Part 2: Ural

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPR-mJ_IBwk

LC News reports what we all know. Gaia is dying and there's no hope unless we get our evacuation ship built. We'll be seeing more updates from LC News as we play along in the game. They even do weather reports!



We start out with a landing zone and a single Lunar m1 20mm. Uh, shouldn't the LC be giving us more stuff if we're going behind enemy lines? I know, I know, they're getting their military up and running but this seems like a suicide mission. Let's bring in some of our units from HQ to help out.





We get our mission briefing from High Mentor Tiolan: get in, get out and for the love of Gaia don't get caught. We'll do our best High Mentor.





That Lunar m3 upgrade is well within our budget, so while we wait for the Jupiter to show up, let's research it.





With the arrival of General Fang and the "honor guard" the scouting can being. The Lunar m1 20mm will take the Northeast and Fang and his group will search the Southwest. While searching they come upon city ruins. Probably destroyed in one of the many UCS-ED battles. Such a waste of life





Oh bloody hell. The ED have spotted us. Defense Manager Shattan warns us and informs General Fang that the LC war machine is in no way ready to help us. We're on our own out here, and now that ED have found our scout it's only a matter of time until they find General Fang and his units. Without resources and a base they're doomed against the heart of the ED military.



Our poor little Lunar m1 20mm . She fought so hard against overwhelming odds. She's the first Sister of the Lunar Corporation to die at the hands of the Eurasian Dynasty, and I doubt she'll be the last. We'll always remember you!





While Dynasty forces swarm the Northwest searching for the rest of the LC squad, Fang is able to lead his team to the mineral deposits. They're in a well defensible area, with high cliffs to the Southeast, an impenetrable mountain range to the immediate West and a high slope on the North side with a choke point. General Fang thinks they can defend this spot, but only if the ED waste their time searching in the Northeast.



High Mentor Tiolan is relieved that we've found the mineral region safely. Sadly, I don't think she knows yet that we've already lost one soldier. Defense Manager Shattan must be dreading breaking that news to her





General Fang wastes no time in setting up his base. The Solar Power Plant should be well defended against the mountain range and the central placement of the Main Base will allow it to defend all areas of the base if needed.

The ore Transport Refinery is the LC building that sends resources to the Spaceport. It will move things over in chunks of 2,000 CR. Since we need 20,000 CR we'll need the transport to make 10 trips.



Our upgrades to the Lunar chassis are complete. Let's hope we don't need them.





General Fang orders his force moved up to defend the choke point at the base of the hill. He also orders the mine turned off to save resources for the spaceport. With just under 30,000 CR they can't afford to mine much for defense.





General Fang's my orders turn out to be a terrible mistake. The ED scouting party has sneaked in through the pass to the Southwest. With no defenses operational, the tender Mine and Transport Refineries are vulnerable. The ED units are tough and with the Lunar scouts dropping like flies there may not be enough time to save the mines and the mission.





General Fang uses the few remaining resources at his disposal to outfit the Main Base with weapons. It works, but the price paid is dear indeed. Of the original 5 Lunars and General Fang only Fang and one Lunar are in combat shape. The Lunars are out of ammunition and without reinforcements the inevitable Dynasty assault will wipe them off the map.





Fang allows the mine to power up for a few hours to mine the resources needed to make a few Moon m1 Rs. It won't be enough, but hopefully it can help stall until the LC can send reinforcements.





Here we see the LC's regenerative alloys at work. In only 10 minutes one of the badly damaged Lunars has regained 10 hit points.



Waiting out the ED in the mining base won't work. The LC is outgunned, outmanned and outclassed in every way. The only possible chance they have is by taking the fight to the Dynasty. General Fang sets out to try and find the ED base and do whatever he can to stall them from making a push on their mining operations. On the way he encounters another scout group headed for the LC camp.





Fang has stumbled upon a lightly defended ED mining operation. I quickly wipe away the few towers guarding the bridge and attack the ED power supply head on. The Dynasty's power grid was always their weak point. Without the power plant the mine and refinery will have to shut down and the time it will take to get them back online may be just enough time for the LC to finish mining for resources and get out.

But it was not to be.





The LC cannot hope to defend against 2 ED battle tanks and a Taiga chaingunner so Fang rushes back to defend the base.

