Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Walkthrough/FAQ By: Kasey (DiabloZZq) Table of Contents: 1 Copyright Info 2 Controls 3 GDI Units, Structures, and Powers [GUSP] 4 Nod Units, Structures, and Powers [NUSP] 5 Scrin Units, Structures, and Powers[SUSP] 6 Neutral Units and Structures [NUAB] 7 Advanced Tactics * [TCTS] 8 GDI Only Tactics * [TCTS] 9 Nod Only Tactics * [TCTS] 10 Scrin Only Tactics * [TCTS] 11 Campaign Walkthrough * [CAMP] 12 Contact Information [CNTC] 13 Version History [VERS] *(under construction) Use the control + f function to find the sections much faster. The codes following the section are what you want to type. 1. Copyright Information: [COPY] I will allow anyone to copy anything here and put it on any site so long as they give me full credit for this work and do not change anything in this guide. You may not make a profit off of this work or charge money to view it under any circumstances. 2. Controls [CTRS] The controls in CnC3 are quite simple, but they have changed a little bit since past CnC games. The main things that have changed are the ability to formation preview and you must now right click to give units commands. I suppose this was done to help micromanagement and most other RTS games use this system of right clicking. At first this confused me, but I got used to it and found this to be a very effective control scheme. Note: These are the default controls. You may change them by going to settings in the game menu. Left Click: This controls basically everything in the game that requires a click of the mouse button. Anything from selecting units, deploying structures, or building units require you to use this button. Right Click: This is used to give commands such as moving to your units and also to cancel and hold units and structures in the build tab. Mouse Wheel Up/Down: Zooms the in game camera in and out. A + Right Click: Attack move. Tells any units you have selected to move to the desired location attacking hostile base defenses and units along the way. They will not attack enemy buildings. S: Stop units. Immediately stops the selected units. D + Right Click: Reverse move. Forces the units to move to the desired location backwards. This is used to prevent enemies from hitting your vehicles unarmored side and to speed up retreat. F + Right Click: Assault move. This tells the selected units to move to the desired location while attacking any hostile buildings or units along the way. This is useful to clear out entire bases without having to tell them what to attack. G + Right Click: Force move. This forces your units to move to the location even if units happen to be in the way. This is used to crush enemy units if possible. H: Primary construction yard camera. This is used to jump to your construction yard with the press of a button. If destroyed, it will jump other construction yards then to cranes. Ctrl + J, K, L, or ; Sets a camera bookmark. By pressing both Crtl and one of the following buttons you may set a camera bookmark. J, K, L, or ; Jump to camera bookmark. These jump to the set camera bookmark. Useful to jump back and fourth from key spots in the game easily. ' : Toggles unit health bars ~: Selected structure or unit tab (known as contextual tab). Q: Selects all combat units. This is used to select everything you have. Useful to throw everything you have at the enemy at once and to see how many units you have. Double tapping Q selects everything on the map. W: Selects all units of the type currently selected. This is used to get all the units of a specific type or types together for an assault. Double tapping W selects all the units of the types currently selected across the entire map. E: Structure tab. R: Defense tab. T: Infantry tab. Y: Vehicles tab. U: Aircraft tab. I: Intel database (single player)/Messenger (multiplayer) O: Objectives (single player)/Player status (multiplayer) Z: Sell mode Ctrl + Z: Planning mode: This mode allows you to make multiple commands to a unit. Press it again to have the unit complete the commands in order. X: Power mode. This turns off and on power to a structure. Useful to direct power to vital structures. C: Repair mode. V: Voice chat. Press this key to talk with a microphone. Ctrl + V: Toggle either global voice chat or team voice chat. B: Place beacon N: Next harvester. Used to jump between harvesters. >: Fast forward button (only during replays) 0-9: Selects grouped units. Simply press the number to select your entire group without worrying about manually selecting all of them. It is very useful to group assault forces to control them much easier. Ctrl + 0-9: Sets the selected units to a number. Backspace: Opens up chat to all teammates. Enter: Opens up chat to everyone. Alt + A: Changes stance to aggressive. Alt + S: Changes stance to guard. Alt + D: Changes stance to hold ground. Alt + F: Changes stance to hold fire. Ctrl + A: Uses unit power in slot one. Ctrl + S: Uses unit power in slot two. Ctrl + D: Uses unit power in slot three. Ctrl + F: Uses unit power in slot four. F1-F10: Selects the unit or building in slot 1-10 respectively. Ctrl + F1-F8: Uses support powers in slots 1-8 respectively. Delete: Deletes the beacon. Keypad 5: Reset camera. Keypad 5 is on the right side of the keyboard. Hold Alt: Waypoint mode. This allows you to select multiple commands for the selected unit(s). They will start the commands upon receiving the first one. Hold Ctrl + Right Click: Force fire. This forces you unit to fire at the location no matter what. Hold Shift + Left Click: Adds unit/structure to selection. End: Toggle HUD. Tab: Next sub tab. Ctrl + Tab: Previous sub tab. 3. GDI Units, Structures, and Powers. [GUSP] GDI is a powerful army that can be great in either late or early game. It has no real weaknesses in any point in a fight and can crush opponents with their advanced technology and powerful units. Although not as advanced as the Scrin, GDI can hold up against nearly anything and its units have plenty of armor to back them up. Their units are more expensive then Nod's but they are also more powerful. GDI Units Rifleman Squad Rating: ** Abilities: Dig a fox hole, Call for Transport. Upgrades: Composite Armor Summery: They are very weak to almost every unit in the game except the rocket infantry and the other rifle infantry. The only real use for these is to counter early infantry rushes and scouting. The reason these get a two star rating is because the fox hole ability and their ability to be upgraded. With the upgrade they are still very weak though. You should almost never have to use these guys unless you need a cheap counter to other infantry units. The fox hole ability is quite useful in campaign and also in very rare circumstances in multiplayer where you need a defense structure that uses no power or you lost all ability to build structures. Missile Squad Rating: *** Abilities: Call for Transport Upgrades: Composite Armor Summery: Only useful against early game tank rushes, cheap anti air, taking down walker units, and to put in an APC. These are very weak, but very useful as a cheap unit to back up your early game forces. Never use these in mass against any air units except the Orca and Firehawk. Your money is better spent building other anti air vehicles and structures because most air units rip infantry to shreds really quickly. Always remember to garrison them against tanks when possible and if that is not possible, make sure to micromanage them to make sure they don't get ran over. This unit can be used in mass to take down walker units easily. Followed up by an engineer, this can be very useful, cheap, and effective. Engineer Rating: ***** Abilities: Call for Transport Summery: These are the most useful early game infantry. They can be used to capture buildings which can turn the tides of any battle very quickly. Even during late game, these infantry are still used proving they deserve the five star rating. These can be a commander's worst nightmare if caught running into a base that is undefended. Just remember, these guys are very slow and the weakest unit in the game so protect them if possible. Load them up in APCs and you can engineer rush them unlike any of the other factions in the game. Also, don't forget they can repair bridges, your structures, and resurrect fallen walkers. They cannot repair garrisonable buildings as in the past games though. Grenadier Squad Rating: *** Abilities: Call for Transport Upgrades: Composite Armor Requirements: Command Post Summery: These guys would be more useful if infantry were more common in the game. As it stands right now, Grenadier Squads are semi-useful against vehicles but they really shine as another superior anti infantry unit. Their grenades kill almost any infantry in one hit, and clear out garrisonable buildings with ease. In urban combat areas, load one into an APC and start the rampage. They will clear an entire city in seconds, reducing enemy infantry to bits and pieces. Sniper Team Rating: **** Abilities: Call for