Zero Hour China Units, Buildings and How to Play

Zero Hour China units win through mass and armor. Tanks are cheaper than American ones, infantry fights in numbers, and fire and radiation burn down anything that stands packed together. Below are China's units and buildings from the Zero Hour INI files, version 1.04, with strengths, weaknesses and tips for playing on a phone.

Play style

The game sums up China as fire and overwhelming numbers. That gives you the faction's main move: build a large group of Battlemasters with infantry and roll forward before the enemy has time to set up.

What the army leans on:

• Horde: infantry and Battlemasters get a rate-of-fire bonus when they stand in a group;
• Propaganda: the Speaker Tower, and the Propaganda Tower upgrade on the Overlord, heal nearby units and speed up their fire;
• Hackers: placed in the Internet Center, they earn money for the whole match;
• Nuclear Missile: a nuclear strike that leaves radiation behind.

Economy and power

Money is hauled by the Supply Truck: 600, 10 seconds, 300 health. It is cheaper and tougher than the US Chinook, but slower. Later the Hackers join in: put them in the Internet Center (2500) and they bring in a small but steady income.

Power comes from the Nuclear Reactor: 1000 and 10 seconds, 1500 health. You can Overcharge it for extra power, but the reactor takes damage while doing so. A destroyed reactor explodes and hits everything around it, so don't build it right next to your War Factory.

Main China units

Source: Zero Hour 1.04 files. Damage per shot, range in game units.

Unit	Cost	Time, s	Health	Main weapon: damage / range
Red Guard	300	10	120	machine gun 15 / 100
Tank Hunter	300	5	100	missile 40 / 175
Hacker	625	20	100	unarmed, hacks buildings
Black Lotus	1500	20	200	unarmed, captures buildings
Battlemaster	800	10	400	cannon 60 / 150
Dragon Tank	800	10	280	flamethrower 10 / 75
Gattling Tank	800	10	300	15 / 150, vs air 12 / 350
ECM Tank	800	10	300	jams vehicles, 200
Troop Crawler	1400	15	240	carries infantry
Inferno Cannon	900	15	120	shell 30 / 300
Nuke Cannon	1600	20	240	shell 400 / 350
Overlord	2000	20	1100	cannon 80 / 175
Helix	1500	20	300	machine gun 6 / 115
MiG	1200	10	160	missiles 75 / 320

The Overlord is the toughest tank in the game: 1100 health, more than two US Paladins put together. But its speed is 20 game units against the Battlemaster's 25, and without an upgrade it has no defense against aircraft.

Real-world prototypes of China units

China in Generals is built from Soviet and Chinese Cold War hardware, with some science fiction added by the developers. Here is what stands behind the units in the table:

