Strategic Airbase

The Level-3 airbase: adds the Wraith and the Cormorant. Needs a Radar Station to upgrade.

BuildingProductionTier 3Structure

Stats

Tier: Tier 3
Cost: 1780 metal
Build time: 96 s
Hit points: 2700
Armor: Structure
Vision: 7 tiles
Footprint: 4×3 tiles
Power: −20
Weapons: Unarmed

▸Only obtained by upgrading — it cannot be placed directly.

Requires

Radar Station

Production and tech

Upgrade of

Advanced Airbase

Produces

Scout Drone

Cobra Attack Helicopter

Pelican Transport Helicopter

Falcon Fighter

Thunderbolt Strike Jet

Albatross Naval Striker

Vulture Bomber

C-47 Skytrain

Spectre Gunship

Wraith Stealth Bomber

Cormorant ASW Helicopter

Counters

Effective against

—

Countered by

Thunder Howitzer

Tempest MLRS

Salamander Thermobaric Mortar

Sovereign Battleship

Kraken Cruise-Missile Submarine

Vulture Bomber

Wraith Stealth Bomber

The Strategic Airbase is the third level of the Airbase: everything the Advanced Airbase builds, plus the Wraith and the Cormorant. Upgrading to it needs a Radar Station standing, and the line builds nothing for the 48 seconds the upgrade takes.

How to use

The two units it adds answer things the rest of the air wing cannot: a Radar Station or a SAM Site deep in a base, which only a bomber nobody sees coming reaches, and a submarine, which only sonar finds. Neither is a general-purpose aircraft — the Wraith bounces off armour and the Cormorant has nothing for anything on land — so upgrade with a target in mind, and keep the Vultures and Spectres coming from a second airbase while this one is down. Lose the radar and both leave the build menu until it stands again.