Atreides and Ordos can both build the Ornithopter starting from mission 7 onwards. The unit requires that I build a HI-Tech factory and upgrade it, after which the flyer can be bought for the same price as a Heavy Factory Siege tank. But does this pricey but fragile attack flyer have any practical use whatsoever? Whenever the enemy attacks with these units, they will be fairly hard to shoot down unless I have built at least a couple of rocket turrets, and they are a proper threat against my tanks out in the open. My own ornithopters, even if I already have destroyed the enemy construction yard and taken out their turrets, will take forever to actually destroy anything seeing as the enemy simply repairs faster than the ornithopters can damage them. Add in the non-controllability into this mix and I usually give the ornithopter a pass in favour of standard tanks.
How do I efficiently use this unit? Is there at all an efficient use of them?
Best Answer
The best use I've found for this unit is simply to let them die by exposing them to enemy turret fire. As they are shot at, the enemy turrets will become exposed. You noticed that they are very fragile and will die to a single hit, and since the enemy bases usually start out with tons of turrets they will quickly die, but due to their speed its a great way of scouting.
The only other effective way of using them I've found is to have multiple high tech bays complete multiple ornithopters simultaneously, this way they can have a shot at at least destroying one of their high value targets (typically the enemy's repair bay), and also expose a good portion of their base.