Reclamation of Talonthia 8

wildh0rse

This is a challenging level. It takes a bit of work but it can be easily beaten with the right strategy and some patience.

Start out by assigning your techs to the labs. I use 3 in the military and one in the civilian lab. Research whatever you can, but dont worry about the heavy assault units yet.

You only have the little transporters. Recycle them, make two larger ones, and build the medium combat factory. Research and then build triple plasma knights and as many plasma reapers as you can.

Build another smelter just to the south of the one you have so the mines can be serviced. Build mines on the two deposits at the east of your base. Use one transporter there and another at the northern mine. You will run out of minerals to the north quickly so you can swing the other transporter over to service one of the mines.

Right to the east of the starting mine, at the NW of the base area, build a SAM turret; this is for later on, and if you can, build another near the western most mineral deposit.

Okay. You have two things to worry about - the walkway to the east and that darned hill to the west. here's how to handle that:

Take a large group of plasma reapers to the eastern walkway, include a knight. Position the reapers in a semicircle just north of the walkway entrance. High initiative, stand ground except for the knights.
Build a missile turret or two along the base of the hill to the west. Position reapers here too, but don't stand ground.
The minute you get a triple plasma knight online, send it over there too. You will need them there first. If you have enough, you can send some to help guard the east- Build a scavenger and send it east too. If it survives you will pick up a lot of resources.
Replenish reapers, trying to distribute them equally between the two places.

First you will have a small nuisance attack at the west by some turret reapers and a few missile knights. You can take care of this easily with a Plasma knight and a few reapers. Then the party starts; TWO gorillas, a knight or two and reapers... accompanied by a squad of wasps. Do the best you can with the Knights, using the circling first person tactic. I have dusted them all with a single kinight, though it took a while. The wasps will get torn apart by the SAM you built; use the Knight to lure them over there.

The key to this strategy is guarding that entrance from the walkway. Don't let the enemy infiltrate the base from the east while you're battling it out at the west! This has happened to me, and after I finished with the gorillas/wasps I lost a mine and a few units. Now that that's overwith, there are two ways to proceed:

Keeping up your production, fight your way up the walkway. You will regain control of a big smelter and a satelite uplink. You will also get to the factories to the north and regain control of them too. Again, Plasma reapers and triple knights. The enemy medium and heavy assault factories are at the NE corner of the map as well as an aerial factory. If you use this strategy, build your own aerial factory and maybe a heavy assualt factory at your base or just regain control of the northern factories. Use wasps to help kill, and get an APC or two to get units deployed quicker.
Much more fun and risky- Research up to the aerial units and factory, build a behemoth mek and recycle it. Now, using two or three Eagle APC's (faster than the shark only less capacity) Load up Transporters, builders and knights. Reapers wont be useful here, leave them and the base and take everything, first to the SE corner, and then slide up the east side of the map, clear of any combat units.
You will arive at an island of sorts where the aerial factory, two mines and a smelter are located. SPREAD OUT all combat units, the enemy is getting ready to use the Ion Cannon! Capture the aerial factory and smelter and get your minerals going. Your old base might be obliterated but you have a new smelter. You can build a factory here and make knights but I'd wait until the ion cannon is eliminated. You don't have to capture the mines here yet, just start mining.
Across the water to the west from here, you have several things to deal with. Make missile wasps, and take the knights one at a time, destroying the factories on the western shore. Avoiding the missile turret, make sure to hurry up and get those factories out. If you get killed bring another knight across the water. Get a wasp to take care of that turret.
Now, as soon as you can, post a single knight near the pod. The Ion Cannon nails the closest combat unit to it. Load a constructor on an APC and wait for the ion cannon to fire, then deploy the constructor to capture the ion cannon, then the big smelter, and then the uplink. Build a medium combat factory here if you can, you will need knights.
Once this is done, using the knights and wasps and whatever else finish up by eliminating the enemy and the their combat factories.

Additional thoughts:

I don't know what the trigger is for the ion cannon to suddenly start attacking. It seems to be getting within a certain distance of the pod, or it may be on a timer. Anyone?
Deconstruct all buildings and mines you upgrade or stop using. You don't need the really big transporter, so stop research there and send the tech to the military research lab.
If you pursue strategy #1 the AI will alter its strategy and focus on the invading force.
At the top of the hill there is a substantial (for this level) mineral deposit. If you've built the behemoth you can build the bigger mine and use the bigger transporter to keep the minerals flowing. For some reason, after the double gorilla attack the AI doesnt approach from the west anymore. Interesting.

TMG HK

Ion cannon start attacking when at least one unit get close to enemy pod.
There is no timer.

wildh0rse

You're right; I tried again and yes it appears to be a proximity thing. Whats interesting about the ion cannon is once it fires, your base area, if it was closely approached by the enemy, is fair game for it too. Which is weird because they have the satellite uplink and could hit you regradless. The same holds true in Finger of God, it seems the uplink is for show lol. The AI acts as if it is just using the location beacon.

TMG HK

update: Ion cannon start attacking when at least one military unit get close to enemy pod.