Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun Campaign Strategy Guide by Steven W. Carter (scarter831@earthlink.net) September 12, 1999 Disclaimer: I provide no guarantees here. These are strategies that worked for me on version 1.08 using the normal difficulty level. I played each mission at least twice and generally tried to mix up my strategies to see what worked best. What follows is a summary of that work, with an emphasis more on how to start up each mission rather than on details on how to destroy an enemy base once you are able to repulse its attacks (and where preferences will vary anyway). ***************************************************************************** * GDI CAMPAIGN * ***************************************************************************** ---------- GDI-01 (Reinforce Phoenix Base) ---------- Objective: Destroy all NOD forces. Strategy: This is a training mission, so you are not going to be pressured at all. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the interface, the look of the game, and the waypoints system. After you receive reinforcements, build a refinery and then a barracks. There is plenty of room for them in your starting base. If you want to, also build a tiberium silo. There is only one entrance to your base, and it is guarded by two vulcans. Those will be more than enough for defense. The only thing left to build is some light infantry, so go ahead and do so. The NOD ``base'' is located in the northeastern corner of the map. It only has a hand of NOD and a power plant, and your starting units can destroy them and their defenders pretty easily. There is also another bridge south of that, but when you encounter it, meteors will destroy it and prevent NOD from receiving its own reinforcements. Remember that tiberium is toxic to infantry units, so don't have your infantry wander through tiberium patches when looking for NOD forces. Instead, let your harvester draw them to your base. The harvester is tough enough to withstand the slight amount of machine gun fire it will encounter. ---------- GDI-02 (Secure the Region) ---------- Objective: Destroy all SAM sites to allow for evacuation of civilians. Destroy all NOD forces. Strategy: Watch the two transport ships get destroyed by SAM sites. They were heading for the civilian town, so now you know the general direction in which it lies. Deploy the MCV where it stops, and then build your base. For some reason, the radar installation is not available, but this is not really a problem because your base will be small, and NOD will only attack from one location. After building a war factory, construct some wolverines and go exploring. It is easier to use wolverines instead of infantry because of all of the tiberium near your base. Besides the two obvious SAM sites to the east of your base, there is another to the north. Destroy them and then move your wolverines south until they reach an east-west road. Follow it east until you come to an isthmus connecting your island to the NOD island. All NOD attacks will go through this isthmus, so you can stop them cold with a few wolverines here. Once you have enough wolverines to attack -- 10 should be enough -- move across the isthmus and destroy the two SAM sites you come across. Then heading north will bring you to the civilian town. West of the town is the tiberium patch the NOD harvester uses, and you can take the opportunity to destroy the harvester and deprive NOD of extra credits. There are two more SAM sites north of the civilian town, and once you destroy them, GDI will be able to rescue the ``significant'' civilian population. That's right, all three people. Once the civilians are saved, just march your wolverines directly into the NOD base and destroy everything in sight. ---------- GDI-03 (Capture Train Station) ---------- Note: This is the most western of the two mission choices. Objective: Capture the train station. Destroy all NOD structures. Strategy: Group all of your offensive forces together and go exploring. You will find some random NOD forces around, but they should be easy to kill. In the middle of the map, you will run into an attack cycle which will run away to warn the NOD base. Don't worry about it; even with warning the NOD base will not be difficult. Head generally west and north. Be careful moving your infantry and engineers around the patch of tiberium. Ignore the plateaus. There are NOD units up there but no NOD structures. Eventually you will find a bridge guarded by a cyborg. Kill the cyborg, but do not cross the bridge yet. If you move west to the edge of the map, you will receive two titans in reinforcements. They have enough range to destroy the nearby NOD power stations, which will in turn overload and destroy the NOD laser towers. Now go back to the bridge and cross it. With your starting units and the additional titans, destroying the NOD base and killing its few defenders will be easy. Then send one of your engineers into the train station to finish the mission. ---------- GDI-04 (Secure Crash Site) ---------- Objective: Locate the crash site. Capture the NOD technology center. Strategy: You start out in the southwestern corner of the map. Move the MCV a little to the south before deploying. This will give you more room for your perimeter defense. Your two wolverines and two titans will be enough to handle all initial attacks, so build your base first and worry about putting up vulcan cannon later. You should put the tiberium refinery on the eastern side of your base, right next to the tiberium patch. Most NOD attacks will come from the northeast. If you put your wolverines and titan north of the tiberium patch, you will head off most of them before they get to your base. Once you have 4 or 5 wolverines and titans, head north. There is a small NOD base near the center of the map. It is guarded by twin laser towers, but titans have a longer range, so use them to destroy the lasers. Camp your units there for a bit and train three engineers. Have the engineers capture the two power stations and the hand of NOD, and then build another war factory here. Now you have a rally point much closer to the action. The crash site is through the southeastern gate of your new base. Once you have destroyed the two tick tanks protecting the alien ship, you will have secured the area. Leave the crash area and head for the main NOD base. It is located over the bridge just to the east of your second base. It will be guarded by some tick tanks, attack cycles, and infantry, but they should be no match for your titans and wolverines. The technology center is near the entrance to the base. Just send in an engineer to finish the mission. ---------- GDI-05 (Defend Crash Site) ---------- Objective: Defend the alien crash site. Strategy: The timer does not measure how long you have to defend the crash site (although it is close); it measures how long the ion storm will last. When the timer runs out, you will receive reinforcements in the form of titans and wolverines. Never move your troops out of your defended base. Near the start, NOD rocket infantry will target a power plant and your radar installation. There is nothing you can do about this. Just sell the buildings and use the extra money to train more troops. Even with one power plant gone, you will still have enough energy to run your base. Most of the attacks will come from the north, so put the majority of your troops there. Do not let any of your vulcan cannon get destroyed. If necessary, move your troops outside slightly to distract and attack NOD forces. About a third of the way through the timer, NOD will sneak some units into your base using subterranean APC's. One APC will go the western side of the UFO and one will go to the eastern side. Have some troops waiting around in those spots to welcome NOD to your base. Train a couple of medics, and use waypoints so one can heal the infantry at the northern entrance and the other can heal the infantry at the southern entrance. With most of the remaining money -- leave some for repairing your vulcan cannon -- train some more infantry. With the number of troops you now have at your disposal, defending your base should not be a problem. ---------- GDI-06 (Destroy Radar Array) ---------- Note: This is the most western of the two mission choices. Objective: Destroy the three relay stations. Destroy the radar array. Strategy: Let the computer control your initial reinforcements. They will kill the two NOD infantry on their own, and then be healed by the medic. The way south leads to a dead end, so head east. Let your infantry units lead the way since they can be healed. Eventually, you will come to a patch of tiberium with fiends in it. Do not attack the fiends unless you want the mission to end quickly. I played this mission twice: both times NOD infantry attacked the fiends, but only one time did the fiends attack NOD forces back. If the fiends help, they'll destroy a couple of lasers for you. Otherwise, you'll have to take out the lasers yourself. NW relay station: There are submerged APC's with infantry surrounding the relay station, so be prepared. Also, when you attack the station, NOD will send several infantry and cyborgs at you, so watch for that as well. Once the relay station is gone, you will get some reinforcements. South relay station: There is nothing special about this station, except that