Command And Conquer series

They can only be fought on the last level and even then only on Hard.

Also the Radar Tower is the Soviet radar normally. The Psychic Sensor is never encountered in the Allied campaign. The Psychic Radar is purely in Yuri’s Revenge.

The Psychic Sensor is buildable in the Soviet campaign though. You’ll see it when you get there.

Oh yeah and several missions can be cut short by ambushing their bases when they’re in the embryonic stage. They build on regular rules so if you quickly counterattack you can stop them before they’ve built much. Otherwise they won’t build like in skirmish mode. Maybe replace some structures on some missions but no independent build orders.

Planetary Annihilation, being a successor to Sup Com, also has long range units and (depending on the map) powerful navies.

Edited by Yinyang107 on Mar 16th 2024 at 10:01:31 AM

The Psi Corps appear in normal difficulty too, on the last Allied mission.

Well I'm not a "Normal" military strategist, okay, I just wanted to crank out an easy victory before bed. I'm playing Command & Conquer Fates on Phoenix Mode so I can experience the rich story and well-written characters as research for my shipping fics.

Aww crap, you're right. A bunch of super-specialized soldiers in ridiculous outfits spouting cheesy catchphrases, fighting for the fate of the world in wacky, similar-but-legally-distinct-from-actual-military vehicles.

Yep yep. Pretty sure Command & Conquer: The First Decade won't run on my modern PC, and no way in hell am I getting EA's gaming service. I feel dirty enough paying 10 bucks to C&C's killers just for the right to exhume the body.

That at least is something I'm confident was always in there, but because I played through the campaigns before running endless skirmishes, I didn't have the frame of reference to recognize it.

'cause really, why would you bother to program a mission-specific base-building plan for one or more AI actors when you could just tell them to use the generic base-building plan you devised for use on any given skirmish map?

Ah, you're right. Had to find a pdf of the manual online, but yes, the Psychic Sensor is a separate structure from the Soviet radar facility. Even though I could have sworn that the Radar Tower was added in Yuri's Revenge to make up for giving a Psychic Radar building to the splinter faction.

Well, the game did come out 24 years ago, maybe I should be proud that I'm not trying to remember the Psychic Sensor as an Allied structure.

Um... the AI does have a pre-made base plan in RA2. I've looked at the Allied Hawaii campaign map in FinalAlert once: the location of every Soviet structure is pre-determined. Changing the map to put non-buildable terrain where a structure would be causes the AI to not build it elsewhere either.

However unlike base builds in Tiberium Wars or Red Alert 3 it doesn’t open a can of instant base where dozens of structures can appear in 15 seconds. It takes time to build all that.

Oof, Soviet on Soviet combat is rough. A lucky $500 Terror Drone can tear through a formation of $1750 Apocalypse Tanks if your micro is off, and there's nothing you can do about it but force-fire on your Elite lead tanker to curb the infection.

Like I said, the Soviet MCV decided not to deploy before my air force found it, so I can't debate this. But I'm fairly certain there was a mission around that one, a snow level with multiple Soviet bases, where they had that Skirmish Sprawl going on.

Edited by Tacitus on Mar 16th 2024 at 7:41:28 AM

I think I faced that kind of issue during the Einstein defense mission, where the red Soviet base never built their War Factory but the Orange and Brown ones did. Not that it matters because all their attack waves are an absolute joke.

I could have sworn an eliet apocalypse tank will self heal faster then a terror drone damages... I know a couple units can.

Edited by Imca on Mar 17th 2024 at 5:18:20 PM

Not if they're also tanking tank shells while they suffer drone indigestion. Either Elitey the Apocalypse is humbled by a lowly Rhino, or said lowly Rhino deals just enough damage for the Terror Drone to finish it off, and then said Terror Drone jumps in another tank.

The Soviet "Find and Destroy the Weather Control Machine" mission was surprisingly easy (when you set it on Easy), since to my surprise, a nuke will take out the objective as soon as it's revealed (again, on Easy). But argh, the "Defeat Yuri" mission afterward. All the agony of Soviet-on-Soviet combat but with Psi Corps to steal your Apocalypses, and the AI is just constantly vomiting a tide of units at my base, more aggressively than anything else in either campaign. It's hardly worth building walls because they're made of paper-mache, while sieging against their forward base is almost impossible because V2 rockets are useless when the defenders have flak batteries. I think it's going to take a suicide run with Kirovs to take out their War Factory and give me some breathing room.

Alternatively, I turtle up with a Nuke Silo, endure the Kirov counter-attack, and hope I can one-shot the Kremlin with the thing.

