Review of All 12 Generals from a Balance Point of View, Best and Worst Ones, including Balance Suggestions Options

[Caustizer]

The following is my own personal opinion though I believe it is quite accurate as it comes religiously playing Shockwave for the past few years. I have almost no online experience with this game, so everything here pertains strictly to Generals Challenge Mode.

I am aware that Shockwave is currently considered complete, and I am hoping this thread will bring to light some of the issues that remain before it can be considered completely done and inspire the design team.


The Best Generals in the Game:

1. General Townes

Townes is the best general in the game in my opinion because he has no dud units, amazing defense combined with good offense in both the land and air, and can be so easy at times he practically plays himself. Given all his benefits, Townes really has few weaknesses over the basic USA faction. His Laser Humvees (with Point Defense Battledrones), Laser Paladins, Railgun Artillery (absolutely brutal versus ground with Search and Destroy), Laser Commanches (brutal in groups), Laser Turrets & Fire bases, and Stealth Gunships (best defensive unit in the game imo) all combine to make him the best general.

2. General Leang

Leang is like China done American style, except better. She does have notable weaknesses over normal China such as Coal Power Plants (less power, so they take up more space), lack of Propaganda, and lack of Horde Bonus but her strengths are huge and more than make up for these minor drawbacks. Almost every unit in her arsenal is good in a certain way, from Ravage Tanks (Ravage Armour, Ramjet Shells) to Dragon Tanks (White Napalm & Firestorm Potential) to Sentinel Gatling Weapons (brutal versus air and surface at the same time) to her MiGs (White fire, starts with Boosters), to Blacksharks (absolutely brutal against anything ground), to Phoenix Bombers (the only air unit that beats AA groups convincingly), to Hammer Cannons, to Hellstorm Cannons (White Fire massacres attackers), to Grenadier Tank Hunters (defenses don’t matter). Leang is so good in so many areas she is borderline overpowered (starting with Chain Guns, Black Napalm, and MiG Boosters is a little too much imo) but not invincible. Number one Chinese general and only slightly inferior to Townes.

3. General Deathstrike

Realistically Granger or Tao could have been given this slot, but Deathstrike gets it because he offers the most radical improvement over the base faction at the cost of some of the GLA uniqueness (most of it required tons of micro anyway). Playing him comes at the cost of Bomb Trucks, Battle Buses, Hijackers, Saboteurs, and Angry Mobs but the gains are enormous. Hornet’s Nests (excellent anti-ground), Flash RPG Troopers (Rapid Fire Rockets can save you in many situations), Junk Repair base, Marauder Tank base, Basilisks (combined with Tunnels and Surprise Attack), Katyusha Rockets (unstoppable by defenses), Salvage 3rd level General Power (combined with Junk Armor and AP upgrades), Stealth Gadfly’s (makes Granger eat it) all combine to turn Deathstrike into the best GLA General in the game in my opinion. He also possesses something that the other GLA generals lack completely in his moderately effective air units (Desert Flies are kind of odd, but Rocket Hinds can be really good).

Middle Generals (no particular order):

1. General Granger

General Granger brings a very unique style to the game and his use of first strike oriented air units makes him really fun to play. What keeps him from the top spot over Townes is simply his ability to finish the game. Against Generals that repair very quickly and have potent AA (Leang and Thrax come to mind) you can bomb them all day and night and not make any progress, and this can turn to irritation as your land forces are mediocre and can rarely hold the line even with air support. Stealth Commanches, Advanced Patriots and Pathfinders are the key to making advances and keeping them, and in addition his abundant bomb-raining General Powers and Airborne Troops not subject to AA make this endeavor not only possible but fun. Granger has his weaknesses, but overall is a blast to play and is one of my personal favorites.

2. General Fai

General Fai has a place close to my heart because he has one important advantage that most generals don’t – his advantages kick in almost right away. An excellent rushing general, his ability to fill the field with elite infantry right away (3 Elite Red Guards per click is deadly to just about everything but the hardiest tanks) is valuable and fresh. You can use groups of Red Guards as meat shields, buffer zones, or simply march them over mine fields to clear them (such as in the Juhziz level). Propaganda and the Horde Bonus are big things for Fai, and since he starts with Nationalism he feels very responsive. Fai is also one of the few non-GLA generals that can produce an effective set of defenses without the need for any power at all (3 Barracks spamming out Guards and THs, Fortified Bunkers, and Mortar Pits can work out very good for you). Fai also has the unexpected bonus of a highly effective artillery unit – the Berserker MLRS. Getting these to support your infantry attacks is almost a must (your 1st general point should be Marksmanship, then the 2nd Berserkers). Fai also has many good design decisions across the board including his weak basic tanks having Propaganda Towers on them, Battle Fortress Overlords, Bunker Helix with Propaganda and Super Hacker/Hack Van benefits.

3. General Tao

General Tao is over the top Nuclear, which makes him also extraordinarily fun and effective. He is similar to Dr. Thrax in the sense that he is pretty much the same as the basic faction, but better. Tao’s arsenal is riddled with effective weapons and upgrades, and the side benefits he gets over basic China make him feel effective and cool. Starting with Nuke Cannons (amazing on the attack and defensive), Nuclear Battlemasters (which are fast as fuck with Fusion Reactors), Siege Cannons (SSNR shells are devastating and great when bombarded), Radiation Suits (yes please), Nuclear MiGs/MiG Bombers (powerful attacks especially versus groups), and the second tier of Nuclear Upgrades that don’t require a Nuclear Missile Silo (Fusion Reactors and Shells) really define Tao in addition to his Nuclear General Powers which amuse and delight. Everybody wishes they had a nuclear weapon to play around with at some point, and with this guy it sates that urge. Solid Middle General.

4. Dr. Thrax

As mentioned above, Dr. Thrax is very much like the basic GLA faction except better. Toxin everything is his game, which ultimately means you can spam his tanks until the cows come home and never have to worry about enemy infantry. Many of Thrax’s units have power for this reason… garrison clearing is a peace of cake and infantry for the most part don’t stand a chance against him. Combine this with deadly AA (Pythons are ridiculously good), surprisingly great Artillery (Scourges and Grenadiers are welcome bonuses), the ever popular Nerve Gas Bomb (the single Level 3 General Power that can ruin the Chinese economy), and Toxin Infantry Ambushes that are much more effective then the standard GLA ones and you have a decent middle general. I personally do not like Thrax very much, but that’s just because of my personal tastes. He has a slight and annoying weakness to armour that irks me at some moments, and unlike Fire and Nuclear his Toxins are almost completely ineffective versus buildings which are typically the most deadly threats on the battlefield in Generals Challenges.

5. General Alexander

General Alexander is one of those generals with lots of really neat toys that you generally don’t get to try because there are better ways of achieving said aim using her other better weapons. She has the really nice advantage of devastating and frequent bomb raining General Powers and almost limitless power for a similar cost to the basic USA. Naturally she does Superweapon spam very well (cheap and very space efficient Particle Cannons are nice) and has brilliant defenses that are equal to and in some places exceed even Townes in some respects (an EMP Patriot straight up wins versus and Overlord while a Laser Turret needs support or numbers), but her chief weakness is very similar to Grangers – she is a bad finisher. Her Drone Tanks and Shatterers are good anti-armour but they have weaknesses (low HP, veterancy for drones, and terrain issues for Sonic Waves). Her artillery units appear nice at first but are really less then stellar (Plasma Tomahawks are difficult to use versus concentrated AA and Lockdown MLRS have no accuracy, low damage, and sometimes strike terrain, Alpha Auroras have a completely different role then normal Aurora Bombers) meaning the majority of the workload in breaking air defenses falls to either Stealth Fighters (which aren’t bad for her) or her abundance of Superweapons and Bomb Raining General Powers. Overall though she is a neat General and fun to play if you want to punish your opponents but don’t feel like the micromanagement of Granger.

