Part 37: Australia
This mission is the exact same as the version we played as the LC, except this time we'll be playing as the UCS.
If you recall NEO first appeared in this mission in the LC campaign. He took over the UCS units twice and almost destroyed our base. We will keep unit deployment to a minimum here in case the same thing happens on the UCS side.
Hey look at that, we actually get to start with a Mammoth. All my pre-mission Albatross arranging is for naught.
Our base is going to be pretty tightly arranged this time. If any UCS units turn I want to be able to take them out before they destroy anything important.
The LC are already fully operational. Building from space lets you set up quickly I suppose.
I'm going to show you all why you don't want to use unshielded units any more. I've sent over as many unshielded Tigers as I can. They'll be given the honor of making the first assault on the ED base.
It's very foggy but you can still see our robots heading out on the assault.
Looks like the ED are mining this area. We'll avoid it.
What a fortunate turn of events. Avoiding the minefield has lead us right to the weak eastern flank of the base.
Shall we?
So far so good. There's heavy lasers on that Pillbox, so we need to work quickly to take out the power.
...Oh.
The ED heavy lasers and triple laser tanks so utterly dominate our Tigers that we can't even take out a Power Plant before our tanks are wiped out. We'll need stronger units.
Well look at that! The ED are getting bold. Despite the nearby Fortress, this ED Minelayer is trying to mine the exit to our base.
I can't hold off on the Minelayer any longer. We'll probably be needing to bring one of these along from here out if the ED keeps mining like this.
I bring in the Spiders I had sitting around in HQ, and the Plasma Cannon makes quick work of the ground forces.
Too bad the ED now has Grozny copters.
I pull back to where the LC are clearing some tanks that were making their way into the ravine that leads to the LC base.
The LC still takes great offense to ED walls. Oh Earth 2150 AI
The helicopters have killed our Spiders, but the LC have a Thunderer hS bomber that is about to move into the base.
The base with no anti-air defenses left.
70 game minutes later, the tower screen is destroyed. I know that we were supposed to take care of the buildings, but the LC seems to be doing a bang-up job of it themselves.
We'll move in some of our heavier units now that the base is cracked open (and I'm out of weak units to send).
I'm still worried about NEO so I'll be keeping the Grizzlies at home.
My strike force arrives just as a Caspian L sneaks into the base to try and kill the one Harvester I've got.
It's close, but we manage to kill him before he explodes the Harvester. Whew.
The Groznys either can't hit the Thunderer, don't want to hit the Thunderer destroying their base or are out of ammo.
Our strike force crosses the desert and manages to avoid all the mines. I'm not sure how that happened.
Well the Groznys definitely weren't out of ammo.
Short work for our Panther III R (and one Tiger III R!)
The base has no chance against all the plasma we've brought.
The Thunderer is also doing great work, destroying any remaining Small Towers. Bet you wish you had shields, eh Dynasty?
Our shields are holding up very well against the ED Heavy Lasers. Remember, these things ripped apart the unshielded Tigers we sent in earlier before they could do even minor damage to the base.
Our Minelayer is done. I figure small shields and rockets are best for a support unit. If we get caught in a situation where the Minelayer needs to fight off enemies and not destroy mines we're in deep shit.
The Thunderer has destroyed the HQ building. I hold my breath. Last time we destroyed a HQ we lost all our units.
It appears this one is okay though, as I still have control of all my units.
Hooray! I guess in the UCS timeline NEO wasn't at Australia.
I could've sworn he was though. I remember hating this mission when I was a kid because I lost my units more than once.
While we wait for our units to get back to HQ, lets upgrade our Heavy Rocket Launcher.
And now the Heavy Rocket Launcher does more damage (80 points) than the regular one (52 points).
137,451 credits will be sent to base
Wow. That puts us pretty close to the halfway point of Project MARS.
We end up scoring in last place here, despite the ED losing the fight. It doesn't count the 137k of auto-transfer credits we get so I'm officially disputing this score sheet with GOLAN. We deserve better credit despite the fact all we did is send Tigers to their deaths and kill a few Groznys and powered down buildings.
I read around the Internet about this mission and I think the reason NEO didn't take any of our units was because of how quickly
We cannot allow the ED to enter Egypt. Africa is one of the few areas the LC and UCS have complete control, allowing the ED in would ruin that. Also it looks like Earth has become very desert-y. Poor plants
