For those who want more structure to their play, SupCom offers three campaigns, one for each race. But these aren’t filled with the strict half-hour, one-off missions that we’re used to. Instead, each level begins on a small map, with a story-focused objective. In an early Aeon level, you warp in to help a beleaguered commander defend a small island. What begins as a simple siege ends, hours later, with a massed attack. The UEF begin their charge in waves - first with gunships and bombers, later landing tanks at the northern peninsula and attacking south. You rarely have a moment to think properly - you just send your engineers to reclaim any metal to supplement your resource pile, while erecting and repairing defenses.

Eventually, the UEF give up attacking from the air and bring up a navy - the map’s borders expand, and the naval base from where the attackers came from is marked. With that invasion repelled, you’ll have to take out a separate air-base, another navy and another factory. Each is a separate island hop, each requires a destroyer bombardment before landing your troops. Each needs to be reinforced and covered, and each needs replacements on hand to fill the gaps left by losses.

Even then, your job isn’t done - it’s just getting started. You’re given further space to play with: a new island to the west is revealed, where the enemy commander has been building a last-ditch attack force. Defeat that and your way will be clear for one final landing, and an assassination on the commander. We spent a good (read: great) afternoon methodically clearing every UEF position, using each captured atoll as a staging post for the next assault. Each time, the excellent AI kept finding new ways to beat us back, inflicting horrendous casualties on our dear robot armies.

This could be a criticism. We don’t think we’ve played an RTS that’s this demanding. It’s not just the intensity of battle and the constant, belligerent noise. It’s also down to the sheer scale of the management required. There’s so much to think about; constantly balancing your resources and production. Remembering your long-term objectives (winning, and explosions) while assessing current threats (aerial attacks, or a long-range bombardment) and building a proactive defense (nuclear missile defense program, flak cannons, walls and shields). Managing your route up the tech-tree, ensuring your engineers and commander are constantly busy. And that’s before you even reach combat - where you’ll need to select targets, order advances, and organize retreats. Even harder, the economic decisions can’t be put off: you’re frantically multi-tasking as you manage your front lines and supply lines.

The three difficulty settings don’t offer much respite. We were well beaten even on Easy at first, and you’ll always face an intelligent, imaginative foe.