I suck at RTS

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Hi,
I suck at RTS games like for example Warcraft III, Age of Empires II, etc. Can anyone suggest me ideas to improve? I always get beat at multiplayer games.
closed account (N36fSL3A)
Probably because 90 percent of those people are try hards that play 24/7.

I'd recommend a rush strategy because most of them rush, and your best chance is to try to get to them first.

Make sure you get all the speed improvements you can as well.
@ Lumpkin/Fredbill
I tried rush, but when I reach their territory, they'd already have huge defenses and an army waiting for me lol.
Enough of these people post their crap on YouTube that you should be able to study every available strategy out there if it is really THAT important to you. See what works and try to understand why it works ect. Look at what was effective in countering it or at least mitigating it and again, try to see why it does. Haven't you ever been in an online clan? This is like step one for new recruits to any of the ones that I can remember being in.

Take minion rush for example, it is most commonly stalled defensively with exploders, i.e. anything that causes splash damage (grenadiers IIRC in C&C). This often involves sprinting up to a certain point in the tech tree with some super optimized resource acquisition and spending strategy that starts as soon as your base hits the ground.

I remember in one of the C&C's I was really into there were people posting keyboard macros and arguing on forums about the most efficient base layout on a per-map basis based on things like the harvesters path finding algorithm and likely enemy attack points. Certain maps were considered "broken" if you played one side or the other because of your likely hood of landing in a certain corner and exposing you to a specific strategy. At a certain point you're playing against people who are so absolutely addicted to the macro gaming aspect that there is no way for it to be fun anymore.

Have you considered trying a game that your opponents haven't been playing for 10 years straight?

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Warcraft III has a decent tactic if you play 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2 - Build barracks ASAP and start training grunts. Build up a few of them and rush the enemy base with them. Grunts have more health than any of the other basic units, so they will last rather well at the enemy base. Set up a rally point in the enemy base and continue to train grunts to send there. Send in peons with the grunts and start them up building orc guard towers in the enemy base. Orc towers are also pretty strong and well priced. Obviously, for 2 vs 2, you have to co-ordinate this strike with the other person. The best hero for this strategy is the guy who has feral spirit wolves (forgot his name) and he should be coming in with the grunts. Try to not allow their hero to level up by keeping close watch on your guy's health and moving them appropriately. Also bear in mind that you can run back to your towers once they are finished and have some covering fire.

For more GENERAL strategy in RPGs...

-Attacks are only worthwhile if they either capture more resources than the attack itself cost, or have a chance of doing truly devastating damage to the enemy.

-Expanding onto new resources quickly (as fast as possible) will give you the means to overrun enemies.

-Pay close attention to how much units cost and how much damage they do, health, armour etc... Often there are some in game units that are not well balanced and cost rather a lot for what they are.

-Information is king - It's often worth (especially in longer/larger games) sending very cheap units into enemy encampments to investigate possible weaknesses in defences there, how many resources are remaining there and what you might be getting attacked with.

However, there can still be an element of what Computergeek said.

Have you considered trying a game that your opponents haven't been playing for 10 years straight?
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closed account (N36fSL3A)
Also, to append onto my previous post, do you ever want to play AOE 2 with me?
Those sound like pretty good tactics. I'll try them out. Thanks! :)

@ Fredbill:
Yeah I can when I get time. What do you play on? GameRanger, Hamachi, etc?
Also, if you play Warcraft III, that'd be great too.
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closed account (N36fSL3A)
Nah I can't play Warcraft III, my laptop needs to be repaired so the machine I'm on is terribly outdated.

I can play via GameRanger. I'll let you know when I'm available.

Be warned; I'm terrible.
Why play such old rts games. Anyways I prefer aoe3 over aoe2. Though when I was a child me and my cousins would always play the cnc series. Anyways there are all sorts of tactics based on the different rts's. On most games though the easiest way to win is to rush a bunch of air units because often times the enemies will build ground only and no defensive anti-air and by the time they get anti-air you will have already destroyed most of their base.
closed account (N36fSL3A)
giblit wrote:
Why play such old rts games.
Because a large amount of games these days are garbage. This game is still played competitively and is pretty fun imo.

Anyways I prefer aoe3 over aoe2
Completely different games.

On most games though the easiest way to win is to rush a bunch of air units because often times the enemies will build ground only and no defensive anti-air and by the time they get anti-air you will have already destroyed most of their base.
Anyone with sense would build both types of units. Usually on C&C Generals I put down little ground units and a lot of air units because beginning ground units are relatively week. Once you do that just dig in and (with US paratroopers) slowly add on to your defense. Once you do that you're unstoppable.
Completely different games.
I realize that... Why would I say "I prefer aoe2 to aoe2" that wouldn't make any sense.

Anyone with sense would build both types of units. you would be surprised.
closed account (N36fSL3A)

I realize that... Why would I say "I prefer aoe2 to aoe2" that wouldn't make any sense.
I got the impression you were implying that. Fair enough.

you would be surprised.
Pretty much anyone who did that was immediately wrecked by me.

Even then I still would rather play AOE2 than any RTS game (no air units). I never had the chance to play a Total War title, and It'll most likely replace AOE2 on that scale.
Starcraft 2 guys!
Eh, I actually played a bit of Age of Empires 2 with some friends... basically, I stopped playing with them since even with a 5 minute advantage, they'd still complain that I'd send troops to fast which actually is called "cheesing"... except that normally happens instantly, not after five minutes of leverage.

Anyways, RTS players are almost as bad as ARTS players when it comes to complaining. Some race is always overpowered, some ability is always overpowered, some unit is always overpowered, some map is always unbalanced, something is always wrong.

Truth be told, you don't get better until your realize that the game is always balanced and your the one that needs to adapt to the game rather than the game adapt to you. After you realize that, you simply learn strategies from experience and time. You grow better gradually usually tapering off at some level of physical capability.
closed account (N36fSL3A)
Hey, maybe you can join a session once the OP and I can cobble together a common time.
@ giblit
Why play such old rts games.

Old is gold :). There are people who still play AoE 1.

@ Fredbill
Be warned; I'm terrible.

Assuming that you meant that you are bad at it, I won't be much of a challenge either :P.

BTW Fredbill, which AoEII do you have? Age of Kings, Conqueror's Expansion or The Forgotten Empires?
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closed account (N36fSL3A)
I have all but The Forgotten Empires.

I have that Gold Edition you get at walmart for like 10 bucks.
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Oh man, I love RTS games. Maybe my favorite genre of game. I used to play the ever living shit out of WC3. Still might be my favorite RTS.

It just takes time and practice to get better. I spent awhile watching videos of the pros play. Playing against people who were much better than me, and just having them give me advice. It can be very time consuming to get to a decent skill level in an RTS.
closed account (N36fSL3A)
I can play currently if anyone wants to...
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@ Fredbill: Our timings are really bad. We live on the opposite sides of the world. If you want you can PM me your Skype ID so that we can set a good time. At the time you posted that, it was 12:44AM here. Now its 2:33AM lol.
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