Mission 08 - Operation Gaugamela

## 08 - Operation Gaugamela

The left-center flank, helmed by Admiral Colburne.

## Belligerents

* United Federation
* Black Swan *(Unexpected reinforcement)*

* Sylon Collective

## Commanders

* Benjamin Colburne
* Victor Komarov
* Karl Morser *(KIA)*
* Zhao Peng
* Salamon Zamor

* Unknown Sylon Praetor

## Forces

* Federation defensive perimeter, including a Defense Platform.
* Federation attack vessels including Avenger battleships.
* Teller thermonuclear support vessels.
* Pasteur and Joseon-class support vessels.
* UFN Trinity and UFN Ulysses.

* Complete Sylon arsenal, excluding Assimilators

## Objectives

* Hold against the Sylon forces.

* Eliminate all Human forces.

## Casualties and losses

Extensive
Massive

## Involved Characters

* Benjamin Colburne
* Greg Leskovski
* Victor Komarov
* Salamon Zamor

*Operation Gaugamela* (named after the eventually titled **Battle of Gaugamela**) is the eight mission in Chapter 01 - Hostile Visitors in the Five Nations campaign.

## Setting

Over three months following the successful defense of the Tereshkova Station, the United Federation under Sky Marshall Victor Komarov had reformed itself by increasing it's control over the economy.  With this reform, factories on Mars, Earth and other colonies effectively made a turnaround as recruitment sky-rocketed, a new United Federation Navy having been formed out of new late-tech warships and hundreds of fighter spacecraft, on which Komarov employed towards reclaiming the Sol System from the Sylon invaders.

However, while the latest weeks have been experiencing little Sylon activity, suddenly Komarov summoned all Admirals (including the recently-promoted Benjamin Colburne) to an emergency conference, on which the recent intelligence report was clearly disturbing - the Sylons had amassed their forces into a singular super-fleet, all targeted towards Earth.  However, Komarov already had a battle plan in order to counter this massive Sylon assault, codenamed Operation Gaugamela, to take place in Jupiter, which many times was responsible for safeguarding Earth, but this time it would be assisted.

The planning for Operation Gaugamela was one unusual, meant to divide the Sylon super-fleet into manageable forces, where the slower battleships of Komarov's fleet would engage the Sylon forces at the center, while Komarov would mobilize with the fastest vessels to the very edge of the right flank, luring as many drone ships as possible where a decisive blow by the heaviest battleships would divide the Sylon forces.

For the operation to succeed, Komarov split the United Federation Navy into four fleets, each responsible for a specific flank - Admirals Karl Morser and Colburne, respectively, would cover the left and left-center, Morser commanding the Martian fleet.  Admiral Zhao Peng would defend the right flank as Komarov himself would lead the right-center, with the UN fleet and the forces of Luna.

## The Best-Laid Plans...

Colburne's forces arrived at the left-center flank where a modest barricade station was formed, with forward watch stations comprised of Astro Telescopes for early warnings, Barricade Sats for fighter contention, KEIKO Sentries and a Defense Platform, though devoid of most production facilities, so his forces were limited, even with reinforcements in the form of the newest Avenger-class battleships and a couple of Teller thermonuclear support vessels.  As with previous confrontations, both Colburne and Greg Leskovski helmed, respectively, the UFN Ulysses and UFN Trinity.  Leskovski himself expressed some concern with Sky Marshall Komarov's gamble, stating it required both perfect timing and maneuvering.  Colburne reminded Leskovski to put some trust in the Sky Marshall's plan.

Colburne's forces didn't have much time to properly prepare a defense, as the Sylons had arrived with guns blazing at the perimeter, with multiple waves of drone ships, light and heavy, which forced the Admiral's limited fleet into evasive maneuvers to prevent the lines from collapsing, all while the Tellers unleashed their nuclear missile stockpiles.  Amongst the Sylon ships was a new class, a heavy Sylon cruiser of strong armor and shielding, which unleashed dangerous plasma-like charges at close range.  In the meanwhile, Sky Marshall Komarov began his planned maneuvers, luring the drones away from the super-fleet.

