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It's the standard campaign failure cutscene.
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Mar 2, 2013 21:10
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  Operation Buran is the name the ED use for their invasion of the UCS-controlled Arctic Circle. If you recall from the UCS campaign, the ED are successful in ousting the robots from their positions and force a full retreat back into Canada. This time we'll play from the winning side. Marshal Romanov has ordered General Shakunik to put us in direct command of the operation. A high honor, considering how we almost bungled a simple resource acquisition last time. Finding the old research base is crucial to ensuring a good outcome from this offensive, so we'll make sure to find it.  We start with a Gruz and some Pamirs. Let's see if we can find some resources.  We've got an upgraded chaingun up first today. Due to the longer nature of the ED campaign research at the lower ends is more important. We may be using chainguns as our only anti-air weapon for a few missions.   We've found the enemy. The General gets it wrong though, these are robots, not cyborgs. The ED had cyborgs till my dad killed them all. We're 100% cyborg free this go around.  2 Tiger 20mms are a complete joke against all our Pamirs.  I start the Gruz on building while the Pamirs look for the old military base. Nothing too fancy here, just a mining complex, Supply Depot, VPC and the required power.   Looks like we found the base. Not much to look at though.  Well except for that radio there. You need to have a unit drive over this radio to unlock Arctic 2. Arctic 2 gives you early access to a number of upgrades double-barreled tank, the Repairer, 105mm ammunition and the Siberia so its in your best interests to do the mission.  Bad news folks, looks like we've built our base right outside the UCS's defensive line. That Large Tower is so close it can almost shoot our Supply Depot.  The double chaingun is done (same damage as the UCS and LC versions) so let's work on finishing the Pamir's upgrades. The ED also are the fastest faction to air units. The Cossack helicopter is available as early as the second mission. The LC and UCS don't get their first air until until mission 4. Too bad the Cossack is almost worthless in a fight.  Hey Pamirs, I know you're having fun looking at the burned out Russian buildings but we've got a situation back at the base. Mind helping out?  Help more you assholes!   Fine. If you cowards won't fight I'll bring in some men who will.  Yes run you little Tiger. Fear our elite and superior tanks.   Our units from HQ are much more committed to excellence than the slop who started out here. What sort of Dynasty soldier shies away from killing robots?  Why can't they be more like this nameless peasant? He blew up the Energy Transmitters all on his own. That's the sort of initiative a fighting man should have.  I take some time from chastising and brutalizing my own troops to look at our new TT 120. It's all a man could dream for in a tank. Except double-barrels. And shields. And heavy weapon mounts. But other than that it's perfect!   We may as well research the Cossack. We can't get any other aircraft until we have the introductory chassis. The Pamirs have eliminated the last of the UCS's mobile defenders. Time to wipe out the UCS base.  Looks like a base to me!  With pleasure General. Go forward my Pamirs! Exclusive ED News footage of the ferocious battle! I love the ED units' flavor speech more than any other in the game. "NYET! Comrade I'm hit!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw8iIVASPNI  A bunch of Small Towers are nothing, even if they do have rocket launchers. drat, I wish we had rocket launchers.  General Shakunik said kill the ore miners. I'm killing the ore miners! I'm a good soldier.   This base never had a chance. A single power plant and refinery? Are you joking?  The Cossack is finished. 240 HP with no armor means it's going to die real quick.  The Grozny will benefit from the upgraded chaingun. And if I end up building any Cossacks the extra bit of damage will be nice.  It's all clean-up at this point. The base has no power so the Large Towers aren't a threat.  For our hard work we are rewarded with...an apartment in the suburbs?  Where the hell were we living before this? And our dad is the head of the whole ED. You think he could manage something nicer than an apartment in an area so lovely the fact it has a kitchen and bathroom is worth noting.Communism sucks.   The double helicopter chaingun is finished.  The mine at our main base is also finished. No sense in wasting the space. Bring on the dynamite!  It'll look nicer with the mines gone, don't you think?   Some 20mm bullet upgrades to round out our research for this mission.  With the Arctic mined out, let's get out of here.   This map has to be one of the thinnest on resources. 36,000 for two factions is really cheap. Is the Arctic even worth fighting for when the resources there are so poor?  Rest of briefing posted:The information you discovered in the old Russian base has enabled to locate yet another Russian base - go there immediately! This next mission is a real fun one. You're up against pretty stiff UCS resistance and can gently caress up the mission quite easily. I had to play this one twice since the first time I made so many mistakes I got into an unwinnable position.  The ED music is so much better than the UCS soundtrack. They feel a lot more militaristic and a lot less "creepy with weird noises." The Day tracks for the ED are some of the best in the game. 
