Bleakbane (Re-)Plays: TIE Fighter! For the glory of the Empire, destroy everything!

[Aotrs Commander]

Very cool LP. If this and Dungeon Keeper 2 are two of the three best of all-time, what's the third?

Dungeon Keeper 1.

DK2 was, overall, just not up to even distantly the same level as it's predessor. There were a few nicities in there (the humorous random comments being the best), but it just wasn't nearly as good.



The third is, of course, the still-as-yet-unequalled Planescape: Torment.

[Aotrs Commander]

Onward!

First off, today's "have a go at the mission while we gte the joystick calibrated" was TIE Fighter mission 1. Blow up containers, shoot moving targets and then fight an increasing number of enemy fighters (Headhunters, then X-Wings.) I think I did manage it once, but it's basically just luck, since law of averages says eventually, glancing blow will kill you...

Did alright this time, though got up to Headhunter Dodec - but 12:1 is a bit much...!


To Battle Three, Mission Four!

Spoiler

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Battle 4: Guard Space Station NL-1

I will be flying Assault Gunboat Tau 1, to protect the new station NL-1... and... the... Ludwick...?

IT'S A MIRACLE!

HAH! Must have been one of Thrawn's brilliant plans to make the rebels THINK they destroyed the Ludwick, when really they didn't! Some sort of clever thing where they detonated some combustibles and buggered off to hyperspeed or something!

That's completely believeable, right?

Well, actually... kinda is, isn't it?

Mission says proton torpedoes. Now, given what I've realised, that probably means heavy rockets are a better option, but we'll go with protons the first time...

And as it happens, the only time. Hurrah! A nice, easy mission again! Now, THIS is what I remembered Battle Three being like!

First up, Y-Wing Gold showed up, with some Modified Corvettes in tow. Some A-Wings did shortly thereafter, but after a moment of debate, I decided to leave them and concentrate on the attack craft. Which was well, since I shot down their first spread of torpedoes as I closed.



I then went after Y-Wing Blue. I hit one with a proton (because I took a shot as it and that was the weapon system I had active), which proved to me a proton can't quite one-shot a Y-Wing, but makes it easy to finish with guns. Good to remember.


Then I remembered to chase towards the station to put it into the memory and find out who was attacking - X-Wing Blue. I chased them down, firing at the three of them sequentially so they broke off their attack run and then mopped them up.


I happened to be pointing at one of the Corvettes after that, so I unloaded the requisite six protons to take that out.


And then conveniantly, our secondary and bonus goal objective, Shuttle Shakkar tried to escape. Shuttle vrs Gunboat. Oh dear... So in seconds, Shakkar was inspected (bonus goals)..


...and disabled. If only it was always that easy!


The remaining M/CRVs were now attacking Ludwick, and again, I was in prime position. Leaving Ludwick to handle the first one, I launched my last five protons and then finished it with cannon fire before it even really knew what hit it.


Finally, three Transports were attacking the station and once more, they were basically passing right by me!

And a one...



...and a two...


...and a three!


(Hey, I even took 'em down in order! Neat.)

At this point VSD Stalwart arrived, completing the primary objectives. Which just left one last loose end to, aha, TIE up... A-Wing Blue.

I hate fighting A-Wings in Gunboats...

But that doesn't mean I can't do it!



And then back to VSD Stalwart in time for tea!



Primary Objective:
PLT/3 NL-1 must survive until other goals complete
M/FRG Ludwick must survive until other goals complete
VSD Stalwart must arrive
Secondary Objectives:
SHU Shakkar must be captured
Bonus Objectives:
SHU Shakkar must be inspected

Twelve out of eighteen kills (including two of the M/CRVs). Not bad! The platform was down to 10% shields (and it started at only 50%) and Ludwick was down to 76%.



Battle 5: Thrawn inspects NL-1

Ooer. The Man hisself is a comin' for an inspection of the NL-1. Better look sharp, T/B Alpha! (Unlike some OTHER Imperials, Thrawn doesn't need to "motivate" us with his powers - he does that just by showing up!)

We're using Advanced Missiles. Ohh-ho, YES! Muahahahaha!

Double load. And reloads! Ahahahahaha!


So, of course, the first time went perfectly, until one of the [expletiving] bonus goal shuttles rammed me. And then the second attempt, my idiot companions missed an A-Wing and it shot me with a missile.



Third time lucky, then (and just to prove it was just bad luck the first time...)


*salutes*

(Noting that, of course, Thrawn is in the no. 2 transport!)

The rebel attack begind with three A-Wings. And then three more. And then three more. If I didn't have advanced missiles, I'd be worried... Expereince on the first and second try said to ignore Red 1, which was attacking the platform (?) and go for Red 2 and Red 3, which were aiming for T/I Gamma.


I threw a missile at each, and then turned to the Y-Wings which had just showed up to attack the station.


Once they went down a pair of missiles a piece, I turned to X-Wing Gold and assisted NL-1 in taking them out with another missile each. (TIE doesn't count assists, unfortunately, since that's what I mostly got this try. Generous soul that I am, setting people up...)


Then I went and helped mop up X-Wing Yellow the same way. One blasted X-Wing smacked me with explosion debris, which wasn't good. Fortunately it didn't take out anything important or kill me this time, though.


