Concepts
- Scout
- Provides information on the location, activity and nature of the opponent's units. Ideal traits: high LOS or radar, high speed or high HP.
- Raider
- Attacks undefended or very lightly defended positions, and runs before defenders arrive. Ideal traits: high firepower, low HP, high speed.
- Assault
- Attacks defended positions. Ideal traits: low AoE, low RoF, a lot of HP.
- Riot
- Defends from large numbers of cheap units. Ideal traits: High AoE, High rate of fire, medium-short range. Also know as Anti-Swarm or Combat.
- Skirmisher
- Uses superior range to damage the enemy while keeping out of range. Ideal traits: medium-low HP, medium-long range, medium-high speed.
- Artillery
- Attacks enemy units (specifically structures) with impunity from a distance. Ideal traits: long range, low HP, poor accuracy (vs mobiles).
- Support
- Multiplies the efficiency of other units when in a team, but achieves little or nothing when alone.
- Anti-Air
- Eliminates the opponent's air units before they have an opportunity to cause damage. Ideal traits: high firepower, high range.
Arm
Favors mobility, range and affordability. Its Commanders should try to take an indirect approach whenever possible.
Tech 1
Kbots
- Construction Kbot
- Cheap, weak, with good nanopower, the conbot gives kbots an advantage over vehicles in pure economy.
- Flea
- The Flea is Arm's all terrain scout. It can hide in inaccessible locations where its sophisticate sensor suite allows it to see further than it can be seen. It can be used in small groups to effectively raid mexes early on, and in maps with tall cliffs can attack from unexpected angles. It does very little damage and has almost no hitpoints though, and dies to any form of opposition.
- Peewee
- The peewee is a light, cheap raider kbot. Though you can build it in the dozens, it dies just as fast, and is rarely of much use versus serious opposition. Counter with riot units, LLTs.
- Rocko
- The Rocko is Arm's light skirmisher Kbot. Its low damage, low speed unguided rockets are redeemed by their range. They are most effective in a line, firing at maximum range. Counter them by attacking them with fast units, or by placing your defenses behind a terraform wall.
- Hammer
- The Hammer is Arm's basic artillery Kbot, doubling as a skirmisher. It has a long range plasma cannon that allows indirect fire over obstacles, and outranges basic fixed defense up to HLT. Though effective vs mobile units, it should be defended by warriors in order to prevent raiders and other fast units from closing range.
- Jethro
- The Jethro is a cheap dedicated anti-air Kbot. Allowing a step between defenders and packos for base defense with the weaknesses of neither as well as being able to decisively protect a mobile force, it gives kbots a definite advantage vs air. Defenseless vs land forces.
- Warrior
- The Warrior is a riot kbot. Its devastating heavy Energy Machine Gun is effective vs most enemy units, in particular raiders. It performs poorly versus static defense, so do not use it as an assault unit. Counter by getting close to them by staying out of range of them, as they are slow.
- Tick
- The Tick is an all terrain, EMP suicide bomber. Used skillfully it can be worth dozens of times its cost. Use it to paralyze defenses, heavy units, and tightly packed units armed with slow weapons. Other units can then eliminate the helpless enemies without risk. Counter with defenders and missile trucks, or single cheap units to set off a premature detonation.
Vehicles
- Beaver
- This Construction Vehicle is amphibious, highly mobile and capable of taking a beating. It allows a vehicle player to quickly expand over a large area.
- Jeffy
- The Jeffy is cheap, fast scout and raider. It's deadly in the first minutes of the game, if your opponent is caught off-guard. Use missile towers, LLTs or your own units to stop them.
- Flash
- The Flash is a raider tank. The Flash does a lot of damage, but cant take much of a beating. It has a strong regeneration capability and a high speed, so should it survive a hit, it should run out of harm's way, repair itself, and come back with a vengeance. Though more capable in a firefight than kbot raiders, it is no match for riot units and defenses.
