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KickStarter Let's die a burning death in Highfleet [Done]

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
First come, first served then.
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
EPISODE 17: FINAL ASSAULT.

Right, so I will want that loose end off my ass. I'm sending ERYFKRAD to get me that traitor's head.

exactly 666 kms away.

Seems like we'll be talking first.



That's some dope ass reverse psychology my man. I wonder what you're sniffing through that hose.




Ah, one of those. No, don't tell me. What can change the nature of war that never changes?



Oh fuck off man. You're starting to get on my nerves.

Yes, and that would end the war, no?

Eeeh, go project your daddy issues elsewhere.



:roll:




Wow, what a dick.
Option 2 looks really tempting, but let's show some decorum.




Well, that's that. I thought I might talk some sense into that guy for a sec.
Not sure what was the point here exactly, perhaps you need some extreme stats to get anywhere with it.

That's lord Governor's ride. A souped up Sevastopol basically.
I made a horrible miscalculation here, we're out of AP ammo... which would help.
On the other hand, allow me a practical demonstration how obsolete is this design compared to the ECHO pattern frigate.

It's got a bunch of MK-6 batteries which keep sending proximity rounds in our direction.
There's also quite a sizeable cluster of zeniths on the bottom.
Make no mistake, it's a behemoth that'll swat us out of the sky if we let it.
If I had any AP, I might get it from above, but there's another way still.

First step is to kill some of the missiles. It's hard to dodge proximity rounds and them at the same time, though they sometimes help
by shooting his own munitions.

It's covered in Palashes which I need to punch through, but that spot is probably the best place to be in,
giving ERYFKRAD partial protection from the main batteries (same flaw as with the original sevastopol) as he chews past the fuel tank.
Paradoxically, the more we remove of that tank, the better the VARYAG's aiming gets at. Too little, too late.
Then after some pounding...


Glorious victory, but not without loss.

There were two promotions in a row actually.

With the salvage operation well underway (I'm looking at at least 34 000$ worth of stuff) I send out Andnjord to secure the nearest shipyard.


Oh crap. I guess the times of running jolly all by yourself are done.
This will be tough, not gonna lie, cleared to use laser guided.

Special munitions make short work of the enemy.

But the ship still takes some damage as seen below on the promotion screen.

The fleet thanks you for your service.

As we land, there's some urgent news.




Well, this complicates things.







You girls need a room, or...?






Not to mention, that nuclear winter thing. Or was it cancelled when I wasn't looking?




So, this is the point where we need to pick if we love mommy or daddy more?
Fine. For all his 5D chess Pyoter at least seems to know his head from his arse.



Well, that works too, I suppose.




I agree. We have enough morale issues as it is.




"This is what I will tell the men" <- I missed a screenshot here.

Well, in a sense, you're not lying. He has... departed.


Nobody seems to be interested in investigating the bloody gunshot?

Anyways, we get a new toy:

Jesus, it is like that sevastopol thing all over again... I'm not crashing it this time.


Well, you'll need to walk it off for a bit, gentlemen.

I send out tindrli to seize the fuel.

I'm giving him airplane escorts because shit's starting to get serious.

Can't see shit through this feed, but the planes blew up something.



The HOUND is a bit like your retarded brother, same armament, not nearly as fast, big ass fuel tank to block arcs of fire.

Being unarmored, the hound pops easy.
The other two need a bit more persuasion.


Congratulations, max level.

Since noone is really 100% operational, I decide to clear out SHETHE

The craft encounter enemy fighters. Turns out there actually was a carrier group there.

They are unable to get past them. I need to obtain air superiority.

Better.


The remaining craft attack with the crappy cannon. Good fighting spirit, but not very effective.

Actual bombers en route.

Yep, we have a longbow there, also what looks like a gladiator and two small fries. Most definitely a carrier group.

Bombers get the drop on the carrier.


They take out the engines on one side, the ship slides slowly towards its doom.

Next bomber wave completely misses the small craft.


The planes are in need of R&R, but tindrli should handle this.


Yep, easy, though that AA will spoil the fun, most definitely.


Other than that, this gladiator was pretty much the only dangerous thing.

More complaints from the crew.



Confiscating it is. We need a bit of a morale boost here.



Okay people, this is it. We're doing KHIVA!

Whisper craft hears nothing.
A preparatory bombing run seems in order.

Again, I can't see shit here,

but these are some weak ass defenses. What the hell?

I pull the rest of the craft. No sense in wasting bombs on small fries.
ERYFKRAD and tindrli, the show is yours.

Indeed. Really anticlimatic.

ERYFKRAD takes out one.

