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Homeworld: Cataclysm FAQ
by Zorlond Jaeger
zorlond@my-deja.com
v1.0, 9/21/00
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Table of Contents:
Note
Version History
Situation
Ships
Formations
Tactics
General Strategy
Missions
End Credits
====
Note
====
This is my first FAQ, so please be gentle. Most everything here is IMO, and you
might have different ones. If you wish to contribute/advise/question/kibitz, I
shall be as accomodating as possible. If you wish to spam/insult/annoy/etc, let
me introduce you to the greatest invention of our times. The Circular File
Cabinet. Please use discression, I've got enough junk floating in my e-mail box.
Well, when I first started this FAQ, I thought it was a reasonably concealed way
to ask for assistance in the game. Hey, I was stuck on mission 7, seemed like a
good idea at the time, and a lot more clever than slapping 'Help me!' on a
half-dozen b-boards. I offer assistance to others, and they in turn offer
assistance to me. Certainly have got a response. Hopefully I won't loose track
of who's contributed what.
Sorry for the delay in the latest release, I took a break from Cataclysm to play
some other games for a while. But now I'm back and I have succeeded in beating
the game! (yay!) Is anyone else really dissapointed by the lack of music during
the credits? See below for the last mission walk-through. Also, a note to all
players, you can always find the latest version of my FAQ on GameFAQs
(www.gamefaqs.com), though I'm not sure there will be new versions. I'm just not
sure there's anything else to add. Feel free to toss ideas my way.
Zorlond Jaeger
zorlond@my-deja.com
===============
Version History
===============
1.0 - Fourth release. Finally finished the game (yay!) and the last mission
walk-through. Added SU requirements (those known) to the ship listings.
Added to note (again).
0.9 - Third release. Very close to finished (just need the last mission
walkthrough). Various fixes/additions, a few contributions. New Note.
0.5 - Second release. Still incomplete, but added 4 mission walkthroughs and
most of the ships. Further additions will have to wait until I figure out
what to do with missions 6 & 7. Also fixed dumb mistake in the first
mission walkthrough. I kept refering to Guardians. No such ship, they were
Defenders.
0.1 - Initial release. Very incomplete, quite rough, and probably considered
crappy. Only reached mission 7 in the game at this point.
=========
Situation
=========
The Homeworld War ended some 15 years ago. The Kushan successfully laid claim
to Hiigara on the dead body of the Taiidan Emperor. Since then, nothing has
been the same. The old Taiidani Empire has shattered into a thousand little
kingdoms, the largest being the new Taiidani Republic, run by the rebels that
assisted the Kushan in the final stages of the war. Imperialist Taiidan still
roam the galaxy, causing trouble to just about everyone with their Turanic
allies. The Kushan did not emerge unscathed, as political, economic, and
military pressures seemed to pile up on all sides. Reduced to a mere population
of 550,000 the Kushan have struggled to build a new life on Hiigara and keep the
5-light-year area around it (given to them by the Galactic Council as their
sovreign space) safe from pirates, dissidents, and troublemakers. The Kiiths
(Clans) of the Kushan have been slowly spiraling downward, as only 6 Kiiths in
particular arrived on Hiigara in any significant numbers. The most significant
event (well, for the game to happen, anyway), was when Kiith Somtaaw
successfully negotiated with the New Daiamid Assembly (the council of Kiiths)
for use of the Mothership, long pressed into service as an orbital construction
yard, for 45 days. They would create as many ships as they could in that time,
and then the majority of Kiith Somtaaw would depart Hiigara and take up an
existence as deep-space miners, still loyal to the Kushan, but seperate.
Beyond all expectations, they finished three ships in that time, two massive
mining behemoths (each almost as big as the Mothership) and a much smaller
science vessel. They were christened the Faal-Corum, the Kuun Lan, and the
Clee-San, in order. For years, Kiith Somtaaw has wandered around Hiigara, mining
the asteroids and nebulae of the area, and selling the resources found as
prescribed by Kushan Law to those on Hiigara or friendly races nearby. The game
begins with the player as the Captain of the Kuun Lan, on a routine mining
expedition, when a distress call comes in from Hiigara....
=====
Ships
=====
Just so you know, 'FMA' stands for 'First Mission Available', meaning the
single-player mission you are first allowed to research the last critical piece
in order to produce the ship. Firepower for capital ships will come with a
turret count (those known, anyway), general arrangement, and coverage %. Any
special Actions will come with a number in '( )', which is the mission number
that you can reaserch said upgrade, if it's not there, the ship comes with the
ability right off. 'Job' is just a few words expressing my opinion as the ship's
main role, it's just IMO. 'SR' is short for 'Survivability Rating', wich varies
from Very Low to Very High, and is again IMO, according to my experience with
said unit.
In the few cases where exact figures are unknown, a general description is used.
----------------------------------------
Kiith Somtaaw ships (aka: The Good Guys)
----------------------------------------
Kuun Lan
FMA: Start
Armor: 98k
Firepower: 5400, 6 turrets, 4 near the engines, one on nose, one on top, roughly
70% coverage
Max Velocity: 110 m/s
Special Action: Seige Cannon (10)
Job: Mobile Main Base
SR: Very High
Your command ship, designed to be a mining ship, but easily upgradeable when
technology becomes available. One of only two ships in it's class, the other
being the Faal-Corum, but the Kuun Lan is considered the more advanced of the
two. Capable of deep-space mining, construction of a wide variety of vessels and
modules, and can easily fend off small attack forces unaided.
The biggest thing to remember about this ship is that in many ways it does not
compare to the Mothership of the origional Homeworld. It is self-mobile,
upgradable, heavily armed, and has three hangar entry points for it's fighters.
It's more like it's the lovechild of a Destroyer and a Carrier than a
newly-designed Mothership. The mobility is a big factor, even though it can't
move or turn very fast, it can still move around the scenario map, running away
from enemies or moving in to protect the Workers. In most scenarios, it's best
to move the ship away from the starting point as soon as possible (exactly where
-to- depends on the mission). The firepower is also a big bonus, as it is quite
capable of taking care of itself from small to medium attack forces, and while
it can't handle the Big Boys by itself until the development of the Seige
Cannon, it can provide some fire support.
I haven't played any multiplayer missions yet, but in my mind, the best way to
attack this ship is to distract it's escorts, then strike hard from behind and
below, where it's coverage is weakest. Most of the time the AI isn't smart
enough to hit the ship right there unless you really screw up in your maneuvers,
but it is clearly the weakest point. Another tactic is to angle your ships so
that their fire directly hits one of the many modifications, each of which comes
with their own health rating, and can (in theory anyway) be destroyed with a
fraction of the effort the main vessel would take. Destroying the suppport pods
would be especially vicious, as that is where most SUs come from.
A word of warning, though. That Seige Cannon's a lot of fun, but it's a pain to
aim and fire. The attack fleet you're aiming at might not be there when the shot
finnaly gets there. Plus you definitely do -not- want to aim too close to the
Kuun Lan. And one more thing... The most embarrassing loss I've ever had in this
game was very late in mission 16. I was lining up a shot, had the Beast on the
ropes, ordered the shot to hit square on the big bad ship, took a seat to watch
the fireworks...
And watched in silence when the shot hit one of my own Destroyers, who was
sitting right in front of the Kuun Lan. 90% of my fleet wiped out in a single
stroke.
Take it from me. MAKE SURE THE BARREL IS CLEAR OF OBSTRUCTIONS.
Worker
FMA: Start
SU Cost: 4
Armor: 1500
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 425 m/s
Special Action: Harvest, Salvage (2), Repair (2)
Job: General Mechanic
SR: Low
Say hello to the Worker, a resource collector, salvage corvette, and repair
corvette all rolled into one. In actuality, their main jobs will be havesting
and repair. I've had minimal success with salvaging up to this point, and I
doubt salvage will ever be as usefull or effective as it was in the origional
Homeworld. There's just not that many ships you -can- capture. Besides which,
you must have the SUs to support the target before they will even make the
attempt. Still, in it's remaining two roles, it is obviously indispensible. Keep
it away from enemy ships, it's too slow to outrun fighters or corvettes (and
some frigates), and a small escort is a good idea in contested territory.
Processor
FMA: Start
SU Cost: 13
Armor: 45k
Firepower: 2500, in four turrets, above/below/left/right, 80% coverage
Max Velocity: 250 m/s
Job: Worker Escort
SR: High
The main job of this ship is to provide an alternate drop-off point for the
Workers who are busy collecting resources. Somehow stuff dropped off here will
instantly (and invisibly) be sent to the Kuun Lan, but let's not quibble. It's
secondary job is to keep the Workers safe from small fighter attacks, and in
emergencies, to give fire support to other warships. It can handle maybe 12
fighters at once before it'll need assistance. Also, once the workers are
upgraded to repair vessels, this ship can also be upgraded to have four repair
beams mounted on the sides (two on each). You can't direct the ship to repair
specific vessels, any ally that flies past the sides of this ship will be beamed
for however long they remain in the repair arc. What I thought was a drain of
power associated with this ability turned out to be something worse. A blind
spot the size of Kansas right in front of this ship, where the guns can't fire.
Keep an eye on these guys if they start getting hit bad.
Recon fighter
FMA: Start
SU cost: 2
Armor: 25
Firepower: 40
Max Velocity: 1050 m/s
Job: Recon (duh!)
SR: Low
The fastest ship in the fleet. Famed in song and story. Can make the Kessel Run
in less than 2 parsecs...
Ahem. Sorry about that. Really, it is the fastest ship you've got, and also very
specialized for it's purpose. The scenario maps aren't like they were in the
origional Homeworld, you don't know where all the resources are automatically,
and enemies won't come up on sensors until they're fairly close. In steps the
Recon fighter. Send it zipping around the scenario maps, up and down the dust
trails looking for resources and around areas likely to contain enemies. You're
always going to need one or two of these ships just for finding resources, if
nothing else. While there is a weapon on board, the recon fighter is too weak
and too fragile to survive most conflicts, except against the Big Boys, who
typically can't hit anything smaller than a frigate. But even then, it's pretty
much like taking down a deisel train engine with a pea-shooter. Trust me, treat
it by it's name and leave the fighting to other ships. It only gets an SR of Low
from me because of it's sheer speed, and you usually can maneuver around chasing
interceptors and make it back to safety before they even get within firing
range.
Acolyte fighter
FMA: Start
SU Cost: 2
Armor: 70
Firepower: 85
Max Velocity: 825 m/s
Special Action: Link (1), Missiles (3)
Job: Fighter Interceptor
SR: Low
ACV corvette
FMA: 1-Hiigara
SU Cost: 4
Armor: 140
Firepower: 170
Max Velocity: 600 m/s
Special Action: Unlink, EMP (7)
Job: All-Purpose Strike Craft
SR: Medium
I'm putting these two together because they are, essentially, the same ship in
two different modes. The ACV is simply two Acolytes attached together by their
undersides. This is also the workhorse of your military, as ships that are
frigate class and larger usually soak up too many SUs to really justify except
in special circumstances. Aside from the EMP, there's a surprising amount of
difference between the two modes. Fighter mode is mainly to deal with enemy
fighters and to get your forces across distances quickly, while corvette mode is
the main battle mode, able to deal with just about anything your fleet will come
up against. Actually, it's pretty rare for my units to be in fighter mode at
all. Even when told to behave evasively, they're simply too easy to destroy. You
may seem to get an identical amount of armour and firepower from one ACV as two
Acolytes, but in practice the corvette will leave the fighters in the dust. They
can even handle enemy fighters in this mode. But there are times when speed
counts, and you'll have to switch to fighter mode to get to the action as
quickly as possible. Just remember to either re-link just outside of the action
or stay in fighter mode, the ships have to move very carefully to link, and are
vulnerable at that moment. Unlinking isn't that bad, you can even do it in the
middle of a firefight, the only problem being is that they tend to forget what
they were doing before you ordered them to unlink.
I just recently realized that some research that I thought was pointless
(missiles, during mission 3), actually does have a point. The Acolyte can carry
two missiles, and launch them as a special attack. They have to return to base
for a refil, I think. The missiles can't fire in corvette mode. They're a nice
burst of offensive power when you desperately need it.
Ram frigate
FMA: Start
SU Cost: 10
Armor: 4700
Firepower: 2500, see below
Max Velocity: 398 m/s
Special Action: RAM!
Job: Headbanger!
SR: High
Possibly one of the more unusual units I've ever come across in a game, the Ram
frigate is designed as a heavy tug. Well, that's what the manual calls it.
Personally, every time I send these guys into a fight, I get the urge to cry out
"Damn the torpedoes! RAMMING SPEED!" Shaped like a hammerhead shark, this
frigate will charge in and grapple with the target (assuming it survives the
inital impact), and proceed to shove it in whatever direction the frigate is
facing, while also activating a belly-mounted cutting laser and trying to chew
it's way through the hull. On the first mission, I sent two of these guys after
the resource-gathering enemy carrier just for fun, by themselves. Sure, they
were still bashing away at it half an hour later, but I can still picture the
crumpled-up wreckage they must have left behind when they were finished. With an
Afterburner upgrade, they really can push others around (without it, the target
won't move at all), knocking them out of position, forcing big ships away from
valuable units, and even accurately nail fighters and corvettes (who pretty much
explode instantly). It doesn't have any weapons other than this ability (the
cutting laser never activates unless it's grappling something), but it still is
a fun unit. Big ships can't move or turn once a Ram frigate has grappled it, and
so the frigate is (most of the time) out of the firing arc of the ship it's
attached to, and other ships trying to shoot at the frigate quite often hit the
ship it's grappling. Also, Ram frigates are immune to ramming damage, so don't
waste time having one of yours attack one of theirs, they'd just end up bouncing
off each other ad infinitum and doing no damage at all.
Mimic infiltrator
FMA: 2-Outskirts of Hiigaran System
SU Cost: 2
Armor: 20
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 750 m/s
Special Action: Mimic, Link
Job: Spy
SR: Very High
MCV corvette
FMA: 2-Outskirts of Hiigaran System
SU Cost: 4
Armor: 40
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 550 m/s
Special Action: Mimic, Unlink
Job: Scarecrow?
SR: Very High
Another two ships that are basically the same ship in two modes, like the
Acolyte and ACV. One MCV is two Mimics attached to each other. Of course, the
Mimic is highly specialized in it's role. Holographic emitters around the ship
can make it appear to be any fighter or corvette-class ship you have on record,
or even an asteroid. The larger MCV can even look like a frigate or a very
large asteroid. In single-player, the AI isn't really interested in the size of
your forces, so having a mimic look like more allied ships is useless at best.
But, having it look like an enemy ship can be usefull for scoping out the
situation where the Recon fighter can't go, and in fact, a few missions will
require this. Enemy mines will not react to a Mimic that's appropriately
disguised. In multiplayer, it may or may not work out, depending on how
attentive your opponent is. Whatever shape the Mimic takes, it still leaves it's
own engine trails when it moves, a dead giveaway if it looks like a frigate, and
suspicious in several fighter/corvette shapes. You could use MCVs to make your
force look impressively large, but again only while they're not moving. The
ability to look like asteroids might have been usefull if it actually had a
weapon on board (Hey, who's shooting at my workers? That belt's -empty-!), but
maybe you can use them as lures for an ambush, I dunno. They do have some attack
ability, but it's just your basic kamikaze attack, largely useless against any
ship of significant size. Their SR's are conditional, on the condition that you
only use the mimic ability out of sight of enemies, and dress appropriately. If
they are detected, kiss 'em goodbye.
Okay, figured out the two dots under the health bar. The one on the left
indicates whether the Mimic has been detected or not (green is good), and the
one on the right indicates whether or not the Mimic is disguised (green is yes).
Sentinel
FMA: 5-Aiowa System
SU Cost: 3
Armor: 350
Firepower: 290
Max Velocity: 250 m/s
Special Action: Shield (5)
Job: Shielding
SR: Low
Oh look, it's the Defender from the origional Homeworld. Cute new ability, but
behaves pretty much the same. Too slow to take on anything but capital ships,
reasonably effective escorts while in sphere formation, but again too slow to
really keep up with anything other than your command ship. The shield's pretty
neat, I'll admit. Up to 12 Sentinels can form one shield around a ship (a
minimum of 3 are required for any shielding at all, though it's very small at
that point), and the Sentinels will absorb all attacks that come in first,
before the ship they're shielding is hit. Of course, they can only take so much
of a beating before exploding, so it's a temporary shield. And the shield takes
all their power, so they can't shoot at anything while doing it. And if an enemy
ship simply moves inside the shield, they can blast away without interference.
At least only a few Sentinels (or just one) explode each time, so the shielding
comes down in pieces instead of all atonce. I've only tried this out in a few
situations, and each time it seemed the shield started caving in after the first
few hits. It does look quite pretty, though.
Okay, I take it back. With the level 2 shield upgrade, having 12 Sentinels on
hand for each mission does make sense, since at that point the shield is pretty
strong. You can use it to keep the Kuun Lan covered, or another highly important
ship. With the level 3 shield, it pretty much becomes a case of invulnerability.
It takes a lot of effort to pop a level 3 shield, or one too-close shot of the
Seige Cannon. Also, the shield does fail in sections, but the Sentinels don't
automatically explode as a result. I just hadn't seen where the enemies were
aiming is all. Once the shield around a Sentinel fails, it doesn't last long,
but
it will remain and try to re-establish the shields. Keep in mind a Sentinel will
slow down a ship it's shielding.
The Juggernaut informed me that the Sentinel shield makes
nice Processor protection. Whenever the Sentinels get damaged, the Processor
immediately kicks in it's repair beams. Sounds pretty effective, and it would
cover the Workers who were in the process of docking too.
Hive Frigate
FMA: 6-Kadiir Nebula
SU Cost: 20
Armor: 3800
Firepower: 1400, forward mounted static guns
Max Velocity: 390 m/s
Special Action: Swarm
Job: General Harassment
SR: ?
I don't have much experience at all with this frigate. It -seems- like a
workable design (It's the Kadesh Nebula all over again!!), but again I haven't
had much experience with it.
Leech
FMA: 6-Kadiir Nebula
SU Cost: 2
Armor: 30
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 1250 m/s
Special Action: Leech
Job: Sabotage
SR: High
Okay, I lied, the Recon Fighter isn't the fastest ship you have, the Leech is.
But the Leech has very limited scanning abilities (even compared to regular
fighters), and is pretty much a dud as far as scouting goes. It's a stealth
craft, too tiny to really see and invisible to radar, so it can zip in, clamp
onto a ship (frigate or bigger), cut a hole in the hull and vent anything it can
find, damaging the ship in the process. Unfortunately, it's a very -slow-
process, not like it says in the manual. If you want to take down a heavy
cruiser with Leeches, send at least a dozen. Of course, this craft also has the
ability to siphon whatever the ship holds and carry it back to your command ship
instead of just venting it, giving you an alternate source of RUs. It seems a
bit of a bother to do, however.
Multi-Beam Frigate
FMA: 8-Deep Space (Koreth's Rift Sector)
SU Cost: 12
Armor: 4000
Firepower: 3900, 5 point-defense ion cannons, top/bottom/left/right/front, 90%
coverage
Max Velocity: 370 m/s
Job: Fighter Mauler
SR: High
You should keep a few of these on hand, they free up the ACVs from Interception
duties entirely. Eight of these can reduce three dozen strike craft to so much
debree in moments. They'll fly around semi-randomly in order to employ all
cannons at the same time. Don't worry, they are doing their job.
Destroyer
FMA: 11-System AZ-23769
SU Cost: 38
Armor: 16k
Firepower: 8500, four heavy gun turrets (sides/bottom), four missile launchers
(top), two ion cannons (front), 30% coverage
Max Velocity: 325 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: High
Your first real capital ship. They can handle a wide variety of opponents, the
missiles allow it to help with strike craft, and the combination of guns is
lethal against other cap ships. Definitely a healthy addition to your fleet.
Infection attacks only damage.
Carrier
FMA: 11-System AZ-23769
SU Cost: 0
Armor: 65k
Firepower: 4200, four cannon turrets (top/bottom), 80% coverage
Max Velocity: 300 m/s
Job: Support
SR: Very High
Completely self-sufficient, adds 40 SUs to your total by itself, able to build 6
support modules on it's belly, and has two docking bays for Workers. Once you
get the tech to build these, build two (all you're allowed) and beef your SU
pool up to the maximum. They make good Worker escorts too, replacing the
Processor. Infection attacks only damage.
