0
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 -- Soviet Multiplayer Specs and
Strategies
FAQ by JoeMenthol (JoeMenthol@hotmail.com)
Version 1.0
Last Update: Jan 20, 2001
======================
REVISION HISTORY
Jan 20, 2000 (v1.0) -- First Release
======================
This document Copyright 2001 by JoeMenthol, not to be duplicated or
reproduced (in part or in full) for profit without the explicit
permission of the author. So there.
This FAQ includes some important specs on Soviet structures and
units, as well as some useful strategies for multiplayer battle. It
also includes rough time estimates (rough because I took these times
with a crappy stopwatch while drunk). I would recommend looking at
PyroFalkon's TIME STUDY FAQ, as he did a much more detailed job with
the times than I did.
As far as I know all the information is more or less accurate;
however, I am not 100% sure about the numbers I have listed for Soviet
structural Strength and Armor. If you are reading this and know for a
fact that I am off in regard to this information or have any other
comments or suggestions, go ahead and let me know via e-mail
(JoeMenthol@hotmail.com) and I'll see what I can do. Don't expect
revisions any time soon though; just don't have the time.
--=Contents=--
I. Structures
II. Units
III. Strategies
IV. Fun Stuff
V. End Notes
--==========--
I. STRUCTURES
Listed here are specs on Soviet Structures, including how much Power
they use (or produce), their Strength and Armor levels, their Cost, and
approximately how long they take to build (assuming you have sufficient
credits, your base is not short on power, your construction yard is at
full health, and your game speed is set to 5, and you have a speedy
computer. Times are accurate to .5 of a second).
STRUCTURES
(Armor scale from 1-5, 1 being weakest. Time is in seconds of course.)
Soviet Wall
Power: 0
Cost: 100
Strength: 300
Armor: 5
Time: 5.5
Soviet Sentry Gun
Power: 0
Cost: 500
Strength: 400
Armor: 4
Time: 9.5
Soviet Flak Cannon
Power: -50
Cost: 1000
Strength: 900
Armor: 4
Time: 20.5
Soviet Tesla Coil
Power: -75
Cost: 1500
Strength: 600
Armor: 4
Time: 28.0
Soviet Construction Yard
Power: 0
Cost: 0 (3000 if you build an MCV, requires Service Depot)
Strength: 1000
Armor: 5
Time: N/A
Soviet Tesla Reactor
Power: +150
Cost: 600
Strength: 750
Armor: 2
Time: 8.5
Soviet Barracks
Power: -10
Cost: 500
Strength: 500
Armor: 4
Time: 5.5
Soviet Ore Refinery
Power: 2000
Cost: -50
Strength: 1000
Armor: 2
Time: 24.0
Soviet War Factory
Power: -25
Cost: 2000
Strength: 1000
Armor: 2
Time: 26.5
Soviet Radar Facility
Power: -50
Cost: 1000
Strength: 1000
Armor: 2
Time: 13.0
Soviet Naval Yard
Power: -20
Cost: 1000
Strength: 1500
Armor: 5
Time: 17.5
Soviet Service Depot
Power: -20
Cost: 800
Strength: 1200
Armor: 2
Time: 11.5
Soviet Battle Lab
Power: -100
Cost: 2000
Strength: 500
Armor: 2
Time: 38.0
Soviet Nuclear Reactor
Power: 2000
Cost: 1000
Strength: 1000
Armor: 5
Time: 20.5
Soviet Psychic Sensor
Power: -50
Cost: 1000
Strength: 750
Armor: 2
Time: 21.0
Soviet Psychic Beacon (Just thought I'd throw this and the next one in
here)
Power: -100
Cost: 1000
Strength: 750
Armor: 2
Time: Do you really care?
Soviet Psychic Amplifier
Power: -100
Cost: N/A
Strength: 1000
Armor: 5
Time: N/A
Soviet Cloning Vats
Power: -200
Cost: 2500
Strength: 1000
Armor: 2
Time: 49.0
Soviet Iron Curtain
Power: -200
Cost: 2500
Strength: 750
Armor: 5
Time: 51.5
Soviet Nuclear Missile Silo
Power: -200
Cost: 5000
Strength: 1000
Armor: 5
Time: 92.0
II. UNITS
Listed here are specs on Soviet Units, including their Cost and
approximately how much Time they take to build (assuming you have
sufficient credits, your base is not short on power, your WAR
Factory/Naval Yard/Barracks is at full health, and your game speed is
set to 5, and you have a speedy computer. Times are accurate to .5 of
a second).
