So my friends are getting home from law school and they're switching from TA to Supcom 2, so I made a guide. I'm also linking the excellent micro and BO guides made recently.
Did I miss anything? I know some of this is opinion and it's not in the best order, but meh. It's more of a resource/FAQ than anything.
==A TA Player's Guide to Supreme Commander 2=
By Austin "Xagar" Marney
December 2010
I. Theory
Factions
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UEF
* Asthetics: Somewhat blocky, solid "human-style" look. Blue-grey finish. Shots are generally cannons or missiles.
* Advantages: Best air due to specialization and lategame research. Best sea due to submarines and powerful battleship. Good minor experimentals (Fatboy, AC-1000).
* Disadvantages: Poor ACU tree, land is expensive to upgrade.
Cybran
* Asthetics: Pointy, lots of triangles. "Robot-style" look. Matte black and red finish. Shots are generally red lasers and projectiles.
* Advantages: Best structure tree, most offensively powerful ACU, best turtling and lategame. Good minor experimentals (Megalith, Cicada). Best major experimentals (Magnetron, Bomb Bouncer, Monkeylord). Best mobile AA (Adaptor). Good navy, as they can come inland to secure the win once you've won on the sea.
* Disadvantages: Poor land. Lack of a tank and range upgrade make them fragile at best against other factions early on. Poor fighters, as they have neither the specialization of UEF nor the powerful research of Aeon.
Aeon (technically Illuminate but everyone just calls it Aeon)
* Asthetics: Rounded, smooth, glowing "alien-style" look. Bright shiny white finish. Shots are generally blue projectiles.
* Advantages: Best land. Powerful research at the beginning and end of the tree, along with Shotjas which are arguably better than their equivalent in other factions. Air can be extremely powerful against opponents not going air if upgraded. ACU tree has excellent survivability and resource upgrades.
* Disadvantages: Poor experimentals in general, limited ability to break turtles. Naval battles are difficult to win before you have teleport, unless on small maps.
The ACU
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* ACU = Commander.
* There is no D-Gun at the start. Your ACU starts with a weak gun and a very large amount of health. The ACU is important to use offensively and defensively in the early game, as enemy units tend to target the commander as opposed to other units.
* ACU deathnukes will generally only kill normal units, NOT enemy commanders. They deal 4000 damage if you stay in the full blast. Your commander has 20,000 health to start.
* 10-15 tanks can kill a commander very fast.
* If you plan to use your commander in battle past the first few minutes, consider upgrading Training in the ACU research tree. Each level is a significant boost to health and damage.
* Overcharge (the D-Gun replacement) is a high-tech research for your commander that costs 2000 energy to activate (with [O]). When it's on, your commander deals extreme amounts of damage in a huge radius with each shot. It lasts 10 seconds and has a 35 second cooldown.
Storage, building, assisting, capturing, repairing and reclaiming
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* There is infinite storage.
* Your ACU builds and assists twice as fast as engineers.
* Unlike in TA, factories are more efficient at building than engineers. This means when you want to build more units, build factories!
* You CANNOT assist when building a structure. This means the ONLY way to build structures faster is to do it with your ACU.
* You can assist factores with engineers, but there is a strong diminishing returns effect. It is generally not efficient to assist a factory with more than two engineers. Note that assissting itself is free.
* You must have the full cost of a unit to build it. If you don't have the resources, the engineer or factory won't do anything. This means if you want to build two things of differing costs, the lower-cost one will always be built first.
* You should always be using the repeat queue button.
* All engineers can capture. Aeon engineers have a Sacrifice Capture ability that captures faster and destroys the engineer.
* Repairing is free and quite effective, especially on experimentals. ACUs are repaired slower than other units. An ACU repairing can out-heal the damage of several tanks.
Ways to make mass
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* Mass extractors. These are like moho mines. They pay themselves back in 2 minutes 30 seconds. That means if you can't defend it for that long, don't build it.
* Reclaiming. Reclaiming returns 20% of the mass of the unit. Reclaiming is easily done by using a patrol [P] or attack-move [Alt-RMouse] order with an engineer or ACU.
* Veteran factories. The more units a factory produces, the less resources and time it will take to build units out of it.
* Research. UEF and Aeon have research that increases mass extractor production. Aeon also has economy research for their ACU. All factions have research that reduces the cost or build time of various things (depends on faction).
