How to improve

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United States of America fedjahnson
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How to improve

Post by fedjahnson »

I have been playing the game for about 3 months and I am just stuck around the master sergeant 18 level. I mainly use brits and dutch & play 2v2 and 1v1. I use control groups, hotkeys, watched Kaiserklein's how to micro, worked on not losing vills to raids, and generally being more aware of the other player's stategy and how to respond. Any advice, tips, and videos would be helpful. :smile:
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Re: How to improve

Post by gibson »

Watch twitch streams, recs, and streams. Practice. Watching recs is probably the best way to improve besides playing.
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United States of America 007Salt
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Re: How to improve

Post by 007Salt »

Use control groups for buildings so you can quickly train units and with units also if you can. Once you learn the basics just keep playing until it becomes second nature to you. Herd well so you minimize walking time for vills as much as possible and use markets and other buildings to protect mines and other strategic places to block enemy units as much as possible from getting to you.
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United States of America fedjahnson
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Re: How to improve

Post by fedjahnson »

@007Salt I have been doing that with the buildings
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Re: How to improve

Post by Rohbrot »

I never used control groups or hotkeys for buildings (except tc) i made the most with my mouse.
I never understood why i cant handle to use hotkeys or control groups, i felt always just better without it. I focused on micro/macro and game reading. I think everyone can get atleast pr25 without hotkeys or control groups, u just have to improve on micro/macro or to use at first one main civ till u reach 1st lt.
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Re: How to improve

Post by Jaeger »

One way to improve is to pick a build order and really try to master it 100%. For example French 5 huss semi ff (3v 4v 700g 700w). Make sure that you can age at exactly the right time every game (around 7:40 or so, you've gotta figure it out) with absolutely no wrinkles. This will help you in a lot of areas I think.
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Re: How to improve

Post by 007Salt »

Rohbrot wrote:I never used control groups or hotkeys for buildings (except tc) i made the most with my mouse.
I never understood why i cant handle to use hotkeys or control groups, i felt always just better without it. I focused on micro/macro and game reading. I think everyone can get atleast pr25 without hotkeys or control groups, u just have to improve on micro/macro or to use at first one main civ till u reach 1st lt.
Control 1 for all barracks
Control 2 for all stables
control 3 for tc's

Selecting a building and pressing ctrl+shift+a at once will all of the same building that you have selected and works with units as well.
I find that to be the easiest
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Re: How to improve

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Post by [Armag] diarouga »

fedjahnson wrote:I have been playing the game for about 3 months and I am just stuck around the master sergeant 18 level. I mainly use brits and dutch & play 2v2 and 1v1. I use control groups, hotkeys, watched Kaiserklein's how to micro, worked on not losing vills to raids, and generally being more aware of the other player's stategy and how to respond. Any advice, tips, and videos would be helpful. :smile:
1. Don't play 2v2 and 1v1. Play either 2v2 or 1v1. The game modes are really different, and even for top players it takes months (if not years tbh) to switch from 1v1 to team, so if you want to learn the game that's even worse.

2. If you want to improve, don't play Dutch, it's too hard for a beginner. Brit is probably okay, but the issue is that beginners tend to play too passively with brit "I'll just boom and train musks and see how it goes". Unfortunately for them, it doesn't work too well since you get outscaled. As Brit you either want to boom hard and semi ff (but that's very hard to do, so not something a beginner should try) or be very agressive with musk/huss to punish the greedy players and the semi ff.
If you want to main brit in 1v1, I'd recommand learning how to be agressive in each MU and practicing that. If you can execute your BO properly and use unit control groups you should reach major quite quickly.
And when I say agressive, I mean agressive in every MU. Like against Russia, age with 500f, skip the market, build rax+stable age 2 and send 700c/6musks and timing his blockhouse with 10huss/16musks, nobody is going to defend that at MS level.
Against Otto, you see he's jan rushing ? Go 700w/6lb add a 2nd rax from 700w and timing with 20 musks/11lb, before he has time to train abus.

3. Strategy is as important (if not more) than mechanics. If you have +15 musk/huss population when you push out because you sent two crate shipments instead of 5v and 4v and added an additional military building, you're going to get an advantage regardless of your micro. Focus on reaching the perfect timing (push while your opponent is aging and try to get as many units as possible when he reaches age 3 for example) and you'll stomp the other beginners.
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Re: How to improve

Post by Riotcoke »

Spam merc builds, it's easy pr25.
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United States of America Squamiger
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Re: How to improve

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Post by Squamiger »

i was stuck at pr 18 for a while too. now I am stuck at pr 23-24, but I did manage to make the jump up. here are some insights that helped me move up:

1. you think you're constantly making villagers, but you're not. I thought I was always making vills, but when I watched recorded games of myself, I realized there would be huge gaps of time, usually when I was fighting, that I would idle my TC.

2. you think you're following the build order, but you're not. Sure, you have a basic idea of how a semi-FF works for France. But are you actually distributing the vills properly, at the right time? Are you getting the market ups at the right time, and clicking up at the right time? Probably not. You're probably mismacroed in colonial and you're clicking up late and not getting units out in time. Go back and read the build order guide, and follow it EXACTLY.

3. you think you're being aggressive, but you're not. Once you have the units for your timing, you need to PUSH! Force the fight. It's do or die. So many times now when I play people around pr 19-20, they will win a fight or hit a timing, and then just sit there, and let me recover or finish my build. You need to be aggressive.

