Becoming a competitive player

[ConMeo]

What steps should I take if I'd like to become a competitive player in IC?

[megaborn7]

you should start first from multiplayer. Play some coop multiplayer, watch others on youtube. Join the group on discord there are some of the best players there who always play and try some matches. The Army comes from your heart or else you will never win..it's like in yu gi oh

[LBFrank]

Tips:
1) 2 henchmen for every coal. ie on a 5 coal pile you should have 10 henchmen there mining.
2) Level 1 units are redundant. Everyone races to level 2, and especially range level 2s immediately outclass any level 1.
3) (in most cases) range > melee, artillery > range, melee > artillery.

Have a look at this to figure out what you may want to use in a competitive multiplayer army: http://steamcommunity.com/app/324680/discussions/0/2119355556498601086/

[the2ndSign]

Don't be afraid to expand (set up Workshops at other coal piles). A lot of new players seem to think they don't need to do this until the coal at their Lab has run out, but this is very wrong. Your first expansion should generally be around the level 2 mark or even slightly before. It doesn't stop there either. Resources are as much part of the competition as destroying the Lab is. Always be looking out for places to expand, and if someone takes your expo, take it back! Don't be afraid to take expos from other players either.

This goes for electricity too. Grab those geysers. Learning to expand is a vital aspect of IC (and really any RTS) and when you get it down, you'll see a big improvement in your playing.

This ties in with expanding, but don't just hole up in your base. Many new players do this, and it's a surefire way to lose. IC is a fast-paced game about aggression and pressure. You should ideally be spending more time attacking than defending or teching.

You also shouldn't spend too much time agonizing over your army at this stage. Use a premade army for a while as you learn to play the game.

Perhaps most importantly, be open to new ideas and playstyles. Getting into online play often results in a lot of unlearning and relearning. Trust that experienced players know what they're talking about, even if it runs counter to the way you've been playing the game until now.

[LBFrank]

Originally posted by Klepty Snatchngrab:

You also shouldn't spend too much time agonizing over your army at this stage. Use a premade army for a while as you learn to play the game.

Though you should probably refrain from using Ethically "BAD" xddddd

[the2ndSign]

Yeah, that one shouldn't really have been included xd

[the2ndSign]

There's also a lot of good information in this thread: http://steamcommunity.com/app/324680/discussions/0/1368380934245954060/

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

First of all, check the Guides section - some very useful reading material there, especially the L2 startup strat.


Forward building is amazing. Not with your Gyro, that's got geysers to steal. No, just send five henchemen along with each army and throw down a Creature Chamber near their frontline. The reason for doing this should be obvious and it's why the AI is so bad - it has no concept of forward building and trains all its units at home far far away...

Forward workshops is also not a bad idea because that means you can get henchemen on demand as opposed to shipping them from your lab.

Originally posted by Klepty Snatchngrab:

Yeah, that one shouldn't really have been included xd

What's wrong with it?

IC is a fast-paced game about aggression and pressure.

Yep. Games are over quite quickly and anything taking longer than an hour is a slugfest.

Meanwhile in AOE2 the standard game length is two hours for the low skill level I have :P

Originally posted by Klepty Snatchngrab:

This goes for electricity too. Grab those geysers. Learning to expand is a vital aspect of IC (and really any RTS) and when you get it down, you'll see a big improvement in your playing.

IC is of particular note in that you have a finite gather rate - only one hench can mine one coal pile at a time. In AOE2 if you want more food just spam more villagers at your Town Center and mass-produce really farms (this is why the "trash war" phenomenon occurs...). If you want more gold just train some more Trade Carts. Heck, you should usually have 50% of your pop as villagers unless you're going into pro strats (in a 200 pop game train very little military and about 180 villagers, then when you have a far superior economy & technological advantage to everyone else delete your villagers and go spam an army with the now-free population!)
(Another game, War of the Ring, has an extremely interesting "law of very quickly diminishing returns" - 2 workers = 2x more resources than 1 worker up to about 5, but then 6 is only about 1/2 an increase, 7 about 1/4, and if you overload it (~15 resources) then the game starts breaking :P - your workers stutter and stop-start).

Meanwhile in IC you have this amount of coal and there is a fixed gather rate you can get from it - so go commandeer MORE coal! MORE! MOAAAAAAAAR! YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH COAL (especially on 250 pop were you can easily have 50+ henchmen without much of a problem).

Oh, and 250 coal per workshop - that means you need to make 13 hench trips to start making a profit when they're not upgraded. This takes basically no time at all. Don't try to defend them massively with 15 creatures and towers, just take the resources and run. Attacked? Get your hench out of there and just abandon it (to of course come back later).

Lastly, play Tellurian, everybody competitive or even balanced plays Tellurian.

[the2ndSign]

What's wrong with it?

No level 5 artillery or ground melee, no hard hitting units or finishers in general, a confusing set of units at level 4 (meat + artillery), unnecessary oddities like tuna/vulture at level 3. It was just one of our devs having fun and not really trying to make a newbie-friendly army.

[Biggest ella fan]

Originally posted by Klepty Snatchngrab:

What's wrong with it?

No level 5 artillery or ground melee, no hard hitting units or finishers in general, a confusing set of units at level 4 (meat + artillery), unnecessary oddities like tuna/vulture at level 3. It was just one of our devs having fun and not really trying to make a newbie-friendly army.

which dev

[the2ndSign]

Megaborn.

[Biggest ella fan]

Originally posted by Klepty Snatchngrab:

Megaborn.

Is Megaborn modelling for 3.0?

[Biggest ella fan]

Dragon Tel?

[Biggest ella fan]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Lastly, play Tellurian, everybody competitive or even balanced plays Tellurian.

bitch who tf plays tellurian

invasion of the killer ants is the REAL SHIT

[ConMeo]

Perhaps somebody would have time to mentor me every now and then?

[LBFrank]

Originally posted by ConMeo:

Perhaps somebody would have time to mentor me every now and then?

You are in the discord group right? Come join us for some games every once in a while, its the best way to gain the experience.