GLA in Generals Zero Hour: Units, Buildings and How to Play

The GLA (Global Liberation Army) is the cheapest and sneakiest faction in Generals Zero Hour. It has no power plants, destroyed buildings rebuild themselves from holes, and vehicles upgrade their weapons with enemy wreckage. Below are GLA units and buildings from the Zero Hour INI files, version 1.04, plus tips for playing the GLA on a phone.

Play style

The game describes the GLA as a side that prefers underhanded, sneaky tactics. A head-on fight with US or Chinese tanks usually goes badly for it, so the GLA wins by maneuver: a raid on supply trucks, an ambush at a tunnel, a SCUD on a cluster of vehicles.

What the army relies on:

• Tunnel Network: units enter one tunnel and exit from any other;
• Salvage: the Scorpion, Marauder and other vehicles pick up wreckage from destroyed vehicles and get weapon upgrades;
• Holes: a destroyed building leaves a GLA Hole, and a Worker rebuilds the building from it for free;
• Camouflage: Jarmen Kell, the Hijacker and camo-netted buildings.

Economy without power plants

The GLA has no power plants, and its buildings need no power. You can't shut down GLA defenses by killing reactors, because there are none. The GLA gets its radar as a Command Center upgrade.

Money is carried by Workers: 200, 3 seconds, 100 health. A Worker walks and carries little, so you put several on each supply dock. The Supply Stash costs 1500 and builds in 10 seconds, with one Worker included. Later the Black Market (2500) adds income on its own and unlocks upgrades.

Main GLA units

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

Unit	Cost	Time, s	Health	Main weapon: damage / range
Rebel	150	5	120	rifle 5 / 100
RPG Trooper	300	5	100	rocket 40 / 175
Terrorist	200	5	120	self-detonation
Hijacker	400	10	100	steals vehicles
Saboteur	800	15	120	sabotages buildings
Jarmen Kell	1500	20	200	sniper rifle 180 / 225
Combat Cycle	500	4	100	depends on the rider
Scorpion	600	7	370	cannon 20 / 150
Marauder Tank	800	10	500	cannon 60 / 170
Quad Cannon	700	6	300	10 / 150, vs air 5 / 350
Rocket Buggy	900	10	120	rockets 20 / 300
Toxin Tractor	600	5	240	toxin 10 / 100
SCUD Launcher	1200	15	180	missile 300 / 350
Bomb Truck	1200	15	220	self-detonation
Battle Bus	1000	15	400	passengers fire from inside

We left the Technical out of the table: in the files it is a random pick from several vehicle variants, and there is no single full set of numbers for it. The Marauder matches the US Paladin on health (500) and costs 300 less. The fastest GLA unit is the Combat Cycle: 120 game units against 30 for the US Crusader.

Real-world prototypes of GLA units

The GLA fights with whatever it can buy on the black market or put together in a workshop. So its units are modeled on old Soviet weapons and civilian vehicles, and some are invented from scratch.

• Rebel. A militiaman with a Kalashnikov: the AK-47 and its copies remain the most common weapon of irregular armies.
• RPG Trooper. Armed with the RPG-7, a Soviet shoulder-fired grenade launcher from 1961 that several countries still produce.
• Terrorist, Hijacker, Saboteur. Game roles without a specific prototype.
• Jarmen Kell. A fictional sniper hero, the GLA's answer to Colonel Burton.
• Combat Cycle. An ordinary off-road motorcycle. Motorcycles with a gunner or a grenadier riding behind the driver show up in many local wars.
• Scorpion. According to the game's story, these are old light tanks with new engines. The British FV101 Scorpion light tank, which appeared in the 1970s, has the same name.
• Marauder Tank. The GLA's own design with no prototype among real tanks. Judging by the model, the hull is built on a tracked crane chassis covered with armor.
• Quad Cannon. Four barrels on a truck: this is the Soviet 14.5 mm ZPU-4 anti-aircraft mount. It is often bolted into the beds of pickups and trucks, and such vehicles fought in Libya, Syria and Iraq.
• Rocket Buggy. A light buggy with a launcher. Similar vehicles, the American Desert Patrol Vehicles, went on raids during the 1991 Gulf War.
• Toxin Tractor. A civilian tractor with a tank and a sprayer. It has no military counterpart.
• SCUD Launcher. The Soviet R-17 missile of the 9K72 Elbrus system, known in NATO as the SS-1 Scud. It rides on a MAZ-543 wheeled carrier. The name became widely known in 1991, when Iraq fired Scuds at Israel and Saudi Arabia.
• Bomb Truck, Battle Bus. Game units without a prototype: a converted civilian truck and an armor-plated school bus.

Among the buildings, real weapons sit in the Stinger Site: American FIM-92 Stinger man-portable air defense systems, in service since 1981.

Key buildings

Building	Cost	Time, s	Health
Command Center	2000	45	5000
Supply Stash	1500	10	2000
Barracks	500	10	1000
Arms Dealer	2500	15	2000
Palace	2500	45	3000
Black Market	2500	30	1000
Stinger Site	900	15	1000
Tunnel Network	800	15	1000
Demo Trap	400	5	100
SCUD Storm	5000	60	4000

The Arms Dealer builds every GLA vehicle: the faction has no separate War Factory. A tunnel defends itself with a machine gun, 15 damage at 175. Stinger Soldiers at a Stinger Site respawn on their own: if one dies, a new one takes his place.

Strengths and weaknesses

GLA strengths:

• a cheap, fast start, with Workers built in 3 seconds;
• no dependence on power;
• tunnels let you move an army across the whole map;
• SCUDs and Jarmen Kell punish clumps of vehicles and infantry.

Weaknesses:

• no air force, only Stinger Sites, Quad Cannons and RPG Troopers against aircraft;
• light vehicles lose head-on fights to US and Chinese tanks;
• Workers carry money slowly, so losing a supply stash hurts more than on other sides.

The expansion adds three GLA generals: Dr. Thrax goes for toxins, Prince Kassad for camouflage, General Juhziz for explosives.

Matchups

Against the USA, hunt the Chinooks. The helicopter has 300 health, and a pair of Quad Cannons on the way to the supply dock leaves the American player broke. Paladins beat Marauders head-on, so meet them with RPG Troopers from around a corner or with a Hijacker.

Against China, infantry hordes and Dragons are the danger. The Toxin Tractor and a SCUD with an Anthrax warhead scatter a crowd of Red Guards, and mobility saves you from Overlords: Rocket Buggies with range 300 outrange the Overlord's cannon (175).

In a GLA mirror match, holes decide a lot. Finish off destroyed buildings completely, or a Worker will rebuild them for free.

Playing the GLA on a phone

The GLA asks for the most clicks: cycles, buggies, rebel squads, tunnels. On a phone, the group bar is what saves you:

1. Keep fast raiders (buggies, cycles) in group "1".
2. Put the main army in "2" and SCUDs separately in "3", so they never get dragged into close combat.
3. A double tap on a slot jumps the camera to that squad, so raiding and defending the base cost no time.

Workers are easiest to grab with a double tap: every Worker on screen is selected at once. To clear a group, hold its slot until it fills red. More on the controls page.

FAQ