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Which should I play as for the Generals Challenge? [Pick 3] This poll is closed. |
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| Laser |
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60 | 14.74% |
| Air Power |
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34 | 8.35% |
| Super Weapons |
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49 | 12.04% |
| Tanks |
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26 | 6.39% |
| Infantry |
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39 | 9.58% |
| Nuclear Power |
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68 | 16.71% |
| Toxin |
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48 | 11.79% |
| Stealth |
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42 | 10.32% |
| Explosives |
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41 | 10.07% |
| Total: | 189 votes | ||
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Nostalgamus posted:The sentry drone reminded me of the "C&C's most useless units" video from planet CnC waaaay back in the day: What was this permabanned poster's username?
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Oct 2, 2021 21:30
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 05:41 |
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technicianstomper88
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Oct 2, 2021 21:47
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Nostalgamus posted:The sentry drone reminded me of the "C&C's most useless units" video from planet CnC waaaay back in the day: Putting the Jump Jet Infantry AND Medic on that list is harmful and disgusting and I will have no hate for those units in my threads! (Also honourable mention of the Chinese Hacker?! The hell?!)
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Oct 2, 2021 23:01
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Jobbo_Fett posted:Putting the Jump Jet Infantry AND Medic on that list is harmful and disgusting and I will have no hate for those units in my threads! (Also honourable mention of the Chinese Hacker?! The hell?!) Yeah, seeing the hacker on there in any capacity tells one exactly how well he knows what he is talking about. Who cares if they aren't able to fight when you can afford three tanks to your opponent's one.
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Oct 2, 2021 23:30
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USA X2: Defending the Docks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBy3P2MZwpw USA X2: Defending the Docks  With the threat of the Baikonur Cosmodrome eliminated, the US forces have moved on to providing aid to help nations around the world. Whether this new direction for our troops is a wise one is far above our paygrade. Clear the docks, with haste, General!   While Djibouti is certainly not Somalia, the geography of the map could represent that as a potential location. Otherwise, I would imagine it has to be Mogadishu.  Location: Off the coast of Somalia Objective: Defend the Docks Author's note: While a fun mission thanks to the supporting powers, it is trivial even on the hardest difficulty.   Name: James Seabury Aliases: None Affiliation: USA Occupation: Reporter for BNN Voiced/Played by: Julian Stone A reporter for BNN, James Seabury is an attaché to military troops in Europe/Asia.  N/A  N/A Aftermath: With the aid of the US Navy, clearing out the area of the GLA presence was a walk in the park. Let us hope this spells the end for the terrorist scum!
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Oct 2, 2021 23:35
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This mission is a fun little stomp that sets things up for later, but it also had a surprising impact on the series down the line. The carrier is impressively animated, with a full launch sequence of aircraft riding up on elevators, taxi-ing into a queue, and launching from the flight deck. And yes, it will replenish its aircraft quickly and infinitely.
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Oct 3, 2021 00:46
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Custom multiplayer maps that include neutral naval units are fun. Not because there is even an iota of naval combat in this game aside from this mission, but because you can do all sorts of goofy things with them, like capturing neutral aircraft carriers or disguising Bomb Truck as Battleships, which totally works and is hilarious. Even if you capture neutral ships, though, they're not programmed to function and they're just for decoration.
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Oct 3, 2021 01:17
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Yeah, this mission, while fun in kind of a mindless way, is also a bit disappointing in that now 40% of the USA campaign is over and so far both maps have been quite short and easy. Still, just being able to endlessly shell and airstrike anything hostile on the map is pretty nice and gives a solid sense of pure power, even if the concept of the pocket Battleship reminds quite insane. It is kind of a shame that you can flat out win this with your off-shore fleet, as the map has a nice layout, and some alternate routes around the outer foothills, with a good number of GLA strong points alongside the urban hell in the center. But no, all you need is to sneak a Sentry Drone or Burton toward the GLA base and use your overwhelming support abelites to smash it into dust. Plus it takes forever for the 10 supply trucks to show up and outside of the Rocket Buggies, the GLA attacks will just trundle into your bunkers and die. And having Burton just further trivializes the map, and him and a Sentry Drone for stealth detection can just clear most of the map. However, there is a new hidden mechanic at work now, the Ambulance has gotten an upgrade. Thanks to a patch, it now also heals any nearby ground vehicles on top of already healing nearby infantry. This massively increases the units usefulness and properly protected can fairly quickly patch up your army between battles. Its ability to remove toxins and radiation, while being immune to them itself, now also can come into play a lot more outside of just babysitting your buildings in your base. The game never calls this out or even really mentions it thanks to it being patched in post-release however.
