The Space Marine is gone, pinned under the furious fire-power of the Shuriken cannon, the Farseer has been murdered by his own kind, a swarm of Howling Banshees overpowering his feeble armour. All that is left is me, a lone Mekboy, half my health gone, dead meat if they catch me, only my trusty teleporter stands between me and total annihilation.
Wave nine is where the Last Stand first begins to show its teeth. Huge numbers of Eldar flood the screen, mostly the fragile but devastating Howling Banshees and Shuriken Cannons, whose suppressive firepower can reduce even the most stalwart warrior to a crawl. We’ve made it here several times before, but failed to put a dent in the hordes.
Over the voice chat I can hear my two compatriots making plans for next time, they think my defeat is inevitable, and if I’m honest I agree, but I’m going to do as much damage as possible first. Zap! I instantly transport myself behind one of the Eldar Cannons, focusing my fire-power I manage to take it down before it can reposition, but the Banshees are hot on my tail. Zap! I escape by the skin of my teeth, and line up my sights on the nearest Guardian squad.
I could in theory resurrect my allies if I could get close enough, but the breakneck speed of the Eldar is making this impossible, I’m forced simply to keep moving and shooting, desperate for an opening. Right now I don’t have many options in my wargear, I’m built with a battery and lots of energy storage, keeping my team topped up and ready to use their powers. Not all that useful when they’re eating dirt.
Zap! I’m behind cover now, raining shots down upon the Banshees, who’ve been following me all this time in a fashion that would be comical if it wasn’t so desperate. My team-mates have stopped chatting and are cheering me on madly. There are only a few Eldar left, but they’re only a few feet away, the first one starts to swing when… Zap! I’m miles away, and the few remaining troops are cut down before they can get close enough to hurt me. I dash for the fallen bodies and pull my allies back up, ready to face wave ten for the first time.
Wave ten is Space Marines, they fry us with plasma rifles in seconds.
When we get back to the lobby the Farseer yelps in delight. He’s picked up a massive area of effect attack for his troubles, this, he says, will make short work of those accursed Eldar. We load another game, confident we can crack wave ten one day, after all, nine used to be impossible once, remember?
Still haven’t tried Last Stand. It sounds like excellent fun. Is it still good if you just try and find a random match? Or have you not tried it?
Nice article Tom, pretty much sums up Last Stand perfectly. Wave 9 is a bitch to do but the best plan is to stick together and hog one of the corners. (I suggest the north east approach due to it’s defence bonuses) It does get alot more harder when you reach Wave 20. It’s chaotic.
But if you need any assistance on Last Stand, just add me on Steam. Name be x25killa :)
For waves like the Banshee ones I love to abuse the fact that farseer mass teleport tps downed friendlies as well as active ones. The idea is to fight your way into one of the baddie spawning lanes, fight until your two allies are downed, then teleport yourself and their bodies to the opposite lane, resurrect rinse and repeat. If the FS is fairly conservative with her energy usage, or has excellent regen you can keep this going for a fair while and sometimes grind down waves that you currently lack the abilities to properly deal with.
Also teleporting is cool!
For the record, I’ve made it to wave 16/17 now, it’s just that I felt that the struggle to take on wave 9 really summed up The Last Stand best. Once you have AoE attacks and a bet dreadnought it becomes much easier.
I didn’t even know the Farseer got a mass teleport, that makes me want to give it another crack, I’ll see wave 20 yet!