Introduction
Hello and Welcome!
I've been helping new players to learn this game for quite a while. After feeling that I've ran over the basics over and over I thought that I might save myself some time, through telling here what I tell my students, in a short school, and set up a short learning program. I might expand the school later, if I find it useful. I'm basing this school mainly on my own training experiences, but I've also consulted other players about what their opinions are on the subject.
To make FA ”noob friendlier” in general I think we need to make the trainer team more distinguished. I suggest adding the mentor avatar to faf, or make a group of the logged in trainers, or both. Somehow it should be easy when you are new to faf, to quickly find your way into the game and the community. But enough of this, lets start the guide to fa training!
The Method
First things first. Get faf going. Watch a replay of pro players (found under the replays tab), everytime u have the chance, to get an idea of how the game is played. Then read a guide to forged alliance, there are links for them on the forum. Get GAZ_UI, everyone I've spoken to recommends it. Learn the basic elements of the game, like units and factions. What stuff looks like and what it does. Last part is optional though, since it will appear to you along the way.
When you have gone so far, the real training begins. Find the map theta passage. It's a 1v1, 5x5, official map. If there is a turtorial to the map, watch it. Then play against sorian AI rush, over and over, until you beat it. U may play the lower levels if u want to first, but i think u should start with that one, because it's not that difficult and you will get less of a wrong behaviour from the start. If you are loosing, watch the replay and what the AI did and u didn't, to set up the tactics for the next game.
If you are losing on Theta Passage there are some things you are doing wrong, these are examples that usually occurs when new players play:
First look at your start and your build order. If you have read guides you probably know that you should not waste your mass at any point, for example.
Second thing is that you might be teching mass, which should be avoided, since you need your mass for other things.
Third is that you need factories and you might not be building them, or you are not building them fast enough. I recommend six or seven factories in total on theta passage.
Fourth is that you might not be using your acu offensively. He is a great military unit and should be treated as such.
Fifth is that you might be overbuilding point defenses (PD). There are rarely more than one (PD) built in theta games on a higher level.
Sixth is that you need to include military units in your first factory. You wont be able to protect your early engineers or kill your opponents early engieneers if you don't build them.
Most importaintly, you might not be expanding or attacking enough. Many new players think in terms of defending and building, when they should be thinking expanding and attacking. Map control is crucial and you really need as many mass points as you can get, to keep your economy going.
You might also be overbuilding power. Try to keep one engineer buiding power after you have finnished the hydro and you should be fine.
You might not be reclaiming enough either. Try to get the rocks spread out around the mountain range, reaching from the corner, to the center of the map. The destroyed buildings in the center aren't really worth much.
When you can beat an AI it's time to move up. If you have looked up the turtorials tab you have found a link to a trainer team on faf. They can help you at this stage. Otherwise just try to find a player thats top 400 on the 1v1 ladder and ask if u can play theta. Play it over and over and ask for advice, try to use nice elements from the other players start and listen to general tips. The point in finding a player better than yourself becomes obvious when you later play someone on that map that you thought was of your own skill level. Don't be suprised if you win a lot. If you lose, look at how long it took and look at every prolonging of a game as an improvment. The longer you last, while still playing the game as it should be played, the better you have become.
If you still want to play a player of your own skill level, remove tech 2, tech 3 and tech 4 from the game. That will force you to play offensive and use the acu and thus reduce the risk of you adapting a bad behaviour, wich becomes much bigger when fighting an unskilled player.
When you are able to beat decent players on theta i suggest moving on to the map Blasted Rock, and do the same thing as you did with theta. This time you should find a player ranked 250 best 1v1 or higher though ( the higher the better). Next map would be Open Palms, same procedure, but find a player among the 90 best 1v1 or up! At the same time you should be starting to practice Bermuda Locket with a very high rated player. Practice over and over until u get it right.
Concluding Part
This is my method and I've found it quite useful. This is the fastest way to learn from what I've found and while some people recommend to start with playing team games I don't agree, because you don't have to do everything youself and for various of other reasons. You might be thinking that after this method you only know how to play theta, blasted rock, palms and bermuda, but many things in supreme commander repeats themselves and these maps are rather general and they're covering big parts of the game. Includung major parts of team play and ladder gaming.
General Related Tips
If you are playing a new map. Check if there is a turtorial and watch a game of it, played by a really high ranked player. Try to take after what that player does the first minutes and parts of that players general tactics, like where to place radars and similar. If you do that you more than double your chances of winning an game on that map, I would say. You don't need to follow exactly what the player does, but it might help you a lot and get you on the right track. I do it myself every now and then, when I lose a game because of a bad opening.
Remember that the players that are best at winning are probably the players that are best at loosing too. You need to lose a lot before you will win a lot and people usually find it easier to lose to a friendly person i a training game, than in a hardcore player in a ladder game.
When watching a replay, you can click a player name in the upper right corner of the screen, to see their exact situation and economy. This helps when you want to understand why a player acted like he/she did, or just want more input.
GL HF too you!
Any oppinions or ideas on this are welcome
Thx!//Ubilaz
New addition of maps, follow the same basic principal.
The (!!) means main focus for the map.
Theta:
Standard(!!), Hydro, basic landspam, 2 player map, 5x5, normal reclaim
Blasted Rock:
Middle obstacle(!!), 4 player map, 5x5, importaint reclaim, acu crucial, choke points
Four Corners:
Water(!!), Islands, Much reclaim combo with no hydro, air very valid, 4 player map, T1 navy, 5x5
Arctic Refuge:
10x10(!!), 4 player map, not much reclaim, mid importaint, expanding, not too much mass for a 10x10, raiding, intel
Open Palms:
Massive landspam(!!), 10x10, 6 player map, side expansions, basic transporting, rather allround
White Fire v2 (changed high noon)
Teching(!!), navy battles, 10x10, 6 player map, air battles, expansion bases on opponents side, drops, reclaim (stealing), scouting, sonar
The Bermuda Locket:
20x20 8 player map(!!), huge reclaim, power spamming, drops, navy, intel, expansion bases, navy two rings, air, landspam, choke points
