Description
The Hammer of Light stole shield units from the Vasudans. One of our scouts has located the freighters carring the shields heading for a jump node. You will intercept and destroy this convoy before it reaches the jump point.

Storyline:
Not too original, but well done. Uses .ani files in the Command Briefing which describes the Hammer of Light. Describes why the cargo is important to capture and even explains how to capture the cargo -- by destroying the navigation systems. A nice touch. <p> The panning effect on the mission briefing could have been done better, since the top-down scrolling effect seems to be a bit boring.

Balance:
The Hammer of Light ships don't have shield systems, so I expected a turkey shoot. However, these turkeys are armed to the teeth and shouldn't be taken for granted. The HOL'll give as much as they take, if you're not careful. <p> A large enough weapon and ship selection without going too overboard. The balance felt realistic and what I'd expect to see under these circumstances.

Design:
Ships are well placed apart from each other, but they all sit on the same Y plane. Most of the ships arrive at the same time, which results in a very large battle. My frame rate was not too bad, but when capital ships arrive in the secondary wave I noticed some slowdown. However, I don't believe it would be a problem even when software-rendered. <p> There are no messages, not even text-based, so the arrival of reinforcements and capital ships will be hard to notice. It also makes the mission a little too quiet for my tastes. The directives are well-done and it would be very easy to slide in messages at the end of each event. <p> Another FRED function this mission fails to use is the "escort ship" which would give the hull stats for important ships (like the cargo). <p> The debriefing doesn't take into account partial-victory conditions (save one shield but destroy the other, or save one shield but let HOL take the other). Also, it is possible to give out medals in FRED (no matter what the Commander says...) with a little text editing.

Gameplay:
You need to be <u>very</u> careful when attacking the transports, since it is extremely easy to destroy the cargo by accident. The difficulty in taking out the transports offsets how easy it is to take out the unshielded Hammer of Light fighters. And since those fighters are well-armed, this is a good battle. <p> Perhaps the only complaint I might make is that the capital ships are unnecessary, since they're a little too weak to make a difference anyway. The only reason to have these capital ships is to blow them up. Which is enough reason to have them for many people.

Other Thoughts:
This mission designer was clearly learning FRED and did a very good job considering.