Part 41: Tactical Withdrawal, Sirius System, Sol Sector (Gameplay)

29th December 2668, Sirius System, Sol Sector
Episode 4, Mission 6 - Tactical Withdrawal

The TCS Firekka and the TCS Leyte Gulf head for the jump point to Sol, fighting off Kilrathi pursuit with the aid of a Terran corvette squadron.

Mission Briefing:

Briefing Video (Youtube)

More capital ship escort, though the Kilrathi hardly have the time to even attack the Firekka or the Leyte Gulf in this mission; they certainly very rarely complain about being attacked. And yes, as the briefing suggests, we'll get a quick cameo from the Concordia at the end of this mission.


Mission Video (Youtube)


Kills this mission: 10

So many friendlies makes this pretty easy; neither the Firekka nor the Leyte Gulf is ever in much serious danger, and in fact it's pretty rare to even lose one of the Corvettes. I beat this mission first try not using any plan more complicated than "target the nearest ship to you after the last one went down and use missiles if you feel like it". Of course that does mean relatively few kills, because your wingmen are getting them all. The game's just lulling your into a false sense of security before the first two missions of Episode 5, though which are colossal assholes.

Tactics Corner
Only one engagement in this mission, but a lot of combatants in it:
Friendly forces:
1x Jutland-class fleet carrier TCS Leyte Gulf (mission objective - must survive)
1x Wake-class escort carrier TCS Firekka (home carrier - must survive)
3x Rapier medium fighter
6x Sabre heavy fighter
5x Venture-class corvette TCS John Hawkins, Roland Surcouf, Zheng He, Piet Hein, Kanhoji Andre (reinforcements, arrive after 2 minutes and 10 seconds)
5x Epee light fighter (reinforcements, start launching one every ten seconds from TCS Leyte Gulf after 3 minutes)
5x Morningstar heavy fighter (reinforcements, start launching after the Epees)

25 ships that can probably get a kill on something (the Firekka doesn't really have enough firepower to do anything other than keep fighters away), eh? The Kilrathi must be bringing in a lot of force...actually, no they aren't:

Enemy forces:
3x Drakhri medium fighter
6x Krant medium fighter
9x Kamekh-class corvette (reinforcements, arrive after 40 seconds)
6x Jalkehi heavy fighter (reinforcements, arrive after 2 minutes and 10 seconds)
3x Hhriss heavy fighter (reinforcements, arrive after 2 minutes and 50 seconds)
3x Gothri heavy bomber (reinforcements, arrive after 2 minutes and 50 seconds)
6x Sartha light fighter (reinforcements, arrive after 2 minutes and 50 seconds)

OK, there's 36 mixed corvettes and fighters here, but 15 of them are either Krants or Kamekhs and neither of those are very dangerous, especially since you're likely to have some considerable amount of time to let your fighters swarm the corvettes (it's worth ordering a focussed attack, an AI fighter alone against a corvette will usually lose) since the initial 9-on-9 isn't remotely even - 3 Drakhri and 6 Krants might be almost a fair fight against 6 Sabres, but with 3 Rapiers added in as well?

The corvettes also arrive in two groups, and fairly far away from the initial action:


No reason to go straight after them; they can hurt the carriers, but they usually don't, so finish up killing fighters and then go after the Kamekhs if you have time before this happens:


At this point it's advisable to switch back to the fighters since, while they're no threat to the carriers, the most likely way to fail this mission is by getting killed, so concentrate on stuff that's a threat to you (and your wingmen, since the reinforcements you get in Episode 5 are much harder to pick up). Also you want to thin the Jalkehi out before the wave of 12 actually good fighters arrives:


This is probably the time to unload most of your missiles. The Leyte Gulf starts launching fighters at this point to even the odds (and good ones, too - Morningstars and Epees) but they only appear one every ten seconds so it's important to get some kills in to preserve the Firekka's wing. The Gothri are torpedo-armed and should probably get dumbfires, then Imrec as many Sarthas as you can since that's a pretty close to guaranteed kills. Rapidly enough everything will be dead and we can all go join up with the Concordia

Ship of the day:
Venture-class

Class: Corvette
Length: 80.22 m
Mass: 1,000 tonnes
Max Velocity: 250 kps (no afterburner system)
Maximum Yaw: 30 degrees/sec
Maximum Pitch: 30 degrees/sec
Maximum Roll: 30 degrees/sec
Weapons (when launched): 2x Laser Cannon, 2x Laser Turret, 2x Image Recognition Missile, 1x Heat-Seeking Missile
Weapons (Standoff): 2x Flak Turret, unknown number of torpedoes, possibly some other guns but I've never seen one use them.
Shields: Fore: 750 Aft: 750
Armour: Fore: 550 Left: 500 Right: 500 Rear: 550

Game says: One of the most versatile ships in the Confed fleet, the Venture is used in fast transport, battlegroup support and capship assault roles. After 20 years of service, the Venture is beginning to show its age.

I say: Awww, isn't it cute? "Versatile" usually means "terrible", and corvettes never really do all that much in the Vision engine, so there's no particular surprise the Venture is faintly awful. That said, since the Kilrathi AI practically never actually attacks them with anything particularly heavy, they generally do a fairly good job of disrupting Kilrathi formations and causing a small amount of damage with their flak cannon. Just like the Kamekhs, they would go down heavily if attacked in force.

Total kills (Standoff): 20 missions / 247 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 132 missions / 1169 kills

Next time on Standoff:
End of Episode 4 / Start of Episode 5 update - the Battle of Earth begins!

And finally...


Personally I'm just impressed they bothered with an echo effect at all, given the general audio quality Standoff has in most of its cutscenes. Also, note that he teleported into the wrong WC2 cutscene - he's getting into a Sabre the way Blair gets into a Broadsword. This is somewhat justifiable inasmuch as the Firekka's Sabres aren't quite the same model as the Concordia's, but still...

Also, "Bradshaw, that's MY plane!" is a sufficiently great line I'm willing to forgive that cutscene a lot.