Arsonist

Unit

Quotes

Gallery

Changelog

Arsonist
Unit
Faction	Latin Confederation
Role	Infiltration Firestarter
Armament	Makeup kit Napalm charges (against structures)
Tier	3
Tech level	9
Properties
Hit points	140
Armor type	Flak
Speed	6
Sight radius	8
Training
Cost	$1000
Estimated train time	0:23 (base 0:36)
Trained at	Soviet Barracks
Requires	Battle Lab
Combat
Ground	0 (dummy)
Ground modifiers	Fires: 100% vs. Basic/Animal 80% vs. Flak 60% vs. Plate/Cyborg 50% vs. Crazy Ivans 25% vs. ((Very) Big) Defensive Structure 20% vs. Light and Drone 15% vs. (Big) Light Structure 10% vs. Medium/Harvester, Heavy and (Big) Heavy Structure 1% vs. Pyros and Arsonists
Cooldown	240 frames (16 in-game seconds)
Range	1.5
Function
Ability	Can disguise as enemy infantry Has a cooldown of 100 frames (6.7 in-game seconds) Napalm charges take 550 frames (36.7 in-game seconds) to detonate and starts fires which lingers for 500 frames (33.3 in-game seconds) and causes 20-10 damage every frame (0.07 in-game seconds) over a radius of 0.5 The napalm charge will not detonate if the building it is planted to is sold
Notes	Resistant to fire damage Cannot be crushed by normal vehicles Napalm charges can be detected and defused by Engineers Unaffected by firepower buffs/debuffs
Miscellaneous
Artist(s)	Lao-Tze
Voice actor	George "Seòras" Exley

“	Burn, baby, BURN!!	”
	—Arsonist

The Arsonist is an infiltration unit used by the Latin Confederation whose aim is to secretly set enemy bases on fire.

Official description

Somewhere between the wicked Crazy Ivans and the careful Saboteurs are the Arsonists, the Latin Confederation's masters of silent and unexpected building demolition. Capable of wearing a disguise just like the Saboteur or the Allied Spy, the Arsonists can get past enemy defenses and forces which are unable to see through the trickery and set enemy units or buildings on fire. This fire is especially useful for causing havoc in bases which are not protected well enough as it is guaranteed to take down at least a building or two if planted successfully. The Arsonist will not lose his disguise while setting things on fire, however an Engineer might be able to get rid of the napalm charge before it is set off.

Overview

Arsonist sounds like a combination of Crazy Ivan and Saboteur, both capable of disguising and installing destructive weapons on the building, but firestarters instead of explosives. When there are no disguise detectors in the target base, Arsonist can take a long time in the base, put enough firestarters and then quietly leave. Obviously, like all infiltration units (except Clairvoyant) and Scorpion Cell Hijacker, Arsonists need to avoid any of disguise detectors especially Attack Dog when they are in action.

AI behavior

Arsonists controlled by the AI have the following attack patterns:

Medium/Hard

• 1x targeting power plants, production structures or garrisonable structures

Hard

• 1x targeting offensive superweapons (including Fake Psychic Dominator) or Plasmerizer

Appearances

Cooperative

• First batches of Arsonists appear in Mind Over Matter, the Soviet General will send Arsonists to destroy Psychic Beacon.

Act Two

• Arsonists become trainable in Thread of Dread.
• In Meltdown, the Russian forces which integrated Latin Confederation's arsenal are available to train Arsonists, requires Radar Dish.

Assessment

+

Can disguise himself as an enemy infantry unit and secretly set enemy buildings on fire to create havoc in the enemy base. Resistant to fire. Successful arsons are guaranteed to destroy fragile buildings like Power Plants. Fire lasts for awhile, can spread around and damage nearby units. Using transports can help Arsonists travel across difficult obstacles and save time. Unlike Crazy Ivan's bomb Napalm Charges do NOT have any indication or ticking noise for any kind of notification when they were plant and set of, making enemy player to actively searching for the charges with an engineer.

-

Very fragile. Can only target structures. Napalm charges takes time to activate. Napalm charges can be detected and defused by enemy engineers. Dogs, Spooks, Clairvoyants, Duplicants, Robot Tanks, Terror Drones, Fury Drones, Chitzkoi, Stingers, Roadrunners and Soviet Sensor Towers can detect disguised Arsonists. Even without being detected, it can still be crushed by enemy miners or tanks. If detected by the enemy commander, any unit can be ordered to kill the Arsonist. A lot of micromanagement is required to guide him safely into the enemy base. Walls are obstacles for keeping out Arsonists from targeting structures.

Behind the scenes

• The Arsonist replaces the Hijacker which belongs to the Confederation in 3.0.
• The Arsonist's original SHP sprite is a public asset and can be used by other modders. The link can be found here (note: found in Lao Tze's RA2 Units Pack Ver 25 and possibly older); named as Saboteur, and file name is sabo.shp.

See also

• Repulsor
• Hijacker