Our next mission takes us close to the icy homeland of Lazuria, and we get a map with all three types of unit production. It also seems to have a brand new terrain type there.
The mission's title, though... that's a very concerning omen indeed.
This one has even less preamble than last time. We're already on the map.
The time has already come for us to go toe to toe with Forsythe personally.
...You know, it occurs to me, why exactly is Will singing Forsythe's praises here? Rubinelle and Lazuria's centuries-long bad blood and Greyfield's attitude make me believe Rubinelle's schools are not going to praise Forsythe's heroism so much as scorn his stubbornness.
Presumably, he was a general at the time, otherwise this comes off as a really young retirement age. Then again, that may be something we need to talk to Will about at some point.
Apparently Brenner and Forsythe has something to talk to one another about. This isn't really the franchise for this to translate to a Talk on the field, though.
Brenner doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to shed any light on what that might've entailed with Will.
You know, it kinda takes me off-guard, seeing them actually use "NRA" as a descriptor for the New Rubinelle Army. It's one thing for the portraits, which have a character limit. But in dialogue?
This doesn't seem to be the technical term for it, so I can understand Will's confusion.
You can tell it's a terrible strategy because even Will sees the problem here.
Lin tells him he's not imagining things, and that there's very little tactical benefit to sending your own forces to die to assess your enemy's strengths.
Greyfield does have personally valid reasons to adopt this strategy, but they're generally frowned upon reasons and we're just going to have to live with it. Or die with it.
And that's our reaction if they were present.
Brenner's the one in command, despite that order. Lin's going to be the one relaying orders to him.
Our new terrain type has been introduced. Or, well, most of one. There's another one higher up that has some more features, but we can't see it from here.
In AW2, they introduced a terrain type called "Pipes". Pipes were ominous Black Hole structures that block passage to all units, including Air units, and passage through them was done by destroying the pipe Seams. As much design use as they got out of Pipes in AW2 and AWDS, there's no Black Hole around here to keep the feature around, so they decided to use Meteors for that purpose. A Meteor tile is basically the same as a Pipe Seam- impassable by all units, including air units, and can be destroyed by attacking it. It has 99 HP, taking the displayed percentage damage in HP, and has defences about on par with a Middie- so indirects and bombers are the way to go to clear it in a hurry.
Brenner points out that "impassable to all" also applies to enemy units- there are tactical benefits to leaving Meteors around and forcing the enemy to take a different route. In AW2, the AI almost never attacked Pipe Seams, but AWDS's AI was a bit more proactive. I'm not sure where DoR's lies on that scale.
Our map for the day. Our opponent has a nice varied selection of units, but surprisingly, we outnumber him numerically. He does have a nice property advantage, though- so if we don't secure our own in a hurry, that could change fast. And in front of those rockets there, we can see the other part of the Meteor mechanic.
Meteors will often be found emitting arcs of plasma between other meteors. Plasma is also impassable to all unit types, in what is usually agreed as a far more sensible air-unit blocker (I mean, seriously, air units can't clear pipes?). Unlike pipes, when a meteor is destroyed, the entire length of plasma connected to it disappears, not just the one tile like in the Wars World games. This means destroying a meteor is a much more definitive act in DoR than its equivalent was. Consider destroying them far more carefully.
Going into the War Room finds us, surprisingly, face to face with our very opponent. Then again, I guess The Beast got in here, Forsythe shouldn't be much worse...
Forsythe sees no issue with offering advice to his own opponent.
"If I was my enemy, what would I do?" To be fair, this is a valid question one should actively consider- it gives you plans for what to be prepared for.
The simple advice out of the way. That rocket is going to be a defining feature of our tactics for quite some time, given its positioning behind the plasma. Both pipes and plasma can be fired over by indirects.
The gameplay mechanics behind pipes and plasma are quite creative. The physics, even more so.
Always remember your chokepoint etiquette.
"And I should know, I put it there myself! I'm very proud of it."
