The Soul clan came to life when SoulTaker, Shimi, and Saxon were discussing the idea of creating a clan and were wondering about its name. A light bulb went on in Saxon’s head and he said why don’t we name it the Soul clan. Shimi and SoulTaker of course loved the idea and the Soul clan was born in 2023.
It is a new clan, but given its respect to others and its sense of humor, it gained the trust of prominent players that are as respectful and kind. The names above are presented in unsorted order without anyone having any superiority over the other. All the clan members are equal without anyone claiming leadership or authority. We like it this way and it will stay this way.
The clan have a sense of community and they like the RA game to remain active and prosper. Hence, the clan tends to contribute financially to organize challenges and also to participate when possible, to keep the game interesting.
The clan never claims to be the best clan, and this is not its intension. The clan has strong seasoned players though, that are down to earth, and play to enjoy the game and not to win.
Something you have probably noticed before is that not all good 1v1 players are also good 2v2 players. The reason behind this is when you're in a 2v2 game you're not dealing with 1 player only but instead with 3. One of them is your partner and the game is going to depend a lot on how you two harmonize. For example a football team which depends on one player only even if he's the best player in the world isn't going to accomplish much unless they function together as a whole. Here are a few tips on how to be a good teamplayer:
1) Place your buildings in a way youdon't block your partner. For example if he's back and is trying to build out, give him enaugh space to do so. Also don't block his ore, Always keep at least 2-3 empty spots for his refineries, this way you won't will kill his game flow and he wont get broke later in game.
2) Keep an eye on what the partner is doing. For example you might notice early if he's gonna build or tank. Most of the time if he does an early ore truck then it means he's gonna build. If he's building or tanking you need to adjustyour strategy to increase your chances to win.When you know that your partner usually early rushes make sure to go with him. Its easy to stop a 1 man rush but when 2 are rushing together it will make it harder and you are more likely to destroy cys or other buildings. Sometimes you will be in a situation when your partner blocked your ore or you need something from him but he's in the enemy base already, so dont be stubborn and insist that he gives you ore room in that moment, take action instead and shoot the building that is blocking you with ctrl force shoot.
Know your partner. Some players have a strategy they are most comfortable with and that they use a lot. You will more likely be successful winning the game if you complement him.
3) Don't change strategies when the plan is working. One thing i've seen so many times and annoys me is when two tankers had a successful first rush but the game is not over yet and one of them stops tanking and decides to build. This will give the enemy time to recover. If the rush is working, try to finish the game and dont change strategy just because you've seen some pro's do it in a similar situation, it takes a lot of experience to do the right things at the right time.
4) Take action. If you see your partner has forgot something, then don't just ignore it and depend on him that he'll do it. A good team player will take action where his partner has forgot to. For example in long game if you notice that the back of the base doesnt have a solid defense against chinnook+engenieers attack, don't just ignore it and hope your partner will take care of it.
5) Help your partner when he's in trouble. I dont mean you should only help by than but in such situations he needs support the most so stop what you're doing and help him out. Remember when your partner is getting migged or helicoptered and he's having trouble recovering, the first thing to do is to help him by doing air defense. Dont expect him to take care of it alone. Trust me helping your partner out will more likely lead you to a win than by a 2v1.
6)Have a plan. If you know who's gonna be your partner, talk before game about the strategy.
7) No offense but if your partner is more pro than you then its better to wait and see what he's upto and follow his lead.
8)Don't blame your partner if you lose its just bad sports and it wont help anyone improve. If he's done something wrong you can instead pm him and try to figure out what you both could do better next time.
9) Learn by watching pro 2v2 games. Watch exactly what the pro's are doing and when they're doing it (timing is king).
10) Become an Allrounder.Some super pro's claim that being a pro tanker and Qer is all you need to win in all situations. It's true that two elite tankers will most of the time defeat a team in which one is building from start. But imo this applies mostly to builders who can't tank. Hybrid builds are a lot harder to stop and are better than tanking alone, it takes more than just tanking skills to beat allround opponents. A hybrid build consists of a mix of tanking and building (teslas and tanks) but more on that in another tutorial.
