If you're reading this then you're thinking about getting into KW but you're concerned about the level of play you'd be up against.
Or you just got smashed and you're wondering what the hell happened.

About me
I'm by no means the best player out there, the community made ratings are:

• Upper-Advanced
  
• Advanced
  
• Upper-Good
  
• Good
  
• Pre-Good <--- Currently my place
  
• Mid
  
• Low
  
• Beginner

Don't let the patronising rating name fool you, most people never make it past Low

You too can join the community here and gain a rating by playing online, I recommend also downloading Command Post and getting the latest map pool which is currently R22
https://discord.gg/T2U9ZXG43b - Community Rating Server
https://cgf-uploads.net/cp/ - Command Post tool
https://discord.gg/UfraJ6JmQE - Tech Support Server

Overview

All factions start the same, I'll be using the GDI construction tree but this is easily translated across to other factions. Unfortunately you're going to need to emulate the Pros if you want to stand a chance, this means you should use the hotkeys:

• Spam E when the map is loading to instantly open the building tab
  
• Hit F1 to instantly start Power Plant production

The rest should be fairly self explanatory, especially if you've checked out the settings.

We'll assume you're on a map with a single tiberium spike (as most maps are) this means:

• Power Plant
  
• Barracks + Watchtower
  
• Refinery + Engineer Sell Watchtower
  
• War Factory Sell Barracks
  
• Refinery + 1 Harvester Always remember to place refs as far apart as possible to minimise flame damage and catalyst missile strikes
  
• Queue 2 more harvesters once Refinery is built

Either pack up the MCV after you've placed the ref or build 1 more Power Plant before moving to the next field, this depends generally on which you personally prefer

This isn't taking into account if you get rushed or if you're planning on doing a rush, otherwise from Low to Expert you'll find everyone doing this exact build no matter what faction they are.

I also understand that watching will be easier than reading, in which case I strongly recommend watching; BikeRush, Masterleaf or Green_Zero on Youtube and pay great attention to their opening build order.

Some factions have better scouts than others, you will be completely reliant on them to defend you from incoming rushes or denying the enemy from seeing yours.
They are relevant even until late game as you must fight the fog of war almost as much as your enemy.

Early game
You've trained your engineer, possibly trained an extra squad, sold your watchtower and your barracks, you'll need to escort the engi to a spike and then spread out across the map with the ideal situation of getting direct sight at the enemy base.

Riflemen
The most balanced scouts with good speed and firepower, can also make a foxhole if you want to keep eyes on a position, particularly effective inside the enemy base

Militants
Terrible speed and firepower, mostly ideal to clump them together or sneak around the sides of the map

Buzzers
Fastest and cheapest, can easily overwhelm human forces

Cyborgs
Slightly better than Riflemen if acquired through selloff but also slow, becomes a dangerous nuisance if 2 or more make it to the enemy base and begin EMPing structures/harvesters

Confessors
Extremely slow but has incredible firepower, mostly used for anti-scouting and rarely seen far from the home base due to the lack of mobility.

In the event of extreme anti-scouting
If your opponent manages to kill all your scouts before you can see their base, it may sometimes be worth building a Pitbull/Buggy before you build your first harvester from your freshly placed warfactory.
If you're Scrin then more buzzers is the way to go, with proper micro this faction can hold any rush with nothing but 1 portal and a warpsphere. Building a gun walker to scout will delay your eco which is detrimental to one of their biggest strengths.

If fighting
GDI: Worth it depending on how aggressive anti-scouting was
Nod: Definitely worth it as this faction has far too many rush capabilities to gamble on
Scrin: Not worth, the more buzzers, the less likely you'll be rushed, either way more Riflemen is a far better option.

This is here as both awareness of how to defend from a rush and also how to perform one, this meta is constantly changing and even now new ones are being discovered. But we'll cover the most common ones from each faction and their weaknesses. Most of the time, if these are properly scouted and countered, the rusher will never recover.
It is also important to note that the rush isn't always intended to completely destroy the enemy. The most you need to do is make sure you damage their economy so much that you end up overtaking them by a good margin,ie; 1 or 2 harvester advantage.
Sometimes this can be achieved just by having them building defenders instead of harvesters while you're concentrating on your own economy, if the opponent sufficiently overreacts then you'll be ahead without destroying anything at all.

Orcas

How to build:
Use the initial build order, except build a Command Post instead of a War Factory
Upgrade Power Plant and build Airfield
Variation 1# Build 2 airfields to double the Orca building speed
Variation 2# Use the Bloodhounds support power for a surprisingly savage opening

Weaknesses:

• ZOCOM will find this very difficult with their sonic Orcas
  
• Nod harvesters are stealthed and will be very hard for you to micro your scanners
  
• Need to kill 3 harvesters without losing all the Orcas for it to be considered a success
  
• Reaper 17 shields mean they will lose the maximum of 2 harvesters only
  
• If scouted, Pitbulls, Buggies and Gun walkers are a nightmare to deal with

APC+Rocket Early Push

How to build:
After completing your early build order, queue 4 APCs after your 5th harvester is completed.
After you've transitioned your MCV to the 2nd field, place a barracks and train 4 rockets, garrison them inside the APCs and head straight to the enemy expansion, this directly counters the Seeker + Gun Walker early push

Weaknesses:

• Tanks will shut this down quickly
  
• Only really viable against Scrin

Rig Rush

How to build:
Instead of expanding, go for a command post and upgrade a power plant
While the CP is building, train a couple of APCs after your 4th harvester
Once CP is placed, train a rig and build a barracks
Place a grenadier and a rocket squad inside the APCs then continue to expand, target the enemy's 2nd expansion
Variation 1#
After the CP is placed, build an airfield and train 4 Orcas to stump an enemy tank army
Variation 2#
Instead of a rocket squad, build an engineer for emergency rig repairs
Variation 3#
Instead of building 2 APCs, save up for the Bloodhounds support power


Weaknesses:

• Takes a lot of micro management to pull off, both for harvesters and the rig itself
  
• Infantry spam will be difficult to deal with
  
• It is especially easy to forget about continuing to build your base while microing the rush force

Titan + MRT rush

How to build:
Keep 1 rifleman scout behind
Once the warfactory is placed, immediately queue a Titan and MRT
Place the rifleman inside the MRT and go straight for the enemy Tiberium field
Crush as many harvesters as you can
Variation 1#
Keep spamming Titans with a couple more MRTs to create a hard-to-kill army

Weaknesses:

• Scrin Harvesters can't be crushed
  
• You'll suffer a considerable setback in economy if it's deflected

Flame tanks

How to build:
Use the initial build order, except build an Operations Centre instead of your 2nd Refinery
Upgrade Power Plant and build 3 Flame tanks and a Reckoner
Sell Operations Centre and insert Black Hand squad inside the Reckoner
Variation 1# Build 3-4 Bikes to back up the flame tank

Weaknesses:

• A stack of Pitbulls, Bikes or Disintigrators/Seekers will completely stop the reckoner and will take down the flame tank with some microing
  
• Steel Talon Titans can crush deployed reckoners and shoot over buildings, making this faction a natural counter to this rush

Shadow Teams

How to build:
Do not sell your Hand of Nod, instead build a Secret Shrine and immediately use your Shadow Team Strike support power, land the shadow teams at the enemy base and destroy the power plant using their explosive charge ability, this will cancel the enemy War Factory being built.

