A Commander Is You

There are many different types of factions that a commander can lead in strategy games. Factions that specialize will almost always have some sort of downside, such as lower firepower or increased costs for other units. The strategy game equivalent to An Adventurer Is You.

Sometimes the faction is specialized on the basis of their combat abilities. These include:

• The Mario Faction. These factions do not specialize in anything, nor do they have any downsides. This typically tends to be humans in a setting with multiple races. Basically, a 'jack of all trades, master of none' sort of deal. Tends to be easy to learn and play, and is a good beginner's faction for getting a grasp of the game mechanics.
• The Spammer Faction. This faction works by sending wave after wave of weak units at the enemy. Their units are cheap and disposable and are produced and die in huge numbers as they gradually overrun their opponent's defenses. The Spammer faction always has reserves.
• The Elitist Faction. The opposite of the Spammer faction. This faction focuses on an army composed of a small number of powerful but costly units. The exact scale of Eliteness may vary, from nearly One-Man Army-level units, to units that are just a bit stronger than those of the Mario faction. Sometimes they have very strong starting units, but not much variety other than that.
• The Guerrilla Faction. This faction uses the element of surprise to their advantage, usually at the cost of raw power. They may have a myriad of odd stealth and cloaking or deception abilities. This faction tends to be the hardest to play effectively against the AI, since the computer frequently has a magical ability to spot hidden troops, or just uses the same strategy regardless of where you position your forces. However, the Guerrilla faction can be absolutely infuriating for human players to face.
• The Brute Force Faction. Exactly What It Says on the Tin. A faction that pounds their enemy into submission with raw power, and does not partake in any sort of trickery, fancy tactics, or intricate micromanagement. Common disadvantages are slow movement and a lack of special abilities. Along with the Mario faction, the Brute Force faction tends to be easier to learn due to the lack of complex combinations and special abilities. May overlap with the Mario faction or Spammer faction, and sometimes even with the Elitists.
• The Ranger Faction. This team has high movement speed and/or better ranged attacks, usually at the cost of staying power. Expect a lot of hit-and-run tactics. If it's a fantasy setting, this faction is probably elves of some sort. May overlap with the Guerrilla faction.
• The Technical Faction. The opposite of the Brute Force faction - lots of nasty special abilities, but poor base stats and/or relatively high unit costs. Typically requires a lot of micromanagement to use effectively, and therefore not the best faction for novice players. Often have the best tech trees of the game, which make them slow starters, but very easy to win with in the late game. May overlap with the Elitists or Guerrillas.
• The Unit Specialist Faction. This faction specializes in a certain type of unit, such as infantry or tanks, or a certain type of weapons or technology (flamethrowers, chemical weaponry, nuclear technology, etc.). They are usually disadvantaged by having their non-specialized units nerfed in some way. Their game tends to rely on holding out and manipulating the Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors so that their specialized unit(s) can be deployed heavily without fear of being hard-countered, and then steamrolling the opposition. Usually found when factions in a game have sub-factions. A Brute Force Faction could have sub factions focusing on infantry power, vehicle power, and air power. Also found when a game has so many factions it covers all the other faction types and just takes the base idea of one faction and leans it to a certain unit type.

Other times, they are specialized on the basis of some non-combat strength, in which case they are one of the:

• Gimmick Factions. These are similar to The Mario faction, but have some non-combat advantage (like, e.g., high taxes or good diplomacy or fast building rates). More common in 4X TBS than in RTS. Their downside may be that they are slightly weaker in combat. Sub-tropes of the Gimmick faction include:
  • The Industrial Faction. This faction is capable of building things very quickly. Their gameplay will inevitably have early-game rush strategies that use their fast-building advantage to get the drop on other factions who are slower to start up. They tend to overlap with the Economist faction or the Spammer faction.
  • The Economist Faction. High income and/or trade bonuses. This may allow sneaky tactics like bribing people or buying research and units from third parties. Disadvantages vary, but having slightly weaker units in general is a common one. May overlap with the Industrialists.
  • The Loyal Faction. Common in TBS games which require you to keep your citizens content (or at least brutally suppressed), this faction has particularly high morale, which lets you focus your resources on building tanks instead of entertainment complexes. Often a good choice for beginners since it makes it a little easier to keep things running smoothly.
  • The Research Faction: Usually only crops up in turn-based games, particularly the 4X type. This faction gets a bonus to research, allowing them access to advanced units and abilities which give them an edge early on. They may overlap with the Elitists, if their superior technology comes at a higher price.
  • The Diplomat Faction. Has no strengths except for the ability to make other people do their work for them. They're often able to push their agenda in inter-faction relations, cover up any dubious actions without morale loss, and generally get better deals in trading and diplomacy. In games with focuses on combat, playing as these on multiplayer matches is almost a Self-Imposed Challenge, since their AI manipulative skills are rendered moot.
  • The Espionage Faction. The Espionage factions are not particularly adept fighters. Fortunately, they can cripple everyone else through sabotage, spying, theft, bribery, hacking, and general underhandedness.

