Part 5

The Battle of Southern California:

But first, a message, from those who like turn-based strategy games, and a thank you to Fintilgin for delivering this to my mailbox on an unrelated topic. Thanks, Fintilgin. The images are about half the size they were now, by the way, so hopefully they'll load a little faster for those of us with antiquated computers.



The End of the Beginning

First things first, the European Union's peacekeeping force isn't very peaceful and its first order of business was to attack and hold onto the big of New England that contains New York, Albany, et cetera; they managed to fend off an attack by the New England alliance in the process, and therefore got to keep their ill-gotten gains.

And then the Confederacy attacked Washington, which the European Union managed to hold on to. Unfortunately for the Europeans, they won Pyrrhic victories and their forces are at less than half strength, meaning they are no longer a true power in this war and, sooner than later, are going to lose their foothold. They also achieved some Herostratic fame by being the first group in hundreds of years to have taken the region away from America; I doubt their goals of Arcadian paradise will be met with anything short of a Carthaginian peace, leading to Melian famines and nothing but Stockholm syndrome for the survivors.

Unfortunately, our great victory over Northern California didn't dissuade the Great Plains Federation from having a go at us.



Having a look at what I could defend with, that is to say not much as I really overextended myself on that California Commonwealth gambit... I mean, I have the crappy helicopters still at home, a few engineers who couldn't fight their way out of a septic tank, and the two worst artillery pieces in the game, I didn't think it was worth losing it all for the worst of our regions.

It would have been better to sell them off and buy new units than waste them in a suicidal defense.



So I just let them take the region. Don't worry, we'll take it back eventually. And don't worry about them having a monetary advantage either, as Texas took the opportunity to hit them right in the middle. Oh, and then California attacked, God knows why, Texas and failed to shift the territory.



Now you didn't see it before, but California attacked Texas during its turn and lost, so whatever it has left to defend itself with is probably as weak as a kitten. A kitten with AIDS. Who doesn't go outside much. His mother loves him though.

So I press on, this time making sure that I don't overextend myself like last time and therefore have some units with which to mount non-suicidal defenses.



This is what I bring along with me. Notice how badly damaged it all is? I didn't want to spend my money doing costly, very costly, repairs when I could have more units. This was a big risk I took, as I relied on keeping my people out of combat for a little while to let them heal naturally (and I used those nanite swarms to boost things along). Oh, I bought another Stuart with the spare money in case you're wondering (I only had about 58k and it all went in to our Stuart and one unit of heavy infantry).





And now for a tour of Southern California, first there's Edward's Airforce Base, which unfortunately doesn't survive in any capacity beyond the machine shop when I'm done with it.



Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Force Base



Sea World (a unique landmark)



And Hollywood (a unique landmark), which survives despite pelting the God damned sign with hellfire rockets.



This is how I arrayed my forces, just North of Edward's AFB. I kept the infantry out front a bit so that if anything got attacked, it would be the poor grunge alternative soldiers. The plan, as I said, was to heal everything by not moving it for a few turns.

Notice the commando over in Bakersfield. His job? Pillage.



After wasting a turn doing nothing at all, a LAV comes out to challenge the new FCS Stuart. I drove the Stuart out to challenge it, wagering that it would be better for it to be attacked than the other damaged Stuarts that could possibly die.



Then I polished it off with the heavy infantry. Or so I thought. Fucksticks.



Then I polished it off, properly, with more heavy infantry. Or so I thought. FUCKSTICKS.



So I polished the God damned thing off with my commandos.



Here's an aerial view of what's happening. My units discovered an Apache and some partisans in a truck, you just can't see them in this picture (in the future I'll have less battle pictures and more between battle pictures to show you what's happening on a more strategic level - there will still be battle pictures, however):



Anyway, after the Apache hovered into sight, I hit it with the chaparral.



I used my satellite imaging on the commando. Now something to keep in mind is that commando units, not just plain infantry units, get utterly absurd bonuses for being inside of cities so I took that bastard, guessed about from where the enemy was coming out of the fog of war, and just ran the damned unit straight into the factory.

And from there, he saw that.



Guess what got corroded? Losing about 4-6 points from its armour.



Before I corroded it, I used those fancy nanite swarms as a cheapo repair mechanism. I'm glad I did this because I needed that money so badly.



An enemy humvee pulled into view and then disappeared from view, obviously probing me to find a gap in my AA defenses (the enemy will go out of its way to find these and then drop an assload of guided missiles into anything it can).



You can see it glowing red which means it's already suffering from our special power. Equally, it was at about this time I got really paranoid about those airstrikes so I set up the fighters I had in a holding pattern over my troops to keep the bombers away.



