What's your favorite base of ops?
- Thread starter iCe
- Start date
From what I recall, the Strakhas came after him, not the other way around. It's easy to criticise Blair for not performing as well as we did in the game, but keep in mind that what's enjoyable or neccessary in a game isn't what is believable in a novel. A player in a game can blow through a couple of squadrons of fighters while the AI tries in vain to hit him, take out the missiles with ease, and then return to help his wingman with mopping up. A character in a novel doing any of that would have the readers rolling their eyes in disbelief. In anything other than a game situation, trying to chase down *cloaking* missiles in a Thunderbolt while under attack by fighters is hardly easy.
As for Flint, I can well understand what she did, but I almost always chose the option of grounding her. (Which wasn't fun by any means, as she was one of my top three wingmen, along with Hobbes and Vaquero.) The I saw it, she had to understand that she was part of the military, not a lone vigilante.
Best, Raptor
As for Flint, I can well understand what she did, but I almost always chose the option of grounding her. (Which wasn't fun by any means, as she was one of my top three wingmen, along with Hobbes and Vaquero.) The I saw it, she had to understand that she was part of the military, not a lone vigilante.
Best, Raptor
Yes, mopping up Locanda of Kilrathi with a freakin' Thunderbolt VII is pretty unbelievable... that's why I always switch the loadout and choose the Hellcat V 
(the extra speed is necessary to chase down the missiles)!
However, I usually choose not to ground Flint. First reason is because of the necessity for pilots of her caliber! Another is that... I had a soft spot for the lass
But still, I think if it were my home system, I'd want to settle a score too. Of course, I would find more lawful ways of doing it... but I know how she felt....
(the extra speed is necessary to chase down the missiles)! However, I usually choose not to ground Flint. First reason is because of the necessity for pilots of her caliber! Another is that... I had a soft spot for the lass
But still, I think if it were my home system, I'd want to settle a score too. Of course, I would find more lawful ways of doing it... but I know how she felt....
Thymerlord
Rear Admiral
Dom I hate to break this to you being you are such a Hellcat fan and all but I use the fastest fighter in the game on that mission, the Arrow. The only time I lost that mission was in a Hellcat. Although I never ground Flint Because I would have done the same thing just not in the same junkheap she tried it in.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
I prefer the Thunderbolt for that mission, as its torpedo comes in handy while hunting down Flint.
I'm not exactly against her breaking the rules and so forth... but engaging a Fralthi II in a Longbow alone is just stupid.
I'm not exactly against her breaking the rules and so forth... but engaging a Fralthi II in a Longbow alone is just stupid.
Well, the novel has Blair losing the first Orsini mission, too.. and that mission's so simple in the game all you have to do is tell Hobbes to break and attack then go to sleep -- he'll have cleaned up the bad guys in no time.
I *do* ground Flint -- she violated orders, nearly got herself killed, and we were forced to risk the lives of other pilots to bail her out of the jam she was in. That shows poor judgement, IMO .. and anyone who has so little judgement has no business flying a fighter in wartime.
Now, if she'd come back on her own untouched with a cruiser or two to her credit, I'd be more inclined to be forgiving -- but I'm just not in a merciful mood after I've nearly wet my pants after being hammered by an antimatter gun, and probably had to refly the mission two or three times because the CD jammed during the "please insert CD #2" part of the cutscene.
Like Blair in WC2, she violated orders. UNLIKE Blair, she f*ed up and had to be rescued, instead of coming back a hero. As Talleyrand would put it, it was worse than a crime, it was a blunder.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
Torp the cap ship on the way in, order the wingman to stay just a bit back (for when the stealth fighters uncloak on your tail and attempt to blast you - the things are made of tin foil, and it won't take much for your wingman to kill them if they uncloak in front of him or her), and then kill the missiles. That's pretty much how it ran through when I played it the other day (except for the part about ordering the wingman to hang back, of course - he did that without orders). Only had to kill two missiles, iirc. Pretty simple, imho.
I may understand her actions, but yes, grounding her is the proper course of action. No matter what the motivation, pilots can't be allowed to run off on their own like that (unless, of course, your last name is Blair - he does it in WC2
), and at the very least, a punitive punishment should be inflicted to discourage it in the future. Let it go, and Cobra might get it into her head to do the same.In the game, at any rate, I think these are just regular cap missiles. The skipper missiles are used exclusively against ships.
Incidentally, the skipper missile missions are also among my least favorite. I invariably end up ramming one of them (while its cloaked, of course) while trying to run the stupid things down.
