Part 32: Mission 24: The Hunt's End (or "Kanbei Battleship Fleet... ?") - Part 2
Mission 24: The Hunt's End (or "Kanbei Battleship Fleet... ?") - Part 2
Day 15
Oh look, Adder's neotank is in rocket range.
Not going to pass up an opportunity like that...
The 3 and 4HP infantry retreat and join, and I cycle in fresh troops.
Damaged AA retreats, tank takes its place to knock Adder's arty down to 1HP. My own arties move up (two join together), and so does the battleship.
Other general movements, but there is one move I'm quite proud of here: loading an infantry into an APC and then unloading the APC without actually moving it from its square. This lets the infantry move one more square that it could otherwise.
Right then, fighter time.
Both fighters move into the other's attack range. The theory is that if I have two fighters, then it doesn't matter if one gets hit by the first strike because the other can clean up. Meanwhile I move bombers around (incidentally, the B-Copter killed the battleship offscreen) and build an APC and infantry to refuel my air units - they're starting to get a little bit tired. Now I should be all right here unless...
... not again...
This is getting beyond a joke, it really is.
Day 16
Oh well, when life gives you CO Powers, make... err...
... Super CO Powers!
Kanbei's fledgeling navy starts things off by getting rid of the neotank and the B-Copter.
A pair of artillery take down the medium tank, and the rocket launcher deals with an anti-air.
And we'll follow that with various moving and joining antics by the rest of my units. We shouldn't have to worry too much about Adder's attacks next turn after a Samurai Spirit.
Let's take a look at the scoreboard. We're doing fine for technique (remember it only counts Kanbei's units, so Colin's heavy losses don't count), but Adder's built 63 units already, which I think means we'd need to take out seven units in a turn for 100 power. I haven't done that yet in this mission and I don't think I'm likely to. And the worst part is, Adder's only going to build more and more units
.
Oh well, the most important thing is getting through this battle in one piece. Adder may have taken down one of Colin's bombers last turn, but we can quickly hit back.
Woo, all three COs using a power at once.
With the extra cash of Gold Rush, I can produce a fresh bomber to replace the recently downed one.
And my two fighters can get to work dealing with Adder's one.
Having finished off that battleship, my B-Copter returns to attack one of Adder's that had somehow made its way over here. Meanwhile I load up the APC and head north with it.
The objective being to refuel this poor 4HP bomber next turn. The other bomber has no such problems, so it goes off to attack Adder's tank on this island.
Well, you sure showed me, Adder.
Day 17
Hmm, Adder's dropped a mech behind my lines.
But it's easily dealt with.
As AAs focus on clearing out that mech and its transport, my rocket takes on one of Adder's AAs.
An artillery attacks the other one, and then two infantry units perform a sterling job by finishing both AAs off. Well done to them.
Now that the base is firmly under my control, let's have a medium tank. Sitting in a chokepoint with the defence bonus of the base for added measure, and with three arties and a rocket formed up behind it, it really is in an ideal position.
With the ground war under control, I can start moving my ships towards their next task: destroying the four island minicannons. Doing this first will make assaulting the pipe seam a good deal easier.
Back with Colin, we have some cleanup work to do.
Fighter downs fighter, B-Copter downs B-Copter. And my 4HP bomber gets refuelled.
As my bomber attacks a slightly random rocket launcher, I guess I'd better check the attack range of Adder's newly-built AA. Better not get too close, especially if Adder Sideslips again.
But I'm not even going to give that AA a chance. Once bitten, twice bitten, third time shy, fourth time bitten, fifth time shy.
And with good reason, too.
Day 18
In case you're interested, this battleship and submarine have been sitting here a few turns now. So Adder did finally get around to blocking up his own factory...
Now then, what have we here... there's an AA, and it's attacked one of my infantry units.
Arty and tank take it down while the infantry joins up with a friend.
Rocket moves up along the bottom, APC resupplies it. And that's about it, really. Kanbei's in kind of the best position to hold Adder off here, and any serious advance up to, say, those bridges can be detrimental.
But before we end this turn, let's just take out this cruiser. That's carrying a T-Copter. That's carrying an infantry, from the look of it. Whee, Russian dolls.
Now, can I take on this AA without going into missile range? Looks like it.
So let's do that. The bomber takes some counterattack damage, of course, but it's better than the alternative.
