History YMMV / SupremeCommander

* BreatherLevel: Mission 6, the final mission of Forged Alliance. Compared to the previous two missions before it, this mission is much easier primarily due to what the player is given at the start of the game (You gain a free base, two [=SACUs=] and even a Galactic Colossus!). This allows you to build up a large military force very early on and crush the enemy with ease.

* Mission 5 of the Forged Alliance campaign, forcing you to build your starting base conventionally with no bonuses from wreckage or a starting base while gunships and patrols harass you as you try to build up your base. When you finally destroy the first enemy base, you're than forced to fight against waves of T3 units and Experimentals while having to fight your way into a heavily defended enemy base. The final objective forces you to deal with multiple experimental assaults mixed in with massive strategic bomber strikes and hordes of T3 units that you have to fight against.
* The final missions of the first game can all count as this.
** The UEF final mission starts with the player forced to rescue a Black Sun component guarded by multiple enemy warships, then you are forced to seek out and destroy an Aeon base and the final section becomes a desperate HoldTheLine mission where you have to fight off large Cybran assaults and an especially massive Aeon assault.
** The Cybran final mission starts off with a TimedMission where you have to destroy an Aeon CZAR before it can hit the Black Sun defences, which transitions into a MarathonLevel as you have to fight your way from objective to objective in order to capture buildings.
** The Aeon final mission starts off well enough, but it quickly turns sour when you are forced to defend the Black Sun Control Centre from a Cybran Commander (whose initial attack has a Monkeylord) and afterward defeating him, you need to fend off attacks from [[spoiler:Avatar Marxon]] which include a massive naval fleet with a Tempest battleship! Did we also mention that [[spoiler:Avatar Marxon]] has a massive base surrounding his ACU?

* BreatherLevel: Mission 6, the final mission of Forged Alliance. Compared to the previous two missions before it, this mission is much easier primarily due to what the player is given at the start of the game (You gain a free base, two SACUs and even a Galactic Colossus!). This allows you to build up a large military force very early on and crush the enemy with ease.

** In ''Forged Alliance'', [[spoiler:Dostya's death in Mission 4, being betrayed by Hex5 - a Cybran turncoat who joined the Seraphim and the Aeon fanatics and turn against the rest of humanity. She's one of the more decent characters in the original game and is one of the few competent and loyal allies that still fight alongside you throughout half of the expansion while most other characters either died or became turncoats. Her death devastates Dr. Brackman probably as much as it does the player, and there's nothing you can do to prevent it. The only consolation, which is only available if you play as a Cybran commander, is that you could recover her destroyed ACU at Dr. Brackman's request.]]

* BreatherLevel: Mission 6, the final mission of Forged Alliance. Compared to the previous two missions before it, this mission is much easier primarily due to what the player is given at the start of the game (You gain a free base, two sACUs and even a Galactic Colossus!). This allows you to build up a large military force very early on and crush the enemy with ease.
* BrokenBase: The second game, when compared to the first, is a split case between people who liked it for its accessibility and relative simplicity, and those who detest it for being smaller in scale. The middle ground exists, but is not as prevalent as the other two camps.

** Some experimentals, popularly termed "Game Enders" are this ''intentionally'': Their obscene power is balanced by their immense cost and build time, and that's not getting into (human) opponents definitely launching a desperate offensive to destroy/disable them.

*** Yolona Oss: Fires a special Nuke that needs two Anti-Nukes to destroy. Given the fact that the special Nuke takes only one minute to build and is cheaper than a regular Nuke, the opponent will need eight Anti-Nuke stations just to protect against one Yolona Oss- most likely causing them to crash their economy unless they play Aeon who have already built a Paragon or more.
** The Forged Alliance campaign allows players to construct experimentals without having to wait until the final missions like the original game did. Very few of the missions have any real impetus to achieve objectives, thus many of the missions can be won by simply turtling in the base, getting your economy blazing, then constructing immensely powerful experimentals/nukes/artillery/whatnot, at which point the game becomes trivial as you steamroll through all the objectives. The UEF are the best at this tactic, as they can build a couple of the Mavor artillery pieces within about 2 hours, and they will destroy every enemy building on the map in very short time, while still being able to build constant Fatboy experimentals that the enemy have no hope of standing up to. It's so incredibly easy that one can even steamroll all the enemy bases in the 4th mission (which is supposed to be a HoldTheLine mission) before recalling.

