Kurasawa 2 - Your tips and tricks

Saturnyne

Vice Admiral
Yes, I am one of many proud-as-a-Kilrathi to own Kilrathi Saga, and I'm having lots of fun. Naturally, the Kurasawa 2 mission in the first Wing Commander installment is a point of frustration for many players. Me included.

Regularly, I try to the get little kitties off the Ralari by taunting and shooting missiles at them. Doesn't always work, but sometimes it does.

Any other tips and tricks you guys can fill me in with? You can consider this a public service too, since Wing Commander players at large have trouble with this mission.
 
A common problem that I see with players of all skill levels is underuse of afterburners. Getting into the fight quickly is a sure fire recipe to get the fight moving along. I subscribe to the "Kill the escort then the escorted" idea. Missiles are most effective when fighters shields are down.. so consider softening the escort up with guns, then finish the job with a well timed missile.

And if all else fails... eject and get the Gold Sun for this one. :)
 
uh, yeah... in Kurasawa 2, the Confederation has captured a Ralari and plans to use it against the Kilrathi. When you reach the Ralari to escort it to the Tiger's Claw, a few of the Kilrathi are already shooting it, making it nigh impossible to rescue.
 
Yeah, I think he just got confused on the mission. I know which one you are referring to, its the first one after you get promoted to the Raptor (Oh yeah!), it is a toughie. I remember the first time I played WC, that mission was the hardest thing ever, when I played through it again a few months ago, it was much easier. Despite his recalling the wrong mission, he's right. Use afterburners like there's no tomorrow. Launch all available missiles as soon as possible and don't be afraid to switch targets when one Jalthi is pulling away. Also, yes, try the comm taunt, doesn't always work but it you can keep pressing it they might get distracted. Finally, as a last resort, you can try ramming them. It's dangerous but it might get you that much needed emphasis. Hope that helps.

P.S. On the missiles, use Pillum (sp?) FF first then once your close to a fighter let the Spiculum IR lock on and then loose them into their tailpods.
 
Kurosawa 2 is the first REALLY difficult mission in WC1's winning path... There are some kinda-difficult ones before, but this one is almost cheating on the developers' part. I beat it once or twice in hundreds of attempts. Most reports of success involve NOT auto-piloting from the previous navpoint to the Ralari's nav point, you should fly in manually. Aparently this gives the player more time to react.

The problem with taunting is that, unless you programmed "c,2,3" on your joystick, it takes too many keystrokes to pull off...
 
Oops... wrong mission. :) Still ... my advice stands... hitting each of the fighters as quickly as possible will get their attention. Overall... quick kills are a necessity. This IS probably the hardest mission of WC1, but I think it all just boils down to practice. I know I flunked this one on my first try... probably my second try, too.
 
I flew this mission very aggressively. A few quick kills in the beginning will greatly enhance the Ralari's chance of survival (less concentrated firepower against it, hence a greater chance of making it out alive). So, I use up all of my missiles pretty quickly to reduce the number of hostile fighters as quickly as possible. When your missiles are gone and you're chasing an enemy fighter, if it's shields are down and yours are full, don't be afraid to try a ramming tactic once or twice.
 
The autopilot "trick" has never worked for me, neither has going in guns blazing. Ramming Gratha is the only answer I've ever found. I knock out two Gratha as fast as I can- ram them then hammer them with full guns, missiles if necessary. Once you've got 2 destroyed it gets much easier- assuming your ship can still fight. The two remaining Gratha seem to take a little time (OK, a very little) lining themselves up for strafing runs on the Ralari, and they don't normally break off their attacks once you begin pounding them.
 
I only played this mission once and was triumphant. I can't remember how though, shortly afterwards my wing commander disks screwed up, then my amiga exploded.
 
Gods own shields....

The key to winning this mission is ramming. Find a Gratha firing on the Ralari, make sure you have full shields, and afterburn towards it. At 2000 klicks open up with full guns and ram it, this should kill it. Turn immediately and burn towards another Gratha and do the same. Then find the third, launch some ff missiles at it and get it away from the Ralari. Then use the ramming tactic on the fourth one, presuming your armor is still there. Then simply kill the last gratha.
 
McGruff said:
Isn't Hobbes on that Ralari? Let it go down in flames and the Behemoth will win the war.

No, Hobbes is on a Fralthi which defects in Secret Missions 2 (the Ras Nik'hra). The Ralari in the original game is a ship captured by Confed Marines.
 
I don't know what extreme problem people have with this mission. Ist most certainly not the hardest one for me when it comes to WingCommander 1 and SM1&2. All suggestions there are have pretty much been already. My tactic usually goes like this:
1. Ignore the Salthi in the asteroids and get out there ASAP. This probably does not help in any way and is just a mental thing, but I seem to do significantly better when I flee from them.
2. Go to full burners once you get out of autopilot (no I never flew manually to that nav-point).
3. Clutter the area with missiles. Spread them over the enemies. You do NOT want to kill some, but rather draw the attention away from the Ralari. Try to break the formation of the Gratha rather then to kill.
4. Attack the Gratha as they attack the Ralari. Again it is NOT important to kill them, but to have them turn away from their mission target. As soon as they do seek for a new target instead of finishing the current one off.
5. If nothing else helps to make them loose target RAM. The raptor is usually capable of surviving at least 2 ramming attempts. Use that. It certainly throws off the aim of the Gratha. That one obviously needs some training in order to learn how to ram and survive. If done wrong you might be dead at the first contact.

Four or five tries later and you should have made it.
 
I'm not really sure why but this mission seems easier on the SNES version of wc1. I have never completed it on the pc version (I just gave up and went to rostov) but I did it first time on the SNES.
 
A part of me has always considered buying an SNES just to get that version of Wing Commander... I mean... it's Wing Commander... and I DON'T own it... how wrong is that?!
 
FlashFire82 said:
A part of me has always considered buying an SNES just to get that version of Wing Commander... I mean... it's Wing Commander... and I DON'T own it... how wrong is that?!

I know how you feel. About 6 months ago I bought the PS versions of WC3 and 4 just because, well..... just because. They do look nice sitting on my Wing Commander "shrine" in my office, and I know I'll play them one day, if for no other reason than to experience a different twist on the Wing Commander experience.
 
I've seen the PS WC4 in action... it's not half bad, actually. Althought I don't know how you could ever control with that damn little console controller.
 
There's an excellent flightstick/throttle combo controller that Wing Commander IV PSX supports.

It's the big one in this picture:

joysticks.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top