In the previous chapter, we encountered Olaf’s secret weapon: medium tanks! Nell said she’d try to get some for us too, but Olaf seems confident we won’t get any. How can we deal with Olaf’s medium tanks without any of our own?
Air units are generally very powerful. They are also very fast and ignore terrain, making them versatile enough to let you hit the enemy where they least expect it.
THE BRIEFING
Orange Star has hit a snag in its Md tank development program. On the other hand, Blue Moon seems to have more than enough tanks… I think it’s safe to assume that they have mass production capabilities. I pulled some strings and had some B copters and T copters sent down from the front lines, but that doesn’t give you all that much more firepower.
Actually, I’m quite happy with the B copters! T copters are situational, but they’ll be very useful in the upcoming battle too. On the other hand, I suggest looking into how Olaf knows we won’t have any Md tanks ready to use.
Nevertheless, let’s make good use of them. I’ll give you more details once we reach the staging area. Let’s move out!
Day 1
I’m not sure about that one based on what I’ve seen so far.
Look at the units he’s deployed. He’s always one step ahead of us.
Geez, I wonder why.
That’s not too bad — I’m more worried about something else.
Yep… That’s four medium tanks, costing 64,000G in total. Wowie!
A frontal attack would be reckless. As always, we need to defeat all enemy units or Capture their HQ. But, looking at all of Olaf’s units, I think we have only one true option.
Well, if we care about our rank, yes, that’s the only option. If we don’t, I’m sure we can manage to defeat all the enemy units. For now, though, let’s go with the capture route.
Ahhh… back to the good old Nell who is always bossing me around.
But infantry units can’t cross the sea. It might be possible to march there, but with all of those enemies…
Wait, what is sea, you ask? Good timing — let’s talk about the sea.
INTEL — SEA
Sea is a type of terrain that is accessible only to naval and aerial units! It provides no defense bonuses to either type of unit, though. On many maps, sea forms choke points for land units. It is also not uncommon to see land completely separated by sea. When this happens, naval support becomes quite important. We’ll talk about naval units when they are introduced. For now, just know that sea functions like road terrain for naval and aerial units.
I mean, we just used an APC a bunch of times in the previous chapter.
But, also like APCs, they have no weapons and can’t fire. OK, go ahead and load a unit onto your transport copter.
Well, there’s one difference: T copters can’t resupply other units. Here’s some additional Intel about T copters.
INTEL — TRANSPORT COPTER
Transport copters, also known as T copters, cost the same as APCs: 5,000G. They trade the ability to resupply units for the ability to move over any terrain at a movement cost of 1. They’re also aerial units, so they’re generally harder to destroy than APCs. This makes T copters better at transporting infantry and mechs. They also attract enemy fire, similar to APCs. So why build an APC instead of a T copter? For one, T copters can only be built at an airport, and one isn’t always available. For another, APCs can resupply. While resupply isn’t always necessary, it can be critical to the success of a mission. Finally, air units use much more fuel: they consume fuel simply by being alive, and they’ll be destroyed if they run out of fuel. So T copters have their own limitations. Know what you need and build the right transport.
Anyway, let’s load the infantry into the T copter now.
I don’t know… The sea?
That’s right! Transport copters can move over sea. Plus, the movement cost is the same across all terrain types.
Woooo! What’s my prize for the correct answer?
Ignored again. I figured as much. Let’s just move on.
I mean, the other two tiles adjacent to the T copter are sea tiles. I don’t imagine drowning our own infantry squad would be a good thing.
Infantry can’t move on the ocean.
What? You just called it sea earlier, and it’s clearly sea in the Intel. Sea and ocean are not the same!
You can only drop infantry on terrain they can move across. Don’t forget that. You should check to see on which terrain you can Drop infantry. You remember how to check terrain… right?
Yeah. I just did it a minute ago.
Move the cursor onto the terrain, and press the R Button to check it. Give it a try.
Are you listening to me? I said I just did it!
Select it!
So bossy!
This means terrain doesn’t affect its movement range. Air units aren’t affected by terrain bonuses, either. Which makes sense, since they’re always flying. As for attack power, well… you should check it out for yourself.
Test your B copter! Fire!!!
Exclamation marks!!!
On average, B copters deal 49% damage to tanks here. So we got lucky!
Battle copters are even effective versus tanks! Plus, with their superior movement capabilities, they’re easy to deploy.
Actually, B copters only have a movement range of 6, which is the same as a tank’s. They’re just less restricted by terrain. Anyway, let’s take a closer look at their details.
