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I feel like it is important to note that while piperunners have lot of flaws, they are one of only two units capable of firing on any unit, land, sea, or air. The pipelines also allow them to often wedge themselves into inconvenient locations to attack, and their high speed can make chasing them frustrating. While they are generally not worth building, don't discount them as worthless; they can do decent damage, and as a predeployed unit, any damage they do is "free", and while they're not, like, bomber powerful, they hit hard enough that you can't just ignore them.
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May 9, 2022 03:26
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Welcome back! And what a way to return, with Dave the tankslayer doing his thing. For Snow Hunters we've got lots of vehicles so let's give Jess and Javier a spin. And here is the unique dialogue for last mission. Jake and Rachel  "A megatank, huh? That thing looks more gnarly every time I look at it. Check out the size of those cannons. I bet they eat Md tanks like nachos. But it's gotta burn a ton of fuel, too. It probably cant move far, either." "C'mon, Jake! Gear up and move out!"Colin and Sasha  "To tell the truth, Sasha, I don't like Fog of War any more than you do. I just know the enemy's out there waiting where I can't see them..." "I understand how you feel, but fear clouds the path to victory as surely as this fog. We have only 15 days, Colin. We must press on--there's no time to hesitate."Grimm and Sensei  "I can't see hide or hair of the enemy, but they can't see us either. That's the thing you have to remember about Fog of War. Follow me, Sensei." "Ah, I understand now. Thank you for your instruction, O wise one. Hah!" "Hey! You're the one who taught me all about this stuff, Sensei! I've had about enough of your sass! It's time to go. Let's roll!"
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May 9, 2022 06:09
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SoundwaveAU posted:
Didn’t the AI still cheat in Fog of War in this game?
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May 9, 2022 17:01
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AweStriker posted:Didn’t the AI still cheat in Fog of War in this game? Not to the same extent. Now it has to at least pretend it can't see you yet, even outside forests. So, it'll put something like a recon in the way first.
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May 9, 2022 19:30
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Rorac posted:I feel like it is important to note that while piperunners have lot of flaws, they are one of only two units capable of firing on any unit, land, sea, or air. The pipelines also allow them to often wedge themselves into inconvenient locations to attack, and their high speed can make chasing them frustrating. While they are generally not worth building, don't discount them as worthless; they can do decent damage, and as a predeployed unit, any damage they do is "free", and while they're not, like, bomber powerful, they hit hard enough that you can't just ignore them. One of only two? I can't think of the second, what's the other unit that can fire on anything? Omobono posted:Ok. Thank you! I'm amused I pulled it off - I brought Grimm for extra damage on initiation, but ended up enemy-phasing the megatank. Quite a surprise. Remalle posted:Nicely done with the enemy power management. That was a thing of beauty to return on. Thank you! I am glad to be back, and I knew I had to make it a good update. Hope this suffices! SoundwaveAU posted:Welcome back! And what a way to return, with Dave the tankslayer doing his thing. Thanks! And that is fun dialogue, thanks for posting those each time. I love the attention to detail with stuff like this.
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May 11, 2022 13:34
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cosmicPostman posted:One of only two? I can't think of the second, what's the other unit that can fire on anything? I think we haven’t seen it yet.
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May 11, 2022 14:51
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AweStriker posted:I think we haven’t seen it yet. That makes sense. Well, I'm intrigued.
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May 11, 2022 14:55
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Yeah, our the other one is in the next lab mission if I recall correctly. And I guess there are technically three since black bombs are equal opportunity explosions.
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May 11, 2022 17:32
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Part 37 (Battle) - The Mask Cracks It's time to get on with the next map! The CO votes are in - there weren't too many votes, so it was Javier and someone else of my choice. And hey, we're field-testing one Green Earth CO, so I figured I'd bring the other one too.  And, as promised, let's have a peek at what they can do.  Jess is mostly unchanged from last time - bad botes, fantastic vehicles.  And her CO Powers are just "vehicles go more". And hit a lot harder, too.  As we saw in that previous battle, Javier's big thing is comm towers and ranged defence.  His CO Powers really lean into this, too. My man's got exactly one niche, and he's sticking to it.  Hawke's back! He still hates incompetence.  And his powers are completely unchanged - I mean, why fix what isn't broken? It's a good drat pair of powers, and I absolutely hate going up against them.  But anyway, we've had a quick look, so let's get on with breaking this map wide open, shall we?  And, as always, the deployments. Today’s Deployments Howard, Infantry Arqa, Mech Abelard, Mech Michael, APC Cassandra, Anti-Air Henry, Anti-Air Von Panzer, Tank Julian, Tank Selena, Medium Tank Dave, Medium Tank Sebastian, Artillery Petra, Artillery Ingo, Rockets Matilda, Rockets Mulligan, Missiles Adelaide, Lander Lots of new Green Earth units today! And they’re all old friends from the last campaign. We’ve finally got all four nations united! Howard Age: 29 Personality: Sometimes stressed, often relaxed. Proficiencies: Infantry, Fighter, Missiles, [unknown] Abelard Age: 51 Personality: Competent veteran of war. Proficiencies: Medium Tank, Sub, Mech, Megatank Cassandra Morgenstern Age: 36 Personality: Brilliant and determined soldier. Proficiencies: Anti-Air, Tank, Mech, Medium Tank Henry Age: 22 Personality: Loves to make puns. Proficiencies: Tank, Anti-Air, Missiles, Medium Tank Sebastian Age: 24 Personality: Meek, friendly and recently-single. Proficiencies: Artillery, Lander, APC, Rockets Petra Age: 19 Personality: Talented pilot making strides. Proficiencies: Anti-Air, Fighter, Battle Copter, Artillery Matilda Age: 30 Personality: Looking for fulfilling companionship. Proficiencies: Medium Tank, Rockets, Bomber, Artillery Mulligan Age: 38 Personality: Level-headed, gives second chances. Proficiencies: Infantry, Missiles, Fighter, Tank Adelaide Age: 24 Personality: Single and making the most of it. Proficiencies: Lander, APC, Transport Copter, [unknown]   If we think before we strike, Javier, I think we can come out on top. Attention all forces! We attack! Follow me! Right! So what's the plan here? Well, we've got intel that there's a lab map to find, and indeed there is - on the bottom right island. It's very out of our way, but we have Adelaide to ferry a foot unit over. The other problem is that it's right next to some pipes, so if the piperunners are around when we drop our foot unit off, they'll get slaughtered. As such, we can't move in on the island until the piperunners are somewhere else or dead. We also have the cannons, and Hawke's army. We're going to go with a risky strat of "ignore Hawke's army and then just choke it at a point later", and put our focus on getting those cannons dealt with. Our ground forces are heading left, whilst our indirects will stay on the right to deal with the piperunners once they arrive.  So, first things first, Adelaide comes in. Vanessa picks up her transceiver from HQ. "Arqa? Come in, Arqa!" "Right here, Commander. What do you need?" Arqa asks. "You've been doing fantastic work lately. I'm entrusting a very important mission to you - go with Adelaide and capture the lab map at Cape Houdan. Got it?" Arqa nods. "Thanks for your faith, Vanessa. I'll do my best!" "I know you will." Vanessa replies.  Arqa hops on board - as does Howard, but he's bound for a different target than the lab map. "Hey, Howard," Mulligan says over the transceiver. "Look after yourself, alright, dear?" Howard rolls his eyes as another voice pipes up - Petra's. "Aw, cuuuute! You guys are something else!" "Stop embarrassing me, Mull, god..." Howard replies. "...I'll be alright. You keep safe too. See you later."  There isn't really a whole lot for Abelard to do, but he hops into Michael so I can carry him around, just in case I need something capturing later.  Sebastian, the artillery, and Matilda, the rockets, have positioned themselves very carefully here. This is to deal with a particularly irritating threat next turn. Petra's the other artillery, who is placing herself where I expect the piperunners to be in three turns, ready to stomp them. We need Ingo, in the other rockets, to also get into piperunner range, but he needs to shoot a seam first. Like I said, they're not gonna be here for three turns, so there's really no rush.  Ingo blasts the rightmost seam. "Direct hit! It shouldn't be too hard to break through now - is someone taking care of it?"  Von Panzer rolls up. "Hmph! I shall destroy this pipeline!" Indeed, he will - Von Panzer does enough damage to take out the pipe next turn without ranged support, which means my indirects can get on with positioning themselves in preparation for the piperunners.  This is how my units stack up at the end of the turn. Mulligan, my missiles, is in position on the city, whilst my ground units cram around the seam, ready to pour through once it breaks. Dave and Selena, as my medium tanks, will be on cannon-smashing duty, but we've gotta get the bro copters and bomber out of the way before they can go to town. We also need to figure out who's gonna be blocking of Hawke's forces once they arrive. I mean, who could possibly hold off- who am I kidding, it's gonna be Von Panzer.  Hawke's first turn. This shouldn't be too bad - we haven't even murdered anything of his yet, unless you count the seams.  Madam Director, are you in position? I am. They won't escape - not this time. Good. Your conviction is admirable. This is why we moved our indirects over here! This infantry will capture this base and give Hawke some early production. We definitely don't want that, so we're putting a stop to him immediately next turn.  The copters fly in, as does the bomber. Opening the seam is going to be quite dangerous whilst that's hanging around.  The rest of Hawke's army begins charging through the top. The piperunners have to take the long way round, thankfully, so they're not gonna be here for a little while yet. They might have limited movement, but 9 movement is still impressive, so they'll be here sooner than you think.  The black boat drops the infantry off down here - he's going for that god drat silo, isn't he?!  Don't worry. We planned for this. I'm getting that silo first.  So, first, Matilda lands a brutal blow on the infantry.  And Sebastian can finish. There will be no dicks capturing property today!* * a dick will still capture a property later in the map  And now that Ingo's done what he needed to do, he can join Team Murder All The Piperunners.  Adelaide drops the folks off down by the silo. This is what Howard's going for - the silo. Some silo support is going to be pretty crucial in holding off Hawke's army, though his CO Power makes it less effective than against other COs.  "Uh, Vanessa, did Rose miscalculate or something?" Arqa says as she looks over the battlefield in fright. "Howard, there's a bomber and it's way too close to us! We'll be crushed if we go for the silo!" Howard shakes his head. "I wouldn't worry. Normally I'd be stressed out too. But, thing is, bombers like that..."  "Mulligan's always waiting for them." Yeah, no, I have no idea why Hawke's most threatening unit just flew right into range of the one unit I've got that can kill it in one hit. I'm not complaining, though.  So, with the bomber out of the way, Von Panzer can break open the seam safely!  The cannons can't quite reach my units if they're right next to the pipe, so we can sneak in and start kicking rear end and taking names.  And the anti-airs are going to be the ones going first, since the copters won't even dare attacking them. Henry crushes this infantry in a single hit. On a forest, no less! Jess' vehicles are wonderful.  I don't want to move my tanks in yet, though, so this is how the turn ends. Once the copters are gone, we can start making a move on those cannons.  I don't imagine Hawke is going to do anything particularly competent on this turn - though it's not his fault, considering that most of his army is like, on the opposite side of the map from where the action is.  But sticking two of your copters right next to units that can oneshot them definitely isn't competent either, and he has no excuse for that one. Hawke, man. You're better than this.  The rest of his army's making slow progress. The forest and mountains are working to my benefit here, slowing his powerful tanks down massively.  Right. Let's carry on, shall we?  Henry slams the first bro copt-  My dude! Pay attention! What are you- gently caress. Whoops. He'll be fine, it's only 3 damage. It's a good job he's done all he needs to on this map. Cassandra takes out the other bro copter. We've pretty much got this map in the bag, now, since nothing over here can even hop to contest our anti-airs, let alone our medium tanks. Those cannons are toast... in 3 to 5 days.  This city up here is an ideal spot to hold off the enemy forces. It's Black Hole-owned, so we won't heal on it, but we'll still get the defensive boosts, and that's what we need.  I'm sending Von Panzer up, whilst Julian brings up the rear.  Arqa hops back into Adelaide after briefly stretching her legs, ready to head for Cape Houdan.  The piperunners should move further up, to where my indirect squad are, next turn. So we should be fine going for the lab map now.  Howard's gonna missile some dudes, in the meantime.  And this looks like a pretty ideal bunch of fucks to hit with it. The weaker we can make those Neotanks, the better.  G-gah! Direct hit... I'll need to make some repairs at the black boats. I'm not going to allow any more of this. The tank squad has moved through the seam, in the meantime. I can't actually finish off all the cannons until I have the lab map, so there's no rush, really. But I want to be in position to win as soon as the map's been collected.  Now then... all we need is for the piperunners to get into my indirect squad's range and this map is as good as over.  Henry gets shot.  Twice! gently caress. Forgot that he was in range of two of them. Ah well, like Rose said, he's done everything he needs to on this map. I don't think he's going to be much use in tanking Hawke's entire Neotank fuckery division.  ...Hawke. I didn't expect to be crossing you again. Black Waaaaaaave. Booooooo.  All of those units I smacked with the silo are healed for 1HP...  And all of my units lose 1HP. Henry's taken loving 7 out-of-combat damage this turn now. That's impressively poor luck. "Looks like I might have to... wave goodbye soon!" Henry says, chuckling. "I'll head back to base to make repairs."  There's an infantry up here capturing this base. I'm not too concerned - we'll be choking that point soon enough, and the map will be over because Hawke can deploy anything super dangerous.  You can see how tight the timing was, though - that tank is the frontrunner of Hawke's army, and I'm just barely going to reach the city to block it in time.  But the important thing is that I AM going to block it on time, so let's not worry.  Annoyingly, only one of the piperunners was a moron. The other one's slightly more intelligent, and has hung back somewhat. Still, that's fine: the important thing is that neither of them are in range of the lab map now, so we can move in and capture it with no worries.  