Kessrel Line

The Harrow Evacuation.

Kessrel, 2311. The Maw opened at dusk — a hive fissure at the head of the pass above the port of Harrow — and everything in that canyon is coming down it. Behind you the last evacuation ship is loading at the Gate of Harrow. You command the Kessrel Line: ten regiments, three thousand line troopers, seven waves of Vesh.

Hold until the ship lifts.

What you actually do

You are not a soldier here. You are the commander, looking down the canyon from above the Gate, and the only things you move are regiments.

The tide pours down the screen out of the Maw. Your line stands across the canyon floor. Between waves you get a respite: pick regiments, post them where the next wave will land, set each one's stance, and let the abilities recharge. Then the canyon head opens again and you find out whether you guessed right.

• Rifles put volume down the canyon and hold a frontage.
• Heavies hit hard and slowly. They are what stops a brute charge.
• Sappers lay an arc of mines wherever you post them, and carry a short, brutal shotgun for whatever survives the mines.

Where a regiment stands decides what it can shoot: it concentrates on the nearest packs inside its range and its firing arc, at triple weight up close. A line that holds together is worth far more than one spread thin.

A regiment that takes more than it can bear loses its nerve, breaks, and runs for the Gate. The hole it leaves is usually what costs you.

Three things on a cooldown

• Orbital Lance — a delayed strike that deletes a cluster.
• Mortar Barrage — five shells walking across a frontage.
• Rally — the selection's nerve back to full, instantly.

The question is never whether to use one. It is where, and it is always one wave earlier than you would like.

Seven waves

Skitters first: dog-sized, six-legged, in the thousands. Then brutes, ram-skulled and fast. Then titans — forty metres of cathedral carapace on six columnar legs, walking over the line with rivers of cyan light running down them.

The Vesh chew on the Gate if they reach it. Lose the Gate, or lose every regiment, and Harrow is gone. Break the seventh wave and the ship lifts.

Lieutenant Oyelaran is on the net the whole way through — the briefing, every wave call, every regiment that breaks, and whatever there is to say at the end. Every line is spoken and subtitled, so nothing is lost with the sound off.

Controls

Mouse and keyboard, or a controller. A touchscreen drives every screen, every regiment card, every stance and every ability button; posting an order on the ground wants a mouse or a paired controller.

Action	Mouse + keyboard	Touch	Controller
Select a regiment	Click it or its card; 1..0	Tap it or its card	LB / RB to cycle
Select every regiment	Ctrl+A	ALL	L3
Post the selection	Click the ground	—	Left stick aims, A confirms
Stance — Hold / Advance / Fall back	F	Stance, on the card	X
Orbital Lance	Q, then click	Lance, then aim	Y arms, A fires
Mortar Barrage	E, then click	Barrage, then aim	RT arms, A fires
Rally	R	Rally	LT
Cancel an armed ability	Right click	Tap the lit button again	B
Pan and zoom	A D or arrows, wheel	Drag, the zoom pips	Right stick, d-pad
Pause	Esc / P	The pause pip	Start

Worth seeing

• Zoom all the way in during a wave and watch a rank of titans come up over the skitter carpet with tracer fire going into them.
• Hold the Lance until a brute pack has bunched in the funnel, then drop it.
• Post a sapper regiment early in a respite and let the mine arc finish before the wave arrives.
• Lose on purpose once. The Gate has its own ending.