I've recently completed a run with Alpha Mech mod being one among the 35 mods on my list, and I must say that I had loads of fun with the adversaties variety offered when fighting against the mechanoids and also when using them as my own army. As such, I wanted to contribute in any way I could to help Sarg when it comes to mech-related mods of his (I know he got genes too but I'm too dumb to understand those) by providing detailed insights on how I feel for and against every mechs within this mod.

• Main race : Androids of Vanilla Expanded
  
• Period : 10 Years, completed with Vanilla Ship ending
  
• Mech-related mods: More Mechanoids Work Mode, VFE - Mechanoids, Tunnelers can deep drill
  
• Fight scales: Often very huge by end game, especially against mechanoids due to me activating VFE - Mechanoids Total War mode and letting the ships survive, EVERY single one of them. I'm talking 8 Colossus 6 Siegemasters alongside the fodder mechs etc.
  
• Total Bandwidth by end of run: 400/645
  
• I made this list like 2 weeks ago so this one new addition is just to mention I've since ran another 10 years with this mod, alongside one with CE patch! Exciting!

Every mechs will be fully detailed with the following format:
- Threat Level (1 as the most meh to 10 of the most oh ♥♥♥♥ oh ♥♥♥♥) - How significant their presence is within the mechanoid group and priority when it comes to killing. The higher it is, the more dangerous they are perceived to me.
- Player-controlled Performance (1 as the nyeeeh to 10 as the WOW MUST HAVE) - How useful a mechanoid is under my own command. The higher it is, the more I value them.
- Player Description - What I'll write based on how I feel about the mechanoid in general.
- Suggested Change (if any) - How I feel the mechanoid could do better, if any.

Feel free to converse also if you feel differently from how I do about these mechs, anything that could help provide insight to Sarg to make better changes!

Threat Level - 3/10 (Dangerous early on, becomes fodder once you have volume fire)
Player-Controlled Performance - 3/10

Player Description - Aura and its advanced counterpart, Dominion are nice design-wise. It's a shame however that I don't quite feel the same for their performance in combat, or rather, identity. Stat-wise, they are essentially a slightly better Scyther in all regards except armor. While this in and of itself is fine, Aura/Dominion are touted with the ability to regenerate damage overtime. This ability of theirs were supposed to be the keystone of their identity, and yet it feels very... unremarkable, to say it kindly. Despite the supposed fast healing remark (0.1 for every 30 ticks), it's pretty much useless when in actual combat as the damage accrued often far eclipse their ability to heal, if not often dying outright. Even outside combat, the aforementioned regeneration took them ages to even go a quarter of their body's health.

Suggested Change: I see two possible change as suggestion to make them stay true to the burst nature form that they replicate off Scythers.
1) Make the regeneration a LOT stronger, but turn it into an active ability that cannot be toggled off. Using this ability then burns their battery IMMENSELY , making them last only 2 hours before getting downed or any other form of drawbacks. Powerful regeneration at the cost of borrowed time.
2) Have the regeneration tick increased slightly and affect all the damages at once instead of one at a time. Weak regeneration that scales as more damages are accrued.

Of course, the stats across the board should probably be reduced based on your discretion to compensate for the regeneration buff.


Threat Level - 2/10
Player-Controlled Performance - 10/10

Player Description - Literally no complain about this one. The recent move to make it cost 5 from 25 plasteel made it supremely useful economically from early to endgame with the appropriate strategy employed. Despite the lower damage and health compared to their other melee brothers and sisters, they more than make it up in term of sheer numbers. Utilized properly, they are extremely good at doing their appropriate jobs, and that is to get up close and personal and tie ranged attackers into a melee fight, effectively keeping them from being able to properly harm your other mechs and pawns. Not even bosses can effectively deal with them once they are within proximity, so long as there's no enemy AOE in play. The advanced version have higher melee DPS and speed, albeit being higher cost in general does mean their true strength in swarm falls slightly economically speaking early game, but otherwise just a beefed version of Daggersnout.

Suggested Change - None. They are perfect as is.

Threat Level - ?
Player-Controlled Performance - ?

Player Description - I have oddly not had even one encounter with this unit so I can't say anything about it. For some reason mechs just didn't want to do breaching raids at all.

Threat Level - 1/10
Player-Controlled Performance - None, never used them.

