Lt. Blaise D. Russel, Congratulations!
I just beat Bem Cavalgar. Very interesting indeed...
Note to people with setup bugs: I had trouble setting it up myself. It appears that trying to run Bem Cavalgar on the wrong FSO build NOT ONLY crashes FreeSpace, it ALSO CORRUPTS YOUR PILOT FILE. Try using 3.7 RC2 and THEN creating a new pilot.
Great opening cutscene. I STILL get the chills whenever I see a/the Lucifer warp in head-on. (BP Shiva voice: "SO, INSANEBARON, WE MEET AGAIN...). It set up the feel of the campaign very well- and made the departure from canon clear from the get-go. Oddly, despite having created a new pilot, I received the Ace medal in the debriefing. My stat sheet listed 94 GTF Hercules kills. Is this intentional? Regardless, it made me feel like an already-experienced pilot, which was good, considering the plot.
The tactical map concept was impressive. It reminded me of Windmills, somewhat. Anyway, for something so unusual, it was quite easy to understand, esp. after having read your guide to the stats.
I started with Operation Hannibal, skipping Depth Charge. My goal was to save civilians, so I figured a defense mission was a good way to start. Interesting fiction viewer entry about the doll- I was impressed by the... culture, you could say... of the out-of-universe entries, and the emotion of the in-universe ones. I read all of them via techroom- even the ones for missions I didn't play. I expected the first mission to be pretty easy but... man, this campaign is hard! Wolf wasn't kidding when he commented on how hard it it to kill Shivans who are smart enough to shift and equalize their shields. I flew a Thoth with Avengers on that mission, but for the rest of the campaign I made sure to have a bank of Banshees, S-Breakers, or Flails for extra anti-sheild power. Anyway, after a fierce fight I managed to save 70-80% of the civilians, which Captain Senbi and I agreed was pretty impressive under the circumstances. I felt pretty good about it.
I noticed a problem at that point. The ship/weapon stock didn't deplete when I lost wingmen. On the first mission, I gave all three wingmen Seths, assuming that the mission would be easy and that the Seth was a high-survivability ship. All three of them died (that mission was looong). But on the next mission, I still had all three Seths. This was consistent for the whole campaign: I always had the same amount of equipment that I started with. Supply missions were unnecessary. Is this a bug, or is it intentional? I was using the "Easy" loadouts.
Anyway, having started with a defense mission, I decided to play an offense mission next. To wit, Ashanti (skipping Zawistowska). Flying an Amun, I had the chance to try the fan-made Barracuda missile. It packs less punch than the Tsunami, but more of them can be carried. Lockon time is just way too long (longer than the Harbinger, or so it seemed to me), but Barracudas CAN be dumbfired. Barracudas also reload quickly. The dumbfire feature came in very useful, as I was able to smash the Shivan freighters in rapid succession. I shredded the Shivan convoy, without loosing a single wingman, with two minutes to spare. Fun
Side note: Blaise, I noticed you increased the size of the Amun's banks. And increased size the of the Tsunami, making the Barracuda more useful.
On round Three, I skipped Iram of the Pillars in favor of Port Said (defense again). I flew a Seth this time, and I experimented with the Fang missile. A dumbfire, similar to the Fury, less power per missile but can be carried in double the quantity, fires in pairs. Overall, I found it a better dogfight weapon than the Fury, plus more payload-efficient, but lacking in anti-subsystem power. Port Said actually wasn't that hard; I succeed in saving the station itself and both evac transports- 100% of the civilians. I lost two wingmen, but again, I didn't loose equipment. Again, a feel-good outcome. Side note: Blaise, is the Railgun any good in Bem Cavalgar? I didn't find the hidden retail version useful.
For round four, I switched back to offense with Black May (over Salvador). It took a couple of tries, but in the end it was a big success. I flew an Amun again. My wingmen and I de-fanged and then demolished the Shivan Corvette fast enough to save all three PVN cruisers. Barracudas again proved their worth: while attacking the Moloch's upper beam I was unable to get a lock with Harbingers due to the flak, but a pair of dumbfired Barracudas blew the turret clean off (Barracudas seem to do fairly good subsystem damage). On top of that, I didn't loose a single wingman. Bem Cavalgar's offense missions are a lot less frustrating than the defense ones...
But not as satisfying. Round Five found my back on defense, turning down Celebrating Jutland in favor of Alhambra. Favorite fiction viewer entry, really made my day to see how much Revenant had done. But MAN, was this mission a pain. I tried a number of strategies before I found one that worked: send a pair of Seth wingmen to de-fang the Lillith, send a wing of Horuses to hit Krishna, take on the Cain in a Seth myself.
ATTENTION BLAISE: In Alhambra, you're wingmen state that to eliminate the Cain's C2 ability, you must destroy its NAVIGATION and COMMUNICATIONS subsystems. In reality, you must also destroy the SENSORS for this to work.
With the cruisers dealt with, I was able to focus on covering the evacuees. The station went down, literally, TWO SECONDS after the last evac wing launched. I was able to save six out of the eight evac transports, plus most of the convoy. Again, satisfying once I finally beat it.
Plot issue: if the PVN is supposed to be pulling out, why are there still PVN ships in-system, even on the last mission? I might have missed the explanation, but it didn't seem that the PVN was gone, although they weren't typically where they were needed.
Also, I felt the campaign needed a Climax mission. So Revenant's base was destroyed by the Shivans? That would have been a great ending mission. In fact, it's what I was expecting when I activated the "end campaign" buoy. In the next release, I'd love to have Azriel 1 make a last stand at Revenant HQ- why not bring the Lucifer in to finish Revenant off? Maybe Azriel 1 could have a choice: warp out and surrender to the PVN, or stay and die fighting the Shivans (two-three wings of FuryAI Dragons with no wingmen and I know I'd be dead).
Lastly, the timing is a little off on the last cutscene. The final message is up for less than a second before the mission ends. (something about Konsu)
So, overall: I had my questions and issues, but this is a very unique, enjoyable, and challenging campaign; definitely good enough to merit the second release that I feel it needs. Blaise, you've convinced me that your reputation around here is well-deserved, and if this school year isn't nightmarishly busy I'll try Homesick and Echo gate.