Manual A Quick Guide

A Quick Guide

Original 1996 manual, converted verbatim from the game’s manual.doc.

Ok, you’re a god at playing Red Alert™, Warcraft II®, and tiddlywinks. You don’t want to have to wade through the rest of this manual. You are ready to go out and kill. This section will attempt to give you a quick overview so you can get started immediately.

Winning at Enemy Nations rests on several key concepts:

First, you need to have the most efficient economy. This requires not only mining the most materials but getting those materials through the system to build tanks. A road can be more valuable than a second mine.

Second, you need to keep up on research. If you can only build infantry and your opponent is attacking with medium tanks, your chances are not good no matter how many infantry you can build.

Third, you need to attack your opponents’ weak points (and protect your own). In an evenly matched game an attacking force will be able to destroy maybe two buildings before being destroyed. Destroying Refineries, Power Plants, or Smelters can be extremely damaging blows.

Fourth, attack with combined arms. You will find that your attacks are much more effective if you attack with a combination of tanks and artillery. And infantry are deadly if they can get next to the object they are attacking.

You should first build, in order, a Lumber Mill, Farm, Iron Mine, Coal Mine, and Smelter. Once these buildings are built they will generate additional lumber and steel for more buildings.

All materials except food, gas, and electricity are local. This means they have to travel to the building that needs them. Coal and Iron are trucked from the mines to the Smelter. Steel is then trucked to the factory to build tanks.

Cranes build and repair buildings. A crane is sent to a location to build a building. It can build the foundation with no materials. However, the rest of the building cannot be completed until a truck brings the materials.

Trucks carry materials from building to building. You can take over control of the trucks. DON’T DO IT. Leave the trucks on auto. When you become an advanced player you will occasionally take over a truck for a short period but when you first play leave them alone.

Roads are essential to a strong economy. Build roads between all buildings that trucks regularly visit, including the Rocket Ship. Note, building roads requires gas and if you are out of gas you cannot build roads.

Population and Power affect building productivity. If your power is at 99% of what is needed, it will have a negligible effect. If it’s at 10% your factories will take forever. You need to keep these at or above 100% most of the time but occasional slight drops are not a cause for alarm. A full population requires enough food, Apartments, and Offices.

When the game starts you have to first place your Rocket Ship. You left click on the location you wish to place it in. You must place it in the lighted part of the map and all other players will start outside that lighted area.

Try to pick a location near trees, coal, iron, and oil. This is generally impossible (by design) but at least try to minimize the distances.

The door of the Spaceship is the single square sticking off of the pattern showing the base of where the rocket will be placed. If you want to rotate the rocket, press CTRL-RMB to rotate. This can be done for all buildings and is sometimes critical for good traffic flow.

Once you have found the location and rotation you want, press LMB and your rocket will land.

As you move the mouse over the screen watch the text in the lower right hand corner of the screen. That will give you information about whatever the mouse is over. This is a fast way to learn the function of the various buttons, the status of buildings and vehicles, and the mineral resources at that location in the ground. You can also move the mouse over status bars to get more detail on a unit’s status.

You now need to build your economy. Double click on a crane and you can then pick the building for it to build. Pick the building and then choose it’s location as you did for the Rocket Ship. Remember; Lumber Mill, Farm, Iron Mine, Coal Mine, Smelter!

Read the chapter titled Short-Cut Keys and then you’re ready to play.

Manual index