Balloon Brigadier

**Key Features** | »»»»»

*"Who goes to war in a flying balloon?"*

- A Custodian, upon seeing the Balloon Brigade in flight for the first time.
### Tactical Analysis

* **99 Balloons:** Flying in their respective hopper balloons, the Balloon Brigade takes care of the capitalists' buildings by shooting them with their grenade launchers.

* **Got him in my sights:** If needed, they can switch to their sniper rifles, giving them an edge against infantry below, due to their infallible accuracy.

* **Shot out of the sky:** Their hopper balloons can be blown up even by a well-aimed electric shock, fortunately, the Balloon Brigade has taken it upon themselves to wear parachutes, and once on the ground they can begin repairs until their balloon flies again. However, parachutes can also fail to activate, and grounded Balloon Brigadiers will just be as weak to anti-personnel weaponry as everybody else.

* **Balloon fight!:** Given enough experience in the field, the Balloon Brigade eventually learns how to snipe the pilots of enemy aircraft, causing them to immediately crash-land, and cluster grenades that let them take down multiple units. Further fixing their parachutes they can make them always deploy, ensuring a guaranteed safe landing in the event their shot down.

### Background

**El Telégrafo January 17, 1969 interview:**

**Miguel Rodríguez, Interviewer:** Today, we have a very special guest to interview today: one of the members of the highly-esteemed members of the Brigada Globo: Claudio Sosa! Mr. Sosa, mind if you make a little greeting to your colleagues and loved ones?

**Claudio Sosa, Balloon Brigadier:** Well, to all of my compadres back in Montevideo, good morning and make sure to stay away from coilguns. To my wife and kids back home, I promise I will be back for Pedro's birthday. Anyways, what do you want to talk about, Mr. Rodríguez?

**Rodríguez:** Well, your fellow citizens want to know more about your legendary Brigada Globo, such as their history and their exploits. Even I wanted to know how you successfully stormed that remote Humanitarian Guard outpost just in the Brazilian-Uruguayan border, picked off the soldiers there, and escaped without losing a man!

**Sosa:** I think that naturally comes with years of practice and experience, since we always train our flight skills with mock Allied or Combine outposts in the base though. But let me tell you something: you don't choose to join the Balloon Brigade. Instead, the Balloon Brigade *chooses* you if they deem you worthy.

**Rodríguez:** Why so?

**Sosa:** Let me tell you a story about the origins of the Brigada Globo, alright? First of all, the Tupamaros were our predecessors. Yes, they took their name from that Tupac Amaru. Anyways, ever since our induction to the Soviet Union, the Uruguayan military had a plan to create a special ops task force in charge of unconventional warfare against those who would attack us. It was not until six years later that Raúl had this great plan. Gathering us, well, since I was part of the original Tupamaros, he said that we would undertake a tactic very few soldiers even tried until now: doing our operations while flying in our personal hopper balloons.

**Rodríguez:** Sounds interesting... so, what difficulties and trials did you go through for the Brigada Globo to be successful as it is today?

**Sosa:** Yeah... (Sosa seemed uncertain to tell what happened at this point.) First of all: when we first announced our strategy, there were many people who actually volunteered themselves to join us! Of course, we were naturally overjoyed at the thought that a number of people were actually impressed with the Brigada Globo. So, we trained them as good as we can, gave them their personal hoppers, and... Many of them died. I did not know what went wrong when we trained them, but they still fell victim to lightning strikes, SAM batteries and strong winds. Their balloons just exploded, the lucky ones with their intact parachutes probably captured by them...With a heavy heart, Raúl said that from that day forward, they will only take the most elite of the trainees and the Uruguayan soldiers we have already, and we are also forced to adopt different strategies because of them. Back then, when we were charging into bases and throwing anti-structure grenades at them, we're now assassinating enemy soldiers from above with our sniper rifles, thanks to one of our own.

**Rodríguez:** But how do you make sure that most, if not everybody, survive?

**Sosa:** We learned a lot through the years, Mr. Rodríguez. We don't fly during thunderstorms, but if we have to, we carefully make our movements to lessen the chance of being struck by lightning. We only attack scattered armies and remote bases using long-ranged weapons, such as cluster grenade launchers and sniper rifles. We also make sure that anyone who volunteers to join the Balloon Brigades is not only able-bodied and skilled, but also a good pilot as well - you will have to spend your service above ground, not in it.

**Rodríguez:** Fascinating. So, what are the kinds of missions you and the Brigada usually undertake?

**Sosa:** Raiding Colombian banks, encountering Colombian drug cartels (and robbing from them), giving our nabbed money to the poor and wanting, providing support for the MIR, raiding rescuing our compadres from Mitrione's Habitacion Uno-Cero-Uno...

**Rodríguez:** I'm really sorry, but we have to cut this interview short.

**Sosa:** Mr. Rodríguez, I was just-

**Rodríguez:** You might be late for the Brigada. Goodbye now!

**Sosa:** Come on-

*(After this, the guards escorted Sosa out of the room.)*

## Brigadier Crew

 **Key Features** | »»»»»

*"..."*

- ...
### Tactical Analysis

* **(Title 1):** Crews of the Balloon who managed to bail out when shot down. The Brigadier Crews retain the veterancy they had prior to crashing and are still armed with their sniper rifle to protect themselves (unfortunely to bail out they had to abandon their grenades).

* **(Title 2):** Once in a safe area the Crew can activate their radio to call in command for another balloon, letting them take flight yet again.

* **(Title 3):** Due to normally being protected within their hot air balloon (even if said protection is a layer of wicker), the only armour the Crews have are the clothes on their back (and maybe a fur coat and heavy boots when operating in winter) so even a low caliber pistol can end them quickly, not helped is that their rifles are also really heavy, and often they brace said rifle on the balloon, making them slow to move.

* **(Title 4):** With time the very best Brigadier Crew would learn that the best way to survive when traped behind enemy lines is to simply hide, letting them use their surroundingsto remain invisible to the enemies while they wait for their new balloon.