Red Alert 3

Disclaimer. This guide will probably sound condescending, there’s no avoiding it. If you’re the type who is sensitive to condescending writing, feel free to stop reading and continue to lose games online. If you’re the type who is struggling with fighting off aggressive players, you care about winning, and you want to know how to stop them, then this guide is for you.

Edit by author: Disclaimer #2: The word "rush" in this guide is used in the context of harassment and the general concept of playing aggressively. It does not refer to all-out strategies that sell off your MCV and resources to gain a large amount of units in a strategically RISKY way. But it should be noted that the advice presented below still partly applies to stopping these kinds of attacks. However, stopping "all-in" strategies is the topic for another guide.

Paradigm shift – “Rushing” Is Playing Normally

What is a paradigm? A paradigm is a way of thinking. It’s a fundamental construct of basic ideas. An example would be the practice of eastern medicine, where they believe healing is achieved through the health of “chi” hotspots in the body. Western medicine believes in chemicals, surgery, etc. Different ways of thinking about the same subject.

If you’re the type of player who looks at a game as either “rushing” or “non-rushing”, then you need to change your way of thinking. The first step is to stop referring to attacks as being “rushes”. “Rushing” is actually the normal way to play Red Alert 3. What is abnormal is not attacking your opponent for several minutes while you build up a big army or a big base, often building multiple defensive structures arbitrarily without even knowing you need to build them or where to place them. What defines normal and abnormal? It’s not a matter of opinion, but rather, a matter of practicality. “Rushing” (playing normally) is a more effective way of playing than “non-rushing”. After all, you wouldn’t be reading this guide if it wasn’t, would you?

In practical terms, whatever happens to be the most fundamentally effective way of winning then becomes the “normal” way of playing. This of course is different for each game. For Red Alert 3, however, playing aggressively is the normal way to play, and playing passively is the abnormal way to play. So really, you should think of this guide not as a way to counter rushing, but rather, a guide on how to play normally.

How to Play Normally

Presumably if you’ve made it this far, you’ve accepted the above to be true on some level and can tolerate the condescending tone of this guide. If you’re still operating under the assumption that rushing is lame, or takes no skill, or has no strategy, then what you’re about to read will be of little value to you since you will probably dismiss it as being a “cheap” or “lame” or “not fun” way to play. This section is not meant to convince you otherwise, but rather, explain how to stop losing to aggressive players.

Part 1: Scout
The first and most important step in learning how to counter aggressive players is to scout them and see what they’re doing. Build a barracks first, always. As soon as the game starts, build a barracks. You don’t need power as your MCV provides enough to cover the barracks. So start with the barracks, and then make two or three scouts (dogs, bears, or burst drones). Send these scouts to your opponent’s base using different paths. This will help ensure that at least one gets to your opponent’s base to see what they’re doing.



You can’t effectively stop an aggressive attack without knowing what your opponent is attacking you with. It could be Stingrays, it could be Vindicators, it could be IFVs, Sickles, or Tengus, it could even be massive amounts of infantry. Without scouting, you will simply have no idea what you should be building.

Part 2: Units First, Base Second
If you’re constantly losing to aggressive (i.e. normal) players, it’s probably because you have fewer units than they do at the moment you are attacked. This means there is something wrong with the way you built your base. For whatever reason, you built the wrong buildings in the wrong order, which prevented you from getting units early on. (It probably doesn’t need to be said, but what defines “wrong” in this case is simply the fact that it resulted in you losing the game. The right thing results in a win, the wrong thing results in a loss. And yes, that means there are right and wrong strategies. Not every strategy is created equal). A lot of passive “no-rush” players tend to build an entire base, replete with walls, defenses, power plants, tech structures, and all sorts of things that makes the player feel like the mayor of a city rather than a field commander. This is wrong. Why? Because buildings are useless if you have no units to stop your opponent from destroying them.



The solution? Build your base in such a way that you have access to early units, and have the money to build them. A good way to do this is to use the following build order (the order in which you build your buildings)

1. Barracks (train two or three dogs/bears/burst drones)
2. Power plant
3. Refinery
4. War Factory (build 3-4 units when complete)
5. Power Plant
6. Refinery
7. Keep making units and constantly attack/pressure your opponent with them

If you build those buildings in that order, as quickly as you can, you’ve got all the tools you need to stop an aggressive player. Next you need to know how to use those tools. It should be noted that the units you decide to buy should vary depending on what you scout. But for the sake of simplicity, just build 3-4 Sickles, IFVs, or Tengus.