Command & Conquer: Generals: Difference between revisions
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* [[Action Bomb]]/[[Suicide Attack]]: GLA's Terrorists, Bomb Trucks and all of the Demolition General's toys.
* [[America Saves the Day]]: Played straight in the main game and subverted in the expansion. After triumphing in the USA campaign, {{spoiler|the GLA campaign sees the Americans humbled and kicked out of Europe, [[China Takes Over the World|leaving the Chinese to save the day and rise to prominence as leader of the Eurasian Unity League]]}}.
* [[Artificial Stupidity]]:
*
** [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: The AI relentlessly takes advantage of this with its ground-based AA vehicles by positioning them just outside of your air units' response ranges where their AA guns will fire with impunity as your helicopters just hover, doing nothing.▼
** GLA bomb trucks can disguise themselves as any other vehicle of any size and shape as long as there's no detector around. While stealthed, enemies won't auto-attack it, so you can not only leave a few around as scouts, but ''run over enemy infantry'' with no fear of retaliation.
** Even on Brutal difficulty, one of the Chinese AI's attacks is a wave of Red Guards and Tank Hunters without any vehicles, making them depressingly easy to kill.
* [[Attack Drone]]: The [[Combat Medic|Battle Drones]] and the [[Air-Launched Weapons|Hellfire Missile]] Drones. The Sentry Drone too, when you give them machine guns.
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: A lot of units can go under this, due to [[Crippling Overspecialization]]. Case in point: the PRC Overlord tank and its [[The Same but More|elite counterpart]], the Emperor tank. Armed to the teeth, they are literally [[Military Mashup Machine|landcruisers]], but hey, these babies don't come easy: they cost a lot, are hard to maintain and are typically the first on any opponent's target list, are often slow and prone to [[Zerg Rush|Zerg Rushes]], which doesn't make suffering the fact that they're easy to counter any lighter for the one in possession of these crazy machines. The Emperor version though is a bit better since it comes with a built-in Propaganda Tower (that automatically heals itself and all units surrounding it), and can be upgraded with a gatling cannon, effectively turning it into an all-purpose weapons platform.
** And by extension, some of the [[Support Power|Support Powers]]. Here's one: the USA Propaganda Leaflet Drop. It makes enemies stop fighting for a mere minute, and it's not a total surrender. More often, pragmatic players would rather spend the Generals point on a [[Big Bulky Bomb|MOAB]]. The B-52 dropping the leaflets, on the other hand, is quite the bullet sponge, which comes in handy if [[We Need a Distraction|you need a distraction]].
**
** Also applies to some degree to the USA's ultimate weapon, the [[Kill Sat|Particle]] [[Wave Motion Gun|Cannon]]. Sure, it's fun to be able to break it out, but at the same time it is a very narrow-focused beam of light that doesn't do a lot of area damage compared to China's [[Nuke'Em|Nuclear Missiles]] or the widespread infantry-killing of the GLA's [[Trick Bomb|SCUD Launcher]]. However, it does have the shortest cooldown timer, and the fact that it can be redirected after firing makes it ideal for punching burning holes in defensive lines or to be unleashed on a tank blob at the most opportune moments.
*** And to compensate, the Americans have the best level 5 general ability, the Fuel Air Bomb. And it gets better, as it can be upgraded into a MOAB (the most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever detonated) in ''Zero Hour''.
* [[Awesome Personnel Carrier]]: The GLA Battle Bus. [[Garrisonable Structures|A 10-ton unarmed, but heavily armored rustbucket with seats for ten]]. If you think that's not enough, it can even apply scavenged vehicle armor scraps to itself for additional protection. The Battle Bus revolves around the concept of "there's no such thing as taking too many hits", for it has [[Multiple Life Bars|Two]] [[Life Meter|Life Meters]]. On its second [[Life Meter]], the bus loses its tires becomes an immobile bunker.
