An army is a group of pixel art characters with mainly offensive or defensive weaponry and equipment, and can be used in Picture Wars matches.
Types of Armies[]
There are many types of armies, and still may be left undiscovered. Usually, there's intelligent armies or fungus armies, the intelligent armies usually consist of robots or humanoid units with technology ranging from medieval times to space-age laser weaponry. Fungus armies can either be many strange, alien units acting on a hive mind or an aggressive infection, growing and killing off the threatening units on the map. Both of these armies have their down sides and perks, for example, intelligent armies would have the luxury of snipers and mortars but can't produce as fast as a fungal army. A fungal army will have the aforementioned perk of industry, but their brutality might constrain them from making alliances with other armies in the match.
You don't necessarily have to use one or the other, a matter of fact, you might be rewarded for deviating from them. They are good bases for your first army.
A scene of the army "The Goblins"
Balance[]
Balance is an important factor in making an army, you have to make sure your army has some sort of weakness which may seem petty, and you may just want to add some random down fall but your army's weaknesses can add character and individuality. It's not imbalance for some of your units to need something other than bullets to kill them. For example, Metal Chao's recent Miasma army is completely comprised of clouds, flammable clouds.
Common Units[]
Most armies have some sort of unit that compares to this list. These are very basic units that are more of a pattern in armies, than a standard.
- Builder- This unit builds, maintains, and repairs the base and it's army's vehicles. Very basic, and usually deployed. It's common for fungal armies to have the builder in different manifestations, like hive webbing.
- Infantryman- The "main fighting force" of the army in question, the infantryman will usually fight besides his brethren soldiers, or defend the main base. It is rare, but some infantry men can be quite useful outside the battlefield.
- Spy- The spy is a rarely used unit, but can successfully cripple a base without much controversy. They usually use camouflage by inverting and desaturating their colors, followed by lowering their transparency to about 10%. They usually carry sniper rifles, silenced pistols, and explosives but other equipment has been seen before.
- Heavy/Tank- The heavy or tank unit is usually large, and bulky, as well as slow and powerful. It usually has some form of heavy machine gun or large cannon to use in combat, thus making it a formidable foe. A good army will likely have a few of these, as well as many different smaller units that would support this tank.
- Robotic Drone- Robotic drones are quite common, and if you have one in your army, it could do anything you want it to, whether it be, build, fight, or make delicious triple chocolate chip cookies, drones have likely been made for that purpose.
- Titan- While most armies have a gigantic titan unit, they are usually never actually used, except in sandboxes and the like, as you would never really have the time or resources to make one in a match. Would usually be some sort of giant robot ala Gundam or a gigantic monster.
How To Be Original[]
While being original is not a must for an army, it does increase its value and fun factor. To come up with an original army, you should look around in the armies sub-forum and read a lot of literature to come up with interesting concepts.
Scale[]
The scale of an army is very important, because no-one wants to fight eighty-foot stick men or single-pixel blobs. The normal size for a basic, humanoid unit is about 20-25 pixels tall. This scale was established long, long ago when people got tired of being crushed by said giant stick men. This scale is not absolute, as many armies are swarms of tiny insects, or robots, or mustaches. However, it is a good idea to keep it in mind, or to check the scale against someone else's army.
Resource/Time Management[]
Normally this would go under balance, but people can easily be bad with this, so it gets its own section. You may find yourself questioning how long, and how much resources it takes to make a tank or builder. Usually, it takes one turn to make one of the smaller units, and not many resources. A tank on the other hand would take say, three turns and much more resources than a small unit.
Known Armies of the Picture World[]
See Category: Armies