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$$$ $$ $$$$$$;. s$$ $$$$_.,s .$$²^²$. s$$ $$$$$$$' .$$$' `$` ;$$$$$s$$ $$$$²'$s $$$$²²²²²' $$; ;$$ $$$$ $$$ `$$$$, $$. .$$ $$$$ $$$ $$$$Ss. ;$$$$$$$. .$$ .$$; $$$$, $$$ $$$$$$;. .$$$$$$ $$ $$, .$$$ .$$²^²$. $$$$_.,s $$; $$ $$__$$, $$$; .$$$ ;$$$$$$$$' . $$ $$$$$$$ .$$$; $$$$²²²²²$$$$²'$s $$ $$ $; $$$$$ ²$$$$, $$$$ $$$ $$ $$ $$ $$$$$$$ $$$$Ss.$$$$ $$$ $$ (SaiX) ∙─┬─ ──∙--┬- ─ ┬──-┬-─┬── ┬-── ┬-─-─┬-─-─┬┬--─ | ∙ : ¡ | : : ! | : ∙ : . ∙ : | | ∙ ∙ . : . . ∙ Unofficial Red Alert Multiplayer Guide V 0.777 December 29, 1996 E-mail: franco@igubu.saix.net SaiX@Hotmail.com Red Alert Madness HTTP://WWW2.DGSYS.COM/~BABAK Cool Red Alert Sight go visit and get the newest updates or everything. Legal Stuff. ============ Red Alert is a Trademark of Westwood Studios, inc. To make copies of this guide the copies must be Complete and Unmodified. They may also be distributed in Electronic form and none other, unless prior permission is obtained from me the author. 1. INTRODUCTION. 1.1 About this Guide. 1.2 Getting this Guide. 1.3 Contributing. 1.4 Whats New War New things added shown by (New!) 2. Allies. 2.1 Infantry 2.2 Vehicles 2.3 Buildings 2.4 Navy 2.5 Air Force 3. Soviets. 3.1 Infantry 3.2 Vehicles 3.3 Buildings 3.4 Air force 3.5 Subs 4. Keys and Hot Keys. 5. General Strategies and things to know. 6. Allied Strategies. 6.1 Allied Offence 6.2 Allied Defense 7. Soviet Strategies. 7.1 Soviet Offence 7.2 Soviet Defense 8. Player's views. 9. Bugs. 10. Single Player Save Games. 11. Setting up Multi player games. 11.1 Crates 11.2 Maps 11.3 Units 11.4 Money 11.5 Extra's 12. Words of Sun Tzu. 13. Web Pages. 14. Ladder games. 15. Credits. ============================================================================== 1.1 About this Guide. ----------------- This guide was written for the sole purpose of improving your Red Alert strategies and giving information about Westwood's newest release Red Alert. Any contributions of Strategies, bugs, information that is not already in this Guide is welcome. Send all your info and comments to franco@igubu.saix.net . 1.2 Getting this Guide. ------------------- I will fill in this section in the new release. Currently you can E-mail me if you would like to receive updates. At the mo go to Red Alert Madness. 1.3 Contributing. ------------- If you would like to contribute to this guide in anyway be it one little thing about a Rifle soldier or anything please E-mail me with the info and your name or nick. 1.4 Whats New. ---------- All new info added has a (New!) infront of it, if you just want to see the new info use your editor and go to search, search for (New!). New info about: --------------- Thiefs. Waypoints. Gaps. Flamer units. Spy. Tech centre. Medics. Keys and Hotkeys. Disapearing planes. Migs. Player views. Ladder games. ============================================================================== Weapon - The weapon the unit uses. Not too important, but you can see some units use the same weapons. Strength - This is the amount of hitpoints a unit has or the amount of damage it can take. Sight - How far the unit can see. Speed - How fast the unit moves. Damage - Max amount of damage a unit can do, different units do different damage to different armor. ( if you would like me to add the different armor damages E-mail me) Weapon Range - The furthest range the unit can shoot. Weapon speed - How fast the units weapon shoot. You know the rest! ============================================================================== 2. Allies. ======= The Allies, the sneaky, the cheap, the guys with the map advantages :) The Allies ( Germany, France and England ) although they don't have the tank power, they got the advantage of surprise. With their fast light tanks for quick attacks (Recon bikes), their Gaps, Gps Satellite, Chronosphere and Strong Navy, and cool infantry they can stand their ground. 2.1 Infantry. NOTE: None of the infantry has any armor. Doh! ========= Rifle Soldier. Cost: 100 -------------- Weapon : M1 Carbine Damage : 15 Strength : 50 Weapon Range: 3 Sight : 4 Weapon Speed: 100 Speed : 4 Techlevel : 1 The Rifle Soldier is very cheap, good in groups. Best infantry against Rocket soldiers. If you have 5 Rifle soldiers and there is a flamer in front of you Don't send them all at the flamer , move them back and send one at a time. They are ok for building's and are the allies main infantry unit defense against all other infantry. Use with tank rushes to take out Rocket soldiers and as tank fire diversion. Rocket Soldier. Cost: 300 --------------- Weapon : Dragon Damage : 30 Strength: 25 Weapon Range: 5 Sight : 4 Weapon Speed: 50 Speed : 3 Techlevel : 1 The Rocket soldiers are amazing for Air Defense, against the Soviets weak Migs and Yak's. Spread these units out through your base. Also very good for tanks. Can hit walls, guard them though any infantry can take them out easily, especially Soviet dogs. They are slow, useful to guard Harvesters against Air Assaults and with an APC or two they'll be fine. Rocket soldiers also outrange a lot of units and buildings like the flame turret and Pillboxes. Carry them around in APC's to get them somewhere quick. Engineer. Cost: 500 --------- Strength: 25 Sight : 4 Speed : 4 I used to think these guys were pretty useless, until i saw how well they can repair your buildings. Yes an engineer can repair your building back to FULL strength. They can still take over an enemy building, but only if it's in the red. If they infiltrate a Building that is not in red they will damage the building. They are pretty fast, but weak and expensive. I think four is the max needed to take over a building in full health, good idea to send in a 5th to repair the enemies captured building. Keep a few around your base to repair buildings under siege. Tanya. Cost: 1200 Shake it baby! ------ Weapon : Double Colt45 , C4 Charge Damage : 50 x2 Strength: 100 Weapon Range: 5.75 Sight : 6 Speed : 5 Need an Allied Tech Center. New and improved Commando Tanya. She's fast with a big sight view. Only thing she is good for is infantry and buildings, don't even bother with anything else. Here C4 explosion takes down any building in one shot, and the best part is after the building has exploded no infantry will come running out, so u could blow up lots of buildings without any interference. Infantry have no chance against her she reloads too quickly and can take out MANY infantry before dying. Use with tanks rushes to take out Tesla's and such. Quick way to blow up bridges using her C4 charge. Try sending her in early, because Soviet players will take a while to build Tesla's. Don't worry about the flame turrets she can run right through them. This has happened many a time to me. If you make her try C4 a building with 6 flame turrets around it the chances are that she'll only die afterwards. Another thing is as she's built you can hear here laugh can be a psychological scare to someone,but is also a giveaway. She has a HUGE range. Spy. Cost: 500 ---- Strength: 25 Techlevel : 6 Sight : 5 Speed : 4 Need a comm center to build. Try sending the spies in early before they enemy builds dogs or a comm center. The spies look like your enemies rifle infantry. They can only be detected by dogs or a manual attack. Infiltration is the game, here's a short list of each building. Power plant : See what shape enemies power is in, green is good, brown is bad and red is the worst. Barracks : See what infantry the enemy is building (pretty useless) War Factory : See what vehicle the enemy is building , only slightly useful Construction yard: See what building he is constructing. Useful to see if he's got a Tesla on hold or waiting to place it when you attack. Radar : Can see how many units, buildings hes got. Can also read allies messages to each other. (New!) You can see everywhere the enemy has scouted and everywhere he scouts afterwards. Refinery & silo : Can see how much money the enemy has, this is quite useful. Airfield : See what air unit he is building or has built. Sub pen : Get a sonar pulse. Sonar pulse charges every 10 minutes, and reveals all subs for a short period of time. The only way he can get rid of your spy is by selling the building your spy is in. Thief. Cost: 500 ------ Strength: 25 Speed : 4 Sight : 5 Techlevel: 15 Need an Allied Tech center. This unit is simple, he infiltrates an enemy Refinery or silo and steals half the money, which is then transferred to you. Try getting them in early very devastating, disable the enemies money (New!) Always go for silo's though becuase they hold more money than the refineries. Medic. Cost: 800 ------ Weapon : Heal Speed : 4 Strength: 80 Damage: -50 Sight : 3 Range : 1.83 The medic automatically heals all infantry within range. Not extremely useful, maybe for Tanya. Heals 50 hitpoints at a time. Use for units defending the base, sort of like recycling. Cannot heal himself. (New!) Now that i know how to use this unit i find him Much more useful, build two medics so that they can heal each other. Put them on Guard using G and they will run around looking for damaged units, try it, its cool. