NorM's Rax vs Beast Guide 2021(AA4)

Hello everyone, welcome to my Rax vs Beast Guide! In this guild I will showcase an aggressive raider style that transitions into an expansion and into mid/late game. My name is NorM on LittleWarGame also known as RTSGuy 28 on Youtube. A little about me, people would call one of the best rax players on Little War Game currently. I have wrote a in depth build order guide for the matchup Rax Vs Beast. In this guide you can expect to see, but not limited to:


 * The opening build order


 * Transition from early to mid game


 * What you should be scouting


 * How to counter his tech


 * 2 Castles OR 3 Castles?


 * Late game


 * Vs Cheese


 * Key Note! buildings with (") around them, are situational buildings, or tech that is forced early, but is wanted for later. For example (*Towers) or (*Advanced Workshop)

In any case here's the opening..


 * 8/10 House


 * 9/10 Rax


 * 10/10 Worker (cut workers here)


 * 12/10 Raider


 * 14/20 Raider


 * 14/20 Castle


 * 16/20 Raider (continue workers after 3rd raider)


 * Transfer 4 Workers To 2nd Base

Video Link for build opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUpnw815WvQ

Take your raider to the other side of the map to get a scout. Always try to fight and kite workers, target fire the weak ones. Keep reinforcing your radiers with more raiders! 3 raiders is enough. It is HIGHLY IMPORTANT to keep your WEAK RAIDERS in the BACK! You lose about 50 dps per raider loss, which is huge! Make sure to take care of them!. Utilize your flash and target firing to the best of your ability. It is from this point that we choose our next buildings! I will break them down into scenarios.


 * Scenario One, Your raiders own, Your Opponent Groans!

If you manage to do enough damage, you can build 6 raiders off of 1 Rax and take a fast 3rd while snowballing the early game. 2 Castles must always build workers at this point 1 Barracks must build raiders(up to 6 max if your snowballing hard.) Don't forget to make your house! No later than 25/30

Pay attention to your gold! You want to take a 3rd base once you can afford it! Meaning having 350 gold when both castles and your Rax are '''constantly producing! (except if your snowballing with raiders, 6 max.)''' The reason why I say 6 raiders max is you eventually want to start making archer/soldier and raiders suck vs wolf/snake. These timings and supply counts may vary~! Also, make sure you keep harassing with your raiders and keep map presence.

Once 3rd base is making, it's important to start soldier/archer production! (From here on out there will be no actual supply timings to go from, the objective is to keep Workers/units making constantly, and to only build your structures when you have enough gold.


 * Mid-Game Transition:


 * 3rd Base


 * 2nd Rax


 * Church


 * Forge


 * 3rd Rax

I DO NOT recommend not making 3 bases off 1 Rax unless your opponent is playing greedy and not flooding heavy beast units, or if your just outright winning with your raiders.

Since your snowballing hard early, you want to take advantage of that by expanding to a 3rd base off 1 Rax. You want to have priests early in the game for the fast healing, make sure your units stay at full health and only engage inside the healing wards! Immediately get your forge and start your +1 Armor upgrade to get the best value out of your soldiers early on. Once you are on 3 bases you can do a push to outright win, or you can take it slow and expand. Please not that pushing across the map does not always work! Only do this option if you feel you can outright win based off how the game plays. I have played games and I have seen games get thrown Rax vs Beast by fail pushing. If he owns your army you are very weak for a counter attack and most of the time outright lose. I highly recommend just playing patient and waiting for beast to make a mistake, or using late game drops to position his army where you want it!

Every situation could be different, If you go for a 3 base push you want to go around 90 supply and take your 4th base. If you choose to play it safe, start splitting your army while making forward houses for scouting. Take your 4th base around 100 supply.


