Other races have artillery with specialised upgrades, some of them even have special upgrades just for the artillery units. The walker is the artillery-unit of the vanguard and it artillery-damage type is rocket. They have laser and projectile weapons, but the airship, the walker, the rocket-turret and the infantry-rocket-launcher-upgrade all do explosion damage that cannot be improved by projectile or laser upgrades. What i hate about the vanguard the most is that they have no synergy with their weapon types. The airship is somehow usable, but there are much better flying units than this.

Also nice is the additional accuracy the mechanic can give mechanical units.

He can repair mechanical units and set up defense turrets and the missile-upgrade makes these turrets very nice. The only early tier unit from the vanguard that i could somehow recommend is the mechanic. owl and pug are practically useless, the soldier is way too standard and easy replaced by other units. In my opinion the vanguard is the worst race in the game.

Age of wonders planetfall vanguard