Have you managed to successfully take on a toughest ai? Did you crack it 10 years ago? What are your tips and tricks for newer players? Let's help new and returning players get back into Rise of Nations!
i just achieved this 2 days ago, i take japanese cuz they are powerful in early rushes, enemy was random so it was lakota. I used pause button a lot to deal with micro management, my next aim is beating toughest ai without pausing. And i am happy to see this channel active again.
@@koalasevmeyenkola9105 Thanks for sharing your experience. Let us know when you manage to do it without using pause, I need to try it on a bigger map! Good luck
This game is still the best game from 2007-2018-2022. No other game about technique and strategies is as good as Rise Of Nation. There is so much to comprehend.💪
i hate that the best ai is only avaliable when the ai gets resource boost. its easy to abuse anyways so not that great, but they still should allow for the best ai without gathering resources faster
Nice video. I beat the toughest AI by using natural formations to my advantage. I build my cities at choke points, place infantry supported by towers in the choke point kill zone, then let the enemy attack. I keep cavalry hidden away to the side, and when they come in with siege/generals/supply wagons, I raid them with the cavalry. This leaves their infantry/cav unsupported in an ambush. I keep doing that while booming my economy, then counterattack with massive amounts of artillery.
I played this with my friends so much when it came out. I revisit it every 6 years or so haha. Just now bringing it back up after a while. Can't wait!!! Just needed a refresh haha
It should also be noted that AI in nomad are much weaker than in standard. So for beginners I'd recommend going for the nomad setting for this reason alone. It's also much slower so you have time to react to things and think about your strategy.
Damn IG, you mean I've got the achievement but the hard work has only just begun?! Seriously though, anyone reading this check out IG's videos, he has many examples of him owning a Toughest ai on standard. Hotkey master!
@@twiglets2 They are old videos at this point so I could probably do an even better job now :). I wanna upload again at some point but just lost the motivation to.
I beat the toughest AI by using the stealth bombers. Lasting until that level is a feat in itself, but the only way I beat it is by attacking multiple cities simultaneously. By having one airport dedicated to each city, the AI's army goes from city to city anticipating an infantry takeover, especially when their capital is attacked. If it looks like they're going to take a city, bombing their capital makes them retreat to the capital. Then, when their cities are decimated rush one city, then sneak attack and rush their capital. If done across the map, it works better.
The tactic of going for the capital when you lose non-capital city is awesome, instead of fighting for the city you have already lost, it's much smarter to just force march to their capital with 4-5 siege weapons, take it and once they are back to fight you you just send reinforcements and they are done, I used that tactic of going for the capital once on Napoleon campaign when AI pissed me off with the early rush on my 2nd city, AI needed almost a full minute to get back to the capital, and up until then I even sent reinforcements. It's also useful in late game to build as many silos as possible and constantly bomb their oil wells/refineries because oil becomes the main resource in late game. Also having monopoly over water oil supply is very important. I remember once having built oil platforms on all of the water oil sources just so the AI doesn't have any oil platforms hahah
I have so many warm memories with Rise od Nations Campaigns, I had a trashy laptop with next to no wifi at all, but I had RON. I can bet this has the best soundtrack among all the RTS games, and the game aesthetic is also very pleasant.
Beating toughest is ez as pie. You don't have to get an immense advantage by playing nomad and claiming the central forest. You can do it any way you like but I can offer you a couple of ways and they all depend on how badly programmed the ai is. 1. Ai garrisons the entire city and the slightest aggression. So, sci1>mil1>barracks>slinger You send the slinger straight to the enemy capital and start hitting anything in his city. Don't try to kill citizens cuz you're likely to end up inside of the city's attack radius. Just get him to garrison. Then make another slinger and then 2 archers. With the 2nd slinger you hit his 2nd city and add 1 archer to the attack on each city in case you can't attack safely cuz of maybe a tower or the city hitting your slinger. Meanwhile of course you get more ruins cuz your soldiers are moving around on the map. Btw, an archer has way more line of sight than a scout (almost twice more with sci 1 researched) so you can do a LOT of scouting for ruins with your archers before you go and attack. So, Ai doesn't gather resources whist you do and so you expand and win. You can do this with any nation but the Dutch are extra good at this cuz you can use the armed merchants/caravan to start hitting him even earlier. Bantu and Iroquois are also good cuz they move faster and can get across the map faster (needless to say, smaller map is preferable for this). British are also good for that free archer and Aztec same for the free atl-atl. Lakota can be nice cuz you make the barracks right on his border. 2. Ai doesn't use scouts when invading Another strat is to expand your eco, no mil early. Get 200 eco with a senator and com2. Get 3 cities, age 3, make a fort and start spamming spies like crazy. Then start making some mil. When he invades you just steal his troops. It's foolproof. :) 3. Ai doesn't fish (as much as he could) On maps with lakes ai straight up doesn't fish (on others he does but not a lot). Fishing is obviously way better than farming and you can beat the Ai just from the eco bonus from fishing. Anyway... I used to like to play 1 v 1 vs the Ai but it's just too boring at this point, I beat it every game. I beat it even if I don't use any of these 3 strats. Try this and let me know how it went. P.S. I forgot to mention: an ancient rush works almost every time.
My lifetime gamer feels very fulfilled from completing this challenge without having watched tutorials before 🥰 that is something that I wanted to do since I first started playing 10 years ago
Congratulations! I haven't really been able to do it in open combat before, I just need to squash them before they have a chance to develop haha Do you have a preferred Nation to beat a Toughest ai with?
