Alex Connolly
Member
"Feints are maneuvers designed to distract or mislead, done by giving the impression that a certain maneuver will take place, while in fact another, or even none, will. In military tactics and many types of combat, there are two types of feints: feint attacks and feint retreats..."
"The Germans referred to a Schwerpunkt (focal point and also known as Schwerpunktprinzip or concentration principle) in the planning of operations; it was a center of gravity towards which was made the point of maximum effort, in an attempt to seek a decisive action. Ground, mechanized and tactical air forces were concentrated at this point of maximum effort whenever possible. By local success at the Schwerpunkt, a small force achieved a breakthrough and gained advantages by fighting in the enemy's rear. It is summarized by Guderian as Nicht kleckern, klotzen! (Don't fiddle, smash!)"
- Wikipedia.
R.U.S.E is a unique macro-level RTS by Eugen Systems (The Gladiators: Galactic Circus Combat, Act of War series) set during the European and North African theatres of World War II. Placing emphasis on intelligence-gathering and deception, rather than unit micro-management, R.U.S.E. offers a player an operational level of command and bridges the gap between the control given in games like The Operational Art of War and tactical titles like Combat Mission.
The key to victory is augmenting your offensive and defensive capabilities via Ruses, in-game sector-wide abilities that offer unique advantages for a limited amount of time.
From the Ubisoft Official Site:
"Developed by Eugen Systems, R.U.S.E is set to refresh the strategy genre, introducing deception techniques that will let you bluff your enemy in order to lead your nation's army to victory. Camouflage your troops, lure your opponent with decoy units, sabotage his logistics: strategy is intuitive and carefully thought out at the same time. R.U.S.E. features cutting edge graphics and effects, the outstanding IRISZOOM Engine, immersive combat and a simplified interface that allows you to determine your nations strategy to defeat your enemies."
Faction rundown credited to ThatFrood on Giant Bomb
USA
The USA is the default nation and the safest to play of all of these. The USA has good everything and can execute almost any play style, making it excellent for new players as well as a good nation to play for veterans who expect to have to improvise a great deal. All of their units are relatively cheap, allowing for a fairly strong early-to-middle game if you choose that direction. However, they also have access to fairly effective late game units if you chose to invest in them and can have a strong late game as well. The USA is usually playing three, or at least two, strategies at once. This is because, since it excels at nothing, the US has to constantly alternate between strategies to play the opponents weaknesses.
The US is strongest usually around the middle of the game, where it can field many cheap but effective tanks, as well as a competent air force.
If you are fighting the US the two most effective strategies are to either cut off their supplies early or turtle and wait for the late game.
Headquarters / Supply Depot / Administrative Building / Secondary HQ / MG Position / AT Bunker / AA Bunker
Barracks / Willy / G.I. / Rangers
Artillery & AA Base / BOFORS / M16 / M19 / Priest / M40
Armor Base / Greyhound / M3A1 Stuart / M24 Chaffee / M3 Lee / M4 Sherman / M26 Pershing
AT Base / M1 57mm / M5 76mm / M10 Wolverine / M36 Jackson
Airfield / Grasshopper / C47 Transport / Airborne / P40 Warhawk / P51 Mustang / P47 Thunderbolt / B25 Mitchell / B17 Flying Fortress
Prototype Base / M1 155mm Long Tom / M4 Calliope / M4 Crocodile / GMC T95
Italy
Italy has the cheapest units in the game. It can also build light tanks immediately from its barracks. Because of this, Italy has a very strong early game and is the best nation to execute ground rushes with. However, because of their cheap but weak units, it is essential that Italy has an aggressive start. You cannot turtle with Italy because, well, even an incompetent opponent could defeat Italy's late game units. Italy necessitates an aggressive start so that the opponent remains destabilized. In team play, Italy is an excellent nation to choose to keep the enemy busy while your allies focus on their own economies.
