Retro Game Walkthroughs for Emperor Battle for Dune (PC Games)
Submitted By: spoonbeast
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[EMPEROR FOR DUNE GUIDE]
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With the downfall of the former ruling house Corrino and the death of the emperor, a power vacuum has emerged and with 3 of the greatest ruling houses with equal claim to the throne, the war of the assassins has begun! In this guide we will go over each of the factions and provide hints and tips to playing the game. Lets begin with some information of the universe of Dune.
[-What is the war of the assassins and how does it work?]
If more then one House makes a claim to the throne, the war of the assassins is a formal method of choosing the next the ruling house and emperor. Rather then causing immense bloodshed, all competing houses fight will be contained on Arrakis. The first house to remove another great house’s stronghold and capturing their main home world will be declared the next emperor. Of course, things won’t be that easy, it’s suspected that the Guild had been plotting the downfall of the former emperor so that they can rule the universe…
[-Arrakis, why there?]
Arrakis is the only planet to produce the most valuable commodity to man: melange (also dubbed the spice), it is used for space travel and preventing the aging process of a person when consumed. So he who controls the spice, controls the universe. The only way to do that is to eliminate enough Houses to gain majority control of the planet and declared winner of the war (in this case just one other house will do).
[-Who are the factions?]
There are 3 factions, House Atreides, House Harkonnen and House Ordos. Lets go through each one in detail:
[HOUSE ATREIDES]
“For the duke!”
House Atreides represent the virtues of man, with strong feelings towards justice, honour, loyalty and well being of each other for the greater good. This has resulted in well-treated inhabitants being fiercely loyal to Duke Achilles to the point of self-sacrifice if needed. They believe they deserve to become the next ruling house, and that they are the only people who would use the spice responsibly and for the good of all. They don’t trust any other house to do this. The atreides beliefs in preservation of human life has allowed for the development of highly skilled infantryman, troop transport and repair facilities. With additional benefits of surviving highly trained soldiers capable of building more experienced units. With many of House atriedes units needing to be stationary to operate properly, they are more geared towards defence.
[House Harkonnen]
For Geidi Prime!”
Whereas house Atreides symbolise the best virtues of man, House Harkonnen represent the very worst attributes of man. Lying, disloyalty, backstabbing, torture and betrayal are normal in the worlds of House Harkonnen. To get anywhere in Harkonnen society, you must kill your predecessor and rule ruthlessly to survive. How such a self-destructive society ever managed to rise to greatness rather then fall into complete anarchy remains a mystery. A possible explanation is that the very worst traits of man are also some of the best, or at least the ones that keep people alive. The corrupt Baron Rokan rules the harkonnen. Lately he has been unwell and suspicion points to the barons 2 sons: Copec and Gunseing as the cause. Whilst they have little love for family, they vie with each other to become the next baron. The lack of consideration for human life has left house Harkonnen with no troop transports and repair facilities. But this is compensated with plenty of siege units and many units being deadlier compared to their rival counterparts. As a consequence, the Harkonnen are considered very strong attackers. Best of all, Harkonnen units are incredibly durable whereas other units would suffer speed loss after taking a considerable pounding Harkonnen units do not.
[House Ordos]
“That is the directive!”
House Ordos is a secretive society; few can understand their motives and with everything done with a cold, business mentality. The executrix, a 4-member council that speak through a single person wired to them, rule the house. Should they win the war of assassins and are proclaimed emperor of the universe, house Ordos intend to rule in secret with a clone (Ghola) of the former emperor as a puppet. Just like any business, efficiency is everything, the forces of the Ordos are streamlined, multipurpose, rely upon new ultra hi-tech technology or on someone else to do the job. Although the Ordos come with some of the best advantages, they also suffer from the worst problems. Whilst their units naturally heal, have shields and are very fast, they are weak and their speed severally reduced when sustaining too much damage (typically ending with the unit dying during the battle). In addition, they lack defences against aerial units and have an ineffective or severally lacking air force. Players must decide carefully whether to choose this faction during skirmishes.
[-So where does the battles take place?]
Arrakis, the primary warzone for the conflict, is a desert world where water is scarce and incredibly valuable. The indigenous people, the Fremen show their respect by giving their own water (so spitting is considered a high honour). Mostly consisting of rock and oceans of sand, Arrakis is home to the sand worms, which can vary in size but are highly dangerous. Its also recommended to be careful of hurricanes that can kill infantry units. Players will only be able to build structures on the few places of rock. Strewn across the landscape is wreckage and tents that can contain some useful pick ups, most notably money.
The harkonnen home world Geidi Prime, completely consists of rock, ever since the planet was mined empty of its resources. Thankfully, players can build pretty much anywhere on the planet. Players will have to cross the numerous bridges to get across ravines and gorges. Smaller bridges offer the chance for sneak attacks. Players can also receive additional forces and resources by breaking prisoners and slaves out of their prisons. Funds will also be provided at regular occasions when fighting here. Harkonnen players will have to resolve a civil war between the barons 2 sons for leadership here.
The guild heighliners essentially transport units to and from arrakis. It’s not unusual to have all three factions’ units being on the same transport ship. To prevent fights breaking out, the guild gives warnings for all fights to cease and this will be swiftly followed by depressuring the holds killing anyone that haven’t returned to their troop transports. Players will typically have limited resources to complete a particular objective. For the Atriedes its to rescue forces captured by the rival houses, the harkonnen attempt to gain the upper hand by killing everyone onboard, breaking every rule and the Ordos use the opportunity to test an experimental gas that will turn friend into foe.
The ice plant of House Ordos Draconis IV is predominately water based. Despite the ground being mostly frozen ice, they will not support structures. Consequently all structures must be built on ice glaciers. With no spice, players will receive regular funding to deal with expenditure. Ordos players will have to contain a breakout of tilaxiu monsters threatening the capital.
Finally the Atreides home world Caladan is lush, green and beautiful. Players will again have to receive regular funds to make purchases during fighting. Additionally, most of the grassland is far too soft for structures to be build on them, players will have to build their structures on hills. A particular item of interest is the various trenches which dot landscape and act as cover for infantry. Sadly, most of them are designed to protect defenders and attacking forces will find little use for them. Atriedes players will fight here when assassination attempts on VIPs disrupt peace talks.
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[Tips and tricks]
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There are several tips and tricks when playing emperor battle for dune and this will make fighting the enemy considerably easier.
1)Speed is the key. Players should try and defeat their opponent as soon as possible. Once the opponent has fully established its base, the battle is almost certainly going to end in deadlock with the AI having the upper hand as a continuous stream of units will pound players. Find their base quickly and make regular assaults early on to sabotage their bases. Building infiltrators and siege units will allow sneak attacks. If players find that they have being given a few decent units at the start (eg several tanks or a siege unit or 2), players should go on the offence and attack the enemy base when its still weak. Hell, deploy your base next to theirs to keep the pressure up and supply a continuous steam of units.
2)Don’t group self-destructing units together EG Saboteurs, if one dies and explodes it could start a chain reaction killing other explosive units.
3)When there are separate objectives other then to eliminate an enemy base. Players should ignore that objective and assault the enemy base first. As the primary objective will allow time for the opponent to build up a nasty presence and can lead to deadlocks. Don’t completely destroy the enemy base until you’ve completed the other objectives to gain a better final rating (not that it matters)
4)Be extremely careful of missions requesting players to capture unoccupied enemy structures, once the objective is completed, a second opponent will continuously throw units at the player until they lose control of the structures. In some cases, they’ll bring some very devastating units that’ll cause no small measure of trouble.
5)When eliminating a base, you don’t need to destroy all structures to guarantee victory, eliminate the vital structures that manufacture, harvest, construction sites and victory is guaranteed. So don’t waste all your time trying to eliminate wind traps or every turret.
6)Don’t bother building an attacking air force; they’re expensive and ineffective. The enemy’s base will typically be bristling with anti aircraft units and structures rendering an air force useless.
