Dark Reign Taktiks.
Written by: Darren Martin
(randyflagg@shoal.net.au) Friday, 5 May 2000.
With the upcoming release of Dark Reign 2, I thought I'd put some of the
Dark Reign taktiks online for those who cant get enough of the original.
Plus, it's a good excuse to put my name on something.
Taktiks:
-------------- Quick Retreat! --------------
Put those tanks out on the base perimeter and then turn (press the 'T' key)
and click towards your base. Now order your tank(s) to attack (without
moving) in the opposite direction and then cancel the attack. (Your turret
should be facing the opposite direction than the body) Now, set your damage
tolerance to low or medium, and when they are damaged, they can quickly
retreat for repairs and still put up a fight.
---------- Flea Bites ----------
This taktik works particularly well against enemy infantry. Gather a nice
Squadron of Sky Bikes and assign them to a group. Set them on 'Harass' and
let em go! Periodically, select the group and tell them to come back to
base. Your enemy will then re-group and repair their damaged
units/buildings, then let them sky bikes go again! A sky bike doesn't do
much damage, but is enough to cause infantry to return back to base for
medical treatment, plus not many infantry units can attack air units.
Take advantage of accelerated construction and crank out those
heavy tanks. Use your super weapons to blow a hole through enemy defences
and rush those tanks in (accompanied by some infantry) hold the position
and then go set an exit point for your tanks and keep em coming. You should
have a constant flow of tanks into the enemy base (provided it isn't too
far away) for a devastating effect. Just be sure to back them tanks up with
Air-Support/Infantry. Of course, a good secondary defence will prevent this
from working, so some extra Rifts/Shockwaves would be handy
------------------- Like shootin fish in a barrel ----------------
My personal favourite: Transport some Anti-Air units
(MAD/Flak Jaks) near your enemy Rearming Deck. You can take out most of
their air units before they get a chance to rearm and retaliate. Of course,
not many people leave their Decks undefended....
---------- Decoy Rush ----------
Those Imperium swine have the ability to build decoy units. On more than
one occasion, I've been tricked into defending against a rush, only to have
a few Bions sneak in and destroy my Taelon and HQ! So defend EVERY entrance
to your base and use EVERY means possible to slow down any Rushing.
Terraform terrain into marsh in front of your Neutron Accelerators and
build excess Taelon Generators to occupy the enemy (works well if the enemy
has set their units on HIGH independence and you have adequate credits)
------------- Clean up Crew -------------
After successfully defending your base, most of your tanks will be sent off
to the repair shop. A good player will send in some infantry (especially
Exterminators) to finish them off, so keep a few Shredders to pick off any
survivors/new infantry threats.
------------- Sneaky Sneaky -------------
Use the Freedom Guard to your advantage. Be as annoying as your 12-year-old
Sisterd and put morphed Scouts everywhere. Same deal for Snipers (with high
tolerance) and use Saboteurs to damage buildings such as Taelon Generators.
Once the enemy is setting them up for repair, go rush their base and unload
some Phase Transports filled with Martyrs to take care of Artillery/Tanks
------------------ Die by the Tachion ------------------
Remember: The Tachion Tanks can self-destruct, so if you're overpowered,
send them in and take 'em down with you!
------------------------ Journey far.... Dig deep ------------------------
At certain angles, the Fury can take out a Heavy Rail/Neutron accelerator
platform! Also, the Fury has two attack modes- The Laser Bore (great for
taking down buildings) and its standard fire. Try teleporting some Furys
near a building and see how long it stands against a Fury and its Laser
Bore!
------------------------ Are there pearls inside? ------------------------
The Imperium SCARAB can retract into a 'Shell' when under heavy fire. This
shouldn't be needed as your Artillery is ALWAYS defended right? Well, the
shell can also withstand a shockwave assault as well. Just in case.....
------------------- Power to the people -------------------
A fact that everyone should know already: Without Power, your defences wont
be as effective and you wont get any mini-map info/warnings. So make sure
you always have more than enough power....especially when fighting the
Xenite.....
--------------- Infiltrate Tips ---------------
Try to pop your infiltrator up near enemy infantry, then go attack the
infantry and withdraw. The infantry should wander off for healing- giving
you the perfect chance to tag along and grab some plans. When you are done,
follow the infantry back to the Medical bay's exit point and go from there.