I have not listed any special units except for the Demo Truck, as
most of them either suck outright or have very little real value on the
battlefield. Libya's Demo Truck is, in my opinion, the exception, and
I recommend playing as Libya so that you have this resource at hand.
UNITS
INFANTRY
(Time in seconds, of course)
Soviet Attack Dog:
Cost: 200
Time: 3.5
Soviet Conscript:
Cost: 100
Time: 3.5
Soviet Flak Trooper:
Cost: 300
Time: 5.5
Soviet Tesla Trooper:
Cost: 500
Time: 12.0
Soviet Engineer:
Cost: 500
Time: 10.0
Soviet Crazy Ivan:
Cost: 600
Time: 12.0
Soviet Yuri:
Cost: 1200
Time: 33.5
VEHICLES (Land and Air)
Soviet War Miner:
Cost: 1400
Time: 27.0
Soviet Rhino Heavy Tank:
Cost: 900
Time: 21.0
Soviet Flak Track:
Cost: 500
Time: 9.5
Soviet Terror Drone:
Cost: 500
Time: 8.0
Soviet V3 Rocket Launcher:
Cost: 800
Time: 12.5
Soviet Apocalypse Tank:
Cost: 1750
Time: 40.0
Soviet MCV (requires Service Depot):
Cost: 3000
Time: 48.5
Soviet Kirov Airship:
Cost: 2000
Time: 36.5
Soviet Demo Truck (Libya):
Cost: 1500
Time: 24.0
Vehicles (Naval)
Soviet Typhoon Attack Sub:
Cost: 1000
Time: 16.0
Soviet Sea Scorpion:
Cost: 600
Time: 10.0
Soviet Amphibious Transport:
Cost: 900
Time: 23.0
Soviet Giant Squid:
Cost: 1000
Time: 19.5
Soviet Dreadnought:
Cost: 2000
Time: 41.0
III. STRATEGIES
Finally, the good stuff! Using the above information you can easily
design a base building strategy of your very own, but because I'm such
a nice guy I've come up with one for you already.
As anyone who has played RA2 multiplayer knows, speed is key.
Therefore I have come up with a basic base building line-up to make the
most of those first few precious minutes...
1. Delpoy your MCV immediately.
2. Begin building a Tesla Reactor.
3. While the Reactor is building, grab all your units and move them
off a little to free up space for structures. (Look at your
surroundings; if your base is in the bottom of a canyon or cliff be
aware that your enemy may take advantage of this by running units up to
the edge and firing on you from above in relative safety. Is your base
near water? The Allied Air Craft Carrier is super-deadly to you, so
you may want to build a Naval Yard or a crap load of air defense if you
think you will be in range. Hopefully the game will be over before
your opponent can get that far along, though. Also, know what country
your opponent is playing as. If America, beware Paratroopers early in
the game. If you really don't like your position you can always move
your MCV before deploying it, but this takes precious time... your
call)
4. Place your Tesla Reactor and immediately build a Barracks.
5. Place your Barracks and immediately build an Ore Refinery.
6. While your Refinery builds, produce three or four dogs and set them
aside. Use this time also to place your other units in strategic
defensive positions (such as bridges if there are any near your base,
garrisoning buildings with your Conscripts, etc.), and looking for
Crates.
7. Place your Refinery and immediately build a Radar Facility.
8. Place your Radar Facility and immediately build a Tesla Reactor
(you will be dangerously low on power). While this builds make one or
two Flak Troopers for air defense against scouting Rocketeers and such.
9. Place your Tesla Reactor and immediately build a War Factory.
While this builds, start sending dogs to each corner of the map as
scouts. Keep your eyes open for Crates and Tech Buildings you can take
over with an engineer, especially Oil Derricks. Your credits will be
running low at this point, and you will need all you can get. If a dog
gets to a corner unmolested, send it to another corner.
Hopefully you will be able not only to find your enemy's base, but
also take out a few of his pesky GIs in the process and (more
importantly) clear up a good section of the map.
