I don't know why we haven't written about Mechabellum yet, but we haven't. Let's fix this. It's an auto-battle game where you take down teams of powerful robots and then watch them win or lose against your opponent's army based on the formations and upgrades you choose. After over a year in Early Access, version 1.0 has been released.
Mechabellum's robots are visually reminiscent of Supreme Commander, but SupCom is placed on massive maps where victory is as much about managing the economy as it is about your front-line warriors. As an auto-battle player, Mechabellum features you making decisions about purchasing and positioning units that will fight in relatively small arenas without your intervention.
This means the strategy depends on which units you choose, how they complement each other, where you position them, and how you upgrade them. Fights take place over several rounds, with a chance to rearrange your setup in between. During battle, you're mostly free to enjoy watching explosions, but you can call in air strikes and make other limited contributions to the flow of battle.
Mechabellum launched in Early Access last May and has been extremely well received since then. It looks like there won't be any major changes in version 1.0, but it does optimize visuals and performance and introduces a multiplayer ranking system.
I'm not really interested in playing 1v1 against strangers online because I don't want to have to learn a meta or read guides for the best builds. I'm not Matt Cox (RPS rest in peace). Still, I love watching robots shoot rockets at each other, and I've enjoyed similar strategy autobattle games like the tug-of-war of Warpips. I'll try it against the AI at some point.
Mechabellum is available on Steam and 30% off currently means £8.95/$10.49/€10.35.