Orca Fighter

Orca Fighter
orca.jpg
Faction	GDI
Function	Vehicle
Health	400
Armor Type	Light
Armaments	.50 Cal Machine Gun Hellfire Missiles
Seats	2
Cost	$900

The Orca Fighter is a light, flying Vehicle of the Global Defense Initiative and it is a direct counterpart of the Nod's Apache Helicopter.

Appearance

The Orca Fighter is equipped with 2 jet engines attached to the sides and stabilizers and a fan on its back. The 2 missile launchers and the machine gun are on the front of the Orca.

Armaments

Orca is equipped with two weapons.
First are four Hellfire Missile Launchers, which take 1.8 seconds to launch all missiles, and 7.5 seconds to restock them. A single rocket deals 4.4 points damage to attacked building.
Second is .50 Cal Machine Gun. It has magazine capacity for 100 rounds, which can be emptied in 5.5 seconds, then taking 3 seconds to reload. Full magazine emptied on enemy building will damage it by 9.3 points.

Function

The Orca is one of the basic GDI units on flying maps. It is very fast, universal and capable of dealing a lot of damage (especially in a group).

Strategy

Usage

Orcas work good against all kinds of infantry and vehicles. Their speed, long reload time and low health make it best to use the hit-and-run tactic. Thanks to its mobility and ability to fly high and keep eyes on a big part of the map, Orcas are great as scouting units and at controlling large areas of the field. They are a good counter against sneaking Technicians.

Orcas are of fragile nature; one should be careful not to fly too far into the enemy lines, especially on open maps. If the enemy fired locked-on rockets at you, you will hear an alert sound. It is possible to evade those rockets if you fly behind some cover or if you fly fast (holding shift) in one direction.

Generally, the machine gun works best against flak armored infantry, while missiles are made for dealing with vehicles and buildings, but actually both weapons can as well be used against all targets. Ramming infantry is a good idea, because it is hard to run from the very fast Orca. When fighting enemy vehicles - especially Apaches - it is best to wait until the rockets are locked on the target.

The Orca Rush, along with the Medium Tank Rush, are the two most deadly tactics in the game for GDI. An Orca Rush can reach the target quickly and deal a huge amount of damage to a building in a short period of time using the rockets. Even ~6 Orcas are enough to destroy a building in 2 bursts of rockets. They are also able to cover an Ion Cannon Beacon on a roof a building effectively.

Orcas can also be used to drop infantry (especially sneaky Hotwires) in the enemy base, a common tactic for example on Walls.

Counters

There is plenty of counters against Orcas. Because of their light armor, all automatic rifles and cannons (like the ones of a Buggy, APC or an Laser Chaingunner - or even a regular Soldier) deal considerable damage to Orcas. All units with locking-on rockets (Stealth Tanks, Apaches, Rocket Soldiers) work good, too. Raveshaws and Sakuras can be very annoying and troublesome for Orcas as well.

It is best to mass the units mentioned above when defending against an Orca Rush.