Then I called down the hammer and distributed some indiscriminate justice.



I also found one of their combat air patrols, doing much the same thing I was doing. I don't think the computer expected me abrams, either that or it expected me to keep camping my little corner of the desert (yes, the AI is really damned clever in this game).

So I rolled up my little chappy and tried to shoot it out of the air, no dice though. We severely damaged it but didn't end up shooting it down - since that aircraft had no ground attack, we did this with impunity.



Another partisan came out of nowhere, and died like a fly. Get used to it because the eviler we get, the more the people will rise up against us, God damned road warrior wannabes ought to know better than to fuck with a tank.



And then I decided to meet air power with air power. I almost shit a brick at how much damage our Super Hornet took.



I also took the opportunity to take our healed apaches and go explore for tanks to kill, betting on the AI being too afraid of losing what's left of its air force on CAPs outside of the safety margin.



With that done, I took the opportunity to bombard the runways at Edward's AFB, pound the city that Hunter Thompson was pulled over in by that cop in Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas, with righteous fire, as well as this town, I don't remember what it's called (it's the last one out of the three). I also used my nanites again, after they became available for the second time, to freshen up the army - you can see me pushing those scout commandos up to the city of angels.

I'm sure, if you lived in the area, you could probably tell just by the local geography.







With my erection of violence finally spurting out its salty glory, I push those commands to the top of that ridge you saw in the previous image. A commanding view of LA is what we got in return, as well as finding out where all those damned partisans were coming from.



I, all of a sudden, remembered why high ground is so important and parked my artillery up there. Since we're going for The Evil Empire of Pacifica, I was actually happy that it would clear up the enemies on the ground as well as the people who otherwise live in LA. I also realized, that the only thing better than high ground is a helicopter flying above it.

Here are the highlights.







Before long, the enemy began to retreat its units back to San Diego, obviously with the intention of holding the city until time ran out. Yes, the AI is smart enough to do that on the hardest difficulty mode (you'll see what I'm talking about if you look at the map of the region with the victory point readout - you have to control Bakersfield, Los Angeles, and San Diego to get the 150 points. No other options available.

The computer wasn't clever enough to figure out that Pacifica's tanks are special, precisely because they're so fast. I naturally send them speeding through downtown LA in pursuit.



Needless to say, they catch up on the slowpoke crusaders and armoured pickup trucks.



I didn't think to take a screen shot when it happened, but do you see that damaged Stuart on the high ground? I lucked out and the stealth bomber didn't outright destroy it in one go. Like I said, the AI just loves to wait for you to forget about your AA for just an instant.



The apaches are dispatched to Hollywood, along with that unit of commandos I had stashed in Bakersfield (or, more accurately, who no longer had a Bakersfield to be stashed in). They spent about three turns laying into the Hollywood sign to no avail. You can destroy any landmark but I just had bad luck. Remind me to buy another stealth bomber when I have a little money.



Hollywood survives this war. My first decree, upon reuniting America, will to be have the sign changed back to Hollywoodland.



And my army comes up in sight of the enemy airfield. Keep in mind that if you lose your airfield, you lose every single plane you brought with you on the mission (and those costs a lot of money - it would take me three turns, with my empire right now, spending absolutely nothing, to generate enough income for another stealth bomber).



Just like last time, as soon as I had enough people close enough to seriously threaten the airfield, the Californian Commonwealth resigned.



Here is the end of our turn. Hmm, and the EU isn't as badly off as I thought they were. I've already moved, but when I click on the hour glass, the computer opponents who haven't done their moving will proceed to do so...



They didn't do anything.

As much as I would like to stop Texas from getting any bigger, as it stands we can only be attacked by two people and that's a good thing. The Great Plains are still a great power in this game, even though Texas is probably the strongest or tied with the Confederacy for the strongest army. I'd like to finish off California, by hitting the Northernmost of their territories (this way, even if we win, we're still only reachable by the Califorina Commonwealth and the Great Plains Federation).

I predict that the GPF will ignore us, this round, and concentrate on regaining the territory it lost to Texas and Texas itself will either do nothing out of fear of the Confederacy and Federation, or throw a tiny assault force against whatever might be left of California's military.

Trust me, they don't have much. Oh, I mentioned turns before, but what I didn't mention is that the order of movement is completely random each turn. You might go last this turn, but next you might go second, et cetera.

If any of you think my Annihilate California and Keep Pacifica Safe Plan is a bad one, do let me know, and I'll do someone else in instead. My plan is the best plan, however, and the other powers have teeth quite unlike California.