[Mustang19]

I'm working on a mission guide for completing every FS2 mission on Insane. Although there have been a few FS2 mission guides, I've never seen a really good walkthrough telling you how to beat a mission rather than just summarize it. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I haven't yet seen a guide for, say, Bearbaiting that told the player more than "practice, that's all I can say". So, how exactly do you beat Exodus on Insane?

The best I can do is protect one of the Lamba transports. The idea of my mission guide is to tell how to accomplish all primary, secondary, and bonus objectives in every mission, and I can't manage to protect both of the Lambdas. Basically what I do is load everyone as Ares w/Tornadoes, except myself, an Ares with Treb. I kill the bombers, fighters, and the corvette with Trebuchet at the start of the mission and order my wingmen to guard one of the transports, usually either the GTM Vesalius or Lambda 1. I don't waste missiles on the Seraphims but I run out of Trebuchet anyway at one point, and Lambda 1 gets killed. It seems easy to get the rest of the convoy through, I just can't save Lambda 1! Anyone have good insights on this mission?

[MP-Ryan]

Put yourself and one wingman in the Ares... put the other two in Perseus interceptors.

Or, put all your wingmen in Ares and yourself in a Perseus.  You need the speed of an interceptor when you start getting low on missiles.

Also, wingmen suck at protecting (the only thing the protect command is useful for is shooting down bombs, but an Ares isn't fast enough for the AI to do that).  Task them to destroy the bombers.  Take out the bombs yourself.

[Mustang19]

Interesting advice. Normally, when I put my wingmen in something light like a Perseus they get killed quickly. They seem to live longest in heavy craft. I'll try your advice when I get home.

[Goober5000]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I haven't yet seen a guide for, say, Bearbaiting that told the player more than "practice, that's all I can say".

Then I suggest you read the following two quotes.

There's a trick to each objective, of course.  For the flak turrets, Delta is automatically ordered to attack them, and I send the rest of Alpha along to help them.  I also fire some Trebuchets and Akheton shots at the flak cannons whenever I can to help them out.  With Beta engaging the enemy, I can usually hold off the Shivans long enough to get the beam cannons.

The trick to destroying the beam cannons is to find the right spot to fire your bombs.  You learn this by trial and error: you have to hit the beam cannons on the flat of the arm or directly in the concave valley.  If you hit them on the edge or from the front they won't be damaged very much.  Incidentally, the same is true for the flak cannons: you have to hit them from directly above or directly below - hitting them from the front doesn't do much.  It's just how the model was made... you have to learn which attack paths work and which don't.  Next time I play that mission I'll have to take some screenshots.

As for getting the bonus cannon, this is surprisingly easy under the right circumstances.  If your wingmen manage to take out the flak cannons early on, then target the Sathanas, switch to the external view and swing around to the back, and toggle through its turrets until you're targeting the one just below the hangar.  Order all your wingmen to destroy that turret.  Given enough time, they can take out that turret easily.

Small version - 320x240, 16 MB, no sound, requires XVid.
Large version 1 - 640x480, 69 MB, with unsynchronized sound, requires DivX.  Same run as the above.
Large version 2 - 640x480, 84 MB, with sound, requires DivX.  Different run from the previous two.

[Game_Master64]

links are dead

[Goober5000]

Oops.  Guess the redirects don't work anymore.  Fixed.

[Mustang19]

There's a trick to each objective, of course.  For the flak turrets, Delta is automatically ordered to attack them, and I send the rest of Alpha along to help them.  I also fire some Trebuchets and Akheton shots at the flak cannons whenever I can to help them out.  With Beta engaging the enemy, I can usually hold off the Shivans long enough to get the beam cannons.

The trick to destroying the beam cannons is to find the right spot to fire your bombs.  You learn this by trial and error: you have to hit the beam cannons on the flat of the arm or directly in the concave valley.  If you hit them on the edge or from the front they won't be damaged very much.  Incidentally, the same is true for the flak cannons: you have to hit them from directly above or directly below - hitting them from the front doesn't do much.  It's just how the model was made... you have to learn which attack paths work and which don't.  Next time I play that mission I'll have to take some screenshots.

I tried that (except the bonus cannon part) and it worked pretty well. You just have to be fast and not waste time. I've taken out all the Sath's flak and beams, I just keep getting squashed as it jumps out.  Funny. I looked at the mission and it seems that Alpha 1 is made invincible if the difficulty is at least Hard and the Sath is jumping out. Doesn't seem to happen.

edit: Also, about the angle you approach the beams from. I always approach from the front and can take them out with two Helios. You're right about the sides and rear, but I don't have a problem attacking them from the front.

Put yourself and one wingman in the Ares... put the other two in Perseus interceptors.

Or, put all your wingmen in Ares and yourself in a Perseus.  You need the speed of an interceptor when you start getting low on missiles.

Also, wingmen suck at protecting (the only thing the protect command is useful for is shooting down bombs, but an Ares isn't fast enough for the AI to do that).  Task them to destroy the bombers.  Take out the bombs yourself.

Hmm... Well, you only get 2 wingmen on that mission, although you can call in 3 Erinyes as reinforcements. As for myself, my bomb-intercept skills suck, and I really prefer to take out the bombers, so that approach didn't work for me when I tried it. If I load my wing as Perseus they tend to get killed quickly. Thanks for the advice, though. I'll keep working on it. The problem is that the Lambdas are so weak you need to intercept almost every single bomb.