--------------------------------------------------------------------- The Unofficial .o88b. .d888b. .o88b. d8P Y8 8P 8D d8P Y8 8P `Vb d8' 8P 8b d88C dD 8b Y8b d8 C8' d8D Y8b d8 `Y88P' `888P Yb `Y88P' .d8888. d888888b d8888b. .d8b. d888888b d88888b d888b db db 88' YP `~~88~~' 88 `8D d8' `8b `~~88~~' 88' 88' Y8b `8b d8' `8bo. 88 88oobY' 88ooo88 88 88ooooo 88 `8bd8' `Y8b. 88 88`8b 88~~~88 88 88~~~~~ 88 ooo 88 db 8D 88 88 `88. 88 88 88 88. 88. ~8~ 88 `8888Y' YP 88 YD YP YP YP Y88888P Y888P YP d88888b .d8b. .d88b. 88' d8' `8b .8P Y8. 88ooo 88ooo88 88 88 88~~~ 88~~~88 88 88 88 db 88 88 db `8P d8' db YP VP YP YP VP `Y88'Y8 VP Release v3.2 - standard revision Last Updated: October 27, 1995 10:35 GMT Written by: Roger Wong (roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk) DISCLAIMER The purpose of this FAQ is to aid the public regarding strategies and tactics to use in the game Command and Conquer, by Westwood Studios. In no way should this promote your killing yourself, killing others, or killing in any other fashion. Roger Wong claims NO responsibility regarding any illegal activity concerning this FAQ, or indirectly related to this FAQ. TRADEMARK INFORMATION Command & Conquer is a trademark, and is so acknowledged. Any trademarks not mentioned here are still acknowledged. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This article is Copyright 1995 by Roger Wong. All rights reserved. You are granted the following rights: I. To make copies of this work in original form, so long as (a) the copies are exact and complete; (b) the copies include the copyright notice and these paragraphs in their entirety; (c) the copies give obvious credit to the author, Roger Wong; (d) the copies are in electronic form. II. To distribute this work, or copies made under the provisions above, so long as (a) this is the original work and not a derivative form; (b) you do not charge a fee for copying or for distribution; (c) you ensure that the distributed form includes the copyright notice, this paragraph, the disclaimer of warranty in their entirety and credit to the author; (d) the distributed form is not in an electronic magazine or within computer software (prior explicit permission may be obtained from Roger Wong); (e) the distributed form is the NEWEST version of the article to the best of the knowledge of the distributor; (f) the distributed form is electronic. You may not distribute this work by any non-electronic media, including but not limited to books, newsletters, magazines, manuals, catalogs, and speech. You may not distribute this work in electronic magazines or within computer software without prior written explicit permission. These rights are temporary and revocable upon written, oral, or other notice by Roger Wong. This copyright notice shall be governed by the laws of the state of Texas. If you would like additional rights beyond those granted above, write to the author at "roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk" on the Internet. CONTENTS: [1] Introduction [1-1] Foreword *1-2* About the unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ *1-2-1* Is it related to the Official Guide to C&C? [1-3] Getting the unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ [1-3-1] via E-mail [1-3-2] via Usenet [1-3-3] via Internet FTP [1-3-4] via WWW [1-3-5] via BBS [1-4] Adding to the FAQ [1-5] Acknowledgments [1-6] Accurate Information [1-7] The format of this FAQ -Section One- GAME UNITS *2* What can I do with these units? *2-1* Infantry *2-1-1* Civilian *2-1-2* Technician *2-1-3* Engineers *2-1-4* Minigunner *2-1-5* Grenadier *2-1-6* Bazookas *2-1-7* Flame-thrower *2-1-8* Commando *2-2* Vehicles [2-2-1] MCV *2-2-2* Harvester *2-2-3* Gunboat *2-2-4* Hummer *2-2-5* APC *2-2-6* Medium Tank *2-2-7* Orca *2-2-8* Rocket Launcher *2-2-9* Mammoth Tank *2-2-10* Nod Buggy *2-2-11* Recon Bike *2-2-12* Light Tank *2-2-13* Artillery *2-2-14* Flame Tank *2-2-15* Attack Helicopter *2-2-16* Stealth Tank *2-2-17* SSM Launcher [2-2-18] Transport Helicopter [2-3] Special Units [2-3-1] Airstrikes *2-3-2* Nuclear Strike *2-3-3* Ion Cannon [3] What can I do with these buildings? *3-1* Common Buildings [3-1-1] Construction Yard [3-1-2] Powerplant [3-1-3] Sandbag/Fence/Concrete [3-1-5] Refinery [3-1-6] Silo [3-1-7] Communications center [3-1-8] Heli Pad [3-1-9] Repair Bay *3-2* GDI Buildings [3-2-1] Barracks [3-2-2] Weapons Factory *3-2-3* Guard tower [3-2-4] Advanced comm. center *3-2-5* Advanced guard tower *3-3* Nod Buildings [3-2-1] Hand of Nod *3-2-2* SAM Site *3-2-3* Guard turret [3-2-4] Airstrip *3-2-5* Obelisk of light [3-2-6] Temple of Nod [3-4] Neutral Buildings [3-5] Miscellaneous [3-5-1] Blossom tree *3-5-2* Power usage graph -Section Two- TIPS AND TRICKS [4] Cheating the computer [4-1] What are the cheat keys? *4-2* Can I Hex edit for more money? [4-3] Does the computer cheat? [4-4] What cheating programs are available? [4-5] What are some bugs I can exploit? [4-5-1] Tiberium harvesting without silos [4-5-2] Invincible units [4-5-3] Preventing the computer from rebuilding [4-5-4] The Reservoir Dogs strategy *4-5-5* For sale, one silo - 1500 credits *4-5-6* The ultimate A-10 defense [4-6] Are there any hidden game elements? [4-6-1] Chem. warriors [4-6-2] Visceroids [4-6-3] UFO's [5] Defensive tips [5-1] Sandbag defense [5-2] Building base defenses [5-3] Help! I'm being attacked by enemy [5-3-1] Nukes [5-3-2] Orcas [5-3-3] SSMs [5-3-4] Advanced guard towers [5-3-5] Transports loaded with engineers [6] Offensive tips [6-1] How do I destroy? [6-1-1] Obelisks of light [6-1-2] Flame-throwers [6-1-3] Gun turrets using Orcas [6-1-4] Most vehicles without getting squashed? [6-1-5] Tanks in general [6-1-6] Flame tanks [6-1-7] Mammoth tanks [6-1-8] SAM sites [6-1-9] Strong bases [6-2] The spider base strategy [6-3] How do I drain the computer's funds? [7] Miscellaneous goodies [7-1] How do I sell my infantry/vehicles? [7-2] How do I control Orcas in mid-flight? [7-3] Why should I destroy villages? [7-4] How do I make a convoy? [7-5] How do I get rid of trees? [7-6] How do I hide under trees? [7-7] How do I stop the computer from rebuilding? [7-8] How do keep my harvesters from gathering all the tiberium? *7-9* How do I get nukes in the last Nod mission? [8] Player tips [8-1] Hiroshima's tactics papers [8-1-1] GDI Tactics paper [8-1-2] Nod Tactics paper [8-2] Blue Aardvark's anti-crummy AI tactics [9] Confucius say: [9-1] Who the heck is Confucius? [9-2] Words to live and die by. [9-3] What are Murphy's Laws of Combat? *9-4* What music should I listen to while playing? [10] What determines my score? -Section Three- MISSION STRATEGIES [11] What is a mission tree? [11-1] GDI mission tree [11-2] Nod mission tree [12] I'm stumped! Can you help me? [12-1] GDI missions [12-1-1] GDI Mission 1, Estonia [12-1-2] GDI Mission 2, Estonia [12-1-3ea] GDI Mission 3ea, Latvia [12-1-3eb] GDI Mission 3eb, Latvia [12-1-4ea] GDI Mission 4ea, Belarus [12-1-4eb] GDI Mission 4eb, Belarus [12-1-4wa] GDI Mission 4wa, Belarus [12-1-4wb] GDI Mission 4wb, Poland [12-1-5ea] GDI Mission 5ea, Germany [12-1-5eb] GDI Mission 5eb, Germany [12-1-5wa] GDI Mission 5wa, Germany [12-1-5wb] GDI Mission 5wb, Germany [12-1-6] GDI Mission 6, Czech Republic [12-1-7] GDI Mission 7, Czech Republic [12-1-8ea] GDI Mission 8ea, Austria [12-1-8eb] GDI Mission 8eb, Slovakia [12-1-9] GDI Mission 9, Hungary [12-1-10ea] GDI Mission 10ea, Slovenia [12-1-10eb] GDI Mission 10eb, Romania [12-1-11] GDI Mission 11, Greece [12-1-12ea] GDI Mission 12ea, Albania [12-1-12eb] GDI Mission 12eb, Bulgaria [12-1-13eb] GDI Mission 13ea, [12-1-13eb] GDI Mission 13eb, [12-1-14] GDI Mission 14, [12-1-15ea] GDI Mission 15ea, *12-1-15eb* GDI Mission 15eb, Bosnia Herzegovina [12-1-15ec] GDI Mission 15ec, [12-2]: Nod missions [12-2-1ea] Nod Mission 1ea, Libya [12-2-1eb] Nod Mission 1eb, Libya [12-2-2ea] Nod Mission 2ea, Egypt [12-2-2eb] Nod Mission 2eb, Egypt [12-2-3ea] Nod Mission 3ea, Sudan [12-2-3eb] Nod Mission 3eb, Sudan [12-2-4ea] Nod Mission 4ea, Chad [12-2-4eb] Nod Mission 4eb, Chad *12-2-5* Nod Mission 5, Mauritania [12-2-6ea] Mission 6ea, Ivory Coast [12-2-6eb] Mission 6eb, Benin [12-2-6ec] Mission 6ec, Nigeria [12-2-7ea] Nod Mission 7ea, Gabon [12-2-7eb] Nod Mission 7eb, Cameroon [12-2-7ec] Nod Mission 7ec, Central African Republic [12-2-8ea] Nod Mission 8ea, Zaire [12-2-8eb] Nod Mission 8eb, Zaire [12-2-9ea] Nod Mission 9ea, Egypt [12-2-9eb] Nod Mission 9eb, Egypt *12-2-10ea* Nod Mission 10ea, Angola *12-2-10eb* Nod Mission 10eb, Tanzania [12-2-11ea] Nod Mission 11ea, Namibia [12-2-11eb] Nod Mission 11eb, [12-2-12ea] Nod Mission 12ea, [12-2-12eb] Nod Mission 12eb, *12-2-13ea* Nod Mission 13ea, South Africa [12-2-13eb] Nod Mission 13eb, South Africa [12-2-13ec] Nod Mission 13ec, South Africa [13] I need help playing multiplayer [13-1] Offensive tactics [13-2] Defensive tactics [13-3] Capture the flag *13-4* Player strategies *13-4-1* Aardvark's strategy *13-4-2* Joseph's strategy *13-5* What can I do with crates? *13-5-1* Stealth technology *13-5-2* Units *13-5-3* Visceroid *13-5-4* Explosions *13-5-5* Cash *13-5-6* Nukes, airstrikes, ion beams *13-5-7* Map modifiers *13-5-8* Heal all units -Section Four- MISCELLANEOUS *14* Tables *14-1* Armor *14-2* Weapons *14-3* Units *14-4* Buildings [15] Internet resources [15-1] Third party programs *15-2* World Wide Web sites *16* Bugs and updates *16-1* The bugs and wishlist report *16-2* Update patches *16-3* Errors in the C&C manual [17] Conclusion *18* Revision History ------------------------- CHAPTER [1]: Introduction ------------------------- [1-1]: Foreword ================== Everyone has been asking for a FAQ on C&C strategy. I had no idea how time consuming compiling and organizing all of your wonderful ideas would be! This FAQ is incomplete. There is much that is missing, but with all you guys' help, we can get this thing finished and have something of which we can all be proud. *1-2*: About the unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ =============================================== Welcome to v3.2 of the Unofficial Command and Conquer Strategy FAQ. Version 3.2 is a standard revision written after 2.7. 'Unofficial' means that this FAQ is not supported by Westwood Studios. Command and Conquer is the name of the game. FAQs are (F)requently (A)sked (Q)uestions. Revision classification works something like the following. If a new version of the FAQ has only a small amount of information changed or added, the version number is increased by 0.1, and is called a 'minor revision.' If a new version of the FAQ has a substantial amount of new information changed or added, the version number is increased by 0.5, and is called a 'standard revision.' If a new version of the FAQ has a huge amount of added or changed information, major parts of the FAQ are rearranged, or major parts of the FAQ are rewritten, the version number is increased by 1.0, and it is called a 'major revision.' You may be wondering why chapter numbers are enclosed in either []'s or **'s. The definition of these is as follows: []: Chapters enclosed in square brackets mean that the information contained in the chapter has not been updated since the previous FAQ. **: Chapters enclosed in asterisks mean that the information contained in the chapter is new or has been updated for the current version of the FAQ you are reading. I have removed the parenthesis '()' markers to facilitate easy updates of HTML versions of the unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ. *1-2-1*: Is the FAQ related to the Official Guide to C&C? ============================================================ No, the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ is not related in any way with the Official Guide to Command & Conquer other than in topic. Nor is the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ meant to be competition to the Official Guide. If you need complete printed maps, step by step walkthroughs and the like, then by all means, get the book. (ISBN: 1-566-86-247-7 Brady Publishing 1-800-428-5331 http://www.mcp.com/brady/ 19.99 USD) [1-3]: Getting the unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ ================================================= [1-3-1]: via E-mail ---------------------- I am unable to honor C&C Strategy FAQ requests at this time. [1-3-2]: via Usenet ---------------------- The unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ is posted on the first of every month (or earlier if a new version is released) on the following Usenet groups. (1) comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic (2) comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc The 'Subject:' line of the post will be 'Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ v??.??' where '??.??' is the version number of the FAQ. [1-3-3]: via Internet FTP ---------------------------- New releases of the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ can be found at the following Internet FTP sites: FTP: wcl-l.bham.ac.uk/pub/djh/faq/command-n-conquer.faq The file name of the upload will be 'ccs??.faq' where '??' is the version number of the FAQ. This filename is for FTP sites only. BBS filenames are outlined in [1-3-5] *1-3-4*: via WWW ------------------- New releases of the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ can be found on the following World-wide Web sites: http://www.khan.org/~solaris/cnc.html (This is my personal page) http://adam.com.au/~buggy http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain http://www.computek.net/autownet/c&c.html http://www.cbs.dk/people/dszcpfk/cc.html HTML versions of the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ can be found on the following World-wide Web sites: http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~ccmills/command.html http://m3.pcix.com/~gmull/c&c.html http://www.mvhs.fuhsd.org/~bfong/reviews/ccstrat.html [1-3-5]: via BBS ------------------- New releases of the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ will be uploaded to other BBSes as the opportunity arises. They will be under the file name 'ccsfaq??' where '??' is the version number of the FAQ. ATTENTION: ALL BBSes, CompuServe, America On-line, and all other information services. PLEASE conform to the naming standard of the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ when placing this file on your system. The file name should be 'ccsfaq??.zip' where the '??' is the version number of the FAQ or 'ccsfaq??.txt' if the FAQ is a text file instead of PKZIPped. [1-4]: Adding to the FAQ =========================== Where you see the words [blank] or [incomplete] in this FAQ is a section that needs filling in. I depend heavily on contributions from people like yourself to make this FAQ whole. Please, don't make me beg. Help me fill in the blanks. If you have something to add to the FAQ, please send E-mail to 'cncfaq@powhq.nildram.co.uk' (no quotes), explaining what your addition is. It will be reviewed, and if accepted, added to the next FAQ version. In the E-mail, please supply your name and E-mail address. Please note that all submissions to the FAQ become property of the author (Roger Wong) and that they may or may not be acknowledged. By submitting to the FAQ, you grant permission for use of your submission in any future publications of the FAQ in any media. The author reserves the right to omit information from a submission or delete the submission entirely. *1-5*: Acknowledgments ========================== Westwood Studios for making this great game. Mom. (Hi mom!) Mike Fay, author of the Official Guide to Command & Conquer, for being a patient and understanding guy. Hank Leukart, author of the 'Official' DOOM FAQ, for his advice on FAQ creation. The biggest "thank you" has to go to Andrew Griffin for his stunning work in deciphering the C&C data tables. Slightly smaller, but still a pretty darn big "thank you" goes to Mike Lee for his work on armor values and weapons damage. Philip Lochner, for letting me absorb his FAQ into mine, And big thanks to everyone else who sent something my way, or posted answers to questions in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic. You are all listed next to your contributions in this FAQ! Forgive me if I miss anyone. If for some reason I HAVE missed you, PLEASE send me E-mail so I can give credit where credit is due. [1-6]: Accurate Information ============================== An attempt has been made to make the information in this FAQ as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the game has a semi- nonlinear mission tree, it has been difficult to match strategies and walkthroughs to the proper mission identifications. If a walkthrough tip for a certain level variation doesn't work for you, try one of the other variation tips. I wish everyone would use the internal mission numbers that are displayed above the version number in the options menu when referring to different missions. Harder still is verifying the correctness of every hint and tip. I do try hard to make sure there are no bogus entries in this FAQ, but, undoubtedly, one or two will probably slip by. Please let me know immediately if there is any information in this FAQ that you know is incorrect. Also, because the game was recently released, future updates and add-ons may render parts of this FAQ obsolete. [1-7]: The format of this FAQ ================================ I have been copying the format and style of the granddaddy of all FAQ keepers, Hank Leukart (ap641@cleveland.freenet.edu) of the 'Official' DOOM FAQ. Much of the text contained in this introduction had been copied verbatim from his wonderful FAQ until a time came when I could rewrite them appropriately. Many thanks to Hank for allowing me access to his FAQ. ============================== -SECTION ONE- GENERAL OVERVIEW ============================== ------------------------------------------- CHAPTER*2*: What can I do with these units? ------------------------------------------- This chapter contains information on the various units available for use in C&C. Mike Lee started the ball rolling with his sadistic experiments on his own troops. Andrew Griffin took this a bit further, and became an even more sadistic general. The results of our Dr. Mendel look-alike contest can be found in Chapter 14. It is more difficult to shoot at moving targets. *2-1*: Infantry ================== Numerical data on all infantry can be found in Chapter 14. Military infantry units take half of normal weapons damage while prone. They will fall prone when fired upon, and move by crawling on their bellies. Crawling reduces movement rate by half. To force any prone infantry unit back on to their feet, double click when you give them movement commands. *2-1-1*: Civilian -------------------- Civilians carry pistols with 10 round magazines. Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Civilians inhabit villages. Fodder for Nod, must be protected (usually) by GDI. *2-1-2*: Technician ---------------------- Technicians carry pistols with 10 round magazines. Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) I actually saw one of my stealth tanks get killed by one (the tank was just about dead anyway). *2-1-3*: Engineer -------------------- Scott King (sking@cinternet.net) I have found that it is effective to send a medium sized force into a base to engage the defensive forces, then send engineers guarded by riflemen to capture buildings. This works well for the well-armored buildings because even if your assault team gets defeated, the enemy will destroy the captured buildings for you. (ROGER'S NOTE: It is better to sell the buildings instead). Dave Glue (daveacg@interlog.com) One of the most powerful weapons- they take over buildings and then you control them. Take over your enemy's construction yard, then you can produce Nod/GDI forces, right in his own base! Just direct them to the building you want to take over, and once they enter it it's yours. Of course, they're fragile, so it's wise to use an APC to transport them. Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Note that Engineers cannot take over enemy gun turrets, SAM sites, or Obelisks. They also cannot (much to my dismay) take over the Nod Temple. *2-1-4*: Minigunner ---------------------- Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) These soldiers, although easy to overlook, can be very useful in mass amounts. They also make good, cheap decoys and can be used as fodder to draw out enemy tanks and soldiers. With three barracks, Minigunners pop out so quickly that you can amass a nice twenty or thirty man army which is more than enough to deal with most enemy attacks. They must be very close to targets to attack, and will take damage if your supporting grenades attack a target they are standing right next to. It's usually a good idea to leave a small detachment of two or three to Guard each important building in your fortress just in case. The computer seems to prefer Barracks over your construction yard, refineries over your barracks, and guard towers over everything else. Rarely will they attack your silos or communications center. *2-1-5*: Grenadier --------------------- Ethereal (allenr@sunspot.tiac.net) Whenever possible use grenadiers, they can move faster, and kill turrets + tanks the best in my opinion. Also Jeeps + Grenadiers Are a very good combination, The jeeps prevent the grenadiers from getting run over, if you don't have a jeep just make the grenadiers move, to my knowledge, they don't get squashed almost at all if they are moving. APC with four grenadiers and one engineer are very good combinations. In my experience, if you have one flame thrower vs. a grenadier about half of the time he will kill the flame guy with one grenade. *2-1-6*: Bazooka ------------------- Ethereal (allenr@sunspot.tiac.net) Bazookas are OK for long distance such as putting about ten of them up on a ridge. Putting Bazookas in a APC is not good since they usually cannot move fast or hit as reliably as grenadiers. Luke Duff (lukeduff@inlink.com) Bazooka guys fire on helicopters and they're much better against vehicles. They're worth what you pay for 'em. Just make sure they don't get run over. *2-1-7*: Flame-thrower ------------------------- Phil Sykes (root@sykic.demon.co.uk) These guys are Nod's best antipersonnel weapon apart from the gun turrets. They can take out up to 16 opponents on full energy in one shot at a ridiculous range (much further than the flame extends, don't be fooled by that!) Best to use in conjunction with bazooka troops, because they do not work well against vehicles, although they are somewhat effective against buildings. Group 3-4 flamers for maximum effect. Mr. P / Powersource Flame-throwers make up an important part of your building-destruction and infantry-halting capabilities. If you're fortunate enough, one flame- thrower firing at a building can cause it to erupt in flame, thereby cutting its "life" in half. Groups of these guys are also indispensable in eliminating any type of enemy infantry. If you are not careful with their firing, they can burn friendly units, as well as themselves. (ROGER'S NOTE: Didn't their mothers tell them not to play with fire?) Trees will start to pose a hazard - if a tree ignites, say good-bye to any units within a 1-person radius of it. *2-1-7*: Commando -------------------- When planting demolition charges, let the computer move the commando to a safe range on its own. The damage the commando takes when a building blows up is not from the explosion, but from the enemy soldiers who evacuate the building from within. Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Only available on special missions, the Commando is pretty cool. The Commando is also available for $1000 in high tech-level multiplayer games. Their super-long eyesight and damaging weapon (one shot takes down any enemy soldier) makes them a great unit for base defense, but they are worthless against enemy vehicles. They can also plant charges on enemy structures to blow them up instantly. They are great fun in multiplayer games. They can be airdropped from a chopper right near enemy armies (or their Hand of Nod) and set to Guard. They'll effectively kill off soldier after soldier as soon as they come within their considerable range, until the enemy gets a clue and sends some Cycles or Buggies after them. [2-2]: Vehicles ================= Numerical data on all vehicles can be found in Chapter 14. Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Note that the SSM Launcher and attack helicopter can only be found in multiplayer games. *2-2-1*: MCV --------------- Phil Sykes (root@sykic.demon.co.uk) Multipurpose construction vehicle. As you might expect from Dune 2, this allows you to build another construction yard somewhere on the map. It is ridiculously expensive (5000), slow, and utterly useless in combat. As yet, in 30 multiplayer games (the only place other than level 15 it appears) it remains unused. Thenardier (isc40562@leonis.nus.sg) Build it up as a back-up base. Drive it somewhere and don't deploy it until Nod or GDI have nuked or ion cannoned your construction yard into dust. *2-2-2*: Harvester --------------------- Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Collects tiberium and transports it to your refinery. You get one whenever you buy a refinery, and can have multiple harvesters working for a single refinery. They can't attack, but can run over infantry and recon cycles. However, occasionally the computer will get their harvesters to attack a building of yours, or some armor, and they can do damage to it! This only happens when it can no longer collect tiberium for refining. Michael Stango (phillymjs@aol.com) If the enemy destroys your harvester, your ability to wage war against him is seriously crippled at least temporarily. If you don't have the ability to build a new harvester, you must sell your refinery and rebuild it. If you don't have enough credits to rebuild the harvester, you must sell the buildings you can do without for quick cash to rebuild it. Fortunately, the harvester is a tough vehicle. If it is attacked, you'll usually have enough time to get some forces to it to defend it. Never attack the enemy harvester until you have otherwise hobbled their efforts. Taking a potshot at their harvester early in the game, while tempting, will bring all the force the enemy can quickly muster down upon you. In plain English, the computer gets pissed if you attack its harvester(s). *2-2-3*: Gunboat ------------------- Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Provides missile support from oceans/rivers. Can be taken out with 1 blast from an obelisk, however. *2-2-4*: Hummer ------------------ Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Light recon jeeps, similar to Nod buggies. Best used earlier in the game for recon and light attack, but will die against anything more than one minigunner. Quite useful in the base assault strategy with engineers. Send two hummers in first, with your APC full of engineers following. The hummers attract all of the heavy fire from tanks, arty, obelisk, leaving you time to rush the APC through and squash everything, then pile the engineers out. Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) This quick little scouting unit has more armor than the Nod Cycle, but seems to do as much damage as an enemy Minigunner, albeit with longer range. They are good for zipping around the board, luring enemies to follow them down into a classic Warcraft Archer trap. Beware bazooka soldiers and gun turrets. Their low cost, however, makes them unnecessary to repair. *2-2-5*: APC --------------- Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Armored Personnel Crusher (er... surely carrier) This has four roles. Firstly, in can be used to carry men into battle in relative safety and speed (especially across tiberium). To load men in, click one at a time and click on the APC when you see the three green arrows. The man will enter the APC. Then select the next man, etc. Secondly, a personnel sqauasher. Holding down alt and running over squads of enemy troops (especially flame troops) is very useful. Thirdly, its chaingun allows a limited antipersonnel / anti-vehicle role, but is more suited to forming a barrier so troops do not get squashed. Fourthly, recon. The APC has the largest recon radius in the game (four squares all around), and is the third fastest land unit. Most useful for recon. Thenardier (isc40562@leonis.nus.sg) Combination of APC and engineer is possibly regarded as one of the best tactics in C&C. Load your APC with engineers and give it a tanks escort. APC is agile. And it can withstand more damage. *2-2-6*: Medium Tank ----------------------- Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Great against light tanks (can take 2 out in one for one combat), and against flame tanks (can take LOTS out in one to one combat, the main gun outranges the flamer seriously). Limited use in base attack (tends to die vs. obelisks) Useless against enemy troops (far too slow to run them over effectively, too inaccurate to cause firing damage). Back these up with infantry or lose them. Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) A staple in any GDI army. With a low cost ($800), these tanks pack a punch and can be very effective in packs. You should always bring along a squad of Minigunner or Grenadier Guards around these tanks, as they have very big problems targeting and destroying enemy footsoldiers up close. They do great damage for their price, and make good Guards for key installations. Their speed makes them poor support for attacking footsoldiers, as the soldiers must wait for them to keep up. It's easier and more effective to make soldiers support the tanks. *2-2-7*: Orca ---------------- Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Armament: Six missiles of a similar type to those fired by bazooka guys, i.e. useless vs. infantry, excellent against vehicles / buildings. In order to get them to attack coherently, you need to group them together on the ground. To do this effectively, DO NOT BUILD any Orcas on their own. ALWAYS build pads, or you spend forever charging them. Once in the air, use the unit keys to redirect them. They need to be re-fed information about fast moving units (faster than a tank) before they get there. They will get MAULED vs. SAM missiles. Expect to lose at least one if your strike loiters near a SAM or Adv. guard tower. First strike capabilities: (2) will take out a flame tank/buggy (3) is best for gun turrets, although two will work on earlier levels: Send one up to attack first, then when he comes in, send them both out. After the first one, the turret will not have suffered enough damage to warrant a repair early on, to the second two will kill him! (4) will kill a light tank (5) will take down a medium tank or an obelisk (7) will get gun turrets/spice silos/power plants (8) is a reasonable building assault force, may have to come up to 10 or (12) to get SAM sites, construction yards and other big buggers They work best in multiplayer for air support of harvesters! Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) As soon as these become available, they should be a staple of any mission. I create many of them, and assign them permanently to Group 1 so I can quickly receive air support. Though powerful, they are a pest to use correctly. Their missiles do as much damage as a bazooka solder, and they will return to base A) After all their missiles are expended attacking one target, or B) When their target is destroyed. If you send five Orcas against a single footsoldier, they'll shoot until they kill him, and then they'll return to reload regardless of how many rockets were fired. They also must `track' enemy units which are moving, and usually fly over them and then return to attack. Keep this in mind if you are attacking swiftly moving units, as they can move closer to the Nod SAM sites before your Orcas can `draw a bead' on them and fire missiles. They also zip around a target after firing some missiles, and this may also bring them closer into SAM range. It is HIGHLY advisable that you Group these units before sending them out, as it is impossible to select them while they are in the air to change their mission orders. When grouped, you can simply select the number group and redirect them elsewhere. It takes three SAM missiles to kill an Orca, and they are targets for enemy Bazooka soldiers, Cycles, Rocket Launchers, and Stealth Tanks. Note that you can also land these units in remote locations for quick use later. They cannot target or land in areas which ground units have not explored, although you can exploit their mobility by landing them right on the corner of an explored area (such as the top of a cliff), and then `leapfrog' them to adjacent areas to uncover ground quickly. It takes three full Orcas to take out an enemy gun turret, and four full Orcas to take out an enemy SAM site or Obelisk. They're also great to attack the lone enemy harvester, but it will take repeated runs to destroy one. *2-2-8*: Rocket Launcher --------------------------- Requires: Advanced comm. center, Weapons Factory Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Mobile rocket launcher, a good weapon, hampered by the ease with which it can be killed. Great anti-aircraft weapon, two can usually take out a transport helicopter. Also, their excellent range means they can take out turrets without being hit. The ammo has a largish explosion radius, so can take out multiple infantry units. Very poor aim, however. Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Fragile and powerful. They can only take a few rounds from a bazooka solder or tank, but their dual rockets are faster and more deadly than bazooka rockets. They have a longer range, and the exhaust from the rockets appear to do damage to targets underneath them, making them effective for shooting into packs of enemies. They need support from other units as defense only, as they are quick enough to get out of the way. Their range makes them perfect for destroying the remote gun turret or SAM site. *2-2-9*: Mammoth Tank ------------------------ (cmsl@dc.wcape.school.za) Mammoth tanks are the biggest and most expensive of all tanks. They are worth buying/making large numbers of, for four main reasons: They squish troops. (though a bit too slow if their scattering.) They squish walls. (only tanks that can, and walls take ages to shoot down) They squish helicopters. (four shots with their missile packs.) They self heal right back up to 50%. Basically, if you're planning on building up your forces, Mammoth tanks are a good choice. One tip though: infantry support from grenadiers will go a long way to clear the pesky enemy infantry. *2-2-10*: Nod Buggy ---------------------- Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Faster than Hummers, its good for taking them out, and hiding Nod infantry behind. *2-2-11*: Recon Bike ------------------------- Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Fastest ground unit, but very lightly armored. Equipped with rockets, a great unit in packs, especially against hummers and APCs. Can be squashed by tanks and harvesters. Michael Brenner (100275.2163@compuserve.com) Recon bikes are best used in groups of 4-10. Use them to take out enemy harvesters. Be aware that they can be run over, so don't let the harvester get too close to them. If you're attacked you can retreat to your own base faster than any GDI unit can pursue you. A group of 6 bikes can take out a mammoth tank with losing only 1 bike. They're also great for defending your own harvesters esp. against Orca attacks. Since they're so fast usually one large group is enough to protect all your harvesters. Vs. the computer drive one bike close to the enemy base (the computer uses his Orcas mainly to defend his base), let the computer launch his Orcas, drive your bike back to your SAM sites. As long as you keep your bike on the move the Orcas won't be able to hit. Let your SAM sites do their work. *2-2-12*: Light Tank ----------------------- Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) These are smaller than medium tanks (Surprise, surprise) but is also Nod's heaviest tank. One on one against a GDI medium tank is a sad contest, but two on one is as well, the other way. They should be backed up by infantry and possibly artillery as well, never work alone. They cannot handle infantry except by running over it, and cannot handle tanks, because armor- wise they are at the bottom of the tank food chain. *2-2-13*: Artillery ----------------------- Ethereal (allenr@sunspot.tiac.net) These make INCREDIBLE offensive weapons when they are firing at close range, at long range even if it appears that they hit the target, often it doesn't do full damage. They aren't that good a resource since they cannot take much damage, but if you plan to use them remember that they function VERY well at close range. Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Slow moving, this unit can take very little punishment. It does have a very long range, and the blast radius from its shots are very large. Can take out multiple infantry with a single hit. Tends to be inaccurate though. Also good for attacking buildings from a distance. Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) The first and biggest tip is, never attack with them. I do not mean, do not use them in an attack, just NEVER ORDER THEM TO ATTACK. Against enemy rocket turrets, for instance, if you order it to attack, it will move within a comfortable range, and then open fire. The problem, of course, is that 'comfortable range' means the rocket turret eats it up first. Move it towards the turret one square at a time, and when it starts firing, just leave it alone. The artillery has better range than any other unit. Remember that, use it, and the artillery units is Nod's best weapon. Cheap, too... but vulnerable. To take them out? Attack it. All you need to do.. it's slow, it's weak, it's pathetic when someone fires back at it... so it needs backup. *2-2-14*: Flame Tank ---------------------- Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Awesome anti-infantry weapon. Fires twin flame jets. Especially devastating against closely-packed infantry. Also good for taking out buildings. Nod only. You get access to these after a few missions. Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) These are great fun against infantry. A single flame tank can waste heaps and heaps of infantry. They are weak against armor, though, so back them up with bazooka units to keep things balanced. It's a paper-scissors- stone thing where you have both a paper and a stone. If he uses infantry (which is good against bazookas) the flame tank wastes it. If he uses armor, which the flame tank is powerless against, the bazookas wastes it. This works nicely, but the flame tank is not strong enough to fight sustained battles. *2-2-15*: Attack Helicopter ----------------------------- Seth Hutchins (seth.hutchins@sunrisebbs.com) The Nod attack chopper is basically a flying Guard Tower, and as such is a DELIGHTFUL weapon to kill lowly GDI infantry. If your opponent doesn't have any bazooka/missile support, the chopper also does well to weaken armored vehicles (harvesters, and the like). It can also destroy a re-arming Orca on the platform. Watch out for Advanced Guard Towers, Bazooka Infantry, Mammoth Tanks, and Rocket Launchers, who can all make short work of the chopper. *2-2-16*: Stealth Tank ------------------------- Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) Keep at least one square away from his units and you can launch an effective attack. Even with enemy units and guard towers present, four of these could take out the opponent's building facility. And the next batch can take out the tiberium facility..and then he's done for. It's too weak to operate alone, and rather costly to use in large numbers, so it's not the best units as such, but it has its uses when you fight an opponent that is too well defended for an open assault. Seth Hutchins (seth.hutchins@sunrisebbs.com) Purchase LOTS of Stealth Tanks and group them into "Wolf Packs" of 5 or more. Attack your enemy's harvesters. It never fails to be annoying. These Wolf-packs also make short work of Mammoth Tanks. You can also toast grouped infantry, simply run over them. You'll become visible for a moment, so stay clear of any evil tanks. Michael Brenner (100275.2163@compuserve.com) Against a human player it's also a neat trick to let stealth tanks protect your harvesters. Many human GDI players will launch an Orca attack against a single harvester outside the reach of visible air defenses, not follow the attack too carefully if they've got other things to do and be very surprised if their Orcas don't come back. Like most multiplayer tricks this only works once or twice though. Eric (eroswelkr@aol.com) Here's an AI strategy I exploited like no tomorrow while playing NOD. Use Stealth tanks as walls. As long as they're stealthed, the computer won't advance or attack. AND you can position artillery or other ranged units a few squares behind them so they can just pick off anything at a distance. Then when the moment is right, move in, de-cloak, and destroy! *2-2-17*: SSM Launcher ------------------------- Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) The SSM launcher is big and powerful. Though they take a terribly long time to reload, each missile they shot has a tremendous amount of damage potential. The flame which shoots from the missile toasts footsoldiers, and a direct SSM hit takes out practically any Nod unit. As far as I can tell, it's range is unsurpassed. Mike Mulligan (mulligan@netcom.com) OK the SSM's are one of the field weapons that you can build for the Nod!! There range is ever better then a Obelisk! What you do is to have say 2 or 3 SSM's and 2 mini tanks as a protecting force for the SSM's. Then just move in to attack! I had 3 SSM's take out two Obelisk in less then 30 seconds! By the time the other guy realized that he couldn't hit me with anything he sent in his tanks and stuff...that's where my mini tanks came in. They would lag behind the SSM's and protect them, by doing this they buy time for the SSM's to get away. And if they try to press there attack I have more SSM's waiting for them! *2-2-18*: Transport Helicopter --------------------------------- Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) These slow moving troop transports are expensive and troublesome. They suffer from the same loading and unloading problems of the APCs, and have a tendency to circle aimlessly before landing in any area. They make easy targets for SAM sites, and their cost and low capacity makes them tough to justify. They'd be pretty neat if you could load ten or twenty footsoldiers into, or if you could airlift tanks and APCs, but for now, I'd stay clear. Note that they are not usually available to be built on computer missions. They also cannot be used to land in unexplored areas. Tan Tot Lit (isc30236@lenois.nus.sg) Two big advantage of the chopper over APC - Few units can shoot at you. - You don't appear on radar until you land. [2-3] Special Units =================== [2-3-1]: Airstrikes ---------------------- Reload: 12 minutes. Weapon: multiple napalm bombs Level: Tech ?; GDI 5 Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Available for GDI forces after all SAM sites are taken out. Slow recharge rates means you won't be using it too many times a mission. The napalm is very destructive, especially when an airstrike calls in more than one A-10 unit. Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) This option appears after you have destroyed every SAM site on the map. If the enemy rebuilds the SAM sites, the Air Strike option is still available. It recharges faster than the Ion Cannon, but it takes time for the aircraft to reach their target, so timing assaults with Air Strikes is important. Depending on the mission, one or two A-10s will zip down and drop fire bombs around the target area. These bombs can do mass damage to enemy troop stockpiles, destroy buildings, level Tiberium fields, or harass the Construction Yard. Coordinate the strikes with other attacks for maximum effectiveness, but try not to rely on Air Strikes to take down SAM sites, Obelisks, or Gun Turrets. I usually use them to clear out the twenty or thirty soldiers which meander around the Hand of Nod. Air Strikes are not (as far as I can tell) available in multi-player missions. [2-3-2]: Nuclear strike -------------------------- Reload: 20 minutes? (unverified) Weapon: nuclear warhead Level: Tech 7; Nod 13 David Brandt (dbrandt@origin.ea.com) In team play, have your teammate lay a nuke at the same time and place you lay one. Will take out anything in a huge area. Ian (nstn1738@fox.nstn.ca) Just like a real small-yield nuke, buildings are relatively big, unprotected targets and get vaporized. Armored units, because they are low to the ground, airtight, and very heavily protected, are much less vulnerable. Shriker (gills@qucdn.queensu.ca) Larry Bond (Harpoon creator, Tom Clancy pal) has a novel called _Vortex_ that deals with a modern war scenario in South Africa. One of the events is a tactical nuke aimed at a concentration of an enemy armor brigade (or some size, it's been a while ). I don't think it got 'em all (most already moved out slightly earlier), but it describes what happened to the military units that WERE nearby. I remember it mentioning how exposed troops took a wicked beating (understandably), but heavier armored units were relatively unscathed even at fairly close proximity. Both the previously mentioned factors and the fact that tanks ARE metal (DUH ) and have high-pressure interiors nullified the radiation/heat effects. Of course any tank commander with his noggin poked out of the hatch had better have more than just CopperTone (TM) and a pair of sunglasses on ! Although C&C is more of a game than a simulation, it's interesting to see how many real-world tactical considerations have been included! *2-3-3*: Ion Cannon --------------------- Reload: 15 minutes Weapon: ion cannon Level: Tech 7; GDI 14 Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) GDI's special 14 & 15 + tech level 7 weapon: Advanced comm. center (2800 - need comm. center) is used to recharge it. It stops recharging if you are low on power! The weapon will destroy from full health: Five troops Light tank Flame tank Gun turret Obelisk tower (VERY useful) Stealth tank Tiberium silo Wall (WASTE!) One patch of tiberium. Limited to taking out gun turrets on the eve of an assault, basically, or hitting a SAM site so the Orcas can finish it off without losing a vehicle. Terrence (tantoli@iscs.nus.sg) When a SAM site is out of its protective shell and firing at an aircraft, a single hit will take it out at full health. Also can take out both a Flame tank and an artillery unit side by side at full health by targeting the Flame tank. The secondary explosion from the flame tank will finish off the artillery unit. Targeting a group of troops with a flame thrower will result in further damage to the group. Again, due to secondary explosions from the flame thrower. -- Roger Wong, Games Developer roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk Command & Conquer unofficial STRATEGY FAQ: email: cncfaq@powhq.nildram.co.uk with your additions. ftp://wcl-l.bham.ac.uk/pub/djh/faq/command-n-conquer.faq http://www.khan.org/~solaris/cnc.