GDI Strategy Guide

Version: 1.05

Last Update: 5/12/07

Author: Josh Karpel

email: maventree@gmail.com

===================

Table of Contents

-----------

1.0 - Preface

2.0 - GDI Units/Structures/Abilities

2.1 - Units

2.2 - Structures

2.3 - Abilities

3.0 - General Strategies

3.1 - General

3.2 - Rushing

3.3 - Turtling

3.4 - Mixed

4.0 - Specific Strategies

4.1 - GDI Vs. GDI

4.2 - GDI Vs. Nod

4.3 - GDI Vs. Scrin

5.0 - Frequently Asked Questions

6.0 - Credits

7.0 - Guide Version Info

8.0 - Legal Info

===================

1.0 - Preface

-----------

This is a general strategy guide for the GDI faction in

Command and Conquer 3.

It will not teach you how to play the game, because I

assume you were competent

enough to read the mini-guide the game comes with, or

played the tutorial and

figured it out.

The GDI's philosophy is "slow but steady". Your powerful

units move slowly, and

cost quite a bit, but once you get them out, they're tough

as nails and can

destroy just about everything. But this doesn't mean you

can be careless, as no

plan (no matter how good) survives contact with the enemy.
So, I hope you find this guide useful. Please feel free to

contribute using the

email at the top of the guide.

===================

2.0 - GDI Units/Structures

-----------

2.1 - Units

-----------

Infantry:

Rifleman: 300 Tiberium

The rifleman squad is the basic combat infantry for the

GDI. They have rifles,

and are relatively effective against other infantry. Try

to phase out of them

as soon as possible, because a combination of missile

squads and snipers is

far more effective. They can build small bunkers, that are

effectively a

garrisonable (1 unit) tuuret. Because of the serious lack

of good anti-air

fire the GDI have, filling these bunkers with missile

squads can be quite

effective at defending your base from air attacks.

Missile Squad: 400 Tiberium

Missile squads are your workhorse infantry. A few well-

placed missile squads

are quite capable of taking down vehicles, especially if

garrisoned. A good

tactic is to put two missile squads with a sniper squad

into a building. Then,

the building can serve as a "take-all-comers" defence

unit, taking down both

infantry and vehicles.

Sniper Squad: 1000 Tiberium

Your other main infantry unit. Teamed with missile squads,

these will eat

through the opposition. Once again, throw a squad of

snipers in a building

with two missile squads, and the building is a sort of

mini-fortress. It is

very important to have at least a few of these when you

garrison troops: if

you don't, enemy building clearing units (flamethrowers,

grenadiers, etc.)

will tear you apart. Make sure to throw a few of these

around your base and

main advances to keep fanatics off your buildings and

vehicles.

Grenadier Squad: 800 Tiberium

Grenadier are used to clear garrisoned buildings. Use them

to break through

when the enemy has garrisoned buildings. Don't put them in

front of the

attack though, because a garrisoned building will fire at

the closest target.

Use tanks or a horde of cheap infantry to soak up hits

while the grenadiers do

their work. Once you get up into the higher tech levels,

these become less

useful, because vehicles are much more resilient and still

able to take down

garrisoned structures. However, you should always keep a

few of these squads

around, just in case you REALLY need to take down a

building fast.

Zone Trooper Squad: 1300 Tiberium

The zone trooper squad is your most powerful infantry.

They use rifle-sized

railguns, giving them an absolutely deadly (one shot, one

kill) attack against

infantry, and deal serious damage to vehicles. With

upgrades, they can also

detect stealthed units, making them a great support unit

for a vehicle attack.

Their jetpacks are useful for surprise attacks, but be

careful where you land

them: they can't fire while jetpacking, and have a

cooldown before they fire

once they hit the ground. If you aren't careful, you can

lose a ton of them by

jumping into a group of enemies. Of course, if you are

careful, you can zone

tro

Commando: 2000 Tiberium

The commando units are an oddity. They are useful in

certain situations, but I

generally avoid them. They cost 2000 Tiberium that could

be used to buy things

that will probably serve you far better than a single

commando. If you have

Tiberium to spare, and want to play around with a cool

unit, go for it. If you

don't, consider not using the commando. If you do though,

remember what the

commando is good for: infantry killing, building killing,

and walker killing.

