10: Flight Group Rho are famously the pilots who are bought the most drinks in any Imperial Bar, Shift-S yo.

Oh! The "Call for reinforcements" button.

Man I fondly remember those guys coming in my aid in the hardest missions. They were like the A-Team of the bad guys.

"Outmaneuvered? Call for the Rho Squadron! Let's see how those punks dogfight while evading concussion missiles."

Indeed. Rho Squadron would probably be the high PS generics - and that line would be the card blurb.

"If you have a (Rebel) problem, if no-one else can help (because they don't have hyperdrives), and if you can hire them, maybe you can hire... THE RHO SQUADRON!"

Mu and Rho for gunboat, Nu and Tau for missileboat?

(if only for Nu Squadron Pilot being PS1)

9: The XG-1 Assault Gunboat was the Inspiration for Grand Admiral Thrawn's Missile Boat.

Well that's nothing to be proud of.

Oh, I don't know. It looks pretty good to me*:

*for a King Hell God Emperor Starfighter of Death that you can't fly yet, anyway.

Mu and Rho for gunboat, Nu and Tau for missileboat?

(if only for Nu Squadron Pilot being PS1)

Hmmmm. PS for Missile Boat pilots would be an interesting consideration. As they're likely to be relying on ordnance to cause damage, high PS would be much more useful in acquiring Target Locks...

Yeah, make the generic PS1.

I was going for Nu/New Squadron Pilot, but yeah.

That's what happens when you put the ordinance of an entire wing of bombers into a ship the size of an A-Wing in defiance of all logic and reason.

But that was the whole point of the Missile Boat!

Maybe there could have been more alternatives, but I cannot really find so many problems with Thrawn's choice.

Problems:

• Rampant defections and treason within the Empire. Admiral Harkov defects, (along his whole fleet!), sells secrets and weapons to the Rebels and whatnot.
• Then supposed loyal Grand Admiral Zaarin is a traitor too, attacking by surprise Vader's ship while he was trying to defeat Harkov's forces.
• Then the Emperor's royal guard itself are traitors and locks him down in a Escort Shuttle on its way to Zaarin, to commit a coup.
• Zaarin controls Sienar Fleet Systems, and likely has hundreds of spies within the imperial ranks of pilots and technicians. He seems to anticipate every move from the Empire and strike every base and factory, crippling the loyalist squadrons.
• Remember the mission where they put you to attack a minefield... on an unshielded TIE Interceptor? And then your two wingmen attack you from the back! Zaarin was clearly doing an "Order 66"-esque thing there, getting rid of all imperial aces loyal to the Emperor, as he has hundreds, maybe thousands of sympathizers keeping a low profile.
• The TIE Avenger line production is basically wiped out by Zaarin, and the TIE Defender production falls almost totally in Zaarin's hands. Only a few prototypes held by Vader remain available.

So Thrawn needs to come out with something that is compatible with these points:

• You cannot rely on big squadrons. Too many spies, too many traitors. Just a handful of 100% loyal pilots are to be trusted. Straight from the Emperor's secret order.
• You cannot rely on Sienar Fleet Systems, as Zaarin has too much control over it.
• You don't have the production capability of superstarfighters to rival Zaarin's. Besides, you don't even want to have it, otherwise it will attact Zaarins attention and be destroyed or defect to his side. So you need to do with a handful of ships.
• The survival of the Empire is at stake. Money and logistics are irrelevant here. Put as much tech or weapons on a ship regardless of its costs or if it wouldn't be able to be mass-produced. You will not mass-produce it. You don't want to, anyway, or it will fall in the wrong hands.
• The Arms Race led to the advanced missiles, and Zaarin's TIE Defenders are loaded with them. You cannot dogfight a 12 ship squadron of those. You don't want to. No dogfight weapons (or just a testimonial laser). Antimissile devices (Jamming beam, decoy beam) or ordnance overwhelming (tractor beam + rain of missiles) are to be used here. You don't want to stay within range of a squadron of T/Ds. Outrun them and pick them one by one (SLAM tech).
• Zaarin power is supported by his factories, bases and capital ships. To destroy Zaarin is to destroy his logistics. A whole squadron of bombers, and its corresponding capital ship to bring them there, are easily spied on, tracked, reported and expected. Instead send a single superbomber. Hyper in, hit hard, hyper out. Outsmart Zaarin's fleet. Make them pursue ghosts.

