Anti-air strategy
From Supreme Commander Wiki
It is usually necessary to implement an effective anti-air strategy. There are four parts to an effective anti-air strategy: Scouting, construction, intelligence and defense.
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[edit] Scouting
The first step in an effective anti-air strategy is understanding the threat. Scouting refers to getting information about what kind of threat the enemy poses, typically by sending an air scout over the enemy's primary and secondary bases. You should look for the tech level of any air factories, as well as any existing air units that may be patrolling or gathering for attack. Although scouting runs like these are often fatal for the scout, scouts are very cheap units to produce and should be used liberally.
[edit] Construction
Based upon the results of scouting, you should select which anti-air units to build. There are a variety of anti-air structures, fighters, mobile anti-air units, and naval units with anti-air capabilities. Which ones you should build depend on your economy, existing factories and what targets you want to defend, but you should always build more than you think you need. Anti-air units can be grouped roughly into fighters, AA structures and mobile AA.
[edit] Fighters
Fighters are often very effective because they can easily fly to where they are needed, but they are also susceptible to anti-air, and they have the drawback of fuel. Fighters can also be easily distracted from important targets like bombers and gunships by enemy fighters. On the other hand, fighters are very effective at killing enemy bombers because they can follow these slow-moving targets and fire long salvos.
[edit] AA Structures
Structures generally hit enemy air units very hard, but because air units can easily fly out of range, they are less effective against bombers and spy planes unless they are built in very large numbers.
[edit] Mobile AA
Mobile anti-air units have the advantage of mobility, which allows them to protect a land or sea force, but the disadvantage of vulnerability to other types of attacks. It can be difficult to order mobile AA to attack specific air units because if the targets fly elsewhere, the mobile AA may move away from the group it is intended to defend.
[edit] Intelligence
Intelligence is crucial to an anti-air strategy. Anti-air units have a range that is greater than their vision radius, so they become much more effective when the enemy aircraft are within range of a radar unit.
[edit] Defense
Every effective air attack will at least do some damage to its target. It only takes a single pass by two or three Tech 3 bombers to destroy an ACU, and it can be difficult to kill them before they release their payload on their initial run, so defensive structures are vital. The only defense that is effective against bombers is shields. Build shield generators around your firebases and vital structures, and consider upgrading your ACU with a personal shield generator (if available). This will blunt an incoming bomber or gunship attack and give your anti-air units time to destroy the attacking aircraft.
