I recently rejoined the game after a year hiatus and I haven't found many good low oil opponents, in fact I'm at 30 wins and 3 losses at the moment with 1v1 on the normal maps. So I figured I'd make a guide to teach some of the basics, including build orders that actually work, so there are more decent opponents around.
Learning the Map:
First things first and it's the most important thing. Once you join the game, look at the map, look very closely. All the yellow squares are oil locations and you should do your best to memorise them. There can be no turtling inside your 4 oil base, you must push every oil aggressively. Some maps have green dots, these are oil pickups that give 100 power each.
Another consideration are scavengers, which can be annoying to deal with. You should check if they're blocking any obvious oil locations. They'll usually have at least one oil in their base, which is beyond the scope of the initial oil rush. However sometimes you can rush trucks past them to gain oil in the middle of the map, more on that later. If they are turned off, don't worry about them, but do be worried of the other player, this usually means they're going to be rushing.
Lastly check how defensive the map is. There are some non official maps where defensive play can pay off, such as Confrontation. Usually the bigger the map and the more cliffs with ramps on your side, the higher the chance you'll be able to deal with the initial rush.
Only press ready when you're confident you know all the oil locations, you shouldn't use excuses like, "Hey I don't know this map".
Build Order:
Use the shift key to queue up build orders, very useful since the initial 10 minutes is micro intensive.
The standard build order that I use in 1v1 is:
1 Factory + 5 trucks.
2 or 3 research labs. (I highly recommend 3 in T1 1v1, but in 2v2 etc, you can get away with 2.)
2 generators
1 command centre
1 generator
The trucks you manufacture should:
1st helps with base.
2nd gets base oil.
The last three will get oils at the locations you memorised earlier.
Initial researches:
All 3 starting techs. The first two will rush for research mod and power generator mod as soon as possible. To do this:
Power mod: > Engineering > Engine > Power Mod.
Research mod: > Sensors > Sensor Tower > Command Nexus > Research Mod
Noob Mistakes:
Not going factory first. - You won't be able to capture the oils you need quickly after the base build up.
Building power generator first. - You have enough power to start off that you can forgo this for now.
Command Centre first. - You should not need the map function, just zoom out.
Building more than one factory. - Do this MUCH later, your power is very restricted. This isn't a high oil guide!
Not using shift to build. - Makes you verrrry slow. Always hold shift to build stuff!
Initial Oil Rush
Now that you have sent trucks to capture oils beyond your free ones, you should expand aggressively, any oil you can get without scavengers shooting at you, go for them! You memorised the oils on the map right? During this time you will need to research MG Towers, do not bother with the bunkers. You have two choices here, go for the 4th research lab (Which you can use to research the factory/cyborg techs later) or spend the time researching it with your weapon's lab. The results are very pleasing, MG Towers start with heavy MGs, even if you have not researched them yet!
Build 2 MG towers at the most contested oils. usually the ones that are nearest to your opponent. Do this even if they have claimed the oil already and you see no trucks around. It's easy pickings after the MG towers go up. But what should you do if your opponent is already building an MG tower there? First right click and hold to show the HP, if there's no yellow, they're building with low power. (This is usually the result of a poor oil push, too much research or second factory) In this case, build the MG tower behind the truck and make sure your truck is behind the tower so it cannot get shot. The result is the enemy truck exploding and you repairing your own tower, which will kill the enemy one, even if they send more trucks to counter.
MG Towers destroy any tactic at this stage in the game, always make sure your trucks are not getting shot while building them. If the map has one entry to middle, consider a tower there for denial.
Special note about scavengers blocking the middle:
On some maps, the most obvious example being the official Roughness map, you won't be able to get to the middle because a Scavenger base will open fire on you. In this case, no problem. Group 3 or 4 trucks together then go around the camp to get to the middle. You'll lose a few trucks in the process, but getting all that lovely oil in the middle? That's usually the game winner right there!
Random barrel spawns:
Sometimes random barrels spawn over the map, always be on the look out when you have some time when you're not clicking, they can appear anywhere, even on impassable terrain. These give 100 Power each and on low oil, extremely valuable, since it's likely you'll dip into negative energy in the fear future.