A double helping of hectic carnage on ice, featuring lots of plasma, needles and rockets!

(7:10) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. This shows two plays of a spiral path megabattle save using the ice path defence plan, against 52 covies. The save was created specially for that plan and includes handy spare weapons for extra flexibility. I'm aided by four standard Marines, having eliminated the sniper. In the first play I use plasma weapons, and in the second I use a rocket launcher and needler. Survival is hard either way; the attack is a lot fiercer than with the save used for BCM6.

Released June 15th 2016, gameplay recorded June 12th-13th 2016.

00:02 (Play 1 - Plasma combo) Swapping my launcher for a plasma pistol, I head into action and do a stun and tag move on the leading Elite, who's already at the blockade. A red Elite heads through the opening but I do another stun and tag to stop him. I also throw a frag to try and blast the next red, but it bounces too far. Meanwhile though, I've backed off behind the rocks and I hit him with a plasma ball followed by a bit of plasma rifle fire. When I sneak a frag through a gap beneath a Ghost, the blast kills him and also sets off the two frags dropped by the sniper (killed in the set-up work), sending Ghosts flying. Unfortunately a Marine goes flying too, but it's not my fault he's standing out front in danger!

00:32 A blue Elite comes into view, and once again I do a stun and tag. Seems like he gets tagged low down on a leg - can't quite see it. But meanwhile two other Elites have overtaken him. My plasma ball misses and so does a grenade (though it subsequently blasts a Grunt), allowing them to both get close. I focus on the red - by far the more dangerous - and kill him with my rifle. As for the blue, I stun him with a plasma ball but then miss a swipe. He swipes back but I dodge it then fell him with my second swipe.

00:52 By now I'm conscious of an Elite firing down on us from the spiral path. It's a blue Elite and he seems to do that on every play. However, I don't have the time to deal with him yet; not while there are Elites getting close on the ground. With the aid of a few plasma balls I kill a red then a blue (that blue makes for my fourth stun and tag move), then I zap a Grunt.

01:06 From behind the rocks I see a load of minor covies approaching, with an Elite close behind. I could've really done with a grenade at this point, but I've run out - which is actually quite unusual. Ok then, time to get busy with a lot of rapid plasma fire! After getting a Jackal I come across a plasma pistol, so I swap it for my depleted one. The Elite makes himself an easy target - luckily he was distracted by the Marines - and I do 'stun and tag' number five. The blast takes out some minors too, but now there's yet another red Elite to deal with. I finish him quite quickly after catching him with a plasma ball, but at this point we're pretty much overrun.

01:24 Chaos ensues as I run around trying to zap or whack everything alien. Eventually I'm down to two bars of health and there's just a yellow-shielded Jackal left in close proximity on the ground. I make a bit of a mistake by not quite putting him down (I thought I'd done enough), and then exposing myself to fire from above when I go to pick up a new plasma rifle. I come within a whisker of death and have to quickly take cover.

02:10 The final Marine gets blasted by a Hunter, and I see a Jackal too. I manage to kill the Jackal quick and recharge my shield, and meanwhile the rocks give me cover from Hunter fire. I'm just about to start engaging him when I remember the Elite up above, who needs to be killed first. I hit him with a plasma ball then finish with rifle fire. Also I kill a Grunt. At this point it's pretty safe to focus on the Hunter, and I wear him down with plasma fire and tags.

02:46 There are just a few minors to deal with before I get up top. A quick bit of zapping takes care of two Grunts, and then I get the Jackal with a nice stun and tag.

03:01 After picking up a few convenient plasmas, I briefly use a handy Ghost to get up the path faster than usual. I put that Ghost there on purpose, for potential use in the closing phase of battle. It might've been nice to use it to finish off the covies up top, but maybe I'll do that some other time. I dismount near the top and take care of the Elite and three Grunts by the tree, being fairly cautious because of my low health.

03:29 I'm not cautious enough with the Hunter though; I foolishly let myself get hit by a fuel rod blast. Fortunately it doesn't kill me, but I have to make jolly sure I don't get hit by plasma fire from the Jackals. I kill them both from distance, then do a dodge to make the Hunter go over the edge. That was a bit risky, but I'm partly playing for show. I follow up with a spot of plasma fire then a grenade, but this guy is quite weak and the grenade turns out to be redundant.

03:55 Just four Grunts left to finish off. No trouble of course.

04:08 (Play 2 - Rocket launcher and needler) Into action with a needler now. The leading two Elites take a clip apiece and the blockade gets blasted spectacularly due to dropped plasmas. I also tag a third guy on the foot. Amusingly he never seems to notice.

04:35 After a wasted plasma, I see Elites belatedly come into view (I'd been expecting them earlier). Good carnage ensues, involving a frag, a clip of needles, and my first two rockets. Result: five Elites taken out in about twelve seconds. Nice!

04:51 More covies arrive and the carnage continues, but the situation is kept under control. Around 5:12 we take fire from a blue Elite up above - it's that guy again - and I deal with him fast, scoring a satisfying direct hit with a rocket.

05:17 There's a red Elite approaching now. He survives a close rocket blast but doesn't last much longer. Marines finish him off while I deal with yet more new arrivals, including another Elite. After him, I rocket a bunch of Grunts and then a solitary one.

05:36 I'm out of rockets now, but that's no problem because I've got a spare launcher waiting. I go fetch it, and also top up with needles - some of which I then use on a panicking Grunt, who might've done better to panic in the other direction! Then I spot a Hunter and a Jackal. I really should've just rocketed the Jackal - I had plenty - but I throw a frag and it bounces too far. I whack him instead and rocket the Hunter, who then succumbs to a needle explosion. I reckon a few of those needles came from the Grunts, who go flying when I rocket them.

06:08 During that phase there was a Jackal firing down from the spiral path, and now I get my revenge. I don't even bother dodging his plasma ball. I just enjoy slamming a rocket into him as I head up the path.

06:20 It's business as usual up top, as I have a bit more fun with the rocket launcher. In contrast to the first battle, all four Marines live to fight another day. Only three have followed me up, but from my tracker you can see a dot for a fourth down below. It's not uncommon for a Marine to fail to navigate past the rocks at the base of the spiral path.

Closing remarks It was high time I showed some more spiral path megabattle action. I've been conscious of that for ages, and I'm finally doing something about it with two new movies. I especially wanted to do some ice path defence, because that battle plan has only had a single showing before now, which is quite scandalous bearing in mind that it gives some of the hottest action in the entire game. Don't be surprised if another few spiral path megabattle movies turn up quite soon as well. I really should've done at least twice as many by now.

If the situation here looked familiar, you may be thinking of BCM6 which likewise had a 4-Ghost blockade. In fact, that save had exactly the same arrangement, because it derived from the same base save I used for creating this new save. In the base save, everything has been set up (covies assembled, aside from the dropship troops yet to be spawned) and the only thing left to do is get the underpass checkpoint to finish off. With this new save I got that checkpoint near the blockade, which makes for a faster start to hostilities.

Part of the way in which this save was designed to be suitable for ice path defence was in the nature of the rocks at the corner. They're namely the ideal height for providing cover while also being low enough to shoot over. They featured a lot in the first play, while in the second I was instead off to the left most of the time, enabling me to see covies sooner.

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