Dreadnought
FMA: 14-Galactic Rim (Gulf Sector)
SU Cost: 80
Armor: 85k
Firepower: 24k, four heavy gun turrets (top/bottom), six missile launchers
(front), two ion cannon turrets (top/bottom), 80% coverage
Max Velocity: 280 m/s
Special Action: Repulse (17)
Job: Juggernaught
SR: Very High
This guy can take on a Heavy Cruiser by itself and come back for more.
Unfortuately, the huge cost (both in RUs and SUs) to own it means you probably
won't have more than one in service at any time. I found it more usefull to have
one Dreadnought aided by three Destroyers than having two Dreadnoughts. But
you'll definitely find a use for this ship, so don't write it off altogether.
Infection attacks only damage.
Super Acolyte
FMA: 17-Naval Base Alpha
SU Cost: 3?
Armor: ?
Firepower: LOTS, 3-4 ion cannons
Max Velocity: About as fast as a regular Acolyte (guessing)
Job: Mobile Slaughter
SR: High
You only get these guys at the very last minute, and there's no way to research
for them (they're given to you). But for the short time I had them, I loved
them! A squad of 10 of these took on a Beast Carrier by themselves and destroyed
it in about 15 seconds. Yes, they aren't that armored, but few ships survive
long enough to land more than one or two hits.
--------------------------------------------
Imperialist Taiidan ships (aka The Bad Guys)
--------------------------------------------
Interceptor
Armor: 72
Firepower: 75
Max Velocity: 775 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Low
You'll get these most often from the Taiidan. They're not much of a threat by
themselves, except in mobs.
Bomber
Armor: 80
Firepower: 86
Max Velocity: 650 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Low
Your very first opponent in the game. They're still vulnerable to fighter
attack, and actually seem to have lost effectivness against cap ships.
Defender
Armor: 78
Firepower: 190
Max Velocity: 385 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Defense
SR: Low
These guys will crop up from time to time, and are more of a nuisance than a
threat. They don't have the speed or maneuverability to be more.
Multi-Gun corvette
Armor: 700
Firepower: 380
Max Velocity: 600 m/s
Job: Fighter combat
SR: Medium
You'll get a few of these, and yes they are a pain, but they can't hold up under
concentrated firepower.
Minelayer corvette
Armor: 1250
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 425 m/s
Job: General Harassment
SR: Low
These guys are a danger to fighters. They'll drop mines as a form of attack, and
your units will be too distracted to dodge well. Take them out with capital
ships who can survive the beating.
Heavy Cruiser
Armor: 75k
Firepower: 20k, 3 heavy gun turrets on each side, 2 heavy ion cannon turrets
on nose, 30% coverage
Max Velocity: 250 m/s
Job: Big Gun
SR: Very High
You'll meet a few of these along the way, and each one will give you a headache.
Approach with caution, and preferably with strike craft.
Carrier
Armor: 60k
Firepower: 4k, several point-defense turrets, 75% coverage
Max Velocity: 300 m/s
Job: Fighter/Corvette Construction
SR: High
There are three of them in the first mission, and two will be handled by allied
forces. The third is target practice for you.
Destroyer
Armor: 15k
Firepower: 7055, 2 heavy gun turrets in front, 2 front-firing ion cannons, 35%
coverage
Max Velocity: 295 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: High
Pretty rare sight, actually. The Somtaaw version is more powerfull, and it does
have a hard time hitting ACVs.
Missile Destroyer
Armor: 12.5k
Firepower: 4550, 4 side-mounted missile launchers
Max Velocity: 295 m/s
Job: Fighter Mauler
SR: High
Besides the one before the first mission, I've only seen one in mission 9. If
you have to deal with one, use Destroyers or bigger, ACVs won't have much of a
chance.
Salvage corvette
Armor: 1100
Firepower: 125??
Max Velocity: 450 m/s
Job: ?
SR: ?
I don't think these are even in the single-player game.
Defense Field frigate
Armor: 4400
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 325 m/s
Job: Nuisance
SR: Medium
Same design as in the origional. It still can't deflect everything, but does
nothing if you ignore it altogether.
Ion Beam frigate
Armor: 4200
Firepower: 3040, one nose-mounted ion cannon
Max Velocity: 300 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
Same design as before, still can't hit strike craft.
Proximity Sensor
Armor: 600
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 1000 m/s
Job: Detection
SR: Very Low
Annoying in the missions that have them, but nothing more. No defenses at all,
and never actually moves anywhere.
Assault frigate
Armor: 4500
Firepower: 2548, four gun turrens in front, two plasma bomb launchers in nose,
75% coverage
Max Velocity: 325 m/s
Job: General Combat
SR: Medium
Actually, they've gotten much more accurate since the origional, and can nail
your strike craft. Can't stand up to focused firepower.
Support frigate
Armor: 3800
Firepower: 2000, two gun turrets in front, 50% coverage
Max Velocity: 450 m/s
Job: Repair
SR: Medium
You'll see these guys escorting other ships into combat. If you want it to go
easier, nail these ships first.
GravWell frigate
Armor: 3400
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 325 m/s
Job: Fighter Trap
SR: Medium
Still potentially leathal to your strike craft. Also seems to always be on, with
no time limit. Hit them with cap ships.
---------------------------------------------
Turanic Raider ships (aka The Annoying Pests)
---------------------------------------------
Interceptor
Armor: 75
Firepower: 65
Max Velocity: 780 m/s
Job: General-Purpose Annoyance
SR: Very Low
Okay, the Turanics -have- gotten some tech upgrades for their ships, but they
are still less effective than your own ships. You'll be seeing the Interceptor
the most from the Turanics.
Heavy Corvette
Armor: 1200
Firepower: 200
Max Velocity: 550 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
Supposedly capable of salvage operations (I haven't witnessed this myself), but
in any case somewhat dangerous to cap ships. Focus fire on these guys when they
show up.
Missile Corvette
Armor: 1300
Firepower:320
Max Velocity: 500 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Medium
These guys are a bloody nuisance. If you ever loose any ACVs to Turanics, this
is the ship you'll lose them to. Even when evasive, your strike craft can't
really dodge the missiles. Nail them fast.
Ion Array frigate
Armor: 4800
Firepower: 3500, one ion cannon in nose
Max Velocity: 245 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Low
Pretty much an unchanged design, but your really won't encounter them often.
They still can't hit fighters and corvettes, so that's how you deal with them.
Attack Carrier
Armor: 58k
Firepower: 7500, two ion cannons in front, several point defense cannons
Max Velocity: 235 m/s
Job: General Warmonger
SR: High
I've only encountered a few of these so far. The ones that hang around are
highly unpleasant, don't take them on with less than two Destroyers.
Outpost
Armor: ?
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 0 m/s
Job: Mission Goal
SR: Very High
You only meet one of these, and it's quite unarmed (though it does come with a
big escort fleet). Not a threat.
-------------------------------------
Beast Ships (aka The Legions of Hell)
-------------------------------------
Beast Acolyte
Armor: 80
Firepower: 85
Max Velocity: 800 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Low
Beast ACV
Armor: 160
Firepower: 170
Max Velocity: 580 m/s
Job: General-Purpose Strike Craft
SR: Medium
You're going to be dealing with a lot of these, especially since most of them
will have been your own units. Concentrated firepower's your best bet.
Beast Interceptor
Armor: 85
Firepower: 65
Max Velocity: 810 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Low
You'll see a lot of these too.
Beast Bomber
Armor: 90
Firepower: 86
Max Velocity: 640 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Low
You'll see fewer of these. They're still not as effective as they used to be.
Beast Cloaked fighter
Armor: 80
Firepower: 75
Max Velocity: 750 m/s
Special Action: Cloak
Job: Ambush
SR: Low
These guys come up later, and can be a nasty shock. They can't stay cloaked
during an attack, so deal with them like any other fighter.
Beast Sentinel
Armor: 400
Firepower: 290
Max Velocity: 225 m/s
Special Action: Shield
Job: Shielding
SR: Low
The AI usually puts these up around Hives and Carriers. Best option is to hit
them before the shield is fully up, otherwise just concentrate on the ship
they're shielding.
Beast Recon
Armor: 30
Firepower: 40
Max Velocity: 1000 m/s
Job: Recon
SR: Very Low
You won't see these until very late, when the AI tries using swarms of them to
attack you. Talk about a brief fight.
Beast Missile Corvette
Armor: 1400
Firepower: 320
Max Velocity: 490 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Medium
A rare sight, really, treat them like the Turanic version.
Beast Cruise Missile
Armor: 68
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 650 m/s
Job: #&*$-#&%#&$*
SR: Low
Pardon me. ^*#@%{{ APP_CONTENT }}amp;amp;%@^%*$@$^#%*$#%&@#$^#%*&$#*#.....
Well, you get the idea. Take them down the moment you see them.
Beast Multi-Gun corvette
Armor: 730
Firepower: 380
Max Velocity: 570 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Low
For some reason the AI keeps throwing these units at your cap ships instead. Not
much of a threat in that case.
Beast Heavy corvette
Armor: 1700
Firepower: 200
Max Velocity: 550 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
These guys don't show up that often, but those that do can take a serious
beating before blowing up. Concentrate fire.
Beast Ion Array frigate
Armor: 5100
Firepower: 3500, nose-mounted ion cannon
Max Velocity: 230 m/s
Special Action: Cloak
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
The only cap ship that can cloak. Sadly, they're no more effective than the
origional Ion Array, so it's a minor consideration. Dangerous only in mobs.
Beast Defense Field frigate
Armor: 4650
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 310 m/s
Job: Bloody Nuisance
SR: Medium
They didn't have much purpose in the origional, and they still don't. The
deflection is interesting, but it can't block everything.
Beast Heavy Cruiser
Armor: 77k
Firepower: 20k, six heavy gun turrets (left/right), two heavy ion cannon turrets
(front), six infection guns (front/left/right)
Max Velocity: 245 m/s
Special Action: Infect
Job: Big Gun
SR: Very High
Still a big headache, and what's worse, they can infect your ships. Thankfully,
there seems to be at least a 2 minute delay between infection shots, so you have
time between them to destroy it, if you don't have anything that is (mostly)
immune.
Beast Carrier
Armor: 65k
Firepower: 4k, point defense turrets, six infection guns (front/left/right)
Max Velocity: 290 m/s
Special Action: Infect
Job: Support
SR: Very High
You'll see these from time to time. Deal with them like Beast Heavy Cruisers.
Beast Multi-Beam frigate
Armor: 4200
Firepower: 3900, five point-defense ion cannons (top/bottom/left/right/front),
90% coverage
Max Velocity: 330 m/s
Job: Fighter Mauler
SR: Medium
Another unit the AI thinks is a cap ship fighter. Usually in groups of four or
five.
Beast Hive frigate
Armor: 4000
Firepower: 1400, two front-mounted guns
Max Velocity: 345 m/s
Job: General Harassment
SR: Medium
The AI likes these for some reason. Take out the frigate instead of dealing with
the drones individually.
Beast Ramming frigate
Armor: 5100
Firepower: 2500
Max Velocity: 378 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
You'll see a lot of these too, but other than their annoying habit of walking
off with your capital ships, they're not a threat by themselves. Especially when
they ram a Destroyer or Dreadnought, the missile launchers can still hit it.
Beast Worker
Armor: 1800
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 365 m/s
Job: Mechanic
SR: Low
Beast Processor
Armor: 45.1k
Firepower: 2500, four gun turrets (top/bottom/left/right)
Max Velocity: 235 m/s
Job: Worker Escort
SR: Medium
Identical to the Somtaaw ships, but the AI -never- uses Processors.
Beast Mothership
Armor: 94k
Firepower: 4600
Max Velocity: 110 m/s
Special Action: Infect
Job: Mobile Base
SR: Very High
Pretty much identical to the Kuun Lan. There's only one, thankfully. Avoid when
possible.
NAGGAROK
Armor: LOTS
Firepower: Several point-defense ion cannons
Max Velocity: INSANE
Special Action: Eat Capital Ship
Job: The Last Boss
SR: Extremely High
The SOB in mission 17. Read about it in the walkthrough below.
==========
Formations
==========
----------
Delta (F5)
----------
An old formation designed for atmosphere-bound vehicles. Lacks the adaptability
to handle 3D space. Use it mainly to organize non-combat vehicles when moving
from place to place.
----------
Broad (F6)
----------
Supposedly usefull for organizing capital ships. I've found it more problematic
than usefull. The ships will constantly move around according to the behavior of
the ship on the far left (viewed from behind) trying to stay in a straight line
on it's right, unless you give each one seperate orders and thus break up the
formation. Don't bother.
------
X (F7)
------
I use this formation a lot when dealing with my Acolytes/ACVs. It keeps their
firepower concentrated and organized. Peeling off to deal with a swarm of enemy
fighters is also very easy in this formation.
---------
Claw (F8)
---------
I don't use this one as much as I did in the origional, since it is mainly a
fighter configuration, and I usually keep my units in corvette mode during a
fight.
---------
Wall (F9)
---------
Another formation supposedly usefull for capital ships. Now they're being
dragged around by the guy on the upper-left, which defeats the purpose of the
wall altogether.
------------
Sphere (F10)
------------
Pretty much the only formation where the Sentinel has any use. It reduces any
incoming fighters to mere target practice. While in this formation, if the group
of units is told to guard a ship, that ship becomes the center of the sphere.
Bit too restrictive when it comes to attacking.
=======
Tactics
=======
------------
Evasive (F2)
------------
Ships will not stay in formation (assuming they have one) when engaging enemies,
and will pair off or fight alone as the situation demands. They won't initiate
combat unless ordered, and is generally only usefull with and against fighters.
Even so, it's become a lot less effective at keeping your units alive than in
the origional. I use it sparingly, if at all. It is nice for the speed bonus if
you're trying to move fast, and handy when you want to engage all the local
fighters at once.
------------
Neutral (F3)
------------
Why?
---------------
Aggressive (F4)
---------------
Many of my warships live here. They will stay in formation no matter what, they
get a small attack bonus, and will generally kick the butt of anyone foolish to
stray near. What's not to like? The corvettes, especially, will circle the
targets while in formation, giving them an almost non-stop pounding.
================
General Strategy
================
An excerpt from an e-mail from ckayano_dte@ibm.net:
- Acolyte (SU=2), ACV(SU=4) Acolyte: Missiles: Each Acolyte carries two
missiles, and they do quite a bit more damage than the normal shot (more than
an order of magniture), and they do need to return to a base to refil missles.
ACV mode: I actually think the armor is nearly triple than that of the Acolyte
(220 vs 700) I usually keep the fighters in ACV mode; though putting them into
BROAD formation helps expedite the linking command. What I started to do is:
(if there's no fighters to fight) Send in ACVs to attack a cap ship, EMP,
unlink, missile it, retreat in evasive broad formation, relink, refuel.
- Hive Frigate (SU=20, SR=High)
Quite a great ship design; although it takes way too many SU in my opinion.
Each frigate carries a small complement (6?) of swarmers. This frigate is
very effective versus small ships. I use them to take down missile
corvettes, and those damn beast missiles. Also, when attacking enemy ships
that have escorts, I let the destroyer fleet concentrate on the enemy ship,
while the swarmers take down the escorts (usually multigun corvettes; which
I don't want to lose fighters to). The swarmers either don't die, or
regenerate pretty damn quickly, since I've never had a point where I had no
swarmers available.
And in a few cases, the swarmers act as good distraction material for enemy
multibeam frigates, and the Nomad Moon. I've seen these enemies focusing on
trying to destroy the swarmers, while ignoring the destroyer fleet that's
pounding on it.
========
Missions
========
Keep in mind that I mainly play on Normal difficulty. Details may be different
on other levels.
1 - Hiigara
Initial Forces: Kuun Lan, 3 Recon fighters, 2 Workers
This battle's pretty straightforward. Most of the action is happening between
two other fleets, the Hiigaran Defense vs the raiding Imperialist Taiidan, and
it's going on some distance away from the Kuun Lan. It's pretty skewed in favor
of the home team, so you don't have to involve yourself in that fight if you
don't want to. The General in charge of the fleet will ask you to help out some
Ion Cannon frigates who've fallen prey to a squad of bombers to start with.
Tactical advises sending over some Acolytes to swat the bombers.
There's a few asteroids near your starting position, and your workers will find
a few more by themselves, and another objective will show you the position of
the only other deposit on the map that I've found, so recon isn't that
important. Stash your Recon fighters, send your Workers out and start making
Acolytes. Also build a Processor to follow your Workers around (tell it to guard
them both when it's built) and order the Kuun Lan towards the proximity sensor
net (the band of blue dots on the sensors manager). Facing them from the Kuun
Lan, they look like two rows of squares. You want the Kuun Lan in the center of
the top-rightmost square.
On the way, 5 interceptors will charge out of the main battle to investigate
your arrival. They'll go after the Workers but they don't really have the punch
to be dangerous. The Processor should be ready before they arrive and already
guarding the Workers. It'll be over quick. They'll send a few more every now and
then through the mission just to be annoying. If one of the Workers goes yellow
in the health bar, send it in for repairs and then send it back out. That done,
get at least 6 Acolytes together (10 is advised) and send them to the flailing
Ion Cannon frigates. The bombers will pretty much ignore your fighters, so it'll
be over fast. Once they're out of the way, the Ion frigates will chase down a
nearby Carrier and then join the main battle.
Tactical will congratulate you on your victory, and the General will ask you to
recon a point away from the main battle for a counter-attack. Send your Acolytes
there instead. They'll find five Taiidan resource gatherers gobbling up
asteroids, with three Defenders doing escort. Hit them hard and fast, before
they can fall back to a nearby Carrier. While this is going on, Tactical will
mention the tech boys think they can make Acolytes link together. Start the
research and keep an eye on the battle. Smash the escort and two of the
resourcers, then call the Acolytes back for repair and upgrade. Build some more
Acolytes so you end up with a total of 18. Once the research is done, send them
to the convoy as Acolytes, link them up to ACVs, (good practice in moving fast!)
and use all 9 of them to finish the resourcers and then the Carrier they're
supplying.
Once the resourcers are dead, several fighters, bombers, and a pair of MG
corvettes will start attacking the proximity sensor net, and Tactical will tell
you to stop them. But of course, the Kuun Lan should have long ago arrived, and
in a prime position to send them to their makers. It saves the frustration of
chasing them all around the place with your ACVs, who should be busy with that
Carrier. And it also gives good odds to saving the entire net, though I've never
been able to save the interceptors patroling there. They won't be able to hurt
the Kuun Lan that much before dying.
Fighters gone, the General has one more errand for you to run. A Heavy Cruiser
has turned tail from the main fighting and is limping around in the distance. I
would have loved to have had salvage capability for this mission, an HC is such
a precious thing to waste. But then, I'm from the old school of Homeworld. "If
it ain't a fighter or corvette, SALVAGE IT!" Once they're finished with the
Carrier, call in your ACVs for repairs, then send them to do the deed. There'll
be a few Defenders keeping watch, nothing your ACVs can't handle.
That's it. Finish gathering the resources, help mop up any remaining enemies in
the main battle area for the experience, and hit 'end mission'.
2 - Outskirts of Hiigaran System
Well, big surprise, Kiith Somtaaw didn't even get an honorable mention when the
congratulations were handed out. And yet they found time to give you another
chore to do. Seems a Destroyer, the Bushan-Re, got hit pretty badly and has
drifted into a rather active asteroid belt. You've been sent to find and help
her out. Tactical will mention that your workers aren't able to handle repair
and salvage duties, and suggests building a research module (engineering).
Most of the asteroids (those that are moving) are unharvestable, but there are
some resources on this level. The Workers will find them by themselves, I
haven't been able to locate any other deposits on this map. Tactical will point
out that there are asteroids flying about (gee, ya noticed?) and that the
Destroyer might get hit by them if you don't find it fast. Don't worry, they're
not that hard to find. Start construction of the module. Once the module's
complete, research the two techs and upgrade the Workers when ready.
There are Turanics around, so keep your ACVs out and ready to handle any that
decide to attack you, but don't bother chasing them around the map. Eventually,
Tactical will mention that there are signal echos in the area, and marks three
possible locations to explore. They're very close to each other, so just send
your ACVs out to any one of them and they'll find the Bushan-Re. Send the Kuun
Lan towards the pings right off, you'll need the firepower. The ACVs may
encounter a Turanic patrol en-route, deal with them and keep going.