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Mar 3, 2013 03:28
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  This is Part Two of Operation Buran. Thanks to our superb sleuthing last mission we've found another abandoned Russian base. However, there are indications that this one may still be functional.  The game is generous here and gives you 6 Pamir tanks. How nice of them.  Let's finish researching the 20mm bullet upgrades.  The base is pretty close to our spawn point. Astute readers will recall this is the same base we saw in the mission where Fang had to deliver the alliance treaty. It looks to be in pretty bad shape though. Lt. Tanescu said the tunnels hold the interesting stuff, so we'll build a Tunnel Entrance and Landing Zone.   Looks like the reports were right. We have fully functional tanks down there, but no pilots and no way to start them up. We'll need to find the base's central computer and link our systems with it. As an added bonus, we'll also be able to bring the damaged structures back online.  While the Gruz is down there searching, I send the Pamirs out to check there's no nearby UCS patrols. Things look clear, and we've found two separate resource fields.  Is this the computer? It looks like a computer to me.  Nope, it's just a map of the underground. Looks to me like the computer is in that blue room up ahead, but we'll need to dig tunnels to reach it. I'm also very worried about something. See the three other tunnel systems on the minimap? Those aren't ED tunnel designs. That means the UCS is here. And not only here, but they've got three different armies. poo poo.  The Ukraine has arrived along with a second Gruz and more Pamirs. Since we'll be bringing this base back online we should work on clearing out these building husks. Get to it Pamirs!  Now, I'm actually doing this mission the hard way. Had I done one of the other missions before this one I could've already had the Repairer and been able to repair the damaged buildings from the start. Since I don't, the Repairer needs to be the next upgrade. The buildings have less than a tenth of their normal HP, if the UCS find us it'll be curtains for us.  We've managed to tunnel through and found not only the base's central computer but also 20,000 CR. Nice!  With the wrecked buildings out of the way we can work on rebuilding this base. But first, let's fix the wall.  While that's going on, our Gruz has reactivated the base. Hooray for free units! Unfortunately, this all comes with a catch. Project Exodus needs another 50,000 credits and since we're right next to two large (for the early game) ore fields it falls to us to mine them.  The units we get out of this are called Tanks. They're unbuildable but as you can see they're better than any other unit we have so far. Let's get these guys to the surface.  Our Gruz is still working on repairing the walls, but we've also got the base's power back on and a Vehicle Production Center to make anything else we might need.  The other Gruz will work on getting the mining base operational. He's also going to build a Small Tower screen to the north in case the UCS get nosy.  Finally our Repairer is done.  And since we're at the units limit the next best upgrade for us is the maxed-out 105mm bullet.  Welp. Looks like the UCS has found us. Batten down the hatches boys, it's gonna be rough sailing from here on.   The UCS rockets are just as good if not better than our cannons. This fight is much more even than the confrontations we've had to date.  Thankfully for us, the new Tanks can overpower the UCS Tigers. But if they send enough at us it'll be a slaughter. We need to improve our defenses.  And the best way to do that is to build walls and force the UCS to come right through the teeth of our stationary towers. Also it'll keep those damned Harvesters from stealing our resources.  Tigers versus a Gruz. Advantage, Tigers.  Tigers versus 13 tanks and 6 Small Towers. Advantage, not-Tigers.  One bullet down, two to go.  Our wall is almost finished...  Meanwhile two more factions are trying to get to our resources. I think we might need another wall on the eastern side of the base.  More Tigers? I guess we'll need to extend this wall to the east to keep the northern approach clean.  They die the same way their rocket brethren do.  Our last bullet upgrade for a while.  The second Gruz has completed our southern wall. Now any Harvesters will have to plow past our Pillboxes and Pamirs. ...I like alliteration.  While building the northern wall, our Gruz comes under attack. He's fleeing south, let's see how bad he's hurt.   25 HP. One more rocket and he'd have been dead. With a Pamir escort up top our wall is complete. We can finally start focusing on getting those resources.  We can also focus on longer-term upgrades. The double-barreled cannon is very nice but when you're at the units limit it's of limited utility.  Right now our Pamirs do 33 points of damage after we've applied the bullet upgrades.  The ZK Taiga 20mm does... only one point less?  Remember kids, bullet upgrades are really important. The ZK Taiga was barely cracking 10 damage before we upgraded it.  We have both Mines running at full tilt now. It won't be long before we get that 50k of resources we need.  Now that the Pamir is fully upgraded the damage outstrips the Taiga by 18 instead of 1.  Screw the Taiga though. The Siberia is a much better unit in every way. Let's add that to our army.  One of our commanders, knowing how I despise cowardice got the idea in his head that he could destroy one of the UCS bases. He was sorely mistaken and forced into a chaotic retreat when the mobile defenders emerged. He will have...a special punishment for his arrogance.  I've got to clean up his mess now.  The towers and tanks under my direct command take care of that easily.  So you like charging headlong into bases with no logistics and no authorization from me? How bout you "scout" one of the other bases. Don't come back unless they're all dead. The Czar's son is not a kind man.  In happier news, the Siberia is complete. It starts with 600 HP, while the Taiga maxes out at 450. It also has a faster top speed: 18 to the maxed Taiga's 17. The only downside is it costs 100 credits more, but it's worth it for a unit that's meant for the battlefield. The Taiga will remain our support unit.  