The Covert Operations...

[Lord_Dweedle]

So.  Right.  I bought the big pack on Origin with all the C&C Games and I'm committed to 100% beating them all.  2 weeks later... I'm still mopping up the Covert Operations :O

 

These missions are among the hardest things I've ever played in my life.  I am down to only having 4 missions left to do though (I am keeping my progress of all my games in a Journal, no I am not lying) and I have to be honest I am dreading what the Red Alert expansions have to offer on difficulty.

 

I feel like a gaming god right now just because of how nearly finished I am with these levels!  I have to hand it to the developers.. they really know how to make you feel like you've achieved something!

 

Anyone got some stories of their own about the Covert Ops?  Currently I myself am hunting down jewel cases for Command and Conquer and Covert Ops to add to a collection now hehe

[Allen262]

As some one that has played RA1 fowards and backwards. C&C95 is harder. I never made it past GDI 11 and Nod 6 in C&C95. I have beat the missions I remade for Red Dawn's C&C Classic missions. This is a linear campaign for GDI (15)  and Nod (13). Covert Ops make me wan to go full Office Space printer beat down on my PC.

[Jacko]

I would say the hardest missions are GDI 11, 15b and Nod 7c, 11a/b and certain variants of Nod 6.

Some of the covert ops missions are crazy hard though.

[Karpet]

I think currently I'm on GDI 10 and Nod 9. The Bialystok mission requires some good troop management. I chose the Nod mission where you steal the detonator with about 3 light tanks, 3 bikes, and 2 buggies. Hell's Fury is pretty hard, but I've heard you can rush your MCV up top at the beginning where the base is built.

 

I managed to beat Deceit - no sandbagging, no nothing. Turns out, the guard towers? Just leave them standing and keep your back door protected from engineers. Capture those expansion com centers and churn out an army.

 

If I'm correct isn't GDI 11 the one where you rescue Delphi?

[Jacko]

on some Nod missions sometimes you need a bit of brute force.

Good examples include mission 11, Deceit, Eviction notice....

 

Instead of building lots of bikes and buggies just build about 12 flame tanks and drive straight into their base, targetting Barracks, infantry, factories and conyards.

Make sure you lure out and destroy orcas before you attack.

[Allen262]

Yes GDI 11 the one where you rescue Delphi. Also with the remake of Deceit that same idea came to me and works well.

[Chimas]

If you consider succeeding in the first try, then they are pretty hard. If you're considering replaying them until you succeed, then there are others even worst.

 

Of course, I'm not here just to comment the thread eheheheh. I advise you after you finish the Westwood phase, have a try on this project, there are almost 600 missions released in there.

 

But don't hurry up, enjoy your moments with the Covert Operations, I play them eventually, very cool stuff. As a matter of fact, I'm paying a tribute to the GDI mission Twist of Fate, making the Nod version in SNOW theater. The innitial part I have mastered, the problem now is to make so many Tiberium fields far away.

 

My advise to any player coming back to TD is this order:

- play the ORIGINAL CAMPAIGNS,

- COVERT OPERATIONS,

- the recovered missions from N64,

- the Kohrus missions, then the rest.

 

Any doubt or feedback, let me know.

[Chad1233]

I think you forgot to mention the PS1 missions Nyerguds also put in his patch. ^^

[Karpet]

I beat all of them. The one where you had no money as GDI and the one where you captured the GDI base was kind of hard, but I did it unorthodox-style.

[Jacko]

I found the one where you had no money fairly easy, because the Nod base has such poor defense

[Karpet]

I rushed it like Nyerguds friend (I think it's Christo161). Attacked main base from the right, sold con yard, and captured Nod con yard. Everything fell into place once I did that.

[Nyerguds]

The N64 ones are generally pretty easy, though.

 

There's a guide for the Covert Ops floating around, which gives you hints on how to get through the mission (and, in Hell's Fury's case, how the mission is supposed to be played, because the briefing doesn't really explain.)

 

So, yeah... this might help (a lot):

http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cncstuff/cctxt/covertop.txt

 

As Karpet already mentioned, Christo161's speed runs also reveal interesting exploits in a lot of the missions:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Christo161/playlists

(his "GDI/Nod playthrough" playlists include Covert Ops etc)

[Jacko]

pfft.

I can do GDI 13 way faster than that 

[Nyerguds]

What, by increasing the game speed?

