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 My office is closed till noon, so enjoy this update 12 hours or so before I was going to write it.  Things are looking bad in the Arctic. Looks like in this timeline the LC-UCS treaty won't be able to be signed. Let's hope this doesn't have negative consequences down the road. We're running a delaying option here so we're not going to be able to bring the full force of our army down on the Dynasty. In fact, we won't be able to bring in any units from HQ.    I'm going to give it to you straight, our base is not at all defended at this point. A bunch of Tiger I 20mms and small towers are not a defensive front. To make matters worse, I don't see a Vehicle Production Center at our base. We'll need to work on that, but at least we have enough civilian units to get our base started between the 2 Condor transports, 3 Harvesters and 2 Mammoths.  Just because we can't send units over doesn't mean we can't do research to help out. I'm starting with the Double Chaingun since it's automatically applied to any towers we build after the research is finished. Since I know I'm going to be doing a lot of tower construction, it makes sense.  Bad news everyone! Our Mammoths can only build objects that are on the Defense tab. You won't be able to build a Vehicle Production Center or replace any structures that may be destroyed. This is why this mission is quite tricky.  The Mammoth/Gruz can do rapid building using the record action interface, to the right of the regular unit commands. I've ordered this Mammoth to build all the towers you see on the screen. He'll work on building those once I hit the execute commands button. I'm happy the game gives the construction units a way to keep even with the LC's rapid building, otherwise it would be a real chore to build your base.  My other Mammoth is going to work on lowering the terrain, to make an approach from the east more difficult.   Our defensive construction is going along quite nicely. The Mammoth digging ditches hasn't even gotten itself stuck yet!   poo poo. Looks like the ED are going to use this little pass to attack this defensive line. All my clever tower construction and ditch digging is completely pointless here.  I cancel the tower construction and have the tower-building Mammoth head over to the other defensive outpost to build towers there.  Time to test out our towers. I hope they hold   They don't look like they're holding...  Our base sits completely exposed. Quick, build more towers other Mammoth!  Good thing I decided to build more of those towers, the ED have trashed our defensive line and are working on taking out the last few mobile defenders. I think I just need to block off that ramp and hope units go elsewhere.  At least we've got the Double Chaingun now.  Time to start working on the Grenade Launcher. I think Tigers are the only chance we've got here and we'll need to give them a weapon that lets them go toe-to-toe with the Dynasty.  Now they're attacking the western defenses and slipping through the cracks. This is frustrating.  I've finished blocking off the southern approach but in doing so I accidentally locked my Mammoth outside the base. I hope he makes it home without being vaporized.  Even more towers are getting built at the western approach. With the southern passage blocked off this now seems to be the preferred attack route.  6 Tigers versus 1 Pamir is a bit lopsided, I think they can handle it.  The Mammoth made it! You can see his tread tracks in the snow in that valley. Unfortunately this means we have yet another undefended flank. But if blocking the southern path worked, maybe we can block this path too and focus on defending just one path.  The upgraded Grenade Launcher is done, although the Construction Center gives no clue in the text that this one is upgraded from the first model.  Let's finish off today's research by upgrading the Tiger to its best model.   Our wall in the east and tower wall in the west are both done. I think we can finally stand tall against an ED incursion.  And look at that, the Tiger is finally at model III. The Tiger III now has enough HP, armor and firepower to go up against a Pamir and not get shredded.   The ED attacks fail miserably between the chokepoints I've created and the strength of the new Tiger IIIs. I think we might have enough strength to go on the offensive now.  I send out a scout who attracts the attention of an attacking Pamir. I'm not complaining about that, this scout's going to be very dead in a few seconds, might as well pull some attackers off with him.  We've found the base! And it's not well-defended at all. Seems perfect for a surpirse UCS attack   March my robots! March and bring death to the Eurasian invaders!   Those Pamirs didn't have a prayer. I think we're bringing the death pretty good right now.  The ED are panicking and trying to build more defensive structures before we show up. We're not going to let them do that.  We're also not letting them keep their old defensive structures.  Or power plants. The bottom Weapons Production Center keeps spitting out Cossack helicopters so I'd really like to shut it down since only some of my units can shoot down choppers.   But first we need to destroy the last Gruz in the base and his futile attempt to rebuild the power grid.  I stop for a reload and breather in the now-dead northern part of the base. It looks like the weapons factories are powered down, so we just need to prevent the rebuilding of the power grid and we've stopped the ED attack.   Oh and blow up more small towers. Can't forget about that.   The power grid has been destroyed Mr. President   There's still the ED mining base to deal with, so we'll reload and prepare for the last push.  Those two Tiger Gs are enough to take out the mining base on their own, if you can believe that. The mines aren't shooting back because they ran out of ammo, and we just destroyed their Aerial Supply Depot so I doubt they'll be getting any resupplies soon.  However, since I don't want to be at this all day I move the rest of the army down. Plus it helps destroy these small towers before they can hurt my little Tigers.  The base is almost gone, we just need to take out the Vehicle Production Center.   Take that Eurasian Dynasty.  General Jan Moroz has 48 tanks waiting to attack you at the end of the mission. However, since we destroyed the ED base we were able to build an LZ and evacuate our troops before he could attack. Once again the robots outsmart the stupid humans.  We've finished exploiting the mineral field at our HQ. We've got 57k worth of resources to use now at HQ.  Despite our heorics in our holding operation the rest of the Arctic invasion is still ongoing. We need to deny the ED as much of the Arctic resource fields as we can, making their invasion for naught.  The first UCS nighttime theme sounds brooding and like something out of a slasher film. It's a pretty good song. 