So hey, let's do that. We still have to keep out of its range whilst we move TO the island, though, so Adelaide's gonna hang back for a second. She's in range to drop Arqa off next turn, though.  The other one is just going to eat some rockety death.  I use my rockets to take out the piperunner, since the other piperunner can fire on Petra, and I ought to move her out of the way.  I move Petra up and out of the way.  And just so I can fire on anything that Hawke produces from this factory, I move Sebastian over here too.  Meanwhile, Selena lands a heavy blow on the minicannon. It's halfway dead already.  Henry moves back to heal up. He's not got much better to do, so I may as well.  And I move Von Panzer onto the city. As we all know, Von Panzer is literally unkillable, so there's no feasible way he dies here. Neotanks? Pfft. Shmeotanks.  Dave finishes off the first minicannon. He growls as he opens fire. "Down you go!"  BOOM! Those explosions are so satisfying. I love destroying minicannons.  And this is how my units are arranged. Most of these guys are kind of finished with everything they need to do, so they won't be moving around very much from now on.  Right, time for Hawke to stick a tank in front of Von Panzer and then not attack, effectively trapping the rest of his army behind it.  This Dick Captures A Property: 34  What did I fuckin' tell ya. This game is easy.  Right, let's carry on then. We're safe from Hawke, so it's just the formality of getting that property captured before we take out the other cannons.  Arqa gets dropped off. Turns until victory: 2.  Dave harasses the next cannon. "This one's yours, Selena!"  "On it." Selena replies, readying her bazooka to fire.  We're making good headway. Selena and Dave can splatter this cannon once Arqa's got the lab map, so we just have to sit and wait now.  This guy might be an issue, though. Von Panzer doesn't deal well with ranged threats, and he can't hold a chokepoint if a piperunner's harassing him every turn. We'll have to use our indirects to stop it from wanting to move any further west.  This arrangement should do. If it moves anywhere near Von Panzer, it'll be murdered.  Right! Back to Von Panzer walling off the entire army.  Here's the dumb tank that isn't- Soldier! Retreat for now - I'll take care of this myself. Got it? Yes, Madam Director!what.  Oh, fuuuuck. It's the Director and she's in a Neotank. Hold out, Von Panzer!  "So, you are Von Panzer. I have heard that you're an unbreakable wall, but now you face the might of Black Hole's Neotanks, unmatched in their strength and fury." the Director says, glaring forward, the half of Sturm's mask she wears glinting in the cold snow sunlight. "Your lowly tank is nothing. Be crushed under my heel!" The Director opens fire, and with a Neotank against a tank, the outcome is... pretty clear. Von Panzer  loving SURVIVES, DID YOU REALLY THINK HE'D DIE? "Nein, it is you who will be crushed, and you who are nothing!" Von Panzer says. The Director's eyes widen. "You really are as mighty as they say. As unbreakable." "I knew it!" Dave said. "She IS getting insider information on all of us!" "Wait, you're not suggesting there's a mole in the army?" Julian says. "Funny you should speak up, Julian..." Michael replies over the transceiver. "You're the only one here who's not served in previous campaigns. You said you worked in intelligence. You've been giving information to the Director, haven't you?" "Are you-" Julian replies. "Are you serious?!" "Yes, he is!" Dave says fiercely. "You sold us out!" "I would never- I LOVE Orange Star!" Julian replies, incensed. "I might not have served in previous campaigns, but by no means would I sell my own country out. What do you take me for?" "He's right." The new voice shocks the others into silence. Dave speaks up. "Selena?" "He's right." Selena says quietly. "He's not the mole. ...I am."  "What?" Dave whispers hoarsely. "Selena, you..?" "Don't get me wrong. I only realised it recently. It was... unintentional. My letters home..." Rachel's voice pipes up on the transceiver next. "Your letters home?! Why were they not being censored?!" "I... I didn't think anyone was reading them!" Selena cries, on the verge of tears. "I didn't think I'd need to censor them. As far as I could tell, they were just being tossed in a back drawer, or the bin, or a fireplace..." "My dude, did you know about this?!" Rachel asks furiously. Selena gulps. "Commander my dude, I... I..." I can't believe it. I can't imagine that Selena, of all people, would be the unwitting mole in the army. But I also know that Selena would never willingly betray the Allied Nations. I lie for her. "I did know." I say at last. "Selena stopped writing letters at the start of this campaign, so Black Hole has no recent information to work with. I... signed off on each letter. I'm sorry." "Oh, of course! Of course you'd let something like this slip through the net!" Rachel explodes. "I don't understand, though." Michael says. "How were Black Hole intercepting your letters to your family?" "They weren't." Selena says miserably, and as she says this, the Director freezes, staring up in horror at Von Panzer. "The letters were going to Black Hole... or more specifically, to my sister, Lena Hartford - the Director." "Wh..." I gasp. "Lena's the Director?!" The Director glowers and grips her mask tightly. "Selena, you..." "Please, let me go to her! I can talk to her, I can-" Selena says desperately. "Not a chance, soldier!" Rachel replies. "Focus on your mission. We'll... talk about this afterwards."  With that bombshell out of the way... we'd better finish this map off, then. Let's, uh, do that.  First things first, we need to buy just oooooone more turn for Arqa to get that base, so Julian joins with Von Panzer, now that I know he can survive Neotank hits on a city. loving crazy.  Arqa's making a start on the city. Nearly there!  Everyone else just sits here. Really not much else to do.  Hawke's got one last chance to mess up my plans. But without even his CO Power, there's no way he's breaking through Julian/Von Panzer.  He's gonna try, though. The Director takes another shot.  "Oh, oh, I can talk to her!" Ridiculous. Selena, you can't heal the hurt in my heart. Nobody can. The piperunner reaches Von Panzer/Julian, but thankfully, it can't move and shoot. So hey, we're done!  Let's finish things off, then.  First things first, a lab map, if you please, Arqa!  There it is, beautiful. Hawke does not seem terribly bothered about losing it.  Selena prepares to fire on the last cannon. "Lena..." "You alright, Selena?" Dave asks. She nods. "I just... wish there was something I could do."  Dave fires on the final cannon. "We'll find her again, and when we do, we'll figure it out. Just... I can't believe that the Director is..."  And KABOOM! The final minicannon is down, and the battle is won!  One can only assume the meddlesome Desolate Flower and Embodiment of Victory are here, too. Hawke! You! You're still with Black Hole? You're not seriously going to fight us again, are you? I have no desire to trade blows with you. I'm going to bow out for the time being. There are some things I must investigate before I commit myself to this. Madam Director, are you coming? ...I have no choice. I... I chose this path. I can't turn back. I wouldn't be so sure. You joined the Black Hole Army for a noble purpose - to exact revenge on the country that wronged you - but I don't see a noble purpose here. Not with him in charge. ...What are you suggesting..? Come. We must investigate the matter. There he goes. What is it with that guy? Even when he loses, he acts like he won. His bearing speaks of an unusually strong character. I didn't know Black Hole had COs as bad as that dude. What do they need black crystals for when they've got him? More to the point, how did Hawke go from taking command of the Black Hole Army to somehow being just another CO? Who's pulling the strings? I don't think you're the only one wondering that, my dude, based on his manner. I wonder if there's some kind of rift within Black Hole itself. He said there was something he wanted to investigate, didn't he? He did. Perhaps he has reservations about the current direction of the Black Hole Army. Either way, we need to get going. Where's the next stop on our little road trip? Way out west. We've got reports of a big desert and a massive energy spike. Energy spike? That's got to be them. From the way the enemy troops keep getting stronger, I'm guessing it's the enemy HQ. I'm curious about what Hawke's up to. We'll have to check that out sooner or later. On our way from the battlefield, Rachel corners me and Selena. "You two. We need to talk." I nod. Selena is staring at the ground. Rachel lets out a sigh. "Look. Selena. I can't deny that this is a huge violation of conduct, and I was extremely angry before. But if you haven't written any letters since this campaign began, then there's very little workable information that Black Hole have, besides the names of soldiers from the previous campaign and their talents. And... you really love your sister, don't you?" Selena chokes out an answer. "Yes. I didn't want to believe it, but... why has she turned against us?" "I don't know. I scanned through your file; it seems that your sister didn't have the best life growing up. Perhaps Black Hole offered her a chance to take vengeance on the country that had wronged her, or that she felt had wronged her." Rachel says. "So, what are you saying?" I ask. "I know what it's like to have a sister that seems so much better than you in every way." Rachel murmurs. "So, soldier, I'm going to ask you one question." Selena looks up, dead ahead, staring into Rachel's eyes, praying to see compassion there. "Do you think your sister can be saved?" There's a moment of silence, and Selena nods. "I do." Rachel seems satisfied, and places a hand on Selena's shoulder. "Then, next time the Director is deployed in battle against us, I want you to go to her, and talk to her. Save your sister... however you can." "And it'll strike a huge blow to Black Hole." I add. "Correct. Do you understand, Selena?" Selena salutes, and though her eyes glimmer with tears, she's smiling. "I do, Commander. I'll save the Director if it's the last thing I do!" She walks away, leaving me stood with Rachel. She turns to me. "I'm not gonna get forgiven, am I?" I sigh. Rachel lets out a sigh, and the fight leaves her. "Well, I'm not even that mad at you anymore. I mean, I'm annoyed at you basically all the time, but other than that, I'm not angry about this. I get it. She just made a mistake. We were all young and foolish once." "You're like, twenty-odd, aren't you? Selena's older than you." "I wasn't talking about Selena." Rachel replies, and I nod. "Oh, I see. Yeah, I guess we were all young and foolish... let's just hope the Director's mind can be changed when we run into her next."  Anyway, after our tidy S-rank, our new COs get some experience. I don't know if there's enough missions to even get them all over rank 1 or 2. Wonder if the game's a bit easier if you stick with the same couple of COs? Guess it depends how important skills are.  Pfft. 'Stache. I'm gonna call him that from now on.  A very stylish victory, if I do say so myself. I absolutely embarrassed Hawke.  So, before we finish here, let's take a look at what the next mission's got waiting for us.   Oh, dear... If they found us, it means that little Hawkie-poo and Little Miss Mask have failed miserably! Well, what can one expect from Macro Land COs? Such riffraff! You speak wisely, Kindle. No singular CO can compare to the might and experience of the Bolt Guard. Bolt Guard statistical assessment: Powerful. Smart. Handsome. Bolt Guard intent: Smack-laying in a downward direction.Never change, Jugger. Best goddamn lines in the whole game. Aha ha ha! Stand back, my vassals. I'll deal with this rabble by myself. I'll prove that you shouldn't send a Hawke to do a woman's job! Aha ha ha ha! Oh, this is what they meant by Spiral Garden. gently caress, this doesn't look fun. This is just "break seams or run out of fuel", they're the two options.  I think you're right, Jake... Wait, we're here for piperunners? Fuckin...they're not even that good. I bet they're really expensive. Aren't your favourite things to deploy medium tanks and bombers, my dude? ...Yes. OK. I see your point. You know, I just don't get Black Hole. How could anyone live in such an odd place? Aha ha ha ha! Finally! I've been waiting so long I had to reapply my makeup. Ho! This must be Kindle, the Black Hole's most witchiest of witches! Javier! You can't just call someone a hoe! Oh, it's Sir Javier! A middle-aged swordsman with a child's brain... Bonjour, friends! I'm sorry you came all this way for nothing! OK, just finish whatever you're saying and then shut up so we can stomp you. I will never surrender my piperunner! This new invention is my pride and joy! What? I thought that was one of Lash's inventions! Aha ha ha! You should let the Homo sapiens do the thinking, Cro-Magnon! That's...such a specific insult. And rather unkind. Yeah, maybe it's just because I've not fought her in a hot second, but I do NOT remember her being this obnoxious last time. Yes, Lash designed the piperunner, but I was the one who conceived the device! I told the girl to build me a magnificently powerful weapon...and she did! For all intents, that means full credit for this fabulous invention belongs to me! The real work happens in the idea phase... All that brat did was copy my ideas! Sometimes true wisdom must make itself known to those who cannot see. Your words and ideas, Kindle, are worth a king's ransom in gold! Kindle processor power: 5 Ghz and clmibing. Lash processor power: 486 in molasses. Aha ha ha! All true... But you both forgot to mention my beauty! Now, praise me some more! Revere me! Bask in the unholy glory of Kindle! ...That is one strange group of people... Oh my god, they're actually insane. They have such a... simple relationship. To put it slightly more charitably than my dude. ...It's kinda like me and Sasha... What? In our house, if I ever speak out of turn, why, she gets all... Zip it, Colin! Say one more word, and I'll have you on KP duty for a year! I-I'm sorry! Forgive me! Wow, you have him wrapped around your fingers, huh? From what I hear, your relationship with Nell is identical, so you're not one to talk. Hah hah! Very true. Once, Nell managed to make my dude clean up a dining table after a sixteen-person dinner party just by glaring at him! Oh, come on! Ah ha ha! Now that my ego has been sufficiently stroked, listen up! The properties on this snowy plain each have an independent energy source. You'll never maintain a large army without them...and the same applies to us. I propose that our battle ends when one army captures 15 properties! Property capturing... heavens. What a time to be without Sami. Only a person with my...je ne sais quoi could possibly use the piperunners! Not like that pale, unsightly little girl with no makeup on! How dare you! Hm... In my day, we'd never have insulted a child like that. Especially not one who could beat you with her hands tied behind her back, heh heh! Oh, you are NOT talking about Rose right now. Forgive me for speaking in a less than polite manner, everyone, but...stand aside. I'm going to DESTROY this woman. Aha ha ha! Now I will show you the true horror of my invention! Hawke gave us a tough time with his piperunners... It was medium at best. Now these people have them, too! All right, troops! The battle ends when we capture 15 properties! Pay special attention to the movement of their infantry units! So, here's the upper part of the map. Kindle's got a few units dotted around, but nothing major.  This is the only airport on the map, though - if we can nab that, we'll have a huge advantage. Just need to get rid of that medium tank and artillery before Kindle's piperunners or infantry come over to ruin my fun. Guess we'll see how it goes - who are we bringing? With the sheer number of COs we have, now, feel free to vote for up to 4 COs - that's Jake, Rachel, Max, Colin, Sasha, Grimm, Sensei, Jess and Javier! *** Part 38 (Intermission) - Race For The Title cosmicPostman fucked around with this message at 11:18 on Nov 16, 2022 |
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May 13, 2022 15:31
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Girls team of Jess and Rachel?
