Lakeside

Lakeside
Game mode	Command & Conquer
Size	Large
Style	Symmetrical
Recommended players	40
Air vehicles	Enabled
Tech buildings	Tiberium Silo x2
Base defences	Full

Lakeside is a Command & Conquer map.

Appearance

Lakeside is a large battlefield, with both bases located on top hills, divided by jagged mountains with Tiberium on top. On one side there is a deep forest, on the other side there is a large hill, along with a running river circling the whole map.

Bases

Global Defense Initiative
Buildings	Barracks Weapons Factory Tiberium Refinery
Base defenses	Guard Tower x2 Anti-Air Tower x2

Brotherhood of Nod
Buildings	Hand of Nod Airstrip Tiberium Refinery
Base defenses	Turret x2 SAM Site x2

Analysis

Infantry paths: Note that Aerial Vehicles will be able to move on all the infantry paths in Lakeside except one. Infantries will able to traverse the forest on the back of the base or climb the hill adjacent to the forest; in the middle of the forest, a cave filled with Tiberium will lead players toward the main field; the cave is the only place restricted to aerial vehicles.

In addition, each base has a path leading to a chasm, where below it the exit from the cave in the middle of the forest can be found. Aerial transport is needed to cross the chasm.

Vehicle paths: Lakeside has two possible base entrances, one downwards the hill, and the another one through the river. Upon driving away from the base, there are two routes the driver can take: climb the main hill of the map, or take the lower route that flanks the hill and the mountains; the exit from the forest cave is located on the mountain side in the middle of the lower route.

The river, shallow enough for vehicles, will go behind the main hill, and will lead to each base.

There are two Tiberium Silos in this map, each base has a Silo nearby, under the hill and adjacent to the river.

Mystery Crates: Four appear near the rock at the top of the main hill; two appear on the center of the lower path; two appear near the forest cave entrance; the last one appears near the mill at the center of the hill path adjacent to the forest.

Harvested Tiberium field: below the hill, close to the faction's nearest Silo.

Strategy

Battlefield control

Maintaining a strong force on the hill and the lower path will be essential for mounting a siege to the enemy base with ground vehicles. However, an Orca/Apache rush will benefit with having spotters in the forest, the path to the chasm, and along the river, both for calling out the rush and gathering intelligence on possible opposition for the rush. Such strategy will usually leave the field empty, due to committing all the vehicles available for the rush; therefore if the opposite faction has no presence on the vehicle routes, chances are they might be setting up the aforementioned Orca/Apache rush.

Sneaking options

The forest is dark and has a lot of cover, and it will lead to the infantry production building of each base; they will be not be in range of the automated defenses should a player take the forest path, although there might be players moving from and to the forward doors quite frequently.

Regardless, veteran players that know the workings of the automated defenses will be able to slowly work around them and reach almost any building while eluding the defenses.

The forest cave provides shelter from aerial vehicles and snipers.

Going around the river or on the sides of the main hill are also viable sneaky routes, although they lack cover; still, due to the vastness of the hill and vehicles driving in the middle, chances are that drivers will not be able to spot players sneaking around the hill. The lower path also offers three patches of trees where one can hide behind, two adjacent to the main hill and the third one near the cave exit.

Stealth Tanks will probably be spotted when going into the GDI base if the Guard Towers are still up, provided that there are patrols around noticing the towers firing. After either circumventing or destroying the towers, Stealth Tanks can hide in the river behind the base. Also, there are several containers in the GDI base that one can hide behind, they are located in the back towards the forest path.

Trivia

• It is possible to stand on top of the trees should one be able to reach them. This also applies to XMountain.
• A variant of this map, with no Aerial Vehicles allowed, a Communications Center on the top of the hill facing the forest path, and Guard Towers replacing Anti-Air Towers/SAM Site exists; it is known as Lakeside Non-flying, or LakesideNF.

See also

• Levels