In this tutorial we will share our thoughts on RUSE. We will give you our way of playing the game and how we believe the game should be played. Starting out with the most basic to the more advanced techniques. We are not saying that our way of playing is more right than any other, we are just sharing how we play and what works for us.

*The original version of this tutorial was written by Virtous and posted on the no unit website in March 2012.
http://nounit.enjin.com/forum/m/2760569/viewthread/2431424-nu-ruse-tutorial-basics-to-advanced-part-1

1.0 Introduction
2.0 Strategists
2.1 Strategists middle
2.2 Strategists front
3.0 Treason
4.0 3v3
5.0 2v2 and 1v1
6.0 Summary - basics
7.0 Admins vs Depots
8.0 Advanced techniques - ninjas only
8.1 UK on front strategists map
8.2 The unarmored recon - more effective than you think!
8.3 Hotkeys
8.4 Double orders
8.5 Ninja practice - ultimate team work challenge!
9.0 Knowing your units
10.0 Research time
11.0 Bunkers - when to use them?
12.0 End of tutorial

Lets start off with the 4v4. We won't cover 3v3, 2v2 and 1v1 that detailed because there's simply too much to pay attention to. Instead we will point out some of the basics that goes for all games!
Playing 4v4 is great fun as it requires teamwork from all 4 players on the team. We all know and have experienced when one guy f***s everything up for the rest of the team. Either by making admins from start, not expanding, forgetting recon units, or simply losing to a rush. Lets get to business....

As soon as the game starts, all players scan through the nations that are being played. There are a couple of things that need to be sorted out at start. Air units are in 99% of the time needed. Whether it's to snipe trucks, using recon planes, bomb buildings, attack ground units, or perhaps the most important; to counter enemy air. As one player goes air, the other middle player will serve as the team's source of income, meaning he will expand to middle and take depots. Another important thing is to get recon units out, the player with the cheapest recon units will send out a few to cover the map (usually 3-5) depending if the price is 5$, 10$, 15$ or 20$.

The player with the best air nation of the two players in the middle will make air units, while the other player will expand towards middle (3-4 depots + 2nd HQ). The person that went air should also take 2 depots, since money is important to support the front side players, YES THE MONEY IS SHARED! The next step is to get recon units out to cover the map. If you have the cheapest recon units on your team, send out 3-5. If not, let someone else send them out but make 1 armoured recon for yourself and send towards middle. After that everything depends on what nations are being played and what your enemies do!

It really doesn't matter what nation you have, if you get rushed by one player you will always be able to counter it and even counter rush sometimes. The problem that you might face is when a player is rushing you and the enemy air is sent to attack you as well. That's when you need air support from your own team. Here are some tips on how to read your opponent: check how many depots he takes (less than 2 is probably a rush). Use decryption on his sector if he uses camouflage, will help you see where his trucks are going. Be ready to cancel some of your trucks to get more money if you get rushed (if you're going for 3 depots you might need to cancel 2 of them). Finally, if your enemy isn't attacking, you can choose between attacking him, expanding to middle, going air... or like some players, build admins. It all depends on what nations your team has, and what nations the enemy team has. If your team is weak on air units, and your nation has strong planes... it would be a good idea for you to go air. NOTE that it isn't always needed though, it all depends on what your enemies do and what nations they have!

To keep things as simple as possible, always counter enemy air with air. A lot of players make the mistake of using AA units to counter enemy air which is a bad thing in our opinion. AA should only be used to support your team's fighters and to kill fakes!

One beginner mistake is to think of it as two sides playing 2v2, yes... some players tend to only focus on their side of the map, which often leads to a loss. Instead, one player (minimum) should go air. This person has to supply the entire team with air support. The second important thing on this map is to expand to the middle, for three reasons...
1) To get more supply depots
2) To prevent the enemies to get it.
3) To set up AA support for your team's planes

Other than that it's very similar to strategists. Spam out the cheap recon units as soon as possible (3-4).

When it comes to 3v3, we decided not to go very detailed since there's so many maps. In general, one player air while the other two expand/rush. Expanding would be 3-4 depots + 2nd HQ OR 3 depots + 2nd HQ + recon units.

2v2 and 1v1 are very different from 3v3 and 4v4. Not only because of the map sizes, but because of the amount of depots. If you play by default time limit (25-30 minutes) you will never need admins. Obviously there are many different ways of playing 2v2... it all depends on the nations, the map and what your enemies choose to do. Because of this, there's really no point in going into detail about how to play 2v2. You simply have to learn by practice. NOTE! you rarely need 2nd HQs.... and stay away from advanced fbs/bombers. If there's anything you should keep in mind it's that you need to be more careful with how you spend your money.