No point in waiting for the next upgrade. We can "borrow" some credits from the Space Port for the last bit of research.  See, look what "borrowing" (and speeding up the game clock) can do for you!  The maxed Siberia only gains an extra 150 HP and 1 speed, but it'll be our main anti-air and non-Pamir unit for almost the entire game. Getting the upgrades early will save us money in the long-run.  Here's the ZT 102 Siberia 20mm.  One mine is extinguished. We just need to wait for the other one.  I also build a TT 120 Pamir C 105mm with twin cannons. Sadly after that I've hit the unit cap.  But seconds later we send over the last credits and Captain Krutov wants to award us the "Hero of Eurasian Expansion" medal. I think we're quickly becoming a well-regarded commander in the ED military. Dad will be proud of us.  We stick around the base for a little to mine out the last Mine, and then we leave.   9 researches this mission. That'll give us a tech edge for some time. We also managed to kill 127 of those damned robots.  General Fedorov's nephew was in charge of scouting the Himalaya for illegal enemy mining operations. We've not heard from them for three days. General Fedorov is a very important character in the Earth 2150 series. He's the man who convinced Vladimir II to give us command and he has a much larger role to play in the sequels. We cannot fail such an important commander. Himalaya is also a very quick mission so I'm going to start working on that update right now.  Today's track is the ED's first night theme. It's no LC Night Theme but I think it's pretty good. axeil fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Mar 3, 2013 |
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Mar 3, 2013 17:43
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  Like I said at the end of Arctic 2, General Fedorov is very important. We cannot fail him here after he went out on a limb to get us our promotion.  Our starting army is the same as last mission: 6 Pamirs and a Gruz.  The upgraded Cossack is our only research this mission, so let's get it out of the way.  Those are Siberia husks. This doesn't look good...   poo poo. I'm sorry General Fedorov's nephew. We'll bring your body back to your uncle.  And we'll avenge your death.  God damned LC. They keep stealing our resources, time to put a stop to that!  10,000 credits isn't much, but we only need 10,000 to get our first 100,000 and start construction in earnest. So I guess it makes sense.  The LC did not defend this well. One Defender with 20mm chainguns cannot possibly stand up to all these Pamirs.  And the Mine goes down. We can start building our base out.  The Cossack has 300 HP and 36 speed now. It's not completely useless like the first version is.  Unfortunately the Scout I sent out finds a very well-defended LC base. This looks bad...  I wonder what is up here? It's not like the LC to have layered defenses like this.  A Weather Control Center. Mother. gently caress. We need to retreat. There's no way we can stand against the storm that thing will generate.  Our base has two Mines and only a few tanks for defense. We just need to hold out until we get the 10,000 credits. General Fedorov will need to lead an offensive here himself if we want to dislodge the LC. I don't have enough firepower to defend myself, much less attack that base.  As I expected the attacks come early. Our tanks die defending the mining base but fortunately our armed Mines are able to kill the LC's Moons.  Igor Burkov gives us the first official procurement report from Space Station Salut. He needs 10,000 CR to keep the project on schedule. Good thing you just asked us to get 10,000 CR from the Himalayas!  Which we've now got. I'm advised by our Asia Recon commander to pull out but I'd like to extract every last credit I can from these mountains. I don't think we're going to bother with an offensive to push back the LC.  This group of Moons are focusing on the VPC. They've also managed to kill one of our Taiga transporters.  There goes the VPC. Fortunately our Supply Depot still stands. So long as that is working we can keep reloading and hold out. Our latest shipment has made it to Space Station Salut. ED News has more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wrJPCwu_ls  The LC's Meteors are pounding our Supply Depot. We don't have rockets so we can't hope to counter.  With the Supply Depot turned into rubble we don't have much time left. Move quickly Taiga!  Power is down at the base. We won't be able to get any more resources out of here, time to pull out!   The LC beat us on score but we managed to pull almost 20,000 CR out of the Himalayas. Not bad considering the circumstances.  Rest of briefing posted:Secure all vital construction plans. Kamchatka is a crucial mission. The Kaminji Research Complex was working on our new energy weapon. Failing this mission will keep you from getting lasers for the rest of the game.  Given that we were under attack almost this entire mission I think the battle theme for the ED is appropriate here. Don't you?
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Mar 3, 2013 18:56
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That War theme is what sold me the game, way back when. And holy crap, I only just now realised what the series was doing with this map!
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Mar 3, 2013 19:08
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Axeil is a true son of our beloved Khan. (Not that there was ever any doubt  ) May the breath of his sacred yaks bless Axeil's home with it's divine scent!It's actually possible to destroy the enemy base in this mission. You need to do the mission before the LC researches guided missiles or electro cannons, and you need to get stupidly lucky, but it's doable. The trick lies in doing a mad dash through the base and reaching a mostly empty plato behind it with a Gruz, at least one machine gun unit, and enough tanks to defends them while you build a power plant, a supply depot, and weapons factory. It's also a good position from which to start destroying the solar power plants and batteries nearby. Once they're down, prevent any structure from landing and you have the mission in the bag. There's no point in actually doing that, though, it's incredibly difficult and you'll lose a fuckton of units in the attack.
