Vax's "Beginner's Guide to Supreme Commander 2" Version 0.1 Nov-26-2011 Copyright Larry P.

Schrof, 2011 You may not modify this article in any way. You may use this article for any non-commercial purpose. Copies of this article may be distributed so long as attribution of the author and copyright remain intact. Introduction and Apologies to the SupCom2 Community. ---------------------------------------------------I should have written this guide 18 months ago, when we still have a large community. SupCom2 is a tough game, and it's really tough for a beginner to learn with so much stiff competition and players with thousands of hours of experience. So for the tardiness in getting something like this out late, I apologize. But late is indeed better than never. Next, this is a work-in-progress. Pardon the typos and grammar - they will be corrected soon. But for now, we need this to get out there, and we need that to happen now. Who this guide is for --------------------This guide, in its current state, is for: - Any SupCom2 player with less than 100-200 hours of experience - Any SupCom2 player new to playing multi-player mode online - Any SupCom2 player wishing to improve their play at 3v3 and 4v4 Most of this guide applies to 3v3 and 4v4 team games. It can help for 1v1 and 2v2 if you're a total beginner, but it won't get you far. For that I'll write more later. A word about the SupCom2 community ---------------------------------The SupCom2 community is dying fast. We need as many new players to enjoy the game and come back as possible. If you're a pro, please consider being nice to the new players and explaining to them how they can improve. Pub stomping can be fun, but the community can't afford much of it these days, because we need every new player to come back that we can get. What this guide is now, and what it will become ----------------------------------------------This first guide release is super-small comapred to what I'm going to try to release over the next couple of months. This is just to get beginners up and running in multi-player. I hope to augment it with an in-depth guide to the many facets of this amazing game. This version of the guide is essentially what I consider the most important advice that new players should receive concerning the game. These tips, opinions, and facts, should give you the most "bang for the buck" when it comes to improving your skills and taking you

into an intermediate level of play quickly. New players tend to exhibit behaviors and patterns that cause them to get DESTROYED, and thus get pretty frustrated with the game. If you want to get rid of that 'noob' status quickly, read this guide a couple of times. Try a game or two, practicing only one or two points mentioned. Then come back, and read some more. **************************************************************** * Rule A: - the most important rule ------ DON'T GIVE UP EVER. * **************************************************************** Don't give up. SupCom2 is HARD and UNFORGIVING when playing against experienced players. The community is way too small, and getting smaller. This game didn't have millions of dollars of backing that StarCraft 2 did, and yet it's player base agrees that it's a far-superior game. (Just use your mouse scroll-wheel to see what I mean.) Stick around and learn. You will lose many games in the beginning, but that's okay. Remind yourself that the only way to learn is to lose. Winning teaches us nothing; it only feeds our ego. When the game starts, hit SHIFT-<ENTER> to set your chat window to team-chat only. (Make sure the little check is hilighted at the bottom.) Then say, "I'm sorry but I'm new. I'll do my best, but any advice is welcome." That right there will change the mindset of 90% of your teammates. Instead of being frustrated with you, they actually just may help. (And even if they're annoyed, they'll at least know that they need to play differently to compensate.) Don't get depressed if people are frustrated with you. SupCom2 is unfortunately heavily weighted against teams with even one new player, so some frustration with new players is to be expected. Ignore it. Keep being nice, and keep asking for help. But above all else... DON'T EVER QUIT PLAYING SUPCOM2. THE COMMUNITY NEEDS YOU BADLY. Next meta-rule: ----- Ask for help and keep learning ---Ask everyone you meet for advice. Especially the people who beat you. And ESPECIALLY the people who beat you badly. Then ask them to be a mentor or at least to give you advice. Get more than one mentor. Learn learn learn. When a game ends, there is a post-game lobby with a chat window. That is a GREAT place to ask for advice. When you realize you are going to get whomped during the game, turn off team-chat only and tell your opponents you would appreciate if they could stick around and offer advice in the post-game lobby. Become friends with everyone you can on Steam. You will always see me in-game as '[EdC] Vax' - you can always ask me for help. Other good players whose names rarely change are 'Nuclear Pizza', 'redarrow', and my favorite, and perhaps the best all-around player in SupCom2, 'Iron Commander'. (These guys will have letters in front of their names, ignore those - they are clan tags. Instead, look at the right-hand side portion of their name.) Another learning tip when you're just starting out - don't play 'Fast' game speed. In the multi-player lobby, get in the habit of looking in the lower right. You want to play games where the speed says 'Normal' or (less preferrably) 'Adjustable'. Fast game speed is VERY FAST. The only reason you'll see it being played is from people

