Needler to the fore, in yet another three rumbles with the covie mob!

(6:54) Level 2 ('Halo') on Heroic. Yes, another three plays of the flexible set-up seen created in BCM664, and this time all of them involve needling. I think this will be the final instalment for now as I want to move on to other things, but I may well return to the set-up later for more battles.

Released August 7th 2026, gameplay recorded August 4th-5th 2026.

00:02 (Play 1 - Plateau alley defence, with needler & AR) A novel feature of this plateau alley defence is that I happen to get three fairly lucky tags in a row, from some distance away. It starts around 1:08 with a red Elite who gets caught on the foot. Then a blue Elite is tagged on a leg, then a Grunt too. I didn't target any of those covies, and the Elites weren't even visible when I threw. They each just ran into my plasma.

02:01 (Play 2 - Inner rise defence, with needler & plasma pistol) For this inner rise defence I'd switched my passengers around, so the Aussie got a go on the chain-gun. In the battle he offers support from the back while Stacker and I fight on foot. Things go pretty well until around 3:36 when there's a grunty cry of "Down in front!" I can't take down the Grunt in time. The plasma kills the Aussie, and shortly after, Stacker's gone too. I soldier on though, as cyborgs do, and victory is achieved.

05:04 (Play 3 - Thoroughfare hold-out, with needler & plasma rifle) I featured my first thoroughfare hold-out at the end of the previous movie, but have quickly returned to that plan here to show the other way of playing it, namely in which you do some quick driving to get the dropship 3 troops released from their inclination to hang around the lifeboat. This way, all covies should close in on you. And indeed, that's how it goes here.

Closing remarks If and when I return to this set-up, one plan I might do is a plateau back defence using the full sniper rifle I've got in my weapon stash. I'll be able to do a lot more sniping than the last time I was using a sniper rifle on the plateau, which was namely in BCM657 when I made do with the rifle dropped by the sniper.

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