10. Place your War Factory.
There, you have your basic base, and it only took about two minutes
and thirty seconds! At this point you have some options, depending on
how your enemy's base defense looks. If you feel lucky quickly build a
Demo Truck and run it up to him, looking to either take out a War
Factory or Radar/Power (both will make him blind and give you the
advantage briefly). You could go for a Refinery, but keep in mind that
the explosion WILL NOT destroy a Chrono Miner even if it happens to be
at ground zero. When he rebuilds his Refinery he will have not one but
two miners working for him, plus any others he happens to build with
his War Factory.
If you go the Demo Truck route, throw everything you have at him.
Set your War Factory rally point inside his base, queue up a couple
more Demo Trucks, and send most of your tanks up to protect the
Trucks/clean up the aftermath.
*NOTE* If you build Demo Trucks, always, I repeat, ALWAYS set
your rally point away from your base. All it takes is one Harrier Jet
to fly over and hit it with a missile to take it (and a good chunk of
your base) out.
If you don't feel quite so frisky I would suggest immediately
building two more War Miners. This will take a while and you won't be
able to do too much in this time other than look for more crates and
think up plans of attack. Twiddle your thumbs, press C on your
keyboard or F9 just to be cool, but when those Miners are done building
you'd best be producing units and building base defense/advanced
structures as fast as you can. Units are more important than
structures though, so if you only have enough credits to build tanks or
a Battle Lab, go with the tanks.
Speaking of tanks, if you get in a tank battle, keep your units
moving the whole time. This can be done by setting a circle of
waypoints around your enemy if you have time or moving them manually.
As long as your units are moving some of your enemy's shots will miss,
giving you a significant advantage.
Something else to keep in mind... When an Amphibious Transport or
Flak Track with units inside it is destroyed, the units inside are not
lost. They aren't, in fact, even damaged. USE THIS! If you can't get
a Demo Truck to your enemy because he keeps blowing them up with jets
put it in a Transport. This way you have a much better chance of
actually getting it there. Better yet, put several Demo Trucks in a
Transport(s); the combined blasts of two Demo Trucks will take out a
Construction Yard instantly, and three will take out just about
anything. It's like you're lobbing little Pinatas of Nuke-Death at
him.
Flak Tracks or Transports full of Yuris are fairly effective against
groups of tanks, but very expensive and not really worth the time
unless you are in a very close game and you need to surprise your
enemy. Don't try this against large groups of GIs, you will get
slaughtered.
Most people overlook how important power is. If your enemy has a
disgusting number of Prism Towers, your first priority in a base raid
is to take out his power. This will render his defenses useless.
Speaking of base defenses, did you notice in the above section that
Sentry Guns require no power? Keep this in mind and spread them around
liberally throughout your base; who knows when a spy might sneak in and
take out your power? Sentry Guns will stave off attacks while you
correct power failures.
IV. FUN STUFF
This doesn't affect your game play, but it's kind of fun. When in a
multiplayer battle you can taunt your enemy by pressing F5, F6, F7, F8,
F9, F10, F11, or F12. Each of these keys corresponds with a pre-
recorded voice message. Some of the taunts are cool, some are dumb.
If you want, you can go into your Westwood\RA2\Taunts folder and
browse through them all. If you are looking for a specific country's
taunts, look for file names which have as their fourth and fifth
letters as the first two letters of your country (for example,
tauam01.wav would be American Taunt 1, as denoted by the "am". The
file tauli04.wav would be Libyan Taunt 4. Get it?)
However, if you don't like one of the taunts, you can replace it with
any .wav file! Just make sure to rename your .wav with the name of the
taunt you want to replace and put it in the Taunts folder. Now when
you play a multiplayer game you will have your very own customized
taunts.
Keep in mind that your opponent will not hear your taunt unless he
also has modified his folder in the same way you have, but it's still
amusing for you. Be creative! One of my keys plays the opening of
Cops.
"Bad boys bad boys, whatcha gonna do?..."
V. END NOTES
That's all for now. Comments and suggestions welcome, send to
JoeMenthol@hotmail.com
If enough good ones come in I will update and give the senders
credit, so please give the name/alias you wish to be referred to as
with your e-mail.
Victory to the Soviet Union!!!
