LearnLosing

The dumbest Newcomers tend to accuse people of cheating, when they are losing a game - to lose happens almost always, if really new. 

The clever Newcomers see the more experienced players as a level to get there, too. 

The upcoming Newcomers tend to play more often with Pros, to challenge their own development, see boundaries of skill and improve improve improve. Such a thing one could call: to learnlose. 

Even upcoming Pros have MegaPlayers as challengers of development - players of extreme experience and overall skill set like GraveDiga, ORA-AndrewFord, |NC|-Lauta, [x]Mafia, MutedCrush, pac|MAN|, [c]Beast and [c]Soul, [x]Ftr, RAM-yuzgen, RC_2g1g and more.

And besides overall skill set there are certain map-specific MegaPlayers with absurdly detailed map-knowledge like examply  d0pekillz @crates. 

But even the Megaplayers have Giants of Gameplay facing them - over 10 -20 years longtime-players and legends like Nastynate, Sol3|MAN|, Atom1-TA, RAM-katsh, robskate, herm and cousinehy (till last year, maybe again?) - all with very special trademarks, like inventors of styles to play: either tanking and Q or building or going hybrid or on standard_maps.

However, does this mean that LearnLosing ends at this level? Surely not. I remember last week, Sol3 telling me: "We lost cause my V2 weren't south but north." Ofc, there are plenty examples of situations, which went different from expected or some teaming didn't went hand-in-hand very well - and therefor: 

LearnLosing probably never ends! 

So what is the Moral of this (?), or how to learnlose besides saying GG after getting raped brutally by tanks or tesla - or both. Skip GoldRush or Rasta, skip WarTank, skip FFA arena games and learn something new: learn to tank, if ya till now felt uncomfortable with it and used merely tesla; learn to do hybrid and building, if ya only used tanks, but experienced vast losing in longgames; learn other maps like standards and difficult money maps with mixed or only either ore or gems - learn the build orders to maintain cashflow and learn the placements of buildings to get certain benefits. 

Learn to lose to Learn in losing. 

But Claus, i TRIED tanking and i tried the GoldMedalMap, but but but it is all to fast and too difficult and too everything - and besides that, i always lose my tank-groups and even the AI beats my ass up everytime. 

Well, of course the AI will kick ya ass the first 100 times of Goldmedal-trying. Maybe it will still do it the next 500 times again. But.... there is no But. The But is ya mental enemy. Try, fail, think about it, learn, stand up, do again, clickclickclick - repeat. 

To all the but-sayers or unsure people out there: Losing ya tank group means nothing at all. See a highlighting example of cousinehy losing his group 4 times in-between only 2:20 minutes of a game: (full video: Cousinehy 2x2 @p4) watch down, darker blue tanks: 

~ 3:36min

~4:00min

~4:39min

~5:45min

If cousinehy can lose his tankgroup than there is no shame in losing the tankgroup as beginning oftenly and not even as advanced tanking player casually sometimes! 

GG and Happy LearnLosing! :)

cousinclaus.

Another glitch commonly abused by PROS

The ultimate secret to shaving seconds to build times

This is it: I reveal one of the ultimate code blocks for becoming a professional at Red Alert. You may already know it, or it may not be as surprising as you think. It might be totally new to you and it might be the key you need to increase your game by up to 200%.

What's the fucking secret?

Timetravel Ranking

RA is a competitive realtime game. The hunger to compare each others skills is long-lasting. Today, RA1-Guides wanna time travel with you more than 1 decade back, into the year 2006. 

That time, sol3|MAN| had an own RA-site (full link), which included several rankings of quite some fun and information. :)

Examply, u can find there this nice list of Top5-Tankers and Q-ers:

GG-Award-2017

... 1 year ago, the RA-Community voted for the nicest, kindest ,as well GG-saying as most friendly and helpful MATE of the Year:

The GG-Mate-Award

2016 the Honor went to former |NC|-, meanwhile ORA-Danco. 2nd was [Funky-TA], 3rd robskate and 4th both: herm and ORA-Boy. Now, one year later the Honor is back to get awarded to someone again :)

--> Either comment your suggestions (multiple possible) bellow, or write me @cncnet main game lobby a PM. 

--> Out of the Nominees i will create a POLL on this website in some days. 

--> The Community will then decide by Majority whom to award the Honor :)

May the GG be with You,

Claus.

Take a Look at the Nastynate Monument Playlist

Nastynate, or formerly known as Fatherravel or short: Father, is a more than 10 years long active playing RA-Superpro. Besides ehy and Atomi1 and a lot of other super characters, he most of the time played and plays in TOP3-level.

His kind nature don't let him join into the YouTube-Wars. None upload of a lucky win or blamingful FastestLose he done. None uncertain claim anywhere. 

Related to the so-called yuzgen-dictum (figuratively: What sense does it make to upload Father winning, when he wins most his games?), you won't find many uploaded youtube-wins of nate. Many newer, upcoming pros uploaded wins against him in order to proof their achieved status - however, be sure, the reversed storyline is true: Nate owns majoritarian hehe. 

Now, finally, some truth gets (re)published from the archives of herm (biggest so far as i know: over 1000 pro-matches), which where deleted by hermself (lololol, what a word-joke^^). He gave access to Ora-Madman, who - at the moment - is starting to make a Nate-wins-Archive on his YouTube-channel. There, he will show us more than +15 outstanding vid-recorded wins of Nastynate, so prepare. 

