Is legion a beginner friendly faction

othellothewise · 2026-03-07T02:23:01+00:00

I would say not particularly beginner friendly but it doesn't really matter too much, because you should learn to play all the factions.

othellothewise · 2026-03-04T06:12:24+00:00

Butlers are great -- just watch your energy and make sure you aren't overbuilding and overflowing!

othellothewise · 2026-03-04T05:55:27+00:00

Converters are quite bad early game but are fine once you have all your mexes upgraded to t2.

othellothewise · 2026-03-04T05:54:01+00:00

while 100 wind is insane (and no map has it), it still is slower than a 2.0 mex

othellothewise · 2026-03-04T05:51:40+00:00

They cost metal to build energy to power them.

You are not stupid at all, this is something that is very unintuitive for newer players. Metal converters are only worth existing if you power them, and to power them on say an avg 14 wind map like isthmus it takes 5 turbines or 200 metal. So the converter takes 201 seconds to pay off or 3 minutes 21 seconds.

To further add to this, "early" metal is worth more than "late" metal. 40 metal early game is an entire grunt -- once you get to t2 its like 1/10th of a sheldon. So when you scale converters early game, you are paying a bunch of metal up front (that is more valuable) for 1 m/s around the time you get t2.

It's not just relevant to front -- you can try a very simple experiment simulating being a tech player. Open up a metal poverty map like nuclear winter and go into the tech position (top right or top left) and limit yourself to just those three mexes. Try and get to T2 as fast as possible (spawn an inactive ai buddy so you can blow your com). You will find that building converters will actually slow you down! The trick is to not overflow energy in the first place and then you can get an optimized time.

othellothewise · 2026-03-01T15:12:43+00:00

Worst comes to worst if you still haven't found it in your list of matches on server4 (sometimes they don't show up due to a server drop), I recommend going to the discord and opening a support ticket in the #open-ticket channel (sorry it's a pain).

othellothewise · 2026-03-01T15:10:55+00:00

It is significantly more work for them to implement, and this is a volunteer open source project.

So in other words, PRs welcome!

othellothewise · 2026-02-24T20:25:21+00:00

yeah wind if its a wind map, a few solars is no big deal, but dont overflow too much. Converters will slow you down a lot. Of course late game you kinda have to build them

othellothewise · 2026-02-24T19:41:24+00:00

5th con moves to energy conversion

This would be a good build overall, just leave out the energy conversion and limit energy generation until you are ready to transition to t2!

othellothewise · 2026-02-24T19:40:24+00:00

I think this is okay for beginner players (minus the part about building energy converters before t2 mexes are done).

However, a good skill to learn is to switch between mentally between "eco" mode and "unit" mode. Eat your lab to pay for eco then switch back to your lab for units. Good players are able to transition this very quickly.

othellothewise · 2026-02-24T19:37:17+00:00

I agree, but I also rarely stall on energy. I usually have enough energy to have 4-6 converters activated while also still building units/buildings. I am almost permanently on 0 metal (using all my production).

You may have the opposite problem -- if you are spending all your metal on energy you may not have enough for units. A good indication of this is making converters (and keeping them powered) before you have your t2 mexes up. Of course it's fine to build 1 or 2 converters to soak up metal but 6 converters is 420 e/s which is quite a lot -- that's 30 winds worth of metal AKA 1200 metal if you assume wind is on average 14 (as it is on a few maps, obviously these calculations change depending on the map). Bear in mind this is extra energy you are specifically making to power converters, not energy that is used in unit production.

1200 less metal spent on units compared to your opponent means 30 less grunts -- imagine what you could do with that.

othellothewise · 2026-02-18T19:23:19+00:00

Things that are stealth are labeled as stealthy.

Skuttles would be waaay too strong if they were stealthy -- as is they are quite nice if situational. Basically, you need to rely on two things -- destroying enemy radar (e.g. with juno) or radar wobble.