Drop him in an APC and he becomes a ludicrously deadly

anti-infantry tool.

When attacking, jump jet him up to the enemy defences

while they're occupied

and start blowing them up. Basically, think of it like

this: the commando

won't win the game for you, but it can certainly help.

Engineer: 500 Tiberium

Engineers capture buildings. That's pretty much their

whole use. They have no

weapons, and will die very quickly if they come under

fire. Use them to take

over neutral building like tiberium spikes, and to steal

enemy buildings.

Interesting tidbit: For harder AI levels, when an engineer

gets close to a

building, the enemy will sell the building. If you can get

an engineer into

the center of an AI base, and they may very sell off their

whole base to stop

you from capturing it!

Ground Vehicles:

Pitbull: 700 Tiberium

Pitbulls are basically a missile squad on wheels. They

also detect stealth, a

useful ability for any combat group. Use them with APCs to

create a fast, all-

around effective combat group that can engage everything

in the game. However,

make sure you keep them out of serious trouble, because,

as with all light

vehicles, they are very fragile against serious anti-

vehicle fire. If you're

going to use them in an assault, or extensively in any

way, you should invest

in the mortar upgrade. It is a very cheap and effective

upgrade.

APC: 700 Tiberium

APCs are, in my humble opinion, one of the best GDI

vehicles. They can hold

one infantry squad inside them, but more importantly, the

unit inside can fire

out of the APC. So, though the APC only has a machine gun

effective vs. air

and infantry, an APC with a missile squad inside is

effective against all

targets, and in groups, can slaughter just about anything.

Plus, they're more

manueverable than the mammoth tank, and can hire air

transports as well. APC's

can also drop minefields, useful for blocking off bridges

or other natural

tight-spots.

Predator Tank: 1100 Tiberium

The main mid-game tank for the GDI can be toughie to

produce, but can smack

their Nod equivalents around with no trouble. Also, the

railgun upgrade will

affect these as well. Though with less firepower, two or

three predators will

be able to engage different targets, with more speed and

maneuverability than

a mammoth tank.

Juggernaut: 2200 Tiberium

Juggernaut are another oddity. If you have some well-

placed sniper teams, you

can use these to knock out a large group of enemy units

cleanly and quickly.

Use them if the game is going slowly and you want to crack

a tough defence.

Some people use them for frontal assaults, but I suggest

using them in more of

a support role.

Mammoth Tank: 2500 Tiberium

The GDI main battle tank. A few of these will crush

through most opposition,

and it will take some actual tactics to take them down.

With the railgun

 upgrades, mammoths will really come into their own.

However, you must support

them or lose them. Vertigo bombers will pound them into

dust, so make sure

they can't. Rather than building ten mammoths, build two

or three mammoths,

some zone troopers, and a couple APCs with missile squads.

This group is more

versatile, can move better through small spaces like city

fights.

MCV: 2500 Tiberium

Not a neccisity because of the Surveryor/Outpost, but if

you want a real

backup base, you need one of these. It's totally

unprotected, so make sure to

send and escort if you really need it to live. When

deployed, this will create

a construction yard, the building you need to start doing,

well, anything!

Rig: 2000 Tiberium

An interesting unit, that creates a battle base when

deployed. The base is

equipped with some turret weapons, and can repair nearby

vehicles. It does

not create a build zone around it, but pairing a rig with

a surveyor lets you

create a defended expansion base quickly, and you can even

pack it up and put

it somewhere else.

Surveyor: 1500 Tiberium

Surveyors are used to create outposts, which generate a

build zone, allowing

for the creation of expansion bases. Totally unarmed, so

you want to defend

them if you're in the thick of the battle.

Harvester: 1000 Tiberium

Harvesters... well, harvest. They have a light machine

gun, but it's pretty

much useless, so defend your harvesters well. You can

build more from the

war factory, but refinerius come with a free harvester as

well. Note though:

if you make a refinery, then sell it, you get a harvester

for 1000 tiberium,

the same as it's individual price at the war factory.

