Part 7
This battle was easier than I expected, and I took a lot more damage than I thought I would, but outside of some heavy infantry I managed to come out of it in better shape than before. After studying the maps, again, I decided that the best course of action would be the one I suggested: Deploy from the North, hit Ogden, Salt Lake City, and mop up in Provo for the victory point win.
As such, I deployed my army along Interstate 15, just West of Logan. It might be a little high up to see, but I put my airfield as close to the front line as possible to serve as some anti-air defense in case things should go wrong, and arrayed the infantry, ahead of my troops, in order to make absolutely certain that they would be the first guys seen and attacked, and that they could take advantage of the interstate's movement bonuses to get them to the front lines faster.
The Stuarts went behind them, along with our MERLS behind them, and the chaparral behind everything so that it would all be covered from whatever might be left of the airforce. I brought along the superhornet, leaving our JSF with the main defensive force, and this time the stealth bomber because, as I said, Mormons annoy me. I eventually want to get a second B-2 Spirit when money allows, or an A-10 Warthog since they're cheaper and, so long as I'm careful with enemy AA, they're unlikely to be shot down.
Since we moved along the reputation slider, we get access to a new ability called volatile charges. These things are great but I don't want to use them unless I have no choice, as they tend to damage anything you use them with - and while that, now damaged, entity is a death machine from Hell, repairs are expensive and money is what will win us this war.
We lost those nanite clouds, as I said.
We still have access to our satellite imaging power, so I loaded it up on these heavy infantry and sent them ahead into Ogden to find out what was in front of us. Oh, I'm sure I didn't mention this before but the attacker always moves first so if you just array your things on the front line the AI will probably rape most of your army before you have a chance to defend yourself.
That's not a good thing, and the AI is smart enough that it will not let you do it to it.
With nothing to do with our B2, I decided to teach the people of Logan a lesson and burn half the city to the ground. As Al Murray says about America, it's easy to be brave when you have an invisible bomber that can't be shot down. I didn't want to risk setting it against the hated Mormons in Salt Lake City itself since I couldn't see into it too far and figured there might be advanced AA systems or a CAP in the area.
Sending your heavy bombers out into the unknown is a surefire way to get them shot down.
After that first satellite-enhanced heavy infantry moved into the city of Ogden, I sent the rest of the infantry up behind it and deployed them in a respectful manner. By that I mean I had each and every one of them attack the city. They don't do much damage, but I like to think they shot quite a number of civilians.
With armoured core of the army still protected by the safety of the airfield, I had my MERLs do their thing to Ogden as well. The second turn is already over and look at my Hitler Bar (TM).
I take the damaged FCS Stuart, have it empty its turrets into Logan, then move it into the ruins to complete repairs. If you don't attack with a unit or move it, it regains a portion of its hit points and fuel - it does so at twice the rate if you're in a city center.
Note that you can't even see the Stuart through the smoke and flames of Logan.
Satisfied, I hit the end turn button. I was almost hoping the AI would have deployed in entirely the wrong direction and that I would be able to sweep through the objective towns with no problems. I was wrong. They sent an Abrams, MERL, avenger anti-air system, and combat air patrol into Ogden in an effort to dislodge the infantry I had stationed there.
With a unit of heavy infantry slaughtered, and a second severely wounded, I sent the survivors back into the mountains North of Ogden to recuperate (I wanted, eventually, to get them to the safety of Logan so they could be ready for the next mission on the cheap). I then sent a Stuart to deal with the AA so that I could then bomb the Hell out of whatever was left.
Then my chaparral went out to deal with the Super Hornet, but failed to bring the wounded plane down. I could have hit it with my own Super Hornet, but if you recall from last mission the thing was hurting and I was waiting for the airbase to fix it up (I could have fixed it up between missions but that would have cost me money I didn't have).
Frustrated by this turn of events, I decided to take my aggression out on the MERL, which died pitifully to my commandos, and that Abrams main battle tank; the Abrams sustained a full torrent of fire from the a Stuart, and two artillery bombardments from my own MERLs. Notice, the thing is only at 50% health.
I realized that the California Republic had used one of their special powers to enhance its armour by an order of magnitude.
I doubt the B2 would have been able to take it out of its misery, and I didn't want to risk sending it into a zone protected by a hostile combat air patrol, so I licked my wounds and annihilated the city of Montello instead.
This is the state of events at the end of the turn.
