Description
You are to destroy an HOL fleet, and watch out for Shivan forces.

Storyline:
None to speak of. There's a Hammer fleet to destroy. Shivans of course jump in to play as well. An extremely uninspiring briefing that consists of about nine stages of one-ship icons sitting all alone on the screen. Beware: a few of those icons show "wings" of capital ships.

Balance:
With the size of this battle, it isn't enough to have only the five default ships available for each type of bomber and fighter. At least change your default fighter from the Apollo. It's a great ship, but just extremely unsuited for grand battles on this scale. But, then again, neither are most computers running FreeSpace. But at least the missile selection is large enough to handle any ship combination you're willing to throw at this mission. <p> Since the Terran fleet outnumbers the Hammer of Light fleet in capital ships AND in fighters, expect your wingmen to make quick work of their foes. In two minutes, most of the Hammer fleet will die. In four minutes, most of the Shivan fleet will meet the same fate.

Design:
Lots of ships thrown into FRED and moved around on a 2 dimensional plane, and that's about the extent of it. Notice that all the ships are facing the same heading. No goals or objectives <u>at all</u>. No events. Each wing has only one default AI order. <p> Ships are placed nearly on top of each other, which will interest only those collecting screenshots of capital ships nearly colliding. A collateral problem from this poor ship placement is that you might find capital ship fire clearing through your shields and taking out your weapon systems about 15 seconds into the mission, before you have a chance to react. <p> A prime example of how NOT to make a good mission using FRED. A better example of how to clutter the beautiful emptiness known as space.

Gameplay:
Without objectives, you can jump out and win! And after a few seconds, you might consider just leaving this mess. My test system slowed to an absolute crawl, and probably avoided crashing only because of the high casualty rate of the hostiles. <p> Even if you do brave the massive battle, eager for the target-rich environment, you'll end up disappointed. In about two minutes, most of the Hammer fleet will be destroyed. In a little over four minutes, the Shivan fleet as well will be pretty much eliminated by the massive Terran fleet. In addition to a GTD Orion, you have 4 GTC Leviathans and 11 wingmen. The casualties: 2 PVC Atens, 1 PVD Tyhon, 8 Vasudan fighters, 2 Vasduan bombers, 1 SC Demon, 1 SC Cain, and 8 Shivan fighters. There just aren't enough fighters to keep you busy. And bombers will make short work of the enemy capital ships. Even the fun, target-rich environment is spoiled.

Other Thoughts:
Battle of Endor syndrome, and a bad case at that. I've seen capital ship wings in the last two missions I've reviewed -- a bad sign that Endor fever is spreading like the plague. Please, before making these missions read my <a href="http://descent.gamestats.com/editorials/8-5-98.shtml">Battle of Endor editorial</a>!