Farming the Farmers

An NC Sunderer

I joined up with my outfit mates in PlanetSide 2 for a couple of hours last night. We were fighting on Indar as usual and hopping around from fight to fight, winning a few, losing a few. Nothing out of the ordinary. Eventually the fight lead us, as it usually does given enough time, to The Crown. As we were getting closer to our target we could see that the Vanu Sovereignty had a fairly formidable air presence around the base, groups of Scythe fighters whizzing about the place and a couple of Liberator gunships looking for easy targets. Our merry little band, trundling along in an almost defenceless Sunderer, was one such easy target.

Usually, we would just try and run the Sunderer in as close as we dared, deploy it, and head into the base on foot, but with the amount of VS air in the area we wouldn't have got very far. So, instead of hiding our little bus in an inconspicuous corner, we first suited up with Anti-Air MAX suits and AA lock-on rocket launchers and then drove our tempting easy kill right into the open valley below the enemy aircraft. A liberator spotted us first. As it angled in for an attack run on us, our defenceless little bus suddenly sprouted seven tooled up and ready AA monsters. The Liberator's heavy guns and thick armour were no match for us and within seconds it was little more than a burning husk falling from the sky. Flush with success, we all piled back into the Sunderer and trundled off again. It wasn't long before we attracted the attention of a keen eyed Scythe pilot, eager to stick a few rockets into our lonely and defenceless Sunderer and gorge on all the lovely XP within. "Scythe incoming, lets get him!" came the cry from our driver over TeamSpeak, again, our defenceless slow moving brick suddenly became a pilots worst nightmare. This one used the speed and manoeuvrability of his craft to try to escape, but he'd taken too much damage before he realised what was happening. Just as he afterburnered away for the safety of the hills a lone lock-on missile streaked through the sky after him. Boom! Goodnight Scythe! Before we could get back in the bus a Lightning tank sprang up over a sand dune next to us, spotted our Sunderer and started firing, fortunately the Sunderer was deployed so I switched out my MAX's flack cannons for a pair of Falcon Anti-Vehicle launchers. Combined with the power of half a dozen dumb-fired AA rockets, he didn't last long. The driver bailed out, but was quickly chased down.

A VS Liberator Gunship

This went on for the next half an hour or so before I had to go to work and I have to say, it is the most fun I've had in that game for quite a while. Our group may be small, but when we can stick together and have a common cause, it's surprising how much of a difference we can make. We managed to keep the whole area clear of enemy air for a while, and even had time to fall back and scupper an assault on the base behind us. It was a really fun evening, and a reminder that despite it's flaws, PlanetSide 2 is THE best game on the market at the moment for having a laugh with a bunch of mates. I think I might even pop back in this evening for another go!