OpenRA is often called a "simple RTS" when compared to games like StarCraft or Warcraft. However, this description applies exclusively to seasoned players of those games! If you are new, or used to play the original back in 1995, RA is far from simple. Some players think they can "figure things out on their own", looking down at those who simply "follow the meta" instead of devising their own playstyle. While this is certainly possible (e.g. Despro), it is only because they have a strong RTS background and a good understanding of economy, unit control, and positioning. Thus, it is best to build up a solid intuition for the game first before experimenting.

Much of the content here is adapted from the quasi-official OpenRA Academy, as well as guides written by BeTe and edited by (Not) New.

• Com Centre: Communications Centre
• Chrono: Chronosphere
• FC: Forward Command Centre
• Gap: Gap Generator
• IC: Iron Curtain
• Pill: Pillbox
• PP: Powerplant
• Radar/Dome: Radar Dome [Tier 2]
• RAX: Barracks
• REF: Ore Refinery
• SD: Service Depot [Tier 1.5]
• TC: Tech Centre [Tier 3]
• Tesla: Tesla Coil
• WF: War Factory

• Arty: Artillery
• CTank: Chrono Tank
• Demo: Demo Truck
• Engi: Engineer
• Flak (Truck): Mobile Flak
• Flamer: Flamethrower
• Gren: Grenadier
• Harv: Harvester/Ore Truck
• HT/heavy: Heavy Tank
• LT: Light Tank
• MGG: Mobile Gap Generator
• MRJ: Mobile Radar Jammer
• MT: Medium Tank
• Shocky: Shock Trooper
• TTank: Tesla Tank
• V2: V2 rocket launcher 😂

Since we will be discussing hotkeys quite a bit, here is some notation:

• <uppercase letter> denotes a single letter keypress
• <C-X> = ctrl+<X>
• <M-X> = alt+<X>
• <S-X> = shift+<X>
• <left/mid/right> = left/middle/right-click
• <X Y> = <X> followed by <Y>

Shortcuts involving clicking may vary depending on whether you have selected the classic or modern control scheme, with the latter being the default and recommended choice. We will be assuming the use of the modern control scheme from here.

In the build palette on the right, there are a few production categories:

• <E> Buildings
• <R> Defense
• <T> Infantry
• <Y> Vehicles
• <U> Aircraft
• <I> Naval

Use hotkeys to switch between these categories quickly. When construction is complete for either buildings or defences, the corresponding key automatically selects them for placement. This greatly quickens the rate at which you build your base.

• <S-left> queues 5 units at a time.
• <C-left> adds a unit to the front of the queue.
• <mid> cancels a unit production queue without pausing production; likewise, <S-mid> cancels 5 units.
• <right> pauses a unit production queue.
• <C-mid> cancels an entire queue.

When units are selected, you can control them as follows:

• <right> moves them to a location. Units will ignore all enemy units and take the shortest path to their destination.
• <A right> to attack-move them to a location. Units will move to their destination but will stop and attack enemy units en route. In general, never simply move your units; always use attack-move, or else you will have the nasty surprise of watching your entire blob being massacred without your units fighting back.
• <C-A right> to assault-move. Attacks buildings as well as attack moving. Useful for clearing unguarded bases or expansions.
• Holding 'shift' allows for queuing unit commands, such as movement and attack orders.
• <C> (or clicking on the repair wrench in the top right) then <left> on a vehicle will send it to the service depot for repairs. As for buildings, they will gradually self-repair until they reach full health.

An RTS such as Red Alert can be split into two sections: macro and micro. In essence, macro focuses on managing economy and production, while micro is about how individual units are used. It is essential to be proficient in both; without good micro, all your units will be thrown at the enemy and wasted. Without good macro, you will not have any units to begin with.

For macro, you want to ensure you never run out of cash, but "floating" (i.e. having lots of cash) for long periods of time is not good either. It's hard to present any numerical recommendations here, but "you'll get used to it" is the best advice. Exact calculations are available here and here, courtesy of SoScared. Reading them is not really necessary.

The amount of ore on an ore patch matters. On a "dry" mine, harvesters spend a lot of time waiting for ore regrowth, leading to less efficient mining. One truck per dry mine. Full, "juicy" mines can support two harvesters per ore mine. Common beginner mistakes include not transferring harvesters to a new expansion, and not building refineries as close as possible to ore patches: every tick spent travelling is a tick not spent harvesting ore.

Another important thing to note is that having more production makes production faster, up to 7 barracks/helipads/airfields/naval yards/sub pens. The maximum number of facilities is 4 for WFs.

Many newer players think opponents win because of better maneuvers, higher APM or better tactics. But in fact, most of the time, it's macro that has the biggest impact on the outcome of a battle!

Units in OpenRA are simple-minded creatures: unless told otherwise they will not move, firing blindly on the nearest enemy unit. Therefore it is the job of the commander to aid units in overcoming these base instincts and make use of them to their full effectiveness: tanks can be commanded to go forth and crush enemy infantry, artillery (and especially V2s) to target the centre of mass, and pillboxes ordered to prioritise expensive rocket soldiers.

However, as mentioned above, it should be noted that these tactics require extensive clicking. As a new player, you should not place focus on micro. Macro alone can be overwhelming to a player new to RTS. Macro should above all else be prioritised, as it lays down the foundation for the game. While a smaller army can win in the face of a larger but poorly microed force, exceptional skill, far beyond the grasp of a novice, is required to do so. For this reason, many micro tips will only be mentioned later on in this guide.

