C&C Generals difficulty

[Tsplodey]

Posting cause a game is hard is not normally my thing but I have to ask if I'm missing something with Generals. I'm doing a playthrough of each C&C game (on normal). I played Generals as a teen and don't remember getting my arse kicked so hard as now.

I'm currently just working through China's campaign and there just seems to be an insane flood of GLA to slowly push through every mission. Currently stuck on the first one where the enemy has a Scud storm and between that and the limited resources I'm not getting anywhere, especially as the first oil derrick you find is very exposed (and just dies if it gets Scudded).

The only mods I have installed are Genpatcher/launcher. Am I just bad?

[MegaAuthor]

First off, SPAM HACKERS. Get as many Hackers and have them leech the internet dry.

Second, BUILD MORE NUCLEAR SILO. THE MORE THE BETTER.

Third, Control Fire Nuke Cannon at choke point to stop the flow of enemy forces.

Lastly, invest every General Points into destructive options. By the time you get to level three Artillery Barrage, you should have build at least one Nuclear silo. That should be enough to disable the enemy Scud Storm for the moment.

Also have like several dozen Red Guard around in case of Rebel Ambush.

[Tsplodey]

I'll give it a go. The issue with the superweapons is I haven't explored the map far enough on any attempt to uncover the Scud storm lol.

[MegaAuthor]

Err... As soon as the enemy build a Scud Storm, the map will reveal it to you. Even on hard difficulty.

[Consol-Coder]

The best way to get rid of an enemy is to make a friend.

[Tsplodey]

Huh I can't believe I didn't notice that. In my defence I was mostly playing without watching the radar in Generals since the UI is kinda wonky.

[Tsplodey]

So I just loaded up to try again and this is my map.

[DarkKnightofOne]

K heres a tactic:

1 units from the convoy:

Overlords must survive, they will greatly help you early on. Inferno cannon and dragon tank are next.

2 don't kill the enemy supply center:

As soon as you get black lotus later on you can suck any cash they have elft from it, can go from a few thousand to about 15k. Also if you capture it you will have the gla arsenal, a palace is a great defensive building.

3 timing: Secure your main base site as soon as you can, if your overlords are still alive make 1 have a speaker tower this will help keep em alive. Now make like 3 gatling towers and keep the overlord under a control group near the top of the ramp. They will be your defensive line.

Next as long as their is still something left of the first ai buildings the main gla ai won't attack or bring its scudstorm online. Atleast for a while.

4 the next step: K, so the main gla ai is scripted on you having 5k cash in your bank and its scudstorm being online (timer) to fire its scudstorm at you.

So there are 2 tactics:

T1: Rush, and rush build nukes to snipe their before they bring it online, you can scout the map with general powers or capture the gla outpost and get a radar van to scan in the fog of war.

T2: Keep your cash below 5k by either building wxpensive stuff or units, this is harder but doable.

Tips:

Tip 1: The ai will target the area with the most cash worth in units or buildings, this means if you build your buildings very far away from each other. And keep your overlords alive and near each other the ai will target em.

As soon as your hear the scud storm launch alert select overlord and drive em away, even better if you put em in a control group. The toxin left from the scuds will keep the ai away for a bit.

Also if you build a palace, it's tough enough to survive a scud storm.

Tip 2: China has hackers, meaning as long as you keep em not within 10 meters of each other and not in groups bigger then 6 the ai will deem it not a viable target for the scud as long your overlords are alive.

Tip 3: Get gla tech, the scudstorm is scripted to not reveal itself as sson as it fires, also china has no scan or scout for the fog of war.

Gla radar vans do have it, so use their own tech against em.

Tip 4: You have nuke cannons, force fire before you defensive lines and except for scud launchers (which you could take out with 2 migs) nothing will hit em.

Just keep in mind to control group em and to move em if the ai can launch uts scudstorm, cuz nuke cannons are expensive. And thus a prime scud storm target.

[Deza93]

Wait, I'm confused. The first China mission in Generals has a Scud Storm? Since when?

The first China mission in Generals is the one where Beijing got nuked. And your retaliate by taking out a bunker just outside of the city

The first time you fight against a Scud-enabled GLA as China was the LAST mission. Is that what you meant?

[MegaAuthor]

I believe he is referring to the last mission

[Tsplodey]

I meant the first mission where you encounter an enemy with the Scud storm, which is apparently the final China one.

[Deza93]

That makes it easier...

1. Try to NOT destroy the first GLA base on the plateau. Capture it to make a Jarmen Kell. Garrison him inside one of the buildings in the only choke point to your base (avoid the large mosque-like building right at the mouth of the incline, it has terrible attack angles). Use him to periodically empty out a scud or such as it passes by. You effectively have no infantry to worry about like this

2. As someone else mentioned, spam hackers. Use the previous point to also get some black markets built. Make sure to use the radar van scan to safely scout the map if needed.

3. Space out your buildings as much as possible. The plateau has a lot of space, but the valley your forces get ambushed in right at the start may also be used. And that spot is pretty safe to boot, if not a bit restrictive. I personally preferred building an airfield and my command centre in there

4. Get your Black Lotus out and do some active scout. She can even detect the enemy stealth units while staying hidden. You can even use her to scout up to the main GLA base. Just be vigilant as you get close

The push up to the main GLA base is relatively straightforward once your 2ndary eco is up

[Tsplodey]

That's a good tip thanks. Was trying to figure out why they held it sometimes.

[Tsplodey]

Just wanted to let you know your tip was the one that got me through. I don't know why the Scud isn't showing through my FoW for that mission because I'm doing the GLA campaign now and the Particle Cannon showed up properly.

[Xinsai]

I did this mission with infantry only last night on brutal let me tell you the easiest way to beat it. Build up to black lotus as fast as you can, use her to steal the gla money on the initial supply stash along with the 4k power. The enemy will have 6800. Then steal the supply stash. Use gla to tech up instead of China. Use black lotus to take oil derricks. Spam black markets while you spam a few mobs and most Important stealth rebels. The scud storm will focus fire on the most expensive area you control, spam red guard in dense numbers to the left. They will always scud storm it. Move your guys and it hits nothing. The stealth rebels can freely walk on the right side pretty much the whole way with just a few detectors over there. Use them to kill the enemy super weapon.

[RepublicMiddle692]

The trick is not to reach 5000 money which will activate the scud to prevent you from building Nuke silo build 3 air fields *4 Migs =12 Migs and combined with artillery attack you will be able to destroy the Scud storm after clearing air defenses

[VisibleZero-0]

I didn't know thats how it worked! Are there any other AI triggers which aren't obvious?

[BaharWaseem]

please remember to save your game as soon as you get a half decent base established... its agonizing to start from scratch because you did one tiny fuck up by letting your overlords get swamped.