GENERAL HINTS AND QUERKS
4.1 FIGHTING ON LAND 4.1.1 Center of Gravity An enemy's center of gravity is the thing which, when removed from the equation, paralyzes his forces. It's not his source of strength, but his critical vulnerability. What is the enemy's center of gravity? It's not his mammoth tank or cruiser. Sure, they are powerful units, but even if you destroy them, the enemy can still fight, and the enemy can still win. The center of gravity is the enemy ore facility. Without ore there is no money. Without money, there is no further construction, and no more units. Without ore, the enemy is paralyzed.
4.1.2 Combat Tactics The computer doesn't know to retreat when up against superior forces, and will always fight to the death. Use this to force the computer into committing forces to battles it can not possibly win.
4.1.3 Concentrated Firepower Always bring your firepower to bear on a single unit at a time. Concentrate your fire on enemy units that are easy to kill, but have the strongest weapons. For every enemy unit knocked out, your own units will take less damage. If faced with three heavies and a mammoth, destroy the three heavies before tackling the mammoth. If you were to concentrate on the mammoth, the three heavies would pummel your forces by the time the mammoth died. By leaving the mammoth for last, you take less damage.
4.1.4 Scatter! You can scatter your units with the 'x' key while they are attacking. Moving targets are more difficult to hit by the enemy, and suffer no disadvantage in return.
4.2 AIRPOWER 4.2.1 Offense Airpower is best used to remove targets of opportunity that can't fire back.
4.2.2 Defense Place anti-aircraft defenses well forward of whatever it is you are protecting. Enemy aircraft launch their weapons from a distance, and you in turn want to knock them out before they release their payload.
4.3 NAVAL WARFARE 4.3.1 The Wolfpack Submarines work best in packs of five or more. Allied ships can only concentrate on one boat at a time. If you can put five torpedoes into a ship, your submarines won't take much damage.
4.3.2 Antisubmarine Warfare To do massive damage to submarine forces, you need to get your ships close to them. Submarines can't shoot through each other, so getting close will hamper their efforts at concentrated fire. If you're hunting for subs, fire area effect weapons into random points in the water. If you damage the sub even the tiniest amount, it will surface. Smuggle a spy into the sub pen and use the sonar pulse. You can also use some of the techniques described in chapter five.
4.3.3 Obstacles If a bridge is in your way, and you need to get to the other side, destroy the bridge. You'll need to destroy two sections to make a big enough gap to squeeze through.
4.4 LOGISTICAL SUPPORT 4.4.1 Economics When ore is tight, micromanage your ore trucks. Gather ore in diagonal strips, leaving a checkerboard pattern. This pattern will ensure quick regeneration of the ore field. Each truck holds 28 bales of ore. One bale of gem is worth 50 credits, while a bale of gold is worth 25. Gather the gems first, because gems don't regenerate. It's a good idea to build one ore refinery for every major patch of ore.
4.4.2 Minefields I present to you the following ways to spot mines: Run over one. Not recommended. Observe and remember where the mine layers lay their mines, and destroy them with weapons fire. Actively sweep the territory in front of you with weapons fire. V2 rocket launchers make the best mine busters, followed closely by grenadiers and artillery shells. If a mine layer drops a mine in an ore field, you can't destroy it even if you know exactly where it is. Make hunting mine layers your new hobby.
4.4.3 Undocumented commands The 'f' key will put a group of units into formation mode. This doesn't mean that they'll march in formation, but that they'll get back into their original formation at the end of their journey.
The 'q' key will let you assign waypoints. If you give a unit movement commands while you hold down the 'q' key, it will follow them in the order you give them. Unfortunately, you can not terminate your waypoints with a command to attack.
Other keys:
'n' - next unit 'b' - back one unit 't' - select repair mode 'y' - select sell mode 'u' - cycle through radar modes

5. QUIRKS, CHEATS & HIDDEN SURPISES 5.1 THE CHEAT KEYS There are no cheat keys.
5.2 EDITING THE RULES.INI The RULES.INI is a text file embedded within the redalert.mix in your Red Alert game directory. It contains editable parameters for just about every aspect of the game. By placing an edited RULES.INI file in your game directory, you can override the default settings with your own. This will let you change the price of units, their firing rate, their speed, the time it takes nuclear missiles to recharge, and other variables. To extract the RULES.INI file, load redalert.mix into Windows 95 Wordpad. Search for the string RULES.INI, and cut and paste everything from the line "RULES.INI" to the last line, "Rate=.1" into a new document. Save this new document as RULES.INI and place it into your game directory. Be careful that you do not accidentally overwrite your original redalert.mix file, or you may have to reinstall Red Alert. It is impossible to play a multiplayer game unless everyone uses identically modified (or non-modified) RULES.INI files.
