Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge – Guide and Walkthrough
PC
Guide and Walkthrough by Kizor Nerdbringer
Version: 1.0 | Updated: 03/28/2004
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge singleplayer campaign hints, version 1.0. Copyright Kizor Nerdbringer/Miikka Ryökäs, 2004. Last mod 28.3.2004. Not to be used outside GameFAQs.com without permission from the author. Please send any comments, suggestions, corrections and additions to mryokas@edu.lahti.fi, if it's still there, or ryokas@hotmail.com. (The author can be irritatingly slow at answering) ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= 1. Table of Contents 2. About 3. Allied Campaign 3.1. Time Lapse 3.2. Hollywood and Vain 3.3. Power Play 3.4. Tomb Raided 3.5. Clones Down Under 3.6. Trick or Treaty 3.7. Brain Dead 4. Soviet Campaign 4.1. Time Shift 4.2. Deja Vu 4.3. Brain Wash 4.4. Romanov on the Run 4.5. Escape Velocity 4.6. To the Moon 4.7. Head Games =========================== About One Thing and Another =========================== Yuri's Revenge is an excellent add-on pack. Aside from adding a third side, it increases the number of singleplayer missions by more than 50%. The Allieds and the Soviets receive very few new units, but this is cleverly compensated by adding special units previously only accessible in multiplayer into the regular game. Unit statistics or exact descriptions are not found here - since there already are guides for those, that would just be redundant. This was written because, well, an opening was there. Previously GameFAQs had hosted only one work on the singleplayer campaign, and that focuses on getting through the missions ASAP. Plus I tend to start stuff that require a lot of work on whims. I'm a bit odd that way (among others). Content-wise, this oscillates somewhere between a tips list and a walkthrough. THIS GUIDE HAS BEEN MADE FOR DIFFICULTY LEVEL "HARD", rationalizing that those who get and play expansions are not your average Red Alert 2 gamers, that it's better to over- than to underdo it, and that I wanted a challenge after being bored by the main game and it's doubtful if I would've started this thing at all in any other case. All guides are at least a bit idiosyncratic to the writer's playing style. Naturally, I've tried to dampen this. As for how I play, I'm a defensive builder, who consequently has missions turn to wars of attrition unpleasantly often. I tend to attack either with small but (hopefully) effective guerrilla missions or unstoppable armies of doooooooom, and relatively often employ seemingly crazy tactics hoping that they'll work. Occasionally they do. Unrusprisingly, my multiplayer experience is nonexistent. Thanks go to Ståle, for services rendered... or something. =============== Allied Campaign =============== ===================== Allied 1 : Time Lapse ===================== - This mission introduces the nice Allied GI guardians, GIs with added anti-tank and anti-air capabilities. On Yuri's side, we meet the basic initiate grunts with a nasty short-range weapon, lasher light tanks that are fast but weak, and gattling cannons that become increasingly deadlier. These are best taken out one at a time and ASAP. - You have no structure-building capabilities, but can make basic infantry and vehicles. You get three mirage tanks, which are fairly efficient against Initiates. Endeavor to keep them alive, as they cannot be replaced. - Your base will be attacked by groups of lashers and initiates from all entrances, as well as the occasional Initiate paradrop from the southeast. Reinforce the entrances as you see fit. Note that chrono miners may come under attack while on their rounds. Garrisoning nearby buildings is an option, but they must be repaired first. - A building to the south is garrisoned by four experienced initiates. Destroying this threat is not necessary, but it will help maneuvers. The forces you have at the start will probably be insufficient. - The main objective is the capturing of four power plants, two of which are already visible and guarded by infantry. Mirage tanks should be able to clear the troops easily. The other two are in the southwest corner, with some tank support and a gattling cannon. Grizzly tanks are the best for the job. - After the power stations have been captured, you'll shift. Tanya will emerge in a couple of minutes; in the meantime, the dreadnoughts in the harbor and four apocalypses next to the grand cannons will provide work. Note that the grand cannons have a minimium range and a slow turn rate. Also deploy GI guardians in the vicinity, the leftmost cannon has an incoming kirov. - Tanya should be able to make it across by herself, though blasting Soviet ships by cannon won't hurt. Keep in mind that she is capable of sinking naval units. For an example of the iron realism of the game, Tanya can blow up Alcatraz. ============================ Allied 2: Hollywood and Vain ============================ - Here, you'll be able to build grand cannons, which make excellent base defence when coupled with walls to slow down the enemy. On the vehicle side you gain the battle fortresses, behemoths that can crush vehicles. They work well when carrying GI guardians. Yuri has gattling cannons tank-mounted, Yuri clones that work like Yuris did in the original, and bases. He mines ore with slave miners that move next to ore deposits and deploy, releasing slaves that