Hotkeys & Keyboard Shortcuts

Mastering hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts in Age of Mythology: Retold is not just about efficiency; it's about gaining a strategic edge. While the game provides intuitive mouse controls, the ability to rapidly issue commands, manage your economy, and deploy your mythical units with precision can turn the tide of any battle. This detailed guide will walk you through essential hotkeys, customization options, and strategies for integrating them into your gameplay.

Why Use Hotkeys?

Speed: Execute actions significantly faster than clicking through menus.
Precision: Target specific units, buildings, or locations without fumbling.
Multitasking: Manage multiple aspects of your empire simultaneously, from resource gathering to military engagements.
Reduced APM (Actions Per Minute): While seemingly counter-intuitive, efficient hotkey use can reduce unnecessary mouse movements, allowing for more impactful actions.

Core Hotkeys for Every Player

These are the fundamental hotkeys you should internalize from your very first skirmish. They cover the most common actions and are crucial for maintaining a competitive pace.

Select All Idle Villagers: Press . (period). This is invaluable for quickly assigning new tasks to your economic backbone, ensuring no villager is ever truly idle.
Go to Town Center: Press H. Instantly snaps your camera to your primary Town Center, allowing for rapid villager production or technology research.
Create Villager: With a Town Center selected, press V. Combine this with H for seamless villager queueing.
Select All Military Units: Press F1. A quick way to gather your forces for an attack or defense. Be mindful that this selects *all* military units, including those potentially out of position.
Select All Units of Same Type: Double-click on a unit, or select a unit and press Ctrl + A. Essential for grouping specific unit compositions, like all your Minotaurs or all your Slingers.
Attack Move: Press A then click on a location. Your selected units will move to that location, engaging any enemies they encounter along the way.
Stop: Press S. Halts all selected units' current actions. Useful for repositioning or preventing units from chasing enemies into unfavorable positions.
Patrol: Press P then click on a starting and ending point. Units will move between these points, attacking any enemies they encounter.
Research Technology: With the relevant building selected (e.g., Temple, Armory), press the corresponding hotkey for the technology. Most technologies have a unique hotkey displayed in their tooltip.
Build Menu: Press Q for the economic building menu, W for military buildings, and E for defensive structures. This allows for rapid construction without needing to click the build buttons.

Advanced Hotkeys & Control Groups

Once you're comfortable with the basics, integrating control groups and advanced hotkeys will elevate your gameplay significantly. Control groups allow you to assign specific units or buildings to a number key for instant selection.

Control Group Management

Assign Control Group: Select the units or buildings you wish to group, then press Ctrl + [Number Key 1-9]. For example, Ctrl + 1 for your main army.
Select Control Group: Press the assigned [Number Key] once.
Go to Control Group Location: Press the assigned [Number Key] twice rapidly. This is incredibly useful for quickly jumping to your army or a specific production building.
Add to Existing Control Group: Select the new units/buildings, then press Shift + [Number Key].
Remove from Control Group: Select the unit(s) you wish to remove, then re-assign the control group without them (Ctrl + [Number Key]).

Strategic Control Group Usage

Consider these common control group assignments:

1: Main Army: Your primary offensive force.
2: Myth Units/Specialized Units: Group powerful Myth Units (e.g., Colossus, Phoenix) or specialized human units (e.g., Gastraphetes, Priests) for focused ability usage.
3: Scouting Units: Fast-moving units like Hippikons or Scouts for map awareness.
4: Town Centers: For rapid villager production across multiple TCs.
5: Barracks/Archery Ranges: Group all your military production buildings for efficient unit queueing.
6: Temples/Siege Workshops: For Myth Unit production or siege engine creation.

Customizing Your Hotkeys

Age of Mythology: Retold offers extensive hotkey customization. Don't feel constrained by the default settings if they don't feel natural to you.

Navigate to the Options Menu from the main screen or during a game (Esc).
Select the Hotkeys tab.
Here, you'll find a comprehensive list of all assignable actions. Click on the action you wish to change.
Press the desired new key combination. Be mindful of conflicts with existing hotkeys.
Click Apply or OK to save your changes.

Pro Tip: Many competitive players rebind common actions like "Go to Town Center" (default H) to a more easily accessible key like Spacebar or a mouse button for quicker access during intense moments.

Practice Makes Perfect

The journey to hotkey mastery requires practice. Start by focusing on a few key hotkeys at a time, gradually integrating more as they become second nature. Play custom games against the AI or use the "Learn to Play" scenarios to drill your hotkey usage without the pressure of a live opponent. Consistent application of these shortcuts will significantly improve your gameplay and overall enjoyment of Age of Mythology: Retold.