Part 48: Heating Up, Sol System, Sol Sector (Gameplay)

30th December 2668, Sol System, Sol Sector
Episode 5, Mission 3 - Heating Up

Stuff happens. The Kilrathi attack the Firekka-Grunwald group. We defend. Seriously, this mission is so goddamned unmemorable except for one thing that I had completely forgotten it happened and was expecting mission 4 after I beat Wild Weasel. It's not bad or boring, particularly, just doesn't really stand out.

Mission Briefing:
There is no briefing, this mission is a scramble.

You know when I said there were no Vatari missions where you had to defend something? I lied completely forgot about the specifics of this mission.

Mission Video (Youtube)

Kills this mission: 16

Tactics Corner
Back to a sensibly sized mission. Well, almost. There's still an awful lot of dots on the radar but this time we don't have to rely on AI torpedo hits. Only one fight again, this mission's pretty short. What's somewhat interesting is that this mission is basically Wild Weasel (the last one) the other way around. Well, except one major important detail: the Kilrathi forgot to bring their bombers.

Friendly forces:
1x Concordia-class fleet carrier TCS Saratoga (heavily damaged)
1x Waterloo-class cruiser TCS Grunwald
1x Wake-class escort carrier TCS Firekka
4x Gilgamesh-class destroyer TCS Karl Doenitz, Roger Young, Raizo Tanaka, Musashi Miyamoto
2x Exeter-class destroyer TCS Lae, Heihachiro Togo
3x Rapier medium fighter
4x Sabre heavy fighter
Player's wing (3x Rapier medium fighter in this case)

Enemy forces:
6x Sartha light fighter
9x Krant medium fighter
6x Jalkehi heavy fighter
4x Vatari superheavy fighter
1x Vatari ace "Sah'tra Fireblade"
3x Grikath torpedo bomber
3x Gothri heavy bomber
2x Grikath torpedo bomber (reinforcements, arrive after 3 minutes)

32+2 Kilrathi fighters. Outnumbered 3.2 to 1 is probably bad, but the key to this mission is that THEY ONLY HAVE SIX BOMBERS (and then two more who turn up late). Therefore, the challenge and indeed the fun part in this mission is killing those bombers (in order to preserve your ships - though it's the Grunwald rather than the crippled Saratoga that the bombers seem to target) while being chased around by Vatari superheavies which will wreck your ship if they can line up a decent shot or two, because the Vatari has a ton of firepower. It's probably best to kill the ace with one of your dumbfires, since he's a pain to avoid and always targets you. It's certainly funny to do so, since you can normally arrange for it to happen as a neat little reply to his speech about how he isn't going to be the one dying today.

Deployment:

With no major reinforcement waves, this is pretty simple - find the nearest bomber and put a Dart DF into it, then likewise for the Ace. After that, chase down the remaining bombers while trying not to be killed by the Vatari, then go after whatever's the most threatening (which will probably be the Vatari). If it doesn't work, it's probably because a Vatari managed to line up on your six and damage your afterburners, which is pretty much automatic death in the first two minutes of the mission. Survive that and it's merely a case of racking up the killscore until the two latecoming Grikaths arrive:


This is quite nasty because it's generally unannounced, and unlike the first wave they usually go for the Saratoga, which is a failed mission if they put a single torpedo into it. The only real solution here is to be vigilant on checking the nav map after every couple of kills once you've got rid of the first set of bombers, so you notice them within a minute of their arrival; provided you do that they're no real threat as there's no escort fighters and a Grikath's not much of a threat to a Rapier.

Ship of the day:
Jalkehi

Class: Heavy Fighter (Kilrathi)
Length: 25.25 m
Mass: 20 tonnes
Max Velocity: 360 kps
Afterburner Velocity: 1200 kps
Maximum Yaw/Pitch/Roll: 40 degrees/second
Weapons: 4x Laser Cannon, 1x Particle Cannon, 4x Image Recognition Missile, 1x Dumbfire missile (I have never seen it used though), 1x Rear neutron turret
Shields: Front: 150 Rear: 150
Armour: Front: 130 Left: 100 Right: 100 Rear: 130

Game says: The Jalkehi is the ultimate Kilrathi heavy fighter (Yes, it actually says that despite the presence of the Vatari). Although slow and unmaneuverable, the ship's strong shields, heavy missile loadout, five frontal guns and rear turret make it a serious threat to both convoys and fighters alike.

I say: The speed-oriented Vision engine makes the Jalkehi much less of a threat than it was in WC2 due to its low cruise and afterburner speeds compared to the Rapier; it's more of a threat to the slower Sabre and would be absolute fucking death on a Gladius but you don't have to deal with that problem I think. In any case its straightforward enough to get on the tail of a Jalkehi and stay there long enough to empty your guns, then come back around for another shot - the rear turret doesn't fire that often whereas a Rapier II will empty its capacitors in about ten seconds (probably because, as I said in the video, when you have full guns selected the particle cannons appear to cycle at the laser cannon fire rate). The shields and armour mean it takes a while to kill, but in general the Sarthas and Drakhri, both dead shots with dumbfire missiles, are much more dangerous.

Total kills (Standoff): 23 missions / 276 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 135 missions / 1198 kills

Next time on Standoff:
Desperation tactics, part I, against the fifth of the Kilrathi's four Snakeir-class carriers.