Strategy Guide for Dune 2000 Mod - UberWaffe/OpenRA GitHub Wiki

It may be hard for new players to see the difference between the 3 houses in Dune 2000 because the houses share so many units in common. The main differences between the houses are a) their unique units and b) their respective combat tanks. The unique traits of each house are listed below.

House Atreides

Atreides's fighting style is to use long-range units with reasonable speed and maneuverability.

Atreides' unique units:

Grenadier (Unfortunately, for technical reasons the D2K mod does not yet support the grenadier unit)
Atreides Tank The Atreides combat tank's advantage is its long range. It has a weapon range of 7, while other combat tanks have a range of 5. If utilized properly, its long range can be deadly. The best place to use the range advantage is when a ridge separates your units from your opponent's. Even in open desert, the longer range can sometimes be an advantage. The Atreides tank's speed is modest, but it has good rotation speed and turret rotation speed.
Sonic Tank The Atreides' other unique vehicle is the sonic tank. Building the Ix research center unlocks this unit. It cannot be bought from the starport. Its weapon is long range and quite powerful, but the tank does not have high hitpoints, so it keep its distance from enemies.
Fremen Once you get a palace, you can build the fremen infantry unit. They are invisible and have a sniper rifle, as well as a rocket launcher. Cloaked units can be detected by turrets and outposts.

The Atreides also get the airstrike support power after building a palace.

House Harkonnen

Harkonnen's fighting style is to use slow, tough units. Harkonnen have the advantage of being able to build a quad early, without first teching up by building an outpost. The quad is useful against vehicles and tanks, and can be useful at harassing enemy harvesters. Harkonnen does not have the medic unit.

Harkonnen's unique units:

Harkonnen Tank The Harkonnen combat tank's advantage is its toughness. It has 25% more hitpoints than other tanks. This comes at the expense of having slower speed and a slower turning rate.
Devastator Tank The Devastator tank has heavy armor and a very powerful plasma cannon. It is also very slow. Build the Ix research center to unlock this unit.
Sardaukar Troopers These powerful heavy troopers have a machine gun that's effective against infantry, and a rocket launcher for vehicles. Building a palace unlocks this unit.
Nuclear strike After building the Harkonnen palace, you get the ability to launch the Death Hand missile anywhere on the map. It takes some time to arrive at its destination, so it is best suited for destroying enemy structures.

House Ordos

The Ordos rely on hit-and-run tactics with fast and stealth units. In the late-game they use specialist units like the deviator (which can turn enemy units to your side) and the saboteur which can destroy enemy buildings.

Ordos' unique units:

Raider Trike The raider trike replaces the standard trike for Ordos. It is a powerful early-game unit, which maintains relevance throughout the game. It costs $300 instead of $250, but its advantages are well worth the cost. It is faster than regular trikes, and its gun does far more damage. The raider trike is powerful enough that it can be used early-game to harass an opponent's harvesters, despite their heavy armor. Raider trikes can hold their own against longer-range quads, as long as they can get close.
Ordos Tank The Ordos combat tank's advantage is its speed. It is 50% faster than the Atreides tank, and has a very fast turning rate and fast turret rotation. The Ordos tank's high speed is harder to take advantage of than the Atreides tank's longer range or the Harkonnen tank's extra toughness, but in the hands of a skilled player it can be used to great effect. Its basic tactic is "shoot and scoot". The combat tank should be used incessantly for hit-and-run attacks on vulnerable enemy targets. It can travel in a group with faster units like trikes and quads, which are fast units. Ideally you should attack enemy forces and quickly retreat to avoid fighting a large, organized force. The Ordos tank's high speed allows it to avoid artillery fire as long as it keeps moving. Its speed also allows it to go around enemy lines and attack vulnerable units like harvesters, artillery, etc.
Stealth Raider Trike Once you build a high-tech factory, you can build a cloaked raider trike for $400. It can ambush enemy units and then quickly retreat to safety. A large group of stealth raiders can be effective at ambushing harvesters or sneaking into an enemy base. Cloaked units can be detected by turrets and outposts.
Deviator Tank The deviator fires rockets which give you temporary control of whatever units it hits. You wreak havoc on large formations by turning your opponent's units against each other. Building the Ix research center unlocks this unit. This unit is currently disabled until the AttackLoyalty function allows for temporary change of control instead of permanent.
Saboteur This is a commando unit that can be used to demolish enemy buildings quickly. Building a palace unlocks it.

