ROE

# SR Ultimate ROE Guide

Submitted by Balthagor 01/04/2013, updated 01/03/2023

Combat in Supreme Ruler is heavily impacted by unit behaviour. Regardless how much players attempt to control their military units, some degree of independence always exists. Rules of Engagement affect how those units will act.

Overall unit behaviour is controlled by adjusting military initiative. This is found in the Defense Command department. Here units can be filtered to a specific branch (see A in Fig. 1) to change the contents of the list (Fig. 1 - B). By selecting (C) a player can access their defence minister controls including initiative controls for each branch (D). Also located in this department are the Rules of Engagement, accessible with (E)

**-- Rules of Engagement**

Figure 2 is a picture of the ROE sub-panel. This is how the panel appears when opened without any units selected. The intention here is to set rules for the military units throughout your forces. Note that there is a difference between a pale coloured button (off) and a gridded button (not applicable). Active buttons are shown in full colour.

**-- RoE Locks**

Button 'F' toggles AI control. Units with a "Locked" state are not available for minister orders.

Button 'G' controls whether units should attack targets of opportunity. When it is locked, units will only attack units when given a direct order. The default (off) will allow units to fire at any and all enemies within range.

Button 'H' toggles the units between stealth and active capture mode. Unit movement defaults to capture enemy territory while moving if possible. This is usually the desired action, required to spread your supply capabilities, keeping troops fueled and refilled with ammunition. The drawback is that it will show an enemy where your units are moving regardless of the enemy ability to spot at that location. When set to stealth, units with high fuel and ammo capacity can cross enemy territory in an attempt to remain unseen and attack far behind enemy lines.

Button 'I' controls whether a unit will allow missiles to be loaded. Missiles can be set to seek compatible platforms. By default this is disabled allowings to receive those missiles.

The values of buttons F through I will show based on current military defaults. Once the selected rules are set, these rules can be applied in two different ways. Button 'R' will apply these rules to all of your current units and any future units you produced. Alternatively, button 'S' will apply the selected rules only to units produced from this point forward.

Note that button 'J' is provided so that specific units can be excluded from the effects of Buttons 'R' and 'S'. Once set on, you will need to adjust rules for those units individually.

**-- RoE Behaviours**

Button 'L' sets the desired travel speed for units. A faster setting will use more fuel but the unit will move at a higher speed. A slower setting will conserve fuel but the unit will not travel as fast.

Button 'M' controls what sort of path a unit should take to reach its destination.

Button 'N' is similar to the initiative values set in the minister panel, however this applies specifically to the unit. Unit actions based on initiative will be more focused on the unit's location. Unit awareness will be limited to a small radius of tactical actions. Minister initiative is more focused on big picture strategic actions. Balancing between these two is often a personal preference.

The 'O' button controls whether unit will pursue an enemy once it has engaged it or else continue on its original orders.

The 'P' button controls how much damage the unit will withstand before it retreats. On the lower settings it will fall back sooner, and on the highest setting it might fight to the death.

**-- Selected Unit Rules**

Figure 3 below is an image of the Rules of Engagement panel shown when units are selected. With units selected, the purpose of this panel is slightly different. It will now set rules only for those selected units and changes are applied immediately. No additional apply action required.

Most of the options shown mirror the rules set in global RoE. 'F' to lock, 'G' for firing opportunities, 'H' for stealth approach, 'I' to limit auto loading of missiles and 'J' to accept RoE changes pushed from global settings. The left side options are also the same as global RoE.

The difference for Selected RoE is the lower area. The Apply options are replaced with a series of buttons representing target types units can engage (T in Fig. 3).There are five types of targets in the game: Land, Air, Surface ship, Subs and Buildings. The sixth Nuclear button enables the unit(s) to deploy and launch nuclear weapons.

In Figure 3 the Land and Air buttons are highlighted. This means the units selected will fire on only Air and Land targets. The surface ship icon and building icon are partially greyed-out indicating that the selected unit(s) are able to attack these target types, but these types are not currently allowed to be engaged. You will also notice that the sub and nuke icons are gridded. This indicates the selected units are not capable of those types of attacks.

The Nuclear Authorization button on Figure 3 is used to enable the deployment of Nukes on selected units that can load them. Unless you have the corresponding Nuclear Weapons Authorization (set elsewhere in Defense) then this unit Nuclear Authorization Icon in Figure 3 will always appear greyed out.

**-- Using RoE**

Here are some examples of how RoE can be applied

* Setting Global initiative low for land and individual initiative high for a small set of units will make those units very reactive to their immediate surroundings while the remaining land force will only take limited actions to deploy, reserve and move locations.
* Setting a strike force of land units to Speed - Fastest will allow them to advance quickly on vulnerable enemy positions. Set Air initiative to full so transport planes will react when these land forces need more fuel and flow out to resupply them.
* Setting Global initiative to high and assigning hotspots will cause your minister to coordinate military action. Select a small group of units and lock them from AI control to create a strike force which responds only to your orders. Add them to a battlegroup for easy access.
* When missile inventory is low, use Global RoE to set Missile Acceptance off for all units. Then select specific units to allow missiles.