7)Always take advantage of the resources on the battlefield; wreckage will give players plenty of money to build bases quickly whereas tents dotted around the environment will provide additional infantry units. Watch out for Eggs and steel casings that provide tixlau and Ixian units.
8)Never ever take missions that will end the services of a sub house. Try at all costs to keep the freman happy, as they’re a very difficult foe to defeat.
9)In some missions existing structures of allied houses will be assist players and need protection. A good tactic is establishing a base near those structures if possible.
10)Apart from house atreides and freman units or rocket soldiers for cheap aerial defence, players should concentrate building armour units in the later stages of a fight, as these will be the units that will win the day. Besides, the tanks are more devastating and have other units to deal with any threat possible. As well as the fact most reinforcements come in the form of infantry anyway.
11)Be careful of causing intense combat in the sand when on arrakis as this can attract sandworms to that location. Players should evacuate units as swiftly as possible.
12) When sending scouts to search for the enemy base, always make them search in rocky areas, as they will be the places where enemy bases can be found.
13)Rival faction palace attacks can be extremely annoying, but there are dos and do nots when using them. lets look into each one:
Atriedes super weapon is a passive force that strikes at the morale of troopers forcing them to flee the battlefield (essentially eliminating them). Bases with lots of units deployed in them are very vulnerable so players should be cautionous about this. Thankfully, slow units are less sepetiable to the attack typically the effects wearing off before its too late.
House Ordos chaos strikes cause units and structures to turn against each other. Players should be cautious in building or deploying large numbers of units in one area as a base defence as this these are prime targets.
Harkonnen’s death hand missile is essentially a nuclear bomb. Typically the computer will target certain structures. Such as construction sites and other production building sites. A good tactic to avoid attacks is to simply build structures such as lots of turrets away from the main attacks as to divert their attacks. But on the other hand if they launch a death hand missile at your construction site, It will survive the blast and players will simply repair it for the next strike. Players could use the death hand at striking at war factories or rival palaces to prevent the opposition using it.
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[UNIT GUIDE]
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[HOUSE ATREIDES ]
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[INFANTRY]
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[Scout]
Cheap and defenceless, the scout’s only purpose is to remove the fog of war and reveal hidden units. Their vision is unmatched by any other unit and becomes a vital unit for detecting hidden ones like the freman or infiltrators. Players should purchase a group of them and simply throw them into every direction into of the map until one finds the base. Whilst the scout has camouflage, they will be spotted relatively easily by other scouts and usually brings swift death to them. But because scouts are cheap it doesn’t really matter.
[Light infantry]
Armed with merely rifles, light infantry are mediocre against other infantry. Its highly recommended players don’t bother purchasing more then a few. Typically they come in as reinforcements and once a base is up and running, players can depend on armour to win the day.
[Engineer]
Armed with nothing but a toolbox, the engineer purpose is to repair friendly structures or capture rival ones. Engineers can also remove leech spores from tixalu lechers, extremely handy when the final few level the enemy use tilaxlu forces. A good idea is to keep one or two around in the base for emergency repairs or prevent leech spores appearing. Players could use diversion attacks allowing engineers to capture vital structures to cripple enemy bases. If players want to capture an enemy structure, a good method is to simply leave units in front of structures preventing anything getting out whilst the engineer makes his way. Players are not advised to capture radar stations, as only one will ever be needed.
[Sniper]
Just like any sniper, they are armed with long range rifles capable of killing most infantry in one shot. Players will need to purchase more then one as to support other snipers because their reload times is incredibly slow. Additionally, they should be deployed near bases (preferably on infantry rock) as a cheap anti infantry defence leaving players to invest in deadlier anti tank defences.
[Kindjal infantry]
Whilst Atreides has no rocket units, the kindjal in a sense compensates for this disadvantage. Like most unique Atriedes infantry units, they need to be stationary and deployed to be made most effective and whilst they’re armed with pistols these are useless and won’t kill anything. The kindjal is capable of dealing effective damage against armour making it ideal for defending bases when using snipers for infantry and kindjal for armour. Players can easily eliminate them by sending out anti infantry armour or long-range units.
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[ARMOUR]
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[Sand bike]
The lightest of all atreides units, the sand bike fills the role of scouting and dealing with infantry. Whilst quite nimble at times, the bikes poor weaponry makes them disappointing compared to rival factions light armour units.
[Mongoose]
The Mongoose is the standard battle vehicle of House Atrides this mech-like vehicle is armed with a rocket capable of targeting both ground and aerial vehicles. Players will need to buy several at a time, as individually they’re ineffective. In the early stages of the game, mongooses should be used as temporary protection against aerial attacks as this faction lacks rocket infantry.
[APC]
The atriedes variant of the APC has a cloaking ability and is armed with a machine gun that provides some, if lacking protection against the enemy. These troop transports should only be filled with engineers and more effective infantry such as the freman or engineers. Alternatively they can be used to protect infantry from the sand storms on arrakis, which can kill exposed infantry. But with most battle predominately being armour based, players will need only a few to ferry units to and from the front line.
[Repair vehicle]
House atriedes is the only faction to provide repair units in the game. They are therefore extremely useful for commanders that are watching their spending. This means that units will last longer and won’t need to make future arrangements to purchasing a new tank to replace the damaged ones. When possible buy a few to accompany raiding parties or with minotaurus units as to maintain assaults. Recommendation: build more then 2 as to allow the repair tanks to repair each other when required.
[Minotaurus]
The heavy siege unit of the faction, the minotaurus is armed with 4 long range cannons that can make short work of structures, infantry and armour a like. Their only weakness is that they’re in capable of attacking aerial units, but the computer rarely uses aerial units as a form of attack and a few mongooses are enough to deal with the threat. Players are recommended to buy and group 3+ of these units to make them self sufficient and capable of protecting themselves whilst destroying all structures quickly and effectively. Players up against minotaurus units should use siege equipment or a large group of tanks. Infantry have little hope of defeating these units as they’ll never get close enough to deal with the threat.
[Sonic tank]
Essentially a larger version of the Fedaykin, the sonic tank is the atriedes ultimate armour unit. It is extremely effective against armour as it shoots through units. Its ideal as a defence unit taking out armour and infantry alike as they approach or as an assault unit to subdue bases. Players can typically deal with sonic tanks by using siege units or large groups of infantry. Sending a small group of Fedaykins is quite effective tactic.
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[AERIAL]
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[Advanced carry all]
Just like the standard carry alls that transport spice harvesters, the advanced models are capable of transporting one armour unit into battle. They’re extremely vulnerable to anti aircraft fire. Therefore, a safe corridor should ideally be made first before making journeys. Ideally, transport the strongest units, as these tend to be the slowest. Alternatively they can pick up rival units to be dropped back at base to make short work of troublesome units. Due to their price and limited useful ness in most levels, players won’t need more then 1 or 2 at any one time.
[Ornithopter]
House atreides fighter plane unit is armed with 2 missiles that are effective against armour. Players shouldn’t bother investing in these units as they’re expensive (requiring purchase of both plane and landing pad) restricting numbers and their small payload makes them ineffective, as they constantly have to reload. They are easily defeated by investing in rocket based infantry/armour or defences and are only available in the late stages of a game, too late to influence a battle with them.
[Air drone]
An aerial response to aerial threats, again, players wouldn’t need to invest money into these units as the enemy never bothers with aerial units. Simply building a few aerial units or a group of mongooses with do the job just as well and probably be cheaper.
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[HOUSE HARKONNEN]
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[INFANTRY]
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[scout]
Acts esstentially like the house Ordos and Atreides variants. See the House atriedes scout for more details.
[Light infantry]
Acts esstentially like House Atriedes variants. See House atriedes light infantry for details.
[Trooper]
Armed with a rocket launcher, the trooper is a cheap and very effective solution against armour and aerial units. Players are recommended to use them primarily as a cheap base defence against armour and aerial units as buying turrets can be expensive in resources. Alternatively small groups can be used to assist armour units to bolster firepower to quickly eliminate armour.
