Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour/GLA Mission 5

This mission opens with the Chinese base being overrun by the GLA – giving them the ability to utilize Chinese technology and weaponry. Now it is time to push American forces out of the Western European theatre.

The United States has a smaller base to the east holding GLA prisoners, but the main task is to take on their enormous base to the north.

If the smaller base to the east is captured by the GLA, they will then have all of the technologies available in the game, but this is still one of the toughest Command & Conquer missions in the entire franchise history. The Americans will build three Particle Cannons – each recharging every four minutes. The air superiority of the USA will be felt in full force. Land assaults are well-coordinated – strategically using their Tomahawks to target your units from afar.

Time is not your friend on this mission – it is your enemy. A large arsenal of scud storms and nuclear missiles (no less than five) must be built on your base in an extremely urgent fashion. You will be distracted in this endeavor by having to defend yourself from enemy approaching from the small eastern American base and a few stragglers from the north.

It is also necessary to cover a large portion of the map with Technicals loaded with workers and Rebels to secure the vast resources available to you.

Once a sufficient number of Scud Storms and Nuclear Missiles are achieved, your building program must continue unabated to surround the perimeter of your base with Stinger Sites and Quad Cannons for protection from a heightened air blitz. A fierce ground assault must also be fought off before you can fully focus on offensive operations.



Establishing Your Base – Getting Started
Both GLA and Chinese facilities will be extensively constructed. Your base is going to be BIG.

Time is absolutely critical and structures should be built as soon as funds become available.

Build a GLA Barracks immediately where the worker appears. Build the Supply Stash with a second worker in the same vicinity. Build an extra supply truck, which will automatically start collecting supplies. Upgrade the Radar at the Chinese Command Center. Immediately send one of the Rebels to the east to pick up the four U.N. supply crates and to put him in position to capture the oil derrick. Build a Chinese Barracks.

Immediately click on the Capture command when the GLA Barracks is built. Have the Rebel capture the oil derrick. Bring over the Quad Cannon and two tanks to help protect the derrick.

Start building the Arms Dealer, then the Palace. Have the Chinese bulldozer build two Gattling Cannons slightly to the east of the oil derrick. Build a Technical and transport a worker to the east to build a Stinger Site between the two Gattling Cannons.

Build Jarmen Kell as soon as the Palace is built.

A skirmish will be fought by the oil derrick that hopefully no units will be lost. Have your worker build a Tunnel Network safely to the west of the Gattling Cannons. Units can be immediately healed by placing them inside of the structure.

This combination of two Gattling Cannons, Stinger Site, Quad Cannon and two tanks should be self-sufficient in defending the eastern portion of your base. Check back on the area occasionally to see if they need repair or replacement.

Drive your Technical back to the base in preparation of transport duties.

Right about now, a convoy of two Avengers and two tanks will be heading toward your base. Build three extra armored units of your choosing to help beef up the base defenses. Have Jarmen Kell snipe one of the units and destroy the convoy. Pick up the scraps to upgrade the units.

If you have the time and inclination, build extra Rebels to commandeer all units sniped by Jarmen Kell.

The key to success on this mission is to QUICKLY accumulate cash and build up your weapons of mass destruction before the USA does. With the Technical zipping around the map accumulating assets, this can be accomplished.

Building Your Base and Economy
Start building two extra Quad Cannons and Technical and set them aside for future use.

Have Jarmen Kell, three Rebels and a worker hop in the Technical and get to work. Drive due north along the far west side of the map to the oil derrick nestled up on a small mountain pass. Two enemy vehicles and a few troops will be stationed there. Drop off a Rebel, a worker and Jarmen Kell. Have Jarmen Kell snipe one of the vehicles -- and then take care of base-building responsibilities elsewhere while his sniping ability recharges. Shoot the other vehicle and troops and have the Rebel capture the oil derrick and oil refinery as the worker builds a Stinger Site.

Go back to the base with Jarmen Kell in the Technical. Join the other Technical (filled with Rebels and workers) and two Quad Cannons to start exploring the map for more oil derricks.

Head to the northeast and capture the oil derrick there. You may not want to bother building a Stinger Site there as it may just attract unwanted attention to the area.

By now you should have over 10,000 in credits and two Scud Storms should be built simultaneously by the two workers.

Funds should be flowing fairly well by now, so continue building your base. Don’t forget to build a GLA Command Center -- although it is not necessary to have for the Scud Missiles. You will need it to deploy your General’s Powers.

