============================== -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. The availability of each unit in any given mission depends on who's side you are on and how far into the missions you are. I.e. - Construction options for minigunners are available early on to both GDI and Nod players, but the option for the Temple of Nod is available only to Nod for the last mission. Full unit and weapon statistics can be found in Chapter 14. *2-1* Infantry ============== 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. It is more difficult to shoot at moving targets. [2-1-1] Civilians ----------------- Some civilians carry pistols with 10 round magazines. These civilians are the units with internal name C1 and C7 Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Civilians inhabit villages. Fodder for Nod, must be protected (usually) by GDI. [2-1-2] Technician ------------------ see also [2-1-1] Civilian. Technicians carry pistols with 10 round magazines. William Jang (jangw@direct.ca) Even though they can't be used as expendable scouts, you can force the issue by sending them off to the enemy's lines. Once they get fired upon by the enemy, the map lights up a nine-square area around the dead technician and an even larger area around the unit that pulled the trigger. Colin Jacobs (coljac@pyromania.apana.org.au) You don't need to do that. Move them to the edge of the darkness, and have them fire into it using the CTRL key. The area around the square where your technician stands will light up. *2-1-3* Engineer ---------------- If you are going to take over a refinery with an engineer, wait for the harvester to return. Not only do you get a free harvester in the process, but your opponent can not sell a refinery that contains an unloading harvester. KnoX (knox.tdujam@tip.nl) The engineers the computer sends to your base always try to capture your northern most building. 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. (EDITOR'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 both Nod and 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. Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Engineers cannot take over enemy gun turrets, SAM sites, guard towers, obelisks, advanced comms centers, or the Nod Temple. Note: In the GAME.DAT, the Advanced comm center IS set capturable, but this is only enabled in Nod mission 12. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) Before taking over buildings, try "pre-building" a guard tower structure, such as the Advanced Guard Tower for GDI, or an Obelisk of Light for Nod. The moment you take over the enemy's building, dump it right next to it. Charles Anderson (caa@wavefront.com) If you're going to take over the enemy's barracks/hand of NOD, build an engineer and put it on hold just before it's done. After taking over the building double click on it so that it's "primary" and continue the engineer build. It'll pop out almost immediately. Ben McCulloch (raven@hba.trumpet.com.au) Capture enemy silos if you see them full of tiberium. Sell the silos, and within a few minutes, the AI will build them back, chock full of spice. In the end, you will come out 1075 credits richer per silo, and you can build more engineers to recapture them. [2-1-4] Minigunner ------------------ Phil 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. Karl Kilborn (kilborn@worldgate.com) Minigunners can totally destroy bazooka dudes. A minigunner beat to within an inch of his life can easily kill two bazooka infantry. [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. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) If you can afford it, try keeping 4 or 5 bazookas around your tanks (especially flame tanks). Alot of people assume your tanks do more damage than the bazookas and will totally ignore these guys, and they do pack a punch in groups. Unfortunately, they're next to useless against infantry. Bazookas are also great against Orca's. (Not Apaches!) [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. (EDITOR'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. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) Unbelievable firepower against infantry and buildings for their price! Send four of these up to a group of 20 or more infantry, and watch them light up in toast (especially if you're against other flame-throwers or grenadiers, since they literally explode and kill everyone else around them). They're also great against structures, having two or three tagging along with a main assault force can really make a difference. [2-1-8] 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. Phil 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. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) These units are good for very specialized missions, but that's about all they're useful for. For their high price ($1000), I'd much prefer five flame- thowers(Nod) or 6 grenadiers (GDI). However, it's real good fun to march these guys through an enemy base, blowing everything up, when the end of the game is near! If you want a cheap way of taking out guard towers, they can also do it. Send up a decoy unit to the structure (e.g.: harvester, hummer), and while that's distracting the guard tower's attention, send in the commando to blow it up. