A guide to Poseidon

By Mokon
Published 4/2/03, AoM v1.04

Introduction

Poseidon is a force to be reckoned with in AoM. His win percentage is tied with Odin for the highest, at 53%. What gives him this success and how do you master it? This is the topic that will be covered in this guide so sit back and read!

Poseidon at a glance

  • The first of his attributes is that cavalry cost 10% less reducing the cost from 80G, 40F to 72G, 36F (145.9 BVS to 131.3 BVS). This allows him to get out 10 hippikon for the cost of 9.
  • Stables cost 25% less reducing the cost from 100 wood to 75 wood (92.6 BVS to 69.4 BVS). This helps the Poseidon player save wood early on and allows him to get more stables throughout the game.
  • Market use cost only 10%. This can be helpful if the player ever has surplus of a resource so that he can go to the mythic age earlier.
  • When Poseidon’s buildings are destroyed militia emerge from the rubble. Militia spawning is one of the most useful attributes of Poseidon. I will go into detail on them later.
  • Gains a Hippocampus at the Dock when a Temple is built. Hippocampus spawning is very nice on water maps it allows you to monitor the enemy’s movements with ease.
  • Poseidon’s GP is Lure. Lure is very nice early on in the game it allows you to stay in the safety of your town and still have hunting. It attracts up to 1000 Food.
  • Poseidon’s technology, Lord of Horses, increases cavalry LOS by 4. This tech isn’t the greatest. Get it when you reach Mythic and have the resources to spare.
  • In Mythic Poseidon gets the Hetairoi, great against buildings and archers but not worth its price in nearly all cases

Heroes

  • Archaic Age: Theseus (Infantry): The basic Greek Archaic hero – nothing much to him.
  • Classical Age: Hippolyta (Archer): High attack but low hit points. This makes her better against myth units but hinders her versus human units.
  • Heroic Age: Atalanta (Infantry): The fastest hero, this makes her great for running to the nearest mythic unit.
  • Mythic Age: Polyphemus (Cyclops hero, can throw units): This hero is a behemoth. He has the most HP for the Greek heroes and it thus the best versus the human units. He is also superb in obliterating the enemy myth units.
  • Mythic Age: The Argo (Naval Hero): The only naval hero. This unit gives Poseidon an added advantage on water for it is easier for him to take on naval MU’s.

Pantheon

  • Classical Age: Ares, Hermes
  • Heroic Age: Aphrodite, Dionysus
  • Mythic Age: Artemis, Hephaestus

Starting out

So now let’s get down to the game. You start the game with a Town Center, four Sentry Towers, Three Villagers, a Kataskopos, 250 Food, 250 W, 100 G, and a lure GP. As the game start click the hotkey for Town Center Selection and queue up five villagers. Look around for the nearest food source remember hunting is preferred. Once you find it put the gather point for the Town Center on this. You then want to select the three villagers that you have. Send them to the food source and build a mill. As you place the mill think because you want to eliminate as much waste time as possible. You then want to place your Lure GP place this next to your Town Center. You then want to select you Kataskopos group him to team one and send him scouting. Always keep him moving. Here are some things that you should watch for as you scout:

  • Gold – This will be very important for you. You will want to keep tabs on these for until heroic this is the only supply of gold.
  • Settlements – Once you hit heroic these will come into play. Try to build near them and once your enemy is in heroic keep them in constant surveillance and make sure he doesn’t get any of yours.
  • Herdables – Look for these and send them back to you base whenever you see them they make a good supply of food.
  • Choke Points – Look for these think of how they might come into play later in a game.
  • Enemy Base – Once you find this keep constant surveillance try to see what he is building and where. Try to see how good of a player he is and see what upgrades he has. (Press F1 to see the upgrades) This also includes looking for the enemies’ forward base.

As you were scouting your Town Center has produced three villagers. Go to your Town Center and set the gather point to the nearest wood. Once your villager is built place a storehouse there. Next set the gather point of you Town Center to gold. Once your villager is produced create another storehouse near the gold. Many share storehouses with wood and gold – I only do this if they are very close. If you do this also remember to have it closest to the gold because gold is a static resource that takes a while to deplete, whereas treelines will recede as villagers chop trees down.

During this time don’t forget to scout.

  • Put your next villager on wood.
  • Next villager to to gold.
  • Next villager to wood.
  • Next villager to gold.
  • Have one of your food villagers build a house. Return to food once he is done.
  • The next villager should be used to create a temple and then another house. (Use the shift key so he does not start praying after completing the temple.) The next three villagers should be sent to food. Once your temple and house building villager is done, send him to gold. (Once again you can use the shift key so he does not go idle.)
  • Next three villagers to wood. You may also want to research husbandry at this time.
  • To end your archaic villager production send one to gold.

At this time you should have 400 food. Advance to the classical. If you don’t have 400 food continue to put villagers on gold until you have the needed resources. As you advance, research handaxe and pickaxe.

Next: The Classical Age