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Gnug215's SupCom Strategy Guide - Version 6...

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# 1Gnug215 Dec 16 2006, 17:50 PM
Supreme Commander Strategy Guide

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A Guide to Strategy and Tactics in Supreme Commander – By Gnug215
Illustrations, captions and additional comments by Feinam

Guide version 6.0 - Updated August 16th, 2007

Change log for 6.0:
Corrections and minor changes around the place.
General update of strategies and tactics to correspond with latest version of the game.
Revision of Chapter 4, "Current Trends".

Change log for 5.1:
Added some paragraphs explaining and clarifying some basics in the introduction chapter.

Change log for 5.0:
Various minor corrections and changes.
Updated all the sections to correspond with current top level playing.
Added Chapter 4, “Current Trends”.


---o---

Contents


Introduction
Chapter 1: Early game – Building up and expanding
Chapter 2: Mid-game – Teching up
Chapter 3: End Game
Chapter 4: Current Trends
Concluding Remarks


---o---

Introduction

I wanted to write a short guide to help some of the new players arriving and playing the game for the first time. Over time it expanded, and I added more advanced stuff, so now I think it qualifies as a full-blown Strategy Guide to SupCom. I also separated the more practical portion of the guide, and made the “Beginner’s Guide to SupCom”, and if you’re very new to the game, you should probably start out by reading that. You can find it at: http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index...howtopic=198537

I start out with the basic stuff mostly aimed at newcomers in the first chapter. It consists primarily of build order suggestions, early game tips and general hints, aimed at getting a good start.

I have purposely written the guide in broad and general terms. I try to focus on the fundamental aspects that are most likely not going to be subject to change throughout the life of the game. I have decided to do it this way in order to let this guide serve as a general starting point for everyone out there and leave the specific stuff up to smaller guides, which are easier to change and edit if or when changes occur.
In future updates I plan to continuously revise the Chapter 4, "Current Trends", as this is obviously most subject to change and development, as the game gets updated, patched and expanded, and as players learn more and more.

Some of you more experienced players might want to skip the first chapter all together, as they are pretty basic stuff. But who knows, you might find something out you didn’t know before.

---o---


Chapter 1: Early game – Building up and expanding


Starting Out
Starting out with just your Commander, you will want to build some Power generators (Pgens or P) and Mass Extractors (Mex or M) right away. Two or three of each should do. Next you'll want to make a factory (Fac). I suggest starting with a land factory on most maps, unless you’re on a very small island. Apart from that, the land factory is cheaper than the air factory.

The most common start build orders (BO) out there on most maps is starting with two Pgens and two Mex, seemingly in random order. I prefer alternating them, so you get: P, M, P, M, then a factory. A lot of people to P, P, M, M, factory. Others do P, P, M, factory, particularly on maps where the next Mex is too far away. After the factory, I build another Pgen to get a bit of extra Energy.
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This build will get close to zero energy, but won't stall.


You can test and experiment with your own BOs for the best results. These said results should in my opinion be that you don’t reach 0 and stall in either Energy or Mass, and preferably getting the factory up as fast as possible.

The purpose of a good start BO is to ensure you a solid and best possible start, because if you get behind from the start, it will be an uphill struggle the entire time.

Depending on the map, you can go for a safe start with some Engineers (Engs) and some units for defenses. You could also go for a quick rush, or maybe make a bunch of Engs first, hoping the opponent isn’t going to rush you right away.
You don’t need to go for a full-out rush either, but perhaps some light raiding of the areas where you think the enemy will be expanding. Catching enemy Engs early on, thereby denying your opponent that extra mass income can win the game for you.
These above choices are extremely important and pivotal for the development of the rest of the game, and you have to understand the consequences of these choices.
  • Heavy Engineers
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+ You will get some good resources going fast, and thereby have a chance to quickly outproduce your opponent.
- You may find yourself being raided hard early, losing all your early Engs because you didn’t have sufficient units to defend with.
? Potential both for a great gain or loss, depending on opponent.
  • Heavy Raiding
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+ You may surprise your opponent, who perhaps went Eng heavy at start
- You'll possibly run into a well defended base, thus having wasted your early units on nothing.
? Potential both for a great gain or loss, depending on opponent.
  • Balanced Blend
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+ Very flexible to possible enemy threats.
- Potentially open to extreme tactics if you don't react quickly.
? Remember, jack of all trades is master of none. Use your balanced position only until you know a way to victory. Take this time to gain intel before fully committing.


You should focus on getting your resources going pretty quickly. Spread out with your Engs to get all the Mass patches in your vicinity, and build some Pgens now and then, perhaps assign one or two (or more) Engs for making Pgens. The amount of Pgens depends on your energy needs, and generally, you need two or three Pgens to run a factory without assisting, but in addition to that, other stuff being built requires energy, and so does running a radar.

If there is a Hydro-Carbon patch nearby, shown with a lightning symbol on the map, make sure to build a Hydro-Carbon Power Generator (HC) relatively soon, as it gives you 100 in energy income. This plant is many times more efficient than building power generators.

Notice that running an air factory is a bit more energy consuming than a land factory, so be sure to compensate for this. It also takes longer to build, so consider a land factory first for early engineers even if you want to rely on air for the game.


Early Game Attacking and Defending

For early raiding and rushing, you have the fast and cheap raiding bots, or the more expensive tanks at your disposal on Tech Tier 1 (T1). Both are viable, and you might want to make some of each to have assigned to different groups. Bots are produced twice as fast at half the cost of tanks, and have a very respectable movement rate. Why use a sledgehammer to hit a fly? Fan single bots out to enemy mass points to take down some precious engineers.
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Dance these bots by moving side to side and they can drop several enemy bots without dying


A quick word on unit micromanagement here: I personally like and recommend using assigned groups, that is, selecting a group, pressing Ctrl+#, where # is numbers 0 through 9. This way you can recall select the group just by pressing the number you assigned it to. This is pretty much standard in most RTS games, and I’m sure most of you know of it, but in case you didn’t, I suggest you learn it and make heavy use of it.
You can make some devastating coordinated attacks in SupCom, although this is easier with the Strategic View, using assigned groups can make this a lot easier for you, and save you a fair bit of micromanaging.

