Supreme Commander Talk

I just played a fantastic game on a new map called “Snoey Triangle” (as best I can tell that is the actual spelling) and thought I would share it as it really demonstrates the intense new gameplay of Forged Alliance. Unfortunately I can’t figure out how to post the actual replay file at the moment, so all I can do is tell you how to find it on GPGNet… basically look up my profile on (Engineer), then look up my replays (right click my name, click “view replays), and look for a game played on November 13 against -PurpleHaze-. I was UEF (as I always am) and my opponent played as Cybran. Download and enjoy. If I can figure out how to post files I will see about posting it here.

First I’d like to mention that this map is quite insane, basically it is a single triangular island with some ruins in the middle. There are 3 starting locations, one in each of the corners. Overall kind of like Sentry Point, right? Right… except it is like 4 times smaller. The central island is absolutely tiny. There are 3 other islands with mass points and geothermals on them but control of the central island is so important that the outer islands are of little significance unless the game really drags on, which it isn’t likely to do. In a map this small, early gameplay is dominated by the commanders, and basically you can either go for the expansion base for the extra mass at the risk of leaving your home-base weakened, or you can try to go straight for the other guy’s base and try to get an advantage on him that way.Having played this map once before both commanders had gone for each other’s base and it had turned into a brief slugfest until both commanders went boom. Not the most exciting match ever (this replay is available in as well, against bjbrains). This time around I decided I would do things differently, and go for the expansion base instead. To defend my base I would rely on T1 PDs, hopefully several of them before he could attack. This illustrates the first couple features of FA gameplay:

1. Tech 1 Point Defense has been rebalanced. It has more hitpoints and more DPS, but it has a shorter range, so that T1 artillery can now hit it while staying out of range.

2. Commanders have been made stronger against units, but weaker against buildings. The overcharge gun does a fair amount of area damage, which is effective against groups of T1 units, but doesn’t even kill a T1 PD in one shot. The T1 PD on the other hand will take down a fair amount of a commander’s health, especially if there are more than one and the commander is not supported by artillery

As the game progressed, it turned out both commanders went for the expansion base. I got there slightly first but he showed up with a lot more firepower and I had to extricate myself carefully. During this “tactical withdrawl” my commander hit the coveted 21 kill mark and gained his first vetrancy star, thus highlighting another key feature of FA gameplay:

3. Veterancy is extremely important now, especially your commander’s. Each level of vetrancy now provides a HP boost and a regeneration rate boost. For your commander in the middle of a hot fight, this is a shot in the arm and makes him much more survivable as the game goes on. Vetrancy has also been rebalanced so that units tend to get levels much earlier. T1 PD get it after only 8 or 9 kills, and the HP boost and regen rate make them much more deadly. The effect of the vetrancy is to make vetran units seem “larger than life” since between the HP boost and the regen rate vetran units are a lot tougher. It makes vetran units and gun emplacements worth saving if you can, and makes it particularly helpful for your commander to see some action early while he can still rack up kills without getting overwhelmed.

Back to the game… recognizing the sizable force that my opponent had sent to the expansion base area, I attacked into his home base and did some damage. I sent in a few more waves and constructed a small outpost between our two home bases. Meanwhile, fearing an attack from the expansion base direction (where my opponent had actually captured one of my factories, doh, I should have suicided it) on my home base I build a wall of T1 PDs facing that way. With T1 artillery and a little patience my opponent could have probably defeated this line but he never attempted, for which I was very grateful. The battle was quiet for a bit, and I didn’t look too good. I held my home base and one island, but my opponent had taken both other islands and held more mass spots on the main island. Those of you used to regular old SupCom will now notice something very interesting at this point…

4. The old T1 mass fab is indeed gone, replaced by a T2 mass fab which costs almost 4 times as much energy to run, is more expensive to build, and can only be built by T2 engineers. This means that mass fab spam is simply gone, out of the picture, goodbye, and the game is so much better for it! Map control is everything, as it should be.

My only hope now was to somehow take my my opponents home base area, as I knew he was weak here. The battle that next raged was incredibly intense, as I drove in with Strikers and Lobos and my opponent suprised me with Jesters, a new Cybran T1 gunship. Not having an air factory, my only option was to quickly build some T1 mobile AA. This leads me to my next points…

5. Combined arms is critical. T1 artillery is now truly King of the Battlefield as it should be, it can ravage groups of units and T1 PDs from well out of their range. However, it is vulnerable as always to quick enemy mobile units, so you have to support it with tanks.

6. The Jester is absolutely incredible. The Cybran now have a very distinct advantage on the T1 battlefield, as a single Jester can kill quite a few units, and for aerly raiding it is especially versatile.

7. T1 AA can now hit stuff! Air has been heavily rebalanced so that air units now have far more HP, but AA damage has been increased and AA tends to hit more often. Now, instead of T1 AA banging away while hardly hitting anything it tends to hit quite regularly but does relatively light damage. This means not only is it worth building now, but it actually works like you would expect, i.e. it is weak but provides some measure of steady damage to enemy aircraft, and contributes to the mixed arms approach of FA.

At this point the game reached its climax. My Archers were able to shoot down his Jesters as fast as he could build them, but he had frigates helping defend his base by now and my army gradually evaporated. Having gutted his main base (and most of his power production as I later realized watching the replay) my commander withdrew, and his commander followed at close range. A reinforcement army arrived just in time for me, and as our commanders duked it out I realized I could win the game right here, I was able to drop his health down while mine barely stayed above 4,000. When he went nuclear I had only 200 HP left. Thus ended an incredible game.

In retrospect I think it was pretty well played by both sides, and my eventual victory was a matter of luck as of anything else. The two vetrancy upgrades on my commander are easily what saved me. I also think that while my opponent had more mass production in general, he invested quite a bit into two naval factories and a few frigates that had very little effect on the game. He also failed to harass my main base which he easily could have using T1 arty. I failed to increase my production capacity at all, I could probably have upgraded a mex or 2 and then got more factories going, but in the constant warfare I just didn’t have the time or attention to do it. The most interesting “what-if is what would have happened had he not followed me with his comm thus leading to his death. I actually think he could have perhaps won it using his superior map control and his frigates which were just coming online.I applaud PurpleHaze for an excellent game.

As a minor note, this victory vaulted me into the top 25 on the ladder, which is a first (and probably a last…) and was quite cool to see. Hopefully this has demonstrated to some of you that Forged Alliance really is a different beast and the gameplay has truly changed for the better. Those of you on the fence, go out and buy now!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 11:50 pm by Engineer and is filed under Replays. 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.