With Rank reward just distributed, I think it is time for another season's climb. Getting to rank I grant you 1000 science at the end of the month, and is acheivable if you understand the game well. **Introduction** Age of Rivals is one of its kind and you have to be open-minded to improve. This is an 'adapt to current situation' game more than 'crafting a good strategy and dominate your opponent with that'. I cannot stress this enough. Every game is different since the cards that you can draft and your opponent draft is different every game. Sticking to one strategy will not get you far. Being *flexible* and *adaptive*, however, will make you a formidable player. Keep an eyes on what your opponent is picking and keep adjusting your picks accordingly. **Rival and slot setup** Believe it or not, with default Rivals and one slot on everyone, it is more than enough to get to rank I. Personally I'd prefer picking Rival that doesn't give away your guaranteed card type right away. For example, if Ziana is my opponent, I know that he/she is going to need the 'iron' resources as that give discount to his guranteed infantry card. If I have to choose between iron and another resources on turn I round I, it'll be very easy for me to judge. For starters, I suggest using Kubra and pick a resource that you like. As a side note, don't draft around your guranteed card too much during drafting, this will make you *inflexible*. About half of the time I don't even pick my guranteed card as that's not the best choice at that moment. **The drafting** From round 1 to round 3, There are two kind of turns in Age of Rivals. In odd number of turns, or 'odd turns', you are given four cards to draft, and the remaining three cards will be given to your opponent. On 'even turns', you are given three cards from your opponent to choose from. Their mechanics is very different, for the odd turns being much more challenging. The principles for drafting in even turns will be explained first, for this reason. The drafting--**even turns** 1a. Pick the card you need at that situation. This is the fun part of the game and in no ways I can cover every situation in this guide. e.g. You're trying to build a nice economy in round 1?Pick the economy cards. You have better economy but less culture than your opponent in round 3? Pick the card that give you the most cultures. Your opponent go full aggresion and is going to wipe your board? Pick the card that gives you the most protection. You are playing aggresively and your opponent build a tower? Pick the card that can knock out tower effectively. 2a. Pick the card that you can use its full value, preferably immediately. Assuming all cards are balanced, both you and your opponents start with same resources and actions. To gain more cultures than your opponent by the end of the game, you have to out-value your opponent by cashing the value of the cards you buy more than your opponent do. i.e. utilize every armors you cards provide/ trigger all the effects of your cards, preferably multiple times/ combo off your cards/ use discounts more often/ give tax less often/ be rich to buy the cards that you bought before again. For example, if you have seven infantries on board, there's no way you don't pick a colosseum, which makes all infratrys gain +2 cultures. The colosseum give you insane value of 20 cultures, assuming all of your cards survive. In short, ask yourself what does that card do for you when you pick it. For example, picking a solo infantry that give two damage in round one will do you : two damage to a opponent's economy building and may be one conquer point, which is not good enough if it doesn't trigger any effect. 3a. Pick the card that you can afford later All cards that you buy will come back at round 4 for you to purchase again. If you have a rather weak economy, it is usually better to buy cheaper cards that is useful in round 4 so that you have the option to buy it again. Laying waste in round 4 is bad. The drafting--**odd turns** In the odd turns, you have four cards to choose from AND 4 more cards to look at. Utilize the full information, don't just look at your four cards. Put yourself in your opponent's shoe and anticipate what your opponent will pick. Anticipate what you'll pick in the even turn following and try to combo off the two cards that you get after two turns. Notice the interactions between the cards, picking a card that get knocked out by a card your opponent picked at the same time is the worst thing that can happen to you, and best thing that can happen to your opponent : D Also, what you didn't pick will be given to your opponents to choose from, so 1b. Pick the card that your opponent need at that situation 2b. Pick the card that your opponent can use its full value, and avoid cards that trigger the effect of your opponent's cards. 3b. Leave the cards that your opponent cannot afford Combine all of the above and judge what's more important will lead you to victory. **Assigning damage** There's already a very well-written guide on this, so I'll skip this part. This part is quite technical. Practice make perfect and quick calculation skill helps. For starters, other then buying tower to take damage, try to practice buying troops as cannon fodder. **Current situation of the game and some strategies that I like to use** Currently, economy cards have very high value, esp. picked in round 1. I haven't counted but one resource token would give you approximately 25 gold if you add up all the discounts and taxes, for the price of just 2 gold. Being rich also make you more *flexible* and allow you to *adapt* to the situation. There isn't a strategy that works well with low economy cards. You'll always need them. There's no way to make me skip an economy card that gives me two resources that I don't already have in round 1. Not to mention 'excess' gold are converted to cultures in a nice ratio during final scoring. Going full offensive is situationally good. To do meaningful damage you have to be devoted to aggresion and combo your aggresion cards. There are many cards that can neutrallize aggresion effectively, like mural of peace, ranged cards, underworld cards and towers. Going pacifist is usually better. In this sense cards that counter culture production are quite strong atm, like Plunderer, Onagers, Ruiners of all things, Danse of Macabre. Cards that hinder your opponent's economoy is quite strong too, like good trade deal, valkyries and sabotage. I usually don't bother too much to set up my rival slot, most of the time I just go Kubra with Iron. If I want to be cheesy I sometime use Soraya with Mural of Peace. That card is so strong that it adjust the value of all the aggresion cards in the game, without your opponent knowing until round 3. This card is also the reason why going aggresion is usually bad. If Mural of peaces show up you loses a lot of value from your aggresive cards, and it only costs 30 science to unlock. This card is also 'uncounterpickable', because if you pick it the card activates, if your opponent pick it it activates too. When you have multiple artistic cards, it is very difficult to block this card. **End words** This game is very situational at times, and writing a guide on how to pick cards is very difficult. I hope this guide cover most of the basis and help starters to fully enjoy the game. Let the February season begins!

