| Mission | Walkthrough | Gallery | Changelog |
| “ | After Yuri's location has been pinpointed, the Russian forces remaining on the ground have regrouped and entered their homeland to aid the main force in the final attack. A long hard road through Ural Mountains awaits them, but an Apocalypse construction complex is a chance to make it easier. | ” |
| —Mission description |
Operation: Dawnbreaker is a Soviet Special Operations campaign mission.
Briefing[]
Comrade, the time to liberate Russia from Yuri's traitorous hands is upon us! While the primary counterattack task force is currently conducting a very important operation at what turned out to be Yuri's moon base, they have successfully pinpointed his presence in Moscow. With a destination set, our forces in the Far East, who are among the least affected throughout this disaster, have been mobilized to march through the Siberian plains. Our charge on the motherland begins with reclaiming what we lost, starting with weapons that Yuri has taken from us, and these are not just some ordinary weapons..
When Yuri invaded Russia and took our territories, he reactivated one of our old Apocalypse Tank construction plants in the Ural Mountains. It is an extensive production site, which lies directly on our path towards the capital. We should thus deal with the traitor's forces in the way in order to acquire more firepower - we need it now more than ever. Reclaiming this complex will allow us to bring more of the old, but reliable Apocalypse Tanks to battle, which will be utmost beneficial in our siege of Yuri's stronghold in Moscow. Move firmly, Comrade. Recover what traitor Yuri has stolen, and drive his forces back to the capital, where we shall crush them all! The day of judgement is finally upon us!
Objective 1: Reach the outpost.
Objective 2: Destroy the Psychic Beacon.
Objective 3: Protect the Apocalypse construction complex.
Objective 4: Destroy the Epsilon base.
Events[]
Race against time[]
| “ | How could the Soviets have arrived here so early already?! | ” |
| —Epsilon Engineer |
A large-scale Soviet task force was deployed to a village, and an Epsilon Engineer immediately fled. The force quickly advanced to disintegrate the line of defense of Epsilon forces. They gained a Cyborg Vanguard reinforcements in the following march, and used Scud Launchers to destroy several Artillery Bunkers deployed above the cliffs, while also paying attention to the Driller ambush launched by Epsilon to avoid heavy damage in the case of Epsilon Adept sneak attacks. After annihilated enemies on the path, the task force rushed to a nearby outpost that was established a while before, successfully met with these friendly forces.
The two troops had successfully met, but the next task for the Soviet commander was even more important: retake the Apocalypse Tank Research Base in the northwest that was controlled by a Psychic Beacon. Realizing that Epsilon was about to launch an attack on the Soviet assembly point, the commander began the quick action, divided troops into two parts, one for holding the position, and the other with two Apocalypse Tanks started attacking the Epsilon bases around to reduce their offensive while detouring to the rear of the Epsilon's forward base.
The defense forces repelled several Epsilon infantry and air strikes and took back some of the Soviet vehicles nearby, while the second commander had arrived to deploy an MCV for subsequent assistance. The attack forces continued to destroy several Epsilon bases throughout the mountains, including a captured Chinese outpost that includes a Tactical Nuke Silo.
| “ | Proselyte.. no, Comrade! It's good to hear a familiar voice! | ” |
| —Pyro |
The task force launched aggression from the side of the forward base and prioritized the destruction of the four Masterminds parked there, entered the research base and destroyed Epsilon's anti-air defenses and units such as Oxidizers, then destroyed the Psychic Beacon to free the local forces. A Pyro expressed thanks to the reinforcements and an Engineer contacted more liberated forces to help, while he entered the Palace to recover necessary data.
The laboratory protection[]
However, he sent some bad news. The blueprints of Apocalypse Tank were scrambled, and he needed to restore them for a while. During this period, these Soviets had to continue to hold their positions. As an Initiate started the alarm, the Epsilon's offense soon began, with armored forces in all directions, as well as a large number of airborne infantry and Kirov Airships. The troops assembled at the research base continued to defend here for a long time before the blueprint of Apocalypse Tank was finished.
"The apocalypse cannot be stopped!"[]
As the defensive tasks were completed, the strength of the Soviets grew further. They acquired the production capacity of the Apocalypse Tank while the main commander also obtained his MCV and authorization to train more Cyborg Vanguards. The third reinforcement called by the Engineer finally came for help with deploying an extra MCV, and some naval units were also deployed in the river to fight with the Epsilon Navy there. Influenced by the newly built Psychic Dominator, the Soviets at the research base decided to attack quickly. Dominant in quantity, they immediately destroyed the defense line of the Epsilon main base and destroyed the Psychic Dominator before it activated. When the main base was completely destroyed, the remaining Epsilon troops withdrew.
