The Tie Interceptor: Bane of the Rebel Alliance

[Texas_Fett]

Greetings, all! Thought I'd chime in with my favorite multiplayer war story.

 

A good friend of mine (to protect the poor sot, I'll refer to him as Valkir; you may have seen him wandering about if you're an EQ junkie) and I still regularly play LAN games of Rebellion. I ALWAYS play as the Alliance. For some reason the Empire bores me, as playing with them is like starting as the Alliance with 300 days under your belt and lacking the Alliance's flexibility and starfighter support. Anyway, this is fine as Valkir loathes the Rebels on both a philosophical and primal level (I think it has to do with Luke's whining).

 

We started to get bored with the mediocre battles and galaxy-combing though, and wanted to create a truly epic space battle. So we started a game, took care of business with our initial characters for the first 200 days (research, recruiting, diplomacy, AI-managed resources, etc.)...and then set the speed to 'Fast' and let it sit overnight. When we came back, we each had all of our ships, troops, facilities, and an ungodly amount of raw materials and maintenence points. Valkir realized his mistake, however, as I had anticipated the amount of game time that would pass, and had ordered my system with dual-shipyards to churn out twenty Mon-Cal Cruisers and two lone shipyards to craft thirty Nebulon-B's and Corvettes. He immediately wanted another "Cease Fire" to attempt to bring his forces up to par.

 

We agreed, and I set about completing my fleets, and the final confrontation was to take place over Coruscant for all of the marbles. After another three hundred days or so (the date was somewhere around day 27,000) I had a truly astounding armada: Two fleets, each with their own Admiral, General, and Commander; each sporting two Bulwark Battlecruisers, a sprinkling of Daultless cruisers, etc. In all, one fleet had eighty-odd capital ships with the other having ninety. The starfighter totals were something like fifty B-Wing squadrons, 100 X-Wing squadrons, and 100 A-wings. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty cocky, especially when I heard the dismay in Valkir's voice when he saw my Armada blockade one of his planets (Corsin, I believe). Anxious to get to the upcoming battle, I moved my armada to Coruscant.

 

As soon as the battle started, I knew I'd made a mistake. For what do I see, but two ImpStars, three Vics, a few Carracks, ten Lancers or so...and five...HUNDRED...squadrons of Tie Interceptors (you KNEW I'd get to the subject eventually, right?).

 

To Valkir's credit, he still figured he was about to get pasted. After all, Interceptors aren't exactly Capital Ship killers. I was even still feeling a bit cocky about the whole thing. Still, I thought I should take precautions. I first targeted his Impstar that had his admiral and commander on board, hoping to take out the increased performance of his ships and fighters (and the reason why I had TWO fleets and sets of cadre instead of one). I sent my B-wings to help take out the capital ships, gave orders to the rest of my capital ships and had my X-Wings, A-Wings, Corvettes and Gunships engage the Interceptors. Then I hit the 'Unpause' button.

 

And I watched in horror as my beautiful armada was torn to shreds. The B-Wings got a whole 2-3 volleys at the Impstar before being taken out. The X-Wings and B-Wings took the Interceptors down to 300 squadrons or so before being wiped out. Then Valkir turned the Squints loose on my capital ships. In less than thirty seconds a Bulwark was gone...then another...then another...the Interceptors were going from ship to ship, damaging it enough to disable it before moving on to another craft. Before I knew it, all my capital ships were disabled and the Squints just went back to the top of the order and obliterated the helpless ships...and the Imperial Capital ships hadn't even moved!

 

Needless to say, Valkir was overjoyed at the outcome. Yet he was a magnanimous winner, attributing his victory to luck and a whim. When he saw the ships I'd built overnight he'd completely given up, deciding to build nothing but Interceptors.

 

That defeat smarted, but I still enjoy telling it. We're hoping for a rematch soon...hopefully one that's more balanced.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Texas_Fett

[Guest Scathane]

It's X-wings for me, cowboy! Let's be rel about it: Valkir had the advantage of defending a planet whereas you had to attack one, right? If I had to defend a panet, I'd build only X-Wings; without time it would take me to build the capital ships, you'd probably have close to one thousand squadrons! Rebellion knows no captal ships that can make up for that...

 

By the way, this is a very good post! Nice story!

[Jahled]

Wow! It's cool to read in-game experiances such as that, circumstnaces seem a little wierd, but what the hell!

[Guest Admiral_Antilles]

A very well-written post, Fett.

[Texas_Fett]

Thanks, guys! It's rare that you can actually find an appreciative audience for your Rebellion/Supremacy tales. My wife just rolls her eyes and grudgingly indulges me when I wax poetic about my latest Rebel strategy. Man, I just wish I'd found this place years ago.

 

Valkir admitted he had an unfair advantage in hosting "The Grand Melee to End All Melees" over Coruscant. Any such engagement in the future will be held in a neutral system...

