and archaelogical remains indicate that the Sumerian
soldiers used spears and short swords of bronze. They wore bronze helmets
and carried large shields. Their armies were not particularly noted but
records are sparse.
They engaged in siege warfare during their many inter- city wars. Mud
brick walls did not stand against determined attackers who had the time to
pry out the bricks or pound them to dust.
The Sumerians invented chariots and were the first to use them in battle.
These earlt chariots were four- wheeled and pulled by wild asses, and were
not effective in battle as the later two- wheeled design pulled by horses.
Sumerian chariots may have served primarily as fast transports, but
surviving artwork suggests that spears or javelins were thrown from them.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
A group of Semitic people called the Akkadians settled north of Sumer along
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The Akkadians adopted very quickly the
culture, religion, and writing of the more advanced Sumerians who had
preceeded them. In 2371 B.C., Sargon I seized the throne of Kish and
gradually conquered all of the city- states of Akkadia. He turned south
and conquered the city- states of Sumer, which were unable to unite in
defense. Sargon established the first empire of history during the reign
from 2371 to 2316 B.C., extending his control along the Fertile Crescent
from Elam, to the east of Sumer, to the Mediterranean coast.
Sargon's empire collapsed after his death but was restored briefly by his
grandson. Around 2230 B.C. the Akkadian empire was destroyed by an
invasion of Gutians, the barbarian hill people from the Zagros Mountains.
New cities and towns soon grew up along the river valleys, but the
Sumerians were gone as a distinct and indepentent culture.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Sumerians are most noted for the invention of the wheel and writing.
The wheel was important for transport and for pottery making. Sumerian
writing, cuneiform, consisted of groups of stylus wedge impressions pushed
into clay to form stylized pictograms representing words. This writing
grew out of record keeping and seals from business transactions.
They were among the first to use boats, including round boats made of hide
stretched over a wooden framework. These coracles were especially popular
among the reeds and waterways of the river delta.
----------------------------------
Yamato
----------------------------------
(300 to 800 A.D.)
The Yamato period of Japanese culture is also called the age of the great
tombs because of the appearance in these centuries of great tombs and tomb
clusters, presumably for the burial of rulers and other elites. The name
Yamato comes ffrom the region of Japan that was the home of the first clan
to consolidate rule over most of the islands. During the Yamato period,
Japan accelerated its advance in technology by adopting the cultivation of
rice, improving its pottery, developing iron working, building social
hierarchies, and accomplishing a political, economic, anc cultural
consolidation of the islands.
==========
=Location=
==========
The hereditary lands of the Yamato clan are on a peninsula on the southwest
coast of Ise Bay. This bay is located on the main island of Honshu,
southwest of modern Tokyo.
=========
=Capital=
=========
Prior to the late seventh century A.D., there was no permanent capital of
Japan. Each king ruled from his own palace, which was usually abandoned
following his death. As the Yamato began to adopt the Chinese system of
governemntal bureaucracy and organization, the need for a permanent seat of
government arose. The first capital was founded at Fujiwara in 694 A.D.
and served three emperors before being abandoned in 710. The second
capital of this period was built at Heijo and occupied from 710 to 784.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
Chinese documents from the second century A.D. make reference to 100
countries existing in Wa, a.k.a. Japan. By the third century, the Chinese
refer to a queen of Wa, probably of the Yamato clan, who had consolidated
30 countries under her rule. During this period, the Yamato clan
consolidated its control over most of Japan with a combination of military
conquest, intermarriage, and diplomacy.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Under the Yamato, the Japanese economy remained dependent on rice growing.
It was primarily a barter economy and taxes were paid in rice, cloth, and
other commodities by reasants who worked public lands. Beginning with the
seventh century, coins were imported from China to facilitate tax
collection. An attempt was made to mint Japanese coins, but rulers could
not resist the temptation to debase the local coinage and it fell out of
use.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
New concepts were added to the ancient Japanese beliefs and rituals during
the Yamato period, including respect for clan ancestors and a mythology of
divine ancestry for the Yamato dynasty. Under the influence of Chinese
Buddhism propaganded by Forea during the sixth century, the Japanese
religion became more formalized as Shinto, the Way of the Kami. The kami
were an infinite number of natural spirits and powers that could be called
upon for aid or appeased when angered. The hierarchy of Shinto divinities
was defined and the mythology was written down. The rulers of Japan
descended from the sun goddess, the supreme Shinto deity.
Early Shinto was positive and concerned with the present, not the past or
an afterlife. It fostered a reverence for a natural universe that was seen
as good and ethical. Evil was identified with impurity and the unnatural.
Sincere honesty was the central virtue.
============
=Government=
============
During the Yamato period, tribal states of various sizes and power were
brought together gradually by a dynasty of Yamato clan rulers. The leader
of the Yamato in the second half of this period was known as the Daio, or
Great King. The power of the Yamato was expanded and strengthened through
blood ties within the clan, their apparent military supremacy, diplomacy,
and manipulation of the sun myth that bestowed divinity on their ancestry.
The different tribal groups or clans were the nobility or uji class.
Serving the uji was an occupational/ professional class called the be, who
worked as farmers, scribes, traders, and manufacturers. The lowest class
were slaves. Immigrants fit in among the uji and be, depending on their
skills and wealth.
In the seventh century, the Yamato transformed the government of Japan
based on influences from China. The Yamato sovereign became an imperial
ruler supported by court and administrative officials. The uji class was
stripped of land and military power, but given official posts and
stripends. This political system remained in effect until around 1200 A.D.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
The outstanding architectural achievements of the Yamato are their tombs.
These are mounds of earth in the shape of a keyhole if viewed from above.
The largest tombs are found in the Yamato region of Japan, and is further
evidence of power emanating from that locale. The Nintoku tomb on the
Osaka Plain rivals the Pyramids in size. The central tomb is 500 meters
long and 35 meters high. It is surrounded by three moats with intervening
belts of trees and covers 32 hectars (approximately 3.4 million square
feet). Stone burial chambers were evacuated in the earth below the central
tomb mound.
Tombs thought related to the imperial family are now controlled by a
government agency. Although some have been pillaged in the past, many
remain unexcavated.
==========
=Military=
==========
Based on the large numbers of warrior figures, weapons, and pieces of armor
found in burial tombs from this era, warfare was apparently a common
feature of Yamato culture. Despite the existence of a dominant ruler,
clan groups found reason for conflict. All adult men were available for
military service and were required to serve for at least one year. The uji
class provided the elite troops and officers for armies.
Warrior figures from tombs are shown wearing full body armor and visored
helmets. The most commonly found weapons are swords, spears, and bow
quivers. Horse figures are also found in abundance, suggesting the
existence of cavalry. The sudden appearance of horses in burial goods
around the fifth century has led to the hypothesis that Japan was invaded
by a cavalry army at that time. It is more probable that the horse was an
import that became a status symbol for the elite who were most likely to
receive a ceremonial burial. The elite uji class made up the cavalry of
the period because they could afford the horse and equipment.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Yamato period is remembered for the sun goddess mythology from which
all later emperors of Japan claimed divine ancestry. The Yamato period
also formalized the Shinto religion that would compete with imported
Buddhism to the present day. Most modern Japanese consider themselves
descentants of the Yamato. The great tombs spread about the countryside
are the most material legacy.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
7. Civilization Comparisons
|ЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇ|ЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇ|
| Civilization | Attributes |
|--------------------------|------|
| Ancient Chosen | o Long Swordsman and Legion +80 Hit Points |
| | o Towers +2 Range |
| | o Priests cost 30% less |
|--------------------------|------|
| Assyrian | o Archery Range units have increased fire rate |
| | o Villagers 30% faster |
|--------------------------|------|
| Babylonian | o Wall and Tower Hit Points doubled |
| | o Priest rejuvenation rate 30% faster |
| | o +30% Stone Mining |
|--------------------------|------|
| Carthaginian (New) | o Transports 30% faster |
| | o Fire Galley +25% attack |
| | o Academy units and all elephant units 25% Hit |
| | Points |
|--------------------------|------|
| Egyptian | o +20% Gold Mining |
| | o Chariot, Scythe Chariot, and Chariot Archers |
| | +33% Hit Points |
| | o Priest +3 Range |
|--------------------------|------|
| Greek | o Hoplite, Phalanx, and Centurion 30% faster |
| | o War ships 30% faster |
|--------------------------|------|
| Hittite | o Stone Thrower, Catapult, and Heavy Catapult Hit |
| | Points doubled |
| | o Archery Range units +1 attack |
| | o War ships +4 Range (except Fire Galley) |
|--------------------------|------|
| Macedonian (New) | o Academy units +2 armor vs. Slinger, Ballista, |
| | and missile weapons |
| | o Units with no range +2 line of sight |
| | o Siege Workshop units cost 50% less |
| | o Units 4 times more resistant to conversion |
|--------------------------|------|
| Minoan | o Ships cost 30% less |
| | o Composite Bowman +2 Range |
| | o Farm production +25% |
|--------------------------|------|
| Palmyran (New) | o Free Tribute |
| | o Gold per trade doubled |
| | o Villagers cost 50% more, have armor, and work |
| | 20% faster |
| | o Camel Riders 25% faster |
|--------------------------|------|
| Persian | o +30% hunting |
| | o War Elephant, Armored Elephant, and Elephant |
| | Archer 50% faster |
| | o Trireme +50% fire rate |
|--------------------------|------|
| Phoenician | o War Elephant, Armored Elephant, and Elephant |
| | Archer cost 25% less |
| | o +30% woodcutting |
| | o Catapult Trireme and Juggernaught +65% Fire Rate|
|--------------------------|------|
| Roman (New) | o Buildings cost 15% less, except Towers, Walls, |
| | and Wonders |
| | o Towers cost 50% less |
| | o Swordsmen attack 33% faster |
|--------------------------|------|
| Shang | o Villagers cost 30% less |
| | o Wall Hit Points doubled |
|--------------------------|------|
| Sumerian | o Villagers +15 Hit Points |
| | o Stone Thrower, Catapult, Heavy Catapult +50% |
| | Fire Rate |
| | o Farm production doubled |
|--------------------------|------|
| Yamato | o Horse Archers, Scout, Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, |
| | Cataphract cost 25% less |
| | o Villagers 30% faster |
| | o Ships +30% Hit Points |
|__________________________|___________________________________________________|
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
8. Tools of The Trade (John Mecham)
Take charge of Age of Empires and win in the Tool Age!
==============
=Introduction=
==============
The beginning is undoubtedly the most important time period of the game; those
who master this phrase are likely to do well throughout all the various Ages
of the game. Understanding what to do in the first 10- 15 minutes of the game
doesn't necessarily guarantee your victory, but without this understanding,
you'll find yourself losing a lot. The best players have a prettu good idea
of what they may do and what strategy they may employ before even starting the
game. It is the strategy that enables them to select a civilzation (which is
appropriate to counter the enemy's choice of civilizations on the map type and
resource level being played).
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial art that focuses exclusively on fighting your
opponent while both of you are on the ground. The theory behind this philosophy
is that most martial arts train people to fight people in the upright position.
If you're proficient at this style of jiu-jitsu, you're at a distinct advantage
in a fight that ends up with both combatants on the ground. The key is to first
get your opponent where you want him. After all, while you're standing up,
you're playing the opponent's game. Once you've taken your enemy down, however,
you have the "home court advantage."
The good news is, in Age of Empires, all players must pass through the Tool Age.
As in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it is extremely beneficial to excel in a certain
timeframe of the game and to understand how to make your opponent fight you
there. If you're an expert Tool player and you force your opponent to fight
you in the Tool age, you'll be at a tremendous advantage.
The purpose of this document is to explain what you should be doing in this,
the most important time of the game... the first 15 minutes. I am going to
focus on fighting during Tool. I know that the majority of multiplayer games
today focus on the Bronze Rush. The Bronze Rush is strong, but common.
Players that know how to fight a Tool battle, or use Tool as a springboard to
weaken the enemy and gain a competitive advantage are likely to excel in Bronze.
Since many players already know how to fight in Bronze, I'm going to explain
how to beat them in an environment foreign to them... the Tool Age.
================
=Key Strategies=
================
Several successful strategies are commonly used today in the multiplayer
environment. Strategies in one-on-one games can be very different than
strategies in team games. Since most one-on-one strategies can also be used in
team games, but several team strategies cannot be used in the one on one
environment, I'm going to focus on one-on-one strategies. Also, different map
settings allow different strategies. As a general rule of thumb, the smaller
the map and the less water separating you from your enemy, the more powerful
your Tool attack will be. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to
focus on the most common multiplayer setting, a large, inland map with default
resources and starting in the Stone Age.
Know the enemy and know thyself, and you can fight a hundred battles without
fear of defeat.
-Sun Tzu
In order to beat your opponent, you must have a pretty good guess about how he
plays the game. What are the current trends in strategy? To help you better
understand and predict what your opponent will do, I'll now explain the
background behind current strategies and techniques. I'll explain what the
"masses" are doing in their games, and the logical development of strategies
that lead them to where they are today.
===========================
=Evolution of AoE Strategy=
===========================
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was
without form, and void...
-Genesis
Phase 1: What to do?
When AoE was first released to the public in October of '97, very few people
had any idea what to do. Those that had played other real-time strategy (RTS)
games understood the importance of quickly developing an economy while
disrupting the enemy's economy. It was at this point that "the masses" of
multiplayer competitors learned how to Tool Rush (or at least, they learned an
early version of a Tool Rush-I use the term loosely while describing this first
step in the development of AoE strategy). It seemed that everybody selected
either Shang or Assyria because both are strong Tool Rushing civilizations.
The basic plan was to advance as quickly as possible to the Tool Age, then
develop a Tool army to attack the enemy fast. For a few months, everyone
complained about how the Tool Rush was unstoppable and that, therefore, AoE was
a dumb game. The funny thing is... they kept playing.
Phase 2: Envelopment
Amidst the monotonous Tool Rushers, small groups of strategists worked to
develop a plan for consistently beating the Tool Rush. Soon (sometime in
November of '97), a few people started using a spreading out technique (also
called map envelopment or locusting) to counter the Tool Rushers. I remember
frequently building about 35 Villagers and moving groups of workers all over
the place on the map. I'd often delay advancing from the Stone to the Tool Age
until the enemy came running into my (deserted) town with Tool units (usually
archers). At this point the enemy had wasted vast amounts of resources to
build a Tool-Age army, but simply couldn't find your Villagers (and if he did
find them, he'd just find a few because the rest were scattered all over the
map). The next step was to advance to the Bronze Age (or "to Bronze") as
quickly as possible. Once in Bronze, you could make Cavalry units (which slice
through Tool-Age units like a hot knife though butter). Since the enemy had
spent so much of his resources to develop his (now obsolete) army, he would be
a long ways away from Bronzing and would have no hope of competing with your
Bronze troops.
Due to the lack of forums to discuss strategies and the fact that there were
very few groups of people that shared information (since the game was still
new), people continued to Tool Rush for quite a while. You could be certain
that in 95 percent of the games you played the enemy would Tool Rush you.
Eventually (perhaps in December of '97 and January of '98) the masses started
learning how to use the "spread out and build" strategy. At this point only
the less-skilled players would attempt a Tool Rush. It was clearly determined
that Bronze troops were so much more powerful than Tool troops, it made little
sense to make any Tool-Age military units at all.
Phase 3: The Bronze Rush
Once everyone started to spread out and build, the threat of facing a Tool Rush
diminished. Again, the thought leaders in the AoE community had to develop a
new strategy to beat their old strategy-that of spreading out and creating an
enormous economy. It was soon learned that the faster you Bronzed, the faster
you could make units that were highly effective for killing Villagers.
Suddenly people started focusing on the importance of Bronzing quickly.
Everybody strove to develop strategies to Bronze quickly, and those that were
fastest wore their "Bronze times" like crowns. The most common civilizations
played were Assyria and Yamato (with a sprinkling of Shang). We had now
entered the day of the Bronze Rush.
At first the very best Bronze times hovered around 16 minutes. Elite players
could get Bronze times in the low 15's, but rarely did anyone get a sub-15
minute Bronze time. The game was all about speed. How many Villagers could
you make to get you to Bronze faster than your enemy? What Bronze units were
the most effective in the early Bronze Age? It was determined that about 18-24
Villagers were optimal to get the fastest possible Bronze times, and that
Yamato (with its fast Villagers and cheap Cavalry) was the strongest
civilization.
Phase 3a: A Revolutionary Discovery
It was learned that farming for food was much less efficient than foraging for
berries or hunting. People stopped making farms in the Tool Age and started
focusing on natural food. Bronze times across the board dropped about a minute
with this revolutionary discovery. Now we were seeing the best Bronze times
hovering close to 14 minutes. The game was still all about speed. Some
players were using Assyria to counter Yamato, having discovered that if they
could survive the first five minutes or so in the Bronze Age, hordes of Chariot
Archers would dominate hordes of Cavalry. Yamato players understood the
techniques of Assyria, and pressed even further to get fast Bronze times.
Since Assyria needs to research the Wheel upon arriving at the Bronze Age
before making Chariot Archers, Cavalry had to strike quickly to take advantage
of Assyria's weakness.
Phase 3b: Another Breakthrough!
Soon another breakthrough made its way into the game. People discovered that
the much-overlooked method of gathering food by shore fishing was extremely
fast-about twice as fast as foraging for food. Once people discovered and
started taking advantage of this fact, Bronze times dropped again. We were now
seeing the best players Bronze at about 13 minutes in a good game.
Phase 3c: Digging In
The next major development in gameplay was actually a result of the crafty
Assyrian players that needed to buy a few extra minutes for their Chariot
Archers to develop. It's an interesting phenomena that one Cavalry beats one
Chariot Archer, and that two Cavalry beat two Chariot Archers, but that twenty
Chariot Archers often beat twenty Cavalry. In order to buy a little time, the
Assyrian players began experimenting with various walling techniques. It
wasn't long before Yamato players found their Cavalry running smack into walls
all over the place (often with a few archers or priests behind the walls). By
the time the offensive Yamato players could build a dock and a Transport to get
around the walls or a Stone thrower to chew through the walls, the Assyrian had
gone offensive and was picking off Yamato Villagers with his highly effective
Villager-killing Assyrian Chariot Archers.
Happiness in AoE is directly proportional to the length, breadth, and thickness
of your walls
-Celestial_Dawn
(taken from http://www.ns.net/~thump/quotes.htm)
With little variation, this has been the state of the game strategy for the
last six months or so. More and more people abandoned Yamato to join the
Assyrian throngs, and many people were forced to learn how to wall effectively
in order to combat both Assyrian and Yamato speed-Bronzers. People perfected
and polished Bronze rushing techniques until now we see Bronze times
approaching 11 minutes (in best-case scenarios). Even "just average" players
can reach Bronze in under 15 minutes.
This is the mindset of the masses right now (August, '98). In a typical one-on
-one game you'll find that 70 percent of your opponents will select Assyria.
About 15-20 percent will select Yamato. You'll see a few Sumerian and
Phoenician players, too, with a smattering of Shang (not much, though). Other
civilizations are pretty rarely found. The strategy that is "en vogue" right
now is the generic rush to Bronze (with little or no Tool military efforts).
When playing an unknown opponent in a one-on-one game, you can be pretty safe
assuming that he'll be rushing directly to Bronze.
Phases 4 & 5: Villager Boom and Return of the Tool Rush
Once again, key AoE strategists have been working to devise ways to beat the
typical "Bronze Rush". Two different techniques have evolved (both highly
uncommon among "the masses" at this point). Both have been implemented in
parallel and are effective at beating the Bronze Rush. The first is a
technique known as Villager Booming (or a Power up strategy). In a nutshell,
the plan here is to play a defensive game while building a huge economy. If
your enemy doesn't hit you hard at precisely the right moment, you'll both be
in the Bronze Age and you'll have an economy that just won't quit. I won't go
into extensive detail about this strategy, but suffice it to say that if you
have twice as many workers as your opponent in the Bronze Age you have a
decisive advantage. From this point you can either overwhelm the enemy with
Bronze units or advance quickly to the Iron Age and attack with superior units.
If you opt for the Iron Hop (proceeding directly to Iron Age), A well-executed
Villager Boom will allow you to Iron in around 17 minutes. In my opinion,
Villager Booming is an extremely effective strategy that will replace Bronze
Rushing among the general population within the next three months or so (and
grow exponentially as the Age of Empires Expansion Pack-Rise of Rome-becomes
popular).
The other strategy used to counter the Bronze Rush is a group of refined
techniques that revolve around the Tool Rush (from phase 1). These tactics
will be the focus of this article.
Since Tool Rushing essentially became obsolete when people began to employ
spreading out strategies, people stopped worrying about them. People were
realizing the futility of Tool Rushing because the enemy usually spread out
Villagers all over the map and it was extremely difficult to hunt them down
with Tool-Aged troops. With time, however, spreading out made way for Bronze
Rushing. When people began to focus their efforts on efficiently Bronzing
quickly, they did everything they could to reduce the distances their Villagers
had to walk to get work done. The result was that large, sprawling economies
(that were spread out) started becoming more and more compact. Spreading out
was what allowed people to defeat the Tool Rush, but Bronze Rushing beat
spreading out. So, to sum it up: Tool Rushing became less of a threat, so
people didn't spread out as much (no need to), which opened the door for Tool
Rushing again. The nice, compact economies of the Bronze Rushers were ripe for
destruction by a solid Tool Rush.
============================
=Importance of the Tool Age=
============================
As I mentioned earlier, everybody has to pass through the Tool Age (if you're
playing in a default settings game). During the Stone Age you learn about your
surrounding environment. The layout of the map is crucial because good players
gain key input from the map that will enable them to decide which strategy to
employ. Attacks during the Stone Age, however, are usually futile. The only
Stone Age attack that has any merit (in a very few limited situations) is a
Villager Rush. A Villager Rush involves charging towards the enemy with a
group of from 12-16 Villagers en masse and teaming up on his Villagers to kill
them. In the Tool Age, however, you can develop a formidable attack
(especially if the enemy is unprepared for it).
The majority of the AoE multiplayer gamers today sprint through the Tool Age.
The Tool Age, however, is where several important strategies develop. During
the Stone Age you should form a high-level game plan. During the Tool Age you
should begin to solidify that plan. It is important to develop a high-level
game plan in the Stone Age because you must decide how many Villagers to create
before hitting the "Tool" upgrade at your Town Center. Tooling with 16
Villagers gives you different advantages (and disadvantages) than tooling with,
say, 24 Villagers. Decide what strategy you're going to use during the game
in Stone, then implement in Tool.
===============
=Pass or Play?=
===============
You need to decide early in the game where and when you want to fight your
opponent. It almost always makes more sense to fight the enemy in HIS town,
so that you can cripple his economy by killing his Villagers. The question is
when will you attack? Will you attack in the Tool Age (play) or sprint through
it to attack in the Bronze/Iron Age (pass)?
A pass or play decision should be made in the Stone Age and based upon a few
key pieces of information, including:
Is your spot defensible? Can you wall in easily? (lends itself to a pass
strategy). Do you have access to a lot of resources (primarily food)? Qualify
that food... if you have access to lots of shore fish (which is considered
"fast food"), you can be assured a quick Tool and, if you want it, a quick
Bronze. (could be used for either a pass or a play strategy).
What civilization are you using? What civilization is your enemy using? If
you are using a civ. that is strong in the Tool Age (and/or a civ. that can
Tool quickly), and your opponent is using a civ. that is particularly strong
in the Bronze or Iron Age, a play strategy makes sense. Hit the enemy before
they arrive to a point in the game where they can take advantage of their
strengths.
Have you located your enemy? How defensible is his position? If the enemy can
wall easily you may want to attack before he can build walls (play). What else
is the enemy doing? Does the enemy have a stronger economy than you? (defined
by the number of Villagers he has) If he has, say 24 Villagers and you Tooled
with 16, you darn well better hit him fast (play) before he has a chance to use
that overpowering economy against you in the Bronze Age.
In any case, you need to decide whether it makes more sense to pass though the
Tool Age with little or no conflict or to play (to give battle during the Tool
Age). This decision should be made in the Stone Age. After you've started the
Tool upgrade, you can't make more Villagers (boats, maybe. Villagers no.)
====================
=Dominant Timerames=
====================
A Dominant Timeframe is a time in which a particular civilization (and its
available units and resources) make it more powerful than other civilizations.
Obviously, different civilizations have different Dominant Timeframes. The
primary factor that contributes to a civilization's Dominant Timeframe is
access to military units that are more powerful than the enemy's military
units. For reference, see the graphic on the next page. The X-axis represents
time. The Age is represented along the top of the X-axis and the units that
tend to dominate during that period are represented along the bottom of the
X-axis. The Y-axis is the scale of "overall power" on a scale from 1-20.
Let me walk through an example of a Dominant Timeframe. In the early Bronze
Age, Cavalry dominate the battlefield. This results primarily from the fact
that there are no upgrades needed once you reach the Bronze Age before you can
make Cavalry units. Cavalry have the speed to allow them to outrun all other
Bronze Age units except Chariot Archers and Chariots. Additionally, small
groups of Cavalry beat small groups of Chariot Archers and Chariots in battle.
You must not only research the wheel before you can make Chariot Archers, but
you must also gather a pretty good sized group of them (maybe about a dozen)
before they can deal with groups of Cavalry. Therefore, any civilization that
can get cavalry units before the enemy can get something to defend against them
(or something equally powerful to attack you with) has a Dominant Timeframe, to
some extent, in early Bronze. Yamato's fast Villagers allow it to get to the
Bronze Age faster than most other civilizations. Yamato can also produce
Cavalry at a cheaper cost than other civilizations. Therefore (logically),
Yamato has a Dominant Timeframe in early Bronze. Shang's cheap Villagers allow
it to progress to the Bronze Age faster than any other civilization. Shang
also gets Cavalry, but they're not at a discount (like Yamato's). Shang's
ability to Bronze quickly also gives it a Dominant Timeframe in early Bronze
relevant to many other civilizations. Later in the Bronze Age ranged units
(Composite Bowman and Chariot Archers) become more powerful (because you have
the time needed to get them en masse. Civilizations with bonuses and
advantages for these units (such as Assyria, Hittite, and Minoa) enter a
Dominant Timeframe in late Bronze. Again, another factor that allows a
Dominant Timeframe is the ability to obtain powerful units cheaper than other
civilizations. Phoenicia with its woodcutting bonus essentially gets Chariot
Archers at a discount. Therefore, since Chariot Archers are powerful in the
late Bronze Age, Phoenicia enters Dominant Timeframe relative to many other
civilizations in late Bronze.
Take a look at the graph of Dominant Timeframes on the following page (it may
be tough to interpret if you print it in black and white. Check out
http://www.nsnet.com/~thump/power.jpg to see it in your browser). You can use
this graph as a rough guideline to help devise a game strategy. Decide which
civilization you'll be using and note which civilization your opponent is
using. Look at the lines representing the power of the two civilizations over
time. If I'm Shang and my opponent is Babylonian, I have a distinct advantage
in the early stages of the game. Notice that Shang is particularly strong in
the Tool Age and early Bronze Age, but becomes much weaker in the later stages
of the Iron Age. My strategy should be to try to take advantage of this
Dominant Timeframe and attack my Babylonian buddy before he can build solid
defenses. On the other hand, what do you think the Babylonian's strategy
should be? The Babylonian should immediately be thinking about a way to defend
in the early stages of the game (perhaps lots of walls and towers). The
Babylonian wants to buy time to advance to his Dominant Timeframe relative to
Shang, which occurs during the late Iron Age.
==============
=Tool Options=
==============
Now that I've explained the evolution of AoE strategy and the importance of
Dominant Timeframes, I will describe the different options available to you in
the Tool Age. It is essential to understand these two concepts because they
allow you to make intelligent guesses about what to expect from your enemy and
because they allow you to select an appropriate civilization for your planned
strategy. For the purposes of this discussion, I intend to focus on Tool Age
attacks (and skim over Tool openings that are primarily designed to set the
stage for attacks in Bronze).
The following is a list of potential game strategies and potential platforms
for game strategies as they relate to the Tool Age:
1. Boom (move to bronze)
2. Pass (move to bronze)
3. Probe to Play (move to bronze)
4. Push (option)
5. Rush (attack)
6. Blitz (attack)
In nearly every game (during the Stone Age) a good player will decide which of
these strategies to use. A key component in determining which strategy to use
is your civilization selection and which units you plan to use. I'll now
review the best Tool Rushing civilizations and units. Then I'll talk about
recipes for success in RTS gaming. After that I'll outline a generic start,
which will describe what to do with your first five Villagers. This start will
essentially be the same in all games, regardless of which strategy you're
using. Next I'll briefly highlight the key points of the Boom, the Pass, and
the Probe to Play (none of these strategies involve a serious Tool attack).
Then I'll discuss with some degree of depth the Tool Push, the Tool Rush, and
the little-known Tool Blitz.
===========================
=Which Civilization To Use=
===========================
If Yamato Villagers moved at +75% speed and could build flying fortresses of
Spam, it really wouldn't matter to me as long as there were at least 8-10
civilizations that were equal in playability.
-FallOfRome
(taken from http://www.ns.net/~thump/quotes.htm)
Several civilizations work well for Tool-Rushing strategies, but the best
include the traditional "Fast Four": Shang, Assyria, Yamato, and Phoenicia.
Shang
Shang is my personal favorite civilization. Shang's real strength rests in its
versatility. Shang can build every Bronze-Age unit, has cheap Villagers (35
food instead of 50), has double-strength walls, and has great Priests. The
cheap Villagers result in less food being used at the start of the game-
allowing you to move to Tool and Bronze Age more quickly than any of the other
civilizations. This ability to Tool quickly make Shang's Tool Rushes among the
most deadly in the game. Shang Tool Rushes best with food-based units (Scouts
and/or Axers).
Assyria
Assyria boasts fast Villagers (which make it much easier to locate the enemy
and aid in escaping cranky wildlife) and the Rate of Fire (ROF) bonus for the
Tool-Age Bowman. In groups, Assyrian Bowmen are extremely tough. Bowmen are
much cheaper to make than Scouts, are very effective Villager killers, and only
require one upgrade to make them effective (the +2 Leather Archer Armor
upgrade). The disadvantage with Bowmen is that Villagers can evade them and
relocate elsewhere (especially Yamato or Assyrian Villagers with their speed
bonus).
Yamato
Yamato has fast Villagers (as with Assyria, this speed facilitates finding the
enemy and avoiding lions) and cheaper Scouts (75 food each instead of 100
food). This discount results in a net savings of 25 food per Scout. However,
you get a savings of 15 food per Villager if you're using Shang and you will
likely be making a lot more Villagers than you will Scouts. For this reason I
consider Yamato the weakest Tool Rusher of the "Fast Four".
Phoenicia
Phoenicia's woodcutting bonus means that you'll have to allocate fewer
Villagers to the collection of wood to get the lumber for the buildings you
need. Phoenician Villagers do more than their share of work; you essentially
have extra Villagers. Phoenicia is a good civilization to use if you're
planning on attacking with Tool Bowmen (converting the woodcutting bonus into
savings on both buildings and military units).
========================
=Analysis of Tool Units=
========================
The Tool-Age military units available include the Clubman (or "Clubber"), the
Axeman ("Axer"-an upgraded Clubber), the Bowman, the Scout, the Scout Ship,
and the Tower. I'll now evaluate each of these units:
Clubman/Axeman
These units are made at your barracks and are very cheap. Since you have to
make a barracks anyway, it often makes sense to attack with Clubbers or Axers.
They are great at killing Villagers, but can be easily outrun and have a very
small Line of Sight (LOS), making it difficult to locate Villagers that have
escaped. Clubbers and Axers excel in destroying buildings, and are great for
"cleaning up" a city in the Tool Age. If you use this unit to kill Villagers,
you definitely need the defensive upgrade (Leather Infantry Armor). The
offensive upgrade (Toolworking) is only important if you're fighting Villagers,
as a Clubber will destroy a building just as fast with or without the offensive
upgrade (Toolworking).
Bowman
Because of their range, Bowmen are extremely effective Villager killers.
Bowmen require a single defensive upgrade (Leather Archer Armor) to be ready
for Tool-Aged combat. Also, Bowmen are extremely low-maintenance units; they
will fire upon all enemy Villagers within their range until none are left.
Consequently, Bowmen are one of the most common Tool Rush units. The biggest
weakness of Bowmen is their slow speed (meaning Villagers can escape from them)
and their limited LOS relative to the Scout.
Scout
Scouts are my weapon of choice in the Tool Age. Scouts have a larger LOS and
are faster than any other Tool-Aged unit. This means that you'll be able to
get from your military building to the enemy quicker, you'll be able to chase
down fleeing Villagers, and you'll be able to find hiding Villagers. Although
Scouts can beat Bowmen in a one-on-one, groups of Bowmen destroy groups of
Scouts. Scouts also lose handily to Axers. Scouts should use their speed to
avoid fighting other Tool-Aged military units, focusing on killing Villagers.
Since Scouts don't attack willingly, they are extremely high-maintenance units.
You must instruct your Scouts to attack each unit individually or they'll just
stand there and... well... scout! If you make Scouts, you should probably get
both Tool Working and Leather Cavalry Armor.
Scout Ships
Scout Ships are extremely powerful for their cost. Since you cannot usually
target enemy Villagers with them, though, they're usually useless in a Tool
Rush (but may be necessary if the enemy is dock fishing).
Towers
Towers are tough to destroy in the Tool Age and are great for defending an
area. They usually don't work very well, though, for Tool Rushes because of
the fact that Towers are stationary; the enemy Villagers can simply run away.
A few strategies exist for Choson or Babylonian Tower Rushing, but against
equally skilled opponents they will most likely fail.
Mixed Units
Most Tool attacks are relatively homogeneous. You usually don't have the
resources to build more than one type of unit (with the necessary upgrades).
However, if you attack with either Clubbers/Axers or Bowmen, it often makes
sense to follow up with Scouts to ensure that the enemy hasn't escaped with a
small group of Villagers.
A Note on Walls
If you find yourself in a situation where you're fighting an extended Tool-Age
battle or your opponent makes it to the Bronze Age, it is extremely important
to protect your Villagers. The fastest and easiest way to do this is to build
walls. Once you've made the decision to wall and spent food for the upgrade,
immediately move SEVERAL Villagers to the areas you wish to wall. Never use
just one Villager to wall a large area if there is a threat of enemy invasion.
If you wall 14 tiles out of 15, you might as well not have spent the time and
resources because only a completed wall will keep out the enemy military units.
Take a break from production, use many Villagers, and do it right.
=====================
=Recipes For Success=
=====================
Show me a guaranteed formula for success in Age of Empires and I'll show you
someone that has yet to fully grasp the game.
-ThumP
Some RTS games have little variety and are conducive to static strategies and
techniques that work every time with the exact same results. These games can
give you a recipe, or formula to use (use workers number 1 and 2 to gather
gold, worker number 3 chops wood, build a barracks with worker number 7...).
These patterns have been mathematically proven to give optimal results and
there is no flexibility. Age of Empires is not one of those games. The
concept of random maps has revolutionized RTS gaming, and now players must be
able to keep an eye on their resources and gather what they need instead of
relying on memorized patterns.
A "recipe for success" simply doesn't exist for Age of Empires. The reason you
can't use the same recipe every time is that the game doesn't give you the
same ingredients every time you play. You may have a great recipe for
chocolate cake, but when you're asked to make it without flour you'll quickly
learn the importance of diversity. It is this diversity that makes Age of
Empires a great game.
People can give general guidelines for what to do when, but true experts watch
their resources and rely on instinct to tell them how to allocate their
resource gatherers. "What do I do with Villager number nine?" Well, what are
your objectives? Do you need more food or do you need more wood to meet your
objectives? Obviously, if you need more food, assign the Villager to collect
food and if you need more wood, assign the Villager to collect wood. The
ability to create a high-level plan, understand what it will take (in terms of
resources) to achieve that plan, and then to execute that plan in real time is
essential to succeeding at a real-time strategy game such as Age of Empires.
On that note, I'll provide high-level guidelines for the different Tool
strategies. However, I expect that you will be able to improvise where
appropriate to meet the objectives.
===============
=Generic Start=
===============
Your primary objective at the beginning of the game is to locate food. Your
civilization is hungry, and before you worry about killing the bad guys you
must worry about the good guys starving to death. You want to continuously
produce Villagers without ever having to wait for more food or more houses.
Always continue to make Villagers; never allow yourself to be distracted by
less important tasks.
-Rick Goodman
(Creator/Lead Designer of Age of Empires)
When the game starts in a multiplayer game, your mouse cursor will not move for
a few seconds (it's waiting for everyone to get in synch). At this point all
you can do is notice your immediate surroundings. Can you see any berries? If
so, this is good. Can you see water? If so, this is good (if you can see fish
in the water near the shore, which is VERY good). Are there any trees very
close to your TC? These are called "straggler trees" and are very important.
The more straggler trees you have, the better. During the first few seconds
(while you're waiting for the game to start), quickly move your mouse back and
forth so that you'll immediately be aware when things start (your cursor won't
move until the game is ready for you to start playing).
As soon as you gain control of your mouse, hit "H" on your keyboard (which is
the hotkey to bring you to your TC), then "C" (which is the hotkey at your TC
to build a new Villager). As soon as you've done this, grab two of your
Villagers and have them build a house (hit "B" then "E"). Build the house
somewhere within the area you can see. If you build it at the very edge of
your field of vision, you may knock down a tree (if you build a house on top
of a tree, it deletes it... and your "straggler trees" are very important for
a good start). You usually start somewhere near the edge of the screen. It's
best to grab the two Villagers nearest the inside of the map to build the
house. Once you've started building the house, grab the third Villager (he
should be the one that was originally located the closest to the edge of the
map) and use waypoints to send him to the edge of the map (behind your TC)
away from the TC. On many maps you'll find a band of water along the outside
of the map. This first scouting Villager is looking for that water. Water is
good because it's where you'll find shore fish. Fishing from the shore is the
fastest way that your Villagers can get food. Now is a good time to quickly
hit "F11" and "F4" (F11 shows you the time elapsed and F4 shows you the
player's scores). All this should take about 5 seconds or less.
About the time you finish this, your house should be about halfway completed.
Grab one of the builders and have him start exploring. It's usually a good
idea to have all of your Villagers explore in the same circular direction
(either clockwise or counterclockwise). As soon as this Villager starts
moving, the builder will probably finish the house. Send him exploring, too.
As soon as he moves, your fourth Villager should be completed at your TC.
Immediately hit "HC" (which jumps you to the TC and begins production of the
next Villager). This is a good time to grab all of your Villagers with one big
mouse click and assign them to a group (using Ctrl-1, for example). Now send
the newborn Villager exploring. If there's a coastline, send him along the
coast in the opposite direction of the first explorer.
Here's what you're looking for (in order of importance):
* Shore fish (at least 2 within a few tiles of a single storage pit)
* Berry patches
* Elephants
* Gazelle
You should almost always end up with either shore fish or berries. If you
find two or more shore fish near each other with a forest near that (and/or
elephants, gazelle, gold, or stone), you're off to a terrific start. Build a
Storage Pit (from now on I'll just call this a "Pit") right on the shore near
the shore fish. Bring all of your Villagers over to help build the Pit (using
your group to grab all of them) and get a few of them started fishing. When
Villager #5 is born, hit "HC" and bring him over to help with food. The only
exception here is if you're using Shang. If you're using Shang and you find
shore fish quickly, you can use one of your initial 4-5 Villagers to continue
scouting (he doesn't need to help with food production). With Shang you can
also use fewer Villagers for food gathering and more for wood, right from the
beginning.
