Harkonnen Mission 7 Hard Difficulty

[issproking]

Ok who is saying they have completed this mission on hard then?

How on earth do you get started in this mission? Whats the best way to get your base established?

I have built a wall to block the little infintary path to the east which makes them come all the way round to the front of the base but all the atreides sonic tanks, siege tanks and flying bombers just never allow you to get a foot hold.

Someone must have some hints or tips for this mission

Remember only on hard difficulty, I have completed it on normal

Cheers

[Reactor]

I beat this mission several times in HARD skill level, and always succeeded me at the first attempt (yet I lost my Heavy factory, and Windtraps in most cases). So how I did it? I'll tell ya, it's FRIGGIN' easy, no matter it looks hard.

- First of all, destroy all un-necessary buildings, DO NOT CAPTURE them. Capture the Construction yard only, since building new Windtraps is much more cheaper than train an Engineer (its price is 500 in HARD skill level), and capture the two Atreides Windtraps. Raze them to the ground.

- Then, DO NOT rush up your building order just to receive Rocket turrets, or Airstrikes, like the Atreides, and also DO NOT invest on upgrading your Construction yard. Rocket turrets are a fistful of sh|t I tell ya, their only advantage is the heavy armor.

- There is a small infantry-only passage located at the southwest near the newly captured Construction yard. Block it with an "L" shaped wall row as soon as possible. This is essential: The AI is dumb as can be,and won't destroy your walls, they'll just go around the cliffs, and attack you from only one direction. This is good: you can concentrate all forces to the entrance of your base.

- I know the Atreides Airstrikes are painful, and in HARD skill,your enemy will receive its superweapons faster than you (this intelligence also regards to Saboteur, Death Hand,and Fremen as well), but if you invest all your money to rushing, you won't have satisfactory forces to deflect Atreides assaults.

- You'll get reinforced in matter of moments. Use your vehicles wisely, they may seal your fate. Do NOT attack, let the enemy attack. In the beginning, every vehicle is critical for your success.

- The Barracks' value is very high: Train at least 3 groups of Light infantry, and 3 groups of Troopers. Replace the died soldiers with new ones. Light infantrymen can deal wit' incoming enemy soldiers, like the Sardaukars, and Troopers, who would destroy your vehicles.

- Troopers has great value, like the Spice itself. There are 2 Atreides bases, both will send units against you, mostly Combat tanks, Siege tanks,and Sonic tanks.

- 2 Refineries,and 6 harvesters are far enough.

- Don't build the Hi-Tech, place the Refineries near the spice field instead!

- Build the Light factory as soon as you have the barracks, and upgrade it! Start building Quads! 4 Quads can easily handle incoming Siege tanks and Sonic tanks,which your infantry cannot fight. The Sonic tank's most dreadful opponent is the Quad. Drive them close to the Sonic tank, since they have that "weak spot". The very first cell in front of the Sonic tank is the sonicwave focal point, therefore if you bring a Quad to the focal point, it will suffer only very minimal damage.

So, to make myself clear, build Quads! If you have 6 or more Quads, you can start building the Heavy factory.

- Explore the surrondings of your base! You could spot an approaching Siege tank or Sonic tank,and quickly withdraw all infantry units, bring in the Quads, and obliterate the incoming tanks. In case there are Combat tanks, or Missile tanks, use your Troopers!

- Scatter your Troopers with the button "X". In case the enemy tank chooses to steam-roll them, it cannot crush the whole squadron.

- You also can use Light infantry against Missile tanks. They're EXTREMELY effective against Missile tanks.

- When you managed to build Combat tanks, build 2 Siege tanks too, they'll deal with enemy infantry. Then move to the House of Ix, and build Missile tanks. 6 or more Missile tanks can destroy the incoming Airstrike.

- The AI often targets your united force for an Airstrike. Grouping your army with Missile tanks can be fatal for this trick.

- Don't try to destroy the Atreides Hi-Tech just to cut them off from Imperial reinforcements. They'll rebuild it in 5 minutes.

- If you want to have Sonic tanks, capture the Atreides Heavy factory, which is in front of your base.

- Counting on Airstrike to achieve victory is a dumb thing to do. The Atreides base has several Rocket turrets, and Missile tanks, they'll shoot down your Airstrike planes in matter of moments. However, the southern part of their base has no AA defenses, you can attack the Windtraps located there to annoy the AI a bit...

So there. Using these useful advices, you simply cannot have problem completing this mission. The Skirmish games are 1000 times harder.