SABR (CivBE)

Game info

Advanced artillery unit of the Supremacy Affinity. Requires Synthetic Thought technology, Supremacy level 9 and 4 Firaxite.

Can attack orbital units. Has superior range.

Operation

Like the Missile Rover, after moving, the SABR must spend 1 MP to set up before attacking. The SABR may attack orbital units within one tile. As the SABR only has 1 , the operation of this weapon is incredibly slow. Luckily, it has a very high range, so it can be deployed far behind your army. Their name is a reference to sabres, Renaissance-era weapons that could reach long range and were light in comparison to typical swords of the time.

Unit Upgrades

Tier 1

SABRs, when unlocked, struggle with a multitude of issues. Firstly, while their Ranged Strength is respectable, their Strength is incredibly flimsy and their cost in both Resources and production are very high. Additionally, their Movement is pathetic, so unless you have rushed Phasal Transporters it is highly unlikely you will be using SABRs for siege any time soon. If you insist on using them during the mid-game, it is best to use them as ranged snipers to pick off aliens or wandering enemy sponsor units. Be sure to have plenty of roads or Magrails up to ensure the SABR is able to move around effectively.

Sabr PORTFOLIO — The SABR attacking a Xeno Titan (left) and its upgrade pose (right)

Subject	Tier 1 (SABR)
Tech Prerequisites	Synthetic Thought
Affinity Prerequisites	9 Supremacy
Resource Cost	4 Firaxite
Production Cost	385 Production
Combat Strength	16 Strength 52 Ranged Strength
Movement	1
Range	3
Perk Choice A	--
Perk Choice B	--
Passives	Must set up to attack

Tier 2

Tier 2 SABRs appear in the late game, which is lucky because thanks to Magrails and the abundance of Phasal Transporters, they become much more useful. While still very immobile, their range is now 4 tiles and with the appropriate perks they can fire without setting up, making it much easier to surprise attack enemies or one of several other interesting upgrades, including but not limited to; +60% strength when attacking wounded units, +30% attack bonus or as typical of a Supremacy upgrade a 12% bonus per adjacent friendly unit. They can also fire over mountains and any obstacles. Their Ranged Strength is unparalleled for their resource cost, however they are still quite expensive. It is usually best to get these if you have plenty of Firaxite, but otherwise ANGELS and CARVR swarms can be more effective.

Note that SABRs receive no city attacking bonuses, so do not just use them for siege - use them to destroy powerful threats, such as ultimate units or as a potentially devastating defensive artillery piece stationed within a city.

Subject	Tier 3 (Evolved SABR)	Tier 3 (True SABR)	Tier 3 (Prime SABR)
Tech Prerequisites	Synthetic Thought	Synthetic Thought	Synthetic Thought
Affinity Prerequisites	14 Supremacy 6 Harmony	14 Supremacy 6 Purity	16 Supremacy
Resource Cost	4 Firaxite	4 Firaxite	4 Firaxite
Production Cost	505 Production	505 Production	505 Production
Combat Strength	26 Strength 86 Ranged Strength	26 Strength 86 Ranged Strength	26 Strength 86 Ranged Strength
Movement	1	1	1
Range	4	4	4
Perk Choice A	No setup required to fire	No setup required to fire	No setup required to fire
Perk Choice B	+60% Strength when attacking wounded units	+30% Strength when attacking	+12% Strength per adjacent friendly unit
Passives	Must set up to attack Attack over terrain obstacles	Must set up to attack Attack over terrain obstacles	Must set up to attack Attack over terrain obstacles

Strategy

The SABR is unique in being the only ranged unit in Beyond Earth that is specifically configured for siege warfare. It begins with an impressive 3 hex ranged attack, allowing it to out-range any city's defensive missiles along with any artillery unit of similar affinity level. After being upgraded, it gains an even more substantial firepower boost along with a large city attack bonus and an additional hex range, something unmatched by any unit in the game (note that the city attack bonus only applies to the base game and not the expansion packs). A Prime SABR in particular is capable of smashing even the most heavily fortified city defenses in just a handful of turns, especially if two of these units can coordinate their fire on a single target.

However, it is an extremely difficult unit to deploy effectively as it has very poor mobility (only 1 MP!). This basically mandates the use of a maglev rail network leading to within a few hexes of its intended target, or the use of a warp satellite to bring the unit to bear in anything approaching a timely manner. On top of this, the SABR is extremely vulnerable to direct attack thanks to its extremely poor melee strength; this requires heavy escort on the ground and virtually total air dominance to allow it to approach the target safely.

Civilopedia Entry

A military unit applies force to a particular target. To optimize the military unit, the designers can either provide the unit with more force, or soften the target. The latter point seems largely hard to control, but every military target has weak points. A weapon system that always strikes weak points can be disproportionally effective beyond the force it outputs. This resonates with certain strains of the Supremacy ideology as well.

The Strategic Artillery Battery Robot (SABR) was created to give traditionally inefficient artillery rapier-like precision against a variety of targets. SABR is unique not because it has a particularly large gun (it does not) but because it can put the right round in the right target at just the right time to maximize damage. The drawback to SABR is that it is highly dependent on its sensor network to be online and working to be effective. This network gathers and interprets volumes of data about the targets SABR is facing. It uses meteorological sensors to correct for weather patterns and fire its rounds farther. It also uses strike damage assessment systems to update the firing protocols for successive rounds (and feedback these systems takes some time to collect and integrate). Finally, there is a dynamic catalog of target intelligence and powerful target discrimination systems, which let SABR identify what it is facing, where the targets are hiding, and which system is best for destroying them. The end result is a weapon which fires slowly, but strikes at the very limit of physical prediction and with an efficiency that leaves even trained observers stunned.

The combat history of SABR is one of superlatives. With a target hit/target kill ratio approaching one, simply surviving a SABR bombardment is often attributed to divine intervention. At the Planet Academy for Integrative Warfare and Weaponry there is a mangled tungsten SABR slug fired during the Battle of Wuenschell Keg. The plaque underneath it simply says: "SABR Battalion 56 fired this round. It missed."