Remember that being a pro 2v2 player isnt only a subject to following certain rules, it takes a lot of practice and experience.
[Originally published: 10/23/2016; language was slightly corrected and layout overworked by rusty – not all links work after all the time]
DancoCro5 / ***ORA-Danco*** / |NC|-danco
Im started playing Red Alert online 2007 at xwis, was playing only Aftermath. One year later seven and ehy call me on tunngle, and thats place where it all began. Beginning was very hard for me, big change was from Aftermath to become a good player in Red Alert. There was some pople who was already pro: Ehy, Hit, ORA-Turret, Dai-Tensai (Katsh), Herm... Im was learn most from ehy, we do all maps 1 vs 1. Or im ask him im defend you only tank ok? Ya ofc he said np. Then we do it, most times he approach with hi s tanks, but later it increasingly difficult passing. Im starting to stop him few times. Im mean stop in game wich im ask to do, coz wanna improve defence: Im becoming better every day playing with him, he also show me block build on hjk lock entrance with 2 baracks (engy back no need tanks really), few infantry must be in front, and rocketman back. Really great stuff. Im becoming good playing with him.
Later some people come at tunngle: zizo, schmuudi, paWc, and others. Was really happy time: zizo, seven, pawc, schmuudi and me play every day many hours, was about 2 year.
We never say anything bad to each other. Im calling schmuudi every time to team me, so we practice together long time. We become really great team, started to take out many pros from Kali, which is Seven thought it was impossible to win,we just did it first! Seven becoming great tanker later.
Im was wining him many games at ribbon, then he start improving. Started to beat me hes tanks become stronger than mine. Then im refuse to tank anyone, just stop use it and become builder only. Ehy was happy to see tunngle team started to beat kali players. Was really nice to see 2 server Kali-Super pros and Tunngle mostly "new players": but have {Ehy}, schmuudi, seven, zizo and me who improving very fast. Its easy to improve fast when you had ehy as teacher. Schmuudi become real pro so fast when we team, we perfect understand each other in game, not chat much during game, its so strange, but everything did so great like we are using Voice chat:) Thats why im like play with him, no need tell anything, he does everything perfect. Its very bad I had many videos we team before but hard disc, just stop working, im was carried it everywhere but its totally broken. That not mean "tunngle team" died:), we still can be top, but need really play a lot, there some people become really good at p4. Im really never rusty at ribbon, V3 Rushdown, 4c, any gem maps. But P4 need play a lot just to catch speed wich use to have before, especially at building.
When you block with barracks like this it give u extra time to made everything u need, for successful defense. Im change build order many times but this is Im believe one of the best, coz u dont need made any tank, if you do build like this, your partner is only who need to made tanks. Be sure you make some rifle infantry in front of barracks, it can be dangerous if you dont have em. Also can see that rocketman are safe there=Tanks cant crush them.
Tell partner to make more rifle, he dont need rocketman and engy. Never both try make engineer. It can be really confused coz, you wont know what are yours, and you will failed in repair. There can see only dangerous place is building that could be destroyed is partner (Muaddib) War Factory.Its ok if that is destroyed with enemy tanks, but dont let it be destroyed with their infantry. Enemy tanks wont take out war factory so quick, so builder have enuf time to setup tesla defence. Also that 2 or 3 engineer send behind enemy War Factory can help a lot, it is possible to get out undamaged buildings, if just use engineer (im failed this time xD), better and that is almost 75% of wining a game. Its all about practice enuf.
Only covered and inaccessible Tesla is STRONG TESLA. Never put tesla on place where enemy can reach and destroy it easy. Barracks and dog houses is strongest buildings to block entrance.
Very important is made good block, it allow you to made few advanced power then start make Tesla. If you make 1 or 2 big power, you will go "tesla coil offline" and you will neeed scrool down, and up to made power. It take some time and its not good if you wanna made strong defence, and survive tank rush. Thats why rocketman is there to made some extra time.
In video can see build order, im didnt change it few years.