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Oct 3, 2021 01:34
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UED Special Ops posted:Yeah, this mission, while fun in kind of a mindless way, is also a bit disappointing in that now 40% of the USA campaign is over and so far both maps have been quite short and easy. Still, just being able to endlessly shell and airstrike anything hostile on the map is pretty nice and gives a solid sense of pure power, even if the concept of the pocket Battleship reminds quite insane. It is kind of a shame that you can flat out win this with your off-shore fleet, as the map has a nice layout, and some alternate routes around the outer foothills, with a good number of GLA strong points alongside the urban hell in the center. But no, all you need is to sneak a Sentry Drone or Burton toward the GLA base and use your overwhelming support abelites to smash it into dust. Plus it takes forever for the 10 supply trucks to show up and outside of the Rocket Buggies, the GLA attacks will just trundle into your bunkers and die. And having Burton just further trivializes the map, and him and a Sentry Drone for stealth detection can just clear most of the map. Yeah. It's not so much that easy overwhelming firepower missions are bad or unsatisfying. It's more that 2/5 of the US campaign so far has been them.
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Oct 3, 2021 08:29
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I will say that this feels like "Oh, poo poo, we should probably have let the player direct battleship fire in Stormbringer, huh." Though it also serves as an exact demonstration of why they didn't do that, it would have completely negated any difficulty from Stormbringer. Narratively, though, the design of this mission is surprisingly important. Hold this mission in your mind. Everyone else in the setting is paying attention to what's happened here and how devastating the U.S. naval forces here were.
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Oct 3, 2021 18:12
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sending a scout drone along the north path can get you line of sight of the base pretty quick (and there's less stealth detection up that way), so you can crush this mission even faster if you want to 
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Oct 3, 2021 18:17
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Redeye Flight posted:Everyone else in the setting is paying attention to what's happened here and how devastating the U.S. naval forces here were. Yeah. something to keep in mind for ZH is that there's a plot here. Shame that it wasted 2 missions out of 5 of the US campaign, but when it gets going it gets going.
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Oct 3, 2021 19:42
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USA X3: Snow Fall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjFIGDSzhtg USA X3: Snow Fall We finally have proof of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East! [Christ's sake]  We're off to Russia! Location: Mount Elbrus, Russia Objective: Destroy the Bio-Toxin Lab Author's note: I swear this one was an actual race against the Chinese, or I'm going crazy. In any case, we have our third no-build mission in a row! Name: James Seabury Aliases: None Affiliation: USA Occupation: Reporter for BNN Voiced/Played by: Julian Stone A reporter for BNN, James Seabury is an attaché to military troops in Europe/Asia.  Microwave Tank RANGE: Short-Medium ARMOR: Tank WEAPON: Microwave Generator COST: 800 The Microwave Tank can disable the electronics in structures via microwave frequencies. Defensively, a microwave field harms infantry. Author's Note: Although I don't recall using them much, they fill the void of an anti-infantry vehicle in the US arsenal. N/A Aftermath: With the destruction of the GLA's secret Bio-Toxins lab, the US can re-focus its efforts to destroy the leadership of the insidious terrorist group.
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Oct 5, 2021 23:13
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Microwave Tanks are pretty cool but you won't see them used too much in-action since, as always, blowing things up is the most effective way of dealing with things in any of these games. First off, Microwave Tanks are the only thing in the game that shuts off *all* of a building's functionality while it's zapping the building. That means its rightful owner can't interact with it in any way, which means it can't be sold. But by the time you can manage a Microwave Tank + Ranger play against an enemy, you might as well completely destroy them if they're a human player. If they're a CPU, they're almost always not smart enough to sell something off as you're capturing it. There's only one exception to this I'm aware of, and it's in Zero Hour, actually. Second, there's a glitch with the tank and Supply Drop Zones. If you zap Drop Zone's scaffolding while it's being constructed and then remove the zap after it's fully constructed, the supply plane will immediately arrive and drop off its first 1500. It only works once per Drop Zone and it's a ban-on-sight type of glitch in online multiplayer, but it is there for some reason.