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Jan 28, 2013 15:24
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Interesting that you consider the UCS Grenade launchers good against tanks - I always found them extremely lacking against mobile enemies and only used them against buildings (where they excel, having ludicrous damage output and great range).
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Jan 29, 2013 01:42
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DatonKallandor posted:Interesting that you consider the UCS Grenade launchers good against tanks - I always found them extremely lacking against mobile enemies and only used them against buildings (where they excel, having ludicrous damage output and great range). They're your best source of early damage, the issue is hitting. This can be solved by either manual aiming and leading shots, waiting until the enemy stops moving to shoot (won't work on enemies that never stop dancing while in combat), or just having so many of them that the enemy can't possibly evade the grenade rain.
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Jan 29, 2013 01:46
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Nephilm posted:They're your best source of early damage, the issue is hitting. This can be solved by either manual aiming and leading shots, waiting until the enemy stops moving to shoot (won't work on enemies that never stop dancing while in combat), or just having so many of them that the enemy can't possibly evade the grenade rain. I always go with option 3 Also something absolutely hilarious happened while I was playing Arctic 2. It's a great demonstration of why you don't build ditches.
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Jan 29, 2013 01:59
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Funnily enough in 2140 the Grenade units were a large part of your attacking forces in the first campaign region over America as the UCS. The UCS Hellmaker unit launched napalm grenades that tore through infantry, unarmored, light armored and the pamirs that made up the early ED forces. Heavily armored foes were the only thing that could really be counted as a treat because they were coded as fireproof in the game. Easily took down forces a pamirs at I wanna say 3 to 1. After the last America mission it becomes superseded by the Tiger Assault light rocket unit and the UCS Spider. When we start getting research that is similar to the Spider I'll bring out more information but it was easily the most powerful and dangerous units present in the game I need to post some scans of the 2140 manual when I get a chance it is definitely an interesting read.
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Jan 29, 2013 03:38
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Speaking of 2140, has anyone played it recently and can speak to how it holds up as a game? 2150 holds up perfectly, but 2140 is a lot more traditional and I haven't played it for years and years.
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Jan 29, 2013 22:35
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DatonKallandor posted:Speaking of 2140, has anyone played it recently and can speak to how it holds up as a game? 2150 holds up perfectly, but 2140 is a lot more traditional and I haven't played it for years and years. Not very well, its a Command & Conquer 1 clone with some dumb additions and that's it. And, while its possible to run it on modern systems, last time I tried, I had some issues like crashing and game running a bit too fast. At least the soundtrack is decent if occasionally jarring.
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Jan 29, 2013 23:41
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Ah yes, that now-forgotten age just after the release of the original Command and Conquer, when everyone and their dog tried to write an RTS. Dozens of them were released and swiftly forgotten, and now only lurk in the depths of abandonware sites or obscure Mobygames pages.
