I have made a Guide for beating Isis with Ra, but because I am not rated highly enough, it is not preferable to be in the Strategy Section of the site (which is fair enough )

You can download it here to view the orignal document with all formatting and pictures:

http://quircus.port5.com/Isis vs Ra/How to beat Isis with Ra.doc

Here is is in BB format - with pics 'n' all! lol....:

How to beat Isis with Ra
Age of Mythology: The Titans (1.03)

Version 1.0c

Introduction

When AOM first came out, I knew that Egyptians would be my favourite for a few reasons, but the main ones being the fact that I prefer booming than rushing/classical aggression, and also the fact that Egypt has the best healing in the game. I first played Isis, but went to Ra after a couple of months because of his Priest Empowerment...

Ra's Bonuses
• Pharaoh Resource Empowerment Rate +5%
• Priests can Empower:
-30% Building Build Time
-20% Unit/Research Create/Train Time
+15% Resources
• +10% Chariot Archer and Camel HP
• +10% Chariot Archer and Camel Speed
• Monuments -25% cost; +20% HP.


Isis's Bonuses
• Monuments Shield against God Powers (Radius: 40m)
• Technologies (except Age Ups and Secrets of the Titans) -10% Food/Wood/Gold Cost
• Town Centers Support +3 Population
• Priests Build Obelisks 60% Faster; -33% Obelisk Cost

Notes on Empowering:
- Empowering a Town Center does not decrease: Villager Train Time; Age Advancement Time; Secrets of the Titans Research Time.
- Empowering a Town Center does decrease: Myth Tech Research Time (e.g. Sun-Dried Mud Brick, Skin of the Rhino etc.)

As we can see, both Gods have 4 bonuses. But why is it that many people think Isis is better than Ra (especially in recent threads)? Here are a few things that I think makes Isis more attractive than Ra, ignoring their civilization bonuses:

- Ra gets no Water Myth Units; Isis gets 2 (as does Set)
- Ra gets no Nephthys (considered by many to be the best Heroic God in the Game). This means no Ancestors (or Ancestors + Eclipse), no Scorpion Man (decent Myth Unit; useful meatshield), and no Priest upgrades (these being: +20% Pharaoh Attack; +30% Pharaoh/Son of Osiris HP; +400% Priest/Pharaoh Damage Multiplier vs Myth Units; -30% Priest Cost; +100% Priest/Pharaoh Healing Rate).
- Ra gets no offensive God Powers until Mythic (however, since most strategies involving Ra require Osiris, he gets no “offensive God Powers” at all). Locust Swarm and Tornado are the only real offensive God Powers, but both are difficult to use against Isis’ God Power-blocking monuments...

Right, so now we see why some people feel Isis is better than Ra (apart from the fact that she’s so sexy...). I am now going to explain a strategy (which has many different options throughout) which can beat an equal-skilled Isis Player. The main reason for this is the predictability of Isis. The only problem, in my view, is if the Isis Player is extremely unorthodox and does not perform an FH (Fast Heroic).

Archaic Age

You have several goals for the Archaic Age:
- Never stop producing Villagers
- Have an economy which will allow you to have 800F and 500G by the time you have built your Armoury in Classical (More details later) without using Rain.
- Have a better economy than Isis (this is quite easy to do, providing you distribute your villagers accordingly)

Basic Build Order for Ra vs Isis:
First Villager + Pharaoh build Monument
Seconds Villager + Priest build Granary
<Priest Empowers Food>
<Research Husbandry if it is a Non-Hunting Map>
<Pharaoh Explores around your Base, picking up any Relics you find>
Next 4 Villagers (and the First and Second Villager) go to Food
Next 4 Villagers to Gold
<Research Hunting Dogs if it is a Hunting Map, when you have enough Gold>
Next Villager Build 3 Houses around your Forward Tower; Build Temple when you have enough Gold; Build 7 more Houses
<Pharaoh comes back to Empower your Temple Building, Dropping off any Relics you found, Empowers Gold>
<Create 2 Priests, when you have enough Gold – First Empowers TC for Herdables and Straggler Trees; Second builds Obelisks and Explores>
Next 2 Villagers to Wood

Map with 2 starting Hunting/Chicken/Berry Patches: Next 8 Vills to Food, Next X Vills to Herdables
Map with lots of Sheep/Cows: Next 6 Vills to Food, Next X Vills to Herdables

<Advance to Classical under Bast when you have 400 Food (Arrive in Classical at 5:30-6:15) - Preferably 6:00+>

Why Bast?