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.2 Vehicles. ========= Allies have a wide selection of vehicles early in the game. Ranger for scouting, mobile artillery for infantry, and tanks against tanks. Light tank. Cost :700 ----------- Weapon : 75mm Damage : 25 Strength: 300 Weapon Range: 4 Armor : heavy Weapon Speed: 40 Speed : 10 Techlevel : 4 Sight : 4 The light tanks are the fastest tanks in the game. They only do 5 less damage then the medium tank and have less hitpoints. They build fast and are cheaper (sometimes the size of an army is better than strength). Less range but faster fire rate. They are actually very similar to the recon bikes, they are fast and good for quick harvester attacking. Speed is basically their best weapon, they are not to good at fighting with other tanks so rush them into the enemy's base, attack a few buildings and get out, DO NOT try fighting with the Soviet tanks unless there are very few. Same as harvestor attacks send your lights on harvestor raids and then get them back to your base before the Soviets can get thier slow tanks there. Medium tank. Cost :800 ------------ Weapon : 90mm Damage : 30 Strength: 400 Weapon range: 4.75 Sight : 5 Armor : Heavy Speed : 9 Techlevel : 6 Fast and strong tank the best in the Allies arsenal. Cheaper than the Soviet tanks, in turn means more has to be built. Best for heavy armor armored vehicles, then wood(buildings) and then light. Guard the heavy tanks with Rifle infantry against other infantry, or u can just try the old squish'em. Note: Tank's have become a big part of Red Alert, build lots of em. All Allied tanks are pretty fast take advantage of that. Ranger. Cost :600 ------- Weapon : M60mg Damage : 15 Strength: 150 Weapon range: 4 Sight : 6 Armor : light Speed : 12 Techlevel : 3 This is basically a scouting unit. Same weapon as Rifle soldier so it is fairly good against infantry, fast and wide sight. Bit expensive for what they are, i'd rather use an APC. Ore truck. Cost :1400 ---------- Strength: 600 Armor : light Sight : 4 Techlevel: 1 Speed : 6 Need a Weapons factory and Refinery. Ore trucks are your primary source of income, you can have 2-3 to one refinery because they now unload much quicker. They are now faster and stronger. They can also self heal themselves back to half health. And they just over all seem to last longer, but they still have to be guarded. Infantry can now be used since the gold has no effect on them. 3-5 Rocket soldiers for Mig attacks and 2 APC's for infantry should do fine. Note: they are not to bright and seem to wonder a lot, so keep an eye on them. If you see a Gem patch don't be lazy they are worth much more and don't regrow. Remember if you loose your harvester then you won't have an income and if you loose your income you might have already lost. Repair them often becuase they will just be easy pickings at half power. Mobile Artillery. Cost :600 ----------------- Weapon : 155mm Damage : 150 Strength : 75 Weapon range: 6 Sight : 5 Weapon speed: 12 Speed : 6 Armor : light Techlevel: 8 The arty is now faster and can do some real damage, between its long range and deadly cannon, any building or infantry unit will suffer. The allies haven't got much mass anti-infantry units in the field, the Soviets got the Flamers, grenadiers and the V2 Rocket launcher, this is the best we got. They are also very good for buildings, make a good chronoshift passenger. Not good at all for armor. Can be useful early in the game against infantry attacks. A-V Mine layer. Cost :800 --------------- Weapon : Anti-vehicle mine Ammo : 5 Strength:100 Damage : 1200 Sight : 5 Techlevel: 3 Speed : 9 Need a Weapons Factory and a Service depot. Use the mine layers when your not doing much. Place the mines infront off bridges, on bridges, entrances to your base to disable the Soviet tank rushes a bit. Best of all put them in your enemies ore fields, that should get them going. You can reload another 5 mines by going onto the service depot. Mine layers have little hitpoints and if attacked while laying a mine, the mine will explode leaving them with little or no health. Infantry cannot set them off. Mobile Construction Vehicle. Cost :2500 ---------------------------- Strength: 600 Speed : 6 Sight : 4 Techlevel: 15 Need a weapons factory and Service depot. MCV is the vehicle that turns into your construction yard. Use them to set up multiple bases on the new large maps, near some ore. Beware if your enemies spot your MCV, they will probably send some air units in, or they might just attack it from the ground. So try send some units with, have a Gap generator ready to place down to avoid the air attack, then start placing some turrets. Note: You will be able to Build twice as fast with two cons yards. Cheap for 2500. Radar Jammer. Cost :600 ------------- Strength: 110 Range : 15 Sight : 7 Armor : light Speed : 9 Techlevel: 15 Need a Weapons factory and Comm center to build. The Radar jammer basically makes the enemies mini map go fuzzy white color and not function when you get in range of the dome. I havnt found very much use for this unit. You could use it with tanks rushes to confuse the enemy. The radar jammer can't be seen on the enemies radar neither. Mobile Gap Generator. Cost :600 --------------------- Strength: 110 Armor : light Sight : 4 Techlevel: 15 Speed : 9 Need a Weapons factory and Allied Tech center. This is similar to the Gap generator, except produces a smaller gap. Basically this generates a small black gap on the enemies map and he can't see anything there. This unit is good for helping Soviet team mates, its's got quite a wide gap. Also good if you want to surprise them enemy with some weird attack, like put a Tanya under the gap or just send one in so the enemy thinks you are planing an attack. (New!) Use with your tank rushes 2-3 of them so the enemy cant see how many tanks you have or they think you got more than you have. APC. Cost :800 ---- Weapon : M60mg Armor : heavy Strength: 200 Passengers: 5 Sight : 5 Techlevel : 5 Speed : 14 Need a tent and Weapons factory to build. Ahh the good old APC, this unit is fast and tough. Ever wonder how you gonna carry all the Allies sneaky new infantry (Thief's, spies, Tanyas) well this is the answer. Pack some Tanya's into an APC run the APC into the enemies base and start blowing stuff up. The APC's are fast enough to get past the tesla's and Tanya's can move past the flame turrets. Send in two or three APC's and put some Rifle soldiers in the extra ones for fodder. APC are also good for infantry and can last long. Very good for scouting as well. Hey they can even still squish well :) . Also can be used with tanks if you put some Rocket soldiers in them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.3 Buildings. ========== Construction Yard. Cost :2500 ------------------ Strength: 800 Armor : Wood Sight : 5 Power : 0 Need this building to build all other buildings, get one free at the beginning if you play with bases on, but most people do. Its pretty strong and doesn't lose a lot of hitpoints against the nuke. Uses no power so don't even think of selling it if your low on power to get power. Lose this and you wont be able to build anything. Protect it!! Power plant. Cost: 300 ------------ Strength: 400 Armor : wood Sight : 4 Techlevel: 1 Power : 100 Sole purpose to produce power. Quite weak and very small. Build this immediately after Consyard. Ore refinery. Cost :2000 ------------- Strength: 900 Armor : wood Sight : 6 Storage : 2000 Power : -30 Techlevel: 1 Need power plant to build. Set up 2 or 3 of these nearest to the ore fields, try leave some space around the refinery to make less traffic. Guard the refineries, lose these you want be getting any money. Advanced Power plant. Cost :500 --------------------- Strength: 600 Armor : wood Sight : 4 Techlevel: 8 Power : 200 Need a power plant to build. Bigger, less expensive than 2 power plants for the same amount of power. One Advanced power plant is easier to kill than two small power plants so balance the power plants out. DO NOT put power plants together its the perfect target for nukes. Tent. Cost :300 ----- Strength: 800 Armor : wood Sight : 5 Techlevel: 1 Power : -20 Need power plant. Tent is the where you produce all your infantry. They are cheap and strong so build 2 or more to pump out your infantry faster. At the beginning people like to send in infantry attacks or scouts, so be sure to place the tent straight after your first power plant. Naval Yard. Cost :650 ----------- Strength: 1000 Armor : light Sight : 4 Techlevel: 3 Power : -50 Need power plant. To be built the sea must be within 8 squares, which is pretty close. Produces all navy units. Building is strong with decent armor. Build up a navy early to surprise the enemy. Pill box. Cost :400 --------- Weapon :Vulcan Damage : 40 Strength: 400 Weapon Range: 5 Sight : 4 Power : -10 Need a tent to build. Very good anti-infantry weapon, place this one nearer to the middle and back of your base, because it is weaker than the Cammo pillbox. Also good for light armored vehicles. Soviets like to drop their paratroopers ever so often so be prepared. I prefer the cammo pillbox for 200 extra you get 200+ hitpoints and its difficult to see, plus the cammo has a larger sight range. But you don't need a strong pillbox at the back of your base since the paratroopers are the only ones that normally get there. Camouflaged pillbox. Cost :600 -------------------- Weapon : Vulcan Armor : wood Strength: 600 Techlevel : 3 Sight : 5 Damage : 40 Power : -10 Weapon Range: 5 Same as pill box, but it's well camouflaged with the terrain, and 200 more hitpoints. Place the cammo box on the outside of your base because they are stronger and are probably gonna get pounded on by tanks. Turret. Cost: 600 ------- Weapon : Turret gun Armor : heavy Strength: 400 Damage : 40 Sight : 6 Weapon range: 6 Power : -40 Weapon speed: 40 Need tent to build. Turrets are the best base defense against tanks we got. Build them and lots of them. 4-6 do well at each entrance, with one or two pillboxes. Unfortunately you can build walls near them because they'll shot em down, but with a lot of tanks and some rocket soldiers you should be safe. They also use up more power than people think, same as the radar dome. War factory. Cost :2000 ------------ Strength: 1000 Armor : light Sight : 4 Techlevel: 3 Power : -30 Need a Refinery to build. You need to build 2 or more early to start pumping out those tanks and harvestors. The War factory is strong, but take a bit long to build. Produces all the vehicles in the game. Radar dome. Cost :1000 ----------- Strength: 1000 Armor : wood Sight : 10 Techlevel: 3 Power : -40 Need a refinery to build. Personally i can't play to well without this building. It open up a link with your satellite and shows you the map, the areas you have scouted and the areas you havnt is plain black. Also shows everybody else playing, with their according colors. Push U to toggle the map modes. Ore Silo. Cost :150 --------- Strength: 300 Armor : wood Sight : 4 Techlevel: 1 Power : -10 Storage : 1500 Need refinery. Stores an extra 1500 ore. Build em because when your fighting you always seem to forget about your money and if you don't have extra space all the money you mine will go to waste. Silo's are cheap and can be used to space out your buildings a bit more. Service Depot. Cost :1200 -------------- Strength: 800 Armor : wood Sight : 5 Techlevel: 3 Power : -30 Need a weapons factory. Repair all vehicles