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Mar 3, 2013 19:20
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axeil posted:We've got an upgraded chaingun up first today. Due to the longer nature of the ED campaign research at the lower ends is more important. We may be using chainguns as our only anti-air weapon for a few missions. It always bugged me how the skirmish AI relies purely on chainguns for AA for so long and delays that particular research for so long.
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Mar 3, 2013 19:43
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Poil posted:It always bugged me how the skirmish AI relies purely on chainguns for AA for so long and delays that particular research for so long. Yeah that's always been an annoyance of mine too. On the other hand, unguided rockets are terrible against air units or really anything that moves while you shoot it. I uh, may have re-discovered this after the latest mission.
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Mar 3, 2013 20:12
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axeil posted:Yeah that's always been an annoyance of mine too. On the other hand, unguided rockets are terrible against air units or really anything that moves while you shoot it. I uh, may have re-discovered this after the latest mission.  If they don't stop to shoot you tend to waste quite a lot of ammunition however. Not to mention what happens if you load up a few mines and factories with unguided rockets and have something small and fast drive through your base leaving massive collateral friendly fire in its wake.
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Mar 3, 2013 21:09
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Chainguns are loving awesome though - double chainguns and max chaingun ammo, is really cheap to research and deploy on the field. And the damage is pretty good, especially considering it's instant-hit and fires fast. And cheap. And I just realized those old units you found in the russian base might be from the Earth 21xx series prequel - World War 3: Black Gold. It was a modern combat game using the same engine and some of the same mechanics - about a massive world war following an economic crash. Sometime between 2000 and 2100 if I remember it right - sound familiar?
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Mar 3, 2013 23:17
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DatonKallandor posted:Chainguns are loving awesome though - double chainguns and max chaingun ammo, is really cheap to research and deploy on the field. And the damage is pretty good, especially considering it's instant-hit and fires fast. And cheap. Not to mention they shoot down the LC's drop-in buildings like nothing. That game looks like alpha or beta version of this game, how interesting!
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Mar 4, 2013 00:11
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DatonKallandor posted:Chainguns are loving awesome though - double chainguns and max chaingun ammo, is really cheap to research and deploy on the field. And the damage is pretty good, especially considering it's instant-hit and fires fast. And cheap. Oh wow. It looks really similar to Earth 2150. Canon in the Earth 21xx Universe is that a global world war in the early 21st century after an economic crash caused the destruction of most major world powers. This looks like it could be the very war the game talks about. Thanks!
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Mar 4, 2013 00:28
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Does the ED have its strength in the speed of early-game technologies it can unlock?
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Mar 6, 2013 14:37
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  We've got a hell of a situation here. The Kaminji Research Complex is under attack by the LC. They were working on finalizing the laser weapon but we don't have any backups of their work. Fortunately they were able to load a Gruz with their research, but we must ensure it escapes the research center. There's an ED outpost nearby, so we need to hurry to get these plans to safety.  The LC are already dropping buildings on our base. In a few seconds their Moons and Lunars will arrive.  We cut along the valley to the northeast of the base to avoid the arriving army but it looks like the LC has caught wind of our plan and is sending a squad to blockade the bridge. We've managed to slip past them though. The three Taiga Transporters are included to provide cover for the Gruz.  We're not so lucky on the other side of the bridge. The LC can cross the river without worrying about things like bridges so we're almost completely trapped by their ambush.  All 4 convoy members take heavy damage, and the Moons are in hot pursuit.  They've gotten one of the Taigas.  But we can see the gates of the base! I think we've made it.  We'll need to recreate the research facility. This area is much more secured than our first spot, so I think we'll be okay. Ignore what Colonel Shakt says, we can bring in the Ukraine any time we wish.  This looks like a good plan to get our base mining and researching.  Once again we only have one avenue for research, the first level of the Rocket Launcher. But rockets are great right? No. No they are not, not when they have no homing ability.  The ore field in our base gives us about 30,000 CR to work with. Yikes. That's a fairly tough budget. I'm not sure we'll have enough to fund a full-scale attack on the LC's position.  A prototype hidden in the tunnels! These scientists are geniuses! But we'll need to get into the area around the old research base to build the tunnel entrance. This could be tricky. We'll need our  The prototype is actually controllable by the player. Don't let it die.  This is the northernmost point in the tunnel system. The impenetrable rock is visible surrounding the tunnel. This location probably gives us the best chance of a safe extraction.  This is the view directly above the prototype's location. It's not in the base, but the LC are definitely going to notice a Tunnel Entrance here. We're going to need a distraction.  Go outdated and decrepit soldiers! Show them the true might of the   Our Hell no! They're filthy peasants, they should feel lucky they get to die for the their Khan!   We have two new units now that the Rocket Launcher is done. Their advantages and drawbacks are tied to what chassis we pick. The Siberia has more HP and can mount shields, but the Pamir has stronger armor.  poo poo. The LC's Meteor fighter has spotted us. I assume they're sounding the general alarm at the base.  