Final Assualt
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I have heard it suggested that we put together a community walkthrough. I think it's a great idea. I'm going to post some preliminary thoughts on some of the levels and welcome commentary, observation and criticism.
I'm starting with this level because its my favorite.
You start out with a big turret pointed right at your troops. The first thing you need to do is knock it out so the civilian units can appear. Take the three triple missile knights to do this BUT first move your two commanders out of the line of fire. This way you will keep the healing commander intact, you'll need it. Also, if you maneuver the knights properly, the next shot from the big turret will miss. If you lose one knight, restart the level.
Send the knights to knock out the nuke next, but take one knight in first person east and kill the titan mek thats building the other turret. And destroy the turret becuase if you don't, a constructor will complete it. Watch out because the aerial factory will spit out a missile wasp; if you can kill it don't worry about losing a knight at that point.
Meanwhile your other two knights have knocked out that nuke, and if they haven't destroyed all those SAMS nearby, do so. Immediately take them back to the base and heal them if you need to. Keep the healing commander on low initiative so it doesn't get killed.
Now, in the middle of all of this your builders and transporters have beamed in. You need to locate minerals, build a mine, defend the base from attacks from the south, and most importantly build the advanced combat factory and crank out Judas Warlords and nothing but! Building other units is a waste of BMUs.
Two things will happen next, in addition to all that chaos. The enemy will send an onslaught of Bee Bombers and two tanks will approach from the east. The trick is to get that first Judas online before the Bees get there, and its not easy to coordinate everything. And if those two tanks slip through you risk losing that combat factory.
Try to set up a defense near the bottom of that southern ramp near the base. You can use whatever units you want, do the high initiative/stand ground thing.Send the gorilla, a scavenger and a bee bomber south; using ground units risks having them destroyed by the Bee. You can use the bee in first person to destroy the OTHER big turret at the enemies southern base. If you lose it get the other Bee and try again.
More critical, though, is the other Nuke to the east. If you killed that Mek in the beginning, the enemy will send a builder constructor to build that other nuke. So take your wasps over there and kill the builder and the nuke, and if you don't get hammered by then, destroy the nearby aerial factory.
If you accomplish all these things the rest is easier, but not easy. You need to take a Judas, in first person, east and south to the area where the Gorillas, Bees and Wasps are gathering. Circle around, avoiding the fire from the big turrets, and treachery units which will then occupy the enemy. KEEP MOVING and this will work well. And if you're good you'll have enough units left there to destroy those two factories. But south of that area there are a whole bunch of triple rocket knights so watch out. If you're really good, you can treachery them too.
So to recap, you need to take out the nukes and destroy the factories to the east. Once that's done, you need to get down to the south and get rid of those four factories. The advanced factories are turning out knights and the others are churning out small units and turret reapers. If you've perserved the rocket knights, you should be okay. If you can treachery the enemy knights there, so much the better.
Directly to the east of the southern base, the enemy has a Titan mek and some builders. If you can defend them, treachery them and you will at least be rewarded with advancing your construction level and if you've done it all right, the ION CANNON.
It's all a matter of timing and getting things going quickly. Your main concern is that second nuke. I have survived a nuke attack on this level and still managed to finish all right, but most of my units were away from the base when it happened. I just got lucky.
At least twice, after I nailed that Mek in the beginning, no units attempted to build the second nuke. I am still gaming out things to see what makes that happen. It may depend on how soon you can get a judas over to the gorilla/bee staging area.
Another strategy is to concentrate on the south while keeping an eye to the east. This will result in an eventual parade of Gorillas headed your way. Meet them with a first person Judas! If you play this out you will end up with a butt-load of Gorillas, and they can defend you from any further attacks from the east.
The endgame is just destroying or capturing all the enemy mines and smelters. The entrance to the controller is defended only by SAMS, destroy them or just walk 5 units over there and game over. I like to build a nuke and do it in style.
Thoughts:
-The Ion Cannon is never used by the enemy. Why?
-As in almost all levels, the triple plasma knights are never used by the AI. Yet they are devastating and well armored. Ditto for plasma reapers.
-The reason to use the BMUs for Warlords is that the deposits are tiny. You can get that second mine going to the east of the pod but you won't be able to access the other deposits nearby till the end of the game. The Judases are the only really effective defense against all the heavy artillery the enemy sends.
-Sometimes the AI gets devious and sends a Vortex Eradicator. Watch out for this!
-If you keep the healing Commander alive, you can heal the knights repeatedly. You'll remember I said that :-)
-The other Commander, without the healing charger, can be used to defend your base by using the stand ground method. This is the most effective use of it.
-The southern ramp to your base is narrow, watch out for 'traffic jams' or you'll be shredded by turret reapers.
-And make sure your Bees dont destroy your own units over there, move them south. You can keep one by the base on low initiative in reserve and use the other to take out that southern big turret.
-Likewise, use the wasps only to take out the second nuke and the aerial factory. They are expendable and you'll capture more.Any comments are welcomed!
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The lack of Ion Cannon attacks is due to, if I'm not mistaken, the fact that you took out satelllite support on the previous mission.
Also, the fact that Midian prefers ballistic instead of plasma weaponry is justified by the fact that the "tech tree" gives the player, in the campaign, long-range weapons first, which is then compensated later, as if each race had taken different developmental or evolutionary paths.
This mission was very difficult for me, and had to recur to drastic measures.
Your commentary about the lack of Ion strikes on the surface of Midian reminds me of this:
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You know, now that I think of it, the enemy doesnt have or build even a locator beacon... am I correct? That would explain the ion cannon. Then again, in Military Fortress you dont have a locator beacon and you can see through FOW where youve been.... interesting.
Sometimes the scripting gives or takes an advantage away from either side. E.g., Take the Pass, where you can't build SAM's because that would obliterate the wasp attacks. Or Research Facility where you can't build knights... or any builders :-)
