North Carolina Badlands is the GDI prologue mission in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.
Plot[]
| “ | With Kane apparently dead, Nod has been fractured by internal power struggles; recruitment's down 25% and they've abandoned four bases in the last year. The prediction is another decade of peace. Me? I say it's the calm before the storm. - Jack Granger |
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General Jack Granger welcomes the GDI Commander who has just been assigned to the eastern seaboard of the United States and informs him that InOps had downgraded Nod threat level to "Low", predicting another decade of peace. However, Granger believed that it was merely the calm before the storm.
A Nod vehicle disguised as a produce truck detonated itself at a security checkpoint in North Carolina before it could be searched, and satellite recon revealed evidence of a Nod base in the area. Granger ordered the Commander to lead a recon team to the North Carolina badlands and investigate.
Granger then introduced the Commander to Sandra Telfair from InOps, who briefed the Commander on the mission: after the explosion, Sky Sentry located a high-output subterranean energy grid in the area. She recommended the Commander reactivate an abandoned GDI base in the area and only engage the enemies when necessary.
Having being assigned two rifleman squads, the Commander ordered them to the abandoned GDI outpost, only to find several squads of Nod infantry there. After eliminating them, Kirce James remotely activated the base and a Mobile Construction Vehicle was soon disptached to aid the Commander.
At Kirce's suggestion, the Commander built up his forces and advanced. The Nod presence is revealed to be larger than expected, with both structures and vehicles. In response, Kirce granted the Commander access to missile squads and Orcas. The Commander was then ordered to destroy key structures in the main Nod base to drive Nod from the area.
However, Nod deployed many modular defense systems, including Shredder turrets and SAM turrets, to protect the base. In order to destroy the base, Kirce granted the Commander ion cannon controls, allowing the Commander to destroy the base with a single ion cannon blast.
It became clear that Nod was preparing for a major offensive, unfortunately General Granger could not notify his superiors as all of them were onboard the Philadelphia attending the energy summit. News just came through that Goddard Space Center was attacked and Nod had taken out GDI's A-SAT defense system, rendering all their anti-missile capabilities offline. Both Granger and Telfair realized that the Philadelphia had become vulnerable to attack.
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Walkthrough[]
This mission is a simple one. It amply instructs you as to what to do. As such, this walkthrough instead contains tips and tricks to optimize your game.
You cannot change the difficulty level of this mission during the first play. On replays, you can.
- You receive two elite rifleman squads along with orders you to eliminate militants attacking an abandoned GDI abandoned base. Instead of moving them into the base, garrison them inside guard towers flanking the western gate. They'll pick off Nod troops with zero casualties. Once they've eliminated everything within their range, evict them to pick off any stragglers.
- You gain control of most of the base along with orders to construct a barracks. Be sure to rotate the barracks to better fit the layout of the base. (Hold down the left mouse button and drag.) Note that the barracks does not extend your construction range.
- Train infantry as ordered but keep them away from the eastern gate. It is okay to garrison them inside guard towers.
- Play along until you are ordered to build a watchtower. Build three instead, all of them within the base walls. Place the first on the southeastern corner.
- Destroy the Hand of Nod and their outpost but leave their power plant and Tiberium silo intact.
- Once you received your engineers, use one to repair the bridge and another to capture the Tiberium silo (not the power plant) to complete one bonus objective. Sell the silo to complete another. Train a third engineer to capture the power plant and keep it. As of the latest patch, power plants do not extend you construction range.
- Capture the Tiberium spike.
- DO NOT engage Nod vehicles across the bridge with your entire force. Send only the free militant squad that you obtained from the sale of the silo. Once this squad dies, GDI high command grants you access to the Orca aircraft.
- Destroy the bridge with a missile squad.
- Build two airfields and produce six additional Orcas. Your first target must be the southern Nod war factory and two adjacent Hands of Nod. After that feel free to practice destroying enemy vehicles but keep your Orcas away from Nod buildings. The practice isn't mandatory, but you probably need to get familiar with using Orcas effectively.
- Cautiously direct your Orcas to attack the southeastern power plant but keep your eyes on the enemy base. Be prepared to issue a "Return to airfield" command (Ctrl+D) as soon as the enemy built SAM turrets.
- Build a GDI Tiberium silo to complete your bonus objective.
- Once you receive the control of GDI ion cannon control center, end the mission however you wish. You can use the Ion cannon for a one-shot victory or attack with a massive, combined force.
Intelligence Database entries[]
The following entries for the Intelligence Database can be unlocked during this mission:
- GDI Archives, GDI Base Closure
- Unlocks automatically.
- GDI Archives, Tiberium Primer
- Unlocks automatically.
- GDI Weapons, Tactics, and Systems, Barracks
- Unlocks automatically.
- GDI Weapons, Tactics, and Systems, GDI Riflemen
- Unlocks after training a Rifleman Squad.
- GDI Weapons, Tactics, and Systems, Missile Squad
- Unlocks automatically.
- GDI Weapons, Tactics, and Systems, GDI Engineer
- Unlocks automatically.
Bugs[]
- Nod might not construct the southern war factory. When this happens, the game AI allows you the level most of the Nod base before building SAM turrets.
- A lone Scorpion tank might appear south of the river even if you destroy the bridge.
Trivia[]
- Notably, the GDI base contains elements suggesting it was initially built around the time of the Second Tiberium War - concrete walls that closely resemble those from Tiberian Sun, wrecked automatic gates at the entrances, and guard towers that look very similar to Light Towers from the same game.
- The pompous woman in inappropriate attire, who doesn't introduce herself, is Kirce James (pronounced [Kurr-see]).
Videos[]
See also[]
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