One of the keys to building and getting good is being fast and aggressive. In order to become fast you need to learn the RoR hotkeys. Hotkeys is just a fancy name for using the keyboard to build. I'm not going to list all the hotkeys but you should learn them, they are listed in the manuel or you should be able to find them online. I forget how I learned them.

Onward we go, in this write up I will be using Hittite vs. Hittite and Hill Country as the map, but it is generally the same for all civilizations and maps. I will not be discussing a start or getting an economy, if you want that go to the strategy page.

When you start the game you will want to find your opponent quickly. Now how do you do that? If you are lucky your opponent will have a relic or ruin next to him at the start. He will immediately capture it at the start and that will signal you on the diamond map where he is. But that usually doesn't happen so let's learn another way to find him.

The first principle you have to know is that every player ALWAYS starts out on semi-flat land, berry bushes near by, and is always around the edge of the map.  So now you know that, it helps a little bit but how can you be sure? It's very simple, select a villager, pick something to build (anything), you should have a building on your cursor. Start moving your mouse over the area where you think your opponent should be (it should be pretty easy to find the general area when you know the basic principles).  If you are over your opponent the building on your cursor will turn red as if you were unable to build in that area, and the reason you can't build there its because your enemy is there!

Now that we know where our enemy is, it's time to build. There are different ways you can go now, you could choose to take land really close to them. You could also "backdoor" them, which consists of building behind them where they will most likely not check for you to building, this can be very devastating if they do not catch it (good players usually check for backdoors or just build lots of priests to counter). Another alternative is to just build nice and give them their room (or you could be getting surrounded yourself) and build closer to you, which will get you an army faster. Or you could do any combo of these. You may be thinking, why don't I just build all over the map? It's simple, it wastes a ton of wood and they could just easily build a couple towers and clear a path for them to build since you will not be able to build them all that fast.

Let's get off track a moment and discuss "painting". Painting is when your opponent builds extremely close to you, sometimes in your town center area, or takes all your available land, making you unable to find a place to build. Some people will resign immediately when someone paints them or will just whine and accuse the person that painted them of cheating. But most good players will usually deal with painting by building towers to clear the land for them, though they will still most likely complain (even I sometimes complain) since it does slow you down a bit from building. Painting is not cheating but is considered cheap by most. Painting doesn't really give you much other than a loss of wood, it does slow the other player down but to a good player it will be only a minor set back, though sometimes that can be the winning factor.

There is a form of painting called "phantom walling", this is when a player builds walls around their opponents town center right from the start. This makes the player unable to move their villagers, and they will have to kill the walls one by one with their villagers. Why doesn't everyone do this? Because it is just cheap, and is borderline cheating, I and most every other players will resign immediately after being phantom walled. Okay, enough giving you ideas on "cheap" tactics.

Back to the real topic, generally you will want to surround your enemy with stables. When I say stables I mean more than a couple, you will want to build cluster of stables in several different areas in order to attack your enemy from multiple directing. The clusters of stables do not have to be in a pretty pattern or anything, just space them out a little. Do not build too close to your enemy, give him room too build. If you build too close, he will make towers and simply kill all your stables before they are built. But beware, do not leave open areas that he can get to your town, put towers up in those narrow places that are too small for stables.

You should start making elephants as soon as your first stable is up. As soon as you get a couple elephants you will want to send them towards your enemies town center area (also known as rushing or TC rushing), beware experts will be ready for this and will have priests in there town center in order to convert your rush. If you do this to a person that is not prepared, you can wipe out there villagers, economy and upgrades at the start, which will make them, waste more food.

By now you should have upgraded Iron Shield in a storage pit and be ready to upgrade to heavy elephants in a stable. It is important when you upgrade to pick a stable away from your opponent, near the back of one of your clusters of stables. If your opponent kills your heavy elephant upgrade, you’re in trouble. This also applies to upgrading all units, make sure you upgrade in places where you are unlikely to be attacked.

At this time you should be making lots of elephants, attacking your enemy from multiple angles and upgrading heavy elephants, and other technologies. You may choose to upgrade to scythes at this time but I usually only upgrade scythe if I foresee a long game or if the other player is heavy into making catapults. Also be sure not to be wasting too much food on elephants, you will need food for upgrades and maybe some more villagers to get an economy. Now is also a good time to make towers. Towers are great for support, build them behind or integrated with your clusters of stables. Towers do not have to be fully upgraded to Ballista but Guard towers are pretty much a must. This said, your opponent will most likely do the same thing, do not go over to his area and attack, let him come to you. Your elephants will own his units with the extra support of those towers.

While all this is happening you will need to find an area for siege workshops in order to make catapults. Do not build siege workshops early on. Do not build them in front of your stables, they should always be behind some place and hidden away. Also try not to send out your catapults until they have been fully upgraded to heavy catapults. When making siege shops it is always a good idea to build them in multiple areas of the map and have towers in guarding them. Usually a bit behind your clusters of stables is a good place for them but not too close especially if you are losing the battle near them or if fighting is still going on.

At this point, you may be losing land, or pushing the other person back, and your economy should be kicking in. But now it is time to move out your catapults because your elephants should be almost gone. If the other person has started attacking with catapults earlier than you, try making scythes or if you don't have time, directly attack with your catapults. I personally would suggest just taking some losses and make scythes/chariots vs. catapults since most people do not back their catapults with anything. On the other hand, if some how they still have elephants attacking you, go out with your catapults and kill them, and just continue working your way with catapults. You may want to make a few elephants - if you have the food - to stand along side your catapults in order to kill scythe attacks but watch out for priests.

Since RoR maps are not fair, one person often has one more gold and stone pit than another. Make sure to try and fight for that extra gold pit! Look for it early on, it can definitely make the difference. If you are the unfortunate one and have the 1 less gold pit and stone pit, I would highly recommend being very light on your catapults and upgrading scythe and ballista towers early on. Mainly use scythe vs. your opponent catapults, try and avoid going catapult vs. catapult with him unless he has something like towers supporting him, which in turn would make your scythe attacks some what useless.

If you are the one with the extra gold pit and stone pit it is still always a good idea to conserve your catapults since the opponent should play smart and be making scythe, if they are doing that, try making some archery ranges and making chariot archers to support your catapults.

So the game is still going? You all are probably getting semi-weak. If you have a good economy and have food I would suggest make a decent size force of elephants and attacking your opponent in a weak spot, preferably one without towers and hopefully without priests or catapults. If you’re lucky the other person may be very weak and may only have scythe, which should be a push over for your elephants.

This is the end, hopefully this has helped you in some way.