I had a "special moment" a few days ago that highlighted just how great I think wingmen in Freespace 2 are and how much I rely on them. I play on insane difficulty by the way, I just love the AI on it.
Anyway, major fleet action in Blue Planet, our carrier was under attack and I had my wings holding off the bombers while I flew off on my own to destroy a Ravan's forward beam turrets. Ordinarily I would never even attempt this alone on insane diff but I was packing trident missiles and figured I'd be able to take them on from a distance and not expose myself too much.
So I was indeed able to blow away those beam cannons with the tridents and as I was turning back to assist in our carrier's defense I started getting a warning that I was being targeted and sure enough I had a wing of three or four Basilisks closing on me and I was isolated from the rest of my wing. Terrible situation, I avoid this like the plague. Furthermore I have missiles incoming and I'm all out of countermeasures. So I turn into the Basilisks, not really attempting to engage them but just to avoid their fire and keep them from getting a missile lock. Meanwhile I radio two fighters from the wing to back me up, not wanting to draw everyone else away just for little ol' me.
And although I do evade a lot of fire I little by little get chopped to pieces. Weapons are destroyed, nav is destroyed, down to 20% hull. And all the sudden I hear the sweetest sound of my wingmen's cannons firing like hell and Basilisks exploding. Those two guys jumped the all the Shivan fighters that were tearing me up and knocked them down like flies. And I survived and beat the mission.
It was beautiful. Were it real I'd buy those two guys a beer.
