[Anonymous Player]

About me and this guide
I’m Bombus and I have been a Gaia main since 2014.

In the 2017 era I used to play competitively at 17++ level (Voobly), but these days I take a more casual approach to the game and therefore I’m only 165+ (Voobly) now.

I’m not the perfect Gaia player, but I can easily hold myself in medium-high level games.

On request of a few dear friends, I’m making this Atlantis guide for the community for people that want to learn Atlantis and aren’t familiar with it yet.

This guide will teach you the essentials of playing Atlantis at at least 16++ level.

There is more to Atlantis than the things mentioned in this guide, but the information I selected for you here will help you become a medium level Atlantis player guaranteed.

If you have any questions after reading this guide, feel free to contact me at any time.

Good luck and enjoy learning Atlantis!

Strengths and weaknesses of Atlantis
Strengths of Atlantis
The Atlanteans have an extremely strong early game economy.

Therefore you have the resources to both boom and apply high pressure to your opponents at the same time.

Atlantean units aren’t as strong as for example Greek units, but they train a lot faster.

Along with your strong early game economy, this will mean that you can outspam your opponent military-wise.

Your strong early game economy should also result in you having your economic and military upgrades faster and you having faster advance timings.

Weaknesses of Atlantis
The Atlanteans have a relatively weak late game economy compared to the other civilizations.

Also Atlantean buildings are very fragile, which makes them extremely vulnerable to siege weapons.

Atlantean units are weaker compared to the units of other civilizations.

Lastly, Atlantis has no access to long range siege, which can make killing enemy buildings in late game rather difficult.

Atlantis role in different game stages
Archaic Age
There are many viable builds for Atlantis, but far the most common one is the 4:30 advance build order.

This one will set you up for classical fighting perfectly.

Something to keep in mind is the slow movement speed of your villagers, so be careful when walking to far away secondary food sources.

Your town center might go idle if you’re not careful.

When scouting, you want to discover where your own resources are, but equally as important is to discover were your opponent’s resources are, so you will know where to send you raiding armies to in the Classical Age.

Classical Age
In this stage of the game your army exists of 50% Murmillo and 50% Turma, which you will be raiding with.

If you are Kronos or Oranos, you will be mixing in some Prometheans as well.

When you reach the population number of 60, you temporarily stop making army and take a second town center.

After the town center has been clicked to build, you should resume making militairy immediately.

After you built your town center, it is also a good idea to get the Medium Infantry upgrade in your barracks.

Your main focus will be raiding in the Classical Age, as Atlantis doesn’t have great pushing potential at this time.

If you really want to do some significant pushing as Atlantis in this stage of the game, Prometheans will be your only way.

Important is that you secure your forward position in this age, so you will be well prepared to push forward in the Heroic Age.

Heroic Age
In this stage of the game your army exists of 40% Destroyers, 20% Murmillo and 40% Arcus.

Of course you will have your heroic myth unit on loop in your Temple as well.

At this point you will start focusing on pushing on your opponent, rather than focusing on raiding exclusively.

When pushing, you will focus your Destroyers (and Behemoths) on the buildings and the rest of your army will take care of your enemy’s units.

You should realize that Atlantis units, especially from the Heroic Age and up, are weaker than the units of other civilizations.

Your edge on the battlefield is the fast training time and the lower cost of your units.

Your goal will be to outspam your opponent, so make sure that you make enough military buildings to accomplish that.

Since your units aren’t as strong as your opponent’s, it is important that you get your line upgrades and armory upgrades in time, so you can level the playing field.

Instead of engaging in a fight in the Heroic Age, you can also choose to just defend for a short while.

This will mean that you hardly lose any army, which provides you with the resources to jump to the Mythic Age very fast.

If you choose to go for the Mythic Age jump, you don’t have to get your military upgrades in the Heroic Age, unless you could easily afford it of course.

Mythic Age
In this stage of the game your army exists of 20% Destroyers, 20% Fire Siphons, 20% Fanatics and 40% Arcus.

You will have your mythic myth unit on loop in your Temple as well.

In some situations, it is better to keep making your heroic myth unit for a while.

For example: if your opponent is Norse and hasn’t got access to Fire Giants yet, a Stymphalian Bird will offer you way more than any mythic myth unit will.

The same thing goes for Behemoths as well against Greek and Egypt: if they don’t have a counter for Behemoths yet, you should keep making them.

In the Mythic Age you have to keep in mind that Atlantean buildings are very fragile.

Losing your military buildings will mean that your military production will go down, which conflicts with your goal of trying to outspam your opponent.

To remedy this it is first of all very important that you get Masons, Architects and if available, Titan Shield to strengthen your buildings.

You will find these upgrades in your town center.

On top of that you will spam a lot of military buildings, so you your military production won’t be slowed down if you lose a couple of buildings.

As said before, your units are weaker and therefore upgrades are extremely important.

So in the Mythic Age, you will get all your military upgrades as fast as you can.

You will prioritize the line upgrades over the armory upgrades while doing this.

When you attack, you focus your Fire Siphons and Destroyers (and Behemoths) on the buildings and the rest of your army will kill your opponent’s units.

Your siege is the most important part of your army, so the main task of the rest of your army is to kill all enemy units that try to kill your siege.

You have to protect your siege at all costs, so you can keep pushing.

Water maps
Playing on water maps as Atlantis is not that different from playing on water as other civilizations.

The most important part to realize is that your ships are weaker as well and so it is all about outspamming your opponents with boats with your strong early game economy and your fast training times, just like on land maps.

Make sure that you make two and as soon as it is possible, three docks to accomplish this.

