baronrakkan

Hello everyone. Now it is getting pretty late when I started this, but by the time most of you read this the game probably already reach many stores across the USA and Europe. If you have E: BFD then what are you first impressions of the game? Did it meet up with your expectations? Who is your favorite house as of now? I'll make sure to post my own first impressions on the game as soon as I have a good amount of time playing it.

Well this may be short and blunt, but my favorite house is defintely Harkonnen.

Well I may be the first one to on this topic (concerning Emperor: Battle for Dune favorite side that is) to have the Harkonnen as my favorite. Their strong powerful units spread across the chart. The flame tank, flamethrower infantry, and Buzzsaw can be used to easily take down huge amounts of opposing infantry. The Devastator has all around power with their dual plasma guns, the ground-to-air missiles, and their emergency self-destruct feature (which leads to a deadly nuclear explosion might I add). While the Harkonnen focus is obviously on using brute force, sadly many people usually forget how innovative and clever the units can be. The buzzsaw can tear up opponent's spice fields to hurt their income. Also the Irkvine Catapult's poisonous globs can be use to poison planned parts of land and is flammable. So that means you can have such units like the Harkonnen Flame Tank force fire on a row of globs to stop (or seriously damage) incoming forces. The Harkonnen engineers also have a pistol for self-defense, which can help in some very evil sneaky cases. While a force of Devastators may be both expensive and slow you can still air lift them with some advance carry-alls. Using the waypoint system you can simultaneously land the Devastators near the opponent's base while you send a strong force of Missile Tanks, flame tanks, and infantry units to help the weaknesses of the slow powerhouses. Now this may sound like an expensive strategy, but if your opponent doesn't have much anti-air you can air lift a devastator and land it near an important structure of theirs (Whether it is a starport, construction yard, barracks, or war factory). When the devastator can't hold up on it's own quickly set it to self-destruct causing massive damage to that structure (maybe destroying it) leaving a bit of radiation for some unlucky units. This strategy can hurt ordos more then others (since they have limited anti-air support) So in the end my favorite side is: Harkonnen

Shaddam those are some pretty favorable combinations. Now if I had a choice I would go with the Ordos-Sardaukar and Guild. Since with the Ordos ( which I think is a more flexible house when it comes to sub-houses ) you can easily use very clever strategies with the Guild in combination. Now Atreides ( no flames please ) I feel is not going to be all that great. Espically when I wield the almighty hand of Harkonnen on their butts :).

The Harkonnen forces are not bad at all. They have very strong, unique units (Devastator is a good example since it has two powerful plasma guns, anti-air missiles, and a real deadly self-destruct feature which creates an nuclear explosion). While the Harkonnen may not have advance technologies like the other houses, it easily makes up for that with strong and just plain evil units like for example the Buzzsaw. Remember the Buzzsaw unit can rip up opponent's spice fields and any unlucky infantry units as well. Harkonnen are also have good range units like the Missle Tank, which launch salvos of Missles at other ground and airborne units, and (one of my personal favorite) the Irkvine Catapult, which can launch flammable globs of poison which can effect any units which step over it (and can be use in clever strategies involving other Harkonnen units like the Flame Tank and Flamethrower Infantry). I would beware of the Harkonnen units if I were you.

Oh come on...... Let me tell you, the Harkonnen strength and Death Hand will make any Ordos followers bow down before us before we even break a sweat. Hehehe...... Seriously though, I am very impress with everyone's strategies ( even though Emperor: Battle for Dune like many other WW RTS games ). The great thing about Emperor ( Sorry this may be a little bit off topic ) is how the sub-houses ( though limited to a small amount of units for good reasons like development cost, time, and balance issues ) and the many other features really make it so people will now have to establish very clever ( or just plain evil in some cases) strategies to survive and win. Now that is true in any RTS game, but to me E:BFD is way more full of strategic depth then past Westwood RTS titles which rely on the sending over a huge number of a certain unit.

Mmmmm........ Now I am not in a good position to state my favorite sub house/ house combo ( since I don't have the game until tomorrow )..... But if I had to guess what could be my fav. sub house/house combo then probably Harkonnen with Fremen ( in multiplayer/skirmish games because you can't ally up with them ever in the Harkonnen single player campaign which makes good sense if your refer to the novels )and Ix. I would use the Fremen and Ix to cover up some of the Harkonnen's weaknesses ( slow speed and lack of stealth ).The Ix devices would provide the stealth portion ( the sneaky Infiltrator can really open up more clever strategies I can use in combination with Harkonnen units ). After I have some playtime with the game I would make sure to respond with a more accurate response.

The first time I went on this really well done site was jsut a month ago ( so youc an call me a newbie in a sense). Personally this site really open my eyes to the upcoming ( well basically already out... But I can't get my hands on it until tomorrow )Emperor: Battle for Dune. All I have to say is thank you FED2k!

Pretty sad that the ( my ) Harkonnens can't repair at all. But that is what you get in exchange for some very powerful units.