WC4 is harder than I recall!!??

I will! I'm sure I'll want to try both versions of the Ella mission anyway.
I'm currently doing the Circe missions, which are also pretty tough.

I did something interesting early in the game - there's a mission where Paulsen tells you to get rid of a BW convoy. You can take out of the waves of fighters to make the convoy surrender; but you can also fly a Longbow, leech the first wave and then the transports, at which point they surrender.
 
I've always loved the difficulty, it gives you a real sense of accomplishment to beat the mission when you get fragged every time up until then.
 
I beat Outrun Ella with a Dragon. I don't know how many times I tried before succeeding - it proved to be every bit as hard as Jotunheim 3, if not harder. I was out of missiles for the final wave and Panther had ejected as well, so I had to take down most of the remaining fighters on my own with guns. It is definetely one of the few truly "epic" WC battles out there.
 
Sharpshooter said:
I beat Outrun Ella with a Dragon. I don't know how many times I tried before succeeding - it proved to be every bit as hard as Jotunheim 3, if not harder. I was out of missiles for the final wave and Panther had ejected as well, so I had to take down most of the remaining fighters on my own with guns. It is definetely one of the few truly "epic" WC battles out there.
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Now try it with a Vindicator loaded with FFs.
 
I'm not feeling masochistic enough right now, but maybe later. :p

I've now beaten just about every single mission in WC4, including most (if not all) of the Circe and Speradon missions. The Search and Destroy mission in Circe was quite difficult - I used a Banshee fully loaded with ImRecs. I used the Scatter Cannon against the Dragons, the Imrecs against the Razors, and the Laser Cannons against the Thunderbolts (actually my wingman did most of the work regarding the Thunderbolts). When I reached the final nav point, I afterburned toward the Destroyer and launched all five remaining Imrecs against it as soon as I got into locking range. The Destroyer blew up and was obviously unable to launch any more Excaliburs. Then I destroyed the remaining Excaliburs (my wingman helped a lot) and got back to the Intrepid.

Nuking Ella is a cakewalk (understandable due to the game's plot). Missions against the Vesuvius also tend to be fairly easy. Seether was a bit difficult, but a few IFFs will usually take care of him. I wonder what's Blair's choice regarding Ella in the book (I haven't read it yet).

By the way, why does the Vesuvius only use Hellcats? I understand that it doesn't really need bombers to destroy the Intrepid, but still... no Bearcats, no Arrows, no Thunderbolts... Only Hellcats.
 
Beat it again, this time with a Bearcat. I actually found the mission to be easier than with a Dragon - you don't have to cloak, so you don't waste time, and the Bearcat's speed really comes in handy. As long as you remember to let the guns recharge, it's a very good fighter. Okay, so I did autopilot past the Cruiser because destroying it without torpedoes is pretty difficult (actually I find it kind of odd that you can do that... Maybe the Intrepid is faster than the Cruiser).
 
Ace setting in WCIV is something, I agree.
And I must confess - "Freedom Price" is not a game you would play with a cup of coffee in one hand, and a piece of cake in the other.

That ground mission the discussion started with...
I do take TWO racks of leeches - for everyone seems to forget the Banshees' welcoming comittee when approaching the planet. And I do not waste missiles on turrets. The mission is "fly-low-fly-fast-gun-gun-gun-gun-the-damned-turret-then-leech-one-vidnycator-and-gun-gun-gun-the-other".

But the game has a kind of cheat in it - you just need to find a way to survive. To me it looks like the guys from Origin were tired of playing "the-best-of-best-hero-coming-through" game. So Blair is not invincible (and who would be?) and has to find a way to stay alive.

The "two BW cruisers" mission?
There's no way a slow "hit me big target" Longbow would survive the fight. So for me it is always "burn burn burn go go go launch all torpedoes at once" - and BW pilots surrender instead of blowing you poor bomber in pieces.

The "pirate fregate" mission... Those arrows that keep coming all the time. If you're flying "by book" - and try to kill all the defense before engaging the fregate - you're dead.

And most of missions are alike - you CAN do at Ace setting, you just need to find a way through each mission. Reflexes without tactics are nothing, aren't they? :)

I'd say - I LIKE the way WCIV is made :)
 
MjavTheGray said:
The "two BW cruisers" mission?
There's no way a slow "hit me big target" Longbow would survive the fight. So for me it is always "burn burn burn go go go launch all torpedoes at once" - and BW pilots surrender instead of blowing you poor bomber in pieces.
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I didn't know that, thanks! I'm going to try it. Although it's definetely possible to survive the fight in a Longbow, it's just difficult.

EDIT : Okay, so I picked a Longbow loaded with as many ImRecs as possible, targetted one of the Cruisers, and blew it up... And it worked. It does make the mission much easier. Congratulations on finding this neat little trick. :)

EDIT 2 : I also fully agree with you about tactics - WC4 forces you to carefully plan your strategy in quite a few missions.
 
