The Command and Conquer Strategy Guide

1. Playing against the Computer

Defense:

Vehicle deployment is important inside of your base. You have to defend the entrances to a fenced in perimeter, since the computer never seems to want to make his own entrance. You want to have vehicles near the entrances, but not clogging it, so that harvesters can easily get in and out. I've developed what I call the Staggered Defense, where your tanks are set up like checkers on a board. The vehicles are set up on diagonal rows, with diagonal rows of spaces in between. This allows breathing room for harvesters to pass through quickly and easily, and also nicely surrounds any computer troops foolish enough to enter.

Generally, the computer has established patrol lines that its vehicles follow. If you want to avoid confrontation or set up lines of defense, watch and learn its troop movement patterns. On most missions, it deploys all attacks along the same vector ("Watch, the guys will loop around that plateau and attack from the northeast... See?"). If you aren't strong enough yet in a mission to begin a conflict, stay clear of these patrol lines. Set up the bulk of your armies along any repeated paths of attack, to receive the computers troops. Keep an eye out for attacks from any angle, though.

Oh, and if you aren't ready to face the computer's entire armada, then DON'T attack his harvesters. Attacking a harvester makes the computer go absolutely batshit. Often, he sends out everything he has to get you, and if you aren't ready, it'll hurt.

If the scenario has a good amount of Tiberium, make two (2) refineries. For each refinery, make two (2) harvesters. Ideally, while one is harvesting, the other is emptying. Your harvesters are your blood, so it is vital that they stay alive. The computer doesn't usually seek out your harvesters, but will almost always attack anything that strays near his base. Deploy vehicles in your Tiberium patches of choice.

Attack:

The Mammoth Tank is really one of the best of GDI's units. Not only does it easily dispatch helicopters and other tanks, it regenerates (to a degree), and is lethal against soldiers if you know how to take advantage of its missile packs. The rockets are what it uses to attack enemies that the big guns aren't pointing at, and they are highly effective against human troops. To take out those pesky bazooka guys, simple have your Mammoth Tank head away from them, then tell it to attack. As its turret swings to sight the enemy, it will fire missiles that will usually completely eradicate a tight group of soldiers. This is really the only mobile unit in the game that is completely effective against all kinds of enemies, and still has great armor and stamina.

Use your Mammoth Tank as a defense against Apache attack copters. Any group of vehicles or troops might come under attack by Nod air forces, so be ready. The Mammoth Tank eliminates the need for any units specially devoted to this purpose. Deploy Mammoth Tanks around your harvesters to defend against land and air.

Orcas are nice little choppers, but don't even think of using them against soldiers. They are effective in taking out Nod Turrets, since three of them can reduce it to ash on a single payload of rockets. If you only have two, then have one attack the Turret, then reload. The computer won't try to repair yet, because you haven't reduced the Turret to half of its hit points. Once that Orca has reloaded, attack with both. The Turret doesn't stand a chance. Oh, and watch out for SAMs.

Guard Towers have one purpose only: to tear big holes in enemy soldiers. They are only mediocre against vehicles and are usless against air attacks. But they do good work supplementing Advanced Guard Towers, which should be the main piece of your defense. Adv. Guard Towers deal quick death to land and air units, be they tanks or troops on foot. Set them up around your perimeter, and place a few inside your base, just in case he sends out the Apaches, or a Transport full of Engineers.

Nod's one nasty bit of technology is the Stealth Tank. Because of it, no base is safe. Well, almost no base. Set up your tanks in the Staggered Defense. While your many harvesters will have easy access to the outside, the Stealth Tank will find it completely impossible to enter your base undetected. A powerful enough front line will reduce it to cinders before it can manage to cloak again.

Set up a fence perimeter as described in the Defense section above. On one side of entrances, have a Turret. On the other side, if you can afford it (both financially and power-wise), build an Obelisk. Set up Turrets every couple of spaces on the inside of your fence, or have Light Tanks standing ready. You will be able to shoot out very easily, and pull back if necessary.

Flamethrowers are gleefully useful against enemy troops. A warning though: if you attack with more than one flametrooper at once, they may end up roasting each other. Keep your flametroopers several spaces apart to prevent this, having them attack a soldier from two different directions. GDI Grenadiers are quickly dispatched by this method. And if you can, build a Flametank to accompany an assault. Your Light Tanks don't do well against entrenched enemy soldiers, so use the Flame Tank to clean off those pesky parasites.

