Greeks Guide - Age of Mythology (Xbox)

This is a beginner-focused walkthrough I recorded for Greeks in Age of Mythology Retold (Zeus path in the demo): Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon share the Greek formula—villagers gather and build everything, unlike Norse where gatherers and builders split. I approached it as someone easing into Greeks rather than min-maxing competitive openings, with controller shortcuts called out where they matter.

Opening economy and scouting

• Villagers as core: Greeks use the same unit for gathering and construction; that sounds obvious until you’ve played pantheons that don’t work that way.
• Auto villager queue: I run this on so villagers keep training when I have resources and population. Without it: highlight the town center, right trigger to open the menu, click the right stick to start continuous training—I recommend turning that on. Village presets can assign a default task when new villagers spawn; I didn’t use them here but they’re there if you want villagers to jump straight onto food or wood.
• Early food: I start with livestock near the town center (elk on this map), chickens if they’re close (less food per animal but quick), then berries and herdables (cows/goats/oxen depending on map). Herd animals fatten over time—the gold bar above their health shows stored food building up. I wait until they’re fully fattened before harvesting so I don’t waste yield.
• Houses and map vision: A couple of villagers go to houses for population cap. Scouting stays active: either move the scout with A, or right trigger → auto-scouting and let the scout peel fog—your call.

Archaic → Classical: temple and aging

• Requirement for Age I → II: Build a temple (150 wood, 150 gold). Greeks need this gate before advancing.
• Drop-off buildings: Storehouse handles wood and gold; granary handles food. Placing a storehouse between a gold mine and trees cuts walk time back to the town center—small distances add up over a whole game. I skip extra granaries for nearby livestock; for distant berries or pushed herds, a granary can pay off.
• Advancing: Archaic → Classical costs 400 food (once the temple exists). At age-up I pick a minor god for a unique unit line and techs.
• Favor (Greeks): Gathered by praying at the temple—villagers stand and animate prayer and the lightning-bolt meter fills. Favor buys myth units and upgrades. Early on I don’t park everyone on favor; Pegasus is cheap (about 2 favor, 1 pop) but I'd rather put villagers on age-up resources unless I need something specific (e.g. Hades-style passive gold—worth knowing exists). After aging, the temple grants a free myth unit once the upgrade completes—plan around that.

First classical choice (Zeus example): Hermes vs Athena—different cav vs infantry emphasis. Zeus’s god powers mentioned were Ceasefire (pause fighting) and Restoration (heal/repair—familiar if you’re coming from Halo Wars). Minotaurs vs centaurs as myth angles; I went Athena for an infantry lean that matched how I wanted to play Zeus.

Classical age: defense, military, and farms

• Buildings as walls: In Age of Mythology, buildings block movement like walls—unlike Age of Empires IV where gaps often let units squeeze through. A common online pattern is ringing a sentry tower with houses: upgrade sentry tower → watchtower for ranged defense; enemies need ranged siege or must break a house to reach the tower. Risk: the tower is a garrison—if I wall it in too tightly, my own villagers may not reach it without deleting a house. Mind both offense and defense when copying that layout.
• Age II → III requirement: Build an armory (unit upgrades hub).
• Military: I skew hoplite-style infantry from the military academy. I build several academies (I used three)—multiple production beats one queue when you need burst army, reinforcements on another flank, or units + upgrades in parallel. Downside is map space and wood cost; if wood is flush, it’s worth it.
• Food transition: As berries and herds thin out, pivot to farms (wood-heavy). Farm placement tip (controller): select a batch of villagers, choose farm, hold left trigger and hover over the town center (or grain)-style anchor—the game auto-rings farms around it instead of hand-placing every tile.

Heroic age: minor god choice and expansion

• Age II → III cost: 800 food, 500 gold (check in-game UI for current balance).

Second minor god fork (example): Apollo emphasizes ranged soldiers and vision; the other option in the age-up UI leaned health and cavalry, with Hydra as one myth unit called out. With Apollo, the temple can heal—useful forward: bring villagers and drop a temple near a fight for sustained heals (active healing in combat, as I understood it).

• Military cadence: Ideally you have some army between II and III; I was on easy AI for teaching, so my timeline is relaxed—your ladder games will demand earlier pressure.
• Second town center: 350 wood, 350 gold on a settlement raises population cap and acts as a universal drop-off. Watch auto-queue on the new TC—you can “double pump” villagers; just avoid huge idle villager piles and give everyone work.

Mythic age: fortress, late game, and trading

• Age III → IV: Requires a fortress (villager Y military tab after right trigger—think AoE IV keep). Costs include 10 favor; cap 10 fortresses and 20 watchtowers, which I like—it stops infinite defensive spam.
• Spend banked resources: If my bars are high and I’m not saving for a spike, I spend: unit upgrades (X on the research panel), more production, army—floating resources without a plan is wasteful.
• Fourth age pick: I took Hera for Medusa and Lightning Storm—devastating area god power on structures/units.
• Multiple temples: Like barracks, several temples let you queue multiple myth units (e.g. two Minotaurs at once). With healing researched, forward temple placement matters more.
• Control groups: Double-tap A on like buildings, hold both triggers, assign control group with X—full production on one hotkey. If two temples aren’t on screen, left trigger + A on the second building adds it to the selection—then bind that set.

Gold pressure

• Late game gold gets scarce; almost everything wants it. Push for forward gold when safe, and grab pickaxe-style mining upgrades if available.
• Trading: Unlike AoE IV, trade income scales with distance between market and the town center you send caravans to—that can be your or an ally’s TC in team games. Place market, set rally to a distant TC, train donkey caravans; upgrades like Coinage increase caravan speed. You don’t see exact gold per trip until they complete a leg—infinite-style gold pairs mentally with infinite farm food and temple favor as “unbounded” income pillars if you set the route up.

Army philosophy: When choosing between many units with fewer upgrades vs few elite units, I generally favor numbers unless they’re massively ahead on tiers (e.g. their Age IV upgrades vs my Age II).

Titans upgrade and wrap-up

From the main town center you can research Secrets of the Titans (costs cited in the video: 800 food, 800 gold, 800 wood, 50 favor—verify in your build). That unlocks the Titan from the leader wheel: place the summon on the ground and commit—I demonstrated Lightning Storm instead, which chewed through exposed buildings and armies when no units absorbed strikes first.

By stop-cut I was Mythic (Age IV) with economy, trade, and myth production online—enough foundation for new Greek players on Xbox/controller to iterate from, with deeper controller specifics left to the dedicated controller tutorial I mentioned elsewhere in the series.