Best race?

[unknownn]

Hi so i'm quite new to forged alliance and I would like to know what the best race is.
I know that it has a lot to do with personal playstyle and preference.
My preference goes out to seraphim firstly and secondly UEF.
So I would like to know what is the best race for ladder matches since i'm still quite noobie
thx for feedback

[Eoinbastian]

Uef is great for learning, it has strong units and is forgiving to mirco mistakes... sera is good too but lacks in the t3 stage.

Cybran and aeon are a bit harder to pay well, you need to play more attention and micro better.

They are less straight forward to play. So if you need to focus on learning basics cybran and aeon can be distracting

hope that helps a bit

[NewForumAccount]

If you play ladder you shoud first select your map pool. If you like playing water maps you should definitly pick Seraphim.
UEF has the lowest winrate overall and especially on water maps. While UEF is often picked by new players because there is little micro required, the unit composition plays a much bigger role (specialized units like T1 arty, Cooper, T2 shields). The characteristic UEF "turtle" playstyle might also affect your overall skill negativly.

[Vee]

In 1v1 seraphim is the easiest to play overall, because they have good t1 hoverarties, good t1 air, invisible t1 land scout, good t2 bots, good navy, good t2 hovertank & hoverflak, good acu, etc. They lack a bit in t2 air and t3 land, but on a randomly selected map from the ladder seraphim is a good choice.

Overall your skill level is much more important than your faction on any normal map.

[Rogueleader89]

To summarize, all of the races are fairly balanced right now, there is no one decisively best race. Personally I prefer UEF followed by Aeon but I'm playing a ton of random lately to get a better feel for all the factions. You could argue better areas for each race (and some of these are fairly obvious like aeon's swiftwinds giving them a nice advantage in the air at tech 2), but they all pretty much balance out in the end.

[zeroAPM]

Like dominating the skies? Aeon
Like water? Seraphim (and to a lesser extent, cybrans)
Like winning in less than 20 minutes? Cybran
Like to drag on the game for two hours and then lose anyway? UEF

---edit---

As ZeroAPM jokes, they're a great faction to use if you want to drag the game out and then lose anyway.

I wasn't

[sisso]

Play cybran and kill theses humans!

But you will force to learn to be aggressive, have a good attention, take map control, and never build a anti nuke defense and get nuked in team games and called noob

Edited: Don't forgot the cybran experimentals!!!!

[Flamingo]

Like others have said, there's not a "best" race, but the races differ to suit different doctrines.

I play Cybran almost exclusively so I know them the best. They're fast and versatile, but pretty fragile. Because of this, some players feel they're harder to learn, but the key is to be very aggressive with them - this doctrine is best illustrated by their ACU who has the lowest health but highest regen. The Cybrans spend all game entering and exiting battle, and you should feel welcome to use the spiderbot's repair abilities to establish forward positions or repair important things while on the move. By mid game, they start to rely more on stealth and dirty tricks - their specialties can include tactical missiles or anything they can sit outside of your combat range, as long as their stealth keeps them hidden from retaliation, but the stealth can also be used to ferry units around the map without being noticed so that you can attack from vulnerable positions. Late game they have one of the cheapest experimentals and it's also stealthy, so it often takes opponents by surprise when it arrives, but like everything Cybran, it's fragile.

The UEF are the polar opposite. They're slow and defensive, and they're the only faction with T3 point defenses. As ZeroAPM jokes, they're a great faction to use if you want to drag the game out and then lose anyway. It's not really that they're bad so much as their more defensive capabilities can encourage more reactive play, and reacting is always less valuable than provoking reactions. Their shields are good and their units have the most health, but they travel more slowly, so they benefit more than others from tight formations - though you need to be careful and be willing to break formation if your opponent starts hitting you with AoE. Late game they're notorious for the hardy Percival, which hits hard and all at once, giving them the ability to threaten experimentals. However, their experimental can be a bit lackluster, and you'd rather have a Galactic Colossus before a Fatboy. To play a good game with the UEF, you'll need to have a good grasp of eco so you can take advantage of your defensive powers and consolidate what you're holding. Above all else, you'll have to learn how defensive is too defensive; there's a very fine line, and the UEF has the broadest selection of transport units for a reason.

The Aeon are specialists. Their T1 tanks have a longer range than everyone else's tanks, so when they get the drop on an enemy they can clean them out without taking much return fire. However, those same tanks are balanced by lesser mobility and lower health, and you'll find the Aeon to be like this in general. They do a lot of things very well, but they are not designed to engage in certain ways so you'll need to understand the advantages and limitations of your units. They're most notorious for their air force, which is very formidable in the late game because their ASFs have a higher overall DPS than the other factions. Their Galactic Colossus is one of the most dangerous land experimentals per cost and it even comes with omni censors to find that pesky Cybran ACU, but it utterly lacks air defenses because it's specialized to ground attack. The Czar, meanwhile, is a like giant armored frisbee you can crash-land on the enemy base. You could debate over whether or not UEF or Aeon are actually the better defense faction. Though UEF has tougher defenses in the standard role, the superior Aeon air force means they can respond to pressure a bit more freely.

Finally, the Seraphim are a bit like a re-tooled version of the Aeon, but they mix elements from all races. I'm not sure I grasp their doctrine, but I think it may be a somewhat balanced approach instead of focusing on one specific thing. For example, the Seraphim have tanks comparable to the UEF's - they're slower but have more health and are classified as "medium tanks" rather than "light" as the Aeon and Cybran have. Their T1 artillery has hover capabilities, high firing randomness, but a wider AoE. Their units go on like this, not apparently built towards any one play style, but they remain capable and effective in the general sense. Their navy is also capable of submerging or surfacing to switch between those roles. Like I say, not sure what to say about how you approach them as a player learning their valuable points, but they've got their pros and cons varying from unit to unit.

So hopefully that's a good overview! All factions are pretty balanced, so the "best" faction is the one that jives with you the most.

[Col_Walter_Kurtz]

Instead of choosing a faction that is "best", just stick with one and learn it's mechanics through and through.

[gnatinator]

UEF is simplest to grasp conceptually because how similar their units are to modern day equivalents.

Seraphim is simplest to play (few units to remember, units generally more powerful with better abilities, amazing comm upgrades). Aeon is similar, like a "Seraphim-lite".

Cybran is the most control-intensive, and you trade a large number of advantages (unit HP, shields, double eco upgrade, etc) for somewhat lame/situational stealth abilities. On the bright side you will look like a bad ass and afterwards you'll be much stronger with other factions compared to players who have never played much Cybran.