Sumário

Supreme Commander 2 Beginner Guide ....................................................... 2

Reconnaissance Guide .............................................................................. 3

Raiding .......................................................................................................... 9

Units Overview .............................................................................................. 9

Cybran ....................................................................................................... 9

Illuminate ................................................................................................. 10

UEF ......................................................................................................... 11

Build Orders ................................................................................................ 12

Balanced Land Build Order ...................................................................... 12

Air Focus Build Order ............................................................................... 13

Tech Tree .................................................................................................... 13

Tip of the Week 1 - Area of Effect ................................................................ 15

Tip of the Week 3 - Reclaim and Repair ...................................................... 18

Reclaim and Repair ................................................................................. 18

Repairing your units ................................................................................. 19

Reclaiming ............................................................................................... 19

Tip of the Weekv #6 - Cheaper, Faster Buildings. ........................................ 19

Tip of the Week #5 - Micro........................................................................... 22

Intermediate: ................................................................................................... 24

Advanced: ....................................................................................................... 26
***WARNING: CONTAINS A EXTREME AMOUNT OF READING MATERIAL***

We proudly present a list of all the knowledge you need in order to succeed in
Supreme Commander 2 on the casual or competitive level.

BEGINNER:

If you are brand new to the game, first thing you should do is check out
our Beginner Guide. Written by Hells Hound.

Now that you're familiar with all the sticks and stones of each factions arsenal,
you might want gather some more basic information about the game. You might
want to check out some information about Area of Effect. This guide was written
by Togra and gives you a lot of basic information about units that have "Area of
Effect" attacks and abilities.

You might also want to check out some basic information about how to Reclaim
and Repair, written by Emblis.

Here's a short guide by HoT Ho11oW PoiNT on Building Structures on Wrecks.

This is invaluable tip that will prove to be most useful in any situation, unless you
manage to keep your buildings intact.

Next up you might to check out a couple of guides by Avison. The first one being
a guide on Reconnaissance. The Reconnaissance guide covers basic intel
gathering structures and units as well as additional information regarding radar
symbols and other statistics. The other guide is a Micro guide. This guide teaches
basic micro management and certain commands that will make your life easier.

SUPREME COMMANDER 2 BEGINNER GUIDE

By HellsHound - 10th May 2010 - 18:34 PM

You’ve just started and you are confronted by your commander and two engineers. What to
do? Should you make two factories and go for a large land boom? Two minutes later you run
out of resources and your opponent rolls over you. Oh damn, you forgot your mass extractors
and power generators.

Now the question is how many to build? Most players start with 4 mass extractors (The
commander builds 2 while the engineers build one each) and this is then followed by 2 power
generators. This gives you a reasonably stable economy which can support 2/3 factories. As
the need arises you should remember to expand to other mass extraction points and make
more power generators as it becomes necessary.

SCOUTING

Early on in the game it is important to know what your opponent is doing. Often enough you
will hear that someone was sniped by gunships or they lost map control because they did not
realize their opponent was using air.

If you scout, the chances of this happening are lowered quite a bit. Scouting is pretty simple.
If you have air, sacrifice one fighter to get a look at what your opponent is building.

If you do not have air, chose a number of sacrificial units (4 or so) and send them on a
roundabout route to your opponent’s base. They likely hood of them surviving is pretty low,
but by seeing what takes them out and what buildings your opponent has will allow you to
know what tactic he is using. This will allow you to counter appropriately.

Another idea here is to build forward radar. This will allow a number of things mainly – you
will see what and where your opponent is moving. Also, air and land units have different shapes
on the mini-map (or strategical zoom) and give you warning as to whether or not he is going
land or air.

Reconnaissance Guide
By Avison - 2nd April 2010 - 19:33 PM

Supreme Commander 2 is a game like none other - except for Supreme Commander 1. It’s
the rebirth of ‘strategy’ in the real-time strategy genre. And with any decent strategy comes
planning and execution, however, you can’t plan for the unknown and one strategy doesn’t fit
all. You need to know what your enemy is doing to plan accordingly. Sadly (and to my benefit),
a great deal of players online have yet to realize this. So, against the will (and death threats!)
of all the informed members of the SupCom2 community I bring you the reconnaissance guide.
Pros, don’t go yet, some of these details may have slipped past you while you were out there
winning assassination games all day.