the entrance is ``guarded'' by a tiberium vein. Infantry can pass unmolested, but titans will take damage. There is also a NOD base to the east of this station, but you can ignore it. Destroying this station results in reinforcements as well. Radar array: South of the remaining relay station is a tunnel. Taking the tunnel leads up to the radar array. There are some lasers, cyborgs, and tick tanks guarding the area, but with all the firepower you should have by this point destroying everything in sight should not be a problem. NE relay station: After destroying the radar station, head east, destroy a gate and some lasers, and then destroy the relay station. End of mission. ---------- GDI-07 (Rescue Tratos) ---------- Objective: Rescue Tratos. Destroy everything NOD. Strategy: You start out with Umagon, Ghoststalker, and a mutant hijacker. Try to get a feel for these three, because you'll see them again often in the missions ahead. Umagon can kill infantry with one shot, but doesn't do much damage to anything else. Ghoststalker is lethal to infantry and vehicles, and he can plant C4 charges in buildings, but you have to be careful with him. His rail gun will kill anything between him and his target, so try to keep his line-of-sight clear. I never find much use for the hijacker. Umagon and Ghoststalker are all the firepower you need. At the start of the mission, move your units west, killing everything you see. There is a big tiberium patch nearby, so you can heal your units if they get hit. Eventually, you'll come to a NOD mini-base. It has an observation tower out front. If any of your units wander into its view, an alarm will go off, and you will have to rescue Tratos within 4 minutes. Instead, sneak around the side of the base and notice the power plant. There are crates around it, and if you shoot the crates, they will explode and take out the power plant, too. Now the observation tower has no power, and so you can destroy the min-base in any way you want. Continuing southwest, you will notice the prison camp. The corner closest to you has crates around it, and so you can blow them up and create a hole in the laser fencing. This will start the 4-minute timer, but Umagon and Ghoststalker should be able to kill off anything that comes their way, and still give Umagon enough time to walk to the hospital and free Tratos. Once Tratos is out of the hospital, a transport ship will arrive on the far eastern side of the map. Also, one of the broken bridges you passed earlier will become whole. To finish rescuing Tratos, walk him over to the transport ship -- but not right away. As soon as he leaves, your mutant units will leave as well. So just get Tratos out of harm's way and then let Ghoststalker and Umagon pick apart the main NOD base. They should be able to kill a few units and bring down some fencing and lasers. When you get bored with them, send Tratos to the ship. They'll leave and reinforcements will arrive, including an MCV. Soon after this, NOD will sell off the prison camp, leaving only the main camp. Move the MCV west so it is near two tiberium patches. You will receive more reinforcements when you deploy the MCV and when you build a tiberium refinery. This should give you a large force of wolverines and titans. You can go ahead and start attacking the main NOD base at this point. It will have several lasers and tick tanks for defense, plus assorted infantry and cyborgs, but it will not withstand a pounding from titans and wolverines for very long. ---------- GDI-08 (Destroy Vega's Dam) ---------- Note: This the most western of the mission choices. Objective: Destroy Vega's dam. Strategy: There are two ways to meet the objectives. You can either destroy the dams themselves, or you can destroy the regulator stations, which will in turn destroy the dams. There are also two ways to get into the main NOD base. This guide will be for the most interesting of the four possible methods. The NOD forces start out pretty smart. When they see you coming, they blow up the bridge leading to one of their mini-bases. Do not fear, though. By traveling south and then looping around back north, you can arrive on the other side of the bridge and destroy the base. Your prize for doing so will be a health crate and reinforcements. Move generally southeast until you arrive at a land bridge. Reinforcements will arrive, and to the north of the bridge will be a truck with another health crate. Try to use the crates sparingly. A little farther north is a city of sorts with three SAM sites and two tick tanks. There will also be a flame tank in the area, so be ready to scatter your infantry. When you destroy the tick tanks, you will receive reinforcements. When you destroy the SAM sites, you will receive a single engineer before the transport is shot down. Move the engineer west and have him repair the bridge. Move your troops north and have them cross the newly-repaired bridge. Kill the NOD troops in the area, and then move your forces north to a tunnel. The tunnel leads to the northeastern corner of the map -- and the back door to the NOD base. Use your titans to destroy the lasers, and use your wolverines and infantry to kill the enemy infantry. One of the two regulator stations is on this side of the NOD base, and the other is to the southwest across a bridge. Once the regulator stations are gone, the NOD power plants will blow up, and then the dams will blow up. ---------- GDI-09 (Destroy Vega's Base) ---------- Objective: Capture Vega's pyramid and destroy the remainder of his base. Strategy: There are three islands on the map. The island you start on is in the northeastern part of the map, Vega's main base is on an island to the west, and a NOD mini-base is on an island to the south. Take the starting units and explore your island. There are seven SAM sites you need to destroy before you can receive reinforcements. Once the SAM sites are gone, you will receive an MCV and two titans. Deploy the MCV where it stops, and set up your base. Your titans and infantry should be enough to hold off NOD for a while, but be wary of APC attacks. Early in the mission NOD will send an APC with two engineers right to your construction yard. Have some infantry units around to make sure the engineers don't get anywhere. You might also want to pave a lot of your base when you have the time. NOD will eventually send flame tanks at you, and they like to pop up right next to your infantry. You can safely ignore the game's suggestion to use amphibious APC units to reach the other islands. There are bridges connecting the islands, and neither bridge is particularly well defended. There is a danger with the southern bridge, however. It is guarded by an artillery unit, and simply sending wolverines and titans across the bridge will just get the bridge destroyed. Luckily, the southern NOD base has no air defense (other than rocket infantry) and so you can send some jump jet infantry to destroy the artillery. There is no trick to defeating the enemy bases. Just sending in titans and wolverines to pound away will work. Once you have captured Vega's pyramid and destroyed every NOD structure right down to the last piece of laser fencing, the mission will be complete. ---------- GDI-10 (Capture Hammerfest Base) ---------- Objective: Re-capture Hammerfest Base and then destroy all NOD forces. Strategy: Watch the hover tanks destroy a bridge and kill a couple of trucks. Each truck has a crate, but don't open them yet. The hover tanks will have to do a lot of work before arriving at Hammerfest Base, and they'll need the extra healing. Put the engineers in the APC, and move the APC close to the crates. Move the hover tanks east until they meet a couple of attack cycles. Kill the cycles and then continue east until you find a ramp leading north. Take the ramp, move north, and then destroy a laser and radar installation. To the northeast of this location is a plateau wall you can target. Shoot the wall and then go up the ramp. You'll find three power plants you need to destroy. Rocket infantry might wander by, but concentrate on the power plants. If you need to, use one of the crates. Now re-trace your steps, and move the hover tanks east along the southern edge of the map. In the southeast corner is another truck you can kill for a crate. Head north along the eastern side of the map until you find an obelisk. Since you destroyed the power plants, the obelisk is powerless to stop you, and so you can destroy it at your leisure. Continue north until you pass under a bridge. There will be a landing and a ramp to the north. Go there and discover a NOD mini-base. If you want to take the time to destroy it, go ahead. There is another truck with a crate as a prize. If you don't destroy it, NOD will simply sell it once you re-capture Hammerfest. Go north around the eastern part of the mini-base and get back over the water. Move west along the northern edge of the map until you reach the northwestern corner. Here is another plateau wall that you can shoot to create a ramp. The ramp will give you access to Hammerfest Base. Move the hover tanks up the ramp, and then move the APC until it is in the same location as the tanks. Move the hover tanks towards the base first. There are a couple of NOD units that they need to take care so the engineers can move around safely. Be careful with the tanks, though. They consider the base