[Flamethrower infantry]
Whereas the trooper was guided towards anti armour, the flamethrower infantryman is the most effective infantry unit against other infantry. Armed with a flamethrower, the can easily deal with small groups of infantry from rival factions. However, they don’t perform so well against sub house infantry like the freman or the sadaukar who easily outclass them. Its questionable whether to purchase these units especially with the buzzsaw and flame tank is far better for the job, plus you’ll get more from reinforcements entering the field anyway. Whilst they explode upon death, the risk of killing other units in the vicinity is low.
[Engineer]
The harkonnen engineer fills the same roles as their counter parts, except unlike their counter parts, they’re armed with a pistol. Which is meaningless as it’s ineffective and unable to kill anything. Again, have one or two around at base to repair or remove leech spores off units and send a group out to (accompany raids if possible) to capture enemy structures if possible.
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[ARMOUR]
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[Buzzsaw]
The best light scout vehicle by a mile, the buzzsaw is an incredibly effective unit. Apart from their twin guns capable of killing infantry in one burst, the best thing about this unit is that it can run units over. This means its killing power against infantry is unmatched as it can kill scores of the opposition. Its best used for taking out large groups of troublesome infantry (by driving through them) or accompanying other heavier units when attacking bases. Stick one of these near an infantry barracks and nothing leaves from it alive. Their major downfall is that they’re totally ineffective against armour, which would be the best way to deal with them.
[Assault tank]
House Harkonnens standard battle tanks although slow and incapable of shooting on the move, are considerably more powerful and durable compared to their counter parts. Their fixed cannons easily destroy armour and structures alike. Skilled or lucky players can easily destroy enemy bases in their early stages with just 3 tanks, provided they are giving additional support of other units once battle is underway. Assault tanks are best used to engage other armour and used to spearhead most assaults or used as a buffer whilst missile tanks move in for the kill.
[Missile tank]
The missile tank is 1 of 2 units siege units available to the harkonnen. The missile tank is armed with missiles, which they can fire in a salvo at targets. They’re extremely devastating towards armour, structures and especially aerial units. Only a few are needed to reduce the strongest buildings to rubble in seconds. Players would be foolish to neglect building these units when assaulting bases or providing aerial support. Players are cautioned, the missile tank is extreme susceptible to enemy fire and will easily get picked off by rocket armed infantry and in some cases some of the stronger armour units can probably take one down before dying itself. This is largely due to is slow speed, rate of firepower and weak armour.
[Inkvine catapult]
Harkonnens second siege unit is a catapult that propels a toxic sticky substance known as inkvine. This long-range unit is most effective against infantry as they are most susceptible to the toxic substance. But players shouldn’t really bother with purchasing these units as their usefulness is limited and there are better anti infantry solutions available. Fast units can easily dodge the projectiles hurled. Players can defeat these units by simply sending armour against this unit.
[Flame tank]
If players thought the buzzsaw was effective against infantry, the flame tank is even better. The tank is armed with twin flamethrowers and can fire on the move compared to the buzzsaw. It can practically kill infantry in all directions and a few of these will guarantee very effective protection against infantry units. A word of caution, these units are not indiscriminate as to who they kill, friendly infantry may get killed. Additionally, the flame tank is incredibly fragile with armour easily making short work of them.
[Devastator]
The best unit in the harkonnen and quite possibly in the game, the Devestator is a bi pedal mech unit that is armed to the teeth with 2 plasma cannons and an AA battery for good measure. Although very, very slow, its firepower is unmatched and eliminates other units with ease. Ideally players should build advanced carryalls to accompany these units to compensate for speed (typically their slow speed makes them easy targets for sandworms). Additionally, due the unstable nature of this unit, its generators can be made to self-destruct and cause damage. Although, it’s probably best done when the unit is close to death.
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[AERIAL]
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[Gunship]
The gunship works essentially like the atriede’s Ornithopter. Whilst being more deadly, it still has the same shortcomings as its rival’s fighter plane solutions, thus players should ignore using these units.
[Air defence Platform (ADP)]
The ADP sole purpose is to protect bases. Whilst it can move around and best used against aerial units, they are ineffective and very vulnerable to AA fire from the enemy. Players should avoid this unit; there are better, cheaper AA solutions with the harkonnen.
[Advanced carryall]
Exactly like its other counter parts. Consult the atriedes advanced carry all for details.
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[HOUSE ORDOS]
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[INFANTRY]
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[Scout]
Exactly like their rival faction counter parts. Consult house atriedes scout unit for details.
[Chemical trooper]
The chemical trooper functions as the house’s basic infantry. Being a cross between a flamethrower soldier and standard infantry, they are armed with chemical gas projectors that kill infantry very quickly. Consequently, their basic infantry is the best compared to their counter parts. Players won’t need to buy many of these units as they very frequently come as reinforcements for players and provide an almost unlimited supply of units.
[AA trooper]
Essentially the same as harkonnen variants, the AA trooper functions exactly the same way. However, Ordos players will depend on these units far more then their rivals as the Ordos lack any AA defences and the simplest solution would be to rely on these units heavily for both anti aircraft and armour. Both for protecting bases and convoys.
[Mortar infantry]
Mortar infantry are armed with (not surprisingly) mortars, which they must deploy to use. These units are most effective against infantry, however that said, their performance isn’t particularly good. Whilst the deployed weapon is long range, it has difficulty hitting targets on the move and many can easily close the distance and come in for the kill. There is very few times you’ll ever need mortar infantry and these are too few and far between. Players won’t need to invest much on these units as they frequently come as reinforcements.
[Saboteur]
Essentially a human bomb, the saboteur is a suicide unit where it simply runs towards a target and detonates its payload of bombs strapped to its back. Ideally used against other infantry as they can usually take out groups of them at a time, but they are ineffective against armour. Players are better off investing in dust scouts or chemical troopers for units to deal with enemy infantry. They can be a bit pricy and performance can be variable with each attack. A final note, upon death they explode naturally, in some cases, this can be a severe liability as it could take out friendly units.
[Engineer]
Functions exactly like House atriedes version. Consult atriedes engineer for details.
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[ARMOUR]
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[Dust scout]
This mechanical unit has a resemblance to a bug/spider, armed with a twin machine gun; the dust scout is fast and nimble unit making it a good alternative for scouting whilst eliminating any infantry cheaply and efficiently. Whilst it can outgun most infantry, caution is advised against rocket-based soldiers, as they might be able to let a shot off before getting killed by the dust scout. Players might want to build a few just as a rapid response force against infantry.
[Laser tank]
Just like most of House Ordo’s units, this unit hovers and is incredibly fast. They’re armed with lasers that can cut through armour with ease. However, the laser tank does come with some flaws. Firstly, being a hover unit, it cannot run any infantry over. Second, whilst the laser tank has shields, to absorb the initial hits, any further hits once the shield is down will cause severe damage to it. This in turn reduces its speed so slowly that getting away is no possible. In some cases infantry could out run it. The third and final problem is that these units laser guns with cause a cascading explosion that will kill both target and shooter when firing at another shielded unit. House Ordos players fighting against House Ordos opponents should be careful. The best way to use these units is to simply keeping on the move around the enemy and using speed as your advantage.
[Kobra tank]
The kobra tank has 2 purposes: One as a heavy armour unit and two, as a siege unit. As a heavy tank, it’s terrible and is outclassed by the rival factions, but as a siege unit it’s incredibly effective. They must be deployed and stationary to get into siege mode, whilst there is a delay in deploying, once deployed it can wreck havoc on the battlefield being effective against armour and infantry alike. There are 2 ways to use the kobra tank. First as a very effective base defence, deploy enough of these around entrances and nothing will get through. Alternatively as a deadly attacking force, this can be done by creeping barrages and slowly squeezing an enemy base, but be cautious when trying this tactic on sand as it’ll no doubt attract the worms to your units. The only effective method in dealing with these units is to dislodge them with fast/aerial units. If a base is heavily fortified with them, players should consider deploying special attacks available at their respective palaces (house atriedes one being exceptionally brilliant for this type of situation).