exacavate the minerals. Ore that reaches the miner is converted to cash. Slaves can be released by destroying the miner, but they are pretty much cannon fodder. - Aside from having to take out grinders, the mission is an old-fashioned brawl. weather control is out, but the chronosphere can be used. Yuri has his base on a hill on the north edge of the area, and a small unit-producing one to the west of it. Four grinder outposts are located through the city and a number of buildings have been garrisoned. Of the grinders, only the second from the left has air defenses though the area of the leftmost one is patrolled by gattling tanks. The entrance of the small western base is defended but its interior is not. The garrisoned buildings have no air defense but gattlings may patrol the vicinity. - The enemy will attack often but in small numbers. Work on defenses and garrison nearby buildings. - The city has three movie stars that will come under your control when you near them. One is just to the north of your standing position and takes down infantry with ease. Another is in the northeastern grinder area and is deadly to all but vehicles. A third is near the northwestern grinder and works well against anything. All three are tough. Since the northeastern one does have vehicles near them, aim any airstrikes at the vehicles first and at the grinder second. - The city also has a machine shop in the southeast and a hospital in the northwest. Controlling either gives vehicles or infantry auto-healing capabilities. Near the hospital is an oil derrick and to the west of your base is the LAX, which will enable paratroopers. All four can come under attack once acquired. - A Yuri barracks next to one grinder is at a prime spot for infiltration. - Destroying a grinder will make a cash crate appear nearby. - Not every Yuri unit has to be taken out. The goal is to destroy all buildings, and once heavy enough damage is inflicted (including all constructing structures) Yuri will sell all the remaining ones for one last charge. Which will not take place, since you win immediately. - Chrono troopers and Yuri clones do not go well together, though a chrono weapon hitting a mind-controlling Yuri will cancel that control. ==================== Allied 3: Power Play ==================== - Yuri gets virus infantry, who are basically snipers, but the infantry units shot by one will leave poison clouds. Scouting would be useful in spotting these before they start taking out your infantry, but Yuri clone presence makes it highly hazardous. - This mission is fairly hectic. Both you and Yuri have a superweapon, a weather control device and a nuclear silo. Both sides hold several defended power stations, needed to power the superweapons. Oh, and Yuri will nuke your War Factory and knock your power below the required line in one minute. A hit from a superweapon will decimate those guarding a power station but will not destroy garrisoned buildings or the station itself. Thus, both sides will launch assaults and defend what they have claimed, trying to keep their power levels above the required line. Or you could go hi-risk and switch to Plan B. - Yuri's base is on the northwest edge. His troops will attack both by the land connection to the south of it and by the bridge to the southeast. The land connection is quite defended so the bridge is the best route for a counterattack. - Garrisoning the space needle will give you a view of Yuri's power plants and some other troop concentrations. Destroying the units near the Massivesoft campus is not necessary, but will get you about $ 15000. - Capturable buildings can help turn the tide. There are two oil derricks to the southwest, an extra civilian power plant in the southwest and a war factory near it. Do yourself a favor and save before capturing the factory in case Yuri decides to switch targets and nuke that. - Right at the start crank out as many units as possible, setting rally points reasonably far away from the war factory. Immediately after getting the spoken nuke warning, sell the war factory and the power plants next to it and move all units in the vicinity (selling will create a few GIs) away as directly as possible. Once the nuke hits, stop infantry production for a little bit for the radiation near the barracks to subside. - Yuri will repair but not rebuild. His base features a war factory, a barracks and three bio reactors. A superweapon shot will destroy either of the unit- producing facilities, hindering enemy attacks, or all power plants, making it easier to cut off Yuri's power. Attacks can't be halted completely as additional infantry is periodically delivered by air. Don't aim for the silo, it's too sturdy and will just be repaired. - You'll get two sets of much-needed vehicle reinforcements. However, it's not quite clear what triggers them. Capturing some power plants will give you a sniper airdrop in the region that'll likely need defending while airborne. - When a nuke is about to launch, briefly evaquate your power stations. Move the units back after the nuke hits, barring radiation. - Plan B: Maneuver all your units into one place avoiding Yuri's troops. Then rush the bridge leading to his base, destroying resistance as you encounter it. Be wary of virus infantry and direct fire at any Yuri clones, as when not told otherwise units will sooner take out a mind-controlled Allied than kill the controller. Reinforcements