Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Mokinokaro
Sep 11, 2001

At the end of everything, hold onto anything



Fun Shoe

ArchWizard posted:

It's a first-class ticket. Maybe commanders of lesser skill only qualify for business class and still have to pay for their in-flight borscht.

Maybe it's the nicest ship of the fleet as well? It's the flagship after all, stuffed full of the ED elite.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Hey, it might be nice to see what playing as NEO looks like from his own side.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006
Moving is a real pain in the rear end. Update sometime during the week this week.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006




Calling NEO "an espionage operative" is a bit of an understatement. He defected from the UCS back in the 2140 war and knows the ins and outs of the UCS AI system. The attack on North America was not only a way to buy time for the ED to collect resources, but also a way to allow NEO access to the GOLAN mainframes. A successful mission here will all but win the war for the Dynasty.



But we can't let the UCS know we're here. For that reason all that we have is a single modified Caspian, NEO's personal vehicle. You may remember it from the LC campaign when Fang had to kill NEO. Everything is the same, there are no guns but it's very quick.





Looks like we can't just use the tunnels to take us everywhere, the UCS are smarter than that. They've set up roadblocks between major tunnel sections. We'll need to go topside during this infiltration.



Good thing NEO's vehicle is amphibious! :haw:





Once we go down the tunnel here we find another unconnected tunnel, but also a shield. I have a feeling we might need this...





The next tunnel is also easy to get into. Something doesn't seem right here. Where's the base that Colonel Vilnius talked about?



That room has green walls and funky architecture. I bet that's where the first mainframe is.



Well there's the base. If we just run through real quick we should be abl-



Oh. :saddowns:






NEO's pathing will do incredibly dumb things if you just have him go to the next tunnel without guiding him. Make sure he doesn't do something dumb like drive around in circles. Let's do that again...






There we go! Only chipped up the paint a bit.



There's the first of three mainframe artifacts. Other than the whole dying bit this wasn't so bad!



And we even get a map of the surface level!



And the next tunnel is right next to the one we came out of!? The UCS must really want us to take their robots.



Either the UCS is doing target practice down here or this is not the first attempt to steal the AI codes from the mainframes. Their expedition didn't go as well as ours is going though. The superior tactics and intelligence of the Axeil-NEO team is unparalleled in all the Dynasty! :ussr:



Yet another tunnel to surface transition.



And this one has plasma :gonk:. I'm glad I picked up that shield.



Once we're back underground the UCS towers can't hit us. There's one more artifact to go now.



So this is pretty creative. The UCS are using their tunnel systems to ferry Harvesters back and forth from the mineral patches to the Refineries. I think building bridges is probably cheaper but this is a great way to avoid an airstrike on your vulnerable Harvesters.

Then again they could just hit the Tunnel Entrances and strand them in transit...



I find a stockpile of repair kits in one of these store rooms. There's a sign there that says "Help Yourself," so we do. I mean sure it's in my handwriting and on official Dynasty stationary (it's got a watermark) but I've heard that my writing looks like a robot and it would be just like those machines to use some of their enemy's paper to cut down on costs so really who's to know for sure.



Oh and they've also left a map of the tunnels. This will make finding the final mainframe location a lot easier.



There it is! It would've taken a lot longer to find if NEO had to manually search the tunnels. Onwards!



Whoa. That's a lot of firepower. I hope NEO doesn't croak again.



He made it! But took a lot of damage! And also somehow traveled back in time by four hours.

:ssh: NEO died again when he decided he didn't like the nice safe tunnel and he should run back into the wall of plasma. NEO's...not the smartest when it comes to self-preservation sometimes.



Fortunately there's a nice cache of parts right next to the entrance. No sign this time though but after a rude welcome like that I think a repair kit is just compensation.

Well and their mainframe codes.



Two Tiger 20mms have followed NEO down here. Now that he's at full health (and can outrun them) they're not a threat.





Here's the last mainframe. Wonder what happens when NEO hacks it? :allears:



YESSSS! GIVE ME ALL YOUR ROBOTS UCS!



DESTROY! DESTROY! MWHAHAHA!



The Mammoths turn into Gruzs when NEO hacks them. So no building Fortresses or Shadow Towers for the ED.



Keep shooting my robotic servants so NEO can get away!



Aw most of them died :smith:



But NEO managed to escape! Now we just need him to tell us how he did all that.



And I think I'll take two Condor resupply units along as a trophy.





Stats are meaningless in this mission since the ED can't build and the UCS can't kill anything other than their own units.



rest of briefing posted:

Your orders are to construct a base, excavate mines, and supply us with as much raw material as possible.

ANOTHER mining mission!? We are so far ahead of schedule right now! We should use our new robot voodoo skills to wreck the UCS not mine more stuff out of the ground! What are you doing ED High Command!?

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
You don't get to keep the other units? A shame, there's some good stuff in the UCS arsenal.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

my dad posted:

You don't get to keep the other units? A shame, there's some good stuff in the UCS arsenal.

The only units you get in this mission are Harvesters, Mammoths, Tiger 20mms, 2 Tiger Ps that are usually instantly killed by the Small/Large Towers and all the Gargoyles you see in the screenshots. None of those are really worth taking back and counting against your units cap.

The LC mission that lets you work with NEO gives you a much better haul. I think you get Panther Rs and Ps plus a bunch of Spider Ps and hRs.

Loxbourne
Apr 6, 2011

Tomorrow, doom!
But now, tea.
Go hit Area 51. If you keep doing resource missions you'll finish the campaign.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

Loxbourne posted:

Go hit Area 51. If you keep doing resource missions you'll finish the campaign.

