Copyright c1996 Roger Wong. All Rights Reserved
roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk
Visit the website:
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~cncfaq
DISCLAIMER
The purpose of this strategy guide is to aid the public with strategies and
tactics for use in the game Command and Conquer: Red Alert, by Westwood
Studios Inc. In no way should this strategy guide promote your killing
yourself, killing others, or killing in any other fashion.
Roger Wong claims NO responsibility regarding any illegal activity
concerning this strategy guide, or indirectly related to this strategy
guide.
TRADEMARK INFORMATION
Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a trademark of Westwood Studios, Inc., and
is so acknowledged. Any trademarks not directly mentioned are also
acknowledged.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
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Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 FOREWORD
1.2 ABOUT THE STRATEGY GUIDE
1.3 GETTING THE STRATEGY GUIDE
1.3.1 E-mail
1.3.2 Usenet
1.3.3 WWW
1.3.4 BBS
1.4 CONTRIBUTING TO THE STRATEGY GUIDE
1.5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1.6 ACCURATE INFORMATION
2. ALLIED FORCES STRUCTURES AND UNITS
2.1 STRUCTURES
2.1.1 Construction Yard
2.1.2 Power Plant
2.1.3 Advanced Power Plant
2.1.4 Ore Refinery
2.1.5 Ore Silo
2.1.6 Barracks
2.1.7 War Factory
2.1.8 Naval Yard
2.1.9 Helipad
2.1.10 Pillbox
2.1.11 Camouflaged Pillbox
2.1.12 Turret
2.1.13 AA Gun
2.1.14 Service Depot
2.1.15 Radar Dome
2.1.16 Technology Center
2.1.17 Gap Generator
2.1.18 Chronosphere
2.1.19 Sandbags
2.1.20 Concrete Wall
2.1.21 Fake Structures
2.2 ARMY
2.2.1 Rifle Infantry
2.2.2 Rocket Infantry
2.2.3 Engineer
2.2.4 Spy
2.2.5 Thief
2.2.6 Tanya
2.2.7 Medic
2.2.8 Mine Layer
2.2.9 Ore Truck
2.2.10 Ranger
2.2.11 APC
2.2.12 Light Tank
2.2.13 Medium Tank
2.2.14 Artillery
2.2.15 Mobile Gap Generator
2.2.16 Mobile Radar Jammer
2.2.17 MCV
2.3 NAVY
2.3.1 Transport
2.3.2 Gunboat
2.3.3 Destroyer
2.3.4 Cruiser
2.4 AIR FORCE
2.4.1 Longbow
2.5 SPECIAL FORCES
2.5.1 GPS Satellite
2.5.2 Sonar Pulse
2.5.3 Chronoshift
3. SOVIET POWERS STRUCTURES AND UNITS
3.1 STRUCTURES
3.1.1 Construction Yard
3.1.2 Power Plant
3.1.3 Advanced Power Plant
3.1.4 Ore Refinery
3.1.5 Ore Silo
3.1.6 Barracks
3.1.7 Kennel
3.1.8 War Factory
3.1.9 Sub Pen
3.1.10 Airfield
3.1.11 Helipad
3.1.12 Service Depot
3.1.13 Radar Dome
3.1.14 Technology Center
3.1.15 Flame Tower
3.1.16 Tesla Coil
3.1.17 SAM Site
3.1.18 Iron Curtain
3.1.19 Missile Silo
3.1.20 Barbed Wire Fence
3.1.21 Concrete Wall
3.2 ARMY
3.2.1 Attack Dog
3.2.2 Rifle Infantry
3.2.3 Grenadier
3.2.4 Flame Infantry
3.2.5 Engineer
3.2.6 Mine Layer
3.2.7 Ore Truck
3.2.8 V2 Rocket Launcher
3.2.9 Heavy Tank
3.2.10 Mammoth Tank
3.2.11 MCV
3.3 NAVY
3.3.1 Transport
3.3.2 Submarine
3.4 AIR FORCE
3.4.1 Yak
3.4.2 MiG
3.4.3 Hind
3.4.4 Chinook
3.5 SPECIAL FORCES
3.5.1 Iron Curtain
3.5.2 Nuke
3.5.3 Parabomb
3.5.4 Paratrooper
3.5.5 Spy Plane
4. FIELD OPERATIONS COMBAT MANUAL
4.1 FIGHTING ON LAND
4.1.1 Center of Gravity
4.1.2 Combat Tactics
4.1.3 Concentrated Firepower
4.1.4 Scatter!
4.2 AIRPOWER
4.2.1 Offense
4.2.2 Defense
4.3 NAVAL WARFARE
4.3.1 The Wolfpack
4.3.2 Antisubmarine Warfare
4.3.3 Obstacles
4.4 LOGISTICAL SUPPORT
4.4.1 Economics
4.4.2 Minefields
4.4.3 Undocumented commands
5. QUIRKS, CHEATS & HIDDEN SURPISES
5.1 THE CHEAT KEYS
5.2 EDITING THE RULES.INI
5.3 QUIRKS
5.3.1 Ore silos
5.3.2 Multiple weapons factories
5.3.3 Minefields
5.3.4 Finding submarines
5.3.5 Deny transports a beachhead
5.3.6 Prevent the computer from rebuilding
5.3.7 Inaccurate cruiser fire
5.3.8 Cruisers versus submarines
5.3.9 Allying with the enemy
5.4 EASTER EGGS
5.4.1 Morse code in the manual
8. MULTIPLAYER GAMES
8.1 LOCAL NETWORK
8.2 MODEM
8.3 WCHAT
8.4 KALI
9. MULTIPLAYER TACTICS
9.1 CRATE CONTENTS
9.2 COUNTRY SPECIALTIES
9.3 PLAYING THE SOVIET POWERS
9.4 PLAYING THE ALLIED FORCES
10. BUGS, UPDATES FUTURE GAMES
10.1 OFFICIAL WESTWOOD PATCHES
10.2 ERRORS IN THE RED ALERT MANUAL
11. THIRD PARTY UTILITIES
11.1 RAEDIT
12. INTERNET RESOURCES
12.1 WEBSITES
13. APPENDICES
13.1 INSTALLATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING
13.1.1 Running Red Alert From Your Hard Disk
13.1.2 Windows 95 Video Problems
13.1.2.1 S3 Diamond Stealth and other S3 chipsets
13.1.2.2 Matrox Millennium
13.1.2.3 Number 9 Imagine 128 Series 2
13.1.2.4 Espresso Accelerator Card
13.1.3 Windows 95 Sound Problems
13.1.3.1 Stuttering
13.1.4 Network Problems
13.1.4.1 Can't even see the network game option
13.1.4.2 Sluggish game
13.1.4.3 Stragglers
13.2 DATA TABLES
13.2.1 Buildings
13.2.2 Units
13.2.3 Weapons
13.3 FURTHER READING
13.4 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
13.5 REVISION HISTORY
End Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 FOREWORD
A year ago I was the original C&C klutz. I wrote the Unofficial C&C
Strategy FAQ for myself as much as anyone else. One year and two months
later, I'm pleased to write another. May reading this strategy guide add to
your enjoyment of Red Alert.
1.2 ABOUT THE STRATEGY GUIDE
Welcome to the first release of the Red Alert Internet Strategy Guide. This
is a Red Alert strategy guide written for Internet distribution, with
Internet contribution, sans convolution.
Any similarities between this guide and PC Gamer UK's RA strategy
booklet are unavoidable. I wrote both of them.
1.3 GETTING THE STRATEGY GUIDE
1.3.1 E-mail
For notification of strategy guide revisions and other news, send an email
to raguide@powhq.nildram.co.uk with the subject heading "Medic! I'm hit!"
(no quotes).
To receive the latest revision of the strategy guide, send an email to
nervegas@inconnect.com with the subject heading "Send reinforcements!" (no
quotes.
1.3.2 Usenet
The Red Alert Internet Strategy Guide is posted on the first of every month
(or earlier if a new version is released) on the following Usenet groups:
(1) alt.games.redalert
(2) alt.games.command-n-conq
(3) alt.games.command-n-conq.red-alert
The Red Alert Internet Strategy Guide is also posted to
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic as new revisions are released.
1.3.3 WWW
New releases of the Unofficial C&C Strategy FAQ will be found on the
following World-wide Web sites:
1.3.4 BBS
I am not responsible for uploading new releases of the Red Alert Internet
Strategy Guide to bulletin board systems. I have control over neither them
nor their naming conventions, and can not guarantee that a given BBS will
hold a copy of the strategy guide in their files area.
ATTENTION: All BBSes, CompuServe, America Online, and all other
information services. PLEASE conform to the naming standard of the Red
Alert Internet Strategy Guide when placing this file on your system. The
file name should be 'rafaq???.zip' where the '???' is the revision number
of the guide or 'rafaq???.txt' if the guide is a text file instead of
PKZIPped.
1.4 CONTRIBUTING TO THE STRATEGY GUIDE
If you have something to add to the guide, please send E-mail to
'redalert@powhq.nildram.co.uk' (no quotes), explaining what your addition
is. It will be reviewed, and if accepted, edited and added to the next
revision of the strategy guide. In the E-mail, please supply your name and
E-mail address.
Please note that all submissions to the guide become property of the
author (Roger Wong) and that they may or may not be acknowledged. By
submitting to the guide, you grant permission for use of your submission in
any future publications of the guide in any media. The author reserves the
right to omit information from a submission or delete the submission
entirely.
Contributions of pizza slices are also welcome, as are any comments
and critiques. I'm always happy to hear from my readers.
1.5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Some of the information in this strategy guide comes from material provided
gratis by folks on the Internet.
Thanks goes to Westwood Studios, Virgin Interactive, and PC Gamer (UK)
for letting me play Red Alert a month ahead of anyone else.
I find the will which says to me, "Go on" in Mike Fay, author of the
Official Guide to Command & Conquer. During the lulls, Mike's encouragement
was a breeze of fresh air that filled my sails. May his own wind never fail
to blow.
1.6 ACCURATE INFORMATION
An attempt has been made to make the information in this strategy guide as
accurate as possible. If any information in this strategy guide is
incorrect, please let me know.
