Emperor: Battle for Dune Strategies, Unit Guides, Fun Things to Try Written by James Simone. Version 1.4 This guide should only be found on GameFAQS, Neoseeker, and DLH.net. If you see it anywhere else, be a kind soul and report it to me. 1/21/02 I wrote this because there are not too many people out there who actually have web pages helping people get better at Emperor: Battle for Dune. Even worse, nobody actually noted the fact that Emperor was a Real Time Strategy game (RTS). See, the general idea I saw everywhere for Emperor was: Just build up a lot of spice until you can build a huge amount of units to wipe the other player out. Um.... hello, that's not STRATEGY! So I set out to write a strategy guide for Emperor. If you want me to add information, strategy tips, anything, just e-mail me with the additions at Jamirus9@bestweb.net. I accept criticism, questions, anything except flaming. I would appreciate it if people would help with my House Ordos and Harkonnen strategy sections. Thanks! 7/28/02 Whoa! It's been 6 months, and I still haven't finished the guide. You can blame a whole host of things- Me seeing the first Lord of the Rings movie and becoming completely involved with anything Tolkien, Star Wars, and a whole host of games: Jedi Knight 2, Battle Realms, X-Wing Alliance, Medal of Honor, Zeus...but now I'm back to Emperor to help the poor masses of fans searching for help (or maybe I'm reading too much into this...hmmm...) 9/22/02 My first revision! It took GameFAQS almost two months to post my guide, so I had stopped checking in at the Emperor site to see if I had gotten posted. All of the sudden, I started getting feedback. I checked the site, and, voila, there was my guide. Hurrah! Anyhoo, I fixed some grammatical errors, and added some tips against Ordos human players online: apparently they have better defense than I thought... I would also like to note that I will not be responding to emails. If you see me add in your tip, or fix a mistake of mine, that's about as much satisfaction as your going to get. Sorry, but I just don't have time for house calls. ("You know our motto, we deliver!") 9/23/02 Two revisions in two days! I'm pretty sure this won't happen too often...first off, I forgot about my thank-you section. I WILL be mentioning people who contribute there: that is, if you give me your name. Ben Bacon gets the first thank-you other than my original ones. I also fixed some more grammatical errors, and added the Atreides defensive buildings part, and the special ability. Don't be disturbed by my Halo quotes, as I love that game too, and will probably add one or more each time I revise. Of course, you'll see a lot of other freaky quotes too- ("My life for Aiur!")...Or something like that. 9/25/02 To my pleasant surprise, I found an email from Neoseeker in my inbox today. My guide will now be posted there, as well as on GameFAQS. And, thanks to those less than kindly people out there who take advantage of people, the computer that I use to check my mail now has yet ANOTHER virus on it. Yes, that's right, we already had one, and we can't seem to get that one out either. I may not be updating for some time, as I may need to reinstall my OS. So, you nasty, malicious people, are you satisfied? 10/4/02 October...another month gone by. As you can see, another site offered to host my guide. Hope all you German fans send me some good tips... 12/25/02 An update on Christmas? What's wrong with me? Anyhoo, Dan D sent me several questions about Ornithopters the other day...I've updated the thank-you's section, and the Ornithopter section in the Atreides Unit Guide. Chapter 1: General Strategies, Tips, and Things You Should Know First off, things you should know. If you read the booklet that comes with the game, you'll see on the first page the hot keys. You should either write these down or memorize them (I have a Microsoft Strategic Commander, so I just assigned the important commands to the buttons.) Among the most important are: R- retreat to base with selected units D- for quick deploying with large amounts of deployable units X- scattering infantry when they're about to be run over is a good idea T- for selecting all of the selected type (hit once for onscreen, twice for all of those units on the map) Believe me, those will help. Everything else you can do with the mouse. So, some general strategies for all the houses, and then some specific ones. Never forget your infantry! In Dune 2000, as soon as you got vehicles, the infantry were forgotten. In Emperor, however, infantry are the life force of the game. Now, every house has what I like to call "special infantry," and these are usually the ones that you want to use. For Atreides, there is the sniper and the Kindjal. Harkonnen has only the flame-thrower because they also have a specialty vehicle (inkvine catapult) . The Ordos have the Saboteur and the Mortar Infantry. All of these can be used to your advantage. How to use them- Atreides- Put the Snipers and Kindjal along the ridges leading to the entrance, and then some near the entrance itself. If you have a decent position, your infantry can finish off the enemy before they even get to the entrance! Or, stick them in trenches and infantry rock along the way