--------------------------------------------- CHAPTER [13] I need help playing multiplayer --------------------------------------------- see also [2-1] INFANTRY [2-2] VEHICLES [2-3] BUILDINGS [2-4] SPECIAL UNITS [5-1] SANDBAG DEFENSE [5-2] BUILDING BASE DEFENSES [5-3] HELP! I'M BEING ATTACKED BY ENEMY.. [5-4] SUPPRESSIVE FIRE [6-1] HOW DO I DESTROY... [7] MISCELLANEOUS GOODIES [13-1] What do I do with crates? ================================ *13-1-1* Stealth technology --------------------------- Stealth crates will stealthalize everything within a 3 square radius. The rotors of stealth Apache and transport helicopters are visible. Stanley Hu (hu@valisys.com) If you're fortunate enough to get a cloaked Commando via a crate, then you've basically got yourself a one-man Seal Team. A cloaked Commando will de-cloak just to plant the explosives, move away, and cloak again. So when mini-gunners come out of a destroyed structure, they won't be able to see the Commando. You can then move the Commando to a safe distance, kill the mini- gunners, and plant more explosives. Cloaked SSMs are very useful at destroying Orcas or Apaches that are on the ground (your opponent won't know where the napalm is coming from). After each missile is lanuched, they re-cloak, allowing you to move them to safety. Cloaked APCs do not de-cloak while unloading. This means Engineers can pop out of nowhere and take your structures. The only thing you can defend against this is to block off every area leading to your base--and be ready to sell your structures quickly! Douglas William Cole (dougc@umd.umich.edu) Whoa, I've never gotten a stealth APC, that would be the be all, end all, ultimate weapon. I've gotten a stealth harvester (the little bugger must have just run over it himself), a stealth humvee (yay!), a stealth med. tank (oh boy), and other stuff. Once, there was this crate that appeared right in the corner of my base and when I got it and opened up the stealth technology, it made my unit (like a buggy or something), a refinery, a powerplant AND a harvester that was in the refinery all stealth! I freakin' had a stealth power plant! Whoo boy! Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) Here's something hilarious. A friend of mine was playing, and a crate appeared right next to his three helipads at his base. He sends in a humvee to pick it up. Not only did the humvee stealth, but his helipads and his Orcas went stealth as well! And what's more, when he used them to attack, the Orcas would uncloak, fire two missiles, AND CLOAK AGAIN! The Nod SAM sites just went up when they saw them uncloak, and back down when they cloaked again, without firing a single missile. Needless to say, the game was stopped after about 30 minutes due to him almost not being able to breathe, rolling around the floor laughing :). [13-1-2] Units -------------- Douglas William Cole (dougc@umd.umich.edu) Units. (All infantry, commandos, flame tanks, stealth tanks, APCs, Mammoths, **MCVs**, Chem. warriors, almost everything I guess. [13-1-3] Visceroids ------------------- Kevin 'Zaph' Burfitt (zaph@torps.apana.org.au) If you open a box and find one of those red blob things, then head the unit that opened it towards the enemy base, if it dies, the blob will continue to their base, and you can get back to killing them... [13-1-4] Explosions ------------------- Not particularly desirable. These come in three flavors. The incendiary explosion is roughly equivalent to a bell pepper. The napalm explosion is about on par with a couple of chili peppers. The nuclear explosion is about equivalent to five jalepenos. [13-1-5] Cash ------------- This contains up to 2000 credits. [13-1-6] Nukes, airstrikes, ion cannons --------------------------------------- Douglas William Cole (dougc@umd.umich.edu) One time use nukes, airstrikes and ion cannons. [13-1-7] Map modifiers ---------------------- Will either hide or reveal or cover all territory on your maps. [13-1-8] Heal all units ----------------------- Joe Bostic (joebwan@anv.net) sphere with rings -> heal all units and buildings to full strength *13-2* Offensive tactics ======================== EDITOR'S NOTE: Much of the information found in Chapter 6 is directly related to multiplayer offensive strategies. Stanley Hu (hu@valisys.com) If you are allied with another player, it's not a bad idea to build structuers in your partner's base. The easiest way to do this is have your partner build a silo, which only costs $150, and send an engineer to take it over (use CTRL to force the engineer to capture the building). Just make sure your partner doesn't have any tiberium stored in the silo, otherwise he might be a little upset to see his money supply dwindle. This works especially well with a GDI-NOD combination. A NOD player can build Obelisks and SAM sites in his partner's base, while the GDI player can build Advanced Guard Towers and Guard Towers. Seth Bowden (bsb3@cornell.edu) Always, always, ATTACK your enemy. If you're down to your last two units on the whole map--ATTACK. Don't just settle for a good defense. Defending your base is not the goal of the game, offing the other guy is. If you do build up an impenetrable defense, it is really useless in and