* Mass conversion. This is a structure unlocked by research that you must press a button on to convert energy into mass. Even more overpowered than in TA.
* Building on wreckage. When you rebuild a structure on the exact same wreckage in the same place, the box will turn blue and after the structure starts building, you will be refunded half the cost and it will start at half health.
Other resources
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* Power generators and energy upgrade research are the only ways to make energy. If you don't have enough energy, build more power generators.
* Research stations, destroying units, research upgrade research, UEF Research Converters, and the Cybran Proto-Brain are how you make research points (RP). Take note that this means losing units is something to avoid more than in TA, as this feeds your opponent RP. It can be advantageous to self-destruct [Ctrl-K] buildings you are sure to lose to deny your opponent RP.
About research
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* Research [Tab] is important and powerful. Take some time to look at your research tree as you play.
* There are cheap and good research options near the start of a tree, and much more powerful ones near the end.
* Research stations are very expensive.
* As you gain more research from combat, research gain from combat is less effective. Near the start of the game, one mex kill is significant.
Tips
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Try to play zoomed out as far as you can.
It can be useful to save RP in order to respond appropriately. If you save too much, however, you'll be in a weaker position. Try to find a balance.
Experimentals and ACU abilities take much greater amounts of energy to produce/use than normal units. If you plan to be building experimentals, plan ahead and make a few more pgens.
II. Practical
[Build Orders]
Tips
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Try to play zoomed out as far as you can.
It can be useful to save RP in order to respond appropriately. If you save too much, however, you'll be in a weaker position. Try to find a balance.
Experimentals and ACU abilities take much greater amounts of energy to produce/use than normal units. If you plan to be building experimentals, plan ahead and make a few more pgens.
Mass cost comparisons
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Mex 200
Land Factory 240
Air Factory 280
PD 190
AA Tower 225
Research Sta. 375
* Keep in mind defenses are quite expensive!
Normal Land Units
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Tank (Aeon and UEF only): It's a tank.
Assault Bot: Much like a tank, except faster movement, less health, and more damage.
Missile Launcher: Large range, high damage, can't hit moving targets. A few of these can ruin any structure's day. Build these if your opponent is turtling.
Artillery (Cybran and UEF only): Slow shot speed, low damage, high splash. Extremely effective against large blobs of land units. Less effective in small numbers or against smaller forces. They lead targets automatically so their shots can be dodged by moving in a zigzag.
Shotja (Aeon): Medium range, high damage. Slow to move and turn. Can only fire while facing forwards.
Mobile AA (Aeon and UEF only): It's mobile AA. Low damage but effective in groups.
P-Shield (UEF): A mobile shield. Effective against longer-range attacks.
Bodaboom (Aeon): Mobile health and regeneration booster. Effective in small numbers, as one can cover an entire force.
Mobile Anti-missile Defense (Aeon and UEF only): Shoots down missiles from Missile Launchers. Not cost-efficient.
Adaptor (Cybran): Combination AA, mobile shield, and anti-missile. Extremely powerful air defense. They cost twice as much as one of a comparable unit but build in the same amount of time, giving them a significant advantage. Not too effective used as only shields or tactical missile defense, however.
Field Engineer (UEF): Oh look, an engineer with a couple weak guns and NO ABILITY TO BUILD OR RECLAIM, the two things I most want to do! Don't build this. Ever.
Normal Air Units
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Fighter/Bomber (Cybran, Aeon): Your only fighter option. Bombs have splash damage, making them effective against land blobs.
Gunship: High damage, slow movement. Defenseless against fighters. Can shoot other gunships. Effective at sniping commanders.
Air Transport: Carries units. Using them with four missile launchers (which kill a mex in one volley) is an effective early-game tactic.
Wasp (UEF): Fighter. If you build Wasps and your opponent builds fighter/bombers, if all else is equal, you will always win due to numbers.
Eagle Eye (UEF): Bomber. Once you have air superiority, build these. Alternately, they can be built early on to protect against land-based aggression effectively.
Intellitron (Cybran): Air scout with a huge radar and vision range. Moves so fast AA can't kill it unless it's turning. If you really must spend RP to scout, this is the way to go.
Normal Naval Units:
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Salem (Cybran): Destroyer. Medium damage, long range. Moderate AA. Has torpedoes.
Executioner (Cybran): Battleship. Medium damage, extreme range, large splash. Very weak AA.
