Rise of Kingdoms is a top-rated real-time strategy game. So it is no wonder that there are several game mechanisms you need to know to play effectively and to raise your skill cap to differentiate new players who are just starting.
In this guide, I will share the top 12 game mechanisms you need to know about while playing Rise of Kingdoms. If you are new to the game, it’s an excellent opportunity to learn and take advantage of these game mechanisms to gain an edge over your competitors.
Without further ado, here are my top 12 game mechanisms you need to know in Rise of Kingdoms:
Dispatch Quickly by Dragging From Your City

Did you know that you can dispatch your troops quickly in Rise of Kingdoms? To dispatch your troops rapidly, tap and hold your city, then drag your finger away from it.
It will prompt a dispatch menu to show up, allowing you to choose your commanders and troops as you usually would. This game mechanism is excellent because you do not have to click on a structure or enemy to send a dispatch.
It makes it a much faster option to get your commanders and troops on the battlefield. Additionally, you can double-tap to select all dispatches in a group on the battlefield.
Utilize Your Hospitals Properly

One of the most important buildings in Rise of Kingdoms is the hospital. If you are training Tier 4 troops / Tier 5 troops, you will need to know how to use your hospitals properly to maximize usage and resources effectively as possible.
Whenever your troops are healing in your hospitals, you have the option to recover all of them at once. Alternatively, you can get helped by your alliance to speed up the timer. Although, you can accelerate the timer by healing your troops in small batches.
Do like 5% to 10% of your total troops and heal them. It enables your alliance to help you multiple times and is a much quicker process of doing that. Plus, you don’t need to use your healing speedup or any of your valuable tokens.
Complete Skillful Craftsman

There’s an essential daily quest called the Skillful Craftsman, which rewards you for constructing or upgrading a building in your city. This daily quest can be challenging if your building is already high level and decked out.
But there’s a simple trick that lets you complete this daily quest with ease. You do not need to spend any excessive amount of resources at all.
To complete the Skillful Craftsman daily quest, you can build a tree or road tile in your city, which will complete the quest. Now repeat the same whenever you have this daily quest. Read our top 100 Rise of Kingdoms tips to learn how you can take advantage of little things in the game.
Daily Special Offer Chest

Did you know that your daily special offer chest is guaranteed to give you a random amount of legendary commander sculptures every time you open the chest three times?
The daily special offer chest can give you Cao Cao / Charles Martel / El Cid / Julius Caesar / Mehmed II / Frederick I.
If you are hunting for legendary commanders to expand your roster, make sure to open your daily special offer chest to reap in the legendary commander sculptures.
Alexander & Charles Martel Shield Don’t Stack

The idea of having two shields up at the same time to mitigate large amounts of damage and crippling the nukers’ powerful skills to just a wet noodle slap sounds absolutely like heaven.
But it’s not actually possible to have 2 shields up at the same time. If either one activates a shield while the current shield is up, it will replace the old one — hence cancelling it.
Therefore, it’s best to keep Alexander the Great and Charles Martel separate if you want to maximize their combat effectiveness out in the field.
However, you can pair these shield-absorbing commanders such as Pakal II and Guan Yu, for instance, with other skill damage boosting commanders like Sun Tzu to increase the shield’s strength.
Some Commanders’ Buffs Don’t Work on Structures

Another critical game mechanism in Rise of Kingdoms that you need to be aware of is that commanders like Leonidas I, Edward of Woodstock, and Ramesses II have passive skills that increase their troop’s combat effectiveness while on the map.
This buff does not work if these commanders are stationed inside a structure, meaning your city, alliance fortress, resource spot, alliance flag, and anything that counts as garrisoning.
If you want to maximize these passive skills that grant troops bonuses throughout the dispatch, make sure that they are fighting on the map to take advantage of these skills.
Rally Army & Damage

As you probably have seen this already throughout your gaming career in Rise of Kingdoms that the amount of damage the rally army deals and intake damage depends on several factors:
- The troop size of your rallied army.
- The incoming damage output from enemy garrison and Barbarian fort.
- Attributes those factors in the battle i.e, skills.
The more attributes and troops your rally army has, the more damage you will do and the less damage you take. If you are playing as a free-to-play player, the chances are that you don’t have strong rally commanders yet.
But you can take advantage of the rally army and its increased damage bonus modifier by joining one of the top alliances on your server. Whenever one of your alliance members launches a rally army, you can send in your commanders to join the rally to take advantage of stat bonuses.
Stronger Debuffs / Buffs Overrides Weak Ones

