In Nuclear Dawn, commanders are elected players whose task it is to manage and develop their faction’s war machine, from the home base to the outposts that guard important strategic elements, down to the supply routes that deliver key equipment to the troops in the field.

In order to carry out their tasks efficiently, they have at their disposal a wide range of different building types and structures, each of which can be upgraded in various ways, or powered up with special annexes that extend base functionality, to better bring pain to their enemies. For peace, of course.

Without a doubt, the most important building in a faction’s base is the Bunker. Heavily armoured and connected with flying nano cameras that give the a floating bird’s eye view of the battlefield, the Bunker is the one building that cannot be replaced or built anywhere else, which makes it the primary goal of every Nuclear Dawn battle.

Diametrically opposed to the Empire in both world view and technology is the Consortium of Free States, the blues in Nuclear Dawn. While imperial commanders build hive bases, the Consortium commander wages advanced guerrilla warfare on a scale that only Nuclear Dawn can provide.

The basic base building paradigm remains the same: everything has to be powered, in order to work at least. Consortium buildings are powered by short range wireless technology, which means that being within action range of a blue power source will be enough to get buildings going.

Consortium commanders, unlike their imperial counterparts, are free to set up base just about anywhere in the level that can accommodate their structures. Blue structures are produced in self-assembling, nanotech-powered crates that are then delivered to the field by special vehicles.

Base building plays an important role in Nuclear Dawn. Commanders are tasked with both the fortification of their home base, and the protection of their soldiers on the field, through outposts, vehicle production and equipment upgrades.

Each structure in the field, from supply stations to turrets and cloning stations, needs to be powered in order to function, and providing enough power to all structures is one of the faction Commander’s main tasks.

Imperial Commanders rely on line-of-sight power transmission. Powerful lasers focus the Hadron Accelerator’s output, and fan out from the main generator into the field, powering up every structure that they connect with. In order to expand their base, and reach far into the playing field, the Empire builds tall relay towers that receive, amplify and project the laser beams onto the next tower, and any nearby structure.