--JoeMenthol
Strategies
FAQ by JoeMenthol (JoeMenthol@hotmail.com)
Version 1.0
Last Update: Jan 20, 2001
======================
REVISION HISTORY
Jan 20, 2000 (v1.0) -- First Release
======================
This document Copyright 2001 by JoeMenthol, not to be duplicated or
reproduced (in part or in full) for profit without the explicit
permission of the author. So there.
This FAQ includes some important specs on Soviet structures and
units, as well as some useful strategies for multiplayer battle. It
also includes rough time estimates (rough because I took these times
with a crappy stopwatch while drunk). I would recommend looking at
PyroFalkon's TIME STUDY FAQ, as he did a much more detailed job with
the times than I did.
As far as I know all the information is more or less accurate;
however, I am not 100% sure about the numbers I have listed for Soviet
structural Strength and Armor. If you are reading this and know for a
fact that I am off in regard to this information or have any other
comments or suggestions, go ahead and let me know via e-mail
(JoeMenthol@hotmail.com) and I'll see what I can do. Don't expect
revisions any time soon though; just don't have the time.
--=Contents=--
I. Structures
II. Units
III. Strategies
IV. Fun Stuff
V. End Notes
--==========--
I. STRUCTURES
Listed here are specs on Soviet Structures, including how much Power
they use (or produce), their Strength and Armor levels, their Cost, and
approximately how long they take to build (assuming you have sufficient
credits, your base is not short on power, your construction yard is at
full health, and your game speed is set to 5, and you have a speedy
computer. Times are accurate to .5 of a second).
STRUCTURES
(Armor scale from 1-5, 1 being weakest. Time is in seconds of course.)
Soviet Wall
Power: 0
Cost: 100
Strength: 300
Armor: 5
Time: 5.5
Soviet Sentry Gun
Power: 0
Cost: 500
Strength: 400
Armor: 4
Time: 9.5
Soviet Flak Cannon
Power: -50
Cost: 1000
Strength: 900
Armor: 4
Time: 20.5
Soviet Tesla Coil
Power: -75
Cost: 1500
Strength: 600
Armor: 4
Time: 28.0
Soviet Construction Yard
Power: 0
Cost: 0 (3000 if you build an MCV, requires Service Depot)
Strength: 1000
Armor: 5
Time: N/A
Soviet Tesla Reactor
Power: +150
Cost: 600
Strength: 750
Armor: 2
Time: 8.5
Soviet Barracks
Power: -10
Cost: 500
Strength: 500
Armor: 4
Time: 5.5
Soviet Ore Refinery
Power: 2000
Cost: -50
Strength: 1000
Armor: 2
Time: 24.0
Soviet War Factory
Power: -25
Cost: 2000
Strength: 1000
Armor: 2
Time: 26.5
Soviet Radar Facility
Power: -50
Cost: 1000
Strength: 1000
Armor: 2
Time: 13.0
Soviet Naval Yard
Power: -20
Cost: 1000
Strength: 1500
Armor: 5
Time: 17.5
Soviet Service Depot
Power: -20
Cost: 800
Strength: 1200
Armor: 2
Time: 11.5
Soviet Battle Lab
Power: -100
Cost: 2000
Strength: 500
Armor: 2
Time: 38.0
Soviet Nuclear Reactor
Power: 2000
Cost: 1000
Strength: 1000
Armor: 5
Time: 20.5
Soviet Psychic Sensor
Power: -50
Cost: 1000
Strength: 750
Armor: 2
Time: 21.0
Soviet Psychic Beacon (Just thought I'd throw this and the next one in
here)
Power: -100
Cost: 1000
Strength: 750
Armor: 2
Time: Do you really care?
Soviet Psychic Amplifier
Power: -100
Cost: N/A
Strength: 1000
Armor: 5
Time: N/A
Soviet Cloning Vats
Power: -200
Cost: 2500
Strength: 1000
Armor: 2
Time: 49.0
Soviet Iron Curtain
Power: -200
Cost: 2500
Strength: 750
Armor: 5
Time: 51.5
Soviet Nuclear Missile Silo
Power: -200
Cost: 5000
Strength: 1000
Armor: 5
Time: 92.0
II. UNITS
Listed here are specs on Soviet Units, including their Cost and
approximately how much Time they take to build (assuming you have
sufficient credits, your base is not short on power, your WAR
Factory/Naval Yard/Barracks is at full health, and your game speed is
set to 5, and you have a speedy computer. Times are accurate to .5 of
a second).