In Supreme Commander 2 there are two real types of reconnaissance information you can
collect from your opponents; Radar and visual confirmation. Unless you count somebody
accidentally letting a plan slip because they weren’t in team chat, you know who you are.

Radar
This is your primary source of intel in most games. Radar emits a concentric circle from a unit
or a radar installation. It is denoted by a thick blue circle at the perimeter of the detection
range. Enemy units that pass within your radar circles will be identified as grey symbols
denoting their type as such:

Buildings

Aircraft

Ground Unit

Submerged Naval Unit

Surfaced Naval Unit or Boat

Experimental Unit

Note: Regular and major experimentals will be differentiated in game by the size of the circle,
with major experimentals being a much larger circle.

There are two ways to acquire a radar field. Every unit has a radar field of a certain range and
some are much larger than others. Traditionally, the longer the range of the unit the larger its
radar field. You can also build radar installations which have significantly large radar ranges.
Construction facilities can also have radar antenna installed which have a smaller range but
are dirt cheap. I highly recommend purchasing the radar upgrade for most of your facilities
and especially forward bases.

Factory Radar Add-On

Cybran
Radar Range: 44

Cybran players suffer slightly in the radar department for their add-on compared to the other
two factions.

UEF

Radar Range: 75

UEF players get the same default range as an Illuminate player and a greater range than that
of the Cybrans.

Illuminate

Radar Range: 75
Illuminate players have the same default range on their add-on as UEF players and a greater
range than that of Cybrans.

Radar Facilities

Radar facilities have a substantially greater output for radar than any other structure or unit
in the game. Building them offers sweeping intel over broad ranges. You should build at least
one to monitor enemy movements.

Cybran

Radar Range: 210

All three factions are tied for radar facility range.

UEF
Radar Range: 210

All three factions are tied for radar facility range.

Illuminate

Radar Range: 210

Ability Radar Range: Roughly 420

The Illuminate player has the same default range of 210 except they gain a unique ability,
through research, to temporarily extend their range. When active their radar installation
roughly doubles its range and covers the entirety of most maps.

Visual Confirmation
While you may know through radar from an installation or unit what class the enemy is (air,
land, sea, or experimental) you won’t be able to know what the unit or structure is specifically.
The only way to remedy this is to get a unit within visual range. Everything has a visual range
and a radar range. When something is in visual range you can literally see it and its model.
The visual range of a unit is denoted by the brighter area surrounding your unit. After making
visual identification on a building or unit the detected object will permanently be identified for
the remainder of its existence with a special symbol. These symbols are numerous and one
exists for every unit and it will do you good in the long run to remember some of the common
ones. Anything confirmed visually will also permanently show you the detected unit's
controlling player's color. The best units for this job are air fighters and fighter/bomber hybrids.

Fighters and Fighter/Bomber Hybrids

These high speed aerial craft form the basis of any good recon patrol.

Cybran

Vision Range: 32
Radar Range: 60
Speed: 8-15
Turning Speed: 1.5

This fighter bomber hybrid is the Cybran player's best choice for fast adaptable reconnaissance.
Its high speed and ability to fly over all terrain makes it without a doubt their best choice.

UEF
Vision Range: 32
Radar Range: 60
Speed: 8-15
Turning Speed: 1.5

This UEF fighter has identical statistics to the Cybran and Illuminate fighters and
fighter/bombers. The difference here is that as a pure fighter the AI directing the fighter is
more prone to flying in straight lines and reaching its maximum speed of 15 much more
frequently. This offers UEF a slight advantage in speed of reconnaissance.