If you don't have any shore fish, find your berries. It is very important to
scout the area around your berries. Never build your granary right next to the
first berry bush you see. When you find a berry patch, walk your Villager
completely past it so that he's standing on the other side of the patch. You
need to do this for two reasons: 1) you want to find the optimal place to build
your granary (that will allow the best access to the most number of bushes),
and 2) sometimes there is another berry patch not too far away. If there is
another berry patch on the far side of the first one, you can often build a
granary right in between the two patches, which will give you access to 1800-
2100 food at a single granary (instead of 1050). This is a very, very good
thing, and if you don't explore around your berries you may waste the
advantage. We've all been screwed by lousy starting positions; it's important
to learn to take advantage of good ones, too!
======
=Boom=
======
Booming (Villager Booming or Powering Up) is a strategy that does NOT utilize a
Tool-Aged attack, and starts off as a highly defensive strategy (later becoming
highly offensive). If you have a large area surrounded by trees that can be
easily walled that also has access to lots of fish (for dock fishing) and where
gold can be walled in, it sometimes makes sense to Villager Boom. A Villager
Boom strategy has the following objectives:
· To make a lot of Villagers before Tooling (probably at least 24)
· To continue making boats from docks during the Tool upgrade
· To spread out your production and make walls quickly in the Tool Age to slow
the enemy from infiltrating with his Bronze Army
· To make more Villagers and boats once you have arrived to the Tool Age
· To absorb and deflect the attack of your opponent (who will likely arrive in
Bronze before you)
· To hit Bronze a few minutes slower than normal, but with about 40 Villagers/
boats (instead of 20-24).
You will know if your enemy is attempting to use a Villager Boom strategy
because he will probably Tool with at least 24 Villagers, he'll usually hit the
Tool Age pretty slow, and his Villager count will skyrocket as he begins to
mass produce fishing boats. Villager Booming is most effective on maps with
lots of water (either island maps or Coastal) and works particularly well with
Shang, Phoenician, or Minoan.
The best way to defeat this strategy is to either Tool Rush or Tool Blitz the
enemy or to hit very fast in the Bronze Age (either finding a way through or
getting around enemy walls somehow). You do not want to wait to attack someone
who is Villager Booming because it won't be long before they'll be able to
convert their massive economy into impenetrable defenses and unstoppable
offenses.
======
=Pass=
======
Passing basically boils down to slamming through the Tool Age as fast as you
can; it is a highly offensive strategy. When you use this strategy, little or
no thought is usually given to walling or defending. The battle is expected to
take place on the enemy's soil. A Pass is what you do during the Tool Age to
enable you to get to the Bronze Age quickly. This is the ultimate Bronze Rush,
where you spend no resources on upgrades, extra buildings, Villagers, or units
in Tool. Generally this is done by Tooling with anywhere from 20-24 Villagers.
The goal is to reach the Tool Age with a barracks completed, about 700 food,
and 300 wood. Use at least 3-4 Villagers each to build two Tool-Aged buildings
simultaneously (archery, stable, or market). While these buildings are being
constructed, your remaining villagers should collect the extra 100 food to put
you just above 800 food just as your two buildings finish construction. In a
perfectly executed Pass strategy, you'll have zero food and zero wood after
clicking the "Bronze" upgrade at your TC. The best Pass strategies enable
Bronze rushes where people arrive at the Bronze Age in less than 11 minutes.
As a general rule of thumb, any Bronze time under about 13 minutes isn't bad,
though.
You can recognize that your opponent is going for a Pass strategy in Tool when
he doesn't make any additional Villagers in the Tool, his exploration isn't
very high, and he only has one technology researched (the technology you get
for reaching the Tool Age). If you research "The Wall", for example, and you
have more technologies than your enemy does, odds are he's going straight for
Bronze. The best way to defeat someone who is using the Pass strategy to
Bronze Rush is to either 1) Tool Rush/Blitz or 2) wall your production and
Boom. Of course, you can't wait for the signs of a Bronze Rush to decide to
use a Blitz strategy (it'll be too late to use that strategy once you see the
signs of a Bronze Rush). Since a Pass involves no attack whatsoever in the
Tool Age, I won't go into more detail here.
===============
=Probe To Play=
===============
The final Tool-Age strategy with the objective of passing through the Tool Age
and attacking in the Bronze Age is the Probe to Play strategy. This strategy
is very similar to the Pass strategy, but delays the Bronze time slightly to
use a minor attack in the Tool Age. Sometimes this attack is made using units
that are created before the Bronze upgrade has started (at the expense of
Bronze time being slightly compromised). Other times the attack is made with
units that are created after the Bronze upgrade has started (in exchange for a
weaker offensive army directly after reaching the Bronze Age). In any case,
the objective is usually to reach the Bronze Age quickly while using a minimal
Tool-Aged attack to slow the enemy down. The concept of a minimal attack in
Tool on your way to a relatively quick bronze is often called Resource
Equalisation (notice how the word "equalization" is spelled. Celestial_Dawn,
an excellent player from Australia, spelled it that way when he defined the
technique.)
A Probe to Play strategy is essentially offensive (with its primary objective
being to arrive at Bronze shortly after your enemy but with a better economy).
However; since this technique is often used by slow-civilization players (a
slow civilization is any civilization except Shang, Yamato, Assyria, or
Phoenicia) to buy time for their military to develop, it sometimes involves
defensive elements. Attacking with a minimal force in the Tool Age buys time
to wall in your resources. When used against a player that is employing a
Pass strategy (rushing straight for the Bronze Age), a Probe to Play strategy
can be very effective because the Tool troops attack an undefended economy.
The enemy may reach the Bronze Age first, but typically the disruption in
economy caused by the early attack leaves him unable to launch a strong attack
immediately in the Bronze Age. Additionally, the Probe to Play strategy gives
you a "probing view" of the enemy's town layout. By sending a few Tool units
to the enemy early, you can learn where his pockets of resources are located.
This means that your Bronze troops know exactly where to attack (while your
enemy's Bronze troops will still be searching for your Villagers).
An advantage of a Probe to Play strategy is that it is difficult to detect.
When the enemy is using this strategy, it will appear very similar to a Pass.
You can usually differentiate a Probe to Play strategy from a Tool Rush by the
number of Villagers its executor creates before Tooling. Typical signs of a
Probe to Play strategy include:
· Bronzing with somewhere between 20-24 Villagers
· Researching a few technologies immediately after Tooling (especially the Wall
upgrade)
· An attack at about 11 minutes with Tool-Aged troops that aren't upgraded or
that are very few in number
Allow me to give you a quick example of a game I played recently where I saw
this strategy used. Last night my enemy wandered into a group of my Villagers
(who were gathering berries) with one of his Villagers. I immediately send
about three Villagers to try to kill it, but since he was Assyrian and I was
Shang (which has slower Villagers than Assyria) he got away. I returned my
Villagers to work, but expected him to attack that spot before too long. I
planned an escape route and actually moved a few more Villagers to those
berries (hoping to finish gathering them and leave before the enemy attacked
that spot). If my enemy had used a Pass strategy, I would have finished the
berries before he could attack with Bronze units. However; soon the enemy
attacked with a two Tool Bowmen (at about 11 minutes). I noticed that the
Bowmen didn't have the defensive armor upgrade, and I had about 15 Villagers
collecting berries there, so I attacked the Bowmen with my Villagers. I ended
up losing about two or three Villagers and losing some production time. The
fact that he hadn't researched armor, though, was a hint that he was probably
using a Probe to Play strategy and well on his way to the Bronze Age.
At about this time, I was doing the same thing to him (but with Scouts). I
killed about an equal number of his Villagers with my Scouts as he did with his
archers, but my Scouts survived the encounter because I retreated with them
when I met heavy resistance. I had just finished the berries and was running
away to the next pocket of resources when the enemy showed up at my granary
with his first Chariot Archer. To sum up the rest of the battle (since I've
already made my point of recognizing the signs of a Probe to Play strategy),
he walled his production but I was able to make a transport and get 3 Cavalry
units and a Scout behind his walls. I killed his wood production and that
ended the game.
======
=Push=
======
The Push is the first strategy we've discussed that involves a potential full-
scale Tool Age attack. The term Push is derived from the fact that this
strategy is essentially a Probing Rush (P from Probe and ush from Rush = Push).
Of the three Tool attacks (Blitz, Rush, and Push), it involves the most units
and allows you a strong Tool attack, but it's the slowest. The Push is an
offensive strategy that is the most versatile and unpredictable of all Tool
attacks, allowing you the option of either progressing quickly to the Bronze
Age or fighting a prolonged Tool battle.
The objective of the Push strategy is to Tool before your opponent, attack
quickly, then (based on what you find at the enemy's town) either wage a full-
scale Tool-Age attack or continue to the Bronze Age. The strategy leaves you
"sitting on the fence" between Tool and Bronze and delays the decision until
you know what your enemy is doing.
As with any Tool Rush strategy, with the Push early scouting is essential.
Send one of your first Villagers (with Shang you can send one of your first
three-with any other civilization you can use Villager number six or seven) to
explore the map and find the enemy quickly.
To implement the Push, jump as quickly as possible into the Tool Age after
training 18 Villagers. This strategy doesn't involve fishing boats (but, as
always, shore fishing is extremely helpful). To get a quick Tool time, gather
ONLY enough wood for four houses and two tool-age buildings (most likely a
granary and a storage pit). Once you have constructed two Tool buildings, ALL
of your Villagers should be collecting food. In any case, for ANY Tool Rush
strategy you want to find a sweet spot to build your storage pit. A sweet spot
is a location that provides at least one food source located next to a forest.
The very best sweet spots will have shore fish (the more the merrier) located
next to a forest. Since your objective is to gather food quickly, if you have
a choice of allocating Villagers to shore fish or berries, go with the shore
fish first. Remember, though, that if you assign more than about two Villagers
to collect each shore fish, they'll bump into each other and often one ends up
standing around idle.
I'm a big advocate of using Shang for any Tool Rush strategies because the
"cheap Villagers" mean you'll be able to reach the Tool Age faster than any
other civilization. Another benefit of using Shang is that you can use a
single, standard berry patch and be able to build 18 Villagers and still have
enough food to Tool. Other civilizations will need to use another food source.
Once you've begun the Tool upgrade, you should have very little lumber. Now
move most of your Villagers from food back to lumber. Hopefully you won't
need to make another food-gathering building (this depends on how much food
your storage pit accesses and whether or not you were lucky enough to have two
berry patches within range of a single granary). In any case, your objectives
at this point are to:
1. Locate the enemy
2. Complete a barracks before you arrive at the Tool Age (probably near your
base somewhere, unless you found the enemy quickly and your Villager is idle
near the enemy-then build it there)
3. Arrive at the Tool Age with no less than 350 food and 150 lumber
You should hit the Tool Age somewhere between seven minutes (this assumes many,
many shore fish and perfect execution) and nine minutes (any slower than this
and you may be a bit late). Immediately build a Stable near the enemy and
begin researching Toolworking and the Leather Cavalry Armor upgrades at your
storage pit. As soon as your military building is done, start making Scouts.
Quickly build another house (because you'll only have housing for two more
units).
It is important to use Scouts in the Push strategy because one of the key
objectives of the attack is to explore the enemy territory. Don't spend your
resources on building another military building unless your Scouts are doing a
good job killing enemy Villagers.
As soon as your first Scout is completed, make another one. With your first
Scout your best bet is to kill Villagers that aren't in large groups. Once you
have two or more Scouts, though, you'll do fine to attack concentrated areas
of Villagers (such as the enemy lumberyard). If your Scouts are fighting a
losing battle against a horde of angry Villagers, move them away. Try to
entice the enemy Villagers to pursue; if they're chasing your Scout they're not
working and if they're not working you're gaining ground on your opponent
economically.
If you encounter one or two Villagers trying to construct a building
(especially a building required for the enemy to achieve the Bronze Age), do
everything you can to stop them. When you hit the first builder, he will stop
building and begin to run. Immediately move to the next builder and hit him.
He'll stop building, too. Instead of following a single builder until it dies,
keep harassing the builders. Often you can prevent the building from being
completed (further delaying the enemy's progression to Bronze).
If the battle is going well with your first two Scouts, continue training
Scouts and consider making another military building near the enemy. Use your
Scouts to sweep the area, searching for pockets of hidden Villagers. If you
have three or four Scouts searching the enemy town and you can't find any more
Villagers (you think you've killed them all), keep looking but stop training
Scouts. Now you should start saving food to Bronze and finish your enemy in
the Bronze Age.
If your two Scouts encounter heavy resistance, stop training Scouts, wall your
area (if possible), and move straight to the Bronze Age. With an economy of 18
Villagers you shouldn't be very far behind your opponent (especially if your
Scouts have done their job and killed a few enemy Villagers).
The Tool Push is a very strong strategy because it allows you to delay your
pass or play decision depending on what your enemy does and how he reacts to
your first, probing attack. The flexibility of the attack makes it one of the
most powerful Tool attacks of the game.
======
=Rush=
======
You don't necessarily have to be fast to win, but if you are slow you will
probably lose.
-ThumP
The generic Tool Rush, which is the foundation of Tool-Aged warfare, is fast,
offensive, and powerful. The Tool Rush is very similar to the Tool Push, but
it hits faster and is a more determined attack. Tooling with only 16
Villagers, a Tool Rusher will Tool in anywhere from just under seven minutes
(in a perfectly executed Tool Rush with lots of shore fish) to nine minutes.
Anything over about nine minutes is a little slow (and defeats the purpose).
The primary objective of a Tool Rush is to attack your opponent while he's
still undefended (likely while he's rushing to the Bronze Age). A Tool Rush
typically involves a full-scale attack in the Tool Age. You attack
relentlessly; continuing to produce military units until you kill all the enemy
Villagers you can find or your attack is repelled. Even a failed Tool Rush
usually wounds the enemy enough to buy you some time to move to the Bronze Age
(but Bronzing is NOT a main objective of the Tool Rush).
Just as with the Tool Push, switch your Villagers all to food once you have
completed your first two Stone Age buildings, switch them back to wood as
needed after clicking on the Tool upgrade, then distribute them among food and
wood as appropriate. Obviously, if your main attack is with food-based units
(Axers or Scouts), you need more (if not ALL) of your Villagers collecting
food. If you're training Bowmen, keep a few Villagers chopping wood.
It is usually pretty easy to recognize the symptoms of an enemy Tool Rush. If
your opponent stops training Villagers near 16, Tools quickly, has a high
exploration, and begins researching additional technologies immediately after
Tooling, expect to be Tool Rushed. If your opponent gains the bonus for
"largest military" in less than about 9 1/2 minutes, you can be even more
certain that the Tool Rush is coming.
The best way to defend against a Tool Rush is to NOT advance into the Bronze
Age immediately. Moving into the Bronze Age while you're low in resources and
under heavy attack in the Tool Age will likely lose the game for you. For a
few moments you need to deal with the issue at hand-repel the rush. The first
thing you should do is research either the Tower or the Wall upgrade. If your
lumberjacks are in an area that is easily walled, wall off immediately. If
you cannot wall, have all of your lumberjacks build a tower. Towers work very
well for slowing down all Tool units except hordes of Axers.
If your enemy is Tool Rushing, he is counting on Tooling before you. Watch his
Villager count, and if he stops at 16, you should probably make no more than
about 18-20 Villagers before Tooling. If his military units show up before you
have arrived in the Tool Age, check to see if they have the defensive upgrades.
If there are just a few (one or two) enemy units and they don't have the
defensive upgrades, it's time for "mob warfare". Attack them with all
available Villagers en masse. If the enemy units have the defensive upgrades,
it's probably best to scatter and "ride it out" until you've arrived in the
Tool Age (this is especially true if you're using Yamato or Assyria-with their
fast Villagers). Immediately after arriving in the Tool Age build an Archery
Range near your lumber. Begin making Bowmen and if the enemy is attacking with
Scouts research Leather Archer Armor. Try to get a group of six to eight
archers and keep them close together. This should be enough to repel any Tool-
Aged attack (but it may be too late by then).
One of the most classic finishes in the Tool Age is called The Kiss of Death.
You can use this technique if you're attacking, you've researched the wall, you
don't see any enemy Villagers or military near his TC, and your Villager near
the enemy has survived. Build a wall directly around (and adjacent to) the
enemy's TC. By surrounding the enemy's TC with a wall (or even the foundation
of a wall that you're in the process of building), he will not be able to train
any more Villagers. When he tries to train a Villager, he'll get the message
Not enough room to place unit. You've now stopped him from making more
Villagers. This will often end the game (hence the name Kiss of Death).
In any case, your primary targets in a Tool Rush are Villagers. The classic
successful Tool Rush ends with the enemy desperately trying to arrive in Bronze
Age, starting the upgrade, then finally arriving in the Bronze Age without
enough resources to build a single Bronze-Age unit (and no Villagers left).
=======
=Blitz=
=======
Tool Blitzing is the fastest (yet most dangerous) of the rushes. The highly
offensive Blitz sacrifices all economy and any hope of Bronzing in exchange for
pure Tool speed. It has been said that:
My tool rush is always devastating, but not always to my enemy.
-Malachi
(taken from http://www.ns.net/~thump/quotes.htm)
The Tool Blitz provides a great opportunity to kill yourself in a failed Tool-
Aged attack because it is extremely risky. When a Tool Blitz is successful,
though, it is one of the most beautiful achievements in the game. One reason
the Blitz is loved by those who use it is because of the intense risk involved.
There are few things that parallel the adrenaline rush you feel as you click on
the "Tool" upgrade with a miniscule economy at just over four minutes into the
game.
The objective of the Blitz is to make about 12 (but no more than 14) Villagers
and Tool extremely fast, often hitting your enemy with Tool units before he's
even begun to upgrade to the Tool Age. The best Blitzes allow you to arrive to
the Tool Age in around six minutes, but anything under about seven and a half
minutes is acceptable. Due to the fact that you'll probably hit your enemy
before he has enough resources (or technology) to mount any sort of a defense
at all, Clubbers and Axers are great units to use in a Blitz.
If you don't have a great starting spot (with shore fish near lumber), don't
even think about Blitzing. You must have plenty of easily accessible food and
wood AND find the enemy very quickly to make the Blitz a feasible strategy.
Since you'll only be making 12 Villagers (and at least one of them will be
scouting for the enemy), you need to make dramatic shifts in workload,
allocating nearly everyone to food before Tooling, then wood, then food again
as appropriate.
With Shang you can scout for your enemy with one of your starting Villagers,
but you still must find the enemy in just a few minutes (perhaps three-four
minutes) or the Blitz will probably fail. Build a barracks near the enemy's
town in the Stone Age and gather the wood so that you can make a 2nd military
building immediately upon Tooling. In most cases, if I haven't found the enemy
by the time I've completed my 10th Villager (time to build another house), I'll
proceed to build the next house and NOT use the Blitz.
I often use Axers in a Tool Blitz, and my first two military buildings are
usually both barracks. While still in the Stone Age I'll begin making
Clubbers. I can often train about three Clubbers from a single barracks before
making it to the Tool Age. Always try to have extra food for upgrades when you
arrive at Tool. Once you arrive at Tool, research the Leather Infantry Armor
and Toolworking. Also build another Barracks and continue to train Clubbers
while getting the Axer upgrade. I often hit with a group of about three or
four Clubbers that will turn into fully upgraded Axers at about the same time
they arrive in the enemy town. There are various tactics and techniques that
work well at this point. My favorite is to send one or two of my first Axers
to the enemy's berry patch and the rest to his lumberyard. Keep making Axers
from both barracks, and if you can spare any extra food, continue to make
Villagers, too. Don't forget to keep making houses as necessary to support the
extra units.
Other Tool units will also work for a Tool Blitz. If you're using Assyria or
Phoenicia, build Bowmen (and get the Leather Archer Armor upgrade because
you'll likely have a group of angry Villagers attacking your Bowmen).
Once you've either killed all of the enemy Villagers or forced them to run
away, try to follow them with a single Axer, then immediately have all the rest
of your Axers start destroying buildings. If you've created a horde of Bowmen,
send them all in different directions looking for enemy Villagers. Bowmen are
very ineffective for destroying buildings.
At this point in the game you'll often have about a dozen military units in the
enemy Village. If you're using Axers, you'll be able to mow down buildings
very quickly. One key target is the enemy's TC. This is because if he has no
TC, he be unable to Bronze. In a well-executed Tool Blitz you can destroy the
enemy's TC in under 12 minutes (and there are very few players that can Bronze
in under 12 minutes while under attack). In the best-case scenario, the enemy
will have just enough food to Bronze and will spend all 800 food for the Bronze
upgrade. Then, just before he arrives at the Bronze Age, you'll finish
destroying his TC (and he loses all the food). If you find yourself on the
receiving end of a Tool Blitz, do not try to Bronze while under heavy attack.
If you're in danger of losing your TC while upgrading to the next age, cancel
the upgrade and you'll get food back before your TC is destroyed.
Another favorite target is the Storage Pit. Without the Pit or TC the enemy
won't be able to get wood, and without wood the enemy will be unable to
relocate his workers. Concentrating on houses is secondary because you've
usually killed enough Villagers that your opponent will not need more houses.
If everything else seems to be gone, though, houses are good targets because
they are quick to destroy (of course, there is no strategic reason to kill a
Granary unless there is nothing left to destroy because you can, with a single
Axer, prevent workers from gathering food).
Soon you'll want to get a stable (especially if he escapes with a lot of
Villagers). Hunt down the escapees with a Scout and use your Axer lynch mob
(or Bowmen) to clean up. Be wary of bodies of water... you don't want your
enemy dock fishing under any circumstances. If he's doing that, wage a scout
ship war with him and/or destroy his Dock ASAP with your Axers.
In a best case scenario, you arrive at Tool in under six minutes and are in the
enemy town by about seven or seven and a half minutes with upgraded Axemen.
Odds are he hasn't even started the Tool upgrade yet. This spells big trouble
for your opponent.
It is very easy to detect a Tool Blitz because the enemy will stop training
Villagers at around 12 or so and will Tool extremely quickly. Defending
against a good Blitz is very difficult (even if you know it's coming). The
best solution is to gather lots of wood and have at least 120 wood before your
enemy attacks. Once the attack rolls into your town, scatter your Villagers
and find a nice, remote spot on the far side of the map to get lumber. Don't
let the Axers follow you. If you've managed to Tool, research the Wall upgrade
and wall in a hidden pocket of lumber production. Build a dock or two and
start making boats to dock fish. If you can manage to arrive in the Bronze
Age in less than about 17 minutes, you'll likely totally destroy the Blitzer;
he'll likely stay in Tool and work on destroying your buildings.
The shock value of the rush is amazing. Tooling with only 12 Villagers and
attacking with Clubbers and Axers is such a bizarre strategy that even the best
players will chuckle when they see it coming if they don't know what you're up
to. I've played people that laughed in my face when they saw my first Clubbers
enter their town ("Haha! Clubbers!?") It wasn't so funny, though, when the
Clubbers turned into Axers and they just kept on coming. When the enemy TC is
destroyed in less than 13 minutes (and he is unable to Bronze and doesn't have
the wood to build another TC), it'll be your turn to laugh. One of the
greatest advantages of the Blitz is that most people underestimate the damage
you can do with a horde of angry Axers at the sub-10 minute mark. Since you'll
often begin attacking before the enemy even begins the Tool upgrade, he'll have
NO defense for quite a while. In some cases the enemy will never make it to
Tool. In very few cases he'll make it to Bronze. If he makes it to Bronze
with enough resources to make a Bronze-Age army, you've almost certainly lost.
The Tool Blitz is an all-or-nothing, do-or-die attack.
============
=Conclusion=
============
Although most people view the Tool Age only as something that needs to be
passed through to get to the Bronze Age (a necessary evil of sorts), it plays
an extremely important part in an experienced player's game. If your opponent
is planning to rush headlong through the Tool Age, you're liable to catch him
unawares with a Tool attack. Many players are so focused on the Bronze Age
that they don't watch for the signs of (much less prepare for) Tool warfare.
Use this Bronze myopia to your advantage by controlling your enemy in the Tool
Age. Master the first 15 minutes of the game and get a black belt in Age of
Empires jiu-jitsu. Make the Tool Age your battlefield and force your enemy to
fight you there.
Have fun, good luck, and 'cya on the battlefield!
*thump* *thump*
-ThumP
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
9. Codes
These codes were taken from Scott Ong's FAQ. I credit him for them.
o BIG BERTHA
Transforms Heavy Catalpults to Big Berthas [better units]
---------------------------
o BIGDADDY
Create a black-coloured car with a rocket launcher [Winsetti'sZ]. -Very
easy to be converted!-
Note: provided you have Town Center.
---------------------------
o BIG MOMMA
Creat a white-coloured card with a rocket launcher [Winsetti's other Z]
-Very easy to be converted!-
Note: provided you have Town Center.
---------------------------
o BLACK RIDER
Convert Horse Archers into Black Riders. Well, I don't know what it does
but it will be invisible to the enemy, I guess.
---------------------------
o COINAGE
Added 1,000 Gold to your stockpile.
---------------------------
o CONVERT THIS!
Create a Pirest unit [Saint Franics] that gives out Lightning Bolts!
Note: provided you have Town Center
---------------------------
o DARK RAIN
Transforms Bowman to Composite Bowman which could camouflage into
trees when not moving.
---------------------------
o DIEDIEDIE
Causes all enemy units to die.
---------------------------
o E=MC2 TROOPER
Creates a Nuke Trooper with a rocket launcher.
Note: provide you have Town Center.
---------------------------
o FLYING DUTCHMAN
Transforms Juggernaught into Flying Dutchman. Now the Flying Dutchman
could travels on both lands and sea.
---------------------------
o GAIA
Allows you to controls the monsters such as Elephants, Lions and
Gazelles but you will lost the controls of your villagers.
---------------------------
o GRANTLINKSPENCE
Transforms animals into kings-type animals [example: Elephant being
transformed into Elephant King]
---------------------------
o HARI KARI
Commits suicide. You will automatically lost the game.
---------------------------
o HOMERUN
Wins the current campaign
---------------------------
o HOYOHOYO
Priests will become faster and stronger.
---------------------------
o ICBM
Helepolis/Ballista have 100x Range Points
---------------------------
o JACK BE NIMBLE
Catapults/Stone Thrower/Heavy Catpult will throws werid items such as
cows or villagers.
---------------------------
o KILLX
Kill player X
---------------------------
o KING ARTHUR
Turns flying creatures [Eagles and Hawks] into HP: 999 Dragons. No
effect on the game. You will see Dragons wandering around at the sky.
---------------------------
o NO FOG
Removes the fog of war.
---------------------------
o PEPPERONI PIZZA
Added 1000 Food to your stockpile.
---------------------------
o PHOTON MAN
Create a Nuke Trooper armed with a laser-gun at a high rate.
Note: provided you have a Town Center.
---------------------------
o POW!
Create a BabyPrez with high attacking power!
Note: provided you have a Town Center.
---------------------------
o QUARRY
Added 1000 Stone to your stockpile
---------------------------
o RESIGN
You resign from the battle.
---------------------------
o REVEAL MAP
Reveal the whole map
---------------------------
o STERIODS
Buildings and units are being created instantly
---------------------------
o STORMBILLY
Create a Zug 209 Robot [like the robot walkers at Star Wars]
Note: provided you have a Town Center.
---------------------------
o WOODSTOCK
Added 1000 Wood to your stockpile.
(o o)
---------------------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo----------------------------------------
READ THE SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION BIT TOWARDS THE END OF THIS GUIDE. IT
CONTAINS
A COMPLETE LIST OF THE GUIDES I'VE WRITTEN.
-----------------------------------
_______ ___________________
___ |__ ____/___ ____/
__ /| |_ / __ __ __/
_ ___ |/ /_/ / _ /___
/_/ |_|\____/ /_____/
_______ __________
__ __ \___ ____/
_ / / /__ /_
/ /_/ / _ __/
\____/ /_/
________________ ___________ ________________ __________________
___ ____/___ |/ /___ __ \____ _/___ __ \___ ____/__ ___/
__ __/ __ /|_/ / __ /_/ / __ / __ /_/ /__ __/ _____ \
_ /___ _ / / / _ ____/ __/ / _ _, _/ _ /___ ____/ /
/_____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ |_| /_____/ /____/
_____ _ ___ _ __ ___
|_ _|| |_ ___ | _ \(_) ___ ___ ___ / _| | _ \ ___ _ __ ___
| | | ' \ / -_) | /| |(_- -_) / _ \| _| | // _ \| ' \ / -_)
|_| |_||_|\___| |_|_\|_|/__/\___| \___/|_| |_|_\\___/|_|_|_|\___|
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
System: PC/Windows
Version: FINAL (08/11/00)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
///, ////
\ /, / >.
\ /, _/ /.
\_ /_/ /.
_____ _____ \__/_ <
/ __ \__________ / __ \___ _ _____ _________ _ ____ __ /<<< \_\_
/ / / / ___/ __ \ / / / / // \/ __ \/ ___/ Y \/__/ \/ / /,)^>>_._ \
/ /_/ / _/_/ /_/ // /_/ / _~ / /_/ / _/_/ \ / /> < (/ \\ /\\\
/__/ \ >____/_____// ____/__//__/\_____/_____/__//__/\_//__/\_\ // ````
======\/============\_/========[red_phoenix_1@hotmail.com]============((`=======
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Version - 0.1 Everything is new, of course.
0.2 Added the rest of the buildings and technologies.
0.3 Worked on some of the civilizations.
0.4 Finished up the FAQ.
0.5 Added the URL of my WWF SmackDown! FAQ.
0.6 Minor Changes.
0.7 Added the URL of my Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri HTML FAQ.
0.8 A minor change.
0.9 A minor change.
1.0 A minor change.
1.1 A few minor changes.
1.2 A few changes.
1.3 A few minor changes.
1.4 A few changes.
1.5 A minor change.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
If you have anything you would like to submit, please do so. Send it to
red_phoenix_1@hotmail.com. I would appreciate it if you would put "Age of
Empires The Rise of Rome" in the Subject Line. It helps me weed through my
mailbox without deleting something important. I don't consider SPAM and Porn
important, if you know what I mean, although some of you may think otherwise.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Table of Contents
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1. Introduction History
2. Changes from Age of Empires
3. The Buildings
- Academy
- Archery Range
- Ballista Tower
- Barracks
- Dock
- Farm
- Fortification
- Government Center
- Granary
- Guard Tower
- House
- Market
- Medium Wall
- Sentry Tower
- Siege Workshop
- Small Wall
- Stable
- Storage Pit
- Temple
- Town Center
- Watch Tower
- Wonder
4. The Units
A. Miscellaneous
- Villager
- Priest
B. Infantry
- Axeman
- Clubman
- Slinger *New Unit*
- Short Swordsman
- Broad Swordsman
- Long Swordsman
- Legion
- Hoplite
- Phalanx
- Centurion
C. Archery
- Bowman
- Improved Bowman
- Composite Bowman
- Chariot Archer
- Elephant Archer
- Horse Archer
- Heavy Horse Archer
D. Cavalry
- Scout
- Camel Rider *New Unit*
- Chariot
- Scythe Chariot *New Unit*
- Cavalry
- Heavy Cavalry
- Cataphract
- War Elephant
- Armored Elephant *New Unit*
E. Siege Weapons
- Stone Thrower
- Catapult
- Heavy Catapult
- Ballista
- Helepolis
F. Boats
- Fishing Boat
- Fishing Ship
- Trade Boat
- Merchant Ship
- Light Transport
- Heavy Transport
- Scout Ship
- War Galley
- Fire Galley *New Unit*
- Trireme
- Catapult Trireme
- Juggernaught
5. The Technologies
A. Storage Pit (Origin)
- Toolworking
- Metalworking
- Metallurgy
- Bronze Shield
- Iron Shield
- Tower Shield *New Technology*
- Leather Armor for Archers
- Scale Armor for Archers
- Chain Mail for Archers
- Leather Armor for Cavalry
- Scale Armor for Cavalry
- Chain Mail for Cavalry
- Leather Armor for Infantry
- Scale Armor for Infantry
- Chain Mail for Infantry
B. Market (Origin)
- Wheel
- Woodworking
- Artisanship
- Coinage
- Craftsmanship
- Domestication
- Stone Mining
- Gold Mining
- Siegecraft
- Plow
- Irrigation
C. Government (Origin)
- Alchemy
- Architecture
- Aristocracy
- Ballistics
- Engineering
- Nobility
- Writing
- Logistics *New Technology*
D. Temple (Origin)
- Polytheism
- Monotheism
- Mysticism
- Jihad
- Fanaticism
- Astrology
- Afterlife
- Martyrdom *New Technology*
- Medicine *New Technology*
6. The Civilizations
- Ancient Chosen a.k.a. Chosen
- Assyrian
- Babylonian
- Carthaginian *New Civilization*
- Egyptian
- Greek
- Hittite
- Macedonian *New Civilization*
- Minoan
- Palmyran *New Civilization*
- Persian
- Phoenician
- Roman *New Civilization*
- Shang
- Sumerian
- Yamato
7. Civilization Comparisons
8. Tools of the Trade (James Mecham)
9. Codes
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1. Introduction
Age of Empires: Rise of Rome is an expansion pack for the very popular PC
game,
Age of Empires. It was released to the public basically to provide us with a
slight enhancement to the game while they worked on Age of Empires II: Age of
Kings. Being an expansion pack, not much is expected of it in most conditions.
This one, in my opinion, did a decent job. We knew Microsoft and Ensemble
Studios must have been really busy at making a heck of a game in Age of Kings,
if they had to send out an add-on. Microsoft also knew that this would make
the corporation a little more deeper in the pocket with another Age of Empires
game, even though it was only an add-on and it cost less that a full game.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
2. Changes from Age of Empires
The changes to The Rise of Rome weren't grand, but they did change a little
bit. There weren't very many changes either, although they added a few more
technologies, units, and civilizations. Below is a small list I whipped up to
illustrate this.
_______________
.--------------------========= C H A N G E S =========-------------------------.
| ЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇ |
| |
| o Four new civilizations: Carthaginian, Macedonian, Palmyran, and Roman. |
| |
| o Five new units: Armored Elephant, Camel Rider, Fire Galley, Scythe |
| Chariot, and Slinger. |
| |
| o Four new technologies: Logistics, Martyrdom, Medicine, and Tower Shield. |
| |
| o Four new campaigns. |
| |
| o New ability to queue the production of units. |
| |
| o New Gigantic map size. |
| |
| o New map types: Continental, Mediterranean, Hill Country, and Narrows. |
| |
| o Double-clicking a unit selects all units of that type on the game screen.|
| |
| o New Random civilization option so if you don't know which civilization |
| you're playing until the game starts. |
| |
| o You can display the game settings (map type, map size, etc.) during the |
| game by clicking the MENU button on the menu bar, and then clicking |
| "Scenario Instructions." |
| |
| o When you hear a sound cue (such as an attack warning), you can press the |
| HOME key or click the middle mouse button to go to the trouble spot. |
| Pressing the key multiple times cycles through the location of the last |
| five sound cues. |
| |
| o Stone Throwers, Catapults and Heavy Catapults now receive a limited |
| predictive firing benefit from Ballistics, based on the target unit's |
| speed. All slow units in range are hit, some medium units are hit and |
| all fast units are missed. |
| |
| o Persian civilization no longer has the farming penalty. |
| |
| o Some random maps contain cliffs. |
| |
| o Allied Town Centers are visible when you start an allied game. |
| |
| o The population indicator and timer appear at the top of the screen when |
| you press F11. |
| |
| o The Hot Key to build a Swordsman is now Z. |
| |
| o The Hot Key to build a Scout is now T. |
| |
| o If you select the Full Tech Tree option before starting the game, you |
| can't build Fire Galleys. |
| |
| o In multiplayer games, there is now an in-game option to change the |
| population limit using the Game Settings. |
| |
| o Chat is automatically set to Allies Only in an allied multiplayer game. |
| |
|*This information was taken from the Age of Empires: Rise of Rome Game Manual*|
| |
'--------------------=================================-------------------------'
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
3. The Buildings
=========
=ACADEMY=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Academy lets you train elite infantry units, including the
Hoplite, Phalanx, and Centurion. Researching Architecture increases the
hit points and decreases the construction time of this building. The
academy was the Greek equivalent of a school. Students, usually only free
men and favored slaves, received an education at the academy. Subjects of
study included the typical fare of schools but also politics, athletics,
and military training. The most rigorous of the Greek academies were those
of Sparta, where boys were taken from their parents at an early age and
educated in a military environment. The academy prepared the individual
for service to the state as a citizen and as a soldier in the phalanx. In
one of the remarkable encounters of history, the future Alexander the Great
was educated at the Academy of Aristotle.
===============
=ARCHERY RANGE=
===============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Barracks.
Cost: 100 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Archery Range lets you train archers, including the Bowman,
Improved Bowman, Composite Bowman, Chariot Archer, Elephant Archer, Horse
Archer, and Heavy Horse Archer. You must build the Archery Range before
you can build the Siege Workshop. Researching Architecture increases the
hit points and decreases the construction time of this building. The bow
was developed as a hunting weapon long before the first towns appeared and
was easily adapted to warfare. Because the bow allowed fighting from a
distance and from behind cover, archers did not have to fight face- to-
face with their enemy. As the first civilizations grew in size and their
armies grew correspondingly, formal training of archers was instituted.
As part of this training, bowmen practiced shooting on archery ranges to
improve accuracy.
================
=BALLISTA TOWER=
================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, researched the
Watch Tower, upgraded to the Sentry Tower, upgraded to the Guard Tower,
researched Ballistics, and upgraded to the Ballista Tower.
Upgrade Cost: 1800 Food, 750 Stone
Cost: 150 Stone
Hit Points: 200
Attack: 20
Armor: -
Range: 7
Special: Fire Rate once every 3 seconds
Upgrade of: Guard Tower
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The Ballista Tower is the ultimate tower. It has more attack
strength than the Guard Tower. You must research Ballistics before you
upgrade to the Ballista Tower. Towers are defensive structures that fire
missiles at enemy villagers and military units within range. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this tower. Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases
accuracy. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The tower discovered on the wall at the ancient site of Jericho served
several purposes. It extended the visual range of lookouts that would be
watching for the approach of raiders and other visitors. An early warning
might have been the difference between a successful defense and the fall
of the town. The tower was a superior firing position for archery. Bowmen
shooting down had an advantage in range and penetration power of arrows
versus enemies shooting up. Enemies hiding at the bottom of the wall may
have remained visible to archers in the tower. The tower itself was an
independent bastion that could serve as a defensive position of last resort
if the wall was carried. The Ballista Tower was the ultimate defensive
fortification of the ancient era. It could withstand a lajor attack and
was equipped and designed to take a heavy toll on attackers.
==========
=BARRACKS=
==========
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center.
Cost: 125 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Barracks lets you train infantry, including the Clubman, Axeman,
Short Swordsman, Long Swordsman, and Legion. You must have built the
Barracks before you can build the Archery Range, Siege Workshop, Stable, or
Academy. Researching Architecture increases the hit points and decreases
the construction time of this building. When the first armies came into
being, places were needed eventually to make weapons, store weapons, drill
troops, and house troops. The Barracks in Age of Empires represents these
places.
======
=DOCK=
======
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center.
Cost: 100 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Dock lets you create boats, including the Fishing Boat, Fishing
Ship, Trade Boat, Merchant Ship, Light Transport, Heavy Transport, Scout
Ship, War Galley, Trireme, Catapult Trireme, and Juggernaught. The Dock is
also where fishing vessels deposit food and trade vessels deposit gold from
trading. Researching Architecture increases the hit points and decreases
the construction time of this building. The earliest boats were simply
tied up to rocks or trees on shore to take on or drop off cargo or were
physically pulled onto the beach. Later, wooden structures were built out
into the water to facilitate loading and unloading. Docks were also safer
for ships because ships could avoid being beached, which strained the hulls
and increased leaking. When the dock was extended beyond the shallows,
even larger ships could be tied up, farther improving efficiencies.