Transport Requirements: Armory Summery: These guys kill infantry in nothing flat. They are useful to have around to keep pesky Engineers, Commandos, and Shadow Teams away from your base. They have stealth capabilities and the ability to spot targets for Juggernauts. What more could you want from an anti infantry unit? Nothing really, except for the fact that you hardly ever see enough infantry in this game to build more then a couple of them. Their ability to spot for Juggernauts is great, except it can be tough to get close enough to an enemies base without getting detected with all the stealth detection in this game. To use their ability to spot for Juggernauts, you simply move the sniper within sight of the target and then go to your Juggernauts and click the Bombard Target button. Commando Rating: ** Abilities: Jump Jets and Call for Transport Requirements: Armory and Tech Center Summery: This unit is basically a waste of money. The only use of this infantry is to sneak into an enemy base and blow some stuff up. Although it is great against infantry and walkers, there are a lot better units that are more useful to take those down. I guess if you ever see an undefended side of a base you might be able to do a little damage. Don't expect to do much because this unit is easily countered by a simple anti infantry turret or two. It's a nice unit, but other units tend to be better for the job then this guy. Zone Trooper Rating: **** Abilities: Jump Jets, Call for Transport Upgrades: Scanner Packs, Power Packs Requirements: Tech Center Summery: These guys are the best late game infantry the GDI have. Their only true weakness is air, but with a couple of Mammoths backing these guys up, they are pretty much unstoppable against anything short of a Sniper Team or Shadow Team. They can easily do more damage then a Commando if they find a cliff or river to Jump Jet across and they can do damage faster. Their armor is superior for infantry units, and their rail guns can pierce through even the heaviest of armor. When upgraded, they have the ability to regenerate health while idle and detect stealth units. Basically, these guys are the infantry you want to be using at all times once you tech up to them. Pitbull Rating: *** Upgrades: Mortars Summery: This is the fast recon/anti air unit the GDI has. It works wonders against aircraft (except Scrin's heavy aircraft) because of its speed and power. These can easily be destroyed so don't use them versus Scrin's heavy aircraft, instead use other aircraft. If your base is getting assaulted with air units, this is a great unit that is cheap and fast to build. Other then scouting and anti air, it also has one more advantage, which is stealth detection. Early game these are great against Shadow Teams. Besides the uses mentioned before, there is not much reason to build these in mass. A couple around the base will do quite nicely and other then that, these are horrible at assaulting the enemy. Since it has quite a bit of speed, it can be used to effectively run over enemy infantry. Predator Tank Rating: **** Upgrades: Railguns Summery: The main battle tank of the GDI is also the most powerful light tank in the game. With its railgun upgrade, it can easily punch a hole in a base against light defenses and armor. The downside to this is that they are not very good against late game units. Use these if you plan on tank rushing early game, or if you just need a cheap diversion late game. Although these cost more then the other light tanks, they are a lot stronger and more durable. Also remember to run over any infantry you see, they don't stand a chance against a tank of this size. APC Rating: ** (without infantry) **** (with infantry) Abilities: Lay Minefield Summery: Without any infantry on board, this unit is more or less a waste of time. Early game it's not bad at taking out infantry, but even then I would prefer using a Predator and just crushing infantry. It can also take on air units out even though a Pitbull does that job much more effectively. As for with infantry, this unit can pack a serious punch. Rocket infantry are the most effective overall to put in here. This makes the cost at exactly that of one Predator tank except that it's good against any unit. Other infantry such as Engineers are also very useful to put in one and then rush the enemy base. Zone Troopers also make this unit pack a serious punch with hit and run capabilities. A great unit if infantry are placed inside, otherwise this is just a below average unit. Also, their minefield ability is nice to deploy at choke points because most of the time it will kill several units before the mines are used up. Harvester Rating: ***** Requirements: Refinery Summery: Just another harvesting unit from the past games. These are vital to your economy so protect them at all costs. GDI's harvesting unit happens to have an anti infantry weapon attached. It is kind of useless since it could just run over infantry anyways, but it does help protect your harvester so I can't really complain. MCV Rating: ***** Summery: Deploys into another Construction Yard. Great for base rushing and to have another one handy in case yours happens to get destroyed. Rig Rating: *** Requirements: Command Post Summery: This is a great unit to send along with your troops to repair them during battle. Another great use is for an expensive defense that uses no power and can repair you units. These used with a Surveyor can create expansion bases that are immediately defended. These should never be used in mass and just one in an area holds that ground very effectively. Mammoth Tank Rating: ***** Upgrades: Railguns Requirements: Tech Center Summery: This is the mother of all tanks. It can hit both ground and air targets and has TONS of armor. The Mammoth is awfully slow so be prepared to take a few casualties just on the way to the enemies base. This tank is effective against everything in the game even infantry. Spamming them late game is often all people will do because of their might. These combined with Zone Troopers make a VERY effective late game assault force that can take on even the heaviest of armor or defenses. Be sure to research the railgun upgrade as soon as you start building them because it increases their power against all ground units by a large margin. If you spam any ground unit in the game, this is by far the best one. Some go so far as to say people are noobs when they spam them because "they take no skill." This is very true, unless he also has other units supporting them. Juggernaut Rating: *** Abilities: Bombard Target Requirements: Tech Center Summery: This is a great unit to support your main forces with. These walkers are very slow and not heavily armored so remember to defend them. Combined with a sniper, they can fire bomb something from anywhere on the map. Unfortunately the hard part is actually getting the Snipers to the enemy's base without having them get killed. Building a couple of these and having them behind your main forces can really help if the enemy is heavily defended. Finally, they also leave walker husks so if they do get destroyed simply capture the husk with an Engineer. Surveyor Rating: ** Summery: These are slow, very weak, and defenseless. Most of the time you only need to build one or two at the beginning to make expansion bases at the other Tiberium fields. Other then that, these are horrible at rushing someone unless they can remain unseen. They take 20-30 seconds to deploy so be sure to defend them. Orca Rating: ** Abilities: Deploy Sensor Pod, Pulse Scan Upgrades: Sensor Pods Summery: Orcas are considerably less effective then other light aircraft. The only thing that they can do better then Firehawks is take out vehicles. These tend to be very weak to anti air and are slow to unload their missiles. Orcas are very useful early game when your enemy might leave his harvesters open for attack. Also they can be used to stop incoming tanks and walkers effectively. Because it takes so long to unload their missiles, you should almost never bomb enemy bases with them unless they are undefended. If they had a lot more armor Orcas might be useful, but since they are easy to take down, use Firehawks instead. Orcas also have the added ability to detect stealth and drop sensor pods on enemy units and structures once upgraded. Firehawk Rating: **** Abilites: Missile Loadout, Bomb Loadout Upgrades: Stratofighter Booster Requirements: Tech Center Summery: Firehawks are the best units in the game for taking out a super weapon. The reason I say that, is because with the Stratofighter Booster upgrade then can actually teleport instantly across the map and then bomb their target. Unfortunately this has a cool down so there won't be any coming back if you enemy has plenty of anti air. They can also be loaded with anti air missiles at the Airfield for free. Be sure to make 8 or so as an emergency attack force against heavy armor and super weapons. GDI Structures Construction Yard Summery: Used