Command and Conquer: Red Alert Soviet Building/Unit Guide
for PC
Written by acidslayer57
Version 1.00
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Table of Contents
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1) Introduction/Updates
2) The Standards
3) Soviet Building Guide
4) Soviet Unit Guide
5) Special Soviet Unit Guide
6) Multiplayer Tactics
7) Outro
If you are having any trouble finding a part of this FAQ, feel free to
press Ctrl + F and type in the number of the section you are looking for.
The Command and Conquer series of games has come a long way. It has been
2D for quite some time now. Only in Command and Conquer:Renegade did it
become 3D, but that wasn't a strategy game it was a FPS. So, the
first truly 3D C&C game is Generals. That means that this game is 2D.
Although the Graphics look 3D, the game plays like a 2D game and that is
exactly what it is.
Even though this game doesn't have the graphical appeal of Generals, or
the old-school feel of Tiberian Sun, RA2 is my favorite game in the C&C
series.
This guide will explain to you the diverse units in the Soviet arsenal in
RA2. In doing so, I will explain to you not only what you require to
obtain these units, but also how the unit can be used effectively on the
battlefield and what the units should be used for. Every unit has it's
role and every unit is useful in certain situations.
The one, main general tip I will give you is to diversify your units.
Although in the original Red Alert, you could usually win by "tank
rushing" that may not work anymore even though you will want to build
a considerable amount of tanks.
Simply put don't just build tanks, build tanks and flak troopers or tanks
and ships. You will probably ending up needing them. Lastly, needless to
say, don't build tanks if your opponent has just rocketeers, you will
require some anti-air units to bring along with you.
Updates
*************************************************************************
06/02/04
Version 1.1
-----------
Fixed many spelling errors and added some more strategies and tips for a
few units, and added a ton to the strats.
07/26/03
Final V 1
---------
Added a few strategies into the guide.
07/06/03
Version .5
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Made everything including building and unit descriptions.
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2) The Standards
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All this small section will do is tell you how all of the units/ building
will be presented to you. It is in this quick, easy, and straight-forward
format:
Buildings
---------
Building Name: (Name of the building)
Cost: (Cost of the building)
Additional Notes/Tips: (More things on the building)
Units
-----
Unit Name: (Name of the unit)
Cost: (Cost of the unit)
Power: (How Powerful the unit is on a relative scale from 1-5)
Speed: (How fast the unit is on a relative scale from 1-5)
Prerequisites: What structures are needed in order for you to build this
unit.
Additional Notes/Tips: (More things on the unit)
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3) Soviet Building Guide
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Soviet Construction Yard
------------------------
Cost: One Soviet MCV which is $3000
The Construction yard is an essential part of your base. It is the most
important building you will ever have because without it, you will not
be able to build any other structures. You may build more MCV's and
therefore more Construction Yards when you build a Service Depot. I
suggest building wall around this structure immediatly to discourage
engineer rushes and such.
Tesla Reactor
-------------
Cost: $600
Tesla Reactors are the Soviet's main form of power. Without multiple of
these operating at once, your base will not run properly. Almost every
building uses a certain amount of power and you have to build these
according to your other building's needs. You can see your power output
to the left of the interface that has the red, yellow, and green bars on
it. The red represents how much power is needed to keep your base
running, while the yellow is just a warning that your power is getting
low. The green represents that your base is running smoothly. Side
effects of having your base underpowered are slightly damaged buildings,
major defensive structures offline, super weapons stop charging,
and everything takes longer to build. As you can see keeping your base
powered up isn't only helpful it's essential. When you build these
types of structures, I advise you not to group them into one area.
If you do they are susceptible to super weapons, Tanya raids, aircraft,
and spies. If a spy goes into one of your Tesla Reactors, your power will
go offline for a minute or so. This is not a fun expirience.
Ore Refinery
------------
Cost: $2000
Ore Refineries are yet another building that is essential for your
survival. What the Refinery does is make a drop of point for your ore
trucks when they need to drop off ore. It also creates a free truck upon
being placed on the map. I recommend having two of these structures so
you don't end up having a traffic jam at the first refinery. Also, a free
ore truck is a great addition along with the second refinery. These
structures have very weak armor, so I suggest you guard them well. They
are very likely to be targeted by aircraft if playing against a computer
opponent. (Not the this matters :b) Spies are also some units you want
to kill before they gain access to a Ore Refinery because if they get in
they steal half of your hard-earned credits.
Barracks
--------
Cost: $500
Barracks are traditionally the building that will create all of your
infantry. Infantry is a lot more useful in Red Alert 2 then it ever was
before, so I suggest you use infantry and use it well. Also, Barracks
are inexpensive and fast to build, so you can build them at additional
bases fast. Always build barracks as a third building, BEFORE the refinery.
