Let's Play Wing Commander 1: McAuliffe Mission #2 - Destroyer Strike

Finally a chance to do something other than patrols or escorting fat, slow transports. McAuliffe was heating up, at least that's what the Colonel said, and he was sending strike pairs out to engage and neutralize possible threats that had popped up on radar.



It seemed like the guys in the bar earlier must have been part psychic, since we'd just been discussing the best way to take out an enemy capital ship. Maniac, of course, favored an agressive strategy of burning in, popping the cap ship, then dealing with the fighter escort. Iceman, and everyone with a brain, preferred to engage the escorts first, then deal with the big hostile once there wasn't anything left that could shoot us in the back.

 The flight of Dralthi we blundered into halfway to the nav point was just bad luck. Certainly for them, since Paladin and I made short work of them. At Nav 1, we rolled in against a bigger threat: two Krants escorting the Ralari destroyer we'd come to destroy.

I gave Paladin the lead and burned hard to come in under the trailer. On paper, the Scim and Krant woere pretty close matches. The Krant had slight edge in armor, I had a little more firepower. When the trailing fighter couldn't turn in fast enough to hang with me, firepower won. I went underneath him at full burner, then cut my drives and pitched around to put myself on his tail. One full burst from my Mass Drivers was all it took. That gave me time to help Paladin, who was struggling with the other fighter. The cat must have gotten target fixated as Paladin tried to extend and clear, allowing me to call Fox Two and put a heater up the Krant's tailpipe.

After that, the Ralari was just a matter of weathering the flak and unloading guns into the engines. Problem solved, and we were RTB with not too much worse than some paint scratches and half-empty missile racks.

Let's Play Wing Commander 1 - Enyo Mission 2 - Babysitting Duty

(Note: since mission recaps are kind of boring, and I've had this head-canon for something like twenty-five years, I'm going to start writing these as fiction from the POV of Bill "Maverick" Loridan.)

The Drayman transport was just painfully slow. I wanted him to go faster, or at least give me a reason to do barrel rolls around the ship, but Spirit probably wouldn't have approved of that. Still, the little Hornet felt like she was practically begging to be wrung out proper-like. It was almost a relief when we finally ran into a pair of Salthi light fighters lurking near the first nav point.



"Spirit, fight's on. You take the trailer, I'll get the leader." A double-click on the comm was all I needed in return. Unlike some of the other folks on the Claw, Spirit wasn't especially talkative during missions. Still, she was a good pilot, and burned ahead, aiming at the trailing enemy fighter. I throttled up to engage the lead fighter, who made a serious mistake in turning to engage Spirit as she burned past him.

It was the last mistake that Kilrathi would ever make.  The moment he turned his back to me, my lasers cut through his shields and armor. I turned my attention to the second fighter just in time to see Spirit snap a perfect Dumbfire shot that caught the other Salthi amidship.

The second encounter was almost anti-climatic by comparison.  The pair of flying bullseyes waiting for us at the jump point never stood a chance. The Dralthi is a piece of junk that looks like it combines poor visibility, lousy armor, and light armament into a package fit only for target practice. I'm glad they're on the enemy's side, not ours.

 The post-mission debrief was pretty normal. Colonel Halcyon congratulated us on getting the transport safely away, and on getting ourselves back safely. Probably the biggest news was that I was being transferred out of the Killer Bees to go fly the Scimitar. Not sure how I feel about that just yet.

Let's Play Wing Commander! Enyo Mission 1, Welcome to the Vega Sector

Welcome to Wing Commander and the Vega Sector! I may have mentioned just a few times before that this is one of my favorite games of all time. These first few missions I could almost do blindfolded. Almost.



Remember, this is a game that came out in 1990. The first two missions in Enyo are the closest thing to a tutorial that the game has. We start off with a basic three point patrol. There are a few flying bullseyes (Dralthi) at Nav 1, some asteroids Nav 2, and a few Salthi light fighters at Nav 3. Pretty basic stuff.

One of the things that made Wing Commander unique was wingmen with personality. Shotglass will tell you that Spirit is a good wingman. She may be a little more chatty than a wingman should be, but unlike some of the folks you'll fly with, she's really good about not shooting through you to hit an enemy target.

Back when Wing Commander originally came out, the game box came with these lovely blueprints for each of the four fighters that you flew. Very official looking, and very cool. I wish I knew where mine had gotten to over the years.

The Hornet too, is a fun little fighter. Definitely something I prefer over the Scimitar, but that's a commentary for some later missions. The Hornet is quick, maneuverable, and decently armed. I'm not fond of going up against anything tougher than a Krant in one, but both Gratha and Jalthi are doable if you're smart and aggressive.