|
Fionordequester posted:Main CO: Grit. Don't even need to explain why. This.
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2022 13:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 10:28 |
|
|
SoundwaveAU posted:Congratulations! I handed you Sami and Sonja for that mission because there's a famous cheese strategy where you use a tag break to capture Black Hole's HQ on Day 3, but it's super dependent on the skill that brings forest movement down to 1 so all your vehicles can start killing poo poo right away. Still, I wanted to see what you came up with. Yeah, I thought there might've been a quicker way to pull through it, but I've very rarely noticed these quick wins, and even more rarely actually used them. The only ones I can recall off the top of my head were the AW2 levels where Colin did nothing and Eagle saved Sami's troops by beating the map in 4 days. Delphisage posted:Imagine how many nameless nobodies are getting murdered when Typhoon hits, or when cruisers or battleships get ripped apart. I like your thinking - it does look like the second front is going to be decently simple, which I'm not going to complain about. I am sick and tired of AI-controlled CO missions.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2022 19:24
|
|
|
Aww, no Javier then, it looks like? Oh well—he's probably best saved for your first fight against Von Bolt, anyway.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2022 01:36
|
|
|
The COs you've used the least.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2022 05:57
|
|
|
Jumping on the Grit bandwagon for First Front. Second front, CP Choice between: Sensei, Javier, Max.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2022 06:16
|
|
|
Btw, I tested today, and found that Javier's COPs don't factor the Tower Power skill into their calculations. So his statline with it, Slam Guard, and Tower Shield, is 185/178, not 200/178. Thought I'd make that minor correction.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2022 06:32
|
|
|
Well, this is a new one - I was getting the map recorded this morning, and the Internet at my place has totally gone down. It's been that way for around four hours now, and from what I can tell, it may not be back up today. So, uh, yeah. I'll get the map recorded, but as for when I'll get the update up, no idea. Sorry things have been slower lately - harder maps and me being busier were already problems, let alone internet troubles on top. See you soon, with any luck!
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2022 10:52
|
|
|
How HAS the map been, out of curiosity? Going well enough, I presume?
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2022 22:12
|
|
|
Oh yeah, it's not been a problem. I didn't get a good recording of it today, ended up dealing with the internet thing for way longer than I intended but I don't have any concerns about beating this one. I'll be back next week - might even be a one-parter this time, I believe.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2022 23:18
|
|
|
cosmicPostman posted:Oh yeah, it's not been a problem. I didn't get a good recording of it today, ended up dealing with the internet thing for way longer than I intended but I don't have any concerns about beating this one. I'll be back next week - might even be a one-parter this time, I believe. Makes sense. It's an excellent breather after the madness of Crystal Calamity & Pincer Attack, isn't it?
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2022 00:33
|
|
|
Part 65 (Battle) - Several Copters Were Harmed In The Making Of This Update Welcome to volcanoes: the map. Are you excited?! You shouldn't be. The volcanoes will be relevant precisely one (1) time in this update.  So, our votes this time gave us Grit for the primary front and Javier for the secondary front! A pretty good selection - Sensei and Javier actually tied on votes for the secondary front, but I went Javier because there's lots of comm towers and also Javier is funny.  We're about ready! I'll explain the strategy once we get into the map, but the main thing to know is that this map is not NEARLY as hard as the previous several maps have been. This is a hell of a breather this late into the game.  Today’s Deployments First Front Rin, Infantry Vanessa, Infantry Dave, Mech Alfonse, Mech Carter, Mech Lysander, Mech Dymek, Mech Arqa, Mech Iago, Mech Mina, Mech Michael, APC Darwin, APC Eduard, Anti-Air Fliss, Anti-Air Cassandra, Anti-Air Ingo, Artillery Noah, Artillery Sebastian, Artillery Gordon, Rockets Fred, Rockets Yakov, Rockets Inessa, Rockets Mulligan, Missiles Lucy, Bomber Zlata, Bomber Peregrine, Bomber Conrad, Bomber Julian, Battle Copter Rose, Battle Copter Andromeda, Battle Copter Anton, Battle Copter Second Front Alina, Mech Nika, Mech Dimitri, Mech Ludmilla, APC Valeria, Anti-Air Boris, Anti-Air Eva, Missiles Von Panzer, Battle Copter Lena, Battle Copter ...That said, it's not a hard map, but it is a big one, hence the absolute truckload of deployments.   Ho, Sir Clone of Sir Kanbei! I challenge your honor on the...er...field of honor! Nice. Smooth. Right, so here's the vague overview. We need to kill all the units to win, and Black Hole have a huge army on the first front. However, the island in the middle is completely separated from the mainland, so only foot units can get across - as such, all our ranged units on the middle island can target both the enemies on the outer ring, as well as the fuckers in the centre area. And since the tanks in the centre area can't get out... yeah, it's going to be pretty one-sided. Us having Grit for the primary front was insult to injury, really. The secondary front, meanwhile, will be made much easier by the addition of several anti-air units and missiles sent from the first front - there's no air units on the primary front, and unless we really gently caress up and let Black Hole capture the airport on this map, then there never will be air units on the primary front. As such, our vague plan is such: - Acquire airport as fast as humanly possible. - Establish a defensive presence on the outer circle. - Kill artillery units within the inner circle to establish dominance. - Destroy the Copter SquadTM on the secondary front. - Murder everything on the map with bombers. So let's just loving do it!  First things first, all our anti-airs, Eduard, Fliss and Cassandra, are heading to the secondary front, followed by our missiles, Mulligan.  There we go! "Well, well, looks like we've got enough anti-airs to deal with anything now." Valeria says, eyeing the newcomers. "It'll be an honour fighting alongside the Morningstar." "Oh, thank you, Valeria. I'm just as honoured to be fighting with the Snowbound Free Company!" Cassandra replies. Mulligan chuckles. "Alright, I'm glad we're all feeling positive, but we'd better get moving. Those copters will be closing in fast!"  So, our bro copters on the primary front are actually in the perfect position - by moving as far north as possible, Julian can sit right where the path is 1 tile wide, making an excellent chokepoint. The enemy's only got a couple of anti-air units, so if we can snipe those with our ranged units as they come around, then Julian can hold this line basically forever.  Rose can do the same thing, but she's on a slightly different mission - there's another chokepoint further along, right next to the airport. Rose will be blocking that off whilst I send someone to capture the airport.  Our troops on the outer ring start capturing things, with Dave going first.  Alfonse starts capturing too, whilst Vanessa hops into Darwin. "Darwin! Full speed ahead, in pursuit of Rose. We've got an airport to grab!" "Indeed." Rose says over the transceiver. "That airport is the key to our victory, so we must do that whilst we let my dude handle the battle in the centre."  "Have you had any breakthroughs about the volcanoes yet?" Vanessa asks as Darwin salutes and begins driving away. "Me and Sonja think Black Hole has something to do with them becoming active all of a sudden." "I'd agree." Rose replies. "I need a bit more intel before I come to a conclusion, but I think I've spotted something..."  Gordon will be heading up - he's going to be helping Julian block off the north chokepoint with my super-cool rocket strategy. You'll see it in a sec.  Rin heads across the river, waving to Dave as she goes. "I'm gonna go help out the central island crew! Keep yourself safe, Dave!" "I always do," Dave replies, shaking his head. "Don't go fighting any medium tanks or Neotanks, alright?" "I guess I won't..." Rin sighs, sticking her tongue out.  We have a shitload of mechs in this central area, which is weird because there's only like six things to capture. Still, Carter makes a start by grabbing this comm tower. Black Hole don't really need the comm towers, but we absolutely do, and you'll see why in a moment.  Arqa hops into Michael, giving him a luscious smile. "Hey, can you ferry me to the silo out west?" Michael nods and smiles, but Arqa is surprised by how calm he seems around her. "Yeah, sure, one sec. I've got to do an ammo run, too, so let's get started. Ready to roll?" "Yeah, sure. I gotta contribute by helping Rose out." Arqa replies.  Michael rides out, aiming for the silo. He's going to be doing a lap of the island, restoring ammo to all the rockets and artilleries positioned around the volcano. We need every bit of firepower we can get.  Mina, meanwhile, is going for this comm tower. "Hey guys, I can see a comm tower over here! I'll grab it - that should prevent all this crackly interference, right?" "Yeah, that's the idea." Lysander replies. "Go for it, Mina - let us know if you need backup, OK?" "Aye aye! I should be fine, though. The enemy can't cross the water, and I'll keep a careful eye out!" Mina announces.  You might have noticed that none of my ranged units up here have attacked yet. The main thing I want to take out, as I said, were all the enemy artilleries, which could threaten my ranged units. We have no properties, and thus no source of healing, so we can't allow that - as such, this turn is going to be spent moving my ranged units into better positions so I can take on the artilleries. For example, Yakov here is going to move closer to the mountains to get these two artilleries in his range.  Some of my artilleries may as well attack, though, like Noah here. We need to clear out all these tanks to let my mechs move in and capture the cities around here; we can safely ignore the black boats, too, since they can heal 1 unit for 1 HP and otherwise are doing nothing useful.  The other great reason to wait a turn before murdering these artilleries is that it's actually a damage roll right now. Next turn, however, Carter will get the comm tower and give us the firepower to make this a definite one-hit KO.  So for now, I'll have Fred attack this medium tank instead.  And that's our first turn! You can't see her, but our last rocket unit, Inessa, is up north and has been moving into position to kill poo poo more efficiently.  Black Hole, thankfully, have a very short turn which is mostly "EVERYBODY SCATTER"  Koal's forces divide themselves up, some heading south to the Rose chokepoint, and some heading west to the Julian chokepoint. All will die, so it doesn't matter what they choose, really. The only real threat in this bunch of motherfuckers are the anti-airs, so keep a careful eye on them.  And oh boy, we have a second front to deal with! As usual, the second front is... kind of simple. We have an overkill amount of anti-airs - the Neotank will be a bit of a problem, but we'll deal with that later. I have a special plan for him.  If we want Javier to do Javier things, we're gonna need some comm towers. Alina grabs the first one, and starts capturing it.  Meanwhile, Nika heads north to the next one, and Dimitri hops into Ludmilla's APC. "We're heading up to the lookout, I take it?" Ludmilla drawls. Dimitri nods. "Yup. Gonna take a retinue of anti-airs with us, though, so there shouldn't be any problems." "Good - those copters look nasty, and there's way too many of them." "They do look nasty." Dimitri mutters. "Kanbei copters... if they're made with the same quality that Kanbei vehicles usually are, they're not gonna go down easy."  Dimitri gets dropped off up north, accompanied by Boris, Eduard, Cassandra and Fliss. Valeria is remaining down below to take on any other potential threats.  