should be sent to join in. Once you reach the base, hit the silo. Yuri's air reinforcements will probably intensify as you near the vicinity. ===================== Allied 4: Tomb Raided ===================== - You get tank destroyers, a German speciality. They take out vehicles in a flash, but are nearly powerless against everything else. Give them some anti-infantry cover, they should not be allowed to fall under mind control. You can also build a robot control center that lets you construct robot drones, weak but invulnerable to being controlled. Knocking out the center powers down all robots. Yuri has psychic towers that mind control any units that get too near, with a maximium of three. Tanya is immune. - The map is bisected by a river. To the southwest are you, to the north is a small Yuri base that holds Einstein and a larger, proper one, and to the southeast is a small island with five oil derricks and bridges that connect it to the other land masses. Ore is scarce, so the derricks are quite important. Yuri attacks via the bridges and by hovercraft. slave miners mine in the north. - Rescuing Einstein is a simple affair. The base holding Einstein has a fuel drum next to its walls, enabling Tanya to get in. Take out the power, but do not destroy the psychic dominator! Once Einstein is free, the weapon will be set to self-destruct within two minutes plus you'll get one free shot with it. It won't control continents, but it will cause great structure damage and mind-control the units at ground zero. Combining using it with an attack on the main base would be nice, but the game seems more urgent than usual in telling you to rescue Einstein. Too long a delay might have adverse effects. - After Einstein's rescue the mission switches to a standard build-and-destroy. Take the derricks to ensure a supply of funds. - As for using the psychic dominator, there appears to be a cluster of nine tanks in the main Yuri base perfectly set for mind control. At the very least, they'll knock out a good chunk of the enemy's mobile defenses. However, if you can weather the initial attack it's entirely possible to take down the construction yard, war factory and barracks. Move to the northeast of the base once you get the chance, you'll want to avoid attracting the large group of initiates in the south if possible. - Tanya's survival is preferred but not imperative. Do not send her against slave miners, their machine guns and a tendency to move in packs are not healthy. =========================== Allied 5: Clones Down Under =========================== - New: Yuri's boomer submarines, his only naval units with guns. A boomer has twin torpedoes, ballistic missiles and a bad attitude. A secondary matter are the chaos drones which make nearby units berserk, making them attack any nearby target. Chaos drones see neglible use. - Yuri has a large base in the southeast corner and a small submarine-producing one northwest of that. Near the southwest corner of the map is a hospital, east of it is an airfield, and northwest of the submarine one is a machine shop. The hospital and the machine shop are near patches of ore and prime locations for ore refineries. - You have a few minutes before a fleet of boomer submarines attacks. One will remain southeast of the opera house and hammer your air defenses, the rest will go for the naval shipyard and the nearby power plants. Trying to blockade their way does not seem effective, instead bolster your fleet to take the attackers out. Add to your air defenses, too. Aegis cruisers are extremely effective given the time and money to build them. - Shortly after the attacking boomers are destroyed, a Korean air strike takes out Yuri's sub pens giving you water superiority. All harriers you build from now on will be elite black eagles. However, not long after this a number of buildings in the city will be garrisoned by a handful of initiates each, severely hindering your movements and possibly endangering the airfield. The troops appear instead of traversing from a base so trying to intercept them won't work. You might want to bolster the air defenses of the east part of your base and leave the lone boomer attacking it alone until you're ready to clear out the garrisoned troops. - When the garrisoned initiates are forced to abandon one building, they'll try to move to a nearby one. A good combination is units that outrange the buildings coupled with anti-infantry units. - Unfortunately, the main base is too far away from the sea for a naval attack. ========================= Allied 6: Trick or Treaty ========================= - Yuri's new toys are the master mind and the flying disc. The master mind is a moderately durable tank that can mind-control multiple ground units at a very rapid pace, but will start taking damage if the number of units exceeds three. The flying disc is an UFO replica. It has a high-powered beam cannon with a pretty low rate of fire and can disable power plants and defensive structures or steal money from refineries if it gets directly over any. - Master minds are not used half as efficiently as they could be but are still a pain. Air attacks are effective, but the master minds often have gattling tanks nearby. Groups of attackers in tight formation work in causing overload, but are best used well away from your base and preferably without other enemy activity. Best of all are fixed or robotic defenses and