• Red Guard. The name refers to the Red Guards (Hongweibing) of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. By role it is PLA conscript infantry with an assault rifle like the Type 56, the Chinese copy of the AK-47.
• Tank Hunter. An infantryman with a shoulder-fired anti-tank launcher. The closest real weapon is the Type 69, China's version of the Soviet RPG-7.
• Hacker. China really has cyber troops: in 2024 the PLA made its Cyberspace Force a separate branch. Earning money by hacking, as in the Internet Center, is a story convention.
• Black Lotus. A fictional heroine with no prototype.
• Battlemaster. Based on the Type 59 and Type 79 tanks. The Type 59 is a Chinese copy of the Soviet T-54A, built from the late 1950s. From the Type 79 the Battlemaster got its five road wheels and the fume extractor halfway along the barrel.
• Dragon Tank. Flamethrower tanks fought in World War II: the Soviet OT-34 and the British Churchill Crocodile. Almost none are left today, and their job is done by heavy flamethrower systems firing thermobaric rockets.
• Gattling Tank. A multi-barrel Gatling-type gun against infantry and aircraft. Guns like this sit on the American M163 Vulcan air defense vehicle and on the Chinese Type 730 naval system.
• ECM Tank. By role it is an electronic warfare vehicle that jams radio and radar. Real EW vehicles can't stop tanks at a distance.
• Troop Crawler. The wheeled APC is copied from the Soviet BTR-80, which entered service in 1986. In the PLA itself the same job is done by the wheeled ZSL-92 and ZBL-08.
• Inferno Cannon. A self-propelled gun with incendiary shells. The closest match by role is China's 155 mm PLZ-05 self-propelled howitzer, although it mostly fires high-explosive shells.
• Nuke Cannon. Atomic cannons did exist. The American 280 mm M65 "Atomic Annie" fired a nuclear shell at the Nevada test site in May 1953, and the USSR built the 406 mm Kondensator self-propelled gun. Both soon became obsolete: missiles proved more practical.
• Overlord. No prototype. Its four tracks and two guns come from the Mammoth Tank of earlier C&C games. A real vehicle this wide and heavy would sink in soft ground and couldn't cross most bridges.
• Helix. The name matches the NATO reporting name of the Soviet Ka-27 and Ka-29 helicopters with coaxial rotors, and the Helix looks like an enlarged Ka-29. China's navy also flies a helicopter of this family, the Ka-28.
• MiG. A reference to the Soviet Mikoyan design bureau. For decades the Chinese air force flew the J-7, a licensed copy of the MiG-21. The first J-7 took off in 1966.

Among the buildings, the Nuclear Missile has a real prototype: China put silo-based DF-5 ballistic missiles on duty in the early 1980s.

Key buildings

Building	Cost	Time, s	Health
Command Center	2000	45	5000
Nuclear Reactor	1000	10	1500
Barracks	500	10	1000
Supply Center	1500	10	2000
War Factory	2000	15	2000
Air Field	1000	30	1500
Bunker	400	5	1000
Gattling Cannon	1200	25	1000
Propaganda Center	2000	45	1000
Internet Center	2500	30	2500
Nuclear Missile	5000	60	4000

The Gattling Cannon fires at ground targets at range 225 and at air targets at 400, which makes it one of the best anti-air defenses of any faction. China's Supply Center is 500 cheaper than the American one.

Strengths and weaknesses

What China does well:

• cheap armor: a Battlemaster costs 800 and absorbs 400 damage;
• fire and radiation against infantry and tight groups;
• solid base anti-air from the first minutes;
• an upgraded Overlord covers several roles at once.

Where China struggles:

• heavy vehicles are slow and easy to catch with aircraft and rocket infantry;
• its own air force is weak: MiGs with 160 health die fast over enemy anti-air;
• outside a group the Horde bonus disappears, and a lone Chinese unit loses to an enemy unit of the same price.

Each Chinese general takes one side of the faction to the limit: Kwai goes all-in on tanks, Tao on radiation and nuclear shells, Fai on infantry.

Matchups

Against the USA, aircraft are the main threat. Keep Gattling Tanks in every armor group and cover your base with Gattling Cannons, which reach 400 against air. A Comanche with 220 health doesn't last long under that fire.

Against GLA, fire works. Dragons and Inferno Cannons burn through Rebels and Workers, and Battlemasters with 400 health shrug off Scorpions, whose cannon hits for 20. Watch the tunnels: a GLA army can come out of any of them behind your lines.

In a China mirror match the economy decides. Hackers in the Internet Center add extra money, and whoever puts them to work first gets Overlords out first.

Playing China on a phone

China's army is large, so the group bar on the left is your main tool. A layout that works well with fingers:

1. Battlemasters and Overlords in group "1", infantry in "2", anti-air and Gattling Tanks in "3".
2. A double tap on a unit selects every unit of that type on screen: a quick way to grab all your Dragons without drawing a box.
3. A double tap on a group slot jumps the camera to that group. It replaces edge scrolling, which is turned off in ZeroFront.

A horde is easiest to steer with a box: press, drag around the squad, tap the map. If you grabbed too much, a long press of about 0.6 seconds or a two-finger tap clears the selection. The rest of the gestures are on the touch controls page.

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