to start your base. It can be undeployed and sent over to the enemy's base to rush him. If you are planning to do this, you should build a Power Plant or Crane first. This building also controls your radar, so if you lose it you won't have any radar. Remember to protect this at all costs. Power Plant Summery: Supplies power to your base. It can also be used to build a string of buildings to your enemy's base. Don't forget to upgrade them once you get your Tech Center up. Crane Summery: Provides you with an additional structure build tab. You should always have one handy. Refinery Summery: This building is the heart of your economy and its Harvesters supply it with plenty of Tiberium. Building an extra Refinery and then selling it once the harvester appears is a good way to get a free scouting unit and a Harvester early in the game. Using this method does not cost additional cash though. In fact this gives you 1 free infantry unit everything you do it. Only build one per Tiberium field and keep 2-3 Harvesters per Refinery at all times. Remember to protect these otherwise you might find your self with no money if you enemy keeps destroying them. Also Refineries increase your maximum reserve of cash. Barracks Summery: Builds infantry units. Additional Barracks provide an additional infantry build tab. Armory Summery: Advanced infantry technology building. Also it can heal your infantry that you send in. War Factory Summery: Builds vehicle units (except the Surveyor, which is made in the Construction Yard. Additional War Factories provide additional vehicle build tabs. Make sure if you are spamming vehicles to build multiple of them. Command Post Summery: The lesser technology building that is a requirement to build late game units and structures. Tech Center Summery: The greater technology building that allows for the most advanced units and structures the GDI has to be built. Airfield Summery: Builds aircraft units. Additional Airfields provide additional landing pads and aircraft build tabs. Each Airfield has 4 landing pads that hold one Orca or Firehawk each. Space Command Uplink Summery: Allows the GDI to use Shockwave Artillery and call for Zone Troopers. This is not a requirement for units or structures to be built. Watchtower Summery: The anti infantry defense tower. Great against infantry, useless against anything else. Guardian Cannon Summery: The anti tank defense cannon. Only useful against light vehicles. AA Battery Summery: The only anti air defense structure GDI has. Useful against all aircraft and make sure to keep some at your base at all times. Tiberium Silo Summery: Increases your maximum reserve of cash by about 2000 per silo built. Make sure to build these if you are stock piling money otherwise your Harvesters will stop until you spend some money. Sonic Emitter Summery: This is the ultimate ground defense system GDI has. It can pierce multiple targets and continues until it cannot go any further. It is slow to reach its target and can be avoided by fast units so back these up. Against massive armies these are the most effective defense in the game. Ion Cannon Control Summery: The GDI super weapon that once built will start a countdown until it is ready. Keep it well defended and use it to put a giant hole in the enemy's base. Useful for ending matches that seem to have no end. Don't worry about others opinions about them, build one if your enemy is being a turtle otherwise the game goes on forever. GDI Support Powers Radar Scan Deployed from: Command Post Summery: Allows you to reveal the shroud anywhere on the map. Useful to reveal the shroud to use other powers or to spy on the enemy GDI Airborne Deployed from: Armory Summery: Several GDI Rifleman Squads and Missile Squads are delivered by air as veterans. Probably the worst support power there is. Being only useful when combined with the Bloodhounds power to give your APCs some rocket infantry. Sharpshooter Team Deployed from: Tech Center Summery: Drops a few Sniper Teams on the battlefield as veterans. Useful to put snipers near the enemy base for Juggernauts to bomb. It is also useful if you see hordes of infantry being sent to your base or if you have a loose Commando running around your base. Orca Strike Deployed from: Airfield Summery: A few Orcas bomb the target. Relatively weak, but it is cheap and can be used to finish off something you didn't kill. Bloodhounds Deployed from: Airfield Summery: Some Pitbulls and APCs are deployed as veterans at the target. When used in conjunction with GDI Airborne, this can be used to deploy an assault force anywhere on the map. Zone Trooper Drop Pods Deployed from: Space Command Uplink Summery: A few squads of Zone Troopers as veterans come crashed down in drop pods. Very useful to attack anywhere in the battlefield because it sends them to the target almost instantaneously. Shockwave Artillery Deployed from: Space Command Uplink Summery: Bombs the target with weak EMP artillery. Very useful to stop late game assaults because it disables anything it hits. Ion Cannon Deployed from: Ion Cannon Control Summery: A massive ion cannon burst is unleashed wherever you please. This will easily destroy anything in the radius except for a Construction Yard. 4. Nod Units, Structures, and Powers. [NUSP] Nod is a hit and run faction with cheap, but fast units. Most of their units are not very well armored and take more micromanagement then the other factions. If you are good at rushing or using hit and run tactics, then this is the faction for you. Never try to directly engage other units with Nod because they have less firepower and armor then other units. Make sure you attack vehicles backsides to get the 50% bonus to damage. Try to find ways around enemy defenses and hit them where it hurts the most. Always try to harass their economies otherwise you might drag the game on long enough that they can build up a huge army of heavy units that will wipe you out. Nod is great early game, but they start to show their weaknesses late game when the other sides get extremely powerful units while Nod still has to find ways to attack from where they have the least defense. To be successful with Nod, you must never let the enemy come to you with an army the size of Texas. Keep bombing them and harassing them and victory will be yours! Nod Units Militant Squad Rating: * Abilities: Call for Transport Upgrades: Tiberium Infusion, Confessor Summery: These guys are the worst unit in the game. You should never have to rely on these units for anything except as really cheap scouting units. If you need anti infantry this early in the game, simply build a Shredder Turret or if you have a War Factory just build a Raider Buggy. You shouldn't even have to build them to scout with. By selling your Refineries you should be able to get some of them for free. Don't bother with the upgrades for this unit, the upgrades are awful. Militant Rocket Squad Rating: ** Abilities: Call for Transport Upgrades: Tiberium Infusion, Confessor Summery: Worse then the GDI Missile Squads and the Scrin Disintegrators, they are still a decent unit for countering early vehicles. These guys have less armor then either of the two other early anti tank infantry. Although these do have a longer range then the Disintegrators, they are easily ran over and do not explode when ran over. The only advantage these guys have over the other anti tank infantry is speed. Another use is for anti air but it is better just to build Stealth Tanks for that. Don't build them unless you have no other options. Saboteur Rating: ***** Abilities: Call for Transport, Booby Trap Summery: These are the most useful early game infantry. They can be used to capture buildings which can turn the tides of any battle very quickly. Even during late game, these infantry are still used proving they deserve the five star rating. These can be a commander's worst nightmare if caught running into a base that is undefended. Just remember, these guys are very slow and the weakest unit in the game so protect them if possible. Also, don't forget they can repair bridges, your structures, and resurrect fallen walkers. They cannot repair garrisonable buildings as in the past games though. Nods Saboteur can also plant booby traps on neutral buildings. Fanatics Rating *** Abilities: Call for Transport Upgrades: Tiberium Infusion Reqiurements: Operations Center Summery: Much better to use then Militant Rocket Squads against tank rushes in the early game. These guys are suicide bombers that are quite expensive considering you lose the unit no matter what. If enemy vehicles are packed together, Fanatics can take out a few of them with just one unit. It may appear to be cost inefficient, but actually they end up being about the same as building one Scorpion tank because they can take out at least one tank if they don't have any anti infantry. Don't use them too often, they are better to use to stop tank rushes and that's about it. Black Hand Rating ** Abilities: Call for Transport