garrisoned buildings. - This mission is in two parts. After protecting the parliament from attacks, you have to take out a Yuri base. To start with you have a great cash reserve of $ 20000 and fifteen minutes to build up your defenses before Yuri's attack waves begin. You also start next to a large ore field, so begin working on fund-generation and defenses like mad. - Most attacks will come via the three bridges, although small forces will approach from the north and a couple of hovercraft will go for the two landings. The other side of the river is tightly packed with houses and excellent for garrisoning. It also has three oil derricks that you should capture immediately, blasting down the fence surrounding them with grizzlies, a machine shop and a hospital. - When building your defenses, keep in mind that you have to deal with master minds both alone and with other units. Garrisoning the building near the northwestern edge should be enough to deflect attacks from there. Garrisoning the two buildings nearest to each bridge will stop just about everything though it will be a drain on your resources for a counterattack. For the hovercrafts, you need either naval or air strike capabilities or reinforced landing sites. Some air defense near the parliament will also be necessary due to the floating discs. You'll need some units to deal with anything that gets trough. If the parliament comes under attack an engineer or two near it will come in handy. And you're supposed to get the funds for all of this somehow as well. Multiple chrono miners and a ore purifier are a must. - Capturing the hospital may cause more trouble than it's worth. The captured building will come under fire from passing flying discs and will need at least two patriot missile turrets, and later a pillbox for ground threats. The missiles are best placed closer to the west end where they won't come under ground fire. The northernmost oil derrick will thrice be attacked by six initiates and its destruction will also take out the other two. Curiously, the machine shop will be left untouched. - Yuri's troops will begin attacks shortly before the timer has clocked down. Mostly they attack in small groups, with a varying number of groups coming at once. After a few clashes, master minds and flying discs will make their appearances, at first by themselves but afterwards as parts of larger attacks. - On occasion, a gattling tank will fire at a garrisoned building from outside the building's range. If no tanks are nearby, abandoning the building to prompt the gattling tank to move forward and then regarrisoning it immediately works. - You'll switch to attack immediately after the treaty is signed. The map expands to show Yuri's base. It'll also reveal an oil derrick next to another ore field in the northwest. You'll probably be low on funds at this point so an ore refinery there is a good idea. - You'll receive a handful of Soviet units and ships. Yuri's base can't be attacked by transport but is in range of dreadnought and aircraft carrier attacks. If you use them you'll need some destroyers as there is light boomer presence in the channel. ==================== Allied 7: Brain Dead ==================== - Wahoo! It's the final mission, and you'll be commanding both Allied and Soviet units. Build both the ore purifier and the industrial plant. Chronoshift apocalypse tanks and use the iron curtain on them. Put crazy Ivans in IFVs. Go crazy. - You have access to all four superweapons. Unfortunately, as soon as the Allied MCV arrives Yuri gets both the psychic dominator and the genetic mutator. The latter fires more often, turning all soldiers in a large area to Yuri-controlled brutes. Keep few infantry out in the open and disperse what you do keep well. Yuri seems to aim for quantity rather than placement, so placing a squad of cheap troops safely far away from your bases will most often divert a blast towards it. The best-case scenario has the brutes then run towards base defenses. They're melee attackers strong against vehicles, but vulnerable to anti-infantry fire. - Yuri's last new unit is the not very useful magnetron. It can levitate units towards itself, disabling them for the duration, and do some damage to buildings. Dropping a unit on another will destroy both. - You start with a Soviet base on a small peninsula surrounded by sea and well away from the carnage. It has ore deposits to the north and south. Transports will deliver periodic attacks from the west and east, and occasional squadrons of flying discs from the south are something to watch out for. An oil derrick and a machine shop are to the north and west, respectively. - A few minutes after building a radar, an allied MCV and a few troops will be chrono'd to the southwest. Build defenses fast, perhaps adding a few battle bunkers. This area has ground connection to Yuri's southeast fortress and aside from the troops transported to the Soviet base, enemy ground attacks will focus here. - Two oil derricks and a cash crate are in the southwest corner. Yuri will attempt capture. - A small island in the northeastern sea has ore, and no enemy presence. - You have more superweapons than at any point before. Keep in mind that troops with an active iron curtain cannot be mind controlled. Nothing will survive a nuclear missile/weather storm combination, but the two could see better use. - Yuri doesn't actually have one base, but controls