The Brigade
Brigade 2506 is a brave fighting force of Cuban Exiles, trained in Guatemala to overthrow Castro's commie government and liberate Cuba. They have lots of cool abilities and gear, but they're spawn tickets always start lower than the Commie's.
Gear
Lots of the Brigade's gear is recycled from SodaLogic's WW2 shooter Days of Glory (2003) and it's expansion Pacific Hell (2004). This may seem lazy, but it's actually pretty accurate- most of the Brigade's gear was surplus from WW2, and they've at least tweaked some stuff and added some guns.
The starting weapon for most of the game, the Garand is basically the same as it was in Days of Glory. The only annoying thing is they still haven't fixed the bug where if you reload mid-clip you don't lose the ammo left.
Starting rifle for Squad Leaders and most of the late game, the Johnson is basically a buffed version of the Garand. Holds 10 rounds instead of the Garand's 8, higher power and more accurate. Really glad they included this gun, this was one of the only times it saw use by US forces outside of the pacific (supposedly the Johnson was supposed to be in Pacific Hell, but got cut). My only complaint (other than that the sound effect for it is LOUD!) is that I wish you got to use it more, Red Zone is pretty much the only game I know of to feature the Johnson besides Hidden and Dangerous! If only they had the LMG version of it, but that wouldn't have been historically accurate...
The standard SMG for Engineers. I always want to like the grease gun but this one sucks just as much as it did in Days of Glory! It still sounds like crap, can't hit anything, and takes like ten shots to put a commie down... I know it wasn't the best gun in the army but c'mon!
Speaking of best gun in the army- SodaLogic buffed the hell out of the Thompson, but now it's late game only?! On top of that, there's basically NO AMMO for it anywhere on the island! So you get to chew through commies when you get it- for like TEN MINUTES!! But as far as I can tell there weren't many given to the Brigade, so I guess its accurate at least. If you want more time with it, check out the console commands I've got listed under Tips, Tricks and Secrets :P
- Another copy from DoG, the BAR still can't hit anything if you're standing. Just crouch in a doorway and let them come to you. This thing is almost like a sniper if you're careful with it.
- This gun drives me crazy. Great sound effects, super high damage- BUT: it's not actually a springfield, it's the Enfield from DoG... the British gun... like wtf. How did they get that mixed up?! Plus if you play in widescreen, THE SCOPE GRAPHIC IS OFF CENTER! C'mon people! Luckily, user GizmoJoe has solved this problem: just download his modified scope graphic and replace the one in the assets folder, it's on my links page. But seriously, who let that happen?
- A certified classic. Just as good as it was in DoG. I want to buy one of these for concealed carry irl once I'm old enough.
M1 Garand
M1941 Johnson Rifle
M2 Grease Gun
Thompson
BAR
"Springfield" Sniper
Colt 1911
Abilities
Even though they have fewer reinforcements, the Brigade has tons of support abilities to call in thanks to the US Air Force (unlike reality- but lets not go into that here). The problem is that almost all of this stuff is new to Red Zone, and as such it's SUPER BUGGY. If you learn how to use them right, it can turn the tide on a tough match. If not- well, it might go as bad as the real thing.
- Drop a package of ammo, medkits and weapons wherever you want. Except, thanks to the buggy collision detection, half the time the stupid things just sink through the ground, or don't land anywhere near where you called it in! And then to make it even worse, even enemies can get the supplies from it! What's the point of dropping all this crap if 2/3rds of the time the bad guys get it?
- Drops bombs on an area. Except, it takes SO LONG for the plane to arrive, chances are whoever you're trying to bomb is already gone! The only way to use this I've found is to call them in like five minutes ahead- if you're taking control point B, call it in on C or D, because you'll be done with B by the time they get there. And pray they don't get Anti-Air up in time...
