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4Jan 08

The Art Of (Real-Time) War: Introduction

"The art of war is of vital importance... It is a matter of life and death, a road to either safety or ruin. Hence, it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected..." Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

No other strategy genre is as dynamic as the real-time strategy game. There is no "I'll just wait a few more moments to mull my next move" here: you either think on your feet or die in a matter of moments. The strategic situation can change in the blink of an eye.

This guide is intended to reduce that initial moment of panic when a newcomer to the genre enters the fray for the first time, as well as introduce new strategies for the already well-experienced players. It's also intended for you, the reader, to provide feedback, and, if neccessary, changes to the guide itself.

Prologue: Choose Your Game Wisely (Level: Beginner)

"...the general who wins a battle makes many calculations... ere the battle is fought." -Sun Tzu, "The Art of War."

There many RTSs on the market these days. Each plays very differently, each focusing on different layers of the overall conflict at hand. Therefore, you must find the type of game which suits your individual needs the best. If you wish to play grand battles with large numbers of troops, Universe at War is not for you. Similarly, if you value the battle more than the overall war, you should not choose any of the Total War games.

There are several things to consider when choosing your first RTS:

Skill Level: As a beginner, the best game for you to choose would be Command and Conquer. It relaxes many of the conventions found in the genre (such as population limits) while allowing for a much more diverse strategic development. Its battles are not gigantic, nor are they overly small. (A free download of C&C is available on EA's site, as well any C&C page on this one.)

Scale: The size of the conflict may be important to you as well. Some games, like Supreme Commander, have a very large scale of battles; others, such as Universe at War, have a much smaller scale, with fewer troops and smaller batllefields. Be mindful that an increase in scale can be accompanied an increase in complexity: more units, more features, etc.

Strategic vs. Tactical Scope: Different games focus on differing aspects of war. If you wish to engage in diplomacy as well as battle, the Total War series has a turn-based mechanic that allows you to engage in such activities as well as build improvements to your territories. A slightly less-complex strategic layer may be found in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade or Universe at War. If the tactical aspect is more appealing, World in Conflict may be the game you choose.

Demos: These may be your most powerful decision-making tool. A demo is available for most RTSs. They cost nothing and give you a chance to try many of the features of a game for free.

Forums: This may be the last tool to make your decision, and what you ask will be as important as where you ask it. Asking "What should I buy, Game A or Game B?" on Game A's board will evoke hostile responses, similar to the responses on Game B's board. However, "Will I like Game A?" will result in almost useless information.

Both these questions, however, will yield an important fact about the multiplayer community for the chosen game: if the response is tempered by reason, the community will be intelligent; if it is vulgar, the community will not be welcoming to newcomers.

Support: The technical support for your game may affect how well you enjoy it. A game that is regularly updated may be more enjoyable in the long run than a game that gets one release patch, and nothing else. Study the Downloads section of a game you may be interested in, and read its details: is there a patch every other month? Is it mostly for technical issues, or are there balance tweaks involved as well?

Setting: This is the last of the major criteria. There are 4 types of settings for an RTS: Fantasy (such as WarCraft III, Warlords: Battlecry, etc); Science Fiction (C&C, DoW, etc.); Historical (Total War, Company of Heroes, etc.); and Modern (WiC, Act of War, etc.). Fantasy and many Historical RTSs have a large focus on melee/close-quarters combat; Modern and most Sci-Fi RTSs have a large focus on guns/artillery combat. Choose which most interests you.

Conclusion: The first important step to learning the art of real-time strategy is ensuring that your first foray is not marred by choosing a game for which you, the player, are ill-suited. Proper research and thought should be put into it.

(My thanks to http://www.military-quotes.com/downloads/aow.pdf for the proper Sun Tzu quotations.)

