M05 - Gehenna
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#1
M05 - Gehenna
At mission start, if you go to the Sensors Manager, you'll see a total of 4 blips. One is the location of the Oracle, the other three are Vaygr garrisons to destroy. Be sure to take out the garrisons first, using the dust clouds for cover. I easily took them out with a squad of interceptors, bombers, and a gaggle of corvettes. This will make the final assault much easier.
#3
Do not build Ion Frigates or Pulsar vettes if you intend to battle in the clouds. If you are detected, move your forces out into the open area so you can build Ion Frigates and pulsar vettes to use in the open.
I could swear that if you load a save, then the enemy launches lots of probes, you get detected, and rushed by the garrison fleets and what the shipyard builds. So, play the whole mission through without saving, or at least to the point that all garrisons are destroyed.
You can try the defensive approach if you hijacked the destroyer from the previous mission. I resourced as much and as quickly as possible without being detected all the while setting up a defense field.
Pull your MS back to the closest resource patch and build a mix of 15 platforms. Keep 2 minelayers covering the front and 5 scouts waiting high above thier approach ready to EMP any laser corvettes. Move a carrier off to the side with 7 bombers and 6 gunships. Use the destroyer as bait to draw the frigates into the mines, hit them from the side with bombers taking out the missle and infiltrator frigates first. The gunships are more then enough to handle the small number of strike craft thrown against you.
After it is apparent that the majority of the forces have attacked, take your bombers and gunships to assault the carrier and shipyard. Take out thier resource drop off points first, then each subsystem systematically. Meanwhile, move you carrier close to dock any bombers in need of repair once the Vaygr's frigate threat is gone.
This is how I did it:
There is one dust vein that goes from the left of the MS all the way to the Oracle. Use waypoints to navigate it.
I had 4 Flaks, 5 Torp and 3 Ions, including 10 bomber wings and 8 Pulsar wings that followed the vein. I later brought a carrier in for reinforcement (You probably want to do this earlier than I did.)
I took out the first garrison quickly then went to the Oracle site undected. I used my bombers to knock out the subystems on the shipyard and carrier and used my Frigs to knock out the capships. The Pulsars took out the fighters and corvettes.
Once my carrier arrived, it was all downhill as I could reinforce, dock and build a marine frigate right at the site. I never encountered fierce resistance and if other garrisons did arrive, I was unaware of them.
Total: Lost two Flak Frigs and 4 wings of bombers. Not bad if you ask me.
Also, if you get detected, the enemy has a mess of corvettes "magically appear" and rush you.
For some reason or another the enemy started launching massive amounts of probes after I destroyed the center vein (it was the second one I took out after destroying the right-most one). I was detected, so I ran back to my mothership. The fleet that arrived was a clumsy array of ships that I easily took out, so don't worry about being detected after destroying 2 of the bases is all I can say. Once your detected, you can just go after the rock.
Agreed, destroy two of the bases by any means necessary, keeping to the dust clouds. After this you may or may not be probed. If you havent been, send a small force to destroy the left garrison. At some point you will be probed, and here you want to be at the mothership. The enemy fleet will slowly show up in bits and pieces, once it seems you have taken out most of them [use Torpedo Frigates], go ahead and fly straight for the mining operation. Destroy the Carrier and Shipyard [note this may take longer than normal, it seems they have an ungodly health boost for unknown reasons]. Once thats done, slip in a single marine frigate for the mission complete.
For this, I simply formed up my fleet on the mothership, built a large group of platforms, and stuck my head out of the clouds. Garrisons come to me all strung out, and are defeated in detail, and then the entire fleet moseys on over to the Oracle. Sweep the area clean, hyper out. Bish bash bosh.
I built an extra carrier with a few Marine Frigs, bomers and gunship move through the middle dust cloud. I hide them in there as close to the Oracle as possible.
Moved most of my unit (with Marine Frigs as well) towards the left Garrison and finished it. Move them towards to Oracle until Vaygr forces discovered them. Meanwhile, lay mines as many as possible around the MS.
Use three (I found three is a magic number) ion frigs to destroy the platforms. The platform normally destroyed in one hit by three ion frigs.
