Stuck on: Destroy the Airstrip GDI 7 A

[Hoppled]

I am getting stuck on like every mission in this game. I know I suck, my only experience with C&C is Tiberium Wars, which I still find much easier.

I find that each mission has some niche strategy that is like "how was I supposed to know to do that?" Like in one mission I don't destroy all the units/base, I'm supposed to know to rush an APC with an engineer to capture the base/supplies and mission complete. In a modern RTS this would be considered cheesing or at the very least a non-intuitive way to complete the mission.

Anyways, before you flame me and just say I suck, I think my criticisms are fair. I played warcraft 3 and sc broodwar back in the day, but theres are insanely easier than C&C 1, so that doesn't help.

Regardless of my frustrations with progressing in this game (on normal difficulty by the way), what are some tips to complete the mission in the title? I build up my base and then by the time I make a weapons factory I'm overwhelmed by enemy units.

[Cat]

GDI 7 (Destroy the Airstrip): To make it easier, play the previous mission and use the commando to blow up something important like the refinery and Nod will be broke in this mission. Try avoid as many casualty during the landing, these early units plus additional infantry trained from your barracks should be enough to defend until you can get a factory.

Even if you do not know about this being a follow-up from the previous one, this mission is still kinda plain and simple like Skirmish (not much cheesing or "you should know that" gimmick involved), the only special thing here is the initial amphibious landing and you can choose 1 Nod building to remove at the start of the mission, unless you start the mission from the mission select menu. Aside from those, it's just another "build a base, destroy the enemy's while protecting yours" type mission.

[Hoppled]

Originally posted by Cat:

GDI 7 (Destroy the Airstrip): To make it easier, play the previous mission and use the commando to blow up something important like the refinery and Nod will be broke in this mission. Try avoid as many casualty during the landing, these early units plus additional infantry trained from your barracks should be enough to defend until you can get a factory.

Even if you do not know about this being a follow-up from the previous one, this mission is still kinda plain and simple like Skirmish (not much cheesing or "you should know that" gimmick involved), the only special thing here is the initial amphibious landing and you can choose 1 Nod building to remove at the start of the mission, unless you start the mission from the mission select menu. Aside from those, it's just another "build a base, destroy the enemy's while protecting yours" type mission.

That's interesting. Well I have been playing the game the traditional way - you know, only going off manual saves and not using the mission select screen. Honestly, I like the mission select screen too, but from what people have said on here, you get a more fluid experience just saving old-school. So, I never had 'an option' to destroy one of their buildings, unless you mean the command center or whatever I destroyed the mission before to complete said mission before.

[AbeAwesome]

If you destroy the airstrip with the commando in Mission 6, you get to skip Mission 7.

This is my advice, because Mission 7 is a pain in the ass, and was the hardest thing for me in the GDI campaign (NOD campaign is much harder tho, so prepare your butt for that).

[Hoppled]

Originally posted by AbeAwesome:

If you destroy the airstrip with the commando in Mission 6, you get to skip Mission 7.

This is my advice, because Mission 7 is a pain in the ass, and was the hardest thing for me in the GDI campaign (NOD campaign is much harder tho, so prepare your butt for that).

So should I just play the game off of mission select then?

[Nyerguds]

The attacks at the start of mission 7 are specifically meant to systematically eliminate your forces, but with some micromanagement, you can actually save most of them. Just make a wall of infantry against the flamethrowers, then use the infantry against the buggies, then use the infantry to either destroy the tanks, or at least distract them from shooting at your vehicles, and pretty much all your stuff survives. I've done this, in Hard mode even. Just find out which infantry unit the flamethrowers are going for, and move that guy back.

Originally posted by Hopland:

So, I never had 'an option' to destroy one of their buildings, unless you mean the command center or whatever I destroyed the mission before to complete said mission before.

Actually, you were literally given "an option" to destroy an important building in mission 6. You just apparently didn't use it to destroy anything that actually mattered. I'm not sure what you mean with "command center", since the game has no such building, but surely you could pick something that would actually cripple the enemy base in some way, as the mission asks?

I mean, even if you didn't use the mission select, you can just go back to those savegames and pick something better.

[Hoppled]

Originally posted by Nyerguds:

The attacks at the start of mission 7 are specifically meant to systematically eliminate your forces, but with some micromanagement, you can actually save most of them. Just make a wall of infantry against the flamethrowers, then use the infantry against the buggies, then use the infantry to either destroy the tanks, or at least distract them from shooting at your vehicles, and pretty much all your stuff survives. I've done this, in Hard mode even. Just find out which infantry unit the flamethrowers are going for, and move that guy back.

Originally posted by Hopland:

So, I never had 'an option' to destroy one of their buildings, unless you mean the command center or whatever I destroyed the mission before to complete said mission before.

