nice guide.
Briefly:
Comming is about placement of tech, as much as anything else.
In my mind placement wins or loses any given game more often than tech does. The obvious stepping stones where this is not the case:
ballis. repeaters, frenzy/sac, summs, then lesser but still rather important: medkits(point of contention, but your team can survive til well into lvl 2 without meds) reloc, carn and to an extent: behe, shamen (Shamen are included because still noone knows how to use them properly, but when used well, totally tip the balance late game because of gold issues and pushing power)
but i digress.
Building rotations:
Arsenal: put the stack into the mountain, it has a roof which typically stops any beasts trying to leap over the mountain for it. Bear in mind that the other side is deceptive in that it doesnt actually provide a wall around the most exterior edges, and the wall starts half way down it. Stick a tower on an angle into it.
Research Centre: Beasts easily leap over the frilly edges, particularly the ones at a 45degree angle from centre, make sure you either block the edges off with a tower. Be wary that RC's on a hill provide an easy way for beasts to enter your base.
Mag: can be leapt over from the side with the stick on it
Elec: can be leapt over from either of the longer sides
Chem: can be scaled via the centre 'chute' between the two circular tubs.
Siege: good for blocking as a wall, given the right angle, can be used against a mountain as well
Monastery: seriously, why are you building a monastery (except on momentum)
Garrison: hazardous on a hill given the back parts can be easily leapt on, if you can place it at the top of a hill, it can provide an excellent wall.
I wouldve liked to see some standard builds, my current favourite is isoroku's SH build, where 4 towers seal a shield against the SH, and you spawn next to the shield. simple and effective - also lets you choose the direction that you want your team to spawn in with a gar (or gars)
beast:
nexus: useful to wall, hazardous against a hill,
arcana: probably one of the best wall's that a beast can have (imo)
strata: also rather good, can be climbed from the base end
fire: can be scaled, also has a pocket that a lego can hide inside should they get on top of it.
charm: excellent to wall with, can be placed inside a hill to some degree. careful that you dont leave it exposed to siege though
sanctuary: decent wall, generally is built last though.
generally with beast: try to stick 1 end of a building firmly into another. if you are in doubt - build an arcana there ^.^
Basic counters:
Tier 1:
strata > chem
elec > strata, ent
chem rush > fire rush
fire > elec
fire > mag
ent < *
Tier 2
mag > *
Small maps: elec > strata, ent(due to reloc and meds, flux>surge)
Large maps elec < *
chem < *
Fire > elec
Strata > elec, chem (large maps)
Ent > chem, elec(large maps)
Tier3:
Humans by this stage you will have mag and elec. I went through a period of mag->chem, but relocs are too powerful in terms of time on field (not waiting to respawn) unless its a very small map, or there is a perilously close sub (balis are generally better anyway)
Beast: by this time you should have strata and one other tech line. basically as long as you have rabid and frenzy balanced teams will work themselves out.
Resigning:
Personally I do this a lot (possibly too much) Dont bother your team for 1 lego, or 1 bali if you are 90% sure of a kill, try to shift click the intruder so that when he dies (if you kill him) people know not ot return to base (command completed) v14 also works quite well, although you may get mixed responses from your team.
I find that it is generally quicker to resign and kill somoene/something(gate) yourself; be aware that if you do resign, you can have your seat stolen, or worse- if you fail in killing the intruder - your workers lost, or your shield killed.
Buff people:
watch for the right moment to firebuff a pred, or elec a lego (my fave is right after a block) watch for someone being outnumbered and shield them; or heal a shaman. Often the most useful players who can stop a push are people who do not usually buff.
Conversely - dont be afraid to 1v1 buff someone who can possibly disable your team. Killing a dangerous player before they have access to your workers is better than giving them the access on fair terms. The buff pool is there to protect your assets, not to be nice.
Saying that: be sportsmanlike with your buffs. Making someone ragequit because they are constantly being buffed kinda sucks, and it's a lame attitude. That doesnt mean that one awesome player who is singlehandedly stopping your advance shouldnt be buffed - but more that if he is controlling a lane, buffing him every time your team pushes that lane is unkind to him (or her!)
Draw:
draw shit on the map. it rocks, and is a great way of imparting information - single incoming enemies, bali's, subs etc.
I try to use triangles for subs, but no real standard colour scheme. Often X for do not go somewhere or to identify a destroyed spawn gar/sub, circles and lines to mark where people should spawn and head towards.
I may add more later, nice guide tho rip, gj :>