who get bored quickly. Another valuable learning tool is the replay feature. Sign up for an account on gamereplays.org, then begin downloading replays into your SupCom2 replays folder. (The folder is something like Users -> My Documents -> My Games -> Square Enyx -> <some number> -> replays. That order is not exact, but you'll get the gist.) Once you save a replay file, you can launch it from the main menu by choosing Extras -> Replays. NOTE: There are non-DLC replays and DLC replays. If you do not have DLC, you will not be able watch DLC replays. Each type requires its own folder. Do a Google search for specifics on which replays should get saved where. gamereplays.org probably has a good article on it. Another fantastic way to learn is to meet players you like on teamspeak and ventrillo. If you haven't heard of these tools, they are software that you download and install that allow you to communicate, using a microphone and headset, with other people. Even better, you can communicate DURING THE GAME. This is an immensely powerful way to learn and coordinate. If nothing else, you can use CTRL-Q in-game to turn on and turn off voice chat. WARNING: Voice chat can become extremely annoying very qickly. Use it SPARINGLY, unless your team has agreed to use it as their primary choice of communication. The last tip I can think of for learning is to download shoutcasts from gamereplays.org. These are audio commentaries that are designed to be watched along with specific replays. Do a search for them on gamereplays.org and you'll find more details. ---- Next meta-rule: Purchase the DLC (downloadable content) ----Do yourself a favor. If you've played even 1-2 games of SupCom2 and think it looks worth some of your time, buy the DLC through steam. It improves the variety and gameplay by roughly 50-80%. That's a lot. It adds maps, units, technologies, and just adds a lot of fun all-around. ----- Next meta-rule: Don't play with exclusions. ----Let me ask you a very deep question. I want you to think about it for at least 30 seconds and answer honestly. Don't continue reading until you've answered this question... +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ Do you want to enjoy SupCom2 for a couple of weeks, or do you want to enjoy it for a couple of years? +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you would like to enjoy SupCom2 for the next couple of years, do yourself this one important favor: Avoid exclusions like the plague. Exclusions are things you can "turn off" in the game, like nukes, air units, experimentals, reseaarch, etc. Exclusions in SupCom2 are essentially a marketing tool designed to get more people to buy the game so that they can play it in a very contrived fashion. I know the game developers will not agree with this, and it wasn't their intention, but essentially that's what exclusions have

turned into: establishing very contrived games that only a few people enjoy. Exclusions do more to make you a bad player than they do to make you a good player. (The exception is the 'Slow Research' exclusion - when this exclusion is enabled, AND NO OTHER EXCLUSIONS ARE ENABLED, it can be an invaluable learning tool.) Many times in your career of SupCom2, you will lose, and lose badly. But on top of that, you'll feel like there was NO WAY TO STOP IT. Don't worry - everything in SupCom2 is counterable. Some things are much harder to counter than others, but it's doable. If you don't believe me, go meet players like Iron Commander and Nephy. They'll show you it can be done. Go to the GPG supcom2 forums. Search those archives. I guarantee you'll find length discussions on countering all sorts of stuff you think can't be countered. So that you know you're not alone, I'm going to list all of the things you'll feel are unstoppable at first. (You'll feel this way as you start learning the game): - ACU rushes (an enemy spams early research and techs their acu quickly to a very powerful unit) - Long-range artillery barrages - Blobs of air experimentals - 20 tanks in your face after 3 minutes - Nukes - Cybran megaliths knocking on your door after 8 minutes or earlier - Cybran naval battleships pummeling you from out of range Throughout your days, you'll see people set up 'No air' games, 'No arty' games, 'landwar' games, etc. These can be dangerosly tempting to play. And in some respects, you CAN learn from them. But don't make exclusions a habit. Occasionally, a 'no nukes' game is okay - I won't fault you, AS A BEGINNER, for playing those. But your long-term enjoyment of SupCom2 will be guided by your ability to enjoy games with no exclusions, as these games offer a much fuller, richer experience. --- Now, the real rules / tipes --Okay, what I've given you so far are meta rules. Rules for behavior and how to learn. Now I'm going to go into more concrete rules - these pertain to straetgy. They are in no particular order. For now, these are pretty much "rules". As you improve and gain experience, you can think of the material below more as "guidelines" that aren't set in stone. But for now, as a noob, you should probably treat the following material as if it was Holy Writ. In fact, for SupCom2 multi-player beginners, it IS. Let's get started. How to begin playing SupCom2 in 3v3 and 4v4 team games ------------------------------------------------------