Or maybe they'll just destroy our LZ? You'd think they would focus on destroying the tanks headed to their base. But then again most of the LC's commanders were picking Moon Flowers only a few months ago. They're not the best tacticians. The LC's Moons have moved out to great our Gruz responsible for building the Tunnel Entrance. Fortunately a line of tanks await them and our 105mm cannons beat their 20mm guns.  The Gruz has done his job: build the Tunnel Entrance and take some shots while the rest of the attack force shows up.  The Tunnel Entrance is complete. Quick, get out of here prototype!   I move the rest of the suicide squad into the LC's base to do as much damage and keep them from noticing the escape of a single unit.  It looks like it's worked so far.  And while we're here let's cripple their economy.  3 Mines destroyed by an attack force designed only to die? That's some hard fighting.  It looks like no one has followed the prototype out. Thank god.  Hurrah, hurrah! We still need to research the Laser Cannon in the Research window but we can use the prototype as much as we want. Unfortunately we don't unlock the actual research until next mission.  Here's our new rocket unit.  The prototype will be headed back to HQ for testing.  This looks like an acceptable unit to "test" the laser on. Results of the test are highly classified though. But I will say the Pamir driver was a bit, "heated" after the test.   Hah! Silly LC, the prototype is already gone. You can't have it.  But you can sneak into the back of our base via the ocean. Dammit.  Things that do not work well: unguided rockets against aerial units that move a lot.  The LC have destroyed our Landing Zone. Fortunately all resources are mined out, but we can only take 10 units home with us.  Things that do work well: unguided rockets against aerial units that stand still and let you shoot them.  As we begin the evacuation the LC arrive again, this time with Electro-Cannon Moons. Yikes. Glad we're pulling out.   Once again we lost on score. But the Laser Cannon is so close I can almost taste it.  Yesss. Field testing.   This is the second day track for the ED. Sounds kind of similar to the first if you ask me.
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Mar 6, 2013 15:27
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Glazius posted:Does the ED have its strength in the speed of early-game technologies it can unlock? I'd say in the campaign the best thing the ED has going for it is starting with the strongest starting unit/weapon. The 105mm Cannon is far stronger than the Grenade Launcher or the LC's Rocket Launcher. The Pamir also has the best armor and speed of any early game unit. Additionally, their energy weapon is the most effective against unshielded units and they get it no later than 6 missions in the campaign. Keep in mind the ED campaign is much longer than the other 2 so 6 missions in is still very early. Some of the late game ED units are very impressive but for the most part it's all 105mm cannons and lasers. axeil fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Mar 6, 2013 |
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Mar 6, 2013 15:30
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axeil posted:
It's the same backdoor you didn't spot in the LC campaign. 
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Mar 6, 2013 17:31
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my dad posted:It's the same backdoor you didn't spot in the LC campaign. Yup, if you take too long in this mission the LC tends to send their units through this path to piss you off. By the way axeil, the Arctic 2 mission with 3 UCS bases, do they add their research to the others or does only one of their bases count towards their total research?
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Mar 6, 2013 18:04
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my dad posted:It's the same backdoor you didn't spot in the LC campaign.  I am a huge idiot. Koorisch posted:Yup, if you take too long in this mission the LC tends to send their units through this path to piss you off. I believe only the main faction (Defender 2200, the red faction) counts.
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Mar 6, 2013 18:51
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There's that much of a difference in travel time between the unguided rockets and chaingun bullets? Or is the chaingun more of a hitscan weapon?
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Mar 7, 2013 08:23
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Glazius posted:There's that much of a difference in travel time between the unguided rockets and chaingun bullets? Or is the chaingun more of a hitscan weapon? Hitscan, which means it's extremely ammo efficient.
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Mar 7, 2013 08:43
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 Hey everyone, sorry for the long delay. Between getting sick, Heart of the Swarm, work stuff and visiting family I've been totally swamped. Now let's check out Leviathan.  Thanks to our rescue of the laser prototype last mission we've managed to produce a second laser prototype. ED scientists now believe it's ready for production, we just need to do some field testing.  The second prototype is actually identical to the first. I think the developers could've just had you use the unit from last mission but I'm not complaining about a second free laser unit.   This doesn't seem like much of a field test, no one is shooting back at us. And as we all know the laser kills the UCS robots almost instantly.  Aw man. The LC really, really want this laser tech for themselves. Let's hope they like their steaks well done  Once the test is completed the game gives you control of the little research base you start in. Unfortunately there are no resources in this base so you'll need to take out the LC on a budget.  The Laser Cannon is ready for research. However I won't complete work on it until after I've cleared out the LC. I don't want them getting their hands on fully researched and operational tech! Of course, there's no system for tech stealing in this game so if I really wanted to I could research the lasers now.  We'll be doing base defenses on the cheap today. The only thing this base needs is a wall around the rear. If you recall in the LC's version of this mission I was able to sneak into the ED base by exploiting their lack of a full wall.  The Laser Cannon is doing a fantastic job in combat. These LC units barely scratch the Siberia.  However these LC units are able to put quite a few scratches on our LZ. So many scratches that it blows up.  