Desolator (Red Alert 2)

The Desolator is a heavy Soviet anti-surface infantry unit in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge, and is only available to Iraq as a country-specific unit.

Background
Created by Iraqi Scientist, the Desolator utilizes a Radiation Cannon to irradiate the ground around him, making it completely impassable to both infantry and light vehicles. Each soldier was equipped with a nuclear battle suit that protects him from Radiation. They were quite fast and spoke in a raspy, tired voice.

In the Allied campaigns, they were only encountered in the occupied St. Louis during Operation: Free Gateway, where they demonstrated their abilities on captive civilians. A few of them were also deployed during Operation: Fallout.

In the Soviet campaign of Red Alert 2, they became available during Operation: Desecration.

In the Soviet campaign of Yuri's Revenge, they became available during Operation: Romanov on the Run. They were also the only infantry unit apart from Cosmonauts capable of surviving on the Moon.

In-game
While they are a potent anti-infantry unit with their rad-cannon's primary mode of fire (a concentrated radiation beam melting down enemy soldiers), their true power lies in the way they can deny an area to the enemy by irradiating the surface, so traversing it is lethal to infantry and damaging to vehicles. Their radiation field can penetrate water, making them capable of damaging submarines and revealing them. They are most effective at cutting off important choke points, such as passes, valleys, and even bridges. They were nearly matchless against any type of infantry, save for ones armed with long-ranged anti-infantry weaponry and flying infantry. The Desolator is only one of two types of infantry units authorized for the Moon assigment.

However, they have to remain immobile while deploying their cannon and can be easily taken out by enemy snipers, heavier vehicles or airborne units. Their weapon is also completely useless against robotic units such as robot tanks.

Usage
"The Iraqi Desolator can poison land with toxic radiation or annihilate enemy troops with his powerful Rad-Cannon."

- Multiplayer loading screen for Iraq

It is useful to keep a few Desolators around a Soviet base, as an effective counter against a Nighthawk rush carrying engineers or Navy SEALs. If timed just right, one can irradiate the landing zone before the SEALs arrive, causing them to instantly die the moment they leave the transport. However, if done too late, the SEALs will kill the Desolator; the Nighthawk itself might also pick off the Desolator if there is absolutely no anti-air defense. Nonetheless, the Desolator is the Soviets' only equivalent to a "ranged sniper" unit, capable of picking off stray engineers who try to breach the base. The Desolator is also a favourable unit to counter paratroopers, provided they can be transported fast enough to the drop zone. Desolator cannot harm infantry garrisoned in buildings. British snipers are not an effective counter against a large number of Desolators due to their slow rate of fire. In large numbers, Desolators can create a contamination zone more deadly than a nuclear missiles, and destroy nearly anything that comes through in a matter of moments. Strangely, a veteran Desolator can withstand a nuke attack.

Desolators can be combined with captured Allied IFV's to make "poor man's demolition trucks"; essentially a smaller version of the Libyan demolition truck's blast damage and radius, but which will result in radioactive fallout, damaging infantry that passes within (only in Yuri's Revenge; in Red Alert 2, he has an upgraded rad-cannon). The combination may still have other values as Desolator can still shoot on their primary mode only, even affecting IFV promotion tally from the kills. However destruction of IFV will still instantly kill any infantry inside, Desolator included. Allied commanders are normally wary to have their air support pick off slow moving Desolators before they can reach the heart of massed Allied infantry formations, but incredibly fast IFVs can quickly deliver a radioactive blast to their center.

They can also be used to cripple Yuri's economy, as slaves are very vulnerable to radiation, and it takes time to have the irradiated ground returning to normal after the Desolator is no longer operating on it.

A single deployed Desolator's radiation field can easily kill all infantry units (except other desolators) as well as any non-robotic light vehicles within its radius. However, deploying more desolators is still useful, as their radiation fields stack.

Changelog

 * Red Alert 2 patch 1.004: the Desolator will no longer continue to shoot the ground over and over and keep building up radiation.

Legacy
In the altered timeline, during The Uprising, a different Desolator design was more machine than man. Now with the ability to corrode armour, a small group could take on any threat on the battlefield.

When selected

 * Desolator ready.
 * (heavy breathing)
 * Ready for meltdown.
 * Reactor ready!
 * Mercury rising.

When moving

 * Find a hot spot!
 * Scorched earth!
 * Spread the doom!
 * There goes the neighborhood!
 * It will be a silent spring.

When ordered to attack

 * Tagged for extinction!
 * Make it glow!
 * Let's heat them up!
 * Here comes the sun!
 * The end is near!
 * Let's make an oasis of death!

Cameos
Alpha cameo:

In order: English/German, French, Korean, Chinese. Top row is standard, bottom row is veteran.

Trivia

 * In Yuri's Revenge version 1.000, they can enter an Infantry Fighting Vehicle to make a "poor man's Demolition Truck". In vanilla Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge version 1.001, the Desolator IFV fires the regular rad cannon instead.
 * Originally, the unit was called Gamma Legion and used a shoulder-mounted Gamma cannon.
 * While Desolators can be seen paradropping in the campaign, they do not have an appropriate frame, so they use a standing one.