XWA-TC 65: The Garuda - The Fight Continues

Battle Information

Game platform: X-Wing Alliance
Missions: 4
Release date: 2013-04-27
Last updated: 2013-04-27
Average rating 2.0
Reviews: 7
Bug reports: 4
Times completed: 27
Patches used: None
Battle Medal: Garuda Scalp

Battle Reviews

Another very poorly put together set of missions featuring a variety of bugs, lack of global goals, shallow bonus goals, missions missing % counters, the possibility of failing a mission before a single shot has even been fired, too many enemy craft, lack of beam system and and not enough warheads given to the player.


Just too many targets for the weapons given. Without infinite ammo would be a nightmare


It started very promisingly, with well written briefings and an interesting story, the foreclosure of the Garuda saga. The missions are difficult and engaging, not impossible, by any means, but here comes my strongest critic to the battle, and that is the limited choice (actually no choice at all) of warheads, making the many missions involving capital ship bombings, more pleasant and less tedious. Dogfighting zillions of Clk/F and lasering down 2 CRS ended up being annoying. One more problem of crafting is disregard for order in the targets. In one particular recon mission, a long line of containers had its names ordered by either the Mad Hatter or the Jabberwock. Additionally, being this another of Dempsey's creations, it relies heavily on the enemies being loaded to the teeth with Advanced Missiles. I personally started to like that continuous missile-dodging in her battles, though I must confess it was remarkably frustrating at first. So be prepared for really quick missile targeting and dropping countermeasures or you will be space dust in no time. It feels it could have been another outstanding battle, but these mentioned flaws, actually crippled a bit, the overall gaming experience.


I still did not finish the battle and I doubt I will. Second mission is very strange: you have to inspect the facilities while your squadron is making a fight. If you go in a fight, the mission is lost. Why??? As the result you get -400 pts right away because your stupid squadron is dead. The third mission I tried on different difficulty levels and even on easy the frigate is killed and mission is lost. Flying around it and killing only cloak fighters doesn't help. You spend 20 minutes on one try and anyway lose in the middle of all this. After more than 10 tries there is no wish to try again.
[update] Finally I made the third mission on easy level.


Well designed battles, but easy to lose track of Captial ship status.


Did anyone test flight this battle? On hard?
That's the question I kept asking myself all the way, until I just stopped caring and switched to invincible and unlimited ammo. It's sad as the plotline is decent and the missions are well done, but it seems nearly impossible to do them without ''cheating''. I feel like the battle as the ''TIE Fighter syndrome'' - the designer thought the TIE Advanced and TIE Defender are unstoppable warmachines that can decimate waves after waves of fighters in quick succession. Sorry, but this wasn't fun for me.


A short four mission battle that continues the plot of the previous battle of the same name.
The story line flows well and progresses between each mission.
The briefings and mission text are well written and are detailed.
The missions themselves are complex enough to make you think about your targets, however I did observe the odd squadron of A-Wings fly into the side of a station and by the end of the battle it does start to feel like a grind facing up against wave after wave of fighters.
All in all a good battle worth playing if only to finish the Garuda story.


Battle Bug Reports

CM Vanguard88

2024-07-14

Forgot to add that on Hard, the AI does not wait until the missile lock tone is red to fire missiles, they will fire when the lock is yellow, I do not know why.


CM Vanguard88

2024-07-14

In mission 2 Rom and Mohc are CRL's whilst in mission 3 they are full size mon calamari cruisers.


CM Vanguard88

2024-07-14

Mission 1: T/A group hornet is missing from the players' radio group despite being in their squadron.

Mon Calamari Cruiser Garuda Skye has a status 2 of 2x warheads when it should be status 1. Cruiser is missing a warhead selection, meaning it does not fire any warheads.

Bonus goal for 100% of Interdictor Artemis must not be destroyed is set to 0 points.

Bonus goal for disabling and destroying CRS Garuda Skye are set to 0 points.

Mission 2: CRL Mohc and Rom are listed as having a cargo of fighters but do not launch any, nor do you fail the mission when they are destroyed. However, destroying the Golans causes mission failure when their cargo is listed as fighters.