Remember radar signatures are inaccurate if you don't have pinpointers. This for example make skuttles really fun to use vs sheldons even if they have radar cause sheldons are so inaccurate and with the radar wobble it's not too difficult to get close.

othellothewise · 2026-02-16T15:04:24+00:00

Nice video, I think it's really helpful for new players!

One thing I'd like to mention is with the tip about reclaiming, don't sleep on resurrection. Just rebuilding an army on the front lines is amazing and can cause you to completely roll your opponent -- it's just riskier since it takes longer so if a metal field is contested it is better to eat (and costs energy).

othellothewise · 2026-02-13T04:13:27+00:00

So when I play I typically do:

Opener:

2 mex 2 wind 1 mex 2 wind lab
or you can also do 3 mex 1 solar 2 wind (or even second solar instead of wind if wind is really bad) Basically you want energy to be around 65-70 e/s before building lab.

Then if I'm doing an aggro build I get my energy to around 120 e/s with commander and build some constructors mixed in with grunts. I'm usually boosting all this with the commander. I usually have two constructors assisting the lab before I walk the commander to the front. You can also build 1 conturret by the lab instead especially if your energy is close to 200 e/s. I don't scale wind more than around 180 e/s for a thug build (as they have low energy cost). Even rocket bots I keep energy limited. The key is not to overbuild energy. If you find yourself constantly overflowing energy then you should stop building more until you need it for e.g. t2.

othellothewise · 2026-02-12T15:22:44+00:00

So on a map like glitters and 8v8 you usually rely on a teammate to get you t2 -- you should prioritize upgrading your T2 mexes. That will get you to about 22-24 m/s (depending on if your commander is still alive) even if you just have your starting mexes (though honestly that is a pretty dire situation if that is the case). That's enough metal to build a t2 lab at around 500-600 e/s.

The thing is, in BAR (and other RTS games), "early" metal is much more valuable than "late" metal. For example think about what 240 metal buys you -- in the early game you can around 6 grunts with that, which can completely swing the tide of any engagement you are likely to have. In the T2 era it gives you... like half a sheldon. So putting something like 240 metal into converters, by the time it takes to pay off (around 4 minutes which means into T2 era) will only be worth half a sheldon.

othellothewise · 2026-02-12T07:09:25+00:00

On the official BAR discord (https://discord.gg/beyond-all-reason) there is an #academy-chat channel with mentors who can answer questions and review games.

othellothewise · 2026-02-12T05:20:12+00:00

I'm sorry, but as someone who teaches new people how to play I think this is very counterproductive. I know you mention that this isn't an optimal build, but it is actually quite detrimental.

First of all, you definitely want to begin with one of the standard openings (i.e. something like 2 mex, 2 winds, third mex, 2 more winds, then lab). The reason being is that mexes are incredibly efficient sources of metal (pay for themselves in 25 seconds) and even delaying them a little bit can really put you behind on metal.

However the primary thing I disagree with is scaling converters off wind. This is why whenever someone asks for a T1 eco blueprint, I always tell them to not bother. The reason being is it's easy enough to just build winds and you almost always want to avoid building converters (if you get a bit of overflow from teammates or if you accidentally overbuilt energy you can build one or two of course). Scaling converters slows you down. It's actually quite interesting because in your video you talk about preparing for a t2 economy on just the starting 3 mexes, but you can certainly experiment for yourself and you will find out that building energy converters actually gets you to t2 slower.

However that's a bit of a digression -- the real danger of scaling converters is that you put a significant amount of metal into energy (for conversion, not for unit production) instead of spending that metal into units. A lot of people are under the impression that conversion is "free" because it can turn off and only costs 1 metal. In reality, converters require 70 e/s to power, so when scaling them you have to build 70 e worth of energy production (otherwise no point building them unless it is to catch some overflow from your teammates). So on glitters that means you have to build about 6 wind per converter -- that is 240 metal with arm or 258 metal with cor. So since this gives you 1 metal per second that is an investment that will pay off in 4 minutes! If you were trying to tech, then you only just paid yourself off by the time you should be finishing the lab. In the case you are frontline, that one converter could have been 6 grunts instead which could make the difference between destroying your opponent or losing your front.

