In recent games, I’ve seen a lot of newer (and sometimes even experienced) people like to go for what I call a “Mass Conversion Strategy” as opposed to a “Unit Rush/Unit ‘Spam’ Strategy.”

Basically, this means that instead of focusing on units, in the beginning you focus on making 2 or more research stations, and lots of power generators in hopes of reaching mass conversion and using your economy to then out-produce and/or out-tech your opponent(s) who might be limited in their mass income to whatever they’re getting from Mass Extractors and likely have built very few research stations if they’re not doing what you’re doing.

While this is a very powerful strategy, if you can pull it off, because it’s kind of “explosive” and “exponential” once you reach that point where you have mass convertors built and 10+ engineers making PGens and different structures all around the map, it is usually (but not always) not a winning strategy against experienced people, and requires certain prerequisites for it to work, namely a larger map with a choke point for land units, no naval, as well as a opponent who is not doing the same tactic who can help defend against the best counter to this strategy – a “rush.”

So, why a larger map, a choke point, and no naval you might ask?

Well, as it turns out, while you can defend against air and “small” land units (except mobile missile launchers) fairly effectively with shields (which are “on the way” to mass conversion for all factions except UEF) and AA towers / Point Defenses under them, you can usually NOT defend effectively against “minor” experimentals such as assault blocks, megaliths, or fatboys without a choke point and “shield spam” due to their range. The same is true for naval units – battleships are fairly easily unlockable for most factions (and the Illuminate have their hovering mobile missile launchers), and they also have a high range which can “hit” across a considerable length of coastline on naval maps, which you’ll find impossible to defend with “shield spam.”

Think about it – if you don’t have a choke point or have naval, they can come and hit you anywhere in your base. Even with a “hardened” spot with a few shields and defenses, a couple of mass convertors, and a few power generators, can you really outproduce your opponent(s) under a constant siege by experimentals? Probably not. Therefore, on maps such as Iskellian Coast, Open Palms, Boras Naval Test Range, etc., you’ll have great difficulty in “pulling off” a pure mass conversion strategy without any other units except structures. I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m just saying it’s more difficult than, for example, on Sinorok Rift Armory, Tourney Dome, or even Fields of Isis with their natural choke points and lack of naval.

The size of map is also sometimes a determining factor in making a “mass conversion strategy” work. On larger maps such as Etched Desert, usually due to speed of transportation issues, it is a little harder to “hit” an opponent quickly and hard enough with experimental units and destroy his base before s/he already has mass convertors operational. It is definitely a tactic to consider, however. Most of the time, on larger maps you have to kind of “walk up” to their base and set up facs there, etc. which are then vulnerable to counter-attacks if there’s MC going, so it’s a bit more risky.

To kind of “bring this together” a little more, I’d like to kind of “walk through” an amazing game I recently played with (MM) :: DaemonicKnight on Fields of Isis vs. Weedman and _Xpl0$1vE_ . Everyone involved had 600+ hours in the game, and I was the least experienced with over 300.

You can download the replay from here.

You have to have the Supreme Commander 2 DLC bought and enabled (check mark ticked on the main menu), and the file needs to be uncompressed with 7-zip into “Documents\My Games\SquareEnix\Supreme Commander 2\replays\<some numbers>” (the location is taken from my computer which is running Windows 7 x64. If you’re still not sure where or how to unpack the replay contact me and I’ll help you.

I’d like to encourage you to now stop looking at this post and watch the replay once. Then come back and read on.

This was a “classic” mass conversion vs. unit rush game if there was any. We ended up winning, but it was EXTREMELY  close.

So, let’s check the prerequisites that made this work. A map without naval and a choke point? Fields of Isis – check. A teammate who’s not doing mass conversion to counter at least some of the incoming unit rush? Me – check.

So, we started off by me doing some air and scouting a bit to see what the opponents are doing while DaemonicKnight (DK) made 2 research stations and started “spamming” power generators at the choke point. Those power generators were strategically placed (spread out so there are no “chain reaction” damage blow-ups) to counter a possible land rush with the Illuminate’s “electroshock” ability.

So far, so good. Mass convertor visible on the right.

We saw that we were up against a “classic” Fields of Isis strategy – a megalith rush and UEF air spam. Luckily, I “won air” – established air supremacy (even with somewhat of a mass disadvantage) in the beginning, and even held it for quite a while – until my teammate was ready to support me with his overwhelming mass conversion-powered production.

However, land was quite a bit more problematic. Due to the incoming megaliths (with adaptors mixed in so I couldn’t attack with the few bombers I had made), my teammate had an extremely hard time defending effectively against the minor experimental “spam” we were subjected to. Our opponents knew exactly what we were doing, and did precisely what they needed to to counter us – they rushed us with land, hard and early… backed up by adaptors to ensure I couldn’t use my air supremacy to bomb the megaliths.

Megaliths coming in, backed up by adaptors, to prevent them from being bombed.

So, at that point it was pretty much all up to my teammate. I had saved our starting positions and our territory altogether from being bombed to oblivion, but I could not respond to the land force which was incoming – there was no way.

So, what do you think the outcome was? Well, my teammate wasn’t fast enough to set up a “wall of shields” at the choke point – I don’t blame him really, they came fast as they should have, and… things blew up… The megaliths’ range is, unfortunately, greater than the range of the electroshock beams from the illuminate power generators. They overwhelmed the shields at the front and started slowly but surely “digging into” the structures and shields which were constantly being built at the choke point.

Luckily, amidst the destruction, my teammate finally succeeded to get a loyalty gun up and going, using the “sacrifice heal” Illuminate structure ability to speed up the construction by sacrificing a few power generators in the vicinity of the project.

Loyalty Gun just went up. VERY close indeed.

Realizing that his megaliths had to spend time standing in loyalty gun range to attempt to break the shield cover, and couldn’t “rush” because of electroshock, the attacker had no other option but to retreat at that point. One megalith got captured, the rest escaped.

I want you to take a good look at the screenshot above, because it shows exactly how incredibly CLOSE this game was. Between the loyalty gun and the megaliths stood only a few power generators and 5 shields. Had my teammate been a minute late, we would’ve both been history.

Megaliths retreating from the newly-created loyalty gun. The wreckage of a captured one can be seen in front of the choke point.

However, the loyalty gun completely turned the game around. Of course, when the unit rush tactic didn’t work, our opponents switched to artillery. However, my teammate was completely on top of that as well and spammed nukes under a safe cover of multiple shields. When used correctly, you can’t compete with an economy of mass conversion once it’s established and producing.

By that point, I was more or less out of the game, because I had no counter for the arty, but it didn’t matter – my teammate produced the air we needed to land the final blow on the “air” opponent as well.

So, please consider your “mass conversion” strategy carefully if you’re planning on doing it, and make sure you have a good counter for a possibly incoming unit rush. Instead of a loyalty gun, other factions’ good structural defense weapons against minor land experimentals are the Cybran Recycler or Magnetron, and the UEF Fortified Artillery (lots of it). Usually, those structures require a “wall of shields” and a short-range defense (point defenses, electroshock, “hardened” fortified artillery) to keep experimentals away to enable the longer-range structures to “chip away” from the experimentals’ health, “push them away” (magnetron), or capture them (loyalty gun). Without short-range defenses and shield-walls, the magnetron, loyalty gun, and recycler are easily rushed and destroyed.