4. aggression is king. Watching pros play on Twitch isnt always useful, because pros are incentivized to play super greedy because their opponents are really, really good at holding pressure and defending, and the pro is also really good at long-term macro. At your level, no one can play like this. Aggressive plays, like rushing or doing an aggro FF, will always dominate eco builds, 90% of the time.
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Re: How to improve

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Post by [Armag] diarouga »

I think these are good advices. To sum it up :

1. If you're not captain/major, your macro is simply not very good, and you get less stuff than better players. Some captain/major have a decent macro and lose because of strategy/micro, but I guarantee you that I've never seen a guy who's stuck at pr25- with a correct macro.

2. "aggression is king" indeed. You'll hear about the no rush 10 meta, but that's just because top players have been aggressive for thousands of games, and know every aggressive build and how to hold it. On top of that they're constantly scouting and adapting.
People at your level are not going to scout, and will just assume that you're going for the standard build (that's if they assume something and don't just ignore you). On top of that, they're not going to defend very well : they'll lose vills to the rush, they might stick to their card order and forget to send a unit shipment, they won't time the mm with their batch and the explorer in melee to snare.
If you make a big mistake while defending or playing passively, you'll lose the game. If you make a big mistake and waste 5 musketeers while rushing, you'll be slightly behind but it probably won't snowball.

Sometimes people will hold your rush/early timing and the game won't end at 8 min, and you'll have to play longer games, but you won't meet players who will stomp your rush and end the game before 8 min below pr35.
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Re: How to improve

Post by gibson »

Yea rushing is really good even at the pr30 level, I can only imagine its better at lower levels.
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Re: How to improve

Post by fedjahnson »

@[Armag] diarouga I tried what you said against a 2nd lt japan and came very close to beating him, he had massed lots of inf. and I popped 2 falcs and had taken out most of his army with my huss and long bow, but his eco was much stronger I had about 25 musk at minute 7 and burned his consulate and barravks but he quelled me with yumis. I burned 5 or 6 shrines and took out his tp. Overall my play was better in this game compared to my previous games.
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Re: How to improve

Post by louis293 »

nice tips on this threat, i also struggle to improve i am stuck at pr20 lvl, its hard to improve macro i feel, micro comes with practises u understand better your errors, i read most of strategy walls but it's hard to know exact new builds.
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Re: How to improve

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Post by [Armag] diarouga »

As I said, if you're below captain, don't bother learning meta build orders. You'll probably do better with a rush.
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Re: How to improve

Post by crankifzz »

[Armag] diarouga wrote:As I said, if you're below captain, don't bother learning meta build orders. You'll probably do better with a rush.
Does the "captain " includes those on re?
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Re: How to improve

Post by chronique »

crankifzz wrote:
[Armag] diarouga wrote:As I said, if you're below captain, don't bother learning meta build orders. You'll probably do better with a rush.
Does the "captain " includes those on re?
Capi RE is pretty low now. I would say no to your question, but when he said "capi" it's an order of magnitude. You can start to learn the game when you can do a simple aggro timing properly.
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Re: How to improve

Post by [Armag] diarouga »

crankifzz wrote:
[Armag] diarouga wrote:As I said, if you're below captain, don't bother learning meta build orders. You'll probably do better with a rush.
Does the "captain " includes those on re?
I guess. I know that 2013 captain was good enough to start learning meta build orders (though you can still rush every game below pr30).

The point is that you can't play defensively if you don't master the aggressive style, because you ll be too passive, and you won't exploit the rusher.
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Re: How to improve

Post by Rohbrot »

chronique wrote:
crankifzz wrote:
[Armag] diarouga wrote:As I said, if you're below captain, don't bother learning meta build orders. You'll probably do better with a rush.
Does the "captain " includes those on re?
Capi RE is pretty low now. I would say no to your question, but when he said "capi" it's an order of magnitude. You can start to learn the game when you can do a simple aggro timing properly.
What if Re capi does play normal civs and no lame civs tho, then he would be good capi.
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Re: How to improve

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Post by alistairpeter »

I've been pr26 for a while now, and I'm just barely struggling to keep my captain rank. I main aztec, and if I lose when I'm rushing it comes down to macro almost every time. I hate not getting a full batch of pike out because I'm too distracted to bother to put my vills on the right recourse. If I tell myself before I start the game that I need to focus it can help me. If I want to rank up rather than just clicking into a game, I will record the game and actually care about my gameplay instead of just kind of going through the motions.
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Re: How to improve

Post by chronique »

Rohbrot wrote:What if Re capi does play normal civs and no lame civs tho, then he would be good capi.
Prob not, a capi EP can beat any capi lamer from RE with normal civ (maybe not with civ like spain or dutch)
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Re: How to improve

Post by chris1089 »

chronique wrote:
Rohbrot wrote:What if Re capi does play normal civs and no lame civs tho, then he would be good capi.
Prob not, a capi EP can beat any capi lamer from RE with normal civ (maybe not with civ like spain or dutch)
When I used to not lag and had played recently yes.
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Re: How to improve

Post by Rohbrot »

chris1089 wrote:
chronique wrote:
Rohbrot wrote:What if Re capi does play normal civs and no lame civs tho, then he would be good capi.
Prob not, a capi EP can beat any capi lamer from RE with normal civ (maybe not with civ like spain or dutch)
When I used to not lag and had played recently yes.
I thought u play more on RE.
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Re: How to improve

Post by chris1089 »

Rohbrot wrote:
chris1089 wrote:
Show hidden quotes
When I used to not lag and had played recently yes.
I thought u play more on RE.
Only recently because the lag is slightly less awful and more than a year ago. I was an re captain then improved significantly to an ep captain.
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Re: How to improve

Post by Rohbrot »

Nice, we have now different ranks EP cap or RE cap.
Congrats to be a EP cap @chris1089
I remember we played 2 games together on RE ;)
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