So I finished Bronnox using the "abandoned cities" strategy, but with a slight refinement. The retreat was not as fast as possible, but done as fast as one can while keeping order, forming a "testudo" formation with the heavier and healthier units outside, weaker ones and artillery in the second row, and the two radars being protected in the core. This is to minimize the advantage the enemy has in terms of adjacency rule and vision rule during a skirmish. If the enemy caught one of your units in the open, not surrounded by friendlies, and not painted over several times with radar, the advantage will be overwhelming (like 8 level 2 trolls dying in one hit to a level 1 Sting while only manage to kill one in return, or 7 level 2 Stings die in one hit to 5 level 1 technotraxes).
But as I approach the town due East, and captured the town to the North East, the enemy realized that it was in danger on a strategic sense, and began to pour all of its resources to manufacture units from that one tank factory beside the target town! A literal deluge of Sting, rangers, and buggies began to pour forth, and I had to order all of my elite units to sell their lives dearly by just barging into the only path leading on to the island.
I thought I knew this game. I have played it for years... but this time it surprised me. I have never seen a battle so close, a tiny island with one small town and one factory that seems to only produce Stings and Buggies and rangers, being won with so many deaths from both sides...
Some screenshots:
Midpoint: where my rearguard sold their lives dearly while the archimedes held its ground and kept weakening the enemy's tanks until it reached level 12, before being crushed by a Samurai 2 unit.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10989907/ra...archimedes.png
Endgame: the harbour of corpses.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10989907/ra...%20corpses.png