Part 38: Looking for Leyte, Sirius System, Sol Sector (Gameplay)

I dunno about you guys. Two billion people are dead and you are still talking about a kiss.


I had to watch it about four times through to do the transcript. You wuss. Well, OK, more listen to it the last three times.

29th December 2668, Sirius System, Sol Sector
Episode 4, Mission 5 - Looking for Leyte

Kilrathi attacks are threatening to encircle the TCS Firekka and cut her off from the Sol jump point; in response, Reismann seeks to link up with the TCS Leyte Gulf, one of Third Fleet's two surviving heavy carriers.

Mission Briefing:

Briefing Video (Youtube)
(not pictured: fuckton of Kilrathi fighters)

This is kind of strange, as escort missions go. I mean we're escorting something, but it's the Firekka, which is phase-shielded, so it can partially take care of itself and all we have to really care about is bombers; the mission is intercept as much as it is escort.

Mission Video (Youtube)
(That is a Kilrathi torpedo, the shooting down of which is something that happens every so often in this mission, meaning I re-recorded it until I got a mission which had one in.)

Kills this mission: 14

The consequences of Third Fleet's defeat at Sirius Prime are now apparent. Two billion people lived on the world the Kilrathi just incinerated, the greatest loss of human life in the war so far (of course, Earth is yet more densely populated). No-one is alive there now, after a very thorough nuclear bombardment. Sirius is probably the critical point in the war; it's where humanity really learns that it is faced with extinction (the core worlds have a way of ignoring what happens on the fringes), and as a result many truly desperate measures are sanctioned, something which we'll be exploring for the remainder of this game and also the next two.

I'm sorry if this video is not up to usual standards. I think it is, but my brain is a bit of a wreck at the moment due to, well, stuff is happening and is likely to continue to happen. Nothing serious (and this isn't e/n), hoping that won't delay the next update too much but it might end up being on about Tuesday the way things are looking right now.

Tactics Corner
Enroute to Leyte Nav:
Friendly forces:
1x Wake-class escort carrier TCS Firekka
6x Rapier medium fighter

Enemy forces:
6x Hhriss heavy fighter
6x Gothri heavy bomber

I think most of what needs to be said about this engagement goes in here:


You can't waste missiles on this engagement because the next nav is much harder and needs them. So it's a case of knocking out as many Gothri as you can and keeping an eye on the Firekka to see if any of the Gothri have got behind it and are setting up for torpedo runs. It's almost certain they'll get a couple of torpedoes off because your wingmen all seem to want to engage the Hhrisses (thread topic: what's the plural of Hhriss?), and since you need to preserve forces for the next nav (for some reason it seems MUCH easier when you have all ten Rapiers up) it's best to leave them to it. You also want to leave them to it because you won't be able to intercept either torpedoes or bombers if you have Hhriss chasing you and firing IR and HS missiles all the time. So it's generally a case of trying to shoot down a torpedo or two and then finish the bombers off, though I don't think there's any penalty for the Firekka taking a couple of hits.

Leyte Nav:
Friendly forces:
1x Wake-class escort carrier TCS Firekka
1x Jutland-class fleet carrier TCS Leyte Gulf
10x Rapier medium fighter

Enemy forces:
2x Kamekh-class corvette
4x Grikath torpedo bomber
4x Gothri heavy bomber
3x Hhriss heavy fighter
4x Krant medium fighter
3x Drakhri medium fighter

Deployment:


OK, Standoff, I get why the Firekka's fighters are close in to their carrier and so not ideally placed for the intercept. But why are the Kilrathi closer to the Leyte Gulf than its own fighters? Sigh. Everything that has torpedoes (Grikaths, Gothri, corvettes) goes for the TCS Leyte Gulf. Find the nearest bomber, afterburner towards it, kill, repeat. Ignore the corvettes - they seem to close in so much on the Leyte Gulf that the carrier's turrets shred them. If all ten Rapiers are up the bombers should be kept busy enough that they won't be able to finish the damaged carrier off. There don't really seem to be any tricks to this mission other than keeping your wingmen alive and getting kills as quickly as possible, which is kind of disappointing.

Ship of the day:
Hhriss

Class: Heavy Fighter (Kilrathi)
Length: 28.07 m
Mass: 20 tonnes
Max Velocity: 360 kps
Afterburner Velocity: 1100 kps
Maximum Yaw: 80 degrees/sec
Maximum Pitch: 80 degrees/sec
Maximum Roll: 160 degrees/sec
Weapons: 2x neutron gun, 2x mass driver, 2x heat-seeking missile, 1x image recognition missile
Shields: Fore: 150 Aft: 180
Armour: Fore: 160 Left: 150 Right: 150 Rear: 170

Game says: Introduced in 2655, the Hhriss is a very effective fighter combining the best features of the Gratha, Krant and Jalthi. The ship is still a rarity - fortunately, it was never possible to replace those older ships with the superior Hhriss.

I say: The Hhriss, a Secret Missions 2 throwback, is something of a disappointment in Standoff. It has plenty of guns and fairly good shields and armour, especially at the back, and the Image Recognition missile ranges from annoying to incredibly annoying, but the Rapier flies circles around it and the Sabre has more firepower. The slow afterburner velocity means that once you're on its tail, it's not hard to remain there until it's dead - and the Hhriss doesn't have a turret to make you back off. In missions like this one, though, the large number of hitpoints do make it quite good at buying time for bombers if you get distracted.

Total kills (Standoff): 19 missions / 237 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 131 missions / 1159 kills

Next time on Standoff:
The most adorable ship class in the fleet.