to be an enemy base, and they will shoot at the gun emplacements. Have the engineers capture the two power stations first. This will reduce power enough that the firestorm walls will no longer be able to operate. Move the third engineer into the barracks and create a couple light infantry to help the hover tanks with NOD infantry. Then send the last engineer into the construction yard, and the base will be yours. Most of the buildings are damaged, and some are powered down, so get to work repairing and powering up your structures. You will also come under attack right away. Move your hover tanks east to protect the eastern tiberium refinery. If it gets destroyed, don't worry. The remaining refinery will be enough. If you find that you are low on power, even after constructing extra power turbines, feel free to sell the firestorm generator and the firestorm wall pieces. There are also more than enough component towers, and you can sell some of those. Once you get your base in shape, the mission is pretty straightforward. The NOD base is well defended with artillery, lasers, and SAM sites, plus a multitude of infantry and tick tanks. Begin building a force of wolverines and titans, and then clear your island of NOD forces and SAM sites. Once you destroy all the SAM sites, you will get reinforcements in the form of wolverines, titans, and hover tanks. From there just grind away at the NOD base until you finish it. ---------- GDI-11 (Retrieve Disruptor Crystal) ---------- Objective: Destroy the NOD train and retrieve the disruptor crystal. Strategy: This is a quick mission. Ignore the APC's and engineers, and take your other troops west up a ramp. Then head south. You will be able to target the wall of the plateau and create a ramp leading down towards the train station. Somewhere around here you will likely encounter a stealth tank or two plus a cyborg, so be prepared. There are two lasers guarding the gate to the train station, but your hover tanks and titan have better range, so they can take out the lasers without being damaged. Use your other troops in support, attacking the infantry which will sally forth from the station. Once the lasers are gone, move forward and target the locomotive of the train. Once that is destroyed, the rest of the train will be stuck and you can proceed at a more careful pace if you need to. The crystal is in the last car. Destroying the car will leave a crate behind, and moving a unit onto the crate will finish the mission. ---------- GDI-12 (Rescue Prisoners) ---------- Note: This is the most eastern of the mission choices. Objective: Locate the prison, and then free and evacuate all 10 prisoners. Strategy: Follow Umagon's suggestion and head north. Three buggies will quickly find you, so try to have your infantry units in front to absorb the damage. Turn towards the east and find a mutant building. Send Umagon to the building, and Ghoststalker and a mutant hijacker will join you. At regular intervals, NOD will send three cyborgs to hunt your group. Always try to have Umagon or Ghoststalker take the damage while the medic stands behind them. Use the other infantry units for support. Traveling east along the northern edge of the map, you will eventually run into a civilian city. In the southwestern corner of the city is a building called the ``highrise hotel.'' The hotel is the structure producing the cyborgs, so if you destroy it, you will not be hunted any more. A ways east of the hotel is an artillery unit, so immediately head back north and skirt along the edge of the map until you arrive at the bridge leading to the prison compound. There is only one laser guarding the gate to the prison, and the titans can make short work of it. If you've lost the titans while fighting cyborgs, then use Ghoststalker to blow the laser up, and then heal him with the medic. There are almost no defenses inside the prison, so once you get inside, destroy the gate penning in the prisoners and watch them head north to a landing field. Once you destroy the four SAM sites in the prison, a transport will come to pick up the prisoners, and you will have finished the mission. ---------- GDI-13 (Destroy Chemical Supply) ---------- Objective: Start a base and destroy everything NOD. Strategy: You start in the southwest corner of the map. Start moving your troops east. You will encounter some stealth tanks. I don't like disruptor tanks very much, so I let them take the lead and also take the damage. Use the hover tanks and mutants in support. Eventually you will arrive at a NOD mini-base. It only has a single laser for defense, so destroy it quickly. Keep moving east, and then take the ramp to the south. You can build your base on the plateau. Get credits coming in quickly; NOD will use chemical missiles in this mission, and they are a pain, so you want to stop them as soon as possible. Don't worry too much about component towers; NOD will usually target them with missiles, and they won't last. Build up a small attack force of 4 wolverines and 4 titans, and move them along with the mutants up the eastern side of the map. Leave the hover tanks and the disruptor tanks behind for defense. NOD might try to sneak in some engineers or flame tanks, and you need to be prepared. When your attack force reaches a bend in the road, head west. It will encounter a lightly guarded gate that shouldn't pose much of a problem. Beyond that gate, however, is a second gate, and that gate has an obelisk and artillery for defense. But it has no SAM sites, so train some jump jet infantry and have them destroy as much of the gate's defenses as possible. Then use your wolverines and titans to mop up. NOD's only two missile silos are just beyond the gate, and once you destroy them, you won't have to worry about missiles any more. The main NOD base is to the southwest of the second gate. Reinforce your original attack force with more wolverines and titans, and try to capture a nearby enemy structure so you can create your own nearby barracks or war factory. Skirt along the edge of the base, and you will come to its power grid. Destroy the power plants, and the base's defending obelisk will be shut down. From there you should have no problem finishing the base. There is also a bridge north of the NOD base. Sending any unit across the bridge will reveal a train station. Ghoststalker will appear and you will receive a new objective to get Ghoststalker aboard the train. By this time there shouldn't be any NOD units around to stop him, so simply walk him to the train and finish the mission. ---------- GDI-14 (Mine Power Grid) ---------- Objective: Destroy the power plants. Strategy: This is a pretty easy mission -- after the first few minutes. Initially, watch the train as it moves across the map, and then save when it stops. You'll probably have to repeat the opening sequence a couple times, and you don't want to have to watch the train each time you restart. NOD forces will attack the train, but you will have seven mutants and a medic to fight back with. Locate Umagon and have her target enemy infantry. Locate Ghoststalker and move him west so he has a clear line of sight for the tick tanks and approaching buggies. Locate the mutant hijacker and have it take over a tick tank. Ignore the tick tanks along the ridge to the south. they will destroy the train, but that's ok. You don't need the train any more. The enemy base has a guarded entrance, but there's no reason for you to approach it. Instead, send your forces north up a ramp, and then move them west. You will find a couple of NOD defenders which Umagon and Ghoststalker should kill easily, and you will also find two power plants which you should destroy. Now head south so you are behind the NOD gate. There are four power plants plus several NOD defenders, but they should be no match for your forces. Destroy the power plants to finish the mission. ---------- GDI-15 (Destroy Chemical Missile Plant) ---------- Objective: Destroy all NOD forces. Strategy: Move your troops east and set up your base east of the blue patch of tiberium. Set up your base, but don't worry too much about exploring. When the mutants disable part of NOD's power output, several obelisks will go off-line, and then it will be safer to travel. There will be chemical missile attacks again, and NOD won't send very many attacks your way, so don't spend a lot of time or energy on component towers. Get two or three harvesters going, and start producing titans, wolverines, and jump jet infantry. When the timer goes off, send an attack force east. It will hit a wall of defenses with the powered down obelisks. To the east of the wall is a plateau with artillery on it. Send the jump jet infantry to take care of them, and then use the wolverines and titans to mop up. There is a stealth generator here. Capture it and also capture the power plant on the plateau, and then create an attack base complete with barracks and war factory. The main NOD base is hidden with several stealth generators. Use the mobile sensor array so you can see what is going on. There will be a variety of obelisks, lasers, and troops in the base, but you should be able to whittle away at the defenses without problem. There are several helipads with banshees in the southeast corner of the map, but for whatever reason, NOD didn't use the banshees very much. A single SAM tower is enough to defend your main