Why should you try it?
So, it's been a while since I play games, especially open source one. I used to share open source games and old laptop friendly games such as wesnoth and minetest. I remember those were the games I spent the most time on. Now, I don’t play those anymore and I recently read they have upgraded the game version. Good on them though and I may check them again.
This time, I'll be sharing an open source free game I've been meaning to try, 0AD. This game is in its alpha phase developed by "Wildfire games" which I personally don't know when this game will be completed. But don't mistake alpha with lower quality. This game has solid graphics if you enjoy playing RTS. Now, especially if you still use HDD in your laptop/PC, this is intended for you. This game is also available multiplatform and you can download it over here 0AD. If you are linux user, sudo apt install 0AD will do.
If in the past you liked to play stronghold crusader and/or even The age of empires, this game is also for you. In fact, this game was supposed to be “ mod concept for Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. But later it was built for a standalone projectthat even today is still in its alpha phase. I hope they will finally finalize this but given the free, open source, and volunteer based nature of it, I highly doubt that. However, if you play with less than 1000 units, this game should be bug free.
Like many other RTS, this game is also available in multiplayer too and you can play online with your friends or strangers. If you are a solo player like myself and don't like multiplayer, a campaign is a good option. In this game there are more than 4 map options that you can choose. You can also choose to play with AI in three difficulty levels; easy, medium, difficult. Whatever you fancy, this game has it, again despite still an alpha phase.
Now, let's play!
My favorite map so far is Acropolis Bay. The scenario map is intended for two players with the enemy located on the straight line from the "civic center". In this game you can choose various factions but my favorite is the hellenic states, athenians. You can also play iberian even roman factions. Each faction has its own strength. If you are nerdy into these factions, you can read more here All Factions Available
When you start the game, you will be given about 5 units. A few females, two males, one cavalry. As you see below, females are gatherers. So in this game, they gather more resources faster than any other units. Make sure to get them jobs like gathering fruits, meat, etc. But for wood and stones you can choose citizen soldiers. I have some funny screenshots from these people. I was thinking of recording this game and making fun of the citizens but that’s for later.
As the game progresses, you can start populating the area. However, you have to keep in mind the population level that you set early in the game. Building more houses is a way to increase the population too. In each house there will be some upgrades that will also let you “create” females from the house instead through a civic center. As you upgrade the house, the female will have more resilience towards the invaders because I tried not upgrading them and when they go into combat, they die fairly easily.
Tips
In this game, you have to make sure to have enough food, wood, stone, and metal. In acropolis bay, metal and stone are the scarce ones and they are not renewable. For food, I was even making 10k worth of supply just because of the farm. However, keep in mind non renewables such as stone and metal. This is when you have to start building a market.
As you start the game, make sure to also build a barrack and storage. Then, you can upgrade more, especially the civic center. The faster you can upgrade it, the better as an upgraded civic center means you can even build temples and places to build catapults and war machines. They are really helpful and can help protect your units.
In this game, I find that stone gates are useless, wooden ones will do. If you manage to build gates, they are also helpful in stalling the enemy from advancing. So, make sure if you have enough wood, you can build wooden gates surrounding your settlement.
If you play easy The pace is also much slower than if you play hard. So, you can leisurely play and get to know the area before you get into the actual game. I tried playing medium level and the enemy advanced faster and attacked faster. So it was more of a fast-paced game than a slow leisure game.
To advance the units, make sure you have built a temple to add one or more healers that will keep your infantry heals faster and has a lower chance of dying. Once you are prosperous, you can build more things, even catapults and in Athens, you can have gymnastics and many more. If you play leisurely, you can take up to 2 hours to reach the max city level which is 3. but if you play with difficult mode, that's probably going to take 20-30 minutes at most before the AI attacks you ruthlessly.
I tried playing this on my old laptop but the graphics weren't great and couldn't handle it. Now I tried it with my other laptop with better specs and graphics, I can play even with 300 max units. I have not tried unlimited units which should be more awesome because today when I played max, I can only assign 50 of them to do menial jobs and 250 of them to go to war. There are also many formations that you can assign to them, if you like watching historical war movies, you can imagine moving the units like that. In the bar, you can also see the description and what it does. So far though, this game is pretty addictive as it's only my 2nd day playing it and I have only tried Acropolis Bay. I definitely look forward to trying more and even the one with 1v4 game play.
 | 𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢. 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘯𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦, 𝘤𝘺𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥. |