Order of the Talon
From RA:3 Paradox Mod Wiki
| Order of the Talon (Militant Wing) | |
| |
| The Order of the Talon's Coat of Arms. | |
| Faction Color | Black |
| Playstyle | Quality over Quantity |
| Type | Paradox Faction |
| Dev. Status | Conceptualized |
The Order of the Talon, or the Talon, for short, is a new faction exclusive to Red Alert 3 Paradox designed by Open Sketchbook, Ferriswheel42 and Kerensky287. The Talon is a faction that is much less flexible than the others, though it makes up for it with very high-priced, powerful units equipped with specialty weaponry such as flamethrowers. Their arsenal is nearly 50 years old, but constructed from designs so intricate and complex that they are in almost pristine condition. Another feature of the faction is mobility; rather than the traditional base-building system, the Talon use a single mobile structure called a Crusader Crawler to build and maintain their entire army.
Contents |
[edit] Background
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[edit] Origins
The Order of the Talon was formed in the early 11th Century by Pope Urban II himself. The original goal of the Order was to silence a cult in Anatolia, though after some minor encounters, a full-out battle erupted and Byzantine Emperor Alexius I was forced to send out a call for help. Their answer was the First Crusade, a war that was made to cover up the Talon's first failure. Ignoring their orders from the Pope to return to Rome, they continued their hunt for the elusive cult, a hunt that would last for nearly 800 years.
At first, the search was fueled by a desire to regain their position within the high ranks of the Holy Roman military, though over time they became obsessed with their foe, sometimes killing ruthlessly in order to gain the slightest of hints. For hundreds of years they chased their quarry down across the entire world, frequently engaging in battles against them, always one step behind their elusive leader. After Napoleon ransacked their headquarters in Spain and disconnected all their ties to the Pope, their Order became an exclusive, independent group, though as more and more of them were sent to their graves, they were forced into the practice of abducting skilled military candidates from other armies to form their officer corps.
[edit] The Great War
In 1914, they were the closest they ever came to meeting their foe. With many of their members having infiltrated the Austrian National Guard, they set up a meeting with a cult member wishing to defect. While the Talon interrogators began the questioning, a shot sounded through the streets of Sarajevo, and started the First World War. The Order had failed to see that the whole situation was a carefully orchestrated trap. The world descended into a nightmare war, and the cult was at the center of it, many of their members the officers that ordered the war forward on both sides. The Order was convinced the cult was using the war as a cover for something else, and throughout the war they captured thousands of officers from both sides, men with cult connections, attempting desperately to discover their enemy's plans while becoming more and more involved in the war itself. But in the end, the Talon had failed, and never discovered the purpose of the war.
Reeling from the shock of a second failure, the Order retreated to Palestine where they set up a new headquarters. Shortly before his death, the Order's then-leader had a vision of a woman who would end the conflict with the mysterious cult once and for all. Her name was Lady Maria.
[edit] The Present
Since the 1920's, the Talon have changed very little, still operating with the same equipment from WWI. Though at first glance they appear to be powerful, with flaming battle tanks and connections to many major military organizations, they are only barely struggling to survive on limited resources, and constant firefights with a local group calling themselves the Global Liberation Army. Their method of inducting new members is failing, as the nations they recruit from have drifted towards atheism and godless science. Even in some of their more remote outposts, the Mediterranean Syndicate (whom the Talon despise) and their shadowy leader keep a close watch over the Order, making sure their threat to the corporation is minimized.
However, in 1948, a young girl was born into the Order who would forever change the future of the Talon, and the future of the world. As she reaches closer to her maturity, the Order of the Talon prepare their battle tanks, rekindling the ancient flames their ancestors used to overthrow the evil that plagued the Earth. Soon, the Talon will be back on the hunt.
[edit] The List
[edit] Structures
 | Crusader Crawler | The basis for the Talon’s field armies, the Crusader Crawler is a massive MCV like structure that, when deployed and properly upgraded, is capable of producing any unit or defensive structure in the Talon arsenal. Basically, it’s a rolling base. When packed up, it has similar capabilities to the MCV, but can be upgraded with improved defensive and offensive power. |
|---|---|---|
| Metalworks | Collects Ore. Packs Up.
