From the annals of Supreme Commander history: Seton’s Clutch

[TA4Life]

This text is to be taught to all incoming noobs, after they get out of thermo, as part of their civics requirement.
Feel free to augment history.

From its earliest days supcom FA has been split between two groups. The 4v4 players on setons and the players who primarily played the ladder. There were others, those who either couldn’t play the ladder due to mental deficiencies and those who would get kicked from massive team games because their computers sucked. The former of course went on to play Supcom 2 as well as starcraft, the latter went back to TA. There were a number of us who would jump into both ponds, fully submerging ourselves in the Supcom FA experience.
Many noobs came to setons, but only a few survived, the most addicted, playing across all time zones on all continents at once, non-stop. The craft these players developed through countless optimizations, took the shape of a perfect tetrahedron, each position increasingly becoming more reliant on the other three. The early dark ages of setons consisted of players afraid for their lives, teching up around their starting positions, afraid to look away from their bases in fear that danger could be coming from any direction at any moment. The oceans were deep and endless and quite a few commanders truly believed that at the end of the ocean they would eventually find a turtle carrying setons on its shoulders.(If this is in fact true, the turtle must be German) The best in those days rushed monkeys and gc’s, such was the fear that they would not leave their base without an experimental escort. The experimentals themselves would go out bravely into the unknown taking the hope and promise of a victory with them, entire bases would seize production and the engineers, the women seeing their men off to war on a train station would wave their multicolored hanckerchiefs at the departing units all huddled up in place afraid to make a single move, the forests were deep in those days and the T1 bombers didn’t fly further than their patrol order.
The bravest players played with air drops, stealth bases with tml’s, as well as all acu’s to the middle strats. These were the demons, living inside the heads of back players, ready to produce an ACU snipe at any moment. And great was the fear of the running commander as a spider came out of the water reaching out towards him with each of its legs sweeping aside the t2 pd. Who was the first one? Who was the first player to turn around and face the beast, and put it down before the 25th with an overcharge, the 3599 overcharge that would be there with you on the edges of hell if that’s what it took, look satan in the face with a smile, check your power, 3100 and going down, line’em up and send them over the edge into the abyss, then reclaim their wrecks like the souls of fools.
The celebration, didn’t last long however, as a new threat came from above and blocked out the sky, the age of the restorer arrived and they all fell, the gc, the fatty, the shield, crying commanders running into the water never to return again. With pain came realization, as more and more players looked up into the sky. Some embraced the restorer, to be damned for all times, by all the noobs who will never again play this game and those who haven’t been shown the light yet and every self respecting commander. Others looked to the skies for answers, t2 flak was only being discovered in those days, and t3 air was rushed. People saw asf, and people saw that it was good. The first corner of the perfect tetrahedron appeared, with power, tree eating engies and super ecoes, the backspot became the foundation of a team and t3 planes covered the entire map and people began to see.
It did not take long to see the fruits of this revolution, at first the experimentals began making a comeback, this time knowing what they would face, but then a cybran character and a man who was the eventual owner of the 711 airlines as well as a few others dared to go into the water. The rock and beach spots springed off of the foundation laid down by the back, 7 min asf rushed to the front lines in support of the 8 min destroyers and cruisers. The most frightening enemy is always the one that you cannot see and cybran navy that come from out of the endless ocean into your base, invisible to radar, was even worse. The island became a bigger point of contention as players quickly realized how expensive naval production was, T1 air began to make its mark felt with scouting of the opposite naval/eco and as an influential force in the initial asf battles, eventually T1 engie drops and T1 bombers became a certainty. As navy took over the game, the games became longer the asf battles increased in numbers, giving a famous seraphim beach player a chance to apply his newly discovered asf micro. The back spot became the domain of a selected few, keepers of the asf micro secrets, those who could compete in economy would stand no chance when it actually came to controlling the asf. The air battles became more and more intense, with players increasingly avoiding the initial confrontation until later in the game. The naval players realizing they could no longer count on air support before the 10th minute, began to play safer, some using the opportunity to inflict more damage with their early T1 air dominance, while others simply turtle, with memorized 10 minute build orders. The aeon shield began to dominate these later naval battles, with mid players often donating a t2 aeon factory or even the premade shields themselves to the side players. Every battle consisted of cybran cruisers and destroyers behind the wall.
Throughout most of setons history the role of the middle player has been to hold, until the navies arrive. As the game shifted more toward an eco race, the middle mass began to play a progressively more important role, the mid players were sent out into battle by their cybran teammates with the words, “if you must suck, suck mass.” The last corner of the tetrahedron began to make strong effect on the game, with players recovering 16k mass before the 4:30 mark. These early mass boosts transformed the builds of the other 3 players to such a degree that when a mid player fails to get the goods from middle, the other 3 players crash and begin to express signs of withdrawals through verbal abuse of the middle noob. In exchange for their hard fought for respect the mid players began to get a lot more support from the sides, in the form of power boosts and scouts. In effect we have put all of you on the early mass boost needle, we will now expect to be paid, “what you need bra? I got it all”
There were a lot of other great events in Setons history. The no naval mixing rules gave the rise to a number of different naval strats that our 2008 predecessors could not even dream about. The advent of ACU ras, became more and more apparent as eco and build capacity became critical. In order to optimize build capacity engineer tricks were developed to squeeze out those extra few asf earlier. T2 arty drops mixed things up for the back, but eventually turned into a suicide.
Then we got FAF. Then 3599 died. Now we have no gun to save us from satan. We don’t have the footbug, to make us more epic. We pump out 13 minute battlecruisers to survive. We mercy snipe across the map. We spam t1 air like dim14 on steroids. Our mid battles have turned into slapping contests and t3 air hasn’t changed. But we all play on, because as you get that 8th player in, press “x” 20 times, you transport to a world that is better. This is where we died, to see a noob in yourself from yesterday, in another player and tell them “Have you played this game before? Go watch some replays, you piece of shit”
The right ones will understand.

