Verdant Hills. Textbook opening map — a handful of cities, one factory, and an enemy CO who apparently skipped the chapter on defensive positioning. Reena had marked up the briefing screen before I’d even loaded the save file.
THE BRIEFING
The objective was straightforward: capture the enemy HQ within ten days. I had four infantry units, two tanks, and Reena’s complete tactical breakdown rendered in three different colours of dry-erase marker.
Infantry goes northwest first. Two cities in three turns if you skip the forest detour. Do not take the forest detour.
What if the forest detour is more interesting?
The forest detour adds two days and costs you the factory. There is nothing interesting about losing the factory on mission one.
TURN THREE
I took the forest detour.
In my defence, there was an anti-air unit hiding in it that would have ambushed my tanks on turn four. In Reena’s defence, she predicted this and had accounted for it in the non-forest route. Neither of us felt great about the outcome.
Okay the anti-air was a problem I handled proactively.
You lost an infantry unit.
I handled it at a cost.
THE FACTORY
Capturing the factory on turn five turned the whole map around. Two extra medium tanks rolling out by turn seven meant the enemy CO had a very bad time from the midgame onward.
“The factory is always the answer.” — Reena, who said this before the map started and was correct.
[MISSION 01 COMPLETE — S-RANK — DAY 8 — 1 UNIT LOST]
Reena updated the dry-erase board to add a note about the forest detour under the heading: Things That Worked Out Despite Being Wrong. It is a running list. It has three entries now.
LOADING TRANSMISSIONS…