two independently operating allied ones. The larger has the psychic dminator, the smaller the genetic mutator. Knocking one's power out will not affect the other. - Once the area with the genetic mutator is cleared out, it makes a splendid landing site for spies and possibly engineers. =============== Soviet Campaign =============== ==================== Soviet 1: Time Shift ==================== - Don't worry: Yuri's gattling cannons are formidable, but nothing as bad as the first moments make them look. Their firing rate increases with time so they are best taken out with fast attacks. And no infantry. - Get to work on the coast guard. The scorpions can take out destroyer planes, but they can come under fire from from either the grand cannons, the gattling cannons or the Allied naval units themselves. The missiles of the dreadnought are extremely damaging to ships, but also to squids attacking them. You don't get to keep the naval units, so there's no sense in holding back. - Meet Boris, Tanya-equivalent. He can take out infantry like anything and can order airstrikes against structures (his MiGs are much deadlier than harriers) but is not that good against vehicles so he needs tank cover. - There's a hospital southwest of your starting position. This time around, it will give all your infantry auto-healing as long as you own it. However, capturing it will have it come under fire by four nearby grizzlies, so taking them out first would be best. - The Allies have GI guardian infantry troops with anti-tank weaponry. Luckily they fall to Boris as easily as all others. - Pick off the infantry around the base with Boris while rhinos rush the pillboxes. Try not to lose any tanks, and pull back seriously damaged ones. The base has repair facilities, both a repair depot and a machine shop that gives all vehicles self-healing capabilities. Air defense is heavy but an airstrike should be able to get through. - Once you have the time machine, you must power it. There are six civilian power ptations in the area, three in the vicinity of your base and three in a triangle to the northwest. Yuri will now start sending transports with initiates (basic grunts, nasty short-range weapon especially deadly for other infantry) and engineers to take the plants. Some have Allied guards, but if uncontested Yuri's troops will swiftly take all but the leftmost plant. As soon as he has four plants, a ten-minute countdown for the psychic dominator will start. As soon as you have four plants, you'll use the machine. Yuri will try to retake captured stations, but as he has to use transports his response time is slow. Repair tanks if you need to, then get a move on. - There's not much to do during the interval, except maybe position your troops better. You'll get some extra ones as well. - After the shift you'll arrive to the Soviet occupation. All structures will be restored and returned to their original owners. Remember to take out the pillboxes again! The city is now filled with gattling cannons and Yuri's lasher tanks that are fast but weak. Luckily the grand cannons now seem inoperative. - Moving any unit to the Soviet base will place the base under your command. I'm betting there was quite some explaining to do. While you can reinforce the base defenses if you wish, the base has little importance. Note the wonderful new battle bunkers, essentially small, repairable garrisons. - A surgical strike is better than an all-out fight. Blow a path to the beach and move Boris to Alcatraz. He'll have little trouble completing the mission. If you lose Boris, you can still complete the mission but will have to use conventional troops. ================= Soviet 2: Deja Vu ================= - Look familiar? Those who have completed the main campaigns should already know the area. The only required targets are Einstein's lab and the chronosphere, so wiping out an yourself is helpful but not required. Rushing may work. - This battle is Soviets vs. Allied only, so those who expect unforeseen challenges may be disappointed. Of course, since this is an expansion disc things are not quite so simple as they were: The Allies have battle fortresses, mobile behemoths that crush vehicles and can carry any type of infantry who retain their firing abilities. Luckily they don't crush nearly as much as they could. You get an industrial plant that lowers the cost and building time of all vehicles. The chronosphere is also now functional, so you need to design your defenses accordingly. - The German outposts are not as easy to destroy as they were in the main game but do fall to V3s fast. Note the tank destroyers in the southern one. These will attack, and though they are almost powerless against infantry and structures they're poison to vehicles. They must not get near V3s, but they will win over four rhinos in combat. Deploy the conscripts in a nearby flak track and use them instead. Once the border guards are out you'll get a MCV. - Einstein's lab is surrounded by a second Allied base. Given time, this base will grow and reinforce its defenses. - The enemy has inconspicious mirages in abudance. To test a group of trees, select any unit that could attack a tank and move your cursor over the trees. - Protect your V3s. Aerial attacks seem to pay extra attention to them. - To the south is an Allied refinery that has several prism towers and a pillbox but no air defenses. Capture or destroy, preferably