The Aeon Illuminate

Again, this walkthrough is based on the Normal difficulty setting.

Mission One: Operation Joust

The usual deal here. Build mass extractors and power generators, etc. Since the other two campaigns started you out with ground and air units, you’re going to deal with naval units here. Nothing too complicated, if you can remember that the frigates have no air defense; you’ll need to construct light attack boats to protect them from ship attacks.

Defeat The Junior UEF Commander

After a bit of travails, the map will greatly expand, revealing a large swath of units to your north, east, and northeast. You’re going to have to help Rhiza defeat the commander in the northeast, and you’ll do so by defeating a junior commander nearby.

When the commander goes down, the mission ends.

First stop is the island to your north. It’s surrounded by air units and has anti-air structures on the ground, so head up at first with your attack boats to take out the planes. When you do, some ships will head your way, so be sure that you have some subs to take them out. At that point, you can either have your frigates shell the island, or (preferably) send an engineer up to capture all of the structures there. Capturing the air factory will let you make a UEF engineer, which in turn will let you make a UEF naval factory, which will be able to produce better (if more expensive) naval units than the Aeon factories can.

Next up is the naval factory to your east. Sweep in with subs to clear out the ships and the naval factory, then kill the air units that come your way before bombing or shelling the island to oblivion.

Lastly, take down the commander and the anti-air units to the northeast. Go in heavy with frigates, after your subs take out the torpedo launchers and ships, and start shelling the AA towers. The commander will be pacing on the shore, allowing you to either shell him or, if he enters the water, torpedo him to death. When he and the anti-air towers are destroyed, the mission will end with a bang.

Mission Two: Operation Machine Purse

Take the time to build up a good-sized army before attacking the enemies.

Begin by building up your base here. You won’t face many attacks for a good long while, but you may want to build a point defense to discourage scouts and an anti-air turret for the same purpose. When you have a nice set of buildings set up, go ahead and capture the enemy T2 mass extractor to the northeast of your position and begin building a small army. There will be a pushback at some point, so build up a defensive line with some point defenses and anti-air turrets to wait for it.

When it comes time to attack the enemy, head in with your light artillery leading the way; they’ll be able to hit buildings and units from a ways away. Since the enemy doesn’t have any radar, they won’t be able to return fire unless their own units get within line of sight of your own. Sweep through the facilities, destroying them as best you can, until the map expands. You may want to build a naval base in the small bay to the southeast of your base before you do so.

Destroy Cybran Bases

There are two Cybran bases on the map, one to your northeast and one to your east. Between them, on the larger island, is a human settlement, which you’re not to attack.

Frigates can destroy most of the naval base.

The first threat to you here is the naval base to your east. Your advisors recommend using torpedo planes, but those suckers are rarely worth the expense; it’s best to just have your naval base start cranking out tons of submarines while assisted by engineers and your commander. They’ll be able to stave off the attack from the east, when it comes, then strike out that direction and destroy the naval base there. Follow them up with gunboats and frigates, which can eliminate most of the buildings on the shores, including the factories. You’ll probably have to transport ground units to the island to finish the rest of the structures off.

When you have around 20 or 30 submarines, sweep them around to the north, taking out the torpedo launchers as you go, until you eliminate the northern naval factory and any submerged units around it. With that done, attack boats and frigates can finish off the base.

Destroy Cybran Commander

You gain the ability to build T2 Engineers now, from your air factories. They can build T2 point defenses, anti-air turrets, and mass extractors and power supplies. Start converting some of you T1 mass extractors to T2, just to get yourself up a few notches in mass.

If you have engineers or your commander up where the former northeastern Cybran base that you destroyed was located, they can build an air factory, upgrade it, and start making some T2 engineers. There are two bases to deal with here, with a small base to the east and the main base on an island to the west. The smaller, eastern base can be eliminated mostly with your naval units. Quickly take down the naval factories with your subs, and shoot down any planes with your attack boats. When the river crossing is clear, move some T2 engineers towards the artillery units and capture them, if you wish, to fire on the other nearby units; otherwise you can just destroy them with your ships. Repeat the process on the western base to destroy the commander; you might be able to lure him into the water and defeat him with your submarines.

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