Part 81: Interview 41 - “Pushing Forward” (Or, “Hallelujah, It’s Raining Mechs”)

Interview 41 - “Pushing Forward” (Or, “Hallelujah, It’s Raining Mechs”)

Commander my dude, shall we continue?

Only if you can remind me where the hell we got up to in 10 words or less.

Cassandra notably didn't die, and now the counterattack will begin.

_{...eight, nine, ten...} Oh, damn, you actually did it. Alright, let's get going!



So, with everything important on this island captured, it's now time for Howard to go somewhere else. He hops into Adelaide.

They're actually using Adelaide for something other than baiting copters. Interesting.



Indeed - she drops him off over here. This also gives her a good opportunity to heal up those few points of damage she's got.



And then Drake buys a SECOND BATTLESHIP

That he does. This one is Wallace.

Man, Wallace really is taking every possible opportunity to rain battleshippy death on Black Hole, isn't he? I mean, I can't say I blame him, but man...



Quincy's doing the same thing, too. She's weakening anything that's even coming close to crossing this bridge.



That is way too many Black Hole infantry. They need to go, stat. When, uh, Cassandra's recovered a bit more.



Indeed, and one of them's going for a highly important property - the last airport.

Oh, no, that is not what we need right now!



Well, I would say that, but all he's deploying is copters, so it's not actually that scary.

He's not even deployed any battle copters in a while. He must be exceedingly short on money.

He should stop spending them all on fucking mechs, then!



Howard's doing some capturing, even though Drake really doesn't need the money at this stage.



This, however, is a more important capture. Mulligan's taken control of both bases, so now there can be land units... in this navy vs air battle.

This map is so stupid.



Perhaps sea maps would be better if there was sea HQs you could capture. Like, maybe a flagship that you have to sink, so the entire battle can take place on the sea.

The HQ always being on land does limit the possibilities somewhat, doesn't it?

Though if it was a sink-the-flagship mission, subs would absolutely become the most overpowered units thanks to high damage and Dive. Not that I'm complaining. I love Sele- I MEAN submarines.

That wouldn't be any different to, say, a plane one-shotting a pipe seam in the Orange Star factory mission, though, would it?

Oh, true. See! We can totally have naval objectives. It'd be cool!

...Anyway, Wallace moves into position to fire on some landlubbers.



Quincy continues to take pot shots at the enemies over here. They're not too eager to start crossing the bridge, even though there's barely any Green Earth soldiers over there.

Would you want to fight Cassandra Fucking Morgenstern after seeing her massacre all of your friends?

Point taken. _{I wonder if that's her actual middle name...}



Speaking of Cassandra, she's all refreshed and ready to get back into the fray. She's not healed to full, but she's strong enough to take a counterattack from this guy.



Good for her! But also, she needs some god damn backup.



And someone needs to deal with this idiot before he actually captures the airport.

It won't come to that. Drake's not that stupid.



I'll need to see it to believe it.



Before that, Mulligan springs forward and finishes off this foe, helping out his sister in arms, Cassandra.



And then Wallace blows up the fellow trying to capture this airport. Well, almost. He hangs on by a few HP.



Howard, uh... sure is helping.

It's not like there's much else for him to do at the moment, though.



Cassandra can finish off this interloper, successfully preventing the airport from being captured. Of course, Hawke's not going to give up that easily.

Bleh. Of course not.



But Cassandra and friends are relatively safe. Firstly, Quincy gets rid of this anti-air as it crosses through her line of sight...



And then...

"The cavalry's arrived!" Mulligan yells, pointing at the bases in the distance. Cassandra and the naval units can't see what's going on, but they hear crackles from their transceivers, and then, seconds later, some proud declarations.

"Abelard, serving in a medium tank. We shall push into the heart of the enemy's defences and destroy them!"

"And Conrad!" says the voice in the Neotank, followed by a muttered "Man, I still can't believe they actually let me drive this thing..."