And then there are some exceptions:

• The Pariah Faction. This faction relies on some not particularly useful gimmick or combat ability. They tend to be disadvantaged with most everything else. For bored advanced players or Scrubs. Of course, an exception to this rule would be if their gimmick/ability were hard to use and/or apparently useless, but gave a substantial advantage if mastered properly, in which case they would be a Lethal Joke Faction.
• The Game Breaker Faction. Exactly What It Says on the Tin. This faction is too overpowered, or has an ability that shifts the game in their favor, or some other loophole, that makes self-respecting gamers avoid this faction like fire. Either these factions have no disadvantage to outweigh their broken advantage (in which case this is intentional), or their weakness isn't very noticeable. Often an unplayable "boss" faction of a campaign.

See also Faction Calculus.

Examples of A Commander Is You include:

• Advance Wars has several. Most are unit specialists, these are the other archetypes they fall into.
  • Andy - Mario
  • Sami, Sensei, Colin, Hachi - Spammer
  • Max, Grimm, Will (Days of Ruin), Tabitha (DoR) - Brute Force
  • Grit - Ranger
  • Olaf, Lash, Kindle, Jake, Koal, Sonja, Penny (DoR) - Gimmick
  • VS mode Sturm in AW1, Brenner (DoR) - Turtle
  • Sturm, Colin, Kanbei, Hachi, Sensei, Caulder (DoR) - Game Breaker
  • Kanbei - Elitist
  • Sonja - Guerrilla
  • Sasha - Economist
• Achron is an interesting example: Its factions are best defined by their focus on time and space, but can still fit in this classification:
  • Vecgir (Teleportation; spatial focus) - Mario/Ranger
  • CESO (space/time balanced) - Spammer/Brute Force
  • Grekim (Chronoportation; temporal focus) - Elitist/Technical
• Battle for Wesnoth:
  • Loyalists - Mario
  • Rebels - Mario/Rangers
  • Drakes - Elitists/Rangers
  • Knalgans - Brute Force/Elitists
  • Northerners - Spammers/Brute Force
  • Undead - Technical
• Colonization
  • English - Industrial/Spammer
  • French - Diplomat
  • Spanish - Brute Force
  • Dutch - Economist
• Command and Conquer
  • Generals series
    • The United States - Elitist
    • China - Spammer & Brute Force
    • GLA - Guerilla
    • Specific subfaction generals in the Zero Hour expansion tend to be Unit Specialists.
  • Tiberian series
    • GDI - Brute Force
    • Nod - Guerrilla
    • Scrin - spammer although overlaps with elitist late game
    • Like Zero Hour, subfactions in the Kane's Wrath expansion to Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars lean towards Unit Specialist.
  • Red Alert series
    • Allies - Guerrilla, then turns to Technical
    • Soviets - Brute Force with elements of Spammer
    • Yuri - Gimmick and Pariah, some consider it a Game Breaker faction (mind controlling base defenses! ARRRGH)
    • Empire of the Rising Sun - Mario, with elements of gimmick and spammer, as most of their units transform to fill in weaknesses, but none really excel at any role.
• Red Alert 3 Paradox
  • Allies - Technical (Most of the buff/debuffs come from their special line of Weird Science units)
  • Confederates - Guerrilla (Almost every unit has access to stealth in some form)
  • Soviet Union - Brute Force (They have tanks. A lot of tanks. One for every concieveable need, in fact)
  • Order of the Talon - Elitist (Strange for a Steampunk faction, but their special Applied Phlebotinum allows them to keep up)
  • Empire of the Rising Sun - Mario (Hordes of transforming mecha, allowing individual units to fill more than one role)
  • Atomic Kingdom of China - Unit Specialist (They play like a Tower Defense game, with frankly amazing walls and experience-gaining turrets. Their mobile units, on the other hand...)