*** A side note of the final Aeon campaign is when [[spoiler:Arnold, who was brainwashed in the other campaigns, captures Black Sun and gives Princess Burke control. He declares his loyalty has always been with her, even when Marxon destroys him.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Marxon never showed any sympathetic qualities due to his attempts to usurp Princess Burke and order even the player to murder civilians. In the Aeon campaign, [[spoiler:he crosses further by declaring his wish to use the Black Sun on his enemies and blows up Arnold when he gives control over to the Princess instead. By that point, even the Princess herself wants him gone for good.]]

** The Aeon Illuminate campaign of the original game is rather depressing, with the epic soundtrack not helping one bit. The first couple of missions folllow the Knight being ordered by Marxon to butcher civilian populations in UEF and Cybran territory. Even when you're finally allowed to stop by becoming Princess Burke's Champion, you're still targeted by those who are pissed off at you for destroying their colonies whether you're involved or not. It does not help that unlike the other campaigns, where the enemy commanders’ deaths are well-deserved, theirs are agonizing at best with the exception of Marxon and his followers (One example is Leopard 11 simply trying to recall when defeated in the UEF while his screams are included upon his defeat in the Aeon campaign.) Once the Princess finally has enough and orders the Illuminate to stand down, she still nearly gets overthrown by Marxon, forcing you to kill many of his insane subordinates. Finally, [[spoiler:the turned Zachery Arnold manages to capture Black Sun for the Princess, only to be killed by the Avatar for defying him, having Princess order you in a rage to finish him off once and for all. And in the end, it requires the Princess to sacrifice herself to reach into everyone's hearts so that the war could finally end.]]

** The UEF final mission starts with the player forced to rescue a Black Sun component guarded by multiple enemy warships, then you are forced to seek out and destroy an Aeon base, and the final section becomes a desperate HoldTheLine mission where you have to fight off large Cybran assaults and an especially massive Aeon assault.

** The Aeon final mission starts off well enough, but it quick turns sour when you are forced to defend the Black Sun Control Centre from a Cybran Commander (whose initial attack has a Monkeylord) and afterward defeating him, you need to fend off attacks from [[spoiler:Marxon]] which include a massive naval fleet with a Tempest battleship! Did we also mention that [[spoiler:Marxon]] has a massive base surrounding his ACU?
* TheWoobie: Princess Rhianne Burke has the worst happen to her. Despite all of her intentions to create peace in the galaxy, she's always the center of political struggles and vengeful UEF and Cybran officers who try to kill her for crimes committed by the rest of the Illuminate. She sees many of her friends and closest supporters die or turn on her, some of them right in front of her. Worst of all, [[spoiler:she's forced to perform a HeroicSacrifice in both the Aeon ending of the first game and in the expansion just to see the bloodshed finally end]].

** The Forged Alliance campaign allows players to construct experiments without having to wait until the final missions like the original game did. Very few of the missions have any real impetus to achieve objectives, thus many of the missions can be won by simply turtling in the base, getting your economy blazing, then constructing immensely powerful experimentals/nukes/artillery/whatnot, at which point the game becomes trivial as you steamroll through all the objectives. The UEF are the best at this tactic, as they can build a couple of the Mavor artillery pieces within about 2 hours, and they will destroy every enemy building on the map in very short time, while still being able to build constant Fatboy experimentals that the enemy have no hope of standing up to. It's so incredibly easy that one can even steamroll all the enemy bases in the 4th mission (which is supposed to be a HoldTheLine mission) before recalling.

