Turn-based strategy, a genre once more popular than shooters has seen a sort of comeback in recent years with the appearance of tons of turn-based strategy games on both Google Play and App Store. While most of those games don’t feature the depth and strategic layer a proper turn-based strategy has to possess, there are lots of interesting titles that can match the complexity and fun factor of behemoths like Civilization, X-Com, and Total War.
Instead of being a simple pastime with a lifespan of a couple of afternoons, Demise of Nations is a game capable of burning all of your free time and then chopping parts of your time reserved for social gatherings and work. Not to talk about getting in bed and then playing the game for several hours resulting in you behaving like a zombie in the office the next day.
Demise of Nations possess all ingredients needed to make it one fun and long lasting experience, just don’t expect the same amount of content and complexity found in similar games released for PC. Instead of relying on a plethora of variables, complex economy, and lots of different play styles, depending on the nation you pick, Demise of Nations leans more toward simple experiences that cherish battling instead conquering others with your money, religion, or culture.
You have lots of choices when it comes to picking a nation to play with, and they all differ in some ways while in other they tend to be pretty similar. There are different scenarios that offer a multitude of experiences; you can’t have the same feeling when starting a game in ancient, Roman Empire times, and when picking a modern scenario that places you against other superpowers that clash for supremacy in modern Europe.
Demise of Nations is a free game to download and play, but new maps and scenarios must be bought for real money. Not a problem since you can download one new map for free (we picked the modern European scenario) and other maps are offered for a relatively humble price tag. The game can be played in the modern and ancient era, and while towns, troops, and buildings look very different in the two eras, the gameplay and main mechanics are the same. Your goal is to defeat other countries while at the same time building a powerful empire.
Those who played other, similar, turn-based strategies will learn the basics in no time since Demise of Nations features almost the same mechanics seen in other turn-based war games. While the game is easy to learn and relatively easy to master for veterans, newbies will have lots of problems while trying to grasp all variables and to manage their ever-changing nation. Instead of spending dozens of hours in learning how the play Demise of Nations, read our guide and learn all the most important stuff in a matter of minutes. Stay with us and find out how you can conquer others and end up in the first place once the game ends.
1. Complete The Tutorials
While those who played similar games can skip tutorials, we strongly encourage ones who aren’t really into turn-based strategies to play both tutorials. They will introduce you to the game’s basics and will make Demise of Nations a much more enjoyable experience.
You’ll learn how to command your units, will get introduced with turn mechanics and will find out how to erect new buildings and how the economy works. Yes, tutorials may look like a chore but playing them will give you a few very important things about the game, things that will be very handy to know once you start managing your own country.
2. The First Couple Of Games Should Be Used To Learn How To Play
While tutorials give you the basics everyone should know about, the real learning starts once you enter your first game. We advise you to pick the easiest difficulty (not placeholder one since then you won’t have a chance to see how AI plays) and see what you should do in order to make your empire a prosperous one.
Do not fret if you lose, you’ll get better with time. Instead of trying to secure a victory try maximizing your incomes, build a powerful army, and learn how to wage a war against your enemies. This is crucial for those who want to stay competitive on harder difficulties. You see, you can take all the time in the world for deciding what to do during each turn, but only if you play a couple of games you will learn which buildings to construct first, how to manage taxes so your people stay happy but at the same time don’t start crying once you decide to raise taxes. Also, this will make you check out the behavior of enemies, how they battle one against another, why they decide to attack you and start a war against you, and how to make a powerful army but at the same time to keep your expenses lower than incomes.
We advise you to start playing with one of the powerful nations (Rome or Carthage) since then you won’t be bothered with wars (others will less likely send their armies to you), you will easily manage your economy and will be able to quickly build an army.
3. Once You Learn How To Play, Go Ahead And Play A Few Games With Powerful Nations
Like we said a minute ago, play with powerful nations during the first couple of games, but even when you learn how to play Demise of Nations, keep picking powerful sides. Once you learn the game, select a higher difficulty and try winning the game with Rome or Carthage. This way you will gradually become better at the game without the game severely punishing you for every mistake you make. And you will make lots of mistakes.
But, those mistakes won’t affect your game so deeply when you play with Rome than when playing with some small country that must be carefully managed, and where every turn must be played perfectly if you want to grab the first place in the end.
Larger empires will face fewer problems, you can forget to build units for a couple of turns and enemies won’t use these sleights of hand to attack you because they will be scared of your power. This is quite different when playing with smaller countries. As soon as you forget to build units during one turn, or if you forget to move your army to defend your empire’s borders, be sure that someone near you will decide that is the perfect time to start a new war.
So, before becoming good learn how to manage a nation. And there’s no better way to do it than by playing with one of the most powerful ones. With less powerful nations you will most certainly be in war even if having a healthy economy and lots of units because there will always be someone who’s more powerful and since Demise of Nations is a turn-based strategy revolving around war, it is much more difficult to play as Sarmatia or Egypt that as Rome, Greece or Carthage.
4. Try Not To Provoke War
Sure, this game revolves around war but you don’t have to be in lousy terms with all of your neighbors. Calculate, pick the weakest neighbor and wage war only against them instead of getting into messy conflict with all surrounding nations. You will be able to strategically attack enemies and while defending your borders and will have more money at your disposal for research and for constructing new buildings.
Also, sometimes a random country will declare a war on you without any reasons, so you must be prepared for that scenario. If you’re at war with two other players and all of a sudden some powerful country declares a war against your empire you will not survive. So, instead of playing a bully, be diplomatic. Instead of attacking all players around you, pick them one by one, and always be prepared to wage a war against someone you thought won’t ever have to face against.