Build a Chinese War Factory. After this, continue building a third and fourth Scud Storm. Build a Propaganda Tower and then the Nuclear Missile. Important: After the Nuclear Missile, build an Internet Center. This is a structure new to the Zero Hour series. The most important reason for building this is to help reveal the enemy base around their Command Centers. Alternatively, build a Black Market and upgrade with the Radar Scan to allow Radar Vans to expose areas of the map.

While all of the above is being accomplished, it is necessary to continue exploring the map with your Technicals.

Go east a short distance. There are three more U.N. supply packages by the dock.

Even further east, you will find fellow GLA troops in a dormant state awaiting the outcome of their imprisoned comrades. Later in the mission, they will awaken to help you fight the American forces.

Pick up the U.N. supplies located by the oil derrick on the other side of the creek. Have a Rebel exit the Technical and capture the derrick. Have a worker build a Stinger Site and, optionally, a Tunnel Network. Do not let the Technical get ahead of the quad cannons when heading to this derrick, a Comanche will be waiting for you as well as a group of ground forces from the northeast.

Continue due east, picking up all supplies found along the way. On the far east, two more oil derricks will be found. Capture both of these oil derricks. Build a Stinger Site and Tunnel Network to continue the longevity of their production.

The pace is so frenetic with all of the activities involved, you may run out of time to explore further. If you have the time, veer due south until a series of ravines is found, where you will find a virtual candy store of U.N. supplies.

While you are picking up supplies and building your base, start building three Overlord tanks. Buy the two upgrades at the Nuclear Missile when you are sure you have enough funds to complete the Internet Center. Upgrade at least two of the Overlords with Gattling Cannons. This will assist in defending the tanks from infantry. Building at least one Overlord with the Propaganda Tower will cause the tank and all surrounding units to automatically repair and heal – an extremely nice feature.

Destroy the Artillery Platform to the east in preparation for attacking the eastern American base with the Overlords. Have the Quad Cannon in close proximity in case the Commanche helicopters are in the area.

Keep in mind that while all this is going on you will be repeatedly attacked with paratroopers (in groups of 20), Raptors (in groups of 2 or 3), level 3 A-10 strikes, 3 particle cannons, small ground forces from the north, Comanches (in groups of 3 or 4), and continuous attacks with Tomahawks and Crusaders from the east regardless of whether or not you've destroyed the eastern base. This barrage of attacks will not end. Positioning quad cannons on guard mode within your base will help protect against the paratroopers, a ring of quad cannons and Stinger Sites provide protection against helicopters and Raptors. Your base will likely be fairly compact so A-10 strikes will be devastating, be prepared to rebuild structures often. Particle cannons will target your internet and supply centers first, then your war factories and arms dealers. You may wish to build two Arms Dealers as you will likely be in the middle of defending a ground strike when the particle cannons strike. Jarmen Kell is an effective defense against Tomahawks, although he will not automatically snipe vehicles on guard mode and the time it takes to recharge his abilities limits his usefulness somewhat.

Scud Storm
With the Satellite Hack 1 upgrade from the Internet Center, the Particle Cannon will be revealed.

When two of the Scud Storms are ready, launch them simultaneously at the Particle Cannon and watch the fireworks.

Optionally, create hackers and put them to work hacking the Internet for extra cash. It is suggested NOT putting them in the Internet Center, as this makes the building more likely to be targeted by Particle Cannon blasts and air assaults.

Create or locate four workers and assign them numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9. Have them each build a Stinger Site for air attacks that are to come. Create four additional Quad Cannons for additional defense. When time and funds permit, continue to build a solid ring of Stinger Sites around your base – quickly locating the workers by their numbers. Back them up with additional Quad Cannons.

Hopefully, you can do this before the Particle Cannon fires. If not, you will need to rebuild whatever units are lost. You can recover from this – but, of course, the sooner you get on the offensive, the better.

Attacking and Capturing the Eastern American Base
Somewhere in the scheme of things, you need to find the time to attack the eastern base and hopefully capture most of the buildings.

Before attacking, have a Technical loaded with four Rebels and a worker on standby and park them in a safe location.

One option that works is to destroy the eastern side of the American base with a Scud Storm, destroying the reactors and airfield – turning off the power to the Patriot Missiles in the area.