  • Electrical Protectorate - Spammer (To the point of completely forgoing build times)
  • Mediterranean Syndicate - Ranger (Their best units are infantry which use distance-based Abnormal Ammo, and artillery)
• Dawn of War:
  • Spess Mehreens, Chaos Space Marines, and Sisters of Battle are the all-rounders. Chaos also incorporate guerilla elements.
  • Orks and Imperial Guard: Spammers
  • Dark Eldar are the guerillas.
  • Due to several horrific balance errors (cataloged here) the Eldar are the Game Breaker faction.
  • Necrons: Brute force.
  • Tau: Rangers.
  • Tyranids (Do W II):Spammers and Gimmick faction, small units get buffs when paired with big ones.
• Deadlock:
  • Ch Ch-t (insectoids) - Spammers.
  • Cyth (illithids) - Diplomats (the spy kind)
  • Maug (techno cows) - Productionists.
  • Tarth (cats/dogs) - Brute Force.
  • Humans (duh) - Economists.
  • Re'Lu (tibetan elves) - Elitists.
  • Uva Mosk (something strange) - Productionists.
• Drowtales:
  • Beldrobbaen: Guerilla, with a small force of infantry and sorcerers that is good at hiding.
  • Ilhar'dro: Unit Specialist, with the specialization being spellsinging.
  • Jaal'darya: Guerilla; they have no army, but are so secretive it would be difficult to plan an attack on them.
  • Kyorl'solenurn: Unit Specialist; religious fanatics with many types of clerics and paladins.
  • Nal'Sarkoth: Guerilla; merchants and mercenaries, they will use bribes to place a man on the inside if they can.
  • Sarghress: Unit Specialist/Spammer; mostly heavy infantry with warhammer or sword.
  • Sharen: Brute Force with golems and other large creatures.
  • Sullisin'rune: Unit Specialist/Guerilla, with their specialization being empathic powers, they use their allies and wealth as a weapon.
  • Vloz'ress: Unit Specialist/Spammer, with their specialization being all things weird & creepy.
• Earth 2150
  • Eurasian Dynasty: Spammer/Brute Force
    • Early units are little more than cannon fodder and must be fielded in insane numbers. Late-game tanks are one of the most powerful units in the game. Vehicle-mounted nukes are available.
  • United Civilized States: Guerrilla/Unit Specialist
    • Early units are weak but UCS plasma weapons border on Game Breaker status. Only faction with access to SHADOW generators.
  • Lunar Corporation: Technical/Elitist/Ranger
    • Units are generally more expensive than the other factions' but every single unit is amphibious. Early units are Fragile Speedsters with a significant disadvantage in firepower.
• Galactic Civilizations 2:
  • Terran Alliance - Diplomats
  • Yor Collective - Industrial (in theory)/Pariah (in practice)
  • Drengin Empire - Brute Force
  • Altarian Republic - Researchers
  • Drath Legion - Espionage/Diplomats
  • Torian Confederation - Loyal/Spammers
  • Arcean Empire - Brute Force (slow but tough)
  • Dominion of Korx - Economists
  • Iconian Refuge - Researchers
  • Thalan Empire - Elitists (very expensive, limited buildings)
  • Korath Clan - Brute Force/Industrial
  • Krynn Consulate - Loyal/Espionage/Gimmick (culture conquest)
• Homeworld series: the series tends to mix several kinds of factions into one... and what kind of faction each one looks like depends on the situation.
  • Homeworld: the only two officially playable factions, Kushan and Taiidan have more to do with aesthetic than tactical difference, so the best way to compare between them is by their special units.
    • Kushans - Guerillas in terms of Cloaked Fighters or Technical by Drone Frigates.
    • Taiidani - Unit Specialization with a little Brute Force. Their Defense Fighters are Defense Field Frigates help their fleets last longer in combat.
    • Turanic Raiders - Guerilla by story, Pariah by gameplay. One of their craft can Macross Missile Massacre, but that's all they've got.
