I need help with the mission where you provide cover for your old ship (Independence?), and then have to hyper back and provide cover for your new ship. Invariably I will lose two wingies on the first half of the mission, leaving only the two of us for the second half. At which point the swarms of bombers end up destroying the ship. I've reset the game to easy, set myself indestructable, and given myself unlimited ammo. All to no avail. I'd skip the mission if I could, but it won't even let me do that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The trick is, you need time. Make sure to kill all but one of each bomber in a flight group. The CRS can handle 1 bomber at a time, but not 4 or 8. And the time it takes to travel from the Star Destroyer, to the CRS, fire some torps, and then make strafing runs, buys you plenty of time. It is a flustrating mision concerdering the "Flag Ship" of the Rebellion only has a Officer AI

If this is the mission I think it is then here is what to do...

BE VERY FAST

This is what I now do, and it always works...(on easy and medium anyway http://www.xwingalliance.com/forums/wink.gif)

Get to the Defiance (that's the name of the old command ship by the way) and as soon as the VSD jumps in it will launch fighters and bombers. Target the nearest bomber (by the way...make sure that your wingmen are slightly ahead of you, the TIE fighters will target them and 'should' leave you alone).

Select missiles and fire at the leading TIE Bomber. The explosion should destroy at least half of them, and cripple the rest enough so that they will return to the VSD.

If by some fluke one or two of the TIE Bombers survive intact (rare) it doesn't matter, as K_K said, a CRS can handle 1 or 2 bombers at a time.
Simply target a damaged one (it needs to have its hull at less than 15%...if it doesn't just take a pot shot at it, BUT DO NOT DESTROY IT!!), make sure that it is heading back to the VSD and instruct your wingmen to IGNORE IT (Shift-I).

Now, that lone bomber will tie up all the other bombers because it will not dock (AI Bug)...just sit around under the VSD for the remainder of the mission...and as long as a single bomber is left, the VSD will not launch any more.

At this point only about 3-4 minutes should have gone by.

Now put everything to your engines and fly as fast as your little A-Wing can go towards the hyperpoint...forget about every other fighter, your wingmen will handle them.

Once you reach the Liberty, land in the hanger and switch to the X-Wing, you'll need the extra firepower and choose torpedoes for the loadout.

Launch as quickly as possible and again put everything to engines. Head towards the Independance hyperpoint. (I usually reach there after about 4min 30sec's if I've been really fast).

Once you have jumped, you'll see the Independance (you might want to put that in a pre-select...Shift-F5) being chased by a pair of VSD's and an ISD.
This is the fun part...because until the Defiance reaches its hyperpoint (about 9 minutes into the mission) the ISD will not launch any craft...at all http://www.xwingalliance.com/forums/smile.gif)
That leaves you with about four minutes to make the ISD retreat.

Head towards the ISD a full speed (at this point the Independance will launch bombers). When you get to within 5k's, start powering up your guns and target the shield generators.

In an X-Wing you can usually take out the generators in two passes (one per generator)...as soon as the shields are out the ISD will turn around and make a run for it.

By now the Defiance should have reached the hyperpoint, which unfortunately means that the ISD & VSD's will launch fighters...but because the ISD is retreating, it will only get out one wave (usually two wings of TIE/F's and two wings of TIE/B's)

Target the TIE/B's and switch to torps...you should be behind them. Fire one torp which should kill all bombers in one wing...and do the same to the other wing.

At this point you can relax a little (but only a little). Your surviving wingman will arrive (he is immortal)...target any bombers launching from a VSD and order him to intercept them (tab-7-1-3).

Now you have to take out a few of those annoying TIE's that will have been plaguing you for the past minute.

Once you clear your immediate airspace, target the Independance (F5, if you used a preset) and hit 'A'.
Any craft targeting the Indy are you highest priority (though ususally there are not enough left to destroy the CRS...just hassle it).

Once you have taken out all the bombers the Indy should be safe, and you can clean house of any TIE's left...and if you are like me, take out the VSD's as well (thanks K_K http://www.xwingalliance.com/forums/wink.gif).

I hope that this ramble makes some sense...and I hope that this is the right mission http://www.xwingalliance.com/forums/smile.gif)

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[This message has been edited by Primarch (edited April 25, 2000).]

Hey 2iron!

Look like you used up skip Rebel mission three time, Remember you can only skip Rebel mission three time.

May force be with you

Thanks for all the suggestions!!! I'm off to try them right now... And yes both of you understood my cryptic description of the mission and commented on the right one.

You guys rock. The timing tip was the key. Leaving one or two for the Independence was also clearly important. I'd played this mission so many times, doing it like you guys said, I barely broke a sweat playing the mission. It was a piece of cake first time through.