A combination of three Overlords, two Quad Cannons and Jarmen Kell will work for this assault, but this is best done before a large convoy from the north rolls through the area. If this happens, get Jarmen Kell slightly to the north to snipe the Tomahawks first, then focusing on the other vehicles if he has time to recharge for another shot.

Start the assault by simply attacking the Artillery Platform with the three Overlords simultaneously. Have the Quad Cannons close by in case the Commanches show up.

Then have your units attack the two sleeping Patriot Missiles and all units that pop out of the Barracks and War Factory. Move your Technical into the area and have the Rebels capture all of the buildings. Build a Tunnel Network in the area for future use.

Build Colonel Burton and move him to the corridor to the northeast of your main GLA base. Use him there to destroy Tomahawks approaching your base from this direction.

Keep Jarmen Kell slightly to the north of the captured American base to Snipe incoming Tomahawks and other vehicles.

Destroying the Second and Third Particle Cannons
Using the Rebel Ambush to the south of the initial Particle Cannon and having them run to the southwest will reveal the second Particle Cannon.

Using the Sneak Attack Tunnel (no troops inside are necessary) to the southeast of the initial Particle Cannon, followed by a Rebel Ambush further to the southeast will reveal the third Particle Cannon.

Destroy these Particle Cannons with double-blasts from either the Nuclear Missile or Scud Storm. When they rebuild – rinse and repeat.

Defending Your Base From Ground Assaults

The mission can still easily be lost once the Particle Cannons are destroyed. Do not let down your guard!

Convoys from the north will roll down two corridors – the one to the north of the American base and the one to the northeast of the GLA base.

These convoys will usually have a Tomahawk, an Avenger, along with multiple tanks. Have Jarmen Kell stationed to the north of the American base and immediately snipe the Tomahawk. If you have enough lead time, you can follow the convoy down and take a second shot at the Avenger or a Paladin tank.

If you have captured the American base, build and move Colonel Burton to the northeast corridor to perform the same function. Let the convoy slightly pass. Colonel Burton is more likely to survive the assault when he comes from behind these units.

An alternate method to try is to scramble some units, then station them away from your base destroying the Tomahawk after the tanks pass by.

If you feel overwhelmed, preemptively use the Anthrax Bomb or Scud Storm to destroy advancing troops.

Hopefully, between your Stinger Sites and units guarding the front line, your defenses will hold. There will be plenty of carnage involved.

If you rebuild and maintain the ring of Stinger Sites around your base as the land and air assaults continue, you should be able to win this war of attrition.

Offensive Operations
While the ground assault comes towards your base, continue targeting the Particle Cannons that are rebuilt. When they are all destroyed, pick from the vast array of targets available with your weapons of mass destruction.

When the American ground assaults start to slow down, you can go into an offensive mode with your ground forces.

You will have a wide variety of units to choose from – especially if you have captured the American base. The Americans will be battle weary by now and the large northern base can easily be overrun and destroyed.

Faced with this devastating defeat, the Americans will make a strategic redeployment of their forces back to America – leaving the European continent under GLA control.

Victory is yours!

Alternative possibility
Explore with a Helix helicopter to the northwest corner of the map. You may be pleasantly surprised in what you find.

Alternative strategy #1: the easy way through
First, you only need to acquire Jerman Kell & Black Lotus before your initial base is wiped out. Then build three more trucks, a GLA supply center, and nine workers. Of course, build up a base with all of the pre-requisite buildings necessary to get these.

Once you have your workers, walk them to the American South base. Use Kell to snipe all vehicles in the east area. Then use Black Lotus to capture the air field and reactors. Now that the Patriots are neutralized, build a few helis to kill all of the remaining American remaining and capture the rest of the base.

Since you lost all of the GLA and Chinese technology, you can only use US technology, without Generals Powers.

Now build one Chinook and load it with four soldiers. Send it to the Northwest corner and capture the four Derricks there. This should provide you with all of the resources that you need. If you want to speed this strategy up, capture all of the other Derricks and send some Helis to clear the southwest and eastern yards.

Don't waste your time and resources on Particle Cannons, because Using them will only cause the Americans to come after you with full force. Also, don't let the POW reach their camp because they cause little damage and also get the American's attention. As long as you keep quiet, no assault will come.

Instead, build two more air fields and then at least 50 helis. When you're ready, take the American base down starting from the north while focusing first on Patriots & Avengers. Remember to retreat once in a while to recharge and repair, otherwise the helis may be destroyed very quickly.