Dante

The Dante is an assault/riot strider from the Strider Hub.

Dante (striderdante)
Assault/Riot Strider
Stats
Cost	3500
Hit Points	11000
Mass	812
Movement Speed (elmo/s)	52
Turn Rate (deg/s)	118
Vision Radius (elmo)	600
Transportable	Heavy
Weapons
Napalm Rockets Damage 120 × 2 Reload Time (s) 2 Damage per Second 120 Afterburn (s) 37.5 (15 DPS) Range (elmo) 460 Area of Effect (elmo) 114 Projectile Speed (elmo/s) 800 Inaccuracy (deg) 2 Wobbly (maximum, deg/s) 54 Heat Ray Damage 49 × 2 Reload Time (s) 0.1 Damage per Second 980 Range (elmo) 416 Projectile Speed (elmo/s) 500 Damage falls off with range Napalm Rocket Salvo Damage 120 × 20 Reload Time (s) 20 Damage per Second 120 Afterburn (s) 37.5 (15 DPS) Range (elmo) 460 Area of Effect (elmo) 114 Projectile Speed (elmo/s) 800 Inaccuracy (deg) 16 Wobbly (maximum, deg/s) 43 Arcing shot (deg) 10.2 Potential friendly fire Flamethrower Damage 15 Reload Time (s) 0.13 Damage per Second 112 Afterburn (s) 15 (15 DPS) Range (elmo) 320 Area of Effect (elmo) 48 Projectile Speed (elmo/s) 800 Potential friendly fire Passes through ground Damage increase vs large units

Description

The Dante is a heavy combat unit that specializes in getting close and melting its target. Its flamethrower and twin heatrays aren't extraordinary, but its incendiary rockets can be fired in a salvo of twenty that devastates a wide swath of terrain.

Tactics and Strategy

Like most striders, the key to using Dantes effectively is to not only attack frequently with them, but also to keep them alive whenever possible. As durable as Dantes are, they're expensive to build, and thus, expensive to replace in the event that they're destroyed, so be sure to set up a fallback point for your Dantes to automatically retreat to when their health drops below a certain point. (Setting them to retreat when under 65% health is recommended if the game progresses to the point where striders are more common.)

If your opponent is unprepared, and does not have any strong anti-strider units (such as large amounts of Phantoms, Lances, or Widows, or a Scorpion), a Dante can easily end the game. It is armed and armored well enough to be able to break through modest lines of defense (such as a line of Fencers, or a handful of Stingers), giving other units, especially raiders, an opportunity to exploit the opening to go on a rampage behind enemy lines (in a similar manner to Blitzkrieg, or Soviet Deep Battle doctrine). However, if your opponent is prepared, and has built significant amounts of anti-strider units, your Dante becomes, at best, a large paperweight, and at worst, a donation of metal, since it's rather slow, and doesn't deal well with getting paralyzed by Widows or Scorpions, or getting picked off by Phantoms or Lances.

To better improve the survivability of your Dantes, especially in the face of enemy anti-strider units like Lances, Phantoms, or Merlins, try escorting them with an Iris, so that the enemy's anti-strider units will have a more difficult time picking the Dantes off.

If enemy Scorpions threaten your Dantes, try escorting them with anti-heavy units, or even other striders, since the Scorpion needs to wait a long time to use its electro-stunner attack again.