So I had two consecutive 3-skull missions today, both on the same planet (Girondas), same terrain (lowlands), same opposition (Taurians).
First one was an assassination. Target was in an Orion-V with 75% armour. His escort was a Thunderbolt-S, Catapult-C4, Shadowhawk-2H and Gallant, all full armour. Plus there was an "ambush" force with another Gallant, a Striker and two Locusts. They all spawned basically on top of each other, so I had to fight them all at once.
So: 3 heavies, 1 medium, 2 heavy vehicles and some light stuff. Not the toughest 3-skull I've seen, but tricky.
Next mission was "Prevent Salvage" where you have to hunt down a captured Mech. The target was a lone Victor-B with 25% armour, standing in the open. I could probably have killed it before it even activated; but I wanted salvage so I shot off its AC20, let it have one irrelevant volley from its back-up weapons, and blew its legs off.
About that time, a Leopard landed (well away from me) and dropped off a weak (Quickdraw, Shadowhawk, Javelin, Spider) lance from a third party. They weren't blocking my path to the LZ, so I could just have sprinted for the exit, but I'd negotiated for heavy salvage, so I tracked them down and killed them before leaving.
No other Taurians ever appeared. If I hadn't been going for salvage, I might have done a 3-skull mission without taking a single shot.
So what's the biggest variation you've seen between missions of officially the same difficulty?
First one was an assassination. Target was in an Orion-V with 75% armour. His escort was a Thunderbolt-S, Catapult-C4, Shadowhawk-2H and Gallant, all full armour. Plus there was an "ambush" force with another Gallant, a Striker and two Locusts. They all spawned basically on top of each other, so I had to fight them all at once.
So: 3 heavies, 1 medium, 2 heavy vehicles and some light stuff. Not the toughest 3-skull I've seen, but tricky.
Next mission was "Prevent Salvage" where you have to hunt down a captured Mech. The target was a lone Victor-B with 25% armour, standing in the open. I could probably have killed it before it even activated; but I wanted salvage so I shot off its AC20, let it have one irrelevant volley from its back-up weapons, and blew its legs off.
About that time, a Leopard landed (well away from me) and dropped off a weak (Quickdraw, Shadowhawk, Javelin, Spider) lance from a third party. They weren't blocking my path to the LZ, so I could just have sprinted for the exit, but I'd negotiated for heavy salvage, so I tracked them down and killed them before leaving.
No other Taurians ever appeared. If I hadn't been going for salvage, I might have done a 3-skull mission without taking a single shot.
So what's the biggest variation you've seen between missions of officially the same difficulty?
