1О Ћ ppppp q
The Red Alert Internet Strategy Guide Release 1.0 December 5, 1996 Copyright 1996 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 This article is Copyright 1996 by Roger Wong. All rights reserved. You are granted the following rights: I. To make copies of this work in original form, so long as (a) the copies are exact and complete; (b) the copies include the copyright notice and these paragraphs in their entirety; (c) the copies give obvious credit to the author, Roger Wong; (d) the copies are in electronic form. II. To distribute this work, or copies made under the provisions above, so long as (a) this is the original work and not a derivative form; (b) you do not charge a fee for copying or for distribution; (c) you ensure that the distributed form includes the copyright notice, this paragraph, the disclaimer of warranty in their entirety and credit to the author; (d) the distributed form is not in an electronic magazine or within computer software (prior explicit permission may be obtained from Roger Wong); (e) the distributed form is the NEWEST version of the article to the best of the knowledge of the distributor; (f) the distributed form is electronic. This document is for reading, not taking. You may not distribute this work by any non-electronic media, including but not limited to books, newsletters, magazines, manuals, catalogs, and speech. You may not distribute this work in electronic magazines or within computer software without prior written explicit permission. These rights are temporary and revocable upon written, oral, or other notice by Roger Wong. This copyright notice shall be governed by the laws of the state of Texas. To report a suspected copyright violation, or to request additional rights beyond those granted above, write to the author at "roger@powhq.nildram.co.uk" on the Internet. DONATIONS The Red Alert Internet Strategy Guide is a monumental work, and represents a significant investment of effort and time. A gratuity of $2.00 would go a long way towards restoring my pizza parlor credit. If you'd like to give me a gift of money or pizza slices (olive, green pepper and tomato toppings only) send them to: Roger Wong Roger Wong 9 Sheen Close PSC 50 BOX 475 Caversfield APO AE 09494 Bicester OX6 9FP USA England If you don't think this strategy guide is worth even a slice of pizza, that's your opinion, and I won't hold it against you. 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 6. ALLIED MISSIONS 6.1 SCG01EA 6.2 SCG02EA 6.3 SCG03EA 6.4 SCG04EA 6.5 SCG05EA 6.6 SCG06EA 6.7 SCG07EA 6.8 SCG08EA 6.9 SCG09EA 6.10 SCG10EA 6.11 SCG10EB 6.12 SCG11EA 6.13 SCG12EA 6.14 SCG13EA 6.15 SCG14EA 7. SOVIET MISSIONS 7.1 SCU01EA 7.2 SCU02EA 7.3 SCU03EA 7.4 SCU04EA 7.5 SCU05EA 7.6 SCU06EA 7.7 SCU07EA 7.8 SCU08EA 7.9 SCUO9EA 7.10 SCU10EA 7.11 SCU11EA 7.12 SCU12EA 7.13 SCU13EA 7.14 SCU14EA 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 To receive the latest revision of the strategy guide, send an email to raguide@powhq.nildram.co.uk with the subject heading 'Medic! I'm hit!' (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: http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~cncfaq http://web.ukonline.co.uk/Members/roger.wong/redalert 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 'raguide?.zip' where the '?' is the revision number of the guide or 'raguide?.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 go 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 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. 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 Switch primary buildings and start constructing a unit the moment you finish building a unit of the same type. It will complete the construction immediately, giving you two vehicles. 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. 5.4 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 way 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% better resistance to damage Germany - 10% stronger firepower France - 10% worse 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. 12. INTERNET RESOURCES 12.1 WEBSITES Title: Westwood Studios URL: http://www.westwood.com Webmaster: webmaster@westwood.com 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. 13. APPENDICES 13.1 INSTALLATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING 13.1.1 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. 13.1.2 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. 13.1.2.1 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 13.1.2.2 Matrox Millennium The latest drivers are available from www.matrox.com 13.1.2.3 Number 9 Imagine 128 Series 2 The latest drivers are available from www.nine.com 13.1.2.4 Espresso Accelerator Card The latest drivers are available from www.folgers.com 13.1.3 Windows 95 Sound Problems 13.1.3.1 Stuttering If the size of your CDROM cache is set to maximum, it will stutter. Halving the cache size will eliminate the stutter. 13.1.4 Network Problems 13.1.4.1 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. 13.1.4.2 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. 13.1.4.3 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. 13.2 DATA TABLES 13.2.1 Buildings 13.2.2 Units Cost is in credits. Time is in minutes and seconds. Visibility (sighting range) is in squares. Name Cost Time Vis HP Armor Spd Weapons ------------------------------------------------------- AttackDog 200 :10 5 12 None 4 Big Fangs Rifleman 100 :05 4 50 None 4 M1 Carbine Flameman 300 :15 4 40 None 3 Flamer Rocketman 300 :15 4 45 None 3 Red Eye, Dragon Grenadier 160 :08 4 50 None 5 Grenade Engineer 500 :25 4 25 None 4 -- Spy 500 :25 5 25 None 4 -- Thief 500 :25 5 25 None 4 -- Medic 800 :40 3 80 None 4 Medikit Tanya 1200 1:00 6 100 None 5 (2) Colt 45 Ranger 600 :30 6 150 Light 10 M60 mg MineLayer 800 :40 5 100 Heavy 9 Mines (ap/at) APC 800 :40 5 200 Heavy 10 M60 mg Lt. Tank 700 :35 4 300 Heavy 9 75mm Med. Tank 800 :40 5 400 Heavy 8 90mm HeavyTank 950 :48 5 400 Heavy 7 (2) 105mm Mamm.Tank 1700 1:25 6 600 Heavy 4 (2) 120mm, Tusk Artillery 600 :30 5 75 Light 6 155mm V2 Lncher 700 :35 5 150 Light 7 V2 Rocket MobileGap 600 :30 4 110 Light 9 -- RdrJammer 600 :30 7 110 Light 9 -- Ore Truck 1400 1:10 4 600 Heavy 6 -- MCV 2500 2:00 4 600 Light 6 -- Transport 700 :35 6 350 Heavy 14 -- Submarine 950 :48 6 120 Light 6 Torpedo Gunboat 500 :25 7 200 Heavy 9 2" gun, d.charge Destroyer 1000 :50 6 400 Heavy 6 (2) Stinger, d.charge Cruiser 2000 1:40 7 700 Heavy 4 (2) 8" guns Yak 800 :40 -- 60 Light 16 (2) Chainguns MiG 1200 1:00 -- 50 Light 40 (2) Mavericks Hind 1200 1:00 -- 225 Heavy 16 Chaingun Longbow 1200 1:00 -- 225 Heavy 16 (2) Hellfire Chinook 1200 1:00 -- 90 Light 12 -- 13.2.3 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 13.3 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 convenient and secure on-line website, 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. 13.4 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Anthony Bourov, high priest of the Vortex god. Ben Flickinger, probability and statistics engineer. Boomer, Soviet multiplayer tank strategy. 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. 13.5 REVISION HISTORY December 5, 1996. First revision.