War Factory
-----------
Cost: $2000
War Factories produce any vehicles you wish to have in your army, and
trust me, you will wish to have vehicles. Tanks will probably be the bulk
of what you build here, but other units are also great to have.
Naval Yard
----------
Cost: $1000
Naval Yards produce every type of boat available to the Soviets. Boats,
like tanks are extremely useful, but only if the map has a significant
amount of water on it. If the map does not have enough water to justify
building this, don't bother with it. This can repair damaged ships. Keep
in mind that the Allied naval units decimate yours if evenly matched.
Radar Station
-------------
Cost: $1000
The Radar is yet another important building. Without it you will not be
able to access your mini-map in the upper-right hand corner. This is
probably the most useful tool you have. So, you will want to have this
for the mini-map. It also allows you to go further along in the tech
tree which is always appreciated.
Service Depot
-------------
Cost: $800
The service depots are used to repair mechanical units in your army. It
repairs all land vehicles. It can also remove those pesky terror drones
from your tanks. The best reason for owning this building is because it
allows you to build additional MCVs for more bases. A problem with it is
that it is out on a limb in the tech tree and often overlooked.
Soviet Battle Lab
-----------------
Cost: $2000
The sole purpose of this building is to advance in the tech tree so you
can build the finest units of the Soviet empire. Build a wall around this
as to ward off any spies and tanyas. Spies will gain a new technology if
entered into this structure.
Nuclear Reactor
---------------
Cost: $1000
The Nuclear reactor is the ultimate power building. It adds roughly 13
times the power the Tesla Reactor gives you. Despite the uses of this
building, I suggest you to never build this because of the giant
explosion it makes when it is destroyed, It can take out units and weak
buildings around it. Also, since you really only need one of this per 5-6
bases(which you will probably never have) if it is destroyed, your power
demands will go through the roof.
The sole purpose of this building is to be used as a barrier to ward off
any units that might want to get into your base. You may build this
around the perimeter of your base if you desire, but it is needed around
the Construction Yard and the Battle Lab.
Sentry Gun
----------
Cost: $500
The sentry gun is only useful as quick temporary defense in an area, or
at the beginning of the game. Exceptions are when your opponent is trying
to Tanya you, or has a lot of infantry. Build these around tech building
so they aren't captured my an opposing side.
Flak Cannon
-----------
Cost: $1000
Flak cannons provide you with a stationary defense over a large radius.
These cannons are powerful and a few are very useful in backing up
your IFVs/Flak Troopers against air raids. If you build these near tech
buildings, it will provide a little resistence to air units that are
attacking.
Tesla Coil
----------
Cost: $1500
Tesla Coils are very useful defensive structures that should always be
built in a small group around your base(s). Although it requires a lot of
power to run a significant amount of them, they are worth it because of
the power they have. Use tesla troopers in conjunction with tesla coils
for a larger tesla coil defence.
Psychic Sensor
--------------
Cost: $1000
The psychic sensor tells you what units are attacking your base if they
are within a certain radius of the building. It can be quite useful and
other times completely useless. I would use it to warn you of incoming
planes and paradrops.
Cloning Vats
------------
Cost: $2500
Cloning vats give you an extra infantry unit whenever you build one. It's
like a two for one deal. You should use this when you are making a ton of
Yuri's or need extra reinforcements. (Additional infantry will come out
whether you need them or not.)
Iron Curtain
------------
Cost: $2500
This is the minor Soviet superweapon (if any super weapon can be minor)
upon being built, it will count down from seven minutes to zero. When it
reaches zero, you can use the iron curtain which makes up to nine units
invenerable for a brief period of time. This should be used right before
a base assault or just to harrass the enemy. It can also be used to kill
any infantry units that are in the area of it's usage.
Nuclear Silo
------------
Cost $5000
The cost of this structure may be overwhelming, but it makes up for it
after the tedious ten minute countdown, At that point you can launch a
powerful nuke at the enemy base. This nuke will destroy/severely injure
any building and vehicle within its area of effect. It also leaves an
unhealthy radiation field left to melt any infantry units that somehow
survived the initial blast. This weapon if extremely powerful and should
be used wisely as you will not get a lot of them troughout the course of a
match.
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4) Soviet Unit Guide
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The conscript is the first of a lot of the infantry units. It is also the
most basic of all the units of Red Alert 2. All it can do is attack for
minimal damage to the enemy. The greatness of the conscript is that it
can be built on large numbers very quickly and they can garrison
neutral buildings that can be very useful if you are low on defense.
Garrison whenever you can. Otherwise, just use this unit to guard your
base from unwanted intruders and as an early scout.
Engineers can be useful, or useless in any battle. They cannot even
smack a wrench over a guys head to cause damage, so count them out as an
attacking unit. They can repair any of your damaged buildings to full
health instantaneously, so you can use them very defensively in that
sense. A little better, and cooler way to use them is to put them in a
transport over to the enemies base and put them all in random buildings
of the enemies. This will capture all of those buildings and you can
sell them for money. Engineers can also repair all destroyed bridges
and neutral buildings.