If a walkthrough or tip for a certain mission doesn't work for you,
you may be reading the wrong mission. To view your mission identification
numbers, press ESC during the game. The mission number is displayed in the
bottom right corner of the options menu.
Future updates and add-ons may render parts of this strategy guide
obsolete.
2. ALLIED FORCES STRUCTURES AND UNITS
2.1 STRUCTURES
Constructing more than one facility of the same type will increase
production of any units that facility can create. Two weapon factories, for
instance, will produce units twice as quick as a single weapon factory.
If a building is damaged by fire, there is a good chance it will burst
into flames. A building sustains flame damage for as long as the fires are
burning. The repair tool can be used to combat the flames.
2.1.1 Construction Yard
You need an MCV to build a construction yard. If your constantly hammered
by tank fire, build a concrete wall around it.
2.1.2 Power Plant
Build a power plant as your first structure. If the power to your base
drops below nominal, your buildings will take damage, and active systems
like radar, Tesla coils, AA guns, and gap generators will fail.
Productivity will also fall
2.1.3 Advanced Power Plant
This provides twice the power for less cost and space than two normal power
plants put together. It's easier to destroy a single advanced power plant
than two normal power plants, so weigh your options.
2.1.4 Ore Refinery
Build more than one ore refinery. Leave space around the ore refinery for
the ore trucks to navigate. Each refinery has enough storage space for 2000
credits worth of ore.
2.1.5 Ore Silo
Each silo can hold 1500 credits worth of ore. The ore is divided equally
between all your silos and refineries. If you run out of space, any ore you
mine is wasted.
2.1.6 Barracks
Build a barracks after the power plant. In early stages of the game, it
might be your only defense.
2.1.7 War Factory
War factories produce the vehicles you need to fight your battles. Leave
space around it for vehicles to maneuver.
2.1.8 Naval Yard
Naval yards can only be built on water, and within eight squares of an
existing base structure. The computer will give priority to naval yards
when choosing a structure to attack.
2.1.9 Helipad
Helicopters reload and rearm from here. Each ammo rock takes two and a half
seconds to reload.
2.1.10 Pillbox
These are infantry shredders, and are wonderful against engineer
incursions.
2.1.11 Camouflaged Pillbox
They are tough to spot and destroy than regular pillboxes.
2.1.12 Turret
The turret is an anti-tank weapon with heavy armor. Repair them in the
midst of combat.
2.1.13 AA Gun
They'll knock MiGs, bombers, spy planes, and helicopters out of the sky.
The guns are heavily armored, and fire rapidly. They are most effective in
groups of two or more. Deploy them several squares in front of units you
wish to protect. Knock out the planes before they get to their targets, not
when they are dropping bombs on them.
2.1.14 Service Depot
Build the service depot near your front lines so it doesn't take too long
to get units back home to repair. It repairs aircraft just as well as
vehicles, but you can not select multiple aircraft to repair like you can
with vehicles. The service depot repairs 10 points of damage every time it
goes 'tick'.
You can sell vehicles for half of their purchase cost by sending them
to the vehicle depot and clicking on the sell icon.
2.1.15 Radar Dome
The dome will give you a radar system that shows the whereabouts of enemy
units and building in explored territory.
2.1.16 Technology Center
Enables the construction of advanced buildings and vehicles. You'll get a
free GPS satellite with every purchase.
2.1.17 Gap Generator
Gap generators create a shroud of darkness in a 10 square radius. Enemy
radar can not penetrate it unless there are enemy units inside the gap.
Even then, they can only see their immediate surroundings.
2.1.18 Chronosphere
The chronosphere can shift a unit to another location for a limited time by
manipulating space. Frequent use of the chronosphere will trigger a chronal
vortex that can appear at a random location on the map. It will actively
seek out and destroy five units or buildings until it dissipates. The best
way to dissipate a chronal vortex is to sacrifice rifle infantry to it. You
have a 20 percent chance of getting a vortex every time you use the
chronosphere.
Only vehicles can be chronoshifted to a new destination; living matter
will spontaneously combust.
Using the chronosphere, you can send a mine layer into an ore deposit deep
in enemy territory, or shift a cruiser into firing range of an enemy base.
It can also be used to send an MCV to another part of the map and set up a
second base.
2.1.19 Sandbags
Infantry and light vehicles can't pass through these barriers, but if they
have explosive weapons like grenades or rockets, they can blast their way
through. Tracked vehicles will move through sandbags at a reduced rate.
2.1.20 Concrete Wall
Not even the heaviest tanks can pass through concrete walls. Use concrete
barriers to block access to the base, to protect vital structures, and to
herd enemy units into chokepoint kill zones. Concrete will block line-of-
sight weapons like rockets and tank rounds, but not artillery or similar
ordnance.
2.1.21 Fake Structures
Mockups of your construction yard, weapons factory, radar dome, or naval
yard can confuse your enemy. However, they are nowhere near as structurally
sound as your real buildings.
2.2 ARMY
2.2.1 Rifle Infantry
Most useful in numbers. They can take a lot of fire from tanks and turrets
before dying. They are cheap, and can be used as fodder to lure enemy tanks
and soldiers into ambushes.
2.2.2 Rocket Infantry
They are excellent against both aircraft and armored vehicles. Unlike
turrets or AA guns, they can be moved where they are needed most.
2.2.3 Engineer
Only structures that have over 75 percent structural damage can be taken
over by an engineer. If the arrows are green, the engineer can only damage
the building. When it is red, it's okay to take it over. Engineers can
repair friendly structures back to full health.
2.2.4 Spy
Spies look like the enemy's own infantry. A human player will certainly be
suspicious of a unit that he can not control, so some subtlety is called
for in multiplayer games.
They make great scouts since they can pass unmolested by enemy units,
but guard dogs will sniff them out with messy results.
Spies can infiltrate various buildings and pass along a steady stream
of intelligence. The information they can collect is as follows:
Barracks, weapon factory, construction yard: Find out what units the
enemy is building.
Subpen: Get a sonar pulse that shows enemy subs.
Refinery, silos: Learn the financial status of your enemy.
Radar dome: Track the movement of every enemy unit, seeing what they
see. In multiplayer games, you'll hear the conversations of the enemy you
infiltrate
If the enemy sells a building that your spies infiltrate, your spy
will emerge.
2.2.5 Thief
Sneak them into an enemy building to steal half their credits.
2.2.6 Tanya
You can only train Tanya if you are in a multiplayer game. Otherwise, she's
assigned to you. If Tanya ever dies in a single player mission, your
mission will fail. She can kill 3 soldiers every second.
2.2.7 Medic
A doctor heals 50 hit points at a time, but he can't heal himself.
2.2.8 Mine Layer
The best weapon against tanks is a mine layer. Mine the routes used by the
enemy. The best places for mines are river crossings and narrow passes. If
you mine an ore patch, an ore truck is almost guaranteed to stumble onto
one.
2.2.9 Ore Truck
The ore truck is the most important unit in the game. If you destroy your
enemy's ore truck, he'll starve to death, and the same also applies to you.
The computer gives high priority to defending its ore trucks, but a
quick, decisive strike will destroy the ore truck before reinforcements
arrive.
2.2.10 Ranger
Rangers are inexpensive and fast, making them good for quickly exploring
dark areas of the map.
2.2.11 APC
The APC was meant to ferry supporting troops along with tanks. Their speed
and maneuverability means they can rush through many base defenses intact
to unload engineers, saboteurs, and thieves.
Shove rocket infantry into an APC and escort your ore truck. If enemy
airpower attacks, unload the APC to give them a nasty surprise.
The speed of an APC makes it just as good for crushing personnel as it
is for carrying them.
2.2.12 Light Tank
Light tanks have a high rate of fire. In the long run, it will deliver more
damage in the same amount of time than a medium tank, but light tanks
seldom last that long.
2.2.13 Medium Tank
The main battle tank of the Allies. It lasts a third longer in battle, and
can thus squeeze off at least two more rounds than a light tank.
2.2.14 Artillery
The long range and power of their shells give artillery a role in
destroying stationary base defenses and ranks of infantry, but their weak
armor and slow movement make them easy targets.
2.2.15 Mobile Gap Generator
A mobile gap generator will hide nearby units under a shroud of darkness.
Surprise is a paramount strength in a multiplayer game, and denying an
opponent from knowing the nature of your attack will leave him with an
exploitable weakness.
2.2.16 Mobile Radar Jammer
If you move a radar jammer within 15 squares of the enemy radar dome, you
will shutdown his communications and radar. This interference appears as
static on the radar display. Use the confusion to launch a surprise attack,
or to prevent an enemy from communicating with any allies.
2.2.17 MCV
Mobile construction vehicles are necessary to build construction yards.
2.3 NAVY
2.3.1 Transport
Its high speed and armor make it very effective at charting unexplored
waters. It can hold five land units of any type. If you stick your infantry
into APCs before loading, you can transport 25 of them.
2.3.2 Gunboat
The gunboat is fast, and has a gun range of 5 and a half squares. Since
three direct hits from a submarine will kill it, keep it moving during ASW
operations. Two depth charge hits will cripple, if not destroy, a
submarine.
2.3.3 Destroyer
The Stinger missiles aboard destroyers fire twice as quickly at enemy air
units than land or sea targets. A destroy can attack a Tesla coil at a
distance without casualty. Smart submarine commanders will attack
destroyers from maximum distance.
2.3.4 Cruiser
Each shot a cruiser fires has three times the destructive power of an
artillery shell.
Cruisers can shoot at the water around submarines in hopes of hitting
them with stray shells, but have no defenses against air targets.
2.4 AIR FORCE
2.4.1 Longbow
An empty Longbow helicopter can pick up a full load of ammo in 15 seconds.
If you target an enemy helicopter, the Longbow will chase it around
firing missiles. Each of its six heat-seeking missiles is equivalent to a
shot from a mammoth tank, making it a good tank buster.
2.5 SPECIAL FORCES
2.5.1 GPS Satellite
Charges in eight minutes.
Provides free radar coverage for the whole theater of operations.
2.5.2 Sonar Pulse
Charges every ten minutes.
Shows the locations of all enemy submarines.
2.5.3 Chronoshift
Charges every seven minutes.
Moves any vehicle or ship from one destination to another for a
duration of three minutes. Frequent use of the chronosphere will trigger a
chronal vortex that can appear at a random location on the map. It will
actively seek out and destroy five units or buildings until it dissipates.
