Best Command and Conquer 3 GDI Units

Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (and its expansion pack Kane's Wrath) despite being released way back in 2007, is one of my favorite Real Time Strategy Games, rivaling the likes of Warcraft 3 and Starcraft. I often play it for many hours straight. Each of the 3 factions in the game have their own unique units, each having their strengths and weaknesses. This list ranks the best units for GDI (including those from the expansion pack and its subfactions). This ranking is based on personal experience (as well as watching multiplayer replays online).
The Top Ten
Juggernaut

The Juggernaut is an absolute beast in attacking units and buildings from afar. Even a single one can be dangerous, especially with good micro. Force-firing the ground will make most of their shots concentrate on that small spot.

Their strong splash damage can suppress infantry, making standard missile infantry a less practical method of attacking them. Even Epic Units can be destroyed quickly by concentrating all fire on them.

Juggernauts are not without their weaknesses. Fast and sneaky units like Stealth Tanks can strike from unexpected angles and kill them quickly with Tiberium Core Missiles. GDI Zone Troopers, Commandos, and Scrin Shock Troopers can make short work of a Juggernaut thanks to their cannon damage resistance and high anti-vehicle damage.

The Juggernaut lacks anti-air defense, so GDI Orcas and Nod Vertigos can kill them quickly. Juggernauts are also fragile and often targeted first (especially by the AI). They should be supported at all times to get the maximum potential out of them.

Mammoth Armored Reclamation Vehicle (MARV)

The MARV has the highest health and the most infantry slots of the three Epic Units in the game, at four (the Scrin Eradicator Hexapod has three while the Nod Redeemer has two).

A common build is two Zone Trooper or Zone Raider Turrets at the front (increasing its lethality against vehicles and structures, with the latter having devastating splash damage) and two Engineers at the rear (for passive repairs). Other builds include quad-Zone turrets for maximum DPS or quad-Engineer pads for max healing rate (increasing its survivability).

Its most unique ability, however, is that it can harvest Tiberium by driving over it, so it can pay itself back (cost-wise) by leeching the enemy's Tiberium.

Its main weaknesses are its slow speed, long build time, and high cost (5000), so losing one is a huge blow to your army.

Zone Trooper

While ZOCOM Zone Raiders are more powerful due to their splash damage grenades and anti-air missiles, the grenades are inaccurate against fast targets. The ZOCOM faction lacks artillery, and their Predators are bugged (they give more experience than normal when killed and take longer to promote. Their actual value is equal to that of a Mammoth tank).

This is why Zone Troopers are much more preferable. Their railguns are very accurate and lethal to vehicles. They are highly mobile and very resistant to cannon damage, making them excellent counters to tanks and walkers, which are common cannon-damage dealers.

Their jump jets allow them to escape from trouble, and they cannot be suppressed by enemy gunfire. Equip them with Scanner Packs, and no stealth unit can sneak past them.

Their main weakness is GDI Snipers, Hammerheads, and Nod Venoms (since GDI Zone Troopers can't shoot up while ZOCOM Zone Raiders can). Even with Power Packs, they still have low health for a unit that costs 1300 and requires a Tech Center.

Mammoth Tank

The Mammoth Tank has many drawbacks (namely slow speed and nerfed damage in later patches) plus its high cost, which make it less practical than Predator Tanks. However, I still think Mammoths are superior once those drawbacks are addressed.

They deal more damage (they sport two heavy cannons and missile pods) and have three times more health than Predators (power-cost wise). Once they have the railguns, their firepower increases exponentially.

The Steel Talons variant also comes with Adaptive Armor that allows them to absorb additional damage and EMP attacks. All in all, the Mammoth Tank is still one of the best late-game units (though less often in multiplayer as players tend to use Predators, Juggernauts, Zone Hammerheads, and the MARV for attacking).

Missile Squad

Missile Squads are rather boring compared to units like Hammerheads, Juggernauts, and Mammoths. However, they're highly useful even towards the late game because, at 400 credits, they are cheap and can be trained in large numbers very quickly.

They can deal more damage per cost to vehicles and structures than a Predator tank. With the Composite Armor upgrade (or the Tiberium Field Suits for ZOCOM), they ironically have even more health and armor than Zone Troopers.

Their main weaknesses are vulnerability to anti-infantry units (without armor upgrades) and being highly susceptible to crushing and suppression.

Against a Brutal AI, I prefer to use them early on for defense, with anti-infantry watchtowers blocking vehicles that attempt to crush them. I use them all towards the late game for attacking the enemy's base.

Trust me, the Missile Squad is one of the best GDI units in the entire game (even in the expansion pack) for all the reasons I've listed here.

APC

The APC is cheap, fast, highly versatile, and useful in all stages of the game. Its machine gun is good at killing infantry and destroying aircraft, especially with the AP Ammo upgrade (though Slingshots are much better at taking down aircraft).

It can transport infantry (though just one slot) quickly. This has many uses since infantry can fire from inside (though they die if the vehicle is destroyed while they're still inside).

APCs with missile squads can counter most threats and make a good harassment unit. APCs with engineers can sneak inside the enemy base and capture a structure (or force a sell-off from the enemy AI, "resetting" their build) or capture a neutral structure very quickly while keeping the engineer safe from harm.

APCs with riflemen and snipers can counter infantry spams.

Hammerhead

Hammerheads are a popular choice among GDI players thanks to their mobility and relatively cheap and fast build time. They are often garrisoned with Zone Troopers (or Zone Raiders for ZOCOM) and outfitted with AP Ammo to become a deadly anti-surface assault aircraft.

The ZOCOM variant is better since it can be outfitted with Ceramic Armor (giving it some extra durability) and its Zone Raiders can attack aircraft as well.

This build, however, is somewhat costly (1500 for the Hammerhead and 1300 for the Zones), so careful micro is important. Their fast speed and high damage output mean it's advisable to target the enemy's economy or expensive units that lack anti-air support to give yourself an advantage over your opponent.

Slingshot

The Slingshot has many advantages over its Nod counterparts, such as a cheaper price, relatively higher health, very fast speed (making it good at scouting albeit without stealth detection), and a high rate of fire.

It can destroy most aircraft very fast thanks to its range, and once it has Tungsten Shells, it can take down even Scrin Planetary Assault Carriers and Motherships (the toughest aircraft in the game).

Despite being designed to counter aircraft, it can also crush infantry thanks to its speed.

Orca

Orcas are fragile but deal very high damage against vehicles. In large groups, even structures won't stand up to their barrage. A good tactic is to send your Orcas into a back door and pick off the enemy's harvesters, stalling their economy.

In the vanilla game, Orcas are rather broken since their relatively fast firing rate allows them to strike vehicles and structures quickly and get away before the enemy can retaliate effectively. This is nerfed in Kane's Wrath with their firing rate slowed down, but in exchange, they have access to Hardpoints (increasing the number of missiles they can fire).

The ZOCOM variant is somewhat similar in rank. They exchange the tracking missiles for fast-firing AOE grenades like the Zone Raiders, which are more effective against infantry but less accurate against vehicles. They also have access to Ceramic Armor.

Shatterer

To me, the Shatterer is better than the Predator despite having slightly less armor, higher cost, and lower rate of fire and accuracy. Its damage is incredible, and it can damage multiple units at once as well. A group of them can take on most ground targets very well. Because of this, they can promote quite fast.

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