The Bushan-Re's pretty banged up. Tactical suggests you send a Worker to repair
it right away. No need to delay your harvesting, just build a new one and send
it. Send the harvesting Workers only once they've finished their chores. Have
the ACVs guard the destroyer and adjust the Kuun Lan's course if needed so it
stops nearby. Sometime after repair begins, a hyperspace entry will be detected,
apparently a few Support frigates have arrived to assist with the repairs. Of
course, once they reach the Bushan-Re, it'll be very apparent that something is
wrong. Biggest hint? They have engine trails.
Yep, the Turanics have picked this moment to test out their mimic-ing heavy
corvettes. Between the Kuun Lan and the ACVs, they don't stand a chance. But it
signals the other Turanics to begin their attack runs on the Bushan-Re. Just
stay focused and keep the ACVs moving and aggressive. The Bushan-Re will assist
when enemies wander into it's firing range. Have your ACVs dock during a quiet
moment for repairs when needed. They'll give up after loosing their second wave.
When the Bushan-Re is nearly at full health, you'll notice a second distress
call in the area. The Bushan-Re will deny sending out a distress beacon, and
state that it must be a derilict. Of course, Tactical will tell you to go
retrieve it, the single most stupid idea that could ever come out of her mouth.
And of course, you have to actually go do it. At least it's close by. Send a
Worker with ACV escort and salvage the pod they find. Just before they get
there, a Turanic Carrier will appear on sensors and launch an attack. The
Bushan-Re picks this time to turn tail and run. Cowards.
You get the additional goal of destroying the Turanics, but that's not
neccessary. They retreat once the salvage team docks. During this part of the
fight, Tactical will mention that the science team has figured out how the
Turanics were able to pull off the mimic trick, and you can research them now.
Might as well, saves time later. Once the pod's in your bay, that's it. Finish
research, dock your ACVs, and hit 'end mission'.
3 - Coruc-Tel System
The report to your Kiith-sa bosses doesn't exactly go well. I could practically
hear the politicians drool once they hear about the pod. The Kiith-sa insist on
secrecy and direct you to the science vessel Clee-San, currently in Coruc-Tel.
You arrive at the designated meeting point, but the Clee-San is nowhere in
sight. You pick up a signal from them, heavily garbled. Tactical tells you to go
see what is wrong.
Most of the resources are already visible. Send the Workers and Processor on
their way, and build a Mimic. Just one, not an MCV, and build three Workers as
well. Disguise it as a Turanic Interceptor and send it to the ping. Leave the
Kuun Lan where it is for now. You can research the Afterburner upgrade right
off, do so. After a bit of travel, the Mimic will notice that there are a lot of
mines in the area. Perhaps a clue as to what's wrong? The Mimic will go past
them without incident, and will also notice all the Turanic Raiders in the area,
and the six Taiidan minelayer corvettes dropping more mines.
Once it gets close to the ping, the Mimic will stop. You'll get another garbled
message from the Clee-San, and Tactical will notice that it's completely
surrounded by mines, and can't move without being killed. Tactical will suggest
sending in a Mimic to establish tight-beam communications with the Clee-San.
Well, that's what it's out there for, send it in close. You'll get a clear
message this time, and the codes to see the mines on the sensors manager.
They'll also mention that another fleet is coming to capture them and suggest
haste. This isn't an idle threat. If you take too long on this mission, a
considerable fleet will pop up practically on top of you, and you'll have a hard
time escaping intact.
Okay, this is going to sound strange, but the rest of this mission can be won
with just the Kuun Lan. Keep your ACVs docked, they'll just get hit by mines.
The three new Workers should be told to repair the Kuun Lan and keep it
repaired. Send it straight in towards the Clee-San. Stop every now and then to
target mines, and the occasional skirmish with the Turanics. They'll focus
entirely on the Kuun Lan, and pay the price for it. Once the resourcers are
done, have all 6 Workers keep the Kuun Lan repaired, and get the Processor in
parade formation. In that position, on neutral tactics, it'll keep the Kuun
Lan's belly clear of hostiles. Keep moving in, you'll get there eventually, and
the mines will do minimal damage to the huge Kuun Lan, further minimized by the
Workers. Partway there, you'll recieve word that you can build a new science pod
(weapons), and research missiles. Do so.
Destroy the six mines around the Clee-San that are pinging, and it'll head
straight into the hangar. Once that's done, dock your Workers and get out of
there before the fleet arrives.
4 - Deep Space (Tel Sector)
Kelvin Lee and Jim Ulrich both
donated the same trick for this mission.
The research of the alien pod you recovered begins. Unfortunately, it seems the
scientists got more than they bargained for. A lot more. Power fluctuations are
just the start of it, then biohazard warnings start going off all over the lower
decks. Red splotches start appearing on the hull, spreading... There is no
choice. The lower decks of the Kuun Lan are forcibly ejected before whatever it
is can spread any further. The hangar, science, and lower engine modules fly
away, tumbling to the screams of those still inside...
The Kuun Lan has been split in half, crippled. There are some resources nearby,
but send a Recon briefly in the direction of the lower decks (the ping) to find
a second deposit, then have it return and dock. Get your Workers harvesting and
start rebuilding the Hangar module, as Tactical suggests. Once it's built,
Tactical will say that the Clee-San wants to scan the lower decks, and requires
an escort of ten Acolytes because of all the Turanic activity. You don't get a
choice in this. Have the Workers finish harvesting everything first, Tactical
will shout at you every now and then, just ignore her for the time being.
When the Workers finish, have them dock, then pick the five ACVs with the lowest
experience and have them guard the Clee-San. Have them escort in fighter mode.
It doesn't really matter, 5 ACVs will do just as well as 10 Acolytes, it'll just
save effort if they're in fighter mode. Kelvin and Jim noted that the Clee-San
keeps moving a short distance if you tell the escort to stop. If you time it
right, you can recall your fighters (order them to dock) just before the Clee-
San reaches the lower decks, and thus avoid sharing it's fate. The Clee-San will
move in and start scanning the lower decks...
Now you see why I said to send the lowest experience ships. Rebuild your losses
(stick with 9 ACVs total for now) if you couldn't recall the fighters in time,
and order the Kuun Lan away from the lower decks, as far into the corner as the
map will allow. Tactical will advise researching the recordings, start it right
away. You're going to have incoming attacks shortly. They won't be able to do
much damage before being killed (assuming everyone helps in the fight, ACVs,
Kuun Lan, and Processor), but bring in your ACVs after the second wave for
repairs and send your Workers out to fix the cap ships.
Shortly after the research is done, the Turanics that have been chasing the
Clee-San will finally catch up. They'll ignore your shouted warnings and move
towards the Clee-San... Well, that was very brief. Now you've got eight Ion
Array frigates and a Heavy Cruiser bearing down on your position, not to mention
the fighters they'll send ahead. Get your Workers inside ASAP and hyperspace.
5 - Aiowa System
With the scientists gone, the task of studying what happened falls to the Kuun
Lan's engineers. They'll give you some insight as to what it is you're
specifically fighting, and give it a name. The Beast. Whatever it is, it is
exceedingly old. The Kuun Lan has traveled to Aiowa in search of the Bentusi,
the only known race who might possibly know anything about the Beast.
First, you can see that there are two trails of resources on this map, one in
front of the Kuun Lan, one behind. Tell your Workers to start with the resources
in front first. These resources follow the dust trail that bends to the left,
but don't go too far down that way. Launch your ACVs and send them to the ping
on sensors. You don't have to (in fact, several people have advised me not to
until after all resourcing is done), but that's how I did it.
Just before they arrive, you'll see that the Bentusi are in a BIG heap of
trouble. The Beast has found them and is hammering away with fighters and Ion
Arrays. Help with the fighters for the time being. The Bentusi demonstrate the
lethality of point-defense ion cannons quite well, and can handle themselves.
When the Beast makes a move on the Kuun Lan, call your ACVs back to help in it's
defense. You'll need them for the two Ion Arrays in your face.
Odds are, when that fight's over, your Workers should have finished the
resources in front of you and are heading to the ones behind. Grab three of them
for repairs to the Kuun Lan, and keep the ACVs close. The Bentusi can handle the
forces attacking them for the time being. They also get reinforced after a few
moments, by the Kushan Carrier Caal-Shto and it's two Ion Cannon frigates. After
some more battle around the Bentusi ship, a Beast Heavy Cruiser (perhaps the
same one you saw in the last mission?) will attack it with an infection beam.
The Bentusi are The Unbound. The Bentusi refuse to be Bound to Anyone.
The resulting fireworks vaporizes the Bentusi ship, all fighters and frigates in
the immediate area, and heavily damages the Caal-Shto and the Beast Heavy
Cruiser. That's why your ACVs are hanging around the Kuun Lan. Now you have to
save the Caal-Shto and yourselves. Grab a Worker and send it in to repair the
Caal-Shto, and move the Kuun Lan in beside it. There is a problem, however. That
Heavy Cruiser is only damaged, not crippled or dead. And it's heading straight
for the Kuun Lan.
Send your ACVs in now, and I mean NOW. If it's infection beam gets the chance to
recharge you'll loose half of them to the Beast, this is your only real chance
to nail it. Otherwise, you'll have to sacrifice a Recon (coming in from the side
to avoid weapons fire) to the Beast and then kill it. Get the ACVs back to the
Caal-Shto pronto, it's undoubtedly under attack by now.
In any case, Tactical tells you about some new research available, and a new
science module (advanced engineering). Get them both. The research will give you
the support module. Build all 12. The new science module will let you research
Sentinels, grab that too. Don't worry about repairing the Caal-Shto, the game
won't let you raise it's health over 50%, the Worker is there to keep it at 50%.
This fight will never be over until you deal with the Beast Carrier that's
spitting out fighters and Rams and gobbling up asteroids. Remember that bend in
the dust trail I said not to go down? Once the Kuun Lan is in position near the
Caal-Shto, go down it, and hit their Workers with your ACVs. The Carrier can
infect like the Heavy Cruiser, so you'll have to sacrifice something to it this
time. It won't hang around to be killed, though, it'll hyperspace after taking
some damage. If you do it fast, you'll get a lot of resources to prepare for the
next mission with, even after replacing losses. Wipe up what's left, gather
resources, and prepare for the next mission.
6 - Kadiir Nebula
Elements of this walkthrough are from Kelvin Lee . OmegA
came up with something very similar as well. So have about a
half-dozen other people...
Preparations for this mission should actually happen in the previous one, before
you hit 'end mission'. You're going to need a bigger squad of ACVs, 13-17 should
do, and a seperate squad of Acolytes (they'll stay in fighter mode the whole
time), 20 should be enough. The rest of the preparations depend on how you want
to handle this mission.
There are basically two ways of handling this mission. My way is rather greedy
and depends on ambushing all fighter patrols in the area before moving. Kelvin
Lee suggested a more active stance that forgoes resourcing for the most part.
For the second, 3 groups of 9 ACVs are suggested, along with two Mimics. For the
first, build a second Processor and bring your Worker total up to at least 8,
and two Recons are a good idea. Why the two ways? Well, you see, this is one of
the -richest- maps I've seen in a long time, there's roughly between 60-70
THOUSAND RUs on this map, and that's just what I've found between the starting
position and the goal. No, I'm not kidding. You'd be set for the rest of the
game. Unfortunately, getting all of it without triggering major consequences can
be quite stressfull. For that reason alone you might want to take the other
path. Besides which, this is not the only place to get a lot of resources.
Okay, back to the mission. You get to listen in to a mild argument between
Tactical and Command, then the mission starts. The Kuun Lan is escorting the
Caal-Shto through the nebula in the hopes of staying hidden from the Imperials.
Only problem is, you have to tip-toe past a major base that resides here.
Tactical suggests sending a Recon ship to take a peek at the base. Soon after
the start, Tactical will mention you can build a new science module (armor) and
new research. Go ahead.
This is where the greedy path starts. Launch everything, and have the Acolyte
squad take up position about 1/3 the way between the Kuun Lan and the Imperial
base (the ping). Kelvin used a second squad placed right next to the Caal-Shto,
but the purpose is the same. Their job is to intercept any patrols that come in
your direction, preferably before they see the Caal-Shto, and to kill any that
do before they can escape back to the base. The ACVs, however, will be assisting
your Workers in any way they can. Keeping the area secure, scouting the terrain
ahead, and destroying mines before a Worker stumbles into them. Have a Recon
escort each squad for early detection. The Recon is the only ship who's sensors
aren't affected by the nebula.
The base will send out a lot of Interceptors, destroy all of them, they'll
eventually run out of supply (after about the 15th squad), and they don't do any
harvesting themselves. On the sensors manager, you want to scout in the
direction of a flower-shaped set of dust trails on the far side of the map.
That's where you're eventually going to head, and all the resources are between
the start and that flower. There are a lot of large mines scattered about, and
you'll get the goal to nail the minelayers once you see a mine, but they won't
show up until after the base has been recon'ed.
Now the stressfull part comes from the placement of the resources themselves.
Some of the nebula clouds come dangerously close to the base, and an unwary
Worker could trigger the bomber wing flying close patrol near it. You don't want
that. But with very carefull management, one worker can fly in, scoop up the
resources before the bombers can notice it, and fly away. There are also all the
Interceptors flying sweeps out of the base to cause stress, and your Workers are
definitely going to get found (though the Interceptors won't report back like
they would after seeing the Caal-Shto). Keep the ACVs nearby at all times.
Eventually you'll run out of resources (even after reaching the aforementioned
flower), or you may choose to stop when the fighter patrols stop coming, and
that's where the two paths join. Send a Recon or Mimic towards the ping (not an
ACV or Acolyte, their sensors aren't good enough to stay out of sight). My,
that's a big fleet. A Carrier, two Destroyers, maybe 15-16 frigates, and maybe
30 bombers. Don't tick these guys off, they can clean your clock and not even
break a sweat. If you're following the more active path, leave the Mimic close
to the base to let you know when the patrols are launched, and place the second
about halfway between.
Tactical will tell you to scout the path ahead to make sure it's clear. The
greedy path will have already cleared it, but send a Recon to each ping anyway.
The active path will have to do the clearing with the ACVs, while the other two
groups shield the Caal-Shto from patrols (in fighter mode), one right next to
the Caal-Shto and the other about 1/3rd the way between it and the base. After
you check the first ping, the Caal-Shto will begin moving towards the dust-trail
flower I mentioned earlier, and the Kuun Lan will automatically keep pace. The
active path will not have cleared out all the Interceptors, and they will cause
serious trouble if they ever make it back. Make sure none do. With two groups of
Acolytes, you should be able to hit them coming -and- going. Keep the Mimics
between them and you so you can track them.
Halfway there or so, you'll get some new research to do, frigate drives. You'll
get to make Hive frigates with it, but I never used them much, and Multi-Beam
frigates need this as well (you can't make them yet, though). Keep going,
repairing when necessary. Around the third ping, the minelayers will be waiting
(with Interceptor escort). Kelvin suggested hitting them with Mimics, I hit them
with the Kuun Lan, either will do, as long as they end up dead. They won't go
back to snitch on you if they see the Caal-Shto.
When your forward force reaches the last ping, they'll warn you of a Heavy
Cruiser sitting there waiting for you. The greedy player will notice that it
hadn't been there before. Tactical will suggest researching the Leech and
sending it in, but as I said in the Leech's description, it's not that deadly.
You can try it out, make 6 of them and have them attach. When the Caal-Shto is
about to reach it, send in your ACVs, or send them in immediately if you don't
use the Leeches. Once it's dead, watch your back, the Heavy Cruiser has alerted
the base of your presence, but the Caal-Shto should reach the end of the trail
before they arrive, and escape into a slipgate there. Once it's gone, you can do
some last-minute resourcing, or call in your forces and hyperspace before the
Imperials catch you.
7 - Outskirts of Kadiir Nebula
andy french and Kelvin Lee donated
hints on this mission.
Okay, turns out this mission isn't that hard, I just thought it was. You'll want
a lot of Acolytes for this, and they'll stay in fighter mode for most of the
mission. You might have noticed that I didn't suggest salvaging the Heavy
Cruiser from the last mission. That's because while it can be a great asset in
this mission, it can also be your greatest liability. And for some reason, ships
bigger than frigates refuse all orders to retire. So don't bother.
You'll get some more information from the engineers about what you're facing (a
plot that feels decidedly 'Event Horizon' to me), and tell you about it's
origin. The Caal-Shto will also thank you for your assistance, and then limp
away, heading for Hiigara to warn them. Is it just me or does the Kuun Lan look
very insulted by the Caal-Shto's suggestion that it find a rock to go hide under
until the warrior Kiith deals with the Beast? Hard to manage for a non-organic
spaceship...
In any case, you soon pick up a distress call from a convoy of Republican
Taiidan colonists. They're under attack from Cruise Missiles and are requesting
help. Launch all fighters and start moving the Kuun Lan in. Now break your
Acolytes up into several groups (at least 5 groups of 6 Acolytes each) and give
them numbers. One group is going to cover your Workers and Processors (who
should be harvesting already) and will target any missiles near them, the other
four strung out along the convoy as equally as possible. The Kuun Lan should
move in under the center of the convoy to help out. I can't tell you exactly
where the missiles come from, it seems to be random (I've tried the mission
several times, they don't come from the same place).
Do your best, but inevitably you will loose a convoy ship to the Cruise
Missiles. Destroy it as fast as you can, it'll start cranking out even more
Missiles, and you'll have enough on your hands as it is. You only need one ship
to reach the far slipgate and escape in order to succeed in this mission, but
save as many as you can. If the Beast runs out of convoy ships to shoot at,
it'll target your frigates, Workers, and Processors, who'll be infected in a
single hit (and if you did bring that Heavy Cruiser, it'll turn in a single hit
too, SO DON'T BRING IT! I made that mistake once. Kelvin brought a Hive that he
regretted too), and then the Kuun Lan. The convoy ships will actually take
several hits, thankfully, and so will the Kuun Lan. Do the best you can.
The second wave of missiles will convince Tactical that you need to upgrade your
ACVs. Do the research but don't upgrade, you won't have time. You can also
research better armor for all ships and bigger explosives for the Mimic, grab
them but again don't waste time upgrading. The third and fourth wave will have a
fighter escort. Focus on the Missiles first. You'll loose Acolytes, but that's
preferable to loosing colonists. There won't be a fifth wave of missiles from
outside the mission. Once all Beast ships are dead (including all infected
colony ships), you'll be able to end the mission. Upgrade everything first, and
rebuild your losses. It's also suggested that you reorganize your ACVs back into
two groups.
A cheaper way to deal with this mission was suggested by andy. Simply move the
Kuun Lan in next to one colony ship, keep everything docked, and simply insure
that -that- one ship makes it through, and destroy all the other ships. The Kuun
Lan can't be infected, and you can chase down all the other ships on the map
with it.
8 - Deep Space (Koreth's Rift Sector)
The 300,000 colonists will thank you for your efforts (the number doesn't change
no matter how many ships you saved), and tell you about the loss of their
escort. They'll also tell you of a spy that was supposed to meet up with their
escort (why would a colonist know about a spy?), who had learned of bio-weapons
research. The Kuun Lan moves in to investigate.
The spy hasn't made contact yet, but you're at the meeting point. Start
harvesting as Tactical suggests, and send one group of ACVs over to those odd
purple blips on sensors. They'll find two crystals, and after some research and
upgrading, you'll be able to harvest them as well. Large crystals need 4 Workers
to haul around, small crystals only need 2. Grab them ASAP. Also, build a Ram
frigate for later.
Eventually the spy will show up and head for your position. But he's not alone.
Interceptors, MG corvettes, and Defenders are on his tail. Escort him in and
take down the pursuers, they'll arrive in seperate waves. Once that's done he'll
let you in on what he found, then summon a Republican Carrier to make his
escape.
It's crunch time again. You've got a plan to blow the enemy research base, but
you're going to need Imperialist ships to pull it off. There's a resource convoy
in the area, but it's not going to hang around for more that 15 minutes. Get
your workers out there (with ACVs and Processors flying escort), and capture as
many ships as you can. Blow up the rest. Just like a Homeworld Salvage Raid, he
he he... You'll want one frigate to succeed in the mission, but you'll want one
-of-each-type- if you want to benefit from the research potential. The Assaults
can let you research energy guns, an upgrade to all projectile weapons (homing
bullets!). The Ions will let you research Multi-Beam frigates (critical!). I
haven't been able to grab a Support frigate yet, no clue what they'd allow.
There'll be a Gravwell generator, have the Ram get it out of the way, preferably
before your Workers arrive. The Processors should help destroy it.
Retire the enemy frigates, you don't need them. Replace them with two Multi-Beam
frigates. Harvest and rebuild, then hit end mission.