early to limit the funds it provides to the enemy. - The hill overlooking Einstein's base has ore and an outpost. V3s on the hill can target northern parts of the base, but not without attracting harrier attention. ==================== Soviet 3: Brain Wash ==================== - The psychic dominator cannot be reached until you free the Allied base. And if it could, you'd be shredded in moments. Focus on the psychic beacon first. You'll face gattling tanks that are basically fragile gattling cannons on wheels, so things just got a whole lot hairier for unescorted infantry. - Funds are a problem. Southeast of your base is an Allied refinery independent of the main Allied base. It comes with a miner. On the eastern edge is an example of Yuri's secondary resource-generation method. It has gattling tanks nearby, so if you send Boris he'll need tank support. Blow up the grinder to generate a cash crate and have Yuri sell his nearby structures. Capture the two oil derricks as well. - Four bridges lead to the other side of the river. All are defended. The first will be blown up as it's neared, plus there is a sniper in the area. A terror drone will be able to get across and kill the sniper with ease, which gives you a small cash crate, but you don't get the sniper and possibly a SEAL once you destroy the beacon. Attack-wise, you'd have to blast your way through the Allied base and most of the units there. Not recommended. The second and the third are lightly defended, but both will attract attention from nearby enemy troops, especially the second one which ends right next to the Allied base. The fourth has too heavy enemy presence. You can also use a hovercraft to go to the landing area northeast the one on your side, though a gattling tank is in wait there. - The psychic beacon can be blown up by an airstrike avoiding its defenses. Once it's gone, you gain the Allied base along with Tanya (yay!), who can now use C4 on vehicles as well, and the capacity to build the powerful but fragile tesla tanks. The psychic dominator will now start a ten-minute countdown. - Luckily, the psychic dominator here is not the continent-decimating kind. It causes great damage to structures and mind-controls the units at ground zero. You can withstand a hit. If an attack force is inside Yuri's base when the timer reaches zero, it'll most likely be targeted. - Tanya and Boris are expendable, though of course highly useful. - There are two more oil derricks north of the Allied base. - The assault on Yuri's base is a tricky one. His bases are fairly generic as bases go, though they use psychic radars as radar and mine ore in a novel way. This one has a considerable amount of troops. The southwestern entrance is a bad idea as it has the most defenders; you'll want to deal with them some at a time. Better ideas are the northern entrance and the landing to the southwest. The latter will allow you to bypass the gattling cannons at the gates entirely but limits the assault force you can take. Your transport will come under fire from the fourth bridge. - You have several units that are good against infantry, so your primary concerns are turrets and vehicles. After you eliminate the immediate threat, go for the power plants. The Psychic Dominator is surrounded by a ridiculous wall of defenses and you need to bring down the power first. Note that these are bio reactors - there can be units inside them. If you destroy such a reactor they will emerge unharmed. Roughly half have to be destroyed to bring the base offline. - The dominator has a barrel on its right side that will knock a good hole in the fence. Take out some extra power plants before going for it! The psychic dominator counsumes a lot of power and you don't want to bring the gattling cannons back online. - A few seconds after the dominator is destroyed, Yuri will sell all his structures and attack you with everything he's got. That includes slave miners. This assault should be fairly easy to weather, but keep infantry away from the machine-guns on the miners! ============================ Soviet 4: Romanov on the Run ============================ - Initial attacks can be fierce, and several Yuri clones will try to mind-control your tanks. You'll also meet the new brute unit, melee infantry good against vehicles and structures. They are more vulnerable to rifle than to tank fire but immune to dogs. Terror drones will kill them as long as the brute doesn't get into bashing range before the drone leaps. As new and even worse are the Yuri clones, which work like Yuris did in the original. - You can now build demolition trucks, slow and fragile vehicles that cause a medium-scale nuclear explosion when destroyed. Whee. If you don't mind the wastefulness you can use these to take out the garrisoned buildings in the middle of the map. V3s can also be used. In either case you'll need something to kill the initiates after they're forced out. Do not scout with these things, you can't have one being controlled. - There are Oil Derrics to the north and in the southeastern corner. They'll need some defense - remember to keep any you build to the northern one out of the range of the nearby gattling cannon. - A secondary Yuri base exists to the north, next to the oil derrick. - Romanov is in a building in the southeast of the city. He'll come out as soon as you near the building. He's unarmed, so send a larger force than a couple