to the enemies so you can completely block assaults to begin with. Harkonnen- well, flame-throwers don't have long range, but they're the only infantry who can survive a sniper shot, and one burst of flame can wipe out scores of infantry. I guess the best use for them is to back up assault tanks during raids. Ordos- The saboteur used to be able to cloak, but I don't know if they do now. The best thing about them is well, their explosions! It does tons of damage to buildings, although mobile deploying is a bit harder. The mortar infantry's long range makes them useful in the same way as snipers. Stick them in ridges and infantry rock. At this point, see, I saw my problem. I know too much about Atreides! Sure, I know a little about the Harkonnen from all the time I've spent fighting them, but Ordos I'm clueless about. So I'm asking for support for my House Ordos and Harkonnen chapters. Please help me! Chapter 2: Atreides House Atreides has several advantages over the other houses: 1.Excellent defense, held up by admirable infantry and repair vehicles to ensure your vehicles won't get killed. 2. Veteran infantry (Level 3) can reenter the barracks so the next guys who come out of the barracks of the same type will be at the next level. Send three of the same unit type in so you begin with Level 3 units from that infantry type. Of course, there are also very special strategies specific to Atreides. My personal favorite strategy is what I've dubbed "The Mongoose Strafe." It's really very simple, but works like a charm. Please note though that this is a great strategy against Harkonnen, it doesn't work as well against the Ordos because the laser tanks are fast and can fire on the move. Okay, here it is: find the enemy's base. Get about six to ten mongooses lined up in front of it. Then, get a couple of infantry to lure some of the enemy vehicles over to the mongooses. As soon as the enemy vehicles get more interested in the mongooses than whatever the bait was, let the mongooses get off a couple of shots, then hit R. That will make them retreat to your base. However, the mongooses can fire on the move. If you're playing against the Harkonnen, as soon as their stupid assault tanks and whatever else gets into range, they'll be blasted by many, many mongoose missiles. Ordos is harder because their laser tanks have the same abilities (the mongooses do have range advantage, which is why I don't completely discourage this tactic against the Ordos, and of course I don't suggest it for Ordos because the laser tanks are too fast for firing on the move: They would completely outrun the enemy.) Anyhow, that works, and my friends like it. There are two other things to keep in mind with Atreides- height advantage, and veteran infantry. Put simply height advantage raises a given units range, power, and defense. There are three types of height advantage (Level 1, 2, 3) indicated by those red chevron thingies on the side of a selected unit. You can get level 1 height advantage by placing your units in trenches (now isn't that odd? I mean, aren't trenches below ground?) Level 2 height advantage is obtainable by putting infantry in infantry rock. There are also other types of infantry cover, which give your units height advantage. There's that stone tower ramp thing in Atreides level three if you pick hole-in-the- rock (I think that was the level) right near the Ordos base where you can set up mongooses and snipers (mongooses will only fit on the ramps though, everything else is infantry cover. Also, there are those picket mounds in some levels: these are infantry cover too. I think that's about it for infantry cover. One of the best things to remember about height advantage is shown in the third-to-last mission, where you're on the Harkonnen home world. I'm pretty sure the map is the same every time...but maybe it's not. Anyhoo, in my map, there was a little ridge that jutted out near the east entrance to my base. I placed some snipers there, with a mongooses and missile turret for punch. The snipers leveled up slowly enough, but once they hit level three, I brought three back to the barracks. After that, I had about ten cloaked snipers on that ridge. Let's just say no infantry ever challenged the front of the base, and even some vehicles got heavily damaged: Yes, that's how far their range was extended. I almost cried it was so beautiful. Here's another little tip you'll find handy when facing off against Ordos- Ornithopters. Let's put it this way- Ordos has ONE unit that can fire on air units- AA infantry, and they're not even that good! Ornithopters can help in a lot of ways- clearing defensive emplacements- taking out the Construction Yard, Factory, and Barracks, and of course hunting down strike forces. In any level where you are up against Ordos, consider getting some Ornithopters to take out the Construction Yard, Factory, and Barracks (in that order.) If you do that, the computer (or human) is pretty much defenseless: You can't live on reinforcement's forever. The other two methods are useful too, especially when you have some Fremen Warriors handy to take out nearby AA troopers. In fact, I believe that Fremen raids go hand in hand with Ornithopter strikes. And wouldn't it be nice if you