9 - Close Orbit, Gozan IV
Tactical will give you a run-down of the plan again, for those who like a
review. When the mission starts, she'll tell you to move the resourcers to the
side so they can slip in unnoticed. Strangely enough, no matter how well you did
in the last mission, you will only have three resourcers to send. Do so, and
launch everything. Do not harvest resources, there's not enough to justify the
trouble.
Get ready, this mission's one big battle, and you're in the middle of it. You
can research level 2 shields right away. Do so, they make the Sentinel a worthy
investment. Having the Kuun Lan shielded is a good idea for this mission, once
they are upgraded. When the resourcers arrive at the ping, they'll leave your
control. Tactical will tell you to destroy a proximity sensor for the
distraction, the resourcers won't move again until you do. Move the Kuun Lan in
to do it. There'll be patrols all over the place, so stay on your toes. The MB
frigates'll shine in fighter combat. The new energy guns will help a lot too.
A lot of ships will start moving in on you, mostly frigates and fighters. Have
the ACVs focus on any frigates, and use the MB frigates to deal with fighters.
There's also a chance you'll run into a Missile Destroyer (it decided to jump me
from behind), don't deal with it at all, move the Kuun Lan further towards the
planet (hopefully away from the Missile Destroyer) You can't win this battle, so
don't try too hard. If you have to, sacrifice a Processor by having it charge a
bunch of enemies unescorted. They should attack it, giving the Kuun Lan time to
move away. The resourcers will eventually pass the checkpoint, land and then
return. It'll take about 10 minutes total. When they return, their cover will
have been blown. Hopefully the Kuun Lan is at least a little past the proximity
sensor net, have it move in towards them so they can dock quickly. Cover them
with all you have, lose them and lose the mission. Especially target any bomber
wings in the area. When they get close, call in all strike craft, you're going
to hyper as soon as they dock. I lost most of my forces in this mission, but the
next one lets you recover.
10- Debris Field (Koreth's Rift Sector)
Tactical goes over what the marines discovered on the planet. Nothing much
usefull, except the Taiidan have figured out how to sterilize failed experiments
with the Beast. The Kuun Lan pulls back to a junkyard to hide. Recons discover
that it's been lightly laced with large mines. Looks like someone's home.
Oooooo. Is that a Seige Cannon or are you just happy to see me? :)
Send your ACVs to clear the mines before sending in the Workers. You'll need 4
to salvage the Cannon. Have the rest harvest. If you've got MB frigates, send
them in too. If you don't, you might want to wait until you do. When you get
close, Turanics will start moving in. -Don't- let them run off with the Cannon.
When your salvage team moves in, some of the wreckage will reveal itself to be
more Turanics, deal with them too.
When things start getting interesting near the Cannon, four Ion Arrays will de-
cloak around the Kuun Lan. Sentinels can help a lot in dealing with them without
detracting from the salvage effort. Tactical will eventually mention that Recon
sensors could be upgraded, with research. Do it. The Workers will have to haul
the Cannon back to the Kuun Lan, a Processor can't handle it. But don't move the
Kuun Lan, it's okay where it is. Oh, and by the way, you now have Imperials
coming down your throat.
Once the Cannon is hauled back to the Kuun Lan, Tactical will mention you need
to research it, then build a new mount for your trophy. Do so. More Turanics
will move in to help the Taiidan. Not good. But then the Caal-Shto suddenly
arrives to deal with the Turanics... I don't really need to tell you not to go
anywhere near them, do I?
Yep, the Caal-Shto has had a run-in with the Beast, and lost. The Turanics walk
right into the infection. But that still leaves you with Taiidan coming down on
you, including a Heavy Cruiser and three Destroyers. Thankfully, just before
you're about to have your engine module handed to you, the Beast Mothership will
arrive. Yep, that's what's left of the Kuun Lan's lower decks. The Imperials
move to fight it (suicidal, aren't they?). Finish your Cannon and let them keep
it busy. You might also want to move in a bit closer to the Beast. Halfway
between them and the start point will do.
Beast fighters will hammer you while you move and build, just stay focused. When
the Cannon's finished, the Mothership will ask for the old beacon (I thought it
was in the hangar module when it separated?). Give it your reply. One Siege
Cannon blast right up the nostril. Make sure you're within the 100% damage
marker, as Tactical says.
Unfortunately, it won't do squat.
Hyperspace before you get fragged.
(Actually, you don't need to be within 100%. Hitting it at all will prove it
can't do the job and you can hyperspace)
11- System AZ-23769
Well, from bad to worse. The Seige Cannon pretty much fried itself when it went
off. Besides which, it didn't do any good. Apparently the eggheads think a
sample of the origional will help make the Cannon more effective, which means
finding the NAGGAROK, and that means finding the Faal-Corum, the Kuun Lan's
sistership. Their astrogation techs can find the NAGGAROK.
When you arrive, you find the Faal-Corum under heavy fire and shooting at
anything that moves. Ignore their paranoia and move the Kuun Lan in next to
them, launch everything, and hammer the enemies. Once they're dead, the Faal-
Corum will calm down. Start repairing it, and send Workers to haul in the three
crystals in the area, then harvest as normal. If you've got a dozen Sentinels
handy, shield the Faal-Corum. You'll eventually get some new stuff to research,
self-repair for your cap ships and the last tech for Destroyers and Carriers.
Pretty soon a Beast fleet will show up. The Faal-Corum will send in it's troops
right away. Unfortunately, they'll get slaughtered whether you help them or not,
so save your strength and build up while the Faal-Corum keeps them busy. If any
Beast Ships get near, let them have it, but focus on building. Those two
Carriers are highly important, they'll put your SU count up over 400 (with all
support modules).
Get about three Destroyers and back them up with at least four MB frigates,
they'll be swimming upstream against the Beast Rams, Hives, and MBs. Once they
get to the ping, it's just one Carrier, two Ion Arrays, and two Defense Fields.
They might have some Sentinels out shielding the Carrier, but it's a level 1
shield from the color. It'll cave in easy. Don't forget the Beast Workers too.
Once all enemies are dead, you'll get the astrogation team you needed. Harvest
the map (it's pretty rich), make repairs, recover losses, and end mission.
12- Turanic Outpost (Kyori Sector)
Well, the astrogation team figured out the general neighborhood the NAGGAROK is
in, but they'll need better star charts to do better. That's why you're dropping
by this Turanic Outpost and politely asking for their help. Unfortunately, they
write out their reply in mass-driver bullets.
The first attack is pretty weak, mostly interceptors with a few Missile
corvettes. I didn't even have to launch my ACVs. In fact, I gave them a break
for most of the mission. Once the first wave is dead, Tactical will tell you to
go after the Outpost. Start moving the Kuun Lan in and have your cap ships
escort. They'll put up a pretty weak fight, fighters, corvettes, and some Ion
Arrays. A Carrier will be sitting next to the Outpost, you'll want to take care
in dealing with it, and keep an eye open for mines, but the Outpost itself is
unarmed (never took a shot at me, anyway). Hammer it. When the Taiidan fleet
arrives to help the Turanics, pull back all but one of your Destroyers. Keep
hitting the Outpost, you want them beaten, not dead. You'll hear a coded
transmition (the garbled screech), and the Taiidan will hyperspace. The Turanics
then surrender.
If you want, you can harvest this map, just scan the areas with ACVs first to
clear out mines. For some reason, there's a bug at this point, where if you
click on the Kuun Lan, you get the health bar for every module attached to it.
Some of them request upgrades. I always do, just in case it has some effect.
Recover losses and end mission.
13- Location Unknown
Well, you're now en-route to the NAGGAROK. Unfortunately, you get to make an
unscheduled pit stop. Well what do you expect when you let Turanics on board?
The Kuun Lan comes out of hyperspace in very bad shape. Construction systems
down, hangar unable to launch ships, and enemies closing in.
Hopefully you still have a Processor handy, move it alongside the Kuun Lan to
trigger the repair beams. Thankfully, any ships loaded into the Carriers will be
able to launch, but the first time I did this mission, all they had were a few
ACVs. The rest and the Workers were on the Kuun Lan. You don't need them anyway,
your Destroyers and MBs can handle this mission. You can actually rebuild the
two modules that blew up (engineering, one support) right away, do so. Shield
the Kuun Lan if you have any Sentinels that can launch.
The first attackers will be Bombers and Interceptors from behind. Hit them with
the MBs, the Destroyers will have to focus on the Heavy Cruiser coming in from
the front. Two more are coming in, but that one will get to you first. Each HC
will bring a Destroyer escort as well, but the HCs will focus on the Kuun Lan
while the Destroyers fire at anything in range. Take them all down, focus on one
at a time. Fighters will continue to come in from behind. Once the enemy cap
ships are down, a second wave will come, Destroyers escorted by frigates, but
the Kuun Lan can now launch it's fighters. Get the Workers out there repairing.
In the middle of the second wave, the cavalry will arrive, in the form of the
Faal-Corum and several cap ships, most which switch to your service immediately
(and soaking up any leftover SUs >:( ). Between the two fleets, the Taiidan
don't stand a chance. Start tracking down their Carrier, smashing ships as you
go. There's another HC with two Destroyers out there. The Carrier is covered
by Defenders and supplied by several Resourcers. Smash everything.
Once they're all dead, you can proceed to the location of the NAGGAROK. Harvest
and rebuild as needed, and retire the Ion Cannon frigates and the Rams. The
Destroyers the Faal-Corum brought refuse to retire, so you're stuck with them,
unless you want to scuttle them. Seems a bit cold-hearted to me, but to each
their own.
14- Galactic Rim (Gulf Sector)
You'll be brought up-to-date on the Beast situation across the galaxy. Seems
things aren't going too well. But the New Daiamid Assembly back home has given
you all the support they can spare, and wish you luck. Here in the Galactic Rim,
a Recon patrol turns up the NAGGAROK, and reveals the Imperials trying to repair
it. A bit of arguing later, you're left with the task of getting a Mimic in
there to take a sample.
You could just charge in, guns blazing, but... well, better you than me. That
ship's got some serious protection. The better option is to sit tight and slip
the Mimic in on the sly. Problem is, proximity sensors are in a ring around it,
and any one of them will sense your Mimic before it can do it's job. Your
engineers will give you the Dreadnought at this point, you won't even have to
research for it. If you have the SUs to spare, build one, but just one, and get
ready for incoming Bombers. There's a Heavy Cruiser with Assault frigate escort
coming behind them. And behind that is a pair of Destroyers with MG corvettes.
Sometime after the start of the mission, the Beast Mothership will arrive and
start throwing more enemies at you, mainly fighters, but there will be some
Cruise Missiles mixed in. Keep the Kuun Lan covered and fight defensively. Let
them come to you.
During a quiet moment (read ASAP), you need to send some Acolytes (two squads,
fighter mode, for preference) towards the NAGGAROK and start taking out
proximity sensors. The squads should split up and go down both sides at once.
They will undoubtedly attract attention, but don't let them get distracted. Nail
all the sensors and you can send in your Mimic. Make sure he's properly attired.
Once he gets what you need, the Mimic will automatically return. Keep up the
defense until he can dock. Before he does, though, the repairs to the NAGGAROK
will be finished, and the Beast will hyperspace, apparently heading towards a
weapon of some kind. Now you have to capture a Taiidan ship to find out where it
went. You only need one, and I'm partial to a frigate myself, but pick one and
grab it. Ordering the Kuun Lan in towards where the NAGGAROK was can speed up
this process. Don't worry, you get plenty of choices. Hyperspace once you have
what you need.
15- Deep Space (Gulf Sector)
You get a brief glimpse at the 'interrogation' procedures, and a run-down on the
weapon the Beast mentioned. The Seige Cannon is almost ready to do the job, but
you need to talk to the Bentusi about several details before you can reliably
use it. But it seems the Bentusi have plans of their own. And they don't involve
saving anyone but themselves.
Get your ships out there and start hitting that gate with everything you have.
You can't stop the Bentusi ship that's about to jump, but there's another one
further away that you can stop. Just after your attack starts, they'll start
launching fighters at you, a nasty design labeled the Super Acolyte. They fire
multiple ion beams with lethal accuracy, and your ACVs won't stand a chance
against them. Like Command says, don't target the Bentusi, just get that gate
closed.
Uh oh, now the Bentusi sound pissed. Three more ships exit hyperspace around
your fleet. And so begins the slaughter. There's no way to stop it, just try to
keep the Kuun Lan out of the firing range. If you must fight back, hit the
fighters. After the first cap ship kill, the argument between Command and the
Bentusi will reach a head, and the Bentusi will snap out of their rampage. All
ships will cease fire and/or pull back.
Now comes the long hard job of recovering your losses. There is one large
crystal here, haul it in for RUs. Don't do any general harvesting, there's a
MASSIVE BUG on this level. Any surviving Super Acolytes -will- fire on any ship
that comes in range. Seems a nearly inexcusable oversight to me.
Besides rebuilding your fleet, you've got four new techs to research. Two
drives, another level of armor, and one of shields. Grab it all, and get ready
for the next fight.
16- Sojent-Ra System (Far Reaches Sector)
The Bentusi will give you some insight as to their existence, and their reasons
for panic. They also help you work the bugs out of the Seige Cannon so you can
fire it however often you like. Now, it's time for a live-fire test of the
weapon. The Clee-San is drafted as the target dummy.
This map has three crystals on it, two small and one large. Have Workers haul in
the small crystals right off (the two furthest away from the ping), but leave
the large alone for now. Shield the Kuun Lan, then start moving it in towards
the ping and send a Recon ahead. My, that's a big escort fleet. Adjust the Kuun
Lan's movement so that it stops some distance away. Like Tactical says, you
don't want to blow it up right away. Call your Recon back, but keep her out.
There are cloaking ships in the area.
You'll get MGs, Hives, and a Heavy Cruiser in the first wave. Your Destroyers
and Dreadnought should be able to handle them with no problem. It may be
tempting to fire the Cannon to nail this attack fleet before it reaches you, but
resist! The Kuun Lan won't line up the shot before they get out of the area of
effect, or you'll end up firing too close and nail yourself. Check your position
every now and then with the Cannon. You want to be just at 50%, but a little
over is nothing to quibble over. Let the Clee-San have it when the Kuun Lan is
in position.
The Clee-San is out of comission, so wipe up what's left of the Beast fleet and
move the Kuun Lan in next to it. Send a Worker in when the Kuun Lan is in
position, not before. Oh, and send some Workers to grab the large crystal, it's
safe now. The Worker will transmit a signal to call in the Mothership, but it'll
be a while before it arrives. Tactical suggests doing harvesting while you wait.
I suggest repairing. You have to do a little harvesting before the Mothership
will show, but don't get eager.
The Mothership will arrive quite some distance away. Start moving the Kuun Lan
in to hit it with a 100% blast. For some reason, the Beast will send Recons to
attack you. Short fight. Ignore the gnats and keep going. The rest will be a mix
of ships, frigates, Heavy Cruisers, and Cruise Missiles. Just keep moving
forward. Once within that 100%, let them have it. At this range, you can even
watch the carnage without risking a ship. Do an alt-drag-click on the enemy
fleet to watch them burn...
Unfortunately, even a 100% hit will only bring the Mothership down to 50%
health. You can wait for the Cannon to recharge for a second blast, or move your
cap ships in to finish it. Might even take a third Cannon shot to finish it, it
can repair itself slowly. Either way, it's beat. It won't send anything out
other than Cruise Missiles and Recons.
Once the fireworks are over, get ready for the next mission. It's majorly tough.
17- Naval Base Alpha
Ling Qi helped me a lot on this mission.
This is it, the final showdown between the Kuun Lan and the Beast. The Beast is
moving in on the special weapon the Republic Taiidan have been building.
Unfortunately, the Beast has already claimed the weapon, the Nomad Moon, before
you arrive. You show up just in time to see a big chunk of the Republic fleet
destroyed by the Moon's repulse field.
There are a lot of Republic ships around, and a lot more Beast ships as well.
Once the mission starts, order your cap ships in to assist the closest Republic
fleet. Between your ships and theirs, you can mop up a lot of the Beast ships
before running out of Republic allies. Their Support frigates will also repair
your ships when possible.
You shouldn't need to gather any resources on this mission, but if you wish, you
can grab the small crystal closest to the starting position. There's another off
by itself (not near the big group of crystals) that's safe to grab too. Tell the
Kuun Lan to start moving to high 'above' the closer battle. It's not going to
get involved in that, it shouldn't need to.
There are three groups of Missile corvettes about (most likely not in the
fighting), each with a Defense Field frigate. Nail one group with the Seige
Cannon (doesn't matter which), and have your cap ships work on the other two.
Eventually, you'll notice the Nomad Moon nearby, and the NAGGAROK hiding behind
it. Tactical will tell you that the emitters (one below, one above) are the
source of the repulse field. You can research the same thing for your
Dreadnoughts soon after you see it, but it's not that important.
DO NOT FIRE THE SEIGE CANNON IN THE MOON'S DIRECTION WHILE THE EMITTERS ARE
PRESENT. The shot will ricochet off the repulse field, and there's a chance
it'll come right back into the Kuun Lan. Any friendly ship that moves toward the
Moon will be pushed back by the field and damaged in the process. The task here
is to send your ACVs around to the 6-7 proximity sensors that form a partial
ring around the moon and destroy them. Then build Mimics. Lots of them. You're
going to need about 20 Mimics for each emitter. Disguise them as Beast ships and
have them kamikaze the emitters.
The Republic fleet might decide to be a pain in the butt here and keep setting
off the field while you're trying to get your Mimics in. Just pull back and wait
for them to be distracted by other Beast ships, then send the Mimics in. Once
the emitters are destroyed, the Nomad Moon is at your mercy. Do not engage it
just yet, though. Chase down two Carriers that are in the area (one above the
Moon, one below), and smash all other Beast Ships that you can find. Once that's
done, send one Destroyer off towards the big group of crystals, and position it
near the end of the wick-like string of crystals. Have your ACVs out and near
the Kuun Lan. I suggest you save the game before continuing. Once you're ready,
attack the Moon with cap ships.
Once the Moon reaches half-damage, a fleet of Imperials will arrive a rather
long way away. There'll be a distracting conversation for a moment, then
Tactical will tell you about more hyperspace signals, most likely more Beast
ships. They'll arrive right in the middle of the crystal fields. Light that wick
with your Destroyer (Ctrl+shit+left-click on the last crystal), and watch as
most of the fleet goes up in smoke. There's a good chance your Destroyer will
also be destroyed in the process, but I think it's a fair trade.
Once the Moon is gone, you can begin your attack on the NAGGAROK. Up until now
it's been invulnerable to attack (the Nomad Moon was shielding it), but now it's
moving around crazily at insane speeds. You'll have to do some research on it's
drives, do so. Most of the time it'll hang way back, nearly off the map, but it
will occasionally fly in and eat one of your cap ships. Get all your cap ships
together in a group, and have your ACVs near this group. The Bentusi should
arrive at about this point, and give you the design specs for their Super
Acolyte, the terror of mission 15, now your deadliest asset. Make as many as you
can spare (while still having at least 13 ACVs), and put them near your cap
ships too.
Now you have to wait. Any remains of the Beast fleet will head for your cap
ships, destroy them if you have the time. The Taiidan will pull out of the
entire battle, claiming the Beast had violated their agreement, and won't be a
problem. Eventually, the NAGGAROK will make a move for one of your cap ships.
Once it does, it'll sit still for a few moments to eat it. Hit it with an EM
pulse from your ACVs, and have all ships target it. Odds are the first pulse
will only stun it for a few moments. Hit it a second time when you can, and the
stunning will last longer. The third will last longer still, on upwards. Ling
pointed this out to me, that you have to keep hitting it with EM pulses to have
any noticable effect. After the 5th pulse (depending on the number of ACVs
involved), you can even hit it with the Seige Cannon. You don't need to though.
With a big enough squadron of Super Acolytes (I used 20), and all your cap ships
helping, you can steadily knock it's health down. Once it's health bar is red,
the NAGGAROK won't be fast enough to limp away from your strike craft. If it
does get away the first time, just re-group your ships and wait for it to make a
second run.
Kill it. Then sit back and enjoy the ending.