[uberge3k]

Well said. I hope more people read this and try to understand the Seton's community.

[Pavese]

Loosen up that wall of text, very hard to read.


And every time a Setons player now denies that Backspot is game deciding and Frontspot can go DIAF, i will send them here and smile.

[TheStrategist]

I need to learn asf micro....

[-_V_-]

LOL TA.
Jeez I lived all those eras. Contrary to what the "others" say it has changed so much. Play it like it was played 6 months ago, you'll burn to hashes unless quite lucky.

You can see the same misconceptions even now, like air wins the game. t3 air doesn't , it helps for sure, but usually it doesn't win the game. Naval does, period, even more now on FAF. Wish it was true though, I would win 99.999 % of my games then
To be fair, even setons addicts still are under that false impression and are absolutely obsessed by that. *wavin' @ Mize*
@TheStrategist : mid spot it's way easier

[TnukSmasher3000]

TA you forgot the penultimate evolution of setons! I've heard about this guy (I hear he's handsome and adorable) who spends 95% of the mass he sucks from mid, then he rolls his opponent and blasts his way to victory!

[pip]

Great read! I foresee the next evolution, when t2 navy will make a come back as a true threat again. Then all Setons players will rejoice, and we'll never hear them again in the forums, until some wicked player come up with yet another optimized strat that will force every part of the tetrahedron to adapt.
Wait? It already happened? when a guy sucks all mass and take advantage of it to streamroll the other team?
Be prepared, tetrahedron, to adapt and support this leader with t1 air and drops, and whatnot, because if t3 navy is a little bit delayed, this might indeed become the next basic strat !

[TAG_MaXimuS]

The 1 time i saw this map on SC i hate it....
The 2 time i saw this map on FA i hate it....
The 3 time i try this map was the begin off all....

Seton's Clutch is an official map. It is the setting of the Supreme Commander trailer and the movie in the background of the main menu.
Seton's Clutch is the most popular 4v4 map in the game, although it is also regularly used for 3v3 matches with both teams' front or back position locked out.

Although there are a number of alternate strategies, the pivotal factor in deciding battles on Seton's Clutch is the clash on the land bridge in the center. A large number of high-mass hulks are scattered there at the start of the battle and access to them gives the controlling player a large advantage. T1 spam is the most common and effective strategy here, but the commander is usually sent forward to reclaim the mass personally and often to build point defenses, resulting in an early confrontation between opposing commanders. The front position is the most important and subsequently the most stressful position on the team, and players have been know to leave a game before it begins when no other positions are available.

The 2 players on either flank are free to choose any strategy they like. Because of their positions, naval forces can be developed or disregarded as they please; however keep in mind that on this map naval forces are highly effective at attacking the center and bombarding the bases of the flank players. The large expanses of open ground behind each player's starting position need to be monitored carefully as they're prime positions for an unexpected air drop assault. A regular point of opposition between these players on either side are the 2 small, elevated islands on the sides of the map; with 5 mass deposits on each, these are extremely valuable. Because of their elevation, you must either fly an engineer in with a transport (and preferably some defense units) or send an engineer right up to the edge of the island and build a factory onto it from the water. Although their position definitely favours the left flank players, their opposite number on the enemy's right flank can still capture it and use it as a staging ground to assault the enemy.

The players at the rear of either team are generally tasked with air support, although the flank players also regularly provide this. They can either produce air units as they tech up, or rush to T3 and begin spamming ASFs. However, by building a number of forward land factories, the rear player can also provide highly effective land support to the front player.


Because of the unique starting locations of each team, teamwork is paramount to achieve victory on Seton's Clutch.


There is a reason for the comunity still play this map....only who still play it nows wy....

[-_V_-]

My writing in english is far from being as "Classy" as TA's, but this map is great just by its configuration.

By it's size, configuration and key spots it gives you the opportunity to use "all" the units of the game, from t1 to t4 (even the game enders like the yolona in super epic games). It is not playing with pew pew t1 tanks, a bit of t1 air just in case, gun upgrades and voila. Nope you need way more to win the game.

I do not know such a thing as a autowin single strat there. From the basic t1 land wave, the sneaky tml drops, the epic ACU TML com drops, navy rush, t2 bomber rush, massive drops, strat rush, telemazer rush, ghetto gunship snipes, turtling and serial nuking to the ...beetle drops for snipes (jeez this one is epic) , there are so many things to be done and to watch for.

It overall gives a better emphasis on all types of unit than lots of map ( who thought ladder maps tss tss ).

It is being hated by some people , not sure why exactly, but I could come up with some theories : the super extra bitching you get if you play not so good in "no noobs" games, or the fact that it's overplayed, or because of the drama/flaming talk that occurs after games finished, or simply the misconception how it is *actually* played.

A demo of the "Prep H" should be shown to those who think playing the back spot is only eco for 10 mins and watch.

Anyway as great people, as great stuff, it will always be adored by some, despised by others, turning into ridicule and subject to mockeries and contempt (understandable, how tough it is on a so called "top player" to get bashed/raped/humiliated/toyed with by noobs hehe). Like I said, that is valid for everything that is popular in this world. But well if it is the #1 played map, there must be a reason .

How much I would love to see confrontations between the old old school seton players and the current ones!!

[TA4Life]

How much I would love to see confrontations between the old old school seton players and the current ones!!

I always knew that Cyth liked slitting little puppies' throats, but this would indeed be a great demonstration of the evolution of strategy.