Part 53: Great Lakes

When we last left our North American invasion we were on the cusp of crossing into United States territory. Today we will accomplish that (and destroy a research complex).



Not much of a start but it looks like there's two possible locations of the research base, in the south and in the east. I'll send some scouts to figure out which one it is.



We also have access to our first heavy weapon, the Heavy Rocket Launcher. It works the same as the other factions'.





Neither scout has found much yet, but that bridge looks promising.



Well promising if we want death that is. Looks like the base is nearly on the doorstep of our start location. I think its probably a good idea to avoid rushing into a Fortress and a million Spider Ps.





The other scout has also found a bridge, but this one is far less defended. Plus it looks like there's a straight shot to the resource fields in the south. I think the Groznys can take care of this without a problem.



Yep. Good job Groznys. The way is clear for the Gruz and the rest of the army to set up camp down south.



Or well, it would be except this area is also on the threshold of a UCS base. We'll need to take precautions.



A half-dozen or so Large Towers should do the trick I think. Of course the UCS has plasma technology now. We can't defend against that at this point.



But hey at least this map is really resource-rich. We've got 100k to work with here, that should be plenty.



The Heavy Rocket Launcher is done, but we don't have any chassis to mount it. Fortunately the game also gives us access to the Volga on this mission. Let's research it so we can deploy the heavy rockets.



This is a much more substantial base than the last few we've seen. But then we've not had a dangerous enemy base in spitting distance in a while either.



Looks like we can't use a bridge to bypass the long way across the lake. Damn you engineering realities!





The Groznys encounter a training/testing patrol of UCS plasma units, guarded by a small group of Gargoyles. The Gargoyles fall quickly and without their fighter cover the prototypes are doomed.



With the Volga done we can take a look at it in the Construction Center. It isn't the fastest but has a good pool of hitpoints, and again it can mount heavy weaponry.







Another training/testing patrol is outside the western ridge of the base. The UCS should have invested in stronger escorts.



With the Groznys so close to the UCS base I decide to hit the outer defensive line.



Success! Maybe we can take out the inner defensive line too?



Nope. The UCS have enough interior base defenses to knock out a significant portion of the Groznys. Retreat!



The base to the southwest looks to be out of resources since they're marching their Harvesters to our base.



The Volga has one upgrade available, let's take it.



Shit. The UCS army and airforce have met us in the field in an attempt to back us out of their base. This is going to be a pitched battle.



Well maybe not. The UCS doesn't know much about tactical positioning. Here's a tip: don't fly right into your enemy's defenses if you want to have a successful attack.



The UCS plasma is withering but even 2 Spider Ps can't manage to go up against the entire ED army.





The Power Plant goes down and with that goes the UCS base.



Hey look at that! Some more resources to the west of the UCS base. Why didn't those Harvesters go there rather than suicide run into my base?





The Volga upgrade adds another 150 HP. Now let's upgrade the Heavy Rocket Launcher.



In a stroke of good luck, these Spider Ps are completely undefended from an aerial attack. It would be rude to refuse such an inviting invitation.



Thank you incompetent UCS commander!



It looks like there's a bit more beyond the Fortress and Research Centers. For now though we'll need to knock down that line so we can get to the rest of the base unmolested.



Okay well I guess that's easy when the Groznys can take out the only Power Plant.



Beyond the bridge there are another two Fortresses. They wouldn't do the same thing twice would they?



Yes. Yes they would. Thanks for putting your Power Plants outside of the range of your Fortresses!



Oh shit. That's a Panther. With plasma and rockets. We uh, may be a bit out of our element here.





One more upgrade left to go on the Heavy Rocket Launcher.



Despite constant harassment from reinforcements the remnants of the attack force are able to take out the Fortresses.



The base is way too well-defended though. Everyone fall back!

Er, well everyone who isn't dead. Which is pretty much just the Groznys. Good job dying for the Dynasty everyone else!





The Gargoyles follow the Groznys back to base and proceed to get annihilated by the anti-air grid. Well that will make the next assault a bit simpler.



The Heavy Rocket Launcher is done. Let's build one of these things now!



There's the Volga. It's slow and poorly armored. So why would anyone bother building them?



Because it's an amphibious heavy tank! The perfect compliment to the Caspian.



The Panthers have re-positioned themselves in the ruins of the first Fortress. The Groznys almost end up getting destroyed before the army gets there. Bad Grozny pilots! How hard is it to go to where there isn't anyone shooting at you?



The army can take out the Panthers without much problem.



Due to the heightened threat the Panthers pose to the army I use a surgical strike team of Caspian Ls to take them out. It goes pretty well.



We're getting close to breaking through the base. Just a bit more and we'll be in.



Take the power!



Hooray! No more power in the base! Now to attack the rest of the base and go home with our massive army.



Oh. Right. The army got destroyed in destroying the power plant. Welp, guess I'll rebuild.



After the build I send in the cleanup crew. But there's a tunnel here. That's...curious. I wonder what's down there?



An alien base!? For real?



Well that looks like the base there, but there's no way in from the UCS tunnel system.

Good thing we've got a Gruz.



This should be the right spot to build the tunnel.



The last remnant of the UCS army engages in a suicide attack against our eastern flank.

It goes about as well as you'd expect.



Looks like there's an approach to the base from the south. Start digging Gruz!



Hmm...what's this? It looks odd.



Alien...spaceships. Are we going to get an alien spaceship!?

Also I got a first class ticket on the flagship of the evacuation fleet. I've also got too many medals now. My uniform is really heavy at this point, I don't like wearing it.



And we get 30,000 credits for Project Exodus. Not bad at all.





Our loss rate was pretty high on this mission. Glad to see the ED army getting back to its roots.



New York is the central nexus of the GOLAN system. We have an espionage unit there. Wait...an espionage unit, in GOLAN...is this NEO?

Holy shit are we going to play as NEO next mission?