Oh trust me I won't be finishing the ED campaign early. If we get too far ahead I'll just start failing the resource missions if need be.

Plus if I do Indonesia first then Area 51 will be the 51st update! :haw:

The Evil Thing
Jul 3, 2010

axeil posted:

Oh trust me I won't be finishing the ED campaign early. If we get too far ahead I'll just start failing the resource missions if need be.

Couldn't you just steal the credits from the spaceport before they get sent off? "Emergency requisitions" or something...

axeil
Feb 14, 2006




Uh I don't know what kind of map you're using Major Minsk but Indonesia is definitely not what I'd call "The North."



The plateau you start on is not very large so we'll have a very compact main base around the LZ.



I question the overzealous push for resources. We're 280,000 credits ahead of schedule. Why are we still doing mining missions!? Perhaps I should start redirecting some of these resources to our war efforts. I'm sure no one would notice...



There's an LC base right on our doorstep. And it has almost no defenses around it's Solar Power Plant. Let's kill them!





Okay so they had two power plants but I don't think either one was very well-defended. But then this isn't the primary LC commander. Probably some rookie who doesn't know anything about base setup.



UCS Gargoyles are harassing the base. Looks like we've got all three factions present on this map.



And the UCS still has plasma. :sigh: I hate plasma.



Sorry about destroying your base, rookie. The pencil pushers in Moscow said we need another 100,000 credits.



Looks like there's another credit field to the west that doesn't have an entire base on top of it. Guess we should've gone there first. Whoops!



Well it does seem to have a lot of Harvesters blindly running to it. I hope this doesn't mean the UCS will counter-attack.



poo poo. Where's the army!?



Oh there they are. But most of them can't shoot air units. That's...bad.



Fortunately our losses aren't as severe as you'd expect thanks to the air force coming over to help. Thanks air force!



:smith: The UCS has Panthers now. Just that one Panther was enough to level a Mine. We are outclassed technologically now by both factions. Our only solace is that the UCS doesn't have shields. So a well placed laser hit will still destroy this Panther.



The LC are much more worrying. They too have a heavy unit. With shields. And they're heading for our base. Quick everyone! Fall back to defend the LZ!



Good work. We're definitely on our heels this mission. The UCS and LC are hitting us almost without rest. And our army is dying faster than we can replace the causalities. Who would've thought Indonesia would be the site of our first real combat test in weeks?



I manage to get two Large Towers up and operational during a lull in battle. It's not much but it'll help a bit during the next wave of attacks.



This single puny Caspian L is destroying all the Panthers the UCS sends to attack the second mining base. Why don't they target the Caspian before the base? One Panther R with a plasma attachment should be able to destroy a Caspian. :confused:



The LC are starting to run out of resources and are dropping mines on our first mining base. They're probably going to make a major push soon.



But we've got reinforcements coming from HQ! Woohoo!



Even though it feels like a lot of time has passed, we're only halfway through this mission. Indonesia is a very challenging mission.





Gargoyle harassment has been mostly neutralized. However the UCS is now sending Panthers to attack the first mining base as well as the second. Ugh.



This is made even more annoying when they time their attacks along with the LC Craters. Since I'm pretty sure the LC are out of resources perhaps we can strike at their base and end one of the threats to our mining operation?



Uhhh...yeah. I don't think that's going to work. It's not very well-defended but we're still barely are hanging on to our positions. Had there been no units around I might've given it a shot. In the current scenario it's crazy to try.



And now the UCS are trying to steal from the mining base too. The major push has to be coming. Otherwise the LC and UCS will starve.





Yep. That's definitely it. A lot of Panthers and Craters and my tanks are getting annihilated out there.



We manage to repel the attack. Unfortunately our army has taken catastrophic casualties; we only have 5 offensive ground units left and one Grozny in the air.

We need to invest in rebuilding.



And HQ seems to have gotten an influx of credits from some mysterious source. I wasn't around HQ at the time but my lieutenants say that we have lots of resources and to ignore the fact the Spaceport is empty. :raise:

So with this new financing, let's build a second Weapons Production Center to speed up the rebuild of our army.



I think I should have a lot of laser units. I don't know why, but I have this weird sense that the next mission might require a lot of lasers.



Yes the :airquote: Spaceport :airquote:

I hope the Czar doesn't find out we stole credits. He's a very angry man. :ohdear:



Our army is rebuilt. Looks pretty formidable now.



We can't hope to hold the mining bases without the army present so sadly we must leave about 36,000 credits behind.





177 units killed. :stare: They must've really wanted those minerals.



Next time: We find out if aliens and their ridiculously-overpowered-for-this-game UFOs exist in Area 51.

Twenty Drunk Apes
Jun 17, 2012

The mane you say? Please note that this is a pity avatar because even bronies feel sorry for this poster so :effort:.

axeil posted:

Uh I don't know what kind of map you're using Major Minsk but Indonesia is definitely not what I'd call "The North."


Maybe all those nukes that hit the North Pole messed things up even worse than we thought? Maybe now East is North and West is South. v:v:v

Twenty Drunk Apes fucked around with this message at 18:37 on May 19, 2013

The Evil Thing
Jul 3, 2010
Perhaps it's just the north of Indonesia?

Though I prefer the previous answer.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
From a gameplay perspective it must be nice to get an early exit if you play the resource game will enough, but from an LP perspective it must be hard trying not to end the game prematurely.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

Glazius posted:

From a gameplay perspective it must be nice to get an early exit if you play the resource game will enough, but from an LP perspective it must be hard trying not to end the game prematurely.

