Guan Yu

I am Guan Yu.

590 (Elite)

789 (Heroic)

1771 (Heroic)

Can be easily distracted

Nuclear Tanks

## Introduction

The **Guan Yu** (关羽) is the Chinese Tank General Kwai's super unit in Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour: Contra. The Guan Yu is a very large (even larger than an Overlord) and heavy Gatling tank. It is equipped with dual Gatling cannons that shoot high caliber rounds at a fairly fast speed and is a lethal opponent to everything that stands in its way.

## Overview

After successfully developing new versions of Emperor, Manticore, Banshee and Earth Shaker in his latest Overlord-Class Tank set, he decided to make one Super Heavy Tank equivalent to the Panzer VIII Maus. Hence, this breakthrough tank was created. He named it Guan Yu because the tank could easily destroy an enemy forward base just like the War God breaking through a horde of enemy forces.

The Guan Yu is a super heavy multipurpose breakthrough tank with a robust chassis plated with extremely thick armor. Its main weapons are two six-barreled high caliber rotary cannons fed by a giant conveyor belt connected to its ammo compartment that fire hard AT shells continuously like a gatling cannon. Thanks to its strong spring and efficient cooling system, the tank will never overheat or have itself moving backwards when firing. The tank has a small empty area at the middle of its turret to allow add-ons to be placed on it such as a 5-person bunker, an Anti-Infantry and Aircraft Gauss Cannon, a morale-boosting Propaganda Tower, a stealth-detecting radar or a long-ranged Sniper Cannon. The tank is quite slow but can be upgraded with a nuclear powered engine for faster movement. Its shells can be upgraded with AT shells loaded with a small amount of HE powder and Depleted Uranium.

The Guan Yu perfectly represents General Kwai's doctrine of pure and simple brute force. The Guan Wu's armor platings are some of the toughest in Contra, they can easily withstand super weapon strikes. The twin rotary cannons of the Guan Yu may take some time to spin up, but when they do, expect everything in their crosshairs to die very quickly, be it tanks, structures or other super units. At stock, a single shell from Guan Yu may not do much damage, but with both the Improved Autocannon Shells upgrade and the Uranium Shells upgrade, that's a completely different story.

The Guan Yu also possesses an ability most other super units in Contra do not: the ability to engage enemy aircraft at stock form. So sending in large swarms of helicopters without any distraction to take on the Guan Yu is a very, VERY bad idea.

However, the Guan Yu shares one weakness with the majority of General Kwai's arsenal: poor mobility. Even with the Nuclear Tanks upgrade it's still an awfully slow tank. This is a weakness that GLA Generals can easily exploit, thanks to their high speed hit & run units like the Mortar/Rocket Buggy. With proper micromanagement, a GLA general can utilize his units' range and speed advantage to kite the Guan Yu. The tank's slow movement speed makes it difficult to evade artillery strikes and its slow turret traversal speed makes it difficult to react to fast units. Stealth units can also be a viable option, provided that the Guan Yu is not fitted with a radar module or accompanied by other stealth detectors.

## Variants

General Leang can deploy the Guan Yu from her war factory once a Propaganda Center has been built, however, her Guan Yu lacks the Improved Autocannon Shells upgrade.

**Note**: General Leang can only build a Guan Yu when played by an A.I. as the build button for the unit is set to "SCRIPT\_ONLY". This is likely done to prevent the player from gaining a sizeable edge over her once her tech has been captured in challenge mode.

## Upgrades

**Improved Autocannon Shells**

* Increases the damage per shell with 25% for all autocannons. Researched at the War Factory at Rank 1.

**Uranium Shells**

* Further increases the damage per shell by using depleted uranium shells. Researched at the Overlord Headquarters at Rank 5.

**Nuclear Tanks**

* Installs a new nuclear engine, increasing its speed but triggering an explosion and leaves behind radiation upon destruction. Researched at the Overlord Headquarters at Rank 5.

### Modules

**Gauss Cannon**

* Gives the Guan Yu additional anti-infantry and anti-air firepower.

**Propaganda Tower**

* Allows the Guan Yu to heal itself and other nearby friendly units, as well as giving them a rate of fire bonus.

**Radar**

* Allows the Guan Yu to detect enemy stealth units and fend off ambushes on its own. Detects infantry, vehicles and structures.

**Battle Bunker**

* Allows the Guan Yu to bring five infantries to battle.

**Sniper Cannon**

* Gives the Guan Yu one long-range anti-armor and structure cannon, increasing its damage output and effectiveness against defenses.

## Assessment

Pros:

* One of the most durable super units in Contra.
* Very powerful weapons that can easily destroy everything.
* Can achieve very high rate of fire.
* Effective against everything, including air units.
* Can equip modules to increase combat effectiveness.
* Being a super unit, it cannot be depiloted or hijacked.

Cons:

* Slow, but can be somewhat remedied with the Nuclear Tank upgrade.
* Very expensive ($7,000) but can be made less expensive via Overlord Headquarters.
* Long creation time.
* Cannons take time to wind up.
* Can get distracted by small air units like USA drones.