======
=FARM=
======
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 75 Wood
Hit Points: 50
Note: The Farm provides a reliable supply of food, which can be gathered by
a villager. Because Farms produce food at a fixed rate, assigning more
than one villager to work on a Farm does not increase its productivity.
Farms eventually go fallow, in which case you can build another one.
Researching Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the
construction time of this building. Domestication, the Plow, and
Irrigation increase Farm production. The humble farm was the foundation of
the great civilizations of antiquity and most human societies since. The
farm was the technological advance that provided the large and dependable
supplies of food necessary for civilization to arise. Farming began when
edible seeds and fruits were preserved from one growing season and
systematically planted in prepared ground the following season. The plant
that resulted were nurtured and protected until the edible produce was
suitable for harvest. Important farming advancements in ancient times
included irrigation of rich but arid land, the plow that opened the soil
for receiving seeds, and the continual selection of seeds from the most
succesful plants that gradually improved food plant yields.
===============
=FORTIFICATION=
===============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must heave built the Town Center, Granary, researched the
Small Wall, upgraded to the Medium Wall, and upgraded to the Fortification.
Upgrade Cost: 300 Food, 175 Stone
Cost: 5 Stone
Hit Points: 400
Upgrade of: Medium Wall
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The Fortification is the ultimate wall. It has more hit points than
the Medium Wall. Walls are defensive structures that can be built around
your empire or important areas. Villagers and military units cannot move
through standing walls, however, they can attack the walls. Stone
Throwers, Catapults, Heavy Catapults, Ballistas, and the Helepolis are
particularly effective for destroying walls. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this wall.
The great civilizations of ancient times built ever- larger fortifications
to protect their important cities and frontiers. Herodotus reported that
the walls of Babylon were sufficiently thick that a chariot could be driven
on them around the city. Archaelogy indicates that large walls were not
invulnerable- every great ancient city appears to have been stormed
eventually- but only a large and well- equipped army could surmount them.
===================
=GOVERNMENT CENTER=
===================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 175 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Government Center lets you build additional Town Centers, and
research technologies that improve your buildings and military units,
including Writing, Architecture, Engineering, Aristocracy, Alchemy,
Nobility, and Ballistics. Researching Architecture increses the hit points
and decreases the construction time of this building. The government
center was the administrative center of the town, village, city, kingdom,
or empire. It was often the palace of the strongman or king. It was here
that justice was dispersed, records kept, taxes collected and stored,
diplomacy conducted, and plans made. The development of the government
center spurred technology such as architecture through the commission of
public works and writing for the keeping of records. The expansion of
kingdoms led to a hierarchy of elites, often a nobility, that were needed
as middle managers when the expanse of lands exceeded the ruler's ability
to control directly. The provinces of the Persian Empire, for example,
were ruled like independent stores by satraps who owed tribute and
allegiance to the king in Susa.
=========
=GRANARY=
=========
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Granary lets you build walls and towers, including the Small
Wall, Medium Wall, Fortification, Watch Tower, Sentry Tower, Guard Tower,
and Ballista Tower. You must research the Granary before you can built the
Market. Foragers and farmers can deposit food from Farms and forage sites
at the Granary instead of the Town Center. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this
building. Following the advance of farming, humans faced the first time
the happy problem of how to safely store large quantities of food grains.
The Granary made it possible to preserve growing season surpluses for
consumption during winter months. The Granary was a central location where
grain could be warehoused, guarded, and distributed fairly as needed. The
need to protect food supplies was an early reason for building walls and
fortifications. Without protection, the surpluses in the Granary were
easily taken by raiders from nearby hunting and gathering groups.
=============
=GUARD TOWER=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and the Granary, and
researched Watch Tower, upgraded to Sentry Tower, and upgraded to Guard
Tower.
Upgrade cost: 300 Food, 100 Stone
Cost: 150 Stone
Hit Points: 200
Attack: 6
Armor: -
Range: 7
Special: Fire rate once / 1.5 seconds
Upgrade of: Sentry Tower
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The Guard Tower has more hit points, attack strength, and range than
the Sentry Tower. The Guard Tower can be upgraded to the Ballista Tower.
Towers are defensive structures that fire missiles at enemy villagers and
military units within range. Researching Architecture increases the
construction time of this tower. Alchemy increases attack strength.
Ballistics increases accuracy. Woodworking, Artisanship, and
Craftsmanship, increase range. The tower discovered on the wall at the
ancient site of Jericho served several purposes. It extended the visual
range of lookouts that would be watching for the approach of raiders and
other visitors. An early warning might have been the difference between a
successful defense and the fall of the town. The tower was a superior
firing position for archery. Bowmen shooting down had an advantage in
range and penetration power of arrows versus enemies shooting up. Enemies
hiding at the bottom of the wall may have remained visible to archers in the
tower. The tower itself was an independent bastion that could serve as the
defensive position of last resort if the wall was carried. The Guard Tower
was a superior fortification, well- designed for holding out against attack
and for bringing weapons to bear on an attacker.
=======
=HOUSE=
=======
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center.
Cost: 30 Wood
Hit points: 75
Note: A House supports up to four villagers, military units, or boats. You
must have enough houses before you can create new units. If a House is
destroyed, you do not lose the units it supported, but you must build new
houses before you can build new villagers, military units, or boats.
Researching Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the
construction time of this building. Shelter increased in importance when
humans expanded their range farther away from the equator in the wake of
the receding ice sheets and into climates of wide seasonal variation.
Growing hman populations quickly occupied the few natural shelters available
in these areas. The provision of man- made shelter made existence in
challenging and variable climates possible. Without houses, year- round
populations could not have increased beyond minimums.
========
=MARKET=
========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Granary.
Cost: 150 Wood
Hit points: 350
Note: The Market lets you build Farms, pay Tribute to other civilizations,
and research technologies that improve your military units and the
effectiveness of your villagers, including Woodworking, Artisanship,
Craftsmanship, Stone Mining, Siegecraft, Gold mining, Coinage,
Domestication, the Plow, Irrigation, and the Wheel. You must build the
Market before you can build the Government Center or Temple. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this building. The specialization made possible by the development of
agriculture created the need for a place where craftsmen could meet to
barter their wares for those of others and for food. The Market in each
town and village was the place where barter and exchange took place. The
development of the Market marked the change from the small hunting/ foraging
group that shared its harvest to the much more complex economy that rose
with the rise of towns and cities. Specialization resulted in efficiencies
of scale and greater overall production fairly among the food providers
and specialists. The profit motive spurred innovation to increase
production. The potter, for example, looked for ways to make more and
better pots for the same effort to increase the amount of food that he
could obtain by trading pots.
=============
=MEDIUM WALL=
=============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, researched
Small Wall, and upgraded to Medium Wall.
Upgrade Cost: 180 Food, 100 Stone
Cost: 5 Stone
Hit points: 300
Upgrade of: Small Wall
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The Medium Wall has more hit points than the Small Wall. The Medium
Wall can be upgraded to the Fortification. Walls are defensive structures
that can be built around your empire or important areas. Villagers and
military units cannot move through standing walls; however, they can attack
the walls. Stone Throwers, Catapults, Heavy Catapults, Ballistas, and the
Helepolis are particularly effective for destroying walls. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this wall. One of the earliest human setlements yet discovered is the
city of Jericho near the Jordan River in modern Isreal. This site from
7000 B.C. is remarkable for possessing a stone masonry wall, dry moat
around the wall, and a tower. At an astonishingly early date, Jericho
demonstrated that the ancients understood principles of fortification that
would carry forward essentially unchanged until the development of
gunpowder. The Medium Wall is a defensive structure built of stone or other
substantial construction to withstand a protracted attack.
==============
=SENTRY TOWER=
==============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, researched
Watch Tower, and upgraded to Sentry Tower.
Upgrade cost: 120 Food, 50 Stone
Cost: 150 Stone
Hit points: 150
Attack: 4
Armor: -
Range: 6
Special: Fire rate once / 1.5 seconds
Upgrade of: Watch Tower
Upgrade at: Granary
Note: The SEntry Tower has more hit points, attack strength, and range than
the Watch Tower. The Sentry Tower can be upgraded to the Guard Tower.
Towers are defensive structures that fire missiles at enemy villagers and
military units within range. Researching Architecture increases the hit
points and decreases the construction time of this tower. Alchemy increases
attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy. Woodworking, Artisanship,
and Craftsmanship increase range. The tower discovered on the wall at the
ancient site of Jericho served several purposes. It extended the visual
range of lookouts that would be watching for the approach of raiders and
other visitors. An early warning might have been the difference between a
successful defense and the fall of the town. The tower was a superior
firing position for archery. Bowmen shooting down had an advantage in
range and penetration power of arrows versus enemies shooting up. Enemies
hiding at the bottom of the wall may have remained visible to archers in
the tower. The tower itself was an independent bastion that could serve as
the defensive position of last resort if the wall was carried. The Sentry
Tower was an improved fortification of strong materials and designed for
defense.
================
=SIEGE WORKSHOP=
================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Barracks, and Archery
Range.
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Siege Workshop lets you build siege weapons, including the Stone
Thrower, Catapult, Heavy Catapult, Ballista, and Helepolis. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this building. The earliest fortifications yet discovered date from
7000 B.C., but evidence of siege weapons doesn't appear until much later.
We can assume, however, that siege equipment was in use long before the
first evidence that has survived. Evidence of a scaling ladder does not
appear until about 2500 B.C. The earliest record of a simple battering
ram comes from 1900 B.C. Amore powerful ram plus the undermining of walls
appears by 880 B.C. The mobile siege tower first appears one hundred years
later. The catapult was invented by Greeks in 397 B.C. There were no
further significant advances in siege engines until the advent of gunpowder.
Siege weapons were researched and built in siege workshops.
============
=SMALL WALL=
============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and researched
Small Wall.
Research cost: 50 Food
Cost: 5 Stone
Hit points: 200
Research at: Granary
Note: The Small Wall is the wealest of the walls. Upgrades include the
Medium Wall and Fortification. Walls are defensive structures that can be
built around your empire or important areas. Villagers and military units
cannot move through standing walls; however, they can attack the walls.
Stone Throwers, Catapults, Heavy Catapults, Ballistas, and the Helepolis
are particularly effective for destroying walls. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this wall.
========
=STABLE=
========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Barracks.
Cost: 150 Wood
Hit points: 350
Note: The Stable lets you train cavalry units, including the Scout, Cavalry,
Heavy Cavalry, Cataphract, Chariot, and War Elephant. You must build the
Stable before you can build the Academy. Researchinf Architecture increases
hit points and decreases the construction time of this building. The
horses that survived the last Ice Age were relatively small animals unsuited
for riding or pulling. They were hunted out of existence in the Americas
and domesticated first for food on the steppes of Asia. Over many
generations of selective breeding, they grew large enough to be of use other
than as food. One issue that had to be resolved was how to harness them
without causing choking. Humans eventually learned to ride, first from the
rear, non- control position over the hips, and then from the forward
position that we are familiar with today. The first evidence of horses
being ridden appears in the second millenium B.C., although it is generally
accepted that they were ridden earlier in Asia. The Stable represents the
application of animals, primarily the horse, to warfare, first pulling
chariots and then carrying warriors. Detailed records survive from Assyria
and elsewhere related to the acquisition, training, equipping, and
employment of horses in battle.
=============
=STORAGE PIT=
=============
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center
Cost: 120 Wood
Hit points: 350
Note: The Storage Pit lets you research technologies that improve the armor
and attack strength of military units, including Toolworking, Metalworking,
Metallurgy, the Bronze Shield, the Iron Shield, Leather Armor for Infantry,
Scale Armor for Infantry, Chain Mail for Infantry, Leather Armor for
Cavalry, Scale Armor for Cavalry, Chain Mail for Cavalry, Leather Armor for
Archery, Scale Armor for Archery, and Chain Mail for Archery. Hunters,
fishermen, and miners can deposit meat, fish, stone, wood, and gold at the
Storage Pit instead at the Town Center. Researching Architecture increases
the hit points and dcreases the construction time of this building. The
storage pit was the functional equivalent of the granary, but for meat
instead of grain. Storing meat presented special problems because it
spoiled so quickly and easily. Meat was generally stored by drying or
salting. The Storage Pit also represents the tool- and weapon- making
skill of hunting societies, leading eventually to metalworking, making war,
and armor making. In this capacity it also serves as a storehouse and
collection point for the raw materials of tool and weapon making: wood,
stone, and gold (representing all metals).
========
=TEMPLE=
========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 350
Note: The Temple lets you train Priests and research technologies that
increase their powers, including Polytheism, Mysticism, Astrology,
Monotheism, Afterlife, Jihad, and Fanaticism. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this
building. The temple was a religious center. It was often the earthly
home or point of communication with a particular god or goddess. Priests
or priestesses in the temple acted as the servants of the resident god or
goddess and managed contact to and from the people, plus instruction,
rituals, petitions, and answers to questions. The most common form of
petition was the prayer. Another was the provision of gifts that supported
the temple and its servants. A less common petition was the sacrifice of
animals or even humans. The general belief of the time was that the more
elaborate a temple, the taller it was, and the more grand, the more disposed
the god or goddess would be to provide good weather, rainfall, and crop
yields, while keeping away pests, disease, and human invaders.
=============
=TOWN CENTER=
=============
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: You must already have a Town Center, and you must have built
the Granary, Market, and Government Center.
Cost: 200 Wood
Hit Points: 600
Note: The Town Center lets you create villagers and advance to the next
Age. It is also where villagers can deposit food, wood, gold, and stone.
The Town Center supports four villagers, military units, or boats. Priests
cannot convert Town Centers. After you build a Government Center, you can
build additional Town Centers to expand your civilization's dominance and
build Town Centers closer to distant resources. You can also replace your
Town Center if it is destroyed in combat. Researching Architecture
increases the hit points and decreases the construction time of this
building. Allvillages and towns had an administrative center that was the
site of governmental power and leadership. In the earliest villages this
might have been the leader's home. Later it might have been the king's
palace. The center was often the place where important supplies, especially
food surpluses, were stored. Vessels for storing grain and oil were found
in the ruins of the Palace at Knossos of Crete. Some of the earliest
accounting records yet found were clay tablets left in long- forgotten
storerooms in ancient Sumeria and in Hittite cities. The destruction of the
town center usually meant the destruction of the town's governmental
infrastructure.
=============
=WATCH TOWER=
=============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and researched
Watch Tower.
Research Cost: 50 Food
Cost: 150 Stone
Hit points: 100
Attack: 3
Armor: -
Range: 5
Special: Fire rate once / 1.5 seconds
Research at: Granary
Note: The Watch Tower is the weakest of the towers. Upgrades include the
Sentry Tower, Guard Tower, and Ballista Tower. Towers are defensive
structures that fire missiles at enemy villagers and military units within
range. Researching Architecture increases hit points and decreases the
construction time of this tower. Alchemy increases attack strength.
Ballistics increases accuracy. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship
increase range. The Watch Tower was a simple tower, easily built, and
intended mainly to give early warning.
========
=WONDER=
========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Advance to the Iron Age
Cost: 1000 Wood, 1000 Stone, 1000 Gold
Hit points: 500
Note: Building a Wonder can be a victory condition that wins the game or it
can provide score points. You can build more than one Wonder. Researching
Architecture increases the hit points and decreases the construction time
of this building. A Wonder is a massive structure, a crowning achievement
of technology, resources, and construction time for civilizations that build
one. Examples of historic ancient wonders are the Egyptian Pyramid, the
Great Wall of China, and the Athenian Acropolis. You must advance to the
Iron Age before you can build a Wonder. Priests cannot convert a Wonder.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
4. The Units
----------------------------------
A. Miscellaneous
----------------------------------
==========
=Villager=
==========
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center
Cost: 50 Food
Hit Points: 25
Attack: 3
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Create at: Town Center
Villagers can be assigned different tasks (these are mentioned much earlier in
this FAQ). Hunters and villagers used in combat have increased attack strength.
Researching Stone Mining increases stone mining efficiency. Siegecraft
increases stone mining efficiency and allows villagers to destroy walls and
buildings. Gold Mining increases gold mining efficiency. The Wheel increases
speed. Jihad increases combat strength.
Most people of ancient times lived their lives working to make a living
primarily as hunters, gatherers, and fishermen originally, and later as farmers
and herders. The agricultural revolution that began around 8000 B.C. freed
more and more people from the daily persuit of substenance as food production
became more dependable and efficient. New specialists included potters,
metalworkers, builders, scribes, leather workers, woodworkers, traders, and
professional soldiers. By the endo of the ancient period, food production
employed less than half the population within civilized cultures.
========
=Priest=
========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Granary, Market, and Temple.
Cost: 125 Gold
Hit Points: 25
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 10
Speed: Slow
Train at: Temple
A Priest heals friendly and allied units and converts enemy units. If your
diplomacy is set to Neutral or Enemy, your military units will attack Priests
from other civilizations.
Researching Astrology allows faster conversions. Mysticism increases hit
points. Polytheism increases speed. Fanaticism speeds Priest rejuvenation after
conversion. Monotheism allows conversion of enemy Priests and buildings.
Afterlife increases range.
----------------------------------
B. Infantry
----------------------------------
========
=Axeman=
========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and upgrade to the Battle Axe
Upgrade Cost: 100 Food
Cost: 50 Food
Hit Points: 50
Attack: 5
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Upgrade Of: Clubman
Train at: Barracks
The Axeman has more hit points and attack strength than the Clubman. The Axeman
cannot be upgraded. However, you can research the Short Swordsman, which is
stronger than the Axeman.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shoeld increase piercing armor.
The increasing population and wealth of the earliest civilizations made it
possible to support standing armies available at all times for defense and
attacking neighbors. The first professional armies were probably built in
Sumeria and Egypt. These early civilizations had much time to protect and were
sufficiently wealthy to provide protection. Sumerian artwork from around 2500
B.C. provides evidence of an early army, in this case lines of soldiers,
possibly in formation, equipped with identical armor, helmets, and weapons.
=========
=Clubman=
=========
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Barracks.
Cost: 50 food
Hit points: 40
Attack: 3
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Train at: Barracks
The Clubman is the weakest of the infantry units. The Clubman can be upgraded
to the Axeman.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases their attack
strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increases their armor.
The Bronze Shield and Iron Shield increases piercing armor.
The first soldiers were local people called up for military duty in times of
emergency. These temporary soldiers were commonly armed with a mace, usually
a club with a stone head. This was an inexpensive weapon and one that could be
used effectively with a minimum of training. Clubmen were at a disadvantage,
however, when facing the better- trained and armed professional soldiers that
eventually appeared to defend the early farming civilizations. The mace had
little practical use other than in combat against humans. It appeared long
before the first civilization, indicating that the roots of warfare go far back
into prehistoric times.
=========
=Slinger=
=========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Barracks.
Cost: 40 Food, 10 Stone
Hit Points: 25
Attack: 2
Armor: 0
Range: 4
Speed: Medium
Special: +2 attack against archers; +2 armor against missile weapons, Ballista,
Helepolis; increased attack against walls and towers
Train at: Barracks
The Slinger is an infantry unit used to defend against early archer and Watch
Tower attacks.
Bronze Shield, Iron Shield, and Tower Shield increase piercing armor. Alchemy
increases attack strength. Stone Mining and Siegecraft increase attack
strength and range.
Note: Slingers do not get armor upgrades from Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and
Chain Mail.
=================
=Short Swordsman=
=================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and research Short Sword.
Research Cost: 120 Food, 50 Gold
Cost: 35 Food, 15 Gold
Hit Points: 60
Attack: 7
Armor: 1
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Train at: Barracks
The Short Swordsman is not an upgrade of the Axeman. It is a seperate unit with
more hit points, attack strength, and armor than the Axeman. The Short
Swordsman can be upgraded to the Broad Swordsman.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor.
The short sword represents an evolutionary step in infantry weapons. The spear,
mace, and axe were relatively easy to manufacture and use, but somewhat
cumbersome in actual hand-to-hand combat. Following the discovery of bronze,
it became possible to manufacture short swords that were basically enlarged and
strengthened knives. These were much easier to wield in hand-to-hand combat
and improved the effectiveness of infantry who carried them. Short swords were
carried as a second weapon by spearmen or pikemen, such as the Greek hoplites.
The most famous short sword of antiquity was the gladius adopted by the Roman
legions from the Spanish allies of Carthage. The gladius was especially
effective in the dense legion fighing formations that presses tightly against
their opponents and restricted movement.
=================
=Broad Swordsman=
=================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, research the Short Sword, and
upgrade to Broad Sword.
Upgrade Cost: 140 Food, 50 Gold
Cost: 35 Food, 15 Gold
Hit Points: 70
Attack: 9
Armor: 1
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Upgrade of: Short Swordsman
Train at: Barracks
The Broad Swordsman has more hit points, attack strength, and armor than the
Short Swordsman. The Broad Swordsman can be upgraded to the Long Swordsman.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor.
The appearance of bronze short swords led to further advances in weaponry as
competing cultures sought an advantage in military technology over their
neighbors. Where the early short sword was primarily a piercing weapon, the
broad sword evolved as a slashing weapon. The width of the blade increased
strength sufficently to support a slashing attack that could cut into armor and
break short swords designed for stabbing.
================
=Long Swordsman=
================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, research the Short Sword,
upgrade to the Broad Sword, and upgrade to the Long Sword.
Upgrade Cost: 160 Food, 50 Gold
Cost: 35 Food, 15 Gold
Hit Points: 80
Attack: 11
Armor: 2
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Upgrade of: Broad Swordsman
Train at: Barracks
The Long Swordsman has more hit points, attack strength, and armor than the
Broad Swordsman. The Long Swordsman can be upgraded to the Legion.
Researching Toolworking, Metallworking, and Mettalurgy increases attack
strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The
Bronze Shield and Iron Shield increase piercing armor.
The long sword represents the culmination of infantry weapon development in
antiquity. It was designed for both piercing and slashing, combining the best
of both the short and broad swords. The long sword was make possible first by
advances in bronzeworking and improved by the discovery of iron. Some
historians
believe that the development of long swords by barbarian cultures was a key
factor in the catastrophe of 1200 B.C., when most of the civilized culltures of
the Mediterranean and Middle East were overrun. The long sword in various forms
remained an important military weapon until the advent of gunpowder.
========
=Legion=
========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, research the Short Sword,
upgrade to the Broad Sword, upgrade to the Long Sword, research
Fanaticism, and upgrade to Legion.
Upgrade Cost: 1400 Food, 600 Gold
Cost: 35 Food, 15 Gold
Hit Points: 160
Attack: 13
Armor: 2
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Upgrade to: Long Swordsman
Train at: Barracks
The Legion is the ultimate infantry unit. The Legion has many more hit points
and more attack strength than the Long Swordsman. You must research Fanaticism
before you can upgrade to Legion.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworing, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor.
The Roman legion was the ultimate military formation of antiquity. The legion
was a 4200-man unit at full strength, broken down into 120-man units called
maniples. Most of the maniples went into battle as separate blocks of men in
a square formation that looked something like a checkerboard from above. Ten
maniples fought as skirmishers in loose order to the front line of blocks.
They attacled the enemy infantry line with sling stones, arrows, and javelins
as the two armies closed and then fell back between gaps in the blocks. They
may have moved to the edges of the battle to protect the Roman line and harass
the enemy line. The heavy infantry blocks moved forward, throwning javelins
just before the clash. Gaps in the blocks may have been filled in by a second
row of blocks containing more experienced soldiers. The third and final row of
blocks was the smallest but contained the most experienced veterans who served
as the legion's reserve. The basic legion might have attached cavalry, archers,
engineers, and artillery, depending on the task before it. At its peak, the
Roman Empire had legions deployed all along its frontiers, defending against
barbarians, putting down revolts, expanding the empire, and maintaining order.
=========
=Hoplite=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, and Academy.
Cost: 60 Food, 40 Gold
Hit Points: 120
Attack: 17
Armor: 5
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Train at: Academy
The Hoplite is the weakest of the elite infantry units. Upgrades include the
Phalanx and Centurion.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor. Aristocracy increases speed.
Greek infantry soldiers of the Classical Age were called hoplites, from the name
of their large shields, called hoplons. For battle they wore a cuirass
(breastplate), helmet, and greaves. They were armed with a long spear or pike
and sword. Hoplite armies fought each other hand-to-hand in the dense phalanx
formation that faced the enemy with a bristling wall of spear points staggered
at chest level. Fighting at close range in such a formation required a
commitment to training and discipline that became a way of life. Hoplites were
the best infantry units in the world for many centuries until being supplanted
by the more flexible and functional Roman legionnaires.
=========
=Phalanx=
=========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, Academy, and upgrade
to Phalanx.
Upgrade cost: 300 Food, 100 Gold
Cost: 60 Food, 40 Gold
Hit points: 120
Attack: 20
Armor: 7
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Upgrade of: Hoplite
Train at: Academy
The Phalanx has more attack strength and armor than the Hoplite. The
Phalanx can be upgraded to the Centurion.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack
strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The
Bronze Shield and Iron Shield increase piercing armor. Aristocracy increases
speed.
The phalanx was a Greek heavy infantry formation used from about 800 B.C. to
the conquest of Greece by the Romans in the second century B.C. The Greek
infantry, called hoplites, formed a square that could quickly face in any of
four directions. Each man carried a pike or spear up to 12 feet in length. As
the formation advanced, it presented an imposing wall of spear points to its
front. Hoplites carried a large shield and wore a bronze helmet, cuirass
(breastplate), and graves. All free men in the Greek city-states trained in the
phalanx. The discipline and drill required to make the phalanx work permeated
the entire Greek culture. Greek infantry fighting from the phalanx was the
finest in the western world for several centuries. No other infantry faced it
in hand-to-hand combat and won until the new tactics of combined arms made it
obsolete. The last great success of the phalanx was in Alexanger the Great's
campaign against the Persians, although in that army, it fought as part of a
combined arms army.
===========
=Centurion=
===========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, Academy, upgrade to
Phalanx, research Aristocracy, and upgrade to Centurion.
Upgrade cost: 1800 Food, 700 Gold
Cost: 60 Food, 40 Gold
Hit points: 160
Attack: 30
Armor: 8
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Upgrade of: Phalanx
Train at: Academy
The Centurion is the ultimate elite infantry unit. It has more hit
points, attack strength, and armor than the Phalanx. You must research
Aristocracy before you can upgrade to the Centurion.
Researching Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increases attack strength.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. The Bronze Shield
and Iron Shield increase piercing armor. Aristocracy increases speed.
The smallest tactical unit in the Roman army trusted with independent maneuver
was the 120-man maniple. Each maniple was commanded by a centurion, a veteran
promoted from the ranks after demonstrating bravery, skill, discipline, and
leadership. The maniple was roughly equivalent to the modern infantry company,
and the centurion was a combination of modern infantry captain and top sergeant.
Centurions were the backbone of the legions that build and defended the Roman
Empire.
----------------------------------
C. Archery
----------------------------------
========
=Bowman=
========
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Archery Range.
Cost: 40 Food, 20 Wood
Hit points: 35
Attack: 3
Armor: 0
Range: 5
Speed: Medium
Train at: Archery Range
The Bowman is the weakest of the archers. The Bowman cannot be upgraded.
However, you can research the Improved Bowman, which is stronger than
the Bowman. Other archers include the Chariot Archer, Elephant Archer,
and Horse Archer.
Archers fire arrows at enemy villagers, military units, boats, and buildings
within their range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking,
Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The bow was an important military weapon from the time of the first armies,
being
easily adopted from hunting animals to warfare. Archers required less
discipline
and leadership in battle because they were not expected to engage in hand-to-
hand combat, a terrifying experience. Bowmen fought from a distance on the
battlefield, from behind walls or other cover, and from ambush. They were
usually not decisive in battle on attack because they could not physically take
ground from the enemy like infantry could. They acted mainly as defensive
troops
that disrupted enemy formations prior to the decisive moment when the infantry
clashed. If barrages of arrows could cause casualties and lower lorale of the
enemy prior to the clash, friendly infantry had a better chance of breaking
the will of the enemy infantry had being victorious.
=================
=Improved Bowman=
=================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, and research
Improved Bow.
Research cost: 140 Food, 80 Wood
Cost: 40 Food, 20 Gold
Hit points: 40
Attack: 4
Armor: 0
Range: 6
Speed: Medium
Train at: Archery Range
The Improved Bowman is not an upgrade of the Bowman. It is a separate
unit with more hit points, attack strength, and range than the Bowman.
The Improved Bowman can be upgraded to the Composite Bowman.
Archers fire arrows at enemy villagers, military units, boats, and buildings
within their range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking,
Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The simple bow was improved by using better materials and by better training.
Employing better wood or strips of laminated wood increased the tensile strength
of the bow, increasing power and thus range. Arrows were improved also by such
changes as matal arrowheads. In modern times, hundreds of bronze arrowheads
were recovered from an archaelogical excavation of the battlefield at
Thermopylae. On this site, a Spartan force under Leonidas had perished under
a hail of Persian arrows after delaying the huge Persian army for many days.
==================
=Composite Bowman=
==================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, research
Improved Bow, and upgrade to Composite Bow.
Upgrade cost: 180 Food, 100 Wood
Cost: 40 Food, 20 Gold
Hit points: 45
Attack: 5
Armor: 0
Range: 7
Speed: Medium
Upgrade of: Improved Bowman
Train at: Archery Range
The Composite Bowman has more hit points, attack strength, and range
than the Improved Bowman. Other archery units include the Horse Archer
and Elephant Archer.
Archers fire arrows at enemy villagers, military units, boats, and buildings
within their range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking,
Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The composite bow was developed in Asia was also known as the oriental or
recurved bow. It reached the Mediterranean and Middle East by the beginning of
the second millennium B.C. It was made of layers of wood glued together rather
than a single piece. The composite material was then bent outward at each end
to increase tension. The result was a very powerful bow that doubled the
effective range of the short bow. Egyptian engravings depicting the Battle of
Kadesh show Rameses II and other Egyptian archers using composite bows.
================
=Chariot Archer=
================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, and research
Wheel.
Cost: 40 Food, 70 Wood
Hit points: 70
Attack: 4
Armor: 0
Range: 7
Speed: Fast
Special: High resistance to conversion; triple attack against Priests.
Train at: Archery Range
The Chariot Archer is a powerful archery unit that combines the speed
and mobility of the Chariot and the attack strength of the Improved
Bowman. Other mounted archery units include the Elephant Archer, Horse
Archer, and Heavy Horse Archer. You must research the Wheel before you
can train Chariot Archers.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Researching Alchemy increases
attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and
Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase
range.
Around 1700 B.C., two existing technologies of military consequence, the chariot
and the bow, were merged to create a fearsome new military weapon--the chariot
archer. Armored archers carried in fast chariots dominated the battlefields of
the civilized world for the next 500 years and remained useful for some time
after that. In the open ground of the settled plains and river valleys, the
chariot archer was devastating due to its speed, mass, and firepower. Chariot
archers were typified by the Egyptian nobility and pharaohs of the New Kingdom,
1552-1069 B.C., who prided themselves of their archery. The first recorded
battle of history. Megiddo in 1460 B.C., was fought with chariot carrying
archers.
The chariot archer was the dominating battlefield weapon from China to Greece
from about 1600 to 1200 B.C., according to the historical and archaelogical
record. The long reign of chariot armies was due to several factors, including
most importantly the placement of a composite bow archer in the basket with the
driver and using the chariot as a mobile firing platform. The fast-firing
chariot archer was devastating against slow, poorly armored infantry in the
open areas of the civilized cultures. The glorious vision of elite archers from
the nobility fighting from their expensive chariots and wheeling around the
battlefields at will prevaded all civilized cultures of the time.
=================
=Elephant Archer=
=================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Archery Range.
Cost: 180 Food, 60 Gold
Hit points: 600
Attack: 5
Armor: 0
Range: 7
Speed: Slow
Train at: Archery Range
The Elephant Archer combines the hit points of the War Elephant and the
attack strength and range of the Composite Bowman. Other mounted archery
units include the Chariot Archer, Horse Archer, and Heavy Horse Archer.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases
accuracy. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor.
Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
Attempting to use elephants in combat posed a number of problems, including the
central one of how the elephant would fight and cause casualties. One answer
was to place a box on the elephant's back from which archers could shoot. The
archers were protected by the box and could fire down into the melee below.
That worked only as long as the elephant remained standing and within range of
the enemy. In the years following the death of Alexander the Great, many
western kings adorned their armies of ancient India used elephants more
succuesfully for many centuries.
==============
=Horse Archer=
==============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Archery Range.
Cost: 50 Food, 70 Gold
Hit points: 60
Attack: 7
Armor: 0
Piercing Armor: 2
Range: 7
Speed: Fast
Special: +2 piercing armor against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Train at: Archery Range
The Horse Archer is a fast archery unit with strong attack strength and
range. The Horse Archer can be upgraded to the Heavy Horse Archer.
Other mounted archery units include the Chariot Archer and Elephant
Archer.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Researching Alchemy increases attack
strength. Ballistics increases accuracy. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain
Mail increase armor. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The chariot archer was replaced eventually on many ancient battlefields by
horse archers. This transition took place during the dark age following 1200
B.C. Mounted warriors fighting with composite bows made up many of the
barbarian armies on the Asia steppes. This type of unit was embraced by the
Assyrians first and eventually by their rivals. Two horse archers had twice
the firepower of one chariot archer, were much more flexible in where they could
go on the battlefield, were only half eliminated by the loss of one horse, and
avoided the expense of the chariot itself. Horse archers rarely dominated
fighting as the chariot archers had, however, because advances in armor and
tactics relegated horse archers to a supportive role. The hordes of horse
archers employed by the Persians against Alexander, for example, were no match
for his Companion cavalry, heavy Greek infantry, and skirmish troops. The
Great Wall of Chine was built to restrict the movements of barbarian horse
archers from the north.
====================
=Heavy Horse Archer=
====================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, research Chain
Mail for Archers, and upgrade to Heavy Horse.
Archer.
Upgrade cost: 1750 Food, 800 Gold
Cost: 50 Food, 70 Gold
Hit points: 90
Attack: 8
Armor: 0
Piercing Armor: 2
Range: 7
Speed: Fast
Special: +2 piercing armor against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Upgrade of: Horse Archer
Train at: Archery Range
The Heavy Horse Archer has more hit points and attack strength than the
Horse Archer. You must research Chain Mail for Archers before you can
train the Heavy Horse Archer.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Researching Alchemy increases
attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and
Chain Mail increase armor. Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship
increase range.
In a few armies of the late ancient period the Horse Archer was equipped with
helmet and limited body armor. This made the archer less vulnerable to arrows
himself. The Heavy Horse Archer could get closer to the enemy and do more
damage with bow fire with less risk to himself. Heavy Horse Archers were not a
common unit, however. They were difficult to train, except for those cultures
who were hoesr archers by common practice. Body armor for archers was a luxury
that most armies could not afford.
----------------------------------
D. Cavalry
----------------------------------
=======
=Scout=
=======
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 100 Food
Hit points: 60
Attack: 3
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Train at: Stable
The Scout is the weakest cavalry unit. The Scout cannot be upgraded.
However, you can train Cavalry, which is stronger than the Scout. Other
cavalry units include Heavy Cavalry, Cataphract, Chariot, and War
Elephant.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and
Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain
Mail increase armor.
An important innovation in military tactics was the provision of skirmish, or
light, troops that scouted ahead of the main body when an army was on the move.
While it was important to form solid, disciplined ranks of spearman or other
infantry for the shock of hand-to-hand combat, these dense formations were
vulnerable to surprise. It was the functional of scouts to keep the army
commander informed of the tactical situation and locate enemies so the main body
was brought into combat at the right place and time. At the Battle of Kadesh in
1275 B.C., Ramses II of Egypt did not investigate reports that the Hittite army
was far to the north. Instead he advanced one of his four divisions across the
Orontes River and was attacked while his second was still crossing. Ramses
managed to win the battle, but the lack of proper scouting put his army in
jeopardy.
=============
=Camel Rider=
=============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 70 Food, 60 Gold
Hit Points: 126
Attack: 6
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Attack bonus against all cavalry, horse archers, and chariots.
Train at: Stable
The Camel Rider is used by desert civilizations to defend against cavalry
attacks. Camel Riders do not receive a cavalry bonus against infantry.
Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy
increase attack strength. Leather armor, Scale armor, and Chain Mail increase
armor.
=========
=Chariot=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, and research Wheel.
Cost: 40 Food, 60 Wood
Hit points: 100
Attack: 7
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: High resistance to conversion; double attack against Priest.
Train at: Stable
The Chariot is a fast, two-wheel cavalry unit pulled by horses. You
must research the Wheel before you can build the Chariot.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and
Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail
increase armor.
Chariots originated in Sumeria before 2500 B.C. as four-wheeled carts pulled by
onogers. These chariots were slow and cumbersome compared to later chariots,
but provided a protected platform for spearman and archers. How they were used
in combat remains unclear, although all charging animals were intimidating on
the battlefield. At this time, the horse was not widely domesticated in the
civilized parts of the world. In the first half of the second millennium B.C.,
the chariot basket was reduced in size and mounted on only two wheels. Horses
were substituted eventually to provide greater speed. The fast two-wheeled
chariot was especially intimidating in battle because of its speed and the shock
value of charging horses. At this time horses were rarely being ridden.
Charioteers became the elite of the civilized armies for the next 600 or so
years. Chariots were often manned by the nobility because of their elite
status,
the glory to be won, and the high cost of building and maintaining chariots and
their horse teams.
================
=Scythe Chariot=
================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, research the Wheel and
Nobility.
Cost: 1200 Wood, 800 Gold
Hit Points: 120
Attack: 9
Armor: 2
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: High resistance to conversion; double attack against Priests. Scythed
wheels damage adjacent enemy units.
Train at: Stable
The Scythe Chariot is an upgrade of the Chariot. It has more hit points, more
attack strength, and more armor.
Toolworking, Metalworking, and Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather
Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor.
=========
=Cavalry=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 70 Food, 80 Gold
Hit points: 150
Attack: 8
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Cavalry charge bonus (+5 attack against infantry)
Train at: Stable
Cavalry is not an upgrade of the Scout. It is a separate unit with more
hit points and attack strength (including +5 attack against infantry,
except for slinger) than the Scout. Cavalry can be upgraded to Heavy
Cavalry. Other cavalry units include the Chariot and War Elephant.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking,
and Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor,
and Chain Mail increase armor.
Horses were domesticated around 4000 B.C. for use as work animals. They first
appeared in the Middle East around 2000 B.C. but were kept only as expensive
pets. Gradually they were found useful in the civilized world as draft animals,
but were rarely ridden. The concept of cavalry was introduced to the Assyrians
from the plains of Russia during the dark age that followed the catastrophe of
1200 B.C. The Assyrians added cavalry to their armies in order to fight the
barbarians on the plains to their north. Israelite kind Solomon was renowned
for his large cavalry force. It eventually became clear that cavalry was more
efficient that cnariots. Two men, each on his horse, were more useful that two
men in a chariot that could be disabled with increasing ease. Cavalry was
cheaper tomaintain that chariotry and could enter more difficult terrain, but
was no less fast and intimidating to infantry.
===============
=Heavy Cavalry=
===============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, train Cavalry, and
upgrade to Heavy Cavalry.