Then time for a switch.

I feel disappointed... but no time to pout. Enemy aircraft are spotted.


Feneks do a decent job clearing the skies at first, but the aircraft just keep coming.
We lose one, then the other.
RIP Feneks.
The fleet won't forget the greatest of sacrifices.

Time to land.


Been there. Done that.


That's the audiophile guy we gave that pot to near the start.


Let's see that vault then.


Someone's been naughty...



That's usually what happens when you do too much 5D chess. Don't be too hard on yourself.


Not fucking around, are we? Well, we also have nukes.



Gloves are off, it seems.
You'll be dying in a nuclear fire yet, gentlemen.

Promise you won't be pointing finger at things, Pyoter. This is serious.





Pointed at the end. I approve.




Does not follow, most of the shit flying around here would barely move out of the blast zone in 10 minutes.
But who am I to argue.


Ah yes, more sevastopol designs.












After this, each of our companions coughs up some extra ships.



Wow, really?


Okay, but who the fuck are you? I never even met this guy.

Indeed.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So this is the endgame, gentlemen.
The KHIVA assault was a bit of a dud as far as I'm concerned, but I think this final scenario makes up for it.
I admit, I made the mistake of not patching you up before I rolled in, but that's what you get, playing blind.
We'll see what we get to work with in a second,
but seems like the objectives are straightforward - we have 4 possible insertion points for 3 strike groups,
two of them will be carrying GAMEOVER weapons, so we need to get them first.
Nuclear war is triggered, so everyone's packing nukes now.
Money is no longer an issue, and we'll be getting free reinforcements along the way,
because the locals don't seem too keen on the idea of being nuked by their previous "liberators".

That said, not sure how big a role you'll be ale to play in the endgame, because we got some ground to cover,
and time will be the resource which we're most short on.
That's that. I expect the next few updates will be the last ones, whichever way it goes.
 

baud

Arcane
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Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Seems like they've changed the codes again.
There wasn't any opportunity to collect any paper from radio rooms lately, so that won't be of any help.
Then I get an idea. The direction finder points roughly at the direction of strike group PAMIR,
the last word is the sender and is exactly 5 letters long...
so if I tweak the numbers like so:

reminds me how in WW2, Allies code breakers used repeating messages (like weather forecast or repeated reports on stable fronts) to find the key used that day

Nobody seems to be interested in investigating the bloody gunshot?

"I was cleaning my weapon and I had forgotten a round in the chamber"

nice endgame
 

Krraloth

Prophet
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Wasteland 2
I get the feeling that spectre is on fire this run. It's like you're supposed to die a lot until you have enough game knowledge to do well

Inviato dal mio A80S utilizzando Tapatalk
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
Like I said, that's the furthest I've gotten in this game so far, so I'm happy with how it turned out.
I admit, now that I know what to expect from the endgame exactly, I would have done things differently,
try and prepare some ground for this final defense, get all the NPCs on board, etc.
Oh well, that's for another time, maybe on hard difficulty.

The game does have this nasty difficulty spike when you get hit by long range missiles/aircraft for the first time,
because it's not covered by the tutorial at all, and you're left completely on your own how to approach this problem.
The rest of the minigames are rather lenient, you have infinite retries for landing, you can burn morale to redo air combat,
and even practice it as much as you want in the ship editor. Not this one though. One try is all you get, and it's easy to lose a ship or two.
As you saw, I tried to account for it, and still lost two AA craft in the process.

I also think our little flanking maneuver from a few updates back might have broken the game a bit.
All mobile enemy forces converged on the location where we made the most noise, and now they don't have the speed to catch up with us,
since where going 400-800 kmh on average, whereas they'll be doing 90-130 kmh at the most.

im kind a disappointed that this is the endgame. seems kind short.
Well, that's my experience with this game in a nutshell, it makes an excellent first impression, promises to deliver quite a lot, but then, at some point you discover a lot of it is just smoke and mirrors. It does have a way to scare off scrubs who can't be bothered to get decent at the minigames, or even RTFM. A lof of folks complain that it feels unfinished too. We'll see about that in a bit.

reminds me how in WW2, Allies code breakers used repeating messages (like weather forecast or repeated reports on stable fronts) to find the key used that day
I must say, I quite dig that particular minigame, to the point that I'd wish they changed codes more often.
Even it the actual message interception is fucking tedious, because you have to tune in that dial every time.

"I was cleaning my weapon and I had forgotten a round in the chamber"
4DkD.gif
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
EPISODE 18 AND FINAL: NUCLEAR FIRE
Strap in boys, this is it.

