Quick Links
Whether you’re playing a simple skirmish against the AI or taking on real-life opponents inAge of Mythology: Retold, a very important decision is your choice of god. Each pantheon plays completely differently, and your chosen major god will affect your strategy significantly. With strong bonuses that funnel you towards certain playstyles, this is the single biggest decider in your chances of success.
Zeus can almost be considered a ‘starter’ god, as his optimal strategies are easy to understand and quick to pick up. Of course, you’ll want to stay alert during a game to ensure you’re adapting to what your enemies are doing.
Zeus Overview
Zeus is a pretty standard god with simple focuses: Infantry and Heroes. His buffs are on the generic side, meaning they can quite easily benefit most playstyles, but will pale in comparison to optimised strategies with more discerning gods.
Playing as Zeus will provide the following buffs:
10 more starting Favor
This instant burst of Favor can either let you recruit some Pegasi quickly to help you scout, or bolster your army with quicker Myth unit spamming once you reach Classical Age.
20% faster Favor gain
As above, these buffs allow you to reliably supply your army with Myth Units and Heroes.
Myth units cost 1 less population
Infantry does 50% more damage to building
While Siege is always preferred for dealing with important buildings, this will turn your horde of Hoplites and other Infantry into a force to be reckoned with, especially as a raiding party that targets resource buildings, weaker walls, and houses.
Hoplites move 15% faster
With this, spamming Hoplites becomes a viable strategy, even in comparison to typically stronger infantry units such as those recruited from the Fortress.
This combination of buffs encourages a heavy focus onarmies composed mostly of infantry and myth units. Cavalry is also encouraged by certain minor god choices, but only in addition, not as a replacement for the main unit categories.
Hoplites are a unit to focus on, being fantastically cheap and easy to spam, distracting foes from your more powerful Myth Units and Heroes.
Minor God Choices
While Zeusshares most of his minor god options with the other Greek gods, he also has a unique option inHera, which is available as a Mythic Age choice. Which you choose, however, will vary greatly from game to game.
Athena
Athena is a solid choice for Zeus -improving infantry even furtherwill help with Zeus’s preferred early and mid-game tactics, andMinotaursare solid Myth Units.Restorationis also a fantastic power, doubly so with the ability to generate lots of Favor quickly and use it multiple times in a match.
Hermes
WithCentaursbeing very good for raiding and a boost to cavalry, Hermes is a very good choice for moreaggressive tacticsthat involve hit-and-run strategies. Ceasefire is also a very good power to use against particularly aggressive enemies.
Apollo
Apollo has a lot of things going for him - making youranti-siege shipsbetter almost guarantees an edge in naval combat,temples become passive healing spots, andranged units become strongerwith the technologies he offers.Underworld Passageis a very versatile god power, enabling a quick response to surprise attacks and also setting up surprise attacks of your own.
Dionysus
Picking Dionysus will greatly improve yourcavalry’s survivability, which is brilliant for making them a significant part of your late-game armies. This goesdoubly so if you picked Hermes in the ClassicalAge. On maps where naval combat is likely, Dionysus is an easy pick, thanks toScylla. Bronze isn’t a bad god power, but it does suffer simply from not being Underworld Passage.
Hephaestus
Colossi and ahuge reduction in Armorycosts make Hephaestus one of the best gods in the game almost by default, but add thePlenty powerto the mix, and you have an easy choice. Colossi are expensive, but with a very strong economy, fielding multiple at a time is a good recipe for success, especially against human-heavy armies.
Hera
Hera has a few things going for her - most significantly, atechnology that boosts the speed of all Myth Units. If you’re with an army heavy with Myth Units, this is a fantastic boon. Medusae are also pretty great in large numbers, and aboost toranged attackcan be key to some very powerful strategies.
General Tips
Early-Game Focus
As with most Greek pantheon games, your instant focus should be on youreconomy, aiming toage up as quickly as possible. Start by focusing on gathering food and bolstering your Villager population. Build a Temple when you’re ready and get to Classical Age as quickly as you can manage.
Once you’re in the Classical Age, start by building a Myth Unit or two and some Hoplites and Heroes, and think about what sort of makeup your army will have.Infantry should always be part of the equation, and the Myth Units available to Zeus are all solid choices, but depending on your minor god choice, you may want to ignore ranged or cavalry units.
Viable Myth Units to focus on as the bulk of your army include Centaurs, Manticores, and Colossi.
Remember toset more Villagers to pray at the Templeif you decide to make Myth Units a significant part of your army. Even with Zeus’s bonus, they’ll eat up a ton of Favor.
Dealing With Slow Recruitment
Greek military buildings have quite slow recruitment time for units - to compensate for this, it’s agood idea to build multiples (at least two) of each military building(excluding the Fortress, which is not so bad).
This does mean you’ll want todedicate some more effort to Wood gathering, but it’ll pay dividends when it comes to bolstering (or replenishing) your army.
Use Your Heroes Wisely
For Zeus, Heroes have some specific uses.
To make it simple, it’s a good strategy tohave Heroes recruited at all timesand attempt to save them when they get low on health.
Once you reach the Mythic Age, you can recruitBellerophon, who might be the best Hero in the whole game thanks to his wonderful mobility and versatility. Not only is he a great all-rounder unit for a big fight, his speed and power make him great for chasing and killing an enemy’s support units, like Villagers.
Pegasus Plus Underworld Passage
On many maps, a great endgame tactic to use for a surprise attack is torecruit a Pegasus(preferably upgraded for the extra speed and survivability) and send it directly to the heart of an enemy’s base. Then, quicklyplace an Underworld Passage as close as you can to the enemy’s most important buildingsand send a very large army through.
This is a risky tactic, as failure will leave you with an entire army depleted, but it’s a fantastic way to put the pressure on your foe and hopefully wipe out their most crucial resources.
This is a situational strategy, as it will come up against very heavy resistance from enemies that have lots of ranged or flying units, and is most often only viable when the target has only one town remaining.
