Part 105: Iran
From the Diary of General Fedorov - Commander of the Mobile Commandos posted:
September 12th 2150
Hell's bells! Who would've thought the metal men of the UCS had that much fight in them? Nearly a week to drive them out of Korea. I've never seen such tenacity from the UCS. The robots usually know when a fight is lost and'll throw in the towel but not this time. I suppose there's no use in holding back now, with the planet's doom so close.
And it's going to be our doom too if what I hear from the Czar is right. Those resources we extracted in Finland were shipped to our electronics factory in Iran, near the ruins of Tehran. Unfortunately, the commander of the base had gotten a bit lax in his defensive preparations and now the base is in LC hands. Even worse, they still haven't finished the shipment of electronics! We don't have enough time to rebuild them and our scientists aren't even sure the proper metals even exist on the planet anymore. We must re-capture the base and ensure the electronics make it out or we'll be stuck here to burn.
Briefing Video: video link
rest of the briefing posted:
General Fedorov: Your wish is my command. I am on my way.
We just can't win with the LC and these damned electronics. First we have to sneak into an LC base just to get the raw materials and now we have to rescue the finished product.
A small battalion of Khrushchevs were rushed here as quickly as possible. Thankfully they've arrived before the LC started stripping down the buildings for supplies. We'll need them to liberate the base.
Hooray! The base is liberated. A handful of Craters are no match for 10 Krushchevs.
We don't have much time to get the base back up and running. The production process for these parts requires a very strict timeline. If we wait too long they'll be useless.
We'll spread our Repairer units out amongst the base, focusing first on critical systems like power and the actual manufacturing plant, then defenses and then other auxiliary buildings.
With production moving into it's most sensitive phase, any disruption will ruin the sensitive parts.
We'll need to hold out for a little longer than 2 in-game days. First things first, let's get everything else working and some sort of defensive system set up. We're sitting on a treasure trove of resources, so money is no concern.
A wall will do nicely here.
The central production plant (the HQ, Vehicle Production Center and Power plant you see surrounded by walls) are at least cordoned off from the rest of the base now. But there's still a wide open plain to our east the enemy could occupy and use to launch longer-range attacks (like from a Crion
) at our production plant.
The best solution is obviously MORE WALLS
Hey look at that, they gave us heavy lasers, the AA gun, and the 120mm cannon for free! Maybe the devs aren't such sadists after all.
Hey! I thought we built a wall to keep the riff-raff out
The LC are going on a tear through the base. Normally we'd be able to stop them with how many tanks we have but the narrow spaces in our base are forcing our units to bunch up and put each other out of range.
By luring the LC back into the more open plain to the east we're able to crush them.
After the battle a thick fog rolls in. Have I told you all how much I love the weather system in this game?
With 30 hours to go, we've finished constructing our walls and have moved our army into the open field. Now we should be able to stop any LC attack.
Unless they attack from the air.
But after moving the army through the base we get the job done.
We have FIVE Weapons Production Centers here. That's an absurd number. But if you look at our units limit we can fund nearly 150,000 CR of units. And with money pouring into our base, we might as well use it. I set each WPC to produce one type of Khrushchev tank. One will build an artillery model
, one will build a heavy laser/laser model, one will build a heavy cannon, rocket launcher model and one will build a heavy rocket launcher model. This time we won't be sending in puny units! 
The LC are respecting our walls. Sadly this lets them waltz right into the rear of the base which isn't that good either.
I think some rockets will fix their attitude.
But they still end up breaking ~*my precious walls*~
This next wall will be way bette-
Oh come on!
Okay, now this wall will keep them out.
WHO SAID YOU CAN DRIVE AROUND IT!?
Yeah that's right, drive right into my entire army. I'm sure 2 Craters can take on a few dozen angry Khrushchevs.
The LC airforce keeps pestering us and I'm getting rather annoyed with it. Fortunately, you can now mount AA guns on the Caspian (also we got the Caspian for free) so I order up a half dozen to go along with my sea of Khrushchevs.
With a little over half a day left until the electronics are completed and the base secured, we need to start thinking about how the hell to get these things out of here. An airlift is out of the question. Not only are we way too far away from an ED airbase, the game has still not given me any air units other than the Scout and Boyar.
The LC still doesn't like my walls, but now we can shoot them when they look at them funny.
Well, it looks like the only way out is heavily guarded by the LC.