- Stumpy
- The Stumpy is an assault tank. A manouverable all-rounder with an arcing projectile which allows it to shoot over corpses, other tanks, etc. Weak vs crawling bombs when in swarms.
- Shellshocker
- The Shellshocker is Arm's light artillery vehicle. It fires in high trajectory so it's not suitable for use against moving units. It can comfortably outrange Heavy Laser Towers. It can't fire backwards and is unmanouverable. Protect it against raider charges with a screen of riot or assault units.
- Janus
- The Janus is a skirmisher: use it for hit-and-run attacks. Has a long reload time but a high damage per shot, making it best for dodging in and out of range with the enemy. It does not too many hit points, and should always be kept at range with the enemy. An arcing projectile allows it to shoot over obstacles and friendly units, such as stumpies.
- Samson
- The Samson is a skirmisher truck. Keep it at maximun range and continue to harass the opponent's units or Commander. The Samson's missiles track, so they are ideal to kill fast-moving crawling bombs. It is able to hit both air and land, allowing you to counter an enemy who is using both. Cannot fire over terraform walls, and does poorly if an enemy is allowed to close range.
- Seer
- Radar vehicle.
Planes
- Construction Aircraft
- The construction Aircraft flies quickly over any terrain, but is fragile to any AA. Though it has relatively poor nano power compared to other constructors, it is able to build in many hard to reach places and expand an air players territory in a nonlinear fashion. Due to its mobility, it is ideal for reclaiming wrecks or dead commanders.
- Peeper
- The Peeper is a cheap unarmed scout plane. Use it to map the opponent's base.
- Freedom Fighter
- The Freedom fighter is probably Arm's most effective tech 1 anti-air unit. Swarms of it can easily stop bombers before they drop their load. It doesn't have much health so keep it away from anti-air. It can also fire at ground with its weak EMG, allowing it to offer modest defence vs light units and in larger numbers raid the economy an enemy who has little to no AA.
- Atlas
- The Atlas is Arm's basic transport unit. It's used to ferry units to the front or make a drop deep behind enemy lines, but should not be used to land in areas with any kind of serious AA cover.
- Banshee
- The Banshee is Arm's light gunship. It has decent health but low DPS. Does well when directly attacking Defenders, allowing it to take out AA and then attack with impunity, but does poorly vs packos. It can easily hit moving units, and makes excellent defense against an enemy who does not bring mobile AA.
- Bladewing
- The Bladewing can be used to paralyze enemy units. It makes an excellent defensive unit, and when combined with banshees or other units can halt the enemy to give you time to kill him. Offensively it can paralyze even heavily fortified areas, but dies easily to AA.
- Thunder
- Bomber.
Static Defense
- Light Laser Tower
- The LLT is a basic turret. A versatile, solid anti-ground weapon, it does well versus scouts as well as being able to take on one or two raiders. Falls relatively easily to skirmishers, artillery or assault units unless supported.
- Faraday
- The Faraday is a powerful EMP tower. It has high damage and area of effect. Greatly amplifies the effect of other towers, but virtually useless on its own. When closed, it has additional health. Be careful of its splash damage though, as it can paralyze your own units if they are too close to the enemy.
- Sentinel
- The Sentinel is a medium laser turret. Its twin laser beams can badly hurt or outright kill almost any tech1 unit, but its low rate of fire makes it vulnerable to swarms when unassisted. Falls relatively easily to artillery, and though it is the best tech1 defense against tech2, don't expect it to hold for long.
- Defender
- The defender is a long range anti-air and anti-ground missile tower. It easily takes out land scouts and is your best defense against crawling bombs. It can help to harass an enemies skirmishers and keep them off your LLTs, as well as to push an LLT line back from yours. It dies very quickly to a frontal attack though.
- PackO
- The Packo is a medium anti-air turret. Though inaccurate at its max range, it does well against units flying directly over it and gunships. Its high hit points and armour bonus when closed makes it very hard for the enemy to dislodge.
