Sea Shadow gunboats and Cutters — coastal screens and interceptors
Sea Shadow (IX-529)
Always seen, quick, with a 4.8-tile deck gun and modest splash. The Boatyard trains both Sea Shadows and fast Cutter interceptors up to six. Boats restock like tanks — anti-air can shoot them, land cannons can't.
At a glance
- Where it goes
- Water — one population
- Health / Speed / Magazine
- 180 HP / quick / 6 shells before restock (Cutter: 175 HP, 148 speed, 5 ammo)
- Gun
- Deck gun — medium, quick reload, 4.8-tile reach
- How you get them
- Boatyard — trains Sea Shadows and Cutters one at a time, up to six
Sea Shadow
Sea Shadow boats and Cutters are visible coastal gunboats with deck guns and tank-like restocking. They cannot capture sonar buoys.
By the numbers
A Sea Shadow is lighter than a Maus but quicker on water, with a deck gun that feels like a Maus at sea and splashes a little less. Its matchup vs a Maus is close — the Maus still edges the trade, but the boat loves infantry it can actually shoot.
| Shoot at | How it feels |
|---|---|
| Maus on shore | Honest trade — Maus still slightly wins |
| Infantry near shore | Strong — shells splash extra vs infantry |
| Another boat / surfaced sub | Even — bring friends |
How to use it
Walk the waterline, hunt surfaced subs and rake coastal buildings. Restocks at HQ, Workshops or depots you own just like a tank — HQ's anti-air can shoot a boat, but the short land cannon can't, which is why boats can sit just offshore and harass while subs must surface to missile. A submerged I-400 still needs Radar to be targeted.
- No stealth, no HQ missiles — boats screen water while tanks and infantry hold land.
- Boatyards are coastal slips — if the beach is blocked, placement fails.
Making them
A Boatyard trains both Sea Shadows (180 HP, 140 speed, 6 shells) and Cutters (175 HP, 148 speed, 5 shells) from the command deck up to a shared cap of six. Cutters offer slightly higher speed for chasing down flankers, while Sea Shadows deliver durable gunboat fire. Train or cancel from the command deck; cancel refunds what you haven't spent yet.
Boats can't flip buoys
A common mistake: parking a Sea Shadow or Cutter on a sonar buoy does nothing. Only I-400 submarines can capture buoys; boats are land-side for capture math despite being water units. Use boats to kill the sub that is flipping the buoy, not to flip it yourself.