¶ Introduction
First of all, welcome to FAF! We are happy to have you!
The purpose of this guide is for new players to understand the ultimate basics of Supreme Commander FAF, ensuring basic knowledge of gameplay mechanics are known before playing.
If you haven't setup the FAF client: Windows Install Linux Install.
¶ Abbreviations
Important to know as you'll see them fairly often in discussions:
| Abbrv. | Short Description |
|---|---|
| ACU | Armored Command Unit |
| T# | Tech (Level) #, ranging from 1-3. T4 and Experimental are interchangeable terms |
| Mex(es) | Mass Extractor(s) |
| Pgen | Power Generator |
| BO | Build Order |
| Eco | Economy |
| Macro | Encompasses base building, economy, and unit production. Opposite of micro |
| Micro | Usage and command of units (e.g. dodging artillery shell). Opposite of macro |
| Mapcontrol | How much of the map you control |
| Buildpower | How fast a unit can build, repair, capture, and reclaim |
The above is a small, yet pertinent, selection from the Glossary.
¶ Economy
In this section we'll cover the basics of and terms relating to production and consumption of resources.
¶ Basics
Economy consists of 2 resources:
¶ 
Mass
- Accumulated, per second, by building mass extractors atop of Mass Points
- Obtained by reclaiming
- Convert, per second, Energy into Mass with Mass Fabricators
- Is less plentiful than Energy
¶ 
Energy
- Also known as Power
- Accumulated, per second, by building power generators everywhere on land, and building Hydrocarbon Power Plants atop of Hydrocarbon deposits
- Is more plentiful than Mass
In the early stage of a match Hydrocarbon Power plants are preferred over early game (i.e. T1) power generators, as they output more Energy per building and 1 Hydrocarbon Power Plant costs less resources to build than the amount of early game power generators required to produce the same Energy output. It must be noted that not every map has Hydrocarbon deposits.
There are 2 things you want to prevent from happening to your economy - stalling and overflowing.
¶ Stalling
Stalling a resource means that your storage for that resource (resource per second that wasn't used is instead stored up to storage maximum) is 0 and consumption of that resource is greater than production. In almost all situations this is considered to be bad, why?
- While stalling one resource, you cannot efficiently utilise the other resource.
- You'll slow down production considerably; from building anti-air turrets while under fire from enemy gunships to finishing the last 5% of your experimental unit whilst the enemy is at your front line(s).
- Whilst stalling Energy all your shield generators, stealth fields, and radars are disabled, and you cannot produce air units efficiently.
It's very easy to stall your economy by accident, which puts you at a disadvantage. Luckily there are a few tricks to limit this disadvantage:
- Stalling Energy is horrible. However, pausing production of air units for a while isn't, especially when you already have air control. In the meantime, you can build power generators quickly. When Energy income is in the positive, producing air units can be resumed/unpaused.
- Stalling Mass can be bad depending on your income and consumption. e.g. stalling -10 Mass at 1 minute game time can be debilitating. However, stalling -10 mass at 40 minute mark with mass storage of 500 isn't as debilitating. Reclaim will provide a temporary income to Mass. Hotkey:Ctrl+K will destroy selected units and buildings, reducing them to wreckage for reclaim.
- When you stall, it is important to focus on a specific production. Since stalling makes all construction slower, you'll need to prioritise. Do you need more unit producing factories or a T2 mex? Do you need more pgens or more units? Once you decide on what you need, pause (hotkey:Z) or cancelling non-priority productions will help to stabilize economy.
¶ Overflowing
Overflowing a resource means that you have reached its maximum storage capacity yet continue to accumulate for that resource, as the overflowed resource isn't being used or stored, it's wasted, and really should've been put to use on building, upgrading to the next Tech Level, and producing units. In a game with teams this isn't bad in some situations because the "wasted" resource is diverted to your team mates.
Building Storage buildings for the respective resource can prevent overflowing by increasing its maximum storage, but this isn't always the best option as keeping resource consumption on par with resource production is more generally easier to manage and predict.
