The cruiser was an Allied heavy warship used during the Second World War.
Background[]
The cruiser is armed with two twin 8-inch guns which fires long-range explosive shells that can devastate bases. The heavy guns and armor came at the price of mobility and active defenses against aircraft and submarines. The cruiser relied on destroyers and gunboats for protection to ward off these threats.
She was replaced by the aircraft carrier during Third World War.
Game unit[]
| “ | Slow moving death. What the Cruiser lacks in speed, it makes up for in firepower and range. Able to lob destruction onto targets incredible distances away, this ship can decimate an enemy base in minutes. A favorite target of Submarines, these ships have no sea-based defenses, relying on the faster moving Destroyer and Gunboat to protect them. - Red Alert manual(src) |
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The firing range of the Cruiser is the longest in the game, being able to reach targets several screens away which gives her considerable coverage on maps (also it is possible to chronoshift a cruiser into firing range of an enemy base). The accuracy of fire decreases the further away the target is, and she will often miss distant targets altogether. This problem can be negated somewhat by ordering the Cruiser to force fire (holding down CTRL) on an area next to or around the target, which often causes stray inaccurate shots to hit the actual target. Although she will not target submarines directly, a cruiser can be directed to force-fire on sea-tiles next to the submarine, and the submarine will take damage from near misses.
The Cruiser's guns are devastating against structures and infantry, each broadside having roughly three times the power of artillery. A couple broadsides will level most of the weaker buildings. They are less effective against tanks and armored vehicles, though a direct hit can still deal fairly heavy damage, Moreover they cannot hit moving targets unless they force-fire in front of where the target is about to move. For this reason the Cruiser is best employed against stationary or slow moving targets.
The Cruiser cannot engage submarines directly (although it can force-fire next to the submarine), so usually they are escorted by Destroyers. The Cruiser however is well protected with heavy armor and can withstand seven torpedo hits from submarines.
The Cruiser has no defense against air units at all, so the typical Soviet counter is a MiG strike, although she does take quite a number of runs to sink one to the bottom. Therefore, ships like Destroyers are needed to escort Cruisers.
The Soviet counterpart to the cruiser is the stealthy Missile Submarine, developed as a means to carry this long range heavy firepower.
Appearances[]
The cruiser is first available in Extract Kosygin but can be built in Takedown.
Behind the scenes[]
The Cruiser is portrayed in the cameo and the cutscenes as one of the Iowa-class battleships with her 1980s modernization. However, the Iowa class is a class of fast battleships that have three triple 16-inch guns, while the in-game unit had only two turrets with two twin 8-inch guns. A closest counterpart to the in-game unit however, would be the Thonburi-class coastal defence ships of the Royal Thai Navy in World War II, which not only had the same twin 8-inch gun turrets configuration, their appearance was also similar to the Cruiser (albeit their bow sections of the weather deck resembles each other’s stern section).
Another possible inspiration for the in-game unit of the Allied Cruiser is the Courageous-class battlecruisers or large light cruisers, completed during World War I to support the landing of troops on the German Baltic Sea coast. The Courageous class was fast but very lightly armored, with a shallow draught to allow them to operate in the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea. Like the Courageous class, the Allied Cruiser unit in Red Alert is meant for shore bombardment instead of ship-to-ship combat. The Courageous class mounted two twin 15-inch guns for their main battery, not too dissimilar from the in-game Cruiser's two twin turret configuration.
Gallery[]
Wireframe
Promotional render
Render
In a shipyard
Cruiser radar
Cameos[]
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Videos[]
See also[]
- Missile submarine, Soviet counterpart
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