United States of America

United States of America
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Game(s) or modification(s)	Command & Conquer: Generals series
Combat style	High technology, air superiority, precision weaponry
Faction colour	Blue

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United States of America is a playable faction in Command & Conquer: Generals and Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour. The United States of America is commonly known as US, USA or vUSA. The fictional side in the game is based on a futuristic version of the military of the real life United States of America.

Gameplay Style

The United States of America represent the most advanced side in the game, utilising powerful high technology along with the game's largest and most diverse air force to defeat their enemies. Their tactics emphasise the employment of precision, shattering firepower, surgically striking hard and fast using the best weapons available. For example, the infantry used by the United States of America is highly trained and well-equipped compared to the forces available to other sides; the Ranger's assault carbine is more powerful than the bolt-action rifle available to the Chinese Red Guard or the weak rifle given to GLA Rebels, and they can be upgraded to use Flash-Bang Grenades for clearing groups and occupied buildings, something no other side's infantry can match. They are also able to unlock the Pathfinder sniper, providing supreme insurance from an infantry threat, and their Missile Defender can use a laser lock to get better firepower onto target faster than his equivalents. The United States of America uses its powerful and versatile air force for shock and awe tactics, and possesses a range of advanced ground vehicles. Examples of these range from the fast and flexible Humvee to the tough and powerful but experimental Paladin tank to their fragile but precise Tomahawk Missile Launchers.

Unlike China or the GLA, the United States use very few weapons that deal area-of-effect damage, preferring to deliver more firepower with precision, and possess no weapons that leave a lasting effect such as radiation or anthrax contamination. A key example of this is the Tomahawk Missile, which explodes once with no residue and less damage when compared to a radiation-spewing Chinese Nuke Cannon, an anthrax-loaded GLA Scud Launcher, or a firestorm triggered by a napalm-filled Inferno Cannon shell; but unlike all of its contemporaries, the missile fired by the Tomahawk tracks enemy vehicles when on the move, making it better suited for use in the field in addition to siege scenarios.

Iconic Units

Humvee

The Humvee is perhaps one of Zero Hour's best-known units, and one of the few to possess a direct equivalent in real life. Possessing a roof-mounted machine gun to exact punishment on enemy infantry and light vehicles, perhaps its most important features it that it can be loaded with up to five infantrymen that are able to fire out through fireports. This additional firepower allows players to create very powerful units without advancing up the tech tree; the most common use of this being a Humvee filled with Missile Defenders, rocket-armed anti-vehicle infantry. Known in common parlance among frequent players as a 'rockvee', or occasionally an 'MDvee' (and also sometimes a 'lamevee' by frustrated players who have fallen victim to the tactic), it results in a unit which deals extremely high damage to enemy vehicles quickly while still being able to counter enemy infantry with its machine gun. 'Rockvees' rely on using their speed and the range of the Missile Defenders within to keep out of reach of retaliation, a tactic known as kiting, as the Humvee possesses little armour. A key upgrade to the Humvee is the TOW Missile; this fits the empty vehicle with a missile launcher above its main gun, enabling it to counter all targets without any infantry, and even better with them. Due to the fact that the TOW missile (somewhat perplexingly) tracks all air targets, TOW-equipped Humvees also form a key part of USA early-game anti-air.

Pathfinder

Pathfinders are elite snipers, using a powerful, long-ranged rifle to kill any infantry in a single hit save heroes, which can be killed with two. Pathfinders are stealthed when not moving, even while firing, and can only be detected by the enemy when they move between firing positions, unless of course they bring a stealth detector, and in addition can find any enemies, including stealthed ones, over a long line-of-sight. Due to their virtual guarantee against the effectiveness of an enemy infantry attack, Pathfinders require a Generals Point and a Strategy Centre to train, being available only in the mid to late game when the player reaches Rank 3. Pathfinders are the game's only sniper unit save for the GLA hero Jarmen Kell.

Stealth Fighter

One of the other real-life units, the Stealth Fighter carries on the heritage of the F-117A Nighthawk as a supremely effective aerial defence destroyer. Carrying two missiles which will damage or destroy enemy defence structures in one or two salvoes, the Stealth Fighter, as its name suggests, remains undetectable until it fires, and then re-stealths shortly afterwards, giving only a tiny window for enemies to engage it. It can be upgraded to even allow it to clear garrisoned structures, and forces all units out of a GLA Tunnel Network with half their health remaining. If however it is found by a stealth detector it is very fragile and will die very quickly when hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire, and is also one of the slowest jet aircraft in the game. It is also not very good at countering heavily-armoured vehicles or larger structures, but, in combination with a ground assault, it can crack even the most strongly defended base perimeter.

Comanche

The only attack helicopter in the original Generals (Zero Hour later added the Chinese Helix and the Combat Chinook for the Air Force General), the Comanche uses four powerful guided missiles to wipe out armoured threats and a 20mm nose cannon to quickly tear through enemy infantry. A flying bastion of firepower, the Comanche his most valued for its 'combat persistence'; it reloads its missiles on the fly, not needing to return to an airfield in the manner of other aircraft, and never runs out of ammunition. Comanches can also be upgraded to deliver a devastating barrage of unguided rockets onto an area, tearing through almost anything unfortunate enough to remain underneath, including most anti-aircraft vehicles. Despite its high firepower though the Comanche is not very well armoured, and though it can take more punishment than most jets, its lower speed means any AA it cannot quickly shoot will likely turn it into a spinning wreck. The Comanche is also based on a real-life vehicle, but unlike the Humvee or Stealth Fighter, the genuine RAH-66 never saw combat, being cancelled from its intended role as a stealthy armed reconnaissance platform due to rising costs.

Colonel Burton

Colonel Burton (aka Burton) is an elite commando for the US forces. Equipped with a high power infantry-portable Gatling-style gun, a series of demolitions abilities and a knife attack that kills infantry instantly, he can quickly destroy even tanks, especially when ranked up to Heroic veterancy. Colonel Burton is best utilised by using his stealth to infiltrate an enemy base unseen, killing any infantry guards silently while remaining stealthed with his knife, and planting bombs to bring down the whole installation from within, while using his gun to fend off any enemies which do manage to spot him. He is the most heavily armed of all heroes.

Weaknesses

The United States of America's main weakness is that their units, while being more effective and in many cases more versatile than those of their opponents, are very expensive to construct. While they are not vulnerable to the hit-and-run tactics of the GLA in the same way as the slow-moving China, and can stop a Battlemaster horde dead in its tracks on its own terms unlike the GLA, they cannot mass units effectively and typically require more of a player's attention to detail, either striking and then leaving with aircraft and Humvees or supporting their expensive but tough tanks with artillery and flanking manoeuvres. This nature of having less but more powerful units makes the USA more of a micro-intensive side.