BCM413 - Marineless first ground battle

Hey, somebody stole my bozo squad!

(6:28) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Back when I was working on the business of getting seven extra Marines in the first ground battle, I found a variation in which you end up having no Marines, which makes things quite novel. Here's a set-up demo and a sample play in which I tail a patrolling Elite.

Released March 9th 2020, gameplay recorded March 7th-8th 2020.

Commentary

00:02 (Setting up) In this set-up I grab a Banshee, but instead you could do a bridge descent and fetch the twin bridges Banshee. The other option I use is to ride up in the lift, to get normal checkpointing resumed. That enables me to checkpoint in the exit passage, so I'll be able to replay the battle.

A shortcoming of my set-up is that I neglected to swap my low-charge plasma pistol for a better one, near the end. Should've done that really, but plasma pistol work wasn't on my mind. I was planning on mostly doing sniping and rocketing.

01:57 (Battle play) My plan for this battle is to mostly pick off covies from distance using the sniper rifle and rocket launcher, until there's just the patrolling Elite left, who I want to tail. Goes pretty well. The Elite gets suspicious at one point when there's a death nearby (the gunner on the plateau), but soon resumes patrolling. I was careful not to get spotted by him, else he would've run for a Ghost. Eventually four reinforcements approach from the end of the battlefield, but they don't get far.

04:46 With no other covies around to spot me, it's safe to close in on the patrolling Elite to tail him. For brevity I've cut about 23 seconds of closing in here, but I'll mention that I picked up a plasma pistol on the way. I tail him for well over a minute before I'm suddenly rumbled (his head turned left and he noticed me immediately). He goes for a swipe but I stun him with a plasma ball, then let him run to a Ghost where I tag him for an explosive ending.

Closing remarks There was an unexpected bonus with this particular set-up. Watch out for something interesting in the next movie, which I'm currently putting together!