Each team has one Command Vehicle which, if destroyed, causes the team to automatically lose. The Command Vehicle lets one person view the map from above, construct a base, give orders to team members, and research new technology. It is the most important role in the game and therefore should only be played by experienced players.

At the beginning of each round, teams are allocated with some time to decide upon a commander and corresponding tactics. To avoid having random people or people who do not want to command being voted in, you have to click on the Opt In button to join the pool of people willing to be commander. Whomever is voted commander will automatically spawn in the command vehicle as opposed to the Barracks.
Yan also enter the Command Vehicle's driving mode like any other vehicle by pressing the USE key (E by default) or clicking the Log Out button whilst in the Commander Interface. To enter the Commander's position, switch to the second position in the vehicle (F2 by default)

There are a lot of acronyms used in empires. But these are the most common used when playing as commander.

• CV -> Command Vehicle
  
• Comm -> Commander
  
• Ref -> Refinery
  
• Res -> Resources
  
• Rax -> Barracks
  
• VF -> Vehicle Factory
  
• MG -> Machine Gun
  
• ML -> Missile Launcher

So here is a short video guide showing you the basics of playing as the commander.
Video created by and used with permission of D.D.D Destroyer.

Once you're inside the Command Vehicle, you may press F2 to switch to the command interface. This will show you an overhead view of the current map.

• To move around within the map, run your mouse to one of the sides of the screen, or use the arrow keys. Alternatively, you can jump around by clicking on the mini map.
  
• To zoom in and out, scroll with the mouse wheel.
  
• To rotate the display, hold down the ALT key and move your mouse.

The Command Interface pretty much behaves just like a typical RTS. There are three menus at the lower right that allow you access to your current units/players, Building, Vehicle Production, and Research.
You may select your own buildings and units by clicking on them. This will show you their health and any relevant stats.
To leave the command interface press the log out button on the command interface or hit your E key. This is NOT your "USE" key while in the command interface, it is instead bound to "emp_comm_exit" by the Commander.CFG file in your \Empires\Cfg directory. Once you have exited the command interface, you may then hit your "USE" key (default: E) to leave the Command Vehicle.

To begin building, use the Build menu. The buildable structures and their costs are visible in a list to the right. Click on the one you'd like and find a place on the map where the building turns green to place it. If it turns yellow, you either need to get a friendly player or unit closer to the spot you'd like to build, or chase off any nearby enemies. If it's red, the location isn't suitable for construction.
Once the building is on the map, it starts with a small percentage of health. An Engineer must go to the building and construct it with his engineering tool. It's often a good idea to select one of your engineers and right click on the building needing construction. Other classes can also help build structures by pressing the use key (default "E") when targeting the unbuilt building, but this is considerably slower then the Engineer with his engineering tool.

Recycling
If you'd like to recycle a building for a portion of the resources you spent on it, select it and hit the Recycle button. After some time, the building will destroy itself.

In order to sustain your economy, you need to acquire resources. The major way of acquiring resources is by building Refineries on resource nozzles. These nozzles are portrayed on the minimap as small (typically) yellow dots. Sometimes, a resource nozzle or 'node' will yield more than the standard resource node. These nodes are usually differently coloured or tagged on the minimap. As a rule of thumb, nodes in the center of the map will usually be worth more than those at the edges. However, each new refinery will return less resources than the previous one (in other words, there is a law of diminishing returns).

To get advantage against enemy team you need to research armor, weapons, engines and chassises. To start doing that, you need to build Radar in secured and safe posiion (it also reveals enemy vehicles, can be useful near the frontline behind natural cover)
Here is an image detailing the entire the research tree.
A typical research order:
Armour
Engine
Cannon / MG
MG / Cannon
ML / Mediums
Mediums / ML
Better / Different Engine
Better / Different Armour
Another Cannon / MG / ML
Another Cannon / ML / ML
Heavies

Example: (for BE on a open map)
Physics
-Reflective
--Fission
---Fission Reactor
--Projectile Physics
---Extended Range Cannon
---Heavy MG's
Mech Engineering
-Chassis
--Medium Chassis
-ADV machining
--Composite
Chemistry
-Flagration
--HEMG
-ADV cooling
--ADV coolant engine
so on and so on.

Giving orders is again, just like an RTS. Left click on a unit or player, right click where you'd like them to go or on another unit/structure to attack/defend. The player can then acknowledge your command via the player menu (defaults to the F key), or ignore you and run around on his own. Only one order can be given at a time. A new order replaces the previous order.

Attack Order:
To give an attack order, right click on the enemy unit or struucture. Or to scan an area for targets (when someone calls "give me targets in...") hold the A key by default and drag it across the screen, it will highlight all targets for you, and target a random enemy unit / structure in your selection.

Defend order:
To give a unit a defend order, right click on the freindly unit / building.

Groups of players can be created and bound to a number in a similar fashion to other RTS games. To create a group, first select all players you want to be in that group. Then, press either Shift or Ctrl and the number you wish to assign to that group. To recall that group later, simply press the assigned number on its own. This process works independently of the squads established by players on the ground.

Every team needs good communication. You can use either Teamchat (default U) or Voicechat (default X) to tell your team where, when and what to do. Most of the time rest of the team can easily tell where is going to be a frontline, or where to place important buildings.
Also, communicating with the team can help you learning about research or tactics used on the maps.

Guide created by MOOtant, Beerdude26, Sonata Arctica, Broccoli, Scardybob, Arklansman, Knighttemplar, L3TUC3, Brutos, Kalimia, Nickierv, Vlamnire, Devourawr and others from Empires Wiki for creating this (i just uploaded and intend to update it)