Prerequisite: Hawk Tower |
| Mobile Airpad | Gives a landing pad for an air unit.
Prerequisite: Aerodrome |
| Ambiaric Cannon | Stuns enemy units for a long period of time in a large radius Packs Up (Resets Timer)
Prerequisite: Monastery |
| Firestorm Generator | Fires a beam of ions from the heavens (actually a hijacked Athena cannon) which can be guided like a magnetic satellite. Faster charge time than any Superweapon. Resets if the Crawler packs up.
Prerequisite: Reliquary |
[edit] Crawler Upgrades
| Hawk Tower | Allows production of Scouting Hawks. |
|---|---|---|
| Training Quarters | Allows Production of infantry.
Prerequisite: Hawk Tower |
| Monastery | Upgrades to Tier Two
Prerequisite: Training Quarters |
| Smith | Allows construction of Ground Vehicles.
Prerequisite: Refinery |
| Shipwright | Allows construction of Sea Vehicles.
Prerequisite: Refinery |
| Workshop | Releases repair drones. These drones heal the Crawler and any nearby vehicles.
Prerequisite: Refinery |
| Aerodrome | Allows construction of air units.
Prerequisite: Monastery, Refinery |
| Reliquary | Upgrades to Tier Three
Prerequisite: Monastery |
| Crawler Upgrade 1 | Improves the health and speed of the Crawler. Arms the Crawler with defensive Bolt Throwers and Rocket Turrets. Crawler increases in size, and is now able to crush other large vehicles such as Apocalypse tanks as well as small defensive structures.
Prerequisite: Monastery |
| Crawler Upgrade 2 | Maximizes the health and speed of the Crawler. Arms the Crawler with Cannons and an Altar of Light. Crawler increases in size, and is now able to crush larger defensive structures and small buildings like Confederate Airpads.
Prerequisite: Reliquary |
[edit] Defenses
| Flamer Turret | Shorter range, devastating against Infantry. Packs Up
Prerequisite: Training Quarters |
|---|---|---|
| Rocket Turret | Mid-range anti-air, throws dozens of solid-tip rockets into the air, which basically causes splash damage. Packs Up
Prerequisite: Refinery |
| Cannon Turret | Mid-Range, does splash against tanks due to molten lead filling. Packs Up
Prerequisite: Refinery |
| Firestorm Wall | Easily Crushed Wall, that damages when you attempt a crush. Planes flying overhead are damaged by flame
Prerequisite: Monastery |
| Altar of Light | High powered defense. Slow charge time, hits with massive force. Instantly kills any infantry. Packs Up
Prerequisite: Reliquary |
| Penance Tower | Brainwashes enemy units with hypnosis and propaganda, temporarily converting them to your side. Effects in a radius after activation by enemy unit; long charge time. Packs Up
Prerequisite: Reliquary |
[edit] Infantry Units
| Hawk | Flying scout unit, the Hawk is capable of attacking small enemy flying units like the Fury or Burst Drone. It is also capable of sighting for large artillery units. With it’s secondary, it can pick off enemy engineer units.
Prerequisite: Hawk Tower |
|---|---|---|
| Footman | Armoured with modern composites and armed with a high-powered, thermally enhanced pneumatic crossbow, the Footman is shorter ranged than more of his contemporaries but is very well armoured. They can deploy a higher-powered anti-aircraft weapon.
Prerequisite: Training Quarters |
| Fanatic | Motivated by an unshakable faith in the cause, the Fanatics arm themselves with superheated broadswords, explosive packs and grappling harnesses and go hunting enemy vehicles. On death they detonate their anti-vehicle explosive payload. Their swords can damage enemy vehicles as well as being lethal to unprepared infantry. By latching onto an enemy vehicle with the grappling harnesses, they can close more quickly and attack more rapidly.
Prerequisite: Training Quarters |
| Sapper | Explosive experts who carry massive quantities of explosives, Sappers will place timed explosives on any unit or structure. These explosives have a large splash radius and great anti-infantry damage. In desperation they can throw themselves into enemy units, detonating their explosives in a massive explosion that will kill large numbers of enemy infantry and can heavily damage vehicles.