Player Description - These mechanoids would likely be higher on threat level and strength, if not for the fact that my defense squad comprise purely of mechanoids and the one mechanitor. As such, they are directly countered and is essentially super easily disabled by melee units and end up being fodder despite the decent HP pool. It doesn't help it has fairly low range for its flamethrower, making it even easier for melee units to close in and get its hand tied, and by then, it's as good as dead. Even if it was to be deployed against humanoid raiders under my control, I seriously doubt it'd able to do much if the raiders also utilize melee spam, as it requires itself to be at the frontline, and therefore easily reached into melee combat. The advanced version suffers the same drawback.

Suggested Change - Making its death have a decently strong and big explosion (not fire explosion) around itself would mitigate attempts to melee the unit, and punish heavily for those who still choose to do so. Players would then have to opt on choosing to kill the mech with ranged attacks, which in return allows the unit to also use their weapon properly. There's a reason why people don't bum-rush the flamethrow boys from VFE - Mechanoids.

Threat Level - 4/10
Player-Controlled Performance - 8/10

Player Description - Honestly I'm pretty happy with where Goliath and Colossus are performance wise. They are the wall in which distracts enemies. Their exceptional survivability like that of a Centipede and speed, especially Colossus which moves exceptionally fast for its size makes them very valuable, both to damage (albeit not as effectively) and serving as distraction whilst more vital mechs endow the enemies with hail of bullets. They are somehow the most balanced mech I've seen. Not useless, but absolutely not wrecking chaos either, just perfectly good. Fast, VERY tanky (HP is literally that of an Infernus and almost identical armor) but derpy damage dealing potential, which is absolutely fine!

Suggested Change - None.

Threat Level - 1/10
Player-Controlled Performance - None, never used them.

Player Description - Suffers the same weakness as Fireworm/Incinerator, where it's ineffective against mechanoid armies. Its range is very slightly bigger than their fiery brother but still fairly inadequate to completely protect themselves from being utterly surrounded in close combat. More often than not, they get caught surrounded by melee and dies by themselves without doing so much of damage at all.

Suggested Change - Perhaps much like Fireworm/Incinerator, they could release a slightly damaging cryogenic explosion on death that freeze (or stuns) enemies in place, causing them to be vulnerable to other enemy mech fire.

Threat Level - 7/10
Player-Controlled Performance - None, I have actually never used them yet as I don't find them necessary

Player Description - Almost forgettable at times due to how long they take to fire, but I left them alone for a decent while that one time and they definitely made their presence known by eviscerating a huge clustered mechs army of mine. From experience, they are indeed dangerous primarily due to big AOE artillery and very accurate shelling. However, they are more of an immense threat if multiple (4+) are deployed and successive bombardments are launched on your mech armies. Otherwise, only one or two of them often aren't too much of an issue to deal with. I like them as they are, the kind that fades into the background and then surprises you with a devastating wide-ranged wake up call.

Suggested Change - None.

Threat Level - ?
Player-Controlled Performance - ?

Player Description - I have never used, nor encountered this so I can't say.

Threat Level - 3/10
Player-Controlled Performance - 8/10

Player Description - The big brother of Militors, and oh boy, I love them so much. Even before the buff, they were actually already massively performing due to the fact that they use chain shotguns, one of the best close ranged weapons in vanilla. This unit shines superbly so in swarm when they lay waste to a target of their choosing, nothing can really survive for long when there's like 10 Bellicors spraying at someone's hind. A squadron of Daggersnout and Bellicors makes up for an economically sustainable and yet extremely devastating combo as Daggersnouts disables the target whilst Bellicors delete them promptly. Their one true weakness and counter is being hit by an AOE attack which can easily wipe swarms of them out, hence it's vital to keep them protected and away from enemy focus if possible.

Suggested Change - None, of course none!

Threat Level - 5/10
Player-Controlled Performance - 6/10

Player Description - The little sister of Siegebreaker/Siegemaster. While they are not as impactful in presence as their big brothers, the Artilleron makes up for the lack of AOE in sheer volume of fire when it comes to shelling. They are pretty essential to pummeling the enemies effectively at a distant and softening them up for other combat units to take advantage of. More of a backline support, these little ones do their absolute best to provide minute bombardment power up front (and hopefully not harming allies in the process). They are also extremely excellent at wiping cluster turret and any stationary defenses out, especially thanks to how far its ranged shelling goes.

Suggested Change - None.

Threat Level - ?
Player-Controlled Performance - ?

Player Description - I may have encountered it, but it might have been so forgettable I cannot remember if it's threatening or not. Never used it either.