When comparing StarCraft II vs Supreme Commander, the Slant community recommends Supreme Commander for most people. In the question“What are the best LAN party PC games?” Supreme Commander is ranked 12th while StarCraft II is ranked 30th. The most important reason people chose Supreme Commander is:
If there is a large building in between the line of sight of the player and the target, your units might hit the building instead. To compensate you can use artillery or missiles. However this type of full scale simulation is at the expense of CPU power.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro A free starter edition is available
With the Starter Edition, players can start the beginning of the campaign, compete in ranked ladder matches, and play anything in the Arcade (a mode that offers a huge selection community-created games and mods).
Pro Big player base
Has a very big player base and everyone will be able to find a suitable opponent whether you are a rookie or an experienced player.
Pro Well balanced, asymmetrical gameplay
Opposing teams will have completely different skillsets allowing players to take wholly different approaches toward completing the same goal. This makes for asymmetrical gameplay that has been painstakingly balanced.
Pro Campaign features an engaging story and acts as a tutorial
StarCraft II tells a very concise and cohesive story, exclusively featuring the Terran, with some exceptions during optional missions. During the campaign, the player is asked to make several choices which partially alter the storyline, as well as give access to some units, while making other completely unavailable. With a new unit unlocked nearly every mission, these levels utilize unique gameplay mechanics that highlight the specific uses of each new unit that is unlocked, thus allowing players to familiar with them. For example, one mission highlights the maneuverability of the Viking, an aircraft that can quickly fly across the map, killing other aerial units, and transforming to become a walking vehicle that can annihilate ground-based enemies.
Pro Gives in-game access to a wide variety of community created games/mods
Users can publish their mods to the game so that other players may then apply them in-game. This makes for easy access to a wide variety of mods and games.
Pro Has an active eSports scene
With a 1.6 million dollar prize pool for the world championships in 2015, StarCraft II has a very large and supported eSports scene that is participated in throughout the world.
Pro Simulation of every shot
If there is a large building in between the line of sight of the player and the target, your units might hit the building instead. To compensate you can use artillery or missiles. However this type of full scale simulation is at the expense of CPU power.
Pro Massive battles with plenty of outcomes
Battles can involve hundreds of units. This allows for even experimental units that can single-handedly take out entire armies due to their sheer size. This way there is room for experimentation in what can works, or just to see what outcomes they have.
Pro Unlimited zoom increases visibility
You don't need a mini map to get an overview of the Battlefield: simply zoom out using the scroll wheel. If you want to "jump" somewhere else just zoom in to that exact spot.
Pro Authentic real time economy
When you spend resources on a building, they are not spent instantly but rather over the course of building. The same goes for collecting. Your buffer is small so try to match your spending rate with that of gathering.
Pro Rewarding, high skill cap
This game can satisfy you for hours. It offers a high level of play that not only takes a long time to attain but is also very rewarding when mastered.
Pro Advanced command system
By holding the shift key, you can see the commands you gave as an overlay on the map. Drag and drop commands to adapt them whenever you have to.
Pro Fundamentally different factions that are well balanced
Each faction in the game will have different abilities, units, transporters or stations that are unique to that faction. While one faction will have an advantage of a hovering engineer, another will have the advantage of a driving engineer, each being prone and un-prone to particular kinds of attacks. Somewhat like a rock paper scissors scenario where it will all balance out in the end. This way it keeps each faction feeling unique, but at the same time disallowing any to have too much of an advantage over the others.
Pro Asynchronous tech system
Upgrading one factory doesn't magically upgrade all the others. Decide wisely how much you spend on advancing in tech. Low tech spam can sometimes still be an option.
Cons
Con Starcraft I units are unavailable
They removed/replaced some of the units with new units. As of 2021 several mods of SC2 engine feat SC1 units are freely available
Con Difficult for beginners
Con Stand-alone add-on Forged Alliance needed for stability
Vanilla game has balance issues, which is why it is recommended that the user installs the add-on, Forged Alliance.
Con Steep learning curve and need for planning involved
Supreme Commander takes a while to pick up and learn how to play well. Since everything in the game happens slowly, you need to plan.
Con Developers abandoned the game
However there is great community support in which they have released patches in order to fix outstanding bugs as well as support hosting a map vault where players can download community made maps to use in the game. There is also a matchmaking lobby tool available here, which makes finding online matches to play pretty easy.
Con Large battles with a poor CPU is not recommended in 4v4
The game can slow down significantly in large battles and on huge maps when there are a lot of players. This is especially the case for those using lower-end PCs.