The universal guidelines of playing water also apply to Atlantis, so if you notice you are going to lose the water, you transition to land immediately by taking a second town center and boom to compensate for your loss of the fishing economy.

Make sure that you don’t over-commit to the water and transition to land in time, so you won’t be run over by your opponent on land.

Most common build orders
Note: when I say for example “2 Food”, it means that you should have a total of two citizens on food.

I don’t mean send the next two citizens to food.

The build orders are most easily followed with the villager counter mod.

The asterisks are what you should do during the advance (1 minute).

4:30 Hunting Dogs – Standard Classical Fight (Highhunt)
Economic Guild -> Hunting Dogs -> 1 Food
2 Food
1 Wood
Manor -> 1 Gold (For Oranos and Kronos this villager may need to collect a bit of Gold first)
3 Food
1 Gold -> Temple -> 1 Gold
4 Food
2 Gold
Classical Age
*Split: 3 Food, 2 Wood, 2 Gold
*Upgrade Handaxe
*Upgrade Pickaxe
2 Wood -> Military Barracks (1 Villager) -> 2 Wood
Loop Murmillo
2 Gold -> Counter Barracks (1 Villager) -> 2 Gold
Loop Turma
4 Food
Unloop Military at 60 Population and make a 2nd Town Center
Reloop Military

3:55 Lowhunt – Turma Rush (Lowhunt)
3 Food
Manor -> Gather 5 Wood -> 4 Food
Temple -> 5 Food
6 Food
Classical Age
*Split: 1 Food, 3 Wood, 2 Gold
3 Wood -> Counter Barracks (1 Villager) -> 3 Wood
2 Gold -> Counter Barracks (1 Villager) -> 2 Gold
Double Loop Turma
2 Food

4:40 Water – Standard Water Fight (Water)
Dock -> 1 Wood -> Gather a total of 105 Wood -> Manor -> 1 Wood
1 Food
2 Fishing Ship
2 Food
2 Wood
2 Wood -> Temple (1 Villager) -> 2 Wood
3 Food
Loop Fishing Ship
5 Food
Unloop Fishing Ship as soon as the 6th one has been made
Classical Age
*Split: 5 Wood, 2 Gold
*5 Wood -> Dock (1 Villager) -> 5 Wood
*2 Gold -> Manor (1 Villager) -> 2 Gold
*5 Wood -> Economic Guild (1 Villager) -> 5 Wood
Double Loop Bireme
Upgrade Handaxe
Upgrade Pickaxe
3 Gold

Common problems
Long range siege
Long range siege weapons can be a really big problem for Atlantis to defend in late game, since Atlantis doesn’t really have a good answer unit for them.

The problem is amplified, because Atlantean buildings are very fragile.

Contarius and Katapelts may do great damage against the siege weapons, but they usually die before even reaching the siege, because the siege stands far away behind a line of enemy units.

I found that Destroyers are usually your best option.

They may not kill the siege weapons as fast, but usually they will be able to reach the siege weapons behind the enemy line of units without dying.

Also they can knock down walls the siege weapons might be hiding behind, very easily.

So if you face long range siege, your best option is to spam some extra Destroyers.

Fire Giants and Colossus
Fire Giants and Colossus are units that are hard to kill and can knock down your fragile buildings quiet rapidly.

The best option is to make Lampades.

You use the special attack on the Fire Giant or Colossus and walk away, so your opponent will have to deal with the unit you just neutralized.

Argus are an alternative option as they can remove a unit immediately with their special attack.

For the purpose of Colossus they are just as good as Lampades, but against Fire Giants it depends on the amount your opponent has of them.

Against a mass of Fire Giants the Argus will often die before it accomplished anything significant really.

Farm transition
Farms are 200 wood a piece for Atlantis, which is really expensive.

If you are out of hunt and herdables and you don’t have enough wood stockpiled for farms, you may not have a proper food income for quiet a while, which will have enormous consequences.

To guarantee a smooth farm transition you need to think ahead.

When you start eating your last patch of killable food, usually this is your herdables, you will need to start stockpiling a lot of wood.

It isn’t abnormal to have like five or six citizens on wood temporarily at this time, so you will be able to afford farms as soon as your last killable food source runs out.

Resource overflow
If you play Atlantis correctly, it may occur that the resources are coming in faster than you can spend them.

You have all your upgrades queued up and you still have hundreds or even thousands idly sitting in your bank.

There are two solutions for this.

Your first option is to build a second armory, so you can get your armory upgrades faster.

This option will both get rid of your idle resources and give you an edge on the battlefield.

Your second option is to tribute part of your resources to your allies, if you’re playing a team game of course.

Aside from tributing to your allies in this situation, I would really recommend you to do this as soon as you have got all of your necessary upgrades.

Time clock
As mentioned multiple times in this article, Atlantis has weaker units and buildings compared to the other civilizations.

Atlantis also has no access to any long range siege.

Because of these facts, Atlantis will struggle in late game.

Atlantis is all about using your early advantages, like being able to outspam your opponent military-wise and getting your upgrades and advance times faster.

Egypt has stronger units and buildings than Atlantis for example and eventually they will have all their upgrades as well, as are they able to spam units just like you can.

When this point is reached, you will lose the game as an Atlantean.

You could say that you’re playing on a time clock.

This means that you need to be proactive in your game play.

You will either have to gain a significant advantage, like a population advantage, before the Egyptian reaches his strength or you will need to have killed your opponent completely before this time.

For Atlantis the only solution for it’s time clock is to play proactively and to exploit it’s strong early game economy as much as possible.

This guide has also been posted by me on RTS Sanctuary under the name of Strahssis on 2 september 2021.

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