Red Alert 2 - Multiplayer Allied Tactics ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Dan Riley (aka: Delkin525) E-mail: delkin525@gmail.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Intro: I started this guide many years ago, to be precise, October 18th, 2001. Wow, such a long time ago, I was just a kid in my early teens when I wrote this guide. I had such an addiction to RA2 back then if I wasn't playing it, I was writing about it. However, I must admit with a fair degree of certainty that it's a crime for me not to have ever attempted submitting this guide until now, atleast 7 years after the game came out. I've taken some time in maturing this guide from my younger form of writing however, re-writing the entire guide is too much work for a game that is so long in the past. Please excuse any grammatical errors, though as I've stated, I took time in editing them. This guide focuses on all things Allied. You'll find info covering rushing, economy, base strategies, and a whole plethera of hints, tips, and other such useful information. I hope that this guide proves beneficial, as it has been something that I've worked on off and on for atleast four years. Enjoy ----------------------------------------------------------------- This guide is divided into 10 sections, most of which breaking down into deeper sub-sections. Here is a brief description of each. If you wish to skip to a section, press ctrl+F (the find command) and copy and paste the code provided into the space, then click search. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 1) Generalized Tactics (Code: [A1]) A vast array of general tactics, applicable to nearly every map. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 2) Base Tactics (Code: [A2]) In detail explains how to manage economy, deffend the base, and structure the base, in the most effective way. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 3) Rushing (Code: [A3]) This section deals with the many forms of rushing, from both land rushes to sea rushes, and the many variations there of. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 4) Special Tactics (Code: [A4]) This section explains the most infamous tactics executed during in online gameplay. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 5) Black Eagle Reporting (Code: [A5]) This section tells how many Black Eagles are needed in killing every unit in the game. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 6) Power Usage Guide (Code: [A6]) This section tells how much power every structure either adds or detracts from your overall power meter. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 7) Hints and Tricks (Code: [A7]) This section includes a slew of useful hints and tips. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 8) Hotkeys (Code: [A8]) This section is a list of all of RA2's in-game hotkeys, which is essential in knowing especially when dealing with the online community. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 9) Questions and Answers (Code: [A9]) This section illustrates some questions in which I respond, you'll learn a fair deal from this section. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Section 10) Copyright/Info/closing comments (Code: [A10]) ----------------------------------------------------------------- ***************************************************************** -Section 1) Generalized Tactics [A1] ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Tanya - Ingredients: Tanya, IFV and cronosphere. 1. Build a cronosphere. 2. Build a Tanya and an IFV and place Tanya in the IFV. 3. Use the cronosphere to drop the IFV in your enemies base. 4. Deploy her by double-clicking and use her to demolish as many structures as possible. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Flipper - Ingredients: 3 Dolphins, Aircraft Carrier and Aegis Cruiser. 1. Build the required units. 2. Move them offshore near your enemy. 3. Use the Aircraft Carrier to attack land targets with the Dolphins and Aegis protecting it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Prism Siege - Ingredients: Prism Tank and IFVs. 1. Build a large battalion of Prism Tanks. 2. Build a large battalion of IFVs. 3. Use the Prism Tanks to siege an enemy's base and the IFV for ground-to-air support. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Engineer Infiltration - Ingredients: Equal number of Engineers and IFVs. 1. Build a group of Engineers and place each it's own IFV. 2. Charge your enemy's base and deploy Engineers to take over their structures. 3. Use IFVs with Engineers still intact to repair others that may be taking damage. Note: I recommend building between one and two IFV/Engineer combos early game, and immedietly rush the enemy in attempt of stealing their construction yard. If this fails, take their refinery ----------------------------------------------------------------- Economic Bust - Ingredients: Chrono Leginnaires. 1. Build several Chrono Legionnaires. 2. Move the Legionnaires to enemy Ore Fields. 3. Use the Legionnaires to attack enemy Ore Miners and dismantle their economy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Secret Agent Man - Ingredients: Spy and invasion force. 1. Build a spy and a mix of offensive units. 