Yep pretty much. Especially since 2 of the 3 missions you get after Area 51 are resource collection missions :suicide:

axeil
Feb 14, 2006


Welcome back comrades. Our trip to recover the alien craft was long and arduous and I have quite a tale to tell now.



Igor has located the suspected location of the UCS alien craft. Stealing this craft will change the course of the war for sure. We must not allow the UCS to harness the ship's secrets. The fact that Fang is out there in his glider is bad enough, we don't need another rival army having a super-tank like that.



This is a covert mission so our resources are at a minimum here. No starting credits and only an LZ, Tunnel Entrance and 2 comically out of date Pamirs to protect it. We'll need better defenses, the UCS are sure to sound the alarm shortly. I'll bring in our top veterans for this mission.



Good thing I did. A UCS scouting party has found us, only hours into the mission. With the general alarm sounded getting this craft is going to require all the ingenuity the ED can muster.



The craft is somewhere in these tunnels. There's no use building your own tunnels, the rocks in the soil are too ubiquitous. This means we'll need to fight our way through. The UCS has filled the tunnels with their plasma units. Our laser Caspians are quite capable against them and should be able to manage as our scouts and strike team for this mission.



Bringing in some "liberated" credits from the Spaceport allows us to set up a defensive matrix to the north of the tunnel entrance. We'll need to the area well-defended. If the UCS can destroy the Tunnel Entrance we'll have no way to recover the spaceship. And if they destroy the LZ we'll be unable to return it to the Motherland.



More resistance from Spider Ps in the tunnels. Bringing along some ZK Taiga Repairers allows me to keep the army in top fighting shape. So far we've yet to take a causality.



The base is well-established at this point. I think it's unlikely that UCS air strikes will be able to drive us out of the valley. Still, we like production capabilities in the field. A suicide strike to take out our re-supply craft will cripple us.





The nearest alien tunnels are clear of UCS robots, but we don't find any evidence of the alien craft. The tunnel system goes on for miles, this could be an extremely long search.



This is the fate of all the UCS air patrols at this point. They're not smart enough to try attacking our reloading craft, instead focusing all their efforts on the LZ. I suppose it makes sense, since they're trying to cut our lines back to HQ.



:tviv: This is not good. The UCS is bringing in their big guns. Panther HR/Ps. They've finally gotten us beat on firepower. Quick! Everyone fall back to that maintenance pocket!



Fight you bastards! If you all die this mission is over, the UCS will have complete control of the tunnel system! For our Motherland! :ussr:



Casualties were massive. We lost half the Caspians and both Taiga Repairers. We can't hope to continue without reinforcement so I order everyone to stay put while I bring in reserves from HQ.



Our last 2 Caspians are committed to the front along with a new Repairer. I wish I could figure out something to do with the Groznys and Pamirs though. The helicopters obviously can't go underground, and without regular resupply the Pamirs are useless.





Repaired and reinforced our strike team moves deeper into the tunnel system. The architecture is breath-taking, and I'm sure our ED scientists would love to study some of these runes on the walls but the situation is far too dangerous. Perhaps after we've fully conquered the UCS they can have a look.



poo poo! Another group of UCS heavy armor. Use the same strategy as last time!



:stare: Losses are even more horrific than the first encounter. The UCS took out all but 2 Caspians and the Taiga Repairer. I've got to build more Caspians for the next phase of the advance. I'm sure the pencil pushers at procurement won't notice another 5,000 credits missing from the Spaceport allowance.



7 Caspians and 2 Repairers. It may not sound like much, but I think it'll be enough for the rest of the mission. Let's move out!





Another bust, but we've found where all these UCS walkers are coming from. They won't be expecting an assault in the middle of their base, now will they? If we can surprise the UCS and eliminate their production capabilities the tunnels will be ours.



:gonk: Oh poo poo. They knew we were gonna come! Look at all those Spiders and Gargoyles and defense towers. This is not gonna work. Fall back to the ambush positions! Prepare for a counter-offensive!





At least our trap and encircle ambush strategy seems to be working against this counter-attack. But 2 Caspians are not enough to prevent a UCS advance throughout the tunnels.





As I suspected, the UCS robots were able to reach our Tunnel Entrance and destroy it. We won't be able to rebuild unless we clear out those walkers. I hope those last two Caspians are up for a suicide mission.



Your sacrifice for the Dynasty will be remembered comrades! :salute:



The attack is enough to move the Panthers and Spiders out of position and allow for the re-building of the Tunnel Entrance. We'll need to stall the UCS from assaulting the new tunnel again.



Hello Grozny Squad :getin:





A direct attack on the UCS base is madness, look how much fire our pilots are taking. But they're able to shut down power, at least for a little bit. And that's enough to move the UCS walkers back to base to reinforce the defense.



Allowing our third strike team to move in and clear out the stragglers.





More strikeouts, but we're so deep in the tunnels now it's unlikely we'll encounter any more UCS robots from the base.



The Groznys took extreme losses in their feint. I'm recalling them back to HQ for resupply and reinforcement; they're in no shape for fighting now.





This labyrinth looks promising. Those purple rooms in the second shot looks like somewhere you'd hide an alien space ship. Now just to get there.



Clever. The UCS try another sneak attack against the Tunnel Entrance. But this time I've posted underground guards that fend off the plasma without much of a scratch.





Nothing in either of those purple rooms.



Or this weird blue room.



Or this other purple room.



Perhaps they've hidden the spaceship in the old mining tunnels and not these alien ones? I send one of the Caspians to check. The mining tunnel is extremely narrow and cramped so it will take a while to explore.



