Command And Conquer: Tiberian Sun General Strategies

text taken from http://explosion.cheatplanet.com/

 

Harvester Bombs  
Have a expendable harvester and fill it with blue Tiberium. Since blue Tiberium is explosive,
send the harvester to the enemy base and send it next to a construction yard. Since a harvester
can take a lot of punishment, it will take a while for it to get killed. The harvester, when 
destroyed will explode and nearly destroy the structure you sent it next to. It will not 
destroy it...but if you have an ION cannon or multi missile ready...you can wreck serious havoc. 
Happy bombing!! 

Counter tactics
Even though blue Tiberium is worth more than regular green....fire an ION cannon or multi 
missile at a large patch of blue Tiberium. This will cause it to explode and much of it will be 
destroyed. Also...Build Concrete wall around your Con. Yard and Stealth Generator (as NOD) or 
upgrade centers (GDI) to ensure that the blast will not severely cripple it, but just have an 
effect equal to an RPG shot. 

Build Order for Fast Disrupter or Cyborg Commando Attack 
If you've been playing for a little then you've most likely had someone send disrupters or a 
cyborg commando real fast.Well the way to do that is build right.This building order is like 
this: 
GDI: deploy mcv build 1 power plant barracks and 1 refinery.Build radar then war factory then
another power plant both power plants need 2 power turbines each.then build 1 heli pad and a 
repair bay.Sell the repair bay and build a tech center and sell it.Build 2 carryalls and 2 
disrupters and attack.While attacking start a second refinery. 
NOD: deploy mcv build 1 power plant and barracks then a war factory.Then radar then tech center.
Sell tech center build a temple of nod and sell it build a commando and a subterranean apc.and 
attack.While attacking build a second refinery.Another thing if you know the person is better 
he's a counter tactic. NOD vs.GDI: if you are nod and against GDI same tactic get a commando 
fast and put sams and an obelisk by your mcv and war factory.if you're GDI and against nod rpg 
towers and titans will kill a commando fast also with GDI always make a second base .If it's 
nod vs nod same thing obelisk and a commando.Same for GDI vs GDI rpg towers and titans.If you 
attack with a command put 4 engineers in the apc also have the engineers get one building while
the commando attacks the other.

Follow Roads   
When in a mission when you have to search for something(such as on NOD when you have to find 
the Toxin Trucks)always follow the paved or dirt road. This usually takes you were you need to
go. I found this out while playing a while.

Diversion Base   
When you are playing a level where there is only one or two exits to the enemy base, build 
component towers or obelisks of light at the entrances of the base so the comp wont get any 
money and will run out of men so you can wipe them out or just take over the base.

Diversion Base 
First build up a good base the way you like. After you have a good defense at your base build 
a diversion base. If you are GDI transport then using an Orca carryall. Then deploy it and 
build a power plant. Undeploy it (or if you can't skip this sentence) and carryall it back to 
your main base. Then build up a base there ( but do *NOT* build important structures there). 
Finally build up your attack force there and don't worry about it being destroyed. If it is about
to be destroyed sell the structures and you will get your money back.

Get Veteran Units Easily
This is a trick I learned a while back. Get veterans can be hard, or easy. You can do it the 
long way and go for a battle, while praying that half your units get bared. Or you can go pick
on the innocent, hardly any weapons civilians. I found that destroying civilians buildings can
boost your men form bars to stars.

Defensive Strategies
Basically, when playing multiplayer games, you need to know both sides of attack inside out, 
you need to know the best ways of attacking from both GDI and NOD for the simple reason you can
defend against them. For example, if you are playing against a NOD player, you will know the 
ways they will attack and can then set about defending against them. If you can do this well,
then they will be unable to make the best attacks, and will lose units finding out they can't 
because of your defenses, and then they have to go back to the basics of attacks which are much 
less effective. Once you have all your vulnerable spots covered, you can safely concentrate on 
the offensive, and leave your base for a attack quite happily as you know that your base is 
well defended.
If you are playing GDI, then you always must defend at least in these two ways:- 
Pave your base and wall in. This will stop your opponent bringing up engineers and cyborg 
commandos in the center of your base, which surely is a good thing. 
SAMs, you need these to defend against Banshees, which offer powerful surgical hits. 
Obviously there are many other ways to defend but I feel that these are two of the most 
important ones. 
When playing NOD you must defend in these ways: 
SAMs, again these are a very important defense. Not only will they defend against squads of 
bombers, but will also stop MMKIIs being airlifted into your base along with engineers and 
ghost stalkers. Use your obelisks. Now don't go mad and make whole walls of these things, as the
power drain is too much and it costs too much too. But spread them around your base. GDI has a
much more powerful land force then NOD and lands attacks against NOD can be very effective,
but obelisks are very powerful, and can bring the attack force to it's knees, just make sure
you have enough power so that your obelisks will stay online if a couple of power stations are
destroyed as then obelisks will come useless and vulnerable.Knowing each side will also allow you
to see the other sides weaknesses, allowing more effective attacks, so if you get to know each
side, instead of only ever playing one, then you stand a much better chance of winning and a 
nice high rank :) 
Now I have only gone briefly into the strategies but I hope this may have been of some use to 
those less experience in this game.