of itself (unless playing against the computer). You can easily be boxed off and slowly drained of money. It takes money to repair your base, and you will eventually run out if you are denied tiberium. Consistently attacking, however, has the very important advantage of unnerving and distracting your opponent. It forces him to think primarily about base/harvester defense. Notice, he will not be thinking about what really matters in the game, and that is killing your base. The best, and most effective place to focus your attack is on the enemy harvester. Kill it and he has no money. Everything else in the game can be rebuilt, even MCV crates can be found, but when you're out of money, you're out of luck. Of course, your attacks must be intelligent--sending bazooka guys against flame guys is not something you should do unless it turns you on to hear that chick saying "unit lost." Sending a few tanks and recon bikes after a harvester is, however, a sound tactic. Another general principle: don't fight in your enemy's defensive zone. If you're following a harvester, for example, and you come upon his turrets, run away. He'll just have to send the harvester back out, and then you can finish what you started. The general idea is not to do what he wants you to do, namely get gutted on his defenses. Firefox (tnorris@hti.net) Diversionary Tactics (can be used by both NOD & GDI) ---------------------------------------------------- I have used this strategy successfully in net games as well as against the computer: Build up about 20 minigunners, a hum-vee (or nod bike) and maybe a cheapie tank. The idea is to make this force look as convincing as possible. Group this "Attack Force" and hold it in reserve. Build an APC and load it up with 4 engineers and a bazooka (NOT a flame thrower, they'll sometimes kill the engineers). Move the APC on the side of the map that the enemy's construction yard is on. Now, with the Grouped Attack Force attack the enemy base from the side OPPOSITE of where the Construction Yard, other important buildings are. You ARE NOT concerned about what happens to the attacking force. Just as the force starts to engage in battle and you see the enemies troops, etc. running to defend the base, bring in the APC and unload the engineers. Take over (in order of priority: Construction Yard, Airbase (or Weapons Factory), Hand Of Nod (or Barracks). The enemy will be defenseless! If the enemy has tanks around his base, build a turret and have it ready to deploy as soon as you take over a building, then put it next to it so it can destroy enemy forces. I have successfully used this diversion many times to the disdain of my enemy. It works almost all of the time. The key point to remember is that your attacking force should be convincing. A mammoth tank in it will convince the enemy that the force is REAL and not a diversion and hence will draw all his troops to attack it. In general, use this tactic to draw forces AWAY from something you REALLY want to attack. Harassment ---------- One of my favorite ways to annoy the enemy is to build a bunch of Grenadiers/Bazooka's and send them out, one at a time to attack different buildings of the enemy base. This really only works if he has not yet built a Obelisk Of Light. The enemy will be so preoccupied killing the annoying attackers that they won't see (hopefully) your APC or REAL strike force attacking his base from another point of the base. This tactic also wears heavily on the enemy finances since he is constantly repairing many different buildings. Your enemy will be become paranoid and demoralized, THEN you can send in the tanks, etc. that you have been building the whole time and wipe them out. Overwhelming Force ------------------ If your enemy has an Obelisk Guard Tower (and hopefully no flame- anythings), then build about 40 minigunners and send them to attack his Obelisk Guard Tower. The Tower takes so long to recharge that it cannot possibly kill off all of the attackers. Also send 1 or 2 off to attack a power plant (which makes the enemy rebuilding take just that much longer). Jason Thomas (hiro@mill2.millcomm.com) :I was on the losing end of a game when I got lucky with an APC :full of engineers and took most of his base - my opponent promptly resigned. :Yes, I won technically, but it felt like a hollow victory. It also places :way too much emphasis on that tactic instead of a mix of strategies. There's no such thing as an unfair tactic. If you haven't arranged your defenses so that you can defend against a couple of APCs with engineers, perhaps you should reevaluate your strategy. It is, however, a devastating assault. Picture this: A few waves of humvees driving parallel to the wire to snipe at infantry units. Follow this up with a wedge of medium tanks, spearheaded by a heavy if you have it, directed at a turret. Follow this up with rocket artillery. Then the APCs with engineers come through. If the APCs get through, game over. If they don't, then the defender's base is going to be pretty much toast, and his defending forces crushed. Your attack force is going to be gone too, but it underscores the principle of attacking first. Don Good (treygood@aol.com) It appears that most players