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Guest platinumnuts

Balancing Issues: Generals Challenge Hard Level

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Guest platinumnuts

Hello all,

 

I have some general (no pun intended) questions about what I perceive to be some generic imbalance issues in the various generals level challanges.

 

For the record:

 

1. I easily completed the Generals Challenge on the Medium Level with the Air Force general. This gave me a feel for the maps and strategies of the opposing enemy.

 

2. I next (recently) won the challenge on the hard level using the Chinese Infantry General. It was not easy, at all. The last super general was particularly difficult to figure out how to beat. In that Challange, I actually had the most difficulty at Stage 2 (Prince Cassad).

 

3. Now, however, I am stuck on the hard level as Air Force General and Laser general. In both cases, I am stuck agains the Superweapons general and I imagine others are as well. She sends very early (too early in my opinion) helicopter attacks.

You can barely survive this with China infantry general because you can manage to build a bunker and get a few (2-4) mini gunners in their and they will shoot down the inital 3 helecopter attack - giving you time to populate with more mini gunners (spread them out so a bunch don't get taken out by a single aurora bomber attack) - However, when playing as air force general (this is level 3 in the sequence) or laser general (level 5

in the sequence) I can't seem to get quite enough air defense up in time (the particle cannon attacks are not the problem) and I am beginning to think its almost not possible, tho apparently Sparticus as gotten by this point with the Air Force General.

I have manage to get by the first few initial attacks but I am clearly not over threshold and end up getting nailed by helicopters as the last of my air defense or rocketeers have been annihilated.

 

Any tips would be appreciated. This just seems overly unbalanced to me.

 

4. And my tip to the group - when playing as China Infantry General on Hard challange against Prince Kassad - don't even bother building gattling cannons, bunkers with mini gunners and rocketeers will work better and you won't have the squander precious resources to build power plants. If you get 2 -3 bunkers fully populated out near the rocks in front of your base they will shoot down the anthrax bomb plane before it relases the bomb that kills all your tractors and trucks.

 

Okay, that's it.

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Guest t217t217

get tib edit 2. you can make your stuff cheaper.

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Guest platinumnuts

Well I prefer not to be cheap like the computer AI

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Guest platinumnuts

Okay, I have now figured out how to get by the superweapons

general at the Hard level. Kind of counter intuitive but basically

just initially build barracks and start pumping out rocketeers

as much as possible and spread tem out near the water.

 

Eventually you will have sufficient ground personell that

her helicopter attacks are no longer effective. If you can

get by the first helicopter attack with one barracks intact

(i.e. build two barracks right away) you should be over

the threshold and on your way to defeating this opponent.

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Ah yes. Alexander is one of the hardest challenges, especially for Granger. The first rush...

 

As you found out the hard way, it's all about the rockets, baby. It took me three times before I figured I could use them against the stupid choppers. However, instead of using a whole lot around to protect, I used three Combat Chinooks full of 8 rockets each. (After her inital attack, of course.) Her Raptors couldn't take them down due to laser-point defense, and they made short work of all of the Chinooks.

 

After that, I used Auroras to first take out the EMPs around the south-east base, as well as the Avengers. Be sure to steal the turrets and oil derricks.

 

Anyway, good luck. Glad to see someone shares my affinity for aerial tactics.

 

- Sparticus

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Guest Melshimber

I have been battling this general for a while as the Lazor Towners, how on earth do you survive the A10 strikes, 2 particle cannons and commanchies?

 

They constantly take out my barracks (both!) power stations and murders my rocket men. It is very frustrating!

 

Mike

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Guest platinumnuts

Well the particle cannons are not the problem - they will

keep taking out the same structures provided that you rebuild

them - so essentially you can rebuild structures to decoy the

particle cannons.

 

You just need to survive the first wave - I suggest that you

build 3 barracks initially and start pumping out rocket guys

 

you will lose one barracks for sure in the inital attack and possibly 2

if the AI decides to target that with the Thunderbolt attack.

In fact, if you capture both oil derricks then you don't need to

hurry to build a supply depot - you can make enough money

on the oil derricks to keep pumping out rocket guys. Once you

have enough rocket guys on the map that take out the incoming

air, you will win. Now the annoying thing is that the spacing of

the rocket guys is important. If you cluster them, along comes

an aurora bomber to take the whole cluster out - if you space

them out too sparsely, however, a chinook attack can take out

each rocket guy one by one.