- This shit straight up doesn't work. In theory, you're supposed to be able to use it to make up for the lower reinforcements with locals, who are running around. But if you approach one of the civillians and try to use this ability, they just stare at you like you're an idiot. They don't get guns, they don't fight, and your reinforcement numbers sure as hell don't go up. I asked GizmoJoe if he could fix this as well a while ago but according to him some of the code is straight up missing. This sucks ass because it'd be awesome to have local rebels fighting alongside the Brigade just like they would've irl, but no. They just stare.
Supply Drops
Bombing Run
Recruit Locals
The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces
Castro's ragtag army of guerillas, reinforced (anachronistically) by the Reds, who actually weren't officially involved with Cuba at this point, but who knows, it certainly seems like their communist fingers were already reaching out.
Weapons
The CLF weapon set is weird- for one, it's like half the size of the Brigade's, and for another like half of it's wrong? I guess even now we don't know that much about what they were using at the time, and SodaLogic got carried away with reusing stuff from the original Red Zone, which itself started as an Eastern Front expansion for Days of Glory.
- One of the CLF's only new weapons- but it's a weird one: they call it a FAL, but it clearly looks like an early G3? Maybe they only had access to the G3, but either way, it's a big chunky rifle used by most of the Cuban soldiers in the first half of the game. Mostly useful for it's range, not as powerful as the BAR but easier to aim, so it's worth grabbing if off a downed Cuban- plus there's ammo for it anywhere. This might be anachronistic, because the Cuban Army only got two shipments in 1959 of FALs, originally ordered by Bautista. There was a third, but it exploded in the harbor- some speculate the CIA planted the explosives. Wish we got a mission doing that!
- Seen in the hands of enemy Squad Leaders, this thing still shoots as stupid fast as it did in the first Red Zone, but for some reason they've changed the drum mag to a stick one. I can't find anything to say it which versions they had irl, so I assume it's for balance reasons. I guess since it's now mainly an enemy weapon it'd be annoying for them to dump those 50 round drums at you. Fun to use, but ammo is rare.
- I've seen mixed answers on if this is anachronistic or not- definitely seems like the Cuban's had Uzis at some point, but not sure if they'd have them by 61. This isn't as good as the PPSH, but it's ok in close range at least. More common ammo as well.
- Ok, I know most people think this is the best gun in the game, but hear me out. I'd like it to- if it wasn't an AK. The Cubans actually were mainly equipped with Czech VZ-58s, which mechanically different but functionally the same. Why not use the VZ?! Maybe they were hoping to recycle it for another Red Zone. We can only hope...
- The most common gun for the CLF and it's not even accurate. They should've had the Czech VZ-52s, but instead they recycled the SVT from Red Zone. At least it's still decent, though not nearly as good as the Garand even with the reload bug.
- Pretty fucked up that despite being basically identical to the Enfield, the Mosin doesn't have the same scope bug. It's also crazy rare, almost exclusively used by guards in towers or on rooftops in the city missions, where most of the time it's too cramped to actually use.
- THE most useless weapon in the game. I dare you to try and kill someone with this cap gun.
FAL
PPSH
Uzi
AK-47
SVT
Mosin Nagant Sniper
Tokarev
Abilities
This is the stuff that drives me crazy. Unlike the Brigade, almost ever Cuban ability works correctly. WTF. At least the AI isn't that good at using them, but seriously, what were they thinking?
- Long range mortars fire on a selected target. Unlike the air strike, this fires almost instantly, so you can get wiped out with barely any notice. This ability can be disabled if you destroy the mortars on the map, but good luck- they're always tucked away at the far end.
- This basically makes the Brigade abilities even more useless by filling the air above an area with flak, shooting down any plane that enters it's area.
- This is supposed to be the counter to the Recruit Locals ability, and works similar to the Banzai Charge ability in Pacific Hell. Basically it buffs all Cuban soldiers in an area, boosting their health by 25%, increasing accuracy, etc. Pretty broken honestly, constantly abused in MP.
Mortar Strike
Anti-Air Guns
Rallying Cry