use a defense first strategy. Sorry, but this is not the most effective way to go. At the outset, you should hunt aggressively for your foes base. Assign a humvee/recon bike to a ctrl number, and send it first to one corner, then the others. While the unit is in transit, build your base right next to a tiberium field. Your order of build for NOD is powerplant, refinery, Hand of NOD. For GDI it's powerplant, then refinery. If you have found your foes base, and he has no Helipads yet, then GDI should build the barracks. If your foe has Helipads, or Hand o NOD; GDI should build a communications center. The comm. center allows you to build Advanced towers, the barracks allows everything else. During this phase, listen for sounds of gunfire. When you here gunfire it's your scout being attacked. Do an alt+# to jump to him and thoroughly scout out his base. If he has no SAM's/advanced towers, your in luck, quickly build 2 Helipads, and 1 powerplant and start attacking his harvester. Meanwhile, if your GDI, train to engineers and load them into your APC for an assault on his construction yard. From this point on, your main objective is to build more harvesters, and constantly attack his harvesters and powerplants. When a powerplant gets knocked out attack his ground units on his base. Concentrate on units which can attack helicopters/Orcas. By attacking from the get go, you force the "base builders" into a constant rebuilding mode. If they insist on still trying to build and advance their bases they will leave themselves open to further attacks upon production. If they try to return the attack, you will have already gained significant ground in offensive punch over them. This strategy is especially effective against the GDI "spider base" builders. In the early stages of the game their defenses are too spread out to prevent constant air attacks, and too spread out to deal with an APC/engineer attack. Terminator (termy@challenger.net) When playing NOD build a Power Plant, Tiberium Refinery, and Airstrip in that order. Don't build anymore buildings. Just keep churning out Recon Bikes until you run out of money. You should have about 10-20 bikes now (you started with 9999 credits right?). You now have an unbeatable army. Send them to destroy the other guy's harvester(s). Usually they won't have enough time to put together a defense by then. Your bikes can then just head in and blow the bejesus out of them. This tactic works very well and I haven't found anything else that can stop it. The only problem is that once you've used it on the other poor guy a few times he'll start doing the same thing. Then it bogs down to who builds first. :) Build Power Plant, Tiberium Refinery, and Barracks/Hand of NOD, and then build as many helipads as you can. You should be able to gather a nice 5-10 chopper/Orca force. If the other guy is GDI then you'll usually be able to go over and blow their Construction Yard away before they can form a good air defense. If the other guy is Nod then they might have made a Sam Site by now. Go and blow the Sam Site away. You shouldn't lose one chopper/Orca if you sent at least four or five. Then blow the Construction Yard away. This really annoys people, and half the time they'll lose self confidence and resign. Make the all famous engineer/APC combo. Before you send them over have an Obelisk/Adv. Guard Tower ready to put down. When they capture a building put down the Obelisk or AGT right there in there base! If you're NOD keep building turrets and put them in their base. Destroy them from the inside out. If you're GDI then building a barracks (if you haven't captured theirs) and putting it in and building more engineers to capture more buildings might be best, since Guard Towers build slower. It's just like cancer. Once it's started it can't be stopped. [13-3] Defensive tactics ======================== EDITOR'S NOTE: Much of the information in Chapter 5 directly relates to multiplayer defensive strategies. JB Hall (jbhall@acs.ucalgary.ca) Here is a great tip for 4-Player Net Games with alliances. Both you and your teammate pick Nod and GDI. During the game (after you've both got things rolling) build an MCV each and send 'em across to the other guy's base. After that set them up build an engineer and VIOLA!! both of you have Nod and GDI capabilities. Sure it's REALLY expensive but well worth it. With both capabilities, the perfect base defense is: -Obelisk -2 Turrets (Hum-Vee Killers) -Guard Tower (Infantry Killer) -SAM Site (Bye Bye Aircraft) -Missile Tower (Chews up leftovers) Untouchable!! Jason Thomas (hiro@mill2.millcomm.com) Now, what if you had two layers of defense? An outer wall, possibly sandbags, with gun turrets, infantry, et cetera. Then, an inner wall of chain-link or concrete surrounding your buildings with gun-turrets, grenade guys, et cetera. That might help keep the engineers away a bit better. It's a legitimate tactic; use it and learn how to defend against it. -xxx- Phil Sykes (root@sykic.demon.co.uk) Surround your base with guard towers. If an enemy (even an allied one) approaches to try and get recon info, waste them. The less they know at the start, the more costly it is in the middle. Spice harvesters are