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Commandos are also great fun when it comes to killing harvesters especially those well out of the way of your base defense. Against the computer merely shoot a harvester and run back to your own base ... the harvester will try to run over you and follow. So long as the commando does not die the harvester will walk right into your defenses (*grin* if you have an Obelisk) and be happily blown away. Commandos are best because they move much faster than ordinary troops and are unlikely to be mown down by tanks or humvees before you reach the safety of your base. *2-1-9* Chem. Warriors ---------------------- Kareem Harper (griffin@panix.com) These troops are identical to the flame-thrower infantry but with the following differences: 1. They wear an insulated outfit that protects them from taking damage in tiberium fields. 2. They produce a poison gas that is 50% more lethal than a flamethrower. They are available in the Covert Operations and multiplayer games only, and can be found in crates, or can be built with a hand of NOD when you have a Temple of Nod. Ong Yang (yang@pacific.net.sg) They're immune to their own gas. Extremely effective in a group, these also make great structure destroyers. *2-2* Vehicles ============== Numerical data on all vehicles can be found in Chapter 14. It is more difficult to shoot at moving targets. [2-2-1] MCV ----------- Phil Sykes (root@sykic.demon.co.uk) Mobile 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. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) I played a friend the other day with an interesting and legitimate tactic; he drove down a MCV almost next to my base (being guarded by stealth tanks, so I couldn't do much to attack it), plonked a construction yard right next to my base, and immediately dumped a pre-built Obelisk right there. Not that I should have allowed this to happen in the first place, but it's a non- cheating method of sandbagging (and judging by the distance that some people sandbag, this may be cheaper as well!) *2-2-2* Harvester ----------------- see also: [5-3-6] Attack helicopters Karl Kilborn (kilborn@worldgate.com) You should manually select the mature crystals in a tiberium patch for harvesting purposes. It not only fills the harvester up quicker, but also adds to the life of the cabbage patch. When you let the harvesters attempt to grow a brain, they farm the new growth rather than the ripe and mature patches. EDITOR'S NOTE: The moral of the story is: Harvesters are as stupid as commercial fishermen. Aaron Glover (arn@kiwi.gen.nz) It's great for taking flags in multiplayer. Especially when teamed up with humvees and recon bikes. Holds 700 credits when full. 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). Jay (liza.heslop@nursing.monash.edu.au) The harvester can also be used to run over any offending attack bikes, those nasty little suckers with the missile launchers. Providing of course that the opposition is slow on the uptake. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Ohhh - and don't allow more than 2 harvesters to share a Refinery ... there will be long waiting periods for one harvester and on occasions the AI will screw up and one harvester will just sit around and not do anything. Stanley Hu (hu@valisys.com) If you know that your base is going to get vaporized by your opponents, the best thing you can do is use your Harvesters to help gather Tiberium for your ally. Move the harvesters clear of your opponents' units and manually direct them when full into your ally's tiberium refinery. [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] Humm-vee ---------------- 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. Phil 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. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Also an excellent support unit for tanks ... since tanks are not good at attacking infantry moving humvees together with tanks allow the tanks to concentrate on wiping out the armored targets while the humvees concentrate on killing the infantry pests. This way the tanks firepower is not wasted nor do they have to waste time moving to run infantry over. Also better than infantry in that they can move through Tiberium. Have found that 6 Humvees guarantee instant death to any unit of infantry (even prone). Thus 6 of them kill infantry at the rate of one every 3 seconds. *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. Seth Bowden (bsb3@cornell.edu) If the troops are squirming around, fire at them first. They'll hit the deck and then you can squish them. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) The order of units exiting an APC is the reverse of their order of entry i.e. the last unit to enter is the first unit to exit. Important that the most powerful units (commandos or whatever) go in last so they can kickass right from the start. 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. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) Possibly one of the best-value units in the game. Can be used for exploration (it's fast and has a high scouting range), is the most effective Squasher Of Infantry, and transports troops, including those engineers. One cool little tactic to try sometime: many people will send in decoys to the enemy base (e.g.: nod buggies, hummers) and send in the APCs after it. Of course, humans won't fall for this trick and will almost always target the APC. Simple solution! Send in two or more APCs. Which to target? Depending on how lucky you feel, either load one up full with engineers, or split the number of engineers evenly between them. Watch your opponent's confusion when he sees five APCs walking toward your base! These units are also good for capturing flags, since they're fast and can take a fair bit of 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. Phil 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. