Vertigo (Tiberium Wars)

The Vertigo Bomber is a stealth bomber of the Brotherhood used during the Third Tiberium War.

History
The Vertigo is the Brotherhood of Nod's next-generation heavy bomber aircraft built between the Firestorm Crisis and the Third Tiberium War. It utilizes the Lightbender stealth generator to render itself invisible to the unaided eye, and its single heavy bomb can cause massive damage to both structures and vehicles.

Game unit
Vertigos sacrifice speed and a flexible loadout for high firepower and stealth. They are good at evading anti-air until it is too late to counter them: they can withstand moderate amounts of anti-aircraft fire and can negate incoming rockets upon leaving enemy detection range. Their stealth makes them very good at not just harassing poorly defended base structures, but enemy units in the field that don't have much anti-air protection or stealth detection with them.

Vertigo Bombers carry only a single bomb, so once they unload upon a ground target they must fall back and rearm. However, their bombs do a lot of damage and have a large blast radius, allowing them to kill most infantry squads in a single hit (with the exception of cannon-resistant elites, such as Black Hand, Shock Troopers and Zone Troopers), do great damage to heavily armored vehicles and lethal damage to most light vehicles—often killing them outright. Buildings take good amounts of damage, but are mildly resistant to cannon-damage, which means the Vertigo loses to the Firehawk and it's grenade-type bombs in this role.

Vertigos prove difficult to deter using even ground-based AA turrets, unless they are deployed in force. An expensive group of 4 Vertigoes can take out any anti-air turret in a single bombing run and often survive.

An additional feature is the rear-mounted AA turret—though the turret only does light damage, it allows Vertigoes to attack other aircraft without air-to-air capability, such as Orcas and Devastator Warships. A wing of Vertigo bombers can serve as makeshift interceptors if the need arises, though Vertigoes quickly lose to aircraft with air-to-air capability.

Unfortunately, Vertigo Bombers suffer from slow speed (in comparison to other aircraft) and average armor, so if they are intercepted or encounter a decent amount of anti-air fire upon detection they can be quickly brought down. They are also very expensive at 1800 credits per unit, so building a group of them is a large investment. They will most likely have to carry out and survive several bombing runs before they pay themselves off—as such, they would not be something a commander should build in a desperate defensive situation, rather: something to harass and wear down an enemy ground force over a period of time.

Their secondary ability, (which requires research to unlock) is the deployment of Disruption Pods. For a research cost of $500, a Vertigo can drop a Disruption Pod on the field. The pod, upon landing: stealths allied units around it for a short period of time. This can be a useful ability to drop on an attacking force right before an assault as it gives them cloaking ability at a low cost.

Changelog

 * Tiberium Wars patch 1.05:
 * added effects for Vertigo Bomber's rear anti-air turret
 * added ammunition counters to the portrait
 * added ambient reload sound effects
 * Kane's Wrath patch 1.02: area effect radius increased from 30 to 40

When created

 * Vertigo, flight check complete!
 * Vertigo bomber, standing by!

When selected

 * Vertigo bomber!
 * Standing by!
 * Stealth system check!
 * We have a target?
 * Ready for coordinates!
 * Channel open!

When ordered to attack

 * Fixed on new target!
 * Attack run confirmed!
 * Bombing run initiated!
 * Ready the bomb bay door!
 * Target verified!
 * Prepare bombing run!

When moving

 * Adjusting course!
 * Confirmed!
 * Heading to new sector!
 * Getting into position!
 * Got it!
 * Going there now!

When retreating

 * Mission compromised!
 * We need repairs!
 * Aborting bombing run!
 * We're turning back!

When crashing

 * It's over!
 * No no no!
 * Whoops!