Temple

290 (Elite)

387 (Heroic)

## Introduction

The **Temple** is General Mahmud al Huchum's superweapon. It is a seemingly religious and unsuspecting structure housing a deadly Haft-III hypersonic ballistic missile loaded with a potent anthrax cluster warhead.

## Overview

During Huchum's days as a general, he is fed up on seeing Elbruses as he thought the ballistic missiles are trivial and weak as a WMD. In order to ramp up his own WMD, he smuggled numerous Hatf-III Ghaznavi missiles directly from the Pakistani Army via unknown ways. Hence, Huchum obtained massive amounts of these SRBMs for his own use.

The Hatf-III Missile is a giant hypersonic surface-to-surface SRBM installed on a some sort of temple which is, oddly enough, an underground missile launch site shaped like a mosque. The SRBM is tipped with a biological (Anthrax) MIRV warhead that will release a giant explosion along with three heat-resistant MIRV cores with contact fuses upon detonation, creating three smaller explosions upon impact. The attack range is quite large and can rival Tao's own MIRV nuclear missiles. The Temple has a deep maintenance hole used to house the missile where it is refilled with fuel, has its warhead installed and checked thoroughly. When ready, the onion-shaped roof will "bloom" like a flower and reveal the missile's warhead.

## General Tips and Strategies

* Super weapons in general are expensive and time consuming to build. In some circumstances (such as limited funds) it may be more beneficial to spend credits on other buildings or units. Thus, one should also build a superweapon only when it is safe to do so. Building one in the wrong circumstances can be costly.
* Like the Elbrus Storm, the Temple requires no power to remain operational. However, it has the second longest reloading time amongst super weapons of 7 minutes, which is on par with General Alexander's Weather Manipulation Device.
* All players will be notified of the construction and activation of a superweapon via Kanwar Khan's announcement, and every player can see the countdown of a superweapon and exactly where the superweapon is located.
* Place superweapons preferably at the back of the base, so enemy units will have to fight through your defenses and units to reach it.
* It's advised to guard a super weapon with units and stealth detectors. Especially against certain GLA generals who can send in Saboteurs and reset the timer or use Sneak Attack to send units directly into your base and destroy the super weapon.
* The best way to counter a superweapon is to simply prevent your opponent from building one in the first place:
	+ Disrupt the enemy's economy.
	+ Destroy the enemy's technology access building (Strategy Center, Propaganda Center, Palace).
	+ Manage your units and structures properly, prevent your enemy from gaining too much experience and rank up by destroying your assets.
* If you are unable to destroy a super weapon in time, the best you can do is to delay its firing. Either use Saboteurs to reset the countdown, or destroy as many power plants as you can to shut down the entire enemy base (this will also provide you with an opening for attack).
* Bear in mind that General Alexander has the ability to block ballistic super weapons entirely from targeting a specific area with her SDI Cannon.
* When playing against the A.I., the super weapon will usually target your highest value targets, such as important structures or clustered units. The best one can do as any faction is to order all units away, averting extreme loss.

## Assessment

Pros:

* Very powerful against anything.
* Wider range than other GLA super weapons.

Cons:

* Expensive.
* Long reload time.
* Can be captured or have its timer reseted by infiltrators.
* Secondary warheads aren't as strong as the primary warhead.

## Trivia

* The superweapon is based on a SRBM from Pakistan with the same name.
* The missile is actually a Soyuz Rocket seen in the 5th and final campaign mission of the USA campaign in *Zero Hour*, where they must be captured to prevent Dr Thrax from launching them at major American cities.
* The structure holding the missile is named "Temple" while it looks like a mosque. This is possibly because the developers do not want Contra's fans to confuse the GLA with an Islamic terrorist organization. However, the structure looks like a Chinese temple when the missile is ready and the building's roof opened.
	+ However, the structure might be loosely based on the Dome of the Rock located at Jerusalem (where the general has established his headquarters) due to their strikingly similar golden roof.
* It used to be called "Jihad Temple" before but the word "Jihad" was eventually removed after the dev team received some complaints from Muslim people who did not like their religion to be associated with a fictitious terrorist group.
* Since 009 Final Patch 2, the Temple is no longer garrisonable.

## Gallery

The Temple with its roof open for the Hatf-III missile