Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour/USA Air Force General vs. General Leang

General Leang is known as the Dragon General for good reason. She is pure evil -- even though she is kind of cute.

And yes – this mission is winnable on the hard setting.

The race is on to destroy General Leang before she launches her Scud Storm, Nuclear Missile and – deep sigh – Particle Cannon. The launches can be postponed by destroying one of the three weapons bunkers located in the middle of this elongated map. Each time a bunker is destroyed, the timer is reset to twelve minutes.

As if that isn’t challenging enough, it gets worse. The Dragon General seems to have an endless source of supplies. Any structures destroyed on her main base will be quickly rebuilt. Destroy her Nuclear Missile four times – it will be rebuilt four times. The same applies to her three Command Centers.

(The one important exception to this is the Airfields, which will be discussed further in just a bit.)

But wait! There’s more! A constant onslaught of heavy armor will be rolling toward your base, making base expansion practically impossible.

On top of this, even without her Superweapons, her General’s Powers are devastating to your base. Cluster Bombs and Artillery Barrages will wreak havoc on your structures way before the Superweapons are ready to launch.

Basically you have 30.5 minutes, according to the countdown timer, before Cluster Bombs and Artillery Barrages start ripping your base apart. The first twelve minutes, reset the timer for another twelve minutes, then six minutes into the next reset.

With all of the above said, there is a way to beat this mission. It may not be fancy or pretty, in fact, it is downright ugly and ungraceful, but it will work – barely.

This mission is even more difficult than with the Superweapon General. It is the same basic technique, modified slightly. The Particle Cannons cost twice as much, so Aurora Bombers are more heavily relied on.

Key Strategies

• As soon as your Particle Cannon is ready, use a single blast to destroy both Airfields. The blue cursor should be placed on the very edge of one Airfield to activate the ion blast -- then click again on the edge of the second Airfield to destroy it also. After doing this a few times, the Airfields will not be rebuilt.
• Build a compact base with six Particle Cannons and an Airfield. Destroy the three Command Centers with the Particle Cannons and follow up as necessary to destroy any bulldozers as they venture forth to rebuild them. This is the only way to keep the base from constantly rebuilding.
• Important: Build your Fire Base slightly back from the bridge that leads to your base and slightly to the south of it. This way, the Rocket Buggies will be forced to bottleneck on the bridge and will be easier to destroy. Doing this also seems to keep the oil derrick from being immediately targeted by the Rocket Buggies.
• Create a few Pathfinders and Colonel Burton and station them on your base to deal with Black Lotus and an enemy Colonel Burton.
• Use a single Tomahawk (they are expensive) to help defend your Patriots from Rocket Buggies and your oil derrick from Gattling Tanks that will position themselves up on the ridge.
• You will run out of room to build Particle Cannons. It is too difficult to expand your base with the constant attacks from General Leang, so sell your Supply Depot, Weapons Factory, Supply Drop Zones and/or Barracks to make room for all of the PC’s. If necessary, sell and reposition your Reactors so all of them will fit.
• Time is absolutely critical. A matter of 60 seconds can make the difference of being able to launch your attack before the Carpet Bombing begins.
• Start collecting supplies from the eastern Supply Stash with your helicopters after the Bunkers along the way have been destroyed. Build four Supply Drop Zones to quickly build cash!!
• After resetting the timer by destroying the southeastern bunker, drop off Paratroopers to capture the derrick in the area. It will eventually be destroyed, but you will received much-needed funds until then.

Walkthrough

The onslaught begins immediately. A very tight sequence of defensive posturing will help you survive the first few minutes.

Build a Reactor, Barracks and Supply Center. Upgrade the Reactor and build an extra supply helicopter. Research the Capture command and recruit a Ranger at the Barracks.

Build a Fire Base to the east of the base. Position it a bit back from the bridge so that Rocket Buggies cannot target it from the other side of the river. Place it slightly to the south of the bridge to keep from being shot at from the bluffs.

Start building a Weapons Factory. Fight off the hopped-up Rangers that attack. Don’t lose your Ranger but you can use him to help out a bit. After the enemy Rangers are disposed of, capture the oil derrick.

Build a Humvee.

