Part 19: Bullets + multiple targets = Science

Well, after that little jaunt through our final tutorial more than halfway through the game, Will finally became a man and stood up to Greyfield. What will happen today?


Remember what this means? I don't blame you if not.




: Do you know the village?

: It's a small trading post. The community has always been friendly toward us. We should be able to resupply there.

: I don't get it. There's no one here.

: ...I don't like this. Something's wrong.

: Do you think they were attacked? Maybe Greyfield beat us here.

: Blast it all! Well, whatever happened, we need to look for survivors. Let's split up and search the village.

: I can help too.

Some time later...



: All we found are bodies and traces of small-arms fire. It looks like these people tore themselves apart.

: Why would they do that?

: Who knows why these kinds of civil wars start?

I mean, could you imagine if their Mayor was as much an ass as ours? That would be bad enough.

: This is terrible...

: They're all dead. I'm sorry, Will.

Meanwhile...


: I'm growing weary of all this muck and dust. And my shoes are in a terrible state!

: My dear, be patient. There is a wealth of information for us to discover here. By the way, it seems that we have visitors. They are standing in the central square. Tabitha, would you like to test out that new toy of yours?

: Oh, Father! Can I really?

: May I, Tabitha! May I! Good grammar is important for a little girl. And yes, you may. Nothing is too good for my little Tabitha. But remember, this is serious work! I must watch and record the results. I am fascinated to see how they will react to this little weapon of mine.



What can I say? Science is just so... FASCINATING.




: Tasha! What's wrong?


: I hate it when people do that! I'm going to take command and make 'em pay! Oh, and Will?

: Yes?

: I was... I mean... Look, this ain't easy for me, but... I... I said a lot of bad things about Captain Brenner, and I was wrong. You were right. He was a good man. ...Sorry.

: You don't have to apologize, Tasha. I'm just happy that you know.

: The captain gave his life for us, so now I'll fight with you. You may be Rubinelle, but we're all on the same side now. I will find the people who killed your captain, and I will have revenge!

: All right, you devils! I'm gonna come in there and blast every last...


: It looks like a weapon.

: I've never seen anything like it before.


Them again?

: Isabella?

: Development began six years ago at the request of the Lazurian government. However, the cost of the project quickly spiraled out of control. Work has halted after only a few prototypes were constructed. That is one such prototype.

: How the heck do you know that?

: I...I don't know.

: It is odd that you know about both Rubinelle and Lazurian weaponry. Very odd.

: I-I'm sorry, Lin. I'm sorry. I don't know why I know all these things...


Right. So, our army starts in the East, making sense according to the map. The Talon Gun is in the middle.


To the West, Tabitha's army. Looking kinda lackluster there, all things considered.

Tasha takes wing once more, and while I like her theme, it's second best in my opinion this mission. You'll hear shortly.


As Tasha pointed out in the intro, she's taking control. Her zone is small, but her boost is insane if she's tossed into a bomber or fighter. We will see that soon enough. She's the first CO highlighted that only affects certain units with the boost. All her units will still get the +10% bonus to attack and defence, but only her air units get that 4 star attack and 2 star defence gain on top.


First thing, the south infantry scales a mountain, and is in position to grab that south factory. The other south infantry piles into the Rig for transport south.


Everything else moves up.


Up north, the mech moves across the mountains, and the infantry jumps into the T Copter.


He goes for the factory up top. I'd rather grab this first in case Tabitha gets the idea to run over with an AA or something.

Tabitha comes to play this mission. I like her theme. Eclectic, all over the place. Works quite nicely. Name of the song is Cruel Rose. Fitting, for her.


: But Father must be obeyed! I will swat them like the puny flies they are.
Tabitha, we outnumber you. Not for nothing, but that is a pretty big deal in war.

At the start of Day 2, our comrades reveal more about the Talon Gun.



: Great! If it bleeds, we can hurt it! I mean...if it bleeds oil. Or something. Never mind! Can we check its attack range?

: We learned how to check attack ranges in the military academy. Um...hold on. Lemme get my textbook here... Darn, where is it?


: Of course, I'm not suggesting that our commander has forgotten this...

: No, of course not! No, I was just... seeing what the textbook said...

Sadly, Lin is not breaking fourth wall and telling you to check page ten of the physical manual. Not that I... checked or anything. Nope. There is another talk at the start of Day 3, but it's basically "HEY! Attack the south center spot, dumbass!" It's the only spot marked with a health bar, so...


Checking the range, we see it can hit 5 tiles out from it's center, the same range as a rocket. Interestingly, if you wanted to kill it with rockets, you can, since the range starts from the center.


I just like the image for the Talon Gun. nothing else here.


Tasha's magical ride is built, to be ready for her next turn.


Troops move around in the south to establish the choke point, and capturing begins.


Tabitha's tank looks a little frightened there, only moving one tile. Captures finish.


It's so small! The zone, that is. Not the firepower.


More choke crap. Such excitement these first few turns.


Tasha promises to make it more fun next turn, honest.


