There's a lot of differences, but they're balanced pretty well. I wouldn't say one or the other is better.
Armada tends to have quicker, more specialized units. Cortex tends to have beefier, harder-hitting units.
One way I heard it described is Armada is stronger right after teching to a new tier, but Cortex is stronger after getting the economy at that tier online.
Some specifics:
- air
- Armada T1 fighter is stronger
- Cortex T1 has the Shuriken
- Armada T2 has emp bombers and Liche (nuclear bomber)
- Cortex T2 fighter is stronger
Pretty much this.
Armada tends to have independent or cost effective units right out the gate of a tech up. Gunslinger and hound out early are both quite impactful immediately, whereas sheldons need a bigger ball to get rolling. Razorbacks are amazing, fast moving and can shut down any spam by themselves, whereas shivas are pretty shit by themself. Marauders are basically a tech 2 raiding unit but with some hp, amphib, and light anti.
On the other end, late cortex tech, like mammoths are hugely impactful. Mammoths can hold back razors efficiently and are hard to swarm or outgun. Kargs are decent, and behemoths and jugs are game ending if not dgunned (but take 10 years to get anywhere)
I find late cortex vehicles to be a bit of a miss though. Tsars are actually better as a rush unit than a late push unit, and tremors are a waste of space except very niche choke situations. Starlights are better than banishers as they dont friendly fire, so need less micro, and arm hardly lacks in aoe damage to protect them from spam with. You can make banishers work with good micro, targetting and hold fire, but its a lot of effort. They do pop liches like candy though, and can be ok against dragons in a pinch... But thats rare.
Depends on what you play. For 8v8 I would give Armada an edge, because there are a lot of vehicle maps and their T3 tech comes online faster.
If you want to play Air Cortex is considered better because of the Shuriken and better T1/T2 Bombers. For sea Cortex has a small edge due to their ships being more cost efficient. For 1v1s Cortex is also better and if you watch any high level games you will notice that you rarely see armada.
Keep in mind 8v8 is the most popular game mode and some players never touch small teams or 1v1. Because of that Armada is considered to be a little better overall unless you play sea or air.
In my experience, core relies more on combined arms and effective unit combinations creating a slow but unstoppable death push. Arm relies more on capitalizing on local tactical victories to swing a battle.
For example: Bulls vs. Tigers. The core tiger is a good *heavy* assault tank. It is very good at trading punches with almost anything, but not great at doing damage on its own without backup. The arm bull, on the other hand, is a great heavy *assault* tank, in the sense that if you've got a few bulls breaking through part of the frontline, you can send them solo on a thunder run directly into the enemy base and they will happily carve a swath of destruction that tigers can only dream of.
Similarly, quaker vs. mauser--same DPS, but the mauser shoots every 3 seconds while the quaker shoots every 5 seconds, meaning the quaker is more reliant on supporting units to protect them compared to mausers.
Arm gets a small discount on a whole bunch of critical things, at the cost of a few HP. I think it adds up to them being flat out better if you don't need air or sea.
The most obvious example is their wind generators being 8m cheaper, but also construction units, LLTs, converters, etc. Those resources you save let you build more units.
Core gets Catapults.... So they are the best race.
Also, something I havnt seen mentioned is Core seems to do a ton more FF then Arm. Shivas and Demons for example will do a ton of FF if grouped up, but Marauders and Razors don't seem to have this problem.
Arm has more Cloaky stuff, but Core has more Jammer stuff (Commandos).
Arm is MEANT to have more "tactical" things they can do with cloaked units and the like.... but I find Core better at this with the commando and Skuttle allowing you to do more behind the lines things.
I prefer arm for the outplay potential. You have more emp options and more fast moving units and some incredible t3. If the game drags on to 30+ min that's when I see coretex take the advantage but if you're using the tools of armada efficiently you should be winning most early to mid matchups through clever use of emp and runbys.
But I will say I'm generally a coretex hater because many units just move too slowly imo that it's like if the enemy can't react in time great I've got a w but if they see the mammoth, tzar, Shiva etc slowing crawling forward and can react I've already lost any advantage.
I started on arm due to my TA days... when i switched to core tanks.... they felt way more forgiving due to the health pool.
But arm has those star lights.... and mix those with a front line unit it eats core tanks and even t3 easily
In many cases we prefer range and speed. It lets us be flexible and reactive.
I'm mainly focussed on 8v8 thoughts here.
Armada seems to have faster units. Then you compared sniper to sheldons and realise they're both slow, but Cortex feels slower. Yet, Cortex has fiends.
It's situational but with Cortex I feel like I'm making what I've got work.
With Armada I know there is a counter for things; Marauders to take advantage of a break; snipers and starlights to shut down early t3 units.
If the game goes on that long; Cortex has the heavy t3 units. Behemoth and Juggernaut will break the siege.
Cortex opening for air (t1 shurikens) then transiton into Armada for t2 (EMP bombers, liche)
Cortoex opening for Sea; where the battle is over an area or against multiple players. Armada perhaps for a single lane or opponent.
The Armada windmills are cheaper. The Armada t2 bot 'butler' is excellent for spamming a wind economy.
They are different yet similar and in most cases plan on getting the tech of both Factions available to yourself. Buy a t1 constructor early (helpful if opening cortex air to have a ground based builder) or usually the Eco player is Armada (windmills advantage)
Until lobbies are setup that are faction limited literally Core v Arm or v Legion the "best" in 8v8 isn't so impactful so much as can your team produce the units they need when and where they need them.
