Vehicle design uses a simple mix and match selection of vehicle parts to create hundreds of different vehicles. Players can see the difference between vehicles as they design them, and can experiment with different weapons, propulsions and bodies to create over 2000 unit types. Here are examples of just a few.

Light Tanks & Buggies

Light bodies like Viper and Bug are available early on, and make up early-game ground armies, using weapons like the Machinegun, Heavy Machinegun, Flamer, and Light Cannon. They use Wheels, Half-Tracks or Tracks as propulsion. Later on, light tanks armed with lightweight but hard-hitting weapons like Lancers or Bunker Busters can be used as cheap hit-and-run units. They are also effective at killing cyborgs when armed with Machinegun-class weaponry. Light tanks are cheap, nimble and easy to produce, but are unsuited to heavy combat against anything heavier than themselves.

Medium Tanks

As technology progresses, new bodies like Cobra become available with heavier armor and more resilient propulsion systems begin appearing. The medium tank is slower than the light vehicles, but packs heavier weapons like the Medium Cannon and Lancer, and is more heavily armored. These vehicles usually ride on Tracks or Half-Tracks, and are somewhat more expensive than light tanks. They are versatile, but lack the survivability of heavy tanks or the agility of light tanks or hovertanks. They usually become obsolete once heavy tanks begin appearing in large numbers.

Heavy Tanks

Heavy tanks carry large and strong weapons and are very heavily armored. They are expensive, are produced slowly, and are very slow, but are hard to destroy. Heavy tanks form the mainstay of most mid-and-late game armies and can smash their way through anything lighter than themselves using their sheer firepower and superior resilience. Heavy tanks almost always ride on Tracked propulsion and carry heavy-duty weapons like the Heavy Cannon, Assault Gun, and Tank Killer.

The most effective weaponry against heavy tanks are cannons and rockets usually carried by other tanks, bunkers or VTOL strike fighters and ground attack aircraft. Thanks to their heavy armor, they are quite resistant to artillery, flamer and machinegun fire.

Hovercraft Tanks

Hovertanks focus on mobility over survivability. They are very fast and hard-hitting, and can travel over water, but are expensive and not as tough as regular tanks. Usually used with medium or heavy bodies, they make excellent hit-&-run units armed with powerful long-ranged lightweight weapons like the Lancer, Hyper Velocity Cannon, Pulse Laser and Scourge Missile. They are, however, particularly vulnerable to artillery and anti-tank weapons(rockets, cannons).

Commanders

Commanders lead other vehicles in battle, and handle their engagement settings, retreat settings, and fire control settings. They are equipped with laser designators which allow them to nominate targets for an entire group and increase the group's accuracy. They also bring back repaired units to the front line or battle, and act as delivery points for factories. Being valuable units, they are usually built on the toughest chassis and propulsion available.

Sensor Vehicles

These vehicles are equipped with powerful sensors that allow them to detect enemy units and structures that are outside the range of other vehicles. They are usually used to direct attacks from artillery units and VTOL aircraft. See the sensors ? page for more information about these units.

Mobile Artillery

Mobile artillery units are used for assaults against fortified bases outside the range of artillery emplacements. They're usually built on medium and heavy bodies, with half-tracked or tracked propulsion. Early in the game, they are armed with Mortar-class weapons, though later on, they carry howitzers and long-ranged rocket artillery. Tracked heavy artillery units have advantages over fixed emplacements since they are mobile, and are significantly less vulnerable to counter-battery fire.

Mobile artillery units must be used in conjunction with sensor vehicles, commanders or sensor towers to operate at their optimum range. An exceptional case is Mini-Rocket Artillery, which has a very short range and can be used independently without affecting it's performance.

Trucks

Trucks are simple non-combatant construction units that are used to build structures ?. Several trucks can work on the same structure and complete it faster. Trucks are also used to repair damaged structures, which doesn't cost any power. Simple, cheap trucks like the basic Truck design have good mobility but are flimsy, but since they have no experience and are very cheap, it is not much of a problem. Tougher trucks can be designed for battlefield construction tasks and Hover trucks can be built to access locations across water bodies.

VTOL Strike Fighters

Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft are equipped with the most advanced propulsion system available, and are able to fly, unhindered by terrain, at very high speeds. Strike fighter VTOLs are the fastest units in the game, over three times faster than the fastest ground unit.

They are armed with rocketry like the Lancer, Tank Killer and Scourge Missile, and can attack any target, whether in the air or on the ground. They make hit-and-run attacks against their targets and have to return to a VTOL Rearming Pad to refill their ammunition supply. Strike fighters are usually built on light or medium bodies.

The Lancer, Tank Killer and Scourge Missile fighters tend to be weak against structures, but are equally deadly against all other targets, and are useful for destroying enemy artillery units, medium & heavy tanks, hovertanks, and other VTOLs. Bunker Buster armed strike fighters, though, reverse this. They are unable to shoot at other aircraft, and are ineffective against mobile ground targets, but are incredibly deadly against structures, taking down most bunkers, emplacements and hardpoints in a single hit.

Because of their high speed, long weapon range and small amount of time spent over the target zone, strike fighters have better survival rates than ground attack aircraft or heavy bombers, but are still quite vulnerable to AA fire.

VTOL Ground Attack Aircraft

VTOL ground attack aircraft are, like strike fighters, very fast. Also similar to strike fighters, they are mostly built on light or medium bodies, though heavy bodies like Mantis and Vengeance offer a reasonable trade-off of speed for durability.

The key difference between strike fighters and ground attack aircraft is their weaponry and attack style. Whereas strike fighters carry 1 or 2 rockets, fire them all at once, and immediately return to a Rearming Pad, ground attack aircraft carry heavier payloads with up to 6 shots, and hover over their target area making several attack passes before returning to rearm.

They carry weapons like the VTOL Cannon, Hyper Velocity Cannon, and Pulse Laser. Their main roles are the destruction of enemy trucks, and tanks of all sizes. Although capable of dealing a large amount of damage and destroying several targets on each mission, ground attack aircraft are extremely vulnerable against AA fire.

VTOL Bombers

VTOL bomber aircraft are armed with specialized aircraft-only bomb weapons, which are short ranged and require the aircraft to fly over it's target. Bombs come in two forms: explosive and incendiary. Explosive bombs like the Cluster and HEAP bombs are similar to artillery shells, with a large blast radius. Incendiary bombs like the Phosphor, Thermite and Plasmite bombs set fire to anything within their blast radius, including the ground itself, for a set amount of time. If any ground unit travels on to this burning ground, it too catches fire and takes damage over time. Both types of bombs are exceedingly effective against base structures, hardcrete fortifications, and cyborgs, but are average against other targets.

The Phosphor and Cluster bomb bays are lightweight and carry several small bombs. Such light bombers are essentially the same as ground attack aircraft, with high speed and multiple attack passes. They are different merely because of their weapon type, which are area-effect bombs instead of precision anti-tank weapons.

The Thermite, HEAP and Plasmite bomb bays are heavy and carry one or two bombs. These heavy bombers, built on medium bodies, are considerably slower than other VTOL aircraft but are still much faster than even hovertanks. They fly to their target, drop their entire bomb load in one pass, and immediately return to a Rearming Pad. Heavy bombers are expensive and can devastate dense groups of units or structures, but are vulnerable against Surface-to-Air Missile(SAM) sites. Category:Manual ?