Mission 3: Tie Advanced Gamma 9 crashes into the ISD Hammer due to having a flight point set too close to the ISDII. It destroys itself and on rare occasions destroys the Hammer, causing instant mission failure.

Mission 4: ATR Halberd flight path is set too close to Golan 3 Emtrey, meaning that if they are attacked and take evasive action there is a chance they crash into the station, destroying themselves and taking out the station in the explosion.

A-Wing group Grauss is stacked on top of each other in the initial 16 ship group, meaning that each set of missiles will take out two fighters instead of one.


Mission 2: If you engage the enemy, you fail the mission. You cannot stop your wingmen from engaging the enemy. You can't order them to go home, you can tell them to ignore targets but then despite continuously ordering them to ignore targets throughout the mission, they still end up killing enemies they were previously ignoring and the mission fails. They are also invulnerable so you cannot kill them to stop them from firing on enemies. Annoying concept and doesn't feel tested properly.


High Scores

Battle Total: 101,719 CM Vanguard88 2024-07-14
Mission 1: 16,092 CM Vanguard88 2024-07-14
Mission 2: 22,770 HA Pete Mitchell 2017-02-26
Mission 3: 29,797 CM Vanguard88 2024-07-14
Mission 4: 35,486 CM Vanguard88 2024-07-14

Top Ten

(of available records)

1 101,719 CM Vanguard88 2024-07-14
2 96,582 HA Pete Mitchell 2020-05-28
3 75,704 HA Pete Mitchell 2017-02-26
4 74,064 HA Daniel Bonini 2014-06-02
5 28,662 GN Dunta Polo 2014-05-18
6 24,670 CPT SL8c8 2020-05-24
7 23,885 GN Dax Corrin 2014-10-16
8 23,621 HA Anahorn Dempsey 2014-12-28
9 19,994 HA Anahorn Dempsey 2015-12-05
10 19,626 HA Anahorn Dempsey 2013-04-28

Battle Completion Statistics

This battle has been flown by 24 pilots a total of 27 times.

CM Aaron Cremel - 2020-05-22

HA Anahorn Dempsey - 3 times, last on 2015-12-05

HA Daniel Bonini - 2014-06-02

CM DarkSith_99 - 2019-03-07

GN Dax Corrin - 2014-10-16

GN Doyon - 2020-05-09

GN Dunta Polo - 2014-05-18

GN Elwood the Brave - 2016-12-15

CM Favdaukar - 2020-05-05

LCM Germ - 2020-05-11

MAJ Gustan - 2020-04-27

COL Gyssler - 2019-08-24

MAJ Hermann - 2020-09-03

CPT Jagged Fell III - 2023-12-01

GN Jarek La’an - 2014-05-11

MAJ KEBLAOMEGA - 2024-02-10

HA Pete Mitchell - 2 times, last on 2020-05-28

COL Phalk Sturm - 2020-12-28

FA Pickled Yoda - 2014-06-12

HA Plif - 2014-04-18

LC SkyShadow - 2020-05-07

CPT SL8c8 - 2020-05-24

CM Vanguard88 - 2024-07-14

MAJ Wolve Excelsior Berkana - 2023-01-21

Title               : The Garuda - the fight continues
Author              : TAC-PROF/HA Dempsey/CS-6/VSD Sinister (#382)
		      dempsey@slayersrealm.com
Platform            : X-wing Alliance
Number of missions  : 4
Medal               : A Garuda scalp


Required patches
-----------------
none


Installation instructions
--------------------------
1] Double click the .EHM file, the EH Battle Launcher will install the battle
2] Use the EHBL to create a new XWA pilot, prepared for an EH battle
3] Press the X-wing Alliance button on the EHBL to start the game
4] Fly the missions


Introduction
------------
It's been almost a year since our last battle against the Garuda, and we haven't
seen or heard much of them in this time. Intel however, has planted an Imperial
agent among their forces, and he has quickly ascended to second in command of
a Garuda heavy cruiser. And a good thing it is that he's there, as the Garuda
haven't taken their defeat lightly....



DISCLAIMER
===========
THESE LEVELS ARE NOT MADE, DISTRIBUTED, OR SUPPORTED BY LUCASARTS ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY.
ELEMENTS TM & (c) LUCASARTS ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY.