Slingshot

"Slingshot ready!"

- Slingshot

The Slingshot is a GDI anti-air vehicle available only in ''Kane's Wrath.

Background
With GDI's shuttering of its costly, failure prone HoverTech initiative in the aftermath of the Second Tiberium War, the GDI Slingshot was something of an anomaly, the last bastion of this once dominant GDI program, finally out of testing after a decade-long development phase. While this exclusively anti-air vehicle is less vulnerable to ion storm interference than its predecessors, the Slingshot remains a relatively fragile unit - trading armor and additional weaponry for high speed, maneuverability and a powerful quad cannon that can quickly bring down even the most powerful aerial opponent crashing to the ground.

Game unit
Slingshots are nearly useless for dealing with ground units because they cannot fire at anything on the ground. Aside of that, they serve adequately as AA units: Functioning a lot like AA Batteries except being highly mobile. A principal advantage held by the Slingshot is that it is the only mobile AA unit that instantly starts doing damage to whatever it is firing at; there is no actual time before its rounds start damaging its target. Therefore it is better at dealing with hit and run attacks than other mobile AA units since its more likely to shoot down enemy craft before they can actually fire at it. It also does damage at a constant rate, not in bursts like most other units, allowing it to continue to damage enemy aircraft as efficiently as possible as long as they stay within its range.

High speed allows the Slingshot to get where it is needed quickly and efficiently, and its armor is also fairly respectable. Slingshots are GDI's best defense against units like the Nod Venom which excels at harassment, and are equally useful for dealing with the powerful and well-armored aircraft deployed by the Scrin. Their high speed allows them to be micro-managed against Devastator Warships relatively effectively, as they are fast enough to dodge or at least partially dodge volleys being fired at them from one.

While the Slingshot is incredibly powerful when dealing with aircraft, Vertigo bombers and Devastator warships have enough firepower to destroy Slingshots easily if they get in some of the first hits. Slingshots were unable to detect stealth units.

Interestingly, even designed only for anti-air purposes, a Slingshot can actually eliminate large amount of enemy infantries by simply running them down, thanks to its speed and maneuverability. Such a tactic is utilized by many GDI commanders, especially when battling Nod opponents.

Changelog

 * Kane's Wrath patch 1.01: Slingshots no longer force-fire on the ground when group-selected with ground units
 * Kane's Wrath patch 1.02: GDI Slingshot and Shatterer icons swapped at the Reclamator hub to mirror the war factory

When created

 * Ready to roll!
 * Awaiting orders!
 * Slingshot ready!

When selected

 * Hovering!
 * Ready to hunt!
 * Systems ready!
 * Watch the horizon!
 * Slingshot!
 * Eyes on the sky!

When moving

 * Already there!
 * Hovertech engaged!
 * Move it or lose it!
 * I'll check it out!
 * We'll scout it out!
 * Coordinates acquired!

When ordered to attack

 * Tracking them down!
 * Coordinates acquired!
 * Moving to ORD position!
 * Attack trajectory confirmed!
 * I got it!

When attacking

 * Blow 'em outta the sky!
 * Perferating airframes!
 * Firing!
 * Target locked!
 * We'll shoot it down!
 * Won't be flying for long!
 * Take him out!
 * Okay, bye-bye!
 * See you next Tuesday!

In combat

 * Enemies inbound!
 * Taking damage!
 * Under fire!
 * Can't take this much longer!

When retreating

 * Let's glide out of here fast!
 * Pull out!
 * They're right on top of us!
 * We're outta here!

Trivia

 * This unit is known as Торнадо (Tornado) in the Russian localization of Kane's Wrath.