Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Do you remember Wing Commander Armada's Gauntlet mode? We do! It was essentially a 'Wing Commander lite' included with Armada that let you (and optionally a second player) battle through one of two fifteen mission campaigns. Instead of cutscenes or dialogue, the story is presented as text-based mission briefings aboard the TCS Lexington or the KIS Shiraak… but it's still packed with lore and there are some pretty interesting engagements that most players never had a chance to explore! Here are two favorites: a Kilrathi mission where you fight a renegade Admiral and a Confederation mission where you escort home a pair of new bombers in an Arrow:
… but it remains mostly unknown because it's very, very hard. The big Armada patch added a password system so players could jump to any mission but it takes dedicated and extreme patience to beat the Gauntlet itself. So we've made things easier by creating WCPedia entries covering each mission, the six wingmen and how the scoring and passwords work! We've updated the main entry to include the mode and added the articles below.
Human Confederation campaign
Empire of Kilrah campaign
One interesting thing we learned while taking a close look at the system is that it's actually impossible to beat the leaderboard! By our calculations, the highest score you can achieve in the Kilrathi campaign (which has more opponents) is 4,305… well short of the 5,000 you'd need to beat "Litespeed"! There ain't no justice. Also: all six wingmen are named after the game's developers! You can find out which is which at the links below:
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Original update published on April 10, 2025
… but it remains mostly unknown because it's very, very hard. The big Armada patch added a password system so players could jump to any mission but it takes dedicated and extreme patience to beat the Gauntlet itself. So we've made things easier by creating WCPedia entries covering each mission, the six wingmen and how the scoring and passwords work! We've updated the main entry to include the mode and added the articles below.
Human Confederation campaign
- Mission 1
- Mission 2
- Mission 3
- Mission 4
- Mission 5
- Mission 6
- Mission 7
- Mission 8
- Mission 9
- Mission 10
- Mission 11
- Mission 12
- Mission 13
- Mission 14
- Mission 15
- Transfer Mission
Empire of Kilrah campaign
- Mission 1
- Mission 2
- Mission 3
- Mission 4
- Mission 5
- Mission 6
- Mission 7
- Mission 8
- Mission 9
- Mission 10
- Mission 11
- Mission 12
- Mission 13
- Mission 14
- Mission 15
- Transfer Mission
One interesting thing we learned while taking a close look at the system is that it's actually impossible to beat the leaderboard! By our calculations, the highest score you can achieve in the Kilrathi campaign (which has more opponents) is 4,305… well short of the 5,000 you'd need to beat "Litespeed"! There ain't no justice. Also: all six wingmen are named after the game's developers! You can find out which is which at the links below:
--
Original update published on April 10, 2025