- Chainsaw
- The Chainsaw is a long range anti-air turret, dealing out massive damage, able to knock bombers out of the sky very quickly. It cant take very much damage in return though, and does poorly when attacked directly.
- Anemone
- Anemones launch depth charges that can damage submarines and submersed units. Submarines can't shoot back with their torpedoes since the turret is built on land. Anemones are effective in preventing amphibious landings as well as well as vs units in shallow water.
- Stardust
- Mass attacks to overwhelm Arm's precision weapons have been a popular tactic among Core Commanders in the last years of the war. After the older-style Beamer proved inadequate for stopping such attacks, Arm responded with the Stardust, a turret sporting Arm's long perfected and deadly Energy Machine Gun.
Tech 2
Kbots
- Weaver
- The Weaver is Arm's all-terrain construction unit. It can climb over any obstacle as well as cloak.
- Pelican
- Assault Kbot. The Pelican is a multipurpose unit that can float on water and run on land. Very useful for assaulting the enemy by crossing the water, like a hovercraft.
- Zeus
- The Zeus is Arm's main Assault Kbot. Slowly and steadily, groups of Zeuses can shrug off heavy fire as they make their way towards enemy fortifications, until they can field their short-range lightning cannon, which damages and stuns entrenched foes.
- Recluse
- An all terrain missle launching unit. Climb walls with this spider-like Kbot and take your enemy by surprise.
- Fido
- The Fido is a fast and cheap skirmisher. Use it against assault units shoot them from out of range.
- Sharpshooter
- The Sharpshooter is an expensive stealth, cloaked artillery unit. It can fire while cloaked, however its visible round betrays its position. It requires a lot of energy to keep cloaked and fire. When it is destroyed, an EMP shock wave disables any unit nearby. Best used as a lone gunman.
- Crabe
- Don't be fooled by the Crabe's heavy armor: it may seem like it's ideal to take on heavy defenses, however other units like the Zeus and the Bulldog last far more for their cost. If you want the most bang for your buck, use the Crabe's huge shells to obliterate large swarms of cheap units.
- Venom
- The Venom is a tiny support unit designed to paralyze enemy units so assault units can easily destroy them.
- Archangel
- This advanced Anti-air holds both flak and missle launchers with air shredding results.
- Infiltrator
- The Infiltrator is useful in many ways. It can be an invisible and stealthy scout to peer on your enemy's base without fear of being discovered. It has EMP capabilities and in emergencies can act as an EMP bomb.
- Zipper
- The Zipper is a fast raiding Kbot that can zip past defences and destroy the structures inside.
Vehicles
- Bulldog
- The Bulldog is Arm's heaviest tank. It's very heavily armored, however the low rate of fire of its plasma cannon makes it vulnerable to swarms of small units, if not protected by units with more firepower.
- Gremlin
- The stealthy Gremlin can cloak itself to enemy sight. Use it to sneak past defenses and raid enemy bases.
- Merl
- The Merl fires vertically a high damage, high accuracy missile at long range. It's high arc makes it able to fire over any obstable, however that makes the flight time so hight that it's useless against moving targets. Use the Merl to kill specific buildings.
- Penetrator
- The Penetrator's weapon, nicknamed 'the Blue Laser of Death', has the power and accuracy to skewer most units with a single shot. Use it against high armor units, but keep it behind the front lines - it has light armor and can't run from danger.
- Phalanx
- The Phalanx is an anti-air flak tank most useful against gunships.
- Mumbo
- The Mumbo's rapid-fire, pinpoint accuracy lasers are capable of ripping to shreds most armor almost instantly. This firepower comes at a cost, however: the massive power core needed to sustain the weapon is inherently unstable, just a few dents are enough to make it explode violently, sending out an electro-magnetic shock-wave that disables any circuit it encounters.