Scout Early! 
As soon as the game starts, begin your search for the enemy base. You need to start planning 
your attack as soon as possible to succeed. When you find it, either keep going, exploring 
their base, or retreat back in another direction. DO NOT go directly back to your base as 
they may follow you and discover where your base is.

Counter tactic
If the enemy finds your base, prepare for the worse. Start building defenses and also try to
find their base, so that they're just as unnerved as you are.

Sell the Tech Center
After you build your Tech Center and have all the build options you can sell your Tech Center 
and as long as not any of the buildings you built after you built your Tech Center you will not
lose any build options.

Air Attacks 
Although expensive, concentrate on only using Banshees/ ORCA bombers for attacks. this saves 
money in the long run if they all survive SAM site encounters. I recommend giving each aircraft
its own helipad. Build about 20 of these units for a lethal attack that's almost unstoppable.

Infinite Tiberium Supply 
For your own supply of Tiberium, find a blossom tree and set up a base near it. Then surround 
it with concrete walls to restrict its growth into your base. Make sure the entrance to it is 
in the inside of your base. Defend it and you have a near infinite supply of money.

Don't Build Harvesters 
Build Refineries instead. You get a free harvester, it stops harvesters queing and it stops 
you building allot of silos. It's much more money efficient.

Don't Clump Up 
Keep your unit groups spread out. The 'X' (Scatter) Key can help you achieve this. If they are
tightly packed though, they will be vulnerable to Ion Cannons, Hunter Seekers, and Bombing runs.
Space out!

Targeting Tips 
When attacking, use infantry, and other units with minigun-type weapons to attack the most 
threatening light units, and tanks and heavy units to attack the most threatening/valuable 
heavy unit or structure. The key point is to concentrate your fire on one enemy unit or 
structure at a time, to get rid of them quickly. Also, aim for weakened enemy units first, as
these will be destroyed quicker, resulting in less fire against your own units!

POWERful attack 
If possible, such as if the opponent has been stupid and placed all his/her power plants close
together, destroying them all will render the enemy useless. Defenses will be down, and 
construction will be slow. You can now attack them at their most vulnerable.

Spread 'em 
Keep your structures spread as far apart as possible, to prevent disastrous attacks from 
cluster missiles, ion cannons or bombers

Money wins Wars 
Build as many refineries and harvesters as you can, and as close to the Tiberium fields as 
possible. A steady cash flow will allow you to move quickly up (or down) the tech tree and 
gain access to more powerful weapons, and to build lots of units and base defenses. Have at 
least 2-3 Refineries (but not placed next to each other!) and 3-5 Harvesters.

Construction Yard Protection One of the most common, and easiest tactics to use, is to capture
the enemy construction yard with a Sub APC and engineer. There are several ways of preventing
this: 
Build walls, laser fences, or firestorm walls around your construction yard to protect it. 
Build pavement around the construction yard. This will only slow the enemy down though. 
Keep an engineer at the ready to recapture the building if it is captured. 
Build an MCV as a backup so you can build another Construction Yard. 
Place a Mobile Sensor Array beside your Construction Yard to warn you of any cloaked or 
subterranean units approaching and give you time to prepare.

Use Mobile Sensor Arrays!
When playing GDI or NOD, USE MOBILE ARRAYS (when fog of war is on) to uncover the enemy base..
.. Hide them!! Put them behind cliffs, trees, and city buildings...Also.. placing titans and 
infantry behind city buildings is very effective as well...against a human player,.. .they are
difficult to notice... try it.. it works!