could take out those pesky Kobras before they get to your base? Unfortunately, nothing is perfect: Ornithopters have the tendency to return to your base after firing off missiles. To get them to fire off their whole load, you will often find yourself clicking repeatedly on the target so that they listen. Well I guess you can't have everything. Now, for another one of my favorites: Controlling the Spice. Don't let the fancy name throw you off, this one's simple. So simple the computer uses it against you to great effect, and the only thing you do is build another harvester! Bah! Strike back! Find where the enemy is harvesting their spice, and set off. Obviously, you will need some Mongooses- yes, shooting down the carryalls help. For that matter, you might want to include some Air Drones. Now, you can usually expect even the computer to try and destroy your units, so you will also need some defense. Minotaurus', Kindjal and Snipers will fill that gap, although once again, your results may vary, so try to mix different units in. Usually near spice fields there is some infantry cover, and that's exactly where you'll want your infantry to go. Scout ahead with Fremen, then put your troops into action with formation move. Well, what are you waiting for? Load up those APC's, soldier! You must remember, however, that unlike you, the computer isn't (that) stupid, and if there is another spice field available, it may run there. You may need to spread out a bit, or use two different groups to cover the spice fields. Before we get to the last trick, I'd like to put in a few different things that can help you, and are fun to try. My favorite is the APC defense. If you are playing online, this is perhaps the most fun thing to do. Get about 6 or 7 APC's near the front of your base. Situate them so they can ambush any enemy groups, then turn off guard mode. When the enemy comes calling, wait for them to get to the required point, and then turn on guard mode. You might say this is pointless, since the odds of destroying anything other than the occasional infantry unit, but you'd be wrong. Against a computer, this is only mildly disconcerting, although you can use the distraction as a way to buy time as you scramble units for defense. Against a human, however, it's a whale of a different story. This can throw even the most hardcore player into confusion, and although our APC's will still be exterminated, if you have Kindjal and Minotaurus', you can pick off a whole lot of units with minimal damage to your actual defenses. Another great thing to do is to airlift a repair vehicle and mongoose (or Minotaurus) to cliffs that the enemy would be only able to reach via air. If this cliff is along a path that the enemy uses often, you often get the satisfaction of watching your unit pick off other units with no actual damage to itself. Of course, there are some tricky line of site problems on some cliffs, where it looks like your unit should be able to hit something, but it can't. This is especially useful if you can also airlift an APC with Fremen Warriors and the like. Unfortunately, don't think that you're the only person who can do this. In one of the levels against the Harkonnen, I had the unfortunate chance to meet up with two missile tanks up on a cliff. Before my mongooses and whatnot could get close enough, all the good units were already destroyed. That is also an advantage for you, though- Cliffs increase the range of your unit a bit, but the real boon is on the defensive- units have to get really close to the cliff to even fire at you. Last but not least, slowly inch some APC's into your opponent's base...loaded with Fremen! Mass chaos guaranteed! Finally, an old classic that many players figured out, but I thought I must include- The Advanced Carryall Strike. Heard of it? Maybe you have. If not, here's how it goes...once you get to a mission that let's you build Advanced Carryalls, build about six of them, then start training 10 engineers, 2 APC's, and four vehicles of your choice (at least one Minotaurus) Then, assign the Carryalls numbers 1-6, then have them pick up the APC's (with the engineers in them) and the vehicles. Now, go to the place you want to strike. My personal favorite is deep in the enemy base. Then rapidly hit 1, left click, then 2, left click, etc...until you finally have all six carryalls heading towards their base. You might want to have them move to a spot that's guaranteed not to get the Carryalls shot by turrets first, though. Once your units are dropped in, make the engineers run to the construction yard, and factory, having the other units back them up. If you get these two buildings, it's all over! This works very well with Hawk Strike, since you can easily capture buildings if there are only turrets to defend the base. Keep in mind, if the defense is light, and you capture the construction yard, that before you sell it (which is the logical thing to do) you should build a factory, or barracks. There's nothing more satisfying than using Devastators against the Harkonnen. Of course, successful offense is one thing, but what if you're the defensive type? Well, defense is much easier than offense...or is it? Well, for Atreides, defense is easier to set up. Start