Cybran T2 Rocket Bot

Cybran T2 Rocket Bot:  Hoplite
Heavily armored rocket bot. Designed to engage and destroy heavily armored units.[ e ]
Build costs	-1000  -200 1000
Max health	650
Speed	3.6 (Land)
Veterancy	6  (+2/s)
Intel (radius)	Vision: 26
Weapon: Iridium Rocket Pack Direct Fire - Projectile
Damage per second	45
Projectile damage	60
Damage radius	2
Salvo size	3 Projectiles (in 0.2 s)
Reload time	4 seconds
Range	37

The Cybran T2 Rocket Bot, nicknamed the Hoplite, is a Cybran unit. It is a direct fire unit.

Though intended to destroy heavily armored units, the Hoplite should not directly engage them but should be placed behind defences or "kited". In respect to the Viper, it is superior in almost every way with the exceptions of health and range. Damage per round is half that of the Viper, though it is made up by a higher ROF, using a salvo of three rounds to the Viper's one (With a 0.5 second slower reload time). It is highly vulnerable to air attack and should be escorted by AA units. Since the Hoplite fires in a high arc, unlike the Rhino, which fires straight ahead, the Hoplite is also helpful in shooting over hills and other raised terrain. Among land direct fire units, its range is exceeded only by T2 point defense (and Ravagers), T3 sniper bots, and Experimentals; it is also outranged by T2 and T3 artillery and ships.  With some good micro, Hoplites are extremely effective against Megaliths. The key is to destroy any escorts for the Megalith, then surround it with Hoplites. The Megalith will have to rotate its cannons to kill all the surrounding Hoplites, wasting time. While you have to surround the Megalith, its proton cannons do extremely good area-of-effect damage, forcing you to send Hoplites in medium sized groups. The Hoplite is wonderful in situations where high initial shot damage (180) is required, such as an approaching Experimental or naval defense. Defensive mobs can easily be transported due to their one-clamp occupation feature.

Interestingly, the Hoplite's weapon is the same as the Cybran's T2 Gunship, the Renegade, except the former has 3 times the damage, 1/4 the rate of fire, and 2/3 the blast radius of the latter.

Physical Description

The Hoplite stands on five legs, two at the front, one at the back, and two parallel to each other on the sides of the bot. The legs are connected to a small chassis with two holding arms on top, which hold a pod of three rocket launchers. As with most cybran units, it has an angular and sharp-edged design.

One unique feature of the Cybran Hoplites is that they only take as much space as a T1 unit on a transport. Therefore up to 6 Hoplites can be placed on a T1 light air transport and 10 on a T2 transport. This is probably its most valuable asset; when considering whether to use Hoplites or Rhinos, whether they will be used with transports should be the a deciding factor. This feature (or bug) does not work in the Forged Alliance campaign (using the 3603 version of the game).

A Hoplite