Here you can see how im do that before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=230RPoJs6OM
Thanks Herm for record this game:)
What I can do beter in this game:
Can go out faster, especially if they germs you need to be fast with build+tesla out with tank support of partner.
Its very big mistake if your partner is soviet and he start build, after you both stop enemy rush.
Then push on land stop. Its harder to push alone two germs. It made enuff time for enemy to made cruisers, and then you are in real trouble. Also better option than this is 5 or 6 mcv, then start make tanks to make stronger attack on land.Transport can help a lot, but its risky if u failed, probably lost game. Best option if enemy is germs is win fast on land.
Also good strategy is when partner do coop build it help if you are sure they will tank you. It mean he insta start build cy, and made flames to block entrance, Rocketman must be behind flames. Make flames nonstop, when you see they stop tanking you make other stuff: rafinery, warz, cy, etc...
It was originaly used by Schmuudi whos best player at coop, im use it also after coop with him many games. Later Colo copy-paste it:) It can really help stop any tankers.
Most important after you and your partner stop tank rush (with any possible build order, which you choose) to be fast in counterattack-push, only if enemy is germs. If enemy is soviet, you can relax:?:)
[Originally published: 02/15/2017 – It is regrettable, that the hyperlinked youtube vids aren't available any longer.]
This guide to the psychology of Red Alert is meant to illustrate the importance of the multitude of psychological components that effect game play of our beloved Red Alert Command and Conquer. Things like attitude and psychological warfare can have just as significant of an impact on winning or losing games as strategic mechanical game play strategies.
I could have wrote “Fluffy’s pro guide”, however I did not, because fluffy is not a pro yet, and would not dare lecture others on how to be one. Fluffy has however, over a relatively short period of time, became less noobish. Follow these simple instructions and you too can become less of a noob too!
Fluffy’s Easy guide to Hotkeys and Bookmarks
Too much hassle and work to try and start using hotkeys and bookmark? Think you’ll never get it. It will take too long? Fluffy has the answer. This is by far, the easiest, simplest, quickest, and most effective method of using your hotkeys and bookmarks, and best part is, you don’t have to be a genius or have 8 fingers on each hand (like _dany does ;P). But let’s get one thing straight before we begin. BOOKMARKS AND HOTKEYS ARE THE KEY TO BECOMING “LESS NOOB”. By far. You might even become a pro! :D
But it is true that the more you play the game on your keyboard and less with your mouse, the better you’ll be. The easy answer is because it is quicker, and in this game, time = advantage. The sooner you start doing this, the sooner your game will improve. Don’t wait or put it off to learn, you should really start implementing these changes as soon as you finish reading this, otherwise you will kick yourself when you eventually learn that I was right and you wasted all this time still playing the old way. As Lao-Tzu says in the Tao Te Ching, the journey of a thousand miles begins with 1 step.
HOTKEYS
The ability to produce, group, and call, and send tanks (or infantry) is a crucial component of the game. This requires the following formula: W, E, R, Cntrl 1, Shift1, and then Q. This is the sequence needed to master the Gold medal challenge and become a pro tanker. However, for most of us, it is just too hard to get your pinky finger to go all over the place and hit 1, you will know what I’m talking about if you have tried to do this. So fluffy had to find another way. Follow these mods exactly, and you will have no problem in no time!
1.You must download the Sharpkeys program (https://sharpkeys.codeplex.com/). Don’t worry, it’s not a cheat program or anything like that. All it does is allow you to change the configuration of your keyboard. In this case, we are going to change your number 2 to Control, and your number 4 to shift. Please be advised: you will not be able to type the number 2 or 4 from now on, you will have to spell them out (like two and four) because your keys will be changed. DON’T WORRY, you can always change them back to normal if you like. Nothing is permanent.
Once you do this, the sequence will look like this: W, E, R, 2, 3, 4, 3, and then Q. Place your fingers here and what do you notice?!? I’ll tell you what you should notice: 2,3,4 is right above W,E,R. Which makes it the most efficient, ergonomical method to do shift stacking. After a week of playing like this, it will be like playing the piano. Beautiful sounds of your fingers gliding along the keyboard will signal the bitter defeat of your enemies which you previously could not beat.