off quickly by building snipers, then upgrading your barracks for Kindjal. As I said before, stick them along the ridges heading towards the usually two entrances to your base. Then, start building mongooses. Once you have a decent unit defense, you should build a couple of wind traps, and then some Machinegun Posts. After you upgrade your Construction Yard, build Rocket Turrets to help out your Kindjal and Snipers, and then a couple at the entrances to your base. You shouldn't build too many rocket turrets, however, because you'll waste room on wind traps for power. It's very easy to get sidetracked in the beginning by building Machinegun Posts, but I only recommend several of them at entrances where infantry raids are inevitable. Because of their short range, Rocket Turrets, and/or units behind them must back them up. (putting the units in front of the Machinegun post would negate the use of them since the units will kill the infantry first) Other than these fixed points, use you own strategies for defense, but try not to use more than two defensive strategies at the same time: i.e.- You want your infantry to cover the ridges, but then your also sticking light infantry in infantry cover around your base to harass units who get to close, while heavily defending the main entrance to your base...does anyone else see how pointless (and how many units you would lose) that this is? Try to have several strategies to use for defense, then use them accordingly per level or mission, choosing ones that will help you use your surroundings to your advantage. Of course, the trick to some missions is not to defend your base, but your opponent's base. This works well with missions with the Fremen (if you're allied) because they're cloaked. I once found two trenches located conveniently at the two entrances to the computers base. I stuck 20 Fremen (mostly Warriors, maybe 8 Fedaykin) per trench. The Warrior would take care of the infantry, while Fedaykin handled vehicles. I held off entire assaults that would have leveled my base! However, conditions have to be pretty good for defensive things like this to work, However, defense may be intimidating to newbies, even on easy mode, because if you decide to bulk up on your defensive strength, the computer will use the only strategy it can- periodic medium assaults that will annoy the heck out of you because these assaults generally aren't aimed at your destruction, they're just done to weaken your defenses. The computer uses these assaults to postpone your actual discovery of their base, or to stop you from bulking up on units for attack. This works because instead of retaliating at a computer's attack, players begin to rebuild their defense. And this pattern happens over and over again until in a normal game you have built up enough units to pour forth from your base and completely wipe out the computer. Once again going back to my original point...that's not strategy. The thing with Emperor is that it's one of the first games to use free-form computer thinking. In Dune2000, you could play a game once, then restart it, and know exactly what was coming. In Emperor, every game is different. The computer actually "thinks" about what to do, depending upon what their scouts find you doing. Unless you're really, really bad at exploring, you will notice many scouts trying to get into your base, or near it. The computer will then decide on a course of action, depending on what the scouts find you doing. Atreides Vs. Harkonnen, Atreides Vs. Ordos, General Tips, and Unit Guide Using information like this, you should be careful not to let yourself gather offensive strike units near the front of your base. If scouts see that, the computer will gather a task force large enough to damage or destroy your attack units at the front of your base. Or, if you're against anything but Atreides, you might here that voice say "Missile Launch detected," or even worse "Chaos Lightning detected". Chaos Lightning is worse in my opinion, since it affects turrets, although it's not like a missile wouldn't destroy the turrets anyway. If this happens, then its back to repair and rebuild. Keep your units in your base until the moment you are actually ready to spew forth. Then, especially if you are attacking with more than one unit type, you may want to use formation move (hold J while telling selected units to move) so that the units will pace themselves to the slowest unit in your group. While this sounds stupid, consider this: If you were to mount a light sandbike and mongoose assault on the enemy's base, and you needed this attack to be precisely timed in order for it to work, which would you prefer? 