*** Every time you build a point defense tower (PD) or anti-air *** *** tower (AA), you increase your chances of losing. *** Yup, that's right. You know how us pros can spot a new player in the first 90 seconds of game time? Our air man scouts you and we see you plunking down 1 (or 10!) pd or aa towers. You haven't even been attacked yet! Try to learn how to play the game from your very first day without ever having to build one of these. Yes, there are times when you will need them. Yes, they can be used offensively by experienced players. But YOU, for the love of God, should not use them. In fact, here is your mantra for the first 100 hours of playing SupCom2: "If I have built more than 3 PD turrets in a game, or more than 3 AA towers, then I have made a tactical or strategic mistake that I need a mentor to help me correct." Go out and find 1v1 replays of Nephilym, Iron Commander, FunkOff, Nuclear Pizza, sleeping cloud, and tell me how many pds and aa towers they build. Then tell me how many units they build. If you're in a situation where you feel the only thing that will save you is a cluster of PD towers or AA towers, it means you made a mistake at some previous point in the game that you'll need to learn to correct. It also probably means it's too late and you've already lost. SupCom2 is very unforiving like that - losses are often guaranteed about 30-40% of the way through the game - the rest is just watching your base slowly blow up. Here's some deeper food for thought on this. I want to emphasize how worthless your point-defense turrets are, even if there are 30 of them in a wall. I am going to list every unit I can think of that doesn't fly, but can still crush your pd's. The worst part is, your pd's won't be able to reach any of these units, so your PDs are helpless. In the end, your PDs will prove to be nothing but a waste of your hard-earned mass. Here we go. All the surfaced-based reasons why your point defense turrets re Absolutely Worthless: Mobile-missile launchers (mml) Illuminate Tactical Missile Launcher (tml) Factory missile launcher (Factory add-on that fires arcs of missiles) Artillery fire from cybran or UEF long-range artillery Artillery fire from UEF fortified short-range artillery Missile volleys from upgraded UEF or Cybran ACU Artillery fire from an upgraded UEF ACU UEF naval unit: mastdon (cruiser) UEF battleships (bs) Cybran jump-jetting land units that self-detonate on your pds Cybran naval/land unit: destoryers (salems) Cybran naval/land unit: Executioners (bs) Illuminate experimental: loyalty gun UEF experimental: Fatboys (fatties) Cybran experimental: Megaliths (megas) DLC-unit: Cybran monkey lord (monkey, ml) DLC-unit: UEF jack hammer DLC-unit: cybran recylcer (can be used to kill live units)

- UEF experimental: King Kriptor / Aeon experimental: Universal Collossus (*) - Nukes *: PDs might actually outrange these guys. Either way, it's very close. *THAT'S TWENTY EXAMPLES, AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN LISTED AIR UNITS* Everything I named travels along, or is built on, the surface, out of range of your PDs. If this still hasn't sunk in, let me offer you this statistic. In the several-thousand games I've played, many times I've seen a player making PDs and AAs in their base within the first 2-3 minutes. When that happens, that teams *loses 98% of the time.* Ok, if PDs and AAs are worthless, what SHOULD you build??? (Hint: it's not research stations) ---------- Factories pumping early units win games ---------The first step to keeping your enemy from finding out you're a new (and hence vulnerable player) is to make early factories. In fact, as you become more experienced, you will learn that it is frequently proper to have 2-3 factories pumping units before you have "capped" (built) your 9th or 10th mass point. When you have a factory selected, there is a circle icon in the lower right. When you click it and it becomes hilighted, that factory will produce units continuously. You can then click one unit, or even several different units, and the factory will progress through that cycle on infinite repeat. For example, if you think to yourself "I'd like to produce three tanks for every one missile launcher", you'd select the factory, click the circle icon, then click the tank icon three times, and the mobile missile launcher icon one. In general, you want units coming out of factories to GO SOMEWHERE. This should not be over enemy territory. Generally, you'll want them near, and in front of, your base. For air units, you (generally) want them to the front of your team's side of the map to provide accessibility to all areas of the map quickly. To tell a factory where to send units, simply click the factory, then right click the spot on the map where all future units it builds should be sent. TIP: You can easily tell ALL factories of a given type (land, air, sea) to send units to the same location. Select a factory, then hit CTRL-Z to select ALL factories of that type. Then right-click to set the destiniation. ----- Next rule: Know your role in 3v3 and 4v4 team games ----These rules primarily apply to 3v3 and 4v4 team games. 1v1s and 2v2s are a different story entirely. When learning SupCom2, you will primarily be dealing with learning these three roles: land, air, navy. I recommend saving land for last - it is both the most vital and also the most intricate and difficult to learn. Starting with naval can be your best bet as naval combat is generally slower, requires less multi-tasking, and less decision making. Also, with proper knowledge, it's extremely difficult to lose a naval battle. Even a beginner armed with proper knowledge can stalemate even the best of SupCom2 pros in the water. (This also