Requirements: Operations Center Summery: These are nearly useless in every way. By the time you have even one of these, you can have Shadow Teams or Flame Tanks. Flame Tanks do the exact same thing as these guys, but for a little more money you get a faster unit that has more armor and is less likely to die while clearing garrisoned buildings. For taking out infantry, Shadow Teams are much more useful, stealthed, and can fly around very fast. These would be worth building, but there are other units just as high up on the tech tree that are better. Shadow Team Rating: ***** Abilities: Call for Transport, Glider Pack, Explosive Charge Requirements: Secret Shrine Summery: This is the perfect unit for both anti infantry and taking out a base. These guys can take out infantry nearly as well as a sniper. Their stealth and gliders allow them to sneak into enemies bases unharmed and blow up buildings. Their only disadvantages are the long cool down on their explosive charges and it takes multiple charges to take down buildings. Use these every chance you have to harass your enemy into building worthless anti infantry defenses and blow up his refineries to slow down his economy. With all the money they are spending on stealth detection and anti infantry, you will have 20 Scorpions at their base. Make sure to take out expansion enemy bases also. Commando Rating ** Abilities: Call for Transport Requirements: Secret Shrine, Tech Lab Summery: Commandos in this game are much worse then in previous CnC games. The main reason being that they can't take out vehicles effectively. The Nod Commando is especially worthless because it can't even go over cliffs or other obstructions. Although it may be able to take out a building in one hit, it isn't stealthed (unless standing still) so it is extremely easy to take down. Shadow Teams are a superior unit that can do the same thing as a Commando better. Raider Buggy Rating: *** Abilities: EMP Burst, Call for Transport Upgrades: EMP Coils, Laser Capacitors Summery: The standard light anti infantry vehicle. Better then the APC without infantry because of its speed, price, and upgrades. The EMP burst ability is devastating when used in conjunction with a Cloaking Field to make it an anti vehicle unit also. Great for a cheap scouting unit and I'm pretty sure it can even fire at air targets too. Laser Capacitors upgrade its damage slightly and just increase its effectiveness against infantry. When well micro'd, this has the ability to keep infantry out of range while firing on them. Attack Bike Rating: *** Abilities: Call for Transport Summery: This is a versatile unit that is good against armor and aircraft. It is the best scouting unit in the game due to its speed and it is very cheap. Unfortunately with its speed comes its only disadvantage... lack of any armor. These are probably the weakest vehicle in the game but they are also the fastest. These are not to be used in head to head battles, only hit and runs. Although the Attack Bike can take out aircraft, their weak armor allows most aircraft to kill them faster then they can be killed. Scorpion Tank Rating: **** Abilities: Call for Transport Upgrades: Laser Capacitors, Dozer Blades Summery: A great light tank. Faster then the Predator but weaker and cheaper, this unit is perfect for tank rushes. Its dozer blades not only allow it to run over all infantry but also give it additional armor in the front. Even though this tank is available the minute you get your War Factory, you will find you will still use them to absorb damage late game while you put your supporting units behind them such as the Avatar. Because it is 300 cheaper then the Predator, this is the perfect unit to spam. Harvester Rating: ***** Requirements: Refinery Summery: Just another harvesting unit from the past games. These are vital to your economy so protect them at all costs. Nods harvesting unit happens to have stealth. It is very useful in protecting you harvesters from enemy attack since they can't find them. MCV Rating: ***** Summery: Deploys into another Construction Yard. Great for base rushing and to have another one handy at all times in case yours happens to get destroyed. Flame Tank Rating: *** Requirements: Operations Center Summery: This is a vehicle version of the Black Hand. It's flame throwers can clear garrisonable buildings, kill infantry, and destroy buildings efficiently. Unfortunately it has semi weak armor and a very short range so be prepared to back them up with Scorpions. Also it cannot attack air units and its flame throwers are weak against armor so it is not a good idea to just spam these. Back Flame Tanks up with Scorpions and all you will have to worry about are air units and Mammoths. Stealth Tank Rating: **** Requirements: Operations Center Summery: Stealth Tanks are the best anti air ground unit in the game. They can't serve as a main battle tank but they do hit and runs very well. Don't take these head on with other battle tanks as these will die. Most people complain that these are weak but if they had more armor then Scorpions would be useless and they would be very powerful. Build some of these to accompany your Flame Tanks and Scorpions for anti air. Beam Cannon Rating: **** Abilities: Reflector Beam, Charge Defenses Requirements: Tech Lab Summery: This artillery unit is much better to take behind your main forces then the slow Juggernauts. Not only do these fire instantly, they have the ability to reflect their beams off of Venoms to reach over cliffs and extend their range even further. Also another useful ability is that these can charge your Obelisks of Light to increase both their power and range. Always include these behind you army of tanks to help take out defenses and buildings. These are fast moving artillery so you can use them to hit and run. Beam Cannons also are great against vehicles. Avatar Rating: *** Abilities: Commandeer Technology Requirements: Tech Lab Summery: A decent walker support unit. Avatars have the ability to upgrade their weaponry by sacrificing other Nod units such as Flame Tanks and Beam Cannons. This destroys the unit so it can be very costly to upgrade an Avatar. The good thing is that the upgrades stack so that you can get some really powerful but expensive Avatars. They have no anti air so be sure to protect them with some Stealth Tanks. I would rate these higher but their price is too high for the amount of armor they have. Not much else to say except DON'T spam them. They are a support unit, not an assault unit. Emissary Rating: ** Summery: These are slow, very weak, and defenseless. Most of the time you only need to build one or two at the beginning to make expansion bases at the other Tiberium fields. Other then that, these are horrible at rushing someone unless they can remain unseen. They take 20-30 seconds to deploy so be sure to defend them. Venom Patrol Craft Rating: **** Abilities: Signature Generator Upgrades: Laser Capacitors, Signature Generators Summery: Venoms are a great light aircraft unit. They can reflect Beam Cannons beams and don't need to run back to base to reload. Although their main gun is weak, they are cheap, don't take up an air pad, and their damage can be upgraded. The signature generator is mostly useless, but can trick the enemy and is only $100 so you might as well get it. These can be spammed very easily, but also have paper thin armor. Just make sure to spread them out otherwise splash damage form anti air rockets will rip through your units very fast. Venoms are also great for anti air, especially against Scrin. Vertigo Bomber Rating: **** Requirements: Tech Lab Summery: These are the ultimate bombers in CnC3. Vertigos often can remain unseen all the way to the enemy base, bomb them, and then return home without losing a unit. Unless on a suicide mission, don't send them deep into an enemy base otherwise they won't come back home. Vertigos can also take out Mammoth tanks very well and are Nods #1 counter unit against the Mammoth. They can also attack other air units with a very weak machine gun but it is just better to build some Venoms to take care of air units. Nod Structures Construction Yard Summery: Used to start your base. It can be undeployed and sent over to the enemy's base to rush him. If you are planning to do this, you should build a Power Plant or Crane first. This building also controls your radar, so if you lose it you won't have any radar. Remember to protect this at all costs. Power Plant Summery: Supplies power to your base. It can also be used to build a string of buildings to your enemy's base. Don't forget to upgrade them once you get your Tech Lab up. Crane Summery: Provides you with an additional structure build tab. You should always have one built. Refinery Summery: This building is the heart of your economy and its Harvesters supply it with plenty of Tiberium. Building an extra Refinery and then selling it once the harvester appears is a good way to get a free scouting unit and a Harvester early in the game. Using