Build Orders | Tiberiansunguide

2024 TIBERIAN SUN VETERAN BALANCE STRATEGY GUIDE

BUILD ORDER THEORY

Build Order Theory: The term, “Build Order Theory”, is used to explain what building you should build next. The order in which you build structures.

SteelCore's Build Order Video Series: Steelcore made a great video tutorial series on various build orders, you can find it at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glc_84rqKeg&list=PLM0YCE5rtEG2x8RlvKZTf9c_FThKhRBOX

No perfect Build Order: There is no perfect build order. Each situation will require a different build order, and skills to finish the enemy with that build order. Many different things can affect your build order, almost too many to count. Listed below are a few examples of things that you might want to consider before you build your next structure or unit.

Mixed unit early rush attacks: Rush Attacks can force your enemy's build order. You can send all sorts of rush attacks. Just make sure you send some kind of early attack unless you are doing an early economic build order with a lot of Harvesters, Tiberium Refineries, and the least amount of defensive units possible to defend your enemy's existing attacking units. Mixing different types of units in your rush attacks can be very effective. This is known as "Combo Attacks". The different types of units can help defend each other and are stronger as a team. (Example: You can send a Cyborgs, Harvesters, Disc Throwers, or Rocket Infantry with your Light Infantry early rush attack to make it more effective).

Build order depends on map: There are so many different build orders. Build orders will be different for different maps. It might be best to play one map until you master the build orders for that map.

Adapt build order to opponent: Your opponent's build order can influence your build order during a game. Learning to adapt your build order to your enemy's build order is important. If your opponent is attacking with units, your build order must adapt to defend those units.

Pressure enemy's build order: You can send attacks to pressure your enemy into building the necessary buildings to defend your attack. This is a great way to influence your enemy's behavior. Be aware that your enemy can also send attacks to influence your build order.

LIST OF MANY THINGS THAT AFFECT BUILD ORDER:

Listed below are a few examples of things that you might want to consider before you build your next structure or unit.

Current Available Build Options: Each new building you build will unlock new possible structures and units. So every new building will send your build order in a different direction.

GDI vs Nod Factions Build Order: There are two factions in Tiberian Sun, GDI and Nod. So there are 4 scenarios you need to plan for in a 1v1. GDI vs GDI, GDI vs Nod, Nod vs Nod, and Nod vs GDI. Each of the four scenarios will require a different build order. Make sure to see what faction the enemy is before the game starts. If the enemy is using random faction (???), you will need to scout them fast to see what faction they are when the game starts. (Note: Pro players will choose the random faction, but technically this is not a legacy setting from the original game and can be debated for tournament play)

Power Consumption: Some structures require a certain amount of power to operate. The speed at which you build new things is lowered if your base has low power. This forces you to add more Power Plants to your build order. You can negate this by powering down buildings during gameplay. If you power down production buildings, you will not be able to build units unless you have a second backup structure that has power. More info on power consumption: https://tiberiansunguide.wixsite.com/tiberiansunguide/power-consumption

Unit and Structure Cost: The cost of units and structures can affect your build order. Ideally you want to make low cost units that have strong armor, low cost, high weapon damage, don't need to reload, and can attack multiple buildings. Sometimes you might have to make choices between the cost and effectiveness of a unit or structure. Click the link below for more info on costs: https://tiberiansunguide.wixsite.com/tiberiansunguide/unit-structure-costs

Unit Range: The range of a units weapon can affect your build order. Your defensive units will need to be able to counter the range of the enemy's units. To compare different ranges click the following link below:

https://tiberiansunguide.wixsite.com/tiberiansunguide/range

Weapon damage, Unit Health Points (HP), and Armor: The health of the enemy units and their armor will require that you have the correct defensive units. It is best if you counter your enemy's Armor with units that have a strong weapon damage vs them. This is especially important if you are using planes becuase they have to reload. Ideally, you will want your planes to do a lot of damage with each shot, and you do not want to waste plane ammo. You can compare unit weapon damage, unit/structure health points, and unit/structure armors using the Hitpoint matrices, the health points page, the Armor page, and the weapon damage page in this guide.

Anti Air Cabability: GDI's Carryall can send attacking units fast. Anti air capability is needed sooner vs a GDI opponent.

Subterranean underground and stealth capability: If you are playing against Nod, you will almost always want to build a Sensor Array to see Nod's underground and stealth units. This can affect your build order because you need a War Factory and Radar earlier to be able to build a Sensor Array.

Scouting affects build orders: Scout the enemy fast so that you can adapt your build order to their build order, economy, structures, attacking units, and defensive units. Try to prevent the enemy from scouting you so that they do not see your build order, economy, attacking units, or defensive units.