 * 4th base (around 100)


 * (*Advanced Workshop)


 * 4th Rax


 * Church Upgrade (Invisible)

If your opponent has faster dragons, you have to make an Advanced Workshop earlier and use invis ballista vs dragons. You have two options, either push because you feel confident that you will not die to a backstab, or start splitting your 150/150 army so you can cover two areas and take a 5th base.


 * 5th Base

(*Advanced Workshop)


 * 2nd Forge (+ weapon, + armor)


 * 5th Rax


 * Armory


 * Mages Guild

From here on out just defend and get a 6th base. Good sim city and good splitting is the key. If he attacks you and fails you can walk across the map. 6 to 8 Rax is enough at this point. It's important that you don't have a fail engage, which is why its much better to let him make a mistake while you grow big.


 * Scenario 2: Vs Agression (Many Wolf/Snake)

If you start seeing lots of units with your raiders you need to back off and stop making them. Your raiders will now be your scouting units. Try to get into his base and see how many wolf dens there are. Immediately start making soldier/archer, I like to build 2nd Rax and my church before my 3rd base in this scenario. You must be careful not to get over ran by beast units. A good timing to expand vs den aggression is around 50 to 60 supply. It would look like this:


 * 2nd Rax (constant units)


 * Church (2 priests)


 * 3rd Rax


 * Double Forge (constant Attack, Armor Upgrades

As long as you make units nonstop you will be able to force your 3rd. You may need to pull some workers but you should be able to hold his attack. If your raider scouts that he's staying on 2 base I would recommend a 3 base push at 100 supply with +1/+1 and priests for healing. If you see no option for a push or if you feel scared, just sit back and split your army while taking your 4th base. Remember to make forward houses so you can have a heads up if his army is coming! A good method to setup a attack as rax is to start doing drops at his bases. Another way is to let him fail attack into you, for example if he splits his army and does a pronged attack and fails on both sides. Or if you just outright kill his army in a engage and he has to retreat, thats really the only time you can move out as a rax player. Its very important to set up your attacks instead of moving out blindly and risking a back-door counter attack or worse, getting surrounded.. I highly recommend to beginners to learn to play patiently and smoothly, if you get good at this you will become a straight up beast killer!

Here is how the 4th base and the late game would develop:


 * 4th Base
 * Invisibility Research (Church Upgrade)


 * (*Advanced Workshop)


 * 4th Rax
 * Armory (+1 Range)

As always you need to know if your opponent is making dragons, if your opponent decides to tech switch to dragons at this point, you need to prioritize your advanced workshop. You can build it instead of your invisibility. Advanced workshop ideally would be our lowest priority tech. Only get it faster if your opponent is making dragons.

Using airships early is risky due to a early counter attack. Only grab an advanced workshop early if you are seeing dragons on the map. Split your army and make forward houses to take your 5th base or attack, depending on how much he's lost so far.

Having +1 Range for your archers makes them dps monsters in battle. As long as you have enough to hold the front line with soldier/priest, +1 Range archers should clean everything up. Now that we have a deadly army we can either expand to a 5th or be aggressive. If you choose to be aggressive I would highly recommend drops. The trick is to position his army so he cannot simply backstab you, almost always forcing in a head on fight. This push can outright win you the game, or you can lose horribly. Only march across the map if you are almost certain you can win a fully committed fight. You would expand to a 5th base off of this play and hunker down for late game play. it does not matter if you attack or expand first, the transition will almost be similar.


 * 5th Base


 * Mages Guild


 * 5th + 6th Rax

I highly recommend to play it slow with army splits until your opponent makes a bad trade. Make sure you are constantly upgrading your weapons and armor from your double forge, ideally you always want them upgrading. If your opponent does not commit to an attack, grab yourself a 6th base and get ready to win :) Your unit composition should look like this:


 * Soldier (at least lvl 3 weapons, lvl 3 armor)


 * Archer (at least lvl 3 weapons, lvl 3 armor + 1 Range)


 * Priest (at least lvl 3 weapons, lvl 3 armor + Healing ward, Invisibility)


