I have been in Hell for approximately 10 hours. During this time, I have re-enacted Tom Cruise' performance in the film Edge of Tomorrow, I believe, with a great deal of faithfulness to the concept. My pawns move in such a way, perfectly predicting that the Chaser will open that door this turn, as he did all of the other iterations. He fires a plasma shot into the chest of my captain, wearing Tritanium Tactical Gear, who tanks it with some loss to the structural rigidity of the armor and responds with a single snap shot from a Black Ops Sniper Rifle. It hits and kills- it always does, and always will, in a profound statement about free will, determinism, and the concept of chaos.
This is Turn 7 of a battle that has raged for hundreds of cumulative turns. Almost every soldier here has felt plasma eat away their lungs and heart and eyes. In extreme cases, the unlucky few have passed by a window, garbed only in an armored vest, and been vaporized by a Chaser that wasn't watching that window in previous turns. Oh well.
The battle does not reset at their death. The battle continues with what resources it has available to it, simulating death until it reaches a point of loss. And then it restarts. The first few turns are a known element: move the soldiers here and deploy these three smoke grenades there so that you can deal with the first two turrets of the terror ship aimed directly at the Skymarshall. It takes a huge barrage of gunfire, and one must adjust on Turn 2 to properly counter the Chaser with a Small Launcher, but what wounds are accumulated from that are acceptable. One must pity poor Makhenkesi, always returned to life knowing that his death is built into the fundamental fabric of The Plan.
The first five turns of this battle are a foregone conclusion. Afterwards, it becomes experimental- the way forward with minimal casualties is not known. Live, die, repeat, over and over until a suitable plan for that turn is found. As the iterations progress, Turns 6 and 7 become more and more stable, concrete, as reliable methods around obstacles are found. If Samuel Hudson crouches rather than stands, he won't be targeted by the Chaser, it will instead shoot at Kim, who will survive and fire back, after which Hudson will also fire...
I give all of this as a peek at my suffering. The horrors are unending and, it is hoped, entertaining. I ask a simple question: how the hell do you reliably deal with Terror Ship turrets with low-tech options? If it comes to a pinch, I can return to the craft (we haven't actually made it far, and of course the iteration may end, prompting a restart), and get what is available. BlackOps Miniguns, High Explosives, a litany of grenades, Taser Cannons... because the usual strategies aren't cutting it, not reliably. It takes too many shots to down and we have to fire blind from the smoke, lest they return fire, leading to too many misses- misses that give the turret time to regenerate its forcefield. An arduous process to destroy even one, much less two to a side.
Are they weak to explosives? I can do explosives, if that would be effective- I admittedly have little success with pinpoint accurate throwing, but is it worth a try? Do let me know. Thanks.