2. Set up invasion force near your enemy's base. 3. Send your Spy into a power plant, temporarily knocking out power. 4. Immediately send the invasion force in while all defensive structures needing power are rendered useless. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Chrono Engineers - Ingredients: a Chronosphere, IFVs and equal number of Engineers. 1. Build an equal amount of Engineers and IFVs then build a Chronosphere. 2. Send the engineers into the IFVs 3. Once the Chronosphere is ready use it to send the Engineer filled IFVs to an enemy's base and send the IFVs near buildings of important. 4. Then quickly deploy the IFVs, and use your Engineers to take over as many enemy structures as possible. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Invincible Buildings - Ingredients: Chrono Leginnaire and any structure. 1. Build a few Chrono Leginnaires and send them near your most important structures. 2. Whenever a large number of enemy Black Eagles or Harriers heads towards your base select a Chrono Leginnaire and keep an eye on what there target might be. 3. Your enemy will usually head for your Construction Yard, so as soon as the enemy's Aircraft launch their missiles towards your Construction yard use your Chrono Leginnaire to freeze the Construction Yard, once the Construction Yard is frozen the missiles still hit the structure but no damage is done. 4. Caution, do not allow your structure to be frozen for long otherwise it will vanish by the Chrono Leginnaire. 5. So as soon as the enemy Aircraft attack and leave unfreeze the building. 6. This process can be done with any structure. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Chrono Killers - Ingredients: Chrono Leginnaires and IFVs. 1. Build an equal amount of Chrono Leginnaires and IFVs. 2. One of the most deadly units against your Chrono Leginnaire is a pack of enemy dogs. 3. To prevent your enemy's dogs from killing your Chrono Leginnaires send your Chrono Leginnaires into an equal amount of IFVs. 4. Dogs are harmless against tanks so they are useless against Chrono Leginnaires in IFVs. 5. Now do as much damage to your enemy that you can with your IFVs. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Rocketeer Rush - Ingredients: Rocketeers and multiple amounts of Barrackss. 1. Build at least 6 Barrackss 2. Now that you have 6 Barrackss you can build infantry more than double the usual building speed. 3. Build tons of Rocketeers, which will rapidly come out of you primary Barracks. In about 2 to 3 minutes you can have a large fleet of about 40 to 50 Rocketeers. 4. Now that you have a massive fleet of Rocketeers attack the enemy's base, they won't be able to stop your entire Rocketeer fleet. 5. This process should only take 3 to 5mins(Depends on your computers speed) minutes so as soon as you have about 30 Rocketeers attack your enemy. This is to early in the game for your enemy to have enough air defenses to stop your fleet. 6. Don't give your enemy time to build air defense, you should first destroy the enemy Construction yard so they can't build air defense. If they already have a good amount of air defense destroy their power plants to render there defenses useless. 7. If you build multiple War Factories you can also build tanks much faster. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Chrono Bombs - Ingredients: Chrono Ivans 1. Build a bunch of Chrono Ivans. 2. Then have them plant bombs on each other. 3. Once they each have bombs on them teleport them close to enemy tanks, defenses and structures. 4. If they do not blow up right away the enemy's units and or defenses will kill them causing the explosion. Note: Plant bombs on two to three Chrono Ivans at a time otherwise they might explode before you have a chance to teleport them. Note: This tactic can be done with any Chrono unit as long as you use a Crazy Ivan or Chrono Ivan to put a bomb on them. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hiding Mirage Tanks - Ingredients: Mirage Tanks 1. Build Mirage Tanks 2. When Hiding Mirage Tanks always hide them on grass or where other trees are. 3. Never hide a mirage tank in the middle of a street, because it's way to obvious! Note: When playing as the Allies, especially when your figting against a Soviet player, it's best to play smart, in every way possible. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sneaky Spies - Ingredients: GI's or other infantry and Spies 1. Build a bunch of Gi's 2. Build a couple Spies 3. Send the Spies into your group of GI's and disguise them as your Gi's 4. Then attack the enemy and try to sneak the Spies into enemy structures 5. If your enemy has a lot of infantry attacking your Gi's try to sneak the Spies away from the group and disguise them as enemy infantry. 6. In the commotion of the small battle, your enemy most likely hasn't noticed your Spies disguise themselves as there units. This gives you the perfect opportunity to send the Spies into enemy structures. ***************************************************************** -Section 2) Base Tactics [A2] ----------------------------------------------------------------- -Intro: This section focuses on factors that as you may have guessed, deal with "base tactics," and underlying base strategy. Below are a series of sub-sections such as, defense, units, economy, and base design, all of which are crucial to building a strong base, fully capable of supporting itself both economically, and militantly. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Defense ----------------------------------------------------------------- Don't always rely on defense to protect your base. For example prism towers, pillboxes, and grand cannons. If your enemy finds an undefended area in your base, or any area where there is a lul in your defensive line, they will absolutely breach that portion of the base and try to destroy your power plants. As soon as you run out of power your defenses are useless. And the enemy can now destroy the rest of your base. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Units ----------------------------------------------------------------- You should always have units in your base. Instead of building defense build tanks and infantry. You just waste money with defense, valuable money that can be used for tanks and infantry. Build prism tanks and send them to the outskirts of your base for long-range fire on enemy units. You should always Make GIs and send them all around your base in large groups, incase enemy tanks get by your prism tanks, the GIs can easily finish off enemy intruders. Also build IFVs to take out Aircraft. GI's aren't always necessary it just depends on how good you are. Note: This can go both ways however, if you are experienced and know how to use GIs successfully why not. GIs if used correctly can mean life or death. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Economy ----------------------------------------------------------------- During the game the best way to keep cash flow going is to build multiple miners. Early game it is not necessary to build more than 1 Refinery; however once you have a bunch of Miners you should build a second or third Refinery so more miners can return money at once. Whenever there are Oil Derricks available in a map try to take them over right away, then protect them. Oil Derricks are very useful during games once you take them over each Derrick will give you an instant 1,000 dollars and will continue to make money for you. If an Oil Derrick already belongs to an enemy and you take it over you will not get the extra 1,000 dollars because they already received the extra 1,000 dollars. You should also use Spies to steal cash from your enemies Refinery. Note: This fact does not apply to Rushing so if you follow this fact you won't be able to rush. Note: Report to the Rushing section of this guide for more details for building lucrative economy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Walls ----------------------------------------------------------------- Building walls around important structures is great for keeping enemy Spies from stealing your tech, as well as keeping engineers from stealing your structures. The best way to make it difficult for your enemy to rush is to, build a wall around your Construction Yard. They will usually try to take over your Construction Yard as fast as possible, but when there is a wall around it they will have a small problem stealing it. Walls are also great for stopping Chrono Commandos and Tanya from devastating your base. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Quick Money (applicable if you have a soviet conyard) ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you have an Allied and Soviet Conyard build a Cloning Vatte then build five or more Tanyas. Once the Tanyas are done send them into the Cloning Vatte to sell them. Each Tanya is worth $1200 but when you sell them you get double that amount for each Tanya so you earn $2400 for every Tanya that you sell. ***************************************************************** -Section 3) Rushing [A3] ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the world of Real-Time-Strategy, rushing refers to attacking the enemy as early as you can, and in the most effective way possible. As such, there are multiple forms of rushing. each one useful when applied to the appropriate scenario. Let's face it, in a one verse one match the game's outcome will usually be directly related to the success or failure of your own rush. In other words, you must learn to love the art of rushing. No more of that "15min no rush" stuff, that's for noobs. The following includes a list of different forms of rushes, and how to go about performing them. In addition, I also mention how to counter an enemy's rush. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tank Rushing ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to eliminate your enemy quickly, at the beginning of a game don't waste any time in building. First deploy your Construction Yard then build a Power Plant, next build a Barracks, then an Ore Refinery. Don't build any infantry save our money. Finally build a War Factory and build as many Grizzly Tanks as you need to crush your enemy. I recommend building 15 Grizzly tanks and once those are done build at least 5 more. Then once you started building the Grizzly Tanks build about two to three more refineries, and sell them so you still only have one Refinery (NOTE-the point of this is that you are getting Miners while your Tanks are building, and getting some money back for selling the Refinery). Your enemy however has most likely wasted a lot of money on extra buildings, infantry, and other structures so they probably won't have much of a force. Your force should easily be able to crush your enemy. It should only take you about 4 to 6 minutes to build the structures and the tanks required, therefore giving your enemy little time to prepare defense against your attack force. Note: You should always build dogs to scout the map, that we you can better anticipate the enemy. Note: You should also try to engineer rush your enemy and steal their Construction Yard, then either sell it or drive it away. Note:You should always be building more Grizzlies. Note: If needed build at least 1 to 2 more War Factories to increase the rate that you are building the Grizzlies. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Defending Against Early-Game Rushes ----------------------------------------------------------------- The best way to overcome a rush is to prepare to rush yourself. Then also build a wall around your Construction Yard and other important buildings. If you have revealed the enemy's base and you notice they are going to infantry rush you, build about 5 Dogs and a few Pill Boxes. GI's can also help out when defending your base from rushes, however don't spend to much money on GI's because Tanks are more important. Typically, an infatry rush will the be least of your worries, as a few dogs can usually wreak-havoc on them. Instead, you should be more concerned with the possible tank and engineer rushes. With that said, the best way to deal with any rush, is as I've stated; to prepare to rush yourself. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Engineer Rushing ----------------------------------------------------------------- When you are preparing to rush your enemy you should build an IFV and an Engineer, then put the Engineer into the IFV. Quickly rush your IFVS and your tanks (If you started of with any) to your enemies base put the Repair IFVS near your enemies Construction Yard, then deploy the IFVS and immediately send the Engineer into the Construction Yard. However engineer rushing only works about 50% of the time, so if you plan on rushing you'd better do it fast. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Naval Wars ----------------------------------------------------------------- Naval wars can go on for a long time depending on your enemy. Instead of building a naval fleet use the Spy Glitch and steal tech from your Battle Lab. You will now have the option to train Chrono Commandos. You should have built a Spy Satellite as soon as you had the option two. Build at least two Chrono Commandos, once the first one is done send him somewhere near your enemies base either on the same island another island nearby, behind a tree or behind one of their buildings. The Chrono Commando should have a fairly easy time getting around your enemies base destroying each building because, your enemy most likely hasn't prepared for ground assault they will probably be to busy building their naval fleet. Therefore they won't have much ground defense giving your Chrono Commando a chance to wipe out their base giving you an easy victory. Note: you should have built at least four more Miners once you had a war factory in order to gain lots of money. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Naval Rushes ----------------------------------------------------------------- When you are playing a Naval War first Deploy your Construction Yard then build a Power Plant and a Barracks, now build six Engineers. While the Engineers start building build a Naval Shipyard and a Naval Transport. Once the Engineers are done build six Dogs. Then send the engineers into the Transport first then the Dogs second. Then send the transport across the water till you find your enemies island once you find it, drive the Transport along their base till you reach their Construction Yard or Barracks. Then deploy the Transport the Dogs will come out first and kill all the infantry and other Dogs and then the Engineers will come out, send the engineers into the enemy Barracks Construction Yard and anything else you can take over. Then once you take over you can sell it. or Build Pill Boxes there, but be careful they might try to reclaim their lost structures with their own Engineers. Note: The first unit that goes into a Naval Transport comes out last, and the Last unit to go into the Transport comes out first. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hidden Naval Surprise ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you know your enemy has an underwater naval unit like Dolphins, Submarines and Squids there is only one way to detect them. First of all build a Naval Shipyard somewhere close to your island or base. Then just begin building a Naval Fleet. If your enemy attacks you with a massive force of Dolphins and wipe out your Naval shipyard, they will probably leave the Dolphins near your base or island. Now build another Naval Ship Yard once it is ready to be placed move it around, as you know when it is all green that means that you can build there and if it's red you can't build there. Now keep moving the unplaced Naval Ship Yard around the water near your island or base, you might come across red squares here and there, or big clumps