There's trouble afoot in the dustbowl. The trouble being, 43 covies want to kill me and I'm against the whole idea…

(6:27) Level 3 ('The Truth and Reconciliation') on Normal. This shows three plays of the dustbowl megabattle seen created in BCM77, featuring 43 covies. I use the enclosure defence each time, but vary my weaponry from play to play.

Released September 12th 2013, gameplay recorded September 9th-11th 2013.

00:02 (Play 1: Plasma rifle & AR) A bit of AR fire draws covies down into the dustbowl, which I then cut across to fetch the plasma rifle dropped by the patrolling Elite killed in the set-up work. Skirting along the cliff path, I'm soon at the enclosure, ready to fend off the horde.

00:46 An early Elite gets a taste of my plasma rifle, but more are closing in fast. I throw a plasma towards a needling Grunt as I back off around the corner, and evidently I scored a tag as you hear him crying "Get it off!" I throw a frag across the entrance as two blue Elites gallop in, and it shakes them up bad, along with a needling red. I charge the blues to finish them off, and the red goes down from a touch of plasma fire - after which another Elite gets finished by a plasma grenade. That's five Elites dealt with already. My follow-up plasma is thrown slightly early and hits a flying Elite body; a mistake.

01:12 Moving out from the left, I frag four Jackals, though it's a pity I didn't quite see the bang. Things get pretty chaotic as a load of minor enemies continue to arrive, but along the way I tag a Jackal.

01:47 Another Elite turns up and I bring him to his knees with plasma. Then a tagged Grunt runs over to him and finishes him off. Thanks grunty! The subsequent mopping up isn't much trouble.

02:16 Having heard a Grunt somewhere in the dustbowl, I head out. When doing an enclosure defence, covies often get held up by the rocky overhang on the left, and sure enough, that's the problem here. As I reach it, a blue Elite emerges and gets tagged after missing a swipe. Then there's just a Grunt to finish off.

02:45 (Play 2: Sniper rifle) With my remaining two plays I've cut most of the relatively uninteresting preliminary phase, to focus on the defence location and keep up the tempo. This time I'm attempting a defence using sniper rifle and grenades, which isn't easy because the covies arrive so fast. At the start of this play however, at least I'm off to a good start, sniping three Elites quick, two of whom pursued me along the cliff path. A fourth gets shaken by a frag, then finished off.

03:07 I briefly have time for a bit of long-range sniping, but then a red Elite arrives and some close-range chaos begins. Around 3:27 I start throwing a sequence of grenades, and things get extra noisy as they set off others.

03:39 There are a lot of Grunts and Jackals a panicking now, and I miss quite a few shots when aiming at Jackals. I'm on the wrong side of them really; their shields cover most of their bodies as they run. Still, I eventually get things cleared up, culminating in shooting three Grunts with 2x zoom.

04:11 I hear a Grunt over yonder, and he's stuck on a rocky overhang. I could easily snipe him of course, but I try a bit of tagging fun instead. My first throw is long, but the second gets him on the feet and he hops about a bit, ha ha.

04:33 (Play 3: Needler & AR) I approach the enclosure once more from along the cliff path, this time having picked up the needler from a Shade gunner killed in the set-up work. A blue Elite isn't far behind and I take him out with a first stream of needles. Another Elite closes in while firing needles, but I dodge most of them while firing back, and he goes bang.

04:57 Things soon get pretty hectic as the covies swarm forth, and I get busy not just with needles but also grenades and AR fire. At about 5:22 an Elite takes a friendly plasma ball in the back. A few second after, Elites have got a foothold in the enclosure itself, and things get more chaotic so I won't try to detail all that. One interesting thing though: at about 5:39 I close in on a Jackal from the side, and he seems to've lost his bearings or something. He's just standing there not even looking in the right direction, and I smack him down with my reloaded needler.

05:54 Just a few covies left now, but my shield's bleeping and I take a plasma ball just as it's recharging. I charge the blue Elite while using up the rest of my AR clip, and do a nice tag 'n jump move. He misses his swipe and goes bang. With the last Elite gone, I use needles to mop up the Grunts and Jackals.

Closing remarks I showed an enclosure defence back in BCM10 but that was only one play, which in retrospect made a rather skimpy movie at just over two minutes long. So I wanted to revisit that defence plan and give it a better showing.

I don't normally use the sniper rifle in this defence, but I gave it a go for the sake of variety in the movie. In some of my plays I managed to have time for more long-range sniping before things got close and hectic, but one of the reasons I chose the play I used here was because of the ending with the distant isolated Grunt.

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