Mind Games

Mind Games in the third stage of Kane's Challenge, pitting the Commander against the Traveler-59 in a Blue Zone City.

Strategy
The game starts the player with a Construction Yard near a green Tiberium field. The player may wish to pack up the MCV and move to a blue Tiberium field to the north. In either case, the first thing that should be done is to set up a power plant and at least one refinery, preferably two. As always, a crane may be helpful to build a base faster.

Traveler-59 has a to the north, which is located near multiple Tiberium fields and is well defended by multiple Storm columns. Given time, they will start building powerful Devastator Warship and even an Eradicator Hexapod, which can destroy even heavily defended bases very quickly. For this reason, a mid-tier unit rush- with units powerful enough to overwhelm the columns in groups, is advisable.

Option A: Right Flank Rush
After getting harvesting operations up and running, the player should build a War Factory and two or three MBT-6 Predators and CC-6 Pitbulls as soon as possible to defend against early ground and air attacks. A Watchtower may also be helpful. The player should then construct a Command post. At this point, the player may also want to build a few AA batteries for further protection against Stormrider.

The first attack force should consists of at least five MBT-6 Predators and five Shatterers and a couple Slingshots for air defense. You may wish to make a larger attack force of say 15 tanks total. The Shatterer should be particularly effective at quickly destroying Scrin ground forces and structures. With the Steel Talons, use the same tactic, but substitute Predators with Titan Mk. IIs. This may be more difficult for the Talons, however, as they do not have access to Shatterers. It should be be possible to build this force before the Travelers start producing Devastator Warships, which destroy your base very quickly, even with very heavy defenses. Also, note that it is a good idea to start building a second wave if the first fails.

Once you have your tanks, attack the left flank of the base, near the Gravity Stabilizer. Your first target should be the single storm column guarding this approach. You may lose a few tanks, but the column will fall. The next targets should be the Gravity Stabilizer and the Reactors. Once the power plants are shut down, attack the Storm column nearest the Drone platform immediately, and then destroy the platform itself.

With the platform destroyed, take out all the Scrin power plants, as well as the Warp Sphere and Portal. Once the production and base defenses are disabled, you may destroy the base at your leisure. If this does not immediately win the scenario, check near the other Tiberium fields and destroy and Scrin outposts until you win the game.

Option B: MARV Rush
Another risky, but potentially effective strategy is to build a Mammoth Armed Reclamation Vehicle before the Travellers can construct their Devastators or Eradicator. This requires the player to quickly set up two (perhaps even three) refineries, a power plant, and a command post. Build some AA batteries and watchtowers to guard against possible early infantry and air attacks. Be sure to protect your Harvesters and Refineries from air attack. Don't worry about silos, the harvesters will simply resume activity as you spend. At the same time, construct first a Tech Center and a Reclamator hub. After that, immediately build a MARV. When the MARV is complete, build a Barracks and three Missile squads and an Engineer and garrison them in the MARV. Note that this spending may result in you getting in the red zone funds wise, however, multiple harvesters should quickly bring in more revenue.

It should be possible to get the MARV ready before the Travellers start deploying Devastators. In any case, take your MARV and attack either flank of the base- I find the right easier. Take out any storm columns directly in your path first, then knock out the Gravity Stabilizers, Drone platforms, power plants and production structures, before finishing off everything else.