Part 92: Ariel System, Vega Sector, Mission 2 (Gameplay)

It makes a certain amount of logical sense for everything to carry fighters in a universe where fighters appear to kill pretty much everything. Anyway, I appear to have actually finished making an update.

29th August 2669, Ariel System (Mission 2), Vega Sector
TCS Victory

The Victory hides from Kilrathi forces inside a nebula while interdicting efforts to reinforce the Ariel system's garrison forces.

Conversation videos (Youtube) (Polsy/Gamerstube)


Briefing Video (Youtube) Briefing Video (Gamerstube/Polsy)


Mission Video (Youtube) Mission Video (Gamerstube/Polsy)
(torpedo to the face! Actually, I picked this image because I find the massive close-up showing the polygonalisation in the torpedo exhaust to be quite pretty.)

Kills this mission: 12, with Maniac claiming 6. This leaves four enemies who died for reasons uncounted. I think two of the Vaktoths collided with each other - there's a point in the video where two newly launched fighters engaging me disappear from the radar amidst an "arrrgh" from a cat, and the others were probably killed by turret gunners because that doesn't trigger a victory comm. The difficulty level of this mission largely depends on how competent your wingman decides to be. What they'll do is go for the capships first at every nav. That's actually somewhat helpful inasmuch as the two destroyers need killing to prevent them spawning replacement waves (you really don't want to fight 12 fighters at each of Nav 1 and 3 if you can possibly avoid it), but it's also very risky since it leaves two Vaktoths free to shoot them; and while Vaktoths are easy to kill they do have a lot of firepower. Consequently, it's not at all unusual for Maniac to return to base or eject very early on, which makes this mission extremely hard - a Thunderbolt's just not fast enough to survive against 4-on-1 odds for extended periods of time. There's not a huge amount you can do about that other than trying to finish off your pair of Vaktoths as quickly as possible so you can distract the others - but I've had Maniac eject inside a minute before now. I guess the good news is you've not really wasted much time if you just restart when that happens, but I actually really enjoy the defensive struggle that results (it'd make a terrible video, though, or at least I think it would; we'll see in three systems' time where I won't have any choice but to fly that way).

Ship of the day:
Kamrani-class

Class: Corvette
Length: 110 m
Mass: 5,500 tonnes
Max Velocity: 200 kps
Maximum Yaw/Pitch/Roll: 5/5/5 degrees\second
Weapons: 4x laser turret, 1x tachyon turret
Shields: Front: 100cm durasteel equivalent all sides
Armour: 50 cm durasteel equivalent all sides

Official Strategy Guide: The OSG could really use slightly more information on capital ships than it has (also it could do with it making sense). Here's what it does say: Corvettes and transports can be easily taken out by a single fighter with a torpedo. A really sharp pilot can even destroy them with guns alone, if he can eliminate their turrets first. Note that with 3000 points of shield, and a max recharge rate of 300 points per second,
the transport is actually harder to take out than the corvette, once both ships have been offensively disabled.

I say: Yeah, ignore that. A corvette is only ever worth a torpedo if you've got nothing else to fire it at. They're difficult enemies, but not hugely dangerous if you know what you're doing. In an Arrow or Excalibur you can avoid the majority of the turret fire by using the Shelton slide, and in the other fighters just breaking off to let your shields recharge will suffice. Or you can just order a wingman to deal with it - I think pretty much every wingman in the game can kill a corvette and take no damage provided there's nothing else around to distract then. Almost half its firepower comes from the single tachyon turret, which is in the middle of the aft hull; so either approach from the front or try and shoot the turret off and then you can pretty much chew up corvettes at your leisure. Also, it has one of the most annoying shapes to fit several different angles of it into a rectangular target ID shot of anything we've so far encountered.

Total kills (Wing Commander III): 14 missions / 123 kills
Total kills (this thread): 40 missions / 488 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 150 missions / 1403 kills

Next time on Let's Play Wing Commander:
Whaddaya mean, it ain't there?