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May 13, 2022 15:54
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A nice and clean win today, and some interesting original plot developments! I don't have any particular preference on COs for the next mission, definitely not enough to suggest four, so we'll let you try out the Jake/Jess combo. Speaking of combos, time to do the usual for the last map. Jake and Rachel "As commander of Allied Nations, I'm intrigued by the map to the research lab. Yet...it won't be easy to get it. It's a tough decision. I really want that map, but... Hey, Jake, what do you think?" "I'm down with whatever. If it's your plan, I'm sure it's all gonna be good."Colin and Sasha "Colin, in hard times like these, it's important to remain calm. Staying calm and relaxed will allow you to think clearly and logically. Yes... Just relax... ...zzz..." "...Sasha? Uh, Sis? Wake up!"Grimm and Sensei "Let's smash that pipe and get on with it! I'm itching to break something." "Hm... With your strength, I doubt you'd be beaten, and yet... Those piperunner thingamabobs have got me a bit concerned. I suppose I'll have to do my part to help out."Jess and Jake "Your name's Jake, isn't it? I've heard a lot about you. I think teaming up with you for a tag battle will prove interesting." "You know it, Jess. You and me are gonna take them to school!"
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May 13, 2022 16:09
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I love that opening line pair. Jess: OK, if we play our hand smart we can get through thus. Javier immediately after: Chaaarge! cosmicPostman posted:Wonder if the game's a bit easier if you stick with the same couple of COs? Guess it depends how important skills are. Ahahaha. Oh, goodness me. Yes. Do you want everything to move through forests at 1 move? Your rockets able to keep up with 1 move cost on plains? Just a flat 20% damage bonus on any map with weather, no questions asked? Max to punch things another 13% harder? Kanbei to be an extra 20% more unkillable? 13% off of unit prices? Cities that heal 5 hp? +3 vision in fog of war? Or perhaps you just want to say "gently caress it" and add haichi's super power to yours?(you need to clear the hard campaigns for that one at least). Let's go with Rachel and Sasha
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May 13, 2022 18:47
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Hahahahaha, I knew it! CP can confirm, I've been basically calling the Director Lena on Discord for a while now, I was that convinced. Also found it really interesting how Hawke seemed more concerned with Rose than my dude, and she had thoughts on fighting him too. And then Kindle.... oh dear, Kindle... the last time we saw Rose swear destruction on someone, it was Flak's final showdown in the 2nd game... where he got utterly demolished. 4 votes, eh? Alright, Sasha, Jake, Max and Sensei. I really wanna see more Bad Jake Victory Quotes (and my dude's reaction to 'em), those just don't come up if hes paired with Rachel... which is the reason Sensei got a vote over her, even though I was tempted. Rachel's been doing great both in the narrative and in gameplay, after all.
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May 13, 2022 21:32
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FYI: it's not the case that Jess in unchanged in this game. It's all to her benefit, though: she no longer has the penalty to infantry firepower, and her vehicle firepower bonuses are now 20% instead of 15%. The resupply aspect of her powers also makes her really good with one of the new units we haven't seen yet, which has a lot of fuel issues otherwise (which is interesting because that unit has nothing to do with her specialities; I always enjoy those kind of odd synergies). She's a very solid all-round CO in this game. This map is pretty infamous, because Kindle's abilities are extremely nasty when combined with the property capture objective. I'm not fussed about the other three but I think you're going to want Sasha somewhere here.
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May 13, 2022 22:02
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Jess, Jake, Rachel, Sasha Girls team sounds cool but also that Jake/Jess tagline from last map was interesting.
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May 14, 2022 01:33
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Jess Jake, Colin Sasha
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May 14, 2022 13:59
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SMaster777 posted:Hahahahaha, I knew it! CP can confirm, I've been basically calling the Director Lena on Discord for a while now, I was that convinced. Wait, what Discord is this? 👀
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May 15, 2022 09:45
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FoolyCharged posted:I love that opening line pair. The opening line is fantastic, Javier is really growing on me. Also, my god, those skills sound insane. I played with them a tiny bit when doing the Hard Campaign missions (since I needed to record the Rose/my dude fight, I needed to play the Hard Campaign up to that mission. If I recall, I mostly just stomped it with Kanbei since they're mostly predeployed), but I evidently was not looking at them too hard. Explopyro posted:FYI: it's not the case that Jess in unchanged in this game. It's all to her benefit, though: she no longer has the penalty to infantry firepower, and her vehicle firepower bonuses are now 20% instead of 15%. The resupply aspect of her powers also makes her really good with one of the new units we haven't seen yet, which has a lot of fuel issues otherwise (which is interesting because that unit has nothing to do with her specialities; I always enjoy those kind of odd synergies). She's a very solid all-round CO in this game. Huh, nice! I didn't know that, but I am excited to see what she can do in future maps then! And well, thanks for the warning - I'll start recording the map early this week to give myself lots of time to practise it. Quackles posted:Wait, what Discord is this? 👀 We're just friends on Discord - we joined the same server by complete chance sometime during LPAW1, I think? If people wanted a Discord server, though, I'd be happy to make one; I'd been debating doing that sometime anyway, for stuff like that AW-inspired tabletop game I designed too. Quick check, would anyone like a server for LPAW and other stuff?
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May 15, 2022 11:11
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cosmicPostman posted:We're just friends on Discord - we joined the same server by complete chance sometime during LPAW1, I think? If people wanted a Discord server, though, I'd be happy to make one; I'd been debating doing that sometime anyway, for stuff like that AW-inspired tabletop game I designed too. Quick check, would anyone like a server for LPAW and other stuff? Pretty much this. A mutual of ours (I know through Twitter and Fire Emblem Heroes, I believe CP knows via a convention trip?) dragged us both into their server, and when he joined I was just like "Hold the phone, that name looks familiar... are you doing a Lets Play of Advance Wars on SA" Its actually why Rin became a more important character over time; because she was my name suggestion back then, he wrote Rin/Dave's support chain to commemorate that friendship happening, and the reception it got led to her ending up where she is now. But yeah, there's no actual server (yet?) where we discuss the LP and such, its just our DMs there.
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May 15, 2022 15:54
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Niiice! I salute your friendship.
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May 15, 2022 21:52
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Hi, I fell ill and needed some time to recover, so I've been unable to prep the update for this week. I'll see you all next week, and apologies!
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May 19, 2022 14:16
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I mean The Director being Lena was pretty obvious, for no other reason than you modifying Selena's sprite to make the Director's. I mean, the family resemblance is strong.
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May 25, 2022 17:45
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Part 39 (Battle) - I’m Confiscating Your CO Meter, Kindle Welcome back, everybody! Hell of a map today - by which I mean, this map is hell. This is a two-parter, and it's not even close, so let's get started.  So, we're going with Sasha and Jake for this map. Jake's not going to see much action, but Sasha, oh boy... she's going to make this whole thing happen for us.  Let's get started. We've got properties to capture.  Spiral Garden... here's the deployments that will hopefully squash Kindle. Today’s Deployments Alfonse, Infantry Rin, Infantry Carter, Mech Michael, APC Ludmilla, APC Fleur, APC Vanessa, Recon Cassandra, Anti-Air Dave, Tank Dimitri, Tank Diana, Tank Rose, Medium Tank Selena, Medium Tank Ingo, Artillery Inessa, Artillery Ivan, Artillery Lucy, Bomber Zlata, Bomber Peregrine, Bomber The D-name tanks and the I-name artilleries are out in full force today!  Oh, man. These pipes are makin' me dizzy... Hope I don't ride the porcelain bus... What does that even MEAN. This map's got a lot going on, and we have multiple things to be doing, so here we go.  First thing is for Ingo and Inessa to start breaking through these seams - we need to head up and block off Kindle's forces as quickly as we can, though we also need some forces to go west to deal with Kindle's oncoming tanks and copters. Plus, those two piperunners need to gently caress off and die, effective immediately.  Inessa next. Thankfully, two artillery shots and one tank shot can take out a seam, which is nice and convenient, seeing as we have two tanks and two artilleries to begin with. I do wish we had a medium tank or a bomber to speed up the process, though... Soon. I will get my fun toys soon.  Dimitri smashes the first pipe seam. It's not much, but the important thing is that it's enough.  Dave does the same thing to this one. We don't strictly NEED two open, but it'll make life easier when we're moving troops up and down if we have two areas of egress. And, you know, I have the resources, may as well use them on something whilst we're waiting for Kindle.  Now for our foot soldiers. They're going to be pretty crucial on this map, seeing as we need to capture properties. Alfonse hops into Michael to get started. Our mech, Carter, will be staying here to capture the two free properties we've got. The more we capture down here, the less we need to take from Kindle later, which will help.  Atta boy, Carter.  So, time for Kindle's turn. She's mostly gonna be spamming foot units and sending her vehicles my way.  The piperunners, as well as the squad in the middle section of this spiral, begin moving towards my units. The piperunners will be on top of us in a couple of days, so I need to start making allowances for them. The medium tank will take some time to get to me, and by the time it does, I'll have the resources to beat it. Uh. Hopefully.  Back to us! We've got lots of things charging us, so now's the time to divide our forces and start showing Kindle just who she's messing with.  First things first, these seams need to go, otherwise our tanks aren't going anywhere.  "Alright, the seam's open, Dimitri!" Inessa announces, beaming at her handiwork. "Thanks, Inessa. Dave, you're handling the west?" "Yup. You take the northern chokepoint." Dave replies. "Backup should be on the way later, so just get in there." "Oh," Dimitri replies, giving a vicious grin. "I intend to."  Dave goes charging out west, whilst Dimitri heads up, with Vanessa in tow. Michael drops off Alfonse next to a nearby base. We won't be deploying anything from it, but hey, it's a property.  Speaking of properties, Carter's doing good work. Just one more down here to go!  And next, I purchase an anti-air - Cassandra. Dave can't handle battle copters, so Cassandra will be backing him up in the west.  The enemy troops continue surging forward.  And also capturing poo poo, but like, who cares. Just like me, Kindle can't win unless she takes one of my buildings down south, so whilst victory might be, you know, loving tedious, I'm in little danger of actually losing the map.  The rightmost piperunner keeps moving forwards, along with the rest of Kindle's crew. Just offscreen, the other piperunner and the battle copter are making their way forward, too.  There he is. We'll deal with them soon enough.  So now, we move Cassandra forward...  ...and we can keep Dave out of harm's way by moving him behind her. You might be thinking "Post! Why would you move Dave forward only to retreat him again? Did you overextend? Tactical error?" No. Come on, I'm more brilliant than that.  Kindle's piperunners will almost always stay out of the range of my tanks, since tanks do over half their HP in damage. I needed to keep Dave that far out to stop the piperunner from moving too far forward, because if it does, it'll end up in range of this base and I can't have Alfonse capture it safely. However, no piperunner in range, so he can capture it all he likes!  Now, Inessa's job isn't done. There's more seams to smash, and we've quite a brutal time limit - one of Lash's infantry up north will be moving down to capture this airport in another couple of turns, and we need to make sure we prevent that at all costs. But our units are spread thin already, so it's gonna be tight.  Meanwhile, I decide to deploy Diana, Dimitri's Shadow, since Dimitri needs looking after and she's the best person for the job. "Dimitri, I'm on my way to you." Diana says in the transceiver as she begins driving. "Good," comes a response crackling through the transceiver. "We need all the backup we can get if we wanna hold off Kindle's whole army." "I never disappoint." Diana replies, before turning the transceiver off and focussing entirely on getting to her destination as soon as possible.  Carter makes a start on the other property now. Mechs don't have the movement range to do much else, so it gives him something to do whilst I deal with Kindle's forces. Once it's a bit safer, I can get an APC for him and get him to some of these more distant properties.  And that's about how we shape up. Dimitri and Vanessa will be lying in wait for Kindle's advance forces - an anti-air and a recon. Tank/recon beats anti-air/recon any day, so I'm not too worried - we just have to make sure the piperunner doesn't mess things up.  Down here, meanwhile, Ingo will be providing a bit of extra damage for Dave and Cassandra.  Now to let Kindle's forces move in so we can initiate on them safely. The copter is in range of Cassandra, but as we established recently, bro copters NEVER initiate on anti-airs because they would get bitch-slapped into next week if they tried it.  Also, Kindle's units have started capturing stuff fully starting today. This Dick Captures A Property: 38 Yep, she captures a whopping 4 properties today, which is helping her catch up to our early lead.  See, she's at 7 now, and still has more buildings to capture! God drat you, Kindle.  This, meanwhile, is the IDEAL setup we wanted down below. The piperunner's hiding behind the battle copter, which we can cleanly one-shot with Cassandra. If it had chosen to hide behind the tank instead, we'd have a much harder time of dealing with it, since we can't take out the tank as easily.  The anti-air and the recon have moved in, meanwhile, and the piperunner is keeping its distance. This is what we wanted!  These opening turns are pretty important, but they're going well so far. I suppose that's what you get when we have Rose helping out, too.  And Carter gets the last property down here. He's doing a great job, well done, Carter.  Alfonse gets a base, though! We could deploy, like, tanks'n'poo poo from it. We won't, but we could.  First things first, we need to retreat Vanessa so that the anti-air can't get at her. She can trade decently well with a recon, but the anti-air will hit way too hard, and we need to keep her healthy to finish off the enemy recon.  Dimitri has nothing to fear from these flimsy loving vehicles, and brings this one down to 1HP so Vanessa can kill it next turn.  Inessa takes a shot at this seam. And y'know, thinking about it...  I can have Diana shoot it on her way past - that means Inessa can take it out next turn instead of in two turns. That'll be handy!  Meanwhile, let's begin making Kindle regret approaching us down below. Cassandra slaughters the bro copter without even trying.  