This is a quick guide I made, I play against a lot of players who say they have no idea what they are doing, so here is a quick guide I made. If anyone has some tips or something they feel I should mention let me know. But this guide should cover everything you need to know for a quick 1v1 and by quick I mean under 15minutes

Here is a link to my twitch channel where you can catch me streaming or watch past broadcast where I talk about AotSE as I play. https://www.twitch.tv/priestxes

The basic opener is a two cap. Essentially what you want to do is queue up a Constructor/Engineer and have the one already there assist in building it(just select the builder you start with and right click your nexus). Next set your nexus rally to the closest region. Once it is close to finishing(like a second or two) pull your initial constuctor/engineer off and send him to the second closests region. Ideally you'd want 1 radio region and 1 metal region. This "2cap" method isn't viable on all maps, but on quite a few of them it works.

It is important to note that regions take 20 seconds to cap, and don't start spawning creeps until the 1:00 mark. So be sure you have your units capping at :39 mark if they too slow just back away and do something else with it.

I tend to main substrate and I'm going to outline a couple of openers I tend to use. These are guides and are by no means the only way to play the game. Also as guides, you can adjust them to fit your style.

The jerk opening I call it that cuz i feel it's a little like cheating. This opener was at one point pretty popular but essentially you want to do a 2 cap opener, 1 constructor build metal extractor, second constructor builds radio extractors and then an assembly. Once the assembly finishes queue up a dominator and have the second constructor assist. send the dominator to your opponets base, i reccommend his radio region as you can stall his tech this way, and start taking out engineers/constructors targeting extractors last, try to find his engineers to snipe them, this early in the game this will be a severe crippling move. If you want to really complicate his life throw a serpantine turret down but aim to do max damage. This opening sets you back from your macro game, especially if you are unable to snipe an engineer or extractor. But from this point just go into your macro game.

Another opener I like, is off the 2 cap opener build my assembly and queue up 2-3 martyr/reaper combos, send these guys to nearest regions to cap, once i've got 4 regions put up two more assemblies at the outer region of my area of control and start spamming maulers out of them. Not viable on some smaller maps, on small maps with close spawn, I just drop 3 assemblies from the beggining and do a t1 spam, it's not very pretty but it can be effective for the first 5-8 minutes, after you have 3-4 regions you should switch to tier2(maulers)

The two cap opening should look something like this:
Nexus:
1 constructor
Starting constructor:
Help Nexus
Build extractors at second region 2-3 metal extractors
then double back and build metal extractors at base
Quantem archive
Second constructor:
2-3 radio extractors
1 assembly
2 assembly or blossom launcher(aa)
3 assembly or Blossom launcher(aa)
First Assembly
dominator
martyr
martyr
martyr
reaper
capactor
sky cleanser

This is a macro oriented game with very little micro, you need to be able to build a lot of units and fast. Expand quickly and never stop spawning units, any time you have a positive influx of metal, build another assembly and start spamming maulers. If you have lots of money, you're doing it wrong.

And again this is a guide, it doesn't have to be followed exactly

I'm not as good at PHC as I am at substrate. But I do know a few openers.

The cheesy jerk opening(medium - large maps) 2 cap opener if possible, get a quantem archive down asap. Then build an air factory and queue any air unit you like(recommend a bomber if you have the radio actives) then build an orbital command. After that continue as normal expanding and building resources, move your air unit towards the enemy, once again i reccommend targeting his radio region to stall his tech, once you have 120 quanta call in an incursion. This method works with just sentries as well, but I prefer the incursion, it used to come with a medic, but alas no longer. You can use this method without the orbital(just use a turret like the substrates)

second opening is the same as substrates, after your third region throw down two armories first one queue up 1 artemis, 1 apollo, 3 athenas, second one queue 1 nemisis 2 athenas.(this is more or less the build queue DasUnding uses, you can find his guides to PHC on youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/paulstanik/videos) As the phc you have some insane base defence smarties into artties is broke, use your forces to slowly push accross the map, and wait for your opponent to overcommit to a push and punish him for being out of place. Or bait him into attacking your defenses.

As I said before, this game isn't about microing units, it's a macro oriented game. Now that doesn't mean just blob units at your opponet until you win. You need to expand in a manner that makes sense and defend your regions, doesn't have to be heavy, just a light defense to discourage drive-by bombings and sabotours/sentry drops. Pay attention to what your enemy is building and adjust your unit comp accordingly.

A few tips some of you may or may not know. armies move slow! don't put your units into armies and they can travel the map faster, great for early game. However this can cause you're medics and capacitors to charge into the enemy to get to the attack point.

Constructors/engineers can be used to speed up building production queues also they can be combined into an army to work together.

Try to keep your income as close to 0 as possible, a little over or udner is fine. But too far under and you stall your economy, too far over and you're missing out on units/tech you could be building to win.

If you have any questions, just hit me up.

Redoing this section.

So you don't know what to build, or perhaps you want cleaner armies with units that have defined purposes. Or maybe you just want to know what to build and when. Unfortunately with the huge differences in maps, it's hard to give a one answer solves everything, but I'll try.


When Playing SS against PHC, you want lots of Maulers, a few drones hives, a healthy number of masochists, a few sky cleansers, and add destructors to fit his defense. You can add in eradicators once you suspect dreadnoughts. Latter in the game you can add in care givers and capacitors. I don't use capacitors in the early game outside of reapers as most of my units seem to die before needing energy.

