Well, from the results it seems that only one of you has ever avenged the Collossus and taken out the Sathanas that destroyed it. I myself cannot make such a claim, although I came very close on 2 occasions, each failing for different reasons. In any case, as promissed, I will now post my method for destroying this vessel, without resorting to cheats, table edits, missions edits, or any other alterations... although flying under Open is allowed.
1- Ship & Loadout. Make sure to select a ship that can carry a decent amount of Trebuchets. My personal selection is the Ares with 2 Kaysers, 4 Maximx, 2ndary bank 1 with Tornadoes, 2ndary bank 2 with Trebs.
2- Don't be too good. Basically, ensure you lose all of your Alpha-mates and all of Beta wing. This will call in Gamma fighters and Delta heavy bombers. Delta wing will be carying Cyclops (or some other lighter bomb), that have the "Big Dammage" flag associated with them... I think you know where I'm going with this.
3- Keep Delta Away. To avoid them taking any dammage, avoid giving Delta wing any orders to engage. You'll want them intact when the Sathanas arrives, so don't put them in any danger.
4- Countermand Command. When the Collossus goes down, Command orders everyone to withdraw. You want as many fighters to remain as possible, so with cleaverly timed orders to your team, you can get them to ignore the order to depart. Giving them cycling orders to attack, ignore, form on your wing, all while the Collossus is getting thrashed and command tells everyone to clear out, is the best way.
5- Form up & Send 'em home. You don't want all your bombers to die because they decided to follow their "programing" and attack the Sathanas, so tell 'em all to form up. If there are any other craft in the area, Gamma wing or other fightres, tell 'em all to depart. Their weaponry is useless in taking down the juggernaught, and in the long run they'll just cause troubles taking up rearming priority over the bombers.
6- Treb & Load, Treb & Load. You'll need to cycle your time accelerate and decelerate
, as it takes 4 Trebs to take out even the weakest turrets on a Sathanas. The maximum number of Trebs you can carry in bay 2 of an Ares is 13, so you'll need to rearm quite often. As you take out cannons, you'll need to circle the Sathanas to take out those weapons that are out of perspective. Remember to stay at least 3K away from the nearest turret, or you could lose a bomber.
7- Release The Hounds! With the Juggernaught disarmed and with no scripted orders to withdraw, she is a sitting duck. You will however have to manage your resources. I find its best to have 2 bombers stay on your wing and order the remaining 2 to attack either the same subsystem or 2 that are near each other. This way they'll have quick access to a support ship when they run out of bombs. If a ship needs a rearm and doesn't get it for a certain amount of time, it will fly away from its target and won't come back until you order it to.
8- Play Dead. None of your weapons will help in the long run, so the best thing you can do is watch over the bombers so they don't do anything stupid. If you keep depleting your own weapons load and calling for a rearm, you'll delay them in getting their rearms and slow the process.
9- AI is stupid. When bombers have taken out a subsystem and need a new target, its better to get them to form on your wing first. If the next target is behind a piece of hull, the AI will try to fly through that hull and possibly compromize its own in the process. Allways lead your bombers like sheep through safe passages to an optimum firing position, then let 'em attack. Also be sure to call for a rearm while you're repositioning the bombers, so that the support ship will be nearby when your bombers have to ask for a rearm. Otherwise, you might
run into the
wall thing again (
).
10- Watch... real fast. Even at 4x speed, just watching the bombers go after the Sathanas will take the better part of an hour. Make sure you've got the time in the REAL world to kill for this, 'cause if you don't watch it you just might end up missing breakfast, lunch, and supper, and nearly having to arrive at work unshowered, unshaven, and late (long story), like a certain person I know.
If you follow these instructions (and don't have a copy of FS_Open that has a tendancy to crash on this mission) you should be able to turn that Sathanas into a debris field before your next mission. Its all in a day's work for a GTVA pilot. Of course, you won't get credit for the kill, but you'll know you've earned it through adherence to this above method.
Now you know the proceedure... KILL, KILL, KILL!!!!
Later!
Poll
