Command & Conquer™: Generals

Command & Conquer™: Generals

66 ratings
Private to General: Get Gud With Simple Strats
By Derp
Losing SUCKS! So learn some WINNING basics for every faction, with advice from REAL LIFE Generals!
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Introduction
You don't need to know who we are. But we know what you need to do--use great words. Words like 'TACTICAL'. 'INTENSE'. 'RAGEQUIT'. And perhaps, 'CHEESE'. Learn about all three factions. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a thousand battles."
Playing USA feat. George W. Bush
Oh well golly gee willikers I think we both know what time it is! We're in for a real Southern barbeque here yessirree. That's why I'm here to recount the Florida sauce recipe passed down by my great grandpap-


(Oh, that's no good. That's up to Cheney. Uh-huh. Get the double stuf.) Ahem. It has come to my attention that the enemies of freedom and democracy have come to attack us, our way of life. Our economic interests, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. My stock portfolio is decreasing in value from the lack of recent munitions expenditure, so our capacity to retaliate must be swift and immediate. I will leave you to prepare America's finest, Commander.



STRENGTHS: Best infantry, high tech aircraft, supply gatherer doubles as helicopter transport
WEAKNESSES: High power consumption, some units and buildings are quite expensive

Your main task from the get go will be spamming out Hummvee's with rocket dudes and Marines, and once you get a single point, unlock Pathfinders. 4 missile soldiers and 1 sniper in every car, multiplied by a dozen or more, the Hummvee death swarm is unstoppable. Infantry fall before it; stealths are revealed, and every building or vehicle in sight are come upon with the force of a thousand Bill Clinton's onto a secretary's dress. Let me hand you over to our chief of special forces. He needs no introduction.



Ah, you've just caught me shooting some skeet on the range, Commander. Pleasant to meet you. My men and I are the best shots in the world, we've taken 16 year olds who have spent years of their life blasting away on Terminal or Operation Metro. Our l33t gamers aside, we have access to the second best artillery after Rocket Buggies, Tomahawk Missiles. But it's not the best option when we have access to the first best air power! Let me pop over to the strip real quick then.



Ah, love to be in the hot seat, if I do say so myself. Our planes have an excellent payload for both ground and air attack, with upgrades to the countermeasures and some attack range from the Strategic Center all but guaranteeing smooth strikes on the whole. Quite expensive though innit, I got shot down over the Donbus once and they expected me to pay for it. These planes aren't cheap. As long as the land and air work together though, you won't have any problems. Good luck, Commander! And don't forget the drones.

Playing China feat. Mao Anying
The Glorious People's Republic of Zhongguo boldly fights for our people. We will not stop until our enemies are crushed and The People stand Supreme. With our rifles in one hand and red book in the other, our victory i- AAAAIIIIIIIEEEEE!!! I'M BEING NAPALMED!!!! HELP ME MARX!!!
















Wow, would you look at that? An empty section in the training manual where nothing happened. Anyways, I, John Xina, will graciously teach you the ins and outs of proper Party military theory. We descended from great statesmen like Dong Zhuo and Zhang Zongchang, and will follow in their foot steps of total victory.

Strengths: Good early game with infantry spam, OP unit healing, arguably best General's abilities
Weaknesses: Terrible alternate economy, no "staple" unit

Now, while the GLA will rely on sheer terror and cowardly ambushes, and the US with their decadent 40 hour work week, real Chinese patriots understand that the key to victory is is in combined arms... of human waves. In the early game, your best bet is to spam troop crawlers, but as the battle escalates you should shift towards mostly Overlords with Gatling Tanks. MiG firestorms are not that bad at taking out defenses, either. We may be the weakest faction in the game, but that does not mean we cannot succeed. It merely requires us to maintain peak Confucian thought and execute one of our concubines every 6 months for victory to emerge.



The Overlord tanks are good in a horde; putting one propoganda tower on every fourth tank while the rest have Gatling turrets makes for a self-healing deathblob which will strike fear into any invader, Mongol or not. Be careful with the pathfinding though, they are big. The tricky part is getting to such a large amount; Hackers take a very long time to become profitable and have to rank up to reach full potential. That alone wouldn't be so bad if their lethargic lifestyle of drinking knockoff Redbull and gooning to Nipponese cartoons didn't make them fall to mere bullets. They recieve a small bonus to cash earned and promotion speed working in an Internet Center (roughly 11%). Don't expect them to be safe in the IC though; the whole building is one shortcircuit away from the front page of LiveLeak.



One final note; rely on the movements of the Heavens to determine your enemy's activity. Our intelligence capabilities include neither radar truck scans or drone call ins. Black Lotus will be good for sneaking in and providing vision. Don't forget to steal supplies with her too.
That'll be all Commander, make the people proud!
Playing GLA feat. Dr. Trax


Allahu snackbar brother, it is I, "Legally Distinct Dr. Trax"! Our clan is strong, and so will you after scholarly meditation and ten times daily prayer in name of Saddam Hussein. He intended to come but unfortunately could not make it in time, stuck in a cave or something. Heh, I know the feeling! Here's the technical details of our path to victory.