The raiding bots are significantly faster than the tanks, which is their primary asset as a raiding unit. They are, however, very weak, both in hit points and firepower, so you shouldn’t rely on them for too long. Make sure you switch over to making tanks very quickly.
Take note, that by T1 tanks, I also mean the Cybran Mantis, which is in the same category as the Aeon Aurora tank, and the UEF M1 Striker tank.
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The Commander (Cmdr), also known as the ACU, or Armored Command Unit, is a very powerful unit, and he is pretty much made the way he is for the game as an anti-rushing feature, so you don't want to get too close to the enemy Commander with your raiding units, as he will wipe them out pretty quickly.
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The same is true for the T1 Point Defense turrets (PD). They have excellent range and power, and most T1 units generally have problems taking them down, so you don't want to be raiding near those. If you really want to take those out, your best bet is to make some artillery units, some bombers, or go right for Tech Tier 2 (T2) units. Also, it is possible overwhelm a PD with T1 tanks or raiding bots, given enough units. If you have enough, they will take it out before losing too many of their numbers. Additionally, the UEF T1 mobile artillery unit, the Lobo, has proven to be an excellent unit for taking out PDs. They just need to get a couple of shots in and the PD will die.
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These defenses pay themselves off many times over... provided you place them right


Early attacks can decide a game in many cases, and if you find yourself matched up against a top ranked player, you will often experience a large amount of fast T1 units rolling in over you. This is what is normally called a rush. You may not like it, you may feel it is a lame tactic/strategy, and you may feel it ruins the game, but it is there in the game, and it is not going to go away, so you have to deal with it somehow. And no matter how much you yell about it being lame or boring, you are not going to sway any of the top players. Playing fast rush games can for many people give them, well, in lack of a better word, a rush. If both players are rushing, you can get some extremely intense and exciting games, and many people prefer this over the quiet build-up games. Interestingly enough, perhaps, a lot of the people that like this intense, all-out combat are top players.

Top players rush most of the time. And they don’t just rush and overwhelm new-beginners. They rush each other, too, and when a rush is countered by a rush, the effectiveness of a rush can be cancelled out, and the game moves on to other tactics and strategies.

So if you find yourself overwhelmed by a rush from a top player, he is just doing what he usually does. The difference is that if he is not getting countered, he will just break through and kill you quickly. He gets a win, and moves on to the next person that he gets matched up with.

This may seem boring to you, and not how the game was intended to be played. The point of rushing and raiding, however, is really to contain your enemy and his expansion, and not so much going for a quick victory. It's not really a good idea to go for a kill early on, mainly because of the powerful commander, but rushing is mostly an attempt to contain the enemy while you build up. It is a simple early assault, designed to stress the enemy and give you an advantage.

The way the resource system in SupCom works, the more Mex you have, the more mass income you get. A rush is designed to curtail the opponent from getting Mexes by killing the Engs that are making them, or to kill the Mexes already built.
Let me give you an example of why this is so important: Let’s say there are 20 Mex spots on the map. You both start out taking Mexes, but then you rush him, kill a couple of Engs while yours survive, finishing the ones you set out for. Now the situation might look like this: You have 10 Mexes, and the enemy has only 8. This means you are making 20 Mass per second, while the enemy is only making 16 Mass per second. This difference is pretty deciding in a game like this. It means that the enemy can afford to have at least one more factory running than you, or upgrade one of his Mexes. This way, he can get even further ahead of you.

So in essence, rushing, and taking more of the map usually means you get more income, and thus a big advantage. This is something I will return to many times in the guide, emphasizing the value of aggression and expansion.

As for the specifics of raiding, there are some things to consider. Engineers are very weak, and a scout unit can actually take one out (unless you’re Cybran, as their scouts don’t have a weapon.) However, the scout weapon has very low Damage Per Second (DPS), and an Eng can actually reclaim or capture a scout before it dies, just so you know.

At any rate, it doesn’t take a lot to kill an Eng, so spread out your raiding units early on to try to catch his Engs. A good way to do that is to go for where the mass patches are, assuming he will send his Engs there to make Mex, and also, bring scouts to see where he is.
Apart from Engs, you should also try to target enemy Mexes, in order to stem their mass production. If you have an Eng nearby, you may want to try to capture or reclaim the enemy Mex instead of just killing it. Respectively, if you experience someone trying to capture or reclaim one of your Mexes, or any other structures of yours for that matter, you might want to self-destruct your building. This is done by selecting the structure in question, and pressing Ctrl-K.

Seeing things from a defensive stance, you will want to defend your Engs and Mex from enemy raids. To that purpose, having your own units around or getting a PD up usually does the trick.

In my opinion, defending in SupCom is easier than in many other RTS games. However, that doesn’t mean it is easy. There are just some very viable options available to you that forces the opponent to think and change his strategies in order to break through a well-made defensive line, provided you have one. Not only is it easy to play defensively due to the effective defensive structures, but also because the Economy (Econ) structures are quite cheap, so even if you don't get more Mexes than the enemy, you can still outrun him in income if you focus a lot on Econ.

I personally don’t like to rely too much on defensive lines as such, but try instead to make sure to have a somewhat dynamic defense. Basically, I prefer to have mobile units included in my defenses, should the enemy show up with some long range weaponry to take out my stationary turrets. Powerful as the turrets in this game may be, they are still stationary and are outranged by certain weapons.

A mention should be made about walls. In this game, walls actually seem pretty useful. They are strong and cheap, but perhaps most importantly, very fast to build. You can block off an entire chokepoint with walls in a matter of seconds.
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You can also surround your turrets with walls to make them a lot harder to kill for normal units. It takes much more effort to get through walls than it does to build them, so again, defenses force your enemy to think about the situation (or get stuck and lose).
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The wolf knows a hundred tricks; the porcupine knows one good one


The various weapons in the game react differently to walls. It is mainly the Cybran lasers that have problems firing through or over walls, and walled up PDs have been known to take out a bunch of Cybran T2 tanks because of this.

However, I do not want to encourage a solely defensive stance, what is usually called “Turtling”. If you want to be a turtle, make sure you’re a big and nasty one that bites back. Turtling is fine if you have something offensive building up while you’re defending against an aggressive enemy. Being an “Evil Turtle”, the kind that bites back, in this game is something I have found to work quite well in some cases. For instance, turtling up on the popular map Finn’s Revenge, and then going for T2 sea units, Destroyers in particular, while the enemy is pounding into my defensive lines, is a classic example.

Additionally, a thing or two should be said about the Commander and his defensive and offensive uses. Your Commander unit is a good builder, but also a good fighter. Most people play with the settings that will lose you the game if the Commander dies, so you have to be careful with using him indiscriminately. Keep in mind he builds at the same rate as two tier one engineers. If you have idle engineers, there's no reason to have your ACU sitting at home in your base. He is incredibly efficient, especially in early and mid-game stages, where he can be used to take and hold strategically important points. He is a strong unit, a strong deterrent, and also a strong builder, so he can throw up a couple PDs and some walls in no time, or even a factory, in a spot that you really want to hold.

