Demo Trucks

[Chris]

Yes, the demolition truck, one of the ultimate suicide weapons of mass destruction. It is a truck armed with nuclear explosives on the back. If this truck attacks a target or gets destroyed, it will cause an explosion and severly damage any nearby units. In Ra2, it will also leave radiation behind to melt infantry in seconds.

Why is it a good strategic weapon? Lets see all the abusive things you can do with it.

RA1
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Allies and Soviets both get Demo Trucks.

For allies, you can do the lowest form of dirty combat! Get sight of the enemy base, and use your chronosphere superweapon. Teleport your Demo Trucks to the Con yard and near important structures. Force one to explode! The chain reaction will wipe out or severly damage the con yard and any outlying structures.

You can also do this to advancing units and destroy thier more powerful units, especialyl things like Mammoth Tanks. Chrono or move them into groups and let the unit destroy them or do it yourself.

Since allies use Gap Generators to hide thier bases, it will help cover up your diabolical scheme. Just remember to use the trucks before they get sent back to base.

Soviets can use the iron curtian to make them invincilible. So you can set them off properly and efficiently.

RA2
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Same as RA1, except Libya gets Demo Trucks. Secret Labs may give them to you.

Without capturing an Allied Conyard, you cannot do the Chrono Demo abuse.

You can still use Gap Generators to cover up your scheme if you get access to Allied Technology. However, a patch made it so the Demo Truck will globally announce "My Truck is loaded" to all players. This stops hidden Kirov, Floating Disk, Demo Truck, SEAL abuses, since now you know what they might be doing.

Yuris and the Yuri faction can stop this abuse easily. Setup Psychic Towers around your Con yard and "targets" or put Yuri Clones/Masterminds near them. If the demo trucks teleport in, they may all get mind controlled and you can either break them down in the Grinder or use them aganist your enemy. Then agian, you can still quickly set one off in time. Or use another super weapon or unit to set them off before they get used.

RA Mod for Renegade (A Path Beyond)
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The Demo truck costs 2400 and can easily wipe out a base alone (if you want a fine example, ask one of my gaming friends ). It has high splash radius so people will get fried and vehiciles will go boom. However, its armor is crappy. Even rifles and supressing tank/ranger fire can destroy it. Just make sure infantry are in vehiciles when you do that .

With all the games, the demo truck can be stopped by being destroyed by air, or ground from a safe distance/heavy armored units, or mind control them.

You can also use Iron Curtian on your mechs and buildings to avoid them from getting owned. The Force Shield in RA2:Yuri can also help you stop damage, but this sacrifices all your base's power to protect a structure.

[Elysium]

Demo truck abuse also has its disadvantages and risks. Since Demo trucks are normally built in bulk, the moment the allied commander hears "my truck is loaded", chrono a few mirage tanks or send a weather storm their way to attack the trucks and use them against the builder. There isn't anything more satisfying and lazy than letting your enemy build the weapons that will eventually be the death of them..

[Chris]

Yeah, but that is why Gap Generators are invented. Since your base is covered in Fog of War, you can't exactly pin point where the target is.

However, if you are lucky... you could probably use the Mirage or Prism Tanks to blow the trucks before they are used against them. Unless, the enemy can setup an iron curtian fast enough. Just make sure that the demo trucks aren't near any important buildings when you are using them in bulk.

I covered that weakness from above, but it is something that shouldn't be overlooked.

[simpleforce]

i like cuban/ivan ifvs better cuz it has more health and speed, also cheaper and quicker to get cuz loading only $600 vs $1500. in total with cuba you get 800 vs 1500 demo. so 2 for the price of 1. so ifvs own it hands down.

[Chris]

That is true, plus you can easily get access to the tech. Because Ivans just need a Soviet base when you are allied. However, you also need to factor in the fact a player would have an Industrial Plant before attempting this.

Demo Trucks go for $1400 to $1175

[Phoenix2003]

In RA1(AF) , Allies couldn't chronoshift demo trucks. I think they blow up each time. It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure they blow up everytime I've tried, unless that was patched or something since I last played it.

[Chris]

I know in RA2, they don't. I tried it myself and manage to harass a guy and his defenses every 5 minutes. Since Unholy Alliance was in play, I had access to both of them without capturing.

RA1 however, you can still Iron Curtian them.

[simpleforce]

industrial plant?? ew i hate yuri's revenge, that's the worst expansion ive seen in my life.

[Chris]

Cuts the price of units by 25%.

In my opinion, they should have never added Yuri's faction to the listing. It isn't that good at all.

[Phoenix2003]

Soviets get the short end of the stick in Yuri's Revenge. Their scouting abilites suck more than they did in RA2. Their spy plane can get shot down so easily.

[Chris]

Not really. Missile wise it does. Flak wise, it takes quite a while.

[Phoenix2003]

Well, I think they should've just left it's speed the way it was in RA1. It doesn't seem fair now. Oh, well.

[Chris]

Depends where you deploy it as well. But as I said, Missiles destroy it faster than Flaks.