[APC]
Armed with shields and a rocket launcher capable of attacking both ground and air, the Ordos APC essentially functions identically to the atriedes versions and using the same strategies are more then acceptable. Consult atrides APC for details.
[Deviator]
House Ordos unique armoured unit allows players to control enemy units for a small period of time before control is resumed back to the enemy. Frankly this unit is a waste of money. Armed with no guns of its own for protection, slow, short rate of fire and susceptible to attacks, the unit is a disappointment. Even if players were able to convert a unit, chances are another unit would be attacking it and kill it seconds later. Save the money for more kobra tanks.
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[AERIAL]
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[Eye in the sky]
This unit is a lightly armoured and slow flying bomb that causes damage when detonated. These units can be very expensive at 1000 a pop as they destroy themselves in the blast. But that said, players also get a free saboteur to cause additional havoc on the ground. This unit’s slow speed is a major downfall with any unit capable of targeting aerial targets being extremely dangerous. Whilst in large groups in can be devastating, players cash is best spent on ground forces.
[AA drone]
House Ordos Aerial anti aircraft solution is a floating mine that detonates releasing a spore of homing missiles at aerial units. Players will be better off again purchasing large numbers of AA troopers armour hunter groups rather then just for one of these self destructing mines.
[Advanced carryall]
Exactly like its other counter parts. Consult the atriedes advanced carry all for details.
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[SUBHOUSE UNITS]
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The 3 main houses are able to request the service of sub houses who have an interest on arrakis or on the war of the assassins. Players can receive their services in various ways. But be warned, several missions will also cause friction and could lose the assistance of these houses. Once sub houses join with players, they can then build structures to build these units
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[IMPERIAL SARDAUKAR]
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Considered the elite fighting force. The sardaukar once served the previous emperor, but with him dead, they come to arrakis to observe and join the strongest faction as their new master. They are exceptionally well-trained and well-armed favouring terror tactics which makes them a ruthless and efficient fighting force in the process. Their iron discipline makes them fearless and will never crawl when hit. Getting their loyalty is relatively easy, usually assisting them in a conflict, eliminating key leaders or using gholas to convert them.
[Sardaukar]
The basic unit, these units are armed with machine guns which can be extremely effective against infantry and armour alike (provided they’re in large groups). Very little can get past these units as they fill the environment with lead. Whilst they’re exceptional infantry with their armour unmatched by other units, they can be expensive and still vulnerable to freman units. Players might prefer to purchase small numbers as strike teams against dangerous infantry or isolated armour.
[Sardaukar elite]
Typically forming the commanders of the sardaukar, the elites are armed with lasers with are more suited to damaging armour and aerial units rather then infantry. To compensate for this, they attack rival infantry up close with knives and killing infantry outright in one strike. Even more expensive units, players will find price very off putting and with armour units being more useful for the task, players might want to ignore these units and choose freman ones instead.
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[THE FREMAN]
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The indigenous people of Arrakis, the freman populace survive in the harsh desert climates by wearing specially adapted suits to retain water, something of a valuable commodity on Arrakis. They are exceptionally well skilled in stealth and ambush attacks with many units being cloaked and killing units with one hit. Their experience in living in arrakis allows them to move and not disturb sand worms. Players will find these units exceptionally useful especially for their price and a real nightmare to fight against because of their devastating weaponry and annoying habit to disappear. Originally, allied to the Atriedes household, over time their bond has been broken making their loyalty up for grabs.
[Warrior]
The basic freman unit is armed with a sniper rifle that they can operate efficiently compared to the slow firing atriedes sniper. This makes them great for scouting and as an annoying distraction as they’re place deployed in tight areas that would eliminate infantry easily such as entrances of bases. The only disadvantage is that their weapons are ineffective against armour units. But with the cloaking ablity, getting away from them will be easily. Recommendation: purchase these units and in some case purchase only these infantry units. Additionally, make sure to enable “Guard” order so that they automatically pick off units in front of bases.
[Fedaykin]
The elite cadre of freman warriors like the standard warriors, they are cloaked units making them exceptionally useful in scouting and preparing ambush attacks. The Fedaykin use sonic screams, which can kill both infantry and armour, being most effective against the latter. This unit also has the special ability to summon and ride sandworms for duration of time. This feature allows them to become invulnerable and cause massive damage to the enemy. That said the ability is a bit hit and miss taking quite long to find one. Players are recommended to purchase these units as devastating tank hunters destroying convoys or groups of armour before they reach the base.
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[THE IX]
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Rivals against the Tleilaxu, the IX specialise in automated technology to its customers. When players are given the choice of choosing between the IX and Tleilaxu, players should always go with the IX. Their technology by far is more useful compared to their rivals.
[Infiltrator]
Infiltrators are cloaked units that self-destruct when activated causing immense damage and typically destroying most weak structures with just one. Players who favour sneak attacks or diversion attacks might want to purchase a few of these and launch secret bombing runs to severally cripple an enemy. Usually 2 will destroy war factories and larger structures and 3 will eliminate construction sites. Players be advised, damaged infiltrators are not as effective and detonating too many too close will result in some of them being destroyed by friendly units without causing detonation. A consist pace where units are detonated in different areas away from each other are recommended.
[Projector]
At first, players might not know what are the benefits of holograms. To the untrained eye, the best they can do with these units is a cheap and effective way for scouting. As they disappear over a small duration of time or contact is made. But there is one very, very useful and brilliant function makes this unit something worth purchasing. The holograms can HURT other units. Potentially, players can churn out lots and lots of holograms as attacking forces or defending and for free. Obviously some units for holograms are better then others. Atriedes players will have great use projecting lots and lots of minotaurus or sonic tanks to protect a base. Harkonnen should project devestators as an almost unstoppable and very cheap defence. House Ordos will find this unit less useful, the projected units cannot deploy like normal units would so ideally projecting other faction units instead. Overall definitely work building one to bolster forces.
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[TLEILAXU]
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The tleilaxu specialise in biological warfare, poisons and cloning. They work secretly with the guild to take over the universe. Players will be given the opposition of deciding between them and the IX. However, there are methods to gaining both sides co-operation and in some missions will provide this opportunity. Players are recommended to take it.
[Contaminator]
“Zombies” would be a good way to describe these units. These shambling diseased infantry monsters will convert any killed infantry to become contaminators. In large numbers they can be extremely dangerous as they overwhelm players. That said, players might not find these units as effective and will need to build large numbers to do so and that could be expensive. A possible (if cruel tactic) is to build lots of scouts and make the contaminator force fire on them. Players shouldn’t really purchase these units and can easily be mow them down with armour.
[Leech]
A parasitic monster, the leech with shoot spores at armour and slowly drain their health and upon death will give birth to another leech. Whilst the spores can be shot off, they are easily removed by engineers and thus preventing the process from occurring. Another problem is that the process can take a long time to occur; so stronger units will typically survive the initial attack. A good tactic is to leech onto close to death armour units being pounded by other units. But generally, the effort required to make these units successful is not worth it.
[THE GUILD]
The guild is the only interstellar travel business. If someone wants to travel through space, they must go to the guild. To do this they use spice, which has become something of a life source of the guild. The guild is powerful and has interests in diplomacy and any events as to protect their business and above all the spice. But this power has also given them a good position to rule the universe themselves…
[NIAB tank]
These attack using electricity that it builds up and releases in an electrical discharge frying anything in its short radius. Sadly this expensive unit is plagued with problems, namely speed and weapon range. Whilst they have teleportation devices, it can only allow them to teleport short distances and the slow charge up typically results in most surprise attacks as a one-way trip…
[Guild maker]
The guilds infantry, these mutated, slug/snake/worm like creatures attack units with again electricity. Whilst slow to fire and move, their attacks can be quite powerful with most infantry dying and armour taking considerable damage with one shot. But this is simply not enough to recommend players to consider purchasing these units.
