History ThatOneLevel / RealtimeStrategy

* DarkReign has mission 5, which is infuriating no matter whose side you're on. The Freedom Guard get a hopeless level where they have to save up 30000 credits, while holding off waves of Imperium tanks. Wouldn't be so bad, if the [[GameBreaker Tachion Tanks]] didn't make their debut appearances in this level. As a result, the only viable tactics are to constantly build units, meaning you'll never hit your goal, or gather up everything you start with, bring it back to your base, and only build when absolutely necessary. As the Imperium, you have to destroy the Freedom Guard while protecting a MacGuffin located ''inside their base'', which they attack the moment you show up on their doorstep, meaning the only possible way to win is to build a horde of Tachion Tanks and pray you can break down their defenses quickly, destroy the units attacking said MacGuffin, and then hold out long enough to build some reinforcements and get them up there to mop up the rest. While the rest of the levels after this get harder and harder, this one takes the cake for sheer frustration.

* DarkReign has mission 5, which is infuriating no matter whose side you're on. The Freedom Guard get a hopeless level where they have to save up 30000 credits, while holding off waves of Imperium tanks. Wouldn't be so bad, if the [[GameBreaker Tachion Tanks]] didn't make their debut appearances in this level. Meaning, you either crank out infantry and tanks to fight them off, thus dragging the battle out and giving them time to flatten you, or you go through a mad flurry of building at the start and then don't build anything else, meaning they'll wear you down and then flatten you. As the Imperium, you have to destroy the Freedom Guard, while protecting a MacGuffin building located ''inside their base''. Which they destroy the moment you attack their base, meaning the only possible way to stop it is to build a horde of Tachion Tanks and pray you can break down their defenses quickly, destroy the units attacking said MacGuffin, and then hold out long enough to build some reinforcements and get them up there to mop up the rest. While the rest of the levels after this get harder and harder, this one takes the cake for sheer frustration.

* DarkReign has mission 5, which is infuriating no matter whose side you're on. The Freedom Guard get a hopeless level where they have to save up 30000 credits, while holding off waves of Imperium tanks. Wouldn't be so bad, if the [[GameBreaker Tachion Tanks]] didn't make their debut appearances in this level. Meaning, you either crank out infantry and tanks to fight them off, thus dragging the battle out and giving them time to flatten you, or you go through a mad flurry of building at the start and then don't build anything else, meaning they'll wear you down and then flatten you. As the Imperium, you have to destroy the Freedom Guard, while protecting a MacGuffin building located ''inside their base''. Which they destroy the moment you attack their base, meaning the only possible way to stop it is to build a horde of Tachion Tanks and pray you can break down their defenses, stop them from attacking said MacGuffin, and then hope to hold out until you can build some reinforcements and get them up there to mop up the base. While the rest of the levels after this get harder and harder, this one takes the cake for sheer frustration.

** This is not as hard as the above troper makes it sound because conveyer belt are the easeist levels because you have unlimited resourses also I did almost every level on my first try therefore the above troper must simpily be playing ther game wrong.

** Again this is not as hard as the above troper makes it sound because conveyer belt are the easeist levels infact this level only looks hard.

*** This troper did find a way to beat that damn level, although it was still [[UnderStatement quite a challenge]]: It involved getting a strong economy going AFTER fast-teching up to the highest technology level, building advanced base defenses to stop the GDI attacking your base then simultaneously getting a Nuclear Missile ready to launch as soon as possible while training a Commando to sabotage the artillery bombardment. To make a long story short, a Nuke was dropped on the main GDI base to destroy their Tech-Center, preventing them from building any more Mammoth Tanks, and an extra MCV (A method of base expansion, that provides an extra queue for building base defenses) was eventually sent north to rapidly establish a wall of nigh-impenetrable base defenses against the GDI attack on your objective. It's as complex as it sounds.

*** This troper did find a way to beat that damn level, although it was still [[UnderStatement quite a challenge]]: It involved getting a strong economy going AFTER fast-teching up to the highest technology level, building advanced based defenses to stop the GDI attacking your base then simultaneously getting a Nuclear Missile ready to launch as soon as possible while training a Commando to sabotage the artillery bombardment. To make a long story short, a Nuke was dropped on the main GDI base to destroy their Tech-Center, preventing them from building any more Mammoth Tanks, and an extra MCV (A method of base expansion, that provides an extra queue for building base defenses) was eventually sent north to rapidly establish a wall of nigh-impenetrable base defenses against the GDI attack on your objective. It's as complex as it sounds.