of red shapes. This represents underwater units. Right click your mouse to make the unbuilt Naval Ship Yard go away, and just click on the ready picture when you want it again. Now it is best to be Korea for this trick. Start placing beacons on the red area, so you will know where to strike. It will take between 1 and 2 Black Eagle Jets per red square, make them force fire the water where the beacon is and if you hit the target you should have killed what ever it was. If you hit the hidden unit it will be visible above the water for a few seconds. You should try to take out as many underwater units with one quick organized attack as you can, because your enemy might move the underwater units. Note: Grand Cannons prove useful for killing more than one underwater naval unit at once, and at quite a range. ***************************************************************** -Section 4) Special Tactics [A4] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Spy Glitch ----------------------------------------------------------------- - Ingredients: 3 Spies, 3 engineers and a GI 1. Build 3 Spies, 3 engineers and a GI 2. Make the GI attack your own Barracks, War Factory, and Battle Lab just a little. 3. Activate Way-Point-Mode select an engineer and click on either the Barracks, War Factory, or Battle Lab, then while Way-Point-Mode is still on select a Spy and click on the little Way-Point-Box on the structure that you have clicked on with the Engineer. 4. Now let the units follow their Waypoint path as the Engineer heads into the building to repair it, the Spy should follow the Engineer into your structure stealing your own technology. 5. Now use this process on your other 2 structures. 6. At the end of this process you should have obtained the option of building Chrono commandoes and promotions for your units. 7. Note once you let your Spy and your Engineer follow their way point path you can stop the Engineer and the Spy will still go into the building and steal the tech. Then repair the building but not with the Engineer, this will save you money because you won't have to build another Engineer when you do the trick again. Note: You can use this glitch on your own power plants etc.. although its not to your advantage. Note: Stealing tech from your battle lab results in the ability to train Chrono Commandos. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Killing Chrono Commandos If your enemy knows the Spy Glitch they can easily kill your base with a Chrono Commando. The best ways to prevent a Chrono Commando from destroying your base are found in the following steps. 1. You should build Pill Boxes close together all around your base. 2. If you want to be sneaky build Pill Boxes behind buildings that block the view of the Pill Box 3. Build Snipers 4. Build Prism Tanks and send them in groups (of about two or three) around your base, taking out any Chrono Commandos from long range 5. Put infantry like Tanya, GI's, and any other infantry into IFVs so they will be protected from the Chrono Commando and be able to kill him quickly. 6. Don't bother with Dogs they arent at all affective against Chrono Commandos (unless the enemy teleports the Commando from a great distance, in which case he'll take a while to phase in) 7. Wall your important structures. If the structure is walled, there is nothing an enemy Commando can do. Unless, the enemy is so desperate that they use airial attacks to take out one piece of the wall, just large enough an area for the commando to execute his dirty work. Though, who would do that? Grins... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Cronosphere Glitch ----------------------------------------------------------------- - Ingredients: Chrono Legionnaire and Chronosphere 1. Build a Chrono Legionnaire and a Chronosphere. 2. Once the Chronosphere is ready activate Way-Point-Mode now command the Chrono Legionnaire to freeze your Chronosphere but don't start the Waypoint process yet. 3. Now select a group of tanks with the Chronosphere but don't send them anywhere yet. 4. Once you have selected a group of tanks allow the Chrono Legionnaire to start the Waypoint path your Chronosphere will now be frozen. 5. Immediately after you freeze your Chronosphere click where you want to send your tanks. Even though the Chronosphere is frozen it will still teleport your tanks, once you send your tank force move the chrono Legionnaire so your Chronosphere will unfreeze. 6. As soon as your Chronosphere in unfrozen it will say "Chronosphere ready" 7. The point of this glitch is to save time and annoy your enemy. It takes 7 minutes for the Chronosphere to charge but by using this glitch you don't have to wait at all, after the 1st initial countdown. You may use this glitch as many times as you want during the game. Note: If you teleport a Chrono Commando or any other Chrono unit with a Chronosphere it will instantly be ready to move with out phasing in. This is great for using a Chrono Commando to kill an enemy base or structure. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Chronosphere Teasers ----------------------------------------------------------------- Here is a list of tactics on how to harass your enemy with the Chronosphere Glitch to the utmost of harassing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Use your Chronosphere to teleport each and every one of your enemys harvesters into the water 2. Teleport enemy tanks into the water 3. Teleport enemy Ships onto land 4. Fill a Night Hawk Transport or a Naval Transport with the units of your choice, teleport to the center of your enemy's base and devastate 5. Teleport your enemy's infantry to instantly kill them 6. On a Free For All game teleport your enemy's tanks into each others bases causing a war 7. When enemy tanks build up near your base preparing to attack, teleport them into the water or too your other enemy's base 8. Teleport large groups of Engineer filled IFVs into your enemy's base 9. On a Free For All game teleport an enemy's Demolition Truck into your other enemy's base. 10. Teleport your mirage tanks around the map because the tanks look like trees when teleported. They dont show up on radar, use this to sneak your Mirage Tanks to your enemy's base 11. Clean out your enemy's Tanks with teleportation, then teleport your tanks to the undefended base 12. Teleport your Ships to the water near your enemy to devastate 13. This is probably the most cruel act that one can carry out with the Chronosphere glitch. Build a few power plants side- by-side in a cluster like form. i.e. a large square, or rectangle... Then place a wall around them. After placing one layer of a wall around them make another layer, for extra security. Then sell the power plants leaving behind a walled in secluded area. Now build a ton of prism towers lining the outskirts of the wall. Then teleport enemy tanks inside the wall, it will be a slaughter fest. Its actually quite hilarious; its like a torture chamber. ***************************************************************** -Section 5) Black Eagle Reporting [A5] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Back when my life was the entity that is RA2, if I wasn't playing with rediculous deffensive intentions as France, i'd be playing as the offensive opposite; Korea, and as such would carefully coordinate my Black Eagle jets. Note: I highly recommend you group Eagles according to you combat intentions. i.e. if you are just taking out enemy tanks group your Eagles in groups of 2, and sick them on the enemy forces. If you came accross an Appocolypse, just send 2 groups after it instead of one; compensate. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a list of how many Black Eagles are needed to kill said unit or structure. Tanks Prism Tank-1 Grizzly Tank-2 Mirage-1 IFVS-1 Apocalypse-5 Terror Drone-1 Demolition Truck-1 Rhino-2 Flak Track-1 V3 Rocket-1 Harvester-5 Ships Aegis Cruiser-4 Destroyer-4 Aircraft Carreir-4 Naval Transport-2 Dolphin-1 Squid-1 Submarine-2 Dreadnought-4 Flak Ship-4 Buildings Power Plant-4 Refinery-8 Construction Yard-8 Battle Lab-4 Spy Sat-5 Radar-4 Air Force HQ-4 Nuke Power Plant-8 Cloning Vatte-between 4-6 War Factory- 8 Naval Shipyard-12 (some missiles miss) ***************************************************************** -Section 6) Power Usage Guide [A6] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Allied - (-) = minus (+) = plus Power Plant+200 Ore Refinery-50 Barracks-10 War Factory-25 Airforce Command-50 Service Depot-25 Battle Lab-100 Naval Shipyard-25 Ore Purifier-200 Spy Satellite-100 Pill Box 0 Prism Tower-75 Patriot Missile-50 Gap Generator??? All Super Weapons-200 Soviet - (-) = minus (+) = plus Battle Lab-100 War Factory-25 Ore Refinery-50 Naval Ship Yard-20 Barracks-10 Cloning Vats-200 Radar-50 Service Depot-25 All Super Weapons-200 Psychic Sensor-50 Tesla Coil-75 Nuke Reactor+2,000 Flak Cannon-50 Sentry Gun 0 ***************************************************************** -Section 7) Hints and Tricks [A7] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Engineer Protection ----------------------------------------------------------------- Engineers are great to have around the base, because they're trained to defuse bombs. If a Crazy Ivan puts a bomb on your infantry, tanks, or structures have the Engineer defuse the bombs accordingly. I also recommend hiding Engineers behind key structures, so that if need be you can heal said strucure. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Killing Terror Drones ----------------------------------------------------------------- Terror Drones are very quick and can easily dodge lot's of fire power. But once they start tearing apart your tank from the inside it's over or is it... If you have a Repair Depot use it to repair your tank the second the tank starts to repair the Terror Drone Dies. Also Chrono Commando's kill Terror Drones very quickly, Along with Pill Boxes and Mirage Tanks. Note: Repair IFVs also kill the Terror Drone once it starts repairing the tank. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Diversion for Tank Wars ----------------------------------------------------------------- When your enemy comes to attack you with lots of either Grizzlys, Rhino's, IFV's and so on or mixed attacks, build tons of dogs. Build between 30 and 40 dogs and send them in front of your tanks. When your enemy attacks they will automatically attack the dogs first giving you the chance to wipe out their tanks. Note: This strategy doesnt work if your enemy self-targets your tanks 1 by 1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dodging Missiles ----------------------------------------------------------------- If your enemy is trying to kill any vehicle(s) with either Black Eagle Jets of Harriers, it is quite easy to dodge the missiles all you have to do is move the vehicle(s) away from the missiles. For example if Black Eagles are coming after your Grizzly Tank from behind move the tank forward until the missiles hit the ground behind you. This sometimes works for Infantry as well. However I found that dodging Harrier missiles is harder than dodging Black Eagle missiles. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Turtle Tactics ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you decide to turtle build Prism Towers all around and within your base so they will chain of off each other making them more powerful. Build Grand Cannons all around your base as well, that is if you have the option to build them. Build Patriot Missiles all around your base in groups of 2's or 4's to take out groups of Aircraft and or Rocketeers. Build Dogs and have them guard your Power Plants and Ore Refineries from spies Note: Build lots of Power Plants within the center of your base and it's defenses, and build more Power Plants then you need incase some get destroyed. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dogs on the Hunt ----------------------------------------------------------------- At the beginning of each game you should build up at least four dogs and explore the map. Once you find your enemies base send all of your Dogs their to reveal as much as you can. This is very helpful because it gives you a chance to see how your enemy will attack you, there for giving you a chance to counter it. This also reveals weak or undefended areas in your enemys base, which you could rush with an Engineer in an IFV. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Terror Drone Overload ----------------------------------------------------------------- Terror Drones are very useful units and in large numbers they can easily wipe out huge forces of enemy tanks. I found that sending Terror Drones into Flak Tracks is very useful. If you drive the Flak into the center or at least near a group of enemy tanks when the Flak Track dies the Terror Drones are freed and can quickly jump into enemy tanks because they are already so close to them. But usually thats not enough, you should also have at least thirty or more Terror Drones on foot and then at least eight Flak Tracks full considering only two Terror Drones can fit into each Flak Track. Then make sure your whole force gets to and attacks your enemy's tanks at the same time. This is very affective, because even if you didn't bug all of your enemy's tanks once the Terror Drone kills the tank it almost immediately jumps into another tank with nearly no time for your Terror Drone to be shot at. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Spy Infiltration Info ----------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a list that explains the benefits of the Spy infiltrating each of the following buildings... Barracks = promotion for infantry War Factory = promotion for tanks Allied Battle Lab = Chrono Commando Soviet Battle Lab = Chrono Ivan (in some cases you can also get Yuri Prime) Power Plant = No power for about 1min Refinery = Steals percentage of enemy's cash ***************************************************************** -Section 8) Hotkeys [A8] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Guard Mode: Hit "G" when unit is selected (unit will guard current area) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Force Fire: Hit Ctrl on the keyboard and select object to shoot at with mouse ----------------------------------------------------------------- Escort Unit's: Grab units then click Alt + Ctrl then click the unit you want them to protect. The units that are escorting will move closer to the unit being escorted when ever they get out of their firing range. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Grouping Units: Ctrl + and any number from 0-9, for example Ctrl + 1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Follow- Click "F" when a unit is selected ----------------------------------------------------------------- Deleting Groups- Hit Ctrl and the number of a group when no units are selected. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Beacon - Click "B" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stop- click "S" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Select all of one type- click "T" once for all of that type of unit to be selected on the screen click "T" twice for all of that type of unit on radar ----------------------------------------------------------------- Deploy Unit- click "D" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Scatter- "X" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ally With Chosen Side- "A" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Select Team- # 0-9 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Force Move- Hold Alt key, guide cursor over target, left-click (forces unit to drive/walkover to an are or to run over a unit.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Guard Destination-Ctrl/Alt + click area ----------------------------------------------------------------- Guard Structure-Ctrl/Alt + click structure ----------------------------------------------------------------- Structure Tab- Hit "Q" (Hotkey to Structures.