base and your attack base. The mission ends when every NOD unit and structure has been destroyed. ---------- GDI-16 (Destroy Prototype Facility) ---------- Note: This is the most northern of the two mission choices. Objective: Destroy all NOD forces. Strategy: You start out in the southeast corner with your old friends Umagon, Ghoststalker, and the mutant hijacker. There are also three other mutants, but they aren't important. Send them to the northeastern corner and let them explore while you concentrate on the other units. They won't run into any NOD forces. Move Umagon, Ghoststalker, and the hijacker in a generally northwestern direction. You'll find a small NOD base. Inside the base is a subterranean APC that the hijacker can steal. If you want it, use the western entrance and send in Ghoststalker first to eliminate the defending infantry. The cyborgs won't budge, so ignore them. Then send in the hijacker. He'll get hit by a laser twice, but that's ok because he'll be spending the rest of the mission inside the APC. Leave the area of the base and head north. You should come across a pair of banshees flying in circles. They'll ignore you, so feel free to ignore them back. Head west along the northern edge of the map, and then shoot the plateau wall in the northwest corner. Go up the ramp and then head south. You'll end up behind the main NOD base, in view of the production facility. With the base in view, you'll receive reinforcements: and MCV, some hover tanks, and a titan. Move the MCV north to the northeastern corner of the map and deploy your base there. You will receive a Mammoth Mk. II at this point. Send it north to help with the defense of your base. It is pretty lethal with a gun similar to Ghoststalker's. The small NOD base you saw before is just to the southwest of your base location, and you can send in the hover tanks to finish it off. Nothing there has any range, and so the hover tanks shouldn't even take a hit. You can also steal the buildings, but that is probably more trouble than it is worth. Get your base going. There is a plateau wall to the west of your base that you can shoot, but if you leave it alone, then all NOD attacks will come from the south. Just line up Umagon, Ghoststalker, and the mammoth south of your base, and nothing will get through. The only two things you have to be worried about are subterranean attacks and artillery attacks. So keep some other units around for those cases. Once you have an attack force ready, head south to the southeastern corner, and then head west. The NOD base is hidden by stealth generators, so bring along a mobile sensor array. Probe the defenses to find an obelisk, and then send in jump jet infantry to destroy it. Now you can pummel the base with wolverines and titans. Save the stealth generator, though, and use an engineer to capture it. You can create a small attack base here, and use it as a rallying point. >From this point on, the mission is pretty standard. You just need to destroy all NOD forces, and you can do that pretty easily by pounding away with wolverines and titans. If you have problems, note that the NOD harvester uses the tiberium patch south of your attack base. Kill it to take away NOD's credit supply, and then NOD will be at your mercy, ---------- GDI-17 (Weather the Storm) ---------- Objective: Protect the Kodiak and destroy all NOD forces. Strategy: You are in an ion storm, and that means you can't use any flying units, and it means the radar screen won't function. You will still need to build a radar eventually, though, because you will need a mobile sensor array before attacking the NOD base. Group your infantry together and send them slightly south. Two tick tanks will attack from that direction, and infantry are the most effective in that situation. After the tanks are dead, move the infantry north to kill two more tick tanks. The move your titans and wolverines to the ridge north of your base. Two artillery units will soon appear, and your forces can take them out quickly. Meanwhile, start building your base. Deploy the MCV where it is, and then build a power station and a refinery. The only safe tiberium patch for the moment is in the northwest corner of the map, so send your harvester there. Notice the rock next to the Kodiak. NOD has a pair of artillery units on a plateau to the east, and their range extends to that rock. So do not place any buildings east of that rock for the time being. Build a barracks and a war factory, and then build another titan. Send your three titans south to a tiberium patch. It will be guarded by two cyborgs, an attack cycle, and an artillery unit. Once they are dead, it will be safe to send a harvester to the patch. Build another titan so you have four, and then send them east to kill the two artillery on the plateau. Your base is now reasonably secure, and NOD won't send any attacks for a while. Build another harvester, set up some perimeter defenses, and then build titans and wolverines, plus a mobile sensor array. Once you have an attack force, send it east to the tiberium patch. The NOD harvesters will use this patch, and you can pick them off easily. Wait to make sure no more NOD harvesters come your way, and then move your units north to the northern edge of the map. Head east for a bit and then deploy the sensor array. NOD will have several power plants along the northern ridge, but they, like the rest of the base, will be hidden by stealth generators. Destroy all of the power plants except for one, and then capture it. This will allow you to start up an attack base. Build another barracks and war factory, and then replenish your attack force. NOD's construction yard is nearby, so target that first so it can't rebuild anything. Also take out the remaining power plants so all of the obelisks will be deactivated. Then just move south killing everything in site. ---------- GDI-18 (Final Conflict) ---------- Objective: Destroy the ICBM launchers before they can launch. Destroy Kane's pyramid. Destroy all NOD forces. Strategy: Quickly kill the defending infantry, and then target the refinery. You should be able to distract the NOD harvester long enough to destroy the refinery and prevent NOD from getting at least one load of tiberium. Then destroy the other buildings, using the newly-arrived titans and wolverines in support. Deploy the MCV inside the old NOD base, and start building up your own base. A one-hour timer will start when you build your barracks, so delay that for a bit and build a couple of power stations and your radar first. Keep your buildings spread out. Eventually Kane will start shooting missiles at you, and some shots can take out two buildings if they are close together. What you see on the radar is only half of the map. Once you destroy an ICBM launcher or explore the southern edge of the map, the full map will be revealed. There will be three NOD bases, each with its own separate power grid and ICBM launcher. There will also be a special area just for Kane. North NOD base: This base is well-defended with artillery units and obelisks. The easiest way to crack their defenses is to use the ion cannon, so quickly build a tech center and an upgrade center so you will have the option. Probe the base so the artillery units will reveal themselves, and then hit them with the ion cannon. You can also use jump set infantry to scout the bridge leading up to the base, and destroy the two lasers guarding the northern shore. Once you've softened up their defenses enough, a standard attack of titans and wolverines will do the trick. The ICBM launcher is in the northeastern part of the base. There is also an old GDI base west of the NOD base, and you can find three mammoth (mark 1) tanks there. South NOD base: The easiest way to attack this base is via water. Send some hover tanks and an APC with infantry and at least one engineer south along the river. You'll find a bunch of power plants along the shore near the bottom of the map. Capture one of the power plants and then build a barracks nearby. Pump out some light infantry to assist the hover tanks, and destroy all of the power plants. You might also want to put up some vulcan cannon to ensure you keep your foothold. The ICBM launcher is just to the west of the power plants, but don't destroy it until time is winding down. The construction yard, temple of NOD, and war factory are also near the ICBM launcher, and by destroying all three, you can effectively cripple the base. Mopping it up after that should present no problems. Middle/island NOD base: This is a small base guarded by an obelisk. Simply charge it with several hover tanks and destroy everything in sight. The base is cloaked by a stealth generator, so you might have to target the ground a few times in order to find the power plants. The ICBM launcher is right in the middle of the base, surrounded by some concrete. Kane's island: Kane's island is on the eastern side of the map. You passed it if you used the river to enter the southern base. There are only a couple of lasers guarding the bridge leading to the island, so you shouldn't have much of a problem. Once you destroy the pyramid, you won't have to worry about missile attacks any more. ***************************************************************************** * NOD CAMPAIGN * ***************************************************************************** ---------- NOD-01 (The Messiah Returns) ---------- Objective: Build a refinery and destroy all of Hassan's troops. Strategy: Watch the super buggy kill two infantry at once, and then get to work with your base. You need to build a refinery, and you need to train a lot of infantry. There is an unguarded entrance to your base to the north, and it leads to a patch of tiberium. Put some troops there to keep it safe. The entrance to the east has two lasers guarding it. That's all the defense it needs. Since you're fighting NOD troops in this mission, be wary of subterranean APC attacks. Hassan will send three at you: one near the north entrance of the base, one inside the base to the east, and one inside the base to the west. Each attack will only have three light infantry units in it, so they should be easy to to defeat. Gather an attack force of ten infantry or so, and start exploring the map. Most of Hassan's troops will attack your base and get killed that way, but there are also two buggies that must be located and destroyed. ---------- NOD-02 (Retaliation) ---------- Objective: Capture the TV station and destroy Hassan's forces. Strategy: There is a tiberium patch just to the east of your starting location, so go ahead and deploy the MCV where it stops. You'll immediately come under attack from an attack buggy and two light infantry units, but you should be able to dispatch them with your starting units. Set up your base and deploy a couple lasers for defense. You can skip the war factory and go completely with light infantry and rocket infantry in this mission. Build up some troops, and when you have a reasonable attack force, head towards the TV station. You'll come across an enemy base along the way. The enemy base is guarded by two lasers and a handful of infantry. Just overwhelm them and destroy everything sight. When the base is gone, Hassan's forces will blow up a bridge to the north. I have no idea why; there isn't anything beyond it, but feel free to fix it with an engineer just to see what it's like. When you send an engineer into the TV station, Hassan's main base on the map will be revealed. Hassan will also receive reinforcements, but some of them -- including all of the cyborgs -- will convert to your cause because of the TV broadcast. They'll easily dispatch the reinforcements who didn't convert. Take your remaining troops and head for Hassan's main base. If most of them are injured, there is a truck with a health crate in the civilian city north of your base, and you can heal them with that. Hassan's base is almost defenseless, so you shouldn't have a problem -- and you don't even have to attack it if you don't want to. Simply destroying the bridge leading to his base will end the mission as well. ---------- NOD-03 (Free Rebel Commander) ---------- Note: This is the most western of the two mission choices. Objective: Locate and free the rebel commander. Strategy: The prison base is a little too well defended for a frontal assault, so explore to the south. You'll find three enemy light infantry and a GDI soldier attacking each other. Kill the infantry while the GDI guy escapes in an orca bomber. He'll destroy a tick tank for you on his way out. Anyway, behind the soldiers is a tunnel leading to another enemy base. This one only has a few light infantry guarding it. Kill them, and in the process you will learn that you have troops in the two trucks parked nearby. The troops consist of some light infantry and some engineers. Capture the refinery when the harvester in unloading, and you'll take control of the harvester as well. Use the other engineers to capture the hand of NOD, a power plant, and the tiberium silo. You now have all the structures you need and an endless stream of credits. Assemble a strike force, and then attack the prison camp. The commander is in an enclosed area on the eastern side. Once he is free, just have him board the waiting transport craft to finish the mission. ---------- NOD-04 (Destroy Hassan's Temple) ---------- Objective: Locate and destroy Hassan's temple. Strategy: Kill then enemy infantry, cross the bridge, and then kill some more infantry. You'll receive many reinforcements including an MCV and some engineers. Capture what you want and start building your base. Hassan's troops blew up the bridge on the eastern side of your base, and so all attacks will come from the west. Put a couple lasers and some rocket infantry there for defense. Your first target should be the small enemy base to the west. It only has a laser, a tick tank, and some infantry for defense. Your starting troops should be more than enough to destroy or capture what you want. If you decide to capture the refinery, make sure the harvester is inside so you get that as well. Now you can concentrate on the main enemy base. Assemble an assault force, fix the bridge, and then head east. Capture the hand of NOD here so your troops will have less distance to travel, and also capture the refinery if you need more credits. The area is lightly defended, and you can destroy several power plants and the construction yard if you want. Moving west from the construction yard you'll finally find Hassan's temple. There are a few lasers here for defense, but by now Hassan isn't receiving any credits, and you can just pound on him until you break through. When you've destroyed the temple, Hassan will try to sneak out the back door, but you'll receive some reinforcements to shoot him down. Hassan will survive the crash long enough to be executed. Lucky him. (Note: if you capture the temple rather than destroying it, you'll still win the mission, but you won't get to see Hassan shot down.) ---------- NOD-05 (Blackout) ---------- Note: This is the most southern of the mission choices. Objective: Locate and destroy the GDI radar facility before the ion storm ends. Strategy: After killing the two hover tanks, move your forces west. Deploy your MCV so that the refinery can be placed down southeast from the bridge. There are three entrances to your base -- east, west, and north via the bridge -- and you have to keep them all well defended. GDI will make every effort to sneak in engineers using APC's, and if they get inside it's almost impossible to keep them from capturing at least one building. But sprinkle some infantry and lasers around inside your base to try and stop them. Even with the 1:30 timer, you have plenty of time to finish the mission. Spend the first half hour getting your base in shape, and get at least two harvesters going. Then assemble an attack force and head west. Send a lone, unimportant unit in front because in two places along the way there will be meteor showers, and your units might take damage. After turning north, you'll find the tiberium patch that GDI uses. Go ahead and kill the harvester if you want, or try to capture it later with the refinery. East of the patch is a GDI base, which you might have already seen if you explored on the bridge. Approaching the base from the west is easier because you can attack the vulcan cannon one at a time. After destroying the defenses, capture the barracks so you can train a medic to heal your infantry, and capture the repair depot so you can repair your vehicles. Also take the time to increase your attack force. The main GDI base is well defended. When you have your attack force ready, head across the next bridge. You'll immediately see the main GDI base. It has two vulcan cannon and an rpg launcher, plus random titans and infantry, for defense. Try to do as much damage as possible, and also try to sneak in a couple engineers to capture the barracks and war factory, which are right next to the entrance. Keep pummeling away, but if you have trouble breaking the defense or if you're running out of time, head straight for the radar facility. It is directly north of the entrance. Destroying it will end the mission. ---------- NOD-06 (Eviction Notice) ---------- Objective: Locate the Temple of NOD and destroy all GDI forces. Strategy: The map is divided into two halves, separated by water and connected by a choke point. Your half is the southern half. The GDI base, a civilian city, and the old NOD base all share the northern half. Set up your base and explore your half of the map. Your position is a little hard to protect because the main tiberium patch fills one entrance to your base. But put lasers in strategic spots, and don't worry about defense too much. Attacks will be infrequent, and GDI will only send solitary engineers at you rather than using the APC trick from the last mission. There are two things of interest in your half of the map. One is a train blocked by a truck, located along the western edge. If you destroy the truck, the train will roll down the tracks and run into a vulcan cannon, destroying it. The other thing is a series of GDI transports that start in your half of the map and then travel north to the civilian city to evacuate the citizens. This is just for show, I think. Destroying the transports doesn't do anything. The GDI base is located in the middle of the northern half of the map, directly north of the choke point. It only has two vulcan cannon for defense, but it has a lot of money, so it will continually train infantry and build titans when you attack. Thus, it is important to bring some engineers with you when you attack. Once the war factory and barracks are destroyed or captured, the