Tactical Operations Briefing: Rebel

Multi-Player Exercise: Space Bombs

Craft: Y-Wing
Armament: Space Bombs
Slot: Gold

Immediately upon launch tell your wingmen to wait. This stops them from launching warheads and it keeps them out of trouble. Find the nearest TIE and target it. If you're quick, you'll get it before the Z-95 escorts. If not, another will launch and you should be able to get that one.

You have some options here. You could also immediately order all Y-Wing Green to wait, which would leave the 2nd platform up to you alone, as well as the 3rd. I didn't do this, but I suspect you'd get your TP quicker if you got all 3 PLT kills rather than just A and C that I got credit for. If you don't order them to wait, Green will get the shields down and the PLT B to 58% hull on their own, with losses. They then start to attack PLT C. If you haven't ordered them to wait yet, do so now. You want PLT C all to yourself. You don't get credit for a PLT B Kill if they get it to 58% Hull and you finish it off, so you will probably want them to wait at the beginning.

Ignore PLT A. With your wingmen waiting, nobody will touch it and it doesn't threaten your FRG. Set Assault Transport Mako to memory location F5 (Shift F5) for ease of finding it later. Order it to dock with you (even if you haven't launched yet it will acknowledge the order and follow (Shift B). Do a quick check for TIEs, and upon seeing none, dump all lasers into shields and then put all laser energy into engines. Speed toward PLT C and target. You could dumbfire, but even on Hard difficulty the PLTs don't shoot down your warheads. Might as well make sure your shots count (Also on hard difficulty, launching projectiles takes score away until they hit. This is a way to penalize missed missiles). I have had better luck cycling through the components of the PLTs (comma key) until you get the 2nd Hull option (comes up after you hit the warhead launcher component), which is dead center of the PLT. Get a solid tone, and launch both space bombs.

Turn around and head toward the Mako for a reload. As you are docking with the Mako, your bombs should hit PLT C. Once the PLT takes damage, it launches a few TIEs that come for you. Turn toward them, order the Mako to dock with you again, and head out to them head-on. Recharge your lasers at maximum and throw your shields toward the front to take these TIEs head on. You don't want to have your shield recharge higher than the maintenance level, because the slower you are, the more chance the Z-95's get to the TIEs first. And the PLT only launches one wave, so you want those kills to yourself for the points if possible. You'll have plenty of time to recharge shields after this wave is finished.

Once the TIEs are taken out, go ahead and target the 2nd hull component of PLT C and launch again. Your aim matters, as space bombs have zero maneuverability. This is why I prefer to get the center-mass hull component targeted. The Mako should be following you, so once you launch, turn around and dock with it again. Wash-rinse-repeat until PLT C is gone. Once it is at 58% Hull, a double shot takes it out. You need to get PLT C first, because your frigate will attack PLT C if you leave it for last, robbing you of a kill and much needed points.

Each time you make a run at a PLT, order the Mako to dock with you before you make the run so it follows you, leaving less distance to travel for reload. If you ordered Green to wait at the beginning, take out PLT B following the same process you did for C. Finally, do the same for PLT A, which was your squad's primary target.

Once PLT A is at 58%, be sure to grab a reload right after you launch your last pair of space bombs. These will come in handy later if you decide to go after the Star Destroyer that shows up shortly after the destruction of all PLTs.

The Star Destroyer will launch Bombers that will target your frigate and will force it to hyper out, and Interceptors that will target the Y-Wings (you, and all the waiting Y Wings). You'll want to check your score here (K key). If you did everything right, you should be at 50,000 or very close. In my run, I just needed to kill a few Interceptors to hit the 50k mark (I didn't get credit for a kill on PLT B), and then I hyped out to savor that blue ribbon. The AI wingmen in all groups just aren't much help against the INTs, so going for a high score will be a test of endurance and rabbiting for long periods of time.

Strategy: Andy Clark (Bulldog - Corsair 6)
Author: Andy Clark