You can deploy mechs (miniatures) to protect your workers, expand your empire, and add new abilities to your character and other mechs. The resource used to deploy mechs is Metal. To deploy a mech, pay the cost, choose any mech on your Faction Mat, and place that mech on a territory you control with at least one worker on it. You can’t deploy mechs on lakes (even if your faction has mech abilities allowing your mechs to move onto lakes).

From now on, your character and all mechs (not your workers) gain the ability on the Faction Mat that was under the mech miniature. These abilities vary from faction to faction.