Air Superiority in R.U.S.E.

Air superiority is they key to any battle.

If you control the skies, then you control the battlefield. Therefore, you must do everything in your power to own it, and defend it.

R.U.S.E. has four classifications of aircrafts. There are recon planes, fighter planes, fighter-bomber planes, and bomber planes. This article will give you an explanation of each of these classes and how to take advantage of them.

Recon planes are usually unarmed aircrafts that can do surveillance over the battlefield. Recon planes are very useful to find intel on enemy forces with a low risk of being shot down. They are inexpensive, and have a wider range of sight than regular ground recon units. However, if recon planes are attacked, there is very little hope for survival as they are unequipped with weapons. An escort may be useful for crucial flights.

Fighter planes are the key to the sky. They are the force in the air to push out opposing forces. These fighter planes are usually somewhat expensive, but are deadly in the skies. They can only attack other flying aircraft and infantry units, though they do very little against infantry. Players should always be trying to accumulate more (and stronger) fighter planes than opposing players. Fuel is not factored in this game, therefore your fighter planes should always be in scramble above your base.

Fighter planes are necessary when attempting to bomb the enemy base. When fighter planes accompanty bomber planes, they are called escorts. Payloads are always the most important objective of an air mission, and therefore protection of bomber planes are of the utmost importance. Fighter planes are necessary to defend against the bomber, and so I stress the fact that an abundance of fighter planes are always necessary.

Fighter-bombers are aircrafts that can engage other aircrafts and carry a small payload. They are very useful for supporting your land units and can hold their own against other fighter planes. Like the fighter planes, they should always be in scramble so they can quickly when necessary. Although they can cause significant damage to fighter planes, they are ultimately weaker, and so they are most useful when in close proximity to ally fighter planes.

Although they carry payloads, they are generally not used to bomb structures. The bombs are instead more often used to defend against a land attack as well as to destroy anti-air fortifications. Imagine having a bombing run with anti-aircraft guns on the ground. Fighter-bombers are the only effective way to disable them.

Bomber planes are really the aircraft that can level the battlefield. If the bomber plane can survive long enough to reach its destination, then enemy units or structures will likely get leveled or critcally damaged. Some bomber planes are equipped with machine guns to help defend against fighters, but like the fighter-bomber, they are ultimately weaker to the fighter plane. Therefore fighter planes should always accompany bombers on bombing runs.

Losing the air is losing the battle. Always fight for control in the skies.

Turtling in R.U.S.E.

Turtling is a defensive strategem that focuses on defending one's base rather than directly attacking the enemy.

In concept, turtling may be a dominating strategy. A player would build fortifications to the point where the player's base is near impenetrable. The opposing army would send attacks which would be beaten back, scoring the defending player points.

If the player has properly built defnces, the player's base should be able to withstand a full-scale attack. Should a full-scale attack fail, the defending player would then mount a counter-offensive. The attacking player would be weakened from their failure, and would not be able to build defences fast enough to stop the new offensive.

Again, turtling is strong only in concept. When actually turtling in R.U.S.E., there are many variables and counter-turtling tactics that could render turtling useless.

Totally defending your base is near impossible. You cannot predict what type of attack will land on which part of your base. For example, you could build anti-air, anti-infantry, and anti-armor fortifications around one section of your base. The enemy could send in a full-scale air offensive to destroy your anti-air defences and would be able to attack the rest of your defences unchallenged.

Fortifications are not cheap. Although they are strong en masse, building many of them would quickly drain all your resources. As well, you cannot spread your fortifications to cover your entire base, as they can be singled out and vulnerable to being targeted.

What makes turtling even more difficult is that turtling is very vulnerable to artillery bombings.

It's true that camouflage nets can hide your buildings, but your army and fortifications are still left in the open. Artillery can slowly cut down your defences until you lose enough defences to not be able to withstand an attack.

In games where there are more than two players, a turtling player would be near useless. In team games, a turtling player cannot support his ally. The opposing team could simply team attack the ally, and then targeting the turtling player, which would not stand a chance against two attack forces.

In a large free-for-all game, a turtling player cannot score points since it would not be able to attack anything.

Nevertheless, an experienced player could pull off turtling. Turtling is a very complicated and difficult strategy to use, but when used properly, turtling can lead to many adamant victories.