Strategy - Rise of Nations
You can use the Rally Point button to control where new units from your buildings (e.g., city, barracks, stable) go. With the building selected, click the Rally Point button (or press R), then click where you want new troops to go. You can hold down the SHIFT key while placing rally points to place multiple rally points for a single building (units will traverse them in the order you lay them).
Logistics, bureaucracy, and food supply have presented significant challenges to nations throughout history. The more you build of a particular type of unit, the more each additional unit will cost and the longer it will take to be created.
The Wealth resource is gathered by Caravans trading between your cities. To trade, you will need to build at least two cities, and then create caravans at the Market. Wealth is also gathered by increasing the percentage of the world's territory you control; the more territory you have, the more taxes you receive. Taxation can be researched at the Temple.
To build a Wonder of the World, select a citizen and click the Wonders button. Two additional Wonders become available for each age your nation advances. Once one nation builds a particular Wonder, such as the pyramids, no other nations may construct that Wonder. Wonders provide special unique powers to your nation, and in some games, help you achieve a Wonder Victory
Use an Attack Move to have your troops move to a location while fighting any enemies they encounter along the way. With your troops selected, click the Attack button (or press A), and then click on a target map location. You can also simply CTRL + right-click on a map location to order an attack move.When you have reached at least the Classical Age, you can begin gathering Metal, a resource useful for building military units. To gather metal, build a Mine near a mountain or cliff and assign citizens to work there. The bigger the mountain or cliff, the more citizens you will be able to assign. To increase your metal gathering, build mines near additional mountains or cliffs.
To lower the cost of research and make it faster, research science technology at the Library. Science technology also allows your scouts to see farther and increases the value of the resource bonuses you gain from ruins.
Heavy ships such as Triremes are useful for achieving naval supremacy and destroying enemy shipping. Light ships, such as Dromons, can move quickly to find and destroy enemy transports. In later ages you can build Bombardment ships to attack land areas and Fire Ships and Submarines to counterattack against superior enemy navies.
Building a Temple will increase the defensive strength of your city and will extend your national borders. Upgrading the power of your religion at the temple will increase these effects.
Once you have researched two Commerce technologies, you can sell excess resources at your market, or buy needed resources. Prices will fluctuate up and down over the course of the game, so pay attention to the trends and you can maximize the efficiency of your trading.
Build a Lumber Mill in a city to increase the timber output of all woodcutter's camps in that city.
Create additional citizens by selecting your City and clicking the Create Citizen button. You can queue up several citizens to be created one at a time. If you change your mind, you can cancel unit creation by clicking on the citizen icon in the queue on the right side of the screen.
To select all units (or buildings) anywhere on the map that match the type currently selected, press HOME. For example, if you have selected a citizen, pressing HOME will select all citizens anywhere in the game.
To group units together, select them and press CTRL+1. You can then reselect them at any time by pressing 1. Pressing 1 a second time will center on the group, and a third time will zoom in. You can create other groups by pressing CTRL+ 0-9 or F1-F8.
To send a pre-programmed voiceover or "Taunt", press ENTER to chat and type a number from 1-100 in the message box. If you have computer-controlled allies, they will try to follow any instructions you give this way.
To gather the Timber resource, build woodcutter's camps near forests. The more trees near a Woodcutter's Camp, the more citizens will be able to work there (and the faster you will gather timber). Gathering timber will never "exhaust" the trees in your forests, but once a woodcutter's camp is "full" of citizens you will need to build additional woodcutter's camps near other forests in order to gather timber faster.
You cannot see Oil fields until your nation reaches the Industrial Age. Once you find Oil fields, you can build Oil Wells either on land or at sea. Build Refineries to increase Oil Well output throughout your nation.
Civic research at the Library allows you to build additional cities; this strengthens your economy and extends your national borders.
To gather the Food resource, citizens must build farms near your cities. One citizen can work on each farm. Since each city can have only five farms, you may need to build additional cities to increase your food production.
Garrisoning military units inside forts, castles, towers, and cities protects the units from damage and increases the attack value of the building. To garrison military units in a building, select the military units, left-click the Garrison button, then left-click the building. Units can also garrison inside of the kind of building that produced them (e.g., barracks, dock, siege factory). Units garrisoned in buildings are gradually healed or repaired.
Some buildings provide a special bonus when constructed. For instance, building a new market provides a one-time wealth bonus. Similarly, when the Mongols build a new stable they gain free ranged cavalry units. However, these bonuses accrue only when the new building increases the nation's all time high total of that building--so if the market (or stable, etc) replaces one which was destroyed or voluntarily razed, no bonus applies.
Move your scout into the unexplored (dark) areas of the map to reveal hidden territory. Your scout can also explore ruins to gain resource bonuses and discover rare resources such as silk, wine, and horses, which merchants from your market can claim.
Set a building's rally point on a unit to have new units go to wherever the unit is at the time they are created. New units will also try to join the target unit's control groups, if any.
Forts and Castles are strong defensive positions, which also influence national borders. They can also garrison military units, and can create generals and spies.
Adjust the speed of the game by pressing the + and - keys.
The level of Military technology you research at the Library determines your Population Limit, the maximum number of units your nation is allowed to control. If you reach your population limit, perform additional military research at the library. Military research also provides access to powerful siege and artillery units as well as better defensive fortifications.
If you would like to adjust game options and preferences, click the Menu button at the upper right corner of the Rise of Nations' screen (or press F10) and select Options. You can also adjust music, sound effects, and video settings.
Build a missile at a silo, then launch the missile by selecting the silo and right-clicking the target.
To have your selected unit Follow another friendly unit, you simply right-click on the target unit.