Mission Twenty-Five: Circle of Fire

Objective: You must destroy all enemy units within 18 days to win. You can do it!
CO: Choice of two
Enemy CO: Koal and Kanbe

This is another two-front battle, albeit one that's not quite as horrific as the ones you've faced before. You're going to be facing Koal on the bottom screen, who has a small army of units at his beck and call, and a clone of Kanbei on the top screen. Kanbei's special ability greatly increases the firepower of his units, although it does make them more expensive to produce; since he begins with a troop of helicopters and a neotank, though, and doesn't have a base, this isn't going to be much of a drawback to him.

You'll have a mission timer here, but it's set to count down from 18 days instead of counting up to some undefined number. So at least you'll know what you need to do! Luckily, though, you should be able to handle the upper screen fairly easily, especially if you send all of your anti-air units up there on your first turn.

Your Orange Star primary CO should definitely be Grit, since you have so many indirect fire units on the bottom screen. On the secondary screen, Eagle will be a good choice. He'll boost the helicopters a bit, but will also have a completely insane CO Power to tag up with after you polish off the top screen. Kanbei's real threat is the neotank that he has in his possession, which will be difficult to take out with the units that you're given. It can be done, though, with a little planning.

Bottom Screen Strategies

Your goal on the bottom screen should be to capture as many properties as possible as soon as possible. The enemy army in the northeastern corner of the screen is going to start flooding around the central island towards your base, whereas the troops around the volcano are pretty much stuck there. So long as you stay away from the artillery inside the mountain rings, you should be ok. Make sure you capture the two com towers on the central island; you can start capturing one on the first turn, and you should have both of them in your control by day three. The northeastern tower should be locked down by just leaving the infantry that captures it on top of it, lest an enemy infantry crosses the river and tries to wrest control of it.

On your first Orange Star turn, send your helicopters, anti-air, and your missiles up to the top screen. You can probably send the rockets as well, since it's unlikely to ever reach the front lines, even if you move it every turn. Use your APC on the island to load up a mech and send it east; you'll want to unload the mech near the airport there and eventually capture it. If you don't get started on that path on your first turn, a neotank will reach it before you can do so. The APC in your base to the southeast should be loaded with an infantry and immediately sent north to the base. Your other mechs and infantry should start working on the other cities in the area and the two com towers on the central island; if you have mechs without a clear purpose on the island, start them towards the missile silos or march them to the north or eastern rivers, parking them in the corners of the river where they'll be able to fire on anything that comes along, but not so that they can be shot by the tanks as they approach.

If you can prevent the enemy forces from leaving the northeastern corner of the scree, it'll be that much easier to mop them up with the powerful units that you can build later on.

Your indirect fire units should likewise move towards the east and the northern roads, where the edges of the screen are only one space wide, so that they can fire away at units as they attempt to head towards your HQ. Since Grit allows them to fire over a wider area, they should be spoilt for choice when it comes to targets. We usually went for the big boys first, such as the neotanks and the megatank; the weaker units can be picked off later in the game when you capture the base and the airport and begin building bombers. (Likewise, use the missile silos to pound the megatank and the neotanks if possible.)

If you can, though, try to hit a couple of the neotanks near the volcano with your rockets; they'll park themselves on top of the cities there for repairs, which will cause a big drain on Black Hole's resources. Unfortunately you only have one APC to work with on resupplies for ammo, and it itself can't be refuelled when it runs down, so you'll probably want to try and work your indirect units towards the northeastern corner of the island after you've beaten back the vanguard when you can so that you can resupply multiple units at once without having to move around a lot.

When you capture the base and the airport, you should have a good amount of money in the bank. We preferred to build a megatank at the base, followed closely by the APC, to start working its way around to the enemy base, while a couple of bombers head into the central area to start cleaning house. You may find it difficult to move your megatank along the northern passage, where the lava keeps landing, but if you're almost done on the upper screen then you'll probably be doing ok. The lava does land in the same spot every turn, though, so if you can spot where it lands you should be able to avoid it.