Hello,
I am aware that, in the past, some have created guides for new users, but I would like to make a detailed guide for both macro and micro for any new players having trouble. If you're having difficulty with getting above 1300-1400, follow these steps.

When you are playing, the primary goal in the beginning (especially on short maps) is to focus on tower control. If you don't already know, if you use place a unit next to the tower, a red bar will begin to come to your side. Once it is on your side completely, it will disappear. This signifies that you are now in control of the tower, which means you get 20 gold every few seconds. This is actually quite good--equivalent to 1.9 miners--so it is a very good bonus to have.

To take the tower, begin with buying 1 Archidon and 1 Swordwrath, or 1 Archidon and 1 Miner. These, in my opinion, are the best starts, for they both hold a good army power, and (the latter especially) have a decent economy, as well. Try to overwhelm their forces, and push them back. You can then capture the tower with your Swordwrath or Archer, giving you an economic bonus so that you can focus on a stronger army.

This will work well in the 1200-1400 stages; just remember to build up more archers and swords, (while buying miners) and remember to try as hard as possible to obtain control of the tower. At about 8 miners, put 2-3 on mana, and begin to buy spears and archers. Every so often buy a miner to boost your economy.

Master doing this--it can be difficult to balance your economy and army, but after 5-10 matches you will get a good hang of this. Become used to this macro and be able to do it every match before moving on to micro.

The next step it to learn some basic micro. Micro is the control of units, and is fundamental once you are above 1400 or 1500 with the above macro (which is the building and timing of units.) Micro can be tedious, and will take practice before you can become confortable with it, so don't worry if you are having trouble with it; you'll get the hang of micro control after a while.

There are a couple of different kinds of micro. One, is just moving your units around, and making them attack/defend/garrison. Become used to doing this and focus on reacting to the enemy. For example, if you notice that the opponent has a Shadowrath, move your Magikill behind a miner wall to protect it.

The other is techniques that give you an edge in battle--kiting (running backward and shooting at the same time), cycling (utilizing multiple units to keep them alive as long as possible), etcetera.
Micro can be some of the most difficult parts of the game, especially when you've never learned how before.

Here is a video on G-Kiting (credit to WyzDM):


Here's a Micro Guide that will explain a lot of useful micro, by Jerrytt:
http://forums.stickpage.com/showthread.php?77732-Micro-Tactics-Encyclopedia

Keep practicing this, and you can rise a good amount of rating.
Contact me if you need help when I'm online:
Username: SHAD0VV (that's a zero and two V's)
Code: 787

Understanding that this is a help thread, young players should start with 1 start and one start only. Archer miner.

On short maps you have to micro your ass off until you get the sword out, and on longer maps it will set a macro start. Archer miner is the first thing new players should dive into, for it is most likely to help them micro through, and sets off a solid macro for them to learn, then later can get into more complex builds.

Also with 8 miners and 2-3 on mana, it isn't exactly efficient. I believe it is most efficient to wait until your 7th miner (if going for earlier mana), to put on on mana, and then wait until you are on second row for 2nd, and later in game you go for third + for tech advances.

I understand I am not an order player, but I do believe that top is correct, and the bottom is somewhat pretty damn close to accurate.

Quote from spino

Understanding that this is a help thread, young players should start with 1 start and one start only. Archer miner.

On short maps you have to micro your ass off until you get the sword out, and on longer maps it will set a macro start. Archer miner is the first thing new players should dive into, for it is most likely to help them micro through, and sets off a solid macro for them to learn, then later can get into more complex builds.

Also with 8 miners and 2-3 on mana, it isn't exactly efficient. I believe it is most efficient to wait until your 7th miner (if going for earlier mana), to put on on mana, and then wait until you are on second row for 2nd, and later in game you go for third + for tech advances.

I understand I am not an order player, but I do believe that top is correct, and the bottom is somewhat pretty damn close to accurate.

If they were early rushed with SA it would be more difficult to micro IMO

Quote from spino

Understanding that this is a help thread, young players should start with 1 start and one start only. Archer miner.

On short maps you have to micro your ass off until you get the sword out, and on longer maps it will set a macro start. Archer miner is the first thing new players should dive into, for it is most likely to help them micro through, and sets off a solid macro for them to learn, then later can get into more complex builds.

Also with 8 miners and 2-3 on mana, it isn't exactly efficient. I believe it is most efficient to wait until your 7th miner (if going for earlier mana), to put on on mana, and then wait until you are on second row for 2nd, and later in game you go for third + for tech advances.

I understand I am not an order player, but I do believe that top is correct, and the bottom is somewhat pretty damn close to accurate.

