How to build an effective army

This is one of the biggest problems many new players have when they first start playing Supreme Commander. By using better units and mixing them more efficiently will prevent you from huge unit losses. This is not a perfect "no-fail" guide, it is still up to players to decide what is right for each situation. Also this article is not saying one faction is better then all others, it is just saying that a faction may have better units in one area, such as land unit superiority. This is based on stats and overall player feedback. So here are some useful tips when playing your next game.

Land Army

• Dont make units you dont need. A common mistake for new players is mobile T1 AA. the best way to ensure you dont get smashed by gunhips is have an airforce of your own. Also dont make MMLs if you dont need them.
• If you are attacking a base make sure you have anti-air and shields.

The UEF Ground Forces

The UEF are often regarded as having the best land units overall.(this is based on stats like armor and firepower) So here is where the UEF strengths are found.

T1 Strengths

• Tanks have the most armor and mech marine is the best stat wise.
• Anti-air is not the best but is still good.

T2 Strengths

• Tanks still have the most armor.
• The Mongoose is a well rounded assault unit.
• Have good anti-air and mobile shields.

T3 Strengths

• The Percival is a excellent Anti-base and experimental killer.

• The Percival is weak against T1 and some T2 attacks, but not when mixed with Titans, which have equal DPS and rate of fire to a T1 point defense, with much more health, and shields, and the movement speed of a seraphim combat scout.

• The Spearhead is an excellent base assault unit especily in FAF, as it can overwhelm TMD and has overwhelming range.

T4 Experimental Mobile Factory

• Arguably the most flexible experimental land unit in the game, the Fatboy is meant for long-range bombardment and reinforcing critical positions with quickly manufactured units. However, it lacks viable air defenses, and any other land experimental that can get close enough to it will butcher the Fatboy.
• Note: the Fatboy will fire only two cannons at it's target when ordered to attack, meaning for maximum damage output, the Fatboy will have to be manually adjusted. move it at a 45 degree angle to have 3 of its cannons firing and when used as base defence always have it facing backwards so the units it produces are a shield between the fatboy and an oncoming army. This also helps it escape.

The Aeon Ground Forces

T1 Strengths

• Aurora floats and has high range, further than other T1 units, and the ACU.
• Scout can float and is faster, making it essential and impeccable.
• Fervor has high DPS, making it a great building killer.

T1 Weaknesses

• Aurora has low health and speed.
• Fervor has low damage radius, making it weak against mobile units.

T2 Strengths

• Obsidian has decent DPS and health.
• Hover tank has good range and rate of fire.
• Strong mobile shield that can hover.
• Good hovering mobile AA.

T2 Weaknesses

• Obsidian is expensive and has a low rate of fire and very vunerable to overcharge or massed T1
• Hover tank has low health yet the mobile shields can fix this.
• MML has low accuracy and ROF. This makes it very difficult for an aeon player to overwhelm tactical missile defences.
• Mobile shield can die from any air crash above T1 yet this will rarley happen.

T3 Strengths

• Assault bot has decent health, firepower, rate of fire, and flexibility.
• Mobile Artillery has good accuracy and doesn't need to deploy.
• Shield disruptor can hover, takes up little transport space, and has powerful anti-shield capabilities.
• Decent sniper bot.

T3 Weaknesses

• Artillery has a low rate of fire and low AOE.
• Sniper bot is fragile and inferior to it's seraphim counterpart.

The Cybran Ground Forces

T1 Strengths

• Fast and flexible heavy bot, able to assist construction and repair other units.
• Cloaked and fast scout.
• Mobile artillery has EMP affect.

T1 Weaknesses

• Artillery has low ROF and damage.
• Light assault bot has low hp.
• Scout has no weapon and can be detected and neutralized by other scouts.

T2 Strengths

• Viper has high ROF and it's missiles split when intercepted.
• Mobile Stealth field is unique and allows hidden fire bases and TML silos.
• Hoplite takes up little space on a transport and has good ROF and speed.
• Wagner is very decent.
• Rhino has good ROF and DPS.
• Fire beetle good for assassinations.

