I just started doing all the Independent Gov/Group mission strings.....boy are they fun! Well, I liked the Dipheida mission string a lot and right now I'm on the Lucas/Artemis Group mission string. I'm on the last mission T.A.G. You're It! It says I have to fight in the Battle of New Antigua. I've heard a lot of people say that TAG is harder than the Alien mission, do you mean the mission I am on when you say TAG, or a plug-in? And if it is that mission, can someone give me tips on how to beat it? I'm in a Kestrel (missle jammer, shields, all armor, and all speed/turning upgrades), with about 50 torps, no more space, and about 7 million dollars.

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-Edward Zeth-

I have never actually beat it. You jump in, and you are in a rocky system with a bunch of kestrels. They all launch their fighters, and you have only a little backup, so soon you have at leat 5 kestrels (I think) and their Lightnings attacking you. It is really hard.

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"quote me, I'm cool, really" -Cone (StarStrafer)
Speculum : An instrument for dilating the opening of a body cavity for medical examination.

I always thought that TAG was a plug-in. I started the Artemis missions yesterday when I gave a ride to Lucas, and then today I finished all the missions up to TAG You're IT! I'm going to try it soon. Can some please tell me:

A-What would my Kestrel need?
B-What and how many escorts should I hire?
c-What tactics I should use

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-Edward Zeth-

Don't hire too many escorts, or you won't make a profit. Your Kestrel sounds fine as it is, but you might want to look into missiles. Just use whatever tactics you ffind to be the best.

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"quote me, I'm cool, really" -Cone (StarStrafer)
Speculum : An instrument for dilating the opening of a body cavity for medical examination.

hmm, sounds to me like your in need of assistance! try hunt down some pirate kestrels, if you can capture those, and use them as escorts, it should give you the extra boost in fire power you need.

Alternatively, capture a rebel or confed cruiser for your ship, and capture other cruisers as escorts. Personally, I've never done this mission, so I can just hope i've helped!

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Kirk - Scotty, we need more power!
Scott - I kinna do it captain, I kinna reach the controls...

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong!
The TAG mission is a thing of beauty, missiles and torps are basically useless in that system, due to the asteroids (Just be thankful it's not in the system Evildrome is in.) First off, ditch your torpedos, then max out your guns and turrets. You'll have plenty of space leftover for a pair of javelin pods. Get those and max out the javelin rockets. If you don't have decoy flares, get them. If you have the space, get heavy rockets too, you won't hit much unless you're pretty close, and at that range a heavy rocket will do more good.

Now for the tactics. Immediately turn away from the system center and get some distance between you and the Kestrels, then either waste all the fighters, or beg for mercy, it's up to you. Once their fighters are gone, and their missiles are used up, the Kestrels aren't much more than freighters. If you run low on ammo, or you're getting beaten on hard, land on the planet, or New Antigua. Don't worry, the Kestrels you killed will still be killed, but the remaining Kestrels will have their fighters and missiles again, so use this judiciously. A little patience and thought and this mission can be done in a Rapier or Lightning easily, probably an Argosy if you were feeling really nuts, but I don't recommend it. Kestrel, Corvette and Rebel Destroyer are ideal ships for this mission.

Best bet with the Kestrels, once their fighters and missiles are gone, is to look for stragglers, ones that aren't in a pack. Kill it, let your shields recharge, rince repeat. The most important thing to remember is that your guided weapons are useless. They don't do enough damage to be worth the cost, and relying on them only hampers your piloting skill.

Good luck, and happy hunting

Quote

Originally posted by Edward_Zeth:
I'm in a Kestrel (missle jammer, shields, all armor, and all speed/turning upgrades), with about 50 torps, no more space, and about 7 million dollars.

**
A-What would my Kestrel need?
B-What and how many escorts should I hire?
c-What tactics I should use
**

I totally agree with Loki, thanks dude, now I don't have to write all this. In my opinion this is the best and hardest mission in EV. I've done it with a Corvette and a Kestrel.

OK, some words though...
There are so many enemies that your escorts don't really help you. It just doesn't matter unless you have Cruiser-Escorts. Your Kestrel is perfect, but I would trade in the torps against javelins. And you should max out on proton turrets and laser guns! Yes, they are better than protons because most ships have more shield than armor. Once the shield of your enemy is gone, fire those Javelins. If it serves your tactics, you can also use heavy rockets but I don't like them.