In this case, you will be grouping your tanks into group 3, instead of 1. My recommendation is to practice the gold medal challenge at least twice per gaming session (whenever you log on to CNCNET). Eventually you will find it easier to incorporate it into your regular games. Later on, if you require a second group for things like MCV formation, I like to use group 5.
BOOKMARKS
You only really need two bookmarks. W and R. One for your base, the other for the front line/battle line.
If you start on the left side of the map, on RASTA for example, you will scroll over your base and press 4, W (which is actually Shift W). This will set your bookmark so that whenever you press W, it will take you back to your base. Similarly the battle line would be R, so you would go to the battle line and press 4 R (which is actually Shift R). This will set your bookmark so that whenever you press W, it will take you to the battle line. That way, when you press WER, this is actually what is happening: pressing W gets you back to your home base (where your war factory is), E will select all units (tanks) on the screen (make sure you set your bookmark so that only your tanks are being selected, and not your ore trucks for example), and R returns you to the battle line. And then of course the next part is pressing 2,3,4,3. This groups all your tanks into group #3.
Zig when they Zag
This refers to a concept known as “oppositional perceptual salience”. Basically it’s knowing what your opponent knows, or is looking at, and then doing damage where he IS NOT looking at.
So for example if you are engaged in a tesla V2 battle with your opponent and you see that he is constantly putting up teslas by the second, you know he is viewing that part of the map only (unless is resolution is so high he can see the whole map – but most people don’t play with such a high resolution, and even if they do they can still miss things). This allows you to go to work on a different part of the map where he is not looking to do some damage. Here is where the bookmarks come in handy. Use either W for your main battle front, and R for your secondary front where you are surprising the living shit outta him. The speed that bookmarks gives you here is invaluable. It will allow you to very quickly work on two different battles at once. You can tell very quickly if your opponent uses bookmarks because if he can’t, he will not be able to keep up with both battle fronts at the same time like you do. An example of this can be see the following famous and glorious video of [fluffy-DP] VS [Saul-DP] at around 13:35 mins.
Notice how fluffy slowly demolishes his forces by switching levels (top to bottom). Most opponents cannot handle the continual moving north to south of their forces. It’s essentially a divide & conquer strategy. It wears down their forces over time.
Ore Refinery Spam
The ore refinery spam method works well if you even find yourself in a situation of facing a wall of V2’s that you just can’t penetrate. Note, this method only works well if you have full or close to full cy build speed, because ore ref’s take a while to build (but not if you’re at full speed ;). It works well for the following reasons:
- They set up a base point. Which allow you to build additional structures nearby, like teslas or flames. In other words they get you closer to the action/your opponent.
- They buy you time. Ore refineries have a relatively good building security, meaning that it takes a lot of hits to destroy them. While your enemy’s firepower is concentrated on trying to destroy them, that also means that their firepower is not spent on your units or structures. This can buy you precious time if you need to pump out tanks or V2’s or start CY’ing.
- Ore truck as a kamikaze missle. You can send the ore truck into your opponent’s wall of V2’s, thuskilling, or at the very least creating splash damage to his V2’s because V2’s as you know fire automatically (same with teslas).
The following video show this method at work: @ 12:52
Social Facilitation and Social Inhibition
Within the domain of social psychology exists two phenomenon’s which have been extensively studied and contain cross situational consistency in terms of replicability. Social facilitation and social inhibition are the processes by which someone either plays (anything, basketball, football, video games, chess) better or worse depending on whether there is an audience or not.
Social facilitation occurs when someone plays better due to the presence of others watching. However this only occurs if the person has a solid skill set of the game he is playing. If he is a noob, or not confident in his abilities, social inhibition will occur and the person will play worse due to the presence of others.
Why is this important? Just something to consider and keep in mind if your about to embark on a game with a room full of specs. Further, the number of specs, and their status within the RA community are also influencing factors on your gameplay, whether you know it or not.
