Fortress

The Fortress is a heavy ground assault unit that serves as a long-range artillery mech in enemy and player armies. It fires large-area, ground-only artillery shells from twin modified Hail-style cannons, allowing it to engage enemy structures and clustered ground units from outside many turrets' effective ranges. The unit is bulky and slow compared to lighter mechs but trades mobility for survivability and a powerful area-of-effect punch.

Fortress statistics evolved across versions: its health sits high (recent builds show 900 HP), armor and bulk let it soak damage that would destroy lighter units, and its movement speed is moderate (converted in newer builds to 3.22 tiles/sec). The primary weapon fires two shots at 0.5/sec each (effectively two barrels) dealing 20 direct damage per projectile and 80 area damage with an area radius of about 4.3 tiles; shots cannot hit air targets. The weapon also applies a small knockback (0.8). Range improvements in recent updates place the Fortress among mid-to-long-range ground attackers (range around 29 blocks/tiles in later builds).

Use Fortresses as long-range bombardiers and frontline anchors rather than hit-and-run skirmishers. They excel at punching through clustered ground forces and damaging bases from outside many short-range defenses. Key practical points for employment and counterplay:

• Positioning matters: despite range, the Fortress AI can wander into close-range defenses if unguarded. Keep them supported or manually micromanage to avoid tunnels of concentrated short-range fire.
• Support them with Repair Turrets or healthy allied units to sustain prolonged sieges; damaged Fortresses are vulnerable if exposed to high-precision or outranging turrets.
• Fortresses cannot target air units; pair them with anti-air units (e.g., Zenith or other aircraft) to handle flyers that would otherwise distract or destroy them.
• They outrange many defenses but are countered by turrets with greater range (Ripple is a common limiter near enemy cores) and by Hail turrets that individually focus shots more safely. Turrets that bypass or ignore their high armor (for example, Duo-type rapid-fire weapons) can deal with them effectively.
• On offense, Fortresses complement long-range strike craft such as the Zenith: Fortresses handle ground clusters while Zeniths and similar units remove anti-ground or airborne threats.
• On defense, a Fortress provides superior cluster-clearing compared to a single Hail due to its higher damage and larger blast radius, making it useful for protecting choke points and the Core against massed ground assaults.
• Balance command limits and deployment methods: earlier versions imposed a command limit; recent builds removed that cap, changing how many can be fielded in a single army.

The Fortress is best used where its artillery range and large-area damage can be exploited from relative safety, supported by repairs and anti-air coverage to mitigate its AI tendencies and the threat posed by outranging or precision turrets.