Commander usage in battle is most widespread on smaller maps, and perhaps abused, depending on who you ask. My stance on this is that you should use your Commander as much as you can, but use him wisely, and don’t risk too much. Commander rushing (where you go straight for the enemy base and/or Commander to seek a draw, or perhaps just to destroy some stuff and run away again) as such is frowned upon by many, but it still a part of the game, and something you could and should expect in games, especially ranked games.
Nonetheless, you can use the Commander a lot and in many ways, without it being seen as Commander rushing.

Notice that in the latest patch update, the Commander Death Explosion (That big nuke going off) damage was drastically lowered. It now only deals 4000 points in damage, meaning that an enemy Commander can survive the explosion, and not as earlier, assuring mutual destruction.
So when you face an enemy Commander, be wary of your own health, as you will need to be above 4000 hit points in order to survive if the other Commander dies and explodes within range of you.

Additionally, there are the Commander upgrades. These are an entire chapter of their own, and will be dealt with in the guide sometime in the future. I can tell you that there are some very powerful upgrades available, and some are also very expensive, but at this stage of the game, not many of the top players make extensive use of them, at least not in smaller games.


Going from early game to mid-game

There is no specific point of transition from early-game to mid-game in SupCom where it goes from early stages to mid-stages. This is an arbitrary mental construct, made up by the players. However, getting past this point in the game at which this occurs is often mentioned as a major problem for newer or average players. Or rather: the problem is not getting past the point.

So you have your start build order in place, your first factory is up, and maybe a second, too, and you have units out there raiding and defending your area. What now, you ask?

Just as the term is mental in nature, so is the reason for not being able to get past it. You stagnate, lose focus, and don’t know what to do. This is where you have to tell yourself to keep going, keep expanding and keep moving. Always onward! You got mass? Build another Fac! Upgrade a mex! There is always something more you could be doing, and you should never feel complacent and satisfied with what you have.
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bad. bad. bad. bad. BAD! Never ever have a full mass bar and positive income at the same time (Floating Resources)


Generally, the flow of the games as they are played by top players these days is that they build anywhere from two-three to 20 factories before actually upgrading any of them. Yes, it’s a long way from 2-3 factories to 20, but there is no real answer to what is the right thing to do. You will need to practice, and then you will eventually start to get a feel for what you can allow yourself to do in terms of factory building and upgrading.

A note on this: Recent development in the game has moved towards fast teching, primarily in order to get to T2 to make T2 Tanks. They are very effective against T1 units and may overwhelm you if you aren't ready, or don't have your own T2 units.

Also, you can tech to T3 fast. The T3 Bots are extremely powerful, so if you can survive against someone who has more factories than you until you reach T3, this often assures you the victory, or at least a significant comeback.

In the end, knowing how many facs to make, or when to tech is a matter of personal judgment, and depending on what the enemy is doing. For this you need to get an idea of your opponent, which is best done by scouting. Practice and experience will make you better at this. If you constantly find yourself overwhelmed by T1 units while you’re teching, then re-assess your strategies and compensate accordingly. The same is the case if you constantly find yourself out-teched and T2 Tank or T3 Bot rushed.

Specifically, if map allows people to defend their positions, perhaps at certain choke points or by defensive lines, people will move away from T1 attacks relatively fast and try to tech up, in order to get access to more powerful weaponry.

Mind you, when you move on to the higher tech tiers, you still want to keep up the T1 unit production, and keep the pressure on, or your defenses up.

A point that should be made about rebuilding is not so much what to do, but to make sure you actually do it. Try to make sure you get every Mex you lose back up and running soon. The game isn’t static, and you should not let the layout of your base be dictated by what your enemy destroys, but rather by what you build. So if something is killed, rebuild!

---o---

Chapter 2: Mid-game – Teching up


Building Up and Up
Building up is a pretty straight forward deal once you get to know the game a bit. You can upgrade your factories to the higher tech levels where they stand, and the same goes for your Mex. You don’t have to build anything new.

Upgrading your Mexes is one way to expand your economy mass wise in the mid game stages. You will still want to expand on the map and take as many mass patches available to you, and preferably more than your enemy. Beware when you upgrade your Mexes, however, as it costs a significant amount of both Mass (M) and Energy (E) to do, so stick to upgrading only one or two Mex at a time, of course depending on what you can afford.

With that in mind, you will also want to keep a close eye to your income and output at all times. This is crucial to learn, and it takes some getting used to.

Remember that you can always check the cost of things when looking at them. The game designers have been nice enough to include a "Cost per tick" number next to the price, which is very practical. This way you can keep a good eye on your economy.
So be warned: Do not try to upgrade all your Mex at once. You will stall badly! If you do it, however, notice that there is a "Pause Construction" button at the bottom of the screen (position varies after where you place your user interface).

Upgrading a mex to T2 takes 900 mass. Even if your mass income/output is balanced at 0, if you have a reserve of 700 mass or more just go ahead and upgrade.

Upgrading your factories is something you will want to do relatively soon in the game. The higher tech levels is really where it's at. Tech level 2 has some pretty effective units, as well as very powerful defensive structures, among other the hefty T2 Point Defense, and the stationary artillery piece, as well as the Tactical Missile Launcher with its impressive range. When you are about to place the artillery for building be sure to zoom out so you can see the ring that shows the range of it (toggle the “Military Overlay” to see the range of your units and armed structures, but this is not needed when you are about to place a building). This way you can be sure to place your artillery within (or outside, should you want to) the range of your enemy, which you should be able to see provided you have radar coverage.


Radar and Scouts
Speaking of which, I should mention some things about radar. The radar, like many other buildings, comes in three tech version, each more powerful than the preceding one in terms of range and effectiveness. You can see the range of the radar when you are about to build it, or if you select it, and you can see the range of all your radars by activating the "Intel Overlay".
Enemy units coming within range will show up as gray units on your map, or as fully revealed under the fog of war if you have scouted them. This is a big advantage, so be sure to have plenty of radar coverage, and scout often.
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Pound for pound, the most powerful unit in the game. The scout gives a massive advantage at nearly no cost.

Notice that while radar structures have better range than your scouting units, radar requires more, and sufficient, energy to run properly, where as your scout units do not. Be very wary of the fact that your radar towers don’t work properly if you are low on Energy. You could find yourself temporarily blinded, and if you are not aware of it, this can be incredibly deceptive, and you may end up on the receiving end of a surprise attack. Having radar coverage can lull you into a false sense of security if you suddenly run low on E, then you will not see what is going on.


