Part 48: Mission 33: Hot Pursuit (or "Prepare to meteor doom!") - Part 2
Mission 33: Hot Pursuit (or "Prepare to meteor doom!") - Part 2
Day 14
Last time on
There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you value you continuing existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow there is one thing you never EVER put in a trap.
Me.The irony is that I don't even do that much this turn.
I mean, look. Damaging a minicannon and finishing off a 3HP artillery. Not the most inspiring use of Snipe Attack ever.
Oh well, time to venture into the lion's den and go for these properties. Means I can advance the indirects up a rank as well.
Those battleships are still hanging around being annoying.
But at least they're not clogging up my port.
Moving my own battleship here should stop them getting away with too much silliness.
I'll grab this base with my infantry, and send off an APC/Mech pairing to try and grab some cities while I'm at it.
Drake's seriously starting to put an artillery wall together over here.
37% damage to a structure with just 25 health...
... and down goes the right-hand cannon.
For added fun, let's take out this pipe seam.
And explore what's going on on the other side of it.
Time for Sensei to start deploying some heavy ordnance. Let's have a bomber.
It's also time to start thinking about who we want to take down these cannons: recall that the power and technique score are based off the CO who takes down the final cannon. From this table it's pretty damn obvious that Sensei's leading on the technique front, but I can't gauge the power scores. I end up deciding to let Sensei be the one to take on the other two cannons. In hindsight, this was a mistake: we'll see why when we look at the mission score.
But for now, let's focus on the matter in hand: organising Sensei's air force.
Sturm's battleship decides to bombard my infantry. Good job I'd already finished capturing that base, then.
Day 15
As expected, my capturing infantry took a bit of a drubbing from the minicannons.
Let's have a spot of revenge. While wondering why I didn't save Snipe Attack up for this turn
. Although saying that, I'm getting fed up with pussyfooting around now that the majority of Sturm's forces have been smashed...
So sod it, let's just go down Route 1 and saturate the minicannons with targets.
More rockets, please (I also joined the 1HP and 4HP infantry to make a 5HP one)
Now then, what's happening with Drake?
Well, speaking of target saturation, it's time to bully Sturm's battleships by moving all the firepower I can muster into range of them.
And then build even more firepower in the shape of a rocket launcher.
Here's Sensei.
Let's take out another of these pipe seams.
We'll start pouring troops through the holes as a couple more cities get captured in the east.
Joining a couple of Black Cannon'd B-Copters together.
There's a seam to attack up here as well.
Arty and B-Copter from the production centres.
Owch. Could probably be a lot worse though.
Day 16
So, there's a neotank hanging around near our lines.
We'll deal with it in a moment, but first let's take down a second minicannon and capture this airport.
Lousy stupid Sturm defence. Two rockets and an artillery it took to take down that neo.
May as well fire off a pot shot at the medium tank to make sure it keeps repairing.
And damage the other minicannons while we're at it.
Arties join, rocket moves, rocket built.
Sturm's battleships are still hanging around, I see.
Time to persuade them to move. Move to the bottom of the sea, that is.
That battleship salvo charges up Tsunami again...
... so let's get some use out of it.
Every free hit point of damage that you don't have to chip off of Sturm's defence is like gold dust.
So let's continue the assault on these battleships.
Rockets and artillery combine to finish the nautical behemoths off.
The infantry on that island are looking a bit worse for wear. Let's field some fresh troops.
Over to Sensei, and we have another pipe seam to break through.
There we go.
We're almost certainly going to get a Meteor Strike this turn, so let's make the most of the calm before the storm and bash Sturm's last battleship about.
B-Copters everywhere.
I guess we'll try grabbing these properties up here too.
Another arty, another B-Copter.
Here goes...
... ugh, right on Sensei's artillery/B-Copter cluster.
Day 17
It's not fatal, but it does slow me up quite a bit.
Still, gotta keep plugging away. Medium tank knocked to 3HP and a third minicannon down.
I've got quite a lot of rocket launchers hanging about now.
How're things with Drake?
I guess I'll join these two cannon-scarred artillery together and move my ships round a bit.
Time for the tanks and artillery to start making a dart for the left-hand black cannon. If nothing else we can take out this missile launcher to give Sensei a clear path.
Ferrying infantry around for property-grabbing purposes.
Here come the Valkyries.
... still coming.
Well that didn't work out. Still, at least the arty can't counterattack me.
Joining those two 2HP B-Copters together as my bomber (which also took a black cannon blow) also advances.
Can we finally finish off this battleship?
yessss
I guess it's worth a try trying to capture these properties, even with damaged units.
