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Nice, this posts brings back a lot of memories... I think ill start playing WZ again now 

PS: Gamma missions are INSANE on the Playstation 1, when u don't have a PSOne Mouse 

Hello again. [[Prepare for extremely long novel post.]]

I finished the campaign just after this site went down, but I haven't bothered to post here until now.

I replayed Gamma 7 and milked it for time, in order to set up two massive, extravagant defensive lines to the northwest and northeast, where NEXUS ground units spawn from. The defenses consisted of a frontal continuous 'wall' of Rotary MG Bunkers as close as possible to the map edge, followed by Hardcrete Walls, trucks, dispersed Rotary MG Bunkers, more walls, Scourge towers and finally HellStorm emplacements with a Sensor Tower. I had also built an extensive grid of Rotary MG Bunkers all over the northern quarter of the map, each bunker separated by at least two squares, with the intention of trapping the LasSat up north and thereby augment my defense. Because the confidence I had in this trap, I also(mistakenly, as it turned out), built a VTOL-&-Arty base atop the central plateau. Apart from this, the time at the end of Gamma 7 was also used to research through the Pulse Laser and Rail Gun techs, and re-equip my entire ground force.

As it would turn out, the LasSat actually didn't get stuck in my trap. It was smarter than I expected, only throwing a couple of shots at the dummy RMG bunkers. Although my northeastern defensive fortification had managed to hold off one wave of NEXUS ground units, the LasSat struck it early and reduced it to rubble in a few shots. Waves of NEXUS ground units then poured through the breach, and together with massed heavy bomber strikes(up to 10 at one time!) and LasSat bombardment, they annihilated the eastern "recovered" Gamma Base. My VTOLs operating from there were forced to evacuate to the plateau and to Silo Base(my new main base). To hold the defense in the northeast, I sent one of my ground groups, now re-equipped with the latest weapons, they punished the NEXUS ground forces.

To the northwest, HEAP-Retribution armed heavy bombers operating from Silo Base had teamed up with my defensive wall to rip apart all the NEXUS attacks that tried coming through there. Constantly repaired, the northwestern wall was in pretty good shape. Nevertheless, I sent my other combat group to the wall just in case the LasSat turned it's attention that way. Now, both the northeastern and northwestern ground fronts were covered by combat groups, with repair facilities constantly being built and rebuilt to help keep them in action. The threat of NEXUS ground forces was neutralized.

With Gamma Base gone, the NEXUS VTOLs turned their attention towards Silo Base, and the LasSat began attacking the VTOL/Arty base on the plateau(lets call it Plateau Base). To counter the VTOLs, I built heavy AA defenses with layer upon layer of Cyclone and Vindicator emplacements wrapped around the Missile Silos, because as far as I knew, they had to defended at all costs. To augment this defense, I based all my Enforcer Air-Defense Fighters(Retaliation-Scourge Missile) at Silo Base, and put them on constant patrol. The VTOL waves were also rendered useless, for the brilliant combination of armor and speed shown by the Retaliation-based VTOLs was overwhelmed by the even more brilliant power of the VTOL Scourge Missile and(compared to SAMs, at least) the automatic coordination of my patrolling fighters.

The LasSat was the only remaining NEXUS threat, and could not be physically countered. It pummeled Plateau Base to the ground and inched it's way towards Silo Base. But in all this time, my Research Facilities had cracked NEXUS Intruder Program, the Missile Targeting Code and the Missile Arming Code. By the time the Missile Launch Code was cracked, the LasSat had already begun it's attack on Silo Base, destroying a Power Generator and firing(but missing) several times against my VTOL Factory. But it was too late. NEXUS had met it's Waterloo. The Missiles fired. The LasSat was destroyed, once and for all. If only I could see a movie or missile launch graphics instead of a black screen saying "Missile launch sequence initiated...", maybe it would've been even better...

The last mission was a cakewalk. The first bit was the same as any Away mission: Send combat units and trucks. Build Repair Facility and AA defenses. Bring in more and more combat units, and arty. Repel attacks. Build VTOL rearming pads. Bring VTOLs. Scout the area with throwaway Bug VTOLs. Plan offensive.

