Part 116: Ukraine

I'm back! It took a while to recover the screenshots that were corrupted by my hard drive dying so we're a bit behind. To make up for that, I've got two updates for you all today! Major apologies for taking so long to post this. Hopefully people are still following along




Briefing Video: video link






With the artillery in the way there's no way we could ever hope to get an assault working. So, we're going to go in commando-style and take out the artillery before the ED know we're here. This won't be easy...



Our strike force is composed of: 3 Mercurys for scouting/bait, a Phobos Detector, a Phobos Regenerator, 2 New Hopes (unshielded) for quick strikes, 4 Moon Rs (shielded) for Anti-Air defense and anything involving lasers, 3 Moon Es (unshielded) for fire support and 3 Fat Girls (unshielded) for heavy assault. This is all we get, so we'll need to be careful and preserve assets. Of particular concern is the lack of shields amongst most of my units. ED lasers will destroy any of the unshielded units almost instantly.

Research: AA Rocket Launcher









The Dynasty have set up 3 artillery positions and a small support base as you can see above. We'll start with the second base as it's the weakest of the three. There's nothing guarding an approach from the forest and we should be able to strike before they can fire upon us.



Even though the artillery is undefended we'll need to move quickly in case they spot us. For that reason I'm only authorizing use of the New Hopes until we've broken through the treeline.



Once we blast through these trees we'll have to work quickly to disable the artillery.



We've carved through the trees, now time to strike!



I have the Moon Rs hit the Small Tower while the New Hopes take down the artillery. These Laser towers would make quick work of the New Hopes but thankfully the Moon Rs are shielded and can take care of them.



One position down, 3 to go.



The first base is right across from the second and since we're already there we may as well take care of them. Unfortunately the ED have sent in Pamir reinforcements and were able to damage one of the Moon Es.



But they were no match for the might of the entire strike force.

We're halfway there!



Lucky us, our Phobos Detector has found a supply cache in the mountains. We can use that to refill our rockets and let the damaged Moon get healed up.



Meanwhile one of the Mercurys is in sight of the support base. The western wall is completely undefended but we'll be exposed to fire from the artillery while we try to breach the wall. Hmm...

The New Hopes should be fast enough to outrun the fire from the guns. Once the guns fire we'll have enough time between reloads to breach the wall (I hope )



We've drawn the artillery fire...



And no one has died! One of the New Hopes is pretty banged up but we've breached the wall and now can run right up to the artillery. They won't fire when we're at point-blank range.



The ED are starting to get serious. They're throwing a bunch of laser STEALTHs at us, probably because the Pamir operators told them we're mostly unsielded. And I wouldn't be surprised to see them go for the Phobos Detector next. Without that Detector we're completely blind to the STEALTHs. After some serious micro I'm able to save the whole strike force.



Our 2 Fat Girl Es have disabled power in the base. Now even if the artillery gets reloaded we won't have to worry about them opening fire on us.



With all threats neutralized it's safe to bring everyone in for a turkey shoot.



Shit! Laser units. We're completely trapped here. We'll just have to hope for minimal losses.



Yikes. We've still got a few units left but that attack was absolutely crippling. Thank the Goddess there's only one position left.



We should be able to hit the Power Plant from the rear with our Fat Girls.



Power's down! Now to just take out the artillery and bring in the cavalry.



Shit, there are incoming laser units, but we only have 2 artillery positions left. What do we do?

We have to hope that the shielded units can hold them off long enough for the Fat Girls to destroy the last 2 gun placements.



Success! We've cleared the way! Many noble women of the LC died during this strike, I'll make sure to give them some sort of medal for their bravery.



Oh come on Kilija! You can't stage an offensive with only non-military buildings. Help us out here!





We'll have to defend our LZ until reinforcements show up. The Dynasty is pissed but they don't know that we can't bring in any military structures. Once they figure that out they'll move to overwhelm us. We need a quick strike.



Reinforcements have arrived!

Research: Building Grabber



This base is absolutely pathetic. At least we can re-supply now. Everyone needs to move out though. Remember, we need to strike quickly!



Yikes! One of our New Hopes got a bit toasty there. She should be fine though because...



Our entire army is awaiting the Dynasty in an ambush here.



It's a total slaughter.



The next morning we can begin our assault. I have our Fat Girl Plasma Projectors move in to the northeast corner of the ED base, knocking down trees as they go.



With the trees down the base is completely vulnerable.



Hah! Lasers aren't so scary now!





The base falls quickly once we're in. But reports indicate there is still ED activity here. Ugh.



Looks like they're concentrated here in the southwest too. Time for another strike.



The Fat Girls will draw all the defenders out...



And the bulk of the army will destroy them.





Then it's a pretty simple base-leveling exercise.



However, during the leveling we were counterattacked in the rear. Guess this means there's yet another base somewhere around here. Jeez. The Dynasty really spread themselves out here.



If the Dynasty were smart they'd ambush us while we're in a single column in the mountains. Thankfully I think we've completely neutralized any air units they have so we're safe.



They're digging trenches now? Wow. I'm impressed. These ED generals must know what they're doing.



The trench makes most flanking attacks impossible. And unfortunately for us this base has some serious defenses. We can't barge in the front door.



The defenses in the rear, while significant, are still less intimidating than the front so we'll strike there.



Once again we breach the ED walls and pour in.



By morning we've captured the southern half of the base. The northern part will be no consequence though as we can now slip into their rear.



And this is why you make sure to dig your trench the whole way around the base.



Thanks Kilija. I sure am awesome aren't I?





I'm proud that we kept casualties so low, despite generally not having shields in the first half of the mission.





Whoa! So this is what we were working on? A teleporter to teleport everyone left behind off of Gaia? Wow. Everything is making sense now. Unfortunately we've got some bad news to go along with it. While we've secured Poland for the foreseeable future, the actual teleporter just isn't working. We could probably fix it if we had more time, but we simply don't. 2 months from now Gaia will be a boiling hellscape. We know the UCS teleporter tech would give us the answers we need, but unfortunately GOLAN isn't responding to any of our requests for aid. We'll need to go to the UCS heartland and take what we need by force. Fortunately with the UCS evacuation fleet having left a few weeks back this shouldn't be too hard.



The UCS SDI Network will shoot down any attempts we make to do an orbital landing so we'll need to do this the old-fashioned way: crossing the Atlantic. Kilija has found a suitable launching point here on the Iberian peninsula. Onwards, to America!