Scout Bikes are fast and have good visual ranges, so they make great scouts. Their speed also means that if you're careful (and a little lucky), you can drive right through a whole platoon of Mammoth Tanks and not get hit once. Their single rocket is not strong, but a group of them can down down a tank or even an Orca or two. Keep them for air defense for a mobile unit of tanks that have no other way to defend against air units.

Defense:

If there's enough Tiberium on the map, build two refineries. If there's a lot of Tiberium, build three (3) harvesters for each refinery. If you find that your harvesters are having to wait, build a third refinery, if you have the room (and this will reduce your ratio back to two (2) harvesters per refinery).

Air defense is vital in multiplayer games. Make sure that you have the entirety of your base protected equally against marauding helicopters. GDI's Adv. Guard Towers are great, in that they serve both land and air, but enough SAMs, and a Nod base is lethal to enemy copters. In addition, any unit you have outside of your base should be protected. GDI Mammoth Tanks, of course, can serve as their own protection, but Nod should consider a number of Scout Bikes as air defense, or even better, an invisible escort of Stealth Tanks. Once bitten, twice shy, and your enemies will never be sure if that seemingly innocent looking group of Light Tanks is not actually protected by six hidden Stealth Tanks.

Guard your harvesters.

Attack:

Without harvesters, he's finished. Unless you've made some prearrangement not to attack harvesters (sometimes it's more enjoyable to not have to worry about them), blow them up every chance you get. They're expensive, they're slow, they have no weapons, they're troublesome to defend. If he has a massive army defending his Tiberium deposit, then attack the harvester on its way to and from the site. Time your helicopters so they reach it at the midpoint between his base and his Tiberium field. Blow it to bits and not only does he lose the 600 or so it was carrying, but he also has to spend 1400 more to buy a new one.

When you attack, hit him with nearly everything you've got. It's not as easy to cache tanks against a human as it is against the computer, so he'll probably be ready for you. Again, have all your units focus their fire on a single target. Take out the enemy units with the most destructive weapon. Actually, the point is to reduce his damage capability as soon as possible. So if you have a choice of a Mammoth Tank and a Rocket Launcher, hit the Rocket Launcher. It will die a hell of a lot quicker than the Tank will, and with it out of the way, you don't have to worry about the nasty 227mm rockets. Try to find a balance between ease of destruction and the power of its weapon. An APC isn't hard to kill, but its chaingun isn't very strong either.

Use your Ion Cannon (when you get one) to knock out Obelisks of Light. Do it routinely. They're expensive, and he might decide (if you do it enough) that he's better off not having one at all, if you're just gonna blow it up all the time. That'll make him a lot easier to invade. If he has no Obelisks, then go for his Apaches as they wait on their pads. Or anything sitting on the repair bay. Be a complete and utter asshole at every possible chance. It's how you win.

SSM's have the best range in the game. Hit his base (or invasion force) from a distance, then pull your launchers back behind your other forces if he starts to move in. A group of SSM's can reduce a building to ashes in mere moments.

Defend your harvesters with Mammoth Tanks. They can easily take down Apaches and they spell doom for Stealth Tanks.

Keep your troops scattered to reduce the effect of a Nuclear Warhead. Be very careful... a direct nuclear blast can destroy your Weapons Factory in a single shot. Boom, gone, and there's nothing you can do to prevent it. If you know that your enemy has nuclear capabilities, you might consider a second factory. Not only will you produce tanks at twice the rate, but you won't be crippled in the event of a nuclear strike. It all depends on how much room in your base, and how much money you have. If there isn't a lot of Tiberium on the map, don't waste it on non-necessities. It might come back to haunt you.

If you're willing to face his Ion Cannon, build at least one Obelisk of Light at every possible entrance to your base. If he routinely blows them up, you might build two, so you aren't undefended if his army pays you a visit. Turrets and Light Tanks aren't effective against troopers, so back them up with Flame Tanks and Flamethrowers.

Got Nuke? See that Weapons Factory of his? A single shot erases it. Aim at the center bottom (the building itself is three spaces across and two spaces high) and it's gone.

Keep enough SAM's distributed throughout your base to foil any attacks from the air. Every spot should be reachable by about three separate SAM sites. If you've used them, you know how sucky their aim can be, and they're very very slow to reload. Get enough, or you'll regret it. Those Orcas are more useful against buildings than your Apaches, and he'll probably use them against your base. You can also supplement SAMs with Stealth Tanks. Beyond the advantage of faster response times, you'll also get the extra bonus of your opponent being caught completely by surprise.

- Stone