Zero Hour – Stealth General vs. Laser General
The Laser General will target your Scud Storms repeatedly until they are destroyed. A simple solution to this is building all three Scud Storms at exactly the same time. Two should survive long enough to discharge their missiles and destroy the three Particle Cannons.
Put a few soldiers in the civilian structures in the middle of the map, back them up with a few units, and your defense can be put on auto-pilot. (Be sure to have a worker in the area to repair the buildings.)
It will take three Scud Storms to destroy the Command Center and a single Scud Storm will not destroy a Weapons Factory. Plan accordingly.
It will take a long time to reach Level 5 to reach your Sneak Attack General’s Power, so sit back, relax, and keep rebuilding lower-price structures until you can afford to obtain multiple Scuds.
Key Strategies:
- Load up only the two civilian buildings closest to your base and ignore the other three. The structures closest to the Laser General’s base will act as buffers to enemy attacks. Put four RPG troopers and three Rebels in each of the two structures. Have a worker in the area to repair the buildings. Place Jarmen Kell on top of the overpass to snipe Laser Cannons that will park on top of this ramp that are out of reach of your garrisoned troops. Park a Quad Cannon on each side of the garrisoned buildings and this area is extremely secure.
- The Quad Cannon parked to the east of the garrisoned structures should also be close enough to attack Colonel Burton coming down the ramp to the east. Place A Tunnel Network at the bottom of this ramp and a Stinger Site further to the south. The Stinger Site will act as a backup to stop the Comanches. The Tunnel Network will act as a detector to Colonel Burton and you will get two RPG troopers to load into the civilian structures every time you rebuild it.
- Rebuild your barracks if it is destroyed. It is a cheap target for the Particle Cannons.
- It is not necessary to destroy garrisoned civilian buildings, Laser Turrets, Fire Bases and enemy units to win the mission.
- Extra note: There are four oil derricks located in the northeast corner of the map.
Walkthrough:
Queue up eight workers for fast construction of your base. Build a Supply Stash and a Barracks to the west. Load up the two civilian buildings closest to your base with a total of eight RPG Troopers and six Rebels.
Station a worker in the area of the garrisoned buildings to keep them repaired.
Build an Arm’s Dealer and a Palace. Place all buildings reasonably spaced out to avoid losing two buildings at once from the PC’s.
When the Palace is complete, recruit Jarmen Kell and place him on Guard mode on the top of the ramp above the garrisoned buildings. He will stay out of harm’s way if you keep him slightly to the east. Have him snipe vehicles and/or infantry as you desire.
Place a single Quad Cannon on each side of the garrisoned buildings, set back slightly, and this “bottleneck” is now secure.
The only additional base defenses that must be prepared are setting up a Tunnel Network at the bottom of the ramp to the east of the garrisoned buildings and a single Stinger Site to the south of it to fight off Comanches. Load the extra RPG Troopers into the garrisoned buildings each time you rebuild this structure.
Place a single Quad Cannon and Radar Van in the back of your base “just in case” Colonel Burton gets through your defenses.
On this particular mission, the Laser General is absolutely merciless at targeting the same Scud Storm over and over until it is destroyed, even with a worker repairing it nonstop. Wait until you can afford three Scud Storms and build them all at the same time to overcome this problem.
Keep workers close on hand to immediately repair the Scud Storms after they are hit by the PC’s. You should be able to keep two of them in operation.
After you destroy the Particle Cannons with the two Scud Storms, build another Scud Storm or two to destroy the Command Center. You will need three Scud Storms to destroy the Command Center, without the help of your Rebel Ambush or Sneak Attack tunnel. It is also necessary to destroy any dozers that return to the area.
Once the dozers are destroyed, the Laser General’s structures cannot be rebuilt. All structures that must be destroyed to win the mission are enclosed with the ring of garrisoned round towers surrounding the base. Carefully avoid these towers while destroying the base.
Rather than targeting first the Command Center, it might be best to target the War Factories with your Scuds before launching your Sneak Attack tunnel. Just be sure all dozers are destroyed as they try to rebuild the area.
Mission accomplished!