"Good luck out there, Conrad. You wield incredible firepower - now ensure it is put to good use!" Abelard says.

"Right. I'm gonna give it my all in this battle." Conrad replies. "Don't let up! Crush the enemy!"



And Adelaide's back to her old tricks of baiting out copters. Well, I suppose she's all healed up, so it's relatively safe and easy.



Quincy, however, has hit upon a small snag. She's out of ammo.



"Tag out!" Quincy says, directing her battleship away from the reef. "Wallace, are you there?"

"Uh, yeah. What do you need?"

"I gotta go stock up on more 'boom'. Can you handle the bridge whilst I'm away?"

Wallace nods. "Absolutely. Those Black Hole scumbags won't know what hit 'em!"



As usual, Neotanks do preposterous amounts of damage.

God I love Neotanks



Abelard is then able to position himself here, which is quite useful. You see, that enemy tank is in range to attack poor Mulligan...



...But not anymore! Good job, boys. That tank won't even dare attacking them, especially not when damaged.



As per the agreement, Wallace makes his way around the island to get to where Quincy was sitting.



And then Finn is deployed as an APC. He'll be helping out with the attack on the enemy HQ.

When you say "helping out", you mean "carrying an infantry", right?

Uh, correct. That is basically all they're good for.



Still, with just two expensive purchases (which weren't that expensive for Drake), the tide of battle on land has turned drastically. Now it's just a case of killing every mech between the APC and the HQ.

There are a lot of mechs, to be fair. Easier said than done.



And it seems our tank friend wants to avenge its fallen friends by attacking Cassandra. She takes a lot of damage, but she survives.

God DAMN it, Cassandra, would you please retreat and heal up properly now?



And this copter drops off... a mech.



Hawke is... making some really baffling tactical decisions today. I mean, it's a good thing for Drake, but it... it's literally the penultimate map of supposedly the hardest country. Why are we facing several mechs and nothing else?



Cassandra retreats south...

Fucking finally.

...And makes a quick pit stop along the way to kill this guy.

Cassandra, please, you have done enough, you can rest now



I think you'll find Cassandra's replacement quite suitable - Matilda will be helping out. Two medium tanks and a Neotank should have no trouble carving their way through Hawke's meagre forces.

Oh, fuck yes. I always knew Drake was a man after my own heart.



Wallace fires on this mech before it can do something annoying.



And Kurtz, meanwhile, is on hand to get rid of the transport copter. The last thing we want is more mechs over here.



Oh, good, Quincy's getting restocked. Two battleships are better than one! Or more to the point, two battleships are better than two battleships when one of them has no ammo.



This tank has also been doing annoying things, so it is summarily executed by Abelard.

Good riddance to the last vaguely threatening thing on this side of the bridge!



Quite so. Conrad takes out the last infantry, and thus, the way is open to continue forward.

Time to strike at Hawke's heart. Preferably before he becomes intelligent and saves up for a bomber.



Thankfully...



All he does is deploy even more mechs.

Oh, and they're going for the airport again. Sigh.

Hawke never learns, apparently.



And he's in goddamn battleship range. It's ridiculous. Like, being outsmarted by Rose? That's fair enough. She's a genius, she could probably beat me... but don't tell her I said that. But being outsmarted by Drake? That's just ridiculous.



Karin takes out the transport copter this time, too. It is... not a good turn for Hawke, really.

This hasn't been a good battle for Hawke, let alone a good turn.



Still, you'll note that down below, Cassandra is on her way to the base, and Howard hops into Finn. Finn will be carrying him to the enemy HQ, surrounded by a retinue of big tanks.

"Surrounded by tanks" is my favourite way to travel. All those big boys, treads rolling alongside me...

I hate that you're legally allowed to say words.



The tanks are gathering to push forward, but Abelard quickly pops up here to finish off the mech.



Ah, and Mulligan's going for this Black Hole property - hitting Hawke right in the wallet. That's good for Drake!

Well, it will be when he actually captures it. Takes a couple of turns.



