Part 79: Advance Campaign Mission 13A: Wings of Victory! AC as Andy
Advance Campaign Mission 13A: Wings of Victory! AC as Andy (or "You're a Loose Cannon, But You're a Damn Mediocre Cop")Youtube video (24m53s)
It's been a while, but hopefully I can now get things back on track. This mission we take a break from fighting Drake and go take on Eagle in an eerily familiar mission. Joining me are Sockerbagarn and new guest irregular_programming (Fredrik1 on SA).
Being a tad lazy and reposting this from the last update. This mission is crazily similar to its Sami NC counterpart. Pretty much the biggest difference between the two missions is that we're using Andy rather than Sami - and heck, that arguably makes things easier. Sami plan as with Sami NC - fighting off Eagle's initial air invasion, before dealing with his ground troops while sending a fighter and T-copter to the HQ.
Since this mission is so similar to the Sami NC version, I start with a similar cluster of units (heck, I was even reading over my own LP to check where everything was meant to go - recon in the forest, fighters, etc.
One of Eagles' fighters pokes its head round the door, and I manage to take it out. Naturally, this is a huge advantage that Andy has over Sami here - his direct combat units aren't carrying a nasty penalty, so we can two-shot an Eagle fighter rather than three-shot it. It's so nice to be able to do that here.
APC does some refuelling as it goes out on good ol' duty, while everything else clusters into the range shadow of the missile launcher, to ensure that Eagle can't park in there.
Two bombers, the other fighter and an AA. Nasty surprises all round.
But we're reasonably well-equipped to deal with them. First, the indirects get their fill (although Eagle's air defence bonus never makes this stuff easy...). Sadly, the recon fails to do chip damage and finish off that AA.
So I have to bring the medium tank forward for some crazy overkill. AA targets fighter, fighter targets bomber (as I mention in the video, generally best to attack things that can't counterattack you). I also pull back that 1HP fighter - it'll come in handy later.
Eagle doesn't take too kindly to my shenanigans.
And naturally, the APC falls to
Saved up my Hyper Repair for the counterattack here.
Once again, Eagle's terrible defence following a Lightning Strike proves his undoing. Life would be much harder here if we were facing, say, AWDS Eagle and that crazy, crazy Lightning Drive.
I felt really, really clever here that my hyper repair follwed by a join gave me one full-health fighter to work with... until Socker pointed out in the video that I could have used the 3HP fighter to kill that 2HP bomber instead this turn, and then joined the two planes next turn. Ultimately it doesn't change much, but still... .
The next few turns are an exercise in problem solving as I wear down Eagle's attacks. First this medium tank...
... then this AA and mech.
... and now the light tank and medium tank. This time my recon's chip damage works out.
Time to start thinking about an HQ invasion.
As the air units head forward, I continue to battle infantry and send my medium tank, recon and missile launcher (because heck, why not) on a little forward sortie.
But am I pushing too far forward?
Yes, yes I am. The ultimate humiliation as Eagle spots my middie with one arty, while killing it with the other.
Once again I follow up Lightning Strike with Hyper Repair (thinking about it, I should have saved this up as an insurance policy for the HQ capture...)
Finding the bomber guarding Eagle's HQ (after screwing around a bit wasting fuel). But where's that missile launcher? And is there an AA lurking? . Oh well, at the end of the day at least I can use the T copter as bait.
Missile downs the T copter. I then waste a turn doing everything except start capturing that HQ. The mech sits there doing nothing, because I'm a scaredy-cat.
The next day I bite the bullet and just hope that there aren't any AA around...
... there aren't. Well then.
Let's not waste any more time.
Did that messing around cost me an A-Rank? Quite possibly. But it was a reasonably smooth ride - as might be expected from a mission that barely differs from one I've done before. Tune in next time, as we fight Drake for the third and final time - this time, with the advantage. Will I kill that lander fast enough to get an S-Rank? Only time will tell.