There are a few tricks you can use to efficiently deal with overflow, the best ones are:
- When you're overflowing Mass and have enough Energy, upgrade a Mass Extractor to it's next Tech Level. On small maps this shouldn't happen around/before the 10 minute mark though! In that case it would be better to build more Land Factories
- When you're overflowing Energy you can always build more Air Factories, as air unit production requires more Energy than land and naval unit production
Remember - glance at both resource bars at the top of the screen every few seconds to make sure your economy is on track, and fixing it immediately if it's not.
¶ 
Reclaim
Everything on the map which isn't terrain, a building or a unit is deemed reclaim. Wreckage of destroyed buildings and units are also reclaim.
Right clicking with selected builder units (Engineers, the ACU) on objects that can be reclaimed on land and in water, will increase Mass by a set amount based on reclaimed object.
This can be a surprisingly large part of your income, and you will have an economic advantage over an opponent who isn't reclaiming.
Not only are wreckages reclaimable but also rocks and trees; trees almost only give energy though, so they aren't always that important but can have very special uses.
Utilising the Patrol command with builder units will automate collection of Reclaim along Patrolling path.
An interesting Video by [e]speed2 on reclaim : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uPjOxCTEng
¶ ACU
Each player has an ACU that acts as both a builder and offense unit with a large amount of health points. Whilst not being particularly proficient at either role, the ACU can be upgraded to compliment aspects of both roles.
Most importantly in the Assassination game mode a player is defeated when their ACU is destroyed, so the dynamic of the ACU is very similar to a combined King and Queen playing piece in Chess.
The ACU's combat abilities are worth knowing. Whilst the ACU can handle a handful of T1 Land units comfortably in it's own, it has no Anti-Air or Anti-Naval weaponary. It's advisable to have the ACU either assist the front line or lead the charge when going on the offense.
¶ Overcharge
An ability that provides the ACU a high damage, large blast radius shot which recharges charging and its damage scales with the amount of Energy in storage. Overcharge finds more practial use in destroying a cluster of enemy units and tightly placed buildings, whilst it can deal considerable damage to a T4/experimental unit it's not enough to destroy one with a single charged shot.
¶ Upgrades
The ACU doesn't have scalable progression through tiers/tech levels, instead it has modular upgrades for the left arm, right arm, and body which augment either it's offensive, defensive, or building capabilities. Each faction's ACU has slightly different offensive and defensive upgrades which gives each ACU some variation from one another.
Be aware, that when the ACU is upgrading it becomes immobile, weapons are disabled, and cannot construct buildings - i.e. a sitting duck.
¶ Teching up
There are 3 Tech Levels with an Experimental Tech Level in the late game. Upgrading to a Tech Level isn't global as typically seen in the RTS genre.
Matches start at T1, with upgrades to the next Tech Level occurring:
- at a Land, Air, or Naval Factory and only for that factory. i.e. upgrading a T1 Land factory to T2 doesn't enable T2 for Air and Naval factories
- from an upgrade for the ACU, which enables construction of equivalent and lower Tech Level buildings
Tech Level for a building must be constructed by an equivalent or higher Tech Level Engineer/ACU and building's Tech Level cannot be upgraded, expect for:
- Mass Extractors are upgraded individually
- Factories can't be built T2 or T3, thus can only be built T1 and are upgraded individually and sequentially (T1 -> T2 -> T3)
Regarding Experimentals:
- they are built by Tech Level 3 Engineers and/or an ACU upgraded to build Tech Level 3.
- Each faction has unique Experimentals
¶ Factory Headquarters
In FAF, to initally tech up from T1 to T2 for a given Factory category (Air, Land, Naval) a Factory must be upgraded to a Factory HQ, this will in turn enable:
- Construction of T2 Factories for the Factory category upgraded
- Upgrade of any T1 Factory, of same category, to T2.
Upgrade from T2 to T3 also occurs at Factory HQ.
If there is only 1 Factory HQ for a category and it's destroyed, construction and upgrade of T2 and T3 Factories, of category, will be disabled.
Mid to late stages of a match it's recommended to have more than one Factory HQ for a category.