 * Mage (at least lvl 3 weapons, lvl 3 armor + slow + fireball)


 * Ballista (+powder upgrade, 1 ballista per 3 dragons. MAX of 6.)
 * Airship (Transporting ballista and setting up attacks)


 * Scenario 3: Vs 2 base fast dragons (tech)


 * 2nd Rax (constant units)
 * Advanced Workshop (Powder Upgrade, Ballista)
 * Church (priest for healing wards)


 * 3rd Base


 * Double Forge (+1 Attack +1 Armor)
 * 3rd Rax

Since ballista are so slow in getting into position, i highly recommend making an airship to transport them!

If you scout and see that your opponent is making a fast fortress, you want to keep pressure on the map, no more than 4 raiders. Try to kill wolves and workers with your raiders. Once dragons are out you need to split your raiders up so you can keep map control and vision. Depending on how many dragons your opponent goes for, depends on how many ballista you will need. (Max of 6 ballista) Since ballista are so slow in getting into position, If your opponent expands at this point, you expand. If your opponent does not expand, don't expand until your safe. (50 to 60 supply mark) It is wise to put a tower and a ballista on every gold mine at this point. Once you build up a good ball of units (100-120 supply) it's time to take your 4th base:


 * 4th Base


 * 4th Rax


 * Armory (+1 Ranged)
 * Invisibility Research (church upgrade)

Make sure you have at least 1 ballista and a tower to defend yourself from dragon harass at your corner bases! At Max 150/150 move out to take a 5th base, if you plan to be aggressive, expand in the direction that you want to attack! If you plan to play defensively and split the map in half, make sure you have  1 ballista and 1 tower to defend your corner bases from dragons! Its very important to make forward houses for scouting and split your units accordingly. I would highly recommend to play defensively unless your opponent takes bad trades.


 * 5th Base


 * 5th + 6th Rax


 * Mages guild

Once your 6th base is secured you can add up to 8 Rax maximum! I like to have a little gold left over for towers and upgrades. A few forward towers to retreat to is always nice.


 * 6th base


 * 7th Rax


 * 8th Rax
 * Forward Towers to retreat to and for defense.

Just macro and wait for mistakes if this game isnt over yet. Split the map and play defensively. You must be patient and wait or create an opening to attack. Once he fails with an engage or is out of position you can move out and most likely outright win. Don't overbuild on towers, 4 towers for retreat defense is pretty good. Use airships to drop units in his bases to throw off his units and so you can set up attacks. I like to personally send a airship with nothing inside his main base just to bait an attack.


 * Scenario 4: Vs 2base WereWolf


 * 2nd Rax


 * Double Forge (+2 Attack)


 * Church
 * 3rd Base
 * ("Advanced Workshop)
 * 3rd Rax

Take advantage of the time he will need to build an army by teching hard! Make your 2nd Rax and start Double Forge. The reason why is we need the faster attack upgrades early on for soldiers to deal with werewolfs. Play slow off of 2 base then expand. Use your archers and soldiers to target fire werewolfs. In fights your priority is to kill werewolfs, make sure you are target firing them. From here we would start weapon and armor upgrades (+3 weapons + 1 armor) and continue upgrading until we are maxed.

If your opponent is going fast werewolf drops, you need to defend your forges and make drops of your own! Make towers in your main base defending them and leave some soldiers behind for extra dps! If you are able to survive his harass and his initial push, or if he just played too passive you may take a 4th base.


 * 4th Base


 * Mages Guild


 * Advanced Workshop


 * 4th Rax

Once you are on 4 bases you will want a 5th soon. Keep your army split, and make forward houses for scouting. You want to keep your mages split with both groups of your army so you can kite better and buy time if needed to reinforce. Fireballs are also great :) Normally I would recommend mages on 5th base, but we need the extra spell of slow and fireball to help us with the overpowered werewolf :) Remember to only move out vs beast if:

You feel confident you will not die to counters.

