GDI mission 8

[jensunielsen]

Does anyone else find GDI mission 8A impossible? I can take out a base with engineers, but the AI apparently just rebuilds any buildings. And I cannot hold the buildings because I eventually run out of funds.
I played the original C&C many years ago and I do not remember it being this difficult.

[Satekoi]

Don't use engineers they are too costly 500 $ per unit. Miniguners cost 100 $ per unit. And grenadiers cost 160 $ per unit. And last unit rocket soldiers cost 300 $ per unit.
In this mission 8 A you have repair facility. That building is your key to success in this mission.
I cannot win that other mission 8 B from GDI. Always lose because those civilian walk on tiberium.

[BigVern]

Think I might be on that one now.

If you're going to use engineers to capture anything, make the construction yard(s) the priority. Unless you capture those, the Ai will just keep rebuilding any other structures you capture or destroy. I suppose you could quickly do the sandbag trick to occupy the space where the captured building stood to block it from rebuilding.

[HE1NZ]

Just capture a construction yard first.

[Ffabbia]

To capture, rather than destroy the base use the following strategy:

- get all units back to base, repair everthing, put one tank next to the northern escarpment to deal with an artillery that will come and attack your refinery.

- Set up defence at the entrance using the turrets, tanks, rocket launchers, bazooka infantry and minigunners (easy, as the rocket launchers, turrets and tanks will annihilate everything that comes close).

- Send an APC into the village to the west to grab the money crate.

- Create a small strike team consisting of minigunners and grenadiers, five bazooka, an APC and one tank, send across the north-east bridge, use the APC to deal with enemy flamethrower infantry and get to the escarpment directly above the Nod base. Use the tank to destroy the artillery inside the base by letting it fire over the cliff, then use the tank and your bazooka guys to destroy the SAM site.

- Take out remaining SAM sites with a small strike team of minigunners and grenariers.

- Build up an army of around 20 minigunners, and 15-20 grenadiers.

- Build 5 engineers, and put them in an APC.

- March to base entrance, but stay out of range of the turrets. Keep the engineer APC safely behind the lines, and out of reach of any threats.

- Assault the base carefully, dealing with all threats, but prioritising infantry, vehicles, turrets in that order. (be building more reserve infantry at your base at the same time if you're not confident you're going to win). Stay away from the Hand of Nod.

- Send an airstrike against the group of infantry hanging around the Hand of Nod.

- Send your squad to the Hand of Nod, and send in the APC quickly. Hold off the infantry that spawn as best you can and then quickly get an engineer inside while your troops kill anything that comes out.

- Mop up any remaining threats, then capture the constructiion yard and weapon factory.

[jensunielsen]

Thanks, I had overlooked the construction yard because it was hidden away in the far corner

[BigVern]

Correction, I was actually on 9A having already beaten 8A. Pretty much as above, the CY is hidden away but can be captured fairly easily. You don't get your own CY on this one so can't sandbag/trench your way forward.

[Hat8]

Originally posted by Satekoi:

Don't use engineers they are too costly 500 $ per unit. Miniguners cost 100 $ per unit. And grenadiers cost 160 $ per unit. And last unit rocket soldiers cost 300 $ per unit.
In this mission 8 A you have repair facility. That building is your key to success in this mission.
I cannot win that other mission 8 B from GDI. Always lose because those civilian walk on tiberium.

That should be fixed now. However, the key to that mission was to build a wall around the town. You also need to build towers to stop their landing attacks.

[Mati_Lublin]

This mission is hard, but offers some opportunities to level Nod base. Here's map for this mission:
http://pnmedia.gamespy.com/planetcnc.gamespy.com/games/td/maps/scg08ea.png

[Empiro]

8a is significantly easier than 8b. The key as with most missions is to take things slow. Keep your vehicles alive as you can't build more. Micro your harvesters to only harvest mature crystals and you won't have to worry about running out of Tiberium.

Learn the enemy unit composition -- it is always the same few groups so if you know what they're coming at you with, you can take them out with minimal losses.

Engineer rush is almost always a strong strategy against the AI. You don't need 5 engineers -- just 2. I beat almost all the missions on normal with just really an APC, 2 engineers, 1 minigunner, 2 rockets. Save up some money ahead of time. Attack with a few cheap infantry and maybe a tank to draw fire. Just zoom the APC through their base and go straight for the airfield or construction yard or Hand of Nod, if there's not too many units around it. I usually go for their airfield, because the building is super tough. Start cranking out flame tanks or buggies if that isn't available. Those units can screen for your rocket soldiers while you take out the Hand of Nod. If you can capture the Hand of Nod, even better -- build flame soldiers (though not too many) and minigunners to take out the rest of the units.