This is probably the best tutorial on the new plasma mechanics they could've given you. This rocket is going to be a chump if you can blow up a meteor. But at the same time, Forsythe's melee units will be able to swarm us once we do. Being suitably prepared when we land the final blow is a must.
Forsythe ends this conversation the way he began it- with a completely unnecessary amount of politeness.
It honestly makes me feel like Forsythe ought to have had actual history with Brenner and Lin. He does have a role to play in Brenner's story, but this role was not actually personally conducted between each other, and there's no real indication he knows who Lin is.
In general, this War Room is leaning pretty heavily on Forsythe's characterisation that is mostly going to be established during and after this mission. Forsythe as a character has not had any buildup, and yet this mission has all the makings of a final stand.
Like, Lin is shilling him. Lin wouldn't shill Brenner.
Enough tea and crumpets, it's time for rockets and bullets.
Starting with this freebie shot. They've given us a few meteors to point at instead, but we've got all the time in the world to destroy those if we want.
And the secret with this one blocking the airport? We don't want to spend the time blowing it up. This infantry makes it to the airport in two moves either way, and planes can get out over the mountains just fine.
The undamaged tank doesn't have much space to be getting on with, but that is an unfortunate setup for trying to establish a defensive line.
Well, we're doing it anyway. There's more armour behind us once we get a foothold, that tank is replaceable.
While I might be interested in getting an APC pushing Infantry forward, I think this Temporary Port might come in handy.
I decide I would like this shortcut. My only Factory is way down in the bottom left corner, and my main chokepoint is ultimately going to be the city south of the blue tank, so this isn't much of an issue.
The B. Copters are going to be the most important unit on the field- you know how they're making us put effort into building our own air units? These ones have enough of a decisive advantage over Forsythe's current units that they'll do most of the work in establishing that foothold we want.
The Sub is going to work on a naval superiority. I'm not sure how much a Sub and a Cruiser are going to do, and affording more is going to be a bit of a tall order when we've got a land war to fight.
Of course I build an indirect. We do need some of them to be blowing up meteors as well as shooting blue units.
Forsythe's personal theme, Hero of Legend, sounds like the sort of theme you'd get when the cavalry heroically steps onto the field in the nick of time. Which is clearly not what's it being used for here, but it does help reinforce Forsythe's otherwise absent reputation.
Caulder comes by for another visit. I'm not sure what he intends to accomplish this time, though.
He's not even trying to put a fresh spin on this.
OK, never mind. He's actively making it sound less appealing.
I think Forsythe was the Lazurian commander in that battle, so this is a point of personal pride he's talking about.
Forsythe respects the honour of the game too much to ever try and recreate that moment for glory. He didn't win that day- he brought an end to the conflict.
Caulder finally realises he's not getting anywhere with this guy. Not really selling the intelligence there, are we?
Forsythe retreats. Such a valiant showdown, old man.
At least I got this for free.
Anyway, we need to capture the production properties now.
Good, tank can't reach. I won't need to invest in blocking it off.
The B-Copter charges in, attacks this Mech, and has effectively taken this chokepoint until such time as Forsythe deploys and positions some manner of anti-aircraft unit.
The other one works on this meteor.
The sub ought to be grateful for that.
Annoyingly, the rocket reaches that property behind the Copter. Forsythe was right to call it a piece of work.
Since I've got two arties now, one of them makes sure there is no movement in this direction.
Rocket prepares itself to covering fire as much of the opposing terrain as possible.
And my navy decides this is the place they want to prepare for the opposition.
Maybe that Copter will decide it wants to investigate what's going on here.
Forsythe has properties of his own he can be capturing.
And there's the aforementioned anti-air unit of some description. It'll probably take a day or two to threaten my B. Copter at all, but it's there.
Well, we'll need these if we want to be prepared for the AA when it arrives.
For now, it's not much of a threat to anything.
My arty moves up, to this particular square. It is out of range of the tank, given the position of the river, and can aim at one particular point.