Place four Missile Defenders inside the Fire Base and you are good to go for your eastern defense. Destroy the two Paladin tanks rolling in your direction.

It is imperative you build a Humvee immediately to help deal with the Rocket Buggies that are coming and then the infantry from the sneak attack tunnel. Upgrade it with a Battle Drone.

Build two Patriots along the northern bluff in anticipation of the Sneak Attack.

Keep a close eye out for the Rocket Buggy. As soon as it targets your Fire Base, attack it with your Hummer. It helps out the process if you place some of the Missile Defenders in your Humvee.

Create three more Missile Defenders so your Humvee maintains some firepower while the Fire Base remains effective.

Start building your Strategy Center and a Reactor while waiting for the sneak attack. Don’t forget to choose your free upgrade.

At the Sneak Attack, target the Tank Hunters with your Humvee before they destroy your Patriots. Rebuild any Patriots that are lost.

Build a Supply Drop Zone and then your first Particle Cannon.

Build Reactors as required.

Build an Air Field. Hopefully you left room.

Use one dozer to keep the Patriots repaired as they are attacked from the air. Don’t lose your dozer.

Wait until you have sufficient funds and build a second Supply Drop Zone.

The timer is getting less than a minute now, so attack the southeastern bunker with A10 Missile Strike (Level 2). The Particle Cannon should be charged up, so destroy both Air Fields with it.

Choose your Spectre Gunship General’s Power and destroy the bunker to the east, combined with the Carpet Bomb.

As soon as the toxins settle from the destroyed bunker, land your Paratroopers in the area to capture the oil derrick. It will eventually be destroyed, but hopefully not too soon.

As soon as you can destroy the bunkers to the east, do so, then send your Helicopters over to start collecting supplies.

Keep three or four Patriots up and running on the northern edge of the base. Not too many – you need to conserve resources.

Go ahead and build a third and fourth Supply Drop Zone. You don’t have much time.

Keep your oil derrick repaired, along with your Patriots.

This mission can be successful with or without a Tomahawk missile. Try to go as bare bones as possible. This mission can come down to the seconds.

The jets may target your Fire Base, so as an insurance policy you may want to build a second one near your oil derrick. If you have a recent save, you can empty your Missile Defenders out of the Fire Base and the enemy jets may target another area.

Important: You can actually successfully destroy an Air Field with your Carpet Bombing, so do that whenever possible. Every time your Particle Cannon is ready, destroy them both simultaneously with the moving beam. If only one Air Field is built, destroy the War Factory and Air Field in a single strike.

When opportunity arises, destroy the two bunkers north of your base. This will help assure that all of your Auroras survive to destroy the bulldozers when the time arises.

You can actually sell your Weapons Factory and Barracks around now, which is not a bad idea, since you need to start building plenty of Reactors and Particle Cannons – about 18 minutes into the mission. Start early and build an extra dozer or two to keep the process running.

Keep building until you have a total of six Particle Cannons.

If necessary, sell one or two Supply Drop Zones for fast cash and more room to build Reactors. When you feel you have enough funds, sell your Supply Center for even more room. It’s going to be tight.

The attacks from the bluffs pick up about now. Utilize Auroras on Guard mode to suppress them. If there is an Avenger in the area, immediately target it with two Auroras to knock it out of commission.

Feel free to utilize to your General’s Powers to help clear the ridge. It can get hectic about now.

Hopefully before the timer ticks down to 5:30 or so (with one enemy bunker left undestroyed) you can destroy all of the Command Centers with your Particle Cannons. There may be less than four bulldozers by now, but you should have four Auroras on standby to individually destroy them.

To help assure you have four or less dozers, as you get closer to the end of the 30-minute time period, start locating and destroying dozers by your General’s Powers that are located closer to the front of the base. Sometimes they won’t be replaced, making the job much easier later on.

Destroying the Command Centers is going to agitate General Leang – be prepared for a tough counterstrike.

Destroy any remaining Air Fields and War Factories before destroying the Super Weapons. You have plenty of time to take care of them. Destroying the third bunker gives you an additional twelve minutes for this task.

Keep the Auroras on Guard mode protecting the northern ridge and soon a well-deserved victory will be yours.

Mission accomplished!