Slave miner

The Slave Miner is a Yuri resource gatherer equivalent to a mobile ore refinery in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge.

Background
Instead of using machines to collect ore; Yuri relied on human slaves equipped with shovels. Each Slave Miner carried five slaves to the nearest ore field where they started collecting ore and bringing it back to the miner where it was refined right away and turned into cash to supply the Commander's war efforts. When a Slave Miner was destroyed by an enemy, the slaves desert and fight for whoever ended their oppression. However, as they were equipped with nothing but shovels, they were mere cannon fodder. Killed slaves can be replaced with no visible cost, but Slave Miners had limited living space inside, allowing only five slaves per miner to be carried.

Despite its name; the Slave Miner is actually a mobile ore refinery. It was equipped with heavy armor to repel enemy attacks against it as well as a machine gun to fight off infantry. It is one of the few vehicles that the Battle Fortress can not run over.

Because of its dual nature, it is buildable by both the Construction Yard and the War Factory, allowing for rapid deployment of replacement Miners should any be destroyed. It requires no external power to operate.

The Slave Miner was erased from the timeline after the Soviets meddled with the space time continuum,

Game unit
The Slave Miner is unique in that it is a vehicle and a structure (but not both at the same time) meaning that it can be built from both the construction yard (where it is deployed as a building) and the war factory.

In each form it has all the attributes, advantages and vulnerabilities of that form. E.g. A deployed Slave Miner cannot be Chronoshifted but can be blown up with like other structures. Undeployed, they can be chronoshifted just like all other ground vehicles (including onto water where it will instantly sink). There is one more issue with the Slave Miner: should the miner vehicle have to cross to move to a far away location but the slaves are left behind the mining operation couldn't be started. If this happen the slaves must be "decommissioned" by killing or mutation into Brutes.

Slave Miners cannot be manually repaired unlike most structures. To repair a miner an Engineer must be sent to the miner or capture a machine shop where it can gradually repair while undeployed.

The AI usually defends a Slave Miner with two Lasher tanks, a Gattling tank, and a Yuri clone.

Usage
For attacking, it is a good idea to send Slave Miners on an enemy base and apply Iron Curtain (if a Soviet construction yard is captured) so it will become invulnerable, and to longer distract defenses from other units. However, don't use too many, as they are extremely weak offensive units and will be destroyed before they do too much damage to your enemy, even given their prodigious hitpoints.

When deployed, it is the only unit that has a lot of hitpoints, making it a very good for absorbing damage while your defenses attack.

Counters
The only real vulnerability it suffered is that because it is usually outside of the effect area of the Psychic Radar and it is a refinery it had no way of detecting Allied Spies who could infiltrate it to steal half of the base's funds. Thus it required a Yuri Clone or Mastermind escort to defend against this tactic. A sniper or two nearby can also kill all the slaves, thus negating resource collection.

In addition, a SEAL in an IFV could terminate the slaves with little problem. 's s could also melt countless slaves with little difficulty. Any lost slaves will automatically be replaced by the miner without cost but this takes time during which resource collection is hampered. To counter a tank rush, a Yuri commander may turn his Genetic Mutator on a group of slaves to instantly obtain a force of Brutes. This can also become a lucrative source of funds as Brutes can be sent to a nearby Grinder for "reprocessing". Slaves assigned to a Slave miner are forced to follow its warden's will and thus will not receive direct command (except when liberated by destroying the Slave Miner).

One problem with the Slave Miner that sometimes occurred was in areas with heavy radiation; these locations would prove instantly fatal to the fragile slaves, who would perish and liquefy almost instantaneously after departing their parent miner. Because of this, Slave Miners were the only ore collectors of Third World War to be completely useless in irradiated areas.

Changelog

 * Yuri's Revenge patch 1.001:
 * cost increased from $1500 to $1750
 * construction now faster from the war factory.
 * if a Slave Miner is dropped into water, the freed slaves will join the player that freed them instead of turning neutral.

When selected

 * Yuri mining facility reporting.
 * Foreman here.
 * Let's put these maggots to work.
 * We get real dirty out here!
 * Ore processors working.
 * My slaves are ready!
 * We've got a lot of work to do.

When moving

 * Slaves are cheap, hahaha!
 * Moving mining operation.
 * Mining ain't for sissies!
 * Let's get to the cash!
 * Is my shift over yet?
 * This is man's job.

When ordered to harvest

 * Dig, dig!
 * Move those shovels!
 * Faster, little slaves!
 * We need more!
 * Let's get to work!

When ordered to attack

 * This ore belongs to Yuri!
 * Go away, thieves!
 * Get rid of these pests!
 * Defend the ore!

Trivia

 * The Slave Miner uses the same gun as the Soviet war miner.
 * If the Slave Miner is sent into a grinder while the slaves are outside, the slaves are made neutral (white in color) and will automatically attack anything nearby.

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