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Jan 29, 2013 23:52
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 or Why Digging Ditches is a Bad Idea  Part Two of our evacuation from the Arctic involves us stealing all the resources from the area.  If the mission briefing mentions we can research the Gargoyle, well by George we better research it!   Our usual scouting efforts turn up a very large group of ED tanks. In case you haven't noticed, this map is identical to the map in the LC Arctic mission. Based on that, we won't be venturing into the middle where the ED base is.  We will however be venturing to this spot where there's a large resource field.  This should be enough to get our mining started. Let's hope the ED doesn't discover us. We'll be extra sneaky here and try and get them to focus on our original base area.  To help make that easier, I'm going to render one approach to our base impassible. Time for Let's Play A Ditch Digging and Babysitting Simulator!  We haven't been spotted in the west yet. That's good because I really, really doubt that one Tiger 20mm can hold off the ED army.  Our research on the Gargoyle is complete! And UCS News has a special report for us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re2AUKkRNCM So the Gargoyle. The Gargoyle is pretty great. It's the fastest air unit in the game and unlike the second fastest air unit (the Cossack) it has some armor so it's not a complete pushover in a fight. Given how pathetic our ground forces are right now, I'll be building a lot of these once we get them fully upgraded.  I start work on the Gargoyle II.  Those Dynasty tanks from earlier have shown up. But not to worry, my army of grenadiers will blow them away!  All dead. Yay grenadiers!  Mammoth-stuck-digging-trenches count: 1.  The secret mining base is a bit vulnerable to Cossack attack so I build a poo poo ton of small towers to defend my precious dots that look painted on the ground.  Mammoth-stuck-digging-trenches count: 2.  The Gargoyle II is done! Hooray for more HP. Time to start work on the Gargoyle III.   Mammoth-destroyed-while-stuck count: 1 Even better, do you see those Tigers in the ditch and on the sides of the walls? Yeah they all got stuck there and even my attempt to lower the terrain couldn't un-stick them. So they're just gonna chill there and be my immobile mobile defenders. Stuck-Tiger count: 4  The Dynasty does indeed have Cossacks. Good thing I built towers near the production buildings to shoot down any pesky copters.  Mammoth-stuck count: 3  The last Gargoyle chassis is done. 300 HP and 25% armor with 36 speed makes these guys the ideal hit and run force. Sadly we won't be doing any base attacks with them this mission. Maybe next time!  We just need to upgrade the Gargoyle's chainguns before we can start building them. I know I can just build some inferior versions and upgrade later, but with the base generally secure (minus my immobile mobile defenders) there's no rush.  We're almost done digging our ditch. What can possibly go wrong on these last 4 tiles?  Hey army guys watch out! The Mammoth is digging right underneath you. Run away!  That's...that's another stuck Tiger isn't it. Stuck-Tiger count: 5 Put another way, almost a third of my army is currently buried in my Ditches of Doom. This army engineering thing isn't going too hot.  Thank god the Gargoyle is ready.  Ain't he purdy?   We upgrade our 20mm bullets next, because with all these chaingun units we may as well max out their damage.  Because I haven't had enough of pointless construction projects I now begin work on The Ted Stevens Memorial Bridge to Nowhere in the Middle of Our Base. A wing of Cossacks comes to celebrate our commitment to fraud and waste of public money.  And now some Pamirs and Taigas are coming to set off some fireworks! How thoughtful.  And this Gruz wants to help us build faster.  No Mr. Gruz. We already finished work without you. Behold this Wait, what's that noise I hear? More Eurasian bridge-lovers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxW_lQnWK9w  Wait, these aren't bridge-revelers, these are bridge-haters. They're going to destroy our bridge and laugh at us for having an unfinished bridge. Quick, kill them robots!  You're not killing them hard enough robots, that Pamir has almost gotten to the bridge.  Fortunately my dozen Gargoyles took care of everyone once the Tigers proved incapable. I'm disappointed in you Tigers.    I spend the rest of the mission researching bullet upgrades. There's not much to them.  Success! We can leave behind our Bridge to Nowhere and Ditches of Doom and other engineering monstrosities for the Eurasians to puzzle over.  Our secret base also managed to remain secret and not have any weird things built in it. Well except a lot of small towers. Maybe I should stick with that sort of building for next mission?   There's no points awarded for pointless engineering marvels I contest this score sheet   I hope they worked out the whole "explodes when used" problem the first version had. The fact it's only a point upgrade doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. This is the first battle theme for the UCS. I think it's pretty swell. 
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Jan 30, 2013 03:02
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I would like to request more pointless engineering endeavours in the future.
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Jan 30, 2013 09:09
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axeil posted:I hope they worked out the whole "explodes when used" problem the first version had. The fact it's only a point upgrade doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. I'm more worried that they got to 1.0 (not even RC1, but 1.0) without working out the 'users tend to explode' bug. Or maybe the designers considered that a feature.
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Jan 30, 2013 12:44
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drat, you really got behind the research loop these last few missions, they got to have some nasty units waiting for you now!
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Jan 30, 2013 13:54
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Koorisch posted:drat, you really got behind the research loop these last few missions, they got to have some nasty units waiting for you now! Yeah. I took a peak at the next few missions and found the ED have lasers. And I don't have shields. This is gonna suck  Teledahn posted:I would like to request more pointless engineering endeavours in the future. I'll see if I can dig a tunnel to a lake sometime in the future. The Lone Badger posted:I'm more worried that they got to 1.0 (not even RC1, but 1.0) without working out the 'users tend to explode' bug. Given the intelligence of our AI commanders they probably don't even realize it's an issue.
