Sentinel

Sentinel is a unit in Dark Colony.

Background
The Sentinel can "walk" across battlefields and bury itself below the ground, where it is hidden from enemy view. When deployed, the unit burrows into the ground using an electro-hydraulic-counter-weight-hammer. Any enemy unit coming within 7m of the Sentinel cause it to detonate, launching explosive shrapnel at the attacker. A Sentinel will self-destruct after three detonations.

Gameplay

 * The Sentinel is a mine. While expensive, it also allows for setting up observation points at key passages and removing blindspots. Works best when placed at crucial chokepoints.
 * The sentinal is handy early on when there is no snipers to detect them. However become less useful when snipers are available
 * Though not a practical strategy. It is possible to mass a large number of sentinals and bury them around an enemy base. making any unit come out take massive amounts of damage
 * Be careful when deploying sentinels. Once buried they cannot unbury. They also take up population space.
 * The sentinal is capable of identyfing friendly units. Meaning it will not explode if friendly troops pass over. However if an enemy is on top of the mine and next to a friendly unit it will detonate and cause friendly fire
 * make sure the area you intend to minefield is clear before deoplying them. As enemy units can easily destroy sentinels or if damaged they will have less charges to detonate
 * One very useful tactic when using the sentinel is to deploy them under petra vents. That way any enemy extractor will die when trying to deploy

Trivia
-The Sentinel is the only robot the humans have that has multiple legs like a spider

-They are briefly scene in the background moving and deploying in the dark colony intro

-When deploying they make a drilling noise

-The name Sentinal means a soldier who stand and keep watch. A fitting name considering once they are deployed they cannot move and can only watch or attack any tresspassers

-It is possible as explained by the tutorial to avoid mines by setting unit waypoints. However in tight enclosed areas like bridges and chokepoints it will be unlikely to avoid detonating it

-The ai will never create and deploy sentinels as it is not coded to do so