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This walkthrough was composed by spoonbeast. Completed on 18th May 2007
[EMPEROR FOR DUNE GUIDE]
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With the downfall of the former ruling house Corrino and the death of the emperor, a power vacuum has emerged and with 3 of the greatest ruling houses with equal claim to the throne, the war of the assassins has begun! In this guide we will go over each of the factions and provide hints and tips to playing the game. Lets begin with some information of the universe of Dune.
[-What is the war of the assassins and how does it work?]
If more then one House makes a claim to the throne, the war of the assassins is a formal method of choosing the next the ruling house and emperor. Rather then causing immense bloodshed, all competing houses fight will be contained on Arrakis. The first house to remove another great house’s stronghold and capturing their main home world will be declared the next emperor. Of course, things won’t be that easy, it’s suspected that the Guild had been plotting the downfall of the former emperor so that they can rule the universe…
[-Arrakis, why there?]
Arrakis is the only planet to produce the most valuable commodity to man: melange (also dubbed the spice), it is used for space travel and preventing the aging process of a person when consumed. So he who controls the spice, controls the universe. The only way to do that is to eliminate enough Houses to gain majority control of the planet and declared winner of the war (in this case just one other house will do).
[-Who are the factions?]
There are 3 factions, House Atreides, House Harkonnen and House Ordos. Lets go through each one in detail:
[HOUSE ATREIDES]
“For the duke!”
House Atreides represent the virtues of man, with strong feelings towards justice, honour, loyalty and well being of each other for the greater good. This has resulted in well-treated inhabitants being fiercely loyal to Duke Achilles to the point of self-sacrifice if needed. They believe they deserve to become the next ruling house, and that they are the only people who would use the spice responsibly and for the good of all. They don’t trust any other house to do this. The atreides beliefs in preservation of human life has allowed for the development of highly skilled infantryman, troop transport and repair facilities. With additional benefits of surviving highly trained soldiers capable of building more experienced units. With many of House atriedes units needing to be stationary to operate properly, they are more geared towards defence.
[House Harkonnen]
For Geidi Prime!”
Whereas house Atreides symbolise the best virtues of man, House Harkonnen represent the very worst attributes of man. Lying, disloyalty, backstabbing, torture and betrayal are normal in the worlds of House Harkonnen. To get anywhere in Harkonnen society, you must kill your predecessor and rule ruthlessly to survive. How such a self-destructive society ever managed to rise to greatness rather then fall into complete anarchy remains a mystery. A possible explanation is that the very worst traits of man are also some of the best, or at least the ones that keep people alive. The corrupt Baron Rokan rules the harkonnen. Lately he has been unwell and suspicion points to the barons 2 sons: Copec and Gunseing as the cause. Whilst they have little love for family, they vie with each other to become the next baron. The lack of consideration for human life has left house Harkonnen with no troop transports and repair facilities. But this is compensated with plenty of siege units and many units being deadlier compared to their rival counterparts. As a consequence, the Harkonnen are considered very strong attackers. Best of all, Harkonnen units are incredibly durable whereas other units would suffer speed loss after taking a considerable pounding Harkonnen units do not.
[House Ordos]
“That is the directive!”
House Ordos is a secretive society; few can understand their motives and with everything done with a cold, business mentality. The executrix, a 4-member council that speak through a single person wired to them, rule the house. Should they win the war of assassins and are proclaimed emperor of the universe, house Ordos intend to rule in secret with a clone (Ghola) of the former emperor as a puppet. Just like any business, efficiency is everything, the forces of the Ordos are streamlined, multipurpose, rely upon new ultra hi-tech technology or on someone else to do the job. Although the Ordos come with some of the best advantages, they also suffer from the worst problems. Whilst their units naturally heal, have shields and are very fast, they are weak and their speed severally reduced when sustaining too much damage (typically ending with the unit dying during the battle). In addition, they lack defences against aerial units and have an ineffective or severally lacking air force. Players must decide carefully whether to choose this faction during skirmishes.
[-So where does the battles take place?]
Arrakis, the primary warzone for the conflict, is a desert world where water is scarce and incredibly valuable. The indigenous people, the Fremen show their respect by giving their own water (so spitting is considered a high honour). Mostly consisting of rock and oceans of sand, Arrakis is home to the sand worms, which can vary in size but are highly dangerous. Its also recommended to be careful of hurricanes that can kill infantry units. Players will only be able to build structures on the few places of rock. Strewn across the landscape is wreckage and tents that can contain some useful pick ups, most notably money.
The harkonnen home world Geidi Prime, completely consists of rock, ever since the planet was mined empty of its resources. Thankfully, players can build pretty much anywhere on the planet. Players will have to cross the numerous bridges to get across ravines and gorges. Smaller bridges offer the chance for sneak attacks. Players can also receive additional forces and resources by breaking prisoners and slaves out of their prisons. Funds will also be provided at regular occasions when fighting here. Harkonnen players will have to resolve a civil war between the barons 2 sons for leadership here.
The guild heighliners essentially transport units to and from arrakis. It’s not unusual to have all three factions’ units being on the same transport ship. To prevent fights breaking out, the guild gives warnings for all fights to cease and this will be swiftly followed by depressuring the holds killing anyone that haven’t returned to their troop transports. Players will typically have limited resources to complete a particular objective. For the Atriedes its to rescue forces captured by the rival houses, the harkonnen attempt to gain the upper hand by killing everyone onboard, breaking every rule and the Ordos use the opportunity to test an experimental gas that will turn friend into foe.
The ice plant of House Ordos Draconis IV is predominately water based. Despite the ground being mostly frozen ice, they will not support structures. Consequently all structures must be built on ice glaciers. With no spice, players will receive regular funding to deal with expenditure. Ordos players will have to contain a breakout of tilaxiu monsters threatening the capital.
Finally the Atreides home world Caladan is lush, green and beautiful. Players will again have to receive regular funds to make purchases during fighting. Additionally, most of the grassland is far too soft for structures to be build on them, players will have to build their structures on hills. A particular item of interest is the various trenches which dot landscape and act as cover for infantry. Sadly, most of them are designed to protect defenders and attacking forces will find little use for them. Atriedes players will fight here when assassination attempts on VIPs disrupt peace talks.
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[Tips and tricks]
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There are several tips and tricks when playing emperor battle for dune and this will make fighting the enemy considerably easier.
1)Speed is the key. Players should try and defeat their opponent as soon as possible. Once the opponent has fully established its base, the battle is almost certainly going to end in deadlock with the AI having the upper hand as a continuous stream of units will pound players. Find their base quickly and make regular assaults early on to sabotage their bases. Building infiltrators and siege units will allow sneak attacks. If players find that they have being given a few decent units at the start (eg several tanks or a siege unit or 2), players should go on the offence and attack the enemy base when its still weak. Hell, deploy your base next to theirs to keep the pressure up and supply a continuous steam of units.
2)Don’t group self-destructing units together EG Saboteurs, if one dies and explodes it could start a chain reaction killing other explosive units.
3)When there are separate objectives other then to eliminate an enemy base. Players should ignore that objective and assault the enemy base first. As the primary objective will allow time for the opponent to build up a nasty presence and can lead to deadlocks. Don’t completely destroy the enemy base until you’ve completed the other objectives to gain a better final rating (not that it matters)
4)Be extremely careful of missions requesting players to capture unoccupied enemy structures, once the objective is completed, a second opponent will continuously throw units at the player until they lose control of the structures. In some cases, they’ll bring some very devastating units that’ll cause no small measure of trouble.
5)When eliminating a base, you don’t need to destroy all structures to guarantee victory, eliminate the vital structures that manufacture, harvest, construction sites and victory is guaranteed. So don’t waste all your time trying to eliminate wind traps or every turret.
6)Don’t bother building an attacking air force; they’re expensive and ineffective. The enemy’s base will typically be bristling with anti aircraft units and structures rendering an air force useless.
