Killing Cap Ships

Give it a try in nailing the hangar bays first, it changes the mission's "flow" quite a bit, as your escorts will tear through the fighter screen a lot faster if they constantly don't have new targets appearing.

I was really happy/impressed when I was told about this during testing. It totally changed the way I approached this mission.
 
I just played through the first Hakaga strike mission on Rookie, and it was the most marvelous thing ever.

I cannot put into words how awesome this mission was. I was in a Crossbow, and after toasting both (!!) bridges, I came around behind the thing and started taking out engines. While making an engine run, I saw a Snakeir explode a ways off and could only yell in victory.

Since I had killed a Targu on the way in, I realized I was not going to have enough torpedoes to kill this guy, so I figured I would leave one engine intact and hopefully a wingman would take it out, so while I was making my last torpedo run, I signaled my wingmen to attack the Hakaga and suddenly the engine I was targeting disappeared. I verbally expressed my gratitude to whoever took out that engine and then proceeded to destroy the Hakaga by destroying the last engine.

However what really got me in this mission was when I signaled for help while making one of the torpedo runs, and no less than 5 wingmen responded to my call and said they would be right over.

However this still fails to convey the sheer sense of awesomeness that this mission was.
 
There's actually 3 bridges on the Hakaga. You should definitely try this mission on Ace or Hero it's such a challenging task that you'll love it even more.
 
Hey, I just completed the Hakaga Strike on Nightmare and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt, err... Scotch from Freyers!

Gotta admit, those large-scale operations often depend on getting lucky, whether your wingmen perform well or fall early. Did it with a Crossbow, going straight for the Hakaga's remaining bridge (two are scripted to be destroyed by a Mace) and the engines. The increasing rate of enemy missiles from Hero, where there are rarely any, to Nightmare made things somewhat harder, as you couldn't ignore that Drakhri on your tail anymore.
Luckily, by the time I finished off the last Hakaga engine, my wingmen mopped up the rest.
 
Nailed the big one on Veteran first time around. I took the Sabre, pushed the last torp our side had into the final engine, then "Nooooooooo!" and up she went. Such an intense mission - I was worried before I played ep4 that the focus on epic battles might drown out the smaller, more personal battles, but I needn't have worried.

I salute the Standoff Team - again!
 
Wedge009 said:
I love how there's a big fat Targu waiting for your torpedo as soon as you come out of autopilot in the Skinning Cats mission (Backlash campaign). It's nice having a one-torpedo-kill capship again. :)
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I rarely go for that though, the destroyers are much juicier targets in my mind.
 
frostytheplebe said:
I rarely go for that though, the destroyers are much juicier targets in my mind.
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Sure, matter of preference. I go after the Targus just to up my kill count, which is otherwise often appallingly low.

Targu: one torpedo, for one kill on the scoreboard. The destroyers are juicier targets but I let my wingmen have them. For my 4 torps, I can get 4 kills for 4 Targu, or 2 kills for 2 Ralatha.

"That still only counts as one!"
- Paladin
- Er, I mean Gimli
 
The original Targu (pre release of E4) were extremely lethal for your wingmen and almost impossible for them to take down. So I usually go for them first out of old habit.
 
Hehe, they were *actually* impossible for the AI to take down, since they never got attacked - I'm glad we fixed that before release. :p
 
Eder said:
Hehe, they were *actually* impossible for the AI to take down, since they never got attacked - I'm glad we fixed that before release. :p
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Yeah, god did that suck. I couldn't figure out why my wingmen just sat there and every time I was the only one killing Targus. Talk about making the first two mission HARD.
 
I would still go after the Targus personally. Two of em put out a heck of a lot more flak than one Ralatha, which seems to be the leading cause of death among my wingmen.
 
Toast said:
Sure, matter of preference. I go after the Targus just to up my kill count, which is otherwise often appallingly low.

Targu: one torpedo, for one kill on the scoreboard. The destroyers are juicier targets but I let my wingmen have them. For my 4 torps, I can get 4 kills for 4 Targu, or 2 kills for 2 Ralatha.

"That still only counts as one!"
- Paladin
- Er, I mean Gimli
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True, but kills aren't everything. Don't forget that the destroyer has more turrets then that frigate, I worry about keeping my wingmen alive more, so I instead hit full speed and launch against the larger ships to knock out those infernal flak cannons. Meanwhile, once I've taken them down, my wingmen have already destroyed half the targus without losing anyone.
 
Well, if killing a Targu personally paves the way for your wingmen to knock out a Ralatha (while killing a Ralatha would not make it any easier for them to knock out a Targu), then it's certainly worth it.

That said, my preferred tactic is to knock out the front turrets on the Targu. It seems to do the trick as far as my wingmen are concerned, it doesn't cost me any torpedoes, and it's not that terribly difficult, since the turrets on the Targu have less armour than on other capships.

(I must say, I really love the dynamic of the one-torp capship; and as much as I dislike changing missions that are already finished and released, I'm toying with the idea of going back to episode 2 after release and adding a Targu in that mission that nobody seems able to fail... you know, the one that takes people to the losing path)
 
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