Militant (Rivals)

"Bring them to their knees!"

- Militants attacking.

The militant squad is a common Nod infantry unit in Command & Conquer: Rivals.

Background
Nod Militants are the Brotherhood's primary light infantry force. Militants are poorly trained and equipped but fight with fanatical zeal.

Abilities

 * Provides vision up to 3 tiles away.
 * Reveals adjacent stealthed units.
 * Reveals adjacent stealthed units.

Game unit
Militant Squad is a cheap, fast infantry unit with sight range of 3, which allows them to quickly establish the opponent's game strategy. This makes them suitable for reconnaissance in the early game.

It is cost-effective against all Barracks units except for Sniper team. Two militant squads can even take down Shockwave troopers. It's the most effective Hand of Nod counter to the Scarabs.

Being fast and cheap, Militants can be used to establish map control in the early game, but will become less useful in the late game, when population cap is at a premium and more effective anti-infantry units are available to the opponent. That being said, even in late game they can be useful since they can hold the pads behind the main fighting zone and can be used to come back from a disastrous skirmish, when the population cap is not a limiting factor.

Being a large squad, Militants can hold against slow firing, large damage units like Obelisk of Light, since it can only kill one squad member per shot. Militants tend to survive well against anti-armor attacks, allowing them to hold position and block vehicles until appropriate counters arrive.

The ability to see three tiles away allows Militants to explore further than non-scout units, allowing to adjust the battle plans sooner. This is especially true against blind double harvester opening. They can lift the cloaking on the Stealth tanks, although they can only do little damage to it.

Works well with Laser squad, since both units together are effective against infantry, vehicles and aircraft. Although Militants are not effective against vehicles, a pair of Laser Squad and Militants will take out War dogs twice as quickly than Laser Squad alone.

It shares the same stats and abilities as the Riflemen.

Decks
Riflemen are found in decks of all sorts, but they are especially useful in :


 * Aggro decks: Riflemen are fast, which allows them to charge pads quickly. The long sight range allows to react faster to the developments on the battlefield.
 * Tech decks: the cheapness of the Riflemen allows to stall the missile cost effectively and not to waste Tiberium on the more expensive units. Until the big guns come out at lest.

Changelog

 * 2018-07-03: Damage vs Vehicles reduced to 15 (was 30)
 * 2018-10-04:
 * Squad size reduced to 5 (was 6)
 * Health increased to 120 (was 100)
 * 2019-12-18: Damaged increased to 38 (was 30)
 * 2019-07-02: HP increased to 130

When created

 * Fighters, arm up!
 * The brotherhood is rising!
 * Militia forward

When selected

 * Destroy the GDI
 * We're ready to serve
 * What's needed?
 * Militia here

When moving

 * Let's go! Let's go!
 * No stopping!
 * Advancing
 * For Kane!
 * Taking position
 * Brothers, move out!

When moving to attack favorably

 * For the brotherhood!
 * The unbelievers will suffer!
 * Bring them to their knees!
 * Kill the unbelievers!

When moving to attack neutral

 * Kill them all!
 * Got it
 * Let's do it!
 * As you wish

When moving to attack unfavorably

 * Kill or be killed!
 * We follow you
 * The glorious death

When unable to attack target

 * Impossible
 * Can't do it

When attacking

 * Nod will prevail!
 * Rip them apart!

When under attack

 * Avenge me, brothers!
 * Taking fire!
 * I see a light
 * Save my soul!

Trivia

 * Militants seem to be modeled after the Militant squad in Tiberium Wars.
 * When idle, shoots into the air.
 * Zealous fighters. Male.

Behind the scenes
In the early game version Militant squad contained 6 members, but it was reduced to 5 before the global launch.

Videos
idling