Avengers are cheap and fast too build, not to mention they are currently bugged so they do almost as much damage to Athenas as Maulers, but they have a shorter range, and depending on terrain and sight, they can get massacred without ever firing a shot, so make use of nice flat terrain and spotters(orbital drone search or searchers). So if you need them, use them, but they are slow and they don't always perform. Also they will sometimes focus his t1 frigates before turning on the athenas. But they'll work in a pinch until you can get better units.

My normal build at the 3 assembly phase is

Assembly one
2 maulers 1 drone hive 1 sky cleanser

Assembly two
2 maulers 1 destuctor 1 capacitor

Assembly three
2 maulers 1 masochist

As I build my economny up further I'll constantly be adding assemblies with maulers/destructors queued. to get rid of metals and mixing in some punishers/dominators for harassment/vision.

If you are on a large map, consider putting assemblies in different spots to spawn armies so you can attack from multiple directions.



I personally dislike mirror matches, as you have the same units, so really ti comes down to who can get the early harass in place, and with such cheap and effective AA, gaining air dominance is a waste of time. You'll spend far more resources on dominators and punishers than your opponent will in sky cleansers and starbursts. I typically use the same army formation as I do against PHC, but never ever build an Avenger. They get absolutely wrecked by drone hives and maulers and most of the time won't get close enough to fire, in small unit engagements. Mid game they might get some shots, but if you've got a big enough army that your avengers are getting close enough to actually fire, you have the eco to just get maulers. Also add in more sky cleansers than you would against a PHC player.

For as long as there have been RTS there have been those who wish to end a match as quickly as it began. Some call it cheese, some call it risk, some call it blitzkreig and basically who gives a rats arse. Lets start by establishing the rules. There are two main forms of early aggressive af play: air and t1 spam. Now when I say early, i mean in the first 5 minutes or less. Everything after that and you're in the mid game, either totally pooching your aggressive start or surviving into the mid-game. Congrats.

So with this new information, lets establish that early aggressive strats won't work on medium or larger maps unless you've got close spawn. Air will work on medium so keep reading.

So for an early aggressive ground game, there are really 2 forms. The pure t1 spam from multiple factories/assemblies or fewer production buildings but with engineers boosting to try to catch your opponent building tech or expanding in a different direction. And then there is the t1 spam followed up with creep defenses. Having an engineer or constructor hidden with in your t1 spam, throwing down factories/assemblies or smarties/annhilator cannons to keep what you stole from sleep beauty on the other side of the map, over there. When your army is moving remember to priortise their fire. At this point there isn't much shooting going on and you can focus 1. engineers, 2. extractors, 3. production(factories/assemblies)

Recap

• Rush units, as many as you can get
  
• take regions in a direct path towards your foe
  
• build up those regions(extractors and assemblies/factories only)
  
• build light defenses in your opponents area
  
• defend engineer/constructor
  
• priority fire

So your opponet is executing an aggressive/cheesy early game, how do you stop it? Well lets establish first that the only way to stop enemy units is to kill them and not provide his units with a target of oppurtunity. On small and tiny maps, never expand away from your opponent. Always expand towards him so your army can see his coming at you. Light static defense can help, smarties annhilators are cheap and can be effective. Don't expand too far too fast, it leaves your main base undefended. If you see his engineers/constructors coming up to build, make them target number one. Killing those engineers is the most important thing you can do at this point in the game and, lucky you, he brought it over to ya. Also if you see his blob of unit marching into your area, check your production facilities, update rally point so you're not sending a steady stream of units to their deaths 1 by 1, this aint an ant farm! If at all possible build an air unit, any kind will work but punishers/hades are best, and send it around to take out extractors. A player playing aggressive likely doesn't have much base defense or units to stop a counter harass. Also check your unit comp. If you're playing PHC into an SS opponent who is coming at you early with Reapers, a Zeus ain't gonna do ya much good. Athena would be better, Reaper has armor piercing to kill Zeus faster than they do Athena due to HP pool. For SS vs PHC, DroneHives and avengers are the go to.

Recap

• Don't expand away from your foe if cheese is suspected or small map
  
• early defense structures
  
• defend engineers constructors
  
• if foe is bringing in engie/constructor: snipe them asap
  
• don't begin tech too early
  
• don't stream units into his, group them up
  
• harass his economy
  
• check unit comp

For early air aggression/harassment, there are two forms, pure air which is to just use an early bomber/fighter to snipe constructors and extractors, then there is the air + orbitals. Orbitals can be anything obtained early. Such as turret drop, sentry drop, sabatour drop, engineer drop, or the absolute best; avatar drop. So when executing an early air harassment, things to look for is an opponent spreading too quickly. Air harass is absolutely brutal against an opponent on a big map when they are trying to spread everywhere as fast as they can. Lots of oppurtunity to snipe lone constructors or undefended extractors. It's even better if you can combine orbitals, dropping sentries/turrets/avatars on an engineer sitting under an aa turret to ensure the kill.

up the stakes by dropping an avatar on someone and promptly building an annhilator cannon. You can do the same with engineer, but engineers aren't quite as rugged as an avatar.

Recap

• Rush air unit(duh)
  
• focus engineers and extractors for maximum effect
  
• combine orbitals for even more maximum effect

The biggest deterrent to enemy bombers, build you own fighters with radar posts to give yourself more time to react. Build anti air, don't leave your constructors undefended. Don't expand too fast. Keeping a small group of t1 with your engineers in the early game can help defend them against sentry and avatar drops. The engineer may still die but the army can at least claim vengance and reduce any further damage, 1 engineer is not worth a squad of sentries.

Recap

• build anti air
  
• don't expand too fast leaving yourself open to orbital harassments
  
• keep a small and fast mobile army group at home to deal with uninvited guests