===========
End Credits
===========
"Kelvin Lee" - Missions 4, 6, and 7 tactics
"andy french" - Mission 7 tactics
"Jim Ulrich" - Mission 4 tactics
"The Juggernaut" - Sentinel tactics
"OmegA" - Mission 6 tactics
"Ling Qi" - Mission 17 tactics
- General tactics
Homeworld: Cataclysm FAQ
by Zorlond Jaeger
zorlond@my-deja.com
v1.0, 9/21/00
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Table of Contents:
Note
Version History
Situation
Ships
Formations
Tactics
General Strategy
Missions
End Credits
====
Note
====
This is my first FAQ, so please be gentle. Most everything here is IMO, and you
might have different ones. If you wish to contribute/advise/question/kibitz, I
shall be as accomodating as possible. If you wish to spam/insult/annoy/etc, let
me introduce you to the greatest invention of our times. The Circular File
Cabinet. Please use discression, I've got enough junk floating in my e-mail box.
Well, when I first started this FAQ, I thought it was a reasonably concealed way
to ask for assistance in the game. Hey, I was stuck on mission 7, seemed like a
good idea at the time, and a lot more clever than slapping 'Help me!' on a
half-dozen b-boards. I offer assistance to others, and they in turn offer
assistance to me. Certainly have got a response. Hopefully I won't loose track
of who's contributed what.
Sorry for the delay in the latest release, I took a break from Cataclysm to play
some other games for a while. But now I'm back and I have succeeded in beating
the game! (yay!) Is anyone else really dissapointed by the lack of music during
the credits? See below for the last mission walk-through. Also, a note to all
players, you can always find the latest version of my FAQ on GameFAQs
(www.gamefaqs.com), though I'm not sure there will be new versions. I'm just not
sure there's anything else to add. Feel free to toss ideas my way.
Zorlond Jaeger
zorlond@my-deja.com
===============
Version History
===============
1.0 - Fourth release. Finally finished the game (yay!) and the last mission
walk-through. Added SU requirements (those known) to the ship listings.
Added to note (again).
0.9 - Third release. Very close to finished (just need the last mission
walkthrough). Various fixes/additions, a few contributions. New Note.
0.5 - Second release. Still incomplete, but added 4 mission walkthroughs and
most of the ships. Further additions will have to wait until I figure out
what to do with missions 6 & 7. Also fixed dumb mistake in the first
mission walkthrough. I kept refering to Guardians. No such ship, they were
Defenders.
0.1 - Initial release. Very incomplete, quite rough, and probably considered
crappy. Only reached mission 7 in the game at this point.
=========
Situation
=========
The Homeworld War ended some 15 years ago. The Kushan successfully laid claim
to Hiigara on the dead body of the Taiidan Emperor. Since then, nothing has
been the same. The old Taiidani Empire has shattered into a thousand little
kingdoms, the largest being the new Taiidani Republic, run by the rebels that
assisted the Kushan in the final stages of the war. Imperialist Taiidan still
roam the galaxy, causing trouble to just about everyone with their Turanic
allies. The Kushan did not emerge unscathed, as political, economic, and
military pressures seemed to pile up on all sides. Reduced to a mere population
of 550,000 the Kushan have struggled to build a new life on Hiigara and keep the
5-light-year area around it (given to them by the Galactic Council as their
sovreign space) safe from pirates, dissidents, and troublemakers. The Kiiths
(Clans) of the Kushan have been slowly spiraling downward, as only 6 Kiiths in
particular arrived on Hiigara in any significant numbers. The most significant
event (well, for the game to happen, anyway), was when Kiith Somtaaw
successfully negotiated with the New Daiamid Assembly (the council of Kiiths)
for use of the Mothership, long pressed into service as an orbital construction
yard, for 45 days. They would create as many ships as they could in that time,
and then the majority of Kiith Somtaaw would depart Hiigara and take up an
existence as deep-space miners, still loyal to the Kushan, but seperate.
Beyond all expectations, they finished three ships in that time, two massive
mining behemoths (each almost as big as the Mothership) and a much smaller
science vessel. They were christened the Faal-Corum, the Kuun Lan, and the
Clee-San, in order. For years, Kiith Somtaaw has wandered around Hiigara, mining
the asteroids and nebulae of the area, and selling the resources found as
prescribed by Kushan Law to those on Hiigara or friendly races nearby. The game
begins with the player as the Captain of the Kuun Lan, on a routine mining
expedition, when a distress call comes in from Hiigara....
=====
Ships
=====
Just so you know, 'FMA' stands for 'First Mission Available', meaning the
single-player mission you are first allowed to research the last critical piece
in order to produce the ship. Firepower for capital ships will come with a
turret count (those known, anyway), general arrangement, and coverage %. Any
special Actions will come with a number in '( )', which is the mission number
that you can reaserch said upgrade, if it's not there, the ship comes with the
ability right off. 'Job' is just a few words expressing my opinion as the ship's
main role, it's just IMO. 'SR' is short for 'Survivability Rating', wich varies
from Very Low to Very High, and is again IMO, according to my experience with
said unit.
In the few cases where exact figures are unknown, a general description is used.
----------------------------------------
Kiith Somtaaw ships (aka: The Good Guys)
----------------------------------------
Kuun Lan
FMA: Start
Armor: 98k
Firepower: 5400, 6 turrets, 4 near the engines, one on nose, one on top, roughly
70% coverage
Max Velocity: 110 m/s
Special Action: Seige Cannon (10)
Job: Mobile Main Base
SR: Very High
Your command ship, designed to be a mining ship, but easily upgradeable when
technology becomes available. One of only two ships in it's class, the other
being the Faal-Corum, but the Kuun Lan is considered the more advanced of the
two. Capable of deep-space mining, construction of a wide variety of vessels and
modules, and can easily fend off small attack forces unaided.
The biggest thing to remember about this ship is that in many ways it does not
compare to the Mothership of the origional Homeworld. It is self-mobile,
upgradable, heavily armed, and has three hangar entry points for it's fighters.
It's more like it's the lovechild of a Destroyer and a Carrier than a
newly-designed Mothership. The mobility is a big factor, even though it can't
move or turn very fast, it can still move around the scenario map, running away
from enemies or moving in to protect the Workers. In most scenarios, it's best
to move the ship away from the starting point as soon as possible (exactly where
-to- depends on the mission). The firepower is also a big bonus, as it is quite
capable of taking care of itself from small to medium attack forces, and while
it can't handle the Big Boys by itself until the development of the Seige
Cannon, it can provide some fire support.
I haven't played any multiplayer missions yet, but in my mind, the best way to
attack this ship is to distract it's escorts, then strike hard from behind and
below, where it's coverage is weakest. Most of the time the AI isn't smart
enough to hit the ship right there unless you really screw up in your maneuvers,
but it is clearly the weakest point. Another tactic is to angle your ships so
that their fire directly hits one of the many modifications, each of which comes
with their own health rating, and can (in theory anyway) be destroyed with a
fraction of the effort the main vessel would take. Destroying the suppport pods
would be especially vicious, as that is where most SUs come from.
A word of warning, though. That Seige Cannon's a lot of fun, but it's a pain to
aim and fire. The attack fleet you're aiming at might not be there when the shot
finnaly gets there. Plus you definitely do -not- want to aim too close to the
Kuun Lan. And one more thing... The most embarrassing loss I've ever had in this
game was very late in mission 16. I was lining up a shot, had the Beast on the
ropes, ordered the shot to hit square on the big bad ship, took a seat to watch
the fireworks...
And watched in silence when the shot hit one of my own Destroyers, who was
sitting right in front of the Kuun Lan. 90% of my fleet wiped out in a single
stroke.
Take it from me. MAKE SURE THE BARREL IS CLEAR OF OBSTRUCTIONS.
Worker
FMA: Start
SU Cost: 4
Armor: 1500
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 425 m/s
Special Action: Harvest, Salvage (2), Repair (2)
Job: General Mechanic
SR: Low
Say hello to the Worker, a resource collector, salvage corvette, and repair
corvette all rolled into one. In actuality, their main jobs will be havesting
and repair. I've had minimal success with salvaging up to this point, and I
doubt salvage will ever be as usefull or effective as it was in the origional
Homeworld. There's just not that many ships you -can- capture. Besides which,
you must have the SUs to support the target before they will even make the
attempt. Still, in it's remaining two roles, it is obviously indispensible. Keep
it away from enemy ships, it's too slow to outrun fighters or corvettes (and
some frigates), and a small escort is a good idea in contested territory.
Processor
FMA: Start
SU Cost: 13
Armor: 45k
Firepower: 2500, in four turrets, above/below/left/right, 80% coverage
Max Velocity: 250 m/s
Job: Worker Escort
SR: High
The main job of this ship is to provide an alternate drop-off point for the
Workers who are busy collecting resources. Somehow stuff dropped off here will
instantly (and invisibly) be sent to the Kuun Lan, but let's not quibble. It's
secondary job is to keep the Workers safe from small fighter attacks, and in
emergencies, to give fire support to other warships. It can handle maybe 12
fighters at once before it'll need assistance. Also, once the workers are
upgraded to repair vessels, this ship can also be upgraded to have four repair
beams mounted on the sides (two on each). You can't direct the ship to repair
specific vessels, any ally that flies past the sides of this ship will be beamed
for however long they remain in the repair arc. What I thought was a drain of
power associated with this ability turned out to be something worse. A blind
spot the size of Kansas right in front of this ship, where the guns can't fire.
Keep an eye on these guys if they start getting hit bad.
Recon fighter
FMA: Start
SU cost: 2
Armor: 25
Firepower: 40
Max Velocity: 1050 m/s
Job: Recon (duh!)
SR: Low
The fastest ship in the fleet. Famed in song and story. Can make the Kessel Run
in less than 2 parsecs...
Ahem. Sorry about that. Really, it is the fastest ship you've got, and also very
specialized for it's purpose. The scenario maps aren't like they were in the
origional Homeworld, you don't know where all the resources are automatically,
and enemies won't come up on sensors until they're fairly close. In steps the
Recon fighter. Send it zipping around the scenario maps, up and down the dust
trails looking for resources and around areas likely to contain enemies. You're
always going to need one or two of these ships just for finding resources, if
nothing else. While there is a weapon on board, the recon fighter is too weak
and too fragile to survive most conflicts, except against the Big Boys, who
typically can't hit anything smaller than a frigate. But even then, it's pretty
much like taking down a deisel train engine with a pea-shooter. Trust me, treat
it by it's name and leave the fighting to other ships. It only gets an SR of Low
from me because of it's sheer speed, and you usually can maneuver around chasing
interceptors and make it back to safety before they even get within firing
range.
Acolyte fighter
FMA: Start
SU Cost: 2
Armor: 70
Firepower: 85
Max Velocity: 825 m/s
Special Action: Link (1), Missiles (3)
Job: Fighter Interceptor
SR: Low
ACV corvette
FMA: 1-Hiigara
SU Cost: 4
Armor: 140
Firepower: 170
Max Velocity: 600 m/s
Special Action: Unlink, EMP (7)
Job: All-Purpose Strike Craft
SR: Medium
I'm putting these two together because they are, essentially, the same ship in
two different modes. The ACV is simply two Acolytes attached together by their
undersides. This is also the workhorse of your military, as ships that are
frigate class and larger usually soak up too many SUs to really justify except
in special circumstances. Aside from the EMP, there's a surprising amount of
difference between the two modes. Fighter mode is mainly to deal with enemy
fighters and to get your forces across distances quickly, while corvette mode is
the main battle mode, able to deal with just about anything your fleet will come
up against. Actually, it's pretty rare for my units to be in fighter mode at
all. Even when told to behave evasively, they're simply too easy to destroy. You
may seem to get an identical amount of armour and firepower from one ACV as two
Acolytes, but in practice the corvette will leave the fighters in the dust. They
can even handle enemy fighters in this mode. But there are times when speed
counts, and you'll have to switch to fighter mode to get to the action as
quickly as possible. Just remember to either re-link just outside of the action
or stay in fighter mode, the ships have to move very carefully to link, and are
vulnerable at that moment. Unlinking isn't that bad, you can even do it in the
middle of a firefight, the only problem being is that they tend to forget what
they were doing before you ordered them to unlink.
I just recently realized that some research that I thought was pointless
(missiles, during mission 3), actually does have a point. The Acolyte can carry
two missiles, and launch them as a special attack. They have to return to base
for a refil, I think. The missiles can't fire in corvette mode. They're a nice
burst of offensive power when you desperately need it.
Ram frigate
FMA: Start
SU Cost: 10
Armor: 4700
Firepower: 2500, see below
Max Velocity: 398 m/s
Special Action: RAM!
Job: Headbanger!
SR: High
Possibly one of the more unusual units I've ever come across in a game, the Ram
frigate is designed as a heavy tug. Well, that's what the manual calls it.
Personally, every time I send these guys into a fight, I get the urge to cry out
"Damn the torpedoes! RAMMING SPEED!" Shaped like a hammerhead shark, this
frigate will charge in and grapple with the target (assuming it survives the
inital impact), and proceed to shove it in whatever direction the frigate is
facing, while also activating a belly-mounted cutting laser and trying to chew
it's way through the hull. On the first mission, I sent two of these guys after
the resource-gathering enemy carrier just for fun, by themselves. Sure, they
were still bashing away at it half an hour later, but I can still picture the
crumpled-up wreckage they must have left behind when they were finished. With an
Afterburner upgrade, they really can push others around (without it, the target
won't move at all), knocking them out of position, forcing big ships away from
valuable units, and even accurately nail fighters and corvettes (who pretty much
explode instantly). It doesn't have any weapons other than this ability (the
cutting laser never activates unless it's grappling something), but it still is
a fun unit. Big ships can't move or turn once a Ram frigate has grappled it, and
so the frigate is (most of the time) out of the firing arc of the ship it's
attached to, and other ships trying to shoot at the frigate quite often hit the
ship it's grappling. Also, Ram frigates are immune to ramming damage, so don't
waste time having one of yours attack one of theirs, they'd just end up bouncing
off each other ad infinitum and doing no damage at all.
Mimic infiltrator
FMA: 2-Outskirts of Hiigaran System
SU Cost: 2
Armor: 20
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 750 m/s
Special Action: Mimic, Link
Job: Spy
SR: Very High
MCV corvette
FMA: 2-Outskirts of Hiigaran System
SU Cost: 4
Armor: 40
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 550 m/s
Special Action: Mimic, Unlink
Job: Scarecrow?
SR: Very High
Another two ships that are basically the same ship in two modes, like the
Acolyte and ACV. One MCV is two Mimics attached to each other. Of course, the
Mimic is highly specialized in it's role. Holographic emitters around the ship
can make it appear to be any fighter or corvette-class ship you have on record,
or even an asteroid. The larger MCV can even look like a frigate or a very
large asteroid. In single-player, the AI isn't really interested in the size of
your forces, so having a mimic look like more allied ships is useless at best.
But, having it look like an enemy ship can be usefull for scoping out the
situation where the Recon fighter can't go, and in fact, a few missions will
require this. Enemy mines will not react to a Mimic that's appropriately
disguised. In multiplayer, it may or may not work out, depending on how
attentive your opponent is. Whatever shape the Mimic takes, it still leaves it's
own engine trails when it moves, a dead giveaway if it looks like a frigate, and
suspicious in several fighter/corvette shapes. You could use MCVs to make your
force look impressively large, but again only while they're not moving. The
ability to look like asteroids might have been usefull if it actually had a
weapon on board (Hey, who's shooting at my workers? That belt's -empty-!), but
maybe you can use them as lures for an ambush, I dunno. They do have some attack
ability, but it's just your basic kamikaze attack, largely useless against any
ship of significant size. Their SR's are conditional, on the condition that you
only use the mimic ability out of sight of enemies, and dress appropriately. If
they are detected, kiss 'em goodbye.
Okay, figured out the two dots under the health bar. The one on the left
indicates whether the Mimic has been detected or not (green is good), and the
one on the right indicates whether or not the Mimic is disguised (green is yes).
Sentinel
FMA: 5-Aiowa System
SU Cost: 3
Armor: 350
Firepower: 290
Max Velocity: 250 m/s
Special Action: Shield (5)
Job: Shielding
SR: Low
Oh look, it's the Defender from the origional Homeworld. Cute new ability, but
behaves pretty much the same. Too slow to take on anything but capital ships,
reasonably effective escorts while in sphere formation, but again too slow to
really keep up with anything other than your command ship. The shield's pretty
neat, I'll admit. Up to 12 Sentinels can form one shield around a ship (a
minimum of 3 are required for any shielding at all, though it's very small at
that point), and the Sentinels will absorb all attacks that come in first,
before the ship they're shielding is hit. Of course, they can only take so much
of a beating before exploding, so it's a temporary shield. And the shield takes
all their power, so they can't shoot at anything while doing it. And if an enemy
ship simply moves inside the shield, they can blast away without interference.
At least only a few Sentinels (or just one) explode each time, so the shielding
comes down in pieces instead of all atonce. I've only tried this out in a few
situations, and each time it seemed the shield started caving in after the first
few hits. It does look quite pretty, though.
Okay, I take it back. With the level 2 shield upgrade, having 12 Sentinels on
hand for each mission does make sense, since at that point the shield is pretty
strong. You can use it to keep the Kuun Lan covered, or another highly important
ship. With the level 3 shield, it pretty much becomes a case of invulnerability.
It takes a lot of effort to pop a level 3 shield, or one too-close shot of the
Seige Cannon. Also, the shield does fail in sections, but the Sentinels don't
automatically explode as a result. I just hadn't seen where the enemies were
aiming is all. Once the shield around a Sentinel fails, it doesn't last long,
but
it will remain and try to re-establish the shields. Keep in mind a Sentinel will
slow down a ship it's shielding.
The Juggernaut informed me that the Sentinel shield makes
nice Processor protection. Whenever the Sentinels get damaged, the Processor
immediately kicks in it's repair beams. Sounds pretty effective, and it would
cover the Workers who were in the process of docking too.
Hive Frigate
FMA: 6-Kadiir Nebula
SU Cost: 20
Armor: 3800
Firepower: 1400, forward mounted static guns
Max Velocity: 390 m/s
Special Action: Swarm
Job: General Harassment
SR: ?
I don't have much experience at all with this frigate. It -seems- like a
workable design (It's the Kadesh Nebula all over again!!), but again I haven't
had much experience with it.
Leech
FMA: 6-Kadiir Nebula
SU Cost: 2
Armor: 30
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 1250 m/s
Special Action: Leech
Job: Sabotage
SR: High
Okay, I lied, the Recon Fighter isn't the fastest ship you have, the Leech is.
But the Leech has very limited scanning abilities (even compared to regular
fighters), and is pretty much a dud as far as scouting goes. It's a stealth
craft, too tiny to really see and invisible to radar, so it can zip in, clamp
onto a ship (frigate or bigger), cut a hole in the hull and vent anything it can
find, damaging the ship in the process. Unfortunately, it's a very -slow-
process, not like it says in the manual. If you want to take down a heavy
cruiser with Leeches, send at least a dozen. Of course, this craft also has the
ability to siphon whatever the ship holds and carry it back to your command ship
instead of just venting it, giving you an alternate source of RUs. It seems a
bit of a bother to do, however.
Multi-Beam Frigate
FMA: 8-Deep Space (Koreth's Rift Sector)
SU Cost: 12
Armor: 4000
Firepower: 3900, 5 point-defense ion cannons, top/bottom/left/right/front, 90%
coverage
Max Velocity: 370 m/s
Job: Fighter Mauler
SR: High
You should keep a few of these on hand, they free up the ACVs from Interception
duties entirely. Eight of these can reduce three dozen strike craft to so much
debree in moments. They'll fly around semi-randomly in order to employ all
cannons at the same time. Don't worry, they are doing their job.
Destroyer
FMA: 11-System AZ-23769
SU Cost: 38
Armor: 16k
Firepower: 8500, four heavy gun turrets (sides/bottom), four missile launchers
(top), two ion cannons (front), 30% coverage
Max Velocity: 325 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: High
Your first real capital ship. They can handle a wide variety of opponents, the
missiles allow it to help with strike craft, and the combination of guns is
lethal against other cap ships. Definitely a healthy addition to your fleet.
Infection attacks only damage.
Carrier
FMA: 11-System AZ-23769
SU Cost: 0
Armor: 65k
Firepower: 4200, four cannon turrets (top/bottom), 80% coverage
Max Velocity: 300 m/s
Job: Support
SR: Very High
Completely self-sufficient, adds 40 SUs to your total by itself, able to build 6
support modules on it's belly, and has two docking bays for Workers. Once you
get the tech to build these, build two (all you're allowed) and beef your SU
pool up to the maximum. They make good Worker escorts too, replacing the
Processor. Infection attacks only damage.