* ThatOneLevel: Mission 4, Objective 3 of Forged Alliance. You never get a clue or a hint that your base is going to be attacked from all sides until you complete Objective 2 and see that you're surrounded and attacked by endless waves of T2 and T3 Seraphim Units, forcing you to start all over from the beginning if your base construction was very minimal AND you forgot to make a save beforehand.
** Apparently, there was ONE clue, [[FreezeFrameBonus but so faint many missed it]]: During the opening briefing, there's a map of your LZ (landing zone) showing Dostya's position, yours and several other Seraphim positions surrounding you for several seconds. All in pretty much the EXACT same placement when Objective 3 happens... apparently the other objectives simply misled us.
** And contrary to every other level in the campaign where a UEF player can just build a Mavor, sit back, and just tell it where to shoot to end the mission, on this level building a Mavor will work against you as the cost will leave you vulnerable, and it cannot do anything to defend you.

* TearJerker: The Aeon Illuminate campaign of the original game is rather depressing, with the epic soundtrack not helping one bit. The first couple of missions folllow the Knight being ordered by Marxon to butcher civilian populations in UEF and Cybran territory. Even when you're finally allowed to stop by becoming Princess Burke's Champion, you're still targeted by those who are pissed off at you for destroying their colonies whether you're involved or not. It does not help that unlike the other campaigns, where the enemy commanders’ deaths are well-deserved, theirs are agonizing at best with the exception of Marxon and his followers (One example is Leopard 11 simply trying to recall when defeated in the UEF while his screams are included upon his defeat in the Aeon campaign.) Once the Princess finally has enough and orders the Illuminate to stand down, she still nearly gets overthrown by Marxon, forcing you to kill many of his insane subordinates. Finally, [[spoiler:the turned Zachery Arnold manages to capture Black Sun for the Princess, only to be killed by the Avatar for defying him, having Princess order you in a rage to finish him off once and for all. And in the end, it requires the Princess to sacrifice herself to reach into everyone's hearts so that the war could finally end.]]

* HeartwarmingMoments:

* MoralEventHorizon: Marxon never showed any sympathetic qualities due to his attempts to usurp Princess Burke and order even the player to murder civilians. In the Aeon campaign, [[spoiler:he crosses further by declaring his wish to use the Black Sun on his enemies and blows up Arnold when he gives control over to the Princess instead. By that point, even the Princess herself wants to him gone for good.]]

* TearJerker: The Aeon Illuminate campaign of the original game is rather depressing, with the epic soundtrack not helping one bit. The first couple of missions folllow the Knight being ordered by Marxon to butcher civilian populations in UEF and Cybran territory. Even when you're finally allowed to stop by becoming Princess Burke's Champion, you're still targeted by those who are pissed off at you for destroying their colonies whether you're involved or not. It does not help that unlike the other campaigns, where the enemy commanders’ deaths are well-deserved, theirs are agonizing at best with the exception of Marxon and his followers (One example is Leopard 11 simply trying to recall when defeated in the UEF while his screams are included upon his defeat in the Aeon campaign.) Once the Princess finally has enough and orders the Illuminate to stand down, she still nearly gets overthrown by Marxon, forcing you to kill many of his insane subordinates. Finally, [[spoiler:the turned Zachery Arnold manages to capture Black Sun for the Princess, only to be killed by the Avatar for defying him, having Princess order you in a rage to finish him off once and for all. And in the end, it requires the Princess to sacrficie herself to reach into everyone's hearts so that the war could finally end.]]

