Making the Big Leap From Original TA

There are a few changes in the UberHack that require a major shift in strategies that worked almost flawlessly in Original TA (OTA).

Missile Tower Forests

Perhaps the most controversial change in the UH, missile towers now only shoot at aircraft. Your defense can no longer rely on a grid of MTs for both land and air coverage. You'll still need a lot of them for AA but you'll want to start thinking of the Light Laser Tower as the basic ground defense. This leads directly into...

Tougher Defenses

The basic defensive units are now the laser towers, both of which have recieved boosted range and lower cost to compensate for the loss of the ground MT support. A few less obvious changes also have a major impact on the defensive game. Dragons Teeth are now buildable by the commander making DTed LLT available immediately and, in general, more common. Dragon's Eyes (cloaked cameras) are often positioned in front of the defensive network to improve spotting, allowing defenses to use their range advantage more consistantly. CORE also has the benefit of having armed and armored metal extractors (Exploiters) that aren't pushovers for a small raiding force. Overall, the defenses are a lot more brutal on the basic units. Raiding still has its place, but it typically requires a mix of units rather than a swarm of light tanks, rocket KBots, or missile trucks. Once defensive strongpoints spring up, throwing basic units at them is a huge waste of resources--you really need to switch to the advanced units designed specifically for dealing with them.

AA Units

Like the AA Missile Towers, AA units--specifically missile trucks, missile Kbots, scout boats, Pelicans, Panthers, and basic fighters--only shoot at aircraft with their missiles. Swarms of missile trucks are no longer any threat to ground units. Pelicans, while still useful, no longer are a dominant force on the seas. Break out your tanks boys, you're going to need them now.

Tougher Navy

In general, with the exception of the weaker scout boat, the naval units are more powerful. The capital ships recieved deck lasers, and most have better armor. Ships are no longer bait for equally sized groups of hovercraft or Pelicans, nor are they pushovers to much cheaper land units if they get close to shore.

Minefields

Yes, minefields exist in TA but you never used one because it was rediculously expensive in both cost and time to do so. In UH, the mines are cheaper and faster to build, and cheaper to keep cloaked. Minefields are cost-efficient defenses, though there is still the micromanagement involved in keeping them replentished and the UH minesweeping ability of the minelayers to contend with.

EMG/Laser Resistance

Certain units in the game are now highly resistant to the these weapons. Notably, CORE's Leveler and Exploiter metal extractors and the Arm Warrior. These units take minimal damage from light tank/scout class lasers, and all EMG using units. Additionally, Arm has an advanced tank, the Badger, that is resistant to all lasers in the game (but not to EMGs).You have to watch for mismatches caused by the resistances and/or try to create them when using the resistant units.