Wow ... this battle has single-handedly shaken my faith in the ability of non-developers to create XWA missions. First off, my biggest complaint : in missions 2 and 4, you must fly the Skipray Blastboat and Assault Gunboat, respectively. These are craft that CANNOT FIRE LASERS without installing the Science Office's S-Foils patch. This is NOT MENTIONED AT ALL in this battle's documentation. Now people have told me, "But you can just use warheads!". Wrong. You can only use warheads if you set your ammo to infinite ... otherwise, you will never have enough warheads to continue, especially in mission 2. And there are no instructions from the author present to perform either action; that is, downloading the patch or setting ammo to infinite. So what we have here is a situation where a newer pilot could get stuck in this battle, unable to progress further. And just as a technical note ... if you absolutely insist on using a craft that requires a patch to fly, PLEASE give us the option to switch craft and fly something that doesn't require a patch. XWA has about 50 flyable ships, and it's extremely annoying to be forced to fly a ship that requires a patch, when so many others do not. Technical gripes aside, I actually liked the storyline. Sure it had some holes in it, but so do most stories if you really pick them apart. Too bad I could never enjoy the story, since the difficulty settings are WAY off. Flying on hard is next to impossible ... but flying on medium is far too simple. I never tried the easy setting, but I suspect you could just fly right back in the hanger and the mission would beat itself. All things considered, I admire the author's effort and imagination, but this is a battle that needs a lot of work.

I've got nothing but love for Psi Squadron ... and nothing but love for Sigma Squadron too, but ... this mission blows. If you were thinking of using this mission for a competition, do yourself (and everyone under your command) a favor, and go choose something else.

A nice little battle. Briefing maps are pretty sparse, but officer questions make up for it. Each mission kind of follows it's own plotline (since the battle has multiple creators), so this seems more like a collection of Free Missions. Despite that, I enjoyed this battle due to the often devious nature of the mission assignments ... now THIS is the type of stuff we all joined the Empire to do!

Mr. T flys around in an Assault Transport, talks trash in "Mr.T Speak", and helps you blow up Rebels. 'Nuff said!!! I pity the foo' who don't fly TC-TIE 132!

Do you enjoy battles with mission goals that make no sense? Does it give you a thrill to spend 45 minutes on a mission, just to have a Y-wing limp away at the end and automatically FAIL your primary goals? Hey, do you love having wave after endless wave of A-wings with advanced missles taking potshots at you? Well then you're in luck, because TC-TIE 157 provides all of that and oh so much more. No messy briefing maps to get in your way, and no bothersome plot to spoil the neverending waves of Rebel fighters that just keep coming back for more. And just when you think it can't get any "better", just sit back and watch the Rebels defy the laws of storage space by lauching over 100 fighters from only a pair of frigates. Guarenteed to result in multiple headaches, this is the type of battle that results in low participation during a competition because pilots run out of motivation to force themselves to fly.

Starts out strong, but it's all downhill after you reach mission 3. The third mission of this battle is filled with flaws and bugs. But the worst thing is that the author did not provide an alternate ship to fly for pilots who do not have the infamous 's-foils patch' installed. Not all of us want to install the half-baked s-foils patch (I've seen fighters fly sideways and shoot lasers out of their engines with that stupid thing installed; not to mention the shuttles which drag their wings on the floor of the hangar), but the author forces you to install the patch by not giving us an alternate ship, which is just bad form. And then, after all that, there is a bug which keeps the primary mission goals from being completed anyway (see bug report below). If you MUST fly this battle, just save yourself a lot of time and SKIP the third mission. By doing this, perhaps you will enjoy this battle a lot more than I did.

The storyline seems to "drift away" after mission one ... it's hard to explain. But a healthy dose of storyline MIGHT have helped me to figure out just what the heck I was doing in a stupid Toscan Fighter during missions 2 and 3. Does the Training Office often stick new cadets into a Toscan Fighter and laugh as they are destroyed? I can see the conversation now : "Yeah, I've got a great idea. We're gonna stick these cadets into the bulkiest, slowest fighter we can possible find. Then we're going to refuse to give them countermeasures, so we can sit back and laugh as every stupid missile within 20 clicks homes in and blows them away." Yeah. It sounds really entertaining until YOU are the poor sap in the Toscan fighter, wondering WHY the Empire refused to give you countermeasures today. If this sounds appealing to you, then by all means, play this battle.

Kickin' butt for the Empire is pretty sweet, especially when the SSSD Sovereign is in every mission! If you plan to play this battle, you owe it to yourself to first install the 'SovStorm' patch that was used during Operation : Imperial Storm. It changes the standard SSD into a Sovereign class vessel, and it REALLY adds a lot to this mission. Nothing like dog fighting around the Sov's super laser!