Weaknesses:

• If the enemy builds their War Factory before you destroy their power plant, your chances of winning will be halved
  
• An APC+Pitbull combo will easily hunt down the squads, this is the same with Gun Walker+Seeker or a simple Attack Buggy

Bike Rush

How to build:
Use the Initial Build Order, although instead of building harvesters, build 4 or more bikes and use them to target the enemy harvesters

Weaknesses:

• You'll suffer a slight setback in economy if the enemy deflects them

EMP Ball

How to build
Be Marked of Kane and before selling your barracks, train a couple of awakened squads then sell a couple of shredders, this way you should end up with 5 squads
Variation 1# Go overboard and make 8 squads to seriously stump your opponent

Weaknesses

• A well micro'd APC with a rifleman inside can annihilate your squads even while EMP'd
  
• Gun walkers are fairly resistant to gun damage

Devourer + Corruptors

How to build:
Instead of expanding, go straight into Nerve Centre and then build a 2nd warp sphere. Use the tiberium field to charge your lasers and go straight to the enemy base, micro manage your corruptors to keep everything healed

Weaknesses:

• Aircraft is decent at picking off travelling units and possibly the harvesters
  
• Infantry, despite the Corruptors, are a hard counter to Devourers
  
• Fight fire with fire, 3 War Factory tanks can easily overwhelm the relatively fragile Devourer
  
• Decreases in effectiveness if the map size is big

Early Seeker + Gun Walker Push

How to build:
Once you've built your 5th harvester, go straight into 1 gun walker and 5 seekers along with a nerve centre.
Upon arriving at the enemy's Tiberium field (usually the 2nd field to deny the enemy's expansion) you should deal with the defence force and then target the harvesters, feel free to also place a lightning spike and/or reconstruction drones for added lethality.

Weaknesses:

• Mass infantry, one or two isn't a problem for the gun walker, more will require a buzzer swarm
  
• Small maps with close expansions will find it easier to reinforce the 2nd field with tanks
  
• It's easy to overspend, players will often use up to $5,500 purely on support powers, let alone the cost of the walker+seekers, just to kill 1 harvester and a couple of tanks

Disintegrators

How to build:
Do not sell the Portal, instead build 4-6 disintegrators and send them to the enemy harvesters
Variation 1# As Traveller, build a stasis chamber after placing your Portal, then select the Advanced Articulators upgrade as a devastating upgrade throughout the rest of the game
Variation 2# Build a stasis chamber and upon reaching the enemy base, use the Stasis Field support power on the MCV and War Factory if possible

Weaknesses:

• Pretty much nothing, these guys are nearly always worth it so here's the way to defend it instead

GDI: Build APC asap, place mines on tiberium field and garrison Rifleman squad if you can
Nod: Have a Shredder turret ready to be placed
Scrin: Have a Buzzer hive ready to be placed

Disintegrators part 2

How to build
Go for 2 portals and a refinery, sell your MCV and produce as many Disintegrators as you can
Variation 1# Also build a stasis chamber and place it on the enemy MCV as soon as you can

Weaknesses

• If your opponent scouts it and begins building mass infantry/Buzzer+Gunwalkers then you're in trouble

As discovered a long time ago, the most efficient way of extracting tiberium from a field is 5 harvesters and 2 refineries, the exact thread can be found here[www.gamereplays.org]
When you expand to your 2nd field, these should be the first things you build in the event of no rushes:

Refinery power down
Power Plant power refinery back up
Refinery

It also helps if you've built 2 more harvesters to rally at the new field.

Cash is king
This could not be more true in Kane's Wrath, in 90% of matches, if your economy is better than your opponents then you'll win. However, in the event of a third expansion field it's generally better to either tech up or build multiple war factories in order to amass a great army and THEN expand to the next field.

Plus there are ways to micro your harvesters to help you get an edge on your opponent, one method is to click the middle of a tiberium clump instead of the edge, this will cause the GDI/Scrin harvester to rotate on the spot and save travel time
https://youtu.be/QbcjBgOM49o










The other way is just as your harvester completes depositing the Tiberium at the Refinery, manually tell it to move or go back to harvesting and it'll allow the queuing one to instantly take its place.
https://youtu.be/m1E6dg7IFeo










The blue glow
If there is some juicy blue tiberium on the map, this is usually a priority, not only to get the double income but also to deny your enemy the sweet nectar of the gods.
When to prioritise this will vary greatly with each map, but generally the 4th harvester you own (the 2nd one you've built from the war factory) is the one that should take it.
Maps like Tournament Arena however will find it's only worth taking once you've expanded to your 2nd field.

