Part 40: Campaign Mission 17S: Wings of Victory! as Sami

Mission 17S: Wings of Victory! as Sami (or "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results")


his CO Power. Targeting fighters and battle copters first is optimum.

Yes, Nell, I figured that much out. Although wait, I don't think Eagle even has any battle copters.

Better luck next time.





So yeah. Once more I had a bit of a struggle beating a Sami mission. I got there in the end though, which is why I don't just have copious amounts of blank space below this line:


if y'ask me paul i'd say you're doing the same thing wrong as last time
take it nice and easy don't rush just let flyboy here come to you
hey now come on it's one thing to give him advice on your missions but why are you helping him beat me?
well hey i could be wrong after all i don't know that much about planes
they go whoosh i guess?
unbelievable
sez the guy who can't even spell boat
if it comes to that i don't think anyone else can either
there's a reason why you're the naval specialist
look are you just gonna go fight sami or what
aw man do i have to?
geez and you tell me off for stalling



Okay, Sami. Let's go advance your plotline with Eagle. Or, er, something.



Have I linked this version of Sami's theme yet? Ugh, keeping track of this stuff is hard. Anyway:


Why do you keep harrying us?

Well Sonja and Drake have already been dicking us and and while tomming appears to have a variety of definitions I'm not sure any of them are viable military strategies

It's you again... Sami.
Well, excuse me for getting in your way! Listen, will you just explain to me why you won't leave us be?
It... It has nothing to do with you.

Is it me, or do I detect... hesitation?

Bring out Andy! I want to settle this now!
No! Absolutely not! I'm in command now. You can't ask for Andy unless you get by me first!
Don't do this, Sami... I won't hold anything back.



Eagle isn't kidding. This is effectively "Wings of Victory: Hard Campaign". Just look at this mess. Well okay, you can't, because of the first major change from Andy's version: fog of war. We've also got Sami instead of Andy, which means weak fighters that are going to make tussling for air superiority a real hassle. It also means no Hyper Repair to keep everything in good condition. We're gunning for a similar knock-out-the-fighters, stalk-the-bombers, HQ-capture strategy to last time, but that's made harder by the third difference between the missions...



... Eagle's extra units. He's got four: a missile launcher and an extra defensive bomber guarding the HQ, and an extra AA and artillery upfield waiting to mess with my troops. The extra AA makes it tougher to gain air superiority; the extra bomber makes it all the more vital.



Similar start to the Andy version, capturing cities and loading the T copter. I also move my recon up a bit because hey, vision.



And again, our anti-aircraft measures head north.



Aaaand other stuff.



Well you know, we could just sit down and discuss this rationally, but I guess they just don't do things like that on Wars World.

To the skies!

I just have this image in my head of him pointing in the air dramatically when he says that.

Day 2



All right, fighter spotted. Now, what do we do about it? Recall that in Andy's version of this mission we attacked it with our AA - which promptly perished to a bomber. And the same thing happened on my previous go at this mission. See, thing is, Eagle has two fighters and a bomber headed towards me, but he's got another bomber stationed fairly close by in "defensive" mode - which is the bomber that ended up attacking my AA in the Andy run. I'd rather not wake it up just yet.



I could just leave the fighter alone, but that's just handing Eagle the initiative. So I send in my own fighters to knock it down to 1HP.



'Course, these fighters are now vulnerable to Eagle's other fighter, so whatever I do here I'm kind of screwed. But at least this way I can deal with the bombers one at a time.



Speaking of dealing with bombers, time to use to draw one into missile range.



Everything else fits into a diamond around the missile launcher's range shadow, and shielding the T copter. Not letting Eagle sneak in there this time.



All right, ready to roll.



Lost the 7HP fighter. Eagle hits hard.



And lost the APC too, although I was expecting that.

Day 3



So... yeah. Don't expect a good Technique score this mission.



You can expect a couple of Double Times, though.



My infantry uses its superior movement to go do some scouting in the mountains, and I line up a missile salvo on that bomber.



