This is a very tough mission on Hard - you have a total of FIVE Nuke Silos you must destroy, plus Overlord tanks with uranium shells and Nuke Cannons to contend with. After having to restart several times, I found the best strategy was to aggressively expand through the southwest area of the map, and get five Scud Storms built as soon as possible to take out the Nuke Silos. Fortunately, you have three Supply Docks you can secure to give you the funds to expand quickly. Building an extensive tunnel network is critical to countering the escalting attacks you will face.
WALKTHROUGH
As you build your base, don't build your structures too close together, as you may get nuked before you can take all the Nuke Silos out. You also need to leave room to build your Scud Storms. Tao initially attacks you piecemeal with infantry and Battlemaster tanks which are fairly easy to defend against.
Queue 9 workers from your Command Center - build your Barracks first, then your first Supply Center. While these are building, send 3 workers directly north to the second Supply Docks.
Research Capture Building, then queue 3 Rebels. Send them to capture the 3 Oil Derricks on the southern edge of the map - one is right by your starting point, the 2nd is around the middle of the map and the 3rd is in the SE corner. Leave the rebels there in Guard mode - you won't hold the far two derricks long, but I don't recommend reinforcing them as you need to focus on building your base and securing the third Supply Dock to the north.
Build another Supply Center at the second Supply Dock, and a Stinger Site and Tunnel Entrance directly to the east of it. Queue 5 workers from it to gather supplies.
As soon as the Barracks is finished, build an Arms Dealer north of it. Build 3 Quad Cannons, 2 Technicals, a Radar Van, 4 Marauder Tanks, and two more Quad Cannons. The first 3 Quads and Marauders are for defending your base - the Technicals, 1 Marauder and last 2 Quads are for securing the third Supply Dock on the hill north of the 2nd Supply Dock.
Send workers to build pairs of Stinger Sites and Tunnels spaced out in a rough SE line from the northern Supply Dock to the southern edge of the map. You need to build these far enough east so you have room to build your Scud Storms later. Put 3 pairs of Marauders/Quads on Guard mode along this line.
IMPORTANT - build a Palace to the west of your Command Center as soon as the Arms Dealer is finished. Once the Palace is complete, build your 1st Scud Storm directly north of it.
At some point, Tao will start gleefully announcing how many Nuke Silos he has, and they will become viewable on the map. They have a 10 minute countdown. An afterthought I had is once Tao announces a Nuke is online, go see which one became visible so you know which Nukes will launch first. Otherwise, there's no way to tell. There's two in the NW corner, two in the NE corner, and one in the middle north.
Put 3 workers, 1 Rebel and 6 RPG troopers in your 2 Technicals. Put these and the 2 Quads and 1 Marauder in formation (ctrl-F) and send them to the north hill to secure the 3rd supply dock - if you forget to use formation, the Techs will run ahead and could get taken out by a Helix or Battlemaster on the way there. Unload the techs, build a Supply Center, Stinger Site and Tunnel and build 3 more workers to gather supplies. Have the rebel capture the Oil Derrick. Put the RPG troopers and rebel in the building west of the dock. When you get them, send some Scuds and Rocket Buggys thru the tunnel to help repel attacks from the north. I eventually got overrun but was able to get most of the supplies from the dock - Nuke Cannons can hit you without having to ascend the hill.
Build Jarmen Kell and position him a bit east of your defensive line. He can snipe infantry units while on Guard mode, but keep an eye out for Overlords. Have him snipe the Overlord and capture it with a rebel (rebel ambush works well if you have no troops nearby.)
Helixes will start coming in pairs to attack your base. Keep building Quad Cannons and leave some in the Tunnel Network so you can quickly reinforce an area under attack. Keep workers handy to repair your Stinger Sites and Tunnels.
Your priority is to build your Scud Storms while keeping your base adequately defended. It's a balancing act. Fortunately, if you're collecting from all three Supply Docks you should have enough funds to build everything you need.
