STV Gauntlet (Multiplayer Mission)
Medal given: Wings.
Minimum difficulty for medal: Insane.
Background
A gauntlet module in which you face waves of Terran, Vasudan, and Shivan fighters and warships.
Walkthrough
Straightforward mission, though this does not in any way mean easy. You will be fighting three groups of several waves of fighters, each group with ships from a different race (Terran, Vasudan, Shivan), and each being capped off with a pair of cruisers.
This is essentially one long dogfight. As such, most of the time your only concerns are a) Surviving and b) Killing Enemy Fighters, in that order. Respawns can be a problem towards the end of the mission so try not to throw your life away too easily, and even if you are out of secondaries it is rarely a good idea to self-destruct in this mission.
Most of the time you will be fighting just one enemy wing at a time, and as such will not be outnumbered. At the end of each race's run however, you will face two wings of enemies at once plus two cruisers. When approaching that point, it is a VERY good idea for everyone who is able to to so to draw the enemy fighters a few clicks away from where the cruisers will arrive, and use the first few seconds after their arrival to take out any anti-fighter beams and flak from a safe distance. Dogfighting within weapons range of a fully armed hostile Aeolus is the textbook definition of a bad idea.
Further, the arrivals of the next race in line is tied to the death of the cruisers, not the fighters. So once the final wave of a race is in play, clean up fighters first before killing the disarmed cruisers, or you will suddenly find yourself swarmed with up to three wings of enemy fighters at once.
Tips
- Loadout: Erinyes with Kayser, Maxim, Trebs/Harpoons and Tempests is probably the best bet here. The host may want to go with double Tempests and people with bad ping may want to go with Harpoons instead of Tempests, but other than that this is what you want.
- If you are being targeted by several hostile fighters while fighting just a single enemy wing, it can be a good idea to simply fly evasively rather than actually try to kill anything. In that situation your side will not be outnumbered, and soon enough your wingmen will engage some of the fighters attacking you, so risking a death just for one kill is not worth it.
- On the final wings of the final group (shivans), the enemy fighters are slow enough that an Erinyes can outrun them at full engine power. If you are close to losing (ie. have only a few people left and these people only have a few spawns remaining, and you still have the cruisers around and at least another wave of fighters coming), this can be used to your advantage by running away until you have a lead of around 3k, then double-trebbing the pursuing fighters until just one is left. Kill that with guns, then repeat with the next wave which should have arrived a long way off. Cruisers can be killed at your leisure with Maxims once they are disarmed, so only fighters are a problem.
Notes
- To get the medal, this mission must be played on Insane difficulty. For those unused to that difficulty, it may come as a rude awakening. Make sure everyone is aware of the difficulty and the consequences it has.
- Under some circumstances, this mission can be very long indeed. Do not start it (at least on Insane) without at least 40 minutes to spend.
Key Ships
- None
Technical information
| File name: | Filename |
| File size: | File Size |
| Author: | Author |
| Total number of objects: | Number of objects |
| Total number of wings: | Number of wings |
| Number of mission events: | Number of events |
| Number of messages: | Number of messages |
| Event music: | Mission Music |
| Briefing music: | Briefing Music |
