posted 21 February 2003 09:06 AM EDT (US)
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As known for a long time, Norse is the most different culture compared to the old AoK civs. And Thor is the most diverse Norse civ, giving a diverse gamestyle. I will here go through absolutely everything i know of Thor and his gamestyle. ----- Thor is famous for his all-dwarf buildup. This compensates making dwarves, and no gatherers, to save your food, giving you a very quick Classical time, perfect for a rush. First off, place your dwarves on the nearest gold mine, queue two dwarves at your TC, start scouting with your ulfsark and start researching Pickaxe. Then, select the TC and press CTRL+1, then select the ulfsark and press CTRL+2. I won't give you a detailed explenation for everything to do all the way through the game, so here's the build order: 1 - Gold, get Pickaxe As soon as you have two dwarves on chickens/berries, move them to the nearest hunting that is avaliable. If you have not yet found any hunting, wait until you do. 9 - Food (Pref. Hunt) When this dwarf is created, move the previous wood gatherers from the straggler trees to the forest. 11 - Train an Ox Cart, move to forest When you are at 14 pop, build a house. Around 2:45, you might want to move your ulfsark to where you will be building your temple. At about 3:00 you should start your temple. If you did this correctly and had no problems, you should reach Classical around 5:00. ----- God Power : Healing Spring Myth Unit: Troll (150W, 15Fv, 4 pop) Myth Tech: Hamartroll (200W, 10Fv) Myth Tech: Hall of Thanes (300F, 10Fv) Myth Tech: Mithril Breastplate (200F, 10Fv) God Power: Forest Fire Myth Unit: Valkyrie (200F, 15Fv, 3 pop) Myth Tech: Aurora Borealis (200G, 10Fv) Myth Tech: Thundering Hooves (300F, 15Fv) God Power: Frost Frost immobilizes an army for 50 seconds. But the frozen units get 99% hack, pierce and crush armor, so staying and trying to kill them is not of much use. Frost works about the same way as ceasefire, just more limited but more controlled. Myth Unit: Frost Giant (200G, 25Fv, 5 pop) Myth Tech: Rime (200F, 20Fv) Myth Tech: Huntress Axe (200W, 20Fv) Myth Tech: Winter Harvest (200F, 20Fv) God Power: Flaming Weapons Myth Unit: Battle Boar (300G, 35Fv, 4 pop) Myth Tech: Call of Valhalla (200W, 20Fv) Myth Tech: Swine Array (200W, 20Fv) Myth Tech: Thurisaz Rune (200W, 20Fv) God Power: Ragnarok Myth Unit: Fire Giant (300G, 35Fv, 5 pop) Myth Tech: Sons of Sleipnir (400F, 30Fv) Myth Tech: Dwarven Auger (300G, 35Fv) Myth Tech: Artic Gale (250W, 30Fv) God Power: Fimbulwinter Myth Unit: Fenris Wolf Brood (150G, 15Fv, 3 pop) Myth Unit: Jormund Elver (200G, 15Fv, 4 pop) Myth Tech: Bravery (400F, 30Fv) Myth Tech: Berserkergang (300G, 45Fv) ----- Now, for those who need to know, here are the bonuses that Thor gets: Dwarves: Cost -10 gold (results in 60 gold). God Power: Dwarven Mine Archaic - 500 gold You should use this GP when youdo no longer have a safe gold mine to mine from. Myth Tech: Pig Sticker (100G, 1Fv) ----- Now, as you read on Thor's bonuses, Dwarves gets a major role. This section is gonna explain exactly what Thor's Dwarves does. Food (Hunt) - 0.85 (same as Gatherer) (With other food i'm talking about berries and chickens.) As you can see, the only differance comes on Farming and Wood gathering. These differances however, is so small it does not deal any serious economic blow. ----- When you have excess resources around the 8 minute mark, you shold probably start getting some econ upgrades like Hand Axe, and if you are going to farm really soon, you should get Plow. Many people would now wonder what the gather rates for the Dwarf and Gatherer would be with upgrades. So here it goes: As you can see, the gold mining upgrade helps dwarves more than villagers. Note that this is calculated as 2 times 10% increase, so the numbers will be a little complicated. Gatherer: 0.91 + 10% = These upgrades helps dwarves even more than Pickaxe! But still, this is 10% + 10% + 10% as with Pickaxe. Shaft Mine: Quarry: See the differance after researching Quarry. Gatherers now gather gold at 1.21 gold/second while dwarves has almost a twice as fast rate. I'm not going to go so deep in this, as gold is the most important resource for Thor. But here's the upgrades' effects: Hunting Dogs: +30% Hunting