For my first attack, I used Retribution-HEAP and Retribution-BB VTOLs to attack the nearby Factory and Nuclear Reactor. The BBs knocked out SAMs and hardpoints, while the HEAPs sent NEXUS ground units running for their lives. My unopposed ground group rolled in, crushed the factory, and took Vengeance. Once I obtained the Vengeance body, my new heavy-bodied Bunker-Buster VTOLs, supported by decoy Bug scouts, went on to ravage the NEXUS air defense network. The BunkerBuster-Vengeance VTOL, called Rage SEAD Bomber, was able to take 5 Vindicator hits to the face and survive. Thus, the northwest and southeast NEXUS bases, as well as their VTOL base, were crushed from the air alone. Ground forces were used only to pick up artifacts.

The final base also got it's SAM defenses torn apart, and it's ground defenses smashed soon after. I let my two ground groups rumble in casually from the north and east, steamrolling the remaining NEXUS ground units, and proceeding to finish off NEXUS, and finish off the campaign.

Good show. that sounds like how my first ever attempt at the 2nd-to-last gamma stage went ;p.

I'll admit, I haven't played the campaign since 2.1 released its beta. I know that my endeavors in 2.0 always had the las-sats getting stuck at my Assault gun bunkers... I thought Rotary MG's were only available in mutliplayer. Or maybe laser satellites just like AG's more than RT-MGS... oh well.

That said, it sounds like all your eggs were in "2" baskets; the immediate walls around the NExus entry points, and the "plateau" base (not counting the "silo" base, of course). That's the only difference between yours and my strat these days; I make a couple secondary defensive walls between the top and the bottom (usually using that "v neck" valley at the bottom 1/3 of the map as a major chokepoint). The Lastas never get further than that wall, provided the Ground Troops don't also punch through them (which they haven't yet, due to my proactive Tiger-HEAPS).

In any event, good job. And yes, the (albeit short) FMV of the missiles hitting the satellites is satisfying after playing that stage. Perhaps you will see it one day.

At least in the version 2.0.10 I'm playing, Rotary MachineGun Bunkers ARE "AssaultGun Bunkers". RMGs = AGs. Even in Skirmish, you research Assault Gun to get this bunker.

No, I did not put everything in 2 places. Here's pics of what my defense actually looked like:
Next post contains remaining pics...

interesting.. really makes me want to play through the campaign again

Silo Base has already been shown in that giant novel post. It had 2 Factories, 2 Research Facilities, 3 Repair Facilities, 1 VTOL Factory, a bunch of VTOL Rearming Pads, 3 Missile Silos, 1 Landing Zone, and later, my Command Center(which was blown up by the LasSat).

themousemaster wrote:Good show. that sounds like how my first ever attempt at the 2nd-to-last gamma stage went ;p.

I'll admit, I haven't played the campaign since 2.1 released its beta. I know that my endeavors in 2.0 always had the las-sats getting stuck at my Assault gun bunkers... I thought Rotary MG's were only available in mutliplayer. Or maybe laser satellites just like AG's more than RT-MGS... oh well.

That said, it sounds like all your eggs were in "2" baskets; the immediate walls around the NExus entry points, and the "plateau" base (not counting the "silo" base, of course). That's the only difference between yours and my strat these days; I make a couple secondary defensive walls between the top and the bottom (usually using that "v neck" valley at the bottom 1/3 of the map as a major chokepoint). The Lastas never get further than that wall, provided the Ground Troops don't also punch through them (which they haven't yet, due to my proactive Tiger-HEAPS).

In any event, good job. And yes, the (albeit short) FMV of the missiles hitting the satellites is satisfying after playing that stage. Perhaps you will see it one day.

So, now that I've got all the pics of the defense grid uploaded, to respond to your post.

I seem to have had lost my sense of direction during that last post(the big novel post), and "northwestern" should be re-read as northeastern and vice versa. I just focussed that post on those 2 "baskets" because my 2 ground groups were defending the 2 walls, and because the LasSat comprehensively flattened Plateau Base(this was in fact where it spent most of it's time).

NEXUS ground forces actually presented the least threat - they were either obliterated by my Retribution-HEAPs and never got past the first wall, or they broke through the first wall and got mauled by my ground groups. Their air force, magically operating straight from their main HQ with no local support, did the majority of the damage to Gamma Base, backed by the LasSat. But as I said, the fighters and flak defending Silo Base made the NEXUS air force useless as well. Thus, the LasSat was forced to forge ahead alone, but my high-orbit-capable anti-sat Missiles fried it as well(the FMV's absence making itself felt deeply here).