** Literally, just about ''anything'' with these four traits: plenty of seats, some decent off-road speed, a robust fire-support (or self-defense) weapon and most importantly, fire ports for passengers.
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** The GLA deserves a special mention for battling two superpowers at the same time and damn near winning, despite using mostly outdated Cold War era weaponry and having next to no airforce or navy.
** The reboot/sequel meanwhile suggests that the Europeans would ''finally'' get their due.
** China meanwhile also deserves some credit. Compared to their American allies, the Chinese make extensive use of Cold War-era technologies and their offshoots, as well as human wave tactics. Still, it takes a lot of gravitas to make use of them in modern combat... and ''succeeding''.
* [[Badass Boast]]: Guys like Col. Burton and Pathfinders have the knack of constantly telling you how well-experienced they are in their fields. Sometimes even in campaign set piece triggers.
* [[Beam Spam]]: The American AN/TWQ-1 Avenger Humvee is nothing but lasers. Let's have a look, shall we? Two [[Anti-Air|anti-aircraft lasers]], four [[Point Defenseless|point-defense]] lasers for [[Destructible Projectiles|shooting down missiles]], and one [[Laser Sight|ground-only targeting laser]], which are [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|colored red, yellow and blue, respectively, for your viewing convenience]], of course. Now, take note: the Avenger can use ''all'' of them at once at multiple targets.
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: The Chinese present themselves as this to Europe in ''Zero Hour'' after the US retreat, driving out the GLA "invaders".
* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: The GLA, for all their talk, are horrible people and arguably the most evil faction the series. But on the other hand, the "good guys" aren't ''entirely'' altruistic on their part. America for instance comes across at times as motivated by self-interest and opportunism just as much as "defending the free world." While the Chinese meanwhile don't seem to have second thoughts about torching or nuking their way to victory if they have to, nor do they have second thoughts about blowing up large portions of their own cities or handing ''tactical nuclear weapons'' to terrorist turncoats. It's even mentioned in the ''Zero Hour'' campaign that the Europeans eventually forced the Chinese to back down from nuking towns and cities infested with GLA terror cells. Also, one has to wonder how they're running their occupied portion of Kazakhstan if a general there defects and the GLA was able to convince mobs to burn down Astana and recruited several anti-China militiamen from an occupied fishing village in the first mission.
* [[Booby Trap]]: Plenty to go around with. Booby Traps, Demo Traps, Land Mines, Neutron Land Mines... you name it, ''Generals'' has it! With varying [[Universal Poison|types]] [[EMP|of]] [[Phlebotinum Bomb|effects]] to boot!
* [[Book Ends]]: The game begins and ends with a Chinese military parade.
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* [[Civil Warcraft]]: GLA [[Turncoat|turncoats]] cooperate with PRC troops in an attempt to backstab their former comrades. The GLA mission in ''Zero Hour'', where the player must hunt down Prince Kassad and take his stealth technology. Also, technically, the last USA mission in Zero Hour as well, where you get GLA supporters against [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Thrax]].
* [[Cold Sniper]]: GLA's Jarmen Kell and USA's Pathfinders.
* [[Colonel
▲
* [[Converging Stream Weapon]]: If you look closely at the American Particle Cannon when it's charged, you'll see that there's several beams pointing towards one large dish.
* [[Cool Bike]]: The GLA gets scout motorcycles in ''Zero Hour'' which can be loaded with any infantry to make them more mobile, and let them climb up and down cliffs with ease. Oddly, they self-destruct if the rider leaves the motorcycle without a replacement.
* [[The Cracker]]: PRC's Hacker, Black Lotus and Super Lotus. [[Subverted Trope|By the way]], they work for the good guys.
* [[Crippling Overspecialization]]: In ''Zero Hour'', most of the generals suffer from this:
** Gen. Granger's air power is second to none, but he can't build even the basic American tank.
**
** Thanks to patches after release, Dr. Thrax is only effective against infantry, leaving him up a polluted creek if he has to stop a tank rush.