makes for some mind-numbingly boring battles, which is why most players gravitate away from playing naval.) You need to decide what type (air, land, sea) units you will produce, and this is dictated by your starting location, NOT WHAT YOU FEEL LIKE MAKING. Want to know how to piss off experienced teammates? Randomly say, "I'm going air", or "I'm going land and naval", etc. *** YOUR STARTING LOCATION DEFINES YOUR ROLE WHEN LEARNING THE GAME *** You can break the following rules later on in your SupCom2 career. Not now. You need help and you need people to help you grow as a player. You won't get that if you piss your teammates off by playing the wrong role. So how do you decide which role to play? It's fairly simple. Apply the following rules, in order. As soon as a rule describes your situation, you go with the corresponding role. 1. If you are closer to your enemies than any of your teammates, you should go land. Additionally, if this is true, AND you are close to a large body of water, playing as Illuninate is probably a good idea. On some maps like Van Horne Core, two players will be "closest" to the enemy. Generally, both should go land. If the above rule does not apply, see if this next one applies. 2. If you are the furthest of your team away from the enemy, you should almost always play air. Playing air, by the way, means spamming jets until the other side has no chance to make stuff that flies. This is called 'owning the air'. More importantly, PLAYING THE AIR ROLE DOES NOT MEAN SPAMMING GUNSHIPS. If neither of the above rules applies, use these guidelines: - If the map doesn't have water, go land if you know someone already has air covered. If no one volunteers to take air, you do it. - If the map has water, then you should go naval IF you are pretty close to water AND someone else is covering air. Setons Clutch is the best example. There is a starting location where your ACU is a 5-second walk from the water. That's a prime opportunity to play naval. - If all else fails and you're completely uncertain, go air, because: - Many people on your team won't cover air, and your team will need it - Your team is guaranteed to have good scouting (because that's what you'll do - more on this soon) - You have a wide variety of locations to apply pressure on the map - If no one on the enemy side goes air, you'll (virtually) free reign to sow death and destruction. Now, let's move on to proper execution of your role. --- Executing your role properly --The first rule of executing your role properly is this: +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Your job is to focus on eliminating any players who play the same role as you. This is often, but not always, dictated by starting location

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you start in an air slot, your primary object is to kill (or effectively take out of play) the enemy player going air. Same for naval. Same for land. The only situation where this becomes untrue is if you get double teamed in air or land. (If you are playing navy correctly, you could get triple-teamed and still win. More on this later.) For now, let's assume you're only against one player in the same role. (This is quite common.) Failing to destory him means letting your team down. If some other enemy, not lined up across from you, slaughters your team, it means someone else probably dropped the ball, not you. Bottom line: Figure out which guy is across from you, and put crosshairs on him. In the following material, when I say your primary opponent or primary target, I am referring to the person you are lined up against, or the person who's destruction is your responsibility. Now, on to the first few minutes of the game: executing your role... **** While you are still new to the game, don't build **** **** research stations in the first six minutes. **** Don't make early research stations. It makes you so vulernable that it brings tears to my eye. Get your factories up and running quickly. 9 mass points is enough to support 4-5 air factories, 4-5 land factories, or 2 naval factories. (4-5 uef naval factories if you're pumping nothing but subs.) By the way, learn from experienced players what I call 'mex ettiquette' 'mex' is a nickname for mass point. On each map, there is standard ettiquette that says which mass points belong to you and which belong to your teammates. If you're not sure, ask. Don't get into fights with your teammates over who gets which mass. On most maps 3v3 and 4v4 maps, you will have 9 mass points. On some maps, such as Boolon, you may have more. Don't be a mass hog - if a mass point is closer to a teammate's starting spot that it is yours, it was meant for him, not you. Sometimes, teammates will intentionally leave mass points vacant. If you'd like to have them, ASK. If they don't respond, say "Unless I hear from you in chat, I'm going to take such-and-such mass points in 30 seconds." VAX TIP: Use the f5, f6, and f7 arrows to 'ping' a location on the map. Use these keys to show your teammates which mass points of theirs you'd like to take. NEVER PING SOMETHING MORE THAN TWICE. Seriously. Multiple pings is very annoying. Don't worry - we see them. Now for timing. In general, if you don't have at least one factory pumping units by 2:30, you need a really good reason. As a new player, you won't have this reason. By 3:00-4:00 for land and air (4:00-5:00 for naval), all 4 of your factories should be under construction or better, finished building and pumping units. --- What do I make? --Here's another rule you need to keep in mind:

