A Beginner’s First Guide

Purpose

This guide is aimed at beginners: people who are new to the game, not necessarily people who have been playing for five years and still suck. Another different guide will be targeted to such people aiming to be pros which will be a good continuation for once a new player masters the skills explain herein. I have tried my best to keep this short and in some ways have succeeded, but in others have not. Just quickly stating things to do and general guidelines is good, but sometimes I feel it is as important to state why you should do things and not just what to do and that is where I had difficulty in keeping this guide short.

General RA Introduction Info

So you have played some of the missions, worked hard and beaten the easy AI, maybe even the hard mode AI, made your own kick-ass, favorite map, and now you get online and you see these really good players who seem so good they MUST be cheating. So you ask around to find out how to get better and someone refers you to this (outstanding!) guide. Don’t get discouraged, in no time you will be at least as good as these seemingly godly players.

            So, in your first game online you were building up your awesome base, maybe even scouting around in the dark, placed a couple of defensive units around and WHAM. The other player comes RACING at you so fast and with SOOO many tanks that you can’t do anything. You feel helpless, and he destroys your base (maybe even ignoring your pitiful defensive force) and picks off all your fleeing units. You swear if you had more time he couldn’t do that, and you are determined that you’ll get him next time. So you play him again (if you are lucky enough that he didn’t die from boredom last game) and just like before you get crushed.

            This must be very discouraging, but fear not. There are several VERY important lessons to be learned here. The first is that speed matters. RA is a Real-Time Strategy game. For every second you were building your base and thinking about what to make next, your enemy already knew what to make and did so immediately without thinking. He also knew where he was going to place his buildings, and let’s not kid ourselves, he was probably even more consistent about clicking the make tank button the very millisecond the tank came out while you were busy moving your units around and had to stop and go back and click the make tank button. These things all contribute to speed. You have to figure out the best strategy possible and learn it by heart so you can do it as fast as physically possible. Almost always the faster player wins.

            The second big lessons to take from this first series of defeats is that RA is all about tanks. You are probably thinking here, “Wait a second, what about all these other cool units like rocket soldiers, medics, yaks, tanyas, submarines, cruisers etc. Isn’t this a STRATEGY game?” Well, the answer is that yes this is a strategy game, and there are certain maps where air units and boats come in useful, but more than 99 out of 100 games how many tanks you have and how well you use them will be the deciding factor.

            Keeping these two principles in mind this guide now moves on to more specific aspects of game play.

Build Order

Considering our two principles, build order is extremely important since it is the simplest in your control that will make you faster. The best build order varies from map to map, but several general orders can be described based upon how much money is on the map. These build orders are the three that I would say are the most important to learn since they cover the Big Three Maps of RA (Path, hjk6, p4).

Website Glossary – Explains abbreviations, technical terms, and shorthand used on this site.

Build 1: Low Money Maps

• Examples: A Path Beyond, Isle of Fury, Keep off the Grass, Treasure Isle and other standards..

• Order - p b o w w a o o o w - (3 o 4 w)

• Comments - With this build you can make an ore truck if you want but it is not necessary. Since you are playing low money maps, selling your barracks is good after you have two wars since it gets you a little more money. Selling your CY is also good after you have at least 3 ores.

Build 2: Gem Maps

• Examples: hjk6, Guerilla Forest, NSC Niklas, V3

• Order – p p b o w (truck) s w w (truck) w a o w w o - (4 wars before 2^nd Ore, 2 truck)

• Comments - This is the classic hjk6 build but it works very well on lots of other maps. Definitely a build to learn by heart. Making a service depot to get mcvs can be ok and should be done after making at least a few wars.

Build 3: Infinite Money

• Examples: P4, Wide Open

• Order – p b a o w (truck) s w w w w w o – (1 truck, 6 wars before 2^nd ore if allies, 7 wars before 2^nd ore if sovs)

• Comments - Since all of the infinite money maps I have ever played require moving or expanding out to place your ore ref, the 2 powers first thing help you to deploy faster. The idea here is to make the number of war factories to produce tanks at max speed ASAP. Making a depot to get MCVs can be ok and can be done at any time.

I recommend that you write the orders down on paper so you can look at them while you play until you have them memorized by heart. Keep in mind that looking at the order and memorizing it in a few seconds is very different from being able to focus on what to build while you are in a game and distracted by many different things. That’s why it’s good to be able to look down and see the order while you are learning it. Remember that perfect practice makes perfect… Sloppy practice trains you to be sloppy, and build order is the simplest thing that you can control and master to become faster. Remember the first principle.