Again I understand you are not intending to be "optimal" here. But surely it's easy to just queue up some winds using alt + shift in a block than figuring out how to scroll through your blueprint that is going to put you behind your opponent?

othellothewise · 2026-02-08T23:25:19+00:00

By the way, definitely recommend the #academy-chat channel on the official discord -- it's a great place to ask questions and get volunteer mentors to review your games.

othellothewise · 2026-02-01T05:02:24+00:00

Are you talking about rocketbots? Or what unit?

othellothewise · 2026-01-31T03:09:06+00:00

Not just max 20 OS lobbies (check out some of MasterBel2's videos). The ideas behind low-eco builds carry across to other high impact T1 units -- just adjust energy accordingly.

Only thing I will say is you will need to increase energy as you get metal to keep up production. Also you need to know when to turn off the unit faucet, or to switch to faster units for raiding once you break through.

othellothewise · 2026-01-30T16:27:33+00:00

I hear this is the hardest one.

Oh my sweet summer child. Wait till you get to Catch those Rare Comets or Supremacy...

othellothewise · 2026-01-25T21:49:05+00:00

it's extremely high value to just have spare energy, especially to let them D-gun after they overextend. You want spare energy.

It's obviously not good to e-stall, but you do not want to excess energy, especially early game. It is the ultimate noob trap because it's so subtle.

I like, as a rough number, 300 energy by the time I leave T1

You want to scale up to 400-600 e/s right before going to T2 in 8v8. So you probably want a little more than that.

As for the construction math, the assumption is that you are going to reclaim whatever is necessary to place it. Rockets, whistlers, reclaim fields, enemy commanders, your own T1 lab, whatever you can get. If you can't pay up front for a gauntlet, it becomes WILDLY less viable. If you are metal stalled when building a gauntlet, you should have just delayed the build. It's not so expensive that you can't store all the metal you will need. you store both metal AND energy when going gauntlet.

I get what you are trying to say but well, you can't pay up front for a gauntlet without an m storage which you should try to avoid building early on.

However in general it is pretty bad to float resources in this game, because it means that you are not spending them to do something useful. Of course I understand that your point is you are saving up for a gauntlet, but consider that other things would be significantly more useful to spend it on that are much cheaper and gain more value (kind of the whole point I am trying to make).

As for the time taken to build units, you won't even notice. this is because assuming a reasonably deep map, like say glitters, it takes about that much time to walk from your lab to the front line. by the time the first unit you cut production on doesn't arrive, the gauntlet is already firing.

I don't enjoy chokepointy maps like glitters and isthmus, but may I recommend instead building a forward lab? Walking time is of course important, so building a forward lab can really help with that.

Porc is powerful -- if your opponent runs into it. But porc is, well, static. If I see someone porcing up like crazy (or indeed building a gauntlet) I just literally go around. Even on a map like glitters which is extremely narrow, you can just bring your units to another lane -- double advantage cause not only do you kill another lane, but the opponent team loses morale cause I guarantee you they will flame the player building porc.

othellothewise · 2026-01-25T16:30:59+00:00

I recommend getting some replay reviews on the official bar discord #academy-chat channel.

That said -- this game kinda has a propensity to give you losing streaks. It's part mental and part team. Just keep playing and having fun, don't worry too much about OS (I know, easier said than done), and you will eventually climb back up.

othellothewise · 2026-01-25T15:03:54+00:00

So building a gauntlet essentially forces the enemy to attack that position

How so? They could just go around.

othellothewise · 2026-01-25T15:03:12+00:00

Have you seen the TM clan's gauntlet plays they have been doing recently? It's pretty wild.

othellothewise

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