Playing Italy requires a lot of concentration. This isn't the USA, you can't just put a base together, build units and shuffle about until you have an advantage, you have to make the advantage for yourself. If your early game tactics are unsuccessful, you are pretty much screwed. Knowing what types of units the opponent has is critical for Italy because, due to the weak nature of their units, the only fights you will be winning are the ones where your unit specifically counters the other. Defeating Italy is simple. Grab land quickly and turtle, upgrade your units and then destroy them. Italy is also the only nation that has to research AA at the artillery base, making them fairly susceptible to air attacks in the early game. If you feel daring, a quickly executed air rush can cripple Italy's early game and lose the battle for them.
Headquarters / Supply Depot / Administrative Building / Secondary HQ / 90mm AT Position / Zappatori Engineers / Camion Di Rifornimento Supply Trucks
Barracks / Sahariana / Bersaglieri / Granatieri / Carro Veloce tankette / Carro M11
Artillery & AA Base / Breda 20mm / Cannone 75mm / Obice 210mm / M75 / M105
Armor Base / Autoblinda 40 / Autoblinda 43 / Carro M13 / Carro M15
AT Base / AT 47mm / AA 90mm / Semovente 90/53
Airfield / CR42 Falco / CA314 Transport / Folgore / Macchi MC 200 Saetta / Macchi MC 205 Veltro / Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero / Piaggio P108
Prototype Base / M15 Contraereo / L6 Laciafiamme / Breda 90/53 / Carro P26 /
Germany
Germany has the most expensive units in the game and requires the most research to unlock their truly devastating firepower. However, once researched, Germany is nigh unstoppable. A Germany that has been allowed to develop a strong economy and reach the mid-late game time is a tremendous, tremendous threat. If you are playing Germany, rushing is essentially not an option. Your early units are not weak, but they are also not particularly cheap. Instead, you need to grab supply depots and entrench yourself, boom, research your units and then destroy the enemy. Germany's tanks, fully upgraded, are close to invincible. The King Tiger blows up everything. Everything. The assault gun is also a very effective piece of equipment, once upgraded to sturmtiger.
This unit allows for devastating close range bombardment that pretty much annihilates infantry, AT, and AA. Combining these two allows you to destroy everything on land.
To counter Germany you have to be agile. Germany relies on its infrastructure, if you destroy their buildings and supply depots, Germany has to invest a good deal of money to rebuild them. A strong early game is necessary to keep them from taking too many depots. Afterwards, you essentially need counter-units. Do not expect to go into tank fights and win against Germany. I am going to tell you a secret... Germany's tanks are better than yours. If you are: America, Italy, France or Britain... getting into one-on-one tank fights is almost laughable.
The only nation that poses a mild tank threat is Russia, and this is only when fully upgraded. Otherwise, you will need substantial AT as well as an effective method for destroying any artillery or assault guns that will try to destroy said AT. If you do find yourself in a late game fight against Germany, artillery and AT is almost your only option.
Headquarters / Supply Depot / Administration Building / Secondary HQ / Machine Gun Nest / Siegfried Blockhaus / Pioniere Combat Engineers / Versogungs-Lastkraftwagen
Barracks / Kubelwagen / SDKFZ 222 / Grenadier / Sturmgrenadier
Artillery & AA base / Flak 20mm / Haubitze 75mm / Haubitze 150mm / Flak 88mm / StuG III / Sturmtiger
Armor Base / Panzer III / Panzer IV / Pather / Tiger / King Tiger
AT Base / PaK 36 / PaK 40 / Marder / Jagdpather
Airfield / Storch / JU52 Transport / Fallschirmjager / Me109 / Me262 / Ju87 / He111 / AR234 Blitz
Prototype Base / Puma / Wirbelwind / Morser 16 / Wurfrahmen 40 / Pz. VIII Maus
Britain
Britain sports the most effective air force and the cheapest airstrips. They also have paratroopers unlocked early on. Because planes move faster than anything else in RUSE, Britain is very effective at rushing. Simply build an airstrip while hidden, construct several paratroopers, then send them to the enemy base. This strategy does not remain successful for long, however, as more experienced players will know about it. However, early air raids are still a critical part of Britain's strategy, as it destabilizes the opponent's economy and allows for you or your teammates to take more ground.