My Social Psychology prof used to tell us 3 things effect performance when you have spectators:
1.The proximity (i.e.… How close they are to you. So if you are giving a presentation in a close knit setting like a class, or in a lecture hall, or perhaps a farther away situation like a stadium or better yet on skype - how close the audience is can have an impact).
2.The status of the audience (i.e. You will probably be more stressed/nervous if you have to give a presentation in front of the president than if you were to give one in front of your mom).
3.The amount of people spectating (i.e. You will probably be more nervous giving a presentation in front of 100 people rather than 5).
PRO VS NOOB MENTALITY
This includes things like how you deal with things like losing, or better yet, winning. The noob will be tempted to gloat at their winnings, and hide their loses. They may even get angry when they lose, rage quit, and/or act inappropriately to those whom they lost to. This is maladaptive to the long term well being of the player for the following reasons:
- A wise player recognizes that he can learn and improve from every loss (see later section on recording games). They realize they can not only learn from their own mistakes, but also vicariously through others successes/wins.
- A foolish player feeds their ego when they win, thus making it even more important to win games in the future, so as to not damage their now fragile ego that is in need of constant defending (perpetual cycle).
Pros refer to themselves as noobs for many reasons:
1. They recognize they still have lots more to learn about the game, and can always improve.
2. If they lose, no worries, because they admit they are a noob. If they win, how much worse is that for their opponent who got beat by a "noob". It’s a win win situation, you can never lose if you refer to yourself as a noob.
-Finally, on the topic of trolls: Noobs feed trolls, pros rise above them by ignoring them, or alternatively laying the occasional smack down in the main lobby when it is necessary to teach the noobs in a tactful way.
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
Psyching your opponent out before a game even begins can be an effective way to tip the scales in your favor. This is known as the art of shit talking. Especially effective if you can identify insecurities within your opponent’s demeanor which you can exploit. For example, if you notice your opponent always making excuses for losing by saying things like "Sorry I was on the phone", "my mouse stopped working" or "you cheated", you can safely assume their loss effected them. You may take advantage of this knowledge by pointing this out to them by saying something like "U mad bro?" or "you really don’t like losing do you..??"
Of course the list of possible things to say to get under your opponents skin pre game is endless. Some common topics include their laggyness/inferior internet connection, shitty country in which they live (be careful not to cross the line into racism here), their name, their clan, their mother, or calling them out in the main room which forces those with ego to defend it
(Note: This last one will not work with those who have a pro mentality, as they have no ego to defend, as they realize winning and losing are part of the same coin, and occur just as spontaneously as the tides coming in and out, now becoming then, day becoming night, here becoming there - see first section).
Conversely, there is another type of psychological manipulation that can utilized here that plays on the opposite end of the spectrum. You can downplay your abilities and skills, thus bringing down your opponents guard (and therefor won't try as hard because he thinks you are a noob). This is the best strategy. Some things you can say to signal that you are a noob include: “you will win, I’m a noob”, or "how do you talk in game??" "How do people build so many tanks". As the Taoist masters say "What you want to destroy, you must first allow it to flourish. What you want to take from, you must first truly give". The soft overcomes the hard, the weak overcomes the strong. This is the way of the ancients.
CLANS VS NATURAL ALLIANCES
There is no good reason to join a clan. Joining a clan is a natural tendency for those who are interested in promoting ego and propping up identity politics. Social hominid species such as Homo sapiens have evolved to be a "coalitional species" and form in-group/out-group factions. So it is natural to want to join a group and identify with them, especially if they are high in status among the RA community. However, the wise man will jettison any clan identifications for the following reasons:
1. You show your hands before the game even begins. When you are in a room about to play, other players look at your name and automatically know you are of above average skill level
(Depending on the clan, lol). This is valuable information, as they may then decide to jointly attack and destroy you first, as you are the greatest threat. The element of surprise in terms of what your skill level has been lost.