Speed Hand Axe, Bow Saw and Carpenters: +10% Villager Wood Gathering Speed No special features of Food and Wood upgrades for the Dwarf. ----- The military improvements is quite simple; All Medium, Heavy and Champion upgrades gives: +10% Hitpoints, +10% Attack, +1 LOS For the unit that is being upgraded. And these percentages are calculated from the For the Armory upgrades, one of Thor's bonuses is making them cheaper. I.E. Copper Weapons costs 100F and 100G instead of 150F and 150G, also 33% cheaper. Here's how each of the Armory improvements work: +10% Hack/Pierce attack for all Human Soldiers, Ships, Heroes and Buildings. You should be able to do this by some simple maths: current attack / 10 = add attack current attack + add attack = new attack And new attack means the new amount of hack/pierce damage for the unit. -10% Hack (Mail) or Pierce (Shields) attack vounerability for Human Soldiers and Ships. To calculate this, read on: 100 - current armor = vounerability Here, you have the vounerability / 10 x 9 = upgraded And you have the upgraded vounerability. To restore this to armor, do this: 100 - upgraded = upgraded armor And there you have the new armor for your unit. But heroes gets 15% more armor, so here's how to calculate that: (100 - armor x 0.15) + (100 - armor) = voun 100 - vound = new armor ----- OK, we'll go on from where we stopped. On the way to classical, create two hersir from your temple. Be careful when building houses, you need wood for three longhouses (wich is 330 wood). While going to classical, queue up some dwarves and set the gather point on the forest. ----- When you hit Classical, let the ulfsark and hersirs build each its longhouse. This should result in having three longhouses. When they are done, start pumping RC and TA. The rule of economy now is simple. Create dwarves if you have too much gold, and gatherers if you have too much food or no gold. Idle TC time is unacceptable. The dwarves/gatherers should be spread around to your preferance. If you have excess resources, get some econ upgrades. When you have the resources to it, get Medium Infanry and Medium Cavalry and continiue pumping soldiers. If you have extra wood, build more longhouses. Around 8:00 you should have a decent army of 15-20 soldiers, maybe more, so attack about 8:00, and don't forget, keep pumping soldiers. In the attack, try hitting the enemy wood supply. Wood is the resource that is most exposed to raiding. If a tower stands in your way, destroy it. And remeber, you do not need to kill the enemy's villagers. Just make sure they aren't working. When they are not working, they are actually worse than dead, taking up pop space for no use. If the enemy army arrives, you should retreat. You should not try to fight the enemy in the border of his base. If he follows you, rally your army and the units that you have created while you were raiding, and defeat him. But in most cases, the enemy is smart enough not to. Then you should rally all you military (exept your ulfsark and hersirs, keep them at home for building buildings) and attack again. Repeat this until you have a large enough army to defeat his. When you can, build a Dwarven Armory, but don't get all the upgrades at once, remember that you should preferably be in Heroic by 13:30. After you have clicked the Heroic button, feel free to get as many Armory techs as you wish. ----- When you reach Heroic, it's time for some siege. Build one or several Hill Forts to create Portable Rams, Jarls and Huskarls. Also, get the Heavy upgrades ASAP. When you have a large army assembled, attack. At this time, you should have lots of longhouses and some hill forts, enough to keep pumping units as fast as you lose them. If you lose a battle, quickly attack again to make sure he doesn't get the chance to rebuild. In Heroic, you should also start creating some MUs with all the favor you have gained. Myth Techs is also an option. OK, there's really not much more to say. Use your GPs when you should (read the guide above), keep pumping soldiers, get to Mythic Age when you want to... You're on your own. Good Luck! ----- Give me feedback please (i would prefer good feedback). I think this's a very good guide for Thor beginners and better players. [This message has been edited by AT_Excalibur (edited 02-21-2003 @ 10:53 AM).]