7)Always take advantage of the resources on the battlefield; wreckage will give players plenty of money to build bases quickly whereas tents dotted around the environment will provide additional infantry units. Watch out for Eggs and steel casings that provide tixlau and Ixian units.
8)Never ever take missions that will end the services of a sub house. Try at all costs to keep the freman happy, as they’re a very difficult foe to defeat.
9)In some missions existing structures of allied houses will be assist players and need protection. A good tactic is establishing a base near those structures if possible.
10)Apart from house atreides and freman units or rocket soldiers for cheap aerial defence, players should concentrate building armour units in the later stages of a fight, as these will be the units that will win the day. Besides, the tanks are more devastating and have other units to deal with any threat possible. As well as the fact most reinforcements come in the form of infantry anyway.
11)Be careful of causing intense combat in the sand when on arrakis as this can attract sandworms to that location. Players should evacuate units as swiftly as possible.
12) When sending scouts to search for the enemy base, always make them search in rocky areas, as they will be the places where enemy bases can be found.
13)Rival faction palace attacks can be extremely annoying, but there are dos and do nots when using them. lets look into each one:
Atriedes super weapon is a passive force that strikes at the morale of troopers forcing them to flee the battlefield (essentially eliminating them). Bases with lots of units deployed in them are very vulnerable so players should be cautionous about this. Thankfully, slow units are less sepetiable to the attack typically the effects wearing off before its too late.
House Ordos chaos strikes cause units and structures to turn against each other. Players should be cautious in building or deploying large numbers of units in one area as a base defence as this these are prime targets.
Harkonnen’s death hand missile is essentially a nuclear bomb. Typically the computer will target certain structures. Such as construction sites and other production building sites. A good tactic to avoid attacks is to simply build structures such as lots of turrets away from the main attacks as to divert their attacks. But on the other hand if they launch a death hand missile at your construction site, It will survive the blast and players will simply repair it for the next strike. Players could use the death hand at striking at war factories or rival palaces to prevent the opposition using it.
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[UNIT GUIDE]
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[HOUSE ATREIDES ]
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[INFANTRY]
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[Scout]
Cheap and defenceless, the scout’s only purpose is to remove the fog of war and reveal hidden units. Their vision is unmatched by any other unit and becomes a vital unit for detecting hidden ones like the freman or infiltrators. Players should purchase a group of them and simply throw them into every direction into of the map until one finds the base. Whilst the scout has camouflage, they will be spotted relatively easily by other scouts and usually brings swift death to them. But because scouts are cheap it doesn’t really matter.
[Light infantry]
Armed with merely rifles, light infantry are mediocre against other infantry. Its highly recommended players don’t bother purchasing more then a few. Typically they come in as reinforcements and once a base is up and running, players can depend on armour to win the day.
[Engineer]
Armed with nothing but a toolbox, the engineer purpose is to repair friendly structures or capture rival ones. Engineers can also remove leech spores from tixalu lechers, extremely handy when the final few level the enemy use tilaxlu forces. A good idea is to keep one or two around in the base for emergency repairs or prevent leech spores appearing. Players could use diversion attacks allowing engineers to capture vital structures to cripple enemy bases. If players want to capture an enemy structure, a good method is to simply leave units in front of structures preventing anything getting out whilst the engineer makes his way. Players are not advised to capture radar stations, as only one will ever be needed.
[Sniper]
Just like any sniper, they are armed with long range rifles capable of killing most infantry in one shot. Players will need to purchase more then one as to support other snipers because their reload times is incredibly slow. Additionally, they should be deployed near bases (preferably on infantry rock) as a cheap anti infantry defence leaving players to invest in deadlier anti tank defences.
[Kindjal infantry]
Whilst Atreides has no rocket units, the kindjal in a sense compensates for this disadvantage. Like most unique Atriedes infantry units, they need to be stationary and deployed to be made most effective and whilst they’re armed with pistols these are useless and won’t kill anything. The kindjal is capable of dealing effective damage against armour making it ideal for defending bases when using snipers for infantry and kindjal for armour. Players can easily eliminate them by sending out anti infantry armour or long-range units.
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[ARMOUR]
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[Sand bike]
The lightest of all atreides units, the sand bike fills the role of scouting and dealing with infantry. Whilst quite nimble at times, the bikes poor weaponry makes them disappointing compared to rival factions light armour units.
[Mongoose]
The Mongoose is the standard battle vehicle of House Atrides this mech-like vehicle is armed with a rocket capable of targeting both ground and aerial vehicles. Players will need to buy several at a time, as individually they’re ineffective. In the early stages of the game, mongooses should be used as temporary protection against aerial attacks as this faction lacks rocket infantry.
[APC]
The atriedes variant of the APC has a cloaking ability and is armed with a machine gun that provides some, if lacking protection against the enemy. These troop transports should only be filled with engineers and more effective infantry such as the freman or engineers. Alternatively they can be used to protect infantry from the sand storms on arrakis, which can kill exposed infantry. But with most battle predominately being armour based, players will need only a few to ferry units to and from the front line.
[Repair vehicle]
House atriedes is the only faction to provide repair units in the game. They are therefore extremely useful for commanders that are watching their spending. This means that units will last longer and won’t need to make future arrangements to purchasing a new tank to replace the damaged ones. When possible buy a few to accompany raiding parties or with minotaurus units as to maintain assaults. Recommendation: build more then 2 as to allow the repair tanks to repair each other when required.
[Minotaurus]
The heavy siege unit of the faction, the minotaurus is armed with 4 long range cannons that can make short work of structures, infantry and armour a like. Their only weakness is that they’re in capable of attacking aerial units, but the computer rarely uses aerial units as a form of attack and a few mongooses are enough to deal with the threat. Players are recommended to buy and group 3+ of these units to make them self sufficient and capable of protecting themselves whilst destroying all structures quickly and effectively. Players up against minotaurus units should use siege equipment or a large group of tanks. Infantry have little hope of defeating these units as they’ll never get close enough to deal with the threat.
[Sonic tank]
Essentially a larger version of the Fedaykin, the sonic tank is the atriedes ultimate armour unit. It is extremely effective against armour as it shoots through units. Its ideal as a defence unit taking out armour and infantry alike as they approach or as an assault unit to subdue bases. Players can typically deal with sonic tanks by using siege units or large groups of infantry. Sending a small group of Fedaykins is quite effective tactic.
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[AERIAL]
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[Advanced carry all]
Just like the standard carry alls that transport spice harvesters, the advanced models are capable of transporting one armour unit into battle. They’re extremely vulnerable to anti aircraft fire. Therefore, a safe corridor should ideally be made first before making journeys. Ideally, transport the strongest units, as these tend to be the slowest. Alternatively they can pick up rival units to be dropped back at base to make short work of troublesome units. Due to their price and limited useful ness in most levels, players won’t need more then 1 or 2 at any one time.
[Ornithopter]
House atreides fighter plane unit is armed with 2 missiles that are effective against armour. Players shouldn’t bother investing in these units as they’re expensive (requiring purchase of both plane and landing pad) restricting numbers and their small payload makes them ineffective, as they constantly have to reload. They are easily defeated by investing in rocket based infantry/armour or defences and are only available in the late stages of a game, too late to influence a battle with them.
[Air drone]
An aerial response to aerial threats, again, players wouldn’t need to invest money into these units as the enemy never bothers with aerial units. Simply building a few aerial units or a group of mongooses with do the job just as well and probably be cheaper.
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[HOUSE HARKONNEN]
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[INFANTRY]
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[scout]
Acts esstentially like the house Ordos and Atreides variants. See the House atriedes scout for more details.
[Light infantry]
Acts esstentially like House Atriedes variants. See House atriedes light infantry for details.
[Trooper]
Armed with a rocket launcher, the trooper is a cheap and very effective solution against armour and aerial units. Players are recommended to use them primarily as a cheap base defence against armour and aerial units as buying turrets can be expensive in resources. Alternatively small groups can be used to assist armour units to bolster firepower to quickly eliminate armour.