Dave decides that the cure to piperunners is "bullets" and shoots the pipey fucker. It's pretty solid damage, so we don't have to worry nearly as much about this thing now!  I move Ingo further in, too - if the piperunner chooses to attack something this turn, it can be crushed by Ingo next turn and we don't have to worry about it any more. The tank's gonna go for Cassandra, seeing as she's open. The only problem is that the piperunner AND the tank might both go for Cassandra. But I have faith that she'll survive that. I think.  Sometimes, you gotta take risks if you want to win.  Also, Kindle does this bullshit.  Oh, gently caress you.  Now, I was under the impression that Kindle would only use her CO Power on this map if you have 3 units on properties or more, but evidently that's not the case. Still, we can heal off that damage after a couple of turns - we just need to make sure Kindle never gets her CO Power again. And that, my friends, is why we brought Sasha.  Kindle also captures some more properties - just two more this time, but still, annoying. This Dick Captures A Property: 40  Aha! The piperunner's gone for Ingo, so Cassandra is safe! I'm a genius! It doesn't even hit that hard now that we've weakened it, so Ingo's fine too.  Cassandra does take a pretty heavy hit from the tank, but not nearly heavy enough to, you know, kill her. She's fine!  The recon and the anti-air move further down over here. That's, uh, weird but I'm not going to complain. Neither of them attack, but to be fair, I wouldn't attack Dimitri or Vanessa either.  We're in a pretty good position. Just a few more bits to take care of before we can properly start nabbing properties - namely, getting that airport and crushing those piperunners.  Cassandra retreats one space. You'll see why.  Ingo finishes off the first piperunner, which is a huge relief. "Piperunner's down!" Ingo yells. "Thank god, that thing was a pain." "Nice one, Ingo!" Dave replies. "Hopefully the Meteor and Vanessa are doin' just as well up at the chokepoint." "Don't worry about them - worry about us! We still have a tank to deal with." Cassandra replies, and Dave nods.  "Right, on it. Stay back, Cassandra, let me handle this!" Dave attacks the tank - this position works well. Cassandra's safely out of the tank's range, and whilst it can attack Ingo, it can't kill him when it's so weak, so we'll be able to tank the hit and defeat it next turn, no problem. Took a bit of smart play to sort everything out down here with just these limited units, but we're almost through it now.  Up here, things aren't nearly as dangerous. Vanessa can put paid to the recon without any issue...  And Dimitri can put a massive chunk of damage into the anti-air, virtually disabling it.  Meanwhile, thanks to Diana's chip damage last turn, we can open up this seam with Inessa.  And as promised, now that Kindle's forces are looking a bit thinner, I get an APC for Carter.  And it's Ludmilla, too, so that's like, doubly good. "Well, hello, little soldier." Ludmilla says, winking at Carter. "Cute helmet. Where are we bound?" Carter tries not to stare at the attractive young woman's face and chest, but finds it difficult. "Oh, uh... orders just, uh, came in. We're going to the airport up north." "On it. Let's get going, then - we don't want the enemy to find that airport before us!" Ludmilla replies grimly.  Right, let's see what Kindle's going to do now that most of her forces are dead. I guess throw that medium tank at us?  Oh, and capture more poo poo. God forbid we should have a turn where she DOESN'T capture something. This Dick Captures A Property: 41  As predicted, the tank decides to ruin Ingo's day, but he takes it like a champ.  The anti-air can get at Vanessa now, but it doesn't do all that much damage after it got Dimitri-ed in the face.  And would you look at that? This piperunner's hiding behind a friend, too, but that friend's not going to be there for long, Mr. Piperunner.  Dealing with this piperunner is pretty important, as it'll be an enormous obstruction to our plans to choke this point otherwise. Ranged units always ruin chokepoints, and piperunners are especially annoying about it.  Carter wastes no time in hopping into Ludmilla's APC, but Ludmilla's in work mode right now and doesn't flirt any further, instead just driving off towards the airport as fast as her vehicle can go.  Around the same time, Alfonse gets back into Michael so that he can head north, too. There's a couple of cities which are now undefended, since all of Kindle's forces are heading south, so we're going to nab those as well.  Dave finishes off the tank - and just in time, too. The medium tank and artillery are nearly on top of us, so we'd best start making plans for dealing with them.  The APCs meet at the pipe seam. This was just in time, too, as this infantry was nearly at the airport! See what I mean about there being a lot to do in a short space of time? Efficiency is key in these first turns if you want to try and avoid a drawn-out stalemate. And even with this fantastic start, we're STILL going to get a drawn-out battle...  Inessa moves over here, where she can freely fire on the airport. Let's see you try and capture something when I'm artillery-ing you every turn!  As I said earlier, by the time the medium tank shows up, we have the resources to deal with it - and those resources are "buy a medium tank of your own", so here's our girl, Selena! "I won't allow Black Hole to continue this nonsense." Selena says fiercely. "Troops, form up and prepare for combat. Dave, allow me to handle the medium tank at your side." "Sure, Selena. Waitin' on your orders." "My orders are simple; they're the same as my dude's orders." Selena replies. "Kindle insulted our dear friend, Rose. Show no mercy."  So, Diana's caught up to Dimitri now. Dimitri can take out the anti-air...  Which lets Diana attack the piperunner for massive damage. Yeah, you won't be bothering us anymore, fucker! Sorry. I hate piperunners.  My troops down south back up a bit to begin making repairs. I need everybody at close to full HP if I want to win this - I'm taking no chances.  Plus, making repairs is dangerous when Kindle's got her CO Power hanging around, so we'd better do it sooner rather than on a turn where Kindle's going to go "lol no gently caress your units on cities" as she so often does.  This fucker gets halfway towards capturing the airport. Unfortunately for him, that's as far as he's going to get.  The piperunner, well, runs for it. Kindle's not got many troops up there now, and most of them are slow-as-molasses foot soldiers, so we have some time to arrange a decent chokepoint. Plus, I want to capture that neutral city near to Dimitri if I can.  Right, let's continue. Another day, another threat coming from the west. This time a medium tank and an artillery, which could be threatening if we hadn't, like, had six days to prepare for it.  This guy's also not a problem. Inessa hits him with the gently caress Off Special...  And Vanessa, who didn't have much to contribute at the chokepoint and so came back over this way, can finish him off. Recons can't do much, but they can do decent chip damage to infantry units. The airport is open and ours for the taking! "Right, the airport's open! Ludmilla, you ready?" "Heading in now!" Ludmilla says. "Thanks, Vanessa, Inessa, that was almost really bad. I think we're turning things around!" "We've still got a lot of properties to take. Don't count your chickens yet." warns Michael.  Ludmilla drops Carter off at the airport, and Michael drops Alfonse off near one of the cities up north - it's in piperunner range currently, so we'll need to hope that it continues retreating next turn.  I think Dimitri and Diana are suitably scary enough to make the piperunner retreat. I do need to be careful, though - if those tanks get any closer, I may have to call a retreat myself.  Hm. Kindle looks quite close to getting her CO Power. Do we release The Sasha? We do. Sasha! Make Kindle's CO Meter go away. I'm on it. Time to ruin Kindle's day.  So, as we've established, Market Crash reduces Kindle's CO Meter by an amount based on how many funds we have. The REALLY fun thing about that is that it doesn't consume funds, it just checks how many we have. So it's pretty easy to drop Market Crash at the start of a turn, then use all those funds to buy your expensive poo poo.  And that's no CO Meter for you, Kindle! Yeah, Market Crash is an absurd CO Power, and a lifesaver on this map. I mean, two loving stars for a power THIS good?! Thinking about it, I might find it more useful because I'm doing no-deaths and usually I tend not to use CO Powers much anyway (especially since without sacrificing units, you don't gain as much CO Meter). So I guess Sasha's power is a pretty perfect fit for my playstyle. Why've I not been using her more?  Anyway, diatribes on CO Powers aside, let's see what Kindle's gonna do today.  Well, that's a lot of dudes, and a few tanks, but most importantly, the piperunner's gone north, so we can safely capture that property!  So let's, like, do that.  This medium tank and artillery also helpfully lined up for us, so we can weaken those now. Selena makes a good start on this medium tank, which is probably the biggest threat on the map right now. Well, the biggest enemy threat. Selena is the biggest threat on the map right now, let's be real.  We can weaken the artillery too, since it might take a shot at Selena. That'd be problematic.  Just in case anyone decides to gently caress around, Inessa heads over to cover our bases. Literally, too, since she can resupply on this base. She's been shooting a lot of seams today.  Carter makes a start on capturing this airport. Finally, air supremacy will be mine!  The tanks pull back a bit up here, meanwhile. I don't want Dimitri and Diana biting off more than they can chew until reinforcements arrive.  Speaking of reinforcements, we need more infantry and APCs to capture stuff, so here's Rin and Fleur! "OK, Fleur, we've gotta help capture properties!" Rin says brightly. "Where are we going first?" "Unfortunately, mon cherie, it seems like we're bound for the chokepoint, where there's a property nearby. It may not be an easy ride..." Fleur murmurs. Rin winces. "Well, that sounds rough. Guess we've got to do our best out there, though!" A voice comes over the transceiver: Dave. "Look after yourself, kid. Listen to Dimitri, alright?" "Oh, don't worry!" Rin replies, sighing. "I always look after myself. It's you that does all the dramatic heroics!" "I won't let him get into too much trouble, don't worry." Selena says. "Good luck, Rin."  Right, more Kindle time. She's a lot less dangerous with no CO Power to worry about.  All her troops just kind of... inch forward.  The artillery moves back so that the medium tank can attack Dave.  "Ngh! drat tank... you think you can take me out?!" That smarts, but eh, Dave will be fine, and the medium tank's still in Inessa's range, so that problem basically solves itself.  Our turn now. Let's go murder some stuff to make me feel better.  Firstly, Inessa crushes the medium tank. We have that property down there, which the infantry is trying to take, so we ought to go over and murder him too.  Selena finishes off the artillery, too, since Dave's not really in a position to do it. Poor guy took quite a hit from that medium tank.  Meanwhile, Rin and Fleur prepare to head off to the northern chokepoint! I want that city!  Carter nabs the airport, giving us sole control of the airspace on this map! You already know what I'm going to do. Bombers for days. ...But not quite yet. We need more money and we need to be in a better position first.  Let's get Dave to pull a retreat so he can heal.  Meanwhile, Kindle's CO Meter was close to filling, so-  DENIED.  Now, we'd better get to work on those reinforcements for the chokepoint. Rose will be leading the charge! "This woman has insulted me for the first and last time. Dimitri, get your troops ready - we will hold off this point indefinitely whilst the other troops steal every last one of Kindle's properties!"  Kindle's turn. She's lost her bite a bit now that most of her advance troops are all super dead.  Well, except this guy. gently caress. This Dick Captures A Property: 42  One of Kindle's tanks attacks Diana, as I was worried about. They should be able to hold out until Rose and Selena can get up there. Once we have two medium tanks up there, we're virtually unstoppable.  That piperunner isn't helping matters, either.  Right, let's finish off that annoying infantry down below and steal his city.  Cassandra can kill him quite easily thanks to, you know, being an anti-air. She'll finish him next turn, so now we just need to get someone over here to capture this property.  Meanwhile, Selena's due up north to help Rose out, so she'd better head back. She can stop by my properties and heal up that damage before she does, too.  The other troops are there already - Rin can start capturing once we, uh, figure out what the gently caress we're doing here. We need to push Kindle's forces back a bit more.  And since Carter took that airport, we can help out with a bit of chip damage!  "Uh, sorry, Diana, is it possible to move?" Carter says. "I can't get the piperunner and the enemy tank without hitting you, too!" "That's fine - I can handle it." Diana replies. "We have reinforcements arriving soon. Take the shot!" Carter nods, feeling a bit nervous. "Right. Right! I'm trusting my elders!"  He takes the shot and we do big damage!  The piperunner's down to 1HP so it's basically a non-issue, and the tank's too weak to do much damage to Dimitri and Diana. They're in rough shape, so we've gotta get the medium tank girls up there ASAP.  We're actually in pretty good shape for this map! We're almost done with this part, I just want to do a couple more things before we call it for this week.  And one of those things is "stop Kindle getting her CO Power ever"  Kindle captures another base, which is a bit annoying.  The piperunner takes a pot-shot at Ingo, but... it doesn't do much.  Now that the piperunner's dealt with, we just need to wait until the medium tanks catch up. In the meantime, we need to make a start on heading north to get some of Kindle's properties. We'll need air support for that.  We can grab this city too, now that Cassandra's ended this dude.  Carter gets back into Ludmilla to go get it.  And it won't take them too long to get over there.  I decide to start murdering the infantry over here so I can push forward.  And I put Dimitri and Diana together. "Jeez, Di," Dimitri says as Diana hops into his tank. "I know you wanted to keep an eye on me, but don't you think this is a little too close?" "We make do in the circumstances." Diana replies, shrugging. "Come, we've shared tents in the frigid north on previous missions. This should be nothing to you." "Ah, I suppose so..."  Vanessa heads up to take care of business whilst we wait for Rose and Selena.  One of them's nearly here! Rose has caught up, so she can move in next turn. Thank loving god for that.  Michael and Alfonse are still merrily capturing things. Good job, lads.  Kindle's turn. There's not much she can do at the moment, since there's no way a couple of infantry can break this chokepoint.  OK, a tank might be able to. Uh-oh.  Eh, we're fine.  Right, let's see if we can push forward a bit now that we have Rose.  So, first we have Ingo strike.  Unfortunately he doesn't kill the tank. Bleh. Dimitri/Diana can take out the infantry next to it though.  And that lets Rose push forward and finish off the tank, giving us just enough space...  For Fleur to drop Rin off: Fleur can block Rin, and there's nothing that can kill her in one hit, so we're pretty safe for this turn. Perfect!  The rest of the troops start moving up, now that everything's been sorted down below. Selena still needs to catch up.  Alfonse starts capturing this property, also. We've nearly got all the properties available to us! After this, we'll need to nab a few of Kindle's up there.  Kindle's CO Meter is filling up again. Let's deny that again, shall we?  Get hosed, Kindle. No, I'm not letting you have your power. And guess what else, Kindle?! I have one thing that you'll never have.  Bombers.  So, with Lucy deployed, and with a good start on this map, we'll leave it there for now! Next time, our air forces will surge north with our APC squad to capture some of Kindle's properties, whilst the medium tank girls hold out against the oncoming horde of Kindle's units. See you then, folks! *** Part 40 (Intermission) - A Direct Discussion
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May 27, 2022 20:02
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This seems like a cool map in concept that the AI just can't handle. It's utter inability to destroy pipe seams when it really should is so crippling on this map, making it far too vulnerable to bottlenecking.