And we'll have another bomber.
Day 18
Okay, time to clean up town.
Rocket launcher finishes off final minicannon, another rocket launcher works with an artillery to take out
Now then, about this medium tank...
Rocket/artillery pairs take down that medium tank and the artillery next to it. Area clear.
So let's move up.
All right, this missile launcher may look harmless but it could cause Sensei trouble so it's got to go.
Three attacks to take it down. What do you make these things from, Sturm, reinforced concrete?
The rest of the artillery scrum rumbles its way upfield.
We've got the money, so let's deploy a second battleship for the hell of it.
Supplies are running a bit low here.
Well, we can help one B-Copter out this turn at least.
And what the hey, we've got a CO Power, may as well use it.
Gratuitous "lookit all dem infantry" shot.
More to the point, a bit of extra copter firepower might just come in handy.
Die, medium tank, die.
Oh all right then, don't.
City capture or bust!
Combining all these fresh infantry gives me just enough money to field another bomber.
Day 19
We've done most of the hard yards now, but there's still a fair bit of messing around to be done before we can get this finished off.
Tear down the wall. Poke a hole in it, at least.
All dressed up and nowhere to go.
Let's move on to Drake.
May as well take out every pipe seam we can at this point.
And keep on moving up. I don't really know why I put the 5HP battleship in artillery range, though.
But at least we're making progress grabbing these properties.
Sensei's really the only one doing anything interesting right now.
And even then it's not earth-shattering: finishing off that medium tank, continuing to whittle down the central Black Cannon.
Let's join the 9HP and 4HP copters for a little extra cash.
Which in turn gives us another bomber. What I'm going to do with them all, I'm not sure, but still.
I'll just slot this artillery into the hole in Grit's arty line.
Yeah, like I said, not really sure why I left that battleship in arty range.
Day 20
See, the key thing here is to clear a path through to the final cannon for Sensei. We've broken a couple of seams, but they still represent a detour. Break the top seam though and we're in gravy (why we want to be in gravy, I'm not sure, but...)
So let's move an arty up into range, as well as other stuff.
Let's also build a bomber for kicks.
Similarly, we need Drake's artilleries to help take down this seam and soften the Black Cannon up for Sensei.
So we'll move some of his stuff up too.
Sensei's still looking like by far the best option technique-wise. I don't feel like building another 25 units for Drake or 52 units for Grit.
Still, I'll spam a few infantry just in case.
Getting ready to rumble.
While all this is going on, Sensei's getting ready to take out the middle cannon.
Ready... aim...
... FIRE.
All these other units pile on towards the final cannon.
Day 21
Grit clears the way.
Drake does some cannon softening.
Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to take the cannon down this turn. Dammit.
Day 22
Do doot doo.
Okay, let's get this over with.
PCHOOOOO
Aftermath
Did you leak intel on the missile platform to the enemy as I ordered?
Yes, sir. We let one soldier be captured. He will tell all in his interrogation. Good. It's time to end this game. Order all units to the platform. Yes, sir! They will follow the trail all the way to the missile platform. My best troops will greet them there with a storm of death. Then, before their very eyes, I will launch our missiles.
Yes. They're planning to launch missiles at Cosmo Land and other continents.
Is this intel reliable? We heard it from a captured soldier. Intel we gathered on our own confirms his story.
What are we waiting for? We have to attack that missile platform!
It's not that simple, Andy.
It's not? Why? 'Cause it might be a trap.
You've confirmed the intel, correct?
Would a soldier who's fought so long break so easily? I wonder...
I think it's best to assume that it's a snare.
Well, even so, we can't sit on port forever. We need to end this quickly while troop morale is high.
Hmmm...
If the enemy's at the missile platform, then let's blast it to bits!
Andy, your mouth's gettin' ahead of your brain again... No. I think the boy's got the right idea.
Huh?
I concur. We must attack sometime. If they're waiting for us at the platform, it saves us the time and the annoyance of looking for them. I get what you're sayin'. If you're looking for crawdads, you gotta turn over some rocks. That's a pretty sound principle. I hear no objections. Then let us begin our advance on the missile platform.
Waaaahooooo! Let's get 'em!
Figures, all that panicking about technique and I get stuffed on power. In hindsight I would have been better off using Drake or Grit to smash the final cannon up. It's a lot easier to repair a technique score by spamming infantry than it is to boost a power score - and falling behind on power seems to hurt your score more than falling behind on technique. Mind you, Grit had taken a real pounding technique-wise, and I don't really know if Drake would have fared better on power score anyway.
But that's all in the past now. Our destiny lies ahead... at the missile platform.