mission is just about over. Just mop up the base, and send a unit to the northwestern corner where the Temple of NOD is located. Note: for a change of pace, you can try finishing the mission in this way instead. Immediately send all of your units to the civilian city, and destroy some buildings there to make room for your base. Only build a hand of NOD, a radar installation, and a refinery, and then pump out infantry and engineers. The GDI base is completely defenseless if you approach from the east, and you can easily steal several buildings before GDI even knows what hit them. I tried this strategy when I wanted to get to the civilian city early to try and destroy the transports, and I was surprised that it only took about 20 minutes to solve the mission this way. ---------- GDI-07 (Salvage Operation) ---------- Objective: Locate the UFO and retrieve the Tacitus. Strategy: This is an odd mission in that it is difficult to do the things you are supposed to do and still win. It is much easier to ``cheat'' and skip a few steps. I'll describe both ways. The right way: kill off the enemy infantry at your starting position and then head north to the northwestern corner. There you'll find a radar installation and a power station. Defeat the enemy infantry guarding the spot, and capture both buildings. The radar will show you the location of the GDI base and the UFO. Notice the truck next to the UFO. It contains cargo from the UFO, and you will need to capture that cargo. Sell off the power station and radar installation for more infantry, and then make for the UFO. Head south back the way you came until you hit the railroad tracks. Follow the southern tracks east until you hit a dead end and then move north and follow the other tracks. By doing this you'll avoid a titan, but you still might run into an infantry patrol. You'll next run into two wolverines which you can kill, and then you should head east. A train station will be highlighted, and you'll see that the truck has made its way to Vega's train and is unloading the cargo. Ignore it for the moment and send the remaining engineer into the UFO. GDI might have received a MCV by this point, and, if so, there might be a base and a couple of titans nearby. You'll probably have to kill one of the titans to clear the way for the engineer. The engineer will learn that the Tacitus is gone, and so you'll have to stop Vega's train. Don't follow the train tracks; that won't give you enough time. Instead head south and a little west until you see the broken bridge where the southern train tracks ended before. Southwest of that is the back door into Vega's base, and you can move your troops inside and kill the train. It will leave behind a crate which you should pick up to finish the mission. Quick method: at the start, when you see the train, have the two buggies and the cycle attack it. They won't kill it, but they'll follow it. The train stops in three places: once to load the cargo, once before entering Vega's base, and once inside the base. Most of the time the vehicles will destroy the engine at the second stop, but if not they can finish it off inside the base. There's no need to send the engineer to the UFO. ---------- NOD-08A (Capture Umagon) ---------- Note: This is the most northern of the two mission choices. Objective: Find and destroy the sensor towers without being detected. Capture Umagon. Strategy: Immediately deploy your artillery so they can help kill the wolverines. Then move the artillery to the edge of the bridge and deploy them again. Move an infantry unit north to scout around. There is a titan and two wolverines to the north, and the artillery can take them out once they can see them. Start your base north of the bridge. Once the initial combat is done, there will be no GDI attacks on your base -- they're not supposed to know you're there after all -- and so don't worry about defense. When you build your refinery, make sure the the harvester goes to the tiberium patch to the south. The northern one is a little too close to a sensor tower. Build a bunch of infantry units, concentrating mostly on rocket infantry. Your two artillery units will kill enemy infantry very easy, and so the only support they'll need is for wolverines and titans. Then move your troops west up the ramp, and then towards the sensor tower to the north. Edge your artillery towards it until they take it out, and then move all of your troops east and repeat the process. If the artillery starts attacking enemy harvesters, let them or move on, your choice. You have plenty of time to finish the mission. Once the second sensor tower is down, edge towards the third one and destroy it as well. Now you can bombard the enemy base in the southeast corner. By this time Umagon is probably down there waiting for her train to arrive, but she's not going to make it. Once your troops move in on the base, Umagon will move in to assist in the defense, and the first shot that hits her will ``capture'' her and complete the mission. ---------- NOD-08B (Capture Umagon) ---------- Note: This is the most southern of the two mission choices. Objective: Capture the train station. Failing that, destroy the train to ensure that Umagon does not leave the area. Strategy: You start in the southeastern corner of the map. There are five tiberium veins near you, so build two refineries and at least three harvesters. There are two entrances to your base area: to the north over a broken bridge, and to the west over a non-broken bridge. Even after you fix the bridge to the north, all attacks will come from the west, so put three lasers and your artillery unit there. Once you've got your base going, build an attack force of infantry units. Include an engineer with them, and send them north over the bridge and then west around the tiberium patch. They'll run into a lightly defended barracks and power station. Capture the barracks, and make that your primary infantry producer. Also train a medic or two to heal your wounded. Keep moving west along the northern edge of the map. Eventually you'll see another barracks. This one has more defenses, including a vulcan cannon and some nearby titans. Simply swarm it and capture the barracks. There is a war factor nearby, and you can capture that, too, if you want. The train station is south of the barracks, and you just need to send an engineer into it to win the mission. ---------- NOD-09 (Sheep's Clothing) ---------- Objective: Destroy the mutant base. Strategy: Start training an engineer right away so you can more quickly capture the construction yard. Also, sell off the walls surrounding the tiberium veins so the patch will expand in size. You can have at least two harvesters working and still never run out of tiberium. Then expand your base so it extends beyond the shallow area you are in. That way your base only has one entrance rather than two, and it is easier to defend. The map is basically divided into two halves. Your base and a small mutant base occupy the southern half, and the main mutant base occupies the northern half. The small mutant base has no air defense, so this is a good time to use orca fighters. As soon as you attack the base, the mutants will release three fiends, but vulcan cannon with orca fighter support can kill them pretty easily. Be careful if you attack the small mutant base by land; their gun turrets look a lot like observation booths, and you can get a lot of infantry killed if you don't notice right away. The main mutant base has air defenses, and they also have an obelisk and air support. You don't have any ground to air support available in this mission, but the landing pads are close enough to the entrance of the base that you can take them out so the fighters only get one round of attacks. Other than the obelisk, the main mutant base isn't very well defended. Just send ten or so titans against it, and you should have no problem. Tratos is in a building next to a gun turret on the eastern side of the base. If you destroy his building, he will emerge and surrender the base, ending the mission. ---------- NOD-10 (Escort Bio-toxin Trucks) ---------- Note: This is the most northern of the two mission choices. Objective: Locate the bio-toxin trucks and escort them to safety. Strategy: The cyborg commando is pretty powerful, and he can probably kill all of the GDI forces on the map by himself. So just about any path you take will allow you to finish the mission successfully. This is just one way. Follow the mutant guide east. He's under computer control, and he'll remain that way for the remainder of the mission. He'll probably also get killed because he runs right into a GDI patrol. Mop up the patrol with your units, and then have an engineer fix the bridge. Be careful crossing the bridge because there are a titan and hover tank in the area, and the bridge is fragile. One hit will break it and send whatever units you have on it down the river. After killing the titan and hover tank, move north along the coast. You'll come to a ramp leading north. Sending a unit up the ramp will trigger a meteor shower, so use one of your engineers. Beyond the ramp to the north is the base with the bio-toxin trucks. The buildings are damaged, but you can use an engineer to fix one, or sell the gate and use the resulting credits to repair the buildings normally. There is a hospital in the base, and the cyborg