Always Moving
The game is always in progression, really, and so should you be. Good players should always try to get more, bigger and better. So you have to keep pushing things, and remember to keep advancing your economy. If you're making more than you're spending, then you're not spending enough. Simple as that.

So how should you be spending your M and E?

I would suggest that a portion of your economy should always be spent further increasing your economy. That way, you can slowly but surely ramp up your military production, too. It is like in the game Total Annihilation (the spiritual predecessor of SupCom): You have to keep expanding at all times! You have to get into the mindset where your ambition is to keep progressing and moving ahead. If you settle for some arbitrary amount of resources/production, you run the risk of losing heavily to an enemy whose ambitions were significantly, or even just slightly higher than yours. So keep that goal high and open, and keep going! This is an important psychological aspect of the game that you need to master. Not everyone learns this the same way, and I can't give any specific advice to how you will learn this, but make it a personal goal, and find your own method of learning this.
(One way to learn it, I have found, is to make a Post-it sticker that reads
“BUILD MORE!!!”
and stick it right in front of you, on the monitor or something where you can’t miss it.)


What Would The Supreme Commander Do?
The game is still changing, so we don't always quite know about all the specific units that are particularly effective, or should I say imbalanced, but there are many good units in the game, for sure. And all this keeps changing, keeping in my the upcoming expansion set, Forged Alliance. As long as the game balance is being worked on, units changing or being added, it will be difficult to discuss specific unit tactics in a be-all end-all manner.

Still, while the units may change, some specific strategies seem to have prevailed throughout the various versions of the beta, and into the retail version.

Some of the strategic tendencies of the hard core players I have seen so far have been:

1: The inevitable quick low-level land rush, where you spam as many low-tech units as possible as fast as possible and throw them at your enemy. Yes, I’m afraid it also exists in this game, but not quite as viable as we have seen in other games, I think.
As I mentioned above, it’s easy to defend in this game than in others, so the quick land spam isn’t always effective, and good players quickly learn how to defend against it, and counter attack. I still recommend you learn how to do this to some extent, though. Test the gameplay to its limits, and learn what you can get away with, so you don’t get surprised when it is used against you.

2: Going for a relatively quick upgrading, to get to the higher level units which are more effective, for instance T2 Missile Launchers (MSL), T2 Heavy Tanks, or even T2 PDs, where you slowly creep up on an enemy using stationary buildings, utilizing their superior range. Also, going for T3 Siege Bots (those really big and nasty bots) can be devastating.

3: Securing advanced positions where you get up artillery installations or tactical missile launcher with good range. This can quite devastating, but will usually take some time. One can also defend against it with shield generators and missile defense systems, and even applying stealth generators, in case your enemy isn't scouting well.

4: Going for air dominance, attacking with either bombers and/or Gunships. In order to establish air dominance, however, you will need T1 Interceptors. Bombers and Gunships fall from the sky like flies to a pack of Interceptors, so keep an eye out for those. T2 and T3 Anti-Air (AA) is quite effective in this game, so T1 bombers and T2 Gunships will often have a very hard time getting through a heavily defended position. In this situation, you’ll either have to use huge numbers, or go for T3 Strategic Bombers.

5: On sea maps, going for sea dominance. Getting a T2 Destroyer up and within range to shell the enemy base is a highly efficient tactic, which many don’t know how to counter yet. Ships are very strong in this game, so if you’re playing a map with sea on it, be sure to include ships into your strategic planning. In order to attain sea dominance, you will often need a lot of subs, so keep that in mind.

These are just broad overviews of some of the options available to you so far, and the good player will use more than one option in creative combinations, and the best player is capable of any approach. Just keep in mind that trying to be dominant in every aspect can make you vulnerable to focused strategies. Any slash against an opponent requires an instant of vulnerability --it's mainly a matter of knowing when and how to do so. Scout out, choose an approach for maximum damage and minimum vulnerability --and execute!

Amassing a superior force on land, sea, and air all simultaneously hitting the enemy base with a rain of nukes is something that only works against idiotic AI or vastly inferior opponents. Dominate one plane of combat and you've dominated the game... that is an important key to take with you against top opponents.

---o---

Chapter 3: End Game


Late Game Carnage
If a game ever saved the best for last, it’s this one. With players well-entrenched, building up and advancing, a whole slew of strategic options and tactical choices are open to you, involving some pretty insane and big units, and insanely big numbers of units, too.
Once your mass production is counted in the hundreds instead of tens, you’ll be able to afford running a myriad of factories, while also making plenty defensive and economical structures.

T3 siege bots are most likely going to be the mainstay of your late game armies, so make sure to build plenty of those. The T3 mobile artillery pieces are quite slow, but their range makes them a good choice for cracking a good defensive position.
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Game. Ending.


Air power is also a great way to seal a game. If you can get some T3 bombers through and target some key defenses, important econ structures, or the Cmdr, they can single handedly win a game for you.

You can also try on one of the Experimental Units (Exp Units) for size. The Exp units vary in efficiency and usefulness (and application, for instance the sea-only units), but are all pretty well suited for breaking a stalemate. Some are definitely better than others, but it also depends on how they are used.

For instance, while the Aeon Galactic Colossus (GC) has insane amounts of hit points, it is a slow, hulking lug of a unit with rather short range, and no AA weapons. The Cybran Spiderbot, aka. Monkey Lord (MLord) is faster, has better range with its nice secondary weapons, and AA. The UEF Mobile Factory, aka. The Fatboy is also very slow, but outranges the other two, and it is a factory on wheels, capable of spitting out support units pretty quickly.

The common thing about all these units is that it is not a good idea to just let them wander around all by themselves. Also, running into an enemy Exp Unit can end up making scrap metal of your Exp Unit in no time. Apart from these hugely powerful units, there are offensive structures, such as long range artillery, and nukes. Don’t forget about the nukes!!

The typical late game game-ending strategies are:

1: Mass T3 Bots. Just loads and loads of them. If the enemy doesn't have enough defense going, these suckers may be able to run right through him. Some will die, but with their high hit points they take a while to kill, and if there isn't enough defense, some will make it through.

2: Going for one of the Experimental units with the hope of overwhelming him with it. Or, bring a few, or even many. Their sheer power is often enough to overwhelm even the best defenses, either crushing his defensive lines, or bringing down important structures in his base, slowing him down, or even going for his Cmdr.

