Part 127: Freya System, Vega Sector, Mission 1 (Gameplay)

18th September 2669, Freya System (Mission 1), Vega Sector
TCS Victory

The Victory jumps into the Freya system and sets about the Kilrathi fleet garrisoning it; Blair spearheads the attack by punching a hole in the escort screen for the Kilrathi flagship and then boring in after it.

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

This video also includes me demonstrating (with commentary) how to kill a wingman and get away with it, since Maniac was (almost literally) asking for it.

For those of you who can't be bothered to watch it, the answer is pretty simple - you're court-martialed if you shoot a wingman down and then land on the Victory. So if you don't land but instead eject, everything continues as normal.


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


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

Kills this mission: 15

One of the relatively few missions where a large enough proportion of your enemies are capital ships to mean it really warrants the title "strike". If I'd shot down the Dralthi before the carrier at the final nav point, there would have been two more waves of Darkets afterwards, but why on earth would you want to do that? It's much more entertaining to hide inside the hangar bay and watch the Dralthi bombard their own carrier with missiles. OK, if you were in an Excalibur I can see maybe why you might decide more gunnery practice against Kilrathi starfighters would be fun, but not when you're in a Thunderbolt. We have five compulsory-Excalibur and three other missions remaining.

Ship of the day:
Ralaxath

Class: Heavy Destroyer
Length: 530 m
Mass: 19,000 tonnes
Max Velocity: 180 kps
Maximum Yaw/Pitch/Roll: 20/20/20 degrees\second
Weapons: 10x Laser Turret, 3x Tachyon Turret, 1 Anti-Matter Gun
Shields: Front: 200 cm durasteel equivalent Rear: 200 cm durasteel equivalent
Armour: Fore: 100 cm durasteel Left: 100 cm Right: 100 cm Rear: 100 cm
Core Strength: 1,600 cm durasteel equivalent

Official Strategy Guide: Doesn't make special mention of particular Kilrathi capships, though the description for this mission does note: "You'll encounter the new class of Kilrathi warship here, their heavy destroyer leader. You're better off taking a sturdy ship, such as the Longbow." The classification "destroyer leader" is interesting - flotilla leaders, back when destroyers were relatively small ships (somewhere around 1,000 tons or so) - that were deployed in flotillas, were usually light cruisers or very oversize destroyers with greater command-and-control capabilities which were used to co-ordinate their squadron. Fleet Action, at least, does suggest that destroyers are used in something like flotilla warfare, with Terran destroyers deployed in squadrons and repeatedly involved in torpedo attacks, but it's the only Wing Commander source I can think of that does. I certainly don't think we ever see the Ralaxath in company of other destroyers.

I say: Like I said in the video, the Kilrathi heavy destroyer has a massive blind spot right behind it which none of its turrets cover, so they're incredibly easy to destroy in any fighter - just fly up behind it, match speed, and blast away. Presumably designed to take on Terran Southamptons since the previous Kilrathi destroyer class we encountered is massacred by them, but has something of a glaring weakness.

Total kills (Wing Commander III): 27 missions / 308 kills
Total kills (this thread): 54 missions / 674 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 162 missions / 1581 kills

Next time on Let's Play Wing Commander:
The Kilrathi have installed a shield generator on top of a large grey blancmange! Scramble the Excaliburs!