Part 58: Campaign Mission 21AMS: The Final Battle! as Andy, Max and Sami - Part 1

Mission 21AMS: The Final Battle! as Andy, Max and Sami (or "Operation Orange Star") - Part 1



Well, here we are again.


words
oh no not WORDS
'fraid so

Yeah, I'm running short on material.



Funny how, if you take a certain route through it, AW1's Campaign is only 17 missions long. Then again, you can clear AW2 in 25* missions rather than the full 34 if you cut enough corners, so maybe not. Anyway, we've got three of my favourite CO theme tunes on the field today, so give it up for Andy's Anthem, Sami's Theme and Sturm's Theme. Oh, and Max's Theme too, I guess. Well, at least he gets to be MVP.

* I think you're forced to do all eight missions in Orange Star, but in Blue Moon, Yellow Comet and Green Earth you can just go "beat two of the first set of CO-specific missions --> beat two of the second set of CO-specific missions --> beat the factory", making them only five missions each. Granted, you miss out on a lot of fun with that approach...

Day 1 - Andy


hey grit
what in the wacky world of wild west gunslinger clichés is goin' on in here?
words
oh no not WORDS
'fraid so
WORDS? now i'm mad!... what's an adverb, again?

All right, enough, enough. Let's get on to some actually new dialogue:



And you know what else? Sturm is goin' down!

Hold on, Max! Andy's takin' this one, right?

Not like I was given a choice in the matter.

Oh, yeah. You're right.
Don't give me that long face. Oh, all right, big dawg. You can use my troops.
What? Really? I owe you, Grit!

But won't they all be artilleries and rockets and whatnot?

OK, Paul! Now I'm in, too!

But hey, who cares? We've got Max on our side, and that is HUGE.


Sturm! I can't stand power-hungry blockheads like that!

Y'know, there could have been something about Eagle here, or maybe something about Sonja, but nah, let's just go down the power-hungry blockheads route.

You're a bit steamed, eh, Sami?
Captain Drake! How did you...?

I wish I'd kept a count of the number of times Our Heroes use the phrase "Captain Drake!", same way I did with "It's your turn" in Field Training.

I got Green Earth all straightened out. So, I thought I'd come deliver my army.
These Green Earth troops? I can use them?
Naturally! I deployed them especially for you!
All right, then! I'm ready when you are, Paul!

All right then, here we go with Operation Orange Star!

so i guess this is the bit where we fight the bad guy or something



Yes, Andy, yes it is. And Drake wasn't kidding: three infantry and three mechs is certainly a deployment designed with Sami in mind. And fortunately for us, Grit letting Max use his troops hasn't led to the Blue Brawler (well, we've had Blue Blur and Blue Bomber...) being lumbered with artillery, rockets and missiles. Instead we've got a nice selection of medium tanks, light tanks and AA to work with. It's not quite as awesome as Kanbei's starting deployment of four medium tanks, but on the other hand it's going to be considerably easier for Max to churn out more middies later on. Random note, although Max and Sami aren't using orange-coloured units, it is at least appropriate that the guy in blue gets the blue units and the gal in green gets the green ones.



Unsurprisingly, Max is going to be doing the heavy lifting here - supporting Andy from behind while also looking to flank Sturm from the left. The only tricky part will be avoiding Meteor Strikes as his forces start to clump together with Andy's in the middle. Speaking of Meteor Strikes... well, Sami's role is going to be very specialised here. Even more so than Grit and Olaf were in the previous Final Battles. It's not the biggest problem ever because Max can do the work of two COs, but yeah, this mission isn't going to be a fun watch for Sami fans. Still, I'm going to build a few mechs from the northern base and send them over Sturm's mountains. See if they can't help Max and Andy finish this off.



Anyway, let's get cracking. Starting off with the usual two opening captures.



I'm doing my damnedest here to make sure that this AA can hit as much as possible. I'm fed up with Sturm hiding units behind things.