Start of Day 4. Tabitha is going all out with building units that will ultimately mean nothing.


Northern capture is happening too.


Speaking of ultimately worthless, I make a war tank.


Yeah, that's some damage, all right.


And the AA is out of range. Love it. Sadly, not out of range of the Talon Gun right beside me.


Ow. The Talon Gun deals 5 points of damage to all units in it's range. All units. It doesn't care how many you have, it's a giant whirling bullet spraying thing of death and mayhem.

I love this thing.


Tasha gives no fucks about a half damaged bomber. Nothing is in range to stop this.


Yyyep.


Replacement bomber, STAT! Still capturing. Also an AA, because I know something will be coming soon. Namely the B Copter.


HA! Caught the Talon Gun when it's attacking! It lifts up, marks targets with a cursor, spins and sprays out bullets, then retracts.


Can't kill a unit though, much like cannons in the other games. It will quite thoroughly leave them at 1% health, though. If an infantry could attack a bomber, it'd win. And then feel like a total champ in taking down a bomber with a machine gun.


Tasha retreats and joins up with another bomber. I have no idea how this would work. The sprite in battle is just one bomber, and damage to it reduces the number of bombs dropped. I guess she just jumps over to the other bomber mid flight? Seems legit.


Totally not overreacting to a single flying machine.


More backup. More chokepoint holding.


Day 7, and Tabitha joins the fray.


To this day, I have not seen her power unless I'm the one using it when I'm dicking around in free play. Her power is essentially Sturm's from the first two Advance Wars, hitting all units in a 3 tile radius for 8 damage. It targets the highest cash total it can automatically. Damaging, but hard to get, since her zone is 0, so only her unit is affected at first. The boosts would be terrifying, but she's in a duster. Concern averted.


Missiles drop back and cover just about everything in sight. AA takes out the B Copter.


No hiding in the Missile shadow for Tabby. My mech also used the mountains to damage down the infantry attacking our unit capturing the city.


Duster jokes aside, it IS still a threat to a bomber when it's a recruit. With Tabitha in the cockpit, I'm sure it'd one shot a bomber. Fighter support is needed here, just in case.


Tabitha decides not to risk attacking the north. Her 1 HP infantry suicided on my 6 HP infantry.


Mech dies.


More profits for us.


REALLY not overcompensating for a Tabitha duster. Not in the slightest.


Bombers drop back behind other units. 6 foot tall infantry are great cover for a bomber plane.


Tabitha hides in the missile shadow to the north.


HER FUCKING DEFENCE BOOST, WHAT THE SHIT.


More anti-air defence!


T Copter and bomber play bait. Everything else takes position.


The bomber takes the hit from Tabitha, T Copter takes a hit from the missiles. I can live with this.


Pew pew, bitch.


And many high fives were had for taking her down.


I now enact Operation Blitzkrieg. Tasha gets in a spot where she can fly into where she can reach where the missiles currently sit.


Tanks roll up and destroy the Md tank in the way.


Damaged bomber kills the missiles.


One of the fighters floats in and blocks anything from covering the Talon Gun's weak point.


Everything else moves up. Should be fun next turn.


Half the damage comes from the Talon Gun.


Doing what little damage a I can now.


Fighter flies out of the way.


See, here's the thing with Tasha's offensive boost, right?


We saw it was a 4 star boost. So we know it's strong. And bombers are already really powerful. Well...


A Tasha'd bomber just WRECKS things. Mission over.


Davis? Is that you?

: Drat! They looked so pitifully weak, and yet they broke my toy! Hmph! I clearly was going too easy on them. I'll teach them to be so mean!


: That's enough, Tabitha. Today's experiment is complete. We must retreat so I can analyze these new numbers.

: But, Faaaaaather! I wanted to crush them like flies!



: Fight for Captain Brenner!
Tasha really takes to fighting for us now. Guess blowing up a prototype does that to a person.




: Where's Dr. Morris?

: He's in one of those buildings, looking for survivors.

: He really is a good person. Though you wouldn't think so from his jokes...

: Agreed.

: Everyone! Listen up!

: Dr. Morris? What's wrong?


Uh oh.

: Why?

: Come on! Come on! There isn't time for this! Don't just stand around!

: Doctor, please! What's going on?

: This better not be one of your jokes.

: Look at this picture...




That looks worse than before...

: It's the Creeper. But it looks different...

: Viruses are capable of mutation, so that's what I thought this was. But this is a dramatic change. It's too perfect.

: Explain.


: If it kills its host quickly, it has no chance to be passed on. I don't think this is a natural mutation.


: Then what is it?

: I think it's a biological weapon.



: I haven't even told you the worst part.

: There's a worst part?


If you remember, the Creeper used to only be children-directed. Not anymore.

: ...That's bad.

: So the new disease is no longer restricted to children.

: This is a very serious problem. I'll start working on a cure right now. But first we should see if anyone else has been infected.

Well crap. Who could be deranged enough to make this kind of biological weapon? I have NO IDEA who it could be.

Next time!

Anarchy.