What I tend to do is to have two Kirovs force-bomb the passages leading into my base (after capturing the lone Tesla Reactor on the hill and building a crapload of defenses on it), netting them EXP for the hordes of enemies they kill. I then build a crapload of flak cannons around the two oil derricks in those passages and then build a nuke, nuking the Kremlin twice, if I'm not feeling like trying to breach through the orange and brown bases the traditional way. It's here where the absence of the Siege Chopper from Yuri's Revenge really kicks in, as the defenses on the hill are incredibly difficult to get rid of.

The first base's power plants are located entirely along the eastern edge of the map. Swing around with some Kirovs to the southeast and bust these up first before bringing in the V2s.

Edited by amitakartok on Mar 17th 2024 at 10:31:14 AM

So do you Commanders remember how you beat the mission X years ago, or have you replayed it recently on Steam?

Went with RainingMetal's strategy, force-firing Kirovs in the canyon by the northern oil derrick, building what defenses I could on the hill northeast of my base, and fighting tooth and nail around the Outpost. Which is fucking haunted, by the way, because every few minutes a tank on the repair pad would just randomly explode.

Anyway, I had to force-fire to clear enough trees to build a defensive line, then spammed Tesla Coils and walls so I could build up an army without suffering too much attrition from the constant attacks (imagine a Waterfall Puke, but with Conscripts, Rhinos and Tesla Troopers). Using the central hill as a bulwark was actually a let-down, since the Tesla Coils atop the cliffs had trouble reaching units below, which necessitated keeping the Kirovs on constant bombardment duty. I tried to stick some V2s up there to similarly force-fire on the path the AI was using to attack me, only for one fucking Psi Corps to wander up and mind control them one after another - my Tesla coil couldn't zap the enemy psychic, but it could certainly teamkill.

There wasn't any finesse to my attack, I just farmed enemy units long enough to have multiple elite tanks, then bum-rushed the forward base. I captured the Nuclear Power Plants so I wouldn't lose any units while destroying them - the unit AI still likes to drive up to point-blank range when attacking a target if you let it. That meant I could start building in that little chokepoint, set up a new line of Tesla Coils and shift my defenses forward. With the constant stream of attacking units reduced to an occasional sortie, I was able to build up a Kirov fleet to go after the Kremlin, finishing it off after dropping a nuke. Yuri's aerial counter-attack was a non-issue, I had a convoy of Flak Tracks to deal with the infantry spam, and structures near the enemy Kirov spawn points that I could build static AA around.

Now to see what fresh annoyances await in the final battle against the Allies in Alaska.

Personally I find the Alaskan mission in Red Alert 2 to be far more excruciating than the one in Moscow, given how limited resources are, and how heavily defended the Chronosphere is. All the while, the enemy will constantly warp in tank divisions to ruin your day. You don't even have line of sight for the Chronosphere to nuke it to oblivion (and it can be repaired) unlike the Kremlin.

Edited by RainingMetal on Mar 17th 2024 at 9:13:30 AM

I always just walled up with tons of Tesla coils and Flak cannons and either sent Kirovs around the edges of the map or used the Nuke Silo to destroy the Kremlin.

I'm torn between whether Tesla Coils, Prism Towers, or Gatling Towers are the better base defense.

My personal favorite of the three are the Prism Towers. I like how they combine their power, and the slightly better range compared to Tesla Coils doesn't hurt either.

Tesla Coils otoh do better solo compared to Prism Towers.

As for Gatling Towers...they're alright, with the bonus of being able to hit air units.

I think the Psychic Towers are a better comparison to the Prism Towers and Tesla Coils; they're both higher-tier defenses that are unlocked by the radar building, and usually more catered towards stopping vehicles (with some exceptions for the Psychic Tower). I find that the Gattling [sic] Cannons are more comparable to the Pillbox, Sentry Gun, Patriot Missile, and Flak Cannon instead.

Edited by RainingMetal on Mar 17th 2024 at 11:42:58 AM

I thought about comparing the Psychic Towers, but then I remembered how much I hated using them. I dunno, they always felt a bit too gimmicky for my taste. I prefer the other defenses that just kill the enemy.

I guess this is also why I never liked Yuri's faction in general. Just not a fan of that psychic domination gimmick.

That said, if you're comparing the Gatling Tower to the ones you mentioned...I give the win to the Gatling Tower.