Attack Dog
----------
Cost: $200
Power 5 to infantry; Cannot attack to anything else.
Speed: 4
Prerequisites: Barracks
Attack dogs are very limited in their usefulness, but when they are
useful they are extremely so. At the start of the match, build one
to quickly scout out the surroundings and find out where your enemy is.
You should also use these if faced with a ton of yuris/anything else
that can mind control units. Other then those two instances and killing
a lot of GI's and conscripts, you will find the dogs to be of limited
use.
Tesla troopers have such large suits on, that it is impossible to run
them over with tanks. This comes in handy, as their electrical attack is
very useful against tanks and other infantry alike. These should be put
inside your base as a defense against rushes and to power up your tesla
coils.
Flak Troopers are your friends, not your enemies. You simply cannot
waste money if you invest in buying flak troopers. They are a valuable
anti-air device and great at stopping incoming paratroopers as well.
You should have a whole squad at every base you have. Not only does it
counter air attacks, but it can be used rather ineffectively against
tanks too. With the help of the cloning vats, massing these is just not
hard.
Crazy Ivans cannot attack normally, instead they, crazily, plant a bomb
on anything you tell them to. The bomb is super-powerful and can destroy
a power plant and other small buildings with one bomb. It takes two to
blow up a War Factory and a Construction Yard though. One can easily
destroy any small installations and tech buildings opponents may capture.
You can also blow up bridges with him.
Yuris mind control any units that get within their range. This is deadly,
because not only will you gain a free unit, you take away an opponent's
unit. Also, they have a crazy secondary attack that you can use by
double clicking on a Yuri. It will launch a field of Psychic power which
is deadly to all infantry within the feild.
War Miner
---------
Cost: $1400
Power: 2
Speed: 2
Prerequisites: Ore Refinery; War Factory
War miners are essential to your base because they mine ore and gems for
you to spend on other units. If these units go down, you go down, so
protect these miners with your life, and go after other player's miners.
They have a pitiful rifle mounted on the back of this thing, so it can
defend itself against say a few guys.
Rhino Heavy Tank
----------------
Cost: $900
Power: 3
Speed: 3
Prerequisites: War Factory
The averageness of these tanks is their greatest strength. If you don't
know what to build, these are mandatory. You will probably need many of
them come the end of the battle, so you should build them when you can.
They have good attack power, that in groups is deadly. Be sure to
upgrade to Apocalypse tanks too, and not to ONLY build these.
Flak tracks make excellent scouts early on so you may use them for that.
There are also a multitude of strategies that flak tracks can be used for
such as the engineer rush. Just load up a bunch of engineers in the flak
track and send it into the opponent's base. This ussually prove's to be
fatal unless the enemy has some idea of what they are doing. They are
useful as anti-air units as well. Build a handful of these. The problem
with building these is that you don't want too few to too many. If you
build too few, the flak troopers you created could be killed(by Tanya
for instance) and you will not have enough flaks to get there and take
down the impending air units. If you build too many, you won't have
enough for tanks when you need them. You should use your own judgement
when building these. Ussually around 15-20 will suffice.
Terror Drones
--------------
Cost $500
Power: 4
Speed: 5
Prerequisites: War Factory
Terror Drones will move quickly throughout the landscape and go into
tanks and rip them apart from the inside. This is great because it can
successfully counter a tank rush if used correctly. They can also kill
infantry quickly. A great strategy is to put them inside of your
opponent's miners. Apart from being annoying, it works well.
V3 Rocket Launcher
------------------
Cost: $800
Power: 5
Speed: 1
Prerequisites: War Factory; Radar Station
The funny thing about V3s is that they are just to slow to use to your
advantage for long. The rockets are too slow, the truck is too slow, it
should be used only at the beginning for some quick harrassment. Aside
you could try it for some base assualt later, but since the opponent has
anti-air then it probably will do nothing.
Apocalypse Tank
---------------
Cost: $1750
Power: 5
Speep: 2
Prerequisites: War Factory; Radar Station; Battle Lab
Despite being unbielevably expensive, these trucks have a HUGE advantage
in power. They are so ridiculously powerful, it is almost unfair if you
have huge numbers of these. They have a devastating ground attack, along
wih a great anti-air missle device. Their Health Points are also nothing
to laugh about.
MCV
---
Cost: $3000
Power: Cannot attack
Speed: 1
Prerequisites: War Factory; Radar Station; Service Depot
The MCV is a base on wheels and is very slow and stuff. It is required to
have another base with(unless you build off tech buildings) but is
ussually worth it in the end.
Kirovs go into high extremes for power and low extremes for speed. You
should build a few of these if you can just to scare the crap out of your
enemies. It's all in good fun. If your lucky you can build one and the
opponent will massively build anti-air stuff and you mass tanks. That's
just funny.
