Red Alert Multiplayer Guide — Intermediate

Introduction

Welcome to the second part of the guide. In order to be able to execute tactics/follow advice given in this section, you must first be able to follow the build orders mentioned in the Fundamentals section. If you are still not confident, go practise against AI in singleplayer first!

If you are confident in your basic macro abilities though, this part will introduce attacking and defending. Some of these might seem like common sense but even seasoned players occasionally forget to set them up properly in the heat of battle.

Attacking

When and Where

Before attacking, you must ask yourself when and where. Before asking when and where to attack, you must first ask whether to attack at all. Defender's advantage is very strong in RA, due to mechanics like cell-based movement and infantry's inability to shoot while moving. Coupled with the extreme effectiveness of base defenses like pillboxes and flame towers, defending forces have a huge advantage. So, think twice before attacking, especially if the both of you are on even footing! Countless games have been lost in ten minutes from a foolish early attack into an equally-sized defending force.

As for where to attack, that's not too hard. Use a ranger or flak to scout for vulnerable locations with very few defending forces and sneak an army in that way. The opponent's economy is a prime target; ore trucks are defenseless and expensive to rebuild.

How

Concaves

This is a term you will hear mentioned a lot, and for good reason: it is one of the biggest determinants of how engagements go. A wide formation with tanks in front can have a huge impact on the outcome of a fight. It's so significant, that in some situations, it can allow you to defeat an army more than twice as large. Let's see an example of Masters RAGL match Fazzar vs Blackend. They both had good micro and similar army size, but Fazzar had a wider concave, and was thus able to eat up Blackend's army. Let’s take a look at a few screenshots (TODO)

Tank Usage

• As a meatshield

  In big army blobs, tanks are not meant to deal damage, but to soak damage from the enemy army, while your rifles and rockets inflict it. Before starting a fight or when moving your armies, try to keep tanks in front of your infantry. This is the most important use for tanks.

• To crush

  You can use tanks to crush infantry or to make them go prone which can be a huge deal. It's also important to learn when to send tanks in for crushing. Against many rockets, it’s better to keep your tanks close to your army until the number of rockets has decreased.

• As anti-armour damage

  Of course, you still can use tanks to target-fire other tanks or static defenses (tank shells do a fair amount of damage to other tanks) but their primary use is to soak damage. This does take micro so don't bother with this if you can't keep up.

• As harvester hunters

  Since they have good anti-armour damage, you can use them to hunt the opponent's harvesters. This is quite common. This gives the opponent more work possibly overwhelming them, and forces them to pull some army to defend. Even if you do not manage to kill a harvester, this still denies mining, stalling their economy (which impacts how much army they can build). These small attacks sometimes make up most of the aggression in a game due to the small commitment (one or two tanks) and their mobility allowing for a quick retreat once noticed.

Teching up

Don’t be late with tech structures and units. Even 10-20 seconds can decide a game sometimes. A common mistake made by most players—not just beginners—is being too late with technology structures and units. There are many factors behind when to do so, but just keep in mind that building Tier 2 (Radar Dome as requirement) and Tier 3 (tech center as requirement) units and structures will help you to win. Let's consider the following radical and simplified example: assuming that you and your opponent are exactly the same in macro, economy, technology and everything else in the game is in a stalemate. The map is locked, both sides have strong defenses, and their armies are in good positions. Can you imagine how you'd feel if your opponent built a Nuke Silo 20 seconds before you did, and the nuke timer starts ticking? Once an A-Bomb is launched, the game is most likely lost. It will force you to be anxious, and rush in to try to kill his army, probably losing you the game . The alternative is to wait and be wiped out by an A-Bomb. And we speak only of 20 seconds.

A good heurestic to when to tech up is just as soon as possible, after infantry production has been max'd out. After your second expansion and 7 rax, your economy should be able to support a radar dome and some airfields/helipads.