The best way to dissipate a chronal vortex is to sacrifice rifle infantry
to it. You have a 20 percent chance of getting a vortex every time you use
the chronosphere.
Only vehicles can be chronoshifted to a new destination; living matter
will spontaneously combust.
Using the chronosphere, you can send a mine layer into an ore deposit deep
in enemy territory, or shift a cruiser into firing range of an enemy base.
It can also be used to send an MCV to another part of the map and set up a
second base.
3. SOVIET POWERS STRUCTURES AND UNITS
3.1 STRUCTURES
3.1.1 Construction Yard
You need an MCV to build a construction yard. If your constantly hammered
by tank fire, build a concrete wall around it.
3.1.2 Power Plant
Build a power plant as your first structure. If the power to your base
drops below nominal, your buildings will take damage, and active systems
like radar, Tesla coils, AA guns, and gap generators will fail.
Productivity will also fall
3.1.3 Advanced Power Plant
This provides twice the power for less cost and space than two normal power
plants put together. It's easier to destroy a single advanced power plant
than two normal power plants, so weigh your options.
3.1.4 Ore Refinery
Build more than one ore refinery. Leave space around the ore refinery for
the ore trucks to navigate. Each refinery has enough storage space for 2000
credits worth of ore.
3.1.5 Ore Silo
Each silo can hold 1500 credits worth of ore. The ore is divided equally
between all your silos and refineries. If you run out of space, any ore you
mine is wasted.
3.1.6 Barracks
Build a barracks after the power plant. In early stages of the game, it
might be your only defense.
3.1.7 Kennel
Attack dogs are trained in this facility.
3.1.8 War Factory
War factories produce the vehicles you need to fight your battles. Leave
space around it for vehicles to maneuver.
3.1.9 Sub Pen
Sub pens allow you to build and repair submarines and transports. Stay on
the lookout for spies. Don't let them gain a sonar pulse.
3.1.10 Airfield
Airfields are heavily armored, but the aircraft they harbor are not. Giving
your enemies a free shot at your planes is a dumb thing to do, so keep them
to the rear. Air crews can reload one ammo unit every two and a half
seconds.
3.1.11 Helipad
Helicopters reload and rearm from here. Each ammo rock takes two and a half
seconds to reload.
3.1.12 Service Depot
Build the service depot near your front lines so it doesn't take too long
to get units back home to repair. It repairs aircraft just as well as
vehicles, but you can not select multiple aircraft to repair like you can
with vehicles. The service depot repairs 10 points of damage every time it
goes 'tick'.
You can sell vehicles for half of their purchase cost by sending them
to the vehicle depot and clicking on the sell icon.
3.1.13 Radar Dome
The dome will give you a radar system that shows the whereabouts of enemy
units and building in explored territory.
3.1.14 Technology Center
Enables the construction of advanced buildings and vehicles.
3.1.15 Flame Tower
Armored flame-throwers on steroids, this automated system launches
exploding fireballs. These are great against infantry and buildings, but
tend to not do more than scorch the paint of heavy tanks and vehicles.
Allied rocket infantry can take them out from a distance since their
rockets have greater range.
3.1.16 Tesla Coil
The Tesla coil is the best defense against enemy land and sea units. The
arcing electricity will destroy a light tank outright. It takes eight
seconds for the Tesla coil capacitors to recharge.
3.1.17 SAM Site
This is the only anti-aircraft structure at our disposal. Five direct hits
will down an enemy chopper, and two will ruin a jet or propeller plane
3.1.18 Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain will change the molecular structure of a unit, making it
impervious to all damage. This effect lasts for 45 seconds.
3.1.19 Missile Silo
Launches atom bombs.
3.1.20 Barbed Wire Fence
Twice as strong as sandbags, but tanks and other tracked vehicles are still
able to bulldoze through.
3.1.21 Concrete Wall
Not even the heaviest tanks can pass through concrete walls. Use concrete
barriers to block access to the base, to protect vital structures, and to
herd enemy units into chokepoint kill zones. Concrete will block line-of-
sight weapons like rockets and tank rounds, but not artillery or similar
ordnance.
3.2 ARMY
3.2.1 Attack Dog
They can detect spies and kill any infantry unit instantly. If dogs are
needed somewhere in a hurry, command them to attack a unit near the
location they are needed, and they'll run 50 percent faster.
3.2.2 Rifle Infantry
Most useful in numbers. They can take a lot of fire from tanks and turrets
before dying. They are cheap, and can be used as fodder to lure enemy tanks
and soldiers into ambushes.
3.2.3 Grenadier
Grenadiers explode when they die, so keep injured grenadiers away from
healthy units.
3.2.4 Flame Infantry
Their flame-throwers have a wide splash area. Friendly fire isn't.
3.2.5 Engineer
Only structures that have over 75 percent structural damage can be taken
over by an engineer. If the arrows are red, the engineer can only damage
the building. When it is green, it's okay to take it over. Engineers can
repair friendly structures back to full health.
3.2.6 Mine Layer
Anti-infantry mines are destroyed by vehicles passing over them. Use them
to lay personnel mines around your sub pens or other structures prone to
infiltration.
3.2.7 Ore Truck
The ore truck is the most important unit in the game. If you destroy your
enemy's ore truck, he'll starve to death, and the same also applies to you.
The computer gives high priority to defending its ore trucks, but a
quick, decisive strike will destroy the ore truck before reinforcements
arrive.
3.2.8 V2 Rocket Launcher
These rockets have a range of ten squares. Two rockets can destroy
camouflaged pillboxes. Three rockets will take out turrets and AA guns.
Slow units like infantry and cruisers are also easy to hit with V2 rockets.
The launchers themselves are only lightly armored, so keep them out of
close combat.
3.2.9 Heavy Tank
In packs of five or more, they are fearsome. The key to destroying heavy
tanks is to either spread their weapons fire, or to blow them up with
mines.
3.2.10 Mammoth Tank
The mammoth is armed with twin 120mm cannons, and if damaged, can self heal
up to 50 percent of its hit points. It's mammoth tusk missile is effective
against infantry and airplanes, but not very good against helicopters.
It's a slow tank, and takes five seconds to reload. If you're trying
to destroy a mammoth tank, make sure you kill the weaker tanks around it
first. Mammoths are sitting ducks without their supporting units.
3.2.11 MCV
Mobile construction vehicles are necessary to build construction yards.
3.3 NAVY
3.3.1 Transport
Its high speed and armor make it very effective at charting unexplored
waters. It can hold five land units of any type. If you stick your infantry
into APCs before loading, you can transport 25 of them.
3.3.2 Submarine
Submarines work best in packs. They can fire at ships 9 squares away and
are invisible when submerged. Submarines in guard mode will attack any
ships that come into range.
3.4 AIR FORCE
3.4.1 Yak
An empty Yak fighter can reload in 40 seconds.
Yaks are good for strafing infantry and destroying light vehicles and
structures. The strafing run begins one square in front of the target. The
Yak will open fire and walk the bullets to the target.
3.4.2 MiG
An empty MiG can reload in eight seconds.
They are very fast, but delicate. Six MiG fighters together will
destroy any structure or unit in the game.
3.4.3 Hind
An empty Hind chopper can reload in 30 seconds.
Hind choppers carry the same chaingun as the Yak, but instead of
walking their fire, they hover over a fixed vantage point.
3.4.4 Chinook
Transport helicopters only appear in multiplayer games. A transport
helicopter can carry five infantry units.
3.5 SPECIAL FORCES
3.5.1 Iron Curtain
Charges every 11 minutes.
Renders a unit or structure invulnerable for 45 seconds.
3.5.2 Nuke
Charges every 13 minutes.
The atomic warhead does widespread damage at ground zero. Big and
unprotected targets like buildings get vaporized, but because armored units
are low to the ground, airtight, made of metal, and very heavily protected,
they are much less vulnerable to the effects.
3.5.3 Parabomb
Charges every 14 minutes.
Parabombs are really inaccurate, and unless your target is fairly
large, you can forget about scoring any direct hits. Each time you drop
parabombs, the plane will arrive from a different direction, making it
almost impossible to predict the path of destruction. Each of the five
bomblets has the explosive power of two artillery shells.
3.5.4 Paratrooper
Charges every seven minutes.
You can drop paratroopers anywhere on the map, even in place you've
not yet explored. Use paratroopers to scout a distant area of map, or to
destroy power plants and other critical buildings in an unprotected area of
an enemy camp.
3.5.5 Spy Plane
Charges every three minutes.
The spy plane can take a lot of AA damage, so don't be afraid to send
it downtown. You can use it to spot enemy air defenses by using it this
way.
4. FIELD OPERATIONS COMBAT MANUAL
4.1 FIGHTING ON LAND
4.1.1 Center of Gravity
An enemy's center of gravity is the thing which, when removed from the
equation, paralyzes his forces. It's not his source of strength, but his
critical vulnerability.
What is the enemy's center of gravity? It's not his mammoth tank or
cruiser. Sure, they are powerful units, but even if you destroy them, the
enemy can still fight, and the enemy can still win.
The center of gravity is the enemy ore facility. Without ore there is
no money. Without money, there is no further construction, and no more
units. Without ore, the enemy is paralyzed.
4.1.2 Combat Tactics
The computer doesn't know to retreat when up against superior forces, and
will always fight to the death. Use this to force the computer into
committing forces to battles it can not possibly win.
4.1.3 Concentrated Firepower
Always bring your firepower to bear on a single unit at a time. Concentrate
your fire on enemy units that are easy to kill, but have the strongest
weapons. For every enemy unit knocked out, your own units will take less
damage.
If faced with three heavies and a mammoth, destroy the three heavies
before tackling the mammoth. If you were to concentrate on the mammoth, the
three heavies would pummel your forces by the time the mammoth died. By
leaving the mammoth for last, you take less damage.
4.1.4 Scatter!
You can scatter your units with the 'x' key while they are attacking.
Moving targets are more difficult to hit by the enemy, and suffer no
disadvantage in return.
4.2 AIRPOWER
4.2.1 Offense
Airpower is best used to remove targets of opportunity that can't fire
back.
