A covie mob repurposed! They are puppets in my hands, bwa-ha-ha-ha!

(6:38) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Normal. Using a copy of a tower zone megabattle set-up last seen used in BCM471 and BCM472, I create a new one in which the mob is at the rear of the tower, with multiple attack vectors available to them. I also change my weapon combo and arrange a few extra features. Then the final two minutes give a preview of the sort of action you can get into - which I'll be doing next!

Released April 10th 2024, gameplay recorded April 7th-8th 2024.

00:02 Just a comedy introduction here. You may remember this mob from four previous movies (in which I had a pistol and needler).

00:26 (Modifying the old set-up) To begin the modification work I free up the launcher so I can move it, and I get equipped with a full AR for battle. Staying high to hopefully keep the Banshee undamaged, the launcher is then blasted to where I want it. After only three blasts it's in just the right place, which was actually quite lucky. No fiddling around tweaking the position, yay!

01:26 Next I blast a Ghost into position for potential covie use, making sure it ends up overturned, like it is initially. It's namely a dropship Ghost which I set up for covie use in the original set-up. The work is a bit tedious, but I know it'll be worth it for the added dimension. As with the weapon blasting, I endeavour to keep the Banshee safe and avoid harming any covies. Actually I get a bit low near the end, but luckily there's no damage.

01:54 Just before I head off to trigger and delay a new checkpoint to serve as the starting checkpoint for the new set-up, I draw the mob away from the tunnel somewhat, so they hopefully won't get far into it when initially chasing me. I get a full plasma rifle in the cavern (left there earlier), and head back with the delayed checkpoint.

02:38 It turns out that quite a lot of covies came down the tunnel, which tells me that I should've done a better job of drawing them away. A mistake (which leads to a straggler issue later), but I nevertheless get the Banshee past them with no damage (the other danger was to covies via friendly fire; I hope nobody got hurt). Not that a small amount of damage would've mattered hugely, but I do like to have a pristine Banshee in my set-ups, especially for when actually fighting with it.

02:58 I now herd the covies to where I want them. It takes a while, not least because of some stragglers in the tunnel, and I also need some tweaking near the end because I want the mob in a tight grouping, rather than being somewhat spread out. Notice that there was a Hunter standing near the Ghost around 3:38. I certainly wanted him shifted (I'm often going to be blasting that Ghost upright), which is why you see me briefly flying left into the corner.

Talking of the Hunters, notice that I gave each one a plasma pip along the way (3:08), to restore his rage mode. Their rage mode seems to get lost when you cross a loading point (as I did on my tunnel excursion). With each pip, you can see that the Hunter instantly starts raging forth.

03:59 Eventually I'm satisfied, and I finish off by checkpointing with my drop method. The checkpoint comes a bit higher up than I'd like, but it's okay.

04:27 (Action preview) Finally here's the two-minute action preview I mentioned. Some of these clips are from redundant plays done when trying to build the next movie (namely clips 1, 4, 6, 9, 10), but the others were created specially, to add variation and fill things out. Actually, aside from the final Banshee clip which is just there as an explosive comedy ending (I wouldn't really tackle the mob like that), there are two action clips for each of the five avenues the mob can head along (see closing remarks below).

Closing remarks In the resulting set-up, notice that the mob has five avenues to head along (including the tower's back passage). This multiplicity of potential attack vectors is why I wanted the mob in that place. Lots of potential, I reckoned. In the next movie you'll see all five avenues featured.

The main reason I used the original set-up I did, was because it featured four yellow-shielded guys among the eight Jackals. It's rare to get that many on Normal. But also, the number of red Elites is two, which I think of as being ideal in terms of how tough the battling is likely to be. All this said, I could equally have created a similar set-up from scratch, and in some regards that could've been easier. Still, the movie provides an example of set-up modification, which I thought was worth giving.

Originally I didn't have the action preview. But the movie was only about four and a half minutes long with just the set-up work (condensed as it was), so I started thinking about tacking on some bonus action. After putting a few clips together to see what an action sequence might look like, I decided it was going to be a good idea, so I went full steam ahead with it. Turned out quite nicely I think!

I'll mention one unimportant detail which for simplicity isn't represented in the movie. I actually triggered a tunnel checkpoint twice. The first checkpoint was saved for consolidation in the vicinity of the cavern. From that save I could then make attempts at finishing the work, after triggering another checkpoint. This was just a safeguard in case my first attempt went badly. Didn't want to have to start afresh, after the first part of the work seemed to've gone well (especially in regard to the quick positioning of the rocket launcher). However, my first attempt worked out fine, so I didn't need a retry afer all.

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