Notice: This is dated, and there are better strategies now. Commandos still might not be a bad strategy in mid ages, but it is no longer a viable late-age strategy.
I'm planning to write my own, but haven't quite gotten around to it yet. But here's the overview:
- Drop 1-3 Decoy tactics to spawn Town Center/Fort/Stronghold defenders
- Quickly drop high-health "bait" somewhere on the edge
- Quickly drop your Commandos in strategic spots around the base. Spread them out.
- Quickly Blitzkreig troop-producing bases so defenders don't immediately kill your Commandos
- Remember those defenders you spawned with the Decoys? They should be approaching your bait by now. Kill them with Fighters
- Quickly drop a bunch of Bazookas/RPGs to make sure you get Quick Victory via 50% destruction
- Use additional troops/tactics/whatever to keep your troops alive and moving
This strategy heavily depends on:
- Having bait with enough health to survive the initial onslaught
- Doing the first few steps QUICKLY
You'll be clicking like crazy at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes automatic. This strategy is especially beneficial in close wars, because when it works, it destroys the enemy base fast. This helps if the war goes to tiebreaker on total attack time.
One suggestion I've heard for optimizing the fast-dropping part of the strategy is to always go in a circle in the same direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise, your choice). So assuming you chose clockwise, you would go around the base in a clockwise circle dropping Commandos, do the Blitzkreig, then go around the base in a clockwise circle dropping Zooks, then just keep looking around the base in a clockwise circle checking on your troops and deploying air power, tactics, or whatever you use to keep them alive. The idea is to keep you from fixating on any one part of the base, neglecting the rest, then looking over to see that half your army is dead and it is too late to do anything. By going around in a circle over and over, you should never go too long without checking on everything.
Watch out for opponents who have designed "anti-commando" bases by eliminating exterior gates. Commandos do not trigger traps and can go through gates. So normally, they do a great job of invading the enemy base and taking out it's defenses. But with no exterior gates, they can't get in and the whole thing falls apart. There are, of course, ways to counter that. But that'll have to wait for a full guide.