Command Class (Cybran): Aircraft carrier. Medium direct fire damage. Builds air units at 66% cost.
Tigershark (UEF): Sub. Spamming Tigersharks can win any navy-on-navy battle. You can surface them to use a deck gun as well if you need more damage.
Mastadon (UEF): Crusier. Has long-range tactical missiles and extremely powerful AA.
Poseidon (UEF): Battleship. High damage, long range, large splash, very weak AA.
Aeon has no naval units - instead, all its normal land units except the Harvog assault bot can hover.
Buildings
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* Point Defense are basically HLTs that your ACU can build. Aeon PD has 5 more range than other PD, making them particularly effective offensively.
* AA Towers are effective at taking out small-to medium numbers of air units. Their main advantage is range. Covering a push with an AA tower is an effective tactic.
* Factory upgrades are powerful and relatively inexpensive.
* Factory shields can provide excellent defense against tanks and snipe attempts. A shielded factory with a PD is all but immune to tanks.
* If someone is pushing you with structures or if you have a forward factory, factory Tactical Missile Launchers can be effective.
* Factory AA is extremely mass-effective. If you're facing air, all your factories should have AA.
* Factory intel is pretty useless, as it's much less effective than a radar tower.
* Shields are moderately effective against artillery. UEF shields, due to how they work, do not stack well, unlike the other factions. Shields take 45 seconds to recharge once downed.
* Tactical Missile Launcher (Aeon): Extreme range, very high damage, very expensive. Using this on small maps is very effective, as you can kill your opponent's mexes from relative safety.
* Fortified Light Artillery (UEF): Long range, very low damage. Effective defense/offense en masse if your opponent is going land. The Harden Artillery research can temporarily turn these into short-range killing machines if they get too close.
How much can production you support on how much resources?
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~1.5 mex:1 pgen:1 factory is a good ratio to keep in mind.
Important research
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All sides have some cost decrease and build time reduction research. if you plan on going into a tree, invest in those ASAP. As a special note, Cybran have powerful structure research that it can be good to get before building a single structure.
If going land as Aeon, always get Weapon Range.
If going land as UEF, always get Weapon Range.
Cybran Power Detonate is an extremely powerful defensive tool. It destroys your structure and instantly kills every normal land unit and gunship close to it. Be careful not to get too close to enemy Cybran bases, or risk losing an entire force for the cost of one building.
Aeon Teleport lets your normal land units move moderate distances very easily. It allows Aeon land blobs to retreat or attack in the blink of an eye, and makes having something sniped a constant fear for the opponent. Also, it lets them compete on the sea against the faster ships of the other factions.
Aeon Flares make air units nearly invulnerable to ground-based AA when used in large groups.
UEF Stacked Barrels for navy doubles the damage thier normal cannons do. When used with the Posiedon battleship, they do ridiculous amounts of damage.
Sample research to aim for
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UEF
* Land: Fatboy
* Air: Build Time, Build Cost
* Naval: Stacked Gauss Cannon, Poseidon
* Structure: Gauss Cannon, Linked Railgun Anti-Air
* ACU: Overcharge (UEF ACU tree is weak compared to other factions)
Cybran
* Land: Megalith II
* Air: Renegade, Damage, Rate of Fire
* Naval: L.E.G.S., Executioner
* Structure: Power Detonate, Rate of Fire, Long Range Artillery
* ACU: Nanobot Weapon, Overcharge
Aeon
* Land: Anti-Matter Chrome Shield, Chrome Health, Teleport
* Air: Holo-Decoy Anti-Air Flare, Persistent Scorch Bomb
* Structure: Tactical Missile Launcher
* ACU: Energy Income, Mass Income
Experimentals
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AEON
Land
* Urchinow - Tank. Very slow, high health, medium range, high damage, moderate splash. Hovers. Decent if your opponent does not have his own minor experimentals or if he is unable to retreat.
* Wilfindja - Tank. Very fast, short range, extreme damage, paper armor. Slow to attack. Hovers. Can attack subs. Don't build this. Ever.
* Pulinsmash - Unit sucker. High health, very long range. When deployed, it is immobile and instantly kills one normal unit in range every few seconds. Good for breaking turtles and killing heavily upgraded units.
* Airnomo - AA tank. High health, short range, moderate ground damage, extreme AA damage. If anything flies inside this thing's range, it gets vaporized in short order. Moderately effective if combined with other forces.
