AI War:Zenith Bombard

Fires very powerful, very long-range energy bombs, but is expensive and has a very slow reload time. Part of the Zenith Fleet

Base Stats

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Ship Cap	Ammo Type	Armor Type	Immunities	Damage Bonuses
48	Antimatter Bomb	Artillery	Sniper Shots	2 Heavy, 2 Ultra-Heavy, 2 Structural

Mark	Damage	Attack Range	Reload	Health	Armor	Speed	Engine Health	Single Ship DPS	Ship Cap DPS	Ship Cap HP	Abilities
I	910	33,000	30 sec	1,920	1	44	100	30 dmg/sec	1,456 dmg/sec	92,160	Retreat Range 15,000 Armor Piercing 100
II	1,820	33,000	30 sec	3,850	3	44	100	61 dmg/sec	2,912 dmg/sec	184,800	Retreat Range 15,000 Armor Piercing 100
III	2,740	33,000	30 sec	5,750	4	44	100	91 dmg/sec	4,384 dmg/sec	276,000	Retreat Range 15,000 Armor Piercing 100
IV	3,660	33,000	30 sec	7,700	6	44	100	122 dmg/sec	5,856 dmg/sec	369,600	Retreat Range 15,000 Armor Piercing 100
V	4,580	33,000	30 sec	9,600	7	44	100	153 dmg/sec	7,328 dmg/sec	460,800	Retreat Range 15,000 Armor Piercing 100

Mark	Knowledge	Metal Cost	Crystal Cost	Total Cost	Energy Cost	Build Time	Cap Metal Cost	Cap Crystal Cost	Cap Total Cost	Cap Energy Cost	Cap Build Time
I	--	800	8,000	8,800	400	00:01:07	19,200	192,000	211,200	9,600	00:26:48
II	2,500	1,600	16,000	17,600	800	00:02:14	38,400	384,000	422,400	19,200	00:53:36
III	4,000	3,200	32,000	35,200	800	00:04:27	76,800	768,000	844,800	19,200	01:46:48
IV	Adv Fac	3,200	32,000	35,200	800	00:04:27	76,800	768,000	844,800	19,200	01:46:48
V	Core Fab	6,600	66,000	72,600	800	00:09:10	158,400	1,584,000	1,742,400	19,200	03:40:00

How to use in your fleet

Zenith Bombards are the ultimate in long-range fire-support of all the fleet ships and starships in the human arsenal. With each powerful volley, a portion of the opposition will disappear. They are best used as a separate control group steering away from enterprising Bombers and melee-ships while remaining in range of the main battle.

Their corresponding large crystal cost should be factored in both resource management (when building these beasts) and fleet management (keeping them alive). A cap of bombards is about equal in cost to two starships, but worth much more. If necessary, retreat these out of the wormhole while they are recharging. Unless it's safe, never evac the rest of your fleet and leave them lagging far behind for an ill-timed AI-reinforcement to tear apart.

How to counter when in the AI fleet

An AI attack-wave consisting entirely of bombards is a good way to test your resolve. Bombards can be goaded into wasting their one-hit-KO on puny Fighters and not on more expensive ships. One can then charge in and eliminate them before the 30-seconds recharge finishes. Forcefields are also immune to their Antimatter Bombs, so you can use them to make your turrets and/or fleet invincible to bombard fire.

On attack scenarios, the large retreat range of bombards becomes a serious pain. It's best to utilise ships with lots of speed and damage (e.g. Raid Starships, Spire Ion Blasters, Raptors) and beeline every bombard in the system. Etherjets are also potential solutions, able to tractor them and pull them into you fleet until its next shot obliterates the flimsy craft. An alternative solution is to use similarly long-ranged ships and duke it out, or take out their engines so they can't run (Spiders, and sometimes Riot starships if they can avoid the initial pounding).

Users of Botnet Golems should note that bombards are one of the few fleet-ships that are perfectly suited to take it out.

Note that the Bombard can be a particularly irritating unlock in the hands of a Speed Racer AI type. In the early game, the player may have to resort to mercenary EtherJets to keep them from kiting you indefinitely.

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