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

This mission is extremely challenging. The Gattling Cannons don’t give you much bang per buck versus armored units. Battlemaster and Overlord tanks are not available on this mission. Mini Gunners definitely have their own special charm, but taking on Gattling and Empress tanks are not their strongpoint.

So what is the key to stopping the onslaught of tanks rushing your base? Building up a large battalion of Attack Outposts.

These hopped-up Listening Outposts give you four Tank Hunters straight from the factory – with room for up to six more units to join the party. They are fairly thin-skinned, but teamed up in packs of two, three or four units, they can pack a powerful punch before much damage is received.

In addition to this, they will heal each other in groups of two or more while stationary.

It is not necessary to build any Speaker Towers in this mission – and the mission can be won without any Gattling Cannons being built, although I found it helpful to build a couple midway in the mission to help control enemy Tank Hunters.

Just when you feel things are getting under control, enemy jets will attack your base. By this time, Paradrops of ten or fifteen Mini Gunners will help control the aerial assault.

Besides Emperor Overlords, groups of enemy Tank Hunters may be your greatest threat and can devastate your Attack Outposts. Add a single Mini Gunner to some of your Attack Outposts to speed up attacks on these pesky units. Once you can add groups of ten or fifteen Mini Gunners that are Paradropped from your level three General’s Powers, this issue will be alleviated.

Walkthrough
Basic Start: Build a Reactor, extra bulldozer, Barracks and Supply Center. Place the Barracks in the back of the base for easy placement of Hackers.

Choose Mini Gunner training from the General’s Power menu.

Important: Build two extra Supply Trucks. The mission can be won with just one, but building two takes a lot of stress off of your defense.

Build a War Factory and then four Assault Outposts. Add a single Mini Gunner to some of the Outposts to deal with Tank Hunters. Assign two AO’s to the east and two to the northwest.

Build a Propaganda Center. Build two more Assault Outposts to create two groups of three.

Build two Hackers and start hacking the Internet for cash.

Continue to build additional Outposts and Hackers as funds permit. The mission can be won without any Gattling Cannons, but you may want to build one to the northwest and one to the east after you have your six Outposts.

If you do build Gattling Cannons, station your Outposts slightly in front of them. Incoming units will target your GC’s, since your Outposts are in stealth mode while stationary. This will put your Outposts in great striking position as the enemy units come into range.

Battle will be hot and heavy and you will soon reach Level 3. Choose Level 2 Infantry Paradrop and place the ten Mini Gunners inside of your Outposts. They will be sorely needed as jets will soon be hitting your base.

Once you feel reasonably secure in your base and you have ten or so Hackers working, build your first Nuclear Missile.

As you wait for your Nuclear Missile to launch, continue strengthening your base with Outposts and Hackers. You can’t have too many of either of these. You will lose a number of Outposts, and you can put surviving infantry into newly-created replacement AO’s.

I am assuming Chain Guns will aid the Mini Gunners. Choose this upgrade when you get a chance.

If you haven’t already, obtain Radar at the Command Center. Destroy the Nuclear Missile with the Carpet Bomber and level three Artillery Barrage. If you destroy it in this manner, you can destroy the Propaganda Center with your Nuclear Missile to slow down the production of Emperor Tanks.

There is a side benefit to this. The bulldozer will be sidetracked to build the Propaganda Center instead of the Nuclear Missile and the Nuclear Missile will not be rebuilt again on this mission!!

Subliminal Messaging is also a nice upgrade once you have the funds. This will upgrade the protective powers of the Speaker Towers by 25 percent.

It is also helpful to build the Internet Center to obtain the Satellite Hack Level 1 and 2.

From here on out, your base is fairly secure.

Start building additional Nuclear Missiles to assist in your offensive operations.

If enough Nuclear Missiles are built, it is possible to destroy the Command Center, then the bulldozers as they return to rebuild it. If all bulldozers are destroyed, you can then systematically destroy their base without any structures being rebuilt.

It is not necessary to destroy Speaker Towers, Bunkers and Gattling Cannons for the Tank General to surrender.

Mission accomplished!