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The Most Beautiful game: How Supreme Commander Stole My Heart

anarchonomicon.substack.com

An intensive deep dive into what remain the Pinnacle of the real time strategy genre, and why I believe it might just be the greatest spectator game every created and most strategically interesting game that currently has an active community.

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Haha, I've had a copy of Supreme Commander for damn near a decade now but haven't even started it up.

Just waiting for someone to learn it with, but yeah, I was initially daunted by the apparent complexity of it.

What you appear to be saying here is that all the complexity ALSO means that there's potential for immense chaos which ensures that there isn't necessarily a dominant strategy/meta as it allows for players to try many, many unexpected tactics.

Which sounds cool, since it does get us closer to a the reality of warfare where the actual chaotic nature of it tends to overwhelm strategy.

Keeping it balanced is a question of it's own, but any game that gives the players the ability to generate surprises even against the most experienced of opponents is alright in my book.

Sins of a Solar Empire is more my jam, I actually LIKE the massive tech trees forcing commanders to choose a path early on which will dictate how they fight for most of the match, and the availability of options for gaining the lead and victory without directly fighting. And if you make it to the highest tiers on the tech tree the galaxy-brained anime strats do start to open up.

But sometimes you just want to go in and have a grand olde brawl with no holds barred and all the competitors juiced to the gills on cocaine, steroids, and bull shark testosterone, and see what happens.

Any tips for getting started with Sins? I’m a big Supcom fan, and I love a lot of things about Sins, but I lose hard to low-level AI. I can’t tell if it’s more an eco or combat thing.

As a side note, Supcom waffles on specialization. You can build everything in one match, sure. IMO the most iconic feature of its multiplayer, huge team battles, benefits from specializing. 4v4 on Seton’s Clutch is probably the most-played example. That map effectively has four quadrants, two land and two sea, connected by a spindly land bridge. On each team, the closest player to the bridge generally builds tanks and rolls forward, while the furthest one tries to get air superiority. The two players near each coast go for a little more flexibility.

It’s a great game, especially if you use the Forged Alliance Forever version. Just held back by UX and technical clunkiness. There’s still nothing quite like it.

Like @faceh said, combat in Sins is very much about fleet comp and not micro (one of the best things about the game, imo). If you are losing to low level AI, most likely you aren't expanding enough so the AI has a better economy than you. Early on you basically want enough military to keep pirate raids from wrecking you (over time you get a feel for how much this is), and otherwise build up your territory and economy. I only ever played single player, so I'm not sure how it goes in MP (if indeed that is still a thing).