Part 27

On my first turn, I start pulling the Stuarts on the ridge behind Fairbanks down into a position where they can be mostly useful. I don't intend on doing much with them but holding the city, and I'm counting on range of the Airbase's anti-air capabilities to help the garrison hold out.



I deployed a CAP just to scout out what's ahead and it turns out Fairbanks is completely undefended.



Back with the main thrust of the attack, I send the Apaches ahead using their excellent vision to determine just what perils await. Three units, a Hind and a T-55 along with some dogshit.



From the Wrangell Mountains, I strike the first blow.



Following my standard operating procedure, I use the chaparrals to take out the hind.





And the Stuarts to handle the T-55. It takes two.





Dogshit dies. I wish the AI would stop using light vehicles entirely, since they don't have the capacity to damage anything and fall apart in one round. I suppose the programmers figured they better have the computer use them because, otherwise, all the effort that went into modeling and texturing would be lost ('cause nobody else would).



I proceeded to split the main task force into a large one, and a small one, sending the small to hit Fairbanks. It's rather suspicious the place is unguarded in the extreme. We find a bunker.



And some artillery with Russian special forces.



With no AA in sight, we do what we do best. It feels strange to use these B2 Spirits against combat units when they've spent their entire game meticulously wiping out civilian centers.







On Russia's turn, it sends up a small force of T-90s into the heart of my main strike force. T-90s are pretty good but Stuarts are better.





More T-90s!



And apparently the Borg collective. They fire lasers and hurt a lot.



And more dogshit to attack my chaparral.



The situation at the start of my turn.



Oh no, poor dogshit!



It takes about 3 Stuarts to take down a T-90, and four T-90s to take down a Stuart; we're lucky because the Stuarts are all veterans and have health and armour bonuses. You would lose a lot more just going in with fresh units.



It returns fire



Assimilate this.



Tee hee.



Attacks to the rear improve damage, I should probably have mentioned it. At least it would make sense if it did. I have no idea.



Doesn't stop the T-90 from spinning that turret around. Compare the stats of the T-90s to our Stuarts - they're better.



But we are more numerous.





And we cheat in tank on tank battles by using helicopter gunships.





Even in vs artillery battles.



Everyone has access to bunkers, militia and air defenses. They're "one time" units which means if you buy them, you can only use them once and they're automatically sold off from your force pool at the end of the turn. They're fairly decent and can be a life saver in a pinch - the problem is that when you need them they're still too expensive and by later on in the game, as I've showed you, even when handing the PC money hand-over-fist there's no reason to use them.

Anyhow, they die just like anything else.



End of turn update.



More borg approach a Stuart and don't realize it's a bad idea to face the turrets while out in the open.



On my turn I polish them off and send the forces off along the highway to Anchorage.



We come across some static AA defense - it's the same sort of thing as the bunker you saw before, and it dies just as easily.







Back on the Fairbanks side of things, I keep pushing men down the hill and the reinforcements along the bunker-bedeviled highway. The scouting apache sees something that is not going to be fun to deal with.



That's a lot of Hinds defending more shit units that aren't worth my time. I move one of the speedy Stuarts up into Fairbanks to claim the town and destroy the poopyvehicle thinking it was going to do the same thing.



However, I'm up shit creek. The AA defense of the airbase doesn't extend that far and all the chaparrals are stuck with the main force on its way to Anchorage; my Stuarts do absolutely no damage to the Hinds whatsoever, and the Hinds quite certainly rape them as a return gift.

I had to make a choice at this point as the only reliable way to kill the Hinds would be to send both my JSF and Super Hornet against one of them per turn while a chaparral makes its way. Otherwise all the Stuarts would be dead. The problem is, with the fighters used in attack runs on the helicopters, the actual army will be open to obliteration from the Russian air force since no combat air patrols would be available.

Well, I make my choice.





And use that apache against any ground unit it can see.



And then the B2s against the tank.



End of turn status in Fairbanks.



Task Force Anchorage. Due note the chaparral I broke off the main force and sent on the road to Fairbanks. It will take forever to get there



And my fears come true, with no caps the Stuarts are sitting ducks. Unlike the Hinds however, the Stuarts can sort of damage the Bears back; if you're clever you'll observe that the Stuart had opportunity fire against every one of those Bears. That's because it had "Captain's Rank" which entitles it to do so. I only had two units with it though, since there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the promotions and they take forever to get.





They cannot weather the sustained bombardment.





And then they deploy their interceptors against the Apache.



And their Hinds against my Stuarts.







On my turn, I keep moving the chaparral onward. I should have sent it an escort anything in those hills could make short work of it.



So I sent a spare Apache over the hills and far away to grandma's house see what it could find. Ahah!



And the jet fighters against the Hinds, again.





Gah.



And in comes the level bombing.



The view from that Stuart's perspective.



More Russian Bears.



I should have moved that other Apache. Bah.





And their Hinds are at it again.



And on my turn... you should be able to predict what's going to happen here.





