The Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ - Part 5 Release v7.0 Last Updated: April 19, 1996 20:44 BST Written by: Roger Wong roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk http://kublai.pacificrim.net/~solaris Continued from Issue 55 - buildings [2-3] Buildings ========================== Buildings lose productivity with damage. This is especially true of powerplants. [2-3-1] Construction Yard ----------------------------- Selling your last construction yard is usually not recommended. If you do this, all is not lost, however. You do get an engineer in the bargain, and if you're skillful (or really lucky) you might be able to capture the opponent's construction yard. [2-3-2] Powerplant ---------------------- It's good to have a few backup powerplants to keep defenses running. [2-3-3] Advanced Powerplant ------------------------------- Andrew Griffin (buggy@adam.com.au) Building 2 power plants is more cost effective than building one advanced power plant (by $100), but makes your base larger. Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) It might be better to use normal powerplants since it ensures more equal distribution of power output (i.e.: if one of them is taken out by a nuke/ion/air strike, there's a lesser chance you'll be left without your guard towers firing!), and they're faster to build. In multiplayer situations: if playing against Nod, build Adv. Power plants. If playing against GDI, build normal Power Plants. The reason? Nukes can kill (many) normal Power Plants in one hit, they cannot however destroy the Advanced version. However, an Ion Strike will kill an Advanced Plant in one hit, so it's not worth it to build them. Protect these very well, and ALWAYS make sure you have *excess* power, in case one of them is taken out by an ion cannon, nuke or strike, especially important if you have Obelisks. [2-3-4] Sandbag/Fence/Concrete ---------------------------------- These have different levels of damage. After getting hit by a certain amount of hitpoints, they lose a level of damage and start to fall apart. Concrete walls have three different damage levels, fences have two, and sandbags have one. [2-3-5] Silo ---------------- Holds 1500 credits worth of refined Tiberium. See also [4-5-4] The silo money cheat. *2-3-6* Refinery -------------------- Home base for Tiberium harvester. It will hold 1000 credits worth of refined Tiberium. One harvester included in price. You can build a refinery much faster than you can build a harvester. You can not sell a refinery that contains an unloading harvester. [2-3-7] Barracks --------------------- GDI Barracks can produce minigunners, grenadiers, bazookas, and engineers. Two Barracks builds infantry twice as fast. If you have more than one, double clicking on one will make it the primary building for unit construction. [2-3-8] Hand of Nod ------------------------ The Nod infantry creation building can produce minigunners, flame- throwers, bazookas, chem. warriors, engineers, and commandos. Two Hands of Nod builds infantry twice as fast. If you have more than one, double clicking on one will make it the primary building for unit construction. [2-3-9] Weapons Factory ---------------------------- GDI Weapon factories are easily destroyed by a single nuke. They are less than half as strong as Nod airstrips. Two weapon factories construct vehicles twice as fast as a single factory. If you have more than one, double clicking on one will make it the primary building for unit construction. [2-3-10] Airstrip --------------------- In a multiplayer game, try to build your airstrip such that incoming and outgoing cargo flights do not fly over an enemy base and give away the presence of additional vehicle units. You cannot have a constructed unit delivered while the cargo transport plane is still on the map. If a unit is constructed before the transport plane has had time to fly off the screen, the unit must be loaded onto the transport plane manually by clicking on its icon once the plane is no longer onscreen. Two airstrips construct vehicles twice as fast as one airstrip. If you have more than one, double clicking on one will make it the primary building for unit construction. Scott Shaffer (shaffer@bangate.compaq.com) If possible, make sure to build your airstrip as close to the right edge of the map as possible. Since the C130 transport plane only goes from right to left, building it on the right edge of the map means your units arrive faster. The delay between unit completion and its arrival is a penalty for NOD that GDI does not have. This penalty can be reduced significantly if you build on the right edge of the map. Also, make sure to leave room around the top of the airstrip for the arriving units to deploy. Don't build an airstrip up against the top-left corner of the map. Raymond Lee (rksl1@leicester.ac.uk) As GDI, purchasing an MCV through a Nod airstrip yields a GDI construction yard, not Nod. [2-3-11] Communications center --------------------------------- Enables the overhead satellite view. [2-3-12] Advanced comm. center --------------------------------- Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Other than the Ion Cannon, it is necessary to build this structure to gain access to the more 'high tech' units and buildings. Contrary to the manual, it does appear to be well-armored, and can take quite a beating before going down. Scott Shaffer (shaffer@bangate.compaq.com) Once you build an advanced comm. center, sell your normal communications center. The ACC will function as a normal communications center. [2-3-13] Guard tower ------------------------ Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) These fire bursts of machine gun fire (once every 3 squares of minigunner movement) which will *usually* kill a standing up troop, and do about 25% to a dug in trooper. It is not effective against armoured vehicles. Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) They're cheap and effective against infantry. They're not so effective against vehicles and flame throwers, but at their cost you should be able to afford two or three of them throughout your stronghold. They do require maintenance, and you'll find yourself repairing them often. Beware the enemy artillery gun and tanks, as they do not even have to be in their gun ranges to damage them. [2-3-14] Nod Turret ----------------------- EDITOR'S NOTE: Prior to version 1.18, turrets cost $250 each. The tactics expressed here may be prohibitively expensive and/or impossible in versions 1.18 and beyond. Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) These are real good against armor, as long as you build enough of them. Considering the cost...no problem. Since they use cannons, they are dangerously weak against infantry; a grenadier one on one with a gun turret is somewhat even, which is rather weak for a defensive installation. It has okay range; you are protected as long as you have enough deployed so that they chop up the infantry early. You can shift the odds to your favor while fighting infantry by repairing them during battle. Scott Shaffer (shaffer@bangate.compaq.com) An effective strategy is to build the walking line of Gun Turrets/sand bags from your base to your opponents. The Gun Turret can be easily built and repaired in the field, and the "walking line" technique gets around the mobility problem. GDI can also do this with the Adv. Guard Tower, but it is less effective since they cost so much more. [2-3-15] Advanced guard tower --------------------------------- Phil Sykes (phil@sykic.demon.co.uk) Very useful against vehicles. Anti-air role also, as good as a SAM site, but can be otherwise engaged during a fight! Fires two rounds every three minigunner square moves. Best to use as perimeter defense, but support with armor! A flame tank getting close is deadly, and they cost a lot of money! Remember to keep repairing them in battle. Keep putting two together for best results, but watch the power consumption. They don't work when out of power. Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) They're most effective when coupled with normal Guard Towers. Their rockets are ineffective against close targets, although they seem to have the same 'exhaust burn damage' of the Rocket Launcher. One Advanced and two normal Guard Towers in problem areas are usually enough to deal with threats. Beware that if you place them near sandbags or walls, their stray rockets will usually knock them away quickly. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) Advanced Guard Towers rockets are less powerful than SAM site rockets. 7 AGT rockets vs. 3 SAM rockets to kill an Orca or Apache. Also more vulnerable as SAM sites are protected while underground. [2-3-16] Obelisk of light ----------------------------- Rune Fostervoll (runefo@ifi.uio.no) These are completely wicked against armor units. Remember that they are tall, so build concrete walls around them to stop cannons, and they can easily stop five or six medium tanks without problems. As has been commented, they are energy intensive, and shoot slowly (but surely), so can also be fuzzy-wuzzy'd. Always have a lot of energy to spare, so you can keep firing if one power plant is destroyed. (Or be prepared to sell off a lot of buildings to keep it firing if a major attack is launched coordinated with the destruction of a power plant.) Andre Pang (ozone@zip.com.au) Try to make sure you have at least two; many humans will Ion Strike against one Obelisk when their attack force is coming down; if you have two, it will ensure that you have at least one Obelisk left if he decides to use his Ion Cannon. Also be sure to back them up with Flame Tanks, since they are unless against masses of infantry. Tucson Luke Loh (tlloh@zip.com.au) 1 Shot - Any infantry, assault cycle, hum-vee, Nod buggy, MLRS, SSML. 2 Shots - Light Tanks, Medium Tanks, APC. 3 Shots - Harvester, Mammoth Tank All the above are considered from full health to full death. Players who think Obelisks of Light are a steal for 1500 credits should think twice. They require POWER, typically one Advanced Power Plant per Obelisk, so the cost is more like 2200 credits [2-3-17] SAM Site --------------------- Selling a SAM site will net you four minigunners for the price of two and a half. SAM sites have tough outside armor, but become more vulnerable to damage when the missile launcher exposes itself while it fires. [2-3-18] Heli Pad -------------------- Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) Helipads come with a helicopter. You shouldn't be buying extra helicopters, as it is five times faster to build a helipad than a helicopter on its own. You should try to designate an inner, well-protection area of your base for your Helipads, and keep them built close to each other. Otherwise, you will have problems with those distant helis 'catching up' with the main helicopter attack force when a problem arises. [2-3-19] Repair Pad ---------------------- Phil Lochner (decker@megaweb.com) It is usually a better idea to just buy a new humvee than repair a damaged one. All vehicles, including helicopters, and harvesters, can be repaired. Soldiers cannot be 'repaired' using this building. Douglas Jacobs (djacobs@umich.edu) The repair pad has a few quirks. Once, while repairing a tank, an airstrike came along and destroyed the tank during repair. The bay survived, but it would no longer accept units to be repaired. Neither could I sell the repair pad. Scott Butler (sydtech@skypoint.com) I actually had a repair bay die on me. I built it in a cleared out patch of tiberium, not far from a tree (stupid, but I was in a hurry). It *seems* that the tiberium started growing back, wrecking the repair bay. *2-3-20* Temple of Nod -------------------------- In a single player game, you are given only one nuclear missile per temple. In a multiplayer game, one temple will yield an infinite amount of missiles. VT (VirtualTed@westwood.com) To use nukes, building the Temple of Nod is not enough. You'll need to get the crates in missions 6, 8, and 12. You may have to capture or destroy some of the buildings to get at the crates. EDITOR'S NOTE: There is a bug in versions prior to 1.18 that makes it impossible to fire nukes when the temple is constructed, even when all the necessary crates are collected. @~Next issue - Special Units. - o -