    • Kadeshi - Elitist Spammer, sometimes gamebreakingly so... or Unit Specialization Spammer, sometimes cripplingly so.
    • Bentusi - Game Breaker, if you count their only combat-ready Tradeship unit present the game.
  • Homeworld: Cataclysm
    • Kushans (Hiigarans) and Taiidani: Mario.
    • Turanic Raiders - Guerilla when they started to field disguise and cloaking systems.
    • Somtaaw - Brute Force where combat is concerned: their ships are plainly built to kill. Noncombat-wise, they are Technical.
    • Beast - Gimmick, mostly, owing it all to infectious techno-organic viruses.
    • Bentusi - Game Breaker, only this time, they have a usable fighter unit.
  • Homeworld 2
    • Hiigarans - The Mario, they are more effective when deploying a mixed force.
    • Vaygr - A mix of the Mario, the Spammer, and the Unit Specialist, they are most effective when deploying a mixed force designed around a primary unit, which tend to be smaller on average than Hiigaran ships.
    • Progenitors - Game Breaker. Their units make heavy use of lethal Wave Motion Guns. One specific kind of Progenitor ship is even so strong that even a fleet won't stop a single one, and it even attempts to escape, only to return in good condition.
• Mass Effect (though not a strategy game, each species/civilization has a distinct doctrine that lends them to this characterization)
  • Systems Alliance: Ranger/Technical - doctrine emphasizes rapid mobility and response, avoiding direct contact with enemy forces, and stealth
  • Turian Hierarchy: The Mario/Brute - doctrine favors straightforward combined arms assaults with disciplined troops
  • Asari Republics: Guerrilla/Elitist - doctrine emphasizes elite infantry formations of powerful troops used in guerrilla-style combat
  • Salarian Union: Espionage/Technical - doctrine emphasizes us of stealth, infiltration, and elite strike teams using high-end tech to sabotage and disrupt enemy operations
  • Geth: Spammer/Technical/Research - doctrine places no value on individual ships or platforms, and have highly-advanced technology, specialists, and research capabilities
  • Quarian Migrant Fleet: Elitist/Technical - doctrine and population limits emphasize small, elite, well-equipped units of marines focused on disrupting enemy tech
  • Krogan: Brute/Spammer pre-Krogan Rebellions, Brute/Elitist post-Krogan Rebellions - early doctrine placed emphasis on sheer numbers, due to krogan hardiness and birthrate. After the genophage, doctrine shifted to use of highly-trained and heavily-armed individual soldiers
  • Reapers: Elitist/Technical/Brute/Espionage - doctrine of subtle infiltration through indoctrination prior to open assault using large numbers of powerful, extremely advanced units.
• Master of Orion 1:
  • Klackon (insectoids) - Industrial
  • Meklar (robots) - Industrial
  • Sakkra (lizardmen) - Spammers.
  • Psilon (tibetan elves) - Elitists.
  • Mrrshan (cats) - Brute Force.
  • Alkari (birds) - Rangers/Unit Specialists (pilot skills)
  • Bulrathi (bears) - Brute Force.
  • Human (duh) - Economists AND Diplomats.
  • Silicoid (rocks) - Pariahs (can survive in harsh environments)
  • Darlok (nazguls) - Diplomats (the spy kind)
• Master of Orion 2:
  • Klackon - Industrial
  • Meklar - Industrial
  • Sakkra - Spammer/Industrial (increased population growth)
  • Alkari - Elitist
  • Bulrathi - Brute Force
  • Darloks - Espionage
  • Elerians - Elitist/Gimmick (start with map explored)
  • Gnolams - Economist
  • Humans - Diplomat/slight Economist/Researcher
  • Mrrshan - Brute Force
  • Psilons - Researcher
  • Silicoids - Gimmick
  • Trilarians - Ranger
  • Antarans (not playable) - Extreme Elitist