As for Blair's performance...
This guy IS the hero of K'Tithrak Mang. He IS the Heart of the Tiger. He IS the one guy that the Kilrathi were overjoyed to hear was implicated in the destruction of the Tiger's Claw (in the conversation between Thrakhath and the Emperor, Bluehair is 'the pilot that has caused us so much trouble'). He's notorious for producing victories out of thin air. Strakha's are about the least effective fighters in the game. Their shots fall like gentle rain on the shielding of a Thunderbolt. Their armor is made of tinfoil. The cloaking devices are the only thing they have going for them. And to put it bluntly, an escort mission is a complete misuse of a cloaked fighter (the escort should have been Dralthi or Vaktoth, IMHO). In short, this mission should have been a cakewalk.
You have got to be kidding me. He blows THAT mission!!?? Just out of curiousity, when does the one man wonder of the Confederation finally successfully complete his first mission in the novels?
It probably helps that in WC2 Bluehair was able to talk his crew chief into equipping his Saber heavy fighter with a full half dozen torpedoes (not that she required much convincing, iirc - it seems as if half the crew knew he was going to do it before he even spoke to Sparks) instead of being forced to fly a Broadsword.
At any rate, successful or not, the proper course of action with Flint was to slap her wrist and pull her off the roster for a brief period of time.
Mekt-Hakkikt
Mpanty's bane
He did that in the novel. His 10 (or 8, can't remember) T-Bolts were attacked by 8 Strakhas while they were chasing the missiles. Blair ordered half his wing to attack the Strakhas while he and the rest continued to pursue the missiles. Then another wing of Strakhas appeared and attacked him. He really didn't have much of a chance.
What shouldn't be unmentioned is that they managed to shoot down some bio weapons but not all.
Plus in the novel the Strakhas are really a pain in the ass not such laughable heaps of crap as in the game.
I think he finally did something successful in Tamayo ... but the thing about the book is that it's deliberately written so that it
won't help you in the game. It seems like Blair chooses the morale-busting ship option 99% of the time in the dialogue choices in the novel as written.
On the plus side, the novel has a better "feel" and seems to be
written by someone who has a grasp of how a ship is supposed to run (in the book, for example, Col. Blair DOESN'T question Eisen's judgement on the flight deck in front of the entire crew during the welcoming ceremony and demand that Hobbes be put on the flight roster less than thirty seconds after he's stepped off the shuttle that brought him aboard. Instead, he and Eisen have a private heart-to-heart over distilled liquor in Eisen's cabin, where Blair makes his views known and Eisen agrees).
Agreed ... provided it never happens again. . If she ever makes people risk her life to save her because she flies with her progesterone instead of her brain, I'll yank her off of flight status permanently and assign her to Rollins' slot. I've already got two Maniacs on this ship -- and they're already two too many.
Not that I'm worried -- Flint on her worst day is more calm, cool and collected (if not quite as gifted) than Maniac on his best day.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
The 'laughable heaps of crap' is what help keep it *realistic*, though. The Strakha seems to take the somewhat logical conclusion that if you can cloak the fighter, you're going to have to make a lot of sacrifices (the armor should probably be heavier, however, since that doesn't cause a power drain, and might even help shield emissions).
Its hard to say whether the skipper missiles have to sacrifice something for their cloak (although considering its a cap missile, and an Arrow is the target in the briefing demo, its a distinct possibility it has a smaller warhead than normal).
Of course, since the Excalibur and the Dragon are pretty much the best fighters around even when not using their cloak, Confed somehow manages to avoid making sacrifices.
I suppose that's one reason that the WC2 storyline sequences worked a little better. Chats weren't limited to particular areas of the ship, but instead took place wherever the story deemed them convenient. The room aspect of WC3 worked against that. WC4 improved things somewhat by providing more locations (including Eisen's cabin) to have cutscenes/conversations (and using that handy map that told you exactly where everything was taking place), but still...
Bandit LOAF: Its not engaging a Fralthi II alone in a Longbow that's stupid. Its doing so when the thing's surrounded by hostile fighters.
pendell: I agree with your view on grounding Flint. Insubordination should never be tolerated. Especially if you have a soft spot for the person in question.
junior: The best way to win that Locanda mission is to pick a T-Bolt, then torp the destroyer ASAP. That way it only launches 1 of 3 bioweapons. (They're not skippers BTW). Chase down the last missile then mop up the Strakhas.