this method does not cost additional cash though. In fact this gives you 1 free infantry unit everything you do it. Only build one per Tiberium field and keep 2-3 Harvesters per Refinery at all times. Remember to protect these otherwise you might find your self with no money if you enemy keeps destroying them. Also Refineries increase your maximum reserve of cash. Hand of Nod Summery: Builds infantry units. Additional Hand of Nods provide an additional infantry build tab. War Factory Summery: Builds vehicle units (except the Emissary, which is made in the Construction Yard. Additional War Factories provide additional vehicle build tabs. Make sure if you are spamming vehicles to build multiple of them. Operations Center Summery: The lesser technology building that is a requirement to build late game units and structures. Secret Shrine Summery: Advanced infantry technology building. Tech Lab Summery: The greater technology building that allows for the most advanced units and structures the Nod has to be built. Air Tower Summery: Builds aircraft units. Additional Air Towers provide additional landing pads and aircraft build tabs. Each Air Tower has 4 landing pads that hold one Vertigo Bomber each. Tiberium Chemical Plant Summery: This allows Nod Power Plants to be upgraded and gives Nod additional support powers. This is not a requirement for any unit or structure to be built. Tiberium Silo Summery: Increases your maximum reserve of cash by about 2000 per silo built. Make sure to build these if you are stock piling money otherwise your Harvesters will stop until you spend some money. Shredder Turret Summery: The anti infantry defense turrets. Great against infantry, useless against anything else. Laser Turret Summery: The anti tank defense turrets. Only useful against light vehicles. SAM Turret Summery: The only anti air defense structure Nod has. Useful against all aircraft and make sure to keep some at your base at all times. Disruption Tower Summery: This generates a massive area of stealth covering anything in its radius. This is great to prevent enemies from seeing what units your buildings or where and what your defenses are. Always cover your base in these. Obelisk of Light Summery: This large spike fires a laser beam that kills most units in a single hit. Its range is much greater then that of normal defenses and can be increased further with Beam Cannons charging it. When Beam Cannons are charging it, the power of the laser beam also increases considerably. The more Beam Cannons charging a single Obelisk of Light, the greater and more noticeable the effect will be. Make sure to build these to defend you base against ground units with. Temple of Nod Summery: This is the home of Nods nuclear missile. Build this structure and a countdown will appear until its ready to launch. It doesn't leave any radiation and acts the same as the other super weapons in that it destroys everything in its radius. Be sure to follow this up with units to finish them off. Also unless you have a great computer, never have your screen over the target while the nuclear bomb hits or for about 10 seconds afterwards. During this time it will cause major lag on any normal computers. Nod Support Powers Radar Jamming Missile Deployed from: Operations Center Summery: This is a cheap power that simply shuts down the enemy's radar for 10 seconds. During this time you should roll in your forces to attack to prevent him from be able to react fast. Decoy Army Deployed from: Operations Center Summery: This creates a mirror imaged of your units that you selected. Cloaking Field Deployed from: Operations Center Summery: This will make all units in the radius of the target become stealth. This is very useful to use on Raider Buggies so that you can drive them close to enemy vehicles and use the EMP burst to shut them down. This power also kills all infantry it is used on. Shadow Strike Team Deployed from: Secret Shrine Summery: This deploys several Shadow Teams at the selected location. They fly their on their gliders so they will be shot at by any stealth detecting anti air before they reach their target. Mine Drop Deployed form: Air Tower Summery: An aircraft will deploy a mine field at the targeted area. This aircraft is very vulnerable so be sure not to deploy it near any anti air. Tiberium Vapor Bomb Deployed form: Tiberium Chemical Plant Summery: This will bomb the targeted area with the Tiberium Vapor Bomb. The bomb causes only slight damage to everything in its radius and kills infantry. This is a power that should be used on an area that is concentrated in enemy troops for maximum effect. Seed Tiberium Deployed form: Tiberium Chemical Plant Summery: This drops Tiberium at the selected target and speeds up the Tiberium growth rate across the map. Seed Tiberium can be used with a Catalyst Missile to cause massive damage. Catalyst Missile Deployed form: Tiberium Chemical Plant Summery: This missile detonates any Tiberium instantly destroying Harvesters, Refineries, and Tiberium Silos. Anything near Tiberium when the missile hits will also take massive damage. Master Computer Countermeasures Deployed from: Temple of Nod Summery: This is a back up power supply. Nuclear Missile Deployed form: Temple of Nod Summery: This launches Nods Nuclear Missile destroying anything but a Construction Yard that is caught in the blast radius. 5. Scrin Units, Structures, and Powers [SUSP] The Scrin are a very powerful faction with many heavy hitter units. They have the most powerful air force I have ever seen in any Command and Conquer series. Their aircraft are very heavily armored and the Devastator can even outrange anti air. The Scrins main weakness is their early game. If you can make it past the rushes and manage to tech up then you should easily be able to crush the enemy. Rushing with the Scrin is a lot more risky because they have weak early game units. The Scrin are the only faction with another tier of units then the others. The Planetary Assault Carrier and the Mothership show off Scrins dominance of air. Scrin's ground units are also very powerful with the Tripod being the best walker unit in the game. Also note that all of Scrins aircraft defense goes up in an Ion Storm and their units can heal using Tiberium. Scrin Units Buzzers Rating: **** Abilities: Combine with Vehicle Summery: The best of the tier 1 infantry in the game. These can take out infantry in one hit, are only 200 a piece, very fast, and can even combine with vehicles! For only 200, you couldn't want a better unit! These are easily spammable and great scouting units. The only downsides to this unit are its horrible armor and it cannot kill anything but infantry effectively. This has the least amount of armor in the game out of any single unit so be sure to make them in mass. Buzzers ability to attach to vehicles makes it a great unit to use with vehicles such as Devourers to make them also great against infantry. Disintegrators Rating: *** Summery: These are the early game anti tank infantry of the Scrin. They explode when ran over so they are better to use against tanks then the others. Their only downside is that they have a much shorter range then the other anti tank infantry making them easy to avoid. Make sure to make some of these in the early game if you see tanks headed your way. Assimilator Rating: ***** Summery: These are the most useful early game infantry. They can be used to capture buildings which can turn the tides of any battle very quickly. Even during late game, these infantry are still used proving they deserve the five star rating. These can be a commander's worst nightmare if caught running into a base that is undefended. Just remember, these guys are very slow and the weakest unit in the game so protect them if possible. Scrins Assimilators also have the advantage of being stealthed while standing still. Also, don't forget they can repair bridges, your structures, and resurrect fallen walkers. They cannot repair garrisonable buildings as in the past games though. Shock Troopers Rating: ***** Upgrades: Plasma Disc Launchers, Blink Packs Requirements: Nerve Center, Stasis Chamber Summery: This is a very powerful late game infantry unit. Shock Troopers with their Plasma Disc Launchers can even target air units! These guys should always accompany your main forces and you should always produce some to protect your base. They are good against any unit in the game but they are very weak to Snipers, Commandos, and Shadow Teams. I can't stress enough how great these infantry are. Blink Packs allow your Shock Troopers to teleport short distances around anything. If you force fire your Mothership on them, you can teleport into the enemy base and start the super chain reaction. Mastermind Rating: **** Abilities: Manipulator Device, Teleport Units Requirements: Stasis Chamber, Technology Assembler Summery: This is the best of the best when it comes to the commando type units. It can not only mind control both structures and units, it can also