The Let's Play Archive

Wing Commander III & Standoff

by Ilanin

Part 7: Striking Distance, Capella System, Gemini Sector (Gameplay)

7th August 2668, Capella System, Gemini Sector
Episode 1, Mission 4 - Striking Distance

The Lionheart approaches the pirate base, using the asteroid field to hide its presence.

Pre-mission cutscenes:
There are no cutscenes before this mission either. Which is not to say that this mission contains no plot.

Mission Briefing:


Briefing Video (Youtube)

According to the briefing, the mission is to escort the Lionheart to NAV 2, though practically what you're really trying to protect most of the time are your wingmen. The destroyer can mostly take care of itself.


Mission Video (Youtube)

(I'm guessing piloting skills like that are why they won't let him fly anything more useful than a Tarsus)

Kills this mission: 12

Well, that was surprising. Now we know how those pirates were able to pull off the raid on the Guadacanal so easily - it was an inside job. Also, there's a surprisingly large number of them. This doesn't sound like a particularly well thought-through plan on Squealer's part, but that would be entirely consistent with his character. I guess most of the veteran troops who are being discharged right now are pretty bitter in general. I have no idea if this sort of thing actually happened during the historical age of piracy in the 17th century; it's not quite how either Henry Morgan or William Kidd operated, though it seems vaguely plausible.

There's a variety of ways to fail this mission to different degrees.
If you've got fewer than five but more than some number I'm not quite sure about of fighters left, then Lieutenant Freyers says this when you request clearance to land:

Great, we're in position for the attack. It's too bad we have almost no fighters left!
You're cleared, we need to prepare for the strike.

With that pre-landing sequence you're shunted over to the mission "Final Strike", which is essentially similar to the one we're going to play but with fewer ships all around (and the outcome isn't quite so favourable even if you succeed). It's sort of officially a "losing path" mission so I'm not intending to play it.

If you lose more fighters (when I triggered this I was the only one left) then Freyers says this:

Oh that's just great work... sir. We've lost too many fighters. Get your ass back on deck, we're aborting the whole operation.
Ah shit, another day, another screwed up mission, eh? You got clearance to land, Bradshaw

And that's a straight Game Over, not even a replay mission option like you get from regularly being killed - the game even rolls credits rather than sending you back to the Lionheart's ready room. The TCS Lionheart is mothballed and you're out of a job.

Finally, you can accept Squealer's offer by going into your nav system and resetting your nav to the pirate base. That's also a Game Over, and a bit longer, so here's the video, including one inexplicably not voiced line (Standoff has a bug sometimes wherein Bradshaw stops talking in cutscenes, but I've never before seen just one line missed out):


Video (Youtube)

And in transcript-o-vision:

: Enough talk. Look, you know you wanna come with me. Just set your course for the base!
: *Resets his autonav to the pirate base*
: Bradshaw, please order your wing to stand down.
: I'm afraid we will have to eliminate them if they don't land with you.
: You heard the man. Follow me, and I'll make sure you're treated OK.
: You made the right choice, Bradshaw. Go ahead and land now, I'll see you on the inside.

Bradshaw's Gladius lands. Cut to the Pirate base blowing up as the TCS Lionheart closes in, looking ominous. Remaining scenes are voiceover of the Lionheart making its way back out of the asteroid field.

: Spoons. Here for the obligatory "why'd you do it?" scene, I assume?
: Yeah, I guess so. Care to enlighten me?
: Don't have much of an explanation for you, I'm afraid. Just seemed like a good idea.
: To run off and join the pirates? What could possibly make that seem like a good idea?
: I figured I'd get to keep flying. Refuel at the base...make a run for the jump point. It seemed like it could work.
: Then they locked me up with the rest of the hostages, and I realised I was screwed.
: You did that to keep flying? That's...
: Yes, Spoons, I am well aware of that.
: They're going to ask for the death penalty, you know.
: So I've heard. I wish I hadn't done it, but I guess that doesn't matter now.
: The Captain is going to try and get Terrell to intervene, but it's not looking good.
: Yup, heard that, too.
: Look, I've gotta go, I've got a patrol.
: I'm sorry it had to end like this.
: We all are.

Cut to the "traitors never win" screenshot above.

Well, there's our first ending. And as it turns out, it's not actually the most downbeat one, either. However, fortunately Bradshaw is not colossaly stupid, so that didn't happen.

Tactics Corner

As you arrive at Nav 1 this looks like it's going to be pretty easy (and Spoons even says as much).
Friendly Forces:
1x Gilgamesh-class destroyer TCS Lionheart
6x Gladius fighter/bomber
4x Stiletto light fighter

Enemy forces:
NAV 1
2x Talon medium fighter
1x Sabre heavy fighter
4x Tarsus light freighter (reinforcements at 15 seconds)
6x Talon medium fighter (reinforcements at 17-18 seconds)
2x Talon medium fighter (reinforcements at 34-35 seconds)
1x Sabre heavy fighter (reinforcements at 34-35 seconds)



The starting three fighters are mostly here to pull you out of position. They approach at a different angle to the other pirate forces, so that when they arrive the situation looks something like this:



However, note the lack of Sabres in this wave; these ships are here to kill fighters, not the Lionheart. One does arrive slightly later, and immeadiately sets up for a torpedo run, so it's important to kill it. Once these final set of three enemies arrive the battle looks something like this:



This looks simple enough, doesn't it? Kill the two Sabres, even the odds with missiles on nearby Talons, then finish up the stragglers with your guns. Yeah, that's what I thought, too. The problem with it is this:



Unfortunately, this tactic results in losing an awful lot of wingmen; certainly enough to push you over onto the losing branch and sometimes enough to result in a straight game over. Without your help in the thick of things your wingmen will usually lose the 10-on-16 scrap, or at least take a large number of casualties. Secondarily, protecting the Lionheart is not a mission objective. So Sabres doing torpedo runs on your command ship doesn't seem to be an issue unless it actually goes down (which I've never had happen) or you lose the Hangar (and they seem to go for the engines). So you have to ignore normal prioritisation and kill everything near you instead, to get the enemy numbers down and keep as many enemy ships focusing on you as possible. Liberal taunting at the start is also useful. The Gladius is a relatively heavy fighter, so it's also worth flying to maximise damage dealt rather than to minimise damage taken as I usually would - this is why I come back with a mostly wrecked ship.

NAV 2
3x Talon medium fighter
These fighters exist purely so Bradshaw and Spoons can do their "three is fine" double act, and also so that if you're half-dead after fighting off the large battle they can finish you off and make you do the entire mission again. It's kind of a dick move from the designers, though certainly one in-character for the genre. I try to hide behind my wingmen and the Lionheart here if at all possible; also unload any missiles I have remaining (usually my FFs which I tend to forget about since you don't get a target lock with them). There's no Sabres, so the capship is in no danger.

New characters:

Lieutenant Jason Beverly "Squealer"


A graduate of the same academy class as Spoons and Bradshaw, with whom he became fast friends, Squealer would have likely spent his career on fleet carriers and risen through the ranks rapidly were he not chronically insubordinate and prone to acting before he thinks. Flying off the TCS Defiance before its destruction, and then the TCS Guadacanal, his rash behaviour has caused him to rack up commendations and medals, but no promotions (well, he did finally make 1st Lieutenant a few weeks before being discharged in the first big reduction-in-force after the armistice).

Squealer can be likened to Maniac, though unlike Major Marshall he's not particularly regarded as a liability to fly with (I rarely pay attention to who is actually on my wing, so I have no idea how well he follows orders). He's also much cockier; Maniac's displays of ego seem to me to be mostly driven by insecurity whereas Squealer is basically arrogant, consequently, Squealer has much more of an attitude around superior officers than Maniac does.

Ship of the day:

Gladius



Class: Fighter-Bomber
Length: 18.36 Meters
Mass: 25 tonnes
Max Velocity: 400 kps
Afterburner Velocity: 1000 kps
Maximum Yaw: 80 dps
Maximum Pitch: 70 dps
Maximum Roll: 80 dps
Weapons (fighter loadout): Particle Cannon (2x), Laser Cannon (2x), Heat-Seeking Missile (4x), Friend-or-Foe Missile (4x)
Shields: Fore: 95; Aft: 95
Armour: Front: 140; Right: 80; Left: 80; Rear: 100.

Game says: The Gladius is the Confederation's most versatile fighter. It carries enough torpedoes to down a small capital ship, while still retaining a decent dogfighting ability.

I say: Inferior in all ways to the Sabre, the Gladius is very probably the worst - at the absolute best the second-worst - fighter you actually have to fly in the game. Allow me to enumerate the ways in which it is terrible. The biggest is low afterburner speed. 1000 kps is just not enough to get you out of the way of enemy shots or to allow you to close in on enemies just outside cannon range. It's the same speed as a Talon at afterburner and I've been demonstrating for three missions just how useless the Talon's AB is. The next is its gun zero; the laser cannon are a long way out on the wingtips giving it the same problem as the WC2 Sabre in terms of actually hitting enemies which present a small target - you can do it with some of the guns but not all of them. Compounding this is its lack of an ITTS, just as a little extra fuck you to the pilot. Throw in shields which are weaker than the Sabre's already unsatisfactory shielding and armour that doesn't nothing to make up for the deficit, and no rear turret, and you have a Grade A deathtrap.

Total kills (Standoff): 4 missions / 36 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 117 missions / 958 kills


Next time on Standoff:
We finally attack the pirate base!