Part 41: Campaign Mission 17M: Wings of Victory! as Max

Mission 17M: Wings of Victory! as Max (or "MASTER OF THE SKIES")


hey man how's it going?

what?

oh this?
don't worry i can turn it off
gonna go fight max now
what's his problem?



Max has been sitting there saying he's ready to go for the past six missions. Let's give him his chance to shine.



And oh boy is he gonna shine.

Day 1


It's just like him to deploy such a well-balanced battalion.

I can only assume this is deadpan sarcasm. In this mission Eagle's about as well-balanced as me on a bicycle. About the only thing you can say is that at least he has some infantry, which puts him above Olaf.

But the key here is a strong frontal assault, and at that, I'm the king!

That you are, Max. That you are.

You know, I gotta find out what his beef with Andy's all about. Yeah, I owe it to the kid to get this guy off his back. OK, Paul, let's do this!



LAAADIIIIEEEZZZZ ANNNND GEEEENTLEMMMMEEEENNNN, welcome to this knockout bout to determine WHO! WILL! BE! crowned MASTER OF THE SKIES! Innnnnn the green corner is current title holder "Lucky Goggles" Eagle, with his high attack, high defence and low fuel consumptionnnn! Innnnnn the orange corner is the challenger, "Fine Particulate" Max, one of the finest close up brawlers this generation has produced! SECONNNNDDDZZZZ OWT for ROUND ONE!

*ahem* So yeah. Pretty straightforward mission, and it was a lot of fun to play - a nice antidote to that mess I got into with Sami. Eagle may have quantity on his side, but once his fighters and AA are down the rest is easy pickings. Note that his HQ is on an island and we don't have a T copter - HQ capture's impossible here. That's okay, didn't want to do that anyway. No point in posting an annotated map for this one, since it would basically be the words MAX SMASH written as large as possible.



Master of the Skies? Well, I know who my money's on.



Fighters swoop in and trap Eagle in a pincer movement. Or, er, something.



Ahahaha these numbers.



These hilarious, hilarious numbers.



You might be wondering why I had my second fighter target Eagle's 3HP fighter instead of smashing his full-health bomber. Well, other than taking out fighters first being generally a good idea in terms of establishing the ol' air superiority, I get the feeling that if I'd attacked Eagle's fighter and bomber and medium tank, we might just have seen a Day 1 Lightning Strike. While that would certainly be something, it's probably not strategically advisible.



As it is, he's still a bit short of a full bar (also: LIES).



Finishing up by just making sure all my stuff's out of range of that bomber and B copter.


orange star!!!
yes???

(with apologies to Allan Assiduity )

Day 2



Eagle's AA and remaining fighter head down to greet us.



Hello Mr. AA.



Hello Mr. Remaining Fighter. Well, except you aren't remaining any more.



And with that, we've cleared up everything that's a threat to our planes. Round 1 to Max.



What's going on on the home front? Well, there's a bomber parked nicely inside the range of Max's missiles.



May as well use them for something. Although Max's indirect penalty plus Eagle's air defence means we can only knock the bomber down to 2HP.



Still, the AA's around for cleanup (it could probably have just taken the bomber out in one hit, but I didn't want to hurt the missile launcher's feelings).



I can take out this B copter with my other AA anyway.



All right, now we need to start thinking about Lightning Strike. That B copter's going to be hitting our lines shortly.



Having indirects shield a B copter from attack isn't normal procedure, but this is Max we're dealing with.



In the north, my medium tank's been elected to take the brunt of Eagle's bomber. It should be able to survive a hit, which is more than can be said for most of my units. We're in the handy position that Eagle isn't actually going to be able to get any attacks in on the first of his turns - and on the second turn, he'll be weakened.



Eagle spends his first turn moving all his stuff up, and then...



Couple of hits taken, but the important thing is that we haven't lost any units. And at least both units got a chance to shoot something first.

Day 3



CO power charged, but with Eagle's post-LS defensive frailties we almost certainly aren't going to need it.



I mean, I'm already doing 131% damage with an AA to a bomber.



And 210% damage with an AA to a B copter. Maybe I should have used Max Force, if only to see just how ridiculous a number I could produce.



113% seems positively tame after that, but hey, it's still a B copter one-shotting a B copter.



Arrow-O-Vision version. There's still one more B copter to deal with over here, though. But we'll come to that in a minute.



Instead let's head east, where Eagle still has a couple of bombers on the prowl.



My fighters take both of them down in a pair of remarkably similar screenshots.



They're fast running out of viable targets, actually - only one more air unit left.



My bomber's got no such problems, though.



Middie and missiles head for repairs, and I send my APC out in the traditional AI-bating gambit.



Which Eagle happily takes (, etc., etc. Hey, at least the APC only lost 5HP, 2 of which it'll be getting back next turn.

Day 4



So there's a B copter, and an infantry heading over the southern bridge in some sort of desperate HQ capture bid.



One AA with its Vulcan cannons pointing down, one with its Vulcan cannons pointing up. Similar results.



Hmm... that infantry unit is just out of reach of my B copter.



May as well use Max Force, then.



There we go.



And my bomber can take out this tank up here with extreme prejudice.



Still one infantry unit left, though. My fighters move up to restrict its movements. Not that I really need to, but y'know.

Day 5



In the end, Eagle doesn't even bother to move. So let's just finish this off.


You demand an answer. Very well. Here's your answer, Max. Your compatriot, Andy, viciously attacked my homeland.
Huh?
The look on his face during the assault... I'll never forget! Never!

Already done this joke twice.

Hey! Hold up a minute, Eagle. There's no way Andy would do something like that. C'mon! He couldn't have planned all that out. He's just a kid!
Um... Excuse me?

Hey, it's more diplomatic than what Sami said, Andy. Y'know, in that other timeline you aren't aware of.

What I mean is, he does things for a reason. And there's no reason for him to attack Green Earth. He didn't do it!
Hmm... Very well. I'll take you at your word... for the moment. But don't believe for a moment that I trust any of you.

But... you just said that you'd believe us for at least "the moment". Oh, whatever.

Andy, if I find that you're lying to me, you'll curse the day you were born!

Yeah, yeah.



Aaannndddthewinneriz... MMMAAAXXX!



So, all three of our COs have now made it to the final Green Earth mission. There's some rather different fights ahead: Andy's chasing down a lander, Sami's protecting an infantry unit and Max is involved in another straight-up brawl. Either way, all three of them are up against Drake, and...



... was half-expecting him to say "botes" there. Anyway, yeah: Andy, Max, Sami, first preference, second preference.