4.2.2 Defense
Place anti-aircraft defenses well forward of whatever it is you are
protecting. Enemy aircraft launch their weapons from a distance, and you in
turn want to knock them out before they release their payload.
4.3 NAVAL WARFARE
4.3.1 The Wolfpack
Submarines work best in packs of five or more. Allied ships can only
concentrate on one boat at a time. If you can put five torpedoes into a
ship, your submarines won't take much damage.
4.3.2 Antisubmarine Warfare
To do massive damage to submarine forces, you need to get your ships close
to them. Submarines can't shoot through each other, so getting close will
hamper their efforts at concentrated fire.
If you're hunting for subs, fire area effect weapons into random
points in the water. If you damage the sub even the tiniest amount, it will
surface. Smuggle a spy into the sub pen and use the sonar pulse. You can
also use some of the techniques described in chapter five.
4.3.3 Obstacles
If a bridge is in your way, and you need to get to the other side, destroy
the bridge. You'll need to destroy two sections to make a big enough gap to
squeeze through.
4.4 LOGISTICAL SUPPORT
4.4.1 Economics
When ore is tight, micromanage your ore trucks. Gather ore in diagonal
strips, leaving a checkerboard pattern. This pattern will ensure quick
regeneration of the ore field.
Each truck holds 28 bales of ore. One bale of gem is worth 50 credits,
while a bale of gold is worth 25. Gather the gems first, because gems don't
regenerate.
It's a good idea to build one ore refinery for every major patch of
ore.
4.4.2 Minefields
I present to you the following ways to spot mines:
Run over one. Not recommended.
Observe and remember where the mine layers lay their mines, and
destroy them with weapons fire.
Actively sweep the territory in front of you with weapons fire. V2
rocket launchers make the best mine busters, followed closely by grenadiers
and artillery shells.
If a mine layer drops a mine in an ore field, you can't destroy it
even if you know exactly where it is. Make hunting mine layers your new
hobby.
4.4.3 Undocumented commands
The 'f' key will put a group of units into formation mode. This doesn't
mean that they'll march in formation, but that they'll get back into their
original formation at the end of their journey.
The 'q' key will let you assign waypoints. If you give a unit movement
commands while you hold down the 'q' key, it will follow them in the order
you give them. Unfortunately, you can not terminate your waypoints with a
command to attack.
Other keys:
'n' - next unit
'b' - back one unit
't' - select repair mode
'y' - select sell mode
'u' - cycle through radar modes
5. QUIRKS, CHEATS & HIDDEN SURPISES
5.1 THE CHEAT KEYS
There are no cheat keys.
5.2 EDITING THE RULES.INI
The RULES.INI is a text file embedded within the redalert.mix in your Red
Alert game directory. It contains editable parameters for just about every
aspect of the game. By placing an edited RULES.INI file in your game
directory, you can override the default settings with your own. This will
let you change the price of units, their firing rate, their speed, the time
it takes nuclear missiles to recharge, and other variables.
To extract the RULES.INI file, load redalert.mix into Windows 95
Wordpad. Search for the string RULES.INI, and cut and paste everything from
the line "RULES.INI" to the last line, "Rate=.1" into a new document. Save
this new document as RULES.INI and place it into your game directory. Be
careful that you do not accidentally overwrite your original redalert.mix
file, or you may have to reinstall Red Alert.
It is impossible to play a multiplayer game unless everyone uses
identically modified (or non-modified) RULES.INI files.
5.3 QUIRKS
5.3.1 Ore silos
Ore silos aren't necessary. When you start constructing a building, the ore
stored in your refineries are converted cash. If you cancel your
construction order, the money is returned as cash, and not converted back
to ore.
5.3.2 Multiple weapons factories
In the previous version of the strategy guide, we wrote that switching
primary buildings when finishing construction would give you two vehicles
for the price of one.
If you don't know it by now, this was false information fed to us by
evil secret agents working for the other side. We've shot all the spies,
and we hope something like this never happens again. We apologize for this
serious breach of national security.
5.3.3 Minefields
If you suspect mines around your construction site, build a building, but
don't place it. Sweep the white placement marker around the buildings. If a
square within the white marker turns red and you can't see a visible
obstacle, there is a mine underneath.
5.3.4 Finding submarines
Select a gunboat or destroyer, and move your movement cursor into the radar
map. Slowly sweep across the radar map with the cursor. If the cursor
changes to the red attack cursor, there is a submarine there.
Select a transport and hold down the CTRL key as you sweep your
movement cursor over water. If it suddenly turns into a "I can't move
there" cursor, there is a submarine at that spot.
5.3.5 Deny transports a beachhead
Place tanks on the shoreline where enemy transports try to land. The
transports will never unload.
5.3.6 Prevent the computer from rebuilding
Place a unit on top of a spot that once contained the turret or building
you do not want the enemy to rebuild.
5.3.7 Inaccurate cruiser fire
Long range cruiser fire will overshoot their intended targets. To correct
your gunners' aim, manually target a square short of your intended target.
If it's still long, bring the target closer to the cruiser. If it's short,
fire a little closer at the building.
5.3.8 Cruisers versus submarines
Cruisers can't target submarines directly, but they can target the empty
water next to submarines. Submarines will still take damage from near
misses. If your cruiser is far enough away, you might even miss the patch
of water you targeted and score a direct hit on a sub.
5.3.9 Allying with the enemy
The computer player will ignore attacks from players it is allied with.
5.3.10 Country bonuses
England has thinner, not thicker armor. France has a slower, not faster
rate of fire. These are arithmetic errors that are present in the original
version of Red Alert (v1.04).
5.4 EASTER EGGS
5.4.1 Morse code in the manual
Lines of Morse code dot the bottom of your manual pages. Converted into
letters, they read the following:
MESSAGE COM ALLIED HQS
DECODE CRYPTO NORMAL
RED EAGLE PASSES HAWK
Red alert! Red alert! Soviet forces in sector seven building runways.
Assault units dispatch ASAP.
MESSAGE COM HQS SEVEN
DECODE CRYPTO
VULTURE SNACKS
Allies lose Verdun. Forces destroyed. Dispatch troops ASAP. Retrieve Tanya.
Critical movements spotted NWSAHX. Nuclear warheads destined to Washington
delayed. Strike AX Zulu, advise ETA.
DETAILED CINPAC COM
PRIORITY INCOME
Investigate sudden death of fourteen allies. Toxic tests show formic acid
levels.
TO CINPAC COM
PRIORITY SEVEN OUT GO
Formic acid complaint accurate. Also find crushed vertebrae and slashes on
head and face, and two thousand headless. No bleeding. Respond.
TO CINPAC COM
Say again? Formic acid?
Roger that.
What is it?
The acid ants use.
For what purpose?
Killing, neutralizing. Describe slash marks.
Like big knives. Checking. Twelve inch marks on headless. Some marks,
some acid ... do you hear humming?
Negative humming. Do you spot small hills?
Affirmative. Not on map.
How far your location?
Six clicks.
Investigate now.
Looking for what?
Giant ants.
Like some sci-fi flick!
Serious. All areas.
Giant ants?
Roger that.
Use Raid.
No joke! Ants ten feet high.
What's humming mean?
Ant radar. Watch out.
I hear some now!
Get out of there! Respond! Get out of there!
DISPATCH ENDS
ACTION IGNORE RESPOND
IGNORE USE DEEP COVER
Ants that big never happened. System Alert. Sectors report now!
Alpha sector negative.
Charlie sector negative.
Bravo sector none.
Delta sector? Delta sector, report. All sectors, tune Delta.
Confirm deaths! Red Alert! Red Alert! Giant ants spotted!
Identify sector!
Echo sector!
Number, size?
Maybe one hundred, red, huge!
Fire at will!
Targeting fire ... Oh, God! I can't ...
Come in, Echo sector! Come in, Echo sector!
ECHO SECTOR DEAD
6. ALLIED MISSIONS
6.1 SCG01EA
Shoot the infantry who charge your position. When Tanya makes an airdrop,
kill all the infantry with her that you can. Set a C4 charge on one of the
power plants. If you shoot the infantry surrounding the tech center,
Einstein will emerge. Direct him to the helicopter and you're outta here.
6.2 SCG02EA
Move packs of infantry to the south, south west, and north-west of your
construction yard to defend against enemy troops. You get reinforcements
each time you construct a major building. The kind of base you build is
important, because you have to use the base you build now in a future
mission. Build two pillboxes up by the ore field in the north, and another
two pillboxes in the south and west of your base.
Group your vehicles together and follow the road south. Use
concentrated fire in killing the opposition, and kill the grenadiers first.
You'll find the enemy ore truck in the south west corner. If you destroy
it, the enemy won't have enough money to make any more reinforcements.
Move your pack of Jeeps into the enemy base. Kill the grenadiers,
infantry, and dogs then get back on the road and continue your trek north
to kill the units guarding the pass. Afterwards, go back to the enemy base
and destroy the buildings. Your convoy will automatically arrive when all
of the opposition is killed or destroyed.
6.3 SCG03EA
Immediately tell the medic being shot to move north. Send Tanya down to
kill the enemy soldier attacking him, then shoot any soldiers trying to
kill Tanya. Tanya will never fire a weapon in defense of herself, but as
long as you keep squeezing her trigger finger, she'll keep firing. Heal her
with the medic if she's damaged.
Move to the west, and curve south, shooting the enemy along the way.
If you can land an artillery shell on the transport that drops off the
troops, you can wipe them out en masse. Keep trekking southwards until you
get to the enemy base. Let Tanya pick off the soldiers one by one as your
artillery pounds the flame turret. This base here is not your objective, so
you just want to kill all the enemy infantry.
Move east around the base, and swing northwards. Shoot any barrels you
see. A V2 rocket launcher will take a pot-shot at you, but probably miss.
Shoot the barrels nearby to take it out.
Take out the first bridge. There are enemy soldiers hiding behind the
trees, so proceed carefully. Shoot the barrels by the bridge at the top of
the screen and you'll destroy it. If Tanya gets herself stuck on an island,
your artillery unit can destroy any bridges that remain.
6.4 SCG04EA
This mission takes place on the same map as your second mission, and you'll
start out with whatever units and structures you had leftover from that
mission.
