Sandstorm (Rivals)

"Calm before the sandstorm"

- Sandstorm when leaving Tech lab.

The Sandstorm is an epic GDI tech hovercraft in Command & Conquer: Rivals.

Background
The AHV-8 Sandstorm is a GDI hover vehicle first fielded after the 3rd Tiberium War. The Sandstorm is notable for its ability to fire a seemingly endless volley of guided missiles at multiple enemy air and ground forces simultaneously.

Abilities

 * Deals damage to up to 3 enemies in an arc.
 * Hover over water.
 * Hover over water.

Game unit
Sandstorm is a late-game anti-vehicle and anti-air hovercraft. It can take out aircraft in at most two volleys and light vehicles don't stand a chance.

When the Sandstorm attacks multiple enemies at the time, the damage output for each of the unit is the same as if it was the only target. This makes the Sandstorm almost immune to swarming of cheaper units.

Although light anti-vehicle infantry like Laser squad will eventually take down a Sandstorm, it's high health means that it might be too late, therefore a better answer to the Sandstorm is an infantry with a stronger punch or some baiting tactics before heavy hitting vehicles or aircraft moves in. The high HP allows the Sandstorm to benefit from the Liang's Repair drone.

The amphibious nature of the unit makes it capable of quickly moving across maps which have lakes.

As such it's used as a tech splash unit for GDI aggro decks. When an aggro game stalls for too long, the Sandstorm can break the stalemate, since cheap units can't deal with it. To protect the Sandstorm from infantry, a popular companion is a Sniper team.

The main threats to the Sandstorm are heavy infantry and heavy vehicles.

Changelog

 * 2018-06-15:
 * Damage vs Infantry reduced to 15 (was 20)
 * Cost Increased to 130 (was 100)
 * 2018-10-04:
 * Damage vs Vehicles decreased to 100 (was 150)
 * Health increased to 3600 (was 3200)
 * 2018-12-06:
 * Sandstorm no longer splits damage between enemy units
 * Number of missiles fired is now 12/24/36 (was 12/18/24)
 * 2019-03-13: Health increased to 4330 (was 3600)
 * 2019-06-05:
 * Damage vs. Infantry decreased to 10 (was 15)
 * Can now hover over lakes
 * 2020-03-25: Health decreased to 3623 (was 4300)

When created

 * Ready to kick up the dust
 * Calm before the sandstorm
 * Ready for action

When selected

 * Sandstorm scanning
 * Reporting
 * Rocket pods aligned

When moving

 * Sandstorm in motion
 * Sandstorm mobile
 * Sandstorm drifting

When moving to attack favorably

 * We will vaporize them
 * Lock and load!
 * Sandstorm superiority

When moving to attack neutral

 * Understood
 * Acknowledged
 * Affirmative

When moving to attack unfavorably

 * This is gonna be bad
 * As commanded
 * No happy advantage

When unable to attack target

 * No can do!
 * Impractical, sir
 * Negative

When attacking

 * Taking them down
 * Rockets on track
 * We've got this

When under attack

 * Sandstorm under assault
 * Enemy has the upper hand
 * We're under fire

Trivia

 * Design somewhat similar to the Sandstorm from Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight.
 * Voiced by a female actor.