Von Panzer and Lena, our copters, are staying down south too, and that's our first turn done. "These volcanoes have such power." Lena mutters. "How did Black Hole manage to weaponise them?" "It is their way." Von Panzer growls. "Ach! They would turn anything into a tool of destruction!"  Thankfully, Clone Kanbei (or Clanbei, if you will) doesn't have much to do on his turn.  Everything just kinda charges forward - the Copter SquadTM have split up, too, which is excellent. We shouldn't get overwhelmed this way.  Day 2! We get a few fun surprises today.  First is a motherfucking volcanic eruption.  The volcano blasts lava down onto a range of tiles...  ...going around the edge of the map. They don't hit anyone this time around, though, so let's not bother thinking any further about it!  Rose, Arqa and Darwin continue towards the airport. Next turn we should be in position to start capturing it!  Up here, meanwhile, Dave finishes capturing the city. The next part of my plan is coming to fruition... this, too, is part of my super-cool rocket strategy.  And Carter gets the comm tower! We can one-shot artilleries now!  Get hosed, Koal.  So yeah, Fred and Yakov clear out the first two of four artilleries, which is great.  Michael drops Arqa off at the silo. "I'll see you later, gotta go make the rounds now." Michael says. "Good luck, everyone!" "Thanks, Michael. We'll do our best." Arqa replies, smiling back at Michael as he drives off.  Mina is partway through nabbing this comm tower. This is where we're going to need to do some cool strategic stuff.  Lysander, particularly, is going to be helping out with the cool strategic stuff.  We're going to be shooting the mass of units heading down to attack Rose, to help her choke that point more easily. Grit's not good at direct combat, so I'm pre-empting that we might not be able to defend against tanks as well as other COs might. Why this specific group and not, say, the Neotank, though?  Well, one reason - we need to hit this capturing infantry. If Koal uses his CO Power, this infantry gets enough movement to go over and get the first strike on Mina, capturing the comm tower. However, by delaying him for a turn, Mina can capture the comm tower first and move out of the way. Maintaining Mina's HP is really important, since she's going to be doing some capturing up north, and ferrying any additional mechs up there will take goddamn ages.  Inessa, meanwhile, uses her second turn to move here, a pretty ideal position to shoot basically everything up north! Except that medium tank which is too close. Just... just ignore that.  The other reason I didn't need to hit the Neotank with the silo is that I've got Noah on hand. He shoots it instead. "Hey, a direct hit! I've weakened the frontrunner, Rose!" Noah says over the transceiver. Rose nods. "Thank you, Noah. Keep it up - Black Hole's army needs to be slowed down as much as possible."  And thus, that's all for this turn. Pretty solid all round, and now we're in a great position to start REALLY getting our murder on. Plus, we can drop Vanessa at the airport safely next turn.  Since my artillery on the left, Ingo, wasn't in range to do much, I move him down so he can help the mechs that are going to be moving in across the mountains once it's safe.  Stay tuned for another turn of Black Hole units just kinda moving around.   You know, I think Black Hole might be sneakier than we think. Having two fronts around two volcanoes can't be a coincidence. And for them to be suddenly active when they should be dormant... What are you thinking, Rose? This battlefield's volcano is controlled from the secondary front, and vice versa! I believe Black Hole have mechanisms to control the volcanoes, but chances are, the primary front's volcano is controlled from the secondary front, and vice versa. To stop the eruptions, those fools have to capture all four of the cities that ring the opposite volcano. We'll probably find their control mechanisms if we capture the cities surrounding the opposite volcano. And I know where the lava lands... So I won't get hit! If they're controlling where the lava lands, then they can ensure their units don't get hit, whilst ours will. Feeble-minded imbeciles! Where will you hide when fiery death rains down upon thee?! I've seen the truth of this battlefield. Let's not waste any more time. Right. Let's get those cities and see if we can find those mechanisms!So, yeah, Koal just kind of tells the player his plan, apropos of nothing. This is why we need those cities, anyhow, but I'm already making plans to do that.  And then he starts talking again, because he has a CO Power.  Sigh. The real downside to doing deathless runs and massively overpowering the enemy is that you eat a CO Power like, every other turn in some cases.  Thankfully, he's not in range to attack anything, so his units just head south...  ...and west. They're not really close to our chokepoints yet, though, so there's not much to worry about.  Let's ignore it and do the secondary front for a bit!  The volcano on this front starts going off, too!  And it doesn't do anything. It hits all the tiles around the volcano, with a couple of exceptions. It is literally never going to be a problem.  As you can see, Kanbei has put his copter right in the safe spot between these two lava chunks. Now then, our poor Dimitri is looking a bit frail with all those copters headed for him. This is why we needed four anti-airs to go with him.  To form a defensive circle like so! Even Kanbei copters would think twice about attacking an anti-air, and I don't think these copters are the suicidal type.  So, Dimitri and Nika start capturing their comm towers, whilst Alina finishes getting hers. "All done over here! Status, Snowbound Free Company?" Alina asks. "Almost done, just doing the final touches." Nika replies. "Ready for action - I plan to help Cassandra with defending the HQ once we head back down." Valeria says. "I hope the COs and my dude have a plan for that Neotank coming our way..." "No kiddin'." Dimitri replies. "Mechs and anti-airs aren't really the best solution."  And our group position themselves like this - hopefully all the copters will move in so they can get instantly murdered. That'd make things nice and convenient.  Let's see what Kanbei wants to do. Is he a moron? He usually is.  Nice! Up north, the Copter SquadTM have moved right into the anti-air's range, for some reason. Down south, they're not in missile range, but that's fine - my copters are close enough to attack them instead. The Neotank's getting closer, though... that wasn't part of the plan.  Welp, all we can do is keep executing our plan as expected.  And first, the volcano erupts again. This is the one time in the map that it's relevant!  There's a huge explosion as a flaming chunk of rock strikes Darwin's APC, causing him to squeak in terror. Vanessa gasps. "Whoa! That volcano's not messing about. We still in good shape, Darwin?" Darwin writes 'Yup!' on a nearby whiteboard, then goes back to driving. Vanessa stares at the airport ahead of her, narrowing her eyes. "Here we go, then..."  So yeah, the one relevant thing that happens is that my APC takes 5 damage. This will not impact the map in any way. I hope you enjoyed that volcano action, because there's none for the rest of the map!  Darwin safely drops Vanessa off at the airport, guarded by Rose. This is huge - this airport is going to help us win BOTH fronts.  Noah continues to contribute in meaningful ways, meanwhile, despite having not moved since turn 1 - he's gonna shoot the anti-air now, and take it out! With that gone, Rose is basically fine. The tanks will barely be able to scratch her.  Something unexpected now, though - thanks to the CO Power effect of +10% defence, I can't one-shot these artilleries any more. I'm still going to do this, though - Yakov attacks the artillery, and weakens it enough that it may as well be dead.  Inessa does the same with the artillery up north. "I've almost taken an artillery down! How are things on your end, Kov?" "Not bad, Ness." Yakov replies, eyeing the enemies in his range. "I wouldn't be so smug about nearly beating an artillery, though. I'm going to beat more units than you." "Oh, is that a challenge? From my little bro? Hah! Sounds like fun!" Inessa replies. "You don't mind if I join you, do you?" asks Fred. "I've got such a bloodlust inside me, and I want to show everyone how to smite evil properly!" Inessa nods, laughing aloud. "With the three of us working together, Black Hole's volcano squad has no chance!"  Mina captures the comm tower, and it's about this point I realise that I would have had a better chance at one-shotting the artilleries if I'd captured this first. Ah well - it's not going to change much, anyway.  Arqa reaches the silo - she, too, is going to be helping slow down Rose's aggressors.  Yeah, you guys.  Go gently caress yourselves.  Sebastian, our southernmost artillery, has moved into position to shoot some things now, so he does so. We just need to spread damage out, pretty much - the tanks will run to the four cities to get healed once we damage them enough, and every city except for the top-left one is in one of my rockets' ranges, so... yeah.  My mechs (and Rin) are all ready to move in! ...But not yet. Hold your horses, folks. These tanks are still dangerous.  Part 1 of Michael's ammo run is for Yakov! "Here you go, fresh ammo!" Michael says, beaming. "Hope things go well in there - I've gotta get up to Noah next." "Thanks. Give my sister a 'hello' from me." Yakov replies with a curt nod.  OK, I've been teasing you about my super-cool rocket strategy for like 60 screenshots now, so allow me to show you. (It's not actually that cool, but...) We captured a city, just behind the chokepoint, and now we're putting Gordon on it, where he'll be in range to shoot anything along that row. That's already pretty cool, but... cities also restock ammo every turn. You know what that means? UNLIMITED ROCKET WORKS   Why is my dude laughing hysterically? I believe he just figured out what cities do. This Dick Captures A Property: 54 Oh, and I guess I missed the base being taken last turn, too, that's another one. This Dick Captures A Property: 55  Not much else going on up here, though - the two artilleries decided to join up, wasting their entire turn since they're in range of Yakov. I'm not complaining.  The tanks FINALLY reach Rose's chokepoint in the meantime! And man, they're in bad shape. I think Rose is going to be totally fine.  Over here, Koal's units are slowly getting over to Julian's chokepoint. And they have an anti-air with them - I need to destroy that before it reaches Julian.  But first, we've got some fun things to do on the second front.  The volcano erupts, and doesn't hit anything. That wasn't the fun thing, don't worry. There's more fun!  "Man, Post," I hear you ask. "Kanbei copters are pretty bulky. If you get bad luck, you might not kill these guys!"  That's where I say, "You fool, you forget... we have two more comm towers to capture."  Javier with three comm towers is NOT to be hosed with. Two already makes him statistically on par (or close to it) with Kanbei, but three is kind of ridiculous. The copter squad  is  swiftly  executed.  Down south, we may not have missiles or anti-airs in range of the enemy copters, but we do have Von Panzer and Lena. Lena moves in first to slam the first bro copter.  Von Panzer does the same with this one, weakening them both to the point that they're non-issues.  And, with a quick check of the map, we can see that the Neotank isn't in range to murder anything yet, which is good.  So, all we need to do is move Mulligan and the other foot units out of the way of the copters, and we're golden for this turn!  I didn't screenshot it, but I also paid very close attention to how much damage I was doing. How close, you ask?  Oh, you know. Close enough that Kanbei didn't get his SCOP off this turn. Hell yeah. The last of the copters move in up north, the Neotank comes down, and the two bro copters down below join up. Everything was as expected, really.  Back to the other front, anyway. We have important airport-capturing and tank-murdering to do!  also the goddamn volcano  Vanessa begins capturing the airport! Rose watches the tanks heading closer to her position. "Hm... we'll need that airport soon." "We also need funds, you know." Vanessa replies. Rose nods. "I know. I've had Alfonse and Dave on the case, capturing the properties around the HQ. We'll have more than enough for our purposes."  This last unfortunate artillery, as I said, was still in Yakov's range, so... Yeah, let's just murder them.  