Short answer: It depends.
Depends whether you’re just starting out (beginner) or you have been playing the game for weeks and months. It also depends on your preferred battle style.
This post is meant for beginners only. I will make a separate post subsequently for advanced players.
Rise of Kingdom – Civilization: My Recommendation: Pick China
Pick China as your first civilization. Without a doubt.
Here’s why:
Firstly, your choice of civilization determines your “starting commander”, which is an epic-grade commander. There will be regular events in the game that reward you for completing certain tasks (e.g. gather a certain amount of resources on the map, defeat a certain number of barbarians etc.). In some events, you are given a choice of rewards to choose from, and such rewards usually include commander sculptures of your “starting commander”. Hence, you should be able to upgrade your “starting commander” skills quicker than for other epic-grade commanders. So you will want to make sure your “starting commander” is the best epic-grade option! (See below – my starting civilization was Rome and hence my starting commander was Scipio, as I had not done my homework like you have).
When you choose China as your civilization, you get Sun Tzu as your starting commander, who is the best epic-grade commander. Sun Tzu is a highly versatile epic-grade commander that is useful in almost every aspect of the game. If you are not planning to spend real cash in the game (which I believe is most of us!), you should not be considering to use legend-grade commanders when you are just starting out. This is because you will take a long time to accumulate legend-grade sculptures required to upgrade the skills of legend-grade commanders (without the skill upgrades, they do not reach their potential).
Sun Tzu packs a punch in his damage, through his first skill “Art of War”, as it can deal an area-of-effect (“AoE”) damage of up to 3 targets. This is why you need to upgrade his first skill to the maximum level of 5 before he gets above commander level 10 and unlocks his second skill.
“Art of War” gives you an advantage in many ways:
- When hitting barbarians either for EXP or for events, this skill allows you to hit a second or third target in the range at no additional cost of Action Points (“AP”).
- Being able to hit multiple targets in range gives you an advantage in campaigns like Expedition and Sunset Canyon, giving you a better chance to earn more rewards from the campaigns.
Sun Tzu is also useful as a garrison commander and his second skill provides some boost to that effect. If you are worried that some jerk will raid your city while you are asleep, you will perhaps sleep better knowing Sun Tzu is guarding your city 😉
Secondly, choosing China as your civilization provides the following account buffs:
- Increase troop defense by 3% – This defense buff applies for all troop types (infantry/archer/cavalry/mixed), so it definitely helps;
- Action point recovery by 5% – Action point recovery is obviously great, but that also means you need to be able to commit and put in the hours into the game to make it count;
- Building speed by 5% – This will help you upgrade your city’s structures (including your City Hall) quicker, which should be your top priority in early-game.
Note: Do not place emphasis on the Special Units for each civilization in the early-game. As a beginner, you will not be able to train Special Units any time soon so do not sweat over it. Your priority in early-game should be to gather as much resources to upgrade your city and increase your troop size. You can change civilization later in the game, after you have built up your city, through use of item “Civilization Change”, which you can purchase through the Alliance Shop using Individual Credits gained daily through making resource donations to your Alliance.
Lastly, having Sun Tzu as your main commander means you will at some point want to train a type-specific troop (i.e. infantry troop) to be commanded by Sun Tzu (as his talents and skills provide buffs for infantry troops). As you will observe in the game, everyone uses infantry troop as a defense in many ways. Every player I come across in Sunset Canyon sets up infantry troops as defense. Infantry troops are also great for defending structures in Ark of Osiris (“AOO”).
You will not go wrong with China.
Noteworthy mentions:
Rise of Kingdom – Civilization: GERMANY
- Increases cavalry attack by 5% – Not the most useful buff. Players typically use cavalry troops for the mobility speed, and as counter to archer units. Additional 5% to your cavalry troops’ attack is not going to turn the tide against infantry troops;
- Increases troop training speed by 5% – This buff is good. As a beginner, building up your troops strength early will help;
- Increases action point recovery by 10% – 10% is substantial. As mentioned, this will really help if you are committed to putting in the hours everyday in the game.
As you can see above, Germany civilization offers an account buff that is useful, and probably second to China civilization (on the basis that China offers building speed +5% and troop defense +3%, whilst Germany’s cavalry attack +5% is not as useful) .
Also, Germany civilization gives you “Hermann” as a starting commander – he is best to be leading archer units, as he has the Archer talent (buffs archer units that he leads). Although archer units can do great damage to infantry units (and you would think, since most players will have infantry troops, it must be a good idea to build a counter-infantry troop), you will likely not be able to take advantage of this in open-field battles, as most players rely on cavalry troops to move quickly on the open-map (and Ark of Osiris). This also means most players DO have a cavalry troop (counter-troop against archer troops). What’s more, the legendary cavalry commander “Minamoto No Yoshitsune” is available for purchase in-game for only US$1.49, and quite a number of players do use this commander a lot for farming barbarians (due to its peacekeeping talent) and movement in open-map. Having an archer troop as your main troop will not give you much obvious advantage in the game at the moment. However, Hermann and his archer troop should do well in Sunset Canyon. Though, if Hermann’s archer troop is in your defense set-up for Sunset Canyon, you bet your opponents will have a cavalry troop to break through 🙂
Which Civilization should you pick in Rise of Kingdoms?
Short answer: It depends.
Depends whether you’re just starting out (beginner) or you have been playing the game for weeks and months. It also depends on your preferred battle style.
