A lot do artificial difficulty by using the 'story' to justify bullshit, especially in a game that is more multiplayer inclined, I'll use the examples of good and bad ways to do this with Red Alert 3 and C&C Tiberium Sun as those I can compare directly.
As good ways to do it, in Tiberium Sun I might get limited with a small team but this was usually an optional mission that would reduce the difficulty of the main so it was a choice or have mission stuck with infantry with GDI when they have medics to heal at least.
In RA3, I got my base nuked in a cutscene (so I'd sell everything but construction before and move my units before hand) or pretty much all my money taken (So I'd spam everything building before then), it was really dumb artificial difficulty that encouraged cheesing compared to Sun where you could easily get past using your head.
A lot do artificial difficulty by using the 'story' to justify bullshit, especially in a game that is more multiplayer inclined, I'll use the examples of good and bad ways to do this with Red Alert 3 and C&C Tiberium Sun as those I can compare directly.
As good ways to do it, in Tiberium Sun I might get limited with a small team but this was usually an optional mission that would reduce the difficulty of the main so it was a choice or have mission stuck with infantry with GDI when they have medics to heal at least.
In RA3, I got my base nuked in a cutscene (so I'd sell everything but construction before and move my units before hand) or pretty much all my money taken (So I'd spam everything building before then), it was really dumb artificial difficulty that encouraged cheesing compared to Sun where you could easily get past using your head.