The Cybranasaurus Rex Experimental Lizardbot is a Cybran major experimental land unit. It was developed by Dr. Brackman and modeled on a piece of dinosaur DNA he had recovered. Its main weapon is a giant flamethrower, which is mounted in the mouth and gives it the appearance of breathing fire. It is also equipped with dual missile launchers and a ring of plasma grenade cannons that carpet the area around it with explosions. During the level where you have to protect Dr Snyder the Cybranasaurus Rex already has a flamethrower in its mouth, in theory the flamethrower is not added but it is a form of natural defense, although when the C. Rex is in Robot form, the flamethrower is more powerful.
When you first encounter this unit, it has no armour; it is just a fire breathing dinosaur. Its main weapon is still there but its damage is much smaller than the armoured version. In addition to this, its missiles and plasma grenades are not added, meaning it's quite weak. Note that the campaign version is not an accurate representation of this unit. It is extremely large. It will defeat a King Kriptor in direct combat, but a King Kriptor will defeat it if it is running away.
Strategy[]
Unlike the other factions' flagship land experimentals, the Cybranasaurus Rex is stronger and significantly easier to research. Thus a viable strategy is to focus all efforts on researching it, then build and unleash it before your opponents are ready.
The Cybranasaurus Rex is actually stat-per-stat very comparable to the Universal Colossus. The C. Rex has slightly less health, and it does around 200 higher DPS than the UC. In fact, when attacking structures it does nearly 500DPS more because the UC cannot use its arm weapons against structures. The C. Rex's primary weakness is its short range on more or less all of its weapons, however a well placed Experimental Transport quickly solves this problem. The C. Rex is often vastly superior to a UC, and alone, it's cheaper too. In a 1 on 1 fight, the C. Rex will win, and 2 C. Rexes can theoretically take out 3 UCs, since the C. Rex's grenades do splash damage, and none of the UC's weapons do. Also, all of the C. Rex's secondary weaponry (everything except the flamethrower) can fire behind it, while all of the UC's weaponry must fire forward. This means the C. Rex can still lay over 800DPS on targets while retreating. This also makes it inferior to the UEF King Kriptor because the King can use its main weapons while retreating.
Tips[]
If left to its own devices, the Cybranasaurus Rex will often start attacking a target just out of its flame range. It's best to keep a close eye on commanding it. Bear in mind, that the Cybranasaurus Rex's flame thrower and grenade launcher have very small range.
The plasma grenade launchers are primarily an attrition device which softens up nearby army units for the main cannon to deal with.
Due to the new collision system in this game, most army units are shoved aside. However, those that aren't will be stepped on and destroyed.
Since buildings obviously cannot move out of the way, a viable use for the C. Rex is to have it walk through the enemy's base simply using its feet to destroy as much as possible.
The Cybranasaurus Rex has no anti-air and should be escorted with either Adaptors or Geminis.
The Cybranasaurus Rex is not very useful for attacking bases with lots of defenses or artillery, as it needs to get relatively close to its target. Consider deploying it with an experimental transport.
Because of the lack of range, you can micro a small amount of units to the rear, and move them as needed to kill the unit because it cannot fire backwards with its flame.
The C. Rex can also go into water but it can't go farther than an ACU can. While submerged it can't attack anything. This is a good advantage on maps with water but have naval off.
The Cybranasaurus Rex is the only non-ACU unit in the Supreme Commander series to feature any organic material. This raises the question of how exactly it is built in a factory.