Red Guard (Generals 1)

"For the Republic!"

- Red Guard

The Red Guard was the basic infantry of the Chinese Army.

Background
Unlike the infantrymen of the other two factions the Chinese retain the larger 7.62mm round in contrast to the Rebels 5.45mm AKS-74U round or the Ranger’s 5.56mm M16 round, but as a drawback have a lower rate of fire from their semi-automatic rifles. With the larger rounds, they can do more damage than other basic infantry.

Their low rate of fire was countered by numbers, as they were trained in pairs at a Barracks or groups of eight with each Troop Crawler at the War Factory. They could also garrison buildings and be trained to capture buildings at a Barracks. In groups of 5 or more, Red Guard would experience a 'Horde Effect' that greatly boosted morale and, by extension, fighting prowess. Also, if enemy infantry came very close to a Red Guard, they would use their bayonet against the target, which does a large amount of damage to infantry. This usually occurs if a Red Guard captures a oil derrick, then an enemy infantry attempts to capture the same structure beside him.

Upgrades
"We stand together!"

- Red Guard

Tactics/Counters
"China, save me!"

- Red Guard under enemy fire

Individual Red Guard were a poor match for the infantry of other factions. Equally, they were easy prey for anti-infantry weapons, for example the Quad Cannon. However, as they were so quick to train, they could be deployed in sufficient numbers to overwhelm enemy infantry by attrition, particularly early in a conflict. They were particularly effective against GLA Terrorist rushes, as China did not have a cheap and effective counter against them until they had a War Factory up and running.

Red Guard could also be used to cheaply give a horde bonus to Tank Hunters by keeping them together in large squads. This made it more difficult for the enemy to break the bonus or target just the Tank Hunters. Care had to be taken to ensure that the faster Red Guard did not separate from the Tank Hunters while moving or fighting.

Note that General Shin Fai has been equipping his Red Guard with more modern machine guns. These "Mini-Gunners" are more pricey but can deal more damage and can attack aircraft.

Trivia
The effective usage of a semi-automatic assault rifle over fully-automatic assault rifle was exemplified during the Falklands War.

British forces adopted modified FN FALs redesigned L1A1 as their standard rifle. A major issue with the FN FAL was the powerful round it fired the 7.62x51mm, subsequently firing automatically was difficult to control. The L1A1 was the British solution by limiting it to semi-automatic in contrast to the full-automatic FN FAL. Argentine forces used the unmodified FN FALs and Argentine made FN FALs. During the Falklands War the semi-automatic L1A1 proved more efficient, leading the British to victory over the Argentinians.

This was not true for the Chinese themselves however. In the Sino-Vietnamese Conflict in 1979, Chinese infantry armed with Type 56 semi-automatic rifles (like in the game) suffered heavy casualities from AK-armed Vietnamese troopes. The different performance between the FAL and AK-47 can be explained easily: While the 7.62 x 51 mm full power cartridge made the FAL hard to handle in fully-automatic fire, the reduced recoil of the 7.62 x 39 mm intermediate cartridge fired from the AK-47 made for a far better result. Furthermore, automatic weapons are more suitable than semi-automatic weapon for use in jungle warfare. Learning this leason, the PLA issued their infantry Type 56 and Type 81 assault rifles, both of which were modified version of the AK-47. (The former was, ironically, one of the primary weapon of the Vietnamese, who were extensively supplied by the Chinese in their previous war against the Americans.)

The same conflict also forced the PLA to develop and issue helmets to their troops, who were previously only issued the "Liberation hat", as in the game. This resulted in an 85% reduction in casualities.