The UNSC takes the fight to the covies, with a squad of Ghosts!

(7:08) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Continuing with the theme of the first ground battle, I created a novel set-up oriented around having a UNSC 'Ghost squad'. You'll see what I mean. The very straightforward set-up work is shown (it partly draws on the seven extra Marines trick), along with two sample plays of the result.

Released September 1st 2024, gameplay recorded August 29th-30th 2024.

00:02 (Setting up) The set-up section is quite self-explanatory but I'll add some details here.

00:33 I elected to kill the few covies still alive on the bridge. That was partly to reduce strain on the game in the forthcoming battling, and partly so they won't cause distracting tracker dots. I've illustrated the killing with just a few short clips, but actually I also landed on the bridge and killed the last few on foot. The Elite was lurking on the lower deck, and when he does that he's awkward to get with a Banshee; and I wanted to avoid further Banshee damage. Needless to say, I was careful not to take health damage. But if you do suffer some, you could always use the medkit in the room triggered later.

00:56 Moving the Shade is optional, but it's a good idea to have it where some of the chaotic fighting will be going on, rather than in its normal isolated spot. It can enrich the action like that. I thought the slope would be a good place, and that turned out to be a great choice I think, but there are other nice places you could have it too.

01:34 The nose of the Ghost is raised with the A button, to get it up over the step.

01:53 At this point I'm doing the work need for getting seven extra Marines. However, some of the four Pelican Marines will remain inactive in battle, as expected. In fact, with the eventual set-up I got, it looks like there's always just one who activates; so I effectively get a squad of seven for battle.

02:21 Although it's not a key element of the Ghost squad business, it's nice to have the Banshee near the door too, just in case you fancy using it. I could've done with placing it a bit closer, but at the time I wasn't thinking much about Banshee use, so the placing is a bit crude.

02:37 (Play 1 - Standard approach) In this first play I head straight over to link up with the Marines and give them some help, then I go for the Elite, stopping him before he reaches a Ghost. I want those Ghosts for the Marines. They duly board, and actually the second boarding is unusually prompt (usually only one Ghost gets boarded promptly, which is the main frustration with Ghost squad battling). Then the Ghost squad business gets under way, and we achieve an excellent victory. Six Marines made it through. I believe only one active Marine died.

Along the way, I paused to right an overturned Ghost so a Marine can get it back into action. It's just a pity Marines can't do this for themselves!

04:45 (Play 2 - Retreat trigger) This play demonstrates another approach to the battle, namely speeding up the battlefield to trigger a covie retreat. At the trigger line (which triggers further covies plus a checkpoint), an interesting side-effect is that the Shade gunner dismounts (this was seen also in the first play). Expecting that, I pull off an amusing mid-air splatter. Then just after that, there's another funny bit where two reinforcement Jackals take a Wraith blast.

With this retreat trigger approach, the forward Elite sometimes fails to board a Ghost, which is ideal for Ghost squad purposes. On this occasion however, I see that he did board (he soon falls out, blasted by the Wraith I believe). I draw the Marines over to the remaining Ghost to get someone aboard, but it's almost a wipeout. Only one guy survives, and duly becomes my 'wingman' - and surprisingly survives the rest of the fight. Another win.

We didn't get a full 3-Ghost assault this time, but sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles. I nevertheless chose this play for the movie as it had those two amusing bits at the start, plus a somewhat entertaining near wipeout of the Marines. In the next movie you'll see a retreat trigger approach which works out better.

06:49 (Stay tuned) Just thought I'd add a bit to let you know there's more coming. I've been having a lot of great battling with this set-up, and I'll be showing other variations on how you can approach it.

Closing remarks With my previous movie having been on Legendary, I initially tried out this Ghost squad set-up idea on that difficulty, and had even started assembling a movie for it, using my set-up footage. But then when I actually tried the Ghost squad battling, it turned out to be too hard. The Marines usually got wiped out pretty fast, and it was hard even for me to survive. So I started over using Heroic, and this time things were okay.

Note: as with the first ground battle in general, a checkpoint is triggered part way up the battlefield. But often it gets delayed until later because of the ongoing combat and enemy threat. This is the checkpoint you see at the end of each battle here.

I've called it a 'Ghost squad set-up', but really the only notable Ghosty thing about it is that I've got my own Ghost handy. The set-up could of course be used for other types of battle; and especially with that Banshee handy too!

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