Constructing a radar dome will give you a better picture of what's
going on. Put up a weapons factory. You're going to churn out at least a
dozen light tanks. There's a pass up north you should mine heavily. The
enemy has air support. If you place rocket infantry to the north-west of
the buildings they are strafing, you'll take them down.
Send you horde of light tanks to the top of the screen where the
Soviet's are gather ore. If you can take out the ore truck with shots fired
from below the plateau, do so. If not, you'll have to swing around the
corner, past their base and get right into their ore deposit to take out
that ore truck. If you don't kill this ore truck, the Soviets will keep
throwing their armor at you.
You've got a dozen tanks in this field of ore. After the ore truck is
dead, shoot at the attacking tanks using the focused fire tactic, and
squish the infantrymen. Then destroy the refinery, and the flame turrets.
Send your jeeps up to the enemy base to help kill the infantry.
Enemy resistance from this point on is minimal, and you won't have
difficulty mopping up.
6.5 SCG05EA
To get the spy past the guard dogs, you need patience. The patrols will
change position every so often, and you'll need to observe them for a
minute before you make your move. Get the spy into the weapons factory, and
you'll hijack a truck. The truck will drop you off by the prison compound.
Get the spy into the prison to release Tanya. Tanya has to take out
all the SAM sites before her rescue chopper can come in. Take out the two
SAM sites on the peninsula, then run upwards into the base compound. Kill
the soldiers who are in your way. While you're in the base compound,
demolish the airfields and shoot any barrels you find. When all four SAM
sites are gone, the chopper will pick Tanya up.
You'll get some reinforcements at the top of the map. You want to use
your engineers to capture the construction yard, weapons factory, and
barracks. Remember that engineers can only capture buildings that are down
to 25 percent health. Once you have a refinery going, crank out some tanks.
Wait until you've built up enough tanks to deal with the enemy's
reinforcements before you attack the enemy ore truck, but don't wait too
long.
Construct V2 rocket launchers to take out enemy base defenses from a
safe distance. Allowed to pass unmolested, your tanks will wreck havoc upon
the enemy. Kill everyone and everything. The mission won't end if you let
anyone live.
6.6 SCG06EA
Deploy your MCV where it lands. Get a power plant and barracks up straight
away, followed by a refinery. The enemy will send troops and tanks from the
south. Your only anti-tank weapons at this time are your rocket infantry.
Build a pillbox to act as sponge for enemy fire while your rifle and rocket
units work on the enemy units themselves. Your rocket units will also
handle any enemy aircraft that try to strafe your base.
Crank out some medium tanks and attack the base in the south. Capture
the barracks with an engineer, and infiltrate the radar dome with a spy.
Now you can see what the enemy is doing. Build a naval yard by the barracks
you captured.
Block your coastline with tanks to prevent the enemy from landing
troops on your island. Get a spy into the enemy subpen, and get another one
into one of the tech centers. It's easiest if you land them on the craggy
piece of land that juts out before their Tesla coil.
The next stage of the mission is destroying all enemy units and
buildings. Land 30 medium tanks in the north and slowly work your way down,
destroying all the enemy units. The computer will sell all the buildings at
the last moment, and a horde of tanks and V2 launchers will erupt from the
south.
6.7 SCG07EA
A combat situation arises immediately. Kill those troopers with your jeep
and tanks. Deploy the MCV, and set up your base. Scout the ore fields to
the east and south with the jeep. Build a pillbox to help kill enemy
troopers. Build another refinery. Make some medium tanks.
Build rocket infantry to combat enemy airpower. Put a permanent AA gun
in the north of your base. Also put rocket infantry where the ore truck
travels so you can shoot down marauding MiGs.
Your first objective is to capture the radar dome in the south. A
handful of tanks and an engineer will do it. You can sell the radar dome
after it's been captured.
The key to finishing the second objective is to destroy the enemy ore
trucks and starve your opponent of cash. The only way to do this is to use
your minelayers to lay thick fields of mines. Once the ore trucks are gone,
you can mass as big a force as you want to destroy the enemy subpens.
6.8 SCG08EA
Move the two destroyers by your power stations. Train five rocket infantry.
You need to get your MCV into the base where your construction yard will be
better protected, and where you can put your mine layers to good use.
Clear the pass of enemy tanks using focused fire, and move all your
remaining vehicles into the base.
Plop the construction yard down somewhere inside. Replace the
destroyed advanced power plant. Stick an AA Gun in a corner. Lay solid
minefields on the road outside your northern entrance and in the pass that
faces your easternmost entrance. Construct a camouflaged pillbox next to
one of the northern turrets.
Build several light tanks, and line the open areas of coastline with
them to block the enemy from landing ground forces. Keep those minelayers
busy replacing detonated mines!
6.9 SCG09EA
Build the base by the ore deposit to the east. Build fifteen rocket
infantry, and place them in groups of five by the north shore. Build light
tanks, and block the beaches the enemy uses for its invasion attempts.
Put a spy and an APC into a transport, and carry the them to the top-
right corner of the screen. Land the spy on the beach, and move him across
the bridge, into the enemy base. Once there, inter the headquarters
building, and free the defector, Kosygin.
A bunch of dogs will appear. Keep Kosygin north of the headquarters
building for now, and wait for all the dogs to "settle". Land the APC, and
command it to run over the dog that parked itself by the top Tesla coil.
With the dog gone, Kosygin can safely pass by the buildings, run over the
bridge, and get to the transport. Your mission ends once you transport him
back to your base.
6.10 SCG10EA
Deploy the MCV in the protected area to the east. Scout with your light
tanks and run away from superior forces. The enemy armor is too strong for
you to defeat, so don't plan on too many tank battles. Build a tech center
to see where everything is. Observe the enemy ore trucks, and mine what ore
deposits you can. If the ore trucks are gathering ore from a field behind
enemy lines, build five helipads and go after those ore trucks. It will
take two sorties to destroy each truck.
Without ore trucks, the enemy will leave you be. Concentrate on
gathering ore and building a massive horde of medium tanks. Pick off what
units you can from the air. The enemy infantry is only an annoyance, and
annoyances are quickly cleared with a couple pillboxes. Build rocket
infantry for air defense, and place two AA guns in the northern part of
your base.
Focus your fire on the nearby Tesla coils before attacking the tanks.
When you've destroyed a large portion of the base, Stalin will launch the
missiles. Run a group of engineers up to the control center in an APC and
capture it.
6.11 SCG10EB
You are deep inside the control center, the clock is ticking, and you have
very limited resources. Move your units south until you hit the mammoth
tanks. Send your spy south towards the "exit", and Tanya will appear. With
Tanya as your point, explore the passages.
Take Tanya and an engineer north and east. Kill the soldiers, disable
the first control center. Go west, and do the same to the second control
center. Head north until you see the flame turret. Heal Tanya to full
health, then set a demolition charge on the flame turret. Heal Tanya again,
afterwards.
North of the flame turret is the third control center. Disable it with
an engineer, and head all the way east and north, and disable the final
control center.
6.12 SCG11EA
At the start you'll have two MCVs. Deploy both of them. Get your base up
and running, and build two refineries early on. Explore with one of your
light tanks. There's a mammoth tank patrol to the east and north Make note
of their resting locations, and mine them. Get a tech center up to see
where the enemy ore truck is. Build six helipads and destroy the ore truck.
Use rocket infantry as anti-aircraft batteries.
Assault the base with a task force of medium tanks. Don't destroy the
subpen; infiltrate it with a spy since we need a sonar pulse. Capture the
construction yard and weapons factory. The enemy base on the other side of
the river will start construction. Destroy their ore trucks with your
helicopters.
Make some V2 rocket launchers to take out the Tesla coils on the
island. Break a whole in the concrete wall on the coastal side of the base,
and send your tanks through to the northern section of your land mass and
destroy the power stations. Create a naval yard and make a transport. If
submarines attack the naval yard, destroy them with V2 rocket launchers and
helicopters. Land V2 rocket launchers on the Tesla coil island and get rid
of the SAM sites.
Fire the sonar pulse. The V2 rocket launcher should take out some of
the submarines nearby. To get the others, use your transport as a decoy to
make the subs surface, and blast them from the sky with helicopters.
Friendly naval power will arrive and if you've destroyed all the subs,
your mission will be accomplished.
6.13 SCG12EA
Deploy the MCV near where you land. Stick a camo pillbox as far to the
north-east of your base as you can. Use the jeep to scout to the east. When
you see the mammoth tank, turn around. Scout east, and north, shooting any
dogs you come across. Retreat at the first sign of enemy armor.
A mammoth tank will move towards your base, followed by a civilian.
Shoot the civilian before it drops a signal flare. The mammoth tank will go
invulnerable, and try to attack your ore trucks. Drive the trucks around in
circles until the invulnerability wears off, and then kill the mammoth with
your medium and light tanks.
Expand your base, and put camo pillboxes in your extreme corners. Push
the spy north through the center, and follow the river crossing east past
the Tesla coil into the enemy base. Follow the coastline and infiltrate the
enemy subpen.
When your GPS satellite goes up, you'll see two bases, one on the
left, and one on the right. The base on the right has an ore truck that is
using a northern ore deposit. Send six Longbow helicopters after the ore
truck and destroy it.
Mine the road that leads through the village. The enemy will almost
always use roads, and if you can kill those mammoth tanks with mines before
it has a chance to go invulnerable, more power to you.
Now, the base on the left side will start ore refining. To avoid the
SAM fire when attacking the trucks, send your helicopters to a place near
the west edge of the map before commanding them to attack. With those ore
trucks out of action, the computer will stop building things, and you can
finish the mission by sniping at your targets with helicopters to weaken
their base defenses so you can roll in your engineer-laden APCs and tanks.
6.14 SCG13EA
Your top units are Group A, and your bottom units are Group B. Move Group A
engineers to the control panel to destroy a flame turret. Move Group B to
the east, and kill everyone there. Move Group B further east, and use the
control panel to destroy the northern turret.
Move Group A east past the tanks. If you have trouble killing the
enemy infantry, remember to group your riflemen in groups of five. Follow
the riflemen with the medic, and heal the soldiers while they fight. Let
the enemy come to you; riflemen can't shoot on the move. Go north through
the passageway; the first generator is here. Head back out and east, where
there's another turret control panel to disable.
