Runway

### Pros

High burst damage potential. Flexible thanks to two types of ammo. Hard to stop when using Thunderbolts.

### Cons

Very large. Ammo build time imposes large delay between attacks. Maintained fire rate requires some APM dedicated to continued building of ammo. Easy to stop when using Nighthawks.

The Runway is a weapon which delivers airstrikes over the opponent's fort. It is unlocked by the Workshop. This weapon is part of the High Seas DLC.

## **Overview**

The Runway is a very large building - the largest of any weapon available in the game. It attacks by launching bombers which will fly over the opponent's fort and drop bombs at a chosen distance. Aiming the Runway involves choosing both the angle of attack, and the distance at which the payload will be dropped by the bomber. The aiming mechanic is similar to that of Flak.

The Runway uses the Ammo mechanic. Deploying an attack will use up one unit of ammo.

The weapon has a reload delay of 0.7 seconds - the shortest of any weapon in the game. Its fire rate is only limited by the build speed of its ammo, encouraging a playstyle of amassing planes and launching them all in rapid succession, creating potential for colossal burst of damage.

Caution must be taken while aiming the Runway, as the airplanes will actively avoid collision with the terrain or the opponent's fort, aborting the attack and turning away right before the potential impact. When this occurs, ammo is wasted. A danger of this happening with the currently aimed flight path will be signaled by a yellow exclamation mark icon flashing next to the cursor.

The bombers can be lit on fire by the Firebeam. When this happens, the aircraft will fall without dropping its payload and crash, often into the fort which shot it down.

Note that while the Runway only needs the Workshop in order to be constructed, its ammo airplanes require the tier 2 technology - the Munitions Plant or the Factory, depending on the type of plane.

## **Ammunition**

The Runway's ammunition comes in form of the two airplanes it launches - the Thunderbolt, and the Nighthawk. In presence of both types of ammunition, the Runway can be toggled to either launch Thunderbolts or Nighthawks via its right-click context menu. By default, the Runway is set to the Queue mode which fires the ammunition depending on order built. The two available airplanes have rather differing behavior and applications.

### **Thunderbolt**

"*Drops multiple bombs at pre-determined point.*"

Unlocked via the Munitions Plant. The Thunderbolt will drop 4 bombs in a carpet bombing attack over the designated location. Each bomb deals 60 direct damage, as well as 90 splash damage in a small radius - similar to that of Heavy Mortar.

Thunderbolt ammunition costs 100 metal and 2000 energy to build, and takes 24 seconds to finish construction; assuming a constant build rate, Thunderbolt production takes effectively 4.2 metal and 83 energy per second.

#### **Strategy**

While a single payload is not particularly damaging, the low cost, relatively quick build speed, and the ability to hold multiple planes on deck makes it possible to build a large reserve of Thunderbolts and then release them in one massive attack wave. Used in this way, Thunderbolts are often capable of overwhelming the opponent's anti-air all by themselves with the sheer volume of ordnance; this is its main strength against the Nighthawk, despite the worse cost-to-damage ratio.

It's important to build additional armaments along with Thunderbolts; namely Snipers/Smoke Bombs for support, and Cannons/20mms for suppression. Thunderbolts alone, while strong in their barrages, put zero pressure on the opponent while constructing. Given that map control is necessary to maximize damage from Thunderbolts, it's important to suppress the opponent where possible.

Firebeams can also be a great aide for Thunderbolts. They nullify enemy Anti-Air by burning out incoming projectiles and provide a rather significant damage boost to the bombs (25%). Careful aim is required to not accidentally ignite the planes themselves, however; it helps if the Firebeam is built underneath the Runway and then fired parallel to the planes' flight path, providing perfect cover for the Thunderbolts and igniting the bombs when released.

#### **Counters**

Thunderbolt stockpiles can be hard to spot, though it's important to always consider the possibility of their presence. Beware of large rectangular structures as they might contain a Runway. Since their ammo is 3 grid units wide, it's important to scout for additional, seemingly unnecessary boxes extruding out the back of a fort. The consequences of being unaware of a Thunderbolt accumulation can be catastrophic.

Thunderbolt waves can be somewhat dampened by having using sacrificial Machine Gunners to take out as many of the Thunderbolt's bombs as possible before taken out, as well as using layers of Sandbags to tank some of the explosives. Note that both a high amount of Anti-Air *as well as* solid defenses are required to survive an attack wave; due to the stockpiling nature of Thunderbolts, coupled with the extremely low reload period of the Runway, anywhere from 1-10+ planes can be launched in a torrential manner. Machine Guns are too frail to survive long bursts, and sturdier emplacements such as Flak or Shotguns are less effective because of their longer reload.