Distance and speed of enemy attacking units: The speed of enemy units and the distance to your base can affect your build order. Faster attacking units can be better on larger maps because they cover ground faster. Example: Orca Fighters can attack Titans and reload multiple times before the enemy Titans get close to your base. Find more info on unit speeds at the following link below:

https://tiberiansunguide.wixsite.com/tiberiansunguide/unit-speed

Map size and Terrain: The size of the map can affect your build order. Typically faster units are better on bigger maps. The map terrain can also affect your build order. GDI has vehicles that walk over rough terrain and are not slowed down as much as Nod's vehicles. All vehicles with wheels are slowed down by hills, rough terrain, Tiberium, and other map features. Heavy units can sink into ice. Water gives GDI an advantage because the Hover Mrls and Amphibious APC can travel on water. For more information on map terrain, click the link below:

https://tiberiansunguide.wixsite.com/tiberiansunguide/terrain

Tiberian amount and locations: The amount of Tiberium patches on a map can affect your build order. The number of Tiberium patches can also affect your build order. Low Tiberium maps require that you are more careful about losing units. Maps with a lot of Tiberium allow you to spam units and not worry so much about losing units. Blue Tiberium is more valuable than green Tiberium. If you have blue Tiberium near your base at the beginning you can build more stuff. Try to outbuild to blue Tiberium patches whenever possible.

Team game build orders: Team games can affect your build order. When two or more enemies can attack you, you might want to make more defense. If your ally is attacked you might need to adjust your build order to help them. Multiple enemies have multiple build orders that can affect yours. Try to scout all enemies fast and convince your ally to do the same.

Enemy influences your build order: Build order theory can be affected by what your enemy is building, whether or not either of you is scouted, map size, terrain, amount of tiberium, value of tiberium (blue tiberium early), and the amount of tiberium in the start location (bunking).

Scout fast to see enemy's build order: Ideally you want to scout the enemy and prevent your base being scouted. It is easier to adapt your build order to the enemy when you can see what attacks he is building.

Build orders are complicated: Build Order Theory is one of the hardest things to master in Tiberian Sun because there is so much variability in the game. There is no perfect build order, only the perfectly adapted build order to the enemy, in the current game you are playing, taking into account all the things mentioned above that affect build order. It gets complicated quickly.

Rushing and Game flow: The flow of a game can only really be learned by watching many pro games and practicing against pro players. New players might not even attack at all, which is bad for learning game flow. Rushing is part of the game, and it will affect the enemy's build order (and yours).

Share control to learn build orders: Sharing control of your units with better players can help you learn.

Spectate games to learn build orders: Spectating games using BACKSPACE for commenting can help you learn build orders.If you hightlight buildings while spectating a match, you can see what unit that building is currently producing. This helps you realize how players react to situations and adjust your build order theory.

Discord chat is better than texting: Real time game advice from pros while you play, is quite helpful. Talking via headset is easier, faster, and less distracting than text chat. It helps to learn your mistakes in real time while you are playing.

Record games to learn build order mistakes: You can record your games and ask the enemy to do the same. Reviewing game footage can help you learn what you did wrong, and adapt your build order theory.

Technology Prerequisites: Different units and structures can only be made if you have acquired the right technology. You acquire technology options by building new structures. Each new structure has the potential to unlock new structures. This is important information to know when calculating build orders. You will want to know what buildings you have to make to send certain attacks or make defenses. You will want to watch what buildings your enemy is making, so you can figure out what technology options are available to him at the moment. For more information on Technology prerequisites click the following link below:

https://tiberiansunguide.wixsite.com/tiberiansunguide/prerequisites

Economy affects Build Order: Units cost money, so do structures. Therefore, every single unit you build, will affect how much money you have left over for your current build order.The amount of money you have saved up definitely affects your build order. You can find more information about the cost of units/structures and how to manage your economy at the following two links below:

Economy: https://tiberiansunguide.wixsite.com/tiberiansunguide/economy

Costs: https://tiberiansunguide.wixsite.com/tiberiansunguide/unit-structure-costs

GDI Carryall Harvesters: GDI can carryall Harvesters, which is an advantage on large maps with low Tiberium.

4rth Ref = 2 PP: You will need 2 Power Plants if you plan to build a fourth Tiberium Refinery, (without selling any)

Game timer Build Timer: It is important to know the build order requirements for each unit and structure are because it takes approximately 13-15 seconds to build $1000. If you know how long it takes to build the prerequisites for an attack, you can use the "Toggle Info Panel" hotkey to see how much time has expired in a game, and use this information to guess what attacks might be coming. The info panel can help you know what structures and units your enemy has had time to build. This info can be used to find the average time a rush attack takes for certain maps. Even if your enemy is un-scouted, the game timer can help you expect different early rush attacks.

Rush game vs Long game: Short games are less complex because there are less variables (less units and structures). For this reason, many players choose to rush attack to try and defeat the enemy early. Sometimes your early rush attack will fail and you might have to play a longer, more complex game. Some pro games can take several hours to finish. Make sure you practice long games so that when your rush attacks fail, you will be comfortable playing a longer, more difficult, game.

Combo attack cost vs effectiveness: Attack costs of common combo attacks should be known. Attack likelihood of success against known opponent should be weighed against that attack's cost. Will your enemy defend this attack easily? Have they in past games? (Example a Subterranean APC with 3 Engineers inside it costs $2,300. If you fail to capture an enemy Tiberium Refinery because they sold it, then you just lost $2,300 and your opponent just got an extra $1,000 and five Light Infantry. Who do you think won that exchange?)

If you want to know more about Build Order Theory, how new buildings unlock new units and structures, and how Building Prerequisites can affect your build order, make sure to look at the Prerequisites page:

https://tiberiansunguide.wixsite.com/tiberiansunguide/prerequisites

Thanks for stopping by!

-Kaizen