1.3 MPI Duststorm n00b

[lufty]

A friend and I play MPI about 2x a week, and since 1.3 we've had a really hard time of it, paticularly Duststorm.

I'm not certain whet we are doing wrong! We build up the base to bomber, crank out tanks and walkers, take out the middle areas Statues, and try to start working on their defence weapons, towers and such. This is the hard part it seems, as there are like 3-5 towers sitting right there on top of the hills. Eventually, we just get worn down from trying to take those towers, and loose a scrap pool or two, and it's over. This is after like 1.5 hours.
Any help would be much appreciated.

[Speedy]

Get in an MDM/vir tank and take a service truck with you. Then rain your MDMs on the towers. It'll take maybe 3 minutes to take one down and your service truck will keep your ammo up to 100% all the time. It's also a good idea to keep your VIR on at all times when doing this do that rocket tanks passing by won't hit you. Again, you can VIR and MDM at the same time and your truck will keep you up at 100%.

Get a buddy to tag along, or use MDM in assualt tanks. You can also bomb the statues.

[GreenHeart]

The Maps Created by GreenHeart were meant to harder & last longer. On average i usually see most players taking almost 1.5 - 2 hours depending on how many thugs are in game.  Anyone who is having a hard time beating those maps should use one of the recycler variant that contains the smart service trucks & maybe even the rocket towers to prevent some enemy bomber\apc\archer from coming to close to your base area. The Smart Service Trucks heal stuff around them without being told to do so(which is great so you don't have to baby sit).

[technoid]

You can also take them down with a bunch of APC's.  Ten of them usually kills one statue in 15 to 30 secs, if I remember right.  Try sneaking out a builder with you so you can eventually turtle them in. But it's been awhile since I played this map.

[lufty]

We are really losing it on this map! Has ANYONE beat this map with 2 players? Here's what we're doing:

1. Get 4 scrap pools upgraded, build up the base to bomber level, with plenty of Rocket Towers and SmartTrucks in the Home Base to defend.

2. Build lots of Walkers, Tanks, AssaultTanks, and RocketTanks. Use them to Defend the top Scrap Pools near the enemy ISDF base in preperation for an assault.

3. MDM Morter/Bomb the Statues that defend the enemy ISDF Base.

Here's where we are REALLY STUCK!

No matter what we seem to do we cant get into the base. There are Rocket Towers defending against APC or Bomber runs, and there are the Intimidators and big Towers in there as well. It seems no matter what we send in there, everything gets taken down QUICK. WHAT SHOULD WE DO? Should I set the unit level really high? Should I set some other setting in the game to help us out? I already set up TTB and Smart Trucks/CPU Scrap cheat 0/Human Scrap Cheat 3/with HUGE starting force.
Any detailed accounts of beating this map would make me and my buddy really happy. We've played this map at least 7 times now, and I'm ready to chuck BZ2 1.3 forever...I'M SO FRUSTERATED!

[lufty]

Also, is it absolutly critical to have ALL the scrap pools, besides the 2 that are in the enemy ISDF base?

[BZZERKER]

If you've got the bomber, then you should be able to easily wear down the AI base from there. Send the bomber after the rocket towers (or something relatively close) first. It will most likely get shot down but should be able to get it's bomb away before it does. This will take a few bombers to accomplish. For the other "new" stuff, I like to draw all the attention to myself by parking right in front of the base (within range of a good number of base defenses in a sabre equipped with sp-stab\chain\mdm\m-curtain. What I do is rush in to where I want to distract, then soon as I get there I drop a few M-curt's and just sit still and order the bomber to do it's thing. The only things the I've noticed can hurt you with M-curt's are rocket towers\tanks scouts and turrets(rattlers). If your playing agaist Scion I can't help you on that but imagine you would have a problem with Guardians, Sentries and Lancers or anything with Fang on it. If the AI sends something after me (usually sends a sabre), I rip into it with the chain guns as the sp-stab is a liitle slow and hard to aim through M-curt. I do this by NOT moving. Stay in your little bubble and just start shooting them and when they start to strafe around you just pivot on your mines. The mines only last 30 secs so you will have to manage your ammo and time wisely. I hope this helps you and your friend.

[almechist]

Don't forget good old SP-Sabres - lots of them! I have had better luck on the Greenheart maps with sabres. On those maps, 30 or 40, or even 50 Sabres attacking in mass seems to work better than the same amount of Hornet Tanks and/or Assault Tanks. I am not sure of the reasons for this but I believe it has to do with mobility. Note: I am talking about computer team = Scion. I haven't played enough against ISDF on those maps to recommend a winning strategy. Also note: I never use Bombers, so they are definitely not necessary to win.

[GreenHeart]

The GreenHeart Maps are not meant to be easy.  

Grab as many pools are you can right away.

Build at Least 3-6 Gun Towers infront of your base & then Service Trucks to maintain them.

Use MDM Mortar or APC on the statues near the enemy base
(Note: AI will come after any apc you make).

Build a Few Full Group Units & then launch your attack. Single Attacks usually fail to take out anything except jammers.


Tips:
To Prevent Rocket Towers from locking on your ship equip the ISDF Special ViR.

Creating a Bomber\APC\Archer will trigger Counter Attacks.

Scion Bases Usually have Jammers Setup in the AI base so you might need to destroy those first before being able to order your units to attack.

Scion Archers will get destroyed if they get to close to the isdf intimidator since they have the same range.

Assault Tanks\Walkers & a full group of service trucks are quite usefull at taking out assault towers & statues. Intimidators will slowly wear down the service trucks.

[PhoeniX-FlamE]

get urself in assult tank with 6 trucks behind

make sure it has blast... walla - u got 250 blast range and if anything come cloes double mdm it...

and when u get hit / shoot u got 6 trcucks at your back for ammo

[lufty]

Thanks greenheart! I appreciate the help...btw great friggin maps(obviously, I'm loosing my mind over them!).

Ok I got some n00b stupid questions here:

1) Can you build intimidators?

2) What's a Howitzer? Am I missing some kind of upgrade?

3) If you equip other of your vehicles (aka AI controleld ones) with VIR, do they use it? For example, can you VIR an APC?

'tanks
Lufty

[Gummo.nz]

1)  No you can't build them, but neither can the computer.  The computer starts with them but once you destroy one it cannot be replaced.  

2) A howitzer is the default weapon of the archer unit which the scion team can make.

3) I'm not sure about this.  But I can't recall ever seeing any AI unit using a special.  To equip a unit with VIR it needs a specials hard point which the APC's do not have.  In fact changing the APC setup in the factory does not make a difference at all as far as I can tell.

[GreenHeart]

The Computer won't rebuild any Assault Tower,Intimidator, or Rocket Tower.

There are 1-2 Recycler Variants that the Host can choose to build Rocket Towers to protect your base from Enemy Apc\Bombers\archers (MPI Only). Some Archers might land in places where the rocket tower can't shoot them.



Before i get a bunch of people asking:
Any 1.3 Map\Mod may use the Assault Tower, Intimidator, and Rocket Tower as long as its meant to be used with the 1.3 patch & don't cause bad assets (Changing the file names is ok).

[BZZERKER]

3hr 21mins to play this by myself with Commando rev.C recy, no human scrap cheat and lvl 3 for computer. Only took 2 turrets at start as well. I did goof around a little but not much. I'm far from being a HC vet. Keep at it and you will get it.

[PhoeniX-FlamE]

3 hours? man....

i got it around 30 mins, 1 turret all the stock stuff