Energy Domes can be quite helpful when dealing with Thunderbolts, but only if they're properly positioned. They have a relatively long period of shielding, enough to block the damage from 1-3 planes. It's important to know that the shield *does not* destroy planes themselves; only the bombs.

Despite their long reload duration, Shotguns are highly effective at destroying planes, due to the fact that just two pellets can destroy an incoming aircraft. If fired at an effective angle, three or more Thunderbolts can be taken out.

Runway ammunition, while not as low as Decoy, Control, or Orbital Laser ammo (15 HP), is still very volatile, at just 40 HP. Paired with the stockpiling nature of Thunderbolts, this can often make forts extremely vulnerable to chain reacts. Thus, weapons such as Firebeams, Plasma Lasers, Magnabeams, or T3 Cannons can capitalize on penetrative power or unexpected angles, to detonate the unprepared base.

### **Nighthawk**

"*Drops high-penetration, incendiary Paveway bomb.*"

Unlocked via the Factory. The Nighthawk will drop a single powerful bomb. The bomb deals 450 direct damage - on par with that of the Howitzer shell - along with catastrophic splash damage as well as a massive incendiary radius. Its enormous damage is offset by its high cost and a long time to build.

The Nighthawk ammo costs 150 metal and 6000 energy to build, and takes 90 seconds to finish construction. Due to its extremely long build time, continual production of Nighthawks is notably cheaper than that of Thunderbolts; only requiring 1.6 metal and 66 energy per second.

The Nighthawk's Paveway bomb also has a separate drop trajectory than the Thunderbolt; it is flung further forward from the plane.

#### **Strategy**

The Nighthawk has a notably different application to a Thunderbolt. While the latter is typically used in a mass carpet-bombing attack, intended to overwhelm the opponent by the sheer numbers of otherwise modestly damaging ordnance, the Nighthawk instead focuses heavy damage into a single devastating attack. The significantly higher cost and build time of the Nighthawk means it's difficult to stock up on multiple units of its ammo, therefore - unlike the Thunderbolt - it typically requires a strong support from other weapons that can thwart the opponent's anti-air, as otherwise the aircraft or its bomb can be easily shot down.

Nighthawks rely on the player building other weapons even more so than Thunderbolts; whereas a high amount of Thunderbolts can overwhelm enemy defenses to deal rather significant damage, Nighthawks take more than 3x the time to build and focus all the damage into one penetrative, explosive shot. The main advantage that Nighthawks possess is their penetrative shell, which can burrow deep into a base's internals and then explode, dealing ruinous damage which will severely deform if not outright kill the base. However, landing the hit often proves a challenge, since Shotguns and Flak excel at shooting down single targets.

Similarly with Thunderbolts, Nighthawks significantly benefit from an additional arsenal of weapons. Snipers/Smoke Bombs remain useful for support, but since the player already possesses a Factory, they can place Firebeams off the bat to deal with Anti-Air emplacements, as well as Plasma Lasers to bore through more sturdy defenses.

#### **Counters**

Nighthawks are much harder to spot considering the opponent doesn't have to fill their fort to the brim with ammo, but potential Runway locations can still give hints as to whether Nighthawks are incoming. If lasers are also spotted, there's a very high chance that the opponent is stocking up for a powerful opening strike with a Nighthawk.

Paveway bombs can typically be stopped by two layers of sandbags on top of each other. Be aware that Nighthawks are extremely precise and deal roughly the damage of an incendiary Howitzer shell so all weak spots should be defended meticulously.

A more proactive defense against Nighthawks is to get burst-fire Anti-Air, such as Flak, Shotguns, or Energy Domes. While they can reduce some damage from Thunderbolts, Machine Guns are highly ineffective against Nighthawks; the Paveway has a higher health pool (taking 5+ bullets) as well as a smaller hitbox. Unless using an Energy Dome or hotkeyed Shotgun, hitting a Paveway bomb can be very inconsistent when the plane itself can be shot down instead.

## Trivia

* The Thunderbolt is visually based off the real life aircraft Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (a.k.a. "Warthog"), and the Nighthawk is visually based on the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk.
* The Runway beats out the Howitzer from the Moonshot DLC for the most explosive weapon in the game.