Aftermath[]
| “ | This is it, this is exactly what we need right now, Comrade. With an army of Apocalypse Tanks under our control, we should be able to crush Yuri's opposition on our way to Moscow, where we'll rendez-vous with our remaining forces. | ” |
| —Battlefield report |
After the hard battle in Ural Mountains, the Soviets successfully regained the Apocalypse Tank manufacturing facilities in Ural Mountains. Although they believed that these heavy tanks could be perfectly replaced by Tesla Cruiser in Third Great War, they were aware that Apocalypse Tanks were indispensable, after suffering the influence of Yuri's uprising.
Now that the Ural Mountain base had been under the Soviets' control, they had also stabilized the line of defense to prepare for the attack on Moscow all the way to the west. The Apocalypse Tank would emerge its power again in their home.
Difficulty changes[]
Casual[]
- Starting credits: 55000
- Epsilon AI's attack intensity is the lowest.
- Removed four enemy Cloning Vats and some enemy defenses.
- Countdown before the Psychic Beacon controls remaining Soviet forces: 1:20:00
- The player will encounter only 1 Driller ambush on the road to the outpost.
- Epsilon will continuously use 1 wave of paradrop for harassment.
- Apocalypse Tank data recovery time in the defensive phase: 6:00
- Additional reinforcement will be given during the defense of Palace.
Normal[]
- Starting credits: 40000
- Epsilon AI's attack intensity is medium.
- Countdown before the Psychic Beacon controls remaining Soviet forces: 1:10:00
- The player will encounter 4 Driller ambushes on the road to the outpost.
- Epsilon will continuously use 2 wave of paradrop for harassment.
- After retaking the outpost, Epsilon will continue harassing the player with Gyrocopters, Dragonflies and Kirov Airships.
- Apocalypse Tank data recovery time in the defensive phase: 10:00
Mental[]
- Starting credits: 35000
- Increased the number of preplaced enemy units on the map.
- Epsilon AI's attack intensity is the highest.
- Removed 2 Repair Drones and 2 Rhino Tanks from the player's initial troops.
- Remove 8 Cyborg Vanguards, 2 Scud Launchers and 5 Terror Drones given to the player while heading to the outpost.
- Removed Tech Machine Shop and Tech Hospital near the bottom Soviet outpost.
- Countdown before the Psychic Beacon controls remaining Soviet forces: 1:00:00
- The player will encounter 6 Driller ambushes on the road to the outpost.
- Epsilon will continuously use 5 wave of paradrop for harassment.
- After retaking the outpost, Epsilon will continue harassing the player with more Gyrocopters, Dragonflies and Kirov Airships compared to Normal.
- Added an Iron Guard at the entrance to the Epsilon-captured Chinese base.
- Apocalypse Tank data recovery time in the defensive phase: 12:00
Easter egg[]
- Destroying an old war factory near the starting location will get an armor crate, a firepower crate and a speed crate.
- Repair a farm building at central zone of map will generate an armor crate and two money crates.
- Kill 2 specific cows next to the farm will get two ceterancy crates.
Behind the scenes[]
- In version 3.3.4, this mission's gameplay settings was different. The Psychic Beacon was located in the central part, does not control any forces before the countdown over, so the player can destroy it before reaching the frontal outpost. In addition, the Apocalypse manulfacturing base was not controlled but the bridges at its front was broken, the player needs to repair them through sending and Engineer to a Bridge Repair Hut.
- The ally AIs in this mission in version 3.3.4 was quite weaker than current version.
- On Mental difficulty of this mission in version 3.3.4, there would be an additional PsiCorps base deployed on the other side of said bridgehead area. Only eliminating it can let the second AI ally arrive at battlefield.
Trivia[]
- This mission is a reference to Chrono Defense, the seventh Soviet mission in Red Alert 2. Both missions take place in the Ural Mountains and marks the first mass-production of Apocalypse Tanks.
- According to the concept designer of this mission, it is also inspired by Deep Freeze, which shares the same location and some of the objectives. [1]
- Until version 3.3.6, this mission was the only one where stolen tech units (Apocalypse Tank) can be built. Since version 3.3.6, it is one of the three missions where stolen tech units can be built. The other two are Death's Hand and Babel.