T2 Weaknesses

• No mobile shields. This alone causes the cybrans downfall in T3 battles because shields are just so mass effective. There is no cost effective cybran counter to a UEF wall of mobile shields and percivals
• Rhino lacks health. (fixed in FAF)
• Viper has slightly lower health and DPS than counterparts yet makes up for it with faster rate of fire and slittigng missiles when they get shot down. this makes it much more effective at overwhelming defences.
• Banger has overkill.

T3 Strengths

• Loyalist has good DPS, tactical missile deflector, and good ROF and speed. It outclasses the titan in every way and can shred countless T1 and T2 units.
• Brick has high ROF, torpedoes, and anti-torpedoes, making it very useful in almost any situation.
• Trebuchet has higher ROF and AOE than counterparts making it effective against overlapping shields.

T3 Weaknesses

• Trebuchet is inaccurate and has low DPS and health.
• Still no shields.
• Loyalist the only unshielded siege bot, making it worse at hit-and-run tactics.

T4 Experimental spider bot

• The monkeylord has outstanding DPS, making it it the best unit to destroy paragons and other high end units. It has stealth, torpedoes, and anti-air, and is relatively cheap for it's job. However, it lacks health.

The Seraphim Ground Forces

The Seraphim are sort of weak in the T1 sense, lacking early rushing tactics without a decent light assault bot. They make up for it with a decent tank and a unique scout.

T1 Strengths

• Medium Tank Thaam is an extremely fast tank with decent hitpoints and good range. This makes it excellent as an early raid unit and for kiting slower tanks, albeit at a higher cost than a light assault bot. Watch out for Auroras that will easily outrange it.
• The scout Selen can be set to "Hold Fire" and be used to block mass deposits and hydrocarbon patches, due to its combined stealth and cloak while stationary.
• The Zthuee hovers and can thus travel across water. It also combines the best aspects of the Fervor and the Lobo, utilizing a fragmentation shell and high DPS.

T1 Weaknesses

• Most obvious is that Seraphim lacks a light assault bot and thus lacks the ability for early, cheap raiding. The Selen needs to outnumber opposition almost 2 to 1 to defeat other factions bots.
• The Zthuee can hover but no other T1 units of the Seraphim can, leaving the Zthuee unescorted on water or on opposing shores so care must be taken when using them.

T2 Strengths

• The Ilshavoh T2 assault bot is an incredibly powerful land unit in early T2. Its high rate of fire and excellent damage allows it to combat both T1 swarms and heavier T2 threats, while still possessing a good amount of hitpoints. Rushing to T2 land is a very viable strategy for Seraphim simply for the power of the Ilshavoh.
• Decent mobile AA.

T2 Weaknesses

• The Seraphim lacks any T2 defensive unit similar to the Cybran Deceiver and the mobile shield units of UEF and Aeon.
• The Hovertank Yenzyne is probably the weakest of all amphibious tanks in the game.

T3 Strengths

• Siege tank is cost affective and excellent.
• Sniper bot is flexible and dangerous.
• Mobile shields hover and have very good protection capabilities.

T3 Weaknesses

• Seige tank is slow and unwieldy.
• Shield generator is not as cost-affective as it's Aeon counterpart.
• Lack of any raider unit and direct equivalent to Armored Assault Bots, making their land units limited in direct fire combat.

T4 Experimental Assault bot

• The Ythotha is an average assault bot compared to others. It has more dps and less hp than it's aeon counterpart. It does the opposite with the infamous Monkeylord. It has the best AA of the land experimentals,but it's most distinguishing feature is it's unique ability to release an Othuy, an energy being that randomly damages surrounding units, even friendlies, and can allow it to play havoc on an unshielded base.

Air Force

• Send scouts with interceptors because interceptors can fire farther then they can see so a scout will allow maximum effectiveness.
• Always send interceptors with bombers or gunships.
• T3 is not always better then T1.

The UEF Air Force

T1 Strengths

• Bomber can "stall" factories, and has high health.
• Decent interceptor

T2 Strengths

• Amazing fighter-bomber.
• Stinger is a very good gunship, and can be a light transport or can be loaded up with a mech marine for more DPS.
• Transport has high hp, and is very efficient.

T3 Strengths

• Sturdiest bomber, ASF, and spy plane.
• Only T3 transport.

The Aeon Air Force

T1 strengths

• Bomber has EMP affect to bomb.

T1 Weaknesses

• T1 transport cannot carry ACUs, making escapes at T1 harder for Aeon commanders.