- Panther
- The Panther is a high-tech raider. Its main weapon, a lightning gun, deals mostly paralyze damage. This way, the Panther can disable turrets, waltz through the defensive line, and proceed to level the economic heart of the opponent's base. The Panther also has an anti-air missile to protect it from airborne defenders.
- Shade
- Cloaker/Jammer vehicle.
Planes
- Brawler
- The Brawler is the standard gunship of Arm's air wing. It has enough armor to survive limited anti-air fire, and its twin EMGs chew through the Core's advanced alloys as if they were paper. Be warned that Brawlers will not last long against AA guns.
- Phoenix
- Strategic Bomber.
- Lancet
- A bomber that is specially designed for taking down ships. Instead of explosive shells, it fires a single depth charge that dives underwater and strikes the ships hull.
- Hawk
- The hawk is the most powerful fighter of its class, it is the ruler of the skys and can take down anything airborn. Even deadlier in packs.
- Eagle
- Sonar, Radar, and a large LOS (Line of Sight) make this plane your swiss army knife for scouting.
- Dragonfly
- Stealthy armed transport with EMP gun.
- Stiletto
- We see you have an eye for good things. Sleek, fast and able to take a beating, the Stiletto drops EMP bombs that can paralyze an entire column of tanks in a single pass, rendering them helpless before allied forces.
- Licho
- Implosion bomber.
Static Defense
- Pitbull
- Ambush gauss cannon.
- Annihilator
- Flakker
- Mercury
- Long range AA missile tower.
- Protector
- Anti-Nuke System.
Static Offense
- Big Bertha
- Retaliator
- Nuclear ICBM Launcher.
- Detonator
- EMP missile launcher.
- Vulcan
- Rapid-Fire Strategic Plasma Cannon.
Core
The Core's doctrine dictates that Commanders should make the most out of the Core's superiority in firepower and defense by executing direct attacks and attacking the opponent with brute force.
Tech 1
Kbots
- Pinchy
- The Pinchy is Core's amphibious tech 1 construction unit.
- AK
- The AK is a raider kbot. Counter with riot units, LLTs.
- Storm
- The Storm is a skirmisher Kbot. Its arcing missiles have a low rate of fire, but do a lot of damage, making it very good at dodging in and out of range of enemy units or defense, or in a powerful initial salvo. Counter them by attacking them with fast units, or crawling bombs when massed.
- Thud
- The Thud is an assault kbot. It can take an incredibly beating, and is useful as a shield for the weaker, more damaging storms.
- Outlaw
- The Outlaw's job is simple: destroy anything that crosses its way. Its cannon, adapted from the leveler, shoots high speed, explosive projectiles that can fling away any small unit that isn't instantly killed. Victims who still won't die are then shot again with the A.K. class secondary weapon. Keep the Outlaw away from units that can out-range it: the heavy load of weapons and ammo it needs to carry make it slow, and somewhat unstable.
- Crasher
- The Crasher is a cheap dedicated anti-air Kbot. Allowing a step between defenders and packos for base defense with the weaknesses of neither as well as being able to decisively protect a mobile force, it gives kbots a definite advantage vs air. Defenseless vs land forces.
- Roach
- The Roach is a bad sport. At the first sign of peril, it will rage-quit the game and self-d. Unfortunately, that is such a lame act that it usually sparks a mass rage-quit among nearby units. Very good agaisnt massed units, particularly anything with slow or inaccurate projectiles. Chain explodes terribly, so best not to mass it. Counter with defenders and missile trucks, or single cheap units to set off a premature detonation.
Vehicles
- Ned
- Ned is a highly mobile and capable of taking a beating. It allows a vehicle player to quickly expand over a large area.
- Weasel
- The Weasel is cheap, fast scout and raider. It's deadly in the first minutes of the game, if your opponent is caught off-guard. Use missile towers, LLTs or your own units to stop them.