This is the basic Soviet ship. (or sub in this case.) It is a very good
unit to have around your ships because it can defend all of the other
ships in your navy.
The squid will latch itself onto other ships and slowly smack 'em up.
Eventually, it will kill it's target. Only dolphins can detach a squid
once it attacks. This is useful and annoying if you get your naval yard
up first annd squid everybody's ships before you destory the their
naval yard itself.
Dreadnoughts are like V3 Rockets in the ocean. This is a lot better then
the V3 itself because if you have a nought with full support, it has a
very small chance of being destroyed. Watch for tricky swimming tanyas.
What can I say? It's just a transport that can...transport almost all units.
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5) Special Soviet Unit Guide
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Terrorists I have never found to be overly useful. They are good in
large numbers, but die easily and will explode is shot dead. So bring
them away from your base. Do some quick raids on your enemies' bases'
weakspots.
My favorite special are desolators. They are powerful infantry killers,
great Area of Effect Attack, and are just cool. Build a few of these for
your base. Deploy a few around choke points.
Libyan
Demolition Trucks
-----------------
Cost: $1500
Power:5
Speed:3
Prerequisites: War Factory; Radar Station
This is another favorite of mine, and probably the most useful one.
Demo Trucks are terrorists but in a truck. Demo trucks have a large
explosion size and leak radiation behind too. Be sure to only build
a few at a time. We wouldn't want planes to come and shoot this in our
base would we? Once you build them get them to you bases' perimeter
immediatly, or just rush them into the enemy base.
Russian
Tesla Tanks
-----------
Cost: $900
Power:4
Speed:4
Prerequisites: War Factory; Radar Station
An overall solid tank that attacks like a Tesla Trooper. It is fast and
effective in base defense. Also, it can arch it's shots over friendly and
enemy walls, so you should use that effectively.
Obtaining credits is the objective of any army in order to crank out
more units. Remember, that in order to get a steady fund you WILL need
more then 1-2 ore trucks. On maps with no derricks, I suggest 2 oil
refineries at every base you own. With a few derricks, one may suffice,
but always build at least 3-4 spare ore trucks.
Overall, it all depends on these factors:
-Amount of Derricks
-Amount of ore on the map
-Distance from the ore
-Amount of opponents
-Ore type
With expirience, you will learn to judge effectively all of these things
and calculate how many refineries, and ore trucks you need. For now, in
general 3-4 spare ore trucks 2 refineries/base.
The Art of Harassing
--------------------
In the 'Rules to RA2' You'll notice I said a lot about harassing, well,
it is essential. It is essential because the simple surprise it carries
with it could potentially take your opponent out of battle right away
if they are not ready, or if you manage to take out a few buildings, it
could cripple the enemy and give you the advantage.
Ways to harass are almost unlimited. The best thing to do in my
expirience is to just throw a bunch o' tanks at the enemy in relatively
undefended areas of their base. A quick bunch of tanks can really do
some damage unless taken care of immediatly. Aside, from being
distracting, it is effective.
I'd say rocketeers if you were playing as Allied but that won't do. As
Soviet the best thing is the group of tanks. apocalyspe is not as
essential.
Once naval warfare comes into play, noughts are also very useful. When it
comes to rockets, V3's are great very early in the game. No one expects
them these days, and they do some damage quickly.
I hate to go into classics already, but nothing beats a well planned out
engineer rush.
Boris is excellent at doing stuff like that. He can easily take out power
plants with a single bomb. Many other structures go down with one as
well.
Conscript it up. 30 or so Conscripts can kick the crap out of a good load
of units. If your enemy has no clue how to run these goons over then your
set.
Garrisonning is essential not only for defence, but for offence too.
Conscripts are of further use here.
Yuri's. Nothing is more annoying and distracting as Yuri's. Enough said.
That should get you started on harassing. In general, just try to harass
in the worst possible time you can for your opponent.
Defending Key points:
There comes a time in every commander's life where they will have to
defend something essential that if not defended, you will almost
surely lose the game. Luckily, this section is meant just for that.
Things to defend
If you really need some help, here are some things to defend that
you will want in anygame of RA2:
-Your base
-Any expansions you have
-Choke Points
-Oil Derricks
-Ore fields
Defending your own base is easy enough. Near the beginning all you need
is a sentry or two. When the game evolves a bit, you will need to upgrade
to tesla coils and flak cannons a little. Really, your main base should
be relatively well defending due to your units generally being built
there.