for 20% of the cost. Reload mines for mine layers. Can repair multiple vehicles. Allied Tech center. Cost :1500 ------------------- Strength: 400 Armor : wood Sight : 10 Techlevel: 7 Power : -200 Need a weapons factory and a Radar dome. This building charges your GPS satellite for 8 minutes, then launches this nuke like thing into the air, then you can see the whole map. It also lets you build advanced buildings. Its weak and uses a lot of power, so put it in the back of your base, because if you loose this building them you loose your whole map, EVEN the areas you have scouted Not nice. It works even if your power goes down though which is good, and you don't need your comm center anymore so you can sell it. (New!) Good idea to build two since people are now going for this building and they know it will disable you. Put a mobile gap there so they cant send a spy plane over and see it. Anti-Aircraft gun. Cost :600 ------------------ Weapons : Double ZSU-23 Damage : 35 x2 Strength: 400 Weapon Range: 6 Sight : 6 Armor : heavy Power : -40 Techlevel : 5 Need a Radar dome. Very good for Migs and Yaks, ok for hinds. Use quite a bit of power, but have good armor. Fast firing Anti-Aircraft Gun. Use Rocket soldiers to take out Helicopters instead. They also wont operate when low on power. Weak two Migs can take it down, but then two migs can take out most stationary base defence. Helipad. Cost :1500 -------- Strength: 800 Armor : wood Sight : 5 Techlevel: 10 Power : -10 Need a radar dome. Takes long to build, get a free Longbow helicopter. Strong and cheap for what you get. Chronosphere. Cost :2800 ------------- Strength: 400 Armor : wood Sight : 10 Techlevel: 15 Power : 200 Need Allied Tech center. Chronosphere charges a chronoshift. Uses a lot of power and is a weak building. Very expensive as well. Chronoshift ----------- Charges quickly every 3 minutes, then you may select any vehicle and teleport them to any part of the map you can SEE, cannot be teleported to dark areas of them map. Every so often it may produce a Chronal vortex which destroys anything its sees. Get rid of it by sacrificing 5 Rifle soldiers. Uses: Shift an arty into someones base and start attacking their buildings, if a harvester is getting attacked shift it back to base, shift your Cruiser if you have one is probably the best thing to do since cruisers are so slow. You can Chronoshift your allies as well. You cannot shift live matter so dont try fill an APC with Tanya's and shift it because you will lose them. (New!) After a unit has been chronoshifted somewhere he will be chronoshifted back. Gap generator Cost. :500 ------------------- Strength: 1000 Armor : wood Sight : 10 Techlevel: 10 Power : -60 Need an Allied Tech center. This baby rocks, it generates a big black area on the enemies maps, many people complain about this advantage. It should be placed on the edges of your bases has a large radius, cheap and is strong. Also disables frequent Air assaults, you can't attack what you can't see. Uses a lot of power, and when you are low powered they go offline and the enemy will be able to see your base if they have already scouted there, you first of all feel kinda naked + the enemy knows your low powered. (New!) Put Mobile Gap generators under the base Gaps to that the enemys Spy planes cant see through it. Make much wider Gaps than your actual base extends by spacing them out with Silo's then placing Gaps on the end, really errortates people. Nuke Silo. Cost :2500 ---------- Strength: 400 Armor : heavy Sight : 5 Techlevel: 15 Power : -100 Need an Allied Tech center. Weak building, needs a lot of power, quite easy to take out. Holds a nuke. Nuke. ----- Charges for 14 minutes same time as iron curtain, then select an area on the map to launch the nuke at. Very good for amassed power plants next to each other. doesn't destroy much except for power plants and very weak buildings. Don't even try the cons yard, unless you got a follow up attack Also still good for infantry and light armored vehicles, almost useless against tanks. Refineries randomly go down with one hit, so the nuke might do random damage. Navy. ----- The Allies have a very powerful navy, meanwhile the Soviets have none, except Sub-marines to defend against it. Gun boat. Cost :500 --------- Weapons : 2 inch,Depth charge Armor : heavy Strength: 200 2 inch Damage : 25 Sight : 7 2 inch Range : 5.5 Speed : 9 Depth charge damage: 45 Depth charge range : 5 Cheapest and fastest ship. Good to have 3 or 4 for the subs. Their depth charge is for the subs and their 2 inch is for land, 2 inch is really weak and pretty useless. Depth charge is pretty good for subs. Destroyer. Cost :1000 ---------- Weapons : Stinger, 2xDepth charge Armor : heavy Strength: 400 Depth charge damage: 45 Sight : 6 Depth charge range : 5 Speed : 6 Stinger damage : 30 Stinger Range : 6 Use the Destroyers to defend the cruisers, destroyers have very good air defense and a double depth charge for Subs. They last pretty long and have ok speed. Stinger can be used to attack land and air. Cruiser. Cost :2000 -------- Weapon : Double 8 inch Armor : heavy Strength: 700 Weapon Damage: 500 x2 Sight : 7 Weapon Range : 22 Speed : 4 Need Allied Tech center and Ship yard. The biggest ship in the Allies navy the Cruiser. They are expensive, slow, can barely defend themselves against Subs or air attacks. Good side, they are worth it, got other ships for defense and have huge range and damage. If it hits a building properly its a goner. Its got good armor and a lot of hitpoints. Good idea to Chronoshift the cruisers near the enemies base. Read bug area for a cool little speed up trick. Also good for infantry since its got an arty type gun. Transport. Cost :700 ---------- Strength : 300 Techlevel : 1 Sight : 6 Passengers: 5 Transport any units max 5 across the sea. They are fast and if you fill up 5 APC's with any 5 units in each, you can transport 30 not 25. Most people wouldnt expect this attack so its very tricky. Air Force. ---------- Allies don't have a large air force like the Soviets, but its simple build Longbow's and Longbows rule anyway. Apache Longbow. Cost :1200 ---------------- Weapon : Double Hellfire Armor : heavy Strength: 125 Damage : 40 x2 Sight : 0 Ammo : 6 Speed : 16 Techlevel : 10 Apache Longbow comes with the Helipad. Longbows are strong and fast. They last long against Sam sites and can do a lot of damage. Use more than 3 or rather don't use them at all. They are also very good for Harv attacks. Transport helicopter. ------------ Allies do not have transport helicopters. ( Mistake corrected) Fakes. Cost :50 ------ Fakes building are building that don't function in anyway except to be decoys to the enemy. They are cheap and can be good decoys. They can be very offputting aswell, for example if you build a fake Ship Yard the enemy might start building Subs and waisting his money. They are weak and only usefull against one time attacks mainly like the parabombs or Migs. ============================================================================== 3. Soviets. ======== Soviets the Strong, the ruthless with unstoppable tanks. Strong base defense and simplistic units and buildings. There's no argument they will win if their tank army is allowed to be built up. And with their large air force who can stop them. ALL prices for Soviets are taken from the Russians and not the Ukranes since 90% of the people i know play with Russians, because they are cheaper, Ukranes are only faster. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.1 Infantry. --------- The Soviets have some nice anti-infantry infantry, grenadiers and flamers are still cool. Rifle soldier. Cost :90 -------------- See Allies. Grenadiers. Cost :144 ----------- Weapon : Grenade Damage : 50 Strength: 50 Weapon Range: 4 Sight : 4 Speed : 5 Grenadiers are still one of the best infantry. They are fast, good for scouting early in the game. Ok for tanks, good for buildings in groups. Take out most infantry in 1-2 shots. Grenade is a bit slow and can be dodged. Don't bunch grenadiers because they now explode. Flamethrower. Cost :270 ------------- Weapon : flamer Damage : 70 Strength: 25 Weapon Range: 3.5 Sight : 4 Techlevel : 2 Speed : 3 Need a Soviet Tech center. The flamer are slow and expensive, i advise you not to build to many. Good for infantry and buildings. They also still explode so don't group them. Take out most infantry with one shot. (New!) Good strat is to put 5 Flamers into a Transport or Chinook land them in the enemies base and go for a building, they are REALLY good for buildings they fire fast and do alot of damage to building, but if theres any resistance they will die. Engineer. Cost :449 --------- Read Allies. Tanya. Cost :1078 ------ Read Allies. Dogs. Cost :180 ----- Strength: 5 Damage : 100 Sight : 5 Range : 2.2 Speed : 4 These little pups are needed if your playing against an Allied player, who loves Tanya's, thieves and spies. Spread 3-5 around your base and put them on guard using G. They can sniff out spies from far and they kill all infantry with one bite. They are weak and can only take one or two hits. They are fast but, don't attack someone standing still they will kill you before you get there. When you tell the dogs to attack a unit, the dog runs at twice the speed. Best unit for Rocket soldiers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.2 Vehicles. --------- Soviets have extremely powerful tanks, V2's are cool Mammoths are ok. Heavy tank. Cost :854 ----------- Weapon : Double 105mm Damage : 30 x2 Strength: 400 Weapon range: 4.75 Speed : 5 Techlevel : 4 Sight : 7 This is the main tank used by Soviets players. They are strong, fast and do a lot of damage in groups, so u get your moneys worth. Use in groups of about 6-10 anymore becomes a waist, because some of them lag behind and don't end up shooting till its to late. Go for the important buildings, use them with V2 Rocket launchers for full effect. The Heavy tank is slower than all the Allies tanks so try not to be caught off gaurd, leave some tanks in your base and others guarding your harvs in the ore fields. Ore truck. Cost :1258 ---------- See Allies. Mine layer. Cost :719 ----------- Weapon : Anti-personal mines Damage : 1000 Strength: 100 Techlevel: 3 Sight : 5 Speed : 9 Need Weapons factory and Service