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[guesst]

So I finally got to try out this game. it's not so bad. A bit clunky to use, but all in all a good little stragety game. If you like stragety games.

However, that part that cracked me up was thinking of the poor voice over guy who gets handed this script and has to read it outloud.

"Nothing to identify, nothing to bury, nothing to cry over."

"...their blood curdling screams helpless to the plasma beams ripping throught their flesh."

"Manned by an elete paramilitary force, the entire force is composed of women."

"...the power Dolls will rise through the ashes and admister justice!"

Classic, man.

[The Fifth Horseman]

That lector in the intro was pretty horrible, IMO. Zero skills, he read it just as if he was reading his own necrologue.


Okay, since I know Mission 3 may be difficult for some players, here is an excerpt from the FAQ I am halfway through writing:


2.3 Mission 3: ENTEBBE ASSAULT
(snip)
2.3.2 Objectives
Find Colonel Wiler.
Get to the evacuation zone in time for Aquarius to pick you up.

2.3.3 Problems
Mission time is limited to 1 hour.
There are multiple numerically superior enemy units patrolling the area.
You have no artillery or aircraft support.


2.3.4 Babble
To call this mission hard is to call Sahara dry.
You will be outgunned, outmaneuvred and outnumbered practically the whole time - this is not a heroic last stand, but a guerilla mission, remember!
Save frequently here. One mistake can cost you the entire mission.


2.3.5 Planning and Preparations
Starting with the basics, you MUST choose four X3AT DOLLs, otherwise the game won't let you start the mission.
As you have limited DOLLpower, you need to make your bunch suitable for the mission.
First, the pilots. Select your best four.
In my case, these were Hardy Newland, Julya Layberg, Alice Knox and Selma Scheele. Huang Kuang-Mei wouldn't be a bad choice, but her close combat skills are IMO profoundly lacking.
Now, each DOLL must be equipped so that she is not limited too much by the weight and at the same time capable of cracking some heads.
I decided to equip all identically, with the following gear:

M114 SMOKE x2
x 1 is sufficient for the mission, but x2 makes it much - MUCH - easier. Remember, smoke not only obstructs line of sight but also slows down units moving through it - just what you need to confuse and delay enemy pursuit. Without M114's, your chances to survive this mission are as large as those for a snowman to last ten seconds in hell.
Use only one launcher on each DOLL, abandon it as soon as it runs out of ammunition and then switch to the other one. The smoke launchers are one of the most plentiful weapons around, so leaving them behind won't hurt your run.

M6A GGUN
Decent and fairly reliable D1 class weapon. Also happens to be the best D1 weapon currently at your disposal.

M61 GND - OR - M51 GND
Your indirect fire weapons for this mission. Lightest of them all, but they still pack a punch. Use M61's for this mission if you can. If there is not enough of these for any DOLL (practically certain to happen), equip her with an M51 instead.
Used-up M51's can be abandoned, since you should already have a nice supply of them at the base.

Feel free to experiment with different weapon configurations, but remember the following tow things:
1. Smoke launchers are neccesity in this scenario. Without them, you won't survive half of the way to evac point.
2. Keep it light - you need fast DOLLs in this mission.
3. Don't take too much gear you'd regret losing or leaving behind.

I don't see much difference between the four plans. Personally, I'm going for Plan D, just because I feel like it. (note: there might be certain differences in strength and location of enemy patrols, but there is no way I can be sure).

Side note - you have 50 minutes for evacuation (10 turns), not 30 (6 turns) like the scenario briefing would want you to believe.


2.3.6 Deployment
Pre-determined by the game. You have absolutely no control over it.
In my example, Hardy landed to the east of the prison camp, Selma slightly to the south, Alice to the far east and Julya slightly further to the south then Selma.
These landing sites are - as far as I know - pre-determined within the scenario and will be used for any four DOLLs you send on this mission.


2.3.7 Execution
Julia and Alice will take a turn longer to get to the camp because of their distance. Get them moving, and send Hardy and Selma to the edges of the forest surrounding the camp. Have Hardy DETECT and then use her and Selma's DOLLs to attack the enemy formation. You should be able to destroy most of them (warning - the unscanned hex contains another enemy unit).
Fire Julia and Alice's M114's to cover Hardy and Selma's positions.

In the next turn, move Alice to the edge of forest and have her DETECT. The last enemy unit in the camp will be uncovered. Destroy it and whatever remains of those you detected last turn. Ranged fire is preferable, but if there are only two odd units left in the camp, you can attack them up close and personal too. No mattr what, you MUST eliminate them now.

Move your DOLLs into the camp and use whatever AP they still have to start spamming smoke grenades around the north border of the camp (including the road) as well as the western one. Do not smoke the center yet.

In your third turn, start moving from building to building and searching for Col. Wiler. Your chances of finding him in any building are random; usually you don't find him until second turn of searches, sometimes even not until the third one. Maintain the smoke screen.

Once you have found Wiler, you have 50 minutes to haul your backside to the extraction point. Start moving out of the camp and chuck in a few smoke grenades to cover up your withdrawal.

Saving here is a good idea, so that you don't have to replay the entire game.

The extraction point is located at southern end of the island at the river delta - make sure you get there. There is no set strategy or route. Just keep moving, cover your way with smoke charges and avoid fights as much as possible.