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- CHAPTER[3]: What can I do with these buildings? ----------------------------------------------- Buildings lose effectiveness with damage. This is especially true of your powerplants. [3-1]: Common Buildings ========================== *3-1-1*: Construction Yard ----------------------------- Selling your last construction yard is usually not recommended. If you do this, all is not lost, however. You do get an engineer in the bargain, and if you're skillful (or really lucky) you might be able to capture the opponent's construction yard. *3-1-2*: Powerplant ---------------------- It's good to have a few backup powerplants to keep defenses running. *3-1-3*: Sandbag/Fence/Concrete --------------------------------- These have different levels of damage. After getting hit by a certain amount of hitpoints, they start to fall apart. Concrete walls have three different damage levels, fences have two, and sandbags have one. *3-1-4*: Refinery -------------------- Home base for Tiberium harvester. Holds 1000 credits worth of refined Tiberium. One harvester included in price. You can build a refinery much faster than you can build a harvester. *3-1-5*: Silo --------------- Holds 1000 credits worth of refined Tiberium. *3-1-6*: Communications center -------------------------------- Enables the overhead satellite view. *3-1-7*: Advanced Powerplant ------------------------------- Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Building 2 power plants is more cost effective than building one adv. power plant (by $100), but makes your base larger, and perhaps takes longer to build the 2 structures compared to 1 (haven't timed this yet). ROGER'S NOTE: I never build advanced powerplants. I don't like having all my eggs in one basket. *3-1-8*: Heli Pad --------------------- Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) One thing to keep in mind: they come with a helicopter. Unless you lose a helicopter, you shouldn't be buying extra helis, as it will cause you a lot of headache to shuffle helis off the pads to reload them. You should try to designate an inner, well-protection area of your base for your Helipads, and keep them build close to each other. Otherwise, you will have problems with those distant helis 'catching up' with the main heli attack force when a problem arises. *3-1-9*: Repair Pad ----------------------- Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Important and straight forward. Note that it is usually a better idea to just buy a new humvee than repair a damaged one. All vehicles, including helicopters, and harvesters, can be repaired. Soldiers cannot be `repaired' using this building. [3-2]: GDI Buildings ======================= *3-2-1*: Barracks ------------------- [blank] *3-2-2*: Weapons Factory -------------------------- [blank] *3-1-3*: Guard tower ---------------------- [blank] Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Fire bursts of machine gun fire (once every 3 squares of minigunner movement) which will _usually_ kill a standing up troop, and do about 25% to a dug in trooper. All but ineffective against vehicles unless deployed in large numbers. Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) They're cheap and effective against infantry. They're not so effective against vehicles and flame throwers, but at their cost you should be able to afford two or three of them throughout your stronghold. They do require maintenance, and you'll find yourself repairing them often. Beware the enemy artillery gun and tanks, as they do not even have to be in their gun ranges to damage them. *3-2-4*: Advanced comm. center -------------------------------- Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Other than the Ion Cannon, it is necessary to build this structure to gain access to the more `high tech' units and buildings. It does NOT function as a normal Communications Center, and if your normal Comm. Center is taken down, you will lose radar control. Contrary to the manual, it does appear to be well- armored, and can take quite a beating before going down. The Ion Cannon is, IMHO, much less useful that Nod's Nuclear Missile, because of it's concentrated range. Ion Cannon blasts will NOT take down a construction yard, refinery, or comm. center in one blast. They are very useful for decimating the large masses of footsolders which seem to pop up in front of the computer's Hand of Nod, and great for taking down multiplayer enemy Stealth Tanks. I also use them for support when your Orca squad is trying to blow up enemy buildings and some quickly rebuilt SAM site starts nailing them. *3-2-5*: Advanced guard tower -------------------------------- Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Very useful against vehicles. Anti-air role also, as good as a SAM site, but can be otherwise engaged during a fight!. Fires two rounds every three minigunner square moves. Best to use as perimeter defense, but support with armor! A flame tank getting close is deadly, and they cost a lot of money! Remember to keep repairing them in battle. Keep putting two together for best results, but watch the power consumption. They don't work when out of power. Philip J. Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) They're most effective when coupled with normal Guard Towers. Their rockets are ineffective against close targets, although they seem to have the same `exhaust burn damage' of the Rocket Launcher. One Advanced and two normal Guard Towers in problem areas are usually enough to deal with threats. Beware that if you place them near sandbags or walls, their stray rockets will usually knock them away pretty fast [3-3]: Nod Buildings ======================= *3-3-1*: Hand of Nod ----------------------- [blank] *3-3-2*: SAM Site -------------------- [blank] *3-3-3*: Turret ------------------ Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) These are real good against armor, as long as you build enough of them. Considering the cost...no problem. Since they use cannons, they are dangerously weak against infantry.. a grenadier one on one on a gun turret is somewhat even, which is rather weak for a defensive installation. But it has okay range, so if you have lots of them around your base, it should be okay, as long as there is enough that they chop up the infantry early. Also, if you repair it while it is fighting a lone infantryman (or two, even possibly three) it will shift the odds a lot. The infantry isn't that strong against it either, so it is a drawn-out affair. *3-3-4*: Airstrip --------------------- In a multiplayer game, try to build your airstrip such that incoming and outgoing cargo flights do not fly over an enemy base and give away the presence of additional vehicle units. *3-3-5*: Obelisk of light ----------------------------- Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) These are completely wicked against armor units. Remember that they are tall, so build concrete walls around them to stop cannons, and they can easily stop five or six medium tanks without problems. As has been commented, they are energy intensive, and shoots slowly (but surely), so can also be fuzzy-wuzzy'd. Always have a lot of energy to spare, so you can keep firing if one power plant is destroyed. (Or be prepared to sell off a lot of buildings to keep it firing if a major attack is launched coordinated with the destruction of a power plant.) *3-3-6*: Temple of Nod ------------------------- VT (VirtualTed@westwood.com) To use nukes, building the Temple of Nod is not enough. You'll need to get the crates in missions 6, 10, and 12. You may have to capture or destroy some of the buildings to get at the crates. *3-4*: Neutral Buildings ========================== No hard numerical data for these yet. I'm debating whether or not to figure these out. Building Health Armor -------- ------ ----- Church ?? ?? Oil pump ?? ?? Village well ?? ?? Cottage ?? ?? [incomplete] [3-5]: Miscellaneous ====================== [3-5-1]: Blossom tree ------------------------ Scott King (sking@one.net) They serve as replenishing centers for tiberium. After you harvest all of the tiberium from around a tree, it will grow back around it. *3-5-2*: Power usage graphs ------------------------------ The green bar represents the power output. The marker represents power usage. Bad things happen when power usage is greater than power output. Mr. P / Powersource The power scale is logarithmic, not linear. ============================= -SECTION TWO- TIPS AND TRICKS ============================= ---------------------------------- CHAPTER [4]: Cheating the computer ---------------------------------- [4-1]: What are the cheat keys? ================================== Easy. There are none. The cheats were removed after beta testing and development. *4-2*: Can I Hex edit for more money? ======================================== You're in luck. I got dozens of people asking me how to hex edit. So, due to public demand, here is how to totally ruin your game. Wear your peril sensitive sunglasses now if you do not wish to read this. What? You don't have a pair of peril sensitive sunglasses? That's your fault for not buying Infocom's 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' text-adventure game. I bet you don't have the cool package that is full of microscopic space ships either. Close your eyes, count to 20, and start reading again when everyone else has finished. If you have refineries, this cheat may or may not work. Sell them off. Make note of the amount of money you have, and save the game. For this purpose, let us say that you had 2437 credits. Exit C&C. Convert 2437 into hexadecimal. In this case, the conversion is 985 in hex. Hexadecimal numbers in our case need to be pairs, so, add a filler digit to pair. 09 85. If you had 4 digits already, then there is no need for a filler. Make a backup of your savegame. The savegame with the most recent file creation date is the savegame you want to edit. Load your savegame into your hex editor. Reverse your hexadecimal pairs. 85 09. Do a hexadecimal search for this reversed number pair. The first instance should appear at hex location 580h. Change both numbers to FF FF. Lather, rinse, repeat. You may find anywhere from three to five references. Change them all. If it doesn't work, too bad. Maybe God didn't want you to cheat. Okay, the rest of you not interested in this cheat can open your eyes now. Hello? I said you can open your eyes. [4-3]: How does the computer cheat? ================================== Min He (he@mathp7.jussieu.fr) Eradicator (drwestco@mailhost.ecn.uoknor.edu) The computer starts out with more funds than you do. The computer can place units inside scenery at the start of a mission. The computer can rebuild gun turrets when they are destroyed without needing to have adjacent buildings. The computer can build a construction yard without needing a MCV. The computer doesn't have to clear out SAM sites to launch an air- strike. The computer may build buildings separated from other computer-owned buildings. The computer, however, does have the restriction of placing buildings only where they were originally. The computer's Orcas may attack NOD attack choppers in mid-flight. The computer can build harvesters immediately as long as funds are available. (ROGER'S NOTE: cannot verify 100%) The computer can run guard towers and turrets without power. [4-4]: What cheating programs are available? ================================================ See the section on third party programs for a listing. (4-5): What are some bugs I can exploit? =========================================== [4-5-1]: Tiberium harvesting without silos --------------------------------------------- Mike Means (means@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu) I noticed an unusual and cool money cheat for all of you people that have problems with too much money... It works consistently with the GDI, haven't tried it with Nod but it should work as it's in the engine not the action... Anyhow, what the deal is that if you are getting to the top of your refineries holding space build something that builds fast and is somewhat expensive (For the GDI this is the Helipad...) Then once you've taken up all of your money into building it cancel it just before completion. You get the credits back and you will notice that if you click on your refinery it will be nowhere near full like it should be...Because of this trick I almost never build silos...Also I tend to spend my money...Just call me the guy with 7 Orcas each with their helipad (Well it's faster to build a helipad than an Orca and 300 is worth the speed and saved time Orca swapping to load them...) [4-5-2]: Invincible units ---------------------------- I have heard rumors of some vehicles becoming invincible in the GDI 'take out the turrets for the missileboats' scenario. I can not confirm this personally [4-5-3]: Preventing the computer from rebuilding --------------------------------------------------- Richard Stone (rstone@news.infi.net) You can prevent the computer from rebuilding a structure by placing a unit on the same square. You can permanently prevent the computer from rebuilding a structure by sandbagging your way to the structure, destroying he structure, building a sandbag on the structure's square, and then sell the sandbag. You now "own" that square, and the computer can't rebuild from scratch on it. Since the computer never attacks sandbags, fences or walls directly (though it hits them occasionally shooting at you), it's a safe way to guard your base, or expand it. [4-5-4]: The Reservoir Dogs strategy --------------------------------------- Mike Means (means@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu) OK, the NOD were attacking my base and something happened. I think one of the NOD hit another accidentally (inaccuracy with the small tanks I guess) All of a sudden the small tank that was hit turns it's turret and first at the other!! A fire fight ensues and some of the infantry in the area join in!! Some for each side!! I was wondering if anyone else had this happen or if it was just a unit recognition bug... Douglas McCreary (dark@ix.netcom.com) I recently finished NOD, and have seen GDI units do the same thing on nearly every level I played. It does seem to happen whenever one unit hits another accidentally. (In fact, I've had to 'stop' my own units when they got to doing this occasionally.) Once I discovered this bug, I started exploiting it by moving my units to the middle of enemy groups before attacking. *4-5-5*: For sale, one silo - 1500 credits --------------------------------------------- Richard Wesson (wesson@church.cse.ogi.edu) I've got some good news for those people trying to get a good start on any given C&C mission (or maybe multiplayer too, haven't checked.) The tiberium <> money relationship is a little weird. Other people have clarified it a bit, so the basic picture is that realmoney (the figure at the top of your screen) is tiberium you have lying around plus cash. Anyhow, there is an amusing bug which lets you get over $1000 profit from a silo. Tiberium acts in strange ways (maybe this is why both Nod and GDI want control of it so desperately.) Namely, you can sell your tiberium, yet still have it! Here's how: Say you have lots of tiberium lying around, maybe three silos all of which show nearly full. (Silos share tiberium, apparently, probably through an underground system of pipes.) Anyhow, sell one of the silos. You get money for the silo AND for the tiberium "contained" in it. Okey dokey ... BUT you were already given money for the tiberium ... it is ALREADY represented in your realmoney. And then you get money for it again. Right! Any silo full of Tiberium should get you only what an empty silo gets! But you get $1500 for it! Selling tiberium should just convert tiberium money into cash money, without any change in the balance (maybe whatever the silo building is worth.) And what's worse ...! The silo that's sold dumps all its tiberium into its fellow silo's. That is, you sell the silo and the tiberium, and you can see the remaining silo's fill up a bit more as they take the tiberium (which was supposedly sold.) So ... build a silo when your silos are mostly full, and sell it, and repeat, and you can have just about as much money as you want. The only catch is that new building seems to always come out of your tiberium money first. So if you build and sell silos as above, you lose $150 tiberium (silo cost) every time and get ~$1500 cash. This means you can multiply your tiberium cash by 10 in converting it to real cash. BTW you can also see tiberium 'breeding' when you use an engineer to take over the computer's silo -- you get a bunch of money and end up with an empty silo -- but you can see sometimes see the tiberium level in the computer's other silos go up as it drains into them (despite you having gotten money for it.) Dunno how Westwood let this one slip past. *4-5-6*: The ultimate A-10 defence ------------------------------------- Joachim Rijsdam (jrijsdam@wi.leidenuniv.nl) One can draw away enemy a10's with only one minigunner. The AI only attacks from left to right and from top to bottom when 'paving'; like reading a page, really. So you just move one minigunner a little to the northwest of your base, and viola, damage is restricted to 100 credits. [4-6]: Are there any hidden game elements? ============================================= [4-6-1]: Chem. Warriors ---------------------------- Kareem Harper (griffin@panix.com) There troops are much like the Flame-thrower infantry, in fact they are the flame thrower infantry with the following exceptions: (1) They wear an insulated outfit that protects them from taking damage in tiberium fields. (can walk around on the field and wont combust) (2) They produce a poison gas, which can wipe out whole legions of troops The only way I have seen to get them so far is to find them in a box during a two player or network game with the crates on option. After you find the box you will be able to produce them like normal soldiers. (ROGER'S NOTE: Building the temple of Nod should also produce these troop.) [4-6-2]: Visceroids ---------------------- Reload: ? Range: ? Weapon: ? Health: ? Armor: ? Move: ? Kareem Harper (griffin@panix.com) Everything is left unknown deliberately because the only people who know the exact nature of these creatures are the creators.. If you log onto the Westwood BBS you will find a note from one of the game creators stating that the Visceroids are genetically engineered by Kane <-scary no? More will be explained in C&C2. [4-6-3]: UFO's ----------------- Kareem Harper (griffin@panix.com) Yes there are UFO's appearing throughout the game on certain stages, the reason? "Will be explained in C&C 2" - Westwood Technical Support, Westwood BBS -------------------------- CHAPTER [5] Defensive tips -------------------------- [5-1]: Sandbag defense ========================= Dave Smith (physics@computek.net) They are cheap (50 bucks) and the computer has NO IDEA how to get around them. It just lines up its forces at the wall, and sits there like a dummy. I immediately build a wall between me and the other forces (don't block in the harvester!) and it renders that side powerless. If the enemy base is nearby, I immediately wall THEM inside their own base, and their harvester can't get back in (or out). I then click on grenadiers/flame throwers/tanks one BILLION times as I get more money rolling in. After about 30 minutes, I got the US Fragging Marine Corps ready to head into their base. [5-2]: Building base defenses ================================ Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) Always use your advantage on a level. Sun Tze said, first become invincible, then destroy your opponent's invincibility. Do so. Make a base that can shrug off any (reasonable) attack, and assure a steady cash flow. Once this is done, a computer opponent is lost. On most levels, doing this is the problem, not destroying the opposing base. Against GDI, he can always attack your base with air strikes, and you will grow to loathe the A-10's, simply because making a base impervious to air strikes is so difficult it is inefficient, and so your opponent can always harm you. GDI does not have this problem, as long as they have enough guard turrets and walls. This is some of the reason that the common guard turrets cost almost double that of the NOD gun turrets (I think.), so that making a base impervious to ground assault would cost too much. [5-3]: Help! I'm being attacked by enemy... ============================================= [5-3-1]: Nukes ----------------- >From kaizal@cedar.buffalo.edu's web page Spread your base out through the use of sandbagging, all structures must touch each other but sandbags count. You can sell them afterwards if in the way. Have excess power. Your power plants will go down in a nuclear blast if near impact almost all the time. Building is outrageously slow when your power is low. If stuck in this situation perhaps sell off some of your structures. Two weapon factories don't hurt. Unfortunately this thing usually also bites it in one shot. Yes it's expensive, but it's slow to build and if your enemy follows up a nuke with a conventional attack you may want units churning out. If you can, right from the start bottle up all entrances to your territory. Obviously some scenarios make this more or less difficult. Avoid putting your structures in the extreme corners.. if I was shooting a nuke blind that's where I would go. Ideally get some concrete walls and advanced guard towers going before your enemy has more than scouts to check out your situation. Stealth tanks and recon bikes aren't going to make keeping your base hidden easy, but I don't imagine you thought you were signing up for a picnic. [5-3-2]: Orcas ----------------- Build bazooka units. Unlike SAM sites, these are mobile, and can be deployed anywhere. Scatter them around a bit. Lay a bunch of them around your harvester routes. If you are Nod, follow your harvesters around with stealth tanks or recon bikes. If you are GDI, use can use rocket launchers, but they are too easy to kill, and a smart opponent will target the escorts before attacking the harvester. [5-3-3]: SSMs ---------------- These have very few hit points. Three choppers can take this out in one and a half volleys, as can three stealth tanks. [5-3-4]: Advanced guard towers --------------------------------- Don't send infantry against them. Use armored vehicles instead. [5-3-5]: Transports loaded with engineers -------------------------------------------- Sandbag your base. Do not leave any openings where a helicopter or APC can land. Block entrances to your base. -------------------------- CHAPTER:[6] Offensive tips -------------------------- [6-1]: How do I destroy? =========================== [6-1-1]: Obelisks of light ---------------------------- Lynda Myer (lyndamyer@aol.com) Nod obelisks are usually what my opponent keeps putting in to defend their base, but they just never learn! Nod obelisks take so much power. If you can take out a power center with an Ion Blast, the entire base usually goes down, and you can walk right in! Mike Mulligan (mulligan@netcom18.netcom.com) An ever better way to take out the Obelisks are the SSM units! There range is great then the Obelisks...they can just keep lobbing rockets on it without being hit! Try it, it works! The only thing though is you have to protect them! It doesn't take much to kill and SSM, one recon bike can end the bombardment really fast! So have 2 or 3 SSM and 2 mini tanks as guards....works great! Douglas William Cole (dougc@umd.umich.edu) (1) Air raid it if there are no SAM sites around (fat chance). (2) Overwhelm it with minigunners. (It can only pick off one at a time... so just swamp it with guys and you'll come out on top with minimal casualties) (3) Take out the power supply. Whatever you do, DON'T bring any kind of armor in there. You'll get nowhere fast. [6-1-2]: Flame-throwers ------------------------- Lee Beng Hai (benghai@iss.nus.sg) Use minigunners, but do not send them together... keep them separated, usually 2 or 3 minigunners from different direction can take out a flame thrower easily. Send them one at a time will work but you'll have more casualties. [6-1-3]: Gun turrets using Orcas ----------------------------------- Casey Robinson (ogiswise@rahul.net) First, attack the turret with just one Orca, it will damage the turret, but not so much that the computer repairs it. Then hit it with both Orcas, leaving it a pile of rubble. [6-1-4]: Most vehicles without getting squashed -------------------------------------------------- Stephan Lau (skip@yoda.bsd.uchicago.edu) I find that when I "surround" an enemy harvester or tank with my men, the AI usually ends up spinning the vehicle endlessly around; apparently it doesn't have a single train of thought. So if you attack in groups, you can "confuse" the vehicle enough so that you don't get run over. Make sure you have some mini-gunners nearby for that annoying following infantry. [6-1-5]: Tanks in general --------------------------- Stephan Lau (skip@yoda.bsd.uchicago.edu) (1) Don't take on tanks head on, use the APCs to lure them into your killing zone; (2) In the kill zone, place mini-gunners up front for use the described single attack, place grenadiers behind as a main line of defense, and have three or four bazooka guys behind to take on the tanks; (3) Once the tanks gets into the zone and enemy infantry have been mostly eliminated, surround the tanks with your grenadiers in the "circle of death;" [6-1-6]: Flame Tanks ----------------------- Stephan Lau (skip@yoda.bsd.uchicago.edu) Use your Orcas against these guys to soften them up. Assign a very expensive medium tank or two take them on; send the tank back to your repair shop for immediate reconditioning. [6-1-7]: Mammoth tanks ------------------------ Douglas William Cole (dougc@umd.umich.edu) (1) Air strikes are always nice. (2) 5+ infantry guys should take a single one out easily. DON'T forget to keep hitting the 'X' key to scatter your troops when it gets too close for comfort. (3) Stealth tanks. I've seen 3 do it, but use 4 or 5 to be safe. Mammoths actually aren't that great, they just have a lot of hit points. Use infantry on it if you can rather than armor, though... [6-1-8]: SAM sites --------------------- Thenardier (isc40562@leonis.nus.sg) Beside the Obelisk of light, the other structures which people would most possibly like to destroy are SAM sites. SAM sites have really strong armor and long bar of health. One strategy of taking down SAM sites is to fly an Orca close to it. When you see the cover open, blast it with the ION CANNON. Zeff Yusof (zeff@triop.pc.my) Try taking out the SAMs with 4 Orcas at once, all 4 will survive. If there are two sites within striking distance use two waves, one for each - you'll get back unscathed. [6-1-9]: Strong bases ------------------------ Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) Three tactics work.