I'm pretty safe on this island plateau. Not so sure about the Marines opposite though!

(5:56) Level 2 ('Halo') on Heroic. This shows two plays of a rockslide megabattle save featuring 34 covies, using the island plateau defence plan (which I haven't shown before), using sniper rifle and pistol. In the first battle there's quite a bit of close-range stuff with covies down below, while in the second it's more a case of trying to save the Marines on the adjacent plateau, under attack from two sides.

Released February 11th 2018, gameplay recorded February 6th-8th 2018.

00:02 (Play 1 - Sniper rifle & pistol) It's a fun drive to the plateau. Speeding across the plain, I make a sharp left to head through the gap, squishing a Grunt on the other side. Then I head up and through the short tunnel along the side of the Marine plateau. At the top I make a U-turn rather slowly to avoid spooking any Marines into jumping under the wheels (they love to do that). Then it's across to the island plateau, where I get my passengers dismounted. I don't want chain-gun support.

00:39 Hostilities get under way, but the aussie Marine quickly gets himself blown away by a fumbled frag. I'll comment on assorted further aspects now.

00:59 The covies have discovered the Marines out front on the other plateau, and some of my attention goes on saving them. In quick succession I snipe three Elites who were starting to attack. I get a fourth soon after.

01:19 I throw a plasma which subsequently kills a blue Elite and two Jackals down below, causing Grunts to flee in panic. When I start picking them off with pistol fire, a plasma ball sails past but I get the offending Jackal with a frag.

02:15 Looks like I've wiped out the attackers now, so I turn to look for the dropship 4 Elite (who never joins in). Happily he's in view, and I quickly snipe him. Stacker hasn't been much help on the plateau, as he quickly got himself behind the hog. But at least he called out some encouragement.

02:27 (Play 2 - Sniper rifle) This route to the island plateau is even more fun than the last. My initial weaving splatters two blue Elites, then I thread the hog through the gap at the lifeboat's nose, then through the gap leading into the rocklide, squishing a panicking Grunt as I go. My entry into the gap isn't optimal though. I wasn't quite lined up, and I'm briefly slowed down quite a bit, before getting through and speeding off to head up the back alley. When I get near Johnson I slow down a bit to avoid killing him. Actually, in later drives I improved my angling and was regularly able to get past him without slowing so much.

03:02 This time I'm letting Stacker stay on his chain-gun, for major support. The plan for this battle is to let the covies focus on the Marines opposite, and try to stop them using sniping and grenades. Because of my going up the back alley, quite a few covies should be drawn up that route. So the Marines out front are potentially going to get attacked from both sides. I'll comment on some highlights.

03:10 Some covies including an Elite are moving towards the Marine plateau and I lob a quick frag their way. After shooting the red Elite, the blast finishes him as he tries to leap clear. Then I snipe three panicking Grunts in quick succession, causing Stacker to say "I almost feel sorry for 'em".

03:24 The Marines out front are getting attacked by unseen covies and I hear Johnson getting killed. Then a blue Eltie comes into view and I'm finally able to help out again with my sniper rifle. My first shot misses, but then two hits bring him down.

03:43 A red Elite attacks from the rear, killing one Marine before I get a bead on him and end the threat. Gotta watch out for those rear attacks!

03:55 An unseen Grunt lobs a plasma at the remaining two frontal Marines, killing both. Meanwhile I've been alerted to a Jackal attacking from the rear, and I snipe him when he rolls.

04:15 Under attack from both sides, a Marine fumbles a frag and the blast kills him, then detonates a loose frag which kills the last remaining guy, just as I'm trying to get a bead on a Grunt (who's caught in the blast too). That last guy - the one in the jungle hat - was the only original rockslide survivor. Oh dear, we didn't save them. Cortana sounds a bit disapproving.

04:27 My remaining work on the island involves some fairly leisurely sniping - including five covies low down - plus a few frags for fun. Quite a nice sniping sequence there.

05:21 Apparently the covies aren't quite finished yet, otherwise Cortana would be piping up. Rather than wait for more arrivals up top (they might not even come), I decide to take a Warthog ride to seek them out. There's a bit of a prang with the hog, which I was half expecting (it's hard to drive off that side of the island and land ok), but never mind. I spot a Grunt and have a bit of tagging fun to finish.

Closing remarks I've been meaning to show this battle plan for ages. Should've shown it years ago really. But here we are at last - and expect to see it again sometime. The save used was a simple modifcation of what I used for BCM271. I obtained it by quickly turning around and going back to some spare weapons near the entrance, swapping my AR for a sniper rifle, then heading back in and getting a new entry checkpoint (by which time dropship 4 was starting to depart).

I did a load of plays for the second battle, but it was very hard to prevent Cortana's "They're all dead" announcement, triggered by the death of the guy in the jungle hat (the last of the rockslide survivor group). I could've made the covies focus more on me instead, but that's not how I wanted to fight the battle. I was deliberately making it into a challenge, which needed good fast sniping to stand much chance of success.

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