This game is hard asf

[RunForRest]

Getting completely massacred by a normal bot. I will never learn this - to many options and variables.

[Nit Draws]

It just takes some practice. Try some things, fail or succeed, and try again. Once you feel like you aren't progressing or want some help, spectate some games or ask for help from the community. Assuming you join their official discord, you'll get some level headed players that will help you out.

[Mivo]

I started playing when there were fewer units, but I also felt a little lost early on because there were so many options, like you said!

I found it helpful to focus on a handful on units from the different archetypes: chaff (swarm units/disposable meat shields, like crawlers and fangs), anti-chaff (AoE units, like Arclight), single-target damage dealers (marksman, phoenix, steelballs). I also tried to make sure I had some form of anti air units. Fangs can double as AA and chaff, marksman are all right as AA early on and great if there are beefy air units.

I would pick a number of units that covered these bases and that I liked and played mostly with those. I also used a list of common counters (Surrey/Rat has a handy list of counters[mechamonarch.com]). It's usually not clear-cut because you have to take the whole board into account, but it's a starting point.

After each round, I find it useful to ask myself, "What was my problem in this round and how might I be able to fix it?". Did I have enough chaff? Am I lacking anti-chaff and my marksmen got overrun by crawlers? Did I do enough damage? Am I covered for anti air? Are my flanks sufficiently secured?

Most newer players don't use enough chaff (crawlers and fangs) and focus on the more impressive units that have cooler visual and sound effects. You should always make sure to use your deployments. Don't get techs or upgrades too soon, especially if it means you can't buy more units. When you click on units, you can see stats on how well they did in the last round and overall. This doesn't mean you shouldn't upgrade units, just that not every yellow arrow means that upgrading is also sensible or necessary.

Just take it slowly, simplify a little and focus on a handful of core units that you use often. Crawlers, arclights, marksman, mustangs, and wasps cover a lot of ground. Sledgehammers are nice too and can double as tanks or damage dealers. In the late game, you want to get giants, like fortress, overlord and melting point. Using combinations of these will be sufficient to beat the AI on all difficulties.

The game has a built-in replay viewer. If you click on "Tournaments" and select one of the past tournaments at the bottom, and then select a player from the list, you can download and watch their matches. This can be a good source of new ideas, though just playing more and asking yourself questions is an efficient approach. Sometimes too much studying can be overwhelming.

[RunForRest]

Thanks for the input I really thought this is a game for in between, something i can play a quick round here and there casually. But thats not it. One really needs to dig into this. I will take the tips and see where i can go :)

[Magnus Aurelius, Bright Lord]

So... what I did is go on the official website's unit guide and each round I would look at w hat unit counter what and then pick that. It was a slow process, albeit it was fun, for me at least.

eventually I started getting the hang of it. The guide is not perfect but it certainly helps. you can maintain casually playing if you keep the guide open.

[ChiliOil]

Find a few video tutorials on the internet. Learn how chaff works. Find some basic guidelines to follow, a basic counter list, some basic techs, and then just throw yourself into the grinder.

I started on insane AI and now I'm nearly at 1k MMR. Get your losses in on the AI until you get a feel for how units can be used. AI doesn't counter, and doesn't know what to do if you just mass produce wasps. BTW wasp spam melts to HE mustangs, fangs as chaff, wraiths, boats. Basically use chaff (fangs) to tank a volley or two while AoE wipes them off the face of the earth.

Example of silly BS that works on AI but not necessarily against people.

P.S. No. Seriously. After a few guides to give you pointers, make sure you get your losses in until you can beat insane AI regularly. You'll have a better understanding of what units are, what they do, and what they can do. Once you get bored with insane AI, go to ladder and know that you got this.

4 player brawl is chaos ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ supreme, and should be treated as such, and is a great alternative to 1v1 when you want to just toss stuff at the wall and see what works, and know that balance in that mode is merely a suggestion that's promptly been discarded. Embrace the cheese.

[DM]

I'm a complete novice at this game and terrible at RTS games, but I can beat most Normal games by investing heavily in upgrades for a few specific strong units, and use the tower upgrade to improve my armour and attack.

Watching the enemy wreck my units helps me to see where the holes are in my defence and I can see what to focus on for the next round.

[puschit]

Messaggio originale di Powerwank3000:

I'm a complete novice at this game and terrible at RTS games, but I can beat most Normal games by investing heavily in upgrades for a few specific strong units, and use the tower upgrade to improve my armour and attack.

Be careful, though, if you do that against humans you'll make it easy for them to counter you.

[DM]

Messaggio originale di puschit:

Messaggio originale di Powerwank3000:

I'm a complete novice at this game and terrible at RTS games, but I can beat most Normal games by investing heavily in upgrades for a few specific strong units, and use the tower upgrade to improve my armour and attack.

Be careful, though, if you do that against humans you'll make it easy for them to counter you.

I'm only playing solo, so not too much of a worry at the moment :-)

[Fenomenom]

If you want to just win against bots, they are completely incapable of dealing with wasps on the flank, or really any air at all.

Pheonix or wasps should be an autowin.

This wont work against people, but... there is a lot to learn at first.

[Reaper Of Sol]

You'll learn, a good way on the bots is up the hp to like 40,000 and go for long matches, learn the units, their counters, etc.
Something to remember is this: when the unit cards come up, your enemy also gets the same cards, so think about what works against the stuff you have and pick something to counter that(if you're winning). If losing, you need to focus on killing stuff.
Units that do high damage initially, or have the beam weapons are the only ones that CAN do something against high level units. Steel balls, scoprians, melting points, overlords, things like that.
Certain technologies are also very powerful and can change a unit's function dramatically.

[Hermes Conrad]

cheapest is, as in most easy:

https://mechamonarch.com/

[lumina]

There is no rush to start a round. You get a lot of time between them. That said, you can hover over/click on enemy units and see what they are good at. You can do the same with your units. Anti unit means they'll take down enemies that are in small groups, or solo. All purpose will have some anti air, and attack everything. Some units deal with swarms, meaning they take out enemy units that come in large groups.

Take your time and it should get pretty easy.

[Kyuss]

Messaggio originale di Fenomenom:

If you want to just win against bots, they are completely incapable of dealing with wasps on the flank, or really any air at all.

Pheonix or wasps should be an autowin.

Practice ai is tutorial lvl difficulty compared to survival Ai. Give it a try /evilgrin

[Trax]

Your rigfht but its not just the amount of variables. it is also not predictable even if you know what the units/cards/etc. do. I had so many situations where it made no sense losing fights... more anoying to me you even cant do a good analysis what rly happened in a certain situation

[Esxhaton]

Messaggio originale di Trax:

Your rigfht but its not just the amount of variables. it is also not predictable even if you know what the units/cards/etc. do. I had so many situations where it made no sense losing fights... more anoying to me you even cant do a good analysis what rly happened in a certain situation

Classic Dunning!