Red Alert 3 - Allied Mission 9 - Leningrad

* Have four of your initial Mirage Tanks survive the clearing of the Plateau.

* Immediately utilize these to clear out the four War Factories to the east, along with an Iron Curtain, (that's one) a Battle Lab, and an Ore Refinery. Hopefully you will have at least two of these gold-star veterans survive. Do not attack any other Iron Curtains. Retreat back to the bridge east of your base.

* Keep two or three of your Mirage Tanks on the eastern bridge to keep Natasha from targeting airstrikes on your base. That's a real pain in the arse if she gets through.

* Build the Chronosphere and the Proton Collider ASAP. Research both Heightened Clearance and Maximum Clearance so you can recruit Tanya.

* Place Tanya inside a transport so she can utilize the Chronosphere. She will be able to easily destroy two of the Iron Curtains (that's two and three) on the east side of the map, the Vacuum Imploder and the Premier's Fortress.

* Do not assault with either land or air units the southeastern Iron Curtain that is surrounded by garrisoned civilian structures. It is too heavily guarded. Hack away at it with Surgical Strikes, Timebombs, then Deluxe Timebombs, then Supreme Timebombs. Once it is at half strength, finish it off with the Proton Collider. (that's four)

* Repeat this process with the northern most Iron Curtain on the west side of the map. If necessary, add a bombing run to aid in the process. (that's five)

* Very early in the game, set up an Airbase at your co-commander's base. Set up four Vindicators and destroy the four Barracks to the north. Your co-commander should destroy the southernmost Iron Curtain by himself, (that's six) and you can help use your air power to destroy the one directly above that. (that's seven!!)

* Before destroying the final Iron Curtain, have at least six Vindicators ready to roll. After the seventh one is destroyed and the Premier's Fortress is vulnerable, two Dreadnoughts will appear from the southeast. They will immediately target Tanya, even if she has already taken the Chronosphere over to the Fortress. Destroy these Dreadnoughts immediately with your Vindicators.

Mission Objectives:

* Unpack MCV 1 at Chrono Drop Zone 1.
* Unpack MCV 2 at Chrono Drop Zone 2.
* Clear the Plateau of Soviets.
* Destroy all seven Iron Curtains.
* Destroy the Premier's Fortress.

Bonus Objectives:

* Destroy the Vacuum Imploder.

Walkthrough:

NOTE: Written for the hard setting.

Part 1:

Your MCV will be shrunk to sneak past the Soviet defenses. Set up your base in the designated zone and five Mirage Tanks will come to your assistance.

Although it is a bit tricky, keep playing this part of the mission until you clear the plateau of Soviet forces and still survive with four of the Mirage Tanks in reasonably good health. Approach the Apocalypse Tanks from an angle so that no other dangers are present during the attack. Attack these tanks simultaneously with all of your Mirage Tanks so they will be destroyed before grinding your Mirages to scrap.

Once you have survived with four Mirage Tanks, save your mission. The hardest part may already be over!!!

Part 2:

Now it's time to multitask a bit, but it's not too unreasonable. While building your base (building order to be given in a moment) lead the four Mirage Tanks to the east and destroy the two War Factories.

Don't rush too much. Destroy the Sentry Guns when other enemy units are not in the area. Keep your veteran units in front as you proceed forward. Destroy the Iron Curtain, (that's one) Battle Lab and Ore Refinery in the area, along with the four Sentry Guns. Just leave the Super Reactor alone! Its explosion will destroy your Mirage Tanks. Work your way north to destroy the third and fourth War Factories.

Job well done! Now retreat back to the bridge east of your base and spread your veteran Mirages along the bridge to wait for Natasha to appear. Fry her when she shows up! Don't move, though, or she may snipe the driver of your vehicle.

While doing the above, you need to flip back and forth to keep the building process going forward. Build a Reactor and two Ore Refineries. Build a Barracks, recruit an engineer, then capture the Oil Derrick to the south.

Build an Airbase and place it at your co-commander's base!! Build four Vindicators and start bombing runs on the four Barracks to the north, then the Iron Curtains. Be sure to obtain Advanced Aeronautics before starting the bombing runs!

On top of this, start building three Multigunner Turrets and place them on the northeast side of your base. Load them up with Javelin units.

Sometimes you will get so caught up in the heat of battle, you will forget to keep building. If so, you may want to do it over again to make sure you don't run short of time or resources.

This is a great time to save. So far, you are on your way to kicking butt in this mission.

Part 3

After retrieving your Mirage Tanks back to the bridge, you can pretty much focus on building up your base. Here is a suggested building order that you need to keep moving on:

Defense Bureau
Chronosphere
Heightened Clearance
Proton Collider
Maximum Clearance
Armor Facility
Airbase
Two or three Spectrum Towers

Of course, you are going to need a lot of power to keep this all running. Err on the side of caution to have more than enough Reactors online before building the Proton Collider, etc.

Even though you are focusing on your base, you still have a bit of multitasking to do. Keep an eye on your bonus points and constantly level up on the far right side of the special abilities column.

Immediately utilize the Surgical Strike, Timebomb, Deluxe Timebomb and Supreme Timebomb to bring the southeastern Iron Curtain (surrounded by the garrisoned structures) to half strength. Destroy it later with the Proton Collider. Beautiful!! (that's two)

Use the same strategy to begin damaging the far northwestern Iron Curtain.

Another thing you will be doing is continuing to fly your Vindicators from your co-commander's base to destroy the four Barracks directly to his north and then start chipping away at the Iron Curtains. The bottom two Iron Curtains will easily be destroyed in this manner between you and your co-commander's efforts. (that's three and four)

Your Chronosphere may be ready before you are able to recruit Tanya, since you need to first obtain Maximum Clearance. Once she is recruited, place her in a Riptide ACV and transport her above the "middle" eastern Iron Curtain. You can easily destroy it. (that's five) If you are lucky, you may also be able to take out a few Airfields.

Wait until the bonus objective of destroying the Vacuum Imploder appears, and you can then have Tanya destroy it and the northeastern Iron Curtain at the same time once the Chronosphere recharges. (that's six)

While doing all of the above, you need to prepare for a nasty assault from about four Apocalypse Tanks. Start building two or three Spectrum Towers near the eastern bridge. Pull back your Mirage Tanks to your base.

If you haven't done so already, build an Airbase at your home base and build two or three Cryocopters to slow them down. Add a few Spies to the mix and you may add some Apocalypse Tanks to your crew.

Make sure at least three Multigunner Turrets are in good shape to fend off the continuing air attacks.

Part 4

Now is a good time to save again before you destroy the final Iron Curtain.

This seventh Iron Curtain will be the one located in the far northwestern corner. Hopefully by now, you have weakened it with Surgical Strikes, Timebombs and your co-commander's Proton Collider. If you haven't done so already, click on this Iron Curtain to order your co-commander to target it with his PC.

You should be able to finish it off with a single airstrike, but make further preparations before you do so. You should have enough time.

Make sure you have six Vindicators ready to go. Once the final Iron Curtain is destroyed, two aggressive Dreadnoughts will appear from the southwest. They will immediately target Tanya, even if she has already teleported over to the Premier's Fortress.

Destroy both of them with your Vindicators before they target your Airbase and Tanya. Once they are gone, transport Tanya over to the Fortress with the Chronosphere. She should be safe now, unless you drop her off under a Kirov Airship.

Use Tanya to destroy the Fortress.

Mission accomplished!