depot. Anti-personal mine layers do the same as the Allies At minelayers, except the ap mines are only useful on Infantry. You can hit tanks and other vehicles but it barely scratches the paint. Lay them near your base around important buildings to protect yourself against Tanya, thief and engineer attacks. Can lay 5 mines at a time and reload on the repair bay. V2 Rocket Launcher. Cost :629 -------------------- Weapon : Scud Damage : 600 Strength: 150 Techlevel: 4 Armor : light Range : 10 Sight : 5 Speed : 7 Need a Weapons factory and a Radar dome. The V2's are cool units, build about 3-5 of them and send them in with your tank rushes. Keep them far behind so the enemy doesn't spot them, he will then concentrate on your tanks while your V2's destroy his buildings. They are fast so don't let them get ahead of the tanks. They have a far range and do huge damage to buildings. They also have a LONG reload time, this is when they are vulnerable and even a Rifle soldier can take them down. They can squish infantry. Note: It is much better to group them seperately from the tanks since you want to use them on building and not other tanks. Mammoth tanks. Cost :1527 -------------- Weapons : 120mm, Mammoth tusk Damage : 40 Strength: 600 Weapon range: 4.75 Sight : 6 Armor : 6 Speed : 6 Techlevel : 10 Need Soviet Tech center. Biggest Soviet tank, strong, hits air and land, good for infantry because uses Mammoth tusks. Expensive and slow though. It heals itself up to half which helps with the offensive side. Not a good idea to build to many or send them in by themselves. Only build a few to send in with heavy tanks. Air Defense is pretty weak and useless. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.3 Buildings. ---------- Power plant. Cost :270 ------------ See Allies. Concrete wall. Cost :90 -------------- See Allies. Barb Wire. Cost : 22 ---------- Twice as strong as sandbag. Good to keep infantry out of base. Walls were made to keep the guys from running through your base not to protect buildings. Refinery Cost. :1797 -------------- See Allies. Advanced Power Plant. Cost :449 -------------------- See Allies. Barracks. Cost :270 --------- See Allies. Sub pen. Cost :548 -------- Strength : 1000 Techlevel : 5 Armor : light Power : -30 Sight : 4 Produces Subs and transports, their only defense against Allies Navy. Strong building, think its the only one that 6 Migs cant take out. War Factory. Cost :1797 ------------ See Allies. Radar dome. Cost :898 ----------- See Allies. Silo. Cost :135 ----- See Allies. Helipad. Cost :1348 -------- Same as Allies except you get a hind with a chain gun, and you can produce Chinook transports. Surface to Air Missile launcher(SAM). Cost :674 ------------------------------------- Weapon : Nike Damage : 50 Strength: 400 Weapon range: 7.5 Armor : heavy Techlevel : 9 Sight : 5 Need Radar dome. Over all good air defense, strong rapid fire with long range. Use with rocket soldiers though. Good armor and hitpoints. Used for attacking air only. Service depot. Cost :1078 -------------- See Allies. Airfield. Cost :539 --------- Strength: 1000 Techlevel: 4 Armor : heavy Power : -30 Sight : 7 Need Radar dome. Gives a landing spot for Migs and Yaks. Strong building. I build it most of the time just to get a Free Spy plane and free paratroopers. Spy plane. ---------- Charges quickly after 3 minutes. Use to scout the areas where your enemies are. Fast flying plane that opens a wide gap on the map so you can see. I've never seen anyone take it down, but it wouldn't make a difference anyway. Paratrooper. ------------ Charges every 7 minutes about after every 2 spy planes this should almost be ready. You can drop 5 Rifle soldiers out of a plane anywhere on the map except the sea. If you try drop it in a place where is shouldn't be possible it will send it to the closest possible place. As the rifle soldiers are falling they can be fired on. Use them to drop in the enemies base and go for weak buildings like power plants. Also drop in enemies ore fields and go for harvester, Rifle men do better than you probably think here. Flame tower. Cost :539 ------------ Weapon : Fireball launcher Damage : 125 Strength : 400 Weapon range: 3.5 Armor : Heavy Techlevel : 4 Sight : 6 Power : -40 Need a barracks to build. Perfect for infantry, ok for tanks. They are a bit short ranged, but they got a wide spread fireball. Put them all over your base, including the insides of your base. Pity that most of the infantry if fast enough can run right towards the turret without dying, they will die once they have stopped running though. Last long, good armor Kennel. Cost :180 ------- Strength: 400 Sight : 4 Armor : Wood Techlevel: 2 Power : -10 Need a barracks. Small building, produces dogs. Soviet Tech Center. Cost :1348 ------------------- Strength: 600 Sight : 4 Armor : Wood Techlevel: 2 Power : -100 Need a Weapons factory and Radar dome. Uses a lot of power. Lets you build advanced buildings( Nuke and Iron Curtain). Allows you to build Tanya's, Flame throwers and Mammoth tanks and Tesla coils. Sell STRAIGHT after you build it, you don't need it at all, you can still build everything new that it gave you and besides it takes a lot of power. Missile Silo. Cost :2246 ------------- See Allies. Tesla coil. Cost :1348 ----------- Weapon : Teslazap Damage : 100 Strength: 400 Weapon Range: 7.5 Armor : light Shots : 3 Sight : 6 Techlevel : 7 Power : -150 Need Soviet Tech center. Good base defense works best in twos. Build walls around them they are very weak. They got long range and are quite powerful. Their firing works like this, they get three shots, if they are going for a tank they build up all three shots and shoot all at once at the tank or can be used to kill three infantry. They take a lot of power and go offline if there's none. Iron curtain. Cost :2516 ------------- Strength: 400 Power : -200 Armor : Wood Techlevel: 15 Sight : 10 Need Soviet Tech center. Weak building and Uses a lot of power. Hold the Iron Curtain. Iron Curtain. ------------- Charges up for 14 minutes same as nuke, then you can use it on any unit or building to make it invulnerable for 45 seconds. My advice is to keep it till you need it e.g When yours cons yard is about to go down or when one of your harvs full of Gems is almost dead and being attacked. Also good you can use it on Tesla coil or send in a V2 rocket and when it gets attacked then use it. Would be nice for a allies Cruiser. (New!) Simple one that i forgot, put units into a transport heli and iron curtain it, then send it straight through the enemies air defence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.4 Air Force. ---------- Soviets have a larger choice of air force units, with the Migs for armor and buildings, Yaks for Infantry and buildings and the Hind for buildings and infantry. Mig. Cost :1078 ---- Weapon : Double Mavericks Damage : 50 x2 Strength: 60 Weapon Range : 6 Armor : light Very good in groups of 6-8. Fast and good against stationary objects. Good for buildings, 6 Migs can take any building Except the Sub pen. Useless for infantry, Migs are actually better for armor than wood, most people just think 6 Migs to a building, what about 6 Migs to a Harvester? They are weaker than some infantry and AA-guns eat them up! (New!) Amount of Migs needed for certain buildings: 2 Migs. ------- Turret, aa-gun, flame turret, Tesla coil, Sam site, Nuke silo. 3 Migs. ------- Power plant, pillbox, Allied Tech centre, Silo, Chronosphere. 4 Migs. ------- Nothing but the above 5 Migs. ------- Avd power, barracks, war factory. 6 Migs. ------- Cons yard, refinery. Yak. Cost :719 ---- Weapon : Double Chain gun Speed : 16 Strength: 60 Techlevel: 1 Armor : light Damage : 40 x2 Overall these guys aren't too good. Ok for buildings and infantry. Aim behind the actual target, not to far behind, because they fire to early. Use only in groups of 4-6, they can take down buildings better than Migs. Slow, weak and take a long time to rearm. Cheaper than Migs. Hind. Cost :1078 ----- Weapon : Chain gun Damage : 40 Strength: 125 Weapon Range: 5 Armor : Heavy Techlevel : 10 Speed : 12 Good for units and buildings. Hover over target and fire, have a lot of ammo. Use like Apache in Old c&c, buildings and harvs. Last long against AA-guns, takes long to build. Chinook. Cost :1078 ------------- See Allies. Have less use for it than Allies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.5 Subs. Cost :854 ----- Weapon : Torpedo Damage : 90 Strength: 200 Weapon range: 16 Armor : light Techlevel : 6 Sight : 6 Speed : 6 Subs are strong, faster than most ships. They can outrange the ships a lot of the time, their only use is defense against the Allies strong navy. Use is small groups of about 2-4. They are invisible until they attack or they are hit. The Sonar pulse will show the position of all your Subs. Transport. Cost :629 ---------- See Allies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Keys and Hotkeys. ================= T = Repair Y = Sell Q = Set way points by holding down Q and pushing all the points you want to go to( Cannot end in an attack :( ) (New!) Air units cannot use the waypoints. ESC = Menu N = Scroll foreward through units B = Scroll back through units G = Guard X = Scatter U = Toggle comm center F1-F8 = Message other players F1 is for everyone, F2-F8 individuals S = Stop H = Back to base Home = Go's to currently selected unit F = Formation, units go back to original formation ALT+CTRL = Guard unit or building, if buildings or units is attacked unit will fight, units also follow the unit it is guarding if it is moving. E = All units A = Click on the guy you want to allie with and push A. ALT- F9-F12 = To mark places on the map, then push the button without the Alt to go back there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. General Strategies and things to know. ====================================== Use silo's as the old spider formation. BUILD LOTS AND LOTS OF TANKS. Put mines in enemies ore field. Go for harvester. Watch your harvester. Never forget to repair. Repair structures while fighting. If you have a lot of units consider multiple groups instead of one big group Multiple sided attacks are hard to defend against. Use X for scatter WHILE fighting, be it tanks or any units it helps A LOT. DO NOT group Power plants. Always have excess power. Remember to repair damaged harvester. Scout early. Make is harder for enemies to send in many units buy Breaking nearby bridges and then laying mines on the only other ways in. Try some early attacks, like build many infantry most people only expect tank rushes, so send it about 20 units at a time, i doubt he will be prepared for it and he wont get a chance to build tanks. Low power the guy at the beginning and he will have NO chance. Build many harvesters, there's not really such a thing as too many harvs. Nukes take out power plants easily. Good strat is to attack the enemies harvester with 4-6 tanks from the one side he'll rush over to defend them, then you attack from the other side, this has worked very well for me. If you want to errortate someone try this, take any unit that can fire, preferably one that has a fast fire rate and force attack the ground, first he'll probably check his base, then his harvester, then he'll probably message you if he doesn't see the unit, quite funny. If you want to hamper transports landing on your shore, lay mines along the shore. The enemies Base is Normally on the exact opposite side of the map. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. Allied strategies. ================== 6.1 Allied offence. --------------- Engineers :If you start with 3 or more units you will get an APC, then quickly build a barracks build 4 engineers put them in the APC and go to the guys base and take over his cons yard. Normal strategy : Build Cons, Power, power, Barracks - then start pumping out Rifle soldiers for scouting and defense, War factory War factory, Refinery, Advanced power plant, Radar dome, Tech center -sell radar dome , War factory, small power. Typical way to build. Units - Build Harv, tank, harv, tank , tank harv, then carry on with tanks and a few APC'S and artys. Tank rush : Cons , power , power , barracks -build rifle soldiers, refinery, war factory, war factory , Adv power, refinery, war factory, power, silo, silo,comm if you want. Units - tank, harv, tank,harv, tank, tank, tank,harv then just carry on building tanks. Send them to the enemies base and before you go in try take out his harvester. Tanya : Cons, power, power,barracks, refinery, Radar,weap fac, Tech center, Avd power. Units - When you get the barracks build 5 Rifle soldiers and send 1 to each cornet, which means you have two left,when tanya's are ready build 3 tanya's. As soon as you get the War fac build like this, Harv, APC, APC. Then you should have two APC's 3 Tanya's and 2 Rifle soldiers, Pack them all into the one APC, then send it to the guys base that you should have found with the Rifle soldiers at the beginning. Go for Power plants, then refinery, but don't be to fussy go for what's closest. You'll have to act fast because the guy will hear your Tanya's and start building defense. Use the spare APC to scout his base before. Rifle soldier 'em : Cons, power,power, barracks, barracks, barracks,Ref , Ref , ref, silo , silo. Units - Build 10 Rifle soldiers group as group one send them where u think your enemy is usually the totally opposite, e.g. if your bottom left hes probably top right. Carry on building another 10 as group 2, then build 20 as group three. Go for POWER that's it Rifle soldiers are good for power plants and plus if you take out all his power hes dead. This works very well against tank rushers. By the time he has only built a few things. Try it, it works. Mighty Cruiser : Cons, power, power, barracks,ref, weap, radar, Adv pwr, tech center, Ship yard, ref. Units - As soon as you get you first Cruiser send it in straight away and try go for his power then cons. Light tank strat : Cons, power, power, barracks, ref, weap, weap, ref,wep. Units - Harv, light, light, light, harv, build another 5 light tanks, send them in and only go for his harvester. I don't know why they kill harvester so quick, maybe because of their fast fire rate. 6.2 Allied defense. --------------- 5 grenadiers : Soviet players like to build 5 grenadiers at the beginning and send them to your base to scout and take out your small power plant. Defense: Place Rifle men to the entrances of your base, 2-3 is fine and put them on guard. If your lucky you will hit one of the grenadiers and he will explode killing the others. Also very important, build two power plants on either side of your base at the beginning. Tank Rush : One of the hardest things to defend against, only thing you can do is build many tanks yourself. Turrets do quite well here and a few rocket soldiers. If you know someone is gonna tank rush mix your units between light and heavy tanks. V2 to power plant : Again the Soviets can try to take out your small power plant with a V2 rocker launcher. Just build two again and this only really works if you start with 3 units or more, to build a V2 would take long and u would have defense by then. 6 Migs to the Cons : In a long game Soviet players like to build up six Migs and attack building, usually going for your Cons yard first and it will be taken out. Build two Cons yards the real one and a fake one or two, Migs can only make a one round attack. Build gaps then they will have to send spy planes and then attack your Cons yard and they might even hit your Fake by mistake. They might then believe u don't have a cons yard anymore. Build a few AA-guns best for Migs. Migs to harvester : 6 Migs to a harvester can be fatal, if your harvester is moving then you are lucky and the Migs will take off little health. To guard against the Migs build 3 rocket soldiers and an APC and hold down alt-ctrl and klick on the harvester, this will make them follow and guard the harvester. If he attacks and even loses one Mig, he will have lost 1000 or so. Overall tanks are the safest and best Offence and Defense so build lots of them. Use pillboxes for The soviets Paratroopers, don't even bother about trying to build defense against the spy planes. (New!) put rocket soldiers in APC's with rushes, use rocket troops for harvs and light tanks for harvs aswell. ============================================================================== 7. Soviet Strategies. ================== 7.1 Soviet Offence. --------------- 5 Grenadiers : Build a barracks immediately and then build 5 grenadiers. Send them to the enemies base and attack the enemies Power plant. If he only had one its game over. If he had more then hes probably fine. Its not to expensive so it would be fine to do it in every game. Can use more grenadiers, but would become expensive. V2 Rocket to power : If you start with three units or more send them in then when you get to the base use the V2 on their small power plant, and if they have another use whatever else u have to take it out. They might as well give up if they don't have any power plants. Tank Rush : Cons, power, power, Ref, War fac, War fac, Adv power Ref,War fac, Radar - for V2's, War fac. Units order- Tank, Harv, Tank, tank, harv, tank,tank,harv, then carry on building tanks and 3 or 4 v2's. Attack at the beginning once you got 8 tanks that's all you need to take out a cons yard. Then just keep on building more tanks. Note: This IS the most devastating and safest attack to do for both sides. 6 Migs for offence : Build up six Migs and go For the Enemies Cons yard. Then after that go for his harvester, if he has rocket soldiers or AA-guns its not even really worth it unless you take then out first from the ground or use Apaches. Note: Yaks are cheaper and better for building. (New!) Flamers : Build 5 flamers and send it down to the enemies base and go for power plants or any buldings, or put them in a transport or chinook. Use paratroopers to go for power plants. Always build an airstrip even if your not going to build air units, you get a free Spy plane and some paratroopers. 7.2 Soviet Defense. --------------- Engineers : If you start the game with three units the Allies get an APC and most players would put 4-5 engineers into the APC straight away and send it to your base and take over your cons yard. All you need to do is put a few infantry around your cons yard and your two tanks that you will get to take care of the APC. Tanya's : This gets hard, if he sends in five Tanya's the only good defense is infantry, lots of rifle soldiers, flame turrets wont help much at the beginning of the attack but will help when she has stopped moving. Use dogs as well. You are always forewarned by Tanya's laugh so be prepared. Rifle soldiers : The only way to tell if the enemy is gonna send in lots of rifle infantry is if you scout, but since he can build infantry straight away it becomes difficult. He will probably go for your power, use flame turrets they work very well here and put it near your power plants. Have another ready to place down where he might send all his infantry. If he doesn't do it early then he probably wont at all. Cruisers : Cruisers are easily taken out by Subs, so if you know for sure that the enemy is gonna just use Cruisers build a few subs and send them to the enemies base to take out the Cruisers while been built, if the enemy has built other ships which is usually unlikely then just build more Subs. The point is don't let the Cruisers get even near your base so don't leave the subs wondering close to your base area. Tesla coils are good for everything, guard with walls. Tanks are good offensive and defensive units. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. Player's views. --------------- (spawn7@concentric.net) Hi, I had two suggestions for the first patch for Red Alert, the first is could you please put in a save game option for multiplayer like you said you were going to. And Second, I think it would be cool to be able to transfer money back and forth between your allies' during multiplay. Just wanted to let you know a couple things i have encountered while playing red alert. 1. At the multiplay host screen sometime the arrows disappear and i have to blindly click to select an option. 