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) The best support for Medium Tanks are actually Hum-Vees or Nod Buggies. These kill infantry faster, move much faster and last much longer than supporting infantry. Douglas Jacobs (djacobs@umich.edu) I haven't seen my tanks automatically run over infantry in C&C (Dune2's units were pretty smart.) You can still force-move them using the key. Unfortunately, unlike Dune2, enemy units don't just sit there so you can run them over - they tend to move around. I use one unit to fire at the infantry, causing them to drop and start crawling, this way they're too slow to move away from my tank. *2-2-7* Orca ------------ Orcas have air to air capability. If you target an enemy helicopter that is on the ground, the Orca will fire missiles at it even if it takes off and tries to escape. This helicopter carries six missiles. Stanley Hu (hu@valisys.com) Helicopters tend to hover over a moving target, taking their time to fire. If you're trying to destroy a moving target with an Orca or Apache, the best thing to do is predict where it is heading and click on that area. When the helicopter approaches there, click on the intended target, and it will deliver its payload faster. If you do this, you can destroy Harvesters easily--even with Apaches. Hale Walker (shaggy@ra.isisnet.com) If the enemy chopper is in the air, force attack on the ground on the opposite side of the enemy helicopter. In other words, if the enemy helicopter is on your right, fire you missiles at the square to the right of the helicopter. Your missiles will fire towards the ground, but they will hit the enemy chopper instead since they pass through the enemy's airspace. 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: (1) can serve as a decoy for incoming missiles. (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, obelisk, or SAM site (6) one harvester or mammoth at full health. (7) will get gun turrets/spice silos/power plants (8) is a reasonable building assault force (10) construction yards and other big buggers They work best in multiplayer for air support of harvesters! Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) They also '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. Philip Banks (banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz) A single Orca is invaluable for scouting out large chunks of the map. Initially I had blocked off the passes that afforded entry to the valley wheremy base was located, which prevented me from sending out scouts much. But an Orca doing gradual hop flights could scout out a significant fraction of the map without any trouble. Jonathan Haas (jhass@primenet.com) The 'S' key, which normally causes a unit to stop, will cause selected Orcas or Apaches in flight to immediately turn around and return to base. This is EXTREMELY useful when you need your choppers out of an area in a hurry. Durren Shen (durren_n._shen@vval.com) If you find that your opponent is attacking your orcas a lot while they are on their helipads with apaches, or vice versa, then after the aircraft is done reloading, you should hide it behind a building or somewhere else by moving and landing there. My opponent thought that all of my orcas were destroyed one time when I did that. [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. Phil 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 -------------------- Mammoth tanks have two weapons, a dual cannon and a missile pack. The missile pack is only fired either if an enemy helicopter comes into range, or you manually target a unit that requires the tank's turrets to turn by more than 45 degrees. (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. Stephen Jones (s.jones@ukonline.co.uk) If your Mammoth Tank is surrounded by infantry firing at it and there is no way to get units suitable for taking out infantry there in time, command your tank to attack the infantry opposite the direction it is facing. This will trigger its missiles and massacre the infantry fairly quickly. [2-2-10] Nod Buggy ------------------ Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Also an excellent support unit for tanks ... since tanks are not good at attacking infantry moving buggies together with tanks allow the tanks to concentrate on wiping out the armored targets while the buggies concentrate on killing the infantry pests. This way the tanks firepower is not wasted nor do they have to waste time moving to run infantry over. Also better than infantry in that they can move through Tiberium. Have found that 6 buggies guarantee instant death to any unit of infantry (even prone). Thus 6 of them kill infantry at the rate of one every 3 seconds. [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. Mike Zimmerman (zimmermanm@aol.com) Find the enemy harvester in its tiberium patch. Drive the recon bike by the harvester. The harvester will always chase the bike because it can be crushed. Lead the harvester to your turrets or obelisks and watch the fun. [2-2-12] Light Tank ------------------- see also [2-2-6] MEDIUM 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. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) I took out 60+ infantry with one flame tank once. Nothing else to say about them, really :). *2-2-15* Apache Attack Helicopter --------------------------------- see also [2-2-7] Orca The Apache carries enough ammo for fifteen weapon discharges. Bonczkowski (ccastrd@prism.gatech.edu) Nod gets them in later scenarios if you capture a GDI construction center and build the heli pad, that lets you build heli pads with attack copters 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. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) a) Apaches can make short work of infantry. Orcas well, merely waste rockets on infantry. b) Apaches are slower to deliver their full payload ... while this means you can keep them in the air longer, it also means that they take much longer to destroy an armored target. Against armoured targets, the Orca has the edge because its faster delivery means it stays in the area a shorter time, reducing its vulnerability to SAM sites, Advanced Guard Towers etc. Orcas also kill structures faster as again, the faster delivery allows the structure less time to repair. c) Apaches take twice as long to reload as Orcas. [2-2-16] Stealth Tank --------------------- Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) Keep at least one square away from the enemy infantry 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. It is 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. James Hindman (jhindman@ea.oac.uci.edu) Here is another one of my strategies. It is to place 5-6 Stealth tanks in your enemies favorite Tiberium field. When his harvester shows up, have your tanks unstealth and annihilate his harvester. It will be dead before he even knows what's going on. Then take your tanks and run away so he doesn't retaliate by killing them. Michael Brenner (100275.2163@compuserve.com) Against a human player it is 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. Jeremy Butcher (butcher@inter.nl.net) There any good ways of hiding them so in a multiplayer base so that they can't be found. Almost all buildings have a few squares under them where you can't place a building. Place them on those things, then when your enemy tries to place a building there, everything's normal because you never can place a building there. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) If the computer (or player's) refinery is fairly far away from any units, drive a stealth tank directly in front of his refinery, cutting off the entrance for the harvester to get through. It can take quite a long time for your opponent to realize something is dreadfully wrong. [2-2-17] SSM Launcher --------------------- Phil 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 (not the Light Tank). It has the longest range of any unit. Mike Mulligan (mulligan@netcom.com) Have two or three SSMs and a few tanks as a protecting force. Then just move in to attack! I had three SSMs take out two Obelisks in less then 30 seconds. When your opponent comes after the SSMs, let your tanks lag behind and buy time for the SSMs to get away. If she presses her attack, she will get a mouthful of SSMs! [2-2-18] Chinook Transport Helicopter ------------------------------------- Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Like the APC, the order of exit is the reverse of the order of entry i.e. the last units to enter are the first to exit. Phil 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. 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 advantages of the chopper over APC - Few units can shoot at you. - You don't appear on radar until you land. Josh Eckels (joshtgf@execpc.com) Send in an Orca or Attack Helicopter a few seconds before the transport helicopter. Since your opponent can't change the targets of SAM sites or Advanced Guard Towers, they will continue to shoot at the first thing they see. This gives your transport helicopter enough time to land, deploy its cargo of engineers, and get out. Scott Shaffer (shaffer@bangate.compaq.com) Despite the limitations of this craft (small capacity, slow movement) there are some cases when it is very effective. Often times an enemy base is vulnerable to attack from a certain angle or direction. This is especially true of bases built against a corner of the map. You can often then direct your Chinook to an undefended area (like the very corner) by making it hug the edge of the map. It can land in areas that other units can't get to if the opponent has built his base in such a way to prevent easy unit movement. [2-2-19] Mobile HQ ------------------ These units only appear in multiplayer games of capture the flag, when bases are turned off. They are unarmed, and are weak units. You must protect your own mobile HQ while destroying your opponents' mobile HQs. Keep them surrounded by your units. Even a Hummer can destroy one in a few shots. Stealths are extremely efficient against enemy MHQ's Maarten Meuris (maatren-meuris@tiscalinet.be) ALWAYS sell your Mobile HQ's in single player missions (if you can). People who put them in their missions as "objects to keep alive" are stupid. [2-3] Buildings =============== Buildings lose productivity with damage. This is especially true with powerplants. [2-3-1] 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. Of course, if you capture a barracks or HON with it, you can make some more Engineers to capture a construction yard. [2-3-2] Powerplant ------------------ It's good to have a few backup powerplants to keep defenses running. [2-3-3] Advanced Powerplant --------------------------- Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Building 2 power plants is more cost effective than building one advanced power plant (by $100), but makes your base larger. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) It might be better to use normal powerplanets since it ensures more equal distribution of power output (i.e.: if one of them is taken out by a nuke/ion/airstrike, there's less chance you'll be left without your adv. guard towers firing!), and they're faster to build. In multiplayer situations: if playing against Nod, build Adv. Power plants. If playing against GDI, build normal Power Plants. The reason? Nukes can kill (many) normal Power Plants in one hit, they cannot however destroy the Advanced version. However, an Ion Strike will kill an Advanced Plant in one hit, so it's not worth it to build them. Protect these very well, and ALWAYS make sure you have *excess* power, in case one of them is taken out by an ion cannon, nuke or strike, especially important if you have Obelisks. [2-3-4] Sandbag/Fence/Concrete ------------------------------ These have different levels of damage. After getting hit by a certain amount of hitpoints, they lose a level of damage and start to fall apart. Concrete walls have three different damage levels, fences have two, and sandbags have one. Concrete walls are the only fence that can stop tank cannons. [2-3-5] Silo ------------ Holds 1500 credits worth of refined Tiberium. See also [4-5-4] The silo money cheat. *2-3-6* Refinery ---------------- Home base for Tiberium harvester. It will hold 1000 credits worth of refined Tiberium. One harvester included in price. You can build a refinery much faster than you can build a harvester. You can not sell a refinery that contains an unloading harvester. [2-3-7] Barracks ---------------- GDI Barracks can produce minigunners, grenadiers, bazookas, and engineers. Two Barracks builds infantry twice as fast. If you have more than one, double clicking on one will make it the primary building for unit construction. [2-3-8] Hand of Nod ------------------- The Nod infantry creation building can produce minigunners, flamethrowers, bazookas, chem. warriors, engineers, and commandos. Two Hands of Nod builds infantry twice as fast. If you have more than one, double clicking on one will make it the primary building for unit construction. [2-3-9] Weapons Factory ----------------------- GDI Weapon factories are easily destroyed by a single nuke. They are less than half as strong as Nod airstrips. Two weapon factories construct vehicles twice as fast as a single factory. If you have more than one, double clicking on one will make it the primary building for unit construction. [2-3-10] 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. You cannot have a constructed unit delivered while the cargo transport plane is still on the map. If a unit is constructed before the transport plane has had time to fly off the screen, the unit must be loaded onto the transport plane manually by clicking on its icon once the plane is no longer onscreen. Two airstrips construct vehices twice as fast as one airstrip. If you have more than one, double clicking on one will make it the primary building for unit construction. (this doesn't always work: I've had cases where the plane always took the rightmost airstrip) Scott Shaffer (shaffer@bangate.compaq.com) If possible, make sure to build your airstrip as close to the right edge of the map as possible. Since they C130 transport plan only goes from right to left, building it on the right edge of the map means your units arrive faster. The delay between unit completion and its arrival is a penalty for NOD that GDI does not have. This penalty can be reduced significantly if you build on the right edge of the map. Also, make sure to leave room around the top of the airstrip for the arriving units to deploy. Don't build an airstrip up against the top-left corner of the map. Raymond Lee (rksl1@leicester.ac.uk) As GDI, purchasing an MCV through a Nod airstrip yields a GDI construction yard, not Nod. [2-3-11] Communications center ------------------------------ Enables the overhead satellite view. [2-3-12] Advanced comm. center ------------------------------ Phil 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. Contrary to the manual, it does appear to be well-armored, and can take quite a beating before going down. Scott Shaffer (shaffer@bangate.compaq.com) Once you build an advanced comm. center, sell your normal communications center. The ACC will function as a normal communications center. Maarten Meuris (maatren-meuris@tiscalinet.be) If you capture a Nod airstrip, you have to rebuild your normal communications center in order to make Stealth tanks and Flame tanks. [2-3-13] Guard tower -------------------- Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) These 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. It is not effective against armoured vehicles. Phil 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. [2-3-14] Nod Turret ------------------- EDITOR'S NOTE: Prior to version 1.18, turrets cost $250 each. The tactics expressed here may be prohibitively expensive and/or impossible in versions 1.18 and beyond. 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 with a gun turret is somewhat even, which is rather weak for a defensive installation. It has okay range; you are protected as long as you have enough deployed so that they chop up the infantry early. You can shift the odds to your favor while fighting infantry by repairing them during battle. [2-3-15] 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. Phil 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 quickly. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Advanced Guard Towers rockets are less powerful than SAM site rockets. 7 AGT rockets vs. 3 SAM rockets to kill an Orca or Apache. Also more vulnerable as SAM sites are protected while underground. [2-3-16] 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 shoot 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.) Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) Try to make sure you have at least two; many humans will Ion Strike against one Obelisk when their attack force is coming down; if you have two, it will ensure that you have at least one Obelisk left if he decides to use his Ion Cannon. Also be sure to back them up with Flame Tanks, since they are useless against masses of infantry. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) 1 Shot - Any infantry, assault cycle, hum-vee, Nod buggy, MLRS, SSML. 2 Shots - Light Tanks, Medium Tanks, APC. 3 Shots - Harvester, Mammoth Tank All the above are considered from full health to full death. Players who think Obelisks of Light are a steal for 1500 credits should think twice. They require POWER, typically one Advanced Power Plant per Obelisk, so the cost is more like 2200 credits [2-3-17] SAM Site ----------------- Selling a SAM site will give you four minigunners for the price of three and a half, although this is a VERY slow way of making Minigunners. SAM sites have tough outside armor, but become more vulnerable to damage when the missile launcher exposes itself while it fires. [2-3-18] Heli Pad ----------------- Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Helipads come with a helicopter. You shouldn't be buying extra helicopters, as it is five times faster to build a helipad than a helicopter on its own. You should try to designate an inner, well-protection area of your base for your Helipads, and keep them built close to each other. Otherwise, you will have problems with those distant helis 'catching up' with the main helicopter attack force when a problem arises. [2-3-19] Repair Pad ------------------- Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) 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. Douglas Jacobs (djacobs@umich.edu) The repair pad has a few quirks. Once, while repairing a tank, an airstrike came along and destroyed the tank during repair. The bay survived, but it would no longer accept units to be repaired. Neither could I sell the repair pad. *2-3-20* Temple of Nod ---------------------- In a single player game, you are given only one nuclear missile per temple. In a multiplayer game, one temple will yield an infinite amount of missiles. 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, 8, and 12. You may have to destroy (or capture and sell) some of the buildings to get at the crates. EDITOR'S NOTE: There is a bug in versions prior to 1.18 that makes it impossible to fire nukes when the temple is constructed, even when all the necessary crates are collected. [2-4] Special Weapons ===================== [2-4-1] 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. Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) 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.. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Airstrikes are available in Multiplayer Missions. They come in crates. see also [5-3-8], AIRSTRIKES *2-4-2* Nuclear strike ---------------------- Reload: 20 minutes Weapon: nuclear warhead Level: Tech 7; Nod 13 see also [5-3-1] NUKES Single player nukes are two to three times more destructive than multiplayer nukes. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) Feeling nasty? Directly target the weapons factory. It'll take it out in one hit, and seriously damage all other buildings around it. Or, if your opponent has only one deposit of tiberium next to his base, nuke the tiberium and watch his eyes widen. Otherwise, if you see lots of full silo's, nuke there. $3000+ down the tubes. Lars Pedersen (lk2648@mail.krull.dk) To do the most damage, direct your nuclear strike to the base of the building you are attacking. The center of the building is where the sand stops and the building begins. David Brandt (dbrandt@origin.ea.com) In team play, have your teammate lay a nuke at the same time and place as when 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, made of metal, and very heavily protected, are much less vulnerable to radiation/heat effects. [2-4-3] 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 (actually more, some 22, in the form of a letter "D") Light tank Flame tank Gun turret SAM-site (only when opened) Obelisk tower (VERY useful) Stealth tank Tiberium silo Sandbag, Barbwire fence, Wooden fence (WASTE!) One patch of tiberium. One single tree 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. You can easily do this by attacking it with a single Orca, wait until it opens, and blast it wit the Ion cannon. As its target disappears, the Orca will automatically go home. Also can take out both a Flame tank and an artillery unit side by side at full health by targeting the Flame tank: the Ion cannon's damage is spread in a "+" shape, so theoretically, you can destroy five artilleries with only one shot. Lee Yu Tang (ytlee@pl.jaring.my) When compared to NOD's nuke attacks, GDI's most powerful weapon the Ion Cannon may seem pretty weak in many people's eyes. It needs more than one shot to take out some of the units and buildings with heavy armor. There are 2 buildings that for certain will fall prey to one blast of the Ion Cannon which are the Obelisk of Light and the Power Plant. ---------------------------------------------------- Chapter [3] Important information not in the manual ---------------------------------------------------- There is important information missing from the manual! *3-1* What are the keys? ------------------------ G : Guard Area This will cause a selected group of units to go into guard mode. In this mode, units will scan with binoculars for enemy units, and move to attack any that come within their sighting range. X : Scatter Units