Red Alert 3

This is a simple strategy for the Allied army in Red Alert 3 which includes a solid build order, key unit descriptions, power point choices and a powerful economy with tips included on how best to expand and combine units. If you need a basic build order as Allies and would like to try something new without the regular Boot Camp & Attack Dog start, then you might want to give this a go.



Units

Guardian Tank
The Guardian Tank is the prize of the Allied war machine, it's the most well-rounded and multi-purpose unit the allies have at their disposal. For the reasonable cost of 900 resources, they are going to be available early and will be the main anti-tank force your army has. They can also easily dispose of infantry by squashing them, this is what makes the Guardian Tank one of the best adaptable units as they can take on any vehicle and almost all infantry units.

Guardian tanks are great against other armor, micro your tanks to all fire on the same unit and take out enemy threats one by one. Retreat low health guardian tanks whenever possible to your Armor Facility so that they can get repaired and return to combat as quickly as possible. Try not to send Guardian tanks solo into infantry hordes, bunch them up into groups of 3 or 4 and run over a massive amount of infantry without taking damage in return.



Apollo Fighter
The single most powerful Fighter Jet in the game, Apollo's will tear up any and every enemy aircraft in seconds. They absolutely demolish bomber aircraft and helicopters if you have 3-4 of them firing at once, the best way to hunt down aircraft is to attack-move to a destination the enemy is heading, Apollo's will continue to fire on every unit on it's way to that destination. Apollo's also have an extremely fast response time in addition to their supreme firepower, it takes hardly any time to construct an airfield and build an Apollo for a mere 1000 resources.

Make sure that your Apollo Fighter's aren't bunched up when taking on the soviet MIG Fighter as this soviet craft does area damage that can put an end to your Apollo's all together. Micro quickly and split them up in the air to limit damage taken. Whenever your Apollo's get low on health or walk into danger, simply press the F button quickly and watch as your jets use their afterburners and dash back to basecamp for repairs. Use Apollo's defensively to protect your ore mines and units from enemy choppers and bombers. Try to let your enemy overextend his air force with offensive units and believe he has the advantage, then ambush his aircraft when you have the opportunity.



Assault Destroyer
Pride of the Allied navy, Assault Destroyers serve as much a multi-purpose role as the Guardian Tanks do. Not only are they able to take on most units at sea with ease, they can also transcend onto land and add to your Guardian Tank firepower. Assault Destroyers pack an average punch in firepower, but their armor and HP more than makes up for their 1800 resource cost. This vessel is great for tanking units, it even has an ability which allows it to draw enemy fire and buff it's armor by a substantial amount, making Assault Destroyers a must for supporting other units. Assault Destroyers can also destroy most tanks and vehicles by simply running them over, similar to the Apocalypse tank, however they are fairly slow so don't depend on them purely for crushing vehicles.

In most naval battles, the Assault Destroyer falls short when compared to specialized fighting units such as the Akula Sub. Simply add some Hydrofoils in to support your Assault Destroyers on sea, they can disable enemy weapons and act as formidable Anti-Aircraft firepower. These 2 units support eachother very well at sea, so instead of massing just assault destroyers, mix 2-4 hydrofoils in to get the full potential out of your naval army.



Power Points

Surveillance Sweep
Great ability for scouting, this recon sweep will allow you to constantly be updated on what your opponent is making in his base for the entire game, there's little chance you'll be taken surprised by anything now. It's a great ability to use early in the game and especially when you're not making any Attack Dog's to scout for you. With this sweep you won't need to depend on getting Dog's near your enemies base in order to scout, plus this can scout for the entire game. The abilities this leads to are also the best in the entire game for Allies.

Chrono Rift/Chasm/Fissure
3 Tiers of this ability, each point makes it's range of effect larger and last longer. This ability makes everything within it's area of effect invulnerable to every type of damage, it basically freezes anything inside the area until the timer is up. In the right hands, this power can be one of the most useful abilities in the game. Just imagine being able to completely freeze an entire half of your opponents army, then you only have to take the other half out before returning and finishing off the frozen units. Or if your opponent has a group of bullfrogs stopping your bombers, mixed with a large amount of tanks. Simply freeze the bullfrogs, bomb those tanks and mop up the bullfrogs with your own armor once they unfreeze.

Chrono Rift can also be used to disable enemy buildings, it can take an enemy base's power offline until the timer is up and shut down buildings so that they can't produce any units. If that isn't enough, you can even use this ability to freeze your own units, if you need to save something that is about to die but can't get a counter there fast enough, freeze it so that it can be saved. If your enemy has just put a time bomb, balloon bombs or god forbid, dropped a darn sattelite on your base, use Chrono Rift on your base buildings, save your base and render their ability completely useless! Chrono Rift is the ultimate resource-saving ability, it's like an economic fighting ability that just keeps on giving.

Free Trade
Not much to describe here for a great ability, for 1 Point you get an economic boost similar to that of the soviets cheap units, but in a different way. All your prospectors will collect more resources from ore nodes, it's a great economic ability to have late-game to ensure that you are producing more resources and ultimately, more units than your opponent.