1. Having the sandbikes arrive first and get blown to smithereens by laser tanks/assault tanks...or 2. Using formation move so the sandbikes formed a protective escort around the mongooses, and arriving at the enemy base at the same exact time to wreak some havoc. I pray you chose number two............ anyway, moving on. The Waypoint Command, another new addition, is also very helpful. Or, maybe not. By using the waypoint mode, you can set up your own patrol lines for your units. This is more useful with vehicles then infantry, but some people don't like it, because the paths get bogged down when using more than one different types of units are in one. However, when you just use one unit type, waypoints become a viable option, especially with mongooses, because the fact that they're moving greatly augments their abilities: firing on the move is once again helpful. Now, I'll lay down some stuff for Atreides vs. Harkonnen. First of all, let's point out your advantages- The only unit that can fire on the move for Harkonnen is the Devastator, and that's only the tiny missile launcher, so hit and fade attacks are quite useful. Secondly, you've got the range that Harkonnen doesn't, seeing as how only the Missile launcher and Inkvine catapult have long ranges. Unfortunately, these two units make up for everything. Level three Inkvine catapults have a range that should be illegal in all states other than Nebraska, and level three missile tanks can take down a mongoose in a single salvo. So, what do you do? My friend came up with an excellent strategy for taking out Inkvines, and the best thing is, you only need one mongoose! Simply get the mongoose in range, than start ordering him to move left to right, right to left. Your mongoose will be able to easily hit the Inkvine, since it can fire on the move, but the Inkvine won't be able to hit the mongoose since it's little toxic canisters don't home. Haha! For missile tanks, remember that they have VERY light armor. Hit it hard while it's still moving, and chances are it will be overkill. The rest of Harkonnen units aren't really that hard to deal with, although you should watch out for flamethrower infantry. They can survive a sniper shot, and can wipe out a ton of infantry units with one burst of flame. The same applies to the flame tank. Also, watch out for Buzzsaws when you play against human players, as they will likely try to ruin your spice. I find that the Harkonnen computer is a bit more aggressive than Ordos, so watch out. Fortunately, you also have time as your advantage- many units for the Harkonnen take a long time to build, so you can be sure to do a good amount of damage to them if you strike right after they do. Lastly, watch out for the Gun Turret- it does way too much damage in too little time. Ah, Atreides against Ordos...life is good. Ordos lack a lot of things, including offensive punch. Oh sure, they've got cool APC's but that's about it. Their two most dangerous units are the Laser tank and Kobra. I'll make it clear now- I hate Kobras! They make my blood boil when they attack right outside of your unit's range. When you are hit with Kobra's, hit back hard with Sonic tanks and Minotaurus', and quickly. Often if you aren't quick with the mouse, most of your infantry will be dead before you can strike a blow. Most infuriating is there is a difference between your unit's range and their automatic defensive strike back thingy. Minotaurus' CAN hit Kobras if the Kobras can hit your units, but unless you order them too, they won't. Laser tanks are thankfully much easier to handle. Oh sure they're fast, and if you're defense isn't watertight, you'll often see them blow by firing at your defensive units, then wreaking havoc in you base because you forgot to put at least one Rocket turret near your construction yard. Thankfully, they have many shortcomings, which s why they're so easy to handle- long recharge rate for firing, can't run over infantry, ineffective against infantry...a couple of Kindjal will send these babies running home whimpering, if they're not blasted to bits. Plus, Ordos has a huge weakness that is only slightly exploitable in other Houses. You see, when you do enough damage to an Atreides or Harkonnen, they slow down a bit. If you do enough damage to an Ordos unit, they will slow down A LOT!! If an Ordos unit becomes critically damaged, and attempts to run, it most likely won't get far. You may have wondered why I haven't listed the Deviator as a fearsome unit. It's really quite simple why I didn't- Deviator's have so little armor and range, that if they actually got close enough to fire a missile at one of your units, you should be ashamed and rethink your defensive strategy. Remember to use Ornithopters to great affect, and remember that Ordos's defensive structures suck. However, here, do to some requests I'm getting, I will address the problems people are having getting into a heavily defended Ordos base. Yes, with Kobras, Mortar infantry, and so on it can be tricky. But, have you ever tried to mix it up a bit? Which allies do you have? Fremen/ Sardaukar or Fremen/ Guild are the best two combinations for Ordos. Fremen is pretty self-explanatory: there is nothing more satisfying than watching those frickin smarmy "Well I've got a longer range than you," Kobras being blown to bits by invisible Fremen Fedaykin commandos. The Sardaukar are also a fine choice, because their heavy armor allows them to get close enough to most units to fire. The Elite shouldn't be used to extensively: they take to long to build, and a mongoose is better for what you get. As for The Guild, teleport their tanks into the base, then, while the player is distracted, fly in some units, or parade some Fremen in...works every time! If you don't play with those allies, sucks to be you! No wait, only