Ptah

Technologies:
• Scalloped Axe (+10% Axeman Attack)
• Leather Frame Shield (Spearmen -10% Pierce Vulnerability)
• Electrum Bullets (+10% Slingers Attack)
• Shaduf (-33% Farm Cost; -50% Farm Build Time)
Myth unit: Wadjet
Essentially a tough archer unit, the Wadjet is good against infantry and poor against fast tough units like cavalry. Wadjets regenerate HP.

God power: Shifting Sands
Shifting Sands transports any units - belonging to you or an enemy - to any point on the map you have line of sight to. It will transport all friendly units, or a limited number of enemies - but not both.


So, as we can see, Ptah’s Technologies are completely useless to a Ra Fast Heroic as they benefit Barracks Units. Although his cheaper farms are quite useful, we will not be using Rain in our Fast Heroic so it is not as important. His God Power, Shifting Sands is greatly weakened by Isis’s Monuments. This leaves the Wadjet...although a good Support Myth Unit, it is not worth going Ptah just for his Myth Unit.

Bast

Technologies:
• Sacred Cats (+10% Villager Farming Rate)
• Adze of Wepwawet (+400% Villager Damage vs Tress; +10% Villager Wood Gather Rate)
• Criosphinx (+50 Sphinx HP; +20% Sphinx Hack Attack; +50% Sphinx Crush Attack)
• Hieracosphinx Sphinx (+20% Sphinx Speed; +20% Sphinx Hack Attack; +50% Sphinx Crush Attack)
Myth unit: Sphinx
The Sphinx is good against buildings. Its special attack is a whirlwind of sand that damages nearby units.

God power: Eclipse
Increases Myth unit attack by 50% and speed by 20% for one minute. Eclipse prevents other GP's from being used while it is in effect.


So, a few reasons why Bast is better: Your opponent will go Bast unless they are weird...this means that you can have the same economic advantages as your Isis opponent, plus your Priests. Also, the Sphinx is useful for taking out Migdols and for dealing damage to a group of units in a Meatshield. The final reason is that you will need Eclipse. Your opponent will almost always use Eclipse with Ancestors, and so, you can beat your opponent in a Titan fight with Eclipse.

During Transition:

- Move 2 Villagers from Herdables to Gold
- DO NOT research Pickaxe, Handaxe or Plow! (You will not need these until your Transition to Heroic because of your Priests)
- Make another Priest to Empower Wood, once your Straggler Trees run out

Classical Age:

Now, you have probably advanced close to the time that your opponent did. This gives you the advantage...why? Because your Priests mean your economy is better and you should have more resources than your Isis opponent at the moment (except perhaps Gold if they used Prosperity)

Unless your opponent is being extremely unorthodox, he will start building his armoury and advance to the Heroic Age. So, we shall do the same. Take your 3 Wood Villagers and your new wood Priest to build an armoury around the Tower with only one house (you should almost have 3 Houses around the other 3 Towers). Use your “house building” villager to help (He can join your woodies after the Armoury is completed).

While all this is going on, keep creating villagers and putting them to Gold (unless you have a shortage of Food to advance with).

Now, if you had a bad start, you may have to forcefully drop off resources until you have 800F and 500G. Otherwise, click the button...


Hathor or Sekhmet?

This may seem obvious, but I assure you, it’s not...in almost all situations, Hathor is the Best Choice for a few reasons:

- Because you built your first Monument early, you should have enough Favour to make a further 3 Petsuchos when you hit Heroic.
- She lets your Mercenaries last 30 seconds longer, which can be vital in an Egypt battle.
- She makes your Buildings Stronger, and makes MIGDOLS cheaper!! (Also, Wonders are cheaper and stronger, should you need/want to build one)
- Rocs are extremely useful
- Locust Swarm is a great GP and can potentially shut down Food production for a minute or two, and cost the opponent valuable Gold/Wood (It can also be used to stop villagers building a Titan Gate).