Making matters worse, the direct route is completely blocked off by this LC base. And there's no way we can try and flank their base. The only way in is through all those towers and even if we made it in, the Main Bases would shred us.
Research: Screamer IIThe upgraded Screamer is the only thing we can research. It's not much, but maybe jamming the LC communications will give us the edge we need.
With the electronics due to be finished around midnight, our scouts have mapped out a path for us. It's impossible to avoid the LC defenses on the walls of the valley, but this route would avoid the LC base and the bulk of their defenses. We can probably rush enough of our people through to draw their fire and then allow the trucks with the electronics to follow. It's a long and risky path, but we don't have any better options.
The LC make one final push to try and stop the electronics production. Take a guess at how that goes.
Bad news, the LC seem wise to our plans to rush them. Their laser walls aren't that tough, but they're tough enough to hold us up long enough for us to be shredded by the towers. We're going to need to fight out way out after all.
rest of the briefing posted:
General Fedorov: HELL'S BELLS! What now?
Navigator: The only other way out leads southwest, to a small oasis. But there's a problem there too, it goes right past the hostile LC base. We can only hope they haven't anticipated our move and put heavy defenses on that road. Otherwise we'll never get through with the trucks Comrade General.
General Fedorov: Seems we have no other choice then. Let's do it!
Navigator: Certainly Comrade General. The path begins a little to the southwest of our base. It is the only possible route, there is no other. We'll need to get at least four trucks through safely, otherwise we will not have enough electronics for the evacuation fleet.
Fedorov and our Scout pilot discuss the situation. We can only hope the LC aren't frantically building more defenses now that we've completed the electronics.
4 out of 6 trucks need to make it. Given all the problems we've had, I'd really prefer if all of them made it.
To help ensure this, I order around a quarter of our army to directly escort the trucks. They should attract any enemy fire before the trucks do.
The rest of the army will advance as far as they can into the valley before they meet enemy resistance.
Pictured: enemy resistance.
And former enemy resistance!
Other than that group of Craters, things are pretty clear. Maybe this won't be so bad?
Or maybe not. The advantage the terrain gives the Guardians makes our forces sitting ducks.
With the valley so narrow, only a few of our units can get in firing range at a time. Meanwhile, the Guardians are free to fire at nearly the entire army.
Sensing blood in the water, the LC send in their mobile defenders.
Our defensive posture breaks entirely and the skirmish quickly turns into a rout, with the LC running down and disabling any stragglers. It is only the emergency intervention of the trucks' escort that saves the army from complete annihilation.
We're going to need a better strategy when we attack again.
And fortunately, we have just the thing. Thanks to our abundance of resources, I have 4 mobile artillery platforms lying around. We saw how powerful these could be in The Moon Project. Let's see if they still pack a punch.
Packed punch status: confirmed. We don't even take a scratch. Why the hell didn't I think of that in the first place!?
With the mobile artillery in the rear we creep forward. By the time the lead tanks advance the shells have fallen and the LC NESTs are destroyed.
This bend marks the beginning of the home stretch. From here we just need to beat the laser wall blockade and we'll be through. Unfortunately for us, we're sitting right on the mouth of the LC base, like the Hobbits at Minas Morgul. We must pray the LC do not commit their reserves when we rush by.
The mouth of the LC base has been plucked of its teeth. Now to deal with the laser barriers.
As I feared, the LC have committed their reserves to the battle. We must hold the line while the artillery work on the laser fences. Once they're down we can pull back and cover the trucks as the LC army pursues.
The artillery has nearly cleared the path. Move up the trucks!
We hold our breath as the trucks move past the mouth of the base. Was our feint enough? Did we bloody the LC's nose enough for them to not risk sticking it out?
It seems we have! Quick, everyone race to the south. It's our only way out!
Once out of the mountain pass the path is remarkably clear and dare I say beautiful.
We meet no resistance along the way. Once the trucks make it we'll be able to move them along south to one of our ports on the Persian Gulf while the rest of our units evac via the Ukraine.
Just a bit further...
Success! All the trucks made it!
The trucks should be safe now and I order all our units to return home via the Ukraine. I wonder what the Great Khan has in store for us next?
We've gone from a rag-tag force of beat up Siberias to a true fighting force. Look at all those tanks!
I think we're just going to have to get used to casualty counts of 50 or more.
Next time: The Great Khan's revenge! Burning a random UCS base in Bulgaria to the ground is sufficient revenge for a coordinated UCS/LC assault on our evacuation fleet right?
