Tiberian Dawn hardest in the series?

[Rampastring]

I think we all agree that TW is the easiest of the series.

I think that TW is harder than TS. It's probably close to FS (I played both on Hard). However, TW's expansion, Kane's Wrath, I found one of the most difficult games in the series. I'm not sure if it matches TD, but I don't think it's very far from it (at least the last few missions).

 

C&C3's story is kinda meh, but otherwise the game is pretty nice. Same with KW.

[Nyerguds]

Cranes do not add to building defences.

Base walking was done with power plants built from Cranes, with the defense structure put down from the CY once the enemy base was reached. In response, they nerfed the hell out of the build radius available from powerplants, and all other cheap buildings... which messed up a ton of stuff in the single player gameplay, and in fact made some missions nearly impossible to finish, because they were scripted with the original behaviour in mind

 

The worst part? Even before the release of the game they assured the community that single player and multiplayer patching would be kept separated :mad:

[KILL]

I'm only on mission 7 of the Red Alert Allied campaign but I'm already going to say this is the hardest game so far.

 

AI is equally as aggressive as Tiberian Dawn on hard difficulty.  I don't think they rebuild as fast, but they do keep up on repairs.  Also the units in this game are way tougher.  V2 rockets obliterate your base and the AI is smart enough to protect them with tanks.  Then you got planes and paradrops going after your harvesters all the time.

 

Mission #3 is where you really see how 'hard' hard difficulty is.  Your objective is to destroy bridges with Tanya, but there are attack dogs scattered throughout the map, hidden in the fog of war.  The minute they see you they are like lightning.  They eat Tanya and the mission is failed.  Only way to beat them is to turn the game speed down to 1/2 so you can pick them off.  You can also use your 1 artillery unit, but there is so much infantry he will get wiped out by grenadiers.

 

I complete forgot that lower power slows down the building of everything tremendously.  Also engineers aren't really useful since you have to damage buildings quite low before you can capture them.

 

 

[Nyerguds]

Only way to beat them is to turn the game speed down to 1/2 so you can pick them off.

You do realize that the middle of the game speed slider is supposed to be the default game speed, right? 

[KILL]

Only way to beat them is to turn the game speed down to 1/2 so you can pick them off.

You do realize that the middle of the game speed slider is supposed to be the default game speed, right? 

I know, but I found the speed is different for every game.

 

4 (default speed) felt way too slow on Tiberian Dawn.  So I put it to 6.

 

For Tib Sun, default was like slow motion...  I put it on 6 as well.  On 7 (max) the game was unplayable it went so fast.

 

4 on Red Alert is not bad, but the infantry still seem too slow.  I prefer 5.  6 is ok, 7 isn't hyperspeed like Tib Sun, but still too fast.

 

 

[KILL]

Doesn't get more intense than this. 

 

[KILL]

No question that the final Red Alert Allied mission is the hardest out of any I've played so far.  By a good margin too.

 

Compare it to Firestorm's final GDI/NOD mission?  The AI is aggressive and constantly attacks you, but you have way more things at your disposal.  Carryall a MK.  II around the map to wipe out their bases or as NOD use subterranean APCs with engineers and cap/sell buildings.  Once you deal with the cluster silos, then artillery, it's a breeze.  Just takes a while to build up sufficient army.

 

Compare it to Tiberian Dawn?  You only need 2 guard towers or 2 obelisks to defend your base.  The AI is aggressive, but doesn't send enough units to level your base.  Resources are tighter in Dawn, but there is so much more you can do strategy wise.

 

This mission was insane.  Defense structures are utterly useless.  I gave 2 attempts massing defense with tanks to assist, but I still failed hard.  In the end, my strat was massing tanks to use as defense and offense.  When I had enough I took out the lower base, but that made them mad and they sent tons of forces from the top, center, and bottom of the map.  I then started building choppers and kamikazed them - taking out the construction yard first, then war factories, then 3 barracks.  In total it took me 3.5 hours to win.  There were a lot of close calls.

 

Missions 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 15 were all challenging.  AI is more aggressive then Dawn, they pump units just as fast, and they move faster.  Crazy!

 

I'll start Soviet campaign tomorrow.

[Rampastring]

You do realize that the middle of the game speed slider is supposed to be the default game speed, right? 

I don't know anyone who actually enjoys the games at that speed. Most people play on Faster (45 / 60 FPS in TS) and some play on Fast (30 FPS in TS).

[ore_truck]

I think Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert missions (and their expansions) are quite hard if you're playing it for the first time, then it seems easier if you failed and retry many times. I didn't remember retrying a lot of missions in Tiberian Sun, except some Firestorm missions that are really difficult like the last missions for both sides, In the Box(where you must capture CABAL as GDI) and the NOD mission you need to assassinate Tratos. Dogma Day Afternoon (where you fight the cult soldiers and tiberian fiends) was tough on my first few tries.

 

Red Alert 2 and YR on hard isn't so hard even on my first try except the penultimate Soviet mission, Operation:Red Revolution which was insane with enemy bases covering the entire map...and they're 3 different house colours too so destroying power plants on the first base doesn't affect the next base power. I then discovered the only way of winning the mission was to use the starting kirovs and avoid as many flaks as possible and bomb the kremlin.

[Jacko]

I'd agree, you remember the difficulty of each game usually for how many superhard missions there were (or at least seemed superhard on the first few tries)

 

I got vibes of that much more when playing Tib Dawn and Red Alert 1 than any of the other C&C games I played (Especially those god damn tanya/interior missions. argh)

 

And yes that Soviet RA2 mission was pretty hard. Interestingly the first time I beat it by nuking the kremlin (twice!)

