Thor is one of the more unique civilizations in AoM. His specialty is the dwarf buildup, a tactic that rookies will find very easy to learn and apply. So, in aid of giving new players or less experienced players something to focus on, I've decided to create a writeup on it...it's actually a remarkably simple buildup, but anyway. Please feel free to offer opinions about things you think should be done differently etc, cos I'm considering turning this into an article for the site. (Hopefully with records and pics and stuff.)

The Thor dwarf build does not usually result in the most powerful attack, but it�s definitely the easiest buildup to follow through the early game, and very easy for a learning player to pick up. (Of course, it could teach a learning player bad habits, too!) The dwarf build also requires very little adjustment to the map you are playing � you can play it no matter what resources the map generates for you, whereas a normal food oriented economy is at the mercy of the food generated by the map. It also allows you to advance much faster if you are not a very fast player.

The Dwarf build does have the drawback that it can result in slightly less economic power than a comparable player, since in the time you produce 7 dwarves, an opponent can produce 8 villagers. The margin is small however, and the other benefits of focusing on dwarves usually outweigh this.

The premise behind the dwarf build can be explained in these basic facts:

• Food is the most important resource in the first age, but also requires the most work to get
• Dwarves cost no food, instead they cost gold, which is very easy to get at the start of the game, and
• Thor�s Dwarves are not as inefficient at gathering wood and food as normal ones � so they can effectively gather them without any economic loss of efficiency

So, the obvious objective of the dwarf build is to � as the name implies � build dwarves instead of gatherers. Here�s a basic idea of the buildup to follow:

The Buildup:

• Queue two dwarves with your starting gold at the Town Center. Set the rally point to the nearest gold mine.
• Send your starting dwarves and ox-cart to the nearest gold mine. If the map allows it, you may want to send your ox-cart to a different gold mine where you can also gather wood, or better yet food. However, don�t waste any time this early in the game walking to a distant mine. Every second spent walking is a second not spent gathering.
• Dwarves 3 and 4 join your first gold miners.
• Gatherer 1 (or Dwarf 5) At this stage you may not yet have enough gold to train another dwarf. Don�t waste precious Town Center time, queue a gatherer instead. He joins the gold miners too, however once you have a solid gold flow, take him off and have him gather food or wood instead.
• Dwarves 5 and 6 join your gold miners.
• Consider getting the gold mining upgrade. It is not necessary for the buildup, but can be helpful. However, it requires a bit of wood, which will require some adjustments.
• You now have 7 units gathering gold � this should be more than enough to keep your TC in steady production. Take your gatherer and one dwarf off gold and move them to chickens. (Or whatever food source is close to the TC. You don�t have a second ox cart yet, so don�t opt for hunting if it is not close by.)
• Dwarf 7 begins gathering wood from one of the straggler trees near your Town Center.
• Dwarf 8 goes to chickens.
• Train an oxcart at the Town Center. (If you bought the gold mining upgrade, you will need 20 wood to buy the ox cart, which is why Dwarf 7 went to wood.) Have the oxcart join your food gatherers.
• Dwarf 9 goes to chickens. Now that you have an oxcart with your food gathering operation, you can consider switching to hunting � which is faster. Because we are not focusing on food, the hunting dogs upgrade is not necessary. (Hunting dogs takes a while to pay itself off � best left for mid-high hunting reliant situations. We�re not reliant on hunting in this case, it�s just convenient.)
• Around this time it would be a good idea to put up a house with your ulfsark. Try not to just place houses wherever your ulfsark is at the time � have them veer back home so that the house won�t get taken out by roving enemy units.
• Dwarf 10 to wood.
• Dwarves 11 and 13 to food.
• Dwarves 15-22 join your food gatherers. You may wish to strengthen your wood gathering along the way with a few of these, and a third ox cart may be necessary if you cannot find a sweetspot with both gold and wood.
• Around about Dwarf number 22 you should be ready to advance to Classical � you can do it earlier or later, but this is a happy medium generally, and should be an easy target to hit. Put your temple up in advance.
• Have your ulfsark place another house.
• Hit the classical button. I strongly advise choosing Forseti � his Healing Spring god power is far more useful than Freyja�s Forest Fire, and Trolls are solid and fairly cheap myth units. (Though rather population intensive at four slots each.) Now that you�ve hit the classical button, you don�t need quite as much food. Grab a dwarf or two and shift them over to wood.
• Research the wood upgrade. If you don�t already have it, get the gold mining upgrade now too.
• Queue a hersir at the temple, then a second one when you have enough food. If there are any relics nearby that benefit you, grab them. If you have strong wood supply, it�s often an idea to place yet another house. (Once your Longhouses go up, you can get popped out very quickly as your first few units come out � this can be quite crippling if you want to attack soon after advancing.)
• As soon as you hit classical, use your ulfsark and Hersirs to lay down two Longhouses. Queue Throwing Axemen initially, and use them to help build a third Longhouse and possibly more houses.
• Try to maintain constant military production.

From here on, everything pretty much goes as you play it. I suggest focusing on Raiding Cavalry and Throwing Axemen, since this is the least food intensive and most versatile combo. You�re well geared for an attack, so go ahead once you have a few units. If you manage to attack quickly enough, you will be able to focus on military buildings and houses � he can�t stop you if he can�t build counters to what you�re using. However if he already has his buildings up, avoid his military and go for the villagers � this�ll hurt him more and hurt you less.

Don�t get the medium infantry and cavalry upgrades too early � more units is always better than more upgrades. You probably want 10+ Cav or TA�s before you upgrade them. Forget about armory upgrades until you get close to the pop limit � but once you get near it and you have the resources, these make all the difference. Opt for attack first, then the armor type of the primary unit you are fighting. You may even want to consider getting the heroic age armory techs too � though they come with a hefty pricetag.

As you get further into the classical age, you�ll begin to find you need your gold for military production, and not for dwarves. Consider putting some more dwarves on gathering gold, and this would be a good time to set up farms, and begin building gatherers instead. (Remember to get the Husbandry and Plow upgrades to improve farming.)

Some additional food for thought:

Using dwarven mine: Dwarven mine will provide you with 1000 gold, for convenient mining at whatever location you choose. (You can save it for the heroic age to get 3000 gold if you want � but don�t hold onto this GP too long, make sure you use it sometime! Too many new players either fire this one off straight away or never use it. Both are bad ideas.) Dwarven mine has the added bonus of being mined at double speed by dwarves, instead of +20%. This god power is best saved for when you do not have access to a safe gold mine.

Using healing spring: Too many people make mistakes in placing healing springs. First of all, remember that the spring is controlled by whoever has the most units in the area � plunking it down anywhere near an enemy town and an area you don�t control is a bad idea. Also remember that like all healing methods, it heals *very* slowly when your units are fighting. Don�t think you�re going to gain much by fighting around a healing spring. They only heal appreciably when idle. Put a healing spring somewhere safe � probably near your Longhouses or progressive forward base. This way your units can retreat there to meet units being produced when you lose a battle.

Myth units at your disposal�in this case trolls: With all the fighting you�ll be doing, you�ll come into favor eventually. There�s no useful myth upgrades to be had yet, so the best way to spend it is on Trolls. Trolls are affordable myth units, fairly tough, and have more range and attack than TA's. As an added bonus, they heal when fighting. The drawback to trolls is that they take four pop slots � the same as two throwing axemen or raiders. If you find yourself too pop constrained, you may want to forget about them.