Once you've done a successful infiltration mission, it becomes more
difficult to infiltrate a second or even third time. What you need to do is
morph into the enemy in a location the enemy has yet to explore. This is
why exploration is vital. Also, this only applies if you play with the Fog
OFF. And I guess a bit of luck wouldn't go astray either.
The infiltrator has enough time to steal 2 items at a time. (Except the
high tec stuff. i.e.: Rift Generators etc) So don't get too greedy, go in,
steal the stuff and get out. Getting killed holding 4 plans is both a waste
of credits and time that could be spent fine-tuning your war machine.
Diversions are an Infiltrators best friend. So do it! Amass a small army of
cheap units, and go raid your enemies 2nd Water collection base. Then go
insert your Infiltrator while they are off dealing with your diversion.
--------- Alliances ---------
There is nothing better than having some help in your war efforts. So go
get your friend and Ally with them. With two people, you can get twice the
work done in half the time! So you go create the Strike Force and get yer
buddy to defend the base from attacks/sabotage.
-------- SCATTER! --------
Xenite Avengers are devastating to your heavy tanks, so when you see one
approaching, select your tanks and hit 'X' repeatedly. This causes them to
'Scatter' and avoids any splash damage caused by the Avenger Torpedo. This
can also be said for enemy Artillery. At the most, you will lose a single
tank, not loose 3 and have the rest in bad shape.
--------- Artillery ---------
What can I say about Artillery? I love it! Long range fire from the comfort
of your own base! Plus it looks cool! Huge muzzle flash and cool
explosions....I could watch it for hours......... Anyway, Artillery fire
isn't too damaging, so you will need a few units to do some worthwhile
damage. Defending these assets is also a problem. They are extremely slow,
have HUGE splash damage areas (so close combat is not very wise). A few
Anti-Air units and some small tanks should be sufficient, and close backup
should be no problem due to their long range. Taking out Artillery is
another story. Once you receive the first hit, you can guarantee that there
will be many more. Fortunately, the shells travel slowly enough for quick
tracing, so send a scout to check it out. Once you've located the little
buggers, your first thought would be to gather your tanks and go wipe em
off the face of the map. This could work, but there could be some quick
backup on hand, and could just be a diversion to get your tanks out of the
base. Instead, put some tanks in a transport and then send 'em in. Once the
threat is destroyed, bring them tanks home for (hopefully) minor repairs.
Spotting is another important task you should master before you go off and
shell your opponent's base. The Freedom Guard have Scouts and other
morphable units to assist in the shelling operation. Load up 5 morphed
Scouts in a Phase Transport and send it off to the target site. Hold CTRL
and click once on the Phase Transport to unload a single Scout. Instant
coverage. (Just make sure you don't leave a scout out in the middle of the
field) The Imperium however, has a much harder (and much more expensive)
time gathering recon for Artillery fire. Ariel Probes can move quickly and
display alot of recon info, but Air Defences will undoubtedly shoot them
down. I've found that putting a Morphed Infiltrator in the base will work,
but you must be careful not to damage him in the fire. You could also put
him in the enemy HQ (to gain the enemy minimap benefit), but he can only
stay a few mins before being detected and ejected. (Unmorphed) Plus, and
Infiltrator cost 1000 Credits! -->Anyone have any good Imperium spotting
Taktiks? Send 'em in!
Another Taktik I've seen used, is the use of the Freedom Guard Martyrs and
a Phase Transport. Load them Martyrs up and send them off to the enemy
Artillery. Once the transport is in position, hold the CTRL key and left
click the Phase Transport to unload a single Martyr. The splash damage
caused by the Martyr is enough to destroy 3-4 units, and damage a few
surrounding ones. If the player has their Artillery spread out, just keep
popping them Martyrs up at the new locations.
Further Tips may be added if I can remember them. Also, if I get Dark Reign
2 before that, you'll most likely never hear from me again! If you have
your own Tips, feel free to send them to me and Ill add them to the list.
I hope some of this info is of some use to all you Dark Reign players. I
don't play much DR online, but via network instead. I may see you online
when Dark Reign 2 is released.....
The Dark Reign units are beautiful machines. If anyone knows where I can
get wallpapers or some nice pics, I'd much appreciate it.
A question: Has anyone found a use of the Freedom Guard Phase Tank? (Other
than the ability to phase!) I have never gotten it to work well in a fight;
they simply die before they can do any damage. The only use I've thought of
is hiding them in your base then pop them up for a nasty surprise.... but
they die too quickly. If you do have a taktik for this unit, id be happy to
hear what it is, and I'll put it into this file. (With all due credit of
course)
