If you’ve put your 2nd TC forward, then put your counter rax here along with your temple. Put up a spider lair near them. With the spiders and the TC fire, your opponent shouldn’t be able to take them down. And this is great because there is nothing worse than losing your rax in classical. With no rax, you have no army production. With no army, you lose.

Get a nice mixture of Katapeltes and Turma, throw in plenty of Automatons too, again the 2 TC’s benefit you (the favour). Use you infantry and Mus to defend your base from raiders, and raid yourself with Turma. Get the tower upgrade too.

Other than this do everything you would normally do in classical. Expand and raid. But again WATCH YOUR POP IT IS CRUCIAL YOU DON’T GET TOO MANY CITIZENS. They take up 3 population remember. Gaia’s archaic tech would be a good idea towards mid-classical age when you can afford it.

By late classical, get the next wood, and gold upgrades from your economic guild., and plow if you need it. You’ll probably need husbandry by now too.

The Heroic Age

This is where you can be really flexible to counter your enemy’s army. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEIA UNLESS YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE IN CLASSICAL AND YOU NEED BEHEMOTH TO FINISH YOUR ENEMY OFF. But this is not common.
Put a Hesperides tree near your rax where it cannot be captured by the enemy, if you have plenty of gold, get some dryads, they don’t waste your favour and are a nice addition to your army. Contarius are a nice choice with Theia, they may not be the toughest units but they can be effective when massed against most units except infantry. They are excellent as heroes.
THIS IS THE TIME TO SAVE YOUR FAVOUR. Remember that you want to be always ahead of your enemy, and you’ll find some games you’ll need to get to titan age, so don’t get carried away with Stymphalian Birds, they are a whopping 25 favour. And don’t be stupid and use them as raiders, when separated from an army, they are slaughtered easily. Trust me.

You usually don’t need the third econ upgrades unless you see the game is really going to drag on. Aim for a MAXIMAM of 20 citizens. No more. Try to take at last half of the map now, if you really can’t do it, then go for Titan age ASAP.

I often find myself not long in heroic and I am always surprised at how many resource I have. Aim to get to mythic before your opponent. Don’t forget to upgrade your men however.