Defending expansions, and oil derricks(any tech building wanted) is
a bit more complicated to judge what you need because you will not always
be gaurenteed to have units at expansions. In general move a little of
everything. Some tanks, some infantry, some Anti-Air, some naval. If you
have some of it, plant some of it near your expansion/tech building
expansion. This will cause the enemy to do one of many things:
1) This will anger the enemy and he will want to take it back to in
a strike where he thinks he can take stuff out, he will rush and
pray. This is rare in C&C. You opponent is more likely to:
2) Build a little of everything and try to beat you due to better
strategy. Give your opponent some credit. He chose the bext thing
to do. With your defensive structures you built at the expansion
(yes do so) and with a few more units for reinforcements, you
should be fine.
3) Beat you with one type of unit. By one type I mean all ground, all
air all sea - most likely all land. This is okay. It will probably
fail unless you have major holes in your defense. Due to your
vareity you should win especially with Soviet's supirior strength.
4) Your opponent could do sneaky things or drops to try and get around
it later in the game when you dont expect it. This is dangerous
simply because you won't expect it. Having a well rounded defence
will be the best thing to do here.
5) If your opponent leaves it alone. Good for you. He either thinks
the cons outweigh the pros, or is overwhelmed by your brilliant
defence. Good Job.
Guarding choke points can be an essential thing to do as well. Simply
because the more of the map you control the better. Ore fields can
sometimes be chokes, either way these things are defended simiilarly.
Remember in the middle of nowhere, there are no defensive structures to
win the battle for you, so bringing a small squad of just tanks and AA
may not be enough. That IS the recommended minimal size, but bringing
a couple yuris and other assorted units will not be bad. Do not bring
them if needed elsewhere. Chokes should only be defended and camped if
you are confident in the safety of your base and expansions. Do not
forget fortress walls, dogs, and sentries on bases and expos.
Judging Priority Targets
------------------------
A priority target can be anything in the game. A building, a unit,
anything. When it comes to bases, priorities are easiest to find. It
goes like this:
-Construction Yard
-War Factory/Ore Refinery*
-Barracks/Ore Refinery*
-Radar Station
-Any Superweapons and Battle Lab
-Everything else
*Go for the ore refinery if thats the only one they have
remaining, and they aren't getting money through another source
(oil derricks)
Buildings are easy enough to prioritize. If you think you have enough to
take out a single building, go for the ore refinery or war factory. The
CS Yard is probably too deep to go for.
Obviously, superweapons are always a high priority. Sometimes they take
all priority. Priority 1 targets are the ones that need to be taken out
immediatly.
Again, this is very simple to figure out building-wise, but with units it
can become difficult to specify which is the priority 1 target, or the
ones that should be dealt with first.
In order to effectively attack and win battles, figuring this out with
units becomes essential. Battles play out differently depending on the
core units and the backup units.
A simple example is if kirovs are attacking your base, while taking out
an expansion of the enemy. You could focus all AA on the kirovs and leave
your other units vulnerable, you could take EVERY unit back to your base,
delaying the attack and take out the kirovs, or you could forget the
kirovs, take the expo, and hope your base aa will take care of it.
Well, what you would do depends. If you asked me, priority one is the
kirovs, then attacking the expansion. If you have MASSIVE AA at your
base, priority one is the expansion. If they have rocketeers at their
base, or a ton of defence, priority one is savinging yourself and
killing the kirovs. This can be changed in many ways each with a
different outcome. It is almost always situational which is priority 1,
so teaching it can be somewhat difficult.
Let's move onto a different example, which takes place near water:
Side 1(Sov) Versus Side 2(Ally)
----------------------------------------------------
5 tanks 8 tanks
3 sea scorpians 2 prism tanks
3 apocalypse tanks 10 rocketeers
This seems stacked towards the Allied side, but really isn't if using
proper techniques in prioritizing. Out of this, I would say the
rocketeers pose the largest threat simply because, they can take out
your tanks fairly quickly (even the apocalypse) in large numbers. The
sea scorpians will have to deal with the rocketeers and the AT aerial
attack. Leading them near the ocean is essential in this battle in order
to rid yourself of rocketeer troubles.
So, you've led them fairly close to the water, but the enemy is too smart
to be fooled by such an obvious attempt at riding them of their
rocketeers. The sit back, and allow their two prism tanks to do
long range damage to your tanks. Guess what changes? Priority One changes
all to quickly. Now, it's all or nothing get those prisms. Rushing the
5 tanks quickly to the rear of their lines is the best way to go to
as quickly as possible get rid of those PT's. After that has been done,
the priority changes to the rocketeers again because, your tanks will get
killed in the middle of the land, with no AA. Bringing your units quickly
back to shore will now scare the enemy whose priority is the sea scorpians.
He will now wait a little for some destroyers, which were hidden in shroud
to you. These will take out your sea scorpians in no time and allow him to
camly rid himself of your ground force. Good thing you forsaw this and had
loads of subs to protect your sea scorpians just for this moment. By the
way, your priority over the last ten seconds in which the destroyers came
in is the destoryers. Why?
