The 10 (+1) most important and useful technologies to research in Age of Empires Return of Rome
There are some upgrades that you should really consider researching as soon as possible, and that you should know about in order to improve your chances of winning.
Let's see them in detail.
Table of contents
1) Wheel
Your villagers will move 50% faster and it is required in order to make chariots.
On the way up to Bronze Age you usually research the first wood upgrade, but as soon as you reach the Bronze Age you really want to research Wheel as soon as possible, because it will make your villagers much faster and this means a much better economy.
Also, it is necessary if you plan to go for a early chariot archers rush. In this case, also remember to research Nobility to increase the Chariots Hitpoints.
How to research it:
- Reach the Bronze Age
- Research it in the Market
2) Ballistics
This works in a similar way as in AoE2:DE. It applies to archers, towers and siege units.
Basically the ranged attacks will predict the destination point of enemy units, but you can still avoid the damage if you move your units on another direction in time.
The difference is that ballistics also works with siege units like catapults and ballistas, which makes them very powerful. Catapults are good to counter massed archers, while ballistas are good to counter infantry and cavarly.
How to research it:
- Reach the Iron Age
- Research it in the Government Center
3) Alchemy (Chemistry)
In RoR, Alchemy corresponds to the Chemistry upgrade in AoE2:DE. This will add fire to your arrows making them more powerful.
This is a very important upgrade in the Iron Age for archers and ships in particular, but also for towers. It does not unlock new units.
How to research it:
- Reach the Iron Age
- Research it in the Government Center
4) Nobility
This gives +15% hitpoints for units on horses, including Cavalry, Horse Archers, Chariots, and Camels.
It is very important to research it early if you plan to go for a chariot archers rush or a cavalry rush.
It is also required to unlock Scythe Chariots upgrade in the Iron Age.
How to research it:
- Reach the Bronze Age
- Research it in the Government Center
5) Logistics
It is a must-do upgrade for infantry units, expecially with civilizations that receive the Legionary upgrade.
What it does is reducing by half the population space taken by your Barracks units. So if you have 100 legionaries, they will only take 50 population space instead of 100. It applies also to Slingers and Axemen. It does not apply to Hoplites/Phalaxes/Centurions.
Consider being in the Iron Age: You could have an army of 300-400 Legionaries going around destroying everything.
If you have Choson, this means having a huge army of Legionaries at your disposal, which even have double Hitpoints, because a bonus of the Choson civilization is the +80 Hitpoints for Legionaries. This basically is like having 4 times the legionaries on the field.
When you play with Choson or Romans you will most likely go for this upgrade, even in the Bronze Age because you will make swordsmen.
The best way to counter a spam of Legionaries is preventing your opponent to boom and go for that strategy. So either you rush them in Tool or Bronze Age, don't let them do as they want!
You will often see Broad Swordsmen rush in the Bronze Age, since Logistics can be researched in the Bronze Age itself, meaning your opponent will start spamming them very soon. They are a cheap unit after all and very hard to counter.
How to research it:
- Reach the Bronze Age
- Research it in the Government Center
For instance, you will probably really need it only in the Iron Age when you start producing lots of Legionaries.
Other civilizations that have the Legionaries and can really benefit from this tech are the Babylonians, Assyrians and Phoenicians.
6)
This technology is important not just because your priests will restore faith 50% faster, but mostly because it is required to upgrade Long Swordsmen into Legionaries.
The civilizations that can make Legionaries are: Romans, Choson, Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians.
If you plan to go for Legionaries, also remember to research Logistics in the Government Center, which makes your Barrack units take half population space.
How to research it:
- Reach the Iron Age
- Research it in the Temple
7) Coinage
Coinage will make your gold mines last 25% more. Now, this was expecially useful in AoE1 because there was no land trade, so as soon as you finish gold, you can only make Tool Age units (useless in Iron Age).
In any case, this means having much more gold at your disposal, so research it as soon as possible in the Iron Age.
Moreover, it will also allow you to send tributes for free, like Guilds in AoE2:DE.
How to research it:
- Reach the Iron Age
- Research it in the Market (it comes after the first Gold Mining upgrade)
8) Wood cutting upgrades
The wood upgrades will increase the range of your towers, ships and archers, and of course they also improve the gather rate and carry capacity of woodcutters.
The latest wood upgrade, Craftmanship, is also required to research the upgrade into Helepolis: a more powerful Ballista, which is a siege unit.
How to research them:
- Reach the Tool Age to unlock the first wood upgrade
- Research them in the Market
9) Stone mining upgrades
A part from having stone miners collect faster and carry more stone, these upgrades are very useful because:
- they increase the attack of Slingers
- in Iron Age when you research Siegecraft, villagers will receive bonus attack against towers and walls, making them a good unit to take down towers
- Siegecraft is also required to research the Heavy Catapult upgrade in the Siege Workshop
How to research them:
- Reach the Tool Age to unlock the first stone upgrade
- Research them in the Market
- Siegecraft is only available in the Iron Age
- There is no Stone mining upgrade in the Bronze Age
10) Aristocracy
This upgrade makes your academy units move 25% faster, so it applies to Hoplites, Phalanxes and Centurions.
It is also required to research the upgrade into Centurions.
The civilizations that benefit the most from this are:
- Greek, whose academy units already move 30% faster and are also 20% cheaper
- Macedonians, whose academy units have +1/+2 pierce armor in Bronze/Iron Age
- Carthaginians, which have +15% hitpoints on academy units
- Minoans, Phoenicians, Romans, Sumerians and Yamato which can all research Centurions
How to research it:
- Reach the Iron Age
- Research it in the Government Center
11) Engineering
This is required to upgrade Catapult Triremes into Juggernaught.
It gives siege units +2 range, so this applies to catapults, ballistas and catapult triremes.
The best civilizations to go for Siege are:
- Sumerians, whose catapults fire 30% faster
- Hittites, whose capults have 50% more hitpoints
- Macedonians, whose siege units cost 25% less
How to research it:
- Reach the Iron Age
- Research it in the Government Center
Conclusions
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