(Next: Chapter 1: The Economy)

11 Comments

  • OrkHammer007

    Posted Jan 4, 2008 9:02 am PT

    I apologize for the first two lines: I copy/pasted them from another site, and their formatting ******* with the blog's; I can't get to the WYSIWYG editing to yank it, either.

    They should read: "The art of war is of vital importance... it is a matter of life and death, a road to either safety or ruin. Hence, it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected..." Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

    EDIT: (Fixed it; ignore me :lol

  • Bozanimal

    Posted Jan 4, 2008 1:49 pm PT

    To change the font type, view the HTML and change the font or delete the font specification tags entirely. Otherwise, you can cut it from the WYSIWYG editor (once you can get in), paste it into Notepad, copy it again from notepad, and then paste it back into the WYSIWYG. Going through notepad will remove any of the styles associated with the text.

    As for the entry, I think you covered the gamut of gaming types, though I look forward to strategy discussions in future columns most.

  • OrkHammer007

    Posted Jan 4, 2008 2:05 pm PT

    @Boz: I can't believe I missed the big icon labaled "HTML" in the editor. Otherwise, I can't cut/paste from Firefox: it won't let me.

    I'm easing the entire subject matter from beginner to advanced, so the actual strategy part may take a few weeks. Please stay tuned.

  • raven28256

    Posted Jan 4, 2008 2:18 pm PT

    Personally, I wouldn't recommend Supreme Commander to an RTS newbie, even if they are interested in the strategic element. It is very complex and just outright overwhelming if you have no experience with RTS games. The scope of the game is too large for an RTS novice to manage and will likely end in frustration as they stumble around with the concepts that can take many hours to fully learn and get decent at.

  • veni-vidi-vici

    Posted Jan 4, 2008 5:22 pm PT

    Excellent, excellent blog. *gives you two thumbs up and a *
    Really looking forward to this series, and love your choice of topic.

  • Roma_Victis

    Posted Jan 4, 2008 5:39 pm PT

    awesome blog, really awesome and good.

    he who defend everything, defend nothing...

  • OrkHammer007

    Posted Jan 4, 2008 6:25 pm PT

    @raven: Thanks for the head's up; I would've left it completely out, but I felt leaving it out would be to tempting. I added a line to reflect the increased difficulty (and if it's not strong enough, I'll edit it further later).

    @v^3: Thank you! I've been an RTS gamer for a long time, and always wanted to do some form of FAQ for the genre. Glad you like it .

    @Roma: Thank you! Defense is a later chapter...

  • Roma_Victis

    Posted Jan 5, 2008 8:50 am PT

    nice, yep defending takes a major role in RTS's
    like defending a city in a total war game or holding an strategic position in DoW or WiC.

  • Rocker500

    Posted Jan 8, 2008 2:51 pm PT

    Interesting. See, my specialty is FPS and other Action games, although I've always liked some of the cooler RTSs like C&C. I just could never think in that strategic mindset and micromanage everything, so I look forward to reading more of your guide.

  • OrkHammer007

    Posted Jan 8, 2008 6:23 pm PT

    @Rocker: I should have the first chapter ready and posted by Friday. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing if this is helpful to players who haven't caught on to it yet. Stay tuned.

  • Mortis_Noctem

    Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:58 am PT

    Interesting read..
    I remember when I started playing RTS..
    Age of Empires 2, still one of my favorites. However it also clearly showed me what type of player I was, a Financial one. I usually choose cultures with rare resource\Trading bonuses (Civ4 and RoN), I just find it more useful to have a good working force and loads of money\rare resources to buy\sell\trade, at any time I can just pop up a bunch of units or buildings..
    That and I'm also pretty good at micromanagement.

My Recent Ratings

Title Score
Space Siege 3.5
Joust 9.0
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 9.0
Hellgate: London 8.0
Tron 2.0 9.0
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm 8.0
Universe at War: Earth Assault 8.5
Dungeon Siege II: Deluxe 8.5
Half-Life 2 9.5
Dungeon Siege 9.2
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