## General's Challenge

In General Kwai's challenge, the player will face a total of fifteen Guan Yus (less depending on difficulty), twelve of them are positioned in a courtyard in Kwai's base, and three guarding the bases various entrances. Once the enemy is in sight, the Guan Yu will begin to pursue its target relentlessly until either the target or itself is destroyed.

The other twelve Guan Yus will remain inactive until half-way through the battle General Kwai announces: "*That's it! Time to unleash the War Machine!*". This will happen when the player destroyed Kwai's Command Center, or when he/she has over 30k and the battle is going on for 40 minutes. One of these super heavy tanks alone can wreak some serious havoc, twelve of them will be an entirely different story. Thankfully, only 5 of these tanks will be sent out at once. Since this will likely occur when the player is around rank 4/5, they will likely have super weapons or super units to assist them in destroying these tanks, so it's not an impossible task.

* The most straight forward method is to simply overwhelm the Guan Yus with a swarm of lesser tanks. Capturing the tech reinforcement platform located on the north western corner of the map will provide a steady stream of free vehicles.
* If you play as a USA general, be sure to equip as many of your tanks as possible with drones. The Guan Yu's AI is flawed and can be easily distracted by these drones, essentially increasing your tanks survivability.
* Any unit or power that can increase damage output such as propaganda, target designation lasers or horde bonus should be put into good use.
* Suicide units can also be very helpful, but it's recommended to have other conventional units to serve as a distraction.
* Don't pile tanks after tanks in your counter attack, placing artilleries behind your wall of tanks will be a more effective tactic.
* EMP or ECM tactics are a good choice since most Guan Yus will be in one big blob of tanks which can be easily targeted for an EMP or ECM bombing run. Once disabled they are easy to pick off. Black Lotus is also a good option, although she can be killed easily without distraction.
* As GLA, tunnel popping with artillery or fast vehicles is a very good choice since Guan Yus are very slow. Also stealth tactics will be very effective (provided they don't have radar add-ons installed).

## Quotes (in English)

### When Selected

* I am Guan Yu.
* My purpose is clear.
* Find me a challenger.
* Undefeated in battle.
* Loyal without a doubt.
* I have the experience.
* Tell me your orders.
* Superior firepower.
* My gatlings are my guandao.

### When Ordered to Move

* I will always be looking.
* To the ends of the Earth.
* I'm already known.
* I will lead the way.
* I'll reclaim those lands.
* Forward.
* Honor and duty!
* Executing command.
* I have no remorse.
* Announce me to our enemies.

### When Ordered to Attack

* Pff! Waste of godly ammunition...
* Can't I just crush?
* It is over!
* End their existence!
* They're done!
* They are worthless and weak!
* \*War cry\*
* This is your destiny.
* They're not worth the bullet!
* Here goes people's taxes...
* Let's give them a bullet shower!
* Suppressive fire on.
* Where is my rival?
* Omae wa mou shindeiru. Oh, wait! That's Japanese...

### When Gatling Cannons Start Spinning Faster

* YATATATATATATA!
* WATATATATATATATATA!
* Who's dying now?
* Let's overheat those guns!

## Quotes (in native Chinese language)

Guan Yu's native voice always take on stories about Guan Yu and some classical Chinese words about warfare. The tone also shows a patriotic or nationalistic fervor towards China.

### When Selected

* 武圣战车在此！
* 我为战争而生。
* 犹如战神在世！
* 请让我到最激烈的战场！

### When Ordered to Move

* 所向披靡，战无不胜！
* 祖国的前线需要我！
* 全速前进！
* 迫不及待！

### When Ordered to Attack

* 侠路相逢，勇者胜！
* 勇往直前！
* 主炮准备，全速射击，开火！！

## Trivia

* Guan Yu is named after a legendary Chinese general of the Three Kingdoms War who is said to have transcended to godhood after his death. Since then he is worshipped as the Chinese God of War.
* Guan Yu refers to its gattlings as its Guandao, the real Guan Yu's weapon.
* Some of the Guan Yu's native quotes are referred in many Ancient Chinese Wuxia Writings. You can see the native quotes for the translations.
* The quote "Here goes people's taxes" is a comical way of referring to Guan Yu's ammunition, as ammunition is expensive and paid with people's taxes.
* The Japanese quote Guan Yu "accidentally" said is a reference to *Hokuto No Ken's (Fist of the North Star)* main protagonist Kenshiro's catchphrase: "Omae wa mou shindeiru" (You are already dead).
* The Guan Yu's pilot sounds like a veteran martial arts master, always on the look for a challenger.
* Originally the Guan Yu had an invincibility skill that functions somewhat similar to the Soviet Iron Curtain device from the *Red Alert* universe. Activating the skill will render the Guan Yu entirely impervious to all types of attacks, but the tank will self-destructs once the invincibility wears off. This was eventually removed in the 009 Beta 1 version for balancing purposes.

## Gallery

Gattlings pointing rightGattlings pointing leftGuan Yu with modules from background to foreground, Speaker Tower, Gauss guns, Sniper cannon, Bunker and Radar