This post is meant for beginners only. I will make a separate post subsequently for advanced players.
Rise of Kingdom – Civilization: My Recommendation: Pick China
Rise of Kingdom – Civilization: Pick China as your first civilization. Without a doubt.
Here’s why:
Firstly, your choice of civilization determines your “starting commander”, which is an epic-grade commander. There will be regular events in the game that reward you for completing certain tasks (e.g. gather a certain amount of resources on the map, defeat a certain number of barbarians etc.). In some events, you are given a choice of rewards to choose from, and such rewards usually include commander sculptures of your “starting commander”. Hence, you should be able to upgrade your “starting commander” skills quicker than for other epic-grade commanders. So you will want to make sure your “starting commander” is the best epic-grade option! (See below – my starting civilization was Rome and hence my starting commander was Scipio, as I had not done my homework like you have).
When you choose China as your civilization, you get Sun Tzu as your starting commander, who is the best epic-grade commander. Sun Tzu is a highly versatile epic-grade commander that is useful in almost every aspect of the game. If you are not planning to spend real cash in the game (which I believe is most of us!), you should not be considering to use legend-grade commanders when you are just starting out. This is because you will take a long time to accumulate legend-grade sculptures required to upgrade the skills of legend-grade commanders (without the skill upgrades, they do not reach their potential).
Sun Tzu packs a punch in his damage, through his first skill “Art of War”, as it can deal an area-of-effect (“AoE”) damage of up to 3 targets. This is why you need to upgrade his first skill to the maximum level of 5 before he gets above commander level 10 and unlocks his second skill.
“Art of War” gives you an advantage in many ways:
- When hitting barbarians either for EXP or for events, this skill allows you to hit a second or third target in the range at no additional cost of Action Points (“AP”).
- Being able to hit multiple targets in range gives you an advantage in campaigns like Expedition and Sunset Canyon, giving you a better chance to earn more rewards from the campaigns.
Sun Tzu is also useful as a garrison commander and his second skill provides some boost to that effect. If you are worried that some jerk will raid your city while you are asleep, you will perhaps sleep better knowing Sun Tzu is guarding your city 😉
Secondly, choosing China as your civilization provides the following account buffs:
- Increase troop defense by 3% – This defense buff applies for all troop types (infantry/archer/cavalry/mixed), so it definitely helps;
- Action point recovery by 5% – Action point recovery is obviously great, but that also means you need to be able to commit and put in the hours into the game to make it count;
- Building speed by 5% – This will help you upgrade your city’s structures (including your City Hall) quicker, which should be your top priority in early-game.
Note: Do not place emphasis on the Special Units for each civilization in the early-game. As a beginner, you will not be able to train Special Units any time soon so do not sweat over it. Your priority in early-game should be to gather as much resources to upgrade your city and increase your troop size. You can change civilization later in the game, after you have built up your city, through use of item “Civilization Change”, which you can purchase through the Alliance Shop using Individual Credits gained daily through making resource donations to your Alliance.
Lastly, having Sun Tzu as your main commander means you will at some point want to train a type-specific troop (i.e. infantry troop) to be commanded by Sun Tzu (as his talents and skills provide buffs for infantry troops). As you will observe in the game, everyone uses infantry troop as a defense in many ways. Every player I come across in Sunset Canyon sets up infantry troops as defense. Infantry troops are also great for defending structures in Ark of Osiris (“AOO”).
You will not go wrong with China.
Noteworthy mentions:
Rise of Kingdom – Civilization: GERMANY
- Increases cavalry attack by 5% – Not the most useful buff. Players typically use cavalry troops for the mobility speed, and as counter to archer units. Additional 5% to your cavalry troops’ attack is not going to turn the tide against infantry troops;
- Increases troop training speed by 5% – This buff is good. As a beginner, building up your troops strength early will help;
- Increases action point recovery by 10% – 10% is substantial. As mentioned, this will really help if you are committed to putting in the hours everyday in the game.
As you can see above, Germany civilization offers an account buff that is useful, and probably second to China civilization (on the basis that China offers building speed +5% and troop defense +3%, whilst Germany’s cavalry attack +5% is not as useful) .
Also, Germany civilization gives you “Hermann” as a starting commander – he is best to be leading archer units, as he has the Archer talent (buffs archer units that he leads). Although archer units can do great damage to infantry units (and you would think, since most players will have infantry troops, it must be a good idea to build a counter-infantry troop), you will likely not be able to take advantage of this in open-field battles, as most players rely on cavalry troops to move quickly on the open-map (and Ark of Osiris). This also means most players DO have a cavalry troop (counter-troop against archer troops). What’s more, the legendary cavalry commander “Minamoto No Yoshitsune” is available for purchase in-game for only US$1.49, and quite a number of players do use this commander a lot for farming barbarians (due to its peacekeeping talent) and movement in open-map. Having an archer troop as your main troop will not give you much obvious advantage in the game at the moment. However, Hermann and his archer troop should do well in Sunset Canyon. Though, if Hermann’s archer troop is in your defense set-up for Sunset Canyon, you bet your opponents will have a cavalry troop to break through 🙂
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Please check out my other event guides:
- Peerless Scholar – Questions & Answers
- Card King
- Wheel of Fortune – 10 things you need to know
- Ceroli Crisis
- Karuak Ceremony
- Treasure Hunt
- Anniversary Festival – Free Gems!
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