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Jan 30, 2013 14:34
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E2150 has some...issues with units around building construction. I've been replaying and just lost my entire air force as LC, because they all queued up patiently outside my supply centre to reload their rockets and got crushed by a descending building. Something that comes through a little in that battle video is how incredibly whiny the units in this game are. It's not too bad in the UCS as the "under fire" reports are mechanical and monotone, but there's still a lot of them. For the other two factions you can really start to get pissed off by the constant mid-battle cries of "NYET comrade!", or "Mayday! Can anyone hear me?" or worst of all "Oh Goddess! Where are you?" Comms discipline, people! Learn it, live it! Also the Moon Project ED units that sass you for giving them orders. We're a brutal fascist dictatorship! Have those drivers SHOT!
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Jan 30, 2013 18:24
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That's really only LC because their buildings are dropped down, but yeah, units are very whinny. Hey Axeil, any chance you'll showcase the script system?
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Jan 30, 2013 19:47
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Teledahn posted:I would like to request more pointless engineering endeavours in the future. I second this. Even in evacuation, we must not allow a
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Jan 30, 2013 19:51
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Byzantine posted:I second this. Even in evacuation, we must not allow a The Earth is really going to explode because the UCS robots dug too deep.
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Jan 30, 2013 20:03
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axeil posted:Yeah. I took a peak at the next few missions and found the ED have lasers. And I don't have shields. This is gonna suck Is it the one with the Shut-down UCS units? Because they always have one of those units and some of the buildings on that map.
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Jan 30, 2013 22:21
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Koorisch posted:Is it the one with the Shut-down UCS units? Sorry this post is going to look like a CIA document. It was Baikal. There's a bunch of UCS units that were de-activated and I wanted to refresh my memory about how the mission played so I sent everyone over and got lasered to death. If those are just mission-specific weapons and not things the ED can build I have some hope. If not, well we've not seen what happens when you fail a mission yet! 
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Jan 30, 2013 23:00
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  Time to find out if v1.5 is less explode-y than the first one. I don't like cleaning up burnt-up robot parts.  If you notice, the mission gives us 10,000 CR. That's...suspicious.  For now let's just use it to get some rocket launchers and hope something sinister isn't going on.    That went pretty well. Of course it was the exiting that ruined everything last time.   Hooray! That seemed to go well too. Our tunnel entrance is no longer explode-y!  I think this is almost the exact same thing you told us last time DEMOKRIT III. You're not very interesting  Hold on to your butts.   Another non-exploding teleport! Good job robots you seem to have wor-  Well that's new.  And now he's shooting our power plant.  Good news for everyone who wanted to see more engineering marvels: we're going to be digging some tunnels today.  You can dig tunnels for free the same way you can alter the above-ground terrain. How you get the nice concrete and lights for free is a mystery to me though.  Our rocket launcher is done! The Tiger III looks like it has a face when you give it rockets. Isn't it so cute?   Might as well get some better launchers while we wait for the tunnels to build.   The evil Tiger has run out of bullets. This is the least threatening robot malfunction since my microwave decided it didn't like popcorn mode anymore. Why do we personally have to deal with this? Our tunnels are cramped and crowded. If we were actually engaging in combat here I'd expand these but since we're up against one malfunctioning robot with no ammo I'm doing this cheap and quick.  We finished research on our new rocket launcher. A 50% increase in damage is pretty great for only 10,000 CR.  And we get another 10 damage soon after.   Finally our tunnels are done. The Tunnel Entrance only costs 500 to build but you need a top and bottom tunnel so it builds two simultaneously. I never quite figured out how you can build the one on the surface since they work via teleportation, but let's not look too hard into that.  Let's hope our test earlier this mission wasn't just a fluke.  It wasn't! We can now dig and have all sorts of fun underground adventures.  This is no contest.  And now the mission is over.   Yet another pointless scoresheet in a research lab mission.  So the LC find codes to a bomb and the UCS can only leave behind some robots? These robots better be amazing or I'm gonna feel ripped off. Today's track is the 2nd Daytime theme for the UCS. It sounds sort of like a battle theme. 
