Take Some Cover! Garrisons in RTS Games-Part One

Many RTS games allow the player to put infantry into buildings on the map to give them some additional protection from enemy fire and occasionally some combat bonuses such as faster firing times or additional range. Some games are more successful at making buildings a useful strategic element than others. This article will take a look through some of the efforts to make neutral buildings into a tactical choice and see which methods are the most effective.

Age of Empires II
Although probably not the first game to allow the player to garrison units, it is the first I played with the option. Every player starts the game with a Town Center, the basic core of your base that produces the workers needed to gather resources and construct other buildings. When an enemy attacks, the player can sound the alarm at the town center and all nearby workers will enter it to take cover. Additionally, they will fire arrows at enemy units in the area.


A garrisoned town center, indicated by the flag on top.

This is a clever way to prevent one problem that irks many players, the rush. Rushing is when one player produces a large number of a basic combat unit and attacks the other player as soon as possible in the game. If the other player has not invested sufficient resources in his own military, they will either lose everything or lose most of their workers and production capabilities, giving the rushing player an easy win. For instance, one all-in strategy for Warcraft II was to build a barracks as close as possible to the other player's base and produce a couple basic infantry units to kill all of their workers in the first few minutes of the game.

With the ability to garrison the town center, it is much more difficult to achieve an all-out victory with a rush in Age of Empires II. While the workers are still quite vulnerable, the town center itself is extremely difficult to destroy without siege weapons or overwhelming numbers, which are impossible to acquire in the early game. An attempt to destroy the town center with militia-the most basic infantry unit of Age of Empires II-will only result in a large number of arrow riddled corpses outside the building.

However, only workers can attack from the town center. All other infantry units can be garrisoned but they cannot attack while inside buildings. This means that if a player chooses to protect his workers in the town center they will not be harvesting resources. This can put a player at a long term resource disadvantage that will eventually lead to a loss.

Red Alert II
Red Alert II added neutral buildings on the map that could be garrisoned by basic infantry units: the GI for the Allies, Conscript for the Soviets, and Initiate for the Yuri faction added in the expansion. This causes the building to be covered in barbed wire and to take the player's color, allowing the opposing player to know that it is garrisoned. When not inside a building, these units are fairly weak and vulnerable. They don't do great damage, die fairly easily, and can be run over by tanks and other heavy vehicles.


Any of these white buildings can be garrisoned.

When placed inside a building they are immune to enemy fire, the only way to kill them is to destroy the building entirely. Additionally, they do additional damage and fire more rapidly. This bolsters these humble units to the point that they can defeat enemy tanks and throw back enemy assaults. The opposing player also does not know how many infantry units are in the building without attacking it. Some buildings can hold ten or more troops inside but whether there is one or ten inside it will look the same to the enemy player. The only way to learn how many troops are actually occupying it is to move a unit within firing range and see how much fire it takes.


A building garrisoned by GIs-note that it is blue to denote that the allied player has troops inside.

A couple fully garrisoned buildings in the right location can make a direct attack impossible without heavy casualties. This can allow a player to build a few cheap infantry units to protect their base while they focus all of their resources on building more advanced units, such as heavy tanks, aircraft, or superweapons. The only reliable ways to attack garrisoned buildings are with air units and long range weapons. These can attack and eventually destroy the building without taking any damage.


Burning building-the external indicator that it has taken damage.

Once destroyed, the building is gone forever and cannot be rebuilt. This means that if a player allows the enemy to destroy the neutral buildings around their base they lose that source of defense forever. Buildings can be repaired back to full health by the engineer unit if they are reached before they are destroyed though.

The Yuri's Revenge expansion also offers one new garrison feature for the Yuri faction-the tank bunker. These allow the tanks of the Yuri faction to be placed inside a thick shell which can absorb a ton of damage and can also be repaired while it is under attack. As the main tanks of Yuri's faction are weaker than their Allied and Soviet counterparts, this can help them stand up to an enemy tank assault.


This may be an excessive use of tank bunkers.

It is interesting to note that Red Alert II has many more infantry units available, including snipers, anti-aircraft troops, and hero units, but only the basic infantry troops can be garrisoned. This may have been a balance choice or a problem of programming different types of units attacking from the buildings.

Command and Conquer Generals
Command and Conquer Generals adds a few new features to the Red Alert II system. All types of infantry units can be garrisoned, not just basic infantry. As every side has access to rocket infantry this greatly improves the ability of buildings to hold off tank assaults.


US rangers making a chopper-borne assault on an enemy garrisoned building.

This is blunted somewhat by a great versatility of counters to infantry in buildings. Each side has access to at least one method that kills garrisoned troops easily. China has access to dragon tanks, which have a flamethrower that will instantly kill all troops in a building. The Global Liberation Army has toxin tractors that shoot out anthrax sprays that have a similar effect. The United States can upgrade their rangers to shoot flashbang grenades, which also instantly kill garrisoned troops they hit. Rangers can also be placed in Chinook helicopters to conduct airborne assaults, as pictured earlier.


Rangers firing flashbangs at an enemy angry mob.

These additions make the choice to garrison buildings a little more difficult for players. Garrisoning makes troops invulnerable to damage from conventional weapons until the building is destroyed but it also adds the risk of being instantly killed by the correct counter weapons. This gives the option a bit more depth than Age of Empires or Red Alert, as it is not always a great idea to place your infantry in nearby buildings. Unless, of course, you want them burnt to death.

Continue to Part Two, which discusses Company of Heroes.