¶ Buildings
The metaphoric blocks that make a base. Progressing up Tech Levels for buildings offer more strategic options and powerful version of the previous Tech Level building.
In general:
- Factories (Land, Air, Naval) produces units
- Power Generators generate Energy per second
- Mass Extractors generate Mass per second
- Mass Fabricators convert Energy per second into Mass per second
- Mass/Energy Storage increase storage limit for respective resource
- Radar and Sonar are utilised to track enemy movements
- Shield Generators provide protection from most types of munitions
- Point Defense, Anti-Air Turrets, and Torpedo Launchers are static weapons used to repel attackers from land, air, and water respectively
Constructing buildings has cost per second on Economy. In the UI entry for a given building is 2 numbers per resource required: the total cost resource cost of the building and, in parathesis, the cost per second. Use the first figure against required resource you have stored, if the building's base cost is is greater than value stored then utilise the second number against income per second for the required resoruce.
Most but not all buildings have an Energy cost per second; their function is toggleable meaning it can be turned off to stop its Energy per second cost on your economy, but the building's function will cease also. In the case of a Mass Fabricator, this will stop it converting Energy to Mass.
Outside the scope of this guide but worthwhile understanding once you're comfortable with the basics is Adjacency Bonus.
¶ Units
A player can have double the eco of their opponent and still lose the match, why? Because the different kinds of units have a major impact in being successful with conducting and countering combat engagements.
A key aspect to remember is a unit's sight range and it weapon(s) range are not the same. Most units can fire farther than they can see so having another unit or radar/sonar spot for them allows the firing unit to deal damage whilst reducing retaliation fire due to range advantage.
¶ Categories
Without going into great detail and staying within T1-T3, the following is a role summation for each category of unit that appears in more than one faction:
Engineer
Builder and repair unit, no combat capabilities
Scout
Available in Land and Air format, this unit has no combat capabilities but superior vision.
Best used to determine where the enemy is and what they have built, and in conjunction with combat units to provide combat units vision beyond their own means.
Assault Bot
In T1 they are short range, fast moving, low health units best used firing on the move and for flanking. In T3 they become the staple front line unit.
It's worth noting that T1 Assault Bots are able to fire whilst docked in a transport unit.
Tank
Slow moving, hard hitting, moderate health unit. Amphibious variant can traverse both land and water but lack damage output of non-amphibious tanks.
Artillery
Long range in-direct fire unit with low health, splash damage great for groups of units and buildings. Keep positioned just behind front line or out of range of enemy Point Defenses.
Mobile Missile Launcher
Long range in-direct fire unit with low health, precision strike for high damage against a single target. Keep positioned just behind front line or out of range of enemy Point Defenses.
Mobile Anti-Air
Dedicated to combating Air units
Mobile Defense
- Mobile Shield Generator: Slow-moving unit that provides protection from most munitions in a radius around itself. Best used in conjunction with front line units and defense of buildings whilst shield generator building being constructed.
- Mobile Stealth Field: Unique to the Cybran faction, a slow moving unit that hides units from radar detection in a radius around itself. Best used to foil enemy radar coverage and aid guerrilla tactics. Contrary to the namesake, Stealth fields do not prevent enemy units from visually seeing units inside a Stealth field.
Interceptor/Fighter
Dedicated Air-to-Air unit, fast moving, great for escorting other Air units and patrol duties.
Bomber
Air-to-Ground, strafes and delivers payload in a line. Best against static targets, some success against slow moving Land units.
Torpedo variant used exclusively against Naval units and buildings, fires one target seeking torpedo per strafe run.
Transport
Used to transport or ferry Land units, including ACU, long distances quickly and over impassable terrain. Best used to move Land units to a distant front line in a fraction of the time they could themselves, drop off Engineers/ACU at an unclaimed Mass point or Hydrocarbon site, and the only method of moving Land units over water and mountains.
Please see Air-Transport for capacity specifics of each faction's transports.
Gunship
Close Air Support, stays within close proximity of target to deliver continuous fire. Makes quick work of undefended, from air, Land and surfaced Naval targets.