Thrawn was on his way back to the Stalwart at this point when the Pakuuni Shuttles showed up. (We hadn't done as well as the first time, as at this stage there was a single X-Wing left - briefly. The first attempt, we'd cleared 'em all out.)

No. Bad shuttle. We do not attack Thrawn!

I splashed Gamer 1 with my last pair of missiles and then shot down Gamer 2. (Clearly, not very GOOD gamers, were they...? Maybe "gamer" means something lese in Pakuuni? "Blithering idiot" perhaps?)


Shuttle Noway proved a bit more tiresome though. By this stage, TRN Omega - and Thrawn were safely home and everyone else was going home too, leaving me to deal with all three.


So, naturally, one of 'em got a lucky shot as I was trying REALLY hard not to ram or be rammed by the frackers and took out my CMD. Again, though, while this was serious, they WERE only shuttles at the end of the day and the biggest danger is the aforementioned ramming. One of 'em was a kill-stealing [expleteive] though, killing his mate before I could! I don't know whether to laugh at his incompetance or be mad he stole my kill...

Mad, I think.

I don't think so, Noway. We don't steal MY kills.

And that was the bonus goals!

Primary Objective:
PLT/3 NL-1 must survive until other goals complete
M/FRG Ludwick must survive until other goals complete
TRN Sigma 2 must complete mission
TRN Omega must complete mission
Secondary Objectives:
None
Bonus Objectives:
100% of SHU group Bliss must be destroyed
100% of SHU group Gamer must be destroyed
100% of SHU group Noway must be destroyed

Only 10/26 kills this time (probably quite a lot more assists, though), but we're aiming for mission objectives, not Bestest Score/Kills.

A brief pause to extract the middle part of my second ATR from the 3D printer (pictures of the ATRs, TIE Defenders and Missileboats I've been 3D printing will doubtless come at some point...!) and we have just about enough time for one more.

Spoiler

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Battle 6: Wait for Relief Forces

Now NL-1 is finished, we just have to protect it with GUN Tau until Thrawn shows back up with the Stalwart. And... protect its two System Patrol Craft.

Crap.

This is gonna be a [female canine] isn't it?

Suggested load is Protons again, and once again, I'll try 'em the first time around, since supposedly there'll be a lot of transports as well as ATRs. Heavy rockets are great (and have the best damage output/payload of all the munitions) but they are best against capial ships and sometimes you want something a bit more mobile. We'll see...

Okay. Bad start. Shuttle Electra shows up right away simply miles out and buggered off real quick. I failed to take out the ATRs on the first pass AND got caught up with A-Wings before I could get to the TRNs. Abort, retry...

Switch to heavy rockets and turn race straight for Electra at mission start, I think...

Second try I still ended up with Protons. Dammit. I managed to disable Electra this time, but Transport Rover killed the SPCs.

Third try, I went with heavy rockets. I managed to lauch one each at ATR Thunder as I passed, whipped over to TRN Rover, leaving Tau 2 to tackle Rover 1 and took out Rover 2 and 3 with a rocket a piece.

And then the station got blown up.

DAMMIT!

Forth try!

Off goes VSD Stalwart...

And in come the rebels.

As before, I headed right out for ATR Thunder. As soon as my shields were maxed, I transferred power back to engines and accelerated and chucked a rocket at each. (Though they missed on the first pass, heavy rockets DO have some homing ability, because I got 'em later.)


I screamed past - this time no A-Wings paying any attention to be towards SHU Electra. TRN Rover appeared as I passed the ATRs, so I dispatched Tau 2 to go attack them (which kept the A-Wings off me). As I reached Electra, I put max power into the cannons and ion'd the ever-living crap out of it.


Netx priority was again TRN Rover. Power back to engines, and I bolted over. This time, I got lucky, and came up RIGHT behind Rover 2 and 3 as they flew in formation, shooting at something and put a heavy rocket right up their tail-pipes. I chased after Rover 1, and was just ordering Tau 2 to break off and attack the A-Wing on his six when it killed him. I flashed past and hit Rover 1 with another rocket. Again, luck was with me,as the A-Wing didn't go for me instantly, enabling me to not even slow down, but sail past and scream over to ATR Taxel...



...and put paid to their attack on the station with two more rockets.

I then could start mopping up the X-Wing that was now on my tail...


..and the equally insane Shuttle, just as our own TRN captures Shuttle Electra, completing both secondary and bonus objectives.


...and then help with the clean-up as the convoy returned.


Question - can we take out an A-Wing with a heavy rocket?

Nope, but by 'eck, it didn't half TRY! Guns, then.


And back to the Stalwart in victory!


Primary Objectives:
PLT/1 NL-1 must survive until other goals complete
SPC Ranger 1 must survive until other goals complete
SPC Ranger 2 must survive until other goals complete
VSD Stalwart must arrive
Secondary Objectives:
SHU Electra must be captured
Bonus Objectives:
TRN Shark must have finished docking
SHU Electra must be inspected

As you can see, NL-1 took a bit of a pounding, but survived, but the SPCs were this time untouched. I got ten out of twenty kills. Only a couple of fighters (one X-W, one A-W), but all four ATRs, all three transports and that one shuttle (and Electra captured to boot). Good job!