3: Going for higher tech artillery units. T3 and T4 artillery, while expensive, can be quite useful if you are able to overpower the enemy shields - if he has any. If the enemy does have shields, you can often compensate by building more artillery pieces, which will inevitable overwhelm his shields.

4: Going for... everything! If all else fails, just make more and more, until you get so much that he can't stop you. We are talking about maintaining a mass income of over 2000 per second, and spending all of it, churning out one Exp unit after another, eventually overwhelming the enemy. Spam T3 bots, mass T3 air, Mass Exp Units, T3 and T4 arty, Nukes, the works!

Late game economy is also pretty specific, and should be mentioned. First of all, as I mentioned above, you should always keep expanding your economy. Never just stop and settle for what you have. There is always something you can build more of.

The first way of expanding your late game economy is to make sure to get all your Mexes up to T3. To increase output, you can surround the Mex with four Mass Storages, giving you an adjacency bonus of 50%, thereby increasing mass output from 12 to 18.
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Beyond this, you have the T3 Pgens, and the T3 Mass Fabricators. Build plenty, but make sure you find a way to balance them out, so you have enough Energy, without wasting too much.
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An economy block of T3 Pgens and Fabs. Adjacency bonuses are huge, but make sure to shield these blocks or lose them all!


Finally, there is a less obvious way to increase your late game economy, but it is something many players, including the experts, make frequent use of.
Build a Quantum Gateway, and plenty of Support Commander Units (SCUs), and thereafter upgrade the SCUs with the “RCH Resource Allocation System” upgrade. This yields both Mass and Energy income, which varies for each of the three factions:
Aeon: 18 Mass, 2700 Energy
Cybran: 12 Mass, 3500 Energy.
UEF: 15 Mass, 3000 Energy

Building many of these SCUs and upgrading them will increase your economy quickly, and propel you to enormous levels, reaching the many thousands in Mass income. With all the extra energy, be sure to build Mass Fabricators accordingly.
All this is done with much smaller spatial requirements, as the SCU is a lot smaller than a T3 Pgen and a Mass Fabricator, which is about the equivalent in resource output.
In addition to this, the SCU can defend itself, and it can move away from danger, should you need it. And as if that weren’t enough, you can further upgrade them to be able to withstand attacks or the like.

The SCUs can also be upgraded to become insane killer machines with their offensive and defensive upgrades.
Be sure to test this for yourself to figure out their full potential.

All in all, the perfect choice for your late game economy.


---o---

Chapter 4: Current Trends

This is a going-through of a number of the most frequently employed tactics and strategies out there for the 3260 version of the game. This section will obviously be subject to significant changes in future versions of the game, provided the game balance changes, which we assume it does.

Current Faction Imbalances
First of all, probably the most prevaIent current trend in SupCom these days can be summed up in one word: Mercy.

Before the recent addition of the Aeon Mercy Unit (T2 Guided Missile), factional imbalance generally swayed towards Cybran. Aeon was actually at the bottom, more or less, after having had quite a long run of dominance. This changed in the big balance patch, but with the recent extra unit release, Aeon suddenly jumped back to the top of the pile.

However, being new, there is still doubt whether the Mercy is as powerful as initially percieved. People are still figuring out how to counter it, but most agree that it should be toned down at any rate.

Things seem to be a bit up in the air in their current state because of this, but before this, Aeon had certainly gotten quite a pounding, while Cybrans had risen and UEF somewhere in the middle.

One of the main reasons for Aeon's decline before this was their T2 units, which didn't seem to be able to live up to their UEF and Cybran counterparts. Also, with things evening out with the T3 Bots, some of the balance shifted to the late stage of the game, where the Aeon Exp units were particularly under-powered according to many.
Attached Image


Here, and as with most of the changes in the big balance patches, Cybran seems to have drawn the longest straw, with a significant boost to the Soul Ripper (SR), which has now seen wide use in many games, being an effective game ender.

One of the main trends recently has been the fast T2 rush, going straight for T2 tanks, nearly skipping T1 units all together. And since Cybran seems to be dominant in the T2 field, with their Rhino Tanks and Viper Missile Launchers, they have usually come out on top. However, UEF hasn't been totally left behind here. Their T2 Pillar Heavy Tank has proven quite a force as well, while the Aeon T2 Obsidian has been having problems keeping up.

The T1 playing field seems to have been levelled a bit between the tanks and light bots, but in the arty department UEF still seems to win with their Lobo.
What makes the Lobo so efficient is their area damage. Their shots spread out before impacting the ground, and the damage done is quite significant. In fact, it only takes two or three Lobo shots to kill an Enemy PD. Remember this, as it is one of the primary advantages when playing UEF.
Attached Image

5 Lobos, 3 hits each means a dead commander.


If you do a Lobo push, you may want to bring your Commander (Commander), or some tanks to take out fast enemy units that dodge your Lobo shots and make it up close to your pile of Lobos. If an enemy unit gets in between your Lobos, you should know that they deal friendly fire damage.

However, with the fast T2 strategy the Lobo is often surpassed before it can even make an impact on the battlefield.


Current Early Strategies
This is primarily aimed at the strategies employed in 1v1 ranked matches. Just as the rest of the guide can be said to be, I suppose.

Due to the small size of the maps in 1v1 ranked matches, early defending and raiding occurs really early. Therefore, you need to get everything up and running quickly. You need a fast factory, and you need scouts and units out quickly, too, while still having Engs to expand with.
Additionally, you will usually want to move your Commander up to the front line quickly. What you do with him there is up to you, but a lot of players go all the way and rush the enemy base if they can get away with it. In most cases, you need your own Commander to face him, and chase him off.

A prevaIent trend out there is to have your Commander build two factories before walking off to the front. Sometimes people even walk off after just one factories, while others wait till after the third, usually depending on the map. However, we have begun to see some deviation from this model. There is a mass T1 factory strategy out there that has worked well on occasion, but then there is of course the fast T2 strategy, which often opts to keep the Commander at home, helping with the upgrading.

Early-Game Tactics
I just want to mention a few of the small-time tactics and tips that are being used at the time.

T1 Gunships
This is where you load six light assault-bots onto your transport and fly them around. The bots are the only unit with the ability to fire while in transit, and this makes for a very effective raiding unit early on, both for killing mex, PDs, or land units and Engs, but also against a Commander wandering out in the field without air defenses.
These T1 Gunships are fairly easy to kill, however, with some T1 AA, or Interceptors. However, if you don’t have any T1 AA around, or no air superiority, this tactic can be devastating.
If you are flying around with one of these, and find that you are being attacked with AA or Interceptors, remember that you can just put your units down on the ground, where they can hopefully do some more damage.

