0 A.D. Guide, Chapter III: Working with Units and Exploring the Map.

 0 A.D. is a free and open-source real-time strategy video game under development by Wildfire Games. It is a historical war and economy game focusing on the years between 500 BCE and 1 BCE, with the years between 1 CE and 500 CE planned to be developed in the future.

The game is cross-platform, playable on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD.

It is composed entirely of free software and free media, using the GNU GPLv2 (or later) license for the game engine source code, and the CC BY-SA license for the game art and music.

0 A.D. Guide, Chapter I: Working with Units and Exploring the Map.

Units in 0 A.D. can be placed on a continuum from “civilian-only”, which are almost exclusively used for accumulating resources, to “military-only”, which can only fight. 

 

In the middle, the game features a wide variety of citizen soldiers, which can do a little bit of both.

Female Citizens.

You usually start out a game with a few female citizens, who are the driving force of your economy. They specialize in gathering resources, particularly Food, by foraging and farming more efficiently than other units. They can also build civic buildings, such as resource dropsites, and cause nearby male units to work faster. Although they can attack enemy units, they are very vulnerable to practically any other unit.

Citizen soldiers.

Some units have the dual role of both workers and soldiers, meaning they are citizen soldiers. For example, hoplites can not only fight but also chop wood. 

Citizen Soldiers have bonuses for gathering wood, stone and metal. Certain buildings, such as fortresses, can only be built by citizen soldiers.
 

Ranks.

The more citizen soldiers fight, the more battle experience they gain, and automatically go up the ranks. 

With each rank, they become stronger, and don a unique appearance, but also get gradually worse at “civilian” tasks, such as gathering resources.

Champions and Heroes.

You may also train champion units, which are more expensive than citizen soldiers and cannot do any task but fight, but are stronger and better at fighting. 

You can also train exactly one hero in a game, which is a very strong unique unit.

 

Shroud of Darkness.

You begin with only a small portion of the map revealed to you; The rest is covered in black. This black cover is called the Shroud of Darkness, and it may be hiding your enemies’ base, useful resources and more. 

The shroud is gradually removed and the map is gradually revealed when you send units to explore new parts of the map.

Fog of War.

Areas that you have explored, but currently do not have any units or buildings in them, appear with a grey shading covering them. 

This is the Fog of War. Even if things change on the map, under the Fog of War you you will only see objects as they were when your units or buildings last “saw” them. 

For example, if trees are cut down or a new enemy building is built under the Fog of War, you won’t see the change unless you send a unit there again. Importantly, enemy units are not seen at all under the Fog of War.

If you have allies, you can see whatever parts of the map your allies have explored and vice versa.
Gathering Intelligence

When exploring the map, you should be trying to find:

    Treasures,
    Resources,
    Strategic areas on the map, such as river crossings,
    The location of your enemies’ bases,
    How fortified your enemies’ bases are,
    What sort of military units they have been training,
    and more.

All of this information can help you make the decisions that will make you victorious, such as the best direction to expand your base, and the types of units you should be training to counter your adversary.

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About Giampaolo Rossi.

Fond of computer and video games. Stay informed of the latest news on games for Linux and Android. The future of gaming is in Linux. All you need to know about How to play Windows games on Linux.