5.3 QUIRKS 5.3.1 Ore silos Ore silos aren't necessary. When you start constructing a building, the ore stored in your refineries are converted cash. If you cancel your construction order, the money is returned as cash, and not converted back to ore.
5.3.2 Multiple weapons factories Switch primary buildings and start constructing a unit the moment you finish building a unit of the same type. It will complete the construction immediately, giving you two vehicles.
5.3.3 Minefields If you suspect mines around your construction site, build a building, but don't place it. Sweep the white placement marker around the buildings. If a square within the white marker turns red and you can't see a visible obstacle, there is a mine underneath.
5.3.4 Finding submarines Select a gunboat or destroyer, and move your movement cursor into the radar map. Slowly sweep across the radar map with the cursor. If the cursor changes to the red attack cursor, there is a submarine there. Select a transport and hold down the CTRL key as you sweep your movement cursor over water. If it suddenly turns into a "I can't move there" cursor, there is a submarine at that spot.
5.3.5 Deny transports a beachhead Place tanks on the shoreline where enemy transports try to land. The transports will never unload.
5.3.6 Prevent the computer from rebuilding Place a unit on top of a spot that once contained the turret or building you do not want the enemy to rebuild.
5.3.7 Inaccurate cruiser fire Long range cruiser fire will overshoot their intended targets. To correct your gunners' aim, manually target a square short of your intended target. If it's still long, bring the target closer to the cruiser. If it's short, fire a little closer at the building.
5.3.8 Cruisers versus submarines Cruisers can't target submarines directly, but they can target the empty water next to submarines. Submarines will still take damage from near misses. If your cruiser is far enough away, you might even miss the patch of water you targeted and score a direct hit on a sub.
5.3.9 Allying with the enemy The computer player will ignore attacks from players it is allied with.
5.4 EASTER EGGS 5.4.1 Morse code in the manual Lines of Morse code dot the bottom of your manual pages. Converted into letters, they read the following:
MESSAGE COM ALLIED HQS DECODE CRYPTO NORMAL RED EAGLE PASSES HAWK Red alert! Red alert! Soviet forces in sector seven building runways. Assault units dispatch ASAP. MESSAGE COM HQS SEVEN DECODE CRYPTO VULTURE SNACKS Allies lose Verdun. Forces destroyed. Dispatch troops ASAP. Retrieve Tanya. Critical movements spotted NWSAHX. Nuclear warheads destined to Washington delayed. Strike AX Zulu, advise ETA. DETAILED CINPAC COM PRIORITY INCOME Investigate sudden death of fourteen allies. Toxic tests show formic acid levels. TO CINPAC COM PRIORITY SEVEN OUT GO Formic acid complaint accurate. Also find crushed vertebrae and slashes on head and face, and two thousand headless. No bleeding. Respond. TO CINPAC COM Say again? Formic acid? Roger that. What is it? The acid ants use. For what purpose? Killing, neutralizing. Describe slash marks. Like big knives. Checking. Twelve inch marks on headless. Some marks, some acid ... do you hear humming? Negative humming. Do you spot small hills? Affirmative. Not on map. How far your location? Six clicks. Investigate now. Looking for what? Giant ants. Like some sci-fi flick! Serious. All areas. Giant ants? Roger that. Use Raid. No joke! Ants ten feet high. What's humming mean? Ant radar. Watch out. I hear some now! Get out of there! Respond! Get out of there! DISPATCH ENDS ACTION IGNORE RESPOND IGNORE USE DEEP COVER Ants that big never happened. System Alert. Sectors report now! Alpha sector negative. Charlie sector negative. Bravo sector none. Delta sector? Delta sector, report. All sectors, tune Delta. Confirm deaths! Red Alert! Red Alert! Giant ants spotted! Identify sector! Echo sector! Number, size? Maybe one hundred, red, huge! Fire at will! Targeting fire ... Oh, God! I can't ... Come in, Echo sector! Come in, Echo sector! ECHO SECTOR DEAD