| Unit | Quotes | Gallery | Changelog |
| “ | Falling in style! | ” |
| —An Alanqa pilot causing "turbulences" on hostile aircraft |
The Alanqa Skystation is a bizarre aircraft that serves as the Wings of Coronia's answer to enemy air forces.
Official description
It should not be surprising that what the Wings of Coronia initially aim for is a complete domination of the sky. With advanced techniques of wind manipulation and heavy reliance on powerful flying machines, the soldiers that guard the floating motherbase strive to make the air theirs alone. The first and probably most important step to achieve that is preventing Coronia's enemies from the effective use of their own air force.
The Alanqa Skystation is Coronia's answer to this predicament. With a set of four powerful turbines, this machine has the strongest potential of all Foehn units to shape the air current around itself. This ability allows the Alanqa to quickly ground enemy aircraft with ease. While this powerful weapon can't be used against ground targets, the Alanqa Skystation will alter the winds with a different method to create strong tornadoes under its body.
These devastating twisters will last for a short while, killing or at least heavily damaging ground troops and vehicles in its vicinity. While the Alanqa will not be able to fire its anti-aircraft weapon while it is controlling the twister, the strong change in the current will not leave them unaffected: the tornado will damage the flying objects as well.
Despite its terrifying weapons, the Alanqa is not without its weaknesses. The machine is very fragile due to its advanced and delicate construction and will not be able to withstand too much anti-aircraft fire on its own. Additionally, the wind manipulations it performs both in the sky and on the ground might be a problem for the Alanqa's allies, making it less of a teamwork piece and more of a loner unit.[1]
Overview
An Alanqa Skystation shaping a tornado
The Alanqa Skystation is befitting of the designation as the Guardian of Coronia for its very purpose alone: to act as the ultimate anti-aircraft unit for Coronian forces while symbolizing the faction's doctrine as the masters of aerial warfare. It is without doubt one of the strongest Tier 3 anti-aircraft units in the whole game, capable of taking down any aerial unit in small teams from decent ranges, quickly sending them to the ground with its four Windflow Manipulators with amazing accuracy. Unlike many other dedicated Tier 3 anti-aircraft units, they are also capable of limited anti-surface operations by generating a tornado beneath the aircraft while dealing varying damage to anything below it depending on the target in question.
This strange-looking airborne contraption is the only other flying Tier 3 anti-aircraft unit in service, next to the Wolfhound. Though it lacks the potent anti-surface weapons of Russia's iconic attack helicopter, Alanqas make up for it with immensely powerful anti-aircraft weapons. Their Windflow Manipulators combine the best features of other dedicated anti-aircraft systems; they have the accuracy of the American Aeroblaze and the potent splash damage of the Chinese Sentinel. A single barrage from these weapons that employ the force of the winds is usually enough to down an entire squadron of four Tier 1 fighters, if they are packed tightly together in formation.
Coronia's dedicated Tier 3 anti-aircraft unit can also generate a massive tornado underneath it via the deploy command. Once this ability is activated, any lightly-protected infantry near the air unit will be killed almost immediately as they will be thrown to their deaths, but heavier infantry units, vehicles, and structures will likely survive with above-average damage dealt at best. Do note that the Windflow Manipulator cannot be used while the tornado is active, but the twister itself is still capable of damaging air units should any fly near the Alanqa Skystation while the winds are raging beneath the unit itself.
As they are air units, they can screen Foehn's naval forces. Complemented by the new Whipray unit, small squadrons of Alanqas can easily protect an allied naval force, as their primary weapon will tear through even the heaviest air units and even Dreadnought ballistic missiles in moments.
Contrary to popular belief, Alanqa's anti-air primary weapon CANNOT be used in conjunction with Zorbfloaters' ability to lift tanks. Their ingame warhead stats disallowed them to engage anything other than naturally airborne units. As such, tanks lifted by Zorbfloaters will not be able to be targeted or damaged by Alanqa's primary weapon. This is likely to go along with its' weapon's lore, which works by creating unstable turbulence on flying units.
Alanqas, just like the Pteranodon, are very specialized machines that should only be reserved for anti-aircraft work. They have no means of attacking ground forces with their primary weapon (it cannot be used while the unit is on the move either), and their tornado ability is rather ineffective against anything beyond weaker infantry and lightly-armored vehicles. Even if the tornado is active, chances are it will still fall to units such as Tigr APCs and Gatling Tanks since their armor will not withstand too much damage. Their tornadoes can also cause friendly fire - only other Alanqa Skystations are immune to the artificially-generated storm, thus limiting them to a pure anti-aircraft role if friendly forces are operating in its vicinity. They are also one of the Foehn Revolt's most expensive war machines, coming in at a grand price of $2400.
Assessment
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Trivia
- Alanqa is a genus of pterosaurs that once lived in what was now Morocco during the late Cretaceous era. Its name (العنقاء) refers to a legendary bird, either a phoenix or a simurgh, in Arabic.