Illuminate

Vision Range: 32
Radar Range: 60
Speed: 8-15
Turning Speed: 1.5

This Illuminate hybrid has identical statistics to the Cybran hybrid. Its only advantage is that
with shields it can often penetrate slightly deeper into an enemies anti-air defence.
Disturbingly enough, all fighter/bomber hybrids and the UEF pure fighter have the same aerial
mechanics. They all travel at a speed of 8-15 and have a visual range of 32 and a radar range
of 60. Although the UEF fighter is slightly more apt at reaching a speed of 15 they all are
roughly identical and perform the same function more or less equally.

A lot of new players wonder why every so often a fighter will fly by their base or get shot down
in their base. The RTS newbie thinks “Did they really think that would be enough?” The truth
behind these events is that a player is scouting your base.

A good player will have a few fast units patrolling his base, around his base, and by and through
the enemy base. You can queue movement orders (and any other order) by holding the left or
right shift key and right clicking. The units selected will follow those commands in the order
you issued them. The planned route will be visible as a blue path. You can also click and drag
on the individual way-points on the path while holding shift and drag the flight path into a
different shape later.
“Am I doing it right?”

Armored Command Units

ACUs provide defendable forward bases with decent radar ranges. A lot of players prefer to
have their commander near the front lines providing intel, firepower, and support of all kinds.
They have a radar range comparable to factory add-ons.

Cybran

Health: 20,000
Regeneration Rate: 24 HP every second
Vision Range: 30
Radar Range: 60
Water Vision Range: 30

UEF

Health: 20,000
Regeneration Rate: 24 HP every second
Vision Range: 30
Radar Range: 60
Water Vision Range: 30

Illuminate

Health: 20,000
Regeneration Rate: 24 HP every second
Vision Range: 30
Radar Range: 60
Water Vision Range: 30
It is very important to know what your opponents are doing at all times. You need to be
prepared for his dropship rush, turtling, experimental research rush, mass tanks, or incoming
naval armada and counter appropriately. Knowing what you’re doing, what your opponent is
doing, and what you’re doing about your opponent should be the most important thought
riddling your brain during a game of Supreme Commander 2.

RAIDING

An important part of this game is keeping your opponent on the back foot. A good
raid will hit the opponent where he does not expect it and take out important
buildings (IE – Mass extractors; Research stations and factories). This will force
your opponent to go onto the defensive which will then let you control the pace of
the game and also give you a large advantage.

When raiding make sure that you do not lose too much of your force as if you do,
this could leave you open to a pretty decisive counter attack by your enemy.
Always think what your opponent could do to you.

Raiding can also allow you to scout your enemy as they will react with their land
units or if they have air and if they do not you should be able to view their base
and take out expansion points as you raiders move on.

UNITS OVERVIEW

Cybran

Land Units
Loyalist – Fast assault bot that is well suited to raiding and normally has a high rate of fire.

Can be research to get shields and jump packs.

Brackman – Mobile artillery unit that has a large area of effect and is devastating in large

masses against large clumps of units. Can be research to get shields and jump packs.

Cobra - A mobile missile launcher that is well suited to destroying buildings and point defense
turrets. Needs to be researched to be unlocked. Can be research to get shields and jump packs.

AVD – A multipurpose shield/anti-air/tactical missile defense this is one of the most useful

units that Cybran can get. Needs to be researched to be unlocked. Can be research to get
jump packs.

Air Units

Gemini Fighter bomber – A versatile air unit capable of attacking both land and air targets.

Can be upgraded to have shields.

Renegade Gunship – A powerful ground attack air unit that is very useful against ACU’s and

other land units. Needs to be researched. Can be upgraded to receive shields and becomes
the most powerful with upgrades.

Illuminate

Land Units (also function as the factions navy)

Yenzoo – A powerful tank that can hover. This allows it to out flank and makes it very
versatile. Can be upgraded to have shields and to be able to teleport.

Crashdown – The Illuminates mobile anti-air unit. Can be upgraded to have shields and
teleport.

Fistoosh - A mobile missile launcher that is well suited to destroying buildings and point
defense turrets. Can be upgraded to have shields and to be able to teleport.

