Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour/USA Laser General vs. USA Superweapon General

Hard Difficulty
I found this mission difficult. At the start of the mission when I was only building my 3rd and 4th buildings(using 2 dozers) A 3 plane A10 Warthog strike (General Power) was called in against me. It was obvious that the playing field was far from level. Needless to say you lose a lot of buildings in the early game.

Also at the start of the game a few comanches are lying in wait on your island to the northwest of our starting position. If you remove the fog of war around them they will attack immediately and more than likely overwhelm your early base very quickly. (I do not remember the comanches being there on Easy or Normal difficulty)

You must start building lots of cold fusion reactors and lots of laser patriots around your perimeter. Space out your buildings. If you space them well you will only lose one with each warthog strike and each particle cannon strike. You will still lose a lot of buildings. Also, many aurora bombers will attack your base -- laser patriots are the only defense against the bombers. You must keep building these because the lasers are your only defense and without power you are a sitting duck. Make sure you have many extra cold fusion reactors to cover your inevitable losses. You may want to only upgrade the cold fusion reactors in the back of your base. The reactors closer to the perimeter of your base will be constantly destroyed so you should not waste money upgrading your "sacrifice."

You need to keep the supplies coming. Be sure to build a second chopper immediately after building your supply center. Build a barracks early on and create a ranger or two then upgrade them to capture buildings. Wait a minute then send them to the NW part of the island to capture the two Oil Derricks and the money pallet next to them. If you move them too early you will draw the attention of the comanches. you can pump out a few missile infantry(not many), but they only help somewhat, most of the attacks are supersonic aurora bombers or a10 strikes which limits the missile infantry's effectiveness. They primarily help only against comanches or an aurora bomber only after the bomber strikes.

Try to always keep a minimum of 3 dozers. They will be constantly targeted and/or they will be destroyed when an aurora bomber takes out a reactor that the dozer just finished building. Your command center will likely be destroyed in a particle cannon strike and you cannot rebuild it if all your dozers are destroyed as well.

After your rangers capture the oil derricks, put them on guard duty near the coast of the island by the derricks. There will be an infantry attack early on (about 5 or 10 minutes) in this area (The same spot the comanches attack from (see above)). If you work quickly through the chaos of the early aurora bomber and a10 strikes, with luck you will have a perimeter laser patriot here to help defend.

When you have a little time, send a ranger to capture the artillery platform on the middle part of the starting island. The platform does not do much, but it will absorb an aurora bomber attack or two. There are 3 small supply piles between the artillery and your base which can be picked up after your starting pile runs dry.

In this mission a War Factory is generally used just to pump out a few laser avengers to help defend against the mass of air attacks against you. This is primarily an air combat mission. Also, it is essential to start building a Strategy Center after your first War Factory or Airfield. This way you can build a few supply drops to earn the money to keep replacing buildings.

After you capture the artillery platform consider going for the Oil Derrick on the East side of the starting island. But you need to take out the EMP patriot first. To take out the EMP patriot you can send 4 laser tanks or 2 supersonic bombers. If you send the tanks be sure to space them apart so that only one is affected by the emp blast at a time. If you send bombers, you will probably need to take out the EMP's on the small southern islands to clear a path first. After the EMP on the starting island is gone, you can capture the oil derrick here. After you take out this EMP beware of a comanche attack from the area of the Particle Cannon.

Take out the EMP Patriots: The easiest way to do this is to send out supersonic bombers in pairs to take them out. BE CAREFUL!!! There are many tiny islands on this map just big enough to put a EMP Patriot or a laser avenger that will rip your airplanes to shreds. You must take out most of the EMP Patriots starting with the ones closest to your starting island heading out. If you miss a patriot or laser avenger, your bombers will be shot down.

Take out the Particle Cannons: After you take out the surrounding EMPs it is easy to take out the particle cannon on your island. On easier difficulties, I was able to have a ranger capture the particle cannon and use it as my own against the WMD General, but when I tried to do that on Hard Difficulty, She sold the building as I was capturing it. (It was a pathetic computer cheat as well, The instant my ranger declared "Building Capture Complete", The support structure was sold into the ground.) Your best chances to take them out on her base island is to use your generals powers against them and your own particle cannon. However, all your plane based general powers will fail until you take out the majority of the emp patriots between your base and the enemy's particle cannons. On the positive side, once you take them out they will not be rebuilt.

I do suggest that you take one level of airborne ranger paradrop ability for this mission. Drop them on the island in the middle of the map with the oil derrick north of your starting position. They can capture the derrick for funds and take out the laser avenger on the island with their rifles. Once a few EMP Patriots are out of the way you can send them to the north west island to take out the laser avengers, capture (or destroy) the enemy supply center, and grab a few money crates on that island. Near the end game, paradrops can be used to cause a little havoc on the enemy base.

The final assault. The final island is loaded with EMP Patriots and Artillery Platforms. Also many laser avengers get pumped out by her War Factory. Initially you need to destroy all of the EMP Patriots on the mountain top perimeter of the island. Then I suggest you take out the large laser avenger groups and the war factory with your MOAB generals power. That will cause a lot of destruction hopefully before it can be shot down. You need to constantly take out the island defenses just like she did to you in the early game.

I suggest using air power to deal the final blow. By the time you clear enough defenses to allow for an effective ranger drop or laser tank drop from your choppers, you might as well just finish the job with the bombers.

Also watch out on this level. Occasionally she will try to sneak a helicopter in the back of your island to drop a few troops to cause you chaos. You need guard your entire perimeter well.

Alternate Method
This mission is much more difficult than playing against the Superweapon General with the Air Force General. The Air Force General starts out with the Carpet Bombing ability that puts you on the right track. It is even possible to destroy a Particle Cannon with your General's Powers alone!!

The following method is kind of a "cheat," but it works great. After leaving the computer for a while, being frustrated with three Particle Cannons blasting my base apart, I came back about 15 minutes later and noticed 30,000 credits in my account. The enemy Particle Cannons were not firing until a more choice target of opportunity came about than just my Command Center.

I also had four Laser Turrets that were not powered up, so they were also not targeted, plus a bulldozer.

So bingo, let's go to town and party! Build three Particle Cannons. A single Particle Cannon blast, coupled with A10 Missile Strike (level 3), will destroy a Particle Cannon.

Before you know it, the Particle Cannons are gone, then the Command Center. Soon victory will be yours!

Mission accomplished!