This is where the rockets go. I can't get them close enough to the base, sadly, but I can cover most of the area I want covered.
Meteor down. The space it used to be is marked by a little scar, similar to broken pipe seams being marked by the dust of the pipe. The tile is otherwise a Plains tile in all functionality.
My Copters turn up the heat, minimising the amount of targets for when the AA arrives.
This tank goes to defend my artillery, since the space around here is pretty crowded. Given the shape of the river, there's not much danger over there, in hindsight.
I build another infantry, to try and get some more properties captured, and move my APC so it can pick up and go next turn.
I forgot that Battleships can move and fire in the same turn. Cruiser didn't have a ton of options, or life. Fortunately, Forsythe's Cruiser rammed my sub, and was the only unit capable of shooting at it.
As for the land units, the AA comes forward, the non-AAs retreat, and a T-Copter Forsythe built has designs on pushing my ground units.
That is very fortuitous number. Probably should've shot with the cruiser first, but you just know the luck wouldn't be in my favour if I did that.
I've got no idea what the plan is with my Captures here, honestly. I feel like I should just be nabbing what's in arm's reach.
My artillery starts firing at the meteor. The faster I can do this, the faster I can stop being afraid of that rocket.
I want a Bomber. Bombers are cool.
My copter can still safely hold this chokepoint, but the other copter is going to have to make a retreat.
So my copter positions itself here and takes a potshot at the meteor while I'm at it. This not only means the plasma goes down next turn, but also means that T-Copter won't be coming this direction.
I also get to finish this off thanks to the rocket.
This side is defended.
And that infantry is put to capture the port, just in case I need any naval reinforcements. Although that Temp Port is looking pretty useless in hindsight.
Since Forsythe has a ton of armour, I invest in an anti-tank to account for it.
Cruiser and Seaplane out of nowhere blow up my cruiser. That's going to suck, but once again, my Sub is safe to fire another shot.
Plasma down. Similarly to broken meteors, the plasma leaves a mark, but the terrain is plain old plains.
That anti-tank of Forsythe's own sucks a bit, but we're starting with a solid foothold around here. Or at least that's how it appears to me. There's going to be a bit of an issue with the way the terrain looks here.
Fortunately, I have to keep my units in this chokepoint for lack of movement, so it won't be too much of an issue.
Just a bunch of infantry with no idea where they're going. One of these will have to push the wincon eventually.
Right, I don't want you getting funny ideas, but this is the best I'm doing.
Sub can't make it to the carrier, but it can hide. That fuel is going to be a thing...
And I probably could've handled that seaplane better.
Oh well, AA it is. Although why I built it on that base... well, there's still a chopper in the north that's also my problem.
Bye bye, one of my own choppers. Your replacements will be ready in due course.
Um... I don't know what that Seaplane is doing, but I'm happy to let it do it.
This feels a little overkill, but the Bomber isn't exactly planning on getting any closer to that AA, so might as well.
That's enough of those shenanigans now. Yeah, I'm putting my Middie in range of an anti-tank, what of it?
More of the not quite killing infantry. The fact infantry aren't easily one-shot is why spamming them is a very cost-effective way to be a pain in the ass when you're losing.
Hm, those are some nice options.
Missile is a little out of position, admittedly.
Making my start on clawing income back from Forsythe. There's only so much of a hurry I can be with these.
Particularly given I'm still working on capturing all my own income sources.
Making sure to delete you two. Although in retrospect, this was a bit of a problem.
Do you see the problem with my formation? I can't even entirely blame the reason I had at the time, given the clue in the enemy's positions.
Sub is at least able to finish the Carrier in a single blow, hiding it for another turn.
Building another rocket, because of course and also to replace the one I have.
So yeah, those three tiles south of that meteor are Beach tiles and my west wing wasn't closed. Anti tank and the enemy tanks did a number over there. Also the cruiser has kind of penned my sub in.
Slowly but surely chipping away at the units on "my" side of the meteor.
Before demonstrating the nuclear option. Bombers are cool.