The Missile Boat is the answer to all these questions. It is designed for a particular role. And out of that role, it has no reason of being. That is why precisely after it has achieved it's role, all remaining Missile Boats are either destroyed or hidden in the Emperor's vault planet.

Excellent points, but I will nitpick two things.

Harkov was the dude who ordered the TIE interceptor mineclearing, not Zaarin. They are two very different operators who were never aligned. Harkov wished to defect to the Rebels, Zaarin hated the rebels and wanted his own Empire.

Also Zaarin had a Dark Jedi inquisitor help, not the Royal guard.

Said Dark Jedi had a pretty cool backstory and was in Masters of Teras Kasi.

My beard has exponentially grown.

Excellent points, but I will nitpick two things.

Harkov was the dude who ordered the TIE interceptor mineclearing, not Zaarin. They are two very different operators who were never aligned. Harkov wished to defect to the Rebels, Zaarin hated the rebels and wanted his own Empire.

Also Zaarin had a Dark Jedi inquisitor help, not the Royal guard.

Said Dark Jedi had a pretty cool backstory and was in Masters of Teras Kasi.

My beard has exponentially grown.

I never read about that Dark Jedi. The mission officer briefing seems to say that it was the Emperor personal guard who turned coats.

I'll link the wookiepedia: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Arden_Lyn

For the battle: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Imperial_Center

Also, I remember playing a level on Dark Forces that I downloaded where I was a loyalist stormtrooper infiltrating one of Zaarin's bases to destroy a TIE Defender. That was awesome. If the author of that level by some strange happy accident reads this - you da man, I remember your work 20+ years on.

Battle 7 was - for end game - (without expansion) probably the easiest battle in the game.

I'd compare it to the end of Half Life 2 when you get the gravity gun.

Man, the more I am thinking. TIE Fighter is the way to go rather than XvT for a custom campaign.

Maybe I will start friday.

I'll link the wookiepedia: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Arden_Lyn

For the battle: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Imperial_Center

I read in those articles, at the Behind the Scenes references and links, that the whole story about that dark jedi was created for a magazine in 2001. That is 7 years after TIE Fighter was released. It feels a little bit "glued" on the original story.

Anyway, I always found weird that soldiers, no matter how many, could arrest the Emperor. This explains it. But still, it feels like a character created ad hoc to fill that gap.

Man, the more I am thinking. TIE Fighter is the way to go rather than XvT for a custom campaign.

What you mean?

TIE Fighter campaigns are character driven and story driven.

XvT campaigns are kind of generic showdowns of nameless characters, at a nondescript sector of space, where there is nothing at stake. An exchange of pawns in a far corner of the board.

It does feel glued on, back during the good old days everything was glued and tacked on to the previous - that's how there was an expanded universe.

XvT campaigns don't have to be showdows.

TIE campaigns don't have to be character and story driven.

I have TIEed and XVTed (and ALLIed) and have been making my own campaigns since 96. I'm wanting to do my own project - the 128th recon, as an online RPG group. So i'll be releasing missions as replacements complete with briefings etc. There will be a solid narrative.

I've been debating with my self for the last 3 months what games to use.

For space I am leaning towards TIE rather than XvT as I can easily record craft losses (every ship lost MATTERS DAMMIT). XvT does allow co-op (alliance BARELY does and have to **** with it to make it work - alliance also gives me technical difficulties). but co-op/multiplayer has it's own issues.

As for the ground game. I am so open to suggestions that it's not funny.

I've considered galactic battlegrounds but don't know much about modding or scripting it.

Mu and Rho for gunboat, Nu and Tau for missileboat?

(if only for Nu Squadron Pilot being PS1)

Mu and Rho for gunboat, Nu and Tau for missileboat?

