[Goober5000]

That's what I guess it boils down to, but the overall question is: How do you beat the last mission of Release 1?  My first time through the campaign I cheated on the last mission and stayed invulnerable because I wanted to see all the stuff happening undistractedly.  This time I'm trying to play fairly, but I've been trying for the past two or three hours (!) without success... I keep getting nuked by the Chimeras that show up.  I've tried every craft with just about every loadout I can think of, but no success.

I'm playing on Medium.  I know it'd be easier simply switching to a lower difficulty, but I want to know if there's some kind of strategy to use... so far, I haven't found it.

[Woomeister]

When you see the message that some craft have just gone off sensors, head straight for the node and keep a lookout for moving objects not on radar. Once you have a Chimera in sight, you have to keep it in view otherwise you'll lose it. For weapons, the Hurricane is great if you can use dumbfires well.

[SadisticSid]

You really need to protect your wingmen so they can help out with the Chimeras. Waste the precursor waves before the Chimeras appear so your numbers are bolstered, and order your wingmen to cover you or engage enemy when the Chimeras jump in and attack.

[Goober5000]

Ugh.  Finally beat it, but that was incredibly frustrating.  If it were any other campaign, I probably would have written it off and just cheated through it again.

[Woomeister]

Taking out four of them isn't that hard

[Kosh]

I used a Danaus with assasin bombs to take out the Comm Nodes. The rest of my wingmen were flying Perseus Advanced and I just ordered them to cover me. They could take out the Gorgons and Chimera's just fine.

[Woomeister]

If you can't take out a Chimera, your going to have problems with the Succubus and Harpy

The Succubus can outrun all missiles except the Sniper (max afterburn of 400ms)

The Harpy carries the heaviest weapons and has a fighterbeam, and of course is stronger than the Gorgon.

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by Woomeister
If you can't take out a Chimera, your going to have problems with the Succubus and Harpy

You can't fight an enemy you can't see. What I ended up doing was parking my Danaus next to the node and spraying them all with Hurricanes as soon as they jumped in.

The Harpy carries the heaviest weapons and has a fighterbeam, and of course is stronger than the Gorgon.

Maybe you should switch the names of the Hydra and Harpy.  The name Hydra conjures up the image of a much more powerful fighter than Harpy does.  In fact, each name makes me think of the other fighter.

[Woomeister]

You can see them, just not with your sensors...

Nah I'm too used to their names as they are.

[Woolie Wool]

The Succubus can outrun all missiles except the Sniper (max afterburn of 400ms)

Are you on drugs or something? How fast does it go without AB? It's so small already that it doesn't need to be very fast to be hard to hit.

[Woomeister]

155 without ab I think, it only has 100 hp so dies after a few shots, that's why it can outrun missiles otherwise it would die quick and fast.

[phreak]

yea but two shots from anything and its dead.  some of the new weapon ideas may be able to effectively counter it

[Woomeister]

yeah but you have to hit it first

Only problem with it is its too fast to use missiles that require lock on, probably will make a Shivan heat seeker for it.

[Goober5000]

Does that actually work?  I thought the AI fell apart at speeds higher than 150 m/s.

[phreak]

the Ennead (sp?) as an afterburner of around 300m/s.  the ai seemed fine

[Woolie Wool]

Originally posted by Goober5000
Does that actually work?  I thought the AI fell apart at speeds higher than 150 m/s.

It works. I once made some superfast ships and made a little dogfight mission with all the ships zooming around at 300 m/s without afterburner and >500 m/s with it. It didn't really work because the weapon shots moved too slowly for me to hit anything. Also, many ships in my Starforce mod have afterburner speeds of 200 m/s or more.