Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour/USA Air Force General vs. China Nuke General

This mission allows you to utilize and practice your air power skills. Without them, this mission would be next to impossible.

Severe time constraints are placed on you to destroy the five Nuclear Missiles before they decimate your base. In addition to this, the Chinese tanks are upgraded with nuclear shells and are much more deadly to your troops. Overlords are constantly threatening to overrun your defenses – while Nuke Cannons sit outside the protective range of your Patriots to rain down destruction on your base.

Colonel Burton will be overwhelmed trying to destroy all of the Nuke Cannons, and he is at great risk from the upgraded tanks. He may be able to “dodge the bullet,” but the nuclear radiation that comes with the blast can prove deadly.

Throughout practically the entire Zero Hour campaigns, successful strategies can be utilized without the use of air power. (The exception to this is the powerful Helixes in the Chinese missions.)

But in this mission, air power is absolutely critical. A protective ring of Raptors will protect your base from Nuke Cannons – while Aurora bombers can destroy the Nuclear Missiles and the anti-air units protecting them.

Walkthrough
Build a Reactor, second bulldozer, Barracks and Supply Center. Immediately research the Capture command, upgrade the Reactor and build a second supply helicopter.

Create three Rangers and send them to capture the three oil derricks along the bottom of the map. Eventually two of them will be destroyed, but by then your supply levels will be healthier.

Build three Patriots spaced far enough away so that your Airfields and Particle Cannons can fit within their protective range.

Build a War Factory, an Airfield, then a Strategy Center. Start building four Raptors, then breaking them into pairs of two to guard your base.

Although not necessary, building a Humvee at this time will help control infantry units attacking your base.

Start building a second Airfield. Build a fourth Patriot to protect your base. Build two more Raptors and have them patrol another section of your base. Start building two Aurora bombers.

Enlist Colonel Burton and have him patrol the front of your base, destroying all infantry units possible. This will enable your King Raptors to target the armored units instead.

Build a third Air Field and add four more Aurora bombers.

Note: This entire mission can be won without building a single Particle Cannon, but it will certainly speed up the process at the end of the game if you have multiple Particle Cannons. There are a lot of anti-air defenses at the China base and it takes a while to destroy them all from the air.

You should still have funds available at this point. A Supply Drop Zone will help ensure continued supplies rolling in.

Upgrade Countermeasures and Laser Missiles to add strength to your air power.

The mission can be beat with just the three Airfields.

Important: As soon as you reach level 3 of your General’s Powers, create at least three Pathfinders to control infantry. Your King Raptors are horrible at targeting these ground troops and Nuke Cannons can sneak through your defenses while they are targeting these minions. Station one Pathfinder to the east and the others to the northeast and nothwest of your base. (HINT: Instead of them you can use commanches to kill infantry. Just order them to guard the area. They are also quite good at destroying tanks, as there are not many gattling tanks in this mission).

Offensive Operations:

It is possible to knock out the Nuclear Missile in the middle of the map with four Aurora bombers with no casualties.

Next use Carpet Bombs, A10 Missile Strikes or your extra two Auroras to target the anti-air units in front of the Nuclear Missiles on the west side of the map. Use the Auroras again to destroy the closest Nuclear Missile on this side of the map.

The Nuclear Missile further back on the west side of the map has more air defense and the above strategy should be repeated. Replace any Auroras that are lost.

There are a number of garrisoned buildings on the east side of the map that will cause issues for your Aurora bombers, but the same tactics will work to destroy the next two Nuclear Missiles.

The above engagements can be carried out in a calm and deliberate manner. You should be able to destroy all five of the Nuclear Missiles with plenty of time to spare.

Important: You can still lose the game at this point. The Nuke General has a powerful Missile Strike that can destroy your Airfields and leave you vulnerable to continued Nuke Cannon attacks.

Although your King Raptors patrolling your base have worked quite well on “autopilot,” don’t forget to occasionally “baby-sit” your base, as Nuke Cannons can eventually sneak through your defenses if you become lax.

Be sure your Pathfinders are still in position and any lost Raptors are replaced.

The Nuke General does not rebuild his structures, so you can now start targeting away at his base.

It is suggested to build a few Particle Cannons to speed up the destruction of the China base from space.

First target his Command Center so you won’t have to deal with the Missile Strikes against your base. This can best be accomplished with Particle Cannon blasts or with your General’s Powers, as the structure is well-defended with anti-air units.

Then target the Weapons Factories and Airfield.

It is not necessary to launch a ground assault, although this is certainly an option.