Another bomber starts working on Minicannon Island, while the 4HP bomber, attempting to try and finish off Adder's rockets, runs into a submarine. Looks like it's one we'd attacked earlier that'd been healing up in port. It's just reached full health, too.
Better box it in, then. Fighter and bomber stopping a dived sub from leaving port... good ol' Advance Wars. With the sub trapped I'm free to build a lander, so I can move this APC to a more convenient location. And I'll finish off that tank with a B-Copter too, why not.
Adder's damaged AA takes a pot-shot at some infantry, but does no serious damage.
Day 19
Nothing much to report on this front. I think Adder's sort of given up on trying to break through here now.
I'm 400G short for another battleship, though
.
Taking down an infantry because, well, why not. Also making a "finger slip" error by telling that tank to wait on the spot. I can't remember if I was supposed to be ordering it to attack that infantry or retreat, but I guess either would have been preferable to just standing there.
And moving this battleship so it can attack the minicannons next turn.
Now then, as for Colin...
The full health bomber finishes off the first of the island minicannons, and a B-Copter finishes off that AA (putting it into missile truck range. Another silly error...)
The 7HP bomber joins in the fun and attacks the next minicannon.
As the B-Copter finishes off the rocket launcher, I load up the lander and drop off the APC in the north west.
Adder makes me pay for my two silly errors...
Day 20
Saying that though, leaving the tank there has attracted the neo into artillery range...
So let's take advantage of that. A good shot from an arty knocks off an impressive 6HP from the neotank, leaving it down at 4HP - the wounded tank retreats, with an infantry unit covering its escape. The other two arties take down another infantry unit.
Battleship assaults minicannons. And I forgot to take a screenshot of it, but I've built Kanbei's second battleship
Colin's turn, and look what's charged up again...
Money buys cruisers!!!
Specifically, a cruiser to take down this sub so I can free up my air units for more destructive tasks...
Second minicannon falls, recon gets bombed.
Having gone to the trouble of taking that APC up to the north-west island, I decide that the central island would be a better place for this mobile supply depot. So I load it up again and move it again. Lovely. (Also, B-Copter attacks minicannon)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.
Day 21
Hmm, Adder's factory produced a fighter. Hmm, instead of sending it towards Colin's air units, he's sent it down towards Kanbei, who has no air units. Hmm, come to think of it, he's been sending all of his AAs and missiles down here, too. Hmm.
Oh well, while the AI's busy being the AI, I'd better keep chipping away at these minicannons.
That and knocking out any unit that comes into range.
Two lovely battleships.
Shuffling some units around.
Right then, Colin's go.
First let's get this APC set up on the island.
While continuing to clear it of malcontents. Due to a combination of Colin's low firepower and the port's defence bonus, I could only do four damage with my cruiser. And two of those HP will be healed next turn. So the cruiser and sub will both have had a net loss of 2HP. Ah.
Oh well, gotta keep trucking. Clearing out the minicannon's'll help.
And we aren't going to let Kanbei be the only guy with battleships around here...
Day 22
That fighter's still hanging around Kanbei's forces.
I believe in gifts.
Between my cruiser attacking the fighter and my rocket attacking a tank, I've charged up Kanbei's CO Power again
I've got nothing better to do with Kanbei's land forces, so let's use it.
Arty one-shots an anti-air, and the medium tank finally moves off its base to one-shot an artillery.
The 4HP AA did 7HP damage to the B-Copter. Talk about punching above your weight.
Sadly, that's about all the excitement this CO Power use had to offer. Well, at least in terms of attacks.
Three battleships. Ladies and gentlemen, the Kanbei Battleship Fleet.
"Hey, Colin, race you to the pipe seam!"
"You're on! Just let me deal with this submarine..."
"... ARGH WHY WON'T YOU JUST SOD OFF AND DIE"
Ahem. Bomber and B-Copter go on a bit of a kamikaze assault on this AA. It's right in the path of the minicannon, but we'll need to take this AA down.
The other bombers line up, ready to cause something of a ruckus.
Hey look, another Sideslip...
... wait, what?
What?
Day 23
I guess this surprise submarine must've been hiding and healing in the port north of here, and now it's going gunning for battleships. The good news is, they're Kanbei's. And Kanbei is a
I think I'm losing the will to keep annotating Kanbei's ground war now.
