Supreme Commander 2 Strategy Guide: Cybran Strategies

The Cybran have a robust set of tools for dominating their opponents. They tend to compact many roles into individual units, but they can make their units very powerful in some instances. This strategy guide outlines three great strategies which will help Cybran players achieve victory.

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The goal of the quick rush is to cripple the opponent early. It consists of obtaining about 10 gunships by around 5 minutes in. This is done by pumping all research points into only the techs for gunships and by buildings only a minimal amount of infrastructure along with an air factory. Once the gunships are obtained they can be used to wreck an opponent's economy. It is a hard strategy to counter and will usually result in one opponent being set back economically for the rest of the game. If the enemy hasneglected his AA defenses completely you can even kill his commander and take him out of the fight.

The goal of the long rush is to obtain a "blob" of 40 gunships which are heavily upgraded. Those who use this strategy usually focus heavily on infrastructure in the early game. Research facilities are crucial because you'll be wanting to research all gunship upgrades including training, health, shields, damage, and rate of fire. The gunships can start pouring out at around 5 or 6 minutes in, although obviously they won't be fully upgraded at that point. Once they are fully upgraded, pick an opponent and wreck him. He'll be hard pressed to stop you before you annihilate his base or commander.

Cybran ships can walk. This feature must be researched, but it is early in the tech tree.

Once it is researched, Cybran ships become extremely effective land units. The Salem has 4500 hitpoints and a very nasty mid-range cannon. The Executioner has 9000 hitpoints and range matched only by a select few units like the Fatboy. As if that wasn't enough, both units have fairly effective anti-air cannons. Think about that. The Executioner starts off as tough as a Megalith, has better range, and has better AA. Yet it is cheaper to build both in terms of unit cost and the cost of the factory it is built at.

If you do go with this strategy, it is probably wise to build some fighter/bombers as well. While Cybran ships have reasonable AA, it still isn't enough to protect against concentrated air attacks. Fighter/bombers are also wise to have on call because they can act as scouts. The only real problem with the Cybran ship strategy is that their range does no good if they can't see a target. The fighter/bombers can solve this issue.

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What this strategy does is use a forward base to break an enemy turtle or land army. It requires that a Magnetron be built at a critical choke-point on the battlefield. The Magnetron is then covered by a charged Bomb Bouncer. The goal is to suck in units and use the Bomb Bouncer and to destroy enemy air units once they come to try and take out the Magnetron.

This strategy is particularly good against turtles for two reasons. One is that it forces the turtle's engineers and defensive units away from their defenses. It can even suck in the commander. This makes it much easier to defeat those defenses because turtles often use engineers or their commander to heal through incoming damage. Also, it is effective because it also doubles as a defense for your own front line.