Useful for getting extra

harvesters in the early game.

Air Vehicles:

Orca: 1100 Timberium

Orcas are like small nuggets of goodness, filled with

rockets of course. Orcas

are excellent support vehicles: bring them in to support

tank charges or to

counter-charge enemy tanks. A group of twelve orcas is

easily maintainable,

and will rip tanks and even infantry to shreds. Try not to

attack with only

orcas though, because they are very vulnerable to anti-air

fire. Also, after

you research the sensor pod upgrade at the tech center,

orcas can drop small

sensor pods that will detect stealth and reveal the area

around them. These

are a must buy.

Firehawk: 1500 Tiberium

Firehawks are your bomber unit. Upgrade to these late

game, but don't stress

it if you don't have the money. Firehawks are very

fragile, and can only fire

one salvo before needing to return to the airbase. Of

course, with their

special upgrade, they can travel anywhere on the map

instantly, and drop their

devestating bombs to cripple enemy bases. However, DO NOT

USE FIREHAWKS ON

ENEMY UNITS. You will fail miserably. The bombs fall too

slow to hit moving

targets, and don't deal enough damage to truly disrupt

enemy attacks. Use them

to destroy enemy bases, twelve firehawks, split into three

groups of four, can

kill or seriously damage three buildings. AND, they can

drop directly into the

enemy base, right on top of that building. Remember

though, that the cooldown

means you can't stratosphere fighter your way back out, so

you may lose some

on the way out if there is a lot of AA around the enemy

base. Of course, that

is only the ground attack mode. If you switch them to AA

fire, they become

massively effect verse most air attacks. 12 firehawks can

seriously damage

even the Scrin's mothership in a very short time.

2.2 - Structures

-----------

Construction Yard: FREE (at beggining, deployed MCV)

This is the most important building in the game: it lets

you build everything

else! Keep it protected, or you might suddenly lose your

whole building

ability to a sneak attack.

Crane: 1500 Tiberium

The crane allows the use of another building queue, so you

can build two

building at once. This also affects the support building

queue, so you can

build defences two at a time as well. Often one the first

buildings someone

will build.

Oupost: FREE (deployed surveyor)

Outposts are created by surveyors, and create a build zone

to allow creation

of an expansion base. It also functions like an armory in

regards to healing

your infantry units.

Power Plant: 800 Tiberium

Power plants provide, get this, power. After you build a

tech center, they can

be upgraded to produce even more power. In the meantime,

you should try to

stay ahead of your energy needs. Running out of energy in

the middle of a

fight could lose you the advantage if you use base

defences.

Tiberium Refinery: 2000 Tiberium

Refineries are absolutely essential. They let harvesters

drop off their

Tiberium, giving you it to use for buildings everything

else. Another one of

those first-few-minutes buildings.

Tiberium Silo: 500 Tiberium

Silos let you store more Tiberium. If you have some extra

Tiberium to throw

around, buy them. If you don't, don't bother. They aren't

necessary at all,

and are more a luxury item than anything else.

Barracks: 500 Tiberium

The barracks creates your infantry units. Building more of

them will give you

more infantry build queues, and since they're cheap, you

should consider it.

Once again, a first-few-minutes building.

War Factory: 2000 Tiberium

The war factory constructs your vehicle units. Building

more also gives you

more build queues, but the higher build cost may prohibit

this. It also has

drones to repair damaged vehicles, so bring damaged

vehicles back to preserve

them.

Command Post: 1500 Tiberium

The command post only gives one thing, the radar scan

ability, but also opens

the gate to the higher tech levels. Build it when you need

to, not before. It

is relatively expensive for the early game, so focus on

the other buildings

first.

Airfield: 1000 Tiberium

Each airfield only provides space for four air units, so

you will definately

need more than one. They also provide repair/rearm to

units that are landed

at them, so make sure to return your aircraft to home

after their attack runs.