• Master of Magic races (Note: Enemy Exchange Program is in full force, and other races' cities can be captured.)
  • Barbarians: Spammer
  • Beastmen: Mario/Economist (mana generation)
  • Dark Elves: Elitist/Ranger/Economist (mana generation)
  • Draconians: Elitist/Technical (flying units)/Economist (mana generation)
  • Dwarves: Elitist/Industrialist
  • Gnolls: Spammer/Brute Force. Pariah/Lethal Joke Faction due to lacking research capability.
  • Halflings: Ranger/Industrialist (farming)/Loyal
  • High Elves: Elitist/Ranger/Economist (mana)
  • High Men: Mario with Elitist tendencies
  • Klackons: Brute Force/Loyal when the capital is Klackon/Industrialist. Pariah/Lethal Joke Faction due to poor loyalty of enslaved races and lacking research capability.
  • Lizardmen: Brute Force/Ranger/Technical (swimmers). Pariah/Lethal Joke Faction due to lacking building and research capability (seeing a pattern?).
  • Nomads: Ranger/Economist (trade income bonus)
  • Orcs: Mario
  • Trolls: Brute Force/Extreme Elitist

• Mount and Blade
  • Swadians: Brute Force
  • Vaegirs: Mario
  • Khergits: Unit Specialist (cavalry)/Guerilla/Ranger
  • Nords: Extreme Brute Force/Unit Specialist (infantry)
  • Rhodoks: Mario/Unit Specialist (infantry)

• Open Blue
  • Avelia - Brute Force/Spammer
  • Sirene - Elitist/Research
  • Remillia - Ranger/Espionage
  • Pirates - Guerrilla/Gimmick (can have multiple ship mods to make up for lack of raw firepower)

• Sacrifice
  • Persephone - Mario/Brute Force
  • James - Brute Force/Technical
  • Stratos - Ranger/Spammer
  • Pyro - Technical/Brute Force
  • Charnel - Spammer/Technical/Guerrilla

• Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri:
  • Spartan Federation - Elitist/Brute Force - those morale bonuses stack up quickly.
  • Gaia's Stepdaughters - Gimmick (planet empathy), with a splash of Technical thanks to their inherent combat penalties.
  • University of Planet - Researchers.
  • Peacekeeping Forces - Diplomats/Loyal, also the Jack of All Stats, combat-wise.
  • Human Hive - Spammers and Industrial.
  • Lord's Believers - Brute Force/Espionage.
  • Morgan Industries - Economists.
  • Cybernetic Consciousness - Researchers
  • Data Angels - Espionage
  • Free Drones - Spammers and Industrial
  • Cult of Planet - Gimmick/brute force (militant planet empathy). Considered to be a pariah faction, thanks to serious infrastructure building disadvantages.
  • Nautilus Pirates - Mario/Gimmick (naval power). Often considered a Game Breaker, due to the advantages of early sea bases.
  • The Caretakers - Gimmick/brute force (Aliens with defence/ecological bonus), with a tendency to be Game Breakers in multiplayer.
  • The Usurpers - Gimmick/brute force (Aliens with offence/growth bonus), with a tendency to be Game Breakers in multiplayer.
  • The Firaxans - While mainly the Gaians with a different leader, they are a Game Breaker faction since they start off with a late game technology. Fortunately, they are only available through the faction editor.
• Sins of a Solar Empire:
  • Trader Emergency Coalition(TEC) - Economists/Industrial/Brute Force/Spammer
  • Vasari - Elitists/Ranger/Espionage
  • Advent - Technical/Loyal/Research
• Starcraft & Starcraft II:
  • Terrans - A mixture of Ranger and Mario.
  • Zerg - A mixture of Guerrilla and Spammer.
  • Protoss - A mixture of Brute Force, Elitist, and Technical.
  • Hybrid - Game Breaker.
• Star Trek Armada and Star Trek Armada 2:
  • Federation: Mario with some elements of Technical. All factions rely pretty extensively on special abilities, but Federation ships mostly have abilities that are consistently useful throughout the game throughout every tier.
  • Klingon: Brute Force, also unique in that they can commandeer enemy ships more easily than other factions.
  • Romulan: Guerrilla and Technical. Their ships have the least hull and only average weapons, but ALL their ships can cloak, and they are the only faction that has a method of being able to use weapons while cloaked. They also have some of the most potent special abilities in the game when used correctly.
  • Borg: Starts out as Spammer, then makes an unusual switch to Elite. Their lower tier units are pretty weak and expendable, but their higher tier ships are some of the toughest in the game and are much more powerful than their equivalents on the other factions. Tactical Fusion Cubes are not something you want to deal with.
  • Cardassian: Mostly Mario with some minor elements of Guerilla and Technical.
  • Species 8472: Elite/Brute Force with a twist of Economist; while other factions need particular resources to build their ships (Klingons in particular will hurt pretty bad if they don't get their hands on significant amounts of Latinum) Species 8472 will take ANY resource and convert it into Bio-Matter, the only major resource they need.
• Star Wars
  • Trade Federation: Spammer; according to one episode, galaxy wide, combat droids outnumber clones 100:1.
  • Old Republic: Clones are Brute Force, Jedi are Guerilla.
  • The Empire: Brute Force (Trope Namer for That's No Moon, after all, plus Star Destroyers & AT-A Ts).
  • The Alliance: Guerilla (commandoes), Unit Specialist (typically X-Wings or infantry).
• Supreme Commander:
  • UEF - Brute Force
  • Aeon - Technical
  • Cybran - Guerrilla
  • Seraphim - Game Breaker (but they're supposed to be elitist, funny how that works)
• Warcraft
  • Human- Mario, with some Elitist siege weapons
  • Undead- Spammers
  • Night Elves- Rangers (duh)
  • Orc- Brute Force/Guerrilla
• Brutal Legend
  • Ironheade: Mario/Brute Force
  • Drowning Doom: Technical/Elitist (Debuff/Buff specialists)
  • Tainted Coil: Industrialist (Able to create units straight on the battlefield rather than from their base)
• Company of Heroes
  • U.S. Army - Spammer
  • Wehrmacht - Elitist
  • British Commonwealth - Technical
  • Panzer Elite (Based on Panzer Lehr) - Unit Specialist (Even in the basic concept, Infantry is supposed to be much less common than vehicles.)
• Warhammer- A Tabletop Example
  • The Empire - Mario, can be fielded in a variety of ways,
  • Orcs & Goblins - Brute Force (pure Orc) or Technical Spammer (pure Goblin), Mario (mixed) and possible Pariah (all versions)
  • Chaos Daemons - Elitist/Brute Force formerly Game Breaker, possible Pariah due to lack of cheap units. Technical but only with respect to some odd mechanics rather than their playstyle.
  • Wood Elves - Guerilla-Ranger-Technical hybrid, totally lacks defensive power and another Pariah.
    • Tree Spirits add some durability to army, but are expensive and easily countered with Fire attacks.
  • High Elves - Elitist-Mario, not entirely either, but leaning to Game Breaker
  • Bretonnia - Brute Force with Ranger-type mobility, almost Pariah due to 8th edition's nerfing of cavalry dependant armies.
  • Skaven - SPAMMER with some random chance powered Gimmick thrown in, tends to rely on numbers once the Gimmick(s) blows itself and parts of both sides up, also a Game Breaker with the new focus on infantry hordes. Technical if deoendant on Gimmick and no Spam.
