Is it perfect? No. But it does the basics well. I kind of liked it. Not recommended if you want to break High Scores, as you'd have to shoot at a lot of high-health rocks. As a regular battle, it's ok and gives a nice moderate challenge on hard, as you have to protect your own as well and cannot ignore everything that goes around you. It's a weak 5, but after flying a lot of garbage lately, this one is getting a bit of a nod from me.

Typically in TCIB I fly the XWA last. And by then I dont have the energy or time to properly dissect it. As a result, by the time I reach XWA I tend to just roll with the flow, albeit on hard. This battle like most XWA battles just seems a bit out of hand. It is well-crafted hence the 4/5 but still lacking any real umph. Also the choice of craft is not ideal in some of the missions, especially when being chased by a ton of fighters. I felt like Benny Hill at some point running away at max speed. It's not a great battle but it is well-crafted at least.

So, this battle is a mixed bag of goods. Enter M4, an accidentally great mission. But Genie, how can you be so sure it was accidental and not purposely good? Fly M5, one of laziest missions ever crafted. At least the mission creator even admitted it by naming the AWs Sloths. The placement of the Calamari was just... bad. His plan looked like it was, I'll pit you in a TIE Fighter so that you cannot destroy everything. Well, if you put aside a few hours and some heavy dose of patience you can actually clear it all out, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'd come out of that mission a changed pilot, if you were to attempt that.

So, as said in the beginning, a mixed bag of goods. Not the worst but definitely not the best battle out there either. The last mission, tries to be good, but fails. If you fly this battle regularly instead of chasing high scores, it is half decent.

Played it on hard, as part of TCIB. First few missions are a throw-away. Mission 4 almost tried to offer something as did mission 5. Unfortunately most people don't seem to take advantage of the superior capabilities of the XWA engine. There were a couple of good ideas there but not a lot of time thrown into them. Fly it for completion or... TCIB. It's also good for survival practise.

There are a few issues here and there with this one. It seems that some "side-quests" such as disabling and capturing certain craft are incomplete. The jury is out on M6, as using a tractor beam may prove effective in slowing down the first escaping shuttle (future note to self).

The overall scenario, storyline and the setup of the craft, including the capital ships seems purposeful enough. There is a lot of action in all the levels (easy, Medium, Hard and HS chasing). Unfortunately if you decide to HS chase this one is going to take a loooooooooooong time. Punishingly long, with missions taking over two hours to complete. That's the price of HS-chasing...

Having said that, I always try to review based on flying the battles like a regular Joe. I believe people will like this one overall. Flew it for the first time as a TCIB battle and it took me 2 days to complete it. Note to self: easily 10 hours worth of flying.

A decent slogfest, with the option to gauge how much of an uphill battle you want it to be. It's a guilty pleasure mission, whereby you dispose of shieldless TIEs using an overpowered Missile Boat.

Overall decent. It has some flaws when it comes to enemy fighter orders, but those are minor things. I believe people who enjoy TIE Fighter as a game will enjoy flying this one overall. The "tips" in the debriefing are not tips, but more like taunts. Personally, I don't mind either way, but if you will use taunts it's best to be thematic of the entire briefing and debriefing. In general, it is best to give players a hint, unless there is a reason not to. On the plus side, you get to fly as a number of different fighters (T/A, GUN, M/S) and I liked the way the corvettes were used in the mission you fly as a Missile Boat. The story does fall apart in the second half of the battle, which I found puzzling, but it gets a 4 only because there aren't any issues with the battle and the combat overall was ok.

I flew this one on hard, without cheats.

This battle does do a good job of introducing you to the 5 Experimental TIEs, their strengths and weaknesses.
It is quite simple in its execution, the missions themselves quite fast. Briefing is ok.

Where it falls a bit short, is, it is not fine-tuned on hard.
Player decisions are not rewarded in any way on hard. You just have to live with the fact that you are sitting inside a glass cannon surrounded by a lot of enemies, even though you are supposed to be the one with superior firepower.

Your best friend is not your shields. Your best friend, as is often the case in XWA is your "friends" who act as a meatshield, so you won't get cut into shreds by the gazillion rebel fighters shooting at you. Mission 5 in particular on hard is guilty of that. This is coming from a guy who likes challenging and difficult missions. Even the "tip" in M5 is to call for reinforcements!

In Mission5, even after you've managed to overcome a 26 vs 5 disadvantage, by then all your friends are dead and you have only two lasers and a fragile shield to overpower a Calamari Cruiser. On Hard, Calamari Cruisers cant have their turrets shot down until their shields are down. Well, the problem is, even when using smart tactics such as hiding behind the station to shoot at the Calamari, the rate of damage you are doing is not fast enough. As the shields of the Calamari are recharging constantly, you simply don't reach 0%. If the Calamari was a bonus objective I could live with it. But it wasn't. It was a primary victory condition.


It could have been fine-tuned a bit better on hard and reward the pilot good decisions and milestones within the mission itself.

This battle is not perfect. But the things it does, it tries to do them well. I played it on hard and there are some tight timers to beat.
The first mission is also a bit daunting if you want to destroy everything. All in all, it's a solid battle. I do recommend flying it and try for getting a good score, to appreciate the battle a bit more.