Upgrade cost: 350 Food, 125 Gold
Cost: 70 Food, 80 Gold
Hit points: 150
Attack: 10
Armor: 1
Piercing Armor: 1
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Cavalry charge bonus (+5 attack against infantry); +1 piercing armor
against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Upgrade of: Cavalry
Train at: Stable
Heavy Cavalry has more attack strength and armor (including +1 armor against
missile weapons) than Cavalry. Heavy Cavalry can be upgraded to the Cataphract.
Other cavalry units include the Chariot and War Elephant.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and
Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail
increase armor.
Heavy cavalry was distinguished from other cavalry by equipment and battlefield
role. It was considered heavy because the warriors and horses usually wore some
metal armor, including breastplates, helmets, and greaves. The horses were also
oversized to more easily carry an armored man and to intimidate foes. While
most cavalry acted as skirmishers and scouts on the battlefield, heavy cavalry
was a shock weapon, held back for the proper moment to charge into enemy
formations and ride them down. Heavy cavalry was rare in antiquity because the
saddle and stirrup had not yet been invented. It took an excellent rider to
ride into a shock batle and use a lance effectively. The most famous heavy
cavalry of the time was the Companion cavalry of Alexander the Great. These
men were horsemen from birth on the plains of Thessaly and Macedon. Part of
their devastating success in battle against the Persians may have been due to
the novelty of their wedge-shaped charges, unprecedented at that time.
============
=Cataphract=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable, research Cavalry,
upgrade to Heavy Cavalry, research Metallurgy, and upgrade to
Cataphract.
Upgrade cost: 2000 Food, 850 Gold
Cost: 70 Food, 80 Gold
Hit points: 180
Attack: 12
Armor: 3
Piercing Armor: 1
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Cavalry charge bonus (+5 attack against infantry); +1 piercing armor
against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Upgrade of: Heavy Cavalry
Train at: Stable
The Cataphract is the ultimate cavalry unit. The Cataphract has more hit points,
attack strength and armor than Heavy Cavalry. You must research Metallurgy
before you can upgrade to the Cataphract. Other cavalry units include the
Chariot and War Elephant.
Researching Nobility increases hit points. Toolworking, Metalworking, and
Metallurgy increase attack strength. Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail
increase armor.
The cataphract was an improvement on ancient heavy cavalry represented by
Alexander the Great's Companions. The Companions wore only helmets, greaves,
and cuirass (breastplate). Cataphracts wore chain mail that covered more of the
body and often armored their horses partially also. This gave greater
protection
against arrows and hand-to-hand weapons. Cataphracts were very expensive to
equip, however, and appeared in the armies of only the most warlike and wealthy
cultures.
==============
=War Elephant=
==============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, and Stable.
Cost: 170 Food, 40 Gold
Hit points: 600
Attack: 15
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Special: Trample damage to all adjacent enemy units; attack strength cannot be
upgraded.
Train at: Stable
The War Elephant is a cavalry unit with many hit points and special
attack. The War Elephant causes trample damage to all adjacent enemy
units. The War Elephant's attack strength cannot be upgraded because
it already causes so much damage to other units. For example, if ten
men attack a War Elephant, all ten men receive 15 points of damage, so
that the War Elephant causes 150 points of damage per round.
Researching Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increases armor.
Elephants were tamed in antiquity but never domesticated. They were most useful
as beasts of burden, but were employed in battle by several cultures, including
the Phoenicians, Persians, and Indians. Elephanmts were much more intimidating
than horses and much tougher as well. In addition, horses avoided elephants,
making elephants, in theory, a great weapon against enemy cavalry. In practice,
unfortunately, elephants rarely proved useful. They were difficult to acquire,
train, and maintain. Hannibal attempted to take elephants across the Alps to
attack Rome, but only one survived. No account of Alexander the Great's battles
makes any mention of Persian elephants being effective. Elephants were
difficult
to control in battle and were likely to charge in any direction but the one
desired, especially after being wounded. They were apparently more dangerous to
friend than foe, being already nearer to friends and most likely to charge away
from perceived danger through the friendly army arrayed around them.
==================
=Armored Elephant=
==================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Stable and research Iron Shield.
Upgrade Cost: 1000 Food, 1200 Gold
Cost: 600
Attack: 18
Armor: 2
Range: 0
Speed: Slow
Special: Trample damage against all adjacent enemy units; attack strength
cannot be upgraded. Increased attacking vs. walls and towers; +1 armor against
missile weapons, Ballista, and Helepolis
Upgrade Of: War Elephant
Train at: Stable
The Armored Elephant is an upgrade of the War Elephant. The Armored Elephant
has Siegecraft, more attack strength, armor and piercing armor.
Leather Armor, Scale Armor, and Chain Mail increase armor.
----------------------------------
E. Siege Weapons
----------------------------------
===============
=Stone Thrower=
===============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, and Siege
Workshop.
Cost: 180 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 75
Attack: 50
Armor: 0
Range: 10
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/5 seconds; small damage area; minimum range 2.
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Stone Thrower is the weakest of the siege weapons. Upgrades
include the Catapult and Heavy Catapult. Other siege weapons include
the Ballista and Helepolis.
Siege weapons are used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The stone thrower was an artillery weapon based on the principle of the lever.
The stone thrower fired a heavy missile, usually a large stone or stone wrapped
in burning oily rage. The missile was placed in a large basket at the end of
the throwing arm. Tension was built up on the other end of the arm while the
throwing basket was held taut against the fulcrum. When released, the throwing
arm swung up and forward until checked, throwing the missile. Stone throwers
were used primarily against fixed positions, especially cities and
fortifications.
Stones were used to knock down walls to open way of an infantry assault.
Fireballs set wood rubble on fire, buring out the defenders. Small stone
throwers were also used on the battlefield to disrupt massed enemy
fortifications,
although the enemy rarely easy targets within range. The stone thrower was
invented around 400 B.C. by Greeks seeking to capture an island fortress off the
coast of Sicily.
==========
=Catapult=
==========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, Siege Workshop,
and upgrade to Catapult.
Upgrade cost: 300 Food, 250 Wood
Cost: 180 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 75
Attack: 60
Armor: 0
Range: 12
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/5 seconds; medium damage area; minimum range 2.
Upgrade of: Stone Thrower
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Catapult has more attack strength and range and damages a larger
area than the Stone Thrower. The Catapult can be upgraded to the Heavy
Catapult. Other siege weapons include the Ballista and Helepolis.
Siege weapons are used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The stone thrower continued to evolve over time following its invention around
400 B.C. Improvements increased the size or range of the missile and the
mobility of the catapult.
================
=Heavy Catapult=
================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, Siege Workshop,
upgrade to Catapult, research Siegecraft, and upgrade to Heavy
Catapult.
Upgrade cost: 1800 Food, 900 Wood
Cost: 180 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 150
Attack: 60
Armor:0
Range: 13
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/5 seconds; large damage area; minimum range 2.
Upgrade of: Catapult
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Heavy Catapult has many more hit points and more range than the Catapult.
You must research Siegecraft before you can upgrade to the Heavy Catapult.
Other siege weapons include the Ballista and Helepolis.
Siege weapons are used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The heavy catapult was a powerful siege weapon, representing the greatest
advance
in siege weaponry during ancient times. It was employed against fortifications
and on the battlefield. It broke down fortification walls, allowing attackers
to break in. On the battlefield, smaller missiles could be fired in a shower
against dense formations of soldiers to cause casualties and disrupt morale at
long range. Enemy armies that could be softened and shaken before the hand-to-
hand clash of infantry were at a decided desadvantage.
==========
=Ballista=
==========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, and Siege
Workshop.
Cost: 100 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 55
Attack: 40
Armor:0
Range: 9
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/3 seconds; minimum range 3.
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Ballista can be upgraded to the Helepolis. Other siege weapons include the
Catapult and Heavy Catapult.
Ballistas are used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The ballista was an early artillery weapon that fired missiles, primarily large
bolts or spears. It was used in attacks on cities or fortified positions
because it could cause structural damage and casualties from a great distance.
When it could be deployed on a battlefield, it was especially useful against
dense formations of troops. In this situation, one shot could cause multiple
casualties. The ballista was invented in the second half of the first
millennium
B.C., probably by Greek engineers. It functioned like a large crossbow.
Tension
was built up in the engine by twisting leather, and then released, propelling
the missile down a guided trough and into flight.
===========
=Helepolis=
===========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Barracks, Archery Range, Siege Workshop,
research Craftsmanship, upgrade to Helepolis.
Upgrade cost: 1500 Food, 1000 Wood
Cost: 100 Wood, 80 Gold
Hit points: 55
Attack: 40
Armor:0
Range: 10
Speed: Slow
Special: Fire rate once/1.5 seconds; minimum range 3.
Upgrade of: Ballista
Build at: Siege Workshop
The Helepolis has more range and a faster fire rate than the Ballista. You
must research Craftsmanship before you can upgrade to the Helepolis. Other
siege weapons include the Catapult and Heavy Catapult.
The Helepolis is used to attack military units, buildings, towers, and walls.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The helepolis (Greek for "city killer") was one of the most advanced weapons of
antiquity and a remarkable demonstration of ancient engineering ingenuity. It
was in fact an automatic siege weapon that fired ballista bolts. The top
loading lagazine of the helepolis was a horizontal funnel in which were laid
bundles of bolts. These were fed by gravity into the chanber of the weapon. A
clever gearing mechanism automatically recocked the helepolis and fired. Human
operators needed only to keep it loaded and aimed, plus providing power by
cranking. The original of the machine was abandoned outside the city of Rhodes
when a besieging army withdrew. It has been reconstructed on paper from
contemporary sketches and descriptions of that only known example.
----------------------------------
F. Boats
----------------------------------
==============
=Fishing Boat=
==============
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Dock.
Cost: 50 Wood
Hit points: 45
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Build at: Dock
The Fishing Boat provides food by gathering fish and depositing them at
the Dock. The cargo capacity of a Fishing Boat is greater than the
carrying capacity of a villager. The Fishing Boat can be upgraded to
the Fishing Ship.
The Fishing Boat represents a small, vessel for use by one or a few fishermen.
The first boats were probably dugout canous, made from a single large log.
These
were excavated by fire and adze. Despite the passage of time and great
technological advances in all areas, there are more log- hull boats in use today
of any other single type.
==============
=Fishing Ship=
==============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to Fishing Ship.
Upgrade cost: 50 Food, 100 Wood
Cost: 50 Wood
Hit points: 75
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Upgrade of: Fishing Boat
Build at: Dock
The Fishing Ship has more hit points and is faster than the Fishing Boat.
The never-ending quest for food eventually enticed humans out onto lakes,
rivers,
and oceans in search of fish. Fish of greater size and variety were often found
in deeper offshore waters. Fishing ships, larger than small canoes, were
developed to control larger nets. Fishing ships were able to hold greater
quantities of processed fish before return to land was required.
============
=Trade Boat=
============
Age: Stone
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Dock.
Cost: 100 Wood
Hit points: 200
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Build at: Dock
The Trade Boat lets you trade with other civilizations to increase your
stockpile of gold. The Trade Boat can be upgraded to the Merchant Ship.
Small boats were used by Stone-Age peoples for trading across rivers, lakes, and
oceans. We know, for example, that tool stone found on Aegean Islands was
brought to the mainland and other islands by traders long before large seagoing
boats existed. Primitive trading boats were usually dugout canoes, papyrus
bundles, or hide boats with a limited cargo capacity. They probably carried
only limited quantities of valuable trade goods, such as carvings, ivory, furs,
tool stone, decorative minerals, and amber. Large bulk cargos could not be
carried profitably in small trading boats.
===============
=Merchant Ship=
===============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to Merchant Ship.
Upgrade cost: 200 Food, 75 Wood
Cost: 100 Wood
Hit points: 250
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Upgrade of: Trade Boat
Build at: Dock
The Merchant Ship lets you trade with other civilizations to increase your
stockpile of gold. It is faster and has more hit points than the Trade Boat.
As civilization spread around the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean, and China
Sea,
larger trading ships came into use to carry bulk cargos such as olive oil from
Greece, cedar wood from Lebanon, grain from Egypt, and rice from China. Typical
ancient Merchant Ships had keels and were built of planks, but did not have
interior framing. They carried a single mast for a mainsail and were steered
with a large paddle. Their broad beam allowed for cargos far beyond those of
dugout canoes. Recent underwater discoveries of ancient merchant ships indicate
they had good sailing qualities and required only a small crew.
=================
=Light Transport=
=================
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Dock.
Cost: 150 Wood
Hit points: 150
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Medium
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Build at: Dock
The Light Transport lets you transport up to five villagers, military
units, or Artifacts across water. The Light Transport can be upgraded
to the Heavy Transport.
The earliest use of boats in war was probably to carry men across rivers, lakes,
or seas to raid and plunder. The most suitable boat for this purpose was built
as a compromise between speed and capacity. Raiders did not want to spend long
periods in boats making a crossing and needed to surprise their enemies. The
boat also had to carry a reasonable number of raiders and have room for anyone
to be brought back. The fastest boats of ancient times were galleys powered
by sails when possible but mainly by oars. The Greek penteconter with 50 oars
was a common transport from troops. In most cases, the crew of oarsmen became
raiders when they reached their destination.
=================
=Heavy Transport=
=================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to Heavy Transport.
Upgrade cost: 150 Food, 125 Wood
Cost: 150 Wood
Hit points: 200
Attack: 0
Armor: 0
Range: 0
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Upgrade of: Light Transport
Build at: Dock
The Heavy Transport lets you transport up to ten villagers, military units, or
Artifacts across water. The Heavy Transport has more hit points, is faster, and
carries more units than the Light Transport.
Ships build carrying military units replaced smaller galleys when armies grew
larger and targets became more valuable and better defended. It became
necessary
to move ever-larger armies for invasion, and to bring siege engines and supplies
along for extended sieges of coastal cities. The Heavy Transport represents a
large sailing ship, something like a Merchant Ship, build mainly for capacity at
the expense of speed.
============
=Scout Ship=
============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center and the Dock.
Cost: 135 Wood
Hit points: 120
Attack: 5
Armor: 0
Range: 5
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Build at: Dock
The Scout Ship is the weakest of the war vessels. Upgrades include the War
Galley and Trireme. Other war ships include the Catapult Trireme and
Juggernaught.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The first true warships built to attack and sink other ships were galleys with
a heavy ram mounted at the front. The warship attempted to ram an enemy ship
and stave in its hull, causing it to take on water if not sink. Early warships
were almost oar-powered torpedos, consisting of a light, floating hull manned by
oarsmen. A sail, if present, was used only in transit, not in battle.
============
=War Galley=
============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to War Galley.
Upgrade cost: 150 Food, 75 Wood
Cost: 135 Wood
Hit points: 160
Attack: 8
Armor: 0
Range: 6
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units.
Upgrade of: Scout Ship
Build at: Dock
The War Galley has more hit points, attack strength, and range than a Scout
Ship. The War Galley can be upgraded to the Trireme.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
The appearance of the ram triggered an arms race in ship design. Hulls were
strengthened to support ever-heavier rams on the bow. As hulls grew larger,
more oarsmen were required to provide power. A deck was added and a second
group of oarsmen was placed there. This increased power without increasing
length, but the deck made the ship somewhat instable. A ship with two levels
of rowers was called a bireme.
=============
=Fire Galley=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, and upgrade to War Galley.
Cost: 115 Wood, 40 Gold
Hit Points: 200
Attack: 24
Armor: 0
Range: 1
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units. +5 damage
from Ballista, Helepolis, +10 from other seige weapons
The Fire Galley is a short range vessel used to defend other ships. Fire
Galleys are superior to Triremes in one-on-one combat. Fire Galleys take
additional damage from Ballistics, Helepolises, Stone Throwers, Catapults,
Heavy Catapults and Juggernauts, whose heavy artillery can shatter the Fire
Galley's burning fire pots and set fire to the ship.
Research Alchemy increase attack strength.
Note: You can't build Fire Galleys if you select the Full Tech Tree option
before starting a game.
=========
=Trireme=
=========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, upgrade to War Galley, and upgrade
to Trireme.
Upgrade cost: 250 Food, 100 Wood
Cost: 135 Wood
Hit points: 200
Attack: 12
Armor: 0
Range: 7
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units; fire rate
once/2 seconds.
Upgrade of: War Galley
Build at: Dock
The Trireme has more hit points, attack strength, and range than a War Galley.
The Trireme cannot be upgraded. However, you can research the Catapult Trireme,
which is stronger than the Trireme.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Woodworking, Artisanship, and Craftsmanship increase range.
Ancient ship designers tried numerous tricks to get more power for warships,
including putting more men on single oars. The most successful was a trireme,
three tiers of single rowers per side. This ship provided resonable
maneuverability and speed. It appeared around 600 B.C. and made up the bulk of
Mediterranean navies for several hundred years after 500 B.C.
==================
=Catapult Trireme=
==================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, upgrade to War Galley, upgrade to
Trireme, and research Catapult Trireme.
Research cost: 300 Food, 100 Wood
Cost: 135 Wood, 75 Gold
Hit points: 120
Attack: 35
Armor: 0
Range: 9
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units; fire rate
once/5 seconds; small damage area.
Build at: Dock
The Catapult Trireme is not an upgrade of the Trireme. It is a separate vessel
with fewer hit points and a slower fire rate than a Trireme but it has much
more attack strength, range, and is armed with a Catapult, which can fire at a
location instead of at a particular unit. The Catapult Trireme can be upgraded
to the Juggernaught.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The ultimate warships of antiquity were advances on the trireme that occurred
after the death of Alexander the Great. These ships were first broadened so
that multiple rowers could apply power to each oar. Based on limited
descriptions and detailed figures from crew and rowers, it is believed that the
largest ships of this perios may have had catamaran hulls. The broadening of
ships and decks added weight and further reduced speed and maneuverability, but
increased stability. Decks supported catapult artillery and large marine
contigents. Ships engaged each other primarily with missile fire and boarding.
==============
=Juggernaught=
==============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: Build the Town Center, Dock, upgrade to War Galley, upgrade to
Trireme, research Catapult Trireme, research Engineering,
and upgrade to Juggernaught.
Upgrade cost: 2000 Food, 900 Wood
Cost: 135 Wood, 75 Gold
Hit points: 200
Attack: 35
Armor: 0
Range: 10
Speed: Fast
Special: Boats are twice as resistant to conversion as other units; fire rate
once/5 seconds; medium damage area.
Upgrade of: Catapult Trireme
Build at: Dock
The Juggernaught has more hit points and range and causes damage to a larger
area than the Catapult Trireme. Like the Catapult Trireme, the Juggernaught is
armed with a Catapult, which can fire at a location instead of at a particular
unit. You must research Engineering before you can upgrade to the Juggernaught.
War vessels fire at enemy villagers, military units, and boats within range.
Researching Alchemy increases attack strength. Ballistics increases accuracy.
Engineering increases range.
The most remarkable advances in war ships appeared on the Mediterranean before
the conquest of the entire region by Rome. These ships could reach enormous
size, carrying crews of several thousand rowers and marines. They fought by
firing catapults at each other until close enough to grapple and board. The
largest were too slow to effectively ram each other. Because of their size and
slowness, they could not operate far from shore and needed substantial support
from supply ships carrying food and water for the crew. The largest were show
ships, built in an arms race that emphasized size and expense instead of
practicality.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
5. Technologies
----------------------------------
A. Storage Pit
----------------------------------
=============
=TOOLWORKING=
=============
Age: Tool Age
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 100 Food
Benefit: This provides a +2 attack for your hand- to- hand units.
Note: The first metals put to use were those found in a relatively pure
state on the earth's surface, including gold, silver, and copper. Gold
could be worked in its natural state. Experimentation with it eventually
suggested electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver) and copper could
also be hammered into useful shapes. Learning how to extract copper from
ore and shape it into tools was an important milestone in the rise of
civilization because it opened the door first to making bronze and then
to making iron. Cast copper tools were an important advance over stone
tools, but were too soft to have a long, useful life. The discovery of
bronze, made by alloying a small amount of tin with copper, ushered in a
2000- year Bronze Age. Cast bronze tools dramatically increased the
efficiency of workers. Bronze weapons were superior to those made of
stone and copper. Armies equipped with bronze swords, spears, and
arrowheads had a critical advantage over more poorly equipped armies.
==============
=METALWORKING=
==============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Toolworking.
Cost: 200 Food, 120 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +2 attack for your hand- to- hand units.
Note: The discovery and use of iron to make tools and weapons was one of
the most important advances in civilization. Some historians consider the
use of iron to be one of the distinguishing characteristics separating
civilization from barbarism because the new tools were less brittle, could
hold better edges, and held edges for a longer time without resharpening.
Most importantly, iron ore was much easier to locate than copper and tin,
making iron tools cheaper and more readily available. By 1000 B.C., iron
tools were being made that were as good as the best ones of bronze; by 500
B.C., iron had largely supplanted bronze from Europe and Asia. The expanse
and scarcity of bronze had restricted its use to the elite and wealthy.
Iron tools and weapons were available to nearly everyone.
============
=METALLURGY=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Toolworking and Metalworking.
Cost: 300 Food, 180 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +3 attack for your hand- to- hand units.
Note: You must research Metallurgy before you can upgrade to the
Cataphract. The use of iron spread throughout the Mediterranean, Middle
East, and Asia during the first millenium B.C., and some areas became
especially adept at the new science. Certain campgrounds added to the
molten metal increased the strength of the resulting tools. New forging
techniques also resulted in better tools. The best iron tool workers made
superior weapons that were an important advantage in battle.
===============
=BRONZE SHIELD=
===============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 150 Food, 180 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +1 armor against the Ballista, Helepolis, and
missile weapons.
Note: The shield was probably the first piece of military equipment
developed to protect a warrior. The earliest were made of wood or wood
and hide, and were in various shapes. They were carried in the hand or on
the forearm and used to ward off blows or missiles in battle. Shield
designs and materials evolved to keep up with advances in weapons. Wood
and hide shields were easy to smash with bronze weapons, so bronze shields
were developed. Bronze shields also provided better defense against
missiles. Arrows, especially with metal points, were prone to lodge in
wooden shields. This increased the weight of the shield and made it more
unwieldy. Roman legions threw spears at barbarian formations mainly so
they would pierce and weigh down the enemy's shield just before closing.
Arrows and other missiles deflected off bronze shields without penetration.
=============
=IRON SHIELD=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched the Bronze Shield.
Cost: 200 Food, 320 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +1 armor against the Ballista, Heleoplis, and
missile weapons.
Note: The iron shield replaced the bronze shield when swords and other
weapons of iron became common. Iron shields were not only expensive to
make, but also more effective in stopping all hand- to- hand and missile
weapons. The basic iron shield remained in use until firearms made
personal shields on the battlefield obsolete.
==============
=TOWER SHIELD=
==============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Storage Pit, researched
Bronze Shield, and researched Iron Shield.
Cost: 250 Food, 400 Gold
Benefit: +1 infantry armor against Ballista, Helepolis, and missile weapons.
Note: The Romans adopted a tall rectangular shield that gave them advantages in
battle when used properly. The size of the shield protected more of the body.
The Romans fought in tight rectangular formations of approximately 100 men
called maniples. The shields of the men in the maniple presented a continuous
front, or shield wall, which protected them greatly from missile fire. They
developed a formation variant called Testudo (turtle). In this formation, the
shields covered all four sides and the heads of the men, allowing them to
advance under missile fire. This was useful when advancing toward a gap in an
enemy wall.
===========================
=LEATHER ARMOR FOR ARCHERS=
===========================
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 100 Food
Benefit: This provides a +2 armor for your Archery Range units.
Note: Soldiers have sought ways to protect themselves in combat since the
beginnings of warfare. Long before the use of metals, leather was
employed to make helmets and body armor that could stop, or at least
soften, blows from blunt and edged weapons. Leather was easy to work
with, it was light and not overly restrictive of movement, it could be
fitted to the wearer, and it was usually plentiful and inexpensive.
Leather remained an important material for body armor throughout the
Bronze Age due to the high cost of metal armor. It wasn't until far into
the Iron Age that metal armor was available for common soldiers.
=========================
=SCALE ARMOR FOR ARCHERS=
=========================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather Armor for Archers.
Cost: 125 Food, 50 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +2 armor for your Archery Range units.
Note: The use of metals to make weapons was matched by using metals to
make better armor. Among the first improvements in widespread use were
breastplates and greaves of bronze. The breastplate protected the torso
while greaves protected the legs below the knee. Both of these items
protected only the front of the soldier, saving the weight and cost that
all- around protection would entail. Breastplates and greaves were worn
by hoplites of the phalanx, for example, during the glory years of
Greece. When used together with a large shield and bronze helmet, they
left little of the soldier's body exposed to attack. Bronze armor was an
example of scale armor, or plate armor, in which metal plates provided
protection.
========================
=CHAIN MAIL FOR ARCHERS=
========================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather Armor and Scale Armor for Archers.
Cost: 150 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Archery Range units.
Note: Chain mail was a type of body armor made of iron circlets woven
together into a cloak. The interlocking chains of iron protected the body
somewhat from weapons that slashed or pounded. Chain mail was also
flexible and allowed more freedom of body movement than armor made of
metal plates. The disadvantages of chain mail were that it required a lot
of care, was heavy, and was expensive to make. Chain mail was worn only
by wealthy or powerful individuals who could purchase or demand its
manufacture.
===========================
=LEATHER ARMOR FOR CAVALRY=
===========================
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 125 Food
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Stable units.
Note: The same as above.
=========================
=SCALE ARMOR FOR CAVALRY=
=========================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather Armor for Cavalry.
Cost: 150 Food, 50 Gold
Benefit: This provides a +2 armor for your Stable units.
Note: The same as above.
========================
=CHAIN MAIL FOR CAVALRY=
========================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather and Scale Armor for Cavalry.
Cost: 175 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Stable units.
Note: The same as above.
============================
=LEATHER ARMOR FOR INFANTRY=
============================
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit.
Cost: 75 Food
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Barracks and Academy units.
Note: The same as above.
==========================
=SCALE ARMOR FOR INFANTRY=
==========================
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather Armor for Infantry.
Cost: 100 Food, 50 Gold
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Barracks and Academy units.
Note: The same as above.
=========================
=CHAIN MAIL FOR INFANTRY=
=========================
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Storage Pit, and
researched Leather and Scale Armor for Infantry.
Cost: 125 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: This provides a +2 armor for your Barracks and Academy units.
Note: The same as above.
----------------------------------
B. Market
----------------------------------
=======
=WHEEL=
=======
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 175 Food, 75 Wood
Benefits: Villager speed is increased by 30%.
Note: You must research the Wheel before you can build a Chariot or
Chariot Archer. The use of the wheel for transport was discovered in
Sumeria sometime after 3400 B.C. and derived from the potter's wheel that
appeared first. The Sumerians learned that in a small cart, a donkey
could pull a load equal to three times what it could carry on its back.
The wheel revolutionized transport and had an important impact on the
battlefield as well. By the Bronze Age, chariot archers were dominating
warfare on the open plains. The wheel was apparently used only for
children's toys in ancient America, probably because of the rough
geography and the lack of an animal like the ox or horse.
=============
=WOODWORKING=
=============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 120 Food, 75 Wood
Benefits: You receive a +2 woodcutting ability and a +1 range for missile
weapons.
Note: The small stone blades that characterized the New Stone Age
(neolithic period) made possible finer techniques in many areas, including
woodworking. The larger and more unweildy stone tools of the past were
capable of crude cutting and carving only. Better woodworking improved
other tools and weapons, making possible the bow and arrow and spear
thrower.
=============
=ARTISANSHIP=
=============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Woodworking.
Cost: 170 Food, 120 Gold
Benefits: You receive a +2 woodcutting ability and a +1 range for missile
weapons.
Note: The discovery and use of first copper and then the much more useful
bronze tools and weapons was a dramatic leap in technology. Bronze,
especially, posessed a hardness, strength, and ability to hold an edge
that far surpassed the best stone tools, making it much more useful when
working with stone, wood, hides, meat, and other materials. Cultures that
used bronze had a decided economic and military advantage over those that
did not.
=========
=COINAGE=
=========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Gold Mining.
Cost: 200 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: This provides you with free tribute and increases your Gold
Mining productivity by 25%.
Note: The first true coins were minted in ancient Lydia, now part of
modern Turkey. These first coins were made from electrum, a naturally
ocurring malleable alloy of gold and silver. Coins, and money in general,
proved an important facilitator of trade and economic progress. Money
acted as a storehouse of value, a medium of exchange, and a standard of
value, as it continues to do today. Following the conquest of the Persian
Empire, the concept of coinage or as adopted by the Greeks and spread by
them throughout the Hellenistic world.
===============
=CRAFTSMANSHIP=
===============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Woodworking and Artisanship.
Cost: 240 Food, 200 Wood
Benefits: You receive a +2 woodcutting ability and +1 range for missile
weapons.
Note: You must research Craftsmanship before you can upgrade to the
Helepolis. The discovery of inexpensive ways to make iron was as great a
technological leap over bronze making as bronze was over stone. Iron
surpassed bronze in every critical characteristic- hardness, strength, and
the ability to hold an edge before needing to be resharpened- Plus one.
Iron was much easier to acquire than were copper and tin, making it
available to all cultures and for all uses. Historians consider the
ability to make and use iron ore one of the distinctions between barbaric
and civilized culture.
===============
=DOMESTICATION=
===============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center and Granary, and
researched Market.
Cost: 200 Food, 50 Wood
Benefits: You receive a 75% increase of food production to your farms.
Note: The revolution in agriculture involved both the development of
animals. The ability to control and manage herds of milk- and meat-
producing animals also served to free humans from the drudging and
desperation of continual hunting and gathering. Herding did not lead
necessarily to a sedentary village life, however. The need to find pasture
often meant that herding societies remained nomadic, at least for part of
the year. Domesticated sheep and goats first appear in the archaelogical
record around 7500 B.C. in the Zagros Mountains to the east of the Tigro
and Euphrates River valleys. Cattle were domesticated around 600 B.C. in
both the Sahara and Egypt, perhaps near simultaneously. Domestication of
cattle alone may have been for responsible for a doubling of world human
population in a few generations.
==============
=STONE MINING=
==============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 100 Food, 50 Stone
Benefits: Your stone mining is increased by +3.
Note: Wood for building was scarce in most places where civilizations
first arose. Vast forests just did not exist in these predominately arid
regions. The principle building material for common uses was mud bricks,
sun- dried at first and then fire- baked. In some areas important
structures such as temples, palaces, tombs, and fortifications were built
of stone when it was available. Much information about ancient Egypt was
preserved because of the permanence of stone. Equilalent structures in
Mesopotamia collapsed into mounds of earth after many centuries of neglect
and weathering. Acquiring non- wood building materials through brick
making or quarrying was the object of Stone Mining.
=============
=GOLD MINING=
=============
Age: Tool
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market.
Cost: 120 Food, 100 Wood
Benefits: The gold mining production is increased by +3.
Note: Gold washed down the hills and mountains was probably the 1st metal
with which humans experimented. It was sufficiently soft and pure to be
fashioned easily into objects of beauty for adornment and trade. The
value of gold remained high as populations increased because of demand for
it continued to exceed supply. Because of this value, the trail of gold
was followed back to the source of the alluvial nuggets. Gold mining was
developed to obtain ore from which the pure metal could be extracted.
Many of the most beautiful objects that survive from antiquity are made of
gold, including hundreds of items from the Egyptian Pharaoh, Tutankhamen's
tomb.
============
=SIEGECRAFT=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Stone Mining.
Cost: 190 Food, 100 Stone
Benefits: Villagers can destroy walls and towers, and your stone mining
ablity is increased by +3.
Note: You must research Siegecraft before you can upgrade to the Heavy
Catapult. Despite the written records and depictions of cities and
fortifications being stormed with the aid of siege equipment, starvation
was the only certain and effective way to take strongholds before the
gunpowder age. The defender of a strong position, with adequate troops,
food, and water, had all the advantages. Physical assault of strongholds
was a difficult proposition accompanied regularly only by those armies
posessing siegecraft- the necessary equipment, resolve, leadership, elan,
discipline, and skill. Examples from ancient history were the army of
Alexander the Great that conducted 20 sieges over a ten- year period, most
after the fall of the Persian Empire; the Hittites, the Assyrians, and the
Romans.
======
=PLOW=
======
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Domestication.
Cost: 250 Food, 75 Wood
Benefits: You receive a 75% food production increase to your farms.
Note: The first agriculturists planted seeds by hand using digging sticks
to open the ground. The invention of the plow made it possible to more
easily prepare farmland for planting. The plow ripped open long rows for
seeding, burying unwanted plants and cutting unwanted roots in the
process. When pulled behind domesticated animals, such as oxen, food
production per farmer and per acre again increased. The plow has
continued to evolve since ancient times. For example, U.S. President
Thomas Jefferson invented an improved version.
============
=IRRIGATION=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, and Market,
and researched Domestication and the Plow.
Cost: 300 Food, 100 Wood
Benefits: You receive a 75% food production increase to your farms.
Note: One of the key steps in the agricultural revolution was
understanding and managing irrigation. Observation of the natural world
revealed eventually the relationship between planted seeds, good soils,
sunlight, water, and resultant crops. Large- scale irrigation in both
Mesopotamia and Egypt turned the rich but arid soils near the rivers into
rich farmlands and made possible the rise of the great civilizations on
earth. Building the dams and channels to irrigate these lands required
sophistication of government, construction, and engineering not seen
previously in any society.
----------------------------------
C. Government
----------------------------------
=========
=ALCHEMY=
=========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 250 Food, 200 Gold
Benefits: You receive a +1 attack ability for your siege and missile
weapons.
Note: The beginnings of chemistry can be traced back to ancient attempts
to make gold and silver out of base metals, to find a universal cure for
disease, and to discover secrets of prolonging life. The experiments and
secrecy of the alchemists gave them an aura of mystery and magic.
Alchemists were both feared and sought out for help. In an ancient world
of little scientific understanding, mystery, and magic had power.
==============
=ARCHITECTURE=
==============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 150 Food, 175 Wood
Benefits: Building construction is increased by +33% and the hit points of
your buildings and walls are increased by +20%.
Note: The art and science of designing and constructing buildings arose
from the practical need to provide first shelter, then storage for food
reserves, and then defenses for both. One of the specializations that
appeared in the first towns was the builder whose skills and techniques
continue to evolve today. Builders and architects worked with the
materials available to construct buildings and fortifications. Over time
new techniques of architecture improved the efficiency, strength, and
utility of construction.
=============
=ARISTOCRACY=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 175 Food, 150 Gold
Benefits: The speed of your Academy units is increased by +25%.
Note: The Aristocracy was a privileged class, usually hereditary, that
arose within many cultures. Aristocrats generally derived their power
from control of farmland and the attendant infrastructure of people,
towns, and manufacturing- supported food production. They kept power at
the pleasure of the ruler, as long as they acceded to his wishes.
Aristocrats may also have had military responsibility, especially when on
the frontier of the kingdom or empire. In many cultures the aristocrats
provided the senior officer corps or elite troops of the army. Commanders
of the armies and navies of Athens, for example, were elected from among
the aristocracy of landowners.
============
=BALLISTICS=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 200 Food, 50 Gold
Benefits: It increases the accuracy of missile and siege weapons.
Note: You must research Ballistics before you can upgrade to the Ballista
Tower. The use of missile weapons for war presented challenges that
hunting with the bow did not. Hunters stalked game and shot ideally at a
stationary target. War targets were often armored, partially shielded, or
moving. Effective use of the bow and other missile weapons required
tactics and training. Bowmen of low skill were taught to fire in barrages
at an area rather than at specific targets. Better- trained archers
learned to shoot for specific parts of the target, including the horses of
chariots or cavalry. Ballistics, the study of projectile flight, was
derived from the name of an ancient missile weapon, the Ballista.
=============
=ENGINEERING=
=============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 200 Food, 100 Wood
Benefits: The range for your siege weapons is increased by +2.
Note: You must research Engineering before you can upgrade to the
Juggernaught. Ancient engineers were able to build remarkable structures
even though the raw materials and tools with which they could work were
often limited. The Egyptian pyramids, for example, were built of multiton
stone blocks using only the fulcrum and lever, wedge, ramp, sledge, and
rollers. The pyramid builders of 2600 B.C. used tools made only of wood
and copper. Advances in engineering were slow and based primarily on
practical experience until advances in mathematics, especially from the
Greeks, led to the new experimentation and techniques.
==========
=NOBILITY=
==========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 175 Food, 120 Gold
Benefits: There is a hit point bonus of +15% for Cavalry units, Chariot,
Chariot Archer, Horse Archer, and Heavy Horse Archer.
Note: Within ancient tribal groups an early hierarchical structure
centered around the strongman, who probably took power in a physical
contest, led the group, and enjoyed special privileges. As populations
increased, the hierarchy expanded. Layers of nobility, a class of society
privileged due to fighting prowess or wealth, grew between the stronghold,
or king, and common people and slaves. The nobility served as
administrators and sub- commanders of the army. Examples of nobility were
the Persian satraps, who ruled provinces of the Persian Empire, and
Alexander the Great's Companion's, who commanded parts of his army and
formed the core of his heavy cavalry squadrons.
=========
=WRITING=
=========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 200 Food, 75 Gold
Benefits: You share exploration with allies.
Note: The advance of writing is benchmark technology often used to separate
those cultures that were civilized from those that were barbaric. The key
importance of writing is that it allowed information to be stored and
passed on easily, thereby accelerating the accumulation and spread of
knowledge. Writing is believed to have been invented between 4000 and
3000 B.C. in Sumeria. The first writing was in simple pictures called
pictograms that gradually evolved into symbols representing the picture.
Egyptian hieroglyphics first appeared between 3300 and 3100 B.C., and are
thought to have been inspired by cuneiform, the Sumerian symbolic writing.
Writing appeared in China after 1600 B.C.
===========
=Logistics=
===========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Government Center.
Cost: 180 Food, 100 Gold
Benefits: Barracks units only count as half a unit toward your population, so
you can essentially exceed the population limit by Training Barracks units.
For example, if your population limit is 50 and you build 20 normal units, you
can train 60 Barracks units eithout exceeding the population limits.
Note: The science of supplying armies on the march was called logistics. The
Assyrians were the first great army to employ logistics consistently, and this
allowed them to operate regularly at great distances from their home bases.
Armies on campaign needed food, forage for animals, equipment, armor, and
weapons. In most cases, food was acquired from the countryside through which
the army was moving. But if an army paused to beseige a town, it exhausted
local supplies quickly. Food and forage had to be brought in or the army was
forced to retire. The tools of logistics were supply wagons, pack animals,
depots, and troops to keep the roads open. The great conquerors of antiquity
mastered logistics.
----------------------------------
D. Temple
----------------------------------
============
=POLYTHEISM=
============
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 120 Gold
Benefits: Your priests move +40% faster.
Note: The first religions embraced a multitude of gods, each associated
with one aspect of life. There might have been a sun god, a moon god, a
god of the forest, a god of the river, and so on. The multitude of gods
was useful in understanding how the world worked and in directing petition
and prayer for specific help and relief. The existence of multipple gods
increased the power of priests because each god had special needs and
abilities that needed interpretation. The ancient Egyptians, for example,
worshipped around 2000 gods. Many of these were any local deities, but
others were held sacred throughout the country.
============
=MONOTHEISM=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 350 Gold
Benefits: Your priests can convert enemy priests and buildings (except for
Town Centers and Wonders.)
Note: The belief that there is only one God has evolved from the Persian
religion of Zoroastrianism down through Judaism to many of the more
popular religions of today. Whether monotheism is an advancement or not
is a subjective question. The widespread popularity over time and the
fervor of adherents indicates that monotheistic religions have more
successfully met the requirements of a religion than other beliefs that
have fallen aside.
===========
=MYSTICISM=
===========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 120 Gold
Benefit: Your Priests' hit points are doubled.
