Attack bike (Rivals)

"Revving the engine"

- Attack Bikes when selected

Attack bikes are a rare Nod vehicle squad in Command & Conquer: Rivals.

Background
The Attack Bike is a classic Nod weapon design; it's extremely fast but lightly armored. Nod offensive doctrine emphasizes using Attack Bikes for hit-and-run raids against enemy vehicles and aircraft, while avoiding direct confrontation with enemy heavy armor whenever possible.

Game unit
Cheap, fast and universal, Attack bikes will find use in many decks. A single bike squad will deal with War dogs and Talons, but their true strength is in numbers. A pair of Attack bikes will deal with most but heaviest vehicles, and their cheap price and fast movement speed means that even if one squad falls, it can be replaced with a new one very quickly.

Although Bikes have normal vision, their fast movement and general usefulness makes them a good scouting unit. If they run into an unprotected harvester, they can start to put pressure on it right away. If the opponent opens the game with two harvesters, a pair of bikes can make a short work of them.

Bikes deal a lot of damage up-front, followed by a long cooldown period. This allows Bikes to employ hit-and-run tactics.

In the early game bikes are weak to Pitbulls an Laser drones. Even when they are able to take them down, will struggle to do it cost efficiently. Bikes are not effective against heavy vehicles, but their squad mechanic makes them very difficult to remove for slow hitting units, like Predator tanks.

The launched rockets travel slowly compared to other projectiles and faster moving units can avoid them for a while, but the rockets will follow the target indefinitely.

Changelog

 * 2018-06-20: Attack separation delay reduced to 0.1 seconds (was 1.66 seconds)
 * 2018-07-03:
 * Attack Duration reduced to 4.25 (was 5.0)
 * Damage reduced to 240 (was 300)
 * 2019-06-05:
 * Damage vs. Harvester decreased to 200 (was 244)
 * Health reduced to 435 (was 450)
 * Damage vs. Vehicles increased to 244 (was 240)
 * 2019-12-11:
 * Damage to air 223 (was 244)
 * Damage to vehicles 210 (was 244)

When created

 * Attack bike ready to rumble
 * Attack bike ready to roll

When selected

 * Revving the engine
 * Your command?
 * Biker ready to roll

When moving

 * Advancing
 * Burning rubber
 * No problem
 * For Kane
 * Biker rolling out

When moving to attack favorably

 * Gonna brain 'em!
 * Missiles will smash 'em!
 * Launchers will bust their doyle

When moving to attack neutral

 * As you command
 * As you wish
 * Ok, right
 * I'll sort them out

When moving to attack unfavorably

 * I like hospital food anyway
 * You're the boss
 * Gonna get banjaxed

When unable to attack target

 * Can't do it
 * Impossible

When attacking

 * Kill them all!
 * For the brotherhood

When under attack

 * Getting belted here!
 * I'm getting hammered

Trivia

 * They are the first vehicle in the Command & Conquer series to come in a squad.
 * Currently attacking any drone may result in situation where missiles are not hitting the drones in the most efficient way, leaving more drones alive than there could be.
 * Slight Irish accent, heavy Irish slang. Female.
 * Attack bikes are legendary for their ability to rush harvesters.
 * A prominent Rivals player has a screen name in honor of Attack bikes — BIKERUSHOWNZ.
 * When attacking a squad unit, sometimes multiple rockets hit the same squad member even if a single rocked would be enough to kill it. This sometimes results in a situation where a bike volley kills only a single Cyberwheel instead of three.
 * Sometimes the launched rocket moves so slowly compared to the target, that it could travel across the map and back while chasing the target unit, only to end in vain as the target could've been destroyed by another attacks. However, this has been fixed.
 * In community attack bikes are often called just bikes.