Favorite Faction?

[Jaeger]

Now that we've had some time to experiment with House Ecaz and the 1.0 changes, I'm curious about people's preferences. I'm still experimenting, but I think Corrino may still be my favorite. It's a bit hard to quantify, but I appreciate the aesthetics and units. Being mostly restricted to the territories immediately around your bases is a limitation that may keep you isolated from a lot of the direct conflict, but their techs and strategy still enable and encourage keeping an eye on diplomacy and the balance of power among your rivals whenever you need to support the underdog and trim down frontrunner.

[⎝Wyrd Deofol⎠]

For me it is Corrino, but i haven't tried Ecaz and Smugglers only in EA.
I know that Atreides fits me best, but i will push on ;)

[Mick Savage]

Fremen all the way!

[Mad_Rat]

I love smugglers. Their tricks both in economy and combat are so much fun.

But Ecaz shenanigans with champions and special villages are also interesting.

[Pawel (LINUX)]

I like all of them, however mostly I play with Fremen and Atreides.

[Kōizumi Seishiro]

Fremen and Smugglers. House Atreides is solid third.
Probably I would avoid Harkonnens but for personal lore-wise preferences, otherwise I find enjoyment in playing any faction of the game.

[Zaulot]

So far Hark is the best. Good economy, strong units, pillaging makes anex cheaper. I really want to like Cori but it's just that they are extremely dependant on spawn location. If you have 5 or 6 zones near base then you are good. Also they gain more bonus on how much stocks they have and there is no upgrade to reduce their price like other factions have. Atrei is kind of nerfed right now. Eco is not like is was before release and Duncan was the best pick before change. They should be economic power house because they can't pillage. Smug is better but still i has problems with their ecomony. Aircraft can't even target other aircraft anymore. I don't play Free or Ecaz so can't say anything about them.

[SuicidalCivie]

Atreides for one reason alone: their “Urban Planning” tech. They are the only ones who can conquer a province, read the village traits to decide all the buildings, and than forget about it for the rest of the game.

[Final Cipher]

I do love playing House Ecaz, covering villages in massive art installations that nobody is allowed to remove, and then releasing the villages to repeat the process elsewhere.
Oh, you wanted that spice field? I'm sorry, that's quite impossible, this entire city is a museum now

[chrcoluk]

Not played as Corrino yet, but I like Atreides a lot more than Harkonnen.

Peaceful annexation, double traited agents, fast allying seitches with +2 authority, units with 2k HP and 60 attack strength and a spaceship with almost 6k HP, charter start of every mission, and more.

My spaceship with nearly 6k HP took out entire renegade base by itself, only had to bring in troops to dismantle it.

Meanwhile AI harkonnen unlike AI fremen, corrino, atreides isnt able to annex villages as militia overpowers its cerberus.

[skydancer]

Corrino for tank siege easywin

[AleksTec]

Only!
After the release of the game from early access, I stopped hiring Cerberus altogether.

[Mick Savage]

Originally posted by AleksTec:

Only:Harkonnen:!
After the release of the game from early access, I stopped hiring Cerberus altogether.

Yeah they got nerfed hard but the Devs admitted they were overpowered.

[Final Cipher]

I'll sometimes hire a ton of Cerberus and combine them with the Sleeper Agents op. Maybe add a couple other things like a Combat Drugs op or a kamikaze Stealth Drone. You can drown the enemy in units, and with the right leaders you can do it very, very cheaply and then just repeat the whole thing a lot faster than the enemy can replace what they lost in the attack.

[chrcoluk]

Harkonnen got another "heavy" nerf, is this based on discord feedback or something? The changelog should probably explain why they make such an extreme change, whether its based on telemetry or player feedback or dev preference.

Glad I already did their conquest.

Final cipher yeah thats why I consider them the zerg of this game, weak on a per unit basis, but designed for rushing and swamping the enemy.

[Jaeger]

I've done a bit more experimenting, though mostly in conquest so the Fremen are still on the backburner.

1.0 Atreides has a few less...fiddly bits I enjoy playing with compared to other factions. Beginner-friendly but strong, fairly well-rounded, and has a very diplomatic/good guy identity that can be appealing. I haven't seriously gotten into political victories and strategy, which puts a small damper on them and Ecaz for me.

Harkonnen rebellions and such can demand a bit of attention or micromanagement, and arguably require one or more advisors to be fully worth it, but overall I think I'm warming up to it all. Cerberus are in a bit of an awkward place for the early-to-mid game since they seem to exist mostly to trigger the "dying units" buffs for Harkonnen troops ASAP, and you need 10K Hegemony unlock to get Executioners to *really* benefit from that.

Still, using them as cheap glass cannons before then doesn't seem like the worst strategy, and as Final Ciper said, comboing their deaths with ops could get interesting results. If Scavenger Teams works on all three of them, then you could essentially be trading manpower for money in a more direct sense whenever you get into important battles.