I wonder why you were using Tiger-HEAPs at this stage of the game, though. Retributions are far better armored, almost as tough, and more than 2x faster(high 300s for Retribution-HEAP, vs. low 100s for Tiger-HEAP). Another observation I made playing a Skirmish game recently, is that in Gamma 5 and 8, it would more useful to have Ground Shaker emplacements and units instead of HellStorms. Since the NEXUS units enter in clumps occupying the same square, 3-4 Ground Shaker emplacements/units would annihilate the entire wave in a single volley - if 500-damage HEAPs can do it, why not 700-damage Ground Shakers? The 280-damage HellStorm generally takes a little while longer to do the same thing, and has shorter range than the GS. I'll try this out soon.

Skrim wrote:

themousemaster wrote:Good show. that sounds like how my first ever attempt at the 2nd-to-last gamma stage went ;p.

I'll admit, I haven't played the campaign since 2.1 released its beta. I know that my endeavors in 2.0 always had the las-sats getting stuck at my Assault gun bunkers... I thought Rotary MG's were only available in mutliplayer. Or maybe laser satellites just like AG's more than RT-MGS... oh well.

That said, it sounds like all your eggs were in "2" baskets; the immediate walls around the NExus entry points, and the "plateau" base (not counting the "silo" base, of course). That's the only difference between yours and my strat these days; I make a couple secondary defensive walls between the top and the bottom (usually using that "v neck" valley at the bottom 1/3 of the map as a major chokepoint). The Lastas never get further than that wall, provided the Ground Troops don't also punch through them (which they haven't yet, due to my proactive Tiger-HEAPS).

In any event, good job. And yes, the (albeit short) FMV of the missiles hitting the satellites is satisfying after playing that stage. Perhaps you will see it one day.

So, now that I've got all the pics of the defense grid uploaded, to respond to your post.

I seem to have had lost my sense of direction during that last post(the big novel post), and "northwestern" should be re-read as northeastern and vice versa. I just focussed that post on those 2 "baskets" because my 2 ground groups were defending the 2 walls, and because the LasSat comprehensively flattened Plateau Base(this was in fact where it spent most of it's time).

NEXUS ground forces actually presented the least threat - they were either obliterated by my Retribution-HEAPs and never got past the first wall, or they broke through the first wall and got mauled by my ground groups. Their air force, magically operating straight from their main HQ with no local support, did the majority of the damage to Gamma Base, backed by the LasSat. But as I said, the fighters and flak defending Silo Base made the NEXUS air force useless as well. Thus, the LasSat was forced to forge ahead alone, but my high-orbit-capable anti-sat Missiles fried it as well(the FMV's absence making itself felt deeply here).

I wonder why you were using Tiger-HEAPs at this stage of the game, though. Retributions are far better armored, almost as tough, and more than 2x faster(high 300s for Retribution-HEAP, vs. low 100s for Tiger-HEAP). Another observation I made playing a Skirmish game recently, is that in Gamma 5 and 8, it would more useful to have Ground Shaker emplacements and units instead of HellStorms. Since the NEXUS units enter in clumps occupying the same square, 3-4 Ground Shaker emplacements/units would annihilate the entire wave in a single volley - if 500-damage HEAPs can do it, why not 700-damage Ground Shakers? The 280-damage HellStorm generally takes a little while longer to do the same thing, and has shorter range than the GS. I'll try this out soon.

Reply time. I love typing

I like the NE and NW "walls" of defense. I place some in the same place, though my layout differs slightly (instead of flush-against the wall, I build a semi-circular defense at the weapon's max range, to allow for more tower's weapons to be brought to bear). Same result though, a Nexus Massacre.

As for your MG bunkers... I see that those are the ones without the visible AG turret on top. Granted, I have no proof of this code-wise, but whenever I make decoy bunkers, I use the ones with the mounted AG turret visible, and the LAS-SAT always goes for them. Maybe I'm just lucky? Also, not that it (should) make any difference, but I don't use such a neat geometrically congruous setup for mine. I just randomly scatter them all over the place, at all altitudes, just making sure no 2 are adjacent.

I use Tiger HEAP over Ret-HEAP because of body points. It's true that the Ret has more armor, but the raw difference in HP means the Tiger can take 4 SAM hits and still fly, whereas the ret will fall on the 4th (provided the plane is at least trained status, which all of mine are). As the nexus ground forces like to travel with 2 SAM hovertanks, but for some reason said tanks don't fire until they get hit by the air-raid (don't ask why, that's just how my games go), I just have my air force bomb one of them, the 2nd fires, whoever he hits survives to fly back to base, and then the rest of my 20-bomber squadron lays waste to the ground assault.