Backtrack a bit with Group B, and advance south. There's a grenadier
at the generator controls. Rush him with rifle infantry. When your engineer
sets a charge on the generator, you'll get some more rifle infantry as
reinforcements. Move Group B east until you hit another room with a
generator. Set a charge on this one, and continue east until you reach big
room with flame turrets and several control panels.
The center control panel takes out the north-west turret. The north-
west panel takes out the center turret. With good timing, you can send a
single engineer to do both of these without getting hurt. The south-west
panel is a generator, but you can't get to it safely just yet. Instead,
move Group B up to Group A, and make a new team consisting of five rifle
infantry, two doctors, and one engineer.
Move the team east to another generator, then south and west. You'll
be back at the central hub. Kill all the infantry now that you have two
medics helping out with the healing. Head south. A very small computer is
in the west wall. Place an engineer here to activate the turret control.
Head west from the V2 room, and kill the flame thrower and the dog by
shooting the barrels. Two control panels on the wall disable turrets, and
the one in the room to the west itself is another generator.
There are two generators left in the central hub. Disable both of
them. If the flame turrets are still up, don't worry. The engineers will
get to the control panels before dying. Take the lower right passage. Move
all your units inside. Move your spy into the room with all the units.
Something strange will happen! All the bad guys will ignore your men and
run out of the room! Move your engineers east, and reprogram the last
generator computer.
6.15 SCG14EA
Move Tanya and the thieves down to protect them from the barrel explosion,
then move them up to protect them from the other barrel explosion. Shoot
all the infantry while you move west. When you hit the coast, move north
into the base. Destroy the small power stations. Shoot at the delivery van
with Tanya's pistol. If it runs away, go back south the way you came and
cut it off and the river crossing. Shoot at it some more, and it will
explode, revealing a crate full of money.
Don't pick it up yet. Go back up, and destroy the large power plants.
Move the thieves into the ore silos and steal their money. Reinforcements
will arrive. Deploy the MCV where you see the signal flare.
Like in the previous missions, the Soviets will send invulnerable
mammoth tanks at you. These tanks travel in a predictable path to get to
your base, so by mining their paths, you'll pre-empt this particular
threat. Rocket infantry will protect you from planes. Back them up with
some AA guns around your power stations. Find the enemy ore truck once the
GPS is launched. Build six helicopter pads, and destroy the ore truck.
Without the ore truck, the enemy will stop sending units at you.
When the ore truck of the southern base is destroyed, the eastern base
will start sending out its trucks. Their ore fields have no SAM cover, so
destroying them shouldn't be a problem.
Construct a naval yard and build a cruiser. To extend your base to the
water, build a chain of barracks building until you hit the coast. Put up
some anti-air defenses by the naval yard. The chronosphere can move units
from one place to another for a limited amount of time. Chronoshift the
cruiser into the lake by the southern base, and tear their buildings to
shreds. If the cruiser guns overshoot, force attack on a game square that
is slightly above the building to correct it.
Repeat until they give up and sell all the buildings. Next,
chronoshift the cruiser into the small lake in the bottom left corner and
shell the airstrips and power stations to the north.
Send your helicopters on SAM site busting missions. You'll lose a
helicopter in the process, but that's what money is for. With the SAM sites
gone, you can destroy the power stations at your leisure to silence the
Tesla coils, then your tank groups in for the kill.
7. SOVIET MISSIONS
7.1 SCU01EA
The Allies store barrels full of petrol next to their buildings and units.
Shoot all the barrels you see with your airplanes. A few friendly soldiers
will drop in to assist. There's a heal-everyone crate under the church to
the west. Move your men north, and as you explore more of the map, you'll
find more barrels to shoot.
Edge a few soldiers near the unexploded bridge. Shoot the barrels by
the pillboxes to destroy them. The map will reveal more buildings and
barrels. Blow up the other barrels. If your mission doesn't end, it's
because you've left the civilians alive. Kill them all and destroy their
buildings.
7.2 SCU02EA
Shoot the stacks of barrels by the bridge. Build a refinery, aircraft,
power plant, and barracks. Send one man to scout up north. It's okay if he
gets killed by the jeep. Strafe the jeep with both aircraft. You'll notice
that a rocket infantryman shoots at you. Next time you're up there, strafe
him, too.
Gather all your rifle infantry and organize them into two groups of
equal size. Move south past the river crossing, and head past the ore
deposits to the west. Always keep the two groups next to each other for
defense. Inch your way one square at a time until you begin combat with the
enemy.
If a jeep appear mixed with the infantry, kill the rifle infantry
first, the jeep second, and any rocket infantry last. The enemy ore truck
will show up. Destroy it with concentrated rifle infantry fire.
With the ore truck gone, the enemy won't have enough cash reserves to
put up much of a fight. The turrets are best destroyed with concentrated
rifle fire. The Yak aircraft is good for lightly armored buildings such as
power plants and construction yards.
7.3 SCU03EA
Kill the soldier defending the farmhouse and you'll get riflemen and
grenadiers. Send a grenadier south to blow up a line of barrels to destroy
the pillbox.
Send the men south, killing enemy infantry. Move all the units west
until you see the enemy village. Move the dogs back. Cluster the infantry
in a counter ambush formation at the pass. Send a dog into the village, and
immediately pull it back when computer starts the ambush. Kill them. The
spy escapes up north. Move all your units half way east then north through
the valley, killing the little men there. Get a grenadier to blow up all
the barrels again.
Move all units north, then into an attack formation where you can
grenade the enemy soldiers one by one until they die. Move everyone west.
blow up more barrels. Move everyone west, kill the spy. Mission complete.
7.4 SCU04EA
We're going to do this one slightly differently. Move your units west until
you get to the village. Deploy the MCV along the road that stretches to the
bottom corner of the map. Build your base with a power plant first,
followed by a barracks and a refinery. You're surrounded by minerals, and
there's not much space to build buildings, but as you gather ore, the real
estate will open up.
Dogs make good border guards if you put them near your perimeter.
They'll die in the crossfire if you mix them up with your normal infantry.
Build an airstrip. Send a spy plane to an area at the very top of the
screen, aligned vertically with the first river crossing, counting from the
west. See that radar dome? You've got to take it out. When your
paratroopers are ready, drop them next to the radar dome and destroy it.
The one major strength of the Soviets is armor, so take advantage of
it by building as many heavy tanks as you can afford. Send your armor north
from the gap generator and destroy the ore truck and refinery. Stay out of
reach of the turrets, but destroy any tanks and jeeps that you see. Destroy
the weapons factory also. With unit production crippled, the enemy will lie
still. Build more armor and finish them all off.
7.5 SCU05EA
Set up your base just south of the road. Get a radar dome up as soon as you
can. Scout to the north with one of your rifle infantry, and see if you can
drag the bad guys down to your turf. Pump out some tanks. Move them into
the ore fields in the north and destroy the enemy ore truck. Retreat back
to your base where your infantry can help destroy the remaining "rescue"
force.
Build three V2 launchers, and use them to take out enemy turrets. Keep
a squad of infantry close, and follow them with your tanks. Capture the
Allied construction yard, and radar dome, but don't touch the refinery or
any of the barrels.
Build six airstrips and Yaks to go with them. Use the spy plane to
reveal portions of the middle island. You're looking for the enemy
refinery. When you find it, strafe it with your Yaks to destroy it. Pick
off the units on the island one by one by air assault, or build a naval
yard to bombard them from the coast with gunboats. If you do this, you'll
need to get rid of the enemy destroyer cover with submarines. The mission
ends when every last soldier on the middle island is dead.
7.6 SCU06EA
Retreat to the west, and set up your base at the far edge of the map.
Several waves of enemy rocket infantry and light tanks will attack. Counter
them with rifle infantry and five or six heavy tanks.
Send an APC into the base in the north to scout a little bit. Try to
find the refinery. Build three airstrips, and make two strafing runs on the
refinery to destroy it. Build three V2 launchers to remove enemy
fortifications, and let your tanks and your infantry deal with the other
enemy units. Capture the weapons factory and build another repair bay by
it. Repair your tanks before fighting your way east.
Cruisers will open fire on you as you reach the main island in the
east. That's okay. Concentrate on getting rid of the tanks on the island.
Move the convoy trucks through the path you cleared. Your mission ends when
you get them on the island.
7.7 SCU07EA
Run for it! Move all your men down the east passageway. When you reach the
end, light the barrels and give them a taste of their own barbecue. Head
past a guarded control room to the west, and turn south. There's a pillbox
with a barrel fuse and a bunch of dogs wagging their tails. Light the
barrels to free the pups from the pound.
Split the dogs into four groups of roughly even size. Attack the
control room guards and kill them all. Move a soldier onto the control
panel plates to destroy the flame turrets.
Head west, but stop before you get a bunch of barrels. A pair of
rocket infantry will fire on the barrels, hoping to catch you in the blaze,
but they will have no such luck. Unleash the dogs on them. Continue moving
through the corridor, shooting the barrels you come across. It will widen
up into a large area full of more barrels. Stand back. Chase after the
enemy soldier and kill him. Move further towards the engineers and kill
their lone guard.
Move one engineer onto each computer terminal. Some flame turrets will
pop out of the ground and fry the Allied intelligence team. Move your
remaining engineer to the core computer terminal to end your mission.
7.8 SCU08EA
This is a difficult mission. Quickly build a barracks and place it
somewhere. The enemy will disperse. If a few still linger around, a couple
rifle infantry will silence them. Construct a refinery. Build a war
factory, and pump four or five heavy tanks.
You'll get several shipments of infantry reinforcements. Put the flame
infantry in front of the rifle infantry, and pay attention to that
manufacturer's label that says "This side towards enemy". Explore the
coastline with a transport.
Ore is going to be a problem soon. First, deal with the civilians who
keep popping flares to signal enemy transports by killing the civvies. Move
your tanks north to the large ore fields. Destroy the mine layers before
they lay mines, or you'll wish that you had later. Rush back down to your
base and defend against marauding jeeps.
Capture the tan enemy's power station and build a barracks and
refinery up there. Roll out big numbers of heavy tanks and go after the
enemy ore trucks. If you don't kill those ore trucks, it's impossible to
win.
Use hit and run tactics to slowly deplete the enemy reserve of
vehicles. When it's time to assault the base, use the V2's to take out the
turrets and pillboxes. Your mission will end when everything is destroyed.