teleport your units across the map in single player. In multiplayer it can also teleport your units short distances. Using this together with the Signal Transmitter can nearly instantly put a Mothership in the heart of the enemy's base. Simply mind control a building, build a Signal Transmitter in the build space, sell your old one, and summon the Mothership. Masterminds can also teleport some Assimilators into the enemy's base past defenses and beyond cliffs. Seeker Rating: *** Abilities: Combine with Buzzers Summery: The Seeker isn't really even a tank although that is what the game calls it. This is more of a powerful APC with more armor, cannot hold infantry, detects stealth, and is much better against armored units. This is a fast unit that cannot battle head to head with other tanks. Because of this, it has both stealth detection and can fire at anti air units making it a very useful unit. Although you can spam these, I recommend that you only build them as some backup forces kept around your base. Gun Walker Rating: ** Abilities: Combine with Buzzers Summery: This is a decent unit made useless by the fact that Seekers are better against aircraft and Buzzers are better against infantry. Rather then making these, simply outfit some Seekers with a few Buzzers. You shouldn't have to make any, but if you do keep in mind that these are only good against infantry and aircraft. Harvester Rating: ***** Abilities: Combine with Buzzers Requirements: Nerve Center Summery: Just another harvesting unit from the past games. These are vital to your economy so protect them at all costs. Scrin's Harvesters happen to leave behind deadly Ion Storms when destroyed to destroy the forces that killed them. Devourer Tank Rating: **** Abilities: Combine with Buzzers Requirements: Nerve Center Summery: These are a great medium tank. They can charge their cannons with Tiberium making them much stronger. Unfortunately this depletes Tiberium and also only lasts for 10 shots. Make sure that when you enter an enemy's base to make a quick stop by his Tiberium fields instead of using them on your Tiberium fields. The Devourer is great against vehicles and decent against infantry. This is the unit that you should be spamming as a light tank rather then the much weaker Seeker. You should put some of these in your mix of a late game assault force. Corrupter Rating: *** Requirements: Nerve Center Summery: This is exactly like a Flame Tank except that it can also heal your own units. It has a short range and is not good against armored vehicles so back them up with Devourers and other units. Corrupters can destroy enemy infantry and buildings with ease. To heal your units with the Corrupter, just force fire them on your own units. Their main weakness is that you must micro them a ton to heal your own units. Annihilator Tripod Rating: ***** Upgrades: Forcefield Generators Abilities: Combine with Buzzers Requirements: Technology Assembler Summery: Like the Mammoth Tank, this can crush enemy vehicles under its three feet. It has three beam weapons but only two can fire at one target. The third one will fire at another enemy unit while the first two are attacking the target in front of it. The Tripod can crush small vehicles underneath it so if you see a line of enemy light tanks, force move it on top of them to easily destroy them all. This has a massive amount of armor that is increased even further with the Forcefield Generators. It is great against all ground units but has no anti air so back this up with some Shock Troopers and aircraft. Explorer Rating: ** Summery: These are slow, very weak, and defenseless. Most of the time you only need to build one or two at the beginning to make expansion bases at the other Tiberium fields. Other then that, these are horrible at rushing someone unless they can remain unseen. They take 20-30 seconds to deploy so be sure to defend them Drone Ship Rating: ***** Summery: Deploys into another Drone Platform. Great for base rushing and to have another one handy in case yours happens to get destroyed. This version of the MCV flies instead of moving on the ground. Stormrider Rating: ** Summery: This is a constantly moving version of the Venom. It can hit both ground and air units but isn't great against either. The only real use of this is to harass the enemy in the early game and to take down other Scrin PACs fast. Because they take up a landing pad, it is impossible to spam them so they are quite useless anyways. Fortunately, they don't have to return to base for ammunition so you can keep harassing the enemy until he gets some anti air up. Also note that all Scrin aircraft increase their defense in Ion Storms. Devastator Warship Rating: ***** Upgrades: Forcefield Generators Requirements: Technology Assembler Summery: This is the heaviest bomber in the game and it doesn't' even have to reload! The Devastator can outrange all anti air defenses plus it fires more bombs then can hit the target so it causes damage to nearby units and structures. With the upgrade it can take loads of anti air bullets before it even will be destroyed! In packs of 10+ units it can rip apart bases with ease. Backed up with PACs, Shock Troopers, and Tripods this can make an unstoppable force of units. Devastators can also rip through Mammoth tanks armor easily. Although Devastators are heavily armored, they cost a lot and are slow. Also note that all Scrin aircraft increase their defense in Ion Storms. Planetary Assault Carrier (PAC) Rating: ***** Abilities: Ion Storm Upgrades: Forcefield Generators Requirements: Signal Transmitter Summery: A PAC is probably the most powerful unit in the game that is can be spammed. It is great against all types of units and structures and has heavy armor! Their small fighters will regenerate over time and like all of Scrins aircraft, they increase their defense in Ion Storms. You can create Ion Storms with these making them extremely potent when coupled with Devastators. With just a couple PACs I have been able to destroy entire bases without losing a single unit. The only downside to this unit is that it is slow and expensive. Other then that, PACs do just about anything and can even detect stealth on top of all that! Mothership Rating: ***** Requirements: Signal Transmitter Summery: This is by far the most powerful unit that has ever existed in a CnC game. Only one Mothership is all that can be deployed at a time and you must have 5000 to purchase it. If you have less then 5000, you cannot purchase one because it is considered a power. Once deployed, it will spawn at your Signal Transmitter and you can send it to wherever you wish. It is the slowest unit in the game so be sure to clear any anti air along the way. The Mothership is easy to take down provided the enemy has some decent anti air so try to avoid any anti possible. Its attack causes a chain reaction that can level entire bases if the buildings are close enough together. If hit by the blast, your units will start to glow until they explode releasing another shockwave that can turn other buildings and units glowing white. Make sure you contain the shockwaves by selling any buildings that will be hit by the shockwave to save your base and money. A cheap tactic is to capture an enemy building, plop a Signal Transmitter next to it, and sell the one in your base to spawn a Mothership in the enemy base instantly. Another cheap tactic is to use it on Buzzers then portal those glowing Buzzers over into the enemy base starting the chain reaction. Scrin Structures Drone Platform Summery: Used to start your base. It can be undeployed and sent over to the enemy's base to rush him. If you are planning to do this, you should build a Reactor or Foundry first. This building also controls your radar, so if you lose it you won't have any radar. Remember to protect this at all costs. Reactor Summery: Supplies power to your base. It can also be used to build a string of buildings to your enemy's base. Cannot be upgraded like the other power plants. Extractor Summery: This building is the heart of your economy and its Harvesters supply it with plenty of Tiberium. Building an extra Refinery and then selling it once the harvester appears is a good way to get a free scouting unit and a Harvester early in the game. Using this method does not cost additional cash though. In fact this gives you 1 free infantry unit everything you do it. Only build one per Tiberium field and keep 2-3 Harvesters per Extractor at all times. Remember to protect these otherwise you might find your self with no money if you enemy keeps destroying them. Portal Summery: Builds infantry units. Additional Portals provide an additional infantry build tab. Warp Sphere Summery: Builds vehicle units (except the Explorer, which is made in the Drone Platform. Additional Warp Spheres provide additional vehicle build tabs. Make sure if you are spamming vehicles to build multiple of them. Nerve Center Summery: The lesser technology building that is a requirement to build late