He just threw his army and how has to retreat.

You know where his army is on the map and your confident you can beat it.

Since rax is slow, you should probably play it slow. Stay on your side of the map and accumulate bases .Remember to have forward houses for scouting. It buys you extra time for your slow units to intercept so your opponent doesn't kill your workers/base for free! If he's making dragons have 1 ballista and 1 tower defending your exposed goldmines. Always try to have atleast 4 gold mines mining at all times!


 * Scenario 5: Vs Cheese:


 * Vs Power 2den:

Early on you might have to pull some workers (3-4) to help with your initial 2 raiders. The key is to damage and focus fire wolfs while taking as little damage as possible. Only engage when your raiders are on attack reset and you have flash. If he comes to make a tower at your natural, you must pull workers at your natural and all-in his tower, kill it or you have a good possibility of dying. If you manage to defend the 2 Den allin without too much damage, you are very ahead in the game. I would reccommend constant units, a 3rd base, and a Forge. But you can also outright win the game with a invis push off 2 bases! You have a lot of options because you will be ahead. Remember when you push to also use your healing spell, they synergize really well with soldiers!


 * Vs Castle 1 Den 2 Dragon Lair Tech

The key is to get a good scout with your first raiders. If you feel like he's lacking in units most of the time you just win because he has no units. If he makes a tower for defense you need to scout the main base look for the fortress quickly! If he is going for a fortress early your tech should go like this:


 * 2nd Rax


 * Advanced Workshop


 * Church


 * 3rd base


 * 3rd Rax


 * Double Forge (+1 Weapons +1 Armor)

It's imperative that you get an advanced workshop early vs early dragons! If he is committing hard to dragons you need 4 to 6 ballista (2 in each gold mine). If he only makes a few 1 or 2 is enough. The key is to not over-make on ballista for there is much better units to make with your supply if they're not needed! + range will come before your 3rd base just because range is great vs dragons, allowing you more units and tech for your 3rd base. Since you are ahead in this scenario it would be a great idea to push with ballista and priests! Make sure he is not making heavy units with raider scouts. If you take a bad engage your opponent will be ahead so attack wisely.


 * 4th Base


 * 4th Rax


 * Forward Scouting Houses/Sim City


 * 150/150 split army/take 5th/Forward scouting houses at 5th


 * 2nd Forge


 * Mages Guild

Here you will want to be patient and let the beast player attack you, once he fails on a trade you are allowed to move to his side of the map. If you decide to move out without having a trade happen first, you are setting yourself up for backstabs. Once he fails on an engagement it should be in your favor, keep macroing and don't forget to retreat your army to your reinforcements if your low on units.


 * Vs 2 base 5 den allin:


 * 2nd Rax (Constant Soldier/Archer)


 * 3rd Base
 * 3rd Rax


 * Church (2 Priests + Invisible)


 * Forge (+1 Armor)


 * Armory (+1 Range)

The key is to keep producing units non-stop. You may need to use 5 or 6 workers to help with your soldier/archer army. If your able to not lose too many units, and get your 3rd base, rax and church you can build up for a push. Make Houses at 3rd base for sim city and make a couple towers. Once you have a big soldier/archer/priest ball you should push and take your 4th. This push is designed to either out-right end the game, which you should be able to due to him not having a 3rd for a long time! If the game continues after your push, it turns into a regular game with 4 bases and getting all your tech. Get another big ball of archers/soldiers/priest/mages and take a 5th base with towers.


 * Vs Wolf/Gatlin Cheese:

Control your raiders to the best of your ability, its highly important that you don't lose raiders, even if it is almost dead, the next shot will be 50+ DPS! The objective is to wither down his wolfs so you can flash on his army. Don't be afraid to pull workers and flash in with 4 or 5 raiders for a surround. If you successfully stop his aggression, chances are you have won.

