Stuck on Drake's Dilemma! Any tips?

[Litzana]

Hey guys,

The title says it all, really. Drake's Dilemma - the Green Earth mission where Drake's flotilla is surrounded by Hawke's indirect units, and Kanebi turns up to help.

Win conditions: Destroy the two black cannons to win.

Only I can't get my blooming battleships anywhere near the things without being blown up into smithereens.

I'm not too good at the whole strategy aspect of this game - I muddle along, but my tactic is mainly SMASH! CAPTURE! SMASH! SO this mission is highly infuriating.

Anyone got any strategy tips for this?

Thanks,
-Litzy

[ThunderWalker]

Sneak your Lander(s) through (forgot if you get one or two at the start), and build some units (2 Artillery, a MD Tank and an AA and some other crap) to load 'em up with.

Move your Landers through the reefs so they don't get blasted, and follow them up with one Battleship - but stay in the reefs! The other Battleships can stay at the top of the map and blast everything that gets in range. Once your Landers are near your Factory, you should have a nice pool of units which you can ferry across.

[Litzana]

Oh, I didn't think of moving the lander down. ^^ I was mainly focusing on getting the battleships in range to blast the cannons. Thanks!

[Dragon Fogel]

There's a completely safe path for your battleships. You can move them safely into reefs on almost every turn. There's only one time you can't; but the only threat in that part of the map is a rocket, and you can move a battleship into its blind spot and then continue into the reefs. I forget exactly where it is, but a little saving and reloading should let you find it.