I've seen it happen again and again: The team rushes to an important location on the map in the first few moments of the game, manages to take control of it first, and the comm reinforces our victory by spending that precious first res on... a refinery. And then waits for that refinery to be built (sometimes even ordering the team to build it) before they'll drop anything else around there. No. Don't do that. Yeah, refineries are important, and if you're on a large map where there's no chance that the enemy will reach that area early on (the far north and south of emp_streetsoffire, say), go ahead and drop refineries as soon as possible if you want. But at the frontlines, dropping a refinery first is taking a pointless risk. Your refinery can't defend itself, and doesn't contribute anything to our defense of the area; delaying the construction of the ref a few moments to build the rax first is going to cost about 50 res, if that, while delaying construction of the rax can cost you the entire refinery (whether it was finished or not), massive amounts of res, and put you at a disadvantage for the rest of the game. Always, always, always drop the rax at key locations as soon as it looks safe to drop a building (sometimes even before it's safe, if you're confident your team can get it operational before the enemy destroys it.) Refineries should wait until you're firmly in control of the area. If you have the res to drop both, go ahead, but never ever drop the refinery at a key location before the rax. Control of the location is determined by who gets a spawn in there first, not by who builds its refinery first; if one team is attacking an operational spawn at a key location near the center of the map with their own spawn all the way back at their base, they are going to lose. One of the most important things a comm can do in the early game -- aside from rushing and pushing, both of which are horrible cheese and amount to ways of doing the same thing -- is to get a forward rax up and running. Refineries are important, too, of course, but they should wait until you have firm control of that area of the map, and "control of the map" = rax.
I have 100 res and +1 res per second. I have 3 guys yelling for refs and 2 have started to commban me. Do I drop them a rax?
Birth FYI: The rax gives ammos too. If you go in and attempt to change your class, even if you make no changes to get default ammo back. Doesn't restore HP or Calc ammos though. Difference is, one gives health, and the other gives life.
What the hell is an armory going to do? If my guys get shot to death they'll just run back to the armory?
You can change class in an armoury, making your team of engies into a temporary force of riflemen and grenadiers...with the odd sprinkling of a revvin' engy.
Also, you can heal yourself in armories. 90% of all engineers seem to be too dumb to heal their teammates.
the most important thing by far is the barracks. I'll drive up and build the refinary myself once that thing is built. armoury is also mostly a waste of time; only delaying the time before you can actually get a barracks to the area.
Well, in any case, even an armory is an improvement on dropping the ref into combat (or where there's about to be combat) before dropping any support structures. But yeah, I'd say go for the rax most of the time. The thing is, if the enemy has a rax near a location and you don't, they're just going to burn tickets for a bit and charge into your armory to kill your guys. Plus, armories have fairly low HP. Can you still win? Sure, and the armory even helps. But if you have a rax in a key location, you're basically winning by default -- it usually takes at least some planning, coordination, and so on on the enemy's part to take down a defended rax. The difference between having a rax and not having a rax is just much, much bigger than anything else you're likely to get in the very early game. Also, a rax will generally help you even if the enemy takes you by surprise or if you screw up somehow. Most other things won't.
I use refs to give my guys cover, it works, usually the enemy is more interested in dealing with the guys shooting at him, rather than the meagre cover he has to spend valuable seconds throwing nades at. I've gained many more refs than I've lost by placing a ref for cover, so I'm going to keep doing it.
Armories aren't a waste of time. Lets say you get to A1 as BE on canyon and you already have a rax to the ne in choke point and your low on res, it would be nice to have a rax a1 but if you have a couple guys there and a few nmes incoming an armory will do fine. I'm not advocating dropping forward armories instead of forward raxes but in certain situations at the start of the game your better off dropping an armory than waiting for resources for a rax or dropping turrets.
empty, if you want cover, drop your guys one wall and one MG turret for the same price, and hey presto it shoots too! but drop the barracks first.
Sandbag, no. A) They can drop that and generally do. B) The ref doesn't get built until the fight is over C) The turret and wall distract them while they rush to build it D) STOP HAMMERTIME