Dreadnought
FMA: 14-Galactic Rim (Gulf Sector)
SU Cost: 80
Armor: 85k
Firepower: 24k, four heavy gun turrets (top/bottom), six missile launchers
(front), two ion cannon turrets (top/bottom), 80% coverage
Max Velocity: 280 m/s
Special Action: Repulse (17)
Job: Juggernaught
SR: Very High
This guy can take on a Heavy Cruiser by itself and come back for more.
Unfortuately, the huge cost (both in RUs and SUs) to own it means you probably
won't have more than one in service at any time. I found it more usefull to have
one Dreadnought aided by three Destroyers than having two Dreadnoughts. But
you'll definitely find a use for this ship, so don't write it off altogether.
Infection attacks only damage.
Super Acolyte
FMA: 17-Naval Base Alpha
SU Cost: 3?
Armor: ?
Firepower: LOTS, 3-4 ion cannons
Max Velocity: About as fast as a regular Acolyte (guessing)
Job: Mobile Slaughter
SR: High
You only get these guys at the very last minute, and there's no way to research
for them (they're given to you). But for the short time I had them, I loved
them! A squad of 10 of these took on a Beast Carrier by themselves and destroyed
it in about 15 seconds. Yes, they aren't that armored, but few ships survive
long enough to land more than one or two hits.
--------------------------------------------
Imperialist Taiidan ships (aka The Bad Guys)
--------------------------------------------
Interceptor
Armor: 72
Firepower: 75
Max Velocity: 775 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Low
You'll get these most often from the Taiidan. They're not much of a threat by
themselves, except in mobs.
Bomber
Armor: 80
Firepower: 86
Max Velocity: 650 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Low
Your very first opponent in the game. They're still vulnerable to fighter
attack, and actually seem to have lost effectivness against cap ships.
Defender
Armor: 78
Firepower: 190
Max Velocity: 385 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Defense
SR: Low
These guys will crop up from time to time, and are more of a nuisance than a
threat. They don't have the speed or maneuverability to be more.
Multi-Gun corvette
Armor: 700
Firepower: 380
Max Velocity: 600 m/s
Job: Fighter combat
SR: Medium
You'll get a few of these, and yes they are a pain, but they can't hold up under
concentrated firepower.
Minelayer corvette
Armor: 1250
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 425 m/s
Job: General Harassment
SR: Low
These guys are a danger to fighters. They'll drop mines as a form of attack, and
your units will be too distracted to dodge well. Take them out with capital
ships who can survive the beating.
Heavy Cruiser
Armor: 75k
Firepower: 20k, 3 heavy gun turrets on each side, 2 heavy ion cannon turrets
on nose, 30% coverage
Max Velocity: 250 m/s
Job: Big Gun
SR: Very High
You'll meet a few of these along the way, and each one will give you a headache.
Approach with caution, and preferably with strike craft.
Carrier
Armor: 60k
Firepower: 4k, several point-defense turrets, 75% coverage
Max Velocity: 300 m/s
Job: Fighter/Corvette Construction
SR: High
There are three of them in the first mission, and two will be handled by allied
forces. The third is target practice for you.
Destroyer
Armor: 15k
Firepower: 7055, 2 heavy gun turrets in front, 2 front-firing ion cannons, 35%
coverage
Max Velocity: 295 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: High
Pretty rare sight, actually. The Somtaaw version is more powerfull, and it does
have a hard time hitting ACVs.
Missile Destroyer
Armor: 12.5k
Firepower: 4550, 4 side-mounted missile launchers
Max Velocity: 295 m/s
Job: Fighter Mauler
SR: High
Besides the one before the first mission, I've only seen one in mission 9. If
you have to deal with one, use Destroyers or bigger, ACVs won't have much of a
chance.
Salvage corvette
Armor: 1100
Firepower: 125??
Max Velocity: 450 m/s
Job: ?
SR: ?
I don't think these are even in the single-player game.
Defense Field frigate
Armor: 4400
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 325 m/s
Job: Nuisance
SR: Medium
Same design as in the origional. It still can't deflect everything, but does
nothing if you ignore it altogether.
Ion Beam frigate
Armor: 4200
Firepower: 3040, one nose-mounted ion cannon
Max Velocity: 300 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
Same design as before, still can't hit strike craft.
Proximity Sensor
Armor: 600
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 1000 m/s
Job: Detection
SR: Very Low
Annoying in the missions that have them, but nothing more. No defenses at all,
and never actually moves anywhere.
Assault frigate
Armor: 4500
Firepower: 2548, four gun turrens in front, two plasma bomb launchers in nose,
75% coverage
Max Velocity: 325 m/s
Job: General Combat
SR: Medium
Actually, they've gotten much more accurate since the origional, and can nail
your strike craft. Can't stand up to focused firepower.
Support frigate
Armor: 3800
Firepower: 2000, two gun turrets in front, 50% coverage
Max Velocity: 450 m/s
Job: Repair
SR: Medium
You'll see these guys escorting other ships into combat. If you want it to go
easier, nail these ships first.
GravWell frigate
Armor: 3400
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 325 m/s
Job: Fighter Trap
SR: Medium
Still potentially leathal to your strike craft. Also seems to always be on, with
no time limit. Hit them with cap ships.
---------------------------------------------
Turanic Raider ships (aka The Annoying Pests)
---------------------------------------------
Interceptor
Armor: 75
Firepower: 65
Max Velocity: 780 m/s
Job: General-Purpose Annoyance
SR: Very Low
Okay, the Turanics -have- gotten some tech upgrades for their ships, but they
are still less effective than your own ships. You'll be seeing the Interceptor
the most from the Turanics.
Heavy Corvette
Armor: 1200
Firepower: 200
Max Velocity: 550 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
Supposedly capable of salvage operations (I haven't witnessed this myself), but
in any case somewhat dangerous to cap ships. Focus fire on these guys when they
show up.
Missile Corvette
Armor: 1300
Firepower:320
Max Velocity: 500 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Medium
These guys are a bloody nuisance. If you ever loose any ACVs to Turanics, this
is the ship you'll lose them to. Even when evasive, your strike craft can't
really dodge the missiles. Nail them fast.
Ion Array frigate
Armor: 4800
Firepower: 3500, one ion cannon in nose
Max Velocity: 245 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Low
Pretty much an unchanged design, but your really won't encounter them often.
They still can't hit fighters and corvettes, so that's how you deal with them.
Attack Carrier
Armor: 58k
Firepower: 7500, two ion cannons in front, several point defense cannons
Max Velocity: 235 m/s
Job: General Warmonger
SR: High
I've only encountered a few of these so far. The ones that hang around are
highly unpleasant, don't take them on with less than two Destroyers.
Outpost
Armor: ?
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 0 m/s
Job: Mission Goal
SR: Very High
You only meet one of these, and it's quite unarmed (though it does come with a
big escort fleet). Not a threat.
-------------------------------------
Beast Ships (aka The Legions of Hell)
-------------------------------------
Beast Acolyte
Armor: 80
Firepower: 85
Max Velocity: 800 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Low
Beast ACV
Armor: 160
Firepower: 170
Max Velocity: 580 m/s
Job: General-Purpose Strike Craft
SR: Medium
You're going to be dealing with a lot of these, especially since most of them
will have been your own units. Concentrated firepower's your best bet.
Beast Interceptor
Armor: 85
Firepower: 65
Max Velocity: 810 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Low
You'll see a lot of these too.
Beast Bomber
Armor: 90
Firepower: 86
Max Velocity: 640 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Low
You'll see fewer of these. They're still not as effective as they used to be.
Beast Cloaked fighter
Armor: 80
Firepower: 75
Max Velocity: 750 m/s
Special Action: Cloak
Job: Ambush
SR: Low
These guys come up later, and can be a nasty shock. They can't stay cloaked
during an attack, so deal with them like any other fighter.
Beast Sentinel
Armor: 400
Firepower: 290
Max Velocity: 225 m/s
Special Action: Shield
Job: Shielding
SR: Low
The AI usually puts these up around Hives and Carriers. Best option is to hit
them before the shield is fully up, otherwise just concentrate on the ship
they're shielding.
Beast Recon
Armor: 30
Firepower: 40
Max Velocity: 1000 m/s
Job: Recon
SR: Very Low
You won't see these until very late, when the AI tries using swarms of them to
attack you. Talk about a brief fight.
Beast Missile Corvette
Armor: 1400
Firepower: 320
Max Velocity: 490 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Medium
A rare sight, really, treat them like the Turanic version.
Beast Cruise Missile
Armor: 68
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 650 m/s
Job: #&*$-#&%#&$*
SR: Low
Pardon me. ^*#@%{{ APP_CONTENT }}amp;amp;%@^%*$@$^#%*$#%&@#$^#%*&$#*#.....
Well, you get the idea. Take them down the moment you see them.
Beast Multi-Gun corvette
Armor: 730
Firepower: 380
Max Velocity: 570 m/s
Job: Fighter Combat
SR: Low
For some reason the AI keeps throwing these units at your cap ships instead. Not
much of a threat in that case.
Beast Heavy corvette
Armor: 1700
Firepower: 200
Max Velocity: 550 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
These guys don't show up that often, but those that do can take a serious
beating before blowing up. Concentrate fire.
Beast Ion Array frigate
Armor: 5100
Firepower: 3500, nose-mounted ion cannon
Max Velocity: 230 m/s
Special Action: Cloak
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
The only cap ship that can cloak. Sadly, they're no more effective than the
origional Ion Array, so it's a minor consideration. Dangerous only in mobs.
Beast Defense Field frigate
Armor: 4650
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 310 m/s
Job: Bloody Nuisance
SR: Medium
They didn't have much purpose in the origional, and they still don't. The
deflection is interesting, but it can't block everything.
Beast Heavy Cruiser
Armor: 77k
Firepower: 20k, six heavy gun turrets (left/right), two heavy ion cannon turrets
(front), six infection guns (front/left/right)
Max Velocity: 245 m/s
Special Action: Infect
Job: Big Gun
SR: Very High
Still a big headache, and what's worse, they can infect your ships. Thankfully,
there seems to be at least a 2 minute delay between infection shots, so you have
time between them to destroy it, if you don't have anything that is (mostly)
immune.
Beast Carrier
Armor: 65k
Firepower: 4k, point defense turrets, six infection guns (front/left/right)
Max Velocity: 290 m/s
Special Action: Infect
Job: Support
SR: Very High
You'll see these from time to time. Deal with them like Beast Heavy Cruisers.
Beast Multi-Beam frigate
Armor: 4200
Firepower: 3900, five point-defense ion cannons (top/bottom/left/right/front),
90% coverage
Max Velocity: 330 m/s
Job: Fighter Mauler
SR: Medium
Another unit the AI thinks is a cap ship fighter. Usually in groups of four or
five.
Beast Hive frigate
Armor: 4000
Firepower: 1400, two front-mounted guns
Max Velocity: 345 m/s
Job: General Harassment
SR: Medium
The AI likes these for some reason. Take out the frigate instead of dealing with
the drones individually.
Beast Ramming frigate
Armor: 5100
Firepower: 2500
Max Velocity: 378 m/s
Job: Capital Ship Combat
SR: Medium
You'll see a lot of these too, but other than their annoying habit of walking
off with your capital ships, they're not a threat by themselves. Especially when
they ram a Destroyer or Dreadnought, the missile launchers can still hit it.
Beast Worker
Armor: 1800
Firepower: -
Max Velocity: 365 m/s
Job: Mechanic
SR: Low
Beast Processor
Armor: 45.1k
Firepower: 2500, four gun turrets (top/bottom/left/right)
Max Velocity: 235 m/s
Job: Worker Escort
SR: Medium
Identical to the Somtaaw ships, but the AI -never- uses Processors.
Beast Mothership
Armor: 94k
Firepower: 4600
Max Velocity: 110 m/s
Special Action: Infect
Job: Mobile Base
SR: Very High
Pretty much identical to the Kuun Lan. There's only one, thankfully. Avoid when
possible.
NAGGAROK
Armor: LOTS
Firepower: Several point-defense ion cannons
Max Velocity: INSANE
Special Action: Eat Capital Ship
Job: The Last Boss
SR: Extremely High
The SOB in mission 17. Read about it in the walkthrough below.
==========
Formations
==========
----------
Delta (F5)
----------
An old formation designed for atmosphere-bound vehicles. Lacks the adaptability
to handle 3D space. Use it mainly to organize non-combat vehicles when moving
from place to place.
----------
Broad (F6)
----------
Supposedly usefull for organizing capital ships. I've found it more problematic
than usefull. The ships will constantly move around according to the behavior of
the ship on the far left (viewed from behind) trying to stay in a straight line
on it's right, unless you give each one seperate orders and thus break up the
formation. Don't bother.
------
X (F7)
------
I use this formation a lot when dealing with my Acolytes/ACVs. It keeps their
firepower concentrated and organized. Peeling off to deal with a swarm of enemy
fighters is also very easy in this formation.
---------
Claw (F8)
---------
I don't use this one as much as I did in the origional, since it is mainly a
fighter configuration, and I usually keep my units in corvette mode during a
fight.
---------
Wall (F9)
---------
Another formation supposedly usefull for capital ships. Now they're being
dragged around by the guy on the upper-left, which defeats the purpose of the
wall altogether.
------------
Sphere (F10)
------------
Pretty much the only formation where the Sentinel has any use. It reduces any
incoming fighters to mere target practice. While in this formation, if the group
of units is told to guard a ship, that ship becomes the center of the sphere.
Bit too restrictive when it comes to attacking.
=======
Tactics
=======
------------
Evasive (F2)
------------
Ships will not stay in formation (assuming they have one) when engaging enemies,
and will pair off or fight alone as the situation demands. They won't initiate
combat unless ordered, and is generally only usefull with and against fighters.
Even so, it's become a lot less effective at keeping your units alive than in
the origional. I use it sparingly, if at all. It is nice for the speed bonus if
you're trying to move fast, and handy when you want to engage all the local
fighters at once.
------------
Neutral (F3)
------------
Why?
---------------
Aggressive (F4)
---------------
Many of my warships live here. They will stay in formation no matter what, they
get a small attack bonus, and will generally kick the butt of anyone foolish to
stray near. What's not to like? The corvettes, especially, will circle the
targets while in formation, giving them an almost non-stop pounding.
================
General Strategy
================
An excerpt from an e-mail from ckayano_dte@ibm.net:
- Acolyte (SU=2), ACV(SU=4) Acolyte: Missiles: Each Acolyte carries two
missiles, and they do quite a bit more damage than the normal shot (more than
an order of magniture), and they do need to return to a base to refil missles.
ACV mode: I actually think the armor is nearly triple than that of the Acolyte
(220 vs 700) I usually keep the fighters in ACV mode; though putting them into
BROAD formation helps expedite the linking command. What I started to do is:
(if there's no fighters to fight) Send in ACVs to attack a cap ship, EMP,
unlink, missile it, retreat in evasive broad formation, relink, refuel.
- Hive Frigate (SU=20, SR=High)
Quite a great ship design; although it takes way too many SU in my opinion.
Each frigate carries a small complement (6?) of swarmers. This frigate is
very effective versus small ships. I use them to take down missile
corvettes, and those damn beast missiles. Also, when attacking enemy ships
that have escorts, I let the destroyer fleet concentrate on the enemy ship,
while the swarmers take down the escorts (usually multigun corvettes; which
I don't want to lose fighters to). The swarmers either don't die, or
regenerate pretty damn quickly, since I've never had a point where I had no
swarmers available.
And in a few cases, the swarmers act as good distraction material for enemy
multibeam frigates, and the Nomad Moon. I've seen these enemies focusing on
trying to destroy the swarmers, while ignoring the destroyer fleet that's
pounding on it.
========
Missions
========
Keep in mind that I mainly play on Normal difficulty. Details may be different
on other levels.
1 - Hiigara
Initial Forces: Kuun Lan, 3 Recon fighters, 2 Workers
This battle's pretty straightforward. Most of the action is happening between
two other fleets, the Hiigaran Defense vs the raiding Imperialist Taiidan, and
it's going on some distance away from the Kuun Lan. It's pretty skewed in favor
of the home team, so you don't have to involve yourself in that fight if you
don't want to. The General in charge of the fleet will ask you to help out some
Ion Cannon frigates who've fallen prey to a squad of bombers to start with.
Tactical advises sending over some Acolytes to swat the bombers.
There's a few asteroids near your starting position, and your workers will find
a few more by themselves, and another objective will show you the position of
the only other deposit on the map that I've found, so recon isn't that
important. Stash your Recon fighters, send your Workers out and start making
Acolytes. Also build a Processor to follow your Workers around (tell it to guard
them both when it's built) and order the Kuun Lan towards the proximity sensor
net (the band of blue dots on the sensors manager). Facing them from the Kuun
Lan, they look like two rows of squares. You want the Kuun Lan in the center of
the top-rightmost square.
On the way, 5 interceptors will charge out of the main battle to investigate
your arrival. They'll go after the Workers but they don't really have the punch
to be dangerous. The Processor should be ready before they arrive and already
guarding the Workers. It'll be over quick. They'll send a few more every now and
then through the mission just to be annoying. If one of the Workers goes yellow
in the health bar, send it in for repairs and then send it back out. That done,
get at least 6 Acolytes together (10 is advised) and send them to the flailing
Ion Cannon frigates. The bombers will pretty much ignore your fighters, so it'll
be over fast. Once they're out of the way, the Ion frigates will chase down a
nearby Carrier and then join the main battle.
Tactical will congratulate you on your victory, and the General will ask you to
recon a point away from the main battle for a counter-attack. Send your Acolytes
there instead. They'll find five Taiidan resource gatherers gobbling up
asteroids, with three Defenders doing escort. Hit them hard and fast, before
they can fall back to a nearby Carrier. While this is going on, Tactical will
mention the tech boys think they can make Acolytes link together. Start the
research and keep an eye on the battle. Smash the escort and two of the
resourcers, then call the Acolytes back for repair and upgrade. Build some more
Acolytes so you end up with a total of 18. Once the research is done, send them
to the convoy as Acolytes, link them up to ACVs, (good practice in moving fast!)
and use all 9 of them to finish the resourcers and then the Carrier they're
supplying.
Once the resourcers are dead, several fighters, bombers, and a pair of MG
corvettes will start attacking the proximity sensor net, and Tactical will tell
you to stop them. But of course, the Kuun Lan should have long ago arrived, and
in a prime position to send them to their makers. It saves the frustration of
chasing them all around the place with your ACVs, who should be busy with that
Carrier. And it also gives good odds to saving the entire net, though I've never
been able to save the interceptors patroling there. They won't be able to hurt
the Kuun Lan that much before dying.
Fighters gone, the General has one more errand for you to run. A Heavy Cruiser
has turned tail from the main fighting and is limping around in the distance. I
would have loved to have had salvage capability for this mission, an HC is such
a precious thing to waste. But then, I'm from the old school of Homeworld. "If
it ain't a fighter or corvette, SALVAGE IT!" Once they're finished with the
Carrier, call in your ACVs for repairs, then send them to do the deed. There'll
be a few Defenders keeping watch, nothing your ACVs can't handle.
That's it. Finish gathering the resources, help mop up any remaining enemies in
the main battle area for the experience, and hit 'end mission'.
2 - Outskirts of Hiigaran System
Well, big surprise, Kiith Somtaaw didn't even get an honorable mention when the
congratulations were handed out. And yet they found time to give you another
chore to do. Seems a Destroyer, the Bushan-Re, got hit pretty badly and has
drifted into a rather active asteroid belt. You've been sent to find and help
her out. Tactical will mention that your workers aren't able to handle repair
and salvage duties, and suggests building a research module (engineering).
Most of the asteroids (those that are moving) are unharvestable, but there are
some resources on this level. The Workers will find them by themselves, I
haven't been able to locate any other deposits on this map. Tactical will point
out that there are asteroids flying about (gee, ya noticed?) and that the
Destroyer might get hit by them if you don't find it fast. Don't worry, they're
not that hard to find. Start construction of the module. Once the module's
complete, research the two techs and upgrade the Workers when ready.
There are Turanics around, so keep your ACVs out and ready to handle any that
decide to attack you, but don't bother chasing them around the map. Eventually,
Tactical will mention that there are signal echos in the area, and marks three
possible locations to explore. They're very close to each other, so just send
your ACVs out to any one of them and they'll find the Bushan-Re. Send the Kuun
Lan towards the pings right off, you'll need the firepower. The ACVs may
encounter a Turanic patrol en-route, deal with them and keep going.