@@twiglets2 I find Toughest ai a breeze once your own economy is developed (maxed out resource collection). Early on, Toughest ai seem much harder for me, at least
I don't think I've ever achieved it in a "normal" way, this method feels a bit cheesy to be honest, but it works. We should leave it to the super humans who can take out 4 x toughest AIs on their own!
my plan was to beat Toughest at 8-player Assassin mode, i would not attack my target and defend my capital until i reach Information Age, meanwhile my Target becomes too OP and by the time he starts attacking my Attacker, i would nuke and capture his capital, which is literally next to me. but no luck so far since the enemy is somehow bringing a huge army.
I just moved the slider to one of the middle difficulties and got whipped pretty good by a single computer opponent. It has the unfair advantage of being able to multi-task with ease. Human nature seems to make me want to concentrate on my battle on hand and neglect progressing up the trees of levels in the Library, etc. and keeping up with troop manufacture, even though I tried to multi-task efficiently. Then again, I am 56, so I could be my own impediment due to age. Too bad the developers didn't take this account into fact when scaling the difficulty about scaling "distractions" for the AI. It would have been good if as a percentage, the AI would also become "distracted" in similar ways.
Difficulty in all RTS scales essentially mean that the computer behaves with the same efficiency as a calculator. Since most humans can't do the same, pausing the game to make decisions is one great idea as already mentioned and I have also found success by trying to disrupt what the AI is doing early to mid game.
My brother and I do teams of two. With 2 other teams of AIs on toughest against us. 30 mins of peace. When I tell you it’s a battle. Pheeew. My brother is a huge fan of the Egyptians. I had the Lakota . Gunpowder age.
Great video! However, be advised that all these tips pertain to even battles, not the wild situations you can find yourself in a campaign on Toughest. In a game where the AI gets reinforcements you don't, or has a high territory level (even 3 can be overwhelming, depending on the battle map layout and the amount of recourses you have on the world map) there won't be much you can do to even the scales. Many games in such a scenario are just straight unbeatable- so don't get yourself in that position at all, be patient and ensure you have enough of an advantage every time you attack another territory.
ive had success with a 10 min rush as inca. Right after researching classical age i build a university and a few scholars, just enough to research comerce 2. At the same time i pump citizens in all mines i can, then i research commerce 2, complete the farms in my 2nd city, fill my last woodcutter and shift to full military mode i build the despot, barracks, stables and siege factory. Then build 3 siege units and set an infinite queue of the 3 units in the barracks and knights in the stables. Thats roughly enough to spend the resources at the rate i produce, and gives a balanced army. Around the time i have 16 units i attack, and only stop when the game ends i play with frequent pauses though
Thank you for sharing, I've really struggled against a toughest ai other than my all out assault tactic in this video which feel a bit cheesy. Glad to see there's some Rise of Nations passion still out there - I'm going to give your tactic a try!
@@twiglets2 let me know how it went With a few tweeks this strategy also works on the entire world campaign. I conquered south america and half of africa. Then i got stuck, because i would have to attack a lvl 6 capital to progress
@@costa569 Purchasing the game on Steam and playing the multiplayer through there is the easiest way to play multiplayer these days :) It's worth waiting for a sale though as there's often a 75% discount on Steam !
I started a Conquer the World campaign as British on Toughest. Having come from the Stronghold games, I assumed if I just set up a good defense first, the attack would be quite easy. Boy, was I wrong. The first battle (defending against barbarians) was not that difficult. But once it was time to take on a nation, the only way I managed to do it was attrition. And I don't mean the in-game attrition feature. I mean actual attrition in that I churned out troops faster than the AI could kill them 😅 I still had a 90-minute time limit and I managed to win against the Dutch by the skin of my teeth (8 minutes remaining). I had the French surrounded on 3 sides and figured it would be easy. On my first attempt, I couldn't even defend myself and they wiped the floor with me (got knocked out at 30 minutes). So I tried rapid initial expansion and managed to hold my own pretty well until I realized around the 45-minute mark that I was locked in a stalemate of never-ending fights and the battle was unwinnable. I quit after that and came looking for alternative strategies. I hadn't considered being aggressive and rushing the AI. In CTW mode, you are given an army starting out. In my case I actually had 2 reinforcing armies as well. I just used them for defense instead of offense. I guess that was my mistake. I should've used my initial advantage to cripple the enemy's economy and capture its cities. Let's see if it works 😃
Wow, it worked! Although, if it hadn't been for the reinforcing armies, I don't think I would've been able to hold the first city I captured and then the subsequent cities. So it was the rush tactic along with the pincer move that did the trick. On its own, I don't think aggression alone would've worked. There simply isn't a way to build an army fast enough at this stage. So you're stuck with whatever army you get at the beginning. In normal cases, the army is quite small and thus not enough to rush.
@@feynstein1004 Congratulations! I would be the first to admit that this is a bit of a cheesy strategy, some even refer to it as cheating(!) but it does work at least and some just want to be able to say they've defeated a toughest, no matter how they achieved it. But it sounds like you can go toe to toe with a toughest in the more traditional sense which is a very impressive feat, I certainly couldn't!
@@twiglets2 Thanks! It's not cheating if the other side does it too 😉 Jokes aside, it may be cheesy but when you have a 90-minute time limit, I don't think there's anything else you can do. Given enough time, you might be able to attrition the AI into defeat but that's the thing. You don't have enough time and so everything's fair game. I'm thinking of taking on the Romans next. Unfortunately there's only one way into Italy and so no pincer moves. However, the Romans' unique unit is the heavy infantry which my Longbowmen should be able to neutralize quite effectively. I remember when I played as Indians with War Elephants, the Romans were completely outmatched and rendered sitting ducks 😂Let's see if that works with the British too. Wish me luck!
