[qwadtep]

Even if they're in perfect condition, on even as low as Normal difficulty, they just get shredded by turret fire from the very corvettes they're supposed to kill. Often, they don't even manage to make a dent. They just die, leaving the player and his one wingman to kill two capships with absolutely no anti-capship weapons... and then the mission continues.

I suspect the problem lies in their torpedoes--even though the tech room says that "even laser turrets can't shoot it down," laser turrets do shoot Lances down, consistently, at any range beyond 4-5 clicks. But that only works for the player--not AI wingmen whose idea of a bombing run is flying in a straight line through 15 clicks of enemy fire.

What do?

[Spoon]

I've seen pretty much direct torpedo on the corvettes do absolutely nothing. (unless you are going to tell me that all 3 of the torpedoes got shot down when they were pretty much right on top of the hull) The sabres are useless in that mission.
What's even worse, after you painstackingly killed the corvettes with your guns, an ace shows up next nav that can instant gib you with a single missile (I went from full shields and 77% hull to DEAD by a single missile shockwave). After two attempts I switched the difficulty to very easy and (still nearly died to those wtfpwn missiles of fireclaw) finished it that way.

[niffiwan]

I managed to keep one of Charlie alive (on medium difficulty) - destroying the medium turret on each corvette tends to reduce the chances of the torps being being shot down.  Either that or make sure you're firing at the corvettes when torps are inbound so they are hopefully shooting at you, not the torps.  Having said that, I also found it was quite a PITA trying to keep Charlie alive.

[G0atmaster]

Three out of four attempts the charlies were killed. I kept them alive easily when I found out how weak the corvette shields were. If you take out the turrets early, the charlies survive and their torps work. I reserved 4 missiles for the ace battle, but the ace got away.

[FekLeyrTarg]

but the ace got away.

Spoiler:

There's no way you can kill him in this mission. He's supposed to escape.

[RangerKarl]

Charlie's most hilarious foulup for me, was when they took out a Darket...with a Lance.

[Commander Zane]

I've noticed that too, they're far more comfortable with wasting their warheads on Darkets and Dralthi rather than saving them up for what matters.

[Dragon]

I suspect the problem lies in their torpedoes--even though the tech room says that "even laser turrets can't shoot it down," laser turrets do shoot Lances down, consistently, at any range beyond 4-5 clicks. But that only works for the player--not AI wingmen whose idea of a bombing run is flying in a straight line through 15 clicks of enemy fire.

What do?

The description is a holdover from WC3 manual, where this was the case. Unfortunately, here, turrets can shoot down torpedoes, and are rather good at it.
I've never had a problem with it though, and AI usualy gets the torpedo to it's target. I'm playing on medium, BTW.
Also, I found that Charlie gets quickly wasted by Fireclaw, even if you get them throught the corvette part.

[G0atmaster]

The part I REALLY had trouble with, was when we had to shoot down the capship missiles before they hit the planet.  They just kept getting faster and faster, and eventually my wingmen stopped using afterburners to keep up, I had to blow up at least a dozen missiles by myself... took me about five tries before I got them all before they got too fast to shoot... DANG those things are hard to hit from behind.  One of em hit me once, man was that a bad day...

[Light]

Charlie's most hilarious foulup for me, was when they took out a Darket...with a Lance.

Are you sure it was a Lance? It is supposed to be impossible to lock a torpedo onto a fighter.

Also take a look at this.
http://www.wcsaga.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=526

Spoiler:

Also in a later mission you will get to fly a Saber. Once you do you will realize that its shields are just like in WC2, relatively weak but fast recharging. They meant to help one survive brief gun burst from enemy fighters while evading not to fly straight into heavy turret fire.

[Commander Zane]

Are you sure it was a Lance? It is supposed to be impossible to lock a torpedo onto a fighter.

No other missile makes a massive blue explosion other than the capship-to-capship missiles I believe.

[Light]

Are you sure it was a Lance? It is supposed to be impossible to lock a torpedo onto a fighter.

No other missile makes a massive blue explosion other than the capship-to-capship missiles I believe.

You should not be seeing torpedos launched at anything other than capships.  Go and report it over on the WCSAGA forum.  http://www.wcsaga.com/phpBB3/index.php

[Aginor]

I played the mission three times and was only able to save one of the Sabres by afterburning close to the corvettes and killing two turrets (including the medium one) on both ships.
And since I'm not the greatest of all pilots I guess it is possible to save both.^^

[qwadtep]

Yeah, I managed to do it today by rushing in before them and drawing all the fire from the corvettes while Greywolf whined about having to fight off most of the second fighter wave on his own. Kind of awkward.

[headdie]

Plot shield is a wonderful thing

[Sombre]

Plot shield is a wonderful thing

Plot shield is a powerful thing. Effective but dangerous.

[Mr_Blastman]

Impossible isn't the beginning of it--at least on HARD difficulty... :-|

I've tried it 30 times now, been stuck on it for a week.  I might have to bend over and go to very easy.    The ace just murders you and those sabres can't do jack **** against the vettes unless you draw fire for them.  If they die, it's an automatic restart as it is pointless to kill them on your own.

[Lorric]

Impossible isn't the beginning of it--at least on HARD difficulty... :-|

I've tried it 30 times now, been stuck on it for a week.  I might have to bend over and go to very easy.    The ace just murders you and those sabres can't do jack **** against the vettes unless you draw fire for them.  If they die, it's an automatic restart as it is pointless to kill them on your own.

I beat it on easy on the second attempt. I don't know if it's the right way, but I wiped out all the ace's buddies first having saved all my missiles for that engagement. It was close. It was only me and Greywolf, the sabres died back at the corvettes.

[Mr_Blastman]

I put it on Easy and it was cake.  The Corvettes were pathetic and couldn't do squat.  The Ace though, he almost took me out with a single missile sending me from 100% to 22%.  It was close.  Hard is HARD...  And I'm going right back to it now.

[Narwhal]

I did it on Hard and it found it very easy - success at first attempt. One Sabre got shot down at the second Corvette, the second got shot down in base defense.

Basically, I just came quite close to the corvette (I hoped to destroy some subsystems, forgetting it was no Freespace) and it more or less focused on me.

Also, the ace was easy to defeat. I can't remember if he sent any missile, but after his first pass I slowed down to his speed and just shot him again and again as he was slowly turning around me.

I am stuck at the "rain of missiles" mission, though.