Is hard actually more difficult?

I will tell you about the differences in difficulty, they are small but matter.  In easy, the enemy gets the hard modifiers and vice-versa.

Easy
+20% damage taken (Yes you take MORE damage in easy mode due to a bug)
+20% damage dealt
+20% movespeed
-20% delay between shots
-20% cost
-20% build time (faster)

Hard
-20% damage taken (yes you take less damage in hard mode)
-20% damage dealt
-20% move speed
-20% delay between shots
+20% build time (slower)

    Harder can sometimes be easier, especially with infantry combat due to the armor bug.  Tanya in hard mode will kill infantry in a single shot, while in easy she doesnt.  
    Also since tanks build slower, you do not have to click buildings/units as fast during combat.
     The armor bug greatly affects V2 Rockets and air units.  V2s cannot destroy power plants and pillboxes with a single rocket in easy mode.

Tank Control (PC)

Tank Control is a very important mechanic in optimizing your times, not only that, but it'll directly translate into improving at online play. In order to do this, you must learn about Q-move. What is Q-move you might ask? Well it allows you to move and shoot at the same time, allowing you to effectively dodge most anti-tank weaponry. Hold Q and attack an enemy unit, then left-click on the ground to move. Don't let go of Q at all when doing this. This will allow your tanks to survive significantly longer.

Shifting: adding other units to a ctrl group can allow you to easily micro-manage your army. For any new tanks built, you should press Shift+1 then Ctrl+1 to add them to a group. Every time you press 1 you will reselect your units if you ever deselect them. You can speed this process up by setting a bookmark on your warfactory and another bookmark where ever you are fighting (Ctrl+F9-F12 on retail version, Ctrl+W,R,Space,V on the CnCNet version).


Production: Since you cannot queue up multiple units, make sure you are clicking to build a new unit immediately after one is finished building.

     In rare situations when your tanks reach a critical mass (ie. 20 or more), it is possible to combine Guard Mode + Q-move called GQ.  You can also combine Stop + Guard + Q-move.  Both function as an "attack move" where your tanks will spread out their damage to any nearby enemy which often times is much better than focusing single units at a time.  For SGQ, i highly recommend remapping Guard and Q to the D&F keys. since they are right beside the S key.  Don't worry, you can have two Q hotkeys, meaning you can use Q or F as "Qmove".

Tricks and Glitches

Infinite Range Infantry: You are able to fire across the map if you tell your infantry to fire somewhere, and during the wind-up of their attack animation tell them to attack something out of range. This is the easiest on Grenadiers and Tanya.

Formation Exploit: If you add a fast unit into a Ctrl group of slower units such as a mine-layer or transport, you can press the Formation hotkey to make all units move at the same speed as the fastest unit.

If you use the formation exploit with a Ore Truck, it is possible to permanently increase its speed, if the move destination that the Truck goes to happens to be an ore space.

Force-Fire: Despite being unable to see through gap generators, you are still able to force fire through them with aircraft. Some missions utilize this trick in speed running.

Pausing Production: If you build an additional production building, the speed of any units currently building will ONLY build at the faster speed if you pause their production and then resume.

Nome	Autor
Is hard actually more difficult?	RAFord 3 years ago
Tank Control (PC)	RAFord 3 years ago
Tricks and Glitches	RAFord 6 years ago