6. General Juhziz

General Juhziz is a surprisingly well designed General that I have recently discovered to actually be quite satisfying in General’s challenge. He has a few weaknesses over basic GLA which are quite apparent (no Hijackers, Camels are nerfed Toxin Tractors, his TSUs aren’t quite as good as normal Quad Cannons) but these were to accommodate the cool little benefits here and there he has. Terror Bikes are extremely effective Scalpel units that can be used to quickly takeout vulnerable enemy units and enforce your will on the battlefield in a satisfying manner (the fact their explosions don’t kill each other is great too). Juhziz also has greatly improved Bomb Trucks (Black Market Nukes are an excellent touch and hurt like hell), a super Scud Launcher (It’s really great to see at least one GLA General with a super artillery unit), the second best commando in the game (Demo Jarmen Kell is that much better then the normal one), a super Scud Storm (always want to make two of them in a diamond formation), really well done Demo Traps (quickly made and extremely potent) and the BRDM-1 (which is so good it completely defines his faction). Once I got the hang of building lots of units continuously as replacements, Juhziz proved to be an absolute blast (no pun intended) and a great general overall.

The Worst Generals in the Game:

1. General Ironside

I hate to rip on a brand new General, but every game that has good generals also has bad ones. Fortunately however Ironside is probably the least bad out of the three of them, so I’ll start with him. He has a collection of good weapons and benefits unique to the USA worth mentioning such as Sniper Burton (Anti-Material Round Upgrade makes him the best commando in the game hands down), Mammoth Tanks with no requirements but a General Point (drool), Howitzers (accurate, fast firing, and unstoppable), Tank Destroyers, and Missile Silos (fire and forget Superweapon, strange how all the new Generals have unique Superweapons). The most defining advantage that Ironside has though is that his Main Battle Tank the Wraith can be upgraded to have an anti-everything missile to complement its attack (a MBT attacking air? Extremely unique). All that being said, Ironside has some problems. For starters he loses a heck of a lot compared to basic USA in return for not a lot of serious gains on the ground such as having to build a Radar Dome independently of the CC (so no Spy Satellite till its up, plus it costs more then any other general), no Pathfinders (so bye bye long range infantry elimination and passive stealth detection), a Missile Defender that shoots air units (Javelins gain some additional range, but Blue Arrow Defenders are absolute garbage), a Humvee that your infantry can shoot out of (Bradleys are transports, but they have better combat effectiveness), good anti-missile defenses (Gladiators are a half-assed shadow of Avengers), and powerful airborne firepower like Commanches and Stealth Fighters. Despite all this Ironside isn’t all that bad, but he is definitely on the losing end of the USA generals which with the exception of him are all great.

2. General Kwai

General Kwai is like China’s red headed stepchild, that General that’s there but you always feel like you are being punished for playing him. In the spirit of fairness, let’s start with the good. Just about everything that comes out of the War Factory is useful, and barring a ton of upgrades both minor and major you can produce a pretty effective army just by spamming units. Emperor Overlords are still the final word in absolute annialation provided they can get to where you send them and Warmasters are excellent and well received medium tanks that few ground units can stand against well. Ramjet Turrets are surprisingly light on power and great versus everything on the ground that doesn’t out range them. Tank Factories provide you with a Refinery in your base, which makes building lots of vehicles that much easier. And now we get to the bad. As a whole Kwai’s army is extremely slow and lacks good artillery or air support. Advanced ECMs used to make up for this deficiency, but somewhere along the way from ZH to SW 1.0 they lost their massive range and ability to disable buildings and vehicles through obstacles such as structures and more importantly terrain. Kwai’s Razor Bombers are ridiculously expensive compared to normal MiGs (coming in as 1400 something with a Tank Factory) for being not a heck of a lot better apart from avoiding missile defenses. Combine this with the bad pathing tendencies in the Generals Engine and you get a slow moving juggernaut with poor air support, no artillery support that’s easy prey to enemy artillery units. Try facing Kwai Challenge #1 versus Dr. Thrax to see what I mean… once his Scourges show up your pretty much cooked unless you have you entrances covered with Neutron Mines (the saving grace of Kwai during some challenges).

