Berne (mission)

Berne is the final Act IV mission of the GDI campaign in Tiberium Wars.

Background
Berne was initially attacked by the Brotherhood of Nod at the start of the Third Tiberium War but this was repelled by the rallied GDI forces. After the Liquid Tiberium explosion in Sarajevo, the Scrin made planetfall into the Red Zones and started attacking the major cities. The Scrin were attracted to Berne because of the blue Tiberium crystals in the city. In their initial assault an alien mothership vaporised the city centre, instantly turning Berne into a red zone wasteland with blue tiberium crystals erupting from the centre. The Scrin then stationed its main European base of operations here.

Following a string of GDI victories in Germany, leading to the liberations of Stuttgart and Cologne, GDI plans an offensive to drive the aliens out of Europe for good by staging the attack on Berne.

Insertion
GDI forces established a base just inside the city walls. Whilst they were preparing their defenses, Scrin patrols detected their presence and immediately launched ground and aerial raids against GDI. Under direct Scrin fire, GDI constructed their airfields and used Firehawks to destroy the Devastator Warships besieging the GDI defenses. Once again, the Sonic Emitters proved their significance in eradicating the alien raids.

Counterattack
Knowing the aliens would fight to the finish, GDI began construction of their ion cannon control center, their commander having been given full use of the GDI arsenal. With each alien raid being beaten back in a war of attrition (and rising casualties), GDI built up two armies of Mammoth Tanks, Juggernauts and Zone Troopers to take on the Scrin forces. There was the main alien base overlooking what used to be the city center, and two smaller bases specialising in ground and aerial forces.

Attacking the armored base
The armored alien base was responsible for the "construction" of the Scrin tanks and vehicles, including their Annihilator Tripods. One GDI army bypassed the city center and breached the armor base's perimeter. The base seemed built for production rather than actual defense, as the GDI forces seamlessly put the armored base permanently out of commission. On their way to the alien air base, infantry were shocked to find blue Tiberium crystals sprawling at what used to be the city center.

Attacking the airbase
Another GDI army proceeded to the Scrin's airbase which was responsible for the devastating aerial attacks on the GDI base, which included their Devastator Warships and the agile Stormriders. Each raid on the attacking army was destroyed by missile squads, APCs, Pitbulls and even the Mammoth Tanks. Like the armored base, the air base was built for the purposes of prodcution rather than for defense, and the base was soon destroyed by the GDI forces.

Arrival of a mothership?
While GDI was attacking the secondary bases, Lt. Kirce James notified the commander of a mysterious entity heading towards Berne. The signal was transmitting from a specific structure deep inside the main Scrin base. not willing for the Scrin to pull out their utlimate trump card, the GDI commander immediately ordered the ion cannon to strike at the Signal Transmitter before the entity entered the city. The structure was obliterated by the beam along with any alien forces that got caught up in the blast zone. The entity thus did not arrive, allowing GDI to concentrate their efforts at the Scrin base.

Destruction of the main Scrin base
The main alien base could only be approached on two fronts from where the secondary bases guarding the entry points. The two GDI armies approached the aliens on both fronts but were soon engaged in a vicious battle with the alien defenders. The Scrin threw everything they had in the city at the GDI forces, while GDI could only hope to push their way into the alien stronghold, and casualties were becoming high. With support from the Firehawks, reinforcements and the ion cannon however, GDI raw firepower prevailed, and the two armies finally converged on the main base. Initially shocked at the sight and power of the Scrin's Storm Columns GDI nevertheless overcame the defense structure and breached the main alien base. Anything that was not GDI was brutally destroyed. The last remnants of the alien forces were either killed or retreated back into the Red Zones.

Aftermath
The decisive GDI victory at Berne once again became a rallying point for GDI forces around the world, pushing the Scrin back into the Red Zones. But, as GDI soon discovered, the attacks on the blue zones were just a diversion to draw attention away from the aliens' true objective.

The city of Berne was already in massive ruin by the time the battle was fought. Construction projects began after the Scrin were eliminated at the end of the Third Tiberium War.

Walkthrough
The player starts out with Predators, two juggernauts and 2 pitbulls.

Get many defenses and units especially mammoth tanks and Sonic Emitters up because the Scrin will throw everything they got at you.

Beware the Devastators will outrange the AA Batteries so get firehawks, APCS or pitbulls to deal with them.

The Tripods will crush the predators so get mammoths to absorb the damage while the Juggernauts kill them.

Beware of the Mastermind unit that will control the players units.

The base to the northwest uses ground units while the base in the southeast will use air power.

Capture the two Tiberium Spikes to fund the mission.

Capture the Scrin base and expand to the center where blue Tiberium will help the player out in a big way.

Destroy the Scrin base to the northeast to drive the Scrin out of Berne.

Trivia
If the player does not destroy the Signal Transmitter in time, the Mothership will appear at the alien base and fly towards the GDI base. The player is thus forced to destroy the entity before it reaches the base. If this happens, the player will fail the bonus objective to destroy the Signal Transmitter while receiving another bonus objective to destroy the Mothership until is failed to destroy Signal Transmitter before you reach a base.

The two Pitbulls that the player starts with are stealthed, giving them a slight boost in effectiveness, when used properly, since any Pitbulls built are not. Levelling them to Heroic rank should be somewhat easy due to the fact that Stormriders are relatively fragile in this mission.

The Drone Ship of the Scrin main base has an extreme resilence to damage, being able to get hit by a Mothership without being destroyed.