Note: Mysticism was a spiritual discipline that sought to achieve contact
with gods or other perceived realities through contemplation, trances, or
meditation. It was induced or enhanced by drugs in some cases, and it was
part of many ancient beliefs. For religions seeking to explain the great
unknown, the apparent ability to communicate through media unknown to the
average person was a powerful selling point. Because peopledream every
night, it was a logical step to believe that a few members of the group
could somehow make sense of dreams or see through the confusion to
communicate with another dimension.
=======
=JIHAD=
=======
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 120 Gold
Benefits: It increases the attack, speed, and hit points of villagers, but
decreases their gathering efficiency.
Note: The word jihad can mean a crusade or struggle, and comes from the
holy war of Islam directed against all that defied the word of God as
written in the Koran. The equivalent of jihad can occur in any society
brought to a peak of emotion by religious fervor or other means. The
value of the jihad to society is that the people caught up in the emotion
of the enterprise place their best interests, even their lives, second to
the purpose of the crusade. The jihad was especially effective at a most
desperate time when survival of the group hung in the balance.
============
=FANATICISM=
============
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 150 Gold
Benefits: Your Priests rejuvenate 50% faster after converting a unit.
Note: You must research Fanaticism before you can upgrade to Legion.
Religion evolved to provide a spiritual foundation and understanding to
life once humans became sufficiently intelligent to ponder the great
terrifying questions of our existence. A disturbing byproduct of the
spread of religion was fanaticism- the intense, unquestioning devotion to
the ideas and leadership of other humans. Fanatics were capable of ant
act, even at great risk to their lives, and were especially dangerous
enemies in war.
===========
=ASTROLOGY=
===========
Age: Bronze
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 150 Gold
Benefits: Your Priests convert enemy units 30% faster.
Note: Ancient observers of the stars and the heavens noted the correlation
between the sun, the seasons, and the success of crops. The study of
celestial events was an early step in the attempt to understand and
control the uncertainties of life and became an important part of many
early religions. The sun god, Ra, for example, was the most powerful of
the Egyptian gods. Priests who could determine the start and end of the
growing seasons, foretell the phases of the moon, and predict terrifying
eclipses greatly enhanced their power in society. The power of astrologers
increased when their subjects believed that the influence of the stars and
planets on human affairs could be divined from celestial positions and
aspects.
===========
=AFTERLIFE=
===========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market, and
Temple.
Cost: 275 Gold
Benefit: The range of your Priests is increased by +3.
Note: An important question that ancient religions attempted to address
was what happens when people die. Many religions held that there was an
afterlife, a place or existence that continued once a person's time on
earth ended. The promise of an attractive afterlife was a powerful
inducement for behavior that conformed to the goals of a particular
religion. Fervent believers in an afterlife might give up their lives to
serve their gods. Well- considered religions that offered a good return
for acceptance, including an attractive afterlife, grew more in power and
influence than those that did not. Christianity, for example, promised
everlasting life to everyone of faith, not just to the rich buried in great
tombs with servants and goods.
===========
=MARTYRDOM=
===========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market and Temple.
Cost: 600 Gold
Benefit: Lets you instantly convert an enemy unit by sacrificing one of your
Priests. You cannot use Martyrdom to convert an enemy Priest.
Note: To convert a unit using Martyrdom-
1. Click on a Priest. Right-click on the enemy unit you want.
2. After the Priest starts converting, press the DELETE key.
==========
=MEDICINE=
==========
Age: Iron
Prerequisites: You must have built the Town Center, Granary, Market and Temple.
Cost: 150 Gold
Benefit: Increases Priest healing rate.
Note: Through trial and error, humans learned that certain herbs and plant
products possessed midicinal qualities. The invention of writing made it
possible to record this knowledge and pass it on to following generations by a
method other than oral transmission. The science of medicine progressed
gradually, improving the quality and length of life.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
6. The Civilizations
----------------------------------
Ancient Chosen
----------------------------------
(2333 to 108 B.C.)
The Korean Peninsula was invaded by successive waves of Neolithic peoples,
but the culture of the area changed little until the use of bronze
implements began around the fifteenth century B.C. The Bronze Age brought
significant change to Korea. Recovered bronze spear points and arrowheads
indicate conquest and warfare were widespread. Towns protected by earthen
walls appeared. Funerary dolmens (rock shelters covered by enormous
capstones) indicate the rise of a stratified political and social
structure.
The Bronze Age in Korea lasted until the fourth century B.C. During the
Bronze Age, the first large political groupings of walled town states
arose. The most advanced of these was Ancient Chosen.
==========
=Location=
==========
The state of Ancient Chosen was located in the valleys of the Liao and
Taedong Rivers, in the southwestern part of what is now North Korea. It
occupied the Taedong River basin originally and spread its influence
gradually over a large region of the peninsula.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The Ancient CVhosen capital was Wanggom- song, now modern P'yongyang (the
capital of North Korea).
===================
=The Rise To Power=
===================
The power of Ancient Chosen grew from around 2333 B.C. to the end of the
fourth century B.C. The Ancient Chosen expanded possibly due to better
agriculture and population growth, better use of newly available iron
weapons, better leaders, or all of the above. When the Chinese kingdom of
Yen encountered the Ancient Chosen culture, they referred to them as being
arrogant and cruel, which suggests that the Ancient Chosen were formidable
warriors.
Despite the apparent strength of Ancient Chosen at the end of the fourth
century, they went into decline, nevertheless, following the arrival of
the Yen kingdom across the Liao River. The Chinese overlord in control of
the Liaotung Peninsula changed several times during the next century and
the political upheaval fostered an immigration of Chinese political,
military, and economic power into Ancient Chosen. One refugee, named
Wiman, built a power base among the other refugees and eventually drove
the Ancient Chosen king from his throne around 190 B.C.
The new kingdom, called Wiman Chosen, was a hybrid of Korean and Chinese
influences. Due to its superior military and economic strength, it
subjugated smaller Korean states to its north, east, and south. This
placed the Wiman Chosen between the now dominant Han Chinese and the
remaining Korean states in the south, allowing it to control trade between
the two regions. For three generations, the Wiman Chosen dominated north
central Korea.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The principal economic activity of Bronze and early Iron Age Korea was
agriculture. Rice was the main food crop of southern Korea. Raising
livestock (oxen, horses, pigs, and dogs) was more important in the north.
The basic farming unit was the village, made up of headmen, free peasants,
and a few slaves. Peasants and slaves worked mainly on communal farms.
There were some peasant- owned lands as well. The fre peasants were
heavily taxed and provided labor to the state. They were not permitted to
bear arms or serve in the armies.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The leaders of the early walled towns in Korea performed both political
and religious functions. The dignity and authority of these leaders was
enhanced by their acknowledged descent from a sun god. Political and
religious power split gradually into two separate functions as the
confederation grew in size. Rituals were thereafter directed by
specialists.
The primitive religion of prrehistoric Korea was based on animism and
shomanism. Primative priets were magicians who attempted to move the gods
by evocation. By the time of Ancient Chosen, priests prayed to the gods
humbly and earnestly for favor.
The ancient Koreans believed in the immortality of the soul and buried
their elite with elaborate ritual. They also practiced divination. The
two most important festivals of the year were tied to the growing season.
In the spring, they prayed for abundance, and in the fall, they celebrated
thanksgiving.
============
=Government=
============
Village communities were governed by a ruling elite that kept order,
allocated land and resources, collected taxes, and provided security. The
individual communities were held together in confederation by military and
economic means. Ancient Chosen took the name wang (king) for its leader
about the time that the nearby Chinese kingdom of Yen employed the same
title.
==========
=Military=
==========
Little is known about the armies of Ancient Chosen except that they were
standing armies and not levies of peasants. Evidence of horses and
chariots is not widespread, suggesting that only the richest warriors
could afford these enhancements. Bronze spear points and arrowheads from
the early days of the Ancient Chosen suggest an army of spearmen and
archers. Later finds include bronze daggers and spears of distinctive
styles, iron daggers, and iron spear points. The daggers suggest that
these short weapons were used by infantry for close combat in addition to
spears.
The prowess of Ancient Chosen armies can be inferred from their expansion
and dominance of the region and the comments about Ancient Chosen recorded
by their Chinese neighbors.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Unified China under Han Dynasty was not pleased by Wiman Chosen's growth
and control of eastward trade, and was concerned about a possible alliance
between Wiman Chosen and the Hsiung-nu (barbarians then expanding out of
Mongolia into Manchuria). The aggressive Emperor Wu of Han launched an
attack against the Wiman Chosen when diplomacy failed to bring them to
heel. The Wiman Chosen were a tough adversary but were weakened by
defections and collaborations among the nobility. The Wiman Chosen
capital fell in 108 B.C., and the kingdom came to an end.
========
=Legacy=
========
The legacy of the Ancient Chosen was a Korean culture that remained
separate from that of China, despite the proximity and influence of that
enormous neighbor.
----------------------------------
Assyrian
----------------------------------
(1800 to 600 B.C.)
The only thing that I can say to introduce the Assyrians is the fact that
they were very powerful and fierce. They have legendary barbarity, as well.
==========
=Location=
==========
Assyria was located in northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) along the Tigris
River. It was settled after Sumer to the south but was dominated by the
Sumerians both culturally and politically during its early history.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The capital of Assyria was Ashur for most of its existence, but moved to
other sites when kings built new palaces. Other important cities and
capitals in the Assyrian homeland were Nineveh, Arbela, Khorsabad, and
Nimrud.
===============
=Rise to Power=
===============
Around 2000 B.C., Assyria was invaded by Semitic barbarians called the
Armorites. By 1800 B.C. an Armorite king of the Assyrians had established
control over most of northern Mesopotamia. Their power was short- lived
in this period, however, due first to the rise of Babylonia under Hammurabi
and then the rise of the Mitanni in modern Syria.
The period 1363 to 1000 B.C. was the Middle Assyrian Empire. Several
strong kings reasserted Assyrian independence and then began encroaching
on neighboring empires. The Assyrians avoided destruction during the
catastrophe of 1200 B.C., perhaps they were already embracing the new
military tactics and weapons that the older kingdoms were not. In the
political vacuum of the ancient dark age, the Arryrians prospered. By
1076 B.C. Tiglathpileser I had reached the Mediterranean to the west.
The New Assyrian Empire, 1000 to 600 B.C. was the peak of their conquests.
Their empire stretched from the head of the Persian Gulf, around the
Fertile Crescent through Damascus, Phoenicia, Palestine, and into Egypt as
far south as Thebes. Their northwestern border was the Taurus Mountains
of modern Turkey. Other than the vestiges of what had once been the Minoan
(Crete), Mycenean (Greece), and Hittite (Turkey) cultures, all areas of
pre- catastrophe civilization in the West were ruled by Assyria.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The Assyrian economy was based on agriculture and herding, but the Assyrians
also benefited by being situated astride some important trade routes.
They are not remembered as traders in their own right, perhaps only tax
collectors on traders went through. During the New Empire period, they
profited from the taxes and tribute they collected from their various
provinces and vassal states, including even Egypt for a few years.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Assyrian religion was heavily influenced by that of its Mesopotamian
predecessors, mainly Sumeria. The chief god of the Assyrians was Ashur,
from whom both their culture and capital take their names. Their temples
were large zaggurats built of mud bricks, like their neighbors to the south.
The principal activity of the rich was hunting from chariots, appropriate
for such a war- like culture. Despite their fearsome reputation, the
Assyrians embraced civilization. They wrote using cuneiform and decorated
their cities leberally with reliefs, painted stonework, and sculpture.
============
=Government=
============
The king was the head administrator of government, supported by local
provincial governors. The palace was the site of government. Advisors
consulted the omens before important decisions were made.
Provinces and vassal cities were required to pay taxes and tribute in the
form of food, goods, gold, labor, military supplies, and soldiers for the
army. An extensive network of roads and grain depots were built during
the New Empire to speed communication and armies moving to trouble spots.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
The Assyrians built on a large and lavish scale, using mostly mud bricks,
but also stone that was more readily available than it was further south.
Several New Empire kings built extensive palaces and decorated them with
the booty of war and the tribute of vassal states. Palaces were also
decorated with painted stone reliefs, extensive gardens, and man0 made
streams. A common decorative fixture was the LAMASSU- a winged hybrid
creature, part bull and part man.
==========
=Military=
==========
The first Assyrian armies were peasant spearmen. Following a series of
military reforms around 800 B.C., however, they employed a standing army
of conscripts and professionals. This army was better armed, armored,
and supplied than most of its enemies, giving it important advantages.
The New Empire armies benefited from cheap iron used for improved swords
and armor.
The Assyrians were among the first to adopt the concept of the integrated
army made up of an infantry core for shock, supported by light missile
troops and a mobile wing of chariots, camelry, and cavalry. The army was
capable of fighting on the plains where chariots and then cavalry were
critical, as well as in rough terrain where horses and chariots had little
use. They campaigned regularly to the north and east against barbarians
that posed a threat. The elite of the army for many years were the
charioteers, followed by the cavalry when chariots bacame obsolete.
The Assyrians were accomplished at the art of capturing walled cities.
Their historical records recount numerous city assaults and the brutality
that followed. Inhabitants were either killed or sent to another corner
of the empire as slaves.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
The brutal policies of subjugation and exorbitant demands for tribute and
taxes made the Assyrians unpopular masters. Despite the ferocity of their
reprisals, vassal states contnually revolted given an opportunity. Weaker
kings were unable to hold the empire together in the face of internal and
external pressure. In 612 B.C., the capital at Nineveh fell to a
coalition of Babylonians and Medes. The Babylonians were in revolt
(Babylon had been sacked in 648 B.C.) and the Medes (from modern western
Iran) were seeking retribution for past Assyrian invasions of their lands.
The last Assyrian army was defeated soon thereafter by the same coalition
and the Assyrians as a separate culture disappeared from the world's stage.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Assyrians are remembered from their boastful inscriptions and biblical
references as ferocious warriors. Whether they were significantly more
brutal than was normal for the time is unclear.
For several centuries, however, they were the greatest military power in
the civilized world. Their armies were innovative, and they appear to
have been among the first to use large bodies of cavalry effectively.
They certainly influenced the Persian armies that followed them.
They are not remembered for any significant advances in technology,
philosophy, the arts, or science. Their cities have been piles of rubble
for thousands of years now and have not given up fabulous treasures that
can compare with those of Egypt and Greece.
----------------------------------
Babylonian
----------------------------------
(1900 to 539 B.C.)
The Mesopotamian city- state of Babylon twice expanded to become an
important world empire before being absorbed by Persia. Its two great
expansions were sufficiently remarkable to earn it a place in history
beside the two other great Mesopotamian cultures, the Sumerians and
Assyrians. Between its Old and New Empire periods, Babylonia devolved
back into a small but rich city- state that was captured occasionally by
its neighbors.
The predominate inhabitants of Babylon changed several times over its
existence, although the culture remained relatively constant and distinct.
The Amorites, the Kassites, and the Chaldeans were all Babylonians at
least once.
==========
=Location=
==========
The Babylonians took their name from their capital and only major city,
Babylon, located on the Euphrates River west of Sumeria and south of
Assyria. It was well- placed on the river for agriculture and for trade,
but had no natural defenses. A strong leader and strong army were needed
to defend it. Determined attackers were able to sack the city on numerous
occasions during its history when such a leader or army was not available.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
Babylonia was founded as a kingdom around 1900 B.C. by Semitic Amorite
barbarians who overran much of Canaan, Akkad, and Sumer one hundred years
earlier. In 1792 B.C. the small kingdom was inherited by Hammurabi who
ruled until 1750. During those 42 years, Hammurabi extended the kingdom
to ecompass all of Sumer to the east and Akkad to the north. He also
defeated the barbarian Gutians in the Zagros Mountains to the northeast
who had previously sacked Akkad. He also pushed back the Elamites (east
of Sumer) and the Assyrians (north of Akkad). This was the first great
Babylonian empire.
Following Hammurabi's death, the empire fell into gradual decline. In
1595 B.C. Hittites drove down the Euphrates and sacked Babylon, plundering
the city and deposing the Amorite kings. This ended the first empire.
Within 20 yearsm new invaders called the Kassites had settled around
Babylon, establishing a new dynasty. The Kassites were neither Semetic
nor Indo- European, and probably came from east of the Zagros Mountains.
The Kassites ruled Babylon for several centuries before being coquered by
the Assyrians in 1158 B.C. Descendants of the Amorites had restored
control by 1027 B.C.
During the Eighth and Seventh Centuries, the Chaldeans, new Semitic
immigrants to the area, and the Assyrians fought for control of Babylon.
The Assyrians claimed sovereignty for a while but sacked the city once as
punishment for rebellion.
A Chaldean sheik seized the Babylonian throne and then destroyed the
Assyrians with the help of the Medes. The Chaldean Dynasty and the New
Empire lasted from 626 to 539 B.C. The revived Babylonians overran most
of the Assyrian Empire from the Persian Gulf to the boarders of Egypt.
In 597 B.C. Nebuchadrezzar II captured Jerusalem and forced its king and
nobles into exile. When the puppet ruler of Jerusalem rebelled, the city
was taken again in 586 B.C. after an eighteen- month siege. This time
much of the population was deported to Babylon and their descendants
remained there until released by the Persians. This period of Hebrew
history was called the Babylonian Captivity.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The basic economy of Babylonia was typical for Mesopotamia at the time.
Irrigation and dikes controlled the waters of the Euphrates River,
providing bountiful harvests of grain, vegetables, and fruit in normal
years. These foods were supplemented by herds of sheep and some cattle.
The Babylonians traded food surpluses for raw materials like copper, gold,
and wood, which they used to manufacture weapons, household objects,
jewelry, and other items that could be traded.
The fabulous wealth of the New Empire (626 to 539 B.C.) derived from
controlling the east- west and north- south trade, primarliy thanks to
control of Phoenicia, Syria, and the other Levant ports. This area had
been the nexus of civilized trade for over a thousand years, and, for that
reason, the prize for every empire and pseudo- empire of the age. Not
long after the end of the Babylonian New Empire, the shift of much trade
to the central and western Mediterranean reduced the importance of this
area.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Babylonians worshipped many gods, but chief was of these was Murduk,
god of the city of Babylon. Marduk was represented by a dragon in the
artwork that decorated the city. Festivals were held throughout the year
in honor of specific gods to assure their favor. The New Year festival
for Marduk assured the fertility in their fields.
For a brief time the New Empire was among the richest in the world. The
city reflected that wealth in its extensive and highly decorated monuments.
The interior of the Temple of Marduk was reportedly converted with gold.
At the center of a great and rich trading empire, the people of Babylon
had access to exotic goods and manufactured items throughout the world.
============
=Government=
============
The New Empire government of Babylon adopted many of the Assyrian imperial
practices, which probably contributed to its own short life. The king had
overall administrative power, in addition to his central role in important
religious rituals. Governors ruled important provinces on behalf of the
king, but most of these were Babylonians appointed from outside the local
area. Local puppets were often left in place to rule local kingdoms, but
this occasionally led to revolt, as in the case of Jerusalem.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
The city of Babylon was destroyed and rebuilt several times, usually on
top of the old ruins. Buildings and walls were constructed of mud bricks,
first sun- baked, and then baked with fire.
The Babylon of the New Empire period was one of the wealthiest cities in
the world. The Chaldean kings rebuilt the city and established its
reputation for splendor for all time. The Euphrates River passed through
the middle of the city and was directed around its four sides through a
moat. Inside the moat were double walls. The Greek historian Herodotus
claimed that the outer wall was so wide that a chariot with four horses
could drive along it. There were several city gates, each named after an
important god. The Ishtur gate opened on the sacred Processional Way that
led to the ziggurat and Temple of Marduk. The gate, sacred way, and
temples were decorated with bright blue glazed tiles depicting real and
fantasy animals in relief.
The two sides of the city were connected by a bridge. The east side
contained the palace and temples, including many ziggaurats. The greatest
of these, built by Nebuchanezzar II, had seven levels with a small temple
to Marduk at the top. This zaggurat was probably the Tower of Babel
mentioned in the Bible. Nebuchanezzar also built the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon, a multistoried ziggurat decorated with trees and plants to
resemble a mountain. According to legend, the gardens were built to
remind one of his wives of her mountain homeland. The Hangine Gardens
were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
==========
=Military=
==========
Little is known of the Babylonian military from either the Old or New
Empires, although Hammurabi's army of the Old Empire may have made
important use of chariots when these were first coming into use.
The New Empire armies probably copied much from the Assyrians. This would
suggest that Babylonians made extensive use of cavaly, especially mounted
bowmen. Foot troops probably used iron weapons and wore iron helmets and
some chain mail armor. The Babylonians and their less advanced allies,
the Medes, took three leavily fortified Assyrian cities in short
succession, suggesting they had mastered the Assyrian techniques for
storming cities.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Following seven turbulent years that saw three new kings in succession and
two rebellions, in 556 B.C. the last of the Chaldean Dynasty, Nabonidus,
took the throne of Babylon. He worshipped the moon god, Sin, but
neglected local affairs and important religious rituals associated with
other gods. For several years he did not perform the important New Year
festival in the name of Marduk, the deity of Babylon, that renewed the
fertility of the land. He also introduced reforms that gave effective
control of temple finances to himself.
The unrest and dissatisfaction these events fostered came at a time when a
new power to the east, Persia, had been gradually expanding and spreading
its influence. Under Cyrus I, the Persians had first overthrown their
masters. the Medes, and then expanded to the northwest into Anatolia.
During these conquests, Cyrus demonstrated a high degree of tolerance and
clemency that encouraged others not to resist.
When Cyrus turned against the Babylonians, he was welcomed by a large
segment of the population, including the influential priests. Cyrus first
defeated Nabonidus in battle at Opis. Nabonidus fled to Babylon but the
city surrendered without a fight on October 12, 539 B.C., and the last
Babylonian king went into captivity. The Jews and other peoples held in
Babylonian captivity were freed. The entire New Empire of Babylon became
part of the Persian Empire and Babylonia ceased to exist as a separate
entity and culture.
========
=Legacy=
========
The first Babylonian empire is best known for the Law Code of King
Hammurabi, circa 1750 B.C., purportedly handed down by the god Shamah.
The laws themselves are preserved on a 90- inch stone stele that was
uncovered in Susa in modern times. It has been carted off by the Elamites
following their sack of Babylon in 1158 B.C.
The New Empire of Babylon was noted especially for its wealth and grandeur.
This was reported in Old Testament accounts from the period of the Hebrew
Babylonian Captivity and by the Greek historian Herodotus who visited the
city. The most impressive features of the city were its walls, the Ishtar
Gate, the ziggurat and temple to Marduk, the Processional Way, and Hanging
Gardens.
----------------------------------
Carthaginian
----------------------------------
(800 to 146 B.C.)
During the beginning of the last millennium B.C., the Phoenicians began
establishing colonies around the Mediterranean to compete with the Greeks for
trade. The most important Phoenician colony was Carthage. It was founded
aroung 800 B.C. near modern Tunis in North Africa. Although the home cities in
Phoenicia were repeatedly conquered and subjugated, the colony of Carthage
prospered and expanded to become one of the greatest powers of the Western
Mediterranean.
True to their Phoenician heritage, the Carthaginians became great seafarers,
traders, and colonizers. There is some evidence that they circumnavigated
Africa and very questionable evidence that they reached the Americas. They
capitalized on the trade of Iberian silver and Brtish tin. Carthaginian
settlements spread along the North African coast, into western Sicily, Sardinia,
Corsica, Minorca, and much of Spain. In the third century, they bagan a titanic
clash with the rising power of Rome.
The Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage were fought to decide which power would
dominate the Western Mediterranean. The first war (264-241 B.C.) was fought
over Sicily. The Romans were not a naval power but built fleets from scratch
based on the plans of a captured ship. Their first two fleets defeated
Carthaginian fleets but were in turn lost to storms. Their third fleet
completed the defeat of the Carthaginians at sea. The Carthaginians were
forced out of Sicily, and lost Corsica and Sardinia as well.
The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) was a temproary improvement of Carthaginian
fortunes and a near victory. The war was triggered by the great general
Hannibal who marched out of modern Spain, across modern France, and into modern
Italy across the Alps with a large army, including war elephants. In a
brilliant campaign of 16 years, Hannibal defeated the Romans at every turn,
although he lacked the critical strength to take Rome itself and end the war.
Unable to defeat Hannibal's army in Italy, the Roman attacked the Carthaginians
first in Spain and then in North Africa. Hannibal was called out of the Italy
to defend the homeland. At the decisive battle at Zama, the Romans destroyed
the Carthaginian army.
Carthage was forced to give up its overseas possessions, pay a large indemnity,
reduce its fleet, and become subservient to Rome. By 150 B.C., the city had
recovered and was seen again as a threat. When the Carthaginians attacked
Numidia, a Roman ally, the Romans responded by attacking Carthage once more.
This time the city was destroyed utterly and its power broken forever. A
symbolic furrow was plowed through the city and sown with salt to show that the
city would not be allowed to revive.
----------------------------------
Egyptian
----------------------------------
(5000 to 30 B.C)
The Egyptian culture was one of the oldest and most long- lived of
antiquity. It benefited from an abundance of good farmland, nearby
mineral resources, and a good strategic position. Despite occasional
invasion and internal strife, it endured as a distinctive culture for
nearly 5000 years.
==========
=Location=
==========
Ancient Egypt occupied almost the same area as modern Egypt does today.
Its civilization stayed very close to the Nile River. Because it was
almost entirely surrounded by desert, enemies could approach only from the
west and southeast along the Mediterranean coast, from the south down the
river valley, or directly over the sea.
=========
=Capital=
=========
During its long history, the capital of Egypt was located at various times
in Heirakonpolis, Memphis, Herakleopolis, Thebes, It- towy, Akhetaten,
Tanis, Sais, and Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. Greek overlords, the
Ptolemaic dynasty, ruled from here until 30 B.C.
===============
=Rise of Power=
===============
Agriculture was brought to the Nile Valley prior to 5000 B.C. by immigrants
from the highlands of Palestine. By 3000 B.C., acriculture had spread
southward up the Nile. Flooding was under control and irrigation put much
more land under cultivation. The adundance of food led to large
populations and increased wealth for the area.
The early history of Egypt was a period of consolidation. Two separate
kingdoms rose and vied for power along the river. Around 3100 B.C., King
Menes of Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt and established the First
Dynasty.
Between 3100 B.C. and 1300 B.C., the Egyptians struggled with Nubians and
Kushites up the Nile to the south. Forts and garrisons held the frontier
but during periods of weakness these were destroyed. Around 1300 B.C. the
Nubians suffered an important defeat and were neutralized as a thread for
about 500 years.
Egypt's Dynasty XIII, 1783 to 1640 B.C., was very weak. During this period
the frontier forts to the south were lost and Semitic immigrants from the
east moved into the delta. These immigrants, called the Hyskos, took
control of the entire delta region in 1674 B.C. The Hyskos eventually
adopted Egyptian culture and language, and introduced the horse and chariot.
The New Kingdom was founded by Dynasty XVIII in 1552 B.C., following a
successful war to drive out the Hyskos. This dynasty was the great age of
the warrior pharaohs and Egyptian empire. The prevent further incursions
from the east, the Egyptians attempted to establish control over the
kingdoms in the Levant and Palestine. During this period they vied for
control with the Hittites and Mitanni, as well as the local kings. The
Egyptians were the dominant power in the Near East until around 1200 B.C.
when the entire area was overrun by barbarians.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Egypt was an agricultural society dependent on the water and soil brought
down each year by the Nile from the highlands of Ethiopia. Extensive
irrigation made it possible to farm fields not adjacent to the river but
still close enough to be inundated each year and receive new sediments.
The principalcrops were wheat and barley that were used to make bread and
beer, the staples of their diet. They also grew fruits and vegetables and
raised cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, geese, ducks, and pigeons. The
abundance of food meant a large population and allowed the export of food.
The Nile passes through several hilly regions and some of these were rich
in minerals. The nearby Sinai Peninsula also held mineral riches. Unlike
some other ancient cultures, the Egyptians had relatively easy access to
copper and gold, further increasing their wealth. The hills were sources
of granite, limestone, and sandstone that they used for construction.
The Egyptians were one of the first cultures to build boats and they
eventually took these out into the Mediterranean. Egypt became an
important Mediterranean part of call as trade increased because it was it
was a rich market for both buying and selling. Principal Egyptian exports
were grain, food, linen, perfume, and manufactured goods. Important
imports were timber, slaves, silver, horses, pottery, and wine.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Egyptian religion had over 2000 gods, though only a few of these were
predominant. The important gods had a home town where their principal
temple was located. One of the most important was Ra, the sun god,
understandably critical to an agricultural society.
They believed in a life after death. They referred to this as the "next
world," and thought it was somewhere to the west. They developed elaborate
burials and embalming to preserve the body for this second life. Goods
and servants were buried with royalty and nobles to serve them.
============
=Government=
============
The ancient Egyptians believed their kings were descended from the sun god,
Ra. They believed they could communicate with the gods through the king.
The king had absolute power but was required to perform several important
duties. He was responsible for the harvest and irrigation of crops. He
directed the government, trade, and foreign policy. He enforced the laws
and led the army. During the New Kingdom, the pharoahs usually commanded
their armies in the field.
Reporting directly to the pharaoh were two viziers, one for Lower Egypt
based in Memphis, and one for Upper Egypt based in Thebes. Below the
viziers were rural districts controlled by governors and towns controlled
by mayors. These officials carried out the pharaoh's orders and collected
taxes. Scribes kept the records.
The Egyptians had no coinage until they were conquered by Alexander the
Great. All workers paid taxes by turning over a percentage of their
production, whether it was fish, grain, trade goods, pottery, or other
goods. In addition, each household had to provide a laborer for several
weeks each year for mining or public works. The pyramids were probably
built by laborers putting in their annual service.
==========
=Military=
==========
The Egyptians were among the first cultures to possess the necessary
population and wealth to build standing armies of professional soldiers.
Prior to the Hyksos introduced the horse and chariot, which were quickly
adopted by the Egyptians in turn. The dominance of the Near East by New
Kingdom Egypt, from 1600 to 1200 B.C., was primarily due to the large and
powerful chariot armies sent into battle there. These chariots carried a
driver and composite bow archer and were the elite of the army.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Egypt survived the catastrophe by 1200 B.C. by fighting off several major
attempted invasions. They went into decline, nevertheless, following the
death of Rameses III who was the last of the great warrior pharaohs. Their
decline was partly due to trade coming to a virtual halt for several
generations. A series of weak kings and civil wars over succession to the
throne also eroded their strength.
In 728 B.C., Egypt was conquered by Nubia and held for 60 years. In 665
B.C., the Assyrians completed a conquest of Egypt by sacking Thebes. A
new native Egyptian dynasty arouse in 664 B.C., eventually throwing out
the Nubians and asserting their independence from Assyria by stopping
payment of tribute. In 525 B.C., Egypt was conquered again from the east,
this time by Combryses II of Persia. When the Persians faltered in their
war with the Greeks, the Egyptians reclaimed their independence briefly
before succombing once more to Persian invasion by 332 B.C. Within a year,
however, the Persians themselves were gone, destroyed by Alexander the
Great who was accepted by the Egyptians as their pharaoh.
Greeks ruled Egypt as overlords from the time of Alexander the Great until
30 B.C. when Cleopatra VII, th elast of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and Mark
Antony were defeated by Octavian. Egypt thereafter became part of the
Roman Empire.
========
=Legacy=
========
The ancient Egyptians are remembered for the quality and quanity of
cultural objects that have survived to the present, including the Pyramids,
the Sphinx, the treasures of Tutankhamen's tomb, the other monuments and
temples of the Nile Valley, hieroglyphics, mummies, and papyrus. They are
also rememberdd in the West because of their prominent role in the history
of ancient Israel as recounted in the Old Testament.
----------------------------------
Greek
----------------------------------
(2100 to 146 B.C.)
The ancient culture with the broadest and most long- lasting impact on the
future of Western civilization was that of Greece. The Greeks dominated
the known world militarily for only a brief period, but their cultural
influence spread farther and lasted much longer. Rediscovered in the West
in large part after the Medieval Dark Age, it was an important foundation
for the growth of modern western civilization.
The Greeks never formed a unified kingdom, but existed as city- states,
sometimes working together and sometimes at war with each other. At the
zenith of Greek military power under Alexander the Great, they were a
collection of city- states in cooperation.
==========
=Location=
==========
Greek culture was centered on the mainland of modern Greece spread to the
islands of the Aegean, into the lower Balkans, across the Aegean to the
western coast of Anatolia, to Sicily, to parts of North Africa, and to
southern France (Marseilles was founded as a Greek colony). The campaigns
of Alexander greatly expanded the culture, establishing it in central
Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia to the borders
of India. In the early second century B.C., it was possible to travel from
the south of modern France to India using only Greek to communicate.
=========
=Capital=
=========
As a collection of city- states, there are usually no capital of the Greek
culture. During the Bronze Age, Mycenea was one of the strongest and
richest citadels. During the Archaic and Classical periods, Athens (the
cultural center) and Sparta (the strongest military power) vied for
prominence. During the brief Greek apogee under Philip and Alexander, the
de facto capital was the Macedonian city of Pydna. Following the death of
Alexander, is empire was eventually divided into three parts. The
Antigonid Dynasty ruled Greece and Macedonia from Pydna. The Selucids
ruled Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria, the Levant, and Persia from a newly
built built city, Selucia, on the Tigris River. The Ptolemies ruled Egypt
from another newly built city, Alexandria.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
The history of ancient Greek culture is divided into several periods: the
Bronze Age (2100 to 1200 B.C.), the Dark Age (1200 to 800 B.C.), the
Archaic Period (800 to 500 B.C.), the Classical Age (500 to 336 B.C.), and
the Hellenistic Period (336 to 30 B.C.).
The Bronze Age saw the rise of the first cities on the mainland. These
were predominately fortified palaces on hilltops. This culture was named
after its greatest citadel, Mycenea. Excavation of Mycenea by Heinrich
Schlieman in the 1870s revealed fabulous burial tomb treasures. The
Mycenean culture disappeared around 1200 B.C. following attacks by
barbarians. The city of troy was also sacked around this time.
The catastrophe of 1200 B.C. (described earlier) devastated the economy of
Greece and ushered in a Dark Age that lasted about 400 years. Gradually
civilization reappeared at old sites, such as Athens, and at new sites such
as Sparta and Corinth.
By 800 B.C., the city- states of the mainland were economic and military
powers. During the next 300 years, the Archaic Period, the Greeks expanded
by establishing colonies across the Aegean in Anatoloa (Ionia) and along
the central and western Mediterranean coasts. They vied with the
Phoenicians for colony sites and trade. The Archaic Period came to an end
when the rising eastern power of Persia came into conflict with the Greeks
over the Anatolian coast.
The period of 500 to 336 B.C. was the Classical Age of Greece, dominated
first by wars with Persia and then the Peloponnesian civil war between
Athens and Sparta. Although this period is defined by military events, it
was also a time of many important cultural advances.
The Hellenistic Period takes its name from the Greek word Hellene (meaning
Greek). This period began with the installation of Alexander as king of
Macedon following the assassination of his father. In 13 years of military
campaigns, Alexander conquered most of the known world and spread the Greek
culture behind his armies. After Alexander's premature death in 323 B.C.,
his empire was eventually divided into three parts. Although these parts
fought each other and gradually shrank due to rebellion and attack, the
culture of the civilized world remained primarily Greek.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Grains and bread were staples of the Greek diet but they could be grown
only in a few fertile areas. Most of Greece was hilly and not suitable for
large farms on the scale of Egypt or Mesopotamia. Farmers grew fruits and
vegeatables where they could clear fields. On the hillsides they grew
olives for food and oil. Further up the hills they grew grapes for wine.
Horses were raised mainly in Thessaly and Macedonia where there were open
grasslands. Elsewhere they were kept only by the rich. Cattle were kept
mainly for milk, pigs and poultry for meat, and sheep for leather and meat.
Seafood supplemented diets in coastal areas.
The Greeks were renowned for pottery that was both functional and beautiful.
Decorations on pottery revealed much about the ancient Greek culture to
historians. By carefully studying the changing styles of pottery, his-
torians were able to date it and then use chards to help date excavations
and other objects found with it.
The Greeks took advantage of their georgraphic position between the Aegean
and Mediterranean Seas to engage in trade. City-states traded among them-
selves and overseas. Thessaly and Macedonia exported horses, for example,
while Athens exported honey and silver. Important Greek exports were oil,
wine, pottery, sculpture, metalwork, cloth, and books. Their most
important import was grain from the Black Sea region, Egypt, Italy, Sicily,
and Cyprus. Other important imports were timber, wool, linen, copper,
dyes, silk, spices and ivory.
Coins were first used in Lydia, a small kingdom in northwestern Anatolia,
at the end of the seventh century B.C. The concept quickly spread to the
Ionian Greek colonies and then throughout the Greek culture. The most
popular coins were made of silver. City-states celebrated their
independence by minting their own coins showing a representative symbol
(the owl for Athens and the Pegasus for Corinth, for example).
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Greeks believed in many gods who were responsible for the living and
the dead. Their gods were very human-like - they got married, had
children, felt love and jealousy, and sought revenge. Legends of the gods
taught what pleased and what angered them. The principal gods were the
twelve Olympians thought to live on Mount Olympus. They were lead by Zeus,
ruler of the heavens. Temples were built to provide earthly homes for
individual gods. The Parthenon in Anthens, for example, was dedicated to
the goddess Athene. Inside was a statue of Athene made of gold and ivory
that stood over forty feet high. Offerings of jewelry, pottery, and
sculpture were given to the temple. Animals and birds were given to the
priests for sacrifice. Festivals were held to please individual gods and
persuade them to be munificient.
Before an important project was started, an oracle orsoothsayer was con-
sulted to learn the will of the gods. The most famous of these was the
Oracle of Delphi, where a prientess called the Pythia would voice the will
of Apollo. Priests would interpret the Pythia's often vague replies. In
one famous example, Croesus, the king of Lydia, asked whether he should
invade Persia or not. He was told such an invasion would destroy a great
kingdom. He assumed the Persians were the kingdom in questions, but in
fact Lydia was conquered by Persia.
Women in Greece lead generally sheltered lives and had little active role
in society. They took their social status from their husbands. The
emphasis was on having sons and raising them to be citizens and soldiers.
Boys were given an extensive education in reading, writing, arithmetic,
music, poetry, dancing, and athletics. Both mental and physical develop-
ment was stressed.
Music, poetry, and theater were an important part of the Greek culture.
All Greek cities and colonies built a theater or amphitheater.
Society consisted of two main groups - free people and slaves. Slaves
were owned by free people and were employed as servants and laborers.
Slaves were purchased in international slave markets or were prisoners of
war. Free men in Athens were either citizens, born to Athenian parents,
or metics, born outside of Athens. Both groups were required to serve in
the army, but only citizens could become government officials or jurors.
============
=Government=
============
An independent city-state was called a polis. Each consisted of the city
and surrounding countryside. The largest of these was Athens, with about
one thousand square miles of territory.
During the Archasic Period, most city-states were governed by a group of
rich landowners. These were the aristoi, meaning best people, or the
aristocrats. Resentment of aristocratic rule lead to riots when traders
and craftsmen began to prosper but had no say in government. Beginning
around 650 B.C., individuals called tyrants were allowed to rule to keep
the peace. Government was improved under an enlightened tyrant but the
system was susceptible to corruption. In 508 B.C. Athens introduced a new
system called democracy, in which all citizens took part in their
government. Women, foreigners, and slaves had no say.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
Greek homes were simple structures of mud and brick but their public
buildings, expecially temples, were beautiful structures of stone. A
distinctive feature of Greek architecture was the use of columns supporting
horizontal lintels.
