Fig 1Courser: anatomy686 hp · 90 dmg/s · range 9.5
Hover the unit to take it apart
TechsStrategic use. The Courser is the army's fast, long-range harasser: a squad of 12 light hover skimmers, 686 hp each, that race about at 1.6 tiles a second and pour a stream of micro-missiles from twin launch tubes into ground or air targets 9.5 tiles (95 m) away: 36 damage every 0.4 s from each skimmer (90 a second, 1,080 for the squad). Many small hits from many bodies make it the cheap all-rounder against air and light infantry: in the launch harness (pure lineups at 400, 800 and 1,600 coin) it downs the Rotor, Mirage and Seraph overhead, beats the Hexguard, Heron and Salvo, and from 800 coin up even grinds down the Dreadnought. Each skimmer is thin, though, so swarms, splash, flame and armour that reach it win: the Skitter, Ridgeback, Cutter, Torch, Aurochs, Anvil, Weaver, Breaker and Landship all beat it. Deploy it on a flank or behind the frontline, where its range lets it shoot first and its speed lets it swing to wherever air or a heavy breaks through; The Veil, one of the four commanders, opens with it beside a Skitter swarm. Techs: AA Targeting (+100% against air) makes it the anti-air specialist; Frag Rounds give every missile a 0.5-tile burst for clearing swarms; Point Defense lets each skimmer shoot down one incoming shell of up to 400 hp within 3.6 tiles every 1 s, shielding the army behind it from artillery; Long Barrels reach 13.5 tiles to out-range other skirmishers; Heavy Plating (+40% hp, 60 less from every hit) lets it hold a line. On the pad the target stands about 3 m off the bow (the true range is 95 m); a missile still takes its true 0.24 s to arrive and the turret turns at its true 210°/s.