Guide to 3vs3's/Clan Wars [Version 0.2]

Let me start by saying that this is a mere guide. You cannot become good by just using a decent opening. In a 1 vs 1 vs most of you, I could probably do nothing for the first turn, and have you do your "good" opening, and I'd still win. Skill is gathered on your own, on your own time, by yourself. Put yourself at odds, try to win when you have no chance. Only this way can you get better.

When you begin reading this I expect you to be at least rank 4 with a grasp of game controls and how to efficiently use your different units. There will be many rank 6's, 7's and even 8's that lack understanding. But there are "basics" guides elsewhere, and I'm not here to teach you how to wall. Your coalition members should teach you what you do not know.

That said, my entire guide has been up in my coalition forums for nearly a year. I'll update the outdated stuff and put it back on there, but for now all of the expansions are removed. So just read the information of this first post and go out there and practice, learn from your own coalition leaders/officers.

Maybe suggest what you want added to the guide.








Upgrades

You must head for these upgrades immediately, skip everything else to be competitive:

#1 - Air Transport Capacity
#2 - Faster Infantry - The most important upgrade, ever. Get it.
#3 - Air Transport Capacity II
#4 - Cheaper Infantry - Most expensive unit upgrade for a reason. Get it.

If you do not have these, you are not playing at the top of your game. I'm going to assume you can figure out what other upgrades to get with your clan mates. Ask them. They are there to help you.

And for when you have all the above three, and some of the strategies/other upgrades you want, to play in an advance game you might want these:
#4 - General: Movement Range
#5 - General: Infantry Attack
#6 - General: Tank Attack
#7 - General: Bomber Attack

Here is a link to all the upgrades and their costs:

http://atwar-game.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=6309




Strategies

Perspective Note: This advice is from an elite player perspective. Some of you may enjoy the strategies that I list as being bad. You will grow into this same attitude when you begin to become a competent player.

Competitive Use Strategies:

Imperialist - IMP - Cheap and can stack much more defence and attack than other strategies if you have lots of spawn points.
Sky Menace - SM - The most versatile strategy ever. You can attack with huge power wherever you want, and can travel/expand fast.
Perfect Defence - PD - This is THE strategy of today. It is the most well-rounded, and perfect strategy at the moment. It is OP and you should learn it.
Guerrilla Warfar - GW - The come-back strategy. Requires almost all the standard upgrades AND the marine upgrades. So most of you won't be able to play it correctly until you've gotten to rank 8ish. Late game strategy, possibly the most powerful out of all.
Iron Fist - IF - Attack and Defence is immense, but you are fenced in by your short range. This is almost in the next category, but it only requires you to be disciplined. Another late game strategy, can top GW when played correctly.

Used Only When You Get Good:
Master Of Stealth - MOS - You get this early as a noob. You think it's great since you have good powerful units. But once you have upgrades it isn't a short-range power strategy. It is too expensive and doesn't give a defence bonus, so you get torn apart by the competitive strategies. However it CAN be a force to be reckoned with. Marines +1 range is very good for decent openings and travel, but it's too expensive, and thus not used by the best players.
Naval Commander - NC - You can't really use this even semi-good until you've reached maturity in AW. By maturity I mean you can use every other strategy. This can be powerful in the fact that its transports can travel as far as air transports, and for almost 1/3 the cost. Infantry, Marines, Transports, and of course Destroyers are this strategies main units. For land targets, infantry in transports, specially when chained together, are immensely powerful.
Great Combinator - GC - The most powerful strategy with lots of money. You can attack with the power of SM stealths, and defend with near PD infantry.
Desert Storm - DS - Powerful when you have lots of money. Its Marines make it so you can do magical openings since they have +1 range, and marines will die last since their helicopters have more attack and defence than marines. It was nerf'ed without any talk or announcement, so it has been downgraded and it is not a competitive strategy.

"None" - Seperate from the rest. It isn't good but doesn't have any drawbacks, and if you have lots of money to start(like in a 15k+ match) you can use this over Imperialist.

Do NOT use at ANY time:
Tank General - TG - Simply no. Sure you can attack, but you can't hold anything, and tanks are still expansive. Your Infantry are expansive and weak. Do not use this strategy. Use PD instead. Do not use this.
Blitzkrieg - Blitz - This probably the best of the bottom three, and can be dangerous long range and for surprise attacks, or when your opponent doesn't know what strategy you are. Otherwise this is exactly like TG, you can't hold what you take and can be easily routed in your advance. Do not use this.
Lucky Bastard - LB - Just... just don't use this. That is all.
Hybrid Warfare - HW - Can be decent in a world game but otherwise is useless in 3vs3s. It can't hold up against anything early game, and other strategies are far more powerful late game.





Clan Wars & 3 VS. 3's

Note: This part is not to be combined with the rest of the thread, this is a guideline to show what strategies to use to be competitive. In your other games go ahead and play DS/Blitz to try things out, but if you want to win, use these.

Clan Wars are for when you've become competitive with the above summaries. 3 vs 3's are practice FOR clan wars. That is ALL they are. Play them. Become better. Become good. (they are also good for pwning high ranks who think they're good)

The two Red must be the first pick; the 3 orange must be your second picks, and the yellow is what you will choose last if you can't get any of the orange.




This is in order of what you should be using, so the first one or two strategies is the preferred strategy.


Turkey - Imperialist, Perfect Defence - Depends on who you are against, PD for a max rush, Imp for a long game of attrition. Imp is by far the stronger though.
Ukraine - Sky Menace, Perfect Defence, Guerrilla Warfare -> Every strategy works with Ukraine. Just these are the strongest when it comes to it.

Germany - Perfect Defence, Iron Fist, Guerrilla Warfare, Imperialist -> Perfect Defence is too powerful now, so it's obviously first. But for Offence and lategame IF and GW are strongest by far.
United Kingdom - Perfect Defence, Iron Fist, Imperialist -> PD for the most well-rounded game. IF for a game you know will be long, as its offence stacks and stacks with its HP.
Spain - Perfect Defence, Sky Menace, Great Combinator -> PD is still powerful enough for the rush of Rome, but GC is actually stronger for the initial rush. SM is very reliable as well.

France - Perfect Defence, Iron Fist -> The rest of the strategies are too costly to use, these are the only two that can survive and dominate if played right.
Italy - Perfect Defence -> Being the direct target for Turkey and Spain is harsh. You will get run over by 80 units very easily. It is playable though, and can garner some advantages in a 3vs3 by just scaring Germany's/Turkey's expansions.