Part 10: Black Dog #3 - Paradise Ping Pong
The Black Dogs enter the portal and arrive on a dead planet thousands of light years from the Sol System known as Elysium. The Cthonians made their mark on this bleak world, but now the Chinese control it and their main force is here, coiling and preparing to strike back on Ganymede. The Black Dogs destroy a nearby base, but are later pushed back to Ganymede in response.
On Ganymede, the forces that were repulsed from Elysium decide on a dangerous strategy: allow the Chinese plans for the portal to proceed unhindered, but steal their APC and infiltrate their base to steal a cloak-equipped Tank. With that technology, they could strike at the major manufacturing facilities on Elysium.
The Black Dog Lieutenant steals a Chinese tank and makes his way back to Ganymede against major opposition. Now poised for a major assault, the Black Dogs prepare to cripple the Chinese position on Elysium with their prize...
BD-07 Terra Incognita Deliver us from terror, holy Gun Tower
The curve ball comes at the very start. As soon as the mission opens up, a massive Chinese attack is already en-route to your base consisting of two waves and packed with bombers and tanks. You'll only have the scrap your Scavengers are returning with and whatever you decide to Recycle on the spot. A constructor is a pro choice here. Deconstructing one of those Barracks back there will give you a swift edge in building that all important second gun tower. After that, get aggro and watch the fire rise. If you manage to make it through the first two waves, the radio transmission telling you to destroy the Chinese base is an all-clear for a few minutes, but there are stragglers who decide to show up and start shooting up the place. You should immediately scout the two nearby scrap fields and take care of any turrets that are sent out to sit on them. Next, lock off the south-eastern passes with gun towers. Waves will endlessly spawn from here at regular intervals and one tower on each entrance will squash them. Afterward, how you take care of the base is up to you, but use Comets because Comets rule
BD-08 Hook, Line, and Sinker This game would be nightmarish without Gun Towers
A knife fight, and a filler mission. Very simple overall. Line the middle of the corridor with gun towers and you've got this in the bag. Just be careful when having to snipe the APC, they're still coming through. Make sure all enemies are down before taking the APC and you'll be fine.
BD-09 Grand Theft Portal Why can't I cloak
Rebellion ruined this mission. In the original, as long as you reached the portal with a vehicle you'd win, and they have no good reason as to why they set it so that if you lose the original vehicle you have failed. Yeah, cloaking in other vehicles is overpowered in a mission about running a gauntlet but then they could have easily removed the function. You certainly can't cloak in Chinese vehicles in a couple of the earlier missions. Cheesing this mission becomes required and the obvious aside, if you do not fly up that mountain you are looking at running into that Heavy Tank, a slew of Tank variants and Mongooses, Turrets equipped with SP-Stabbers, a Gun Tower checkpoint on one lane, and other units randomly being assigned kill orders from around the map including the walkers. Park the Tank on the cliff and start sniping and take it slow. I know they put powerups in a few places of the map to restore ammo and health but you aren't going to strong arm this mission without serious frustration.
Next update, The Red Odyssey does its best to bend you over.