The costs for units and structures in Scorched Earth, are now generally consistent with their capability or effectiveness. Some exceptions exist where they are merely a premium version of a lower tier unit, for the sole purpose of substituting when a player has excess cash. This gives all sides options to play within their means, and dynamically alter the armies as needed, hopefully a player is never forced to play a certain way.
The original Ore Purifier is now a Fusion Reactor, and since the Allies no longer benefit from the economic boost, they have no innate price advantage over the Soviets in a longer game. Therefore Allied units and building costs have been adjusted downward at the lower tiers, and higher tiers adjusted upwards. Thus an Allied player capturing a Soviet base will have less incentive to switch to using Soviet units. Plans should involve a careful examination of how short and long range units will work nicely together, and which side's units best fills the necessary role.
Top tier power plants, like Soviet Nuclear Reactor and Fusion Reactor, are consequently much more expensive. The Nuclear Reactor still has the fatal flaw of being uncomfortably dangerous, while the Fusion Reactor is significantly more expensive, and also much tougher to destroy as well. When built, both of these provide enormous amounts of power, enough to power a sizable base with no other power plants, making them important targets. Defenses are a primary cause of being short on power, potentially skewing a player towards more unit-based defenses. Also note the Gap Generator uses a great deal more power now.
They say the best defense is a good offense, and they're partly right. We can refine this a little further in Scorched Earth, the best defense is an offensive guard. Units can often shoot from outside the range of defenses, or in the case of air defenses like the Patriot missile batteries, the intercept point may be much later. Ultimately, the increased cost delta from the lower and higher tier units, will make selecting production and substitution options more nuanced. Most countries now have access to some kind of ranged weaponry like Korea's MLRS, which encourages a player to keep some in reserve within the defensive perimeter of a base, as an extra layer of dynamic defense.
The practice of turtling in Red Alert 2 is almost impossible in Scorched Earth. There's always a way to break someone's defenses, find a way through, or just create an unsustainable economic nightmare for them. Trying to create the perfect defensive shell around your base requires pushing defenses as far to the edges as possible, interspersed with plenty of higher tier tanks or missile launchers, and specialized infantry like Rocketeers or Flak Troopers. Even then, all you've done in tie-up the same limited resources that could be out defending harvesters, or tech buildings, and attacking the enemy.
Each side gets airports, each with their own aircraft, and importantly, paratroopers. The Allies drop GIs and a pair of Prism Troopers, while Soviets drop Conscripts and a pair of Yuris. As with all the balance changes, cost was considered, but also the dynamics. GIs shoot farther the Conscripts when deployed, and Prism Troopers kill many soldiers in one shot, but Yuris can mind-control more distant units still. Both sets of troops have their own advantages, though not overlapping ones. Don't underestimate the destructive potential of GIs landing within a base.
The Allied and Soviet sides having access to paratroopers paved the way to reallocate the capturable Tech Airport's Superweapon to Parabombs. The inclusion of Parabombs levels the playing field a bit. They are a very deadly, but a very inefficient way to attack a base. The aircraft can be shot down rather easily, so distractions for air defenses can be the key to getting them through, such as simultaneously sacrificing some paratroopers or launching airstrikes. Ironically, the inaccuracy of the Soviet Flak cannons will frequently also destroy one of the dropped Parabombs, causing a chain reaction which destroys them all, whereas many other AA options will likely not. Elite IFVs have a much greater shrapnel effect, and can also cause the same chain reaction.
V3s, Dreadnoughts, Carriers and their ilk, all have longer ranges than originally, far longer than you might expect. This makes water/naval maps much more challenging, as bases can be reached farther inland. It's very likely the enemy will be launching from places you didn't expect, which means situational awareness becomes that much more important. To this end, the Soviet Radar Tower has gained spy-satellite capability to match the Allies, with the basic Radar function being provided by the Robot Control center, instead of the Soviet equivalent to the Allied Airforce Command.
Again for balance, Soviet countries now have helicopter transports available. This means Spy or Engineer excursions won't be limited to Allies where hovercraft can't reach. Conversely, land-based troop transports are available to Allied countries in the form of a weaponless APC. Along with military transports, many more civilian vehicles can be commandeered by mind-control, to provide additional transport options. For the sake of maintaining a distinctiveness, the Soviet helicopter is unarmed, but has a larger payload capacity.
In an effort to disincentivize building and selling refineries as a means of producing harvesters, new low-tier harvesters have been added as the free unit. In the case of the Allied version, the harvester lacks chrono-shifting capability, and will therefore take longer to produce income, though is otherwise similar in storage and speed. For the Soviet countries, their free harvester does have a lower capacity, lacks a weapon, but gains additional speed as a result. Neither of these new harvesters can be considered terribly inferior, but they should reflect the combined investment into a refining facility is large, and thus the harvester can't be the best available.
With the Chronosphere and Iron Curtain no longer being disabled with the main Superweapons, defending a base against an Allied opponent won't just require good edge defenses, but a solid core base defense as well. Prism Towers and Tesla Coils at the appropriate distances will greatly hinder a chrono-warped taskforce from doing significant damage, but will require constant awareness of weak spots. For balance reasons, the Iron Curtain has received an effect duration increase, this should increase the ability of a Soviet taskforce penetrating a base, and offset some of the advantage of the Chronosphere. In most cases, it is recommended to play with Superweapons disabled from the load screen, this should help focus the game more on battle tactics instead of knockout punches, and likewise give some breathing room from an already brutal AI.
Finally, stolen tech, stolen tech, stolen tech. Each side gets plenty of new toys, but those toys are often inferior compared to what you get when you've stolen enemy technology. Remember that technologies are often complementary, and submarine, tank, or aircraft technology, can end up in unexpected places, with unusually potent results. Infiltrating can be as important as any other tactic, don't miss the opportunity. Infiltrating one or both enemy Tech Labs will result in unlocking a host of new units that are progressively better than anything available to either side on their own, some of these are truly frightening in their destructive power, and this makes infiltrating a side mission in any multiplayer game. It would not be an exaggeration to say that whoever manages to steal the best secrets will win a long game.
Neutral Tech buildings:
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The game dynamics are heavily altered with simple changes, and where some elements of Yuri's Revenge (e.g. tech buildings) are added, expect differences in how they get applied. Here's the capturable tech tree in summary:
Tech Oil Derrick: saps power, provides income and a reduced Ore Purifier bonus
Tech Outpost: basically unchanged from original
Tech Airport: unlocks Parabombs, and a unique aircraft
Tech Power Plant: gives a good amount of power, more than a basic power plant
Tech Machine Shop: unlocks a unique unit for each side
Tech Secret Lab: unlocks a unique unit for each side, and an advanced wall