* Universal Colossus - Giant robot! Extreme health, extreme single-target damage, instantly kills normal land units every few seconds. Has an aura that increases the health of units in range that stacks with the Bodaboom. Very powerful if used with a land army.
Air
* Darkenoid - Flying saucer of doom! Kills land blobs and bases extremely effectively. Over half of its damage is indirect, so single-target damage is not its forte. Do not use unless you have air superiority.
* Sooprizer - Gunship. Extreme single-target damage, extreme health (for an air unit). The Darkenoid is more effective in almost every situation, but sometimes you need more health.
Structure
* Buhbledow - Shield destroyer. Much like a nuke, except all it does is send shields into recharge. Extremely expensive to use, but if cost is no object, unmatched for what it does. Cannot be defended against in any way.
* Loyalty Gun - Very long range capture ray. If your opponent can't stop you from building one of these in range of his base, he loses his base.
* Space Temple - Extremely long range two-way ground unit teleporter. Know why Aeon doesn't have artillery? Because they have the ability to move their entire army, including experimentals, fom the back of their base to the middle of yours.
* Illuminator - When activated, gives you radar of almost all the map and vision of at least half of it. The lazy or rich man's scout.
CYBRAN
Land
* Megalith II - Bot. High health, moderate speed, long range, high damage, moderate splash. An excellent all-around unit. Outranges and kills large portions of the game.
* Bomb Bouncer - Mobile shield. Very high health, strong shield, low cost for its effect. When the shield takes enough damage or you charge it manually, the Megablast button is available. Megablast deals enough damage to instantly kill any normal air or ground unit in a cylinder as large as the shield. The Bomb Bouncer is the final word on air blobs. These can permanently deny an area to attack from non-experimental air, and combined with Adaptors can be unbreakable from the air.
* Cicada - Mobile stealth generator. When activated, makes non-Cicada units in a medium range completely invisible, untargetable, and invincible to enemies. Effective in combination with land armies or Megaliths. Effectively a repairable shield.
* Cybranasaurus Rex - Cyborg dinosaur! Breathes fire! Extreme damage, extreme health, short range, high speed, moderate splash! Awesome but somewhat impractical, as it can be difficult to get it into position.
* Monkeylord - Spiderbot. The ultimate land unit. Extremely expensive and nearly unstoppable. Microwave laser has splash damage so land blobs melt away. Turreted so it can kill you from any direction.
Air
* Giant Transport - Air transport. High health, high speed, can carry a whole army. Experimentals take up large amounts of space. Deals good air-to-ground damage. Somewhat useful if land attack is out of the question, but usually just a waste of mass.
* Soul Ripper II - Gunship. Does extreme single-target damage, moderate splash damage, and has high health. Also has good AA. Good en masse to end a game. Also effective against land blobs.
Naval
* Kraken - Laser sub. High damage and health and can submerge, but very short range. Can't fire while moving. Don't build this unless you really need air defense for your fleet.
Structure
* Magnetron - The ultimate ground defense. Very long range. It can either suck in units, kill them extremely quickly, and grind them into mass, or push them away. Two Magnetrons using Repulse to cover the other's cooldown can make you permanently immune to normal land attacks.
* Proto-Brain Complex - Research station. Once researched, it's far more cost-efficient than Research Stations. You can also launch the brain (which reduces the research gain) and use it as a gunship. It deals little damage, but has high health and increases the veterancy rate of your nearby units.
* Boomerang - Nuke defense. Somewhat more expensive than a normal nuke d, but instead of shooting down nukes, it sends them back to their origin point.
UEF
Land
* Fatboy II - Tank. Moderate health, moderate damage, very long range, moderate splash, slow speed. A powerful unit if used at the extent of its range. Dies quickly in close combat. Outranges most mobile units. Almost unstoppable en masse.
* Jackhammer - Mobile artillery. Very high health, long range, extreme damage, huge splash, slow speed. Must unpack to fire. When unpacked, it takes 25% less damage. Can instantly kill huge blobs of normal land units from afar. Has a large minimum range, but does not suffer the same fragility problems the Fatboy does. Creeping into your opponent's base with one or more of these is a great way to end the game.
* King Kriptor - Awesome-looking giant robot. Extreme health, low damage, moderate speed, large splash. Its coolness is only matched by its uselessness, as it costs far too much for the poor damage it deals. Don't build this. Ever.
