Airship

''"But I was walled iiinnnn...!" - players everywhere''

Airships can transport your ground units.

Description
Airships are used to transport units past terrain or player-made walls. As a rule, they can hold up to 10 supply, but there are exceptions.

Abilities
Load/Unload

Cost: 0 Mana, Cooldown: 0/0.50 Sec, Range: 1/0

Airhips can load friendly ground units into themselves, then transport and unload them at a target point. Units can be loaded at any speed from up to 1 range away (about 3 range from the exact center of the Airship); however, units can only be unloaded once per 0.50 seconds, directly under the Airship.

Airships can also target themselves with the unload command, which unloads all units while the Airship can continue moving.

Airships have 10 cargo slots for loaded units. Different units take different amounts of cargo space (see below).

Upgrades
Airship Telescope Extension

Grants Airships detection so that they can see invisible units.

Mech Armor Upgrade

Increases the armor of your Mechanical units.

(Grants Airships +1 armor per upgrade, up to +5)

Mech Speed Upgrade

Increases the movement speed of your Mechanical units.

(Grants Airships +0.25 speed per upgrade, up to +1.25)

Usage
The first and primay use of Airships is to transport ground units over terrain obstructions. Airships have 10 cargo slots, and different units take different numbers of slots:

This ability allows players to harass enemy bases even when the main entrance is well defended, destroying worker lines or key structures. They can also flank slow-moving armies and generally punish immobility. The Airship is one of the fastest units in the game, making it difficult to pin down and kill, so units it carries usually have a relatively safe escape route waiting. Combining the speed of an Airship with the power of otherwise slow units like Soldiers or Werewolves can be devastating with good micro.

However, Airships are somewhat fragile once the enemy sets up anti-air defenses like Towers, Archers, Ballistas, or Dragons. Airship players must take care only to attack areas that are not covered by these defenses, forcing the enemy to spend more and more money on them. In particular, Airships must be wary of Dragons, which can also fly and have a slight speed advantage.

Airships are also the only mobile detection in the game once they have the Telescope Extension upgrade, making them a vital addition when facing armies with Priest support, which can turn key units invisible.

Development
1.95: Airships are now repairable, have 175hp, and have a max cargo of 10.

1.94: Airships added with 150hp and a max cargo of 8.