beta 1 insanity

[Bethrezen]

hi all

is it just me of is beta 1 quite possibly one of the most difficult levels of the campaign I've played a lot of RTS games but dam this has to be one of the most insane defend your base missions I've ever played even when you slow the game speed right down its really really easy to screw this mission up is beta 1 even doable on anything other than normal ?

in any event having tried numinous times i think i finally worked out a strategy that seems to work every time for the benefit of anyone having problems on this mission

first of load your the transport with 5 of the heaviest lancers you can make 4 of the heaviest tanks you can make and a commander preferably rank of hero

when you land have all 3 trucks go and repair the left turret that's being attacked by heavy machine gun tanks and bombards you need to move fast or this turret will be lost next get your AA turret tech researching send the 2 damage heavy tanks to take on the mobile scanner and the 2 undamaged medium tanks in front of the damage flamer turret to draw enemy fire make sure to stay behind the hill don't wanna get toasted by the missile turrets

by now your units should have landed send the 5 lancer units to knock out the 4 mortar pits, Bombards heavy tanks and heavy machine gun tanks that are attacking your turrets

send the commander and the 4 heavy tanks out the front of your base where you sent the 2 medium tanks to again draw the collectives fire again keep behind the hill don't wanna take fire from then missile turrets not just yet anyway and don't forget to call in 5 more heavy tanks and 5 more heavy lancers

at this point the left turret should be out of danger if you got there quick enough it will be critically damage but still standing so pull one of your builders and have it start to demolish the left hand wall and if you where quick enough the 2 flame turrets

once the wall is gone tap ctrl A to select all military units and then select retreat at medium damage this should cause the 2 medium and heavy tanks belonging to the beta base commander to fall back for repair hopefully if you where fast you wont have lost anyone

while there falling back have the builder that you where demolishing the walls with build a repair bay and have the other 2 go to the command center to fix it up after its been hit by the air strike in between air strikes have your truck fix everything else i should point out here that as long as you keep your command center up the bombers wont attack anything else so make sure to fix it back to full health after every attack just to make life a little easier for your self

at this points if everything is running smoothly you should have reduced the pressure you are under some and should have about 3 minutes to hold out before more help comes

attach the 4 beta base tanks to your commander once they are repaired they should automatically join your commander out side your base drawing fire its important to keep these tanks in place no matter what because it is this group that is responsible for keeping the collectives attention freeing you to do other things

at this point you should get sneak attacked from behind if you where quick taking out the mortars with your lancers then they should already be on there way back for repair and if you where really quick you might have even gotten a couple of them fixed up already anyway what ever there state send them to the bottom right hand of your base to fend of the attack from behind and have your commander and attached tanks to the top right hand corner to fend off the units attacking your turret and call in a couple of the trucks to conduct repairs if needed

by now help should be very close make sure to keep your commander and attached tanks out the front of your base to draw fire you may need to put your commander on do or die if its been taking fire if that's the case send the mobile repair unit to fix him up

hopefully if everything is going according to plan help should be landing and your research should be done call in more tanks and lancers and design a wheeled bug AA unit and have your tank factory start to make a few attach the 5 tanks to your commander making sure there set to retreat at medium damage and send the 5 lancers to meet up with your other 5 lancers if any of your original 5 lancers need repair send em to get fixed up and while there getting fixed pick a new research topic when there all ready to go take the wider ramp on the right and go and flatten there LZ to stop the attacks from behind don't worry if they have any units up there 10 lancer units should be more than enough to deal with any resistance and dont forget to collect the oil barrels ya going to need all the resources you can get ya mits on with the LZ down send ya lancers back for repair

this should be the beginning of the end for the collective on this level wait for 10 mins for the rest of your reinforcements to arrive use the time to do a little work on your base or conduct further research once the last transport arrives attach the tanks to the commander and then begin the attack on the collectives outpost swing your lancers to the left where the morter pits where and have your tanks go right at the base hopefully your tanks should soke up the fire from the missile turrets and bring down the walls while your lancers deal with any units once the units are gone take out the missile turrets mortar pits and everything else save for one of the scanner towers so the mission doesn't end with the combined fire power of 18 heavy tanks and 18 heavy lancers should be more that the collective can handle and the out post should fall in a matter of moments

with that done send any units that need repair back to get fixed up and leave the rest parked up at the top of the map where the outpost was to fend off there units coming in from off screen send a couple of units to clear the oil well and get that put back in place now with a bit of luck you should have about 30 to 40 minute left on the clock to build up your base and conduct research but being as resources are so scant at this point I'd concentrate on finishing my research first don't worry about building your base to much at this point you don't have the resources for it

once your research is done if you still have time left leave your resources to accumulate because you are going to need then to build your base at the end of beta 3 once you drive the collective out of the area

all being well if you have done everything correctly you should have no casualties and only lost 2 buildings the oil well and the flame turret guarding it

[Jorzi]

beta 1 does indeed have a bit of a hectic feel to it, but I see that as a good thing. It's one of the most intense missions I've played in any rts game. However, I've never had that much of a problem with it, although I usually take a few casualties. A good strategy may be to send green units in the first wave in order to not lose too much experience.