Garrisonable Structures

In Strategy Games, specifically Real Time Strategy, this is the ability of some structures to hold infantry units, allowing them to Take Cover and fire out at enemies. There are three types:

• Type 1: Pre-placed on the map, and take the form of abandoned houses and commercial buildings.
• Type 2: Built for this purpose alone, and are almost invariably called bunkers, even if they're actually forts or redoubts.
• Type 3: Production or headquarters structures that can also be garrisoned, either to defend the structure, or to provide shelter for the workers inevitably swarming around the base during an attack. In these cases, workers who can not ordinarily attack with any effectiveness will gain some kind of ranged counter as long as they stay inside.

In any case, the units inside will generally take no damage when the building is attacked, and may survive the destruction of the building, to be unceremoniously dumped on the sidewalk when it loses that last hit point, and presumably then have to face whatever did the deed. A hard counter for garrisonable structures is often included in a game that features them, often some kind of grenade. The other common counter is the flamethrower. Both are, of course, some of the real-life counters for the same.

Sometimes, production structures of various types will need to have units garrisoned in them to function. This serves as a way to scale the effectiveness of the building; devote more human resources from your population cap to it, it becomes more effective.

In some extreme cases, structures might exist that can garrison vehicles.

Examples of Garrisonable Structures include:

• Command & Conquer, from Red Alert 2 and onwards, makes extensive use of this. Hiding infantry in structures (usually civilian, although versions made by the commanding player's military is possible) is an effective way to gain territory. Several rules of thumb apply. Firstly, a structure, if civilian, must be crippled, if not outright destroyed, to force an evacuation. Complete destruction is only necessary if it belongs to a military. Secondly, if available, a hard counter can be used to kill occupants at an instant and leave the formerly occupied building intact. And thirdly, even some vehicles can be used for cover, but hard counters do not work on them. Comes in two distinct eras:
  • The Red Alert 2 era. Only pre-placed structures are occupiable and only the most basic infantry can be occupants, although modifications can extend the garrison ability to other kinds of infantry. Hard counters and occupiable vehicles aren't introduced yet.
    • Red Alert 2's Expansion Pack, Yuri's Revenge, made military-made infantry bunkers and occupiable vehicles possible. A more extreme case (as mentioned by this article) is the Tank Bunker, which allows a whole tank in it. In noncombat operations, there's a type of power generator that allows troops in to increase its total power output.
  • Post-Red Alert 2 era: officially lets pretty much any infantry to occupy buildings and vehicles. Hard counters are first introduced here.
    • Buildings aside, many vehicles in Generals can be makeshift bunkers—some may require an upgrade first. Hard counters to garrisons include Fast Roping, flashbangs, flamethrowers and toxin sprayers. The Zero Hour expansion adds crazier fortifiable Military Mashup Machines and a new antibunker missile. Also, certain buildings react differently to an attack: some are counter-resistant while others can't cover their occupants that much. Outside combat, there's an underground tunnel network building that works much like a portal and another that allows their occupants to do resourcing functions in a safe place. Needless to say, the Generals series took this trope to a whole new level.
    • Subsequent games are more beligerent than Generals. In Command And Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, GDI supports garrison while Nod antagonizes it to hell. The former has a makeshift hospital, a small bunker that's built by grunts, an Awesome Personnel Carrier and a Military Mashup Machine, with their only hard counter being hand grenades. The latter goes antibunker, what with flamethrower tanks and soldiers. Its only occupiable is an unarmed, hard-skinned vehicle with questionable effectiveness. But the "unsupportive" title goes to the Scrin. They only have three kinds of units that do urban warfare: the first is strictly a psychic alien-dominated occupant, the second is an occupant and a hard counter while the third is just an armored toxic antibunker.
    • Soviet Engineers in Red Alert 3 can build bunkers in places that don't have structures to garrison, and all three sides have a counter-garrison option in their basic infantry. Allied Peacekeepers, which are as much SWAT cops as soldiers, and the katana-wielding Imperial Solders, can charge in and trade some of their own lives for the units inside. Soviet Conscripts can just kill everything inside by tossing in some molotov cocktails.
• StarCraft has no neutral garrisonable structures, but the Terrans do build bunkers as their main defense building. It wouldn't work for the Protoss or Zerg, as their infantry use melee attacks.
• In Warcraft III, the Orcs rely on a medieval version of the Terran bunker as their main ground defense. It also uses the "arm the workers" effect for any Peons moved inside one.
  • Oddly the bunkers also supply food for the player, leading to questions about why anyone would garrison inside one.
    • The bunkers are known as "Burrows", and are implied to be something like a home. Garrisoning their own homes seems entirely in character for the Horde.
• In Rise of Nations, citizens can be ordered to take cover, at which time they will garrison themselves in a nearby city or tower, and use guns or bows to defend themselves. Scholars generate the knowledge resource when garrisoned in universities, and can be moved from one to the next. Oil platforms require a worker garrison him/herself inside to function.