@@twiglets2 Wow, so a lot has happened since we last talked. First, taking on the Romans proved to be quite a challenge. I first tried conquering the Turks to enable a pincer move on the Romans. Even with reinforcements, it proved impossible. So I used my Bonus Card of the Dutch and was able to conquer them. As time passed, the world started consolidating into fewer and fewer civilizations. I was allied with the Nubians and the Germans. Gotta say, the alliances served me well 😀 Whenever possible, I tried to do a 2v1 against the opponent. Basically me and an ally would fight together and overwhelm the enemy. Although, at times even that proved to be challenging 😅 I was basically able to conquer most of Europe and Africa without a hitch. Then, when I tried to move into South America, which was ruled by the Inca, I faced a solid brick wall. I was able to establish a kind of beachhead, if you will. Moving from the west coast of Africa to Brazil was okay. As long as there was an ocean separating us, I had no problems. The British did rule the seas after all. But land battles proved to be impossible, no matter how hard I tried. That's when I discovered I could simply exchange territory with allies and hell, even enemies 😃 First I tried giving Brazil to the Nubians but they were quickly conquered by the Inca. So I gave it to the Germans and damn, they made short work of the Inca. It was really impressive. Why do all the work when you can get an ally to do it for you? 😉 Greenland, on the other hand, proved to be impossible to invade. So I made a deal with the Iroquois (enemy) to exchange Greenland for some territories in Africa. I guess the AI is really stupid because it didn't realize how terrible a deal that was. They had no armies there and it only took me one turn to simply reconquer all of the ceded territory 😂 I didn't even have to fight. I just overran the territories with 2 armies. I tried unsuccessfully to conquer the Iroquois capital. After many failed attempts, I realized it was better to just let them be. Right now I'm focused on the Maya. They're being hemmed in from the south by the Germans and from the north by me. Soon they'll be wiped out. After that, I'll either conquer the Americans or ally with them. Asia was proving to be impossible since you can't march your armies through allied territory and I was basically boxed in by my allies. Territory exchange to the rescue. Through it, I was able to get some land in Asia but without an army there, it was basically useless. And there was no way to get an army there either. That's when I discovered supply centers. Somehow I hadn't noticed that when you conquer a supply center, you are given a new army which can be placed wherever you want. Unfortunately there weren't any new supply centers for me to conquer. So I had to go the scenic route of trading an ally a supply center, which caused me to disband an army, then retrade it, which caused me to gain an army, which I could then place in Asia. Through all of this and a mutual attack, I was able to peel off some land from the Chinese but by this time, the game had moved on to the Industrial Age and territory strength was so high that it was basically impossible to dislodge strong territories. Even with the help of an ally. That's basically where I am now 😁
i play this game when i was 10-12 years old now i m 26 i try to play this game with my brother we lose against moderate Ai hahaha so thats why i was coming here to learn somethings .
I just change rush rules till the last tech. I use the colossus to have a population advantage over AI. I create 3 large fully independent armies. I attack 3 cities simultaneously. The AI… even on toughest usually loses. One time I barely lost 5 units.
Here's an old reddit comment i posted regarding this topic: Play on Mediterranean. Fish is super useful. Make your senate on a city on the middle island or just build Forbidden City there. The AI doesn't make navy on that map, so you should be able to use ships to kill them as long as you need. And fishing gives you a shitton of gold and food, not much reason to make more than five farms on that map when playing against AI. If it turns out that you cannot beat their boom, then just take it super slow and once you get World Government, you can just send a troop to take their capital. Very cheesy, but should theoretically work. [Use a peace timer.] When the peace timer is up, raid all their cities. AI just rings the bell if there's a unit shooting a building in the city and they'll lose quite a bit of resources like that, as long as you keep your unit out of city shooting range.
@@twiglets2 Also can't forget that you can play on Slow game speed. The AI has perfect reaction time, but you can benefit from having more time to think and to stuff
@@HnZ88. Exactly. In fact you can even play on Very Slow if your digital dexterity---or reactive lateral thinking---is a bit off. At the least there's some time to enjoy the game while making decisions instead of being a slave to mouse and keyboard. TBH haven't won higher than Tough at Slow speed. Lotsa fun though, 'specially if ya win.
Greetings Twiglets2, thanks for the video. Is this way can help with official campaigns? I passed the Cold War and New World through toughest AI, but not like that (I forgot because it was a long time ago; I didn't pass Alexander, Napoleon and All World with toughest) Perhaps, you have useful tutorials how player can pass campaigns.
I beat AI on toughest a few times with Turks, Russians and Germans, but not on the steam version and I never played 1v1 it was always against 7 AI on Big Huge maps, survival of the fittest or diplomacy. The main thing is to raid as much as possible and get your research done as soon as you have resources for it and defend yourself in a smart way, because usually AI on toughest will field larger army than you will, so backing out of fight and letting them take the city and then fighting them while they are out of formation and in disarray is smarter move.
Still stuck on Moderate, lol The problem is that it just instantaneously does things, and the longer the game goes, the more that advantage is leveraged in the AI's favor as the number of things to think about begins to skyrocket into the "Oh I totally forgot to build/research this 5 minutes ago" territory. Rushing immediately works, but it feels like a hollow victory, like the script just wasn't at all designed to properly react to an attack that early (Like, 2-3 bowmen would have knocked the wind out of this strategy almost immediately)
@weylinstoeppelmann9858 I think this is why so many players enjoy a game against toughest ai but the first 10 minutes / 30 minutes / 1 hour is at peace, giving you time to at least try and put up a fight while playing properly and not "cheesing" it like this!