HOWEVER, there are 5 reasons I can think of why Sekhmet is your best choice when against an Isis Fast Heroic:

1) Isis will have +9 Pop Slots than you, equalling 3 Camels/Chariots! Sekhmet’s Citadel allows you to even this out by providing your Home TC with +10 Pop Slots, and increased protection against raids
2) Isis’s God Power Blocking prevents the use of Locust Swarm
3) Isis’s Priests will be able to take out your Petsuchos quite quickly, but Scarabs have much higher Pierce Armour and so stand up better to Nephthys Priests
4) Scarabs are useful in preventing/destroying Migdols, along with the improved Seige (If you get to Heroic first, get your Scarab near their base and try to stop that Migdol from going up – if you can you have a GREAT advantage!).
5) Bone Bow makes your Chariots amazing raiders, not to mention better Camel/Elephant support, outranging everything except Seige. And with Burning Pitch in Mythic, they’ll be able to snipe buildings without getting harmed.

The plan for after you have hit Heroic:

- Use Citadel ASAP on your Home TC (you cannot risk losing the +10 Pop)!
- Send your free Scarab and Sphinx to disrupt their Migdol building

- Build 4 Priests when you can, and bring your Pharaoh to the front line (do not let this delay your Migdol building, however) This is essential for the Ancestors + Eclipse!
- Build a Migdol straight away at your forward-most TC with your Woodies
- Build your Forward TC ASAP and chop wood near it afterwards

- Build your second Monument ASAP
- Spam Camels and Chariots, with a few Elephants sprinkled in
- Keep up a steady Economy, trying to end with 72-76 villagers, and 3 Priests (one for each Resource – you’ll need your Pharaoh to fight Scorpion Men). Send your first 6 or so villagers to Gold because you’ll need craploads of it!

Now it’s the fight for the TCs. You should try to hang around their forward TC. You have an advantage because you have Food-costing MUs to use as Seige, which means you don’t need to waste time building a Seige Workshop or waste resources on Seige as your opponent will have to.

Here is the raiding problem, which we knew we’d have when we chose Sekhmet...we have no Rocs for Seige + Chariot drops to disrupt enemy Gold Mines. This means you must try find the enemy Gold Mines quickly and to send a group of Chariots every now and again to harass them.


A few points:

- DO NOT FORGET ARMOURY UPGRADES! Get these upgrades during a period of no fighting to improve your raiders and fighters. Attack is the priority, and then get whichever armour you need to counter the enemy’s most massed unit.
- In a straight-up Heroic fight, Ra should win because of his Chariot/Camel bonuses.
- If you find yourself with extra Gold, try to build a few more Migdols and a Seige Workshop (we’ll need Catapults soon)
- If you manage to steal a TC, build one or two Migdols to protect it and out-pop your opponent’s army.
- DON’T STOP RAIDING GOLD!
- Build walls around your main base where your economy is, but DO NOT UPGRADE WALLS MORE THAN ONCE – it isn’t worth the resources!

Once you have all upgrades from the Migdol and Armoury, and all the economic techs it may be time to go Mythic. This is where the fun starts

Mythic Age:

Hmmm...who to choose?
Well, like the Classical Age choice, this is pretty simple:

Horus

Technologies:
• Axe of Vengeance (+200% Axeman Damage vs Buildings)
• Greatest of Fifty (-10% Spearman Hack Vulnerability; +100% Spearman Damage vs Cavalry [Spearman Damage vs Cavalry now +110%])
• Spears on the Horizon (+10% Spearman Attack; +30% Spearman HP)
Myth unit: Avenger
The Avenger is a very tough melee unit, good against other melee units. Its special attack is a whirlwhind of spinning blades which hit every adjacent en.

God power: Tornado
Creates a wandering tornado that deals massive amounts of damage to enemy buildings and units.

