Real Time Strategy (RTS) Games

Remembering the Learning Curve

I was playing some Company of Heroes 2 today with one of my good friends. We have played many Real Time Strategy games together throughout our friendship and this is the latest hit. My buddy really enjoys reading up on World War II, so this series of games has been right in his wheel house. I haven't played much in probably a year by now though, so I am basically relearning the game, which reminds me of all the other times I went through this process.

So Many to Choose From

I play quite a few different RTS games. I started on Warcraft III when I was in middle school and didn't figure out how to beat a computer in 1v1 until I was most of the way through high school. After I got into college, I got Axis and Allies, picked up Ages of Empires II and Starcraft. Now days, I am trying to get my slow reaction times to pick up on positioning for Company of Heroes 2 and sometimes I take it easy on some 8-bit Armies/Hordes/Invaders.

I have played a variety of these games, but I still haven't gotten around to finishing the campaigns in most of them or taken the time to play some of the other classics like Command and Conquer, Warcraft I or II, or most of the Total War games.

Information Overload

There is a HUGE checklist of things a player will have to do in one of these games. There is:

1. Base building (usually)
2. Force building
1. Combat
2. Non-Combat (usually)
3. Discovery
4. Conflict
5. Force adjustments

Usually, the players start at the top of the list and very quickly add on additional steps. The tough part is that most games you can stop doing some of these actions because one time is enough. The catch with these kinds of games is that they focus on resource management, and there are some critical resources most new players don't consider.

Normally, these games are nice enough to let you know what the in game resources are like money, population limits, etc., but there are two or three others (depending on how you look at it) that need to be managed.

Hidden Resources

The two primary 'hidden' resources are Time and Focus. We can only process information so quickly and we have to respond to it after not only understanding it, but also figuring out a response. This takes Focus to sort out, which is directly impacted by Time. After you make a choice, the action takes Time to finish, and you have to make more choices, and you will likely have to remember to come back to whatever you queued up and spend more time with it to progress.

Really, this all comes down to counting, waiting, reacting, and already knowing what you want or need to do. The first games you play are always learning what the game even has to offer, or if it is your first game ever, just getting your control bearings. As luck would have it, there are things you can do to alleviate the Focus strain: Practice and Plan.

Strategy, Tactics, and Training

I spent most of my earlier years playing these games in blissful ignorance on how to really become proficient at these games. Then, I found Day[9] on YouTube. Now days, he has branched out, but when I started watching his videos, he did Starcraft II strategy, training, and game analysis videos along with my favorite weekly feature: Funday Monday! I highly recommend digging through his backlog of videos one YouTube or Twitch.

The biggest things I had gotten from his videos were as follows:

1. Micro and Macro Play
2. Strategy
3. Build Order
4. Muscle Memory
5. It is a game, have fun!

To get better at any of these things, you just have to put in the time to practice. All RTS games benefit from these core concepts and are much more manageable when you don't have think about every little detail every time you need to push a key to build you tank or quickly build another farm.

I remember most of the concepts, but 8-bit Armies game play doesn't care quite as much about positioning or 'counter' units as Company of Heroes. 

Putting In My Time

As far as tonight's performance went, I was not doing as well as I would have liked. I always seem to want infantry to be better against any kind of vehicle than they ever are. I have only played Russia so far, and conscripts are really not good. On top of that, I can't figure out a good place to put a field gun. I get shot by them enough to know how good they are, but I can't seem to cover their backs to get off shots of my own.

I am pretty sure this game is not going away anytime soon for us, so I need to put in a bit more practice time getting my build order sorted out and quit relying on conscripts to carry me though the whole game. I could always seem to use a T34 or a some T70 go-karts.

As always, happy gaming!

-Zenfall