Inferno (Rivals)

"Delivering napalm with a smile"

- Inferno when moving to attack

The Inferno is Nod's anti-ground aircraft in Command & Conquer: Rivals. When its bomb detonates, it creates a large explosion that also affects the adjacent hex to which the Inferno is facing.

Background
The Inferno is a heavy bomber aircraft based on scaled-up Banshee technology. It's equipped with a single, high-yield incendiary bomb capable of annihilating enemy ground units as well as igniting enemy positions for a significant length of time.

Abilities

 * Attacks two tiles in a line, creating fire that damages any ground unit.
 * Moves 45% faster while reloading.
 * Flying.
 * Flying.

Game unit
Inferno is a late game bomber aircraft equipped with area denial napalm bomb. It targets two tiles in a row, making the Inferno great at taking out fortress setups. The bomb blast itself will instantly destroy all light ground units and the flaming ground will force surviving units to move out of the way. Although sluggish moving to attack, it becomes much faster once the bomb is released, allowing it to quickly move out of harms way while it is reloading.

The napalm bomb and the fire patch it leaves behind deals splash damage that is especially devastating to squad units. Structures are also vulnerable, since they can't move out of the fire.

Inferno is prone to baiting. If a War dog runs between loaded Inferno and a friendly ground unit, the Inferno will bomb both. A well executed baiting can poison critical tiles denying friendly ground units safe passage. These problems can be mitigated by switching entirely to air units.

Although it dominates the ground, Inferno is vulnerable airborne attacks. A solid companion is the Phantom, which does not suffer from the ground fire that the Inferno leaves behind its attacks.

Another weakness of the Inferno is a spam of cheap ground units. A pack of Pitbulls assisted by Missile squads can overwhelm an Inferno while it is reloading. This attack can be mitigated by deploying even more Infernos.

Decks
Replacing Wheels with Buggy gives the Victor Bansemer variant.

Changelog

 * 2018-06-20:
 * Reload time increased to 12 seconds (was 10)
 * Cost Increased to 120 (was 100)
 * 2018-11-28: Unloaded speed boost reduced to 45% (was 50%)
 * 2019-02-06:
 * Health increased to 1570 (was 1500)
 * Damage to Vehicles increased to 2040 (was 2000)
 * 2019-03-13: Cost increased to 110 (was 100)
 * 2019-06-05: Cost decreased to 100 (was 110)
 * 2019-06-27: Health increased to 1715 (was 1570)

When created

 * Inferno, ready to burn!
 * Inferno ready for a bombing run!

When selected

 * Gonna heat things up
 * Inferno bomber reporting
 * Napalm tanks are full

When moving

 * Moving napalm
 * Inferno in motion
 * Inferno thrusters active

When moving to attack

 * Delivering napalm with a smile
 * Burn them all!
 * Up in flames!
 * Flame on!

When unable to attack target

 * A waste of napalm
 * Doesn't burn

When attacking

 * Burn it to the ground!
 * Their end is near!

When under attack

 * It's hot over here!
 * Inferno under fire!

When crashing

 * Too hot!
 * [Screams]

Trivia

 * The pilot seems to thoroughly enjoy her work.