Once again, we find that none of the technologies are useful in our plan. Also, Tornado will be rendered useless by the enemy's Monuments. The Avenger is pretty good, but once again will be rendered pretty useless against the enemy Nephthys Priests...

Osiris

Technologies:
• Desert Wind (+20% Camel Speed; + 20% Camel Attack; +20% Camel HP)
• New Kingdom (Town Centre now produces 2 Pharaohs at a time)
• Funeral Barge (+100% Kebenit Damage vs Arrow Ships)
• Atef Crown (+20% Mummy HP; +40% Mummy Attack; +100% Minions Lifespan)
Myth unit: Mummy
While not very tough, the Mummy's special attack instantly kills any human enemy unit and turns it into a friendly minion, however minions die after one minute.

God power: Son of Osiris
Gives the Pharaoh more HP and armor, and a devastating chain lightning attack that will hit up to four enemies. The normal Pharaoh regenerates when Son of Osiris is killed.


Yay! Here comes the fun! Osiris offers two Pharaohs, and the New Kingdom technology should be researched straight away. Use Son of Osiris on your second Pharaoh to get another Pharaoh. A Son of Osiris and 2 Pharaohs will mean Myth Units are no longer a threat. Because Isis needs Pharaohs to empower, your opponent may not be able to use the both Pharaohs on the Battlefield, giving you an advantage. His Myth Unit should be targeted on Elephants and then retreated. Keep them alive and away from the deadly Priests and you can take down a couple of Elephant Meatshield Units every fight. The key is MICRO!

However, your enemy will be able to do the same thing, so make sure you get that Priest range upgrade to get them before they can retreat…

The Mummy upgrade should only be researched if you have 100 Favour because its +40% Attack upgrade, while significant, is quite useless because you won’t be using him for normal attack very often. The +20% HP and +100% Minion Life Span is quite useful though.

Last but not least...Desert Wind!! Although your opponent is likely to get this also because they will most likely choose Osiris, your Champion Camels become the fastest units in the game with ~14 Attack; 233 HP; 38% Hack Armour; 48% Pierce Armour! If you find the +10% Chariot/Cavalry HP Relic, you have a major Battle Advantage. Of course, if your opponent finds it, your bonus gets significantly reduced. The +10% Cavalry Speed Relic is useful also, giving your Desert-Wind Camels 8.40 Speed!

Mythic Plan

Basically, keep the pressure on with a balanced army of Chariots, Camels and a few Elephants, with your SOO, 2 Pharaohs and 2 priests to deal with MUs, and of course your Scarabs and Catapults. Try to flank the Son of Osiris with Chariots or Camels (Camels are harder to get away from, but Chariots are harder to pick out so they may not notice their SOO losing HP), while keeping yours alive with constant attention.

Once all your units are fully upgraded, you can think about getting a Titan. If Isis went Thoth you may be in trouble because of Meteor. However, if you use Rain a few seconds after you place the Gate (or if you want to be risky, when you see those Phoenixes), you’ll get away with a Meteor shower.

TIP: Meteor spreads out amongst all buildings within its radius. So, build your Titan Gate near other buildings so it gets fewer hits.

If your opponent went Osiris, then you’re safe. You should still have Rain and Eclipse and he will have no God Powers. As soon as you see the “Player X has Researched the Secrets of the Titans” message, cast Rain. This will block the Titan Gate for 1 Minute. This allows you to either research it yourself, get your Titan out first so you can destroy his gate with your Titan, or simply move some seige weapons sneakily behind his main camp if possible, to take out the gate when it's planted.

Now you want to get more Chariots and less Camels because your opponent will mass Priests for your Titan, and they can be deadly. Bring your Titan and army to their city (or, if they got their Titan out, to their Titan) and set those Chariots on the Priests! In a Titan vs Titan Battle, YOU WON’T NEED EXTRA PRIESTS! With Eclipse, you can win easily, and your enemy will just waste pop space on Priests which will fall to your Chariots.

Now you should have no problem taking their TC and you will win: 5-1 TCs up is a guaranteed win.

I hope it is helpful to Ra players, and I would enjoy reading feedback on it. Thanks.

[This message has been edited by Quircus (edited 07-06-2007 @ 01:16 PM).]