Hijackers, one of the least used units in C&C Generals, yet there are ways they can be very effective in some situations against China. Lets take a look at some possible way's to use the units strengths to our advantage and avoid letting it's weaknesses getting the better of us.
The Hijacker
The first and probably the most effective method of using Hijackers is with the aid of a technical, adding a hijacker into a technical will give you the opportunity to get up close to enemy units and fast, drop of a hijacker off next to an overlord for example and there is not much your opponent can do to stop you taking it due to the slow speed of his overlord.
Team effort
One of the best way's to use Hijackers is in team games, combine a technical/hijacker attack with a friendly strike and you could turn the defending units into an overwhelming force.
Overlord about to be taken by a Hijacker.A superb use of Hijackers is to simply use them as spies or scouts, GLA have no drones and no air so a good way to keep tabs on the map and your opponent is to place Hijackers around important locations of the map to scout for incoming attacks.
Spies
You can also use these "spies" to pick off stray units that you come across, very useful late game when money is tight and every unit counts.
Enemy Gating Tank has no idea.Hijackers can turn a game if used correctly, most opponents won't expect them due to the low usage rate in games and unless they are prepared with Troop Crawlers, Lotus etc they will struggle to counter them as the high speed of the Hijacker means catching an advancing enemy force of Guard with a well placed ambush will most likely mean success for the GLA.
Against USA and in Mirrors
This is a very risky unit to use against USA due to drones, scans and USA units having generally faster units. China is vulnerable due to the speed of the units and less capable stealth detection. Hijackers have little use in Mirrors due to their cost outweighing the possible reward due to GLA's units being relatively cheep.
What happens when your Hijackers are easily detected.If you have cash to burn but find yourself on the back foot against an aggressive china then organizing a Hijacker ambush might just turn the game in only a few seconds. Gaining a small force of the enemies units can provide you with the means to defend the attack or even counter attack while you rebuild.
Timing is everything
Don't leave it to late and not to early, Hijackers have low health. Target anti-infantry unit's like Gatling tanks with your scorpions then pull them back before leading the remaining enemy force into your trap
GLA ambush takes enemy convoy by surprise!GLA can be very weak on the flanks in defence, a tunnel or two left unguarded will quickly fall to an enemy force if you're caught by surprise. If you face MiG with overlords instead of the usual Gatling/Tank Hunter combo then having some Hijackers just outside the tunnel might just make the difference where as Scorpions would take a lot of damage as you evacuate the tunnel. You also could end up with the means to counter the MiG if you take a few Gatling in the ambush.
Fire Fighters
How many games have you lost due to a sneaky Dragon tank late game? Placing a Hijacker on the flank will provide sight of that area and if a dragon dose come you can Hijack it and turn it on your opponent!
Hijacker ambushes enemy Dragon Tank.Hijacker usage is so rare that It's hard to find any replays with them being used well, luckily GLA superstar danzor has been kind enough to provide us with a very entertaining game from way back in 2008 which has some nice Hijacker usage.
Check it out!Hopefully now we'll see a few more players trying them out and get some new interesting replays in the system filled with lots of fun Hijacking antics and frustrated china players.
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