This was a mixed bag of goods. The briefing and debriefing were excellent. The missions themselves had nothing wrong with them. In-flight messages were on-point. Mission tips for the most part were also quite relevant. Where it fails a little is that all the missions felt the same. In addition, the 6th mission feels unnecessary. All in all, solid battle, just keep your expectations low.

The briefing and storyline are excellent. The briefing is done really well and I sat through it to give it respect for the effort its creator put into it. The ideas behind the various missions are good. Where it fails is on a couple of mission design problems, such as having invulnerable ships. That's always a no-no. Very rare exceptions to that rule. Mission 5 was probably the most fun to fly. Mission 6 was problematic, especially as in my first attempt the friendly AIs killed the ISD instead of disabling it. Mission 3 was very poor (and I would have done it slightly differently). The rest were decent. All in all, it's a battle worth trying, though be warned some of the missions do take a long time to complete.

I'll start with the good stuff. Briefing and debriefing are excellent. There is a solid storyline attached to the battle. Where it begins to fall flat is the missions themselves. M1 to M3 were making me question life. At M4 it begins to get better. M5, the "first half" was good, the "second half" was badly done. M6, the premise was excellent but the execution was not so good. I see the reviews all around me and find myself in the minority, so up to you. The creator just threw a lot of everything in and expected a majestic cake. Do fly it, but just keep a low expectation, in my view.

I played this on hard. I have a love-hate relationship with this one. Right off the bat, you are thrown into a situation whereby you have to evade a ton of missiles while dogfighting your way out of a mess. But then M1 gets a bit better and that was a glimpse of some "better" game design on the part of the creator. M2, M3, and M4 were uneventful and then you reach M5.

On hard M5 is dempsey-esque in its difficulty and the way you need to fly it. Lots and lots of tight spots, miss one and the frigate is dead. Even after the Frigate is safe, it still tries to punch you in the gut one last time.

I was bordering on a 4/5 for most of the time. But given the amount of work into the story itself, the briefing and the gameplay, I decided to go for a 5/5, especially since the craft you fly were fit for purpose. The right fighter for the right fight in every mission, so that pushed it to 5/5 in the end. I hadn't flown XvT for a while, so I was rusty but I'm still sure people may struggle a bit in M1 and especially M5.

Flawed, but good. Some nice missions there like Mission4 and a dreadful one, such as Mission 3. I would encourage everyone though to read the briefing and debriefing. Our creator here at least put the right amount of effort and trust me it takes time to make proper briefings. So reward him by reading through it plus it's a semi-interesting storyline. After the last mission make sure to read the debriefing.

I really liked this battle. The capital ships had proper orders and reasonable and very sensible pathing. It made for a very interesting engagement and to top it all off we are flying in a T/A instead of the overpowered T/D. The part that perhaps was missing just a tiny bit is you personally are never truly under any real threat. I really loved this mission though and it's getting a 5.

It had a couple of good things going for it, but by the end of it, it falls flat on its face. The ship orders are also not ideal for both the friendly and enemy capital ships. I put that down to a lack of testing and/or knowledge of battle-making. It's not a bad mission but it won't set you alight either.

Well-crafted scenario, done naturally without the need for invincibility (though I did manage to save the dreadnaught ;) ). I recommend giving this a go. It's a nicely woven story and a bit different from the typical missions. The inflight messaging also does a good job of guiding you.

As others have said, this is just mine-clearing. Just be a bit careful on the very last group, as even with full shields the T/A can only take one adv conc missile. A second hit even with your shields full will lead to death. Fly it for completion or... if you enjoy mine clearing.

This is a poor mission, yet again. Oh no Pif, you are getting worse and worse instead of better! On this one you have to laser down a frigate, so put aside 15 mins until it is done. Fly it for completion, there's not much in the mission itself. It is a continuation storywise of the CSA story Pif is "sharing" that started from Pif 1, but the missions are not really connected.

This was a lame duck. The AI level of the enemies is too low. Those Z95s were pillow fighting just waiting for you to pick them off, one by one. The platform was never in any real danger. The only tricky part is getting to every transport on time. Once you complete the primary and secondary objectives, including killing the X-wings, wait for a few seconds, there is a desert coming up.

This is a lame mission. The creator even laid out the enemies in such a way so as to self-complete as fast as possible. Even on hard, if you do nothing you win. Deliberate and very poorly done. Fly it only for completion points.

Straight arrow. Have to quickly destroy a lot of shuttles at the very beginning and there are some dubious orders, especially the corvettes who will blow each other up eventually if you let them. At some point, the shuttles even attacked the corvettes. Fly it for completion.

As many other missions, the idea behind it is good the execution is bad. Why is the Dreadnaught arriving with only 50% shields for example... on hard? :( Fly it for completion, it's brief and easy. Shame, because such missions could be a lot better with just a bit more effort and testing.

Good concept, badly executed. The shuttles for example never hyperspace... It's mostly good though and fast the way most of our pilots like it. I sit in the middle for this one. Go ahead and fly it, at the very least for completion but you may even like it.

The first of several missions, (John 1, 2 etc). It is actually a storyline as it turns out, so I recommend flying them in sequence, starting of course from John 1. Unfortunately, this mission is nothing special. Brief and uneventful, The second one is definitely better. It is worth flying through the whole sequence of missions.