In Red Alert, you need to produce units to win. To produce units, you need money. To get money, you need refineries and ore trucks at different patches on the map. Thus these builds aim to help you get a second MCV to expand, while setting up sustainable economy and production, in particular infantry production; quoting Orb, "infantry are the damage dealers and your means to kill an opponent. The rest are simply tools. You can win without armour or air. You can't win without infantry."

Also known as the 2ref BO, this opening, in the words of Happy, "allows an early army to be produced to pressure early on. [It allows you to] gain oil derricks, maintain map control, poke at enemy bases, or sit at base and make sure you won't lose to any cheese." Being the most "flexible" and safe build order, it has also become the most popular in the 1v1 scene. However, this dominance has led some, albeit ignorantly, to believe that it is the only build order practiced by competitive players.

• The basic build order is: PP-RAX-REF-REF-PP-WF-REF-SD-PP-RAX-RAX-REF(place at expansion).
• As soon as the barracks is placed, you can build $2200 worth of infantry, that is 18 rifles and an engineer. Rocket soldiers are useless at this stage of the game as there are no tanks out yet.
• After placement of the second refinery, you can build another $1600-2000 of infantry, e.g. 7 rifles and 3/4 rockets. Allied players can also build a medic.
• As soon as the war factory comes online, build a single light vehicle (ranger/LT/flak/APC), followed by two harvesters.
• When the first harvester comes out, you can spamming mass infantry. A ratio of 10:5 (2:1) rifles to rockets is recommended.
• As soon as the second harvester is fresh out of the WF, the SD should also be ready for placement at 03:40. After placing it build an MCV (it should be ready at 04:20) and unlimited medium/heavy tanks.

Kaution has made a useful tutorial on this build.

Abbreviated as wf1st or 1ref, this build is more greedy, having much less income in the hyper-early game (sub 1min) and thus sacrifices early army and map control, but gives a faster MCV (~4min) and potentially better army and economy scaling. This build can be risky as you are vulnerable to rushes; it is therefore recommended to try this only after you are intimately familiar with 2ref.

• The basic build order is: PP-RAX-REF-WF-PP-REF-SD-RAX-RAX-PP-REF(place at expansion).
• You can build only $800-900 worth of infantry, i.e. 4-5 rifles and an engineer. Use them well; don't try to be too aggressive and lose everything.
• Build a pillbox/flame tower but do not place it. Only do so if you get rushed by grenadiers or early rifle spam. If you feel safe you can cancel it in the event you run out of cash to prevent inefficient stalling. In emergencies, harvesters can tank and crush, but with huge opportunity cost... only attempt this build if you know what you're doing.
• Once the WF comes online build 3 harvesters and allocate them to suitable patches. Note that you don't really have time for a light vehicle at first in this build.
• Make sure to place your second refinery on the second ore patch (subject to the map).
• Start spamming infantry when the second refinery is placed.
• The SD should be ready a few seconds before the last harvester. Queue an mcv and MT/HTs after its placement.

After you get your expansion MCV out:

• Move it to the nearest expansion ore patch, usually with two mines. Some maps don't have double-mine expansions but bigger single-mine expansions.
• Place the ref that should be ready as your MCV gets to the expansion. Place it and "slide" two extra harvesters over from your main base.
• Build a powerplant and two barracks.
• Repeat this step again, for a total of 7 barracks (max infantry production).

Additionally, it's recommended to watch casts of good players; a picture is worth a thousand words and a video with explanations is worth much more. Two prominent active channels are Blackend's and FiveAces', with the former being more educational these days. Watch these to get a feel for what players do.

Attacking is an important skill; it's how you win a game after all. Of similar importance is learning to defend from attacks. However one other crucial skill in the game that many newbies miss is the scouting. Without it, it is impossible to know where and when to attack; sending your whole army into a heavily- fortified position is a great way to speedrun the game--losing it that is.

There are two main ways of scouting in OpenRA: active and passive scouting.

This is the "main" form of scouting in this game. Passive scouting involves placing rifle scouts around the map to cover important points where your opponent can come from. The sooner you figure out where your opponent is, the more time you'll have to prepare a defense or counterattack. If there is an attack coming that way, the rifle scout will get killed, but it would have given its life for the valuable information. In the following game example, our defender spotted the army on time and was able to prepare a defense. (TODO)

Active scouting takes more effort but can tell you much more about the opponent's base, tech level, army locations etc. It involves running around with a light vehicle (ranger/flak truck is ideal) and scouting out things. Have good control so as to not lose your scout! This is usually done in the earlygame to find the main army and scout out rushes, but as you get better at multitasking you will find yourself doing this in the midgame as well.

• It may initially seem like a good idea to have "float": more than $2000 credits on hand; more money is good, isn't it? This is actually not the case. Credits have exactly zero use in combat: having an extra tank or two, or an extra radar dome over your opponent, is much better than having an extra thousand or so spare cash sitting in your (unnumbered Swiss) bank account. So if you find yourself floating, build more barracks or tech, or even an extra WF. A prime example of this is on a 1ref build, where you can usually build 3 or even 4 barracks on your first expansion because of the harder eco scaling.