Alternate strategy for those who just want the achievement. Start a solo game. Create a game with 7 computer players Set yourself to team 1 Set 6 computer players to team 1 Set the 7th computer player to team 2. Get carried like a toddler whose legs are tired.
Not RoN but in Total War Games I just find the bonuses for legendary ai to be too unfair. It sucks the fun out of it. I have tried and it always turns out that if I ever feel like I am getting ahead it’s because the ai has been building a huge impossible to beat army.
@@twiglets2 I have not! But I am very curious. I am flying tomorrow, I will probably install on my iPad and give it a try. The only thing is that I am not very found of the in-app purchases business model!
I tried to play Extended edition, but AI is cheating too much, and i don't wanna rush the game. But even if i build 3 cities as soon as possible, i could not collect enough resources to defend myself and counter attack, and that's on Regular difficulty 😒 😠
@milosstojanovic4623 It is possible to beat the toughest ai "properly" without cheesing it like this, I've seen players do it, but it's beyond my skill! There are some build orders that should see you beating a regular ai fairly, but learning the hotkeys and building the right buildings is so crucial!
@twiglets2 yeah i guess. but in last match i played i took its 3 4 cities, had 2/3 of my influence and still end up using cheat for resources because i could not keep up with its production. It has apparently way much boost or bonus resources. Plus when i move camera game somehow stutters or lags because of old engine so i can't move camera fast enough to manage armies efficiently.
Hello , nice video. I found that booming is for me the only way to beat the IA on toughest . If may take up to 2hours to win tho... You need to spam forts and tower tho it seems to take the IA attention.
Thanks for sharing, I've tried but haven't been able to out boom the toughest ai yet, I must be doing something wrong! Do you play as a particular nation? Any other suggestions other than forts and towers?
@@twiglets2 You need to play a water based map. Like atlantic sea power. Each nation has its own island . You will need to play very defensive with spies and forts and tower at the borders and also control the ocean territory. This will make it impossible for the IA to land because you will be killing the troops while they are in their little boat form. Then you need to reach information age and construct the super collider to be able to search futur techs instantly. Search the military futur tech. Then spam the IA with the ICBM missile and enjoy the free win. The japanese are a good nation for this strat. But i have beaten the IA with the Bantu also. Note: the IA WILL spam missiles. They buy the nuclear missile of the modern age. Its very weak compared to the ICBM and you will need to play the game knowing that all of your cities will take at least one nuclear missile. SO when you build things , build them in the OUTER edge of the citie circle. They will survive the blast only the capitol hitpoint will take the hit its a non-issue. The ia has a ton of flaws. If you have spies and convert their artillery they often insta leave the fight. But when they bring a scout its much harder. They also dont use planes very well and always bomb cities only etc... The hardest thing i found about thougest is how fast they rush you. Usually at 4-5min mark expect an attack.
Thanks for the detailed info, exactly what I needed! It's a real struggle to get through that first 5 minutes when they have such a head start but I'm going to try those tactics, sounds like a lot of fun! I don't use spies enough to be honest.
Yup, boom is the easiest way for me too! I like 3v3v2 or 3v5 with 8 nation battles, but haven't done 1v1 against Toughest ai yet. And it's taken me 15 hours to win against 5 Toughest ai opponents haha.
Have you managed to successfully take on a toughest ai? Did you crack it 10 years ago? What are your tips and tricks for newer players? Let's help new and returning players get back into Rise of Nations!
i just achieved this 2 days ago, i take japanese cuz they are powerful in early rushes, enemy was random so it was lakota. I used pause button a lot to deal with micro management, my next aim is beating toughest ai without pausing. And i am happy to see this channel active again.
@@koalasevmeyenkola9105 Thanks for sharing your experience. Let us know when you manage to do it without using pause, I need to try it on a bigger map! Good luck
@@koalasevmeyenkola9105 AI don't use Lakota very well either, so it's easier to beat them.
@@IG7799-c4u Your knowledge amazes and scares me in equal measure!
@@twiglets2 Haha, just an observation I've had when playing against them. But thanks :D
This game is still the best game from 2007-2018-2022. No other game about technique and strategies is as good as Rise Of Nation. There is so much to comprehend.💪
It's so well rounded and a big shame more people don't know about it in my opinion!
i hate that the best ai is only avaliable when the ai gets resource boost.
its easy to abuse anyways so not that great, but they still should allow for the best ai without gathering resources faster
So it's not just the 2nd hardest AI + cheat?@@user-wq9mw2xz3j
Nice video. I beat the toughest AI by using natural formations to my advantage. I build my cities at choke points, place infantry supported by towers in the choke point kill zone, then let the enemy attack. I keep cavalry hidden away to the side, and when they come in with siege/generals/supply wagons, I raid them with the cavalry. This leaves their infantry/cav unsupported in an ambush. I keep doing that while booming my economy, then counterattack with massive amounts of artillery.
Sounds awesome. It sounds like certain maps are better for this than others?
Hey man, beautiful content! the community needs creators like you! Can you please do a nations series? perhaps even a tier list!
I have a series for nations on the way! It takes a long time as there are so many. Which nations are your favourite? Thank you for subscribing!
@@twiglets2 I´m a noob, but I really enjoy playing with aztecs & russians. Using your series to go back up to speed and have sth to offer in multi
I played this with my friends so much when it came out. I revisit it every 6 years or so haha. Just now bringing it back up after a while. Can't wait!!! Just needed a refresh haha
Hope you guys have fun!