And to sweeten the deal, I'm going to draw him in with the APC and T copter on Day 1 this time. They're going down anyway, so may as well get the out of the way early.



The usual unit spreading follows.

Day 1 - Max



No indeed, Max.



As usual, I send the AA north, hoping to intercept Sturm's air force.



The tanks head east though, preparing to bolster Andy from behind.

Day 1 - Sami



Obligatory mention of Eagle. Nothing about Sonja though, still. You know, I think they've kind of forgotten that Sturm captured her by this point. Grit and Kanbei are pretty much the only two COs really thinking about that.



Anyway yeah, rapid capturing wooo.



Yet more heading upfield in a bit to squash Sturm's air force.

Day 1 - Sturm


words



Well, he's certainly fallen for the bait. The -y, -y bait.

Day 2 - Andy



Sturm always seems to find a way to get the better of me, though. He's only sent one bomber over to Max, while Andy now has too many units to deal with in one go.



It's not a huge deal, though. I can take down a bomber with Andy's missile launcher...



... while the AAs can chew on some fighters. Again, thanks to Sturm's terrible defence we're getting some good damage in here.



Arrow-o-vision. Sami should be able to handle the rest of Sturm's air units in the east.



Yet more spreading out.

Day 2 - Max



Max is up, and we've got four AAs to deal with one bomber. Overkill much.



But then, Max is no stranger to overkill .



Sending another AA up to the bridge, just in case Sturm has a brainstorm (brainsturm? Yesss another Sturm pun) and leaves an air unit sitting around over here.



The tanks spread out, with one middie heading towards Andy while the other has a quiet sit in the corner for a bit. Yes, it's quite possible that I'm a bit too cautious in these opening turns.

Day 2 - Sami



Back to plane-hunting with Sami.



The full HP fighter on this side goes down to missile fire.



And then Sami does to the bombers what Andy did to the fighters.



Shooting outside the frame of the picture. Anyway, the rest of Sami's troops bunch together in preparation for the inevitable...

Day 2 - Sturm



SPESS MEHRENS! Today the enemy is at our door!



We know our duty and we will do it!
Easy for you to say, you're fighting with borrowed troops...
also why are you quoting that



Andy's horribly exposed missile launcher goes down.



His AA takes a battering, too.



And there goes the infantry on the airport. Pretty much the same as the previous Final Battles.

Day 3 - Andy



Hmm... CO power's charged...



... and you know what, I'm going to use it. Even though the only damaged unit is a 2HP AA.



See, as a 4HP AA it can still do serious damage to this B copter. Although it does lose one of the two hit points it just picked up from Hyper Repair in the process.



And my other AAs can take on the rest of Sturm's air force.



I prioritised the fighter over clearing out that B copter in the middle; Sami can take care of it.



With the air force nobbled, it's time for some tank action.



One middie gets an attack in, but I decide to keep the other in reserve, given Sturm has a medium tank of his own lurking. Possibly not the best decision, but not too bad.



Infantry capture, B copter wanders over here to lure Sturm's 2HP fighter into Max's waiting AAs.



And we'll finish Andy's turn by chipping off another hit point off this B copter.

Day 3 - Max



Wait... did Sturm just...



... yes, yes he did.



Don't even care if that AA gets shot up next turn, taking out a bomber before it can reach Andy's lines is priceless.



Keep rollin', rollin', rollin' (the good song with that lyric).

Day 3 - Sami



Quite a bit for Sami to get done here: we're recovering from a Meteor Strike, and our AAs have stuff to do.



The AAs get to work.



Sturm's air force has taken some big hits this turn, although Sami's AAs are pretty vulnerable to a counterattack here.



Oh well. We've got units to join up, and a base to capture here in the north.



More joining, and let's have some mechs.

Day 3 - Sturm



It's a big turn for Sturm, this one. I'm going to leave these without commentary.