great to hassle with Orcas. Pointers to remember during netgames: The computer player ALWAYS repairs structures when they get damaged. The same is not true for the humans however. Humans may get demoralized and quit if you kill their construction yard! Always keep a couple of engineers next to your refinery and construction yards - to recapture them immediately. Humans have VERY limited money, especially if you've killed their harvesters! Those ion cannons are much more useful when repairs can't be made and obelisks / guard towers can't be replaced indefinitely. Try to cripple your opponent early on by making them spend money on repairs and replacements so their 'base-economy' cannot develop. If playing against a tech 6 or 7 Nod opponent, wall up your base apart from one choke point which should have a guard stationed there who moves out of the way to let units in / out. This prevents stealth tanks. Never leave your base open anyway - the other guy will be fighting a penetration war if he has to get through walls! Often, humans will repair their units. Clobber them on the way out if you don't like this! [13-4] Capture the flag ======================= Kevin 'Zaph' Burfitt (zaph@torps.apana.org.au) Playing 4 player Capture the Flag, with Alliances: The Zaph strategy: As soon as the game starts, gear to building fast vehicles (humvees/Bikes) and run groups of 3 or 4 into the enemy base, grabbing the flag and dragging it further away - they wont have the defenses to prevent this in the opening stages... The Anti-Zaph Strategy: After forming an alliance with your teammate, run a tank into their base, and take their flag. Then drive it a few squares away, somewhere convenient and hard to get to!. Now the only way someone can take the flag is by destroying your tank (they can't just grab it and run). - have your teammate do the same for you! [13-5] Various player strategies ================================ [13-5-1] Aardvark's strategy ---------------------------- Phil Sykes (root@sykic.demon.co.uk) (1) Get recon on the enemy base as soon as possible. Preferably, send all of your recon capable guys out to corners of the map to get info on the areas around the base. This saves you enormous hassle getting it later on, when it will be needed to detect buildups, aim airstrikes / Orcas and mount an attack. When your guy gets there, offer (verbally or using f1-f4) to make an alliance. If you command the respect I do in C&C, they will probably agree. Say you will team up and crush the other two (so the other two can here it). This will cause them to ally (maybe) Once you've made the alliance, run all the way round the base (if someone else tries to do this to you, unally and whack them). Then set off to another base. (2) Defend your base from recon. Put fences up around 'choke points', areas where the base is protected by natural features to prevent other people getting in. Put a tank at the entrance (and a guard building) to discourage people from getting in. With any luck, no-one got a good look round your base. If anyone did, offer to make an alliance with them - they could be very dangerous. (3) Build more base. Put at least two tiberium refineries in, preferably on opposite sides of the base. Make sure harvesters have easy access to them, but put them inside the fence, or engineers will attack them. Don't worry about defense too much at this stage, but be sure to make a base that is easily navigable (so troops can get through to defend). Avoid making 'transport chopper magnets', that is large areas of open ground deep inside your base. If you have any, be sure to station a minigunner and a bazooka guy to shoot down or mop up any penetrators. My personal preference is for a fairly open plan base, with all areas defended by advanced guard towers or SAMs. If you're playing NOD, put your obelisks RIGHT next to SAM launchers, and preferable within range of two or three SAMs, because this will mean any air attack to remove it takes hideous casualties. Be sure to produce five or six bazooka dudes to plant around the inside of the base for SAM cover. In areas where a tank attack seems probable, place fence 2 squares deep, or concrete if you can get it. DON'T leave huge gaps in your defenses. If possible, only two or three squares should afford entrance or exit to your base, and these should be defended with advanced guard towers like so: ************ ************ *** *** G** **G * = fencing / natural defenses G = advanced guard tower / obelisk This fencing two deep prevents flame-throwers or minigunners from getting next to the targets. (4) Be really evil. At this point, everyone's base is defended. A frontal assault would be suicide and lose you the game, so you have to fight dirty, using attrition or psychological tactics or luck to destroy the other three. Build three harvesters and two harvester plants at least. If you're GDI, get around five Orcas. Start blowing up harvesters. It doesn't take long for the human to feel the pinch. If he gets stuck without enough money to build more harvesters, he has to sell units or buildings. If you can see areas in the enemy base not under SAM cover, blow them up. This works especially well against weenies who build