Slaughter at Tannhauser Gate

[BioMan998]

I feel like it could use some rebalancing on Harbinger. It's a little rediculous. There's simply too many things that will kill you, and the Gap Drive is pretty much the only way to get across the space without dying - and complete the objective on time.

Or maybe I just suck, but its the only mission giving me problems.

-Edit-

I can do the main objective fine, but the bonus is killer.

Maybe the destroyers in the mission are a little OP. They shoot for seconds after death and getting under the shields is a pain. But I guess that's simply playstyle.

[General Battuta]

Nah, it's doable! Try gap/betrayer, gap up to the heavy sentries and take them over, put your fleet on the left hand targets, take a blunderbuss to the right hand targets yourself.

[BioMan998]

Originally posted by General Battuta:

Nah, it's doable! Try gap/betrayer, gap up to the heavy sentries and take them over, put your fleet on the left hand targets, take a blunderbuss to the right hand targets yourself.

Well, I had half the formula :P Thanks

[SeraphimZero]

I had problems at first, too. But it's not that hard if you find a working tactic.
I played without gap drive. Send the heavy ships to the both ships left and go right to finish the two ships with purifiers. All ships with shields and armor.

[ImHelping]

I had good luck on Harbniger without the Gap Drive by personally using all the heavy weapons on my fighters by ship hopping to fire them myself (Otherwise, I can order my fighters to use heavy weapons at the start of the mission and end up watching them never use them despite flying through the shields of their target).

I prefer Shields+ whatever utility feels most convenient for getting the job done. I went with AP rounds for my fighters for Tannhouser. Betrayer is fun, but feels like a waste because only you can use it unless it's a mission with 4+ sentries. Even then, you have to go do it yourself and waste the upgrade on your other fighters.

I just sent all my big ships after the closer blob of targets with the large bonus ship.

Then I ordered my fighters to go after the farther away targets while I flew off to destroy the sentry guns, and made my way to back my fighters (They still hadn't killed anything, good job guys!).

Basically, heavy weapons are amazing. But they only matter if they ever get fired. If you don't hop ships to manually use them, you're basically asking for your AI fighters to never fire them even if you ordered them to do it at the start of the mission.

Giving up on expecting my ally ships to do anything bit head in the general direction of where I order them, and treating my fighters more like mobile ammo racks, really turned things around for me. I went from frustrated on Warlord, to curbstomping Harbinger.

The hardest stuff for me is defense missions. Because I need to reset the mission a few times until my big ships are actually following the thing I ordered them to defend. Once they do, easiest missions in the game (I've used flakdrones instead of repair drones on those).

All that said, accomplishing the win+bonus on Tannhouser Gate IS the hardest mission in the game, straight up. The distant targets are too far for your big ships to reach in any reasonable timeframe, while also being right next to where the flagship will spawn when you send your fighters over. Throw in some sentires taking potshots for heavy damage on your fleet that you don't generally have time to deal with unless you are feeling lucky about your squad AI.

[BioMan998]

Originally posted by I'm Helping!:

All that said, accomplishing the win+bonus on Tannhouser Gate IS the hardest mission in the game, straight up. The distant targets are too far for your big ships to reach in any reasonable timeframe, while also being right next to where the flagship will spawn when you send your fighters over. Throw in some sentires taking potshots for heavy damage on your fleet that you don't generally have time to deal with unless you are feeling lucky about your squad AI.

THIS, was the initial concern. I did ultimately beat the mission, using the gap drive and betrayer module. My preference, which was giving me problems, is to use shields and gap drive, so that I can use heavies underneath their shields. Once I noticed the destroyers were giving me fits about that I rediscovered the blunderbuss (I had forgotten it, somehow) and it proved more effective.

All in all: superb challenge, just takes a few personal tweaks.

[SabreXT]

I'm having issues with this as well. By far the hardest level, and without the gap drive it seems impossable to do everything in time.

[BioMan998]

Originally posted by SabreXT:

I'm having issues with this as well. By far the hardest level, and without the gap drive it seems impossable to do everything in time.

I recommend you take your time with it. Gap drive isn't required if you manage your fleet well, but honestly it's likely worth dumping your shields for Gap Drive and Betrayer Module. You'll command your fleet to focus on left field, jump your self to the sentries in the center, and then jump to the ships on the right. Get under their shields with either purifier bombs (1 salvo = 1 kill, don't waste them by holding the trigger down) or using the blunderbuss. Careful with either though, because killing engines on their ship means you have to brake hard.

After the main objective is complete, take care of the destroyers on your side immediately. Should only be 1 or 2 that have a shield, and blunderbuss under that is like a 2-3 shot kill. Have your fighters go after the corvettes and your capitals against the frigate and destroyers on the other side. Your sentries are dead at this point, but they should have softened up those targets for your fleet.

[Aegrim]

Shields with engine intake or w/e it's called (makes you go faster) normaly machine gun with the blunderbus, give the capitals the long range guns, with shields and shield extender.

Tell capitals to go after the enemy frigate (bonus) to the left, you take the fighters and go for the transporters on the right.
When the capitals kill the frigate tell them to kill the transporters before they escape.
You kill the escorts on the right and keep an eye on the capitals and tell them to kill one of the 2 ramining escorts.
By the time you've killed all 3 escorts on the right there'll be one more escort left on the left, tell everything to kill it and escape.

You should escape shortly after the flagship arrives.