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May 28, 2022 01:04
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The bigger issue is more the design of this last stretch. A 2 tile wide chokepoint that the ai is all bit forced to sand bag. Which really, the whole map is one giant 2 tile wide chokepoint, but for that last property there's no way around beating your way through a big ball of units in a tiny space with no real room to maneuver.
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May 28, 2022 02:24
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That last missile silo could be useful busting up a giant ball of HQ-guarding units later in the map, if my dude can hold off using it for that long.
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May 28, 2022 07:18
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I mean, at this point bombers and rockets plus an APC or two for refueling is a solution. Not a particularly fast one, mind, but park two rockets in range of her bases on the other side of a pipe and gg.
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May 28, 2022 09:56
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mr_stibbons posted:This seems like a cool map in concept that the AI just can't handle. It's utter inability to destroy pipe seams when it really should is so crippling on this map, making it far too vulnerable to bottlenecking. The AI being unable to destroy pipe seams is absolutely the worst part of this map for the enemy, and it'd be a much more interesting map if they were capable of it. As it is, you can clear out the forces in your section of the spiral, then break seams to move into Kindle's section of the spiral and bottleneck her for the rest of the map. FoolyCharged posted:The bigger issue is more the design of this last stretch. A 2 tile wide chokepoint that the ai is all bit forced to sand bag. Which really, the whole map is one giant 2 tile wide chokepoint, but for that last property there's no way around beating your way through a big ball of units in a tiny space with no real room to maneuver. Pipes annoy me because of that anyway - blocking all movement is all fine and good but they're so massively overused in some of these maps, and Spiral Garden is the worst offender thus far. Omobono posted:I mean, at this point bombers and rockets plus an APC or two for refueling is a solution. Not a particularly fast one, mind, but park two rockets in range of her bases on the other side of a pipe and gg. There are, in fact, several bombers in the next part. Bombers are amazing offensively, don't get me wrong, but the fact that there's only two ground units that can even fire on them also makes them a fantastic defensive tool for holding off chokepoints. Makes me wonder if there should be a downside to bombers/fighters being so good, like enemy units being able to pass through their spaces or something. I mean, it makes sense, how does a plane block off a foot soldier anyway?
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May 28, 2022 11:23
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Part 41 (Battle) - An Endless Slog With An Anticlimactic Conclusion Back at it. We've got Kindle on the back foot now, and we just need a couple more properties to pull off the win. The unfortunate thing is that Kindle has most of the properties we want, so we'll need to take the fight to her forces if we want to win.  And her forces are mostly gathered at this loving chokepoint. This infantry shoots Fleur, who's protecting Rin right now. He doesn't do much damage.  For some reason, this piperunner is obsessed with shooting Ingo for minimal damage.  There's not much else that Kindle can do though, so it's our turn again. The bomber train is about to begin, baby!  And the capturing train, lest we forget. Rin's partway through getting this property!  Selena's caught up now, so once Rin has captured this city, she can escape.  In the meantime, we move Fleur out of the way and put Dimitri/Diana in the way instead. They can actually, like, fire back at the stuff shooting them, so they're generally better.  We have more properties! Alfonse has got another one. Carter's down south, but once he catches up, the two of them will be moving into Kindle's territory to nab a few more.  But first, we have one more property down here to get. Carter, you're up.  And now Lucy needs to start opening up this seam so we can conveniently get our bombers up to Kindle's area. If we break seams strategically enough, we can reach the top of the map in like two days.  gently caress it, another bomber! It's Zlata! "Hey, Lucy!" Zlata says, beaming. "Ready to break some heads?!" "Oh, totally, Zlata! We're not going to let Kindle get any more properties!" "Hey," Dimitri says over the transceiver. "Just look after yourself, alright, Zlata?" "Took the words out of my mouth." Ingo replies on his transceiver. "Do your best up there, but take care!" "Ingo, how many times? I'm gonna be fine!" Lucy replies. "Definitely! Lucy and I will have each others' backs!"  Now let's see what Kindle is going to do about these bombers. The smart play would be deploying a ton of missiles.  Or "a single anti-air", that works too. Hint: it does not work.  So, let's keep surging ahead. There's really nothing Kindle can do about any of this now.  Carter makes progress on the property down here.  And Rin completes her capture!  Selena finally slots herself into the chokepoint beside Rose. "Well, if it isn't Rose Kuroda, manning a tank about sixteen times her size." Selena says, giving a soft smile. "It's good to see you looking well." "You too, Selena... I heard about what happened." Rose says. "Selena... we will win. I swear it to you. And when we do, we'll save her." "Thank you, Rose. That... means a lot." Selena replies, her voice thick with emotion. "In the meantime, however, I'd be honoured if you'd hold this chokepoint with me." Rose adds. "I'm going to embarrass Kindle, and step one of that plan is preventing her forces from encroaching onto our territory for as long as possible." "They won't break us, that's for certain." Selena says fiercely.  With his capturing done, Alfonse gets back into Michael. We'll need to get him safely into Kindle's area, and APCs are, as always, a great way to do that.  We can't do squat until we've got the bombers up here though, so here we go! Zlata smashes the next seam...  Which opens the way for Lucy to move in. Nearly there already! We can open up these seams next time and begin murdering everything that looks at us funny.  You might call murdering everything unreasonable. I call it victory.  The piperunner tires of firing on Ingo and decides to target... a different artillery? This time, it's Inessa who takes basically no damage.  The anti-air makes the worst mistake of its short life, meanwhile, by parking on a road.  See, the thing about anti-airs is that they only counter bombers if THEY initiate first or have defensive terrain...  But as we'll see when Zlata breaks this seam, that's, uh, not the case.  Bomber counter? Pfft. Should've found some defensive terrain, fucker! The carnage begins. And you know, two bombers is great, but you know what's better?  THREE BOMBERS! I couldn't let Peregrine miss out on the fun, right? "Hey, if it ain't the fuckin' Queen of the Skies!" Peregrine says as she flies out of the airport. "Mind if you let a third person come help you wreck poo poo?" "Wreck as much as you like, Peregrine!" Zlata says. "Think you can get here before we finish all the foes off?" "You'd better save some for me, Zlata!"  I don't think there's much they can do, but I may as well move them out of the way of the combat units - Rin hops into Fleur and they flee the chokepoint. Their job is done now.  The bomber girls move in. I also move Cassandra up - Kindle's got a LOT of infantry just sort of hanging around up there, so having something that shreds them might be quite useful.  Fuel's running a little tight with Inessa and Cassandra though. Thank goodness I have like three APCs on this map.  Speaking of APCs, Ludmilla can head up next turn, now that Carter's done down here. We need all our infantry due north to help capture stuff! Wait, we actually don't, do we? We only need one more property to win, and Alfonse can cover that since he's already up there. I already said, my dude, I don't intend to defeat Kindle. I intend to humiliate her. Oh god, you're gonna style on her, aren't you? Welp, the little lady has spoken. All infantry, due north!  For some reason, Kindle just throws a ton of infantry at my bombers, instead of, you know, the two anti-airs she has in that crowd of units. She did build some missiles too, I guess, but eh.  Ultimately, it will be pointless and not move. So let's get on with all that murdering, shall we? We've got to open a wide enough hole that we can safely get the APCs in here.  Peregrine catches up, whilst Michael refuels Lucy and Zlata - fuel is a bomber's biggest weakness, and I don't want to have to be worrying about that later in the battle.  So we're just going to get started with this infestation of infantries. This is one of the worst cases of an infestation I've seen in my whole career.  The other thing I want to do is open up this seam too. That should mean I won't have to funnel my forces quite as much, if there's two entry points.  I move the girls in, meanwhile - I make sure to stick Cassandra next to Michael so she can steal his fuel supplies and be ready to annihilate any infantry I happen to point her at. Unless they're on defensive terrain, but that would be massively unsporting of them.  "We gotta catch up!" Carter says as he hops into Ludmilla's APC. Ludmilla nods. "Yeah, Rose's orders, I heard 'em. Come on, let's get moving."  Fleur and Rin are catching up, too! Admittedly they're low on fuel as well, but it should be fine.  Let's see what useless bullshit Kindle plans to do today.  Sounds about right, yeah.  Well, several of her units moved around and blocked off my bombers from moving, which was very loving annoying. It then got even more annoying because she's only gone and spawned an anti-air that I CAN'T GET AT because of these units. gently caress.  OK, we're gonna need some big-brained play to get out of this mess. First thing first, Lucy blasts the infantry to her left.  This wasn't terribly big-brained, but still, Peregrine mostly-murders this infantry.  Me and Rose decide to spook Kindle by putting an infantry on the HQ. Tragically Alfonse probably isn't going to be able to pull off the HQ capture, since all these infantries will immediately mob him, but it's a hell of a power play. "Hey, Zlata, can you get at that anti-air before it strikes?" Lucy asks fearfully. Zlata winces. "I can't! There's too many soldiers around, I'm pinned down!" "Prepare to move." says a serious woman's voice over the transceiver. "Wait, move where? There's no way through..." Zlata begins, but then she spots a unit driving up to the enemy forces.  "I'm opening up a path for you! You must act now!" Cassandra, the Morningstar, yells as she races into the thick of the enemy forces and opens fire. Her anti-air is untouchable, slamming through foe after foe, and creating a path for Zlata to reach the anti-air. The moment the way is open, Zlata flies off. "Thank you, Cassandra! I won't waste this opportunity!"  So, it's on defensive terrain, but we can still hurt it enough to the point that it won't totally cripple or outright murder our bombers, and that's the important thing. Big-brained play!  I also move Inessa onto the base near here, so she can refuel, but also so that she can fire on anything that Kindle spawns from this base. And now we can end turn and- Wait. Kindle has her CO Power. That's not allowed.  Sasha doesn't have her CO Power, but hey, when has that ever stopped me? All we need to do is fire on this infantry with Ingo...  Let Selena fire on this infantry...  Murderfuck this guy with Rose...  And boom, enough damage for our CO Power!  Get absolutely outplayed, Kindle.  With a sweet 40k sitting in our bank, and little else that we need to spend it on, we totally wipe out Kindle's CO Meter. I'm pretty sure that would have wiped it out if it had been nearly full. This CO Power is busted.  Welp, I'm sure Kindle had lots of plans this turn, like using her CO Power and attacking some stuff, but she was denied again.  As predicted, the infantry go totally feral and decide to hit Alfonse's face.  Kindle did have a medium tank hiding at the back of her units, which moves into the empty space and fires on Rose. She's fine, though. Slight defence boost from a CO Power is kinda convenient, honestly.  Plus, it's in Ingo's range, so... In the meantime, the anti-air fires on Zlata, and- how is it on 5HP? Oh, gently caress, it was on a base! It healed up, I didn't calculate for that- "Zlata, watch out!" Dimitri and Diana grip the transceiver in their shared tank. Dimitri yells "ZLata?" "Zlata, hang in there!" Cassandra says, as she and the other bombers watch the anti-air fire off shots that rip through her bomber.  "Hang in there..?" Zlata says, smiling. "C-can do!" "Oh, thank god." Dimitri breathes. "That's the th-thing about being a mechanic!" Zlata replies. "I made some modifications to my bomber so it could stand up to anti-air fire!" "Thank goodness. For a moment, I thought I'd..." Cassandra murmurs, but she shakes her head.  That was way too loving close. Anyway, another infantry pokes at one of my APCs. There was no luck there. I knew she would survive. And you couldn't have told ME that?! I did, but you stopped listening after I said the word 'bomber', as you often do. Sorry, what did you say? I heard the word 'bomber' and was daydreaming about having twelve of them in one map. And again! These infantries loving hate APCs, apparently.  This piperunner's gone back to firing on Ingo and doing no damage. Does it... think it's contributing?  Right, there's an anti-air that needs to die, first order of business.  Actually, first order of business is clearing out these bases and then putting my units on them so that Kindle stops deploying annoying poo poo. To that end, Inessa fires on this tank.  Cassandra can clear out this infantry no problem, and allow Carter/Ludmilla to get into the upper area and block some stuff off.  Or she can leave them on 1 loving HP and make me waste another turn murdering them next time. God drat it, Cassandra.  Zlata gets the gently caress out of here in the meantime, and instead, she's replaced with Lucy, who can easily stomp this anti-air. "THAT'S for hurting my friends!" Lucy shouts, raining bombs down from above. "I won't allow it to happen any more! I won't!"  Peregrine can finish off the tank, too. The base is open!  Seeing as he's not got much else to do, Alfonse hops back into Michael and nabs the base. No more deploying anti-airs for you! ...Unless you do it with the other base. I'll deal with that in a sec.  I put Ludmilla and Fleur next to each other so they can refuel one another on the next turn. And that's our turn done! Can you see my enormous mistake?  It'll be obvious in a second.  Wait, did Rose forget to fire on that medium tank with Ingo?! She couldn't have... The medium tank is going to attack... blast. Wait, is Rose in danger?! I mean, theoretically, Rose is never in danger, but... "Ahahahah... did you enjoy that? Almost killing me?" says a little voice from the medium tank. "Do you think you spotted a weakness? That I made a mistake? Utter ignorance." Selena and the other soldiers at the chokepoint watch in silent surprise as Rose's medium tank continues standing firm against the enemy assault. "Do you think you can beat me, Kindle? Whilst we are here playing games with our tanks, I have already defeated you in an area of the battlefield you've not been concentrating on. You can only see the battlefield as a little game to play with your little toys. I see the whole battlefield - every turn, every action, every possibility, and from those, I find a winning strategy. There is nothing you can do to me that I have not accounted for." Rose says fiercely, her eyes blazing with an oft-hidden passion. "I was once called the Desolate Flower... for I felt that I was desolate, lonely, in my new role as an ACO, away from my friends in Orange Star. But I have old and new friends, and plenty of allies, who have helped me grow, and feel less alone. I think it is time for a new name - no longer will I be desolate, but I shall make my foes experience that misery instead! I am Rose Kuroda, the Flower of Desolation!"  