I have not listed any special units except for the Demo Truck, as
most of them either suck outright or have very little real value on the
battlefield. Libya's Demo Truck is, in my opinion, the exception, and
I recommend playing as Libya so that you have this resource at hand.
UNITS
INFANTRY
(Time in seconds, of course)
Soviet Attack Dog:
Cost: 200
Time: 3.5
Soviet Conscript:
Cost: 100
Time: 3.5
Soviet Flak Trooper:
Cost: 300
Time: 5.5
Soviet Tesla Trooper:
Cost: 500
Time: 12.0
Soviet Engineer:
Cost: 500
Time: 10.0
Soviet Crazy Ivan:
Cost: 600
Time: 12.0
Soviet Yuri:
Cost: 1200
Time: 33.5
VEHICLES (Land and Air)
Soviet War Miner:
Cost: 1400
Time: 27.0
Soviet Rhino Heavy Tank:
Cost: 900
Time: 21.0
Soviet Flak Track:
Cost: 500
Time: 9.5
Soviet Terror Drone:
Cost: 500
Time: 8.0
Soviet V3 Rocket Launcher:
Cost: 800
Time: 12.5
Soviet Apocalypse Tank:
Cost: 1750
Time: 40.0
Soviet MCV (requires Service Depot):
Cost: 3000
Time: 48.5
Soviet Kirov Airship:
Cost: 2000
Time: 36.5
Soviet Demo Truck (Libya):
Cost: 1500
Time: 24.0
Vehicles (Naval)
Soviet Typhoon Attack Sub:
Cost: 1000
Time: 16.0
Soviet Sea Scorpion:
Cost: 600
Time: 10.0
Soviet Amphibious Transport:
Cost: 900
Time: 23.0
Soviet Giant Squid:
Cost: 1000
Time: 19.5
Soviet Dreadnought:
Cost: 2000
Time: 41.0
III. STRATEGIES
Finally, the good stuff! Using the above information you can easily
design a base building strategy of your very own, but because I'm such
a nice guy I've come up with one for you already.
As anyone who has played RA2 multiplayer knows, speed is key.
Therefore I have come up with a basic base building line-up to make the
most of those first few precious minutes...
1. Delpoy your MCV immediately.
2. Begin building a Tesla Reactor.
3. While the Reactor is building, grab all your units and move them
off a little to free up space for structures. (Look at your
surroundings; if your base is in the bottom of a canyon or cliff be
aware that your enemy may take advantage of this by running units up to
the edge and firing on you from above in relative safety. Is your base
near water? The Allied Air Craft Carrier is super-deadly to you, so
you may want to build a Naval Yard or a crap load of air defense if you
think you will be in range. Hopefully the game will be over before
your opponent can get that far along, though. Also, know what country
your opponent is playing as. If America, beware Paratroopers early in
the game. If you really don't like your position you can always move
your MCV before deploying it, but this takes precious time... your
call)
4. Place your Tesla Reactor and immediately build a Barracks.
5. Place your Barracks and immediately build an Ore Refinery.
6. While your Refinery builds, produce three or four dogs and set them
aside. Use this time also to place your other units in strategic
defensive positions (such as bridges if there are any near your base,
garrisoning buildings with your Conscripts, etc.), and looking for
Crates.
7. Place your Refinery and immediately build a Radar Facility.
8. Place your Radar Facility and immediately build a Tesla Reactor
(you will be dangerously low on power). While this builds make one or
two Flak Troopers for air defense against scouting Rocketeers and such.
9. Place your Tesla Reactor and immediately build a War Factory.
While this builds, start sending dogs to each corner of the map as
scouts. Keep your eyes open for Crates and Tech Buildings you can take
over with an engineer, especially Oil Derricks. Your credits will be
running low at this point, and you will need all you can get. If a dog
gets to a corner unmolested, send it to another corner.
Hopefully you will be able not only to find your enemy's base, but
also take out a few of his pesky GIs in the process and (more
importantly) clear up a good section of the map.