1.

Great mission, especially if you have experience with serving in Wing II ! Plus, Gallows is just good at making these things anyway ;-)

Very enjoyable battle! I've read some complaints that it was too difficult ... well, I've played MUCH worse than this. This is nothing compared to FCHG 1 or TC-TIE 120. Also, another complaint seems to be that you spend a lot of time waiting ... again, I didn't really have a problem with this. The storyline may not be revolutionary, but it certainly serves to carry the action in a satisfying way. Overall, I recommend you fly this one, and I can't understand why it has received such low ratings in the past.

Overall, a good battle. I liked how the author actually had new Imperial e-mails show up, and I especially liked the mission that starts you off in a simple tyderium shuttle! However, the ending truly is a disappointment ... I won't give it away, but I do recommend you fly it yourself to find out.

This a very enjoyable battle! It takes advantage of the XWA platform by allowing you to pilot both Imperial and Rebel craft in the same battle. I loved infiltrating the Rebels to find their base, then coming back in my TIE to destroy them once and for all!

This one is right up there with TC 76 as far as I'm concerned -- a 'must-fly'! It was the first time ever that I've actually burst out laughing in the middle of a TIE Corps battle! Plus, the same great Officer Questions and truly incredible Briefing Maps that we've all come to expect from the K man. If you're tired of the same old thing in battles, then go fly TC 133!!!

Same great storyline as the first part, but much better mission design and creation! If you made it through part one, you owe it to yourself to see how the storyline wraps up -- you won't want to miss it!

A very fun mission, although the waves of starfighters get a bit repetitive after about 20 minutes. Still, it's a 'must-fly' if you hate Ricky Martin or N'Sync >:)

This battle has an outstanding plot, and it's easy to see why it had to be broken into two pieces! This alone makes it worthy of your time. However, it may not always be time well spent due to the lack luster mission design. Flaws include : Secondary Goals which are impossible to accomplish; Transports which are supposed to dock and capture ships, but instead turn right around and immediatly head home; and ships which are supposed to show up but never do. Fortunatly, there are no serious errors which would prevent the battle from being completed, but these things are still annoying. I must concede, though, that the Officer Questions and Briefing are all in place, and very well done. Terrific plot and idea, but lousy execution. Still, I'd recommend it!

Extreme highs and lows with this one. [Good] Storyline is better than some I've seen. [Bad] However, still far from original. [Good] Briefing text can be humorous, even though it has no mercy on you if you fail. And you WILL fail (over and over and over and ...) [Bad] Gets hard to read sometimes. 'Broken English' abounds. [Good] Some missions are actually VERY original ... especially mission 6. I don't think I've ever had an experience like that before. [Bad] Just GETTING to Mission 6. This Battle suffers from IDS (Insane Difficulty Syndrome), and I would have rated it MUCH higher if I hadn't been forced to play and re-play missions 4 and 5 about 30 times EACH. Only fly this one if you have a LOT of time to put in, and if you can handle stress well.

This is a fantastic battle, another EH classic! Great briefing maps and officer questions, well balanced mission design, and a fun plotline. Mission 4 is just terrific. I highly recommend this one if you haven't flown it!

A great little battle to play, especially if you love the MissleBoat! It's short length and lack of any other craft to fly are the only things which keep it from getting a 5, as far as I'm concerned. I recommend it!

A good battle to play! Excellent storyline. No briefing maps, but plenty of officer questions make up for it. Last mission took me forever!

A very solid battle. Fun and enjoyable in some parts (I hope you're not too attached to Endor, heh heh heh)! Briefing Maps for every mission, but Officer Questions are only in about 2 or 3 of the missions. And no debriefing after the last mission!!! Come on, we need at least a few comments on how things turned out! ;)

A very solid battle, one of the best I've played. Great briefing maps and officer questions! Good plot, as well. The only reason I didn't give it a '5' was ... Mission 4. Mission 4 gets very tedious, very quickly. Once you've killed one Z-95, you've killed 'em all, you know? Still, this is a very good battle!

No mission maps and no officer questions -- This alone drops the rating by a couple of points. Mission 2 takes FOREVER, and you will FAIL unless you uncover the secret order that you need to attack the ships in. Light storyline that could have been conveyed in about 3 free missions. Still, it's worth flying just so you can listen in as two respected, ranking officers speak Jive to each other (play it through, you'll see what I mean)!

This is the most well constructed Battle I have ever seen! The briefing map and officer questions are above and beyond the call of duty, and the plot is great! So why didn't I give it a 5? The INCREDIBLY INSANE DIFFICULTY! Bottom line : a great battle, but don't expect to finish it anytime soon!