Mission 26: Sunrise

Caulder has taken refuge in his super-awesome facility and threatens to destroy you! Destroy you utterly!

You have a lot of stuff to manage here, including the fact that Caulder will eventually load himself up into a ship and become virtually unkillable. His CO stats are unbelievable: he maxes out the attack and defense of any unit he's in, and also manages to regenerate five points of health per turn, even if he's not on a friendly property.

In addition, you'll have to deal with The Nest, which has five lasers in it, each of which will knock a unit down a full eight health when they hit, and mortars, which will deal five points of damage in a small explosive area. It can also generate two units per turn, every turn. The three lasers in the middle fire directly down, and you can expect them to hit your units if they get a clear shot. The two mortars will fire on the eastern and western edges of the screen. Units directly south of the two unit-production tubes are safe from mortar and laser fire, unless they get unlucky with the rotating lasers on the side of the Nest.

Luckily for you, most of the Nest's abilities are pre-set and will go off at regular times. For instance, no matter how many times you play the mission, the same units will always pop out of the Nest's construction tubes on the same turn (unless you prevent the units from moving away from the tube, which is difficult).

Note that there are plenty of unit-by-unit walkthroughs on the shared GameSpot/Gamefaqs.com messageboards. If you're having trouble with the mission, you may want to check some of those out. The following is a day-by-day walkthrough was originated by a forum poster on GameFAQs named BlackDragonHunt; for the most part, it should get you through the first five or six days before the AI starts to break away from the precise movements listed below. You will probably be required to have a bit of ingenuity after that, but the basic idea is to bog down Caulder's duster with anti-air units while bombers head north and take out the lasers. When in doubt, build more bombers!

Day One

You have three groups of units to control here. They'll meld together a bit towards the end of the map, but for now they can be described individually.

Northwest Group

Rocket: North 4
West Infantry: East 3, capture factory
East Infantry: South 1, East 2, capture Com Tower
War Tank: North 1, East 3
Anti-Air: East 5

Northwest Factory: Build Bike

Southwest Group

Md. Tank: North 3, West 2
Missiles: West 1, North 4
West Infantry: South 1, East 2, capture Airport
East Infantry: East 2, capture Factory
Fighter: East 6, North 3, just south of middle laser

Southwest Factory: Build Bike

Southeast Group

North Infantry: North 1, East 2, capture Airport
South Infantry: North 3, capture Factory
Anti-Tank: East 2, North 1, on city
War Tank: East 4
Bomber: West 1, North 6

On the enemy's first turn, the mortar will hit your southwestern missiles and mid-tank and deal five points to each of them. It'll also fire a laser strike at its own w-tank, bring it down to two points of health.

Day Two

Finish capturing all the properties you've been working on.

Northwest Group

Rocket: Attack West laser (45%)
Bike: North 3, West 2
War Tank: North 1, East 1, attack War Tank (77% - 10/2 or 9/3)

Airport: Build Bomber

Southwest Group

Bike: East 3
Southwest Factory: Build Md. Tank

Southeast Group

Anti-Tank: East 2
War Tank: East 3

Middle Group

Bomber: West 2, North 4, attack Md. Tank (99%)
Fighter: East 2, North 5, attack Fighter (57% - 8/5)

On the enemy's turn, they'll send out a few laser beam hits, including another blast originating on its w-tank near the middle of the map. That'll force them to consolidate their w-tanks a bit. The mortar will hit your southeastern w-tank and anti-tank unit.

Day Three

Northwest Group

Rockets: Attack Laser (47% - 7 HP left)
Bike: North 1, West 1, capture City
War Tank: North 2, East 1, attack missiles (162%)
Anti-Air: West 1, North 1
North Infantry: North 1, capture City
South Infantry: East 1, capture Airport
Bomber: North 6, East 1

East Factory (just south of the Infantry): Build Anti-Air

Southwest Group

Bike: East 3, capture City
North Infantry: North 1, East 1, capture City
South Infantry: North 2, capture Com Tower
5 hp Md. Tank: West 1
Md. Tank: North 1
Missiles: West 1

Southwest Factory: Build Md. Tank

Middle Group

Bomber: North 2, attack Midwest Laser (82%)
Fighter: Attack Fighter (28%)

Southeast Group

West Infantry: South 1, East 1, capture City
East Infantry: South 2, capture Com Tower
Anti-Tank: East 2, onto City
War Tank: East 2, onto Factory

Southeast Factory: Build Anti-Air

On the enemy's turn, their w-tanks will all consolidate to a single unit with eight health.

Day Four

Finish all active captures.

Northwest Group

Rockets: Destroy west Laser (47%)
Bomber: South 2, East 5, attack Tank (120%)
War Tank: South 1, East 2, attack War Tank (75% - try to destroy it if you can)
2 HP Anti-air: West 1, North 4, attack Artillery (10%)
10 HP Anti-air: East 3, North 3

Southwest Group

Factory Tank: West 1

Southwest Factory: Build Md. Tank

Southeast Group

Anti-Air: North 1, East 1, attack Battle Copter (115%)
Factory: Build Anti-Air

Middle Group

Bomber: Destroy Midwest Laser
Fighter: Attack Battle Copter (60%)

Day Five

Northwest Group

Capture stuff with your infantry
Rockets: East 3
2 HP Anti-Air: Attack Artillery (10%)
Bomber: East 3, North 2, attack Middle Laser (86%)

Southwest Group

Factory Tank: South 1
Southwest Factory: Build Md. Tank

Southeast Group

Anti-Air: Attack Battle Copter (37%)
Artillery: East 2
Factory: Build Anti-Air

Middle Group

West Bomber: East 2, attack Mideast Laser (86%)
Anti-Air: East 3, North 2, attack Duster (105%) (If this doesn't kill the Duster, your fighter may still be in the area to finish the job.)
War Tank: West 1, North 2, attack Rockets (168%)

Day Six

It's around this day that the enemy AI will begin to break, especially in the southeastern corner of the map. Keep cranking out anti-air units there, though; they'll be handy because they'll probably keep Caulder at bay in the southeast. If he approaches the northern area, where your bombers are heading for the last few lasers, then it'll probably be game over for you.

From here on in, then, you'll probably have to improvise a bit. Just keep in mind that more bombers = more winning! A bomber only needs to hit a laser beam twice to destroy it, even if it gets hit by the laser beam on its turn.

Northwest Group

2 HP Anti-Air: Attack Artillery
5 HP Rockets: Attack War Tank (24%)
Both North Airports: Build Bombers

Southeast Group

10 HP Anti-Air: North 5, attack Duster (45%)
5 HP Anti-Air: North 5, West 1, attack Duster (30%)

Middle Group

2 HP Bomber: Destroy Middle Laser
10 HP Bomber: Destroy Mideast Laser
Anti-Air: Attack Seaplane (67% - 9/3)
War Tank: Destroy War Tank

Day Seven

Northwest Group

East Airport Bomber: East 1, North 5, destroy Anti-Tank
West Airport Bomber: North 2, East 4
Keep attacking artillery

Middle Group

South Anti-Air: North to destroy Seaplane
Other Anti-Air: South 1, East 2
War Tank: East 2 (to West side of East Nest)
10 HP Bomber: South 1, East 2
2 HP Bomber: South 2, East 3

Day Eight

10 HP Bomber: Attack East Laser
East Anti-Air: Destroy Duster
South Anti-Air: Attack Fighter (87%)
West Bomber (the one that destroyed the Anti-Tank): East 6, North 1

Day Nine

East Bomber: Move away from laser (it's out of ammo)
Other Bomber: East 2, North 1, destroy East Laser