Hurrah, the chaparral is come.



And I had the bright idea of using volatile charges on one of my wounded tanks to bring down the wounded Hind. Turns out the wounded tank was too wounded and the volatile charges killed it before it had a chance to fire. Ooops.



My standard Stuarts don't even phase it.



That apache I had roving over the hills is on its way to Fairbanks.



Meanwhile, my Anchorage attackers approach the city, slowed down mainly because of infantry in the road.



The Russians did not understand that I had AA there now.



And the second Bear goes down.



That surviving Hind just doesn't know when to quit.



My Apaches don't either.



Bye bye birdie.



I leave a few of the Stuarts in Fairbanks to heal, and push the others up through the hills to hit Anchorage by the flanks.



The fighting is rough.



The Stuart somehow survives being hit by missiles larger than it.



And they keep attacking my assorted units.



On my turn, I take drastic measures to eliminate what's hidden in the God damned hills.





Radioactive death to all.



We fight on through the fallout. Isn't it odd that the MIRV didn't melt any of that snow?



Status:



And fight on, brave Stuarts. Glory to the first man to die.



Shit, my Apache finds three more T-90s, unscathed and protected from the bomb by a mountain range.



I deploy a CAP at the end of my turn and hope for the best.



I didn't have enough movement left to get the Apache away, but I figured it was safe from the T-90s anyhow. It wasn't safe from the MIGs.





And the fresh Russian T-90s laid into my battered armoured column.



More enemy artillery.



More tanks!



Even AA defenses were used outside of the Stuarts' range.



So I bloody slammed them with chemical weapons too.



And charged.



But the radiation and chemicals in the air were taking their toll on my tank crews.



The survivors pushed on.



Everyone must die!



Yeah, those three Stuarts are all that's left of the Fairbanks taskforce.



Two, actually, after the Russians take their turn.



Then it's my turn again.



We hunt down what's left, even though the fallout is killing pretty much everything. At least it kills Russians just as dead as us.



The only Stuart in decent shape charges in pursuit of the fleeing T-90s.



And my Joint Strike Fighter goes up against the MIG, taking it down, but taking massive damage itself.



Super Hornets need their fun too.



I had to use my precious white phosphorus on that T-90 before, but now both roads into Anchorage are clear. I expected heavy resistance, along the lines of what I saw in the mountains. My 1st Anchorage Task Force was still in prime condition, however.





And it turned out to be completely undefended. So the Stuarts used their mobility to surround the base on all sides.



Used the JSF to clear that wounded MIG. I'm surprised the Joint Strike Fighter lived but it took out the enemy bird before the Russians had a chance to return fire.



I handed out depleted uranium charges to everyone in Anchorage as there was no way I was going to let the Russian president escape with his life.



Handed out some volatile charges.



And started the massacre.



And this is the guy with the DU + volatile charges, notice how much damage he does?



Standard attacks!





Pow. Boom. Bang.



Yay.



The mighty Pine Tree flies proudly over all the United States. Well, maybe not.



End Speech:


Our stats.







And these are the summaries of the other factions.













And that's it for Shattered Union. I must admit that, in spite of my intervention, I didn't find any of the battles after my first attack on Texas to be very engaging or exciting due to the economic problems the AI had - everything else was just the equivalent of killing starving Ethiopians with a hammer. The Russian battle was really fun, however. It's a shame the game didn't sell well enough to get a patch. You might be thinking that, with obvious problems like it had, no wonder it didn't sell - actually, it didn't sell before anyone realized it had problems and by the time those problems were noticed it had already been forgotten.

Forgive me, I really don't want to play through the game as the European Union good guys right now. I'm sort of tired of the game. Like I said, everything between Texas-Alaska was a chore to me to play through and a chore to make seem interesting to you; chasing five units of partisans around a map is about as interesting to write up as it is to do. It would be faster as the good guys given that you don't have to slowly level entire cities.

I have some ideas about what I could do to make a future play through more interesting (instead of handing out money on every turn to everyone, which didn't work after a point), I think I'd rather just hand out 50 million dollars to every faction at the start of the game (which is more money than could be reasonably spent). I think that would at least keep it fresh, particularly if you reduce your own money down to something like 1 million or so to stop you from being instantly overwhelmed and to force you to conquer new territory for the discounts.

That being said, I'm not saying I'm not going to play through as the European Union for you, just that I don't think I want to right now. Maybe in a month or two if I'm feeling a little better and work out some of the kinks.



Beyond that, I would just like to thank you all for sticking through the thread with me. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I, mostly, enjoyed making it for you. Give the PC version of the game a shot if you have thirty dollars or so to spare as I guarantee you'll get more bang for your buck and more hours of fun than from your average hooker or equal cost value in movie tickets. Thanks again. And if you have any questions or comments, even now, I'd be glad to address them so let your voice be heard. Vox populi, vox dei.

And to punish you all for no adequately explored reason, here's some funny 9/11 content. :usa:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_OQRYIkSic

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_RDanD1Z7Ps