... yeah.

Day 4 - Andy



Ffffffflippin' 'eck. Sami's AAs are gone, and Sturm's all over Andy. But Andy does have some good units left.



As these AAs kindly demonstrate for us.



That's a full-health B copter and a 4HP AA down.



This medium tank chows down on an AA.



And B copter destroys B copter, as another AA gets the medium tank treatment.



Pretty good turn, that.



We've got to be watchful of Sturm's power bar, though. Sami's in no shape to take another Meteor Strike just yet, and Andy's got a juicy cluster of units there.



So we'll call it a day for Andy here.

Day 4 - Max



Now, because of Sturm's power bar, I decide to play it safe with Max.



He's going to stay back here for now. I was probably stupidly overcautious here, there was no real reason to retreat Max as far as I did. Still, we'll see how it goes.



Max does get to see some action this turn, as I take down... probably a B copter. Whatever it was, it doesn't fill Sturm's power bar up completely, so that's okay.



That AA might just be in trouble, though. I leave a tank and another AA behind it as reinforcements.



And although Max's middies haven't seen any action yet, that's no excuse for not building a third one.

Day 4 - Sami



Sami's got a full power meter.



Bit of a shot to nothing, but let's use her CO Power. And a CO quote that pretty much sums up AW's bizarre approach to the measure of CO and non-CO lives.



Anyway, using the extra movement to drag some of Sami's mechs back and begin bunching everything together.



Capturing the base up here and hmm, can we distract one of Sturm's medium tanks away with an APC?



Yep. Although I don't really know why I moved the APC away from the infantry. I'm taking a big risk on the power of here...

Day 4 - Sturm



Another highly violent turn from Sturm here.







Some good news though: Sturm did indeed target Sami's 2HP APC, wasting one of his medium tanks. strikes again...



And that's Sturm done with for now.

Day 5 - Andy



Yet again, Andy's stuck on the back foot. That doesn't mean he can't pull his way out of trouble though (it is a cricket joke )



The medium tanks mix it up, one-shotting an AA and tearing a good chunk out of Sturm's middie.



Although I noticed something after these attacks...



... I've got an artillery in range here. Darn it, I could have saved a hit point on my 9HP medium tank.



Oh well. AA gets an attack of opportunity in on this infantry up here.



Sturm still has some units hanging around my base, but Max can take care of them for me.

Day 5 - Max



Although first he's got something to take care of in the north.



Another B copter gets taken down before it can reach Andy.



Back in the south, it's time for some fun.



Tank down. Not quite sure how the AA survived, but that city's defence cover probably helped there.



We're whittling Sturm down, here.



And Max gets his first B copter.

Day 5 - Sami



Base successfully captured.



And Sami should be able to distract the meteor here. Although I wasn't completely efficient in terms of arranging everything so it gets hit by the meteor. But that ends up being a blessing.

Day 5 - Sturm



Certainly it's enough to distract the meteor.



Sturm decides he's had enough of Max's AA shenanigans and brings out the big guns.



As well as the smaller guns.



At least Sami's still doing a sterling job of distracting this medium tank.

Day 6 - Andy



And it's looking good. Max can cover Andy's rear here while Andy presses forward into that mob of infantry.



First up, let's humiliate this 2HP AA by using a B copter to finish it off.



Then we can get stuck in to these infantry.



Lots and lots of arrows.



Building a fighter to try and pin down air superiority. I realise it looks weird building that fighter right next to an AA, but Max can take care of that.

Day 6 - Max



Oh boy can Max take care of that.



That's a nice, healthy amount of overkill.



AA down, tank down.



This should keep Andy's base secure for a while.



And there's plenty more where that came from.



Back in the northwest, let's see what Max Force can do for B copters.



... quite a bit. Knocking a medium tank down to half health with a B copter is pretty damn amazing (thinking about it, between Max's day-to-day, Max Force, and Sturm's poor defence I'm doing twice the "standard" amount of damage here).