We take one last look at the towering facilities of KHIVA. Time to examine the troops.

The game really shat out a lot of freebie ships for us.

Three of those.

Two of those.

Not sure if these will be useful for anything at all.

But I won't say no to a nuclear capable cruiser.

Now, here's what it looks like.
We have one probable insertion point here:

Another one here:

There's one far to the SE.

And the last one is here, same spot we came in.

We also have a rather sizeable fleet of aircraft, once it gets up to speed.


As they said, auxiliaries are now free to get, not sure if we need any.

Also, let's not forget we were attacked by aircraft from these two direction.


So, we have two nuclear cruisers to bring down and three strike groups in total.
With 4 possible locations, we need to start with some intel.
I move the whisper craft towards the NW point, ELINT goes off almost immediately.

I decide to ignore the towns in the way and their garrisons, no sense in catching more attrition than we need to.

Second radar emission detected somewhere around here.

Time to get this done. This contact is the closest, so let's start here.
he detachment is carriers together with CMDR Krraloth
Until we know what we're up against, best bet is to try and blast them from afar.

I send out two aircraft to identify the exact enemy location.

And there they are, holed up in HARRAN.

Since we're here, might as well drop a present.


The bombs take out some of their nuclear payload. Great.

CMDR Krraloth, standby to dispense long range love.

Since they're stationary, I just blast away.


They launch sprints to take out our Kh-15

Almost there.

Second one, still no hit.

Third one, almost...

And the fourth one finally connects.

I decide to finish the job with aircraft.


The bombs fall directly on the unprotected launcher tubes.


Then a mixed strike of rockets and bombs breaks the thing in half.


That's that. One Strike Group down, one Missile Carrier neutralized. Head back to KHIVA.

In the meantime, TABAL turns out to be a dud.

I run the Whisper craft down until it runs out of fuel. It catches a transmission.

Oh fuck off man...


Nothing here as well. Strange.

In the meantime, I decide to relocate the NEGEVs

Holy shit, 11 hrs just to get to next town.

Finally, I get something in ALMA, but the signal is very weak.

Triangulating enemy position.

Our forces here are Andnjord, baud, NOMAD and EMERALD.
I'm sending out craft to see what we're up against.



No strategic missile carriers spotted. two NEGEVs, two BOREYS and some medium craft.


The planes launch their 266 mm rockets, but also get shot down by AA.

It's a rather sizeable force, so we need to even the odds a bit.

Kh-15 with nuclear payload ready.


Let's try one. No place like in the middle of the desert.

Let's see how they like it.

Brighter than a thousand suns.

They're caught in an EMP, as good an opportunity as any...


I think we caught one with the last nuke.

Almost a direct hit.
I am become death.

We'll decide to mop up when the dust settles.

But the madmen keep coming at us.


Ok, so that's actually GRYPHONs, not BOREYs.
Commanders, cleared to use laser guided munitions. Finish this.

Baud makes short work of the first one.

Time for a switch.

Andnjord's a bit banged up still, but the other guy just survived two nukes, so I guess it's a fair fight.


Second Strike Group Neutralized.

Exemplary performance, gentlemen.

Yep, all quiet on this front. No ELINT readouts.

Time to catch the last one.
They're somewhere between MISSAIF and KUMDAG.
I send out the craft, ERYFKRAD, tindrli, Krraloth.

The auxiliaries move at a snail's pace so I set them aside. They'll get there when they get there.

In the meantime, the NEGEVs approach OPHIR


So that's one of the carriers that was bothering us earlier.


Since these are auxiliaries, I don't really care about losses.
The controls are sluggish. Half a second worth of good thrust and the engines are in the red.
I won't be dodging anything in this.

Enjoy the mayhem, plenty of missiles flying, there's also aircraft from the carrier.
I do my best whittling them with the miniguns.

With most aircraft killed, the longbow is mostly decorative.
However, this NEGEV took a bit of a beating in the process. I'm having trouble keeping it afloat.
It drops like a brick. Well, I have two more.


And then there's just me and the longbow.



We estimate enemy position somewhere around here.


Let's find them.

There it is.

Small group, just like the previous one.

And they shoot down one of our planes.
I turned on the radar so I won't be firing the missiles blind.

Might have made a bit of a mistake. They're jamming us.
Also, they immediately send nukes our way

I scramble some aircraft to catch it.
They succeed.

I think I need a different plan. Just blasting them to hell with planes sounds a touch anticlimatic.
First off, we're awfully short on fuel, so I need that garisson at KUMDAG out of the way.



Just as we land, I hear the missle alarm go off. Ok, we'll try and shoot these down again.

