Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

New map.
Fun to watch.
Almost a close game.

Feel free to point out mistakes.

gg. you had a bit off bad luck there. u killed your own shield with the acu

maybe it wouldnt have mattered but at least you would have gotten the 100 kills

If I can be of any help, those are my comments. I will divide them into two groups: general and minute-by-minute (MBM). In general I will cover the most important parts of the game, while in the minute-by-minute I will try to comment on some minor (and not only) mistakes you did (imho). There are some moments in the game that I should comment on in the MBM, but I omit them in order to write more about it in the General section.

Let's get it started!

General


YOU HAVE TO SCOUT! Especially when you are not an experienced player, who knows shitload of tactics/counters and can predict what his opponent will do. I could point out quite a few moments in the game when you suffered greatly from it, but I choose the one I liked the most: You lost your T2 fac to a MMLs attack. If you had known before that your enemy has T2 and has MMLs (which you could safely assume right after seeing T2) you could probably build defences in time.
Easiest way is to send interceptors - they are fast, not so easily destroyed (providing there aren't too many air defenses, but even then they are useful) and can reach any place. Later you can/should switch to air-scouts (T3). Don't also forget that those lowly land scouts are also quite nice - before they die, they can provide you with quite a lot of intel, but please don't send them unthinkingly to death. If you know there will be enemy troops where you will scout, then it's better to send the scout with some protection, or send only a higher hp unit, so that it will live long enough to give you the needed intel.


You were first to enter Tech 2. That's good. You caught your enemy with his pants down. Remember, tech 2 isn't only about units - buildings are almost as important!
When you reach T2 build engineers (T2 of course) and either build some defenses (which you did, but only to some extent, while you completely neglected the rest of buildings), power plants (definitely) or utility buildings like the Missile launcher, T2 radar & kennels. Those would also be helpful for you. Maybe they wouldn't be crucial, as you were occupied and had to spend resources of other things, but in later stages of the game, you should definitely think about using them.


In the last attack you seemed to give up so fast. You had your army, which you could bring back, solid economy (even if you didn't upgrade too many mexes), but as I see it you just said that you can't win so instead of trying to reunite with your army, you just left your com to die.
Play. You will loose couple of times more, but when you will not be afraid of loosing, and will accept it as just a sign to check the replay and work on your strategy - you will be on a good way to start winning. Believe me: I've seen countless matches and the only thing that make the underdog win, was his will to fight.


Should you divide your units into two groups, or let there be one massive army of doom? I would say it depends (surprise, surprise) on the map. So you will have to analyze it yourself and decide what you want.
In this case however you saw that dividing your army so much cost you a game. Try to have a factory in the north, and let it produce units all the time - it won't eat so many resource, and you will have a nice army up there ready to defend and launch sneaky attacks deep into enemy territory.


You can't win (at least playing with decent players) massing T1 and sending them into fight. Have fun and simply test various tactics on your enemies, and see which one works the best. Not saying that you didn't, but it could be better. You made T2 and built Mongoose. You started to build triads and shield generator. What next?
Maybe some naval units? Gunships? MMLs to deal with Oblivions? Sneaky attack of a few mongoose + lobos in the back of enemy territory?


You like lobos, do you? We all know they are great - arguably the best T1 artillery in the game. But do you really think that they proved so well here? There was constant back-and-forth fighting, so the enemy moved constantly. This means your lobos won't hit anything, while the enemy long range light tanks will devastate your artillery.
Try to mix your units. There are situations where lobos are great, but if your enemy knows how to play, he will dodge them and in later stages of the game lobos won't be that awesome. Stick with the main army consisting of your sturdy Medium Tanks and a few lobos (3:1, X:X - your choice).


In the beginning you reclaimed a bit. But why not to continue? There was a tasty base on the shore, ripe for reclaim.
I know that on maps with many mex points, people forget about reclaiming but in my opinion having 5+ eng. constantly reclaiming is not a bad idea at all. Gives you an edge without severe consequences.