Still, with a fairly considerable land army now, Drake shouldn't have much trouble - plus there's battleship support. Hawke's not got much he can actually do against this.

There's one thing he can do: bend over and ask Drake to be gentle.



The enemy are trying to delay his forces as much as possible. Conrad's in the range of this enemy artillery, too, which is not ideal.

He is in a Neotank, though. And it's only got 5HP.



Cassandra is finally back at base. I think it's safe to say she well and truly earned this.

She did good. She did really good...



That hit to Hawke's purse you mentioned? It has now happened. Now the only thing he can feasibly deploy is... well, I don't need to spell it out.

Mechs?



Mechs. For now, though, Wallace moves into a more advantageous position. The bridge forces will need battleship support to push through in a timely fashion.



And Conrad just sort of powderises this anti-air. Neotanks are... something else.

The anti-air had it coming. It committed the crime of existing within 6 spaces of a Neotank.



She will catch up eventually, but first, Matilda takes out this APC who apparently though he could hide in the corner for half the map and nobody would notice.



Oh, nice, Finn's hiding inside the artillery's range. He's getting close to the HQ!

He's still got a way to go. Mostly because Hawke will not stop spawning useless units to clog every space between him and the HQ.

Also the trees.



Also, it's been a while since we've seen one of these, but it's about that time.

Uuuuuuugh.



I've definitely said this before, but fuck the CO Powers that are just free damage on absolutely everything on the map. Not even fucking Sturm was that sadistic.



Plus, with the swing, it's now a 9HP Neotank versus a 6HP artillery. Still skewed in Drake's favour, but damage is damage.

No kidding. Hopefully Conrad's holding up OK.

He lives. He is in what you would probably call a "god damn Neotank", after all.



Two damage, fuck me. That wasn't even worth worrying about! Full speed ahead, land team!



They'll charge right ahead... once the battleships have cleared the way a little.

Yeah, Quincy, nuke this fucker from orbit.



Except he survives the blow with 1HP, so both battleships have to attack to take him down. It's a rather annoying waste of resources.

Ah well. Everything else is easy now that the ranged shit is out of the way.



Things will speed up drastically once they're across the bridge, I'm sure. Though a slew of mechs are waiting for them.



Mulligan's just doing his thing in the meantime. I respect it.

Drake doesn't need an airport, but still. Bragging rights, I suppose.



And now Matilda decides to catch up with the boys. The rest of this map is just getting these three tanks and Howard to the HQ, essentially.



If he spawns any more god damn mechs, I swear-



Huh. Not mechs for once. There are like four already here though - they need to go.



And look, Mulligan got the airport. Good job to him.

Planes are a pretty stylish way to travel, to be fair.

I wouldn't know. I've never been in a plane.



As usual, Quincy...



And Wallace thin out the crowd a little, allowing the others to move ahead.

The extra defence stars from the trees aren't helping either.



Well, Matilda's made an opening. But I doubt that either Conrad or Abelard could take out the enemy mechs in a single blow, so again... slow going.



It's Conrad who has a crack at it. And progress is made - we're within touching distance of the HQ now. We just need to remove all threats to Howard's health.

Easier said than done when there's two bases right next to the HQ. Though Hawke doesn't have much money, so...



He does have enough for a battle copter, which is going to go for... you guessed it, Adelaide.



This is the last time she needs to bait one out, though.

Oh thank god. I don't know how many more bro copters I could handle. I used to like bro copters.



Actually, that's a lie. The final battle against Sturm last campaign made me hate bro copters.

Well, they are the natural counter to medium tanks, your favourite unit. Makes sense.



Don't get all fired up, though. This one is swiftly sent packing by Harlow.





The battleships do their thing, clearing more space. The tanks have almost broken through the enemy lines.

About fucking time.



So, the tanks waste no time. Conrad finishes off the first one.



Then it's Matilda eviscerating the second guy.



And this allows Abelard to remove the APC.



Mulligan, buddy, you can stop. Drake has enough money to buy Orange Star at this point.



