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first person - not a gimmick


  • When you first start playing Machines, you may think that the first person mode is a fancy toy of little practical use when it comes to serious gaming.
    Do not be fooled.
    First person control in Machines has been designed to be a seamless and integrated part of the game, and will find several missions from the campaign much easier with suitable utilisation of 1st Person. Without it, you are hampering yourself strategically, and are missing a major element of the game.

    The first person tricks and tips you need can be found here


BMU resource management


  • Partially deconstruct your own pod to obtain bonus cash in times of need. It's something of a gamble (it obviously weakens the pod), but it can give you a useful BMU boost at critical moments. But do not forget to stop!

  • Assign a scavenger to a combat platoon either by making it a part of the squadron, or by setting up a follow relationship to one of the platoon members. It will normally recoup BMUs from destroyed machines that far outweigh its own construction costs.

  • You don't have to have control of a mine to take ore from it - if you have military superiority in an area, you can instruct your resource carriers to steal from enemy mines with impunity. You can also steal directly from enemy smelters.

  • Use the minimum number of transporters as possible for any given transport route, as transporters are prone to congestion if a number of them are tasked to use the same mines and smelters.

defensive tactics


  • Human opponents regularly neglect to built SAM defences if air units have not so far made an appearance in a game. The rapid development and deployment of a Bee Bomber can often catch them completely unprepared and cause devastation. If you are yourself caught out by such an attack, a squadron of auto-cannon reapers can often prove an effective, if rather makeshift, retailiatory force. The autocannons rip through the Bee armour quickly and efficiently, but don't expect too many of them to survive the fight.

  • The gorilla can be a real game winner if used correctly. A gorilla/scavenger team can stomp through an enemy base, destroying enemy units and buildings, and scavenging valuable BMUs from debris as they go. A gorilla is capable of destroying the smelters, mines and resource carriers that are the life blood of any army extremely quickly.
    To defend against gorillas, use units that will spread out upon approaching the target; wraith reapers are a good choice. Using a hovering knight in first person (often with the circular attack pattern described earlier) can be particularly effective.

  • Building clusters of mixed turret types can often be a worthwhile tactic. For example, build one or more autocannon turrets in close proximity to a Leviathan launcher, as the Leviathan cannot attack units at very close range without catching itself within its own missiles' large explosion radius.

  • Build ground sentinel "killzones" and lure enemy units into them by getting them to chase a small, agile unit.

  • The building of minefields in movement bottlenecks such as canyons can be extremely effective.

aggressive tactics


  • Use flying APCs to deploy close-combat specialists such as autocannon wraith reapers into the heart of an enemy base. Human players especially will tend to concentrate their defensive units at the perimeter of the base, and these shock troops can cause havoc in the poorly-defended heartland.

  • Combat experience actually improves the weapon accuracy of your troops. If you make the effort to withdraw damaged units from the front lines and have them repaired, you will find that they have a significant edge over newly-built rivals.

  • The Ion Cannon is a good tactical strike weapon, but the target must be chosen with care. Experimentation will show you what can be destroyed in one shot (beacons are always a good choice if you wish to hamper a human opponent's play).

  • Mix and match units in your platoons. The inclusion of units with differing speed, range and firepower capabilities make a platoon more flexible when facing different opponents. Wraith reapers used in conjunction with the higher order knights, for example, can make a good mixed up squad quite capable of taking out something with more devastating firepower.

  • If you are able to take the fight to an opponent's base, enemy smelters are an excellent target of choice. The destruction of a smelter can rob the enemy of large quantities of BMUs, and serioulsy affect their ability to replace lost military units.

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