RTS's... just cant play them. HELP!

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agnes

Soldato
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ok, so ive played tons, and i mean tons of RTS's... but i was never good, actualy, come to think about it, im bloody awful lol.

ive just had a crack at company of heroes again, on the 3rd level, taking over the town. i loose 50% of my men after the first few encounters on medium difficulty! this is the same in all other RTS's, i love the idea, the concept, but im just pants at them.

so my question is, is there any sort of bible? walktrhough to the basics of RTS's? something i can read through to get the jist of them. its driveing me nuts!

sending in all my men at once is suicide, i get too fixated on the one group to concentrate on all of them if i try to take a tactical approach... too much css...

thanks, ags
 
I find micromanagement in COH really tough, my brain is just not able to cope - i find it worse than SupCom even though the unit count is much lower, just because you have to be fighting about 16 battles at all times.

Biggest tip i find is control-groups. This works really well in CnC3 (which i play with some friends occasionally) have different groups good against different things eg. anti-infantry, anti-tank etc. and prefferably with similar movement speeds and then all you need is really fast hands!

Specifically to CoH, cover is the most important thing - don't target units you want to kill, just move your troops to the nearest bit of cover and they will do the work for you. Try and pick your battles and know when to "tactically recover" ie. run away. I've heard it said that in CoH it's better to not lose any men than to turn your troops into cannon fodder so make this a priority
 
I feel your pain. Sometimes I wish I could play them, after playing the.. err.. I've forgotten what it's called. The one that has DX10 support and is present day / future (and has nice smoke). The only RTSs I've ever really played have been Red Alert and Total Annihilation.

Most of the time I just live with other genres tho :p
 
Zogger said:
I feel your pain. Sometimes I wish I could play them, after playing the.. err.. I've forgotten what it's called. The one that has DX10 support and is present day / future (and has nice smoke). The only RTSs I've ever really played have been Red Alert and Total Annihilation.

Most of the time I just live with other genres tho :p
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world in conflict :)

and aye! ive been doing the exact oposite of the cover system :D

ty for the help :) ill get stuck in now

btw, what is best for cam movement? arrow keys? or mouse? i find it easier to do it with the keys

ags
 
I don't think either is an all-out favourite, I use both depending on what else I'm doing at the time e.g. group selection, giving orders etc. Also, although it doesn't normally apply to multiplayer, don't be afraid to pause the game and take a bit of time to think things though, and if the game allows it set up some orders, patrol routes and so on.
 
I have a set routine in C&C 3, Expant early, gather resources, build and blow!

IE on the maps, 2v2, I go and expand asap with an outpost at the nearest tiberium field, once i've built my first power plant, in my first construction tab I build 2 addional cranes to build more structures.. best for building extra defence structures when it comes to base fortification, I then build 10 of each infantry (Gunner and rocket) once the rax is online, at the same time im fortifying the outpost with extra turrets as that will be attacked first.

So really its a case of getting to know the way the AI/Player plays and planning ahead to counter.

Plus im a mouse and click on map person.
 
CoH is really tough to keep up with the action! i just did the "take the town that gets bulldozed by tanks" mission. i lost everything pretty much apart from some guys in a house. luckily i just survided the timer and PanzerFaust 'ed the last tank and went through. will replay though as im, sure i can do better!

i need to zoom out like 50% more and id have more chance! i just keep losing track of my bearings and get to the action too late!

i also dont do tutorials and that kinda screwed me over the first few times too!
 
coh has a very good online community (gamereplays being the best site) and often does a mentor program. If you interested in putting some time into one game then ask for a mentor next time it comes around

as for general rts hints,
learn the maps, as west said getting the best start is vital in more competative play, a set build order is necessary

i also have the problem of getting caught up in a single thing but this is something you have to work on, even if you are watching a skirmish between you and your enemy dont forget to neglect the rest of your army/base

micro! practice more and this will improve, in a close battle who moves their troops better, who uses their special abilites correctly and who attacks smartly win battles

predict your opponents moves, or even better get a fast scout unit and see what they are up to, intelligence wins wars, if they are building something get the counter for it as fast as possible

in coh due to the map based resource design you need to play offensive, if you are not on the attack you are giving you opponent chance to fortify his defenses and plan his next attack, take the fight to them never be on the back foot
 
West said:
I have a set routine in C&C 3, Expant early, gather resources, build and blow ... I build 2 addional cranes to build more structures.. best for building extra defence structures when it comes to base fortification
Click to expand...