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Jan 31, 2013 03:42
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  Oh boy. Baikal. This is probably the toughest mission we've seen in any campaign so far even though it seems like a cakewalk based on our experience as the LC. If you recall the LC version of this mission just required us to send Fang into the base to trigger a bomb. We will not have it so easy this time.  We start with 6 Tiger I Rs and no Mammoth. Things are already annoying as we'll need to ship one over from HQ to get started on construction. Better hope you have one or you'll fail this mission.  We can finally research the Repairer. This will let us repair damaged units and do some other neat tricks.  Our Tigers have found a mineral patch near the LZ. We'll have to wait for the Mammoth to get building.  Here are those remotely activated robots the briefing talked about. They don't seem that impressive. Maybe they're really well-armored or something.   Guess who forgot to load the Mammoth?On the upside at least we'll have enough mobile defenders to fend off any attac-hey why's the camera moving?  Oh. It looks like our captured robots have started shooting things in the ED base. It would've been nice to wait until I was, ya know, ready to attack but sure you just do whatever you want KAIN IX. I'm sure 6 Tiger Is can destroy this ED base on their own.  Oh wait no they can't because the Eurasian Dynasty has loving lasers and none of these units have shields!  This is going to end badly.  I don't think trading a Taiga transporter for a Tiger is a good trade.  And that one transporter is all we get. Thanks a lot KAIN IX. I hate you. The ED knows we're here now and will be sending an attack force out any minute. We still don't have a base. We're hosedTM  I move my mobile defenders to a good defensive position. They won't be able to reload until I get the base up, so let's hope the ED are slow in developing this attack.  I use two Mammoths to speed things up. We don't have time to waste.  The Repairer is finished. Now we can build some to heal our injured units from the Arctic missions. Our loss rate can finally stop looking like Stalingrad in 1942.  May as well give the Gargoyle its best weapon mount. Unlike the LC campaign, I'm going to stick with mostly rocket air units for reasons that will soon make themselves clear.   Our base is up and we've yet to be attacked. Thank god for small miracles.  This Tiger was close to death before our repairer got there. The repairer can heal damage very quickly and sometimes will be able to outpace the damage the enemy is doing to your units or structures. Remember that.  We're out of money at HQ. Also looks like the Earth is starting to warm up, all the snow has melted.  I worry what NOAH I would've said to us if we weren't on schedule. I don't think its' a very sympathetic AI.  Looks like the Dynasty has repairers too.  Not anymore though!  The Gargoyle rockets are done. They work the same as the LC version. I realize some of these descriptions of the same tech are very but there's not much to say about the common weapons. We get a look at the backside of the base. It looks pretty vulnerable but the air force here is going to be tough.   We do a pretty good job of taking them out. Unfortunately the Gargoyles all decided to fly over the small towers when they went to reload and all died. Why didn't I do anything about it?  I was too busy dealing with the ED counter-attack.   The fighting is absolutely withering. Tigers are dropping left and right and I'm worried if the ED bring the lasers on to the field we'll have to fall back to our base. And our base is not well-defended at all. I've only got a few small towers in it to deal with possible Cossack raids.   The Tigers fight hard though and after rallying to the middle they're able to drive off the attackers.  To ensure we're not caught with our pants down during the attack, I have the Mammoth build a bunch of small towers on the path to our base.  Too little too late. This Taiga laser could've turned the tide of the battle. But he was slow in showing up and now doesn't even manage to get a shot off before he's buried in bullets/grenades/rockets.   With the rockets upgraded, it's time to build a new, rocket-oriented air force. This will pay off handsomely in a few minutes.   Our forces make their way down into the unoccupied south via the woods. Pretty nice visual, eh? Unfortunately, a sneak attack may not work. The ED have us outmanned and outgunned with those lasers. We need som way to get the upper hand. If we can get into the base proper we'll be so spread out the lasers won't be able to hit us in time. But how?   Wait, what's this? Oh. My.  We can use the repairer units to repaint our armies. This will make them look exactly like Major Wlad's units, even down to their coloring on the minimap. This is the exact sort of thing we need. By the time the confusion over our coloration ends it'll be too late.  I research some new grenades while we wait for the paint to dry.  All done! It looks like there's a massive ED force in that southern valley now. But we'll need something else too. We can't have just a single point of attack.  