A useful new way of stopping the Pelican Marines going inactive.

(7:34) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. A few weeks ago I had an idea relating to the seven extra Marines trick. Namely, a possible way of stopping the four Pelican Marines from going inactive, which would give you the time to do any battle prep desired. It worked out fine, and it opens the door to some new battle engineering which I'm looking forward to. So here's my tutorial on the method, which involves getting a Pelican Marine blocked so his run to the base area doesn't complete. Partly in light of this development, I've also taken the opportunity to do a big restructuring and revision of my article on the trick, by the way.

Released September 18th 2024, gameplay recorded September 9th-15th 2024.

00:02 (Using Banshee and hog) At the start here, I've just saved a delayed checkpoint. It was triggered in the passage after the landing zone, and I deliberately kept it delayed (mostly by enemy threat) until I got here. That gives me a good starting point. Just ahead is another checkpoint trigger, and I keep that checkpoint delayed until I've grabbed the Banshee and the Pelican is getting close to the ground. Actually it would've been more ideal to wait several seconds longer, as there are still about 17 seconds until the Marines disembark. But never mind; this was good enough.

01:17 (What normally happens) Briefly interrupting the action, here are two clips showing what normally happens with the Pelican Marines. Namely, they run to the base area then collectively go inactive. Some may activate when you near them in battle, but usually only one or none. Not ideal, as the caption says.

01:56 (Failure then success) Back to the action, and you soon see what I'm trying to do. The Banshee part is relatively easy (once you've got used to where to put it). My hog operation fails at first, but when I retry things it succeeds. I've got a running guy blocked by the hog, and the others are free; and deactivation has been thwarted.

Note: around 2:21 when I was about to ease the hog into blocking position, I paused because I saw a Marine running to board it, and I didn't want to accidentally splatter him. I let him board before resuming.

03:21 (Battle prep and final checkpoint) I can now do any battle prep I want. A few brief clips show some of that (Shade moving, Ghost provision, and getting rid of bridge covies), then I finish the set-up with a battle start checkpoint in the usual fashion.

Note: the Elite clip is actually one I recorded separately for entertainment value. In the actual prep work, I did indeed get the Elite killed by making him jump off the bridge (a good way of doing things), but not in such an amusing way (no shooting). If the clip took your fancy, see my article Playing 'Shark' at the first bridge.

04:07 (Sample battle start) Triggering the battle, the hog vanishes, freeing the runner. And when I get over to the Marines, you can see that all ten of the Marines are active as desired. Hurrah!

04:43 (Using Banshee only) I now demonstrate using Banshee blocking only. In this case it's because I want to be driving the hog into battle. I pick up a few Marines and get the hog positioned. Note that I whack it eight times to get it partly through the door. This helps guard against the nose getting caught by the closing door later when backing it up to trigger the battle.

I need a new Banshee and I get one in the twin bridges area. I did some battle prep with the Banshee, including moving the Shade, but that's not shown (wasn't important, and I've shown such prep elements once already).

05:45 (Finishing off) After getting the second room triggered, I descend to finish off. I want the runner freed before my battle start checkpoint. An insert shows the sort of plasma blast I'm going for. I make the throw from distance (having learnt the appropriate aim in advance), and after the blast goes off, I get the checkpoint - by which time I'm at the hog, ready to board.

06:31 (Sample battle start) Quickly triggering the battle before the runner completes his run, I drive into battle and you can again see that the Marines are all active.

07:00 (Simpler Marine-kill option) Finally, I demonstrate the simplest option, although it comes at the cost of losing one guy. Having got just one blocked runner and let the other three guys complete their runs, I just kill the former. And as you can see, deactivation has been averted. I'll have nine active Marines for battle.

Closing remarks Later I'll be using the new method to set up some Ghost squad battling with ten active Marines, instead of the six or seven I've had so far. But coming up next, I'll use the method to set up some 10-Marine fun with Stacker on a chain-gun.

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