Hmmm...That area to the north is one of the few unexplored areas left. If its not in the mines its gotta be there.





Two more strikeouts.



And the mine isn't looking promising either. What if the UCS were able to evacuate the ship to their base during the chaos of the first attack on the Tunnel Entrance? We'd be fighting an almost impossible battle to crack that base, but we need that spaceship.



Looks like there's a little maintenance tunnel here. I'm going to follow it and see where it goes.



The mines don't seem to hold any secrets, except for really confusing and convoluted pathing. The Earth 2150 AI handled it pretty drat well though.



Well look at that! I think we've found something! Everyone converge on that Caspian's location!



The UCS begin an utterly desperate attack against our base at the same time. I think it's safe to say we've found the alien hanger. Now we just need to clear its defenses and claim our prize.





They really could've used some of those Panthers here, although their Spiders did quite a number on the strike force. But 2 survivors should be more than enough to find the spaceship.





Yessss! Now we just have to find these drat energy cells and we can get out of here.



Things are going well at th-wait what the hell!? Is that a Panther coming out into the middle of our base!?



Oh holy loving poo poo yes it is. They're throwing all they can at the LZ and Tunnel Entrance right now. And they might actually pull it off. I guess they jammed the Caspians down below while they took them out or something since I had no idea they were this close. We've gotta blow the Tunnel Entrance! If one more of those Panthers get up here the LZ will be finished and the mission will be over.



I really hope those 2 Caspians are enough to find the energy cells. They're all we've got left at this point :ohdear:





Oh good they found them! That was rather fast. Good work guys!





The Alien craft is undoubtedly the strongest tank in the entire game. It's faster than Fang's ship, it does 800 damage a shot and it's fully armored. The only weakness it has is its lack of shields, but since it's fighting for the ED now we don't have to worry about lasers killing it.





Did I mention how much damage it does per shot? The UCS Panthers didn't stand a chance next to it. And now it's headed back to base. We did it! This war is about to become a rout, the UCS can't possibly hope to compete with our technological advantage now.





Casualties were rather light for a mission this tough, but I'm not about to complain. Oddly, the Spiders defending the UFO are all technically LC units. I have no idea why they did this.


rest of briefing posted:

Our informants tell us that work on the Energy Shield technology is being carried out there.

Your orders are to destroy the Research Complex and gain possession of all project data.

Our only technological weakness at this point is the lack of shield tech. We're going to fix that next time. Soon the LC and UCS will be crushed, with their own weapons turned against them thanks to the daring and genius of the Eurasian Dynasty.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Huh, I missed the update somehow.

Holy poo poo, that alien ship. :stare: Do you get to use in later missions?

Nephilm
Jun 11, 2009

by Lowtax

my dad posted:

Huh, I missed the update somehow.

Holy poo poo, that alien ship. :stare: Do you get to use in later missions?

Yes.

Also, IIRC what I'd call the UFO's main weakness is that it has a fairly small ammo capacity. Fang suffers a bit from it in protracted engagements, but the UFO does more if my memory doesn't fail.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

my dad posted:

Huh, I missed the update somehow.

Holy poo poo, that alien ship. :stare: Do you get to use in later missions?

Yep! You'll see how good it is in the Madagascar mission. It makes Fang look pathetic.

And the UFO ammo capacity is small but the thing does 1000+ damage per hit once it levels up so it doesn't really matter unless you're trying to destroy a wall of Fortresses.

I destroyed an LC Guardian tower (the stronger one) in 4 shots in the next mission.

Byzantine
Sep 1, 2007

Kind of odd that the UCS didn't get the UFO in its campaign, unless I missed a mention where it was lost.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006




Good news comrades! We've finally found a site containing the LC shield technology. All we need to do is grab it and we'll finally be able to enshrine our dominance.



Terrible news comrades! Military intelligence has started us on a poorly defended beachhead with outdated units.



But we've finally got some new research avenues opened up to us. We'll start today with the Heavy Cannon. You've seen this before (in the UCS and LC campaigns). It can mount on any heavy unit and is a good late-game replacement for the cannon on the Pamir.



This mission can be very tough; unlike the other 2 factions the ED for whatever reason start this mission with no nearby minerals. Establishing a base will be very difficult.

Why it's almost like the game wants you to try out the new toy you got last mission...



In theory you could try to steal from this field the UCS are using but it's literally right on the doorstep of their base. Waves of plasma Spiders and Panthers aren't my idea of fun. I've got a much more exciting idea.

It involves alien spacecraft :getin:



This will be the first true combat test of the alien craft. Its escape from Area 51, while impressive, was not a test against a fully armed and prepared force. Nor did it have to deal with the LC shield technology. I have decided to invite Commander NEO to observe the engagement. He may learn something about the enemy systems here.



The 120mm Cannon is complete. It allows you to mount a sub-weapon, just like the LC Heavy Electro-Cannon and the UCS Rocket Launcher/Heavy Plasma. There's almost no reason to ever put it on a Volga though, so while the unit here is showing off the tech, I'll never actually build any of these.



Our intelligence indicates that the shield technology is underneath the LC base. Obviously we should dig there from the north since the LC can't have underground defenses like the UCS does.





code:
First Combat Summary Report

Location:  UCS Mineral Patch

Friendly Combatants: One (1) ED-controlled alien spaceship

Opponents: Five (5) UCS-controlled Harveters.

Engagement Summary:  Overwhelming Eurasian Dynasty victory

New Directive:  Continue into UCS-controlled areas.  
Attempt to find combat units.




code:
Second Combat Summary Report

Location:  UCS Base Entrance

Friendly Combatants: One (1) ED-controlled alien spaceship

Opponents: One (1) UCS-controlled Panther R P.

