The two drone roles
The public material shows drones in two different roles:
- As a unit type — the Steam page lists drones alongside tanks and helicopters, and the developer’s own wiki-style coverage has a “Tanks and Drones” section.
- As an FPV strike — soldiers “dive right before an FPV drone strike”. That is a scripted reaction to an incoming drone attack, not a unit you control directly.
That means drones are both something you build and something you defend against. The demo will tell us which is which.
The confirmed counter: camouflage netting
The developer lists camouflage netting among the buildable defenses, explicitly as an anti-FPV-drone measure. That is the only confirmed drone counter.
Other plausible counters — AA guns, jammers, smoke, hiding under trees — are not confirmed. Do not build a strategy around them until the demo.
How to use drones (tactical read)
Until we have stats, the safe tactical read is:
- Use drones to find, not to hold. A drone does not capture a point; infantry does.
- Pair a drone with artillery or tanks. The drone spots, the big gun kills.
- Do not fly the same route twice. If the defender has netting or AA, a predictable drone path is free XP for them.
- Expect the AI to use them. The rebuilt AI commander scouts, gathers its army and attacks together; drones fit that scouting role.
Drone defenses in your base
- Put camo netting over the buildings you cannot afford to lose — the factory, the research building and the FOB.
- Keep infantry near the netting; a drone that cannot see the target still needs to be shot down.
- Do not rely on a single net; spread them across the base.
- If the enemy is using drones to spot artillery, move your artillery after every few shots.
What we still need
- drone types (recon vs FPV vs loitering munition);
- range, speed and payload;
- cost and build building;
- whether drones can be shot down by infantry;
- whether the demo includes them.
We will update this page on December 1 with demo observations. Until then, treat any “best drone” ranking as speculation.