(N64 has no game speed regulation IIRC. The whole system was too slow for that)

[Messiah]

Passing the Nod Death Squad mission by destroying the whole GDI base including all GDI units is a challenge.

[Jacko]

I found Nod Death Squad a challenge on its own (regardless of how easy you guys found it)

I have done it.... once

[Nyerguds]

Death Squad is definitely one of those missions where you just have to try and fail a hundred times to find a strategy that works.

 

Though knowing that you can position the two stealth tanks so they can destroy the advanced comm center without being in the nearby AGT's range helps a lot

 

Passing the Nod Death Squad mission by destroying the whole GDI base including all GDI units is a challenge.

The highest score on that mission, however, is achieved by destroying as few buildings as possible

[AchromicWhite]

Pretty sure I usually use the commando to take it out. Most of my units usually die, though, haha.

I suspect that using the stnks to take it out would give less casualties... but you'd have to make sure that none of the GDI units are targeting them; as it wouldn't take long for them to be taken out... and they take quite a lot of time to kill the Adv Comm.

 

Should I say that I can beat either campaign in a day? Maybe both if I rushed, haha.

I found the Nod CO mission where you have the chem warriors and the flame tank to be pretty hard. You have to beat a medium tank with them (they're not built to do THAT!). Personally I find the RA missions much harder than TD. But then, I know TD inside and out by now.

 

Missions in the original campaign that are hard? hmm... If you don't know the maps, then the Nod mission where you have to steal the nuke equipment can be hard. The GDI mission where you come up the beach with an MCV and nod has flame tank for the first time (the rescue Delphi mission). I can slaughter it now, but if you don't know the map... you're driving your MVC around looking for a place to park it while turrets are shooting it, and all you have is grenadiers, lol.

Actually, it would be cool to see a variant on that mission where you get more of a selection of GDI troops and have to take out quite a few Nod turrets etc before making your base, rather than just dodging everything.

 

OH! how could I forget... hijacking the orca... now THAT mission is hard. Once you starting taking the GDI base, it's not too tricky. But man, they have quite a lot of stuff for you to take on with only a handful of units.

 

  -Liam

[Jacko]

Nod 7c is perfectly possible if you have insane unit micro skills, and somehow use the 6 western units to wipe out all the GDI units 1 by 1

ok, so not quite as possible XD (although I have successfully done this, once)

 

A harder challenge is to do Nod 6 (b I think, the one where you start with engineers) by successfully capturing the Entire GDI base (took me several tries)

 

That Nod covert ops mission (I think its tiberium strain) is extremely difficult. Consider trying to use chem troopers (carefully!) to deal with the medium tanks

 

I found the majority of the TD missions harder than those in RA, with the exception of those pain-in-the ass interior maps (those are just the worst)

The other thing is was I generally found the TD missions cooler as well. Things like sneaking a small strike team around a mammoth patrol may have been easy, but

it was fun as hell, RA never did much of that sort.

[AchromicWhite]

Oh yeah, I've killed the med tank; I've beaten all the missions. But still, it's a bit ruff.

Oh, you mean the steal the nuke one? I think I tried to capture their base, once. In the end I gave up, but yeah, it probably IS possible.

I've certainly stolen the whole base in the orca steal mission.

  -Liam

[Nyerguds]

Pretty sure I usually use the commando to take it out. Most of my units usually die, though, haha.

I suspect that using the stnks to take it out would give less casualties... but you'd have to make sure that none of the GDI units are targeting them; as it wouldn't take long for them to be taken out... and they take quite a lot of time to kill the Adv Comm.

I've won Death Squad without losing a single unit 

 

Should I say that I can beat either campaign in a day? Maybe both if I rushed, haha.

I found the Nod CO mission where you have the chem warriors and the flame tank to be pretty hard. You have to beat a medium tank with them (they're not built to do THAT!). Personally I find the RA missions much harder than TD. But then, I know TD inside and out by now.

Actually, they are built for that. Chem warriors are excellent anti-armour. Just don't use the flame tanks.

 

Missions in the original campaign that are hard? hmm... If you don't know the maps, then the Nod mission where you have to steal the nuke equipment can be hard.

It's better if you remember the way triggers work - there's nothing stopping you from rushing some DIFFERENT unit to the 'pickup' spot while another one grabs the crate :laugh:

 

The GDI mission where you come up the beach with an MCV and nod has flame tank for the first time (the rescue Delphi mission). I can slaughter it now, but if you don't know the map... you're driving your MVC around looking for a place to park it while turrets are shooting it, and all you have is grenadiers, lol.

