“ | Who would call something Alpha? - General Alexis |
” |
The Aurora Alpha is a supersonic bomber utilized by the USA General Alexis Alexander as an improvement to the Aurora, carrying a destructive Fuel Air Bomb in Zero Hour.
Background[]
Much like the standard Aurora Bomber, the Aurora Alpha's supersonic speed prevents any enemy anti-aircraft weapons from successfully attacking it on its attack run. However, unlike the regular variant, the Aurora Alpha maintains supersonic speed on its return run, slowing only for turns, a few seconds after it drops its payload, and landing. This trait makes the Alpha much more deadly than the conventional Aurora, as you can safely fly over an AA-heavy area to strike a remote target and still be able to get enough speed to ignore that same area on your return.
Another feature of the Aurora Alpha is that instead of dropping a standard Aurora bomb, it drops a miniature version of the Fuel Air Bomb, which provides the plane much more destructive capabilities, in terms of areas of effect and damage.
Upgrades[]
Countermeasures | Grants the Aurora Alpha a 50% chance of negating missile-based attacks. | Purchasable at any American air field in Zero Hour for $1000 | |
Advanced Training | Doubles the amount of experience that Aurora Alpha receives after a successful kill. | Purchasable at any Strategy Center for $1500 |
Game unit[]
Strategy[]
The primary purpose of the Aurora Alpha is demolition and quick destruction of strategic targets. Because of the bonus secondary Fuel Air Bomb explosion of the Aurora Alpha's bomb, one attack can easily destroy most defenses and small buildings and two Aurora Alpha bombs can destroy most structures. However, the Aurora Alpha is extremely vulnerable as it transitions to its return run and has to be used carefully as it is also quite expensive. In addition to buildings, Aurora Alphas are effective at destroying slow-moving vehicles, such as artillery and Overlord Tanks. Groups of slower-moving vehicles, infantry, and grounded aircraft are especially at the mercy of the aircraft.
Counters[]
Due to its supersonic nature, no anti-air measures are effective against an Aurora Alpha on its bombing run. However, once the Alpha Aurora finishes its bombing run, it becomes vulnerable to all forms of anti-air weapons for a short time as it performs a painfully slow turn and a change into a sluggish speed to return to base. It is important to note that, after around three seconds of straight-line flight, the Alpha almost immediately regains its original supersonic speed and can negate all AA and out-fly all missiles once again as it flies and returns to base, whereas the original does not. They are also extremely expensive to construct and far too costly to be used for one-way missions, thus eliminating these planes and alternatively their supply sources could affect the usage of these planes.
Due to the Fuel Air Bomb explosion, the Aurora Alpha's attacks are able to affect an even larger area, thus requiring other opposing Generals to scatter their individual units to avoid being destroyed in just a single or few strafing runs.
Changelog[]
- Zero Hour patch 1.02: fixed missing particle effects
- Zero Hour patch 1.03:
- added new skin
- secondary attack damage decreased from 1000 to 900
- secondary attack range decreased from 100 to 70
Quotes[]
“ | Fuel Air Aurora - Aurora Alpha |
” |
“ | Fuel Air Bombs arm and ready - Aurora Alpha |
” |
“ | Fuel weapon ready for deployment - Aurora Alpha |
” |
“ | Ready the Fuel Air Bomb! - Aurora Alpha |
” |
“ | Dropping off the Fuel Air Bomb - Aurora Alpha |
” |
“ | The Fuel Air Bomb should be enough - Aurora Alpha |
” |
Trivia[]
- The Aurora Alpha uses the unused model of the Hypersonic Aurora for General Granger as of Zero Hour patch 1.03.
- Unique quotes for the Aurora Alpha (shown above) were never implemented for an unknown reason. However, they can be implemented via INI editing.
See also[]
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