Attack Submarine
Submerged unit for attacking Naval units and buildings. If not detected by Sonar it can remain unseen when firing.
Frigate
Support unit equipped with Radar and Sonar, offensive capabilities are faction dependant.
Submarine Hunter
Anti-submarine role primarily, additional capabilities are faction dependent.
Crusier
Improved Radar and Sonar capabilities over the Frigate. Offensive capabilities are faction dependent thought they all have Anti-Air weaponry.
Destroyer
Anti-Submarine role primarily, additional capabilities are faction dependent.
Battleship
Long range bombardment and engagement with non-submersed Naval units primarily, additional capabilities are faction dependent.
Missile Submarine
Submersible unit that fires both tactical (long-range precision strike) and buildable strategic missiles (Nukes).
Aircraft Carrier
Produces, stows, and refuels Air units. In essence, a mobile Air Factory and Air Staging Facility on water.
¶ Fuel
Air units have an additional bar under their health bar which displays their current fuel. When fuel bar is depleted the Air unit's speed is greatly reduced, in turn reducing its effectiveness.
Landing the air unit will slowly regenerate its fuel bar, though docking at an Air Staging Facility building or at an Aircraft Carrier will instantly replenish fuel.
¶ Veterancy
Units will receive veterancy based on the Mass value of the unit that is killed. A unit doesn't need to strike the killing blow to receive veterancy.
Once a unit dies all the units which damaged it will receive veterancy points based on how much damage they did to that unit.
A unit has to gain 200% of its Mass value in veterancy points to gain a rank. 200% drops to 50% for Experimental units.
Each rank of veterancy non-cumulatively increases a unit's base health by 10% and its health regen by 10 per second, i.e.
- Rank 1 - Base Health + 10%, Health Regen +10/s
- Rank 2 - Base Health + 20%, Health Regen +20/s
- Rank 3 - Base Health + 30%, Health Regen +30/s
- Rank 4 - Base Health + 40%, Health Regen +40/s
- Rank 5 - Base Health + 50%, Health Regen +50/s
¶ Intelligence
Another important aspect of the game is intelligence and counter-intelligence, i.e. you watching the enemy and preventing them from watching you.
Radar provides coverage for spotting land, air, and naval surface units in a radius from the radar emitting unit/building. It cannot detected submerged naval units and anything inside a stealth field. Having sight of targets far beyond the visual range of units and static weapons allows them to react to incoming enemies, within weapoins range, quicker and is essential for effectively utilising the long range of units and static weapons both offensively and defensively.
In general, the higher the Tech Level radar building the larger the radius.
Sonar being the naval counterpart to Radar, spotting units traversing in (i.e. submerged) and over water.
Stealth Fields hide units and buildings from enemy radar/sonar. This can be used both defensively and offensively though it is worth noting the trade-off between mobile and static generation.
Mobile stealth units have a much smaller radius yet are mobile, meaning if unit vision has spotted them then they can relocate. Conversely, Stealth Generators are buildings with a far greater Stealth field radius but are immobile, if it's been spotted by enemy vision it's position will be visible to enemy players visually following the spotting unit.
Radar Jamming is a passive ability of unit that generates more unit signatures to enemy radar/sonar than what is actually there. Counter-intelligence designed to fool enemies into thinking a larger number of units are present, suggesting to enemy player to over commit to an offense or defense of the detected unit, or units in this case.
Omni is Radar and Sonar that ignores Stealth Fields and Radar Jamming, which makes it coveted for high priority positions. An ACU and T3 Air Scouts have this capability along with a T3 Radar building, though the T3 Radar's Omni radius is identical to the radar radius of the T2 Radar.
¶ Build Order
A build order is akin to an opening play in chess, deciding what to focus on building and producing in the early stages of a match can have advantages and disadvantages throughout a match. Map terrain also has effect on build order, e.g. a mainly water-based map will see hardly any Land units, if any at all, being utilized.
¶ Second land
A build order where the ACU builds two land factories.
