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[MidnightSun]

I frontload fighters early on as well, but I'm confused as to how you manage to maintain fighter superiority, given how badly you're outnumbered by them. They spread lashers and fighter wings to almost the entire map, it's rather difficult to zone them out in my experience. It's true that thunders,  gladius's, and warthogs can mess up Talons and Lashers, but fast enough to not give up any points?

Anyway, the LRM thing is definitely a tertiary thing to do. It's just something to think about if you wind up deploying them, since they really kind of suck when pressed. Support auxiliaries, that's how you play 'em.

Yeah, I'm slightly surprised too, but really, those Gladius, Warthog, and Thunder wings are extremely powerful. What I did was to send the Thunders to the right bottom Nav Buoy and left Comm Buoy, and focus the initial Gladius on the center point with an Assault command. The Thunders tore up the Talon wings with basically no damage taken, and then they move on to the middle point where most of the AI's Broadswords collect. The Gladius wing has probably taken down one Broadsword wing by then, and with more enemies incoming, I micromanage the fighters a bit if I see them take too much damage.

By then, my Carrier is in position just south of the mid point, and I've deployed my flagship and additional fighter wings. Depending on where I see enemies headed, I hand out intercept orders (usually Thunders will go fulfill those), while gathering the bulk of the fleet at mid. I continue up with my flagship to wipe out any slightly heavier ships not worth my fighters' time.

I then deploy the destroyer(s) and get their help at controlling the existing points while I send a Thunder or two to take the enemy's Nav. With my huge point count from all the buoys, I can maybe think about deploying a cruiser. Meanwhile, I probably have mid by now and move all my Defend and Rally Carrier points up further north as the enemy's forces trickle in (bottlenecked by their one Comm Buoy). I put my flagship near the top, to mop up any heavier craft that may want to retreat, and set strike commands on the Onslaught and Dominators. I literally let my forces handle the entire Onslaught by themselves (with one Hammerhead loss), and take out two Dominators with my Conquest.

And by then, the match is pretty much over. Lesson learned? Those Thunders, Warthogs, and Gladius fighters can really carry an outnumbered but more nimble force. Before I learned just great they were, I had trouble with this mission too (see my earlier thread). 

EDIT: @Alex: Thanks for chiming in here! Since my last post, I've given Predator or Prey a few more tries, and gotten one success (with the Omen and one Wasp wing retreating) at little more than 100 hull integrity left on my Dominator. It's doable, but certainly not a simple mission 

[Iscariot]

I'll have to try that, interesting. As a side note, your initial objective assignment is identical to my own xD

[MidnightSun]

I'll have to try that, interesting. As a side note, your initial objective assignment is identical to my own xD

Great minds admirals think alike  

I did forget to mention the bomber wings. With the Conquest, I usually refrain from wasting intercept orders for the Piranhas in this mission, since I know I'll be able to shred them on my own if they do pass through all my fighter wings in the first place. Simple matter of seeing them coming, holding fire and disabling shield for a few seconds to get a flux buffer, and then absorbing the bombs and lettin' it rip on the bombers.

[Iscariot]

I'll have to try that, interesting. As a side note, your initial objective assignment is identical to my own xD

Great minds admirals think alike  

I did forget to mention the bomber wings. With the Conquest, I usually refrain from wasting intercept orders for the Piranhas in this mission, since I know I'll be able to shred them on my own if they do pass through all my fighter wings in the first place. Simple matter of seeing them coming, holding fire and disabling shield for a few seconds to get a flux buffer, and then absorbing the bombs and lettin' it rip on the bombers.

Yeah, I've just confirmed that this works pretty gloriously, even with the stock Conquest provided. Two games, no losses in either. Main problem now is that those fighter wings keep bugging out.

[Thaago]

You know, I was just about to be finished writing a scathing review of The Last Hurrah and then I realized something: I was playing like a Tri-Tac, not like the Hegemony. So I gave it another go, this time forgetting about fighter dominance and instead concentrating on my flagship being an immovable barrier.

I got an 80%, more than double any of my previous wins! I think a bunch came down to luck: between the ship types deployed and the starting imbalance in command points (every time I count the enemy has 55-60 command points to my 41... what gives?!) the player's side really has no business winning this battle.

I assaulted the center sensor array with my flagship and an Eagle, dispatching a Thunder to take the near comm bouy. Once I had those 30 points I deployed the heavy fighter wings and kept the assault command active, pulling them into support of my flagship; next wave a carrier and the support frigates (I found them extremely useful). Finally I called in the Falcon's, although I don't think they ever saw combat.

Of critical importance with this strategy is to intercept incoming bombers- the Eagle just can't handle them at all (frontal shield AI... yeah). Given that you are given no interceptors, this can actually be quite challenging. While I love the Thunder dearly, they can't shoot down a Piranha or a Talon to save their lives. Give me Talons instead of those worthless Falcons! With 6 Talon wings this map would go from impossible to easy.

The critical point of the match came when my flagship was getting hammered by a destroyer and a cruiser - flux was high from bombers and my hull was a third down. I took direct control and ever so slowly swung the nose around to line up a salvo of reapers: minus one enemy cruiser and they never could contest the center again. You HAVE to do this with your flagship because Eagle's and Falcons are completely worthless.

I had to retreat my flagship after a ill advised encounter with an Onslaught (damn those suckers hit hard!) but since at that point I had mopped up the nav bouys it wasn't a problem. The nice thing was that it attracted all the enemy fire support from way in the back, protecting my other units with its mere existence.

Total losses: 1 Eagle and 1 vigilance support frigate. Enemy survivors: none.

All this said, my biggest problem with this mission is that the the midline ships are just too weak and lack almost any point defense.

[Ghoti]

Damn it. I can't win.  

[Reapy]

I think its pretty cool to have all the missions as a baseline for AI, ship, and weapon changes. You get a nice clean way to see how updates affect what is already there, and in itself it is cool to see why certain things get harder or easier depending.

New objective tonight: Beat Predator or Prey

[Reapy]

Followed alex's advice, and:



First time I almost won, got the big guy down but had almost 0 hull left and the wasp's finished me off.

Then I died a bunch of times.

Then I sort of hung back some more to let the condor draw the brunt of the damage. I think I was lucking out this run and my units were winning somewhat, and their heavy fighters got separated out so I pounced on them with the cannons. 

After they went down I did what alex said and headed right for the carrier. I think once I figured out that I could duke it out with them and win easily, it was a simple matter of parking right in front of them, letting the PD group shoot and firing the hephistus cannons till the shield dropped... then 3 deep torpedo spread and more shots, and... BAM down he goes, the rest retreat, victory!

Learning a lot about piloting bigger ships too... have to really aim and drift as he said where you want to go. You can't change course or rotate too quickly, so if the fighters catch up and start circling you have no hope of getting them off you. So it is more like prepping, drifting in, guns blazing, and you really do need some support or else you are done for.

Good stuff.

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