I'm the same in CnC3, but it still takes 3 of us in our house to take out a brutal enemy! We've only been playing together for about 3 weeks and one guy refuses to help his teammates (us) and just tripod-rushes. Really annoying

My other point - in the most recent patch (1.09) they've taken out the ability for defensive structures to be build from the cranes, so only construction yard/nerve centre can build defensive structures. Quite annoying really for quick desperate last stands but slows the game down nicely
 
Mindriot said:
I'm the same in CnC3, but it still takes 3 of us in our house to take out a brutal enemy! We've only been playing together for about 3 weeks and one guy refuses to help his teammates (us) and just tripod-rushes. Really annoying

My other point - in the most recent patch (1.09) they've taken out the ability for defensive structures to be build from the cranes, so only construction yard/nerve centre can build defensive structures. Quite annoying really for quick desperate last stands but slows the game down nicely
Click to expand...

Thats a good thing really I suppose.. i'm still running on 1.00, I should prolly get them patches installed.
 
From the sound of his opening post I think he's mainly talking about Singleplayer.

I could probably do with some SP tips for the modern RTS too... on COH I'm stuck on the 5th level where the tanks flood in.

Whereas on C&C3 I am fairly far into the GDI campaign, on some level where I've just taken charge of a base, and I need to get my sniper teams to spot the Scrin HQ for an artillery bombing or something. The trouble is, I get overrun by the enemy coming over the bridge to attack me. Don't have a war factory and can't build one so am reliant on infantry, base defences and the walker thingy. The trouble is I seem to be doing ok at holding out, but then all of sudden they wipe out like a dozen of my units at once with some kind of long-range artillery, and then start marauding around the base trashing the buildings in seconds
 
You need some

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Seriously though, go download some replays and watch them, best way to learn any RTS.

You'll soon learn that rushing and spamming is how to win, and onec you know how to manage resources and the rushing/spamming, that you'll know pretty much most of the game, and then can ctually play enjoyable games (a lot of people don't class rushing/spamming enjoyable, all the people who only want to win use this tactic) but the rush games are actually the most fun, as long as one side doesn't overwhelm very early on.
 
It is called multi-tasking and it is something I can't do at all. I want to like games like COH and World in Conflict as a can see they are excellent games. I am only a couple of missions in COH and I have given up. I finished and loved Heroes of WW2 which was recognized as a difficult game as I could cope with it because there was no resource management. Panzers is another strategy game I could handle.
 
Nickg said:
Close Combat i can handle, due to no resources and higher field of ZOOMage...

is Heroes of WW2 any cropper then?
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Close Combat is that an old game as I don't know it?

Heroes you only have one small squad to control and it makes use of cover and you can also sort of manually control an individual squad member when shooting. A very good game and I it has aged well. I do know allot of people complained that it was too difficult but I am a wimp and managed to finish it on normal.
 
I would alos recommend the WarHammer : Dawn Of War Games too if you are into COH.

I love them... I have not been playing them all that long, but I have a good knack for them.

Every situation calls for a different approach in a lot of these games.

COH is interesting in that each individual soldier goes up the ranks, so if you have a couple of snipers say ( If used right they can be the best thing since sliced bread ) and a couple of well placed snipers can do a hell of a lot of dammage.

Again, sometimes you need to know if you need to sneak into a situation and sometimes its best to go guns blazing.

One thing that annoys me however, is that enemy squads often appear from nowhere which absolutely gets on my **** and you think you have swept an area and indeed you have, only to see that you are losing an area ?? WTF?

Anyway, as I said.

WarHammer : Dawn Of War
WarHammer : Winter Assault
WarHammer : Dark Crusade

All play exactly the same as COH and COH:OF but are funny all hell

PS: In COH, why are all the engineers from New York?
 
dow is a simplified version of coh.... spose its a good thing to mention in this thread for people looking to build up their rts skills, but i would never go back to it myself.. coh is the best rts i have ever played and to go back to dow now would seem like a step down
 
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