2 - Gold
3 - Gold
4 - Gold
5 - Wood (Straggler trees)
6 - Wood (Straggler trees)
7 - Food (Chickens/Berries)
7 - Train an Ox Cart, move to food
8 - Food (Chicken/Berries
10 - Food (Pref. Hunt)
11 - Wood (Forest)
12 - Wood (Forest)
13 - Food (Hunt)
14 - Food (Hunt)
15 - Food (Hunt)
The healing spring heals idle units (not moving, building or fighting) at the rate of 2.5 HP/second, wich is a quite good rate, as it heals all units near the spring at the same time. The Healing Spring cannot be destroyed, but can be captured by enemy soldiers if he moves more units there than you have. The Healing Spring should be placed in the middle of your longhouses, providing healing to your wounded soldiers whenever you retreat.
The Troll is one of the two units the Norse have that can do pierce damage (the Ballista is the other). This can be very useful if your enemy is using units with high hack armor. The troll also has the ability to heal itself when it damages other units or buildings.
Troll +50 HP, +2 Range, +20% Attack
Simply improves your Trolls.
Hersir +10% HP, +10% Speed
This tech is very useful if you are facing lots of MUs.
Ulfsark +10% Hack Armor
This tech is probably only useful if you're facing Poseidon, as Ulfsarks are rarely seen.
This GP burns down an entire forest, damaging units and buildings close enough. But if the forest is huuuge like the ones on Oasis, the GP has a maximum durance time that is about 45 seconds i think. This GP is effective vs Hades if you make sure you're targeting his main wood source. Forest Fire can also be used to take out some military buildings or at least damage them. If you're aiming for damaging buildings, target this GP a little inside the edge of the forest that is close to the buildings. If you are aiming to destroy one's wood supply, target this in the center of the forest, burning it down as fast as possible.
The Valkyrie is a fast cavalry MU that can heal friendly units. With its high speed it can be used for raiding if you want to.
Valkyrie Heals faster, +6 Attack
Improves the Valkyrie to a killer lady with 18 attack! It makes them heal much faster too.
Raiding Cavalry +10% Speed, +20% HP
Valkyrie +20% Speed, +10% HP
This makes the Valkyrie and Raiding Cavalry the two fastest units in the game. It improves your raiding and makes retreating more easy (at lest for your cav).
The frost giant is a slow but strong MU. It has the special attack of freezing a single unit like frost does, but the armor will stay the same.
Frost Giant +33% HP +20% Attack, -25% Special Attack recharge time
Improves your Frost Giant, simply. A thing to remember about this tech lets Frost Giants freeze more units.
Throwing Axeman +1 Attack
If you're going with the very popular TA and RC combo, this tech is a must.
Villager +20% Farming speed
A very useful tech to get after you've gotten farms up.
This GP lets all human soldiers have much more attack for 1 minute. Using this GP adds the original attack value (without any upgrades) to the current attack. It can completely turn the tide of the battle, so make sure you do not use it until you are sure you will need it. Also, don't use it before you are a little into the battle.
The Battle Boar is a strong mellee MU that has the special attack of kicking nearby units away, hurting them a bit.
Ulfsark +25% HP
If you are facing much cavalry, this tech is quite useful. But even more useful is the next...