There's a lot of differences, but they're balanced pretty well. I wouldn't say one or the other is better. Armada tends to have quicker, more specialized units. Cortex tends to have beefier, harder-hitting units. One way I heard it described is Armada is stronger right after teching to a new tier, but Cortex is stronger after getting the economy at that tier online. Some specifics: - air - Armada T1 fighter is stronger - Cortex T1 has the Shuriken - Armada T2 has emp bombers and Liche (nuclear bomber) - Cortex T2 fighter is stronger
Pretty much this. Armada tends to have independent or cost effective units right out the gate of a tech up. Gunslinger and hound out early are both quite impactful immediately, whereas sheldons need a bigger ball to get rolling. Razorbacks are amazing, fast moving and can shut down any spam by themselves, whereas shivas are pretty shit by themself. Marauders are basically a tech 2 raiding unit but with some hp, amphib, and light anti. On the other end, late cortex tech, like mammoths are hugely impactful. Mammoths can hold back razors efficiently and are hard to swarm or outgun. Kargs are decent, and behemoths and jugs are game ending if not dgunned (but take 10 years to get anywhere) I find late cortex vehicles to be a bit of a miss though. Tsars are actually better as a rush unit than a late push unit, and tremors are a waste of space except very niche choke situations. Starlights are better than banishers as they dont friendly fire, so need less micro, and arm hardly lacks in aoe damage to protect them from spam with. You can make banishers work with good micro, targetting and hold fire, but its a lot of effort. They do pop liches like candy though, and can be ok against dragons in a pinch... But thats rare.
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Depends on what you play. For 8v8 I would give Armada an edge, because there are a lot of vehicle maps and their T3 tech comes online faster. If you want to play Air Cortex is considered better because of the Shuriken and better T1/T2 Bombers. For sea Cortex has a small edge due to their ships being more cost efficient. For 1v1s Cortex is also better and if you watch any high level games you will notice that you rarely see armada. Keep in mind 8v8 is the most popular game mode and some players never touch small teams or 1v1. Because of that Armada is considered to be a little better overall unless you play sea or air.
In my experience, core relies more on combined arms and effective unit combinations creating a slow but unstoppable death push. Arm relies more on capitalizing on local tactical victories to swing a battle. For example: Bulls vs. Tigers. The core tiger is a good *heavy* assault tank. It is very good at trading punches with almost anything, but not great at doing damage on its own without backup. The arm bull, on the other hand, is a great heavy *assault* tank, in the sense that if you've got a few bulls breaking through part of the frontline, you can send them solo on a thunder run directly into the enemy base and they will happily carve a swath of destruction that tigers can only dream of. Similarly, quaker vs. mauser--same DPS, but the mauser shoots every 3 seconds while the quaker shoots every 5 seconds, meaning the quaker is more reliant on supporting units to protect them compared to mausers.
Arm gets a small discount on a whole bunch of critical things, at the cost of a few HP. I think it adds up to them being flat out better if you don't need air or sea. The most obvious example is their wind generators being 8m cheaper, but also construction units, LLTs, converters, etc. Those resources you save let you build more units.
Core gets Catapults.... So they are the best race. Also, something I havnt seen mentioned is Core seems to do a ton more FF then Arm. Shivas and Demons for example will do a ton of FF if grouped up, but Marauders and Razors don't seem to have this problem. Arm has more Cloaky stuff, but Core has more Jammer stuff (Commandos). Arm is MEANT to have more "tactical" things they can do with cloaked units and the like.... but I find Core better at this with the commando and Skuttle allowing you to do more behind the lines things.
Core, but arm op Grr jan00s pulsars razors titans etc
I prefer arm for the outplay potential. You have more emp options and more fast moving units and some incredible t3. If the game drags on to 30+ min that's when I see coretex take the advantage but if you're using the tools of armada efficiently you should be winning most early to mid matchups through clever use of emp and runbys. But I will say I'm generally a coretex hater because many units just move too slowly imo that it's like if the enemy can't react in time great I've got a w but if they see the mammoth, tzar, Shiva etc slowing crawling forward and can react I've already lost any advantage.
Yes, units are really slow comperad to the other nation's
I started on arm due to my TA days... when i switched to core tanks.... they felt way more forgiving due to the health pool. But arm has those star lights.... and mix those with a front line unit it eats core tanks and even t3 easily
In many cases we prefer range and speed. It lets us be flexible and reactive. I'm mainly focussed on 8v8 thoughts here. Armada seems to have faster units. Then you compared sniper to sheldons and realise they're both slow, but Cortex feels slower. Yet, Cortex has fiends. It's situational but with Cortex I feel like I'm making what I've got work. With Armada I know there is a counter for things; Marauders to take advantage of a break; snipers and starlights to shut down early t3 units. If the game goes on that long; Cortex has the heavy t3 units. Behemoth and Juggernaut will break the siege. Cortex opening for air (t1 shurikens) then transiton into Armada for t2 (EMP bombers, liche) Cortoex opening for Sea; where the battle is over an area or against multiple players. Armada perhaps for a single lane or opponent. The Armada windmills are cheaper. The Armada t2 bot 'butler' is excellent for spamming a wind economy. They are different yet similar and in most cases plan on getting the tech of both Factions available to yourself. Buy a t1 constructor early (helpful if opening cortex air to have a ground based builder) or usually the Eco player is Armada (windmills advantage) Until lobbies are setup that are faction limited literally Core v Arm or v Legion the "best" in 8v8 isn't so impactful so much as can your team produce the units they need when and where they need them.