You've Forced My Hand (and Blade) - Edward Braddock Mini-Variety Pack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEew1ELg0S0
[Front-paged. -stabguy]
Sat down today trying to come up with some fun things to do with Edward Braddock. This video has three different assassinations. I call it a Mini variety pack, not because there's not enough, but because there is an obvious missing that I was not able to accomplish in 20+ tries.
Braddock Doesn't Fight Like a Bulldog... - Nothing special about this one. It's a basic chase after the Bulldog with no weapon equipped. Haytham hip-checks Braddock and he dies instantly. I thought someone with a nickname of Bulldog would fight a little better than that.
Braddock's Swirly - In this assassination, Haytham plays bully to his old friend and dunks him under the water. I guess Braddock can't hold his breath, as Haytham drowns him. The only way to get to him while he's still in the water is to call a horse. You have to stay within 50m of Braddock before desyncing... and I was close in this play through. (Yes, I know this isn't death by water, but rather death from his skull crushing into the ground).
Eagle Strike - This one took some set up. First, you need to break Braddock's AI. To do this, simply do a "gentle push" on him at the end of the chase. This will cause him to think he's a regular soldier and he will chase you. Now you run to the cliffs. Once you break Braddock's line of sight and return to incognito mode, he has a case of waypoint separation and stands still. From here you can push him into position for the Eagle Strike. Yes, this counts as an Eagle Strike - if you miss the cliff, you die.
Other notes on Braddock
Once in a chase, you can run anywhere in the frontier and encounter very few guards. In the video I note where George Washington was left under the tree and is missing. In addition, (nearly) all enemies are gone. All of Braddock's men are gone. Interestingly, Fort Duquesne (where the British are marching) is EMPTY (except for the one captain with a guard dog). I only encountered one other group of patrolling redcoats running around the northern section of the frontier. Interesting (because it's contrary to an earlier observation about the beginning of Sequence 3), the Mohawk village is fully populated. I ran over to the Johnson Hall area, run by colonials, (hoping to piggy-back the William Johnson firecracker and human bait assassinations) and Braddock's AI was broken even more. He ran around a single house in circles the whole time. I wasn't able to get in fights with any other bad guys during this time, and they didn't fight me (redcoats or otherwise), except for the guard dog. One last note, I couldn't find a single predator for a Human Bait assassination.
The Missing Assassination - The obvious one that's missing from this video is air assassinating Braddock before he reaches the end of the chase (without using a horse) by running on the trees rather than through water. I tried about 25 times and never got close. I'm sure someone here could do it, but it's not me.
Really great work, Cheese!
Really great work, Cheese!
Thanks, Phi! It feels great to get compliments from guys such as you and Aurel.
To be 100% completely honest, I wasn't planning to do anything on video. I was playing through the game for the second time, and when Braddock started chasing me, I just tried to run away. I noticed when I escaped, he was able to be pushed. And, because of these forums, this led me to think like a real THBer. I thought, "Hey, I might be able to do something cool with this..." I then ran over to the cliffs and tried a few things with him. The first cliff I tried wasn't high enough to count (maybe for a stunt). The second time, I tried it on the cliff shown... and I nailed it the first try (except for the death part... I hit 
and tackled him). My next thought was, "Oh man! I haven't seen an Eagle Strike on Braddock yet... I gotta get this thing on video!" So I started recording. Then once I got the Eagle Strike (on my 7th attempt... no luck with the video going, I'm sure you know how that goes) I thought there needed to be something else. I had tried some horse blitz assassinations before and this is the one I got on video. Not my best (you can time the jump just right where Haytham jumps from the horse before the last pond and hits Braddock at the deepest part of the water and it's more dramatic), but good enough for filler. The point of the video was the Eagle Strike.
Sorry for rambling. Long story short, thank you THB. You have made me think outside the game and I wanted to show how with this Eagle Strike. Without these forums, I'd simply run up and hip check him every time... and where's the fun in that. 
Long story short... this is my tribute to you guys. 
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Took Braddock to the top of the cliff on the other side of that pond today. Wasn't able to tackle or push him off... and my horse spawned in the wrong spot to try a horse push. I managed to kick him off the cliff ... but he died mid-air. (Memory corridor triggered when in air, not even in water yet).
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Wow, that was surprisingly slick. And on pretty much the first true Assassination in the game, no less.
Wow, that was surprisingly slick. And on pretty much the first true Assassination in the game, no less.
Thanks. Aurel got an Eagle Strike on Silas.
So as for the Eagle Strikes... we have Silas, Braddock and Johnson so far, I think. I don't know if Hickey, Lee or Haytham would be possible. Who else is there? Church is on a boat, not likely there either... Would Pitcairn be possible?
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Good work on your (first?) variety pack vid! Braddock sure doesn't have a fleeing AI (if you bump into him while he's "fleeing" he gets suspicious.) Oh, and lol at the swirly and failed eagle strike. 
+1 for humor.
So as for the Eagle Strikes... we have Silas, Braddock and Johnson so far, I think. I don't know if Hickey, Lee or Haytham would be possible. Who else is there? Church is on a boat, not likely there either... Would Pitcairn be possible?
A eagle strike on Thomas might be possible. The building where he fights Washington and his guards has a viewpoint. The problem is in a short time either he kills Washington or gets killed before you can even reach the viewpoint (believe me, I've tried). So to make it work you would have to delay the fight. My idea was to somehow separate the Thomas from them. The execution platform is there for only that memory in the game, so it stands to reason that if you get a character on or behind the platform, they might not know how to get off/around it.
As for John Pitcairn, he's even more tricky. If you do anything to get him off the horse your detected, even if it's something like whistle. And once you fight him you can't air assassinate him.
One last note, I couldn't find a single predator for a Human Bait assassination.
There are two wolves near where you start the memory, pretty much in the area where I shot Haytham's Templar allies off their horses in The Templars Early Deaths in The Braddock Expedition. you might have to play through the memory without restarting any checkpoints. Also i think if you are in open conflict with soldiers predatory animals run away.
Also i think if you are in open conflict with soldiers predatory animals run away.
That was not my experience on William Johnson. The bear would continue to advance during open conflict with guards but would not attack. I had to be careful to keep a safe distance when killing the last guard or else the bear would attack Connor after the fight.
If we got too far away, the bear would lose interest and begin swimming back to his spawn point. I could go get his attention again - if I could find him, that is. Bears submerge themselves while swimming, making them hard to spot.
Just wolves then, I guess. Wait... animals (or at least bears) can swim?
Wait... animals (or at least bears) can swim?
They must not know they're an NPC.
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
He might have meant shallow water. That makes sense, since characters are slower in water, so it wouldn't be hard to program bears to submerge in the same situation. Also, if bears could swim, the devs would have to program paths leading out of water, and if that was the case, why wouldn't they make other NPCs able to swim?
Also i think if you are in open conflict with soldiers predatory animals run away.
That would explain that, I guess... So maybe you could get Braddock to chase you somewhere where bears (for example) are known to roam, then hide so you're no longer in conflict... bear spawns... death... hmmmm
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Re: hip check
Braddock never made it as a hockey player... not even for the Maple Leafs, Blue Jackets or Flyers.
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Re: hip check
Braddock never made it as a hockey player... not even for the Maple Leafs, Blue Jackets or Flyers.
You put this in here just to irk me. That's not cool. Watch how many times I kill a dude you've poisoned next time we're in multiplayer.
All in all, it was awesome to watch. Just calling it a Swirly was worth the video itself. I also do like the ridiculous distance guards/characters fly when you throw them or make lethal contact. Some of the kills against walls/houses are just laughable.