Just after the top pass (the first narrow gap around the left cliffside, up the hill from where dropships 1 and 3 hovered), you find yourself at the top of a large sloping expanse of ground hemmed in by rocks but with six narrow entrances for the enemy. I call it the inner rise. Try to fend off the enemy as they arrive. Some may enter through the top pass, especially if they saw you drive in that way, but enemies that were initially on the lifeboat side of the battlefield will mostly filter up through the rockslide and approach near the bottom of the expanse.

You can have a great time holding out in this area, and if ever there was a place for using your motion tracker, this is it. Watch for those nasty red dots to judge where enemies are coming from, and be ready to let 'em have it.

Bottom defence

As mentioned, enemies that start on the lifeboat side of the battlefield will mostly approach near the bottom of the expanse. Rather than staying back near the cliff wall, you can have good fun taking up an advanced position down at the bottom to fend off those enemies at close quarters as soon as they show their ugly faces. Heck, sometimes even before they've shown their ugly faces, bearing in mind that you can use sound or your motion tracker to place a welcoming grenade in their path. If you want to maximize the number of enemies approaching near the bottom, try to get most enemies to be in the lifeboat side of the battlefield beforehand.

Chain reaction mischief

With that bottom defence there's a particular entrance the enemies tend to favour; the one right at the bottom. By lurking there and killing lots of Elites and Grunts at close range as they try to come through (use a plasma weapon or AR), you can build up a mass of loose grenades. When a few more baddies approach, set off a massive chain reaction and watch bodies go flying!

Or try it like this. Park a Warthog near that entrance, maybe a metre back or something like that, and man the chain-gun. Massacre lots of Elites and Grunts as they show themselves through the entrance, then set off your chain reaction. If you drive the hog partly through the gap beforehand so it's closer to the blast, the hog can go flying too, and in truly spectacular fashion!

Here's another approach to doing much the same thing. Initially park the hog so it's plugging the entrance. Use hand weapons to kill Elites and Grunts as they queue up on the other side. They fire at you but the hog can give you complete cover. When you've killed plenty, set off your chain reaction.

Way up high

If you park a Warthog just near the big rock after the top pass, you can jump from the bonnet up onto the lower area of that second rock. Actually you don't even need that; a grenade-jump can get you up and sometimes even a normal jump will do. A bit more jumping will take you further up for a novel high defence position. Up there it'll be harder to defend any supporting Marines and take cover, but it's good fun. And just look at that view!

Extra Marines

This is a good area for setting up extra Marines to help out.

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