Supreme Commander is a real-time strategy computer game, in the truest sense of the word. Supreme Commander was announced in the August 2005 edition of PC Gamer magazine.

Developed by Chris Taylor's Gas Powered Games and slated for release sometime in 2006, Supreme Commander is the spiritual sucessor of Chris Taylor's acclaimed 1997 release Total Annihilation, a title which he developed with the now defunct Cavedog Entertainment. Total Annihilation is unarguably the best real-time strategy game ever made, even to this day.

Supreme Commander will be unique amongst the countless titles belonging to the overcrowded real-time strategy genre in that it integrates an overarching "grand-strategy" mode with individual, ground-level battles that are all happening on the fly in real time, simultaniously. Each battle, a part of the greater whole. While this "grand-strategy" may sound similar or be compared to systems found in such games as Rise of Nations or the Total War series , the difference is quite simple.

In Supreme Commander, this integration is completely seamless, as each individual battlefield plays out in real time, simultaniously with everything else going on in the game, as per the very definition of real time strategy. It is literally a matter of zooming in or out on the map to go from the god's eye view of the entire theatre of war, where icons represent entire armies, down to observing battles between individual units.

The Real Definition of Real Time Strategy

Chris Taylor is quoted in PC Gamer to saying that, in truth, almost all modern RTS games don't actually employ strategy. In reality, they simply pit opponents against each other in resource wars, where the combatant with the most units or largest amount of resources wins. Not wanting to go into detail with the game not yet released, Taylor said that his goal is to appeal to an untapped audience who would appreciate the presence of actual strategy in his game. This will be accomplished by using the aforementioned scale the likes of which has never been seen before in a computer game; finding a medium between serious wargaming and ground-level carnage.

Colossal Units and Truly Massive Armies

Different from any other real-time strategy game, where units must be sized in proportion to the limitations of the camera or the game engine, Supreme Commander defies all odds by implementing an immense zoom range for a truly colossal diversification in unit size. Certain units exceed common standards in terms of size and tower high above entire armies. So large and powerful that they will literally crush an encroaching enemy army through the sheer advantage of size. It gives the commanding player an experience akin to stepping on an insect. Employing units with such diverse capabilities, the introduction of one of these mega-units could very well turn the tide of a battle.

Armies fielded within Supreme Commander far exceed the unit limits of games like Warcraft 3 and Starcraft. The armies you command are truly awe-inspiring in their size, diversification and capabilities, and literally represent a force of arms, rather than a small band of warriors to which many other games have used to represent armies. Supreme Commander is truly war on an unprecedented scale and magnitude, the likes of which the gaming world has never seen before.