APC moves up to do some work distracting Sturm's bomber, as the 5HP AA retreats.



I can take down Sturm's own 5HP AA too.

Day 6 - Sami



As I say, it's a good job I didn't arrange my Meteor Strike pattern for Sami properly, because this way we've still got two full-health mechs left.



They can start getting to work on Sturm's lost medium tank.



Well, we're here to make sure it stays lost. That's the middie surrounded on two sides...



... and now it's surrounded on all four sides. Death by chip damage awaits.



And I get to work capturing an airport that I'm never going to use. But hey, it's another 1000G per turn.

Day 6 - Sturm



Fairly quiet turn for Sturm, starting off with a double dose of .



And finishing with him knocking a Max tank down to half health, but losing a hit point of his own in the process.

Day 7 - Andy



Andy has lots to do today. There's a medium tank lurking at the back there, but we can't worry about it too much.



First we can take care of this AA. I want to repeat this dose on the other side, with my own AA taking down Sturm's B copter, but as it stands there isn't a route through to it.



So let's make one.



There we go, that gives the AA the wiggle room it needs to target that B copter.



Which it does. My own B copter follows up by trashing some infantry.



Looking good so far.



I get in another attack on some infantry...



... and do all the moving and building I need. The fighter's staying back for now, which is why I had the AA kill that B copter: I don't want this expensive unit getting wrecked straight away. Again, a bit of timidity that might cost me a bit, but hopefully not too much.

Day 7 - Max



Now then, Max has some pests to take care of.



Which he does pretty effectively.



And so we move from the northwest to the centre. Max's middies are looking a little low on fuel - at some point we're going to have to get some APCs out there to refuel them. Fuel and ammo for medium tanks was a perennial problem in the previous two runs of this, so we need to watch ourselves.



Oh well, the light tanks can keep themselves busy, at least.



We've got pretty good control of this side of the river now.



And we're edging our way on to the other side, too.

Day 7 - Sami



Right then, chip damage time.



2HP arty does a good job knocking another two hit points off this medium tank, and the full-health mech wades in to take off a further 2HP.



So we just need something to finish the job.



This 6HP mech obliges. Sami may not be doing much over here (other than tanking meteors, anyway), but what she is doing she's doing pretty well.



Setting up for another meteor that should arrive on Day 8, and grabbing that airport. And cranking the first mech out of the northern factory. Let's see if we can't add some of Sami's mechs to the HQ assault.

Day 7 - Sturm



Sturm's only got two attacks for us today, but they're pretty mean ones.

Day 8 - Andy



And he has a rocket truck, too! Let's see what we can do about that.



First up, with five units injured this is looking like a good time for Hyper Repair.



Much better.



After that, I send a medium tank in to blast the light tank guarding Sturm's rocket launcher, before the B copter runs through and reduces those rockets to 1HP.



Meanwhile, the 5HP middie retreats a bit, giving my fighter a chance to step up and, thanks to AW's nonsense physics, block Sturm's medium tank in.



Infantry. Lots of infantry.

Day 8 - Max



Bit of a cock-up on the screenshotting front here. Just pretend you've got an after-shot of that AA going down.



Other than that, Max is keeping quiet as he spreads out his medium tanks to avoid meteoric madness.



We're getting a strong-looking army in the west here, at least.

Day 8 - Sami



As for Sami...



... well, it's time to take another meteor. I do manage to get everything arranged for maximum meteor magnetism this time (mmm).



And we're gradually pumping out a mech commando force in the north here.

Day 8 - Sturm



Sami's a real trooper. Even if she is using borrowed troops.



Sturm's only got two attacks for us today, but they're pretty painful.

Day 9 - Andy



We've still got some work to do here. But we're making good progress.

And I think that's a good point to stop. Tune in next time for...



... Max blowing the crap out of everything.