Start here
Supreme Commander does not explain itself, and the campaign teaches habits that lose games online. These are the two the community points new players at.
The orientation thread in the forum’s own Tutorials category: what to install, what to play first, and what to stop doing.
The long-form version on the wiki, 24k words, covering economy, expansion and the early game in order.
A condensed pass over the same ground for people who would rather have the summary than the essay.
Getting better
Guides about how to practise rather than what to build. These age far better than build orders do.
The most upvoted thread in the Tutorials category by a wide margin, and still being replied to four years on.
The most-read thread in the category: the questions that come up over and over, answered in one place.
Coaching with a real person over voice, which is the shortcut no written guide replaces.
Mechanics
The rules underneath the units on this site: what the engine does with your orders, and why two units with the same stats do not behave the same.
Pathfinding, acceleration, formations, target priorities, reload, fire states, stealth and radar. Explains the behaviour a stats table cannot.
How the factions compare at each stage of a game, and why the answer differs between 1v1 and team games.
Faction guides
One per faction, on the wiki, and the most useful thing on this page. They are actively maintained — the Cybran one was last edited in January 2025 — and they cover openings by map size rather than by map name, which is what makes them keep working. Read the one you play, then the one you keep losing to.
The shared fundamentals the four faction guides build on.
Playing the faction with the shields, the Percival and the only T3 point defence.
The longest of the four by some distance. Stealth, the Brick, and a navy that walks ashore.
Hover units, the efficient shields, and the Mercy.
The strongest shields in the game, a destroyer that submerges, and the only T3 mobile shield.
Build orders
Thinner than you would expect, and the reason is structural. A build order is tied to a specific map, and the ladder pool rotates monthly, so the material goes stale by design. The wiki’s own build-order page is an 842-byte stub. The faction guides above carry more usable opening advice than anything filed under this heading, because they talk about what to do on a KIND of map rather than on one map.
Tools
What experienced players run alongside the game.