How to play the Alin

This guide is to be taken with a grain of salt, as so far it's only experience from the Demo. I missed getting into the Beta, I do wish I'd been able to get in. But *grasping his receipt for the pre-order at EB Games* I've got it on pre-order, and it's coming out in less than a month.

So, for now, this guide is 'in Beta' as well.

My starting builds tend to be this: First, research Treasure 1. This increases your timonium and wealth income by ten each. Next, put down a research district and a merchant district. Your nearby mine should have one more space for a miner, get that going when you have the timonium. When your research district has been built, put that research into Evocation 1. This will give you access to your racial power, which will summon a small number of units to fight for you.

Now, if you look at Craft Dominance, you'll see that if you do 8 researches first, you'll get the ability to summon units. If you are quick on the research, and have your racial ability, you'll be able to bolster your army instantly by a not-insignificant amount.

Now look at the Tactical Dominance. Get ten points there, and you'll be able to declare a truce that lasts for about thirty seconds. As a note, a mine is five points, and each miner is one. Typically, there are 5 or 6 miners on average at a mine. If you're able to completely rub out a mine... you'll get the Tactical Dominance.

A tactic that uses these abilities is this: launch the assault to rub out your enemy's mine. If you concentrate fire, you should be able to do it before he really lays into you. Declare the truce to stop the battle, and retreat. I'm not 100% sure, but I think you will still take damage from attrition even during the truce. So hopefully the enemy won't follow your troops back into your territory. Quickly maneuver your army around the back way through the enemy's territory, and line up his capital, but stay out of sight. As soon as the truce ends, launch right at his capital. Use the Craft Dominance and the Alin racial power to bolster your troops, and you should be able to take his capital for the win.

I've only done that a couple of times, and I don't have the specifics down yet. I'm going to see how fast I can pull it off, how soon it can be done and exactly what you need to build.

It's likely an early-mid game tactic, as having Glass Cannons will making taking down the mine, and city, much easier. Nothing makes the buildings fall down like Glass Cannons.

Mines are not required to use a patch of timonium, they do add +10 to the timonium gathering though. So it is possible to send off miners into neutral territory to mine timonium there.

Mines do fire at enemy units, so if you are planning expanding to a certain timonium patch, you could lay down a mine first, especially if it's close to a border. It will chass off scouting units and other miners that might be there.

Stone Spires are your ground attack buildings, along with being a research building. Buildings these near mines, troop production buildings and chokepoints are a good idea. Eternal Flames are your starting air defense buildings, pairing these with Stone Spires at critical locations is a bonus. Glass Citadels are both ground and air defense buildings, once you have built a number of Stone Spires and Eternal Flames, the costs will have ramped enough that it's cheaper to build the Glass Citadels in important spots.

Unless you are being attacked by hero units, the master unit, or the heavy artillery of the enemy, your defense buildings will do fairly well against enemies IF you can support them quickly and thoroughly.

As with Rise of Nations, and in many games, fixed defenses will only get you so far. In the early game, they are fairly powerful and will keep you safe unless the enemy totally ignores them and passes them by. In the middle game, they buildings are more of an early warning than a solid defense, but when backed up by an army, they are quite robust. Near the end game, when the biggest units are on the board, the defensive buildings are pretty much just a speedbump.

This guide is a work in progress...