These are the late game structures and armies you should expect your enemy to be working towards, not accounting for enemy tactics, ie; enemy has built nothing but infantry.
This also of course doesn't account for every single strategy out there, this is more of a general look into likely army compositions

Multi MCV
This is a popular strategy with high level GDI and Nod players because quite honestly it's superbly hard to break. All you need to do is find the right moment to build the 2nd MCV and have a defensive structure ready to place.
After that your only problem is Eco and your own APM (Actions Per Minute) since you can now effectively counter anything your opponent throws at you. This is especially powerful if you back it up with artillery.

GDI
Vs Nod

• Pitbulls to counter Bike/Buggies.
  
• Then Hammerheads to counter the Scorpions.
  
• This will lead to a tough match where Nod has venoms to kill the HHs and Scorps to kill the Pits. Some like to put rockets in their HHs to help stop the venom threat.
  
• A couple of Zone Troopers with scanner upgrade per field to preemptively stop stealth tanks.
  
• Mammoths, Juggernauts and a Marv for the end-game.

Vs Scrin

• 4 APCs + Rockets to combat early Scrin
  
• Predator tank spam
  
• Firehawks with strato fighter upgrade because Scrin can't fence their buildings
  
• Mammoths, Juggernauts and a Marv for the end-game

Vs GDI

• Predator tank spam, backed with Rifles + Rockets including composite armour upgrade
  
• Firehawks for taking down Orcas, Hammerheads and other Hawks. Despite GDI's sonic fences, they have the game's weakest AA means they're relatively uncontested.
  
• Rock, Paper, Scissors... Predator spam beats Juggernauts, Juggernauts beat Mammoths, Mammoths beat Predators.

Crane is a natural counter if you suspect Nod is building T4, the ability to instantly replace a refinery after it gets struck with a catalyst missile is very punishing against the aggressor













Steel Talons
Arguably the best early-mid defensive faction in the game but relies heavily on their tier 3 tech and mechanized units.
Their Titans can fire over structures and crush other tanks, making them very hard to kill from an embedded position.
Wolverines will hose down any other faction's tier 1 units when upgraded with AP ammo, only GDI tanks and Scorpions with Dozer blade upgrades pose any threat.
They're very reliant on a heavy economy however since they require a heavy emphasis on vehicle production to pump out Mammoths and Behemoths in their terrifying war machine, only bested by Reaper 17 in pure ground muscle.

Vs Everyone

• Flying MRTs, once 6 or more of these are filled with infantry, the V35 transports can be used to lift them up and provide a huge nuisance as they're able to repair themselves on the fly (pun intended)
  
• Wolverine Swarms, their DPS is incredible and 10+ will pose a threat even to unshielded Tripods, either mass armour or aircraft will halt their advance
  
• 3 Warfactory Mammoth production, ultimately the endgoal of Steel Talons is to create an unstoppable ground force with their patented *don't die button* (Adaptive Armour) which reduces all incoming damage by 30% and makes them immune to EMP

ZOCOM
Vs Nod

• Same as GDI except the Hammerheads are more likely to be a game ender due to the ceramic armour upgrade.
  
• Late game however, a lack of railguns and juggernauts mean they will find it hard to push in, more likely to use Firehawks since they can absorb a considerable amount of Tiberium Core rockets.

Vs Scrin

• Fast 6 Orcas, quicker to build than 4 Firehawks but does the same job
  
• Zone Raiders with Predator tanks
  
• A Marv with 2 or more Zone raiders inside, worth noting that 4 Zone Raider Marv is the highest DPS unit in the game

Vs GDI

• Same as GDI, in a Firehawk battle; Ceramic Armour makes no difference
  
• Tiberium Field Suits provide the same buff as Composite Armour, TFS is however; cheaper, faster to research and provides immunity to Tiberium poisoning

Nod
Vs Nod

• Bike/Buggy wars.
  
