Machine Gun Nest

Description
Bullet Hives (also known as "Machine Gun Nests", MGN for short, or "Turrets") are the most basic form of static defense. The nests shoot out a constant stream of bullets every tenth of a second, making it very efficient in killing enemies and then switching targets to prevent overkill.

Strategy
The Bullet Hive is a cheap but effective way of deterring most form of aggression. Bullet Hives favor high ground to give them a first strike/vision advantage, and are more effective when placed somewhere your opponent is forced to walk through. Their high building speed makes them good defense measures to build when the enemy's army is already assembled.

Playing with Bullet Hive
Bullet Hives are immobile, but have a lot of stats for only 1 meal (i.e. 60 food). Use them at choke points or close to structures that need defending. Alternatively, they make for good barricades to prevent backdoors and similar. Keep your units close to your bullet hive to prevent your opponent from taking it down too easily but be also wary of their efforts to fight you outside of the bullet hive's range.

Playing against Bullet Hives
Bullet Hives excel in direct combat; Unless your army is vastly superior to your opponent's, it's suggested not to enter combat with a well defended Bullet Hive. Instead, use their immobility to walk around them or to destroy them with Ferrets. Using pigeons or other fliers can also prevent any first strike advantages the turret might have had otherwise. While they are building, they are harmless but their building time is very short, thus it might be worth considering to destroy the turret while they are building, as the completion might gives the enemy the edge in the current battle. If a path to the enemy is guarded by machine gun nests, scout around to see if there are other way into the enemy's base.

Trivia

 * Bullet Hives used to be actual bee hives during the early phases of the alpha.
 * Bullet Hives used to fire significantly slower. This was changed when the developers stated that the Bullet Hive is supposed to be the unit with the highest firing rate, upon which they doubled it.
 * In an early alpha version, there was a version of this unit with the ability to be built outside of the own territory. It was removed after it was deemed too powerful to use.
 * Bullet Hives were the driving factor behind the mutually exclusive territory. Before, all players could the same land. A tactic of building a Gristmill near the enemy's first base and building a lot of machine gun nests early in the game to destroy the starting base of the enemy has resulted in the change.