Britain also fields an effective, but not extraordinary, ground army. For all intents and purposes, however, these are best used to either take out enemy AA or mop up enemy resistance after a successful air attack. Britain is unique in that it has a strong game for the entire game, unless of course the enemy has AA, in which case Britain has a terrible game. Playing Britain requires you to molest the enemy almost continuously so that they concentrate too much on your air and forget about developing a strong economy. Playing against Britain is very straight-forward. Build AA. However, this is not always as easy as it seems.
Headquarters / Supply Depot / Administration Building / Secondary HQ / Outpost / AT Position / Artillery Shelter
Barracks / Regulars / Guards / Vickers Mk VI
Artillery & AA Base / BOFORS / Howitzer 87mm / Howitzer 140mm / M7 Sexton
Armor Base / AC MK1 / Coventry MK2 / Cruiser A13 / Cromwell A27 / Matilda Mk. II
AT Base / AT 2 PDR / AT 17 PDR / Archer / Firefly
Airfield / Anson / C47 Transport / Paratroopers / Spitfire / Hurricane / Typhoon / Wellington / Lancaster
Prototype Base / Skink AA / A22 Avre / A22 Churchill
France
France is a bizarre sort of nation. They have access to elite units from the onset of the game, however they are twice as expensive as regular units (as opposed to other nations, who simply have to upgrade their regular soldiers and then the elite units will cost the same). They also have very effective bunkers against ground targets. Because of France's immediate access to elite units, France can fend off almost any early game rush. Because of their bunkers, France is also very conducive to turtling. More interestingly, France also has surprisingly effective artillery.
This essentially means that France is a nightmare to attack but also a nightmare not to attack. Their artillery will constantly bombard you while they are safely tucked away inside their bunkered down base. Frontal attacks will prove devastating more often than not.
Essentially, France is perhaps the only nation that is best played with one strategy: turtling. Their early game is very strong but difficult to rush with, so rushing is not an option. Their mid-game is simply average and their late-game is very uneven, both slightly above and below average. Therefore when one plays France, the best option is often to turtle strong, build admin buildings, and then wait for the enemy to make fools of themselves attacking you. Your one concern should be enemy artillery, as well as planes. Planes are easy to counter with AA, but artillery is trickier.
The easiest strategy is to amass artillery of your own that can outshoot the enemy, not a difficult task considering France's fairly exceptional artillery. Another tactic is to lead raids under radio silence out to molest their artillery lines and keep their bombardment sporadic.
To counter France, you need artillery and planes. Artillery to destroy AA, planes to destroy the rest. If you can destroy their bunkers, you are golden. If you can get France to constantly have to rebuild their defenses, or even better, draw them out to attack your artillery, you will have gained a significant advantage.
Headquarters / Supply Depot / Administration Building / Secondary HQ / Fortified Position / Marginot Bunker / Camion De Ravitaillement / Sapeurs
Barracks / F.F.L. / Legionnaires / Hotchkiss H39
Artillery & AA Base / Camel 25mm AA / Canon 75mm / Canon GPF 155mm
Armor Base / AMD-178 Panhard / S35 / SAU 40 / B1 Bis / ARL 44
AT Base / AT 25mm / AT 47mm / Laffly W15 / Lorraine 37L
Airfield / Potez / Skytrain Transport / Chasseurs-Paras / MS 406 / D520 / Guppy 693 / Amiot 143
Prototype Base / EBR / ARL 40 / FCM F1
Russia
Russia is the last nation left to cover, and it is also one of the most mixed of bags. Russia has advantages and disadvantages all over the place, making them difficult to play. Where Britain is an all air nation, Italy a big early game player, France a turtler, Germany a late-game tanker... Russia is a strange mix of idiosyncrasies. Played properly, however, and Russia can be horrendously devastating. The first thing you will notice is that Russia has no defensive bunkers. Yes, that's right, you can only build artillery positions as Russia. This means that, as Russia, you are capable of pestering the enemy from long range very, very early in the game.