* TearJerker: The Aeon Illuminate campaign of the original is rather depressing, with the epic soundtrack not helping one bit. The first couple of missions folllow the Knight being ordered by Marxon to butcher civilian populations in UEF and Cybran territory. Even when you're finally allowed to stop by becoming Princess Burke's Champion, you're still targeted by the commmanders of those regions who are pissed off at you for destroying their colonies whether you're involved or not. It does not help that unlike the other campaigns, where the enemy commanders’ deaths are well-deserved, theirs are agonizing at best with the exception of Marxon and his followers (One example is Leopard11 simply trying to recall when defeated in the UEF while his screams are included upon his defeat in the Aeon campaign.) Once the Princess finally has enough and orders the Illuminate to stand down, she still nearly gets overthrown by Marxon, forcing you to kill many of his insane subordinates. Finally, [[spoiler:the turned Zachery Arnold manages to capture Black Sun for the Princess, only to be killed by the Avatar for defying him, having Princess order you in a rage to finish him off once and for all. And in the end, it requires the Princess to sacrficie herself to reach into everyone's hearts so that the war could finally end.]]

* TearJerker: The Aeon Illuminate campaign of the original is rather depressing, with the epic soundtrack not helping one bit. The first couple of missions folllow the Knight being ordered by Marxon to butcher civilian populations in UEF and Cybran territory. Even when you're finally allowed to stop by becoming Princess Burke's Champion, you're still targeted by the commmanders of those regions who are pissed off at you for destroying their colonies whether you're involved or not. Once the Princess finally has enough and orders the Illuminate to stand down, she still nearly gets overthrown by Marxon, forcing you to kill many of his insane subordinates. Finally, [[spoiler:the turned Zachery Arnold manages to capture Black Sun for the Princess, only to be killed by the Avatar for defying him, having Princess order you in a rage to finish him off once and for all. And in the end, it requires the Princess to sacrficie herself to reach into everyone's hearts so that the war could finally end.]]

** the Forged Alliance campaign allows players to construct experiments without having to wait until the final missions like the original game did. Very few of the missions have any real impetus to achieve objectives, thus many of the missions can be won by simply turtling in the base, getting your economy blazing, then constructing immensely powerful experimentals/nukes/artillery/whatnot, at which point the game becomes trivial as you steamroll through all the objectives. The UEF are the best at this tactic, as they can build a couple of the Mavor artillery pieces within about 2 hours, and they will destroy every enemy building on the map in very short time, while still being able to build constant Fatboy experimentals that the enemy have no hope of standing up to. It's so incredibly easy that one can even steamroll all the enemy bases in the 4th mission (which is supposed to be a HoldTheLine mission) before recalling.

* MoralEventHorizon: Marxon never showed any sympathetic qualities due to his attmepts to usurp Princess Burke and order even the player to murder civilians. In the Aeon campaign, [[spoiler:he crosses further by declaring his wish to use the Black Sun on his enemies and blows up Arnold when he gives control over to the Princess instead. By that point, even the Princess herself wants to him gone for good.]]

* BrokenBase: The Square Enix forums for ''Supreme Commander 2'' are one half "[[TheyChangedItNowItSucks this game sucks ass]] [[ItsEasySoItSucks compared to the first one]]" and one half "[[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel this game is awesome compared to the first one]]".
** It doesn't seem like a broken base so much as two entirely different bases in the same series. There aren't many fans of both the original AND the sequel.
** It's quite simple - ''Supreme Commander 2'' is centred on the tactical scale of combat instead of strategical one, on which were ''Supreme Commander'' and ''Total Annihilation'' centred. So people who played it because they wanted to play the second part of TA's successor were disappointed by the decrease in scale, but overall the game is still very good and thus people who played it without comparing it to its predecessors were satisfied.
* FridgeLogic: It's a good thing the enemy commanders you face are all constrained in what units they can build in the same way your superiors limit you. Missions would be over very quickly otherwise. They do like to throw curveballs, though, like the UEF mission which suddenly and with almost no warning pits you against a Cybran Monkeylord while you have nothing on its level. Good times.
** The reason the Seraphim are trying to destroy humanity is because they believe that only one race may achieve perfection through the Way. However, most of the human society rejects the Way and only the Aeon preach and try to spread it. Wouldn't it make more sense to just kill off the Aeon instead of allying with them and trying to kill everyone else?
** It's AllThereInTheManual, the Seraphim's first contact with humanity came well before the events of either game, as the humans nuked a peaceful Seraphim colony, making their campaign in ''Forged Alliance'' more of a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

