Supreme Commander Talk

The following is a comprehensive Cybran guide that was originally written by dotswarlock of the official forums. It is re-published here by permission.

Ok well I have been waiting for a *Cybran strategy* post to appear in the strategy section of the forum but it’s been 2 weeks and its still not there. So I’ll post it here and who knows, I might actually add stuff from the feedback that I’ll get (or correct a few spelling mistakes, heh). But first:

DISCLAIMER: I play mostly larger maps (10×10 or 20×20) and the strategy on those is different from smaller maps where rushing is advisable. My views concerning units is therefore based on games that last more then 15 minutes. I also don’t know everything so don’t nuke me… in here anyway (feel free to try in game).

Main characteristic

“When the enemy fortifies his front, knock on the front but strike at the back. When the back is later fortified, knock on the back but strike at the sides. When the sides are later fortified, knock on the sides but strike from the top. When every angle is fortified, simply make sure that he stays in and put a Scathis with shields outside of his base. His fortress will become his prison and soon his grave.”

A Cybran Commander

Cybrans close quarter weapons are mostly laser based which translates into fast hitting and low damage but precarious to use in terrain with lots of hills. This means Cybrans units can fight effectively while moving which allows them to minimize the damage taken from slower enemy fire. This also means that Cybran units are good at hitting moving targets. Most long range weapons have lower damage, low accuracy but high area damage. This makes most artillery type weapons deadly against enemies moving in formation but mostly ineffective against enemies with high hit points or shielded units. The time necessary to upgrade shields and the low damage of their tier 2 artillery makes Cybran mostly ineffective in artillery duels. Many Cybran units have stealth abilities and a commander wishing to fully use Cybrans should learn how to use them and think sideways.

To turtle or not to turtle?

“A Cybran that turtles is like a UEF that is peaceful or an Aeon that has common sense. I heard rumors about them but since I never saw one then they must not last very long.”

Cybran tactics instructor

Cybrans have weaker shields both in terms of statistics and because they must be manually upgrade (which is a pain). Their artillery is also no match for those of the other faction and most of their advantages depend on denying an enemy’s intelligence. A Cybran can still turtle and hopefully get a lucky break in the form of a stealth attack on the enemy’s commander or economy. However there are other factions more suited for this strategy and a player that often finds himself turtling should wonder if he’s using the right faction.

Navy

“I scrapped a keyboard once by spilling my soft drink on it. Think we can do the same to a Cybran?”

UEF Cadet before he was pulled off the ACU program and reassigned to janitor duty.

Cybran navy units have the most well rounded abilities but lack specialization. Their destroyers and battleships both have anti-air capabilities and torpedoes so they are never caught unaware by a few units that cross their path. Submarines and cruisers are available to counter enemy overdoses of either air or submarine forces but are not *necessary* to ward off a few units. What they make up for diversity, Cybrans lack in raw damage in their tier 3 units and the extra cost of their sea units. Cybrans do not have any sea experimental units and are very vulnerable to the UEF and Aeon experimentals. A soul ripper can be used to counter an attacking sea force however. Tier 2 torpedo launchers are the best counter that Cybrans can muster against enemy sea experimentals. Their tier 3 sonar – which can move – also has a sonar stealth field which in a navy battle could be used to cloak low health submarines from destroyers.

True Stealth

“Are you sure the Cybrans are the bad guys?”
“You never know when one of these low lives will sneak up you and murder you in your sleep!”
“Yeah but even then…”
“Look… they invented Windows 3000.”
*Shudders*
“Yeah I know… evil.”

Two UEF guards talking

The Cybrans are the only faction capable of making a *true* stealth insertion. Most other factions need to land an engineer using a carrier and quickly build a stealth generator to mask their presence but the carrier can be seen on radar, its course calculated and the base destroyed. Cybrans can mask their carriers by loading a deceiver with it which will make anything short of direct visual inspection miss its presence. This allows for many things from creating a frontline base within striking distance, missile silo or even an experimental closer to the enemy base.

One of the key strategies however is to lay down sensor stations: you drop an engineer, make a stealth generator and an omni sensor and then leave. Provided that you take a few detours you can even do that if your enemy controls the map. Having a wide sensor net allows you to spot spy planes and gunships and intercept them before they reach your base and take full advantage of your own air force’s stealth capabilities.

