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Command & Conquer

Game Mechanics

Command and Conquer is a real-time strategy video game (STR) resuming the concept of "harvesting-build-conquer" introduced by Westwood Studios in Dune II and already used by Blizzard Entertainment in Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. As in this, the player must collect a resource, called Tiberium, allowing him to build bases and create troops to fight the opposing army until he wins. Command and Conquer However, it is distinguished from its predecessors by introducing greater differentiation between factions, each of them having its own units with different capacities.

The gameplay Command and Conquer Typically requires that the player first build a base, then harvest resources, to be able to produce different types of units in order to attack and conquer the opposing base. All available structures are built by the main building: the construction site, usually available at the beginning in the form of a vehicle that can be deployed on site. When the construction site has completed building a structure, the player can select a deployment area near an existing building, where the new structure will deploy quickly in a recognizable manner.

The Tiberium, the only source of revenue in the game (except for some money boxes), is collected by collectors who bring their cargo to a refinery that converts crystals into useful resources, expressed in credits. The Tiberium itself requires storage areas: refinery and, if necessary, storage silos.

The other great resource of the game is electricity, produced by specific structures. Each built structure requires a certain amount of electricity, and the consumption of more electricity than the base does prevent certain structures from operating (the production buildings produce their units with a more or less pronounced slowdown depending on the deficiency, some defensive structures remain inert, the radar switches off and the ion cannon suspends its load).

Virtually, the different types of structures in the game are organized as a tree of technologies: new structures, specific units and capacities become available to the player as other structures are built and deployed. Access to advanced units can be temporarily blocked if the required structure is destroyed.

The base can be defended by specialized defensive structures, first of all passive fortifications such as sand bags, barbed fences and concrete walls. Later in the game, the player can build active defensive structures like guard towers with machine guns or rockets, cannon towers, or the famous Obelisk of light Nod.

Although largely equivalent in terms of a technology tree and types of units, each faction has a strategic preference:

GDI units are designed to be heavier and more powerful than their Nod counterparts, but they are more expensive, slower and longer to build. The two heaviest tanks of the GDI, the M1A1 Abrams (medium) and the X-66 (tank Mammouth), are superior to all Nod vehicles in combat one against one. The other terrestrial vehicles of the GDI are the M113 VBT for the transport of infantry, the M1026 Humvee which serves as a vehicle of recognition thanks to its speed that makes it the fastest vehicle of the GDI and the M270 MLRS rocket launcher for artillery support and anti-aircraft defense. They can align, moreover, a grenadier, excellent unity, very powerful for a modest price. The GDI forces also have access to naval and air support. The air support is carried out by the ADAV Orca equipped with FAng rockets, the most powerful weapon even if after throwing its rockets, the orca returns to its heliport and the A-10 Thunderbolt II "warthog" raid equipped with napalm bombs. Air transportation is carried out by the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter. Naval support is carried out by the GDI's canonical vessel as well as the JEFF-A aeroglider that can land vehicles and infantry. Finally, the defensive structures of the GDI are the watch tower with a machine gun and the missile tower that can engage ground and air units. It should be noted, however, that Warthog raids are rarely usable as they can only occur if all NOD SAM missiles have been destroyed, which happens in the base campaign, usually when the mission is almost finished. (A notable exception is the first mission of the "Operation Survie" extension. Similarly the Chinook, the GDI's canonical vessel and the aeroglider are rarely controlled by the player.

A contrario, the units of the Nod are cheap and fast, at the cost of their armour and weapons. They are designed to avoid direct confrontation as much as possible, preferring skeletal, camouflage and guerrillas tactics. In fact, camouflage was not effective either against the computer or a human adversary, nor was it due to the too low speed differential between the NOD and GDI units. The Nod tank is the M-2F Bradley (light, a M2 Bradley IFV with a 70 mm cannon). The Nod also has a Pyrodon launch tank and the "Ezekiel Wheel", a furtive tank with two TOW missile launchers. Finally, he owns a man carrying a flamethrower. Recognition missions can be entrusted to the recognition motorcycle and the Buggy Chenowth FAV. Artillery M110 and launcher M270 MLRS Honest John SSM (a M270 MLRS with two missile launchers at Napalm SSM) provide artillery support. The Nod also has access to air and naval support. The AH-64A Apache helicopter armed with a machine gun for air support and CH-47 Chinook and the C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft for air transport. Finally, the defensive structures of Nod are the anti-tank turret, the Light Obelisk that sends a laser beam and the SAM site for anti-aircraft defense. Note that Apache is subject to the same munitions contingencies as the GDI ORCA, and that the production of the SSM rocket launcher is not possible without the introduction of the "fun park" command. An excellent NOD strategy against the GDI is to send the infantry against the GDI heavy vehicles. Tank shells are not effective against infantry, and flame-throwing soldiers protect men rocket launchers against the GDI infantry.Another strategy was to use the long range of some of its units. If the M110 has a long range, in fact, it is too slow and too little to be really effective. In addition, the range differential between M110 and GDI tanks is too weak to make it truly exploitable. On the other hand, the SSM is an excellent weapon, whose scope is the most important of the game, and significantly superior to all other GDI and NOD weapons, to make it a dreadful and truly usable weapon. Its only low point is its recharging time that is scarcely long, which requires a cord of tanks to ensure its safety.

Regardless of the camp, there is an infallible technique to perform missions where the player has a construction site. It's a matter of walling the enemy base with a remblai of sandbags. IA does not perceive sandbags as an enemy and does not think about destroying them. The AI will then produce units that will accumulate in the base until its financial reserves are exhausted, while the player will be able to seize the rest of the card, develop peacefully, and go to the attack when it looks like it. It goes without saying that this technique removes all the interest of the game!

Command and Conquer offers two campaigns, one for the GDI and one for the Nod Brotherhood. Each campaign consists of about 20 missions whose ultimate objective is the conquest of a continent. The player initially has access only a limited number of different units and it unlocks news as missions. Most scenarios reflect the concept of "harvesting-build-conquering" and aim to eliminate the bases and units of the opponent. Some, however, propose different objectives. The player can thus have the objective of defending a base or using commandos and engineers to capture enemy infrastructure. The game also includes missions in which the player must achieve an objective with a predetermined number of units, without the possibility of building infrastructure or producing new troops. The game also offers an escarmouche mode that allows to play against artificial intelligence or multiplayer (up to four players) by local modem or network.