Sebastian shoots this Neotank. Have I ever mentioned how stupid Grit's artillery range is? I love Grit so much.  The rest of the units fled north, so Fred just has to shoot this tank. He can one-shot it, though, which is nice!  And Inessa makes a start on the undamaged medium tank over here.  Noah is still doing amazing work - now he's taking out this enemy artillery! Artilleries, too, are the enemies of chokepoints.  The second leg of Michael's journey takes him up to Noah, whom he restocks with ammo. "There you go!" Michael says, and Noah waves graciously. "Thanks, Michael! You're a saint." "Ah, I'm just here to help." Michael replies. "Who's next..? Ah, yes, Inessa, up north. See you later, Noah!"  This is what I mean - Koal's CO Power is ready again, so this guy will be in range to attack Mina.  But I can just move her one space to the left. That way, the infantry will move in, then I can get the first strike instead of him.  Down here, meanwhile, all my mechs are still sat waiting for these loving tanks to die. We're gonna be here a while, so... let's just move on.  Everything should be fine for this turn - Rose can hold the line down south, and the enemy's not quite close enough to reach Julian yet.  CO Power spam continues in the meantime. Sigh.  Adder sucks and so do you, Koal.  Over this side, the Neotank is getting close, and so is the anti-air, but still nothing to worry about. The Neotank is in the range of the UNLIMITED ROCKET WORKS, so it isn't going to be around much longer.  Down here, meanwhile, everything moves south, but nothing actually tries attacking Rose. Apparently they're all too afraid of her, which is fair enough. I wouldn't mess with the Flower of Desolation. (Except for that one time.)  Most of the secondary front can be sorted today, which is nice; the Neotank will be the only major problem left afterwards, so let's get a-murderin'!  after the loving volcano  I love Javier's CO Power lines. Other COs are like "yeah, I'm the best, watch what I can do!" and Javier's just straight-up like "YOU'RE GOING TO HELL, FUCKER"  Tower Shield! Readers recommended that I use Javier's CO Power more than his Super CO Power, since you can use it more often and usually it's more than enough raw stats to work with.  Pffthahah, and indeed it is. Tower of Power would be kind of overkill, especially in this case.  With Boris and Fliss putting paid to the last of the bro copters up north, we just have one left now!  And Von Panzer has it totally covered.  Lena, meanwhile, flies north to face the Neotank herself. "My combat proficiencies were chosen specifically to counteract the vehicles my sister was skilled with! So you should know my battle copter was handcrafted for one thing: destroying heavy tanks!"  Cassandra, meanwhile, attacks the APC in front of her. She can't move, because if she does, the Neotank will come in and murder everything I love. At least this way, we can block it off from attacking stuff that can't fight back, like Mulligan and Eva in the missiles.  And that'll do for now! The really important thing is our CO Power - we prevented Kanbei from using his Super CO Power last turn, so we could use our CO Power before his SCOP is used, which means we benefit from Javier's huge defensive bonuses for the turn that Kanbei is at his strongest.  So, it's a new day, so we look to the right screen for the secondary front...  Then back to the left screen for Kanbei's, uh, very interesting dialogue...  And then back to the right for his actual Super CO Power. We've not got much to worry about - his copters are all exploded, and his Neotank...  ...just kind of nopes out of there. It didn't want to gently caress with Lena, apparently. The only thing that attacks us is this very gung-ho infantry.  He does no damage. To an APC. God, I loving love 3-comm Javier.  Admittedly, Kanbei's units are also going to have a huge defensive bonus now, which might make killing anything on the next turn a bit harder... but it's two infantries, how hard could it be?  The incredibly useless volcano erupts again, and hits nothing. Again.  Vanessa gets the airport! "Got it!" Vanessa says. "I take it we're doing the usual Sonja strategy of overwhelming the enemy with misdirection and stealth fighters?" "No, actually." Rose replies. "We're doing the usual my dude strategy of deploying as many bombers as we can afford. Get production started immediately." "Heh, that tracks. These guys are owed some explosive, bomber-delivered death, that's for drat sure!" "Calm yourself, Vanessa. We must still act tactically to make best use of our bombers."  The Neotank eats a hit from Gordon, using his super-cool rocket strategy.  There's two Neotanks that Fred could kill, but... one of them is currently bearing down on my forces to try and kill them, and the other one is stuck inside a mountain range where it can't hurt anybody. Obviously, we're prioritising the Neotank near Julian.  Besides, Ingo can mostly-kill this Neotank, so I get my cake and can eat it too.  Yakov goes for the medium tank, weakening it even further. We've got so much firepower in this central island, and we literally can't be stopped.  As predicted, the enemy infantry came walking in like he owned the place, so Mina gets the first strike and takes no counter damage. A perfect performance!  Noah, the absolute MVP that he is, is going to start weakening this megatank next. 12% may not be much, but when we're dealing with megatanks, any ranged damage (i.e. damage which means we don't need to eat a brutal counterattack) is welcome.  Inessa takes out the first medium tank up here! Yes, the other one is still out of her range. I swear I'm going to deal with that.  And since there's not much else for Sebastian to shoot from this range, he goes for the black boat. We'll need to kill them eventually to rout the map, so it's still worth doing.  Rose initiates against this Neotank, which didn't dare attack her. She does 2 damage and takes none in return like the absolute god of war that she is. That said, this map is going on way longer than I expected. It's not been hard, but two fronts always takes a lot of time.  So, let's leave it here for now - we've achieved most of our goals! We got the airport, destroyed the Copter SquadTM, activated the Unlimited Rocket Works, and we're making good progress on killing everything on the central island. Next time, we'll finish off the central island, win the second front, and then slaughter everything with bombers. You know, the usual. See you all then! *** Part 66 (Intermission) - Over A Drink cosmicPostman fucked around with this message at 11:05 on Oct 15, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2022 15:03
|
|
|
This map feels pretty half baked. It has a fun concept with the two fronts lightening each other's load, except that doesn't happen in practice. There is no way in hell for you to take those inner 4 cities on the bottom screen before the map is functionally over, let alone in time to help the top screen. And then if you rout the top screen before all 4 cities get captured it doesn't disable the bottom volcano so it actively encourages you to stall out your victory for no reason. And the top fronts cities are also fairly inaccessible to capture before the feont is won. The end result is that this map is basically the one where you blow up the black arc to free the bottom screen up to advance, except the reward is substantially worse and is more obnoxious to obtain without being any more difficult.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2022 16:56
|
|
|
Disappointed that you're not even using the missiles you have on the second front. Would probably end the map at least a turn or two earlier, since it'd free up your B copters to chase down the APCs and rocket.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2022 18:02
|
|
|
FoolyCharged posted:This map feels pretty half baked. It has a fun concept with the two fronts lightening each other's load, except that doesn't happen in practice. There is no way in hell for you to take those inner 4 cities on the bottom screen before the map is functionally over, let alone in time to help the top screen. And then if you rout the top screen before all 4 cities get captured it doesn't disable the bottom volcano so it actively encourages you to stall out your victory for no reason. And the top fronts cities are also fairly inaccessible to capture before the feont is won. Yeah, I would agree. It's a weird map - I feel like it would've been better if capturing the 4 cities on each front was the victory condition; asking you to rout the enemy, on top of the volcano not being very threatening on either front, means that capturing the cities is ultimately, as you say, not rewarding in the slightest. Delphisage posted:Disappointed that you're not even using the missiles you have on the second front. Would probably end the map at least a turn or two earlier, since it'd free up your B copters to chase down the APCs and rocket. The copters tend to stay out of your missiles' range in this map - I actually sped up the map by keeping my missiles down south, meaning the copters up north came forward more than they usually do. I'd have liked to do some missile action myself, yeah.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2022 21:01
|
|
|
Looks like you've got a URL instead of IMG for one of your pics:code:Did you just take a hit to an APC and the infantry inside didn't take any damage? I'm jealous. It's weird to have a bunch of ranged units on that first front that are basically untouchable.
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2022 02:48
|
|
|
Delphisage posted:Disappointed that you're not even using the missiles you have on the second front. cosmicPostman posted:The copters tend to stay out of your missiles' range in this map. That's a quirk of the AI in general—at least when they're not making intentionally dumb plays (like Hawke). The War Room AI, for example, will never drive their units into indirect range unless you're literally stalling them. Then, they'll eventually lose patience and just say "screw it".
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2022 07:01
|
|
|
DKII posted:Looks like you've got a URL instead of IMG for one of your pics: Fixed, thank you! And yeah, it's a map that feels very stacked in the player's favour for once, which is definitely strange.
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2022 08:14
|
|
|
By the way, I've noticed you saying "my readers have informed me of this or that" once or twice, regarding info I can only remember myself having given. Are there other forums that you post this on, out of curiosity?
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2022 17:03
|
|
|
Fionordequester posted:By the way, I've noticed you saying "my readers have informed me of this or that" once or twice, regarding info I can only remember myself having given. Might be anonymizing you for the sake of the archive in case you don't like being namedropped. Would you mind being namedropped in CP's commentary?
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2022 19:15
|
|
|
Delphisage posted:Would you mind being namedropped in CP's commentary? Nope! Not at all  . Still, if there are other forums that Cosmic posts on, I'd be curious to check 'em out—so I could post my own LPs there.
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2022 19:44
|
|
|
Delphisage posted:Might be anonymizing you for the sake of the archive in case you don't like being namedropped. Exactly this - reader comments don't get archived, just the posts, so I figured it'd be easier to just use "my readers" rather than specific names, since future archive readers won't have any frame of reference for those names. Fionordequester posted:Nope! Not at all Sorry, I'm afraid it's just here!
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 08:22
|
|
|
cosmicPostman posted:Exactly this - reader comments don't get archived, just the posts, so I figured it'd be easier to just use "my readers" rather than specific names, since future archive readers won't have any frame of reference for those names. Oh, that's true. Yeah, keep doing the "my readers" thing, then. That seems like a good artistic decision.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 09:13
|
|
|
Very minor delay for once - I got called into work on Friday, which I usually have off (I specifically asked for Fridays off when I started, and yes, it was entirely because Friday is AW update day), so LPAWDS will be on Saturday, just one day late. Thanks for understanding!