Later in the game your ACU or some SCUs can be upgraded with both stealth and cloak upgrades which allow them the move anywhere unmolested as long as they stay out of omni range (more on that later). Note that both of these can be dropped straight in the water if you wish to build a hidden sea force but be careful as they are visible to sonar.

Tier 3 air force (bombers, air superiority and spy plane)

“Aeons already believe in fairy tales and their *Way*. With a bit of luck, maybe they will think ghosts are involved when their transports mysteriously disappear.”

Cybran commander with air superiority

One ability that is rarely used by players is the stealth ability available to all tier 3 planes for a reasonable amount of energy. Most bases late in game will have an omni sensor which partially nullifies this advantage when it comes to a direct assault (turrets will be able to shoot out of their visual range). However, you can still use this ability to control the area between bases and stage sneak attacks.

For example a group of gunships later in the game should have an escort of stealth superiority fighters not far ready to jump in and decimate the enemy’s air force. Putting a spy plane on stealth also prevents the enemy from guessing that you are gathering information about the rest of the map. Also if you spot a carrier route then you can set a few air superiority fighters on patrol between the transfer lines to catch them. It might leave your opponent wondering where his carriers are and why so many land units are piling up in his base. An unprotected experimental crawling towards your base? Have a few stealth bombers pay it a visit (have them preceded by a few air superiority fighters to divert AA fire if you wish).

The best way to take full advantage of stealth technology however is to have a wide radar coverage. If your own radar covers most of the map then you can reduce your power consumption by resting your fighters near a stealth field generator and turning the ability off. The easiest way to do all that of course is to take advantage of the Cybran’s *true* stealth capabilities.

A note is that if the enemy manually targets your stealth planes and then your planes moves out of visual range then they will lose their *lock* on the target and go to their next order. If no other orders were queued then that means they stop moving and land. This is why stealth superiority fighters are such a pain to kill if they are fighting out of omni range.

Turrets

“Cybran artillery has a huge splash damage but its lack of accuracy means that it would be lucky to hit the broadside of a Fatboy. This is what happens when you targeting software is based on one of those Operating systems from the 21st century, hah! Boy were they unlucky with computers in that age…”

UEF engineer

As mentioned earlier, Cybran point defense and anti-air turrets hit very quickly and precisely with a moderate amount of damage. This makes them ideal for taking out swarms of low level units and a group of four tier 1 point defense can fend off twenty tier 1 units that are trying to rush past them. Cybran tier 2 artillery however is not meant to be used in the same way as the other faction. Their low accuracy and wide area (but low damage) attacks make them useless for taking out shields, fighting in artillery duels or taking out experimentals. At best they are used to thin out incoming Tier 1 or 2 swarms before they reach the point defense turrets. The best way to fight off encroaching enemies early in the game is with the tactical missile launcher (3 missiles to take out a tier 2 shield, 4 for a tier 3 shield). The Cybran tactical missile launcher can fire so quickly that it can overload the missile defenses of an opponent and they work adequately in defending your coast from sea attacks (provided that the enemy ships stop moving).

Tier 3 anti-air is a very efficient turret and is mostly designed at taking out slow units such as experimentals and gunships. Tier 3 artillery suffers from the same inaccuracy as its tier 2 counterpart and has a lower range then those of other factions. Still its area damage is quite wide and appreciable but a pair of them firing at different intervals would be better to penetrate enemy shields. The cost that is implied sometimes makes the scathis more appreciable if you can get one in position.

Tier 2 gunships

“Beautiful…”

Cybran commander reaction as twenty gunships start a chain reaction in an enemy base

Unlike the gunships from the other factions, cybran gunships do area damage which truly makes them more akin to bombers. When you are targeting mass extractors/mass storage combos you can therefore aim for the mass extractor only and usually you will blow up all 5 structures in the same attack. Turrets that are grouped together also make for juicy targets and you should also always hit the largest concentration of enemy land units to maximize damage. Since tier2 ground anti-air forces have relatively low health (1000) a group of gunships can engage them directly, either destroying the entire ground force or opening the way for bombers. Later in the game gunships require escorts to either take care of enemy air forces or distract the local tier 3 AA units in order to do their damage (you can set superiority fighters on patrol above an enemy base to distract their turrets prior to attacking). Ironically in the tier 2 stage, Renegades are also a good means of protecting your base against enemy gunships.