AS A BEGINNER, NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, MIX LAND / AIR / NAVY. When you become more experienced, you can (and will need to) do this. But as a beginner, DON'T. Do not make land and air. Do not make navy and land. Do not make all three. PICK ONE, AND ONLY ONE TYPE, DEPENDING ON YOUR ROLE, AND STICK TO IT. --- Roles for beginners in ten minutes of reading --The following are extreme generalizations, but, they should suffice for helping a beginner know how to play based on where they start and what faction to pick. They will hopefully make you less of an easy target. Playing UEF NAVAL: If you are lined up against a UEF or cybran player, you want 9 mass points, 4 power, then and 2-3 naval factories pumping out subs. Send an engineer early way out into the water to build a sonar that covers all water of your primary opponent. If you see enemy naval, make a total of 4 factories and pump subs on repeat from all of them. Assist one factory with your ACU and assist each other fac with EXACTLY one engineer. (Not zero engineers, and not more than one engineer per factory.) Push as soon as you think you have an advantage. If you are against cybran naval, you MUST prevent them from getting legs and walking onto land. Keep your subs between the cybran naval player's base and the most likely point of where you think the boats will hit land. UEF naval is designed to take out cybran naval. When you are playing UEf naval against cybran, push hard, early and often. Take out enemy naval units, then factories. Do not approach enemy factories (facs) with less than 6 subs. Do not fight cybran ships within range of their factories, unless you have a big blob of subs. When attacking factories, surface your subs (icon in lower left.) This will cause them to not only fire their torpedoes, but also their surface cannon. This is great for taking out shielded facs. When enemy naval factories start dying, you have essentially won the naval war. Stop making new subs. Use your remaining subs to clear out any enemy naval units, then use your (now-surfaced) subs to bombard any mass points in range. After that, dive them back under the water and keep them on the enemy short to prevent him from getting back into the water to estbalish a navy. Congratulations - you did your job well. Everything you do after this is icing on the cake for your team. At this point, as a uef naval player, you have done your job. You can get artistic. Spam cruisers from 1-2 factories if you like - those will absolutely destory enemy bases in range. (Albeit a bit slowly.) But with the naval radar upgrade, even one cruiser is perhaps the single most powerful addition to a uef player on any water-based map. An upgraded uef cruiser simply has INSANE RADAR COVERAGE. Alternatively, make some research and tech to artillery, noah, or experimentals. Now, the story above is completely different if you are playing UEF naval against aeon across from you. In this case, get cruisers out as

quickly as possible. Do not leave them by your base. Send them as soon as they are built to bombard your primary opponent's mass points. Aeon land units can hover on water, and if they get in range of your cruisers, you lose quickly and decisively. A quick note to new players: UEF cruisers have exceptional anti-air capability. The best thing you can hope for is that the enemy team's air player sends bombers and gunships 5-6 at a time to try to take out your cruisers. They'll learn a valuable lesson... the hard way. Don't make more than 8-10 cruisers. This is where most intermediate-level players get it wrong. If 8-10 cruisers aren't going to crush your opponents, it means you're headed into the late game and you're going to need a lot of mass for research stations. Besides, more than 8-10 cruisers turns out to be mostly overkill. Try to remember to turn off your naval facs. Or better yet, when you win the naval war and start making cruisers, just click 3-4 times on the cruiser icon for two of your naval factories. This will save you mass in case you forget to turn the facs off later. My final thought for beginners playing UEF naval: If you win the naval war, you have done your job. If your team loses, it probably wasn't your fault. Anything you do after winning the naval war is icing on the cake. If your teammates are good, your cruisers are what will add value. If your teammates are really good, there won't be much left for you to do except plop out a couple of long-range arty and watch them score a couple of hits before your team wins. If your teammates are mediocre, you'll need to find other ways to assit them. Usually, this means using cruisers to trash as much of the enemy players' mass points as possible. When using cruisers, attack mass points and mass converters. Those are your primary objective. If you think you can snipe an enemy acu sitting still in his base, go for it, but this will fail 9 times out of 10. (And it wastes precious volleys.) PLAYING CYBRAN NAVAL: I don't advise this for beginners. Yes, Cybran navy can be upgraded to walk on land. Yes, cybran navy has incredibly powerful offensive potential. Yes, salems can be cranked out quickly. Here's why I advise against playing cybran naval: It is just too easily countered by even a semi-competent player. If you line up in the lobby as cybran on a navy slot (starting point), and the guy across from you then siwtches to UEF, you're against a vet. Don't even try to go naval. If you INSIST on going cybran naval, the following are things to keep in mind. Hit early, hit hard. But if you see UEF subs early, stop making naval completley. You can support two cybran naval factories spamming salems (destroyers) on repeat with only 9 mass points and 4 power generators (pgens). From LOTS of experience, I recommend making one research station before you begin having both factories doing salems on repeat. Use your ACU to assist one factory, put one engineer assisting the other factory. Have your factories send all salems to the water on the coast of your primary enemy. Send your second engineer with them to build a radar to cover your enemy's base. That allows the salems to