Behold our blackout Gargoyles. They're running with their lights off so they won't be visible unless a unit is right underneath them. And since the rockets have a longer range than the chainguns the ED likes to put on its towers we can use these like aerial artillery without worry about enemy fire. I'm a genius  Here it is, our moment of truth. Will the paint job work?  I think it did! Only the ED air units are responding to our attack. I've got a video of the confusion in the base. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOmAcD_QGa4  Our Gargoyles are completely unnoticed. The Cossacks aren't going after them even though they could wipe them out in seconds and the towers aren't shooting them because they can't see them. It's working! I think we just may be able to pull this off.  Final grenade upgrade, because why not?  We're through the rear lines! We need to be careful though since a number of ED buildings have mounted lasers. Focus on the power plants robot buddies!  Thank you stealth Gargoyles. Also note the small tower eviscerating a unit that strayed away from the pack.  The supply center is down. Pretty soon the ED will be out of ammo and we'll only need to worry about the lasers.  Speak of the devil. But once again the lasers are too late. Had they been waiting for us at the southern entrance they may have been able to make a fight of it. As it is we can overwhelm them before they overheat us.  And this is why you do not try a frontal land assault here. You're not going to be able to get the power plant or the towers in time to prevent horrific losses. On a map like this that's pretty tight on resources you're not going to have enough time to build a second attack force. You could easily end up in stalemate situation: both sides out of resources and mobile attackers but with both bases fully intact. At that point the only way to move the campaign forward is to destroy your own base and accept a failed mission. Good thing we're smart and went around.  The base is clear, we just need to take out those towers. And with the power plant blocking one half, and the other half out of range if we approach carefully this should be easy.  Yep. Pretty drat easy.   I really wish the writers had put more effort in these briefing and debriefings. After all the fun banter we had with the LC these feel extremely lazy. While I'm waiting for my repairers to re-paint my army I turn up the game speed and work on this Harvester upgrade. It's got more HP and I think it also moves faster.  I've landed my air force here so the repairers can fix them. I suppose this is why you might want to put shields on your air units, but if you're doing this right the only time you should be repairing your air units is when things are calm.  Our new Harvester II.   Suck it Wlad   New robot unit? I like new robot units! We've gotta stop the ED. In honor of our sneakiness, today's track is the second UCS night theme. 
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Feb 1, 2013 06:10
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I think the upgraded harvester carries more money as well, 1000 as supposed to 500? I might've remembered wrong though.
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Feb 1, 2013 10:11
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Well that was interesting, I never thought that using the paint option made the units mostly undetectable by the enemies. You learn something new every day it seems!
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Feb 2, 2013 00:51
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How exactly does repainting a robot make those
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Feb 2, 2013 22:49
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Teledahn posted:How exactly does repainting a robot make those Koorisch posted:Well that was interesting, I never thought that using the paint option made the units mostly undetectable by the enemies. I'm not sure if the repainting or running lights off had more of an impact. In multiplayer games the repaint option can be devastating though. I remember playing an ED-ED game and all of a sudden my mining base was gone but was surrounded by friendly units. I went to investigate and rebuild with all my Gruz units and it turns out they weren't so friendly. Since I had no more construction units and no vehicle production center I had to surrender. That taught me the valuable lesson of always keeping some towers and units in your base. In campaign terms, maybe they think NEO is in the area and he's bringing in reinforcements?  The ED towers and tanks still open fire on you but it takes them a bit longer to figure out what's going on. axeil fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Feb 3, 2013 |
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Feb 2, 2013 23:23
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Running lights off during nighttime does make your units harder to detect , and slow them down for some reason. The way I always played this mission, is rush down the enemy base the moment I unload the first batch of units. Usually I get there shortly after those UCS units activate and all I need to do is to destroy the power plants and any construction vehicle before running out of ammo, leaving ED forces stranded. I loose this way many units but it makes up with the resources left to mine in the enemy base, and making this mission much shorter.