In the interest of keeping this guide as simple as possible, I have kept the comments on the orders minimal as well as refrained from listing variations on the orders. The best RA players ever all used these builds, and all of the other orders are simple variations of these. You can’t go wrong using these builds on the listed maps. After you have mastered these orders, you can learn more about these orders as well as learn other orders in the Main Build Orders Section (Insert Link) of the site or check out special orders for specific maps in the Maps Section (Insert Link).

Building Placement

            On some maps the placement matters almost as much as the order, sometimes more than the order. You must keep in mind several guidelines for building placement. These may seem like common sense, but you wouldn’t believe how many players I have seen that don’t follow them even though they have played for years.

1. Place your ore refs as close as physically possible to the money.
2. When gems are in large patches, the best place for an ore ref is TL of the gems.
3. Expand your base to get to the money when it is farther away.
4. A close base is harder to attack than a spread out base.

The first rule is common sense. Shorter trips for your ore trucks means more money which means more tanks. Despite how obvious this may seem, I have seen so many newbies play P4, hjk6, and other maps and place their ore refs one square, two squares, or even farther away from the ore when there was nothing preventing them from placing it right next to the ore. All orders rely on good ore ref placement to get ideal money, and you can’t afford to fall behind your enemy in cash.

This second rule about placing ores to the TL of the gems may seem arbitrary, but there is actually a very good reason for this. The ore truck mining algorithms for RA make the ore trucks mine toward the TL of the gems. Thus if you place the ore ref to the TL of the gems, your ore trucks will stay closer to the ore ref, rather than wander off like morons. Take notice of ore truck mining patterns as they can come in useful at times when controlling your trucks is necessary. Ore trucks are by far the stupidest unit in RA.

Once again the third principle seems obvious, but I still see people who upon seeing a new map can’t figure out where to put their buildings. Path is a very good example of a map where this principle is useful. TR on path needs to expand his base to the middle to get to the ore in the middle. Similar things must be done from other spots and on other maps.

The final principle is not entirely apparent. Experience shows that having a tighter base is easier to defend. Enemy attacking units get split up when they try to run through the base (sometimes even get blocked completely by walls of buildings) or have difficulty coordinating their firepower on one essential building. Also, engineers and teslas can’t be used effectively if your buildings are all spread out. Despite that having a close base is easier to defend, money still comes first and you should expand to get money rather than go broke when given the choice.

Basic Skills

            So now you know what to build to get your units, but how do you effectively use your units?

Q – The ultimate test of RA Skill

            Q is the unquestionably the most important hotkey in the game. So first a thorough explanation of how to use the Q key is required. So what does this all-important key do? Q has two purposes. The first purpose is to waypoint units. The second and more important use is to make your tanks fire at enemy units and move at the same time, thus dodging enemy fire. The second purpose is somewhat of a glitch of the first and will become apparent in explaining how to use Q.

To waypoint units from Spot 1 to Spot 2 etc:

1. Select your unit.
2. Hold down Q and click on Spot 1.
3. Hold down Q and click on Spot 2.
4. Repeat Step 3 as necessary.

After doing this your unit will automatically go from spot 1 to spot 2 etc. until told to do something else. This is very useful in scouting maps.

You do not have to keep holding Q the entire time while doing this. You only have to be holding Q down when you click on your waypoint locations. If a unit is already way-pointed and moving and you wish to give him more waypoints you can reselect him and give him more waypoints without interrupting his previous waypoint chain, but once u give him a location to go to without holding Q he will immediately leave his old router and follow the new order.

To make tanks fire and move at the same time:

1. Select your tanks.
2. Tell them to attack an enemy target.
3. While your tanks are firing at the enemy target, hold down Q and click on Spot 1.
4. Repeat step 3 for Spot 2, Spot 3, etc.

Once your tanks are already firing, you can Q them as much as you want and they will act as though they are being way pointed while continuing to fire. This is extremely useful when fighting your enemy’s tanks. When fighting enemy tanks you must practice muse precision by click on each of your opponent’s individual tanks. Every time you change targets you must re Q your tanks. Thus Q fighting is very involved and is a skill which must be mastered. Qing can also be used when base rushing. You can attack your enemy’s buildings and continue running through his base at the same time.

            You should Q whenever possible. Practicing Q is imperative. Even good players need to practice Qing and have spent lots of time practicing in the past. The best way to practice Qing is to get a friend, get a Q map, and have Q battles every day. Have Q battles with many people so you can see how other people Q and figure out what works, what doesn’t work, and how to beat different Q styles and mistakes. Highly experienced players can take advantage of superior Q in many different situations, and this is one of the few areas in RA where experience plays a huge part in separating out the elite from the best and the best from the rest. Q is always the first thing to go during time without play and it is very important to keep your Qing at its best. For the purpose of practicing Q, many many many maps have been made in the past. These maps are available for download in the Maps Section (Insert Link). The only way to learn to Q better is to practice. I could try to write down a thorough analysis on all possible Q maneuvers and styles and strategies, but it would all be very meaningless unless you actually practice it and learn it for yourself.