2. I have noticed that the computer in skirmish does not build Naval Units at all. 3. While playing modem game I am allied with a friend, I know i can use his ore refinery's but I cant seem to use them if I don't have one myself. Could you fix this one in a patch please. Cause sometimes I have a ore truck but no refinery I want to be able to use my allies' oh yeah also when I select the V2 rockets to attack sometimes they move right up to an enemy(till they touch) then attack. Anthony (Chapel) (Criket@earthlink.net) The only thing you have to do to win the game is to just build tanks, tanks, and more tanks. Its a pity that the whole is just all about that, but that is just about the only way you can win in a ladder game. If there are any bugs in the game, well.... lets just say that I wish the game was more than just building "tanks". -criket (cybrmstr@concentric.net) I mostly play england but that's because most of the maps i play are water maps and england rules with those cruisers. Also there is a spy to get into a base to find out what hes doin as far as money and units. How much and what hes mostly building. Most of the top 100 players build nothing but 2 small powers then 2 ore factories then nothing but weapons facilities and tanks. After they have so many they attack. If u havent done the same ur history As far as bugs are concerned havent really seen any unless in the lobby and although a person is not scrolling the last thing that they said keeps scrolling up the screen...weird. But all in all RA is a great game and most of the bugs are when you multiplay. (rsallan@ican.net) The fact that the allies have an APC from the start, or if 2 or less units are used, that all thanks. HICKHACK (ilazar@idsonline.com) From what i've seen, if you are using a map with a lot of ore, then play allies, otherwise play Soviets. Here are a few strategies I've seen: 1. Allies - APC full of engineers. Early on build four engineers and load them into an APC, drive them into your opponents base and try to capture or destroy a key building. 2. Soviets - Take two tanks and a v-2 early on and drive to your opponents base, chances are he only has 1 power plant, destroy it and he'll never recover. 3. Basic strategy, regardless of side: Build in this order - Yard, Power, Barracks, Advanced Power, Refinery, Weapons Factory, Weapons Factory, Weapons Factory, Refinery. They just build lots of tanks (along the way you should have built 3 or 4 extra harvesters. If you are Soviets, build a tech center so you can build mammouth tanks as well. Take care, Irwin (J.M.Groen@caiw.nl) What i do is playing Russia. They seem to better for a couple of reasons: 1. Their tanks rule. 2. Their v2 can kill a small power at once (good strategy at the beginning) Keep building those tanks. If you see your opponent not doing the same, you just know youa re gonna win. Building order: Small Power Small Power again (very important against those V2's at the beginning) Refinery Weapon Fac. Weapon Fac. Refinery Weapon Fac. And the production order is: 1 tank, 1 harvester, 1 tank, 1 harvester, 3 tanks, 1 harvester and then keep building those tanks. IF you've got enuff money you can build other stuff if you like, but don't waste to much on it. JJ. (loviatar@bc.sympatico.ca) Hey dude As for strategy, I find that people on the net don't use much of a strategy. They just build tons of tanks. It becomes a race to see who can build tanks faster. You never get to build any of the new units in the game. Kind of defeats the purpose of even coming out with a new game. Some people don't even build a radar dome, cause that would mean they would have to build another power plant too, and that would just cost them a couple of tanks. Its really stupid. Another cheap strategy is building 4 engineers right away and taking his yard. If you are playing one of the allies and you start with at least 4 units, you get a APC. Put the engineers in, and go get his yard. Stupid cheap tactic too. Personally I think something should be done to make the game a little more strategic. Some kind of patch maybe. A guy sent me a letter about his idea to fix RA. A curve that would make buying things more expensive as you buy more and more of them. So, after a while, tanks would start to get really expensive. That would force you to use some of the other units in the game. Not a bad idea. Anyway, gonna cut this off. Good luck and fair battles Loviatar1 (armenia.it.earthlink.net) Hey, I play Red Alert a lot! Here are some of my strageties: 1) Just crank tanks, so play soviets because there tanks only cost $854, about $50 more than the Allies medium tank, because they have 2 cannons and are tuff to kill. Basically, the person with the most tanks wins. So you want to get tanks built as soon as possible. To do this, try to build in this order: Construction yard, small power plant, Ore Refinery, War Factory, War Factory, Advanced Power Plant, Ore Refinery, War Factory. Try to build another harvester or two for extra $$$. 2) Little tricks make a difference. Such as setting waypoints, guard mode, etc. Most people don't think of how important waypoints are. For instance, you could set waypoints for a Chinook to fly around the enemy's base to avoids sams or AA guns, and land "in the back door", and unload tanya's or engineers or whatever. Most people are to lazy to do this or either don't know how to set waypoints, and they end up losing their Chinook and whatever was in it. Guard mode is also veery important. For an example, say you put a Mommoth near your construction yard, and set him on Guard mode. An enemy apc comes a long and unload with engineers. But your not looking, you are somewhere esle on the map planning an attack. But since the Mammoth is on Guard mode, he will attack the engineers. 2 rockets will kill engineers, so the Mammoth could kill the apc and the engineers without you even knowing it. I have played Command and Conquer and Red Alert for a long time now, and I seen where many people have made big mistakes by not setting certain units on guard mode. Also, keep your tanks grouped. Don't attack other tanks in single file. They are much more effective if in groups. 3) Unfortunately, all Red Alert is is building tanks. If an Allied played just builds naval units, the Soviet player will run him over with tanks, and once his base is out, the naval units aren't a threat (they can be, but remember, those battleships is all he has left). Also, tanks are the fastest units to put you on the offensive. For instance, if you just crank tanks, while another guy just cranks naval units, you will still win. Because tanks are much faster, and more powerful than the battleships (except for the Cruiser), you will still win, and if he still has a bunch of batleships, just crank submarines. If you play Allies, use choppers to attack the ships and place turrets along the coast line so if the battleships get to close the turret will tear them to shreds. Well, there is just some of my strageties. C-ya, Jason a.k.a.- Leatherneck (coke@post3.tele.dk) Hi SaiX I play as russian like most of the people in top 15. People are going for power with the V2-launcher and the 2 tanks, with a normal setup 5-6 units. It has not much to do with strategy, but if you want to get into the top 30 its the only way. Westwood should make a patch so that the cy is equipped with a tower that removes a unit in 1 shot. So that it takes at least 8 tanks to kill the cy. That could bring back the strategy. Because if it takes 8 units to kill the cy, then you also have units to kill some of the attacking tanks. =you cant kill the cy with 8 units. Then the fight will be for Ore instead, not who can kill the power first. Just an idea I had. NIKE1 (ozeki@kapun.aa.eunet.de) Hi I play the Soviets this side have more tank power and defense.... more fun to play is german side.......... taktik is build fast tanks end destroy all ,,,,and all other i do i see this in the battle,,, bey Ozeki (davev@chesco.com) Hi SaiX, I play Russia and build as so: power, Advanced Power,barracks,Refinery,Factory,Advanced Power, Factory,Factory, Refinery, and if game not over Tech Center, all the while pouring out heavy tanks Hope this helps. Inferno (davelathrop@sprintmail.com) I always vary my attack. In other words i try something different every time. My favorite attack is the wandering v2's early in the game to take out the power plant. or the 10-15 apc's with a tanya in each. tank rushes are the most effective but have very little finesse. I have tried several others as well and have been successful with many differnt ways. My personal favorite is 6 Migs to the construction yard. yoyo Thanks for the input guys, if you would like to add to this E-mail me. (New!) kenneth@ns.applause.no (Kenneth) HOW TO CRUSH YOUR OPPONENT AT RA! Building procedure (On an custom map:) 1. P.P. 2. BAR. 3. P.P. 4. ORE REF. 5. WEAPON F. 6. ORE REF. 7. ORE REF. 8. A.P.P. 9. WEAPON F. 10.ORE REF. 11.WEAPON F. 12.ORE REF. 13.WEAPON F. Always control your tanks, move the tank which gets fired on. Try to take out your opponent's base with minigunners. Build 20 at the start of the game. Go around and behind his base. Use tanks to trick him into leaving his base. xShoot at the tanks with lowest «health». Change target if he moves his tank. Re-target that tank in about 10 sec. He have probably stopped moving the tank by then. Always protect your ore trucks and CY. Be aware of guerilla attacks from your opponent. Place an engineer near your CY just in case. Try to take out your opponent's ore trucks and CY without loosing too many tanks. Never build anything else than heavy tanks! A few minigunners at the beginning are a must though. Never build ore trucks. Only tanks should be produced in weapon facs. Build your base towards your opponent. Look for valuable gems. Attack your opponent if you got 2-3 more tanks then him and the distance between you are short. If the distance is long, he'll have 2-3 MORE tanks to you when you get to his base. xKeep your tanks in a tight formation. Make sure all the tanks are able to fire. GOOD LUCK! Written by MKE. "Dupe" <dupe@netwalk.com> RED ALERT LADDER STRATEGY HANDBOOK -------------------------------------------------------------------- Written by Duper FOREWORD I wrote this strategy guide in class one day when I was bored, It is by no means perfect, but I hope you can use my experience to your advantage and bring better competition on the ladder. - Duper I. General Overview II. The Allies III. The Soviets IV. Cheap Tricks V. The Real Deal General Overview Throughout this strategy guide I will be describing certain movements and units. This strategy guide is not for beginners, you have to read the FAQ to understand some of the units and tactics I describe. Also, I will be discussing or referring to maps played by most ladder players. If you need maps, check out my website and use the Ironside button at the bottom to get Ironsides Map Pack...... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Allies Strengths: Cruisers and Chronosphere, the APC for exploring and troop transport. Weaknesses: No grenaders, and weak tanks. Best Building: The Tech Center: the GPS satellite and Tanya! Best starting options: Shroud regrows - Soviets will be at a major disadvantage. Worst starting options: Any amount of units higher than 3. It seems to me, that the Allies will lose any large tank battle, unless it takes place in the allies base with turrets present. However, I have seen top players use the Allies very successfully with a light tank, tank rush. If you are up against a top player, the Allies crank out light tanks much faster than the Soviets can crank out Heavy tanks. Hit them with a tank rush early, and break the building chain. Water missions: Obviously the Cruiser and Chronsphere are a deadly combination, but be sure to have plenty of destroyers handy to shoot down any attacking migs. Migs will destroy a Cruiser pretty easily, since it has no air defense. General Tips: Gap generators are a good way to defend against air attacks, but more importantly they mask your attack forces and base defenses. Build plenty of rocket infantry if you suspect an air attack, and spread them out, because a good Soviet player will fly around your air defenses. Migs aren't cheap, so your opponent will likely abandon the air attack if you defend well. Other noteable units: Tanya: This woman packs a PUNCH! Any tank rusher will not waste time on base defenses Use this to your advantage, throw her in an APC and TAKE OUT THE CONSTRUCTION YARD! Turrets: A well placed pack of turrets will cripple even a large tank rush. The only problem is getting them built fast enough. 6-10 turrets can wreak havok for tank rushers, especially if they dont know they are there. Chronosphere: Use the chronoshift to transport Cruisers and even MCV's! A pre-built building is always nice to have when transporting an MCV. Paradox: BEWARE! Using the Chronosphere creates a 1 in 5 chance of a Paradox. It will devour buildings and units on contact. It appears randomly, so sometimes it will actually appear in your opponents base and help you out! Light Tanks: I believe these are the most underated tank in the game! They are fast, and when moved rapidly, impossible to destroy. Ive seen good Allies players take out a large tank rush with only about 75% of the size in light tanks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Soviets Strengths: Migs, Heavy Tanks and V2's. Weaknesses: Worthless base defenses, no fast units for exploration. Best Building: The War Factory (And lots of em!) Best Starting options: Lots of starting units! Worst starting options: Shroud regrows and Water Maps, both of which spell LOSS for Soviet players. The Soviets are by far the preferred side for ladder players to use. You can build up a large tank force fairly inexpensively, and theres always those pesky migs! Against a top player, Soviets are pretty useless if you are not a good player yourself. General Tips: Tanks, tanks and more tanks! The only way to stop a tank rush is with one of your own. Dont wast time building tech center or other crappy expensive buildings, they only Lessen the amount of money you have to build tanks! Other noteable units: Migs: A swarm of migs can destroy even the best defended base. Here is a list on the number of Migs needed to destroy buildings on one attack: Building Migs needed -------- ----------- Construction Yard 6 War Factory 6 Ore Reinery 6 Gap Generator 6 Advanced Power 5 Standard Power 3 Barracks 5 Tesla Coil 2 Flame Tower 2 Turret 2 Pillbox (either variety) 3 Be sure to reroute your attack away from air defenses whenever possible, this can be achieved by selecting your migs, force fire on a ground point in a direction where there are no air defenses. Then before your migs reach the fake attack point, select the real unit you wish to destroy. But beware, waiting too long to redirect the units will cause them to attack the ground, wasting a valuable attack.... After youve attacked, force fire on the original ground point again, and your migs will exit the base they way they entered, avoiding any air defenses. Chinooks - These transport helicopters can be made after building a heli pad. Build at least 2 and use one as a decoy, it works great! Tanya - Same as Allies, you need a tech center to have tanya. V2 Rockets - Place these behind your tanks and pummel the opponent. These are very weakly armored, so dont try to attack alone! The Iron Curtain - I have yet to find a suitable use for this. Its expensive and pretty much worthless. If you have a good tactic using this, drop me an email and ill be sure to includ it in my next update! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cheap Tactics Generally new people consider tank rushing to be cheap, but after losing a few dozen times, realize that this is what the game is about. I dont consider tank rushing a cheap tactic, but mostly because I can beat most tank rushers with a tank rush of my own. There are however a few cheap tactics out there that many people use, and I put here merely to help you defend against them...... So READ THIS and take it to heart! The Cheap V2 trick: If you let the hosting player set starting units to 3, watch out, he's got a trick up his sleeve. Early in the game, he will seek out your base, and destroy your only power plant, causing it to take 5 minutes to build anything. The only defense against this is to build another power plant right away if there were 3 or more starting units. The V2 will destroy your power plant everytime, because even a tank can not destroy it before it fires. The Engineer/APC trick: As with Russia, if you play an allied player who is insistant on having 3 starting units, they have a specific tactic in mind. As quickly as possible, they are going to build 5 engineers and send them in an apc to take your Construction yard. The only way to defend against this is keep your grenaders or riflemen right near your Construction Yard if youy suspect this coming. Engineers are easy targets. Tanya: NEED I SAY MORE? Well I guess this isn't really a CHEAP tactic, but a popular one nonetheless. As quickly as possible your opponent (Normally Allies) will build an APC and Tanya. I have found that if i hear tanya, I immediately build a Repair Bay, thus giving me the ability to reproduce an MCV. Defending against tanya is pretty tough for the Soviets, whereas the Allies need only build a pillbox near their Construction yard. My trick to the Tanya attack is to sell my Construction yard RIGHT when she approaches. That releases 4 or 5 infantry which will quickly kill her. 99% of the time that is the building they go for first, so it will save your other structures from her wrath. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The REAL DEAL I call this section the REAL DEAL, because these are tactics that WIN battles, and are not normally considered cheap. More important than any tactic I can teach you, is your basic ability to be aware, and use your keyboard shortcuts efficiently. Tank Wars: The basic tactic during a tank battle is to keep all your attacking units selected during the duration of the battle. Always attack his smoking tanks first, and run over any infantry whenever possible. Timing your selection of what unit to attack is BY FAR the most important factor in winning tank battles. Try to anticipate the demise of the selected tank, and choose the next target when you feel your next shot will destroy the tank. This will mean your tanks will not waste time firing at the ground after the first target is destroyed. Infantry Wars: Do not group a large number of grenaders or flame throwers together, one well placed shot will destroy the whole group. One on One, a rifleman will take out any other unit. However 2 or 3 grenaders or flame throwers can destroy numerous other infantry all at once. These are just a drop in the bucket of the tactics I use everyday while playing Red Alert on Kali and Wchat. I would included them all, but why would I want to give up my secret to winning? =) Please e-mail and comments or suggestions to dupe@netwalk.com and I will be sure to help in any way possible!! DOCUMENT CORRECTED BY SaiX e.g Mig numbers were Wrong. (mmmax@mbox.vol.it) Hi friend. Well I don't have much to say...maybe coz lately I've been playing Diablo instead of RA (wich I love still anyway...hehehe). That's the reason why instead of being #1 (I beat all those guys above me except 4*general which I never played) I dropped from #7 to #15! LOL Well I can tell u sum general tips I found out but..RA is a young game so there is still much to learn i guess. Take tank rush. Sum1 thinks tank rush is lame. Tanks are the strongest units of the game. But when everyone will know how to tank rush, the game tactics and the gameplay itself will evolve. I mean, if u have a winning move u use it! This is why I tell u RA is a young game and much has still to come out. The latest trend is to employ men with tanks (wich is a step ahead in the game, just think of how few is passed since the game relase and think of chess and all the time it exist and all the moves and books about it...) I can give u sum general tips...maybe u know them already Those are from my personal experience so they're not THE LAW! 1)- Know the battlefield as your house this can save your ass in a battle wich seems lost or give u a win against a better player who doesn't know the scen well like u! Knowing it means knowing resources, spaces...build a standard tactic to develope your base till u find a better one. Anything wich makes u save time is appreciated!! hehehe... 2)- Losing isn't that bad as it seems coz is the only way to evolve your gameplay. 3)- Never think u r too good to play sumone.U can never know owho will be above you tomorrow and U won't have to beg him for a match. 