As for escorts Strakhas are good escorts if you're setting a trap. Enemy forces will think that your capship's unprotected - that is until your Strakhas uncloak around them and release some missiles up tailpipe...
The reason the Strakhas aren't so good in the game is the AI limitation. A real pilot would know how to utilize the cloak in such a way nobody would get a shot off at him. As for the skipper missiles - its basically a capship missile with a cloaking device. Its strong enough to destroy the Victory on the harder difficulty levels. The bit where it blows up the Arrow is just a simulation. If it were true they'd have been firing them at YOU, not the capships. Finally the Excalibur and the Dragon represented the pinnacle of fighter technology - remember the matter anti matter engines on the Dragon were capable of providing unlimited AB.
pendell: I agree with your view on grounding Flint. Insubordination should never be tolerated. Especially if you have a soft spot for the person in question.
junior: The best way to win that Locanda mission is to pick a T-Bolt, then torp the destroyer ASAP. That way it only launches 1 of 3 bioweapons. (They're not skippers BTW). Chase down the last missile then mop up the Strakhas.
As for escorts Strakhas are good escorts if you're setting a trap. Enemy forces will think that your capship's unprotected - that is until your Strakhas uncloak around them and release some missiles up tailpipe...
The reason the Strakhas aren't so good in the game is the AI limitation. A real pilot would know how to utilize the cloak in such a way nobody would get a shot off at him. As for the skipper missiles - its basically a capship missile with a cloaking device. Its strong enough to destroy the Victory on the harder difficulty levels. The bit where it blows up the Arrow is just a simulation. If it were true they'd have been firing them at YOU, not the capships. Finally the Excalibur and the Dragon represented the pinnacle of fighter technology - remember the matter anti matter engines on the Dragon were capable of providing unlimited AB.
I think you're misattributing something in there. That's pretty much what I said earlier.
Setting up an ambush involving an 'unescorted' cap ship would presumably be done to make your target cap ship look like a more attractive target than it actually is. Given that Confed had to attack it anyway to save the colony, sticking some Vaktoths around it seems to be a much better option. They have much heavier firepower, and they can survive (briefly) a stern chase as they chase the Confed fighter gunning for the missiles, while simultaneously being chased by the Confed wingman. The idea behind positioning the wingman a little ways back in that mission is because after the destroyer goes *boom*, you have to run down the missiles. That means you're going to be flying straight and steady as you attempt to catch up. Any fighter that wants to nail you is going to have to pursue you, and also fly straight and steady. Stick your wingman just a little ways back behind you, and if a Kilrathi fighter jumps you, your wingman provides an assist. A Vaktoth can survive in that position for a little while (and its wingman can make the life of your wingman rather miserable). A Strakha can't survive under that sort of firepower, and won't last long enough for its own wingman to make your wingman worry about the integrity of his fighter. Of course, the Confed AI is no smarter than the Kilrathi AI, so they wouldn't cooperate in this model, but there you go. Sure, your fighter may take some hits before its all over, and Rachel may have to put in for overtime, but that's a small price to pay for saving the life of every man, woman, and child on the ground.
Ergo the reason that Strakha should not have been involved as the escorts for the destroyer. See the example above.
I figured they had heavy warheads, but wasn't sure. Actually, strange as this may sound, I'm fairly certain I collided with one in a Thunderbolt the other day, and survived. It knocked out my starboard shield and armor (from full to nothing), and I have no clue what color my starboard side was on the damage indicator. I don't know for certain that I hit a missile (and I've accidentally rammed them numerous times before and died - might have been Arrows all those times, though), but I do know my starboard side disappeared, I don't remember anything else being around, and one of the skipper missiles mysteriously vanished.
btw, that was at Ace level.
Yep. Each of them are super fighters for Confed. I'm a little leery of anything that's so great, though, and that can also run around with a cloak. Confed must have put in the overtime after WC2 to create invent (steal?) the cloaking device and put it on the best fighter in the game in just two years.
The Kilrathi, on the other hand, who have known how to build cloaks for over ten years, still only have them mounted on a fighter that's lighter than the Darket.
But its in the story.
Never owned WC4 personally, and when I did play it, I never got to the point where you fly a Dragon, but unlimited AB?
AFAIK, AB in a spaceship doesn't come from power generators. It comes from propellent (be it hydrogen, petroleum exhaust, what-have-you).
Or is it kicking anti-matter reaction out the back of the fighter?
WildWeasel
Spaceman
Well, you're right about it being a shroud device and not an actual cloaking device. I can't be sure on those other points, though.