Patrolling

Patrolling is another aspect of RTS’s that Supreme Commander emphasizes more than other titles. When you tell a unit to patrol, it will move between two or more points on the map automatically. This can have a number of uses to you, but for the most part, the units you want to patrol are air units. If you need to keep an eye on what your enemy is up to, a patrol of scout planes can be just what the doctor ordered, as they’ll continue to fly above any avenues of attack until they get shot down. Offensive units will automatically attack anything that comes into their patrol lanes, as well, so ringing your base with patrolling fighter jets can help shoot down incoming bombers before they reach their targets, even if your attention is on a zone halfway across the map. Your engineers can also be told to patrol, as well; they won’t attack anything in their path, but they will reclaim any debris that they see, as well as repair wounded units or structures.

Unfortunately, most land units that you tell to patrol will eventually just stop in their tracks. This appears to be a bug, and will hopefully be patched at some point. We generally find it better to have a central location for your military units, and move them towards the enemy when they approach, instead of having them patrol around your base in the hopes of encountering them. Land scout units can be able patrollers, though, especially if your radar coverage isn't as good as you like, or you suspect the enemy of approaching with stealth field generators or something similar.

Transporting

Having transports assist factories will let the units built there get to their destination more quickly.

One of the final basic aspects of Supreme Commander is transporting. Transport units are built at your airfield, and can be used to quickly transport your ground units across the map. Unfortunately, using transports can be a bit clunky, so here are some tips. First off, if you want to build units at a factory and instantly move them far across the map, set the factory’s move destination where you want the units to go, and then have a few transport units assist the factory. As units pop out of the factory, they’ll automatically move into the transports, which will then drop them off at the designated stopping point, then return for another load. Be sure that you have the right number of transports assisting the factory, based on the type of units you’re building, the speed of construction, and the distance they’re traveling. Having too many transports assigned to a factory will cause them to load very slowly, as the units disperse between all of the transports. Having too few transports assigned to a factory will cause units to pile up around it, instead of moving out to the destination. The quicker the construction times of the units you’re building, and the farther the distance to the destination, the more transports you want to assign to the factory.

Ferrying is the easiest way to get your already-built units to their destination.

Another way of moving units via a transport is by ferrying. If you click on a transport, click the ferry button, and click on a destination point on the map, a small purple ferry icon will appear on the ground underneath it. If you select ground units, then right-click on the ferry icon, the transport will start shuttling all of those units to the destination. This works well for small groups of units, but if you want to ferry a large group of units in multiple transports, you’ll need to use assisting. Begin by having a large group of transports assist a single transport, then use that single transport’s ferry command to point to the destination. This will result in a single ferry icon appearing on the ground, but all of the transports that are assisting will pick up units and ferry them alongside the assisted transport. Unfortunately, the AI of the ground units can get a little mixed up when attempting to board the transports, but you can solve this problem by moving them away from the transports a bit, then clicking on the ferry icon. This will force the transports to come to them, eliminating the AI bottlenecks that cause problems.

Com-Bomb!

One last trick to share is the controversial commander bomb, also known as the "com-bomb". In multiplayer games, you can take advantage of your commander’s explosive nature by using him as a first-strike unit. This trick, which is definitely not going to win you any friends in online play, involves loading up your commander into a tech 2 transport and flying it over your enemy’s base. When it gets above the base, your opponent’s automated anti-air units will shoot it down, which causes your commander to asplode big time. What’s more, if you can get it over the enemy commander, he’ll explode as well, causing irreparable damage to the enemy’s economy.

Miscellaneous Tips

It takes a lot of resources to upgrade your commander, but it's usually well worth it in the long run.

• It can be difficult to get your planes to individually return to an air staging facility for repair and refueling. If you have them patrol anywhere near one, though, they'll land there automatically, then return to the patrol. If you have bombers that have been banged up from a bombing run, have them patrol over a staging facility until they're all ship-shape.
• Speaking of planes, they'll run out of fuel eventually, which will cause them to move much more slowly, which in turn will make them easier for enemy planes to shoot down. If your planes run out of fuel, you can park them on the ground, where they'll slowly regenerate fuel. This is especially important for interceptors early in the game, since you often won't have air staging facilities when you build them (which refuel planes). Just park them on the ground until they get a bit of fuel back, then have them resume their patrols.
• Don't forget that you can upgrade your commander unit! There's a small upgrade option (looks like a pair of gears, just to the right of where you'd switch between tech levels on a factory). If you click on this while you're controlling your commander, you can select various handy upgrades for it.
• One of the handiest shortcut commands is CTRL-K, which will suicide selected units. If you hit the unit cap, you can intentionally destroy older or redundant units to make room for new ones. Or, if you see one of your units about to be captured by an enemy engineer, you can suicide it to prevent them from taking control of it.

Cheat Codes

Supreme Commander has a few cheat codes you can use in Skirmish or Multiplayer. Set cheats to "on" in the setup screen, then use these commands to tweak the game as you play.

• Bling Bling: Hit CTRL-ALT-B to maximize your resources and increase the storage capacity of your resources.
• Spawn Menu: Hit ALT-F2 to spawn in units under any player's control.
• Toggle Opponent AI: Hit ALT-A to disable the enemy AI. All enemy AI will no longer function.
• Delete Units: Select a unit, then hit CTRL-DELETE to delete it.
• Toggle Damage: Hitting ALT-N will make all units in the game invulnerable, including those of the enemy.

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