I did it: Kestrel on Normal [SPOILERS]
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 8:16 am
After much playing with Crystal B and Mantis B I whipped out the old Krestrel to see if I could get my first victory with it. I never really went back to the Kestrel after unlocking other ships -- but my losing streak came to an end.
Here's the tale :
I started out pretty lucky finding both Halbred Beam and Pegasus missile in the first sector -- I ended up keeping both of these throughout the game -- using the Halbred / Burst Laser II to destroy pretty much any ship in a few volleys, until they had 3 shields... Didn't use a single missile after I got the beam.
I picked up a teleporter and drone control (defense) around sector 4 and, despite losing my two rock boarders to a cloaking automated drone quite literally the next jump (I can't count the number of times I jump in there knowing FULL WELL it will cloak soon and lose my guys. Maybe one day I will learn) I kept at it, ... managed to find two more rocks at a nearby shop, and eventually even dismissed one of my starting guys (engines) to fill up my boarding crew with 2 mantises later on.
So, walking into the final battle, I have two sets of two boarders, pegasus missile & halbred beam. The battle started out as most do, teleporting into the missile launcher room, other set in the ion room. With those destroyed I sent my rocks into the cockpit and fired the pegasus at the med bay -- I managed to get a few crew members before I had to beam out. Rinse/repeat and I see that the mothership is down to 2 health. ( lesson learnt: bombs are better choices for harassing the med bay). I ended up finishing the first round with 3 enemy crew left.
The next round I immediately send my rocks into the missile room, switch out pegasus for halbred, and put up the defense drone to try and counter the boarding drones -- a few drones got through, the first into my cockpit no less -- I retreated and eventually sent my mantises to clean it up. All the while using burst laser / halbred combo to try and do hull damage to take down the shields. It wasn't the quickest because of all the misses, but I managed to get through the second round taking about 50% hull damage.
Jump to the next battle -- no time to visit the repair node because mothership is getting close to the base . I turn on autofire to take down their zoltan shields. The last three crewmembers are quickly mopped up by my boarding crews after they teleport on board and with the zoltan shield down, I send the boarders in over two rounds to take down the shields. With that done, I target the halbred / burst lasers on the missiles and two quick volleys later I get the victory.
There were a few battles leading up to the final stand where I was on the ropes, but I persevered -- sucked up the repair costs -- and managed to get most of my defensive systems fully upgraded. I remember at one point, around sector 5/6 I think there was a mantis ship with the 'extra boarders' event -- in all, 5 mantises attacking me and the enemy ship's first shot was an ion bomb to my med bay...
! That got pretty scary there, but not only did I beat back the boarders, I ended up teleporting back to their ship and with the enemy ship precariously hanging at around 5 HP I was able to halbred the med bay into the red and pull out the boarding victory.Anyway, if there's anyone having trouble with the Krestrel know that it is completely possible and it's not completely about luck (admittedly, getting the Halbred beam early was pretty darn lucky
). Learn from your mistakes and just keep at it -- you'll get there.
