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| - A devastating weapon, the Fire Beetle is a Cybran T2 land unit best described as a mobile bomb, in that its "attack" consists entirely of running into its target and exploding. This explosion can in some cases surpass that of a tactical missile in damage, since the fire beetle's blast area is 6.25 times as large, and causes half the damage of a tactical missile to a single unit. Massed Fire Beetles, properly deployed, may replicate the detonation of a strategic nuclear weapon without being vulnerable to strategic missile defenses.
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| abstract
| - A devastating weapon, the Fire Beetle is a Cybran T2 land unit best described as a mobile bomb, in that its "attack" consists entirely of running into its target and exploding. This explosion can in some cases surpass that of a tactical missile in damage, since the fire beetle's blast area is 6.25 times as large, and causes half the damage of a tactical missile to a single unit. Massed Fire Beetles, properly deployed, may replicate the detonation of a strategic nuclear weapon without being vulnerable to strategic missile defenses. That said, proper use of Fire Beetles is tricky, as they will not detonate if simply destroyed; one cannot, for instance, load six of them on a T2 Air Transport and crash the transport for a more effective explosion. While this does make them far safer to move around, since one chance explosion will not cause a multimegaton blast to ripple across a group of Fire Beetles, it does mean that any Fire Beetles destroyed by, say, point defenses are effectively wasted, and it is therefore beneficial to protect the beetles until they reach their targets; as Cybrans lack mobile shield generators, such protection generally takes the form of mobile stealth fields and cheap T1 units. Proper use of firebeetles requires a lot of skilled micromanaging, but one very effective technique is to pause the game and then split the screen. One view should be of the target area and the other should be of the group of Fire beetles. Assigning attack orders in this way will create an enormous rush and simultaneous detonation upon unpausing. This technique can also be used to give attack orders to Tactical Missile Silos. It is possible to load 28 Fire Beetles onto a Continental and drop them behind enemy lines. Unfortunately, Fire Beetles lack any sort of reusable, reloadable, or even survivable weaponry, making them unsuitable for prolonged defensive campaigns; while their inclusion in normal infantry almost invariably results in at least one Fire Beetle destroying a group of its own allies in addition to whatever enemy it targeted; while these semirandom detonations are amusing, they are rarely efficient. Fire Beetles also perform poorly in groups for similar reasons; it is to their advantage to be deployed such that they all explode individually, minimizing the chance that any one explosion will neutralize the entire force. Fire Beetles are, however, occasionally effective against Experimental units and stationary shield generators. In a similar manner to the T2 Hoplite Rocket Bot, the Fire Beetle only takes up one transport clamp, whereas other T2 units take up two. Another thing worth noting is that in 3622 the explosion does 3000 damage rather than 1200 but their HP is reduced to 300. The most important change is the fact that their explosions do not affect each other. This makes them a good way to take out ACUs, as well as other high-priority targets. Send a few of them in, escorted by Hoplites, Rhinos, and Deceivers and once some attack the ACU and it's gg. They can also kill Fatboys, if they can get close enough. You need 5 Fire Beetles to kill a Fatboy, most likely more since the riot guns mounted on the sides of the Fatboy will kill a few, and that is when it is not even supported! In some versions the Fire Beetle is slightly violatile, and if a group accompanied with patrols goes off and one Fire Beetle is killed, the whole squad may be destroyed in an instant.
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