Mechabellum Fortress Guide
All units Fortress
Fortress
Used against
Arclight
Rhino
Sledgehammer
Vulcan
Wasp
Hacker
Overlord
Phoenix
Typhoon
Scorpion
Countered by
Crawler
Melting Point
Overlord
Stormcaller
Steel Ball
How to play Fortress
The Fortress is a very versatile giant. It can be teched to deal with a lot of different board states. You can use a few of them, you can level them or you can go wide and mass them with no levels and fang summoning technology.
Look to go Fortresses against Sledgehammers, Typhoons, Firebadgers and any other medium units. Very strong against Vulcans because you can shield the inevitable fire and the Fortress itself demolishes the Vulcans quickly.
Most air units need medium sized units in front of them so the Fortress is strong because it counters the air units with Anti-air barrage and the demolishes the tanking units with it's attack.
If your enemy starts teching phoenix early or builds 3+ of them, it's usually an easy out to go Anti-air Fortress since they are dependent on the Phoenix single target damage and once you take them out they cannot kill your Fortress.
The Fortress is hard to counter since you have a lot of tricks with beaconing them elsewhere, teching barrier to prevent acid or EMP or spells and using fang summoning and fang shields to block high damage shots.
If you play it correct, massing Fortress wins against mass overlords or any kind of Air army.
Mechabellum Fortress counter
The best counter to the Fortress is a Melting point, you will eventually need fire or mustangs to deal with the fang summoning.
In a late game situation against Mass forts, going EMP Melters and indenciary Vulcans is a good idea.
If you already are in Steel Balls, they are also a solid option to counter the Fortress. It's a bit of a 50/50 matchup and the outcome is dependent on who has the tempo and level/item lead.
You can use War Factory anti missile to counter the Fortress anti-air barrage (or rocket punch for that matter but its more a niche case).
Acid crawlers might be good if you manage to build them at a perfect time, but it's hard to get right.
Fortress Builds
Listed below are all some highlighted Fortress builds.
Surrey's Fortress build
I play with Fortresses a lot. This is the best build, by far. Only flex slot is the Rocket Punch, but this setup allows for the most opportunities to switch into Fortresses. They counter most board states with this technology setup. I usually look for the enemy to overcommit into air units like Phoenix or overcommit to medium units like Sledgehammers or Typhoons to allow me to go Fortress. Anti-Air Barrage is teched when the enemy has multiple air units or has a technology for air units, so it's impossible for them to sell out of them. Barrier is used against fire or as an extra HP bar against for example carry arclights. Fang summoning is to protect your Fortress from single target damage, you can pair it up with fang shield if the enemy has no clear whatsoever. Rocket punch is used as a chaff clear against replicate or as a way to combat air units since the punch will clear remaining ground units and eventually the towers if the enemy commits into the Air.
Fortress Technologies
Listed below are all available technologies for Fortress, their viability and how to use them.
Rocket Punch
Fortress launches his fists to attack enemies, triggering once when Fortress' HP is below 85% and 55% respectively. The range of Rocket Punch is 180 meters, causing 15,000 damage to the target and enemies within 25 meters of the target. The damage of Rocket Punch increases by 15,000 per unit level increased.
300
This technology is a bit bugged and sometimes to Forts just spin around while not shooting the punch. It's a bit unreliably because of it but it's still very good. Big tempo play and a way to clear crawlers quickly.
Launcher Overload
Fortress' attack interval reduces by 50%, reduces range by 20m
200
Very good technology is you are on the line with the enemy. Allows you to clear chaff and medium units very fast. Most of the time you need Range with this though and then it becomes quite expensive and you need to drop another good tech for the slot.
Armor Enhancement
HP is increased by 35% and 60 damage is blocked when attacked. The damage blocking effect increases by 60 with each level.
200
I can see this could be useful in some situation to slam down the forts early against chaff. Winning a round and forcing the enemy into a Melting Point. But the other technologies are just too good to pass on.
Doubleshot
Each attack fires 2 shells in succession but increases reload time by 12%
200
Once your Fortress connects to it's target the normal damage is enough. Fortress has ~ok chaff clear and this is nerfing it and it's not a good thing.
Barrier
Generates a large-scale shield that protects all allies within it. Shield HP increases by 40,000 per unit level increased
300
This technology is a lot of value with multiple Fortresses since the shield HP is huge. Very good against fire, acid, sentry missiles or battlefield spells.
Fang Summoning
Produces 12 Fangs to join the combat every 28s
300
Very powerful late game technology to protect your Fortress from Melting Points or Scorpions or any other kinds of high damage.
Range Enhancement
Increases attack range by 40m
300
I don't like this as the range makes it so your fortresses stand back instead of tanking or providing the barrier. It's for the pipe dream of a carry Fortress that will win against everything with their massive range. It's good with launcher overload and with the high range Fortress card though.
Anti-Air Barrage
Launches 16 anti-air barrages at the enemy every 10s. The barrages only damage aerial units. Each guided missile deals 900 damage and has a range of 180m
200
This is the most important technology of the Fortress, since it allows you to counter some troublesome boards that would otherwise require multiple different answers. Like Ball/Wasp push or a Boat/Sledge composition. (The ability scales with items but not with Fortress levels)
Elite Marksman
The effect increases with unit level, increasing range by 5m and ATK by 25% per level
200
It's quite a cheap technology for the effect, but having a high level Fortress is usually a big liability. If the stars align though, a high level Fortress with Elite Marksman and Range is almost unbeatable.