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Feb 3, 2013 00:00
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  Well poo poo. This isn't good. This starts a 3 mission sequence I call The Grizzly Theft. It's similar to the Neo missions in the LC campaign as each mission plays off the previous one. The successful completion of this arc gives you Something Really Good and the failure of this campaign puts you at a serious disadvantage. It's not quite as good as the Neo arc but it's still pretty neat. Unfortunately the opening to the sequence is one of the most boring missions in the game (even more boring than LC Baikal).  The ED have already stolen our data and breached the base defenses. There are exactly 10 tanks and you need to kill them all. So hurry up and get some units there!  They'll blow the power plant before you have a chance to do anything so don't even try.  Thankfully the LZ is positioned a bit away from the base, otherwise this mission would be impossible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eDN1rEnJ5g Additionally, it appears there may be a traitor in our midst who misreported the strength of the ED assault force. Actually, how the hell are the ED operating this deep in UCS territory anyway? And how did they know we had a secret research base here?  Our forces arrive only to see the ED commandos scatter.  We manage to get a few of them but the rest are hidden somewhere around here, probably waiting for an evac transport. We cannot let them escape!  We're never going to find them with just our Tigers looking, we need to bring in the Gargoyles.  Hmm what's this? These are artifacts, specifically ammunition reloads. We saw a shield artifact way back in ACME Labs 3, but they're much more common in the ED and UCS campaigns. These ammunition artifacts exist in case you don't realize you can build an Aerial Supply Center + power plant on this map to provide resupplies. Since all your units are either 20mm, grenades or rockets at this point you'll need ammo to win this map.  While I wait for my units to collect their reloads, I call in the last of my Tigers. The entire UCS army under the President's command is now searching for these commandos. The seriousness of the situation cannot be overstated.  Found one!  And now he's dead. It'd be nice if the game gave you a count on how many tanks were left because at this point I have no idea how many I'm looking for.  We find more ammo and reload. It also looks like there aren't any tanks up here in the northwest corner. Where the hell are they?  Our Gargoyles can find the enemy units faster than the Tigers so I split the fleet up and send each one scouring the landscape for the commandos.  But it's the Tigers, moving back to the LZ to regroup who find the last tank. Bit of a surprise really.  drat! Now we've lost the plans for the Grizzly unit and we have no idea where they've sent the data. This is an absolute disaster.  Nothing left to do but send everyone home. I'm sure KAIN IX has all his ED spies working on finding that transmission location.   10 tanks go in, none come out. And we only lost one unit in the process.  We've found them. Also, before we start Japan I want to emphasize how really, really, really important it is you don't lose Japan. If there is a single mission in the game you should try your hardest on it's Japan. Why? Because Japan is the only mission in the entire game that gives you a punishment detail if you fail it. I've never, ever been able to beat that mission. To make matters worse, Japan is an extremely tough mission and will require your best thinking. I beat it before I wrote this update and it took me over an hour and a half to complete when most missions in this game take only half that time at worst. Don't fail Japan. Our final UCS song (at least until TMP and LS!) is the 2nd combat theme. I'll give the UCS credit, they know how to  when they fight.
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Feb 3, 2013 00:11
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Oh, Japan.  It's definitely one of the harder missions, that I really agree on, but what I really don't like is the little "surprise" you get when you do a certain thing since you can loose the mission from that bullshit.
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Feb 3, 2013 01:13
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I've been waiting for this little charmer to show up. Heh. Heh. Heh. One day I will find the level designer and murder him in his sleep.
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Feb 3, 2013 01:26
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  In mission two of The Grizzly Theft we've tracked down our stolen plans. They're somewhere here in Japan, we just need to find them. But finding them will not be so easy.  We start the mission with two LZs, one in the north and one in the south. The one in the south will become our base due to its proximity to a very impressive ore field.  Our first bit of research for this mission is the upgraded repairer. It's a very important piece of tech to grab since it allows you to upgrade your units in the field for free.  Our northern LZ is dangerously close to an ED outpost. We've got three Tigers, that should be enough to shut down the power. So let's do it.  NEO? As in the former UCS hacker who went rouge in the 2140 war? I thought he was dead. This isn't good.  KAIN IX signs NEO's death warrant. As a traitor to the UCS and threat to our recovery of the Grizzly plans it's no surprise he's been ordered to be killed.  NEO's taken over two of our Tigers. We've no chance of destroying that ED power plant now.  Our spy satellites have pinpointed NEO's transmission though. It looks like he's in a compound near the center of the map. Take out the compound, and we take out NEO.  The Albatross has arrived at the southern LZ and I order my Mammoth to start base construction. I paused the game so you could see where every structure was going to be built but it didn't work out.  Our Tiger has been destroyed, but not before he discovered this structure in the water. It looks like a Shipyard. This must also be the HQ of the Eurasian Dynasty's Pacific Fleet. Great. As if we didn't have enough on our hands already.  We've got a secondary ore field near the first one. This is rather nice of the game to give us, since we're going to need tons of resources. Now that our army is on the field, let's send out a scout.  Jumping Jehoshaphat! That base is almost within sight range of ours. And its filled with all sorts of nasty ED units.  Our base is fully established and we've got a nice defensive posture near the entrance. We're in a bit of a valley, so we can focus our defense at a single choke point. This is invaluable. If we were spread out like the LC were in the Andes mission I'm not sure we could hold the line.  