What is the economy in the game?
There are three buildings that give income in the game. The headquarters, supply depot, and the administrative building (admin). The depot can only be built on supply nodes. The admins can be built just like any other base building; off of a traversable road with enough space.

How important is the economy?
This game revolves around the economy. The economy is so important that it will decide the game before any real points are scored. If one team has acquired their forward depots and prevented their opponent from doing the same, it's only a matter of time before they over run the gimped opponent. Good players will see the lack of income and begin to harass causing the deficient player to defend rather than expand or, if they are the ones falling behind they will immediately attempt to expand or cripple the opponents economy. Although economy is a huge factor, and while most players are oblivious to their economic disadvantage, they continue to play without knowing that the game has already been lost due to the lack of income.

When should I capture my secondary depots?
At 5-7 minutes your team should be focusing on acquiring your secondary depots. On Center of Gravity, for example, those depots are the four directly in front of the forest line and the two on the flanks (the two on the flanks can also be tertiary depots). Some maps do not have secondary depots; these should be played cautiously. If the enemy rushes with early cheap units you will have a late game advantage if you can hold out against them. Alternatively, you could rush your opponents if they are building depots too early.

Are admins important?
Admins will make or break a game. If your team builds admins too early then you lose the unit advantage. If you don't build them early enough you could lose any unit advantage you had and get overrun at roughly 40 minutes. Good players can tell when someone is building admins because of the lack of units coming from that players sector. Some other signs are decoy units, and camo ruses coupled with the aforementioned.

Admins or Depots?
Depots should always be a priority. Admins do not provide the advantage needed early in the game to be useful. Lets look at why:

Admin:

• $100 cost
  
• $1 every 4 seconds
  
• 6 minutes 40 seconds until cost recuperation.

Depot:

• $40 cost
  
• $1 every 3 seconds
  
• 2 minutes until cost recuperation.

It's plain to see here that admins will put you at a huge disadvantage if you play them instead of depots. If there are no depots left to capture then of course admins will have to be built.

When should you build admins?
One of the best ways to build admins is with extra money you have accidentally saved.

Wait. What?
When you start to get good at the game you will be surprised when you look up and see that you have $200 just sitting there around 3-5 minutes into the game. Drop an admin or two (unless you have lost your starting units or you're looking to counter). For every 100 points you gain above and beyond your opponent you have earned enough of an advantage to place an admin safely; this idea specifically applies to early admin buildings built prior to 10 minutes of game time. This will happen when you micro your early units efficiently. A great example is running an infantry coup; a small fleet of 10 infantry that spread out over the map and target exposed depots. The most important stage of the game is the first 5-7 minutes. At this point going after your enemy's depots is important. I suggest NOT capturing but instead razing them to force a rebuild. Capturing will likely lead to your enemy sending infantry to get it back which hasn't really done any real damage; its merely an inconvenience. Destroying it forces him to spend an additional $40 instead of $5 or $10.

If your playing 1v1/2v2:
Three depot start is standard(2 depot and 4 depot is also possible), cap secondary as soon as you're able. Admins don't usually come into play.

If your playing 3v3/4v4:
Standard economy is 3 depots to start, then two more after 5 or so minutes. Then the remaining depots should be capped at 7 or so minutes if able and begin building admins. Zero depots is very often an instant loss. Building an admin before depots is very often an instant loss. Important note: multiplayer income is shared. You not only set yourself behind with less depots, your whole team makes less money.

You're team should have admins built by 10 minutes.

By 17-20 minutes 50-75% of your income will be from admin buildings.

By 30 minutes you and your teammates should have roughly 10-15 admins each and depots should all be dry or not cappable.

By 45 minutes you should have roughly 30-40 admin buildings each.

By 60 minutes there is no more room for admins.

This entire game is based on getting economic advantage. Winning this game happens WAY before the victory screen pops up.

What do I mean?
Getting the economic advantage (and keeping it long enough) is how games are decided. Pros will tell you that the game is won 15-45 minutes before it's over.

What does that mean?
The economy works slowly. Although you may be at an even keel for 2-3 minutes after that depot of yours gets destroyed, your enemy is slowly beginning to overtake you financially. He is now making $1 more than you every 3 seconds, not to mention you now have to spend an extra $40 to rebuild. The $1 more per 3 seconds isn't much but that $40 depot is killer. That was your early Pershing tech or AT base you essentially just lost.

What ends up happening?
Once the economic advantage has been created he has to hold onto it until he gets unit advantage. This takes roughly 5-7 minutes because income is so slow. So while your fiddling around with your depot and trying to get it built, he's banking funds to mass and tech.

So what then; is the game over already?
Not completely. You can take his advantage away by destroying one of his depots also. In well matched games depots will be destroyed on both sides, or both teams will defend well enough that none get destroyed.

