Campaign 2 / Anglo Isles Guide

This campaign can be tricky, especially the first mission, as it is the hardest of the four.  (Video at the bottom)
Difficulty Scale 1-10
Shipyards Ablaze (3-1): 7/10
Rng reliant mission when capturing the docks since you don't know what your troops will do and how many will die
Up Periscope (3-2): 4/10
A really chill and boring mission to run with not much to do here it's a protection and "escort" mission with one flag capture at the end.
Operation Reprimand (3-3): 5/10
This mission is a "rollathon" at the beginning that being said it's not a hard mission the part I would say people might have trouble with is in the bombing section and not getting the artilleries and tanks in 2 bombing runs. Other than that this mission is simple and not much can go wrong.
Their Finest Hour (3-4): 3/10
The quickest mission in the game and the most fun to speedrun since at most it's only a 1m10s run. Your skills with controlling a bomber are put to the test here.

https://youtu.be/BUSaUP7ud_M

Flashback 2 / Iron Legion Campaign

Difficulty Scale 1-10
Incursion (4-1): 5/10
This mission is all over the place during the beginning and really the only trouble you will have is during the solar pannel section and how fast you can destroy the first set of three.
Purge (4-2): 5/10 
Straight forward mission again the only part that I would see people having trouble with is the siege guns defense with taking care of the tanks and dodging the rockets shot at you.
Apocalypse (4-3) 3/10
This mission should be a breeze once again bomber skills will be put to the test like 3-4 during the quad cannon defense section.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrNctT63NYw&ab_channel=Festerez

Old Run Notes

Prologue: 
Extremely straightforward, there's really very little you can do with this level.  some control issues.  This level needs to be timed manually, so that's just annoying.  This level may be omitted due to the fact that it's a bonus feature after the first completion.


Campaign 1- Solar Empire

1. Anglo Attack
Time for 100% speed score- 6:00
Best Time: 4:12

Finally an excellent time!  Only thing less than perfect is the second bamboo gate for some reason, nothing I could have done about that.  Killing the bazooka vet was the best part of this run.

2. Rally the Defenses
100% - 9:00
Best Time: 5:50

This run was extremely solid.  I got the fastest flag cap I've ever seen on this level, plus a number of improvements on the opening pathway.  I let only 2 units ever come ashore on the beach, both of which were dealt with in good time.  The only mistakes to speak of are a missed AA missile, and an unplanned jump when i transferred the the bazooka vet.

3. A Matter of Honor¤
100% - 7:45
Best Time: 5:28 (Ephraim225)
This is a highly strategic, demanding level to speedrun.  This time, 5:30, was done with mistakes.  And yet I've had a number of seemigly-flawless runs since which go to 5:40 or higher.  At the start, I use the light tank because I have no other means of dispatching the tanks.  I need to get ALL of my units to the palace for optimal defense, and that means getting rid of the tanks, despite my own tank's slow speed.  After sending my grunts off to get the helipad, I run down the bazooka vets and get to the palace AFAP.  My bazookas can conveniently take out the second artillery without risking my other tank.  The rest gets confusing.  While I can kill the enemy as soon as they get out of the AT's, my times are ALWAYS faster if I wait for them to come to the palace.  WHY?!?! it doesn't make much sense to me.  A very frustrating level with illogical times.  Luck and mental focus essential.

4. Showdown at Big Honshu
100% - 7:30
Best Time: 4:25

This one takes a lot of luck and skill moreso than strategy.  The recon jeep is hard to control.  Unfortunately this recodeing has a driving mistake or 2 and a small hesitation, but it was more than made up for by much better-than-average flag capture and silo clearing.  I might redo this someday, but seeing as only 10-20% of runs even get to the jeep, I'll let this one rest as part of the official run. 

5. Repel the Enemy
100% - 6:15
Best Time: 4:07

Well this level is slightly annoying, given the slow movement of the required battleship unit.  However, this recording went great because of the relatively quick destruction of the anti-air towers, and the fact that I died at the perfect time to transfer to the tank and clear out the infantry defenses.  Overall a very satisfactory time for my speedrun.

Flashback 1- Western Frontier

1. Line in the Sand
100% - 7:30
Best Time: 4:08
This level is difficult to speedrun because it involves a defense portion, and it has a factory and barracks en route to the airbase (primary objective)  It is extremely difficult, maybe impossible to take the airbase without visiting the barracks.  Fortunately, it's right en route.  I can skip the factory and take a great shortcut straight to the airbase., which is heavily defended.  Not having artillery is a distinct disadvantage at the airbase.  It must be made up for with creative bazooka vet usage.