To add some emphasis on how good Cybran gunships are let’s imagine a group of tier 2 gunship falling on a pack of 9 closely linked targets. An Aeon gunship will do 60 DPS, the UEF will do 80 DPS (and their gunships cost more mass) while the Cybran gunship will do 60 DPS but applied to every target. That is 60 * 9 = 540 DPS! This won’t help when taking out an experimental or a shield of course but a Cybran player needs to realize that his gunships are amongst his greatest assets.

Commander and upgrades

“Do not be afraid if you see a Cybran commander on the battlefield. Be worried if you have no idea where he is.”

Aeon instructor

The Cybran commander is one of the strongest offensively speaking and yet has the lowest defensive value of any commanders and the fewest hit points. Its main form of defense comes from the stealth and cloak upgrades, both of which cost a large amount of energy. You can get the first level of stealth with a tier 2 economy which will make you invisible to visual inspection (but it will be broken by any radar). To complement it during that stage, the commander should be stationed near a stealth generator or a have a deceiver follow him to provide true invisibility (I recommend the deceiver since it’s harder to spot and is mobile). This is the commander’s sole form of defenses against early game gunship attacks aside from using gunships of his own.

A commander in such a position or with both stealth and cloak upgrades can only be detected by an omni radius (yellow circle). Units with omni radius include the omni sensor, galactic colossus, other ACUs and SCUs. If no such units are around however, the commander is free to use his laser or overload with impunity. Just remember that a sonar can still detect the ACU which means he is vulnerable in water against even basic submarines.

A commander with both build upgrades also has other options in a bind (an omni sensor too close) such as erecting multiple shield generators around him and build tier 2 turrets (all of which can be done in record time). In a team game, a player whose base is destroyed can still be useful if he has upgraded his commander. All he needs is some power generators (perhaps hidden in his ally’s base) and his commander still packs quite a punch.

A word of warning however: the commander’s lack of shields makes him particularly vulnerable to czar explosions, galactic colossus explosions and tier 3 power generators or mass fabricators explosions. A commander should not be left near a power generator (8k damage from explosion) and a mass fabricator (4k damage) which together will chain react if the generator is destroyed.

Support command units

“To see a base rebuilding itself from scratch when it was destroyed a few minutes earlier is a disturbing sight. Cybrans truly are abominations.”

Aeon Commander observation in her logs

Since Cybrans have a difficult time turtling and have high energy demands (cloak, scathis, etc), a player should turn to SCUs as soon as he can. If you compare it to a tier 3 generator, an SCU upgraded with a resource upgrade offers 1000 more energy, extra mass, 20k hit points (instead of nearly 10k), fighting capabilities, construction abilities, regeneration, omni sensors, auto rebuild and a 1k death nukes (instead of 8k). It is therefore better in every way except that it offers no synergy bonuses (although it won’t cause a chain reaction either). You should have a least one portal operational at any time summoning SCUs constantly and they will pay for themselves soon enough. That tip is valid for all factions.

To make upgrading easier (if for some reason you might wish to queue more then one upgrade), I suggest upgrading and then issuing a move order to another *waiting* spot. That way you know that SCUs outside the gate are normal, those at site A have resource allocation, those at site B building upgrade, etc (it’s better then scanning all upgrades every time). An SCU with stealth upgrade is almost as dangerous as an ACU in terms of stealth building capacity (spawning turrets anywhere it pleases) but lacks the overload or the laser. A Cybran SCU can also be configured for combat but its default accuracy is not really good.

An SCU with stealth and the building upgrade assisting the buildings of a fire base is a disturbing sight. Nothing short of a lot of splash damage will allow a player to get rid of one of those and as horrible as Cybran shields are, they can be repaired very quickly if you rebuild them in the same spot using the ACUs assist ability.

Experimentals

Monkeylord

“You want to know why they call it a monkeylord? It’s pretty easy to figure out actually: when facing it who do you think is the lord? Yep, it is and who do you think is the nearly bald monkey with slightly evolved vocal cords? Now you understand…”

Unauthorized communication between enemies on the battlefield

This experimental has a pair of long range heavy electron bolter, a main laser, anti-air missiles, torpedoes, slow regenerative rate and most importantly: a stealth system. It is also a very cheap experimental mass wise that you can use relatively early in the game and a fully upgraded commander can build one very quickly (roughly 3 minutes). Like the Cybrans however the monkeylord is meant as a direct weapon only up to an extent. A Fatboy that is pulling it will destroy it over time, a galactic colossus can destroy one easily in a 1 on 1 fight and any large concentration of gunships will tear it to pieces. A monkeylord is therefore used as either part of a full scale attack with T3/T2 units or by attacking from a completely unexpected angle. Unexpected angles include building it on a spot that cannot normally be reached by land or having it crawl to an enemy base under water.