==========
=Military=
==========
During the Bronze Age, the armies of the individual palaces were mainly
chariots manned by the richest citizens. These armies were destroyed by
barbarians around 1200 B.C., sending Greece into its Dark Age.
During the archaic Age, the aristocrats at First dominated the army as
cavalry because they alone could afford horses. Foot soldiers came from
the poorer classes that could not afford horses or better weapons and armor.
Eventually trade and wealth increased, while the cost fell for new weapons
made of iron. The cavalry was replaced in importance by a new army of
well-equipped foot soldiers called hoplites.
Each city had a different system for raising its army. In Athens, all free
men aged 20 to 50 could be called upon in time of war. Each of the ten
Athenian tribes had to provide enough troops for one regiment and one
commander, called a strategoi.
Hoplites carried on their left arm a large round shield that extended from
neck to thigh. The shield was decorated with a symbol from their family,
tribe or city. They wore bronze helmets with a horsehair crest on top to
make the soldier look taller and more powerful. For body protection they
wore a cuirass of bronze, or leather and bronze, from shoulder to chest,
plus bronze greaves on the front of the lower legs. Their weapons were a
long spear and a short iron sword.
Hoplites fought in the phalanx, a square of men usually eight ranks deep.
It was important that the phalanx move and fight together. Flutes and
other musical instruments helped from keep in step. The terrifying hand-
to-hand clash of opposing phalanxes called for extreme courage and dis-
cipline.
The Greeks distained the use of cavalry and skirmish troops using bows,
slings, or javelins/ As long as they fought amoung themselves or were
lucky, this was not a problem. Extensive contact with other military
systems during the Persian Wars eventually convinced them that the phalanx
needed to be supported. The ultimate Greek army employed heavy and light
cavalry, light infantry, and skirmishers in support of its heavy hoplite
infantry.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Following the death of Alexander the Great, the city-state of mainland
Greece attempted to rebel against Macedonian rule but were defeated in the
Lamian War of 323-322 B.C. During the next 40 years, the War of the
Diadochi contested the division of Alexander's empire. It was eventually
divided into three kingdoms (Greece, Egypt, and Persia). These three
kingdoms made up the Hellenistic world.
The Antigonid Dynasty ruled Greece and Macadon but lost control of their
colonies in southern Italy to the Romans in 275 B.C. The Greeks supported
Carthaginians against Rome during the Punic Wars and paid for that once the
Carthaginians were destroyed. Three Macedonian Wars against Rome resulted
in the end of the Antigonid Dynasty in 168 B.C. Following an unsuccessful
Macedonian revolt, the city-states of Greece became provinces of the Roman
Empire in 146 B.C.
The Selucid Dynasty attempted to rule what had been the enormous Persian
Empire. This proved impossible and parts began rebelling very quickly.
By 180 B.C. the Roman general Pompey seized the Selucid kingdom and
incorporated it into the Roman Empire.
The Ptolemaic Dynasty consisted only of Egypt. Because of its relative
seclusion and wealth, it lasted the longest of the three Hellenistic
kingdoms. Queen Cleopatra VII and her husband Marc Antony of Rome were
defeated in battle by Octavian at Actium in 32 B.C. The last Ptolemy
committed suicide and Egypt became part of the Roman Empire in 30 B.C.
========
=Legacy=
========
Greek language and culture spread behind Alexander the Great's armies. The
Romans in turn adoped much of the Greek culture, preserving it and
spreading it to new parts of the world. After the fall of Rome, Greek
culture was preserved and expanded upon within the Byzatine Empire and in
the Arab world, and passed on to the West following the Renaissance.
The legacy of ancient Greece has had an impact on many diciplines,
including medicine (the scientific approach to medicine; the Hippocractic
Oath taken by doctors), mathematics (Euclidean geometry; the Pythagorean
theorem), literature (the Iliad and the Odyssey), theater, poetry,
sculpture, language (the Bible's new Testament was written in Greek;
thousands of words passed on to modern languages), architecture (the White
House; the British Museum), history (herodutus is regarded as the father
of history), politics (democracy), philosophy (all philosophical studies
since Plato have been referred to by one writer as mere footnotes to his
work), science (the scientific method; laws of nature; the classification
of plants and animals; the heliocentric theory), athletics (the Olympic
Games), and trade (Greeks established trade routes to India and the Silk
Road to Asia).
----------------------------------
Hittite
----------------------------------
(2000 to 1200 B.C.)
The extent of the Hittite civilization and empire was rediscovered only
within the last hundred years. The Hittites had been mentioned several
times in the Olds Testament, but were considered only bit players.
Excavations of sites in Turkey and Syria, plus the dicipherment of
inscriptions and recovered clay tables, revealed that the Hittites were a
world power at one time, rivals of the Egyptians and conquerors of Babylon.
==========
=Location=
==========
The Hittite empire was centered in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). At its
maximum, it extended from the Aegean coast of Anatolia, east to the
Euphrates River, southeastward into Syria as far as Damascus, and south
along the eastern Mediterranean coast of the Levant. Hittite King Mursuli
sacked Babylon around 1600 B.C. but did not attempt to hold the region.
Historians do not know where the Hittites originated or how they got to
Asia Minor. Studies of their language indicate that they were probably
of European origin and migrated south through the Balkans or past the
eastern end of the Black Seam sometime around 2000 B.C.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The greatest Hittite capital was at Hattusas, outside the modern Turkish
town of Bogazkoy in north central Turkey, inland from the Black Sea. This
city has previously been the capital of the Hatti, a local kingdom that was
conquered by the Hittites around 1900 B.C. The name Hittite derives from
the name of the Hatti. The capital was moved to Hattusas around 1500 B.C.
and the city was noted for its massive walls and placement in rugged
terrain.
===============
=Rise to Power=
===============
Around 2000 B.C. when the Hittites entered Asis Minor, the region was
populated by small yet sophisticated, kingdoms each no larger than a
thousand people. The Hittites began expanding their kingdom around 1900
B.C., using both force and diplomacy to bring rival city-states and
kingdoms in Asia Minor under control. The Hittite kingdom went through
several periods of expansion and contraction until around 1400 B.C.
Beginning then, several strong kings in succession expanded the Hittite
empire across all of Asia Minor, into Syria, and beyond the Euphrates
River. The push into Syria brought the Hittites into conflict with the
Egyptians who also sought to dominate this area.
For several generations the Hittites and Egyptians remained diplomatic and
military rivals. The great battle of Kadesh was fought between these
superpowers around 1300 BC and was commemorated in Egypt by a great
pictoral relief, an epic poem, and an official written record. After
several decades of uneasy stalemate, the two powers signed a peace treaty
and mutual defense pact, perhaps in response to growing Assyrian power to
the east. A copy of the treaty was inscribed on the walls of an Egyptian
temple at Karnak where it can be read today. Duplicate copies of this
treaty on clay and silver tablets were also found by archaeologists in both
countries.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The Hittite imperial boundaries encompassed a diverse geography, including
expansive grassy plains, mountains, sea coast, river valleys, and desert.
Their economy was based mainly on grain and sheep raising, but they also
possessed large deposits of silver, copper and lead ore. They were adept
metalworkers and among the earliest makers of iron, although during their
time iron was more valuable than gold and not available in any quantity.
They were an important provider of copper and bronze to Mesopotamia. When
they attempted to control the trade to and from that area by extending
their influence into Syria, the Levant, and upper Euphrates River region,
they came into conflict with the Egyptians.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Great Temple at Hattusas, below the hill on which the palace stood, was
the religious center of the empire. The Hittite king was also the high
priest of the kingdom and split his time between government, religious
duties, and conquest. The king's dual role was useful in unifying the
culture of the kingdom among its diverse peoples. Each year the king/high
priest traveled extensively to preside at festivals. These personal
appearances brought in rich donations and helped stablize the realm.
Hittite religion was polytheistic. It was tolerant of other beliefs and
flexible about incorporating new gods already worshipped by newly conquered
peoples. Their supreme deity, Teshub, the Storm God, was borrowed.
Hittite culture discovered so far pales in comparison to that of their
contemporaries in Babylon and Egypt. We have only a few bronze and stone
statuettes, seal impressions, and rock carvings to judge their artistic
ability. One enduring symbol from their artwork is the double-headed eagle
that was adopted as a national symbol by both Austria and Russia.
They used cuneiform for writing as well as their own heiroglyphics. They
patterned their laws on those of Babylon, though they tempered their
severity.
============
=Government=
============
Some researchers believe that the early Hittite government was the first
constututional monarchy. The pankus, probably an assembly of noblemen,
monitored the king's activites in relation to their laws and probably had
the power to remove and install kings as needed. Because they had no law
of succession until circa 1500 BC, the death of a king prior to then often
triggered a struggle for power. The authority of the pankus waned as the
empire began to grow and after a law of succession was adopted.
During the empire years, the Hittite ruler was called the Great King. Each
year the rulers of vassal states brought gifts to Hattusas and pledged
their loyalty. In return for military protection and favorable trading
status, vassal states contributed money and troops to the empire.
===========
=Diplomacy=
===========
Extensive records and correspondence preserved on clay tablets have
revealed much detail about Hittite diplomacy and politics. Decipherment of
specific tablets connected the Hittites was two of the most famous events
in antquity - the sacking of the legendary city of Troy from the Iliad and
the death of the Egyptian boy Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Diplomatic letters to a
city on the east coast of Asia Minor helped establish the site of the city
of Troy.
In 1353 BC the greatest Hittite king Suppiluliuma I, was besieging the city
of Carchemish that controlled an important ford and trade route over the
Euphrates River. During the siege he received a letter from Ankhesenamun,
the newly widowed wife of Tutankhamen. The queen of Egypt asked that
Suppiluliuma send one of his sons to be her new husband and king of Egypt.
The stage was set for a very important alliance by marriage. Suppiluliuma
took too long to investigate and negotiate, however. An Egyptian
courtier-priest seized the widow and the throne, and peace between the two
great powers was not arranged until 70 years later.
==========
=Military=
==========
Hittite foot troops made extensive use of the powerful recurved bow and
bronze tipped arrows. Surviving artwork depicts Hittite soldiers as stocky
and bearded, wearing distinctive shoes with curled-up toes. For close
combat they used bronze daggers, lances, spears, sickle-shaped swords, and
battle-axes shaped like human hands. Soldiers carried bronze rectangular
shields and wore bronze conical helmets with ear flaps and a long extension
down the back that protected the neck. They were apparently very competent
at conducting sieges and assaulting cities that resisted.
They were possibly the first to adopt the horse for pulling light
two-wheeled chariots and made these vehicles a mainstay of their field
armies. Egyptian engravings of the Battle of Kadesh show three men in the
Hittite chariots using spears, but other evidence suggests that they
carried only a driver and archer. Perhaps the chariot archer replaced the
chariot javelin thrower. Hittite chariot armies were feared by most of
their contemporaries.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
Following the establishment of peace with Egypt around 1280 BC, there
ensued 80 years of relative peace and prosperity for much of the civilized
world. During the great catastrophe circa 1200 BC, however, the Hittite
empire was suddenly destroyed. The fortifications at Hattusas were thrown
down and the city burned. Stone sculptures were smashed apart. It is not
known by whom, but it is possible that the Hittite armies fell off in
ability during decades of relative peace while the growing riches of the
empire made it an ever more attractive target, probably to barbarians from
the west and north. The Kaskans, barbarians from the Russian Steppes,
penetrated the empire around 1300 BC and plundered Hattusas. They may have
returned to finish the job for good.
========
=Legacy=
========
The legacy of the Hitties is limited because they were lost as a culture
until rediscovered only recently. They are remembered in the Bible as
relatively small but sturdy warriors, but for little else. A small
remembrance of the Hittites is their pointed shoes with turned-up toes seen
in many carvings and reliefs that survive. This style of shoe is still seen
occasionally in Turkey as ceremonial dress.
----------------------------------
Macedonian
----------------------------------
(323- 146 B.C.)
The Macedonians were a Greek people that populated the south central Balkan
Peninsula. In 338 B.C., King Philip II or Macedonia conquered the Greek city-
states. Philip's son, Alexander the Great, conquered nearly every civilization
from Egypt to India, building a huge empire in which culture and art flourished.
After Alexander's death in 323 B.C., his empire went through many years of
turmoil as his senior generals and family members vied for control. By 301
B.C.,
Alexander's mother, wife, son, and half brother had all been murdered.
Following the battle of Ipsus that year in Asia Minor, the empire was divided
into four kingdoms--Macedonia, Thrace, Egypt, and Persia. Although Egypt and
Persia initially claimed Syria, Persia annexed it by 281 B.C. In 277 B.C.,
Antigonos Gonatas (one of Alexander's generals) became king of the Greek Kingdom
of Macedonia and established the ruling Antigonid dynasty, which reigned until
its conquest by the Romans. Together with Syria and Egypt, Macedonia became
one of the three great kingdoms of the Hellenistic world. Macedonia's attempt
to expand its territories met opposition from Pyrrhus and the confederation of
the city-states of central and southern Greece. (Athens bribed its was out of
the confederation and became a neutral state, but never regained its past
prominence.)
During the 3rd century B.C., Pyrrus came to the aid of the Greek colonies in
southern Italy and Sicily that were fighting the Romans in Italy. The early
victories by Pyrrhus were so costly and had so little affect that the Greeks
were forced to withfraw by 275 B.C. During the Second Punic War the Greeks
actively aided Hannibal against the Romans. In this same period, the Greeks
fought the Romans, who had invaded Illyria to put an end to piracy in the
Adriatic.
By 202 B.C., the kingdom of Macedonia was struggling to maintain control of the
city-states of the Greek Peninsula, which were joining together in rebellion.
A small Roman army came to their aid and, by 196 B.C., defeated the Macedonian
army. Macedonia's power revived and the Romans invaded again in 172 B.C.,
defeated the kingdom of Macedonia at the battle of Pydna in 168 B.C., and
removed the Antigonids from power. The Romans attempted to leave the other
Greek city-states on their own, but the kingdom of Macedonia took up army again.
The Romans invaded in 149 B.C. and made the kingdom of Macedonia a Roman
province. Roman patience with the other Greek city-states were exhausted by
unrest in Corinth in 147 B.C., so they beseiged and sacked that city in 146 B.C.
As a lesson to the other city-states, the citizens of Corinth were sold into
slavery, the buildings were torn down, and anything of value was shipped home
to Rome.
----------------------------------
Minoan
----------------------------------
(2200 to 1200 B.C.)
Primitive agricultural communities sprang up around the Aegean Sea by 6000
B.C., but this area lagged behind Egypt and Mesopotamia in advancing toward
civilization. For reasons not yet understood, the island- based Minoan
culture made a sudden leap forward around 2000 B.C. and became the first
civilization of Europe. The sudden take- off may have been stimulated by
trading contact with Mesopotamia through Levant ports of through contact
with Egypt. One theory suggests that refugees from Egypt during a time of
turmoil may have emigrated to Crete and brought technology and ideas with
them.
==========
=Location=
==========
The Minoan culture was centered on the island of Crete, but extended to
other nearby islands, including Thera and Rhodes. They may have colonized
the Anatolian coast at Miletus and elsewhere. By the extension of trade,
they influenced the developing Greek culture on the mainland and other
Aegean islands.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The palace at Knossos on Crete was the capital of the Minoan civilization.
It remained a hidden ruin until rediscovered and revealed in the twentieth
century.
===============
=Rise of Power=
===============
The Minoans were an economic power, not a military one. They preserved
their economic advantages by apparently controlling ship traffic in the
Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. For approximately 800 years, they dominated
trade in these regions. They were so secure on their islands, protected by
their ships, that they never fortified their cities.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Crete was rich in natural resources, including farmland, water, supplies,
timber, copper, building stone, and access to the sea. The Minoans were
prosperous thanks to agriculture and fishing, but grew rich primarily on
trade.
The Minoans grew grain, fruit, herbs, and olives. Grain, wine, olive oil,
timber, ceramics, and manufactured goods were theri principal exorts. They
imported tin, silver, gold, linen, luxury items, and raw materials for
manufacturing.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The high standard of living, the relative abundance of food and other good
things, and the security of their island homes gave the Minoans an outlook
on life substantially different from other contemporary cultures. Perhaps
because life was good, worship and communication with gods was not
stressed. They built no great temples. Their religion was dominated by
female goddesses who protected the household, the crops, and the animals.
The Minoans made regular offerings of food, statues, and other objects.
The Minoans may have practiced human sacrifice at one time. There is a
famous tale of a minotaur, half man, half bull, who lived in a labyrinth
beneath the palace. Young people were sacrificed to the minotaur each
year. The high priest or king may have worn a bull mask for the sacrifice,
creating the illusion of half man, half animal.
They believed in an afterlife and buried the dead with food and possessions
that would be of use. Two sacred symbols were bull horns and the double-
sided axe.
The Minoans developed a hieroglyphic writing system around 2000 B.C.,
perhaps following trading contract with the Egyptians. By 1900 B.C., they
had developed a new script now called Linear A. Athird script called
Linear B came into use as Knossus around 1450 B.C. To date, onlu Linear B
has been deciphered, but most of the surviving examples are accounting
records that reveal little about their history and culture.
Surviving artwork shows the people of Crete engaging in the sport of bull-
jumping. The significance of this activity is not known. Young men and
women are depicted approaching a charging bull, grabing it by the horns,
and somersaulting over the animal's back to land behind it.
The everyday life of the Minoans was pleasant and relatively free of war
and unrest, as witnessed by the richness and exuberance of their frescos,
wall paintings, and decorative objects.
============
=Government=
============
The great palace at Knossus was also a giant warehouse. The distribution
of food and other goods may have been organized from here.
The only king whose name survives was Minos. It may be that the word,
Minos, referred to the office, not the man, like the Egyptian term, pharaoh.
==========
=Military=
==========
The Minoans had little apparent need for an army, relying instead on their
navy to keep any enemies from approaching. Minoan ships were galleys,
manned by rowers on both sides. Narrow galleys were fast and maneuverable,
allowing them to overtake slower sailing ships of the day. They did not
employ rams at this early date, according to the evidence of surviving
artwork.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
The idyllic life of the Minoans was disrupted by natural disasters. The
archaelogical remains indicate that the palace of Knossus was destroyed by
an earthquake in 1700 B.C. and rebuilt. The nearby island of Thera was
partially sunk by a volcanic eruption and the resulting tidal wave probably
struck Crete, causing extensive damage. The Minoan culture suffered from
recurrent earthquakes and the Thera explosion, but the extent of the damage
and its effect on their civilization is debated.
There are two main scenarios for the end of the Minoan culture. According
to the oldest theory, mainland Greeks invaded around 1450 B.C., essentially
destroying the culture, although it lingered for 700 years more until
mainland Greece itself was overrun. In the second scenario, based on more
recent research, the Minoans suffered through disaster and a resulting
loosening of their control of sea trade and movement, but did not succomb
to the mainland Greeks. The Minoans were instead destroyed along with the
Myceneans on the mainland by barbarians as part of the catastrophe of 1200
B.C. Evidence suggests that by 1180 B.C., the Cretans had moved from
coastal towns and palaces to defensive city sites high in the hills.
Attacks and the threat of further attacks were the probable cause of this
shift.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Minoans are remembered today for their fabulous palace and frescoes at
Knossos, now partially restored. It may have been the largest and most
beautiful palace of the late Bronze Age. They are also remembered for
their mysterious writings, some of which continue to defy linguists.
----------------------------------
Palmyran
----------------------------------
(64- 273 A.D.)
Following the collapse of the Seleucid empire in 64 B.C., a no-man's land
existed in the Middle East between the Roman empire to the west and the Parthian
empire to the east. The people of Tadmor, a desert city located at an oasis on
the east-west trade route, established a desert police force that protected the
trade between Damascus and the Euphrates River. They grew rich on this trade
and their city became known to the Romans as Palmyra. Around 17 A.D. Palmyra
became part of Roman Syria while retaining much independence and its desert
army. In 129, Palmyra was granted the status of a free city and later was made
a Roman colony.
After the Persians defeated and captured the Roman emperor Valerian in 260, a
Palmtran nobleman was made Dux Orientis and given Roman support. The Palmyran
army defeated the Persians and reconquered Mesopotamia. Following the
suspicious murder of the Dux Orientis in 267, his wife Zenobia took the throne
and claimed the title of Augustus for her infant son. The Romans were
suspicious of these charges but an army they sent east was defeated by Zenobia,
who was a competent war leader. The Palmyrans then occupied Egypt and pushed
the Goths back out of Asia Minor. By this time the Palmyran empire stretched
from Asia Minor to Mesopotamia to Egypt. Its army consisted mainly of archers,
horse archers, and heavy cavalry.
The Romans could not ignore the revolt of the Palmyrans and the loss of the
grain supplies from Egypt. One army was dispatched to Egypt to reestablish
control there. The Emperor Aurelius led a second army into Syria and defeated
the Palmyrans twice at Antioch and Emesa. Roman light cavalry bested the
Palmyran cataphracts. Palmyra was beseiged and surrendered. Queen Zenobia was
caught trying to flee but was allowed to retire into exile after being paraded
through the streets of Rome. Palmyra revolted once more after the emperor
departed, massacring the Roman garrison. The legions returned quickly and
sacked the city. It continued to exist for many more centuries but never
returned to prominence.
----------------------------------
Persian
----------------------------------
(700 to 332 B.C.)
The Persians were originally one of the several Aryan tribes that migrated
into modern Iran from the plains of southern Russia around 1400 B.C. They
settled the southwest corner of the Iranian plateau, on the north shore of
the Persian Gulf, on lands vacated by the Elamites who had been conquered
and enslaved by the Assyrians. The Persians were separated from the great
civilizations of Mesopotamia by the Zagros Mountains.
At its peak, the Persian Empire stretched from the Indus River across the
Near East to the eastern Mediterranean coast, south into Egypt along the
Nile to Sudan, across Anatolia, and into Thrace and Macedonia.
=========
=Capital=
=========
During the history of the Persian Empire, five cities served as the royal
capital. The first was Pasargadae, built by Cyrus to commemorate his
victory over the Medes. It was remote and impractical as an administrative
capital. Babylon was rebuilt by Cyrus as a royal capital for his use when
affairs brought him to Mesoptamia. Darius moved the empire'sadministration
to Susa, the old Elamite capital, perhaps for efficiency. It was well-
located at the hub of a road and water transport network.
The extreme summer heat of Susa drove the Persian court first to the higher
altitudes of Ecbatana, the old Median capital in the Zagros Mountains. In
520 B.C., Darius began building the greatest of the Persian capitals at
Persepolis. Construction of Persepolis was interrupted for long periods
and was not completed nearly 200 years later when the city was sacked and
burned to the ground by Alexander.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
The Persians settled on relatively poor and remote lands where they were
little troubled by first the Elamites to their west, then the Assyrians who
destroyed the Elamites around 640 B.C., and then the Medes (to their
northZ) nd resurgent Babylonians who conquered Assyria in 609 B.C.
Throughout this period, the various petty Persian kings were vassals of the
richer and more advanced Medes. Cyrus II became king of the small Persian
kingdom of Anshan in 559 B.C. Within ten years he had subjugated the
eastern part of Persia and established a reputation among even his rivals
as a natural leader to whom men gravitated. When the Median king attempted
to reassert control over Persia around 550 B.C., the Median army revolted
on the battlefield, handing over their king to Cyrus and surrendering their
own capital at Ecbatana. The Median Empire, stretching across northern
Mesopotamia into Anatolia, underwent a nearby bloodless change of
management. Cyrus II was now Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian
Empire.
Cyrus then conquered in quick succession the Lydians of Asia Minor (led the
King Croesus of legendary wealth who had invented coins), Greek colonies on
the Aegean coast, the Parthians, and the Hyrcanians to the north. In 541
B.C., he marched into the steppes of Central Asia, establishing a fortified
border along the Jaxartes River. In 540 B.C., his 19th year as king, Cyrus
turned on his onetime ally, Babylon. After one battle, the army and people
of Babylon surrendered their king, city, and empire that stetched from
southern Mesopotamia to Phoenicia. Before Cyrus could expand into Egypt or
toward Greece, however, he was killed fighting nomadic tribesmen who were
threatening his eastern provinces.
The first successors to Cyrus conquered Egypt, gathered new provinces in
North Africa, and extended the empire into India to the Indus River. They
turned next against the Greeks who were commercial rivals of Persian
Phoenicia. In 513 B.C., a huge floating bridge was built across the
Bosphorus Strait, linking Asia and Europe. The Persian army took Thrace
and Macedonia to cut off grain to the Greeks, but could not subjugate the
elusive Scythians. This was the peak of the Persian Empire. The stage was
set for the mighty struggle with the city- states of Greece that lasted 50
years.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The early Persian economy was based on herding because the land was so poor
for agriculture. The Persians attributed their toughness to the meager
lifestyle to which they has been acclimated for generations.
The sudden acquisition of the Median Empire, Lydia, Babylon, Egypt, and
gold- rich areas in India made Persia an economic powerhouse. It controlled
the rich agricultural areas of Mesopotamia, the grasslands of Anatolia, the
trade routes in every direction, and rich deposits of metals and other
resources. Great King Darius instituted many economic innovations and
reforms: systematized taxation; standardized weights, measures, and monetary
units (the first successful widespreaduse of coins); improvedtransportation
routes, including the 1600- mile Royal Road from Susa to Sardis and an early
Suez Canal; royal trading ships; promotion of agriculture; a banking system;
and promotion of international trade.
======================
=Religion And Culture=
======================
The Persian kings and nobility were Zaroastrians, a religion named after its
founder, Zarathustra, called Zoroaster in Greek. Zarathrustra conceived his
religion around 600 B.C., and it had great influence later on Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
Zoroastrianism was monotheistic, centering on one supreme god who created
everything material and spiritual. The powers of good and evil worked on
humans who had to choose constantly between the two. An eternal afterlife
of pleasure or torment were the possible results of god's judgement after
death. These concepts of monotheism, good versus evil, free will, and
posthumous reward or punishment were a departure from the polytheistic
religions prominent in the area previously. These concepts greatly influenced
religions that followed.
============
=Government=
============
The head of the Persian government was the king whose word was low. His
authority was extended by a bureaucracy led by Persian nobles, scribes who
kept the records, a treasury that collected taxes and funded building projects
and armies, and a system of roads, couriers, and signal stations that
facilitated mail and trade. In the early years when the army was predomin-
ately Persian, it capably preserved the internal and external peace.
Much of the empire was divided into provinces called satrapies, ruled by a
satrap. All of Egypt was usually a single satrapy, for example. The satraps
were normally Persians or Medes to help ensure their loyalty. They ruled
and lived like minor kings in their own palaces. Some satraps became strong
enough to threaten the king. Strong kings kept their satraps in check by
holding close the reins of the armies and the treasury.
==========
=Military=
==========
All Persian men to the age of 50 years were obligated to serve in the armies
of the Persian Empire. Greek historians report that boys were trained in
riding, archery, hand- to- hand combat, and mounted combat. At the age of 20
they were eligible for military service.
The army consisted mainly of four types of units: spearmen for infantry shock
combat, foot archers to act as skirmishers, light cavalry mainly with bows,
and heavy cavalry that wore some armor and carried spears. In the early
years of the empire, the predominantly Persian army was highly motivated and
responsive on the battlefield, making it a dangerous foe.
The elite of the Persian army were the Ten Thousand Immortals, so called
because the unit was always kept at a full strength of 10,000 men. The loss
of any man to death or incapacitation was immediately made good by promotion
from another unit. One thousand of the Immortals were the king's personal
bodyguards.
In its later years, the ratio of Persians to provincial levies declined.
The hardened army of desciplined and well- trained Persians was replaced by
a mixture of formations, weapons, and methods. These troops lacked the
discipline of the Persians and proved difficult to maneuver and employ on
the battlefield.
==================
=Decline And Fall=
==================
The Persian Empire peaked aroung 500 B.C., although the seeds of its decline
were planted earlier. A recurring problem was court intrigue and its ill-
defined rules for succession. The death of a king often triggered a scramble
for the throne that exhausted the treasury, eroded morale, and loosened the
governmental hold on the provinces. Wasteful spending led to inflation and
unpopular tax increases. Disputes in the provinces, usually over taxes, were
often settled brutally, further increasing dissatisfaction. Five of the six
kings that followed Xerxes' death in 464 B.C. were weak leaders that held the
empire together only by increasing harsh measures.
The Greeks and Persians had been on a collision course for many years when
conflict began between the two cultures in 499 B.C. Despite what appeared to
be overwhelming strength and economic resources, the Persians failed to
defeat the Greeks in 50 years of war on land and sea. The Greeks, though
victorious, were not capable immediately of carrying the war into Persia.
Following the Greco- Persian Wars, the weak Persian kings concentrated on
maintaining their ever more tenuous hold on the empire. Recurring revolts
in outlying provinces, especially Parthia, Lydia, and Egypt, weakened the
economy and military. Before the empire could dissolve from within, it was
dispatched by Alexander the Great in an amazingly short period of time.
Alexander invaded in 334 B.C., captured Lydia by 333, took Egypt in 332, and
became king of Persia in 331.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Persians are best remembered in the West as the antagonist in the dramatic
Greco- Persian Wars, from which so much history has been preserved. The most
famous events from this period are the bridging of the Hellespont, land battles
at Marathon, Thermopylae, and Platea, the great sea battle at Salamis, and
the sacking of Athens. Most of this history is biased, however, because we
have mainly the Greek accounts to study.
The Persians are also remembered in several Biblical accounts for the toler-
ance of their later courts. Cyrus the Great is remembered especially for
freeing the Hebrews held prisoner in Babylon when he took that city and
allowing them to return to Israel.
The greatest legacy of the Persians was the aggression and mixture of Asia
and African cultures. Most of the advances of civilization to that point
had come from these areas. This cultural gift was preserved by the Persians
and passed on first to the Greeks and then to Europe and the West.
----------------------------------
Phoenician
----------------------------------
(1200 to 146 B.C.)
There was never a country or empire called "Phoenicia." The historical
name of this culture was coined by the Greeks and was not their name. The
name Phoenicia derives from the Greek word Phoenix, meaning in this case a
dark red or purple- brown color. The phoenicians were renowned for their
cloth dyes, especially an expensive purple one popular with royalty.
Because Greek language and writings were preserved in abundance, versus
Phoenician texts which are very scant, the name stuck.
==========
=Location=
==========
The Phoenicians appeared on the historical scene around 1200 B.C., a time
when most of the civilized world was being overrun by barbarians. In the
political and military void of a 400- year ancient dark age, this small
group of traders were able to prosper and gradually expand their influence.
Instead of acquiring a physical empire of contiguous lands, they gradually
built, instead, a large trading and colonial network from their home base
of a few independent cities along the coast of what is now Lebanon.
They were the remnants of the Canaanites, a Semitic people who occupied
city- states in this region prior to 1200 B.C. The most important of their
early cities were Tyre, Sidon, Berytus (modern Beirut), and Byblos. These
coastal cities were hemmed in on the land side by the Lebanon Mountains.
The only onvious opportunity for expansion and economic gain was by sea.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
Prior to the catastrophe of 1200 B.C., Canaanite traders had been
restricted to perhaps the Levantine coast, Egypt, and the southern coast of
Anatolia. The Minoans on Crete blocked entrance into the Aegean,
controlled all trade further west. The Canaanite coastal towns were
usually controlled by Egypt, and one of their principal businesses was
providing wood (the cedars of Lebanon) to the Nile region.
The Minoan civilization was destroyed in 1200 B.C., removing most of the
constraints on Mediterranean and Aegean Sea trading bu others. The
Phoenicians were the most aggressive of those attempting to fill the void.
Their cities were well- positioned for this enterprise by being located
literally in the center of the known world. The Aegean, Mesopotamia, and
Egypt were all roughly equidistant to the west, south, and east. For any
of the three regions to trade with another, the easiest trade route was
through the Phoenician cities.
By the ninth century B.C., the ancient dark ages was nearing an end. The
Phoenicians were growing rich as traders and this attracted enemies,
principally the Assyrians. In the face of repeated assaults or heavy
tribute payments at the least, the Tyrians adopted the strategy of
establishing colonies to the west. Colonies were removed from the grasp
of the Assyrians and also helped with the exploitation of metals and trade
in the western Mediterranean.
The most important Phoenician colony was at Carthage, established around
700 B.C. Other important colonies were in Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and
Spain. Over the next 500 years, Carthage grew rapidly in size and power.
Most of its wealth came from the ore mines of Spain. Carthage fought for
control of the western Mediterranean with the Greeks first and then the
Romans.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The early Phoenician economy was built on timber sales, wood working, and
cloth dyeing. Dyes ranging in color from a pink to a dark purple were
made from the rotting gland of a sea snail. Gradually the Phoenician city-
states became centers of maritime trade and manufacturing. Having limited
natural resources, they imported raw materials and fashioned them into more
valuable objects that could be shipped profitably, such as jewelry,
metalwork, furniture, and housewares. They borrowed techniques and styles
from all corners of the world that they touched as traders.
While exploring the western Mediterranean, they either discovered large
metal deposits in Spain or took them from Greeks who may have been there
first. By fortifying sites on Sicily and North Africa, they effectively
denied other traders access to the riches of Spain, the west Africa coast
(gold, exotic woods, and slaves), and Britain (tin, which was used to make
bronze.)
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
Phoenician religion was polytheistic and their other gods required
continual sacrifices to forestall disaster, especially Boal, the god of
storms. No significant Phoenician temple has yet been discovered, but most
of their ancient cities lie buried under modern cities. The Bible recounts
human sacriices by the Phoenicians but this practice was eventually
stopped. It carried on in Carthage, however. A cemetary outside of
Carthage was found to obtain thousands of urns of infants sacrificed to the
gods. (BURN BABY BURN!!) Noble families of Carthage got into the habit
of substituting animals and slaves for their children, but following a
military disaster in 320 B.C., 500 infants from the best families were
sacrificed. (HA HA!!)
Early Phoenician culture was influenced to a large degree by their Semitic
origins and Semitic neighbors. Their later culture was heavily influenced
by the Greeks. There are few objects known today that are clearly
Phoenician.
One of their lasting copntributions to civilization was a proto- alphabet
where each letter represented a consonant. This cut down significantly the
number of symbols required to make written words. When written, the vowels
were implied. Later advances by the Greeks added symbols for vowel sounds,
creating the first true alphabet.
==========
=Military=
==========
When the Phoenicians began competing with the Greeks for trade and
colonies, the contest led to construction of the first ships built
expressly for war. These were rowed galleys armed with a ram at the front
and marines for boarding. Sea warfare grew in importance during the fifth
century when Persia fought the Greek city- states for control of the
Aegean, western Anatolia, and eastern Mediterranean. By this time the
Phoenician cities were under control of Persia. Phoenician ships made up
the bulk of the Persian fleet that was defeated at Salamis in 480 B.C.
Phoenician galleys of the time were larger and less maneuverable than their
Greek counterparts, and this was a fatal shortcoming in restricted waters.
The Carthaginian navy dominated the early Punic Wars with Rome, but the
Romans captured a Carthaginian ship that went aground and built duplicates.
The Romans eventually cleared the Mediterranean of Carthaginian ships and
carried the wars to a successful conclusion in North Africa.
The Carthiginians had the only significant land army that can be considered
Phoenician in derivation. Their greatest general was Hannibal, who invaded
Italy from Spain, passing the Alps in winter with his army and elephants.
Most of his troops were Celts enlisted from Spain and Gaul. One strength
of his army was cavalry from North Africa that was usually able to drive
off the Roman cavalry, surround the Roman infantry, and help annihilate it.
The Romans defeated Hannibal eventually, not by fighting him, but by
attacking where he wasn't- Spain first, and then North Africa.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
The Phoenician home cities were periodically under the thumb of one eastern
conqueror after another from roughly 900 to 332 B.C. They were never
strong enough to hold off the powerful armies from Assyria, then Babylon,
and then Persia, although they were often rich enough to buy them off. In
332 B.C., Alexander the Great took them one by one, ending their on- again,
off- again independence. They became Greek cities and lost their identity
as Phoenician for good.
The Carthaginians lasted another 200 years. Having held off Greek
expansion past Sicily successfully for many centuries, they met their match
in the more populous and better organized Romans. At the end of the Punic
Wars in 146 B.C., the people of Carthage were carried off to slavery and
the city was destroyed.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Phoenician tradition as traders carried on in Lebanon down through the
years to modern times, regardless of who was in political control.
Phoenicians are also recalled as great mariners. They are believed to have
been the first civilized culture to reach Britain and the Azores. There
is evidence that Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa on commission by the
Egyptians around 600 B.C. There is some questionable evidence that they
reached the New World.
Their most important contribution was their revised alphabet, which they
spread around the known world. When further refined and spread by the
Greeks and Romans, it became the alphabet used today by most western
cultures.
----------------------------------
Roman
----------------------------------
(750- 476 A.D.)
The Romans began as a small tribe living in modern Italy but expanded to create
the largest and longest lasting empire of antiquity. They were a hardy and
industrious people who survived in a violent world mainly by creating a powerful
army. The Roman Army went through many charges over the thousand years of its
existence and failed eventually to defend the empire, but in general it was
consistently superior to opponents from all corners of the world. The empire
expanded on the strength of the ruthless and aggressive Roman legions, and
consolidated through benign administration and public works on an unprecedented
scale.
The people who became the Romans migrated from northern Europe and settled on
the plains south of the Tiber River. They established towns on the seven hills
near the river. These towns eventually merged to form their capital city of
Rome. As first a republic and then an empire, Rome began expanding after 400
B.C. and eventually controlled the entire Mediterranean coastline, Europe west
of the Rhine and south of the Danube, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and
modern England.
The Roman Empire in the West ceased to exist in 476 A.D., although it was gone
for practical purposes many decades earlier. The proximate cause of the
collapse was invasion across the Rhine and Danube Rivers by Germanic settlers.
Many underlying causes for the collapse have been suggested. The adoption of
Christianity and preoccupation with the afterlife instead of practical matters
on Earth was one. The increasing inability to administer the large empire was
another. Taxes were required after the second century to support the large army
and this caused unrest and revolt in the provinces. The slave economy went
into decline because slaves became sparse when conquests ceased after the second
century. The empire failed to industrialize because of its independence of
slavery. Plague took a heavy toll on the population and trade declined
thereafter. The army declined in quality because mercenaries had to replace
citizens that avoided service as soldiers and officers. Repeated turmoil and
civil war over succession to the throne sapped the strength of the legions and
brought barbarian contingents into the army.
The legacy of the Romans were broad and far-reaching. It includes the
transmission of much ancient culture to the modern age, especially Greek art and
literature. The Romans began urbanization of Europe. In addition to Rome, they
founded Paris, London, Lyons, Bordeaux, Cologne, Toledo, and Milan. Modern
railway gauges trace back to wagon ruts in Roman mines. The Romans excelled at
engineering and construction, and first used the arch, the dome, and concrete.
A few of their famous roads, bridges, and aqueducts are still in use. The Latin
language influenced the later development of the French, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese, and Romanian languages. Roman law was codified and updated by the
Byzantines and is the basis of law for most European countries today.
----------------------------------
Shang
----------------------------------
(1800 to 1000 B.C.)
China has been a mystery to much of the world since word of its existence
first spread west in ancient times. It was isolated first by geography, and
then by a conscious policy on the part of its rulers. It was thought to be
one of the oldest civilizations but modern archaeology and research has
revealed that the civilizations on Crete, in Egypt, and in Mesopotamia predate
it significantly.