(At least.). One is to attack him through his harvesters. He will usually have more than one working, and can usually get more even if you attack all you find, so it could take some while. But eventually this will cripple him. Then you can pick him off at leisure. But, especially early, destroying a harvester can bring an all-out attack. Be prepared for it. The other tactic is to attack with an attack not designed to destroy his base, but to cripple part of it. Stealth tanks are good at this. The construction center is usually the first priority, then the refinery, then the unit builders. Thirdly.. no base is perfect. It has a weakness. Find it, and exploit it. A back entrance, a cliff overhang, something should be there. [6-2]: The spiderbase strategy --------------------------------- Jim Varner (jvarner@nr.infi.net) I developed a strategy for Dune2 I call the spider base, and it works just fine in C&C. The concept is simple, build a sandbag wall from your base to your opponents. Then start building turrets right in the middle of their base. It is tedious and expensive, but it is sometimes the only way to destroy the enemy in those SERIOUS wars of attrition. You can also use your wall to block off choke points. You see, the AI doesn't recognize walls as targets so you can build a sandbag fort right in the middle of their base, just have plenty of $$$ for replacement turrets though. All's fair in love and war... Exploit your enemies weakness... I am NOT cheating!!!! OK, It is cheating. [6-3]: How do I drain the computer's funds? ============================================== Drone (jdw@cris.com) I just send a few units to bomb or shoot at the SAM sites. Not enough to ever destroy them but enough so the computer just repairs them until its broke. I'm sure a human would never fall for this. ------------------------------- CHAPTER [7]: Miscellaneous tips ------------------------------- [7-1]: How do I sell my infantry/vehicles? ========================================= David Hulet (d.hulet@ix.netcom.com) A Westwood bug that turned into a feature for us. You can sell infantry, vehicles and even civilians! Build a sand bag and move the unit as close to the sand bag as you can. Click on the sell button. Move the cursor over to the sand bag. Move the twirling dollar sign as far away from the sand bag (toward the unit) as you can without it loosing its rotating property. while its spinning near the unit click and sell him down the river!!!! This is a great way to make money if you are seriously down and out and about to get your butt kicked. It takes a little practice to figure out, but once you have done it the first time its simple. JiaTyan Chen (spitz@singnet.com.sg) You don't even need sandbags. Move the unit to the left, right, or below (I suppose above would do as well but awfully difficult to click) a structure that you can sell. Spin the $ from the structure to the personnel. You know you've reach the correct pixel (from the left & right)when there's a pop-up telling you what kind of personnel that it. Time to sell! Frank Wen-heh Lee (lefrankw@umich.edu) If you put the unit in the repair bay (no infantry, of course), click sell, and move the cursor over the unit, a little green $ will appear. You can sell the unit for half-price. [7-2]: How do I control Orcas in mid-flight? =========================================== Group the Orcas. You can then select the Orcas using the group keys and give them orders, even when they are in flight. [7-3]: Why should I destroy villages? ======================================== reznor@netcom.com Why destroy the villages as a Nod? Cause you are thanked by not only the screams of villagers and the sight of torched buildings as you flame them, but you also get crates hidden in some buildings as well. (Gave me a lot of money it did....) [7-4]: How do I make a convoy? ================================= Seth Hutchins (seth.hutchins@sunrisebbs.com) When you've got a group of units, and want them to follow one another in a "single-file" style grouping, make use of the CONTROL+ALT key combination like this... 1. Send the leader towards destination. 2. Control+Alt Click on the next unit to follow him 3. Repeat 2 until you have your group This tactic can be altered to get an interesting "circling patrol" effect out of Hummers, Buggies, and Tanks. 1. Select a "lead" unit. 2. Control+Alt Click the next unit. 3. Repeat 2 until you have all but one of the units in your group. 4. Control+Alt Click the LAST unit on the leader. This can annoy your opponent on the modem, and is a decent way to patrol an area. It works well (for me) in closed spaces. ROGER'S NOTE: This technique can also be used to keep faster units from traveling too quickly. Make all the faster units 'guard' the slowest unit in the group (e.g.- mammoth tank) and wherever you move the unit, the faster units will follow at the same speed. [7-5]: How do I get rid of trees? ==================================== Craig M. Kazial (kazial@acsu.buffalo.edu) You can destroy trees. However it has to be just one lone tree. In other words, you can not destroy a clump of trees. It is not really useful except if you need to place port of a base at a location that the tree is at. Usually grenadiers and rocket launchers are the best to destroy trees. [7-6]: How do I hide under trees? ==================================== Richard Lio (ez022609@boris.ucdavis.edu) Well, you can do it. Select your unit to move past the tree. When your unit is under cover, hit 's' to stop the unit. Your unit will be behind the tree and invisible to other human eyes. :) My friend does that often in multi-player games. [7-7]: How do I stop the computer from rebuilding? ===================================================== Michael Stango (phillymjs@aol.com) Park a vehicle on the spot where an enemy building or turret was, so it can't be rebuilt there. [7-8]: How do keep my harvesters from gathering all the tiberium? ==================================================================== Put a vehicle on a patch of tiberium. The harvester won't be able to get to it. The tiberium patch will then regrow around it. If you have a blossom tree, parking a vehicle is not necessary because tiberium will begin to sprout around the tree. *7-9*: How do I get nukes in the last Nod mission? ===================================================== VT (VirtualTed@westwood.com) To use nukes, building the Temple of Nod is not enough. You'll need to get the crates in missions 6, 10, and 12. You may have to capture or destroy some of the buildings to get at the crates. Jon Osborn (josborn@quapaw.astate.edu) One of the crates is in the mission where you have to take over the enemy base then destroy the base to the north of it. The crate is in the base. Once in the base go left to the Orca pads, then just above them is a fence just destroy it and get the crate. -------------------------- CHAPTER(8]: Player tactics -------------------------- [8-1]: Hiroshima's Tactics Papers ==================================== Hiroshima (hiro@millcomm.com) [8-1-1]: GDI Tactics paper ----------------------------- I am working on a GDI tactics paper and I would like input on it. I basically outline strengths and weaknesses of each unit and good tactics to use each unit with. Also I am working on a list of special-purpose battlegroups composed of units that complement each others' strengths. In other words, for GDI infantry, a good general-purpose squad might be composed of the following: 2 minigunners 1 grenadier 2 bazookas This is a versatile squad and would be able to deal with most light vehicles and probably with a specialized squad, say a squad of all bazookas (the minigunners would take them) or even possibly a squad of flamers. A light patrol/recon force might consist of a humvee followed up by a bazooka squad. The humvee would drive short distances and find cover for the infantry, then would wait while they advanced, still a bit behind it. If it ran into opposition, say a single tank or a tank and a Nodbuggy, it would flee back past the infantry, possibly leading the vehicles into a trap. A combat patrol, however, would expect to run into some opposition. You might keep one of these within striking distance of several of your light patrols in case they ran into something they couldn't handle. That way, the light patrol could attempt to delay the heavier force long enough for the combat patrol to get there and mop up. A combat patrol might consist of the following: 1 humvee 1 medium tank 2 APCs, each containing a multipurpose squad. 1 rocket artillery I think that having standardized units would allow you to tailor your production according to certain standard force-size goals, i.e. I might want ten multipurpose squads, four patrol squads, et cetera. This standardization would allow you to incorporate smaller attack forces into specific roles in a major assault. In other words, I might have an assault consisting of the following: Outer pincers/advance forces, one forward-right of the main force, one forward left: (actually each of these might be a combat patrol force). Each jaw of the pincer would be directed to take out an enemy turret to give the main force less flanking fire. The spearhead would consist of two mammoth tanks each flanked by an echelon of three medium tanks. This would direct the brunt of enemy fire at the mammoth tanks. Mammoth tanks can take a lot and two of them will probably at the very least break a wall, allowing the medium tanks to get in there. Meanwhile, the third wave, perhaps five rocket artillery, would be providing fire support for the spearhead. The rocket arty would not penetrate but would form a firing line outside the walls, starting in on the enemy buildings. The tanks would now begin taking out specific targets. If the opponent had a Nod obelisk, I'd avoid hitting that and instead concentrate on silos and powerplants. Without silos, he has no money, and if you only knock out a few powerplants, the obelisk is going to be draining his powergrid. SAM sites would also be prime targets. The fourth wave would consist of APCs with multipurpose squads and engineer units. The APCs would disgorge infantry and would begin mopping up. This is all very neat and dandy, but it would not be easy to assemble this kind of force all at once and run it all the way from your base. That's why I like the idea of a modular attack force that is composed of other forces as it approaches the base, like a river gains strength from its tributaries. [8-1-2]: Nod Tactics paper ----------------------------- [blank] [8-2]: Blue Aardvark's Anti-Crummy AI Tactics ================================================ Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Punch a hole in their wall where they aren't expecting it. They won't react unless you attack buildings, and you can waltz through, and they still won't react until you open fire (N.B. Turrets will!) Go up on a hill behind or beside the enemy base (every other enemy base has one that isn't guarded very well) APC engineer assaults. Load up your APC, and have two Hummers ready. Select a safe forward staging post to meet the squad up. If you haven't got recon on their perimeter defenses, do that now, but DON'T attract enemy attention to the massed armor, cos they'll die. Group all of the units together, and send the APC in AFTER the Hummers, straight through the main gate, or a hole in the wall (much preferred) if you made one. Don't worry about: Light tanks, troops (except flame-throwers and minigunners close to the engineers final objective - run them over if you can) Do worry a bit about: Gun turrets, obelisk tips - the Hummers are there as a sacrifice, and the APC can (just) survive one Obelisk hit! Hopefully if and when your APC dies, you'll have got close enough so they can't fire again on the engineer. Do worry a lot about: Flame tanks and artillery, and I suppose stealth tanks (never faced them defensively), near the objective. All of these eat APCs and engineers for breakfast. If possible, go for another objective, or abort the mission until you can draw them out or confuse them. Targets: (1) VITAL to take out the construction yard, first, or any captured buildings can just be rebuilt. He will ___NOT___ be running out of money at this stage (if he is, why aren't you doing a mass assault??) He ISN'T restrained by building coherency rules on later levels (can build anywhere he did build) (2) Vehicle yard (he's still got money, remember, so not much use in removing his spice yard just yet, cos he'll have enough for loads of vehicles. (3) Refinery (hurt him bad, but remember he's got a huge strategic reserve of cash). This is good for money, especially if there's a harvester in it at the time (4) Hand of Nod. These are VERY difficult to actually get an engineer close to, but worth it. Capture it and churn out a couple of flame-throwers to hold it for a bit. (5) Power Plants / Spice silos / whatever else Take 'em for money. Easier and cheaper to blow em up, but shutting down obelisk power can be useful. Interesting things to try: Draw 'em out: Send a recon unit inside the base, shoot someone and run out. He will follow you to his doom. Lead enemy troopers across tiberium field, they will follow in droves and die. The Nod base, on every level has at least one tactical weak point. Things to look out for: (1) Wide entrances - unguarded or with no turret guards. (2) Hills to the side or rear of the base that can be used for assaults without being directly hit with base defenses. (3) Weak spots where there are no defenses round a wall (4) Having two bases, one big and well defended the other not. Take over the one that isn't well defended, and built some advanced guard towers to defend. This will really annoy them (5) Harvesters going a long way from home - blow them up, and more will be built. If you can get them every time, then they will continue to waste their money! Retaliation: Sometimes after a successful engineer raid or limited attack, they will retaliate by going after your harvester. Make sure they don't get this chance by keeping the harvester in the base following a limited attack, or light tanks will hunt it down Tiberium field guarding: Often, the enemy will send rocket troops or tanks to guard spice fields. Sometimes, the troops will keep dying trying to get to the tiberium field, and they will be replaced indefinitely. --------------------------- CHAPTER[9]: Confucius say: --------------------------- [9-1]: Who the heck is Confucius? ==================================== A Chinese philosopher who lived and died a very long time ago. His most famous philosophy is 'Don't do to others what you wouldn't want done to you.' His philosophy was one of passivity and inaction. People who follow Confucianism are called Confucianists. For some reason, lots of fortunes on those cheap cookies that come with my Chinese food are attributed to him. Confucius wouldn't have cared much for C&C. Therefore, I am not a Confucianist. [9-2]: Words to live and die by ================================== Casey Robinson (ogiswise@rahul.net) Don't do the same thing 30 times in a row, have it fail every time, and not change plans. It doesn't work. Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Recon is like sex. When it's good, it's VERY good, but when it's bad, it's better than nothing. [incomplete] [9-3]: What are Murphy's Laws of Combat? ========================================== If the enemy is in range, so are you. Incoming fire has the right of way. Don't look conspicuous, it draws fire. There is always a way. The easy way is always mined. Try to look unimportant, they may be low on ammo. The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions: a. when you're ready for them. b. when you're not ready for them. Teamwork is essential, it gives them someone else to shoot at. The enemy diversion you have been ignoring will be the main attack. If your attack is going well, you have walked into an ambush. Never draw fire, it irritates everyone around you. Anything you do can get you shot, including nothing. Make it tough enough for the enemy to get in and you won't be able to get out. Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself. If you're short of everything but the enemy, you're in a combat zone. When you have secured an area, don't forget to tell the enemy. Never forget that your weapon is made by the lowest bidder. Friendly fire isn't. If the sergeant can see you, so can the enemy. Remember, a retreating enemy is probably just falling back and regrouping. If at first you don't succeed call in an air-strike. Exceptions prove the rule, and destroy the battle plan. The enemy never watches until you make a mistake. One enemy soldier is never enough, but two is entirely too many. The more a weapon costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired. Field experience is something you don't get until just after you need it. No matter which way you have to march, its always uphill. The one item you need is always in short supply. Airstrikes always overshoot the target, artillery always falls short. When you have sufficient supplies & ammo, the enemy takes 2 weeks to attack. When you are low on supplies & ammo the enemy decides to attack that night. Suppressive fires - won't. If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid. When in doubt empty the magazine. No plan survives the first contact, intact. If you are forward of your position, the artillery will fall short. The important things are always simple. The simple things are always hard. Beer Math -> 2 beers time 37 men equals 49 cases. Body count math -> 3 guerrillas plus 1 probable plus 2 pigs equals 37 enemies killed in action. Tracers work both ways. The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire. If you take more than your share of objectives, you will have more than your fair share to take. When both sides are convinced they are about to lose, they're both right. *9-4*: What music should I listen to when playing? ===================================================== Van Halen, of course. What a silly question. Geesh. I hear rumors of some sickos listening to Stuck In The Middle With You. These are the same people who quote Reservoir Dogs at every opportunity. -------------------------------------- CHAPTER [10]: What determines my score? -------------------------------------- Craig M. Kazial (kazial@acsu.buffalo.edu) Leadership is based on the number of units killed. Efficiency on ending cash (note, not the same as cash used). Time taken does NOT enter into final score and is only for your information. GDI scores the above two [L+E] higher when determining final score. Nod emphasizes simply accomplishing the mission (in other words, the L+E do not factor in much)... Terrorist style "who cares about the cost". Final score ONLY impacts how much cash is brought forward as a percentage ranging from a fixed minimum (enough to get started) to a max. allowable, so players can't become an unstoppable cash machine. Some scenarios zero-out score and all past cash allocation info is lost. -- Roger Wong, Games Developer roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk Command & Conquer unofficial STRATEGY FAQ: email: cncfaq@powhq.nildram.co.uk with your additions. ftp://wcl-l.bham.ac.uk/pub/djh/faq/command-n-conquer.faq http://www.khan.org/~solaris/cnc.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================== -SECTION THREE- MISSION STRATEGIES ================================== ------------------------------------- CHAPTER [11]: What is a mission tree? ------------------------------------- When playing C&C, sometimes you will be given a choice of countries to fight over. The hierarchical listing of these choices and the possible paths one may take is described as the mission tree. Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) About the mission path, it seems that (for some countries), if there are multiple arrows into the same country, clicking on a different arrow will bring a different map layout. If you look at the option screen (press ESC from the game), above the version number is a group of numbers that represents which mission this is. [11-1]: GDI mission tree =========================== Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) [4EA][5EA] [15EA] [1][2][3EA][4WA][5EB][6][7][8EA][9][10EA][11][12EA][13EA][14][15EB] [3EB][4WB][5WA] \---[8EB] [10EB] [12EB][13EB] [15EC] [5WB] [11-2]: Nod mission tree =========================== Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) [6EA][7EA] [13EA] [1EA][2EA][3EA][4EA][5][6EB][7EB][8EA][9EA][10EA][11EA][12EA][13EB] [1EB][2EB][3EB][4EB] [6EC][7EC][8EB][9EB][10EB][11EB][12EB][13EC] ------------------------------------------- CHAPTER [12]: I'm stumped! Can you help me? ------------------------------------------- [12-1]: GDI missions ======================= [12-1-1]: GDI Mission 1, Estonia ----------------------------------- Objective: Use the units provided to protect the Mobile Construction Vehicle. (MCV) You should then deploy the MCV by double clicking on it. Then you can begin to build up a base. Start with a Power Plant. Finally, search out and destroy all enemy Nod units in the surrounding area. [blank] [12-1-2]: GDI Mission 2, Estonia ---------------------------------- Objective: Defend your position, deploy the MCV, then build a sizable force to search out and destroy the Nod base in the area. All Nod units and structures must be either destroyed or captured to complete objective. Build the MCV next to the barracks. Build a power station. Build a 2nd barracks. Crank out 20 to 30 minigunners. Group the minigunners into groups of ten. Scout the surrounding area using one of your hummers, but do not engage the enemy. If you come across soldiers, run your vehicle to your infantrymen to drag the enemy into an ambush. When attacking the base, it is best to form a two pronged attack. Have 1/3 your men attack from the west, and 2/3s of your men attack from the south. Move your engineers behind your main force. Have them capture the construction unit, the refinery, and the powerplant. Do not capture the refinery until the enemy harvester has returned to unload. This way, you capture the harvester as well. Destroy the remaining structures save for one tiberium silo. Build two more tiberium refineries, and tiberium silos as needed. You want to harvest the map clean of tiberium. Once all the tiberium is harvested, sell all the buildings for cash, and destroy the last remaining silo to finish the mission. You should end the mission with over 20,000 credits. Half of these funds will transfer to the next mission. [12-1-3ea]: GDI Mission 3ea, Latvia --------------------------------- Objective: Build up forces to destroy Nod base. Once all Nod SAM sites are neutralized then air support will be provided to combat obstacles such as turrets. Destroy all units and structures to complete the mission objective. [blank] [12-1-3eb]: GDI Mission 3eb, Latvia -------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [blank] [12-1-4ea]: GDI Mission 4ea, Belarus ------------------------------------- Objective: Nod has captured classified GDI property. You must find and retrieve the stolen equipment. It is being transported in a shipping create. Use the new APC to strategically transport infantry through Nod forces. Mark Willoughby (willocds@te.rl.ac.uk): :On the left of screen, there is a sea, but no Construct.Yard machine... :Then Nods comes and kills me, I've got only 2 APC, 4 grenadiers and :machinegunners. When reinforcements will come ? Explore in one turn, scrap the mission and start again. Load up the APCs and sprint for the base. De-bus south of the river, and try to take out the tank and the troopers. Once this force gets trashed, use the reinforcements to mop up the rest of the troops, and steal the crate back. Take advantage of the extra range the APCs have to avoid the Nod troops where possible. Hopefully once you get trashed in the first attack, the Noddies try to launch a counter attack which you sidestep, and fulfill your mission. Not too much fun this mission IMO. Although I did use this quick and dirty strategy. Lemming (lemming@globalone.net): I didn't unload my APC at all. Just loaded 'em up, and run like hell to the Nod base, tag the carton, and that's it. [12-1-4eb]: GDI Mission 4eb, Belarus --------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous See [12-1-4ea]. [12-1-4wa]: GDI Mission 4wa, Belarus --------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous See [12-1-4ea]. [12-1-4wb]: GDI Mission 4wb, Poland -------------------------------------- Objective: Nod is moving to capture and hold a civilian town. Your mission is to reach the town first and hold off invading Nod units until GDI reinforcements can arrive. All invading Nod units must be destroyed. [blank] [12-1-5ea]: GDI Mission 5ea, -------------------------- Objective: A GDI field base is under attack. They have fended off one attack but will not survive another. Move to the base, repair the structures and then launch a strike force to destroy the Nod base in the area. Destroy all Nod units and structures. James Chiu (hcbus003@huey.csun.edu) Harry F. Harrison (harryh@teleport.com) :Level 5: What a pain in the $#$#! to finish. I thought it was standard :Dune defense, then offense strategy, but the computer comes with waves :at you. Try this: blockade your right entrance (to your camp) with :4+ turrets (should be sufficient, as computer rarely sends tanks to If you build near the hills, they only have a small opening to attack you with. You can get away with 2 turrets. One of the first things I build is a second harvester in this mission. I am usually able to do it just as the first patch of tiberium is gone. By the time I am ready to attack, I will have 4 harvesters going, with one about dead. :) :hat you have to destroy the buildings AND all of the units. I thought :of an interesting solution. I send a Hum-Vee through the "middle" of :the camp, which bore a path through it. Then I followed this with a :very fast APC containing two engineers and some grenadiers. Target two :important structures next to each other: the construction yard and :the refinery. Without a refinery, no Tiberium, without a construction Go in from the upper right side, you can capture the hand of Nod very easily there. Engineers are very useful, I was able to take over all the enemy buildings, a great plus when getting the silos. [12-1-5eb]: GDI Mission 5eb, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous See [12-1-5ea]. [12-1-5wa]: GDI Mission 5wa, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous See [12-1-5ea]. [12-1-5wb]: GDI Mission 5wb, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous See [12-1-5ea]. *12-1-6*: GDI Mission 6, ------------------------ Objective: Use a GDI Commando to infiltrate the Nod base. **** ** destroy the ******** so that the base is incapacitated. Get in, hit it, and get the **** out. Matt Ho (matt@romulus.internex.net) Take out the SAM site on the island to get your transport off. Have the commando run around the edge of the map and take out the infantry and SAM sites on the edge. Bring your transport to your commando by following the path that the commando made. Send your commando at the base. A ton of troops will start pouring out. Pick off the lead infantry to give yourself more time and then run like Hades. The tanks and buggies should come out to chase you. Send the transport in to extract you. Once you're airborne, fly into the enemy base toward the top edge. A SAM will probably peg your transport a few times ... ignore it and go on ... Drop the dude down and have him dash for the airstrip (or whatever it was ... I forget) and nuke it. David Hulet (d.hulet@ix.netcom.com) It's best to work north then east once you cross the river in your transport chopper. Jumping from location to location in the chopper also works well to confuse the patrolling buggies. Once in the base what ever building you take out will not be there for the cleanup mission. It's best to take out the tiberium refinery. AI does not rebuild and so Nod runs out of money quickly! [12-1-7]: GDI Mission 7, ----------------------- Objective: Previous mission objective not complete. Airfield was to be targeted. New objective: Build up a base and Destroy remaining Nod structures and units. Reinforcements will be provided. [blank] [12-1-8ea]: GDI Mission 8ea, Austria --------------------------------------- Objective: UN Sanction has cut funding to the Global Defense Initiative. Field Units are helpless. Use the repair facility to keep your units in the field long enough to destroy the Nod base in this region. All Nod units and structures must be destroyed. Tim Hardy (drtmh01@nt.com) If this is the mission I am thinking about, I found a technique that is extremely effective and easy, and I haven't heard it mentioned yet. If you clear out the meager troops straight above the base, then all the way to the top and over to the left, you'll find a cliff overlooking the Nod base (you'll also be able to kill most of the SAM sites). From this cliff your rocket launchers can pound the heck out of his airfield, several silos, and the Hand of Nod, as well as the infantry he tries to mass there. The cool thing is he never figures out how to get to your rocket launchers. You can kill every single one of his mobile forces and ability to produce mobile forces without losing any of your units. Then can just walk in the base with bells on. Jason Thomas (hiro@mill2.millcomm.com) That's the same thing I did. I think the AI wants to stay close to home because its base is under attack, but once you destroy the airstrip, no more vehicles. Once it's all gone, you can leave one rocket vehicle up there and about ten bazooka guys, and just blast the crap out of anything that gets built as it's coming up. Also humvees are pretty good against infantry so you can keep one of those up there to provide machine-gun support. I wasted about 3 hours playing this mission and dying, before I discovered this technique. In Aikido and other "soft" martial arts, there's a principle of never meeting force with force. In other words, when the enemy attacks, you should let your forces fall back a bit to surround and absorb. In attack, don't keep hammering a strong point, but use recon to find enemy weak points and then strike hard. It's a lot easier in the long run than just throwing cannon fodder into the meatgrinder. [12-1-8eb]: GDI Mission 8eb, Slovakia ---------------------------------------- Objective: Dr. Moebius is establishing a Hospital to treat the civilians in the region who are falling ill due to exposure to Tiberium. Protect Moebius and the civilians. Eliminate Nod presence in the area. Move all units to the southwest. The village is there. There are large tiberium fields to the northeast and northwest that you can mine. Build MCV in the clearing north of village, past the bridge. Build sandbags around the blossom tree in the village to keep the Nod paratroopers from wrecking havoc. Also sandbag off the eastern bridge entrance to the village. Paratroopers land there also. [12-1-9]: GDI Mission 9, ------------------------ Objective: Take out Nod turrets along shore so Gunboats can move in safely on the Nod base. The Nod base must be destroyed. If gunboats can get in, they should be able to destroy the base with no difficulty. Keep an eye out for the new weapon Nod is rumored to be working on. Dave Glue (deaveacg@interlog.com) In mission 10 (the one with the first appearance of the laser obelisk), I beat their base by basically using 4 humvee's and 2 APCs of engineers. I used two hum-vee's to map their base, then used 2 more and filled 2 APCs with 3 engineers each. The 2 humvees went in first and drew the enemy away, and when they would out of line I drove my APCs in, unloaded the engineer's and took their airstrip, construction site, and sold some silo's for my own profit, as well as providing some infantry to keep tanks and other guys busy. Then I started making a mass of gun turrets and destroyed their own base from the inside out. Engineer's and APCs boys, and hum-vee's for their speed and ability to attract the enemy. That's the secret. Then again, we'll see what happens in mission 12. [12-1-10ea]: GDI Mission 10ea, -------------------------- Objective: UN funding has been re-established. You now have access to a new aircraft, the Orca. This unit is to be used to scout out the immediate area. Destroy all Nod presence in this region. Casey Robinson (ogiswise@rahul.net) Ugh. I just wasted several hours on what should have been a simple mission. At least I know what mistakes I made. I bought to many Orcas, 2 is enough to take out a gun turret or the mobile artillery, which is all I was able to do with them. I built a weapons factory, but had to sell it when my base was under attack from behind (ack) and never got the cash together to rebuild it. I threw wave after wave of troops into the base, but they all ended up charbroiled. I finely realized that that was not going to cut it, so I breached their wall on the south side, and was able to sneak an engineer into the airfield and construction yard, and one power plant. I ended up selling all of them, since I had no troops or money left, and Nod was just pounding them to dirt. Then I spent about an hour fixated on the Hand of Nod, sending wave after wave to try and capture/destroy it. It didn't work. I tried throwing the Orcas in there. Poof. Finally I decided to split my forces, and brought a small group of the grenade sluggers up to the top of the base. Everyone guarding the Hand ran up to try and stop them, and I was able to move the rest of my assault force in the south breach to toast the Hand, and, eventually, the rest of the base. I probably would have done just as well to drive 2 medium tanks in that breach, followed by some sluggers. What I did do well on this mission was defense. I placed 2 guard towers at my end of both passes, that stopped everything Nod threw at me. A few grenades as needed when a tank rolled up, and my base was never touched. Except for that little plateau on the south side, that I just gave up worrying about and killed anything up there with Orcas/Grenadiers [12-1-10eb]: GDI Mission 10eb, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous see [12-1-10ea]. [12-1-11]: GDI Mission 11, -------------------------- Objective: Intelligence operative, code-name Delphi, has info on Kane and a new bio-research laboratory. After landing on the beach here in Corinth move north to make contact with him. Nod will attempt to stop you. You must reach Delphi! Bill Seurer (BillSeurer@aol.com) First, immediately follow the coast to the right. Ignore the turrets. You'll run into a tank but your 6 grenadiers should handle it without a problem. Follow along the cliffs to the right (they wind a lot) until you hit the crops. Set up your base there. Send the 6 grenadiers slowly to the SE. There are some bazooka guys just across the river. Kill them and move just far enough to see the fields. Build a refinery first, then a Weapons Factory, then a Barracks. Build tanks and APCs as fast as you can. Line them up diagonally NW of your base. You may want to build a sandbag line out a bit and build a couple of guard towers too. Build a repair platform ASAP. Repairing a tank is a *LOT* cheaper than building a new one. You'll be faced with hoards of flame-thrower guys at first. It is impossible to defeat them without tanks backed up by APCs or guard towers. Their flames don't hurt tanks much and the APCs will chop them up. Put a few infantry in front of the line of tanks and APCs if there are still some alive. After a while the attacks will die down a bit. Send an APC across the river to the NE and explore that area. You'll see the Nod base up on the hill. Move the APC up to where it can fire at the SAM site and let it hammer away. Yes, it won't really do anything, just leave it though. This will trigger another flood of Nod attackers. By now you should have 4 or 5 tanks and a like number of APCs. Line them up with tanks in front in a line straight south from the river just south of the Nod SAM site. You will slaughter the Nod guys as they come. I find putting a few grenadiers in front works even better but they do tend to get toasted. **IMPORTANT** Be sure to cycle your damaged vehicles back to the repair depot. Take any extra tanks you are producing to where you left the APC and kill the SAM site and any adjacent buildings. The computer will kindly keep building new ones for you to kill. Keep at them. The buildings are power sites and once all three in your range are shot up the Nod base will start to fail. Gradually move the line to the west until you start seeing the Nod harvesters and your tanks shoot at them. This will trigger another Nod wave which by now will be a piece of cake to slaughter. Your tanks will kill off the harvesters quite handily and they rumble past. Eventually you will notice that the attackers are reduced to a dribble of infantry. Now is the time to attack! Sell off all the buildings of your base and rush the dozens of infantry that will produce up to the "front". Load them in the APCs. Send one humvee or APC to run all the way through the Nod base and spot things. It may get toasted by one of those laser towers. ATTACK! Send all your tanks against the laser tower and mix in the APCs with the trailing elements. Once the tower is gone unload the infantry and attack whatever Nod units show up with the infantry and APCs while the tanks hammer at the Nod barracks and airfield. Once those are gone it's all over but the mop-up. I sent in once APC full of engineers that took over 5 buildings (which I immediately sold). I build a couple of Orcas but didn't find them that useful in this scenario. 4 more tanks would have been much better. What a minute, where's the guy you'll supposed to rescue? He'll appear on a plateau in the NE corner once all the SAM sites are gone. A transport chopper will appear to pick him up. And what about those turrets by where you first entered? Ignore them. Orin Thomas (orin@connexus.apana.org.au) Set up your base in the middle left hand side of the screen (just below river. That way you only have 2 flanks to defend against. Then harvest the Tiberium field directly below you. Then go absolutely sick and build a chain link fence from the right side of your base all the way to the river below. This gives you freedom. The Noddies don't seem to want to crash through fences. I used this to annex most of the map. (build fence, use Orcas to clean it out, add to your area :-) More expensive but it reduces the casualties :-) Then you have an almost limitless supply of TIBERIUM to go and build Orcas. Have you seen what you can do with 30 Orcas to a Nod base. Sick! :-) Jeb "Oz" Vegas (oz@cris.com) There is a town and a couple of Tiberium fields in the south east corner of the map. Setup your camp there. Then you have only two flanks to protect. Go Defensive, until you get about 6 Orca built. With the Orcas, take out the Nod harvesters. 6 Orcas can do it in a single sortie. Build Bazookas and Grenadiers early on to setup a defensive screen against the flame-thrower units. Then hang on until you manage to fry several of the harvesters. From there I just took out the base piece by piece. I had harvesters and the Nod did not...just a matter of time. [12-1-12ea]: GDI Mission 12ea, Albania ---------------------------------------- Objective: A GDI base is under siege in this region. Dr. Moebius is trapped in the base. Move in, grab Moebius, and then a transport helicopter will be sent to you. Get Moebius into the transport. Make sure that there are no SAM sites in the area or else the transports will be useless. Hakan Powers (Hakan Powers) This was one tricky sucker to beat. First of all make sure you take out all SAM sites except the one (can remember if it was only one) in his base. make sure you don't loose any vehicles, use your repair site as much as possible. Make absolutely sure you take out the turret next to the SAM site up north, on the computers (east) side of the river. build and engineer and stick him into the APC. build med. tanks for the rest of your money. you can then sell off a guard tower, a powerplant and your weapons factory. build 1 or 2 more engineers and a bunch of grenadiers. send the APC(s) with troops to the south-east corner of the map and have them wait. I suppose you have been keeping med. tanks as defense at both entrances to the base so move 2 of them to the bridge just north of the now waiting APC(s) and stick the rocket launcher behind them. Move all remaining med. tanks (you should have at least 2 if you haven't wasted money, you'll have trouble otherwise) and the mammoth north to the bridge. now move them closer to the enemy base a small step at a time, don't just send them of, its crucial that they all arrive at the right time. when they are just out of range of his turrets move them to the little cliff outcropping next to the northern turret. have the med. tanks arrive just seconds before the mammoth _without_ being shot by the southern turret. tell all three to attack the turret, that should be busy shooting at one of the med. tanks. when the north turret is destroyed attack the south with the med. tanks and sneak the mammoth north around the corner of the base. move him east and knock out the wall and the two powerplants. when they are knocked out the obelisks should be out of business so you can safe mount an assault from the south. and, if your mammoth is still alive bring him back to where the turrets stood and let him attack something. try to capture the computers construction yard and remaining powerplants (if you destroy a couple other buildings there will be enough spare power for the obelisks) and use the grenadiers and med. tanks to take the SAMs. let the rocket launcher hang back and take shots at infantry groups and try to crush them with APCs. build more grenadiers with the money you get from his construction yard. Don't sell his powerplants unless you have captured his construction. yard, he will just build new ones. This mission is quite hard, it will undoubtedly take you a couple of tries. [12-1-12eb]: GDI Mission 12eb, Bulgaria --------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous Kevin McQuire (kmcguire@omni.voicenet.com) There may very well be a more elegant way to do it, but I sold off all of my buildings, built as many tanks and engineers as I could afford (plus the bonus cash crate up near the northernmost SAM site) and then charged the Noddie base en masse, concentrating on getting my engineer-laden APC near enough to capture the construction yard, the hand of Nod and their tiberium refinery. By the time this had happened, I had taken out the Nod death rays and their units. The only thing you need to take out are the SAM sites, though. Jeff Powell (powellj@crd.ge.com) That's what I did. One APC full of minigunners to draw the death rays while the 2nd APC full of engineers shot around the airstrip and unloaded without taking a hit. From there it was a race for the construction yard and the hand of Nod. Sold the yard immediately, started repair and flamer building on the hand. Piece o' cake. NRA1775@ix.netcom.com The key to scout with your hummers. Don't worry about the turrets your faster than their shots just look out for the laser towers. Make some tanks and hummers after they stop attacking your base ( don't leave the base until this happens your guard towers make quick work of tanks and infantry when backed up by your vehicles) and go to the very top of his base with about 3 or 4 tanks and maybe 2-3 hummers and an APC ( with some engineers). At this point blow away the wall then hammer the powerplants with you tanks. He will send infantry to stop you but your hummers should keep them away from the tanks. Once the power stations are down roll the APC