Holy poo poo, Rose. Anyway, uh, this infantry continues harassing my APCs, because apparently Kindle's mission is no longer "win" but "be as much of a nuisance as possible".  Speaking of nuisance, she finally gets her CO Power. I bet Rose accounted for this, too.  Annoying, despite planes gaining no defensive benefits from terrain, they still count as being on the city for Kindle's CO Power, so they'll still take the 3 damage.  So Peregrine takes 3 damage, leaving Lucy as the only undamaged bomber.  Right, I'm sick of this horseshit. Let's end it soon.  And she's deployed another god drat anti-air. Urgh. Right, biggest threats first. Let's start on this tank with Ingo.  Selena can come in and finish it off.  So, Rose isn't really in any shape to continue tanking this whole bunch of nonsense, so we'll move Dave in now. He and Selena should be fine - we only need to buy a couple more turns to win.  And just to keep Dave's HP topped off, we join him with Dimitri/Diana! "Jeez, this tank's gettin' cramped..." Dave mutters, and Dimitri nods. "Yeah, but we've just gotta hold off a little longer." he replies. "We can do it, gentlemen. Dimitri's Mercenaries and the 11th Division... what can beat that?" Diana replies, giving a determined smile.  We can finish off this APC-attacking guy with Inessa in the meantime. God, he was irritating.  As the only one on full HP, Lucy's gotta take the hit and initiate on this anti-air. If we can get it out of the way and block off the base this turn, we've basically won.  Together, she and Peregrine have just enough firepower to take it out! "Nice flying, Perry!" "Took a few tips from you, Luce! More risks, more rewards!" Peregrine replies. "Well, just take care! I don't want to see you downed!" Lucy says.  Cassandra can cover up the base and fire on this infantry in one fell swoop, so that's nice. The fewer infantries we have hanging around, the happier I'll be.  So, we do a little rearranging and get Carter on the base so he can start capturing it.  Kindle can do nothing about this.  Correct. Well, there is an artillery nearby, but it's not in Carter's range, so... we win, basically.  But as Rose said, we don't just want to win, we want to style on this bitch, so let's see if we can't get a few more infantry in place to capture stuff, just for the hell of it.  Our bombers form a nice wall, allowing Michael to get dropped off on another property.  And Carter begins capturing the base.  Kindle's last useless turn is...  Wait, code red, Kindle did something! I mean, OK, it's just an artillery firing on Inessa, but still, more resistance than I expected.  Right, last couple of things to do...  That was for firing on Inessa, you prick.  We start capturing the other base...  ...and another property. Wholly unnecessary, but man, we could have beaten Kindle so hard if we'd wanted to.  So let's end it here.  IT TOOK TWENTY-ONE DAYS Looks like your precious piperunners fell flat! Now surrender...or run scared! Hmph. I could have routed her, but I would rather have the swift victory over the absolute victory. Aha ha ha...ahem. Such a ridiculous invention... This is all Lash's fault! What. Huh? My original idea was much better. It would have been a truly grand weapon! But then that girl took it on all by herself and...well...you see the results! Oh my gently caress, she's one of THESE people. No wonder we lost! You've got to be kidding me! Spoken like a true seer, Kindle! Everything is the fault of Lash... You are blameless in all things! Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! You know, I like these guys. You do?! Yeah. They're showing Rachel just how lucky she is to have me, and how much worse I could be. Aha ha ha... Aren't I though? Yes, Lash's fault. Never trust a child with a lady's job... What a useless weapon... Gahahah! I think we were right to trust a child with this job, huh, Rose? Thank you, Grimm. It was...quite satisfying to beat Kindle. This lady's psycho... Aha ha ha! Shut it, lowlife! I don't need such a weak weapon. Keep it or destroy it or...whatever you like. I think we'll keep it and then probably never deploy it, if any of the previous weapons we've acquired are anything to go by. I care not. Aha ha ha ha! Heh heh heh... Until we meet again! Retreat! Retreat! Retreat! Grrr! Those three stooges really tick me off! It seems that the Black Hole COs aren't as united as we thought. Blaming each other... Squabbling... I'm so glad we're not like that. Yeah, man, imagine squabbling all the time. I MEANT the COs! The ACOs are a totally different matter! You really can't keep your mouth shut, can you, my dude? It is a blessing and a curse. Mostly a curse. I just like talking. Anyway, Rachel, I don't think we're getting on that badly, compared to them. Right? I...suppose not. When the chips are down, you're...a good ACO. They're much more divided than we are. Good. I hope they bust a cap in each other! Now we have to find those blueprints. Colin? Y-yes, Sis! Coming... Yes, I have the blueprint right here... Holld on, where is it... Um... Why do we keep entrusting these things to Colin? Found it! Here it is! The blueprint! Good. Hey, sweet. Now we can totally bust out our own piperunners. I don't think getting piperunners was worth having to partake in this tedious battle. You said it, kid. It's such a large-scale weapon... How can we best take advantage of it? A wise lesson for us all! We must never underestimate the science of Black Hole! You got that right! Those fellas just keep crankin' out the weird weapons. Hey, Neotanks were very cool. The one good thing to come out of Black Hole. We're in good shape now! All units, move out! We'll unleash this new weapon the next time we face Black Hole! What's the chance that the next map isn't going to give us a good opportunity to use piperunners? 80% and climbing, I'd say. And you two - my dude, Rose. Mm? I... I just wanted to say that one of the reasons we're in good shape is because of you two. So, thanks. Of course, Commander Rachel. I shall cleave a path through our foes; there is no stopping us. ...Thanks, Rachel. Means a lot. Just don't backtalk me as much, alright?! No promises! And a victory for us! Not an S-rank, but honestly, I don't give a gently caress, the map is done. We have unlocked the ability to deploy piperunners! Piperunners are unmanned  Jake promotes despite doing nothing in that battle! Well done, Jake.  Do you talk about like, anything else, Jake? Ever?  Well, no matter, let's see what the next map's got in store for us. It better not be any loving pipes, piperunners, spirals or gardens. Or Kindle.  If we make it across this sea, we should arrive at Red Rock Desert. There's a good chance we'll find the enemy HQ there. However, to get there, we'll have to topple a floating fortress. Wait, floating in the sky or floating on the sea? Yes. A fortress? That's like a heavily armoured building, right? Are we up to the task? Colin, you shouldn't doubt our abilities. You should know by now that Rachel and my dude always have a plan. Hell yeah. That's right--I do. Actually, it's still classified, but... my dude's going to blab about it anyway... Exactly, you may as well tell them. We're scheduled to introduce new units to our arsenal. New units? What kind of new units? Let's just say that conceptually, they absolutely loving rock. Are they tanks? If my dude was involved, they must be. They're tanks, right? You're killing me, kid. What're we supposed to do with tanks at sea? Oh. Dude...yeah. Unfortunately I was not involved, Rachel organised most of it. Otherwise they would have been tanks. Amphibious tanks. Oh poo poo, that's a great idea, I'm gonna write that down... No it isn't and shut up. There are actually two new units. The first is a carrier, a naval unit capable of transporting air units, and the other is an invisible air unit called a stealth fighter. Goodness me... I wonder what Perry would make of such a weapon? Invisible? Yeah, so it uses some fancy technology- My dude!! The details are still classified. Oh. Right. Whoops. I'll fill you in when we arrive. Let's move out!So, let's go to the map! May our joys be as great as its depths and our lives as tasty as its residents. You, um... speak wisely. I think. Beats me. I have no idea what he's talking about. I don't think lives can be tasty. So, Rachel, my dude, where's our fresh new gear? Just wait. As I mentioned, it can secure, refuel and relaunch air units. Now, about the unit inside the carrier's hangar... MOTHER. loving. PLANES. That didn't explain anything. They're... Rachel! Enemy forces are headed this way! Well, we don't have much of a choice. Let's meet 'em head on! I'll continue my explanation as we go. Tutorialising under pressure? Man, you and Nell are SO alike. Um, thanks? OK, we've got two fronts to manage. I'm bringing one up on the top screen now. That's the secondary front up there--the main front is on the lower screen. I think our best bet is a divide and conquer approach. We better split up and tackle each front individually. Remember how we fought the flying fortress? We're going to use those same tactics again. Oh, god, you mean the most stressful battle of my career? God drat it. My dude! It'll be OK. I'm here. Exactly! I know you weren't here, Rose, but I'm sure you get the gist. We'll send air units from the main front to the second front and make that thing crash and burn! Oh, here we go again... So, we have a fun new map to check out! We have quite a number of air and sea units, which is always a nice change of pace. Heck, Selena might get to be a submarine for once. It is supposed to be her main proficiency, after all.  Black bombs and bombers up above, and battleships below... taking out these two fortresses isn't going to be easy. I really hope I get control of the upper battlefield for this one again, because I cannot emotionally handle having to risk my planes' lives again.  Down here, we've got a little more land, as well as some trapped carriers with our new stealth planes in. I wanna know what they do! I wanna see them!  And here's the ones that Rachel found. Now how the hell do we free them quickly and easily..? Well, I guess we'll figure that out next time. Please vote for which COs you want to see handle this map, and I'll be back next time with bote-relating funsies! Hopefully. *** Part 42 (Intermission) - The Lovestruck cosmicPostman fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Jun 3, 2022 |
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Jun 3, 2022 13:22
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Spiral Garden was always the worst map to me. It's not interesting or fun, it's just a slog. As for this next map, pick Max for the top, it's literally made for him (or Eagle. Or Kanbei. But they ain't around!) and for the bottom front there's not really anyone in particular who excels there, is there? Your choice, CP! Let the narrative guide your hand. Anyway, time for the special dialogue. The theme of today is sneezing, for some reason. I don't think they brought this up at all in the pre-mission text but I guess there's a lot of pollen in the air or something? Hayfever is a bitch. Jake/Rachel ...Fwaaaachoo! Huh? What the heck?! Did you just sneeze? Hee hee! Hee hee hee hee! That's too much! You said fwachoo! Aha ha ha! You're killin' me! Stop laughing. I think I'm sick... Hee hee.. Oh, s-sorry... I hope... Hee! I hope it's not a cold. When we're done, I'll make you some chicken soup.Colin/Sasha ...Achoo! What's wrong, Sis? Are you catching a cold? Here, let me make you some hot chocolate. Oh, thanks. That would be nice... Don't forget the marshmallows. Or thecinnamon stick. Oh, and make sure it's hot! The last time it was kind of lukewarm. And use the snowman mug!Sensei/Grimm ...Gwaaaaarchooooooohhh, yeah! You're the only person I know who adds words to his sneezes...Jake/Jess I... I think I'm going to sneeze... Would you please turn away, Jake? Huh? What? Sorry, I had my headphones on. No... Stop! Don't look! Don't--Achoo! Oh, dude! Naaaaasty!Jess/Javier Aah...! Aaaaaaah...! ...Aaaaaaa...blarg! Javier? What is it? An enemy raid?! No, no... I am...trying not to...sneeze. A gentleman cannot be in front of a lady standing and making the sneeze.Also I want to draw attention to more of Jugger being the best from Spiral Garden's yield text. Aha ha ha ha! Did you like my new invention? Even if you all rise up and attack me, you can never stop the power of Kindle! Kindle...genius. Kindle...beautiful... Kindle...arrogant...er...Abort! Abort! I'll try to forget you said that, tin man. Now, let's move out before they regroup. Bon voyage! Au revoir! Aha ha ha ha!
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Jun 3, 2022 14:39
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Ok, so you know how there was discussion about if deleting units counts as a death a few months back? It's because of this map. Deleting one of the trapped carriers lets the rest launch fighters and escape on their own. I'd think it's reasonable that everyone on the deleted carrier would survive, since there's three other ships right next to them, but I'm also unsure if freeing the fighters on the opposite side of the map is actually wise for a deathless run. Make of that what you will. Regardless Javier on the main front and Max on the top for obvious reasons
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Jun 3, 2022 14:50
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Hey, I've greatly enjoyed reading your AWLPs, since I do prefer the Fire Emblem type of strategy game. So, I noticed that Jake, Rachel, and Sasha are your go to COs, let's make things interesting. Use the two COs you have used the least in this playthrough.
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Jun 3, 2022 15:17
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Spiral Garden seems like it would have been a good map to be able to deploy your own piperunners, both because it would greatly increase how much firepower you can put into it's narrow corridors and it would have force the player to be more careful with breaking pipe seams. Of course, since you didn't have them yet, they'll probably just be unused for the rest of the game.
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Jun 3, 2022 15:41
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Flying Fortress Round 2... hoo boy! I'm gonna second Soundwave's vote here, especially since Max did his job so well the first time: Max on Top, CP Choice on BottomChaosStar0 posted:Hey, I've greatly enjoyed reading your AWLPs, since I do prefer the Fire Emblem type of strategy game. So, I noticed that Jake, Rachel, and Sasha are your go to COs, let's make things interesting. Use the two COs you have used the least in this playthrough. Lets be fair here, us goons have been trying to give him... reasonable odds of success here, they just happen to align with "Jake the main protag, Rachel because missiles, and Sasha because lol enemy CO meter."
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Jun 3, 2022 22:22
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...how did those carriers get there?
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Jun 4, 2022 00:17
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SMaster777 posted:Flying Fortress Round 2... hoo boy! I'm gonna second Soundwave's vote here, especially since Max did his job so well the first time: Max on Top, CP Choice on Bottom Yeah, I know. I just want to see him try some ones he's not used to using. See him come up with creative strategies with them.
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Jun 4, 2022 00:30
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Remalle posted:...how did those carriers get there? Black Hole landscaping and construction works very quickly when there isn't an active battle going on.
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Jun 4, 2022 01:04
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Next you'll ask why flak put that battleship in a lake last game.  Let's go with Max up top and Rachel on the bottom. Sasha is fun, but the giant co meter gain for winning the top front doesn't play well with her basic power spam and missiles are fun. Consider this a secondary vote for showing off the easy way to win this mission even if it's not canon, if only for the novelty of the delete command being useful.