2.  Wings of the Gunship
100% - 9:00
Best Time: 3:47
Artillery section was good.  There is a shortcut you can take but the AI artilleries won't follow you. This run involves getting the airbase and destroying the objectives by flying past the anti-airs.  This isn't easy.  I'm quite satisfied with the final time.  There is an airbase  (secondary) en route to the final objective, it may be impossible to not capture this.  If I find a way not to, this may go down to 3:25 or so.

3. Enemies Undone
100% - 11:00
Best Time: 4:42 (Ephraim225)


Ephraim225: So it turns out taking the Airbase route and using the Gunships is a much quicker route than the ground-bound factory route. The only Anti-Air veterans are the ones by the 2 MG Nests which get taken out by my Recon pretty fast, and another group by the Factory which I'm ignoring anyways. Frontier gunships, in particular, have a broken attack range - they can fire from a very long distance and still hit the target (the Tundran gunships are inferior which is why nobody plays competitive multiplayer anymore. :\) Gunships are much more effective against the Auto-Guns, and there's even enough time to handle the Battleship long before it can threaten your troops. The Anti-Air Towers don't inflict a terrible amount of damage, but I've found that they DO have terrible AI. If you fly in close, sometimes they'll wind up being unable to shoot at you at all. That means you can take care of the annoying respawning Flame Vets by the HQ. Now if only my Gunship didn't crash during the cutscene. 0_0


Campaign 2 - Anglo Isles

1. Shipyards Ablaze¤
100% - 9:00  
Best time: 4:51 
This one was chock full of failed attempts.  It's a deceptively long level with a lot of secondaries, and a super-slow-moving battleship which CAN be left behind, but it rather complicates the mission to do so.  I capture the airbase for a fighter escort against gunships, and free a light tank POW along the way (perfectly straight line)
after my first revisit and getting my butt whipped repeatedly, I'll set this one to rest for later

2. Up Periscope
100% - 9:30
Best Time: 6:24.  
This is an amazing time.  The route is so straightforward and even involves a ~2 minute escort portion.  This makes it impossible to run ahead.  I was shocked to get this time using a little - varied prescribed route.  Don't expect better than a 5 second improvement on the final video, if I improve it at all.

3. Operation Reprimand
100% - 9:00
Best time 4:15 
This is an extremely fun level in that it has a very large bomber section.  This also makes it good for speedrunning.  For the first ground sequence, I run ahead with an Assault Vet, I skip the bazooka vets which are out of the way, and manage to get past the RPG implacements with the heavy tank POW (took me a while to figure out how to pull this off).  The rest is straightforward.  The trick lies in directing your other bomber to attack the right target.  Ex.  I took out all 6 Atrillery units in 2 bombing strafes.  I would love to do it in 1.  The light tanks are easy, and the battleships will need some work.  Doing the Dreadnaught in 2 strafes was a miracle, huge timesaver.

4. Their Finest Hour
100% - 16:00
Best Time: 1:12

This is without a doubt my favorite SP route.  I've always loved the challenge of this memorable level, but this one pushed me to the extremes.  Using the dead time in the beginning to bomb an anti-air out and destroy the tanks/ autoguns protecting the airbase, whilst my grunts and POW's follow me to the flag.  This route was shown to me by Master Knight DH.  This will be a must-see route for anyone who's played BWii.

A note on the quality: this run will be re-recorded soon at the correct settings, just like my other videos.


Flashback 2 - Iron Legion

1. Incursion
100% - 14:30
Best time: 5:56 

I was really excited to see this time.  It took a lot of planning to get.  This level starts with a defense portion, but that's ok because there are ways to speed it up.  Destroying the artillery is a nice touch.  Once the Battlestation is safe, leave it and head straight for the solar panels with the gunship.  This takes some sneaky maneuvers to avoid the AA's but it gave me this fantastic time.  I bump into the cliff near the end, which is usually a run-killer.  Fortunately this time i survived.

note: I apologize for the deinterlacing.  I'll take care of it later and re-upload.

2. Purge¤
100% - 10:00
Best time: 5:43
This is an original multi-stage level in that it involves point a-b, then a defense section, then another point a-b with secondaries, some of which may or may not be essential to a top time.  Then I have to clear out a sector completely of enemies ( Sad ) to win.  I completed it once without capturing the barracks, but it took me much longer because I didn't have any anti-air units to get the gunships at the end.  Overall a relatively consistent level, without much by way of shortcuts.

