Mechabellum Marksman Guide
All units Marksman
Marksman
Used against
Phoenix
Overlord
Vulcan
Arclight
Sledgehammer
Countered by
Crawler
Fang
Stormcaller
Wasp
Fortress
Rhino
How to play Marksman
When both players play the start passively and deploy units near their towers, it's going to be a game of who has the biggest range and that's where marksmen shine. Keep in mind it important that they connect their high damage shots to valuable targets. That's why even in late game 4-5 marksmen is enough. It's all about who can handle the small stuff (crawler/fang/whatever) in front faster.
If it makes sense to buy these early they will get levels quite fast and they are cheap to level so you don't miss deployments because you are leveling your units. You cannot switch into marksmen later on in the game. At that point it's better to build phoenix since you get two of them per deployment.
Strong especially against Wraith in the midgame with the aerial spec tech.
Mechabellum Marksman counter
Just overwhelm the marksmen with crawlers, fangs or wasps. Two Stormcallers early game do wonders.
If you identify the enemy overcommitting into marksmen early game, you can switch to rhino flanks or other forms of aggression and the marksman player cannot really stop it.
If the enemy is pushing with assault marksmen technology, go Fortress or Scorpion (not EMP hackers or EMP Stormcallers or any other unreliable counter people on the internet keep suggesting!)
Marksman Builds
Listed below are all some highlighted Marksman builds.
Surrey's Marksman build
I don't think Marksman is a good unit so I have reduced it to a more niche role. I use them only for countering Wraiths and overlords with Aerial Specialization. I use assault mode to have more success with bad openings such as mustang+crawler. I have shooting squad only for the case that if I get a round 2 subsidized marksman card it's good.
Marksman Technologies
Listed below are all available technologies for Marksman, their viability and how to use them.
Aerial Specialization
ATK increases by 75% to aerial units, increases range by 30 when attacking aerial units
200
This technology gives a very clear role to the Markman and it is very powerful indeed. Very useful against early Wraiths or Overlords.
Assault Mode
MARKSMAN’s range is reduced by 70, HP is increased by 500%, movement speed is increased by 3, and attack has a 9m area damage.
150
Helps turning some bad defensive starting packs into ok aggressive starting packs. You can use your marksmen as your frontline. Don't overcommit into them since they are easily countered if you build too many of them. Best counter is a Fortress.
Quick Reload
Multiplies Marksman's attack speed at the cost of lower damage
300
Helps to clear medium units faster, good against hackers, good against late fangs and good with assault marksmans.
Electromagnetic Shot
Causes electromagnetic interference on hit, temporarily disabling the target unit's Tech and reducing its movement speed by 40%
300
Very useful technology. Counters respawning phoenixes, holds down giants in place and disables their range upgrades. You have to have EMP on some of your core units so, it might be marksman or it might be something else.
Elite Marksman
The effect increases with unit level, increasing range by 8m and ATK by 20% per level increased
400
It's the technology that enables marksman to be the powerhouse they are in late game. Usually the second tech after range.
Shooting Squad
At the beginning of the combat, summon 5 Fangs at the same level as Marksman to fight with you
300
It's a good technology. You can build "too many" marksmen in the beginning and get them leveling up and create your frontline by this technology. The other technologies are so good that this is usually a pass though. Especially good with early subsidized marksman card.
Range Enhancement
Increases attack range by 40m
300
The Marksmen are all about range. You probably want to tech this first 90% of the time (depending on your playstyle).
Doubleshot
Each attack fires 2 bullets in succession but increases reload time by 15%
300
Quick reload is better. Here's a question and an answer about it: Q: Hey Surrey; got a question about Marksman Tech: considering that quick reload tech on marksmen reduces attack by 50% while reducing attack delay by 50% - so no effect to total damage output. Double-shot however gives you 100% more dmg. I get that overkill is a thing, so doubleshot is bad vs unshielded chaff/medium units. But isn't double-shot always better vs high hp and shield devices? and quick reload vs chaff/medium units? I am confused why quick reload is so highly favored over double-shot (on the website), what am I missing? A: Well, first of all it takes time to connect to the bigger targets and if you have 4-6 snipers they certainly connect a lot faster when they clear small units with quick reload. Secondly a big issue with snipers is that very often 2-3 snipers target the same unit and with quick reload the second shot goes to a new target where as with double shot they just overkill f.e one sledge with multiple shots. It's hard to describe the situations but I have tested them a lot (not recently though). Also I go elite before quick reload always. The argument against quick reload is usually like "you don't use snipers to clear chaff, you use vulcan or whatever" but my argument is that if you are relying on snipers to kill big targets like leveled rhinos, giants etc you have already lost the game. So i think if you are going early into double shot you are making a mistake because you should be moving away from snipers, not investing into them. And I think late game when you have range, elite + quickshot/doubleshot, the end result on all boards is that quickshot performs better (you can test this by building in the editor). The only exception would probably be if you have like 4 vulcan with incendiary and the enemy doesnt counter them anyway, then maybe doubleshot is better than reload