Artillery invites attacks against you, however, so you will need defenses. And that is where it gets tricky. For one, Russia's upgrade for its infantry is twice as expensive as those for the other nations. However, Russia has one of the cheapest barracks, allowing for you to place those mothers pretty much everywhere. Of course, defending with infantry is never a very good decision. Once the enemy knows there is infantry in a forest, just one little recon and a couple light tanks will kill them all. Hell, sometimes just the recon is all you need, if it's armored.
What do you defend with then? Well, here's the weird thing... Russia doesn't defend, it attacks. Remember how Britain has the best air force? And Germany has the best tanks? Well, as it turns out, Russia has very impressive tanks at their disposal as well, and the sturmovik is an incredibly powerful fighter-bomber. Combining Russia's tanks with the sturmoviks makes them a tanks worst nightmare, and because they are fighter-bombers, aa often has trouble shooting them.
The other interesting thing is that Russia has the best artillery in the game. Two of its units in the prototype factory are artillery: the katyusha and the gaubitsa. The gaubitsa has such a long range that in some maps, there is nothing it can't hit, and the katyusha looks so terrifying and is so incredibly devastating against infantry and at/aa that it essentially forces the enemy to attack.
What results is that Russia plays a very mixed strategy unlike most of the other nations. Its mid-late game is incredibly powerful, while its early game is its weakest. Russia cannot turtle due to their lack of bunkers, and instead must use artillery aggressively to force the enemy into engagements it does not want to be in against your strong tanks and sturmoviks. They have strong tanks that are still cheaper than the German tanks. As Russia, you need to be constantly pushing your enemy, bombarding them and threatening them with tank and bomber assaults. Russia is played with intimidation, if the enemy falls for the ploy and is intimidated, you win. They either become reckless or they over-turtle.
To counter Russia, you need to know what stage they are in and what they are producing. Russia needs every piece working together to destroy you. If it is missing tanks, sturmoviks or artillery, Russia cannot attack (depending, of course, on what nation you are up against, if it is Italy, you can omit the sturmoviks most likely). Against Russia, the most important thing is to always push back. Russia works on intimidation, the artillery and tank armies convince you to withdraw or play defensively. However, if instead you fight back rather than fall into defense, a Russian player will be put in a very precarious situation.
Headquarters / Supply Depot / Administration Building / Secondary HQ / Artillery Position / Heavy Artillery Position / Grouzovik Postavki / Sapier
Barracks / BA-11 / Strelki / Gvardiya
Artillery & AA Base / AA 37mm / ZSU-37 / Pushka 152mm / ISU-122
Armor Base / T-26 / T-34 / KV-1 / IS-2
AT Base / AT 45mm / AT 76mm / SU-85 / SU-100
Airfield / Nieman R-10 / LI-2 Transport / Desantniki / I-16 Ishak / Yak-3 / IL-2 Sturmovik / PE-8
Prototype Base / Gaubitsa 203mm / Katyusha / IS-3
Platforms
PC (No Ubisoft DRM - utilises Steam)
XBox 360
PS3 (with Move Support)
Previews
Strategy Informer
Eurogamer
GamingHeaven
GamerNode
G4TV
IGN PS3 Move Control Preview
Reviews
Canard PC - 9/10
NowGamer - 8.4/10
PalGN - 8/10
MSXbox World - 8/10
Eurogamer - 8/10
IGN - 8.0
Screenshots
N.B. *PC Version / If anyone has any links to some comparisons between the console versions, feel free to share and I'll link to them in the OP
RUSE Unit Comparison Viewer Application
RUSE Experience
iWaggle RUSE PS3 Move Demonstration
RUSE H.Q. Blogsite
RUSE Trophy List
RUSE Wikia
RSS Feed
Direct Link
iTunes
Facebook Community Page
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Thanks to TTP for showcasing the PS3 demo with Move, to the folks who played and enjoyed the beta, to the folks willing to check it out and have a good ol' discussion on Eugen's game. I'll update this OT with all the information you can offer and scrounge up, so feel free to leave lots of links, recommendations, critiques and chatter.