The battle tipped into the Sylons' favor, however, as the super-fleet had overrun the Martian fleet under Admiral Morser, making Colburne's forces the official left flank, and the attacks from the Sylons at Morser's flank intensified.

## In the Nick of Time

As the battle seemed a losing one, where Leskovski pointed the line would not hold for long, especially due to having too few ships to defend such a wide frontline, suddenly new vessels appeared at Jupiter's orbit - the Black Swan under Salamon Zamor (very likely in retribution for Colburne keeping his word and providing Zamor and his forces amnesty after the assistance in escaping the Caribou System) - and joined Admiral Colburne's forces with the ships they had, which could hold firmly the advancing Sylon forces.

Eventually, the central part of the Sylon super-fleet started to collapse, the Sky Marshall's plan having been successful, yet the supporting drones continued advancing to Colburne's lines, which held nevertheless.

Eventually, the super-fleet fell apart and most of the drone vessels fled back to the fringe edge of the Kuiper Belt.

## Walkthrough

The player will start with the UFN Trinity, the UFN Ulysses, six Orcas, two Hailstorms, two Trinity frigates, two Pasteurs, one Joseon, a St. George with a full wing of Hurricanes (twelve) which should readily be docked within the carrier, and two Teller vessels which will be the linchpin of the player's defense, especially in Hard difficulty.  Later on the player will receive two Avenger battleships which should definitely accompany the player's battlegroup.  Though having a Ship Factory, the player will be limited to Hurricanes and can only mine up to two Metal asteroids, which will rather be used for further Hurricanes and laying Moored Mines with the Ulysses and Trinity frigates.

The Teller is capable of launching a single nuclear missile which deals an impressive splash damage in a large area, which will be useful for devastating the large numbers of Spears, Twinblades, Glooms and Arsons that will be employed in this mission.  However, these nuclear missiles may not be as so effective against Shades, Eclipses and Plasma Raids, these two latter being the greatest threats to the player's forces in this mission - the Sylons will have the Integrated Remodulator research (which allows the Spears to perform instant hits, making them even more dangerous when housed within Eclipses), and Plasma Raids can devastate the St. George carrier in a few hits, let alone the other less armored ships, if the raids are allowed to get too close.

The first wave will arrive from the southwest and will consist of strong numbers of Spears, Twinblades, Glooms, Caldrons and some Absorbers, on which a single Teller nuclear missile should dispose of, allowing the battegroup to dispose the remainders easily.  The second wave, however, will include Arsons and come from the southeast, on which a timed nuclear missile from the second Teller will make a large difference, as well as disposing of the Arsons as quickly as possible.  The player may need to pull back and handle this wave piece by piece as the rest destroys the southeastern Astro Telescope and nearby allied (white) buildings.

The third wave, from the southwest, will be particularly dangerous, as it'll be comprised of Shades, Eclipses filled with Spears and Plasma Raids, which the player must definitely preserve the Hailstorms as they're capable of providing mobile detection for the battlegroup.  The St. George should be used for briefly tanking the damage of the Plasma Raids and the Eclipses should be destroyed as quickly as possible, as the Spears will be too well protected by their carrier bonus.  The Joseon's EMP missile can be useful in briefly stopping some clusters of attacking Spears, as well as the Plasma Raids.  The fourth wave will come from the west and will comprise mostly of Spears, Twinblades, Absorbers, Caldrons, Glooms and Arsons.

After the fourth wave is dealt with, the Black Swan will arrive with the Black Caesar II, another Khan battleship, another St. George and the Hurricanes to fill it, a few Gunboats and some Captured Icarii.  These forces, including the Black Caesar II, should be included into the battlegroup to both add firepower and replenish losses.