The ACU builds:
- Land Factory
- 2 Pgens
- 4 Mexes
- 3 Pgens
- Land Factory
- Move to front line or help produce more factories (the first is better)
The first Engineers build:
- 1st Engie: Expands, reclaims, or assists ACU
- 2nd Engie: Expands, reclaims
- 3rd Engie: Assists ACU, takes over base production for ACU to move toward front lines
¶ Second Air
A build order where the ACU builds a Land Factory, followed by an Air Factory. This is very common in higher level of play, because it lets you build bombers for attacking the enemy, interceptors for killing enemy bomber and, most importantly, scouts for finding out what your opponent is up to.
The ACU builds:
- Land Factory
- 2 Pgens
- 4 Mexes
- 4-6 Pgens
- Air Factory
- Move to front line or help produce more factories (the first is better)
The First Engineers build:
- 1st Engie: Expands, reclaims, or assists ACU
- 2nd Engie: Expands, reclaims
- 3rd Engie: Assists ACU, takes over base production for ACU to move toward front lines
¶ Second Air (Hydro version)
A build order where the ACU builds a Land Factory, followed by an Air Factory. Since hydrocarbon powerplants are very cost-efficient you should use this version if possible.
The ACU builds:
- Land Factory
- 4 Mexes
- Assists first engineer
- Move to front line or help produce more factories (the first is better)
The First Engineers build:
- 1st Engie: Hydrocarbon powerplant, 1-2 Pgens, Air factory placed next to hydrocarbon powerplant (for Adjacency bonus)
- 2nd Engie: Assist building hydrocarbon powerplant, expand, reclaim
- 3rd Engie: Expand, reclaim, or assist ACU in factory production
¶ Faction Diversity
As an in-depth guide of the Factions is available, the following is more summary.
¶ UEF - Unity
A strong faction known for their excellent defenses. Recommended for beginners.
- Pros:
- T1 Tank can dodge incoming fire, excellent in the early game.
- T2 Tank is a very cheap unit compared to other T2 Tanks, making them great early in the mid game to overwhelm the enemy.
- T3 Assault Bot is the strongest frontline T3 unit available to any faction.
- Con's:
- T1 Bombers don't have a good precision, making them less efficient to kill the opponent's expanding engineers at the early game.
For more information on intermediate-level play of this faction: UEF 1v1 Guide.
¶ Cybran - Freedom
A faction that's more difficult to play but has many tools which make it interesting.
- Pros:
- T1 Assault Bot acts as the Cybran's T1 Tank, which moves faster than other T1 tanks. It can even assist with building, though it's rate of construction is far worse than an Engineers so they should be used for this purpose in a pinch
- T2 Mobile stealth field is a very cheap and effective unit
- Cons:
- T1 Bombers have bad precision, making them inefficient vs units and can sometimes fail to kill expanding enemy engineers.
- No Mobile Shield unit
For more information on intermediate-level play of this faction: Cybran 1v1 Guide.
¶ Aeon - Clarity
One of the more difficult factions to play due to some quirks with their tanks, but very rewarding when used correctly.
- Pros:
- T1 Tank outranges all other T1 tanks, can dodge incoming fire, and is amphibious
- T2 Tank is a strong unit, effective vs other T2, but is slow moving with a short range which puts it at a disadvantage against T1 units.
- The only faction to have a T2 Fighter, you can dominate the skies with these until T3 air hits the field.
- Cons:
- T1 Tank has very low health, is quite slow, and requires constant attention.
- T2 Tank is slow moving and short ranged; not as good vs T1 as other T2 tanks.
For more information on intermediate-level play of this faction: Aeon 1v1 Guide.
¶ Seraphim - Destruction
This faction has very strong units and some good defenses, especially shields, though suffer from a lack of unit choice.
- Pros:
- T1 Artillery is effective, and amphibious
- T2 Assault Bot is very strong for it's Tier, should be treated as a T2.5 unit
- T2 Gunship is slightly stronger than other factions' T2 gunships
- Cons:
- A distinct lack of units that other factions have, e.g. no Light Assault Bots (LABs)
For more information on intermediate-level play of this faction: Seraphim 1v1 Guide.
¶ Additional Learning
Additional resources for new players: