Been playing C&C Gen. ZH for four years against humans now, so I am no noob. That's why it is so uber-frustrating that I cannot beat a hard computer on Tournament Island with GLA Stealth General (me) vs GLA Toxin General (hard comp). Starting cash $50,000, which favors the comp of course (multi-tasks like nuts right off the bat).

My biggest challenge comes 10 minutes into the game. I got a good economy going, got a herd of buggies and quads, got Jarmen Kell, bunch of hijackers sitting in the choke points and here comes this massive onslaught of scorpions and to a lesser degree terrorists, quads and scud launchers. This coincides with the comp getting the anthrax bomb and sneak attack, so even when I hold of the first wave of heavy metal at the choke pts., I get to turn around and fight in my own base. Once the scud storm hits, I am done. Lather, rinse, repeat. I just can't survive that mid-game all-out attack.

Some other strats I tried is to get in early worker in comps base and start pumping quads/buggies through a tunnel. I get to destroy stuff, which feels good, but the comp is churning out scorpions non-stop from 5 arms dealers and eventually I loose. It even has enough to spare to send to my base and start attacking there! Also tried to leap-frog stinger sites into its base, no go, but interesting. Also tried to completely hole up behind 20 stinger sites, which of course was one of the fastest losses due to scud launcher and terrorists.

As I said, I can't hack this one, the balance is just off with Stealth Gen. not getting tanks and the toxins just everywhere so hijackers die so fast you can't build enough. Meanwhile, I beat any China and USA General (hard comp) in the same setup in less than 10 minutes, even 2 and 3 other Generals on the same map (tournament island in case you forgot).

Anyone got any ideas?

Don't use stinger sites & only use tunnel networks for infantry that get past your main defence, and as an early game defence. Your main defence should be 2-3 Palaces with 5 RPGs & camo netting. The Palace has great firepower, major defence & doesn't reveal itself when attacking. Very handy against the AI. Counter the scud storm with two of your own. Most importantly, get your tech up asap & spam black markets.

Be careful getting fortified buildings. There's a bug with the Palace that stops it from being able to attack in all directions when it's purchased.

There's no way you should lose this. There is no smart strategy required to beat any AI army on any map.
- The AI builds inefficiently and slow
- The AI builds units randomly and not for the strategic decision to counter something with a unit
- The AI doesn't micro its units(retreating low health units, firing on the unit closest to them instead of a strategical choice)
- The AI doesn't make groups but just spams a line of units to your units or defenses. They are easily killed this way.

I played stealth vs tox on TI with 50k start money but it seems replays vs the AI don't play properly. So I guess I will just explain what I did.
In the replay you see what my build order was. I then spammed quads out of 4 WF and used them from the tunnel in the enemies base. With this quad spam it was just a matter of clicking on building and units you want to be destroyed. No unit mixing or intensive unit micro required. In a few minutes the AI was dead.

Edited by user Monday, September 28, 2009 6:17:50 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The replay was broken from the point when i finished my tunnel in the Toxin's base. In reality i never lost it and kept spamming all the quads i had from that tunnel. Within a few minutes the AI was dead after that. In my game the AI never had a scud storm.

Annihilationzh, it's beautiful, down to the color choice! You are a master of your craft! I will use the palaces this way and should get the same result. I had no idea that they can be that powerful. I have a local network party in 2 weeks - how in your experience does this strategy hold up against humans? By that I mean placing camouflaged palaces in choke pts? We often play 6 to 8 people, 2 opposing teams, on Iron Dragon, that's the map with the big castles.

Also, one other question about Jarmen Kell: When he is in the palace, does he snipe incoming vehicles automatically and by his own choice?

Thanks for the replay, it did play normally, although I got a warning when I loaded it.

I will attempt this myself tomorrow and come back here to report.

No more uber-frustration!

It is when you get pink...

(personally I prefer red, it's easier to see on the mini-map)

I will give this a shot now and see how I make out. Hopefully I will be able to post a victorious replay in a hour or so.

I will eagerly join you in that discussion.