I don't even bother to defend the "new" gamma base, given how far north on the map it is. It actually functions as a dump-point for me; whenever my NW defenses finally fall (due to ground forces + LAS-SAT shots), any enemy attack from the NW always tries to go into that little base area first before then going around into the valley, giving me plenty of time to scramble my bombers to intercept. I just use that little area to house some artillery (up on the cliff edge itself, better firing angle there)

I know I used the word "hellstorm" in my post, but I don't use them exclusively; wherever I have artillery batteries set up, I divide them 50/50 between hellstorms and ground shakers. All of my mobile artillery are hellstorms, mind you, but they are kept with the rest of my tanks at the south-end of the screen during that stage, so they don't really matter.

what you call "plateau outpost", i use for AA and artillery only, often having upwards of 40 artillery pieces up there in 2X3 blocks. Obsessive, I know All of my planes are based out of the extreme SW of the map.

The major differences between our setups, however, is that I notice you have (almost) nothing geographically south of "gamma base". I use the small plateau SE of "Gamma" base as another artillery / AA platform, for example, and I continue to place sporadic defenses all the way south to the 2 southern bases.

If I may ask, what's up with all the randomly-scattered repair bays I'm seeing in those pictures? I'm assuming some are to repair the ground forces you used to aid in the wall's defenses, but (for example) in your "NW wall" picture, you have 2 of them within 4 spaces of each other...? are you just so good at micro management that you can make use out of both during that hectic stage?


Lastly, I notice the 2 pictures "Eastern Defense" and "Northeastern Wall(incomplete)". If you ever replay that stage, you can save yourself some cash by transplanting some of those structures from "eastern" to "northeastern". I believe all of the enemies spawn at the Northeastern picture, so the bunkers + walls you have flush-east in the "Eastern" picture can be saved for cash and time and relocated a few steps north. Yes, I realize this is just nitpicking .

Oh, let me also add:

Skrim wrote: comprehensively flattened Plateau Base

I LOL'ed IRL.

themousemaster wrote: Reply time. I love typing

I like the NE and NW "walls" of defense. I place some in the same place, though my layout differs slightly (instead of flush-against the wall, I build a semi-circular defense at the weapon's max range, to allow for more tower's weapons to be brought to bear). Same result though, a Nexus Massacre.

As for your MG bunkers... I see that those are the ones without the visible AG turret on top. Granted, I have no proof of this code-wise, but whenever I make decoy bunkers, I use the ones with the mounted AG turret visible, and the LAS-SAT always goes for them. Maybe I'm just lucky? Also, not that it (should) make any difference, but I don't use such a neat geometrically congruous setup for mine. I just randomly scatter them all over the place, at all altitudes, just making sure no 2 are adjacent.

I use Tiger HEAP over Ret-HEAP because of body points. It's true that the Ret has more armor, but the raw difference in HP means the Tiger can take 4 SAM hits and still fly, whereas the ret will fall on the 4th (provided the plane is at least trained status, which all of mine are). As the nexus ground forces like to travel with 2 SAM hovertanks, but for some reason said tanks don't fire until they get hit by the air-raid (don't ask why, that's just how my games go), I just have my air force bomb one of them, the 2nd fires, whoever he hits survives to fly back to base, and then the rest of my 20-bomber squadron lays waste to the ground assault.

I don't even bother to defend the "new" gamma base, given how far north on the map it is. It actually functions as a dump-point for me; whenever my NW defenses finally fall (due to ground forces + LAS-SAT shots), any enemy attack from the NW always tries to go into that little base area first before then going around into the valley, giving me plenty of time to scramble my bombers to intercept. I just use that little area to house some artillery (up on the cliff edge itself, better firing angle there)

I know I used the word "hellstorm" in my post, but I don't use them exclusively; wherever I have artillery batteries set up, I divide them 50/50 between hellstorms and ground shakers. All of my mobile artillery are hellstorms, mind you, but they are kept with the rest of my tanks at the south-end of the screen during that stage, so they don't really matter.

what you call "plateau outpost", i use for AA and artillery only, often having upwards of 40 artillery pieces up there in 2X3 blocks. Obsessive, I know All of my planes are based out of the extreme SW of the map.