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Next Unit- Hit "M" Selects next unit in order of creation. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Previous Unit- Hit "N" Selects the previous unit you selected ----------------------------------------------------------------- Select All- Hit "P" Selects all units on the battle field. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Cycle through Elites- Hit "Y" Selects all veteran or all elite units. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Cycle through Health- Hit "U" Selects all units with like health bars. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Modify Selected Units- Hold SHIFT and click on selected unit to deselect. Click unselected unit to add to group (removes specific unit(s) from groups.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Centered Map On Base- Hit "H" Centers your view on your base. Normally this is your Construction Yard. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Repair Mode- Left-Click structures, K Repairs your structures ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sell Mode- Left-Click structure, L Sell your structures ----------------------------------------------------------------- Set Way Points- Click on unit, press and hold Z, set down the way points, release to initiate movement command ----------------------------------------------------------------- Place Beacon- Press "B" Points out specific locations enemy attack forces what ever you decide, Click on the Beacon and click enter to type a message in it that only allies can see ----------------------------------------------------------------- All Units Cheer- Hit the "C" button ----------------------------------------------------------------- Go to Event On Radar- Hit Space Bar ***************************************************************** -Section 9) Questions and Answers [A9] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: If this is an Allied specific multiplayer guide why do you mention Soviet strategies in any way? A: The asnwer is simple, the great thing about RA2 is the fact that there are multiple ways of accessing the opposing tech tree. i.e you can get an enemy consturction yard by stealing the enemies, and you can get a MCV from a crate. As soviets, you can steal the enemy's MCV with a Yuri, then deploy it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What is your favorite team, and why? A: I'd have to say Korea, because I love executing Black Eagle micro; coordinating massive attacks that level the enemy's base in a single sweep, sometimes two. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: How did you figure out those glitches? A: When I was younger, I had to know the dirty secrets behind every game I played. As such, I made it my mission to figure out the glitches that people were using. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What's the difference between the Allies and Soviets? A: Well, the obvious approach to this repsonse is the fact that the soviets rely on brtue strength, over micro-intensive coordination. Sure both side require a vast amount of micro but to many Soviet players spend each game pumping Rhino after Rhino, humor me. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What's the best way of dealing with the Soviets as Allies? A: A good soviet player can prove very difficult, as I've mentioned, they love Rhinos (and boy are they a force to be reckon with), and will rush immediately. You've just got to out micro your opponent. As such, take advatage of advatages of the allied forces. For example, Prism tanks are very powerful long-ranged units. Chronolegionaires are very effective at taking out stray units, and holding off the enemy's front line attack, of course with the aid of your forces. Also, make sure to build mirage tanks, as they can easily destroy tanks and infantry. Don't forget the grizzlies, and a slew of rocketeers. Ultimately, my point is this. Use air, range, and a tight mix of units to your advantage. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Q: What's ypur favorite unit in the game? A: I'd have to say the Chrono Commando, he is so bad-ass! He's essentially a teleporting Tanya, it doesn't get much better than that! ***************************************************************** -Section 10) Copyright/Info/closing comments [A10] ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is a 2007/2008 copyrighted work from Dan Riley. Please don't edit my guide, or steal from it my awesome ways. If you'd like to post this guide elsewhere, that is absolutely fine by me, just be sure to accredit me for having done the work. ----------------------------------------------------------------- In closing, I hope this guide has proven beneficial for you Red Alert 2 junkies out there, and I'd love to recieve feedback from you guys. A guide 7 years in the works is finally to be seen be all. On that note, feel free to e-mail me with comments, suggestions, and praise. e-mail: delkin525@gmail.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Guide Started - 10/18/01 Last Updated - Sunday, December 16th, 2007