No need for everything to be hectic. Settle back for some luxurious long-range mischief from up on a pipe…

(7:29) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Normal. In a major change of pace from my usual hectic cavern megabattle movies, this one shows a relaxed long-range mischief play from a high vantage point, using rockets, grenades and sniping. There are 38 covies to have fun with. It's quite a nice play with several amusing incidents, but be sure to also watch BCM183, a fun-filled montage of highlights from other plays.

Released May 22nd 2016, gameplay recorded November 22nd 2015.

00:02 (Getting into position) After arming myself with a sniper rifle and rocket launcher, I get the Warthog guys dismounted and board the Banshee. A fuel rod blast releases the blockade so Marines can follow me, though they won't be doing much fighting. I arc around and carefully settle on the nearby pipe. Occasionally a Hunter shot has blasted it straight off again, or struck the Banshee as it's coming in to land, but there's no such trouble this time. I position myself at the end of the pipe, and I'm ready for business.

00:26 (Early scan) The nearby Hunter is having a go at the Marines and I try to snipe him in the back when he turns and runs, but I miss. When he pauses to face the Marines again, I'm about to give him a rocket but then he runs off and joins the crowd. I don't want to rocket that lot, so instead I move on to what I'd planned next: scanning around. This is mainly to show you the covie layout, or most of it anyway.

00:46 (Ghost 1 fun) Now here's the next thing I had planned: rocketing an overturned Ghost to right it so it'll get boarded. Two Elites get killed in the process, and a nearby red Elite soon boards. I snipe him out, then another red boards - this time coming from the bridge - and I snipe him too. When I see a third guy running to board, I send in a rocket. It hits after he's seated, destroying the Ghost and setting off loose grenades as desired.

01:36 (Shade righted) My second rocket blasts a Jackal and Grunt, and rights the overturned Shade (which I'd been hoping for). That should get boarded later.

01:50 (Hunter shunt) Spotting a Hunter very near the edge, I fire a rocket to try and shunt him off, and it works. I try to snipe him dead on the way down, but although I score two hits, neither kills him.

02:07 (Grunt tag) Just as I'm considering some mischief with a Jackal, I hear a Marine exclaim "What the?", which makes me suspect a covie has advanced towards the end of the bridge. But it turns out to be clear. I settle my sights on the bridge mob and aim a plasma grenade to try and tag a Grunt on the head. From my position I've learnt the approximate elevation to use for such a throw, so I'm in with a very good chance. Unfortunately he backs off just before the grenade arrives, but we're not done yet. It bounces and comically tags another guy in the face. The blast kills a red Elite too - a nice bonus. I snipe a Jackal as he flees.

02:33 (Shade rocketed) When I look towards the far area, I'm slow to switch on the light-amplification, so you can't see much for a few seconds. My capture device doesn't do too well with darkness, and iMovie's flawed rendering doesn't help either; sorry about that! After a bit of looking around however, Shade fire switches my focus. It's been manned while I wasn't looking, and it's firing on the Marines. A rocket sorts it out, and in the aftermath I get a double kill with a sniper round.

03:16 (Grunt tag) Next target: a Grunt on the far side. They often stand in that area, so it's another place for which I've learnt the approximate throw elevation to use. My plasma grenade sticks near the tip of his backpack and he makes an amusing sight as he runs towards a couple of Elites - who aren't best pleased to see him!

03:34 (Death by loose grenades) A blue Elite takes my interest. He stops in front of some dropped plasmas and an idea comes to mind. I aim a rocket a short way behind them. When it goes off, the blast hurts him and sends him forward a bit, but then the plasmas detonate and kill him, sending him flying over the edge.

03:56 (Frag barrage) There are some Jackals going back and forth over yonder, and I unleash a frag barrage. By the time the frags arrive the situation has changed somewhat, but each of my first two frags gets a Jackal, so that was a pretty decent result.

04:14 (Failed Jackal frag) There's still a Jackal left over there, and I aim a frag to hopefully settle just in front of him. However, he starts to move away before it arrives, so instead of getting stopped by his body it bounces away, too far to hurt him. Ah well, can't win 'em all. I just snipe him.

04:35 (Ghost 2 fun) Now I rocket the other Ghost, to try and right it and get it manned. A blue Elite boards, and after a short while he clumsily drives it over the edge. I snipe him out of his seat at almost the last moment before he would've been killed by falling, though it's not seen terribly well.

05:05 (Jackal sniped) I'm low on rockets, so when I settle my sights on this Jackal, I just snipe him.

05:11 (Far Grunts rocketed) I made sure to keep at least one rocket left for the Grunts in the far area. I pick my moment to fire, and the blast kills the two I was going for. The rocket flight time is rather long of course, so you need to be careful about when you fire.

05:37 (Hunter sniping) There's a bit of Hunter sniping now. My initial target runs off so I switch to another, killing him with a round in the back. I get another on the bridge the same way. The initial Hunter ends up obscured by a bridge stanchion however.

06:02 (Grunts on the bridge) I aim a plasma to tag a Grunt on the bridge, but while I'm throwing he moves out of position. When I've zoomed in again, I'm not sure if that's the same Grunt or the other identical one, but whoever it is, he's slightly to the right. The grenade doesn't tag but it settles near the Grunt, who amusingly looks down at it before getting blasted away. I snipe him for good measure. I try to get the next Grunt with my final grenade but he moves away. So again it's not a tag, but at least he's killed.

06:27 (More bridge work) When the blue Elite looks my way, I just snipe him. The Hunter from earlier is still frustratingly obscured. I try to get him with a rocket blast. The explosion turns out to be too far away, but at least it sets off a loose plasma which hurts him. I also try sniping his spikes, but that doesn't seem to be working (wasn't really expecting it to either) so I give up for now.

06:56 (Far Grunt sniped) There's a Grunt left in the far area, and I snipe him. After that, I scan along the platform and also eyeball the pipes onto which covies sometimes fall, but it's all clear. Seems like it's just the Hunter and a Grunt left.

07:10 (Finishing off) I spot the Hunter finally showing himself. Moreover, his back is in view so I promptly kill him with a sniper round - and then the Grunt too. It was only later that I realized I still had a rocket left. I'd mistakenly thought I'd run out. I wished I'd realized at the time; then I would've blasted the Grunt instead, for a better ending.

Closing remarks In my closing remarks for BCM165 I mentioned that I had another type of cavern megabattle planned for my next movie, "coming soon". Well, this was the type I was talking about. This play nearly became BCM166 but it had a few negative aspects, and in particular I was annoyed at neglecting to use my last rocket for an explosive ending (the obvious way to go). I thought I might try some more playing sometime. But by then I'd done loads of plays and couldn't face doing any more, so I put things aside to come back to later, and for BCM166 I instead put together some level 2 Banshee battling.

Unfortunately that's delayed my coverage of long-range mischief by over five months. And after all that time I've decided to go ahead and use this play. Ok the ending is unspectacular, but the list of highlights is still the best out of all the many plays I did. Namely, two amusing Grunt tags, some Jackal fragging, entertainment from both Ghosts, a novel Elite kill via loose grenades, a Hunter shunted into the chasm, and a pair of far Grunts rocketed. So, I'm happy enough with it. Besides which, I decided to make a montage as well, to show lots more mischief; so my play for this movie didn't need to be as ideal as I might've hoped.

Incidentally, normally I'd spend longer on a long-range mischief play, but for the sake of the movie I've raised the pace quite a bit, not spending so long covie-watching. Otherwise it might've been twice as long!

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