- Instigator
- The Instigator is a raider tank. Capable of taking damage and dishing it out, the gator is a versatile unit that remains very useful for more than just raiding, though it pays the price in manoeuvrability and in cost. Its regeneration dramatically decreases its losses vs inferior opposition- it is impossible to kill the gator with attrition. Though able to hold its own in combat, it is no match for anti-swarm or riot units and defenses.
- Ravager
- The Ravager is an assault tank. Expensive and powerful, the ravager is capable of holding its own against most opposition. Though its manouverability is terrible, its strength is when moving at a considerable top speed in a straight line. Due to this, it is almost impossible to skirmish using raiders. In combat, you should attempt to keep travelling forward and not turn too suddenly, so as to maintain top speed. Circling your target at the edge of your range is a good tactic. An arcing projectile allows it to shoot over corpses, other tanks, etc. In swarms, weak vs crawling bombs.
- Leveler
- The Leveler is a riot tank. With a powerful main gun and a decent manouverability, it is excellent in a combat situation. Beware of its area of effect and lack of any arc on its projectile, as it has a tendency to hit allies and have trouble firing when massed.
- Wolverine
- The Wolvering is Core's light artillery vehicle. It fires in high trajectory so it's not suitable for use against moving units. It can comfortably outrange Heavy Laser Towers. It can't fire backwards and is unmanouverable. Protect it against raider charges with a screen of riot or assault units.
- Slasher
- The Slasher is a skirmisher truck. Keep it at maximun range and continue to harass the opponent's units or Commander. The Samson's missiles track, so they are ideal to kill fast-moving crawling bombs. It is able to hit both air and land, allowing you to counter an enemy who is using both. Cannot fire over terraform walls, and does poorly if an enemy is allowed to close range.
- Spoiler
- Minelayer.
Planes
- Construction Aircraft
- The construction Aircraft flies quickly over any terrain, but is fragile to any AA. Though it has relatively poor nano power compared to other constructors, it is able to build in many hard to reach places and expand an air players territory in a nonlinear fashion. Due to its mobility, it is ideal for reclaiming wrecks or dead commanders.
- Fink
- The Fink is a cheap scout plane. Use it to map the opponent's base.
- Avenger
- The Avenger is makes an excellent tech 1 anti-air unit. Swarms of it can easily stop bombers before they drop their load. It doesn't have much health so keep it away from anti-air. It can also fire at ground with its lasers, allowing it to offer modest defence vs light units and in larger numbers raid the mexes of an enemy who has little to no AA.
- Shadow
- The Shadow is a precision bomber. Useful for attacking specific units or structures but not as good agaisnt large moving groups.
- Valkyrie
- The Valkyrie is Core's basic transport unit. It's used to ferry units to the front or make a drop deep behind enemy lines, but should not be used to land in areas with any kind of serious AA cover.
- Blastwing
- Flying bomb. Why not? The blastwing does only a small amount of damage, suitable for taking out mexes, solars, LLTs, wind farms and nanotowers, though it can offer a more fomidible punch en-masse. Be mindful of the speed and direction it is travelling, as much of the damage done by it is directional shrapnel that will continue on the trajectory of the bomb after it dies. In this way, you can spray an enemy with shards of metal even if your blastwing dies before it is in range. Do not pack them too tightly, as they can chain explode.
- Rapier
- The Core's level 1 gunship. Its rockets can be used well against any type of unit or structure. It can act as defense for a base or controlled assault of another base. Due to its slow speed it is vulnerable to certain types of Anti air.
- Owl
- Core's high tech scout. The Owl is an intel spy satellite that hovers far above the turmoil of battles below in the safety of the upper stratosphere. Only enemy fighter planes are capable of scaling the heights necessary to shoot it out of the sky. It requires a lot of energy to stay afloat in the air.
Static Defense
- Exploiter
- A metal extractor that can pop out of the ground and quickly transform into a defense unit with Light Laser Tower like weaponary.
- Light Laser Tower
- The LLT is a basic anti-scout turret. Use it to protect your rear from Jeffies and fleas: don't expect it to kill combat units on its own.