Bodaboom – A very interesting unit that buffs all units around it and gives them more hit
points and increases their regeneration by a large amount. Must be research to obtain. Can
be upgraded to have shields and to be able to teleport.

Sliptack – Mobile tactical missile defense. Can be upgraded to have shields and to be able to
teleport.

Harvog – A light assault bot that is both fast and good at raiding. Can be upgraded to have
shields and to be able to teleport. The Harvog can also receive an anti-air upgrade.

Air Units

Weedooboth - A versatile air unit capable of attacking both land and air targets. Can be
upgraded to have shields and a flare to defend it against anti-air attacks.

Vulthoo – A powerful ground attack air unit that is very useful against ACU’s and other land
units. Can be upgraded to have shields and a flare to defend it against anti-air attacks.

UEF

Land Units

Rockhead – A very solid ground unit that has a large amount of hit points but is slow. Can be
upgraded to have shields, anti-air and an extra barrel.

Demolisher – A powerful artillery unit with area of effect as its projectile splits into 5 different
parts before impact. Becomes the most powerful artillery in the late game. Can be upgraded
to have shields, anti-air and an extra barrel.

Titan – A light assault bot that is not often used. Has a higher damage per second than a

Rockhead but is weaker. Can be upgraded to get shields.

Meteor - A mobile missile launcher that is well suited to destroying buildings and point defense
turrets. Can be upgraded to get shields.

Archanist – A useful anti-air unit. Can be upgraded to get a direct fire gun and shields.

P-Shield – A useful unit that provides shields to the UEF.

Sharp Shooter – An anti tactical missile unit. Can be upgraded to have shields.

Air Units

Wasp – A cheap air superiority fighter than can easily be mass produced. Can be upgraded to
have shields.

Eagle Eye – A point attack bomber that causes damaged to happen over a period of time. Can
be upgraded to have area of effect and shields.

Broadsword – A powerful ground attack air unit that is very useful against ACU’s and other

land units. Can be upgraded to have shields.

BUILD ORDERS
There are a number of build orders in this game, some of them are aggressive while others
are passive. There are ones that focus on units and others that focus on research points.

A very useful tip here is to hold in shift when you are giving a unit orders/ build orders. This
will allow you to queue multiple buildings (destination points) and not make the building of
your base very stop and start.

The following are 3 basic build orders to guide you in your game.

Focused Land Build Order

All these build orders are built with both engineers and your ACU simultaneously.

QUOTE
2 Mass Extractors – ACU
1 Mass Extractor – Engineer
1 Mass Extractor – Engineer

QUOTE
2 Power Generators - ACU
1 Mass Extractor – Engineer
1 Factory – Engineer

QUOTE
2 Factories – Commander
1 Radar (forward) - Engineer

Balanced Land Build Order

All these build orders are built with both engineers and your ACU simultaneously.

QUOTE
2 Mass Extractors – ACU
1 Mass Extractor – Engineer
1 Mass Extractor – Engineer

QUOTE
1 Power Generators – Engineer
1 Power Generator – Engineer
1 Land Factory - ACU

QUOTE
1 Mass Extractor - Engineer
1 Research Station – ACU
1 Land Factory - Engineer

Air Focus Build Order

The only build order here that is built simultaneously is the first one**

QUOTE
2 Mass Extractors – ACU
1 Mass Extractor – Engineer
1 Mass Extractor – Engineer**

QUOTE
3 Power Generators – Engineer
1 Mass Extractor – Engineer
1 Air Factory – ACU

QUOTE
1 Mass Extractor – Engineer
1 Air Factory or Research Station – ACU
1 Air Factory - Engineer

TECH TREE
One of the key components in Supreme Commander 2 is knowing and understanding how,
when and what the best research for the current situation is. Do you play defensively and
upgrade your buildings or are you playing an offensively in which case you must upgrade
your land units.

You gain Research Points by destroying enemy units and buildings or by building research
stations. This allows you to (as said earlier) upgrade your units to you liking. As units are
upgraded, they become more powerful and more durable. After upgrades the versatility
or mobility of the unit is increased as this replay illustrates.

