Around The Web - Backlog Burndown #29 - The Last Mission

An old game isn't really complete for me until I write about it. That's why my most recent Backlog Burndown column featured my (probably) final thoughts on Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance.

I have a lot of mixed emotions about this series. Finishing it was exciting, because it meant I could move on to my massive Wing Commander playthrough. But it's also bittersweet, because I know there aren't any more X-Wing games, even though with seven additional movies and three long-running TV shows to work with, there really should be by now.

In truth, I'm not sure Disney and EA quite know what to do with the Star Wars gaming franchise. Oh, there's been Star Wars: Battlefront II, which has evolved into a decent game in the year since it was released, and of course Star Wars: The Old Republic is still trucking along, but that's been it for a long while. Here's hoping that 2019 will at least see the release of Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - B7M2 - Destroy the Executor!

Phase Two. Destroy the Executor and throw the Imperial fleet into some chaos.



The biggest issue here is that the Executor has more than the standard number of deflector shield generators. Start picking them off, and be prepared for if the ship clips through you when it dies (as happens at the end of the video).

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - B6M6 - All Together Now

We're wrapping up the prelude to Endor now, gathering the entire Rebel fleet together to make the attack. The final step is to escort some of the remaining battle groups back to the fleet.


You'd think that the Rebels could have spared more than a pair of A-Wings for this job, but maybe there were a lot more strike groups needing escort than were mentioned in the briefing. Yeah, we'll go with that. Regardless, the first part of this mission is pretty easy. Use the A-Wing's speed to ensure that the Assault Gunboats can't chew up the Defiance too badly, and you'll be fine.

The second part is a bit tougher. The Independence is already in a bad way when you arrive, so you need to focus on knocking out enemy TIE Bombers while still keeping yourself out of the clutches of the TIE Fighters and Interceptors. Fortunately, your A-Wing does have a full load of Concussion missiles and can grab a reload or two from the hanger of the Independence. I'm not a big fan of Concussion missiles, but they're pretty handy against unshielded Dupes. No reason to come home with full missile magazines at the end of this mission.

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance B6M5 - Shuttle Tyderium

Now this is a serious story mission. Granted, there's two other versions of how the Rebels acquired this shuttle before Return of the Jedi, but as far as I'm concerned, this is the one true canonical version.



The toughest part of this is the waiting. I found out the hard way that aborting the docking procedure breaks all of the scripting, so even after the commandos (led by General Crix Madine) tell you that you're clear, you need to wait until the docking script actually completes to exit the station.

Other than that, the main tricks are to keep more than a half kilometer away from any Imperial fighters that could identify the Sabra, and keep the TIE Bombers away from the Tyderium once it launches from the station.

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - B6M4 - Fewer Bothans Died

I mean, less than would have if Rogue Squadron hadn't sortied to ensure that at least some of them got away, right?

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - B6M3 - This is Our House!

It's time to get our home back! Alliance High Command has decided to recapture the Azzameen home station, rather than simply launching a bomber strike to blow it up. Hooray!



This mission is really pretty straight forward. Just kill whatever enemy fighters are threatening you, and make sure the enemy Marauder Corvette gets neutralized. Fortunately, the B-Wing is the right tool for the job here.

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - B6M2 - Slight Navigational Error

It's time to figure out where those party-crashing mercenary scum from the last mission came from. To do that, it's time to take the Otana, do some sneaky slicer stuff, then follow the trail right to the mercenaries' base!


Things don't exactly go according to the plan. First off, the first set of coordinates turn out to be fakes, leading us right into a trap. Just getting away turns into an adventure. Then there's more time in a turret, playing the sitting duck role. Not my favorite way to play.

Well, at the end, at least we found the merc base. About that...

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - B6M1 - Fey'la Troubles

I still don't like Borsk Fey'lya, for a whole myriad of Legends Extended Universe reasons. That said, we have to keep him save for ... um ... look, we just DO, okay? He's got a bunch of Bothans he still has to order to their deaths so that he can ride their corpses to political power for the next fifty years.



On second thought, maybe we could just let the Imperials have him, admit that blowing up the 2nd Death Star was a huge mistake, and let the Empire win this round?

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - Battle 5, Mission 4 - Retreat!

It turns out that rescuing Emon in the last mission was only the beginning. The Imperials tracked our rescue to Dunari's casino, and now they're going to make Dunari pay for his insolence.



Fortunately, the Alliance has Dunari's back this time, and instead of a court-marshal for bringing an Imperial fleet down on everyone's heads, you're jumping back in an X-Wing to cover Dunari's retreat. Good luck!

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - B5M3 - Surprise Delivery

Another family business mission, this time to rescue Ace's brother Emon from Imperial imprisonment!



The mission isn't especially difficult, provided you can have some patience, and keep the Assault Gunboats away from the rescue ship.

Let's Play: Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - B5M2 - Not The Help We Want!

This wasn't the help we were looking for. The mission today is to attack a civilian convoy that's carrying supplies destined for Imperial garrisons. Being that we're ostensibly the good guys, the plan is to disable the ships, grab the cargo, and leave no civilian casualties.

Unfortunately, our new "allies" have some different ideas.



The capture op abruptly turns into a rescue operation, as the friendly escorts abruptly turn unfriendly. Only once they are out of the picture can the rest of the capture operation begin. After that, there's Imperial reinforcements to deal with.

I ended the mission early as soon as I got a success notification, after a couple of attempts went from success to failure when a cargo transport was destroyed by Imperial fighters. This isn't an extremely difficult mission, but it can definitely be frustrating to the unwary.