A word on T1 Land Scouts
When you have scouts in your army and your raiding groups, which, of course, you do, then you have to be aware of the fact that the scout is faster than most of your other units, which means that if you attack with a group where your scout is included, the scout will be spearheading the attack, and, of course, dying miserably right away. When that happens, your radar coverage may be gone, and you will be at a severe disadvantage.

Instead, make your main group (except the scouts) part of a combat group key, tell your scout to hold fire, and set the scout to assist a rear unit in the group. This will cause the scout to follow without getting tied up in combat.
Attached Image
Attached Image


Current Mid-Game Strategies
Although going for T2 units can be said to be a mid-game strategy, it is sometimes done so early and so fast, that it's questionable whether it can be said to be mid-game.
However, it's widely used, and often lasts quite some time as players vie for control with their T2 Tanks and Missile Launchers, building up T2 defenses and resources.

Some still try for a quick Tactical Missile Launcher (TML) for some pinpoint strikes. The range of the TML is pretty significant, but still limited, so be sure to watch for the range ring, which is shown when you try to place it.

Subsequently, Tactical Missile Defenses (TMD) may be needed, so be sure to scout, and have your T2 Eng ready to build on – or pre-empt the move and build one right away.
Notice that the TMD also has a limited protection range, so be sure you have everything covered. Additionally, the TMD can be overwhelmed if there are too many incoming missiles. This includes missiles from the mobile T2 Missile Launcher. If you can overwhelm the TMD with these, then you get your own Tactical Missile in for the kill, rendering the enemy defenseless against Tactical Missiles.
While TML Commander snipes were once widespread, most people have now come to remember building them, but not always, and they don't always cover everything.

T2 Stationary Artillery, while it has an impressive range, is not incredibly efficient - at least not on their own. The accuracy and rate of fire leaves something to be desired, but it can still be of some effectiveness, or at least nuisance and stress to the enemy, since the TMDs to no defens against artillery shells. However, you may be better off building some T3 Mobile Artillery pieces, unless, I would say, you are trying to break down the central base of a player.

If you find yourself at the receiving end of either of these, Shields are designed to defend against this. However, you have to beware of the fact that shields have limited shield health, and experience “down time” once that runs out. Single T2 and T3 artillery has just too low fire rate to be able to take out an exposed Shield Generator, if they are the only thing shooting at it. The Shield Generator just manages to recharge before your artillery can fire again.

As the attacker, you will want to exploit this somehow, and time an attack so that you kill the Shield Generator once the shields are down. Think Star Wars Death Star destruction! However, while you may not have the Millennium Falcon at your disposal, you have a wide variety of other options handy. First off, you can use a land attack if possible. Notice also that your units can at all times walk right through the shield, and from under it kill the Shield Generator, which does not have a lot of hit points.

If not by land, then perhaps by air. Shielded outposts are usually defending some land defenses, but not always air defenses. Exploit this if possible, and have bombers or T2 Gunships ready for when the shield is down.
You cannot tell when the shield is coming down, so you will have to get used to this in order to be able to time an attack well.

As the defender, knowing that your shields may go down and be severely exposed for some time, you may want to take proper precautions. The best method to get around this is to actually build an extra Shield Generator right next to the one you have, making sure the extra shield covers the first one.

However, it is a funny thing with numbers in SupCom. While one, two, even three T2 arty pieces may not do much against a shielded position, once you get up to four and five, things start changing, even if he has many shields. It has to do with the concept of critical mass. At some point, one "system", in this case the shields, can't keep up with the effect of a given "anti-system", which here is the T2 arty pieces. Once you reach a certain number, one system will not be able to deal with its counter, and it will crack.
It is my assumption that the sheer space taken up by the shields is actually the determining factor in their downfall, meaning they cannot counteract the arty in number due to spatial constraints. Put simply, you can fit more arty on the map than shields, and once you have enough arty, the overlapping advantage of the shields, compensating for the shield downtime, disappears.

Another T2 tactic that is worth a mention is the "PD Creep". It is where you build T2 PDs closer and closer to the enemy, ultimately building all the way into his base, killing all his stuff. This can be tough against a prepared enemy, but it may overwhelm many people on small maps.

Finally, there is the Mercy. These guided missiles do massive damage and can be very hard to stop. Doing 3000 damage, it only takes 4 of them to take out a Commander. They work well against many other targets, in particular Exp units and various important structures, such as the shield in a defensive position, where one Mercy will take out the shield, while another Mercy in quick succession can take out the shield structure.
Defending against them is hard. Interceptors aren't always quick enough to react to the fast flying Mercys, so you are usually better off with some stationary T2 or T3 AA. Be sure that these have maximum reaction time, though, and give them full visual range around themselves so they can react instantly against any incoming Mercys.

A Mercy splits up a little bit before hitting a target, and once it has split up it cannot be stopped from there. The "projectiles" will go in and hit whatever is there. This means that they will often get through to their targets, and if you have a line of T2/T3 infront of you, this may not be enough. You may require some more depth in your AA defense, preferably making it dynamic by either rebuilding continuously, or dedicating a factory making T2 Mobile AA and set it to patrol around the place.

I am fairly certain the Mercy will recieve a nerf in the next patch, and whenever that happens I may have to re-write this section.


THE GUIDE CONTINUES BELOW WITH BRAINIAC'S POST - IT WOULDN'T FIT!

This post has been edited by Gnug215: Aug 16 2007, 21:51 PM

Posts: 347

Game: Supreme Commander


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# 2Brainiac Dec 16 2006, 18:20 PM
THE STRAT GUIDE CONTINUES HERE!
(Thanks to Brainiac for letting me use his post for this.)

Current Late-Game Strategies
With the boosted T2 units, the previously dominating T3 Bot rush has become less of a rush, and more a smooth transition. With their range nerfed in the last patch, they don't seem to have the same ability to punch through defenses, and players are therefor often able to turtle up behind a heavy defensive line before too many T3 bots are built.

T3 bots can still prove effective against a Commander, and if you are able to break through his defenses, you can often succeed in a Commander kill.

If both players protect their Commander well, other means will have to be employed, and you will instead see T3 Bot attacks aiming for containment and resource raiding. There is nothing like a horde of Siege Bots storming through your seemingly well-defended outpost, leaving the place in ruins.

Winning with T3 Bots against someone who also has T3 Bots can become a complex affair of diversion and deception. If you can somehow lure the enemy army away to rush in and find his Commander, or going for some other crucial targets, paralyzing his economy for instance, then you’re set, but beware that when you do this with your army, the enemy might be doing exactly the same to you, and your Commander may sit at home, vulnerable to attacks.

