I do love a good close-up stack explosion.

(6:31) Level 3 ('The Truth and Reconciliation') on Heroic. My 63-covie passage horde battle set-up has been great, giving me a load of fun. Just before I move on from it, here's one last instalment. This one's a bit of a mix, containing two fun-filled rear attacks and two more speed plays, one of which is super speedy!

Released August 18th 2026, gameplay recorded August 12th-17th 2026.

00:02 (Play 1 - Rear attack with side-passage focus) Back in BCM670 I did use this side-passage of course, but here I stay there much longer, basing my attacking there until eventually moving on to clear the remaining covies. A plan worth showing, I thought. It's fun attacking the covies as they try to move past in the main passage.

Unfortunately things end in tragedy when a heavily needled Grunt explodes near a pair of loose plasmas I didn't notice. Whoops! I've actually been blown up a lot of times from chain reactions, when doing passage horde battling. This is the only time I've shown an example though.

02:46 (Play 2 - AR speed play, no plasmas) This is from back on the 12th when I was recording speed plays. I did a few plays where my grenade use was limited to frags only, an interesting restriction. In this play I get caught by a plasma ball around 3:15, which is never good when you're going for speed, but I press on anyway and get my final frag into the stack, wiping it out. With shield bleeping and one health bar left, I manage to slay the final two Grunts for a time of 63.7 seconds.

03:54 (Play 3 - AR & plasma rifle, super-fast!) This time I'm free to use all the grenades I want, and apparently they do a rather good job because I end up with a time of 37.5 seconds. Must say, that is fast!

04:38 (Play 4 - Rear attack with cloaked melee and more) This was the last battle idea I worked on for the movie. I namely had the idea of doing some cloaked whacking of covies who'd just left the stack. I thought that would be amusing. But of course, it was natural to also blast the stack while I was in the vicinity.

In recording plays, I soon settled on the idea of being really close to the stack explosion, for maximum effect. This bang went particularly well, both in terms of the audio and the visuals. It was partly due to where the grenade ended up. I think I'd been trying to tag a Grunt leg, but actually it missed and settled on the floor, somewhat to the back of the stack. As such, the exposion sent Grunts my way, which looked and sounded great. If you freeze-frame things, you'll see some excellent comical images of the airborne jumble of Grunts.

Incidentally, just before I blew the stack, did you notice that Grunt taking a pip of friendly fire after I whacked him? Watch from 5:08. Shooter says "Sorry!" Amusing I thought.

Most of the rest of my play involves tagging or fragging, and right at the end I attack some of the passage troops who made it to the muster bay, along with an Elite. Actually I tag the Elite, but he dies when a tagged Jackal goes boom.

Closing remarks Those two speed plays were some leftovers from my earlier speed work. They didn't make it into either of my two speed-themed instalments but I wanted to show them nevertheless, and that's how this final instalment with my 63-covie horde came about. I'm glad I returned to the theme of rear attacks for the rest of the movie though (indeed, the majority of the movie), because the new plays include additional things worth showing, quite apart from a great stack explosion seen up close.

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