** Speaking of which, General Kwai loves to use Tanks so much that he can't even use any artillery. So he's pretty much screwed if the enemy has built a very formidable defense line.
** General Townes will laugh off any attacks with missiles and vehicles. On the other hand, base defenses and infantry rushes are what gives him big headaches. Unplug his power grid and all of those fancy lasers become sitting ducks.
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: The first mission of any factions campaign. First, the Chinese, after suffering a nuking by the GLA, launch an armored assault that wipes out the GLA forces around Beijing and takes their nuclear weapons stockpiles with very few losses. Then, in the GLA campaign, they launch their own armored assault, first destroying a small Chinese base mostly staffed by infantry with two bunkers with suicide bombers and technicals, then destroying a large Chinese base (complete with infantry, bunkers, tanks, and minigun turrets) in an armored assault, then finally blowing up the nearby dam, which drowns an entire Chinese armored battalion. In the USA's first mission, a large group of American tanks engages a large group of GLA ones and destroys all of them with zero losses on the American side. When another, equally large group of tanks starts moving towards the Americans, they're all instantly destroyed by an airstrike.▼
** In both offense and defense, General Alexis is not much in a straight up fight. But if she is given the chance to amass a lot of Aurora Alphas and Particle Cannons, then her victory will become a foregone conclusion.
** Prince Kassad is excellent at hiding and sneaking into enemy positions but totally sucks at fighting big battles out in the open and besieging enemy bases that are sealed up very tight against infiltration. He also has to steal tanks if he wants them.
▲* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: The first mission of any factions campaign. First, the Chinese, after suffering a nuking by the GLA, launch an armored assault that wipes out the GLA forces around Beijing and takes their nuclear weapons stockpiles with very few losses. Then, in the GLA campaign, they launch their own armored assault, first destroying a small Chinese base mostly staffed by infantry with two bunkers with suicide bombers and technicals, then destroying a large Chinese base (complete with infantry, bunkers, tanks, and minigun turrets) in an armored assault, then finally blowing up the nearby dam, which drowns an entire Chinese armored battalion. In the USA's first mission, a large group of American tanks engages a large group of GLA ones and destroys all of them with zero losses on the American side. When another, equally large group of tanks starts moving towards the Americans, they're all instantly destroyed by an airstrike. The last one is pretty close to real life. During the Gulf War, not a single American tank was destroyed by an Iraqi tank, whereas the Iraqis suffered huge losses. The parallel was likely intentional since the mission takes place in Baghdad.
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: ''Generals'' goes from ''Command & Conquer'' style left-clicking to ''[[Warcraft]]/[[StarCraft]]'' style right-clicking. Fortunately the designers were kind enough to let you change to the "classic" controls if you wanted.
* [[Death From Above]]: Besides the [[Kill Sat]] below, the [[Support Power|artillery bombardment/airdropped explosives]]/faction-specific superweapons.
* [[Depleted Phlebotinum Shells]]:
** Depleted uranium shells are an upgrade to PRC tank gun ammunition.
** The GLA counterpart gets a biological equivalent, which more than doubles a tank shell's [[Strong Flesh, Weak Steel|previously near-zero lethality against infantry]].
* [[Destructible Projectiles|Destructible Missiles]]: Missiles that are smaller than the PRC Nuclear Missile superweapon can be destroyed mid-air using an American [[Frickin' Laser Beams|point-defense laser]].
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* [[Elites Are More Glamorous]]: The Americans you're allowed to use are made up of nothing but elites or hi-tech regulars.
* [[EMP]]: Another Chinese specialty. Their ECM tanks can not only off the enemy structures but also shut down vehicles (in the case of aircraft, drop them from the sky) and jam missiles.