In the middle of the flight, move the carrier and the rest of the units that were hidding in the dust cloud towards the Oracle as well.
Once the Gun platforms have been destroyed, move all the Marine Frigs (from both sides) to the Oracle as quick as possible.
I finished the mission without destroying the shipyard nor the carrier behind.
Also keep in mind that enhanced sensors only uncover the carrier and the shipyard, they do absolutely nothing for the garrison fleets and the resource operations.
i took out the two outside garrisons first, so dont go straihgt up the middle u will get detected
The left-most garrison has heavy missile frigates, laser vettes, and gun plats. Move the carrier so that it is a straight line to the garrison. Use waves of ion plats.
The center, high garrison has bombers mostly, and a few assault frigs. Move MS so it is a straight line to the garrison.w Send gun plats against that garrison.
The right-most garrison has a fe fighters and a mix of assault and missile frigs. Also a couple of missile plats. Send frigs, fighters, and corvs against that group.
The garrisons should be taken out simultaneously.
Then send ion and gun plats outside to bait enemy corvs at the oracle. these should be backed up by pulsars and torp frigs. After the enemy corvs are toast, send all combat ships to oracle site. Keep builting plats to reinforce.
This should be done relatively quickly to prevent probe-spamming. Also, loading a save results in probe-spammage. So pick a time when you have an hour or more free time.
i think it was a bit crazy how quickly my strike group got kicked. then i just looked at what i had to face and then just started again
I created a large ship squad consisting of the destroyer I liberated in M4, 2 ion beam frigates, and 4 flak frigates. I had a single resource collector tag along and y-boxed the group to keep them under repair.
The ions and destroyer were sent after enemy forces and the flak frigates were set to guard the destoyer to keep the bombers off.
My front wave of ships was 10 corvettes and 8 bombers.
I handled everything without much problem. Micromanaging (use the pause button and keep your groups' fire concentrated) allowed me to take on the fleet of frigates pretty easily.
I was totally expecting to fight twenty carriers after the hard last level. But it so easy I won it virtually with fighters.
I stayed put and maxed my fighters, I had 9 bombers and 5 interceptors.
I then destroyed the garrisons in order always keeping to the dust clouds: left most, right most, top most, and always replenishing any lost fighters in between.
Before I tackled the oracle I built ten ion frigates and maxed out my pulsar ships.
Then when I approached the oracle with the ion frigs/pulsars the probes began to come out (and scared the hell out of me) and the main enemy attack fleet came out. The pulsars owned al the enemy frigs and gun platforms, the ions took out the shipyard. The fighters then came up (ignoring the dust cloud as they were useless by then) and provided extra cover for the ions.
Is it possible to get through this mission without ticking off every ship in the whole dang system? I can't seem to do it. I get probed, or when I get close to the station, I get detected and the reinforcements pop in and the fun begins.
I have my whole fleet run into the first garison on the left, while harvesting with my 10 resouce collectors, I have another 10 following the fleet. The fleet must include the carrier that you have. Get a Marine Frig ready in the build queue. Once the first Garison is finished, march toward the Oracle. Once you are close enough to see the shipyard, they wil start sending HMFs and Assult and fighters against your fleet, don't worry too much about the mother ship, use the minelayers corvettes to lay mines.
Your fleet should concentrate fire on the in coming frigs and send the carrier towards to the Oracle. Bomers to finish off the platforms around the Oracle. Destroyer (capture in m04) to finish the frigs. The marine frig in the build queue in your carrier should be ready once the carrier is close enough to the Oracle.
Send that marine frig into the Oracle and your mission is finish. There is no need to finish any other objectives or enemy ships. Just land the marine frig to the Oracle and that is.
Yeah i also got, when save was loaded about 1 min later the probes start a comin. Thing its a bug with save and scripts for the mission.
Last edited by Skeeter; 1st Jan 04 at 1:08 PM.
I got fed up with sneaking up the dust veins - so I tried a different approach.
killed the garrison on the right. when ions/ion plats become available:
recycled 10 frigs
built 20 ion platforms.
took 10 ions, 5 torps, 5 flaks, 12 gunships and 14 bombers and left the dust field (close to the forward resource patch on the right, so I could kill resourcers/mobile refineries while I sat idle).
moved the 20 ion plats there and made a stand. let them come my way and killed them all.