> In short, ask yourself what does that card do for you when you pick it. For example, picking a solo infantry that give two damage in round one will do you : two damage to a opponent's economy building and may be one conquer point, which is not good enough if it doesn't trigger any effect. You skip economic warfare here, sure if youre not planning on going infantry and this card is shieldwall then paying 4g for such card can be a bit overkill, but angry mob might not actually be that bad. For 1/0 gold you get card you will not be afraid to lose and will gladly use it to block any mid tier attacker except top ones, but you will rarely encounter any in early stages of game. Too many economic cards can be a real burden, it is better to invest in some filler cards that are better than eco as free drop and will not strain your purse so you can keep playing into your future combos, 2nd half of first round is usually best to get resources because that is when double resources appear. Conquest push is also important, you not only gain culture but deny it to enemy, 1 coin can make difference too next round. > Assigning damage There's already a very well-written guide on this, so I'll skip this part. This part is quite technical. Practice make perfect and quick calculation skill helps. For starters, other then buying tower to take damage, try to practice buying troops as cannon fodder. Which thread you mean? I haven't sumbled upon any of them and war phase is pretty important, you may need to prepare for it. I have seen players play really well in pick phase but then go into potato mode when assigning damage... so post link for new players in case they overlook it too. Even basic idea of damage tiers or culture/buffed infantry cards acting as blockers might prove useful to new players.

One nice trick: picking Mural of Peace as Soraya makes it dramatically less likely that your opponent will be able to pick up MoP unless they have it as their guaranteed card too. The game will avoid giving it out before it has a chance to offer it to you and if you pass on it as a guaranteed card it will redraw to something else. So if round 1 draws lend themselves towards an aggressive approach, and your opponent's rival is not one that would have access to MoP as a guarantee, you can go hog wild knowing that you don't have to worry about a surprise MoP. Also, pacifist tends to be strong but be careful about going full pacifist: if you let your opponent have all the good attack cards you're in for a world of hurt, since they can easily stack more damage on you and don't have to worry about playing defense at all. IMO it's always worthwhile to pick up a couple big attack cards--elephants, pikemen, etc. Utility cards like the undying are also good, since they add pressure and also soak a hit.