If you enjoy or found the replay interesting, Ridley requests that you wub it.

As we can see Ridley uses his Archanists to first stop the enemies air units and then
upgrades them to direct fire and takes Mephisto down.

Also to note, the more research stations you have, the faster you gain research points, but
there must be a balance as you can have the most powerful units, but they will not be able
to stop a lot of basic research units.

RADAR
One of the key points in Supreme Commander 2 is knowing what your opponent is doing.
This will allow you to in turn counter him and normally come out on top. One of the most
useful tools for achieving this is a radar.

All the factions get the same radar with slightly different upgrade researches for them. This
allows you to view what is going on in a large radius around the radar. You do not see what
the unit is, but you do see gray unit icons moving.

It is often good to zoom out to see all of what your radar can see.

For the sea you do not get a radar, but a sonar. UEF and Cybran have this, but the
Illuminate does not as they do not have a dedicated navy.

STRATEGIC ZOOM
One of the innovative concepts started by Chris Taylor is the strategic zoom. It allows you to
go from a very close up view of a single unit to viewing the entire map instantly.

This is a very useful tool as it allows you to control multiple units in numerous places. To
become good at the game, it is important to learn and understand how this works.

YOUR FIRST GAME

You’re sitting in front of your computer, looking at the screen. You decide to play a game of
Supreme Commander 2 online. Remember to apply what you learn about the economy, start
off with 4 Mass Extractors and 2 Power Generators. Now what? Construct two factories and
start producing units. Now send your 2 Engineers to go and claim nearby mass points so that
your economy becomes stronger and build a forward radar.

After this you have gotten through the start up and you should be able to see most of what
is around your base on the radar. Now you have numerous choices such as building a
research station or more factories. This will depend on your style of play. If you are
aggressive, more factories is the way to go. If you want to play a balanced game, then the
research station is the way to go.

Both have their pros and cons and it’s for you to decide how to play from here.

OUTRO
This guide covers a large number of basics in Supreme Commander 2. There is no guide that
will be able to teach you what pure experience can. Therefore I recommend that you play as
many games of Supreme Commander 2 as possible and this will allow you to improve your
game and have fun at the same time.

Just to sum up the key points:

Remember your economy. A strong and balanced economy is normally the key to success in
this game.

A large standing army is useful, but it is only as useful as what it does. Use your units wisely
and do not throw them away for no gain.

Protect your commander, take the safe route with him and don’t risk losing for a moments
lapse in concentration.
Research points are a very important component is the game as they can allow you to
control the tempo of the game and force your opponent to react to you.

Other than that, good luck out there commanders!

TIP OF THE WEEK 1 - AREA OF EFFECT

By Togra - 24th March 2010 - 20:19 PM

In this Tip of the Week we'll give you an overview of the biggest area of effect weapons.
Despite what some folks try to tell you Supreme Commander 2 is still a game about massive
armies. Huge land swarms, transported or not, are often key to victory yet the means to kill
these overwhelming legions of death isn't always that apparent. Massing plenty of troops of
your own is one counter and currently still the most reliable method but there are other means
to trickle down the unit count of an attacking ground force, like making full use of splash
damage.

Compared to SupCom we don't have walls anymore to lure our foes into a single spot or firing
line but on the other hand we mostly don't need to concern ourselves about friendly fire either.

Bombers
The Cluster Bomb upgrade for UEF's Eagle Eye bomber plane and the Persistent Scorch Bomb
technology for the Illuminate Fighter/Bomber makes the bombs of these airplanes at least
somewhat useful again. The area damage radius isn’t huge as you’re basically just hitting the
units surrounding the targeted unit as well but it's a lot better than the single-unit hits these
bombers make before these techs are researched.