Examply: Nastynate + Crush versus Ehy and Yuz @ribbon_gems

And then the re-match of it: 

Nastynate, a genuine and sincere player, of whom no current player didnt learn no lesson, obviously deserves such a Monumental Playlist - - and Herm for recording it, Dr_Wk for conserving and Madman for publishing as well a grand ThankYou. (By the way we also need to thank Dr_Wk for saving ehy´s vids and giving them to Lauta! He is truly a Glorious, this Wk!)

Idea: POST some kind words about nate in comment section below, ya chance to Thank as well :)

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 :)

Sun Tzu's teachings about waging war

Sun Tzu was a chinese general who wrote a book titled "The art of war" 2, 400 years ago. This post makes reverence to this book in a RA context, whereby we may appreciate some of the teachings that the most powerful chinese general has for us. If you wish to learn more about the genius tactician feel free to Google his name.

In his book Sun Tzu says: "Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances."

Sun Tzu advises PROS to have a complete arsenal of strategies, but even more important, counter-strategies. However, in order for a counter strategy to be effective, you must first know the opponent's strategy. This can be easily detected by sending a scout tank to the opponent's base to reveal his strategy. The downside of the scout tank is that you lose one tank, the time to build it, and also something else. Because your opponent realizes you want to know his strategy, he or she might adjust it so you think it is what YOU THINK YOU SEE.

Scenario: My opponent sends scout tanks and reveals my strategy: Scissors. Opponent is encouraged to play a strategy better than Scissors: Rock. I take advantage of this information and change my strategy to something better than Rock: Paper.

Keep in mind that a scout tank is an advanced player strategy. How do you know if your an advanced player? When you can put tanks in one group and  infantry in another, coordinate infantry scouting, when you program structure deployment and it all becomes second nature to you this is how you know you're pro. This allows you to focus more on abstract elements of the game, like tactics. But first you need the basics.

Sun Tzu's Statue

In his book Sun Tzu says: "Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. So in war, the way to avoid what is strong is to strike at what is weak."

Sun tzu advises PROS to strike always at the weak spot of a heavily armed opponent. This is also a calling to players who tend to leave a weak spot in their strategies. If you purposely leave a weak spot (set it as bait) make sure your counter strategy crushes the opponent completely, like water leaving nothing in its path, destroy everything (or at least leave the opponent completely crippled without power or ore). Water always takes the path with the least resistance, be like water.

Scenario: 1v1 p4. Germany vs. Russia, Germany leaves the ore completely undefended, opponent destroys ore. Germany made silos and placed them north of CY, so there is still a reserve of ore to make 6 or 7 more tanks. Meanwhile Germany had rushed russia completely destroying power plants, except for a power plant hidden north of CY.

Both players expected to lose either power or ore, but made extra reserves for each. While the opponent expects to have left you completely crippled, he will concentrate on eliminating all remaining units.

In his book Sun Tzu says: "Whether to concentrate or to divide your troops, must be decided by circumstances. Let your rapidity be that of the wind."

Sun Tzu advises pros to expose all weaknesses. Two PROS may be evenly matched in tanking and building, but what will decide the winner? He who can expose the weaknesses of the other. The one who can make a decision faster than the other and execute it like a Thunderbolt.

Scenario 1: 1v1 Stalled game on P4. Both players are accumulating V2s in the middle, air defenses are in place, MIGS are ready to be launched. After several tries to take south, the game continues to be stalled. Player 1 stops building. He goes to observe the opponent's base and notices that several Construction Yards would be difficult to replace because they are not close to a War Factory. Player 1 maneuvers migs to destroy those Construction Yards, then takes advantage of the time the opponent needs to replace the Construction Yards while he pushes south.

Scenario 2: 1v1 after a failed rush. Player 1 rushes back to the opponent's base to attack. He notices that he concentrates his defense towards the south of his base. Player 1 takes the 12 tanks he has and quickly labels 6 tanks as group '1' and another as group '2'. He directs the second group towards the north of the base, and the defending tanks follow leaving the south exposed. Player 1 pushes group '1' towards the back of the base while group '2' distracts the other tanks.

The faster your decisions are made on the battlefield the higher your chance of success. But that doesn't mean that you should be reckless. Taking some time to assess the situation can make you help a great decision, and it should be executed like Lightning.

You can see a video of Sun Tzu here:

Red Alert PRO code of conduct

Red Alert PRO code of conduct is a code that promotes healthy competition amongst players. Red Alert is an adrenaline release for true fans of the game. We don't see it as a waste of time because it satisfies our temporary need of competition and pride. Therefore, recognizing this, we established a code of conduct that will preserve the community's love and respect for the game.

1. If you host a game, maintain an active role as a host. Don't let players wait around too much for a game. If you are to be absent, don't leave without telling the people in your room how long you will be and for what reason.

2. Don't use cheats. If you use cheats, you're sole purpose is to satisfy your hunger of winning. You won't get any experience from winning by using cheats. It is also highly disapproved by most Red Alert players. The only time it would be acceptable is for exeperimental purposes, but even then it's difficult to get away with explaining this.

3. Don't boast about pre-meditated victories. This is making reference to modified maps. Sometimes players join a room not knowing the modified values of the maps, putting them at a huge unknown disadvantage. Fighting on uneven ground is no fun for anyone. Yes, you may win the battle, but is it acceptable to boast about winning over a crippled army? Probably not.

4. Give a reason for leaving in the middle of the game. It is disrespectful not to because a game is a compromise between two players. Have respect for someone else's time by giving them an explanation of why you left in the middle of the game, even if you just type: "Sorry, emergency." Offer a rematch for a later time, but don't damage your reputation in such a childish way.

5. If you are requested to leave because you may cause lag, please do so. That's all we can say.