New Map: R4 ribbon unlimited

Among so-called pro-players, a longtime, theoretical battle goes on and on about which map is the most pro map. Opponents are divided like philosophical schools, depending on which aspects of the game they find more important: 

The more infinite money playing side prefers most P4. Then u have to focus on maximal production of several units parallel, and fight with huge armies. 

The more finite money playing side prefers most Ribbon (with gems or ore). Then it´s all about your money management and truck control skills - to even be able to produce units.

Now, a bastard is born out of this conflict: Ribbon + P4 --> R4

For a 2x2-version each side got relieved of the huge gem/ore fields and received 2 small ore-patches of infinite money, which work like every infinite money map. Besides that, nothing was changed. (A 1x1 version with only one ore-patch per side would be easy to add.)

Interesting aspects of the new R4 map: 

* Ore Management and truck control is now minimized (could help new players to get to used to the Ribbon island);

* Opponents are much closer than on P4, so u need to be faster then there;

* Infantry battles in the beginning are much longer-lasting, because u now have no money issues;

* Building-space is much better as before on Ribbon, but (!) much worse than compared to P4 - so u cannot build masses of all like before, u need now to place stuff space-savingly;

* Building-alone as a tactic is extremely hard to perform on Ribbon, because of the limited ore - now with unlimited money u may see more building-tactics as well;

* Long-lasting P4 games tend to become a festival of V2 and teslas, and games may stuck - the island character of R4 may impossibilize that, thus u always can sneaky air or ship attack now and keep the game fluid;

* Last but not least, the BEST THING: the money-bias from Ribbon between left versus right side - clear plus for right side - is gone @R4!

How to get R4?

U can "add it to favs", if u see somebody opening a room with this map, or by hitting up Mono or me to show it.

Happy Playing :)

HJK tutorial

The HJK was originally created by DefMike* it consists of 6 individual pods. Players battle for the middle ore while being protected by ridges on all sides. The map is good for 1v1s and many play 2v2s on it as well.

Main Strategies for competitive 1v1s

Russia -> Build
Ukraine -> Tank
Germany -> Tank

Russia

Build order: +power, +barracks, +ore, +war, +service, -service, +war, +advanced power, +Tesla, - Tesla (After the opponent retreats, sell this tesla.)

Germany

Build order: +power, +barracks, +ore, +war, +war, -barracks, +advance power, +4 war

General tips:

First off you should make an ore truck along with the service depot. Be prepared to take some hits if your opponent is tanking you. It's recommended that you close your gate with 2 or 3 tanks for armor support; don't face tanks with only infantry, tanks buy you time. At this time, you can scout the map with infantry or pile them near the opponent's base to put pressure on his defense, you're making a defense anyways so you may as well buy yourself time too. Try to deploy your MCV as early as possible. Not deploying makes you lose time, as if it were still building, so there is always a high priority on MCV deploying.

Make a couple of silos to hold your ore. Adjust the straegy accordding to the opponent's reactions to your infantry. If he kills them and pushes more, reinforce your base. If he stockpiles near his base, then you can make an additional war factory instead of Tesla. After that, make sufficient units to protect your Ore Factories which you are supposed to crawl to the top left of the ore patches, including the middle one. After you've established a good base, stockpile v2s and ore. Use Teslas only if opponent is too aggressive.

MAP dynamics (Why Top Left is the most crucial)

"I've played games where my opponent is pretty even in tanking and building. What made the difference in the end was who could produce the most units and it turned out that it's the one who holds the most ore. When you expect the match to go on longer than a tank rush, then you should start to worry about finding and defending ore spots, especially the middle since it provides the most ore." -[AFO]THNDER

In this map, it's important to remember that ore trucks collect ore heading towards the top left corner of the ore patches. With this in mind, let's see how it affects your builds depending on your spot.

- In general, you're entrance should be well protected. Not so much exaggerating but enough to kill 4 or 5 tanks headed for your base.

Top Left: You have the build advantage. You are closer to the top left most patch of the ore.
Top Right: A good spot for tanking. If the game lasts slonger than about 8 minutes, then your trucks will need a new spot to harvest ore from soon. Consider inflicting damage to your opponent while looking for the next best spot to harvest ore.

Bottom Left: An excellent corner for building. If you are playing a 1v1 and you get this spot, your opponent is in the Top Right spot. This means that you have more than enough time to set up a defense for a tank rush and completely halt it. Also, you can crawl your build to the Top Left corner of the map.

Bottom Right: This spot is also preferred by builders, for it's south advantage. It's the furthest spot away from the Top Left gem patch in the middle. After you set up an anti-rush build, your next goal should be to stockpile some sort of unit (Heavy Tank, V2s, Mammoth Tank) while at the same time harvesting as much ore that is closest to your opponent. This strategy is called resource absorption, where you harvest all the ore and convert it to units at the same rate you harvest it.

*Thanks for info bart

Maps

Take these maps on the go! Did you say RA wallpaper?

Study these maps on the go, edit them as you wish, design strategies, design modifications, whatever it is you want to do, do it for the sake of RA.

P4

Darasta 4v4

Rocky Mountain Goldrush

GTK

V3 Ribbon

Path Beyond

Fundamentals of Path Beyond

Three strategies for winning

1. Tank

2. Tank hard

3. Tank really hard

The most exemplary map for tanking and ore management maps. The most basic fundamentals include ore managament of course, tanking ability of course, and strategy. It's mostly about ore management in the end. The following picture displays example build orders that [AFO] recommends for maximum ore:

*note: you should know that players spawn at opposide ends, thus the matching green and yellow lines.

The teal dot is your first power, the pink is your barrack, the red is the ore, and the dark yellow is what you should mine first. The arrow points to the direction you should make your base.

The most common mistake

Players fail to add a credit boost to their economy by clearing the gems first. They are worth twice as much as ore per truck. So cleaning the closest gems first becomes a must even before you mine any ore! The following picture highlights the most popular gem spots!

The circles are the gems you should eat first, the lines are the ore you should eat after the gems.