ll sorts of amusing situations. In one fight I watched, a Brute had a Marine on one side with a shotgun, and a Marine on the other side with an AR. He didn't know which way to turn, and the Marines kept making him stagger this way and that.
You can get multiple pilots if you want; just keep luring Banshees and ejecting pilots until you've got however many you want.
If an ejected Brute is initially not near your Marines, you can move him along to them with Hornet fire. You can likewise move him about during the fighting, for example forcing him back towards the Marines if he gets a bit far away. Heh heh... no escape for you, monkey-boy! You can move a Marine into a desired position by bodily pushing against him, on foot.
Another thing you can do is give Marines selected weaponry to use against the pilots - for example a Spartan laser or fuel rod gun for a bit of fireworks! Mind you, be careful where you leave your Hornet, if you're getting out to watch for a while. One time a Marine accidentally took out my parked Hornet with a Spartan laser, leaving me unable to bring in any more Brutes. BLAM! There goes my pride and joy. Thanks a lot buddy! I think it was an accident...
Outside the first tower
To arrange a fight outside the first tower, you'll want to have left Marines there when you departed. You could have four there. If any happen to be in a troop hog and you want to get them out to fight on foot, overturn the hog by driving it off an edge or something (e.g. I went over the waterfall), then blow it up so they don't reboard.
I had a great little situation in the pool area, where two Brutes were cornered by three Marines. Another time I was watching one Marine with a shotgun hold back two Brutes who kept trying to get near him and kept getting blasted back.
One word of warning if you're trying to get multiple pilots outside the tower. If you come back with a new Banshee and you find that the game has to reload the tower area again, you might find that your earlier pilots have vanished. I experienced that once, but it hasn't been a serious hindrance and usually no reloading is needed anyway (if you got the Banshee from the nearest group). You'll probably have no problem getting at least a couple of pilots back.
On the beach
To arrange a fight on the beach, start with a set-up as described in Marines on the beach. You'll have as many as ten Marines ready to give any Brute pilots a warm welcome. I've had a load of fun with this. The unarmed Marine you stole your Hornet from is particularly aggressive, and tends to run after Brutes screaming. As such, he tends to take a bit of a beating, and may well get killed despite the general Marine resilience. Still, he's amusing while he lasts!
To get a Brute into position on the beach, the way I did it was to first get him ejected up on the snow-topped hills shortly after he gave chase, then I blasted him off the edge, down into the base of the canyon. From there, a bit more Hornet fire forced him along to the waiting Marines. Heh, that sure woke 'em up a bit!
It's possible to arrange for the Marines to have one or two Ghosts if you want, namely the Ghosts from the canyon. The Marines will have a fine time trying to ram the Brutes, but it's possible for Brutes to eject them (or yourself, if you care to clamber aboard for a bit of Brute harrassment). Once a Brute has taken over a Ghost however, he seems to lose interest and dismount.
Moving the beach Marines
Incidentally, it's also possible to drive most of the beach Marines to the first tower one by one with a Mongoose, to have a major rumpus against pilots there instead. When I did this, the only Marines that refused to board the Mongoose were one of the pistol-wielding pilots and the unarmed pilot I got my Hornet from. You could use the same technique to have a large rumpus in other locations too, as long as deposited Marines don't run back to that beach area. I haven't explored those possibilities yet, but I'm thinking you could have a nice battle somewhere up the canyon, or maybe somewhere further along the beach.
Banshee collection
If you're into vehicle collecting, the hijacking technique I described gives you a way of forming a collection of up to 8 Banshees to take a screenshot of, or whatever. I formed such a collection on the snow-topped hills, with the 8 pilots herded into a bunch further away. You could potentially have your collection elsewhere though. If you start with the Banshees up on the snow, you could shunt them off the edge (push them with the Hornet) and get them all down onto the beach for example.
Checkpoint, and passive pilots
If you want a checkpoint after collecting all 8 Banshees, one way of doing it is to perform sufficient destruction at the third tower. You'll still be able to fly back to your collection, but you'll need to take a high route to get over an invisible wall. Climb to maximum or near maximum height to start heading over the snowy clifftop, to get back to the area of the second tower. It's plain sailing from there.
When you return to your ejected pilots however, you may find that they've lost any attacking instinct. That's what I found when I did this, though I'm not sure exactly when that behavioural change was triggered. I was able to land and stand among them, and they just stood there passively. They reacted in pain when I attacked them, but they didn't retaliate. I gave one fellow a nasty going-over with a spartan laser at point blank range - hee hee!
Once you've saved a checkpoint you can have fun rocketing your Banshee collection to bits if you like, and later exit to the dashboard so you don't lose your save.
yes, i was very bored...