Advanced Aeronautics
Improves the Armor, ammo capacity and scouting speed of your Aircraft. This is the most useful passive upgrade for your units in the game, if Apollo's weren't already powerful enough then this ability is the nail in the coffin. Century bombers will be able to carry an extra bomb and will be more resilient to enemy fire. It's simply a great Aircraft upgrade and a must after you get Free Trade. You might even want to get this ability early right after Surveillance Sweep.



Build Order

• Power Plant
• Refinery
• Prospector
• Refinery
• Send your Prospector to the north mine
• Power Plant
• Turret at expansion
• Upgrade to Tier 2
• Refinery
• Turret (Keep it unbuilt until you see an enemy unit incoming)
• Armor Facility
• 6 Guardians
• Boot Camp/Engineer
• 4 more Guardians
• Naval Yard, Airfield or Peacekeepers
• More Guardians

Tactics

Early Game
With the turrets for protection and a few Guardians out, you should be able to easily repel any early attack if your enemy has decided to rush infantry units into your base. Guardians can squash infantry so just charge a couple into any type of bazooka infantry and they are easilly disposed of. You might want to first go hunt for the enemy oil plant and destroy it too, then see if your opponent has built any expansions you can hunt down. Just make sure you don't overextend and get ambushed, keep guardians in a group of 6 minimum.

Shortly after making the Guardians you'll want to expand your economy even more, make a barracks and call out an engineer to capture the oil. You'll get the 1000 resources back anyway so it's like having another oil refinery and a barracks completely free, just make sure there's no scouts around the refinery and if there is, just run them over with a Guardian. If your opponent decides to mass Tesla troopers or bazooka infantry to deal with your Guardians, then you might want to make 15-20 peackeepers as a strong counter. Keep on expanding throughout the game by making more prospectors from the nearest refinery, expanding and building another refinery and turret on the new ground.



Mid Game
After this, it's likely your opponent might take to the seas, or skies, but what way do you decide to go first? Well firstly it's a lot harder to counter an early mass of naval units than it is to counter Aircraft, so usually making a naval yard first is better. Plus your turrets are multi-purpose so can destroy enemy aircraft, also Apollo's have a very fast response time so it's much easier to counter Aircraft. Since you're already in T2 it's a good choice to build some Assault Destroyers, they're not only more cost-effective than Dolphins but they can also move onto land and have a great secondary ability. If you don't have enough ships on the sea try mixing in Hydrofoils with your fleet and putting them into secondary mode, Hydrofoils are also great anti-air units.

Eventually your enemy may get a heavy bomber, sky wing or some kind of chopper, but don't worry as the Allies have the best AA Aircraft in the entire game. The Apollo shoots and moves extremely fast, it's the ultimate aircraft hunter and only costs 1000 resources each. 4 Apollo's can easily destroy 4 Century bombers that have come half way across the map to bomb something, just attack move to where the bombers are heading and they should all be dead within seconds, the same goes for enemy choppers of any kind. Just watch out as Apollo's like all aircraft are weak to AA units, if in trouble then hit the F button as fast as you can so that your Apollo's can retreat to base out of harms way and heal up.



Late Game
Now the battle should be moving on to late game. Although it may seem tempting to make Mirage tanks I wouldn't advise doing this right now as they really aren't worth the cost. Producing more guardians is a better idea and if you need to counter a camper or units like the Apocalypse tank or King Oni that have a large amount of health, there is no better unit to use than the Athena Cannon. This weapon tears through armor and high HP units in seconds, with a group of 4 protected by enough Guardian tanks they can put the damage on your enemy from range and stay of harms way. Century bombers and Aircraft carriers are also excellent late-game base destroyers and massed unit eliminators. Mix these powerful units into what you have already in your army, take the fight to the enemy when needed and raise the flag of victory.



Advanced Tactics

Firepower
There are 2 main types of firepower in Red Alert 3, unlike other games that generally have anti vehicle and anti-infantry units, RA3 units are useful in multiple situations. However they generally share 2 roles, offensive or defensive firepower. For example the Apollo Fighter is a unit that is used purely to counter a another unit, it's created to be a defensive unit and fulfill's this role extremely well (the best in the entire game). On the other hand you have Century Bombers that are purely offensive units, they are used to destroy buildings, large masses of units and ships. These bombers can generally counter everything apart from a unit like the Apollo Fighter.

Take another example as the Sea wing, it's role in the ocean is extremely defensive and is specialized to counter air units. On the other hand when it takes to the skies, the Sky wing becomes a formidable offensive unit, able to run around the map destroying buildings and generally put the hurt on all land units. Meanwhile there are other well-rounded units such as the Guardian Tank, Apocalypse Tank, Peacekeepers and King Oni's. More examples of defensive units are Akula sub's, Bullfrog's, Hydrofoils and all turrets. While some offensive units are Athena Cannon's, Aircraft Carriers, Dreadnaught's and Kirov Airships.



Conclusion
This is very important to keep in mind as it's a key part of being able to pull a victory out of defeat and generally win games more consistantly. You'll want to make less units with an offensive roll at the start of a game unless you're planning to cripple your opponents economy. Use units such as the Apollo, Guardian and Assault Destroyer to counter what your enemy has and save the base destruction and offensive units for later on. I hope this strategy helped you play online and offered some fresh perspectives on how to play as Allies and the many different strategies that can be executed in Red Alert 3.

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