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

This level is a bit more difficult than playing with the Chinese Infantry General or Nuke General because Inferno Cannons and Nuke Cannons are not available to destroy the Laser Tanks that target your garrisoned buildings from the top of the overpass.

The problem can be resolved by emptying the garrisoned buildings and attacking or having Emperors and Gattling Tanks in the area to run around and destroy it, but it requires much more hands-on work to resolve this issue. You can also lay Cluster Mines leading up to the overpass to minimize this issue.

Build a solid defense, create Internet hackers and accumulate enough funds to build two Nuclear Missiles at once. This way, they are less susceptible to destruction while being built.

Build two Gattling Cannons to the northeast of your base to defend against persistent Comanche helicopter attacks. An enemy Colonel Burton will also be attacking your base if Emperors or other detection units are not placed on both sides of the garrisoned buildings.

Walkthrough
Basic start: Build a Reactor, an extra dozer, a Barracks and Supply Center.

Important: Building two extra Supply Trucks, versus one, will help you keep up with rebuilding the many structures destroyed by the Particle Cannons and will make this mission much easier. Just be sure to get Hackers to work before you completely run out of supplies.

Purchase Radar to activate the radar map.

Don’t forget to choose one of your General’s Powers.

Be sure that all buildings are placed far enough apart so that the Particle Cannons cannot destroy two buildings at once.

Sometimes enemy infantry occupy one of the five civilian buildings right in front of your base – and sometimes they don’t. If they have, you will need to build a War Factory and a Dragon Tank to clear the building before you capture the region.

If there are no buildings previously occupied, immediately build five Tank Hunters and garrison one in each of the buildings. After this, add Red Guard to each of the buildings to help protect the area from infantry.

Build the War Factory (if you haven’t done so already), and then the Propaganda Center immediately so that you can create two Emperors to park on each side of the garrisoned buildings. You can use the Emperors to “run around” and destroy the Laser Tanks that park at the top of the overpass and are not in the line of fire of the garrisoned buildings.

Build a Speaker Tower in the middle of the buildings. Have a bulldozer in the area to keep the buildings repaired.

By now, the Particle Cannons will start attacking your base. If you are lucky enough “just” to have your Barracks destroyed, rebuild it, and keep rebuilding at as many times as necessary. It takes only 500 credits to rebuild and will keep the ion blasts away from your other structures.

If it targets your Command Center, repair immediately or it will be lost on a subsequent blast.

Beef up your garrisoned buildings with five more Tank Hunters and five more Red Guard. This mission is “blessed” with a great bottleneck to protect your base. Take advantage of it. Add more units to these buildings as opportunity arises.

One weak spot for these buildings is the occasional Avenger that comes along. Quickly empty one of your buildings of troops, attack it, then go back inside to safety. Build two Gattling Cannons to the northeast of your base, separated by a safe distance. You must keep these here to protect your base from Comanche attacks. They will be destroyed by PC blasts now, instead of your Barracks, but that’s okay. Just continue to rebuild them. The west side of your base will not be bothered by these attacks.

It is also necessary to be wary of Colonel Burton slipping onto your base and detonating your buildings. It is possible to mine your buildings, but you can totally alleviate this threat by blocking the three entrances to your base. Put a Gattling Cannon on the ramp leading down from the bridge to the east of the garrisoned buildings. The Emperors stationed on both sides of the garrisoned buildings will protect this area from the Colonel.

A lot of this mission is two steps forward and one back with the constant repairing, but you will make slow but steady progress.

Keep building Hackers and position them in different areas at the back of your base until you are happy with your cash flow. Build an Internet Center, if desired. More than eight Hackers might be desired to keep the cash flow rolling. You will run out of supplies quickly with three Supply Trucks.

After you have over 10,000 credits saved, build two Nuclear Missiles simultaneously. This may prevent the PC’s from targeting your Nuclear Missile two times in a row before it can repair and destroying 5,000 worth of infrastructure.

Once the Nuclear Missiles are completely built, attacks from enemy Particle blasts will not entirely destroy them and they can be repaired after each attack.

After the countdown, you can destroy the three enemy PC’s with either a double nuclear blast or a single nuclear blast and a hit with a level three Artillery Barrage.

Wait for your Nuclear Missiles to charge back up and you can then destroy the Command Center. When a bulldozer comes back to rebuild it, destroy it with an Artillery Barrage. As soon as all dozers are destroyed, no new structures can be built and you can slowly start taking the base apart.

Destroy first all Airfields, War Factories and Barracks.

Use your General’s Powers and armored units of your choice to destroy defenses at the very front of their base in case you decide to launch a ground assault. Or you can just use multiple nuclear strikes to finish the job.

It is not necessary to destroy the Laser Turrets, Fire Bases, garrisoned civilian buildings, infantry or vehicles to win the mission.

Once the frontal defenses are destroyed, a small ground force can perform mop-up duties of any structures left standing.

Mission accomplished!

Alternative Strategy
The Laser General is gentlemanly and only launches very weak attacks and only garrisons the city with marines. You can capitalize on these weaknesses to beat him with ease.


 * Make some battlemasters and gatling tanks or garrison some of the nearby buildings for defense
 * Before teching, make an airfield and a Helix, load it up with 2 red guard and 3 tank hunters, send it up the west side of the map then across the top. Capture the refinery and 3 derricks, and station the Helix to guard them. These buildings wont suffer from serious attacks, but you may consider also sending a dozer in a Helix to provide additional fortification.
 * Send a dragon tank and dozer to the east and secure the supplies, make a gatling cannon or station some gatling tanks to protect it
 * At this point, get two Nuclear Silos, keep them repaired with dozers because they'll take multiple PC strikes
 * There is no need for hackers, as you can send another dragon tank and dozer up the west side of the map and acquire the supplies up there, between the tech buildings and 3 supply docks you'll have ample money
 * Use the first nuke plus artillery to take out the particle cannons
 * use the second nuke and carpet bombing to crack open his front door defenses
 * a small group of Emperor tanks backed up with gatling tanks should be adequate for destroying his base - once past the frontal defenses it is very lightly defended and his defenses are not well optimized for dealing with tank shells and bullets