kidding. Just airlift some units, soldier. Take it to a higher level. Or, if you're forced to wait, level up some snipers and Kindjal, then start sabotaging their spice. Reinforce their spice fields with fully upgraded snipers and Kindjal, and toss in some Minotaurus' and Mongooses for good measure ("and if you throw in a pinch of salt...") That's right, classic siege techniques! Starve those Ordos rats out of their holes. Unit Guide Scout- well, there's not much to say about the scout. They move very fast, and have a huge line of site. When not moving, or just moving a few steps, they are camouflaged. How can you tell if by moving a unit that has only temporary camouflage will reveal it? There will be a little white revolving ring on the inside of the cursor. If it disappears, then the unit cannot move there and still stay camouflaged. If it stays, you can move there in camouflage. Being to close to an enemy unit also breaks camouflage. Light Infantry- Light Infantry will definitively be the least used unit that you have. They are effective against infantry, but even the damage there is minimal. Don't even think about using these guys for vehicles. They're.... not good at all, to put it nicely. In any case where you would consider using Light Infantry, use Snipers instead. Sniper- Ah, the Atreides sniper: a jewel among infantry. For starters, let's just say that these guys have the longest range of any infantry. Secondly, other than the Flamethrower Infantry, their shots are one hit infantry killers. Unfortunately, they are very ineffective against vehicles. Snipers move fast enough, but reload slowly. It must be noted that when Snipers level up to level three, they become camouflaged. Stick them in infantry rock and ledges to improve range, and there you have it, a one man infantry wonder. Kindjal Infantry- When you look at your basic Kindjal, you see an overly expensive, slow unit, armed only with a pistol wearing a sign that says "Some Assembly Required." Then, you deploy him, and you see how good life gets. When deployed, Kindjal use a long-range mortar to shell incoming enemies. Extremely effective against vehicles, they are the vice-versa of snipers, as they are ineffective against infantry. Like snipers, they enjoy being deployed in large groups in near infantry rock or on ledges. Engineer- The Atreides Engineer is a very straightforward unit. Select him, and then click on enemy building. When he gets close enough, he will capture it and paint it the lovely Atreides blue. Unfortunately, he isn't the fastest unit, and certainly doesn't have the best defense. A little known fact about engineers is that for a cost, you can repair a building very quickly: just select him, and click on a damaged building. It will repair much faster than using the repair button, and since you can do both at the same time, you can make life easier for yourself. Keep one handy around turrets. MCV- well now, here's another straightforward unit. Deploy an MCV, and it turns into a Construction Yard. Select a Construction Yard, and tell it to move, and it changes back into an MCV. Wow! It's just like those transformer toys...I think. MCV's are slow, but heavily armored. An interesting thing to do is to airlift an MCV behind enemy lines. Hide it where you can deploy it, and use it if you need it. Harvester- Wahoo! Automated resource gathering! Harvesters are SLOW, but heavily, heavily armored. Even concentrated armor from something effective against vehicles doesn't stand a chance if you repair the thing from time to time. Sand Bike- Sank Bikes are underrated, and they shouldn't be. They are very effective against infantry, and are very fast. They sacrifice armor for that speed though, so don't think twice about running when you see more than a couple units. Sand Bikes are great for rousing the enemies defensive force- perform a hit and fade maneuver right back to your forces. Works wonders against those pesky Laser Tanks! Mongoose- Ah, the mongoose. When compared to the sand bike, mongooses seem slow, but they really have a respectable speed. Although they don't have much armor, they have three things that count: They are effective against vehicles, they can fire on air units, and the 360-degree rotating turret can fire on the move. Go mongooses! APC- The Atreides APC is your standard ho-hum infantry transporter. These little guys are suicidal to the nth degree, sometimes sensing units like the Kobra that most units wouldn't fire on even if they could see it, and rushing to their doom. Turning off guard mode helps a lot, making these little guys into your favorite infantry friend. However, they are armed with only a light machine gun that does next to nothing, so always consider staying in camouflage rather than attacking. APC's can hold up to five infantry units. Plus these things scurry along real fast. Minotarus- If the Mongoose is the Kindjal of the vehicle world, then the Minotaurus is the Sniper. Those four shots are extremely deadly to infantry, and do a huge amount of splash damage. The Minotaurus is okey-dokey against vehicles, but really shines against buildings, leveling small ones in one four-round burst. They have a huge range, and the reload rate is just right. Plus, they can