7.9 SCUO9EA
Destroy all enemy units in your base and immediately repair all your
damaged buildings. Send the ore truck south to mine gem deposits. Construct
an advanced power plant. Construct a weapons factory. Build two heavy
tanks, and an engineer.
You have to move quickly to capture an enemy base being established in
the western portion of the map. Move your tank units and your engineer to
the west. Capture the construction yard, and destroy the other buildings.
The enemy will attempt to land on a strip of beach by your original
base, accompanied by helicopters to destroy your Tesla coil. You can build
Allied structures now, so build an AA gun by the Tesla Coil, and move your
tank units to the beach to deal with the enemy land units.
Later, an engineer laden APC will attempt to infiltrate your east
base, and a group of helicopters will go for your west base. Be on the
lookout for both of these. You can build an Allied barracks and make some
rocket infantry to counter the air threat.
With three refineries, you'll have enough income to build another
weapons factory and produce a dozen heavy tanks. Drop paratroopers into the
blackness at the west edge of the map, on the same line as your captured
Allied construction yard. Move them north and expose the bridge. Advance
northwards from your western base and destroy the armor. Park your two
mammoth tanks at the start of the bridge.
Move your group of heavy tanks east until you hit a clump of pine
trees. There's an isthmus here. It's heavily mined, so advance your tanks
one square at a time, shooting the square ahead of each tank to destroy any
mines that might be there. An Allied cruiser will open fire on the tanks.
Luckily, it is so far away that it will miss, and its shots will destroy
the Allied Force's own mines. Destroy any enemy tanks and artillery that
attack your armor column.
We want to flush the convoy truck out. Push through their base,
without stopping to destroy their turrets. The convoy truck will panic and
leave. That's what we want. Pursue it with your heavy tanks. The convoy
truck will eventually make it down to the bridge where we parked our
mammoth tanks and paratrooper infantry. Your mission will end five seconds
later.
7.10 SCU10EA
Destroy the enemy tanks with concentrated tank fire. The convoy trucks will
always follow the closest unit. Since we want them to be safe, leave one
tank behind as a shepherd to keep the flock out of trouble.
Kill rifle infantry with Yaks. Kill rocket infantry by running over
them with your tanks. Kill other vehicles by picking on them with
concentrated tank fire. Kill AA guns with tanks. Kill turrets with MiGs.
Kill ships with a combination of MiGs and tanks. Destroy barrels with
anything that is convenient. Use the spy plane to uncover your surroundings
screen by screen. If you lose a Yak, replace it with a MiG. Two Yaks and
three MiGs seems to work best on this level.
Shoot the barrels by the radar dome to destroy the AA gun, then
destroy the turret from the air. Proceed west through the trees, and squish
the rocket infantry who attempt to ambush you. Keep heading west until you
see an AA gun on a plateau. Destroy it, and head south past the barrels.
Don't stop to fire at the turret. Once in the clearing to the south,
destroy the southern AA gun. Shoot the barrels leading up to the central AA
gun to destroy it.
Three friendly engineers will airdrop. Move them to the enemy base and
capture the repair bay and the construction yard. Destroy the ship to the
south, and destroy the ship in the north You can now repair your aircraft
without fear of being shot down.
Keep going west. Destroy the barrels on the southern plateau. Use a
Yak to destroy the barrels on the northern plateau. Continue west. Destroy
the tank, squish over the rocket infantry. Blow a hole through the concrete
barrier. If you now move your "shepherd" tank to the far west, the convoy
will follow. The mission will end when the convoy trucks make it to the
western edge of the map.
7.11 SCU11EA
Make landfall slight to the north-west of your starting position. Build a
refinery and weapons factory right away. You need some heavy tanks for
protection. Move your subs east. From time to time, a cruiser will pop up
in the eastern sea, and the subs will take it out. Use your leftover
transport to scout the contours of your island. If you don't stop, you can
map out almost all of the islands despite the massive Allied naval power.
When you have four heavy tanks, send one of them east to scout past
the bridges. In the ore fields north of the bridge is a minelayer that you
should destroy quickly. Some enemy tanks will invade your beach, but the
three heavy tanks you left behind can contain them without any problem.
To safely cross the bridges without getting them blown to hell, you
need to destroy the cruiser in the east. This can only be done with
airpower. Three MiGs will kill the cruiser in a short period of time.
Build two subpens. Place one past your north shore, and the other one
past your south. Create a wolfpack of five or six submarines in the north,
and replace any subs you lose in the south. Destroy the Allied sea power in
the channel, culminating in the destruction of their shipyard in the bay.
There is a crate worth 2000 credits on the island in the north-west.
You can drop some paratroopers to get it if you need it, but because you
need to get rid of the enemy navy, you might as well destroy their northern
fleet with your submarine pack. Any enemy transports you see can be
destroyed by your MiGs.
Use a combination of helicopters and MiGs to kill the enemy defenses
around the only approachable beach head. The pass is heavily mined, so
destroy them with helicopters by firing at random squares. Begin destroying
AA-guns, starting from the west. Three MiGs will destroy one gun
emplacement without losing aircraft. With the gun emplacements gone, strafe
the rocket infantry with your Hind helicopters, then knock out their power
stations. Destroy whatever you can from the air.
Land some heavy tanks. The bridge may blow up. Route your units
through the narrow gap east to avoid the heavy minefield in the west pass.
Destroy all units and buildings. If your mission doesn't end after you've
destroyed everything in sight, you missed some of those camouflaged
pillboxes hidden behind clumps of trees.
7.12 SCU12EA
Save the V2 rocket launcher at all costs. Kill the enemy vehicles with your
armor, and destroy the turrets with the V2 launcher. Set up your base. To
begin with, put up a weapons factory, barracks, and a repair bay. Send some
of your leftover grenadiers exploring. If one of them attracts the
attention of an enemy helicopter, lead it to the mammoth tank. Snipe at the
tanks and men in the southern valley with the V2. Make some heavy tanks.
Watch out for a chopper landing in the northern area of the base at
the same time of an enemy tank attack. Your V2 can take out the chopper,
and your armor can deal with the tanks. A thief incursion is possible at
this point. Kill them with the mammoth. Move your tanks to the ore field
just east of the base. Ambush the mine layer as the transport delivers it.
Speaking of mines, there are some mines south and to the west of the ore
field fencing.
Kill all the tanks and men on this side of the island. Five tanks from
the enemy base will attack under the shadow of a mobile gap generator. In
combat, you'll catch glimpses of the enemy units. Remember to concentrate
your fire, and you'll have no problem with this.
Capture the Allied tech center in the south-west. You'll get a GPS map
that will show everything. Take over the allied base in this sector using
the V2's to remove gun emplacements, and using the tanks to project your
might. Capture the weapons factory and construction yard, but only after
you've sunk the cruisers. Hind choppers are best for this because they
won't fly over AA on the other island. Drop some paratroopers over the
power plants to silence the AA guns.
Clean up the lake of naval units. Fill the transports with five
mammoth tanks, five heavy tanks, three V2s, and two APCs loaded with
engineers. Unload the transports on the south shore. When the beach head is
secured, use the V2's to destroy all the turrets and pillboxes.
Capture the three tech centers to complete your mission.
7.13 SCU13EA
Destroy the enemy tanks. Deploy the MCV. Build a refinery, barracks,
weapons factory, and repair bay. Train some grenadiers for base defense.
Build three heavy tanks, and move your tank units south through the ravine.
Destroy the tanks and artillery, and continue until you've gone to the very
end. Turn back. Build another refinery.
Construct a subpen and make enough subs to destroy the Allied ships in
the bay farthest south. Send a transport full of heavy tanks right up the
bay, and destroy the radar dome and the power plants, including those on
the top of the cliffs.
Charge the enemy camp with six or seven tanks, with the aim of
destroying the center radar dome. Drop paratroopers nearby to assist. Curve
your tanks northward and remove another radar dome.
Construct a new armor column. The enemy will have run out of nearby
ore, and will send the ore trucks farther north. Destroy the trucks with
some tanks, and then destroy the enemy's weapon factory. If you don't,
you'll be up to your ears in enemy tanks and artillery.
Send ten tanks all the wa*y north, and then west. Cross the bridge and
do not stop for anything! Carry on south through the enemy camp, past the
ore fields. There is one more radar dome you need to take out. Do it.
The chronosphere is south of those cliffs. Don't send a spy plane over
there, however, because the Allied units will try to destroy the
chronosphere. Make a large group of tanks to clean a path for your
engineers, and capture the chronosphere.
When I did this, I heard EVA say, "Objective reached." A split second
later, our mission failed. I don't know if this is a bug, but there's
another way to complete the mission. Instead of capturing the chronosphere,
capture the barracks to the north-west of it. Build a large group of rocket
infantry and destroy the helicopters that attack the chronosphere.
Keep some tanks and infantry down there to keep the chronosphere safe.
Systematically destroy every Allied vehicle, structure, infantryman, and
ship. Regardless of your originally assigned mission, you'll see the words
"Mission Successful" when the last Allied unit is killed.
7.14 SCU14EA
There are several mines in the area, so only move your units straight up
and down, and not to the east or the west. Concentrate fire on the light
tanks, artillery, then medium tanks. Deploy your MCV. You can check for
mines in the vicinity of your base by constructing a building, and moving
the white placement markers around your perimeter. If a square within your
placement marker turns red for no apparent reason, there is a mine under
that square.
Group your mammoth tanks together as an air defense system. Destroy
the other enemy units using your heavy tanks. Don't wander into the mines.
Defeat the Allied vehicles that approach from the south and from the west.
Destroy the turrets guarding the bridge north of your base with V2 rockets.
Get a weapons factory and repair bay quickly, and create tank units.
Scatter two or three SAM sites around your base. The Allies will make
constant landings at certain points on your shore. Block their landing
sites with heavy tanks. Scout the rest of your land mass with a heavy tank.
Construct a subpen and build a wolfpack of submarines and a transport.
Scout the eastern contours of your island. Some cruisers will open fire on
your base. Build an airfield in the north-eastern corner of your base as a
cruiser fire sponge. Sink the cruiser with your wolfpack. If the cruiser is
close enough to shore, V2 rockets will also work well. Take your wolf pack
north, and destroy any other naval units, the naval yard and a large
section of bridge.