It is not necessary to destroy armor, infantry, Bunkers, Gattling Cannons and garrisoned buildings to achieve victory.

Mission accomplished!

HH Alternative Strategy
This mission is the easiest of all the generals challenges if you do it right.

Launch your economy by building a supply center at both of the two nearby platforms. Also build a barracks and two infantry men to capture the derricks along the southern edge of the map. Now you will have some serious money coming in.

Build eight commanches, fanning them out on the borders of your base one at a time, and eventually pairing them (four pairs). Make sure they are far enough outside your base to easily knock out nuke cannons before they shoot. This base defense will hold for the entire game without maintenance, just upgrade the stealth and countermeasures. Now build three airfields and 12 auroras. Once you have 12 auroras, take out the first three nuke silos with four each.

At this point, they will probably be all shot down, and your opponent will fire a generals power at one airfield. No matter, build more auroras at the other airfields and take out the remaining silos. If you need to, build two more auroras to take out the airfield. Then spend some money on a particle cannon or two to help clean up.

MS Alternative strategy
This mission can't go wrong as long as you take care of your flyings. Do NOT take the drone upgrade from your general powers!!!! Take the carpet bomber.

Building the base: Build a second dozer,a power plant & baracks. Build 2 supply platforms, 3 rangers and upgrade building. Build one extra supply gatherer at each platform. You should have $25 dollar left at this point. Send out the rangers (build a fouth as soon as you can afford it) to capture the 4 platforms (3 at the bottom, one above the base. Money wise you should be fine the rest of the mission.

Build 2 airfields. Start building your strategy centre.

Defensive: Build 4 commanches, one covering the north entranche, 2 covering the centre entranche and one covering the east flank, put them on patrol!. research flares (or whatever that is called) the defense on your planes.

By now your strategy centre should be online. Use your carpet bomber to destroy his airfield. He will not rebuild it and if done correctly NO choppers will ever reach your base. Still I raconment to build some patriots just in case.

Now start building 8 auroras. As soon as the first 4 are ready, select them all, fly them to the west end of the map (carefull for those gattlings) and attack the most middle nuclear silo, the one that came online first. The countdown is probably somewhere around 7 minutes. All your aroras should survive because of flares and protective laser.

4 silos to go and, about 10-11 minutes to do so..... Wait ill all 8 auroras are done and use the remainder of your money to build extra commanches and upgrade to stealth, again you should not need it but why not... Make 4 pairs of auroras and fly them to the south east corner of the map. Focus on the North-West corner, use spy satelite you should see 2 gatlings. Use pair 1,2 and 3 to target the most left gatling and pair 4 to target the most right gatling. Make sure that they arrive in one wave, if you find this difficult select them all, target the left gatling and then select one pair and give it a different target. Again a lot of rockets are fired at your planes, but hey youre the airforce general :D.

Repeat the wave you just did and destroy both silo's.

2 silos to go and about 9 minutes do so....

Now your generals powers should be at least level 3 which give you acces to a level 2 A10 strike. Use this strike to destoy his Northern War factory.

Select all your aurora"s fly them to the Northwest corner of the map and make a bombrun to the Eastern base. Pair one gattling, pair 2 war factory, pair 3&4 Silo. Again if you make the wave perfect no aurora is shot down.

By now your carpet bomb should be ready again. Maybe even paired with the rest of your generals powers. Use it to wreak havok on the defenses of the last silo.

Make sure all your commanches are on guard because he might attack you with a few tanks. Now a final wave of auroras can take out the last silo, and some buildings around it. More is better as they cover eachother with the lasers.

Now the nuclear threat is done. The airfields and war factories destroyed, and as general Tao says himself "it is not my men you should fear" :D. if too many auroras have been shot down he might launch attacks from his command centre. Worst case you always have the option to make a suicide run with auroras, but if you have one pair killing the gattling and 3 pair the command centre still most should come home.

Now its just mopping up. A few options: Auroras take out the few remaining gattlings and commanches the solid building. Building a asault gatherer with 5 rocketeers and 3 snipers can be fun.... building extra airfields and king raptors is fun.... Building 12 particle cannons and using generals powers is lame, but still a option.

One final note, if you expierence high casualties among your auroras you can consider replacing the first 2 by stealth bombers with bunker busters, and clear out the towers and the battle bunkers.. Makes the mop up easyer as well.... This probably cost you around 2 minutes on the clock, but hey, as long as the nukes dont fire :D

Enjoy victory and replay it as it is a cool mission :D.