Hi to all! At this point of the ED campaign things get very ugly-I have to choose mission Japan or Alaska. As you can guess both missions are hell. In Alaska you have to face 3 UCS bases, all heavily guarded. I still try some strategies in Japan, where I face 3 LC bases, again very well guarded. To make things worse the mission in Alaska is demanding instant mining of resources in this madness or the mission fails.
I get crushed by massive ED and LC rushes, in both missions. I upgraded as much as I could, so I deal with ground units of both factions, but their air armadas are beating me bad. Needless to say that I spent my money on upgrades for weapons, so I can't provide funding for the exodus project. After all the researches I did my anti-air defense is still not strong enough to deal with 20 or more LC and UCS air units rushing in the moment they see me. My anti-air missiles are very weak, so I have to build at least 15-20 towers just for air and ground units are pouring in as well. Resources are not enough for all researches, and even if I want, I can't reach the top levels of all weapons.
The unit limit is sadistic and I have a very small number of units, which are not enough to deal with the hordes of enemies in both missions. As far as I can see the enemy has no limits on unit building, so they spam units in large numbers.
Any help for Alaska or Japan with the ED will be very useful for me, because I see no options to beat the opponents. The ED is outgunned and outnumbered at this point of the game in a very brutal way.
Yeah the laser cannon is very strong, but it appeared way too late and it does nothing against air units. To make things worse all researches are very expensive and they are not optional, you are forced to start them just to survive with the ED!!!

After some brutal fighting I managed to pass mission Japan with a small number of veterans and many greenhorns to replace my heavy losses.
So now, I have to attack Alaska again. A pure waste of time this mission is impossible, no matter what I do the mission is failed because of the mindless ED superiors. They request the mining of 100 000 credits in some insanely short time. At the same time UCS are smashing you with full force everywhere on the map-they have 3 bases. The mineral fields are in the middle of the map, the only place with enough resources is there. Time is very short, the location of the resources is insane with no possible defense points, enemy numbers are extremely high, you have to destroy a UCS base guarding the mineral fields. A pure example of bad game design, I am sure nobody tested this level during game development. Graygoles probably have a price of 10$ or something, because they are endless. Such ultra hard missions are the last level in other games, you know. And this is not the last level of the ED missions. Any help will be useful, but I doubt anyone passed this level. I play on average difficulty if that matters.

I bet no one is reading this but anyway, I managed to beat Alaska, here is how. First and foremost upgrade 20 mm machine guns to the max. I gave up missiles, they are too weak, as they are not heat seeking at this point of the game. I made machine gun Siberia APCs, but the choice is yours, they smash air units quickly. At first they deploy you near a small ore field in Alaska. Quickly dig a trench to block the left mountain pass with the Gruz. This way only the right pass is open for ground attacks. Build a mine, supply depot, a reactor and that is it for now. Transfer your tanks and Siberia anti-air as fast as you can to the war zone. Collect credits at your mine and build small towers on the edges of your small base to guard the air. Soon the first Gargoyle attack will strike your base so you have to be ready. Build 4 medium towers on the right entry to your base, for a basic ground defence.
Gather your tanks and send them to the highlighted UCS base in the middle of the map. Siberias must cover you from air raids. When you reach the UCS base destroy all robots with the tanks and the Gargoyles will go down too shot by your Siberias or other APCs you have. After you smash the defenders, try to attack the base with all healthy tanks you have, repair your damaged units at your base. Demolish the enemy base as fast as you can, time is short in this mission. After the propaganda video I advice you to fall back to repair if you need to. Carnage will come soon.
As you repair at your base air attacks will come, destroy them all, tons of Gargoyles. Robots will storm your base too coming from the only entry. Smash them any way you can. After the first UCS attack is over, send your tanks and anti-air to the destroyed enemy base at the middle of the map. Send 1 or more repair units too, you will need them. Destroy all UCS ore drillers you see to make the enemy furious and short on resources. Attacks will start, both ground and air, as they try to remove you from the ore field. Destroy them all, heavy losses are possible, but there is no other way. The laser cannon units helped me a lot.
In a short time the enemy attacks will slow down a lot and they will send less units. Quickly send Gruz units to the middle of the map. Build mines and transport bases as fast as you can. Then start sending resources to the Space port. Build some towers to defend the new base, some attacks will target it. The small base at the starting location will be attacked by air all the time. After you gather 100 000 credits for the Space port the mission is a success. Time is important, occupy the middle of the map at the first moment possible.
I hope this helps someone, because this mission is hell.

