Red Alert 3

Ore Collectors are one of the most vital units in the whole Red Alert 3 experience, without them, you are left in the middle of a war without any means to fund your own war effort. In general, the average game has them fulfilling this role only, and during this time, they need to be protected at any cost when coming under threat.

In general, when trying to ensure the survival of your ore collectors, there are a few small steps that can be taken. Firstly, utilising walls, most units between the early to mid game cannot bypass the walls as well as not being able to break down the walls as quickly and effectively as they’d like to. Be warned about Sickles, Tengus, and early air units being able to bypass walls early on.

Secondly, is utilising the placement of structures with repair drones. If place in the vicinity of the harvesters travel path, the drones will automatically repair the Colletor whenever it succumbs to a form of attack.

Finally, is utilising structures as a form of defense. When under attack from ground based units, reverse moving, and using structures to weave in and out messes up the AI path finding of the attacking unit, and will generally follow your exact patch, keeping you out of harms way. Apart from that, there are a few faction specific ways to defend ones self.

Soviet Ore Collector:

Type - Resource Gatherer
Cost - 1400
Build Time - 20 seconds



Special Ability:
Reactive Armor. increases the defence of the unit greatly, allowing the collector to withstand the most heaviest of onslaughts, but will also be slowed down.



Tricks
When a Soviet Collector is under attack, it is always recommended that reactive armor be activate as soon as possible, to have the damage at a minimum due to the lack of repair drones in the soviet war effort.

A unique way for Soviet players to defend their harvesters, is using buildings as temporary walls in the form of buildings. When a soviet building is made, it builds from the ground up at full health, and acts like a building during its build time. Placing structures such as War Factories, or Air Fields and cancelling at the start when building allows a temporary wall at little cost, but at the expense of not being able to build anything in that time.

Allied Prospector:

Type – Resource Gatherer and Expansion Vehicle
Cost - 1000
Build Time - 20 seconds



Special Ability:
Unpack. After a short time, provides a build radius to help the Allies expand without having to pack up and move their MCV’s making any researched tech redundant.



Tricks
Of all three factions, the Allied Prospector is one to die the most often, with no real capable means of self defence. If a prospector comes under attack, and there is a high chance of losing the unit, then unpack it near the refinery. This ends up becoming a small bonus in favour of the allied player if the assaulting forces are then quickly thwarted off. As now there is an expansion vehicle at that location, allowing MCV’s to leave if needed, or at the least, selling the prospector for a small price.

Empire Ore Collector:

Type - Resource Gatherer
Cost - 1400
Build Time - 20 seconds



Special ability:
Hidden Gun. Dumbs any ore currently held in its chassis, and rotates the main body, revealing a small twin-machine gun to ward off any threats. Not the strongest of weapons, but a threat none the less.



Tricks
The main way to defend an empire harvester is utilising the hidden gun, along with weaving in and around buildings. Against low tier vehicles, in many cases the Harvester has a chance of coming out on top if they have access to repair drones.

While there are no unique ways to defend the empire harvester, there are unique offensive abilities the harvester has. It is a decent meat shield in the early game, and provides a great counter to manspam along with regular Imperial Warriors.

• Watch the video for this Tip of the Week
• Discuss this Tip of the Week