Age Of Mythology: Retold - Zeus Strategy Tips (2024)

Whether you're playing a simple skirmish against the AI or taking on real-life opponents in Age of Mythology: Retold, a very important decision is your choice of god. Each pantheon plays completely differently, and your chosen major god will affect your strategy significantly. With strong bonuses that funnel you towards certain playstyles, this is the single biggest decider in your chances of success.

Zeus can almost be considered a 'starter' god, as his optimal strategies are easy to understand and quick to pick up. Of course, you'll want to stay alert during a game to make sure you're adapting to what your enemies are doing.

Zeus Overview

Zeus is a pretty standard god with simple focuses: Infantry and Heroes. His buffs are on the generic side, meaning they can quite easily benefit most playstyles, but will pale in comparison to optimised strategies with more discerning gods.

Playing as Zeus will provide the following buffs:

This combination of buffs encourages a heavy focus on armies composed mostly of infantry and myth units. Cavalry is also encouraged by certain minor god choices, but only in addition, not as a replacement for the main unit categories.

Hoplites are a unit to focus on, being fantastically cheap and easy to spam, distracting foes from your more powerful Myth Units and Heroes.

Minor God Choices

While Zeus shares most of his minor god options with the other Greek gods, he also has a unique option in Hera, which is available as a Mythic Age choice. Which you choose, however, will vary greatly from game to game.

	Athena	Athena is a solid choice for Zeus - improving infantry even further will help with Zeus's preferred early and mid-game tactics, and Minotaurs are solid Myth Units. Restoration is also a fantastic power, doubly so with the ability to generate lots of Favor quickly and use it multiple times in a match.
	Hermes	With Centaurs being very good for raiding and a boost to cavalry, Hermes is a very good choice for more aggressive tactics that involve hit-and-run strategies. Ceasefire is also a very good power to use against particularly aggressive enemies.
	Apollo	Apollo has a lot of things going for him - making your anti-siege ships better almost guarantees an edge in naval combat, temples become passive healing spots, and ranged units become stronger with the technologies he offers. Underworld Passage is a very versatile god power, enabling a quick response to surprise attacks and also setting up surprise attacks of your own.
	Dionysus	Picking Dionysus will greatly improve your cavalry's survivability, which is brilliant for making them a significant part of your late-game armies. This goes doubly so if you picked Hermes in the Classical Age. On maps where naval combat is likely, Dionysus is an easy pick, thanks to Scylla. Bronze isn't a bad god power, but it does suffer simply from not being Underworld Passage.
	Hephaestus	Colossi and a huge reduction in Armory costs make Hephaestus one of the best gods in the game almost by default, but add the Plenty power to the mix, and you have an easy choice. Colossi are expensive, but with a very strong economy, fielding multiple at a time is a good recipe for success, especially against human-heavy armies.
	Hera	Hera has a few things going for her - most significantly, a technology that boosts the speed of all Myth Units. If you're with an army heavy with Myth Units, this is a fantastic boon. Medusae are also pretty great in large numbers, and a boost to ranged attack can be key to some very powerful strategies.

• When upgrading to the Classical Age, your choice will depend largely on your playstyle. Athena's boons will be greatly appreciated throughout the entire game, whereas Hermes can make you a true threat almost instantly. If you're content with playing the long game, Athena is the way to go.
• When upgrading to the Heroic Age, you'll want to think more about your situation. If you're dealing with a map heavy with water or you like using cavalry, Dionysus is the way to go, but otherwise, Apollo is a broadly good choice with a fantastic god power.
• The Mythic Age choice is far easier than the others. If you're going all-in on ranged Myth Units, especially if you've chosen Hermes and Apollo previously, Hera is the right choice. In any other situation, though, Hephaestus is the way to go. The Plenty power and the severe reduction to Armory costs is enough to make him too attractive to pass up.

General Tips

Early-Game Focus

As with most Greek pantheon games, your instant focus should be on your economy, aiming to age up as quickly as possible. Start by focusing on gathering food and bolstering your Villager population. Build a Temple when you're ready and get to Classical Age as quickly as you can manage.

Once you're in the Classical Age, start by building a Myth Unit or two and some Hoplites and Heroes, and think about what sort of makeup your army will have. Infantry should always be part of the equation, and the Myth Units available to Zeus are all solid choices, but depending on your minor god choice, you may want to ignore ranged or cavalry units.

Viable Myth Units to focus on as the bulk of your army include Centaurs, Manticores, and Colossi.

• Centaurs are wonderful for raiding parties and work very well when placed behind rows of Hoplites, which are cheap and effective in their own right.
• A few Manticores can support any army with powerful anti-human ranged attacks. Lots of Manticores can decimate armies, especially when backed up by powerful, buffed heroes to take care of enemy Myth Units.
• Colossi are expensive, but can almost double as siege weapons in their own right. This is more than viable on maps where you're rich in resources.

Dealing With Slow Recruitment

Greek military buildings have quite slow recruitment time for units - to compensate for this, it's a good idea to build multiples (at least two) of each military building (excluding the Fortress, which is not so bad).

This does mean you'll want to dedicate some more effort to Wood gathering, but it'll pay dividends when it comes to bolstering (or replenishing) your army.

Use Your Heroes Wisely

For Zeus, Heroes have some specific uses.

• They make for great allies for Centaur raiding parties, especially in the Classical Age.
• They're obviously the preferred choice for taking on enemy Myth Units.
• Once you're in the army-building phase, they fit into basically any formation very easily.

To make it simple, it's a good strategy to have Heroes recruited at all times and try to save them when they get low on health.

Pegasus Plus Underworld Passage

On many maps, a great endgame tactic to use for a surprise attack is to recruit a Pegasus (preferably upgraded for the extra speed and survivability) and send it directly to the heart of an enemy's base. Then, quickly place an Underworld Passage as close as you can to the enemy's most important buildings and send a very large army through.

This is a risky tactic, as failure will leave you with an entire army depleted, but it's a fantastic way to put the pressure on your foe and hopefully wipe out their most crucial resources.