This section tells you different strategic (and sometimes sorta' funny!) ways to use each unit.
FG has the problem of not having many hover units.
The Real Mean and Funny Tricks to Play (Plus, they often save your life!):
Having trouble with enemy artillery, or a huge group of tanks that are staying in one spot, build some martyrs. You say: "but they're behind enemy turrets! Are you nuts?!" The answer is, no. Do you have a phase transport? Good, then use it. Put as many as five martyrs in, and go under an enemy base. When you see a SCARAB or hellfire artillery, or tachion tank, or whatever it is you're looking for in that little sight of the phase transport, hold down the 'Ctrl' key and click on it however many times you need (twice will put two martyrs out, enough to kill a scarab and any others around it. If they're in SHIELD mode, leave the transport there, under a squad name, and once they start firing again, quickly hit the squad number and then 'Ctrl' 'I'.
The Imperium has the major advantage of having many hover units. It also has rifts, and deadly sky fortresses.
The main thing about the imperium, is upgrading to heavy tanks (Tachion Tanks), Sky Fortresses, and/or rifts. In the early stages of the game, it is not good at rushes, though it is possible to do an infantry rush or maybe a plasma tank rush.
The Mean/Funny tricks to play:
This first one COULD be usefull, but mostly it's just funny! Build a S.C.A.R.A.B., and put it into SHIELD mode. Then... RIFT IT!!! Watch, neat eh?! The Rift doesn't touch it! Obviosly, this could be useful if you put one smack in the middle of enemies and rifted it, but it's unlikely you could change it to SHIELD in time.
NOTE: I don't have Togran on here since it's just FG and Imperium combined.
Xenite:
Xenite has pretty much the same strategies as FG for all similar units.
Shadowhand:
Shadowhand has the basic pros/cons of the imperium, but is definately, as any multiplayer will tell you, the best force in the late game. Plus, it is second best or best on rushes, just depending on your opinion.
Mean and Deadly ways to use:
Use gemini tanks in rushes, especially with infantry-in-transport rushes. You put infantry in those transports and convert Gemini tanks to speed mode. Rush them past enemy turrets to your target and hit 'I'. The Geminis will change to heavy mode, and the transports will empty all their men out. How the heck can they counter this one?
Freedom Guard:
It's advantage lies in the fact that it has many units that serve very specific purposes.It has many phasing, or morphing units that help generally disrupt the enemy or to scout (disrupt, such as that funny sabotaging guy. Often over multiplayer, you'll here, "Hey, how did you hit my building, there was nothing there!", while your guys are probably sitting there looking like trees right next to the building!) and it also has very fast units or units that are very good vs. a certain type of enemy, such as the martyr and sniper.
The skirmish tank and tank hunters are also huge advantages, especially on multiplayer, because of their rushing abilities (they're actually as common as gem rushes (Gemini tank rushes) so common, in fact, that I've learned to go 'oh no!' to myself everytime my enemy chooses FG!).
In general, use skirmish tanks against tanks and infantry groups to lure the tanks away and destroy them one by one, and then use them to keep out of the range of infantry and slowly wear them down. Keep away from martyrs or long range tanks!
Use tanks hunters, obviosly, as a way to get rid of enemy tanks, or to quickly take down an enemy building.
Use mercenaries against tanks, but keep them away from other infantry.
Want to really pound your enemy with artillery, but don't have any thing to see them with? There's two extremely inexpensive strategies to use here. Build camera towers, or build scouts and change them to look like trees. You can then phase them into a spot filled with trees in your opponents base, and pound him. You'd be surprised how many shots you'd get out! I've often fought huge wars over multiplayer, using hellfire artillery and camera towers or scouts (or more often, both).
USE SHOCKWAVES! They're your only hope if you're not winning then, someone else WILL use them or use rifts!!!
Take out enemy freighters when on multiplayer, if they don't notice, they could be in terrible trouble before they realize what's wrong!!
Imperium:
Unfortunately, it does not have the trickery of the FG and its units are mostly best used against tanks.
Use your bions against tanks, your raiders aren't that useful, except when theres tons of them! Use Plasma tanks to get their Skirmish Tanks, but beware their longer range, and use scout runners to quickly scout out an area.
Once you upgrade, another strategy is to use the same camera tower/w artillery strategy as the FG, or use Scout Drones, (the flying ones, not hover) to act as scouts, unfortunately, this doesn't work too well because of AA.
Always use Shredders right off at the beginning to scout out your enemy and (hopefully) to kill off some infantry!
Once you've seen your opponents base (you should of seen it with your shredder(s)), build a rift and give it a squad number. Teleport a freighter next to your opponents HQ (or other building you want to kill), hit the rift squad number and rift it! 'Temporal Distortion Detected' 'BOOOMMM' Plus, if you put it between buildings (often they will even put HQ, TrainingF, and AssemblyP all together for you to happily annihilate them) it will probably kill both!! Enjoy.
Use Rangers and Gants at the beginning to quickly take down buildings and tanks. Get them out before they're too badly hurt, and they'll heal up and you'll probably still have most of them!
Once you get Grendals and Grendal Riders, the fun really begings. One Grendal Rider vs. a fury will win! They definately disrupt the SH plans! Keep them away from infantry and make sure you have enough riders and/or rangers so some won't get 'stolen' in the battle.
You can use Powerstrikers to your advantage on Multiplayer, but they're useless against the computers. They are mostly just an annoyance to your opponent, but if you can use it to make him take his eye off a certain part, or stop his turrets, you can get an army in!
Two of the best additions are the Fury and the Gemini tank. The Gem rush, when done correctly, is extremely hard to stop in the early game, and even in the end game the Gemini tank still has alot of punch. The gemini tank has better weapons and armor then a plasma tank for the same cost! Plus, it can change (not morph), into a speed mode, which is alot faster, but has weakened weapons and armor.
The Fury, is a killer of tanks. It is weak against infantry, but mostly, they don't get the chance to get close to it. Although it's built with the Assembly plant it has the same terrain effects as the common infantry (not the exterminator though). It also has an extremely successful laser bore, which can be used for tanks or infantry who want to get close. Getting close results in getting TOO close! Plus, it's laser bore is deadly to buildings. Have Fun!
Two other additions to the forces are the reaper and the hades bomber. The reaper is practically useless against infantry and they will rip reapers appart. However, reapers can be very useful in groups against buildings and tanks.
Hades bombers are very good at killing off buildings, but they're even better at killing off groups of infantry or tanks. These definately cut down on invasion forces! They cannot unfortunately fight Air-Air (Wah!)
Is your enemy backed by mountains? If he is, you're tanks are probably practically useless... except one. Make a force of furies, and launch them at your enemy over the mountain. He'll probably have less or no turrets there, and you can annihilate his base. Trust me on this one, it's been pulled on me before!
