Part 78: Tamayo System, Vega Sector, Mission 3 (Story and Gameplay)

There's a particular set of reasons I associate the Excalibur with the Raptor rather than the Eagle, but they'd all be pretty spoilery so I guess I'll have to wait to talk about them. For now, let's humiliate Flash some more.

13-14th August 2669, Tamayo System, Vega Sector
TCS Victory

The confrontation between Flash and Blair comes to a head. He is, unsuprisingly, rather pissed off that we TWOCed his fighter, and has it out with Blair as soon as he lands. Unfortunately (for him) this anger leads to him making a rather serious mistake.

(there's no decision for this update and indeed no mission briefing either, meaning I've combined my normal paired story/mission updates into one - so the conversations come with video this time).
Conversation videos (Youtube)


: You are way out of line, Colonel.
: Somebody had to step up to the plate, mister.
: You think Confed wants some old man risking their state-of-the-art test vehicles, huh?
: Where'd you learn to spew all that crap? Doesn't the Academy teach kids to fly anymore?
: Listen, old timer, I don't have to take this from you. I think it's time to teach you a lesson. Meet me at the simulator at 0900 and we'll see who knows how to fly.
: On one condition. If you lose, you put in for a transfer to combat pilot status - aboard the Victory.
: If that'll make you feel better. [to Blair's retreating back] I'd ask you to shine my shoes if I win, but I like my shoes too much.

Eisen's not entirely happy with Blair's approach to dealing with Flash, but he can see where we're coming from.


: I suppose you two are itchin' to go at each other.
: Well, sir, I just got...
: As a rule, I'm not too big on these needless displays of macho crap. You're taking a big risk morale wise, and if you lose, you won't be too popular around here. So I'm gonna give you a word of advice, Colonel.
: Kick the little twerp's ass.
: Yes, sir!



Mission Video (Youtube)

Kills this mission: 1 (Ace). Flash isn't that hard; I think I've failed this mission once ever, and that was the first time I ever played it, when I was too busy trying to get the simulator to switch to cockpit view (you can't) to dodge the incoming missiles. There's two standard ways to take him down. Essentially you want to pump 2-3 missiles into the same shield facing - which is best done using volley fire, giving you two shots of four missiles each at it. Now to achieve that you can do one of two things. The slow but sure way is to fence with him using cannon fire until he runs out of afterburner fuel. This is more or less guaranteed to work and it also has a lot of thematic appropriateness in terms of representing a victory won through experience and smart use of resources (as opposed to Flash who just keeps his burners practically locked on). It does, however, take ages. Alternatively you can do what I did in the video, which is basically to treat him like a Darket - throttle up and volley fire your missiles when you get solidly on his tail and about 1000 units back. This is chancier but usually much faster - and you can always gun him to death after he runs out of burner fuel if you miss twice (though it's even more annoying than a Darket given you can't really head-to-head Flash given how accurate he is).

edit: Forgot to mention this - based on the number of frames start to finish and my frame rate, Flash lasted 34.38 seconds.

Since there was nothing new encountered this time (well, the Arrow as an enemy, I guess, during which time it reinforced my description of it as a SuperDarket when it was ship of the day), I thought I might as well make some comments on the Victory (and I'm lazy and half of this was already in the OP).

Ship of the day:
Yorktown-class

(Image from Wing Commander: Saga)
Class: Light carrier
Length: 720 m
Mass: 28,000 tonnes
Max Velocity: 120 kps
Maximum Yaw/Pitch/Roll: 5/5/5 degrees\second
Weapons: 11x Dual-Mount Laser Turrets, 1x Capship Missile launcher
Shields: 3000 cm durasteel equivalent all sides
Armour: Front: 1000 cm durasteel all sides
Fighter complement: 40
Other: Jump Drive

Official Strategy Guide: Neither the OSG nor the Authorised Combat Guide (no, I don't know why there was one official and one authorised guide, either, other than presumably "to make more money") actually specifically discuss the Victory at any point - even when talking about missions in which you're defending your carrier, its defensive armament and shielding is never discussed. It's a curious omission, though both strategy guides are pretty bad (as anyone who's bothered to read them after buying the GOG release of WCIII will know) so perhaps it's not that suprising that stuff gets missed out.

I say: As Blair commented in the intro, the Victory is pretty much an antique. As a pre-war design it largely predates the era of large fighter engagements, and so its anti-fighter defences are pretty anaemic. The laser turrets put up a decent-looking amount of fire, but they don't actually do any significant damage, so it's pretty much down to escorting fighters to kill the bombers. Armour and shields, though, are decent. The Victory can take a torpedo and a lot of gunfire to any one of its several different sections; provided bombers don't all approach in the same way (and they generally don't) you'll usually have enough time to get out to them and rough them up a bit. Also unlike previous home carriers in WC games, the Victory does have several escorts which help to keep fighters off it (at least in an operational sense, they have a habit of disappearing in "defend the Victory" missions, but those are fairly rare, so that's how I rationalise it) and occasionally do other useful stuff. Overall, it's no Concordia, but it's not terrible.

Total kills (Wing Commander III): 7 missions / 39 kills
Total kills (this thread): 34 missions / 406 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 145 missions / 1332 kills

Next time on Let's Play Wing Commander:
Being a Kilrathi is no obstacle to proper moustache-twirling villainy!