Boss Strike #9 - Sergeant Ludlow (Rebel/Vehicle Boss Strike)

Tomorrow is boss strike time, as we could already have guessed it will be rebels, but the surprise is a new face instead of the repeatition of an old enemy.
Like the last rebel bs this one will focus on a certain unity type, looks like vehicles this time instead of aircrafts.

So, like every boss strike it is important that you level up all your troops as high as possible.
This time the ressource will be concrete, so save a lot until tomorrow for donations.

To fight against vehicles you should use units with explosion damage like tanks and artillery. The next best damage type against vehicles is fire, so chemical units are good.
If you own units with freezing attacks you should use them as well to crack the high ressistances of vehicles open.
If you own some field agents you can use the emp blast to stun all the enemy vehicles.

Crushing damage will be very weak against vehicles, so rather not use units that have only this type of damage.
If you have bought the new tank crusher unit you should use it since it fits perfectly in a boss strike like this.
Also use brutalizers if you have some. They are maybe fragile but they can deal huge damage against enemy vehicles and are cheap to heal.

Just a note of caution about donating.  Donate no more than you can replace during the early levels. Try to save the bigger donations to help push ver on higher levels, where we more point value for the donations. It is not until around tier 7 that the value goes up.

This is a great general guide... https://forums.z2.com/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=59539

Also, if you have the means, build some clusters of propane tanks. I was running on empty the last 1.5 days of the last BS. I have 4 on my land now.

Oh yeah I can feel it in the air! I sense great things this time for NBK. Let's make it to tier 10 this time!

Argh, this strike is so hard, I lost 10 units in my first battle.
Has someone a good formation at level 65 without many losses?
Please also tell me the rank of your units, maybe it is just an issue of undertrained units.
I used this formation in my first battle:
Mega - Mega -Mega - Mega - Mega
Elemental - Tank Crusher -Demolisher - Tank Crusher - Elemental
Hurricane - Lgnd. Boar - Hurricane

Megas are on 4, Elemental on 3, Demolisher 6, Tank Crusher 6, Hurricane 6 and Boar 6.

I have seen 9 different enemy formations and have tested 2 out to be my favorite to go up against.  (This is with my set group and I still suffer 3-4 losses in the front line per 5 waves)

1st enemy formation I like to go up against (I'm just listing the wave 1 grouping and only some of the enemy troops on the battlefield because that's what I used to identify)
wall - mega - wall - mega - wall
Second row has an airplane and a block house.
*fought 3+ times and lost super tank r6, wall r5, and bigfoot on each 5 wave set.

2nd enemy formation I like is
mega - wall - wall -flame turret - hvy tank
vet in second row and airplane in third.

My key formation is
Super tank r6, wall r5, bigfoot r6, wall, super tank (hvy tnk)
Leg mammoth r8, leg mam, mammoth tank r2, leg mam, leg mam
Leg boar r8, hurricane airplane r7 (or samurai), leg boar

I focus on enemy plane at each wave start with boar.  If it is low in points, I switch to one boar blast and focus on highest tank and hit the plane too.  Then leg. mammoth cry to stun.  If down to one enemy left, I will focus on stunning to get through cooldown so I'm ready for next wave.  Kill Agents and those stupid blimps as a priority if you see them because they reek havoc.

I get my main units into my adv. repair to get back quickly and run the trashers through my reg. repair.

Hope that helps someone.  I lost that Crusher (4x4 truck) quick in my first attempts and won't bring that back to the fight.  I regret not getting those stupid jet pack guys because I think they would be sweet in row two or three.   Still have a Shaman to dust off if needed but repairs are costly for a weak unit.

....and then after tier 5 they changed the formations and upped their level by 5...... Ouch.

I tried your formation as much as I could and lost every unit. I guess I have to train my units better after this BS.

Yeah there's no two ways about it, this is just a really hard BS. They ramped up the difficulty a bit too much I think. Even my alt is getting smoked and that's ones specifically designed for these events

I guess it is because the rewards are this time very big (Boar II which looks like an improved version of the Boar).

That, or they just want to squeeze more $$ out of us lol

With the new formations - if that crusher unit stays alive in the back row, I am having some luck with freezing tanks and then jumping the crusher on them. The chem units are killing my front line every time it seems.

Hm, maybe I try that with my Elementals, I have 3.

I defeated all 5 waves with the following units (my level is 65):

First line: 5 Mega Tanks, rank 5
Second line: 2 Tank Crushers, rank 6; 2 Dexter Fragments, rank 5; 1 Elemental Trooper, rank 4
Third line: 2 Tank Crushers, 1 Elemental Trooper

I lost 4 Megas, both fragments and 1 trooper. The first wave of enemies came without airplanes and only one wall, and there were only 4 airplanes in all 5 waves. I used the Elemental Trooper's area freeze attack as often as possible and focused to destroy chemical units first.

Okay, after some experimenting and some mixing of your tactics I found one good strategy that managed to get me through 4 waves and I almost did the last wave (only one Mega was left and it was just a matter of "who reloads faster" and it looks like the Mega was faster).

Mega - Brutalizer - Mega - Brutalizer - Mega
Skyraptor - ET - ET - ET - Cobra
Tank Crusher - Jetpack - Tank Crusher

I will still balance this one out because the anti air capility was not good enough. I think I will switch the Cobra with a second Skyraptor or a Hurricane.

My tactic was to keep my enemies mostly frozen (I focused on Megas and Veterans) so they are not able to shoot back. After i have frozen soem enemies I use the Tank Crusher to deal great amounts of damage against enemy clusters. Since they have almost the same attack pattern it works perfectly together. If only one enemy was frozen I use instead the jetpack to kill that single enemy and get huge splash damage on adjacent enemies.
The Skyraptor is there to take difficult planes down (Wild boar anyone?) before they can get a threat.
Mega tanks and Brutalizers are mostly for blocking. The brutalizer replace tanks because they have some explosive ressistance and are cheaper to heal. They are also good to take some of the bigger vehicles down.
Cobra was almost useless, while it was good to get some of the vehicles down its lack of anti air attack make it to fragile, that's the reason why i want to replace it.
I mostly don't take any of the walls down except the ones that are directly in my shooting way.

I hope this formation may help some of you to improve your own formation.

What really bothers me is that it's impossible to defeat all five waves without nano units. I know that Z2 has to make money with this free game, but this time they over-egged the pudding.

Yes, f they want to get rid of the "Pay to win" image they currently have they definatly should make the game more friendly for non-nano units.
Even with nano units I have a hard time.

Okay, so they boss strike is finally over. I'm actually glad that it has ended.
My repair bay is ful and I don't know if I can heal all my units until the next strike but I will try to.

In the future I hope that Z2 will not repeat something like this again. I can deal with a hard BS but this BS was not only hard, it was unfair.
I've did soem research on other levels and found out that on lower levels you had to fight units that you couldn't take down at that moment except you have certain units that you couldn't get easiliy. Most of these units were limited time units that are not aviable anymore.
I have to admit, Z2 have planned this very good, they designed the formations perfectly to force players to use EXACT the units Z2 wanted that they use. On lower levels it was impossible to get a good score, even if you were full prepared. on higher levels it was a little bit easier since you have access to all the units you need but this comes also with a high price.
You need to afford these units (either in resources or in nanopods) and you need to know which units work perfectly in this boss strike. I found out that different tactics didn't work this time, only one tactic was good to beat all 5 waves.
I made a big topic in the forums to adress this because it is not fair if the developers forces us into using the units THEY like. Everyone has a different playing style and I don't see why someone, who prefers artillery, shouldn't use artillery.
If they force us again during the next BS in a specific role I will maybe skip it. I'm sorry for the guild but I won't let me force from a developer to play like he wants.

My r42 account was fighting megas and supers!