Prerequisite: Training Quarters |
| Craftsman | The Talon engineer, Craftsmen are unique in that they can repair defenses, the Crawler and other structures by contact instead of having to enter the structure. They can throw garrison-clearing firebombs.
Prerequisite: Training Quarters |
| Cleanser | Armed with a long-range flame projector, the Cleanser is hideously effective against enemy infantry and will clean garrisons quite quickly. It does an extremely small amount of damage against vehicles, however. In order to increase their effectiveness, they can empty their fuel tank in a single huge burst of flame, which will kill large number of enemy units but leave the Cleanser reloading for several seconds.
Prerequisite: Monastery |
| Rogue | A sneaky and quick sniper, the Rogue is, like all snipers, invisible when not moving. The composite longbow he uses allows the Rogue to snipe enemy units indirectly, such as behind buildings or walls, and he lays down spotting flares for artillery. The Rogue also functions as the Talon infiltrator.
Prerequisite: Monastery |
| Templar | Armed with a heavy thermobaric cannon, which fills the air with combustible vapour before igniting and detonating it to devastating effect, the Templar is wonderful against buildings and vehicles, and kills infantry fairly effectively as well. The Templar requires a short charge time between shots. With the secondary they can make a rocket-assisted jump across the battlefield, damaging units around them as they take off. They are difficult to crush.
Prerequisite: Reliquary |
| Lady Maria | Her birth prophesied by the former leader of the Talon, Lady Maria is said to be an incarnation of the patron saint of the Talon, Joan of Arc. Armed with a blade passed down from the earliest days of the Order and clad in the most advanced plate armour in the world, Lady Maria is nearly immune to damage and cannot be crushed by any vehicle. She is capable of granting herself temporary invincibility and health regeneration.
Prerequisite: Reliquary |
[edit] Ground Vehicles
| Inquisitor Trike | These heavy scout vehicles use a pair of flamethrowers to wipe out infantry opposition and clear garrisons with ease, while its heavy armour plate will keep it rolling no matter what happens. Unfortunately it is a great deal slower than most scouts, though faster than other Talon vehicles. In order to speed up, they can give themselves a temporary boost with a reverse blast of the flamethrowers. |
|---|---|---|
| Dragoon Scout Armour | Eight-foot tall, stubby legged clockwork walker with a grenade launcher and a water-cooled machine-gun, Dragoon walkers provide lighter, cheaper scouting alternates to Inquisitors. A machine with no subtly or grace, Dragoons pour inaccurate, but thick fire from their machine guns to suppress enemy infantry while the grenade launchers stave off light vehicles. |
| Hussar Light Track | Considered a sort of training vehicle in the Order, the Hussars are commanded by newly-minted officers of the Order and are giving a charge to prove themselves on the field. Their slow-firing pneumatic crossbow cuts down infantry with ease and can damage light vehicles, while it’s armour allows it to survive blows that would cripple battle tanks. A supporting tube launcher sprays molten lead over the armour of enemy vehicles at close range, reducing the effectiveness of heavy armour against the bolt thrower. |
| Charger Assault Transport | Used to carry soldiers into the heart of an enemy encampment, the Charger’s evacuation system smashes it’s battering-ram like prow forward, clearing the immediate area and allowing safe disembarking of troops. |
| Cleric Track | The main battle tanks of the Order, the Cleric’s extreme armour protection allows it to withstand dozens of blows, giving it’s underpowered 6 pound gun a better chance of taking out enemy vehicles. The sealing field locks the armour of nearby vehicles down, improving their robustness and patching holes in the armour. |
| Wrath Mortar Track | A light armoured frame mounting a phosphorous mortar, the Mortar Track provides light, fast moving AoE artillery blasts with great effect against buildings, light vehicles, and infantry. Though shorter ranged than most artillery, it can use the target flares of the Rogue to fire at extreme ranges. |
| Ribault Air Defense Walker | Slow and heavy-set, the Ribault can absorb ground-based damage like a sponge while unloading dozens of rockets against air targets. When these rockets are expended, the Ribault has a very long reload time, so it has a targeted anti-air harpoon that can instantly kill any targeted fix-wing aircraft. |
