Attempting to Shatter the Skies: An Ace Combat Plan Quest

Special: Secretary-General Kane's Inaugural Address (Canon)
"Brothers, we live in a world of guided missiles and misguided men, a world where we have chosen to avenge wounds rather than bind them up. We find ourselves burdened with a great and terrible purpose. Not Ulysses, though that has been the catalyst, but rather to build a new world, a better world. To take up the technologies of peace, and turn them to building a world where none shall sleep under bridges, where none shall feel the clawing of hunger, where we can forge swords into plowshares, and turn our genius to the betterment of all mankind."

Kane turned, eyes to the north.
"To those great states and empires, I say this. We reach out a hand in friendship. We reach out in the hopes that you can look beyond your narrow self interest, and towards a world where we no longer need to fear our neighbors, but greet them as friends and allies. To take this opportunity to bind up wounds, and let go of old conflicts, long paid for many times over in blood and treasure. For we have greater concerns than our flags and banners."

Kane turned to the east.
"To our friends around the world, I say this. We must act if we want to live in a better world. I can offer nothing immediate, but blood, and sweat, and toil. It is by those things, by standing together as brothers and working united with one vision, one purpose, that we shall achieve our goals. Not just survival, not just, survival not just to see another dawn, but to see a new dawn of justice for all"

Kane turned to the south
To those who fear us, who fear what dangers we may bring. I will not tell you you are wrong. I will not tell you that we are nothing more than scientists and dreamers, for we are a brotherhood, united, with one vision, and one purpose. But I will tell you that our goal is to act with charity towards all, and malice towards none. I only ask of you that you judge us by our actions, and the content of our character.

And finally, he turned west.
And for those who have opposed us in the past, I offer a blank slate. I am willing to wipe the slate clean, bury our hatchets, so long as you do the same. Forgiveness may not come easily, but can we say that our truths, our conflicts, are more important than facing the problems of today, and leaving the past in the past.


/AN: probably going to come back to this, but have this as a current WIP version of Kane's GDI thing.
 
I wonder what that actually looks like if all of the Superpowers love us.
Probably that they're seeing us as a proxy and that we're going to have some quick two-stepping to do if we want to keep them sweet while they're trying to play us as a card against each other, because Kane has done the diplomatic equivalent of kiting checks.
 
"Brothers, we live in a world of guided missiles and misguided men, a world where we have chosen to avenge wounds rather than bind them up. We find ourselves burdened with a great and terrible purpose. Not Ulysses, though that has been the catalyst, but rather to build a new world, a better world. To take up the technologies of peace, and turn them to building a world where none shall sleep under bridges, where none shall feel the clawing of hunger, where we can forge swords into plowshares, and turn our genius to the betterment of all mankind."

Kane turned, eyes to the north.
"To those great states and empires, I say this. We reach out a hand in friendship. We reach out in the hopes that you can look beyond your narrow self interest, and towards a world where we no longer need to fear our neighbors, but greet them as friends and allies. To take this opportunity to bind up wounds, and let go of old conflicts, long paid for many times over in blood and treasure. For we have greater concerns than our flags and banners."

Kane turned to the east.
"To our friends around the world, I say this. We must act if we want to live in a better world. I can offer nothing immediate, but blood, and sweat, and toil. It is by those things, by standing together as brothers and working united with one vision, one purpose, that we shall achieve our goals. Not just survival, not just, survival not just to see another dawn, but to see a new dawn of justice for all"

Kane turned to the south
To those who fear us, who fear what dangers we may bring. I will not tell you you are wrong. I will not tell you that we are nothing more than scientists and dreamers, for we are a brotherhood, united, with one vision, and one purpose. But I will tell you that our goal is to act with charity towards all, and malice towards none. I only ask of you that you judge us by our actions, and the content of our character.

And finally, he turned west.
And for those who have opposed us in the past, I offer a blank slate. I am willing to wipe the slate clean, bury our hatchets, so long as you do the same. Forgiveness may not come easily, but can we say that our truths, our conflicts, are more important than facing the problems of today, and leaving the past in the past.


/AN: probably going to come back to this, but have this as a current WIP version of Kane's GDI thing.
Missing some quotation marks but otherwise no notes. 11/10.

Also, tonight is my in-person gaming night so not sure I'll be able to draft a full plan. But whatever plan wins had best have Cult Scare, you cowards. :p
 
+15: Arctic Assault Mission 1 Walkthrough
Command And Conquer : Artic Assault
Mission 1 : The Antartic Ice Fields​


"Come in, Commander. Don't let the heat out."
"As you can see, we're still busy setting up. Can't tell what Kane sees in this forgotten wasteland, but at least it's quiet.
We've got supply planes coming in, so first priority will be to finish setting up our airport to make sure to recieve them. These supplies are essential to our purpose here, so don't dally. No one wants to land replenishment flights at night, and sun sets fast this time of year. Keep an eye on your weather radar. Winter storms are fast approaching, and icing conditions are omnipresent. Excess ice can easily bring down an unprepared pilot.
Finally, we've heard reports of an Erusian carrier operating in the area. Officially, they're on a scientific whaling expedition, but their forward observers have crept a bit close to our liking."



