Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath finally brought the Brotherhood of Nod a transport vehicle of their own in the Reckoner. However, in an original and diverse twist, the Reckoner is faster than the APC and can hold two infantry at once. The Reckoner does not gain the weapon type of the garrisoned infantry though, and while moving it can only run over infantry to do damage. However, the Reckoner can be deployed, and by doing so it gains a massive armor boost. This also allows infantry in it to fire, and opens up one more garrison slot. Even in this state the Reckoner is still considered a vehicle, so you must watch out for things such as Cultist/Prodigy/Mastermind mind control and larger vehicles running over it. Deploying Reckoners in your opponents base near key structures is an obvious use, but it also makes a good make-shift defense for key positions around the map.
Now that we've covered the basics of the Reckoner, how can we utilize it to its full potential?
The first thing to note is that for vanilla Nod and Marked of Kane, you have the option to use either the Cloaking Field or Disruption Pods to make your Reckoner invisible. This can pay huge dividends when used with certain combinations. The Vertigo Bombers Disruption Pod Upgrade is particularly useful as it stealths the units when they are nearby the Reckoner. It yields amazing results when used with Saboteurs and Commandos.
Below are the best ways to utilize the Reckoner.
SaboteursWith or without the ability to stealth your Reckoner, using Saboteurs to capture enemy buildings can be game changing. It is always good to distract your opponent so you can stealthily sneak it in, capture, and get out. To use this effectively, it is no different to the APC/Engi variant of Tiberium Wars, just ensure you have a comfortable hot-key setup to execute it quickly and cleanly.
Black Hands (ideally Purifying Flame upgraded) Using these to their potential is not rocket science. You simply just need to sneak them around and deploy them so that they can do heavy damage to buildings with their flame weapons. Using specifically the Black Hand subfaction, not only can you use the Purifying Flame which greatly increases your flame damage, but your Black Hands also start off as Veterans. You can easily decimate a base with Purifying Flame Black Hands in a Reckoner, so pounce when you see an opening.
Commando(s) (Black Hand has the Heroic Twins)Where you can capture and sell a single building with a Saboteur, you can blow up multiple buildings via the Commando. The ideal way to use the Commando is to micro-manage it in tandem with your Reckoner. Exit Reckoner, C4 a building, then quickly reverse-move back to pick it up and move it to the next building, rinse and repeat. However, the Black Hand subfaction gives you another option in the fact that they can make two Heroic Commandos. This means you can put them on opposite sides of your opponent's base and have them meet in the middle, blowing up whatever is unfortunate enough to be in their way. Alternatively, you can use a combination of the Reckoner+Commando micro-management while you have the other one cover ground on foot. Either way, your opponent will experience heavy casualties.
The Enlightened (Marked of Kane only)The Enlightened are powerful in their own right with long range and an EMP ability. If you then consider that they can be augmented with the Super-Charged Particle Beam upgrade, they are a force to be feared. This means that if you deploy some of these in front of your army you are going to absorb a whole lot of damage while simultaneously dealing a whole lot of damage with them. Another good place to deploy one of these would be on a tiberium field. Needless to say, your opponent's Harvesters aren't going to last long with these there (then again, Stealth Tanks could be better). Another good idea is taking one of The Enlightened squads out to use their EMP, and then garrisoning it back in the Reckoner to keep it safe.