At this point I actually am seriously worried I'm going to lose this mission. It rarely takes me so long to find the resources and I've never had the ED scouts discover me until I've at least gotten half of the 20,000 CR I need. Also my attempts to give this game a more coherent narrative and give a better idea of how it plays have kept me from doing things like building 30 Moon M1 Rs before things even start and cheesing the mission.





Damage to the base is extensive. The ED tanks have managed to destroy one solar cell and all of the LC units in the area. The Main Base is starting to run low on ammo and so Fang decides to build more Moon m1 Rs. 3 won't be enough. Hell, 30 may not be enough at this rate. The Ore Transport Refinery has only sent 20% of the resources they need. A desperate Fang begs Defense Manager Shattan for authorization to use the HQ to build units or abort the mission. There is no way he can hold off another ED assault on his own.







Shattan is a pretty smart lady though. She okays Fang's request and also informs him that from here on he's to have total control over the LC HQ's resource allocation, within reason. (So no pre-building a massive army when there's no indication from the mission briefing you'll be up against a large army or researching every tech). I rejoice that my constraints on this mission have been lifted and start work on 5 Moon m1 Rs, a new landing zone closer to the base, and an upgrade for the bullets in our 20 mm chainguns.





Of course I have no units that use chainguns, so I add a Lunar m3 20mm to our unit list and deploy one to the Western part of the river surrounding the ED base to see if there's a crossing our anti-gravity units can use. I don't think the Dynasty knows all LC units hover yet. Their ignorance shall be their downfall.





At the halfway point in the mission we've finally finished building the reinforcements at the Main Base so I ship 'em over.



Another ED attack wave approaches our base, this time from the North. Unfortunately our reinforcements won't arrive in time so we'll need to hold out for a few minutes. This Lunar m3 20mm is very brave, charging off into certain death like that. Good one kid



General Fang gets an idea. With the Moon m1 Rs on the way, he can afford to slip out of the base and go on the offensive again. It looks like there's only one bridge connecting the ED base to the area the LC is operating in. If Fang can blow the bridge it will take weeks to repair and in the meantime the LC will be safe from any attack. It's a risky move, but we all know that General Fang likes to live on the edge.





Oh god this is not what I had in mind when I came up with this idea! Fang is pretty strong but 9 tanks versus 1 Fang is getting a bit close to what I think is okay. Keep in mind, if Fang dies, you die since you are Fang.



So I get the hell out of there.





General Fang is unable to attack the pursuing units. It's do or die time for the new LC recruits. If they can't hold this off that's not only it for the mining operation, but also spells the death of General Fang not even a week into his leadership of the LC military.



But the women of the LC perform admirably, killing every last Dynasty tank to a man and not taking a single casualty. I'm proud of you girls!





With spirits boosted by their recent success, Fang convinces everyone that he can blow up the bridge this time. He works on that while the Moons blow up another badly arranged scouting party.



Halfway there...



Success! To add insult to injury, there was a tank sitting on the bridge that fell into the river when the supports gave out. And Fang is able to blow up another tank before it goes careening off the edge. With the bridge destroyed this mission goes from "almost losing" to practically over. Bridges are really important to destroy in most cases when you're the LC. You need to rely on smart tactics like that to ensure your inferior military doesn't get overrun.





With the bridge out, Fang can sneak into the back of the base and harass the ED units and power plants there without worry of a reprisal on the LC base. He'll keep running in and out of there for the rest of the mission trying to destroy anything he can.







But before he can the last transport arrives and High Mentor Tiolan orders Fang to retreat. Once again, bad communication LC Celestial Counsel! With the bridge out Fang can take his time withdrawing from the Urals and ensure he sends every last credit to the spaceport. There's still almost 5,000 CR left.



He also uses some of the excess funds at HQ to research more bullet upgrades.





With all units safely returned home and all resources exploited, it's time to end this mission (by clicking on the globe).



Look at that unit disparity. I wasn't joking when I said the ED will roll over you with their superior numbers if you let them. They also managed to research 7 techs to my 3. This could be problematic.



General Fang has received a summons by a Sheela Merlan to report to ACME Laboratory to allow LC scientists to analyze his anti-gravity tank. After a tense battle like the Urals it'll be nice to have an easy relaxing mission.

Nothing could possibly go wrong with this.

Right?



This update I'm featuring one of the best tracks in the game. And so early on too! This is one of the three songs that plays during daytime when you're the LC. Enjoy!