Medals all round, commendations, a sector now fully secure against the rebel scum and I was promoted to the Inner Circle!

Yeah, that's more like what I rememdered Battle Three being like!

At this stage, we have 212 kills (42 of which are Y-Wings! Ahahahahah!) and 17 captures (and one craft lost).

So, next week we will dip into Battle Four!

Which, off the top of my head, I don't remember. On a quick look at the briefing map, it's the one that I think involves us getting tractor beams. I can't actually remember anything about the battle itself though, so this should be interesting!

[factotum]

Out of interest, does the version of the game you're playing have all 13 battles (including Defender of the Empire expansion), or is it just the original seven?

[Aotrs Commander]

Out of interest, does the version of the game you're playing have all 13 battles (including Defender of the Empire expansion), or is it just the original seven?

It's the Collector's Edition CDROM (which I purchased for a fiver, probably the best buy I ever made) so is arguably the "definitive" version with everything.

I literally couldn't run the original, since I don't have a physical floppy disk drve anymore - and the 1998 re-release which I also have (of which the gog re-realse is basically) has updated graphics, but butchers the music and apparently only has battles one through 10.

[Crow]

This thread has inspired me to load up TIE fighter again. I have the collector's cdrom. Don't know if it has the updated graphics, it would appear not. Having iMUSE totally makes up for it though. I never realized how much that system helped to immerse you. I get voiced mission briefings too, which is pretty awesome for its time. :)

[factotum]

but butchers the music and apparently only has battles one through 10.

I think 10 might be the actual number--apparently Defender of the Empire only added 3, could have sworn it did more! Really should go and get the GoG version (I've heard they provide both versions, incidentally--the DOS one with the proper music, and a Windows one with MIDI stuff instead).

[Aotrs Commander]

I think 10 might be the actual number--apparently Defender of the Empire only added 3, could have sworn it did more!

That's because there were two expansions, Defender of the Empire (battles 8-10) and the later Enemies of the Empire (11-13), both of which (plus the doubled resolution and all the improved cinematics and voice-overs) you got with the CDROM version.

[factotum]

Ah! So, does that mean that neither the 1994 or 1998 versions that you get when you buy the GoG version provide those additional 3 battles?

[Crow]

Which one has the best resolution? I'm playing the cd rom collector's edition, and my max is 640x480

[factotum]

Which one has the best resolution? I'm playing the cd rom collector's edition, and my max is 640x480

The original DOS game ran at 320x200, so 640x480 is better than you'll get from the 1994 version.

[Aotrs Commander]

Ah! So, does that mean that neither the 1994 or 1998 versions that you get when you buy the GoG version provide those additional 3 battles?

Could well be, unfortunately.

I'd question why on Earth that the 1998 re-release didn't have everything on it, but I suspect the answer is obvious... Cut so they could make room for the waste of time that was the CD music instead of the much more compact midi iMUSE. I just glad I never got rid of the original or anything.

However, a quick look on Gog says that you get both expansions - but apparently only the 98 version has the enimies of the Empire expansion. (Which means as it's not the full 95 version, it is porbably missing some of the extra bits, but may still at least have al 13 battles - provided you play the windows, not the DOS version. Wierd.)



Edit: TIE fighter has been lying to us for twenty years. I just went and confirmed it. TIE Defenders emphatically do NOT have 200 SBD shields. It says they do, but they don't. I just went and tested it in TIE Defender mission 1 and one of the Gunboat missions. I both cases, I let them shoot missiles (regular, not advanced) missiles at me. In both cases, when they hit, the shields went from green to red in the outer layer. Which says the GUN and T/D must have the same shields. (This also explains why you can kill a T/D with a pair of advanced missiles of an advanced torpedo.) So why the heck does all TIE's documentation say it's 200? The briefing says the shields are the new "fast recharging type" which I think will require some experimentation to see if there is a difference.

Edit: Actually, it seems worsde than that. On a preliminary analysis, it takes twice as long for the T/D to regenerate it's shields (by either method by the by, I have again proven that recharge via shield power is quite utterly worthless) as the T/A. I'll have to run another tes with GUN later, but there is a danger the T/D was SUPPOSED to have 200, but only has 100 - or there is something very odd going on with the missiles.

[Aotrs Commander]

Addendum to the edits above.

I spent a bit of time this evening doing a load of experimentation.

For twenty years, I have worked on the basis that the T/D as of TIE Fighter was a superlative fighter, so powerful it was broken for multiplayer, nearly at the pinnicle of the Empire's fighter program.

Now I'm not so sure.

What shields does a T/D have? XWA gave it 100, but TIE always said it was 200.

The problem is, as I've been experimenting - I don't think that's actually TRUE.

I've been running some test in TIE between the GUN, T/A, T/D and MISS, going into some of the early training missions and fiddling around with the power and timing it.

Some things of note.

1) The GUN and T/D take about 7-8 minutes to recharge from zero to maximum shields on full recharge. The MISS takes about 10... and the T/A takes about four.

2) All vessels recharge all their cannons from zero to full in about 32 seconds at maximum recharge.

3) The GUN takes 5 full cannon charge tracks to bring it from zero to maximum shields. The T/A takes two-and-a-half, the T/D 3.5 and the MISS 6.

