Skyguard Turret

Skyguard Turret
Unit
Faction	Cartel
Role	Base Defense
Protection	Low Resilience
Tier	Black Ops
Properties
Hit points	60
POW chance	40%
Production
Cost	750 250
Requires	Black Ops Tokamak Generator Air Control Center
Combat
Weapon	Railgun
Splash	700
Function
Ability	Intercepts Superweapons Intercepts missiles
Research	Weapon Tracking Radar
Upgrades	Weapon Tracking Radar Repair Drones

The Skyguard Turret is a base defense of the Cartel.

Gameplay

Skyguard Turrets are excellent guardians in their primary role, able to snipe superweapons, as well as all kinds of enemy units. They can later have their range significantly increased.

What makes Skyguard Turrets special is its very high capacity of 6, the largest of any other counterpart in the entire game. For the same amount of power consumption as a Patriot, it stores more shots, giving better protection to superweapons. Though it costs some of the more elusive resources, Cartel has the Barracks and Underground Stock Market to produce the necessary aluminum and rare earth. Both the structure itself and its munitions are incredibly cheap, making it easy for the to keep their defenses topped up at all times in order to neutralize enemy superweapons worth far more than its ammo. If needed to be, Skyguards can even use the assistance of an Accelerator to prepare for a sudden onslaught as well using its stealth to make it harder for the enemy to find. Though very similar to a weaker Railgun Turret, Skyguards also offer a somewhat adequate defense, able to target air and ground with equal efficiency and pinpoint accuracy, while being one of the only few Cartel units that can intercept enemy missiles, helping with Cartel's weak building healing. It's not uncommon for it to be paired with the Railgun as well, since Railgun Turrets can discover stealth units for it to fire upon. When augmented with the range upgrade, one or two Skyguard Turrets can protect an entire base with their tremendous coverage.

Though extremely efficient at its superweapon defense role, Skyguard Turret's other attributes are unsatisfactory. They have a slow rate of fire and perhaps more importantly very low engagement range. They can destroy enemy missiles easily, but many others can slip through, and amassing Skyguards is much less effective than using some Shadowhawk or Otomatics when their power consumption is factored in. They also offer no solution to other types of enemy projectiles, and can fall much faster than either the Patriot or Antey-2500 as soon as enemy artillery comes into play. At base, Skyguards have even less range than the Railgun Turrets, meaning more often than not it serves to merely reduce the enemy's potential air power, rather than denying its damage to the base, requiring assistance fro Berkut to deal with such threats. It does compensate with the ability to target ground units as well, but it adds very little to what Cartel already has, since they have an overabundance of options to deal with armor (Shershen/Viper/Scorpio/Railgun Turret/Spectre/X-32), often ending with it contributing little to defense in general outside of neutralizing superweapons. Situational but specialized, Skuguard Turrets are nonetheless excellent structures with their own highlights that sets them apart.

Produces

Ammo

Laser Salvo Costs 500 and 500. Stores up to 6 units.

Upgrades

Repair Drones All Cartel buildings slowly regenerate health. Costs 2000. Researched at HQ. Requires Black Ops.

Weapon Tracking Radar Increases the Skyguard Turret's interception range against enemy superweapons by 50%. Costs 2000. Purchased individually.

Gallery

Skyguard turret seen in the superweapons trailer

See also

• THOR Control Center
• Patriot
• Antey-2500