Strengths: No Electricity, Tough Buildings, Tunnel Networks, Supply Haulers can also Build
Weaknesses: No Cowardly Airforce, Longer build/upgrade/recruit times



Your main strategy should be to spam Quad Cannons by and large, with some Rocket Buggies to attack defenses from long range. Very few things in the enemy arsenal will be able to retaliate without moving closer. Here is Al-Fluffyo, proud financier of the Global Liberation Army to bring you up to speed on the rest.


Ah, it is good to finally see you commander. Do not be afraid of my appearance; I know I may appear to be a hardened oil and poppy merchant who has slaughtered thousands, which is true, but I have always wanted to be a great teacher to younger student. Perhaps you will join me for karate lesson sometime? No? We have great gym.


Anyways, since you can make the ""paid"" laborers from both a supply building and the HQ, you should rush in the early game to set up tunnel networks in strategic locations around the map. Their defensive capability is very weak; a machinegun and two rocket soldiers, but the ability to move our troops safely and quickly underground will be essential to your victory. You can, like the Chinese Flame Tank, use your Toxin Tractors to clear buildings or pollute an area to make it inaccessible. It's incredible what damage we can do with tap water from the Indian Ocean.



And do make sure to keep the black markets well supplied! Ever since the UN embargo, I haven't been able to get my lewd doujins from anywhere else. My good friend Yusuf Amir and I both agree that you should always support the official release. They make somewhat less profit than the supply drops, but the cash is constant and provides many upgrades. Alhamdullilah, may you pass through the infidels like a goat intestine condom Commander.
14 Comments
PH4TM4T 1 Jul @ 7:45pm 
Also, I agree with the USA Humvee strategy but Bill also needed 1 RPG for said secretary, so he sent 1 Marine with a flash bang instead to clear out all the witnesses.
PH4TM4T 1 Jul @ 7:34pm 
This was some A+ content. Thank you for the tips, Comrade.
Chip 22 Mar @ 2:10pm 
LOL this dude clearly mains GLA IRL
Gomen ⚝ 29 Oct, 2024 @ 12:03am 
damn, this is so Good...
羽羽羽羽人 13 Aug, 2024 @ 6:15am 
非常好图片,爱来自中国
Derp  [author] 1 May, 2024 @ 8:46pm 
Since a long-winded explanation doesn't fit in the guide, I'll say it here. Hackers suck. They really do. The devs really boned CN players with how bad they are (all types of CN share same stats, except tank is more expensive while infantry makes way more money & are actually good)
1. Hackers are statistically the worst performing secondary eco in the game, in terms of both time to profit, and overall income until they reach Heroic after like 20min+ of hacking, other factions don't have to promote their buildings. This guy crunched the #'s.
https://www.gamereplays.org/cnczerohour/portals.php?show=page&name=tip-of-the-week-105-secondary-economy
2. They each take 27s to recruit, which compared to the 61s build time of a Drop or 73s of BM alone significantly reduces your capacity to crank out enough income generation; they produce a fraction of the money that the more initially expensive buildings do, so to get more cash generators takes more time.
Derp  [author] 1 May, 2024 @ 8:46pm 
3. They're recruited instead of built, if you want to increase the speed at which you build them you need to build more barracks unlike US & GLA which can easily do parallel construction with multiple dozers/workers, AND you have to pre-pay for Hackers you aren't even building yet to queue them unlike the other factions too.
4. Weak as paper, it doesn't matter if you're winning on the front line because if a light breeze by any general power even like T1 arty, rebel ambush or paratroop or a single random vehicle, down goes $1000s in seconds, the one IC you can build gives a minuscule improvement to only a couple of hackers, it's nothing more than a $2500 grave (which if rebuilt has to be re-filled with hackers again). GLA's BM's are tough as rocks and can rebuild from holes.
Bob of Mage 1 May, 2024 @ 6:07pm 
The advantage of hackers is that you can stick them everywhere as they take so little space. It also makes it much easier to space them out to avoid weapon strikes. Yeah they are weak on their own, but like everything with China, they are intended to be fielded in large numbers. I mean they cost a quarter of what the rival options do.
El Rushbo 7 Apr, 2024 @ 3:30pm 
Agreed hackers are weak, but with hundreds of Red Guards storming forwards, the enemy would have a hell of a time trying to reach them. I find it amusing watching the massive infantry horde move across the map, with a couple wounded stragglers limping behind.
Derp  [author] 24 Mar, 2024 @ 2:10pm 
Edit 3/24: Changed wording to make clearer some points. Fixed a couple grammatical errors.

El Rushbo, statistically China hackers take the longest of all 3 alternate economies to pay back their cost, and emphasis is placed on how targetable they are with extremely low health and poor fighting capability. A couple of infantrymen or a rogue vehicle that's crush-capable can wipe out thousands of dollars worth of hackers in seconds, so you must go to great lengths to keep them safe.

Liquid, frvryoung, thank you. Makes me glad that real human beings consider my writing not deathly offensive, but actually somewhat funny and found the information useful. Unfortunately, I might remove the June 4 1989 image, it appears that Generals is accessible from Mainland China (that is notable, the game was totally banned over there on its original release), and there have already been… "combative" posts on similar pictures in artwork. I'd rather avoid keyboard combat in this comment section.