Ok, so no depots were destroyed. Then what?
By this point primary depots are exhausted and your secondary and tertiary depots are close to finished. This is when admins become important. Building admins requires practice in battle field assessment. How many should you build? When should you build them? These are questions you should ask your self while your playing. Your looking to keep yourself defended without over producing units.

K, I have admins and so does he. Now what?
Destroy them. It gets tricky here. If both teams are equally fortified it becomes a game of cunning and guile. If one team has more fortifications than the other the former will eventually muscle itself in to win the game once unit dominance has been established.

In the end, it boils down to income. In the early game the way to win is the less glorious depot snipe. In the late game it becomes the super glorious 100 Heavy bomber blanket drop. Choose your poison; they look different but the effect is the same: Cripple your opponents economy long enough to gain unit advantage, then roll over him.

Infantry:
Basic front line unit; typically the cheapest unit to produce. There are various types: light, heavy, sniper, flame thrower.
Countered with bombers, tanks, AA trucks, and bunkers.

Tank:
Basic offensive unit. There are various types; light, medium, heavy, super heavy.
Countered with infantry, Anti-tank guns/vehicles, Fighter bombers, and bunkers.

AT:
Anti-tank units are specialized units made for destroying tanks. They come armored and unarmored.
Countered with infantry, bunkers, fighter-bombers, fighters, and bombers.

AA:
Anti air units are specialized for attacking air. Some types of AA are great for attacking infantry also.
Countered with tanks, infantry and artillery.

Artillery:
Specialized unit for destroying buildings and light unarmored units. There are various types: light, heavy, and armored.
Countered with bombers, fighters, Fighter bombers, tanks, and artillery.

Fighters:
Basic offensive air unit. Used to maintain air control.
Countered with fighters, AA, and AA bunkers.

Fighter-bombers:
Specialized air unit used to destroy armored ground units. Can also be used on buildings.
Countered with fighters and AA.

Bombers:
Specialized air unit. Used to destroy buildings, bunkers, and light unarmored units.
Countered with fighters and armored AA.

Ruse Replays[drive.google.com]

Replays can be found and placed in this Win7 location:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<somenumber>\21970\local

Check for connection bars before starting the countdown, watch them fluctuate. Some will settle in after a few seconds. If it keeps hitting red after 30 secs, kick that player. This will prevent disconnects. Wait for everyone's bars to stabilize. Yellow is OK. In the example all players should see connection bars for all other players; clearly there are no status bars for most of the players. If any are missing, something is wrong and someone is bound to drop.



Check for hours of gameplay. Any player that has a decent chance of winning against good players typically has to have 200+ hours of gameplay in their Steam profile. There are exceptions like console players switching to PC or players that are good at RTS games; even then they should have at least 100 hours to be worth anything. The opposite side of the coin is, of course, that having 500+ hours doesn't make you pro either, but the chances are better. There are players with over 10,000+ hrs of RUSE. I have seen them. If the profile hasn't been set up chances are they're new and inexperienced.

If someone complains about a player's level being too low, that is a red flag to me.

Level doesn't mean anything! Levels are reset by a fresh install; among other ways.

The first two minutes will determine some basic information about your teammates:

If the first building they made was an admin your most likely doomed. VERY rarely does someone who knows how to play build an admin right out of the gate. This is because the economic cost of building an admin is MUCH higher than building on a starter depot; less starting units, less starting income, less money for building bases.

Less depots = less income, more starting units; More depots = more income, less starting units. This becomes important at roughly 5-7 minutes into the game.

The important note here is: Multiplayer income is shared. If one player doesn't build any depots, EVERYONE falls behind on income... game over.

More than three depots and that player is likely overextended, less than three and your income wont be enough to gain an advantage at the 7 minute mark.

Typically a bad idea; especially for USA, Germany, France, and Britain. The base is extremely expensive and the units produced are also very expensive. Without the income to back up the base (3 depots is not enough), your teammate will likely be overrun by inferior units. The one exception I can think of is Italy; even then it is risky and new players will fail with this tactic.

If not, that can lead to trouble if the opposing team has air; which they most likely will. If they don't start with air you can expect air to be the next counter; even if it was all France on the other team, they could get an advantage real quick. Same goes for you. If neither team has air, the strongest air on your team should change, pretty much immediately, and gain a fast advantage.

Obviously bad because now one of your teammates has not created any units to defend against a rush or created depots for income; this will effect you since income is shared.

If not, that is not a good sign. Recon is extremely important to formulate the first counter. Without knowing what's coming you can't build what's needed to defend yourself. Also, it's the only way to recon/attack forested areas without getting slaughtered.

You could have a base rusher on your hands. Recon should be in position to spot the forward line. Covering all forward roads, cities, fields, and forests to make sure no one can sneak something in under a Radio Silence ruse card. This happens a lot with forward tank/infantry base rush and a couple camo cards, too.