One of the most crucial combat game mechanisms that you should know when playing Rise of Kingdoms is buffs and debuffs. They are critical and can play a significant role in every battle.
Buff empower your commanders and troops’ combat strength so that they can fight better. While debuffs weaken your enemies, it is easier for your marches to destroy them.
Powerful buffers / debuffers like Aethelflaed, Hannibal Barca, Moctezuma I, Jadwiga, Bjorn Ironside, and Attila are pretty darn strong enough to weaken enemy targets with ease.
If you are pairing commanders, we recommend pairing a commander who excels at buffing your troops and a secondary commander who excels at debuffing enemy targets.
That way, you will be able to maximize your march’s overall combat strength and have all of the base points covered. Whenever you are doing PvP battles like Sunset Canyon or the Lost Kingdom, always keep buff and debuff factors in your mind.
War Frenzy in Expedition Mode

Did you know that you can take advantage of the War Frenzy buff before you enter Expedition?
War Frenzy is simply a status of your city that becomes active once you launch an attack or scout an enemy city/resource points and buildings.
It increases your troops’ attack by 3% and lasts for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on your City Hall level. An excellent game mechanism to gain an attack boost before doing your Expedition Mode.
The War Frenzy buff also works well everywhere else, even in Sunset Canyon / Lost Canyon events. It’s a great temporary buff to gain increased troops’ attack if you plan to go on the offensive.
Stack Rally Army

You can also take advantage of one of the game mechanisms if you have a rally commander such as Mehmed II, who excels at multipurpose troops thanks to the leadership, or Genghis Khan, who excels at cavalry thanks to his skill tree and skills.
You can do a fully single-type troop rally by encouraging your alliance members to chip in their unique units to maximize the buffs. Alternatively, you can use commanders like Mehmed II and Hannibal Barca if you want to do a mixed army as they will gain a bonus in both attack and defense thanks to their leadership skills.
If you are doing cavalry commanders, stick to cavalry troops only. Infantry commanders stick to infantry troops only. Archer commanders stick to archer troops only. It ensures these troops gain a massive boost from your commanders’ skills to maximize the damage and reduce incoming damage.
Save Your Action Points

If you are farming barbarians, you can save your action points and stretch them even further.
It is possible via chain-farming barbarians. But, to do this, you will need Aethelflaed and stack her with infantry only since they are slow-moving and tanky.
It means Aethelflaed will maintain aggroing the barbarian while collecting other groups then nuke them down with her AOE active skill.
Best of all, you can do this simple game mechanism as a free-to-play player. Just let your commander do all the hard work while gunning down barbarians at the same time.
Ensure you don’t accidentally attack other barbarians on purpose, as it will consume your action points.
City Bombing Your Enemies Into Oblivion

City Bombing is a game mechanism and also one of the most feared tactics in Rise of Kingdoms. To do this, you will have to be Britain since they gain 20% bonus garrison capacity.
If you are not Britain, garrison your troops in a city that is Britain. Then teleport the garrison city next to the opponent that you want to take down. Initiate rally for 5 minutes that will leave the targeted player very little time to respond.
If done right, city bombing can be devastating for stronger players watching their power getting crippled to zero.
It is an incredibly effective method to take down whales if you are playing as a free-to-play player. Ensure you coordinate with your alliance members to maximize the city bombing technique.
Conclusion of Top 12 Best Game Mechanisms

Now you know how to take advantage of these top 12 best game mechanisms to your advantage. Unfortunately, not a lot of Governors know these hidden game mechanisms in Rise of Kingdoms.
With these game mechanisms, you can get ahead of other players, even whales and pay-to-win players, as a free-to-play player. As a result, these Rise of Kingdoms game mechanisms will serve you well in the long run.
Did you find our top 12 best game mechanisms useful and informative? If you have any questions or have a suggestion to make for this guide, let us know by commenting in the comment section below.
We are looking forward to hearing from you! Happy ruling, Governors!