I noticed a lot of people are playing on "Ace" difficulty. I would encourage you to try "Nightmare". I really didn't notice THAT much of a difference between the two settings. The photo recon/scientist extraction missions were really the biggest hurdles that made me question if this game is really too hard at nightmare, but I pushed through and figured out how to beat it (mainly skipping the Banshees in space to and from the planet and using guns immediately on the ground turret). This mission may have been one of the most difficult simply because you're required to use a Hellcat (see Hellcat V gripe thread). Other missions are harder, but you can use fighters that make it easier.

By later missions you'll be more familiar with the "get right on the opponents tail so he can't use decoys" technique, the "save your afterburners and missiles on the last light fighter and destroy him with guns during head on passes" technique, as well as more familiarity with WCIV gameplay in general. Once you can pass the scientist extraction on nightmare I feel you can beat this game. That mission really was the biggest hurdle for me and I'm glad I pushed through it.
 
Yeah, like Whoopass said, point-plank missile shots are really effective. My personal variation is to load up on ForFs or IRs for their quick lock time, lock yourself on the rear, fire the missile then pull up and over the destroyed fighter.
 
I use the same missile strategy as you do, but I kind of disagree about destroying a fighter head on, due to the sheer accuracy of their guns. I do, however, let some ships charge me head on, then quickly dodge and turn around to start chasing them. There's only one pilot I try heading head on - Seether. Because he's nearly impossible to hit with guns when you chase him, I let him charge me, then when he's close enough I fire a bunch of FF missiles at him.

Another tip : when you chase a fighter, get close and press the Y button like crazy to match their speed. This is very useful since they tend to slow down (and you might crash into them if you don't match their speed).
 
I had an extremely wierd error in one of the Circe atmospheric missions. You're meant to launch MIPs at something on the ground and then tractor them in afterwards. I managed to lose one, so I couldn't tractor it in, but it wouldn't let me autopilot without it. And because it's a planet-based level, I couldn't fly home manually either. So I ejected.

I get picked up by a shuttle, and see a film clip about captured dragon fighters that would make no sense if I hadn't played the game before. From then on, every time I choose to fly the Avenger, one of its torpedo slots contains an MIP, and I can't change it.
 
My guess is that your best bet is to restart the mission when something like that happens. The bug, as weird as it may be, is somewhat understandable - I'm pretty sure the players really aren't supposed to lose any MIPs. :p
 
Prophecy would have been a heck of a lot better if it incorporated those one-missile-hit kills and collision damage from WC4. WC3 too, for that matter.

Actually, WC4 was a much better game then Prophecy was.
 
The one-missile-hit kills of WC4 were great. They made you really have to work to finish a mission, compared with Prophecy which really didn't offer any challenge at all. I can't think of a single Prophecy mission, including the last one, which provided a real sense of accomplishment. A far cry from the likes of WC4 and SO1.
 
McGruff said:
The one-missile-hit kills of WC4 were great. They made you really have to work to finish a mission, compared with Prophecy which really didn't offer any challenge at all. I can't think of a single Prophecy mission, including the last one, which provided a real sense of accomplishment. A far cry from the likes of WC4 and SO1.
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You have a point there. There are very few WCP missions that stand out in my memory. I should probably replay it as well though it's been far too long. Need a refresher.
 
Me, too - couldn't kill Seether with guns. He cloaks and cloaks... But :) But :) But! He doesn't see the dumbfires :) He would evade an IR or a FF - and he easily does so. But DF ... he seems to ignore it. So - he's dead having a single DF hit. Not the easiest thing to do, I admit it. But IMHO it is much easier than any other ways of disposing that "nice pleasant guy". :)
 
Well, firing a bunch of IFFs *when he's close to you* (let him charge you, use your decoys and don't dodge too soon) is still the easiest way I've found... But I'll admit using DFs is a pretty clever idea. :)
 
I don't rememeber the situation about the Dragon and missile racks.
How many FFs could it launch at once? Two? or Four? And... letting someone (especially when this one is a Seether) on mu tail... I have no nerves for it.
Ah!
Just remembered a thing. A friend of mine is using Mace to kill Seether. He says that Mace has no guiding system too, so Seether doesn't bother dodge it.
I just can't remember which mission branch do we need to take - to obtain the Maces...
 
That would be Speradon's "Attack Carrier" mission (which happens to be pretty difficult, in my opinion).

Also, I never said you had to let him get behind you... I said you should let him charge you *head on*. Start chasing him, then slow down and let him get away. He'll decloak and attack, and he'll be in front of you. Then you just have to let him close enough and fire the FF missiles, preferably one by one.
 
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