At this point in the game, the first units from both teams should be visible with recon. This is when most players have dedicated themselves to their opening strategy and cannot change that decision as it would certainly set them at a huge disadvantage (this includes those people who choose not to build their first base until after the two minute mark; technically this is a counter as they should be building to defeat the starting units of the opposing team). The only choice they (and you) have now is to chose a counter-strategy.

If your teammate builds an inappropriate counter the game will be over within the next 10-15 minutes if the other team has any skill; they will single him out and overrun him.

This is not a good sign. This means that you are left alone on the front line trying to face your opponents alone or with one other person. This player is waiting to be attacked at their base and will, in turn, not help you defend your forward depots. This includes admin spammers; although in late game you will be ahead, your chances of getting there are slim.

A great example is a player who built an AA base and starts spamming AA units although there is no opposing air, or someone who builds an AT base while infantry is running towards them.

At this point starting units should be out on the field and counter units should be in the pipeline.

Setting up defenses for your forward depots is very important at this stage. By the 10 minute mark, your secondary income should be on it's way to your base. If you and your teammates haven't secured your secondary resources rest assured the opposing team most likely has, and the war of attrition has started. Your income is severely lacking and it's only a matter of time before you become overrun (about 10 mins later); admins will not solve the problem here either, the cost of them will hinder your ability to create units and defend yourself. The only real options are getting your depots built, or destroying your opponents'.

The centers of almost all the multiplayer maps are crucial control points to win the game. Having control of the center is typically a winning strategy.

This could be Panthers, Chaffees, Shermans, SAU 40s, FBs, or bombers. It is possible to go for top tier advanced units also (Tigers, SPs, Sptifires) however less of them can be built. You wont lose by building top-tier but you must be careful in their deployment; unprotected top-tier units are prime pickings for your opponents and will cost you the game if too many are lost.

This is important for hindering the forward movement of the opposing forces. This will not completely defend you but it will help greatly when the time comes.

The way to tell is that they have stopped producing those units, attacked another player (most typical), or put the remainder in a defensive position. Also, that same player should not be producing counter units; if they are you haven't countered them, they are ahead of you.

At this point two things should be apparent: either your going to win/lose soon, or the game will last at least another 30 minutes.

At the 10 minute mark one or more of these things become apparent:

• one of the teams has a strong economic advantage.
  
• one of the teams controls center.
  
• one of team's players is fighting to survive and a teammate is forced to help them.
  
• neither team controls center and no one has quit.
  
• both teams should have a couple admins built.
  
• the scores of both teams are either close, or decisively one sided.
  
• forward depots have been built by at least one of the teams.

If you are reacting to them, they are in control and you either gain control or you lose within the next 10 minutes.

By this point players should have gained enough income to produce the best units that nation has; spamming is not yet possible but you can regularly build expensive units.

If you have lasted this long, then you are in a for a long game. In the early part of this phase, back and forth control of center is probably the norm. Some key things that would happen here are:

• sneak attacks on admin farms.
  
• admin spamming.
  
• starter depots have run dry and forward depots are close to empty.
  
• a mix a units are on the field, players are typically using the best units possible for their nations AND the team.
  
• unit spamming begins.
  
• starter bases should be heavily fortified with AA and infantry.

It is important here to maintain your recon and build up admins. This phase is usually a game of "barely defending while keeping up with admin farming". The trick here is knowing how much to spend on admins and how many units to keep on the field.

At this point unit spamming is the norm. There should be all manner of unit on the field and the way to win is to knock out the other team's income. At this point in the game there is probably little room for admins in an easily protected area and you should expect hits on your admins in all sorts of ways.

Some of the attacks I see often are:

• Long Toms (or other long range arty) and suicide recon.
  
• Suicide bombers.
  
• Radio Silence flanking.
  
• Paratrooper spam (downed planes crash into admins)

The way to win here is mostly about longevity. The longer you can stay focused, and get your opponent to leave their admins undefended for a surprise attack, the better.

Getting a huge hit on the opposing team's admins will typically result in them leaving.

Ok, at this point you have yourself a well matched game. You've settled in, no disconnects, everyone is still in playing hard. This is where unit spam becomes epic.

This is my favorite part of the game.



Sure, its "unrealistic"... w/e its a game. And proper unit spam is hard. No, its not the actuall spamming of units; it's maintaining focus and commanding the battlefield when so many units are on the field. A great example is keeping up with recon sniping. Not easy when there's a gross number of units on the field.

Spend as fast as you can; place everything everywhere (AA, Inf in trees, armored unit stacks, etc.). Place recon EVERYWHERE: out in the open, in trees, in cities, doesnt matter. Money is no object at this point. Make sure you have lots of infrastructure. Buildings scattered throughout the map; speed of construction is important here.

After enough hammering you'll notice a weakness in the defense...

Coordinate with your team and...



...punch through.