of scouts in case he comes under attack on the way back. As soon as you get him you'll receive the capability to build an Iron Curtain. Note that unlike all other characters, Romanov is vulnerable to mind control! - If Romanov is captured by a Yuri clone, he and the clone will be taken to a small fenced area south of the main Yuri base. Kill the clone to regain Romanov. - A bridge leads to Yuri's base. Its defenses include new Psychic Towers that can control up to three units. If you can't take these out from outside their range, go in en masse. - Units rendered invulnerable by the iron curtain can't be mind-controlled. As the game suggests, this is an excellent way of getting a demolition truck inside an enemy base. I say: Why use just one? Any number up to nine can be shielded at once. When using several trucks in such an attack, group them together close to an enemy base so they can all be affected. Immediately after using the iron curtain, command all to move to some spot inside the enemy base to save precious seconds. En-route, select them one by one and give them specific targets. They are vulnerable to mind-control after the invulnerability wears off, so careful. This is not exactly the most cash-efficient route, but isn't the point to have fun? Smaller attacks are ideal for cracking outer defenses. ========================= Soviet 5: Escape Velocity ========================= - Prepare for a long and taxing mission. Enemy presence is heavy both on sea and land. The roughly 'C' - shaped island is full of cliffs and twisty paths to make navigating difficult. New virus snipers will pick off infantry and leave poison clouds behind (bonus points for the animation, though). And it gets better - humongous and durable Yuri statues, seen in this mission only, fire powerful beam weapons at anyone who comes close. - Yuri statues are capturable, but getting an engineer to the structure alive is very diffucult - at least three are needed to get one in alive even if they emerge from a flak track right at the base. A few, especially well-placed ones, will be a good help in fending off the frequent assaults. The rest should be V3'd. - Of the three landing zones, the southern one has three oil derricks nearby. The northwestern ore is overlooked by a Yuri statue, and the northeastern one will be targeted by Yuri's slave miners. The southern one is probably the best. Your naval forces are not sufficient to destroy the boomers that prey on the routes to the two farther sites, but transports will be able to get through, especially if they travel on land when possible. - During this mission, you'll receive the capability to build siege choppers. These can be deployed for long-range artillery, and when mobile utilize a machine gun. They're quite good for bombardment purposes in packs. - Note that a normal unit firing at your troops will only reveal itself for a moment if it's still covered by the fog of war. Snipers won't reveal themselves at all. It is possible to quickly target these units before they vanish back, which can be useful in destroying statues. - Your only target is the sub pen in the middle of the map, surrounded by gattling cannons and other defenses. There's a base to the northeast of it, but hitting that is not required. If you enter the base you'll find one indestructible unknown structure (which doesn't do a thing in any case) and a secret lab. Taking out the pen will need a large-scale attack by either sea or air. The iron curtain can be used on deployed choppers, though your mileage with the actual usefulness of this trick will vary. - When the sub pen is destroyed, Yuri will sell everything and attack with the same. In the right circumstances this can be a truly humongous charge, severely imparing the performance of low-end PCs and requiring the deployment of everything you have. Including miners. Any captured Yuri statues along the way of the attacks will help, as will the presence of more than one base as the forces will split up. ===================== Soviet 6: To the Moon ===================== - "Now this is silly! Except for my impending death." - Torg, Sluggy Freelance. No camels are involved here, but the quote is as accurate. This mission takes place in the Sea of Tranquility, and that's on the moon! Luna has no resources, so your excessive starting capita of $ 55000 comes in handy. - Due to the lack of an atmosphere, unit choices are limited. Vehicles are restricted to rhino and tesla tanks, flak tracks, terror drones, useless MCVs and apocalypses. Yuri uses his few vehicles normally. Both sides have cosmonauts as infantry. These are fast, light and flying, basically much like rocketeers. They're armed with a laser, quite powerful in packs, that can be fired against any target. The Soviets can also train Devastators, but they aren't very useful. - I can't avoid adding that it's remarkable how well and fast both sides have adjusted their guns in order to compensate for kickback in one-sixth Earth gravity. - Yuri deploys his remaining units, magnetrons, master minds and floating Discs. Magnetrons are vehicles that draw enemy vehicles towards them, disabling them for the duration. Master minds are brains on wheels - they can mind-control multiple ground units, but will damage themselves if they control more than three. Floating discs are strong air units that fire beams and can disable power plants and defenses if directly overhead. They