Why does it seem that every thread devolves into the same few people arguing, rather than trying to help solve the OPs problem?
Anyway, here's what I think the OP should do to help with his game:
- play against the ai only to get used to what your units can do in a particular battlegroup
- play against humans to get used to actually using your units in a combined arms way
Why? Because humans will slow down to think, to mass forces, to switch flanks, to do interesting tactical things. The ai will just push, and push, and push, and push, until all you are doing is reacting and not learning. Once you have more experience against humans, and can use better combined arms tactics, then you can go back and start beating the ai regularly.
So, what games to jump into? 1vs1? 10vs10? somewhere in between?
If you are nervous about getting stomped, jump into some 10vs10 Conquest games. Most of the time they operate as a whole series of 1vs1 games, with some overlap between players. You can improve by playing these games. Avoid Destruction mode initially, as my experience is that most players will sit back and camp, and it can be extremely boring. However, if you can find a few friendly faces to play with, team up with some people on Discord (the Eugen discord has a link on the SD subreddit) and play some 3vs3 or 4vs4 games. That way you can get support from your team-mates and learn to enjoy the game much more quickly.
In terms of using resources to learn, Raven Wargaming youtube channel did a good 3 part series on deck building, deployment, and gameplay:
Oh, and don't be afraid to lose. I've played all of the Wargame titles for many years, and for every time I've battered another player, I've had a different player batter me!