The Bushan-Re's pretty banged up. Tactical suggests you send a Worker to repair
it right away. No need to delay your harvesting, just build a new one and send
it. Send the harvesting Workers only once they've finished their chores. Have
the ACVs guard the destroyer and adjust the Kuun Lan's course if needed so it
stops nearby. Sometime after repair begins, a hyperspace entry will be detected,
apparently a few Support frigates have arrived to assist with the repairs. Of
course, once they reach the Bushan-Re, it'll be very apparent that something is
wrong. Biggest hint? They have engine trails.
Yep, the Turanics have picked this moment to test out their mimic-ing heavy
corvettes. Between the Kuun Lan and the ACVs, they don't stand a chance. But it
signals the other Turanics to begin their attack runs on the Bushan-Re. Just
stay focused and keep the ACVs moving and aggressive. The Bushan-Re will assist
when enemies wander into it's firing range. Have your ACVs dock during a quiet
moment for repairs when needed. They'll give up after loosing their second wave.
When the Bushan-Re is nearly at full health, you'll notice a second distress
call in the area. The Bushan-Re will deny sending out a distress beacon, and
state that it must be a derilict. Of course, Tactical will tell you to go
retrieve it, the single most stupid idea that could ever come out of her mouth.
And of course, you have to actually go do it. At least it's close by. Send a
Worker with ACV escort and salvage the pod they find. Just before they get
there, a Turanic Carrier will appear on sensors and launch an attack. The
Bushan-Re picks this time to turn tail and run. Cowards.
You get the additional goal of destroying the Turanics, but that's not
neccessary. They retreat once the salvage team docks. During this part of the
fight, Tactical will mention that the science team has figured out how the
Turanics were able to pull off the mimic trick, and you can research them now.
Might as well, saves time later. Once the pod's in your bay, that's it. Finish
research, dock your ACVs, and hit 'end mission'.
3 - Coruc-Tel System
The report to your Kiith-sa bosses doesn't exactly go well. I could practically
hear the politicians drool once they hear about the pod. The Kiith-sa insist on
secrecy and direct you to the science vessel Clee-San, currently in Coruc-Tel.
You arrive at the designated meeting point, but the Clee-San is nowhere in
sight. You pick up a signal from them, heavily garbled. Tactical tells you to go
see what is wrong.
Most of the resources are already visible. Send the Workers and Processor on
their way, and build a Mimic. Just one, not an MCV, and build three Workers as
well. Disguise it as a Turanic Interceptor and send it to the ping. Leave the
Kuun Lan where it is for now. You can research the Afterburner upgrade right
off, do so. After a bit of travel, the Mimic will notice that there are a lot of
mines in the area. Perhaps a clue as to what's wrong? The Mimic will go past
them without incident, and will also notice all the Turanic Raiders in the area,
and the six Taiidan minelayer corvettes dropping more mines.
Once it gets close to the ping, the Mimic will stop. You'll get another garbled
message from the Clee-San, and Tactical will notice that it's completely
surrounded by mines, and can't move without being killed. Tactical will suggest
sending in a Mimic to establish tight-beam communications with the Clee-San.
Well, that's what it's out there for, send it in close. You'll get a clear
message this time, and the codes to see the mines on the sensors manager.
They'll also mention that another fleet is coming to capture them and suggest
haste. This isn't an idle threat. If you take too long on this mission, a
considerable fleet will pop up practically on top of you, and you'll have a hard
time escaping intact.
Okay, this is going to sound strange, but the rest of this mission can be won
with just the Kuun Lan. Keep your ACVs docked, they'll just get hit by mines.
The three new Workers should be told to repair the Kuun Lan and keep it
repaired. Send it straight in towards the Clee-San. Stop every now and then to
target mines, and the occasional skirmish with the Turanics. They'll focus
entirely on the Kuun Lan, and pay the price for it. Once the resourcers are
done, have all 6 Workers keep the Kuun Lan repaired, and get the Processor in
parade formation. In that position, on neutral tactics, it'll keep the Kuun
Lan's belly clear of hostiles. Keep moving in, you'll get there eventually, and
the mines will do minimal damage to the huge Kuun Lan, further minimized by the
Workers. Partway there, you'll recieve word that you can build a new science pod
(weapons), and research missiles. Do so.
Destroy the six mines around the Clee-San that are pinging, and it'll head
straight into the hangar. Once that's done, dock your Workers and get out of
there before the fleet arrives.
4 - Deep Space (Tel Sector)
Kelvin Lee and Jim Ulrich both
donated the same trick for this mission.
The research of the alien pod you recovered begins. Unfortunately, it seems the
scientists got more than they bargained for. A lot more. Power fluctuations are
just the start of it, then biohazard warnings start going off all over the lower
decks. Red splotches start appearing on the hull, spreading... There is no
choice. The lower decks of the Kuun Lan are forcibly ejected before whatever it
is can spread any further. The hangar, science, and lower engine modules fly
away, tumbling to the screams of those still inside...
The Kuun Lan has been split in half, crippled. There are some resources nearby,
but send a Recon briefly in the direction of the lower decks (the ping) to find
a second deposit, then have it return and dock. Get your Workers harvesting and
start rebuilding the Hangar module, as Tactical suggests. Once it's built,
Tactical will say that the Clee-San wants to scan the lower decks, and requires
an escort of ten Acolytes because of all the Turanic activity. You don't get a
choice in this. Have the Workers finish harvesting everything first, Tactical
will shout at you every now and then, just ignore her for the time being.
When the Workers finish, have them dock, then pick the five ACVs with the lowest
experience and have them guard the Clee-San. Have them escort in fighter mode.
It doesn't really matter, 5 ACVs will do just as well as 10 Acolytes, it'll just
save effort if they're in fighter mode. Kelvin and Jim noted that the Clee-San
keeps moving a short distance if you tell the escort to stop. If you time it
right, you can recall your fighters (order them to dock) just before the Clee-
San reaches the lower decks, and thus avoid sharing it's fate. The Clee-San will
move in and start scanning the lower decks...
Now you see why I said to send the lowest experience ships. Rebuild your losses
(stick with 9 ACVs total for now) if you couldn't recall the fighters in time,
and order the Kuun Lan away from the lower decks, as far into the corner as the
map will allow. Tactical will advise researching the recordings, start it right
away. You're going to have incoming attacks shortly. They won't be able to do
much damage before being killed (assuming everyone helps in the fight, ACVs,
Kuun Lan, and Processor), but bring in your ACVs after the second wave for
repairs and send your Workers out to fix the cap ships.
Shortly after the research is done, the Turanics that have been chasing the
Clee-San will finally catch up. They'll ignore your shouted warnings and move
towards the Clee-San... Well, that was very brief. Now you've got eight Ion
Array frigates and a Heavy Cruiser bearing down on your position, not to mention
the fighters they'll send ahead. Get your Workers inside ASAP and hyperspace.
5 - Aiowa System
With the scientists gone, the task of studying what happened falls to the Kuun
Lan's engineers. They'll give you some insight as to what it is you're
specifically fighting, and give it a name. The Beast. Whatever it is, it is
exceedingly old. The Kuun Lan has traveled to Aiowa in search of the Bentusi,
the only known race who might possibly know anything about the Beast.
First, you can see that there are two trails of resources on this map, one in
front of the Kuun Lan, one behind. Tell your Workers to start with the resources
in front first. These resources follow the dust trail that bends to the left,
but don't go too far down that way. Launch your ACVs and send them to the ping
on sensors. You don't have to (in fact, several people have advised me not to
until after all resourcing is done), but that's how I did it.
Just before they arrive, you'll see that the Bentusi are in a BIG heap of
trouble. The Beast has found them and is hammering away with fighters and Ion
Arrays. Help with the fighters for the time being. The Bentusi demonstrate the
lethality of point-defense ion cannons quite well, and can handle themselves.
When the Beast makes a move on the Kuun Lan, call your ACVs back to help in it's
defense. You'll need them for the two Ion Arrays in your face.
Odds are, when that fight's over, your Workers should have finished the
resources in front of you and are heading to the ones behind. Grab three of them
for repairs to the Kuun Lan, and keep the ACVs close. The Bentusi can handle the
forces attacking them for the time being. They also get reinforced after a few
moments, by the Kushan Carrier Caal-Shto and it's two Ion Cannon frigates. After
some more battle around the Bentusi ship, a Beast Heavy Cruiser (perhaps the
same one you saw in the last mission?) will attack it with an infection beam.
The Bentusi are The Unbound. The Bentusi refuse to be Bound to Anyone.
The resulting fireworks vaporizes the Bentusi ship, all fighters and frigates in
the immediate area, and heavily damages the Caal-Shto and the Beast Heavy
Cruiser. That's why your ACVs are hanging around the Kuun Lan. Now you have to
save the Caal-Shto and yourselves. Grab a Worker and send it in to repair the
Caal-Shto, and move the Kuun Lan in beside it. There is a problem, however. That
Heavy Cruiser is only damaged, not crippled or dead. And it's heading straight
for the Kuun Lan.
Send your ACVs in now, and I mean NOW. If it's infection beam gets the chance to
recharge you'll loose half of them to the Beast, this is your only real chance
to nail it. Otherwise, you'll have to sacrifice a Recon (coming in from the side
to avoid weapons fire) to the Beast and then kill it. Get the ACVs back to the
Caal-Shto pronto, it's undoubtedly under attack by now.
In any case, Tactical tells you about some new research available, and a new
science module (advanced engineering). Get them both. The research will give you
the support module. Build all 12. The new science module will let you research
Sentinels, grab that too. Don't worry about repairing the Caal-Shto, the game
won't let you raise it's health over 50%, the Worker is there to keep it at 50%.
This fight will never be over until you deal with the Beast Carrier that's
spitting out fighters and Rams and gobbling up asteroids. Remember that bend in
the dust trail I said not to go down? Once the Kuun Lan is in position near the
Caal-Shto, go down it, and hit their Workers with your ACVs. The Carrier can
infect like the Heavy Cruiser, so you'll have to sacrifice something to it this
time. It won't hang around to be killed, though, it'll hyperspace after taking
some damage. If you do it fast, you'll get a lot of resources to prepare for the
next mission with, even after replacing losses. Wipe up what's left, gather
resources, and prepare for the next mission.
6 - Kadiir Nebula
Elements of this walkthrough are from Kelvin Lee . OmegA
came up with something very similar as well. So have about a
half-dozen other people...
Preparations for this mission should actually happen in the previous one, before
you hit 'end mission'. You're going to need a bigger squad of ACVs, 13-17 should
do, and a seperate squad of Acolytes (they'll stay in fighter mode the whole
time), 20 should be enough. The rest of the preparations depend on how you want
to handle this mission.
There are basically two ways of handling this mission. My way is rather greedy
and depends on ambushing all fighter patrols in the area before moving. Kelvin
Lee suggested a more active stance that forgoes resourcing for the most part.
For the second, 3 groups of 9 ACVs are suggested, along with two Mimics. For the
first, build a second Processor and bring your Worker total up to at least 8,
and two Recons are a good idea. Why the two ways? Well, you see, this is one of
the -richest- maps I've seen in a long time, there's roughly between 60-70
THOUSAND RUs on this map, and that's just what I've found between the starting
position and the goal. No, I'm not kidding. You'd be set for the rest of the
game. Unfortunately, getting all of it without triggering major consequences can
be quite stressfull. For that reason alone you might want to take the other
path. Besides which, this is not the only place to get a lot of resources.
Okay, back to the mission. You get to listen in to a mild argument between
Tactical and Command, then the mission starts. The Kuun Lan is escorting the
Caal-Shto through the nebula in the hopes of staying hidden from the Imperials.
Only problem is, you have to tip-toe past a major base that resides here.
Tactical suggests sending a Recon ship to take a peek at the base. Soon after
the start, Tactical will mention you can build a new science module (armor) and
new research. Go ahead.
This is where the greedy path starts. Launch everything, and have the Acolyte
squad take up position about 1/3 the way between the Kuun Lan and the Imperial
base (the ping). Kelvin used a second squad placed right next to the Caal-Shto,
but the purpose is the same. Their job is to intercept any patrols that come in
your direction, preferably before they see the Caal-Shto, and to kill any that
do before they can escape back to the base. The ACVs, however, will be assisting
your Workers in any way they can. Keeping the area secure, scouting the terrain
ahead, and destroying mines before a Worker stumbles into them. Have a Recon
escort each squad for early detection. The Recon is the only ship who's sensors
aren't affected by the nebula.
The base will send out a lot of Interceptors, destroy all of them, they'll
eventually run out of supply (after about the 15th squad), and they don't do any
harvesting themselves. On the sensors manager, you want to scout in the
direction of a flower-shaped set of dust trails on the far side of the map.
That's where you're eventually going to head, and all the resources are between
the start and that flower. There are a lot of large mines scattered about, and
you'll get the goal to nail the minelayers once you see a mine, but they won't
show up until after the base has been recon'ed.
Now the stressfull part comes from the placement of the resources themselves.
Some of the nebula clouds come dangerously close to the base, and an unwary
Worker could trigger the bomber wing flying close patrol near it. You don't want
that. But with very carefull management, one worker can fly in, scoop up the
resources before the bombers can notice it, and fly away. There are also all the
Interceptors flying sweeps out of the base to cause stress, and your Workers are
definitely going to get found (though the Interceptors won't report back like
they would after seeing the Caal-Shto). Keep the ACVs nearby at all times.
Eventually you'll run out of resources (even after reaching the aforementioned
flower), or you may choose to stop when the fighter patrols stop coming, and
that's where the two paths join. Send a Recon or Mimic towards the ping (not an
ACV or Acolyte, their sensors aren't good enough to stay out of sight). My,
that's a big fleet. A Carrier, two Destroyers, maybe 15-16 frigates, and maybe
30 bombers. Don't tick these guys off, they can clean your clock and not even
break a sweat. If you're following the more active path, leave the Mimic close
to the base to let you know when the patrols are launched, and place the second
about halfway between.
Tactical will tell you to scout the path ahead to make sure it's clear. The
greedy path will have already cleared it, but send a Recon to each ping anyway.
The active path will have to do the clearing with the ACVs, while the other two
groups shield the Caal-Shto from patrols (in fighter mode), one right next to
the Caal-Shto and the other about 1/3rd the way between it and the base. After
you check the first ping, the Caal-Shto will begin moving towards the dust-trail
flower I mentioned earlier, and the Kuun Lan will automatically keep pace. The
active path will not have cleared out all the Interceptors, and they will cause
serious trouble if they ever make it back. Make sure none do. With two groups of
Acolytes, you should be able to hit them coming -and- going. Keep the Mimics
between them and you so you can track them.
Halfway there or so, you'll get some new research to do, frigate drives. You'll
get to make Hive frigates with it, but I never used them much, and Multi-Beam
frigates need this as well (you can't make them yet, though). Keep going,
repairing when necessary. Around the third ping, the minelayers will be waiting
(with Interceptor escort). Kelvin suggested hitting them with Mimics, I hit them
with the Kuun Lan, either will do, as long as they end up dead. They won't go
back to snitch on you if they see the Caal-Shto.
When your forward force reaches the last ping, they'll warn you of a Heavy
Cruiser sitting there waiting for you. The greedy player will notice that it
hadn't been there before. Tactical will suggest researching the Leech and
sending it in, but as I said in the Leech's description, it's not that deadly.
You can try it out, make 6 of them and have them attach. When the Caal-Shto is
about to reach it, send in your ACVs, or send them in immediately if you don't
use the Leeches. Once it's dead, watch your back, the Heavy Cruiser has alerted
the base of your presence, but the Caal-Shto should reach the end of the trail
before they arrive, and escape into a slipgate there. Once it's gone, you can do
some last-minute resourcing, or call in your forces and hyperspace before the
Imperials catch you.
7 - Outskirts of Kadiir Nebula
andy french and Kelvin Lee donated
hints on this mission.
Okay, turns out this mission isn't that hard, I just thought it was. You'll want
a lot of Acolytes for this, and they'll stay in fighter mode for most of the
mission. You might have noticed that I didn't suggest salvaging the Heavy
Cruiser from the last mission. That's because while it can be a great asset in
this mission, it can also be your greatest liability. And for some reason, ships
bigger than frigates refuse all orders to retire. So don't bother.
You'll get some more information from the engineers about what you're facing (a
plot that feels decidedly 'Event Horizon' to me), and tell you about it's
origin. The Caal-Shto will also thank you for your assistance, and then limp
away, heading for Hiigara to warn them. Is it just me or does the Kuun Lan look
very insulted by the Caal-Shto's suggestion that it find a rock to go hide under
until the warrior Kiith deals with the Beast? Hard to manage for a non-organic
spaceship...
In any case, you soon pick up a distress call from a convoy of Republican
Taiidan colonists. They're under attack from Cruise Missiles and are requesting
help. Launch all fighters and start moving the Kuun Lan in. Now break your
Acolytes up into several groups (at least 5 groups of 6 Acolytes each) and give
them numbers. One group is going to cover your Workers and Processors (who
should be harvesting already) and will target any missiles near them, the other
four strung out along the convoy as equally as possible. The Kuun Lan should
move in under the center of the convoy to help out. I can't tell you exactly
where the missiles come from, it seems to be random (I've tried the mission
several times, they don't come from the same place).
Do your best, but inevitably you will loose a convoy ship to the Cruise
Missiles. Destroy it as fast as you can, it'll start cranking out even more
Missiles, and you'll have enough on your hands as it is. You only need one ship
to reach the far slipgate and escape in order to succeed in this mission, but
save as many as you can. If the Beast runs out of convoy ships to shoot at,
it'll target your frigates, Workers, and Processors, who'll be infected in a
single hit (and if you did bring that Heavy Cruiser, it'll turn in a single hit
too, SO DON'T BRING IT! I made that mistake once. Kelvin brought a Hive that he
regretted too), and then the Kuun Lan. The convoy ships will actually take
several hits, thankfully, and so will the Kuun Lan. Do the best you can.
The second wave of missiles will convince Tactical that you need to upgrade your
ACVs. Do the research but don't upgrade, you won't have time. You can also
research better armor for all ships and bigger explosives for the Mimic, grab
them but again don't waste time upgrading. The third and fourth wave will have a
fighter escort. Focus on the Missiles first. You'll loose Acolytes, but that's
preferable to loosing colonists. There won't be a fifth wave of missiles from
outside the mission. Once all Beast ships are dead (including all infected
colony ships), you'll be able to end the mission. Upgrade everything first, and
rebuild your losses. It's also suggested that you reorganize your ACVs back into
two groups.
A cheaper way to deal with this mission was suggested by andy. Simply move the
Kuun Lan in next to one colony ship, keep everything docked, and simply insure
that -that- one ship makes it through, and destroy all the other ships. The Kuun
Lan can't be infected, and you can chase down all the other ships on the map
with it.
8 - Deep Space (Koreth's Rift Sector)
The 300,000 colonists will thank you for your efforts (the number doesn't change
no matter how many ships you saved), and tell you about the loss of their
escort. They'll also tell you of a spy that was supposed to meet up with their
escort (why would a colonist know about a spy?), who had learned of bio-weapons
research. The Kuun Lan moves in to investigate.
The spy hasn't made contact yet, but you're at the meeting point. Start
harvesting as Tactical suggests, and send one group of ACVs over to those odd
purple blips on sensors. They'll find two crystals, and after some research and
upgrading, you'll be able to harvest them as well. Large crystals need 4 Workers
to haul around, small crystals only need 2. Grab them ASAP. Also, build a Ram
frigate for later.
Eventually the spy will show up and head for your position. But he's not alone.
Interceptors, MG corvettes, and Defenders are on his tail. Escort him in and
take down the pursuers, they'll arrive in seperate waves. Once that's done he'll
let you in on what he found, then summon a Republican Carrier to make his
escape.
It's crunch time again. You've got a plan to blow the enemy research base, but
you're going to need Imperialist ships to pull it off. There's a resource convoy
in the area, but it's not going to hang around for more that 15 minutes. Get
your workers out there (with ACVs and Processors flying escort), and capture as
many ships as you can. Blow up the rest. Just like a Homeworld Salvage Raid, he
he he... You'll want one frigate to succeed in the mission, but you'll want one
-of-each-type- if you want to benefit from the research potential. The Assaults
can let you research energy guns, an upgrade to all projectile weapons (homing
bullets!). The Ions will let you research Multi-Beam frigates (critical!). I
haven't been able to grab a Support frigate yet, no clue what they'd allow.
There'll be a Gravwell generator, have the Ram get it out of the way, preferably
before your Workers arrive. The Processors should help destroy it.
Retire the enemy frigates, you don't need them. Replace them with two Multi-Beam
frigates. Harvest and rebuild, then hit end mission.
