Fourth in my 12-man far area defence series, survival with an AR is gonna be tough!

(7:07) Level 2 ('Halo') on Heroic. Fourth in a five-movie sequence which began with BCM129, this shows two plays of a rockslide megabattle save featuring a squad of 11 Marines waiting for me to join them in a far area defence against 33 covies. Life is extra tough this time, as I try to survive with an AR.

Released March 1st 2015, gameplay recorded February 19th 2015.

00:02 (Play 1) I take a relatively long route via the dropship 4 drop zone, splattering a couple of careless Grunts on the way. When I reach the squad I let the hog slide past the guy on the right, though you have to be a bit careful about that as Marines do love to jump into the path of the hog.

00:31 I start peppering an arriving blue Elite at the central gap, and thanks to my sideways motion he gets a plasma ball in the back from a Jackal, which is handy. With his shield down I press home the attack but also start backing off as I'm in a pretty dangerous place. I see that he's growling so I just let the Marines finish him while I reload. A nice start.

00:46 Another blue comes galloping out, and goes well past my first plasma grenade. I try another and it ends up killing him, though he would've been finished by AR fire in a few seconds anyway.

00:56 There's a red causing trouble on the high left, but then I see a blue coming in from the right; a much easier target. My plasma throw is no good but a quick frag sends him reeling and he's easily finished off. But meanwhile Johnson has bit the dust; you can hear his cry.

01:04 I throw a frag towards an Elite and a Jackal at the tree on the left, but it's short and only shakes up the Elite a bit. In the meanwhile a needling blue has advanced close, but I tag him. That makes a Grunt run off, and I try a bit of AR fire for a while, killing a Grunt on the right who got close with a needler.

01:21 As another Marine falls, I throw a frag towards a couple of yellow-shielded Jackals on the left, killing one. But meanwhile we're taking heavy fire from a red Elite in the middle. I throw a frag but he backs off and the blast only gets a Grunt. As I move left behind the Marines, I'm caught by a long-range plasma ball which sailed in from the right. Drat! When I see a Marine die, I spot his dropped frag and advance to pick it up and throw it towards the red who's giving us a hard time. I'm not sure how much that hurt him, but he's on the defensive now and is soon finished by AR fire. I'm perhaps fortunate not to've lost more health before my shield recharged, but my evasive sideways movement helped of course.

01:45 I briefly move to the right to attack some minor enemies, getting a Grunt with AR fire and a Jackal with a plasma grenade, but there's a red attacking the Marines now, so I turn back and head for him. Picking up a plasma grenade as I go, I throw it immediately and tag him on the foot, though I wasn't sure he'd been tagged until he started growling. The blast conveniently sends his three plasma grenades my way for pick-up. A very welcome departing gift!

02:03 With shield bleeping, I'm down to five health bars and there's now another red attacking. Not good! I throw a plasma and he dives to the left, then when I throw a second he dives back and gets blasted by the first, hee hee! Pity I wasted the third, but I wasn't quite sure where he was going to end up of course. Anyway, that's the last of the Elites, and finally my shield recharges.

02:12 With only an AR, mopping up minor enemies is something you need to be fairly careful about. After some ineffectual fire at a few Grunts on the left, I get a retreating Jackal, and then a needling Grunt goes down under AR fire from both myself and the Marines.

02:28 Just as I pick up three plasma grenades I hear a couple of plasma balls being fired. Expecting them to be heading my way, I make a backwards movement and let them sail past. After that I head out to the right to make that side safe. There's a pursuing Grunt being rather aggressive with a plasma pistol, but I evade most of his fire and eventually smack him down after he foolishly stops his shooting to throw a plasma grenade.

02:44 In this final passage of play things get a bit hot for a while. I do some good work, including a plasma grenade which takes out two Jackals at the rear, but eventually I back off under plasma fire from a Jackal. Probably would've been better to use the rocky semicircle for defence, but it's too late now. When my shield recharges I evasively spiral in towards the Jackal. He starts to flee after I hurt him with AR fire, but there's no escape as I catch up and smack him down. The final panicking Grunt gets some lead in the back.

03:23 (Play 2) This time I take a fairly uneventful short route through the rockslide, and a plasma ball sails past as I near the squad. I deliberately made this one a short drive, as these AR battles tend to be relatively long.

03:45 Jackals approach on the high left but I back off and avoid their plasma balls, waiting for a blue Elite to get close. A frag hurts him badly, to be quickly finished by AR fire, and then I frag the nearest Jackal.

03:59 A couple of Grunts are giving a Marine a hard time, but that's his own silly fault for standing out front. As he goes down, an approaching Elite laughs and then dives clear of my frag. But just as he advances again, he's caught by a plasma grenade which gets set off. Who's laughing now squid-face?

04:11 With shield bleeping, I hang back a while as a blue Elite takes up the attack. He dives clear of my plasma grenade and runs past a second, but the latter sets off a loose plasma which takes him out. These Elites sure don't seem to pay much attention to the danger of loose grenades lying around! A needling blue is close behind and piles a stream of needles into the Marines, causing few fatalities, but AR fire weakens him and I deliver a whack. A touch more fire and he's down.

04:35 After being lightly peppered, a red Elite advances from the rocky semicircle. When I notice a frag on the ground, I run forwards to send it his way, but he backs off and I'm not sure it damaged him at all. The AR fire has been accumulating though, and his shield finally goes. Moments later he's in rage mode, but I have to wait for my reload before I can finish him; and meanwhile he manages to kill Stacker with his final shots.

04:55 I think the two frags I then pick up were Stacker's. Under attack from a blue and then also a red, I use them up but without success. I follow with a few plasmas though, and the second one gets the inattentive red. When the blue advances again and focuses on some Marines, I approach from his side and bring him down with AR fire. I'd been thinking of tagging him, but then decided to stick with the AR.

05:20 Some of the Grunts are panicking now, but there's still some serious fire coming our way. I grenade a Jackal and Grunt who were in the rocky semicircle, and that cools things off agreeably, giving my shield a chance to recharge. I briefly look around to see how many Marines are still with me; only three. That was a mistake really. By the time I'm facing the front again, a Grunt has started needling the guy on the right. But he's taken down with AR fire, and then five Grunts afterwards.

05:55 For a while I try to use the hog as cover from Jackals on the right, but I overestimate my safety. A plasma ball comes over the top and takes down my shield. I move out to try and kill the nearest Jackal, but a Grunt attacks and I'm potentially in serious trouble, trying to stay alive. Fortunately the injured Jackal runs off however, enabling me to kill the Grunt and recharge, with only one health bar lost during the whole episode.

06:14 I decide to get aggressive with the Jackals on the right, so I charge them, but I don't kill the first two as quickly as I would've liked. Rather than risk charging the third, who isn't that close, I go to the nearest rock for cover. However, I come under fire from the side and decide that I can't stay there. I go for a charge after all, and luckily he goes down with my next burst.

06:29 I'm still in potentially fatal trouble though. At this point I could've gone back to the rock for cover, but instead I try to tough it out. I lose two health bars killing a Jackal and two Grunts, before getting enough cover to start recharging. Hearing some of the covies being fired on by Marines, which should take some pressure off me, I leap out and ambush an approaching Jackal; and with a recharged shield it's easy to then finish off.

Closing remarks As you can probably judge from these plays, which I'd say were fairly typical, the AR makes for a tough and potentially drawn-out challenge, even with a large squad in support. In contrast, using a pistol is almost luxurious. Check out the final installment in the sequence, BCM133!

© 2004-2020 by Rockslider