Armory: 1000 Tiberium

The armory has your infantry upgrades, and also allows the

building of some

more advanced infantry. You need this to build snipers, so

if you plan on a
mixed sniper/missile squad defence, you'll need to build

this fast. The armory

can also heal infantry units by garrisoning the infantry

inside the armory.

Tech Center: 4000 Tiberium

The tech center has the upgrades for your vehicles and

aircraft, and also

allows construction of advanced vehicles and structures.

It costs quite a bit,

so unless you're rushing for the more powerful vehicles,

save it until you

have a good economy going.

Space Command Uplink: 3000 Tiberium

This is the highest level tech structure for the GDI. It

grants some nice

abilities like the zone trooper drop pod. It can only be

built after the

the tech center is up, so you probably have a good enough

economy going to

cover the price. If you're rushing for high tech, you

probably shouldn't

bother grabbing this.

Ion Cannon Control Center: 5000 Tiberium

This is your superweapon building. It enables the timer

for the Ion Cannon,

which can obliterate basically anything. Hit the enemy

base with it, and

follow up with some supported mammoths, and you're set up

for the win. It

costs a lot, but if you're worrying about superweapons you

should have a good

economy going.

Watch Tower: 600 Tiberium

The watch tower is an anti-infantry defence. Almost

useless against vehicles,

it will slaughter infantry that get in range. As with all

other defences, you

should build multiple watch towers, so that they cover and

support each other.

Guardian Tower: 1200 Tiberium

Basically a watch tower that is effective against vehicles

instead of infantry

targets. Build a lot of these if you're going to use them,

because they have a

very slow fire rate, and only moderate damage.

Sonic Emitter: 2000 Tiberium

The most powerful GDI base defence. Though it has a

relatively low range, it

will destroy anything it hits in just a few hits. They are

expensive, so build

them sparingly, and only where they will really count.

They are especially

effective against any kind of grouped rush, because the

sonic attack will

continue until it reaches it's range limit, damaging every

target it hits.

And, when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. The sonic

blast can hurt your

own units and structures, so place your Sonic Emitters in

front of your other

defences.

AA Battery: 800 Tiberium

This is your turreted air defence. It deals constant

damage, but each hit does

almost nothing. Overall, this isn't a very good turret.

Build them, but if you

keep some rocket-based units around your base, you're

probably safer. Missile

squads in rifleman-made bunkers, missile squads in actual

buildings, and of

course pitbulls, are great substitutes.

Battle Base: FREE (deployed rig)

A frontline base which has several turret weapons, and can

also repair your

vehicles. It can be repaired like a normal building, and

with an outpost can

create a great expansion/frontline base.

2.3 - Abilities

-----------

GDI Airborne: 1000 Tiberium, enabled by Armory

This ability drops in two veteran rifleman squads and two

veteran missile

squads. This is very useful for reinforcing a crumbling

position, but is

better used in conjunction with your other powers.

Sharpshooter Team: 2500 Tiberium, enabled by Tech Center

This drops in three veteran sniper teams. Extremely useful

when you need to

defend something verse an infantry rush.

Bloodhounds: 2000 Tiberium, enabled by Airfield OR War

Factory

This drops in two veteran pitbulls and two veteran APCs. A

good combo is to

use this with the GDI airborne ability, and then put the

two missiles squads

into the APCs. Combined with zone trooper drop pods and

sharpshooter team, you

can make a small, effective attack team pretty much where

ever you want to.

Zone Trooper Drop Pod: 3000 Tiberium, enabled by Space

Command Uplink

This will almost instantly drop in three veteran zone

trooper squads. This is

the most useful single ability you get other than the Ion

Cannon, because the

zone troopers are effective against all targets. You only

get a few of them,

but if you drop them where it counts, they'll be able to

do quite a bit.

Radar Scan: 250 Tiberium, enabled by Command Post

There's really only one use for this: figure out where

things are. Use it on

likely expansion areas to see if the enemy is there, or to

check up on the

enemy base.

