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This was probably the most hilariously broken run I've seen so far, and I didn't even win:

- Fired up the Kestrel, and found a BL II in a sector 1 shop. Sold the Artemis for it and on we went.
- Bought not one but two scrap recovery arms in quick succession in sector 2.
- Picked up drone control soon after. Naturally it came with a free DF 1.
- Was absolutely bombarded with crewmen, ended up with 2 Rock, 2 Engie, 4 Humies, all skilled up the wazoo.
- Found a ridiculous amount of vendor trash (weapons, drones), which I traded in shops for transporter & cloak.
- Got a firebeam and a hull smasher II in random drops.

Come sector 5, I was steamrolling everything and raking in stupid amounts of scrap. From time to time I turned back into the rebel fleet to train my crew in combat (and just for the fun of mopping the floor with elite fighters) and only turned back once I ran out of drone parts. With my preposterous weapons loadout and cloak I could have probably gone on much longer, but in previous runs like this I'd usually got carried away until I made a rookie mistake that wrecked everyting - blowing up my crew, forgetting to turn the oxygen back on, you know the drill. But not today!

In late sector 7 I sold my scrap arms for automated reload, and went into the last stand absolutely maxxed. Curbstomped every fighter, rigger and auto, and then the first two stages of the flagship. By this point I was feeling a big smug.

You can probably see where this is going....

I made a detour to a shop, to sell some more vendor trash and to check out if they maybe had a pre-igniter to complete my set. Came back, looked at the location of the flagship and the jumps remaining...



One jump short.



The next game, 1st sector, I meet a cloaked autoassault armed to the teeth, and of course the solar flare takes out my engines.



I love this game.

So do i

I was reading this thinking, "How could he possibly lose this?"

And then I read the end

Been there, done that. In the Kestrel, even. Oh well, at least you know you WOULD have won.

Episode II

I wanted to achieve Manpower, so I took out the Zoltan I for a spin. Everything went swimmingly, I managed to buy a cloak quite soon, fount two Mantises, and had a Hull I and a Ion II drop into my lap. Trouble started at literally the last beacon before the exit to sector 5. In the heat of battle, while juggling power bars left, right and center, I failed to pay attention to the oxygen, and two of my Zoltans asphyxiated.

I made it to sector 5, but was hampered in my further progression by having been overly cautious - to improve my chances of finishing the achievement, I had added at least extra one bar to every system. My rationale was that I needed my Zoltans for power, and my spare Mantis (the other was the pilot) could hardly be expected fix systems during battles. I also wanted to ensure that I had a measure of protection against battles next to suns, since I got shafted in a previous run by a'sploding doors and fire in oxygen.

These measures, and the fact that had to buy the power to replace my two Zoltans, set me back at least 200 scrap. With my supreme weaponry and cloak, I was usually fine in normal encounters, but a couple of nasty fights (e.g. asteroids w/ 5-shield auto-assault) along with regular wear and tear had me dropping at least another 100 on repairs along the way.

Made it to the final stand nevertheless, feeling moderately confident that this might still be winnable. Upgraded shields rather than weapons and/or power thinking that it would improve survivability agains the drone phase. The 1st phase was no big bother, basically just waiting until the Ion II had whittled down the shields, and then cutting them to shreds w/ the Halberd. The drone phase, however, just went all manners of wrong. I opted to send the Mantis and the Human over to take out the triple launcher. Before it went down, it got off one salvo, taking out helm and teleport in the process. Of course this led to a major shitstorm, where drones and beams wreaked all manner of havoc on my poor ship.

Astoundingly enough, the lone Zoltan fixed the helm, and weapons retained enough power so that I could dish out some serious hurt on the flagship. However, there was no way that the he could leave the helm to fix the teleport without the whole ship getting blown to bits, not to speak of the fires and the rampaging boarding drone. So I did the only sensible thing and blew up the flagship with my two brave guys still on boars.

Unfortunately, Life Support had been destroyed early in the battle, and I had lost much air when trying to save engines and weapons from burning. I tried to squeeze out the last bit of air by opening all doors (except the one to the breach near sensors), but it wasn't enough. Now I'm in a situation where I can keep my Zoltan alive for eternity in the Medbay, but his meagre 70 HP are not enough to get Life Support fixed and survive.

If there is any concievable way of recovering from this, I'd be very thankful for the advice. But I fear that this is it.




Addendum: The way I see it I messed up this run not in the fights, which were pretty much spot-on, but in the upgrades. Although I got the achievement I think I'll try another Manpower-run and see if I can't do it better.

this isn't a fail, just a win. Followed by a fail story.

Fun Fact: A Mantis can duck in and out of a room just fast enough to not get hit by any crew.

See where this is going...?

Alright, time for fun.
Ship: Mantis B
Crew Status: Almost Dead
Teleporter Status: 10s left

Start microing them in and out of the helm. Those slugs were so confused on where I was going...
My exact words: "I'm going this way. Nope, this way, nope, the other way."
A friend was watching this and he was just rolling on the floor because he was laughing so hard.
Won the fight cause pro SC2 micro.

Tried it again with the Lanius B.

Lanius Fat Ass walks into the helm. Gets filled with holes. Other promptly follows and same thing happens.

- Easy mode with The Kestrel (Advanced Enabled)
- Get halfway through Sector 2 and see a Burst Laser III for sale
- Sell Burst Laser II and Artemis in order to buy the Burst Laser III
- Realise I need four power to use the laser
- Realise I have no scrap left to buy the required power upgrades
- Travel through the rest of Sector 2 and majority of Sector 3 not firing a single shot
- Finally manage to gather enough scrap to buy the power upgrades
- Blast my way through Sector 4 and majority of Sector 5, feeling smug with my fancy all-powerful laser
- Gather 25+ missiles and enough scrap to buy a Missile Launcher
- Zoltan Bomber appears
- Hacks my Oxygen Room, boards my vessel, relentless missile barrage causing fires on-board
- Little option but to attack their Hacking System and fend of boarders
- Weapons go down
- Gather crew into the front of the vessel, open air locks as last ditch attempt to extinguish fires and deter boarders
- Engines fail, FTL charge delayed
- Oxygen depletion becomes close to critical
- Crew don't even get to suffocate

"One last explosion marks your fate as your ship is torn apart."


Also, just want to say - what a fantastic game. I rarely find a game I can't leave alone, then end up joining the Forum and buying the t-shirt! WIN