(if only for Nu Squadron Pilot being PS1)

I think you mixed up Nu and Mu. I remember Nu being gunboats and Mu 1 being the players craft.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mu_group

(Actually, I could see Gunboat/Missileboat pilots being "* Group Pilot" instead of "* Squadron Pilot" as a general thing)

That's a very good point, in the x-wing series it was group rather than squadron. Alpha squadron is typically not a thing. 181/1 (Sabre) being split into Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta is likely much more accurate. This said, that doesn't explain Avenger and Talon squadrons (Talon of course being an XG-1 squadron) in XvT:BOP.

So yeah, anyone who wants to do cards. Tau, Mu, Rho and Talon.

With either Rho or Talon being high PS/EPT.

XvT is the dishwater kid of the sims, though?

Thems fighting words to me. Alliance was the weakest in the series. XvT was revolutionary. For people who like to make co-op campaigns it is actually the very pinnacle of the xwing series. The fact you can be wingmen to each other is priceless, and THIS IS BACK IN 96!!!!!

First game to have GL/direct3d support.

First game with a super star destroyer.

The modular file structure allowing complete control of custom campaigns.

MULTIPLAYER. - ACTUAL MULTIPLAYER MISSIONS NOT JUST DOGFIGHTS.

By worst, people mean best.

XvT' engine was also totally redesigned compared to Xwing and TIE, fixing the bug in previous games where a destroyed ship would randomly jolt in a different direction (inertia is a thing)

If XvT had a fault it was released before it's time, at the very dawn of internet multiplayer gaming with too limited a shipset. (and it has all the main ones, Defenders and Mboats were way OP).

XvT also was the first of the xwing series which REQUIRED a joystick to play. This hurt it. Also it wore out a full half dozen joysticks of mine. the 98 versions of TIE Fighter and X-wing (which depending on who you ask are inferior to the 95/96 CD versions of the above) also had the same requirement, and game engine. XWA kept the joystick requirement.

XvT lacked launch cutscenes - which is a shame, but not a huge deal.

As far as I'm concerned it goes TIE>X-Wing>XvT=XWA, and you could drop XWA and not notice

Yeah mines more complicated.

XvT:BOP>X-W=TIE depending on mood ( the original and CD X-W did have the great squadron management feature - if only the AI were better to take advantage of it, but TIE was TIE and was just so quality)>XWA.

XWA took what was great about all the previous games and threw it away, and upped the capital ships. It had a lot of good points, not the least being hyperspace sectors but losing the Imperial POV weakened it in my mind.

It's a better game than fans of the series give it credit for, but requires substantial modding to reach where it needs to be.

I maintain that XVT:BOP with XVTed making your own campaigns to play with a group is amazing.

Boo. I'm a huge fan of XWA, mainly because of the fringe-family-caught-up-in-galactic-turmoil viewpoint (neither Imperial or truly Rebel).

Boo. I'm a huge fan of XWA, mainly because of the fringe-family-caught-up-in-galactic-turmoil viewpoint (neither Imperial or truly Rebel).

That's a fair point of view, but to me it detracted from playing myself.

Boo. I'm a huge fan of XWA, mainly because of the fringe-family-caught-up-in-galactic-turmoil viewpoint (neither Imperial or truly Rebel).

I liked that aspect, but the VAs in general just didn't work for me, and something changed with the flight engine that made everything oddly slippery.

Plus the YT-2000 is just ugly.

I did like the YT2000, and indeed a lot of ships that XWA introduced.

One big issue I had with the game was that it felt unfinished. Endor was weak, but the plot seemed to end. From an Era that embraced the after ROTJ expanded universe era it was really missing closure.

I liked that aspect, but the VAs in general just didn't work for me, and something changed with the flight engine that made everything oddly slippery.

Aeron's VA was fine. Tomas and MK were quite annoying. Emon was Oddly Oirish.

I didn't get a chance to introduce Uncle Anton and the Viryaxo to "fixed" my proton torpedo launcher.

Mu and Rho for gunboat, Nu and Tau for missileboat?

I don't know why you'd need two per ship. Every other Imperial ship in this game seems to limit their Greek alphabet usage to one letter.

The other generic is usually some kind of sword(Scimitar, Saber, Cutlass) or some synonym for black(Black, Obsidian, Onyx, Shadow).