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 20:28
|
|
|
Part 67 (Battle) - Around The Island In 13 Days Welcome back. This map is long as poo poo, and I have a million screenshots to go through, so let's just hurry along.  It was Black Hole's turn! You may recall that Grit said "It's grittin' time" and gritted all over those guys on the first front, and the secondary front had a bunch of copters, which all died, and a Neotank, which is not dead and is kind of an enormous threat.  This Dick Captures A Property: 56  That's the only notable thing to happen, really. Our chokepoints and shitloads of ranged units are preventing Koal from being any kind of actual threat.  The volcano erupts again on the secondary front. For the sake of cutting down on screenshots, and the fact that the volcanoes do nothing useful for the rest of the map, I'm not going to be showing them any more. Just know that they're still erupting, and still not having an effect on the battle.  Kanbei just used his SCOP last turn, so his units are still bulky as gently caress. I can't even one-shot infantries with anti-airs! That's like, a fact of life. You can't do that, Kanbei, it's unnatural.  Anyway, Valeria shoots the first infantry, and now Eduard does the same to the second infantry. Our mechs should be able to finish it from here.  Alina...  ...and Nika finish them off.  Everyone just kinda chills afterwards - the APC is no threat and we need to start focussing on that Neotank sooner rather than later. Dimitri and his anti-air pals, Boris and Fliss, accompany him back down to rejoin the others.  Thankfully Kanbei can't do much to threaten us.  The Neotank comes over, but doesn't dare attack. And the APC just, uh, captures the HQ. If only APCs could actually capture things, huh, Kanbei?  So let's get back to the other battlefield.  This guy is an absolute motherfucker. He's in range to shoot Gordon next turn, but...  ...he's just out of range of Gordon's UNLIMITED ROCKET WORKS.  Anyway, on a more important note, we can get bombers now! So let's just keep buying 'em until everything is dead. First up, it's Lucy! "Heya, guys! How are things looking?" "Better now you've arrived." Rose replies. "We can handle the central island, but we need you to deliver the heavy blows to the remainder of Koal's army." Lucy salutes. "Rose, yes Rose!"  Since Lucy can functionally choke that point forever, as the ground units can't even fire on her, Rose can head up to the central island and help out there. So, what's my plan for the Gordon chokepoint?  What we need...  ...is just a bit more range.  Gordon can absolutely crush the anti-air now, and thus, we're safe again!  Since we have the extra range, may as well use it for some other stuff too. Our man Noah can take out this medium tank.  Yakov decides to go for the megatank in the meantime.  His sister, Inessa, slams the Neotank that hasn't been damaged yet. "I'm not going to lose to you! How many tanks have you taken out now?" Inessa asks. Yakov shrugs. "Dunno. I've hit a lot of them, but not finished them off yet." "Keep up, then, Kov!" Inessa replies with a cheeky grin.  This infantry thought he could run away after harassing my units, so I have Mina take him down.  Fred can basically kill this medium tank, or at the very least stop it from being any kind of threat.  And hey, I can just finish it off with Ingo, perfect.  There's not much left in range for Sebastian to shoot, but he can take out this bote, anyway.  And that was our very cool use of an absolutely busted CO Power. Nice job, us.  Koal's not having a good day.  All his units just kind of mill around over here, not doing much. And, well, they can't do much to Lucy.  Back to the secondary front, then. Let's gently caress around and Kanbei can find out.  Boris starts poking the APC on the HQ. It's remarkably tanky thanks to the HQ bonuses, and being a Kanbei unit, but it's also no threat whatsoever.  Eduard lands another hit, but can't quite take it out. It won't last another turn, though.  In the meantime, we need to do something about this Neotank. Lena attacks first!  And then Von Panzer!  ...and they collectively deal 2 damage, which the Neotank will... immediately heal. Cool.  Here's hoping the Neotank just kind of fucks off and doesn't atta-  OK that's chill actually, at least copters take basically no-  2 damage?! Javier, you have three comm towers how is this happening I'm losing my mind. This Neotank is going to singlehandedly win the second front for Kanbei.  You may recall Michael was on a one-man trip around the island to refuel all the ranged units. The third leg of that journey brings him to Inessa, who he refuels. "Hey, Inessa! Take this - thought you might need it." "Thank you so much, Michael!" Inessa cries. "What a gem! Are you heading back now?" "Yup, gonna refuel Ingo... and Fred, next." Michael replies. "Good luck up here - keep up the good work!"  Also, remember that medium tank that was juuuust inside Inessa's range? Yeah, not anymore, fucker. You're dead  Woo, Noah can do another couple of points of damage to the megatank, too. "I'm feeling good today! So I hope you don't mind if I give it my all!" Noah says brightly, and with a slam of the rocket controls, he launches rockets towards the megatank.  It's a critical hit! Not actually, but it was a kill where I... really wasn't expecting one. How the hell did he do that? He doesn't even have luck bonuses, Grit's on his own right now.  Well, Lucy's not going to let some rockets show her up! She all but slaughters this Neotank, leaving it on 1HP.  And, hilariously, we can afford a second bomber immediately. So why the hell not? Let's bring Zlata in. "I'm ready to fight! Made some tweaks to my bomber, so it should be even stronger now!" Zlata announces. "Ah, Zlata - I have a special mission for you." Rose replies. "Prepare to move out immediately."  The tanks have become depleted enough that I feel safe starting to move some of my mechs in. Arqa starts capturing the first of the cities!  And, hell, he's not doing anything else, so I get Dymek to nab this other city. We actually want to get cities now, since we need to afford more bombers.  Gordon's still doing an excellent job of keeping everything away. He and Julian can hold this entire chokepoint by themselves now that the anti-air is gone.  I move Rose up to block off the enemies from reaching Arqa whilst she captures, in the meantime. "Arqa, I'll cover you. Make sure you get that property captured." Rose says. Arqa nods, her eyes glinting with determination. "No problem, Rose. I'm all over it, k?"  I was about to say "Koal will do nothing useful again", but... Heh heh heh... I'll not surrender! Bend your knee and beg for mercy! We have been doing a lot of damage to him, so he's charged up his SCOP again. What's he going to do with this terrifying increased movement and higher damage on roads, you ask?  This Dick Captures A Property: 57 Yeah, the usual.  Admittedly, a few annoying things happen. Firstly, this infantry comes running over out of nowhere and shoots Inessa.  And secondly, this Neotank blasts Dymek's face off. "F-gently caress me!" Dymek yells, as rocks and debris are hurled up around him. "Dymek!" gasps Rin, who's standing nearby with Carter. "drat, that hurt." Dymek groans. "Goddamn tanks... the mountain blocked most of the blow, but I'm not in good shape. Can one of you two sort that city over there?" I'll do it, then!" Rin says, and Carter salutes at her. "That sounds good! I'll go north and help out the others, then."  That's all in terms of annoying things though, so, you know, it's not that terrible really.  Speaking of things not being that terrible, me and Rose have a plan for the secondary front! All we need to is hold out for one more turn.  Boris can finish the APC, so that's one minor irritation dealt with.  Everyone else just gathers up like this - Alina is in range of the Neotank, but I'm pretty sure Javier's comm towers mean that she survives.  Just need Kanbei to take the bait...  "The Neotank is coming! Are you sure there's a plan?!" Alina asks, bracing herself for impact. "With my dude and Rose, it seems they always have a plan." Valeria says. "I'd trust them." "I'd trust 'em with my life." Dimitri replies. "Just hang tight, Alina!" "R-right!"  BOOM! A heavy blow, but a survivable one. With that, this Neotank has sealed its own fate.  Arqa finishes capturing the nearby city. One down, three to go. I feel like I'm going to win the secondary front before I capture all of these, honestly.  Our ranged units down here are on Neotank alert in the meantime. Fred lands the first hit for about half its HP. "You dare spill the blood of our fair soldiers? Taste death from the skies, as rockets rain down around you!" he roars, with characteristic passion.  Ingo can just about finish it off, rendering our soldiers relatively safe once more.  Up north, Rose comes in to help Inessa with her little infantry problem.  Sebastian can slam the tank to render it pretty harmless to Arqa.  Taking the hit off that infantry, though, means that Inessa isn't hitting as hard as I would like, so she can't do much to this medium tank. Still, better than nothing.  And even medium tanks are no match for the Unlimited Rocket Works, so Gordon and Julian are still totally fine.  Yakov kills the recon, since he can. I need to rout every unit, so they all have to die eventually.  Lucy's on her way north to help out with the enemy forces there. She smacks this infantry on her way past, just because she can. Our other bomber, Zlata, as Rose said earlier, has a secret mission.  Yup. Why bother dealing with the Neotank using our secondary front units when we can just send over a loving bomber to solve the problem?  We can't afford another bomber just yet, but we can choke this point just as easily with a copter. The enemy forces are kind of in disarray. Andromeda, it's your time to shine. "I'll... wall, hold off, all these fuckers!" Andromeda says with determination. "Nobody worry!" "I'm never worried, Andy." Vanessa replies. "You're doing great work out there. Don't let a single tank past!"  The good thing about this turn is that Koal can't use his SCOP again, since he used it last turn. You just know he's going to be right back to spamming it on day 9, though.  Inessa gets shot again, but the weakened infantry does basically fuckall to her now.  And that's it! Great turn, everybody, thanks for coming. Let's move on.  "So you're the one who's been harassing my friends in the Snowbound Free Company and Dimitri's Mercenaries?!" Zlata says. "I guess you can be the first test of my new-and-improved bomber, then! Bombs away!"  The ensuing explosion does a ton of damage to the Neotank, and following that, Alina leaps up, a bazooka in her hands. "Thanks for the assist, Zlata! Allow me to finish this, Snowbound style!"  With a final blast, the Neotank is completely destroyed, with Alina standing upon the wreckage. "Not bad at all." Dimitri says, whistling. Alina winks. "Eva, what'd you think?" "I think you're loving terrifying." Eva replies, chuckling. "Nice one, Alina. This battle's basically over now!"  And, indeed, our job now is just cleaning up these last few units.  Von Panzer finishes off the APC, allowing the rest of our anti-air squad to start moving up past the volcano.  They look kind of funny all bunched up like this.  And Kanbei can't do anything to actually stop me. He's got like a mech and some rockets which don't move.  Yeah, that's going to be pretty easy from now. So let's focus on the more difficult part - killing all of Koal's units before I get bored.  Lucy gets rid of this Neotank on her quest north. She'll be clearing out the northern units, for the most part.  Noah can gently caress up this infantry on the base in the meantime.  And Inessa, in the meantime, slowly continues firing at this medium tank.  I move Mina in to get the kill on this medium tank, now that Inessa's set up the kill for her.  God drat it, Mina. That single point of damage is going to be an extra turn of capturing that I didn't need. Rose can kill the infantry that's been bothering Inessa, though, and she does that reliably as always.  See, Mina? THIS is how a mech kills something. Good job, Lysander.  With Dymek out of action and Carter off north, Rin handles the capturing of this second city.  Best girl Andromeda shoots the recon that came up to her in the meantime.  Gordon continues doing Gordon things too. "Goodness, we have been doing well, haven't we?" Julian says with a silky smile. "I'd say so! And I've been able to nab a few pictures of the Twin Crown Volcanoes in action in the downtime." Gordon replies. "What an incredible place for a battle!" "Good. We're almost out of the woods, I think." Julian replies. "But... I'd like to see your pictures afterwards, if that's all right. I've heard you're an excellent photographer." "Oh, sure! I'll get out some of my photo sets when we get back. The ones I did for Stanley are some of my favourites, I think!"  That's all for this turn. We're very close to gaining total control over the central island, but there's still tons of units to kill on the outside. Michael's tour is continuing, too! As you can see, he's now stopped off next to Fred, who he can refuel at the start of next turn. He's almost done the full lap of the island!  Go on, Koal. Do the annoying thing. I know you want to.  