So, here's my guide on how to play speedmetal. Most of this stuff should be obvious whether you play SM or not, but some people don't seem to konw:
1) have all the factories. Each factory is too useful to ignore, and you can afford it. If you're arm, back each one up with a line of nanotowers. If you're arm, you want an army of Farks so you can easily transfer around your buildpower (plus the usual line of nanotowers).
2) use the line-build and block-build commands. Drag-build for a line, alt+shift+drag to draw a box. Use Z and X to alter spacing.
3) Almost everything important chain-explodes - nanotowers, fusions, etc. However, you don't have the space to spread them out - so build in clusters to minimize the catastrophic effect of a chain-explosion.
4) Use Z and X to space your defensive lines. While you need to build dense, if you build too dense many turrets simply will not fire.
5) Build nukes and anti-nukes when you can afford it. The antis are obvious; you should build large numbers of them (and don't forget the ammo). The nukes can be used in large numbers to break through an anti-missile-defense. In a pinch, they can blow up a Krogoth or two as well, since most players don't bring along mobile antinukes in their attacks.
6) Scout. You need to know what your enemy is doing. Use swarms of peepers and/or radar planes (which are really giant peepers) to get recon info. That way you can see that the enemy has a field of 16 nuke launchers and respond accordingly.
7) mix your defenses. Screamers are nice, but a line of them will all shoot at the first target they see. You need layers and flakkers to handle anything that gets through the first volley. Same goes for annihilators - a few popups will make sure that your precious allihilator line isn't beaten by a swarm of cheap units that capitalize on it's low rate of fire.
Krogoths. Krogoths are one of the only ways to win on speedmetal - and they're as effective defensively as they are offensively.9) Don't be afraid to remove your old buildings. Old wind generators are wasting space you could be using for superfusions. HLTs out front need to be replaced with better gear. Just becareful about using self-D since they might cause a chain-explosion when they blow.
10) you can build on the jaggy rock. You'll be stuck with 1x1 units, but you can drop a DT and reclaim it and then put a LR radar or a flakker or something.
11) you can build on the brige. A lot of players forget that. If your enemy isn't keeping the pressure on, you can advance your frontline. Yes, it is risky; but on Speedmetal EVERYTHING is expendable. I find that telling a team of L1 builders to spam out a well-spaced line of dragon's eyes all the way up the length of the map gets you a wonderful early-warning-system.
12) just remember, there is no excuse for not building anything. You've got the metal.
