If I were to list the top 3 players of all time in this game, I put Harkdawg at #2, second only to Earedil. Now, that is only my opinion, yours may differ. Harkdawg had a unique way of playing Atreides- he combined basically sard elites with Mino's making him virtually unstoppable. But the real key to his success was the blazing speed in which he could get mino's and sard elites. Earlier in the summer of 2002,, Sardcore my long time buddy and I were playing a game against Harkdawg and Sarbaukar. Fisher Plain, 10K no pre, no starting. Sard was Atreides and began the game adjacent to Harkdawg. He was completely stunned as to how utterly fast Dawg had elites and Mino's when all sardcore had were sandbikes and infantry. I, myself was truly amazed at this guy. I mean I knew he was good, but just playing against him was an honor- this guy is one of the best ever. After the game, Sardcore and I hosted a 2 player knife fight and over the course of the next several hours, we put our heads together, determined to figure out just how Dawg did it. Just how he can make his units so fast. The answer, we believe, is in pausing. Before you read this BO, please make sure you've read my page "THE SECRET OF THIS GAME" that talks about this important concept.
Now, I was not able to talk to Dawg to get his specific BO, so what you are about to read is mine and sardcore's simulation of his BO. While we believe this is a very feasible rendition of what he does, the true, actual BO of the Dawg will remain a mystery. But Sardcore and I believe this is the fastest possible way to get sard elites and Mino's. with 10k no pre. There are two versions of the BO. The Superspeed version builds a ref before fac, allowing even more units, but sacrificing early power. The Powerbuild version other increases early power, yet has a "slow" period 3-4 minutes into the game that lasts for a couple minutes. I recommend the Superspeed version.
This is the fastest possible way to build with Atreides and get elites or fremen with 10K no pre-built. (this example is for sard elites though you can substitute fremen feyds). The only draw back is that you spend a lot of money really quickly and thus it makes you poor for a while. The SpeedBuild version sacrifices early units, but allows for rapid elites to flow .
THE BUILD ORDER SUMMARIZED:
SUPERSPEED VERSION (recommended)
| 1. Windtrap | |
| 2. Barrakcs + 3-5 scouts, 20 infantry | |
| 3. Refinery + upgrade ref | |
| 4. Factory, immediately upgrade factory BEFORE 2nd ref upgrade. | |
| 5. Queue up 3 sandbikes, 1 Mino | |
| 6. Windtrap, then Sard Barracks and 2nd ref upgrade at the same time | |
| 7. You will place the sard barracks and wait about 5-10 seconds for your refinery upgrade to complete. Now upgrade sardbarracks. Your mino will complete. Stop making vehicles for now. | |
| 8. Make endless sard elites. Start a second refinery. | |
| 9. Resume making 4 Minos and 1 repair. PAUSE the mino's when money rides 0. | |
| 10. Place second refinery, make windtrap. Upgrade refinery. | |
| YOUR CHOICE OF: | |
| DRONE BO: Make a Hangar | |
| Massive Sard BO: Make 2 more Sard Barrakcs | |
| 8. Build your third refinery when the first 2 are fully upgraded. Continue making minos- about 10 minos per 1 repair. Upgrade refineries. | |
| 13. If you built a Hangar in step 11, now build 2 more sard barracks, otherwise build a hangar. | |
| 14. Keep your elite sards near your minos. Mix and disperse scouts, and more infantry around your Mino units to protect elites from fremen snipers (when the scouts reveal the snipers, Mino's will fire). If facing worm riders, put a bunch of atr snipers together with your Mino's. March this slowly towards your enemy keeping your units in formation! | |
POWERBUILD VERSION (This version gives you high power QUICKLY but sacrifices long term speed, forcing you to wait for spice to come)
| 1. Windtrap | |
| 2. Barracks | |
| 3. Factory (upgrade factory immediately when placed) | |
| 4. 2-3 scouts | |
| 5. YOUR CHOICE OF: (and this depends upon your opponents and map.) | 7 inf, 5 bikes, 1 Mino, 1 repair (video below) |
| 4 inf, 3 bikes, 2 Minos | |
| 4 inf, 2 Minos, 1 repair | |
| Notes about Step 5: I must tell you that combo 1 will stop any hark or ordos rush. Period. If you are on knife fight and you do combo 1, you will be a dominating force on that map early- the only weakness you will have on knife fight is a well built harkonnen rush. In this case, use the Atreides Maximum Unit Dumper BO. Below I have a Windows Media streaming video of combo 1 in action! But if you do combo 1 vs. Atreides, you are in a world of hurt because if he has 2 minos (combo 3), you are hosed. | |
| 6. Refinery. Begin upgrading your refinery immediately. You will not need to pause any of the things I mentioned in step 5. You have enough starting cash to whip them all out. Once your vehicles in step 5 finish, its time to start pausing like a maniac for all future vehicles! | |
| 7. Windtrap. You should make this immediately after placing your first ref, cuz when it upgrades you will lose power. So make this windtrap now! | |
| 8. Sard Barracks. (note: if you see harkonnen forces on piling up near your base ready to rush you, then you should NOT make sards yet. Instead cancel this and pump out endless infantry!!!) | |
| 9. Ok this next bit is important- very important. With 10K you will barely have enough to make one set in step 5, and a sard barracks. It is IMPORTANT that you do NOT upgrade your ref for its second upgrade until AFTER you upgrade your sard barracks. This is how it should look: Bar, Fac -> Upgrade Fac, Ref -> Upgrade #1 Ref, Sard -> Upgrade Sard, Upgrade #2 Ref, Ref (if you cancelled your sard barracks to fight off hark rush, then upgrade that ref again and queue up minos. Keep the infantry rolling and maintain a defensive position) | |
| 10. Do NOT make any more vehicles than what you made in step 5! After you make your initial first set of vehicles, STOP ALL VEHICLES- NO MORE until after your sard barracks is placed and fully upgraded and you have started your second ref upgrade. Once your money goes back up past 400, start making more minos! | |
| 11. After your first ref is fully upgraded twice, then start a second ref! Remember to PAUSE your vehicles if your money rides zero. Cancel them if you have to, so that those sards keep POURING OUT. Sard Elites should be flowing like the mighty Amazon River. | |
| 12. IMPORTANT: USE your units. Dont just sit there. Take those sards, minos and bikes and move into action!!! I guarantee you- your opponent will not have elites. Its just too early. He will be saying "WHAT THE...?" when he sees them. | |
The key to getting the units quickly for Atreides is Pausing and not overdoing refineries.
Also See The Demo: Using Elite Sards with Minos- the Harkdawg Combo
special thanks to my good friend Zamboe for helping me put together this presentation
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