The major differences between our setups, however, is that I notice you have (almost) nothing geographically south of "gamma base". I use the small plateau SE of "Gamma" base as another artillery / AA platform, for example, and I continue to place sporadic defenses all the way south to the 2 southern bases.

If I may ask, what's up with all the randomly-scattered repair bays I'm seeing in those pictures? I'm assuming some are to repair the ground forces you used to aid in the wall's defenses, but (for example) in your "NW wall" picture, you have 2 of them within 4 spaces of each other...? are you just so good at micro management that you can make use out of both during that hectic stage?


Lastly, I notice the 2 pictures "Eastern Defense" and "Northeastern Wall(incomplete)". If you ever replay that stage, you can save yourself some cash by transplanting some of those structures from "eastern" to "northeastern". I believe all of the enemies spawn at the Northeastern picture, so the bunkers + walls you have flush-east in the "Eastern" picture can be saved for cash and time and relocated a few steps north. Yes, I realize this is just nitpicking .

Semi-circular defense? What does that look like? I place mine as close to the edge as possible, since the NEXUS ground units don't actually 'enter the map' like the VTOLs do, but rather they all spawn out of nowhere on 1 square, occupying the same space. If the defense is even slightly farther away, they scatter and begin to act like a normal group of ground units. This makes them MUCH less vulnerable to HellStorm/GroundShaker/HEAP attacks. Here's a series of screenshots from the action(I was taking screenies every few seconds, ended up with >500 of them!):
Instead of a massive 20-HEAP Trained air force, just 4 rookie planes provided serious overkill. One of them gets hit by 2 Vindicators and goes into retreat mode, but no losses. I used this to defend the northeast until the wall actually broke and I had to send in a ground group. I prefer the Retri over the Tiger mainly because of it's supreme speed and the fact that, while not as tough as Tiger, it is tougher than Python. And because I can't stand a flying craft that's so, so, so slow. I doubt if the Tiger-HEAP can even catch up to a NEXUS hover-tank(these things travel at speed 200 down on the dirt). And yes, the Retribution-HEAP-VTOL is also a blatant rip-off copy of the NEXUS heavy bomber design, but without the long-range-attack capability and auto-repair gimmick.

As for the anti-LasSat defense grid, it's so geometrical and symmetrical because I tend to queue up tasks for my truck groups using the Shift key. That way I can give them a bunch of jobs, tell them where to go when they're done, and forget about them. They then go about completing those tasks one-by-one and report to that rendezvous point when they're done, and therefore I can also keep a neat inventory of my trucks. I also do this with tank groups to make them focus fire and systematically carve their way through enemy ground forces, and once all the AA/SAMs in a region are gone, I use this waypoint system with VTOLs as well. As for the Rotary MG Bunker vs. Assault Gun Emplacement argument, yes, RMG Bunkers can survive a direct hit from a LasSat and they are armed with the same weapon as Assault Gun units/emplacements/hardpoints/whatever. So the difference doesn't matter. And the LasSat didn't avoid them completely either. It did try to fry them for a while before realizing the futility of it's effort and heading south.

Funnily enough, a structure that can withstand a hit from a LasSat crumbles in a single hit from a Bunker Buster VTOL.

I also don't see why you have your ground units tucked down at the southern edge of the map. They are more effective and tougher defenses than their stationary counterparts, are hardly ever lost thanks to the capability to retreat at medium damage, they can move, and they are never targeted by LasSats. I had 42 tanks with 2 commanders up there(split 22-20 for defending the NW and NE walls), and they fought better than any stationary defense ever could.

The reason I had so many Repair Facilities is so that I could keep the repair business open even under heavy LasSat fire. Of the ones shown in the NW Wall pic, the bottom one was reminiscent of Gamma 6, and the upper one was there to(believe it or not) repair the trucks, which themselves were there to repair the wall. I was yet to find out how much damage a single Rail Gun slug does to a basic-model truck. The one on the plateau is for the same purpose. I also had over half a dozen of them scattered over the valley to repair my ground units, and rebuilt them at different locations whenever the LasSat destroyed one. The Eastern Defense existed as a back-up should the NE Wall ever collapse, and also because I was thinking that NEXUS forces would come from the direct east as well.