But apparently he doesn't have his Super CO Power charged right now. Thank god for that - and, as you can see, his troops are looking scarce up north, now. Lucy can handle most of this on her own, I think.  The secondary front is mostly just "walking to the things we need to kill", which is not terribly interesting, so let's zoom right through it.  Cassandra is in range of this guy, so we can put paid to him, at least. The rockets are a bit further away, though.  Lena charges on ahead whilst the rest of the troops catch up.  Is Kanbei going to do anything?  Yeah, that answers that question. Back to the front where stuff is actually happening then!  And the first thing I'm going to do is bully this Neotank with Yakov.  Andromeda can finish off the Neotank that Lucy weakened earlier, in the meantime. That moves her off the airport, which is good...  ...because we can afford a third bomber - Peregrine! "Right, shitlords! I've heard you've been causing trouble for my girls, Rosey, Vanny and Andy!" Peregrine says. Rose narrows her eyes sharply. "R-Rosey..?!" "So here's what we're gonna do - bomb the hell outta ya until you stop causing trouble! Sound good?" continues Peregrine. Andromeda gives a sweet, musical laugh. "Yes! Explode, crash, um, bomb them to kingdom come, Perry!"  Lucy is doing the same thing up north, though she can't one-shot infantries on bases. Very upsetting.  Inessa helps kill this medium tank, and with that, the central island is basically cleared out!  Rin has captured city 2/4, too. Almost there.  Up north, Mina and Lysander move in to take the final two cities, though in Mina's case, it's gonna be three turns. The last thing for our ranged units to do is finish off these botes, which Noah begins doing.  Fred goes for the artillery this turn, though - that might be dangerous if it moves down and gets close enough to fire on my own ranged units. Plus it's a one-shot, and one-shots are immensely satisfying.  And that's all for this turn. Koal's army is really on its last legs, now - once we win the secondary front, a solid Tag Power should be able to finish him off, no problem.  Watch him struggle, and laugh at him. Heh heh heh... None shall escape. Oh right, he can still do this.  And he deploys a goddamn anti-air. That's going to be a problem for Lucy.  Right. Let's see what we can do about these rockets, then.  ...And, well, the answer is "nothing". Lena was the only one in range, but she couldn't one-shot them, so we have to take one more turn to finish this map. gently caress you, rockets.  On the plus side, they can't do anything to me, since everything in range is immune to rockets.  So, back to the action - or, to put it another way...  Back to the capt-tion. Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week.  Fred practically kills this tank, which is the last thing on the north-western side to deal with.  Remember the botes in the middle? No you don't - they're all dead now, and Ingo finishes off the last one. Michael's round trip continues with refuelling Ingo and friends, too. "Whew! Been a heck of a drive, but we're almost done. One or two more things to do, now..." Michael says to himself, preparing to drive off once more.  Peregrine gets started murdering all the Neotanks. "Man, this bomber's not as comfy as Clyde..." she grumbles to herself. "Still, hits just as hard. Take this bomb payload!"  And look who can afford another one! It's us! We get Conrad out here to round out the bomber crew.  Andromeda helps out, too, clearing up the rest of these units.  You might be wondering why I didn't fire on any of those guys with Yakov to weaken them. And, well, he's out of ammo, if you check his status in the bottom left. This is the last stop on Michael's island tour - refuelling Yakov once more.  Lucy gets the gently caress away from the anti-air in the meantime. She does barely 50% to it, and it does a shitload in return, so it's best to deal with that once we have our Tag Power.  The oozium needs dealing with, too, come to think of it. I'll get Mina and Rose on the case.  The anti-air heads down, which is perfect for us - now we can get at it with our ranged units.  Let's just finish this front real quick, shall we?  Zlata can do that, no problem. "Looks like we're done here. Hya!" Zlata cries. Alina nods. "Nice one, Zlata!"   Gwar har har! Now we can really unload on these chumps! I'll learn those Black Hole types not to use a volcano against me! I'd be angrier if the volcanoes had actually achieved anything. The Orange Star Army has won on the secondary front! So, right back to the main front!  Oh, you know what time it is.  Y'all can run, but you can't hide! It's time to finish this map off in the most stylish way possible.  Carter, who has headed up to contribute, hits the oozium to start things off.  Rose can follow it up with some more damage, which should let Carter finish it during our second turn.  There's an APC and an infantry in range of Inessa, but I go for the APC first - Grit gets extra range, which lets him hit the APC, but on Javier's turn, only the infantry will be in range, so doing it in this order lets me take both of them out with Inessa.  Lucy hits the artillery for a solid amount of damage, but she gets two turns, so we can easily get the kill with her next hit.  Noah, the absolute MVP of this map, now heads up to get into range - he'll be taking out the anti-air on Javier's turn.  And Mina finally captures this thing!   We think they were causing the eruptions, so we detained them for...questioning. The eruptions on the secondary front should cease immediately! The, uh, already-won secondary front, that is? My dude! Be respectful--these soldiers worked hard. Excellent job, men! That will make it easier to win the day. Man, Sonja's on everybody's case today. Is she OK? She's up against Kanbei, remember? Of course she's giving it her all. Watch me, Father! I will be victorious! Michael continues his tour, racing towards Yakov. He'll be in range to refuel Yakov in time for the second turn.  And thanks to our gigantic loving range, this tank tried to run, but couldn't get far enough. Fred finishes him.  Now we just have to deal with all this stuff over here - Andromeda takes out the infantry to begin with. She can move up to get the recon next turn.  We can get more one-shots with our bombers, as Conrad shows us.  Here, we need to attack the medium tank. Grit only does 92% to the APC, but thanks to the comm towers we got earlier, Javier can easily one-shot the APC once we switch to him. This is the kind of planning that needs to go into a Tag Power to get the best use out of it; I actually really love how tactical Tag Powers can be, and things like this best demonstrate that.  We can afford another copter, who might be useful, so I decide to go for it, and get Anton. He may be able to provide some extra damage to finish off everything down here. And with that, part one of the Tag Power is done! My armor has the thickness of an iron dragon clad in a steel girdle!I love Javier. Have I said that? I must have said that.  Nabbing those two comm towers is going to pay dividends now, since it means Javier's basically as strong on this front as he was on the secondary front - that is to say, strong enough to murder everything that needs murdering.  ...Hm. Except this. Roll high on your luck bonus, Noah!  FUUUUUUCK. We won't be able to win with the Tag Power now - no style points for us. God drat it, Javier. I'm blaming you for this.  We can still finish off everything else, at least, so Inessa rocketates the infantry to death.  Carter finishes off the oozium...  ...whilst Rose does absolutely overkill amounts of damage to the mech.  Lucy takes out the artillery.  Andromeda finishes off the recon. "I... I defeated it! Is everything going well, good?" "Pretty much. I think we'll be totally fine, even if I couldn't quite destroy the anti-air." Noah replies.  Michael resupplies Yakov, and breathes a long sigh of relief. "Whew! The full trip, there we go... good luck, Yakov!" "Thanks." Yakov says, giving a curt nod. "I... appreciate your help. Go rest, got it?" "Way ahead of you." Michael replies.  This tank gets totally Yakov'ed.  And Javier's absurd bonuses let Conrad just utterly gently caress this APC's day up.  gently caress you, anti-air. I'm ready for you.  Admittedly, there's not much you can do to us right now.  The anti-air flees further south, and Koal deploys a mech in the base. Both are going to perish - we have Javier now, who has much better close-range combat than Grit.  See what I mean? This would have been like 70% with Grit.  And Andromeda can finish off this accursed anti-air, winning us this loooooooooong map.  But better to flee and lick my wounds than become fodder for the hounds! Oooh yeah! We totally slammed 'em! One more battle under our belts! Ha ha! Keep 'em coming! I feel like I'm 80 again! You rocked that, old-timer! Listen up, everyone! We're going to the Central Plains! I have some SERIOUS bones to pick with the Omega Land Department of Naming Locations. If we can win, we should be able to boot Black Hole out of Omega Land for good! Commander Rachel! Th-this is serious! W-we just got a r-report... It's... It's... Easy, Colin. No need to burn yer grits. Rachel ain't going anywhere. Calm down and speak slowly. Y-yes. You're right... You're right... Calm thoughts... Cool thoughts... Oh, it's terrible! Omega Land is turning into a desert again! Dude! Weak! Jake, I feel like that's underselling it a bit. No... An S-rank, as expected - this really wasn't a hard map, even before we picked arguably the two best COs for the job.  I love that Grit seems to be responding to Javier's line here. At least, I'm like, pretty sure this isn't paired dialogue?  The wasteland has already swallowed up all the towns along the coast... Wh-what are we going to do? poo poo! For once in my life, I'm disappointed to be right. Rachel? The rejuvenation of Black Hole's army... Cloned COs, requiring massive amounts of energy... The creeping desert... My dude, this is what you were investigating after we destroyed the obelisk, wasn't it? ...Yeah. You already know what my suspicions are, don't you? I hate to think of it, but there's really only one explanation... Aw, man, no... Not the black obelisk! Dude, super weak. OK, that's STILL underselling it, Jake. I'm afraid so. Dude... We smashed the black obelisk! I watched it happen! Even as we did so, I suspected they had a second one. They were far too easygoing about us destroying the source of their power. My dude's right... and I'm not used to saying that. Who's to say there's only one? Black Hole is extremely crafty. They may well have another one somewhere. Fine! Let's smash that one, too! I'm with Max--strike quickly and without mercy. B-but...unless we know where it is, Rose... Colin's right. We just gotta sit tight 'til we find that obelisk thingamajig. But...Omega Land is enormous! I wouldn't know where to start looking. My dude's been investigatin' it, hasn't he? Correct. I've narrowed it down to this particular area--see this map, Rachel? Hm...looking at this map, I'd start in the desert... The obelisk we destroyed was in the middle of Red Rock Desert. You'd never notice the country turning into a wasteland if it started out as one. Yeah, I getcher point. If ya want to hide a tree, stick 'er in a forest, right? I'll deploy our intelligence team and have them track the obelisk down. Rachel! I can do it- No, my dude! I need...we need you here. The battles are only going to get harder, and we need your expertise. ...Of course. I'll be here, then, until the end. In the meantime, we'll head for the final battlefield and... C-Commander Rachel! We've got a situation! drat it, Colin, twice in one conversation?! Stop finding out worrying things! The enemy is deploying some kind of weapon in the Central Plains! Roger that. Let's hightail it back there and teach Black Hole a lesson!And thus, the next map begins.  They're enormous... And there are two of them. I... I've seen those silos before! Those are Black Hole mega missiles! They're strong enough to wipe out an entire continent! During the last war, we captured the surrounding buildings and cut the power. At least...I think that's the way it happened. Aha ha ha ha! The brave little schoolboy remembers his lessons! This bitch again. Could this day get any worse? And since you're such a clever little boy, I'll let you in on a little secret... Unless you capture all four com towers on this map, both missiles will fire! I'll start calculating a perfect strategy. Oh, and did I mention that these missiles... these...Black Armageddons... are aimed directly at your homelands?! N-Nell! Yes, they will fly off to your countries and redecorate every last city. Talk about an extreme makeover! Aha! Aha ha ha ha ha! Kindle! We'll stop you in your tracks! Aha! Ha ha ha! It's far too late now! Oh...I see despair in your eyes... How lovely! Where is your esprit de corps now? Come on, you think I'm going to lose this? I'm ready for any tricks up your sleeve. My dude? Yes, I thought you might be. And I have another treat just for you... Oh, clone! Are you ready to crush these insects? Bring it on. I am ready. No. No, no, no! No, no, no, no, no, NO! That's Andy! No, wait... That's a clone... Isn't it? KINDLE, YOU FUCKER!! Aw, nuts! You gotta be kidding me! Dude, that's Commander Andy from Cosmo Land! He's a legend! A legend? Dipshit? Absolutely the gently caress NOT. You have 24 days until the missiles fire... Until then... I will keep you company. Dude, we gotta fight Andy? No. You don't. What? Everybody stand down. Do you hear me? Clone Dipshit, huh? Allow me to handle this one...personally. My dude...you can take command. Take any of the COs that you need. Good. Let's not waste any loving time. My dude..? What are you going to do? ...I'm going to kill this loving kid.Next time, we fight Dipshit. And I am going to enjoy every god drat second of it. Two teams, two COs for each team, 4 COs in total. Place your votes for the red team and blue team, and I'll see you next time! *** Part 68 (Intermission) - The Meaning Of A Flower