> *Originally posted by **[Tripida](/forums/715754/topics/706038?page=1#11001383)**:* > > In short, ask yourself what does that card do for you when you pick it. For example, picking a solo infantry that give two damage in round one will do you : two damage to a opponent's economy building and may be one conquer point, which is not good enough if it doesn't trigger any effect. > > You skip economic warfare here, sure if youre not planning on going infantry and this card is shieldwall then paying 4g for such card can be a bit overkill, but angry mob might not actually be that bad. For 1/0 gold you get card you will not be afraid to lose and will gladly use it to block any mid tier attacker except top ones, but you will rarely encounter any in early stages of game. Too many economic cards can be a real burden, it is better to invest in some filler cards that are better than eco as free drop and will not strain your purse so you can keep playing into your future combos, 2nd half of first round is usually best to get resources because that is when double resources appear. Conquest push is also important, you not only gain culture but deny it to enemy, 1 coin can make difference too next round. > > > Assigning damage > There's already a very well-written guide on this, so I'll skip this part. This part is quite technical. Practice make perfect and quick calculation skill helps. For starters, other then buying tower to take damage, try to practice buying troops as cannon fodder. > > Which thread you mean? I haven't sumbled upon any of them and war phase is pretty important, you may need to prepare for it. I have seen players play really well in pick phase but then go into potato mode when assigning damage... so post link for new players in case they overlook it too. > Even basic idea of damage tiers or culture/buffed infantry cards acting as blockers might prove useful to new players. > Thanks for the response Tripida, the link to the guide on assigning damage is here, written by execute88: http://www.kongregate.com/forums/715754-age-of-rivals/topics/697979-a-guide-to-assigning-damage-effectively This game is very situational. I agree that on round 1 last turn, a solo angry mob can still be a good pick. If I don't have important cards to choose from, I like to pick angry mob too because of how cheap it is. It gives you an infantry card type in your deck which can be useful later for triggering effect.

This is an excellent guide, thanks for taking the time to write it!

> *Originally posted by **[geepope](/forums/715754/topics/706038?page=1#11001404)**:* > One nice trick: picking Mural of Peace as Soraya makes it dramatically less likely that your opponent will be able to pick up MoP unless they have it as their guaranteed card too. The game will avoid giving it out before it has a chance to offer it to you and if you pass on it as a guaranteed card it will redraw to something else. So if round 1 draws lend themselves towards an aggressive approach, and your opponent's rival is not one that would have access to MoP as a guarantee, you can go hog wild knowing that you don't have to worry about a surprise MoP. > > Also, pacifist tends to be strong but be careful about going full pacifist: if you let your opponent have all the good attack cards you're in for a world of hurt, since they can easily stack more damage on you and don't have to worry about playing defense at all. IMO it's always worthwhile to pick up a couple big attack cards--elephants, pikemen, etc. Utility cards like the undying are also good, since they add pressure and also soak a hit. Nice add, I use this trick on Kubra iron too. Sometimes my guranteed iron showed up on round 1 turn 1 together with another resources, I'll then pick the other resources, hoping that my guranteed iron will be switched to a non-resource card. I tried picking big attack cards when I go full pacifist, just to block my opponent from taking it.but now if I have the options, I would pick a high armored card instead of denying the elephant as the elephant really doesn't do much for me, may be just for soaking up 6 damage and knocking out some cannon fodder. Leaving the elephant will also lure your opponent to take it and the 9 damage would just go to a 1 armored ruined card and then knock out a 2 armored card/ dealt 4 damage to a high armored card.

> *Originally posted by **[hkcream](/forums/715754/topics/706038?page=1#11001639)**:* > I tried picking big attack cards when I go full pacifist, just to block my opponent from taking it.but now if I have the options, I would pick a high armored card instead of denying the elephant as the elephant really doesn't do much for me, may be just for soaking up 6 damage and knocking out some cannon fodder. Leaving the elephant will also lure your opponent to take it and the 9 damage would just go to a 1 armored ruined card and then knock out a 2 armored card/ dealt 4 damage to a high armored card. The importance of this varies, so I guess "always worthwhile" isn't really accurate. If the opponent is not particularly aggressive it's not a big deal if you leave them elephants, the elephants aren't going to do too much damage on their own one way or another and you should focus on points. But if the opponent is already showing a lot of attack cards, denying them the elephants will make a much bigger difference since they'll have plenty of damage left over after you sack a card or two to the elephants. Plus, someone who is going all out attack is not likely to have much in the way of defense so elephants will hurt them a lot more (if they have a bunch of defensive cards and a bunch of offensive cards... they're not really going to have room left in their kingdom for scoring cards, so you probably don't need to worry about them much.)