Frequently asked questions

1. How do you build so fast? (the most common question)

a) The starting building order: MCV, power plant, barracks, ore refinery, war factory, advanced power plant. Once this is done, keep building ore refineries and war factories until you have a large (e.g. 30 -40) number of tanks. No radar, no tech centre, etc. they are a waste of valuable time and money.

b) As soon as the first war factory is built, start building tanks (heavy for Soviets and light for Allies). Don't stop building tanks unless you are short on money, in which case build more ore refineries, not even while you are attacking, especially not! When your first attack has been killed and killed all the enemy tanks, you can attack with the new ones you just built and finish him off.

c) The more war factories you have the faster tanks build, 6 is about maximum speed.

It's that simple, just keep building, no pauses. Try it out and see, l predict you'll win more games using these tactics than you will any other way.

2. How come you seem to know where all the gems are / the map so well?
This is a simple trick, stick to maps you know, and get to know them really well. I used to play a quick game against the computer as Allies and get GPS, then l would take a screen shot and print out the radar part. Then when l played l would know exactly where everything on the map is.

3. How did you find my base so quickly?
The enemy base is always diagonally opposite your own base.

4. How long have you been playing Red Alert to become so good?
I think it's been about 5 years now.

5. How do l make my own map?
When you installed Red Alert you automatically installed a map editor program. If you goto your start menu and go into the Red Alert folder there should be a shortcut to the map editor. This program is very simple, you create your map, then save it. To play the map open Red Alert and goto skirmish, your map will be at the very bottom of the list.

6. What is a nurple map?
A nurple map is made much the same way as a normal map using the map editor. The only difference being the fact that the .ini file has been tampered with. This file allows you to make changes to units in the game, for example a rifleman could have the firepower of a V2 rocket or a mammoth tank moves at the speed of an APC.

7. Were is the cheapest place to buy a copy of Red Alert 2?
coming soon in the new shopping section

8. What's this online tournament l hear so much about?
Westwood run an online tournament with players from all over the world competing against each other. To play you must use Westwood Chat software and sign up at Westwood for a username and password, goto the links page for a link direct to the signup form. The basics behind how the tournament works are:

Each player has a rank as detailed in the ranking ladders (see links page). Players play a tournament game against each other in Westwood Chat, the result is recorded by Westwood. If you win your rank increases and decreases if you lose. If a high ranking player is beaten by a low ranking player, their rank decreases a lot, and the low ranking players increases a lot. If a high ranking player beats a low ranking player, then their rank will only increase marginally, and the low ranking player will only decrease marginal.

On the 1st of every month the ranking ladders are reset, and all players ranks return to 0. The trick is to play a fairly high ranking player you think you can beat for your first game of the month. This will give you a good starting rank.

The highest ranking players receive prizes (only if they lived in certain countries, inl. UK and some US) at the end of each month. When l played tournament games a lot, the prizes were copies of their latest software, PC's, modems and all kinds of good stuff. Now sadly they have reduced the "featured grand prize" to a calendar. So l guess it's just the satisfaction of knowing you're the best in the world that drives people to get to rank 1 now.

9. When people ask for an ore truck treaty before a game starts what do they mean?
They want a mutual agreement that ore trucks will not be attacked during the game. Be wary some players do not stick to these.

10. When people ask for an attack time limit before a game starts what do they mean?
They want a period of time at the beginning of the game where you are no allowed to attack each other, to allow for building time.

11. Will you play against me and let me know what l am doing wrong?
Yes. Either find me in Westwood Chat, my username is RAtips. Or you can email me ratips@email.com and ask me to arrange a time and date for a game, and let me know what map you want to play on. (Note: l am on GMT, please specify which time zone you are in)

12. What is your favourite map and why?
I play Combat Zones a lot simply because it is a mega map (l rarely play any other size), it has lot's of gems and ore and it is not dominated by ocean as l prefer land and air battles. I also play a lot of maps l've made myself. Email me and request copies if you like.

13. When people ask for a resign only deal before a game, what do they mean?
They want you to agree that you will only resign from the game and not abort, this is very important in tournament games. Aborting is hated by the online community and can cause problems with PC's crashing and people refusing to play you. The reason is that aborting does not finish the game for the player left behind, the computer assumes the player who aborted. This change does not always work and one or both PC's can crash and it counts as a disconnection on your behalf on the ranking ladders. Resigning is the ONLY way to completely finish a game early without all units being killed.

14. What's the difference between the difference sides you can play?
Quite simply each side has a small advantage as detailed below, make up your own mind as it isn't really a noticeable difference. Main decision is Allies or Soviets.
Allied England - 10% better armour
Allied Germany - 10% more powerful firepower
Allied France - 10% faster firing rate
Soviet Ukraine - 10% faster units
Soviet Russia - 10% cheaper units and buildings

15. Which side is best Soviets or Allies?
Neither! It all depends on which side you are best at exploiting the benefits of. For example if you know all the Soviet tips under the sun, and only a few Allied ones, then Soviet is best for you, however the other way round and it's Allies. In my opinion l find Allies to be the best because of their speed, this is the deciding factor in most games. The light tanks are so fast at firing and moving they wipe out the Soviet heavy tanks easily in open ground and even numbers.

16. Are there any cheats for Red Alert?
Officially there are no cheats for Red Alert. But, there are some bugs in the game which can be exploited and therefore are called cheats. For example when you group a slow unit like a crusier with a fast unit like a transport, and then put the group in formation, they both move at the fast speed. More info on the cheats page.