9: Hidden Threats

Although things seem quiet enough, as you wait for your recycler to deploy itself and Wyndex prepares to go out on what sounds like a routine mission, don't be lulled into taking a casual approach to this mission.  You'll actually need to hit the ground running, once again.  Build your two scavs, placing one on the nearest well, while the other starts gathering scrap.  Your goal is to start generating turrets, quickly.  I don't stop until I have 10.  You'll need to intersperse some scav building and deployment as you go a long.  Why all the hurry?  Look who's coming to investigate your new base.

And, that was just the welcome wagon.

Once I have 10 turrets to keep my recycler safe, I move on to putting up some gun towers and building out my base.  Obviously, you'll need some service trucks, and an armory will let you upgrade your turrets with heavy chain guns.  You'll need these upgraded turrets to secure your nearby number two well, since you can't really cover it with gun towers and it is along a very popular approach path to your base.

In addition to your frequent Krull and Triton guests ...

you should expect some of their heavy weight cousins to drop by, also.

I go ahead and secure my base as much as I can before I head out to investigate the enemy base, as you'll be required to do.  Although the two nearest wells are all you'll need to get your base built up, you can use your trip to investigate the enemy base to also locate some other wells on the map.  There are two south of your base, roughly along the western edge of the map, which can be occupied fairly easily.  So, I go ahead and take a couple of scavs along with me for this purpose.  I also like to use the canyon that runs from that well located near the middle of the western edge of the map to the center of the map as my path for moving units out of my base into more forward positions, since it bypasses the incoming Cerberi forces.

There are a couple of other wells, but they will be much harder to occupy.  The one near the middle northern edge of the map is on a Cerberi attack path, so I do little more than sweep the Cerberi Drainer off of it from time to time.  The other is near the middle of the map, and I wait until I'm ready to make a major occupation of that point on the map before I worry about it very much.  But, I'm getting ahead of things, now.  First, you have to go investigate the Cerberi base.  There are a couple of back door positions where you can get a good look at what is going on.

Although you might be able to use these back doors to take out the Cerberi base, or at least cripple it, it seems like it would be more fun to allow the Cerberi to throw their full weight against you for as long as they can.

So, after I've occupied the two additional bio-metal pools and investigated the Cerberi base, it's time to build up a fairly large force in order to go occupy the center pool.  This will attract plenty of Cerberi attention.

Once I feel like I have a fairly solid grasp of the center, I start working on taking away all the wells from the Cerberi, including the 4 wells that are almost a part of their base.  There is a back route leading to these four pools, but it is rather hard to get your tracked vehicles back there.  And the Cerberi will counter attack against incursions into this area pretty vigorously.  I know, because I tried it.  ;-)

It's easier, and I've had better luck simply bringing in some turrets to cover this area, though I've found it best to make a few initial forays by myself, drawing the enemy into chasing me back to the gun towers at the center.

While the turrets keep the Cerberi off those wells, at least for a while, I'm moving a large force into position for a frontal attack against the Cerberi base.  Actually, I will move to the perimeter of the base and knock down most of the towers with mortars, and retreat back to the cover of my units, as needed.

Or, for a little variety, try using a hornet equipped rocket tank.

It's a bit more of a challenge to fight off the Krull counter-attacks, though.

After softening things up enough, you can go ahead and send in a squad of sabers to finish off any remaining gun towers and the Cerberi factory.

Before you celebrate your occupation of the Cerberi base and go on to destroy the remainder of their structures, keep in mind that "it ain't over until you hear the fat lady sing."

Back to FE Walkthroughs.

On to the Next Mission.