All right then, one fewer aerial death machine to worry about. I send another infantry unit out scouting: he spots a light tank. And he's probably going to end up in a whole heap of trouble.



Fighter finishes off Eagle's 1HP fighter, AA reduces the full health one to 4HP.



If you're wondering why I've left Eagle with a 4HP fighter when I could have left him with a 1HP fighter, well... I wanted to attack from the forest with the AA. But my fighter was blocking the forest, so it had to move and attack before the AA did. If I'd attacked the full health fighter then yes the AA could have finished the job, but my fighter would also have suffered counterattack damage. And that fighter's going to need all the hit points it can get for later. So best to do what I did here. Probably.



Anyway, let's smash this tank up a bit.



Once again, the goal is to protect the T copter come what may. I've also left my B copter exposed in the hope that Eagle will target it rather than my fighter or bomber.



Rather like this. I really do not know what Sami has to smile about here.



We woke up the sleeping bomber, and it launches a raid on my mountain infantry. The 3HP light tank follows up.



And then Eagle repeats himself.



Fighter continues to mess with my B copter.



The bomber moves on to my rocket launcher. Eep. But there's a world of difference between rockets on 1HP and rockets on 0HP.



And an AA moves in to finish off that mountain infantry.

Day 4



As painful as that was, I don't think it went too badly. We only lost one unit, and all of our mission-critical stuff got through intact.



Time to launch the counteroffensive.



Missiles take down the 4HP fighter, and my light tank engages Eagle's one in the north.



And then my AA takes on the bomber. Why aren't I sending in the fighter, you ask?



Well, it's time for the fighter - and the T copter - to start heading towards Eagle's HQ. I make sure they're protected from Eagle's AAs by hiding the T copter between two mountains and the lake, while the fighter just stays over the lake itself.



Medium tank and bomber apply some overkill to Eagle's crippled tanks.



But what am I going to do about this 1HP rocket launcher? If I send it for healing, it'll just get smashed by Eagle's bomber next turn.



So into the forest it goes instead. All right. Can't help feeling I've forgotten something, though...



... yeah, I left my infantry in range of Eagle's artillery. Whoops.



At least his bomber can't do much about my missiles.

Day 5



All right, let's finish off this bomber.



Afterwards my rockets head to a city to heal. They'll be as good as new in no time at all! (okay, okay, five turns).



Now then, let's take on this AA that's so kindly parked itself next to our tanks.



Light tank finishes what the medium tank starts, infantry gets out of arty range, missiles take their turn to hide in the forests (not that there are any real threats around now, but still).



Anyway, since I can't attack the bomber this turn anyway, let's deliberately run into an ambush for the hell of it.



There we go.

Day 6



Eagle decided that no, his first AA couldn't possibly have been blown up by a medium tank and a light tank, so he sends his second one in to check.



"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
- Albert Einstein (attributed)



Time to start work on these HQ-guarding bombers.



Recon and B copter find a medium tank and scout out a path to it...



... for our bomber to run down. Hey, Eagle's out of AAs now, may as well enjoy the show.



I also see an infantry unit down there jealously eyeing up our HQ. So let's station our own AA down there as a guard.



General moving of stuff.



Eagle chips off my B copter's last two hit points. The perils of scouting .

Day 7



That mech in the mountains looks worrying. It could strike my healing rocket launcher, or my 5HP infantry, or my recon...



Best do something about it, then. Bomber rushes in to knock it down to 4HP, and my rockets manage to finish the job off.



Fighter finishes off the northeastern bomber. In hindsight, I could have saved a bit of time by leaving that bomber on 2HP and just heading down to cripple the southeastern bomber down to 2HP as well. I'm pretty sure Sami's capture bonus would stand up to attacks from two 2HP bombers, even if it couldn't cope with one 10HP bomber. But at this point I think I was thinking less about score and more about just getting over the finish line.



Sending my recon forward to scout for no good reason. I mean, I should have known that tank would be there, it helped to kill my B copter after all.



