ImpSard

Instead of wasting your caryalls in trying to pick up the enemy army, try dropping in some minos from behind, and with this tactic, you CAN flank the enemy with minos. The LZ should be out of the range of his units, so you don't get immediately attacked by units on guard. This will mean some walking, though. Be sure to circle around the two engaging armies with your caryalls. This way, he probably won't notice being embroiled in the battle, and his missile tanks won't shoot down any of them if he doesn't notice. It helps to group your caryalls as well, but as a group, you can only make them move by clicking on the radar map, and you can only deploy them by using the "D" key. This way, you have many minos touching down at the same time, and immediately decimating the attacking column. ;D After that, drop in a repair vehicle or two behind your Air Mobile column. Ever read Thoxen's Atreides Brick Wall strategies at emprworm's site? http://www.songwave.com/dune Use kindjals on inf. rock, and cliffs, sards on inf. rock, and minos... and whatever else you want around these establishments. Read Thoxen's strats for more specs. The Death Hand Missile, while annoying, can't do much more than destroy a mino and any kindjals in the vicinity. You can move most of the minos in the area away from the immediate destruction zone. They'll still take some damage, but you can repair that. Having 2-3 repair vehicles behind your defending army helps too. They can repair your vehicles, then pull back and repair themselves. Esp. useful if playing against a Hark player who loves supers.

How much money did you have? If you had a couple thousand or more, you could have deployed your conyard at his base, built a barracks, then taken over his refineries to sell/keep with engys (keeping them will give him more to go after, while you deploy your conyard elsewhere, build a factory and refinery, and pump out vehicles). You'd still have to be REALLY lucky to pull that off. Perhaps if you'd done that after you'd destroyed his base defenses, and factor(y/ies) with your minos. After that, I'd say you'd have to be really lucky to actually beat the guy unless he quits because it would have been a stand-off. Is this "catch me if you can" strategy any good? Tell me what you think...

I believe that this post assumes that the Guild is trying to test it's strength or some other such stuff when allied with other subhouses. If not, the smugglers aren't considered a subhouse by Emperor OR the Dune books. They're just there. They'll provide ANYONE with enough solaris, transport anywhere. As for the Emperor, he was already assasinated by that Lady Elara, consort, remember? But House Corrino is one of the great houses. Kinda intresting, Sardaukar vs. their master. As for the guild NIAP? Please, that thing is almost worthless. Sending in airdrones completely wipes them out. Those Tleilaxu Living Turrets could be a different story though... I say that it would most likely be a long, tough battle. It would also depend on whether or not the great houses allied with each other. If they did, the great houses would probably win. If not... Atreides would probably win, if they build proper anti-Guild defenses (check out emprworm's site, the slide show on that works) and deployed scouts in front of ramps, around spice fields, etc, etc. They would have to be using super defensive strategies to win. Slow advancing, setting up fortified areas on and around infantry rock in the sand, and multiple bases (if possible). Ordos probably wouldn't, even if they built great Guild defense, their sheilding is their doom against elite Sards. Leeches would get harvys, then Fremen Feds and Sards would annihilate any other units, and then would help the Guild to destroy defenses and the base. Harks could really go either way. I've played the least with them, so I'm not an authority, but they could win. Buzzsaws tearing up their fields, Inkys to kill many infantry, protected by buzzsaws and missile tanks. Flametanks and infantry would be useful there too, since the subs are mainly infantry based. Of course, scouts around ramps, spice fields, and any group of units. What do you think?

My computer assigned the v key the task of calling for advanced caryalls. When I try to use it, it never seems to work... Any thoughts?

Any thoughts? I just can't seem to figure it out. Atreides forces just seem way too weak to counter it, especially in QM. Machine gun turrets and kindjals work, but I never seem to pe able to pump enough of both so that I can defend both my spice fields and my base. A good Hark player will send a bunch of buzzsaws and a missile tank (if he gets one from the start) and infantry (a few lt. inf, troopers, and flamethrowers). The infantry and buzzsaws take out your few kindjals and destroy your m. gun turrets quick, then retreat to your spice fields and stay put. Teamed up with a missle tank, they'll be taking out your harvys real fast. Against Ordos, a mix of lastanks, dust scouts, and maybe even a kobra they got from the beginning seem to total an Atreides base. The kobra will deploy and kill your kindjals, the lastanks will kill your mino or two, and the scouts will kill any other infantry. You can't build anything after they attack, because your harvys are gone. Any strategies to stop these early rushes dead in their tracks?

Thanks, Fenris.

Have you ever tried targeting enemy harvesters at the refinery? If you can get a group of them, the Hawk Strike is great against them. If the enemy puts refineries facing each other, one after another, it's even better. Best chance scenario, you find 3 harvesters dumping at one refinery, or see a bunch on one spice sand one you kinda forced them onto. Fear is such a great tool.

I'm new to the Fed2k boards, since Westwood closed their's down. I downloaded some new map packs from Westwood to the Emperor/Data folder. Now in skirmish and internet play, all my maps display 0 where they should display the max number of players allowed for the map. Now, I can't play in skirmish modes or host my own games. When this is over, I'd like to find some good players I can learn from online.