# Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashes-of-the-singularity-escalation/781725>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [March 8, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashes-of-the-singularity-escalation/781725 "2017-03-08T20:07:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashes-of-the-singularity-escalation/781725/1 "2017-03-08T20:07:39Z")

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So this is on sale (half price, at $19.99) at GoG- I’ve been somewhat interested in it, as I am a huge fan of **Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance.** Who has played it, and for those who played both, how does it compare?

(I feel like I’ve asked this question before, but a search brought up nothing…)

My son and I are scheduled to have another Supreme Commander brawl this evening, but I may pick this up instead, if it is recommendable. Otherwise, my Aeon will smash his Cybrans for the umpteenth time 🆒

For those who don’t know either game, it is a real-time strategy game, featuring huge armies of units. **Supreme Commander** easily exceeded the hardware limits of most gamers when it was released, and still hold up very well today. Stardock was shooting for a successor to **SupCom** with **Ashes of the Singularity** , and responded to calls for greater zoom levels and support for larger numbers of units by releasing **Escalation** as a stand-alone expansion. They recently discontinued the original **Ashes** , upgrading all who had that to **Escalation** , and giving those who already had **Escalation** a free years-worth of DLC.

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashes-of-the-singularity-escalation/781725/2 "2017-03-08T20:38:51Z")

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I thought the spiritual successor to Supreme Commander (itself the spiritual successor to Total Annihilation) was Planetary Annihilation?

Anyway, I don’t care, I’ll play 'em all.

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**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashes-of-the-singularity-escalation/781725/3 "2017-03-08T21:19:21Z")

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I have not played AoS yet but I’ve been eyeballing it for awhile and it comes on sale with some regularity.

From most things I read and people I talk to Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is the better game. I do not think I have found anyone who disagrees with that assessment.

That said I have not seen anyone hating on AoS either. SC:FA is a hard act to follow. If you are up for something new it might be worth a go. Reviews on Steam are listed as “Mixed”.

FYI AoS is not made by the same people as SC and TA (although it is clear they were trying to be a spiritual successor).

Also, AoS has some steeper than usual system requirements (it must run on at least a 4-core CPU IIRC). You do not need a monster machine to run it but it probably will not do well on a 2008 laptop either. Something to check out depending on your rig.

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**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ashes-of-the-singularity-escalation/781725/4 "2017-03-08T21:25:38Z")

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> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Also, AoS has some steeper than usual system requirements (it must run on at least a 4-core CPU IIRC). You do not need a monster machine to run it but it probably will not do well on a 2008 laptop either. Something to check out depending on your rig.

Hmmm… I don’t recall what I’ve got in my son’s machine. I’ve got 8 cores, so no problem for me, but he just gets hand-me-downs. That might make the decision for me!