Skrim wrote:
Semi-circular defense? What does that look like? I place mine as close to the edge as possible, since the NEXUS ground units don't actually 'enter the map' like the VTOLs do, but rather they all spawn out of nowhere on 1 square, occupying the same space. If the defense is even slightly farther away, they scatter and begin to act like a normal group of ground units. This makes them MUCH less vulnerable to HellStorm/GroundShaker/HEAP attacks. Here's a series of screenshots from the action(I was taking screenies every few seconds, ended up with >500 of them!):

...

Instead of a massive 20-HEAP Trained air force, just 4 rookie planes provided serious overkill. One of them gets hit by 2 Vindicators and goes into retreat mode, but no losses. I used this to defend the northeast until the wall actually broke and I had to send in a ground group. I prefer the Retri over the Tiger mainly because of it's supreme speed and the fact that, while not as tough as Tiger, it is tougher than Python. And because I can't stand a flying craft that's so, so, so slow. I doubt if the Tiger-HEAP can even catch up to a NEXUS hover-tank(these things travel at speed 200 down on the dirt). And yes, the Retribution-HEAP-VTOL is also a blatant rip-off copy of the NEXUS heavy bomber design, but without the long-range-attack capability and auto-repair gimmick.

As for the anti-LasSat defense grid, it's so geometrical and symmetrical because I tend to queue up tasks for my truck groups using the Shift key. That way I can give them a bunch of jobs, tell them where to go when they're done, and forget about them. They then go about completing those tasks one-by-one and report to that rendezvous point when they're done, and therefore I can also keep a neat inventory of my trucks. I also do this with tank groups to make them focus fire and systematically carve their way through enemy ground forces, and once all the AA/SAMs in a region are gone, I use this waypoint system with VTOLs as well. As for the Rotary MG Bunker vs. Assault Gun Emplacement argument, yes, RMG Bunkers can survive a direct hit from a LasSat and they are armed with the same weapon as Assault Gun units/emplacements/hardpoints/whatever. So the difference doesn't matter. And the LasSat didn't avoid them completely either. It did try to fry them for a while before realizing the futility of it's effort and heading south.

Funnily enough, a structure that can withstand a hit from a LasSat crumbles in a single hit from a Bunker Buster VTOL.

I also don't see why you have your ground units tucked down at the southern edge of the map. They are more effective and tougher defenses than their stationary counterparts, are hardly ever lost thanks to the capability to retreat at medium damage, they can move, and they are never targeted by LasSats. I had 42 tanks with 2 commanders up there(split 22-20 for defending the NW and NE walls), and they fought better than any stationary defense ever could.

The reason I had so many Repair Facilities is so that I could keep the repair business open even under heavy LasSat fire. Of the ones shown in the NW Wall pic, the bottom one was reminiscent of Gamma 6, and the upper one was there to(believe it or not) repair the trucks, which themselves were there to repair the wall. I was yet to find out how much damage a single Rail Gun slug does to a basic-model truck. The one on the plateau is for the same purpose. I also had over half a dozen of them scattered over the valley to repair my ground units, and rebuilt them at different locations whenever the LasSat destroyed one. The Eastern Defense existed as a back-up should the NE Wall ever collapse, and also because I was thinking that NEXUS forces would come from the direct east as well.

Specifically what I mean by a semi-circular defense is that, on those "1 square" areas that you mentioned, I figure out a weapons max (effective, not absolute max) range from that point, and make my defenses circular around that point, with the radius of the circle being the weapon's range (so you'll see my setup having inferno weapons at about 3 spaces out, AG's at 6, and Scourge at 9). As for them scattering into a battlegroup, it takes a spawned force, in my games at least, about 45 seconds from spawn to scatter, by which point they are all flattened (until the LAS-SAT starts getting ahold of those walls).

As to why I don't use my ground troops, every time I send land forces to intercept Nexus troops in any of my games, my land forces get LAS-SAT'ed into oblivion. Nothing like having 40 elite battletanks scrapped in 20 seconds flat... I think your Nexus may not be the same as mine, if he's ignoring your bunker decoys and land troops and going for VTOL pads with his satellites . Occasionally I'll have Group 6 (which I always make to be 15 Tiger-Hellstorms at this point in the game) parked just south of "Plateau Base" to provide opening fire support, but once the initial walls fall, they retreat posthaste.