Orca Strike: 500 Tiberium, enabled by Airfield

Basically useless. It can take out some kinds of turrets,

but pretty much

nothing else. Use it to take out tough enemy units if you

have to, but the

strike is slow and easily avoidable. However, if you

really need to that last

little bit of damage to something, this is perfect.

Shockwave Artillery: 1500 Tiberium, enabled by Space

Command Uplink

Good old artilley strike. It does moderate damage, so it

won't take out many

 buildings, but it's great to crush enemy assaults. It's

even better against

vehicles, because it has an EMP effect that disables them

for a few moments.

It's especially effective agianst Nod "turret farms",

where you can knock out

a large amount of defences in just a few moments.

Ion Cannon: 0 Tiberium, enabled by Ion Cannon Control

Center

The Ion Cannon is the GDI superweapon. It will easily wipe

out most of a base

by itself, and will kill basically everything except

construction yards in one

hit. The seven minute recharge is a killer, so use it

against bases, not enemy

attacks. Follow it up with an immediate, massive assault

if you can, because

the Ion Cannon strike will probably tie up the enemy while

they reconstruct

their base.

===================

3.0 - General Strategies

-----------

3.1 - General

-----------

There are a few general strategies you may want to take

under advisement while

playing the GDI. First is the very start of the game. No

matter what specific

strategy you use, your first buildings should look

something like this:

- 2 refineries (you may want to sell the second one)

- 2 power plants

- barracks

- crane

- surveyor (if there is somewhere to expand to)

You can build those buildings in whatever order you want

to, but I prefer to

start with either the crane, or a power plant and a

barracks. After you build

those buildings, you should advance as you wish. However,

two things you should

definately do are build up your expansion base (if you made

one), and to start

making infantry and turrets for defence/attack/expansion.

Garrison infantry to

maximize their effectiveness.

If you use this strategy, you will get a strong start to

kick off the rest of

the game. Of course, the true best strategy is to figure

out what works best

for you.

After this point, your strategy will fall into one of the

three general

categories explained below: Rushing, Turtling, or a mix of

the two.

And, some general tips that will help against anyone:

- Use the firehawk's stratofighter ability to knock out

construction yards. It

will only take about 8 to destroy one, and with

stratofighter you can appear

right next to their construction yard. You should also do

this with their most

important buildings: cranes, war factories, and tech

buildings. If you take

out all their construction yards, cranes, and factories,

the enemy is pretty

much done for. Taking out top tech buildings disables

certain units and

abilities, so you can launch an assault while they're

reeling.

- Orcas are another great accompanying unit for mammoths.

You use them to take

out units that you don't want your mammoths to deal with:

hordes of beam tanks

are a good example. Five or six beam tanks can easily rip

apart small groups

of mammoths, so sending orcas ahead of them can help keep

your mammoths alive.

Even better, Orcas have two ways of detecting stealth

units, so they can find

cloaked avatars, stealth tanks, anything that might

threaten your mammoths.

- Before an attack, try to use your zone trooper drop pods

power on the back of

the enemy base. If you're lucky, you may be able to knock

out enough power

plants to put them below their required power. If you do

it at just the right

time, you can attack just as this happens, and kill their

base defences with

little or no resistance.

- Take advantage of the veterancy system. When a unit gets

to max veterancy, it

becomes far more useful. Watch for units shooting in red,

or watch for the

symbol near their name. At max, they self-heal, do more

damage, have a farther

range, and reload faster (if it's a unit that reloads).

Protect these units,

and put them where it counts.

- Use orcas to coat the map in sensor pods. They're

completely free once you

get the upgrade, and have no recharge timer. One orca can

get most of the map

covered, and inside that area you reveal fog of war, and
also have stealth

detection. They do go away after a while, but you can just

drop them again.

- Throw down a battle base and surround it with mammoths.

If the mammoths take

damage the battle base will repair them, and the mammoths

will shred anything

that gets near them. It costs a lot more than your static

defences, but is

quite a bit more effective.

- Instead of using mammoths, consider a large group of zone

trooper APCs. It's

not as good at anti-air, but it is equally or even more

effect against ground

targets.

3.2 - Rushing

-----------

Rushing is the art of a fast, early-game, crippling strike.

