WC1 SM2 Mission 15 (Next To Last Mission) - Maniac was amazing =oP

sgupta

sgupta

1st Lieutenant
Just thought this was funny. I've read lots of things dreading the last couple mission in SM2 because Maniac is described as "useless" and known to die immediately...

So first mission in Charon (next to last I believe), very first playthrough, and I'm to hit some Nav points and destroy all capital ships... Maniac, by himself pretty much [I helped a *little* with the Snakeir] takes out ALL THREE cap ships. I nail all the fighters and cover him, but the cap ships literally all blow up before I'm done with the fighters, with the exception of the Snakeir, which was maybe 30 seconds away from dying, so I got a few volleys in (but he finished it)...

He did take some fairly heavy damage, but...yeah.

And somehow, despite only nailing the 10 fighters, I still got the Medal of Valor even though he got all 3 cap kills. I'll take it. =oP
 
If the capships all went down in quick succession, I'd say Maniac was probably working on just one of them and the rest were nailed with friendly fire from the cats trying to get him. Ironically, I best remember Maniac in SM2 for that exact same thing; he shot me down much more than he shot down the enemy. It's miraculous if he survived the mission, let alone made any kills.

WC1/2 wingman AI is an odd thing - at times it's like they're flying with you just to distract the Kilrathi from killing you, but now and again they'll have a great mission and make 5 kills. I recall flying the third mission in Tesla in WC2, and whilst I was getting creamed, Stingray managed about 7 kills.
 
hehe I replayed the mission twice more just for fun (though I kept the first as my "official" playthrough hehe).

First replay, he died almost immediately with the first two Jalthi in the minefield. (He flew straight at them and got shot to hell; this didn't happen the first time [or third] as I afterburned towards them and shot at 'em so they did some evasive maneuvers, but he appears to fly straight into 'em otherwise).

Second replay, it was the same as that first time; he took out the first two Fralthi's single-handedly, basically ignoring the fighters. However, at the last Nav point with the Snakeir, for whatever reason he went after fighters instead of the Snakeir (and so did I), so it jumped out. Had he (or I) focused on the Snakeir, I think the outcome would have been the same; I'm guessing a fighter shot him and he made it his priority.

I don't think the Fralthi's went down by friendly fire from the Kilrathi as the fighters were mostly focused on me and I was a bit away from them (though a few stray shots could have gotten through to at least one of them). I don't think a single fighter went after Maniac for whatever reason...they were all on me. I just think Manic was focusing exclusively on the cap ships one at a time with little resistance; we were in Raptors, after all, so that's some pretty heavy fire, and he probably had some missiles left also.

Perhaps his all-out-attacking strategy works particularly well against Cap ships if those are his targeting priority and you can keep him covered.
 
Well, Maniac IS infamous for an incident where he got two Kilrathi destroyers to collide with each other . . .
 
Hehe...just as an update, he continued his excellence on the last mission. =oP Took down 3 fighters defending the Claw and didn't die. He was a tad aggressive (ie...I'd have to be careful not to be shot), but...I have to say I think he did consistently more effectively than most of my wingmen in WC1 =oP.
 
On my first attempt I lost Manic to the Jalthi, but ended up dying myself later on. On several tries later Manic took out the first destroyer, then got himself killed going after the defending fighters. Unfortunately the Snakier also escaped.
 
centaurianmudpig said:
On my first attempt I lost Manic to the Jalthi, but ended up dying myself later on. On several tries later Manic took out the first destroyer, then got himself killed going after the defending fighters. Unfortunately the Snakier also escaped.
Click to expand...

I hate that mission, it's one of the most under-rated in terms of difficulty.

On a side note, nice avatar; I nearly made a thread just about the WC1 'cockpit death face' if you watch the sequence slowed down it's actually quite harrowing seeing Bluehair's dying facial expression. Used to give me nightmares as a kid.
 
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