Part 57: Rearguard Duties, Luyten System, Sol Sector (Story and Gameplay)
Right, let's get this show back on the, um, jump lane?30th December 2669, Luyten System, Sol Sector
Episode 5, Losing Path Mission 1 - Rearguard Duties
Wait, why are we in Luyten?
Good question. Here's the simple answer. We lost the Leyte Gulf in Sirius and can't break through the Kilrathi to get to Earth, so we're going the long way around:
Here's a slightly longer one:
Transition Video (Youtube)
So that's the current situation: we're in Luyten, we have 13 Rapiers, 7 Sabres, 5 Crossbows, 9 Stilettos and 11 Gladii on the flight deck (putting us only slightly overcapacity - 45 of the 40 or so fighters a Wake-class is supposed to carry, and we're supposed to be in Sol, ideally yesterday.
Oh, and the Kilrathi are on our tail:
Mission Briefing:
Briefing Video (Youtube)
Mission Video (Youtube)
Kills this mission: 17
Tactics Corner
It's a while since we've been on a patrol, isn't it? This is a pretty vanilla mission with a bit of a surprise at the end; it's very easy, though - I ended up having to retry this mission a couple of times because I didn't lose a wingman during it, which means I'd skip over the next mission which is an impressive mix of annoying (people who don't hate Crossbows might disagree) and awesome and you guys need to see it. As far as I can tell once you do lose a wingman, the other Confed fighters become invincible, making this mission even easier - or at least having accidentally blown up a Stiletto who flew right in front of me when I launched a missile, further missiles and cannon volleys into the rear armour of Rapiers had no effect. Traitors really do never win.
If you've lost a lot of Rapiers in Sirius, you have to fly this mission in a Stiletto, which might actually suffice to make it moderately difficult, but as things are...
Between Nav1 and Nav2:
Friendly forces:
3x Rapier medium fighter
Yeah, only one wing of fighters. We're out on our own here, fighter numbers are much reduced (usually not quite this far. This is a breather mission.)
Enemy forces:
6x Krant medium fighter
I think when considering the Rapier versus the Krant, it is reasonable to claim that we outnumber them 3 to 6. The only problem I had with this fight was the very first time through, when I forgot that I wasn't in a Sabre and didn't have an ITTS to tell me when I was in range, and even that only meant I took some damage before wiping them all out. Onward!
At Nav 2:
Friendly forces:
3x Rapier medium fighter (unless you contrive to lose a wingman somehow against six Krants)
Enemy forces:
3x Krant medium fighter
Just in case the last nav point was a bit too hard for you. I get the point, the game is establishing that the cats have patrols out searching for the Firekka. But these fights aren't half easy.
At Nav 3:
3x Gothri heavy bomber
1x Gothri ace "Bhuk Bloodmist"
This one is actually a bit harder, partly because the Gothri start quite close to you and are packed tightly together, so you have to dodge in the head-to-head pass, partly because Gothris have rear turrets, and partly because there's an ace, though he's more annoying than good (and literally never shuts up with the taunts, so you might as well kill him first for some peace and quiet given we're not protecting anything). Still not exactly a fight you need to waste missiles on though.
At TCS Firekka:
Friendly forces:
1x Wake-class escort carrier TCS Firekka
3x Stiletto light fighter
3x Rapier medium fighter
Enemy forces:
1x Targu-II class frigate
5x Krant medium fighter
6x Gothri heavy bomber
Deployment:
A fairly standard intercept here - kill some bombers, switch to the fighters if they're actually beginning to hit you (or once there's only a couple of bombers left), but the important thing is to make sure you lose a wingman, probably by hanging around after the mission is over so the AI pilots go after the frigate, so that you get the optional mission "Rescue Run".
Ship of the day:
Epee
Class: Light Attack Fighter
Length: 12.41 m
Mass: 13 tonnes
Max Velocity: 480 kps
Afterburner Velocity: 1360 kps
Maximum Yaw/Pitch/Roll: 100/100/100 degrees/second
Weapons: 2x Particle Cannon, 2x Heat-seeking missile, 2x Dumbfire missile (there's clearly a torpedo loadout version as well, but this is the fighter one you can fly in the simulator)
Shields: Front: 60 Rear: 60 (game files: 120/120)
Armour: hahahahaha, errr, Front: 35 Left: 30 Right: 30 Rear: 35 (game files: 70/60/60/70)
Game says: A pure dogfighter, the Epee is heavily armed and can even carry a torpedo. Although notorious for its light defenses, its small size combined with excellent maneuverability give it surprisingly good endurance in the hands of a skilled pilot.
I say: The Epee is only carried by fleet carriers - Wakes seem to have either Ferrets or Stilettos in the light fighter role. As such, it is never flown in the campaign. We spend enough time conducting joint ops with the TCS Concordia that there's lots of their Epees around on our strike missions, and they don't seem to be particularly more mayfly-like than any other fighters, though I do note that the game files actually show that the Epee's shields and armour have been doubled from the values given in the technical database up there, which is either me misreading or the Standoff team trying to make the AI Epees survive long enough to actually affect anything.
Total kills (Standoff): 27 missions / 367 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 138 missions / 1293 kills
(since these missions didn't happen - the Firekka was "actually" on the winning path - I don't get to count them in the kill tally. I need 559 kills from Wing Commanders III and IV to reach ivantod's kill count.)
Next time on Standoff:
We're going to pick up the pilot who ejected. Which means taking a Crossbow, solo, through the jump point, fighting off any cats around there, and then making the pickup. Should be fun.