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The Desiccator Your starting position is about to be completely overwhelmed. Don't even try to stop the Freedom Guard forces attacking your base. Instead, load the infantry onto the Invader Troop Transports and move the Desiccator Transport and all of your units to the top of the map and then west. You need to get to the southwest corner of the map where "the Colonel" is waiting. Head along the river to the west, past the first branch heading south, then take the next branch south. Avoid the Heavy Rail Platforms along the river shore. You'll likely pass by the freshwater spring in the middle of the map. When you get to the southwest corner of the map and hook up with the rest of your units, it's time to start building your base. Build a Power Generator, Assembly Plant, Training Facility, and a few turrets. A few Neutron Accelerators will make your position pretty secure, but hold off on spending too much cash until you liberate a freshwater spring. A few SCARAB Artillery can do some serious damage, though, and you can start destroying the Freedom Guard buildings to the north of your base, using Recon Drones as spotters if necessary. After building a couple Tachion Tanks, load a couple Construction Rigs onto a transport and head west. Wipe out the Freedom Guard buildings near the freshwater spring and build a Water Launch Pad and an HQ. Create some additional Construction Rigs and dig in to protect your new base. All of those Freedom Guard units that wiped out your starting base are still to your east, so build some turrets to block off the land bridges heading east. You can build a Hover Freighter or two to access the freshwater spring at the top of the map (in the middle). Reinforce your western base with some additional Neutron Accelerators then concentrate on wiping out the Freedom Guard forces left on the land mass near your starting base. You can use Recon Drones to scout out a few targets for your artillery, but eventually the Freedom Guard forces will likely charge your base near the freshwater spring, so be prepared to back up your turrets with defensive artillery fire and a few Tachion Tanks. Once those Freedom Guard forces are eliminated, move onto the land mass on the right side of the map and build another Water Launch Pad near the freshwater spring and another near the top of the map to allow Hover Freighters to reach the spring at the top center of the map safely and quickly. By now you should have all the credits you need to build up a massive force of SCARAB Artillery to systematically destroy the Freedom Guard position in the northwest corner of the map. The Cure Repair your HQ and build some Construction Rigs. Your starting position isn't a good one, and you'll quickly be attacked from both the north and south. You can take care of the southern attackers by building a turret to guard the passageway heading to the southeast corner of the map. There's a Freedom Guard Training Facility there (and the Off-World Transport Platform), which will continue to send infantry to attack you. Your turret should be able to handle them and the occasional artillery attack. Build a Water Launch Pad and start building some plasma turrets and Neutron Accelerators to protect yourself from northern attackers. Be careful to pay attention to the different terrain heights and don't build a turret in a valley where it won't be able to defend your base effectively. As soon as you can, build some SCARAB Artillery and eliminate the pesky Freedom Guard forces to your south. Using a Recon Drone, you can expose the Freedom Guard artillery, making it vulnerable to your own artillery attacks. Build some Tachion Tanks and head west towards the freshwater spring in the southwest corner of the map. There's a small, protected rocky alcove in the bottom of the map near the center, which is an ideal spot for a few SCARAB Artillery - use a Temporal Portal to safely teleport a few of them there at a time. There's also an enemy artillery base in the southwest corner of the map (on the extreme left-hand side), which is in a protected rocky alcove and is guarded from air attack by Flak Jacks. Sneak a Recon Drone within sighting range and order in your own artillery attack - you'll likely lose the Recon Drone, but a couple of seconds of artillery fire is all that's needed to wipe out the Freedom Guard presence. Build a new Water Launch Pad near the second freshwater spring once you've eliminated the artillery. Use the same strategy to get to the third freshwater spring near the center of the map above the compound. There's an artillery base guarding it as well, hidden in an alcove at the top center of the map, so use more artillery fire to take it out. You can also use Cyclones to take out the artillery groups, but to do so you might lose a few Cyclones to the Flak Jacks. Try to take the Flak Jacks out first, then you can wipe out the defenseless artillery at your leisure. Once the Freedom Guard is cut off from the freshwater springs, it'll be fairly easy to wipe out the remaining Freedom Guard forces in the northwest corner using a large group of artillery and Tachion