after trying and failing numerous times to do this level i have finally come up with a strategy that works so for the benefit of though having difficulties on this level here it is
Beta 9: Eliminate the sam sites
With the exception of maybe Beta 1 this level has to have one of the most difficult starts in the game if there is one level where players are guaranteed to come unstuck it’s here particularly if you are playing on hard the irony here perhaps is that if you can survive the collectives aerial assault long enough to put there vtols out of commission then you will actually find the rest of the level remarkably easy
The collective doesn't have a lot of ground forces on this level either so once there vtols and ground forces have been destroyed you pretty much have free rein and can finish the rest of the level with just a couple of squads of artillery attached to a scanner or commander that’s the good news
The bad news is that it’s not nearly that simple within 30 seconds of landing you will be set upon by 2 packs of 4 light bodied Lancer equipped vtols which will strike your landing party every 10 to 15 seconds reducing even your most heavily armoured units to scrap in a matter or moments resulting in a very swift end to the level before you can even call in your first group of reinforcements
so how do we stop the collectives vtols crushing us ? by blowing them up before they can get off there landing pads you must move quickly however as you don’t have long before they become airborne
Your first problem on this level is the base directly north of your landing zone across the water this is where you will find the first group of 4 vtols having tried pretty much every strategy conceivable I have come to the conclusion that the most reliable way to eliminate these before they become a problem is via artillery trying to assault them with direct fire units or vtols is a waste of time as they will simply take off as soon at they see you and you will never be able to get them before they become airborne and trash your units
It should be noted however if you don’t mind loosing a few vtols to the collectives AAA then phosphorous bombers are quiet effective at removing this menace while phosphorous bombers can’t attack there vtols directly unless they are on the ground rearming laying down a carpet of fire over there landing pads will put them out of commission quite effectively as soon as they land to rearm
the big problem with this tactic is that it leaves you exposed until help arrives as phosphorous bombers simple don’t carry enough ammo to take out there vtols and there hover lancers which will most likely result in your rapid demise at the hands the aforementioned hover lancer units that is of course assuming the AAA doesn't get you first
anyway as I mentioned the key to doing this level is to strike the collectives vtols before they can get you so here is what you need to do find your most experience unit recycle it and turn it in to a Hover Python Sensor unit you could try this with a command turret instead which is tougher however I found when I tried using a command unit I was unable to target there vtols behind the compound walls the scanner however doesn't seem to suffer from this problem
you may also be asking why turn your most experience unit into a hover sensor this is because your scanner will be taking incoming fire and if the scanner gets destroyed that kinda buggers up this strategy so we want to make it as resilient as possible
once you’ve built a scanner load it on to the transport along with 9 tracked python howitzers they need to be heavy units because overlooking there vtols is a counter battery tower and as soon as you start to firing on there vtols there howitzers will counter attack so your howitzers need to be as tough as possible to prevent them being taken out by there counter strike don’t worry to much about the counter strikes just now they only have 4 howitzers so it will take several volleys before your artillery units will be in any danger of being killed and there CB tower will be gone long before that happens
With your transport full take off when you land slow the game speed down as much as it will go this will give you the requisite reaction time to make this strategy work
once your units deploy attach them to the scanner and summon some reinforcements I'd recommend 2 trucks 6 AAA and a couple of heavy combat units with the timer ticking its time to get there vtols move across the river sticking to the far left side of the screen don’t want to get spotted by there hover lancers just yet as you do so you will see a single story building don’t go beyond this building or there vtols will be alerted to your presence and they will kill your scanner
now your scanner is in range take them out because there only using light bodies a single hit from one of your howitzers should be enough to do the job
so as soon as you hear one of your howitzers fire select the next target repeat until all 4 are destroyed take out there hover lancer units next they will probably move to engage your scanner before you can get all 6 so you may have to conduct a running fire fight but if your careful it should be possible to take them out before they can get you with that done the next job is to take down that CB tower to stop there artillery attacking yours with that done fall back to your LZ
By now your reinforcements should be close so wait for them to arrive once they land have your trucks set up a repair pad and call for more troops this time bring 4 AAA & 6 heavy combat units or 5 heavy combat units and a commander right after finishing the repair pad the second pack of lancer vtols should make there appearance and attack your newly constructed repair pad so have your builders begin repairs
if you followed my advice and brought along 6 AAA units in the first wave then that should be plenty to take them out before they can cause any significant damage with there hover lancers and both packs of lancer vtols eliminated that should be the most immediate threat dealt with however your not out of the woods yet
I should mention at this point that the collective have a third group of lancer vtols in the eastern base however these appear to be dormant so as long as they don’t see you they should stay grounded making them easy pickings for your artillery there is also a vtol factory in the northern base which with occasionally spawn assault gun or heap bomber vtols so its important to get your air defense up as soon as possible don't want to get sneak attacked while ya busy else where
anyway get any damage units repaired and once your trucks are finished fixing your repair bay have them build some AAA and a few turrets to help secure your landing zone while you wait for additional reinforcements
while you are doing this you may get attacked by units from the east if this happens fend them off with your howitzers and the couple of heavy combat units you brought in the first wave as best as you can till help arrives
once your reinforcements land take out there remaining ground forces and the level if pretty much yours then and you can finish it which ever way you please perhaps the simplest method is to bring in a couple of squads of artillery attached to a commander or sensor and then pound them in to submission
Nope! did not work for me. 
so I'm free to pick them off with impunity
