After an extended testing period, the GDT have voted, and Fire and Lightning boats from the T2 sea mod option have migrated into base game along with the updated ‘carrier’/anti ship. My updated Dragons, Demons, and Salamanders from Release Candidates are now in base game. Drone Carriers are now under Release Candidate Units, as the T2 sea option has been removed. Printer (Cortex T2 vehicle field engineer) and Shockwave (the Armada T2 stealth/ambush mex) remain in the RC pack.

These options have been present for some time, so I assume most people reading this will need no introduction to the units in question. For those newer to the game, this change gives Cortex an amphibious raider tank, which is fairly effective anti spam, and the Demon, a T3 raider/assault mech, which will help redress the lopsided T3 balance. The demon ground DPS has been somewhat reduced, by 20%, and is no longer amphibious. This is pending live game evaluation on gameplay effects, and is not a concrete change yet.

Compared to the original, the improved Dragon has a flamethrower, better laser weaponry in terms of both DPS and firing arcs, and a light anti air turret. The currently merged dragon has half the AA dps of the prior RC, so please bear this in mind when raiding (this may also be reevaluated later).

The sea changes remove the aircraft carrier, and replace it with an antinuke & generator ship that fills a similar supporting role. For naval air repairs, don’t forget that floating air repair pads have been in the main game for some time now, as built by aircons

Both factions have a ‘crowd control’ boat, which for Armada is a lightning vessel, and Cortex, a flamethrower ship. They can be very effective, so don’t forget they exist, especially if you use grid layout, as you may find they’re hiding on the second page of the T2 shipyard build options. The Drone Carrier is an effective long ranged support ship, and will now appear when Release Candidates are enabled.

As ever, RC unit discussion and feedback is still very welcome in the usual discord thread