Engagement Summary:  Minimal damage to ED-controlled alien spaceship.  
	UCS robot destroyed with minimal use of ammunition.

New Directive:  Engage UCS base.




code:
Third Combat Summary Report

Location:  UCS Base

Friendly Combatants: One (1) ED-controlled alien spaceship

Opponents: One (1) UCS-controlled Tiger R, 
	   Three (3) UCS-controlled Tiger Repairers,
	   Two (2) UCS Fortresses armed with plasma and rockets
	   Three (3) Large Towers armed with chainguns

Engagement Summary:  Extensive damage to ED-controlled alien spaceship.  
	UCS power plant destroyed.
	ED-controlled alien spaceship will retreat to friendly territory.
:stare:

This thing just took on an entire UCS defensive line and survived. Holy poo poo.

I wouldn't be surprised if the UCS attempted some sort of recovery mission. We're beating them with their own secret tech.



While the UFO tests went well we appear to have run into a wall with our tunneling scheme. Literally. The LC base is surrounded by rock walls that our Gruz can't dig though. We'll need to conduct a frontal assault.

I think the LC need to meet our new alien friend. :zoid: Er, alien craft friend.

Look it's a UFO and it's going to blow up a bunch of LC stuff okay?



Well not if the LC take out our base first. Recall that I'm working with only what the mission gives you to start + 5,000 credits I brought over in the Ukraine. That's not a lot to defend a base against Thunderers with Heavy Sonic Cannons. :eyepop: How the hell did they get that advanced!?





The UFO kills the LC just as well as it kills the UCS.





While we're cutting through the LC defenses our base is seriously compromised. The Thunderers are just going on their merry way, blowing up everything they sit on top of. It gets so bad I bring the UFO back to take care of the ground units so the rocket-equipped units can focus on clearing the skies. Yeesh.



We go back for a nice bit of counter-attack though. No ground unit in the LC (or UCS) army can stand against the UFO.



OH COME ON! Why the hell do you keep sending me these updates Igor!? I know we're ahead of schedule. Stop reminding me you dolt! I just want to kill moon hippies in peace :(



We start shooting at the next Guardian and...wait a second. That thing has shields. The UFO shoots energy weapons. But the shields aren't going down. Does...does this mean it's an energy weapon that ignores shields?

You're goddamn right it is! UFO I love you please never leave me die due to my incompetence as a commander.



Our regular tanks are much less effective against the UCS Panthers than the UFO is.



The only counters to the UFO the LC have are Thunderers and Meteors. The Thunderers are particularly worrying since the UFO doesn't have any shields. A tactical retreat here is very wise.



Meanwhile, the UCS has finally figured out we're here, have little to no defenses and are close to getting our hands on their ally's precious shield tech. So for probably the only time in the game so far, they do a really effective Gargoyle harass. They just keep flying around in circles over the base, taking a potshot here and there and generally whittling away at my army.





The UFO is fast enough to outrun the LC airforce and make them lose sight of the UFO. If this thing could shoot air units or make copies of itself it'd be the most overpowered weapon I've ever seen in an RTS.



Eventually I'm able to get rid of the Gargoyles but my base has taken an incredibly brutal beating. Most of my anti-air units are dead and the UCS also managed to kill the landing zone.

Oddly they didn't seem to notice NEO chilling in the back of the base. You would think he'd be their #1 target. Maybe he's cloaked? :confused:



So



Have I pointed out



That the UFO



Is really great at killing things? Because it is. Look at the timestamps on those screenshots. I started my assault at 5:30 PM. The base had no power by 7:40 PM and was totally destroyed except for some powered-down Mines and Main Buildings by 9:10. This is maybe a minute or two of game time. The UFO just destroyed a heavily defended LC base in under 2 minutes.

I know I'm heaping praise after praise on this thing but you really have to play the game to understand how ridiculous this thing is. The UFO is why the ED campaign is the second-easiest after the LC; after you finish Area 51 you can just use the UFO to kill everyone, plop down a bunch of Mines and win the game in a few missions.

The only annoying thing is the LC Thunderers are still out there. But I have a plan to deal with them.



After watching all their sisters die in seconds I'm thinking these pilots want revenge.



Just follow me into the woods. This poor innocent little UFO will be helpless there. Well ya know, except for the Groznys waiting there! (Thunderers with Heavy Sonic Cannons can't shoot air units).



There. All done. Now to get the shield tech and go home.





I hate to give credit to a lowly soldier, but I think we need to send our regards to whoever we have piloting that UFO. It's an army unto itself.



Research will begin on the shield technology immediately. Credits back at base are getting a bit thin though. And we have a lot of things we'll need to research soon.





And just in case things weren't lopsided enough, the UFO just found some PSU 3600 shields. Have fun with that LC/UCS.

Kurtchatov Research Center has news about our new shields! Let's take a look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnOz4fx9cKI





And remember folks, all that damage was done with only one unit (except for anyone who died attacking our base. And the Thunderers I guess)



rest of briefing posted:

Be prepared for bitter enemy resistance

Another loving mineral collection mission!? No. No. We're not doing this. Our army has too many needs, we need to upgrade everyone with shields and we still don't have the most advanced generators. Space Station Salut can wait.

It's time we finally stop doing pointless missions we don't need to do to win this war. We're the Czar's son for god's sake! We have better things to do with our time than mine a few thousand credits for the evacuation ship. Why don't we just take the credits and use them to improve our army? That's a much better use of resources. I'm sure we can pin the lost shipments on whoever is in charge of India. Who is in charge of the Indian front these days?

