"Intercept the Redguns"

"Intercept the Redguns"
General information
Client	Schneider
Stage	Watchpoint Alpha - Depth 1
Reward	Combat Log, COAM, Emblem
Music	"High Pressure"
Real world information
Game	ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON

"Intercept the Redguns" is a mission in Chapter 4 of ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON. It appears as a decision mission alongside "Ambush the Vespers."

In-game information

Combat zone: Watchpoint Alpha - Depth 1 Objective: Destroy Enemy AC/Eliminate Enemy Squad Reward: 400,000 COAM, Battle Log Details: Eliminate Michigan, the Redguns' top commanding officer, and destroy the Redguns' main MT force. Extra rewards based on number of enemies destroyed.

Objectives

1. Intercept Balam's main MT force
2. Defeat G1 Michigan and Balam's main MT force

Walkthrough

The mission is an endurance round where the player is pitted against a combined platoon of 55 MTs and the Liger Tail piloted by G1 Michigan himself, with no checkpoints or resupply. All manner of BAWS MT configurations are deployed in this fight. The waves deployed are:

• The first wave is a group of choppers and BAWS MTs. After a specific amount of time, the second wave will begin.
• The second wave are more BAWS MTs. The third wave will not appear until you kill some shielded MTs.
• The third wave are even more BAWS MTs, quadcopters with multi-missile pods, and a BAWS Tetrapod. After a specific amount of time, the fourth wave will appear.
• The fourth wave are yet even more BAWS MTs, and Michigan will take to the field directly and will start attacking. The fifth wave will not appear until Michigan has used his second Repair Kit or until most of his MT escorts are destroyed.
• The fifth and final wave are unsurprisingly more BAWS MTs, and the last BAWS Tetrapod.

AC setup plays an important role here, as it must be able to deal with both numerous standard enemies, and several powerful ones in-between. Additionally, maneuverability is also an important factor as it is very much advisable to be able to quickly dodge and weave around the enemies and avoid getting surrounded or gunned down, the key is to save as much AP and repair kits as possible for the final fight against Michigan. It is also not wise to underestimate the Redguns at this point, even if they're just largely made-up of cannon fodder, as they can be deceptively brutal if you allow them to gang-up on you.

It is recommended to deal with the Tetrapods as soon as they deploy each wave, as they can become quite the harassers as they're equipped to boost and have grenade cannons equipped. Once Michigan deploys, it is recommended to not engage him immediately, as this runs the risk of being overrun by his remaining MT bodyguards while you're dealing with him. An advised strategy is to dance around the map and avoid him, while destroying everyone else.

Once Ayre announces that only Michigan is left, that is the time to safely engage him. He plays out much like his Arena counterpart, but has two repair kits to burn through. If Michigan is destroyed earlier than this, the final wave will still deploy, as the remaining Redguns are galvanized by Michigan's tragic bad fall that they're all willing to follow their commander to the death if needed.

The mission ends once all 56 Redguns are destroyed.

Collectibles

• LOGHUNT:
  • G1 Michigan (Platinum)

