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SOLCOM MISSION AFTER ACTION REPORT[/center]
AAR originally posted on Jul 26, 2008 02:29 PM by
Zanthras on
www.starshattermods.com forum.
Mod: SolCom 0.9.9
Pullback Disruption - Mission 17
Task Force
Princep Class Cruiser - Bismark (Player)
Hector Class Destroyer – Nemesis
Velite Class Frigates – Bosporus and Shield
As a new addition to the SolCom mod the
Pullback Disruption mission is a great way to really test your metal against a much larger force.
I have played this mission over 20 times, trying different tactics and methods to overcome the large Dantari wrecking force.
Here are my thoughts on the mission… Scale criteria of 1-10 (10 being best)
Playability (being able to complete the mission successfully) = 8
I was personally able to complete this mission 90% of the time. Often my ships hull was nearly breached, but I was still able to hold it together long enough to complete this mission.
Most often my support ships suffered severe damage or were destroyed by missions end. Keep in mind that your TF is only 4 ships against at least sixteen(16) enemy capital ships, possibly more.
My best score was just over 9k points. During that mission I personally destroyed over 8 fighters and 12 capital ships. Three(3) of the enemy capital ships were cruiser class. Keep in mind I had my support ships laying down fire as well, or sometimes working as decoys.
IMHO, a true vet of SS should be able to complete this mission, (and survive) in 3 tries or less. It took me 5 tries to complete it with all my support ships still intact, although they were heavily damaged.
In short,
this mission is no cakewalk. You will have to think fast and outside the commander's box to survive. I used several strategies that worked to complete it successfully. Although, I am not willing to divulge any of my tactical secrets in this forum.
Your ships.
SolCom ships have some powerful weapons, but they are not invincible. Commander, if you stretch your commands neck out too far you will die a cruel death in the void of space for your misguided efforts.
Problems. There is a little thing that could be fixed, but the game and ships work fine without it.
Mission elements(Ships/Stations etc) should be listed as per their order of battle. In other words, it should follow chain of command. Ideally elements listed in a mission text start with the player and his command force. Then any ships friendly to them are listed after, followed by the enemy craft as per the COC. Missions will play even if this format isn’t followed, but it allows the F3 camera view of friendly craft to follow a sequence. For example, when you hit f3 once it goes to your external view, a second hit should take you to the next ship in your command and so on.
THE ABOVE MENTIONED PROBLEM HAS BEEN CORRECTED IN THIS MISSION!
SPOILER: This next point could be a spoiler if you haven’t tried the mission yet.
There are some random elements that can come into play. I recommend more of this mission building tactic for all custom mission builders. Doing so offers some mission re-playability for Commanders.
Speaking as a mission creator, the more random events or ships jumping into the fray, the more one can replay the mission and not experiance the exact same outcome.
What I found that works best is to have several mission elements that are broken down into groups of random “surprises”. Break these down even further into different probabilities separated by at least a 20% chance.
For example; 4 frigates with a 80% chance of joining the fray, 3 destroyers with 60%, 2 cruisers with 40% and so on. Mix and match. WDBOYD has offered such variety. Expect the unexpected at least once in the mission.
As far as
SolCom ship control goes, I did find that I could not access the manual control of the M9 missiles or PDBs aboard my Princep cruiser. Likewise in the engineering screen I could not repair the ships Mk6 or Mk8 launchers.
But, as I understand, there is a certain limit of “controllable” weapons that can be deffed into a ship. The Princep Cruiser has more than 4 weapons.
Wdboyd often thinks outside of the Starshatter games limitations and often seeks to overcome “that which cannot be done in the SS world”…at least according to many experts.
Personally I don’t find this "lack of control problem” to be a actual problem. The ships AI weapons officer fortunately seems to be fully capable of doing his job.
None of these issues change the fact that this is a great mission to fly.
Tactical Hints:
1. Watch out for enemy fighters and use your Frigates to cut them off.
2. Don’t be distracted by what seems to be, watch for what is.
3. If you jump out of the combat sector, don’t jump back in unless you are ready to deal with a handful of enemy capital ships breathing down your neck.
Overall, I think Wdboyd has come up with another great addition to an already great mod. If you haven’t downloaded
SolCom 0.9.9, I suggest you check it out as soon as possible. You may be wise to battle through some of the earlier missions though. This one can be a real test of your command ability.
If you have the mod, then here’s my CHALLENGE!
I challenge anyone to break my high score of 9340 mission points. 12 enemy capital ships and 8 of their fighters went down that day at the hands of the Bismark’s gunnery team.
Anybody up to it?
Report back with your successes with scores and see if Wdboyd doesn’t throw something harder our way.
This could mean war… [:D]