T2 Strengths

• Mercies are deadly ACU killers.
• Combat fighter is decent for it's cost.
• Gunship has high dps.
• Torpedo bomber has non blockable depth charges.

T2 Weaknesses

• No reusable bomber unit.
• Mercies susceptible to Flak and even T1 AA.
• Combat fighter has a blind spot and is un-flexible in role.

T3 Strengths

• Bomber is very good for sniping ACUs and experimental units.
• AA gunship is sturdy and hard to kill, especially in numbers.
• Powerful torpedo bomber.

T3 weaknesses

• Bomber lacks AOE.
• Spy plane is the worst.

The Cybran Air Force

The Cybrans are often regarded as having the best Air units overall. (This based on stats and abilites, for example almost all their T3 air can stealth from RADAR, with the exception of the Wailer, that instead have jamming).

T1 Strengths

• Cybrans are well known for their overall cheaper unit costs. This is a advantage in T1 air because there is little other factional difference at T1 air.
• Cybrans have a T1 Gunship. This advantage is invaluable.

T1 Weaknesses

• Interceptor has lowest health and lowest DPS.
• Units have lower health than factional equivalents.

T2 Strengths

• Their T2 gunship is the only gunship with area of effect. So it is great against units and closely bunched buildings (T1 pgens, mex and storage) yet on the flip side it cant be used for acu nearly as effectivley
• 3 T2 gunships will kill 2 UEF broadswords
• The Corsair's main weapon are homing missiles, whether attacking ground or air they can be effective.
• The Dragon Fly (T2 air transport) has a useful ground attack because of its EMP effect.(This is a advantage because all T2 air transports have weak weapons, but at least the dragon fly's weapon is useful.)

T2 Weaknesses

• Corsair's AA missiles have only 1/3 the dps of other fighter/bombers.
• Units have the lowest health.

T3 Strengths

• Every Cyban T3 Air unit has a stealth ability and this means the ASF will come out on top if the oponents ASF are not in omni range. (except the T3 gunship which has Jamming).
• Their T3 Spy Plane has Sonar for finding subs and free stealth making it by far the best of the 4.
• The Cybran T3 gunship has Jamming which can protect it from SAM sites, and a better AA gun than the broadsword yet is still useless against anything more then interceptors
• The Cybran Gemini has missiles, which are homing and as opposed to the plain direct fire weapon mounted on the other ASFs, results in less shots missed and a higher effective DPS

​T3 weaknesses

• ASF is weak at gaining air superiority over bases with Omni and ASFs with more health.
• Spy plane has low health and fuel.
• Units have lower health.

T4 Experimental gunship

• The soul ripper has outstanding DPS and health, as well as decent AA. It even has more damage than a GC, but is expensive, vulnerable to SAMs, flak, and is often an unexpected mass basket for your enemy when killed.

The Seraphim Air Force

T1 Strengths

• The T1 transport Vish can transport 8 units instead of the usual 6 for other factions. This makes it more viable as a powerful airdrop unit. An arty drop on unprotected power generators can be devistating and if you energy stall your opponent they may never be able to recover.
• Interceptor has the best damage and is overall the best interceptor.
• Scout has deathcam, making it usable to even T3.

T1 Weaknesses

• The bomber, Sinnve lacks any decisive advantage and is generally considered to be pretty poor, in spite of its high damage. It's best used against clusters of units or tightly packed bases due to its inaccuracy.
• The lack of a light assault bot removes the use as a Ghetto gunship unless you trade with an ally or capture an enemy unit.

T2 Strengths

• The fighter/bomber of Seraphim, Notha, is much more powerful than its price reveals. It effectively replaces any T1 Interceptor or Bomber.
• The Vishala T2 transport holds 4 more units than Aeon and Cybran T2 transports, and 2 more units than the UEF T2 transport.

T2 Weaknesses

• None except their gunship lacks anything that defines it from it's factional counterparts.

T3 Strengths

• The Seraphim Spy plane, the Iaselen has SONAR in addition to RADAR, sharing this ability with the Cybran Spook.
• Best ASF in terms of stats.

T3 Weaknesses

• Lack of any T3 gunship lowers their air-to-ground support capabilities.

