Map Walkthroughs

[Khoo Bo Yan]

PLAYER MAP- CAPTAIN KHOOBY

Many thanks to Garren for including my custom map in the game and for naming it after me 🙂 I thought to put this up because this map is at present very different from anything else in the game, meaning some players might get lost as a result. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Map description:
In the aftermath of massive airstrikes from both sides, the front line around the town/city (southeast map edge) has degenerated into a scattered bunch of skirmishes. Opposing forces Green and Tan are racing to re-establish a foothold in this crucial sector while preventing the enemy from doing the same. While the Green force (entering from the north corner) has a straight road to the objective, the Tan force has managed to capture a nearby helipad and establish a roadblock south of the Green position. This has also allowed Tan to start moving on the objective. Meanwhile, the main Tan force is on its way (from the west map corner), and the roadblock force is threatening to open up another corridor of advance (northeast map edge deployment point), which would leave the Green forces surrounded. Fortunately for Green, another Tan force approaching from the east (east map corner) has been intercepted and nearly destroyed.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
Reach and destroy the enemy base in the city (southeast map edge) while preventing the enemy from doing the same.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
1. A lake town on the northwest map edge holds a large amount of income.
2. Tan occupies Helipad A south of the Green starting position.
3. Deployment Point A on the northeast map edge is an ideal location for Green to deploy forces towards the city, but at present the Tan infantry are much closer to it.
4. Helipad B, just south of the map centre, is unoccupied at the beginning of the scenario.
5. Deployment Point B is just west of the south map corner, and is also unoccupied.

HOW TO WIN:
The player plays as the Green force. The easiest strategy is to send one infantry team on the west side of the map to capture Deployment Point B, while simultaneously rushing to capture Deployment Point A and Helipad A as quickly as possible. Note that this isn’t possible to accomplish with every commander! The player must also secure the income advantage by capturing and holding the centre of the lake town.

If left alone, the Tan infantry near Helipad A will capture Deployment Point A by turn 3; if the AI plays as the 606 Special Forces, it can potentially do so by turn 2(!) UNLESS the player fires on the Grunts unit next to Helipad A on the very first turn (instead of trying to run, which is futile anyway), in which case it inexplicably doesn’t. This allows a scout unit with 4 action points to capture Deployment Point A by turn 3.

Alternatively, Deployment Point A can be captured by sneaking the Grunts unit up to it from the east (after surviving the initial skirmish). For this to work, the player must have captured Helipad A and engaged the Tan forces deployed from Deployment Point A from the west. The AI would then leave a hole for the abovementioned Grunts unit to sneak through.

The AI doesn’t exactly play ideally even on Hard difficulty (it wasn’t written with this sort of map arrangement in mind), so the map is balanced to give the AI a substantial income and time advantage. Regardless of who the AI commander is, expect a massive rush of armour through the map centre towards the Green starting position from around turn 6 or so (on Hard difficulty). If the player isn’t done securing Helipad A and Deployment Point A by then, this will cause a lot of problems!

On the west wide of the map, the player has a spare Grunts unit which can be sent to capture either Deployment Point B or Helipad B. If both Grunts units survive the skirmish, both objectives can be captured. However, if the AI plays as the 606 Special Forces, it will capture Helipad B by turn 3-4, and if the player allows a Grunts unit to get spotted, the AI will kill it with a Fire Coordinator on turn 1(!). As you can see, the 606 Special Forces is the most difficult opponent on this map because of their very good mobility and scouting. Just as I intended xD

SPECIFIC MATCHUPS:
Ranked in descending order of difficulty. Please note that it is impossible to beat the 606 SF with any commander apart from the Iron Raiders, 17th Guards and 606 SF itself. The Royal Battery has a fast scout unit, but all its other units move far too slowly to save the player’s base in time.

Iron Raiders (player) vs 606 SF (Hard AI)- The Iron Raiders cannot make use of Helipad A, and the enemy Rangers are more than a match for their Armoured Scouts and LAVs. The 606 SF has superior overall mobility over non-road terrain, and superior scouting (Armoured Scouts have poorer vision into cities/forests than other scouts). On the other hand, Heavy Tanks are nearly invulnerable and can dispatch SF Tanks with ease; the player can hold the lake town centre with just 1 Armoured Scout, 1 Heavy Tank, 1 Mortar Carrier and 1-2 Supply Trucks (for repairs) against waves of SF Tanks and Rangers.

17th Guards (player) vs 606 SF (Hard AI)- the player must still move his units very accurately to win, but the combat itself is somewhat easier. The 606 SF has problems dealing with massed Medium Tanks, AT Teams and MLRS, and the Scout has better vision than the Iron Raiders counterpart. Holding the lake town requires a constant stream of units though, since SF Tanks will do quite a lot of damage before dying, and the 17th Guards has no Heavy Tank.

606 SF (player) vs 606 SF (Hard AI)- holding the lake town becomes very expensive for the player, and so is dealing with the massive rush of SF Tanks in the centre of the map, but capturing the secondary objectives is MUCH easier thanks to the 606 SF’s good infantry and scouting. In fact, if you know where the AI likes to move its units, the player can use a single Fire Coordinator to kill the Ranger that the AI sends to capture Deployment Point A before it gets there (this involves blind-firing and a bit of luck), shooting over the forest thanks to its insane range.

With the hardest opponent out of the way, the rest are pretty straightforward. I haven’t really tested this map with the 501st Bulldogs, but it’s a pain to have to move so many slow units over such long distances, so I don’t imagine many people will choose to play them anyway.

Mechanized Mongrels (player) vs 17th Guards (Hard AI)- The Mongrels don’t have a scout unit, so the AI will capture Deployment Point A before the player does, which means the player will have to deploy massive firepower to capture it, or get very lucky and sneak-capture it from behind with the pre-deployed Grunts unit (this isn’t very likely due to the sheer numbers deployed by the 17th Guards). Fortunately, the AI likes to spend some time getting shot up by the player’s turrets in the east corner, which delays its advance on the base by quite a bit. As long as the player captures Deployment Point B as soon as possible, the base will be secure. The lake town battle is a bit of a mess, however- having weak units really doesn’t help the Mongrels here. Flame Tanks can be quite useful in this scenario.

17th Guards (player) vs 17th Guards (Hard AI)- just play (and win) the usual rock-paper-scissors tactical game and you’ll be fine. The hardest part is probably the massive tank battle in the map centre, which isn’t THAT hard if you know what you’re doing.

Royal Battery (player) vs 17th Guards (Hard AI)- from this point onward the match-ups should be easy for even an average player. This map contains a lot of income, so the classical Royal Battery weakness disappears, and the player can have a field day blowing up all the enemy units (and half the map with them, too…). Just be aware that if the AI captures Helipad B before the player, the player cannot bring artillery to bear on that position because MLRS and Heavy Artillery cannot enter forests!

Iron Raiders (player) vs 17th Guards (Hard AI)- the Iron Raiders’ light units fare quite well against the 17th Guards infantry, as long as they don’t get too close. The tank battle in the centre becomes a joke whenever Heavy Tanks are around.

606 SF (player) vs 17th Guards (Hard AI)- the tank battle in the centre becomes slightly more difficult because the 606 SF lack a anti-tank unit, but everything else becomes ridiculously easy. Snipers and Drones basically rule the hedgerows in the centre.

All the other AI opponents are very easy to beat. The Iron Raiders and Mechanized Mongrels cannot even use Helipad A properly (for some reason the AI doesn’t just deploy a bunch of Engineers and start turret-spamming, which could get interesting). The Royal Battery and 501st Bulldogs defend Helipad A well, but are simply too slow.

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