(Incidently, this proves that shield recharge above normal is absolutely pointless, as cannon => shields is much faster.)

I also attempted to get shot with one (regular) missile at full shields.

Both the GUN and the T/D were taken down to red on the outer layer. The MISS, when shot by an advanced missile, goes down to green on the inner layer. (I hadn't contrived to get a missle shot at a T/A yet.)

This would be consistent with the layers being 50/50 (that is 50/50 in the front arc and 50/50 in the rear arc), being reduced to 20/50 in the former pair and 60/60 to 0/60 in the latter.

I also made sure I shot a a fully-shielded T/D (on T/D mission one, where I could obligingly get one to stop for me). It reduced the shields to 96%. After it had recharged, a single advanced missile hit reduced it's shields to 40%.

I know from prior experimentation that a single shot is about 4 damage in XWA, and like the warhead damage, that hasn't changed from the earlier games.

The evidence is somewhat worrying.

A T/D takes 4 damage and goes to 96%, and takes 60 damage and goes to 40%. Which it can only do if it had 100 SBD shields. Notably, it has the same recharge time asthe GUN, and appears to show the same amount of shield loss as they GUN when hit by a regular missile.

Notably, the GUN's 5 full recharges (x 4 guns) => twenty, and the T/D's approx 3.5 recharges (x 6 guns) => 21... which suggests accounting for the rounding, it is twenty. The same.

The T/A, on the other hand, takes half as long to charge it's shields. This suggests either it has half the shields of the GUN and T/D, or has some sort of fast recharge.

I went and experimented with the T/A in T/A mission one and got hi by a missile. Which reduced the shields to green on the inner layer. So it appears it has less shields than the T/D and GUN... Indeed, the amount of damage taken would seem to support a 50SBD shield (25/25 => 0/20).

I haven't checked yet to see if difficulty levels make any difference (I'm playing on hard mode). I suspect they don't because I was doing a let's play of TIE and Battle 1 mission 5 and the X-Wings were hittin my GUN with advanced missiles and reducing the shields to yellow on the inner (consistent with 50/50 =>0/40) on medium as well, I'm pretty sure. (I will have to check.)

If the warhead damage is the same, though, it's pretty conclusive as far as I can experimentally determine. The GUN and the T/D appear to have the same shields... which is twice that of the T/A. Contrary to everything TIE Fighter said.

(Incidently, I can see no evidence for either TIE of any supposed "rapid recharge" shielding.)

This would also explain how you can KO a T/D with a pair of advanced missiles or a single advanced torpedo. (Which even at the time I thought was odd, since that should really have only reduced the shields to 40% and 25% respectively for a 200 SBD shield.)

The Missileboat, on the other hand, does appear to display consistency with a 120SBD (+20% recharge times in both forms of recharge, plus the evidence of the missile hits.)

So, XvT (and XWA) may actually not have modified the shields of the T/A and T/D much at all - they may have just corrected them to what they appear to have ACTUALLY been, not what TIE told us they were.

(I don't know how I didn't notice this two decade ago, really, or how anyone else hasn't!)



I'm a bit disheartened, really, since I have spent twenty years cheering on the T/D (and T/A) as ridiculously awesome and having to be toned down for the sake of cowardly rebels in the later games... To find out that, actually, it has been wrong since the start.

What is not clear is why the given values in TIE are wrong - and they're stated wrong in several places, so it's more than just one typo, and whether the intention was to have the T/A and GUN at 100 and the T/D at 200 or what.



As it happens, though, I ended up playing all the way through TIE Advanced Mission 1 (which is missile training and dogfighting.) I hadn't even properly configured the joystick, since I was really just mucking around. But YE GODs. I don't know whether it was the joystick, despite the up-and-to-the-left drift was flowing smoothly or whether it's just the T/A is so much stupidly better than the T/F, T/B and GUN I've been mostly flying but wow. Even taking six A-Wings to one (and they had missiles too) was a doddle. I suspect it's partially the latter.

TIE Advanced Training Mission 1: Concussion Missiles

No screen shots, since I wasn't really expecting to complete it (and really, as it was juts "shoot A-Wings" nothing really exciting anyway. But we can call that one done.

Primary Objectives:
X-Wing Target 1 must be destroyed
X-Wing Target 2 must be destroyed
X-Wing Target 3 must be destroyed
X-Wing Target 4 must be destroyed
X-Wing Target 5 must be destroyed
X-Wing Target 6 must be destroyed
X-Wing Target 7 must be destroyed
Secondary Objectives:
X-Wing Shooter 1 must be destroyed
X-Wing Shooter 2 must be destroyed
X-Wing Shooter 3 must be destroyed
X-Wing Shooter 4 must be destroyed
X-Wing Shooter 5 must be destroyed
Bonus Objectives:
100% of A-Wing group Duo must be destroyed
100% of A-Wing group Trio must be destroyed
100% of A-Wing group Quad must be destroyed
100% of A-Wing group Quin must be destroyed
100% of A-Wing group Hex must be destroyed

[factotum]

I bought TIE Fighter off GoG last night, installed the 1998 version, and started the first battle on Medium difficulty. Ye gods, I don't remember it being this hard 20 years ago! I don't know if it's my aged reflexes or my old Saitek Cyborg Evo joystick being a bit stiff to turn, but I struggled mightily to get through those missions, especially if I tried to go for the bonus objectives. Took me a good 4-5 hours to finish Battle 1! Dreading what the later battles will bring.