their construction yard right at the back, and form a front line to stop enemies. If your harvesters start to get blown up, complain violently. Protest to the other guy, and suggest to everyone that a punitive raid should be launched on player X to stop them from being so evil. Also, send a few bazooka guys to the spice farms. Orcas aren't much good at hitting moving targets, so this is where they are most vulnerable. If you can afford it - spider base. Build a line of sandbags out to a large spice field, and plonk an advanced guard tower or a SAM site (protected by a tank). This is an excellent place to mass troops prior to an assault, as they don't get pummeled by aircraft (it's also a big target for ion cannons / nukes, deflecting the attention away from your base. If another player looks stronger then you, say so. Explain to the other players how it would definitely be best to take this guy down 'I can see troops massing in his corner, he's going to attack' or 'I'm sure he's got stealth tanks in your base!' Launch a combined assault. This will undoubtedly remove him from the game if you are playing with anyone half decent. Offer to lend 'air support' but not ground troops. Whilst they're doing this - engineer attack their base or blow up their harvesters. Chances are they'll be too pre-occupied to notice. If you're NOD - Stealth tanks! - Sneak em in through enemy defenses and mass them in the gaps between his buildings. Go for his construction yard first, because once the construction yard is gone, the will to fight can go too, and they may resign. Also, use stealth tanks or recon bikes to hunt harvesters in packs ;) Crates are always useful. No matter what you got, say it was a good one to your enemies. If you're nod, decloak one of your stealth tanks to make the noise, and say it was a stealth APC/engineer/mammoth tank. Make sure you have recon all around the map, and periodically scan it for crates. Have a humvee ready to go after the crates (be sure to tell an ally what you're doing if you approach his base, or he may attack you) Set up a buffer zone around your base. If anyone comes inside a LARGE radius, say 'that (unit) better get out of here or my Orcas / assault choppers are gonna whack him'. 'You got 10 seconds - 9 - 8 - 7 (launch the Orcas now) - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 (Orcas attack now) - damn, I can't count.' This will scare weenie players a bit. Of course, no treatise on being nasty would be complete without the engineer assault. I've already described the best method for this, but after a bit more multiplayer playing, the enemy has got wise to these tactics (remember - you can target your AGTs and obelisks manually). So, a few more pointers: The enemy will whack any APC approaching his base, for sure. (I know I would). If he sends choppers up, the APC is in trouble. Guard it with bazooka guys, who get out when you're nearly there and march with the APC. Remember to ally with him in the middle of this. It might confuse him, but your APCs won't stop to shoot that way. Say 'OK . he's turning around now - he was just doing some recon', turn him round, and move straight back in again (or attack one of his harvesters, to divert attention). There must be a weak point for the APC to get through. Defenses like I have described will chew up APCs and engineers every time without a problem. If you've got stealth tanks inside, use them to divert his attention away. By the time he notices, it may be too late. Else use an Orca strike to remove a gap big enough to get an engineer through. If there's no way that's going to work, use a chopper. Land it as far from SAM sites as possible, and get out four grenadiers and one engineer. Use the grenadiers to chew up a power station or two, and send the engineer in. To defend against this, just put a wall down where the chopper is about to land. It has to take off again. Once you've got the building, sell it. Use the minigunners to get more recon, or to attack a building. Don't suicide them into the nearest guard tower. Power: If an GDI enemy runs out of power, send the Orcas in. If a nod player does, have a quick engineer attack ready ;) Always turn your sound down if you know you will lose power (same for building nukes/ion cannon/air strikes). Turn in up again afterwards. (5) Endgame You got walloped? Had to sell all of your buildings to pay for a few units? Got a few guys left (or a mass of minigunners from building attack?). Make use of them! Send them to attack harvesters or camp out close to an enemy base, inviting an attack (which will cost the enemy dear if you are going to try a head on assault - make sure you send the armor in first. Offer to send any harvesters you have to other people's bases in return for air support / backup in an assault. In short, get the other guys to help you against the guy that beat you. You may still win! Everyone else has no money and a load of units which are crap? Start building up defenses. Close up entrances you no longer need, and plant extra advanced guard towers in. Say 'come on then - finish it off - I've got bugger all money left now' and other such things to entice an attack. When it comes, mass all units inside the