In a situation like this, you have to keep a constant vigilant eye on where your enemy has his T3 Bots. You don’t want to stray too far off with your own bots to give him an opening to kill your Commander. Notice how the enemy moves his bots around, and if you see him moving them all together in one group, you may want to try dividing your bots into smaller groups, and attacking from two or three (or more) sides at once. This confuses most people, and in order to defend against it, you will find that people often send more units than you are attacking with, which is needed to overwhelm the attacker before he is able to do any damage.

Let me give you a hypothetical example: Say, for instance, both players have 10 T3 Bots. I split mine up into two groups of 5 each, and attack from two sides. The other player can either send all 10 of his bots at one of my groups, thereby overpowering it but letting the other group through, or split his bots up into two groups to face my two groups, but thereby giving both my attacking groups the chance to get through to attack something.

The latter is probably preferable, and in most realistic cases, you would have some defenses and maybe other units to help out, minimizing the damage. But defending on two fronts is also very difficult and confusing. Remember that the enemy can keep moving, and you will have to move around with both groups, following him until you can kill all the units. I often find myself in a situation where I have been chasing an attacker that has broken through my lines, often to find myself having to do some other things while in pursuit, and upon returning to my group that was to follow and kill the attacker, they are sitting around somewhere, with the attacker’s units having run off in that brief moment where I was away.

In many games, a situation like this has unfolded, and once the attack is over, the defender finds himself with most of his T3 bots remaining, while the attacker lost all of his, now only sitting with the bots he was able to build while the attack was going on. The defender, however, has also been building bots while the attack went on, and you can now have a hypothetical situation where the attacker has five T3 Bots, and the defender has 15 T3 Bots. The hunter now becomes the prey.
While this situation and the numbers are hypothetical, many real situations like this aren’t. I have seen quite a few games won, and lost, like this. The attacker goes for an all out attack, and is left with nothing, while the defender loses none, or only a few, of his units, because the attacker has targeted other stuff, and not the enemy T3 Bots.

However, you can defend vs. T3 Bots with other things than just T3 bots of your own. T1 units are mainly just cannon fodder against them, but cannon fodder has its use, too, and given enough of them, they may actually take some of the bots down.
PDs, both T1 and T2 in large enough numbers can also be efficient, but you will need pretty significant numbers against them. T1 PDs are surprisingly efficient in large numbers, but notice that their range is inferior to that of the bots, so you can find yourself being torn down from out of range. T2 PDs have the range, but not always the damage or accuracy to make much of a dent until the bots have closed in and killed the PD. This is why you need many of them.

At any rate, you will need a lot of PDs. You need to have a critical amount, which can be enough to take out the bots as they come in before they get to close. Depending on the number of incoming bots, and your amount of PDs, this can prove extremely difficult.
The Commander himself is your last stand, with his Over-Charge (OC) weapon. This sucker can kill a T3 Bot in one shot, although there are a few drawbacks. For one, the range is very limited, around a third of the Commander’s primary weapon. Second, the OC can’t really hit moving targets, and if the attacker is good at micro-managing his T3 Bots, and keeps them moving at all times, you may have huge problems hitting them. Third, you need sufficient E to fire it, and that is not always the case.

If you cannot break the stalemate with T3 Bots, there are plenty of other options to choose from, however, you will still need to have plenty T3 Bots around.

Some of these options are the same as what you would do in Mid-Game, so I am not going to repeat those, but I will say that these options are more volatile with T3 Bots around, as you risk having them descending upon your little T2 firebase, wiping it out, if you don’t have sufficient protection.

At this stage, air superiority can be the deciding factor again, but you will presumably be up against large numbers of interceptors and ground AA. But you can still sneak in precision strikes, maybe with a pack of T2 Gunships, or T3 Strategic Bombers. In order to pull this off, you need to scout. Incidentally, scouting is something you would want to do even if you’re not looking for targets for an aerial assault. It is always good to know what the enemy is up to, so scout a lot, and then scout some more.

In general, it is obviously always a good thing if you can just outproduce the enemy and overwhelm them, but the defenses in SupCom actually ensure that the attacker will have a hard time just going for a head-on assault on a well-defended position. In some cases, though, you will be able to outproduce the enemy by so much, that you can overwhelm them with a mindless attack, and keep a steady stream of units going.
Many top players do exactly this if they feel they can get away with it, and they might as well.

Beyond this, the game can go into its true Late-Game stage, with mass income at over a thousand, with Exp Units running around in droves, and nukes flying all over the place.
The economic foundation of this primarily consists of SCUs with the resource upgrade, often started out with some T3 Pgens, and then a bunch of T3 Mass Fabricators.
With such a massive income, you can truly start to power-build the big stuff in the game, like Nukes, T3 Stationary Artillery and of course the Experimental Units. If it is a sea map, then you can include Battleships on that list.
While these units can be devastating enough on their own, a good player will usually know how to take care of them pretty easily if he is prepared, which means you will need to be prepared, too. Remember, for instance, that the three main ground Exp Units, the Galactic Colossus, the Fatboy and the Monkey Lord are all extremely vulnerable to air attacks.

I have a recent experience with this, where my opponent sent a GC at me, together with a bunch of T3 Bots. I had made sure I had air superiority, and I killed the GC before it even got close to me with about 10 T3 Strategic Bombers in a couple of runs.
I didn’t really lose any units to the GC, and my Strategic Bombers could all fly back home unharmed.

One thing that often happens in late game stages is a nuke race. This is in the meantime easily negated with an Anti-Nuke. Subsequently, the Anti-Nuke(s) may become a primary target for the enemy with the Nukes.
Now it becomes a game to kill and protect the Anti-Nuke. You can protect it with multiple shields and plenty of T3 AA around the place, trying to make sure the enemy can’t break through with T3 Strat Bombers.
The Anti-Nuke may in some cases just be too well-defended to break through, and in those cases you have to come up with something new. Perhaps some T3 arty, or in the case of UEF and Cybran, build the Experimental Artillery.

Some of the most used Exp units today are the Cybran ones. The three of them are pretty versatile and are relatively cheap. The Soul Ripper received a significant boost in the last patch, and the Scathis now requires much less energy to fire. Coupled with the across the board price reduction of Exp units, you may find these units being used against you sooner than you would have thought. So be prepared for them.
On a personal note, seeing as turtling has become widespread, I have found the Scathis to be of great use. Although just as with the stuff I said about the T2 arty, you will often need more than just one of them to have any kind of impact.