Mobile Artillery
When you're playing as Cybran or UEF then mobile artillery can be a devastating sight to
behold, their damage isn't that great at first yet they remain one of the best at hitting multiple
ground units at once with their wide area damage radius. Their shots don’t really track targets
but the slow movement speed of land units almost guarantees certain hits every time.
Stationary Artillery
Most players might guff at advancing the Structure research tree in smaller games but the UEF
and Cybran Long Range Artillery turrets shouldn't be underestimated. Even when they're not
always accurate these defensive buildings often succeed in hitting moving swarms because of
a pretty high firing rate. Manual targeting with Paint Attack (keep on right-clicking your mouse
a bit longer on enemy units) is a must here.

Long Range Artillery is a big investment for Cybrans while UEF has quick access to Fortified
Artillery (of which the range can be upgraded) alongside later heavy hitters like the Long Range
Artillery and the Disruptor Cannon.

Kamikaze
A tactic preserved solely for Cybran forces and buildings. Add the jumpjets of Cybran land
units into the mix and you’ve got true death from the air. They’ll have to land in the middle of
an enemy swarm to be effective of course. Buildings are even more destructive but the trick
here is to activate the Detonate ability at the right time. In any case you’re always giving away
your own resources and nobody likes to sacrifice fully upgraded factories of course but at least
you can drag down several attackers along with you in a spectacular way.

Missiles
Euh... get rid of the mindset they even do splash damage because most of the time they don't.
About the only missiles worth a damn in this regard are the ones attached to certain
experimentals but even there their function is secondary and they certainly won’t save
experimentals against land swarms.

Experimentals
King Kriptor with dual Gauss Cannons, the Darkenoid with its huge beam and the
Cybranosaurus Rex with a fiery fire breath... several experimentals can pack a punch against
land swarms although with the current balance they’re never going to be cost-effective against
them. The ideas and weapon concept are certainly there to vanquish huge armies at once so
keep an eye on these experimentals once GPG will hopefully implement balance changes.

One odd exception is the Cybran Bomb Bouncer which simply kills air swarms outright and
does lesser damage against ground targets.

Nukes
While these are often excluded from most (competitive) games they can prove useful against
huge streams of land units. Just like in SupCom there isn’t a mobile anti-nuke unit present in
the game. Of course it’s never going to be easy to target moving targets with such a slow
firing rate but it’s the most destructive area wide weapon system available in the game, only
not always the most efficient.

Armored Command Unit (ACU)

With enough upgrades ACUs can transform to deadly opponents which can take on major
experimentals and even large unit swarms. To deal with the latter any ACU can unlock an
Overcharge Cannon but the energy cost is pretty hefty with each shot. Other and cheaper
specific upgrades can help your commander unit against multiple ground units: the UEF can
install an artillery cannon on their ACU's shoulder, the Cybran ACU has a very effective Nano
Bot weapon to counter large swarms and the Illuminate ACU... well, it has its Overcharge
Cannon just like the rest. Its Rogue Nanites upgrade only allows it to produce a single target
kamikaze 'unit' which has no splash damage.
Death Crashes
In the end there is a single art left to master and that is to time the death of your flying
experimentals in such a way that they fall right on top of several enemy units. The death crash
explosions of Giant Transports, Darkenoids, Soul Ripper IIs, Mega Fortresses and Sky King
Extremes do massive damage (comparable to detonated Cybran factories) and the radius isn’t
too shabby, especially for the Mega Fortress and the Darkenoid. One important caveat here
though: death damage always counts as friendly fire too so watch out where you try to drop
these gigantic flying machines.

TIP OF THE WEEK 3 - RECLAIM AND REPAIR

By Emblis - 16th April 2010 - 14:19 PM

Reclaim and Repair

Reclaim and repair are two very important things to do in order to have your resources rolling
and your units shooting. In this short guide, I will cover the basics and explain why it is
important.
Repairing your units

In the original Supreme Commander, repairing cost mass and energy. However, in Supreme
Commander 2 its free. After your units return from a fight, they are most likely pouring out
black smoke and will not even be able to take one more hit before they go down. By repairing,
you keep your units on the field longer, allowing them to bring down more firepower on your
enemies, resulting in a higher chance for you to win.