(20 resourcers on repair, 4 carriers nearby for repairs/replacement of plats)
then I moved in on the now quite undefended shipyard (except for a mass of plats)
didn't lose a single ship this way (except a bunch of plats)
Well it all started with some quite resource gathering hidden in the gas clouds in the Gehenna system. Then the Vagyr came.....
The first few times I played this mission ( only the first attempt did one of my ships get detected ) I'm sitting there waiting for my RU's to build up since I came into the mission with a whoping 15 RU's and building up my frigate force when I'm alerted that a probe has been seen and we have been spotted. First my collectors at the lower resource area die and then the Vagyr swarm comes. They must be feeding crack to the slave labor on that shipyard having them crank out Assault FG's, Heavy Missle FG's, and Infiltator FG's like it was the end of the world. They hit me with 20-24 FG's alone and a few AC/LF/LC's just for good measure.
So I finally figured what what the heck, the strat guide says if you really want to "test your mettle" go straight for the oracle. So I quickly got my frigate group assembled, estimating the time it took them before they sent out the probe, docked my SC's in the carrier and waypointed out into the finger of gas that's in front of the MS. As I was starting my trek they attacked my collectors at the forward resource area so I figured I better hurry before my MS was toast. Well as soon as I was out in the finger they stopped. I just sat out there for quite a while and just looked at them. They didn't move at all !!! I sent my marine FG's in first ( I made 3 total luckly ) when they broke cover the group I was watching attacked so I sent my covering forces to to attack them. I lost 1 Sqdn of SC's and 2 of the Marine FG's and retrieved the oracle. I couldn't believe it. Having these titanic battles trying to get my forces togethar and then that.
OmegaBluSqdn
Build some bombers , Torpedo Frigates , a lot of Pulsars and 2-3 Flaks. If you have enough RUs left, get 1 or 2 Minelayers and mine the field infront of the MS.Then move all your ships behind the minefield and put your ships in Passive mode(F2).
When you're ready, get any unit, and move it out of the dust cloud , and wait until you get detected.Then quickly move them back to the MS behind the minefield.
The garissons will attack you. Note that they don't attack simultaneously.When you see the first one comming, don't order your ships to move, and keep them in passive mode. Once they enemy is close enough to the mines, they will destroy the frigates, and you'll take care of the rest of the corvetes/fighters with the Torp Frigates.
2 or 3 more garisons will attack you, but they should be easy to kill because the mines will kill all frigates. Once they stop attacking , order your fleet + carrier, to move towards the Oracle.Order the carrier to move left of the oracle for support, and the main fleet directly at the enemy.
You'll be "welcomed" by some frigates and corvettes , but the bombers and Torps should do quick work of them.
After they're done, send the Pulsars towards the Heavy Missile Platforms, and the Torps towards the Gun Platforms.
Note that the shipyard will continue to construct frigates , so keep the bombers at hand.
Once the Platforms are destroyed send the Marine frigate to the Oracle and the mission is complete.
P.S. The only thing required in the mission is to dock the Marine Frigate to the Oracle. Once you've done that you automaticly complete it. But that's just too easy
The first time I played this mission, I did it the hard way; destroying the garrisons and all the enemies before docking the marine frigate.
This time while I was moving a group of interceptors and pulsars to the right garrison, I got detected and the vagyr sent frigates to my resourcers in the middle. So I sent all the interceptors and pulsars to rescue the resourcers.
Then I thought what the heck, I just sent two marine frigates with a group of torpedo frigs, interceptors and pulsars directly to the Oracle. The enemies were too busy fighting the first group and my second group was able to move to the Oracle. During this time, the enemy started to attack my marine frig and I lost one of them but by that time one of the marine frigs already docked with the Oracle and that was it. The mission ended in less than 15 minutes.
Last edited by Nong; 9th Jul 04 at 9:50 AM.
Most fun is if you let them detect you. First resource a bit (left rear resource patch) and build up your fleet (flaks and especially torps! The enemy will be coming with hordes of laser vettes!)
With 11 torps, 10 flaks, 12 pulsars and 14 bombers you should be all set. make 20 ion plats and station them close to the forward right RU patch, the frigs closely behind (carriers and MS behind that). Use probes to light up the immediate area.