into the base and take over stuff and sell it. Make sure you keep repairing your vehicles don't lose any!!!! There is also a money crate in the top left corner near the SAM site and the turret. Once all SAM sites are down GDI will send another chopper. Also use your Mammoth tank as the point tank since after battles it will heal itself to half way. [12-1-13eb]: GDI Mission 13ea, -------------------------- Objective: Delphi's info decoded and Kane has been found. He is overseeing experiments at a Bio-research facility in this area. Destroy facility while we have him cornered. Build an Advanced Communications center to access the new Ion Cannon. It will greatly assist you in your objective. Howard McGee (avatar@hunterlink.net.au) Level 13ea was the best level in the game. I started out by moving everything from the south east corner to the south west corner. I built my base there. Then I quickly got 2 harvesters going. Then built comm. and advanced comms. The barracks and weapons factory. Then a third harvester. By this stage I was earning more money than I could handle. I built a large force then took the small base above me. I captured his refinery and 4 silos(when full). Sold them he rebuilt them I captured them again. By continually repeating this I was able to build 10 advanced comms. and still have 60000 dollars. With the endless supply of $$$$ I built a sandbag wall to lock him in his own base. Blasted him with ion cannon and rockets. Till I walked through his base with bells on to mop up and destroy the research base. The mission took over 7 hours but scored over 1100 points. I loved this mission. [12-1-13eb]: GDI Mission 13eb, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [blank] [12-1-14]: GDI Mission 14, -------------------------- Objective: We have learned the path of evacuating Nod forces. They are moving through this valley. Cut them off so that they can't rejoin the main force. Attack and destroy all the vehicles in the Nod convoy. Joe Pantuso (jpantuso@usit.net) :I cleared the WHOLE map as far as I can tell, I killed about 2 :invisible tanks, and a whole bunch of mobile artillery, and couple units :coming south from the canyon.. The map is clear, no visible units :I let it sit for about 30 min. and nothing happened.. :I scouted the whole map about 10 times now, nothing there! Sigh.. How :long do I have to wait on this mission? You missed some stealth tanks. There are at least four. Tan Tot Lit (isc30236@leonis.nus.sg) :: When I played GDI 14 there were three stealth tanks, two a bit left of :: the lower right and one in the area left of the upper right. :I destroyed seven Stealth tanks... one in the West, four attacked me while :my force was in the crossroads and one was in the north-east corner I knocked out five. Two in the south east, the other three attacked me in two sorties in the east. *12-1-15ea*: GDI Mission 15ea, -------------------------- Objective: The Temple of Nod has been located. We are sure Kane is there. Destroy him, the temple, and any other remnant of Nod that exists there. Nod has been rumored to have completed its own nuclear device so it's do or die time. Let's do it! (marvin@global.co.za) Wow, did you have the frustration of running out of Tiberium in the last stage of GDI? Well, consider the problem solved. In the last stage, Nod always have a little section of base for silo. It is usually lightly guarded with only 2 turrets and maybe 1 stealth tank. At the start of the game harvest as usual to build up a nice base to fend off the invading Nod. After you have enough force to take out those turrets I mentioned above, build an APC and have 5 engineers in it. With you first force take out the guards and the north wall of the "silo compoundÄ. Then leave for home otherwise it will attract more Nod tanks. Wait until the silo fills up and then send your engineers in carefully. Once you take over a silo, sell it so it's easier for the next engineer to take over the next silo. Before you know, you have about 8000 units of tiberium to build some mammoth tanks. Be sure you have some silo ready otherwise you'll waste all those effort. There is more. Once you sell their silo. They'll rebuild it so that we can take over again. Isn't it just so thoughtful of them. :) Those newly build silo only take one full harvester to fill it up. (What kind of motherless harvester do they have??) All you have to do is to repeat the trick ....forever. I even sold my refinery. Before I attacked their base, my base was already bigger than Nod's. (and you know how big their base is!) I even had a nice parking lot for all those tanks that I build and all those harvester that 'retired'. With about 25 mammoth tanks and 25 SSM's, I believe anyone can pulverize the Nod base in less than half an hour. There's one more thing, I attacked Nod from the north. I don't know if other directions will have the same situation. *12-1-15eb*: GDI Mission 15eb, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous Robert A. Hayden (hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu) On that final mission, engineer-steal the power plant and hand of Nod, and then park an infantry right in the place where the obelisk would pop up. the computer is stupid and won't build with you standing there, and won't build somewhere else. Brian Cornett (alecbravos@aol.com) The key to this level is endurance and patience; along with some quick mouse clicking. I must have played the first twenty minutes five times before I was able to get everything set up and not lose my Construction Site. The key is the very beginning. SETUP First, when your MCV is unloaded, drive it immediately to the left edge of the screen. When your tank comes ashore, immediately put it between the construction yard and the flame tank. Not right in front of the MCV. Away from the MCV. Keep the flame tank away from the MCV. Once the flame tank begins to move toward the MCV, start moving it toward the bridge on the northeast corner of this little island. There will be two NOD bazooka infantries. Use the MCV to run over them. Once this is done, drive the MCV over the bridge and then left. DEPLOY and begin building your base in the following order: Power plant, Refinery, Communications Center (CC), sandbags, Advance Guard Towers (AGT), and Advanced Communications Center (ACC). Place the AGT's on the Northern and Eastern sides of your base. Use sandbags to build them away from your Base. The Eastern AGT should be placed on the northeast corner of the bridge. Sandbag across the bridge and disregard the island. (You'll find out why later.) Sandbag in the rest of your base leaving only space for the harvester to get in and out right by the northern AGT. Also, build a 3/4 concrete barrier around the AGTs in order to protect them from flame tanks. Make sure to repair them continuously while engaged in battle; especially when fighting flame tanks. This is the point where your options begin to open up. If you can control their flow around your base, then you can slowly begin to expand outward. I decided to build a second Refinery to get the harvester and then sold the Refinery. Build a silo instead. they're cheaper. Keep building your power plants as well. The AGTs don't work without adequate power. Once you have enough money, build the Advanced Communications Center (away from your Construction Site). Sell your old CC. Let the clock start ticking. After you build your ACC, build your barracks. Now your probably wondering why up to this point, I haven't built a Barracks or a Weapons Factory. Well, I didn't need either until I decided to go on the Offensive. Just prepare yourself with AGTs for their onslaught. Build one more AGT in the northeast corner of your base, and just be patient. When your harvesters are attacked, just move them back in and watch the AGTs do their job. Then go back out and harvest until there is nothing left in the Tiberium Field just north of the base. This is when you have to begin to take control. Now build your Barracks and your Weapons Factory. Then build one to two (1-2) APC and ten (10) grenadiers. Tell your Harvesters to stay put for moment. Use the mini gunners you got out of the Refinery and the CC and explore the area to the north and north east. Don't explore to the East yet. Begin placing sandbags north along the bottom of the ridge you'll uncover running north from the northeast side of your base. Then when the ridge turns right, run the sandbags east along the bottom of the ridge. When the ridge turns south keep running the sandbags east until you sandbag across the valley. Sell all those sandbags except for the ones running across the valley and a few at that corner of the ridge where you make the first turn right. Once you kill the turrets and remaining units inside this area with your roving grenadiers in APC(s), you'll have control of 1/3 of the screen, and 1/2 the tiberium; and NOD forces cannot get in. The sandbag defense works very well and continued to work well throughout the mission. THE SOUTH BASE Once you have control of these areas, it is time to move East. If you have not uncovered the south plateau, then their base will not be built yet, and it will be time to strike. Fill an APC with Two engineers, one technician from the sold buildings, and two Grenadiers. Drive your APC and a harvester directly east, and then take the first turn South. Then drive west to the northwest corner of the plateau and let your grenadiers stand guard. Place the tech on the northwest square as previously mentioned. Move the Engineers to the south and wait. While you're waiting, have the harvester eat a path through the tiberium so that you can build sandbags east. When the Fist of Nod sprouts up, take it over. Now build a wall running from the Fist east until you close off the opening to the plateau. Now take over the power plant. Now, sandbag north until you reach their southwest base and sandbag them in. Now you have control of over half the map, and there is a HUGE tiberium field in the southeast corner. Take out that south turret and it's yours. (After I took out the turret, I went and sold all the walls except the ones that would keep my harvesters from taking their usual "long cuts" in front of their obelisk. Then I built a refinery right below their base. They never touched it.) Now build 2 APCs worth of engineers, 10 grenadiers and three Mammoth Tanks, and about 6-10 Orcas. Keep blasting the infantry they keep building with the Ion Cannon. You can take out up to nine (9) grid squares or 45 infantry at a time. Just think of those thousands of credits they keep losing every time you knock out a platoon of engineers. I couldn't stop laughing from this point until the end of the game. THE SOUTHEAST BASE So easy. SAVE the GAME. Knock out the obelisk with the Ion cannon. Build a sandbag and place it where the obelisk was. They won't build it back. SAVE. Kill the two turrets at the front of the base with the Mammoth Tanks. SAVE. Now, build a AGT and place it inside their compound on the northwest corner. Build another. Run the Mammoths into the center of the compound and run your engineers in behind. SAVE. Take over everything. Don't sell anything. Place the other AGT right beside the Fist of GDI. PROTECT AND DEFEND. SAVE. Take out that Northeast SAM site inside the compound with the tanks and grenadiers and brace for his first NUKE. SAVE. If you don't like where the nuke hits (it's got to hit somewhere), then just like Dune II, you can restart and it will hit somewhere else. If you're a purist then accept wherever it hits and go on. If you do things right, you won't lose another building until the end of the game. Building a Repair Bay in the middle of GDI base 3 makes an ideal repair station on the way into battle. Now that you have two hands of NOD, it makes building Engineers much quicker. Also, use that Airfield to build those new GDI Recon Bikes! Map out the area using three bikes at a time so that you can continue on mapping if the remaining three obelisks get one or more of your bikes. You will find if you can get to it, a Construction Site in the extreme northeast corner of the screen. This will become your base 4 THE NORTHEAST CONSTRUCTION SITE Sandbag north until you get to the front of their base. Sandbag them in. Now clear the area of turrets, tanks and SAM sites with your Orcas and Mammoths. Repair and repeat. There is one hidden turret that you'll have to park an infantry on once you destroy it. Now fly your Orcas up to the northeast corner and take out the turret. Build three more recon bikes, an APC and five engineers. Drive up to their base and use the recon bikes as fodder while the APC sneaks by. Blast the obelisk with the Ion Cannon right when the APC goes by. Now head for that construction site and power plant. If any bikes survive (they will immediately rebuild the obelisk), then send them up as guards. Build another Fist of GDI and build six engineers. Load up the APC and drive them along the very top edge of the screen until you reach the silos. Don't drive down to them until you're at the end away from the north central obelisk. Park at the left end and just take all of them over. You'll get about 8,000 credits from them. THE NORTH CENTRAL BASE Now build four Mammoths and move them to the ridge below their southwest wall of the north central base. Blow the wall, the SAM site, and the airfield. Sandbag from their front gate over to here and build a Fist of GDI, and two guard towers. Build five mini gunners and seven engineers. Move the mammoths around to the southeast corner of their base outside the range of the obelisk. Run the mini gunners toward the obelisk and get those engineers into those power plants. Sell them and kill the obelisk. Build some guard towers and plant them out in front of their Fist. Now take everything with engineers, and kill the other obelisk on the north east corner. Blow up the remaining obelisk in the northwest corner with the Ion Cannon and destroy the Temple of NOD. Leave the other building for now. Take over the power plant. Blow up the SAM sites. and then sell everything except your infantry and vehicles. All the walls -- everything except for the tiberium silos. Then blow up the last building and watch the cool preview of C&C2. [12-1-15ec]: GDI Mission 15ec, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [blank] -- Roger Wong, Games Developer roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk Command & Conquer unofficial STRATEGY FAQ: email: cncfaq@powhq.nildram.co.uk with your additions. ftp://wcl-l.bham.ac.uk/pub/djh/faq/command-n-conquer.faq http://www.khan.org/~solaris/cnc.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- [12-2]: Nod missions ======================= [12-2-1ea]: Nod Mission 1ea, Libya ------------------------------------- Objective: In order for the Brotherhood to gain a foothold, we must begin by eliminating certain elements. Nikoomba, the nearby village's leader, is one such element. His views and ours do not coincide, and he must be eliminated. [blank] [12-2-1eb]: Nod Mission 1eb, Libya ------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [blank] [12-2-2ea]: Nod Mission 2ea, Egypt ------------------------------------- Objective: GDI has kept a stranglehold on Egypt for many years. Set up a forward attack base in your area. To do this you must double click on your Mobile Construction Vehicle. (MCV) From here you can begin to build a base. This area contains plenty of Tiberium, so establishing the base should be easy. [blank] [12-2-2eb]: Nod Mission 2eb, Egypt ------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [blank] [12-2-3ea]: Nod Mission 3ea, Sudan ------------------------------------- Objective: GDI has established a prison camp, where they are e detaining some of the local political leaders. Kane wishes to liberate these victims. Destroy the GDI forces and capture the prison, do not destroy it. [blank] [12-2-3eb]: Nod Mission 3eb, Sudan ------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [12-2-4ea]: Nod Mission 4ea, Chad ------------------------------------ Objective: GDI is attempting to relocate a village of sympathetic civilians. Intercept the convoy and destroy it. It is imperative that the villages be totally destroyed, as a lesson to any other natives who may oppose us. [blank] [12-2-4eb]: Nod Mission 4eb, Chad ------------------------------------ Objective: A small village friendly to our cause has been increasingly harassed by GDI, and the Brotherhood wishes you to assist them in their efforts. Seek out the enemy village and destroy it. The event will be disguised as a GDI attack. [blank] *12-2-5*: Nod Mission 5, Mauritania -------------------------------------- Objective: Our brothers within GDI tell us of A-10 strike jets scheduled to be deployed here soon. Our suppliers have delivered new Surface to Air Missiles to aid you. Use the SAMs to defend your base, then seek out their base and destroy it. Fabrice Timmermans (ftimmerm@belgium.attgis.com) First of all, don't build SAM sites immediately, they are slow and not at all useful (you will just need to build one at the end to end the mission). Build your base in the southeast corner of the map, go for a refinery, hand of NOD and airstrip. Go ahead and explore the map to the west with your buggy. One big point, SCATTER your troops in groups no bigger than three or four units because off A-10 strikes ! If you follow the road to the west, you will come across a bridge. Go north along the edge of the map and at the top a little east. You will arrive just near his construction yard. Send your four recon bikes while building new ones and hammer the yard to dust ! He will probably send one heavy tank after you so if you can, protect the bikes with light tanks. OK yard is out of business so no more construction! Time to take his base piece by piece. From your base, follow the eastern edge of the map to the north. You will eventually cross a small tiberium field. There head west. You will arrive near his base just near his construction yard. Send a tank and an engineer. Launch the tank in the middle of the base to attract enemy fire and take the construction yard. Sell it immediately to build more tanks or bikes. OK, no more GDI vehicles ! You can now send a massive assault to the base and kill the remnants of GDI forces or send more engineers to capture the rest of the base. One strange thing happened to me in this scenario : when I have sell back the GDI construction yard, I was still able as NOD to build APCs !!!!! So, one more raid of engineers was enough to win. Before destroying the latest GDI building, build a SAM site and the scenario is finished. [12-2-6ea] Mission 6ea, Ivory Coast -------------------------------------- Objective: GDI has imported a Nuclear Detonator in an attempt to sway a few local political leaders. Penetrate the base and steal the detonator. A chopper will be sent to meet you at a designated landing zone. Look for the landing flare once you have stolen the device. I had the light section (the one with the recon bike) attack the sandbags of the base and create openings. I launched a two prong attack, my tanks from the left, and my light section from the north, using the gaps in the sandbags to enter in from the northwest. I my cycle blow a gap in the fencing, and had a tank pick up the nuke. I boogied to the pickup site by going south and following the ridge. [12-2-6eb] Mission 6eb, Benin -------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [blank] [12-2-6ec]: Mission 6ec, Nigeria ----------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous Brian Hassink (brian.hassink@nt.com) : How the heck did you pass mission 6? (The nuclear device retrieval) I : can't even get NEAR the base? Is there something I'm missing out on? : Mission 5 was a pushover for me, but I get slaughtered in 6... this is : some great imbalance.... After a few initial failures, have figured out how to win it. Of these missions, mission 6 has been the hardest so far (I finished it with just one remaining unit who almost died because I had to force him across the Tiberium field to reach the helicopter). Here's what I did... It took several tries, but I managed to cross the bridge and arrive at the northeast corner of the map with most of my units (leaving the Engineers back in the southeast corner). I now took this surviving group and walked them along the ridge at the top of the map to the northwest corner, and then south. I then opened fire on the GDI buildings with the Bazooka men. This cause the AI to send its men out of the base and up along the way I came in. As his men came in, I ran my tanks up and down squishing them. This was far more effective than trying to take them out with gun and tank fire. Eventually you'll bleed off most of his men and you can move your group back around to the base entrance. Use the tanks to take out the towers (and place a man where they used to stand or the AI will usually replace them). You'll now have to clean up any residual units in the base and can also bring up the Engineers. Take over any GDI buildings you want, or simply grab the crate and head for the helicopter. Now that I think about it, doing a quick assault on the base entrance and sneaking your Engineers through into GDI buildings may be a better solution. You could hopefully grab the refinery, power plant, and barracks and be on your way to producing more units. [12-2-7ea]: Nod Mission 7ea, Gabon ------------------------------------- Objective: The Brotherhood has located a huge field of Tiberium in the area. The nearby village has laid claim to the field. Eliminate the villagers, as to prevent any infection of our own workers. GDI forces are reported to be minimal, so elimination of them is of secondary importance. [blank] [12-2-7eb]: Nod Mission 7eb, Cameroon ---------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [blank] [12-2-7ec]: Nod Mission 7ec, Central African Republic -------------------------------------------------------- Objective: GDI have left themselves open to the deadliest weapon of all, information. Our spies tell us the GDI base in your area contains an advanced attack helicopter, the Orca. Steal this weapon, then fly to the nearby village and destroy it. The attack will be blamed on GDI. Brian Hassink (brian.hassink@nt.com) : When I sent the engineers into the ORCA installation, they came : right back out. Much to the amusement of the few remaining GDI gunners : who promptly killed me good. Don't tell me I needed all 4 engineers to : complete the mission?! DOOHH!!! I had this happen as well. What I ended up doing was moving the Engineer around to the other side and entering the structure from the bottom. Some advice for this level... Use the cluster of vehicles to bleed away enemy units from the GDI base. I ended up rolling them along in a row, and using the recon-bike unit to lure enemy units to their death. Attacking the GDI harvester is a very good way of getting him to send his units out of the base. As for the squads of men, I space each man out so that the grenades and tank fire from the GDI don't do collateral damage to nearby units. Generally I don't use them until I've almost completely drained the GDI base of units with the vehicle group. Once the GDI base is drained, use your tanks to eliminate the machine gun towers from a distance. It may take a little time, but it'll save you a lot of grief. Once the towers are gone, send in the engineers and grab the Orca. You can use your other engineers to grab the other GDI buildings (hint: Don't grab the refinery until the harvester is in it). OK, you've got the Orca. Next thing is to get rid of that pesky patrol boat. If you don't, your Orca may get