Either way, if your opponent doesn't leave and for some reason your follow up raiders don't outright end the game, You have two options.


 * Expand to 3rd base with a big lead:


 * 2nd Rax (Soldier/Archer)
 * Forge (+1 Armor)


 * 3rd Base (around 50 supply)


 * 3rd Rax


 * Church (2 priests)


 * Armory (+1 Range)
 * 4th Base (around 100 supply)

OR


 * 2 Base Push:


 * 2nd Rax (Soldier, Archer)


 * 3rd Rax/4th Rax (Same Time)
 * 80 supply attack


 * 3rd Base


 * Church

Do this variation if you want to outright win the game with your push, or do heavy damage to him so you may transition to late game play. If you feel you have lost too much vs his cheese I would recommend the Mid Game Transition. Note that in this push you do not cut workers until you are fully saturated on 2 bases. 12 is the full saturation count, but I like to make 13 so I can still have 100% gold mining while a worker builds. Once your 3rd castle is started, you can make workers again. Keep 3 bases at 100% gold mining efficency if you have to play the late game and expand to a 4th base and start getting into upgrades.

It's really up to you, decide what would be better, a push or a setup into late game. I find it safer personally to just expand, but I am a macro player XD

Assuming you went for the macro side, here is what you would get on 4 bases:


 * 4th Base


 * 4th Rax
 * 2nd Forge (+Weapons +Armor)


 * Invisibility Upgrade (Church)

If you make it to this stage in the game, you want a maxed out army of soldier/archer//priest and you want to start splitting and taking the map getting a 5th and 6th base and the rest of your tech (2nd forge), the idea is to have 1 rax per base as the minimum requirement, while 8 rax on 6 bases is usually the maximum. Make forward houses to scout and see if he is attacking with his army and split your units accordingly. Once he makes a bad trade you are allowed to walk across the map and just win.

Vs Wolf/Tower/Cata

Make sure he is not able to complete a tower at your natural! Make constant raiders and try to get good trades. Micro and force firing is key to victory here. Remember to keep your raiders alive, 1 raider lost is over 50 DPS lost... If you defend well, go for a 2 base attack off of 4 rax listed above. While attacking you must expand to a 3rd base! Or If you lose a lot to his cheese but survive, build up with 2 Rax id say about 50ish supply, and safely take your 3rd base. Remember to keep scouting, you must know what your opponent is building so you to know what tech you should build. Take note that if your push does not right win the game or do heavy damage, your opponent can come back! Only push if you feel certain you can do heavy damage or outright win.

If your opponent has faster dragons, you have to make an Advanced Workshop earlier for Ballistas. Make sure to keep scouting and your aware of his tech. Grab a new base once you have a strong army and can split your units, OR you can go for an attack around 100 to 120 supply and expand towards your attack!


 * 5th Base
 * (*Advanced Workshop)
 * 2nd Forge (+ weapon, + armor)
 * 5th rax
 * Armory
 * Mages Guild

Note that if you lose your army in your push the game is going to be really hard to win. Only push if you are confident that you can do heavy damage or outright win the game! If you decided to play back and get a 6th base make a few towers at the location for defense. Good scouting and good splitting are the key to staying alive late game. If he attacks you and fails you can walk across the map And Be Aggressive. Only walk across the map if your opponent fail engages on you. If you decided to walk across the map with your army he is almost always going to backstab you.

I think that's about it, if you have any questions or comments my name is NorM in LittleWarGame, the leader of clan [BestOf]. I also have a discord server, feel free to dm me anytime on disord at rtsgamer28 #4630

I know it was a long read, but I hope that you guys improve and have some killer games! Practice, practice, and with effort you will one day become a monster Rax Vs Beast Player.

-NorM,

AkA - RTSGuy 28

Special thank you to everyone in the lwg community that is subscribed to my channel and comes and has fun with me on the stream. Without you I probably wouldn't have made this wiki.