is a turn based strategy game, it is not fancy, this is pure gameplay oriented strategy.

Help topics

How to play quick guide

Units

Unit/structure types
Unit properties comparison

Technologies

Technology types
Technology stealing

Attack

Attack rules
Attack instinct

Other

Constructing structures
Allies
Waypoints and production gather points
Gems
Upgrades
Badges (Multiplayer)

Special thanks to / Credits

Feedback

How to play quick guide

Who is effective against who:

In-Game buttons:

• Move: Click on a unit to highlight its available destinations. Click on a highlighted tile to show the path to the tile. Click the destination tile again to confirm the path and the unit will move there.
• 
  Garrisoning units: Some structures and units can garrison other units. Move other unit on the tile of the carrier to garrison it. Click on the carrier to access garrisoned units. A new window will be shown in which you can see the available "rooms" with garrisoned units on the left side. Click on one of the garrisoned units to select it. You can then use its ability or move it out of the carrier. Note some abilities can't be used in some carriers (e.g., units can't attack directly from Wagons) and some units can't be garrisoned in some carriers (e.g., you can't store Wagons into Wagons). You can garrison some carriers in other carriers (e.g., you can store Wagons in Transport ships), though.
• 
  Unit production: Click on one of your Town Centers (TC) to select it. A new window will be shown in which you can see its current production (by default "no production") on the right side. Click on the current production to show Production screen where you can set the production to one of the available units or technologies. Use the button at the bottom of Production screen to switch between those two categories. Note all progress on the current production is lost when you set TC to produce something else.
• 
  Attack: When you select a unit it will show (beside the possible move destinations) the possible targets to attack with a target icon. Click on the target icon and your unit will attack immediately.
• Heal/Mend/Convert/Build: Click on your unit (with one of the listed abilities) to show the possible tiles to move to and then click on the unit again to change its mode. Now you see the possible targets to heal, to mend or to convert, or target tiles to build on. Click on the highlighted tile to execute the healing/mending/converting/building ability. You can also use the "Next ability" button on right side of screen to change among Attack mode and other abilities.
• 
  Set Waypoint: Click on a unit, click on the "set waypoint" button, click on any tile on the map to assign the waypoint to the unit. Each turn if you do not give any command to the unit it will automatically move towards the waypoint at the end of the turn. TCs and (other structures that can produce units) can also have a waypoint set, this waypoint will be assigned to each unit the structure produces.
• Multiselect: Double click on your unit and it will highlight all nearby units of the same unit type. This does not work on units that have heal/mend/convert/build ability as the double click will change their mode instead.

Unit/structure types

The unit properties are shown in tables here.
In this list there are some specialities of some units:

• 
  Worker: this unit can
  • construct things like Walls, Towers, Bridges and other structures from Upgrades section.
  • construct: non-"flesh-and-blood" units like catapults, ships
  • mend structures and "device" units.
• 
  Healers: these units can
  • heal " flesh-and-blood" units.
• 
  Town Center (TC): this structure can
  • train/construct new units
  • garrison units
  • heal garrisoned units
    • The healing rate raises from 4HP/turn to 50HP/turn if any unit with healing ability is also garrisoned there.
  • Town Centers can't be damaged thus under attack not the structure but the garrisoned units recieve the damage.
• Tower: this structure can
  
  • garrison units
  • heal garrisoned units
    • The healing rate raises from 4HP/turn to 50HP/turn if any unit with healing ability is also garrisoned there.
  • Towers are protecting units inside them so under attack the structure receives the damage instead of the garrisoned units.
• 
  Catapult:
  • Special attack type: The attack type of this unit is "Burning rock". This means even though it is a ranged weapon its attack is treated as a melee one so normal armor of the target is used instead of the pierce one during the damage calculation. Thus, catapults can cause only 1HP damage to flying units.
  • Area damage: With "Area damage" technology researched Catapults deal damage not only to the hit tile but also to the tiles adjacent to the hit one in four cardinal directions. The damage done is halved for this splash damage, though. Even flying units can be hit by splash damage of Area damage tech.
  • Inaccuracy: The catapult is inaccurate and gets more and more inaccurate depending on the speed of the target, i.e. a Knight is much harder to be hit than a Healer. For each speed point the target has the chance to hit is lowered by 15%. If Knight with speed of 5 is targeted, the chance to hit it is lowered by 5 * 15% -> 75%, i.e. Catapult has only 25% chance to hit the Knight. If the catapult misses, one of the eight tiles around the target is randomly selected and hit instead. Area damage is in such case dealt around this hit tile instead of around the targeted one.