bombard from a bit of distance. Salems have reasonable anti-air, but if you see a cluster of more than 3-4 gunships headed your way, fall back to the middle of the ocean until your cluster of salems is larger, then move against the air units. Your primary target is any naval units your primary opponent may be making, along with those naval factories if you can reach them without dying. After that, kill all enemy base structures that you can reach WITHOUT HAVING TO WALK ON LAND. If you attempt to hit land and walk before the proper time, you could lose your entire fleet. Killing base structures will earn you lots of research points, Use these to upgrade your naval units. If you can invest the research points into the 40% distance upgrade, that is absolutely worth it. It's expensive, but outstanding. It can ensure a quick subsequent victory. While bombarding the enemy coast, KEEP YOUR SHIPS MOVING AT ALL TIMES. Otherwise, missile volleys from factories, mml, and cruisers will quickly kill your ships. Your primary targets when bombarding with salems should be, in (roughly) this order of priority: (Remember, you are staying in the water at this point) - Enemy naval ships in range are always the most important - Enemy naval factories if no enemy ships are in range are also critical to take out. Then, take out... - Enemy naval ships out of range - Mass converters (You should be attacking early enough the enemy doesn't have these yet!!!) - Enemy ACU, if it's Assassination mode or if the ACU is near a lot of structures - Air factories spamming gunships or any experimental gantries - Land factories actively making units - Point-defense turrets Basically, clear out anything the water first. Then clear out anything that could make life difficult for your slow-moving salems once you're land-locked. Then, slowly creep your way through each enemy base and crush your way to victory. If you see a land blob, RUN AWAY. If a land blob gets in range of your ships, they will die. I can kill three battleships with five tanks if they're in range. I'm not kidding. Kite the land blobs - take them out, then proceed forward. Alternatively, you can try to play with battleships as cybran. Everything regarding targeting priority, land-fall, etc. still applies, but your starting build order should be a bit different. If you are on a large water map, and are committed to the idea of going cybran battleships, then finish off your 9-mass economy first. On the 4v4 map Seraphim Isles, it may take awhile for your engis to arrive at the 8th and 9th mass points. Go ahead and start building a research station if this is the case. Once 9 mass points are up, make an additional 2-4 research stations, depending on taste. Finally, build another 5 pgens (power generators) for a total of 9 pgens. 9 mass and 9 pgens will support one factory continuously pumping cybran battleships. Have your ACU and both engineers assisting the factory. I would say the range upgrade is even more important with battleships. It lets them hit almost anything with impunity. An unaddressed navy of

cybran battleships always results in a loss. Some things left unchecked, like bombers, become a nuisance. Some thinks left unchecked, like arty, can be annoying. A cybran battleship fleet left unchecked is Game Over. Remember that. ---------------- Playing as Air man for the Beginner ----------------Generally speaking, you'll want to select UEF as your faction. This is because UEF fighters are significantly cheaper and faster to build than other factions. In fact, one major complaint that pros have about SupCom2 is that the air game is very stale due to the ease with which UEF can gain air superiority so quickly. Many will argue that Aeon can get some research techs (shields and flares) that can overcome the disadvantage, but as a beginner, don't worry about that when going air. JUST PLAY UEF AIR WHEN STARTING OUT. And remember, playing air does not mean spamming gunships. It means starting out spamming fighters, and not stopping until you are sure you own the air. Now, on to the air man's mantra: *************** "If it flies, then it dies." ************* That's it. Period. End of story. That's what dictates your approach and decision-making when you are fulfilling the air role. Your primary goal is not to assist your teammates. Your primary goal is not to bomb incoming ACUs. Your primary goal is not to attack outlying mass points. Your ***PRIMARY*** role, as air man, is to utterly annihiliate any enemy unit that is capable of flight. Once you own the air, you must keep it that way. Unskilled opponents will continue to try making air units. You must kill these. (Or suffer the consequences for failing to do so.) A good opponent will know once he's lost the skies, and turn off his air facs. He then glumly hopes he can come up with a clever strategy before you come swooping in with your gunships, bombers, and air experimentals. Chances are, he won't. You also have an important secondary role: you are the eyes of your team. You are the scout. If something from an enemy comes at one of your opponents that they had no warning of, it's your fault. Aggresive air players will make an air factory as one of the first 3 bulidings that gets constructed, before power or extra mass points. Until you get better at the game, don't worry about this. Make your 8-9 mass points and 4 power gens. Then start making your 4 facs. Have them start making jets on repeat as soon as they are finished bulding. Use the first couple of planes to fly over enemy starting positions (and more importantly, slightly in-front of those positions) to see what your opponents are doing. As a beginner, this may not tell you much, but it will be CRUCIAL information for your more-experienced teammates. In fact, games can be won or lost just to scouting in the first two minutes. (I'm not kidding) Use the shift-click technique to queue up the movement of your initial planes (scouts). Planes will slow down drastically at your waypoints, so don't place waypoints near enemy bases. Generally, you want a long straight line to cross any area you're interested in checking out. This ensures your jets (scouts) fly over the likely-hostile area at max speed.

