Plateau base defence

Get somewhere near the huge rock located at the bottom of the steep right path up to the plateau, so you've got a good view along the expanse of ground leading back towards the lifeboat, and try to defend from around there.

It doesn't take the enemy long to start swarming in, so you better get ready quick. Most are likely to attack from the front, which is what I've got in mind for this plan, but watch out for others sneaking around the cliffside and coming in behind you from either direction. It's pretty easy to end up toast if you get taken by surprise.

A good way to drive in is to go past the lifeboat and through the plateau base gap as seen in BCM43. You could instead head into the hidey-hole and go around the right cliffside but that may tend to draw extra covies around behind you, which isn't really what you want - unless you like having to fend off covies from two directions at once that is.

Positioning

As with most situations, you can have fun trying out different defence positions. For a bit of a crossfire using a chain-gunner, you could park the Warthog to one side of the rocks then position yourself on the other, though that does leave the hog a bit vulnerable to attacks from behind. If you're on the left, you're well positioned for tackling any covies who come in around the right cliffside.

The smallish rock in the middle of the expanse can be used for cover if you care to try and defend from a well advanced position, but under a strong attack on Heroic you'll probably soon be forced back, partly because there are enemies approaching from both the left and right and you can't shield yourself from both directions. Further back, you could potentially use the hog for a bit of cover. With that in mind, you might like to leave a bit of a gap between the hog and the large rock. Good for hiding behind if you need to recharge.

Weaponry

For this battle I particularly like the plasma rifle with its fast shot speed and stun ability. It seems ideal for the sort of hectic close combat you tend to get into. Enemies are often moving across your field of view, so I think the rifle has the edge over the plasma pistol here, though the latter would be a welcome secondary for when the rifle gets a bit toasty or when good opportunities arise. However, you could probably give a good account of yourself just using plasma rifle plus grenades.

Oh, that brings me to my other main tip. Shovel those grenades! With all the Elites and Grunts going down, you shouldn't have any shortage. If you watch out for blips on your tracker, you can potentially use plasmas to help hold back or kill approaching unseen enemies, buying yourself time to fend off others.

The assault rifle is satisfying when enemies get really close and personal but is somewhat underpowered for more general use, so I wouldn't normally be using it as my main weapon here.

You could potentially have an excellent time defending with a pistol, but that depends a lot on the strength of the enemy attack, and how they approach. Against 30+ enemies on Heroic it's probably going to be difficult to stay in control, easy even with the aid of a chain-gunner and plentiful grenades. A pistol does make a nice pairing with a close-range rifle though, letting you tackle the more distant enemies with precision when needed. Good for when you want to back off for a while too - assuming there aren't any covies coming up behind you!

The needler can be great against the Elites but this is a tricky situation so you'd better know what you're doing. Fire those needles with venom and purpose, and you might come out smiling.

My first megabattle experience

Aside from giving some fantastically hot combat, this plan has a bit of historical relevance for me because it describes my first megabattle experience. I'd returned to the rockslide area after killing the initial covies and then leaving - just to vary my routine. By now all the dropships had visited, though I wasn't really aware of that at the time. I was probably expecting things to resume from pretty much where I'd left off, with dropships coming in gradually.

Anyway, I drove in and parked near the rocks I mentioned, and then all hell broke loose as a mass of enemies flooded my way. I don't think I lasted long; I just wasn't prepared for that sort of attack. I remember thinking something like "What the hell was that?". Naturally I reverted to try things again - and again. It was easily the best fighting I'd ever had, and I was pretty amazed at what I'd stumbled into. Thus began my involvement with the rockslide megabattle, which eventually led to my launching Bad Cyborg.

Actually I almost called the rockslide megabattle something else. My original name for it was 'secret rockslide scenario', which I was going to abbreviate to SRS. But I did a web search and found that SRS was already the initials of something. I didn't want to clash, so I had a rethink. Glad I did, because 'rockslide megabattle' was much better, and 'megabattle' later came in handy for describing a few other super-intense conflicts.