[Aotrs Commander]

I bought TIE Fighter off GoG last night, installed the 1998 version, and started the first battle on Medium difficulty. Ye gods, I don't remember it being this hard 20 years ago! I don't know if it's my aged reflexes or my old Saitek Cyborg Evo joystick being a bit stiff to turn, but I struggled mightily to get through those missions, especially if I tried to go for the bonus objectives. Took me a good 4-5 hours to finish Battle 1! Dreading what the later battles will bring.

I have found the joystick calibration can be very touchy. If you can get it so it doesn't drift, sometimes it means the stick moves like you'e flying through treacle. It appears to be basically luck as to whether or not you can get it right (or close enough to right).

(Incidently, if you get a point where even if you come ot of the mission and the curosr drifts off somewhere, Alt+C still allows you to config the joystick outside of mission, which will fix that.)

[factotum]

I don't think it's calibration--the ship doesn't seem to drift, it just seems to be very difficult to make small, precise movements. Mind you, the fact the game will have you do stuff like destroy a bunch of A-wings while flying an Assault Gunboat doesn't help--it's near impossible to land a hit on the nimble little sods!

As for your earlier comments about the TIE Defender shielding--is it possible they changed this sometime between the original 1994 release and the release of the Collector's Edition that you're playing? I don't think anyone would argue that TIE Defenders were not stupidly overpowered in the original release of the game, so maybe LucasArts decided to change that.

[Aotrs Commander]

I don't think it's calibration--the ship doesn't seem to drift, it just seems to be very difficult to make small, precise movements. Mind you, the fact the game will have you do stuff like destroy a bunch of A-wings while flying an Assault Gunboat doesn't help--it's near impossible to land a hit on the nimble little sods!

Ah, of course 98 version, so you probably don't have to calibrate the joystick at game start like the '95 version.

As for your earlier comments about the TIE Defender shielding--is it possible they changed this sometime between the original 1994 release and the release of the Collector's Edition that you're playing? I don't think anyone would argue that TIE Defenders were not stupidly overpowered in the original release of the game, so maybe LucasArts decided to change that.

Seems very unlikely they would make a change like that and not document it in any of the supporting material. And given TIE was single player only, changes to the T/A and T/D would somewhat scale, since it affects player and opposition (the amount of the enemy you have to fight...!)

Though you could run a quick test yourself, as the gog version comes with '94 DOS version, does it not? Just go into T/D mission one and get one of the T/D to shoot a missile at you and see how it affects your shields.

Actually, come to that, even easier, if I recall what I saw on the gog version, it said it also came with a copy of those lying Steele Chronicles, which was part and parcel of the stratagey guide. Perhaps you could have a squiz and see if it has a bit on the starship stats and what the T/D and T/A are rated at? I say this as I recall reading somewhere, it said the T/D was rated at 100SBD in that guide, which would appear to have more truth to it.

[factotum]

I just downloaded the Stele Chronicles and they don't have stats for the TIE Defender at all, I'm afraid.

[Crow]

I don't think it's calibration--the ship doesn't seem to drift, it just seems to be very difficult to make small, precise movements. Mind you, the fact the game will have you do stuff like destroy a bunch of A-wings while flying an Assault Gunboat doesn't help--it's near impossible to land a hit on the nimble little sods!

I changed my DOSbox joystick settings to just 2axis, and timed=false, and that took care of all my precise movement issues.

[factotum]

I changed my DOSbox joystick settings to just 2axis, and timed=false, and that took care of all my precise movement issues.

I'm playing the Windows version, not the DOS one, so not advice I can follow, I'm afraid.

[Triaxx]

Imperial Scum should be glad they have shields, instead of complaining about the quality...

Wait, who said that?

[pendell]

Stats or no stats, the T/D in player hands is an absolute beast in the TIE fighter games, going through X-wings like a wolf through sheep.

IIRC, the game designers nerfed the settings but that never made it into the in-game documentation; perhaps they were maintained by two different sets of people? Not an unusual thing in the industry.

Regardless, the T/D is incredibly overpowered in its initial appearance even with the nerfed shields; perhaps they dialed down the shields a touch to inject some actual element of challenge back into the game.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[factotum]

Stats or no stats, the T/D in player hands is an absolute beast in the TIE fighter games, going through X-wings like a wolf through sheep.

You don't need a T/D to cut through X-Wings like a knife through butter--a TIE Advanced will do that just fine!

[Crow]

Is it just me, or does it seem like any time they put you into an Assault Gunboat, the mission is going to be a meat-grinder?

[factotum]

Is it just me, or does it seem like any time they put you into an Assault Gunboat, the mission is going to be a meat-grinder?

There's probably a reason that the third combat simulator mission for the Assault Gunboat is basically "we're now going to throw wave after wave of fighters at you, keep blowing them up until you can't blows up no more!"...