Actually, you were literally given "an option" to destroy an important building in mission 6. You just apparently didn't use it to destroy anything that actually mattered. I'm not sure what you mean with "command center", since the game has no such building, but surely you could pick something that would actually cripple the enemy base in some way, as the mission asks?

I mean, even if you didn't use the mission select, you can just go back to those savegames and pick something better.

Ah okay, well thats the issue. I manually save but overwrite the same save file like an idiot. So not sure how I can go back without mission select. Maybe I'll just try to beat it the hard way like you mentioned.

[Nyerguds]

Originally posted by Hopland:

Ah okay, well thats the issue. I manually save but overwrite the same save file like an idiot. So not sure how I can go back without mission select.

Oh, well, you said "manual saves", so I did assume that meant multiple savegames.

The Mission Select menu is a tool that's there so you don't have to rely on savegames. It's there to help you so you don't have to replay all the missions before just to get to that same point. Many games after C&C1 got it, or at least made auto-saves on each mission start, so there's really no need to be reluctant to use it.

Originally posted by Hopland:

Maybe I'll just try to beat it the hard way like you mentioned.

Oh, nah, I saved my units at the start in mission 7, but I totally cheesed that mission, lol. I removed their refinery in mission 6, meaning they never got any income

As I said, though, I was playing on Hard difficulty. Perhaps on Normal I wouldn't have done the refinery thing, and might've taken out something less drastic, like the Hand of Nod or Construction Yard. (Taking out the CY has very little impact until the point you're ready to assault the base anyway)

Note, unlike in the original game, the Remaster makes sure the building you took out in mission 6 is not only missing at the start of mission 7, but will also never be rebuilt, which is actually really nice, since otherwise you barely notice a difference on some buildings, since they just rebuild it.

[Cat]

You can beat it the hard way. I know the mission starts without the building you bombed in mission 6, I actually purposely bomb an unimportant building because I thought it wouldn't be fun if the AI had no money if I destroyed the refinery or something.

[Gummiel]

Also Starcraft1 and Warcraft 3 is many years newer than TD, you would have to look at something like WC2 to get a roughly same time release, and well WC2 only allowed like 6-7 or something like that units to even be selected at the same time, a lot more tedious and annoying game than WC3 was

[Cat]

Originally posted by Nyerguds:

I'm not sure what you mean with "command center", since the game has no such building,

He probably means the Communications Center. The remaster simply calls it "Comm Center" (tooltop and build icon) and pretty sure the Advanced one is also wasn't spelled in full. This probably means some players who didn't play the original might assume it stands for Command center, although the mission briefings still spell it in full.

[Nyerguds]

They should really have made a manual for the Remaster

The artbook from the physical editions mentions the full names, though
https://i.imgur.com/IorwokI.png

[Attorney-at-Meme]

@Hopland:

I'd say you go in blind on most missions as to where things are. Games like Starcraft or WC3 tend to point out where things are at on the map. Red Alert is better about this.

C&C1 is pretty rough and unforgiving, especially on hard.

[Hoppled]

Originally posted by Attorney at Meme:

@Hopland:

I'd say you go in blind on most missions as to where things are. Games like Starcraft or WC3 tend to point out where things are at on the map. Red Alert is better about this.

C&C1 is pretty rough and unforgiving, especially on hard.

Yeah C&C 1 for me is entirely trial and error. Its never clear what to do, how to manage or position my units or where to go. So I feel playing through mission select will be better, as I can restart whenever I want or try a different variant of a mission or whatever.

[Attorney-at-Meme]

I'm still learning to play this game even after all these years, lol

This may not help, but my style for playing RTS is to play every mission from beginning to end without saving. This is more "realistic" and engaging for me. But I think it also forces you to be a better player on the fly.

[Hoppled]

Originally posted by Attorney at Meme:

I'm still learning to play this game even after all these years, lol

This may not help, but my style for playing RTS is to play every mission from beginning to end without saving. This is more "realistic" and engaging for me. But I think it also forces you to be a better player on the fly.

Yeah, that's actually what I do, except I will save at the beginning of the next mission. So if I spend 30 minutes on a mission and fail, I start from the beginning. That's been my approach at least. However, the issue is that the game has unclear niche objectives and systems in place that are never obvious to a new player, even if they come from SC2 with 200+ APM.

More often then not, I'm finding myself look up a guide to just 'know what to do'. It's not really because my mechanical skill sucks or anything like that. There's always this cheese tactic or something I was 'supposed to do before' logic, which I actually don't like. I want to be at the same advantage as anyone else starting X mission on Normal Difficulty. But, this game is C&C 1 from the 90s, but I'm not going to mistake getting good at this game with just being a good RTS player, if I want to build a base relatively quickly and command units to win, I'll just play warcraft 3 or dawn of war.