Hmm...General Fedorov? Yeah this should work. He'll never figure out what we're going to do with those credits. He's too busy playing politics to notice a few missing shipments. Igor's an idiot, if we tell him Fedorov stole the credits he'll believe us.

Time to initiate Operation: War Profiteer :black101:

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
drat, that UFO is sick. It's not even game over if it blows now, is it? But I'll bet you feel like it is.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006




Let's steal some funds from the evacuation fleet to fund our own personal ambitions! Three cheers for corruption!



Uh Fedorov, I really don't think there's 50,000 credits worth of minerals there. That looks to be a pretty small patch.

How dumb is this guy?



We'll be conducting a lot of research this mission. Our first target is the upgraded Repairer. Just like the UCS version, this one will let us upgrade units in the field. No more wasting initial deployments because they're horribly outdated!



The UFO found some Small Towers to the north. I let it do it's "kill everything while not taking damage" thing.



With the new upgraded Repairer I can finally add shields to my Caspians. I can also upgrade the Siberia Rs that I got at the start of the mission.



Oh good! Here's our first shipment back to HQ. I hope my men at the Spaceport have their orders.





Excellent. We've transferred 2,000 credits to our HQ funds and no one is the wiser in ED command.

This is the first part of the Credit Trick. I may have mentioned it earlier but you can use this to get around missions where you can't break out and get the credits you need. Once you've removed the credits from the Spaceport, just send them back using the Ukraine and put them in the Ore Transport Base. You'll be able to count them as being sent again. It won't help with the overall construction of the ship but it can prevent a mission failure, especially if you accidentally mined a bit too much and are a few thousand short of finishing the mission.



While I'm embezzling from the fleet meant to save us all from a terrible fiery death, the UFO has found the weirdest outpost ever. A single LC Mine, and an undefended UCS VPC and Power Plant. Strange.



Oh well. They're gone now and we'll just never know why they were there. What a shame. (I personally think its there to let you know that both the UCS and LC are present in this mission)



There's a whole bunch of trees covering this larger mineral patch. I guess Fedorov isn't that much of an idiot after all, there's a lot more than 50,000 credits here.



Why are the LC sending a single Lunar R to attack the UFO? Haven't they seen what it can do?



The UCS is much more prepared for us this time around. Even the UFO would get torn to bits trying to get into this base. So I'll focus on annoying the LC this mission.



Speak of the LC, look who's shown up to welcome us to the neighborhood. And the UFO is missing its shots. I suppose that's one downside of the UFO; its shots move a bit slowly.



With the new mining base set up the mission can basically run itself on autopilot at this point. I just need to keep stealing the credits from the Spaceport. So to spice things up, why don't we go and see how the LC are doing? They sent a welcoming committee, it would be rude not to send one of our own back.



Using some of the liberated funds, I focus our next research efforts on the Kruszchev. I've been spelling it Khrushchev this whole time but I guess the game uses a different spelling. It's the heavy ED tank and it will completely replace the Pamir once it's researched.



The LC have 4 Guardian towers guarding their base. I wonder how they'll fare against the UFO?



Not so well. Although, granted they did do a good chunk of damage to the UFO.



It's nothing the Repairers can't fix though. So let's go back and see what's inside the base!





Welp. That's a whole bunch of Thunderers. It's less of a threat now that the UFO has shields but they can still do some pretty serious damage. Time to bring in the Groznys.



Er, if they didn't follow the UFO here where did they go exactly? Maybe they're just hanging back by that lake.



The first version of the Khrushchev is ready. You can mount secondary weapons with the Heavy Cannon although I chose not to here. I'm trying to keep the ED force fairly disposable and cheap, adding a second weapon mount here would only increase the cost and build time.



Work on the upgrade begins. The embezzlement is also going well, since HQ now has over 12,000 credits to put towards research.



A major UCS offensive has begun. They've started by attempting to soften up my army with their Gargoyles. They should continue to focus on harassing like they did in Madagascar. That worked a lot better than "park next to my army and get blown out of the sky."





The UCS bring in some walkers with plasma, but they forgot to equip them with shields. What a silly mistake. Lasers might be outdated against shielded enemies but I've not completely stopped using them yet.



Aw man. So that's where the Thunderers went. I must say, hitting the Aerial Supply Depot is not a bad call. If I can't reload then the Groznys are worthless. Fortunately I put shields on the initial base in case something like this happened. Plus the Groznys were all hanging out there so with their firepower combined with the base defenses it wasn't too tough to take this one down.



20,000+ credits sent and not a penny has gone up to Salut.





Okay, this is more like it. The UCS send their Gargoyles to the rear of my base to pick off anything back there while they simultaneously send Panthers to distract my army. The UFO wasn't out raiding though, so he's able to neutralize the ground threat.

Nice attempt though.



I've added an hR Khrushchev to the unit list. The upgraded chassis has an additional 150 HP and 1 more point of speed.



Again, now that I have the upgraded Repairer, I can upgrade these to the final model once the research is complete.



Now that the UCS have settled down, I send the UFO back out to do some raiding along with a Grozny escort to take out any Thunderers.



Some of them do manage to make it back to the initial base and do some minor damage. But when every structure has homing rockets it's tough to last long.



While I'm picking off the LC's Solar Batteries I notice they have a Crusher tank heading towards the UFO. Crushers and Thunderers!? Does this mean the LC have completely filled out their tech tree? drat, I'm in a bit of a bind if that's the case.



Yes General, "we" certainly do. :smug:

Since the LC and UCS aren't threatening my position anymore I decide to stick around and get every last credit for the war effort. I'm sure more research will come up soon.