It is tempting to scout the 4 starting mass points of each enemy. What you actually want to do is scout the open areas immediately to the front of, and immediately behind the 4 points. This is where factories and important structures are made early in the game. On chokepoint / bridge maps, such as Setons Clutch, Van Horne, Boolon, and Iskellian coast - scout the main avenue of approach between your ally's and his main opponent's base. This "lane" is where tank rushes and ACU rushes will approach from. As air man, except for lone scouts, keep all your planes together. Keep your factory churning out fighters until you have killed everything that's flying, and you are sure your opponents are no longer producing flying units. Never engage in an air battle unless you can get a decisive victory. If at all possible, lure enemy air units into fighting over your ally's navy - ESPECIALLY uef cruisers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------VAX PRO TIP: Never focus fire on non-experimental air units with your air units. (Focus-fire means selecting an enemy air unit and issuing an order to ALL of your air units to attack it.) Instead, when you wish to engage in an air battle: 1. Make sure you stand a good chance to win it (numbers, friendly territory, or both) 2. Select all of your air units that you want involved. (All except scouts) 3. Tap the 'A' key, which should make your cursor turns red. 4. Click somewhere on the ground near enemy air units, and all of your air will rush in to kill whatever's in the area. This yields results 400-500% more effective in air battles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------Air units are finicky when it comes to movement. It takes them a while to switch directions. Get used to this. Also, air is extremely vulnerable to AA fire of any kind. Stay zoomed out and look for quick-moving yellow dots hitting your air - that's aa fire. Once you've gained air superiority ---------------------------------As a UEF air player, your wasps (jets) won't be able to attack anything that doesn't fly. As soon as you gain air superiority, you should generally consider making bombers, gunships, or air experimentals. This is because you have probably invested some of your research points into air technology already - so it's wise to make use of research points you've already spent, instead of heading down a different tech tree. As a UEF player who has gained air superiority, you have no excuse to lose the game. (Unless your teammates are collectively doing very poorly.) My favorite approach is to make ac1k terrors (uef minor air experimental) which are outstanding for sniping. If it's Supremacy, and not Assassination, you may need to tech for the late game. Air forts, mass conversion, arty, noah cannon - everything's an option. But don't lose that air advantage. Keep scouting, and keep radar on the enemy. A lone UEF cruiser with upgraded naval radar on a water map is an outstanding way to see if your opponent is trying to make "sneaky" air units in the back of the map. In any case, if you see grey triangles starting to come into play, one

of your enemies is trying to get back in the air game. Don't let that happen. Ever. Once you win air, it should stay won. A note for cybran and aeon air players: You have bomber capability as well as fighters. Don't get distracted bombing ground targets. Your primary mantra is still in effect: "If it flies, it dies." ONLY once you have eliminated any threat of enemy fighters should you focus your attention on bombing targets. Your primary targets are radars, sonars, and engineers you see that have wandered away from your enemy's base. Why these structures? Most can be killed by a single pass from only a few bombers They are almost always undefended They rarely have an engineer by to re-construct them quickly Killing outlying engineers is a FANTASTIC way to slow down your opponent's economy expansion. (Iron Commander is merciless with this strategy.) - Engineers, sonars, and radars are all intel-gathering instruments. (Engineers have radar). Eliminating enemy intel is ALWAYS a good thing. When you've taken out the easy targets mentioned above, mass points that are away from your enemy's base should be taken out next. More appropriately, *undefended* mass points should be taken out. Don't try to crack shields unless you have a LOT of bombers. (More than 25). Don't attack mass points near aa towers or factory aa. Remember - your next mission is to bomb UNDEFENDED mass points. The best part about all of this bombing? IT GETS YOU RESEARCH POINTS FROM COMBAT KILLS. In general, 4 air facs are the most that can be reliably kept running churning out air. A 5th is sometimes feasible for UEF, but for now, stick to 4 while you're learning. ----- Playing land as a beginner ----Ugh. This is tough to know about land probably 5-6 times much to know about to teach thoroughly to a beginner, as there's a lot play. In fact, I would argue that land play is as intricate as air or naval play - there's that it.

Let me give you some super-general advice that will help ensure you (hopefully) don't get steamrolled. - You want a total of 4-5 land facs pumping out tanks (or loyalists if you're cybran) - You want 9 mass points (10 on a few maps) and 4-6 power gens, no more. - If you are in close proximity to your opponent, you absolutely need two factories early, making units. Open Palms is a prime example of close quarters. - Generally speaking, you want at least one factory pumping units, if not two, by the time you finish your mass points and power. Move toward your opponent when you have at least 10 tanks. Send an engineer to make a forward radar that covers at least some of your opponent's base. (Remember, the guy across from you). You are looking for one thing and one thing only: grey diamonds. Those are enemy ground units. More importantly, look for grey diamonds super-imposed on grey squares. Those are ground

units being produced by factories. This tells you how many land factories you're up against. If there are more enemy units than you have, don't attack. Keep your units massing in the middle, knowing you'll eventually need to go to battle. If you are cybran or UEF, begin mixing in say 1 mobile artillery unit for every 3 tanks or loyalists you make. arty kills blobs. Do not engage point defense structures with only a few tanks. For every point defense turret you see, you want at least 7-8 tanks so as to not take a terrible beating. Double this figure for every PD you see under a factory shield. In other words, point defense means "stay away" to tanks. Make some mml from your factories, which out-range PD, and crush the PD with your mml. There is another scenario - you could be against a new or bad player who hasn't read this guide, and is spamming a bunch of grey squares. Those are structures. If they're very tightly packed, they're point defense and anti-air. If they're spaced a little bit apart, they are power generators. If they're pretty far apart, they're research stations. In any case, I want you to say the following letters: "M M L". Mobile missile launchers. Illuminate and UEF get them for no research cost, but cybran need to spend SIX research points total to get "cobras" (the cybran mml). One you have one or more mml, CAREFULLY move it close to enemy structures and begin bombardment. I highly recommend purchasing the land range upgrade if you are UEF or Aeon. This really helps keep your mmls from accidentally wandering into enemy PD range. If no enemy units (grey diamonds) approach, build more mml and attack more heavily. Generally keep SOME tanks / bots close to your missile forces to guard them in case something approaches. *** MML are virtually worthless against tanks. Do not over-spam them. *** The genral line of thought is that 8-10 mml is more than enough to do the job. If there are no enemy units (tanks, bots, etc.), and 8-10 mml can't crack his defenses, you need another approach. Also, move your mml back and build mostly structures also them. Those missile volleys quickly. So keep them moving forth every few seconds. Players who tend to build factories with missiles on from factories can wipe out your mmls the best you can.

