RED ALERT 2
WALKTHROUGH

Soviets - Mission 12 'Operation Polar Storm'

Mission Objectives

• Objective: Destroy the Chronosphere.

Pre-amble: The final mission.

Hints, Strategies and Tactics: Resist the temptation to mount a land offensive; it will take you ages with a war of attrition in which you will lose many units. Although all looks calm, you are about to come under two attacks, so get beavering on your defenses.

Comments on the Map/Mission: At the start Zophia advises you to mount an early Naval assault, but doesn't say where. The obvious target is the pair of Allied Naval yards, but why didn't she say so? Because Westwood are trying to be disingenuous.

The Allies are on a landmass that is shaped like Africa, with you starting with a part built base on a small island/piece of land to the SE. The target building is at the edge of the map, half way up on the west. It is very close to the last piece of coast, and thus a sea and air attack are best. If you could remove the shroud, you would see that the Chronosphere has tons of Patriot Missile launchers around it. Obviously Westwood expect an air attack. Why did Westwood put a coastal area up the West of the Allied landmass?

There is no beach for landing here, but Dreadnoughts can fire rockets over the cliffs. Handy then that most of the Chronosphere's defences are in range of a dreadnought in that sea. Clearly Westwood expect you to attack this way, else why make it possible? More evidence to support this are the 2 Prism towers over the cliffs, clearly design to zap any curious dreadnoughts. If you do decide on a land attack, it is a slow, tortuous route against a lot of firepower and the Allies will use the Chronosphere to beam more vehicles in mercilessly behind and in front of you.

Building/unit construction order: You already have a Construction Yard, Barracks, Tesla Reactor and Radar. Build these next:

• Ore Refinery on the coastal plain just to the North of the Tesla Reactor.
• 10 Conscripts (move these to the NE of the Tesla Reactor, in the snowy area between a group of three rocks and the gold field, to await an imminent arrival of Allied Units via the Chronosphere to this point. When this attack happens, make sure all conscripts are on guard. No more use will be made of the Chronosphere by the Allies until you make a landing, which you aren't going to do, are you?
• War Factory to the West of the Radar.
• Ore Miner,
• 1 Flak Track - put this next to the Barracks.
• Battle Lab to the South East of the Construction Yard (at the edge of the map).
• 2 Kirov Airships (there are 3 hidden inland on the Allies' landmass, but you need to reveal them to get them, which takes too much time, so forget them - you don't need them). Fly these carefully along the Southern edge of the map to the far SW corner. Make sure the Allied Aegis Cruisers at the Allied Naval Yard to the North do not see you, or they will get the Kirov's.
• Naval Shipyard to the West of your War Factory.
• No more buildings needed.
• 4 Dreadnoughts. Follow the Kirov's, don't wait for all to be built, you can start the attack with one and let the others catch up.
• 1 Sea Scorpion. Take these to the dreadnoughts, the Allies may launch Rocketeers to defend against the missile attack.
• No more units needed.

Attack Strategy: As soon as you see a landmass directly North of the Southern edge of the map, move the Kirov's and sea units up the Western coast of this landmass. Keep the dreadnoughts away a little from the coast, or you will get zapped by 2 Prism Towers. If you can't see the Allied Ore refinery (the dreadnoughts range should see it), then one of the Kirov's will need to cross the coast and up over the mountains to the East a bit, so you can see the base of the Ore Refinery, then retreat over the sea again.

Now target the dreadnoughts on the Ore Refinery, doing so will cause the patriot missile systems to show themselves. Destroy these, but do not move too close to the coast. After you have destroyed the Patriot Missile Systems you can see, move a Kirov to the edge of the map and go North until you can see the bases of two Prism towers (you may have destroyed one) - one at the edge of the map and one just in from that. Then turn the Kirov around and get out of range of the Patriot Missile Systems. Do this quickly and as close to the edge of the map as you can to avoid damage to the Kirov. It will need to be in good repair for the final attack.

Now target the dreadnoughts on the Westernmost Prism tower until it is destroyed, then the other one. The dreadnoughts will keep firing, so target and destroy any patriot missile systems that show themselves. You will not be able to reach all the patriot missile systems, but you will have taken enough out. Now take the Kirov's up the edge of the map again and turn to North East as you pass over the site of the first Prism Tower you took out. You will see the Chronosphere soon. Target it. Your Kirov's will be under fire all this time, but will be able to get a few bombs off before crashing. If the bombs don't get the target, the crashing Kirov's will!

That's it. Now, is Yuri dead or not? I wonder ....