We have our first upgraded repairer. I'm not showing off the Construction Center picture for it since all its stats are identical. The only difference is the upgraded repairer gives us the upgrade command. I order this Tiger to upgrade my whole army. Now those under-teched starting units can do more than just be cannon fodder and scouts.  Rocket upgrades are just as important for the UCS as the LC. Perhaps even more so since we don't have any energy weapons yet. Rockets are going to be our bread and butter for a while.  The ED sends a scout over. He doesn't make it very far. But now they know we're here. They've also destroyed our northern LZ, but I'm not too concerned since I wasn't planning on using it anyway. Instead, we'll be taking to the seas. But there's no suitable locations in our base.  So we're going to build a bridge to somewhere that there are suitable locations.  The Tiger has even upgraded our Harvesters to the Harvester II.  With the bridge built we can now construct our Shipyard. The shipyard allows us to build naval units. Unfortunately, you can't transport naval units back to base so they'll be one mission only things. To make up for that, the top-tier naval units allow more mounts than any other unit in the game. One Leviathan heavy cruiser can destroy a coastal base on its own.  The ED air force has shown up. Thankfully they're still in those awful Cossack copters.  They don't have a prayer against all our rockets.  The shipyard is done, but we don't have any chassis for it yet.  This will do nicely. The Shark is the light naval unit. We can research some upgrades for it and eventually unlock the Leviathan heavy cruiser.  I'm worried about our defense. The ED attacks so far haven't been that tough but I know a big ground force is coming any minute now. The Large Tower will help keep the Dynasty out of our base.  These aren't pre-built Taiga Ls. The enemy has laser technology and they're willing to build units based on it. poo poo. We need to take out that ED base now before we're over-run with lasers.   The defenses are chewing our forces apart and we're not even making a dent in them.  The ED has brought its air force to bear on us. That combined with the towers will destroy our attack force. Fall back! All units fall back!  The retreat is absolute chaos. This is the first time in this LP we've seen an attack go completely sour. Our losses are horrifying, we've lost over half our army and did only miniscule damage to the ED line.  To make matters worse, the ED has finally gotten wise and stopped using Cossacks. The Grozny is a true attack helicopter. It has innovative things like armor and "more than 20 HP." Given how weak most of our units are, they'll be a real threat for the rest of this mission.  Our 4 Gargoyles and the small towers are the only things that can save us now. Our Tigers are nowhere near fighting shape after the beating they took. The line must hold or this mission is lost.  Should...should I order the full retreat? ED helicopters are in the center of our base, the defenses are failing. Our Tigers are out of ammo. More ED tanks are pouring out of the base. The Gargoyles are being picked off one by one by attackers. A retreat here would at least let us keep our units and have a fighting chance in the next mission. If we stay and fight and lose we'll have no chance of winning the next mission. Is this the end of Japan?
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Feb 3, 2013 18:07
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When I played this game as a kid, I never managed to get past this mission. This part of the game is really rough as the UCS, thanks to the ED lasers and your lack of shields.
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Feb 3, 2013 20:58
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I honestly don't remember having too much of a problem with any of the campaigns, however I had a tendency to pause a lot during battles to micro even individual shots and dodges, and my unit survivability was so high I tended to drop a large veteran force with the first albatross and use it to rush the enemy positions before they got too entrenched.
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Feb 3, 2013 21:20
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Nephilm posted:I honestly don't remember having too much of a problem with any of the campaigns, however I had a tendency to pause a lot during battles to micro even individual shots and dodges, and my unit survivability was so high I tended to drop a large veteran force with the first albatross and use it to rush the enemy positions before they got too entrenched. When I was younger I abused the pause button a lot too. I'm trying to avoid doing it during this LP though (except for base construction). I imagine with really good micro I might have been able to break through the line there but I'm not that good 
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Feb 3, 2013 21:33
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No, no, see when you're playing the UCS it isn't "pause", it's "overclock"!
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Feb 3, 2013 21:46
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Captain Bravo posted:No, no, see when you're playing the UCS it isn't "pause", it's "overclock"! And when the ED do it, it's "matrix". ( )2
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Feb 3, 2013 22:06
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my dad posted:And when the ED do it, it's "matrix". ( What happens when the LC does it?
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Feb 3, 2013 22:19
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axeil posted:What happens when the LC does it? Female intuition.
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Feb 3, 2013 22:27
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The writers stop writing for the mission in which the UCS betrays LC, and Fang decides to remain with the latter? What the poo poo?
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Feb 4, 2013 04:53
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I have no idea what's a reference and what's coincidence, but a shut-in Matrix-named hacker type hiding out in Japan is too perfect.
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Feb 4, 2013 05:29
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I don't know how you are going to salvage this, it feels like the UCS got shafted because they get some really slow missions against ED and that allows the ED to research a lot of poo poo, which is bad. Also Neo is a glorious bastard, we'll see maybe see why... Try rushing his HQ with rocket Gargoyles and a couple of Condors to land on the item and then blow the HQ up, just to get the drat thing over, otherwise it might be a good idea to start this thing over since it's just gonna get worse, if you use more Harvesters in the first couple of missions to just rush by them you might stand a chance of not getting Laser'd.
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Feb 4, 2013 13:52
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