[pendell]

I think you're right. Any time they give you a ship with actual shields it's expected that you're going to need 'em :). I remember really HATING the first Lulsla mission. Eventually, I just cleared my primary objectives and hit "H" just as quickly as I could.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Aotrs Commander]

Long one today!

(One, I started early - largely because I completely forgot I was going to write a scenario for tomorrow's game, but nevermind, as we're basically playing the tabletop version of TIE Fighter anyway, it's hardly difficult! And two - battle four is comparitiviely easy!)

Okay, first off, I had another stab at TIE Fighter mission 4 as the calibration mission, and got killed by a Headhunnter again... Keep tryin'...

Battle Four: Conflict at Mylok IV

Spoiler

Show

Mission One: Escort Convoy

Okay, escort a convoy of Cargo Ferries (carrying parts slated for new TIE Hyperdrives) in TIE Fighter Alpha 2, until Zaarin's Modifed Frigate Shamus arrives. Bad. 8 Concussion Missiles. Good. Z-95s and Y-Wings - belonging to the Nharwaak - to kill. Good. Bonus goals are inspect enemy corvettes. Bad.

First try did... okay. I managed to not die inspecting the corvettes, but the convoy took a bit of a pounding.

And then a Y-Wing rammed me.

Second and third try, the CARGs got destroyed...

On the forth try, I had the measure of it, and there's - as usual with TIE - a bit of luck in it.

Right out of the gate, the four CARGs are right in front of you, so you can just whip between them and get the inspections - and secondary goals - out of the way first.



Then the Y-Wings and Headhunters show up, along with the CRVs. The first two groups, Gold and Red only attack the TIEs. So I throttled up, and headed over to Gold group. I swung in behind them, forcing off their attack runs and then wipign them out. One lot down. At this stage, Y-Wing Blue and Yellow start appearing. A few waves of them - I wasn't keeping track - and these guys start going after the CARGs. However, it's only the lead craft that does. So the modus operandii was the moment they hypered in, I went after them, and ordered my surviving wingman (Alpha 3) to do so as well and between us we took out the lead one. I still managed to fail to stop Verack 1 being destroyed; while we were attacking Yellow, Blue got clear run. But after that first attack, they were staggered enough to manage.


This time, during the battle, I practially ran into the CRVs - the first indication was the green targeting light, but I don't think in any of the missions they actually fired at anyone! I needed to quickly inspected them - once M/FRG Shamus shows up, they die quickly. In fact, CARG Stimner were picking CRV Chaser 2 apart and I was actually concerned the CARGs would destroy it before I could inspect it!

I went to back to ensuring I killed all the Y-Wing flight leaders...


..and then mopped up. The last couple of groups - Striker and Scarlet - didn't even go after the CARGs.


After that, it was just a case of sitting and waiting for Verack 2...

..and CARG Stimner to dock. Mission accomplished!


Primary Objective:
50% of CARG group Verack must finish docking
50% of CARG group Stimner must finish docking
M/FRG Shamus must survive until other goals complete
Secondary Objectives:
100% of CARG group Verack must be inspected
100% of CARG group Stimner must be inspected
Bonus Objectives:
CRV Chaser 1 must be inspected
CRV Chaser 2 must be inspected

11/33 kills (there are a lot of TIE around in this mission, plus the CARGs and the M/FRG), all of the Y-Wings. Not bad.



Misson Two: Attack the Nharwaak

Okay - this seems easy! Attack the Nharwaak supply base in TIE Bomber Alpha 2 as reprisal for the their attack on the convoy. No bonus goals, no secondary goals... (That might be a first...) All I have to do is not get killed by Y-Wings...?

The default load is Proton Torpedoes - so guess what, we're using Heavy Rockets.

(It is worth noting that Heavy Rockets are actually the best anti-ship weapon by miles; 1400 damage for standard 8-missile equivilent loadout as opposed to 600 for Protons, 900 for Advanced Torpedoes and 1300 for space Bombs. Protons are really only any use against mid-sized stuff like transports and even then there's an argument you can just use a heavy rocket - like I did to TRN Rover last week - or just use guns. Advanced Torpedoes are better, as in theory, you can use them as anti-fighter weapons and get slightly more bang for you load-out against stuff like TIE Defenders, though we'll see then we get that far.)

First job is to kill the Corvettes. Well, may as well use those Heavy Rockets! I unloaded two onto each, that that shortly took them out.


I moved right along to the Y-Wings. The first nasty surprise was Y-Wing Red having Concussion Missiles. Fortunately, I fired down the line as they approached and took the missile out, and Red 1 shortly thereafter.


I chased after the first Shuttle, but annoyingly, it had finished delivering pilots at this point. And was making a concered effort to ram me as I killed it.


And then - Red 2 starting attacking me, and caught me with a couple of shots. The last of which took out the engine.

Crap.

Still, it was a Y-Wing, so I hammered the bastard. I might have been stationary, but that just meant I was only slightly better manouverability than a Y-Wing normally! HAH!


The bugger still managed to clip me with one last shot (he'd had enough time to go out and turn around, with me being a sitting duck) before he died. Forunatetly, only my damage report machine was damaged... And then it was a long 90-second wait for my engines to repair. To my eternal fortune, ther were no other Y-Wings around.

As I sat helpless, one Y-Wing started making an attack run on the Shamus.