Repairing is easy; all you need is your ACU or an engineer. You can manually set them to
repair if you want to, but it is easier to just tell your ACU or engineer to stand in the middle of
the group and they will automatically repair all units within range. If you have a larger army,
set it to patrol in a sick sack pattern in your army.

Repairing can also be as a powerful defensive tool. If your enemies managed in sneaking a
group of tanks into your base and try to focus down your mass extractors, you can have your
ACU or engineer repairing them while your own troops bring down hurt upon the invaders.

QUOTE(Tip)

You can repair your ACU with an engineer to get him back into the fray, or save him from an
assassination attempt. Just remember that you ACU needs to stand still in order for the
engineer to do it, its hard to repair something that moves away from you.

Reclaiming

Reclaiming is similar; you just do it dead units and buildings. When you reclaim a wretch you
retrieve a portion of the mass needed to build it. The more mass required to build it, the more
you gain from reclaiming it. Much like repairing, your engineers will automatically reclaim
nearby wretches if they aren’t doing anything else. Your ACU will not do that however, lazy
bastard. You have to manually instruct him to reclaim or set him to patrol if you want him to
work. I usually go with the idea that all your mass extractors keep your factories running and
all mass reclaimed is used to expand your economy or production.

TIP OF THE WEEKV #6 - CHEAPER, FASTER BUILDINGS.

By HoT Ho11oW PoiNT - 30th September 2010 - 04:09 AM

Rebuilding a new structure on the same wreckage as what was there before means you will
get the structure in half the time, at half the cost.
To tell if you are lined up over the wreckage properly to recieve your rebate, the box
surrounding your building while trying to place it will turn blue. You will have to pay full price
for the building when you queue it, but when it starts to build, if the wreckage still exists, you
will recieve half of the resources spent on it back. This is especially useful when you consider
the cost of experimental buildings. In addition, the building will start construction at half-
health, meaning you build it in half the time, with less danger of it being destroyed in the first
seconds of building.

You can use this on either you own structures that have been destroyed, or enemy structures
if they are the same faction as you. Sending your ACU or an Engineer with your attack force
will allow you to reclaim enemy wrecks so they can not take advantage of this awesome
feature.

It should be noted that the amount of rebated time/resources on your structure is proportional
to the amount of damage it has sustained since dying (wrecks have a health point level).
Reclaiming wrecks 'damages' them.
Oh no my enemy destroyed a building!

Now I need to rebuild it, but not quite here (it is still green!)
That is better, a blue box means I get to recycle!

Special thanks to TheWord for the pictures.

TIP OF THE WEEK #5 - MICRO

By Avison - 12th May 2010 - 19:48 PM

This week basic micro-management techniques are brought to the table. Quick management
of your units in several ways can turn a battle against the odds to a battle where you beat the
odds.

The flavor of this weeks tip is simple but ultimately overlooked by new players and experienced
players too troubled to take minute control in large scale combat. Using these simple tips you
can drastically increase the efficiency of your forces.
The idea for this image wasn't at all stolen from Texonater's tip of the week. Really.

Movement:
One of the most important ways people micro their units is to keep them moving in combat.
Most units don't have any trouble tracking targets while moving but targets have trouble
tracking them. When engaging units that fire slow powerful projectiles like missiles and artillery
moving units will have the upper hand by being able to either dodge the attack completely or
by dodging a direct hit and taking a fraction of the damage. If an equally sized group of moving
units fights the same composition and number of enemy units that aren't moving, victory will
be yours.

To sum it up: Keep your units moving when in combat. Moving tanks are harder to get direct
hits on from bombers, artillery and missiles. At far enough distances a moving unit can even
dodge direct fire projectiles.

Flight Paths:
This is one aspect of micro I see ignored even by high level players. When taking in a group
of bombers for a bombing run make sure you don't simply right click on the enemy target you
wish to bomb. Make a flight path by holding shift than clicking on your target, than clicking in
a direction that continues straight ahead and plan a path that brings the bombers back about
in a logical and planned fashion for their next attack run. This way your bombers never make
slow jerking movements over a hostile area and maintain their maximum flight speed; by
doing this you will make your bombers harder to hit and get more bombs in and may even
confuse your enemy.

