By Adrian Hon, with help from James Pringle, Richard Geary and Chris Osborne
Note: Most of these tips are most effective on Multiplayer missions.
Walkthrough for GDI mission 4 - This mission can be annoying
On the GDI mission where you have to obtain the nuclear crate, all is simple and easy. Put all your men into APCs (see vehicles section). Move the APCs to the middle right part of the map. Run over anyone who gets in your way, most importantly, the Rocket men. Travel along down as far as you can, making sure you are at the right limit of the map, then travel left. You'll meet a tank in your way. Don't try to blow it up, just run away. Get one APC to run over to the crate, which is beside a rock face inside a chain fence. The other APCs will hold out till the end.
The best vehicle awards:
For GDI:
The best is probably the Orca. Low on armour, it doesn't sound good, but it works wonderfully well on link ups. Send them in in groups of 3, or else they won't do much. Before you send them away, make sure you build the helipads apart from each other, by a moderate distance. A group of innocent helipads is a perfect target for a nuclear strike. Drag a box over them, then press CTRL + 1. This makes them a team. By pressing CTRL 1 again, you will select them. You will notice that while they are in the air, you can't select them. Press CTRL 1 when the situation is getting dangerous, then get them to
go home.
For NOD:
The Stealth Tank. Only about 900, a little more than a rocket launcher with the added bonus of being invisible. Not just 'wavy lines' invisible, but really invisible, on link ups. However, it has been discovered that if you pass near them, you can see them.
If Stealth tanks get damaged, they emit visible smoke, so if you see plumes of smoke going up and walking into your base, you know something's up, or the shield goes wrong and starts flashing on and
off. A good use for these is elimination of certain buildings.
Tip: If your tanks are in a bit of trouble, just select them and get them to move away to a distant corner of the map. They will disappear immediately.
Vehicles
Rocket Launchers: Very good for long range destruction, can withstand a lot of beating as well. Good against tanks.
SSM: These vehicles only get missiles every minute of so, but they are very powerful, as you can see by the explosions. Good against infantry, small vehicles and any sort of guard tower (e.g., obelisk, AGT). They can fire at them while out of the range of the tower’s fire.
Artillery: It has poor defence, goes at snail pace and is rubbish against short range vehicles, but is brilliant against buildings from a very long distance. Three of these could blow up a construction yard before the opposition know what’s happening..
Flame Tanks: Obviously very good against infantry. Not so good against tanks, and it can't move very fast. Also, observe on GDI missions the way it kills it's own men. However, it is good against buildings.
HumVees: Only good for scouting out the land and sending to crates. Quite weak.
Rocket Trike: Same as above, but as more power. Can blow it’s way through a concrete wall to find the enemies construction yard.
Mammoth Tanks: Very powerful, shoots at ground and air. Basically, a rocket launcher and two medium tanks in one massive, heavily protected structure. Unfortunately, it travels very slow, and is a good target for groups of Orcas looking for a fight.
APCs: Good for quick raids. They have good armour, and are able to squish men. Even if they are blown up, the men survive, normally. Drive these into an enemy base full of engineers and capture their Construction Yard.
Tips for multiplayer games, especially Network 4 players
Make sure from the start *no one* knows where your Construction Yard is. Forge alliances with everyone. In the middle/later sections of the game, it is advisable to construct two Tiberium Refineries. The cash just rolls in. If you are GDI, unite with a NOD, vice versa. Then you can use both your capabilites in stunning attacks, such as:
The Sneaky bugger attack:
Get four stealth tanks to move into their base and destroy any missile launchers/SAM sites/Rocket men. Then move four Orcas in, on the construction yard. As soon as the Orcas have done their work, Use an Ion cannon against it. Then, after the stealth tanks have damaged a few buildings (note: Damaged, not destroyed) on a group, evacuate the area and Nuke the place. Absolutely unbeatable.
The Extremely nasty harvester attack:
NOD: Get three stealth tanks, and move them to near the enemy’s harvester, but only when the harvester is some distance from their base or vehicles. Then ‘let fly’ ie, waste it. If anyone comes, move away.
GDI: Same as above, but with 4 Rocket launchers.
Afterwards, make sure your harvester is well defended, as the opposition won’t be very happy.
Tip: If you have no structures left, and 2400 credits, the next crate you find is likely to have a MCV in it. (multi player only)
Defence structures:
Advanced Guard Towers: In my opinion, wonderful. They are multipurpose: They attack aircrafts and ground troops as well.
Guard Towers: Good for early levels. Completely rips infantry to shreds. Not good for advanced multiplayer games.
Turrets: Completely useless. Don't bother.
Obelisks: Very pretty. They take up incredible amounts of energy (5 obelisks need 3 Power stations and cost, altogether, around 9000, for which you can get nine guard towers). Even though they can, at full power, blow anything up in one go, coordinated attacks using helicopters, can destroy them easily. By the time you relying on them for defence with hardly any vehicles, you're dead.
Sandbags: Use them at the start of the game to stop any enemies from finding your base and nuking it, then sell them. (Multiplayer only, otherwise there’s no point)
Chain fences: Not bad as a stop gap measure but use...
Walls: Quite good and deters most enemies. Watch out though, these can be blown up in a few missile shots.
NOD or GDI?
Depends whether you're sneaky or have honour. For the former, NOD. Personally, I would take GDI just for their AGTs and Orcas, but I would recommend NOD to anyone else for Stealth tanks, Nuclear missiles and Artillery.
The order to build buildings
NB. Always buy EXCESS power plants
1. Tiberium Refinery
2. Communications
3. Heavy Weapons/Airfield
4. Defence
5. Barracks/Hand Of NOD
6. Repair
7. Defence
8. Advanced Comm centre/Temple of NOD
NB: Some people might want to build 8. earlier to get a head start for the super weapon.
9. New Tiberium Refinery
10: Defence
11. New base/Outpost.