 

If you can get a couple of lasers up as Townes by the third attack

your probably okay, put one over by the oil derrick however to

prevent it from being taken out by the chinooks

 

 

Now, question for Sparticus.

 

OKay, I have now beaten the generals challange on Hard

with Granger, Townes , the Chinese Infantry general and

the Chinese Nuke General. My last remaining task is to

do this as the USA Superweapons general but so far,

in the battle against Granger, this appears to be pretty

unwinnable, but will keep trying. Not sure whether I should

invest in EMPs or rocket guys. Have tried both strategies

and neither worked, plus I can't get across the river to the

other supply base as easily as I did with China Infantry general.

 

In any event, I will keep trying.

 

.

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Guest platinumnuts

okay , last night I finally manged to beat Granger with

Alexander. It was pretty ridiculous method.

 

1. Build a barracks near your original command center and

pump out rocket guys (for sacrifice) and to capture the two

oil derricks

 

2. build a power supply (also for sacrifice)

 

3. build and send two tractors across the river

 

4. build a power supply on the river first thing and then use both

tractors to get up as much EMPs as possible. Pay attention to you

money, and don't let it fall below 2000 as you will need to build

a supply depot.

 

Granger will launch the bulk of the first attack against your

now abandoned original base. The paratroopers will come and

destory everything (except possible the oil derricks) b ut

then they will just stay there.

 

In the meantime you might have built up enough EMP defense in

the other area to repel the future attacks. Then slowly rebuild

your based on that side of the river and then bring it back

to where it originally was. You will lose your initial command center

so make sure you have enough space on the other side to

buld a new one.

 

Not sure if this is the prefereed way to deal with Granger as

Alexander but I just had no luck trying to defned the original

base.

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That's an... [ahem] ...interesting strategy. Odd, but if it works, I say go for it. Kind of neat. Strangely enough, I used a combination of Rockets and EMPs. I spaced a bunch of power plants in the main base, two directly on either side of the Command Center, and two more farther out on either side. I placed an EMP in front of each of those, and sprinkled the base with about ten or so Rockets. Maybe it was luck, or maybe it was ignorant skill, but his first wave didn't drop my power, and I had a few humvees around to help out when he dropped infantry in the base. I'd lost four times in a row before this worked for me, so I'm not sure exactly how I did it. I'm going to have to go back and replay it. After I finish on Hard with Townes, which is my current project. (Last USA General Challenge...)

 

I wasn't sure what Platinum was talking about, but I think he was asking about the General's Challenge with Townes against Alexander? Instead of using rockets, get two Laser Turrets up. Build a power plant right next to your Command Center, then use the second Tractor to build a Turret on the left, while the other builds one on the right, and your power plant is upgrading to Control Rods. Townes gets a little better than normal power upgrade, so it can support the two. If you're quick, you should have the second up just a little while before the Commanche's show up. Then build a Supply Depot, and then go after the Oil Derricks. Be sure to build one turret next to each Oil Derrik, and one right at the bottom left corner of your base. She tends to send a single Chinook with a bunch of infantry there to cause trouble. The Lasers should either drop the chop, or kill off the infantry pretty quickly. Hope that helps a little.

 

Always open for questions...

 

...Or at least the ones that I know the answers to,

 

- Sparticus

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Guest platinumnuts

Yes, sorry to be slightly confusing.

 

I guess my basic point is the following:

 

When your battling against either Granger of Alexander in

the Hard level of the Generals Challange - success depends

on the proper spacing and balancing of your anti aircraft

batteries (e.g. emp, laser turret, etc) and rocket guys.

 

Most of the time you will fail - i.e. you butt will get kicked N

times in a row, but eventually you will stumble upon some

strategy that works. Now, I haven't the patience or the time

to test if that strategy is repeatable, I am just thankful that

I managed to achieve each one time victory.

 

Against Granger, however, it does seem advantageous if you

can start building another base across the river at the other

supply stash.

 

Finally, I swear. although I didn't objectively record this that

when Alexander faces Granger, Granger sends even more

planes!