The final Khrushchev chassis is finished. Now for the two additional shield levels.



The Repairers work on upgrading the Khrushchevs I've already built. It's really nice to have that ability after timing my production to coincide with the completion of research the last 15 or so missions.







The Minelayer is the last thing on the docket for today. It lays mines. It's not very useful. :effort:





We stole over 60,000 credits for our continuing war effort. And we got another 35,000 or so that I used on research this mission. Not a bad haul. I'll just have to make sure I have my story straight when Igor asks why he didn't get his most recent shipment.







I wanted to show this third screen to point something out. The UCS spent 10,000 credits on ammo. This is very bad news for us. Why is this bad news? Because only 2 pieces of ammo in the game cost money: ED ballistic missiles and bombs used for the ED or UCS Bomb Bay. This means the UCS has bomber technology they just chose not to use it this mission. Between this development and the LC's apparent completion of their tech tree, our technological advantage is quickly slipping away.


rest of briefing posted:

This could be the ultimate weapon against our enemies, the UCS! They are attacking our base there.

You must get the Cannon Prototype to safety! Hurry!

The last ED energy weapon may help tilt the tide back in our favor. The Ion Cannon allows you to disable unshielded units in one shot. And then you can capture them and use them against their former owners. It may not be a UFO, but I think it's pretty drat good. Lets do some more thieving!

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

quote:

The last ED energy weapon may help tilt the tide back in our favor. The Ion Cannon allows you to disable unshielded units in one shot. And then you can capture them and use them against their former owners. It may not be a UFO, but I think it's pretty drat good. Lets do some more thieving!

That weapon is so delightfully broken under the right circumstances. :allears:

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

my dad posted:

That weapon is so delightfully broken under the right circumstances. :allears:

I like how you can use it to completely nullify the game's units limit (if you're willing to have an army mostly made up of enemy units).

The ED campaign is so hilariously broken between the UFO, way too many resource missions, NEO, and the Ion Cannon. I'm glad I ended up saving it for last.

Byzantine
Sep 1, 2007

axeil posted:

The ED campaign is so hilariously broken between the UFO, way too many resource missions, NEO, and the Ion Cannon. I'm glad I ended up saving it for last.

I think it's pretty funny that you've got all this stuff and Earth isn't even looking bad yet.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

Byzantine posted:

I think it's pretty funny that you've got all this stuff and Earth isn't even looking bad yet.

The ED campaign is extremely long compared to the other two. I think there's still at least 12 missions to go. This is why it became necessary to steal all those credits; otherwise I'd end up finishing way too early.

The good news is there's only 1 more resource collection mission before the endgame. And I just played it last night; it's probably the most fun resource collection mission in the game.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
12 missions? Only one resource collection? Holy crap. Sounds like... plot. Don't tell me the ED has to deal with Neo somehow too.

Byzantine
Sep 1, 2007

Does the ED even have enough computers for NEO to use, though?

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

Glazius posted:

12 missions? Only one resource collection? Holy crap. Sounds like... plot. Don't tell me the ED has to deal with Neo somehow too.

:iiam: But I'm not sure what NEO could do to the ED, it's not like their units are computer-controlled. Now a break-off splinter faction? That might be more of an issue...

There are of course still the last 3 "collect enough resources to win in case you haven't collected enough" missions which play pretty much the same as the UCS and LC versions.

axeil
Feb 14, 2006






Welcome to Australia! Our forces are routed on the surface and underground. We arrived too late to save the research center here. It appears all is for naught; we will be unable to acquire the Ion Cannon technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrrc381Ueks



Wait, we still have a prototype? Well this is fantastic news! We need to focus on saving that prototype or we'll lose out on this glorious new weapon. So the prototype is probably in a super-heavy tank or something right?



...It's a Caspian? You put our brand new weapon prototype in a Caspian!? A chassis that can't mount anything stronger than 600 PSU shields? When the UCS is attacking?

Well at least whoever was responsible for that decision is probably dead now. Yikes.

There are some shield artifacts here, so I'll at least upgrade the prototype to 600 PSU shields. Hopefully the 2 Repairers they also manged to save are enough to keep it alive.



Yeah, having a bit more shields would be really helpful right now. These Pamirs are all that are stopping the Panthers from chasing down the Ion Cannon and 2 Repairers.



Oh my, what is this? The Ion Cannon can disable unshielded units in a single shot and they take no damage? That's a lot better than the LC electro-cannon. And as you can tell, we can use the 2 Repairers to capture disabled units. It's not quite NEO-levels of stealth and cunning but it'll give us the cannon fodder needed to fight our way to the LZ.



Meanwhile back at HQ we're working on the upgrades to the Heavy Rocket.



Well maybe we won't be using them entirely for cannon fodder. There's 2 Panther hPs, 1 Spider P, a Tiger P and a Tiger 20mm now. Other than the 20mm being useless this could really do some damage to the UCS.



The Tiger 20mm is definite cannon fodder though. I order it to stand there and keep any UCS walkers from coming through without killing it first. It's like a canary in a coal mine but with robots and plasma.



See? Our canary is now dying so we know not to go down there.



HQ continues the boring, but necessary task of researching Heavy Rocket upgrades.



There are more shield artifacts in the tunnels. Might as well upgrade our toughest units to let them last a bit longer against the plasma we're sure to encounter.



The LC are working with the UCS too? How'd they get down here; they can't even dig tunnels!



No matter. They fight for our Khan now! :black101:

From a logistics standpoint though I'm not sure how they're able to turn LC/ED vehicles against their owners. There are pilots inside. Is the Repairer actually killing all living things inside the tanks and then sending in a new pilot? That's...pretty brutal even for this game.



