Ion Tower

150 (Elite)

190 (Heroic)

30000 (Heroic)

## Introduction

The **Ion Tower** is General Alexis Alexander's Tier 1 artillery defense structure. It is a tower equipped with an ion cannon and a reflector satellite for high-precision strikes.

## Overview

While Alexander is trying to improve her arsenal, she became increasingly irritated by the old Firebase since Townes unveiled his own Avenger AA Laser Tank which was the reason why the artillery fireport's shells kept getting intercepted during numerous war games with the laser general. Then an idea popped out of her head: why don't we mass produce ion cannons and reflector satellites and use them like an artillery version of the Particle Cannon? Hence, she started the production of Ion Towers. Although the concept looks good, the project was nearly cancelled when numerous criticisms about the tower being costly for the NASA as this meant they had to send many deflector satellites in outer space as many as the number of towers deployed. The NASA also voiced concerns that the satellites might eventually sit as a space trash that will remain in orbit and "congest the satellite traffic" by filling the available areas of such satellites so much that other satellites will not have room for themselves. Worse, she also ignored her superiors' opposition to build another satellite with the same weapon for Colonel Burton's own use. In the very end, the criticisms died out and the Ion Tower remained in her arsenal.

The Ion Tower is essentially a surface-orbit-surface particle cannon defense tower with the shape of three "pillars" on a rotating support base. Its main weapon is an ion cannon blaster with the three "pillars" as its charging units, using micro cameras to spot enemy coming in range. It is also accompanied with a small reflector satellite hovering just right above it in orbit. When ready, the "pillars" will spin rapidly to charge it and a blue ion beam will be fired which will then be reflected back by the satellite to the target. The beam travels so fast that it seems like the beam bent over from above to the ground.

The Ion Tower is a quite powerful artillery defense tower than can reduce most Tier 1 units to ashes and can fire the beam in a quite closer range than other artillery defense towers. Besides, it has quite faster rate of fire than its counterparts. However, the tower still does not fire at a constant rate and cannot attack aircraft, so do not rely on these towers alone for your base defense and accompany them with Patriot Missile Batteries, AIDE , Cyclones and Atlas.

## Assessment

Pros:

* Can destroy Tier 1 units with ease.
* Available in Tier 1.
* Long range, can outrange tier 1 artillery units.
* Quite fast reload time.
* Relatively fast to build.

Cons:

* Can still be overwhelmed.
* Helpless against aircraft.
* Not very durable for a defensive structures.
* Rather expensive ($1,200).

## Trivia

* The Ion Tower is likely based off the iconic GDI Ion Cannon from *Command & Conquer'*s Tiberium universe.
* Originally, the Ion Tower is not capable of functioning all by itself, instead, it's part of a defense system known as the "Web", a targeting structure is needed to relay enemy positions to the Ion Tower.
* The Ion Tower started out as a fire base like structure which can be garrisoned by four infantries. This ability was eventually moved to the Atlas.
* When the Bombardment plan was chosen from Alexander's Strategy Center, an Ion Tower will be deployed.

## Gallery

The old Ion Tower defence, with a more firebase-like design.The old Web Defence System, the targeting turret (right) has since been removed.