[BoShek]

Thanks, guys! It's rare that you can actually find an appreciative audience for your Rebellion/Supremacy tales. My wife just rolls her eyes and grudgingly indulges me when I wax poetic about my latest Rebel strategy. Man, I just wish I'd found this place years ago.

 

Well, that´s what we come here for: Getting away from these boring *normal* people (No offense to your wife, mine or anybody elses for that matter).

 

I laughed out loud when I got to that 500 squadrons part! I´d love to have seen your face at that moment. It just goes to show: The Force sides with the most fighters (or something to that amount).

 

However I still miss the word Tie-Defender in your story. I had hoped for a chance to commemorate my time playing Tie Fighter on my PC. Oh, those were the days...

 

To this day I´m convinced, that NOTHING beats the Defender and find it underrated in Rebellion.

[Texas_Fett]

The TIE Defender rocks! I used it in EVERY dogfight I played with my friends in X-Wing: Alliance. And in Rebellion it really IS the complete package. If it weren't for the fact that the Empire gets it so late in the game (as it should) it'd have a much better chance to shine.

 

Where they're most useful, though, is when a Death Star is crammed to the gills with 'em, as well as any escort ships. That way, when the DS jumps into a Rebel system, they're already deployed for combat, thereby most likely preventing a DS Trench Run by the Rebels. (I believe so long as the Imperial Starfighters outnumber the Rebel Starfighters in an engagement, no Trench Run may be attempted).

[Valkir]

You rebel scum!

 

Heheh! Yes, that was more luck than skill, but don't forget to tell the part that Tie Interceptors Were the PINNACLE of my tech tree! Yes, that's right boys and girls, I didn't build any Defenders because after 20+ years of war Friggin Squints Were As Advanced As I Got!! My fault, I admit, because we had not agreed on what kind of research to do. Hell, I doubt I could have scraped together an advanced construction yard, or anything scarier than a stormtrooper regiment!

 

Texas Fett likes to tell me how he can have the imps on the ropes by day 100, on the third difficulty level. So we created another game. This time, I had the two PCs "a mi casa" and let the resource developement go. But I also did my research. Oh, and I built a couple of things. So, one fine weekend, Tex gets his ducks in a row and comes me abode for a little mouse-fest. First time he has a successful recon mission and spots the fleet made up of a fully stocked Super Stardestroyer, with two IMP II escorts, three Strike cruisers, three Lance Frigates, and three Galleons...and this fleet is named "Reconaisance"...well, he was ready to leave my house in a huff! I just smiled and said "Think of it as difficulty level 4."

 

we haven't gotten back to that game yet.

[Guest Admiral_Antilles]

So your "Valkir", eh?

[Valkir]

!Si! That would be me! And I'll be the first to admit that Texas_Fett has the tactical superiority over me in this game....

 

Tex? Care to relive the tale of our last Warcraft encounter, all those years ago?

 

Valkir

[Texas_Fett]

Erm...no need. Suffice to say that a screen full of dragons wreaking pain and destruction on my pitiful human forces was enough to make me bail. Too painful to watch!

 

Now on to the 'other game': Most of what Valkir said was correct; to a point. Except that I was under the impression that we'd be starting at the same relative power level, to avoid what happened with the FIRST game, i.e. one player starting with an unfair advantage. Valkir had set up the game so that we'd have all of our research done and the computer handling our manufacturing so we'd start with a LOT of maintence points & raw materials again. So what do I see after an espionage mission to Denab? The "Second System Intelligence" points to Tangrene, where he has twelve advanced shipyards and the above mentioned fleet. I didn't even have an escort carrier or a bulk cruiser! And he's wantin' to go to war right away! MAN was he embarrassed when I found that out! "Difficulty Level 4" my a$$!

 

As an aside, you REALLY should have built that uber-shipyard in the rim, Valkir. I probably wouldn't have found it, that way.

[Valkir]

BAH! Just like a weasley little Reb, thinking that everyone means to go about sneaking and skulking! There's more to picking a place than sneak value; who says I was trying to hide?

 

 

Valkir

[Texas_Fett]

BAH! Just like a weasley little Reb, thinking that everyone means to go about sneaking and skulking! There's more to picking a place than sneak value; who says I was trying to hide?

 

 

Valkir

 

Probably the fact that when I DID find it, your laughed nervously and said something to the efect of, "Oh...you found that, did you? How'd you manage that?"

 

[Valkir]

Probably the fact that when I DID find it, your laughed nervously and said something to the efect of, "Oh...you found that, did you? How'd you manage that?"

 

 

Obviously sir, your recollection of the day's events and my recollection differ slightly. I seem to recall laughing maniaclly and shouting " HAHAHA! I hereby declare an end to all treaties and announce open hostilities!"

 

Valkir

[Texas_Fett]

Feh...potato, potatoe.

 

I DID have to remind you that you get secondary Intelligence on espionage missions, and that's how I found out about your extracurricular activities on Tangrene.