It is a shame you can't keep funds after battle. Having a tidy 150k for the final battle would have been nice.

That's such an abusable system, though.



Well, true. Anyway, time to see how they'll handle the taking of the HQ now that they've broken through Hawke's... uh, defences. Not that they were much good.

I see more mechs, goddammit.





The battleships can get rid of one of them, at least.



The tanks, meanwhile, have a plan for those bases. Attacking the mechs doesn't really matter.



Because this island is three tiles wide at this point...



Oh, shit, it's a perfect chokepoint. ...If it wasn't for the recon, but he'll be dead soon.

He certainly will. Still, it's almost time to capture.



Um, but not that capture, though. Thank you, Mulligan.



Not bad at all, Drake! Once the recon's gone, the map's basically over, and a recon is like, the least threatening unit ever. At least infantry and mechs can capture stuff.



Predictably, it goes for the defenceless Finn. He's OK, though.

More importantly, it didn't move off the HQ, so it's still in Conrad range. Or Conrange, if you will.

I will not.



This is an absolutely absurd amount of mechs. What the fuck is wrong with Hawke today?



Who knows? But Drake's going to take advantage of it.





Yaharr! Blow 'im down, mateys!



Yes, yes, we're familiar with his Super CO Power at this point. Anyhow, with that done...



Cassandra can get rid of this copter that snuck past the land troops.

Nothing gets past her, huh?



Not at all. Abelard takes out the recon, leaving the HQ completely vacant.



So Howard gets dropped on top of it. Man, Howard's been on a real journey on this map.

He's quite the traveller.



The battleships and tanks have nothing to do but thin the numbers now, so let's enjoy lots of mechs being harassed for a bit.









That was pretty fun! Just gotta kill some time before this HQ is captured, now. And pray that Hawke doesn't get his fucking CO Power.



Yes, that would be quite annoying here. Especially since this map has taken long enough already.



Still, not much longer. You can do it, Howard!



You guys just do whatever, I guess.



Oh, they certainly will. Cassandra has once again defended this area of the island on her own. She's getting rather good at that.



Hawke really does lose his bite in the second half of this map.

The factory mission better be more difficult to compensate. This was just embarrassing for the guy.



Yes, it is a bit.



Eh. What can you do? I'd rather things be convenient than difficult, to be honest. The thought of these guys facing Sturm without me is...

Yes?

Well, let's just say that the last time they tried fighting him without me, it went really, really badly.



My apologies.

That's why I wanted to know if they won! They do, right?

...



Anyway, the battle is won.

Wait-



It seems I underestimated my opponent.

He keeps doing that.

This war’s far from over, though. The only battle I have to win is the final one.

And, well, the final battle of Green Earth is coming up soon.

GE Soldier: The enemy is retreating on all fronts.

It looks like we won. Somehow…

So I’m here for no reason, eh?

Eagle! You came to lend a hand!

This map lasted for 30 days. How the hell did Eagle only just arrive?

I heard the enemy was mainly air units.

You heard wrong. It was mechs.

I left the front under the command of the subcommander, but it looks like I worried for nothing.

The subcommander? Must be Edgar.

I got lucky.

It was more than luck.

Indeed. As usual, it was Hawke making things unnecessarily difficult for himself.

How so?

Drake, you’re a gifted tactician. You should give yourself more credit. You do realize you defeated an army comprising mainly air units, right?

It was mechs.

Yeah, almost entirely.

It’s nothing your or Jess couldn’t have done. I’m not so…

Perhaps it’s your humility that people find so appealing…

You could learn a thing or two from Drake’s humility, my dude.

I don't need to learn dick. I'm perfect.



Ooh, yeah, that was not a perfect map. But nobody died, and that's the important thing.

That's very true.



Well, we're done here. But next time we'll be seeing the Green Earth factory mission. And, my dude?



Yeah?



You won't want to miss it.

...My curiosity is piqued.

***

Part 41 Additional