9 - Close Orbit, Gozan IV
Tactical will give you a run-down of the plan again, for those who like a
review. When the mission starts, she'll tell you to move the resourcers to the
side so they can slip in unnoticed. Strangely enough, no matter how well you did
in the last mission, you will only have three resourcers to send. Do so, and
launch everything. Do not harvest resources, there's not enough to justify the
trouble.
Get ready, this mission's one big battle, and you're in the middle of it. You
can research level 2 shields right away. Do so, they make the Sentinel a worthy
investment. Having the Kuun Lan shielded is a good idea for this mission, once
they are upgraded. When the resourcers arrive at the ping, they'll leave your
control. Tactical will tell you to destroy a proximity sensor for the
distraction, the resourcers won't move again until you do. Move the Kuun Lan in
to do it. There'll be patrols all over the place, so stay on your toes. The MB
frigates'll shine in fighter combat. The new energy guns will help a lot too.
A lot of ships will start moving in on you, mostly frigates and fighters. Have
the ACVs focus on any frigates, and use the MB frigates to deal with fighters.
There's also a chance you'll run into a Missile Destroyer (it decided to jump me
from behind), don't deal with it at all, move the Kuun Lan further towards the
planet (hopefully away from the Missile Destroyer) You can't win this battle, so
don't try too hard. If you have to, sacrifice a Processor by having it charge a
bunch of enemies unescorted. They should attack it, giving the Kuun Lan time to
move away. The resourcers will eventually pass the checkpoint, land and then
return. It'll take about 10 minutes total. When they return, their cover will
have been blown. Hopefully the Kuun Lan is at least a little past the proximity
sensor net, have it move in towards them so they can dock quickly. Cover them
with all you have, lose them and lose the mission. Especially target any bomber
wings in the area. When they get close, call in all strike craft, you're going
to hyper as soon as they dock. I lost most of my forces in this mission, but the
next one lets you recover.
10- Debris Field (Koreth's Rift Sector)
Tactical goes over what the marines discovered on the planet. Nothing much
usefull, except the Taiidan have figured out how to sterilize failed experiments
with the Beast. The Kuun Lan pulls back to a junkyard to hide. Recons discover
that it's been lightly laced with large mines. Looks like someone's home.
Oooooo. Is that a Seige Cannon or are you just happy to see me? :)
Send your ACVs to clear the mines before sending in the Workers. You'll need 4
to salvage the Cannon. Have the rest harvest. If you've got MB frigates, send
them in too. If you don't, you might want to wait until you do. When you get
close, Turanics will start moving in. -Don't- let them run off with the Cannon.
When your salvage team moves in, some of the wreckage will reveal itself to be
more Turanics, deal with them too.
When things start getting interesting near the Cannon, four Ion Arrays will de-
cloak around the Kuun Lan. Sentinels can help a lot in dealing with them without
detracting from the salvage effort. Tactical will eventually mention that Recon
sensors could be upgraded, with research. Do it. The Workers will have to haul
the Cannon back to the Kuun Lan, a Processor can't handle it. But don't move the
Kuun Lan, it's okay where it is. Oh, and by the way, you now have Imperials
coming down your throat.
Once the Cannon is hauled back to the Kuun Lan, Tactical will mention you need
to research it, then build a new mount for your trophy. Do so. More Turanics
will move in to help the Taiidan. Not good. But then the Caal-Shto suddenly
arrives to deal with the Turanics... I don't really need to tell you not to go
anywhere near them, do I?
Yep, the Caal-Shto has had a run-in with the Beast, and lost. The Turanics walk
right into the infection. But that still leaves you with Taiidan coming down on
you, including a Heavy Cruiser and three Destroyers. Thankfully, just before
you're about to have your engine module handed to you, the Beast Mothership will
arrive. Yep, that's what's left of the Kuun Lan's lower decks. The Imperials
move to fight it (suicidal, aren't they?). Finish your Cannon and let them keep
it busy. You might also want to move in a bit closer to the Beast. Halfway
between them and the start point will do.
Beast fighters will hammer you while you move and build, just stay focused. When
the Cannon's finished, the Mothership will ask for the old beacon (I thought it
was in the hangar module when it separated?). Give it your reply. One Siege
Cannon blast right up the nostril. Make sure you're within the 100% damage
marker, as Tactical says.
Unfortunately, it won't do squat.
Hyperspace before you get fragged.
(Actually, you don't need to be within 100%. Hitting it at all will prove it
can't do the job and you can hyperspace)
11- System AZ-23769
Well, from bad to worse. The Seige Cannon pretty much fried itself when it went
off. Besides which, it didn't do any good. Apparently the eggheads think a
sample of the origional will help make the Cannon more effective, which means
finding the NAGGAROK, and that means finding the Faal-Corum, the Kuun Lan's
sistership. Their astrogation techs can find the NAGGAROK.
When you arrive, you find the Faal-Corum under heavy fire and shooting at
anything that moves. Ignore their paranoia and move the Kuun Lan in next to
them, launch everything, and hammer the enemies. Once they're dead, the Faal-
Corum will calm down. Start repairing it, and send Workers to haul in the three
crystals in the area, then harvest as normal. If you've got a dozen Sentinels
handy, shield the Faal-Corum. You'll eventually get some new stuff to research,
self-repair for your cap ships and the last tech for Destroyers and Carriers.
Pretty soon a Beast fleet will show up. The Faal-Corum will send in it's troops
right away. Unfortunately, they'll get slaughtered whether you help them or not,
so save your strength and build up while the Faal-Corum keeps them busy. If any
Beast Ships get near, let them have it, but focus on building. Those two
Carriers are highly important, they'll put your SU count up over 400 (with all
support modules).
Get about three Destroyers and back them up with at least four MB frigates,
they'll be swimming upstream against the Beast Rams, Hives, and MBs. Once they
get to the ping, it's just one Carrier, two Ion Arrays, and two Defense Fields.
They might have some Sentinels out shielding the Carrier, but it's a level 1
shield from the color. It'll cave in easy. Don't forget the Beast Workers too.
Once all enemies are dead, you'll get the astrogation team you needed. Harvest
the map (it's pretty rich), make repairs, recover losses, and end mission.
12- Turanic Outpost (Kyori Sector)
Well, the astrogation team figured out the general neighborhood the NAGGAROK is
in, but they'll need better star charts to do better. That's why you're dropping
by this Turanic Outpost and politely asking for their help. Unfortunately, they
write out their reply in mass-driver bullets.
The first attack is pretty weak, mostly interceptors with a few Missile
corvettes. I didn't even have to launch my ACVs. In fact, I gave them a break
for most of the mission. Once the first wave is dead, Tactical will tell you to
go after the Outpost. Start moving the Kuun Lan in and have your cap ships
escort. They'll put up a pretty weak fight, fighters, corvettes, and some Ion
Arrays. A Carrier will be sitting next to the Outpost, you'll want to take care
in dealing with it, and keep an eye open for mines, but the Outpost itself is
unarmed (never took a shot at me, anyway). Hammer it. When the Taiidan fleet
arrives to help the Turanics, pull back all but one of your Destroyers. Keep
hitting the Outpost, you want them beaten, not dead. You'll hear a coded
transmition (the garbled screech), and the Taiidan will hyperspace. The Turanics
then surrender.
If you want, you can harvest this map, just scan the areas with ACVs first to
clear out mines. For some reason, there's a bug at this point, where if you
click on the Kuun Lan, you get the health bar for every module attached to it.
Some of them request upgrades. I always do, just in case it has some effect.
Recover losses and end mission.
13- Location Unknown
Well, you're now en-route to the NAGGAROK. Unfortunately, you get to make an
unscheduled pit stop. Well what do you expect when you let Turanics on board?
The Kuun Lan comes out of hyperspace in very bad shape. Construction systems
down, hangar unable to launch ships, and enemies closing in.
Hopefully you still have a Processor handy, move it alongside the Kuun Lan to
trigger the repair beams. Thankfully, any ships loaded into the Carriers will be
able to launch, but the first time I did this mission, all they had were a few
ACVs. The rest and the Workers were on the Kuun Lan. You don't need them anyway,
your Destroyers and MBs can handle this mission. You can actually rebuild the
two modules that blew up (engineering, one support) right away, do so. Shield
the Kuun Lan if you have any Sentinels that can launch.
The first attackers will be Bombers and Interceptors from behind. Hit them with
the MBs, the Destroyers will have to focus on the Heavy Cruiser coming in from
the front. Two more are coming in, but that one will get to you first. Each HC
will bring a Destroyer escort as well, but the HCs will focus on the Kuun Lan
while the Destroyers fire at anything in range. Take them all down, focus on one
at a time. Fighters will continue to come in from behind. Once the enemy cap
ships are down, a second wave will come, Destroyers escorted by frigates, but
the Kuun Lan can now launch it's fighters. Get the Workers out there repairing.
In the middle of the second wave, the cavalry will arrive, in the form of the
Faal-Corum and several cap ships, most which switch to your service immediately
(and soaking up any leftover SUs >:( ). Between the two fleets, the Taiidan
don't stand a chance. Start tracking down their Carrier, smashing ships as you
go. There's another HC with two Destroyers out there. The Carrier is covered
by Defenders and supplied by several Resourcers. Smash everything.
Once they're all dead, you can proceed to the location of the NAGGAROK. Harvest
and rebuild as needed, and retire the Ion Cannon frigates and the Rams. The
Destroyers the Faal-Corum brought refuse to retire, so you're stuck with them,
unless you want to scuttle them. Seems a bit cold-hearted to me, but to each
their own.
14- Galactic Rim (Gulf Sector)
You'll be brought up-to-date on the Beast situation across the galaxy. Seems
things aren't going too well. But the New Daiamid Assembly back home has given
you all the support they can spare, and wish you luck. Here in the Galactic Rim,
a Recon patrol turns up the NAGGAROK, and reveals the Imperials trying to repair
it. A bit of arguing later, you're left with the task of getting a Mimic in
there to take a sample.
You could just charge in, guns blazing, but... well, better you than me. That
ship's got some serious protection. The better option is to sit tight and slip
the Mimic in on the sly. Problem is, proximity sensors are in a ring around it,
and any one of them will sense your Mimic before it can do it's job. Your
engineers will give you the Dreadnought at this point, you won't even have to
research for it. If you have the SUs to spare, build one, but just one, and get
ready for incoming Bombers. There's a Heavy Cruiser with Assault frigate escort
coming behind them. And behind that is a pair of Destroyers with MG corvettes.
Sometime after the start of the mission, the Beast Mothership will arrive and
start throwing more enemies at you, mainly fighters, but there will be some
Cruise Missiles mixed in. Keep the Kuun Lan covered and fight defensively. Let
them come to you.
During a quiet moment (read ASAP), you need to send some Acolytes (two squads,
fighter mode, for preference) towards the NAGGAROK and start taking out
proximity sensors. The squads should split up and go down both sides at once.
They will undoubtedly attract attention, but don't let them get distracted. Nail
all the sensors and you can send in your Mimic. Make sure he's properly attired.
Once he gets what you need, the Mimic will automatically return. Keep up the
defense until he can dock. Before he does, though, the repairs to the NAGGAROK
will be finished, and the Beast will hyperspace, apparently heading towards a
weapon of some kind. Now you have to capture a Taiidan ship to find out where it
went. You only need one, and I'm partial to a frigate myself, but pick one and
grab it. Ordering the Kuun Lan in towards where the NAGGAROK was can speed up
this process. Don't worry, you get plenty of choices. Hyperspace once you have
what you need.
15- Deep Space (Gulf Sector)
You get a brief glimpse at the 'interrogation' procedures, and a run-down on the
weapon the Beast mentioned. The Seige Cannon is almost ready to do the job, but
you need to talk to the Bentusi about several details before you can reliably
use it. But it seems the Bentusi have plans of their own. And they don't involve
saving anyone but themselves.
Get your ships out there and start hitting that gate with everything you have.
You can't stop the Bentusi ship that's about to jump, but there's another one
further away that you can stop. Just after your attack starts, they'll start
launching fighters at you, a nasty design labeled the Super Acolyte. They fire
multiple ion beams with lethal accuracy, and your ACVs won't stand a chance
against them. Like Command says, don't target the Bentusi, just get that gate
closed.
Uh oh, now the Bentusi sound pissed. Three more ships exit hyperspace around
your fleet. And so begins the slaughter. There's no way to stop it, just try to
keep the Kuun Lan out of the firing range. If you must fight back, hit the
fighters. After the first cap ship kill, the argument between Command and the
Bentusi will reach a head, and the Bentusi will snap out of their rampage. All
ships will cease fire and/or pull back.
Now comes the long hard job of recovering your losses. There is one large
crystal here, haul it in for RUs. Don't do any general harvesting, there's a
MASSIVE BUG on this level. Any surviving Super Acolytes -will- fire on any ship
that comes in range. Seems a nearly inexcusable oversight to me.
Besides rebuilding your fleet, you've got four new techs to research. Two
drives, another level of armor, and one of shields. Grab it all, and get ready
for the next fight.
16- Sojent-Ra System (Far Reaches Sector)
The Bentusi will give you some insight as to their existence, and their reasons
for panic. They also help you work the bugs out of the Seige Cannon so you can
fire it however often you like. Now, it's time for a live-fire test of the
weapon. The Clee-San is drafted as the target dummy.
This map has three crystals on it, two small and one large. Have Workers haul in
the small crystals right off (the two furthest away from the ping), but leave
the large alone for now. Shield the Kuun Lan, then start moving it in towards
the ping and send a Recon ahead. My, that's a big escort fleet. Adjust the Kuun
Lan's movement so that it stops some distance away. Like Tactical says, you
don't want to blow it up right away. Call your Recon back, but keep her out.
There are cloaking ships in the area.
You'll get MGs, Hives, and a Heavy Cruiser in the first wave. Your Destroyers
and Dreadnought should be able to handle them with no problem. It may be
tempting to fire the Cannon to nail this attack fleet before it reaches you, but
resist! The Kuun Lan won't line up the shot before they get out of the area of
effect, or you'll end up firing too close and nail yourself. Check your position
every now and then with the Cannon. You want to be just at 50%, but a little
over is nothing to quibble over. Let the Clee-San have it when the Kuun Lan is
in position.
The Clee-San is out of comission, so wipe up what's left of the Beast fleet and
move the Kuun Lan in next to it. Send a Worker in when the Kuun Lan is in
position, not before. Oh, and send some Workers to grab the large crystal, it's
safe now. The Worker will transmit a signal to call in the Mothership, but it'll
be a while before it arrives. Tactical suggests doing harvesting while you wait.
I suggest repairing. You have to do a little harvesting before the Mothership
will show, but don't get eager.
The Mothership will arrive quite some distance away. Start moving the Kuun Lan
in to hit it with a 100% blast. For some reason, the Beast will send Recons to
attack you. Short fight. Ignore the gnats and keep going. The rest will be a mix
of ships, frigates, Heavy Cruisers, and Cruise Missiles. Just keep moving
forward. Once within that 100%, let them have it. At this range, you can even
watch the carnage without risking a ship. Do an alt-drag-click on the enemy
fleet to watch them burn...
Unfortunately, even a 100% hit will only bring the Mothership down to 50%
health. You can wait for the Cannon to recharge for a second blast, or move your
cap ships in to finish it. Might even take a third Cannon shot to finish it, it
can repair itself slowly. Either way, it's beat. It won't send anything out
other than Cruise Missiles and Recons.
Once the fireworks are over, get ready for the next mission. It's majorly tough.
17- Naval Base Alpha
Ling Qi helped me a lot on this mission.
This is it, the final showdown between the Kuun Lan and the Beast. The Beast is
moving in on the special weapon the Republic Taiidan have been building.
Unfortunately, the Beast has already claimed the weapon, the Nomad Moon, before
you arrive. You show up just in time to see a big chunk of the Republic fleet
destroyed by the Moon's repulse field.
There are a lot of Republic ships around, and a lot more Beast ships as well.
Once the mission starts, order your cap ships in to assist the closest Republic
fleet. Between your ships and theirs, you can mop up a lot of the Beast ships
before running out of Republic allies. Their Support frigates will also repair
your ships when possible.
You shouldn't need to gather any resources on this mission, but if you wish, you
can grab the small crystal closest to the starting position. There's another off
by itself (not near the big group of crystals) that's safe to grab too. Tell the
Kuun Lan to start moving to high 'above' the closer battle. It's not going to
get involved in that, it shouldn't need to.
There are three groups of Missile corvettes about (most likely not in the
fighting), each with a Defense Field frigate. Nail one group with the Seige
Cannon (doesn't matter which), and have your cap ships work on the other two.
Eventually, you'll notice the Nomad Moon nearby, and the NAGGAROK hiding behind
it. Tactical will tell you that the emitters (one below, one above) are the
source of the repulse field. You can research the same thing for your
Dreadnoughts soon after you see it, but it's not that important.
DO NOT FIRE THE SEIGE CANNON IN THE MOON'S DIRECTION WHILE THE EMITTERS ARE
PRESENT. The shot will ricochet off the repulse field, and there's a chance
it'll come right back into the Kuun Lan. Any friendly ship that moves toward the
Moon will be pushed back by the field and damaged in the process. The task here
is to send your ACVs around to the 6-7 proximity sensors that form a partial
ring around the moon and destroy them. Then build Mimics. Lots of them. You're
going to need about 20 Mimics for each emitter. Disguise them as Beast ships and
have them kamikaze the emitters.
The Republic fleet might decide to be a pain in the butt here and keep setting
off the field while you're trying to get your Mimics in. Just pull back and wait
for them to be distracted by other Beast ships, then send the Mimics in. Once
the emitters are destroyed, the Nomad Moon is at your mercy. Do not engage it
just yet, though. Chase down two Carriers that are in the area (one above the
Moon, one below), and smash all other Beast Ships that you can find. Once that's
done, send one Destroyer off towards the big group of crystals, and position it
near the end of the wick-like string of crystals. Have your ACVs out and near
the Kuun Lan. I suggest you save the game before continuing. Once you're ready,
attack the Moon with cap ships.
Once the Moon reaches half-damage, a fleet of Imperials will arrive a rather
long way away. There'll be a distracting conversation for a moment, then
Tactical will tell you about more hyperspace signals, most likely more Beast
ships. They'll arrive right in the middle of the crystal fields. Light that wick
with your Destroyer (Ctrl+shit+left-click on the last crystal), and watch as
most of the fleet goes up in smoke. There's a good chance your Destroyer will
also be destroyed in the process, but I think it's a fair trade.
Once the Moon is gone, you can begin your attack on the NAGGAROK. Up until now
it's been invulnerable to attack (the Nomad Moon was shielding it), but now it's
moving around crazily at insane speeds. You'll have to do some research on it's
drives, do so. Most of the time it'll hang way back, nearly off the map, but it
will occasionally fly in and eat one of your cap ships. Get all your cap ships
together in a group, and have your ACVs near this group. The Bentusi should
arrive at about this point, and give you the design specs for their Super
Acolyte, the terror of mission 15, now your deadliest asset. Make as many as you
can spare (while still having at least 13 ACVs), and put them near your cap
ships too.
Now you have to wait. Any remains of the Beast fleet will head for your cap
ships, destroy them if you have the time. The Taiidan will pull out of the
entire battle, claiming the Beast had violated their agreement, and won't be a
problem. Eventually, the NAGGAROK will make a move for one of your cap ships.
Once it does, it'll sit still for a few moments to eat it. Hit it with an EM
pulse from your ACVs, and have all ships target it. Odds are the first pulse
will only stun it for a few moments. Hit it a second time when you can, and the
stunning will last longer. The third will last longer still, on upwards. Ling
pointed this out to me, that you have to keep hitting it with EM pulses to have
any noticable effect. After the 5th pulse (depending on the number of ACVs
involved), you can even hit it with the Seige Cannon. You don't need to though.
With a big enough squadron of Super Acolytes (I used 20), and all your cap ships
helping, you can steadily knock it's health down. Once it's health bar is red,
the NAGGAROK won't be fast enough to limp away from your strike craft. If it
does get away the first time, just re-group your ships and wait for it to make a
second run.
Kill it. Then sit back and enjoy the ending.
===========
End Credits
===========
"Kelvin Lee" - Missions 4, 6, and 7 tactics
"andy french" - Mission 7 tactics
"Jim Ulrich" - Mission 4 tactics
"The Juggernaut" - Sentinel tactics
"OmegA" - Mission 6 tactics
"Ling Qi" - Mission 17 tactics
- General tactics