Basic Strategy Of Rts - Could you help me?

Dear All, I love to play RTS games like Praetorian, Rise of Nations, CnC, and so on. But i was bad at forming strategy, so in most RTS i always failed, even against easy BOT. Could you please tell me what the basic strategy in playing RTS? Thanks in advance

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

There are a number of basic strategies that will win you games. Of course, you will have to learn all of them and learn to recognize them so you can fend them off yourself.

I will list a few that I can think off the top of my head... and I'm going to use C&C as my model.

Tank Rush: Basically, start off gearing your base and production towards building a massive amount of vehicles. You can mix and match for variety (APCs for support infantry, machine-gun vehicles to go against infantry, rocket vehicles for air defense, armor for the punch, artillery for the distance) or you can go with straight tanks, as the name suggests. Build multiple factories to increase productivity and efficiency and build refineries and capture structures that acquire you more funds. The key is to keep a steady flow of money and vehicle production... then amass your forces and rush the enemy with all that you have, building vehicles back home to prepare for another tank rush once your current forces are exhausted.

This is highly effective as it is easy to do and you usually catch most people off-guard, especially if you breach a weak spot in their defenses.

To defend against a tank rush, you will have to use the terrain right off the back to help out with your defenses. Create choke points to prevent being rushed en masse. Spread defensive structures about your base as well as around it, and throw a focus on where you think the enemy will approach. Build lots of anti-tank infantry (rockets)... they are cheap and do well to bring tanks down, especially at choke points. Air support is a nice addition (unless there is a variety of vehicles with anti-air weaponry, which might make short work of your choppers and other aircraft).

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Don't expect to win if you place your base in a wide-open area; take the time to find a good spot for your home.

Superweapons: Self-explanatory. Sit back and build up your defenses, collect extra cash, and develop your technologies up until superweapons become available. Then nuke the crap out of them.

The only defenses against this include quick attacks to slow progress and destroying the superweapons and their supporting buildings.

Resource Supremacy: Take control of the maps resources and don't let anyone take anything without your permission (or intervention). Send out recon and assault units to destroy harvesters, carriers, or whatever the game has for resource-collecting. Guard the resource areas and starve the other opponents. No one can fight a war without money.

You can defend against this with escorts for your resource-gatherers or sending defending units to protect your main cash piles.

Air/Sea Supremacy: Take over one of these and hold onto it. Use your planes to keep others out of the sky and hit key targets and stand-alone units as well as resource gatherers. Use your ships to keep others out of the water; let subs lurk and keep them from even setting a foot in the water; and use cruisers and land-hitting attack ships to punish bases near the water. Not a lot of people think about attaining air or sea supremacy, instead putting focus onto just land units. But remember: you will always need land units in the long run to either finish the job or support your air/sea campaign.

Defenses are rather obvious. Utilize a mix of anti-air emplacements around your structures and have units that can counter-act air assaults. Keep a navy and an air force presence of your own. Don't let them take the skies or rule the seas.

Blinding: Destroy key radar structures, especially if they provide global map imaging (enabling them to see the entire map, enemy units, and enemy activity). The enemy can't strike if they don't know what's going on. Prevent them from venturing away from home by killing their units as they leave out the door. Prevent as much reconnaissance on their end as you can afford to without sacrificing your focus on progress and productivity.

You'll have to take extra care in placing your radar structures to prevent losing sight in a costly moment. Make sure they are further away from harm, and protect them with defenses just in case someone comes through the back door.

Combos: Do certain units complement each other with their abilities? Mix and match units to provide a more effective striking force. Utilize artillery to strike long and far, and have tanks and vehicles good against infantry to protect your hard-hitting long-range units. APCs are great to get key infantry units onto the battlefield where they need to be. More high-tech units can be used in conjunction with each other to provide devastating results. Experiment with different units to see how and if they work together well.

Destroy Factories: Completely remove any chance of rebuilding, restructuring, and even reorganizing to provide an attack. Take out barracks, war factories, and construction yards, and kill anything that is related to maintenance or structure-building. If they can't build anything, they can't win.

Of course, defend these well if you anticipate a focus on just these key targets.

Quick and Dirty: Harass the enemy right off the back with quick attacks that will slow down their progressing RIGHT from the get-go. If you can progress faster than they can and keep them from getting up to par, you will definitely win by sheer dominance.

Of course, have units at the ready to prevent this.

Attack Variety: Attack from multiple angles with different types of units. Most RTS players can't actually coordinate their units to defend against two or more attacking forces... understandably. Utilize team features and coordinate attacks on different sides of a base. Bomb them from the sky while you shell them with artillery or from your cruisers, then mop up with mutiple angles of attack with your land forces. Watch out for the friendly fire.

You can also use a smaller force to distract an entire base full of units to go out and try to fend off that threat while you go in through another side with a larger one... a faux pas, if you will.

Get use to the fact that people will throw everything at you from everywhere. Learn to master multi-tasking on the battlefield... and utilize teams of your own to defend different parts of your base.

-

That's what I've got for right now. Try implementing them into your games and see how they work out for you.

Also, get to know your enemy... quickly. If you recognize a tactic, you can be sure to provide a countermeasure to prevent their strategy from ever employing well.

 

 

 

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)