When defending a monkeylord should stand at a choke point with its front facing the enemy. A common mistake is to assign it a move command and not bother as to what side it will be facing which will directly affect if it will be able to use its laser and electron bolter. When attacking the decision to move forward or stand still should depend on whether it has been detected and if there are enough decoys around. If it enters a base, a monkeylord should be assigned a move command *through* the base as it will crush anything that it moves through and it will keep its main laser firing the whole time.

Something else that is interesting is that a monkeylord can be built in complete secrecy under water. A monkeylord under water appears like a submarine and is invisible to visual scans form land or air units. Also you can put a tier 3 sonar which also had a sonar blocker to make it perfectly invisible. If you use SCUs to build it then they too will be at the bottom of river and be invisible (only the sonar will be visible and it’s really small and easy to forget about). The tier 3 sonar can also move and follow the monkeylord around, making the attack a real surprise.

A note of warning: groups of monkeylords attacking a Cybran or Aeon base should either move in formation or from totally different angles. The reason is that in a face off against another monkeylord or a galactic colossus; a monkeylord’s effectiveness will depend on whether it can fire its laser or not and it takes some time to charge. For example, should 2 monkeylords walk in formation then the odds are good that both will fire at an opposing monkeylord at the same time and win. If they walk in line and the first monkeylord is destroyed by the enemy then the enemy’s laser will still be firing and take out the second before it has a chance to fire.

In all cases remember: it’s a monkeylord and not a galactic colossus. In a straight all out attack with no subtlety you might be better served bringing a monkeylord’s weight in loyalists.

Scathis

“Whoever at the academy said that Cybrans were all cloak and daggers never saw a Scathis in action. It’s as subtle as a fully loaded garbage truck playing heavy metal in the middle of a flower garden.”

UEF commander getting shelled by a Scathis

The scathis is mostly a late game turtle breaker capable of firing one shot every 2 seconds with a wide area damage. The shots themselves are (relatively) not very damaging and rather inaccurate but the fact that they are constant with wide area damage means that they prevent a shield from regenerating and that eventually some damage will slip through (and shield generators have low health). It requires a LOT of energy to fire it constantly however and a commander should be wary of bringing their own shields and stealth generators down in the process. It also has very limited health and as such it should be surrounded by shields and stealth generators as soon as a proper firing area is reached.

You can either build it in your base and then move it or create a stealth base in enemy range and build it there. Should the scathis be moved it would be preferable to have a deceiver moving along with it while avoiding the main enemy traveled roads. Proper scouting is essential for the scathis to be useful as the player should target areas where shields do not overlap in a way so that shields protect each generator. If an overlapping shield is attacked odds are that the scathis will not do any damage. Of course that could change if a tier 3 artillery gives it a hand or if a power generator is knocked out.

The real bonus of the Scathis however is that it has a higher range then a tier 2 artillery and the inside radius of an omni sensor and you do not require more then one to eventually punch through shields (you might need more then one tier 3 artillery to do it). Keeping it well defended is the key to tearing a base in half and since it’s a unit and not a structure then the enemy will need a visual confirmation to target it (provided that as previously mentioned you keep stealth generators nearby). One thing is sure however: you will provoke an enemy response one way or another when it starts firing and it’s not hard to see the lines of artillery shells and follow them to the source.

Soul Ripper

“So what do you think?”
“… It’s big…”
“Yeah but aside from that do you like the guns, missiles, the engines and the paint job?”
“… It’s… really um… big…”

Doctor Brackman at a loss of words when he finally saw the Soul Ripper

The soul ripper is a gunship with a wide range of weapons to fight on both land and air and a modest crash damage. It can be used to attack just about anything (except submarines) but excels at none and its main strength comes from its vast hit point reserves. It is NOT a turtle breaker as two overlapping tier 3 shields are enough to keep it at bay. What it is however is a lure and a counter for other experimentals that is hard to ignore.