But they can't resist our tanks' 105mm cannons.  I send one of our old outdated units to scout the LC base. Looks like they've got resources. We'll need to strike quickly to appropriate them for our space ship/laser research.  We encounter almost no resistance when moving out until we arrive at the LC's doorstep. The Meteors could be a problem; I haven't brought many anti-air units.  Instead we'll take the second entrance to the base. This one is probably much safer.   Yep, I was right. 2 Moons are way easier to kill with a bunch of Pamirs than a single Meteor. Also the LC are really bad at base planning. You shouldn't put your Solar Power Plant right at your entrance. Has General Fang taught them nothing!?  I'm going to go with "Nope, they have not learned a drat thing." I've only destroyed the 2 buildings closet to the entrance and the LC have no power. Stunning.  With the last Moon dead all we have to worry about now are those damned Meteors.  And the LC trying to drop in new Solar Power Plants. Fortunately the 20mm chaingun Siberias have arrived so all that's left to do now is mop up.  I didn't smell any burning flesh, nor would I want to smell it. You're kind of scary Colonel Shakt. The last LC rebuild attempt has failed and I've set up a nice little mining base. Oh and ED scientists have finalized some sort of Laser Cannon. Who knows what that thing is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-KQSbdHr4  Here's our first laser unit in the Construction Center. I love it. Let's upgrade it to version 3.  Very nice. Double the damage for only 20,000 credits. This Siberia can probably destroy an unshielded unit in one burst.  And we'll be sending about 40,000 CR back to base. I'd say this was quite a successful mission.   I'm losing touch on my Russian army tactics. We only lost 5 units. I clearly need to throw in more peasants. The LC are bad at fighting wars but no one is that bad.  rest of Briefing posted:Your orders are to construct a base and send us as much raw material as possible. Alaska is interesting. It'll be yet another resource collection mission, but this time we need to send 100,000 CR. For the early game that's a ton of credits.  Today's musical selection is the second night theme for the ED. axeil fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Mar 16, 2013 20:07
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I liked the update and I hope that you regularly update this LP.
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Mar 18, 2013 02:18
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I have to agree with your tactics assessment. The more people who die gloriously in battle, the fewer we'll need to take with us to Mars. Imagine the resources we could save!
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Mar 18, 2013 13:25
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The more casualties, the more glorious the battle. Now if only the ED had enough sense to put those lasers on helicopters.
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Mar 18, 2013 19:19
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axeil posted:I'm losing touch on my Russian army tactics. We only lost 5 units. I clearly need to throw in more peasants. Putting weapons on all units reeks of treason to the motherland. Let them take their weapons off their fallen comrades
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Mar 18, 2013 21:15
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Blackstone posted:Putting weapons on all units reeks of treason to the motherland. Let them take their weapons off their fallen comrades Sadly there is no Stalingrad mission in this game Of course the scene they showed at the start of Enemy at the Gates with half the soldiers getting guns and the other half bullets is largely bullshit. Red Army veterans in Russia were really pissed about how inaccurate that movie was. I've never seen any reference to that idea except in that movie. The book "War of the Rats" was part of what the movie was based on. It's a pretty good book if you're interested in reading a fictionalized version of the battle. The Wikipedia article on it sucks but it gives a good outline. Also the dumb romance plot in the movie is much more minimized in the book. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Rats Speaking of Stalingrad, the history and tactics behind the battle are pretty awesome and was one of my favorite thing to read about when I was younger. The Russians even made an insanely large statue to commemorate the bravery of their people. It's almost as big as the Statue of Liberty here in the States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motherland_Calls But this is no reason to stop making jokes about the ED Army's mass disregard for human life right?
axeil fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Mar 19, 2013 |
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Mar 19, 2013 16:45
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axeil posted:But this is no reason to stop making jokes about the ED Army's mass disregard for human life right? I'm sorry, I can't hear you, the tanks I sent to clear out the minefield are still exploding.
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Mar 19, 2013 17:07
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Late to the party, but I'm glad to find you doing this LP! I've got these games from lovely polish gaming magazines when I was a kid and now I'm drowning in nostalgia.
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Mar 19, 2013 20:18
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axeil posted:But this is no reason to stop making jokes about the ED Army's mass disregard for human life right? To clear that stain of bourgeois revisionism, I expect you to kick paratroopers out of low flying planes over ponds and haystacks (let's just not get into the history of the Eastern front in WW2, that tends to become depressing)
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Mar 19, 2013 21:27
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axeil posted:Sadly there is no Stalingrad mission in this game The ED learnt all it knows about Communist actions from war movies. (one of the Call of Duties also has the one guy gets a gun, one guy gets the ammo thing)
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Mar 20, 2013 21:13
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Hey everyone, I'm going out of town on Friday so I unfortunately won't have the Alaska update done till I get back. The level is all played out though so I just need to upload my stuff and write the commentary. I'll see if I can update on Sunday, if not cross your fingers for Monday.