Assassin:

• Invisibility: No enemy units can detect the spy until they are next to the spy (so it has a stealth ability) (except scouts and watch towers, they see all assassins within the range of sight)
• Spying of TC: The spy can get intel about enemy TC status: stand next to the enemy building with the assassin and you will be able to click on the building and open the building screen, as if it was yours.
• Abilities that DO NOT consume the assassin:
  • Stealing: Stand beside enemy or ally TC, open the TC dialog and click on the "Steal" icon. You have a chance to steal a random tech from the owner of given TC. Only techs they have researched and which you have not researched yet can be stolen.
• Abilities that consume the assassin once used:
  • Death-touch: If an assassin attacks an enemy unit or structure, the target immediately dies but the assassin will also die. So this ability is used on a normal attack, you simply need to attack the enemy and the deathtouch will trigger.
  • Sabotage: Stand beside any enemy TC and open the TC dialog, where you can click on the current running production icon and sabotage it by clearing the production.
• Drawback: Any enemy unit can accidentally step on it which will kill the assassin.
  

Units/Structures in Upgrades section: there are special units and structures in the Upgrades section that can be bought using gems , they and their properties are not listed here (get them to see their properties).

Unit properties comparison

Here is a small table to help compare the unit properties.
These are the basic unit properties, these values can be changed by researching technologies unlocked in Upgrades secion.

Attack, defense, sight and speed properties

	Cost	HP	Power	Range	Armor & resistance	Speed	Sight
Skirmisher	2	8	4	3	0/0 (0%)	3	3
Archer	2	11	5	5	0/0 (0%)	3	7
Pikeman	2	11	6	1	0/0 (0%)	3	4
Swordsman	2	18	8	1	0/0 (0%)	3	4
Assassin	4	8	3	1	0/0 (0%)	3	5
Knight	4	32	10	1	2/2 (0%)	5	5
Catapult	8	16	33	7	0/6 (40%)	1	8
Warship	4	41	7	6	0/6 (20%)	5	7
Destroyer	7	41	35	1	0/4 (40%)	5	4
Ornithopter	5	11	21	1	0/0 (20%)	10	4
Healer	3	10	3	1	0/0 (50%)	2	4
Worker	3	10	1	1	0/0 (0%)	3	5
Wagon	4	25	1	1	0/3 (100%)	5	5
Transport ship	4	33	1	1	0/4 (100%)	5	5
Scout	1	5	1	1	0/2 (0%)	6	6
Scout bird	2	2	2	1	0/2 (0%)	6	8
Tower	5*	50	5	5	0/2 (100%)	0	8
Watch tower	2*	8	0	0	0/0 (100%)	0	8
Wall	3*	75	0	0	4/5 (100%)	0	1
Barracks	5*	20	0	0	0/0 (100%)	0	3
Bridge	2*	5	0	0	0/4 (100%)	0	1
Town Center	-	-	-	-	-	-	4

• *: this is the action cost (how many mending actions are needed) for a single worker to build up the structure (wall/tower/bridge)
• Armor: "0/6 (20%)" means:
  • 0 normal armor (against non arrow attacks)
  • 6 pierce armor (against arrow attacks)
  • 20% resistance to conversion

Heal/Mend/Garrison capacity poperties

	Heal rate	Heal range	Mend rate	Mend range	Conversion probability	Conv. range	Garrison capacity	Required tech.
Worker			10	1
Healer	10	2			20%	4
Tower	4	0*		0*			1
Town Center	4	0*		0*			4
Catapult								Ballistics
Ornithopter								Flight
Wagon							3
Barracks							1
Transport ship							1
Bridge							1

• Mend/Heal rate: The value represents the value of HP added to the target per healing/mending action.
• Conversion probability: The basic chance to convert, if the target has resistance than it is reduced by its resistance:
  • eg: Healer has 50% probability (thanks to Persuasion tech) and target has 30% resistance
    • 50% - (50% * 30%) = the final probability = 35% (in other words the chance is reduced by 30%)
• *: These units heal only units garrisoned in themselves (heal effect on all of the units garrisoned)

Bonus table

The table shows which unit has bonus against the other, eg: Archer has bonus against a Swordsman, the % value is the additional extra power.

(rows: who has bonus, columns: against whom)

		+50%
				50%		50%
					450%
							100%	100%	100%
	50%	50%		50%						50%
							30%	30%	30%			10%
													30%
										30%	30%		30%
										30%	30%	30%	30%

Technology types

Technologies are inventions to enhance basic unit types / game rules. Here is a table of the starting ones. More techs can be unlocked in Upgrades section.

Technology stealing

You can steal technology from your enemies by occupying their TC. You have by default 10% chance to steal a technology which you don't posses yet. You can increase your chances to 40% by researching the "Stealing" technology.

Attack Rules

• Counter attack: if the defending unit is on an adjacent tile to the attacking unit than it can counterattack (but with 50% power penalty)
• Flying units: Flying units advised to be attacked by other flying units or arrowed units, non arrow type land or water units can hit maximum 1HP per attack.
• Bonus: if a unit (eg. Archer) have bonus over an other unit (eg. Swordsman) than
  • +50% power if Archer attacks the Swordsman (the corresponding % value is shown above in the bonus table)
  • no counter attack penalty if Sworsman attacks the Archer

Attack Instinct

If you forget to use unit action in the current turn, and you press the Next Turn button, the unit will act something based on its AI: eg Archer will shoot a non-adjacent enemy, a Worker will mend nearby units.

but they will not:

• attack a unit/structure that can counterattack (adjacent unit)
• move

Constructing structures

The Worker unit can construct structures (Wall/Tower/Bridge/Barracks and other structures from Upgrade section).