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - B5M1 - Smuggler's Rendezvous

Welcome to Battle #5! Getting ever closer to that grand finale, and the Rebel Alliance is running out of supplies (again). You know, you'd think maybe they'd learn a thing or two about logistical supply chains from the Imperials, but based on The Last Jedi, nope, never happened. Sigh. So once again, it's up to a motley group of smugglers to come help save the day.



Of course, this meeting needs an escort, and that's where we come in. Someone dug a few Z-95 Headhunters out of storage, so that's what we're going to fly, to make this look like just a random meeting of smuggler groups. Surely that will fool the Empire, right?

The only major problem in this mission is the fragility of your Z-95s. Other than that, it's a fairly straightforward escort mission. Make sure everyone gets away, then get yourself safely home.

Let's Play: Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance Battle Four, Mission Six - Save The Computer!

What is it with Rebel corvettes carrying secret plans that gets them shredded by Star Destroyers? I don't know, but here we go again.



Remember the computer information that we fought so hard to protect and get away from the Executor with in the previous mission. Well, I hope you kept the champagne on ice, because we're not out of the woods yet! The corvette has been tracked, and here comes trouble once again.

It'll all be worth it, though, provided we can get the computer core safely to Admiral Ackbar. He'll know what to do next.

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - Battle Four, Mission Five - Borsk Fey'lya is an Idiot

Another mission, another cameo appearance by a fictional member of the (Legends) Extended Universe. I never liked Borsk Fey'lya although an argument could be made that the character wasn't always terrible, he just got written that way. Take your choice. At any rate, he shows up in this mission, arrogant as always, and you and your squadron mates have to cover for his time wasting to ensure that everyone gets away safely from Darth Vader and his Super Star Destroyer. Oh joy.



The main trick here is to take out the Assault Transports as quickly as possible. Choosing a B-Wing over the default X-Wing option helps a lot, since the ATRs can be more easily destroyed at close range with torpedoes, and the B-Wing carries more of them.

After the ATRs are destroyed and the Razor makes the jump to the rendesvous point, it's time to make your way there as well. The Liberty will be fine to make the transit without help, and you don't want to be the last rebel ship in the area when all those Imperial TIEs run out of other targets.

Let's Play Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance, Battle Four, MIssion Four - Luke Skywalker is my Wingman

One of the best parts of X-Wing Alliance was story missions featuring cameos of major characters.

Don't ask me when Luke found the time to do this between making a new lightsaber and heading off to Tatooine to rescue Han Solo, but that's the way the plot goes.



Many Bothans died to get this mission done.

Let's Play: Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - Battle Four, Mission Three

Remember two weeks ago? When the mission ended with dropping Aeron off on that pirate asteroid base? Well, here we go again, because now she needs to be rescued. It's going to be a lot more difficult to get her off that rock, than it was to drop her off in the first place.



Sometimes, the way to get a mission done is to ask yourself "What would Poe Dameron do?" Then do whatever the opposite of that would be. This is one of those cases. Trying to dogfight several Star Destroyers worth of TIE squadrons tends to work out... poorly.

Let's Play: Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - Battle Four, Mission Two

Oh, look! Another recon mission. In an A-Wing. Sigh. Well, we just play this one by the numbers, just like the previous ones. Roll in, inspect everything, run like hell.



Nothing complicated. Got this one done on the first try. The most interesting thing about it is what it's starting to set up. We're getting closer and closer to the Battle of Endor!

Let's Play: Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - Battle Four, Mission One

Oh man! The same day that the new Han Solo movie comes out, we're on to the next chapter of X-Wing Alliance, and on a transport mission. The Otana may not be the Millennium Falcon, but she's a great mount for smuggling supplies, or stealing them from some Imperial suppliers.



This turns out to be a fairly easy mission. Defending the transports against the enemy fighters isn't especially difficult, and there's not too much opposition. Just get what you need, and get out before big trouble arrives.

Virtual Wings: Star Wars's Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-2000

“Hey, remember that ‘Ships of the Rebellion’ series you were doing? I found one more for you.” was how my editor started off the conversation. I honestly thought I was done. I’d covered every letter of the Alliance alphabet, moving from A- to B- and X, Y, and even Z. I’d flown every TIE variant the Imperials fielded, and even the Assault Gunboat and its weird offspring. Oh, and I’d flown a YT-1300. Not the infamous Millennium Falcon, I’ll grant you, but a YT-1300 none the less. What else was there?

“We’ve been going over some old records, and it seems like this Ace Azzameen guy flew a bunch of missions in his family’s YT-2000 transport, the Otana. The 2K ships don’t have nearly the collector value as the -1300 or -2400 series, but I found a guy in an Outer Rim sector who’s got one that’s still in flying condition. Want to try it out?”

Let's Play: Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance: Battle Three, Mission Seven

Remember Commander Kupalo? You rescued him along with a bunch of other Alliance prisoners captured on Hoth way back in Battle One, Mission Four. Well... It turns out that may have been a bit of a trap. Shocking news, right? So now we have to stop his shuttle, before he takes all the information we worked so very hard for on the last mission back to the Empire, along with the location of our fleet.



After the massive pain that was the last mission, this one is relatively straight forward. Kupalo will surrender his shuttle once you do enough damage to it, so be careful! Then it's just a matter of defending Storm Unit and AA-23 until they can jump back to the fleet.

Good luck!