The enemy ore trucks will start coming down to your island to gather
ore. The loss of their ore trucks will be the deathblow to the Allies, so
take them out any way you can. For best results, place your mammoth tanks
in the middle of the ore patch and wait for the trucks. The Allies will
end up sending six or seven trucks, so be prepared to wait a while before
they run out of money.
Run a large group of heavy tanks up the bridge north of your base.
Concentrate your fire on the turrets, and try to squish the rocket
infantry. Take out the power plants.
Run more heavy tanks up the western side of the island and take out
the power plants, but leave the AA guns and construction yard intact.
Time to assault the base. The enemy helicopters are painful, but the
base lacks AA guns in the west part of the base. Send an infantry squishing
heavy tank up into the base from the western side. Render it invulnerable
using the Iron Curtain, and run over the rocket infantry. If you're lucky,
the cruisers will end up destroying much of their own forces.
To take out the cruisers, take out their destroyer escorts from land.
The channel is narrow enough for several heavy tanks to get good shots at
the destroyers. Then, the cruisers can be sunk by either MiG or Hind
helicopter.
Put 10 heavy tanks and 5 V2 launchers into transports. Send them north
through the east channel, and make landfall on the strip of beach. Move the
V2s north to the very edge of the cliff, and destroy more power plants.
Move west, eliminating everything you can see until the very last Allied
unit and structure is gone.
8. MULTIPLAYER GAMES
8.1 LOCAL NETWORK
Eight player games are possible over a local IPX network. If you are having
network problems, please see Troubleshooting in the Appendix.
8.2 MODEM
Two player games are possible over a modem. Turn off error correction and
data compression for best results. Technical support questions should be
directed to either Westwood or your modem manufacturer.
8.3 WCHAT
Two player games are possible over WChat. Before you can play Red Alert
over WChat, you must register. Red Alert will handle this automatically. If
you get an error message that reads "Fatal Winsock Error (10060)", it means
that the Westwood server is busy, and that you should try again later.
Technical support questions should be directed to Westwood.
8.4 KALI
Eight player games are possible using version Kali95 1.1b or later. Read
the enclosed documentation for installation instructions.
9. MULTIPLAYER TACTICS
9.1 CRATE CONTENTS
Crates can appear in water too, so keep an eye out for them.
Crate contents vary, but here are some of the things you can expect to
find:
Armor upgrade: Doubles the armor of nearby objects.
Darkness: Shrouds entire radar map.
Explosion: This hurts.
Firepower upgrade: Doubles the shot power of nearby units.
Heal base: All buildings are restored to full health.
ICBM: Free single-shot nuke.
Money: 2000 credits
Napalm: This hurts too.
Parabomb: Free single-shot parabomb.
Reveal: Reveal entire radar map.
Sonar: One-shot sonar pulse.
Speed upgrade: Nearly doubles the speed of nearby units.
Squad: Gives a squad of random infantry
Unit: Gives a random vehicle
Invulnerability: Makes units invulnerable for one minute.
Timequake: Damages all units and buildings by 33 percent.
9.2 COUNTRY SPECIALTIES
Certain countries have special adjustments made to their unit and building
values. These apply only to multiplayer games and skirmish mode.
England - 10% thinner armor
Germany - 10% stronger firepower
France - 10% slower firing rate
Ukraine - 10% faster units
USSR - 10% cheaper construction costs
9.3 PLAYING THE SOVIET POWERS
Build tanks, and build lots of them. If you attack the Allied construction
yard with a large force, you'll destroy it. Knock out the refineries next,
and your opponent will surrender.
9.4 PLAYING THE ALLIED FORCES
Build concrete walls to keep out the Soviet hordes. Build you own armada of
tanks to counter the Soviets. Until you build advanced structures and
units, you'll be at the Soviet's mercy.
10. BUGS, UPDATES FUTURE GAMES
10.1 OFFICIAL WESTWOOD PATCHES
No patches are known to exist at this time. Westwood does plan to release a
patch that enables savegames in multiplayer mode.
10.2 ERRORS IN THE RED ALERT MANUAL
The armor values for the units and vehicles are not completely accurate.
Also, the radar jammer is listed as a Soviet unit when in fact it is an
Allied unit.
11. THIRD PARTY UTILITIES
11.1 RAEDIT
Andrew Griffin's RAEDIT was not complete at the time of writing. Internet
Resources
Westwood Studios's commercial website. Information and patches for all of
their games are here, as are technical support documents and previews of
games in progress.
Title: Red Alert for the Hardcore Gamer
URL: http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~cncfaq
Webmaster: roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk
This is the nerve center of the Red Alert Internet Strategy Guide. It
contains exclusive interviews with people on the inside track, and does its
best to keep readers entertained.
12. APPENDICES
12.1 INSTALLATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING
12.1.1 Running Red Alert From Your Hard Disk
Copy the Red Alert CD to your hard disk in its entirety to a directory.
From your Westwood directory type:
ra95.exe -cdc:\path
where c:\path is the complete path to the RA CDROM files you copied.
This will require approximately 650Mb of hard disk space.
12.1.2 Windows 95 Video Problems
Red Alert uses DirectX version 3.0. It solves synchronization and pixel
redraw problems, but it requires certain hardware and chipsets to be
present on your video card. If you don't have the latest drivers for your
video board, you might have trouble getting Red Alert to run. As Microsoft
releases newer versions of DirectX, a wider variety of video cards will be
supported.
12.1.2.1 S3 Diamond Stealth and other S3 chipsets
To cure the radar glitch, run the Red Alert setup program and enable
hardware filled blits. The latest drivers are available from www.s3.com
12.1.2.2 Matrox Millennium
The latest drivers are available from www.matrox.com
12.1.2.3 Number 9 Imagine 128 Series 2
The latest drivers are available from www.nine.com
12.1.2.4 Espresso Accelerator Card
The latest drivers are available from http://www.folgers.com
12.1.3 Windows 95 Sound Problems
12.1.3.1 Stuttering
If the size of your CDROM cache is set to maximum, it will stutter. Halving
the cache size will eliminate the stutter.
12.1.4 Network Problems
12.1.4.1 Can't even see the network game option
Red Alert requires an IPX network to play. You must load IPX drivers into
your Win95 network configuration. If you are playing from DOS, check to
make sure the IPX drivers are loaded and running.
12.1.4.2 Sluggish game
Rather than a network problem, this is likely to be caused by a slow
computer. If you have Pentium 100's or 486-based machines, make them run
the DOS rather than the Win95 version of Red Alert.
12.1.4.3 Stragglers
When starting a multiplayer game, sometimes a person is left behind in the
chat room. Use another computer as a host for the game. If that fails,
reboot all the machines.
12.2 DATA TABLES
12.2.1 Buildings
12.2.2 Units
Cost is in credits.
Time is in minutes and seconds.
Visibility (sighting range) is in squares.
12.2.3 Weapons
Shot range is in cells. Firing rate is in rounds per minute.
(HP) Hollow point
(AP) Armor piercing
(HE) High explosive shrapnel
(SA) Small arms
Shot Fire Damage vs. Armor
Weapon Type Range Rate None Wood Light Heavy
--------------------------------------------------
Colt 45 HP 5.75 180 50 2 2 2
AA Gun AP 6 90 -- -- 18 25
Vulcan SA 5 22 40 20 24 10
Maverick AP 6 300 15 37 37 50
Fireball Fire 4 18 112 125 75 31
Flamer Fire 3.5 18 63 70 42 17
Chaingun SA 5 300 40 20 24 10
M1Carbine SA 3 45 15 7 9 3
Dragon AP 5 18 10 26 26 35
Hellfire AP 4 15 12 30 30 40
Grenade HE 4 15 45 37 30 12
75mm AP 4 22 7 18 18 25
90mm AP 4.75 18 9 22 22 30
105mm AP 4.75 13 9 22 22 30
120mm AP 4.75 11 12 30 30 40
TurretGun AP 6 18 12 30 30 40
Tusk HE 5 18 67 56 45 18
155mmArty HE 6 14 135 112 90 37
M60 mg SA 4 45 15 7 9 3
Tesla Spc. 8.5 7 300 300 300 300
SAM AP 7.5 45 -- -- 37 50
Red Eye AP 7.5 12 -- -- 37 50
8 InchGun HE 22 5 450 375 300 125
Stinger AP 9 15 9 22 22 30
Torpedo AP 9 15 -- 67 67 90
2 InchGun AP 5.5 15 7 18 18 25
DthCharge AP 5 15 -- -- 60 80
V2 Rocket HE 10 2 540 450 360 150
Parabomb HE -- -- 270 225 180 75
Medikit Spc. 1.83 11 (80) -- -- --
Big Fangs Spc. 2.2 90 100 -- -- --
Nuke Spc. -- -- 900 1000 600 250
12.3 FURTHER READING
These are some of the books I read. I recommend them to anyone seriously
interested in strategy. Look for them in your library. You are also welcome
to purchase these and other strategy-related books from my on-line
bookstore, http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~cncfaq/books
Leonhard, Robert R. 1991. The Art of Maneuver: Maneuver Warfare Theory and
Airland Battle. Novato: Presidio Press.
ISBN: 0891415327
With a genius for apt analogy, the author shows how our obsession with
fighting and winning set-piece battles causes us to overlook an enemy's
true vulnerabilities.
Hanzhang, Tao. 1987. Sun Tzu's Art of War: The Modern Chinese
Interpretation. New York: Sterling Publishing Co.
ISBN: 0806966394
A key theme of Sun Tzu's work is defeating the enemy without fighting.
Defeat is a psychological phenomenon, not a body count, and the emphasis is
on human psychology in war. This is the best translation of Sun Tzu's
ancient wisdom I've ever read.
12.4 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Anthony Bourov, High priest of the Vortex god.
Ben Flickinger, probability and statistics engineer.
Boomer, Soviet multiplayer tank strategy.
Eekman, Virgin sacrifice of the Vortex god.
Erik Van Riper, network geek turned Go Master.
Gerald Inman, direct-X guru.
Johan Persson, suggestions.
Punisher, skirmish AI cheat.
Thomas Weng, saved my butt.
12.5 REVISION HISTORY
December 5, 1996. First revision.
