Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour/USA Superweapon 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.

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

Walkthrough

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

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 nine Particle Cannons. Use them all in sync to destroy the three Command Centers and the four bulldozers on the base. This is the only way to keep the base from constantly rebuilding.
• Do not target miscellaneous structures on the main base with your Particle Cannons so that hopefully the bulldozers will stay positioned by the Command Centers. When this happens, you can destroy both a bulldozer and a Command Center with a double blast. When a spare bulldozer pulls up to rebuild a Command Center, destroy it immediately.
• Important: Build your Patriots slightly back from the bridge that leads to your base. 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 Colonol 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 and your Barracks to make room for the eighth and ninth PC’s. If necessary, sell and reposition your Reactors so all of them will fit.

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.

It may actually help to build a Ranger first and send him toward the bridge to help defend it from the enemy Rangers that are coming.

Build one Patriot to the north in preparation of the Sneak Attack and two by the bridge to the east of the base. Position them a bit back from the bridge so that Rocket Buggies cannot target you from the other side of the river.

After battling off the enemy Rangers, immediately capture the oil derrick and build a War Factory. 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 your fourth Patriot to the north to help deal with the Sneak attack that is coming.

After the Rocket Buggies target your Patriot, attack it with your Humvee. Be ready to move it over to the north when the Sneak Attack comes.

Start building your Strategy Center. Build the fifth Patriot to the east to beef up your defenses there.

By now the Sneak Attack should occur. Individually target the Tank Hunters with your Humvee before they destroy your Patriots. Rebuild any Patriots that are lost and then build your sixth Patriot to the north to protect your base from air attacks.

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

Build Reactors as required.

Build a second Supply Drop Zone and second Particle Cannon, then a third Particle Cannon.

Build a Tomahawk to back up your eastern Patriots and your oil derrick. Be careful! These things are expensive and you need to keep the PC’s building.

When the timers are getting low, use your A10 Missile Strike (third level) to destroy the Weapons Bunkers on the southeastern part of the map. You will reset the timers to twelve minutes.

As soon as your first Particle Cannon is ready, destroy both Airfields with a single blast. Keep an eye on them. Whenever a Particle Cannon is ready, destroy the Airfields again if they are rebuilt.

Sell the Supply Center to make more room for your Particle Cannons. Keep building them as fast as possible.

Go ahead and beef up the eastern defense with a fourth Patriot.

Air drop your Paratroopers by the oil derrick located by the Weapons Bunker previously destroyed. Have them capture the derrick for whatever funds can be obtained before it is eventually destroyed. Repeat the procedure at the oil derrick directly north of your base on the ridge.

When you reach up to six Particle Cannons, destroy the three Command Centers. They will be rebuilt, but by the time they recharge the bulldozers will be positioned by them so that you can destroy both the bulldozers and the Command Centers in a “single” double blast.

Build eight Particle Cannons. Build Colonel Burton and three Pathfinders and then sell the Barracks. Build your ninth Particle Cannon in that spot.

As you wait for the Particle Cannons to charge up, build additional Reactors in any free space you have left in case General Leang uses one of her General’s Powers to attack the base before you can destroy her Command Centers.

When all nine PC’s are ready to fire, again destroy the bulldozers and Command Centers, hopefully targeting both a dozer and Command Center at the same time.

Once this is accomplished, destroy the Superweapons then the rest of the base with your PC’s. General Leang will surrender before the entire base is destroyed.

Mission accomplished!

Alternate Method

Please refer to the walkthroughs written for the Air Force General and Laser General for a very similar method that involves the use of an Air Field and four Aurora Bombers to establish the same basic methodology.

These walkthroughs were written after this one -- additional guidance and pointers are given to help achieve the objectives with much less stress.