• Air units to counter enemy air
  
• AA to support fighters and to destroy fake air units
  
• Expand to get more depots
  
• Recon units out fast to see enemies
  
• 1v1 and 2v2 be more careful how you choose to spend your money!

The rest depends on the situation and individual skill.

Before we get into this we should just look at some facts. Depots cost 40$ and generate 9$ every 30 seconds. Administrative buildings cost 100$ and generate 1$ every 4 seconds. Which equals 36$ every 120 seconds from depots and 30$ every 120 seconds from admins. Just by looking at these numbers, we see that depots are more effective. As you can see it's not a big difference... except for the price 40$ vs 100$!! When are the admins needed then? Well, as soon as you start running out of depots, you'll need another source of income. Nevertheless, you don't want to start with the admins too late... try to start when you reach the peak of your depot income. Which means, if you can get more depots safely without losing them in a minute, wait with the admins! The other important aspect of admins is that if they are destroyed the enemy team gets 100 points, while if a depot is destroyed it gives 40 points, so choose which depots you take wisely...

Using paratroopers on early games to destroy depots is very effective as it forces the enemy to instantly rebuild a depot, which gives you more time when you want expand.

In this section we will go through some tricks and techniques that we find useful and good to know.

• The unarmored recon - more effective than you may think.
  
• The UK counter rush (strategists)
  
• Hotkeys!
  
• Double orders

This is a very underrated situation, most players fear getting infantry or tank rushed....While in fact there's a very effective way of preventing this and turning it to a counter rush. It does require some fast use of hotkeys though!
Here we break it down into some easy followed steps.

1) P hotkey for airfield, F hotkey place 2 airfields as close to your HQ as possible
2) R hotkey for RUSE list, F hotkey for placing blitz on your own sector
3) 1 depot
4) When the first airfield deploys, send 2 paras. One to the close side of the bridge (right behind the city) and the other paratrooper to the other side of the bridge.
5) Blitz the sector between you and your enemy to make the paratroopers get there faster
6) Recon plane, send it towards the city when it's done
7) Start research bomber
8) If you cant get the truck with the 2 paratroopers, move them into the cities or attack his base with them. NOTE, in most cases you'll be able to get the truck with the paratroopers because they will land next to it before it has a chance to deploy. In some unlucky cases it will make it passed your city. If so you need to speed up!
9) Send the bomber to destroy his truck/building. If he manages to deploy the truck it's because you either were too slow on getting the paras out, or if you placed the paras wrong.
Once the truck/building is down you want to get anther depot as fast as possible and to destroy his depots before he gets air support.

The first 3 steps should happen within 1-3 seconds!

Did you know that a 5$ recon unit like the willy can prevent a rush? Use it to block any enemy truck from deploying. We guarantee that your enemy will be very frustrated! :) Be fast to kill the truck though before he gets air support and kills your recon! NOTE, this requires a lot of micro managing and is easier if you zoom in close and use blitz on the sector.

Hotkeys can be very important sometimes when you don't have more than a few seconds to react. We suggest you spend some time learning some special hotkeys like:

• Fanaticism
  
• Blitz
  
• Camo
  
• Depot
  
• 2nd HQ

It's important to get trucks out fast when the game starts. If you use hotkeys you'll be able to get blitz, 4 depot trucks and a 2nd HQ out within 2 seconds!!

Very useful to prevent you from losing any planes or saving time! Hold down shift and you may give a unit two orders to follow!
Personally I use it when I want to fly around the map with planes... or when I just done a bomb run and want my planes to get out a safe way without flying through enemy AA lines.

If you want to practice your teamwork, here's what we tried out in the past:

• 3v4 Standard
  
• 3v4 Air units only
  
• 3v4 Prototype units only
  
• 4v4 Air units only
  
• 4v4 Prototype units only
  
• Play with random nation

Can't stress this enough how important it is to know your units. Knowing the range, speed, armor and strength of your units will save you so much time and it will help you in so many situations!!

The research time for the nations are as follows:

• Germany - 25 seconds
  
• US - 50 seconds
  
• France - 50 seconds
  
• Japan - 50 seconds
  
• UK - 50 seconds
  
• USSR - 50 seconds
  
• Italy - 75 seconds

Bunkers can be very effective... but in most cases they are actually a waste of money since you can't move them. One way to use a bunker is to place it so the enemy has to destroy it before he can move on, this will save you some time. But in general, only use bunkers if you really need it and can't afford other units to do the same work.

That's about it guys! Hope you had the stamina to read everything ^^ If there's anything that was unclear or you didn't understand please let us know. Also feel free to come with criticism and opinions - we luuuv that!

Special thanks to Deagle and Shifu.
http://nounit.enjin.com

Stay tuned for part 2