3. Apocalypse
100% - 11:30
Best time- 6:26
This run is rather difficult at the start, but eases out towards the end.  It involves some decent micromanaging in order to both capture the airbase and get to the quad cannons without waiting for air reinforcements.  Once at the quad cannons, there is little challenge for an experienced pilot to deal with the gunships and naval transports.  This level will not benefit from an artillery skip, the artillery is in no way out of my route anyways.


Campaign 3 - Tundran Territories

1. Scorched Earth
100% - 15:00
Best time: 4:41  
This level is absolutely littered with secondary objectives. And enemies.  The secondary objectives offer massive relief from the intense fighting, but they take up a lot of time to get.  For this run, the only secondaries I got were the airbase and the helipad.  Both I believe are essential to this mission.  The trick for the final sequence is taking out the artillery, and getting my own to the AAT's before blowing up.  Then getting individual units to the diffusers without dying.  Overall an excellent time for a difficult mission to speedrun.

2. Operation Nautilus¤
100% - 13:30
Best Time: 5:37 
ARGH I hate this level.  The beginning involves destroying ALL of the enemy ships, with a smaller force than them, no less.  This is a hard sequence even without speedrunning.  I probably beat it 20% of my attempts.  Then comes a much easier segment which is definitely NOT made for speedrunning.  It's actually quite difficult.  Remember this game has its roots in RTS and is meant to be played at a tactical pace.  Anyways of my 40+ attempts I only finished it once with this time (later attempts all went over this), although it could be improved by more than 30 seconds, I believe.

3. Ice station X¤
100% - 11:30
Best Time: 3:23 
Getting the towers is a piece of cake.  Simple tricks such as kamikazes and leaving the battalion behind momentarily offer similar time saving to a save warp in a longer game.  Once I get the bombers, the real fun begins. Leaving one bomber behind,  I do as much damage with the bomber as possible before being shot down. Each bomber, when used properly, has the health of 5 bombers.  While there are AA vehicles who can shoot me down in an instant, I have clever use of jerry cans (health packs) which aid me.  First of all, the Battlestation drops a Jerry Can which is a 100% heal for the bomber.  Secondly, there are tents and fuel tanks right next to the ISX.  How convenient!  Then if I get shot down, I repeat the process with the other bomber to finish the ISX.  

[u]4. The Reckoning
100% - 11:00
Best Time: 7:25
This level is a very slow one.  It requires getting a battlestation (slowest unit) from point A to point B, with secondaries along the way.  Do NOT go out of line to get the secondaries.  Send units, but don't diverge the BS from the straightest possible line.  The biggest challenges here are the other battlestations that need to be destroyed to ensure safety at the mining spider.  Short control of a gunship is an easy fix.  Also the final POW camp with heavy tanks is hard to get past quickly.  I was quite happy with this run, it was solid.  Will need to refine a little for the recording, but don't expect any more than a 15 second improvement on this long level.

¤Denotes a level which needs revisiting before the recording begins.



Online Co-Op Missions

1. From Tundra With Love
100% - 6:00
Best Time: 2:46
I played this particular run as frontier, and simply ran up without getting the POW's.  Can go much lower, my partner didn't help at all.

2. Crack Squad
100% - 9:00
Best Time: 2:18
Easily the most speedrunnable level in the game, and also my favorite overall.  This time was with a complete stranger who had no idea what I was doing.  With a friend and voice chat, this could go beautifully.
First I took an assault vet through the woods, and destroyed the fuel refinery and munitions dump.  Then I lured the forces around the helipad out with the rest of my units while sneaking in behind them.  Meanwhile my partner took the natural path and destroyed the radar array.  As soon as the radar array was destroyed, I took the helipad and that's the game.

3. Under Siege
100% - 7:00
Best Time: 3:46
another random match.  Not much can be done with this one, besides bomber performance.  The Battlestation's RPG turrets are more than capable of taking out the heavy tanks, so focus the main cannons on the fuel tank and then the AAT's

4. Storm the Beaches
100% - 8:00
Best Time: 5:46
Not the easiest to speedrun, but it could be cut pretty short, with reliable help.  Just sneak the gunships over to the HQ, and free the POW's.  The POW's should be able to take the HQ by themselves.

Name	Author
Campaign 2 / Anglo Isles Guide	Fez 2 years ago
Flashback 2 / Iron Legion Campaign	Fez 2 years ago
Old Run Notes	Agedude 7 years ago