4)- The ladder is getting harder each day (for the reasons I described above) so the new toppers are much more though than the old ones (wich infact retired...heheheh) 5)- To get the best from your army u must optimize resources. This means that u should never build silos and at the same time u should never hear the message SILOS NEEDED or NOT ENOUGH FUNDS. U must find the middle way between building and harvesting! That is a good percentage of victory on your side! U can get the best from your troops, harvesters and building capabilities. 6)- Sorry for my english...I'm italian after all...LOL 7)- Optimizing resources involves knowing well the scenario u play on and sumtimes driving your harvester and controlling them as much as possible. That means that u'll have to give shotcuts to them (ie. ctrl-1...alt-1, and so on...) 8)- Try to see the map well, never stop building anything (tanks,ships,chops,men,buildings,ecc.) just never stop it even when the battle rages on. 9)- Not always (as many think) is a good idea to bring the battle in the enemy base coz he'll have the advantage of having tanks just out of the battlefield and dropping building without moving away from the battle. And this can make the difference when two squad of the same power are struggling. 10)- When using tanks Don't scatter coz they will lose time moving around and moving turrets. Try to shhot one target at a time. 11)- 9 grenadiers can destroy any building (except CY) in 3 fight rounds!!!!This means beware of them (not just use them to attack...hehehe) 12)- In most of the scens Tesla coils are useful only against Tanyas, but in the middle of a battle right into your base when u r facing a n equal force, placing one right behind your tank line can make the difference again. 13)- On your counter attack be fast, don't spread forces and first of all pursuit tanks let alone buildings....after u had all the enemies tanks u won but if u have all his buildings and he has more tanks U LOST!! 14)- Never give up...I lost more than a match wich both me and my oppenent thought I would have lost!! Well, I don't like to be boring so I guess that's enough for u guy. Thanks for the trust. BYE (Alexander Hannay <jalexander@cyberus.ca>) One good strategy is a telsa Rush. when your on a map that has choke points, which you can guard with a few tanks, build a repair bay then start building mobile construction yards. Once you have 6 or 7 cy start building large energy plants and telsas and move towards your enemies base....you can now build so fast that tanks rushs are useless...you can build telsas faster than the enemy can destroy them. Soon you are in his base and Game Over..... Hope this is an original strategy Alex ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Bugs. ----- Gmouse driver has a memory resident command that when you hold down ctrl and alt and push primary mouse button it trys to load gdpanel, this means you cant gaurd other units. If you select an Allied sea unit that CAN attack Subs, select one of them and scroll around the map on the sea area if it shows the crosshair then theres a Subs there. The French side in multiplayer fire rate is 10% slower instead of 10% faster The AI in skirmish is pretty poor, like warcraft 2 they make a few quick attacks at the beggining, then they either get stuck because of excess units or they run out of money. The only way to get them to attack again is to attack thier harvestors. They dont use Air units often, dont build sea units and dont build Nukes or any of the higher tech buildings, except for the Gap generator. You can make the Crusers go the speed of Transport ships by building one transport and as many Crusers as you want, then group then all and push F, now the Crusers will go as fast as the transports if the transport is in the same group. When your spy takes over a building like the war factory and if the enemy is building a unit you cant see the power bar of the building. Just as i was finnishing writing this i played a game and after i chronoshifted an arty into the AI's base my arty just dissapeared it has happened to me before, but then i carried on playing and it happened again. if you know there reason why send it in. (New!) You can make your Migs and Yaks land so that your enemy can't see them, yes you can have six Migs without him knowing until you attack. 1st step click on an air units while it is on the strip, make it fly ANYWHERE and wait until in comes back down to land on its pad and as its going downwards, make sure you still have the air unit selected and click the green arrow on the pad its about too land on. All above bugs were experienced by me personally. Please E-mail me more bugs it the only way to get them fixed!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. Single Player Savegames. ------------------------ This is not really part of this Guide but many people have asked for it. I have made Savegames for all the missions and will find a place to upload them soon and same with this Guide. At the moment they are available at The Chronospere http://games.net-link.net/ladder/ra . ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11. Setting up multiplayer. ----------------------- 11.1 Crates. ------- Little blue boxes on the map that can be moved over to give you something a little extra. Only if crates are turned on. Crate descriptions. ------------------- Armor - Upgrades all nearby unit armor. Cloak - Stealth (Was taken out) Darkness - Rare, shrouds your whole map except where your units are. Explosions - Happens half as often as you get armor blows up on whatever unit or units go over it. Firepower - Upgrades all nearby units firepower. Heal base - Repairs all buildings. Nuke - Get a free one time nuke Money - 2000 extra cash Napalm - Explosion half as often as armor crate. Para bomb - One time air strike. Reveal - Reveals entire map. Sonar Pulse - Reveal all Subs for a period of time, rare. Speed - Upgrades all nearby unit speed. Squad - Get 5 infantry units random, happens often. Unit - Get one unit-vehicle. Invunerable - Gives all nearby units unit curtain effect. Time Quake - Think is gives that free paradox or might just be a chronoshift. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11.2 Maps. ----- Maps are very important, learn the maps so that you know if theres alot of gold, where the gems are, the entrances to your enemys and your base. Know if there is sea or not bridges to brake and if your in a bad position the nearest place to move. There are different sized maps basically Small 2-4 player, Meduim 4-6 and Large for 6 or more players. Personally i think the maps are to small for 8 players since i always have the problem of there not being enough gold for a long enough time. I recommend not playing more than six player, UNLESS you get an external map that has plenty of Gold. Favourite maps. --------------- Central conflict, Desolation, North by Northwest, Raraku and A Path beyond. 11.3 Units. ------ Amount of units you start with. I usually use 0 more fair and dont have to move those units out of the way. One is also fine, you only get one rifle soldier to scout. Maximum is 50. 11.4 Money. ------ Start with 0 - 10000 credits, i see no reason no to start with 10000 if you start with less the game will just drag out longer, dont select to little or you cant build anything. 11.5 Extra's. -------- Shrowd regrows is NOT the gold, the shroud is those black areas on the map where you cannot see and that will keep regrowing, pretty unfair for the Soviets since they have to keep scounting while the Allies can just see the whole map anyway with thier Tech centre. Capture the flag is the same as the old C&C, a flag is placed next to your cons yard when you start, you must try take the enemys flag back to your flag, when you pick up the flag your speed is reduced to half. Bases on is highly recomended, this means that you get a MCV at the beginning, if it is off then you start off with the amount of units you selected. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. Words of Sun Tzu. ----------------- These are some of the lines extracted by me from San Tzu's writings and they are the ones I think are important and in a way apply to RA. Make NO mistakes. All warfare is based upon deception. If your opponent is choleric, seek to errortate him. It is a rule in war, if our forces are ten to one surround him, if five to one attack him, if twice as numerous divide our army into two. (1)He will win who prepared himself waits to take the enemy unprepared. (2)He will win who know how to handle both superior and inferior forces. (3)He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. The good fighter first puts themselves beyond the possibility of defeat and then waited for an opportunity of defeating his enemy. The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men it is merely dividing them up into numbers. Apear at points which the enemy must hasten to defend, march swiftly to places where you are not expected. So in war the way to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. If anyone would like the full Electronic book E-mail me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13. Web Pages. ---------- http://www.westwood.com/ Westwood makers of Red Alert's Home Page. http://www.theladder.com/ Cases Ladder for many games including Red Alert. http://207.102.150.139/users/Redalert/ Red Alert Central. http://www.Pooterman.com/kahn.html Kahn Homepage. http://games.net-link.net/ladder/ra/home.html Chronospere Homepage. http://www.choice.net/Redalert/ Red Alert Page. http://home.pacific.net.sg/~xenus Sonar Pulse. http://home.worldonline.nl/~mickey/ Philadelphia Experiment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14. Ladder games. ------------- If you have ever wanted to play in some sort of league over the net, then you might aswell join the biggest and best one. http://www.ladder.ml.org Cases ladder is the place to go. For more details e-mail me or go to the page. Not sure what happened to The Chronospere. And the rumor that Cases ladder was gonna start charging and stuff is CRAP! 15. Credits. -------- Westwood Studios for making such a great game. Cybo Mrblue RAiN Plasma JJ Loviatar1 Razorz Jmin All the guys that played ladder with me on Wchat Phoenix Misha MrBlue If you think i missed you out just mail me!! .~/\~. . / ~~ \ . .----ooO-----Ooo----. / SaiX \ | franco@igubu.saix.net| \--------------------/ 