Occasionally, you'll get close to a guy with mostly structures and then you'll suddenly see your units start to flash with light and start dying at a fairly brisk clip. This is because you are playing an aeon player, and they have activated what's affectionately known to the pros as "beamgen". For a total of 8 research points, all power generators for an aeon player can be converted into point-defenses. This costs 500 energy to activate per power generator, and the target can not be selected. This capability has a cool-down timer, so it must be used carefully. What this mainly means for you is that ***beam-gen outranges your mml. Pull them back.*** You'll need to revert to another strategy to take your turtling, structure-building friend out. (Tactical missile launchers, artillery, or even gunships, if your teammate has kept the skies safe.) Approach cybran bases very carefully with your land units. ALWAYS ATTACK CYBRAN BUILDINGS FROM THE MAXIMUM FIRING RANGE A UNIT HAS TO OFFER. Cybrans can purchase a tech called 'structure detonate'. This allows the cybran player to pick (almost) any of his buildings to

unleash a MASSIVE blast that will crush any ground units and gunships in the immediate vicinity. Yes, he will lose his building, but he'll take out a lot of your units in the process. (I once destoryed 100+ gunships by detonating a single factory!!) Most notably, cybran PD turrets, AA towers, research stations, and factories all have a nasty detonate blast. Approach with caution. Special tactis with Aeon: Remember, aeon land units can float on water. Many times the opponent lined up against you builds structures, and nothing but structures. Normally these players are a cakewalk to beat. But sometimes they build nasty structures, like point-defense and beam-gens. If you can, use the water to your advantage and march your troops AROUND their obstacles, and right into, say, an undefended naval player's base. This is the classic move on Seton's Clutch. UEF navy is exceptionally vulnerable to early aeon tank raids. If you are playing as Aeon on Setons Clutch, and you encounter an enemy "front man" (opponent in front slot) who's turtling with structures and NO UNITS, simply take your initial tank blob along the water and hit the beach. You'll either take out a navy, or frustrated the guy by the beach because he wasn't expecting to have to defend against land so early. (He will be VERY mad at his front man!!) As a land player, you want to push and push hard - as hard as you can. Don't stop pushing until an enemy makes you stop. Focus on wiping out one player at a time, starting with the guy you lined up across from. You may see other land players move their ACU to the front as part of their land play. This is an advanced style of play that requires decision-making experience that you don't have yet, so don't try it right away. Rely on your teammates to kill things that fly. If you find yourself having to build more than 1-2 rare aa towers, your teammate is not doing his job as air man, OR, he just got overwhelmed. In either situation, it's best to retreat, turn off your land factories (if there's no land threat), and consider teching up to something more powerful, or trying to help your teammate out with the air situation. Some experienced players will say to just spam mobile aa units from your factories. I don't recommend this approach because: - You're new, and this takes experience - It's less mass that you get to spend on structure-killing and tank-killing units - Mobile aa takes awhile to build and takes even longer to get it where you need it - Enemy air can just run away from it - You shouldn't HAVE to make mobile aa in team games. Your air man should be doing his job If you are fortunate enough to make it to your enemy's base unhindered by his land units, you will begin racking up research by killing buildings. Use this to further upgrade your land units, preferrably toward a land experimental such as megalith or fatboys. If you are Illuminate, do not bother with the urchinaw or willfindja - they both suck. Instead, tech to the teleport technology which lets your land units jump as a group, instantaneously, to another spot nearby on the map. This lets you keep up with faster units, ambush enemy ACUs, or get around pesky point-defence walls. (But then again, you have mml for the point defence, right?)

--- Important tip for moving groups of units of any type --One of the most annoying aspects of SupCom2 is that when you have a group of units selected, and issue a move-order, they attempt to get into formation first, and then move. This has horrible implications if you have selected units that are far apart on the map. It can actually cause units to move in the OPPOSITE direction in which you order them. In general, it is a very good habit, to use shift-click frequently. This tells the units to move to the location you specify, REGARDLESS of where they're at, and it tells them to not get into formation.