3. Prince Kassad

And here we are… Prince Kassad. In my opinion this guy is the worst general in the game for the Generals Challenge, and for good reason. The way the challenges are scripted certain opponents simply ignore your stealth benefits and attack you anyway regardless of whether you have detection or not, but that is not the real reason why Kassad is bad. I’ll start with the good first: Kassad’s stealth benefits mean you can get away with doing some things such as hiding a Supply Stash, or using an unstealthed building to lure enemy planes into your stealthed AA. Kassad leans towards infantry, and he has some really good choices here. Rocket Snipers are exceptional and handy, with their ability to attack at long range and then run away to safety with ease. Hijackers being stealthed all the time are really good and can eat up columns of tanks without good anti infantry. Assassins are well received and a welcome addition to the army while Quad Snipers are definitely an improvement over standard ones in terms of range. Now that all the good is out of the way, here is the bad. The major problem with Kassad is that he has no power when it comes to dealing with enemy vehicles, and his base defenses are near worthless against them once they lose the cover of stealth. The rest of his army apart from those things mentioned above is pretty mediocre and without any sort of armored support will quickly lose any direct engagements. Assassins are great, but Jarmen Kell fills pretty much the same role with some added anti-vehicle/chopper/structure/ benefits. Anti-tank Guns are terrible and should at least be able to rotate to face targets (if slowly, it is annoyingly easy to circumvent them even when used on mass). On top of all the above, all his useful base defenses become useless when a bit of toxin or machinegun fire comes their way (you want a true challenge, try beating Thrax with Kassad on hard… it’s terrible)

Explaining the Big Balance Concerns:

Alright, so here are some intelligent suggestions that I think should be taken into consideration to bring the bottom 3 generals up to par with at least the middle ones.

1. Prince Kassad’s Issues and Solutions

- Hijackers should automatically hijack vehicles instead of being crushed (this fixes some odd situations where they were getting crushed instead of hijacking)
- Anti-Tank guns should be able to slowly rotate to engage attackers
- The ‘Rebel’ Ambush power should give 1 Saboteur per level (this gives the ability some greater impact for Kassad as well as making one of the harder to use units appear more frequently on the battlefield. A short cooldown on the Sabotage ability after spawn will give opponents a fair chance to detect them)
- New Unit: Salamander (Improved Chameleon Tank, essentially a Tank Hunter vehicle that is poor against structures)

2. General Kwai’s Issues and Solutions

- Advanced ECM Tank should be able to outrange base defenses and artillery platforms, and in addition be able to disable buildings/vehicles through intervening terrain and structures
- Razor Bombers should be about $200 cheaper, and start with MiG Armour upgrade (and possibly even have an additional level above that such as ‘Sealed Razor Armour’ or something like that that further increases armour to establish these units as good anti-artillery support)
- Reaper Tanks should have built in jammers (to protect against missiles, since they are already vulnerable to tank shells and bombs) or be faster in order to justify spending a General Point to build them. As it stands they are of questionable use when Warmasters are much better medium tanks and cheaper too.

3. General Ironside’s Issues and Solutions

- Fix the AI pathing problem with Ironside’s Dozers (they get stuck a lot and it really hurts when you tell them to build something and they get stuck)
- Adjust Blue Arrow Defenders so they deal damage by one big missile rather then a barrage of little ones and an almost impossible to micro ability (having powerful infantry based AA could be an advantage for Ironside)
- New Infantry Unit: Grenadier (medium range anti-infantry grenades that clear garrisons, perfect weapon for Ironside given that this is one of his key balance weaknesses)
- Increase the hit points of Black Widows and FB Bombers slightly (since they both fulfill a slightly different niche then the other USA generals they should not be made of paper to reflect that)

This post has been edited by Caustizer: 28 Feb 2012, 3:16