Command and Conquer:Generals originally has an African tribal side??

Yes, you read this right. I’m going to write about another Command and Conquer universe, the Generals series. What was unique during the production of Generals was the fact that it has gone through significant changes during pre-production and mid-production. Generals was originally conceived to include three sides: the Americans, the Khan tribe, and the African war tribe. Details of why the African war tribe was eliminated in favour of the GLA side is unknown, but the production of the game goes way back around 2001 when Westwood in LA (later to become EALA then consolidated into EA Games as a whole) were tinkering around the SAGE engine. However, the events of September 11th, 2001 changed everything and EALA decided to make it less campy (?) and be more grounded in realism. Some units from the Khans, such as the rocket buggy and scorpion tank, were later moved to the GLA side. Even when the very first Generals preview on May 2002 was made public, the game mechanics and units were either changed drastically or removed altogether. The Gamespot preview can be read at this link.

There were also evidence that EALA wanted to create the European Union playable side if one were to look at the game files from the public beta CD given to selected players. One modding group is attempting to revive the look and feel of the Generals “alpha” version. You can go to this website but it’s been about a year since we’ve heard last of the group. In any case, you can look at the concept art of the African war tribe units and structures at this link.