With time a soul ripper can destroy a monkeylord or damage a galactic colossus and the presence of one will usually force the enemy’s air force into action. That is when a Cybran’s tier 3 air superiority fighters (with or without its stealth ability engaged) can swoop in and do serious damage to the enemy’s air force. It can also be used as an expensive decoy for tier 3 bombers to do the *real* damage to a turtle base but this also comes with the concept that you will most likely be leaving a massive corpse in the enemy base where it can be recycled. In other words you’d better make it count hopefully with a massive chain reaction.

To a certain extent, soul rippers could be considered defensive weapons as they are hard to destroy and are useful against other enemy experimentals such as scathis, monkeylord, galactic colossus, fatboy and such. Be warned however that it will fall quickly if left alone against an enemy air superiority force and that you should never ever build one if you have no other units in the air.

Are you using the right faction?

“When you sign the card to get your implants you should read the fine print. They don’t only write what they put in but it also explains what they pull out.”

Pre-infinite war Cybran complaining.

A lot of players use a faction because they think it’s cool or because they got hooked to a unit type or two (or because they like Dostya). Sometimes however the strategies that they use – while good – are more effective for another faction that is specialized to take advantage of it. So here is a list of strategies that are not really suited for Cybrans:

• Artillery + shields being built ever closer to the enemy base in order to eventually punch through: Aeon.
• Punching through the frontline with lots of offensive units: UEF.
• Turtling: Aeon or UEF.
• Sending experimentals forward at the tip of an army: Aeon.

Now here are some aspects that are more useful for Cybrans:

• Gaining air superiority
• Using gunships to cripple the enemy at tier 2 and the beginning of tier 3.
• Using decoys while preparing an attack elsewhere.
• Building secret bases in unexpected places.
• Building experimentals very close or into enemy territory where there is little traffic.
• Making feints, decoys and multiple stage attacks.

Escalation

“You know, as much as I like big flashy stuff, there are other answers to how to destroy something then just *nukes*”.

Teacher at the UEF academy

As the battle progresses there is an ever growing process of escalation that a player must be aware of. A force of twenty gunships might have been enough to kill an ACU in the tier 2 stage but not when you reach tier 3 and his base is now covered with tier 3 turrets. Constantly sending only 20 gunships will eventually be doomed and a failure to escalate the war is what results in a player that was previously stuck on the defensive suddenly coming out of his shell and striking back.

The following is my personal preference in terms of escalation as a Cybran but it would be heavily affected by which map I was playing and how the battle was going:

(Also keep in mind that through all these phases, a player must keep upgrading his economy at all times)

Plan A: gunships and interceptors: gunships supported by interceptors either attack the ACU or targets of opportunity (anything related to the economy). The splash damage of the gunships is just too good to ignore.

Plan B: gunships and air superiority fighters: the same as above but when tier 3 AA turrets start appearing only air superiority fighters set on patrol can distract them long enough for the gunships to do their jobs.

Plan C: gunships, air superiority and loyalists: the combination of the 3 can either punch through a weakened defense or serve as a distraction for plan D (you don’t necessarily need to engage those forces to make the distraction).

Plan D: monkeylord: build a monkeylord in secret close enough to the enemy base from a different angle then your usual attacks. Plan C is therefore the decoy for the monkeylord to slip through and hopefully get far enough to cause damage.

Plan E: scathis: usually my economy is not strong enough to sustain one through the previous phases. At this stage however it is possible to have one deployed in a base that was constructed in secrecy at rough distance of 275 with stealth, shields and lots of AA defenses.

Plan F: tier 3 turrets and nukes: if all other plans failed then it means that the enemy has a very hardened base that can fight off any other plan and has control of the air space around his base. If that’s the case then the only game ender left are nukes or tier 3 artillery. The choice of constructing either will depend on the difference in economy (nukes might require more then one silo firing). If my economy is vastly superior then multiple nukes are in order but if not then artillery might be better suited to punch through.

Whatever your plan is, if you go through a proper escalation and with each phase causing some damage to the enemy economy then odds are that you will reach the bigger game enders before your opponent (who’s resources will have been spent beefing up and repairing what you destroyed). If you do then you win. If you are the one stuck on the defensive then your only hope is that either your opponent does not escalate properly or that you find a hole in his defenses and strike at the heart of his economy.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 6:12 pm by Cyde Weys and is filed under Strategy. Keywords: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.