On Thin Ice (Mission 11 single player)

[Bull Dog]

Well here is exactly what I did.

Once the recycler reached the "Drop Point" nav I told it to deploy.  Then I raced over to where the "Third" scrap pool is.  Theres a turret garding it.  well just back from that aera there should be a couple of Sentries and a Warrior.  I sniped the Warrior, then roared over in my tank and force hopped in to empty warrior.  The two sentries sould not be much of a problem once you get in the warrior.  Some time in here tell the recy to produce a scav and tell it is scavenge.

As soon as a get the warrior I will tell the recy to produce the second scavenger.  And as a cruise back in my stolen biometal I'll tell scav #2 to deploy on the scrap pool.  Then I will produce a third scav and then tell it go to the next pool.

About this time you'll get a message saying that the dropships have sighted the landing zone.  You should have enough scrap to produce a turret by this time.  The enemy forces should be popping up on radar about now.  When I did it I would get about 4 warriors, 3 scouts, 3 sentries, and 1 or two lancers.

Not very encouraging when all you have Is a scout two turrents and your self in a warrior.  What I did was snipe a lancer then I beat it back to my warrior.  Pick off the scouts first they do as much damage as the warriors and they go faster.  I then fought until I hit 25% health where I changed to the sniped lancer and used it to clean up the rest of the attack force.

Remember again to save the game once the recy in almost to the drop point nav.  Saves having lead the dumbo through the ice over and over again.

[Dirty Rooster]

At the moment it seems that 'spare' units which are lurking
on a mission map are sent to attack stuff right at the
start of the mission.
This means that sometime near the mission beginning you are swamped
with enemy units. It makes not much difference for most missions
because they don't have a lot of units already waiting, but for
thin-ice and crystals? it is a bad effect of 1.3

In 1.2 those starting units were controlled correctly by mission Dll
and appeared at the right times.

I expect this bug will be fixed sometime in the future, but for now
I play thin-ice on easy or medium.

I get the first turret up on the pod-spawn, pump pods and fight the
evil hordes in my tank, not scout since it is usually dead by then.
When I get a chance I make 3 or 4 more turrets round the corner
and spread out from the rec. When the first rushes are over the
rest of the mission is a relaxed anticlimax.

[Jwk the Hemp Monkey]

Was i one of the few ones who

A) did not spend ages guiding the rec...cause i just blew up all the ice with charges from my pack

B) had a second 'rear' pool way back in the opposite direction of where the rec was going (relative to the ice...well...where the ice *was*)

[technoid]

I played this mission again, but this time with the public beta version and on Hard level.  I got tons of ships coming at me after I built some turrets, but nothing really about overkill.   I did snipe and mortar 3-4 ships waiting for their first wave assault, so maybe that helped.  Eventually I got all 8 pools (just cuz I'm greedy) and won the game at Dust Off.  Maybe your builds are messed up to make the Idle Dispatcher too mean.

[stinky]

I played this mission a few times - under 1.0, 1.2 and 1.3. Playing 1.3 in Medium difficulty didn't seem to trouble me as I was guiding the rec across the ice. I was attacked by the odd warrior and a few pairs of sentries, nothing too serious, just told the turret to hold as soon as I saw enemies on radar, used myself as bait to lure them close to the turret. After deploying the rec, I did get rushes as described earlier, I couldn't manage so I did a bzfree and threw up 5 GTs.

I was always wondering what that starting scout was suggesting about the drop ship being a dead give away.....haha I never did anything about it, just drove off in my tank. Had not a clue as to why the heck I had a satchel charge  

[MowerMan]

Well,  I can probably change the "timing" of the mission.  Like all the other SP missions, I played this one something over 50 times.  I don't have to blow any ice to guide the recycler over the ice.  First time I tried it in 1.3, I almost made some headway, but the last time it was just impossible for even "hard" setting.  I'm sure others are not seeing what I'm seeing, so "playing tips" are hardly necessary.  I may have to start the mission over.

On a related note (I surmise), on the prior mission "Snow Blind", I was getting a constant supply of Warriors attacking my base, at a rate they have never come in the past.  They weren't too hard to deal with, execpt that when the tunnel collapsed, they kept coming and were just getting stuck on the side of the hill.  Probably had 50 Warriors or so trying to get over the hill.