Ulfsark have double attack vs Cavalry
This makes Bragi an excellent choise if you're going against Poseidon. With this tech, Ulfsarks will slaughter Hippikons!
Myth Units +12% Speed
If you are going to use Myth Units heavily, this Tech is quite useful.
This GP turns all your existing Gatherers and Villagers into Ragnarok Heroes, strong Hero soldiers that should only exist for a last-ditch effort to survive.
A ranged MU that does hack damage. It has a rather weak Special Attack IMO, it throws 3 Fireballs that does 10 Hack to all units near the hit-point, but is still the strongest MU of the Norse.
Raiding Cavalry +200% attack vs Archers and Throwing Axemen
This really does not multiply 3 to the original attack value vs Archers/TAs, it adds 2 to the attack bonus RC have vs Archers/TA. Very effective vs Hades or Set.
Portable Ram +20% Speed, +20% Attack, halfs Build Time
This and Draft Horses makes the PRam about as fast as Cavalry, and makes it able to destroy buildings, then run from infantry! It's a must.
Siege Ship +20% Speed, +30% Hack Armor
If you're doing battles on the sea, this tech is quite useful. It makes Siege Ships faster and more resistant to Hammer Ships.
Several strong MU Wolves bill be summoned near all settlements that is close to your enemies. The wolves will rampage the enemy city, but will die after 15 seconds. Fimbulwinter should be used together with a strong attack, as it will not make much use without any army support.
The Fenris Wolf Brood is not very strong alone, but it gets stronger and faster the more additional wolf is nearby, 20% more attack and speed to be exact.
The Jormund Elver is a strong, ranged naval MU. It has much HP and can destroy several ships alone. If you group them, they will be devastating. They also train very fast.
Huskarls have double attack vs Buildings
This is a very useful tech; The Huskarl is resistant to arrow fire and can therefore get close to buildings, and with this tech they will destroy buildings fast as well.
Ulfsark +20% HP, +10% Attack
Another tech that can be useful if you are facing much cavalry.
Dwarves: Gather resources just as fast as normal Gatherers, and keeps their gold mining bonus.
Dwarven Armory: Costs 75 Wood (Armory 150)
Dwarven Armory: Can be built in Archaic age.
Dwarven Armory: All Armory techs can be researched in all ages.
Dwarven Armory: 3 extra Armory techs are avaliable.
Armory Techs: -33% Cost
This GP will create a gold mine at the place you want. The later you use this GP, the more gold the mine will contain. Here's the numbers:
Classical - 1000 gold
Heroic - 3000 gold
Mythic - 6000 gold
Gatherer/Dwarf/Gatherer +500% damage while Hunting Animals, +20% Hunted Animal gather speed.
This tech is probably to get in classical. Getting it in archaic has one problem: You need one favor. You will either have to hunt or damage your enemy's scout a little to get this tech in archaic.
Food (Herd) - 0.73 (same as Gatherer)
Food (Farm) - 0.66 (Gatherer: 0.69)
Other Food - 0.73 (same as Gatherer)
Wood - 1.00 (Gatherer: 1.08)
Gold - 1.09 (Gatherer: 0.91)
Villager: +10% Gold Mining Speed, carry +5 gold.
Dwarf: +
Dwarf: 1.09 + 10% = 1.20 + 10% =
Villager: +10% Gold Mining Speed, carry +5 gold.
Dwarf: +
Gatherer: 1.00 + 10% =
Dwarf: 1.32 + 10% (1.45) + 10% (1.60) + 10% =
Gatherer: 1.10 + 10% =
Dwarf: 1.76 + 10% (1.94) + 10% (2.13) + 10% =
Husbandry: +30% Herd Animal Fattening Speed, +10% Herd, Berry and Chicken Gather Speed
Plow, Irrigation and Flood Control: +10% Farming Rate
+10% Crush damage for Siege Ships.
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