Aeon Mission 5 – Operation Shining Star

1. STOP ARIEL’S ATTACK

Air attacks come before land attacks, so prioritize T3 Engineers and T2 mobile flak guns before other units. Upgrade your Land Factories one at a time so you don’t cut off your production. Order your troops to patrol around your base as well as the two civilian colonies to the south. Build up a force of T3 aircraft and gunships, advanced defenses (T3 shields and anti-air with T2 point defense) in your base and the colonies, and T2 transports ready to deploy ground troops wherever they’re needed. You’ll be attacked by artillery eventually, so you’ll need to be well-shielded. When objective 3 is complete, this one is also completed.

2. PROTECT COLONIES

This objective is ongoing, and most of it was covered above. You should be good against the enemy bomber and transport drops if you have fighters patrolling and shields up with T3 air defense. At least 50% of the civilian buildings must survive or you will fail the mission.

3. DEPLOY STRATEGIC MISSILE DEFENSE

Once your engineers have upgraded your economy with T3 power generators and fabricators, send packs of engineers to each colony and build a Strategic Missile Defense. Once they are built, have them Auto Build missiles and tell your engineers to assist them. Your main base doesn’t need strategic defense. You’ll know the missiles are coming when land units are dropped first to the east and then to the west. After the missiles are deflected, another ground and air force moves in to attack both colonies at once – pull your air force back to stop it before they do too much damage.

4. DESTROY UEF ARTILLERY POSITIONS

Map expands to the south and west
Make sure that your bases are heavily shielded. They’ll immediately start attacking you. The northern artillery post can be stormed by air and land units although it is heavily guarded with T3 bots and a heavy shield – target the bots first, then get under the shield to destroy it. While you’re rebuilding your army from this assault, send engineers over to the base of the raised plateaus containing the other 2 artillery positions – a tactical missile launcher there can attack without retaliation, although it’ll take several shots to get through the shield and destroy the artillery.

5. DESTROY UEF DEFENSIVE ARTILLERY POSITIONS

Fly over Blake’s base to the west to reveal this objective. There are 10 artillery positions to take out. Use T3 bombers (with plenty of other air units to serve as their personal shields) to take out the ones to the north, while you air drop a force of T3 mobile artillery protected by mobile shields and your strongest ground units to the south of the map, while you work your way up the riverbank destroying one at a time.

6. DEFEAT CAPTAIN BLAKE

Once you have an army to the southern section of Blake’s base, bring in some engineers and construct a shielded outpost as close to his base as you can. Put some T2 artillery and radar under the shields and you can target his base with impunity while your ground units protect against retaliation. The best but most time-consuming way to kill Blake is by clearing out the line of anti-air to the north of his base, then dropping troops on both sides and hitting him from all angles while your gunships finish him off. If this is unfeasible, you can wait until the artillery has softened his base up and move in with a huge land force.

7. DEFEAT THE COLOSSUS

Map expands to the south
Schematic added: Strategic Missile Launcher
Once you kill Blake, build a new base on Blake’s old one, with upgraded factories, T3 power generators, and plenty of defenses. This is an ideal place to build a Strategic Missile Launcher for the next objective. Move all your land forces to the gully where the southern UEF Artillery Positions were located. The Colossus will come from the southwest to northeast, across the river, and through the gully. Throw all your forces at him, especially air forces, as the Colossus has no air defense and is slow enough for a T3 bomb to hit him cleanly.

8. DEFEAT ARIEL

Ariel is on a plateau in the southwest. You can’t siege her with artillery or Tactical Missile Launchers, as her own tactical missiles can reach the opposite shore if you try. Fortunately, she has no Strategic Missile Defense, so just a couple nukes to her base will finish her without a costly assault.

Mission 5 – Operation Shining Star – Video Guide