The player, especially on Hard difficulty, will have a higher chance of surviving most waves until the Black Swan reinforcements arrive by doing the following:

**1)** *Immediately dock all Hurricanes at the St. George and have all Engineer Shuttles mining the Metal asteroids while attaching the Icarus to the Mining Station.*
**2)** *Group the St. George, Orcas, Hailstorms and Trinity frigates in one group, the Pasteurs on another group, the Tellers in a third group and the Joseon in an isolated group, to allow for easier control when handling the waves.  The player should take this battlegroup to the south, north of the asteroid where the southernmost Astro Telescope is, to intercept the first wave.*
**3)** *Leave the UFN Trinity in a safe corner, but take the UFN Ulysses to the western corner, close to the base's entrance leading to the Command Station, and start laying Moored Mines non-stop, infesting the area with them, before the third and fourth waves arrive.  The Sylons won't possess detection (Masks) but the Moored Mines **can** detect stealth units, which will be useful for intercepting the Plasma Raids, Shades and Eclipses.  The player should be sure to watch for the Ulysses so it's not left in the open when these waves arrive: if either it or the UFN Trinity (or the Black Caesar II, afterwards) are destroyed, the mission is failed.*
**4)** *Definitely keep the Pasteurs and Tellers in the rear, only advancing the Tellers a bit forward to launch the nuclear missiles but immediately pulling back after launch, as the Sylon forces will target those and the Pasteurs.  Losing the Tellers will spell eventual defeat for the player, as there aren't enough numbers and firepower to fight the Sylons toe-to-toe, even with the Swan reinforcements.*
**5)** *Each following wave will arrive shortly after the first one is destroyed, giving the player some time to position forces and Tellers properly.*
**6)** *The third wave will attack the northwestern entrance, so the Moored Mines planted there might be useful in dealing with the Eclipses and some Plasma Raids before the fleet can pull back to engage from the rear.  It's ideal for the player to focus on one portion of this wave while letting the remainder continue their advance for a while.*
The fifth wave will arrive from the south and charge the southern entrance, where the Defense Platform is, but will first stop to attack the Astro Telescope at the center of the map, which will be ideal for the Teller cruisers to unleash their nuclear missiles at the clustered enemy forces.  This wave, aside from the numbers of Spears, Twinblades, Caldrons and Absorbers, will also include some Shades and Plasma Raids, as well as an Eclipse.

The sixth and final wave will come from two directions, west and south.  For this, the player will want to group all forces behind the Defense Platform, letting it take the brunt of the southern Sylon fleet, as the Teller Cruisers neutralize the majority of it's numbers and let it's units finish off the remaining numbers, before focusing at the western attack force which will charge the Command Station.

After all units of the sixth wave are destroyed, the mission ends in victory.

## Notes

Though there are two attacks which come from the west side of the map, there are never any waves that come from the east side, apart from the established defenses.  Only the Black Swan reinforcements ever emerge from the east.

## Trivia

* *Operation Gaugamela* is a reference to the iconic battle of the same name, between the kingdom of Macedonia (with support from the Hellenic League) and the First Persian Empire.
	+ The strategy applied by Victor Komarov against the Sylons is the same one applied by Alexander III (Alexander the Great) against the Persian armies of King Darius III.
		- Both the game mission and historical battle involved a central force engaging the bulk of the opposing army while an advancing force outflank and drew enemy numbers out to force a gap within the enemy formations, and both did require perfect timing, maneuvering and the presence of their leaders to ensure success.
		- The fall of Karl Morser and the Martian fleet may reference the surrounded state of Parmenion's left wing, which forced Alexander into the decision between pursuing a fleeing Darius at the cost of Parmenion's army, or remain and aid Parmenion.
		- The arrival of the Black Swan forces likely references the support of Aretes' skirmisher cavalry, the last supporting reserve on the Hellenic right wing.