The goal is to get

to infantry and light vehicles quickly, then using them to

"rush" the opponent.

The idea is that crippling the enemy early on will allow

you to dominate them

through the rest of the game.

Of course, this can backfire very easily. If your attack

fails to do enough

damage, you may be the victim of the reverse of your plan:

your opponent will

counter-rush you, and you just used all your early-game

resources to build an

army which was just killed!

For a GDI rush, you should be incorporating rifleman

squads, missile squads,

and pitbulls for sure. If you can, throw in some APCs to

pile your missile

squads into, and snipers to take care of infantry. Be

careful not to take too

long building your army, or you won't attack early enough

to actually cripple

the enemy.

Another option is to use less combat units, but throw some

engineers in. If you

capture some of their buildings instead of destroying them,

you can then sell

them to give yourself more riflemen squads for the battle,

AND to fund your own

base.

Though the goal is only to cripple the enemy, if you can

destroy them, that's

obviously better. This is entirely possible, especially if

you use engineers,

because you can use the money to fund a larger army to send

in.

If your opponent(s) rush you as well, you should keep up

the attack with the

units you already sent, but use everything you produce from

then on to protect

yourself. The worst situation you can be in is being behind

from a failed rush,

or crippled by the opponent's own rush. Recover as fast as

you can, and get a

strong defence ready.

Be prepared to fail many, many times. Rushing is an art,

and can be hard to do

correctly. However, I think you'll be happily surprised

once you master it.

3.3 - Turtling

-----------

Turtling is the complete opposite of rushing. You stay in

your base (and your

expansion bases), and build up your economy and tech level.

Once your tech and

economy are running strong, you can build a massive army to

attack, while the

opponent may still be in the mid-tech levels.

Just like rushing, this can backfire in an instant. If you

get rushed, your

plan will completely fall apart. If the opponent manages to

break your defence

while you're still building up your tech level and economy,

you're done for.

So, focus on your defence. Keep building turrets, and make

sure the ones you

already have are in tip-top shape. Build airfields as soon

as possible, and use

orcas to shore up trouble spots.

Once you're fully teched-up, you have two main options. The

first is to keep

building airfields, and sit behind an impenetrable wall of

turrets while you

slowly bomb your opponent to death. The other option is to

build up a massive

land army, and using it to push directly toward the enemy

bases.

A good end-game army would consist of a spearhead of

mammoth tanks, followed by

zone troopers and APCs filled with snipers and missile

squads. Throw in some

juggernauts at the rear for artillery support, and you can

crush through just

about anything.

Turtling is generally seen as a "noob" strategy, but it

really isn't. It is an
entirely valid strategy, and is just as much an art as

rushing is. Practice,

practice, practice, and you will be quite happy with your

performance.

3.4 - Mixed

-----------

The mixed strategy is a (you'll never guess this) mix of

the rush and the

turtle. You could also think of this as the harasser

strategy. Build up your

economy and tech just like in the turtle, but keep the

pressure on the enemy as

you go. Build groups of units and send them to hold key

locations and slow down

your enemy, or to actually attack the enemy base.

Good units for this strategy are predator tanks and light

vehicles. These units

are tough enough to hold out for a while, and powerful

enough to fight off an

actual attack sent against them. The beggining and mid-game

should follow a
general rusher strategy, and in the end game you should be

pounding the enemy

with a turtler-like army.

The true strength of this plan, at it's basest level, is to

adapt to what the

enemy does, and to counter it. Move your units to strategic

locations to

disrupt the enemy, and put pressure on their main base.

Basically, your goal is to stop the enemy's plans, while

still building up your

own forces. Done correctly, this could be considered the

best of the three

strategies, because it is the most flexible. Adapt and

survive, commander.

===================

4.0 - Specific Strategies

-----------

4.1 - GDI Vs. GDI

-----------
- The main trouble with this match up is that you use the

same units. Make sure

you know how to counter things. For example, counter

mammoths with mammoths,

because they're an even match. Match infantry with

snipers, and snipers with

vehicles, vehicles with missile squads, and around and

around again. Use your

common sense.