commander can use it to be restored to full health. The checkpoint area where you need to send the trucks will also be revealed. It is east of the base, beyond a small GDI outpost. The outpost is guarded by a vulcan cannon and a titan, plus a few infantry units. The cyborg commando has better range than the cannon, so dispatching that should be no problem, and the commando and your remaining units should be able to kill the titan quickly. Now just send the trucks to the checkpoint to finish the mission. ---------- NOD-11 (Destroy GDI Research Facility) ---------- Objective: Rally the mutants, secure the tunnel, and then locate and destroy the research facility. Strategy: Send your spy north to a cargo truck. Next to it will be a wounded GDI infantry unit, which the spy can kill easily. The mutants will appear and start following the spy. Move west and kill whatever GDI patrols you run into. Eventually you'll come to the western end of the tunnel. Head into the tunnel and kill the titan on the other side. When it is dead the tunnel will be secure and you'll receive an MCV and some other reinforcements. The mutants will begin to do their own thing -- which basically amounts to them throwing themselves into the GDI defenses and getting killed. Move your units up to the plateau over the tunnel where a tiberium waste facility and two power plants are located. Capture the waste facility and the two cargo trucks from the last mission will arrive, and you will be able to shoot off one missile. But don't shoot it right away. Attacking GDI only encourages them to attack back, and you don't want that yet. Start up your base. Put one refinery near the tiberium patch to the east, and then extend your base towards the patch to the southwest and put another one there. This is the first mission where you get to build artillery units so defense shouldn't be a worry. Four artillery units can kill most attacks before they even get to your base. The plateau your base is on extends to the northeast, close to a small GDI base. Build three artillery units and support them with some rocket infantry, and then move them along the plateau as close to the base as possible. Bombard the base to take out its defenses, and then send in the engineers to capture what you want. The main GDI base is north of this small base. There is a bridge connecting the two, but as soon as you send a unit across, GDI will blow the bridge up. So send a light infantry unit across, and then send an engineer through the tiberium patch to the east, up the ramp, and then over to the bridge to fix it. There is a guarding vulcan cannon, but your artillery can make short work of it. Now it is just a matter of pummeling the GDI base. With artillery and lots of credits rolling in, defeating the base shouldn't be a problem. The research facility is to the north, and destroying it will end the mission. ---------- NOD-12 (Rescue the Villainess) ---------- Objective: Rescue and evacuate Oxanna. Strategy: Watch the prison break. When it is concluded, you'll have control of a cyborg commando, Slavik, a subterranean APC, two engineers, and some support units. Bring all your units to the prison area, and then kill the two titans that approach. You can also be clever and draw the titans south and then sink them as they try to cross the ice. With the titans gone, use the commando to take out the two vulcan cannon, and use the engineers to capture a power station and the radar installation. You'll be shown Oxanna's prison location. Put Slavik and the commando into the APC and send the APC to the north of Oxanna's prison. The commando can easily kill the guarding infantry and vulcan cannon. At this point the transport will arrive. You don't need to capture it with engineers; all you have to do is put Slavik and Oxanna aboard. To that end, load them and the commando into the APC and send it to the transport. Have the commando kill the defending infantry, titan, and vulcan cannon, and then put everybody aboard the transport. If you like playing with the commando, you can also use the slow method and ignore the APC. Just walk the commando and your support troops where ever you need to go, and blow up everything you come across. Whee! ---------- NOD-13A (Protect Waste Convoys) ---------- Note: This is the most northern of the mission choices. Objective: Build a tiberium waste facility. Destroy all GDI structures. Strategy: You start in a fairly nice spot. There are only two entrance to your base -- north, where most attacks will come from, and west -- so concentrate most of your defenses to the north. A couple artillery coupled with your starting units will work for a while, but eventually you'll want to have some lasers and an obelisk as well. Get a couple of harvesters going, and get those credits coming in. You don't have to get to the waste facility right away. There is a road that travels from the northwestern corner of the map to your location in the southeastern corner, and weed eaters will have to traverse that in order to deliver tiberium to the facility. GDI has forces all along the road, so building the waste facility early will just get some weed eaters killed. Build some mechanical troops, and send them west over the tiberium patch. There is a civilian town in the southwestern corner of the map, and north of the town is a GDI barracks. Capture the barracks and set up your own attack base. Then start clearing the road. GDI will have some jump jet infantry around so make sure you have some rocket infantry of your own. Otherwise, just pummel them. Now you can build the waste facility, but it won't matter much. By the time enough weed eaters arrive to form a single missile, you will probably have finished off the main GDI base, which is located north of the road. You don't need to do anything special to attack the main GDI base. Just send an attack force with some rocket infantry, and back them up with a couple of artillery. Capture a building once you break through, and then pick them apart. Once all of the buildings are destroyed, the mission will be over. ---------- NOD-13B (Establish NOD Presence) ---------- Note: This is the most southern of the two mission choices. Objective: Locate and secure the old NOD base. Destroy all GDI forces. Strategy: Follow the road to the northeast. Along the way you'll encounter a titan and an infantry soldier, which should be easy to defeat, and a mutant attack, which is more complicated. The mutants will ambush you in a civilian city, and they will have a hijacker at their side. If you're not careful, you can lose a vehicle or two. Keep heading northeast, and you'll eventually hit the NOD base. Repair the damaged buildings, and either put up a wall or use pavement to box in the tiberium vein. Otherwise it will spread and destroy your buildings. GDI won't waste a lot of time before they attack, so try to get some artillery going as quickly as possible. The tiberium vein to the south will stop several titan attacks, but GDI will also send disrupter tanks from the east, and artillery is good at killing these slow-moving targets. When you're ready to attack, head west. Near the northwest corner is a barracks and three power stations. There are also a couple vulcan cannon, and you can either take those out with artillery or chemical missiles. Capture all the buildings and camp some artillery there. Not far away to the south GDI has another small outpost, but this one has a refinery. Capture the refinery while a harvester is unloading and you'll probably have more than enough credits coming in. GDI has some jump jet infantry in the area, so make sure your attack force has some rocket infantry to shoot them down. Make some more artillery units and deploy them on the plateau south of the second GDI base. The main base is just south of the plateau and you can bombard it with your artillery. Send in some infantry to scout the area, and then fire away. The base shouldn't last long, and you can capture yet another refinery if you want, and also a war factory. Heal your attack force, add some titans to it, and then explore the rest of the area to make sure you killed everything. The last GDI base is in the southeastern corner. This is where GDI keeps its orca helicopters. It has both fighters and bombers, so have your troops go right for the helipads to take them out. Otherwise the bombers can take out your rocket infantry very quickly. Once this base is gone, the mission will end. ---------- NOD-14 (Destroy Mammoth Mk. II Prototype) ---------- Objective: Spy on a communications center. Destroy the Mammoth Mk. II prototype. Strategy: Your spy has a good range of vision, and he is invisible to enemy troops, so use him to scout around for a while. There are a few communications (aka upgrade) centers on the map, but don't be in a hurry to infiltrate any of them. Expose large portions of the map instead, and then enter a communications center when you've seen enough. At this point you'll see a demonstration of the Mammoth Mark. II prototype. It looks mean, but it can't stand up to concentrated fire. Next you'll receive an MCV, three attack cycles, and three tick tanks. Send them north to the communications center along the western side of the map. Deploy your MCV so you can put a refinery right next to the two tiberium fields. You'll come under attack right away from GDI patrols, but your starting units