China encompassed a number of fertile river valleys, especially the Huang Ho
(Yellow) and Yangtze, that were ideal sites for agriculture. New technologies
spread gradually from the west and the first Chinese farming communities
appeared along these rivers around 5000 B.C. Although all ancient civiliz-
ations eventually shared a common threshold of agricultural and technological
knowledge, the relative isolation of China allowed it to form a unique
culture. The Chinese distinguished their civilization by being first to
achieve many important advancements.
=========
=Capital=
=========
The first recognized dynasty of Chinese kings is that of the Shang, who were
located in the north along the Huang Ho River. Their principal city was
An-yang, southwest of modern Beijing. The Chou dynasty overthrew a decadent
Shang king and ruled for 400 years from the city of Hao in the northwest
province of Shensi. When barbarians from the north sacked Hao, the Chou
capital was moved east to Loyang. Although the Chou dynasty soon lost
control of most of China, it continued to rule a state of varying size from
its central position until 221 B.C. In 221 B.C., China was unified by the
Ch'in, from whom the country gets its modern name. A new capital was built
at Hsien-Yang, also southwest of modern Beijing.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
The Shang dynasty ruled over a conglomeration of northwestern Chinese feudal
territories from 1766 to 1027 B.C. The remainder of the counrty was made up
of territories that the Shang could not reach or influence. In 1027 B.C.,
a particularly decadent Shang ruler lost control of the kingdom and succombed
to either revolt or the deliberate attack from the more western province of
Chou. A Chou dynasty established itself and then expanded its control to
the middle and southern areas of China over the next 400 years. With the
help of a deposed queen, barbarians from the north invaded Chou in 722 B.C.
and sacked the capital.
The Chou dynasty relocated further to the east but never regained its domi-
nance. The weakening of the Chou led to the Spring and Autumn period (722
to 481 B.C.) that takes its name from the title of a history of the era.
New feudal kingdoms emerged and fought each other for territory, strategic
materials, and population centers. Warfare between the feudal territories
and barbarians to the north was incessant. By 500 B.C., and 200 feudal
territories of China had consolidated into 20 independent states.
A peace was arranged around 540 B.C. at a conference instigated by smaller
states that had suffered continual invasion and despoiling. Peace lasted
40 years and then hostilities resumed, setting off the age known as the
Warring States (481 to 221 B.C.). Seven major states emerged in this period,
buteach was subjugated by the Ch'in, one after the other, beginning in 230
B.C. In 221 B.C., Prince Cheng, the Tiger of Ch'in, proclaimed himself
Shih Huang-ti-- the emperor of China.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Early Chinese farmers grew millet and vegetables, andkept dogs and pigs. By
4000 B.C., rice was being grown and became the most important food crop of
Asia. By 2500 B.C., cattle, chickens, sheep, and goats were raised, and
water buffalo were being used to pull plows and wagons.
Despite the ravages of war, the ancient Chinese economy continued to grow and
improve. An elaborate road network improved communications and trade.
Massive irrigation projects dammed entire rivers, breaking them into small
streams that carried water over extensive plains for rice cultivation. Most
impressive were canals connecting rivers or taking water into previously
arid regions. The first of these was built in 486 B.C. to supply troops.
The eventual dominance of the Ch'in was due in part to the rapid population
growth that resulted from canal and irrigation projects that dramatically
increased food production.
Bronze did not reach China until around 1500 B.C., and iron followed in the
sixth century B.C. Another advantage of the Ch'in was their iron deposits
and iron seventeen centuries before that technology was achieved in Europe,
and iron- making was a key factor in the shaping of their society.
China was unique to the ancient world for its general lack of slavery and
a large peasant class of land owners. The reasons for this are not fully
understood. These two conditions probably contributed to the enormous food
production and population that China supported.
======================
=Religion And Culture=
======================
The religion of ancient China was dominated bt ancestor worship. Kings
traced their ancestry back directly to Shang- Ti, the ancestor and founder
of the people, and the ruler of the natural world. Shang- Ti and deceased
forebears were petitioned by sacrifices for guidance in all aspects of life.
Political power was linked to the spiritual. The ruler was the Son of Heaven
and ensured the welfare of the people. These ancient beliefs were modified
eventually into a state religion by two competing philosophies that devel-
oped around the sixth century B.C. in response to growing dissatisfaction
with feudalism.
The oldest of these philosophies was Taoism, based on a collection of profound
sayings. Conformity to the Tao was achieved by unassertive action and
simplicity. Taoism urged a return to a naturally sharing society that was
cooperative, not acquisitive. A typical Taoism saying read, "He who feels
punctured, must have been a bubble."
The second and most influential philosophy was Confucianism, a more practical
and socially aware doctrine. This was a philosophy of honesty and cooperation
in relationships based on loyalty to principles. Virtue was acquired by
self- cultivation and self- denial. The Confucian ideal was a perfection
of the human personality through sacrifice in deference to tradition values
passed down from one's ancestors. Heaven was the reward of the dutiful
descendant.
============
=Government=
============
The various dynasties of China ruled over a hierarchy of feudal states linked
by kinship and vassalage. Feudal society was supported by peasant farmers
who produced unpaid labor.
Following the formation of the first empire in 221 B.C., the long failing
feudal society was replaced by a new structure. The aristocracy were only
relatives of the emperor. Four classes of society were ranked below them.
The shih were lesser nobility, landowners, and scholars. The nung were the
peasant farmers, who paid taxes, lobored on public works, and served in the
armies. The kung were the artisans, and the shang were the merchants.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
Ancient Chinese architecture was concerned primarily with building walls.
Walls defended villages and towns, but also divided towns into sections.
Controlling access to sections of cities enhanced the power of authorities.
The earliest walls were built of earth tamped down between wooden slats that
held it in place. The use of earth in this manner led to two major chara-
cteristics of Chinese architecture-- walls did not usually bear loads and
roofs supported generous overhangs to keep water off the walls. Walls were
improved first with sun- dried bricks on their facings and then with fire-
baked bricks by the end of the Warring States period.
The Great Wall of China was constructed following the unification of 221 B.C.
for two purposes. It was intended first to keep out or discourage attacks
by mounted barbarians from the north. It also was an outlet for the labor
of thousands of men who had previously served in the massive armies now made
unnecessary by the unification.
==========
=Military=
==========
The ancient Chinese fielded armies that at times dwarfed those seen previo-
usly in the Near and Middle East. Casualties from a battle often numbered
100,000 or more according to records well regarded today for accuracy.
Professional armies were supplemented by large militia levies called up for
temporary service.
The most militaristic states were those to the north and northwest who were
forced to become proficient in war because of repeated attacks by mounted
barbarians. Provinces in this region learned to fight large field armies
from neighboring states as well as the barbarian hordes. The three dominant
dynasties of ancient China originated in the northern provinces.
Chariot archers dominated the battlefields of the Bronze Age Shang era, but
they were supplanted by mounted archers and large infantry armies armed with
crossbow, not seen elsewhere for many centuries. Crossbows were manufactured
in large quantities for the arming of the militia, as well as regular troops.
This fact influenced the widespread building of walls fro protection. For
reasons not known, armor was made predominantly of wood and bamboo.
==================
=Decline And Fall=
==================
The empire established in 221 A.D. was further modified by the former Han
dynasty up to 9 A.D. In that year, ausurpergrabbed the throne and ruled
for 16 years. Attempts to reform land ownership failed, however, and the
usurper was eventually beheaded. This period makes a convenient break point
in Chinese history, even though the empire continued to exist into the
twentieth century A.D.
========
=Legacy=
========
The principle legacy of ancient China was its philosophy, including the
concepts of face, ancestor worship, virtue, and balance with nature (Yin-
Yang), which continue to shape its culture today. The most recognizable
physical legacy is the Great Wall, the only man- made object on Earth
visible from space.
----------------------------------
Sumerian
----------------------------------
(5000 to 2230 B.C.)
The Sumerians were one of the earliest civilizations. Their growth and
expansion was dependent on rich river valley farmlands. They were not as
fortunate as others in terms of mineral resources or strategic position,
however, and did not enjoy the existence of the Egyptians. They are
considered one of the most important early cultures, nevertheless, because
of the many advances attributed to them. Because their location was weak
in terms of defense and poor in terms of resources, they were forced to
innovate. In many ways they were more important to history because of
their innovations than the much richer Egyptians.
==========
=Location=
==========
Sumer was located in southern Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers come together before flowing into the Persian Gulf. By 5000 B.C.
primitive farmers had come down to the valley from the Zafros Mountains to
the east. The land was rich but baked hard in the summer sun after the
late spring river floods. The early settlers learned how to control some
of the flooding with dikes and how to irrigate their summer fields. Early
settlements at Ur, Uruk, and Eridu grew into independent cities first and
then city- states.
=========
=Capital=
=========
As a conglomeration of city- states, there was no clear capital for the
Sumerians because the center of power shifted from time to time. The
cities of Ur, Lagash, Erech, Eridu, and Uruk were the most important.
===============
=Rise to Power=
===============
From 5000 to 3000 B.C.. agricultural communities of Sumer gradually
coalesced into city- states along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers. The peak of this city- state culture lasted from 2900 to 2400
B.C. They warred with one another from time to time and competed for land
and trade, but never conglomerated or built an empire that expanded from
their traditional homeland.
The city- states of the river valley were relatively rich from food
production, manufacturing, and their position along important trade routes.
This made them tempting targets when more powerful and warlike neighbors
came into existence to the north and east.
=========
=Economy=
=========
The Sumerians grew wheat, barley, peas, onions, turnips, and dates. They
raised cattle and sheep, fished, and hunted wildfowl along the river. Food
was generally abundant and populations grew accordingly.
There was no copper in the river valleys, but copper was found in the
mountains to the east and north. The Sumerians learned how to obtain
copper from ore by 4000 B.C. and to make bronze by 3500 B.C.
They traded food, cloth, and manufactured items for raw materials, such as
timber, copper, and stone, which they fashioned into items of everydat use,
weapons, and more valuable trade goods. Their merchants traveled up the
Tigris and Euphrates to trade with the people of Anatolia and the
Mediterranean coast. They also traded in the Persian Gulf for items from
India and further east.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
The Sumerians worshipped hundreds of gods, with each city having its own
patron deity. The principal gods, such as Entil, the god of air, were too
busy to bother with the plight of individuals. For that reason, each
Sumerian worshipped a particular minor god or goddess who was expected to
interact with the major gods.
The Sumerians did not believe in an afterlife and were realistic about the
limits of human goodness. They accepted that although the gods were above
question, they were not always kind.
The soul and center of each city- state was its temple to the patron god.
The Sumerians believed that the god owned the city- state. Part of the
land was farmed directly for the god, often by slaves. The remaining land
was farmed by the temple staff or by farmers who paid rent to the temple.
Rents and offerings paid for temple operation and supported the poor.
Slaves were an important part of the community and were one objective of
any military campaign. Even locals could become slaves to satisfy debts.
Slaves were allowed to work extra hours for themselves and use any savings
to buy their freedom.
============
=Government=
============
Each city in Sumer was ruled at first by a council of elders, although a
war leader, called a lugal, was selected to lead the army during conflict.
Eventually the lugals assumed power as kings and established dynasties.
Evidence suggests that the Sumerians may have taken the first steps toward
democracy by electing a representative assembly. They consisted of two
houses- a senate of important citizens and a lower house made up of those
available for military duty.
Preserved clay tablets reveal that the Sumerians maintained courts of
justice where people could expect a fair trial. One table recorded the
oldest murder trial in history.
Most of the food production and distribution was controlled through the
temple. A noble class arose based on land ownership, control of land, and
manufacturing. Most trade and manufacturing was outside the temple's
control.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
The Sumerians were handicapped by having no easy access to stone or wood
for building. Sun- dried mud bricks were their main building material and
this required some ingenuity. They were the first to employ the arch,
vault, and dome. Their cities were completely enclosed by brick walls.
Their most important buildings were temples, built as large mounds called
ziggurats. Through cycles of attack, destruction, and restoration, the
temples were rebuilt again and again at the same site, gradually getting
larger with each reincarnation. Mud bricks eroded and crumbled much more
quicker than stone, however, and little Sumerian architecture survives.
==========
=Military=
==========
The key influence on the Sumerian military was their poor strategic
position. Natural obstacles for defense existed only on their borders to
the west (desert) and south (Persian Gulf). When more populous and
powerful enemies appeared to their north and east, the Sumerians were
susceptible to attack.
Surviving artwork and archaelogical remains indicate that the Sumerian
soldiers used spears and short swords of bronze. They wore bronze helmets
and carried large shields. Their armies were not particularly noted but
records are sparse.
They engaged in siege warfare during their many inter- city wars. Mud
brick walls did not stand against determined attackers who had the time to
pry out the bricks or pound them to dust.
The Sumerians invented chariots and were the first to use them in battle.
These earlt chariots were four- wheeled and pulled by wild asses, and were
not effective in battle as the later two- wheeled design pulled by horses.
Sumerian chariots may have served primarily as fast transports, but
surviving artwork suggests that spears or javelins were thrown from them.
==================
=Decline and Fall=
==================
A group of Semitic people called the Akkadians settled north of Sumer along
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The Akkadians adopted very quickly the
culture, religion, and writing of the more advanced Sumerians who had
preceeded them. In 2371 B.C., Sargon I seized the throne of Kish and
gradually conquered all of the city- states of Akkadia. He turned south
and conquered the city- states of Sumer, which were unable to unite in
defense. Sargon established the first empire of history during the reign
from 2371 to 2316 B.C., extending his control along the Fertile Crescent
from Elam, to the east of Sumer, to the Mediterranean coast.
Sargon's empire collapsed after his death but was restored briefly by his
grandson. Around 2230 B.C. the Akkadian empire was destroyed by an
invasion of Gutians, the barbarian hill people from the Zagros Mountains.
New cities and towns soon grew up along the river valleys, but the
Sumerians were gone as a distinct and indepentent culture.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Sumerians are most noted for the invention of the wheel and writing.
The wheel was important for transport and for pottery making. Sumerian
writing, cuneiform, consisted of groups of stylus wedge impressions pushed
into clay to form stylized pictograms representing words. This writing
grew out of record keeping and seals from business transactions.
They were among the first to use boats, including round boats made of hide
stretched over a wooden framework. These coracles were especially popular
among the reeds and waterways of the river delta.
----------------------------------
Yamato
----------------------------------
(300 to 800 A.D.)
The Yamato period of Japanese culture is also called the age of the great
tombs because of the appearance in these centuries of great tombs and tomb
clusters, presumably for the burial of rulers and other elites. The name
Yamato comes ffrom the region of Japan that was the home of the first clan
to consolidate rule over most of the islands. During the Yamato period,
Japan accelerated its advance in technology by adopting the cultivation of
rice, improving its pottery, developing iron working, building social
hierarchies, and accomplishing a political, economic, anc cultural
consolidation of the islands.
==========
=Location=
==========
The hereditary lands of the Yamato clan are on a peninsula on the southwest
coast of Ise Bay. This bay is located on the main island of Honshu,
southwest of modern Tokyo.
=========
=Capital=
=========
Prior to the late seventh century A.D., there was no permanent capital of
Japan. Each king ruled from his own palace, which was usually abandoned
following his death. As the Yamato began to adopt the Chinese system of
governemntal bureaucracy and organization, the need for a permanent seat of
government arose. The first capital was founded at Fujiwara in 694 A.D.
and served three emperors before being abandoned in 710. The second
capital of this period was built at Heijo and occupied from 710 to 784.
===============
=Rise To Power=
===============
Chinese documents from the second century A.D. make reference to 100
countries existing in Wa, a.k.a. Japan. By the third century, the Chinese
refer to a queen of Wa, probably of the Yamato clan, who had consolidated
30 countries under her rule. During this period, the Yamato clan
consolidated its control over most of Japan with a combination of military
conquest, intermarriage, and diplomacy.
=========
=Economy=
=========
Under the Yamato, the Japanese economy remained dependent on rice growing.
It was primarily a barter economy and taxes were paid in rice, cloth, and
other commodities by reasants who worked public lands. Beginning with the
seventh century, coins were imported from China to facilitate tax
collection. An attempt was made to mint Japanese coins, but rulers could
not resist the temptation to debase the local coinage and it fell out of
use.
======================
=Religion and Culture=
======================
New concepts were added to the ancient Japanese beliefs and rituals during
the Yamato period, including respect for clan ancestors and a mythology of
divine ancestry for the Yamato dynasty. Under the influence of Chinese
Buddhism propaganded by Forea during the sixth century, the Japanese
religion became more formalized as Shinto, the Way of the Kami. The kami
were an infinite number of natural spirits and powers that could be called
upon for aid or appeased when angered. The hierarchy of Shinto divinities
was defined and the mythology was written down. The rulers of Japan
descended from the sun goddess, the supreme Shinto deity.
Early Shinto was positive and concerned with the present, not the past or
an afterlife. It fostered a reverence for a natural universe that was seen
as good and ethical. Evil was identified with impurity and the unnatural.
Sincere honesty was the central virtue.
============
=Government=
============
During the Yamato period, tribal states of various sizes and power were
brought together gradually by a dynasty of Yamato clan rulers. The leader
of the Yamato in the second half of this period was known as the Daio, or
Great King. The power of the Yamato was expanded and strengthened through
blood ties within the clan, their apparent military supremacy, diplomacy,
and manipulation of the sun myth that bestowed divinity on their ancestry.
The different tribal groups or clans were the nobility or uji class.
Serving the uji was an occupational/ professional class called the be, who
worked as farmers, scribes, traders, and manufacturers. The lowest class
were slaves. Immigrants fit in among the uji and be, depending on their
skills and wealth.
In the seventh century, the Yamato transformed the government of Japan
based on influences from China. The Yamato sovereign became an imperial
ruler supported by court and administrative officials. The uji class was
stripped of land and military power, but given official posts and
stripends. This political system remained in effect until around 1200 A.D.
==============
=Architecture=
==============
The outstanding architectural achievements of the Yamato are their tombs.
These are mounds of earth in the shape of a keyhole if viewed from above.
The largest tombs are found in the Yamato region of Japan, and is further
evidence of power emanating from that locale. The Nintoku tomb on the
Osaka Plain rivals the Pyramids in size. The central tomb is 500 meters
long and 35 meters high. It is surrounded by three moats with intervening
belts of trees and covers 32 hectars (approximately 3.4 million square
feet). Stone burial chambers were evacuated in the earth below the central
tomb mound.
Tombs thought related to the imperial family are now controlled by a
government agency. Although some have been pillaged in the past, many
remain unexcavated.
==========
=Military=
==========
Based on the large numbers of warrior figures, weapons, and pieces of armor
found in burial tombs from this era, warfare was apparently a common
feature of Yamato culture. Despite the existence of a dominant ruler,
clan groups found reason for conflict. All adult men were available for
military service and were required to serve for at least one year. The uji
class provided the elite troops and officers for armies.
Warrior figures from tombs are shown wearing full body armor and visored
helmets. The most commonly found weapons are swords, spears, and bow
quivers. Horse figures are also found in abundance, suggesting the
existence of cavalry. The sudden appearance of horses in burial goods
around the fifth century has led to the hypothesis that Japan was invaded
by a cavalry army at that time. It is more probable that the horse was an
import that became a status symbol for the elite who were most likely to
receive a ceremonial burial. The elite uji class made up the cavalry of
the period because they could afford the horse and equipment.
========
=Legacy=
========
The Yamato period is remembered for the sun goddess mythology from which
all later emperors of Japan claimed divine ancestry. The Yamato period
also formalized the Shinto religion that would compete with imported
Buddhism to the present day. Most modern Japanese consider themselves
descentants of the Yamato. The great tombs spread about the countryside
are the most material legacy.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
7. Civilization Comparisons
|ЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇ|ЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇЇ|
| Civilization | Attributes |
|--------------------------|------|
| Ancient Chosen | o Long Swordsman and Legion +80 Hit Points |
| | o Towers +2 Range |
| | o Priests cost 30% less |
|--------------------------|------|
| Assyrian | o Archery Range units have increased fire rate |
| | o Villagers 30% faster |
|--------------------------|------|
| Babylonian | o Wall and Tower Hit Points doubled |
| | o Priest rejuvenation rate 30% faster |
| | o +30% Stone Mining |
|--------------------------|------|
| Carthaginian (New) | o Transports 30% faster |
| | o Fire Galley +25% attack |
| | o Academy units and all elephant units 25% Hit |
| | Points |
|--------------------------|------|
| Egyptian | o +20% Gold Mining |
| | o Chariot, Scythe Chariot, and Chariot Archers |
| | +33% Hit Points |
| | o Priest +3 Range |
|--------------------------|------|
| Greek | o Hoplite, Phalanx, and Centurion 30% faster |
| | o War ships 30% faster |
|--------------------------|------|
| Hittite | o Stone Thrower, Catapult, and Heavy Catapult Hit |
| | Points doubled |
| | o Archery Range units +1 attack |
| | o War ships +4 Range (except Fire Galley) |
|--------------------------|------|
| Macedonian (New) | o Academy units +2 armor vs. Slinger, Ballista, |
| | and missile weapons |
| | o Units with no range +2 line of sight |
| | o Siege Workshop units cost 50% less |
| | o Units 4 times more resistant to conversion |
|--------------------------|------|
| Minoan | o Ships cost 30% less |
| | o Composite Bowman +2 Range |
| | o Farm production +25% |
|--------------------------|------|
| Palmyran (New) | o Free Tribute |
| | o Gold per trade doubled |
| | o Villagers cost 50% more, have armor, and work |
| | 20% faster |
| | o Camel Riders 25% faster |
|--------------------------|------|
| Persian | o +30% hunting |
| | o War Elephant, Armored Elephant, and Elephant |
| | Archer 50% faster |
| | o Trireme +50% fire rate |
|--------------------------|------|
| Phoenician | o War Elephant, Armored Elephant, and Elephant |
| | Archer cost 25% less |
| | o +30% woodcutting |
| | o Catapult Trireme and Juggernaught +65% Fire Rate|
|--------------------------|------|
| Roman (New) | o Buildings cost 15% less, except Towers, Walls, |
| | and Wonders |
| | o Towers cost 50% less |
| | o Swordsmen attack 33% faster |
|--------------------------|------|
| Shang | o Villagers cost 30% less |
| | o Wall Hit Points doubled |
|--------------------------|------|
| Sumerian | o Villagers +15 Hit Points |
| | o Stone Thrower, Catapult, Heavy Catapult +50% |
| | Fire Rate |
| | o Farm production doubled |
|--------------------------|------|
| Yamato | o Horse Archers, Scout, Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, |
| | Cataphract cost 25% less |
| | o Villagers 30% faster |
| | o Ships +30% Hit Points |
|__________________________|___________________________________________________|
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
8. Tools of The Trade (John Mecham)
Take charge of Age of Empires and win in the Tool Age!
==============
=Introduction=
==============
The beginning is undoubtedly the most important time period of the game; those
who master this phrase are likely to do well throughout all the various Ages
of the game. Understanding what to do in the first 10- 15 minutes of the game
doesn't necessarily guarantee your victory, but without this understanding,
you'll find yourself losing a lot. The best players have a prettu good idea
of what they may do and what strategy they may employ before even starting the
game. It is the strategy that enables them to select a civilzation (which is
appropriate to counter the enemy's choice of civilizations on the map type and
resource level being played).
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial art that focuses exclusively on fighting your
opponent while both of you are on the ground. The theory behind this philosophy
is that most martial arts train people to fight people in the upright position.
If you're proficient at this style of jiu-jitsu, you're at a distinct advantage
in a fight that ends up with both combatants on the ground. The key is to first
get your opponent where you want him. After all, while you're standing up,
you're playing the opponent's game. Once you've taken your enemy down, however,
you have the "home court advantage."
The good news is, in Age of Empires, all players must pass through the Tool Age.
As in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it is extremely beneficial to excel in a certain
timeframe of the game and to understand how to make your opponent fight you
there. If you're an expert Tool player and you force your opponent to fight
you in the Tool age, you'll be at a tremendous advantage.
The purpose of this document is to explain what you should be doing in this,
the most important time of the game... the first 15 minutes. I am going to
focus on fighting during Tool. I know that the majority of multiplayer games
today focus on the Bronze Rush. The Bronze Rush is strong, but common.
Players that know how to fight a Tool battle, or use Tool as a springboard to
weaken the enemy and gain a competitive advantage are likely to excel in Bronze.
Since many players already know how to fight in Bronze, I'm going to explain
how to beat them in an environment foreign to them... the Tool Age.
================
=Key Strategies=
================
Several successful strategies are commonly used today in the multiplayer
environment. Strategies in one-on-one games can be very different than
strategies in team games. Since most one-on-one strategies can also be used in
team games, but several team strategies cannot be used in the one on one
environment, I'm going to focus on one-on-one strategies. Also, different map
settings allow different strategies. As a general rule of thumb, the smaller
the map and the less water separating you from your enemy, the more powerful
your Tool attack will be. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to
focus on the most common multiplayer setting, a large, inland map with default
resources and starting in the Stone Age.
Know the enemy and know thyself, and you can fight a hundred battles without
fear of defeat.
-Sun Tzu
In order to beat your opponent, you must have a pretty good guess about how he
plays the game. What are the current trends in strategy? To help you better
understand and predict what your opponent will do, I'll now explain the
background behind current strategies and techniques. I'll explain what the
"masses" are doing in their games, and the logical development of strategies
that lead them to where they are today.
===========================
=Evolution of AoE Strategy=
===========================
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was
without form, and void...
-Genesis
Phase 1: What to do?
When AoE was first released to the public in October of '97, very few people
had any idea what to do. Those that had played other real-time strategy (RTS)
games understood the importance of quickly developing an economy while
disrupting the enemy's economy. It was at this point that "the masses" of
multiplayer competitors learned how to Tool Rush (or at least, they learned an
early version of a Tool Rush-I use the term loosely while describing this first
step in the development of AoE strategy). It seemed that everybody selected
either Shang or Assyria because both are strong Tool Rushing civilizations.
The basic plan was to advance as quickly as possible to the Tool Age, then
develop a Tool army to attack the enemy fast. For a few months, everyone
complained about how the Tool Rush was unstoppable and that, therefore, AoE was
a dumb game. The funny thing is... they kept playing.
Phase 2: Envelopment
Amidst the monotonous Tool Rushers, small groups of strategists worked to
develop a plan for consistently beating the Tool Rush. Soon (sometime in
November of '97), a few people started using a spreading out technique (also
called map envelopment or locusting) to counter the Tool Rushers. I remember
frequently building about 35 Villagers and moving groups of workers all over
the place on the map. I'd often delay advancing from the Stone to the Tool Age
until the enemy came running into my (deserted) town with Tool units (usually
archers). At this point the enemy had wasted vast amounts of resources to
build a Tool-Age army, but simply couldn't find your Villagers (and if he did
find them, he'd just find a few because the rest were scattered all over the
map). The next step was to advance to the Bronze Age (or "to Bronze") as
quickly as possible. Once in Bronze, you could make Cavalry units (which slice
through Tool-Age units like a hot knife though butter). Since the enemy had
spent so much of his resources to develop his (now obsolete) army, he would be
a long ways away from Bronzing and would have no hope of competing with your
Bronze troops.
Due to the lack of forums to discuss strategies and the fact that there were
very few groups of people that shared information (since the game was still
new), people continued to Tool Rush for quite a while. You could be certain
that in 95 percent of the games you played the enemy would Tool Rush you.
Eventually (perhaps in December of '97 and January of '98) the masses started
learning how to use the "spread out and build" strategy. At this point only
the less-skilled players would attempt a Tool Rush. It was clearly determined
that Bronze troops were so much more powerful than Tool troops, it made little
sense to make any Tool-Age military units at all.
Phase 3: The Bronze Rush
Once everyone started to spread out and build, the threat of facing a Tool Rush
diminished. Again, the thought leaders in the AoE community had to develop a
new strategy to beat their old strategy-that of spreading out and creating an
enormous economy. It was soon learned that the faster you Bronzed, the faster
you could make units that were highly effective for killing Villagers.
Suddenly people started focusing on the importance of Bronzing quickly.
Everybody strove to develop strategies to Bronze quickly, and those that were
fastest wore their "Bronze times" like crowns. The most common civilizations
played were Assyria and Yamato (with a sprinkling of Shang). We had now
entered the day of the Bronze Rush.
At first the very best Bronze times hovered around 16 minutes. Elite players
could get Bronze times in the low 15's, but rarely did anyone get a sub-15
minute Bronze time. The game was all about speed. How many Villagers could
you make to get you to Bronze faster than your enemy? What Bronze units were
the most effective in the early Bronze Age? It was determined that about 18-24
Villagers were optimal to get the fastest possible Bronze times, and that
Yamato (with its fast Villagers and cheap Cavalry) was the strongest
civilization.
Phase 3a: A Revolutionary Discovery
It was learned that farming for food was much less efficient than foraging for
berries or hunting. People stopped making farms in the Tool Age and started
focusing on natural food. Bronze times across the board dropped about a minute
with this revolutionary discovery. Now we were seeing the best Bronze times
hovering close to 14 minutes. The game was still all about speed. Some
players were using Assyria to counter Yamato, having discovered that if they
could survive the first five minutes or so in the Bronze Age, hordes of Chariot
Archers would dominate hordes of Cavalry. Yamato players understood the
techniques of Assyria, and pressed even further to get fast Bronze times.
Since Assyria needs to research the Wheel upon arriving at the Bronze Age
before making Chariot Archers, Cavalry had to strike quickly to take advantage
of Assyria's weakness.
Phase 3b: Another Breakthrough!
Soon another breakthrough made its way into the game. People discovered that
the much-overlooked method of gathering food by shore fishing was extremely
fast-about twice as fast as foraging for food. Once people discovered and
started taking advantage of this fact, Bronze times dropped again. We were now
seeing the best players Bronze at about 13 minutes in a good game.
Phase 3c: Digging In
The next major development in gameplay was actually a result of the crafty
Assyrian players that needed to buy a few extra minutes for their Chariot
Archers to develop. It's an interesting phenomena that one Cavalry beats one
Chariot Archer, and that two Cavalry beat two Chariot Archers, but that twenty
Chariot Archers often beat twenty Cavalry. In order to buy a little time, the
Assyrian players began experimenting with various walling techniques. It
wasn't long before Yamato players found their Cavalry running smack into walls
all over the place (often with a few archers or priests behind the walls). By
the time the offensive Yamato players could build a dock and a Transport to get
around the walls or a Stone thrower to chew through the walls, the Assyrian had
gone offensive and was picking off Yamato Villagers with his highly effective
Villager-killing Assyrian Chariot Archers.
Happiness in AoE is directly proportional to the length, breadth, and thickness
of your walls
-Celestial_Dawn
(taken from http://www.ns.net/~thump/quotes.htm)
With little variation, this has been the state of the game strategy for the
last six months or so. More and more people abandoned Yamato to join the
Assyrian throngs, and many people were forced to learn how to wall effectively
in order to combat both Assyrian and Yamato speed-Bronzers. People perfected
and polished Bronze rushing techniques until now we see Bronze times
approaching 11 minutes (in best-case scenarios). Even "just average" players
can reach Bronze in under 15 minutes.
This is the mindset of the masses right now (August, '98). In a typical one-on
-one game you'll find that 70 percent of your opponents will select Assyria.
About 15-20 percent will select Yamato. You'll see a few Sumerian and
Phoenician players, too, with a smattering of Shang (not much, though). Other
civilizations are pretty rarely found. The strategy that is "en vogue" right
now is the generic rush to Bronze (with little or no Tool military efforts).
When playing an unknown opponent in a one-on-one game, you can be pretty safe
assuming that he'll be rushing directly to Bronze.
Phases 4 & 5: Villager Boom and Return of the Tool Rush
Once again, key AoE strategists have been working to devise ways to beat the
typical "Bronze Rush". Two different techniques have evolved (both highly
uncommon among "the masses" at this point). Both have been implemented in
parallel and are effective at beating the Bronze Rush. The first is a
technique known as Villager Booming (or a Power up strategy). In a nutshell,
the plan here is to play a defensive game while building a huge economy. If
your enemy doesn't hit you hard at precisely the right moment, you'll both be
in the Bronze Age and you'll have an economy that just won't quit. I won't go
into extensive detail about this strategy, but suffice it to say that if you
have twice as many workers as your opponent in the Bronze Age you have a
decisive advantage. From this point you can either overwhelm the enemy with
Bronze units or advance quickly to the Iron Age and attack with superior units.
If you opt for the Iron Hop (proceeding directly to Iron Age), A well-executed
Villager Boom will allow you to Iron in around 17 minutes. In my opinion,
Villager Booming is an extremely effective strategy that will replace Bronze
Rushing among the general population within the next three months or so (and
grow exponentially as the Age of Empires Expansion Pack-Rise of Rome-becomes
popular).
The other strategy used to counter the Bronze Rush is a group of refined
techniques that revolve around the Tool Rush (from phase 1). These tactics
will be the focus of this article.
Since Tool Rushing essentially became obsolete when people began to employ
spreading out strategies, people stopped worrying about them. People were
realizing the futility of Tool Rushing because the enemy usually spread out
Villagers all over the map and it was extremely difficult to hunt them down
with Tool-Aged troops. With time, however, spreading out made way for Bronze
Rushing. When people began to focus their efforts on efficiently Bronzing
quickly, they did everything they could to reduce the distances their Villagers
had to walk to get work done. The result was that large, sprawling economies
(that were spread out) started becoming more and more compact. Spreading out
was what allowed people to defeat the Tool Rush, but Bronze Rushing beat
spreading out. So, to sum it up: Tool Rushing became less of a threat, so
people didn't spread out as much (no need to), which opened the door for Tool
Rushing again. The nice, compact economies of the Bronze Rushers were ripe for
destruction by a solid Tool Rush.
============================
=Importance of the Tool Age=
============================
As I mentioned earlier, everybody has to pass through the Tool Age (if you're
playing in a default settings game). During the Stone Age you learn about your
surrounding environment. The layout of the map is crucial because good players
gain key input from the map that will enable them to decide which strategy to
employ. Attacks during the Stone Age, however, are usually futile. The only
Stone Age attack that has any merit (in a very few limited situations) is a
Villager Rush. A Villager Rush involves charging towards the enemy with a
group of from 12-16 Villagers en masse and teaming up on his Villagers to kill
them. In the Tool Age, however, you can develop a formidable attack
(especially if the enemy is unprepared for it).
The majority of the AoE multiplayer gamers today sprint through the Tool Age.
The Tool Age, however, is where several important strategies develop. During
the Stone Age you should form a high-level game plan. During the Tool Age you
should begin to solidify that plan. It is important to develop a high-level
game plan in the Stone Age because you must decide how many Villagers to create
before hitting the "Tool" upgrade at your Town Center. Tooling with 16
Villagers gives you different advantages (and disadvantages) than tooling with,
say, 24 Villagers. Decide what strategy you're going to use during the game
in Stone, then implement in Tool.
===============
=Pass or Play?=
===============
You need to decide early in the game where and when you want to fight your
opponent. It almost always makes more sense to fight the enemy in HIS town,
so that you can cripple his economy by killing his Villagers. The question is
when will you attack? Will you attack in the Tool Age (play) or sprint through
it to attack in the Bronze/Iron Age (pass)?
A pass or play decision should be made in the Stone Age and based upon a few
key pieces of information, including:
Is your spot defensible? Can you wall in easily? (lends itself to a pass
strategy). Do you have access to a lot of resources (primarily food)? Qualify
that food... if you have access to lots of shore fish (which is considered
"fast food"), you can be assured a quick Tool and, if you want it, a quick
Bronze. (could be used for either a pass or a play strategy).
What civilization are you using? What civilization is your enemy using? If
you are using a civ. that is strong in the Tool Age (and/or a civ. that can
Tool quickly), and your opponent is using a civ. that is particularly strong
in the Bronze or Iron Age, a play strategy makes sense. Hit the enemy before
they arrive to a point in the game where they can take advantage of their
strengths.
Have you located your enemy? How defensible is his position? If the enemy can
wall easily you may want to attack before he can build walls (play). What else
is the enemy doing? Does the enemy have a stronger economy than you? (defined
by the number of Villagers he has) If he has, say 24 Villagers and you Tooled
with 16, you darn well better hit him fast (play) before he has a chance to use
that overpowering economy against you in the Bronze Age.
In any case, you need to decide whether it makes more sense to pass though the
Tool Age with little or no conflict or to play (to give battle during the Tool
Age). This decision should be made in the Stone Age. After you've started the
Tool upgrade, you can't make more Villagers (boats, maybe. Villagers no.)
====================
=Dominant Timerames=
====================
A Dominant Timeframe is a time in which a particular civilization (and its
available units and resources) make it more powerful than other civilizations.
Obviously, different civilizations have different Dominant Timeframes. The
primary factor that contributes to a civilization's Dominant Timeframe is
access to military units that are more powerful than the enemy's military
units. For reference, see the graphic on the next page. The X-axis represents
time. The Age is represented along the top of the X-axis and the units that
tend to dominate during that period are represented along the bottom of the
X-axis. The Y-axis is the scale of "overall power" on a scale from 1-20.
Let me walk through an example of a Dominant Timeframe. In the early Bronze
Age, Cavalry dominate the battlefield. This results primarily from the fact
that there are no upgrades needed once you reach the Bronze Age before you can
make Cavalry units. Cavalry have the speed to allow them to outrun all other
Bronze Age units except Chariot Archers and Chariots. Additionally, small
groups of Cavalry beat small groups of Chariot Archers and Chariots in battle.
You must not only research the wheel before you can make Chariot Archers, but
you must also gather a pretty good sized group of them (maybe about a dozen)
before they can deal with groups of Cavalry. Therefore, any civilization that
can get cavalry units before the enemy can get something to defend against them
(or something equally powerful to attack you with) has a Dominant Timeframe, to
some extent, in early Bronze. Yamato's fast Villagers allow it to get to the
Bronze Age faster than most other civilizations. Yamato can also produce
Cavalry at a cheaper cost than other civilizations. Therefore (logically),
Yamato has a Dominant Timeframe in early Bronze. Shang's cheap Villagers allow
it to progress to the Bronze Age faster than any other civilization. Shang
also gets Cavalry, but they're not at a discount (like Yamato's). Shang's
ability to Bronze quickly also gives it a Dominant Timeframe in early Bronze
relevant to many other civilizations. Later in the Bronze Age ranged units
(Composite Bowman and Chariot Archers) become more powerful (because you have
the time needed to get them en masse. Civilizations with bonuses and
advantages for these units (such as Assyria, Hittite, and Minoa) enter a
Dominant Timeframe in late Bronze. Again, another factor that allows a
Dominant Timeframe is the ability to obtain powerful units cheaper than other
civilizations. Phoenicia with its woodcutting bonus essentially gets Chariot
Archers at a discount. Therefore, since Chariot Archers are powerful in the
late Bronze Age, Phoenicia enters Dominant Timeframe relative to many other
civilizations in late Bronze.
Take a look at the graph of Dominant Timeframes on the following page (it may
be tough to interpret if you print it in black and white. Check out
http://www.nsnet.com/~thump/power.jpg to see it in your browser). You can use
this graph as a rough guideline to help devise a game strategy. Decide which
civilization you'll be using and note which civilization your opponent is
using. Look at the lines representing the power of the two civilizations over
time. If I'm Shang and my opponent is Babylonian, I have a distinct advantage
in the early stages of the game. Notice that Shang is particularly strong in
the Tool Age and early Bronze Age, but becomes much weaker in the later stages
of the Iron Age. My strategy should be to try to take advantage of this
Dominant Timeframe and attack my Babylonian buddy before he can build solid
defenses. On the other hand, what do you think the Babylonian's strategy
should be? The Babylonian should immediately be thinking about a way to defend
in the early stages of the game (perhaps lots of walls and towers). The
Babylonian wants to buy time to advance to his Dominant Timeframe relative to
Shang, which occurs during the late Iron Age.
