Yeah, keep going with Zeus. He's definitely worth the mastering.
I can't remember exactly, but what I usually do on Alfheim (my map of choice) is:
Ctrl+1 on scout then waypoint
3 Villie build granary near berry bushes (faster collecting than chicken)
3 more on food
1 on wood near TC
1 build storehouse for gold
1 build house then wood
1 on gold
2 more on food (first 1 build house)
1 build temple, pray
Advance at around 4:30
1-2 build at least 1 barracks, then autoque hoplites, put them both on gold
1-2 build archery range or stable, depending on strat - autoque toxotes or hippokons
At about the 9-11 minute mark, raid your opponent's gold miners- then home in on their base(earlier the better- even with a small army it can shake their economy up)
Autoque villies - keep most on food, gold and wood have similar priorities
Build armoury - you don't necessarily need any upgrades except for maybe the shield for a TC attack with Hoplites.
Heroic age isn't totally important, if you're attacking correctly their economy should be pretty weak, just keep autoquing and attacking. If you've got spares, get some centaurs or Minotaurs - and don't hesitate to get the labyrinth of Minos upgrade to make Minotaurs cheaper beforehand, might save some food for the hoplites.
Anyway, this works pretty well for me with 1 vs 1, especially against Norse. For Acropolis, extra resources mean quicker advance time - anything between 1:20-2:30 is great. Go through Athena and use Hops and Minotaurs to beat their TC. This also almost gaurantees a quick win against Titan.
Likewise... this order is probably crap, so if anyone could give me tips, that's also good. I don't get the chance to play MP much, since I only have dial-up. Although I can beat 11 vs 1 cpu on hard, if I stock up on pizza and beer. G'luck.
So let the sadness come again
On that you can depend on me
Until the bitter, bitter end of the world
When God sleeps in bliss...
[This message has been edited by Perfect Example (edited 02-11-2005 @ 04:06 AM).]