Cue Marines, cue covie dropship, cue mayhem at the bottom of the spiral path…

(5:22) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. This shows two plays of the spiral path megabattle save seen created in BCM70, featuring 52 covies. Both times I use a path base defence. In the first I use a rocket launcher and pistol to fend off the main attack, while in the second I use a launcher and sniper rifle.

Released July 28th 2014, gameplay recorded July 25th-26th 2014.

00:02 (Play 1) After swapping my sniper rifle for a pistol, I take a quick flight to join the Marines at the base of the path. Elites are heading down fast and I take out the first with a rocket. When I switch to the pistol to try and make the next few Elites pause, I initially do quite a good job of peppering the cliff instead, but eventually I score some hits. A rocket blasts a blue Elite forward in rage mode, and I leave him for the Marines to finish off while I continue to attack covies further back. Two frags and some pistol work do a decent job of clearing the front of the attack.

00:40 My next rocket takes out an Elite and Jackal, but pretty soon the action gets closer and more chaotic as Elites near the bottom of the path. I do some good work with rockets, trying to deal with the worst threats and trying to take out multiple enemies with each shot if possible. During this time a panicking Jackal gets clear and heads off along the ice. I'd thrown a grenade his way but it was a plasma and went off too slowly. Normally I would've thrown a frag; I may've messed up my cycling here, I forget. I'm too busy with other covies to deal with him but he's not a threat at the moment so that's ok. A Grunt throws a grenade - I fail to take him down in time - but I don't think it causes any damage.

01:10 A lot of Grunts and Jackals are heading down and I use grenades and pistol fire for a while. One Grunt dives off the path and later gets killed by the Marines. Another Grunt shapes up to throw a grenade and I open fire to try and stop him, but I don't quite manage it - arrgh! Again the Marines get lucky though. While that grenade is fizzing, I throw a plasma of my own and tag a Jackal.

01:25 Just as I'm watching the tagged Jackal go bang, I get hit by a plasma ball from the right. I'd forgotten about the Jackal who got away. I quickly pepper him with pistol fire, and then take down one of his beaky buddies on the path - a Jackal who's really getting aggressive (which you can hear from the firing pattern). The blue Elite behind him runs down but I rocket him before he can cause any trouble. The sniper takes care of the Grunt.

01:36 After reloading my launcher I switch to the pistol to deal with a lone Jackal, but then a fuel rod shot sails in from a Hunter up above. I can't take another blast like that with my shield bleeping. Keeping an eye out for further shots, I slam two rockets against the top of the cliff, and that takes care of that. Meanwhile the Marines deal with the Jackal, and the danger time is over.

01:49 With no rockets left, I get a needler instead. There's a lone Grunt on the path and in retrospect I wish I'd sent a nice long stream of needles into him, but actually I just use a pistol headshot.

02:02 I use the needler to take care of most of the threat near the tree, but I leave one Grunt for the Marines as I move on to the Hunter. He takes a swipe and I easily kill him with a pistol shot.

02:21 Next I go for the Jackal on the left. I'm dangerously near the cliff edge for a while, but I don't fall off, so hey, maybe I knew what I was doing! I finish the Jackal with the last round in my clip, and then move on to the Grunts, the second of which gets a sniper round at almost the same time as my pistol shot. A nice clip of needles finishes things off with a bang.

02:45 (Play 2) This time I don't go to the supplies; I just get straight back into the Banshee armed with the sniper rifle and rocket launcher I had. I get out a bit earlier than before, and get to work fast with the rifle, killing the leading two reds with two rounds apiece.

03:04 After throwing a quick plasma, I stun a blue Elite with a sniper round then finish him off. I think that second shot gets the next blue too. At any rate, he's briefly kneeling near the fizzing grenade. When I zoom in, I see him trying to dive clear but he gets blasted instead. I then take down another red with two rounds.

03:13 I send out another plasma. It falls slightly short but at least it makes a Jackal dive. After sniping another Elite, I get the Jackal with a frag.

03:23 Things get more hectic now. I score four sniper hits on four covies, killing three (the Marine sniper finishes the second Elite). Before reloading I send out a quick frag which does good damage at the path's inner corner, but meanwhile a red Elite has run past that area. Time for a rocket! He goes flying, and now there's a blue Elite on the left. My view of him is a bit obscured by dust, but I fire anyway. The blast sends him forwards in rage mode and I leave him to the Marines while I reload.

03:38 A couple of panicking Jackals get my rocket treatment next, then I slam another up into the path corner. It shunts an Elite rightwards and meanwhile I've thrown a frag. When that goes off, it sets off a loose plasma which takes him out. Nice!

03:46 Some panicking Grunts enter my sniper scope. I kill two then a Jackal, then score a hit on a red Elite. Then I throw a frag which sets off an excellent chain reaction, taking out two Elites and some minors.

04:00 Looks like the last of the attacking Elites has been dealt with. After sniping two more Grunts I send a rocket towards the Hunter but it appears to go between his legs. I get him with my next shot though, and while I'm dodging plasma balls the sniper finishes him off. I throw a plasma grenade towards the last attacker - a Jackal - but when I see a Marine raging up to get him, I decide to try and kill the Jackal quicker, else the Marine could very well be killed. A rocket sends the Jackal flying.

04:26 At the top of the path I take out the Elite and his Grunts with four sniper rounds nice and clean, before swapping the almost empty rifle for a plasma pistol. I hit a Jackal with a plasma ball, then I rocket the approaching Hunter. Would've killed him with my second shot, but my sniper gets him first. Kill stealer!

04:47 The Jackals are getting pretty aggressive but I seal the fate of one with a plasma grenade, then I blast the other away with a rocket against the rock. All that's left is a bit of mopping up with the Grunts. I try to whack the last one but I'm a bit hasty and miss, so I tag him instead - quite a nice ending.

Closing remarks I've been wanting to add to my spiral path megabattle movies for quite some time now. The count has been lagging and we need more more more! I showed a path base defence long ago in BCM5 but I was too skimpy back then and it was only one play. This time you get a double play, making a beefier offering. I had a number of saves I could've used for this, but I thought it made sense to use the one seen created in BCM70 since it's pretty good for this battle plan, and it's nice to see some payoff (only a little of which was shown at the end of that set-up movie).

For the sniper rifle play I had two strong candidates to choose from. I selected the one here for a couple of reasons. My sniping accuracy was good - I only missed once in 26 shots - and I sometimes used full zoom which makes a change (normally I tend to use 2x zoom with this defence, as the attackers aren't all that far away). I was pleased with the grenade work too, especially the frag which set off a big chain reaction.

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