 

Note: If you are Alexander against Granger and you manage to

build a particle cannon (if you got that far, chances are you

will win) - I recommend destorying the supply depots ASAP because

I believe that Granger actually does run out of money. Some of

other Generals on the hard challange level seem to have an

infinite supply of money, but Granger, I believe does run out and

therefore stops building aircraft.

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Guest Melshimber

I finally beat this map with The Lazer General. I got lucky and by spacing my lazers slightly managed to get two operational before the commanchies tried to blitz my base. :D

 

This challenge was a swine though, I had to use long range air power to take out the EMP patriots which were everywhere! As lazer has no long range ground units it was very slow and tough.

 

I had three barracks for most of the game and was gutted when I finally built a strategy centre it was destroyed by A-10's thirty seconds later.

 

I dont know how I would have done it without 4 particle cannons and 8 auroras!

 

Mike

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Guest Diffusion

I used the: "pump out rocket guys and build secondary base" on Granger while being Townes and it was the only way I could beat him. His money does seem to be finite, and its easy to cut off. The hardest part is just surviving the initial assault.

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Guest Commander

The best recommendation is to modify the game and make it balanced to what you would like.

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Yeah, that's it! Why didn't I think of that? When you can't beat something, why not just cheat? What a great idea? I know, let's eliminate all the challenge of games and just focus on cheating to win. No more hard work, no more hard-to-win matches, we can just mod the game, make it so that one unit is invincible, and then we can win without trying! What a great recommendation!

 

(Note: If you don't notice the sarcasm in this post, then you're not worth the time to argue with, anyway.)

 

- Sparticus

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Guest LargeAndInCharge

oops, see next post

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Guest LargeAndInCharge

How come you guys are talking about beating Alexander or Granger and not talking about beating the last general (Leah or whatever)?

 

I was able to beat Granger using Alexander by first creating a mix of rocket guys, humvees (w/ tow missiles) and EPMs. Yeah I also had to try it 3 or 4 times but eventually it worked.

 

Then I beat the last secret general using Alexander since I was able to build so many particle cannons and mega-reactors. Right before her countdown hits zero I take out the countdown reset bunker with a particle cannon. Did that 3 times, by then I had 5 part cannons and used them to wipe her out. You have to get all 3 of her command centers also because she starts bringing the general points attacks big time at the end.

 

Anyway Im not sure how I could have possibly done it using anyone else, cause I really needed the cheap part cannons and mega reactors. So again, how come you guys arent talking about how to beat the last general???

 

Oh yeah, and to the idiot who keeps saying to use the editor to cheat... why do you even bother to play it in the first place? Just change the map so you instantly win. That would be fun, huh

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In the final challenge, Superweapons are always the trump card. I've beaten just about all of the Challenges, now, (GLA is the easiest to beat the last General with), and it's always about the superweapons. I'd love to see any strategy to beat Liang that doesn't involve more than 3 superweapons, and just keeping her random weaponry at bay. The key, I think, is to simply spread your base out so far that it limits her manuverability. I always build all my supers in the bottom right corner, build a solid defense just slightly back from the bridge, (covered by long-range weapons, either Tomahawk, Buggy, Scud Launcher, Inferno, or Nuke Cannon), and finally make three layers of anti-aircraft weaponry at the river, spaced out far enough that even one superweapon can't elminiate all three lines. (Avengers, Quad-Cannons, or Gattling Tanks work best, but with Infantry General, a whole bunch of Mini-Gunners was cheaper, rebuilt faster, and did just as much damage.)

 

Then it's all about keeping her attacks at bay, striking with the Superweapons, and causing general havoc. (With USA, I kept hitting her with Auroras to destroy things, slowly pushing my way into her base. China Nuke MiGs are also excellent weapons, and I recommend them right after the Aurora Alpha.)

 

In any case, it's all about spreading yourself out so that even a single super won't kill you completely. Keep her contained, because she still fights like a computer, sending only a limited amount of units at a time. Then just build a lot of superweapons, keep them protected, and let them fly. The match is yours.

 

- Sparticus

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Guest Melshimber

In the final challenge I used a lot of tanks. I wsa playing as china tank general and did not even bother with more than 1 super weapon. Everytime the counter became critical my emporer overlords blitzed one of the bunkers.

 

The only annoyance I had was the random hidden snipper which kept taking out my men.

 

Mike

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