fence and pound away. Two advanced guard towers and a wall can kill a virtually infinite number of men, especially with money to repair them. Send up the assault choppers and or Orcas to attack them on the way in. you start getting beaten, fall back inside your base a bit more. They generally can't prosecute an attack against a multilayered base (units too scattered - not enough armor etc.). HOUSE RULES FOR C&C (+ interesting deathmatch games) No engineers attacks No engineer attacks in the first half hour No attacking harvesters (in the first half hour) No sending out first minute recon buggies No resigning (sell all your buildings and try a head on assault) Must resign and abort once beaten (to speed up the game) Two on two alliances Nod and GDI vs. Nod and GDI (capture allies buildings for a nice mix of units). Three on one (I've won a few playing the one) No bases - 50 units tech level 1 No bases - 50 units tech level 4 No bases - 5 units tech level 4 (this is a hoot!) Tech levels 6&7 are the most fun to play on. Use CCEDIT to edit the weapon loadouts for all players. e.g. Bazookas guys armed with SAMs, cost 700 Nod recon buggy armed with SAMs, cost 900 MCV only costs 2000 Orcas only cost 300, SAMs 400 and AGTs 450 (air war!!!) Flame-thrower troops have obelisk lasers, but cost 1200 Nod buggy and Hummers both have high velocity machine gun, but cost 100 more. Engineers cost 1000 Everything is half price (this is FUNNY!) Everything is one credit (this is SILLY!) [13-5-2] Joseph's strategy -------------------------- Joseph E. Bellerose (oz@cris.com) One can win against any opponent with a Low Tech Strategy. I have overrun my opponent with just foot soldiers as the NOD and as the GDI. Basically I NEVER build the advanced structures. I put my cash into "troopers" or some other low tech capability. My "Chinese strategy" is to overwhelm the opponent early on with a combination of grenadiers/flame- throwers and a few bazooka and mini-gunner troops. While he is building all those fancy buildings I'm sending groups of 12 to 15 troopers at him from several different angles. The trick is to attack from two or preferably three different directions. This has the effect of inducing the greatest military weapon of all...PANIC into the heart of your opponent. Another favorite of mine is the HELLS ANGELS strategy. I build Recon Bikes as fast as I can and nothing else. 12 Recon Bikes can easily overcome any Orca strategy and I have rushed the enemy base with Recon Bikes and taken out his Construction yard, Vehicle Building and usually 1 or 2 of his Orca Pads before the 12 Bikes expire. In the meantime I am building the second wave of HELLS ANGELS for the finishing moves. It is amazing to watch 12 to 15 HELLS ANGELS shred a harvester or a squadron of Orcas. They can reduce a couple of Mammoth tanks to scrap iron in a matter of no time at all. The basic idea is to get there "furstus with the mostus" and to have a "second punch" to finish off the enemy after your first attack has caused chaos. The money you save by NOT building the fancy structures and going for the Wunder Weapons allows you to get there with a killer punch FIRST. The basic defense against the HELLS ANGELS...Hummers of course. The Recon Bikes are lightly armored and the Hummers or Nod Buggy can run with them and shred the Bikes quickly as well. So it is a good counter. Of course, if you are building all those Monuments to Greatness (Advanced Comm...NOD temple etc..) well you are not going to be able to produce too many Hummers or Buggies are ya? Hahahahaha [13-5-3] Kokko's strategy ------------------------- In our small (10 player, local net) C&C group it's become very apparent that 1 or 2 refineries and 3-4 harvesters just gets you killed. As we start with just 3 units, it means you just can't mount a good offensive real fast, so we go like this: start - send fastest unit (humvee/buggy) to explore. Find enemy ASAP as mapping the base area helps a lot. at the same time build: construction yard-> power plant-> refinery-> refinery-> advanced power plant-> troop or vehicle factory-> some defensive troops-> refinery-> (start building defenses and buildings in your preferred order) Usually mid-game we have 3 refineries and 5-6 harvesters. If you stick to two refs. (or one, for god's sake) you get overrun sooner or later as you are out of funds/waiting for harvester while other player keeps on building and building... We also usually frown upon 'hunt the harvesters' strategy, and in 4- player game it's simply enforced by the fact that whoever starts to kill harvesters (unless they wander into base defenses) usually becomes public enemy no.1 and gets killed by the other 3 players :) I wish 'guard' option would work better so you could put some bikes or rocket launchers to guard harvesters but as of now (at least with bikes) they just prevent the harvester from entering refinery unless you manually do so. It's a shame the areas are so small. 4 times the current size, please. 4-player game gets REAL claustrophobic. Real fast. And even with 9999 funds at start, you need to use 'low tech' approach or capture one enemy with engineers *fast* or you just run out of cash. Too little tiberium for each player.