Barracks: they (and other similar "factory" building) are limited to the maximum number of TCs you own currently (if you have 4 TCs then you can build maximum 4 factory structures, eg. barracks)

The construction mechanism

1. Action: Worker places the basis of the structure
   • it has just 1 HP, and is "under-construction" state, can not attack or heal until finished.
2. Action: Worker constructs the unit with based its "mend rate" value an the building's "mending bonus when constructing" (increases HP)
3. (and so on until max HP reached, when the "under-construction" state is removed and the structure is ready)

remark: if a building under construction has a positive "mending bonus when constructing" value, it will receive extra damage when damaged during construction. The used formula is: the damage * "mending bonus when constructing" value.

Allies

You (or any player) can have allies (Human or AI) to help in the conquest. The teams representing allies and enemies can be set during game creation.

An ally can

• mend your units
• heal your units

An ally can not

• occupy your TC
• attack any of your units
• go inside your carrier units

Waypoints and production gather points

Unit waypoint: You can use the "Set point" button on a unit to designate a waypoint (target position) where it should go automatically.

• If a unit has a waypoint set than at the end of turn it moves automatically to get closer to the point.
• if the user commands the unit anywhere (attack or move) than the waypoint is cleared automatically

Town construction point: you can set a waypoint to the town also, if so than every newly created unit in that TC will inherit a "Unit waypoint" designating to the target construction point tile.

Gems

You can earn gems by completing campaign maps, and you will get more gems if you complete those maps with more stars (=> faster) (you can also get gems by promotions and donations).

Upgrades

Here you can spend your gems to upgrade the gameplay with special units/structures and effects.
These are the upgrade types you can choose from:

• special units/structures: if you own such an upgrade than you can build the given unit/structure
• in game effects: there are effects (eg. cure unit) that can be used in the gameplay, once you consumed it, you can buy it again.
  • there are restrictions about these effects:
    • you can only use them after the 5th turn.
    • you can use only ONE each turn.
• out game effects: there are effects what you can use in the menu (eg. unlocking a map). Once you consumed it, you can buy it again.

The upgrades are freely usable in campaigns, but in random and multiplayer games they available only if the game creator sets up the "Enable upgrades"setting to one of these:

• Yes(0): the special units/structures are available in the game - but no upgrade effects (eg. Strength)
• Yes(5): special units/structures are available in the game - and 5 upgrade effects can be used by each player (eg. Strength)
• Yes(10): the same as "Yes(5)" but 10 effects available for each player.
  

Badges (Multiplayer)

You can earn badges in multiplayer games, all badge represent you activeness and responsiveness to games (so it DOES NOT show your skills in game!), so this badge shows the reliability of the player
Reason: The main reason of these badges is that there are many players who start a multiplayer game and do not finish them, uninstalling the game or, when they are losing, they just stop playing the game instead of withdrawing.
This is why we started valuating players who are active and always finish their games (winning/losing/withdrawing) with badges
How to earn badges: Play many games, and do not get skipped or kicked and you will get a better badge.
Filtering out unreliable players: Also on creating a multiplayer game you can set the minimal badge requirement in the "Player Filter" field, so the players can join only by having the required badge (minimum).

Default badge (for rookies)
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5 the best and most active players

Also we have negative badges for the ones who get skipped and kicked regularily:
Unreliable Level 1
Unreliable Level 2
Unreliable Level 3 - The worst reliability

The best (Level 5) badge is given if you have in the last 2 months at least 1-2 finished (or long running) games per week, and have no skips/kicks.

Feedback

Any comments, feedback, suggestions on Age of Strategy please write to us using the link below.
zerotouchsystems@gmail.com

Special thanks to / Credits

• The following works were used in accordance to the license respectively issued to each. Thank you to each of these fantastic authors for the licensed use of their creations:
  Jorge Avila , designer of a very useful 'mission' background
  Daniel Cook, author of some very nice looking original terrain art
  Jetrel, Saphy, Zabin, Bertram, modified Cook's images to 32x32 dimensions among other things
  The  TomeTik  forum, many great and useful designs were found there
  Danimal , the splash screen image character
  Rachel Wan , the splash screen image background
  Scrittl , some nice tech icons
  
• Music by:
  Jonathan Hurrell, http://zweiforce.com
  Nancy Hurrell, http://www.hurrellharp.com
  Synergy Brass, http://www.synergybrass.com
  also Music by Crusoe on youtube
• Splash arts: thanks to Sir Thomas!
• Most of all, special thanks to the various members of our forum who have contributed by editing the existing graphics as well as augmenting with their own original handiwork!
• EXTRA SPECIAL thanks to Josh and the Stylin' Strategists for all the help in terrain design, unit designs, and many many more!