Forests east from the road are less patrolled, but making your way through the road may prove problematic. If you want to go that way, go there immediately when leaving the camp and then make your way south. We'll take that way, since it's a bit simpler overall.

Smoke up the road and run to the other side. Some enemies might jump out on you, so destroy them with combined fire of your DOLLs.

KEEP MOVING. If you stay in one place, you're as good as dead.

Immediately after crossing you'll face an M58T MBT. Destroy it and start moving south towards the river and then along it.

You might be assaulted by a larger group of mechanized nastiness shortly after the MBT. Smoke up and run south as fast as possible.

On the way south you can encounter single enemy units, usually tanks. If it stands in your way - waste it. If it's entering from behind - ignore and keep running.

When firing weapons, you should cycle between the DOLLs after each shot, so that you don't end up with one being totally out of AP and the rest at full complement - this causes that DOLL to lag behind and slows you down as a whole.

If your formation gets drawn out, move the most lagging DOLL as far forward as possible and consolidate the rest around her.

Also, if an easily replaceable weapon is depleted - drop it (M51's, M114, et al), so that it won't be slowing you down.

Once you are near the river delta, make sure you save - next fight can get pretty ugly, and having to replay the entire mission because of messing up here would be a real test of patience.

At the river delta area you'll face a fair bunch of bad guys again - you will have to fight, unfortunately.

You need to get your DOLLS within a certain range from the south coast for the evacuation, and have them all within the triangle marked out by the river delta. Units outside the delta don't count, no matter how close to the coast they are.
According to my tests, the road at X57-60,Y66 is the northmost point at which the evacuation will succeed. (so all DOLLs must be there or further to the south).
Presence of enemies in the vicinity has no effect upon the evacuation, but they still have a turn of free shots before you are taken away by Aquarius - remember that.

With a bit of luck, you will be able to get into evac zone dead on the time when Aquarius surfaces and without losing any DOLLs - this aint easy, though.
From when Aquarius surfaces, you have about four to five turns to get into evac zone - more then enough, trust me on that.


Have fun!

[laiocfar]

And how about sacrifice one DOLL for entretain the pursuit force?
I think that when i completed the mission, i lost 2 DOLLS in combat and missed the evaquation, the other 2 DOLLS make it out trough mountains at north, i have Col executed before end the mission and another DOLL lost after battle,.

[The Fifth Horseman]

She wouldn't last more then two turns, given how much enemies you have on your head. Also, I have a thing against losing any DOLLs or pilots.

You need to remember that the smoke reduces speed of units moving through it. Lots of smoke = pursuit slowed down = more time to escape.

I didn't try getting out of the mission area in any other way, though. Now that you mention that, I might actually try.

[laiocfar]

The mission was designed to do as you say upper but even when missing the metting with the submarine, you can end it. You are given the option of execute the LT. Col and escape or just try to escape. The mission failure banner is unavoiable at this point but by executing the LT Col, the game engine will consider the mission as succes even if cant escape. Escaping by the north passage is pretty hard, firstly coz it is northeast and not north, secondly coz you need to cross the route in order to archive your new extraction pont, there isnt opposition in the mountains but get in to the forest over the other side isnt easy.
I was replaying entebee assault a little and the most disappointing and hard to do is to found the LT Col, could you repeat this part of your semi-walktrough? When i ended the game for fisrt time(and unil now only time), i fouded him in the second prision camp, that is better guarded and cost me one destroyed doll to assault and hv damage to other twos. The difference to miss or get in time the sub is to run away without shot and leaving all the weapons behind you.

[The Fifth Horseman]

On finding Wiler:
Move your DOLLs into the camp and use whatever AP they still have to start spamming smoke grenades around the north border of the camp (including the road) as well as the western one. Do not smoke the center yet.

In your third turn, start moving from building to building and searching for Col. Wiler. Your chances of finding him in any building are random; usually you don't find him until second turn of searches, sometimes even not until the third one. Maintain the smoke screen.


Every time I played the mission, he's in the first camp. You need to check each of the building hexes, one after another. It takes a while to find him.

You don't have to leave all the weapons behind, either. Well, unless you took it over the top and loaded up your DOLLS as walking armories (which is another thing I might try).

[laiocfar]

For me the best equipment for that mission were two missiles launchers (Dr35), a GGun and Grenades. Changing smoke for one of the Dr 35 gives you speed and make more sense to the mission.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jasper Sasslefrass @ Oct 21 2005, 10:49 PM) [snapback]170756[/snapback]</div>

So yeah, how to these ladies keep the population stocked, if there are only ladies? Did they save some jars of frozen sperm from before the end of the world?
[/b]

hey one ounce is like half a million people at least

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Jun 21 2006, 10:16 AM) [snapback]238400[/snapback]</div>

She wouldn't last more then two turns, given how much enemies you have on your head. Also, I have a thing against losing any DOLLs or pilots. [/b]

Then use Hardy Newland as your sacrificial lamb. You never really 'lose' her, she comes back every time her Loader is shot out from under her, whereas other DoLLS take a game or two to get 'rescued'.

It's not exactly ethical, but she's not real, so it's okay.

[The Fifth Horseman]

It's not exactly ethical, but she's not real, so it's okay.[/b]

Maybe, but I'm obsessed with getting my team out in one piece on every mission.