** This only really let the ridiculousness of the Aeon become apparent, though; typically having the best or at worst the second best of every unit type. Aeon were all but impossible to beat on water maps, trading the useless deck gun of other faction subs for a second torpedo attack and having a basic T1 tank that was amphibious; they also had a missile defence which couldn't be overwhelmed at all, a T3 artillery which was pinpoint accurate and fired twice, and the Harbinger, a Siegebot which had the best cost versus damage of any unit in the entire game. The Aeon superiority on maps with water was at one point so severe that ''all'' water maps were removed from competitive play.
*** Just... don't talk about the Aeon Restorer AA gunship. Just don't. Cheapest T3 gunship by an ''absurd'' amount, toughest T3 gunship, ''fastest'' T3 gunship and the only T3 gunship to have proper AA weapons (letting you save on ASF costs)? Their durability and versatility makes fact that they have only half the air-to-ground firepower of the Wailer and the Broadsword practically a non-issue, especially considering how much cheaper they are.
** The ACU destruct nuke used to be a completely normal nuke; it was nerfed because every game was ending in draw-by-combombing.

** Some of the Experimentals fall under this category. Also termed as "Game Enders".

*** Scathis: A mobile artillery platform that rapidly fires low-yield nuke shells all over an enemy base. It has the range of Mavor but is terribly inaccurate.
*** Salvation: Rapidly shoots shells that break apart into 36 bomblets, causing widespread damage.

*** Yolona Oss: Fires a special Nuke that needs two Anti-Nukes to destroy. Given the fact that the special Nuke takes only one minute to build and is cheaper than a regular Nuke, the opponent will need eight Anti-Nuke stations just to protect against one Yolona Oss.
** The expansion pack Forged Alliance allows players to construct experiments without having to wait until the final missions like the original game did. Very few of the missions have any real impetus to achieve objectives, thus many of the missions can if the player wants to, turtle in their base, constructing reams of tier 3 power generators and mass fabricators, until you have enough power and mass to construct game enders at which point you steam roll all of the map objectives in very quick time. The UEF are the best at this tactic, as they can build a couple of the Mavor artillery pieces within about 2 hours, and they will destroy every enemy building on the map in very short time, while still being able to build constant fatboy experimentals that the enemy have no hope of standing up to. It's so incredibly easy that one can even steamroll all the enemey bases in the 4th mission (which is supposed to be a HoldTheLine mission) before recalling.

* NightmareFuel: The scream that the Seraphim T3 bomber yells as it drops its payload can be quite terrifying

** And contrary to every other level in the campaign where a UEF player can just build a Mavor, sit back, and just tell it where to shoot to end the mission, on this level building a Mavor will work against you as the cost will leave you vulnerable, and it cannot do anything to defend you. (Instead, turtle in behind entire ''fields'' of [[MoreDakka Ravager turrets]], capture a Seraphim engineer, and build as many experiemntal bombers as possible.)
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The sequel did away with much of the economic complexity, added a research element while greatly reducing unit variety, and has significantly weaker graphics than the original or Forged Alliance. See BrokenBase above.

* ContestedSequel: ''[=SupCom=]'' was a major cult hit with RTS fans and one of the last great games to come from the genre, with a simply unparalleled sense of scale. ''[=SupCom 2=]...'' [[SoOkayItsAverage also came out at some point.]]

* MostAnnoyingSound:
** "Transport is full"
** "Commander under attack"

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Jeremy Soule is awesome: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGLphQPp3dc&feature=related Bellum Infinitus]]

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Forged Alliance had the introduction of an hostile alien race. So you'd expect to play missions where all three human factions try and defeat the alien race by themselves, realizing that they have to work together with their enemies, and working together to defeat it, right? Nope, all of that happens in a ''timeline cutscene''.