"Bitchin' Bengalaas!"
-~CattleBruiser~
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| Shake, Rattle & Roll | | | Author: | | | IP: | 24.67.14XXXX | | Date: | 06/14/00 03:06 | | Game Type: | Other | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 9, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for Fractal_Wave: 8.2537 |   |
Wow. I am very, very impressed. I just played 8 minutes of utter total & complete carnage. Fun, fun fun.
If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, I'm talking about a game called Ground Control, from Massive Entertainment (www.massive.se) and Sierra Studios. I literally just got off a game, (my 1st real multi-player game), and now I'm going to tell you all about it.
So sit back children, and enjoy the show.
 Ground Control is played on WON, (World Opponent Network), which is Sierra's answer to battle.net. I join a game called "PLAYHARD", and meet a gent named "sadenton". After I offer the usual greetings he starts with nary a word. Rude blighter. We'll have to teach him some manners, what?
 THE GAME: Is on a map called "War Torn Wastes". It's 3400 meters square, and I patently refuse to convert to you crazy Americans who still use the utterly bizzare "Imperial" system. Funny how you still use the system of the country you rebelled against...
Anyways.
War Torn Wastes is a desert map, fairly flat, with rolling hills and a few mesas & cliffs here and there. As it turned out, I wouldn't have time to use them.
We are playing with Normal Damage, Non-Vital APC, no friendly fire(wuss), a 20-mintues time limit, reinforcements every 5 minutes, a score limit of 250, and a tech level of 6.
Translation: Your own guns don't hurt. After 20, the highest score wins, every 5 minutes you can drop in more units, 1st to 250 points wins, and all units are avaliable. (tech level is out of 6).
Ground Control is done with Squads, not with individual units. You can mix & match units, and customize squads too. For this mission i go with the following:
Squad 0: Command APC(Armored Personell Carrier)
-This thing is my life's blood. It can carry infantry, moves at a fairly fast clip, and, most importantly, auto-heals any unit its near. Mix a medic and an SCV, and give it a female, british voice, and you've got a Command APC. In single player, if your APC dies, so do you. That option is avaliable in multi-player, but we're going with a non-vital APC this game.
Squad 1: Vanguards: Marine Infantry
-The Vanguards are a squad of 8 marines, each with a really weak automatic rifle, but they can hit both ground & air. These bad boys are equipped with a Field Medical Kit for their special equipment, and Anti-Tank Rockets for their special weapons. They've got 3 charges of each.
Squad 2: RipperJacks: Jaeger Infantry
-The Ripperjacks are a squad of 4 Jaegers, the Ground Control equivilent of a ghost. Although they're not cloaked, they can be very hard to see, especially when all hell is breaking loose(and that happens a LOT). They carry high-powered sniper rifles, and have a really impressive range. This particular squad has a single charge of 140 mm Rifle Attached Warheads, especially good at removing infantry. They also carry 3 demolition charges, capable of taking down a building. (or a slow tank. :+)
Squad 3: Unsung Heros: Main Battle Terradyne
-A squad of four main battle tanks, the Unsung Heros pack a strong punch with their cannons, and move at a decent clip. They cannot, alas, attack air targets. They've got two deployable repair stations, and one shot with a Advanced HE round. HE == High Explosive == Things go very, very boom.
Squad 4: Survivors: Heavy Terradyne
-Although they are very slow, these four tanks do more damage than the proverbial bull in the proverbial china shop. And their armor is harder than...~ahem~, well, yes. VERY hard. They've got three automated repair kits, and two Advanced HE rounds. They're are great for spearheading assaults, and generally seperating enemy terradynes in to their component parts.
Squad 5: Green Berets: Artillery Terradyne
-Take a single seige tank. Make it slow like mollasses. Make it hurt way the hell more. Make its aim realistic (IE: unaccurate as hell). Give it a single Tactical Nuke. Give it three automated repair kits. This is my artillery tank. Hours & hours of by-your-self entertainment.
Squad 6: Iron Clads: Anti-Air Terradyne
-Four tanks with lots of very, very fast guns. Knocks things right out of the air. A shame they can't touch anything on the ground. Carrying 3 automated repair kits.
Squad 7: Eagle Claws: Fighter Aerodyne
-Three aeroplanes desinged to blast bad smelly evil planes out of the air. Can peck away at things on the ground, but are bascially worthless for Air-To-Ground (worse than the Wraith.)