Available intel documents

  • Nod Archives
    • Erusia
    • Brotherhood of Nod
    • Global Defense Initiative
  • Nod Aircraft Recognition Manual
    • C-17 GlobeMaster
    • F4E Phantom II


So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Antartica, and Kane's newest attempt to bring peace and unity to this fallen world. Now, contrary to the game's title, we're not actually in the artic. We're in antartica, the entirely opposite side of the world. But Kane has never let small details like that bother him, and so we won't either. An asteroid has been detected on a collision course with the planet, and it's our duty to funnel as much money as possible to the military industrial complex as possible in the name of dealing with it. First step, the construction of an evil lair in the antartica.

But let's leave what is to common for what is to come, and just get going with the tutorial.

First, we got ourselves a quick refreshment of the camera and movement controls. Nothing too special to see here, all RTS standard. Select the commander and walk them through the desolate hellhole of your artic base. Say hello to RJ MacReady, and Dr Blair, pet the dog if you want to get the achievement, and then enter the control tower to start the missions first cut scene. Nothing special happens. Commander Ivanova introduces herself, but beyond her rather questionable choice of winter attire, she does not much important to say. What is important is that we unlock the construction interface, and the next section of the tutorial.

Construction wise, controls are not much different from earlier iterations. We send out our harvesters to dig up resources in the snow, power up some diesel generators to get the refinery going, clear the runway with the mobile excavators, all the staples of the genre. Once you've finished clearing the airstrip and have powered up the weather radar, the next sections of the mission can begin. Kane's bringing in supplies, and he's got one hell of a camping trip planned.

12 C-17 Globemasters are coming in for a landing in 4 waves, and you've got to put them all on the ground before the snow storms get them. Now, despite this being the tutorial this can get a bit hectic if you mess up the way you are doing things, so here's some tips.
1. Snow storms exist only on the ice shelf, so keep planes in a holding pattern out to sea if your airstrips are getting overwhelmed.
2. The final wave has limited fuel, and will spawn as soon as the first plane of the third wave lands. Make sure you clear waves 1 and 2 first.
3. Your base comes with 2 airstrips, one intended for jet launches, the other for cargo landings. But construction tools are unlocked, and you do have enough resources to extend one strip. Doing this trivializes much of the challenge.

When the last C-17 hits the ice, Ivanova will inform you that the Erusian whale watchers have breached the outer perimeter. Now Kane would very much prefer to keep the equipment he's unloading under wrap, so we got to scare them away.
Go ahead and finish the hangars to unlock unit recruitment. This allows us to deploy the venerable F4E Phantom II. Cheap, dependeable, an excellent solution to scare away some Erusian whale watchers. Technically, you only need to train 1 jet to finish the mission, but let's go ahead and recruit a wing anyway.

Once your wing's been equipped, load them up and send them out on an intercept. Make sure to order your forces to hold fire. Gunfire will result in an international incident, and a mission loss. As your forces approach, the enemy will divert. What follows is a little cat and mouse game, but once you've intercepted them 5 times, the enemy will run away and victory will be yours.
Fun thing. Only shooting the enemy causes the incident. If you happen to chase them into a snowstorm, that's just a happy little incident.

Next up :
Hotter climates, as we're send into the radioactive wastelands of Belkan to pick up an old acquitance.
 
Well, I'm not going to give another free point, so instead you get this early. I'll do a mechanics post later but omakes will have a +5/+10/+15 scaling bonus as in other quests, so enjoy having a +15 in reserve before turn one.
 
[] Nod Researchers (-3 Points)
[] Subterranean Construction (-3 Points)
[] Eyes Everywhere (-1 Point)
[] Equal Opportunity Employer (-1 Point)
[] Voice of the Forgotten (-1 Point)

-9 (+1 for omake) = -8

[] Commander Deployed (+1 Point)
[] Peacekeeping Obligations (+1 Point)
[] Promised Prosperity (+3 Points)
[] High Expectations (+3 Points)
+8 = 0

I don't really want agricultural shortfall, but I could see taking Cult Scare if it meant upgrading one of the superpowers to full strength.
 
[X] Plan: Soft Power
-[X] Traits:
--[X] Nod Researchers (-3 Points)
--[X] Subterranean Construction (-3 Points)
--[X] Eyes Everywhere (-1 Point)
--[X] Equal Opportunity Employer (-1 Point)
--[X] Voice of the Forgotten (-1 Point)
--[X] High Expectations (+3 Points)
--[X] Cult Scare (+3 Points)
--[X] Commander Deployed (+1 Point)
--[X] Peacekeeping Obligations (+1 Point)
--[X] Brotherhood Study Sessions (0 Points)
-[X] Relations:
--[X] Osean Federation (Superpower) (Neutral) (0 points)
--[X] Union of Yuktobanian Republics (Superpower) (Neutral) (0 points)
--[X] Republic of Emmeria (Great Power) (Disliked) (+2 points)
--[X] Federal Republic of Estovakia (Great Power) (Disliked) (+2 points)
--[X] Federal Republic of Erusea (Great Power) (Hated) (+4 points)
--[X] Federation of Central Usea (Great Power) (Hated) (+4 points)
--[X] Kingdom of Erusea (Local Power) (Loved) (-4 points)
--[X] Republic of Antarctica (Local Power) (Loved) (-4 points)
--[X] Federal Republic of Aurelia (Local Power) (Loved) (-4 points)
--[X] Democratic Republic of Leasath (Local Power) (Loved) (-4 points)
--[X] Principality of Belka (Pariah State) (Loved) (+4 points)