Yay, infantry spamming. Not even sure why, Kanbei's technique score is looking pretty rosy. It's just force of habit I guess.
Anyway, let's see what Colin's up to.
The full health bomber goes off and attacks an infantry, slotting nicely into the missile truck's range shadow. The 4HP bomber goes and finishes off that mech once and for all: no more shall my APC be threatened!
My cruiser's finally starting to get the upper hand over this sub. Jeez, imagine if it had been Kanbei's sub in that port...
With nothing better to do, the 1HP bomber and 4HP B-Copter go off on what may well be suicide missions, leaving themselves in the line of missile fire. At least there's two of them, so only one can get hit.
With Gold Rush charged again, I go "well, why not"
One can never have too many bombers.
This fighter moves in to make sure that sub stays spotted when the cruiser comes to take it down.
A mysterious glimpse into the debris that comes from a missile explosion...
Day 24
Adder's trying to sneak mechs behind my lines again.
DENIED.
Took down a mech with arty and AA fire.
More general moving of units.
Attack my battleships, eh? That'll teach you!
With the waters vaguely sub-free again, I can focus this battleship on attacking this minicannon, knocking it down to 20HP. Although hang on - there's a newly-built cruiser in that port. This doesn't look too good for our bomber friends...
... although saying that, Colin can take care of it.
Full-health bomber attacks arty. I guess I could have destroyed the minicannon here,but that would have put the bomber into missile range... and I don't want to do that until I know that I've won (i.e. that Kanbei can clean up what's left).
Woo, that port submarine is finally dead.
So I block it with a fighter, as well as doing other general moving.
Day 25
Nothing much happened on Adder's turn, although Colin lost his 1HP bomber.
Minicannon down - the route to the pipe seam is clear.
That sub isn't getting away from us this time...
And so, justice is served.
With that submarine out of the way, I send in a cruiser to occupy the port and stop Adder from building/repairing more stuff there. Meanwhile, a battleship moves into position to bring down the pipe seam next turn.
Back on land, it's business as usual.
One final curly barrage of indirect fire...
... followed by another spot of shuffling.
Seen as Adder keeps trying to get T-Copters past my radar, I decide to stick one of my infantry spam units onto my HQ. Even when there aren't any T-Copters even on the same screen as it. You can never be too careful.
So yeah, the battleship's poised to strike the seam, but we need to soften it up a bit first.
Unfortunately it requires the sacrifice of this bomber. I know I was saving it up earlier, but with the victory line in sight I can afford to use it and lose it.
As the seam creaks, I do some housework here and there, blowing up cruisers, refuelling fighters, and so on.
Too late, Adder.
Even if you do get to take down a bomber. Sorry guys
.Day 26
Is it worth killing more guys here before breaking the seam...? No. Let them go home to their alien thingy families, or whatever.
89 units. 89 units. On a map where killing 9 units in a turn isn't really feasible. Oh well.
Ultimately, the important thing is that we've done it. Yellow Comet is free.
Aftermath
It's the blasted weather! That was the problem! Hssss!"Accursed clear skies! How am I supposed to get anything done with all this sun in my eyes?" Saying that, this line would have been amusingly appropriate if we'd picked Olaf
Yes! Father! Sensei! We won! We won!
That we did. And an impressive win it was.
Today's battle will long be remembered. Through our combined efforts, our common foe was defeated. I offer my gratitude. Thank you for your aid.
Don't be foolish! You would've done the same for us. Actually, Black Hole was foolish enough to attack us as well. Of course, we defeated them soundly. With... some help from Orange Star. Well, well... Here come Nell and her troops now.
It seems that you have crossed swords with the Black Hole Army, too.
Yes, we have. The strength of the Black Hole Army is immeasurable. Especially the CO named Hawke. We've heard reports that he has Green Earth on the verge of defeat. Impossible! There's no time to spare. We must get to Green Earth on the double! Yellow Comet is with you! Our strength is yours! If we all stand together, there is nothing we need to fear!
Sadly, with Adder getting nearly 90 units onto the field, we were always going to struggle for power here. I also went a little over on speed, and there's also an argument that if I'd finished faster Adder would have made fewer units and I would have had a better power score. Still, it's a better score than Liberation
. My average score took a little bit of a knock, but it's still a healthy 289½.Anyway, Yellow Comet's been liberated, which means that now we move on to a new continent: Green Earth! Introduction to follow...