Infantry Rush
Attack using cheap, low cost units. I go for Light Infantry rushes or Disk Thrower rushes. 
First I get a good credit flow, and then start churning these guys out. 
50-100 of these guys are quite powerful. Follow up with armor. 
Counter Offence: Keep lots of Wolverines or Cyborgs. They eat infantry for breakfast. NOD Only:
Get a few Harpys to attack this group. 5-8 are a good number. Do this once or twice. Don't do
this too many times unless your desperate or opponent is as intelligent as a brass doorknob.
Or he'll have air defense waiting for your choppers after a few times.

Annoying EM Pulse Defense 
Does your enemy always fire the EMP at you when you attack and then quickly destroy all your
armor with infantry? Well then build a dummy force. Throw in 1 or 2 expensive units just to 
convince him that its your real attacking force. After he's wasted his EMP just move in your
real armor and finish of his base. (But I advise you to capture his base instead. This really
pisses him of and if you place a powerful defense structure like the NOD Obelisk next to your
captured building (unfortunately you have to manually target enemy buildings and defense
structures) it starts softening up his base from the inside.) 
Counter Attack: Don't depend on the EMP Cannon too much. Have infantry chewing mobile armor
like the artillery or 3-5 wolverines or Vulcan cannons or 3 lasers grouped together, really
powerful that way. Have lots of armor chewers to. RPG upgrades are great and so are lasers
and Obelisks.

Harvester Scouting 
If you are playing multiplayer with harvester truce use your harvester to go into the enemy 
base and uncover it, allowing you to locate their construction yard for attacks.

Uncloaking a Base 
Send in some infantry to observe the positions of key enemy structures in a cloaked Nod base.
Mark the positions of important structures (Stealth Generator, Con Yard, War Factory, Missile
Silos) with Waypoints. Now you can fire missiles at those building before your main attack,
or use the information to plan a ground assault. Counter tactic: Don't let enemy units in to
the heart of your base, where key structures are. Defend from all sides.

ORCA/Harpy Patrols 
Patrol your base with a few aircraft. Use waypoints, and hold down CTRL-ALT-SHIFT while 
clicking on them to tell the units to guard and patrol. The air units in TS have a guard range
of 20 cells, so will spot enemy's very quickly and give you plenty of notice, as well as 
harassing enemy infantry.

Distraction! 
Make up three medium-sized attack forces and send one to attack the enemy harvesters, and 
another to attack the edge of the enemy base. Once you have the opponent sufficiently 
distracted, attack the other side of his/her base, or just run through to the middle of the 
base, ignoring everything, with the third group, and attack the base from within. 
Alternatively, you can send in an APC full of engineers and start capturing his/her base! 
Counter-tactics: Keep your wits about you, and watch the enemy's every move. if you have more
than one obvious weak spot or entrance to your base, and the enemy attack one don't send ALL
your units to stop them there. Keep some at other vulnerable points or scattered around your
base. Build lasers and leave defense teams within your base, not just around it.

Bombers + EM Pulse Cannon + Units = Final Kill! 
This strategy is best successful when:

The other player is NOD and builds defensively 
You have lots of money and units already :) 
It has to be timed perfectly 
Do the following:

Move your units close to the enemy, but far enough back that they can't EM Pulse you. 
Build about 4 bombers (the more the better) 
Build an EM Pulse cannon structure. Place it within your base to allow it to build a pulse 
shot. Build a carryall and a construction yard. 
Start to build another EMP structure, but pause it when it is close to being ready. 
Send your carryall close the enemies base, but far enough that you don't get shelled or EMP'd.
Build your construction yard when it lands. 
Tell your bombers to attack the enemies base. 
Finish building your EMP site. Sell the other one at your base. 
Tell your units also to attack the enemies base. 
Immediately fire the EMP into the enemies base. 
Continue building ground units. 
This will happen:

Your EMP will freeze the artillery pieces that your enemy as the NOD will surely have. I think
this also freezes some anti-aircraft as well. Your ground units will be able to destroy a large
part of the enemies defense. Your bombers will help destroy the enemies crucial buildings. 
Additional ground units can move in to mop up.

Take out Enemy Con Yard and Refineries
Get 5-20 Engineers into the enemy base (underground transport NOD, Carryall + APC GDI) and let
them take a run for the Construction Yard and the Refinery(s). 
One Eng. is enough to take the building, once you've got it, sell it. 
Enemy wont have enough money to build new Mobile Construction Vehicle, so destroy the power
plants and enjoy victory!

Camouflage 
When choosing your colour, choose green as this will enable you to hide in Tiberian fields
unseen!! 

text taken from http://explosion.cheatplanet.com/