Hee, yes, that's a tough one. ORCAs vs flame tanks FTW.

 

Actually, it would be cool to see a variant on that mission where you get more of a selection of GDI troops and have to take out quite a few Nod turrets etc before making your base, rather than just dodging everything.

Why? That'd just make it easier for the sake of making it easier. No thanks.

 

OH! how could I forget... hijacking the orca... now THAT mission is hard. Once you starting taking the GDI base, it's not too tricky. But man, they have quite a lot of stuff for you to take on with only a handful of units.

Oh gods. Yes. That mission is horrible! :laugh:

Though, if you handle it well, you can take over the whole Nod base

 

One I found really really tough is the Nod one where you have to recapture the stealth tech. One of the two variants of that is rather easy because you can uncover your construction yard from the north, but the other one... good gods that's tough. You need to get through a narrow corridor to the base, take out two guard towers with bazookas, and rush everything in, and time is so neither the harvester nor the gunboat mess it all up. And during all that you also need to manage your southern troops across the river so they don't die while you're doing all that  O_o

[AchromicWhite]

Then I'm impressed with your death squad abilities, haha.

 

Aren't the chem troops HE? Not so sure HE is good vs tanks...... maybe hummers (but even range is not on your side).

I use the flame tank... I just make sure the med is shooting at the chem troops, haha.

 

I'm well aware of how those triggers work... though, if you just make a great distraction, the recon bike does all the work.

 

Yes, orcas are key to this mission.

No, I mean, have MORE turrets and stuff as you're finding a place for your base, and a small GDI task force to bring the MCV to the right area... heck, set up some obs to stop you from going the wrong way xD MAKE IT HARDER! but give a mix of GDI units to escort.

 

I'm well aware you can steal the whole base... I have stolen the whole base... stealing the whole base is fun... haha (in some ways I think you're MEANT to steal the whole thing.

 

I ADORE the stnk mission, and I NEVER use a cheap unveiling of the con yard! The start is so hard that it's fun, the middle where you build up a base is great, and if you steal their con from the side... you can get APACHES!

 

  -Liam

[Nyerguds]

Aren't the chem troops HE? Not so sure HE is good vs tanks......

Let me put it this way. HE and fire have the same damage level vs tank armour (3), namely 1/4th. Flame tank has a base damage of 2x50. Chem warrior has a base damage of 70.

 

So your flame tank does 24 damage every double-burst (50/4, rounded down, is 12, x2).

Three chem warriors, on the other hand, which can fire from the same cell, do 70/4, x3 = 17 x3 = 51.

 

Their ROF is a little longer (70 vs 50), but that doesn't compensate for the more than double damage they do. Not to mention, the medium tank will do much more damage to tank armour than to infantry, and infantry gets an additional 50% damage decrease when prone

 

Also, for some reason I can't quite fathom from the data, it seems chem spray is less effective against infantry. So I prefer keeping my flame tanks against enemy infantry. Especially grenadiers.

 

No, I mean, have MORE turrets and stuff as you're finding a place for your base, and a small GDI task force to bring the MCV to the right area... heck, set up some obs to stop you from going the wrong way xD MAKE IT HARDER! but give a mix of GDI units to escort.

Ohh. You mean, don't provide a shortcut, but actually force the player to fight through those turrets?

 

I ADORE the stnk mission, and I NEVER use a cheap unveiling of the con yard! The start is so hard that it's fun, the middle where you build up a base is great, and if you steal their con from the side... you can get APACHES!

Ugh. There's a reason they simply connected the lower and upper part in the N64 version. There, you can use the lower team to take out the defences at the base entrance... and there's no gunboat

[AchromicWhite]

That sounds lame... I love getting there with the commando. BTW, you can use the commando to take out the guard towers... you just have to get the tower shooting at other things...

 

Yeah, I mean, put 1/2 the mission into being a escort mission to protect the MCV. Put turrets and stuff on the way. If the player tries to use the starting units to take on the main defense of the shore, just slap on obelisk behind them to force the player to take another route... a route that's full of other things to kill (things they can actually beat).

[Nyerguds]

BTW, you can use the commando to take out the guard towers... you just have to get the tower shooting at other things...

The "suicide all you troops to make the commando bomb the towers" tactic is indeed what I usually end up doing when either the gunboat or harvester threaten to come back and casually eradicate all my bazookas