As for 20 bomber squadrons; it allows me to park them way forward of my landing pads in the map's SQ corner. I send all 20 of them to land just south of what you call "plateau" base (they basically sit right next to "Group 6"), and then send them in when units spawn as necessary. The ones that unload go back for repair/rearm, and the ones that still ahve ordinance I just park right back where I launched them from. Also, I used 20-squads in tandem with 6 "STUPID-VTOL" designs for the whole game, so I'm just used to operating with that airforce... habitual I suppose, but it's a zero-casualty strat for me, so I keep it (not so much in Skirmishes, since Air-armadas take forever and cost the net worth of Japan to set up).

How are you only getting hit by "2 Vindicators"? A vindicator releases a salvo of 4 missiles, which if all 4 hit, bring down a Retribution (at least, prior to 2.1, which again I'll state, I haven't played yet, so I don't know if their damage is changed). Or are you saying that they only get off 2 of their 4 shots before being blown up? If so, that sounds like a valid strat, go ahead and run with it. I'll stick with my Carpet Bombing approach .

I don't have my Tigers catch up to the Nexus forces, hence why I don't notice their speed difference. I just intersect their approach route, basically having both forces run "into" each other (after the initial defenses fall; before that, I just bomb the stationary Nexus targets).





If I ever go through the campaign again (I only keep 1 saved game these days, and it's on the final mission, so I can't just load it up) I'll send in SS's of my defensive designs for comparisons. But that won't be for a while, because in addition to the 30 hours of gameplay to arrive at that stage while milking resources, I'm also enjoying AoE III right now ;p

How are you only getting hit by "2 Vindicators"?

The ground group in the pics had arrived with 2 Vindicator-Retribution hover-tanks. They both managed to get only 1 missile off before getting blown apart(they only fired when they got hit). Therefore, 2 Vindicators hit the plane in total. This turkey-shoot fiasco continued until the LasSat broke a hole in the wall and a ground group managed to scatter. I still sent the same bomber group after them and killed a few tanks, but lost one plane in the process and decided to call off the air raids. So I sent a ground group up to clean them off the map.

As to why I don't use my ground troops, every time I send land forces to intercept Nexus troops in any of my games, my land forces get LAS-SAT'ed into oblivion. Nothing like having 40 elite battletanks scrapped in 20 seconds flat... I think your Nexus may not be the same as mine

Wow. Do you have them all really close to your structures or something, so that when the LasSat shoots the structures, your tanks get fried too? The thing never even noticed the presence of my tanks and kept steadily making it's way south. Plateau Base, Gamma Base and the NW wall were it's main targets, it never cared about objects in the valley too much.

Also, I used 20-squads in tandem with 6 "STUPID-VTOL" designs for the whole game

What the heck is a "Stupid-VTOL"? IMO, your air strat is just... weird. No VTOLs for Away missions. HEAPs vs. SAMs. Tiger-HEAPs. No fighters. No mention of VTOL BunkerBusters(which I've thus far found to be extremely powerful). 20 planes. Strange.

Skrim wrote:

How are you only getting hit by "2 Vindicators"?

The ground group in the pics had arrived with 2 Vindicator-Retribution hover-tanks. They both managed to get only 1 missile off before getting blown apart(they only fired when they got hit). Therefore, 2 Vindicators hit the plane in total. This turkey-shoot fiasco continued until the LasSat broke a hole in the wall and a ground group managed to scatter. I still sent the same bomber group after them and killed a few tanks, but lost one plane in the process and decided to call off the air raids. So I sent a ground group up to clean them off the map.

As to why I don't use my ground troops, every time I send land forces to intercept Nexus troops in any of my games, my land forces get LAS-SAT'ed into oblivion. Nothing like having 40 elite battletanks scrapped in 20 seconds flat... I think your Nexus may not be the same as mine

Wow. Do you have them all really close to your structures or something, so that when the LasSat shoots the structures, your tanks get fried too? The thing never even noticed the presence of my tanks and kept steadily making it's way south. Plateau Base, Gamma Base and the NW wall were it's main targets, it never cared about objects in the valley too much.

Also, I used 20-squads in tandem with 6 "STUPID-VTOL" designs for the whole game

What the heck is a "Stupid-VTOL"? IMO, your air strat is just... weird. No VTOLs for Away missions. HEAPs vs. SAMs. Tiger-HEAPs. No fighters. No mention of VTOL BunkerBusters(which I've thus far found to be extremely powerful). 20 planes. Strange.

Ahh, that explains the Vindicators then. You blow them up before they can unload, I just let 1 unload and take the hits, and survive them. Same result .