Upon the enemy's turn, it sent its super-armoured Abrams against the nearest FCS Stuart, but failed to do enough damage to outright destroy it, and then sent a Stryker out to help the cause, which also failed to destroy it. The AI also managed to, somehow, sneak a partisan unit out to the MERLs but the partisan didn't really have the firepower to do more than scratch its paint.
Knowing Ogden now lost, the AI pulled its assets South to Salt Lake City; in an effort to counter the enhanced armour they received from the California Comonwealth's special powers, I hit up an undamaged Abrams with our corrosive sprays to make sure that, on their next turn, if they chose to enhance it, the two effects would cancel each other out.
I then sent my own forces in pursuit, taking the opportunity to hit the enhanced Abrams from behind with a MERL and a Stuart, and eliminate the corroded Abrams (which didn't get enhanced), with a blast from our glorious apache.
With no A-A in sight, and an unguarded MERL and partisan unit in downtown Salt Lake City, I sent out the B2 against the artillery, doing significant damage to both the unit and surrounding environment.
I set my own CAP over the mountains and ended the turn.
The FCS Stuart in downtown Salt Lake City, who eliminated the partisans, was not close enough to either my chaparral or the CAP to benefit from its protection - not a big deal, however, since the Stuarts have some minor rocket defenses which damaged the incoming Californian bomber enough to screw up its attack run and save its life (both units were moderated damaged in the process).
And with that, the turn ended.
Our hated enemies in California, however, realized they could strike at my Super Hornet in a suicidal attack by moving up one of their base defense chaparrals into the conflict zone and unleashing fury. Remember how badly that Super Hornet was damaged in the Battle of Los Angeles? It survived this attack too, but it sustained heavy damage - I mean, really, in game terms, if it was damaged 1% more it would have crashed into Great Salt Lake.
The enemy also reinforced Salt Lake by deploying a humvee, partisan and CAP in the middle of its forces.
Considering our Stuarts have three turrets, each the size of the partisan pickup trucks, it didn't take long to riddle it with holes.
What's good for the goose is what's good for the gander.
I then left all of my damaged units in place on the city squares to heal, while simultaneously attacking every hex in Salt Lake City with any unit that could do so without wasting an opportunity to heal or repair. That included bombardment from two MERLs, the B2 Spirit, the Apache, a unit of commandos and at least two Stuarts.
The California Commonwealth was obviously feeling desperate, as it attacked our MERL with an armour-enhanced partisan. While doing that may make an arbams three times as deadly, it doesn't tend to help partisan units as much.
I spent another turn healing the units that needed healing and attacking Salt Lake City with everything else at my disposal. I figured I could waste another two turns doing so before pushing on to Provo, but it turned out that the Californians realized they had been beat and surrendered.
The Great Basin is now ours. Also, why don't you look at that? It turns out the massacre of Salt Lake City netted us another slide down the scale of righteousness.
After our turn, the EU attacked Confederate territory and seized it, only for the New England Alliance to attack New York City in an effort to regain its territory.
And then the Confederacy attacked the EU and reclaimed its lost lands. The Texans, being opportunistic little devils, then stole out the Arizona Territory the ravaged Californians, as the Great Plains Federation sat out in terror.
So, these are our options:
1. Take Arizona away from those Plasma-Tank loving Texans.
2. Return Southeastern Arcadia from the Great Plains Federation.
3. Muscle in on the Dakotas.
As you can tell from the relative strength bars, Texas is probably the most powerful faction in the game at this time, with the Confederacy right behind it and ourselves in third place over all. I leave this up to you to decide and will probably fight the next battle tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. What you should keep in mind is that the AI nations will, more often than not but not nearly always, try to attack whomever is significantly weaker than it. We're stronger than the Great Plains Federation, but not by much, and it's possibly Texas will strike at our holdings instead.
Now, if we go for the GPF we could probably weaken them to the point where Texas will just eat up their provinces at the same rate we do. That would make Texas even stronger. The other option, of attacking Texas, is the riskiest but if we deal them a significant blow they might fight it out with the GPF, while both parties ignore us while we get some new units in. Since Texas has a better military, and will most likely use its own special unit, it's possible that we will lose significant resources in any attack and that could weaken us to the point where the Great Plains Federation and Texan Republic both eye us for expansion and ignore each other.
I, personally, want to go after Arizona, but this one is entirely up to you guys to decide. I'll probably invest our money into another FCS Stuart and maybe a chaparral, and should I not be able to do that, a chaparral and as many commandos as I can buy.