Build a 2nd Arms Dealer and Barracks near your 2nd Supply Dock. In addition to the Quads and Marauders, start building Scuds, Rocket Buggys and Bomb-cycles. You'll need these to survive the Overlords and Nuke Cannons coming your way. The 2nd Barracks is just a backup if you lose your first - you may start losing Stinger Sites and Tunnels later, and you can't rebuild them if your barracks is gone.
Get the "Self-Detonate" and Fortify upgrades from your Palace. Build a Black Market and get all the upgrades - I recommend this order: AP bullets, Radar Scan, Junk Repair, Worker Shoes, AP rockets and Buggy Ammo.
When your Scud Storms are ready, launch them directly at a Nuke Silo. With their enchanced explosive payload, you can normally take out one Nuke with one Scud Storm. You can also use Rebel Ambush to finish off the Nuke if it survives (be sure you've bought Self-Detonate!) Sneak Attack doesn't work well initially for this as the defensive structures and units will usually destroy it before you can deploy.
For the final assault wave, place Scuds and Buggys in Guard mode along your line and keep Bombcyles in your tunnels. Nuke Cannons have such long range that you often can't see them while they're bombing you. Once you've spotted an Overlord or Nuke Cannon, send a Bombcycle at it and hit it with your Buggys. If necessary, you can send any unit right next to it and self-detonate.
If you get nuked, don't panic - just leave the nuked area alone and your structures will eventually rebuild themselves from the GLA hole left behind. Any workers you send to do repairs will just die from the radiation. With the Fortification upgrade, some structures will actually survive a Nuke!
Once you've destroyed all his Nuke Silos, take out his Command Center, War Factories and Airfields with your Scud Storms. Use Radar Scan to find an area that is relatively safe, then use Sneak Attack to send your troops in to finish him off. The good thing about not having Toxins in your Scuds is you can safely occupy the area immediately.
General Tao is a sore loser, claiming he would've crushed you to dust if he had a few more mintues. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was with North Korea.
Victory is Yours!
The Rush
Welcome General,
Your enemy has a fatal flaw. He cannot build dozers and start with none. We will exploit this to our advantage, mercilessly.
As such, General, our mission is to destroy 2 enemy war factories and 5 enemy nukes. Fortunately General, we are well suited to blowing up buildings.
Be ready General, this will be a race, but it will be an easy race.
- Start with 2 supply stash, one where you start and the one slightly north. At least 6 workers each.
- Train 3 rebels with capture building, capture the 3 oil derricks along the bottom east.
- Your defenses should be north and northeast. Stinger sites + Quad cannon and perhaps tunnels. True-East can be left for later, guarded with quad cannons. Build a few terror bikes to counter Nuke Cannons
- Rush your tech tree and get 2 Demo trucks, upgrade to high explosive and disguise them. Send them to the enemies eastern war factory. If all goes well, we will no longer have to worry about nuke cannons or any armor from the eastern flank.
- Between everything else, do NOT neglect to build your SCUD Storms. Build 3~4 or more.
- Build 3 more demo trucks. Send them up the middle silo. Do not attempt to enter the base via its entrances or you will risk losing the disguises. Instead you can drive directly up to it from its south. Position is key. Detonate when all are right next to the silo, or send them in one by one
- Build ~8 terror bikes. Send them up north to the next nuclear on timer, far west. No dozers mean no repairs, if your bikers are inadequate the 1st time, send more.
- Your 1st SCUD storm should be ready by now or sooner. Rain shockwaves upon their northern war factory and air field. General Tao is now toothless except for the nukes.
- Note the Superweapons timer General. If you are running late on SCUD storm, you may attempt exploding rebel ambush on the war factory, with the help of radar vans instead and save the SCUD storm for the 3rd nuke. Helixs are paper to our quad cannon.
- Rebel ambushes and sneak attacks coupled with a SCUD storm each will take out the rest of the nukes.
The mission is yours General.