And now my tanks are easily able to handle the antitanks.
I will be taking this, see?
Forsythe has an AA up here he just built, but my tank is already preparing it to not be as big a deal. Sitting in the chokepoint was probably safer, but also that B. Copter is still there.
Won't be for long once the AA is around, but.
My APC picks up a footsoldier and makes designs on securing a wincon state.
And this continues to be the doofiest possible interpretation of a chokepoint. It's the best I got, but still.
And here was probably a bit of a mistake, but there was only so much I could do here. The sub retreats to my ports for its resupplies to not explode from lack of fuel, rather than staying here and taking a resupply from the APC. My APC is currently busy and I'm not sure it can spare a turn to be adjacent to the sub, but it had a better chance of working than the ports.
More indirects! If my unit composition was up to me, it would be nothing but indirects like I'm Grit or something.
As formations go, this is better than last turn, but I still have my 5 HP Rocket next to a full HP recon.
Middie has the wonderful idea to shoot at my anti-tank. It explodes.
AA attacks my bike. This is significantly more successful on account of it blocking that road.
And the rocket is, of course, gone.
Bomber takes out this Anti-Air. There's another one already on the way, but I can get units up there.
As pictured. Factory can still produce, nothing to be done about that, but I'm still free to act here.
And I place my Mech on this airport. I could probably put my APC next to a shore for the sub, but I don't know if that would make the B. Copter get ideas.
Won't be finishing the capture, but I'm still occupying the property, so it's not producing.
Here's the range on the Copter. Probably could've put the APC on a shore, and also I think that bike is a goner.
Oh well. Sending mine to be able to delete that factory unit next turn.
And finally doing something about that guy.
Look at these indirects. They think they're going to make an impact.
This sub is going to explode due to a lack of fuel next turn. In my defence, this probably means it was doomed even if I sent it north.
Me continuing not to see that beach as traversible terrain. I don't think they can reach my artillery anyway, but still.
They went for the anti-tank, too.
Well, so much for the bike. And that cruiser keeps ramming my sub, made it so hard to justify surfacing it.
The submarine explodes, and an infantry resupplies to taunt it.
The HQ Capture has begun. The only things that can stop it are the two AAs Forsythe has built and the B Copter that's now in range of the Mech.
Two of those problems have already been dealt with.
And there goes the third.
This is just destroying things for Power and safety.
...OK, this isn't helping my Power score.
I'd rather not see a new unit on that factory.
Can't do much about this one, but I can set up units to pummel it.
All in all, Forsythe can't really do much to me here.
Well, except that. Non-lethal, painful, and generally just here to prove me wrong.
The game remembers it needs to have an on-map dialogue with Forsythe for crucial character development, and notices that I've gotten a smidge close to finishing the map without seeing it. Makes me wonder if I would've seen more Lazurian dialogue if I wasn't quite so fast at finishing the maps, including this one.
So, we've had mention of how much of a model of conduct the battle that occurred twenty years ago was, with Forsythe as the Lazurian representative.
Brenner would like to mention what was going on in Rubinelle's ranks at the time.
And here I am doing it in ten days!
Of historical note, the Christmas truces of 1914 occurred after five months of warfare, well under the hundred day conflict described here. On one hand, the Western Front lasted significantly longer than this conflict. On the other, the Rubinelle-Lazuria war as a whole lasted significantly longer than that, and small-scale truces were common all throughout the First World War for dead-retrieval purposes. The fact Forsythe recognises this as significant implies it happened significantly less often here.
Apparently, despite the length of time this conflict lasted, Forsythe was unable to walk away with knowing the man whose skill and honour he values so highly. Wonder what happened afterwards, then.
And that is the personal connection between Forsythe and Brenner. The fact that Brenner's father died as a result of Forsythe's actions feels like it should've come up as a reason Brenner is willing to follow Greyfield's orders to do battle with the man, doesn't it?
Presumably, part of the reason it hasn't come up is because Brenner doesn't take this personally- that he understands Forsythe's role in his father's death was what any enemy general would have done in his shoes.