Air
* AC-1000 Terror - Gunship. Moderate speed, moderate damage, moderate splash, moderate health. Quite powerful due to its ease to research, relatively low cost, and high health for an air unit. Very effective to surprise those who don't have enough AA.
* C-230 Star King Extreme - High health, high speed, can carry a whole army. Experimentals take up large amounts of space. Deals moderate air-to-ground and AA damage. Somewhat useful if land attack is out of the question, but usually just a waste of mass. Almost totally unnecessary for UEF, as they have longer range on the ground than other factions anyway.
* Mega Fortress - Flying air factory. Builds air units at 1/3rd cost and in 1/3rd the time. These take the already good UEF air lead and make it permanent, as no other faction can even hope to approach the production speed of this unit. Has high health and moderate air-to-ground damage, but is best used as a factory. Can be asissted to speed production even further.
Naval
* Atlantis II - Submersible aircraft carrier. Very high health, good damage when surfaced, short range. Builds air units at 1/3rd cost. Generally overshadowed by Mega Fortresses, as they build faster and are in the air tree instead of the naval tree.
* Super Triton - Battleship. Extreme health, high damage, moderate range, huge splash. Can be useful if Aeon teleporting tanks are a problem for your seafleet. Generally, the Posiedon battleship is cheaper, easier to research, and more effective due to its longer range.
Structure
* Noah Unit Cannon - Unit cannon. Builds land units at 1/3rd cost and 1/7th the time, and can launch them across the map one by one. Best used as an experimental factory, not as an artillery piece, as units it fires stack up on each other as they land, and are extremely vulnerable to splash damage and AA. Can amass absurd armies in an extremely short amount of time.
* Disruptor Station - Long-range EMP artillery. Is significantly more mass-effective than long-range artillery. Can be activated to make its next shot paralyze whatever it hits for a short time.
* Aegis - Shield generator. Has an enormous amount of shields. Protects an enormous area. If it drops, it must be reactivated manually with energy. It's useful to have it on a hotkey to make sure you can recharge it when necessary. Only effective if you have enough to defend.
Artillery, nukes, and anti-nukes
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UEF Long Range Artillery is a good lategame victory condition. It has extremely long range when upgraded.
Cybran Long Rnage Artillery, due to its fire rate research, does far more damage than other equivalent options.
Aeon has no artillery.
All sides' nukes and nuke defense are the same, with the exception that Cybran nuke and nuke d are the same structure. Nukes take 3 minutes to build, and anti-nukes take 1 minute. Nuke d can hold more anti-nukes than nuke launchers can hold nukes.
http://www.gamereplays.org/supremecomma ... army-micro
http://www.gamereplays.org/supremecomma ... -air-units
http://www.gamereplays.org/supremecomma ... ild-orders|||Very nice guide. Your friends should find it very useful. :)|||Nice synopsis.|||Thanks for putting this together. A great starting point! I think any TA player might have a smoother transition after reading this, but it just comes down to practicing. I played TA for a couple of years and have since switched over to SPRING engine because of its graphics and interface.|||Might I just add that the sooprizer is preferred over the darkenoid sometimes because it can fire at its target from a big distance (for an air unit) as opposed to being right over it. This exposes it to much less AA fire and makes it much more durable than its extra health would suggest.|||Xagar|||Yea it x5's the vet earned. Which also by proxy increases RP income from kills as well (if it works the same way as Illu vet increase and UEF vet increase rates). So it's well worth letting it assist your major or whatever thats going into battle if there isn't much AA around as it definitely will make your stuff MUCH stronger :)
People underestimate the power of units with vet.|||Protobrain + Monkeylord is pretty invincible. The ML gains exp the same as any other major so if you trash a small forward base you'll hit high levels easily. Remember, vet is BETTER than training since it also improves regen rate (as well as +10% health and damage), and with something that already regens quickly like a major experimental, this gives the ML near immortality.
A fully ranked and trained ML can sustain fire from an executioner or two with no permanent damage.|||[quote="Manta"]Remember, vet is BETTER than training since it also improves regen rate (as well as +10% health and damage)
YES!
This is why its so important you munch a tank blob when you buy your nanogun. If you dont get to kill some stuff, you dont have vet, and so you dont regen quickly enough. A cybran ACU with vet 5 is only killable by major experimentals
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