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Mar 22, 2013 06:11
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 I'm back! And hopefully things should be less hectic now that I've finished up the stuff that came up in real life and we can get back to a fairly frequent/consistent update schedule.  So Alaska. This is a tricky mission since you're well behind enemy lines, have a pretty terrible starting location, and you need to mine 100,000 credits. From an area the UCS currently control. Good lord. Fortunately the successful completion of this mission will put our spaceship well ahead of the pace we saw in the UCS and LC campaigns.  Like I said, our starting location is pretty horrible. We've got minimal resources and the UCS are sitting on the deposits we need. Our first goal is to get a small base going here and then push out with tanks we've got at HQ. Hope you saved up some units, otherwise this mission is going to be nearly impossible.  The base at our LZ is going to be a shoestring operation. We don't need anything more than power, a Supply Depot to reload, a VPC to make our support units and a Mine/Refinery to extract the pitiful amount of resources here.  This is our target. This is an extremely rich mineral field but it's currently controlled by the UCS and it's got a ton of trees on it. Boo trees, get out of the way you make mining challenging.   Okay I lied there's one more building I put at the LZ base. Since we're out of credits at HQ we need a Research Center to work on upgrades. But that's it I swear.  We need to research the Grozny because it is awesome and I'm sick of using Cossacks.  Now that everything is built and my army is here we can move out and take on the UCS base. We're going to need a lot of firepower, and it's crucial you don't over-extend yourself here for...reasons you'll soon see. If you are taking heavy losses, pull back and re-group. You don't want to destroy the base and only have a Pamir or two left.  The UCS aren't making GBS threads around here. They've got guided rockets and every structure that can support weapon mounts has them. Furthermore, the longer you wait to take out the base the more well-defended it will be. The Mammoth you see there is building a Small Tower and will continue to build if you don't intervene quickly.  Why are the buildings still shooting if they don't have power any more?  Oh right, because there's two power plants. Or well there were two power plants. Now there's none.  We've destroyed the last building and gotten our mining base started. Another great victory for the Eurasian Dynasty! Let the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqsU-XQ8ZD0  The Grozny is complete. As you can see it's a pretty fantastic helicopter.  Our next piece of research will be the Large Tower. We're gonna need it. Why?  Because those damned robots sent a distress signal and their friends are going to investigate. The UCS are going to come hard and fast at both our bases. The best defense is a good offense, so let's rally what we've got and see if we can blunt their attacks a bit. At least we found out about a new research program. Those have been very fruitful for us so far. Additionally, the attacks won't trigger until you destroy the last structure in the mining base. If you'd like to cheese this mission you can leave one structure alone and have a much easier time of things.  The UCS have a very impressive set of defenses here to the southwest of the mineral patch. It's just Small Towers but because they have a height advantage and homing missiles this can quickly become a death trap.  We've taken out three of the towers but we're already down 4 units and the UCS have brought in their Gargoyles and Tiger Gs to intensify the fire. We're begging for a beat down right now.  Yep we are getting our asses kicked. As out of character as it is I think it's time to order a retreat.  Fall back filthy peasants! Fall back! Any man not running like a scared child back to base will be shot (by the UCS)! In news that should surprise no one given how badly we're outnumbered there, I end up taking horrific losses. Time to bring in more units from HQ!  There we go. It's like we didn't just lose our entire army in one of the most ill-conceived attacks since massed cavalry charges in WWI.  Good thing we brought in those extra units because now the northern UCS forces are pummeling our base. Grenades aren't that great but they do a good job against buildings.  Fortunately they don't have shields to defend against our Siberia Ls and the Tanks can take care of anyone out of range of the lasers. Plus we've now got this fancy line of Large Towers to guard the southern half of our base.  Check out that line. Isn't it the best line of towers you've ever seen?   The UCS, realizing how awesome my line is has decided to attack the LZ base. Too bad I didn't build any of those up there   Meanwhile a brave Pamir has raced inside the UCS base to the west. It looks very well-fortified, thus proving how utterly stupid my offensive was.  I've built enough Small Towers around the base that they should be able to fend off the Gargoyle raids.  Not that they needed to do too much defending since the Mine is now tapped out. With the minerals fully extracted there's no reason to continue to hold this base.  And my cavalier defense results in some towers getting destroyed. But there's no reason to cry over a base that's served its purpose.   Our army is doing a great job of holding the northern part of the base against the UCS though. And I've now got enough time (and credits) to build some Large Towers to support them.  These UCS Tigers seem to love attacking the tower, which makes life a lot easier for the army.  I've also managed to rebuild from my poorly planned attack. Thanks for holding the line there Siberias and Tanks. You'll get a medal or extra rations or something.  More Tigers march to their doom up north.   We've hit the 200,000 CR sent mark but we're only halfway through this mission. Let's see if I can speed up the mining, I don't want to be here all day. This extra mine should do wonders.  Or it would if it had more than 2000 credits under it.   Let's try that again...  Oh no! The UCS have finally realized that my magnificent towers don't stand up too well against Gargoyles. Damned UCS, being all clever and stuff.  So glad I spent the 1,000 credits on that mine.   Now that the attacks have slowed down I'll focus on getting some upgrades. First is the 2nd tier rocket launcher.  Our mining base is humming along quite nicely. To save time I turn the game speed up to max and well, you can see what happens when you've maxed out the game speed. Things move very quickly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5RkaXzVQ6s  Our upgraded rocket launcher. Works just like the UCS and LC.  Hurrah! Hurrah! We've managed to mine all the resources we've needed. And now I'm known as Axeil, "Scourge of the Robotniks." What an awesome nickname.  Instead of going back to base right away, I'll work on some more rocket launcher upgrades.  Now we just need the upgraded ammunition and our rockets will actually be worth using.  We brought in 170,000 credits more than what we needed for our second progress report. They should call me "Scourge of Central Planning"  We managed to hold out against superior numbers in a very tenuous situation. I'm proud of my men. Good job guys!   156 units destroyed. And that's why you don't keep throwing robots at an objective you can't achieve. Remember Japan from the UCS side? Well instead we're going up against 3 Lunar Corporation bases. Given our mediocre air force we're probably going to need naval units this time. For everyone that's been waiting to see navies in action, this is your lucky day.  The 2nd ED battle theme will be our last piece of music until we get to the expansions. I hope you've all enjoyed the music section!
