OpenRA

I played C&C, Red Alert 1 & 2 back in the day, so not a complete noob, but I haven't played OpenRA before or Dune 2000.

I set up skirmish game with a bot and repeatedly got my arse handed to me before I've even built a heavy factory.

So, I set up another game with 1 bot on my side against 2 other bots. This time, as soon as I complete the refinery, an enemy carryall shows up and plants a turret and about 10 infantry next to my base. What am I supposed to do about that? I don't have any units other than a harvester. Even if I could run over all the infantry, the harvester can't attack the turret.

What's going on? Is this supposed to happen?

Are you playing on a map with a custom script? The default AI should not have carryall reinforcements, so what you describe sounds very strange.

I think I have worked out what happened. It seems that the AI starts with a complete base. On the map I was playing, which was one of the default ones, two of the spawn points were right next to one another. I think the carryall was just coincidence. It flew over just as I revealed the turret and troops, so it looked like it had spawned them.

I eventually overcame it by building only a barracks and spamming troops until I could take out the AI construction site and combat buildings, then capturing their refinery, because I couldn't afford my own. This left me in no position to fight the other AI, but at least I could figure out what was going on. I guess that map is more for team play.