The persevere will prevail.

Keep it up!

=)

This is a massive thread necro, but if you're still reading and interested in beating them....

20mm choppers. with double chaingun upgrade and all 3 ammo upgrades .

I built the medium chopper, since it has a bit of armor.

Once UCS gets Plasma and LC get Electrocannons, the ED's campaign becomes an air war. Sure, triple lasers on upgraded Siberias are powerful...but it's not enough. I've beaten the game before I developed shields, so any land battle rapidly turns into a meat grinder.

You only need 6 of them. Hopefully this isn't your first level with air power. If it is, you're going to have to dance the choppers away from rockets until you get enough experience that your choppers outrange missiles (a beautiful feeling) For Japan, have your choppers in the transport already loaded with a repair vehicle and some tanks. Pause the game once the mission starts, order your Gruz to drop down mines, transport base, 2 power plants and a supply depot. Make sure your second Ukraine drop includes tanks and a supply chopper (they will stay at home).

Take your 6 choppers and head south to the first base. If you blitz this base, it should not be very set up. If you started the mission at night you're in luck: You simply have to kill the batteries and LC goes down. If you're in the day you'll have to get the solar plants (ignore the panels themselves) and the batteries. Remember NOT to allow your choppers to be shot at. If they are, retreat them back. You can retreat and repair and come back.

If LC hasn't developed tracking missiles yet, you're able to simply move a bit. If they have, run the specific chopper away until missiles explode, then return it.

The key to the Japan mission is that LC is building Elecro Moons and light aircraft. Skirmish the aircraft away from the base. they won't follow you back to yours, so retreat any heavily damaged units to repair and return. Once base power goes down, and all anti-air units are dead, scrape off the mines. In my game, the LC didn't endlessly try to rebuild things, but 3 20mm Taiga's or Siberias in the base (once all land units are dead) will keep the LC from rebuilding. Congrats, you now have 2 bases worth of resources.

Repair, rearm, and head west from your base, over the mountains, to the base there. The base's power is against the mountains, making it an easy task to wipe them out. If you blitzed the first base, you should still be in a blitz position for the second one. The base defenses are set up against a sea attack, so you'll have an easy time of this.

Remember: When using ED air power:

1.) Lure air defenders away from base and annihilate.
2.) Lure 20mm/rocket defenders away from static defenses and annihilate
3.) Find safe spot to eliminate base power
4.) Repair when necessary.


With both bases, keep your air power around long enough to make sure that LC isn't rebuilding. With the southern base you can keep anti air ground units around once all Moons are dead, but the western base is not accessible by land (But we can still get the resources!)

Once west base is down, repair, rearm, and head southeast. Final base is an island. Base power is on the east side (one solar collector) and west side (one collector, one or two batteries). Be careful. There are 20mm Moons with a couple of rocket ones. Moons can travel over water, so they WILL Follow your air units back. It's better to move your tanks up to your repair vehicle, or move your repair vehicle back to your base to heal up there.


Once you've done this (should take about 20 minutes in total if the LC isn't constantly rebuilding) use Gruz to tunnel to the mineral fields of West and Southeast bases. This will let you mine out the entire map. Get ready to add ~200k to your space project.

If you can't auto mine, it may be due to moons in the water between the mainland and the island. Check it out, it happened to me.

You beat Alaska, but if you want to replay it, blitz southwest first with air power. If you go right at the beginning, you can circle around to the west side of the base and pick off harvesters until you starve them out. Then ease in, take out base power. Voila. 2 bases worth of resources to mine out. Then you can work on picking apart the other two.

In Alaska, there are 3 groups of 5 plasma tigers, offset from a direct line between your base and each of the other 3. If you take them out with your air power after getting the southwest base you can avoid a mob attack.