After a few weeks break, I am back to cover another Atlantean MU: The Automaton. I hope you have all been enjoying ManticoreKiller's Greek and Norse MU guides - I know I have, and I think he will be doing one on the Einherjar next week.

As for the Automaton, they are well known for being cheap, weak and good in groups; and as being Leto's (apart from Spider Lair) only weapon in the game.

Let's look at their stats:

Cost: 90 Gold, 8 Favour, 2 Pop Spaces
HP: 200
Speed: 3.75
Hack Armour: 40%
Pierce Armour: 44%
Hack Damage: 11

x3 Bonus vs MUs

Special attack: None
Special ability: Ability to rebuild and heal other Automatons
Upgrades available:
Hephaestus' Revenge - Increases HP of Automaton and allows them to regenerate
Volcanic Forge - Increases Pierce Armour of Automatons

In general, quite slow with quite low armour and attack, low HP, but look at that cost! Less than 100 resources and only 2 pop spaces. If you're looking for cheapness, the Automaton is your unit. The Automaton is the cheapest Myth Unit in terms of population (apart from the Dryad) and resources (apart from the Promethean).

Being cheap is one thing, but being effective in battle is another. How does an Automaton do one on one with a basic hoplite?

NOTE: All units have been upgraded with Medium line upgrades and Copper armoury upgrades. All buildings have been upgraded with the Masons upgrade. Any other upgrades will be stated
All attack rates are tested per hit, not second. This is fine as the Automaton attacks every second.

Test 1: 1 Automaton vs 1 Hoplite (Zeus)

Hoplite Stats:
HP: 126
Speed: 4.70
Hack armour: 41%
Pierce armour: 23%
Hack damage: 9

Automaton does approximately 7 damage to Hoplite per hit.
Hoplite does approximately 6 damage to Automaton per hit

Automaton kills Hoplite in 20 seconds with 88 HP left.

As any melée myth unit should, the Automaton beats a basic infantry unit, although I was a little surprised with how much damage the Automaton received. Not bad for it's cost though, how does it do in groups?

Test 2: 5 Automatons vs 5 Slingers (Set)

Slinger stats:
HP: 78
Speed: 4.00
Range: 16
Hack Armour: 31%
Pierce Armour: 28%
Pierce Damage: 3

All slingers die in 21 with 5 Automatons still alive

Not really a surprise due to the slingers weak armour and attack, it was just a way to show how they do in groups. Remember, that the Automatons heal each other after this battle to full health to fight again. Also remember that any ranged unit faster than a non-ranged unit it is attacking will win with good micro.

Well what about cavalry? Can Automatons be used effectively to defend from raiders?

Test 3: 5 Automatons vs 5 Raiding Cavalry (Thor)

Automatons win with 5 still alive

Now this was a surprise. I thought the RC would actually manage to kill one or two of those metal warriors, but no, seems that Automatons make nice defenders again cavalry in the Classical Age.

From these tests we can see that Automatons are pretty weak fighters by themselves, but in groups they can be used effectively against weak ranged units like slingers or toxotes if they can get to them, and to defend against raids.

What about against buildings?

Test 4: 5 Automatons vs 1 Economic Guild (Oranos)

Guild stats:
HP: 460
Crush Armour: 14%
Hack Armour: 34%
Pierce Armour: 95%

Automatons destroy guild in 15 seconds

Maybe not as effective as the Cyclops, Einherjar or Sphinx, but their low pop cost means you can make more from the pop space; 2 Cyclopes only destroy the guild about 2-3 seconds faster than 4 Automatons.

Well now we've looked at their basic attack, it's time to examine their special ability: being able to rebuild and repair other Automatons.

1. While idle, any injured Automaton can be healed by another Automaton
   
2. If an Automaton dies in battle, they can be rebuilt by another Automaton
   
3. It takes 12 seconds for an Automaton to rebuild another Automaton
   
4. The Automaton's healing rate is approximately 17 HP per second. (That's faster than the Valkyrie and Priest, but slower than the Caladria}
   
5. Injured Automatons cannot be healed by Priests, Pharaohs (including SoO), Valkyries or Caladriae
   
6. Injured Automatons can only be healed by other Automatons, The Healing Spring GP and the Restoration GP
   
7. Two Automatons can heal each other at the same time; the healing rate is not affected.
   
8. Once "dead", an Automaton cannot become rebuilt until its HP has reached the maximum amount
   
9. Restoration and Healing Spring will not increase the HP of a "dead" Automaton
   
10. "Dead" Automatons can only survive 45 seconds before they cannot be rebuilt and are removed completely from the game.
    
11. When another Automaton begins to rebuild a "dead" Automaton, the time allowed until that Automaton dies restarts, giving 45 more seconds. Once that Automaton stops rebuilding it, the 45 second countdown starts again.
    

Hephaestus' Revenge

Cost: 200 Gold, 15 Favour
All Automatons are now called "Warrior Automatons"

+ 60 HP for all Automatons
All Automatons now regenerate 1 HP per second

In my opinion, the only reason to get this tech is for the extra HP, which is quite a substantial considering that Automatons only have 200 HP to begin with. The fact that it lets Automatons regenerate I find very strange. It isn't really necessary considering that Automatons can heal each other.

Volcanic Forge

Cost: 200 Gold, 50 Food, 18 Favour

All Automatons receive 12% pierce armour, giving them 56%

Quite a basic tech, but a bit pricey just for an armour improvement.

Considering that Leto only has 2 techs, and that both affect Automatons, I don't think that either one is anything spectacular, and should only be bought if you have a stockpile of resources (which you shouldn't) and you're massing more than 5 Automatons at a time

Further Notes:

The Automaton defeats all Classical units one on one
The Automaton is defeated by all Classical heroes (including all Atlantean heroes}

The Automaton is defeated by all Classical MUs apart from
Promethean
Centaur

Automatons can be affected by Mythic Rejuvination and Celerity

Automatons are affected by: