Command & Conquer Remastered Collection – Soviet Campaign Hard Guide (DEFCON None Achievement)

A walkthrough for the Soviet Campaign on the Hard difficulty with detailed description. Remember that for a DEFCON None achievement you need to complete both Allied & Soviet Campaigns on the hardest difficulty option.

Soviet Mission #1 – Lesson In Blood

First mission in the Soviet campaign and it’s a damn shame to even make a guide about such easy mission that is hard to lose. You’ve got an air support coming from Yak aircrafts, and to make things even more funny, the resistance does not have any anti-air. What is even more ironic, whole village is covered in barrels, so this looks like a FPS game where barrels are placed near monsters. The only competition in this mission may be finishing the mission as fast as possible or without any casualties, also on Hard. So, once you begin the mission with paratroopers, send your Yaks to attack any barrels on the map, to make mission a little bit faster. Once you reach the bridge to the north, there is another surprise – barrels near pillboxes, so do not waste time and just send aircrafts to finish it. Oh, and Toruń does not look like that for sure, it’s not a village and there are no mountains in range of few hundred kilometers.

Soviet Mission #2 – Guard Duty

Here you are introduced to the debuffed Grenadiers while playing as Soviets – try to limit their usage as much as possible. They are walking (or running) barrels with gunpowder, their deaths can trigger a chain reaction, even dozens of them can die at once. Also they really like to miss when throwing grenades at moving targets like Ranger Scouts or Harvester, they are quite ♥ on hard. So it’s better to focus on the old reliable Riflemen, really expendable cannon fodder that does wonders in large masses. Whatever route you choose, just avoid the center bridge because Gun Turrets will most likely destroy it, killing your infantry also. When you enter the Allied base, there will be several reinforcements with paratroopers, then it will be just a straightforward finish. Also as always in Red Alert 1, there is a hidden money crate when you destroy a church near your base.

Soviet Mission #3 – Covert Cleanup

So, the Spy has infiltrated a Soviet Sarin Gas facility in Soviet Union (while map shows Denmark), you must get him in 15 minutes. Mission is quite simple and like a lot of Soviet missions, also fast to complete, there are no really difficult puzzles to solve. 15 minutes is also enough to finish that mission with a big margin of error at your side, all your units are sufficient to finish it. When you begin the mission, send your Attack Dogs to the east and free the Soviet Riflemen and Grenadiers from captivity in barn. Once outside, move your Grenadiers south to reveal barrels connected to a Pillbox – throw a grenade and move through barbed wires. From this moment, just follow the Spy, he will move via transport to another part of the island and then hide in Church. If you leave him alone till end of the timer, Chinook will arrive to pick him up, losing the mission (and you also lose your head).

Soviet Mission #4 – Behind Enemy Lines

First mission that takes more than few minutes, your objective is to take out Allied Radar Dome, to cut their reinforcements in Berlin. Once the mission starts, expand with 2 Refineries to get a steady income from your Refineries, then concentrate on the War Factories. Since this mission, you will rely mostly on the Heavy Tanks, they have twice the firepower of Medium Tank and are way more resilient. You might also produce one or two V2 Launchers just for sieges, they are also useful when some units spawn in unreachable places. As for the money gathering here, the Ore and Gems on the map will be enough for whole mission, it will take you like 15 minutes to finish. But that bridge near your base, well… it’s very hard to not destroy it, while some Light Tanks are placed there to annoy you. In case you cant find any units, here is a tip – they are most likely in an unreachable area, you can reach them only with V2 Launchers.

Soviet Mission #5 – Distant Thunder

Oh boy, lots of you will most likely fail this mission because of no money anymore to gather, bug or just very glitched win triggers. This is a very difficult and long mission on Hard if you do not stick to few but very important rules, it is always your choice though. Do not build a Sub Pen before Allied MCV lands on other island, if you do this, the Allies will build there a very tough stronghold to crack. ORE and Gems are precious and scarce resources here, if it’s possible destroy Allied Harvesters as fast as possible, outside ore fields. On Hard difficulty, make like 11-12 Yaks to destroy the Allied Construction Yard once it deploys on the island, to avoid making a mission much longer. 2 Refineries and 4 Harvesters will be enough here, that small island where you start is not big and resources will be depleted very fast. When you encounter a bug with MCV not loading to the transport, make a Save/Load and it will resolve this annoying issue.

