Tleilaxu

Developed by: Westwood
Emperor official page: http://westwood.ea.com/games/emperor/index.html
Estimated Release: Mid-June 2001

As promised, FS now presents details on the five sub-houses of Westwood's upcoming RTS, Emperor: Battle for Dune, including art for almost all the units of the subhouses. The three main races, Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos will be able to ally themselves with one or more of these sub-houses over the course of the campaign. For a more detailed description of how sub-houses figure into the game, read our full preview of Emperor.

The Tleilaxu

The Tleilaxu are a Luddite-like bunch who hate technology. Instead of relying on guns, tanks, and amor, their units are biological horrors that make their mark on the battlefield with fear. Successful Tleilaxu attacks cause their numbers to multiply, making them a fearsome opponent.

Tleilaxu logo

Contaminator

The Tleilaxu Contaminator is a zombie-type infantry unit, created out of the horrible Tleilaxu flesh vats. It carries no weapons or ranged attacks, but being an undead creature, can absorb extraordinary amounts of punishment before going down. The Contaminator is Emperor's answer to Typhoid Mary; if it touches a biological enemy, that enemy becomes infected with a virus that instantly kills it. That fallen soldier will then rise up and become another Contaminator.

Tleilaxu Contaminator

Leech

The Leech is how the Tleilaxu deal with enemy vehicles. Its weapon is its larvae, which can be fired from a distance at enemy vehicles. Upon hitting a target, the larvae will drain its host unit's power, and digest the metal in the armor. If an Engineer isn't used to remove the larvae from the affected vehicle, it will eventually die and pupate into another Leech unit.

Tleilaxu Leech