| Sanctuary Clockwork Cart | This cart houses craftsmen who automatically deploy a number of clockwork repair drones, much the same as the standard repair drones of their workshops. The cart can operate in a defensive mode and repair nearby vehicles, or an offensive mode, where drones will attack enemy units in the cart's radius instead of healing nearby units. In this mode, the drones will latch on to enemy units and slowly bring down their health, as long as they remain in the sizable radius of the cart. The drones are too small and nimble to be targeted directly, but should the cart be destroyed, the springs in the drones will soon wind down, rendering them useless. |
| Consecrator Track | With a massive tank of crude oil and a spray nozzle, the Consecrator sprays oil onto enemy targets, lowering their defenses against flame-based weapons. Firing into water allows the Consecrator to kill infantry in the water, force subs to surface, and slow enemy ships. By reversing the nozzle, it can lay down a trail of burning fuel that damages enemies chasing it, or create a wall of burning fuel. |
| Calliope Steam Artillery | A massive walker with three huge “pressure cannons” that use a buildup of steam to launch a sequence of shells, the Calliope unleashes several dozen shells in a single barrage, but must then reload over a fairly long period of time. Incapable of attacking directly, the Calliope must have a Rogue spotting for it. You can never have more than six of these vehicles. |
| Lucifer Track | A massive tank with heavily reinforced frontal armour, the Lucifer is armed with a frontal thermobaric cannon and sponson flamethrowers. When threatened, the Lucifer can, by counter-rotating its tracks and filling the air with fuel particles, create a massive inferno around it that no unit, friend or foe, can hope to survive. Though it is nearly hopeless to attack the track from the front, it has a fuel trailer that is highly vulnerable to enemy fire and must be protected. You are restricted to three of these machines. |
| Cataphract Land Ironclad | An armoured battle station on four legs, itself nearly as large as a Crusader Crawler, the Cataphract bristles with dozens of potent weapons, is large enough to crush almost any enemy vehicle, and can take a vicious beating before falling. In addition to it's regular weapons, it is a mobile, automated factory capable of producing Automatons. You can never have more than one Cataphract.
Sub-Unit - Automaton - Delicately crafted clockwork war machines in the shapes of men, Automatons are difficult to damage, and use their gatling guns to great effect. Their spring core will run down eventually, limiting their combat lifetime, but one deactivated they can be collected by a Talon Harvester for a portion of the resources used to create them. |
[edit] Aircraft
| Archangel Interceptor | An aging armoured biplane, the Archangel is slow but tough, and capable of surprising agility thanks to it's ramjet propulsion. It's quadruple machine-guns tear into enemy vehicles, but it has trouble intercepting modern-day attack craft, which often outrun it. When it needs to return to base, it scatters a massive pattern of flares as it retreats, which blind and disorient unprepared enemy pilots. |
|---|---|---|
| Corkscrew Attack Helicopter | Suspended under a massive corkscrew that generates lift, this da Vinci inspired design is capable of unparalleled lift which it uses to carry two huge fuel tanks. From it's nozzle it unleashes long tongues of flame that burn and suppress those under it. Thanks to it's massive fuel consumption it must return to a Mobile Airpad to reload, dropping it's empty tanks to reduce weight on the return trip. The vapours left in the tank detonate when it hits the ground, deterring anti-air pursuit. |
| Halo Automated Device | A machine with a Babbage difference engine at it's core, it bears a strange resemblance to a halo, an effect reinforced by the presence of a powerful searchlight. Buzzing around Talon units, it uses the searchlight to illuminate the path ahead, while irritating and blinding enemies. |
| Jonah Tiltscrew Gunship | With a near-endless rack of rockets, the Jonah is a flexible combat platform capable of tangling with enemy helicopters or ground targets. |
| Pilate Gyrodyne | Popularly known as “the Condemner” because of it's combat role and name, the Pilate is armed with three auto-howitzers that allow the machine to bombard enemy positions with phosphorous shells that also act as markers for artillery bombardment. Tough and surprisingly fast, the Gyrodyne can quickly burn through it's reserve of shells during extended action. |
| Lazarus Air Dreadnought | A very large, hydrogen filled hybrid airship with an extensive superstructure, the Lazarus resembles nothing less than a flying warship with a bulbous underside, and engages both ground and air targets with a vast variety of weapons. By expelling burning fuel from it's underside, it can engulf targets under it in flames. In the case of a hull breach, the Lazarus will slowly drop to the ground (or the sea) and make a crash landing, where it becomes a large stationary fortress. True to it's name, the Lazarus can “rise” by re inflating it's gas cells over time, so you must be sure to destroy it completely when it is grounded or it will be back. |
[edit] Watercraft
| Zealot Torpedo Boat | Armed with a large explosive on the end of a spar, the Zealot runs the torpedo into enemy targets. The Zealot has just one shot, then it must activate it's reload function to replace the torpedo, which immobilizes it and takes a great deal of time. |
|---|---|---|
| Cherub Gunship | Comparatively fast and armed with a small autocannon, the Metatron is a light skirmishing boat known for it's stubby proportions. Capable of sealing it's top deck in a thick armoured shield, the Cherub then draws fire away from other ships with a high-powered magnet, which disables the ship and causes it to drift towards the nearest large, friendly vessel, allowing you to tug them behind major ships as a portable shield. |
| Seraph Patrol Boat | A light support boat with an oversized rack of rockets, thee Seraph is perfect for warding off enemy fliers. By using the clockwork loader, the Seraph can exchange movement for a literately endless rain of missiles, automatically loading the empty tubes as they fire. |
| Ophan Gun Platform | Slow and lightly armed, these small gun platforms fend of enemies with a flame projector, and can anchor themselves and reveal their main gun, which easily sinks enemy craft. Ophan are automated, meaning they are immune to effects that would kill their crews and can be repaired like structures. |
| Abaddon Torpedo Ram | A mid-sized vessel with frontal torpedo tubes and a heavily armoured prow, the Abaddon can use a thermobaric jet to induce a burst of speed and ram into enemy vessels for great effect. |
| Cukverin Ironclad | This ship's endless automated broadsides allow it to deal unparalleled damage to enemy craft, providing one can manuver this long, awkward vessel into position. To assist in acquiring targets, it can immobilize enemy ships with it's deck mortar while closing. You cannot have more than six of these vessels. |
| Ark Royal Carrier | With space enough to carry two manned aircraft, as well as clockwork-powered drones, the Ark Royal can clear the skies above targets with it's interceptors while rearming other air machines. You cannot have more than three such ships. |
| Apostle Bombard Ship | This massive vessel using a huge rocket-assisted projectile that can crush buildings flat in a single shot, with an unusual weapon configuration. The barrel of the cannon is broken into two parts, which are used as nacelle covers for the engines. When they reach the target, the engines are retracted in favor of stablizing pontoons, and the barrel sections fold up and lock around the reloading mechanism to await loading. You can only ever have one Apostle on the first at once. |
[edit] Behind the Scenes
While obviously connections can be drawn between Christian Catholicism and the Order of the Talon, the original intent was not to argue over religious ideals. The story of the Talon was supposed to be one of continuous failure, but their perseverance would keep them going, even if they were headed down the wrong path. The story is meant to explore what kinds of evil can spring from hypocrisy and a jaded view of the world, which doesn't only apply in a religious context, but to individual people as well.
Connections can also be made to steampunk, as most of the Talon units are based around similar concepts. This is mostly due to Open Sketchbook's obsession with the genre.
The previous build system (structures constantly on the move) was abandoned when it was realized how utterly impossible that would be to code. With the announcement of CnC4's Crawler-based build system, as well as the Talon's strong connection with the Tiberium series' GDI faction, the decision was made to adapt the Crawler as the new build system... with some modifications and re-interpretations.
[edit] External Links
Factions
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| Original Red Alert 3 Factions |
 Allied Nations •  Soviet Union •  Empire of the Rising Sun
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| Paradox Factions |
 Confederate Revolutionaries •  Order of the Talon •  Atomic Kingdom of China •  Electrical Protectorate •  Mediterranean Syndicate
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| Paradox Minor-Factions |
 Army of the Republic of Vietnam •  Allied Reservists •  National Revolutionary Army •  Cult of the Black Hand  Global Liberation Army •  International Inc •  Communist China •  Vietcong
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