It should also be noted that AI in nomad are much weaker than in standard. So for beginners I'd recommend going for the nomad setting for this reason alone. It's also much slower so you have time to react to things and think about your strategy.
Damn IG, you mean I've got the achievement but the hard work has only just begun?! Seriously though, anyone reading this check out IG's videos, he has many examples of him owning a Toughest ai on standard. Hotkey master!
@@twiglets2 They are old videos at this point so I could probably do an even better job now :). I wanna upload again at some point but just lost the motivation to.
I beat the toughest AI by using the stealth bombers. Lasting until that level is a feat in itself, but the only way I beat it is by attacking multiple cities simultaneously. By having one airport dedicated to each city, the AI's army goes from city to city anticipating an infantry takeover, especially when their capital is attacked. If it looks like they're going to take a city, bombing their capital makes them retreat to the capital. Then, when their cities are decimated rush one city, then sneak attack and rush their capital. If done across the map, it works better.
I don't think I will ever reach this level of play, bravo! I'm going to have some fun trying this strat.
The tactic of going for the capital when you lose non-capital city is awesome, instead of fighting for the city you have already lost, it's much smarter to just force march to their capital with 4-5 siege weapons, take it and once they are back to fight you you just send reinforcements and they are done, I used that tactic of going for the capital once on Napoleon campaign when AI pissed me off with the early rush on my 2nd city, AI needed almost a full minute to get back to the capital, and up until then I even sent reinforcements. It's also useful in late game to build as many silos as possible and constantly bomb their oil wells/refineries because oil becomes the main resource in late game. Also having monopoly over water oil supply is very important. I remember once having built oil platforms on all of the water oil sources just so the AI doesn't have any oil platforms hahah
This is the exact strategy I used when forcing the age to stop at Medieval.
Playing on Elimination: Conquest means that you don't have capital timers. You can just win by capturing the capital and holding it for a while.
I have so many warm memories with Rise od Nations Campaigns, I had a trashy laptop with next to no wifi at all, but I had RON. I can bet this has the best soundtrack among all the RTS games, and the game aesthetic is also very pleasant.
Beating toughest is ez as pie. You don't have to get an immense advantage by playing nomad and claiming the central forest. You can do it any way you like but I can offer you a couple of ways and they all depend on how badly programmed the ai is.
1. Ai garrisons the entire city and the slightest aggression.
So, sci1>mil1>barracks>slinger
You send the slinger straight to the enemy capital and start hitting anything in his city. Don't try to kill citizens cuz you're likely to end up inside of the city's attack radius. Just get him to garrison. Then make another slinger and then 2 archers. With the 2nd slinger you hit his 2nd city and add 1 archer to the attack on each city in case you can't attack safely cuz of maybe a tower or the city hitting your slinger. Meanwhile of course you get more ruins cuz your soldiers are moving around on the map. Btw, an archer has way more line of sight than a scout (almost twice more with sci 1 researched) so you can do a LOT of scouting for ruins with your archers before you go and attack.
So, Ai doesn't gather resources whist you do and so you expand and win.
You can do this with any nation but the Dutch are extra good at this cuz you can use the armed merchants/caravan to start hitting him even earlier. Bantu and Iroquois are also good cuz they move faster and can get across the map faster (needless to say, smaller map is preferable for this). British are also good for that free archer and Aztec same for the free atl-atl. Lakota can be nice cuz you make the barracks right on his border.
2. Ai doesn't use scouts when invading
Another strat is to expand your eco, no mil early. Get 200 eco with a senator and com2. Get 3 cities, age 3, make a fort and start spamming spies like crazy. Then start making some mil. When he invades you just steal his troops. It's foolproof. :)
3. Ai doesn't fish (as much as he could)
On maps with lakes ai straight up doesn't fish (on others he does but not a lot). Fishing is obviously way better than farming and you can beat the Ai just from the eco bonus from fishing.
Anyway... I used to like to play 1 v 1 vs the Ai but it's just too boring at this point, I beat it every game. I beat it even if I don't use any of these 3 strats. Try this and let me know how it went.
P.S. I forgot to mention: an ancient rush works almost every time.
thanks this motivated me to stop playing on moderate level and try the tough one
You can do it - with each loss you will learn, best of luck!
Same here
@@twiglets2 bruh the time 😭
@@lucutes2936 how're you getting on?!
@@twiglets2 no more games only work 😭😭
Perfect narration and solid content
Subscribed
Thank you for the kind words! I have some more content on the way so I hope to keep up the standard or increase it further. Do you still play RoN?
@@twiglets2 Rarely but at times I still look around for RoN related content
My lifetime gamer feels very fulfilled from completing this challenge without having watched tutorials before 🥰 that is something that I wanted to do since I first started playing 10 years ago
Congratulations! I haven't really been able to do it in open combat before, I just need to squash them before they have a chance to develop haha
Do you have a preferred Nation to beat a Toughest ai with?
@@twiglets2 I find Toughest ai a breeze once your own economy is developed (maxed out resource collection). Early on, Toughest ai seem much harder for me, at least
Never beaten the Toughest AI 1v1, but I recall cheesing it with AI allies one difficulty setting lower than it.
I don't think I've ever achieved it in a "normal" way, this method feels a bit cheesy to be honest, but it works.
We should leave it to the super humans who can take out 4 x toughest AIs on their own!
my plan was to beat Toughest at 8-player Assassin mode, i would not attack my target and defend my capital until i reach Information Age, meanwhile my Target becomes too OP and by the time he starts attacking my Attacker, i would nuke and capture his capital, which is literally next to me. but no luck so far since the enemy is somehow bringing a huge army.