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 12:59
|
|
|
Pretty simple map this time, with the only bite coming from the four com towers Kindle starts with and making sure she can't use the western silos. Jess and Jake for Red team, Sonja and Sami for Blue team.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 13:47
|
|
|
Ditto the above post for suggestions. It really doesn't matter too much. This mission gets a major difficulty spike in the Hard Campaign though, it was the mission I had the most trouble with overall. Paired dialogue for the previous mission Rachel/Jake Eighteen days? We gotta hustle. There isn't even time to plan. We'll just give 'em the ol' razzle-dazzle!Max/Grit Let me take the lead, Grit! I'm gonna hit 'em hard! Now hold on there, Max. Did you see the lava's trajectory? If my hunch is right, that road is gonna be mighty risky. We should slow down and keep one eye peeled for trouble.Sami/Sonja Hey, Sonja...are you OK? You're hurting, huh? Battling a clone that looks just like your dad... Maybe you should tell Rachel that you want to sit this one out... I'm fine. Let me do this. This...this is just a clone. My father is safe and sound... I will utterly destroy this monster that wears his face!Colin/Sasha I'm an allied commander! I won't let this molten lava scare me! How brave! Ummm...Colin? Why are your knees knocking?Sensei/Grimm Gwar har har! Time to knuckle up! Sensei, you should stay here and relax. No need to worry about me, Grimm. I taught Kanbei to fight back in the day, and I even showed Hachi a trick or two! I may be old, but there's no way I'm going to lose to some knock-off clone!Sonja/Lash Lash, please help me! I must win this battle! What the? Hey, don't be a weirdo! Is one little clone really such a shocker? Oh, fine... I'll help. I'm bored anyway. Don't forget to thank me when we win!Jess/Javier So this is the renowned Sir Kanbei! I have much desired a duel with him... Ah, but only that it were so! But the striking down of a clone will not give me the warmth of victory. Jess what manner of man is the true Kanbei? He's a lot like Grimm, actually. Birds of a feather and all that.Jess/Jake Two volcanoes! This is a rare geological wonder. I wonder if there are hot spring geysers nearby... What is it? What's wrong, Jake? Everything cool with you? You never say stuff like that. You're always all intent on the battle and stuff. Know what I'm saying? But yeah...word...once we beat these suckas down, I could chill in a pool.Eagle/Sami Be careful there, Eagle. Those flying lava rocks could decimate your air force... Don't sweat it. As long as you're around, there's no way we can lose.Hawke/Lash I haaaaaaate volcanoes! They think they're so hot! Nature only exists so we can conquer it with science! I hope you understand just how strange you are. Come on, let's go.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 14:11
|
|
|
Sasha, Rachel, Max and Hawke or Eagle. Combinations are CP's Choice. My vote's pretty much entirely narrative-based. This IS Dipshit and at this point in the series my dude's... well, to say he's probably looking forward to this is an understatement. Of the people we have available, Sasha/Rachel/Max seem to be narratively the closest to my dude for one reason or another, while Hawke and Eagle seem fitting for going after Dipshit, clone or no. I will say it took a lot of willpower to not vote up Jake, Rachel, Max and Sami for pure Orange Star, though- main reason I didn't was Sasha.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 17:47
|
|
|
You know... What happens to the clones after they are beaten? Do they fall apart in a mess of wet goo? Summarily executed? Get sent to a
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 18:36
|
|
|
Sami and eagle, Hawke and Max Slot them wherever you'd prefer. Watermelon Daiquiri posted:You know... What happens to the clones after they are beaten? Do they fall apart in a mess of wet goo? Summarily executed? Get sent to a The Olaf clone moved up north in order to really be Santa, The drake clone started up a boat business and then crashed the boat on a deserted island during a three hour tour, the kanbei clone signed on with the business behind all of those lake battleships, and the Andy clone will be placed in an asylum with all of the rest of the Andy clones(each on believing themselves to be the real andy) like that Pratchett novel.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 20:24
|
|
|
Watermelon Daiquiri posted:You know... What happens to the clones after they are beaten? Do they fall apart in a mess of wet goo? Summarily executed? Get sent to a I expect that the Bolt guard cuts the power line and they keel over. A question no one seems to be asking is: Why hasn't this desertification been an issue in previous games? Well I can think of two factors. First: There was only one clone active back in AW1. Two: The black obelisk is probably alien tech that only Sturm knew how to calibrate properly. The Bolt Guard has gotten it working, but very inefficiently.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 21:31
|
|
|
To be fair the only clone before this was Andy in AW1 and there's nothing saying he was built from the same power source. The obelisks and crystals seem unique to the new guys on the block. E:In fact: in aw1 black hole mostly uses the other countries against each other and only has clone Andy's army and a defensive force. In AW2 their resources are again pillaged from the host countries and piped into factories, no crystals involved FoolyCharged fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Oct 15, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 21:45
|
|
|
AW1 makes it sound like Sturm had two or three Andy clones on hand to command his troops in Andy Times Two, plus a spare clone of himself commanding the troops in Enigma.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2022 01:13
|
|
|
Orange Star COs (Optimal): Hawke/Lash with 120% Direct Defense, the usual Synergies, Praerie Dog, & Woodwalker. Orange Star COs (Story): Max/Sami with 108% Direct Defense, Luck, APC Boost, & Invader Blue Moon COs: Sasha/Colin with 113% Direct Attack, Praerie Dog, Gold Rush, and the usual Synergies. -------- Sasha in Blue Moon is good for the obvious reasons... But the other thing is that a lot of her units directly counter the enemy. Her Anti-Airs counter the Copter, her own copters counter the Md Tanks, her Rockets can get in range of the bottom factory without retaliation (if Praerie Dog's on)... Blue Moon has a good time here. Just make sure not to build anything except a single Infantry from the top—you want a strong Market Crash. Hawke/Lash can break this map wide open with the skills suggested. Praerie Dog and Woodwalker lets you block off the upper-right factory with your Recon on Day 1. Plus, your Tank can cripple the lower-right Anti-Air from within the Rocket's blind spot. By doing so, you've effectively trivialized half their army before the fight even begins... And the other half can be easily dealt with via your Neo Tank, your Md Tank, and a single Copter from Blue Moon. ...But, that might be a bit dull. So, you could also choose Max & Sami (who are prominently involved in the after-battle cutscene). Max's 120% Attack makes him a decent choice... But you'll need to be wary of your foe's 140% Attack boost. Be very afraid of Kindle attacking from a property, too—that's 180% Attack! You may want this—a chart of OHKOs (assuming 0% Luck rolls): 
Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Oct 17, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2022 10:13
|
|
|
Part 69 (Battle) - The Fury Of The Kingmaker Time to rip Dipshit a new rear end in a top hat.  The votes were pretty open again - Max/Hawke was a shoe-in, and I've taken these skills. Max's don't matter because I never actually switch to him - Hawke's got the movement-improving skills to let me units totally ignore forests and plains, which will be very handy, and then a few defensive skills - we'll need them, since the enemy has 4 com towers to start, and thus a huge attack boost. Meanwhile, whilst Sami got the most votes for the blue team, there were a few ties for the second CO. I chose Sonja because honestly, that -1 terrain effect is absurd and I am going to abuse every single feature of this game in today's battle. I don't intend to "defeat" Dipshit. I intend to destroy him.  Yes, we're ready! Let's get to the carnage already!  Today’s Deployments Orange Team Dave, Infantry Fliss, Infantry Alfonse, Mech Carter, Mech Michael, APC Fleur, APC Von Panzer, Recon Ingo, Tank Selena, Medium Tank Lena, Neotank Rin, Artillery Fred, Rockets Blue Team Vanessa, Infantry Lysander, Mech Adelaide, APC Lowell, Recon Cassandra, Anti-Air Petra, Anti-Air Arqa, Tank Sebastian, Artillery Noah, Rockets Rose, Battle Copter Andromeda, Battle Copter The second team's got a variety of Green Earth/Yellow Comet units, but I thought I'd beat Dipshit with the Orange Star crew on the first team today. Doesn't it take you right back to AW1?  Andy is one tough hombre... Look sharp, my dude! Dipshit is nothing without me winning his battles for him. This isn't going to take long. You do intend to singlehandedly fight this battle, then? drat straight. Just move your units to the exact places I tell you to. I'm calling the shots today. So, the plan? There's four com towers to capture, and honestly, the enemy forces are pretty underwhelming. If we move fast and strike quickly, we can overwhelm them before they build up much in the way of funds. Plus, one of the com towers, the one up north, is totally undefended, so we can just go and get that one and Dipshit can't even stop us. We'll be splitting our forces into various groups in order to achieve different tasks, so let's go.  Firstly, thanks to the movement-increasing skills, we can block up this factory literally immediately with Von Panzer.  Whilst our tank, Ingo, does a huge hit to this anti-air. The blue team's forces are pretty hard to contest, having two copters, and this is the only real threat to them.  Carter and Fliss will be handling capturing on this side, with Fliss heading south to get the com tower (once those rockets are gone, anyway) and Carter going north to get the factory Von Panzer's so helpfully blocking up. "Man, this is weird." Carter murmurs. "We were deployed with Commander Andy, and now fighting a clone of him... and did you see the way my dude was talking?" "I've never seen him look so... cold." Fliss says quietly. I also move Fred in the rockets down to this specific tile - this puts him in range of something important over the next few turns.  I buy another APC - Fleur. She and Michael will be ferrying Dave and Alfonse towards the other com towers.  Dave hops into Michael whilst Alfonse gets into Fleur. "Let's get moving, Michael; seems like time is of the essence." Dave says. "Yeah, no kidding." Michael replies, looking at Dave with some concern. "In all our years of serving in the 11th Division, I've never heard my dude bark an order. Andy really gets under his skin, huh?" "Seems like it. I'm not too familiar with why, though. Maybe he's still upset about when Nell had to leave, back in that first campaign." Dave replies, but eventually, he shrugs. "Eh, it's not for us to worry about. My dude's always got our back."  Michael heads immediately north, bound for the north-eastern com tower. There's a medium tank in the north-west but it will be dealt with long before it ever gets over to Dave and Michael.  The rest of the units organise themselves like so. Selena, in the medium tank, is heading north to deal with that medium tank, whilst Lena and Lucy, in the Neotank and artillery respectively, will be handling the western section of this battle, where another medium tank and an artillery are hanging around. "...Good luck out there, Selena." Lena says. Selena nods. "Thank you, Lena. You too - show them what you can do." "I won't hold anything back. Not against Black Hole." Lena replies, narrowing her eyes.  My dude's orders are in...it feels weird to be taking orders from him. My infantry can capture those com towers in no time! It is strange...what is it about Andy that has given him this bloodlust? Still, yes, I will leave the capturing to you. According to my orders, it will be my job to give you as much backup as possible! So, the blue team will be pretty much entirely dealing with this southern area, and we have more than enough firepower to deal with it.  First thing we need to do is have Rose handle this anti-air. "Other copters may think twice about approaching an anti-air, but I am Rose Kuroda, and I have no such weaknesses." Rose says, opening fire on the anti-air. "The rest of you, be sure to move quickly. We cannot let the enemy build up their forces."  