Dialogue

Condition	English	Japanese	Audio
Briefing	Handler Walter: Got a job for you, 621. This one's from the Arquebus Group. V.VIII Pater: Raven. This request comes from our affiliate, Schneider. First, I'll brief you on the state of conflict between Arquebus and Balam at Watchpoint Alpha. The Watchpoint's defenses inflicted heavy losses on Balam's initial wave, with many deserting. More recently, they've engaged with our forces only to continue their downward spiral. Despite this, the Redguns' commander, G1 Michigan, remains alive and well... with his AC LIGER TAIL being readied to lead the surviving Balam MT force as we speak. We want you to intercept them— to hammer the final nail into Balam's coffin. Should you decline, we have V.IV lined up to take over. This concludes the briefing. Awaiting your favorable reply.	-	-
Sortie	Handler Walter: ...Just get it done. There's nothing more for me to say.	-	-
Mission start	Handler Walter: Commence mission. Ayre: Enemy readings—paratroops, incoming! G1 Michigan: Attack! Get in there, you maggots! Balam MT Squad Member (Kennebec): Looks like Arquebus sent some clown on a suicide mission. Cute, real cute. G1 Michigan: The only clown around here is YOU, Kennebec! You're talking about the Wallclimber. The Wormkiller. The only G13 who's managed to live this long! Until the LIGER TAIL deploys, the odds are NOT in your favor. You better keep the emergency eject primed!	-	-
Second wave	Ayre: Second wave incoming! Balam MT Squad Member: Yeah. I heard that merc took down G5 Iguazu. Balam MT Squad Member (Albany): Iguazu...? Oh yeah, the deserter who pissed his pants and ran. G1 Michigan: Albany! I'd forgotten we still kept you around! Iguazu's worth a hundred of you! Which means, Albany, the merc is worth twenty of him! You're doing nothing productive... Why don't you do the math for us?! Balam MT Squad Member: The answer's 2,000 Albanys, sir! G1 Michigan: Shut your stink hole and start shooting! Balam MT Squad Member: Uhhh... Sir, yessir!	-	-
Third wave	Ayre: Third wave incoming, Raven! Balam MT Squad Member: Geronimo! Balam MT Squad Member: <war cry> G1 Michigan: LIGER TAIL's gonna be good to go soon! Keep the target busy! Balam MT Squad Member: Ah, c'mon, sir. You gonna ride out to steal all the credit? Balam MT Squad Member: You got plenty of medals already, sir. We want some of the glory too! G1 Michigan: Fine. Whoever takes down G13 gets to take home a Balam Cobalt Medal! ...They're good, you know— they go real far when you throw 'em. Balam MT Squad Member: All LIGER TAIL checks complete, sir! Balam MT Squad Member: Don't push the old girl too hard, eh? G1 Michigan: Finally! I damn near missed the show, Potomac! Listen up, maggots! This field trip is now a hunting expedition! You can go home now— or follow me if you got a death wish! Balam MT Squad Member: Ready to die, sir!	-	-
Player AC destroyed	Balam MT Squad Member: Confirmed. Target destroyed! G1 Michigan: Good job, maggots. This field trip is a success!	-	-
Fourth wave (G1 Michigan's arrival)	Ayre: AC, LIGER TAIL incoming! It's G1 Michigan! Balam MT Squad Member (1): Go go go! Follow Michigan! Balam MT Squad Member (2): Give the LIGER TAIL some cover! Balam MT Squad Member (1): <war cry> Handler Walter: Time to finish the job, 621. Don't let them overwhelm you. Shake off the pressure. G1 Michigan: Those of you who withdrew, keep your lousy asses low! You're gonna need more training... Put that in your diaries! Balam MT Squad Member (Osawa): Sir...! I'm a useless maggot, sir! G1 Michigan: If it isn't Osawa, our resident mathematician! Go multiply your rifle training and see if you can learn to do something useful!	-	-
Fifth wave	Ayre: Fifth wave! They're surging us!	-	-
Eliminating 50 MTs	Ayre: 50 Balam MTs destroyed. ...They can't have anything left to throw at us.	-	-
G1 Michigan uses second repair kit (MTs remaining)	Balam MT Squad Member (Osawa): How can one merc do this alone?! G1 Michigan: Guess HQ needs your help with the math, Osawa! (Balam MT Squad Member: At least we can add numbers!)	-	-
Eliminating Balam MT squad (G1 Michigan alive)	Ayre: The Balam MT squad has been wiped out. That just leaves Michigan! G1 Michigan: Watch and learn, maggots. I'll show you how to slug it out!	-	-
Player AC destroyed	G1 Michigan: We bagged the big one! Relief team, to the front! Get those worms bawling for their mommas onto stretchers.	-	-
Eliminating G1 Michigan (MTs eliminated)	G1 Michigan: Maggots! Do you read me? You can tell this to posterity: mean old Michigan died of a bad fall! Ayre: AC, LIGER TAIL destroyed. G1 Michigan down. Handler Walter: ...It's over. Good holding out, 621. Our work here is done.	-	-
Eliminating G1 Michigan (MTs remaining)	G1 Michigan: Maggots! Do you read me? You can tell this to posterity: mean old Michigan died of a bad fall! Ayre: AC, LIGER TAIL destroyed. G1 Michigan down. That leaves the MTs to take care of! Balam MT Squad Member: You gotta be kidding me... Not Michigan! Balam MT Squad Member: He must have given as good as he got. We can still win this!	-	-
Player AC destroyed	Handler Walter: 621...! Not like this!	-	-
Eliminating Balam MT squad (G1 Michigan defeated)	Ayre: The Balam MT force has been destroyed. Mission accomplished. Handler Walter: ...It's over. Good holding out, 621. Our work here is done.	-	-
Debriefing	COM: One new message. Handler Walter: Didn't think I'd see the end of the Redguns... ...You did your job, 621. Michigan knew the score. Balam's withdrawn from Rubicon. The politicians will be fighting their war now... Where there's Coral, there's blood. That's how it's always been, 621. Ayre: ... Raven. Are we...doomed to spark conflict wherever we go?	-	-