I can't begin to guess why Nexus likes my tanks as targets. Same with trucks; anytime I send anything mobile north of whatever my northernmost defensive structure is, it gets immediate LAS-SAT attention. Technically I could try and have my group stay at maximum weapons range south of the targets, but that's going to have them sitting right under the Scourge-Wall part of my defenses, so if the SAT ever fires at that, I'll still be losing tanks. Since my strat of "abusive defensive walls and air raids" has always worked for me with 0 casualties (well, 0 unit casualties, fixed structures are of course a different story), I'll keep going with it, until WZ2100 version 4.2 completely changes that stage ;p.


As for the STUPID-VTOL, that's the name I give the my bug-minipod vtol (AKA the cheapest possible VTOL to produce). I keep 6 of them handy with my Tiger-HEAP groups, because when I do use them (for all Gamma base home missions, as well as the very final stage), I use this strat:

• Send in 3 STUPID-VTOLS to draw the fire of the 1234523 SAM's sitting around.
• Send in air-armada, giving orders to 2-3 Tiger-HEAPS to go to each SAM site (so I can get 6-10 per pass)
• Have other 3 STUPID-VTOLS hover just behind the SAMs being targeted, so that when the SAMs further back finish reloading, their next salvo hits nothing more than my other 3 STUPID-VTOLS, rather than the retreating Tiger-HEAPS.

On the last stage, I'm actually a*** enough to (once retreived) replace all my Tiger-HEAPS with Vengeance HEAPS (and for that matter, I will go so far as to replace every unit I have onto a Vengeance body. Those things rock).



I have always been a fan of Artillery in RTS games, so my lack of Air Force in away missions is made up for by withering Artillery that I bring with me. Ever since you first get the mortar in Alpha... 5 is it?... I always have a whole team of artillery tanks going on all away missions and defending bases in base missions, resulting in me not really needing Planes for the most part of this game. Some exceptions apply of course (the very final stage's geographic layout doesn't lend well to Artillery, which is why I ship in my AF), but in general, Overwhelming Artillery forces allow me to get through most of this game casualty free, giving me that warm fuzzy feeling inside ;p. Again, this is for SP, I have to adjust my strat in Skirmishes since I don't have the time or funds for 20 heavy-Hellstorm tanks.

Real life generals and admirals would look at my strats in any game I play and just roll their eyes. In real life, having a force that's upwards of 80% artillery, 20% direct-fire (I do that ratio in Age of Wonders 2 all the time) would get slaughtered. But I go with what works

themousemaster wrote: WZ2100 version 4.2 completely changes that stage ;p.

What?!!

As for the STUPID-VTOL, that's the name I give the my bug-minipod vtol (AKA the cheapest possible VTOL to produce). I keep 6 of them handy with my Tiger-HEAP groups, because when I do use them (for all Gamma base home missions, as well as the very final stage), I use this strat:

• Send in 3 STUPID-VTOLS to draw the fire of the 1234523 SAM's sitting around.
• Send in air-armada, giving orders to 2-3 Tiger-HEAPS to go to each SAM site (so I can get 6-10 per pass)
• Have other 3 STUPID-VTOLS hover just behind the SAMs being targeted, so that when the SAMs further back finish reloading, their next salvo hits nothing more than my other 3 STUPID-VTOLS, rather than the retreating Tiger-HEAPS.

The Minipod-Bug is NOT the cheapest VTOL possible. The MG-Bug is. MiniPod-Bug costs 126 power. MG-Bug costs 61. Half-price, same effect. I'll post screenies of this later. The only real problem with the MG-Bug(which I ended up facing) is after Beta 6, if you edit the design, you can never return it back to it's original cheapness because the MachineGun gets replaced by the more expensive Assault Gun, leaving the MiniPod as the next best thing.

I'll post the rest later.

Skrim wrote:The Minipod-Bug is NOT the cheapest VTOL possible. The MG-Bug is. MiniPod-Bug costs 126 power. MG-Bug costs 61. Half-price, same effect. I'll post screenies of this later. The only real problem with the MG-Bug(which I ended up facing) is after Beta 6, if you edit the design, you can never return it back to it's original cheapness because the MachineGun gets replaced by the more expensive Assault Gun, leaving the MiniPod as the next best thing.

I never knew that, though that's because I never make any VTOLS until Gamma1, so I don't technically know what's available right at the VTOL-onset. Either way, you get what I'm saying strat-wise. Dummy planes followed by something the size of which H. H. Arnold would be proud of ;p.