The Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ - Part 2 Downloaded from the Net Written by: Roger Wong roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk http://kublai.pacificrim.net/~solaris *2-2* Vehicles ================= Numerical data on all vehicles can be found in Chapter 14. It is more difficult to shoot at moving targets. [2-2-1] MCV --------------- Phil Sykes (root@sykic.demon.co.uk) Mobile construction vehicle. As you might expect from Dune 2, this allows you to build another construction yard somewhere on the map. It is ridiculously expensive (5000), slow, and utterly useless in combat. As yet, in 30 multiplayer games (the only place other than level 15 it appears) it remains unused. Thenardier (isc40562@leonis.nus.sg) Build it up as a back-up base. Drive it somewhere and don't deploy it until Nod or GDI have nuked or ion cannoned your construction yard into dust. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) I played a friend the other day with an interesting and legitimate tactic; he drove down a MCV almost next to my base (being guarded by stealth tanks, so I couldn't do much to attack it), plonked a construction yard right next to my base, and immediately dumped a pre-built Obelisk right there. Not that I should have allowed this to happen in the first place, but it's a non-cheating method of sandbagging (and judging by the distance that some people sandbag, this may be cheaper as well!) *2-2-2* Harvester --------------------- see also: [5-3-6] Attack helicopters Karl Kilborn (kilborn@worldgate.com) You should manually select the mature crystals in a tiberium patch for harvesting purposes. It not only fills the harvester up quicker, but also adds to the life of the cabbage patch. When you let the harvesters attempt to grow a brain, they farm the new growth rather than the ripe and mature patches. EDITOR'S NOTE: The moral of the story is: Harvesters are as stupid as commercial fishermen. Aaron Glover (arn@kiwi.gen.nz) It's great for taking flags in multiplayer. Especially when teamed up with humvees and recon bikes. Holds 700 credits when full. Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Collects tiberium and transports it to your refinery. You get one whenever you buy a refinery, and can have multiple harvesters working for a single refinery. They can't attack, but can run over infantry and recon cycles. However, occasionally the computer will get their harvesters to attack a building of yours, or some armor, and they can do damage to it! This only happens when it can no longer collect tiberium for refining. Michael Stango (phillymjs@aol.com) If the enemy destroys your harvester, your ability to wage war against him is seriously crippled at least temporarily. If you don't have the ability to build a new harvester, you must sell your refinery and rebuild it. If you don't have enough credits to rebuild the harvester, you must sell the buildings you can do without for quick cash to rebuild it. Fortunately, the harvester is a tough vehicle. If it is attacked, you'll usually have enough time to get some forces to it to defend it. Never attack the enemy harvester until you have otherwise hobbled their efforts. Taking a potshot at their harvester early in the game, while tempting, will bring all the force the enemy can quickly muster down upon you. In plain English, the computer gets pissed if you attack its harvester(s). Jay (liza.heslop@nursing.monash.edu.au) The harvester can also be used to run over any offending attack bikes, those nasty little suckers with the missile launchers. Providing of course that the opposition is slow on the uptake. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Ohhh - and don't allow more than 2 harvesters to share a Refinery ... there will be long waiting periods for one harvester and on occasions the AI will screw up and one harvester will just sit around and not do anything. Stanley Hu (hu@valisys.com) If you know that your base is going to get vaporized by your opponents, the best thing you can do is use your Harvesters to help gather Tiberium for your ally. Move the harvesters clear of your opponents' units and manually direct them when full into your ally's tiberium refinery. [2-2-3] Gunboat ------------------- Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Provides missile support from oceans/rivers. Can be taken out with 1 blast from an obelisk, however. [2-2-4] Hummer ------------------ Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Light recon jeeps, similar to Nod buggies. Best used earlier in the game for recon and light attack, but will die against anything more than one minigunner. Quite useful in the base assault strategy with engineers. Send two hummers in first, with your APC full of engineers following. The hummers attract all of the heavy fire from tanks, arty, obelisk, leaving you time to rush the APC through and squash everything, then pile the engineers out. Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) This quick little scouting unit has more armor than the Nod Cycle, but seems to do as much damage as an enemy Minigunner, albeit with longer range. They are good for zipping around the board, luring enemies to follow them down into a classic Warcraft Archer trap. Beware bazooka soldiers and gun turrets. Their low cost, however, makes them unnecessary to repair. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Also an excellent support unit for tanks ... since tanks are not good at attacking infantry moving humvees together with tanks allow the tanks to concentrate on wiping out the armored targets while the humvees concentrate on killing the infantry pests. This way the tanks' firepower is not wasted nor do they have to waste time moving to run infantry over. Also better than infantry in that they can move through Tiberium. Have found that 6 Humvees guarantee instant death to any unit of infantry (even prone). Thus 6 of them kill infantry at the rate of one every 3 seconds. *2-2-5* APC --------------- Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Armored Personnel Crusher (er... surely carrier) This has four roles. Firstly, in can be used to carry men into battle in relative safety and speed (especially across tiberium). To load men in, click one at a time and click on the APC when you see the three green arrows. The man will enter the APC. Then select the next man, etc. Secondly, a personnel sqauasher. Holding down alt and running over squads of enemy troops (especially flame troops) is very useful. Thirdly, its chaingun allows a limited antipersonnel / anti-vehicle role, but is more suited to forming a barrier so troops do not get squashed. Fourthly, recon. The APC has the largest recon radius in the game (four squares all around), and is the third fastest land unit. Most useful for recon. Seth Bowden (bsb3@cornell.edu) If the troops are squirming around, fire at them first. They'll hit the deck and then you can squish them. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) The order of units exiting an APC is the reverse of their order of entry i.e. the last unit to enter is the first unit to exit. Important that the most powerful units (commandos or whatever) go in last so they can kickass right from the start. Thenardier (isc40562@leonis.nus.sg) Combination of APC and engineer is possibly regarded as one of the best tactics in C&C. Load your APC with engineers and give it a tanks escort. APC is agile. And it can withstand more damage. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) Possibly one of the best-value units in the game. Can be used for exploration (it's fast and has a high scouting range), is the most effective Squasher Of Infantry, and transports troops, including those engineers. One cool little tactic to try sometime: many people will send in decoys to the enemy base (e.g.: nod buggies, hummers) and send in the APCs after it. Of course, humans won't fall for this trick and will almost always target the APC. Simple solution! Send in two or more APCs. Which to target? Depending on how lucky you feel, either load one up full with engineers, or split the number of engineers evenly between them. Watch your opponent's confusion when he sees five APCs walking toward your base! These units are also good for capturing flags, since they're fast and can take a fair bit of damage. [2-2-6] Medium Tank ----------------------- Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Great against light tanks (can take 2 out in one for one combat), and against flame tanks (can take LOTS out in one to one combat, the main gun outranges the flamer seriously). Limited use in base attack (tends to die vs. obelisks) Useless against enemy troops (far too slow to run them over effectively, too inaccurate to cause firing damage). Back these up with infantry or lose them. Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) A staple in any GDI army. With a low cost ($800), these tanks pack a punch and can be very effective in packs. You should always bring along a squad of Minigunner or Grenadier Guards around these tanks, as they have very big problems targeting and destroying enemy footsoldiers up close. They do great damage for their price, and make good Guards for key installations. Their speed makes them poor support for attacking footsoldiers, as the soldiers must wait for them to keep up. It's easier and more effective to make soldiers support the tanks. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) The best support for Medium Tanks are actually Hum-Vees or Nod Buggies. These kill infantry faster, move much faster and last much longer than supporting infantry. Douglas Jacobs (djacobs@umich.edu) I haven't seen my tanks automatically run over infantry in C&C (Dune2's units were pretty smart.) You can still force-move them using the key. Unfortunately, unlike Dune2, enemy units don't just sit there so you can run them over - they tend to move around. I use one unit to fire at the infantry, causing them to drop and start crawling, this way they're too slow to move away from my tank. @~More on vehicles next issue - o -