I've been playing RTS games for a long time, from Cannon Fodder and Megalomania on the megadrive, Warcraft 1 & 2 on the playstation to Starcraft, Company of Heroes and Dawn of War 1 & 2 on the PC and I've consistently enjoyed playing them but for some reason this is the only genre of game that no matter how much I play I never seem to get any good at.

I always felt that the best way to get good at games is to jump straight into the online rather than get into bad habits by playing AI, especially if you're playing on an easier setting. The problem I have is that I get intimidated playing anything online if I feel that my gameplay is not average at best and this creates a bit of a catch 22 for me.

The biggest problem I find with the RTS genre online is that you're either in a small team or 1v1, this either gives or one or two players who are counting on you to pull your own weight or putting you in a head to head situation which, again, is very intimidating when you have no online experience.

I've probably already  dug myself into a pit of bad habits, turtling, not learning effective counters or build orders, knowing when fights are lost when to retreat or how to control large groups of units other than selecting all and telling them to attack 1 target.

Other genres, FPS for example, are much easier to get into, you can blend in with a large group of other players where your failings can go largely unnoticed while you learn the ropes, or take Turn based games such as Civilisation, there you have time to plan out strategies, levelling the playing field somewhat.

Maybe it's just not meant to be, I've always been a one track mind person, in an FPS I only have to worry about what I can see, not what my 50 units who are scattered across the map can see. I can put my twitch reactions to better use in an FPS and have a lot less to worry about at any one time.

I have a huge amount of respect to anyone that can play RTS games at a high level of skill, you have so much to think about and very little time to react to situations. For now I'll resign my self to playing medium skill AI alone or with some friends and leave the online to others.