Edited by M84 on Mar 17th 2024 at 11:48:07 PM

Alaska sucked — Moscow was a struggle to survive at the start and build up enough momentum to progress, but Alaska is more like a gimmick mission. Got sucker-punched during my first attempt when six IFVs teleported next to my Refinery when I had only built AA defenses. On my second try, they all but wiped out the 10 Tesla Troopers I rushed in anticipation, which was pretty depressing how badly the Soviets' anti-armor infantry fared against even light vehicles. And then my lone Sea Scorpion scouting the coastline triggered an event flag where the entire Allied fleet in the harbor aggroed, before my submarine fleet had more than one boat in it.

I built up a modest fleet with three Dreadnoughts, which was able to bomb the beachhead clear so I could land a little force of Rhinos, V2s and Flak Tracks, and most importantly some Engineers. That let me set up a forward staging post using Allied structures and units, which let me get a Spy Satellite view of the battlefield and some Prism Tanks of my own. As soon as I saw the size of their base, I built a Nuclear Silo and Weather Control Machine and hunkered down to wait.

By that point, I was dealing with intermittent Prism Tank attacks on my staging area and aircraft attacks on my island base, while the six-IFV teleport attacks shifted to the ore field on the mainland next to my captured Allied Construction Yard (a small group of Prism Tanks took care of that most efficiently). During the superweapon countdown, idiocy. An Apocalypse on guard mode chasing a lone Jet Trooper into the heart of the Allied base. My Rhino and Apocalypse tank force taking heavy casualties because they didn't react to some Prism Tanks blasting them from just beyond their own cannons' range. And most annoyingly of all, the secondary objective to liberate some grounded Kirovs failed because for some reason my passing units attacked them, making the zeppelins lift off and start chasing after me.

So yeah, all too happy to Lightning-Nuke the Chronosphere instead of slogging through a conventional assault. And in the process I confirmed that the AI is cheating, because it teleported in one last attack squad even after the Chronosphere's destruction but before the mission ended.

Moving on to Yuri's Revenge next, starting with the Soviet campaign because I prefer the Allies and want to wrap up this nostalgia trip on a high note.

Have you considered spawncamping the constant stream of chrono reinforcements with Mirage tanks?

It's possible to finish that mission easily by simply destroying any Aegis missile cruisers to the west of your base with subs, building a group of Kirovs, getting 1 or 2 dreadnoughts to distract the patriot missiles and then gradually pushing said Kirovs into the Allied base from the south and bombing their Chronosphere. Helps if you judiciously save scum during the first few minutes during those rapid-fire Chronosphere attacks in order to optimize things.

I think I tried capturing the Allied Construction Yard on the beach before, but it was in range of enemy Prism Towers, so it would fall very quickly.

Yuri's Revenge begins. First Soviet mission was a fun no-base romp with their new hero unit, who is certainly more versatile than Tanya, at the expense of not liking to get his clothes wet. Still bothered by the dinosaur interlude, wondering what drew a veritable army of rexies to a bunch of monkeys surrounded by engine oil. Guess they really wanted a change of diet.

The big thing is hearing different voices for all the vehicles, something you don't realize how much you missed until you hear it again. Not to mention the expanded soundtrack. "Your fear of helplessness is your best friend, savage."

The problem with Mirage Tanks in any situation is that, while I appreciate the humor of "trees" spitting ordnance at enemy units, I could also build Prism Tanks to kill targets with greater ease and at greater range. As it happened, a half-dozen Prism Tanks sitting near the Chronosphere warp-in point - which always seemed to be the ore field closest to your structures, that was closest to the Chronosphere itself - killed the attack force before the "poof" effect was finished.

It was in range of a Prism Tower, which led to a minute or two of frantic repairing while my V2s brute-forced through the Patriot defenses to kill the tower.

Oh yeah, something lame about capturing Allied stuff in that mission - even after I built an Allied Barracks and Battle Lab, I couldn't train a Spy to easily infiltrate an intact War Factory and get some quick promotions for a tank horde. That might have been the deciding factor in my decision to superweapon-camp.

Prism Tanks in unmodded Red Alert 2 were almost OP. Devastating to basically everything despite an alleged weakness to heavy armor, very long range with no possibility of missing, what’s not to like?

Besides the relatively slow speed and tissue paper armor that is.

It's funny how I went from hating the Allies vehicles in RA 1 to loving their vehicles in RA 2.

What can I say, I love Mirage and Prism Tanks. Sure, the Soviet tank options are powerful, but with them it's just bigger and badder tanks. Mirage and Prism tanks otoh operated in a far more ridiculous and awesome manner.

Yuri faction tanks...meh.

...Now that I think about it, I really didn't like playing around with Yuri's faction.