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Mar 26, 2013 05:15
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Do you have any heavy weapon mounts?
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Mar 27, 2013 08:58
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Boats will be about the only thing with heavies right now. This should be Interesting. The ED have a tough time on the water. UCS plasmaboats are devastating, on the rare occasion the answer isn't just Send More Gargoyles.
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Mar 27, 2013 09:28
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my dad posted:Do you have any heavy weapon mounts? Loxbourne posted:Boats will be about the only thing with heavies right now. Nope, no heavy weapons! I thought the game gave you the heavy ED boat in this mission but I was wrong. I'm about halfway through Japan and the mission isn't very hard it's just very grind-y and annoying. Thankfully the ED has another unit up their sleeve for this mission. If it was just boats it'd be nearly impossible.
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Mar 27, 2013 13:08
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Medium Turrets have heavy mounts I think. But does he have a heavy weapon to put on it?
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Mar 27, 2013 18:38
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axeil posted:Hurrah! Hurrah! We've managed to mine all the resources we've needed. And now I'm known as Axeil, "Scourge of the Robotniks." What an awesome nickname. So you're Sonic, basically?
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Mar 27, 2013 23:59
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I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before (and I apologize if it has) as I've basically just been going through the updates so far trying to catch up, but I noticed in the last video how you had your mines and refineries set up. You can actually set up mines and refineries in such a way that the ED basically never stop receiving credits. It's kind of broken and I remember playing multiplayer matches of this game and laughing at how fast you can make money. I drew a picture on how the set up would go.  Basically, first you put the mine down, then set the taiga next to the conveyor belt. Then you get a Gruz to build the refinery so that it's belt is on the other side. This effectively boxes your Taiga in, but that doesn't matter since all it will be doing is moving money. What basically happens is this. Box 1 comes out of the mine and stops. The Taiga picks it up and immediately spins around (which is much faster than driving) to drop it off. Because the mine pumps boxes out fairly quickly compared to the LC mine or UCS harvesters, by the time the Taiga is about to drop off Box 1, Box 2 is heading out. The Taiga will drop Box 1, and start to turn to grab Box 2. By the time Box 1 is in the refinery, Box 2 is on the Taiga, and Box 3 is coming out of the mine. This basically means that the Taiga essentially never stops spinning in place and effectively connects the two conveyor belts together. Because the boxes of resources are worth more individually than the LC mine can tick, or the harvester can individually collect (I believe) this means the ED get money incredibly quickly and in huge amounts. The drawback to doing this is that you can basically only set one Taiga per mine and refinery as any other Taigas will force the first to stop and wait. Thus if you want more Taigas collecting, you'll need a mine and refinery for each one. But even two of these setups will strip mine a spot ridiculously fast. And since most ED buildings have hard points, your Taigas are basically safe. As long as the mine never has to stop to wait for a box to get out off the conveyor belt, it will continuously mine. Once they get going, your resources never stop ticking up.
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Mar 28, 2013 01:09
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Why would you needlessly complicate mining? This setup works with maximum efficiency, since the time it takes a taiga to move 1 tile and back is the time it takes to produce a package, the ore is almost completely covered by mines, you only need one refinery for every two mines, the taigas will sync up so that they never block each-other from dropping a crate into the refinery, and you can easily replace a taiga if a bunch of gargoyles show up in an attempt to wreck your economy. As a bonus, the structure with a weapon mount (the mine) is facing outwards, and the vulnerable structure (the refinery) is shielded.
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Mar 28, 2013 01:31
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| # ? May 14, 2024 09:50 |
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DatonKallandor posted:Medium Turrets have heavy mounts I think. But does he have a heavy weapon to put on it? Nope. I think the first one you get is the Heavy Cannon and that's still a few missions away. HBNRW posted:I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before (and I apologize if it has) as I've basically just been going through the updates so far trying to catch up, but I noticed in the last video how you had your mines and refineries set up. This is an amazing tactic, thanks for showing it off. I've put the Mines and Refineries in a position where they Taiga doesn't have to move far but I didn't even realize you could box in the Taiga. I've finished up Japan but when I do the next mission I'll give this a shot. my dad posted:Why would you needlessly complicate mining? This one is even better. I will now build smarter! 
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Mar 28, 2013 01:41
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