The King's Gambit

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ACT 2, MISSION 4

Fighter squadron: 64th Raptors

Description: The 64th attempts to cripple the NTF as they come through the node.

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Background

Admiral Bosch sends his forces on a banzai charge to the Knossos subspace portal. The 3rd Terran fleet and 11th Vasudan Battle Group attempt to hold him off.

Walkthrough

This is also a bombing run mission. You have to destroy as many hostile capital ships as you can. The GTB Artemis with the primary bank of GTW Prometheus S, and all three banks of GTM Cyclops is the most ideal for this mission. The Artemis is the most maneuverable GTVA bomber you can use. It is also the lightest, but you have chance to survive only in the Artemis. A Vasudan GVD Typhon-class destroyer and several GTSG Mjolnir cannons are assisting you with their firepower.

Alternately, you can choose a fighter from another wing and let your allies run the bombing missions. With good instructions, the beam turrets, the typhon and your allied wings can destroy the NTF ships without difficulty. Hunt down fighters if you choose this path, and be sure to bring GTM Harpoons with you. The first NTF ship that arrives in the NTD Uhuru (GTD Orion-class). You have to fire a few Cyclops at it to ensure its destruction. With the Uhuru, GTF Hercules fighters jump in and they head after the Mjolnir sentry guns. Your fighter assistance can handle them most of the times, but I suggest you move against the fighters after you delivered a dew bombs at the Uhuru. Losing the Mjolnir cannons or the Vasudan destroyer can mean as serious loss of firepower as you won't have the firepower to neutralize enemy warships which jump in. So head against the fighters, as well.

Order your squadron to attack the next series of warships which jump in. Since the AI in Freespace are quite forgetting, you would better remind them they are not only there as spectators. Target one of the warships you consider the most serious threats, and hit C, 2, 1, 1. This orders your squadron to attack your target. You have to take down at least 50% of the incoming warships.

Damaging the engines of the warships immediately gains you more time before they jump out. If you manage to disable one of the warships, it won't be able to escape at all. Acquiring quick lock on a moving target with Cyclops requires time, if you practice more, and understand the targeting engine of Freespace, you can gain advantage. Shoot, shoot, shoot, kill, kill, kill. These are the rules.

KR's Notes : Most people can't even kill the Uhuru before it jumps out... Because when it jumps in, it slides at a speed of over 150m/s, reaching its waypoint faster than the other ships. The best way to take down this guy is to target its engines as soon as it jumps in, lob a few cyclops and follow it. The Uhuru's jump in speed is so great that it actually reaches your start point.

"MrMitten's" Notes :" Never have I once had to throw a single glance at the Uhuru; even on insane. Just order everyone to kill it a couple times while command is giving its Uhuru speech. The bombs of your wingmen combined with the Cap-ship-raping power of the Mjolnirs should shoot it out of the sky quite handily. Save your bombs for the other ships.

Notable ships present

• GVD Hedetet
• NTD Uhuru
• GTCv York
• NTCv Pax
• NTCv Perseverance
• GTC Warwick
• NTC Liberty
• NTC Undaunted
• GVC Unut
• NTT Inspiration

New equipment

• GTB Artemis
• GTW Prometheus S

Confirmed Glitches

At times, the ship selection will offer the Artemis D.H. Although this seems like a potential advantage, the weapon selection screen also does not offer bombs of any type. This will be the first major problem you will encounter, other minor problems you should have noticed by now: odd readouts for secondary weapons, no simulated voice in techroom. These problems are caused by having a player file which was used with FS2_Open 3.7 or older, and having upgraded to FS2_Open 3.9 or newer. Unfortunately, the only known fix is to either downgrade your FS_Open version or create a new pilot (yes, sadly, losing all progress). Of course, you could also attempt to complete the missions using the Rockeyes which replace the unavailable Cyclopses. Or you could switch to available Hornets and EMPs. Otherwise, you are pretty much sunk.

Please also note that retail has no reproducable problems of this kind.