I play medium russia and just barely make the campaign. good video
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for stopping by
Wow! You get citations if you have steam and complete the toughest AI!
Guess buying the game does pay better than pirating it.
It depends how much you like achievements. They don't normally bother me, but when I got that one I was very happy!
I just moved the slider to one of the middle difficulties and got whipped pretty good by a single computer opponent. It has the unfair advantage of being able to multi-task with ease. Human nature seems to make me want to concentrate on my battle on hand and neglect progressing up the trees of levels in the Library, etc. and keeping up with troop manufacture, even though I tried to multi-task efficiently. Then again, I am 56, so I could be my own impediment due to age. Too bad the developers didn't take this account into fact when scaling the difficulty about scaling "distractions" for the AI. It would have been good if as a percentage, the AI would also become "distracted" in similar ways.
This can be overcome by pausing the game whenever you please to make decisions and execute commands
Difficulty in all RTS scales essentially mean that the computer behaves with the same efficiency as a calculator. Since most humans can't do the same, pausing the game to make decisions is one great idea as already mentioned and I have also found success by trying to disrupt what the AI is doing early to mid game.
My brother and I do teams of two. With 2 other teams of AIs on toughest against us. 30 mins of peace. When I tell you it’s a battle. Pheeew. My brother is a huge fan of the Egyptians. I had the Lakota . Gunpowder age.
@tonybiscuits6189 Sounds awesome! I bet that gets interesting at 31 minutes...
Great video! However, be advised that all these tips pertain to even battles, not the wild situations you can find yourself in a campaign on Toughest. In a game where the AI gets reinforcements you don't, or has a high territory level (even 3 can be overwhelming, depending on the battle map layout and the amount of recourses you have on the world map) there won't be much you can do to even the scales. Many games in such a scenario are just straight unbeatable- so don't get yourself in that position at all, be patient and ensure you have enough of an advantage every time you attack another territory.
ive had success with a 10 min rush as inca. Right after researching classical age i build a university and a few scholars, just enough to research comerce 2. At the same time i pump citizens in all mines i can, then i research commerce 2, complete the farms in my 2nd city, fill my last woodcutter and shift to full military mode
i build the despot, barracks, stables and siege factory. Then build 3 siege units and set an infinite queue of the 3 units in the barracks and knights in the stables. Thats roughly enough to spend the resources at the rate i produce, and gives a balanced army. Around the time i have 16 units i attack, and only stop when the game ends
i play with frequent pauses though
Thank you for sharing, I've really struggled against a toughest ai other than my all out assault tactic in this video which feel a bit cheesy.
Glad to see there's some Rise of Nations passion still out there - I'm going to give your tactic a try!
@@twiglets2 let me know how it went
With a few tweeks this strategy also works on the entire world campaign. I conquered south america and half of africa. Then i got stuck, because i would have to attack a lvl 6 capital to progress
@@twiglets2 offtopic: How we can play online if gamespy is not working anymore?
@@costa569 Purchasing the game on Steam and playing the multiplayer through there is the easiest way to play multiplayer these days :) It's worth waiting for a sale though as there's often a 75% discount on Steam !
I started a Conquer the World campaign as British on Toughest. Having come from the Stronghold games, I assumed if I just set up a good defense first, the attack would be quite easy. Boy, was I wrong. The first battle (defending against barbarians) was not that difficult. But once it was time to take on a nation, the only way I managed to do it was attrition. And I don't mean the in-game attrition feature. I mean actual attrition in that I churned out troops faster than the AI could kill them 😅 I still had a 90-minute time limit and I managed to win against the Dutch by the skin of my teeth (8 minutes remaining). I had the French surrounded on 3 sides and figured it would be easy. On my first attempt, I couldn't even defend myself and they wiped the floor with me (got knocked out at 30 minutes). So I tried rapid initial expansion and managed to hold my own pretty well until I realized around the 45-minute mark that I was locked in a stalemate of never-ending fights and the battle was unwinnable. I quit after that and came looking for alternative strategies.
I hadn't considered being aggressive and rushing the AI. In CTW mode, you are given an army starting out. In my case I actually had 2 reinforcing armies as well. I just used them for defense instead of offense. I guess that was my mistake. I should've used my initial advantage to cripple the enemy's economy and capture its cities. Let's see if it works 😃
Wow, it worked! Although, if it hadn't been for the reinforcing armies, I don't think I would've been able to hold the first city I captured and then the subsequent cities. So it was the rush tactic along with the pincer move that did the trick. On its own, I don't think aggression alone would've worked. There simply isn't a way to build an army fast enough at this stage. So you're stuck with whatever army you get at the beginning. In normal cases, the army is quite small and thus not enough to rush.
@@feynstein1004 Congratulations! I would be the first to admit that this is a bit of a cheesy strategy, some even refer to it as cheating(!) but it does work at least and some just want to be able to say they've defeated a toughest, no matter how they achieved it.
But it sounds like you can go toe to toe with a toughest in the more traditional sense which is a very impressive feat, I certainly couldn't!
@@twiglets2 Thanks! It's not cheating if the other side does it too 😉 Jokes aside, it may be cheesy but when you have a 90-minute time limit, I don't think there's anything else you can do. Given enough time, you might be able to attrition the AI into defeat but that's the thing. You don't have enough time and so everything's fair game.
I'm thinking of taking on the Romans next. Unfortunately there's only one way into Italy and so no pincer moves. However, the Romans' unique unit is the heavy infantry which my Longbowmen should be able to neutralize quite effectively. I remember when I played as Indians with War Elephants, the Romans were completely outmatched and rendered sitting ducks 😂Let's see if that works with the British too. Wish me luck!