MBM (minute-by-minute)


0:46 Build your first pgens always near your 1st factory - it's safer, as you have lower probability that you will run out of energy.
1:08 Maybe not crucial, but don't mix various buildings in one queue. I mean, when your com is building pgens, let him build 'em, so that he doesn't move needlessly anywhere. You can leave the mex points to engineers, most of the time.
3:05 When reclaiming, try to set the patrol paths more sophisticated (ie. longer). When you set those path the first time - you will not have to care about them later & your eng. will not be useless.
~3:30 When you constructed 2 mexes in the bottom, you should also construct 2 additional right away. Don't know why you moved your eng. to do other work. Try to be consistent, for example: 1 eng. build mexes, 1/2 factories, 2 power plant. Then you can order them to do other things.
5:00 Think what you want to achieve attacking with your lonely com. You didn't do much damage to his com, you didn't kill so much units of his, you even didn't destroy the dying mex! In return your com was damaged and for quite some time you had to back off keeping eye on it, while you could concentrate on other things. Bottom line: Think what you want to achieve with your com. Support it when you can. Don't needlessly take hits.
6:02 Not crucial at all, but if you saw that the com was all alone with his army coming from behind, then you could take your army and take a few shots on him, so that he doesn't think you are a pussy .
6:40 Try no to take more hits on your com - keep it in the back. Your T1 should do the fighting now and when you loose couple of them - return to your base, to prevent further losses. Remember: more units = less units lost, as you can kill the enemy faster.
7:30 Try to move the rally point closer to the front. This way all your units are under your command as soon as they travel the distance. You don't have to micro them all time, and telling them to move.
8:50 I know it might sound a little weird, but at this time you should attack - with T2 or without. Remember you are heavily using lobos, so when you attack your enemy while his units are standing still, then you can deal really nice damage. What's also very important is his position of units. When they are placed so that they are facing you with their side, they can't use their full force, which means - you have an advantage.
9:30 If you know you gained serious advantage (in this case, you just pushed him back - nothing critical) you can pump Mongooses and try to kill him/cripple him so much that it's basically check-mate. However, when you finally pushed him back from your base, and feel a little safe, you should build a tech 2 engineer.
10:02 Once more you leave your com to be shoot at, especially if he in low on health. Don't get carried out. Remember: com is dead - you loose the game!
12:26 While you chased the small group of light tanks (in the north), but when they moved on water you completely forgot them, while you could send those lobo & med. tank to provide some support in case of some naval attack.
13:00 You should really see this T2 AA going all alone into Marshal's army, and stop it before. Of course you should change the rally point location.
13:40 When you start to dance with your army it's pointless without Mongoose which has such great firing range.
~13:30 Theoretically one should rush to upgrade his mexes when there are not too many mex points. That said you have to upgrade mexes which you did, but I really advice to build mass storages around them at this stage - why wait till T3? It gives you a few more mass points of STEADY income, which is in my opinion worth it.
14:20 When you build some building (Triad in this case) close to the front, try to make some breathing space beforehand - you don't want to loose a building so easily. Sometimes you have to build this building fast, or you are a toast (ie. you loose some important building/location), in that case you should select A FEW engs.
16:00 Now you can see consequences of his units left unattended. You reacted correctly, but with a delay.
17:22 Your T2 fac was destroyed. You know why? No Missile Defense. Not trying to be a smart-ass, but I try to tell you that you can't predict everything that will happen; you have to be prepared. Prepared for what, you ask? Ask your radar which on my replay showed that you basically had almost no clue what his unit composition was, not even mentioning you didn't know anything about his base. Answer: Scout!
19:00 Ok, just tell me one thing: what were you thinking leaving your com all alone, only with protection of 2 T2 defenses and a bunch of units, all against massive enemy army?! Why did you move most of your force to the north? Wouldn't a couple of units suffice? You basically divided your army like 6:1 and left the com to fight the whole army of enemy, praying that the shield will last long enough. You even had a radar, so you knew that enemy won't attack you from north (as there was no army there - just a bunch of units). I would understand if you had wanted to make a back attack, which would be great maneuver, but with smaller force, while the bigger part would protect the perimeter.
19:56 10 heavy tanks, 95 light tanks, 5 light artillery, 4 MML & 3 scouts VS. 16 mongoose, 48 medium tanks, 71 lobos & 3 scouts. He was attacking, this means that with the shield his long range of tanks would be nullified (remember: your tanks have more than 2x life) and your lobos would actually hit tons of units as the subsequent waves would walk into the maw of doom. I think that you would win this fight. The problem? Majority of your army was fighting ... 5 tanks?


P.S. I think I need to start writing reviews .