Part 78: Advance Campaign Mission 12A: Naval Clash! AC as Andy
Advance Campaign Mission 12A: Naval Clash! AC as Andy (or "Pyrrhic S-Rank")
Youtube video (13m42s)
Following the slog of Captain Drake!, we arrive at a mission that is short, easy to beat... and very, very painful. Joining me are Seraphroy and Sylphid.
As before, we've got to protect this entirely pointless missile launcher for
The most salient points of that unfogged map are a) Drake has a veritable, er, tsunami of botes coming in from the south and b) he's also thought to put a submarine in the north this time. Just one sub, though. Wouldn't want to go overboard or anything. This does mean that we're going to have to box a little more cleverly with our lander and northern sub, but that's about it.
First, let's get this missile launcher out of here.
Everyone else prepares for the worst.
Already the lander has fallen, taking the brunt of a bunch of battleship shots.
There goes one light tank. The sub nearly buys it too - I take revenge on the cruiser that assaulted it.
Drake pulls out a Tsunami...
... and proceeds to wipe out the rest of my land force
. The battleship's nearly gone, too.
Well, let's see what we can do.
Answer: not very much. At least that northern sub has obligingly revealed itself.
I take out a chunk of it, while my lander sneaks past. I'm now just hoping against hope that the AI doesn't think to look in the reefs.
Drake's sub is still preoccupied with mine, though. At least I'm winning this battle...
... well, except for the bit where the cruiser wanders in and finishes my sub off.
That was day 7. The next few days are spent doing this. Of course, the AI being the AI, Drake decides to stop looking for my lander.
And we reach day 10 with the missile launcher somehow still intact.
"One more such victory would utterly undo me."
- Greek King Pyrrhus of Epirus, on his two victories against the Romans in 280 and 279BC.
Or in other words, an automatic S-Rank - because Advance Campaign doesn't care about such niceties as Power and Technique, and because the mission can only last ten days anyway. But a devastating experience nonetheless.
Since that was a pretty quick ride, I'm going to have a chat about the next mission - Wings of Victory! AC as Andy. As with Kanbei's Error?, it's a previously non-Fog-of-War map that's been converted to Fog of War for Advance Campaign. Remember another mission from Normal Campaign that used the same map as Andy's Wings of Victory!, but was in Fog of War with more enemy troops? Yep, Wings of Victory! NC as Sami. Let's defog the two maps and see what they look like under the bonnet:
Eagle gets one extra AA, a light tank converted to a medium tank, and a few units moved upfield slightly. That's pretty much it, other than our CO being Andy rather than Sami (with all the advantages/disadvantages that this brings). I'm not sure just how much this is going to screw me over just yet, but hey - I blundered my way through Wings of Victory! NC as Sami reasonably well. How much harder can this be?
Right?
(If you're curious, this is the crazy mess you get for AC as Sami).