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Jun 4, 2022 22:31
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Part 43 (Battle) - New Contenders For The Best Units In The Game Hoo boy, we have a long update today. Let's jump into the battle!  Max was voted for the second front (naturally), and we had a vote for Javier plus a vote to use COs I don't use as much, so... Javier!  Today’s Deployments Boris, Infantry Ivan, Infantry Dimitri, Mech Ludmilla, APC Adelaide, APC Carter, Artillery Paul, Rockets Raynald, Fighter Valentin, Fighter Diana, Fighter Yakov, Fighter Khepri, Fighter Andromeda, Fighter Lorelei, Fighter Petra, Fighter Alina, Bomber Lucy, Stealth Fighter Peregrine, Stealth Fighter Klara, Stealth Fighter Zlata, Stealth Fighter Valeria, Stealth Fighter Matek, Stealth Fighter Quincy, Stealth Fighter Rose, Battle Copter Shaia, Battle Copter Anna, Battleship Von Panzer, Aircraft Carrier Lloyd, Aircraft Carrier Iago, Aircraft Carrier Eva, Aircraft Carrier Wallace, Aircraft Carrier Kevin, Aircraft Carrier Peter, Aircraft Carrier Fenya, Cruiser Selena, Submarine Michael, Lander I think, for the first time, maybe ever, I am justified in having so many characters. I wasn’t sure I was going to have enough units for this.  Yeah, and real knights died out years ago because they all got stabbed in the back. Max, bring them all back safe, alright? Of course! Fortress, stronghold, hideout--whatever you call it, I'm bringing it down! Attaboy, Max. I have nothing to fear. So, there's a lot going on this map. Our main goals are to free our carriers from those cruisers, take out Jugger's forces defending the fortress, and get our strongest units in position to smash the cannons. Up top, it's a simple case of destroying the Black Arc. Again.  Moving our indirects, Carter and Paul, down here gets them in position to fire on the cruisers. Paul's already in range of the first one.  Our foot units capture some stuff. It's not super important, but hey, it's there. And there's a few things we do want to grab - namely, the comm towers.  There's a couple of comm towers near the carriers, so I organise the APCs and Michael, our lander for today, in position to carry the foot units down there once they've finished capturing.  Nearly done with all the preparations now. Next task is to send two of our fighters up - Valentin heads on up, and Raynald of Châtillon crusades up there. "Truly incredible! Javier, a CO after my own heart - a noble knight who understands the true cause!" "Oh lord, Raynald's got a new hero." sighs Michael. "Well, as long as he's happy..."  And we'll set Max to defensive posture so my fighters don't just blindly charge into the range of the enemy fighters. We can do the same tactic we did last time - lure them in, then crush them next turn with all our planes.  The rest of our forces move forward - progress is gonna be slow whilst Jugger has a fighter, a cruiser and two battleships hanging around. Once a few of the anti-air threats are gone, though... heh. May as well check out the carrier just before we end turn.  Massive deck, more like massive di- ANYWAY, while they're on board, they'll get a fresh supply of ordnance and fuel. Just load and drop units just as you would with an APC. It's that simple. Wicked. I'll check that out. This carrier has air units on board that I want to launch. But enemy units and pipes are in the way. We've got to create an opening. Don't worry, I'm on it. I want to see the stealthy boys as much as anyone else! Jugger's fighter is going to be aggressive and charge us. Annoyingly, though, his cruiser and battleships are just gonna hang back, and we can't fight them without getting into cannon range right now.  These neophytes genuinely believe they can defeat us with this shabby force? It's enough to make me break into laughter. Yes... I laugh at them. Aha ha ha...Oh god, Kindle's laugh is contagious. Aha ha ha! Unknown ordnance detected. Hmmm? Yes. You are correct. They are fielding units that are unfamiliar to me. If they intended to shake my confidence, they have failed. The Black Arc has been refined--nothing the enemy possesses can match it!Except for like, eight fighters. Come, Jugger. The denizens of the deep are hungry, and I would feed them! Jugger's cruisers also harass our carriers - Von Panzer, Lloyd and Iago. Jugger's shaky damage output means these cruisers can do up to 2 damage. But if you get lucky...  Then they take basically no damage.  "Ach! These weaklings will not stop Von Panzer!" Von Panzer yells. Lloyd nods, his captain's coat flapping in the wind as he shouts to the sky. "Aye, these sea-monkeys are gonna regret the day they messed with us, lads!" "Hmph. If you say so." Iago mutters.  No damage again...  Come on. Three for three, do it, Jugger.  Pfft. That's probably the best opening turn you can have with these cruisers - gives us more time to get the indirects down there to take care of them.  And there's the aggressive fighter, as mentioned.  There's also a good number of black boats hanging about, which is going to make taking out those battleships even more of a hassle.  Up top, our plane force moves forwards, and some of our planes can attack the cannons whilst staying out of enemy range! As such, Andromeda takes the initiative. "I... I landed a struck, shot, hit!" Andromeda says. "It's... so high..." "Hang in there, Andromeda!" says Khepri brightly, flying her own fighter towards the imposing Black Arc. "Peregrine said you're really improving as a flier! Why not show her just how good you've become?" "I would, um, will!"  You can't really see them because Koal's stupid head is in the way, but anyway, the enemy fighters took the bait.  Down here, too. We can take them out next turn, no problem.  The black bombs are headed to our southern group. Thankfully, they're not a problem - once the enemy fighters are gone, there's only the bombers and black bombs left - neither of which can kill fighters outright, so victory is guaranteed after this, pretty much.  So, let's head back to the main front, where things are not so guaranteed yet. Lots to do first.  Like capturing a comm tower! One down, two to go - they'll help a ton later.  Paul opens fire on the first cruiser whilst Carter moves his artillery so he can finish it off next turn.  Now we need to send our final two fighters up so we can cleanly finish off the enemy this turn - up you go, Diana!  And Yakov, you too. We've got enough firepower, especially with Max, to finish off all the enemy fighters now, I'm pretty sure.  Speaking of enemy fighters, we've got to keep our copters out of this dude's range. We want to lure him further over here so we can cruiser him to death with Fenya.  We arrange our forces like this - Anna, our battleship, is also in range to fire on the other cruisers from here, so she'll be doing that to help out the grounded indirects.  Hopefully Jugger's plane takes the bait. ...Come to think of it, do cruisers even oneshot fighters? I probably should've checked that before I sent all my fighters up.  The cruisers attack our big burly aircraft carriers again, but this one, weakened by Paul, does fuckall to Von Panzer.  The other ones don't have as much luck, and take a bit of damage. Nothing to be concerned about.  The important thing is that these cruisers will all be dead soon.  Bait: taken.  The black boats head down to try and help out that damaged cruiser, but it'll be Carter-ed by the time they get there.  So, I won't show all of this, but safe to say...  This turn on the second front reminds me a lot of my favourite Vengaboys song.  Boom  Boom  Boom  Boom I want you in my room, let's spend the night together, from now until forever... So, yeah, we pulled off another deathless run of the AI-controlled second front! I really hope they don't get harder than this. Actually, I really hope this is the last mission with one of these outright.  The cannons take a few pot-shots at our fighters, but again, they can't bring our fighters below 1HP, so there's really no danger-  Although it'll go quicker if my planes have higher HP, so please stop loving shooting them  The black bomb down here explodes, which brings our girls Andromeda and Khepri down a bit.  The other black bomb hangs back, obviously terrified after seeing all those fighters get destroyed in one turn.  Well, that was magical!  Now back to the actual battle. Paul's moving over here, since I need him to do something else. Anna and Carter can take care of the cruisers, no problem - Anna one-shots them, for starters.  Carter doesn't, but he still hits hard enough to finish this loser off. One down!  Dimitri, Ivan and Boris have places to be, so Dimitri hops into Ludmilla's APC.  And Ludmilla hops into Michael's lander.  Followed by Ivan. "Well, this is a party!" Ivan says cheerily. Michael waves at him. "Sure is! But we've got some more comm towers to capture, so no time to sit and chat, unfortunately." Michael replies. "I just worry about those carriers. They sound like powerful new vehicles, but having them trapped like this..." Ludmilla says. She gives a sultry smile. "Well, the COs have a plan, I'm sure. Let's do our part to win this battle!" "Agreed. Set sail, Michael - let's not waste time." Dimitri commands. Michael salutes and prepares to sail.  Boris hops into Adelaide to catch up via the land route.  So, uh, in-universe, my dude doesn't know this, but guess what? Fun fact about carriers.  They're ranged anti-air units with god drat 3-8 range.  Yeah, we lured the fighter in range of the delete button known as the carrier, no cruisers necessary. Delete him, Iago!  Goddammit Iago, put more effort in.  They can splash bogeys from three to eight spaces away. Are you making GBS threads me? You can't just casually say "oh here are these cool carriers, their main function is carrying planes and refuelling them, also they're the undisputed best anti-air weapon that has ever existed"! You won't be thinking they're the best anti-air weapon when you see the price tag. Oh, god drat it, why are all the units I like really expensive? Well, I'm going to enjoy them whilst we have them, then. Open fire, Lloyd!"Say no more! Pay attention, carriers! THIS is how you down an aircraft!" "Urgh." Iago sighs. "I could've done that." "Then why didn't you? What's your name, lad?" Lloyd says. Iago grimaces and puts the transceiver down. "Doesn't matter."  Meanwhile, Anna absolutely dunks on the second cruiser. Battleships are so much fun and Advance Wars should have more naval maps, I said it.  The bro copters aren't quite as dangerous to my units as the fighter, but they can fire on submarines (and cruisers, technically, but that would be a suicidal option), so I'd like to move everyone out of this range. Rose, in one of the allied bro copters, shakes her hair out of her face. "We're making great strides. Forces, move back and allow the enemy to approach. Move forward and crush them when the opportunity arises - we'll take care of the enemy's naval division afterwards." "Yes, ma'am." Selena replies. "My sub is primed and ready - I'm waiting on orders from my dude to move in." "I know..." Rose mutters. "We must be cautious. There's something bothering me about this battle, and I can't figure out what yet. What did I read about the Black Arc in the battle notes..?"  Von Panzer moves around so that he can drop off our new planes in a more convenient location, once the cruisers are all taken care of, and with that, our turn ends.  Come to think of it, a fighter, some cruisers... quite expensive. Jugger's CO Meter might be charging faster than I'd like - with the second front taking over the other screen, I can't see it at a glance, so I've not been checking it.  The copters move in and wisely decide not to suicide into Fenya. She'll have to oneshot them in her own time.  And this cruiser continues poking away at Lloyd, ignoring the enormous battleship on the other side of this pipe which is about to slaughter it.  The rest of the ships continue staying the gently caress away from me, which I'm not complaining about. I'll deal with them later.  And with the fighters gone, our units up top begin working on attacking the cannons around the Black Arc to bring it down.  First one down! Seven more to go, but with Max-powered fighters, it's not going to be too much time.  I could send our bomber, Alina, up to oneshot them, but I'd rather keep her on the main front where her sheer power will be quite useful. We don't want Max to win the second front too quickly anyway, since I need to get things prepared on the main front before then. You'll see why in a bit.  That's it, Yakov. Keep murdering those cannons.  Our southern planes do eat another black bomb, but they can just join up next turn, so... yeah. This would have been a more dangerous map if the black bombs came first, then the enemy fighrers. Not that I'm complaining - I like a nice, convenient map.  Back to our turn, and we have plenty to do - you see, there's some bad news.  Jugger's nearly got his SCOP. Thankfully, we can solve that problem - if we kill everything of Jugger's that's in range of our units, then his SCOP will be useless since nothing can attack us. So, uh, yeah, we've got to play very aggressively, and those copters are first on the hit-list.  Fenya takes care of one of 'em pretty easily.  Rose attacks the second copter, weakening it... "Shaia, move in and finish it off. Take it out, quickly." Rose commands.  "Alright, alright, I heard you the first time..." Shaia says, sighing, before muttering to herself: "Taking orders from a kid is something else..."  With that done, I move Paul into place. He's got work to do.  And Anna finishes off the final cruiser, freeing our aircraft carriers!  So Von Panzer moves on up and drops off the first of our stealth fighters: Lucy. "Ooh, this thing is slinky! I kinda love it!" Lucy says, taking flight. "Are you two catching up?"  "Yeah, yeah, we'll be with you shortly!" Peregrine replies, grinning. "Just gotta keep an eye on those rockets - don't park yourself in range of 'em, Lloyd!" "Who do you think you're talkin' too, lass? I'd never make such an amateur mistake!" Lloyd says with a loud, proud laugh. "Let's get you airborne, then, shall we?"  "Get going." mutters Iago as he drops off the final stealth fighter: Klara. "Oh, thank you so much! I'll catch up with you two now, Lucy, Peregrine... I hope I don't hold you back!" "Nah, I've heard good things about your fighting, Klara! Just, uh, direct that rage towards the enemy, alright?" Peregrine says.  Selena moves into position and dives down. Now that we have the stealth fighters, we can more safely approach this little clusterfuck of boats, and Selena will be useful for doing some damage here.  Next it's time for Jugger's CO Power: Hit Very Hard, Except Not Because Nothing's In Range!  Yeah yeah. Get it over with.  Why do they even use it if nothing's in range?  Jugger's black boats use all this newfound power to REPAIR as hard as they can.  And nothing else notable happens. Well done, Jugger. You may not be the best CO at, like, winning, but you have the best dialogue, and that counts for something.  Up top, another cannon goes down...  And another! We're making good progress.  And seeing as they, uh, can't do any damage, Koal's bombers refuse to come any closer. We'll kill them later, don't worry. So, let's find out what the deal with stealth fighters is, anyway.  It can engage both air units and ground forces. HELL yes. Engage? I want to blow stuff up, not marry it. I'm not done yet! I'm about to get to the good part. Stealth units can hide, blending seamlessly into the sky. While they're invisible, they can't be targeted. Can't be targeted? What, so that's just like when a sub dives, right? That's it, Jake! The only units that can attack stealth units while they're hiding are fighters and other stealth units. Ahem. Yes, FINE, they also get hit by minicannons. Aside from these, stealth units can't be touched. Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about! Max! Focus on the second front before all of my soldiers die! Relax, my dude, I'm on it! Black Hole doesn't stand a chance against rad weapons like these. I must admit, I'm excited to see them in action. Word. You're that hotshot Yellow Comet ACO, aren't you? Correct--Rose. And you must be Jake. Sure am. You must've heard a lot of good things about me from my dude. We're pretty tight. I certainly heard things about you from my dude, yes... Anyway, let's see what these new planes can do. We'll win for certain with these. Don't forget that they're still vulnerable to enemy fighters. Though, I suppose that's a moot point since the enemy fighters are all downed. We'll need to get the most out of our new fighters to take out that fortress! gently caress yeah, let's do it! We have stealth planes now! Who's hyped? I am. First, though, we have some other things to do - Boris and Ivan get dropped off and go for the comm towers.  