And to make things even muddier, Brenner makes it explicit that Rubinelle's government has done worse to Brenner's father than Forsythe ever could have. As an end result, I am in agreement with the text on which characters in this backstory are in the right and which are in the wrong, but I feel like Brenner needed not to have already drawn that conclusion by this point to properly suit the story's needs- he should've blamed Forsythe, and only with this conversation realised the flaw in his position.
Either that, or the developers did intend for that, and the complete lack of Forsythe character development outside him refusing Caulder's weapons obfuscated that. They probably didn't need the first scene of that back in the Tasha navy map.
Brenner walks away ready to do what he wished his father had done.
Give Forsythe a defeat he feel proud of.
Right, before we secure the victory, we've got a day to scrounge up some Power score.
These numbers will certainly do.
It's the principle of the thing.
I'm done, but I've got something to prove.
Forsythe was apparently eyeing his retirement fund. One can only wonder who he planned to replace him- I'm hoping Tasha and Gage weren't candidates, both have some growing to do first.
This is a score I can feel proud of. My technique could use some polishing, yeah, but maximum Speed and a nice hefty Power score from getting those oneshots? And my technique is only as bad as it is from things like fuel?
...Seems a bit early to be calling it, don't you think?
Stats. Look at that unit diversity! And yet, navies still stank.
By the way, you remember that Seaplane Forsythe had? It moved on top of my south port and didn't budge an inch for the remainder of the mission. It was dedicated to making sure I only used my north production properties. An admirable effort, but given I never saw fit to mention it, you can tell how much of a factor in my strategies it turned out to be.
Oh, he is actually putting Tasha and Gage in command. Admittedly, this sounds like a temporary "look after these troops in particular", but it's going to be hard to promote anyone else to general above these two after this.
Forsythe is calling the battle as a whole here, knowing that there's more soldiers than just Brenner's in the vicinity.
I feel like the takeaway we're supposed to be coming to here is that neither of these facts are true, which is meant to adjust our impression of the conflict.
Which is another thing that seems so natural to Forsythe's character that the narrative couldn't really put it in doubt. It really, really needed to effectively cast some doubt on these assertions to make this part of the story feel like what it looks like it's going for.
If anything, this conversation does a lot more legwork in making us rethink Tasha's character. Which, to be fair, is a worthy endeavour.
Forsythe, given that Brenner's father was his equal twenty years ago, assumes that Brenner is his equal today.
Gage's deadpan seriousness is exactly what Forsythe and Lazuria need this instant, and right now, they're glad to have it.
While we have all three of Tasha, Gage, and Forsythe on screen with their full portraits, I want to draw attention to a character design detail the game never does- look at their hair. All three of them have the same rat-tail braid down their rear shoulder. Someone on the design team gave the Lazurians some kind of cultural heritage. Sadly, this remains on the designers' shoulders- nothing in the narrative explains the significance of the braids. The only real clue is that the Lazurian generic doesn't have it, although given the generics are recolours between countries, I'm not sure that says much.
Brenner says this, already believing the story that Forsythe is the aggressor in this conflict without Forsythe even needing to say it.
Forsythe still goes ahead with the effort to single-handedly shoulder all blame personally, making it pretty clear that somewhere along the way, a miscommunication is occurring. This is giving me some pretty interesting insights into the main problem with making your heroes just a bit too aware of the right thing.
Brenner does the right thing and accepts that there is to be no retribution for anyone other than Forsythe alone.
...And Forsythe mentions something that implies awareness of the fact that Brenner isn't a major player in Rubinelle's government. Wow they don't want you asking too many questions.
Left unspoken: Brenner has uncritically been assuming Forsythe is the reason this hasn't been an option until now. This is a pretty big deal to not be making any ado over at this point in the story, where the consequences are about to become apparent.