swivel up to 90 degrees left and right...what a pity with a feature like this that they can't fire on the move. Unfortunately, Minotaurus' pay the price: they are EXTREMELY slow! I will also note that I have been getting some requests about the Minotarus, Kindjal, and Sniper combo. Apparently, some of you think that Minotaurus' are also the ultimate defensive weapon when used in groups. Okay, you're right, I forgot to mention that. Repair Vehicle- Haha Harkonnen! Sure, Ordos units "Heal" naturally over time, but Atreides one-ups even them with the repair vehicle. Sure, these dudes have very little armor on and often die quickly. But nobody cares since using the buddy system makes sure they stay around. Two repair vehicles supporting a mongoose can hold out for a long time, fixing each other and the mongoose. They repair at a great rate, and are pretty fast. Now if only they didn't take so long to build... Sonic Tank- The Atreides' signature unit since Dune2000, the Sonic Tank really is a great unit. Put simply, you can see the Sonic Tank's power: if this shot connects with infantry, they're dead. D-E-A-D! Also, because usually the infantry come running along one at a time, single file, you can kill about four of them, possibly five, with one shot, since the sonic blast goes a long way. The Sonic Tank is also very affective against vehicles, and at level three, they take the Devastation out of the Devastator- they have a huge at level three, and do so much damage, they can destroy an Inkvine Catapult (and many other vehicles) in one spectacular sonic blast. Plus, they fire at a great rate, and move quickly enough for a unit this powerful. The only drawback is minor- Sonic Tanks only have medium armor. Carryall and Advanced Carryall- The carryall is pretty basic: you get one carryall and one harvester with each refinery and refinery ramp you build. You can build more at the Hangar. They have only medium armor, so watch out! Yeah, yeah, all the regular carryalls do is ferry harvester to spice fields and back, but Advanced Carryalls make up for the Carryall name. They have a lot of armor, are even faster than carryalls, and can pick up any vehicle! All right! Ornithopter- Ornithopters are fast, and carry missiles that do an okay amount of damage (alright, yes, you're probable going to need a swarm of them to get anything done...) They can't fire on air units, but hey, lets not be picky. I prefer the speed to the air superiority, but I think they could have gotten better armor. Of course, if an Ornithopter goes up against a missile tank, you could always have it out fly the missiles. When you tell Ornithopters to attack, they will fly with all speed towards the target, unleashing missiles as soon as they get close. Yes, Ornithopters can fire on the move, but it is hard to get them to do this once they get to the target, as they switch to hovering. Once they have only about four missiles left (they hold sixteen) they will streak back to your base, and cluster around a landing pad...what a pity they don't rearm automatically. To make them fire all missiles, you must re-click on the target when they turn to flee. And by request, let me simplify things- you will have to click on each one of the ornithopters and manually tell them to rearm, unless you already had them in a ctrl group- but having 30 ornithopters rearm at one landing pad isn't pretty, so either way you go about doing it, rearming ornithopters is tuff. Air Drone- Air Drones are right for the price- they are insanely fast, fire powerful missiles at airborne targets, and go into an automatic Circle the Target mode after they arrive where you tell them to go. Once again, I would wish for more armor. Atreides Defensive Buildings, and Special Ability Machinegun Post- The Gatling Gun, as I call it, has a short range, but can be useful. It fires really fast, and deals plenty of damage to infantry. Watch out for vehicles though, as the Gatling Gun just doesn't have the range or power needed to destroy armored vehicles. The armor is pretty light too. Rocket Turret- the Atreides Rocket Turret is everything the Machinegun Post wants to be. It can fire on air units, deals plenty of damage to vehicles, has a much longer range...but isn't that good against infantry. Oh well. I would classify the armor as medium. Hawk Strike- When you build the Atreides Palace, providing you have enough power, the hawk strike will start charging. View its progress in your vehicles building tab. You can fire it anywhere you can see on the map, and it causes all enemy units to flee for the map borders, never to be seen again if they cross it. This makes a great distraction for attacking someone's base, or for defensive purposes. Watch those suckers flee! ("We have to put the fear of GOD in them, men!") Harkonnen Strategy Coming soon (hopefully!) Ordos Strategy Coming soon (hopefully) Credits! This walkthrough was made by James Simone. I'd like to thank all my friends, especially AJ Delpup for all their advice and hard work on different strategies especially on the Inkvine catapults: thanks, they were annoying! Hopefully there will be more thank-you's here soon enough when I get some feedback. Here are the thank yous: Ben Bacon, Dan D. Thanks GameFAQS!!