As I said before, this plan has us placed in a great spot geopolitically. Not only do all our neighbors love us while those who do hate us are too far or too occupied to act against us in a significant manner, we're positioned to stop the war, unite our continent, and pull Leasath and Aurelia towards us in order to advance our Superweapon research and gain access to more funding.

Not only that, but those positions also help redice and remove the drawbacks we did pick.
 
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In case it wasn't clear, traits and relations use the same pool of points, so if you stack negatives you can in fact make everyone love you.
 
rather have them all Neutral then have ppl hating us for no reason.
Plan: Soft Power plays into the lore we established. Usea and Erusea hate us because we're close to the Kingdom of Erusea, the monarchists who were overthrown and exiled in the founding of the Republic of Erusea, while Emmeria and Estovakia hate us because we're close to Chaldea, a secessionist colony that used to be a joint project between the Anean countries.

Similarly, the Aurelians, and by extension Leasath, love us because the Antarc Throne are their cousins, and we publicly are a organization under the Antarc Throne.

Having everyone be neutral isn't really a good strategy since that means we'll have to build our international relationships from the ground up when we have a bunch of ticking time bombs on our hands (The Ulysses Asteroid and the 2nd Antarctic War). Besides, in the neutral route, making friends in international politics means their enemies become ours too.

Instead of spending a lot of energy, resources, and most importantly time on building relationships up, it's best we start off knowing where we stand internationally already, and Plan: Soft Power solidly makes friends out of our neighbors, and enemies out of the people who would hate us for our ties to said neighbors.

It helps that as I've said before, our enemies are either too far away, or will be too occupied to spend too much effort on us anyways, while our friends have mutual interest in getting our superweapon up ASAP since they'll be under its coverage.
 
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well then at least the one lowest above and below that then. rather not get into fights as a totally new factor before we can do anything about them.
 
well then at least the one lowest above and below that then. rather not get into fights as a totally new factor before we can do anything about them.
Emmeria and Estovakia dislike us, but they can't really do much since we're in the south pole and they're near the north pole. Also, Ulysses will impact their continent even if they don't know it yet.

Those who hate us, such as the Federal Republic of Erusea and Federation of Central Usea are on the continent most affected by Ulysses and currently experiencing a escalating refugee crisis. They quite literally have bigger problems than the GDI and can't devote much in the way of resources or effort towards stopping us.

At most, I expect them to be obstructionist at any IUN meetings, but it's not like we're completely defenseless as once again, we're actually friendly with a bunch of local powers who have it in their best interest that the GDI succeeds and will act accordingly to counter them. With Voice of the Forgotten and Eyes Everywhere, we also have the potential to influence the public in both nations to act against foreign policy hostile to us.

After all, the GDI is making real progress towards a superweapon that will shoot down Ulysses, the asteroid that's estimated to devastate the Usean Continent and its people.

We can't really afford to make those two nations only dislike us, because we don't have enough points. The alternative is taking points by making a superpower dislike us, and that's too much pressure starting out.
 
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[X] Plan: Soft Power
-[X] Traits:
--[X] Nod Researchers (-3 Points)
--[X] Subterranean Construction (-3 Points)
--[X] Eyes Everywhere (-1 Point)
--[X] Equal Opportunity Employer (-1 Point)
--[X] Voice of the Forgotten (-1 Point)
--[X] High Expectations (+3 Points)
--[X] Cult Scare (+3 Points)
--[X] Commander Deployed (+1 Point)
--[X] Peacekeeping Obligations (+1 Point)
--[X] Brotherhood Study Sessions (0 Points)
-[X] Relations:
--[X] Osean Federation (Superpower) (Neutral) (0 points)
--[X] Union of Yuktobanian Republics (Superpower) (Neutral) (0 points)
--[X] Republic of Emmeria (Great Power) (Disliked) (+2 points)
--[X] Federal Republic of Estovakia (Great Power) (Disliked) (+2 points)
--[X] Federal Republic of Erusea (Great Power) (Hated) (+4 points)
--[X] Federation of Central Usea (Great Power) (Hated) (+4 points)
--[X] Kingdom of Erusea (Local Power) (Loved) (-4 points)
--[X] Republic of Antarctica (Local Power) (Loved) (-4 points)
--[X] Federal Republic of Aurelia (Local Power) (Loved) (-4 points)
--[X] Democratic Republic of Leasath (Local Power) (Loved) (-4 points)
--[X] Principality of Belka (Pariah Sta
te) (Loved) (+4 points)
Just a heads up, the vote counter thinks this is a separate vote because of the space between "(Pariah Sta" and "te)". Best to just copy and paste the plan name alone.
 
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