Pistol and frags from on top of a big rock, with five frag-happy bozos below. Sounds like a recipe for fun…

(3:32) Level 2 ('Halo') on Heroic. This shows a rockslide megabattle against 34 covies using the plateau front defence plan. More specifically I'm using my 'death from on high' tactic, fighting from on top of the central rock and restricting myself to pistol and frags. Using the same save as for BCM1, I'm driving in with Stacker and an armoured Aussie and I've got some extra Marines out front to help.

Released November 27th 2011, gameplay recorded November 25th 2011.

00:02 Cruising into the battlefield I make a Grunt jump clear, but a grunty colleague from dropship 3 goes under the wheels and a red Elite gets creamed. Normally I wouldn't squash Elite battle fodder like that because it'll reduce the intensity of the later fight, but hey you enjoyed it, right? Stacker gets the chain-gun working on a few Jackals further on, including a spell of shooting into solid rock, and soon we're at the plateau where three extra Marines are waiting out front. I get my passengers dismounted and hop up onto the rock. There are various designs possible for that rock. The design gets randomly selected by the game earlier on, and this is the one you want. You can easily get up and move around, and it even gives you good cover.

00:40 Restricting myself to pistol and frags - a favourite way of playing things on the rock - a distant Jackal takes my first shot but then I get busy on a couple of Elites. One of them takes cover behind the side of the plateau and I bounce a frag off a rock to hopefully land near him and maybe decimate approaching enemies - a very useful tactic. Another follows later, and he really doesn't like it. Our fire keeps the covies back for a while but then a Grunt toddles forth into a crossfire and a headshot, hee hee! Soon after, there's a cry of "Fire in the hole" and it's like a signal for the Marines to get busy with the grenades. They lob a barrage of frags while I continue my pistol fire, and within a few seconds the enemy attack is four Elites lighter.

01:12 I send a frag out to greet an incoming Jackal. It doesn't land as close as I'd like but he takes some of the blast and I finish him off with a pistol shot. Further pistol work takes out three Grunts. Meanwhile Johnson is taking a bit of fire himself, but not from the enemy. "Where are your glasses boy?" Hah, you should've nipped up here on the rock Johnson - much safer. More covies flood forth and I manage to pick out a Grunt in the process of throwing, making him drop his plasma. The blue Elite jumps clear and goes down from the ensuing fire. More frags fly in, setting off a chain reaction which blows the body of a red Elite up high. I can't resist the target practice. Annoyingly I twitch just before my first shot, but I hit on my second.

01:43 Only Jackals and Grunts left in the attack now. I work with the pistol and Johnson sends out a useful frag. After I put a blue-shielded Jackal down, all seems quiet, but then a latecomer turns up. A lone Grunt who quickly sizes up the situation with a cry of "Need help!" Yes you do grunty. I give my Marines a chance to deal with him but he gets away and my last-minute shot is too late, so I get down off my rock to finish up. I sneak up behind and do a double-tag as he starts creeping forth. He goes way up high and I get a second chance at some aerial target practice.

02:47 I head off to find the dropship 4 Elite, and this time a Grunt has latched onto him for support. A blue Elite with a needler is no real threat and I toy with him at the end, letting him take a swipe before I smack him down. The Grunt runs for it - no surprise there - and I get ready to do another double-tag, but he ends up stalled at the tree, seemingly in two minds about which way to go. Well, it's not much good launching a Grunt when he's got branches overhead, so I just put him out of his misery with a pistol shot.

Closing remarks I have to say, that battle was relatively easy and I was in two minds whether to use it. Megabattles are at their best when you're really up against it but here I had five Marines to help out, which does tend to put the balance in my favour (for this particular defence plan), and as well as that they lobbed a load of frags. The covies never really pushed forward strongly and they were already one red Elite short after that unfortunate mishap at the start. I used the footage anyway as I thought it was still fun, but next time I aim to give myself fewer Marines so the battle is more closely fought.

© 2004-2020 by Rockslider