[Flamethrower infantry]
Whereas the trooper was guided towards anti armour, the flamethrower infantryman is the most effective infantry unit against other infantry. Armed with a flamethrower, the can easily deal with small groups of infantry from rival factions. However, they don’t perform so well against sub house infantry like the freman or the sadaukar who easily outclass them. Its questionable whether to purchase these units especially with the buzzsaw and flame tank is far better for the job, plus you’ll get more from reinforcements entering the field anyway. Whilst they explode upon death, the risk of killing other units in the vicinity is low.
[Engineer]
The harkonnen engineer fills the same roles as their counter parts, except unlike their counter parts, they’re armed with a pistol. Which is meaningless as it’s ineffective and unable to kill anything. Again, have one or two around at base to repair or remove leech spores off units and send a group out to (accompany raids if possible) to capture enemy structures if possible.
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[ARMOUR]
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[Buzzsaw]
The best light scout vehicle by a mile, the buzzsaw is an incredibly effective unit. Apart from their twin guns capable of killing infantry in one burst, the best thing about this unit is that it can run units over. This means its killing power against infantry is unmatched as it can kill scores of the opposition. Its best used for taking out large groups of troublesome infantry (by driving through them) or accompanying other heavier units when attacking bases. Stick one of these near an infantry barracks and nothing leaves from it alive. Their major downfall is that they’re totally ineffective against armour, which would be the best way to deal with them.
[Assault tank]
House Harkonnens standard battle tanks although slow and incapable of shooting on the move, are considerably more powerful and durable compared to their counter parts. Their fixed cannons easily destroy armour and structures alike. Skilled or lucky players can easily destroy enemy bases in their early stages with just 3 tanks, provided they are giving additional support of other units once battle is underway. Assault tanks are best used to engage other armour and used to spearhead most assaults or used as a buffer whilst missile tanks move in for the kill.
[Missile tank]
The missile tank is 1 of 2 units siege units available to the harkonnen. The missile tank is armed with missiles, which they can fire in a salvo at targets. They’re extremely devastating towards armour, structures and especially aerial units. Only a few are needed to reduce the strongest buildings to rubble in seconds. Players would be foolish to neglect building these units when assaulting bases or providing aerial support. Players are cautioned, the missile tank is extreme susceptible to enemy fire and will easily get picked off by rocket armed infantry and in some cases some of the stronger armour units can probably take one down before dying itself. This is largely due to is slow speed, rate of firepower and weak armour.
[Inkvine catapult]
Harkonnens second siege unit is a catapult that propels a toxic sticky substance known as inkvine. This long-range unit is most effective against infantry as they are most susceptible to the toxic substance. But players shouldn’t really bother with purchasing these units as their usefulness is limited and there are better anti infantry solutions available. Fast units can easily dodge the projectiles hurled. Players can defeat these units by simply sending armour against this unit.
[Flame tank]
If players thought the buzzsaw was effective against infantry, the flame tank is even better. The tank is armed with twin flamethrowers and can fire on the move compared to the buzzsaw. It can practically kill infantry in all directions and a few of these will guarantee very effective protection against infantry units. A word of caution, these units are not indiscriminate as to who they kill, friendly infantry may get killed. Additionally, the flame tank is incredibly fragile with armour easily making short work of them.
[Devastator]
The best unit in the harkonnen and quite possibly in the game, the Devestator is a bi pedal mech unit that is armed to the teeth with 2 plasma cannons and an AA battery for good measure. Although very, very slow, its firepower is unmatched and eliminates other units with ease. Ideally players should build advanced carryalls to accompany these units to compensate for speed (typically their slow speed makes them easy targets for sandworms). Additionally, due the unstable nature of this unit, its generators can be made to self-destruct and cause damage. Although, it’s probably best done when the unit is close to death.
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[AERIAL]
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[Gunship]
The gunship works essentially like the atriede’s Ornithopter. Whilst being more deadly, it still has the same shortcomings as its rival’s fighter plane solutions, thus players should ignore using these units.
[Air defence Platform (ADP)]
The ADP sole purpose is to protect bases. Whilst it can move around and best used against aerial units, they are ineffective and very vulnerable to AA fire from the enemy. Players should avoid this unit; there are better, cheaper AA solutions with the harkonnen.
[Advanced carryall]
Exactly like its other counter parts. Consult the atriedes advanced carry all for details.
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[HOUSE ORDOS]
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[INFANTRY]
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[Scout]
Exactly like their rival faction counter parts. Consult house atriedes scout unit for details.
[Chemical trooper]
The chemical trooper functions as the house’s basic infantry. Being a cross between a flamethrower soldier and standard infantry, they are armed with chemical gas projectors that kill infantry very quickly. Consequently, their basic infantry is the best compared to their counter parts. Players won’t need to buy many of these units as they very frequently come as reinforcements for players and provide an almost unlimited supply of units.
[AA trooper]
Essentially the same as harkonnen variants, the AA trooper functions exactly the same way. However, Ordos players will depend on these units far more then their rivals as the Ordos lack any AA defences and the simplest solution would be to rely on these units heavily for both anti aircraft and armour. Both for protecting bases and convoys.
[Mortar infantry]
Mortar infantry are armed with (not surprisingly) mortars, which they must deploy to use. These units are most effective against infantry, however that said, their performance isn’t particularly good. Whilst the deployed weapon is long range, it has difficulty hitting targets on the move and many can easily close the distance and come in for the kill. There is very few times you’ll ever need mortar infantry and these are too few and far between. Players won’t need to invest much on these units as they frequently come as reinforcements.
[Saboteur]
Essentially a human bomb, the saboteur is a suicide unit where it simply runs towards a target and detonates its payload of bombs strapped to its back. Ideally used against other infantry as they can usually take out groups of them at a time, but they are ineffective against armour. Players are better off investing in dust scouts or chemical troopers for units to deal with enemy infantry. They can be a bit pricy and performance can be variable with each attack. A final note, upon death they explode naturally, in some cases, this can be a severe liability as it could take out friendly units.
[Engineer]
Functions exactly like House atriedes version. Consult atriedes engineer for details.
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[ARMOUR]
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[Dust scout]
This mechanical unit has a resemblance to a bug/spider, armed with a twin machine gun; the dust scout is fast and nimble unit making it a good alternative for scouting whilst eliminating any infantry cheaply and efficiently. Whilst it can outgun most infantry, caution is advised against rocket-based soldiers, as they might be able to let a shot off before getting killed by the dust scout. Players might want to build a few just as a rapid response force against infantry.
[Laser tank]
Just like most of House Ordo’s units, this unit hovers and is incredibly fast. They’re armed with lasers that can cut through armour with ease. However, the laser tank does come with some flaws. Firstly, being a hover unit, it cannot run any infantry over. Second, whilst the laser tank has shields, to absorb the initial hits, any further hits once the shield is down will cause severe damage to it. This in turn reduces its speed so slowly that getting away is no possible. In some cases infantry could out run it. The third and final problem is that these units laser guns with cause a cascading explosion that will kill both target and shooter when firing at another shielded unit. House Ordos players fighting against House Ordos opponents should be careful. The best way to use these units is to simply keeping on the move around the enemy and using speed as your advantage.
[Kobra tank]
The kobra tank has 2 purposes: One as a heavy armour unit and two, as a siege unit. As a heavy tank, it’s terrible and is outclassed by the rival factions, but as a siege unit it’s incredibly effective. They must be deployed and stationary to get into siege mode, whilst there is a delay in deploying, once deployed it can wreck havoc on the battlefield being effective against armour and infantry alike. There are 2 ways to use the kobra tank. First as a very effective base defence, deploy enough of these around entrances and nothing will get through. Alternatively as a deadly attacking force, this can be done by creeping barrages and slowly squeezing an enemy base, but be cautious when trying this tactic on sand as it’ll no doubt attract the worms to your units. The only effective method in dealing with these units is to dislodge them with fast/aerial units. If a base is heavily fortified with them, players should consider deploying special attacks available at their respective palaces (house atriedes one being exceptionally brilliant for this type of situation).
