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1 Information
The Taerkasten (German: Die Taerkast/Der Taerkasten Orden) is a playable main faction in both single-player and multiplayer modes of Urban Assault. In the Metropolis Dawn Taerkasten campaign, the player's faction is Taerkasten. The faction colour of the Taerkasts is yellow.
2 Official Description (HELP files)
This dangerous retrocult disdains electronic and related technology yet has advanced weapons development. They wish to exterminate us—and all other factions—from the planet. Diplomacy has failed. The Taerkastens blame us for killing the oceans and destroying the atmosphere.
NOTES:
- The HELP files entries are written from the Resistance perspective.
- The HELP files may contain slightly outdated information.
3 Overview
The Taerkasten Order is a fanatical brotherhood with occult mysticism and Neo-Luddite doctrines. Their vehicle designs are chiefly reminiscent of the World Wars equipment with reinforced technologies in the advanced armament development. They have esoteric cult formations in Southern Europe and Africa with a theocratic hierarchy system resembling a masonic fraternal organisation and a monastic military order. The Taerkasts had originated in Central and Northern Europe. They had subsequently escaped to their current territories after their dreadful encounter with the Mykonians to protect Earth.
4 Units and Buildings Information
Main Article: Taerkasten Units and Buildings Overview
5 Playability
Yes
The faction is designed as a playable main faction in the game for players, and constitutes an integral part of the multiplayer balance system between the other playable main factions.
6 Lore Information
The Taerkasten Order is a fanatical brotherhood and a military order that follows mysticism and 'Neo-Luddite' doctrines. Although nominally abhorrent of modern electronics technology, they have harnessed the plasma formation technology and possess their own versions of technologically advanced equipment in order to maintain their influence and remain competitive in the post-apocalyptic world. The Taerkasten host station icon is a heraldic emblem with a sword and a shield. The majority of their vehicle design is reminiscent of various World Wars equipment, with some notable exceptions in advanced weapons development. The Taerkasts blame the other factions for destroying the Earth's ozone layer and polluting its atmosphere.
The Taerkasten had originated in Central and Northern Europe, and they were the first human group to anticipate and encounter the Mykonians. They have a religious cult formation and an esoteric organisational structure which resembles a masonic fraternity and a monastic military order. Their cult presence is dominant in Southern Europe and Africa within their occult realms. They want to eradicate all the other factions from the Earth so that they alone can rightfully rule over the holy planet. Taerkastens are also notorious for their advanced chemical engineering (Alchemy) and electromagnetic field manipulation. They also have found a way to harness energy directly from the stone and rock formations via unknown magnetic process.
In the Taerkasten campaign of Metropolis Dawn expansion pack, the player (Truzen) becomes a pivotal figure as the new Flying Fortress host station master who were assigned with an imperative quest of recovering and liberating their lost hereditary territories as well as critical knowledge and documents of the Taerkasten Order from the massive large-scale invasions and infiltrations of the hostile factions.
7 Characteristics
The Taerkasten is considered a defensive faction. The Taerkastens generally have slower and expensive units that are protected with extremely powerful and effective shielding capabilities, which is a significant advantage in many combat situations. Their strong armours allow them to easily hold their own ground against incoming enemies in defensive operations, or when breaking through enemy fortifications and defence lines. Because of their slow but enduring nature, Taerkasts favour defensive manoeuvres and rely heavily on cautious unit preservation and combat efficiency in order to maintain and strengthen their momentum on the battlefield. Taerkastens also possess faster but lightly armoured units that can provide more flexibility.
8 Strategy
As the defensive-oriented faction, the high shielding of Taerkasten units give them substantial advantages in direct confrontations and melee combat situations. Taerkasten units are also generally designed to be more AI-friendly in nature, and their units usually have various advantages in combat between the AI-controlled units. Thanks to these straightforward strengths, Taerkasten is generally considered the easiest faction to play, since they also require the least amount of macro-management and micro-management in general. But this is compensated by their slow speed and manoeuvrability, as well as more expensive units. Taeraksten should seek to deplete resources from their opponents in combat while preserving their own units.
9 Host Station
The Taerkasten Host Station is the Flying Fortress, also known as Hauptstation or Luftschloss. The Flying Fortress turrets situated at its bastions have designs with defensive blind-spots (similar to the historical fortification architecture), where the turrets cannot aim and attack targets situated in the dead angle zones. However, such a situation can be easily avoided by simply relocating the Flying Fortress. There is no other substantial difference between the single-player and multiplayer variants (both AI and player), except the firepower and shielding.
The player's variant of Flying Fortress in the Metropolis Dawn expansion pack has a reduced weapon damage, together with its flak station. The rationale behind the damage reduction of the turret projectiles is to diminish the effectiveness of heavily defensive-oriented strategy from the player, where the Taerkasten faction already possesses many natural advantages at.
10 Official Localisation Titles
English: Taerkastens
German: Taerkasten (Die Taerkasten)
French: Les Taerkastens
Japanese: ターカスト
11 Trivia
Under Construction.
12 Notes
Under Construction.