This causes a selected group of units to scatter. Useful when infantry is under attack by tank treads and incendiary missiles S : Stop Unit Causes a unit to stop dead in its tracks. Very useful when one of your units is braindead and begins to wander nonchalantly into the guns of the enemy base. F7-F10 : Map Bookmark System Use CTRL+F7-F10 to mark a spot on your map, then use F7-F10 to jump to that spot at anytime. -# : Team Creation Mark a group of units as a team using either using your mouse button and shift key or the bounding box. Then use CTRL and a number key (0-9) to assigned the selected units as a team. 0-9 : Team Selection This selects a team as active. TAB: Open/Close Sidebar Opens and closes the sidebar. Use it when you need to see more tactical map. H : Home unit Selects your construction yard, and centers the tactical map around it. N : Next unit This is almost a useless command. It runs through the internal lists of units, selects the next one, and centers the tactical view around it. R : Resign I bet you didn't know that all your units carry suicide demolitions. Hit 'R' and find out. In a multiplayer game, your civilians and technicians actually do a large amount of damage when you resign. Position them by the enemy before resigning, and maybe you'll take a few of them with you. : Homing This will center the tactical view around the currently selected unit or building. If no unit is selected, it does the same as "H". -# : View team Centers the tactical view over a predefined team. Multiplayer Options ------------------- A : Alliance Select an enemy unit and press 'A'. From that point on, your troops will treat that enemy as a friend and not target them. This only works one way. The other side is still welcome to blow you to smithereens, so they must also ally with you to complete the team effort. Allying with an enemy is also useful when you want a deep strike operation into the heart of the enemy base, but don't want your units to slow down and fight. Such operations might include recon or engineer infiltration. Pressing 'A' for a second time will negate the previous ally command. Cursor Modifiers ---------------- Bill Elliot (belliot@ftw.mot.com) SHIFT : Select Additional Units Holding down the shift key will let you select additional units to a group of selected units. For examples, to select your six advanced guard towers to fire on the four flame tanks approaching, SHIFT - click click click click click click. Bingo, six selected towers ready for orders. CTRL : Force Attack Holding down the CTRL key will turn your movement cursor into the target crosshair. This lets you target friendly units, trees, and empty squares. ALT : Force Move Holding down the ALT key will turn your movement cursor into a movement only cursor. Subsequently moved units will move instead of attack. This is how you get your tanks to squish enemy infantry instead of blowing craters around them. CTRL+ALT : Guard Area or Unit Holding down CTRL+ALT turns your cursor into a defend cursor. Selected units will patrol around a building or unit and protect it from attack. [3-2] What is that colored bar? ------------------------------- The colored bar represents the current power output. The blue marker represents the current power usage. When you use more power than available, your base experiences blackouts and brownouts. A green bar represents a surplus of power. A yellow bar represents a brownout A red bar represents a serious blackout. Facilities that totally shutdown during power outages are Obelisks of Light, Advanced Guard Towers, Communication Centers, Advanced Comm. Centers. During blackouts and brownouts, other buildings serve at a diminished capacity. It will take longer to produce a unit, and so forth. A brownout seems to cause production to drop to 50% of normal. A blackout seems to cause production to drop to 10% of normal. Mr. P / Powersource The power scale is logarithmic, not linear. [3-3] What is a 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. Whenever the blossom tree releases spores, it damages any units directly next to it. [3-4] How do I view the radar? ------------------------------ Vance Hampton (VHAMPTON@ti.com) There are two different radar maps, one long range and one short, and you can cycle through them by clicking the Map button or right-clicking on the radar map -- provided, of course, that you have a communications center. [3-5] How do I suspend or cancel build commands? ------------------------------------------------ You can suspend or cancel build commands by clicking with your right mouse button on the unit icon that is currently being built. The words "on hold" will appear on the bottom of the icon. From this stage, clicking with your left button will resume building, and clicking with your right button will cancel the build order. *3-6* How do I manage multiple barracks? ---------------------------------------- Stuart Loh (stuloh@acay.com.au) If you build more than one Hand of Nod or barracks, or more than one weapons factory or airstrip, you can double click on one to select the primary building. Troops and vehicles will arrive out of this building. If you are NOD and capture GDI barracks, GDI only units will come from the barracks. Common units such as bazookas and minigunners will come out of your primary building. The same applies to airfields and weapons factories. *3-7* Can I run over walls with mammoth tanks? ---------------------------------------------- Contrary to what the manual and the cutscene videos imply, it is not possible to drive over walls with a mammoth tank or any other unit.