*** The worst of the lot has to be Kane's Tower after the patches (which did wonders for skirmish and multiplayer, but more or less ignored their effect on the campaign, which was balanced for the unpatched game)--the last patch slowed down everyone's rate of income, but someone forgot to tell that to the campaign AI, which has additional independent funding. The mission was pretty bad even before the patches. It involves protecting three Scrin structures from GDI attack; doesn't sound too bad, until you realize 1. the Scrin are hostile to you, making protecting them difficult, but they're also nowhere near powerful enough to stop GDI. 2. You start out with one medium sized base at tier 2, GDI starts with two tier 3 bases, one of which is larger then yours, and the other much larger. 3. GDI will happily build not one, but two Ion Cannons before you can even begin construction of your own Nuke. 4.GDI starts with a fully functional small airbase, which will bomb the Scrin to the ground if not disposed of 5. Your two starting tiberium fields are both in harms way, one from the Scrin, the other being the main avenue on GDI's attacks on your own base. 6. GDI is shelling the structures you're supposed to protect from the second the mission starts with unique artillery that out-ranges normal artillery by a factor of 5--capture-able sure, but only if you manage to get to it while simultaneously dealing with all the other difficulties at the same time with your very limited early game resources. Winning the mission often depends on luck more so then anything, as the GDI attacks on the Scrin vary in size, from manageable, to an armored column consisting of a dozen mammoth tanks supported by twice as many lighter vehicles and about as many infantry squads, as well as every single reinforcement support power in the GDI arsenal. Loosing (which will happen very often) will earn you a chewing out by Kane himself, despite the fact that his request to protect the Scrin structures is completely unreasonable.
**** This troper did find a way to beat that damn level, although it was still [[UnderStatement quite a challenge]]: It involved getting a strong economy going AFTER fast-teching up to the highest technology level, building advanced based defenses to stop the GDI attacking your base then simultaneously getting a Nuclear Missile ready to launch as soon as possible while training a Commando to sabotage the artillery bombardment. To make a long story short, a Nuke was dropped on the main GDI base to destroy their Tech-Center, preventing them from building any more Mammoth Tanks, and an extra MCV (A method of base expansion, that provides an extra queue for building base defenses) was eventually sent north to rapidly establish a wall of nigh-impenetrable base defenses against the GDI attack on your objective. It's as complex as it sounds.

* ''ParaWorld'' has the final level. Quite literally, it's spears against machine guns. Unfortunately, you've got the spears. And limited resources. And enemies on either side. And multiple timed missions, which can be undone if the enemy manages to take back the pumping stations (which is annoyingly easy since they can chop off close to 100 HP a second).

** Several of the strongholds in later expansions count, but a special mention must go to the Tau stronghold in Dark Crusade. Why, you ask? For starters, their early-game rush is much, MUCH stronger that any of the others in the game and can outright kill you on harder settings if you aren't properly prepared. Secondly, the map is completely mobbed with fire warriors that start with all of their upgrades. Finally, there two command posts at opposite ends of the level that start spamming high level units if left for too long. Merely having one of them start makes the level really hard. If both of them start producing units, the level becomes practically unwinnable.
*** That said, if you are playing as Necrons, a Ressurection-Orb equipped Necron Lord can rapidly turn the map into an [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential incredibly satisfying]], [[RuleOfFun fun]] {{Curb Stomp Battle}}.

** And a non-Stronghold one is the one to unlock the "Advanced Base". When you attack this land, you have ''no'' base. When the Orks control the territory (which is the case by default), they can level your force (even with a full honour guard) by sending a tide of flash gitz, looted tanks, and a new Squiggoth as soon as the current one dies.

* The final mission of Starcraft 2 is massively harder than any previous mission, it is the final level so it's to be expected I guess but the difficulty spike is quite big even for that.

* In the 9th mission in ''DungeonKeeper'', you have to defend your dungeon from wave after wave of heroes, coming in three directions. You do get some time to prepare, but plan wrong and everything will go awry. Fortunately after that, everything is much easier.

* ''{{Warhammer 40000}}: DawnOfWar: [[ExpansionPack Winter Assault]]'' has the fourth Disorder mission, which is a timed one. To top it off, it has some weird triggers that make you lose before you know what hits you: Even if you stop the enemy convoy from reaching the destination gate, the gate opens and you still lose if you don't finish the mission in a few minutes.
** Several of the strongholds in later expansions count, but a special mention must go to the Tau stronghold in Dark Crusade. Why, you ask? For starters, their early-game rush is much, MUCH stronger that any of the others in the game and can outright kill you on harder settings if you arn't properly prepared. Secondly, the map is completely mobbed with fire warriors that start with all of their upgrades. Finally, there two command posts at opposite ends of the level that start spamming high level units if left for too long. Merely having one of them start makes the level really hard. If both of them start producing units, the level becomes practically unwinnable.

* One of the Zerg-arc missions of ''{{Starcraft}}'' has you trying to hunt down Dark Templars on Char. There are several teleporters on the level, and they'll make a break for it if you ever move a single Overlord out of position, or leave it unguarded by regular troops. And if a single one escapes, mission fails. Thank god for level-skipping cheats.

** If you're a Rebel and your opponent plays the "Defense Star" tactic, putting a Death Star with shields and a sizable fleet with a lot of TIE Defenders over Coruscant, preferably with some Interdictors just for fun, your fleet ''will'' be destroyed. To understand, Interdictors prevent a jump to hyperspace, TIE Defenders are the most badass starfighter in the galaxy, and if you have Death Star shields, you can't lose. Finish this up by stocking the Death Star with stormtroopers to prevent a sabotage attempt. Yes, if you've survived long enough to get TIE Defenders, it's easy to drag the war out as long as you need as the Empire.