- Get to high tech levels fast. Because each of your units

exactly matches the

enemy units, you need to use something they can't match.

Getting to a high

tech level faster means you can use your advanced vehicles

to stomp them,

before they use those same vehicles against you.

- Set up AA on the inside of your base as well as the

perimeter. Your opponent

may use firehawks to get into the center of your base,

where you may be in

lack of serious AA fire to take them down.

- Space out your units. Shockwave artillery and juggernaut

strikes can make a

good assault a sitting duck on the battlefield. The EMP

from the shockwave

artillery will freeze your vehicles, then the juggernauts

will shred them. Of

course, you can use this little trick on them as well, in

fact, it's useful

against any of the factions in this game.

4.2 - GDI Vs. Nod

-----------

- Make some extra snipers and scatter them around your

base, and send them with

your attack forces. You will need them to kill fanatics,

which a good Nod

player will likely use them extensively against you for

anti-vehicle and anti-

building purposes. Even if they don't, the snipers are

still an excellent

defence against infantry.

- Watch for the Nod stealth towers. If you see one, make
sure to approach

cautiously and bombard it in advance if possible. Chances

are that the enemy

has placed a horde of turrets under the stealth field,

just waiting for you to

walk in and get yourself slaughtered.

- On the same note, be aware that Nod is the master of

diversions. A stealth

tower (or any other unit or structure) may just be a

diversion to make you

advance more cautiously, and miss other oppurtunities

while you concentrate.

- If the enemy has set up a large amount of AA towers, just

give up with an air

attack unless you feel like losing a lot of units. Each

Nod AA tower can fire

three missiles, and each one they buy comes in a set of

three turrets. Nine

missiles will seriously damage, if not destroy, any of

your air units.

- Watch for vertigo bombers. Vertigoes are stealthed, so

you won't get an early

warning if they come at you. So, you need to: 1) detect

them, and 2) hit them.

Detection is easy, any stealth detector will do it.

Hitting them is another

issue. The bombers fly faster than mammoth tank missiles,

so use missile

squads or pitbulls to hit them. You shouldn't rely on your

AA turrets for

the reasons in their description.

- Make extra sure to defend the sides of your base. A

diversionary attack to

the front of your base in conjunction with a group of

stealth tanks pouring

into the side of your base isn't fun.

4.3 - GDI Vs. Scrin

-----------

- Keep up the air defence. If you don't, you'll die. Simple

as that. The Scrin

have a devestatingly effective air force, and without air

defence they will

simply eat you up.

- Build defences on the inside of your base as well. The

wormhole power, the

mastermind, and shock troopers can all teleport things,

possibly right into

the middle of your base.

- Watch for the Scrin superweapon. One deadly strategy the

Scrin can use is to

drop their superweapon, then fire up a wormhole and dump a

bunch of tripods

into the middle of your base.

- Another nasty Scrin trick: using the mastermind to

capture a building, then

building the signal transmitter next to it and summoning

the mothership in the

middle of your base. If you see the mastermind, kill it

IMMEDIATELY!

===================

5.0 - Frequently Asked Questions

-----------
Q: What is the best way to quickly boost your economy?

A: Well, obviously you'll need more harvesters. You also

want more refineries

along with them, depending on your ratio: 3 harvesters per

refinery is usually

ok, but you might want to go 2 harvesters per. If you're

expanding, build some

defences to go with them, so they don't get killed.

Q: Is there any combination of units that is very strong?

A: There is no perfect combination, because any unit can be

countered by

another unit. However, the "tried-and-true" combo would be

a group of

mammoths, APCs (with a mix of zone troopers, snipers, and

rocket troops),

and pitbulls. This group can handle just about anything,

and with air support

can be nearly unstoppable.

Q: Is there a monthly fee to play online? Do you need a

fast connection?

A: There is no monthly fee to play online. I would suggest

a fast connection,

but you can play with a slow connection as long as the

ping bars are good.

When you're looking at a game to join, watch the little

bar on the side: if

it's green, you're good