Sometimes it was necessary to babysit units working their way towards an objective, because they would get hung up in the mountains or path though an area that you would necessarily expect them to go given the destination you chose. If there was a major annoyance in our playtesting, it was the AI pathfinding abilities. Skirmish mode is a fun way to get a feel for strategies and build progressions and experimenting with different maps. Maps range in size from small 5K-by-5K two-player affairs, to incredibly large 81K-by-81K eight-player free-for-alls. The player can also choose everything from unit caps to victory conditions to starting spots on the map. The missions are necessarily scripted and allow little in the way of freeform play, and skirmish mode will allow the player to hone skills in a sandbox format against a plethora of AI options, from easy mode to multiple hard options. The three sides have distinctive units with strengths and weaknesses, and while there's definite overlap in the types of some units and structures, the three factions exhibit enough differences - including mega units - to allow players to easily develop a favorite faction. Gameplay, though, is where the game truly shines. Waypoints and patrols can be set for vehicles and air units, then later adjusted with a simple click-hold and drag. Players can queue up as many as 500 units with a simple alt-click, while engineers and commanders can queue up build orders ad nauseum. The interface tends to be a bit large on the average computer screen (although a patch that came out soon after launch has made the interface scalable to open up more viewing space for the battlefield). It can be placed on the bottom or sides of the screen, and offers toggles for a minimap, unit intelligence, unit range and resource usage. Supreme Commander's interface is extremely functional, easy to use and customizable.
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