Rebel (Generals 1)

"The higher order shall reign!"

- Rebel

Rebels were the GLA's basic soldiers of during the War against the GLA. Lacking the more advanced weapons of their counterparts, rebels were inexpensive and quick to train. Armed with AK-47 assault rifles, these dedicated men made up for their lack of training with raw courage.

In-game
Although outmatched by both the Ranger and the Red Guard, the rebel is expendable and works well when attracting enemy fire. His firepower can also be improved by purchasing the AP bullets upgrade at the black market, making the rebel more useful on the battlefield. However, given the GLA's production system, rebels are trained at a slower rate than even the Red Guard, making GLA less viable in the early game while controlling oil derricks.

They are also arguably the weakest of the three basic infantry units. Rangers have superior durability, while the Red Guard have a one-shot burst weapon while the rebels fire three shots (each with one third of the damage value), allowing a lone Red Guard to beat a rebel one-on-one. In addition, rebels have no way to increase their battle prowess at the early game - the only way to increase their direct battle power is by using AP bullets, a late-game upgrade, compared to the Rangers' flash-bang grenades and the Red Guard's horde bonus. Like all infantry units, rebels are easy targets for anti-infantry weaponry.

Because of the GLA's lack of power (rendering them in effective low-power status), having a source of power doubles the training speed of GLA units, including the rebels to put them in par with Rangers.

However, Juhziz' rebels become deadly even at later stages of the game once the demolition upgrade is purchased. This is particularly useful for rebels spawned by Rebel Ambushes, as they can then be quickly deployed to destroy buildings.

Dr. Thrax
Dr. Thrax equipped his toxin rebels with toxin rifles instead of AK-47s. They could clear garrisoned buildings and deal more damage to infantry and vehicles, but were ineffective against buildings. They could not place booby traps and could be upgraded with Anthrax Gamma.

In the mission Area Fifty-Two, they were cheaper ($150 instead of $200), could place booby traps, were immune to toxin weaponry and were, by mistake, referred to as regular rebels.

Rodall 'Demo' Juhziz
Juhziz's rebels are trained to place booby traps without special research required.

Prince Kassad
Prince Kassad's stealth rebels are already stealthed and do not require the camouflage upgrade.

In the mission Hidden Agenda, their cost is reduced to $150.

Changelog

 * Zero Hour patch 1.03:
 * now displays upgrade cameo for booby traps (GLA only)
 * fixed an issue that caused a GLA player's support powers to become un-clickable after he captured an opponent's command center

Trivia

 * Residual Generals sound files reveal that rebels were originally meant to use tranquilizer darts that were to be an alternative weapon purchased through an upgrade. Like flash-bang grenades for Rangers and stun bullets for the Red Guard, they would have incapacitated hostile infantry and have made them capturable as POWs. This weapon is not present in the final version, however, as the POW logic system was entirely removed.
 * Rodall Juhziz was supposed to get an exclusive variant of the rebel known as the demo rebel, which could have planted demolition charges (most likely similar to those of tank hunters). However, they were cut from the final release, although their voice set remains in the game files. Mods like Shockwave restore the demo tebel.
 * The rebel seems to be holding an AKM assault rifle in the cameo, evident by slant muzzle compensator device and non-hooded front sights.
 * Strangely, AK-47s used by rebels not only have a different firing sound, but also deal much less damage per shot compared to AK-47s used by angry mobs.
 * In the mod Rise of the Reds, Rebels can throw molotov cocktails to clear garrisoned structures.