The Ordos also get the airstrike support power when you build a palace.

Shared Units

Medic Heals infantry. Only Atreides and Ordos have this unit.
Trike Trikes are fast scouts which are very effective against infantry. They can be fairly effective against quads and artillery units.
Quad The quad is built at the light factory, and unlocked by building an outpost. It has missiles with a long range (7) which are effective against vehicles and tanks. Quads are somewhat effective against buildings, and poor versus infantry. The quad's long range makes it effective against artillery and tanks, as long as it can avoid any return fire.
Siege Tank The siege tank is built at the heavy factory, and is unlocked by building an outpost. It is somewhere between a tank and artillery, and its artillery shell has a medium-long range of 8. It can outrange turrets, but only by one tile (you'll have to watch out, sometimes units will continue approaching a target even when it is in range). It has heavy armor to protect it from light machine gun fire, but still has low hitpoints. Its weapon is very effective against infantry and turrets. It is good against light vehicles, and modest against tanks. It has a minimum range of 2.
Rocket Launcher The rocket tank is built at the heavy factory, and is unlocked by the high-tech factory. It has a long range of 10. It fires volleys of 4 missiles which are somewhat inaccurate but have a large blast radius. The rockets do excellent damage vs. vehicles, good damage vs. tanks, and moderate damage vs. turrets and buildings. They do somewhat less damage against infantry, but can still kill them effectively at long range. The rocket tank has a minimum range of 5.

Build Order

You have a few options when playing D2K. Generally it's good to defend yourself by building a light factory ($500) early, to fend off early trike/quad raids. You generally will want at least one gun turret to defend against enemy vehicles. If you play defensively, you can then concentrate on building up refineries.

Alternatively, you can try building tanks early by building a heavy factory ($2000) right away. You can also produce harvesters from the heavy factory. Tanks are quite powerful and if you can catch your opponent off-guard, you can deal a knock-out blow by building a platoon of tanks early. If you are Ordos, your fast tanks can be extremely effective at hit-and-run raids on your opponent's harvesters and other undefended assets. Ordos excels at raids, and its fast tanks and raider trikes go well together. Rocket artillery can be a reasonable complement, since they are fast for artillery.

Another option is to build an outpost early. Doing this unlocks rocket troopers and engineers from the barracks, and quads from the light factory. Quads can be useful against enemy harvesters, and rocket troops can be useful against vehicles and tanks. Building an outpost unlocks the starport. If you want, you can skip building a heavy factory and only use the starport instead. Units at the starport are more expensive, adding an extra +25% to you cost, but they build twice as fast. This can be useful when you want to get harvesters collecting spice ASAP. As long as you can afford it, you can use only the starport to build a lot of units very quickly to mount an early assault.

Attacking early with light vehicles can hurt your opponent's economy and/or distract them. If you are Ordos, you might want to attack with your powerful raider trikes early. If you are Harkonnen, you can take advantage of the fact that you start with quads to attack your opponent's harvesters. When using light vehicles to fight your opponent's light vehicles, it can be difficult to get the upper hand. Your best bet to secure an advantage is to use hit-and-run attacks on your opponent's harvesters and power plants. Defeating a gun turret with quads/trikes is difficult, and you generally shouldn't attempt it.

It can be a viable strategy to try teching up as fast as possible. Building a high-tech factory allows you to build effective units like missile tanks (rocket artillery) or stealth raiders if you are Ordos. Both of these units are quite powerful and can shift the balance in your favor. If you build an Ix research center, you will unlock the advanced units for your house like the sonic tank, devastator tank and deviator. They may deliver a crucial advantage which can tip the scales. (Note that the advanced units which are unique to your house cannot be purchased at the starport.)