Relic Acquisition Strategy
Relics in Age of Mythology: Retold provide powerful, passive bonuses that can significantly impact your economy, military, or myth unit production. Securing these ancient artifacts early and denying them to your opponent is a crucial strategic element for achieving victory.
Understanding Relic Spawns and Types
Relics often spawn in predictable locations, making efficient scouting even more critical. They are typically found:
- Near Natural Choke Points: Areas where the terrain narrows, often creating strategic bottlenecks.
- Adjacent to Resource Patches: Close to gold mines, fertile hunting grounds, or large forests.
- Along the Edges of the Map: Especially in corners or along the perimeter.
- Near Neutral Settlements or Myth Unit Lairs: Sometimes guarded by minor enemy units or close to neutral structures.
Understanding the types of bonuses relics offer helps prioritize which ones to secure:
- Economic Relics: Provide steady resource generation (e.g., +10 Gold/minute), reduced building costs, or increased gather rates. These are invaluable for long-term growth.
- Military Relics: Offer bonuses to unit stats (e.g., +5% attack for all infantry), faster training times, or reduced unit costs. Crucial for military dominance.
- Myth Unit Relics: Enhance Myth Units (e.g., +10% HP for all Myth Units), reduce their favor cost, or increase their attack. Essential for civilizations heavily reliant on Myth Units.
- Utility Relics: Provide miscellaneous benefits like increased line of sight, faster healing, or reduced technology research times.
Early Game Relic Scouting and Acquisition
The initial minutes of a match are paramount for relic acquisition. Your primary goal should be to locate and secure as many relics as possible before your opponent. This requires efficient scouting and a swift response.
- Scouting: Immediately dispatch your starting scout unit (e.g., Greek Scout, Norse Ox Cart, Egyptian Scout) to explore the map's periphery. Prioritize areas that are likely to contain multiple relics or are strategically important. Remember the common spawn patterns mentioned above.
- Hero/Priest Deployment: As soon as a relic is spotted, send an appropriate unit to retrieve it.
- Greek: Greek Heroes (e.g., Odysseus, Ajax, Chiron) are excellent for relic acquisition due to their combat prowess, allowing them to clear minor guardians if necessary.
- Egyptian: Egyptian Priests are ideal for this task. They are relatively inexpensive, can heal units, and possess a dedicated relic-gathering bonus, allowing them to convert relics significantly faster than other units.
- Norse: Norse Heroes (e.g., Ragnar, Beowulf) or even a well-protected Ulfsark can be used, though they lack the dedicated relic-gathering bonus of Priests.
- Atlantean: Atlantean Heroes (e.g., Arkantos, Kastor) are strong choices, capable of both combat and relic retrieval.
- Protection: Relic carriers are vulnerable. If the relic is in a contested area or far from your base, consider sending a small escort of military units to protect your hero or priest from enemy scouts or early rushes.
- Return to Temple: Once acquired, direct your unit to return the relic to any of your Temples. The bonus activates immediately upon deposit.
Mid to Late Game Relic Control
As the game progresses, relic control shifts from initial discovery to strategic defense and aggressive denial.
- Defensive Structures: Consider building defensive structures, such as Watch Towers or Fortresses, near your Temples or in areas where you have secured multiple relics. This deters enemy attempts to steal or destroy your relic carriers.
- Map Control: Maintaining map control through forward outposts, military patrols, and vision (using Watch Towers or scout units) is crucial for both protecting your relics and identifying new opportunities to acquire more.
- Advanced Acquisition: In the mid-game, you might need to use more substantial military forces to clear enemy presence around contested relics. Myth units can be particularly effective for this, as their unique abilities can quickly dispatch guardians or enemy units.
Denying Relics to Opponents and Countering Secured Relics
Preventing your opponent from gaining relic bonuses is often as impactful as securing them for yourself. This requires proactive and sometimes aggressive tactics.
- Harass Enemy Heroes/Priests: If you spot an enemy hero or priest moving towards a known relic spawn, send your own hero or a small raiding party to intercept them. Even forcing them to retreat can buy you valuable time to secure the relic yourself.
- Pre-emptive Placement: If you've scouted a relic but can't immediately retrieve it, consider placing a cheap unit (e.g., a single Spearman, an Ulfsark, or even a Villager if safe) near the relic. While they can't pick it up, their presence can alert you to enemy movement and potentially block an enemy hero's path, giving you a chance to react.
- Aggressive Scouting: Continue to scout enemy territory for relics they might have missed or are attempting to secure. A well-timed raid can disrupt their plans and allow you to snatch the relic.
- Contesting Key Locations: Identify common relic spawn points on the map. If these locations are strategically important, consider establishing a forward base or maintaining a military presence there to contest any relic attempts by your opponent.
- Countering Secured Relics: If an opponent secures a critical relic, assess its impact.
- Economic Relics: Focus on raiding their economy to offset their bonus, or secure your own economic relics to match.
- Military/Myth Unit Relics: Adapt your unit compositions to counter their strengthened units. For example, if they have a relic boosting infantry, focus on cavalry or archers. Consider targeted attacks on their Temple to force them to move the relic, creating an opportunity to steal it.
- Relic Theft: While challenging, it is possible to steal an opponent's relic. This requires a hero unit to enter their base, defeat any defenders, pick up the relic from their Temple, and return it to your own. This is a high-risk, high-reward maneuver best attempted with a strong military escort or during a diversion.
