Mine are by far the first and last line of defense. when used properly they can warn you of attacks, detour attackers, kill attackers, and make you some nice trap kills.

The first thing any good team should do is pick a player to set mines. IT MUST BE DONE. it cost 350 dollars for the cheapest unit that can solo a biulding with little or no warning. it costs four mines to prevent that. Some say it takes five mines but I have found four to stop almost any lone unit when place properly. Here are two easy ways to arrange four mines to stop an invader and even save your base.

The first picture is of the square trap made with the intent of detonating all four mines. During an attack all four mines must be triggered to gain entry into the building. This will only stop one attacker but the resulting kill will also inform the tech who set them that his base has been compromised.

The second shot is of the "T" trap where the two mines in the center will go off and, depending on the time taken to avoid, one or both of the outer mines will finish the target. Useful for one invader.

Also mines are often used to prevent someone from using an undefended zone of the base. For example laying a strip of mines along the only vehicle entrance will warn of a possible stealth rush. Or laying mines along the path of the harvester to stop "Harvey walking". You should know the zones of each map that are easy to exploit.

It needs to be said that the flame trooper does NOT have more armor directly. The advantage in the flame trooper is in its resistance to flame damage. Tests were performed with 5 mines each round. All classes were exposed to one mine at a time the flame trooper was the only free class of GDI or NOD. to survive all 5 mines. 6 were needed to kill the flame trooper. The test was performed with no jumping or attempt to avoid the dammage. 5 was selected because it is considered the standard number of mines on any door covered.