Ignoring the ethical ambiguity of capturing LC units, we now have a large force of captured units to fight for us.



Upgrades are made to any stronger units prior to pushing forwards.



With this last upgrade heavy Rockets will be just as good at hitting their target as regular rockets. Only took half the game.



Well it looks like there's a good number of UCS robots heading down the tunnels to kill all of us. Thankfully the prototype was able to disable to lead unit, which is preventing any other units from advancing.



This makes them easy pickings for the combined firepower of the plasma and electro-cannon.





The path to the tunnel is finally clear! Let's get the hell out of here before the UCS send more reinforcements.

I can't wait to bring home an army of captured units. NEO is gonna be sooo jealous.



Oh. The LZ is on the other side of a river.

Why the hell would they do that? Now I'm going to need to bring in a Gruz to build a bridge so I can take my new toys home.

Well other than the Caspian. He can walk right across it. Maybe I should be grateful they put the prototype in an amphibious unit.



Haha oh General Shakt, your grill parties were terrifying because of your insistence on using the laser to cook all the food.

Is a choice between running home and sticking around and killing a bunch of robots even a choice?



We immediately begin work on outfitting the Ion Cannon for use in the rest of our army.



Oh poo poo. That's a lot of Gargoyles. And we have no anti-air capabilities.

Uh...maybe we should reconsider taking the fight to the UCS.

I mean we don't really need Australia anymore now that we got the prototype out.



Our small vanguard is able to secure the LZ from the UCS airstrikes. If we can bring in more rocket-equipped units we should be able to build a bridge and break out.



And we've scouted out some minerals. Our embezzled funds are running a bit low. I think we may need to top them off.



On the other hand, that is a very well-defended base...

ED News reports that work on the new Ion Cannon is complete! It can be used on a wide number of our chassis now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKP-wmT0pJs



I decide to pull out the few LC units we managed to capture. They're not going to be able to help against the Gargoyles and our scientists may learn something from studying their propulsion and weapons systems.



The upgraded Ion Cannon gives you a higher rate of fire. Given how slow the original one shoots, this is almost a required upgrade.



Oh poo poo. The UCS plasma may not be able to get in range of our LZ, but their grenades sure can. We're about to lose the LZ, quick everyone retreat! You have 30 seconds to get in the Ukraine, anybody else is on their own.



Let's get out of here! :aaa:





The UCS outscored us, but had we been able to fend off the grenade launchers we probably could've taken the base using the UFO. The rewards just weren't all that great so I was a bit slow in getting setup, which the UCS used to their advantage.


rest of Briefing posted:

Be prepared for strong enemy resistance!

This is it people, this is the last resource collection mission before the endgame. And believe it or not, this one is really, really fun. They're not kidding about the strong resistance.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Now you have all you need for one of the most broken weapon setups in the game: Heavy lasers with an ion cannon on top. :science::supaburn: Buildings, the greatest weakness of your laser weapons, now become deactivated as soon as they lose their shields.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
So the ion cannon isn't ground-to-air? Or is it more a matter of getting it mounted on the right kind of vehicles than where it can aim innately?

Byzantine
Sep 1, 2007

I'm mostly posting to try to get to the next page. Firefox heaves when I try to load this one.

Last Transmission
Aug 10, 2011

Well to achieve that how about we talk about how few actually saw the latter missions in the ED campaign? When it's very possible to get the neccessary resources to win halfway through you have to be very bad or resort to tricks like axeil does to keep on playing.

A "Yay, you won. Do you want to keep playing?" prompt would've made me attemt the remaining missions anyway but having to go through even some bullshit I'd just say "gently caress it!" and won't even bother trying to see the remaining missions.

Byzantine
Sep 1, 2007

I guess it makes sense if it's the "tutorial" campaign, but is there any indication that you're supposed to do the ED missions first?

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

Byzantine posted:

I guess it makes sense if it's the "tutorial" campaign, but is there any indication that you're supposed to do the ED missions first?

Well in the main menu the order is ED, UCS, LC so I suppose that's the order they intended.

Why LC isn't first I'll never know.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Because The Fang is too awesome to give to a newbie. :smug:

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

Last Transmission posted:

Well to achieve that how about we talk about how few actually saw the latter missions in the ED campaign? When it's very possible to get the neccessary resources to win halfway through you have to be very bad or resort to tricks like axeil does to keep on playing.

A "Yay, you won. Do you want to keep playing?" prompt would've made me attemt the remaining missions anyway but having to go through even some bullshit I'd just say "gently caress it!" and won't even bother trying to see the remaining missions.

Missed this earlier, the late ED campaign is far more interesting than the middle "hey go get some resources" stuff. Actually, there's a whole plot at the end of the ED campaign that you never even see in the UCS/LC side.

Spoilers if you want to know what I'm alluding to:

The ED-Ashanti alliance comes out of nowhere but helps put the pieces of the game together. The reason that all three sides weren't immediately ransacking Africa was because the Ashanti were there and trying to keep everyone out.

my dad posted:

Because The Fang is too awesome to give to a newbie. :smug:

What about the UFO? :colbert:

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

axeil posted:

What about the UFO? :colbert:

By the time you get it, you aren't a newbie anymore. :c00lbert:

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Last Transmission
Aug 10, 2011

axeil posted:

Actually, there's a whole plot at the end of the ED campaign that you never even see in the UCS/LC side.

Which is even worse because it's a plot point that only the biggest spergs most dedicated fans are ever going to see.

  • Locked thread