@@feynstein1004 Best of luck, let me know how it goes!
@@twiglets2 Wow, so a lot has happened since we last talked. First, taking on the Romans proved to be quite a challenge. I first tried conquering the Turks to enable a pincer move on the Romans. Even with reinforcements, it proved impossible. So I used my Bonus Card of the Dutch and was able to conquer them.
As time passed, the world started consolidating into fewer and fewer civilizations. I was allied with the Nubians and the Germans. Gotta say, the alliances served me well 😀 Whenever possible, I tried to do a 2v1 against the opponent. Basically me and an ally would fight together and overwhelm the enemy. Although, at times even that proved to be challenging 😅
I was basically able to conquer most of Europe and Africa without a hitch. Then, when I tried to move into South America, which was ruled by the Inca, I faced a solid brick wall. I was able to establish a kind of beachhead, if you will. Moving from the west coast of Africa to Brazil was okay. As long as there was an ocean separating us, I had no problems. The British did rule the seas after all. But land battles proved to be impossible, no matter how hard I tried.
That's when I discovered I could simply exchange territory with allies and hell, even enemies 😃
First I tried giving Brazil to the Nubians but they were quickly conquered by the Inca. So I gave it to the Germans and damn, they made short work of the Inca. It was really impressive. Why do all the work when you can get an ally to do it for you? 😉
Greenland, on the other hand, proved to be impossible to invade. So I made a deal with the Iroquois (enemy) to exchange Greenland for some territories in Africa. I guess the AI is really stupid because it didn't realize how terrible a deal that was. They had no armies there and it only took me one turn to simply reconquer all of the ceded territory 😂 I didn't even have to fight. I just overran the territories with 2 armies.
I tried unsuccessfully to conquer the Iroquois capital. After many failed attempts, I realized it was better to just let them be. Right now I'm focused on the Maya. They're being hemmed in from the south by the Germans and from the north by me. Soon they'll be wiped out. After that, I'll either conquer the Americans or ally with them.
Asia was proving to be impossible since you can't march your armies through allied territory and I was basically boxed in by my allies. Territory exchange to the rescue. Through it, I was able to get some land in Asia but without an army there, it was basically useless. And there was no way to get an army there either. That's when I discovered supply centers. Somehow I hadn't noticed that when you conquer a supply center, you are given a new army which can be placed wherever you want. Unfortunately there weren't any new supply centers for me to conquer. So I had to go the scenic route of trading an ally a supply center, which caused me to disband an army, then retrade it, which caused me to gain an army, which I could then place in Asia.
Through all of this and a mutual attack, I was able to peel off some land from the Chinese but by this time, the game had moved on to the Industrial Age and territory strength was so high that it was basically impossible to dislodge strong territories. Even with the help of an ally. That's basically where I am now 😁
i play this game when i was 10-12 years old now i m 26 i try to play this game with my brother we lose against moderate Ai hahaha so thats why i was coming here to learn somethings .
I'm glad you found the game again, good luck!
how do you do to have such an incledible zoom level? im in na new laptop and i dont have that kind of zoom, i just play barely seeing nothin
I just change rush rules till the last tech. I use the colossus to have a population advantage over AI. I create 3 large fully independent armies. I attack 3 cities simultaneously. The AI… even on toughest usually loses. One time I barely lost 5 units.
@critenks229 muahaha!
Here's an old reddit comment i posted regarding this topic:
Play on Mediterranean. Fish is super useful. Make your senate on a city on the middle island or just build Forbidden City there. The AI doesn't make navy on that map, so you should be able to use ships to kill them as long as you need. And fishing gives you a shitton of gold and food, not much reason to make more than five farms on that map when playing against AI.
If it turns out that you cannot beat their boom, then just take it super slow and once you get World Government, you can just send a troop to take their capital. Very cheesy, but should theoretically work.
[Use a peace timer.] When the peace timer is up, raid all their cities. AI just rings the bell if there's a unit shooting a building in the city and they'll lose quite a bit of resources like that, as long as you keep your unit out of city shooting range.
Thanks for sharing, exactly the sort of info we all need to help everyone improve. I don't mind cheesy as long as it works!
@@twiglets2 Also can't forget that you can play on Slow game speed. The AI has perfect reaction time, but you can benefit from having more time to think and to stuff
@@HnZ88. Exactly. In fact you can even play on Very Slow if your digital dexterity---or reactive lateral thinking---is a bit off. At the least there's some time to enjoy the game while making decisions instead of being a slave to mouse and keyboard. TBH haven't won higher than Tough at Slow speed. Lotsa fun though, 'specially if ya win.
you said China is not good on this game but you get large city straight up and no delay in creating citizens
Each nation has their strengths and weaknesses I guess :)
Why they don’t release new versions of this game, this game is masterpiece
@SoniyaYadav1995 One day!
@@twiglets2 i think i will die before they will release
@@SoniyaYadav1995 same
good video :) What was that you called the city, Barf?
Thank you! I'm pretty sure it's spelt Barth...I heard someone pronounce it without the R once and it just sounded odd! 😂
Greetings Twiglets2, thanks for the video.
Is this way can help with official campaigns?
I passed the Cold War and New World through toughest AI, but not like that (I forgot because it was a long time ago; I didn't pass Alexander, Napoleon and All World with toughest)
Perhaps, you have useful tutorials how player can pass campaigns.
I beat AI on toughest a few times with Turks, Russians and Germans, but not on the steam version and I never played 1v1 it was always against 7 AI on Big Huge maps, survival of the fittest or diplomacy. The main thing is to raid as much as possible and get your research done as soon as you have resources for it and defend yourself in a smart way, because usually AI on toughest will field larger army than you will, so backing out of fight and letting them take the city and then fighting them while they are out of formation and in disarray is smarter move.
