Hectic action plus light amusement, in these last four plays of my set-up.

(6:28) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Normal. Completing my sequence of five movies using the tower zone megabattle set-up seen created in BCM439, here are a final four plays, making twenty in all. This one delivers three doses of intense fighting plus some light amusement on the balcony!

Released August 13th 2023, gameplay recorded July 31st - August 12th 2023.

00:02 (Play 1 - Base take-over) This is the final battle plan I worked on for the movie. Originally I had an earlier play in place, from soon after I started work on the plan, but I later realised that it had two shortcomings. Firstly it took longer than needed to draw the covies away (an extra ten seconds or so), and secondly the covies were mostly devastated at distance (partly because they'd got further away), which although efficient, didn't make for the most exciting viewing. So I undertook more gameplay, in which I shortened the preparatory phase and made the battling more close-range.

Another thing I wanted with the new plays was the comedy of having the rear Shade Grunt boosted by the loose plasmas near his initial location. That was a bit of a bother. For starters he sometimes moved out of position, which was no good for getting the plasmas detonated. But even if he stayed in place, sometimes they just didn't detonate; or if they did, maybe he didn't get launched very well, or not at all. Because of this, a lot of my tries were quickly aborted. Here though, I get a pretty good launch - although there were occasional other times when he shot off considerably faster.

As for the battling, it was pretty important to make my early rockets count, to cut down the amount of fire I'd be taking. After my third rocket I hear multiple Elite death cries and decide to move in for some chaotic close work. It turns out that there are still three Elites left: two blues and a red. The red is clearly hurting as he tries to get away from me, but eventually I gun him down, then there's just a bit of mopping up to do - including some leisurely fun with the front Shade.

01:39 (Play 2 - Front door area) Defending amid the abundant cover outside the tower's front door is something I should've thought of earlier, but actually it was the final plan I thought of and tried. It turned out to be an excellent location and I did a load of plays based around using a stolen needler from a Grunt out on the ice (a Grunt you may recall me blasting in some earlier plays). In this play I make a fairly direct grab, getting down on the ice with the covies fairly close. A risky venture, but I succeed with no health loss.

In the actual fighting I use the needler to explosively blunt the covie attack, then later there's a lot of running around mostly using a plasma rifle and grenades. Also there's an amusing incident near the end when a Hunter finishes off a wounded Jackal with a wild swipe. That's part of why I selected this play for the movie, among multiple contenders.

03:19 (Play 3 - Balcony fun) A change of pace now. At the start of this balcony fun I try to get someone splattered by my Banshee, but it doesn't come off. I start having some fun rocketing the covies though, as they head for the back door.

The main fun comes with Elites clumsily overshooting the balcony after running up the ramp (which is actually how I got the balcony Elite down in creating the set-up). In this play I get five overshoots in a row, which was unusually good, and three of the Elites I manage to tag. A blue Elite actually tries to whack me as he goes over, but it doesn't connect, and I rocket him while he's recovering from his landing. Jumper number four eventually turns up for another go, but walks into a rocket blast.

By the way, after the first Elite overshoot you initially see me get ready for the next guy, but then I instead return to the edge to fire a few rockets. That's because my tracker suggested that nobody was getting close yet; so I figured I'd do some shooting.

05:22 (Play 4 - Pass entrance) Surviving at the pass entrance was hard with my set-up, but I got into the practice of using the Banshee for a bit of extra cover; plus it tumbles around a bit, which has the potential for getting covies splattered or making them dive. As you can see, I'm also battling while repeatedly dodging the Hunters - which is something I got into as a challenge, part way through recording footage at this spot.

In this play my early rockets are good, which gives me a decent chance of actually making it through alive. And indeed I prevail, finishing off with a nice Grunt launch.

Closing remarks Okay, that completes my showcasing of how much battle variety you can get with just one tower zone megabattle set-up. I had a load of fun doing it and I think it provides a solid introduction to the battle - and I'd say I picked the ideal weapon combo too. There were also other plans I could've shown, some of them a bit further afield from the mob's initial location, but I thought twenty was enough, and in any case I'm keen to move on to the next part of my megabattle coverage.

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