I'll be playing Skirmishes for a while before I humiliate myself online.
I can beat most skirmish levels against hard opponents but it's a differnt kettle of fish when you get online. I'm using the Chinese at the moment, building Helix right from the off with a mixture of upgrades and using a tactic called swooping (from the old Force Commander days) and it's working wonders!
I came across this while I was on my internet travels:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...ml?sid=6092404 looks good but I suppose it will mess up online play unless your opponent has it aswell.