Thanks for the tips!
Still stuck on Moderate, lol
The problem is that it just instantaneously does things, and the longer the game goes, the more that advantage is leveraged in the AI's favor as the number of things to think about begins to skyrocket into the "Oh I totally forgot to build/research this 5 minutes ago" territory.
Rushing immediately works, but it feels like a hollow victory, like the script just wasn't at all designed to properly react to an attack that early (Like, 2-3 bowmen would have knocked the wind out of this strategy almost immediately)
@weylinstoeppelmann9858 I think this is why so many players enjoy a game against toughest ai but the first 10 minutes / 30 minutes / 1 hour is at peace, giving you time to at least try and put up a fight while playing properly and not "cheesing" it like this!
2024 anyone? ❤️
Alternate strategy for those who just want the achievement.
Start a solo game.
Create a game with 7 computer players
Set yourself to team 1
Set 6 computer players to team 1
Set the 7th computer player to team 2.
Get carried like a toddler whose legs are tired.
Great video!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Not RoN but in Total War Games I just find the bonuses for legendary ai to be too unfair. It sucks the fun out of it. I have tried and it always turns out that if I ever feel like I am getting ahead it’s because the ai has been building a huge impossible to beat army.
Yeah absolutely the same on this game, they are literally cheating, I guess some people like the challenge, far too stressful for me.
i like the world conquest scenario best
My favorite hotkey is P...😎
Haha I always forget to use it and end up very stressed
What is your opinion on DomiNations? Is it as good as RON?
Is that the mobile game by Big Huge Games? I haven't tried it before, have you??
@@twiglets2 I have not! But I am very curious. I am flying tomorrow, I will probably install on my iPad and give it a try. The only thing is that I am not very found of the in-app purchases business model!
@@InvistanoExteriorcomEricoSouza Me too! If you do give it a go please let me know what it's like!
@@twiglets2 So I gave it a go. It's ok, but nothing like RON. Also, it keeps asking for your money 💸 all the time so you can upgrade faster...
@@InvistanoExteriorcomEricoSouza Ah one of those games, not too keen on those. Worth you having a try though I suppose!
valeu bro
Thank you men
You are welcome!
Dude could you do somethin like unit showcase or unique units or somethin like that no creators ever did that i guess
That's an awesome idea, I've just put it on the list! Thanks man
I fucking love this game!
High attrition and target there supply wagons is my tip.
I tried to play Extended edition, but AI is cheating too much, and i don't wanna rush the game. But even if i build 3 cities as soon as possible, i could not collect enough resources to defend myself and counter attack, and that's on Regular difficulty 😒 😠
@milosstojanovic4623 It is possible to beat the toughest ai "properly" without cheesing it like this, I've seen players do it, but it's beyond my skill!
There are some build orders that should see you beating a regular ai fairly, but learning the hotkeys and building the right buildings is so crucial!
@twiglets2 yeah i guess. but in last match i played i took its 3 4 cities, had 2/3 of my influence and still end up using cheat for resources because i could not keep up with its production. It has apparently way much boost or bonus resources. Plus when i move camera game somehow stutters or lags because of old engine so i can't move camera fast enough to manage armies efficiently.
"you are human, and therefor cannot" how do you know I'm human
0100011001010110010
Its easy “cheat nuke” XD
Damn I knew I was forgetting something haha!
I even cannot beat tough bot
Doesnt seem like toughest...
@randomize4468 felt like it..
Cheat nuke kelar
That's easy. Play at the slowest speed including pausing at every frame to micro and fight near buildings that can be garrisoned
@ngtony2969 That's next level tactics!
Hello , nice video. I found that booming is for me the only way to beat the IA on toughest . If may take up to 2hours to win tho... You need to spam forts and tower tho it seems to take the IA attention.
Thanks for sharing, I've tried but haven't been able to out boom the toughest ai yet, I must be doing something wrong! Do you play as a particular nation? Any other suggestions other than forts and towers?
@@twiglets2 You need to play a water based map. Like atlantic sea power. Each nation has its own island . You will need to play very defensive with spies and forts and tower at the borders and also control the ocean territory. This will make it impossible for the IA to land because you will be killing the troops while they are in their little boat form. Then you need to reach information age and construct the super collider to be able to search futur techs instantly. Search the military futur tech. Then spam the IA with the ICBM missile and enjoy the free win.
The japanese are a good nation for this strat. But i have beaten the IA with the Bantu also.
Note: the IA WILL spam missiles. They buy the nuclear missile of the modern age. Its very weak compared to the ICBM and you will need to play the game knowing that all of your cities will take at least one nuclear missile. SO when you build things , build them in the OUTER edge of the citie circle. They will survive the blast only the capitol hitpoint will take the hit its a non-issue.
The ia has a ton of flaws. If you have spies and convert their artillery they often insta leave the fight. But when they bring a scout its much harder. They also dont use planes very well and always bomb cities only etc...
The hardest thing i found about thougest is how fast they rush you. Usually at 4-5min mark expect an attack.
Thanks for the detailed info, exactly what I needed! It's a real struggle to get through that first 5 minutes when they have such a head start but I'm going to try those tactics, sounds like a lot of fun! I don't use spies enough to be honest.
Yup, boom is the easiest way for me too! I like 3v3v2 or 3v5 with 8 nation battles, but haven't done 1v1 against Toughest ai yet. And it's taken me 15 hours to win against 5 Toughest ai opponents haha.