I sent the rest of the squadron after him, but I needn't have bothered: Shamus was more than capable of tackling one Y-Wing.


Then I was back in action, and off I went to mop up the last Y-Wings...


...and the last shuttle. Dear Thrawn, WHY are shuttle pilots so damned insistant on trying to ram you? Did I miss something, or is the Nharwaak an alien form of the the GLA? I very nearly died several times before I killed the suicidal nutter.


As the containers were taken out (some I might add, by TIE Bombers that would have been more help killing the enemy combat craft - good job lads...), I limped back to the Shamus.


Primary Objective:
M/FRG Shamus must survive until other goals completed
CN/B Junker must be destroyed
CN/A Hume must be destroyed
CN/A Workshop must be destroyed
CN/B Repo must be destroyed
CRV Petor must be destroyed
CRV Shotgun must be destroyed
TRN Sunbird must be destroyed
SHU Pamir 1 must be destroyed
SHU Pamir 2 must be destroyed
Secondary Objectives:
None
Bonus Objectives:
None

I got ten out of eighteen kills - and fout of those I missed were containers anyway. I got both CRVs, both shuttles and six of the nine Y-Wings.

Yeah, despite the hairy moment in the middle there, that was a straightforward mission!

Misson Three: Defend Tech Center

This time, I'm flying TIE Bomber Alpha 1 out of Modified Corellian Corvette Phoenix to protect our allies, the Habeen from another Nharwaak attack. And I have to stop their Y-Wings from destoying the Habeen containers (freaking containers!), while two Shuttles and Transport board them. Crap.

Double load of missiles, this time, though, and again, no bonus or secondary goals to complicate things. Still, this doesn't feel good!

It isn't. Literally as you start out the mission, there are nine Y-Wings which are seconds away from firing crap tons of proton torpedoes. One of the defending Habeen CRVs goes down instantly and there's nothing you can do. First try, we failed totally to stop them glassing all the containers. Second time, the same thing (and I quit halfway in, as you don't get the failed mission until TRN Runner enters hyperspace.)

On the third try, I managed it - just barely.

As soon as we started, I order T/B Alpha to go after the nearest Y-wing and then went to the next target myself.


You're just too out of position to be able to shoot any torpedoes down, so I concentrated on foiling the attack runs of three Y-Wings I'd selected. After that it was a case of trying desperately to attack the ones that were on attack runs on the containers. This time, I found a second to two to be able to target one of the containers and thus go after who was attacking it. Fortunately, the two shuttles dock and et done very quickly, so it's really just TRN Runner you have to worry about.

Then Y-Wing Baker hypered in. Unlike the last attempt - where I'd been in position to splash all three (two with twin salvoes of missiles and one with guns) - this time I wasn't. But I was in the right position to shread their torpedo attack this time and the other TIEs were in position to help.


We mopped up the rest sufficiently fast this time, we actually had a breather!


There must have been nearly a minute where TRN Runner had a clear run at the last container!


And then the next group of Y-Wings showed up. I managed to just about break off Y-Wing Grey's attacks.

I am pretty sure about a second or two after that message - and mission objectives completed - the last container was destroyed. "Cutting it fine" is a bit of an understatement, lads!

With that out of the way, killing the rest of Y-Wing Grey was trivial. Back to M/CRV Phoenix!

Primary Objective:
75% of all Y-Wings must be destroyed
M/CRV Phoenix must survive util other goals complete
TRN Runner must finish docking
SHU Doyle must finish docking
SHU sgindek must finish docking
Secondary Objectives:
None
Bonus Objectives:
None

I got eight out of the fifteen Y-Wings - not too shabby. I probably could have got more, but forcing them off their attack runs is more important than killing them! Short mission, but not too bad in the end. Seems to be a theme with this battle. Probably why I don't remember it much - you go through this one quite fast!

Mission Four: Diplomatic Meeting

Good news! The Habeen, pleased with our performance in saving their arses (bad straight!) have decided to hand over the Hyperdrive technology. I will be flying TIE Interceptor Alpha 1 to protect the rendevous. No bonus goals again, but I need to inspect the Transport containing the new parts when they show up for the secondary goals.

There's a lot of mission goals here! First attempt failed when the enemy Y-Wings killed the very last Transport before it docked. I think the major problem was not no much the Y-Wings as the enemy corvettes. I figured on the second try, it was time to break out the heavy rockets again.

Second attempt: [expletiving] ramming Y-Wings.

Third time lucky, as seems to be my pattern!

Shuttles Fairfax and Nexus heading to dock for the signing of the trade agreement...


And here comes the Nharwaak! Four Corvettes, three Y-Wings.

Very shortly TWO Corvettes. This time, as I was flying at full speed and knew where they were coming from, I was practically on top of the second one before my rockets had locked on.

I was then back on to Y-Wing hunting. Again I concentrated first on breaking their attack runs off before mopping them up.


As it so happened though, I noticed one of them going for the shuttles. So I raced over to kill those, having to dodge Red 2, who had decided I was his next target.


After I kept the shuttle's tails clean, they finished the trade agreement signing and I dealt with Red 2. then the transport launched. I inspected the first pair as they flew past, killed an errant Y-Wing, then inspected the second pair. Secondary objectives done!


I raced off to deal with the last of the Y-Wings - but was not quite in time to save my last wingman.


But his killers did not last long!


Back to the Shamus.


Primary Objective:
M/FRG Shamus must survive until other goals complete
FRG Lendova must survive until other goals complete
SHU Fairfax must survive until other goals complete
SHU Nexus must complete mission
TRN Ferry 1 must complete mission
TRN Ferry 2 must complete mission
TRN Ferry 3 must complete mission
TRN Ferry 4 must complete mission
Secondary Objectives:
TRN Ferry 1 must be inspected
TRN Ferry 2 must be inspected
TRN Ferry 3 must be inspected
TRN Ferry 4 must be inspected
Bonus Objectives:
None

Nicely done! I got two corvettes and a fair number of the Y-Wings (about eleven I think). We have now got proper TIE Hyperdrive technology, so the TIE Advanced can be properly finished!

Mission Five: Rebel Arms Deal

Oh crap, it's a Gunboat mission...!

Right. A Rebel frigate and the Habeen are meeting so the latter can hand over the hyperdrive technology. I don't think so, lads. This time, Gunboat Tau is performing anti-fighter operations, while TIE Bombers are going to attack the Frigate.

Oh hey, bonus objectives, that's a novelty for this battle...

You know what, I'm just going to cut to the chase and use Heavy Rockets right out of the gate! That should make the job for the TIE Bombers a bit easier, and hopefully when the frigate goes down, it'll take all the rebels fighters on board it. Hell, if I can take the shields out, a disabled frigate is easy meat, right?

Here goes nothin'...


Crap, that thing's close! Right! 'Ave it, you rebel scum! Fire all the heavy rockets! (Oh hey, reloads. Neat.)


Wow. That... worked better than expected. Right then!


MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

I love ion cannons. They make captial ships such a breeze!

As I was starting my next attack run on the now helpless friagte, TRN Tela launched.

Nope, no escape for you rebels! Secret mission objectives completed.

I then went back to Xerxes, determined to get my kill! Frack the enemy attacking me, I wanted to kill that frigate!


Sadly, Zaarin is a rotten kill-stealin'-bastard and the Shamus finished it off. Hilariously, just as one of the Habeen corvettes docked with the stricken ship, the corvette got blown up - I'm pretty sure that didn't help, either.


I then started wiping out the remaining rebel fighters.

A-Wing, mate, going head to head with a GUN is not going to do you any favours.

All that was left was a couple more CRVs. I tried running up behind one to blindside it, but didn't get it right. I was taking too much fire and backed off.


As I was skimming through the remaining vessels I remembered "uhm, duh, or I could get a reload from my reload ship!"


Perfect position - TRN Sigma loaded me as I drew a bead on the CRVs...


...And boom! Well, at least I got SOME capital ships...


Primary Objective:
M/FRG Shamus must survive until other goals complete
FRG Xerxes must be destroyed
Secondary Objectives:
None
Bonus Objectives:
TRN Tela must be destroyed

Eight kills - not the bloody frigate, though, I might add. And a new medal!

No promotion though. You don'y get much in the way of points for this battle - on account, presumably, of how few secondary or bonus objectives there are and the large number of Y-Wing targets which one presumes are low-value.

That was a very short battle - probably why I don't remember it. So short, in fact, I spent longer writing about it than playing it! If I'd been just playing, I probably would have breezed through the thing in an hour or so!

Still, a nice change of pace to have an easy battle. Especially with what's coming up next!

Next week: Battle Five!

[factotum]

Oh, yes, it's always fun facing suicidal Y-Wings and Shuttles in an unshielded fighter...had one mission the other day where I got rammed and destroyed no fewer than four times (might even have been one of the ones in this battle, I forget). (Mind you, to be fair, this probably happens because they're so unmanouevrable--by the time they've turned enough to fire at you, they're already too close to avoid a collision!).

[Crow]

Oh, yes, it's always fun facing suicidal Y-Wings and Shuttles in an unshielded fighter...had one mission the other day where I got rammed and destroyed no fewer than four times (might even have been one of the ones in this battle, I forget). (Mind you, to be fair, this probably happens because they're so unmanouevrable--by the time they've turned enough to fire at you, they're already too close to avoid a collision!).

I figured they just lifted the tactics that players used in X-Wing.

[Aotrs Commander]

I promised some pictures of the 3D printed stuff I've mentioned a couple of times, so here we are:

Spoiler

Show

An Imperial task force to worry about...


Missileboat


TIE Defender


Delta Dx-9 TRN


Gamma ATR-6

Total material weight => 200g. (Of which 150g are the two ATRs). Print time roughly 20 hours, spread over a couple of weeks. Time to make CAD models approx 4-5 hours, tops.

Total material cost: £3.60. (The fighters, incidently, come out at about 5.4 pence each.)

(Not earth-shattering good prints for the fighters - the T/Ds especially, the shape means they got very stringy, unfortunately - but for the price, I am quite satisfied.)

These will be gracing my tabletop very soon!

[factotum]

Cool! Why does the missile boat have a seam running across the middle of the model, though? Unless you printed them in two halves and then stuck them together, I wouldn't have thought 3D printing would tend to produce such artifacts.