* [[Enemy Exchange Program]]:
** Notably the only game in the entire ''Command & Conquer'' franchise that doesn't use an Engineer to seize a building. Instead, you train your basic infantry to place flags on a building for a set amount of time until it becomes yours. The Black Lotus special agents can also do what the grunts can; only better.
** The developers also seem to encourage a lot of hijacking, seeing how the GLA have specialist Hijackers for the job. ''Zero Hour'' ups the ante on hijacking sprees with China's crew-killing neutron bombs.
* [[The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend]]: The USA fighting a rogue PRC general who allied with the GLA. GLA defectors working with the USA. GLA making use of USA hardware...
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Most of the GLA considers Dr. Thrax's war doctrine to be beyond the pale.
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* [[From a Single Cell|From A Single Standing Foundation]]: ...a reduced GLA building can be rebuilt. See [[Multiple Life Bars]] below for a detailed explanation on that.
* [[Game Mod]]: Quite a number of have been made for it.
** ''Shockwave'' is one of the most popular out there, restoring almost all of the content cut from ''Zero Hour''. And it's GLORIOUS.
** There's also ''[[Rise of the Reds]]''
* [[Garrisonable Structures]]: A very important mechanic that helped infantry be a lot more useful in this game than in prior installments.
* [[Gatling Good]]: The PRC have several units and base defenses made better with Gatling weapons, which spit lead faster the longer they've been firing.
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** The conditions that led to the creation of Aldastan (from the break up of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) is also unknown.
* [[Nuke'Em|Nuke 'Em!]]: The PRC, as a whole, and Gen. Tsing Shi Tao in particular. He specializes in nuclear warfare, and when he isn't spamming nuke silos, he's steamrolling you with nuclear-powered tanks firing depleted uranium, or MiGs and Helixes dropping tactical nukes.
*
▲** While the GLA aren't exactly occupiers, a good portion of the Chinese campaign involves driving every last of their cells out of China's soil.
* [[Once an Episode]]: Each of the three campaigns in ''Generals'' features a dam getting destroyed and the water flooding some poor schmucks downriver. Seems the developers liked showing off the effect.
* [[Organization with Unlimited Funding]]: Any side can be this, even long after the supply docks run out:
** USA has UN Drop Zones, which give a burst of cash every 2 minutes, although the plane that brings them can be shot down if the enemy knows where to look.
** GLA has Black Markets, which give a slow stream of cash, provide some tech upgrades, and can be camouflaged. Also, they have the Cash Bounty General power, that passively fills their coffers with every enemy they kill, as wells as the scrap drops from enemy vehicles that can just be a straight-up cash reward.
** China can train Hackers, which trickle in cash slowly but can level up to produce more cash and can be trained en masse and garrisoned in an Internet Center.
** Averted in campaign missions where the AI doesn't have those: after a while they just... run out and stop attacking.
* [[Patriotic Fervor]]: While the Americans are suitably patriotic, China takes this [[Up to Eleven]], so much so that nationalism is even an in-game ''upgrade.''
* [[Photoprotoneutron Torpedo]]: The Particle Cannon.
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** [[Tanks, But No Tanks]]: But technically, armored vehicles like the PRC Gatling Tank, the GLA Marauder Tank and the USA Microwave Tank are simply an up-armored [[wikipedia:Self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon|self-propelled anti-aircraft Gatling gun]], a turretless [[wikipedia:Assault gun|assault gun]] and a mobile [[wikipedia:Active Denial System|active denial system]], respectively.
* [[Technicolor Toxin]]: GLA's toxins are, in ascending order of lethality, Green, Blue and Purple.
* [[Term Confusion]]: Mistakes aplenty
** The PRC Hacker infantry class is actually a [[The Cracker|Cracker]] for all intents and purposes
** The PRC's [[Gatling Good|Gatling guns]] have a "Chain Gun" upgrade, which is a misnomer; ''Gatling gun'' and ''chain gun'' refer to two completely unidentical weapons.
** For more, see [[Tanks, But No Tanks]] example above.
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