Mechabellum War Factory Guide
All units War Factory
War Factory
Used against
Arclight
Marksman
Rhino
Sledgehammer
Steel Ball
Vulcan
Stormcaller
Overlord
Fire Badger
Typhoon
Sabertooth
Countered by
Melting Point
Scorpion
How to play War Factory
The best use case for the War Factory is to use is as a Missile interceptor device. It's very good at doing so since the intercepting effect doesn't diminish when the round goes on (like with the AM device).
You can go shielded fangs to bait out a fire from stormcallers and immediately follow it up with a War Factory to intercept the missiles. It also works against Fortress anti-air barrage which is quite useful sometimes.
The missile interceptor also works against Overlords but it's not usually good since they go launcher overload and overwhelm the factory. If this tech isn't available for them, going AM factory is a great choice.
The unit has an upkeep of 200 per round, so it truly is a late game unit and I think it doesn't make any sense economy wise to start building them before round 5. If you deploy it too early, you will make your board vulnerable to flanks and lose economy in the progress.
If you want to be proactive with the factory, you need to start with the summoning technologies and setup them early game somehow by using the same units and upgrading them. Or picking up improved steel ball/sledge/ball cards as the war factory will summon the improved versions. The summoning factory is easily countered because you lose so much economy in the process of building them so I wouldn't recommend it.
The usual response to the factory is going acid scorpion or a melting point. Against the acid you can move it around with mobile beacon to further delay it going in harms way. Against the melter and the acid you can tech the range to actually shoot from the backline and kill the threats.
Some undocumented features of the War Factory:
- The spawned units will be the same level as your War Factory.
- You can't equip an item on it.
Mechabellum War Factory counter
The best counter to the War Factory is usually a Scorpion with range/siege mode and acid. The second best is a Melting Point.
If you already have leveled, agressively deployed steel balls, they are enough if you commit harder to them.
Vulcans with ignite is also a viable counter. If you are already into Fortresses, going fang summon and ignite on the fangs works as well.
If you know your enemy is running the missile interceptor on their factories, don't commit hard into overlords or stormcallers and give him a perfect round to build his factories.
War Factory Builds
Listed below are all some highlighted War Factory builds.
Surrey's War Factory build
I think the factory is best used as strong anti-missile device. After you commit into it, you should seek to keep your factories safe and doing massive amounts of damage with the range tech. Phoenix summoning can also be used if you lack anti-air. Going fully into the summoning techs has not been great in recent patches.
War Factory Technologies
Listed below are all available technologies for War Factory, their viability and how to use them.
Efficient Maintenance
The upkeep cost of War Factory is reduced by 100.
50
The problem with this technology is that it increases the cost of other technologies by 200. This is usually like picking a top supply specialist on round 7, so it's a little bit too late to give value. It gives you leeway on when you can commit to war factories though. So if you find yourself in a situation where you are going war factories often on turn 4, this might be useful. The other question is, can such a strategy ever be good?
High-Explosive Ammo
Increases the splash damage range of the main guns by 5m, but decreases ATK by 40%.
150
The high explosive ammo has a really niche use case - to counter rhino/crawler all ins, but there a better tool for that - the wraith.
Sledgehammer Production
Produces 1 Sledgehammer to join the battle every 4.4s
250
The Sledgehammer production is a good choice because the speed of Sledgehammers and the War Factory is similar, so they join the battle as a group, protecting each other. The sledgehammer production line is usually the best summoning tech since it summons more units than the other ones and costs a little bit less (good vs melting points)
Steel Ball Production
Produces 1 Steel Ball to join the battle every 5.5 sec
300
It's a great chaff generation tool, especially if you tech mechanical division for your steel balls. Against Acid there's 2 options: Mech div steel ball summoning or Range.
Phoenix Production
Produces 1 Phoenix to join the battle every 11s
350
It is the only anti-air unit the War Factory can spawn and since it doesn't hit air itself it is valuable.
Photon Coating
Covers the unit with a photon coating, reducing damage received by 30% for the first 25s of battle and grants immunity to electromagnetic, ignition and acid effects
200
The photon coating is not good vs acid or stuff like that if you are wondering about that. It's best used as a one round trick to deploy a factory on the line to tank the maximum amount of damage, but its usually not a good idea.
Launcher Overload
Decreases War Factory's attack interval by 50%, reduces range by 20m
200
You usually cannot go launcher overload without going range first. It's best in War Factory mirrors. Sometimes they come up but not often. Good vs Fortresses also.
Missile Intercept
Try to intercept enemy missiles within 150 meters (Battlefield powers can't be intercepted), continuous interception for a long time will lead to a decline in interception efficiency. Interception efficiency is independent of the War Factory's attack and level.
200
Very powerful technology. Usually the reason to build a War Factory. It matches something like 4-6 anti-missile devices, and it will interrupt all the missiles steadily throughout the round (normal AM devices are worse as the round goes on). The missile intercept technology can interrupt even rocket punch fortresses and 2 EMP barrages from melting points at the same time. Good vs teched & leveled Stormcallers especially. Not good vs launcher overload Overlords.
Armor Enhancement
HP is increased by 35% and 60 damage is blocked when attacked. The damage blocking effect increases with the level, and each level blocks additional 60 damage.
200
This technology will make the war factory invincible to small units, but it already is. Melting point and acid is what you should be scared of.
Range Enhancement
Increases attack range by 40m
300
The range will keep your factory safe after the enemy counters it. Good vs acid and good vs Melting Points.