Destroyers can destroy your AA, which you need in order not to get killed
by air that the enemy has. Since, your ground to ground attacking forces
are the ones that deal the major damage, and win the most battles often
priority can be discovered simply by seeing what units your ground needs
to be killed in order for them to survive. Working backwards from there
will give you the priority one. Very hard to say such a simple task, but
this task is essential.
A list of units that carry high priorities and can change priority to
themselves very fast are:
Allied
-Large rocketeer groups
-Tanyas
-Paratroopers
-Prism Tanks
-Aircraft Carriers
Okay, back to the battle. As soon as your opponent sees his destoryers
killed, he will probably either retreat and live to fight another day, or
test his luck and get destroyed. Trust be, three sea scorps are more then
a match for 10 rocketeers. With the rockets dead, the remaining stronger
tanks should be able to decimate the enemies forces rather quickly.
No battle is this clean, and I can admit that it's all theory, but as
examples go, its not half bad.
Don't worry about prioritizing when you first play, often times it is
quite obvious, and if it isn't there may not BE a priority, in which case
both teams are equaly equipted to deal with each other, rare but
possible, If your opponent is going hardcore defensive structure to give
him the advantage, which is a decent idea, it's best to go after miners.
No funds no units.
Turtling with oil derricks is deadly, as it can be a loooooong game with
no clear ending aside from who chooses to give up first. If you really
need to win this one, just minimize it and do something else. Check every
3-5 minutes in case your opponent comes up with some brilliant srategem
that needs to be countered right away.
Remember deciding what unit needs to be dealt with first is how you play
RA2, sometimes it can be confusing, but choosing the best targets to
attack first is many times the difference between life and death.
Attacking Tactics
-----------------
I have to admit that almost all decent RA2 games get into parts
with massive amounts of tanks, backup, air aupport, and further units.
I mean, most of my strategies are really just preparing you into getting
a steady flow of credits, and preparing you into getting a ton of units.
What you actually do with these units, however, has not really been
covered. I may have covered them all individually, but what good
will that do you when they are in a group?
Here I will explain when to attack with what and the best way to attack
with groups.
1)When sending a land army over large areas, its obviously best to send
tanks as the front line of defence, and then sending flak tracks,
backup whatever.
2)Seeing as you will have a variety of units, do not just send them
in blindly. Plant to attack by means of killing the least possible
units in your squad. This means being patient and taking garrisoned
buildings out from a distance, while tanks run over the men.
3)Oh yeah, RUN DOWN MEN DO NOT ATTACK THEM WITH TANKS. Infantry can
destory tanks in large numbers unless you run them down. The easiest
way to do this is take a single tank, hold ALT and then click on the
soon to be squished infantry unit. The quickest way (and sometimes
the most effective getting most or all the infantry) is to take a
small group of tanks and hold ALT, then click passed the group of
infantry. The tanks ignore everything to get to that spot.
Ignoring infantry included.
4)Focus firing is pretty much proven to be more effective then any other
method. This simply means that you should use the queueing ability
correctly and make tanks while effectively microing the battles.
5) Focus firing is done most efficiently by use of CTRL + (number)
Doing this will allow you to creat fireteams within your army.
The advantage to this is that you dont have to group all tanks,
and then attack one enemy with ALL of them.
This, being the definition os focus firing seems strange that you
wouldn't use all your units to attack one single one, but instead
group your tanks into a bunch of fairly even fireteams because you
can. Now, group one fire at a single unit, group two a different one
etc. Now you can take out MORE units with focus firing faster.
It only takes about three shells to kill a basic tank with another
basic tank. This really means you only NEED three tanks/fireteam.
I suggest 7 or 8 each team. This is because not all of your tanks
will be attacking the enemy at once instantly, and the extra amount
will replace lost tanks as well.
With these 5 methods, making successful strikes upon enemy bases should
be much easier.
Garrisonning
------------
Must I explain the greatness that is garrisonning? Without a doubt it is
something that you HAVE TO DO. If there are buildings to garrison around
your base or not, you get there first and you garrison those things.
Aside from giving 8 infantry added defense, and becoming a great offense
or defense, they give you control of an area of the map that no one
really has control over. If opponents don't notice the garrisons, they
can easily take out a squad on the way to your base without you even
knowing. Better for you when they can't find their units they swear they
had.
Just garrison and like it.
Essential Scoutage
------------------
Scouting for Soviet is very important early game. With no spy sat uplink,
you will need to get all the map possible in your radar screen. Send dogs
in every direction early on to do the scouting for you. Without seeing
whats going on you will be almost useless, also, scouting early can give
you tips on what the enemy is making quickly. If he rushes, you will be
ready for what me may throw at you.
Scouting later is not as essential as there is not really fog of war
that reappears in RA, but early game you should focus on it, and once
you get about half the map, all your opponents' bases and your immediate
area you can back off a little on scouting.
Rules of Red Alert 2
--------------------
This section is based upon a Starcraft FAQ I saw a little while ago.
