Quad cannon (Generals 1)

"I'll point it at the next thing that moves."

- Quad cannon assembled.

The Quad Cannon, was a Soviet-era (the BTR-152 TCM-20) weapon recycled by the GLA. It was the organization's prime choice as an economical anti-infantry and anti-aircraft vehicle.

Background
A half-track vehicle equipped with four heavy machine guns on a rotating turret, the Quad cannon can tear through soft and lightly-armoured targets. Especially effective in groups, the Quad cannon is cheap and easy to acquire through an Arms dealer.

Resourceful Quad cannon crews can upgrade their weapon sets by salvaging parts from destroyed enemy vehicles.

Upgrades
"Gimme that!"

- Quad Cannon about to salvage a wreck

Salvage
As previously mentioned, the Quad cannon can also be upgraded by salvaging parts from the battlefield, resulting in better performance.
 * Its first salvage upgrade slightly increases its damage, firing rate and gives the gun a more modern look
 * Its second salvage upgrade greatly increases its firing rate

Campaign
Interestingly, a duplicate version of Prince Kassad's Quad Cannons used in the campaign has a unique ability called Quad Cannon Snipe Rounds which, if researched, allows them to kill hostile infantry in a single shot.

Game unit
"We're losing units to Quad cannons - send armour!"

- US Ranger

Strategy
As Chinese and American generals quickly learned, in spite of its antiquity, the Quad Cannon was still a surprisingly effective weapon. Inexpensive to acquire, the Quad cannon can quickly be deployed in divisions of a considerable size. In superior numbers, they can tear through infantry, aircraft and light vehicles, and even stand a good chance against lighter tanks. Quad cannons are by no means weakly armoured either, especially for a light vehicle. Add to this the capability of Quad cannons to be easily upgraded with salvaged parts, and one can see how the quad cannon is often an underestimated vehicle to be reckoned with.

Groups of fully upgraded Quad cannons with salvaged parts can easily tear through all targets with impunity-infantry, light vehicles, aircraft, and buildings. Even heavier tanks would eventually fall to prolonged attack by a swarm of quad cannons.

Quad Cannons are extremely effective against aircraft, especially against General Granger's forces, as his laser defenses are not capable of stopping the onslaught of lead a Quad Cannon could dish out.

Counters
Nevertheless, against heavy armour deployed in large numbers, Quad Cannons are rather ineffective. Although they have average range, artillery, rogue Rocket buggies and Chinese Nuke cannons can easily destroy them without exposing themselves to attack.

As with all weapons, Quad Cannons are still vulnerable to Aurora bombers, which can simply speed past the hail of bullets and destroy the vehicle with impunity.