One of our blue team has another mission, though - Sebastian, in the artillery, will be moving north, for reasons which rhyme with "bleedium blank".  The blue team is also going to be splitting up into groups - this group of Arqa, Andromeda, Noah and Lowell are going to be handling the right side of the area - primarily, the tank, artillery, and whatever gets spawned from that base down there. "Arqa." Rose says over the transceiver suddenly. "Do you trust me?" "What? Yeah, of course I do. You and Vanny have helped me become a decent soldier." Arqa replies. "Good. In that case," Rose replies. "I want you to listen to my dude's orders and trust him as much as you trust us. Alright?" Arqa nods slowly. "Uh, sure. If you say he's got a plan, then I'll trust that."  Our final group will be dealing with the left side - Cassandra and Petra will obviously be able to handle the copters, then Lysander inside Adelaide, and Vanessa who just has to walk, will be capturing some properties nearby, and the com tower.  And no, the copters can't reach Adelaide's APC - I planned for that. That's the end of our turn. Time for Dipshit.  So, let's see what these guys have in store for us.  GOD, I am so sick of that mother loving laugh. Go ahead! Panic! Run screaming like dogs with your tails on fire! The missiles will fire in 24 days, and there's no way you can stop them. I'll have those com towers captured in 7 days. Now get the gently caress out of my way--I'm here for Dipshit! You hope to capture all four com towers? Aha ha ha! Incroyable! Soon you will see my beautiful fireworks light up to the night sky! I won't say it again. Your defeat is an inevitability, so step aside and I won't have to destroy you. Hmph! You think you can scare me with such big talk, my dude? You there! Clone! I expect victory! Do not disappoint... I do not need reminding. That is my only purpose. THERE YOU ARE. Up above, the medium tanks start moving in, but they're not important. Arqa, meanwhile, is attacked. "Wait, wha-" Arqa yelps.  "Is... this part of the plan?!" Arqa gasps. Vanessa nods. "My dude has everything under control... I think."  The copters move in, and the artillery moves up - it's in range to fire on Fred now, which is annoying. I also didn't screenshot it, but they produced an anti-air from that southern base, because I should go gently caress myself. ... So, you've decided to take control, Clipshit? Good. There's a lot of things I've always wanted to say to Dipshit, but apparently we have to "be professional" and "not talk poo poo", so you know what? I'll say all that stuff to you, instead. ... Ingo attacks the rockets - they need to go before Fliss can move in and get the com tower. Most people think they know why I find Dipshit, well...a dipshit. I mean, surely anyone whose crush is sent away and replaced with THAT would be annoyed, right? It runs way loving deeper than that though. This is why we needed Fred - he's going to be weakening the anti-air heavily to ensure it's not a threat to Rose and Andromeda. I joined the army because I felt I could do more. It felt like the right choice. And it was! I struggled, but Nell helped train me personally, and under her tutelage, my real talents began to shine through. I was an ACO! I had worth, and value! Carter continues slowly moving up to the base where Von Panzer's still blocking things up like a champ. And when it came to the end of my training, I was waiting for it - a promotion to CO. I'd proved my worth. I'd defeated Olaf! I wanted to do more, and being a CO would let me do that! And you know who loving got that promotion?! You know who stood in the way of me moving up in the army?! ...... Michael drops Dave off, right in range to get the com tower next turn. Honestly, nabbing these things isn't too bad - by the end of this turn, we'll be in range to get two of the four. Why the hell did they give you 24 days for this mission? Yeah. Dipshit. Some dumbass kid who wasn't qualified for the position, and suddenly I had to be the one relaying his orders to the army. That was really loving galling. I wondered why - did Nell think I wasn't ready to be a CO? Was it the suits upstairs who made the decision? Selena moves up to handle the medium tank in the north. For the east, we actually want to play a little defensively. This artillery will consistently move to stay juuust out of our unit's range, like an rear end in a top hat, and if it's still alive in a turn or so, we're going to eat a hit from it during the Tag Power, which we do not want. I have a plan to deal with it, and first things first, we need Rin in the artillery to position herself right... here. But no. Suddenly I realised why YOU'D been given the position. So, blue team's turn. Their job this turn can be aptly summarised in one word: massacre. You were kicked upstairs. A brilliant mechanic, yes, but an underperforming soldier - putting you in the CO's seat meant you couldn't do as much damage. Why couldn't you do as much damage? ...Well, OK, except for Sebastian, who has to wait one turn before his massacre begins. Because all of your orders went through ME, the Assistant Commanding Officer. I knew now why Nell had kept me as the ACO - I was the filter for your stupidity. If I'd been made CO and you were ACO, you've have bungled my orders by the time they got to the troops, and my plans wouldn't have worked nearly as well. Then we get to the slaughtering! It had to be that way. I understood that...but it didn't mean I didn't resent it. So yeah, to absolutely nobody's surprise, Cassandra and Petra take out the copters with no problem, leaving the com tower completely undefended. So let's go get that, shall we? I was effectively trapped. If I sought a promotion, or moving to a new division, I'd have left my soldiers in your hands--they'd have been dead in a battle or two. I stayed for them. I chose to be an ACO, and a drat good ACO, for THEM. We drop Lysander off near the com tower. In the meantime, Vanessa grabs the airport. The map isn't going to last long enough for the airport to be useful, but hey, we have it, and that's cool. I often describe that first campaign as "fighting halfway across the world". What I don't mention very often is that the person I was fighting most was YOU, Dipshit. Your stupid plans and silly orders, your lack of planning and communication...all your paperwork. It fell to me to handle all that--to turn your stupid plans into successful strategies. The murder continues as Noah deletes the tank; we used Arqa to lure it into rocket range, because otherwise, that thing can be pretty troublesome. And you got all the credit for it! Truly, what an astounding CO you were! That's what the people used to say, anyway. How many of them know it was me? Not many, outside of my own soldiers; because the only victory that was fully attributed to me was the final battle against Sturm. Andromeda can finish off the weakened anti-air now, which is also great. My glory...my CO position...my soldiers...all of it was put into your hands, and I was powerless to stop it. All I could do was take your orders and turn them into victories, and I hated every second of that powerlessness. Other COs, I won WITH their best efforts. With you, I won DESPITE your best efforts. The last person on our slaughter-list for today is this artillery - we can't let it shoot Fred. First, Lowell comes along to weaken it. "I think I've seen what my dude's plan is. I'm going to help any way I can. That's... what a good soldier should do." Lowell says to himself, opening fire on the artillery. And...you know what the absolute worst part of you is, Dipshit? Rose doesn't even have to move to finish it off. I mean, it's not like fuel is ever a concern on a normal map, but still. It's not the stupidity. It's not the fact that Nell left and I was stuck with you. It's not that you took the job I had earned. And, uh, yeah, that's how to murder everything on the south side in two turns. I told you we weren't just going to beat Dipshit, but utterly humiliate him. Arqa's gone down to the HQ to heal in the meantime. It's that...underneath all that...you were a good kid. Black Hole's turn. They don't really have much they can do to threaten us. You didn't do any of that stuff with malicious intent. You were just a kid, doing your best for your country. It made it really loving hard to hate you. Our attention is going to be directed to the top-left part of the map next - two medium tanks and a very annoying artillery to deal with next. But considering we have enough firepower to level a megatank, I don't think we'll have too much trouble. I suppose we should switch. My dude... isn't it? ...I've said everything I need to say. I am not him, but... I am sorry. ...Let's just get this over with. The COs swap back - we've maxed out Clandy's CO meter, so they're switching to Kindle to get hers maxed out too. Basically, no matter which way we slice it, we're eating a Tag Power next turn. All we can do is make preparations for it.  As usual, we're going to go with the strategy of "make everything dead so the tag power is useless".  Von Panzer can finally gently caress off from this base and let Carter capture it instead.  "Base capturing in progress! I'm the best shot in the army - this base will be taken in no time!" Carter announces. "How's everyone else doing? Dave, still slowly getting to the com tower?"  "Don't forget who you're talkin' to, kid." Dave says, raising an eyebrow. "I'm already at the com tower, capturing in progress." "Whoa, Michael, you drive FAST!" Carter replies, and Michael chuckles. "I have been doing this for more than a few years, you know, Carter."  Selena strikes the medium tank - we can even do it from the forest for the extra defensive bonuses.  We'll be weakening this medium tank with Rin first...  Which allows Lena to completely blow it away. "Medium tank dealt with!" Lena says. "I feel...satisfied." "Don't sit on your laurels just yet, Lena!" Rin replies. "That artillery's still nearby!" "It's just an artillery. Do we really need to worry?"  "I'd say so." Ingo replies as he finishes off the rockets. "Andy's a CO without weakness - it makes him very solid all-round, so don't underestimate him. Anyway, Fliss, the way to the com tower is open!" "R-right! I'll move in... and capture it!" Fliss says nervously.  A recon got deployed from this base, so we just rocketinate it with Fred again. I love having rockets in range of an enemy base. It's never not funny.  This is how we shape up for now. I know we haven't moved Alfonse and Fleur yet, but we can't go for the com tower in the west until the artillery is gone. Don't worry - it'll stop being our problem next turn.  The blue team have a couple more things left to do to fully deal with the southern area.  And also this - the whole reason we sent Sebastian up here is to help kill the medium tank, as Selena can't one-shot it; thanks to Andy's huge 5HP heal on his SCOP, anything that is damaged-but-alive during the Tag Power will become a huge nuisance.  Thankfully, Andy can't heal the dead although a CO that can revive all their destroyed units in the place they were when destroyed sounds incredibly cool and also kinda broken so we're good here. In the meantime, Lysander makes a start on com tower number two.  Vanessa gets the airport! Useless, but you know, she's helping.  The rest of the squad move north, partially because they may be able to help, and partially because I have no idea what else to do with them.  Lowell makes the enemy recon regret getting deployed, which frees up the base...  Which we can then put Andromeda on top of. No more deploying annoying poo poo for you, Andy! Well, Kindle right now, I guess.  Rose, her point-choking completed, heads north too, backing up the others.  Ooh, Black Hole have their Tag Power. Are you scared? I'm scared.  Actually I was lying.  In all seriousness, if you don't go out of your way to murder every single nearby thing, this is a dangerous pairing - four com towers, alongside tons of healing, and huge damage on cities, these two have a lot of chances to just one-shot your units.  Even this artillery is capable of one-shotting a whole ton of things under Andy's CO Power, which is why I've purposefully ensured that every unit except for Lena is out of its range, even after moving on Kindle's turn. ... So yeah, let's watch Andy do basically nothing on what should be the most dangerous turn of the map.  ...OK, fine, he does one thing. This Dick Captures A Property: 57 You know, I really expected this counter to be higher, considering how many times I've memed on Black Hole for capturing properties. This averages out at around 2 per map, which feels incorrect.  "You think you're a threat?" Lena says viciously, as the artillery fires. "I didn't come here to play games. We've got a battle to win." Indeed, even with the com towers, and Andy's SCOP, and being on full HP, this artillery only does 5 damage to Lena.  And that's everything! One of the easier Tag Powers to handle, though I lost more than a few runs to that loving artillery, running around one-shotting things.  Dave and Carter finish their capturing, and that's one tower down! Also the base but who cares.  Fliss makes a start on the third com tower, since the rockets are history. It's just the final one to the left that's going to take a bit longer, but now the medium tank is dead and the artillery is in range, we can pretty easily clear that area out.  Lena very politely tells the artillery to go gently caress itself.  