game units and structures. Gravity Stabilizer Summery: Builds aircraft units. Additional Gravity Stabilizers provide additional landing pads and aircraft build tabs. Each Gravity Stabilizer has 4 landing pads that hold one Stormrider each. Stasis Chamber Summery: Advanced infantry technology building. Technology Assembler Summery: The greater technology building that allows for the more advanced units and structures the Scrin has to be built. Signal Transmitter Summery: This allows additional Scrin powers and units to be built. This is required to build the most advanced aircraft the Scrin have. Foundry Summery: Provides you with an additional structure build tab. You should always have one built. Buzzer Hives Summery: The anti infantry defense tower. Great against infantry, useless against anything else. Growth Accelerator Summery: This structure is built in the center of Tiberium fields and increases the Tiberium growth rate of that field. Also this requires no build radius to be built. Storm Column Summery: This creates a massive Ion Storm that tears apart any enemy units that might get in range. As with all Ion Storms, it increases the defense of all Scrin aircraft in the radius. This is the only one of the top ground defenses that can attack aircraft also. Photon Cannon Summery: The anti tank defense turret. Only useful against light vehicles. Plasma Missile Battery Summery: This can only target enemy aircraft. Make sure to keep some at your base at all times. Rift Generator Summery: When you build the Rift Generator a countdown timer will appear until it is ready. Once the Rift Generator is ready to use, target the enemy's base and watch as it blows up everything in its radius except Construction Yards and other super weapons. Remember to protect it because it will be the enemy's number one priority once built. Scrin Support Powers Reconstruction Drones Deployed from: Warp Sphere Summery: Deploy repair drones anywhere on the battlefield that you target. It is very useful to use while your forces are engaging enemy forces to help keep your units alive. Lightning Spike Deployed from: Nerve Center Summery: This drops a Lightning Spike defense anywhere that you have revealed on the map. It is useful to deploy these behind enemy forces or near enemy Harvesters to distract them while your main forces attack somewhere else. Also it is a defense that can be immediately deployed to stop units that may be behind where your normal defenses can't reach. The Swarm Deployed from: Nerve Center Summery: This instantly deploys Buzzers at the target. Very useful to take out any infantry that may be headed your way or that is bunched together. Vibration Scan Deployed from: Never Center Summery: The Vibration Scan instantly reveals all Tiberium fields, units, and structures. This includes Refineries, Harvesters, and other units and structures that have Tiberium. Stasis Shield Deployed from: Stasis Chamber Summery: The Stasis Shield shuts down everything caught in its radius. This also makes the structures and units immortal to everything while shutdown. It is best used to shutdown enemy units that are assaulting your base to thin their numbers for its duration. If built early enough, it is very useful to stop tank rushes. Phase Field Deployed from: Technology Assembler Summery: Phase Fields make the units caught in its radius unable to attack and immortal. I'm not sure if this can only be used on your units or not. It is very useful to send you units behind enemy defenses unharmed. Wormhole Deployed from: Signal Transmitter Summery: The Wormhole instantly creates a two way portal between the selected points for a short time. Very useful to send glowing units from the Motherships blast directly into the enemy's base starting a powerful chain reaction. Also it is useful to send Assimilators and Masterminds behind enemy lines. Remember this is a two way portal so the enemy's can use it against you. Mothership Deployed from: Signal Transmitter Summery: This spawns a Mothership at your Signal Transmitter. Rift Deployed from: Rift Generator Summery: This creates a giant Rift at the target. Once the Rift Generator is ready to use, target the enemy's base and watch as it blows up everything in its radius except Construction Yards and other super weapons. 6. Neutral Units and Buildings [NUAB] Mutant Marauder Rating: **** Requirements: Mutant Hovel Summery: This is a very powerful infantry unit that can target both air and ground units. They are moderately armored and semi fast so they are great all around infantry. These can also heal in Tiberium like Scrins units. Tiberium Spike Summery: Provides a steady flow of cash. Expansion Point Summery: Provides build radius. Reinforcement Bay Summery: Provides additional reinforcements. Subway Hub Summery: This allows your infantry to travel instantly through Subway Entrances across the map. Subway Entrances Summery: Allows 3 infantry at a time to travel through to other Subway Entrances across the map. EMP Control Center Summery: Capturing this provides you with EMP strike capabilities. Mutant Hovel Summery: This allows Mutant Marauders to be built. Defensive Tower Summery: This defense once captured requires no power and defends the location from enemy forces. Tiberium Silo Summery: By capturing this, you will gain a bonus of funds that is only one time. 7-10 All the tactics are here for now [TCTS] For now I'll just copy my forum post for a few days while I have time to finish the rest of the strategies section. "Alright, I'm tired of seeing so many people obviously confused about how to start out their economy and just plain survive in CnC3. This thread is to help all those people who just can't seem to get their stuff together for the first 5 minutes and also to help those late game rushes and or turtles. First off I'm going to list a common way to get your economy up ASAP. Feel free to modify this or specify what you believe to be a better one. Crane --> Power Plant/Refinery --> Refinery/Refinery --> Refinery/(usually a Barracks, war factory, or another refinery) --> whatever you wish..... With the troops gained from selling the refineries use to scout around the map and counter his tactics. Selling refineries is an easy way to jump start your economy early. Also build a mini-construction vehicle to get to Tiberium fields that are out of reach of your build radius. You deploy your first refinery and second refineries at the nearest Tiberium field and sell the second refinery then proceed to deploy the third and fourth refineries near the second Tiberium field and sell the fourth. Also, you should almost never need to build the Tiberium silos because you should always being producing units. The perfect ratio of harvesters and refineries is 3 harvesters per 1 refinery. This is if and only if the refinery is right next to the Tiberium field. You will require more harvesters as the distance between the field and refinery increases to make sure you have a constant supply of cash to that refinery. This prevents an idle refinery but also prevents too many harvesters trying to use the same refinery. You should build one refinery next to each field that you control and at the very minimum have a spare harvester per field. I sell refineries since I mainly play Scrin I don't build war factories to build harvesters to save money. It also helps production speeds because if you aren't teching up or building other buildings as it frees up your war factories to pump out units. Also selling refineries has two more benefits which are increasing your economy fast early game and giving you scouting units to use even though you may not have a barracks built. The build order I always use online and works with great efficiency if I don't make a mistake is this: Crane (with Outpost if necessary) --> Power Plant --> Refinery --> Refinery --> Barracks --> Refinery --> Nerve Center --> Refinery --> Stasis Chamber --> Power Plant. Usually then I build another Barracks if I have scouted that he is tank spamming and I begin to spam Shock Troopers while making sure I build the Technology Assembler and get the Plasma Disc upgrade from the Technology Assembler ASAP. As soon as you get that upgrade even a few Shock Troopers decimate all tanks even Mammoths. Remember adjust if necessary and this is not a one size fits all strategies build order, it's only meant for anti tank spam. LIGHT TANK SPAM Nod: Scorpions > Fanatics > Anti tank infantry > Anti tank turrets. It seems that fighting tanks with tanks is the best defense coupled with the other counters. GDI: Predators >APC (loaded with a Missile Squad) > APC mines > Anti tank infantry > Anti tank turrets. It seems that fighting tanks with tanks is the best defense coupled with the other counters. Scrin: Shock Troopers > Tanks > Anti tank infantry > Anti tank turrets. Shock Troopers are an easy way to counter them, just tech up fast and use the Stasis Shield on their tanks. Shock Troopers absolutely decimate anything. In my opinion they are