Command and Conquer 4

Every good RTS-game contains Hit & Run-tactics, and so does C&C 4. What would a nice match be without some devastating guerrilla moves?

Hit & Run-tactics in general have one purpose: Dealing as much damage as possible in a short period of time and retreating without heavy losses afterwards. This requires fast moving units who deal high damage, or units with high damage and some special abilities (-> burrow). The most common targets of Hit & Run-tactics in C&C 4 are crawlers, just because they are such an essential part of the game and loosing multiple ones can turn the tide of a game easily.

In this short tip I´ll show you some of the most common and most used Hit & Run´s for both GDI and NOD. One thing ahead: make sure to upgrade all your Hit & Run units with damage- and speed-increasing upgrades, this will make your attacks a lot more efficient (e.g. Accuracy-, Refire- and Speedboost)

How to prepare for Hit & Run
Always, always! evaluate a situation before blindly running into a disaster. What can you achieve with your attack? Will you lose some/much/all your units? Is the loss worth the probably destroyed target? If you come to the conclusion that your attack will be more a fail than a win, just leave it. If you want to attack, also make sure that you have several retreat routes to get out of the situation afterwards without loosing your strike-force, or maybe as well during the attack when your enemy gets unsuspected support by allies. Always keep in mind that you want to deal maximum damage in minimal time. When attacking a crawler, don´t kill appearing enemy troops but keep firing at your target, otherwise you´ll slow down your whole plan which can result into loosing your force without achieving your aim.

If you follow these points, you can´t do wrong too much. But of course there´s no master plan for a permanent success, you´ll have to adapt to different things in every situation.

Now let´s come to some Hit & Run tactics:


GDI:

Offensive class:

- Striker spam

The Striker is a small and fast laser unit, dealing a lot of damage to heavy enemy vehicles, aircraft or structures. They might not have that much health and die relatively fast when being targeted, but in big groups (they take 3 CP each only) they can turn into a serious threat for your opponents. They take out crawlers quite fast and also work well vs some Avatar, Basilisk and Leviathan spammers. Another big advantage of them is their cliff-jumping ability, which allows them to retreat into safety very fast and effectively, without too many losses.


Strikers killing a Crawler

Defensive class:

Zone-Raider assaults

Zone-Raiders are as far as I experienced the most used GDI unit for Crawler harassment. They are extremely fast, their lasers cut through everything in seconds and they don´t die that fast. All in all, they are very annoying for any Nod player.
If you use them to kill crawlers, make sure you upgrade them with Assault packs, which will enable them to jump over medium distances. Take your group of Raiders and get close to an enemy crawler, then activate their Sprint ability, which will let them run extremely fast and use the Assault packs to jump right next to an enemy crawler. But make sure that there´s not too much defense around, Zone-Raiders aren't immortal.
One thing that could help you is the Ion cannon (requires Tier 3 unlocked), because the level one attack of it emp´s the targeted location. This short time might be enough to lead in your Zone-Raider strike force and kill a Crawler.

As soon as the crawler died, retreat in safety and search for your next victim. Zone Raiders are, due to their speed, also very effective in hunting down T3 Aircraft armies, like Leviathans or Basilisks. Keep moving all the time and hit as often as i can, big and less mobile air-units won´t be able to get out of that attack alive.




Support class:

Orca / Paladin spam

Orcas and Paladins are both ideal air units to apply Hit & Run. The Orca is faster as the Paladin but deals rocket damage compared to laser damage for the Paladin. So use your Paladins to target Crawlers or big ground units, occasionally heavy aircraft as well, and retreat when you´ve done your job. The Orca is good to hunt down Crawlers as well, but you might need bigger numbers to be as efficient as with Paladins. The advantage of the Orca compared to the Paladin is that you can hunt down enemy tank armies a lot better and faster. A 50 cp cap used for Avengers is a death sentence for the NOD player when facing Orcas, so always be in movement with them and destroy enemy units wherever you can. And always remember that you are a support player, so take use of your support powers as well while acting as a Hit & Run player.