Tanks. Use the Temporal Portal to beam in reinforcements where needed or to beam a few Tachion Tanks behind enemy lines to take out a key building or two. Leave the compound alone unless you don't have anything else to target with your artillery and want to pick off the guards. To get to Karoch, you'll have to move infantry units through the small opening in the eastern side of the compound. Walk him to the Off-World Transport Platform and beam him up to a nice, old-fashioned, grisly fate. Siege of Indra You start out with a lot of credits, but you won't have access to any more, so build conservatively. You won't need many turrets or stationary Air Defense Sites because the Freedom Guard will be on the defensive after the initial phases of this mission. This level features mostly flat terrain, except for a series of hills guarding the Freedom Guard base in the southwest and some smaller hills in the northwest and the southeast corners of the map. There are Freedom Guard artillery groups stationed on the two smaller hills that are difficult to take out because your armored units can't climb the hills and infantry takes heavy losses against the artillery. There are also Air Defense Sites, preventing you from moving in Recon Drones to spot for your own artillery. You can either use ground forces to take out the Air Defense Sites and then use your own artillery or send in a large group of Cyclones or three Sky Fortresses. The Sky Fortresses collectively can quickly take out the Air Defense Sites, leaving the artillery defenseless. Air units are pretty effective at taking out the remainder of the Freedom Guard base. A group of Sky Fortresses can successively wipe out turrets by attacking them together, then retreating to recharge. Always have at least one Sky Fortress in the group fully charged and standing by to attack any anti-air ground units that charge to the attack. A few Cyclones are worthwhile escorts as well. Use the Sky Fortresses to clear the Heavy Rail Platforms out of an area, then beam a few Tachion Tanks into the area using the Temporal Portal and let them destroy the defenseless buildings and Air Defense Platforms. Once you've broken into his base with a few tanks, race to the HQs in the southwest corner of the map and put the poor Freedom Guard sods out of their collective misery. Last Stand Start your base in the southwest corner of the map and build a few turrets to block the northern and eastern entrances into your base. Keep your main buildings far away from the northern and eastern entrances to protect them from attacks from Shock Waves, which are a real threat in this level. Try to keep an eye out for approaching Shock Waves and ensure that your base has some defensive "depth," so you can't be taken out in one lucky Shock Wave attack. Build a large group of SCARAB Artillery and try to save some cash to build a Rift Creator as soon as possible. There's a freshwater spring north and a little east of your starting position. It will be difficult to maintain a base nearby, even if you can eliminate the Freedom Guard presence there, but you can prevent the Freedom Guard from accessing the spring by continually bombarding it with artillery. A nice Rift Creator effect will do wonders for clearing an area of Freedom Guard buildings. By keeping the main battle located there, you'll take pressure off your main base and lessen the likelihood that you'll be hit by Shock Wave attacks. Build camera towers heading near the roads leading to your base and try to protect them from attack using defensive artillery fire. Your main push should be east towards the Freedom Guard base in the southeast corner. Hit it hard with artillery and a Rift Creator effect or two. The Freedom Guard won't be able to reinforce that base effectively, since it is so far away from its main base (at the top center of the map), so as soon as you can take out the Freedom Guard buildings you should be able to establish a base of your own there, including another Water Launch Pad near the freshwater spring. From there, you should start expanding your presence northward, where you can attack the base near the additional freshwater spring a little to the north. Again, artillery and Rift Creator effects work wonders. At this point it's worthwhile to start a diversionary assault from your base in the southwest corner by charging a large group of Tachion Tanks all the way north to the top of the map, then heading east towards the Freedom Guard's main base. Try to ensure that you have a Rift Creator recharged when you arrive at the Freedom Guard's main base so that you can take out the field hospitals near the top of the map, because their destruction can break the back of the Freedom Guard rebellion. With both of the Freedom Guard's remaining bases under siege and the field hospitals destroyed, the rebellion will splinter with the Freedom Guard faction on the far right side of the map joining your side. Once that happens, you'll have Hellstorm Artillery gleefully joining in on the bombardment commenced by your SCARAB Artillery. Needless to say, the remaining Freedom Guard forces won't last for long after that happens. |
