Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is my favourite game of all time. There. I said it. It is quite literally, the perfect RTS. It effortlessly captures the massive scale of the war you're fighting by literally allowing up to 1500 units per player (in a high player-count game I've seen upwards of 18000 at once), and makes it so incredibly easy to manipulate your units, that you can bounce between the macro and micro scales as fast as you want, whenever you want. There's no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 'morale' system, no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 'squad' system, and no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fullstop. It's pure, fast-thinking, and perfect. On top of this game being ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ brilliant, it's one of the only two RTS games that aren't complete bollocks (the other being AoE:II) - reasons why below.

My main problem with other RTS games is unneccasery mechanics. Simply having more mechanics does not automatically make your game more meaningfully complex, and it just encourages a focus on micromanagement. Starcraft suffers from this terribly, and battles are determined by who can press the most buttons in the least amount of time. There's no concious thought in that at all, and battles are never won on strategy - this completely undermines the very idea of a 'real time strategy' in the first place.

Further problems include the fact that if you have no resources in other games, you have to wait for your scout/miner/whateverthe♥♥♥♥ to bring resources back to your base to build more units to back up your army, and if, say, you were in the middle of a battle, this is precious time lost, and it (once again) is down to whoever clicked first. SupCom's economy, however, is decided by more by map control (more map control gives more mass extractors, more mexes means more mass collected per tick) than who-clicked-on-a-pile-of-♥♥♥♥-first, and map control is decided by, you guessed it, whoever has the better tactics (or more units, but that must mean you've got a better economy, and as such have already demonstarted superior tactics).

None of this even mentions the game's nigh-flawless use of asymmetry within the factions. Each unit in the game has different capabilities based on the faction you're playing as, and each unit either has a strategy, or a unit that hard counters it. It's a giant game of rock-paper-scissors, but it actually benefits the game, because (unlike other asymmetrical games (I'm looking at you, Overwatch...)) you can see exactly what's around the corner at any given time, and adjust your strategy accordingly. This means the game is based purely on outsmarting your opponent. No other RTS is like this. That is exactly why Supreme Commander is a masterpeice.

The game is even still maintained by the community via FAF - Forged Alliance Forever - at faforever.com. Recently we got loading screen tips, because, why not, and it's updated frequently with various balance changes and the like. The community is great - I play with the GB clan - and they're the loveliest bunch of guys you're ever likely to meet (even though I haven't been active for a while).

Simply put, SupCom:FA is the closest game to pure real-time strategy ever made. There's no messing around. It's a fast-paced, rapid-fire, mental challenge, not a twitch game, and it is almost completely unique in that regard.

10/10 - Buy immediately, it's perfect.

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is my favourite game of [i]all time[/i]. There. I said it. It is quite literally, the [i]perfect RTS[/i]. It effortlessly captures the massive scale of the war you're fighting by literally allowing up to 1500 units per player (in a high player-count game I've seen upwards of 18000 at once), and makes it so incredibly easy to manipulate your units, that you can bounce between the macro and micro scales as fast as you want, whenever you want. There's no bullshit 'morale' system, no bullshit 'squad' system, and no bullshit fullstop. It's pure, fast-thinking, and [i]perfect[/i]. On top of this game being fucking [i]brilliant[/i], it's one of the only two RTS games that aren't complete bollocks (the other being AoE:II) - reasons why below. My main problem with other RTS games is unneccasery mechanics. Simply having more mechanics does not automatically make your game more meaningfully complex, and it just encourages a focus on micromanagement. Starcraft suffers from this terribly, and battles are determined by who can press the most buttons in the least amount of time. There's no [i] concious thought[/i] in that at all, and battles are never won on strategy - this [i]completely[/i] undermines the very idea of a 'real time [b]strategy[/b]' in the first place. Further problems include the fact that if you have no resources in other games, you have to wait for your scout/miner/whateverthefuck to bring resources back to your base to build more units to back up your army, and if, say, you were in the middle of a battle, this is precious time lost, and it (once again) is down to whoever clicked first. SupCom's economy, however, is decided by more by map control (more map control gives more mass extractors, more mexes means more mass collected per tick) than who-clicked-on-a-pile-of-shit-first, and map control is decided by, you guessed it, whoever has the better tactics (or more units, but that must mean you've got a better economy, and as such have already demonstarted superior tactics). None of this [i]even mentions[/i] the game's [i]nigh-flawless[/i] use of asymmetry within the factions. Each unit in the game has different capabilities based on the faction you're playing as, and each unit either has a strategy, or a unit that hard counters it. [i]It's a giant game of rock-paper-scissors, but it [b]actually benefits the game[/b][/i], because (unlike other asymmetrical games ([i]I'm looking at you, Overwatch...)[/i]) you can see exactly what's around the corner at any given time, and adjust your strategy accordingly. [i][b]This means the game is based purely on outsmarting your opponent.[/b][/i] No other RTS is like this. [b]That[/b] is exactly why Supreme Commander is a masterpeice. The game is even still maintained by the community via FAF - Forged Alliance Forever - at faforever.com. Recently we got loading screen tips, because, why not, and it's updated frequently with various balance changes and the like. The community is great - I play with the GB clan - and they're the loveliest bunch of guys you're ever likely to meet (even though I haven't been active for a while). Simply put, SupCom:FA is the closest game to pure real-time strategy ever made. There's no messing around. It's a fast-paced, rapid-fire, mental challenge, not a twitch game, and it is almost completely unique in that regard. 10/10 - Buy immediately, it's perfect.