Best Command and Conquer 3 Nod Units

The second faction in Command and Conquer 3 is the Brotherhood of Nod, GDI's main enemy. Nod excels in guerilla warfare, stealth technology, subterfuge, unconventional warfare, hit and run tactics, and overwhelming numbers at the expense of weaker units. Nod is much more flexible and adaptive thanks to their doctrine and arsenal which allows them to stay strong even in the late game. This list ranks the best units for the Brotherhood of Nod (including its subfactions).
The Top Ten
1 Redeemer

The Redeemer has more disadvantages compared to its rivals, such as less health, fewer garrison slots, inability to generate resources, and lack of splash damage. However, it's still the best of the three Epic Units because it can actually beat them in a one-on-one fight (without any garrison slots). Its most feared ability is the Rage Generator, which causes enemy units in the vicinity to attack each other for a brief moment. This can either weaken their ranks or give you an edge if they foolishly attempt to engage after it wears off. Units already attacking won't be affected unless their original target is dead, and skilled commanders can avoid the rage generator by force firing their units. Nonetheless, it can still buy you time in some situations.

The Redeemer can be outfitted with stealth to sneak past enemy lines and is often garrisoned with either a Black Hand squad (for increased anti-infantry, anti-structure, and splash damage) or an Engineer (for repairs, which are crucial since Nod has no mobile repair units unlike GDI Rigs, Steel Talons MRTs, or Scrin Corrupters).

2 Purifier

Take the already powerful Nod Avatar, outfit it with a flamethrower and install an infantry bonus aura to it and you've got the Purifier. The Purifier costs 3000, 800 more than the Avatar's 2200 and lacks the ability to upgrade with vehicle parts (granted it's impractical anyways) but the advantages outweigh the drawbacks. The infantry bonus aura increases armor and rate of fire of nearby infantry and it's flamethrower negates it's disadvantage against cannon-resistant infantry though it has to close in to kill them. Once upgraded with Purifying Flame it becomes one of Nod's strongest ground units, capable of decimating infantry and structures in mere seconds and dealing fearsome amounts of damage to vehicles. It cannot however engage aircraft so you'll need Mantises and Rocket Squads as support.

3 Confessor CABAL

Despite being available only to the Black Hand subfaction, Confessors are the strongest basic infantry in the game, especially once fully upgraded with Black Disciples. They have more health than Riflemen, deal more damage (can be increased with charged particle beams), and like the Purifier, they improve the combat performance of nearby infantry, making Confessors and Rocket Squad spams a very popular and cost-effective tactic amongst Nod players.

4 Flame Tank

Flame Tanks are great vs. infantry and structures but are commonly used as an anti-structure vehicle since they can take down an entire structure very quickly (the Black Hand variant deals more damage and can be further upgraded with Purifying Flame). It is a common tactic to send a cheap unit as a diversion so that one or two flame tanks can sneak in (can sometimes have cloaking installed on them, vanilla Nod only), find an angle of attack, and destroy an important structure like a refinery or a tech structure. Their absurd damage allows them to promote very quickly and they're quiet cheap (1200), move quickly for a medium-sized vehicle and only require an Operations Center to construct. While they have a decent amount of health at 3700, they take additional damage from cannon attacks and lack anti-air defense, making Predators, Zone Troopers, Orcas, Tripods, rogue Avatars and Vertigos good counters to flame tanks.

5 Militant Rocket Squad

Like Missile Squads, Militant Rocket Squads are a good choice for defense against enemy attacks, place them behind the turrets so the vehicles won't close in and crush them. They have the same weaknesses as Missile Squads but are also slightly slower and less protected (Tiberium Infusion upgrade can mitigate these to an extent) but they are used more in the competitive scene since they synergize very well with aforementioned Confessors.

6 Stealth Tank

A staple unit in Nod's arsenal and has gotten much better in this game. Stealth tanks are fast and sneaky units that can kill most vehicles and aircraft in just one salvo (with Tiberium Missiles, they can even potentially solo Predator tanks). The catch is they're lightly armored for a vehicle that costs 1800, can be neutralized by stealth detection and is rather useless against AI (who has stealth detection on literally every unit they control, often forcing you to just resort to brute force to bring them down). In multiplayer, they sort of act as a foil to Flame Tanks, hunting for harvesters in hopes of stalling the enemy's income, setting up deadly ambushes and can act double duty as an invisible scout as well. Stealth tanks are fun to use and highly valuable to your army when micro'ed properly.

7 Specter

Nod's answer to Juggernauts in the expansion pack. Specters are faster (allowing for quick assaults and retreats), can cloak while moving, and cheaper than Juggernauts but less armored, have a longer deploy time, and less accurate since their shells travel slower. Still with good micro they can be just as strong as Juggernauts. They can work for defense owing to their long range or can also work as siege units when attacking the enemy's base.

8 Attack Bike

Stealth Tanks are generally preferred due to their stealth capability and higher damage but Attack Bikes are cheaper and easier to mass since they don't require any additional tech, making them a good choice for early game harassment. They are often grouped with the more durable buggies to absorb some damage while the bikes do the damage. Their missiles deal more damage than their rival Pitbull but they have almost no armor to speak of and 2 Predator shots can kill one. To compensate bikes move even faster than Stealth tanks and can easily dodge artillery shells and other weapons that don't track them like ZOCOM Orcas. Like Stealth Tanks, they can be upgraded with Tiberium Core missiles, increasing their lethality, making them very good even up to the late game when resources are scarce, making Stealth tanks too expensive to be worth the risk.

9 Vertigo Bomber

Vertigos sacrifice the mobility and flexible payload of the GDI Firehawk in exchange for increased damage (for a single bomb) and stealth ability, allowing them to surprise the enemy. Again this is less effective against the AI but they are slightly more resilient than the Firehawk and they can use their machine gun to engage aircraft when the need arises, though the MG is rather weak. Unlike the Firehawk, Vertigos deal slightly less damage to buildings but are much more effective against vehicles. Any vehicle with less health than a Predator Tank will die in one hit and they are a good counter to GDI Juggernauts since they have weak armor and no protection against aircraft.

10 Venom

In the vanilla game, there are very few ways GDI (and Scrin and even Nod themselves to an extent) can counter Venom swarms. Groups of them can kill almost any unit on the ground quickly with laser upgrades and they're cheap and move very fast!. While GDI AA Batteries, Nod SAM sites, and Scrin Plasma Turrets work well against them, Vertigos can easily bomb them out of existence and then the Venoms do the work. I've used them a lot when playing against a Brutal AI and I tell you Venoms are highly practical units in Nod's arsenal. They can stop high-tech Zone Troopers and Orcas since both lack anti-air weapons and can bring down Scrin Devastators and Carriers in mere seconds with numbers and upgrades. This changed though in the expansion pack. GDI has access to Slingshots which are fairly durable and can bring down Venoms and most importantly they are mobile, allowing for quick response to Venom attacks. Still Venoms are useful for scouting, anti-scouting, harassment, and they have a special ability to bounce Beam Cannon lasers to a target, allowing a devious Nod Commander to bombard targets well beyond the Beam Cannon's range.

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