The Hardest Mech Commander Mission: Operation 4 Mission 5, Part 1 of 2

All videos demonstrate gameplay at Hard difficulty.

This mission is the most difficult in the entire Mech Commander Gold series of campaigns. The reasons are many:
1. In this mission, you need to destroy every opponent. EVERY single one. Unlike most other missions, where it's possible to accomplish the mission objectives without fighting every foe. And the enemy Mechs here stick together, which means no divide-and-conquer strategies will work; you'll face the full fury of whole Mech groups attacking your forces.
2. Not only must you destroy all your opponents, they're actually trying to exit the map and escape you, and if even one escapes, you lose the mission (and have to try again!).The Cougars and Lokis in this map, being Clan Mechs, can and will run very fast to evade you. Precise timing and speedy Mechs are required to chase them down if they slip through your net, and you won't have much time to stop them.
3. You stand a good chance of losing precious Mechs and weapons (and even pilots) in achieving (1) and (2). Your foes will be firing en masse at your Mechs, focusing their power on one of your Mechs at a time. If you define a difficult mission as one where there's a significant chance of losing Mechs or components, this would definitely fit the bill.

Use of a minelayer/refit truck/long-range weapons/fuel tanks will make this mission easier. Most important is carefully shepherding the enemy along so your forces can deal with each group comfortably, as I will demonstrate in this video. Specifically, blow the bridge before the Cougars can cross it; artillery strike the Lokis/Jagermechs early on to prompt them to run up and meet your forces sooner; and leave the Catapults alone so you can deal with them last.

For the very first time in the whole campaign, I use a refit truck. As usual, I bring as many Jump-capable Mechs as possible for pilot training purposes.

The video starts with a brief display of the Battlemechs in my reserve, as well as my chosen Mechs for this mission and their pilot/weapons configuration. It's important to have far less than the maximum cap of 50 Mechs in total in your collection before each mission so as not to forfeit salvage, especially if you salvage a lot in each mission, as I do. I've been having to sell a fair number of salvaged Mechs after each mission, bringing my Resource Point total to over a staggering 600,000 at this stage of the game!

At the very beginning of the mission, my refit truck repairs the Mad-Cat W salvaged from Op3Mis6, saving me a couple of thousand Resource Points' worth in repair bills. Heh heh.

Force Group 3, comprising two light Mechs, runs over the hill to the right, revealing a bridge. Destroy the bridge, either with artillery strikes or weapons fire; otherwise all the 18 enemy Mechs will link up into two gigantic groups that will be very tough to defeat.

The Cougars will start running north once they discover the bridge is blown, up towards the bulk of your force. Meanwhile, I've advanced my other Mechs to the small base on the right side of the map, capturing the first turret control tower and the two warehouses within it. You can either block off the northern or southern exit of the base, depending on your style; either one works fine. Here, I'm happy with blocking the northern exit with my two Mad Cats and sole Masakari, whilst the other four Lights crowd in behind them.

Now the Cougars run into the wall of Mechs blocking the exit. The combined fury of my forces brings down a couple of them, but then I let my Mechs move a bit when the Cougars are too close-in, allowing the rest to run through - or try to, anyway. Dropping the lead Mech will cause the others behind it to stop short for a few seconds, and as you can see, my long-range weapons ensure none of the Cougars get away.

I have my damaged Mechs repaired by the refit truck as they all move towards the next engagement point: the long road in the forest. Force Group 3 has started withdrawing from their southern position as their radar picks up the blips of approaching enemy Mechs.

Soon the four Jagermechs come into sight, followed by the four Lokis. At video time 05:40, I drop three of the large artillery strikes on them to soften them up, concentrating on the Lokis. The strikes manage to cripple one of the Jagermechs, leaving it limping whilst its damaged compatriots now start running ahead.

When this group of seven enemies rounds the last corner in the forest path, they see my entire force of nine Battlemechs barring the way, and the battle begins. That corner is ideal for dropping your remaining artillery strikes as the enemy bunches up there, and I do just that. Soon, all seven of my opponents are down. I screen my salvage again, and am pleased to see that I managed to get three of the Lokis in addition to the Cougars, and many Clan-tech weapons.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Mech
• Commander
• Gold
• Salvage
• Walkthrough
• Showcase
• Hard

[skylineGTRfanatic]

excuse me ? how do you replay the levels and leveling your pilots at the same time im clueless about it



[Carsomyr80]

@skylineGTRfanatic Hmm? I don't replay the levels, usually. And it's not possible to replay levels+improve pilots simultaneously.

[MRMilade]

oh and whats the difference between mechcom normal and gold?? sorry hah

[Carsomyr80]

@MRMilade Extra commands, the expansion pack, and the ability to pick Hard Difficulty (which is what these vids are made on)

[MRMilade]

wow you raped those heavys on that forrest part hahah, and how were you able to get both mad cats, just repeat the levels they were on over and over till you actually got them??

[Carsomyr80]

@MRMilade I replayed the levels, but if you see my vids you'll realise I played them in such a way that it only took me a minute into each level to see if I got the Mad Cats. So the replays took me an extremely short time!

[DeJass00]

Yeap, memories. D: I wanna play this game again.

[SatsugaiKaze]

lawl

that's a lotta Cougars! XD

[fasharoony]

Ah, memories...

[a0classcriminal]

Lol. Once you destroy the bridge, this mission basically plays itself. The catapults can be blown up with the tank, the cougars simply obliterated and the forest is a deathtrap for loki/jagermech stars, just block them with your mechs until they clump up then spam airstrike.

This mission is tricky at first, but has nothing on the "capture industrial complexes and destroy all enemy forces" one (the one with a swarm of firestarters).

[cubismo85]

i did this one with 6 AC20´s and it went ok, got more casualties and the salvage wasnt great. you have GREAT salvage.

[AndyDude22]

wwwdotmechcommandersdotcom

[Gallowell]

@Carsomyr80 Not unless you repeat the mission without proceeding to the next one right away, at any rate.

[VertigaDesignMEDIA]

i just shat myself with nostalgia

[MrJrs69]

Mine layers are quite handy on this map. The enemy will try to move off the n/w corner. Place a giant mine field using mine layers and way points and they will be slowed quite a bit trying to run through the mines. I some times use 2 mine layers to double the field building speed.