[technoid]

On Snow Blind, I stuck turrets and gt's at the choke point, i.e. the tunnel (plenty of green build squares at the entrance).  That kept them at bay, while I took the rest of the pools on my side of the tunnel.  Every type of Scion unit came through (even Titans I think).  I had a couple of trt's for archers.  I guess I'll have to test that one again, but on 1.3pb. I've tested all s/p in earlier 1.3 builds.

As for On Thin Ice, I suppose if you or anyone gets the overkill again, a screenshot of the attack numbers would be best so we can all compare notes.

Also, I just played Counterattack on 1.3pb.  I've always liked this mission, as it's fun to scurry around at the beginning trying to establish order (and power).  Keeping 4 pools up is the best thing if you want to build higher in the isdf techtree, since you don't get a Recycler.

[Jwk the Hemp Monkey]

I wish there were some MP maps where neither team has a rec, just two forts with two or 3 service trucks, a square of 4 upgraded pools, a ring of walls, and a factory... + a few prayers.

[MowerMan]

I had no problem with the warriors on Snow Blind, I was just saying that once the tunnel colapsed, they were just building up on the side of the hill (like 50 of them).

[PhoeniX-FlamE]

nope at hemp

i lured the big ice rhino to break the ice for me... and the 1st time i played i just pushed the rec over the hills

[Avatar]

"1.3 Thin Ice"
I just tried it three times on Medium.  The first time I tried for a GT in base and was swarmed before I could get it up.  The second time I pulled a few more tricks and got a GT up, but by then the swarm took down the PS and I was toast.  The third time was the charm...

Blow the Transport before the Scout even starts talking and head straight for the Recy.  Send the turret to the Nav then guide the Recy through the ice any way you want.  The Turret will at the very least severely damage the Warrior/Sentry coming at you first.

As you approach the Nav tell the Recy to overshoot it to where you want to deploy.  I chose right next to the near Pool.  It'll play the voiceover and change your Orders as the Recy cruises up to the deploy point.  Deploy it and make three Scavs.  First goes to near pool, second picks up loose scrap, third goes to far pool. (don't argue 'order' here, do it any way you like).   Send the Transport back to the icicles by the Nav.

Crank out Turrets.  Nothing but Turrets.  Ring the Recy with them, heavy towards the next pool.  I had eight before the swarm hit.  Took them out nicely with me distracting/tossing mortors.  A few pods don't hurt.  After that you have tons of scrap, especially once you take the third pool as there's two spawning Guardians that keep throwing themselves at your Defenses.  Grab the back pool and you're ridiculously set to take down everything on the map IF you want to.  I rolled into the AI base with a ton of TRT's and had a whole army follow the Transport to the dust off point.

As someone said, once the swarm is handled it's pretty dull.

-Av-

[technoid]

Well, I don't understand how many units a "swarm" would consist of and I don't comprehend where everyone is having a hard time on this.  I played this once on Hard (1.3pb), killed the down dropship and headed straight for the Rec.  When I was going through the ice, I was intercepted by 1 warrior and 2 sentries. My turret helped, until it got blown up. He was in the middle of the ice field. I killed the rest of them.  As I deployed my Rec, I got 3 scavs up (2 for pools and one to suck up the loose) and then built 4-5 turrets, all in a defensive fenceline.  The 1st swarm came and from my count (I was too busy helping out, hehe) it was probably 7 or so units (drones, sentries, warriors and lancers).  Before that, I mortared 2-3 units, which I said before.  From there I built my first GT at the choke point (between the 2 hills).  After that, I built 2 more GT's at the same place and they didn't stand a chance after that.  From there, it's anticlimatic as said.  You can take all 8 pools if ya like. What I haven't done, is not kill the downed dropship.  I don't think I'd want to see what happens, hehe.

[MowerMan]

The way missions will play out in BZ2 is almost random.  Like I said, I could probably start the mission over and change the "timing".   The last time I tried is was just ridiculous how many units came in as soon as I got my recycler planted,  It would be discouraging to someone just playing BZ2 for the first time.

[Avatar]

Sometimes that's a 'feature', and sometimes it's a 'bug'...  Either way it's part of BZ's charm and is a carryover from BZ1.



LOL Mower, I still love being turret-rushed in "ThoIWalk".  Turns me purple every time...  

-Av-

[technoid]

Well, since it's a fun mission, I guess it can't hurt to try it again several more times until I either see this random pattern or my eyes bleed.