• Utilise rocket squads and laser turrets.
  
• Tech straight up to the Tiberium Chemical Plant and Catalyst missile your enemy's refinery (you can hit more than one refinery if they've placed them too close)
  
• Seed your own Tiberium and try to hit a Tiberium Vein detonation on a Tier 1 Army clump if possible
  
• Multi-MCV
  
• Redeemer

Vs Scrin

• Scorpion Spam with Dozer upgrade to increase health and run over disintegrators without taking damage.
  
• Laser upgrade to increase Scorpion spam's effectiveness.
  
• Rockets to increase deadliness against Tripods.

Vs GDI

• Bike/Buggy to contain them inside their base
  
• Scorpions to deal with the Pitbulls
  
• Venoms to shoot down the Hammerhead counter-attack
  
• A couple of Stealth tanks to cause economic supply line issues
  
• Tiberium Chemical Plant to further hurt their eco beyond repair
  
• Rockets and Avatars to blunt your average Mammoth and Juggernaut advance
  
• A Redeemer + stealth to stamp on unsuspecting units + rage generator to kill themselves

Black Spam
These guys will almost certainly get the Black Disciples upgrade and show you what infantry spam really looks like, mostly made up of rocket squads with a few confessors sprinkled in for the attack bonus.
Likely to build blue flame tanks to flank your your base or even support the rockets, making most vehicles non-viable.
Will also build a couple of Mantis's because they're cheap and deadly to aircraft.

Marked of Kane
Same as Nod but every basic squad has an EMP, slower units like Epics will suffer
More likely to go multi-mcv due to the shredder turret Super Charged Particle Beam upgrade
Venom deathballs are inevitable

Scrin
Vs Nod

• Seekers are good vs Bike/Buggy and can hold a line against Scorpions but not for long.
  
• Go straight to tech and only stop to build a portal if Scorpions reach critical mass and you need Photon Cannons + Disintegrators.
  
• Tripod spam, add gun walkers if Nod start to flash produce infantry, but be aware you can use: Buzzer Swarm, Stasis Field AND Phase Field to help stomp out that threat.
  
• If this is still not enough then Devastator warships will finish them off.

Vs Scrin

• Gun Walker battles until you get to Mechapedes
  
• Mechas are hard to use but build twice as fast as a tripod with potentially huge DPS
  
• When you have a minute to breath, switch to Tripods, Mechas can easily overwhelm them until you reach critical mass
  
• Some people may go Gun Walkers + Devourer tanks but that's only because they forgot Tripods exist.
  
• Trust in the cheese: Stasis, Phase and Commando

Vs GDI

• Seekers beat Pitbulls
  
• Then go gun walkers to beat the fast APCs+Rockets
  
• Be ready to build Disintegrators to stop a Predator push
  
• If you suspect Fast Hawks then it's completely acceptable to build 2 airfield 8 Stormriders to surprise them, kill the Hawks and annihilate their economy
  
• If not then you require extensive scouting to be sure
  
• Move on to what Scrin does best, 1 million Tripods to win the game

Reaper 17
Their entire gameplan relies on their ability to reach Tier 3 tech which is both a blessing and a curse.
If they manage to successfully defend and stop early-mid game attacks with minimal losses, their Tripods and Shard Walkers will completely trample anything the enemy can throw at them. At this point they're nearly impossible to stop, however if you manage to damage them early you'll find their lack of versatility will prevent them from getting back into the game.


Traveller 59
Variation 1# Hexapod + Prodigy
Traveller is renown for 'Hex-Laming' where players will use two teleport abilities to jump in and out of combat, a Phase Field support power to gain temporary invincibility, Temporal Wormhole to trap your forces and a harem of Corruptors to heal it in seconds.
Backed with cheap mind controllers you can see why this is the most hated of all factions.