10. Place your War Factory.
There, you have your basic base, and it only took about two minutes
and thirty seconds! At this point you have some options, depending on
how your enemy's base defense looks. If you feel lucky quickly build a
Demo Truck and run it up to him, looking to either take out a War
Factory or Radar/Power (both will make him blind and give you the
advantage briefly). You could go for a Refinery, but keep in mind that
the explosion WILL NOT destroy a Chrono Miner even if it happens to be
at ground zero. When he rebuilds his Refinery he will have not one but
two miners working for him, plus any others he happens to build with
his War Factory.
If you go the Demo Truck route, throw everything you have at him.
Set your War Factory rally point inside his base, queue up a couple
more Demo Trucks, and send most of your tanks up to protect the
Trucks/clean up the aftermath.
*NOTE* If you build Demo Trucks, always, I repeat, ALWAYS set
your rally point away from your base. All it takes is one Harrier Jet
to fly over and hit it with a missile to take it (and a good chunk of
your base) out.
If you don't feel quite so frisky I would suggest immediately
building two more War Miners. This will take a while and you won't be
able to do too much in this time other than look for more crates and
think up plans of attack. Twiddle your thumbs, press C on your
keyboard or F9 just to be cool, but when those Miners are done building
you'd best be producing units and building base defense/advanced
structures as fast as you can. Units are more important than
structures though, so if you only have enough credits to build tanks or
a Battle Lab, go with the tanks.
Speaking of tanks, if you get in a tank battle, keep your units
moving the whole time. This can be done by setting a circle of
waypoints around your enemy if you have time or moving them manually.
As long as your units are moving some of your enemy's shots will miss,
giving you a significant advantage.
Something else to keep in mind... When an Amphibious Transport or
Flak Track with units inside it is destroyed, the units inside are not
lost. They aren't, in fact, even damaged. USE THIS! If you can't get
a Demo Truck to your enemy because he keeps blowing them up with jets
put it in a Transport. This way you have a much better chance of
actually getting it there. Better yet, put several Demo Trucks in a
Transport(s); the combined blasts of two Demo Trucks will take out a
Construction Yard instantly, and three will take out just about
anything. It's like you're lobbing little Pinatas of Nuke-Death at
him.
Flak Tracks or Transports full of Yuris are fairly effective against
groups of tanks, but very expensive and not really worth the time
unless you are in a very close game and you need to surprise your
enemy. Don't try this against large groups of GIs, you will get
slaughtered.
Most people overlook how important power is. If your enemy has a
disgusting number of Prism Towers, your first priority in a base raid
is to take out his power. This will render his defenses useless.
Speaking of base defenses, did you notice in the above section that
Sentry Guns require no power? Keep this in mind and spread them around
liberally throughout your base; who knows when a spy might sneak in and
take out your power? Sentry Guns will stave off attacks while you
correct power failures.
IV. FUN STUFF
This doesn't affect your game play, but it's kind of fun. When in a
multiplayer battle you can taunt your enemy by pressing F5, F6, F7, F8,
F9, F10, F11, or F12. Each of these keys corresponds with a pre-
recorded voice message. Some of the taunts are cool, some are dumb.
If you want, you can go into your Westwood\RA2\Taunts folder and
browse through them all. If you are looking for a specific country's
taunts, look for file names which have as their fourth and fifth
letters as the first two letters of your country (for example,
tauam01.wav would be American Taunt 1, as denoted by the "am". The
file tauli04.wav would be Libyan Taunt 4. Get it?)
However, if you don't like one of the taunts, you can replace it with
any .wav file! Just make sure to rename your .wav with the name of the
taunt you want to replace and put it in the Taunts folder. Now when
you play a multiplayer game you will have your very own customized
taunts.
Keep in mind that your opponent will not hear your taunt unless he
also has modified his folder in the same way you have, but it's still
amusing for you. Be creative! One of my keys plays the opening of
Cops.
"Bad boys bad boys, whatcha gonna do?..."
V. END NOTES
That's all for now. Comments and suggestions welcome, send to
JoeMenthol@hotmail.com
If enough good ones come in I will update and give the senders
credit, so please give the name/alias you wish to be referred to as
with your e-mail.
Victory to the Soviet Union!!!
--JoeMenthol