the best infantry in the game with their upgrade. Tank spam is the MOST complained about spam in the game. It's not hard to counter but you have to make sure that you build a great economy. I don't know how many people I have seen just sit there with one refinery and wonder how they heck they build that many tanks that fast. Also another key is to keep your anti tank infantry AWAY from his tanks at all costs, and if possible garrison them. Anti tank turrets get destroyed far too easily for their cost, consume power, and are sitting ducks if they decide to go around them and aim for your power. Rocket infantry do need some improvements in the next patch though and I have a feeling that's all that needs improving to change the balance of the game significantly. MAMMOTH SPAM Nod: Vertigo Bombers > Fanatics > Scorpion Tanks > Obelisk of Light > Avatars All I can say is use TACTICS when dealing with mammoths. Attack from behind; harass their early game economy, and most of all USE COMMON SENSE. Nod doesn't fight tank to tank, they fight in the shadows using hit and run tactics. Don't let the GDI just sit their and build tanks HARASS them, BOMB them, and most of all do NOT put yourself in a position where there is 20 mammoths headed your way, that's not EAs fault, it's yours. Also Avatars are NOT a good weapon to use against them, just support your other units with them. GDI: Mammoths > Zone Troopers > Firehawks > Emitter. GDI can fight Mammoths quite well just remember to use the Shockwave Artillery and bomb them with your Firehawks. Scrin: PAC > Shock Troopers > Devastators > Devours > Storm Columns. Scrin are VERY effective using a combination of Planetary Assault Carriers, Shock Troopers, and the Stasis Shield. SCRIN DEVASTATORS Nod: Venoms > well.... pretty much anything else isn't good if they micro manage them right, but Venoms SLAUGHTER the Devastators. Just build Venoms and you will be safe. Make sure you have at least four on hand though, the more the better. GDI: Fire Hawks > Mammoth Tanks > Pit Bulls. GDI Fire Hawks absolutely OWN these things. Use Mammoths and Pitbulls with heavy casualties. Scrin: Strom Riders > Planetary Assault Carrier. Along with the other 2 factions, the most effective anti air in the game is air. SCRIN PLANETARY ASSAULT CARRIERS The same as above applies for the PACs. The only difference is that your air units might incur some casualties because PACs can attack air units. Also ground anti air units and structures work much better against PACs then they would a Devastator. This is because PACs must get in range of anti air to attack them and can't do as much damage to ground units. ENGINEER RUSH This is basically the same for each side in that you scout early and if you see an engineer rush build an anti infantry turret or unit and your 100% safe. They catch you by surprise that's your fault for not scouting early. Also, engineer rushes are quite fun =) and semi hard to scout against. But most of the time it is quite predictable where they might be coming. SHADOW TEAM RUSH Basically the same as above, be smart about placement of anti infantry objects though.... good micro managers can get past a lot of misplaced defenses. But as always, if you weren't scouting and weren't prepared.... that's not balance issues its YOU. Scout early, and if you lose watch the replay and see what you did wrong. Most of the time it's you, not an overpowered unit. There is always something you could have done to prevent the defeat.... ALWAYS (except for cheaters/exploiters but those are another story..... I forgot to mention, most shadow team build orders revolve around not building any refineries and getting a secret shrine ASAP. If you see the shrine with scouting, simply deploy some spread out stealth detecting anti infantry and they cannot win. Also counter rush this and they will be defenseless and will often quite because of their terrible start. BASE RUSHES Like I have said before early scouting is key to victory. Chances are if their base is right next to yours, you should have the advantage. First, you know that their economy is much weaker by spamming defenses, and thus if you get some units and get past their defense they will retreat. Second, their base is obviously very vulnerable because it takes tons of extra build time to make their base next to yours. Tier 1 defenses in this game are very weak and can be countered easily by tanks or artillery units. Finally, unless they have anti infantry up, use engineers to capture their undefended Tiberium refineries which absolutely cripple his economy. MCV BASE RUSH This base rush is slightly different then using the normal mini MCV to build an expansion base. But this one is the hardest to counter if you get caught by surprise. As with all things make sure you scout early. If you see this coming build 1 engineer and a anti infantry turret. This way you should be able to capture his very command center delivered to your base. Just keep in mind, MCV rushes cripple his economy, sell your buildings before being destroyed or captured. A true MCV rush only builds a single power plant before coming into your base. He has NO extra money, NO way to build constantly, and NO way out. SCOUTING 101 Learning to scout properly and starting a good economy are two of the most important things you can possibly learn while playing this game. Scouting requires you to simply send a really cheap unit to his base ASAP. This is most easily done if you use my early economy method because you get two free units to scout with. One unit should be used to scout his base and the other should be at his Tiberium fields then use them to scout around places you might think his real base is if it's not actually in his base. If you see a base rush or a very odd build order, keep having them scout, but pull back one to scout the shroud nearest your base. One other thing you need to keep in mind, if using infantry to scout avoid GDI harvesters and try to hug the side of his base to get past any defenses he might have. If you have a good economy while scouting, it's much harder to be defeated early game. SCRIN ADVANCED STRATEGIES You can use the mastermind or engineers in combination with the Mothership to achieve a massive blast in a base. First tech up to the Mothership, then build another Signal Transmitter but don't deploy it yet, wait for your engineer/mastermind to capture an enemy building then sell your old Signal Transmitter and deploy your second in their base. You should also be able to just not make the first Signal Transmitter and be able to immediately deploy the one you have built in their base. I'm unsure if this works because I think you have to wait for the Mothership to be ready. Finally summon the Mothership and attack the nearest target to decimate their forces. Another Mothership tactic is to use the mother ship on your own Shock Troopers and then teleport them into their base. I haven't tested this out though so use it at your own risk. Devastators can out range enemy defenses to make them obsolete. If you build up enough of them, you can wipe out bases extremely fast with little attacks from anti air units or structures. Make sure you build some PACs to support them; it also doesn't hurt to build some Shock Troopers to help take out air defenses. Devourers can charge up their main cannon with Tiberium, always remember to do this to massively upgrade their power. Also Buzzers can be used to combine with your tanks and other vehicles to make them great against infantry, they will auto attack any infantry so don't worry about micromanaging them. Scrin's powers can devastate the enemy if used right. Use the stasis shield to stop tank rushes and the Mothership as a secondary super weapon. The buzzer swarm also is the best anti infantry power/unit/structure in the game because it can be deployed anywhere you need it and it will instantly PWN all infantry in the area including snipers, commandos, and Shadow Teams. Just make sure the units aren't stealthed otherwise this may not work. The Tiberium scanner is VERY effective at finding where the enemy's supplies are immediately. Use it to know where to plan strikes to harass their economy. Also the Phase Field can protect units your units long enough to get past enemy defenses unharmed to get to their vital structures. Finally don't forget to use the Reconstruction Drones to regenerate tanks that are taking heavy damage. Look at replays and find out what he did to beat you (by the way... tank spam at the 4 minute mark or so begins to increase significantly." 11. Campaign Walkthrough (under construction)[CAMP] 12. Contact Information [CNTC] You may contact me through the following e-mail address: big_bad_slayer@yahoo.com. Make sure to put CnC3 or something similar so I can be sure to read it. For the next few weeks I will check my e- mail daily until the final version is posted. 13. Version History [VERS] Version: 0.90 This is the first version with Campaign to start and Tactics sections to finish.