You're right about the miners--although (I should have made this clearer,) what I meant is (instead of making miners pray at 8 miner mark) that by the time you have 8 miners mining you should have 2 or 3 on mana. This is just my preference, as I use shadowrath and magikill, which both require a lot of mana frequently in my strategies. You will also need a better eco than 11 miners, though, I usually have by the end 12 on gold, 4 on mana.

Also, I think the Sword Archer start is fine to learn when you are starting. With SA on Castle Map, you have better tower control in the beginning, making up for the lost economy from not buying an early miner.

Quote from MasterKaito

If they were early rushed with SA it would be more difficult to micro IMO

Exactly lol
You want it to be harder, if they cannot do it, they will try harder in general. If they don't try harder, leave them as they are truly not interested.

Quote from spino

Exactly lol
You want it to be harder, if they cannot do it, they will try harder in general. If they don't try harder, leave them as they are truly not interested.

That's a pretty stupid approach for new players who still need to grasp concepts.

"Understanding that this is a help thread, young players should start with 1 start and one start only. Archer miner."
"I understand I am not an order player, but I do believe that top is correct, and the bottom is somewhat pretty damn close to accurate."

A vehement no. Not everyone can g-kite to a tee man. And the top is VERY wrong, the bottom is pretty wrong.

Spino, I'm gonna politely ask you to stfu for a sec. Let's talk about the starts you use.

MMS: Ice World, Gates, Forest
SA: Desert, Halloween, Swamplands, Castle

MMS is the safest go-to start for any beginner. Queue two miners and a sword (tap 1/2/1), then queue a 5th miner while sending sword to centre and hold-position. Now, depending on what they do:

MMS - queue more miners, mana @ 9th miner
MSS - queue an archer after 5th miner
AM - queue an archer after 5th miner
SA - queue castle archer after 5th miner
Spear start - make more swords, keep miners near garrison and attack with them and garrison the miner that gets targeted

In short, MMS is the catch-all for all bullshit. Don't tell people to archer/miner, they'll lose to spear starts without a good g-kite and macro under pressure.

SA is good and safe for short maps. Before I start talking about it, I'm gonna casually drop credentials. I still favour this build at top level; this is coming to you from a Top 3 Order player. It's perfectly fine to use as long as you know how to use it (push for tower, don't push too aggressively into their base.)

Here's the macro:
Make miners up to 9, put 1 on mana and queue archers and miners with the occasional spear. You want enough of an eco (14 miners?) to be able to non-stop queue spear/archer. Put more on mana as you need and start making a few merics and hustle. Spear/archer/meric to win. Easypeasy.

hit me up @ qwebirc.swiftirc.net #team-zenith (my name is [TZ]DAZ) if you have any questions, or if i'm off, ask questions at teamzenith.com (Stick Empires section) and i will promptly answer. good luck to all the new players

I agree, but just learning the game mms is the best macro to lean on and learn from using. But the most powerful early in the game is SA. While Aarcher-miner is considered the safest start, it utilizes a lot of fundamentals picked up from archer control and taking in information about the opponent to know how to respond. This is because that archer out first is while powerful, sacred, and can not be wasted.

Quote from WyzDM

I agree, but just learning the game mms is the best macro to lean on and learn from using. But the most powerful early in the game is SA. While Aarcher-miner is considered the safest start, it utilizes a lot of fundamentals picked up from archer control and taking in information about the opponent to know how to respond. This is because that archer out first is while powerful, sacred, and can not be wasted.

I think archer miner is super dangerous anymore with the number of players forward kiting so effectively. It my view, it is either SMM or SA game at this point.

(I think archer miner is super dangerous anymore)

Huh? What does this mean

Also, it's not dangerous at all...you won't lose the archer to SA if you run AMS. It's a safe macro start that opens up a lot of options.

Quote from Dazzy

(I think archer miner is super dangerous anymore)

Huh? What does this mean

Also, it's not dangerous at all...you won't lose the archer to SA if you run AMS. It's a safe macro start that opens up a lot of options.

Dangerous, as in not a super reliable opening because of how well a number of players, some very low rank, who are good at forward kiting. Even slightly overcommit your archer, and it doesn't matter if you go AMS, as long before your sword reaches to help, that lone archer is toasties...

Quote from alternate

Dangerous, as in not a super reliable opening because of how well a number of players, some very low rank, who are good at forward kiting. Even slightly overcommit your archer, and it doesn't matter if you go AMS, as long before your sword reaches to help, that lone archer is toasties...

I don't think you have a clue what you're talking about.

A-Move archer towards centre. See a follow-up sword, g-kite, your sword arrives in time. You can't "overcommit", only be not watching centre (slow reaction).

p.s. gocharrogsordie