Naval

• Nearly all ships are weak towards air so having cruisers and/or air support is recommended.
• Battleships have the farthest attack range of any naval unit, to use them effectively treat them more like mobile artillery not like a front line attack unit.
• Subs are perfect versus any navel fleet without torpedo support(or little or no defense).

The UEF Navy

To be completed.

The Aeon Navy

The Aeon are often regarded as having the best navel units overall.(This based on Stats and Abilities)

T1 Strengths

• The Beacon is Aeon's frigate and is a dedicated anti-surface vessel. It is equipped with dual Quantum Cannons and has a higher DPS than other units of its type.
• The Shard is the least expensive naval unit in the game by far, it is also far more effective against air units than any of the other factions' frigates, despite its low HP.

T2 Strengths

• The Vesper is the toughest of the 3 specialized T2 anti-naval units, together with the Cybran Barracuda Submarine Hunter and the UEF Cooper Torpedo Boat.
• The Exodus Class is a destroyer that is inexpensive and well armed although it has no capability to defend against air attacks, the Exodus Class is a superior naval engagement unit.
• The Infinity Class has extremely powerful AA, better than any naval unit except the Seraphim Ithalua.

T3 Strengths

• The Aeon have a T3 Missile Ship, nicknamed the Torrent Class which has a impressive ROF, making this vessel is able to overwhelm shields and tactical missile defenses quite easily.
• Battleship can double as a Battlecruiser with it's high DPS and speed.

T3 weaknesses

• Battleship has low range.
• Worst missile submarine.

T4 Experimental Battleship

• The Aeon are the only faction that has a Experimental Battleship, nicknamed the Tempest. It is also a battleship, a factory, a submarine unit and an anti-torpedo unit all in one unit. This makes the Tempest a powerful Naval unit and is the one of the strongest sea-borne vessels.
• It is best used for bombarding bases and making support units or engineers to reclaim after a naval battle as it is quite weak in combat and can be beaten easily with a UEF summit class battleship for less than 1/3rd the mass. It is even worse when submerged because the summit can hit it with gound fire.

The Cybran Navy

To be completed.

The Seraphim Navy

The Seraphim are regarded as having some of the strongest naval vessels if used correctly. It would be most unwise of the Seraphim player to have a lack navy on water maps.

T1 Strengths

• The Seraphim Frigate, Hau-Esel, has a very high rate of fire, making it excellent for cleaning up light surface units such as engineer swarms or light hovertanks.
• The Sou-istle, the Seraphim T1 sub, is equipped with torpedo defences. The defences are quite weak, however, so do not rely on them for any substantial advantage.

T2 Strengths

Once you get into T2 the Seraphim navy really starts to shine.

• The T2 destroyer Uashavoh is submersible with considerable torpedo power. This makes it a very flexible unit, capable of engaging both subs and surface targets, as well as bombarding low beachlines. Beware though that its beam weapons can hit ground due to the low firing arc of the beam.
• Ithalua, the Seraphim Cruiser, is the single most powerful AA power on the sea, with exception to the Seraphim T3 sub hunter. In addition, its long range tactical cruise missiles can wreak complete havoc and allow you to bombard enemy bases and firebases with impunity from the safety of the sea. Make sure to protect it well, as it lacks any means to defeat a naval threat. It's also unique in the sense that its AA are FLAK-based, which makes it excellent for killing clusters of gunships or other tightly grouped airplanes.

T2 Weaknesses

• Both T2 naval vessels of the Seraphim requires fairly much attention to play well. They are both weak and require either escort (Cruiser) or careful micromanagement (Destroyer) to function properly. This is especially true for the submerging destroyer.

T3 Strengths

• The Hauthuum Battleship carries a strategic missile launcher that does not give off a launch warning when fired. This can be used to launch "stealth" nuke attacks. Due to the high trajectory of the launched nuke, a strategic missile defense will launch three missiles at it before actually destroying it. This can be used as a very expensive way to drain SMDs.
• The Yathsou subhunter is arguably the most powerful naval vessel in the game that is not experimental. It is capable of engaging any vessel in the sea and come out on top, and its powerful AA when surfaced is absolutely devastating to airplanes. A Seraphim in T3 without these subs will soon lose whatever naval superiority they had.
• The mobile shield can be spammed to create a wall capable of soaking up thosands of damager per second