The vaygar will detect you and come in with everything they have...which should pose no problem to your well rounded fleet. Make hit and fade attacks on incoming groups before the can get close (kill some laser vettes with pulsars, thin out frigate groups with bombers, let the plats and your frigs handle the survivors)
The plats are nifty since they deny the forward resource patch to the vaygar.
soon they will be out of material... move in and kill the plats and the SY (bomb the heck out of the destroyer lurking along the way). It's possible to lick this without losses (other than some plats). Grab the Oracle.
Just noticed something new. After you have wasted enemy but BEFORE you dock marine frigate, you can recycle all Vagyr ships captured in the PREVIOUS missions by having your captured ships approach oracle site and then clicking on recycle. They then go into the mining site and you are credited with their value. Free RU's!!!
I finally got through this one, but with serious losses. However, this is how I did it:
Carefully moved most of my fleet through the left vein, while the MS stayed near a resource patch close to the starting point, with some light defense and building gun turrets.
Main fleet got attacked at the first asteroid, won, moved on, attacked ship yard. Long fight, hardest being the loads of Vaygr Missile Frigates. I had lots of Torpedo Frigs, but lost all of them even while keeping them under repair with 7 resourcers.
I blew the frigate facility on the shipyard, but there were still enough left to cost me all of my frigates.
I eventually got through by moving my carrier close to the Oracle, outside range of Vaygr turrets, and continually building marine frigates while my Pulsar Gunships kept, slowly, degrading the Missile Frigs.
I noticed that the Missile Frigates were specifically targeting Marine Frigates. They blew up really quickly, the horde of resourcers to keep them alive didn't help.
I'm glad Pulsars have such thick skins that they eventually cleaned up most of the Missile Frigs while my continuous production of Marine Frigs drew the Missile Frigs' fire. Once those were gone, I got one Marine to dock and finished the level, more than half of my fleet gone... :argh:
Easier method: move up the left in the same way. Send one marine frigate to trigger the Great Big Fleet--and destroy that fleet with fighters, bombers, and corvettes. Naturally, destroy assault frigates first. Once they're gone, it will be one big shooting gallery for your strike craft to have fun in.
The Vaygr (in the campaign and single-player, anyway) seem to be absolutely horrible against corvettes; as long as they took out assault frigates first, Higaaran vettes can eat whole fleets of frigates for lunch. Pure pulsars will kill capital ships faster, but mixing in some gunships for anti-fighter cover will protect them from just about anything the Vaygr throw at them.
meh. i just sent all my ships to the oracle, killed the shipyard, got the oracle and hyperspaced outt b4 the garrisons arrived.
I had just finished attacking the garrison in the middle "vein" when they sent out the probes...nothing unusual, so I carry on playing. When I reach the Oracle's asteroid, I am not only greeted with the usual shipyard, carrier and defence force, but literally 25-30 heavy missile frigates and around 20 of their infiltrator frigates, which as you can imagine tear my fleet apart and capture what's left. No one seems to mention this many ships, or having this much trouble so I'm thinking that there isn't supposed to be this many ships? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
You should know that...
Information is the greatest weapon. So, instead of suggesting strategies, I'll provide you with some intelligence and some tactices. You should know that...
1. The strength of enemy garrisons in this mission are calculated based on yours. So, the small your initial fleet is, the better. Last time I played the mission, there was only two frigate in each garrison. I didn't even used bombers.
2. (Good News!) The only production activity in this mission is located in the garrison near the Oracle site. It consists of a Shipyard and Carrier. Unlike the last mission, they don't mass a large fleet unless they detect you. They just build ships as they feel needed. There are also three resource fields in this mission. One near the enemy shipyard, one near your mothership and one close to your fleet, which you can easily secure.
3. You'll no longer have any resource problem in this mission. You must now possess a large amount of RU which will allow you to build and research at maximum capacity.
