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Your choice of god in Age of Mythology: Retold will affect how you play the game massively. Not only does your pantheon greatly change your access to buildings and units, but even smaller choices such as the minor gods you pick when ageing up can drastically alter your main tactic in trying to eradicate your enemy.
With so many gods to learn, both to play as and against, Age of Mythology can be intimidating. This is our beginner’s guide to Set, an offensively-minded Egyptian god who can wreak havoc with only a little mastery of the game’s systems.
Set Overview
Set’s focus is on units recruited from theBarracks, but he also provides some extra bonus units with summoned animals.
Pharaohs can summon Animals of Set
Pharaoh’s can spend a little bit of Favor tobolster their army with animals, which can be surprisingly useful against basic enemy units. As a bonus, you’ll also get a cluster of animals summoned at your Temple whenever youage up.
Priests can convert wild animals at a 25% Food cost
This is a great way todeny enemies food, but this tactic is risky and may cost you your Priest.
Barracks units are a little faster
This is a simple, yet effective buff.
All military buildings are 25% cheaper
The building of note here is theMigdol Stronghold. Not only does this bonus let you age up to Mythic quicker than usual, but it makes aggressive forward building of Strongholds quite viable.
Monuments reduce unit costs in Barracks and Migdol Strongholds
BuildingMonuments next to Strongholdsbecomes a key tactic thanks to this bonus.
Set also comes with theVision god powerand a technology that makes it free torecast. This can be incredible for scouting the map and keeping an eye on your enemy’s movements. Efficient use of this early in the game can be crucial for identifying great places to set up a new base, convert some animals, or locate Relics.
Overall,Set is a very offensive godwho rewards building up a large army of generic units and supporting them with brutish Myth Units. With a strong economy, you can leverage his reduced-cost military buildings to put massive amounts of pressure on your foes, especially if you can keep them buffed with a nearby Monument. Set requires adecent amount of agility and micromanagement, but this is something worth accomplishing.
Minor God Choices
As you might expect, a great deal of choices with Set are based on accentuating his strengths.
Anubis
Anubitesare the biggest draw here - they’re a very powerful Myth Unit that manage to stay relevant and useful no matter when in the game you use them. They make for excellentraiding units, especially when backed up by Slingers or the like.Serpent Spearalso synergises well with Set’s emphasis on Barracks units, and Plague of Serpents is a useful panic button.
Ptah
Ptah places more emphasis onBarracks unitupgradesthan the Wadjet when playing as Set, and this can make him a very decent choice.Shadufis also a top tier technology to get for Food economy, andShifting Sandscan be used excellently to warp a ton of powerful units directly to key points in your enemy’s defences.
Nephthys
WhileScorpion Men are largely underwhelming,Ancestorsis a fantastic god power than can turn the tide of an aggressive push very easily, and turning Priests and your Pharaoh intoMyth Unit killing machinesis always appreciated. Since your military focus should be human units anyway (or any of the other excellent Myth Units available to Set), the lacklustre Scorpion Man isn’t too big of a negative.
Sekhmet
In a game where yourfoes don’t have excessive Hero units, such as those against other Egyptians (before Son of Osiris) and Atlanteans, Sekhmet’sScarabsmake for the best siege units. Against Hero-dense foes, however, you might struggle. Otherwise, Citadel can come in very handy thanks to the boosted population count, and improving Slingers makes them even more spammable than before (and they arequitespammable).
Thoth
Meteor and Phoenixare very powerful additions to your offensive toolkit - almost worth picking Thoth alone. Add the amazing (yet expensive)Valley of the Kingstech, which allows you to empower military buildings and get double soldiers from them, and you have a really clutch upgrade to your offence. For an offence-oriented god, this is wonderful.
Horus
Tornadois pretty great andAvengersare devastating in the right situations, but the highlights for Set are the technologies that Horus offers. Infantry gets all-around upgrades, Axemen become semi-siege, and Spearmen can safely take on Cavalry.
General Tips
Early Scouting With Animals
You’ll begin the game with aBaboonif you’re playing as Set - this should be yourmain scouting unit, as it’s quick. This allows you to save your Priest for when you build a Temple and researchHands of the Pharaoh, enabling him to immediatelyhead to any Relicsyou find with the Baboon and take them to the Temple.
Alternatively, you may setboththe Baboonandyour starting Priest off as scouts and reveal more of the map even quicker.
Understand Barracks Units
It’s especially important with Set tounderstand the nature of your Barracks unitsand how they best work:
Using this information and reacting quickly to the army compositions you see your enemy using is an important facet of any Set strategy that utilises his great Barracks units.
