Kane, the evil and NOT dead bad guy of Command and Conquer has snuck back into time to change the course of events. His goal in the past, to ensure that GDI is no longer around in the future to thwart his tyrannous plans. Red Alert was always intended to be a tie in. This makes such an immense playability difference despite the fact that building and units are the same size. For in Dos, much to many users dismay, Red Alert is 320 by 200 only.
Tanks zip about the field at very fast speeds.
Mini gunners sprint to their destination, and even the harvester is in a hurry. The big difference, however, is that the harvester just dumps the load and goes. In all, it takes a harvester less than a second to drop off the goods for refining. There is also much more money to be had in Red Alert. Resource management is still a big part, but in Red Alert you tend to build bigger armies and generate more destructive mayhem.