==============
=Tool Options=
==============
Now that I've explained the evolution of AoE strategy and the importance of
Dominant Timeframes, I will describe the different options available to you in
the Tool Age. It is essential to understand these two concepts because they
allow you to make intelligent guesses about what to expect from your enemy and
because they allow you to select an appropriate civilization for your planned
strategy. For the purposes of this discussion, I intend to focus on Tool Age
attacks (and skim over Tool openings that are primarily designed to set the
stage for attacks in Bronze).
The following is a list of potential game strategies and potential platforms
for game strategies as they relate to the Tool Age:
1. Boom (move to bronze)
2. Pass (move to bronze)
3. Probe to Play (move to bronze)
4. Push (option)
5. Rush (attack)
6. Blitz (attack)
In nearly every game (during the Stone Age) a good player will decide which of
these strategies to use. A key component in determining which strategy to use
is your civilization selection and which units you plan to use. I'll now
review the best Tool Rushing civilizations and units. Then I'll talk about
recipes for success in RTS gaming. After that I'll outline a generic start,
which will describe what to do with your first five Villagers. This start will
essentially be the same in all games, regardless of which strategy you're
using. Next I'll briefly highlight the key points of the Boom, the Pass, and
the Probe to Play (none of these strategies involve a serious Tool attack).
Then I'll discuss with some degree of depth the Tool Push, the Tool Rush, and
the little-known Tool Blitz.
===========================
=Which Civilization To Use=
===========================
If Yamato Villagers moved at +75% speed and could build flying fortresses of
Spam, it really wouldn't matter to me as long as there were at least 8-10
civilizations that were equal in playability.
-FallOfRome
(taken from http://www.ns.net/~thump/quotes.htm)
Several civilizations work well for Tool-Rushing strategies, but the best
include the traditional "Fast Four": Shang, Assyria, Yamato, and Phoenicia.
Shang
Shang is my personal favorite civilization. Shang's real strength rests in its
versatility. Shang can build every Bronze-Age unit, has cheap Villagers (35
food instead of 50), has double-strength walls, and has great Priests. The
cheap Villagers result in less food being used at the start of the game-
allowing you to move to Tool and Bronze Age more quickly than any of the other
civilizations. This ability to Tool quickly make Shang's Tool Rushes among the
most deadly in the game. Shang Tool Rushes best with food-based units (Scouts
and/or Axers).
Assyria
Assyria boasts fast Villagers (which make it much easier to locate the enemy
and aid in escaping cranky wildlife) and the Rate of Fire (ROF) bonus for the
Tool-Age Bowman. In groups, Assyrian Bowmen are extremely tough. Bowmen are
much cheaper to make than Scouts, are very effective Villager killers, and only
require one upgrade to make them effective (the +2 Leather Archer Armor
upgrade). The disadvantage with Bowmen is that Villagers can evade them and
relocate elsewhere (especially Yamato or Assyrian Villagers with their speed
bonus).
Yamato
Yamato has fast Villagers (as with Assyria, this speed facilitates finding the
enemy and avoiding lions) and cheaper Scouts (75 food each instead of 100
food). This discount results in a net savings of 25 food per Scout. However,
you get a savings of 15 food per Villager if you're using Shang and you will
likely be making a lot more Villagers than you will Scouts. For this reason I
consider Yamato the weakest Tool Rusher of the "Fast Four".
Phoenicia
Phoenicia's woodcutting bonus means that you'll have to allocate fewer
Villagers to the collection of wood to get the lumber for the buildings you
need. Phoenician Villagers do more than their share of work; you essentially
have extra Villagers. Phoenicia is a good civilization to use if you're
planning on attacking with Tool Bowmen (converting the woodcutting bonus into
savings on both buildings and military units).
========================
=Analysis of Tool Units=
========================
The Tool-Age military units available include the Clubman (or "Clubber"), the
Axeman ("Axer"-an upgraded Clubber), the Bowman, the Scout, the Scout Ship,
and the Tower. I'll now evaluate each of these units:
Clubman/Axeman
These units are made at your barracks and are very cheap. Since you have to
make a barracks anyway, it often makes sense to attack with Clubbers or Axers.
They are great at killing Villagers, but can be easily outrun and have a very
small Line of Sight (LOS), making it difficult to locate Villagers that have
escaped. Clubbers and Axers excel in destroying buildings, and are great for
"cleaning up" a city in the Tool Age. If you use this unit to kill Villagers,
you definitely need the defensive upgrade (Leather Infantry Armor). The
offensive upgrade (Toolworking) is only important if you're fighting Villagers,
as a Clubber will destroy a building just as fast with or without the offensive
upgrade (Toolworking).
Bowman
Because of their range, Bowmen are extremely effective Villager killers.
Bowmen require a single defensive upgrade (Leather Archer Armor) to be ready
for Tool-Aged combat. Also, Bowmen are extremely low-maintenance units; they
will fire upon all enemy Villagers within their range until none are left.
Consequently, Bowmen are one of the most common Tool Rush units. The biggest
weakness of Bowmen is their slow speed (meaning Villagers can escape from them)
and their limited LOS relative to the Scout.
Scout
Scouts are my weapon of choice in the Tool Age. Scouts have a larger LOS and
are faster than any other Tool-Aged unit. This means that you'll be able to
get from your military building to the enemy quicker, you'll be able to chase
down fleeing Villagers, and you'll be able to find hiding Villagers. Although
Scouts can beat Bowmen in a one-on-one, groups of Bowmen destroy groups of
Scouts. Scouts also lose handily to Axers. Scouts should use their speed to
avoid fighting other Tool-Aged military units, focusing on killing Villagers.
Since Scouts don't attack willingly, they are extremely high-maintenance units.
You must instruct your Scouts to attack each unit individually or they'll just
stand there and... well... scout! If you make Scouts, you should probably get
both Tool Working and Leather Cavalry Armor.
Scout Ships
Scout Ships are extremely powerful for their cost. Since you cannot usually
target enemy Villagers with them, though, they're usually useless in a Tool
Rush (but may be necessary if the enemy is dock fishing).
Towers
Towers are tough to destroy in the Tool Age and are great for defending an
area. They usually don't work very well, though, for Tool Rushes because of
the fact that Towers are stationary; the enemy Villagers can simply run away.
A few strategies exist for Choson or Babylonian Tower Rushing, but against
equally skilled opponents they will most likely fail.
Mixed Units
Most Tool attacks are relatively homogeneous. You usually don't have the
resources to build more than one type of unit (with the necessary upgrades).
However, if you attack with either Clubbers/Axers or Bowmen, it often makes
sense to follow up with Scouts to ensure that the enemy hasn't escaped with a
small group of Villagers.
A Note on Walls
If you find yourself in a situation where you're fighting an extended Tool-Age
battle or your opponent makes it to the Bronze Age, it is extremely important
to protect your Villagers. The fastest and easiest way to do this is to build
walls. Once you've made the decision to wall and spent food for the upgrade,
immediately move SEVERAL Villagers to the areas you wish to wall. Never use
just one Villager to wall a large area if there is a threat of enemy invasion.
If you wall 14 tiles out of 15, you might as well not have spent the time and
resources because only a completed wall will keep out the enemy military units.
Take a break from production, use many Villagers, and do it right.
=====================
=Recipes For Success=
=====================
Show me a guaranteed formula for success in Age of Empires and I'll show you
someone that has yet to fully grasp the game.
-ThumP
Some RTS games have little variety and are conducive to static strategies and
techniques that work every time with the exact same results. These games can
give you a recipe, or formula to use (use workers number 1 and 2 to gather
gold, worker number 3 chops wood, build a barracks with worker number 7...).
These patterns have been mathematically proven to give optimal results and
there is no flexibility. Age of Empires is not one of those games. The
concept of random maps has revolutionized RTS gaming, and now players must be
able to keep an eye on their resources and gather what they need instead of
relying on memorized patterns.
A "recipe for success" simply doesn't exist for Age of Empires. The reason you
can't use the same recipe every time is that the game doesn't give you the
same ingredients every time you play. You may have a great recipe for
chocolate cake, but when you're asked to make it without flour you'll quickly
learn the importance of diversity. It is this diversity that makes Age of
Empires a great game.
People can give general guidelines for what to do when, but true experts watch
their resources and rely on instinct to tell them how to allocate their
resource gatherers. "What do I do with Villager number nine?" Well, what are
your objectives? Do you need more food or do you need more wood to meet your
objectives? Obviously, if you need more food, assign the Villager to collect
food and if you need more wood, assign the Villager to collect wood. The
ability to create a high-level plan, understand what it will take (in terms of
resources) to achieve that plan, and then to execute that plan in real time is
essential to succeeding at a real-time strategy game such as Age of Empires.
On that note, I'll provide high-level guidelines for the different Tool
strategies. However, I expect that you will be able to improvise where
appropriate to meet the objectives.
===============
=Generic Start=
===============
Your primary objective at the beginning of the game is to locate food. Your
civilization is hungry, and before you worry about killing the bad guys you
must worry about the good guys starving to death. You want to continuously
produce Villagers without ever having to wait for more food or more houses.
Always continue to make Villagers; never allow yourself to be distracted by
less important tasks.
-Rick Goodman
(Creator/Lead Designer of Age of Empires)
When the game starts in a multiplayer game, your mouse cursor will not move for
a few seconds (it's waiting for everyone to get in synch). At this point all
you can do is notice your immediate surroundings. Can you see any berries? If
so, this is good. Can you see water? If so, this is good (if you can see fish
in the water near the shore, which is VERY good). Are there any trees very
close to your TC? These are called "straggler trees" and are very important.
The more straggler trees you have, the better. During the first few seconds
(while you're waiting for the game to start), quickly move your mouse back and
forth so that you'll immediately be aware when things start (your cursor won't
move until the game is ready for you to start playing).
As soon as you gain control of your mouse, hit "H" on your keyboard (which is
the hotkey to bring you to your TC), then "C" (which is the hotkey at your TC
to build a new Villager). As soon as you've done this, grab two of your
Villagers and have them build a house (hit "B" then "E"). Build the house
somewhere within the area you can see. If you build it at the very edge of
your field of vision, you may knock down a tree (if you build a house on top
of a tree, it deletes it... and your "straggler trees" are very important for
a good start). You usually start somewhere near the edge of the screen. It's
best to grab the two Villagers nearest the inside of the map to build the
house. Once you've started building the house, grab the third Villager (he
should be the one that was originally located the closest to the edge of the
map) and use waypoints to send him to the edge of the map (behind your TC)
away from the TC. On many maps you'll find a band of water along the outside
of the map. This first scouting Villager is looking for that water. Water is
good because it's where you'll find shore fish. Fishing from the shore is the
fastest way that your Villagers can get food. Now is a good time to quickly
hit "F11" and "F4" (F11 shows you the time elapsed and F4 shows you the
player's scores). All this should take about 5 seconds or less.
About the time you finish this, your house should be about halfway completed.
Grab one of the builders and have him start exploring. It's usually a good
idea to have all of your Villagers explore in the same circular direction
(either clockwise or counterclockwise). As soon as this Villager starts
moving, the builder will probably finish the house. Send him exploring, too.
As soon as he moves, your fourth Villager should be completed at your TC.
Immediately hit "HC" (which jumps you to the TC and begins production of the
next Villager). This is a good time to grab all of your Villagers with one big
mouse click and assign them to a group (using Ctrl-1, for example). Now send
the newborn Villager exploring. If there's a coastline, send him along the
coast in the opposite direction of the first explorer.
Here's what you're looking for (in order of importance):
* Shore fish (at least 2 within a few tiles of a single storage pit)
* Berry patches
* Elephants
* Gazelle
You should almost always end up with either shore fish or berries. If you
find two or more shore fish near each other with a forest near that (and/or
elephants, gazelle, gold, or stone), you're off to a terrific start. Build a
Storage Pit (from now on I'll just call this a "Pit") right on the shore near
the shore fish. Bring all of your Villagers over to help build the Pit (using
your group to grab all of them) and get a few of them started fishing. When
Villager #5 is born, hit "HC" and bring him over to help with food. The only
exception here is if you're using Shang. If you're using Shang and you find
shore fish quickly, you can use one of your initial 4-5 Villagers to continue
scouting (he doesn't need to help with food production). With Shang you can
also use fewer Villagers for food gathering and more for wood, right from the
beginning.
If you don't have any shore fish, find your berries. It is very important to
scout the area around your berries. Never build your granary right next to the
first berry bush you see. When you find a berry patch, walk your Villager
completely past it so that he's standing on the other side of the patch. You
need to do this for two reasons: 1) you want to find the optimal place to build
your granary (that will allow the best access to the most number of bushes),
and 2) sometimes there is another berry patch not too far away. If there is
another berry patch on the far side of the first one, you can often build a
granary right in between the two patches, which will give you access to 1800-
2100 food at a single granary (instead of 1050). This is a very, very good
thing, and if you don't explore around your berries you may waste the
advantage. We've all been screwed by lousy starting positions; it's important
to learn to take advantage of good ones, too!
======
=Boom=
======
Booming (Villager Booming or Powering Up) is a strategy that does NOT utilize a
Tool-Aged attack, and starts off as a highly defensive strategy (later becoming
highly offensive). If you have a large area surrounded by trees that can be
easily walled that also has access to lots of fish (for dock fishing) and where
gold can be walled in, it sometimes makes sense to Villager Boom. A Villager
Boom strategy has the following objectives:
· To make a lot of Villagers before Tooling (probably at least 24)
· To continue making boats from docks during the Tool upgrade
· To spread out your production and make walls quickly in the Tool Age to slow
the enemy from infiltrating with his Bronze Army
· To make more Villagers and boats once you have arrived to the Tool Age
· To absorb and deflect the attack of your opponent (who will likely arrive in
Bronze before you)
· To hit Bronze a few minutes slower than normal, but with about 40 Villagers/
boats (instead of 20-24).
You will know if your enemy is attempting to use a Villager Boom strategy
because he will probably Tool with at least 24 Villagers, he'll usually hit the
Tool Age pretty slow, and his Villager count will skyrocket as he begins to
mass produce fishing boats. Villager Booming is most effective on maps with
lots of water (either island maps or Coastal) and works particularly well with
Shang, Phoenician, or Minoan.
The best way to defeat this strategy is to either Tool Rush or Tool Blitz the
enemy or to hit very fast in the Bronze Age (either finding a way through or
getting around enemy walls somehow). You do not want to wait to attack someone
who is Villager Booming because it won't be long before they'll be able to
convert their massive economy into impenetrable defenses and unstoppable
offenses.
======
=Pass=
======
Passing basically boils down to slamming through the Tool Age as fast as you
can; it is a highly offensive strategy. When you use this strategy, little or
no thought is usually given to walling or defending. The battle is expected to
take place on the enemy's soil. A Pass is what you do during the Tool Age to
enable you to get to the Bronze Age quickly. This is the ultimate Bronze Rush,
where you spend no resources on upgrades, extra buildings, Villagers, or units
in Tool. Generally this is done by Tooling with anywhere from 20-24 Villagers.
The goal is to reach the Tool Age with a barracks completed, about 700 food,
and 300 wood. Use at least 3-4 Villagers each to build two Tool-Aged buildings
simultaneously (archery, stable, or market). While these buildings are being
constructed, your remaining villagers should collect the extra 100 food to put
you just above 800 food just as your two buildings finish construction. In a
perfectly executed Pass strategy, you'll have zero food and zero wood after
clicking the "Bronze" upgrade at your TC. The best Pass strategies enable
Bronze rushes where people arrive at the Bronze Age in less than 11 minutes.
As a general rule of thumb, any Bronze time under about 13 minutes isn't bad,
though.
You can recognize that your opponent is going for a Pass strategy in Tool when
he doesn't make any additional Villagers in the Tool, his exploration isn't
very high, and he only has one technology researched (the technology you get
for reaching the Tool Age). If you research "The Wall", for example, and you
have more technologies than your enemy does, odds are he's going straight for
Bronze. The best way to defeat someone who is using the Pass strategy to
Bronze Rush is to either 1) Tool Rush/Blitz or 2) wall your production and
Boom. Of course, you can't wait for the signs of a Bronze Rush to decide to
use a Blitz strategy (it'll be too late to use that strategy once you see the
signs of a Bronze Rush). Since a Pass involves no attack whatsoever in the
Tool Age, I won't go into more detail here.
===============
=Probe To Play=
===============
The final Tool-Age strategy with the objective of passing through the Tool Age
and attacking in the Bronze Age is the Probe to Play strategy. This strategy
is very similar to the Pass strategy, but delays the Bronze time slightly to
use a minor attack in the Tool Age. Sometimes this attack is made using units
that are created before the Bronze upgrade has started (at the expense of
Bronze time being slightly compromised). Other times the attack is made with
units that are created after the Bronze upgrade has started (in exchange for a
weaker offensive army directly after reaching the Bronze Age). In any case,
the objective is usually to reach the Bronze Age quickly while using a minimal
Tool-Aged attack to slow the enemy down. The concept of a minimal attack in
Tool on your way to a relatively quick bronze is often called Resource
Equalisation (notice how the word "equalization" is spelled. Celestial_Dawn,
an excellent player from Australia, spelled it that way when he defined the
technique.)
A Probe to Play strategy is essentially offensive (with its primary objective
being to arrive at Bronze shortly after your enemy but with a better economy).
However; since this technique is often used by slow-civilization players (a
slow civilization is any civilization except Shang, Yamato, Assyria, or
Phoenicia) to buy time for their military to develop, it sometimes involves
defensive elements. Attacking with a minimal force in the Tool Age buys time
to wall in your resources. When used against a player that is employing a
Pass strategy (rushing straight for the Bronze Age), a Probe to Play strategy
can be very effective because the Tool troops attack an undefended economy.
The enemy may reach the Bronze Age first, but typically the disruption in
economy caused by the early attack leaves him unable to launch a strong attack
immediately in the Bronze Age. Additionally, the Probe to Play strategy gives
you a "probing view" of the enemy's town layout. By sending a few Tool units
to the enemy early, you can learn where his pockets of resources are located.
This means that your Bronze troops know exactly where to attack (while your
enemy's Bronze troops will still be searching for your Villagers).
An advantage of a Probe to Play strategy is that it is difficult to detect.
When the enemy is using this strategy, it will appear very similar to a Pass.
You can usually differentiate a Probe to Play strategy from a Tool Rush by the
number of Villagers its executor creates before Tooling. Typical signs of a
Probe to Play strategy include:
· Bronzing with somewhere between 20-24 Villagers
· Researching a few technologies immediately after Tooling (especially the Wall
upgrade)
· An attack at about 11 minutes with Tool-Aged troops that aren't upgraded or
that are very few in number
Allow me to give you a quick example of a game I played recently where I saw
this strategy used. Last night my enemy wandered into a group of my Villagers
(who were gathering berries) with one of his Villagers. I immediately send
about three Villagers to try to kill it, but since he was Assyrian and I was
Shang (which has slower Villagers than Assyria) he got away. I returned my
Villagers to work, but expected him to attack that spot before too long. I
planned an escape route and actually moved a few more Villagers to those
berries (hoping to finish gathering them and leave before the enemy attacked
that spot). If my enemy had used a Pass strategy, I would have finished the
berries before he could attack with Bronze units. However; soon the enemy
attacked with a two Tool Bowmen (at about 11 minutes). I noticed that the
Bowmen didn't have the defensive armor upgrade, and I had about 15 Villagers
collecting berries there, so I attacked the Bowmen with my Villagers. I ended
up losing about two or three Villagers and losing some production time. The
fact that he hadn't researched armor, though, was a hint that he was probably
using a Probe to Play strategy and well on his way to the Bronze Age.
At about this time, I was doing the same thing to him (but with Scouts). I
killed about an equal number of his Villagers with my Scouts as he did with his
archers, but my Scouts survived the encounter because I retreated with them
when I met heavy resistance. I had just finished the berries and was running
away to the next pocket of resources when the enemy showed up at my granary
with his first Chariot Archer. To sum up the rest of the battle (since I've
already made my point of recognizing the signs of a Probe to Play strategy),
he walled his production but I was able to make a transport and get 3 Cavalry
units and a Scout behind his walls. I killed his wood production and that
ended the game.
======
=Push=
======
The Push is the first strategy we've discussed that involves a potential full-
scale Tool Age attack. The term Push is derived from the fact that this
strategy is essentially a Probing Rush (P from Probe and ush from Rush = Push).
Of the three Tool attacks (Blitz, Rush, and Push), it involves the most units
and allows you a strong Tool attack, but it's the slowest. The Push is an
offensive strategy that is the most versatile and unpredictable of all Tool
attacks, allowing you the option of either progressing quickly to the Bronze
Age or fighting a prolonged Tool battle.
The objective of the Push strategy is to Tool before your opponent, attack
quickly, then (based on what you find at the enemy's town) either wage a full-
scale Tool-Age attack or continue to the Bronze Age. The strategy leaves you
"sitting on the fence" between Tool and Bronze and delays the decision until
you know what your enemy is doing.
As with any Tool Rush strategy, with the Push early scouting is essential.
Send one of your first Villagers (with Shang you can send one of your first
three-with any other civilization you can use Villager number six or seven) to
explore the map and find the enemy quickly.
To implement the Push, jump as quickly as possible into the Tool Age after
training 18 Villagers. This strategy doesn't involve fishing boats (but, as
always, shore fishing is extremely helpful). To get a quick Tool time, gather
ONLY enough wood for four houses and two tool-age buildings (most likely a
granary and a storage pit). Once you have constructed two Tool buildings, ALL
of your Villagers should be collecting food. In any case, for ANY Tool Rush
strategy you want to find a sweet spot to build your storage pit. A sweet spot
is a location that provides at least one food source located next to a forest.
The very best sweet spots will have shore fish (the more the merrier) located
next to a forest. Since your objective is to gather food quickly, if you have
a choice of allocating Villagers to shore fish or berries, go with the shore
fish first. Remember, though, that if you assign more than about two Villagers
to collect each shore fish, they'll bump into each other and often one ends up
standing around idle.
I'm a big advocate of using Shang for any Tool Rush strategies because the
"cheap Villagers" mean you'll be able to reach the Tool Age faster than any
other civilization. Another benefit of using Shang is that you can use a
single, standard berry patch and be able to build 18 Villagers and still have
enough food to Tool. Other civilizations will need to use another food source.
Once you've begun the Tool upgrade, you should have very little lumber. Now
move most of your Villagers from food back to lumber. Hopefully you won't
need to make another food-gathering building (this depends on how much food
your storage pit accesses and whether or not you were lucky enough to have two
berry patches within range of a single granary). In any case, your objectives
at this point are to:
1. Locate the enemy
2. Complete a barracks before you arrive at the Tool Age (probably near your
base somewhere, unless you found the enemy quickly and your Villager is idle
near the enemy-then build it there)
3. Arrive at the Tool Age with no less than 350 food and 150 lumber
You should hit the Tool Age somewhere between seven minutes (this assumes many,
many shore fish and perfect execution) and nine minutes (any slower than this
and you may be a bit late). Immediately build a Stable near the enemy and
begin researching Toolworking and the Leather Cavalry Armor upgrades at your
storage pit. As soon as your military building is done, start making Scouts.
Quickly build another house (because you'll only have housing for two more
units).
It is important to use Scouts in the Push strategy because one of the key
objectives of the attack is to explore the enemy territory. Don't spend your
resources on building another military building unless your Scouts are doing a
good job killing enemy Villagers.
As soon as your first Scout is completed, make another one. With your first
Scout your best bet is to kill Villagers that aren't in large groups. Once you
have two or more Scouts, though, you'll do fine to attack concentrated areas
of Villagers (such as the enemy lumberyard). If your Scouts are fighting a
losing battle against a horde of angry Villagers, move them away. Try to
entice the enemy Villagers to pursue; if they're chasing your Scout they're not
working and if they're not working you're gaining ground on your opponent
economically.
If you encounter one or two Villagers trying to construct a building
(especially a building required for the enemy to achieve the Bronze Age), do
everything you can to stop them. When you hit the first builder, he will stop
building and begin to run. Immediately move to the next builder and hit him.
He'll stop building, too. Instead of following a single builder until it dies,
keep harassing the builders. Often you can prevent the building from being
completed (further delaying the enemy's progression to Bronze).
If the battle is going well with your first two Scouts, continue training
Scouts and consider making another military building near the enemy. Use your
Scouts to sweep the area, searching for pockets of hidden Villagers. If you
have three or four Scouts searching the enemy town and you can't find any more
Villagers (you think you've killed them all), keep looking but stop training
Scouts. Now you should start saving food to Bronze and finish your enemy in
the Bronze Age.
If your two Scouts encounter heavy resistance, stop training Scouts, wall your
area (if possible), and move straight to the Bronze Age. With an economy of 18
Villagers you shouldn't be very far behind your opponent (especially if your
Scouts have done their job and killed a few enemy Villagers).
The Tool Push is a very strong strategy because it allows you to delay your
pass or play decision depending on what your enemy does and how he reacts to
your first, probing attack. The flexibility of the attack makes it one of the
most powerful Tool attacks of the game.
======
=Rush=
======
You don't necessarily have to be fast to win, but if you are slow you will
probably lose.
-ThumP
The generic Tool Rush, which is the foundation of Tool-Aged warfare, is fast,
offensive, and powerful. The Tool Rush is very similar to the Tool Push, but
it hits faster and is a more determined attack. Tooling with only 16
Villagers, a Tool Rusher will Tool in anywhere from just under seven minutes
(in a perfectly executed Tool Rush with lots of shore fish) to nine minutes.
Anything over about nine minutes is a little slow (and defeats the purpose).
The primary objective of a Tool Rush is to attack your opponent while he's
still undefended (likely while he's rushing to the Bronze Age). A Tool Rush
typically involves a full-scale attack in the Tool Age. You attack
relentlessly; continuing to produce military units until you kill all the enemy
Villagers you can find or your attack is repelled. Even a failed Tool Rush
usually wounds the enemy enough to buy you some time to move to the Bronze Age
(but Bronzing is NOT a main objective of the Tool Rush).
Just as with the Tool Push, switch your Villagers all to food once you have
completed your first two Stone Age buildings, switch them back to wood as
needed after clicking on the Tool upgrade, then distribute them among food and
wood as appropriate. Obviously, if your main attack is with food-based units
(Axers or Scouts), you need more (if not ALL) of your Villagers collecting
food. If you're training Bowmen, keep a few Villagers chopping wood.
It is usually pretty easy to recognize the symptoms of an enemy Tool Rush. If
your opponent stops training Villagers near 16, Tools quickly, has a high
exploration, and begins researching additional technologies immediately after
Tooling, expect to be Tool Rushed. If your opponent gains the bonus for
"largest military" in less than about 9 1/2 minutes, you can be even more
certain that the Tool Rush is coming.
The best way to defend against a Tool Rush is to NOT advance into the Bronze
Age immediately. Moving into the Bronze Age while you're low in resources and
under heavy attack in the Tool Age will likely lose the game for you. For a
few moments you need to deal with the issue at hand-repel the rush. The first
thing you should do is research either the Tower or the Wall upgrade. If your
lumberjacks are in an area that is easily walled, wall off immediately. If
you cannot wall, have all of your lumberjacks build a tower. Towers work very
well for slowing down all Tool units except hordes of Axers.
If your enemy is Tool Rushing, he is counting on Tooling before you. Watch his
Villager count, and if he stops at 16, you should probably make no more than
about 18-20 Villagers before Tooling. If his military units show up before you
have arrived in the Tool Age, check to see if they have the defensive upgrades.
If there are just a few (one or two) enemy units and they don't have the
defensive upgrades, it's time for "mob warfare". Attack them with all
available Villagers en masse. If the enemy units have the defensive upgrades,
it's probably best to scatter and "ride it out" until you've arrived in the
Tool Age (this is especially true if you're using Yamato or Assyria-with their
fast Villagers). Immediately after arriving in the Tool Age build an Archery
Range near your lumber. Begin making Bowmen and if the enemy is attacking with
Scouts research Leather Archer Armor. Try to get a group of six to eight
archers and keep them close together. This should be enough to repel any Tool-
Aged attack (but it may be too late by then).
One of the most classic finishes in the Tool Age is called The Kiss of Death.
You can use this technique if you're attacking, you've researched the wall, you
don't see any enemy Villagers or military near his TC, and your Villager near
the enemy has survived. Build a wall directly around (and adjacent to) the
enemy's TC. By surrounding the enemy's TC with a wall (or even the foundation
of a wall that you're in the process of building), he will not be able to train
any more Villagers. When he tries to train a Villager, he'll get the message
Not enough room to place unit. You've now stopped him from making more
Villagers. This will often end the game (hence the name Kiss of Death).
In any case, your primary targets in a Tool Rush are Villagers. The classic
successful Tool Rush ends with the enemy desperately trying to arrive in Bronze
Age, starting the upgrade, then finally arriving in the Bronze Age without
enough resources to build a single Bronze-Age unit (and no Villagers left).
=======
=Blitz=
=======
Tool Blitzing is the fastest (yet most dangerous) of the rushes. The highly
offensive Blitz sacrifices all economy and any hope of Bronzing in exchange for
pure Tool speed. It has been said that:
My tool rush is always devastating, but not always to my enemy.
-Malachi
(taken from http://www.ns.net/~thump/quotes.htm)
The Tool Blitz provides a great opportunity to kill yourself in a failed Tool-
Aged attack because it is extremely risky. When a Tool Blitz is successful,
though, it is one of the most beautiful achievements in the game. One reason
the Blitz is loved by those who use it is because of the intense risk involved.
There are few things that parallel the adrenaline rush you feel as you click on
the "Tool" upgrade with a miniscule economy at just over four minutes into the
game.
The objective of the Blitz is to make about 12 (but no more than 14) Villagers
and Tool extremely fast, often hitting your enemy with Tool units before he's
even begun to upgrade to the Tool Age. The best Blitzes allow you to arrive to
the Tool Age in around six minutes, but anything under about seven and a half
minutes is acceptable. Due to the fact that you'll probably hit your enemy
before he has enough resources (or technology) to mount any sort of a defense
at all, Clubbers and Axers are great units to use in a Blitz.
If you don't have a great starting spot (with shore fish near lumber), don't
even think about Blitzing. You must have plenty of easily accessible food and
wood AND find the enemy very quickly to make the Blitz a feasible strategy.
Since you'll only be making 12 Villagers (and at least one of them will be
scouting for the enemy), you need to make dramatic shifts in workload,
allocating nearly everyone to food before Tooling, then wood, then food again
as appropriate.
With Shang you can scout for your enemy with one of your starting Villagers,
but you still must find the enemy in just a few minutes (perhaps three-four
minutes) or the Blitz will probably fail. Build a barracks near the enemy's
town in the Stone Age and gather the wood so that you can make a 2nd military
building immediately upon Tooling. In most cases, if I haven't found the enemy
by the time I've completed my 10th Villager (time to build another house), I'll
proceed to build the next house and NOT use the Blitz.
I often use Axers in a Tool Blitz, and my first two military buildings are
usually both barracks. While still in the Stone Age I'll begin making
Clubbers. I can often train about three Clubbers from a single barracks before
making it to the Tool Age. Always try to have extra food for upgrades when you
arrive at Tool. Once you arrive at Tool, research the Leather Infantry Armor
and Toolworking. Also build another Barracks and continue to train Clubbers
while getting the Axer upgrade. I often hit with a group of about three or
four Clubbers that will turn into fully upgraded Axers at about the same time
they arrive in the enemy town. There are various tactics and techniques that
work well at this point. My favorite is to send one or two of my first Axers
to the enemy's berry patch and the rest to his lumberyard. Keep making Axers
from both barracks, and if you can spare any extra food, continue to make
Villagers, too. Don't forget to keep making houses as necessary to support the
extra units.
Other Tool units will also work for a Tool Blitz. If you're using Assyria or
Phoenicia, build Bowmen (and get the Leather Archer Armor upgrade because
you'll likely have a group of angry Villagers attacking your Bowmen).
Once you've either killed all of the enemy Villagers or forced them to run
away, try to follow them with a single Axer, then immediately have all the rest
of your Axers start destroying buildings. If you've created a horde of Bowmen,
send them all in different directions looking for enemy Villagers. Bowmen are
very ineffective for destroying buildings.
At this point in the game you'll often have about a dozen military units in the
enemy Village. If you're using Axers, you'll be able to mow down buildings
very quickly. One key target is the enemy's TC. This is because if he has no
TC, he be unable to Bronze. In a well-executed Tool Blitz you can destroy the
enemy's TC in under 12 minutes (and there are very few players that can Bronze
in under 12 minutes while under attack). In the best-case scenario, the enemy
will have just enough food to Bronze and will spend all 800 food for the Bronze
upgrade. Then, just before he arrives at the Bronze Age, you'll finish
destroying his TC (and he loses all the food). If you find yourself on the
receiving end of a Tool Blitz, do not try to Bronze while under heavy attack.
If you're in danger of losing your TC while upgrading to the next age, cancel
the upgrade and you'll get food back before your TC is destroyed.
Another favorite target is the Storage Pit. Without the Pit or TC the enemy
won't be able to get wood, and without wood the enemy will be unable to
relocate his workers. Concentrating on houses is secondary because you've
usually killed enough Villagers that your opponent will not need more houses.
If everything else seems to be gone, though, houses are good targets because
they are quick to destroy (of course, there is no strategic reason to kill a
Granary unless there is nothing left to destroy because you can, with a single
Axer, prevent workers from gathering food).
Soon you'll want to get a stable (especially if he escapes with a lot of
Villagers). Hunt down the escapees with a Scout and use your Axer lynch mob
(or Bowmen) to clean up. Be wary of bodies of water... you don't want your
enemy dock fishing under any circumstances. If he's doing that, wage a scout
ship war with him and/or destroy his Dock ASAP with your Axers.
In a best case scenario, you arrive at Tool in under six minutes and are in the
enemy town by about seven or seven and a half minutes with upgraded Axemen.
Odds are he hasn't even started the Tool upgrade yet. This spells big trouble
for your opponent.
It is very easy to detect a Tool Blitz because the enemy will stop training
Villagers at around 12 or so and will Tool extremely quickly. Defending
against a good Blitz is very difficult (even if you know it's coming). The
best solution is to gather lots of wood and have at least 120 wood before your
enemy attacks. Once the attack rolls into your town, scatter your Villagers
and find a nice, remote spot on the far side of the map to get lumber. Don't
let the Axers follow you. If you've managed to Tool, research the Wall upgrade
and wall in a hidden pocket of lumber production. Build a dock or two and
start making boats to dock fish. If you can manage to arrive in the Bronze
Age in less than about 17 minutes, you'll likely totally destroy the Blitzer;
he'll likely stay in Tool and work on destroying your buildings.
The shock value of the rush is amazing. Tooling with only 12 Villagers and
attacking with Clubbers and Axers is such a bizarre strategy that even the best
players will chuckle when they see it coming if they don't know what you're up
to. I've played people that laughed in my face when they saw my first Clubbers
enter their town ("Haha! Clubbers!?") It wasn't so funny, though, when the
Clubbers turned into Axers and they just kept on coming. When the enemy TC is
destroyed in less than 13 minutes (and he is unable to Bronze and doesn't have
the wood to build another TC), it'll be your turn to laugh. One of the
greatest advantages of the Blitz is that most people underestimate the damage
you can do with a horde of angry Axers at the sub-10 minute mark. Since you'll
often begin attacking before the enemy even begins the Tool upgrade, he'll have
NO defense for quite a while. In some cases the enemy will never make it to
Tool. In very few cases he'll make it to Bronze. If he makes it to Bronze
with enough resources to make a Bronze-Age army, you've almost certainly lost.
The Tool Blitz is an all-or-nothing, do-or-die attack.
============
=Conclusion=
============
Although most people view the Tool Age only as something that needs to be
passed through to get to the Bronze Age (a necessary evil of sorts), it plays
an extremely important part in an experienced player's game. If your opponent
is planning to rush headlong through the Tool Age, you're liable to catch him
unawares with a Tool attack. Many players are so focused on the Bronze Age
that they don't watch for the signs of (much less prepare for) Tool warfare.
Use this Bronze myopia to your advantage by controlling your enemy in the Tool
Age. Master the first 15 minutes of the game and get a black belt in Age of
Empires jiu-jitsu. Make the Tool Age your battlefield and force your enemy to
fight you there.
Have fun, good luck, and 'cya on the battlefield!
*thump* *thump*
-ThumP
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
9. Codes
These codes were taken from Scott Ong's FAQ. I credit him for them.
o BIG BERTHA
Transforms Heavy Catalpults to Big Berthas [better units]
---------------------------
o BIGDADDY
Create a black-coloured car with a rocket launcher [Winsetti'sZ]. -Very
easy to be converted!-
Note: provided you have Town Center.
---------------------------
o BIG MOMMA
Creat a white-coloured card with a rocket launcher [Winsetti's other Z]
-Very easy to be converted!-
Note: provided you have Town Center.
---------------------------
o BLACK RIDER
Convert Horse Archers into Black Riders. Well, I don't know what it does
but it will be invisible to the enemy, I guess.
---------------------------
o COINAGE
Added 1,000 Gold to your stockpile.
---------------------------
o CONVERT THIS!
Create a Pirest unit [Saint Franics] that gives out Lightning Bolts!
Note: provided you have Town Center
---------------------------
o DARK RAIN
Transforms Bowman to Composite Bowman which could camouflage into
trees when not moving.
---------------------------
o DIEDIEDIE
Causes all enemy units to die.
---------------------------
o E=MC2 TROOPER
Creates a Nuke Trooper with a rocket launcher.
Note: provide you have Town Center.
---------------------------
o FLYING DUTCHMAN
Transforms Juggernaught into Flying Dutchman. Now the Flying Dutchman
could travels on both lands and sea.
---------------------------
o GAIA
Allows you to controls the monsters such as Elephants, Lions and
Gazelles but you will lost the controls of your villagers.
---------------------------
o GRANTLINKSPENCE
Transforms animals into kings-type animals [example: Elephant being
transformed into Elephant King]
---------------------------
o HARI KARI
Commits suicide. You will automatically lost the game.
---------------------------
o HOMERUN
Wins the current campaign
---------------------------
o HOYOHOYO
Priests will become faster and stronger.
---------------------------
o ICBM
Helepolis/Ballista have 100x Range Points
---------------------------
o JACK BE NIMBLE
Catapults/Stone Thrower/Heavy Catpult will throws werid items such as
cows or villagers.
---------------------------
o KILLX
Kill player X
---------------------------
o KING ARTHUR
Turns flying creatures [Eagles and Hawks] into HP: 999 Dragons. No
effect on the game. You will see Dragons wandering around at the sky.
---------------------------
o NO FOG
Removes the fog of war.
---------------------------
o PEPPERONI PIZZA
Added 1000 Food to your stockpile.
---------------------------
o PHOTON MAN
Create a Nuke Trooper armed with a laser-gun at a high rate.
Note: provided you have a Town Center.
---------------------------
o POW!
Create a BabyPrez with high attacking power!
Note: provided you have a Town Center.
---------------------------
o QUARRY
Added 1000 Stone to your stockpile
---------------------------
o RESIGN
You resign from the battle.
---------------------------
o REVEAL MAP
Reveal the whole map
---------------------------
o STERIODS
Buildings and units are being created instantly
---------------------------
o STORMBILLY
Create a Zug 209 Robot [like the robot walkers at Star Wars]
Note: provided you have a Town Center.
---------------------------
o WOODSTOCK
Added 1000 Wood to your stockpile.