Patrol Paths:
By clicking the patrol icon from the unit menu you will be able to set a patrol path. As discussed
in the recon guide (link to it) patrol paths have many uses. You can have engineers patrolling
your base making constant repairs, have a reconnaissance patrol making sweeps of the map,
and keep units properly dispersed around your base in case of attack.
 This is the fabled patrol path icon.

This is the unit menu. I think you can figure out where I got the patrol path icon from. Yea
that probably wasn't the best idea...

One thing I didn't mention in the Recon Guide is that by setting a patrol patch in a hostile
base or combat situation you can keep your units moving and engaging any targets within
weapons range as long as they've been marked (sighted visually or by radar).

Construction Waypoints:
When issuing a move order to a factory you will instead place a construction waypoint, this is
because factories can't move. Mobile factories, like superunits, have a construction waypoint
button in the unit menu, as do regular factories. Using this you can gather units in specific
places upon construction. Another feature of this is the ability to place a waypoint in a
transport carrier or other transport, the constructed units will automatically board the
transport after construction.

There are many other types of micro for players to find and master as well. Making sure your
units are always operating at their peak of efficiency puts you miles ahead of your
competition. Avi out

INTERMEDIATE:

First thing you might want to check out is Destro's Ultimate Guide to Build
Orders. It is pretty much what the name implies. This guide is a collection of very
safe and solid build orders. Written by none other then Destro, also known as
Destroyer224.
Next thing you might want to check is a clever guide on Mind Games. Written by
Hells Hound, the author of the beginner guide. This guide helps you overcome
the psychological implications of competitive play.

Commander rushing. A lot of players struggle with countering this powerful

strategy that involves a very aggressive push with your ACU while constantly
upgrading it, attempting to access the ACU's deadliest ability early on, the
Overcharge. Don't worry, we have a guide on Countering an ACU Rush by The
Baron. This guide will assist you with how to defend against the infamous ACU
rush.

The Baron has also started a series of map guides that feature some of the most
viable and solid strategies for each map. The first entry into the series is Spring
Duel. The second entry in the series is Open Palms. The third entry is for Markon
Bridge. The fourth entry is for Coalition Shipyard. The fifth entry is
for Desolatia.

Here's a guide on the nasty little critters known as Nanites. This is a Illuminate
ACU ability that can be used to cause damage but is more commonly used to
heal the Illuminate ACU in a tight spot. Written by Texonater.
ADVANCED:

The first thing you might want to check out are a couple of video tutorials by
Nephylim. First one is a Video Tutorial on Land Army Micro and the second
one coversMicroing Air Units. Make sure you check his YouTube page for more
Supreme Commander 2 content.

The second guide feature here is Sovietpride's Guide to Supreme

Commander 2. This is a guide by SovietPride. It is a extremely large and detailed
guide that features everything from strategies and tactics that are of the utmost
importance to things you would never have though of.

You might want to read a detailed guide on build openings by redarrow7216.

This guide focuses on build orders on mainly Open Palms and offers a detailed
description of what to do against your opponents.

Next up is a series of guides by TheWord on how to improve your game with

Cybran. The first in the series is How To Fail Less With Cybran. This guide is
quickly followed by part 1 and part 2 of TheWord's Guide to Cybran Units. Part
1 gives you in depth information regarding Cybran structures and essential
upgrades while part 2 gives you information about Cybran air units. Be sure to
check out TheWord's Guide For Structure Placement as well.

The Baron has also made a detailed guide on the UEF.

Next up is UncertainCat's Guide on Ground Firing. Proper use of Ground Fire

will improve your game quite a bit.

Next up is a guide on the Science of Shields by Bastilean.

Further learning tools:

GameReplays SupCom2 YouTube Page.

Further questions you might have can be answered in this topic by
GameReplays Strategy Specialists.

Good hunting out there commander! You're dismissed.