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First to the fight.
- Vanguard

The Vanguard is an USA infantry unit added in 1.85, who have several advanced tricks up his sleeve.

Lore[]

Armed with a fully automatic AA12 assault shotgun, these rugged Marine CQB specialists form the spearhead of any American infantry operation, making short work of enemy foot soldiers at close range. The military role of the Vanguards is brutal, up-close and archaic, but at the same time surprisingly intricate due to the contents of their large backpacks: These contain a number of autonomous weapon systems that can be deployed by the Vanguard and perform a variety of combat tasks without any additional human input: A mini scout drone that can spot stealthed units, an Attack UCAV that follows its human master to provide additional fire support with its rocket launchers, and a lightweight aircraft that is propelled into the air by a simple throw in order to launch itself into garrisoned structures with a powerful explosive payload.

With the success of the Cypher support drone, a even more lightweight drone was commissioned for infantry fire support. The AQ-51 Dragonfly is an ultra-light weight combat UAV capable of being deployed in the field at the squad level. Using a tri-rotor design, the inexpensive Dragonfly is armed with two Pike 40mm laser-guided rockets. Due to the low cost and light weight of the munitions, the AQ-51 can be easily restocked in the field by allied troops.

The latest in area denial weaponry, the M20 "Rolling Ricky" is an infantry deployable smart mine used by the United States Armed Forces, designed to supplement the M15 and M19 anti-tank mines and M2 SLAM. Despite its disposable nature, the mine drone is capable of quickly distinguishing between enemy and allied vehicles and can roll towards a target to disable or destroy it via detonation of the 10 kg of IMX-101 based shaped charge high explosive within the mine's shell. Should the enemy evade its sight, the mine drone will replant itself and wait for another hostile to enter its detection range, as long as its battery still holds charge.

Abilities[]

Ability Description
Throw bomb drone icon
Throw Bomb Drone
Throw a kamikaze bomb drone to clear an enemy garrisoned structure from a distance of 50 to 275. 30 seconds cooldown.
Deploy attack drone 187 icon
Deploy Attack Drone
Deploy an AQ-51 Dragonfly attack drone that cannot be controlled and attacked to follow the Vanguard and attack enemies in a radius of 130 once every second with rockets that causes 15 INFANTRY_MISSILE damage over a radius of 5; the attack drone will self-destruct after 18 seconds. 30 seconds cooldown (shared with Deploy Mine Drone).
Deploy mine drone icon
Deploy Mine Drone
Deploy an M20 "Rolling Ricky" mine drone at the Vanguard's location with the process taking 4 seconds to complete. The mine drone will roll itself on an enemy vehicle that moves within a radius of 75 around it, causing 150 to 20 EXPLOSION damage over a radius of 5 to 20, and can damage units that are immune to mines. If the target is destroyed before the mine drone hits it, the mine drone will return to its original position. 30 seconds cooldown (shared with Deploy Attack Drone).
Call drone airlifter icon
Call in a Drone Airlifter
Call in a Drone Airlifter on the Vanguard.
Requires Supply Center and Air Mobility.

Behind the scenes[]

  • Originally the Vanguard were supposed to use the "Roach" UCAV (which eventually becomes the current Attack Drone), a Sentry Drone, and the current kamikaze Bomb Drone.
    • The Sentry Drone would be deployed on the Vanguard's location to engage ground targets and act as a distraction but has limited duration and can be destroyed with a few shots. However, this was scrapped due game balancing and technical issues.
  • Prior to 1.87 the Vanguard has the Deploy Scout Drone ability, which deploys a controllable scout drone that detects stealthed enemies and self-destructs after a while; it was replaced by Deploy Mine Drone in 1.87. The Attack Drone also has a different model.
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