But this time it's the strategic missle, no time to react...

Motherfuckers nuked the town. That's cold.

Another one coming in...

Holy shit. DAMAGE REPORT GODDAMIT!

The nuclear blast takes the lives of nearly 147 thousand people.
Among them, ERYFKRAD and tindrli.

Rest in piece, gentlemen.

Further damage report shows that our VEGA strategic carrier is all but obliterated, and Krraloth took quite a beating.
We're down to two short range AN-100s.

The aircraft carriers are similarly banged up.
I need location on that strike group ASAP.

The remaining planes find them. The bastards withdrew back to town just to nuke us.

We drop them a gift.
Did that took out the missile carrier?

Ok, something's fucky, the game might have bugged out again, because I'm now seeing two strike groups remaining.
They're coming straight at us with jammers on.
We're close enough, CMDR Krraloth, you let them eat those AN-100s.

Most definitely something's bugged cause I see that missile carrier with my very own eyes, but the game says it's 0 remaining.
We'll figure this out later.


Direct hit.

We're all out of missiles. Time to GFTO. I split the force in two, the faster one withdraws to refuel and pull back further,
the slower auxiliaries move to the side. The two longbows are useless now, and the vega is too banged up to do anything.
The chase is on. We move faster than them, so here's hoping we can get to KUNDAG and refuel then regroup
I send out a Yars Mk3 from KHIVA to assist. It's got full nuclear payload, which should be more than enough.

The enemy doesn't really have anything to threaten KHIVA with, they're simply chasing after us.
I tried to get the remaining NEGEVs to do anything, but they're too slow.

Anyways, Yars Mk3 and VENGEANCE in position.
CMDR Krraloth, they're all yours.

The remaining enemy forces perish in the nuclear flame.

Radioactive slag slowly falls to meet the unwilling ground.
Our work is done.











And the game cuts to the credits just like that. Weird.

Anyways, gentlemen, it's been a pleasure
 
Last edited:

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
As you can see, there is a bit of a loose end with that thing Pyotr wanted in KHIVA, could be left as a hook for a future sequel or DLC.
A few words to wrap it up. I hope this LP was fun and it gave you a good idea what this game's about.
For those of you who haven't played it , there's still a bunch of stuff to discover.

One thing about this game is that it looks absolutely intimidating at first, but really isn't once you get to know the systems.
The balance is sometimes hilariously out of whack, you could see this with aircraft. A handful of those are useful to have,
but once you reach a certain critical mass, even endgame enemies are a joke.

Wouldn't say it's a flaw, the game attempts some realism (as much as we can talk realism with big ass airships duking it out over desert)
at portraying fleet tactics, inevitably coming to the same conclusion as real life did - lumbering, ironclad battleships are a thing of the past
once precision munitions and aircraft come into play.

Its portrayal of nuclear warfare is also rather satisfying. Even though it makes the endgame very all or nothing.
You either get hit first and die, or you easily obliterate the endgame foes.

Also, I promised you a burning death, and the game kinda obliged.
It was a bit anti-climatic to just get vaporized in a nuclear strike like this (tbh that strike could have just as easily vaporized Sevastopol and cause a game over),
but I guess nuclear warfare isn't fair.

I promised you a tally:

====================
CMDR baud //Survived//
HMS "Incline Cometh"
Hv. Raider Corvette,
3x DT-80, 2x Zenith

Kills:
Light Craft (31): 12x Courageous, 1x Flower, 6x Navarin, 11x Slogger, 1x Ballistic,
Medium Craft (3): 1x Sarma, 1x Nimrod, 1x Gladiator MRL,
Cruisers (2): 1x Archangel, 1x Gryphon
Cities liberated (15): SAIDY, DEIR, GILEAD, BOCHIM MITZPA, GHADJAR, NIMRUD, DORUT, ISA, TUSHHAN, KHASH, URUK, ERIDU, KEMH, MAGOR
Convoys captured: 1
HONOR: 8 (max)
====================

====================
CMDR Andnjord //Survived//
"CSS Roger Mills"
Long-range Attack Frigate
Sarmat MK2, 2x Vympel

Kills:
Light Craft (19): 8x Courageous, 2x Flower, 3x Slogger, 3x Intrepid, 2x Ballistic, 1x Navarin.
Medium craft (5): 2x Sarma, 2x Nimrod, 1x Gladiator.
Cruisers (7): 2x Borey, 3x Gryphon, 1x Negev, 1x Paladin Mk. 2
Convoys captured :1
Cities liberated (8): MARI, SHINAR, SHEKH, SHILOH, GIZRAM, SAMRAN, ASHOD, ALMA
HONOR: 5
====================