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Oct 5, 2021 23:34
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Huh, I replayed this mission on Easy not too long ago, and it seems like on lower difficulty levels you get a small assortment of infantry with your initial paradrop, which makes dealing with the village much easier. (I also remember that Tunnel Network blowing up after the cutscene.) Additionally, to the west of the GLA base in the valley to the left of the bridge there's three oil derricks you can destroy to cut off the GLA's funds, and further west of that there's another POW camp where you can pick up more infantry and vehicles. This mission also gives lends further credence to my silly "Russia does not exist in Generals" theory. Given how Mount Elbrus is just north of the Georgian border and in the middle of the low-level insurgency that bubbled out from the Chechen conflict and simmered for most of the 2000s and 2010s, this place should be crawling with both the Russian Army and internal security services of various stripes. Marshal Radisic fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Oct 7, 2021 |
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Oct 6, 2021 00:26
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The microwave tank is the most bonkers war crime unit in the game imo
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Oct 6, 2021 01:14
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Space Kablooey posted:The microwave tank is the most bonkers war crime unit in the game imo What if Havana syndrome is just Microwave Tanks? 
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Oct 6, 2021 01:15
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This would mean that this game is bleeding into reality and i dont like that
Space Kablooey fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Oct 6, 2021 |
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Oct 6, 2021 01:38
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Microwave Tanks also clear out garrisons with their beam, besides their ability to shut down buildings. It works pretty much instantly and combined with their range makes them just about the best anti-garrison unit in the game. The "defensive" field is active whenever the tank isn't using the beam and will rapidly fry enemy infantry that get too close to it. This incidentally means that it basically just laughs at suicide bombers and hijackers because they'll go up in flames before reaching it.
Magni fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Oct 6, 2021 |
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Oct 6, 2021 02:52
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Jobbo_Fett posted:What if Havana syndrome is just Microwave Tanks? The US keeps misfiring and hitting their own embassy. That or someone control-clicked.
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Oct 6, 2021 05:11
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Great job rescuing those soldiers, I'm sure their families will be happy to know they're safe. *loses most soldiers in battle* Oh...
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Oct 6, 2021 08:47
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This mission is... slightly weird tbh. While I like the idea of it being a joint US/Chinese operation, the fact that you don't have control of Black Lotus nor do her forces on the west side of the actually do anything besides have a fancy cutscene always struck me as a missed opportunity/something scarified on the alter of time crunch. Thus it feels like you get half of a pretty solid commando mission but one that ends wwwaaayyy to abruptly and is lacking in overall length. Now if you actually did something with the Chinese forces on the other side of the river and swap[ed back and forth to help each side progress, like say taking out Stringer Sites so MIGs could fly in to blow up a chokepoint, now THAT would have been pretty neat. But sadly nope, half the map is wasted. At least what mission is there is pretty solid. Having Radar Vans roving around with attack teams is neat, and with all the packs of infantry around, you actually have an excuse to use the rarely seen knife attack ability, if you want anyway. The attack teams help provide some pressure and the urban areas are a bit of a puzzle in how to deal with them. Sadly just as the map really gets rolling it suddenly ends when you get near those mountains by the lab. Oh well, at least next mission will more then make up for this one... heh heh heh... Now the Mircowave Tank, that little unassuming thing is very useful and deceptively powerful. It's ability to shut down buildings works quickly and has some decent range, although its anti-garrison ability's range is noticeably shorter then its building shutdown range, so that has to be taken into consideration. The passive anti-infantry field is incredibly lethal to enemy infantry and is a alternative way of dealing with sheathed infantry units. It also has enough health to survive a few decent hits and the price is quite fair. While it requires some mirco, they are overall an incredibly handy and powerful unit and can help out greatly in base assaults and makes enemy infantry a non-issue if brought near them.