Fleur and Alfonse move in, ready to go for the com tower next turn, and then... Honestly, I think I've said it before, but recons with no terrain penalties are legitimately loving stupid, I love it. Von Panzer comes SCREAMING across the map to finish off the artillery.  I have, like, money and bases, but I literally don't need to deploy anything at this point - half a Neotank and most of a medium tank can handle anything that Kindle and Andy can chuck at us.  And the blue team, meanwhile, really don't have much to do.  Well, except for Lysander capturing this, that's pretty loving crucial. Second tower down!  It also occurs to me that Noah might be able to rocket some motherfuckers by heading west, towards the pipe seam, so I move him back down. Admittedly, it also occurs to me that the map will probably be over by then, but hey, always good to be prepared if something goes pear-shaped.  Vanessa gets into Adelaide, bound for the factory. May as well capture it, since it stops Black Hole doing annoying things like "having money".  There we go, all dropped off. The other units, no longer needed to handle the factory, just go to catch up with Rose's crew.  Arqa does the same, though she stops on this property to get another turn of healing. The middle crew - our anti-airs and Rose - will be handling the northern section now. It's not super huge, but the blue team's HQ is up there, and the enemy's got quite a few infantry, so we need to be aware of that.  Andy, who basically doesn't have any units left, is going to struggle to be a threat this turn.  Two more properties get CAPT, though - it's not super annoying but the more funds they have, the more potential they have to be annoying. This Dick Captures A Property: 59  That's all, though. Let's just get on with things.  The first thing I do is move Lena up here to blast this infantry's face off. We don't actually have to attack them - the important thing is that Lena is choking the point, preventing those infantry from coming south and harassing Alfonse.  "I... I did it!" Fliss says. "The third com tower is c-captured!" "C'est merveilleux!" Fleur replies, giving a delighted clap. "Let's go and get the final one, then, Alfonse!" "Yeah, let's roll!"  And indeed, Fleur gets Alfonse dropped off to start capturing the com tower next turn. The map is basically over at this point, but we have two turns to wait for the capturing, so we can embarrass Andy further in the meantime.  For example, I could get Dave back into Michael and head back to HQ, but there's a Black Hole property here that I can capture to cut into their funds further. Fliss can do the same thing with the property near to her, in the bottom-right.  Selena, Rin and Von Panzer form a defensive core to protect Alfonse whilst he captures.  Let's go and gently caress up the enemies trying to harass the blue team HQ in the meantime, shall we?  And also some more capturing - Vanessa's on the base.  Up here, Rose, Petra and Cassandra move in to block the HQ, and since Sebastian's already here, he moves into range to shoot anyone that goes for that undefended property.  Black Hole will now proceed to embarrass themselves.  This absolutely suicidal loving infantry goes to capture this property, despite being in range of two anti-airs, a battle copter, and a goddamn artillery. Kindle seems to realise that Andy's making some stupid decisions, as she decides to take over. I suppose we should switch. It won't help her.  She can't do anything but helplessly watch...  ...as we nab the fourth and final com tower, with 19 days to go. One turn left and victory is assured. Get hosed, Andy.  And Dave and Carter are still merrily capturing things, because they've not got much else to do.  This artillery, however, is an issue. This is why we don't want Black Hole to have money - them dropping rockets or something here could have been ruinous. Here, though, we can just...  ...move Lena down one space. She and Fleur can easily prevent anyone getting past. The rest of the crew form up and prepare for the final turn. "Not long to go, now!" Alfonse says. "You can do it, Alfonse! Save all of Cosmo Land and Macro Land!" Rin cries, and Alfonse suddenly winces. "That's... huh. That's actually what I'm about to do. Never thought I'd do something so grandiose." he mutters. "Heh. Thanks, Rin - here we go!"  Blue team, as per usual, are initiating more massacres.  As well as getting this base. Black Hole aren't allowed rights, or money. Or Adder. gently caress that guy.  Cassandra all but destroys this poor infantry, leaving him on 1HP. I debate for a while about the most brutal way to finish him off, but there's no contest.  The artillery murder circle every time - Sebastian blasts him to kingdom come.  The blue team just sit and wait for more infantry to come blundering over to them.  Do you see those units down in the bottom left? They will not be threats.  Ugh. Another goddamn building, fine. This Dick Captures A Property: 60  This infantry shoots Sebastian to get revenge for his fallen comrade, but only does like 2 damage. ... And they're swapping again for basically no reason.  Let's just finish it. Do it, Alfonse.  "Com tower number four captured!" Alfonse announces. "The missiles have been halted - our lands are saved!" "Nice job, Alfonse. Knew you could do it." Dave says. "Yeah, that was amazing! Four towers captured in record time - we really nailed it this time, huh?" Michael replies. Dave nods. "Yup. Black Hole obviously thought fighting Andy would knock my dude's confidence... what they didn't count on was that it would piss him off enough to give the battle 110%."  I will leave you here to die! I...lost... Hey, uh... Andy clone? Kindle just split. Aren't you going to take off, too? It makes no difference. I do not have long... My life will soon fade... like all the clones... The energy reserves required to keep you functional must be immense. And there's no use devoting that energy to a clone that has failed. What the... What do you mean? Can't you do something? No need for tears. I am...false... You won't see me shedding any goddamn tears about this. Oh, look... My time... has come... Your body! It's... Oh, no... Look at it... ...Yes. I know... Can I...ask you something? What kind of man is Commander Andy? My...original. ...Commander Andy... Does he have friends? Do people...like him? Hah! Don't make me laugh. My dude!! Yeah, he has friends. Tons of 'em. I'm one of his best. Andy is a fine CO. Everyone loves him. Well... ...As I said before, he's a good kid. His heart is in the right place. If one person doesn't like him, and the other twenty-odd people do, then he's clearly doing alright. I see... Interesting... I am not Andy... I am just a clone...but...you made me...happy... Aw, drat it, kid, don't make me feel emotions about Dip--about Andy. Seriously. I'm gonna... I'm gonna... ...... ...Goodbye, Andy. Apology accepted. Andy... ...... This is... Oh, man, this is terrible... Black Hole! I'll never forgive you! You're going down! Not 300 points, but still an S-rank, and I think a seven-day clear of that map is pretty slick. It was Andy! I had to beat him as thoroughly and efficiently as possible.  Hawke promotes! Nobody else does. Hawke's just gonna sit on rank loving a million or something whilst they're all at like, 5.  ...And these end-of-battle quotes don't quite fit the emotional tone of that battle's ending...  Still, another mission down - we're getting close to the end.  I know I normally jump right into the next mission here, but I'm going to save that, as we're approaching the final part of the game. So sometime during the next few days, I'll post a quick intermission to lead into the final mission (you can place your CO votes once that goes up), and next Friday, we'll have the traditional Night Before update. The week after, we'll start with the battle! See you very soon, folks! *** Part 70 (Intermission) - Black Hole Weekly Report cosmicPostman fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Oct 21, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 11:43
|
|
|
God the movement cost = 1 abilities are just so stupid in a good way. Even if you hadn't been able to mop up all the enemy units that fast planting a recon on top of one base and a rocket in range of the other effectively shut down their entire front before a single shot got fired.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 19:27
|
|
|
Mydude's being a massive hypocrite with that whole speech. His memory of AW1 (or at least the 1st half of it) is incredibly self-serving compared to what actually happened. He lost multiple units in fricken Field Training, with Nell holding his hand His screwups were the only reason Dave even had an arc. Heck, Rose would've died in fricken Blue Moon, had she blindly followed him. It can't be true that he was promoted only due to Mydude being around to clean up his messes, either. If it were, Nell would've canned him when Mydude left (IIRC, she was top dog as of AW2). No, the only difference in how Andy & Mydude started is that Nell chose to be a good mentor, while Mydude's chose to be arrogant and bitter—just like Vanessa was with Sonja. Even then, Andy did ok enough in AW2—he went through all three of his missions without a single death. That more than could be said of Mydude, during Field Training  .
Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Oct 22, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2022 06:03
|
|
|
Fionordequester posted:Mydude's being a massive hypocrite with that whole speech. My read on it was that my dude was more bitter, above all else, that he was effectively being used by High Command and he knew it. Yeah, my dude starting out was trash... but when compared to a guy who doesn't know what an airport is and has trouble getting dressed in the morning (both in AW1's actual text no less), even early saga my dude's kinda a strategical god, so High Command kinda strongarmed Nell into keeping him as ACO to filter Andy's nonsense. Look no further than the first attempt at Final Battle or Rivals to see what happens when my dude isn't around. By the sequels its clear that my dude's 100% stuck around in the role because the 11th Division are his goons.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2022 07:16
|
|
|
SMaster777 posted:Look no further than the first attempt at Final Battle or Rivals to see what happens when my dude isn't around. I mean... That was Final Battle. The one everyone was telling Cosmic to drop his "deathless" rule for. Andy even did fairly well—Mydude admitted as much, before Meteor Strike. His only complaint after that was "Meteor Strike destroyed you, why are you still trying?" Rivals was just two friends having fun, with both sides armed with non-lethal weapons. Andy could afford to mess around with silly ideas. SMaster777 posted:even early saga my dude's kinda a strategical god, so High Command kinda strongarmed Nell into keeping him as ACO to filter Andy's nonsense. But I mean... He's still there in AW2? I could've sworn Nell already was High Command, by that point. Either way though, it's still basically the same exact situation as Vanessa & Sonja—except Andy was never perceptive enough to notice (as far as we know). Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Oct 22, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2022 08:10
|
|
|
Fionordequester posted:Mydude's being a massive hypocrite with that whole speech. SMaster777 posted:My read on it was that my dude was more bitter, above all else, that he was effectively being used by High Command and he knew it... There's definitely parallels to be drawn between my dude and Vanessa, in terms of their response to not getting promotions. The intent, whether it came across or not, of my dude admitting that Andy's a good kid is also him admitting that the things he's blaming Andy for aren't really Andy's fault. High Command says outright in the first game that my dude isn't their best ACO (but of course, he doesn't know that and as you've said, he is an arrogant sonovabitch) and my dude knows that Andy does have some talent, though I believe in LPAW2 it's implied that he had a hand in training Andy and the other COs. I've not actually reread that in a hot second. Edit: re Andy still being about in AW2, you must remember that Nell likes Andy a lot more than my dude. He gets invited to the wedding in my dude's AW2 ending, and it's said that Nell put her foot down about it. She probably agrees with you, Fiono - Andy and my dude are very similar, and Andy just needs a guiding hand to improve as a CO.
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2022 08:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 10:28 |
|
|
It's definitely one of those things I always wondered about, as far as the creative aspect of it. These LPs initially started off much less serious (with "troops" originally being five identical clones with the same name), so the whole "Dipshit" thing fit perfectly for that context. Then the narrative aspect became more and more serious. Thus, it slowly changed from an amusing running gag to an uncomfortable part of Mydude's actual character. I was never certain whether or not you'd noticed, since writers are often looking forward instead of backward. It's why they seem to remember less about their own story than their fans  .
Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Oct 22, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2022 08:27
|
|