OpenRA

Hi guys been trying to play as much open ra as possible. I feel I am x1000 times better already than when I first started, much of my progression is just mimicking what you guys do when I watch your YouTube videos , they have helped a lot!

My favourite map is torniment Island! Great map nice and simple. I have significantly improved my build speed with use of hot keys and base building seems to have been engrained into my mind and can work a decent base without conciously thinking about what's to do next.

Do you guys have any tips about battle engagements? this seems to be my weakest part of my game. After battles I check the stats and I am regularly below even in my KD ratio. I watch my replays and when I get into a scrap I have the better army but always seem to be coming out the other end worse off. I feel this is my next area to improve. Do you guys have any suggestion about what I should be doing in engagements? Or is it something you naturally get better at as you play?

Any criticism about how I play or mistakes you have seen me make in lobbies would be greatly appreciated! I am dedicated to improve! my goal is to duke it out with the heavy hitters in tournaments one day

Would love one of you elite players to kinda take me under your wing and help me progress, become your apprentice

Peace out dudes see you in the field

A simple but effective ground rule of mine: Time the tanks to move through the ranks of your infantry no later than the very beginning of your engagement and keep them sligthly ahead of your infantry during the battle. Never let your tanks move too far in front of your infantry unless you're certain the field ahead is clear or you're pathing towards artillery/v2's. After getting comfortable with this, focus more on microing tanks/rockets/rifles towards specific targets.

*Keep your army moving in order to claim more of the field and always be willing to do a full pullback (don't use me as an example) if you're uncertain about your opponents strength.

Hey, can you post some replays? I'd be glad to take a look at them. Just remember that battles are decided before you go into them, whether that be down to army positioning, numbers or the opponent is just better at micro.

It may also be that you are engaging at the wrong time, that's pretty common.

Fiveaces speaks about microing alot in his latest video of ozzy and teew.

Thanks for your speedy responses guys!

I understand what you are saying SoScared I'll try be more mindful in future engagements, I suppose it's all about timing and I'll eventually pick it up. I try keep all my troop types in a team so I can focus all my artillery to infantry tanks to other tanks rockets to tanks rifles to infantry etc but when it gets down to it all my planning goes out the window and it just turns into a big mess. Am I over complicating this??

Thanks Ray! I appreciate that! I'll sieve through and pick a couple of games

Ill check out that video too, thanks muchly buddies!

peace

I have the same problem as you ^_^
I tend to lose a lot of units on the battle and I rarely get a KD higher than 1.
Often due to micro mistakes or engagement errors.

But I think it's mostly due to my suicidal playstyle ^_^ : I often don't really care about how much units I lost, as long as an objective is accomplished. Targeting a specific building for instance, which gives a fatal blow to my foe.

So a bad KD or a loss of units is not necessarily a bad thing per se, if you need aggressive tactics. However it's risky, as your army can dwindle in numbers in front of your enemy's army.

As for the micro issue, if you already group your units, that's already a good step ! Not many players do it actually ! Don't forget you can zoom in with the scroll wheel during an engagement, it's much easier then to micro.

And like you said, it requires training. Getting used to known situations will make you react fast and correctly. Try to train on specific types of engagement each time (infantry only / infantry + tanks / infantry + fast vehicles / arty / naval battle / air units / ... ). Each one requires different micro skills, the more types you master the more efficient you'll be during a battle ^_^

As Murto and SoScared said, army positioning and unit targeting is key. It's up to you to figure it out. Should I put tanks in front to tank the damage and to crush enemy soldiers ? Or do I make them fall back if I see rocket soldiers, and send infantry instead ? Etc ... depends on what unit you want to preserve, on your enemy's army, etc ...

It will come with time, and training, and developing your own vision of the game ^^

I think teaming up unit types in general could possibly over complicate things for you given that your army composition is constantly changing, especially during a battle. Not saying it couldn't work, and my way of dealing with armies can differ from others. For special designed tasks it's also preferable (e.g. aircraft, I often like to swarm a few with my army for vision) but I'd focus more on the broader aspect of army management first and in the mean time use unit type selection in midst of the action to maximize the efficiency.

Also another thing ^_^ Murto spoke about timing, which is crucial.
I'd add also the place of engagement, and the army composition are key.

For instance, if you send your infantry on a base defended with arty and pillboxes, you're going to lose all your infantry. No matter how good your micro is, a badly planned engagement is going to fail. So maybe you'll have to change the unit composition ... or the angle of attack.

You have to determine if you can attack, where to attack, and with which units ^_^

I agree SoScared, it adds a layer of complexity.
I'm still training on it, and still can't handle it correctly ^_^ But from my little experience, it gives you a little extra control, which can save you in some situations.

I'm mostly thinking of situations where your army is all mixed up, with helis hovering over it. It just becomes impossible to select the correct units in the heat of the battle ^_^ (even with unit type selection) or at least from my point of view.

I see StarCraft II players always grouping their units, and microing them like crazy in SC2 combats. However, in their case, the army size is limited to a 200 supply, so indeed their groups are more fixed than in RA, that's true.

I think I maybe over complicating simple tasks I'll keep it basic and build from that. Wish that ther was a battle simulator so I can spend a few hrs a day practising my micro skills. I learnt my base building by playing ai for several minutes a game surrendering and restarting to quickly repeat the process till it become second nature. Maybe if I play the ai save before I attack and just keep loading to train maybe? Idk.
Bottom line is am having fun and with this game more lessons are learnt in defeat it's just trying to understand the lessons I suppose

Peace

JuiceBox wrote: ↑ Bottom line is am having fun and with this game more lessons are learnt in defeat it's just trying to understand the lessons I suppose

Peace

Amen to that ^_^

When you say KD ratio, do you mean in unit numbers? Or in $? As someone who likes to rely on infantry a lot, I get many cases where I lose much more units than my enemy, but cause much more damage in $

Lucas you bring up a very interesting point. I didn't even think to check this... I do spam alot of infantry so I suppose a low KD is irelivent if I am getting bang for my buck

It's one thing to have an army, another thing to have a counter. What I mean is, while you have a great army and all, it might not be built to counter your opponents army and they may just strong arm you. Another possibility is lack of micro. Can only tell if we see some replays.

As you play more and more you will experience different play-styles and how to counter them. And as you play even more, a lot of the actions you need to take will become muscle memory. Once you get your head around how it all woks then its easier to start experimenting with your own builds

Regarding micro practice, there is a map in TD called "topcontrol." I'm trying to get Norman to fix it up and also put good micro units. Might even be useful for RA

upgraded top control for current release and reuploaded
should work without crash %

http://resource.openra.net/maps/14929/

if you want to change the units for each round, just edit this code in the lua file: