Part 125: Alcor System, Vega Sector, Mission 4 (Gameplay)

17th September 2669, Alcor System (Mission 4), Vega Sector
TCS Victory

The Victory's marine detachment lands on Alcor V to rescue Dr. Severin; Blair and his fighter wing fly cover.

Pre-mission conversations (Youtube) (Polsy/Gamerstube)


Briefing Video (Youtube) Briefing Video (Gamerstube/Polsy)

(Pictured: a schematic that has absolutely nothing to do with what actually happens during the mission, but is nontheless in the briefing.)


Mission Video (Youtube) Mission Video (Gamerstube/Polsy)

As we're done with the mission and heading back into space there's a quick cutscene. The marines have succeeded in liberating Severin and are getting him back to their transport;



when they are interrupted by Vagabond, who lands his Hellcat, (as I comment in the video, the Hellcat's not supposed to be capable of atmospheric flight, but never mind)



runs up to the marines, and punches out Dr. Severin (hard enough to cause motion blur...which in WC3, isn't actually very hard). I guess when we told him he shouldn't beat himself up over the Severin stuff, we ought to have added "or anybody else, for that matter".



: Long time no see, Doc
[to the marines, who are arresting him]: Take it easy, boys. I've done what I came to do.

The marines then take off, abandoning the Hellcat on the surface of a Kilrathi world...because apparently it's so bad we don't mind giving them to the enemy now (admittedly, from what we currently know it's unlikely the war will last long enough for them to reverse-engineer anything).



Kills this mission: 15

I've seen people complain quite a lot about this mission, but other than the ridiculous autopilot stuff I talk about in the video (precis: you can lose the entire game by pressing A twice at the wrong time) there's nothing really hard here - this only took around ten minutes on Nightmare. The 6-on-1 Ekapshis are the only real threat, and they're easily dealt with by just launching a bunch of FF missiles at the start of the fight and then picking off a couple of fighters while the rest are evading (this is about the only thing the FF is ever good for, given how little damage it does).

Ship of the day:
Ekapshi

Class: (Atmospheric) Light Fighter
Length: 16 m
Mass: 19 tonnes
Max Velocity: 430 kps
Afterburner Velocity: 1100 kps
Maximum Yaw/Pitch/Roll: 65/55/55 degrees\second
Weapons: 2x Meson gun, 4x Laser gun, 4x missile hardpoints (default loadout is HSes)
Decoys: 8
Shields: Front: 25 cm durasteel equivalent Rear: 13 cm durasteel equivalent
Armour: Fore: 8 cm durasteel Left: 6 cm Right: 6 cm Rear: 8 cm

Official Strategy Guide: Ekapshi are light fighters used by the Kilrathi for ground support and other atmospheric operations. They're small, but very fast and maneuverable, and can be a real pain when they outnumber you. Although the armor and shield ratings are unimpressive, the Ekapshi's speed, maneuverability and offensive capability make it an effective opponent, particularly in groups.

I say: Pretty much, yeah. What the OSG doesn't say is that the only times Ekapshis won't outnumber you is once you've killed the first couple of fighters in the wave (they pretty much always show up in 4s or 6s). It's actually a pretty dangerous fighter, similar to the Dralthi - if it had IR missiles like the flying pancakes do, rather than HSes it would be the greatest non-ace challenge in the game. As it is, since you can only encounter them in the Excalibur, they're only really a major problem due to their numbers.

Total kills (Wing Commander III): 27 missions / 293 kills
Total kills (this thread): 53 missions / 659 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 161 missions / 1566 kills

Next time on Let's Play Wing Commander:
Not saving my missiles for important targets.