Arms Race Objective Win with first cannon Shot

[Philip]

I am tring to win with the first cannon shot in the mission in china "Arms Race" but for the life of me i can not actually destroy the base with the first shot, only damage the enemys reactor. it takes at least 2 shots to kill the enemys reactor.

[Joepocalypse]

I don't remember this mission, but maybe you have to fire the cannon in the fort's weak point so that you can topple it to the ground instead of going for reactor damage. Scout the fort for weak points, and good luck!

[Philip]

it is part of the campaign before the motherload. i am supposed to kill the enemy core with one shot from the cannon, however i can not kill it with only one hit no matter where i hit it, i found the "weak spot" but it still requires a second hit from the cannon. probably too much HP from the walls/core vs cannon damage.

[General Income Tax]

I found this one hard as well, after trying 5-6 times I made a forum post exactly as you did, but then I got it the next time and won.

There seems to be a little bit of luck involved, but you have to shoot it in the sweet spot to topple the fort onto the reactor.

[Philip]

i will give it several more goes, and i seen a youtube video of the shot, and tried hitting it there but i only get through 3 sets of walls (leaving 2 sets) before the cannon runs out of juice unlike the video that shows the cannon shell going all the way through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2MuX_y7NVU

[E_Duado]

You can shoot with anything else just before you fire the cannon. So you can actually weaken the enemy and use the cannon to finnish him of.

[General Income Tax]

Originally posted by Philip:

i will give it several more goes, and i seen a youtube video of the shot, and tried hitting it there but i only get through 3 sets of walls (leaving 2 sets) before the cannon runs out of juice unlike the video that shows the cannon shell going all the way through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2MuX_y7NVU

I had exactly the same experience, but then I must have shot that spot at the right angle or whatever and it went through enough to topple the building.

It's definitely a frustrating challenge though. You can try weakening the structure first with some mortar barrages but you can do it with just one cannon shot, it seems that you just have to get lucky.

[Romerolagus]

Hi, I usually hate saying "Do exactly this." when people ask for advice on campaign missions. But, it looks like there have been some balance updates to cannon damage since those videos were posted so I'll make an exception. I'll wrap it in spoiler tags just in case though, highlight it to see the text.

If you look at the enemy base, there is a dark diagonal line one row above the ground level. That dark area indicates background (BG) bracing, which allows wind (for turbines) and projectiles (like your cannon shot) to pass through it. Aim for that spot, and it will go deep enough into the base to break enough struts and collapse it almost every time.

I say almost, because if you can manage to build over to the cannon before the AI has started working on its own bridge (~45 seconds on Hard) there is less weight on the front of its base. The extra weight tips the whole base forwards which places more strain on those supporting struts. If you're building that fast, you can either aim for the lower supports before the bridge covers them, or just wait a few seconds and aim for the original spot.

[Philip]

thanks for the tip Romerolagus, i think i was building way to fast/slow (as i fired before they built enough or after they connected to the island), to cause the topple over effect, that was the trick, timing is everything!