Scouting

            Scouting maps is very simple but very important. The most effective way to scout varies from map to map, but these general guidelines are good on all maps. I will keep this section brief by just listing general scouting tips.

• Send scouts to the corners of the map.
• Be certain of where your opponent’s base is because starting spots aren’t always obvious.
• Riflemen are the cheapest scouts. Grenaders are faster than riflemen and can be used to scout, but they are more expensive and usually not worth the money.
• Place guards around your base to keep your opponent from seeing where your buildings are.
• Riflemen make the best guards.
• Some maps have the terrain laid out so that you can block off more of the map. Look for the best places to put your guards when learning new maps.

In the interest of keeping this guide brief and to the point I have just listed these tips. The more you play the more scouting patterns you will see. For a more thorough discussion of scouting check out the section on the main page (Insert Link).

Hot Keys

            Since speed is imperative and hot keys are all about making things more efficient, it is absolutely necessary to have good control over your keyboard. I have listed below the basic hotkeys I think a beginner should know and practice at all times. You should go look over the complete Hot Keys Section (Insert Link) so you are aware of what other hot keys there are and how to use them.

• Groups – ctrl + # - Once you have created groups you can immediately reselect the units in the group instantly by pressing the number of the group. It is absolutely essential to be able to instantly control your tanks. The enemy doesn’t wait for you to be ready.

• Shifting – shift + # - Shifting is adding units to groups. Once you have selected a new unit you can hold down shift and press the number of a group and it will select the group too. You still have to regroup the units together. You can also hold shift and click on individual units to select them together. Definitely an essential key.

• Force Fire – ctrl + click – This allows your units to target the map. This is how you destroy bridges and trees.

• Allie – A – Absolutely necessary for multiplayer.

• Select All – E –Selects all units on the screen. Very useful.

• Scatter – X – Makes all units selected scatter. This is particularly useful for infantry. Do NOT try to use this as a substitute for Q as it fails to compare.

• Arrow Keys – up/down – Scrolls through the building list. This is much faster than click on the side of the screen and will make a noticeable difference in your speed.

• Home – H – Centers your base on your cy or your primary cy if you have more than one.

It may seem tedious, but hotkeys are very effective at making you a better player. There are more hot keys to master, and pros use all of their hot keys. These are what I think a beginner needs to learn to use and should need at least a couple of weeks to get used to.

General Improvement Tips

            I feel these tips need to be told to beginners but do not feel they fall into appropriate categories above.

1. Always make sure you click the make tank button as fast as possible. This is one of the hardest things in RA to get used to and takes discipline and speed.

2. Always strive to be as fast as possible. This includes placing buildings, clicking the make unit buttons, scrolling through the building list, sending scouts, adding units to groups, managing ore trucks, and all other aspects of the game.

3. One of the most basic strategies in RA is that of base rushing. You should practice it and practice defending it. Quickly killing your opponent’s base producing abilities or his unit production abilities all together will more often than not automatically win the game.

4. Show no mercy. This is a competitive game and the object is to win. People who feel restrained by rules of honor or feel like certain things are gay or whatever reason tend to suck and have not bothered to improve enough to learn how to defend.

5. Reading the rest of this site will be useful. I admit that there is a lot of information here and not all of it is practical, but exposing yourself to everything is good.

6. Play lots of different maps all the time. Force yourself to try to learn a new map regardless of what everyone else is doing. There are a lot of good maps out there and mastering new maps will teach you new skills or give you new ideas you never thought of.

7. Ask other players for help or tips. You can learn a lot from talking to other people and watching how others play.

8. Play as many games with as many different people as you can. The more you play the better you will get. Practice competing whenever there are competitions.

Summary

            Putting the two basic principles in the introduction together, we get the remarkably simple yet profound summary:

The player who gets the most units the fastest wins.

            Always keep this in mind. Always try to be as fast as possible. The fastest clicker is the better player. If you are unwilling or unable to scroll through your building list or to place buildings as fast as the other player then you will be worse. If you are unwilling to click as fast as possible you will be worse. If you lose on Q master max speed all the time then you just plain and simple are not clicking fast enough. You cannot just give up on speed. You must always try to be as fast as possible.

            Remember that RA is a game. You will only be as good at it as you try to be. It is fun, and I find competing makes it even more fun, but it gets very gay very fast when people start cheating and taking things personally. Always try to be sportsmanlike and people will respect you. I hope this guide has been helpful. For more information I recommend checking out the Main Web Page (Insert Link) or reading the other guides.

-Milo234