This FAQ (by Lord Zero thanks.) explained a sample game from the
Terran point of view and gave you essential rules that should always
be followed when playing with Terran.
I am going to do something similar only with Soviet in RA2.
When it comes to tactics, it all comes down to money. Without money, you
can't make the ultimate set if units you were planning to. So what you do
is get yourself set financially, then build lots of units and stuff while
making small attacks at the enemy.
Rule #1: Without funds you will lose.
So, what you want to do at the beginning of the game, is Deploy your
construction yard, then build a power plant and set that in your base.
After that, you will always want to build a barracks. You build a
a barracks first simply because you want to scout. After your barracks
is up you will have three tabs of thing you can build(structures,armory,
and infantry.) You will want to use those three things to your advantage
and build something in each. Build an ore refinery in one tab, a wall in
the next, and a dog in the infantry tab.
Your ore refinery will take the longest to complete, so build a few more
wall sections when that one is done. You will want to put these walls
around your construction yard. This is essential to ward off any early
engineer rushes that will come your way. (and they often will)
While you are building these walls, you should be scouting the corners of
the map with your dog(s). Here is another rule.
Rule #2: If you fail to scout prepare for a loss.
Scouting is very, very important. More so if you are Soviet. First of
all you must scout to find out what your enemy has in mind and to keep a
close eye on him. See what he is doing and find a way to counter it.
It is very important as Soviet because, you KNOW that an allied opponent
will see wherever you are whenever you are. This is due to the Spy
Satillite Uplink, and because they have Gap Generators it will be very
tough to scout them out a second time.
Okay, now you should be able to see if there are any tech buildings
around you because of your scouting. This is your next step. You want to
put engineers in most/all of those buildings. You should put engineers in
all of those buildings putting the oil derricks more important then any-
thing else, then the airports. After those two things, the other
buildings are less useful, so you could just forget about them. While you
are doing this you should be building a War Factory and about 3-4 sentry
guns in strategic spots around your base this will further help destroy
engineers and small infantry rushes, as well as para-troopers.
When your War Factory is up, this is the part where you want to judge the
amount of War Miners you will need in order to keep a steady inflow of
cash. Keep in mind how much ore is there, how far away it is, and how
many derricks you have. In general, 3-4 extra miners is sufficent. Fewer
if you have more derricks. Once you have a steady inflow of cash, you are
good to go build a lot of units.
Keep in mind that this type of build ect is NOT to be followed exactly.
If you see that the enemy had rocketeer or two at his base when you
scout it, you know that a few flak troopers will be required to
dissipate this rush.
This brings me to two rules:
Rule #3: Build counter units to everything that your opponent may attack
you with.
Rule #4: If you don't do a lot of small strikes to slow the enemy's
building down...well not too much will happen, but it does give you an
advantage if you are destroying the enemy's battle lab and spy satillite
or stopping the enemy's power every five minutes.
There is a certain amount of skill required to make small base harrasses
work, but this is discussed in another section. The Art of Harassing.
Now you will want your radar to be put up. You simply have to build a
radar station and place it. After this you will have all of the basic
buildings down, but remember, buildings are not what is going to kill
your enemy. While all this is going on, you will want to be pumping
out rhino heavy tanks constantely.
At this point you will be set up at a good position, having good funds, a
few flak troopers and tanks is always a great basic defense.
Rule #5 Without tanks, you WILL DIE!
Rule #6 Without a good amount of anti-air units, you will be venerable to
annoying air strikes and rocketeers. You should build a small group of
flak tracks and be building flak troopers like it's your purpose in life.
This is the point where making a few rushes/destroying a bit of your
enemies base or just scaring him a little, should be put into effect. As
Soviet, your choices in doing this is a bit limited. You should try a
small tank rush, while not using all of your tanks to have some base
defense. If you have paratroopers trying to take out a power plant or
two is never a bad idea. I'm sure you will eventually get this part down
with practice.
This is the time to build a very over-looked structure, the Service
Depot. it is kind of on a wind in the tech tree, so I can see why this is
a bit over-looked, but don't skip it. You want this because of the great
ability to make an MCV. If you build a new base at chokepoints around
your base, you will probably be able to defend yourself better.
Never stop building tanks unless you sense that the enemy will attack
with a lot of air units.
The main goal of the middle stage of the game(from the point you get your
battle lab) is to build as many units as you possibly can. The problem
is, if you build just one type of thing. Like tanks for instance.
Building a ton of tanks isn't bad, but you will be extremely venerable
if the enemy attacks you with air strike, rocketeers, or kirovs. So you
want to build a mix of units that do different things for you. For
instance, build tanks and flak troopers at the same time. This way you
have anti-air and good ground units.
Rule #7: If you don't build a variety of units, you will lose.
This brings me to building ships before your battle lab. If there is
water on the map(a lot of water that you can access enemy bases with)
then ships would be a very very good idea before you gain a battle lab.
