Author Topic: Noob Could Use Some Strategic Help (Last Hurrah and just overall)  (Read 2608 times)

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Noob Could Use Some Strategic Help (Last Hurrah and just overall)
Hi folks,

New FSOpen player here.  I'm playing ST:R after playing FSPort, and holy cow it's a lot tougher and more complicated!  In FSPort I played through on medium and rarely had to restart a particular mission more than 2 or 3 times.  I'm not sure there's a mission in ST:R I've beaten without restarting 10+ times other than the first mission!  One issue I seem to have is the missions are so much more complicated in FSPort, in terms of the number of ships involved and the tasks required that I often get a bit confused and/or overwhelmed.  (I only recently realized I was having a lot of trouble scanning ships because I didn't know how to turn off targeting subsystems, which made scanning more difficult)

I'm currently stuck on "The Last Hurrah".  The issue I'm having is that as fighters begin to arrive, my wingmen just get torn apart by them after a few minutes and pretty soon I'm virtually the only one left.  I'm just completely baffled in how to go about this mission.  I've been using a Herc with 3 Prometheus cannons so I could pack as much punch as possible in taking down the Cains and whatnot while still being able to dogfight a bit.  What do you guys recommend taking down first?  Second?  Should I focus on intercepting and providing cover for the bombers?  Should I be ordering my wingmen to disarm the Cains and Liliths?  How should I load out Alpha and Beta wings?  I am totally lost; there's so much going on in this mission I just struggle to prioritize what to do and whom to order to do what.  Annoyingly, about half of them spend the first half of the mission just pounding the Archon with their primaries, which doesn't really do much.

In general I really struggle on any mission that asks me to fight in a Herc or Zeus, as I just find I get pounded over and over by 2 or 3 manticores which I simply can't effectively dogfight due to their speed advantage.  As soon as I damage their hulls, they boost away and I essentially have to lure them back to me by targeting someone else.  Should I be using something else for Last Hurrah?  I normally use Valks or Apollos, but with so many Cains and turrets around, I'm worried they aren't hardy enough to survive this mission.

As you can see I'm really struggling and could use some advice.  ST:R is a HUGE step up from FSPort (for me anyways) as far as tactics and difficulty.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
« Last Edit: November 24, 2010, 01:44:36 am by Cobaltred »

 

Offline Goober5000

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Re: Noob Could Use Some Strategic Help (Last Hurrah and just overall)
I'm surprised you're stuck on Last Hurrah; it tends to be one of the easier missions for me.

You should practice situational awareness in this mission.  Generally, you can do your own thing until things start heating up (i.e. too many fighters arrive at once).  Then you should dogfight until things calm down again.  Keep in mind that each "wake up stage" leads to another wing of fighters arriving, so you'll have the most flexibility early in the mission.  Try destroying one transport, one freighter, and one cruiser while they're invisible to sensors, then move on to something else.  Don't mess with the Archon at all; your bombers will take care of it.  You can leave the cargo until the very end of the mission, since it's not going anywhere and it doesn't shoot at you.  If you can find the sentry guns, you should destroy those first (while they're invisible) since they're all over the place and they shoot back.

Oh, and since you've been having a tough time with this mission, I'll give you a hint: pay careful attention to what your wingmen tell you after the Archon is destroyed.

 
Re: Noob Could Use Some Strategic Help (Last Hurrah and just overall)
Wow thanks for the fast reply!  I figured out why I kept failing; it was a dumb mistake.  At some point during the mission, every attempt I would tell all ships to "Engage Enemy".  This seems to have lead to the Delta and Gamma wings dogfighting rather than focusing on bombing.  This was sort of leading me to believe I was supposed to help blow up the Cains with my Herc.  I just did the mission again and didn't give a single order.  I took an Apollo with Interceptors and handled all the Manticores and Dragons easily.  It was obviously a mistake trying to dogfight those in a slow Herc.  I passed the mission with ease.  Clearly the Engage enemy command was screwing things up, and I was having a hard time telling Bombers who to bomb after that because the damn Archon blocked me being able to target the other ships easily.

And yes, I ignored my wingman, died, and had to do it again.   :p