Expansion

Expansion focuses on building a large sprawling base. The focus is to capture resources as quickly as possible. With a significant economic advantage the player can then crush the opponent with superior forces. In most Real Time Strategy games, the ability to expand effectively is required to have a chance of winning against reasonably experienced opposition.

To expand effectively, a balance between military units and resource units must be found. Too few military units, and an enemy raid can destroy half of your base. Too many military units, and expansion will be slowed down due to lack of resources being spent on expansion.

Many beginners err on the side of building too many military units. They only expand when they have enough defenses to feel confident that an enemy attack will not do any damage. However in most TA based mods, metal extractors can be built cheaply and quickly. A fast and lightly defended expansion can quickly build up a resource advantage. Enemy raids will reduce this advantage. but as long as you defend well enough to avoid losing large parts of your base; as opposed to a few cheap outlying metal extractors, the advantage will be maintained.

The other error beginners can make is to not build military units early enough. The focus is to spend an initial period expanding the economy only, and then a subsequent period building up military strength and attacking the opponenet. This strategy can fail if the opponenet rushes or raids early, doing fatal damage to the lightly protected base.

In team games, a normal starting set up is too have players from one team lined up on one side of the map, opposite a line of players from the opposing team on the other side of the map. Players then focus on expanding towards the middle as quickly as possible to restrict the opposing team's territory as much as possible. Once a solid defensive line is established as far foreward as possible, any vacant resource spots can be occupied later with little fear of opposition. With several players expanding forward in a line, there is less chance for attacks that slip through the defensive line to get to the back half of the base; but a good player may still find a way through and cause unexpected havoc.

In a one on one game, there are usually several directions to expand in. A player that expands directly towards the middle as in a team game can find the opponent expanding sideways and attacking from exposed flanks.