5. A Word Or Two About Research
Research is an important part of Demise of Nations. You have lots of new technologies to conquer so play smart. First, always have an active research. Similarly to other turn-based strategies, learning new technologies will grant you an edge against your enemies. Simply select any research if you don’t know what to discover next, it is better than having your research queue empty, and it will give you a technology that may be useless right now but will prove as an important advantage twenty turns later.
Secondly, raise research spending when researching important technologies such as better armor, or higher damage. Raising the money invested in research can be a two-edged sword if you don’t play it right. So, before deciding to raise research budget, look at your finance report. If you have a healthy income feel free to raise it up to 50 percent. Also, do not raise the budget if it won’t give you shorter research times. For instance, if a new technology needs 10 turns to be discovered with a ten percent research budget (default rate), raise it by five percent until you notice that adding more money won’t noticeably shorten research times; like when you shorten the time to 5 turns with a rate of 50 percent and once you put the budget on seventy percent you only get one less turn (from five turns to four) to discover a new technology. That’s just too expensive. Simply put, you won’t noticeably cut the time but you will pay a noticeably higher price in coins.
Further, make sure to research army and war-related technologies first. It is better for your soldiers to have higher armor and to be able to deliver more damage than for your cities to have stronger walls, at least during the initial phase when there’s a slim chance someone will reach one of your cities and start attacking it. Also, do not research technologies that aren’t suited for your way of playing the game. If you are placed in the middle of the map, researching ship that can transport your troops won’t do you any good; place techs that are unimportant to you only when you do not have any other technologies to discover.
While we said that you should always have an active research, this isn’t the case with research budget. If you raise it while researching an important military tech, lower it back to ten percent once you discover a new technology. It is especially important to not spend too much money on research during war times when you need that money for training additional troops. Instead of being ahead of others when it comes to science, in Demise of Nations, it’s way better to be ahead of others when it comes to military power.
6. You Should Always Have A Powerful Army
Demise of Nations is a war game, not like Civilization where you can win the round without entering a single battle. So, as we already said, scientific advancement is not as important as military one. If you aren’t in war, make sure to have enough units capable of defending the entire territory under your rule. That means you have enough units at borders, with a couple of them waiting near the border ready to assist those that keep your country safe.
Further, if not in war, do not forget to recruit new units. It doesn’t matter you live in peace at the moment, a new war can break the next turn and then you’ll be left with lots of gold but also with a weak army. And once you get annihilated all that gold you managed to save up will be useless.
And now we come to another important advice – do not save up gold and other resources, unless you’re doing it in order to recruit powerful units. Instead of saving up, recruit. It doesn’t matter which units if you have resources to spare it is always nice to spend them on new units. Enemies will be weary of you and won’t attack you that often, and with a powerful army you’ll be the one who decides which nation won’t exist in a couple of turns, not others.
Another important piece of advice is that you build all recruitment constructions inside cities. But, do not construct all recruitment buildings inside every city. Your towns should be neatly specialized when it comes to recruiting different units. Some should only recruit spearmen; others should worry just for cavalry. This way you’ll be able to recruit more units for the same amount of time, and will always know where to go when you need more infantry, cavalry, or archers.
Also, make sure to recruit different units, not just a couple of basic types. This way, if someone decides to invade your country, you’ll be able to defend against different attackers. Some countries like to invade with cavalry, others love to send you a ton of infantry, making it important for your army to be not just large, but varied. Also, look at your surroundings. If a country you want to invade has lots of mountains and forests, it is better to invade it with units that receive battle bonuses when placed on the higher ground or amongst the trees.
In other words, while your defenses should stay varied, your attacking regiments should contain only those units capable of providing maximum damage during invasions of other countries. Also, make sure to invade enemies with antidote units, unit types that are perfect for enemies’ unit types. If your enemy likes to recruit lots of cavalries, hit them with spearmen, if they love slow but powerful armored infantry, send your archers. It’s simple, the best strategy when deciding to attack is a combination of troops capable of providing the highest damage with those trained to fight against unit types your enemy likes to recruit.
7. When You Decide It Is Time To Try Playing With Weaker Nations, Pick Those That Are Isolated In One Way Or Another
If you really like Demise of Nations, time will come when you’ll be ready to play with smaller, less powerful countries. While this can be hell for newcomers (and we really encourage you to play with powerful nations during your first couple of games), veterans will enjoy more while trying to transform their humble empire into the most powerful entity on the entire map.
When you decide to play with a small nation, pick those that are isolated. For instance, pick those that can be attacked only from one side, like Berbers. Or those that can’t be invaded by ground, like Celts or Sicily. It is enough that you don’t have lots of resources and a small number of cities, you don’t want to be placed in the middle of the map surrounded by powerful nations.
This way it will be easier to defend yourself and you will be able to build an army before someone decides it’s time for your empire to perish. Also, when playing as a small country you will always be at war with someone, which is better for those wanting a challenge, but not too big of a challenge. Remember Demise of Nations is a war game, so it is best to pick a country that can’t be attacked by all other nations. Instead of being cannon fodder, picking an isolated state will give you time to prepare for the imminent assault and to slowly and strategically build your empire.
That’s all folks. Thanks for reading out Demise of Nations guide. We hope you had fun while reading, and that advice and tips found here will help you in becoming Europe’s next emperor. Be sure to check out other game guides, they all are very interesting and quite helpful. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!