Variation 2# Shocktroopers (Full Upgrades) + Gun Walkers
Throw in a few cultists if you really want to stump your opponent

So here's the inherent strengths and weaknesses that you can exploit for your own fun and profit:

GDI Strengths

• Insane armour for both tanks and infantry (when upgraded)
  
• OP Ammo upgrade is good vs everything
  
• Stratofighter Firehawks basically teleport and are very hard to deal with
  
• Amazing scout support powers
  
• Super versatile units like the Hammerhead and APC
  
• Most powerful Air-to-Air fighters

GDI Weaknesses

• Slow army which leaves you susceptible to flanking attacks
  
• Expensive tanks leave you unable to amass a great force without great time and tiberium investment
  
• Everything is so bloody expensive, one bad engagement and they lose the game
  
• Ground AA is the weakest in the game

Nod Strengths

• Stealth is a thorn in everyone's side, you can often take out a few harvesters or an important building before the enemy can react
  
• Redeemer rage generator can seriously compromise a large army
  
• Flash production, T1 units are cheap and fast to make, they can amass an incredible army in a very short amount of time
  
• T4 support powers can completely stall the enemy's economy
  
• Their defences can be completely impenetrable on the right map

Nod Weaknesses

• If you're unable to disrupt your enemy, your forces will collapse against heavier enemy counterparts
  
• A serious lack of frontline units, their highest DPS troops all have super low armour
  
• Their Avatars and Redeemer both require to be standing still before firing, making them susceptible to artillery fire

Scrin Strengths

• Stasis support power is often called the 2nd Superweapon due to how powerful it is
  
• Tripods and gun walkers solve everything
  
• Phase field support power does 3 things; Makes the unit invincible, Tripods can still crush enemy tanks and infantry, they draw fire away from your unaffected units
  
• Shard launchers are the strongest AA in the game

Scrin Weaknesses

• Everything is reliant on their tech + they have no Laser/Sonic fences, expect Firehawks and Stealth attacks
  
• Failed Tripod attacks will leave your enemy husks to capture
  
• Sonics and AP Ammo tears apart the Scrin army

Counters for each strategy
Well this is the great question every player is asking, you can draw your own conclusions from the above but your own library of strats will never have a 100% success rate.

Scout complacency
Remember, intel is only valid for 30 seconds after it's gathered. Never forget that the moment you lose sight of your enemy, they could be doing anything. It is very common for you to be building a perfect counter to your enemy's tank army, only to find they've actually been forming a huge airforce or infantry swarm.

Support Powers
They're there to be used, even though some of them are expensive and you may rather use that to build an army, you'll find their power to gather intel or disrupt the enemy often far exceeds their price tag

Keep Building
The WORST pitfall that will plague people even at high level is becoming too focused on a fight and forgetting to queue the next building or place the one that has just been constructed. You'll find this most often occurs when dealing with a split force attacking from 2 sides. You may win the battle but if you forget your buildings, you'll lose the war.

Overreactions
This is what separates Experts from the Advanced players, this happens when you spend more resources to counter a rush than it cost the enemy to initiate it.
ideally you'll build the EXACT amount of counters to deal with your enemy's army, but of course this will very rarely happen, especially on purpose.
The best way to alleviate this is with good scouting to figure out if the enemy is going all-in or has given up the attack and is re-focusing on their Eco.

Blaming your loss on hacks
While no game is completely free of cheaters, you'll find the it's especially rare to find one on KW, possibly due to how close-nit the community is.
Accusing your opponent of cheating will achieve two things; you make yourself look incompetent and you get yourself tilted because you believe your loss wasn't your fault.
This mindset is mostly egotistical as you believe you're 'too good' to lose like that, if you suffered a loss that you felt should've been a win, the best thing to do is study the replay before making any claims, the most likely outcome is you'll discover a strategy you've never considered before which is always a good thing. Try to stay humble.

Not learning Hotkeys
Any opportunity to remove the amount of micro-management you have to do should be taken, some important hotkeys to note are:

• Q - All Units
  
• E - Building Tab
  
• R - Defences tab
  
• W - Select all of same unit
  
• A - Attack anything en route to location
  
• D - Reverse move to location (defends rear armour)