[KILL]

I think Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert missions (and their expansions) are quite hard if you're playing it for the first time, then it seems easier if you failed and retry many times. I didn't remember retrying a lot of missions in Tiberian Sun, except some Firestorm missions that are really difficult like the last missions for both sides, In the Box(where you must capture CABAL as GDI) and the NOD mission you need to assassinate Tratos. Dogma Day Afternoon (where you fight the cult soldiers and tiberian fiends) was tough on my first few tries.

 

Red Alert 2 and YR on hard isn't so hard even on my first try except the penultimate Soviet mission, Operation:Red Revolution which was insane with enemy bases covering the entire map...and they're 3 different house colours too so destroying power plants on the first base doesn't affect the next base power. I then discovered the only way of winning the mission was to use the starting kirovs and avoid as many flaks as possible and bomb the kremlin.

This isn't my first time playing the games.  This is my second playthrough in 19 years. 

 

I have never played anything past RA2 or Firestorm.  Never played Yuri's, RA3, C&C 3, or C&C 4.

 

Going back on the discussion from the other page about the AI's intelligence...  On Mission 8 of the Allied campaign on Red Alert, the Soviet AI used V2 rockets to destroy trees above my base, just so they could take another shot at my Chronosphere.  Pretty smart AI for an ancient game.

 

I don't know about the other difficulties, but on hard they always go for your harvesters, refineries, or other important buildings.

 

[Jacko]

A quick looksie on the ini file shows that they are ordered to attack a waypoint on the tree,

but yeah pretty cool I guess.

 

Usually on that mission I just wipe out the whole base.

 

Yuri's revenge wasn't that hard (maybe except the last missions for Allies and Soviets... maybe)

C&C 3 wasn't that hard either, maybe the last GDI mission I found quite difficult

[SoftLadSTEJ]

I never completed the nod campaign in td!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;*( That mission where you get two groups of forces split up, and there's a gigantic mammoth blocking a bridge was RIDICULOUSLY HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;*( With my 138 point IQ though, I could probably do it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 ;*D

[KILL]

A quick looksie on the ini file shows that they are ordered to attack a waypoint on the tree,

but yeah pretty cool I guess.

 

Usually on that mission I just wipe out the whole base.

 

Yuri's revenge wasn't that hard (maybe except the last missions for Allies and Soviets... maybe)

C&C 3 wasn't that hard either, maybe the last GDI mission I found quite difficult

How do you see in an .ini where they order units?

 

Regardless, that mission was tough.  A lot of pressure from the AI.  Try to get any minerals and they will go for your harvester the moment they spot it.  If you attack their harvester, they will send everything at you.

[Nyerguds]

You do realize that the middle of the game speed slider is supposed to be the default game speed, right? 

I don't know anyone who actually enjoys the games at that speed. Most people play on Faster (45 / 60 FPS in TS) and some play on Fast (30 FPS in TS).

You clearly never played this game in its original 320x200 resolution. Having a screen that small really requires a lower game speed since you see so little of the map 

 

I never completed the nod campaign in td!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;*( That mission where you get two groups of forces split up, and there's a gigantic mammoth blocking a bridge was RIDICULOUSLY HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;*( With my 138 point IQ though, I could probably do it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 ;*D

That's the 'easy' half of the map, though... the other side is much more essential, since it has your construction yard. But, actually, there are two choices for that mission, and one is nearly impossible while the other one is a breeze, since you can uncover your construction yard from the top without needing to actually get your troops into the captured base. O_o

[Rampastring]

You clearly never played this game in its original 320x200 resolution. Having a screen that small really requires a lower game speed since you see so little of the map 

I did, but not for long. And I did it back in 2006 after discovering DOS RA. Win 98 was already out when I was old enough to understand something about the games

[MattAttack]

You clearly never played this game in its original 320x200 resolution. Having a screen that small really requires a lower game speed since you see so little of the map 

I did, but not for long. And I did it back in 2006 after discovering DOS RA. Win 98 was already out when I was old enough to understand something about the games

I have to say that I like busting out the old c&c on dosbox once in a while.  It's a completely different experience where you absolutely need the comm center and I find myself paranoid about what's going on just a few cells away!  I also like to test my missions on the dos version to see just how insanely hard they are.

[KILL]

Just finished the Soviet Campaign.  There were a lot of close calls in the beginning.  I'd say the last mission is equally as difficult as the final Allied mission, maybe even more so at the beginning.  The pressure from the 3 beach landings and cruiser attacks is crazy.  Once I took out the first naval yard, they stopped building cruisers, though 3 more came from the west side of the map, so I'm not sure if those were hidden or scripted to come at specific times.  After I stopped the cruisers, it was just about protecting the beaches and then slowly working on my offensive attack. 

 

As for the rest of the Soviet campaign, it's way easier than the Allies.  Mission 13 wasn't particularly difficult, but on hard, if you scout the chronosphere with a Spy plane, they will kill it and you lose.  Also if you are too aggressive on their harvesters or with the bridges, they will kill it.  Mission 11 was tough to get to their base because of the amount of ships and hidden mines.  Mission 9 was insane at the start, but once you took out the brown Allied base it was easy.

 

Soviet's have way better units and buildings in their arsenal...  3 Tesla coils can handle an infinite amount infantry.  If you build walls around the Tesla's, they can handle an infinite amount of tanks.  Turrets and pillboxes pale in comparison.  For air defense, you only need 5 SAM sites to protect yourself from chopper attackers.  Soviet's have way better tanks, way better air units, and the air drops + spy plane are great.

 

I'm going to go back and do Covert Ops on Tiberian Dawn, then i'll play Counter-Strike and Aftermath.