Your preferred choice will be Overkill, because it increases your firing rate for a short time. And as it only costs 10 powerpoints you can use it almost permanently, which is great.
A wisely placed Sonic Artillery can help you a lot as well when facing heavily defended Crawlers / armies. The Orca is one of, if not the most versatile Hit & Run unit for GDI.



NOD:

Offensive class:

Spider tank spam

The spider tank is a small laser unit with 2 great abilities: it can burrow and multiple spider tanks produce a damaging laser web, perfect for Crawler killing.
So get yourself a full 50 cp cap of Spider tanks and burrow them. Then search for a crawler, place your Spiders directly below it and unburrow them. Voilà, few seconds afterwards the crawler is gone.

Burrow your Spiders again and retreat, it´s annoying to rebuild them all the time and it feeds your opponents with victory points, they die really fast. And of course you can also use your Spiders to hunt down Kodiaks, Mammoths and such heavy stuff, as they are a counter for them.



Defensive class:

Reaper Hit & Run

The Reaper is a infantry laser unit just like the Zone-Raider, but not as strong as them. But they just cost 3 cp, so mass > quality in this case.
Reapers deal a lot of damage to heavy units and structures and with the speed boost they are quite fast as well, so they are very useful to hunt crawlers and heavy units. Take use of your tunnel network to jump from one location of the map to another quickly and search for victims. Make sure that you can retreat whenever you need it, Reapers don´t stand their ground very long when targeted by enemy units.

Support class:

Here we go, Nod support class is the Hit & Run class of the game in my opinion. They´ve got several fast units with nice damage and those work that well as Hit & Runners mainly due to some of their support powers: Stealth field, Hack Radar, Subterranean Strike and of course the glorious Mark of Kane.

Of course the stealth mode is one of the main aspects of Guerrilla and Hit & Run- tactics, and therefore stealth field is actually a must for almost every attack. It makes things much easier for you as you can get really close to your target without being spotted. It gives you the advantage of the surprising moment, your opponent still has to react while you are already inflicting heavy damage on your target.

Marauder assault

No I'm not crazy, you can easily hunt down Crawlers with Marauders. Get yourself some of them (best would always be all your cp) and sneak them into a battle. While your teammates take the attention of your enemies on them, you´ll place your Marauders near his Crawler and then execute Mark of Kane on them. It works wonders, believe me. The Crawler will die relatively fast and your Opponent needs some time to realize what just happened. Funny and stylish tactic.



Venom strike force

Comparable to the GDI Orca, the Venom is a flying rocket unit and only costs 3 CP, so you can easily spam them. They take out tanks really fast, also infantry if you force-fire them, and Crawlers can be hunted down as well. Of course Mark of Kane will help you a lot for Crawlers, so feel free to use it on your Venoms whenever it´s possible.

Hack Radar is also really nice if you plan to hit specific locations, you just can´t use it together with Mark of Kane, but it´s really useful as well. Your opponents have a hard time to coordinate their defenses when you disabled their radars, while you take out whatever you planned. Occasionally supply your attacks with Subterranean Strike, it does a lot of damage to Crawlers, so that would be your preferred support power next to Mark of Kane when attacking Crawlers.

Cobras can also be used for Hit & Run, but I prefer Venoms. Cobras are just able to target ground units and are not that fast as Venoms. But their damage is nice as well, so feel free to use them for Hit & Runs.

Tyrant laser show

This one is my personal favorite of all Hit & Run-tactics. Get your CP full of Tyrants and burrow them (use stealth field on them as well if you want to, it´s easier to get close to your target while being burrowed & stealthed). Then search for a Crawler (don´t be afraid of well defended ones as well) and place your Tyrants near your target. Unburrow them and let the show begin. Their lasers will cut through a Crawler in seconds, even without Mark of Kane. Once in a 4vs4 it took me just 3 waves of shots with a 63cp army full of Tyrants to destroy a Crawler (that one with Mark of Kane though), which is insane. Burrow them afterwards and retreat, occasionally stealth them with your stealth support power again, for a safer retreat .

Please share your own Guerrilla Warfare tactics now!