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General Kwai specialises in tanks, and his army features a few very advanced armour units, which can puncture enemy vehicles and structures with ease. The problem with his army, however, is that his tanks are generally slow and inflexible, and has no artillery units, which slows down his assault and forces him to overrun enemy defense with numbers.

Army Modifications[edit]

  • Infantry cost much more to train.
  • All tanks start at Veteran Level.
  • Tanks cost less, but the construction time is unchanged.
  • Aircraft cost more.
  • Nuke Cannon is unavailable.
  • Inferno Cannon is unavailable.
  • The Carpet Bombing Ability is now a 5 Star Ability.

Army Units[edit]

  • Emperor Tank - Replaces the Overlord Tank, this advanced prototype has superior armour, firepower, and firing rate than the older vehicle. In addition, it comes with a turret-mounted Speaker Tower, which can be used in conjunction with the Gattling Gun upgrade. The Bunker upgrade, however, is unavailable for it.

Army Upgrade[edit]

  • Autoloader - Available at the Propaganda Center, increases the firing rate of Battlemaster Tanks.

General Abilities[edit]

1 Star General Ability[edit]

  • Battlemaster Tank Training - All Battlemaster tanks are built at Elite Veterancy. This replaces the Artillery Training and Nuke Cannon 1 Star General Abilities.

2 Star General Ability[edit]

  • Tank Drop - Drop Battlemaster Tanks from a plane at any location on the map. There is 3 levels of Tank Drop, a higher level drops more tanks.

Strategies[edit]

Battle Master Rush

The Battle Masters of the Tank General are especially frightening; they can be built at Elite stage (if the ability that corresponds to this is enabled), and can be upgraded for even faster firepower. Use these in masses to tank rush an opponent early to cripple his construction routines.

Any Player will be frightened to have a literal horde of Battle Masters attacking his base. Keep in mind, however, not to treat these tanks as cannon fodder; they still have their weaknesses. Beware of enemy aircraft and defenses. Accompany them with a number of Gatling Tanks to make your rushes successful and cost-effective. Do not sacrifice these tanks if the end result will be you to lose more units' money worth than your opponent.

A (perhaps) even better strategy than this, is to raid your opponent not with Battle Masters, but with the colossal Emperor Overlord Tanks.

The Emperor Tank - Excellent All-Round Unit

What may be really considered unique about Kwai is the Emperor tank.

The Overlord will often be the "Winner Unit" of any China player; these super tanks are slow and costly, but their use is more than worth the money; a group of them can dispose of an entire enemy base if handled properly and supplemented with one or two artillery units. If anyone tells you these super units are impractical, they are immensely mistaken; if upgraded, the Overlord can destroy almost any threat that challenges it, when used in decent numbers and proper micromanagement.

That being said, General Kwai has perhaps the single best Chinese unit in the game; the Emperor. Normal Chinese players will want to have both a Gatling Cannon Overlord to wipe out dangerous tank hunters and aircraft quickly, and a Speaker Tower one to heal one's armies. Once a single Emperor is built, however, it can have both these upgrades quickly. This makes the Emperor a nasty foe to deal with, and an almost impenetrable mobile defense to consider. Almost nothing can get through this tank's defenses, except perhaps artillery units (e.g. Rocket Buggies, Scud Launchers, Nuke Cannon, and Tomahawks).

Defense and Offense Tactics

Have two or three Emperors early in the game to solidify your defense. Station them around your base quickly to protect from enemy attacks; Emperors may work even better than Gatling Cannons or Bunkers. You may want to produce Battle Masters in masses to continuously harass your opponent while he vainly attempts to attack your base.

The great thing about using units (instead of structures) as a defensive perimeter is not only do they serve as a mobile defense mechanism, but they will eventually get considerably stronger if they survive wave after wave of enemy attackers; and Emperors are the units you will want for this. These will absorb lots of punishment before going down, and if they are heavily damaged after a raid, they will heal. This makes them almost immortal units; as they destroy invaders in unison (have at least two defending one section of your base for more firepower), they will increase in rank and heal themselves between attacks. This makes them an excellent alternative to building Bunkers or Gatling Cannon.

Kwai's main weakness, however, is vulnerability to long range assault; defeat him with weapons such as the Aurora Bomber or the Rocket Buggy, and, if playing him, watch out for these units and you may want to build a Helix or two filled with Tank Hunters to supplement your tanks' weaknesses.

Summary/Walkthrough

When playing Kwai, quickly rush to building a War Factory and two or three Battle Masters to counter any early attacks. Then, rush to building a Propaganda Center; build two or three (or even four) Emperors (and upgrade with Gatling Cannon) and station them around your base to prevent your opponent from flanking you. Build more and more Emperors until the enemy decides to use aircraft or artillery; to prevent this, have a Helix or two with Tank Hunters garrisoned inside their Bunkers (upgrade them this way) ready to decimate these pests. A Battle Master rush backed up by 3 or 4 Emperors will work well; in fact, have at least 4 Emperors to attack your opponent and you might even be successful; they are very powerful units.

Due to the expensive hackers, Kwai has an abysmal late game; it's crucial to your survival that you crush the enemy as early as possible while your supply dock is still filled. Later on it becomes very hard to make enough money to build a tank army.

If playing against Kwai, remember that he (or the player playing him) will want to prefer rush tactics. Aircraft will work best against this (preferably Comanches or Helixes with Tank Hunters inside a Bunker), as well as a solid defense consisting of multiple anti-armor defenses (Patriots or Bombard Cannon for the USA, Bunkers with Tank Hunters for China, and Stinger Sites and Demolition Traps for the GLA). Keep in mind, however, that unless these defenses are supplemented with helicopters or Rocket Buggies, they are bound to fall as Kwai will have A LOT of tanks in store.