Forsythe tells Brenner something that Brenner perhaps wishes he could have heard sooner- that he lived up to his father's legacy. Given what Rubinelle's government is implied to have made of his death, I'm sure the people he works with haven't been in a hurry to say that.
While Brenner and Forsythe have been talking, Will has been left with the surrendered Lazurians, and in particular, Tasha. When last Will and Tasha met, Will was absolutely clueless about what sort of things Tasha is familiar with Rubinelle doing, and he hasn't gotten any better informed since.
Tasha is going to take the opportunity to make her experiences crystal clear.
Will clearly believes that Tasha is either exaggerating propaganda or unaware of what Brenner's like, and tries to clear things up.
Tasha is not particularly responsive to his efforts.
Remember, Will was probably still buried under rubble when the events Tasha is recalling happened.
Given the sorts of things that have come out of Tasha's mouth in the times we've done battle with her, a certain degree of skepticism is certainly healthy.
But you know what? Tasha's story sounds believable when the actions are ascribed to Greyfield in particular.
Even Will, despite following Brenner into battles on Greyfield's say-so, realises that he can actually imagine Greyfield in these shoes. Greyfield took him aside and all but said "weak people don't deserve to live" to him personally- and sounded shocked Will would believe any different. The only thing Greyfield doesn't have is animosity to Isabella in specific.
Will is remembering that conversation and suddenly wishing he took more away from it than "I think I made him angry by not being his yes man."
Tasha doesn't have the highest opinion about the kind of person it would take to look at Greyfield and see nothing wrong. Will is probably thinking the same thing.
Oh yeah, speak of the devil, the man himself is here now that he doesn't need to do anything to claim the credit.
Brenner won in a tenth of the time it took his father to lose. To denigrate that would be to prove Brenner right that the only people who thought well of his father were in the Lazurian ranks.
Greyfield promptly outright takes over the whole business of the surrender.
Including taking over when it comes to the matter of Forsythe. And shoving his foot in his mouth as quickly as possible.
Any ambiguity over whose mouth now contains Greyfield's foot is completely intentional.
...Striking a prisoner of war? Checks notes Ah, modern prisoners of war are given the right to be "treated humanely with respect for their persons and their honour". Which honestly makes Greyfield's speech more of an offence than the actual strike.
As Greyfield has already demonstrated, he is not particularly interested in obeying the laws of a people who no longer exist.
Greyfield stood next to three Wolf victories and already went full megalomaniac. The screws were already loose.
I'm more impressed that he didn't go whole hog and declare himself a god.
What's about to happen is a scene that they mostly communicate with portraits, but they do have one sound effect for emphasis-
They added a gunshot to make it clear that Greyfield just ordered a man to be murdered.
Didn't even do it himself.
Forsythe recognises this for what it is, and entrusts the fates of the rest of the Lazurians to Brenner. He may not have much power here, but he's probably the most powerful person who cares about their well-being here.
There's a very particular quality about Greyfield that rankles much differently in the modern decade. Once upon a time, a man like him could be trusted to never be given significant enough power to get to this point.
And in light of that, the idea that Brenner only now realises who the real enemy is kinda comes off as a little too late.
This shot feels like it needed a separate portrait for Waylon holding a gun. Although whether they'd get away with it is another matter.
Although that's a funny thing to say after we saw Waylon kill a POW without remorse.
Surely swearing revenge in earshot while a gun is trained on you isn't good for your health.
Now that Greyfield has gotten this far, it's going to take more than a strongly worded complaint to stop him.
And I'm starting to regret being so effective in letting it happen.
Now this is far more clearly a moment of "we're done fighting Forsythe, so he's now available in the non-canon multiplayer modes". It's fairly obvious that we're not going to be fighting Forsythe again and why (he just got killed), and by making it obvious now what the relationship is between receiving COs and their plot status is, it makes it fairly clear the plot wasn't too enthusiastic about having us fight Lazurians for long. With that said, the fact that Forsythe's last battle came with his death does still leave one question on the table- are Tasha and Gage going to meet the same end?
Next time: We answer that question.
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