By Fluffy

Introduction

Old World has a great multiplayer (MP) mode and a small friendly community of players. If you haven't tried it yet I highly recommend it. Drop by #organizing-games on the Old World Discord and give @MPGamePlayer a shout if you are looking for players for a game.

There are lots of different ways to play MP. You can play network games in real time which tend to last several hours, or play by cloud, taking turns as and when, which are more likely to take months. You can work together vs the AIs or Barbarians in the Horde scenario, play a 7 player free for all (FFA), play against each other in teams or in 1v1 duels. In this guide I am going to be focusing on fast paced network duels, though a lot will also apply to other MP modes and single player (SP).

Differences from single player

If you are used to the SP game, there are a few important differences to be aware of:

Early conflict is likely. Players are less likely than AIs to give you a break, ignore weakness or be bought off with tribute if the war isn't going your way. Opportunistic players will declare war to kill a damaged scout left in the open and if you don't build an army you will get invaded. Be prepared.

Turn timers are often turned on in network games as waiting for other players isn't much fun. You will have to make decisions quickly and with a fast turn timer you will almost certainly have turns where you run out of time. If you are played with a tight turn style (recommended), prioritise your military unit actions and events first, as you can deal with civilian units and city production on your opponents turn.

For games with more players, communication is important. If you are playing in a team you will be most effective if you can coordinate well with your teammates. Choose research paths that complement each other (i.e one player focuses on melee units and another archers), share resources where needed and plan your attacks to support your teammate. Voice chat is highly recommended here. In a FFA game negotiation with other players can be a useful tool to peacefully agree on borders, agree ceasefires and peace deals where mutually beneficial and work together in alliances.

No characters mode

There are a lot of customisation options in MP but the one that will have the biggest impact is no characters mode. This is designed for competitive MP to reduce randomness. When this option is enabled large portions of the game are removed. As the name implies there are no characters but also no families, events or legitimacy. No characters means no leader, no heirs, no councillors and no generals. All cities get a governor which grants +2 growth, +2 science, +4 training and +4 civics. This has a huge impact on making military units a lot faster to train and growth units slightly faster. Orders will also be severely limited as you won't get any bonus orders from legitimacy. Ancient ruins give bonus resources instead of events, making them considerably less important.

Early game strategy

Picking a nation

Assuming the host has allowed players to choose their own nations on game start, the first decision will be picking a nation. Things to consider:

• How big is the map and how many opponents? Duel maps strongly encourage picking a militaristic nation such as Assyria or Rome, on larger maps with more players you may benefit from more of a tech/economy focus with Babylon or Egypt
• What type of map is it? A Hardwood Forest map is going to make life difficult if you want to focus on ranged units, so Persia and Babylon may not be good choices. An Archipelago map will benefit Babylon more due to their high science rate leading to faster ships and Artisan families making the ships stronger.
• Are random leaders / families enabled? Some nations are strictly worse with random leaders (Greece) where others are generally better (Assyria).
• Are tribes enabled and how strong are they? A Carthage merc hiring campaign can be very effective with plenty of tribal units around, if tribes are off or only spawning infrequently then Carthage is considerably less powerful.
• For duels, what nation has your opponent picked? Consider counter picking - i.e. on a duel map with a Persian opponent, there is a strong chance Chariots will be in your near future and Egypt with its easy access to Spearmen would be a good choice. Greece might also be a good choice on a larger map against Persia, Carthage or Egypt as they will have an advantage when Unique Units (UUs) are facing each other.