4. You have yet noticed that if your forces remain out of dust field, Vaygr will be suspected. If they remain out for more than 30 seconds, Vaygr will identify them, and your cover will be blown. However, if the number of suspecious acticvities increase, Vaygr shipyard will deploy probes to scan for possible fleet hiding places. Alternatively, if you Load a Saved Game, a giltch causes the Vaygr to send probes. One tactic is to hide your fleet beforehand. The other is to destroy the critical probe which will cause the detection: The last one.
5. As the Vaygr knows that the dust veins are the only ways to reach the garrisons undetected, they have allocated fighter squadrons to patrol the veins and alert them of any intrusions. Sending fighters against the is too noisy. Instead you can send Flak Frigates and Probes to their patrol end point to clear the veins.
6. Proximity Sensor Probes have the most range of detection (9 Kilometers radius) inside the dust clouds. They can spy on garrison fleets from a very safe distance, if you manage to position them clear of the patrols and garrisoned strikecrafts.
7. Once the garrison fleets are destroyed and you are confident you have enough information gathered/Proximity Sensor Probes positioned/frigates produced/researches completed to attack the Oracle Dig site, feel free to announce your presence. The remaining shipyard won't mass a fleet. They send whatever they have, but in a rout, not in a strike group. You can take them one by one, can't you?
This mission is so great since you can choose various strategies. First commence by gathering all the resources on the cloud to just north east of the MS. Construct a fleet of 5 torpedo frigates, 5 bombers, 5 gunships. With your Gunships and Bombers start destroying the Garrisons from left to right. If you ever do decide to save you will be confronted by probes. All you have to do is have a squadron of Bombers and interceptors head off the third detected probe. It is the only probe that will actually alert the enemy to your presence. Leave the dust clouds and destroy it in the open space. Be sure to return under the 40 second window. Now after you have destroyed all the garrisons place your Bomber Gunship fleet on the far left garrison, and a small fleet of 2 interceptors and 2 bombers at the garrison right above the Oracle. Here is where it gets Critical. Your 5 torpedo frigates and minelayers should be right next to the Open field slightly off to the right hidden in the dust cloud. Order you 2B2I fleet to attack the oracle dig site... this is a diversion. You want to alert the enemy of your presence and attack them for at least a couple of minutes. While your minelayers commence to lay a field of mines right in the center of the open field. As soon as the mine field is halfway complete retreat the Diversion fleet to the minefield. Where you will have 5 torpedo frigates and a ton of mines waiting to annihalate the enemy. While the enemy frigates leave the oracle site send in your main attack squadron from the Leftmost garrison and destroy the carrier and Platforms! The platforms are key since they will lay waste to all your ships. After a while the enemy frigates will stop being produced andyou are free to move in your torpedo frigates to destroy the shipyard. If you want... you can also have a fleet of marine frigates at the minefield and pick off enemy assualt and heavy missle launchers.
After playing around with this mission, ive come up with an effective plan.
1. Build 3 carriars and research fighter, corvette and frig facilities (one on each is best to maxamize use and minimize cost). Research advanced sensors on atleast 1 carriar thats going.
2. Build 3 torp, 3 flack, 3 ion frigs to go with the carriars.
3. build 9 squads of bombers and divide them among the carriars. BE SURE YOU HAVE THEM STAY DOCKED!
4. Build corv's, your best and as many as you can, put them in the carriars.
Set course for the oracle while staying in the nebula cloud. Take out the first garasin and continue on. Once your half way between the garasin and the oracle you will find out probes have been launched, ignore them.
Dont worry about the other garasins that you didnt engage, these are to distract you and divide your forces. They are little more then a few fighters and platforms. Once a garrasin is destroyed, probes will be launched a few minutes later to investigate the area.
Once your carriars detect the enemy ship yard have them stop (do not have your carriars go much farther then this. The enemy will have and build marine frigs to take over your ships. If the carriars are out of range or not detected, they will not be in danger). Send the frigs and launch your fighters. Have your ion frigs take out the other frigs and the rest consintrate on the ship yard. Have the fighters and corv's take out the enemy fighters, platforms and then work on the carriar sitting next to the shipyard.
At this point you will begin to take on losses, be sure to have your carriars that you parked outside of the combat zone begin to build replacements have have them launch automatticly to renforce your main attack group.
Once the carriar and shipyard are destroyed, launch, or build, a marine frig to take the oracle. After that, its an easy walk.
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