Eleven Marines and a cyborg, all with ARs, against 33 covies. Lay your bets!

(6:35) Level 2 ('Halo') on Heroic. Yet more rockslide megabattling. I got into some AR fun with my squad of 11 Marines, doing far area defence against 33 covies. It's addictive stuff, and rather tough because of the AR's weakness. Good use of grenades can mean the difference between life and death! For an earlier double play like this, see BCM132.

Released September 30th 2016, gameplay recorded September 28th-29th 2016.

00:02 (Play 1) One inattentive Grunt gets splattered as I head for the defence location, but he's the only casualty. Quite often when I take this route, the blue Elite in the rockslide gets splattered as he comes around the corner, but on this occasion I deliberately took a relatively wide route to try and avoid him, because I want more battle fodder for later. Leaving the hog out in the open, I quickly pick up the AR from my lovely stash of spare weapons, and turn to face the onslaught.

00:27 A Jackal leads the advance and gets a plasma ball off before turning tail, and I throw a frag which kills him and shakes up a blue Elite. I pepper the blue with a bit of fire for a moment, but then switch to a blue closer at hand, attacking the Marines. My frag hurts him and he's soon finished with AR fire and a whack.

00:40 As I reload, I turn to see the previous blue get finished off by Marine fire, but a nasty red is approaching the hog now. After a bit of AR fire I throw a few plasmas but only succeed in making him lose a bit of time by diving clear. It looks like he's backing off to the rocky semicircle, but then he advances again. This time I use a frag and it kills him. Disappointingly though, I've just heard Johnson die early. Nooooo!

00:54 I spot two dropped frags just ahead and move to pick them up, but my shield is down and I'm soon losing health from covies on the left. One of those is a red Elite who was crouching, waiting to recharge his shield. It was wiped by a Jackal's plasma ball in the back when he arrived, but I didn't notice at the time - otherwise I might've tried to capitalise. Anyway, I throw a frag and I'm particularly going for the yellow-shielded Jackal to the left. It feels like a good throw and I'm surprised when it only seems to kill a Grunt. I think it landed shorter than I was expecting.

01:01 By now I'm down to only four health bars. Seeing a blue Elite attacking on the far right, I decide to get clear of this hot-spot I'm in, and charge him. He goes down but I lose another bar on the way. I turn and throw a frag towards the central area when I catch sight of an Elite who looks like he's advancing, but he backs off and only a Grunt is killed. Then I lose another bar to a Grunt on the right. Yikes! Not wanting to go down to only one bar, I sacrifice a frag to kill him quick. Turning again, I see a red Elite near the hog. The situation is looking bad but I pull things back from the brink with a much-needed tag, and finally I'm able to recharge. Two health bars leaves me pretty fragile though, and there are still two Elites left.

01:19 I briefly do some work on minor covies on the left, and my plasma blast gets a Jackal, but then I turn to tackle a blue Elite near the hog. My clip runs out though, so I run at a Grunt instead, reloading on the way and smacking him from behind - then I finish the blue. But my shield is bleeping, and when I pause to pick up a frag, I get caught in some nasty fire and go down to one bar, obliging me to quickly take cover as best I can, by crouching in a depression. Close call!

01:53 Moving out again, I'm pleased to acquire two frags I hadn't noticed. After some AR fire I throw one frag at a yellow-shielded Jackal on the left who's been bugging me, then one at another who's just retreated to the semicircle. Both good throws. My third frag clears a Jackal threat on the right. Even before the bang, I've turned to see that the final Elite has advanced to the hog. But I throw a plasma at the hog and the blast gets him. Looks like I might survive this battle after all!

02:25 With plenty of grunty panicking going on, it's easy for me to make a start on the mopping up. After leaping into the semicircle and gunning down a Grunt there, I throw a plasma towards the final Jackal coming down the hill, but then I hear a Grunt approaching from behind and turn to kill him. I get the Jackal with my next plasma, then chase after the final two Grunts and do some gratuitous tagging. The final guy gets an AR burst in mid-air for good measure.

03:10 (Play 2) This time I take a shorter route through the rockslide. Just to remind you, I'm seeking to enter a trigger zone which releases the lifeboat group to come after me. With this route I'm barely skimming the edge of it, but that's enough. A Jackal narrowly avoids being splattered as I head up the hill. His buddy gets the hog with a plasma ball though, and I lose a health bar.

03:30 Combat proper commences, with a blue Elite charging forward into a hail of AR fire. When my clip runs out I can see that the Marines are going to finish him off, so I'm not worried about quickly reloading. Instead I silence a Jackal with a frag.

03:42 Now reloaded, I do a bit of peppering but there aren't any Elites coming forth to play yet. I kill a Grunt on the left then throw a plasma to the semicircle where the closest Elite is, but just at that time he advances, so it's wasted. However, I shake him up with a frag near the hog, and he goes down from AR fire soon after.

04:02 A blue Elite heads for the hog then dives clear of my frag. He backs off when I follow with a plasma, but then I see two other Elites advancing on the left, and I throw two plasma grenades at the leading red. He's tagged by the second, and then the first one blasts the blue who failed to notice it. Nice!

04:14 The earlier blue advances again, and I charge him with AR fire. He's quickly killed but my shield is down and I back off, throwing a frag at a red Elite in the semicircle. It makes his shield flicker so I venture a plasma grenade too, but nothing comes of it. Meanwhile I'm already moving over to the right. A blue charges up to the Marines but I take him down at close range, using AR fire, a whack, then more AR fire. A very satisfying encounter.

04:39 I attack some Jackals on the left and blast at least one with a plasma grenade. There's only one Elite left but he's hanging back at the semicircle, and I intermittently pepper him while working on the other covies.

05:31 On the left, a yellow-shielded Jackal is hurting the Marines quite badly and I charge him, picking up fresh plasmas on the way. After killing him I throw one plasma at a Jackal further back, and he gets blasted. I throw another at the Elite, and get lucky by tagging him on the foot. When he dies, the Grunts panic and I attack. Initially I head for the semicircle but then I switch to the left because it sounds like Marines are getting hurt by the covies there. However, that group gets decimated by a Marine frag before my plasmas have a chance to do the job.

05:56 After finishing two weak Jackals, I jump up onto the rock. One Grunt is out in the open attacking the Marines, and I fire as I fall. He goes down, though I'm not sure if it was my burst which killed him. The final Grunt gets a fright from my fire and tries to run off. Needless to say, he doesn't get very far.

Closing remarks I hadn't been thinking of doing another rockslide megabattle movie after that last one, but I got into some AR play with my large squad and felt like I was on good form, so I started recording, getting many candidate plays from which to choose. I was in two minds as to which of two plays to use for the opener, but eventually settled on the one which ended with an amusing Grunt launch. The other play included a very nice long tag of a Jackal who was busy attacking Marines, but it had a relatively dull ending. I think I'll either use that play in another movie sometime, or use the tag in one of my 'Freakiness and fun' movies. Either way, you should eventually see the tag.

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