can also steal from refineries - good thing you haven't got any. You'll be demonstrated the first two right at the start. During it there's a chance of the controlled rhino going wild, which results in very heavy damage to itself and the MCV. - The map is narrow but tall. There's flat ground for a base in the southwest corner. Yuri's main base is on the north edge and two small unit-producing ones are on the west and the east sides of the middle. - Once the frequent attacks can be dealt with, the mission is actually rather easy. The funds are more than enough to build a base and a good attack force. Minimizing losses from attacks does help, though, so you'll need some fixed defenses. Good flak cover is a necessity for the frequent cosmonauts and the Flying Discs which have to be outnumbered. Some sentry guns or tesla coils placed in the directions ground attacks appear to be coming from will not go amiss. - The two smaller bases should be taken out first, as all enemy presence has to be destroyed anyhow and completely destroying one will give you a small cash bonus. The left one has defenses leaning more on gattling turrets, the right one uses psychic towers more. - Yuri will not sell his buildings for a final rush once brutally damaged (ironically enough, since this is the one time it might actually work). All have to be taken out, so kamikaze strikes are out of the question. ==================== Soviet 7: Head Games ==================== - Final mission! You're up against Yuri's forces, and mind-controlled Allied troops, AND mind-controlled Soviet troops, all at the same time. Joy! Luckily, taking out either of the two psychic beacons will cause the side in question to revert under your command. - To even the odds, there's a small village to the west and to the northeast of your position. Both have a grinder, and both grinders make a cash crate appear when destroyed. A secret lab is to the east-northeast. Moving a unit to the southwest corner will give you two demolition trucks and three terrorists as reinforcements, which come in handy if you can keep them out of the way of the enemy attacks. It's probably best not to get them until you intend to use them. - Enemy presence is as heavy as they come, attacks will come frequently and from all directions. Scout to extend the response time available and don't forget air defenses. On the ground, a thing to watch out for are IFVs with Soviet troops, most often tesla troopers and the occasional crazy Ivan which behaves like a small demolition truck. These appear to often go for the barracks. On the air, harriers and rocketeers aren't much of a problem but floating discs are, and kirovs definitely so. - You'll want some mobile air defenses as fixed ones just won't have time to take out several kirov airships before they blow your base to pieces. Note that kirovs intercepted before reaching your base will try to bomb the attacker. flak tracks work best as they're agile enough to be steered away from blast areas. Kirovs tend to come from the north-northeast. - The psychic beacons are both deep in their respective bases. Battling your way to them will require a good assault force and will seriously damage what then passes to your control. They are far enough away to make iron curtain and demolition trucks infeasible, though the device could help other kinds of ground attacks. There is another way, though - you can finally build a nuke silo. Unfortunately, several minutes after doing so the enemy will build a nuke silo, a weather controller and a psychic dominator with intervals of ten seconds. Your nuke attack will be able to stop one of the first two before it fires at all and the other before it takes a second shot, but you will still take damage. - The psychic dominator is fortunately not the continent-decimating kind, but will cause high damage to buildings and mind-control the units at ground zero. - It's not possible to launch nukes less than ten minutes apart. You receive no benefit from getting the enemy silo if you still have your own, and if you don't have one then the timer will start at ten minutes. - Somewhere along the road Yuri will deploy the genetic mutator, his minor superweapon. It will turn all infantry in a large area into Yuri-controlled Brutes. To keep the casualties down, keep little infantry out in the open and scatter what you do keep. When you take out a psychic beacon, remember to check your new base for troop concentrations! Yuri appears to go for quantity rather than position, so blasts from the thing can usually be diverted by amassing a small group of cheap soldiers safely far away from your base. Preferably in front of some defensive structures. - What with the nature of the objective, the Allies can't build a chronosphere. - Although Yuri's forces occupy about 40% of the map, most of those are the Allies and the Soviets. Aside from them, the actual Yuri base is actually relatively feeble. Coming from the east, as few as three kirovs can work their way to the castle. The castle itself is tremendously durable, though, well capable of enduring a nuke storm (twin superweapon strike), so attackers will need to either take out everything firing at them first, or tremendous firepower. ----------------------- So there. By the way, is it really true that if you garrison the pyramids in Allied 4, mummies will come out?
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