Soviet Mission #6 – Bridge over river Grotzny

Before I played this mission, I’ve wondered is it still possible to pull this old trick and win mission in less than one minute. And holy crap, it works as it had been working back in classic, when you select Grotzny river this mission is a really easy breeze. Once you start the mission, lure the Allies to destroy/heavy damage your MCV, this will help you a little with conserving tanks. Since then, focus on simply breaking through the defense line next to the bridge, just draw the attention from your convoy trucks. When your tanks, launchers, infantry and NPCs engage against the Allies, slip your trucks through their units and… Cruisers. Thankfully, units love to miss a lot in Red Alert and your convoy trucks are too fast for their cannons and projectiles to catch. When your trucks are on the bridge, they get a very strange speed boost, leave the bridge and reach corner of the map, mission completed.

Soviet Mission #7 – Core of the Matter

The Allies are really desperate and they send Agent Tanya deep inside Soviet Union to meet her final destination in Soviet Campaign. When you start the mission, just run with your Riflemen to the south, luckily the Allies are really dumb and engage in pursuit. Once your Riflemen are safe, destroy the barrels and just fry the Allied soldiers behind you and move south to find Attack Dogs. Then head to the west of the map to reach the Engineers, really easy because all of your dogs will overcome few Allied soldiers. Move the engineers to the 4 stations to stop the meltdown, you will see there is a small but heavily guarded room to southeast. Move all of your Attack Dogs there and send an Engineer to make mission easier – it will reactivate the defence systems near Tanya. With Tanya and other soldiers fried by the Flame Towers near the reactor, move any Engineer and turn the coolant system back online.

Soviet Mission #8 – Elba Island

The Soviets finally caught their eyes on the Chronosphere, you have to travel to Elba and destroy the Allies with some rebels. The mission is pretty straightforward, for the first time you also have the possibility to use Tesla Coils to defend your base from attacks. Their range is godlike and they pack a lot of firepower, unfortunately their resilience and rate of fire are pretty mediocre. The brown rebels will be your first target for sure, they are very close to you, they basically pose no threat to you. Then focus on the blue Allied base, of course Harvesters are primary target because this means way more Ore for you to gather. And unfortunately you also have to destroy all Naval vessels on map, it can be quite annoying with naval units pathfinding.

Soviet Mission #9 – Liability Elimination

When I launched this mission, first what I thought was pulling out a very old trick with destroying the Supply Truck at start of the mission. But unfortunately it seems that it was working only in the Easy/Normal difficulty levels, thankfully on Hard it is also really fast. Just when you begin the mission, destroy the Allied units in base and head west to destroy the second Allied commander to pin him down. Repair all of the Power Plants inside base and build the Airfield, it will be crucial to finish this mission as soon as possible. Use the Spy Plane northeast to reveal the Supply Truck hidden in Allied base, when you know the location just wait for paratroopers. Drop them to the left of the truck and order them to attack it, once the truck is destroyed by 5 Riflemen, the mission is over.

Soviet Mission #10 – Overseer

Even though you are introduced in this mission to the MiG bombers, they are not so much needed when protecting the convoy. The key in this mission is to be aggressive, when you use your Heavy Tanks, be always in the move and squish the infantry if possible. Remember that in classic Red Alert, something like perfect accuracy does not exist and every projectile has problems with hitting the target. As soon as you start move south and destroy the opposition, then head west and destroy every barrel and every turret you will encounter. You will also find the health crate but save it for later, when you are about to enter the last phase of protecting the convoy. When there is only 15 minutes to finish the mission, destroy the barrels on the highground and simple move to the west and finish the mission.

Soviet Mission #11 – Sunk Cost

Oh you will really dislike this mission on Hard, the Allies will send Cruisers after you, all the time during the mission. Not only Cruisers but also some scripted transport attacks with tanks or Chinooks with infantry and even Engineers to annoy you. Do not let the Allies destroy the bridges connecting your island with that full of ore and gems, it will usually happen when your units try to cross it. The Allied base is simply overloaded with defences, thankfully their Power Plants are exposed in one place, just there are some units and pillboxes. But the main route is simply a hell, full of mines and turrets, camo pillboxes almost everywhere and the road is just incredibly long. This is also a first mission where Mammoth Tanks make their debut, they are really slow but they make a good shield for your V2 Launchers.