INTEL — BATTLE COPTER
Battle Copters, or B Copters, cost 9,000G. They’re the aerial equivalent of tanks, and they deal similar damage against most targets. So why does a B Copter cost 2,000G more than a tank? Well, B Copters are usually considered tank counters. This is because tanks lose against B Copters in a fight and because B Copters have a movement advantage. In most cases, a B Copter can get the first hit against a tank and flank the enemy from the side or behind to break the enemy line. B Copters, tanks, and Anti-Airs (a unit we’ll see in the future) form one of the most recognizable rock-paper-scissors matchups in the game.
Now, let me tell you a little more about your new copter units. As you know, they’re both air units. All the other units you’ve used up to this point have been ground units. Since air units are always flying, they use fuel every day. Battle and transport copters use two fuel units per day. Don’t worry about remembering that exact number, though. Just keep in mind that they burn fuel every day.
That’s true, and it’s quite important. You typically don’t need to worry about this fuel cost. If you see the gas can icon appear, send them back to an airport or use an APC to resupply them. In most cases, though, you can finish the mission before that happens. If they do run out of fuel… let’s just say it’s not pretty.
Now you know all you need to know about these new units, right? I’m leaving the rest up to you. Do you want some strategic advice?
Yeah, yeah, keep that advice coming.
All we have that can go toe-to-toe with them are our Battle copters. So, play it safe, and keep them out of attack range until necessary. Other than that, don’t forget to Capture the enemy HQ tomorrow. I’m sure Olaf hasn’t considered the possibility that it could be Captured early on! Good luck!
Thanks. Artillery is also effective against medium tanks, as Nell mentioned, but this mission is really simple if we go with the capture route!
STRATEGY — OPERATION SHADOW CROWN
We’ve already landed our infantry by Olaf’s HQ, so our primary objective is simply to buy time until the infantry captures the HQ.
The operation this time is straightforward. We’ll pull back our forces toward our HQ. There’s a perfect choke point where we can set up our defense. We’ll hold off Olaf’s forces until our infantry captures the HQ.
We also need to set up some kind of defense at Olaf’s HQ to prevent his medium tank from reaching and destroying our infantry.
Our main threat is Olaf’s B Copter, since it can maneuver around our defenses. We’ll have to intercept it with our own B Copter.
Let’s pull back our forces to the choke point. We’ll set up a defense there and hold off Olaf’s forces until our infantry captures the HQ. Note that we’re pulling back our mech from the city and replacing it with infantry because we want to preserve the mech from enemy attacks.
We’ve set up our defense. Let’s brace for Olaf’s onslaught.
Enemy Day 1
I see Nell hasn’t deployed any medium tanks!
You would know, huh?
Go, my troops! This time nothing can stand in the way of our victory!
I’ll give Olaf some credit. That’s actually our weakest point because it can be attacked from two different directions. Luckily, we already weakened the second tank with my B Copter, so we didn’t lose the infantry.
That’s pretty much it, though. Olaf mostly just moved the rest of his forces forward. He also sent two medium tanks toward the HQ as expected, but unfortunately for him, they won’t intercept in time. The first-turn advantage is working in our favor here.
Day 2
It looks like none of Olaf’s units can reach our infantry that’s capturing the HQ, so we’re good there. We can just pull back our forces to minimize our losses.
We can fill the gap left by the infantry with our mech. We can also weaken the enemy tank with our artillery.
Finally, let’s not forget to capture the HQ. We can just leave the infantry there and let them do their thing.
With that, we’re ready to end our day. Olaf can’t avoid defeat now.
Enemy Day 2
As expected, Olaf advanced all his forces, but he couldn’t reach our infantry that’s capturing the HQ. Medium tanks still hurt, though!
Day 3
Let’s end this.
…of his units.
You don’t say…
It doesn’t matter how good your units are if you don’t know how to use them. Anyway, let me tell you a little more about those new air units. Even if you land them on allied cities and HQs, they won’t recover HP or be supplied with fuel or ammunition. You haven’t seen one yet, but you can only resupply air units at airports.
Airports, you say? I know what they are. Everybody knows what they are!
If they run low on fuel or ammo, you can resupply them with an APC, just like land units. Now, keep up the good work!
To be honest, I’m kind of curious how an APC resupplies air units. I mean, they’re flying, and an APC is a ground unit. How does that work?
My HQ has been stormed! Nell, you troublesome little… You saw that you couldn’t survive a frontal assault, so you pulled this out of your hat!
Survive a frontal assault, you say?
Grrr… This isn’t over yet!
Indeed it isn’t.
RESULTS
It was one of the shorter missions, but we learned that it’s not always about having the best units. Sometimes, it’s about using what you have to your advantage.
Next time… wait, Copter Tactics again? Olaf claims we can’t survive his frontal assault, so I’ll prove him wrong. One thing is for sure: this isn’t over yet. It’s time for a rematch!
LOADING TRANSMISSIONS…