[APC]
Armed with shields and a rocket launcher capable of attacking both ground and air, the Ordos APC essentially functions identically to the atriedes versions and using the same strategies are more then acceptable. Consult atrides APC for details.
[Deviator]
House Ordos unique armoured unit allows players to control enemy units for a small period of time before control is resumed back to the enemy. Frankly this unit is a waste of money. Armed with no guns of its own for protection, slow, short rate of fire and susceptible to attacks, the unit is a disappointment. Even if players were able to convert a unit, chances are another unit would be attacking it and kill it seconds later. Save the money for more kobra tanks.
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[AERIAL]
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[Eye in the sky]
This unit is a lightly armoured and slow flying bomb that causes damage when detonated. These units can be very expensive at 1000 a pop as they destroy themselves in the blast. But that said, players also get a free saboteur to cause additional havoc on the ground. This unit’s slow speed is a major downfall with any unit capable of targeting aerial targets being extremely dangerous. Whilst in large groups in can be devastating, players cash is best spent on ground forces.
[AA drone]
House Ordos Aerial anti aircraft solution is a floating mine that detonates releasing a spore of homing missiles at aerial units. Players will be better off again purchasing large numbers of AA troopers armour hunter groups rather then just for one of these self destructing mines.
[Advanced carryall]
Exactly like its other counter parts. Consult the atriedes advanced carry all for details.
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[SUBHOUSE UNITS]
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The 3 main houses are able to request the service of sub houses who have an interest on arrakis or on the war of the assassins. Players can receive their services in various ways. But be warned, several missions will also cause friction and could lose the assistance of these houses. Once sub houses join with players, they can then build structures to build these units
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[IMPERIAL SARDAUKAR]
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Considered the elite fighting force. The sardaukar once served the previous emperor, but with him dead, they come to arrakis to observe and join the strongest faction as their new master. They are exceptionally well-trained and well-armed favouring terror tactics which makes them a ruthless and efficient fighting force in the process. Their iron discipline makes them fearless and will never crawl when hit. Getting their loyalty is relatively easy, usually assisting them in a conflict, eliminating key leaders or using gholas to convert them.
[Sardaukar]
The basic unit, these units are armed with machine guns which can be extremely effective against infantry and armour alike (provided they’re in large groups). Very little can get past these units as they fill the environment with lead. Whilst they’re exceptional infantry with their armour unmatched by other units, they can be expensive and still vulnerable to freman units. Players might prefer to purchase small numbers as strike teams against dangerous infantry or isolated armour.
[Sardaukar elite]
Typically forming the commanders of the sardaukar, the elites are armed with lasers with are more suited to damaging armour and aerial units rather then infantry. To compensate for this, they attack rival infantry up close with knives and killing infantry outright in one strike. Even more expensive units, players will find price very off putting and with armour units being more useful for the task, players might want to ignore these units and choose freman ones instead.
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[THE FREMAN]
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The indigenous people of Arrakis, the freman populace survive in the harsh desert climates by wearing specially adapted suits to retain water, something of a valuable commodity on Arrakis. They are exceptionally well skilled in stealth and ambush attacks with many units being cloaked and killing units with one hit. Their experience in living in arrakis allows them to move and not disturb sand worms. Players will find these units exceptionally useful especially for their price and a real nightmare to fight against because of their devastating weaponry and annoying habit to disappear. Originally, allied to the Atriedes household, over time their bond has been broken making their loyalty up for grabs.
[Warrior]
The basic freman unit is armed with a sniper rifle that they can operate efficiently compared to the slow firing atriedes sniper. This makes them great for scouting and as an annoying distraction as they’re place deployed in tight areas that would eliminate infantry easily such as entrances of bases. The only disadvantage is that their weapons are ineffective against armour units. But with the cloaking ablity, getting away from them will be easily. Recommendation: purchase these units and in some case purchase only these infantry units. Additionally, make sure to enable “Guard” order so that they automatically pick off units in front of bases.
[Fedaykin]
The elite cadre of freman warriors like the standard warriors, they are cloaked units making them exceptionally useful in scouting and preparing ambush attacks. The Fedaykin use sonic screams, which can kill both infantry and armour, being most effective against the latter. This unit also has the special ability to summon and ride sandworms for duration of time. This feature allows them to become invulnerable and cause massive damage to the enemy. That said the ability is a bit hit and miss taking quite long to find one. Players are recommended to purchase these units as devastating tank hunters destroying convoys or groups of armour before they reach the base.
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[THE IX]
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Rivals against the Tleilaxu, the IX specialise in automated technology to its customers. When players are given the choice of choosing between the IX and Tleilaxu, players should always go with the IX. Their technology by far is more useful compared to their rivals.
[Infiltrator]
Infiltrators are cloaked units that self-destruct when activated causing immense damage and typically destroying most weak structures with just one. Players who favour sneak attacks or diversion attacks might want to purchase a few of these and launch secret bombing runs to severally cripple an enemy. Usually 2 will destroy war factories and larger structures and 3 will eliminate construction sites. Players be advised, damaged infiltrators are not as effective and detonating too many too close will result in some of them being destroyed by friendly units without causing detonation. A consist pace where units are detonated in different areas away from each other are recommended.
[Projector]
At first, players might not know what are the benefits of holograms. To the untrained eye, the best they can do with these units is a cheap and effective way for scouting. As they disappear over a small duration of time or contact is made. But there is one very, very useful and brilliant function makes this unit something worth purchasing. The holograms can HURT other units. Potentially, players can churn out lots and lots of holograms as attacking forces or defending and for free. Obviously some units for holograms are better then others. Atriedes players will have great use projecting lots and lots of minotaurus or sonic tanks to protect a base. Harkonnen should project devestators as an almost unstoppable and very cheap defence. House Ordos will find this unit less useful, the projected units cannot deploy like normal units would so ideally projecting other faction units instead. Overall definitely work building one to bolster forces.
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[TLEILAXU]
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The tleilaxu specialise in biological warfare, poisons and cloning. They work secretly with the guild to take over the universe. Players will be given the opposition of deciding between them and the IX. However, there are methods to gaining both sides co-operation and in some missions will provide this opportunity. Players are recommended to take it.
[Contaminator]
“Zombies” would be a good way to describe these units. These shambling diseased infantry monsters will convert any killed infantry to become contaminators. In large numbers they can be extremely dangerous as they overwhelm players. That said, players might not find these units as effective and will need to build large numbers to do so and that could be expensive. A possible (if cruel tactic) is to build lots of scouts and make the contaminator force fire on them. Players shouldn’t really purchase these units and can easily be mow them down with armour.
[Leech]
A parasitic monster, the leech with shoot spores at armour and slowly drain their health and upon death will give birth to another leech. Whilst the spores can be shot off, they are easily removed by engineers and thus preventing the process from occurring. Another problem is that the process can take a long time to occur; so stronger units will typically survive the initial attack. A good tactic is to leech onto close to death armour units being pounded by other units. But generally, the effort required to make these units successful is not worth it.
[THE GUILD]
The guild is the only interstellar travel business. If someone wants to travel through space, they must go to the guild. To do this they use spice, which has become something of a life source of the guild. The guild is powerful and has interests in diplomacy and any events as to protect their business and above all the spice. But this power has also given them a good position to rule the universe themselves…
[NIAB tank]
These attack using electricity that it builds up and releases in an electrical discharge frying anything in its short radius. Sadly this expensive unit is plagued with problems, namely speed and weapon range. Whilst they have teleportation devices, it can only allow them to teleport short distances and the slow charge up typically results in most surprise attacks as a one-way trip…
[Guild maker]
The guilds infantry, these mutated, slug/snake/worm like creatures attack units with again electricity. Whilst slow to fire and move, their attacks can be quite powerful with most infantry dying and armour taking considerable damage with one shot. But this is simply not enough to recommend players to consider purchasing these units.
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This walkthrough was composed by spoonbeast. Completed on 18th May 2007