In a late game situation, you will often find that the unit limit of the game impairs you from building more. In such cases, you have to issue a kind of “unit economy”, basically rooting out all the small and useless stuff, self-destructing them.
The thing that usually goes first for me is the T1 Pgens. After that, I make sure to just upgrade everything I have that can be upgraded, and get rid of everything that is superfluous.
You will often have to focus primarily on one particular strategy, since doing many strategies at once requires more units than the unit limit will allow.


---o---

Concluding Remarks
Strategies and tactics still evolve in this game continuously. Not only will the game be patched, units added, expansion packs released, but players out there are constantly finding new ways to play, and new ways to kill their opponents more efficiently. This is bound to happen with a simulation type game like this, with all those units and different maps.
Because of this it is very hard to write a complete and comprehensive strategy guide to SupCom, and this was not the intention.

My primary intention with this guide has been to cover some of the basic concepts in the game in order to allow people to improve their game to the stage where they can learn more by themselves, or know where and how to seek the wisdom to get better.

In this, I hope I have been successful, and that you have learned something from reading.

From here on, it is up to you to improve. The best advice I can offer is to play often, play hard, play the best, and watch the replays!

Be sure to look out for replays and reviews from some of the top players on this site, at this link:
Replay Site


Thanks to these people for contributing in one way or another:
BrainiacCPU, Eshez, Thygrrr, Pet0sh, Warlord_Zsinj, Gondi, kavarf, Rienzilla, Synilas

And a bif thanks to Feinam for his special contribution!

Good luck on the battlefield!
Gnug215


---o---


Brainiacs original post:
Finnaly posted this I see, this will help alot of new people biggrin.gif

This post has been edited by Gnug215: Aug 16 2007, 21:50 PM

Posts: 1,162

Game: Supreme Commander


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# 3havik Dec 16 2006, 21:19 PM
Looks like the Gnugs will fulfil the same role they did in TA: share knowledge and teach others. Great Job!

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# 4zmir Dec 16 2006, 22:02 PM
that was a great read gnug215.
i will certainly use it in my game tactics.

thx for the effort of writing this guide.

cheers

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# 5Elegy Dec 17 2006, 02:22 AM
Very nice job Gnug215, Brainiac, Eshez, and Thygrrr. bowdown.gif

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# 6Eshez Dec 17 2006, 07:19 AM
I might have gave a few tips but it's really Gnug who disurves the apllaues(if you spell it this way ;P).

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# 7Brainiac Dec 17 2006, 10:50 AM
What Eshes said smile.gif

Also I'm suggesting this be stickied in Beta discussions wink.gif

This post has been edited by Brainiac: Dec 17 2006, 10:50 AM

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Game: Supreme Commander


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# 8Eshez Dec 17 2006, 23:04 PM
QUOTE(Brainiac @ Dec 17 2006, 12:50 PM) *

What Eshes said smile.gif

Also I'm suggesting this be stickied in Beta discussions wink.gif

thumb.gif
Portal link please..

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# 9Ar-Bee Dec 18 2006, 05:08 AM
Gnug Strategy Guide with GoW contributions? what more can u ask for? tongue.gif

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# 10CowGoMoo Dec 18 2006, 05:52 AM
a pony.

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# 11Kojho Dec 18 2006, 20:47 PM
Fantastic

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# 12~SoniC~ Dec 19 2006, 07:59 AM
Nice strategic overview for new players. Great stuff!

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# 13Aggamemnon Dec 20 2006, 02:55 AM
Some extended info considering the new RAS and upgrades for respective commanders:
http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index...t&p=2112098

Nice Guide mate smile.gif

Posts: 72

Game: Supreme Commander


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# 14varanus-sapiens Dec 22 2006, 00:57 AM
The Cybran Spider Bot (T4) has secondary weapons of greater range than the outermost ring on the projectile range display, as that shows only the lazers range.

Posts: 152

Game: Supreme Commander


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# 15varanus-sapiens Dec 22 2006, 16:47 PM
Here is a way to counter the destroyer-out-fast tactic: Get a T2 factory fast. Build a T2 engineer, build a sheild generator, then a T2 artil installation and possibly a T2 PD. The artil takes care of the destroyers, and the PD eliminates anything that gets nearby, including any destroyers hoping to get to your commander which may be further inland. You may optionally add an T2 AA turret to deal with pesky aireal attacks.

A second way to deal with someone who you KNOW does this, is to do a submarine spam. Place your subs along his coast, and anything that enters the water dies! This prevents engineers to build factories (as they have to go out on water) and the factories which arn't built consequently can't produce destroyers.

PS: whenever playing agianst the patch 44+ AI, it's SUPER nooby, as you can spam engineers, put up lots of MAss extractors followed by T1 turrets, and anything it launches will get destroyed by them, as it refuses to build anything BUT t1 LIGHT assualt bots, SCOUTS, and engineers!

This post has been edited by varanus-sapiens: Dec 22 2006, 16:56 PM

Posts: 152

Game: Supreme Commander


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# 16varanus-sapiens Dec 22 2006, 16:51 PM
In patch 38, I had a game in which I had a continuous output of ships. I ended up with a navy of 400+ ships and only stopped building since I put max units at 500. If you can get off to a good economic start, and have a continuous military production, you have practically won (unless your opponent has too).
I hate how they took out the ability to capture you're allies units. That prevents things like playing multiple factions and trading engineers or factories.

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Game: Supreme Commander


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# 17Aggamemnon Dec 22 2006, 23:06 PM
Donate? Always the prefered method imo.

Just a quick note Sapiens, Torpedo's don't hit hovering targets over water, ruling out killing engineers and aeon t1 tanks. Unless they have changed this since. subs will only stop them building.

Posts: 72

Game: Supreme Commander


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# 18varanus-sapiens Dec 23 2006, 00:57 AM
Well, I THINK I saw the attack icon avaliable to use on an engineer while using a sub. But stopping them from building is good enough.

(why did I say tank?)

This post has been edited by varanus-sapiens: Dec 23 2006, 05:14 AM

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# 19CowGoMoo Dec 23 2006, 03:18 AM
QUOTE(varanus-sapiens @ Dec 22 2006, 07:57 PM) *

Well, I THINK I saw the attack icon avaliable to use on an engineer while using a tank.

u can attack cybran/UEF engineers over water w/ torpedoes but u cant attack aeon engineers over water.

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# 20timmyfred Dec 23 2006, 08:13 AM
tl;dr

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