Squad 8: Brutal Deluxe: Attack Aerodyne
-Four planes that fire Air-to-Ground Torpedos. Crushes enemy tanks like overripe tomatoes. Dies really, really, really, realllly damn fast to fighter planes and concentrated Anti-Air.
Shake
In Ground Control you get your troops on to the planet via dropships. My drop zone for this game is at about 11:00 on the map. I land both dropships at once, look around, and order both my fighter and attack aerodynes south-east to scout. I've barely even sent them on their way when they come under heavy attack. Hm. Seems like we'll be rockin' kinda fast here. My attack aerodynes have already lost one of their number. What the heck.  I pull my planes back, think for a split second, then send the planes back to scout further. I notice a simply glorious sight. A green drop ship is lifting off. Seems sadenton has dropped right beside me.
Where's my tac nuke when I need it. Hey, wait a sec. I brought one of those. O lucky man, O happy day. I switch to my artillery terradyne, hit 'W' for Special Weapon, aim it at about where the dropships dropped, and fire. The nuke goes woosh-ing merrily through the air, and lands with an immensely satisfying explosion, killing a few tanks, and weakening all of sadenton's forces.
 Meanwhile, i get my artillery terradyne laying down suppresive fire, move my main battle tanks, marines and Jaegers out to the east.  This proves to be a damn good call, as a barrage of artillery fire lands on top of my A-A and artillery squads, reducing two anti-air terradynes to smouldering piles of rubble. This is rather worrysome. I select my Jaegers, spot the enemy artillary terradyne and unload my RAW in to it. I'm firing right into the damn thing's armor, so I don't do nearly as much damage as I'd like.
Rattle
Here, everything sorta becomes a blur. Explosions rock the battlefield, tanks go up in flames, infantry are shredded by shrapnal. I'm fighting a losing battle thank to that damn artillery he's got. His heavy terradynes took out my own artillery, and both our planes are long gone. I send a HE round into his main battle tanks, reducing them to so much scrap metal. Another round of artillery fire decimates my own main battle tanks, and in retaliation I direct a barrage of Anti-Tank rockets from my marines at his artillary tank, and finally blow the damnd thing up. I note that my Jaegers got killed somewhere during all this, and my marinesare being shota tby his four light tanks. However, this gives my 2 remaining heavy terradynes time enough to send one Advanced HE round into the aforesaid light tanks, blowing two of them to kingdom come. For some stupid reason, his one heavy tanks is pounding away at my last anti-air terradyne. Which is stupid, because all of our air is dead. Ah well...no skin off my back.
And Roll
To sum up:
Me: I have my Command APC, eight marines, two heavy terradynes, two fighter aerodynes, and one single Anti-Air terradyne.
Him: sadenton has a Command APC, two light terradyne, and a single heavy terradyne.
I don't have a clue how on earth I came out of that firefight ahead, but it seems that I did. Realizing that his damn command APC will be healing his troops unless I get rid of it, I get rid of it. A 2nd barrage of Anti-Tank rockets from my marines abuses the green APC, but doesn't kill it. It also gets all of his troops blasting away at my marines. By the time they make it back to the cover of my heavy terradynes, only two of them are left. Curses. However, my tanks took out one of his light terradynes. Good stuff.
But, that APC is still alive. I am not pleased by this turn of events. I spin my heavy terradynes around and unload with my last HE round the two, and finally send that blighter to the pit from whence he came. Bloody marrvelous
From here on in, it's basically a forgone conclusion. My troops are being healed, and his arn't. For some twisted reason, his last heavy tank persists in trying to kill my anti-air terradyne. "sadenton finally clues to the fact that the two tanks that are throwing shells at his last tank should be deal with before the tank that;s not doing anything.
But, he's tooo late. I move my marines out to flank him, just to be aggravating, and soon enough, his final tank goes up, and he disconnects.
Let there be Rock.
Lessons
1.) This a wonderfully fun and devillishly fast game.
2.) Artillery support is so damn key. sad's better aim with his Artillery alone did most of the damage to my troops.
3.) Flanking is just as key, along with spreading your troops out. Especially when friendly fire comes in to play.
4.) Don't use anti-infantry weapons on a tank. ~slaps self~
5.) Keep on rockin.
All the best,
Fractal_Wave
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