  • Garrison is also the only way to heal units (unless you play French or have the Versailles wonder, then the supply wagons can do field medic duties). Early in the game, cavalry can garrison in forts and towers, but armored units later in the game can only be stored in the factory that made them.
• In Company of Heroes, units can garrison in many of the abandoned buildings found on the battlefield. Some of the bigger ones can be upgraded into headquarters structures. This is usually a good move, as the buildings engineers can build out on the field are weak, sandbag-and-tent affairs, or deployable vehicles. Infantry can also Take Cover out on the field, behind walls or in trenches.
• The Imperial Guard in Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War can do this with their own structures, and several other races can garrison units for other purposes than defense (i.e. garrison in one building, come out another). DoW II plays this trope much straighter, with pre-placed garrisonable buildings covering most maps.
• Infantry in World in Conflict can garrison buildings, and the larger the building, the more units it can hold. While garrisoning doesn't give them additional offensive capabilities, a building does shield the infantry from all damage while reducing neither its sight, nor firing distance, making the efficient use of cover the prime directive of the Infantry role. The precious few ways to neutralize a building cluster infested by enemy infantry mostly include massive bombardment that destroys the buildings before they can get out. The only "clean" flush-out method that preserves the buildings themselves is the chemical attack.
• EndWar also allows infantry to garrison buildings. It's rather annoying when the enemy does it - riflemen in cover can kill damn near anything. Except tanks, and artillery, and riflemen with the Storm Building ability. And Engineers in cover will ruin your day if you're vehicle-heavy.
• Star Wars: Empire at War and it's expansion, Forces of Corruption. First, all production buildings will have certain "garrison" units. Barracks: Infantry (both types for Rebellion and Zann Consortium, Stormtroopers and Scoutroopers on speeder bikes for Empire), Light Factory: Light vehicle, etc. Space Stations also have general-purpose fighter squadrons (X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and StarViper) and bomber squadrons (Y-Wing, TIE Bomber, Skipray Blastboat) in on-station hangars, with higher-level ones being able to call in corvettes and even FRIGATES to hyperspace in as reinforcements. Forces of Corruption also added actual "bunker" buildings that house infantry and non-vehicle hero units.
• Age of Empires II has both the buildable kind (towers, castles) and the headquarters kind (town centers). In either case, any unit on foot can be garrisoned, although only workers and archers can attack while inside. Of particular note, towers and castles cannot fire upon adjacent enemies until "murder holes" have been researched.
• Halo Wars has regular garrisonable cover, as well as garrisonable reactors, which increase your technology level without having a reactor take up a spot on your base.
• In Age of Wonders this primarily comes from walled cities and watch tower structures whose only purpose is monitoring a wider range of the map. Terrain such as encampments and old temples (usually evil) and even resource structures can be considered "garrisonable" due to providing cover, the high ground, chokepoints, or beneficial magic effects.
• In the first Empire Earth there were several garrisonable structures, it is wise garrisoning them as a certain number of units in them will upgrade the structure.
• In all games in the Outfront series, (Soldiers: Heroes of World War II, Faces of War and Men of War), infantry can take cover behind objects and take up window positions in buildings. In Fo W and Mo W the silouhette of the infantry squad is show and you can move your mouse about to find the position best suited to you.
• Used in Blitzkrieg, however certain buildings have 'blind spots', angles that the troops inside cannot see, allowing tanks and artillery to attack with impunity.
• Age of Mythology had the Atlantean faction get the special ability to have a small group of infantry come out of destroyed buildings to attack the attackers.
• In Sudden Strike soldiers can enter nearly any structure to provide vision or have some protection. Those structures can be houses, churches, bunker, tower etc. Usually the soldiers die or are at least severely wounded when the structure collapses.
• In Act of War, civilian structures can be occupied and are usually quite sturdy. Units aren't immune to damage while garrisoned, though they do get significant shielding. Only hard counters are snipers, who can pick off garrisoned units. Otherwise, you need to blow the hell out of the building or send in units, which tends to be costly.
  • The game engine treats buildings simultaneously as objects and terrain, meaning units can not only be garrisoned inside, but also be placed on top of buildings. Put some snipers on the roof, you got a sniper's nest. Some AA troopers, and you got a quick warning against enemy flyers. Find a large enough building and fly in some artillery on top, and you got an artillery post. Put all aforementioned units on the roof, add some repair/medical units, and you got a nice little forward base vulnerable only to superweapons.
• In Advanced Strategic Command anything inside buildings is captured with them, but there are buildable terrain objects that give bonuses (attack/defence/jamming) to an unit on their hex. Which include trenches and turret foundations.