Will the new patch favor turtles and artillery?

Monday, May 21st, 2007

We’ve been waiting for this patch for weeks upon weeks now and it’s supposed to be this Wednesday. That means all speculation that still needs to be done needs to be done quick, so I’m back for another article! In this one I’m going to take a look at the possible negative effects of the [...]

Winter Duel endurance brawl

Saturday, May 5th, 2007

[Ed. note by Cyde Weys: In this post we depart from our usual fare of showing matches between experts and show more of what an average ranked match is like. There is a lot that can be learned just from watching this replay.]
Download the replay of this match (v3223).
Oh man what a match! [...]

Fancy unit fever

Sunday, April 29th, 2007

One unfortunate tendency that I notice amongst novice players is a fever for fancy units. By “fancy” I am referring to, roughly, every unit that costs over 10,000 mass. This includes all of the experimental units as well as tech 3 artillery and nuclear launchers. Yes, it’s true that the big, expensive, [...]

Inadequate anti-naval defenses

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007

One thing that has struck me after watching many replays on naval maps is that Supreme Commander lacks any good shore and naval defenses. Supreme Commander has good defensive buildings against land targets and even better defensive buildings against air targets, but there’s simply nothing there to ward off naval units. Cruisers, destroyers, [...]

Finding beauty in SupCom

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007

There is a strange beauty in some of the battles in Supreme Commander. I know it’s not the first place one would look to find beauty, and it is frequently overlooked, yet there it is anyway. The landscapes at the beginning of a match are static, almost lifeless. Yet the explosive entrances [...]

How to defeat a turtle

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

I just defeated a turtled-in opponent in ranked play. He played rather defensively and found himself encircled. But he built lots of defenses and forced me to come get him. Meanwhile, he had tech 2 artillery shooting out at my forces, forcing me to put up a lot of shields to protect [...]

Veterancy really doesn’t do anything

Thursday, March 15th, 2007

Veterancy had the potential to impact gameplay in Supreme Commander, but unfortunately, it was “play balanced” out to the point of utter meaningless. Back in Total Annihilation, units received veteran status after five kills, and they became noticeably better. Artillery would shoot more accurately, tanks would deal more damage (I think), etc. [...]

Utilizing the Tech III mobile artillery effectively

Monday, March 5th, 2007

Too few people know how to use the Tech III mobile artillery effectively. The Tech III artillery is a destructive powerhouse, capable of inflicting the majority of damage to enemy bases, with other units needed only as escorts. Yet I still see so many people just sending wave after wave of close-combat units [...]