- Scorcher
- Core scientists are continually devising new ways to butcher the rebels with ever increasing efficiency. The Scorcher is the latest arrival from Core Prime: it is armed with the Heat Ray, a weapon that can instantly discontinue most Arm clones. Unfortunately, the beam gradually dissipates as it travels and loses most of its lethality at long range. That, however, has not stopped Central Consciousness from replacing the venerable HLLT with the Scorcher.
- Gaat Gun
- The Gaat Gun is a medium laser turret. Its three rotating laser guns can hurt badly any tech1 assault unit, but its low rate of fire makes it vulnerable to swarms when unassisted. Do not expect it to hold off a tech2 assault for long.
- Razor's Kiss
- The Razor's Kiss is a laser anti air tower most useful agaisnt slow moving gunships. It is not as effective versus other fast moving air units, if it can even hit them.
- Jellyfish
- Eradicator
Tech 2
Kbots
- Pyro
- The Pyro is a cheap, fast Kbot with a flamethrower. The flamethrower deals incredible damage to large targets but little damage to small ones. It can hit multiple targets at the same time. The Pyro explodes violently when it is destroyed. The Pyro's weapons set targets aflame.
- Gimp
- The Gimp is an amphibious raider.
- Can
- The Can is Core's main assault Kbot. A few cans can easily level most fortification lines. In addition, you can't overwhelm it with raiders since its high rate of fire can deal with them easily. Its small range and very low speed make it very vulnerable to skirmishers.
- Sumo
- The Sumo's massive power core makes it the ideal unit to field test new, powerful weapons. The latest arrival from Core Prime is the Heat Ray. The beam is immensely powerful at point blank, but unfortunately it gradually dissipates as it travels and loses most of its deadliness at long range. The heat ray's high rate of fire makes it ideal to fight large swarms of cheap units.
- Morty
- skirmisher.
- Dominator
- The Dominator fires vertically a high damage, high accuracy missile at long range. It's high arc makes it able to fire over any obstable, however that makes the flight time so hight that it's useless against moving targets. Use the Dominator to kill specific buildings. It's the natural complement to the Pyro, since the Pyro is so vulnerable to fixed defense.
- Manticore
- AA.
- Skuttle
- Advanced cloakable crawling bomb.
- Aspis
- Shield KBot. Great unit to protect your long range weapons from other long range weapons, or protect anything inside it for an amount time.
Vehicles
- Croc
- Raider. Special trait: amphibious.
- Reaper
- Assault tank.
- Goliath
- Goliath is a heavy riot tank.
- Pillager
- Artillery.
- Dragon's Egg
- Blockade runner. When closed up the Dragon's Egg takes 10% damage and moves at half speed. Opens up to fire its close-range flamethrower. Excellent for passing thin defenses, or rushing lightly guarded long range units. You can also park closed eggs in front of your base to buy time or shield turrets.
- Tremor
- Artillery. Sub-role: carpet-bomber.
- Copperhead
- AA. Sub-role: anti-gunship.
- Informer
- Radar vehicle.
- Pavise
- Shield vehicle.
Planes
- Hurricane
- Titan
- Vamp
- Vulture
- Vindicator
- Vindicator means bad news in the Arm dialect. Shoot at the dropship and it will shoot back with its two rapid-fire laser guns. Kill it and it will release its deadly cargo, thanks to a cargo ejection mechanism.
- Krow
- Black Dawn
- Core Prime has introduced a new means of obliterating swarms of ground units - the Black Dawn. This tough gunship fires unguided rockets over a wide area - anything caught in the kill zone is in deep trouble. Do not use this against individual targets - that's what Rapiers are for.
Static Defense
- Behemoth
- Cobra
- Moho Exploiter
- Viper
- Doomsday Machine
- Screamer
- Fortitude
Static Offense
- Intimidator
- Catalyst
- Buzzsaw
- Silencer