2. You should be able to make alliances and coalitions with other players naturally, without sticking an abbreviation in front of your name. This is sometimes referred to as "making friends", something which can be foreign to many online players. Use your friend list so you can see when they are online, and invite them to play with you. Easy. Align yourself with those who are willing to teach you and help you learn on your journey as a RA player.
3. Being part of a clan adds extra, unneeded, pressure to your games, as you are representing your clan, and (hopefully) don’t want to embarrass your clan’s reputation. Again, if you have no ego or name to defend, losing no longer matters, and you are free to engage in your winnings and loses without taking a psychological hit. If you doubt this, just look at all the bickering that goes on (even on this blog) about whose clan is the best. There are a number of pages solely dedicated to "clan rankings". If that is not about ego, I don’t know what is. Think deeply about this one before spewing out a counter argument why you justify joining a clan.
4. There is, of course, one exception to all of the above, and that is the Dark Pumas (DP) clan. We all know that they are the best clan, with the best leader, and the best members, so naturally they are exempt from all above criticisms of clan life.
MASTERING A MAP
Of course the end goal is to be a well-rounded RA player that can play on any map, with allies or soviets. However, starting off by mastering a map that you like and learning to play it well can give you confidence in the beginning stages of your development and allow you progress at a steady pace. Learn all the strategies that can be played on that map, where the blind spots are, how to use natural elements of the map to block opponent etc. It has often been said that it is preferential to "be a master of one, rather than average at all".
RECORDING GAMES
It is advisable to record every game you play, and review them at the end of your evening of playing. You don't have to watch them all through, but the games you lost, make sure to see where the tipping point was, where the tides shifted to where you started losing the game. Think of ideas you might try next time in a similar situation. Ask pros what they would do in that situation. Recording games is important because if you don’t know what your mistakes are, you can’t improve or fix them.
A good program is Bandicam. Their trail download will let you record the first 10 minutes of your games. $40 will get you unlimited recording. Highly worth it. There are other programs out there, some for free. Contact the ever so frugal Andrew Ford for recommendations, I know he uses a free program :P
It is recommended that you move your scroll rate to the third bar from the left. It is essential to have a fast scroll rate so you can scout and get to different parts of the map quickly. It has been said to go 1 scroll ahead of where you are comfortable at, so that you will get used to it and automatically adjust.
Fluffy’s custom hotkey setup
Here you will find the best hotkey setup to accompany your W, E, R, 2, 3, 4, 3, Q method. All the keys are close by your home row of WER. Space bar is purposely set as Q because in the heat of battle u need to be able to rely on gross motor skills, thus the space bar is big and hard to miss if you desperately need to Q someone/something. Thanks for checking out my guide, don’t forget to subscribe to fluffy tube for all the latest and greatest Red Alert matches! https://www.youtube.com/user/sylviabombs15/videos
History and Mindset:Let me tell you something about Nasty, this is a Redalert brand that nobody has at this moment! It was formed back in 2018 and it was initially built around the only remaining player of the Red Alert Holy Trinity (ehy, nate, atom1): NastyNate aka FatherRavel, who started playing the game in 2005.
One day, a young peruvian talent named Dolche, asked Nate if he could use the Nasty tag. Nate agreed and Nasty was born.
This clan's got everything the Red Alert palette has to offer: savage rushers, strong hand builders, experienced old wolves, mega tankers, creative players, you name it.
It has remained 1 of the only serious clans through the last 10 years. A few clan hoppers have come and go, but Nasty's strong vertebral column has remained intact. Some people attribute this fact to the maturity of their players (most of them are pretty old) and their inner peace of mind. In fact, one of the main mottos of the clan is that it's a group of cool and respectful people (except sometimes MuadDib, he kinda loses his temper with noobs and trolls, but he has come a long way trying to be a nicer individual).
So yah, that's what Nasty's all about: a bunch of chill people who share their passion for the game. Through the years they have also been known as RAM-killers, due to the enormous amount of games won vs their "smaller bro" clan. [/Nastynate]
Historically, meaning some years ago, there have been published already some memes on the old afo/guides-page. Some were made by thunder and others by c.bravo. To conserve them, they are copy pasted followingly.