This is because it is not as essential for Soviet players to go into
the tech tree before the allied do simply because there main tank is
very strong.
After the naval yard, you should build a few sea scorpions if no one else
has a naval yard. If they do have a naval yard, then build submarines
and switch to sea scorpions when you feel you are safe from good attack
from the enemy ships. This will help you to gain a good harrassing and
destroying position on the enemy later in the game, and will help you
defend against air/naval strikes. In fact if your opponent(s) don't
have naval yards yet, one of the absolute BEST things you can do is
rule the seas. If you see this occur DONT STOP building subs unless you
think you will be overwhelmed by land or air units and need money.
Send a small group of subs o every enemies' base and right when they
choose to build a naval yard, destroy it. Now just back the subs up
with sea scorps, maybe a few squids and definitley noughts for harassing
and annoying purposes and see the game shift is your favor. Watch the
yuris. If they get your ships you will have to kill your own units.
You will want to build a battle lab right after you have a naval yard up.
You may want to build a few spare power plants before you do so because
the battle lab really drains the power from your base. I am assuming you
have the sense to build power plants as you need them.
At the deployment of a battle lab you have a lot of options you might
want to consider. You will want to switch to building apocalyse tanks
instead of rhino heavy tanks. With your navy, you might want to build
a dreadnaught and some sea scorpions. This will give your navy a great
position because it will be able to defend against air, land, and other
naval units. You can go without the noughts, but never exclude
building sea scorpions because the anti-air they give you is irreplacable
and they will save the life of your navy countless times.
You will also want to build some technological units such as Yuris, Crazy
Ivans, Kirovs, and others. These units will give you a great advantage
over the enemy depending on the situation.
Build a few Kirovs because they will scare the enemy into building a
bunch of anti-air units. This will waste their funds because you should
only build one or two and keep them in case.
At this stage in the game you have to build a ton of everything. Remember
it is variety that will save your life ALONG with a massive amount of
tanks.
Okay, let's review the 7 rules that will be needed:
Rule #1: Without funds you will lose.
Rule #2: If you fail to scout prepare for a loss.
Rule #3: Build counter units to everything that your opponent may attack
you with.
Rule #4: If you don't do a lot of small strikes to slow the enemy's
building down...well not too much will happen, but it does give
you an advantage if you are destroying the enemy's battle lab and
spy satillite or stopping the enemy's power every five minutes.
Rule #5: Without tanks, you WILL DIE!
Rule #6: Without a good amount of anti-air units, you will be venerable
to annoying air strikes and rocketeers. You should build a small group
of flak tracks and be building flak troopers like it's your purpose
in life.
Rule #7: If you don't build a variety of units, you will lose.
These are fairly general rules that you should follow on every game
with Soviet. Again, every game of RA2 is different, therefore different
strategies may be used and you will have to adapt. This small section,
along with ALL of my tactics are certainly not written in stone.
Playing With Superweapons
-------------------------
Superweapons are an option that completely change the game around. This
may make some players play VERY defensively and cause them to turtle in
in order for their superweapon to arrive and then they unleash the
force and clean up.
I don't happen to play with superweapons, and all of my srats will still
work when playing with the superweapons, but it forces you to think a
little more about how you can attack him if he is one of the above
mentioned players. Harass him like ,ad if you know he is one of the
above. Just do anything to prevent the weapon from going off.
Why I don't play with them is simple. I fear them way too much. >_> The
power to change the game with one weapon is just too great in my
opinion. If you don't think their that overpowered think of:
-Just the pure destructive power of the Nuke and Weather Storm
-Iron Curtain Demo Truck or apocalypes.
-Chronosphering 9 prisms into your base and raunching you.
These weapons DO have the power to change the game. Never underestimate
them.
-*=====================================================================*-
7) Outro
-*=====================================================================*-
This guide is for non-commercial use only. It is also copyright 2003
acidslayer57 and therefore you are not allowed to distribute any of it without
my permission, although you can print it out and read it whenever you want.
Basically, just ask if you want to use any part of this guide, I will most
likely say yes, but if you want to print it out for personal use go right ahead.
That is my guide for Red Alert 2's Soviet units/structures. I hope I gave
you some nice beefy tips and the overall just of the units you can have
as Soviet.
Thanks to the following people:
Westwood Studios- For without them what would this guide be about?
EA - Well they are the larger company Westwood belongs to now aren't
they?
CJayC - For hosting this FAQ on GameFAQs.
Neoseeker - For also hosting my other guides.
Lord Zero - For letting me use his hilarious and cool Rules system
for the tactics.
----
The sites that this FAQ is allowed on are:
-www.gamefaqs.com
-www.neoseeker.com
-www.DLH.net
If you have any questions, comments, or spelling/punctuation corrections, email
me at acidsy57@hotmail.com and use an appropriate subject.