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Oct 6, 2021 09:38
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The Microwave Tank is a fun little unit that does tend to get forgotten. As well as terrorists it also counters the Chinese tank hunter, who you may recall has an ability that plants remote charges on enemy tanks - you don't see it much in the campaign but it does crop up in multiplayer. I suspect the MW tank probably is cost-efficient against an infantry-heavy opponent, but few players bother when they could just build more Pathfinders and stick them in Rockvees. It occurred to me while watching this video that the avalanche at the end is just the dam collapse but with the water replaced by snow. Good on the devs for reskinning the mechanic, I guess. Means this mission was probably mandated to get the avalanche in, which is why it feels cut. And yes, I am sure I too have seen that race mechanic - I distinctly remember Burton having distinct voicelines for him getting to the lab first, or if Black Lotus gets there first. The former we heard in the mission, the latter he acknowledges with something like "All right Lotus, you're fast alright.". Perhaps I might be confusing this with a later mission?
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Oct 6, 2021 13:25
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I'm certain I've never experienced this mission having a race mechanic at all. Maybe it's on a beta version or a really early patch of the game?
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Oct 6, 2021 13:34
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Loxbourne posted:The Microwave Tank is a fun little unit that does tend to get forgotten. As well as terrorists it also counters the Chinese tank hunter, who you may recall has an ability that plants remote charges on enemy tanks - you don't see it much in the campaign but it does crop up in multiplayer. I suspect the MW tank probably is cost-efficient against an infantry-heavy opponent, but few players bother when they could just build more Pathfinders and stick them in Rockvees. Tbf, the Tank Hunters' explosive charge is IMO more of a deterrent against tanks trying to run them over than a reliable attack option. Where the Microwave Tank also does really shine is hard-countering Angry Mobs.
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Oct 6, 2021 17:42
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Let me tell you that this mission is a great time if you go in thinking this should play like a Tiberian Sun/Red Alert 2 commando mission and that you should keep your hero unit away from anti-infantry buildings and vehicles in general because of course they can't do much damage to them except with their C4 ability. Also if you don't realize that Burton can climb cliffs. Except no Burton can basically kill anything and everything by himself with enough kiting and retreating.
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Oct 7, 2021 22:12
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The race isn't a lose condition. I lost it when I played the mission recently and lotus just tells you she made it so hurry up slow poke. So you still accomplish your mission it's just your pride that is hurt.
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Oct 7, 2021 23:17
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FoolyCharged posted:The race isn't a lose condition. I lost it when I played the mission recently and lotus just tells you she made it so hurry up slow poke. So you still accomplish your mission it's just your pride that is hurt. might as well restart the mission 
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Oct 7, 2021 23:29
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I figured the true American way was to kill everything on the map, leveling God knows how many "innocent" people's homes along the way and then just declaring myself the Victor regardless of what anyone else thought.
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Oct 7, 2021 23:39
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FoolyCharged posted:I figured the true American way was to kill everything on the map, leveling God knows how many "innocent" people's homes along the way and then just declaring myself the Victor regardless of what anyone else thought. No survivors? De facto Victor.
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Oct 8, 2021 00:27
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USA X4: Black Gold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MRPLcGu7jA USA X4: Black Gold We may have hurt the GLA's ability to attack with bio-toxins or with ICBMs, but it is now time to hit the GLA in their pocket-book. A major air strike is being planned against GLA-controlled oil fields. Strike fast, and strike hard, do not allow the GLA to set up a strong defence, or allow them to rally friendly locals or nearby allies.  I can't find any location named Amisbad.  Location: Amisbad Oil Fields, Iran Objective: Capture the Oil Fields and destroy the GLA presence in the area. Author's note: Finally, a base building mission... that I will quickly ignore because this mission is a nightmare if played "normally". Name: James Seabury Aliases: None Affiliation: USA Occupation: Reporter for BNN Voiced/Played by: Julian Stone A reporter for BNN, James Seabury is an attaché to military troops in Europe/Asia. N/A N/A Aftermath: With GLA's forces and logistics in shambles, it is time to put the final nail in the coffin for the Global Liberation Army!
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Oct 9, 2021 01:04
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DOCTOR THRAX!
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Oct 9, 2021 01:20
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A lot more oil capturing here than WMD finding. Really makes you think 
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Oct 9, 2021 01:41
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Slaan posted:A lot more oil capturing here than WMD finding. Really makes you think I hate the US campaigns in Generals and Zero Hour.
