Airbase

The Airbase produces aircraft: Scout Drones and Pelican Transports at Tier 1. Aircraft ignore terrain, so an Airbase changes how the map works for you. It takes one of the Headquarters's production slots, shared with the War Factory and the Naval Yard. Each HQ provides three by default; Game config sets the number per HQ.

How to use

A drone from the first Airbase pays for itself in scouting alone, and Pelicans let you drop units where tanks cannot drive. Upgrading it to Advanced Airbase adds Cobras, fighters, strike jets, naval strikers, bombers, the Condor, and (with Radar) the Spectre Gunship. The Hornet also needs its War Lab research. Remember that every aircraft dies to dedicated anti-air; scout for it before committing a flight.

Rearming

Most armed aircraft carry a limited load: a Cobra's eight missiles, a Falcon's four, a Vulture's two sticks of bombs. When every gun is empty, the aircraft flies back by itself to the nearest available own airbase or Aircraft Carrier, then resumes its orders or returns to its station. Airbases at any level rearm aircraft within four tiles; carriers require a landing and enough free deck capacity. It does not leave on its own while on hold position or in the middle of a move you gave it. An aircraft passing within four tiles of an airbase replenishes ammunition without landing; a manually boarded aircraft remains aboard a carrier until unloaded.

Rearming costs nothing. A full load takes the aircraft's rearm time and a part load its share of that, and a power shortage slows it like any other work the base does; an airbase knocked out by an EMP rearms nothing until it comes back. The selection panel shows the rounds left, and once a load is no longer full, a brass bar under the health bar shows what is left of it. The Scout Drone, the Pelican and the Condor are unarmed, and the Hornet is its own round, so none of them ever needs to come back.