And Paul can do big damage to this anti-air! We need to get our bomber, Alina, through this area, but taking out the rockets and anti-air is inconvenient with the units we have. Paul's rocket support helps a ton, since we can do this now...  Rose, the bravest bro copter in the world, takes on the anti-air, and finishes it off.  Which lets Alina come in and blast these rockets, practically putting them out of commission.  The reason this is so awkward is the minicannon - we have to stay out of its range, since it'll chip our units, and Alina cannot afford to take a hit right now.  Klara suddenly charges forward as her demeanour changes once more. The noise can be heard over the transceiver. "Think you can threaten our land, you bastardly pieces of filth?! I'll crush every single one of you with one arm tied behind my back! EAT THIS! GRRAAAAARGH!!!" "Goodness me." Rose says. "I see what people mean about Klara being a berserker now..." "Classic Klara. Knock 'em dead, hun!" Ludmilla says through the transceiver.  As Rachel said, our stealth planes can hide just like subs.  And we get a cute little animation of them shrouding themselves in fog - Lucy is primed and ready for action.  Peregrine gets herself in position, too. We're almost ready to break through these loving boats.  Just gotta make sure this cruiser doesn't spot Selena or the stealth fighters.  Actually, you know what? I can just sneak Anna into the cruiser's range and it'll go for her. Perfect. Once it's been lured away from the battleships, we can descend upon it and murder it, no problem.  And thus, my forces arrange themselves like so. We need to stay back out of minicannon range right now, but next turn we should be able to sneak some units between the cannons.  Let's see if Jugger continues taking all the bait that we're providing.  That would be a yes. Anna only takes like two damage from this, so it's a pretty decent trade-off.  And now there's just all these black boats hanging around like the annoying fuckers that they are. I'm not going to be bothered to murder them all.  Up top, there's more plane action as our brave boys and girls blow up more cannons!  Just three left, and the bombers. Let's go for a full rout, shall we? That'll be satisfying.  So if you're wondering why I don't just blow this minicannon up with Alina... yeah. That's not a very bomber amount of damage. In my first run of the map, I saw this low damage and chose not to attack (because, like, why would you), but there's dialogue for doing so, so we may as well.  What the gently caress was that. We can't seem to damage it. Is it being shielded by something? I thought we were pounding it, but we did a lot of nothin'. ...Hm. This is suspicious. Jess, do you think-- Yes, I do. Black Hole's utilizing a barrier field. It gave us fits back in Green Earth. Oh, god, what? A barrier field? So it's like armor? You're telling me they've got something that stops all our attacks? Yes. As long as it's functional, even a megatank couldn't scratch it. "As long as it's functional", huh? Next job is taking it out, then. Hold up. So we're pretty much rappelling down a cliff without a rope? Not quite. Every unit has a weak point. It must take a lot of energy to project the barrier around the fortress. That energy has to come from somewhere, right? ...I thought it was strange. An energy source? You may be right. I'll scout around and see what I can find. Check the Black Arc. Hm? Don't you think it's odd, my dude, that the Black Arc hasn't fired on us yet? I checked the battle logs of your first encounter, and it was capable of bombing you from on high. That's a good point. It hasn't fired on us once yet. You think the Black Arc's purpose has been changed? I'm confident, yes. Take a look--time is of the essence. Right, you do that and we'll handle the battle, Rachel. Come on, Javier, look lively! There's some good news, though - we have the last two comm towers now! They'll be quite useful in just a second, actually.  Since she can't fire on the cruiser currently harassing her, Anna instead shoots one of the black boats.  I loving hate this. Why am I keeping a counter of properties that dicks capture and not how many times I've left an enemy with like 1HP remaining?!  Anyway, Peregrine fires on the cruiser. Fun fact about stealth planes? When hiding, not only can they not be fired on, but they also don't get countered when attacking, so this cruiser does nothing. I don't know if that's the case for subs, but I feel like it's not.  Lucy, in the other stealth fighter, slams the battleship for big meaty damage. That's what we like to see!  Also, I haven't been showing it, but there's a base down south, and this transport copter has been slowly picking up and infantry and flying over there to capture it. Unfortunately, it put itself in Von Panzer range, and he instantly downs it. Tragic.  Selena sneaks in and lands a hit on the other battleship, too.  I want to weaken this cruiser as much as possible, so it doesn't bother my planes; as such, Fenya attacks it next, weakening it further.  Klara rampages up north and stealths, ready to sneak in and deliver missile-y death to the enemy.  Continuing the hyperaggressive turn we're having, Rose strikes this black boat.  Shaia can move in and do a bit more damage, but doesn't quite get a kill.  Oh poo poo, I have my Super CO Power. I should use that. Javier's ranged defence is the main reason I played so aggressively here - the rockets and battleships could fire on Selena now that she's been spotted, but with a nice SCOP to protect her, she'll be untouchable for this turn. Only the best for my finest soldier.  "YES!" shouts Raynald, from the second front. "Charge into the maw, slay the infidel, and spank all of their hinds!!" "Oh my god. We can never let these two meet in person." Dimitri sighs. "Agreed." Adelaide says, shaking her head and putting the transceiver down.  The reason I didn't, uh, do this at the start of the turn is because I wasn't 100% sure if I wanted to use it or not. But I'd rather not risk Selena's life - she's put me through enough stress in these last three campaigns as is, what with cruisers and fuel problems and all the other things that subs have to worry about.  So, with our units being functionally invincible...  The battleships join up, the rockets don't fire on anyone, and the cruiser gets the gently caress out of dodge. Nice result!  Our planes up above have a few more cannons to go, as Raynald crusades over to this one and takes it out.  A few of the planes decide to go for these two bombers, just to finish them off and add insult to Koal's injury.  Second bomber down. This might seem like a waste of time, but it is actually handy, as it takes an extra turn to finish off the second front, giving me enough time to get everyone in position on the main front.  Two cannons left on the second front. Let's get everyone into position then, shall we?  That's the one drawback to these planes. When they're hiding, they burn eight units of fuel per day--they can't hide for long. Ahh. That's the kind of drawback I like. The kind that isn't a drawback if you win the battles quickly enough? Precisely. You've got to make good use of the carrier and its ability to resupply air units.And before we can do anything, Rachel harasses us AGAIN-  Right on! Rose, you were right. I've confirmed that a huge amount of energy is flowing from the Black Arc. It's coming from the second front down to the floating fortress on the main front! My best guess is the sky fortress is powering the barrier field. I knew something was up. So if we can cut off the power supply, the barrier around the ocean fortress will drop, leaving it vulnerable to our attacks! It seems that way. That problem should resolve itself soon, then, with Max taking care of the second front. Right. So how do we do that? Same as always, Max--just keep smashing those cannons! Ask me to smash something, and I will! Have I ever let ya down? Once those cannons are gone, we blow the Black Arc out of the sky! Once that's done, we send that floating freakshow to the bottom of the sea! We'd better get this map done quickly, too - the stealth planes aren't the only ones running low on fuel. "Fuel supplies running low..." Selena mutters. "All forces, prepare for assault! The moment that field goes down, we must strike. Stealth squadron on standby!" "Standby!" Peregrine shouts. "Once we get word from Khepri's air squadron, we'll move in and take 'em out!"  Low fuel isn't a problem for Selena, though, who is going to power through it and attack the joined battleship, taking it out for good. That's a huge relief!  This is why we've been moving Alina steadily over this way - to open up this seam. "Eva! Sorry it took me so long to come save you! The way's open now!" "Excellent work!" Eva says, grinning.  Eva drops off Valeria in another stealth fighter. "Alina, let's move in." Valeria says coldly. "I'd like to pay Black Hole back for this... inconvenience." "I'm with you, Val. Let's do it!" "...Don't call me Val."  Shaia can take out the black boat, too.  And whilst it does put her in cannon range, Rose can finish off this other black boat. We're slowly whittling down the enemies!  Whilst Lucy and Klara move in, Peregrine follows the cruiser to make sure it doesn't do anything annoying.  And thus, everyone is in position!  Now it literally doesn't matter what Jugger does. He's done for.  Oh, he had his SCOP charged. Fun.  It will be useless, don't worry.  Since all of his units are, you know, dead.  Let's do something more productive, like finishing off this cannon...  And two of our fighters team up to destroy the final cannon! Second front, flawless victory! Not bad, Max!  Ocean fortress barrier collapsing. The shame...it burns like a brand. The minicannon is a wounded beast, and the allies circle like ravenous wolves! They forget that I am the hunter, and I will bring these mutts to heel. The Orange Star Army has won on the secondary front! Aren't we the Allied Nations at this point? Hilariously enough, despite using our Super CO Power like two turns ago...  We STILL have enough funds from the second front to charge it fully again. So let's tag, just to really rub it in these guys' faces!  Javier's lines are a fantastic mixture of genuinely badass and fantastically baffling.  Dual Strike time, baby! It's not even necessary, hilariously enough, since...  "Cannon 1... DOWN!" Alina shouts as she drops a payload of bombs on it.  "Second cannon destroyed. Damage to stealth fighter: none. An excellent victory." Valeria adds as she blows up the second of the cannons. Around the front, the stealth planes charge.  "Take THIS!" Lucy says. "That's another one down - just one more to go and this whole fortress sinks to the bottom of the sea, where it belongs!"  Klara yells as she opens fire on the final cannon. "When you SINK TO THE BRINY DEEP, you'd better tell Davy loving Jones who sent ya! KLARA, the hardest-hitting soldier in the army! There will be NO MERCY and NO FORGIVENESS from the Allied Nations, so let yourselves drown in the waves or perish by my missiles!!!"  BOOM! And with that, we've done it!  Thanks to our new units, the road ahead just got a heck of a lot smoother! Overconfidence will get us all killed. Agreed. We can't be as brash as we were before. Huh? My dude, being humble? What's up with that? Black Hole has seen our new technology. It won't be long before they reproduce them through reverse engineering. She's right. We have to assume Black Hole will deploy carriers and stealth fighters soon. Still, it gave us a slight advantage in the short term. Blast! I'm tired of playing games with these goons! Just one more reason to drop these fools once and for all. C'mon, let's bounce--we've got sun to catch in the desert. And another S-rank for us! Honestly, this was a hugely fun map, probably one of my favourites in the game so far. So fun I could play it twice!  Fuckin- Jugger, you might have a contender for best dialogue, Javier's is really good actually.  Anyway, a new mission for us! I'm curious as to what bullshit we'll be up against next.  What are you thinking, Hawke? Well, look what the wind blew in--a little bird named Hawke and his little masked friend. What are you two doing here? Hello, Kindle. I wonder how the war against the allies fares. I trust you're fulfilling your duties. Did you know they've made it all the way here to Red Rock Desert? The allied resistance has proved to be...greater than expected. You are aware of the orders not to let them near our base here, right? The orders which came from our new leader, Lord Von Bolt? What are you scheming? Scheming? Whatever do you mean? Do not play coy with me. The three of you, the so-called Bolt Guard, must know what Von Bolt's goal is. He's wielding Black Hole's army like it's his personal sledgehammer. The land is falling to ruin, and as it does, the Bolt Guard laughs, as if that plays into your plans. What does Black Hole gain by turning this land into scorched earth? Answer me. What are you after? Where is your master? Where is Von Bolt? Aha ha ha! There's no reason for you to know that, my dour little bird. All you have to worry your head about is following the commander's orders. And you, Madam Director, I had expected better. You were given your freedom because you followed orders, and you had the same distaste for this world that we do. Don't mess it up now. ... If you find yourself incapable of doing so, then you leave me no choice. I will go and crush those allied fools myself. I AM up for CO of the month, you know? Taa-taa, little birdie, Madam Director. Aha ha ha ha ha... ... The longer I fight for Black Hole...the more mixed-up I get. Come, Madam Director. We must know what Von Bolt is planning.Meanwhile, the Allied Nations move on to the next battle.  It looks like we're in for another tough Fog of War battle. OH GOD drat IT. What's the holdup? We can see the road, can't we? Let's roll! ... Something wrong, Sasha? I...I have a bad feeling about this. I feel the same way. I hate dealing with unknowns...it takes longer to formulate a perfect strategy. Perhaps it's just a case of nerves, but... Sasha's "bad feelings" are generally followed by bad events. Oh, joy. Once when I was little and fell down the stairs, she... What are you babbling about? Truly the voice of reason, Grimm. Weirdly enough. Oh, sorry. It's just... Whatever the case, we can't just sit here. I want everyone to stay alert and move forward. Actually, Commander Rachel, I'm still formulating a strategy. Could we perhaps wait for a couple of hours? If you think that's best, Rose. What now, then? My dude looks deep in thought. Anything you want to tell us? ...I really think that last battle would have been easier if we could just blow up some of those ships. Sorry, what?! Blowing up ships would have HELPED us win? Are you sure you're a strategist? No, no, hear me out! So, let's imagine for a second that all of those ships were unmanned, or the soldiers, like, abandoned ship or whatever--we could have approached the battle like this... Oh, THIS ought to be good. I think I see what he means...let's hear him out. This might be interesting, and we have a few hours spare anyway. OK, so, we start as normal... In the meantime, here's one side of the battlefield...  And the other. Feel free to vote for some COs - we'll be doing another run of Omens and Signs with a fun new strategy next time, so you have two weeks to vote for COs! See you next time, folks! *** Part 44 (Intermission) - Four Fingers On The Guitar cosmicPostman fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Jun 10, 2022 |
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Jun 10, 2022 13:10
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cosmicPostman posted:Anyway, Peregrine fires on the cruiser. Fun fact about stealth planes? When hiding, not only can they not be fired on, but they also don't get countered when attacking, so this cruiser does nothing. I don't know if that's the case for subs, but I feel like it's not. I'm pretty sure dived subs only get counterattacked by enemies that can attack them while they're dived (if they've been spotted). I'm guessing stealth planes work the same way if you attack enemy fighters with them, though I don't know for sure.
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Jun 10, 2022 13:40
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