Tips/Strategies

• The background dialogue mentions that Michigan can't join the fight yet because he needs to get the Liger Tail AC warmed up, so you will need to face a few waves of his soldiers before facing him.
• There 3 waves of MTs before you can fight Michigan. The first wave has no requirements so the second wave will appear after a specific amount of time.
• The second wave requires you to kill a few shielded MTs
• The third wave ends regardless if you destroy the giant tetrapod, Michigan will appear after a certain amount of time has passed.
• Michigan has the same abilities as his Arena counterpart, with the addition of 2 heals and the assistance of 50+ MT of various types attacking you from all sides.
• Mentioned by Ayre, it is ideal that you constantly keep moving and taking out as much soldiers as you can before each wave comes and the accumulated numbers become to much to handle. Which would mean you would need to constantly fight on the move with you back against Michigan. This may not be ideal if you AC is not built for speed and endurance.
• An additional difficulty is the numerous MTs everywhere and Michigan's high aerial mobility with his tetrapod build, it will be incredibly difficult to lock onto him when your auto-lock is constantly attaching to every minion on screen. This is even more difficult if you don't have high graphics and framerate, as you can't make split-second decisions as to where he is.
• You can make it easier by exploiting the requirements of each wave mentioned above. The MTs are not indefinite, there is a finite number of MTs in each wave and in the entire fight, albeit a very large amount. You will need to kill all of them to win so kill them is not necessarily a waste of bullets.
• Michigan will use the repair kit twice throughout the whole fight. He will use the armor expansion shield before he heals, but he can't use it again.
• Michigan will be assisted by an additional fifth wave of MTs midway into the fight after using his second Repair Kit, which includes a second giant tetrapod.
• Because of the massive numbers and being a battle of attrition, the CHEESE BUILD (2 miniguns, 2 songbirds, and a tank build) is not considered ideal, as you are likely to run out of bullets and be too heavy to be continuously moving.
• The flamethrower build is considered highly ideal in this situation. Most of the issues will not only be from Michigan's high mobility, but from the numerous small MT's. A flame thrower can pass through multiple enemies at once, so waiting for them to group up so you can sweep through them with a flamethrower it much more efficient for ammo conservation.
• A possible cheese strategy is to never engage until Michigan comes out. There are two possible hiding spots to simply wait out the waves until Michigan arrives.
• One hiding spot is in the center of the map, the broken NEPENTHES (the giant laser gun that you destroyed in Mission "UNDERGROUND EXPLORATION - DEPTH 1". Go to the top of the laser and you should be able to find a crevice among the broken wreckage where almost nothing can reach you (I mention almost because there are flying missile drones who can graze you. Deal with them and it should make it a permanent hiding spot to cool your head. The crevice is so good that not even Michigan could reach you.
• Second hiding spot is in the corner of your spawn. You spawn in a hallway to opens up the giant ring-shaped arena. There is an indent where you can sit and wait out the enemies. This spot makes it impossible for you to be hit by drone missiles, but enemies can still go down the hall and reach you. Due to enemy AI, they walk in a straight path with occasional jumping. Only a few of them at a time will ever confront you, making it easy to pick off without being swamped. Most of them are likely to pile up and be stuck on the divots of the map.
• Because of Michigan's mobility and his constant support of all of Balam, fighting in the hallway that was your spawn is a possible strategy. The tight location makes it hard for Michigan to fly out of range. Because youre more likely to be at point-blank range, he's less likely to dodge. (note that fighting in such location will make it harder for you to dodge enemy attacks shooting into the hallway). You will still run the risk of being swarmed in a corner by the other MTs. As such it is still recommended to take out the smaller enemies first. Do note that Michigan also has shielding so this method might not be the best if you are unable to outdamage him.
• A good strategy to counter Michigan's attempt to maintain aerial superiority, it's best to use AoE attacks, like plasma explosions, since they linger in the air and create less space for Michigan to move and flamethrowers.
• Flamethrowers and the Napalm launcher when shot at the floor, walls, or ceiling, will create fire zones that will burn any enemy touching them. Michigan may be able to dodge the flamethrowers from time to time, but he will still need to move around and the tight hallway means he will always come into contact with something on fire. The accumulated burn damage means that he will take burn damage overtime (great for doing damage without wasting ammo or aiming) and the burn damage means he takes additional damage since the fire burnt his damage resistance.
• When you kill Michigan, note that the fight is not necessarily over because you still need to kill the remaining enemies.
• If you wish to take down Michigan first for quicker completion time, it is highly recommended to not only save up most of your heavy hitting weapons’ ammo but also bring a speedy and evasive build to evade heavy gunfire from the surrounding MTs whilst constantly maintaining ACS buildup pressure on him. It is also therefore recommended to bring a melee armament to whittle down smaller enemies in the initial phases. It is also crucial to take out the tetrapod in the 3rd phase as soon as you can before Michigan is deployed.

Gallery

Watchpoint Alpha - Depth 1