About tactics, run away asap! No, you're not a wimp because otherwise you're toast. Like Loki said, use the asteroids wisely, laugh at your enemies because of their waste of firepower and forget about firing long-range weapons.
Then, take down one opponent at a time. If you choose heavy rockets, you can use them to "push" one out of a pack, or make funny flight maneuvers to seperate one of them.
If your shield is depleted, fly away and have a break until you feel better.

Have a nice Party!

- Marko

when I did this mission I had a Krestel and 6 as escourts (they all got killed because they are stupid) I also had missles(wich was a waist) I killed most of them with my turets and some withe the escourts. Man I wish I had Loki and Marko tell me what to do back then. But now I know!

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if it dosent doesn't
squiel its not worth
killing

When I did that mision I think all I used was primary fire, but it works! Always load up on primaries, then secondaries (if you have room) it's always worked for me. Umm.. except that one time where I was against 2 confed cruisers and several frigates. Oh well.

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Would someone please give me the title "swedish chef"? PLEASE?

It's not too hard. Forget most of the secondaries. Other upgrades are VITAL.

Leap in, and then run the other way. You should be able to outrun the Lightnings.

Then, outcircle the Lightnings (hard since they're in a pack) and crush them all.

Then make continious passes at the enemy Kestrels. I found it boring, not hard.

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Jude's left. sniff
We'll miss you/are missing you!
sniff sniff

IMO, TAG is easier than the alien mission, because the alien cruiser will KILL you if you screw up. If you survive the fusion beam hit, you must back off, recharge, then start over. TAG is more forgiving, you just eat a few torpedos/rockets and carry on.

Loki's advice is excellent.

The armor and shield upgrades will give you enough extra protection to win gun duels with multiple kestrels (not that you should fight multiple kestrels at once, but things happen). With tritanium, your kestrel's armor will be nearly as strong as your shields, so stay engaged until about 2/3 of armor is gone.

The lightning fighters will come after you first. Try to disable them. After you are done with all the lightnings, go back and capture the ones you disabled. You should be able to get 2 or 3 of them. They do wonderful things against fighterless kestrels. You will need to be kinda quick, because the pirate kestrels can pick up disabled lightnings and launch them again.

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(This message has been edited by magicianeer (edited 04-23-2001).)

TAG is definatly a hell of a lot more difficult than the alien mission in my opinion. The alien mission string is easy, and it is difficult to screw up when you have control of your ship - a good, fast ship. TAG requires more skill because you have to think about more than one ship at a time, and survive the initial beating. I did it in a Corvette recently, but I first did it in a Kestrel. The second time I did it I already had a rebel cruiser - that's a good ship to do it in. A very good ship.
If you want a challenge, get Galactic Scourge and try the alien string on that - blimey, that's a hard mission. Or the confed battleship 93rd squadron. Nasty.

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I choose to believe that the glass is half empty.

The TAG missions are nice. Hard, but worth it. You get to say that you have beaten 5 full strength Kestrels in a system with asteroids! Basically go with the strategy shown above, above all, don't go near the Kestrels until you have at least 50% shields. Even then, try to have the shield enhancer when you do it. Good luck!

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Lead plugin programmer, Corsair Development

Err....... I'm pretty sure I could make a pass at 2 Kestrels in an upgraded
Lightning, and survive - even kill them with ease.

<no cheats, no secondaries>

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I never did TAG in my Lightning, but I'm confident I can. Watch the flames as I
wreak havoc!

Tactic: Outcircle the Lightning squadrons (I call mass Outcircling "Myriad Weave",
and lowering the game speed helps) and then use VERY careful manouevring to pull
the Kestrels out of position and pull them down in packs of 1 or 2 (advanced
freighters indeed - boom!)

Missiles? Aren't a problem, even without asteroids. Just use lots of mini Whip
Manouevrers and the missiles won't hit.

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Jude's left. sniff
We'll miss you/are missing you!
sniff sniff

(This message has been edited by SilverDragon (edited 04-24-2001).)