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Oct 9, 2021 01:43
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I've been waiting for this mission! This LP made me reinstall the game to relive the many fond memories of all night LAN games when it was new, but I had never actually ever played the campaigns before. This being the first "proper" base building mission, I can confirm it was indeed an excercise in frustration even on the normal difficulty, at least when you haven't played the game in over a decade. Being attacked by scuds and infinite swarms of bomb trucks from all directions sure is fun when you don't know what you're doing! What I'm saying is, I'm disappointed you didn't suffer through playing this mission the proper way, so as to validate my frustration. That said, I think this was the only mission that really annoyed me (with the possible exception of one in a later campaign), which really is a huge step up from the base game!
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Oct 9, 2021 02:00
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Ugh THIS mission, I hated this mission back in the day. Trying to play it the intended way is an utter nightmare. Thanks to the GLA starting with all of the Oil Derricks on the map they bank up an incredible amount of funds and will send an endless stream of units at the oil fields and your base, on top of endless Bomb Trucks and other units pouring out of the Yellow GLA zone. As stated in the video it is incredibly difficult to try to defend your base and your primary income, as supplies are all but non-existent and capturing the booby trapped Oil Derricks is slow and painful, while suffering the waves and waves of attacks, with SCUD Launchers raining death down on you. Attacking the GLA base is also very nasty, as while it has fairly lax defenses outside of endless booby traps, you have to deal with the stream of units coming down to attack, making it a horrible grinding fight of attrition. Oh yeah, and as icing on this "wonderful" cake, the Oil Derricks only give 100 credits instead of 200, so yay! Even on normal this map done straight up is horrible and I can't even imagine doing it legit on hard. If you get lucky however, sometimes the AI pathing bugs out and the conga-line of GLA gets held up from a SCUD Launcher getting stuck somewhere, allowing you some breathing room, outside of the SCUD Storm that is. Played legit this is probably one of, if not the worst maps in either Generals or Zero Hour, flat out, so very satisfying to see it cheesed, as that is exactly what it deserves.
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Oct 9, 2021 02:08
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I never managed to get past this one on hard, I don't think. It was an absolute nightmare trying to get through it, so I'm glad it can be cheesed like this.
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Oct 9, 2021 03:29
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Covski posted:I've been waiting for this mission! This LP made me reinstall the game to relive the many fond memories of all night LAN games when it was new, but I had never actually ever played the campaigns before. This being the first "proper" base building mission, I can confirm it was indeed an excercise in frustration even on the normal difficulty, at least when you haven't played the game in over a decade. Being attacked by scuds and infinite swarms of bomb trucks from all directions sure is fun when you don't know what you're doing! Oh... I suffered. I suffered many times. Final footage length was something like 70 minutes.
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Oct 9, 2021 03:32
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As a scrub who only ever plays on Normal (and Easy when I was younger), this mission's big problem is that it's just a ridiculous jump in complexity from the past three missions. I rather like USA X3, but between how X2 doesn't actually need you to build a base even though you can, and then X3 having no building whatsoever, this mission drops you into a friggin' Mousetrap game and tells you to figure it out. Fortunately, though, on Normal you can set up Patriots and Pathfinders on the three bridges leading into the area and they'll be perfectly able to handle themselves. SCUD Launchers do not function very well on Normal for some reason, and you don't see as many. Then you move up through the oil field, run over one CIA operative while he's spawning, level the Radio Center with offmaps, secure the chokepoints, painstakingly capture all the oil derricks, and then move up on the final base. And the final base is difficult to push even on Normal -- the GLA's basically infinite money pool means you're pretty much climbing a waterfall of units to get in there. But there's just so much going on. There's three avenues of approach, there's the bomb spawner in the town, there's the CIA operatives, there's clearing the oil derricks, there's getting your own base up, there's trying to plug up the GLA chokepoints... compared to any of the prior three missions, or indeed basically anything from the original campaign, there's way more to juggle than you're used to.
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Oct 9, 2021 04:35
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 05:41 |
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Man, Youtube just has no idea what Generals is. X1 had it saying a... different C&C game, this one it thought it was Starcraft, for some reason. Algorithm is drunk, as usual, I guess. Also, was there one of the other new US units this mission? I swear I saw it in a cutscene, but not sure if it was on the field or not. Something made to fill a hole in the roster, but one that doesn't really come up in campaign at all.
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Oct 9, 2021 05:02
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