hit by its missiles. For this, I took all my remaining units (you can build more if you captured the other GDI buildings) and lined them up along the shore. A few tanks are usually enough to take out a patrol boat. Now that the boat's gone, send the Orca after the lone GDI Bazooka unit in the village. You need to take him out first or his missiles will kill the Orca and you lose the mission. The Orca will fire off missiles automatically and return to the helipad to reload. It takes a few trips to kill the Bazooka, and several more to wipe of the village. [12-2-8ea]: Nod Mission 8ea, Zaire ------------------------------------- Objective: Since we are low on troops, you will have to make use of all available resources. Locate the abandoned GDI base in the area and restore it to operational status. Once that is done, use GDI's own weapons against them. Be sure that no GDI forces remain alive. Jay 'PyRo' (jkw7063@osfmail.isc.rit.edu): I sold the old base, made flamers transported three flamers, and two engineers. That was all I needed. That was a pretty simple mission. If you think that's hard... boy do you have a thing coming. Just wait till the 12 and 13 mission... damn ION Cannons and bombers!. And those 'missile towers' don't help your stealth tanks at all. [12-2-8eb]: Nod Mission 8eb, Zaire ------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous Douglas McCreary (dark@ix.netcom.com) I found that the civilian church on this level is hiding a crate worth $3000. Discovering that fact really helped me solve that level. [12-2-9ea]: Nod Mission 9ea, Egypt ------------------------------------- Objective: GDI is attempting to retake Egypt. Use every available resource in your efforts to stop them. The populace has once again swayed in support of GDI forces, so show no mercy in dealing with the villagers. There is a Nod base in the southwest corner of the map. Use your commando to get to your bazookas, killing all soldiers along the way. Stack your bazookas in a line in front of the bridge they are near. Make your commando run to the edge of the plateau and get the Hummer to attack. Place your commando behind your line of bazookas, and wait to demolish the Hummer. Gather everyone up into a single group by the engineers. Move everyone south across the bridge, and through the valleys until you get to the base. You're on your own from there. [12-2-9eb]: Nod Mission 9eb, Egypt ------------------------------------- Objective: Same as previous John C. Price (doctor23@iglou.com) Well, here's the Doc's Guide to GDI Base Bashing. i) Build up a strong defense. You heard me. Defend FIRST. Why? Because any assault on a CPU base must destroy the construction center, or it accomplishes nothing, so you need a hellacious attack force. Throw up a few turrets and an Obelisk if you can afford it. SAM bases are mostly useless, but if you build enough of them, the CPU will get scared and bomb your harvesters instead (they'll survive, but keep 'em in good repair). Once your defenses are up, you have as much time as you want, because you're invulnerable. The computer is just too dumb to mass an assault force, so it sends in wave after wave of unsupported infantry and the occasional tank. Just have a flamer guy standing around and you'll have no problems. ii) Pick your plan. a. The Rommel Attack: This revolves around building a slew (15-20) light tanks and roaring in through the enemy's front gate, blasting the bejesus out of everything. The tanks take an incredible amount of damage to kill, so odds are you can wreak so serious havoc before you die. Again, the construction base MUST die, or the CPU will just rebuild all you knocked out. Note: Since tanks SUCK against infantry, you might need a couple of flame tanks. b. Flame On: As the name implies, this tactic revolves around flame tanks. Build a horde (at least 10, because they're lightly armored), and a few light tanks as damage sponges. Send in the light tanks to draw fire, then charge the flame tanks at any advanced guard towers (they'll cause too many casualties if allowed to live). The flamers do HELLACIOUS damage, so the towers should die rapidly. Next, everybody goes after the construction base, with one or two tasked to kill the hordes of infantry pouring out of the barracks. If you get the construction base, you've won, regardless of your losses, because you can just rebuild your attack force and attrition him to death since he can't rebuild his lost defenses. *12-2-10ea*: Nod Mission 10ea, Angola ---------------------------------------- Objective: GDI is developing an orbital weapon. Our spies have told us of a large lake near the location of the R&D center. Find the base, and use the sniper to eliminate their scientist. Marcus Augustus Alzona : This took me awhile to find, but in the end it was easy. You start on the (lower) left edge of the lake with just units(Tanks, infantry, commando, artillery, buggies, flametanks). Save the commando. Move your units north, eliminating units as you go. eventually, near the top-right edge, they'll be a land-bridge south. Follow that. You'll come to the outside wall of the GDI base - the most important thing here is that you can ignore it - try to stay clear of the gun tower. If you stick to the right and go south past the base, there is a smaller sub-base past the base to the south, with the scientist in reach if you have a commando or a tank left. *12-2-10eb*: Nod Mission 10eb, Tanzania ------------------------------------------ Objective: GDI is developing a new, heavily armored tank. Our spies have located the GDI R&D base. Use your small strike force to locate and penetrate the center. Be sure to destroy the tanks in the base and the factory. J. Willig (j.willig@student.utwente.nl) Use your commando to mislead the two tanks and than walk down to the right until you can cross the river. walk to the left (watch for grenadiers) and pass the bridge on the left side of the field. Wait for the mammoth tank to pass and run across the other bridge (where the tank came from) and use the left bridge to enter the base. destroy the tanks and factory and get ready for the next thrilling animation [12-2-11ea]: Nod Mission 11ea, Namibia ----------------------------------------- Objective: GDI has captured one of our technology centers. You must recapture the base and recover the stolen information. Our forces in the area don't have time to find a way across the river, so you will have to control the two forces separately. [blank] [12-2-11eb]: Nod Mission 11eb, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [blank] [12-2-12ea]: Nod Mission 12ea, -------------------------- Objective: Somewhere in this area there is a GDI Advanced Communications Center. Inside this center are the firing codes for their orbiting Ion station. The Brotherhood must have these codes. Capture the center and retrieve the codes, do not destroy the center. Chee Hui (cheehui@aztech.com.sg) In this mission, you need to capture the advanced comm. base where you started off with a mobile construction yard, two recon bikes, two Nod buggies and a light tank. The main problem is that the surrounding area in your vicinity has no tiberium fields so you need to cross the bridge to build the yard there. Unfortunately, 2 Mammoth tanks are stationed at the bridge. Here's the trick. If you recon the area, you will find it's actually a nice square loop. Select 1 recon bike and ask it to target the further Mammoth tank on the bridge while you stationed the rest of your forces just outside of the edge of this square. Once the Mammoth tanks start attacking, run your bike as far away (and from your main force) ASAP towards the loop. When the tanks see your mobile yard, they'll turn their attention to it instead. So select all your vehicles (except the bike) and run round the loop to keep ahead one step of them always. Since the 2 tanks are now preoccupied with your other vehicles, reselect your bike and chase after the 2 tanks. Start with the 2nd further tank and shoot his butt black ! Once the 2nd tank got his butt fried, do the same for the 1st tank. Just be sure to maintain the rest of your forces beyond the Mammoths' range and you'll be all right. The rest of the mission will be fairly routine. Boy, those Mammoth tanks certainly have no brains. I actually like this mission because you can just use 1 bike to beat 2 Mammoth tanks. Talk about the odds of doing that in real combat. PS: If you think that's tough, wait till the next one. [12-2-12eb]: Nod Mission 12eb, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous See [12-2-12ea]. *12-2-13ea*: Nod Mission 13ea, South Africa -------------------------- Objective: Establish your base, then build and defend the Temple of Nod. All GDI forces are to be destroyed. Kane has ordered you to defend the Temple at all costs, even your own life. Do not allow GDI forces to overrun you. Chee Hui (cheehui@aztech.com.sg) I won this end-game by doing something incredibly brave (and stupid too!). Using my transport helicopter, I filled it with a troop of bazooka guys and the one commando dude. I proceeded to land at the left coastline of the GDI base at the top. I unloaded my troops and used my commando to make short work of the surrounding infantry. I then attacked the nearby tanks and waited for the tanks to roll in. In the meantime, I flew my heli back to carry a full load (with the commando of course) of engineers. Once all loaded up and repaired, my heli landed on the inside wall to the left of the weapons factory. I unloaded one of my engineer immediately and right away, asked my chopper to take off and return to base for repairs. The advanced guard tower station there is a real pain. But it will begin shooting at the factory once you took over it. Once done, my heli took off again and proceeded to land at the same place. I unloaded my engineers and took over his barracks immediately and started making grenadier units there. I then took over his refinery and sold it immediately to furnish my funds while I made grenadiers. Once the guard tower is gone, I constructed a line of fence all around to keep out those pesky tanks which by then had rolled over my troops. It took 3 successive tries before I got this timed right. Phew! From then on, I literally drained the computer of funds by proceeding to take over his refinery (with the harvester) which keeps getting rebuilt next to my barracks. I timed my engineer movement just right, so that when the refinery is in the earlier stages of building, my engineer was halfway in. I then sold off the refinery and the harvester for a handsome profit of about 1000+ credits (compared to the price for producing engineers). Of course, others might say this is stupid but after 10+ takeovers, the computer was drained of money. How did you know ? Everything you attack will be sold off by the computer. It took me 3+ hours to complete and the feeling was great because I was churning out Mammoth tanks inside their base and using it to destroy their nearby yard. And all done without the nuke! 8-) I literally fenced out the GDIs for my second yard and was harvesting in absolute peace. [12-2-13eb]: Nod Mission 13eb, -------------------------- Objective: Same as previous [blank] [12-2-13ec]: Nod Mission 13ec, ------------------------------ Objective: Same as previous [blank] -- Roger Wong, Games Developer roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk Command & Conquer unofficial STRATEGY FAQ: email: cncfaq@powhq.nildram.co.uk with your additions. ftp://wcl-l.bham.ac.uk/pub/djh/faq/command-n-conquer.faq http://www.khan.org/~solaris/cnc.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- CHAPTER [13]: I need help playing multiplayer --------------------------------------------- [13-1] Offensive strategies =========================== Jason Thomas (hiro@mill2.millcomm.com) :I was on the losing end of a game when I got lucky with an APC :full of engineers and took most of his base - my opponent promptly resigned. :Yes, I won technically, but it felt like a hollow victory. It also places :way too much emphasis on that tactic instead of a mix of strategies. There's no such thing as an unfair tactic. If you haven't arranged your defenses so that you can defend against a couple of APCs with engineers, perhaps you should reevaluate your strategy. It is, however, a devastating assault. Picture this: A few waves of humvees driving parallel to the wire to snipe at infantry units. Follow this up with a wedge of medium tanks, spearheaded by a heavy if you have it, directed at a turret. Follow this up with rocket artillery. Then the APCs with engineers come through. If the APCs get through, game over. If they don't, then the defender's base is going to be pretty much toast, and his defending forces crushed. Your attack force is going to be gone too, but it underscores the principle of attacking first. Don Good (treygood@aol.com) From reading the various h2h posts, it appears that most players use a defense first strategy. Sorry, but this is not the most effective way to go. At the outset, you should hunt aggressively for your foes base. Assign a humvee/recon bike to a ctrl number, and send it first to one corner, then the others. While the unit is in transit, build your base right next to a tiberium field. Your order of build for NOD is powerplant, refinery, Hand of NOD. For GDI it's powerplant, then refinery. If you have found your foes base, and he has no Helipads yet, then GDI should build the barracks. If your foe has Helipads, or Hand o NOD; GDI should build a communications center. The comm. center allows you to build Advanced towers, the barracks allows everything else. During this phase, listen for sounds of gunfire. When you here gunfire it's your scout being attacked. Do an alt+# to jump to him and thoroughly scout out his base. If he has no SAM's/advanced towers, your in luck, quickly build 2 Helipads, and 1 powerplant and start attacking his harvester. Meanwhile, if your GDI, train to engineers and load them into your APC for an assault on his construction yard. From this point on, your main objective is to build more harvesters, and constantly attack his harvesters and powerplants. When a powerplant gets knocked out attack his ground units on his base. Concentrate on units which can attack helicopters/Orcas. By attacking from the get go, you force the "base builders" into a constant rebuilding mode. If they insist on still trying to build and advance their bases they will leave themselves open to further attacks upon production. If they try to return the attack, you will have already gained significant ground in offensive punch over them. This strategy is especially effective against the GDI "spider base" builders. In the early stages of the game their defenses are too spread out to prevent constant air attacks, and too spread out to deal with an APC/engineer attack. [13-2] Defensive strategies ============================== Jason Thomas (hiro@mill2.millcomm.com) Now, what if you had two layers of defense? An outer wall, possibly sandbags, with gun turrets, infantry, et cetera. Then, an inner wall of chain-link or concrete surrounding your buildings with gun-turrets, grenade guys, et cetera. That might help keep the engineers away a bit better. It's a legitimate tactic; use it and learn how to defend against it. Phil Sykes (root@sykic.demon.co.uk) Surround your base with guard towers. If an enemy (even an allied one) approaches to try and get recon info, waste them. The less they know at the start, the more costly it is in the middle. Spice harvesters are great to hassle with Orcas. Pointers to remember during netgames: The computer player ALWAYS repairs structures when they get damaged. The same is not true for the humans however. Humans may get demoralized and quit if you kill their construction yard! Always keep a couple of engineers next to your refinery and construction yards - to recapture them immediately. Humans have VERY limited money, especially if you've killed their harvesters! Those ion cannons are much more useful when repairs can't be made and obelisks / guard towers can't be replaced indefinitely. Try to cripple your opponent early on by making them spend money on repairs and replacements so their 'base-economy' cannot develop. If playing against a tech 6 or 7 Nod opponent, wall up your base apart from one choke point which should have a guard stationed there who moves out of the way to let units in / out. This prevents stealth tanks. Never leave your base open anyway - the other guy will be fighting a penetration war if he has to get through walls! Often, humans will repair their units. Clobber them on the way out if you don't like this! [13-3]: Capture the flag =========================== Kevin 'Zaph' Burfitt (zaph@torps.apana.org.au) Playing 4 player Capture the Flag, with Alliances: The Zaph strategy: As soon as the game starts, gear to building fast vehicles (humvees/Bikes) and run groups of 3 or 4 into the enemy base, grabbing the flag and dragging it further away - they wont have the defenses to prevent this in the opening stages... The Anti-Zaph Strategy: After forming an alliance with your teammate, run a tank into their base, and take their flag. Then drive it a few squares away, somewhere convenient and hard to get to!. Now the only way someone can take the flag is by destroying your tank (they can't just grab it and run). - have your teammate do the same for you! *13-4*: Aardvark's strategy ============================== Phil Sykes (root@sykic.demon.co.uk) (1) Get recon on the enemy base as soon as possible. Preferably, send all of your recon capable guys out to corners of the map to get info on the areas around the base. This saves you enormous hassle getting it later on, when it will be needed to detect buildups, aim airstrikes / Orcas and mount an attack. When your guy gets there, offer (verbally or using f1-f4) to make an alliance. If you command the respect I do in C&C, they will probably agree. Say you will team up and crush the other two (so the other two can here it). This will cause them to ally (maybe) Once you've made the alliance, run all the way round the base (if someone else tries to do this to you, unally and whack them). Then set off to another base. (2) Defend your base from recon. Put fences up around 'choke points', areas where the base is protected by natural features to prevent other people getting in. Put a tank at the entrance (and a guard building) to discourage people from getting in. With any luck, no-one got a good look round your base. If anyone did, offer to make an alliance with them - they could be very dangerous. (3) Build more base. Put at least two tiberium refineries in, preferably on opposite sides of the base. Make sure harvesters have easy access to them, but put them inside the fence, or engineers will attack them. Don't worry about defence too much at this stage, but be sure to make a base that is easily navigable (so troops can get through to defend). Avoid making 'transport chopper magnets', that is large areas of open ground deep inside your base. If you have any, be sure to station a minigunner and a bazooka guy to shoot down or mop up any penetrators. My personal preference is for a fairly open plan base, with all areas defended by advanced guard towers or SAMs. If you're playing NOD, put your obelisks RIGHT next to SAM launchers, and preferable within range of two or three SAMs, because this will mean any air attack to remove it takes hideous casualties. Be sure to produce five or six bazooka dudes to plant around the inside of the base for SAM cover. In areas where a tank attack seems probable, place fence 2 squares deep, or concrete if you can get it. DON'T leave huge gaps in your defenses. If possible, only two or three squares should afford entrance or exit to your base, and these should be defended with advanced guard towers like so: ************ ************ *** *** G** **G * = fencing / natural defenses G = advanced guard tower / obelisk This fencing two deep prevents flame-throwers or minigunners from getting next to the targets. (4) Be really evil. At this point, everyone's base is defended. A frontal assault would be suicide and lose you the game, so you have to fight dirty, using attrition or psychological tactics or luck to destroy the other three. Build three harvesters and two harvester plants at least. If you're GDI, get around five Orcas. Start blowing up harvesters. It doesn't take long for the human to feel the pinch. If he gets stuck without enough money to build more harvesters, he has to sell units or buildings. If you can see areas in the enemy base not under SAM cover, blow them up. This works especially well against weenies who build their construction yard right at the back, and form a front line to stop enemies. If your harvesters start to get blown up, complain violently. Protest to the other guy, and suggest to everyone that a punitive raid should be launched on player X to stop them from being so evil. Also, send a few bazooka guys to the spice farms. Orcas aren't much good at hitting moving targets, so this is where they are most vulnerable. If you can afford it - spider base. Build a line of sandbags out to a large spice field, and plonk an advanced guard tower or a SAM site (protected by a tank). This is an excellent place to mass troops prior to an assault, as they don't get pummeled by aircraft (it's also a big target for ion cannons / nukes, deflecting the attention away from your base. If another player looks stronger then you, say so. Explain to the other players how it would definitely be best to take this guy down 'I can see troops massing in his corner, he's going to attack' or 'I'm sure he's got stealth tanks in your base!' Launch a combined assault. This will undoubtedly remove him from the game if you are playing with anyone half decent. Offer to lend 'air support' but not ground troops. Whilst they're doing this - engineer attack their base or blow up their harvesters. Chances are they'll be too pre-occupied to notice. If you're NOD - Stealth tanks! - Sneak em in through enemy defenses and mass them in the gaps between his buildings. Go for his construction yard first, because once the construction yard is gone, the will to fight can go too, and they may resign. Also, use stealth tanks or recon bikes to hunt harvesters in packs ;) Crates are always useful. No matter what you got, say it was a good one to your enemies. If you're nod, decloak one of your stealth tanks to make the noise, and say it was a stealth APC/engineer/mammoth tank. Make sure you have recon all around the map, and periodically scan it for crates. Have a humvee ready to go after the crates (be sure to tell an ally what you're doing if you approach his base, or he may attack you) Set up a buffer zone around your base. If anyone comes inside a LARGE radius, say 'that (unit) better get out of here or my Orcas / assault choppers are gonna whack him'. 