====================
CMDR ERYFKRAD - //Perished in a nuclear strike on KUMDAG, valiantly defending KHIVA in the final battle//
MHS "Tom Bombadil"
Assault Frigate
4x AK-100 (100mm)

Kills:
Light craft (25): 7x Slogger, 11x Courageous, 3x Flower, 1x Meteor Mk3, 1x Intrepid, 2x Ballistic,
Medium craft (5): 2x Sarma, 2x Nimrod, 1x Gladiator MRL,
Cruisers: (2) 1x Paladin Mk2, 1x VARYAG,
Convoys captured: 1
Cities liberated (12): QUIVA, SHAYBAD, GHAZM, TAFET, UZ, SHEBA, SHAELI, AGTASH, BETHEL, MAGOR, UMMA, KHIVA
HONOR: 6
====================

====================
CMDR tindrli - //Perished in a nuclear strike on KUMDAG , valiantly defending KHIVA in the final battle//
HMS "Sinan"
Hv. Raider Corvette

Kills:
Light craft (25): 6x Navarin, 3x Slogger, 10x Courageous, 3x Flower, 3x Ballistic,
Medium craft (6): 1x Sarma, 2x Gladiator MRL, 1x Gladiator, 1x Hound, 1x Nimrod
Cruisers (1): 1x Paladin Mk.2,
Cities liberated (14): SHEKH, RESHT, TIMNATH SERATH, KIRIATH, SHAELI, ZAIRAM, MUCHEN, OSH, ARK, AKKAD, ASHOD, SHUBAT, SHETHE, KHIVA
HONOR: 8 (max)
===================

====================
CMDR Krraloth /killed in action, near KHASH vs. strike group VARYAG/
HMS: Sirocco
Attack Frigate

Kills (3): 2x Ballistic 1x Courageous
Cities: TARSHISH
====================
CMDR Krraloth II son of Krraloth
HMS: Vengeance

Difficult to count missles kills, but I'm thinking two GRYPHONs (one 100% confirmed one probable), one NEGEV and one TYPHON nuclear missile carrier.
====================
 

Krraloth

Prophet
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Boringland
Wasteland 2
Vengeance is MINE! I like how i got to play with nukes in the end
Nice LP man, i enjoyed it a lot

Inviato dal mio A80S utilizzando Tapatalk
 

Luka-boy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 24, 2014
Messages
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Location
Asspain
That was a nice, informative LP. I wish I found it earlier to join as a commander but oh well. Cheers!
:excellent:
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,240
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Man imagine all those lps abandoned at page 3 that could have been done by page 4 if the posters just pushed a bit.
Thanks spectre. Might give this game a go eventually even if it doesn't allow ramming.
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,382
Well, it's not a long game. I was rather surprised I could pull this off on a fresh save, since apparently you're meant to give it a few retries to improve your starting budget.

Also, all the freebies you get during the endgame make me think, if the optimal way to play isn't just avoid all the big fights and beeline for the objective. If so, that's a bit crap.
You recall that event we got where all strike groups were supposedly ordered to converge on the capital. Well, no such thing happened.
Makes me think, is the balance so delicate, or if the dev even bothered to do any testing of how it plays out in an actual campaign.
For example, enemy garissons are perfectly capable of being aggressive - leave their posts and proactively kick your ass,
but they usually won't because they don't have any radar to spot you with, and even if they see you, they don't have enough range.
This game could be so much better with just one major pass to unfuck a bunch of things.

Might give this game a go eventually even if it doesn't allow ramming.
Yeah, it's a bitch. You can ram into things, but there's an immediate event giving you -5 morale (or even more in recent patches, the dev likes to be a cunt and "balance" shit he doesn't like you doing) all over the fleet.
Then if your whole fleet ever reaches 0, that's an immediate game over.

However, I've seen people get creative with this. Still, it's not terribly practical even if you do it right, because of repair time and cost.
And if the ship dies, it's not possible to rebuy your own designs in the campaign, so you need to buy an auxiliary and rebuild it.
Some say abandoning ship just before it connects dodges the "ramming order" event as long as the escape pods left the ship.
Some claim the trick is to avoid any system damage, as long as it's just the hull and armor.
Another trick was to ram with a "dead" part of the ship, i.e. something that's not connected to the main structure.
I've seen some rather ingenious designs using bombs encased in armor that can make this happen.

Yeah, awakening your inner autiste and putting him to work in the ship editor is probably half of the game.
I've seen promising mods, like bombers with nuclear payload being added, but I've got the feeling that it will only fuck the balance even more.
 

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