should be able to take care of them. Get a barracks up as soon as possible so you can train some infantry to help out against the enemy infantry. Then set up your defenses in a normal way: some lasers, a few artillery units, and perhaps an obelisk if you want one. At some point an MM2 might attack your base, but don't get excited. The mission won't end when you kill it. GDI is just cheating a little. Now build four banshees and four helipads. There is a church in the northwest corner that has a money crate under it, and that can help pay for the expenses. Look back at the demonstration site and notice the SAM turret. Have your banshees take that out. They'll get damaged, but none should get killed. If you don't have a repair vehicle, build one to keep your banshees healthy. The first banshee attack will expose another SAM turret, so have the banshees take that out next. This second attack will expose the MM2, and you will only need one last attack in order to take that out. When it blows up, the mission will be over. ---------- NOD-15 (Capture Jake McNeil) ---------- Objective: Persuade Jake to join the Brotherhood. Strategy: Ah, subterfuge. You will have three APC's, two filled with engineers, and one holding a single rocket infantry unit. Load the toxin soldiers into the latter APC and head west, staying as far south as possible. You'll come to a ramp leading south and you should take it. You'll come to an observation tower, but you can pass it safely to the south. Finally, you'll pass a civilian building called ``WS Logging Company'' and enter a cul-de-sac. Unload the toxin soldiers and rocket infantry. One of the plateau walls can be shot to form a ramp -- but only by the rocket infantry. Once the ramp is there, go up it and enter the GDI base from behind. Move the toxin soldiers in first to kill the enemy infantry, and then send in the engineers to steal all of the buildings. When you capture the construction yard, the guns will stop functioning. If you lose one of your engineers, don't worry; you have one extra. Do no destroy any of the gun turrets or buildings, or else McNeil will notice the trap. However, you can train some disc throwers. You will have to kill two wolverines eventually, and the extra support will come in handy. Now wait for McNeil to show up. If you've done everything correctly, he will enter the base. At that point, it is safe to attack. Even if McNeil discovers the trap, he will run south and towards your starting position. Either shoot him right away, or chase him down and then shoot him. Then send him to the starting position and put him in the subterranean APC. If McNeil discovers the trap before entering the base, you will have more work to do. He will run to the northeastern corner of the map to wait for a transport. You will have 30 minutes to get a toxin soldier over there to shoot him. Sell off all of the buildings you captured, and train as many troops as possible. With the resulting horde of infantry, you should be able to fight your way to McNeil and shoot him. Once McNeil has been persuaded, I'm pretty sure he is always indestructible, so at that point you will have essentially won the mission. ---------- NOD-16 (Illegal Data Transfer) ---------- Note: This is the most southern of the two mission choices. Objective: Infiltrate the three communications centers to steal the ion cannon codes. Then evacuate the spy. Strategy: The front door is never a good idea, so scoot around to the west and head north. You'll encounter a GDI patrol along the way, but your forces should have no problem with it. Continue north and you should find a mobile sensor array. Destroy it so your spy stays hidden. North of this location is a plateau wall that you can shoot, so do so. Send the spy alone up the ramp, and then hug the northern edge of the map while heading east. You'll find a communications center and be able to steal the first code. Move the spy back to the other troops, and notice that the plateau wall to the southeast can also be shot. Doing so reveals an entrance to yet another communications center. Send the spy in to get the second code. Also send you other troops down the ramp, and have them kill the infantry unit blocking the way. Send your spy east, have him skirt around two sentries, and then find the road leading east. The road leads to the third communications center, but a wolverine patrols the road. Move the spy east but have him stay as far north of the road as possible. He should be able to get into the communications center unseen and steal the last code. At this point a transport will arrive almost directly south of your current position. Skirt around the wolverine again and get into the transport. Mission complete. ---------- NOD-17 (A New Beginning) ---------- Objective: Deploy the three ICBM launchers before the Philadelphia can make three passes. Strategy: Watch Jake run into the base and turn off the firestorm walls. Then kill off the defending GDI forces and get to work setting up your base. Capture the firestorm generator (but sell it) and the four power stations, but wait on the refinery. GDI will shoot the refinery with the ion cannon and then repair it, and you can save credits by capturing it afterwards. You should also construct a refinery of your own, and place it close to the tiberium patch to the west. There are no convenient land masses to control access to your base, so you'll need to spread your defenses around. Place lasers around the perimeter and keep a few artillery inside. Once GDI attacks a couple times and you have an idea about where they'll attack each time, place obelisks there. For the most part GDI attacks will consist of at most three or four heavy vehicles, and your artillery might be able to wipe them out before they even get to your base, but it's better to be safe than sorry. GDI will also send some jump jet infantry on occasion, but two or three SAM sites are enough for them. When you build your radar installation, the three launch sites will be highlighted on the radar view. Soon after that, a timer will start, but don't be misled; you get a new timer for each pass of the Philadelphia, so you really have three hours to finish the mission and not one hour. You can actually finish the mission in one hour if you want, but it's more fun to pound on the GDI bases a little first. Only one of the launch sites is defended: the one in the northwestern corner. You'll need to destroy a couple vulcan cannon and kill some titans first, but otherwise you can pretty much walk the three missile trucks to their destinations. But don't deploy the trucks until you're ready to finish the mission. Deploying them early will just put them in danger. Explore the map around your base so your artillery can target advancing GDI forces more quickly. To the east is a civilian town with a church. Under the church is a money crate. Also send some infantry on suicide missions to the north so you can find the GDI bases -- and expose gun turrets so you have something to aim the ion cannon at. GDI won't replace any killed turrets except at the base south of the eastern launch site. Once your base is defended and you've done some exploring, start building an attack force. Build a temple of NOD so you can train a cyborg commando and support him with several infantry and some artillery. Then send them east to the eastern edge of the map. Sending them north at that point will lead them eventually into a GDI base. This is GDI's ``expansion'' base, so what is there depends on how long it takes you to assemble your attack force. But it doesn't matter, really. With the artillery killing off vulcan cannon and rpg launchers, and the commando and infantry killing enemy defenders, you should be able to destroy or capture the base quickly. Capturing the refinery is a good idea, although your artillery will probably kill the harvester and prevent you from getting that as well. You can now move your attack force to the eastern launch site. Deploy the artillery and leave the infantry. That site is now safe enough so that you can send a missile truck there if you want. GDI doesn't seem to take any special interest in the launch sites; they always go straight for your main base unless something gets in their way. Depending on how much time you have left, you can either assault the remaining GDI base directly, or just destroy enough of it to clear a path to the northwestern launch site. I'll assume the latter. Create a new attack force and send it west to the western edge of the map, and then send it north. Near the northern edge of the map it will come to a bridge leading to the GDI base. You might want to create an MCV and deploy it at this location so there is less distance for new troops to travel. The first targets should be two vulcan cannon guarding the gate into the base. They are too far away for artillery to hit from your side of the bridge, so you will have to attack them directly using the method of your choice. The ion cannon is a good choice for this since it will also destroy part of the firestorm walls behind them. Then you just need to sneak some infantry in to kill the two guarding titans and the rpg launcher. The way is now clear for the missile truck. Deploying one in the northwestern site and the last one at the site just north of your base will end the mission. Kaboom. ----- Copyright (c) 1999 Steven W. Carter