Oh well. Spilt blood, crying, etc., etc.



Recon takes a pounding.



And this attack is just about enough to fill up Eagle's power meter again soooo...





Day 8



I've got a full power meter too, but not much I can do with it. Guess I'll save it for the HQ assault?



Since I know where that missile launcher is, may as well stop my fighter next to it en route to the southern bomber. Inside its range shadow, and you get to see it. Educational!



Speaking of bombers, let's get some revenge on that recon-destroying tank. Again, Eagle's weak defences after a Lightning Strike playing into our hands here.

Day 9



All right, let's move in on this final bomber.



Gotta be careful about staying out of missile range, though. This corner should be safe.



Back in the west, that infantry is getting dangerously close to our HQ.



But that's what we've got AA for.



Medium tank and mech work together on another infantry unit in the north.



Looks like we're past the worst of it.



Bomber attacks a mech for good measure.



More units move up, and I think we're pretty much done here...



... oh wait, hang on a sec.



May as well finish that infantry off, after all. Only one HQ capture going on around here, Eagle.

Day 10



We begin Day 10 in medias res



T copter drops off the mech in the forest by the HQ. Again, could probably have done this a turn earlier - drop the mech in the forest last turn, start capturing at the same time my fighter knocked the southern bomber down to 2HP, shake off any damage the bomber did. But yeah, by this point I was very much in a "no risks, I'm getting that HQ captured" mood. Although speaking of no risks... yeah, I've basically sacrificed that T copter to the missile launcher unnecessarily. Sorry .



Bomber finishes smashing up Eagle's 5HP mech.



And my tank goes on a scouting expedition and finds Eagle's medium tank healing up on a city. We'll deal with that soonish.



Movin' on up...



... and movin' my mech straight into the range of an artillery. Dammit.



And there goes the T copter .

Day 11



I feel kinda bad about this one. It wasn't even really , it was just plain lazy.



I guess I may as well finally use this Double Time. Bit of extra defence while capturing the HQ.



Not that it matters much since I've now cleared out the bombers, but hey. Let's get capturing.



Bombing that medium tank...



... and finishing the job with my own middie. Doing so reveals that artillery that just attacked my mech.



Don't take too kindly to arties attacking my mechs, Eagle.



The footsoldiers take advantage of their Double-Timed movement ranges to get down into the relative safety of the forests.

Day 12



Okay, nearly done.



I'll just finish off smashing up this artillery...



... and capture.


Very well... I'll tell you everything. I'll tell you all about it. All about how Andy attacked my homeland, Green Earth!
Huh?
The look on his face during the assault... I'll never forget! Never!

He still hasn't decided whether it was , , , or . Or maybe it was more like .

Eagle! Stop it!
Stop what, Sami?
Look who you're accusing! Andy couldn't pull off anything that complicated. You suspect this kid who has his hands full just getting dressed?
Um... Excuse me?
Well, it's not really a face that shines with intelligence.
Hold on a...
Exactly! Andy spends the entire day not thinking of things!
All right, that's...
If you put it that way, it's hard to imagine Andy pulling it off.
You guys are mean!

Might just be the best bit of dialogue in the game, that. Okay, so the bar isn't high. But still, Andy's reaction here...

But I'm not completely convinced. I still suspect you of something! If I find you're lying to me, Andy, you'll curse the day you were born!

Good job he isn't, then. I think.



Yeah, that was a messy, messy A-Rank. Suffered on both Speed and Technique there. In hindsight, I could definitely have gone faster, and probably lost fewer units too. I blame getting fed up with failing and just wanting to get the thing won in the end.



Anyway, moving on. We're now two-thirds of the way through this big stack of Green Earth missions! Andy and Sami are now up to their final showdown with Drake (Sami's last mission involves protecting an infantry unit for eight days), Max still has to deal with Eagle. So let's have some votes: Andy, Max or Sami? And as usual, can I have a first preference and second preference, please.