'You got 10 seconds - 9 - 8 - 7 (launch the Orcas now) - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 (Orcas attack now) - damn, I can't count.' This will scare weenie players a bit. Of course, no treatise on being nasty would be complete without the engineer assault. I've already described the best method for this, but after a bit more multiplayer playing, the enemy has got wise to these tactics (remember - you can target your AGT's and obelisks manually). So, a few more pointers: The enemy will whack any APC approaching his base, for sure. (I know I would). If he sends choppers up, the APC is in trouble. Guard it with bazooka guys, who get out when you're nearly there and march with the APC. Remember to ally with him in the middle of this. It might confuse him, but your APCs won't stop to shoot that way. Say 'OK . he's turning around now - he was just doing some recon', turn him round, and move straight back in again (or attack one of his harvesters, to divert attention). There must be a weak point for the APC to get through. Defenses like I have described will chew up APCs and engineers every time without a problem. If you've got stealth tanks inside, use them to divert his attention away. By the time he notices, it may be too late. Else use an Orca strike to remove a gap big enough to get an engineer through. If there's no way that's going to work, use a chopper. Land it as far from SAM sites as possible, and get out four grenadiers and one engineer. Use the grenadiers to chew up a power station or two, and send the engineer in. To defend against this, just put a wall down where the chopper is about to land. It has to take off again. Once you've got the building, sell it. Use the minigunners to get more recon, or to attack a building. Don't suicide them into the nearest guard tower. Power: If an GDI enemy runs out of power, send the Orcas in. If a nod player does, have a quick engineer attack ready ;) Always turn your sound down if you know you will lose power (same for building nukes/ion cannon/air strikes). Turn in up again afterwards. (5) Endgame You got walloped? Had to sell all of your buildings to pay for a few units? Got a few guys left (or a mass of minigunners from building attack?). Make use of them! Send them to attack harvesters or camp out close to an enemy base, inviting an attack (which will cost the enemy dear if you are going to try a head on assault - make sure you send the armor in first. Offer to send any harvesters you have to other people's bases in return for air support / backup in an assault. In short, get the other guys to help you against the guy that beat you. You may still win! Everyone else has no money and a load of units which are crap? Start building up defenses. Close up entrances you no longer need, and plant extra advanced guard towers in. Say 'come on then - finish it off - IĀve got bugger all money left now' and other such things to entice an attack. When it comes, mass all units inside the fence and pound away. Two advanced guard towers and a wall can kill a virtually infinite number of men, especially with money to repair them. Send up the assault choppers and or Orcas to attack them on the way in. you start getting beaten, fall back inside your base a bit more. They generally can't prosecute an attack against a multilayered base (units too scattered - not enough armor etc.). HOUSE RULES FOR C&C (+ interesting deathmatch games) No engineers attacks No engineer attacks in the first half hour No attacking harvesters (in the first half hour) No sending out first minute recon buggies No resigning (sell all your buildings and try a head on assault) Must resign and abort once beaten (to speed up the game) Two on two alliances Nod and GDI vs. Nod and GDI (capture allies buildings for a nice mix of units). Three on one (I've won a few playing the one) No bases - 50 units tech level 1 No bases - 50 units tech level 4 No bases - 5 units tech level 4 (this is a hoot!) Tech levels 6&7 are the most fun to play on. Use CCEDIT to edit the weapon loadouts for all players. e.g. Bazookas guys armed with SAMs, cost 700 Nod recon buggy armed with SAMs, cost 900 MCV only costs 2000 Orcas only cost 300, SAMs 400 and AGTs 450 (air war!!!) Flame-thrower troops have obelisk lasers, but cost 1200 Nod buggy and Hummers both have high velocity machine gun, but cost 100 more. Engineers cost 1000 Everything is half price (this is FUNNY!) Everything is one credit (this is SILLY!) *13-5* Joseph's strategy =========================== Joseph E. Bellerose (oz@cris.com) One can win against any opponent with a Low Tech Strategy. I have overrun my opponent with just foot soldiers as the NOD and as the GDI. Basically I NEVER build the advanced structures. I put my cash into "troopers" or some other low tech capability. My "Chinese strategy" is to overwhelm the opponent early on with a combination of grenadiers/flame- throwers and a few bazooka and mini-gunner troops. While he is building all those fancy buildings I'm sending groups of 12 to 15 troopers at him from several different angles. The trick is to attack from two or preferably three different directions. This has the effect of inducing the greatest military weapon of all...PANIC into the heart of your opponent. Another favorite of mine is the HELLS ANGELS strategy. I build Recon Bikes as fast as I can and nothing else. 12 Recon Bikes can easily overcome any Orca strategy and I have rushed the enemy base with Recon Bikes and taken out his Construction yard, Vehicle Building and usually 1 or 2 of his Orca Pads before the 12 Bikes expire. In the meantime I am building the second wave of HELLS ANGELS for the finishing moves. It is amazing to watch 12 to 15 HELLS ANGELS shred a harvester or a squadron of Orcas. They can reduce a couple of Mammoth tanks to scrap iron in a matter of no time at all. The basic idea is to get there "furstus with the mostus" and to have a "second punch" to finish off the enemy after your first attack has caused chaos. The money you save by NOT building the fancy structures and going for the Wunder Weapons allows you to get there with a killer punch FIRST. The basic defense against the HELLS ANGELS...Hummers of course. The Recon Bikes are lightly armored and the Hummers or Nod Buggy can run with them and shred the Bikes quickly as well. So it is a good counter. Of course, if you are building all those Monuments to Greatness (Advanced Comms...NOD temple etc..) well you are not going to be able to produce too many Hummers or Buggies are ya? Hahahahaha *13-5*: What do I do with crates? ==================================== *13-5-1*: Stealth technology ------------------------------- Rorke Haining (rorke.haining@mccaw.com) I'm out of this game, kibitzing a player who never uses Engineers OR APCs. Totally not my style. The game gives him an APC to start with, and he uses it to explore. I tell him that's a dumb idea, he should use his humvee instead, APCs are too valuable to risk losing until you suicide them into the enemy bunker with a load of Engineers/Commandos/diversionary troops. He doesn't listen. He finds a crate. I say don't touch that crate with your APC, you've got a man really close by. He grabs the crate with the APC. And inside was something I had never seen inside a crate before. STEALTH TECHNOLOGY! HE HAS A #@*$&! STEALTH APC!! AND HE WON'T BUY A SINGLE ENGINEER!!! What does he do with it? He keeps exploring. He explores a large island. Turns out one of his enemies is on that island, and is just now moving tanks onto both bridges. For the rest of the game, he has a wounded, invisible, empty APC trapped on an enemies home island, which he eventually just suicides into something in an attempt to get it back off the island. (whimper) Jeff Meek (calipf@megaweb.com) I also had a 4 person net game this past weekend; what a blast! During one game, one opponent also found a stealth crate...with his HARVESTER!!! So much for my strategy of killing off his harvesters. He just ran around invisibly gathering tiberium. Then he used his stealth harvester to explore the map and map out my base (bastard). He even had the audacity to run down some of my bazooka defense troops. Imagine their surprise as an 80 ton behemoth de-cloaks right in front of them. Douglas William Cole (dougc@umd.umich.edu) Whoa, I've never gotten a stealth APC, that would be the be all, end all, ultimate weapon. I've gotten a stealth harvester (the little bugger must have just run over it himself), a stealth humvee (yay!), a stealth med. tank (oh boy), and other stuff. Once, there was this crate that appeared right in the corner of my base and when I got it and opened up the stealth technology, it made my unit (like a buggy or something), a refinery, a powerplant AND a harvester that was in the refinery all stealth! I freakin' had a stealth power plant! Whoo boy! My friend got a stealth Mammoth but I didn't notice it because he had like 8 more with it. A stealth Orca would be almost impossible because Orcas can't get boxes (you'd have to park an Orca around a box then open it with some other unit, I guess). A stealth commando would ALSO totally rule. I wonder if he would be visible the whole time he ran to a building to C4 it, or just at the instant he attacked it. Hmm. *13-5-2*: Units ------------------ Douglas William Cole (dougc@umd.umich.edu) Units. (All infantry, commandos, flame tanks, stealth tanks, APCs, Mammoths, **MCVs**, Chem. warriors, almost everything I guess. *13-5-3*: Visceroids ----------------------- Kevin 'Zaph' Burfitt (zaph@torps.apana.org.au) If you open a box and find one of those red blob things, then head the unit that opened it towards the enemy base, if it dies, the blob will continue to their base, and you can get back to killing them... *13-5-4*: Explosions ---------------------- Not particularly desirable. These come in three flavors. The incendiary explosion is roughly equivalent to a bell pepper. The napalm explosion is about on par with a couple of chili peppers. The nuclear explosion is about equivalent to five jalepenos. *13-5-5*: Cash ----------------- This contains up to 2000 credits. *13-5-6*: Nukes, airstrikes, ion beams ----------------------------------------- Douglas William Cole (dougc@umd.umich.edu) One time use nukes, airstrikes and ion beams. My friend said he found a box with an ion beam AND a nuke it in, but I'll believe it when I see it. [13-5-7]: Map modifiers -------------------------- Will either hide or reveal or cover all territory on your maps. *13-5-8* Heal all units -------------------------- Joe Bostic (joebwan@anv.net) sphere with rings -> heal all units and buildings to full strength ============================ -Section Four- MISCELLANEOUS ============================ -------------------- CHAPTER [14]: Tables -------------------- The data in these tables are the result of the hard work of Andrew Griffin and Mike Lee. My many thanks to Mike for his initial field experiments, and to Andrew for his dedication to cracking that rascally game.dat file. What a patient guy! *14-1*: Armor ================ Unit Armor Level Description 0 very resistant to anti-armor weapons (rockets and cannons); gets chewed up very quickly by machine guns. 1 recon bike is equipped with this. 2 stealth tank, artillery, hummers, buggy, MRLS, harvester and MCV are equipped with this. So is the SSM and rocket launcher. 3 flame, light, medium and mammoth tanks as well as the APC are equipped with this. So is the gunboat. 4 Quite resistant to anti-armor weapons (better than 1-3 but worse than 0), but bad against the high-velocity machine gun but good against the minigunner infantry. It is on the Orca and nod attack choppers. Building Armor There is no solid information on the types of armor associated with buildings at this time. Building armor seems to be radically different than unit armor, in that they absorb bullets very well, but are most vulnerable to artillery and rocket fire. The SAM site has two different armor values for when it is open, and for when it is closed. While closed, a SAM site can take 200 hits from a minigunner, 25 hits from a bazooka, and 20 hits from a mammoth tank. Compare this with a tiberium silo that takes 38 minigunner hits, or 13 bazooka hits, and you may understand a little better why it is taking so long to figure out the logic behind the armor of buildings. *14-2*: Weapons ================== Weapon type : Name of weapon Weapon ID : Internal ID number of weapon Damage to armor: Hitpoints damage to units of specified armor Area damage : Radius of damage area in game squares Range : Range of weapon in game squares Reload : Reload rate of weapon in minutes and seconds Accuracy : Accuracy of weapon. AA is excellent, FF is hopeless. Weapon Weapon Damage to Armor Area Range Reload type ID 0 1 2 3 4 Dam. (sq.) (sec.) Accuracy -------------------------------------------------------------------- Sniper rifle 0 99? 4 4 4 ? N/A 6 :05 AA HV machine-gun 1 22 19 14 6 25 1 3 :05 AA Pistol* 2 ? ? ? ? ? N/A 1 :25 CC Minigun 3 15 8 8 4 4 N/A 1 :03 AA Rocket 4 8 22 22 30 11 ? 4 :06 BB Flame-thrower 5 26+ ? 24 ? 9 3 2 :05 AA Tank flame-thrower 6 50+ 35 35 13 ? 2 2 :05 AA Chemical Spray 7 40+ ? 36 ? 14 3 2 :07 AA Grenade 8 39 ? 26 13 ? 2 2 :07 BB 70mm cannon 9 ? 19 19 25 ? ? 4 :06 BB 120mm cannon 10 8 22 22 30 15 ? 5 :05 BB 120mm cannon APR 11 10 30 30 40 20 ? 5 :09 BB Turret cannon 12 10 30 30 40 20 ? 5 :06 BB Missile pack 13 ? ? ? ? ? 1 5 :07 CC 227mm rocket 14 ? ? ? ? ? 2 6 :09 DD Ballistic charge 15 ? 112 85 40 ? 1 6 :06 FF 50 cal. machinegun 16 15 8 8 4 4 N/A 4 :03 AA Gunboat missile 17 ? ? ? ? ? 2 8 :03 DD Adv. GT Missile 18 ? ? ? ? ? 2 8 :05 DD Napalm bomb 19 ? ? ? ? ? 1 N/A 12:00 AA Obelisk Laser 20 ? ? 200 ? ? ? 5 :05 AA Surf to Air Miss. 21 ? ? ? ? ? N/A 8 :06 AA Surf to Surf Miss. 22 ? ? ? ? ? 4 10 :24 AA Ion Cannon 592 578 ? 450 450 1 N/A 15:00 AA Nuclear warhead ? ? ? ? ? 3 N/A 20:00 AA There are another 2 weapon types, but they have no sound effects associated with them, nor a graphic. They may be associated with the tiberium fields and blossom trees. * Pistols have a fire rate of about half a second, but take 25 seconds to reload the 10-round magazine. *14-3*: Units =============== Unit Type : Name of unit Hit Points: Amount of damage absorbed before destruction Armor : Armor level of unit Cost : Cost of unit in credits Weapon ID : Type of weapon carried, according to internal ID numbers. Tech level: Multiplayer tech level in which unit appears. TTB : Time to build at slowest gamespeed on Gateway P5-66 'I stopwatched the building time for all vehicles, infantry and buildings and came to the conclusion, that TTB is linear to the cost except the following units: refinery needs only 1/3 of the time , heli pad 1/5th (that's incredible fast!), walls need all the same (as if costing 150 credits), a harvester needs a little more time (15%), and orcas, attack helicopters need almost twice the time.' -Stefan Sautter (t1163ci@sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de) On my system, it takes approximately nine seconds to build 100 credits worth of units/buildings. The times to build presented here are only meant to give a rough idea of construction times. Movement : Scale of 1 to 10. 1 is fastest. 10 is slowest. Scout : Scouting radius in squares. Req. : Buildings required for construction. Unit Hit Weap Tech Mov. Scout Type Points Armor Cost ID Lvl TTB Rate Rad. Req. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Minigunner 50 0 100 3 1 :10 8 1 Bar Grenadier 50 0 160 8 1 :10 6 1 Bar Bazooka 25 0 300 4 2 :25 9 2 Bar Flame-thrower 70 0 200 5 1 :18 6 1 HON Chem Warrior 70 0 300 7 7 :25 8 1 HON+Tmpl. Engineer 25 0 500 N/A 3 :45 8 2 Bar/HON Commando 80 0 1000 0 7 1:30 6 5 Bar+ACC/HON+Tmpl Attack Heli. 125 4 1200 1 6 1:15 1 0 Air+Hpad Orca 125 4 1200 4 6 2:00 1 0 WF+Hpad Transport Heli 90 ?? 1500 N/A 6 2 0 WF+Hpad/Air+Hpad Flame Tank 300 3 800 6 4 1:10 6 4 Com+Air Stealth Tank 110 2 900 4 5 1:20 5 4 Com+Air Light Tank 300 3 600 9 3 :50 7 3 Air Medium Tank 400 3 800 10 3 1:10 7 3 WF Mammoth Tank 600 3 1500 11/13 5 2:15 10 4 WF+RBay Harvester 600 2 1400 N/A 2 2:15 7 2 WF+Ref/Air+Ref MCV 600 2 5000 N/A 7 ?? 7 2 WF+ACC/Air+Tmpl Artillery 75 2 450 15 6 :40 10 4 Air Humvee 150 2 400 16 2 :35 3 2 WF Nod Buggy 140 2 300 16 2 :25 3 2 WF Recon Bike 160 1 500 4 2 :35 2 2 WF Rocket Launcher 100 2 800 14 7 1:10 7 4 WF+ACC APC 200 3 700 16 4 1:00 4 4 Bar+WF SSM 120 2 750 22 7 1:05 7 4 ??? *14-4*: Buildings =================== Building type: Name of unit Req Power : Power drain in power units. Power Output : Power generation in power units Hit Points : Amount of damage absorbed before destruction Armor : Armor level of building Cost : Cost of building in credits Weapon type : Type of weapon carried, according to internal ID numbers. Tech level : Multiplayer tech level in which building appears. TTB : Time to build at slowest gamespeed on Gateway P5-66 Req. : Prerequisite buildings before construction No information on construction yard is available. No information on armor types is available. Building Power Hit Weap Tech Type in out Pts Armor Cost Type Levl TTB Req. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sandbags 0 0 20 N/A 50 N/A 1 :15 Cyard Fence 0 0 10 N/A 75 N/A 1 :15 Cyard Concrete 0 0 70 N/A 100 N/A 1 :15 Cyard Power Plant 0 100 200 ?? 300 N/A 1 :20 CYard Adv. Power Plant 0 200 300 ?? 700 N/A 5 :45 Pp Refinery 40 10 450 ?? 2000 N/A 1 :55 Pp Silo 10 0 150 ?? 150 N/A 1 :10 Ref Comm. Center 40 0 500 ?? 1000 N/A 2 1:35 Ref Helipad 10 0 400 ?? 1500 N/A 6 :20 Bar/HON Repair Pad ?? 0 ?? ?? 1200 N/A ? 2:00 Pp Barracks 20 0 200 ?? 300 N/A 1 :20 Pp Weapons Factory 30 0 200 ?? 2000 N/A 2 3:20 Pp Guard Tower 10 0 200 ?? 500 1 2 :42 Bar Adv. Comm. Center 200 0 500 ?? 2800 N/A 7 Com Adv. Guard Tower 20 0 300 ?? 1000 18 4 1:35 Com Hand of Nod 20 0 200 ?? 300 N/A 1 :20 Pp SAM Site 20 0 200 ?? 750 21 6 1:05 HON Turret 20 0 200 ?? 250 12 2 :22 HON Airstrip 30 0 500 ?? 2000 N/A 2 3:20 Ref Obelisk of Light 150 0 200 ?? 1500 20 1 Com Temple of Nod 150 0 1000 ?? 3000 N/A 7 Com -------------------------------- CHAPTER [15]: Internet resources -------------------------------- [15-1]: Third party programs ============================== C&C Editor v1.4 CCEDIT.ZIP change hitpoints, cost, weapons, and power data for any unit. written by Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) http://adam.com.au/~buggy C&C Mission selector v1.4 CCMISS.ZIP change the mission of a savegame written by Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) http://adam.com.au/~buggy C&C Savegame money editor add money to savegames written by ???? http://www.computek.net/autownet/c&c.html *15-2*: World Wide Web sites ============================== http://www.westwood.com Westwood Studios Home Page virtualted@westwood.com http://adam.com.au/~buggy Andrew Griffin's Homepage and Editor List buggy@adam.com.au http://www.webspace.com/~tanker The Tankers' Wargaming and Military History Homepage tankerm60@aol.com http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~kazial/cnc.html Craig's C&C Page kazial@acsu.buffalo.edu http://www-public.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de/~ritterd/main.htm The Command and Conquer Modem Players List ritterd@uni-duesseldorf.de http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~ccmills/command.html Command and Conquer ccmills@ucsu.colorado.edu http://www.computek.net/autownet/c&c.html Command and Conquer - HOW TO CHEAT physics@computek.net http://www.cbs.dk/people/dszcpfk/cc.html The Command & Conquer Resource Center dszcpfk@hp3.cbs.dk --------------------- *16* Bugs and updates --------------------- *16-1*: The bugs and wishlists report ======================================== 'My mouse goes crazy when ever I hold down a key.' Westwood says they are working on it. From my personal experience, it only seems to affect PS/2 type bus mice (the kind that fit into a special circular mouse port). Switching to a serial mouse, or using an adapter to convert the bus connector to a serial connector will cure this problem in most situations. 'Why can't I save my multiplayer game?' Westwood says that they have plans to add save game functionality to their next C&C game, 'Red Alert.' It will not be provided in the future patch [to C&C] 'Red Alert? What is that?' The next C&C game from Westwood is called 'Red Alert'. I do not have any specifics on it. I'm just telling you what VT told me. Go bug him, not me! 'What about formation movement?' I will ask about this. 'What about guarding in place?' I will ask about this also. 'What about a mission builder, or random mission generator?' I will ask about this also. 'What about improving the harvester AI?' I will ask about this also. 'Will there be a C&C like Star Wars game?' I will ask about this also. *16-2*: Update patches ========================= 1.8: Improves Win95 modem play. Addresses USR modem connect problems at 14.4k or 28.8k. Fixes Diamond Viper palette/color problem. Fixes movies not playing when CD is swapped. -SIDE EFFECTS- Changes hex offsets in game.dat file. This means that early versions of popular 3rd party utilities may not work with v1.08. CCEDIT v1.04 does work with v1.08 C&C. Flame-thrower hitpoints increased to 70 from 50. *16-3*: Errors in the C&C manual =================================== First and foremost, the manual seems to be written to be more of a 'good read' rather than a tech manual. This might explain the exaggerations evident in some parts of the text. The armor values for some units are incorrect. For the true armor values of units, see the tables section of this FAQ. The power usage values for some buildings are incorrect. For true power usage values, see the tables section of this FAQ. ------------------------ CHAPTER [16]: Conclusion ------------------------ That's all folks. At the moment it seems to be a reasonable strategy guide. I still need mondo support from you to fill in the gaps and turn this text into the strategy FAQ a game like C&C deserves to have. If you have any suggestions, additions, or comments for the FAQ, send E-mail to cncfaq@powhq.nildram.co.uk'. If you're one of those bad guys who are playing a pirate copy of Command and Conquer, shame on you. You know you really want to stop being a freeloader. I urge you to save up your lunch money and buy the game. The authors deserve to be rewarded. ------------------------------ CHAPTER [17]: Revision History ------------------------------ v0.1: First release of the Unofficial Command and Conquer Strategy FAQ. (October 1, 1995 GMT) v1.1: A major revision of the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ. FAQ is completely rewritten. FAQ explains cheating, mission-trees, how to do such and such, and contains a section of unsolicited advice. (October 4, 1995 GMT) v2.1: Major revision of the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ. All missions listed. Missions listed according to internal mission numbers + countries, to avoid 'which mission is this?' confusion. Most vehicle and infantry entries filled. Building, vehicle, infantry unit stats added. Discovered more ways in how the computer cheats. (October 8, 1995 GMT) v2.2 Oops. I accidentally posted v1.1 instead of v2.1 to the newsgroups. To make up for the error, I'm posting this one, version 2.2. It includes the beginnings of the armor, health, damage data tables. Added cheating util information. More multiplayer strategies. (October 8, 1995 GMT) v2.7 I'm no longer using tabs for spacing. This should ensure readability. Some errors were pointed out to me. I should have read the submissions more carefully. I apologize for the errors. Philip J. Lochner submitted his C&C strategy FAQ to me, which I have absorbed into mine. Some more multiplayer strategies have been added. I've added the special Nod 'poison troopers'. Expanded section on exploitable computer bugs. Big thanks to Andrew Griffin for extracting data from the C&C files. (October 16, 1995 GMT) v3.2 Tables! Tables! Tables! Completed many tables. Complete vehicle armor values worked out by Andrew Griffin. Added section on bugs and updates. I corrected a few minor errors. Yet more multiplayer strategies are added. The 1.08 patch is out. (October 27, 1995 GMT) -- Roger Wong, Games Developer roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk Command & Conquer unofficial STRATEGY FAQ: email: cncfaq@powhq.nildram.co.uk with your additions. ftp://wcl-l.bham.ac.uk/pub/djh/faq/command-n-conquer.faq http://www.khan.org/~solaris/cnc.html