| Vya-3 Protectorate Supreme Commander official skirmish map | |
| Max Players Ranked as |
4 1v1 |
| Size | 10x10 km |
| Vya-3 was once a haven from war. The clouds of red dust choked intake vents and shorted circuit boards, stopping even the mightiest army in its tracks. New technology, however, allows units to operate in this unforgiving environment, and now battle has returned to the red plains. | |
Vya-3 Protectorate is an official skirmish map from Supreme Commander.
It has a lot of rocks and some civilian buildings in the middle for reclaim protected by T1 defences.
Strategic advice[]
Typical strategy is to expand rapidly to the two 4 mass deposit locations next to the spawn, but mainly focus on reclaim. It is not typical to expand or raid further past this as the reinforcement routes are long and it is hard to defend those engineers, especially without the assistance of an air transport. This also means that misplays are punished. There is no hydro and with the enemy able to freely move to either flank no particular reason to focus on ACU combat. Therefore using ACU build power as long as possible through the opening to produce 2-3 extra factories is ideal. And once an 4-deposit expansion is captured, approximately six factories can be supported due to the very high amount of mass points in each direction.
The clockwise expansion has three stages of assault. First, the ramp entrance is surprisingly smaller than expected, and if defending it, it can be gated off by a single point defense if required. Proceeding towards the mass deposits, one reaches the expansion that is also the next player's counterclockwise expansion. This itself is harder to assault, as once off the ramp there is a lot of wide open area to maneuver in and T1 land scouts in the area do not have enough range to cover the area safely. However, walls and radar can be used in the assault to make it safer, again narrowing the area to ACU gun range or PD-size.
Finally when attacking clockwise at the 4 mass deposit expansion, the focus is on the passage towards the enemy ("counterclockwise defender") and their spawn, formed by the edge of the map and the cresent/comma shaped rock. This area is fairly narrow due to the shape of the rocks and a funneling choke in the terrain. Because of this it that can yet again, not only be easily defended by PDs, but because of the wide area behind it, friendly clockwise artillery. Once the choke reaches capacity, the enemy's defending units will have to flank around the crescent rock, splitting the defenders up while the attackers can simply sit inside the expansion and briefly turn around to face them. Or if the defender has established defences, the attacker can be the one to flank around the rock to cut off reinforcements while their T1 mobile light artillery and/or ACU approaches clockwise from their base. Overall, this makes it much harder for the defender going counterclockwise to hold and reinforce this expansion without long range assets like T2 units.
Meanwhile, the counterclockwise expansion position is exposed from multiple routes from behind around the crescent rock, as detailed in the clockwise attack. But walls can be used to defend it from being flanked from behind at the gap. It would be useful to do so shortly after claiming the expansion and setting up the factories necessary to spend its resources, but as mentioned, long range or T2 units are best used to avoid being funneled into the choke. By claiming the clockwise deposits early and using economically efficient units to defend it, rather than swarms of short range mobile tanks, the player can tech up faster to T2.
However, if one of the flanks fails (or is not attacked) and the player is forced to defend the base, the easiest accessible location to do so is the mountain/hill next to the spawn and simply sacrifice the mass deposit on that side atop the ramp. The ACU sits closer to the center of the map, closer to the spawn so they can turn if necessary, while the flank is protected by the immobile PD. The other area is slightly pass the mass deposit as the circle starts to go parallel to the edge of the map, and then making further use of a wall to narrow the gap sufficiently for gun range to cover it. For example, consider doing this of sending the expanding engineer immediately into the counterclockwise expansion, where it takes too long to reinforce. This early wall also sets up a defensible fallback position if the expansion is lost.
- Long term
Finally, once the expansion is secured, one has a secure economy and more freedom to explore the center of the map (using arty or auroras to outrange the sightless civilian PDs), reinforce anti-air and radar and other strategic defences against early T1 attack bombers, as well as perform economic upgrades and other midgame activities etc. The clockwise ramp can be reinforced with a wall to prevent flanking from behind of counterclockwise attackers, while the two mexes/deposits in the middle of the quadrant (the ones forming an X through the center of the map) are expanded to and eventually taken and reinforced (Note that 2-3 T1 PD would be necessary to do so, given the possible wide attack routes to that area that would need coverage and long reinforcement, which makes it more expensive to expand to; whereas a single T2 PD could in theory provide defence to the whole area against light T1 raiders, perhaps with a T1 for support against attacks from a civilian-cleared centre of the map).
The strategy should still apply in 1v1 or other games because the same defensibility and reinforcement conditions apply to the clockwise expansion, even if the map is less filled with enemies. The clockwise expansion should be first to get development and defences for this reason. However, in 1v1 one could be more economically aggressive and expand with mexes only to the counterclockwise expansion without providing the defence areas on top of the ramp, as well as in racing for the reclaim of the outlying civilian structures, PD, and mass deposit in the middle area (the center cannot be claimed until all 8 surrounding civilian PD are defeated however).