Part 44: First Encounters, Sol System, Sol Sector (Gameplay)

30th December 2668, Sol System, Sol Sector
Episode 5, Mission 1 - First Encounters

The TCS Firekka sends a Stiletto flight to pick up some Rapiers from the mothballed TCS Kipling and recon a Kilrathi strike group.

Mission Briefing:

Briefing Video (Youtube)

Right, so we've got to escort a flight of Rapiers flown by useless pilots, and then do a flyby on a small Kilrathi fleet, without engaging and also without dying. Things do not look promising.


Mission Video (Youtube)


Kills this mission: 3

(I could have got more kills, but there was a certain amount of toying with the Vatari ace because I needed a) to demonstrate how ridiculous the shields were and b) for him to come out with the taunt I explained in the video, just to illustrate how dumb certain parts of Fleet Action are. Don't worry about me not killing him, he'll be back just like he said. Killing him second encounter is much funnier, because of when I'll do it.)

Oh god. Meet the Vatari. And then run and hide. The Standoff team assures me that you can, in fact, kill a Vatari using a Stiletto's guns, but I'm guessing you need to empty the capacitors and not miss with a single shot to get through the shields. And that's not even the hard part of the mission. Remain within 5000 metres of a set point (which happens to be a cruiser with lots of flak turrets) for 50 seconds while a swarm of Kilrathi fighters take potshots at you. And then hope your afterburners are in a good enough state to escape. I actually really like this mission, I think it's got some fun challenges in it and the tech comms are fantastic, but it is certainly one of those "Standoff is secretly a romhack" moments.

Tactics Corner
One engagement and one reconaissance pass (you shouldn't really fire any shots in the latter so it's hardly an engagement). Both are hard. You need to come back from the first with less than I think 40% core damage not to get mission failed there and then.

Speaking of the first engagement (between the Kipling and Firekka Navs after you've picked up the Rapiers):
Friendly forces:
3x Stiletto light fighter
10x Rapier medium fighter (flown by techs, effectively useless)

Enemy forces:
8x Sartha light fighter
3x Drakhai Vatari heavy fighter (Reinforcements, arrive after 40 seconds)
1x Vatari ace Sah'tra Fireblade (Reinforcements, arrive after 40 seconds)

(no real point in a map here, it's just a furball, no points of reference).

You don't want to fight the Vatari. Fortunately, you don't have to - well, not seriously anyway. The Vatari wing will retreat if you tag the ace with a missile (don't tag him with a second one, or they'll all try and kill you, specifically. This is only survivable in theoretical terms). This you should do as soon as they turn up because they have a lot more firepower than the Sartha so you'll lose more fighters if they stick around. Before and after that, you might as well use your other three missiles on the Sartha because there are no other engagements and the quicker you kill them the more Rapiers will survive (very rarely, the Rapiers will get a kill). Sartha are annoyingly hard to kill in a Stiletto because you lack firepower and HS missiles are still terrible - going back to it really makes you realise how spoiled you were in the Rapier. (Rapier > Sabre > Crossbow >> Stiletto >> Gladius).

Target Area Nav:
Friendly forces:
3x Stiletto light fighter (or fewer if any were lost at previous nav)

Enemy forces:
5x Targu-II class frigate
4x Rigakh-class light cruiser
1x Fralthra-class heavy cruiser
9x Drakhri medium fighter
6x Krant medium fighter

Deployment:

Well, outnumbered at least five to one even if you don't count the capital ships (which you probably should since they've all got plenty of flak turrets), already damaged and possibly down a wingman, this isn't good. Fortunately, there is no requirement to kill anything. Unfortunately, there is a requirement to close to within 5,000 "km" (I do not believe that these units being kilometres actually fits with the game's scale) of any of the Rigakhs and then scan it, which requires remaining within 5,000 "km" for 45 seconds. I can't really give any advice here except to say that the Rigakh I've highlighted on the map is a bit further away from the rest of the fleet so might be better to go to. The rest is just flying crazy loops and other evasion stuff and hope you don't get tagged too much. Then kick in the burners, flee, and hope you have enough fuel to get away.

Ship of the day:
Vatari

Class: Heavy Fighter (Prototype, Kilrathi)
Length: Unknown
Mass: Unknown (game files: 24 tonnes)
Max Velocity: Unknown (game files: 440)
Afterburner Velocity: Unknown (game files: 1450)
Maximum Yaw: Unknown (game files: 80)
Maximum Pitch: Unknown (game files: 80)
Maximum Roll: Unknown (game files: 80)
Weapons: Unknown (game files: 4x Particle Cannon, 2x Mass Driver, 6x Friend or Foe Missile, 3x Heat-Seeking Missile, 3x Image Recognition Missile)
Shields: Unknown (game files Front: 400 Rear: 400)
Armour: Unknown (game files Front: 280 Right: 240: Left: 240 Rear: 220)

(guess who learned how to use WCPEdit today and thereby pull ship stats out of the game directly?)

Game says: This is the Empire's latest fighter prototype. It is not known when it will enter service, nor what its capabilities are. It is rumoured that this ship can outperform even the Morningstar.

I say: The only fighter new in Standoff - Thrakhath mentions it's existence in Fleet Action - and it's nicely done. Sleek and spiky, the Vatari looks dangerous, and it is - as, if you've watched the video, you pretty much already know. It completely outclasses a Stiletto and even a pretty difficult fight in a Rapier, though a dumbfire missile will take a Vatari down. Incredible shields, powerful front weapons, fairly decent maneuverability for such a heavy fighter. Only real weakness is the armour is a bit thin. A major threat to your wingmen, always a priority target if you don't have bombers that need intercepting (which I don't believe you ever do, in a Vatari mission - they're mercifully rare even in this Episode).

Total kills (Standoff): 21 missions / 250 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 133 missions / 1172 kills

Next time on Standoff:
The novel this game was based on was called Fleet Action, right? The next mission lives up to that. It's a Confederation heavy strike on the one remaining Kilrathi Snakeir-based carrier group. I think we send about 30 fighters in. It's way too big to be a sensible engagement because one person trying to sway this is next to impossible, so it's mostly down to how the wingmen perform (I may have to knock the difficulty down to Hero if they decide not to co-operate). But it is impressively epic in scale and does feel like a proper battlegroup action. Here's the briefing, and we've got the choice of Crossbow, Rapier or Sabre to fly the mission in. Your choice.

Also, CIC is really excited about certain circumstantial evidence which hints that there may be another Wing Commander game in the works. Everyone else, I imagine, will believe things when they see them.