  • Dwarfs - Brute Force, ranged capabilities on par with a Ranger, but no mobility of that type. Could possibly Mario if but for lack of offence magic and cavalry.
  • Dark Elves - Mario, former Game Breaker Mario-Elitist.
  • Vampire Counts - Spammer formerly Game Breaker-Elitist-Spammer, most characters are Elitist Game Breakers
  • Tomb Kings of Khemri - Technical Spammer; Pariah due to 1)horribly crippling dependency on magic and 2)their magic is easily countered by all factions bar Ogre Kingdoms and Tomb Kings themselves.
    • The recent change to their magic and the magic system in made it less crippling, and they added some Brute in the form of giant animated statues.
  • Lizardmen - Bizarrely a Mario/Brute Force/Technical/Gimmick hybrid with some Ranger thrown in, also capable of Spammer.
    • While it may seem that 'the Mario' might cover it, it is actually able to field highly specialized forces that focus on some of the aspects instead to a degree rivaling other specialists.
  • Beastmen - Spammer/Brute Force, very generic playstyle with no flexibility.
    • Recent Update added Guerrilla in that they can ambush with reserve forces, something no other army can do.
  • Chaos Warrios - Brute Force/Elitist, lacking anything to cover the issues of both types.
  • Ogre Kingdoms - Brute Force and Spammer, recently promoted from Pariah to near-Pariah
• Warhammer 40000 - Tabletop Example
  • Space Marines - a Mario and Elitist
  • Chaos Space Marines - a Mario and Brute Force
  • Chaos Daemons - Brute Force bordering on Game Breaker. Used to be just Game Breaker
  • Imperial Guard - The Spammer if using infantry, Brute Force with tanks, the Mario when using combined arms.
    • Since they can also Spam light tanks as troop transports, they can do both cheap.
  • The Tau Empire - Ranger faction
  • Witch Hunters - A Ranger and Gimmick Faction, years out of date.
    • Recently updated. Now more Mario and Gimmick with only a bit of Ranger.
  • Daemonhunters - Brute Force and Elitist, though disadvantaged due to being years out of date.
    • Recently updated. Even more Brute Force and Elitist. New Gimmicks make them Game Breakers against Daemons.
  • Eldar and Dark Eldar - The Guerrilla mixed with The Elitist (Eldar more towards Elitist, Dark Eldar more towards Guerrilla)
  • Orks - We's bringin' da biggest and da most boyz ta crump all da 'ummies! (Spammer and Brute Force)
  • Necrons - The Elitist and Gimmick with resurrection.
  • Tyranids - Can vary between a Spammer/Horde and an Brute Force faction based on whether more, bigger 'nids ("Nidzilla") or hordes of the little bastards come out. Usually uses a mix of both, with the hoards sheer numbers tearing apart the enemy while the big guys come in at the end to clean up whats left.
• Warlords Battlecry: As of Battlecry 3. It should be noted that heroes can change their factions' gameplay significantly, and all sides can be considered Brute Force when they get dragons and titans. The listed types are the basic faction styles that are seen for most of the game.
  • Barbarians - Spammer/Ranger
  • Daemons - Elitist/Brute Force
  • Dark Dwarves - Brute Force/Unit Specialist (Siege Weapons) with elements of Spammer (Thanks to firebombs.)
  • Dark Elves - Guerilla/Technical
  • Dwarves - Elitist
  • Fey - Spammer/Ranger with elements of Elitist (Units start out very weak but inexpensive and fast, then become very strong once fully upgraded.)
  • High Elves - Mario/Ranger
  • Humans - Mario/Elitist, and a huge Pariah (due to having almost no anti-air defense), prior to being split into two in WBC3. Since their split:
    • Empire - Mario/Diplomat (Can recruit other races' units.)
    • Knights - Elitist/Unit Specialist (Cavalry)
  • Minotaurs - Brute Force/Elitist, were originally a Pariah before finally getting reliable anti-air defense in WBC3.
  • Orcs - Brute Force/Spammer with elements of Technical
  • Plague Lords - Technical
  • Ssrathi - Brute Force
  • Swarm - Spammer/Industrial
  • Undead - Spammer/Elitist (Units upgrade to stronger units allowing them to get high tier units with zero build time, but at high cost.)
  • Wood Elves - Guerilla/Ranger
• War Wind:
  • Tha'Roon - Elitists
  • Obblinox - Brute Force
  • Shama'Li - Rangers (the magic kind)
  • Eaggra - Spammers
• Rise of Legends
  • Vinci - Brute Force, overlapping with Mario. Can become Industrial if they get rolling.
  • Alin - Spammer, overlapping with Guerilla.
  • Cuotl - Elitist.

• Armies of Exigo
  • The Empire: While more dignified than most examples, they're Spammer. Probably justified, as humans and elves are simply less physically strong than the monstrous creatures they face. They have area-of-effect buffs, experienced units get auras that raise their companions' stats, some of their units can be trained in more than one kind of building, and barracks can be upgraded to build two units simultaneously.
  • The Beasts: Brute Force/Elitist. They have the strongest melee units, but their cost is rather high.
  • The Fallen: Mario. They lack melee units, but their ranged ones are pretty durable. Have a little bit of Technical mixed in, as some of their units' attacks have a special effect on the unit they hit, not to mention some rather gimmicky special abilities, like reducing sight range for all enemy units on the map, or Void Walker's ability to temporarily shapeshift into any other unit, gaining all of it's abilities.